Chapter 24
In the Maze
I ran into the maze as fast as I could, Draco's "Be safe" still ringing in my head, even when the cheering silenced.
Harry, Cedric and I reached two forks in the maze and we looked to each other.
"Which way do we go?" I asked.
"You and Harry take the left path, I'll take the right one." Cedric said, nodding to the path in front of him.
Harry and I looked at each other and activated out Twin Telepathy.
I say we do it. We can always split up at another fork. Harry thought to me.
I nodded. "See you." Harry and I said together, running left.
I pulled out my wand the same time as Harry and we both lit up our wand tips before coming to another fork in the maze as the gong sounded again. Krum was in the maze now.
"I'll go left, you go right!" I shouted, running left. (And no, not just because Draco is left handed.)
"BE CAREFUL, HANNAH!" Harry shouted to my back.
I heard Harry's footfalls head through the right path and I sprinted as the gong sounded for the last time. Fleur was in the maze now and that meant we were all in the running for the Cup.
I found after about fifty yards that I was going straight. I turned around and I saw where I was when I first entered the maze in the distance, and Cedric's strangled yell up ahead.
I ran up and found that Cedric was trying to fight off two of Hagrid's Blast Ended Skrewts.
"Cedric!" I shouted, making him turn slightly to face me.
"Han! I thought you went the other way with Harry." Cedric said, still trying to fend off the Skrewts, which got him in the shirt with a flame.
"I did." I said, rushing to his side. "We split up at another fork in the maze." I said "You Stun one Skrewt, and I'll Stun the other one." I said, pointing my wand at one Skrewt, Cedric mirroring me with the other one.
"One…" I said, dodging a flame my Skrewt hurled at me.
"Two…" Cedric said.
"THREE!" we said together "STUPEFY!"
The Skrewts were knocked unconscious and Cedric and I ran past.
"Thanks for the help, Hannah!" Cedric said as we ran, and found my brother right in front of us.
Harry spun around and almost hit me with "Stupefy." and saw how shaken Cedric was and how his shirt was singed.
"Sorry, sis." Harry said.
"Hagrid's Blast Ended Skrewts." Cedric hissed "They were huge! I only just managed to take them with help from your sister here. Thanks again, Hannah!" Cedric said shaking his head, running off the other way, leaving me and Harry alone.
Harry smirked "Helping the competition were you, sis?" he asked.
"Shut up!" I snapped. "You would've done the same thing!"
Harry nodded "You go that way." he said, pointing right. "I'll take this path."
I nodded "I'll see you, Harry." I said, giving him a hug "And good luck."
Harry nodded. "You too, baby sis." he said, running left.
I sprinted right and started to take a corner when I saw it and screamed.
It was a Hippogriff. And it looked pissed.
I whimpered as it started to charge at me. It bucked and was about to bring it's talons down on my arm like what happened to Draco the previous term, but it stepped back.
Wait a second…I thought. Hippogriffs don't stop attacking.
"Hey!" I said, pulling out my wand and laughing "You're a Boggart! Riddikulous!" I screamed, pointing my wand in the Hippogriff's face, transforming it to what it transformed into the last time I used that spell.
It was Snape…in a pink bikini…with ponies!
I laughed so hard that I thought I was going to bust a gut. And Bikini-Snape exploded with a loud POOF and a wisp of white smoke.
I smirked and shouted out "IS THAT THE BEST YOU'VE GOT!?"
I went right…then left…then right again. I pulled out my wand and used a spell Harry taught me…the Four Point Spell, which made my wand work like a compass and I found out I was going too far west.
So…I turned around and started back, heading straight.
I was honestly at this point bored. I started wondering what Draco was doing up in the stands and if he was pissing himself with worry over how I was doing when a scream reached my ears. A female scream.
"Fleur!" I shouted, turning around and hoping whatever was after Fleur wasn't after me now. But I had to admit, it was one champion down.
But I didn't see red sparks. Did that mean Fleur had gotten out of trouble or was she in too much danger to get her wand?
Someone's voice from the crowd and someone in the maze screamed my name.
Draco and Harry.
I rolled my eyes. "I'M OK, HARRY!" I shouted out, hoping that Draco could hear me too.
After a couple of minutes, Harry rushed to my side.
"God…I forgot there was another girl in this Tournament, not just you." Harry panted before laughing "Malfoy screams like a girl."
I laughed as well. "What do you expect? You heard him scream in first year in the Forest and he sounded like a chipmunk!"
Harry turned serious "Come on, we're still in a task in case you haven't noticed."
I nodded and Harry and I started foreword together again until we came across another fork in the road.
I turned to Harry "Well, Freddie." I said, quoting Scooby-Doo. "What d'you say we-"
"Split up and look for clues?" Harry and I said together.
"Brilliant idea, Daphne." Harry said, smirking "You, Velma and Shaggy go left Scooby and I'll go right." Harry said "The best clue is somewhere close by."
I laughed. I knew he meant the Triwizard Cup. "Well, let's split up and look for clues!" I said, heading left.
"Remember, Daph, Twin Telepathy if you're in trouble, and I'll come running."
