Chapter 93: Amazing Grace
(A/N: Cormac's punishment changed if you missed it to something far more severe)
Before long, the calendar turned to March, and then once April hit, the warmer weather was gladly welcomed at the cold and drafty castle. The shock of McLaggen's pending trial had long since worn off. Amelia had told them the trial would be set for the next Wizengamot session but he was reasonably confident in a guilty verdict. Ron had kept true to his word and the glares and nasty comments had stopped.
Life returned back to normal and most of the student population was outside enjoying their Saturday and the warmer weather.
Two members eschewed the sunshine for a drafty classroom where their preparation for the third task kicked into overdrive with Hermione researching spells and teaching Harry to cast them. By now, Harry was able to case his full repertoire of spells with his off hand and his spell chains were getting quicker and tighter. However, no matter how good he got with his spells, one still eluded him.
"I just can't do this!" Harry slumped into a chair and dropped his wand on the ground in frustration. "I know what I need to do but it's not working."
Yet again he was working on the Lightning Whip and yet again the spark died before it completed its circuit. Harry's frustration wore on him like the robes he wore, dragging him down with despair and self-loathing.
"You're thinking too hard," Hermione said off-handedly as she kept writing in her notebook. "I can feel your magic but it loses its intensity as it comes back toward your hand. Remember what Fleur said: you have to feel it. You can't think this spell into working."
Hermione looked up and reached out to lay a consoling hand on Harry's arm but Harry jerked it away.
"Thinking too hard," Harry spat. "You know I'm not like you. I just don't have an intuitive grasp on magic as you do. It doesn't come easy to me like it does to you."
A loud snapping sound echoed through the room as Hermione slammed her notebook closed with one hand and stood.
"Easy?" Hermione was affronted. "You think it's easy to grind as hard as I do, to learn the intricacy of every spell only to have you watch me or Master Flitwick once and be able to cast it after one try? I work day and night, study my ass off so I can keep up with you and yet I'll never match the raw power you possess when you cast. Don't talk to me about easy, Harry James when you are the one who has a more intuitive grasp on spell casting."
When Hermione ended her speech, she was shouting at Harry.
"Yeah I have the intuitive grasp when you beat me in every test," Harry said, making Hermione step back as if slapped. "Face it, Hermione, I'm just not as smart as you."
"I'm going to ignore that," Hermione gathered herself again. "I don't know what the issue is but I can tell you that you're thinking too hard. You can't think your magic, Harry. Every time you do, you block yourself."
"I'm not blocking myself this time," Harry argued. "I'm just not powerful enough. The Chosen One fated to defeat the Dark Lord can't even get his family's spell to work."
"You've achieved great things, Harry," Hermione said, taking care to keep herself calm. "A Patronus at 13, your own spell chain at 12. You've fought Voldemort three times now and come out ahead."
"Yeah, all because of my mum!" Harry shouted. "What have I achieved that wasn't luck or my mother's unquestioned brilliance? I'm never going to be as good as them, nor as good as you. I'm just a freak and it's time you just admitted it to yourself! Stop lying to yourself so you don't expect too much of me. Just go and be perfect and stop dragging me along with you."
Hermione let out a rage-filled scream and sped for the door, not before turning around one last time.
"I know you're frustrated but you are a great wizard. You've faced Basilisks and dragons. You've gone toe-to-toe with a Sea Serpent and still been resilient enough to rescue me. You've made friends with every house and built alliances that even Dumbledore couldn't yet you still doubt yourself and in doing so you cast doubt on my feelings for you. I know you're frustrated but don't take it out on me. I deserve better than that."
Hermione turned on her heel and sped from the room, slamming the door behind her. Harry watched her go, shame and worry gnawing at his soul. He hadn't meant to snap and now he felt infinitely worse. Scrambling out of the seat, Harry snapped up his wand and chased after her.
"Hermione!" Harry shouted after her. She continued to march onward, her shoulders hunched. Harry tried to speed after her but she knew the castle too well as she was out of sight by the time he rounded the corner.
As his fury subsided, all that remained was shame. Harry dropped his head and let his shoulders hunch. He let his feet carry him, not caring where he was going, just feeling the emptiness that Hermione's absence left him with. Now, he was frustrated and alone. He walked until he found himself outside. He distractedly meandered toward the Hippogriff pens.
"Yo Potter!" Diggory's tenor tones called out to him. "What are you looking so dour for?"
"I yelled at Hermione and now I can't find her to apologize," Harry admitted. "I was stupid and she deserves better."
