Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter in any way shape or form, only the OCs do I own.
A/N: Hi all and welcome to another chapter of Wolf, I have to say I really enjoyed a lot of the feedback I have been getting back for this story. I do wish however that people would read these notes and notices that I have stated before that I can't do weight right and don't have the time to look it up on the net with work and everything else so don't pay the weights any mind.
Anyway I hope a lot of you enjoy this chapter and also I should state that Harry is always learning new ways of using his Shadow attacks as you never really master something you only learn new ways of using it. Enjoy!
Chapter 22: Third Task.
A couple of weeks before the fouth task found Fleur almost skipping through the halls of Hogwarts after her weekend date with Harry, the Veela girl however was very tight lipped about the date and had even started to travel with her few friends wherever she went as they knew not to upset her or ask about the date while the other girls didn't seem to get that message.
Fleur happened to be without her friend escort a week or so before the final task, she had ducked out to go to the loo and now found herself surrounded by a number of the Hogwarts girls demanding to know what she knew about Harry Potter.
She was thinking of turning some of these silly girls into ash after a few minutes of them asking dumb questions, like she would know how large he was in that area she thought, one hand starting to rise up and get ready to fire off some white hot fire when a slight cough and clearing of the throat sounded behind the girls.
Everyone turned around in time to see Hermione Granger flanked on either side by Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott, all three fourth year girls had slightly narrowed eyes and hands resting on their hips or in Hannah and Susan's case close to their wands while Hermione's wand was in hand.
"I do believe you lot have other places to be besides bugging one of the best duellists in the school." Hermione snapped off a number of the younger girls running off however the sixth year and above didn't move until a fireball slammed into the ground between them and Hermione's group.
"Scram." Fleur ordered moving past the girls and giving Hermione and the others a small smile in greeting and thanks on helping get rid of her fans and Harry's stalkers.
"Nice to see you still have a lot of fire in you Fleur and Harry says hello and hopes you enjoyed that weekend." Hermione says with a smile in greeting to Fleur putting her wand away and moving to stand next to the French girl having just gotten a letter from Harry saying to pass on his greetings to Fleur.
"Thank you Hermione and yes I did." Fleur says with a slightly dreamy smile forming on her face as she started to move off to join her friends who had come running around the corner after realising that she had been missing for a while.
"Nice to know, well me and the girls here are on our way to the Library to study up on the coming finals." Hermione says calmly moving away from Fleur and towards the Library both Susan and Hannah giving a smile to the French witch before moving to follow their friend.
Fleur just watched as the girls left the hallway contemplating her life now and also wondering why Hermione had stopped to help as the two know of each other but didn't really interact together much, really only talking when Harry was around and they were both with him at the same time.
"Oh well something to work on, she could be a good lifelong friend." Fleur says to herself joining up with her friends as they all started to talk and demanding to know what had happened.
The champions really only got together a week before the final task and that was to see the start of the Maze that they would have to navigate to find the cup at the centre, Harry spending a good hour looking over the maze every now and then crouching down and sniffing the hedge.
Fleur had remained with Harry talking with him softly and with a small smile which the young Auror returned the others only just catching a comment of how he would be delighted to take Fleur out again and this time she would get to spend some of the dinner with Tonks as the two had gotten very close since Christmas.
The day of the final task found the Quidditch stands packed to the max with guests and students from all three schools and one Academy, all of the judges were standing just at the entrances to the maze when the champions all showed up in Harry's case with Tonks hanging off his arm a small smile on her face being all anyone needed to see to know that she was happy that this was the last task.
Everyone didn't pay Bagman much mind as he started talking about the final task and what the Champions had to do to win, the two Auror's in training just humming to themselves Fleur joining them once she knew which song they were humming while also listening to the man talk.
After the man finished talking the champions all gave a nod to each other before moving to one of the four entrances to the maze as the judges had decided not to send them in one at a time based on their score, all four would go in at once.
Tonks followed along behind Amelia and the other judges holding Harry's side arm close to her chest as she just couldn't help the feeling that something bad was going to happen within that maze and that Harry was going to be the centre of it all.
A few minutes past in silence as Harry and the others looked into the maze all of them bouncing slightly on their feet as they waited for the signal to enter the maze, Bagman once again running his mouth off about what the champions might be facing inside the maze to the crowd, Albus and the others sitting back waiting to start the task.
"On the signal you well be allowed to enter the maze champions, please note to that if you need help or wish to get out of the maze at any time all you need to do is fire of a red flair and we well send a team into pull you out." Bagman finished saying taking a seat and just looking at the Goblins off to one side who were all eyeing him closely.
