"Another day, another task!" Bagman said, voice echoing through the arena. It was a large space - probably about the same as the dragon area had been - but where the dragon arena had been rocky and hilly and with a smattering of trees throughout it, this arena was completely barren. Dusty red earth covered the flat arena floor, and it was all wide-open space, which was strange, because the map of the arena had definitely had things in it... Harry squinted and looked hard at the middle, where he could just see the faint outline of a tall tower, only visible when it caught the light a certain way, and even then only barely.

Harry's starting platform was a good thirty feet above the ground - just below the slanting start of the stands - but easily a hundred feet below the highest level of the tower-like structure. The only way he could tell that's where it ended was because there was a person up there. Stebbins, he thought.

"That'll be where we put the egg together," Hermione said, nodding at the top of the tower. She had a hand up to cover her eyes against the sky's glare and the strange reflection of the tower.

"Oh good," Ron muttered. "That's nice and easy to get to." Harry squinted even harder and then saw what Ron meant; the tower - at least as far as he could see - didn't look to have stairs or a ladder of any kind, only a series of ring-shaped, unconnected platforms around its outside.

"Now, you know our Champions, but it's more than them out there today… Accompanying Miss Fleur Delacour is…"

Harry tuned out and went back to scanning the arena. He could see Fleur, Garcon, and Colbert to the right, but Krum only had Popa standing with him on Harry's left; Morozov, Cedric and Fisher were on the other side of the tower, directly opposite Harry.

"That's brave," Ginny said, eyes on Morozov.

"It's smart," Ron said, glancing up briefly as Bagman called his name. "As long as she doesn't have a piece to lose if it goes badly; if it goes well, she'll be able to carry two away. Cedric's winning, so it'd make sense to want to target him."

"Cedric's tied for winning," Hermione said. "Harry's got the same points-"

"Harry's also got an extra person on his team," Ginny said. "Worse odds, even if we are younger." Harry also wondered if it wasn't Hermione's presence keeping Krum from setting his teammates on them from the get-go, but was wise enough not to suggest it.

Bagman's tone changed and Harry tuned back in:

"... this arena, a good team will make the difference between success and failure, and our Champions are going to work that out… imminently."

"Ominous," Ron muttered.

"I think that's just Bagman," Ginny said, snorting.

"So if you're ready, Champions, your time's starting… NOW!" There was a gasp from the crowd and then a cheer and Harry jerked his wand up. "Team Hogwarts loses a piece of their egg- no, two pieces to Team Durmstrang - nice wandwork and no sympathy from Miss Morozov!" Stebbins was pacing in careful but urgent circles at the top, apparently looking for a way down. "Yes," Bagman said, "I'd be trying to get to them too, Mr Stebbins!"

"Let's move," Harry said.

The question was where? Their starting platform ended abruptly, with nothing beneath it but a thirty foot drop. That was easy enough to get down - a few cushioning or ground softening charms, and air-thickening charms and they'd just about be right to jump off - but was that where they were meant to go?

"There," Ginny said, just as a glint of reflected light caught Harry's eye. About level with their platform was something, perhaps a spell, or a trap, perhaps something invisible. Ron cocked his head, then ran at it, jumping, and even as Harry reached out to pull him back, he landed on something. ("A Gryffindor, that one, for sure!" Bagman called).

"Disillusioned," Ron said, looking pleased with himself. He tapped his foot against something solid and nodded.

"That's easy, then." Hermione lifted her wand. "Fin-" Harry forced her arm up and her spell went whizzing off to collide with the tower. A single stone became visible. "Harry!"

"Remember the keys in first year," he said. Her eyes widened. "You might accidentally remove whatever's keeping it there too."

"We don't have to see it. Edge is here," Ron said, sliding his foot around. "It's not far." He shuffled over to make room and held an arm out to Hermione, who hopped across. He reached for Harry next, then Ginny.

"Team Walpurgis is on the move," Bagman called. Harry glanced over at Fleur's team and saw they were watching and had begun to clamber onto their own platform. "Team Beauxbatons quick on the uptake, they're moving too, now."

It was a strange sensation, even for someone like Harry who was very comfortable with heights and open air, to not be able to see what he was standing on, to be able to see straight through it to the ground below. He found himself taking small, shuffling steps, unable to completely trust it. Ginny walked normally, not seeming at all bothered, and Ron kept glancing down and pulling faces, but Hermione was visibly struggling; she kept shooting her feet nervous looks, and was rather pale.

"Weird, isn't it?" he said.

"That's one word for it," she said, swallowing. He reached out and squeezed her hand. She squeezed back, tight, and didn't let go.