"Oh she's in the librar…hey hold your horses!" Cedric grabbed Harry as he tried to speed by him. "Give yourself time to cool off. Really think about what you did and let yourself absorb it. Right now you'd just be apologizing for something you don't yourself understand."
"Get out of my way Cedric!" Harry made another attempt to get by.
"Mm-mm," Cedric shook his head and blocked Harry again. "I'm bigger than you and just as fast, not to mention an even match as a duelist."
"I don't care, let me go!" Harry shouted.
"Nope, not happening," Cedric said while fighting off the younger boy. "You can punch me, rage at me, call me names but I'm not letting you go. You need to cool off before you can have anything resembling a conversation. Besides we have somewhere to be."
"Somewhere to- oh right," Harry's eyes widened as the date dawned on him. "Well let me know how it goes, I'm going to find Hermione."
"No you're not," Diggory pushed back again. "Come on, let's see what they've got in stock for us this time. Maybe you'll get to unleash your anger on them instead of your girl, eh?"
"Fine," Harry took a deep breath and relaxed. "Guess I can give Bagman a good bollocking instead."
"There's my friend," Cedric laughed. "Come on, our public awaits!"
As they approached the Quidditch stadium, they both stopped short.
"What have they done?" Harry shouted. The stands had been taken down and the pitch was a swath of open air.
"Looks great, doesn't it?" Bagman beamed. Around the pitch, he could see Professor Sprout and Hagrid working diligently while a host of goblins and a few humans worked around the perimeter.
"Great!?" Harry shouted. "What have you done to our field."
"Nothing that can't be corrected," Bagman said. "You'll all have your field back by the beginning of next year. What you're looking at is the third task for the Triwizard tournament! Incredible isn't it? Can anyone tell me what it is?"
"A maze," Viktor's voice made Harry jump. Until now, the Bulgarian Seeker's presence had gone amiss. Viktor took up a position next to Cedric with Karkaroff standing a step behind him. Fleur also stepped up on Harry's other side, looking unimpressed at the site of their next task.
"Yes!" Bagman gestured emphatically. "Yes my Bulgarian friend, exactly! It is a maze! That's the third task. The cup will be at the center. Your feet must remain on the ground so you cannot fly and the hedges will be impervious to spells so you can't slice through them but anything else is up to you. You will enter a spot in the maze. The higher your point total, the better your starting path."
"That's it?" Cedric scoffed. "After all this, that's the task?"
"Well it won't be so cut-and-dry," Bagman recoiled slightly. "There will be traps a-and riddles and Hagrid will be putting some creatures into the maze. I'm told it'll be quite the spectacle."
"Get zhrough ze maze, avoid ze creatures, complete the task," Fleur summed up with a scoff. "Are we done here?"
"Yes," Bagman's enthusiasm crumpled. "Yes, we are done. You may follow your headmasters back to your lodgings."
Before they turned back, raised voices drew their attention.
"Martinsen!" A wild-looking man advanced on one of the other curse breakers. "What have I been telling you about your rune work? You're about to tie the barrier into the ley line! The first person to cross the threshold into the maze would be cooked! Back away before you kill someone!"
"Well as you can see," Bagman tried to distract everyone from the confrontation. "We have curse breakers from Gringotts in to make sure the maze is properly warded. Not to worry, they will get everything settled."
Harry was about to turn away when he caught Fleur's look.
"You okay?" Harry whispered.
"It's him," Fleur said. "Zat man… I feel eet."
"Oh…" Harry said before his eyes widened in realization. "Oh! Well do you want to go meet him?"
"Non," Fleur shook her head. "I couldn't! What eef 'e's taken or 'e rejects me."
"And yet he could so much more to you," Harry argued. "Why don't we go and-"
Harry stopped short when someone grabbed his elbow.
"Harry, I wonder if I might have a word… in private?" Bagman called out to him. Harry saw the tension at the corner of his eyes and the panic on his face. Before Harry could say anything, Bagman guided him closer to the trees near the maze. "Good… good. This works right?
"I just wanted to say how impressed we all are with you," Bagman said. As he spoke, he tried to walk behind Harry but Harry wasn't turning his back on him. "You entered this tournament as the underdog and now you're the favorite! You're truly a credit to your master and your school."
Harry couldn't quench his discomfort as Bagman started to push him backward until his back was against the trunk of the nearest tree. He kept a tight grip on Harry's elbow, prompting Harry to palm his wand at his waist. Bagman squared up and right as he was about to grab Harry's other arm, something stopped him.