Silence reigned for a few moments before the cannon that had been used to start the second task sounded all four champions running into the maze Harry transforming mid step but not vanishing into the shadows like people thought he would as no one save Amelia and Tonks know he was under orders not to use Shadow Travel and such to speed his way through the maze.
Harry worked his way around the next couple of corners quickly avoiding some of the reaching roots of the hedges that seemed to be trying to tie him down and pull him into the walls of the maze, his clawed toes digging into the soft earth under foot as he ran jumping over a lower hedge wall that seemed to suddenly grow in front of him ducking down to slide as best he could along the ground to avoid a swinging branch from the hedge after getting over the low wall.
Without breaking stride after the high low attack wall Harry went down the right hand turn of a crossroad ahead of him, he kept up the fast trot his nose slightly in the air to try and smell out any trouble that might be ahead.
Sliding to another stop after a few minutes Harry looked around as he couldn't place his paw on it but he had a feeling that something was off with the passage way ahead of him after making the previous right turn.
Changing back to human form Harry looked around for a moment his eyes catching nothing out of the ordinary but the slight movement of the hedge on either side of him but for some reason not to far ahead of him the hedge didn't seem to move.
Conjuring a rock Harry throws it down the passageway hitting what sounded like stone even if it looked like a normal patch of grass a few moments later, the stone not even settling down when stunning spells were launched from the walls floor and even the top of the hedge like there was a invisible roof there the rock being turned into a fine powder from having been hit over a dozen times.
"Nice a spell trap that goes off when something enters that area, the questions now is does it have a cool down time? How long the hallway is?" Harry muttered to himself conjuring another couple of stones as he looked at the powder of the first stone.
Conjuring up more stones Harry through one into the invisible stone hallway and started counting the moment the multiple stunning had stopped firing when he got to ten he through another stone this one like the first was hit multiple times with stunning spells.
Counting up to five this time Harry gave a small smile when the stone hit and didn't set off the trap, "A count of five timer, nice." He muttered after doing the five count a couple of times making sure that each stone he through went a little farther down the hallway until he could just make out the sound of the rock hitting soft grass.
"About twenty meters give or take, bit hard to make it for a normal human but I might be able to make it in my Animagus form if only just," He muttered to himself again moving to try and push his fingers behind the invisible stone walls only to pull his hand back sharply when a shock ran up his arm.
Taking a few moments to work out everything in his head Harry gave a final nod before throwing a stone quickly changing into his wolf form just as the stone hit the ground, crouching slightly Harry took off the moment the stunning stopped.
Counting down in his head Harry gave a final lunge forward feeling a spell clip the tip of his tail as he managed to just get to the other side sliding around in time to see the spells slamming into an invisible wall that stopped them from leaving the trap zone he had just ran through.
Changing back Harry gave a slight sigh as he looked around before carrying on his eyes and ears listening and looking out for any more traps and possible creatures that were meant to be within this maze.
While walking along Harry thought on the talk between him and Tonks about her bringing Fleur into their relationship his partner and fiancé stating that she was being friendly with the young Veela girl and that you never know what the future held, after all she had stated that it could be a few years before they felt like bringing in someone else and Fleur might end up with someone by then.
'I can barely keep up with her and she is talking about bringing a young woman who is also a Veela into the mix later in life?' He thought to himself coming around another right hand turn seeing a small room like area ahead of him the hedge showing no signs of any stone invisible hallways yet but he was still keeping his eyes open.
Walking slowly with his wand ready Harry stopped dead when his left leg sank up to the knee in the earth a good fifteen feet before the opening in the hedge to the small room ahead, pulling backwards quickly to stop his forward motion from sending him into the hidden quicksand trap Harry cursed as he looked at this leg hidden up to the knee in the liquid earth.
After a few minutes of pulling Harry managed to get his leg free from the quicksand, a quick clearing charm had the dress pants looking like new again, looking at the opening ahead of him and then the unknown depth of the quicksand pit before him.
Deciding to see how long this pit was he quickly conjured up another pile of stones a quick Wingardium Leviosa had them all floating out over the pit until he had a string of stones all the way up to the possible danger zone, letting the spell go all of the stones dropping at once and all save the one a little inside the chamber ahead sank into the liquid earth.
"Fifteen feet give or take a few inches to the other side, unknown depth and also unknown what could be lying in wait within the pit." He muttered to himself, he started to give thought to turning back and trying another route but axed that idea as he cast a quick location spell that he was pretty close to the centre of the maze at the moment.