"Yes, Harry." I said, dropping the Scooby-Doo game and running my path.
I went right, then left, then right again, before I ran into Cedric again.
"God." I panted, grabbing my legs. "It seems we're running into each other a lot."
Cedric nodded "Well, let's do what we always do. Look for a fork in the road and split up."
I nodded and Cedric and I started forward together.
"So how're things with you and Malfoy?" Cedric asked.
I blushed and held Draco's ring. "They're going great! He's so sweet to me. How're things with Chang?"
Cedric shrugged "Same. Except I'm so sweet to her."
Cedric and I laughed and felt movement behind us. I grabbed my wand and spun around, sending a Stunner to whatever it was.
It was Krum.
I sighed in relief. "Holy Skinner, Krum, you scared the shit out of me!"
Krum pulled out his wand and pointed it at Cedric and I, and sent a flash of red light towards us.
"What are you doing!?" Cedric and I said together.
Krum's face was expressionless and he sent another flash of red light towards us, which Cedric pushed me out of the way of.
"WHAT THE HELL D'YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?" Cedric and I said together.
That's when Krum did it.
"Crucio!"
The air was full of Cedric's yells and my screaming as we both hit the ground on our backs.
The pain was beyond anything I'd ever experienced in my entire life…not even when I had to get a new kidney when I was eight. It felt as if my very bones were being broken at the same time, someone had emerged me in acid, I was being trampled by Dudley's gang increased a thousand fold and beaten up by a hockey goon all at once. I wanted it to end…to pass out…maybe even to die. I closed my eyes and prayed to Jeff Skinner that I'd end soon.
I heard someone kick the hedge to my left and then saw a flash of red light.
"STUPEFY!"
Then I heard a body slam into a hedge and Cedric and I panting. I didn't feel Cedric's hands from where I was, so he was most likely grabbing his face or something.
I heard someone run up and Cedric stopped panting.
"Are you all right?" Harry asked Cedric.
"Yeah…Yeah…I can't believe it. He snuck up on Han and me. I heard him and when we turned around, he was trying to get at us."
I heard a bunch of muttering about Fleur and how everyone thought Krum was all right. And hell, I had to agree. He was an ok guy…and at that moment he was a rotten little prick.
Harry gasped and suddenly I was being shaken.
"Hannah! Hannah! Say something!" Harry half sobbed as I saw red sparks shoot up into the sky through my eyelids. "HANNAH!"
I blinked and let my eyelids flutter open. I took a few deep breathes and finally said something.
"When I get my hands on that little bastard…and I don't give a shit how good he plays Quidditch, I am going to murder him!" I said.
"Oh, thank God!" Harry said, wrapping me in his arms in a bone crushing hug.
"Harry!" Cedric said, pulling Harry back "Let the girl stand up!" he added, holding out his hand "Need some help?"
I nodded "Thanks." I said, taking his hand and letting him hoist me up to my feet.
"Don't mention it." Cedric said, smiling. "We'll we're the only one's in this now, so it's a Hogwarts victory either way."
Cedric, Harry and I all smiled and started back towards the Cup. When we reached another fork in the road, Cedric went one way, Harry and I went the other way.
I turned to Harry and finally brought up what I was thinking "I can't believe that Krum would resort to using an Unforgivable Curse!"
Harry nodded "Yeah. The use of it's gonna give him a life term in Azkaban."
"Did he really want the Cup that badly?" we asked together as we turned a corner.
Then we both saw something that was only in our Care of Magical Creatures book…The Monster Book of Monsters.
It was a sphinx, pacing up and down the pathway Harry and I wanted to cross.
It had the body of an overlarge lion, a long tail that ended in a brown tuft and golden fur. Yet, it had the head of a woman.
She turned her head to Harry and I and spoke. "You are both very near your goal. The quickest way is past me."
"Well, will you let us pass, please?" Harry asked.
I gave him a "You have got to be kidding me" look as the sphinx shook her head.
"No." she said, continuing to pace. "Not unless you can answer my riddle. Answer on your first guess, I will let you both pass. Answer incorrectly, I attack. Remain silent, I will let you walk away, unscathed."
I smirked. This was something that I could manage.
"All right, I'm game. May we hear the riddle?" I asked, rubbing Draco's ring for luck.
The sphinx turned to me and sat right in the middle of the maze and began to recite her riddle.
"First think of the person who lives in disguise,
Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies
Next, tell me the thing that's the last thing to mend
The middle of middle and end of the end?
And finally give me the sound often heard
During the search of a hard to find word.
Now string them together and answer me this:
What creature would you be most unwilling to kiss?"
I blinked. She's got to be shitting me. I thought.
A person who lives in disguise, deals in secrets and tells naught but lies…that's obviously a spy!
The last thing to mend…? Hmm…the middle of middle and end of the end? Could she possibly mean the word end and middle? ID! That's the answer if that's what she means!
And…the sound often heard searching for a hard to find word…there's uh…and um…and er…ER! That makes the most sense! ER! Is a sound!