"Hold it right there, Bagman," a voice Harry recognized said. With a flourish, Gripclaw pulled an invisibility cloak off. As he did, four armored goblins stepped out of the shadows.
"What's going on, Gripclaw?" Harry asked, pushing himself sideways to put some space between him and Bagman, slowly drawing his wand as he did.
"This is what's going on," Gripclaw put pressure on Bagman's hand until the hand opened. In Bagman's hand was a vial with a sharp end to it. "Bagman owes us a lot of money. He's as poor a gambler as he is a ministry worker and he tried to bet on you to win as the underdog. However, we know your story, Mr. Potter. We set competitive odds for you to win, enough that Bagman's bet wouldn't pay his debts. When that failed, we got word he was working other avenues to bet that you would finish last in the third task. This prompted us to watch him closely."
Gripclaw gave the vial to one of the other goblins who muttered something in their guttural language.
"Clever," Gripclaw said. "It's a diluted version of the Draught of Living Death. Had he achieved his goal of dosing you, your reflexes would be slowed and your energy would wain at the end of the day. It is enough it would not have shown on a medical scan but would have impacted your task. However, you would have burned through the potion before the task. Wonder how he planned to keep dosing you. Oh well, it is irrelevant now. Guards, I think it's time for him to clean the dragon pens… by hand."
"No!" Bagman shouted. "You can't do this to me! I am one of the judges of the tournament, I'm the MC! I am necessary for the third task!"
"The winner will be judged by getting to the cup first," Gripclaw said. "As for the MC, I am told a Lee Jordan replaced you when you fell… ill… for the Yule Ball. I'm sure he could MC the third task. Correct, Headmaster?"
"You are correct," Dumbledore appeared as he dropped his disillusionment charm. "I had some suspicions regarding Mr. Bagman when he pulled Mr. Potter away. If he was going to impact the tournament, I am sure the other heads will agree with his removal post haste."
"That's that," Gripclaw said. "Mr. Potter, you have been making us rich and this tournament has continued to that end. Thank you for everything and may your gold cover your enemies' corpses."
"And may their corpses heat your forge," Harry said. "While you're here, could I ask a favor?"
"Because it's you, you may ask," Gripclaw said.
"Who is that man over there?" Harry pointed in the direction of the wild man.
"That's Bill," Gripclaw said. "He's our best curse breaker, works with our branch in Egpyt but we called him in to help with setting up the third task."
"Bill? As in Bill Weasley?" Harry remembered Ron talking about his brother in Egypt back in first year.
"That's the one," Gripclaw said. "Bill!"
The man looked up and at Gripclaw's gesture, walked over.
"Account Manager Gripclaw," Bill bowed. "How may I serve you?"
"This is Harry Potter," Gripclaw introduced Harry. "One of our better clients."
"I've heard about you from my brothers and my sister," Bill grabbed Harry's hand in a tight grip and shook it. "Can't thank you enough for what you did for my sister. What can I do for you?"
"There's someone I'd like you to meet," Harry said. "Hey, Fleur!"
Fleur's hair whipped around her head as she looked around, just barely in range to hear Harry shout her name. Begrudgingly she walked over.
"Bill, Fleur," Harry gestured from the man to Fleur. "Fleur, Bill. Now while you two are getting to know one another I have to head back to the castle."
While he walked away, Fleur shyly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and breathed out a quiet "hey."
As Harry crested the hill, he spotted the mane of hair he was just hoping to see. However, now that he saw her, his guilt and shame rose to the surface and suddenly he wanted to be anywhere else. Ruefully, he turned away, endeavoring to use another entrance. However, when he turned, he walked into something big and feathered. When he looked up, Buckbeak was looking down at him.
As if Buckbeak knew something of his mind and his mood, he screeched and pushed Harry toward Hermione who stood there with her arms crossed, tapping her foot. Harry tried again to walk away but again Buckbeak blocked him.
"Fine," Harry glared at the birdhorse and turned back to Hermione. "Hey."
"So what's the task," Hermione asked tartly.
"It's, uh," Harry rubbed the back of his neck, wishing he was as small as he felt. "It's a maze."
"That makes sense," Hermione said. At Harry's confused look, she elaborated. "Dumbledore gave us three books. Dragons, a plants book which had Gillyweed in it and one about mazes."
"Ah," Harry said. The silence dragged on and he knew she was waiting on him to break it. "Listen, Hermione. I'm sorry. I was irritated and I took it out on you."