Spending a few moments thinking on what to do while throwing the odd stone into the pit Harry decided to go for the simple ladder across conjuring up an eighteen foot ladder he laid it over the pit giving a nod at the simple fix.
Harry however had only just taken the first few steps on the ladder when a branch from the left hand hedge lashed out and slammed into his side nearly making him fall into the quicksand the sight of a metal fin gliding through the sand being his only warning a moment later that something else was in the sands as it sliced though the wood ladder like it was paper.
Seeing his bridge across the pit starting to fall into the pit and start to sink Harry jumped backwards only to find that another couple of branches had grown out to try and block any possible retreat.
Jumping up onto the top rung of the ladder that was still sinking Harry turned enough to fire off a couple of cutting charms to clear the path behind him jumping off the ladder and landing on hard earth a few moments later a sigh escaping him when he saw that some kind of armoured fish with an over sized dorsal fin had been what took out his ladder as one jumped up and sliced off another section of the ladder.
"Nice." Was all he said as he saw no less than a half dozen of these metal fins gliding through the earth ahead of him a small smile forming on his face as he started to try and work out another way to get by this trap.
A explosion of red light marking a flare going off had Harry looking up as a half dozen witches and wizards on brooms went diving into the maze going by the angle he could see no doubt to help the champion signalling for help.
"I wonder who that was?" He muttered to himself turning to face the pit again firing off a stream of water into the hedge along the left side of the pit only stopping when the whole thing was dripping wet the spell barely stopped when he started firing freezing air into the hedge freezing it.
Repeating what he did to the other wall and hoping that the ice would be enough to slow down the lashing branches Harry conjured another ladder this one made from metal he quickly dropped it into place and started running before the ladder had settled into place as one of the metal fish was already ramming it from one side the fin slowly cutting into it.
About half way across Harry felt the bridge under his feet start to bend as all of the fish started to attack from all sides, one branch braking free of its frozen prison and lashing out to hit him in the side but his wand arm was faster as he sliced the branch off close to the hedge.
Diving forward as more branches broke free of their prison Harry rolled along the ladder a little as he came out on the other side feeling something pierce his foot as he cleared the trap fully.
Landing with a roll on the other side Harry jumped off his left foot as he felt a shape pain shoot up it looking down to see blood dripping through a cut in the rubber of the sole of his shoe. "Note to self see into getting Dragon Hide soles for my shoes." He muttered once again sitting down to one side and starting to do some basic first aid making a promise to himself to get Tonks to teach him a few more healing spells besides the basics.
Taking a breath Harry slowly got back to his feet after putting his shoe back on looking around the little room he saw a table off to one side with a couple of bottles of water and a sign over the table saying 'Safe Room.' The message being clear nothing could harm the champions within this little room and they could take a breather if only for a few moments.
"Master Harry, the Durmstrang champion was the one to shoot off the flare; he ran into one of Hagrid's pets and was overpowered." came the voice of Zarra as she rose up from a shadow off to one side today's outfit being her little dominatrix outfit complete with whip and even little handcuffs.
"Nice to know who was pulled out, and why are you here I thought you were staying with Tonks?" Harry says getting to his feet and starting towards the only way out of the room without having to go back through the quicksand trap.
"I was but Amelia and the other judges thought it would be a good idea to let the champions know who has been pulled out, you're my last stop." Zarra says calmly flying over to Harry's side and landing with a smile.
Giving a nod at that comment Harry started to limp towards the other doorway into the maze after downing the bottle of water on the table saying as he throws the bottle to one side, "Let Tonks and them know where I am in the maze if possible and that I am keeping my promise."
Zarra only hummed in understanding before taking off and diving into a nearby shadow to travel by them to get to Tonks not taking the shortcut of the Shadow Plain as she was still in her mating time and really didn't want to have an even twenty kids.
Not waiting to see his familiar leave Harry headed off again firing a stunning spell off one of the side tunnels hitting one of the less dangerous monsters within the maze.
Running as best he could to make up for lost time Harry changed form as he came around another corner and as such nearly ran into another trap this one however had him worried as he had only even read about this type before and never had to try and get around one.
Before him was another stone like chamber this one not hidden like the last one was, the room looked to be around ten feet squared with a roof and for some reason had metal few inch wide in a square close to the middle of the room only about half the size of the total room size.
