A/N: I beg your forgiveness, but I'm changing the number of items! 3 items chosen by each Head of House instead of 4. 4 Houses. So that is 3 times 4, which is 12. Then one item chosen by the Headmaster. 12 + 1 is 13. Sorry! Not 17 items. 13! 13 items! Lol. Which is actually better anyway because 13 is a more magical number. So yay! Let's pretend I never embarrassed myself with the whole 17 items thing. Okay?

. . .

The Great Magical Scavenger Hunt

Harry found a nook under a torch on the second floor and opened his scroll to see his list. Except it wasn't a list per se. It had a cartoon picture of knight waving around a sword. Under the funny drawing were the words: Sir Lamorak's sword. Nothing else. Okay, so it wasn't a list. It probably would reveal the next item when he managed to acquire the first one and so on until he had all thirteen. He further guessed that Dumbledore's item would be the last one, and that it also was the same last item on every list.

Harry was used to trickery and word games. Quatre and Duo were famous for using words to tell the truth and still give people the wrong idea. After all, Cho only asked if their lists were unique. Each list could be unique and still have one or two duplicate items. She never asked if there were any items that were the same on each list. Furthermore, Dumbledore's wording had rung a bell for Harry when he'd answered Cedric saying, "And a single item chosen by me." It had sounded like Dumbledore had chosen a "single item" and put that item on each list.

So.

This was a race as well as a scavenger hunt. Harry had to collect three items chosen by Snape, three chosen by McGonagall, three by Flitwick, and three more by Sprout. He had to find these items fast because he wouldn't know the last and final item that all the Champions were racing toward until he found the first twelve.

So again.

His opponents were more well-versed in spells, magical artifacts, and the castle. The others definitely had an advantage, it was true, but Harry had a few of his own. First, he was familiar with tasks that lasted all night. He knew how to pace himself, and he knew tricks to keep himself sharp during an all-nighter. The same might not be true of the others. It was likely that they would be affected by being asked to stay up all night on this hunt.

Another advantage Harry had was that he found magic sometimes made things more complicated. He was used to finding the most efficient route to his destination. He had the thinking of a space colonist as well as a wizard. That just might put him ahead of his opponents.

The sound of the Great Hall doors opening reached him from his perch. He quickly rolled up his scroll. The students were being dismissed from the ceremony and being sent to bed. Dumbledore had assured him the Champions were being recored and entertaining snapshots would be played of the scavenger hunt/race during breakfast. This also was a good warning to the Champions that cheating would be caught.

Harry hurried down the corridor at a jog and ducked into a hallway that wasn't on the common path toward any of the common rooms. He wanted to avoid the other students. His eye was drawn to a painting hanging across from a window. It was bathed perfectly in moonlight.

Coming closer, Harry could see it was a painting of a woman. She had the same look as McGonagall: tight bun, round small glasses, small pinched mouth. However, she was sitting on a luxurious leather couch and wearing a decadent red ballgown, something he could not imagine McGonagall wearing.

"Hello. I'm looking for something," he said politely.

The woman in the painting turned her eyes away from the window and looked down at him. "Yes?"

"I'm looking for Sir Lamorak's sword. Can you tell me where I should look?"

"I know where to look, but first you must show me my favorite thing," she answered, staring intently at him. "It's in my name."

Harry looked at the name inscribed on the small panel set into the frame. It read: Iris Pius. There was a purple flower called iris, but anyone would know that. It was too simple. Pius sounded like pious, which meant devoutly religious. How could Harry show her that? Maybe by getting on his knees and praying in front of her? He shook his head. No, that wasn't right either. His eyes moved back to the name Iris. Wait, Quatre had a sister named Iris. Quatre always found that funny because she was so serious and dull. Her favorite color was black, the complete opposite of . . .

Iris! Harry's eyes lit up, but before he could get too excited he realized he had no way of showing Iris her favorite thing. Unless . . . Harry pulled out his wand. He noticed that Iris was sitting slightly forward, her face alight with anticipation. Carefully and with concentration, Harry created a small rain cloud with the Atmospheric Charm. It was one of the hardest charms he knew, but thankfully charms were his strong suit and the small clouds formed without disaster.