Spy-id-er. A creature I'd be most unwilling to kiss.
"Spider!" I said finally, while Harry was talking to himself "The answer is spider!"
Harry looked at me and paled "HANNAH!" he hissed "That was our only guess!"
The sphinx smiled broadly and stood up, moving aside for us to pass.
"Thanks!" Harry shouted, amazed as we ran past the sphinx before turning to me.
"That was brilliant! I guess they don't give you the good grades in school for nothing!" I grinned "Music room or library at lunch at Muggle school and you learn to solve problems quickly." I said "Use the Four Point Spell and give us the way to the Cup!" I said as we got to yet another fork in the road.
Harry put his wand in his hand "Point me!" he whispered, making his wand point to the right hedge.
We kept running, Harry's wand telling us we were on course. Then we saw light.
The Triwizard Cup was gleaming right in front of us.
I squeaked and jumped up and down "We made it, Harry! Oh, Draco's going to be so happy!"
Harry rolled his eyes. "Malfoy, Malfoy, Malfoy." he muttered "Always have to have Malfoy involved, little sis?"
I nodded "Of course! He is my boyfriend!" I said happily, gripping my good luck charm around my neck as we started sprinting.
"I'm almost out. I'm almost out. I'm almost out!" I said to myself "I'm gonna get my life back. The nightmare is over!" I said before letting my face fall at the sight of a dark figure sprinting towards the Cup.
It was Cedric. He was going to reach the Cup first. He was taller, and he had the longer legs.
Harry nudged me in the middle of my disappointment and turned to a path that intersected with ours. There was something dark hurrying towards Cedric so fast Cedric was going to run into it.
I took a deep breath and screamed "CEDRIC ON YOUR LEFT!"
Cedric turned and just managed to jump out of the way of a giant spider that stepped into the path and began to bear down on Cedric.
I rushed it as Harry started shouting Stunning Spells and Impediment Jinxes at the spider, which wasn't reacting.
I pulled out my dagger and went to stab the spider in the thorax, only to have it bend down and grab my sides with its pincers, squeezing hard enough to draw blood.
"AH!" I screamed, tears of pain falling down my face "HARRY, RUN!" I screamed.
But Harry didn't listen, he ran towards the spider and shouted "PUT HER DOWN!"
The spider flung me away and went after Harry as I flew into a hedge right by the Cup and slid to the ground on my backside, moaning and gripping my stomach as Harry shouted in pain.
Cedric pulled out his wand and started shouting "STUPEFY! IMPENDIMENTA! STUPEFY!"
But yet again, the spider wasn't reacting to the jinxes until I pulled out my wand and pointed it at the spider the same time as Cedric and Harry.
"Stupefy!" The three of us shouted together, me half moaning.
That worked. The spider toppled onto its back and remained still.
I moaned and gripped my stomach as Cedric rushed over to me and helped me up.
"Thanks." I muttered.
I paled "My dagger." I said "Where's my dagger?" I asked.
Cedric handed it to me "You managed to stab the thing in the thorax, so I pulled it out for you when it got Stunned finally.
I smiled and put my dagger back in my holster "Thanks." I said before inspecting the wound.
It wasn't as deep as I thought it was going to be, but there was thick gluey stuff from the spider's pincers when it grabbed me. "Pomfrey's gonna have a heyday when we get back to school. You with your stomach and Harry with his leg." Cedric said, turning to Harry, who was leaning against a distant hedge.
"Go on!" he said, nodding towards the Cup "One of you take it. You're both there!"
I turned to Harry and walked over to him "No." I said, helping him limp over to the Cup "You take it." I said.
"Yeah, Harry. You tipped me off about the dragons. And you saved my neck twice in here."
"You guys both saved my neck, and gave me another shot when Krum used the Cruciatus Curse on me. I would've never heard the end of it from Draco had I gone back unconscious. This is between you two."
"No! Both of you stop being so damned noble!" Harry snapped, leaning on me for support. "Cedric, you told me about the egg, we're square. And sis, you deserve to win more than any of us. I know I hate to say it, but I want Malfoy to look at you again as a champion."
I smiled at my brother. "No, Harry. You take it. You saved more of the hostages during the second task, I only saved Ivy."
"That's because I was the one thick enough to take the damn song seriously! Now take the bloody Cup!"
Suddenly, Harry had a brainstorm "All of us."
"What?" Cedric and I said together, looking at Harry now, the Cup forgotten.
"Why don't we all take it?" Harry asked, shrugging "It's a Hogwarts victory anyways. We'll tie for it."
Cedric smiled and I smirked in a very Draco Malfoy way. "I like your thinking, Harry." Cedric and I said together.
Harry and Cedric each had a hand hovering over the Cup handles, I had my hand hovering over the base.
"On three?" we said together, nodding in agreement.
"One…" Harry said.
"Two…" Cedric said.
"Three." I said, taking the base of the Cup as Cedric and Harry each grabbed a handle.
Suddenly there was a jerk behind my navel and my feet left the ground. I couldn't let go of the Triwizard Cup, and I was spinning forward with Harry and Cedric at my sides.