The floor however was totally underwater only a single stone about five foot by five foot in the middle of the pool of water being above the waterline, in the far wall Harry could just make out a simple wooden door that looked totally out of place within this whole maze.
"Hm, drowning cage system trap… nice choice." Harry muttered to himself looking down into the wall only just making out what looked like leg clamps and other leg traps to make sure that one jumped onto the platform in the middle and didn't try and swim around the trap.
Harry had over the last few months taken up a hobby that had many of the Auror's scratching their heads over but no one dared comment on it as he did rate as one of the more powerful Auror's who was on activate duty, his hobby being that of trap designs both old and new as such he knew of a few ancient Egyptians as well as other old cavitations trap systems.
"Now then how did one get by this type again?" He asks softly while looking around kneeling down to see what else might be waiting in the water but only saw the leg clamps and nooses, his brought a hand forward and just started to play with the water a little while thinking.
Giving a sigh Harry got back to his feet as he remembered the key to the drowning trap was to trigger the trap, the metal border in the roof was a cage that was big enough to fit tightly around the stone block which would then lower into the water, but the key was that on the far side would be a small tunnel that could only be accessed when the block was fully under water and a hole in the cage on one of those sides opened up to the tunnel.
"Wish I brought my little pony bottle with me now." He comment taking a few steps back before turning and not evening pausing ran forward jumping possible minute his feet only just hitting the platform when the metal cage came slamming down all around him his sharp eyes only just spotting the opening in the metal bars on the far side.
The roof and the floor started to lower into the cold water a moment later Harry casting a quick few water repealing charms on the bandages for his foot injures as well as most of his cloths but he could still feel the cold against his skin.
Waiting for a few moments Harry cast a quick bubble head charm knowing that he only had a few minutes with this one as he couldn't seem to get the hang of this spell, just something he had to work he thought as his head vanished under the water the roof stopping even with the waters surfaces.
The floor kept on lowering for another few seconds before it came to a stop Harry swimming down to see were the hole was that would be the key to getting out of this trap, finding it after a few seconds he gave a small smile and sigh before starting to swimming down the small tunnel that soon started angling upwards.
About half way up the tunnel Harry's head broke the surface of the water taking a deep breath after he cancelled his Bubble Head charm. Taking a moment to look around he found a simple set of hand and toe holes in the wall which lead up to a door higher up in the tunnel Harry quickly starting to climb but also being careful to make sure nothing was going to slice off his fingers and such in the climb holes.
Coming out of the tunnel on the other side of the drowning cage Harry gave a smile as he saw he had come out the door on the other wall, taking a moment to dry himself he started moving again without waiting to see the cage reset itself.
The next half hour managed to avoid any more traps and only came across mild nuisances of monsters within the maze the biggest problem being an animated suit of armour that wanted to scalp him for some reason.
Standing over the remains of another suit of armour this one armed with a great axe Harry looked up when another red flare went up, he gave a slight sigh as that signal was all he needed to see to know that it was just him and one other now in the race for the cup, moving out as he thought this.
"That was Fleur Master." came Zarra's voice from just next to him as he rounded another corner of the maze the sight of something glowing with a soft blue light ahead of him being what greeted him, "Oh shinny…"
"It might be shinny but I have a feeling it's also my goal also what was that about Fleur?" Harry says slowing down a little and starting to fire off detection spells to try and spot any possible traps and such that were more than likely waiting for him to step into.
"She fell victim to a trap in another area of the maze, had to be saved after it locked onto her legs and started pulling her into deep water, she wasn't able to undo the leg clamps and fight off the metal fish things at the same time to well as water is a weakening agent for her people which is why they only have very quick baths or baths in private to prevent anyone from seeing them in their weakened state."
Giving a nod to this information Harry started moving forward again a spell once again being fired off into a sight passage but hitting nothing as Harry hadn't bothered aiming at the spider that was now scampering towards him at max speed.
Hearing the spider move over a rock Harry cursed a little as he transformed and made a running for the cup moving the shadows around him to form a shield against some simple spell traps that started going off around him.
Dodging a swinging branch Harry came out into a large open area in the middle of the maze the cup setting on a stone pillar in the middle of the large open area, turning mid step so that he slid sideways to be facing the spider.
"I don't know what will happen when I touch that cup but I'm sure as hell not touching it with you breathing down my neck." Harry snarled out the shadows around him rising up and lashing forward a cracking sound like a whip sounding out at some of the attacks hitting the ground.
The Spider didn't seem to care about the oncoming attacks as it jumped up and started moving along the hedge wall spitting venom at the wolf as it goes. Harry dodging around the greenish liquid which was quickly starting to eat through the grass where it landed.