Iris had her hands over her mouth in excitement now, and Harry smiled at her as he lifted his wand, saying, "Lumos solem." Gentle sunlight streamed through the dark corridor. It hit the lightly falling rain and cast a dozen dancing rainbows along the walls and ceiling.

Iris gave a happy squeal and clapped her hands. "Iris means rainbow in Greek," she said with a smile. "You knew?"

"I know another Iris, but she isn't as lovely as you," Harry explained. He pushed his silver-framed glasses up his nose and gave her a wink.

She blushed. "The seventh floor corridor. There is a large hall with many lined-up knights. An archway divides the space into two areas. He is on the right with the other Knights of the Round Table."

"Thank you, Madam Iris," Harry said with a bow, his long braid falling over his shoulder and down toward the floor.

"Good luck!" Iris called after him as he hurried down the hallway.

Harry tossed her a wave over his shoulder and went back the way he'd come. He was on the second floor now, but he didn't head further up. Instead he moved down to the first floor again. Thanks to Iris, he knew where to look for the knight, but he had a pit stop to make first. He needed a way to store thirteen items that would not necessarily be small. His first item was a sword for god's sake, who knew what else he'd be expected to collect! He was going to have to start getting creative. And he had an idea! A very creative, Duo-esque idea!

. . .

Draco grumbled under his breath as he crept ever so slowly toward the Sopophorous plant in Greenhouse Seven. It was a relatively innocent plant actually, with a spindly stem and large leaves that had a reddish tint in the moonlight. Under the leaves were fat bean pods containing a single pearly-white bean that resembled an overgrown mistletoe berry. You'd think this would be an easy item to procure. However, just for the hunt, Sprout had moved potted juvenile Devil's Snare around the door to the greenhouse. The constricting vines were restless and strong. Should Draco disturb them, he'd be caught in a second. He didn't remember their weakness, and he was too afraid to stir them up by trying different spells to cut or damage them. He'd just have to try and get through them without getting caught.

Draco took a deep breath, his blond hair practically shimmering in the moonlight. His eyes narrowed as they focused on the Sopophorous plant, determined to reach his goal. Had the Devil's Snare been sentient, it would have run in fear at being caught between that dangerous look and the target. On tip-toe, Draco took quick, smooth steps with utmost care. Slowly, on a spiraling path, he danced until he was free of the vines.

Sweaty and a little bit shaky, he moved quickly toward the corner with the bean plant only to come to an abrupt halt. He'd just caught sight of two large planters hidden in the shadows on on either side of his prize; the Spiky Prickly bush. As the name suggested, it was, of course, a bush with huge thorns: yellow poisonous thorns. The bush would shoot those thorns whenever they felt in danger, as in when a human drew too close. It was a formidable barrier. Or it would have been if Draco hadn't known it was vulnerable to the Severing Charm, a mere second year spell.

Giving a vicious grin, Draco rendered the bushes into naked sticks in under a minute and strolled easily by, plucking a bean from the pod. That was item two. Eleven more to go. He added the small bean to the inside pocket of his robe with the other item he had collected; a purple quill set from student locker 1206.

A quill in a numbered locker sounded like an easy item to get, but the castle moved the lockers around. For the game, it had hidden locker 1206 inside a dusty broom closet down an unused corridor, so he'd really had to do some looking for the quill set. Once he'd finally found it, he had cast the Shrinking Charm that they had learned in third year on the very ugly quill set, which had made it easy to store in his pocket.

However, Draco was nervous that he was running out of time. There were only twelve hours or a little more between sunset and sunrise at the end of October. That meant he had a little less than an hour for each item. The quill set had taken almost an hour and a half, and then he'd had to come all the way out to the greenhouses and get through the Devil's Snare. That had taken a full hour! He'd have to start moving quicker or he'd run out of time.

Checking his list, he saw a cartoon of clothes being hung on a line for drying, along with the words: A Hufflepuff Tie from the Laundry. The laundry? Draco had honestly never considered what happened to their dirty clothes. He knew the elves cleaned. Naturally, they used magic, so he'd had no idea they needed a laundry room.

This was another item that wouldn't be hard to take, but it would take too much time to locate! Draco was starting to suspect that the focus of this hunt wasn't the challenge in the items, but the speed they used to acquire them. His broom! He needed his broom if he were going to win and prove to the school that Slytherins were more than the evil monsters the rest of the school thought them, that they couldn't be brushed off or looked down upon. Slytherin was a House of power that deserved respect.