They found the next platform just off to the left, which turned out to be an invisible staircase, jumped down to another platform, then took turns levitating each other over the six foot gap to the ring around the tower.

A spell streaked past Ginny, who overbalanced and threw herself to her knees to keep from toppling over. Hermione sent a neat Stunner back at Morozov, who'd also figured out the platforms, and was making her way back to where Krum and Popa were both still on their starting platform, frowning around the arena. She was forced to jump off the platform to avoid it, but landed easily on another one a few feet below - by luck or on purpose, Harry wasn't sure.

Harry pulled Ginny to her feet and away from the edge.

Hermione had put her wand between her teeth and was patting the glassy, near invisible wall of the tower. Ron and Ginny followed her lead and Harry headed around the other side - or tried to; he walked into something before he could get to where he'd intended. He felt it, unable to work out what it might be, and then toppled backwards with a groan as ropes coiled themselves around him. His wand rolled to a stop several inches away, and Stebbins dropped down from above, grimacing - it was a ladder Harry'd walked into.

"Sorry, Potter," he said, coming to stand over Harry as Harry tried to wriggle free; transforming wasn't an option, not with this many eyes on him. Stebbins yanked Harry into a sitting position and patted him down. Harry pretended to overbalance, tipping to the side and managed to hook a finger around his wand. He palmed it into a better hold.

"Where's your piece?" Stebbins asked, frowning.

"Haven't got one," Harry said, and thought, Relashio! The ropes dropped off and Stebbins leapt back, firing off a Stunner which Harry rolled to avoid, just as Ginny burst around the side and narrowly missed Stebbins with her own spell. Stebbins retreated a few steps, only to back into Ron who'd come around the other side, and caught him with a simple Body-Bind.

"All right, mate?" Ron asked, hauling Harry to his feet, as Ginny wandered over to Stebbins.

"Fine," Harry said. "Good timing." Ron grinned. Ginny suddenly collided with Harry; she'd been knocked back as a Shield Charm sprang into place between her and Stebbins, courtesy of Cedric, from quite a ways below them. It held while a second spell hit Stebbins and he unfroze, rolling off the edge of the platform. Harry hurried to the edge after him, but he was drifting slowly down to another platform, unharmed.

"Close call for team Hogwarts," Bagman said. "So... Team Durmstrang with five pieces, Walpurgis and Beauxbatons with three, and Hogwarts with one, folks!"

"I've spotted one of the arena pieces!" Hermione appeared around the side of the tower, eyes bright.

"Brilliant," Ron said, hurrying after her.

"Here." She leaned into the tower, and Harry, sure he was going to hit his head, copied her, but there was an opening. It seemed the tower was hollow - at least below where they were - and at the very base of it was a gleam of gold.

Ginny squeezed under Harry's arm for a look, and Ron was peering over Hermione's shoulder.

"Can't be that easy, can it?" Ron asked.

"One way to find out," Ginny said, ducked properly under Harry's arm, sliding her foot forward along the ground. "It's not; there's no ledge or steps, or anything. It just… ends."

"I s'pose we just jump, then," Harry said. "Or levitate ourselves down, or something?"

"Not all of us," Hermione said, shaking her head. "At least one of us has to stay here so we know where the opening is."

"We could leave a marker," Ginny said. "Conjure a flag, or-"

"Hermione's idea's better," Ron said. "If there are traps, it's probably for the best that we're not all caught in them, too."

"Two and two, then," Hermione said. "That way, no one's on their own. Harry'll go down-" Harry raised his eyebrows. "It's your piece, and you've had the most practice at falling and landing spells." He shrugged, nodding. "I'm happy to stay. I've got the least experience with falling and landing and no real desire to get more if I don't absolutely have to." She smiled, a little sheepishly. "Ron, Ginny?"

"I'll go," Ginny said. "I'm smaller, and I know some… different magic." She paused, scent suddenly awkward. "Unless Ron wants to go? I can stay with Hermione and you can stay with Harry, if that'd work better."

"No," Hermione said, "it's fine. You're right, it makes sense for you to go. We'll be fine." Ron nodded. Harry glanced between Ron and Hermione, who looked a little uncomfortable, but not excessively so.

"All right," Harry said, and stepped off the ledge. He stayed upright, controlling the speed of his fall with short, powerful Ventus charms, and then cast a cushioning charm and an air thickening charm, landing with bent knees on the red dirt. It was strange - by all rights it should feel a bit like being at the bottom of a well, but it was brightly lit thanks to the completely transparent sides of the tower, though sound from the outside - Bagman, and the crowd - was muffled. It was especially odd to look up and see Hermione and Ron peering down, apparently floating in mid-air.