Deciding to deal with the spider before Cedric showed up Harry jumped backwards and changed back to his human form wand up and firing off a dozen stunning and binding spells as he landed on his good leg keeping the weight off the bad one at the moment.
The combo of spells seemed to only upset the Spider however Harry making a few muttered comments about over powered tests in this tournament that was meant to be for kids in their final year, deciding to just deal with the spider and complain later Harry went from casting stunning and binding spells to cutting and bone braking.
One of the spiders legs was soon cut off at the bottom joint making the beast scamper backwards to avoid the other spells, a hiss of pain being the only other sign to show that it was now beyond angry at Harry.
Dancing around another couples of jets of poison and flaying legs Harry found himself sliding under the spider his form quickly changing to his Animagus form as the shadows under the spider quickly changed into spears and shot straight up and into the soft underbelly of the beast making it give off a loud scream of pain followed soon after by total silence.
Sliding out from under the spider before it could fall on top of him in its death rattles Harry changed back and gave a dismissing snort to the bug, straightening his shirt and making sure he wasn't injured he walked calmly up to the cup.
Reaching for the cup without thinking Harry had only just touched it when he felt the pull of a port-key a few curse words going up as he felt the pull take full effect knowing that Moody was never going to let him live this down he braced himself for his landing only to scream out in pain when his world went from darkness of night to bright high noon light that was all focused on him.
His last thought before the pain from the light all around him cutting him off from the shadows was that he was going to kill whoever did this slowly and painfully, his eyes only just making out the form of a man with a blanket wrapped bundle in hand holding a wand to a stone just next to him, his world going dark a moment after that.
Name: Szotfrin
Gender: Male
Age: Unknown
D.O.B: Unknown
Eye Colour: Deep Midnight Blue
Hair Colour: none Jet shadow black scales
Height: 20' at the shoulder
Weight: Unknown
Physical Fitness: 10/10 Perfect (One of the Lord Masters/Mistress of the Shadow Plain)
Spell Knowledge: 10/10 Perfect (Has knowledge of every spell or potion ever created)
Spell Power: Off the chart
Special Abilities: Mostly unknown, known abilities are telepathic, Shadow Manipulation, Shadow Travel, Shadow Walk, a breath weapon of darkness and cold, natural magic immunity and may have the ability to change his form into human or other humanoid shapes.
Weakness: Mostly unknown, known weakness are Light sensitive, can't move into normal plain without the help of someone or something summing him and even then can only stay in our world for a short amount of time.
Rank: One of Five Great Dragons who rule most of the Shadow Plain.
Next of Kin: None
Information:
Little is known about the rulers of the Shadow Plain but it is known that they are all dragons of unknown age and power. What is also known is that at one point or another throughout history all of their names have been known on the normal world either as great gods of protection or demons of destruction.
Szotfrin has always been seen through history as a being that collects information and guides others who seek him out onto their path should they choose to listen and are willing to pay the price for his help, some even believe that it was Szotfrin who offered the Ancient Egyptians the knowledge to build the pyramids. Gringotts has even claimed to have found a large scale from an unknown dragon in a hidden tomb within the Great Pyramid but no one save a goblin has seen this scale.
In recent times he has been quiet in both Muggle and Magical worlds and very rarely does one try to contact this great beast, but rumour has it that before his down fall Voldemort tried to enslave him and failed, which is what may have helped Harry Potter defeat the Dark Lord for Szotfrin may have offered his own little protection to Harry as his way of paying back the dark lord for daring to try and enslave him, of course this is only a rumour.
All the rumours and legends however point to the fact that out of all the Lords of Shadows as they have been called Szotfrin is one of the more kind and gentle members and that is saying a lot as one legend has him as the destroyer of Atlantis.
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Thanks to the following Reviews:
sh8ad8ow, Makurayami Ookami, Senyor Fier Mensheir, huskerfan, Dirt Rider 712, Knight Wulf, 7thheavengirl09, D.J.J.L.D.H.B 'M-PC' 7th STEVE, acepro Evolution, shanesdragon, Cateagle, Umbra8191, chrisguy9017, Darth Destroyeis, Der Ritter des Mondes, WhiteElfElder, rio45, crimsonkyuubi, Shaggy37, Lientjuhh, Matt, Hivedragon, ILikeComps, lectorsum, lordamnesia, BYoshi1993, murdrax, Pointer3109, PerfesserN, Irishfighter, wolfzmasterz.