Determined, he made his way back toward the Devil's Snare. He'd have to tip-toe like a drunken ballerina back outside to freedom, make for the Quidditch pitch, break in and grab his broom, and try to figure out where a laundry would be kept. Almost three hours were gone already; he'd have to really get serious if he wanted to win.

. . .

Cho gripped the branch between her thighs tighter after she looked down. She had known better than to do it, but she couldn't help herself. It was dark, so that probably made it seem like she was higher than she really was. The bag she'd left on the ground looked so small and far away because it was dark, not because she was nearly a hundred feet in the air.

Taking a deep breath, she leaned her forehead against the cool bark of the beech tree. The sound of the lake lapping at the shore had long since faded as she had carefully climbed. Now all she could hear was the wind softly whooshing and sighing through the leaves around her.

An egg from a nest had been her item, and the drawing had depicted a tall tree standing next to a lake. She'd known exactly what tree. It was a popular spot to come with your boyfriend for some time away from the prying eyes of those in the castle. She had used it a couple times with Cedric. A few people knew they were together, but she trusted those few. Under no circumstance could her family find out before she'd thought of a strategy to convince them that he was worthy even though he wasn't Chinese.

Of course, that plan had fallen apart the moment Harry had brought the long lost son of the Chang family in contact with her family. Her father had given her explicit instructions to treat Wufei with utmost respect and to carry herself in a pleasing way. Marriage between them would strengthen the Clan. It would reinforce the Chang bloodline and bring Wufei more firmly back into the fold. Wufei was successful and accomplished; he would make a worthy Clan Head unlike Cedric. She knew her family would never in a million years consider Cedric if he were put in competition with Wufei.

Cho was already preparing herself for the day she would have to say goodbye to Cedric. She had already cried for hours alone in her bed, her bed curtains spelled to keep others out and her sobs in. It would hurt terribly to turn away from the man of her heart, but she knew she would not disobey her family. And she did respect Wufei. He would be a good husband to her, and maybe after a few years, love would grow between them, as it had for her parents and her grandparents and all the Chang women who had come before. At least that was what she kept telling herself to calm her tears.

Thankfully, her thoughts were successfully distracting her from how far the ground lay below her. She normally was unaffected by heights. She was a talented Seeker, but she had found that heights took on a threatening feeling when she was without a broom. Maybe she should stop by the broom shed and procure her Nimbus? It might speed up the hunt. She was only on her fourth item and it'd had been almost five hours since the start of the First Task.

There! The nest appeared suddenly in her line of sight as she cleared a thick, surprisingly leafy branch. It was fall, so there wasn't a real egg resting inside. Instead a rock in the shape of an egg and painted a pale blue sat in the center. Cho quickly dropped it toward her bag on the ground. Several seconds passed before she heard it land, and she sighed as she thought about how high up she was without her broom. Then, with a sudden smile, she took out her wand and jumped, casting the Weightless Charm as she fell. A few minutes later, her momentum propelling her down, she floated gently to the leaf-strewn lawn.

Cho brushed herself off, stowed the egg in her bottomless pouch, and headed toward the broom shed. She needed her broom.

. . .

Cedric held his wand before him. Light streamed steadily from the tip as he made his way through the dark around toward the side of the castle that met the lake. His seventh item was an ornament from the first-year boats. He could have made his way through the castle and down through the dungeons to the underground harbor, however, considering he was outside already, he had estimated it would be quicker to go in from the lake entrance. Of course, that meant he would have to figure out how to swim safely from the outside bank of the lake, under the castle portcullis, through the cavern, and safely up to the docks.

He had no idea how the others were doing, but he felt pretty confident. He had estimated that he had about forty minutes for each item. He had gone over his time limit on a few of his items, but acquired some others quickly. It was into the ninth hour and this was his tenth item. He felt calm, collected, and focused despite the late hour.

Pulling his robes off, he shoved them into his bottomless satchel. He sat, pulled his boots off, and shoved them in as well. He tied the satchel tight to across his torso and spelled his clothes with warming and impervious charms. Then he cast the Bubble Head Charm and dove into the cold water. He swam smoothly, efficiently toward his goal. Within ten minutes, he was pulling himself up onto the docks.