He could see the other Champions, too; Cedric and Fisher had joined up with Stebbins and were on the move, leaping across the invisible platforms several levels above - but still below Ron and Hermione - toward Krum and Popa. Morozov was slumped over on a platform, while Fleur and Colbert examined the egg pieces she'd been carrying.

Ginny landed lightly beside him, and gave Hermione a thumbs up; she'd levitated her down.

"Durmstrang three, Beauxbatons five- Durmstrang four, Beauxbatons four!" Harry looked back up to the group of girls and saw Morozov land heavily on a platform ten feet below the Beauxbatons lot, egg piece in one hand, wand in the other. Colbert was clutching her knee, but Fleur flung a spell down that would have hit her, only Popa was there with a Shield charm and Krum lifted Morozov to her feet. "Dirty tactics, but they're effective!"

"Harry!" Ginny said, making a move like she might start forward towards him, and then backed away until - presumably - she had her back to the tower; he was ankle deep in the sand, and, though it shifted like sand, his feet felt like they were trapped in thick mud. Ginny was doing an awkward jig on the spot to keep her shoes free. Harry tried to pull his feet free, but that only made him sink faster; he was up to his knees now.

"Wingardium Leviosa," Harry said, at the same time as Ginny said, "Duro!" She jerked several inches into the air, then hovered there, and Ginny's spell turned the sand into grey stone. It meant Harry was no longer sinking, but he was now very much stuck. He raised his eyebrows at her.

"Let me down," she said, and he did. She took several cautious steps forward, footsteps echoing, then pointed her wand at the stone around him and said, "Excavium." Harry, who'd been expecting a Reducto or something equally violent, relaxed, and watched, impressed, as the stone around his legs scooped itself out. "Bill's got some good stories," Ginny said simply.

He accepted her hand out of the crater and together, they approached the egg piece, which was sitting innocently on the stone ground.

Harry exchanged a look with Ginny, then bent to prod it with his wand. His wand tip struck an invisible barrier an inch above it. Tentatively, he tried with his hand, then his boot, only to meet the same resistance.

"Finite," Ginny tried, to little avail. Harry tried to levitate the egg piece out, but couldn't. "Reducto," Ginny said calmly, and though the stone outside the barrier was blasted loose, the egg and barrier remained intact.

"Don't suppose Bill has any other stories?" he asked.

"Loads," Ginny said, easing off her own boot. She tried to slide the boot in from one side and her hand in from the other - perhaps she had a swap in mind - but that didn't work either. She shoved her foot back into her boot and paced around it, frowning. Harry tried wetting it and burning it, and unlocking it for good measure, then rocked back on his heels.

"Hermione!" Harry called, and her bushy head leaned further into the tower's innards. "There's some sort of barrier or ward around the egg. Any ideas?"

"Have you tried Finite?" she called back.

"Yes!" Ginny replied, rolling her eyes at Harry.

"What does the barrier look like?"

"It's invisible!" Ginny called.

"Revelio," Harry tried, and the air shimmered slightly, but that was all. "I'm going to try something," he said, and thought, Ostendere me omnia.

The tower glowed pink and Harry could see an archway at their level as well as the one that Hermione - pale blue, flecked with swirls of gold - and Ron - a dark green and gold, with the consistency of pine needles - were looking through. Ginny was a sunny metallic yellow, with streaks of black that moved unnervingly like ink in water. He blinked, adjusting to the brightness - thankfully, it was not as blinding as the inside of Hogwarts had been, the last time he tried this - and looked to the egg.

The barrier was a soft green, dome shaped, with strands of magic meeting like a spiderweb at a single point. A rune - Harry had seen enough of Hermione and Draco's homework to know that much - rested atop it, though he had no idea which rune it was or what it did.

"It's a rune," he said to Ginny, and traced the wonky Z shape out for her. "Like this. Any idea?"

"Eihwaz," she said, sounding like she was smiling. "It means defence."

"You're sure?" he said, pleased.

"Bill gave me an amulet and it's on there. I'm sure."

"Great," he said. "So how do we get past it?"

"No idea," she admitted.

"Hermione!" Harry called again. "There's an eihwaz rune on the barrier! How do we get past it?"

"Ordinarily you'd just need its merkstave-" she called back.

"Its what?" Harry and Ginny shouted.

"Its reverse!"

"So attack?! If eihwaz is defence-" The shiny yellow and black that was Ginny bobbed its head.

"No!" Hermione said. "No, eihwaz comes from the futhark alphabet and defence is only one interpretation. It can also be protection, motivation, and reliability, and its opposites are destruction, weakness, and confusion, but that's all a bit of a moot point because eihwaz is always in the upright position, so-" Ron said something Harry didn't catch, and Hermione snapped something back, then, more loudly, said, "You'll have to draw a rune to destroy it!" Still audibly, but less so, Harry could hear her thinking aloud: "Eihwaz is also a yew tree - a death tree - so life, or fire… Kenaz might work, or- Sowelo!" More loudly, she cried, "Use Sowelo! It looks like your scar, Harry!"

