Chapter Seventy-Two: The Final Task

While Severus and Hermione and all of the others checked on Harry to make sure that he was alright, Ron knelt down on top of the dock soaking wet and faced the friendly mermaid. "Are you alright?" She questioned him as soon as her head popped up above the surface since she had helped him and Gabrielle swim to shore safely.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He began. "Those grindylows sure are a bitch though. Thank God that Harry was able to get past them even though Fleur wasn't able to or none of us would have been able to escape alive." He told her. "Thanks for your help by the way as I'm Ron Weasley." He told her with a bright and shining smile.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Jasmine." She replied while smiling back at him before she dove back down underneath of the water and smacked her tail against it while she did so.

"Well, it's nice to know that not all mermaids are evil." Ginny began while she walked over to him. "Are you alright Ron?" She asked him as he got to her feet.

"Other than the fact that I'm freezing and soaking wet yeah I am. Better get back to the castle now and change my clothes." He told her before he turned around and started walking away.

Once Harry was all dried off Dumbledore told him that he wished to speak with him inside his office. He waited around for a while until he discovered a mysterious object that he was able to look into and see a scene from the past. He sat next to a much younger version of Dumbledore, but nobody else was able to see him though. He realized fairly quickly that he was at some court case or trial about a man who took part in the capture and torture of a young couple. That man turned out to be Barty Crouch Junior which shocked Harry since he did not even know that he had had a son.

After he had come out of it Dumbledore explained to him that it was a pensive and Harry told him that Barty Crouch Junior was the same person he was having dreams about and Dumbledore told him not to worry about it so he decided not to say another word about it. Before Harry knew it, the day of the final task arrived and the only good thing about being a champion was that he had a free pass from the end of the year exams.

Draco and Hermione hadn't been speaking with one another since the end of the second task but since they were both very concerned about Harry, they both decided to come to his final one to support him even though they remained silent with each other. It turned out that the third task was a maze and since Harry and Cedric were currently in the lead (Harry had gotten second place at the last task even though he didn't finish second because he saved somebody that wasn't his to save) they were able to enter the maze first.

Afterwards it would be Viktor's and Fleur's turn. Everybody wished him good luck and then they all took turns entering the maze. Since they were all told that if they decided to withdraw from the task at any time to shoot up red sparks with their wands, Harry finally decided that he had had enough and was ready to end this nightmare. On the way to the Triwizard cup he ran into Cedric and as he accidentally bumped into him, he fell, and a bunch of roots shot out of the ground and grabbed onto him and attacked him.

"Harry!" He cried out. "Harry, please,.. help me." He pleaded while Harry slowly turned his head and looked back at him. He might have been his competitor and rival for Cho Chang, but he was also on his team, so he quickly withdrew his wand and pointed it at the roots.

"Reducto!" He exclaimed and watched as the roots broke off of him and he hurried over to Cedric's side and helped him up to his feet.

"Thanks, for a moment there I thought that you were going to let it get me." He told him.

"For a moment there so did I." Harry confessed.

"Some game huh?" Cedric questioned him before Harry nodded back at him.

"Yeah, some game." He replied while the wind started blowing.

"Take it! Go on, you saved me take it!" Cedric exclaimed.

"Let's take it together." Harry told him before they both raced to the cup and as they lifted it up, they were transported to a graveyard. "That's odd." He began before he started looking around. "The cup must have been a portkey." He observed and turned around to look behind him on a gravestone that read out Thomas Riddle and his wife and son underneath and felt his breathing starting to get heavier while he turned to look back at Cedric and felt a sharp pain inside his scar.

"Cedric, we have to get out of here." He began as he placed a hand to it. "Now!" He cried out and saw a glimpse of Peter Pettigrew walking out of the shadows carrying a bundle of what appeared to be the ugliest baby he had ever seen underneath the blankets.

"What are you talking about?" Cedric questioned him as he turned to look back at Harry and then over at Pettigrew. "Who are you, what do you want?" He wondered while withdrawing his wand and pointing it at him.

"Kill the spare!" Harry heard a hissing voice say and before he could blink or do anything about it, there was a flash of green light and Cedric's lifeless body fell onto the ground.

"No! Cedric!" Harry shouted and that's when the stone statue behind him began to move and he found himself being pinned up against it while Pettigrew dropped the ugly baby into the cauldron in front of him and levitated a bone into the air.

"Bone of the father, unwillingly sacrificed." He began before dropping it into the pot and then withdrawing a dagger. "Flesh of the servant, willingly given." He said before cutting off his hand and adding it to the pot as well and then walked over to Harry. "Blood of the enemy forcefully taken." He said before slicing a bit of Harry's arm making him scream before finally, he added the few drops of blood to the pot. "The dark lord will rise again."