His arrival disturbed the seagulls. They called harshly in confusion, their voices echoing in the cave-like chamber. High above his head were large wooden rafters. The boats were upside down and stored up by the ceiling. On each stood a small bronze witch in robes, her arms held open in a gesture of welcome.

As Cedric worked to sever the protected ornament from the bow, he couldn't help thinking about Cho. Cho was an amazing girl, beautiful in every way, intelligent, caring, dutiful. He loved her. He would feel blessed beyond all men if he could stand by her for the rest of his life. However, he wasn't stupid. He was top of the 7th year class, just as she was top of the 6th year class. He knew the fact he wasn't Chinese would always be a barrier between them.

The man she married would become the Clan Head of the Chang Clan, which was a powerful, all-Chinese magical family. But if he was good enough, strong enough, powerful enough, honorable enough, there was a chance. No matter how small, it was a chance, and Cho was worth fighting for. She was worth his life.

He knew this Tournament was supposed to be about Harry Potter. It was true Potter would make an excellent addition to House Hufflepuff, he had fit right in amongst the Puffs, but more importantly, Cedric had to prove himself. That was why he'd been so driven over the last year, why he was so driven to win this Tournament. He had to be perfect. More, he had to be outstanding. For Cho.

. . .

Neville walked quickly down the dark, cobweb-filled tunnel with his wand outstretched. It filled the narrow space with pale yellow light. He was out of breath, exhausted, and filthy, but he couldn't stop. It was almost five-thirty in the morning. The sun would rise in a little more than an hour, and he still had two more items to go. He'd have to be fast! His whole House was counting on him. They had chosen him, Neville the Hero, as Champion and he couldn't bare to let them down.

His Gran had told him the prophecy when he was very young. That it was either Harry or Neville who could stop Voldemort when he finally came back. She had explained that Neville had to be strong, powerful, and smart if he were going to survive this terrible Fate. To that end, she had hired the best trainers, tutors, and specialists to give Neville every advantage she could. When Neville had come to Hogwarts for his first year, he'd found that the training had actually worked. Because of it, he'd managed to stop Voldemort from stealing the Philosopher's Stone and all of Hogwarts had called him Hero.

The title had felt heavy but good. He'd worked so hard! Some days he'd thought he'd die. Hogwarts was the first time in his life he'd ever had fun, he'd ever had friends or played games. He'd finally felt that all his Gran had put him through was worthwhile.

And then he'd failed Ginny.

Because of him, at the end of his second year, Voldemort had risen again and left Hogwarts with a dangerous basilisk at his side. Because he'd failed. An innocent little girl had died because he wasn't good enough. Neville may have survived the torture at Voldemort's hand, but he had been dying when his Gran had brought Harry Potter to his home. Seeing Harry, realizing there was still hope, that the future didn't rest on his unworthy shoulders, the guilt had turned into something that drove him instead of broke him down. And his wounds had finally begun to truly heal.

If Neville was going to help Harry, if he was going to make up for his unforgivable failure, he had to be strong and ready to fight, and the first step of this plan was to prove to Harry that Neville was strong enough to fight by his side. Plus, winning would also make Harry a Gryffindor. Gryffindor House was famous for producing warriors and Aurors. It was where Harry belonged, so that they could all stand together against the Darkness as brothers.

Neville was yanked abruptly from this thoughts as he turned the final corner of the secret passageway and arrived at the end of the tunnel. Pushing outward, he stepped free of the dark into the torch-lit North Wing on the seventh floor corridor. Down a little ways was the Fat Lady's portrait and the entrance to the Gryffindor common room and dorms, so this part of the castle was very familiar to him. He had known exactly where to go when his list had shown him a crude drawing of the Bloody Baron with the words: the Baron's Emerald.

Neville had always wondered why the Slytherin ghost had his statue up in the North Wing by Gryffindor House, but it wasn't important now. He shuffled quickly into a modest study room off to the left of the passage. There were worn bookshelves filled with miscellaneous books, comfortable chairs, a few scattered tables, and by a small arched window stood the stone statue of the Bloody Baron. He was in battle attire with a necklace around his neck. It was a part of the statue, but a real emerald was set into the chest of the statue.

Of course, as soon as he was about to cast a few spells to try and pry the gem from the stone, the ghost of the Bloody Baron flew past and dove head-first into his statue. Neville quickly took a step back and raised his wand into a guard position as the Baron's eyes turned red and the statue seemingly came to life.