"mmhmm and?" Hermione stood there resolutely.
"And I feel terrible, I have since you tore strips off of me," Harry said. "You were trying to help and I yelled at you."
"Yes you did," Hermione said. "I know you're under pressure and I know you're stressed but so am I."
"You are?" Harry's eyes widened in surprise.
"Of course I am," Hermione rolled her eyes. "I can barely keep up with the people wanting the man I love dead. I need to keep him alive and do everything I can to make sure he survives the next event. It's exhausting."
"You don't have to do that," Harry said.
"Yes I do!" Hermione shouted. "Because I can't live with myself if something happened to you!"
"But you don't have to take it all on your shoulders," Harry calmly fired back. "I am just as capable of handling things as you are. If I need to do more, if I've put all this on you, I apologize."
With Buckbeak behind him, Harry continued speaking.
"And I apologize for yelling at you," Harry dropped his head in shame "I'm worried, Hermione. The lightning whip is a family spell. Fleur mentioned she can feel her grandmother in her when she casts. What if I can't do it because I'm not good enough? I can feel the magic in me but the spells dies in my wand as if the family magic is rejecting me. I know I've got this legacy to live up to and that's not even counting the prophecies swirling around my head. What if the reason I can't get the spell to work is the family magic is rejecting me? What… what if I'm not good enough?"
Hermione's eyes softened as Harry finished.
"That definitely is not the case," Hermione consoled. "You're always harder on yourself than anyone else is- that includes that Skeeter cow- Harry James. Greatness isn't defined by the spells you can do but by who you are. You have never shied away from helping someone in need, and building relationships and friendships. I still see you as that little boy who sat with a scared girl on the train and told the rude boy you would be her friend. A girl who was as excited as she was nervous because she had a new school to attend with the opportunity for a fresh start yet she worried it would be like her other ones. You've been so good to me. And to Neville; to Parvati and Lavender; to Luna; to Fred and George. The mark you leave on other people's lives is far greater than any mark some nutcase left on you."
"You really see me that way?" Harry asked quietly, not brave enough to make eye contact with her.
"I do," Hermione closed the distance between them and tilted Harry's chin up to look her in the eye. "Learn to see yourself as others see you. I know the spell is frustrating, but you don't need a spell to live up to your legacy. I have no doubt that your entire family is proud of you. I know you'll figure it out eventually."
Hermione leaned forward to capture Harry's lips with her own. When they separated, Buckbeak was prancing around them in joy.
"It's been a while," Harry asked. "Would you like to?"
Hermione wasn't keen on the idea but Buckbeak's pleading expression, though difficult for a Hippogriff to pull off, won her over.
"Nothing too crazy, okay Beaky?" Hermione said.
Once she agreed, Buckbeak dropped lower so they could swing a leg over. With her arms tightly wrapped around Harry, she saw the ground become smaller as Buckbeak flapped his powerful wings. As the sun slipped beyond the horizon, the last bit of light looked like a fire over the horizon. It was truly a spectacle.
"Thank you for not letting me walk away, Buckbeak," Harry rubbed his neck as Buckbeak took them on another lap around the castle. "Wait… Buckbeak can you hold up? Hermione, is that Theo and Pansy?"
Hermione leaned around Harry and looked where he was pointing. Underneath one of the trees close to the rear garden, it did look like Pansy and Theo huddled close together.
"Wonder what they're doing," Hermione squinted, trying to see them clearer.
"Looks like they're talking to a walkie-talkie," Harry said.
"They wouldn't know what that is, nor would it work in Hogwarts," Hermione said, her brow scrunched in thought. "Harry, can I borrow the map for a while?"
"Sure…" Harry wondered what idea she was working on. "It's in my room. I'll get it once we're done."
"Thanks," Hermione relaxed. "Can we land now, Buckbeak?"
Buckbeak banked again, bringing them in for a landing near the paddock.
"Thank you for the ride, Beaky," Hermione rubbed along his snout. "And thank you for keeping Harry from walking away."
"I'm glad he did," Harry snaked his hands around her midsection to hold her tightly. "I love you, Hermione Granger."
"And I love you, Harry Potter," Hermione turned in his arms. "No matter how pig-headed you can be."
With that, they turned and walked back toward the castle, ready to face the final task.
(A/N: the next time this story updates, it will be a three-part finale of the year. It's got parts written and other parts I've been planning since the beginning. Happy American Thanksgiving to all my readers and know I am thankful for each and every last one of you.
Last, forgive my pun in the chapter title.)