"Who dares pilfer my emerald?" the Baron's evil voice echoed through the room.

Neville took a deep steadying breath and answered, "I dare."

The battle was on.

. . .

There were only thirty minutes left of the time limit, and Harry only had six out of the twelve scavenger hunt items tucked inside the bottomless satchel that he had stolen from the Hufflepuff dorms. He was beginning to worry, but he wasn't worried about not completing his list and losing. He had expected he wouldn't be able to find all the items in time.

After all, he didn't know the castle very well, which meant he had to rely on the directions of the portraits and ghosts, some of which purposefully sabotaged him and others asked him to complete a small task before they would help him. It was like having to complete two tasks for each item instead of one. So being last was about what he had expected.

However, the night wasn't a total loss. Harry had learned a lot about the castle and had crossed paths with each of the other Champions just as he'd hoped. Not that the others knew that, of course. Harry was almost as good as Duo at hiding.

No, he was worried for another reason completely. He had prepared for this outcome and had carefully set it up so that he could still potentially win this thing. However, he needed something first, and he had expected he would have gotten it before now.

"Come on, come on," he muttered under his breath. Something caught his attention, and he grinned, putting his back to the cold stone wall as he concentrated. "Finally!" His brow scrunched as he stared off at nothing in particular, then his whole face lit up in triumph.

He dragged his wand across his forehead and snapped it down, breaking the spell. Sprinting, Harry tore off down the third floor corridor. As he leapt on top of the Great Stair's banister to run lightly along it, it reminded him of his desperate escape a few months ago. He couldn't feel anymore differently now than he had then. Exhilaration and a sense of fun pounded through his veins compared to the terror and desperation of before.

Finally, after only a few minutes, he skid across the Entrance Hall, and raced through the Great Hall doors. Dumbledore, the four House heads, and Duo were sitting at the staff table. Harry was vaguely aware of the surprised expression on Sprout's, Flitwick's, and McGonagall's faces, the glare on Snape's, and the amused smile of the Headmaster and Duo. Most of his attention was on the words 'Inscribe your name amongst the heavens' underneath a drawing of an enormous chandelier and arched rafters among a star-speckled sky that burned in his mind's eye.

Breathing fast from his run, Harry lifted his wand. "Flagrate!" he incanted with an intricate swirl and turn of his wand before signing his signature with his wand tip. Burning letters in beautiful cursive script spelled out Harry Yuy. The Headmaster must have added a spell to the ceiling because as the signature rose, the red fire turned the white of star-light and settled as if it were a new constellation among the fading stars.

Harry was delighted. He spun in a circle, arms-outstretched, long braid swinging behind him as he laughed.

Cedric Diggory ran into the room. He stared in surprise at the laughing Harry before quickly spelling his name. It joined Harry's on the ceiling. Dawn was fast approaching. The real stars of the sky were nearly gone, but the Champions names shone and twinkled as bright as ever.

"How'd you make it so fast?" Cedric demanded.

Harry shrugged, still grinning wide.

Draco and Neville ran in nearly in sync and screamed their names, wands flashing, just as the sun crested the horizon. Their names burned alongside Harry's and Cedric's. Cho was right behind him, but she was just a few seconds too late and her name did not stick, instead it flickered and burnt out like a dying fire.

Dumbledore stood and began to clap as Neville fell back and sat on his bum, dirt smudged, bleeding and pale. Draco braced his hands on his thighs as he bent over, panting. Cedric continued to stare suspiciously at Harry, while Cho, nearly as disheveled as Neville, tried to hide her disappointment behind a neutral expression.

"Congratulations, Hogwarts' Champions!" Dumbledore cried out cheerfully, still clapping. "I must say I am surprised at this turn of events."

The old wizard came down the aisle toward the exhausted teenagers, trailing the House Heads. Each of the adults went to their Champion's side, casting spells to heal, clean, or energize their students. Meanwhile, Duo wrapped his arms around Harry's shoulders, matching Harry's grin with an identical one of his own.

"Pretty good, kid. I'm impressed!"

Harry felt warm from head-to-toe at his brother's approval. "Thanks."

"If you would, Professors, please check your Champions for their items," Dumbledore continued, faded blue eyes twinkling. "I will check Harry."

Harry knew what he'd done was unconventional, but it wasn't technically against the rules. Still, he grew nervous and fidgeted with the end of his braid as the Headmaster inspected his stolen satchel.

"Well, well, my boy. What will we do with you?" Dumbledore asked, amused.

"Miss Chang has all her items," Flitwick announced.

"As does, Longbottom," McGonagall echoed.

Snape's voice was emotionless as he reported the same of Draco.

Sprout answered last. "Everything is accounted for."

Dumbledore turned to face the group, standing between them and Harry, but not blocking their view of him. "It seems our Mr. Potter only has six items."

"How is that possible?" Draco demanded.

Cedric looked confused. "How could he know where to go without getting all the other items?"

The others, including the Professors, looked equally baffled.

"I cast a spell," Harry admitted. His voice trailed off as he saw the increasingly unhappy looks of the people facing him. He began to sweat.

"What spell?" Neville asked curiously.

Harry's hand tightened around his braid. The reassuring presence of Duo at his back lent him strength. "A surveillance spell. When our paths crossed, I cast it on all of your lists. When the last item appeared on Cedric's, I ran here as fast as I could."

"But how did you know it would be the same item on your list, too? I thought all of our lists were different," Cedric protested.

It was Cho who answered. "We shared a final item, but technically the lists are still unique. It was a riddle." She bowed her head slightly in Harry's direction. "It was very clever of you to realize that."

"So Potter won?" Draco demanded, arms crossed and eyes flashing.

"Professors?" the Headmaster inquired of the other adults.

The House Heads spoke evenly and logically, each expressing their opinion. Cedric and Draco followed their debate, but Harry, Neville, and Cho were content to wait for the verdict. Cho sat on the bench nearest her, which happened to belong to the Hufflepuff table, and rested. Neville, on the other hand, approached Harry.

"That was really clever, Harry," he offered.

"Thanks." Harry smiled. "Good job finding all of your items. It was super hard!"

Neville smiled back. "I think the hardest was the Baron's emerald."

Harry and Duo listened with interest as Neville described his short but intense battle with the possessed statue.

"Wicked," Duo exclaimed as Neville came to the end of his retelling.

"I wish I could have seen it," Harry added, accepting the large emerald from Neville and holding it up to the light. It was beautiful.

The voices of the teachers fell quiet as the Headmaster clapped his hands. "I have come to a decision! Harry Potter showed great ingenuity and an understanding that it is the end result that matters. However, he would have been unsuccessful if it weren't for the achievement of Cedric Diggory. I award Mr. Diggory the point! Congratulations on winning the first task, House Hufflepuff!"

Sprout clapped loudly, while everyone else joined in politely. Cedric stood tall and proud, cheeks flushed and eyes bright with victory. He stared meaningfully at Cho.

Harry shrugged as Duo boo'ed the teenager and offered his hand to Cedric with a smile. "Good job."

Cedric accepted the handshake with a smile. "Thank you. You, too. That was pretty smart what you did."

Clapping his hands a final time, Dumbledore got their attention. "Champions, you are dismissed to get cleaned up." He stroked his long beard, smiling benignly at all of them. "Breakfast is in an hour. Please return for the meal. Images of your night will be displayed for the students and the winner with be announced. After the meal, you will be allowed to return to your dorms for sleep. You are excused from today's classes. However, you are expected to attend the Halloween Feast tonight."

Harry gave Duo a quick hug, his brother pulling teasingly on his braid, and followed Cedric out of the Great Hall toward the Hufflepuff dorms. He stifled a yawn behind his hand and cut his eyes sideways to the older teen walking beside him. Cedric was practically skipping, he was so happy. Harry shook his head with a smile.

Chapter end.

A/N: Okay. So this was an entertaining chapter, I hope. Enough detail, but not too much for it to be boring. At least that was my goal. I do have a few questions for you, though.

1. What do you think about the possible arranged marriage between Cho and Wufei? I understand Wufei is 7 or 8 years older than her (I'll have to go back through my story to be sure of my math), but either way it's not too big of an age difference to be unrealistic or gross.

2. What do you think about Draco and Neville in this story? I know they are different from canon, but things happened to them differently in my story than the original books. Therefore their personalities are a bit different. Still, I want to know if I should ease up or adjust their personalities as I continue. What do you think?