Ginny drew her wand, glanced at Harry's forehead, and, with Harry to guide her to the right place, traced a glowing lightning bolt over the eihwaz rune. It glowed a bright orange, then there was a flash of white light and the barrier collapsed.

Immediately, the egg piece began to shriek.

Harry winced and tucked it hastily into his vest, sighing as the tower fell silent again. Then he leaned back, blinking, letting his eyes go back to normal; the magic had left streaks across his vision, but after a few moments, he could see.

"You're brilliant, Hermione," he shouted, and she laughed from above: distantly, Harry could hear Bagman announcing they had four pieces. "We're coming back up!" He swished and flicked at Ginny, who rose steadily upward and then was pulled by Ron onto the platform, then raised his wand above his head: "Ascendio!" He shot up, perhaps a little too fast, and cancelled the spell when he drew near. Hermione caught his hand and pulled him back through.

"Team Walpurgis with four!" Bagman said. "Team Hogwarts with two, Beauxbatons with four, Durmstrang with four!"

"Move" Ron said, making a shooing gesture. "Best if we've done what we need to up there before they all start showing up, eh?" Krum, Popa, and Morozov were on a platform about twenty feet away and six feet higher. Fleur, Garcon, and Colbert were running up what looked to be an invisible staircase. Cedric, Fisher, and Stebbins were only a platform below.

"Right," Harry said, groping his way through the air until he found the ladder Stebbins had come down originally. He swung himself up onto it.

The others followed; atop the ladder was another platform wrapped around the tower, but searching revealed there was no ladder up.

"No handholds, either," Ron said, and Ginny shook her head; they'd been feeling their way around the tower.

"Platforms there," Hermione said, pointing about three feet down, "and there." She pointed again, about six feet out, where there was a telltale glint.

"Doesn't make sense to go down," Ginny said, and took a running jump. Hermione copied her, stumbling a little as she landed; it was only that that saved her from a spell from below.

Ron shot a spell back at Fisher but Cedric conjured a shield that reflected it back. Harry tugged Ron further around the tower and out of the way.

Fisher cast at Hermione and Ginny again; Hermione blocked it, Ginny cast something back, but there wasn't much room for them to move.

Sudden shrieking made Harry flinch.

"Catch!" Ron said, tossing his egg piece at the girls. Hermione just stared at it, but Ginny snatched it out of the air. She pressed it into Hermione's hands in time to catch Harry's; he'd caught on.

"Go!" Ron said, pointing at the next platform, and peripherally, Harry saw the girls jump over to it.

"I've got this way!" Harry said, and Ron nodded, heading around the other way.

Cedric was head and shoulders through the ladder hole, but Fisher was already through and kept Harry at wandpoint. Cedric pulled himself up in time to train his wand on Ron, and the four of them stood in a stalemate. Stebbins hauled himself up last.

"Told you you're not the losing sort," Cedric said, giving Harry a wry grin. He smelled more amused than anything. Harry grimaced.

"Can't you go after a different team?" Ron asked. "Krum, maybe? We'd even help, wouldn't we, Harry? Hogwarts all working together."

"The other teams are all still together," Stebbins said. "You lot've split, and you're younger. Better odds. And if we wait long enough, there'll only be one egg to take, rather than individual pieces."

"It's strategy," Cedric said, a little apologetically. "And it doesn't even have to be a competition. If you don't want to win, you'll let us have this. I owe you, anyway, so it's not like I'd let you go in to the third task blind." Harry blinked, having not considered that. Cedric was being honest - he could smell it. It was hard not to get competitive when they were standing in the arena, but that was just the adrenaline talking. Cedric winning would be a Hogwarts victory - and Harry'd much prefer that to a Walpurgis one - and, as long as he got the information he needed about the next task...

He leaned forward slightly to get a look at Ron's face. He looked thoughtful, and tipped a shoulder up into a shrug when he saw Harry looking.

"All-" There was a shout and then fog wrapped around them, thick and grey. Harry flicked his wand to clear it, but it didn't work. He could hear the whizz of spells, see the occasional flash of coloured light; Beauxbatons had arrived, and perhaps Dumstrang as well. "Ron?!"

"Here!" Ron shouted back, closer than Harry had expected. The fog was thick and made it hard for Harry to smell anything, but his ears still worked and a few shuffling steps later his searching hand found a shoulder. A wand jabbed him in the chest, but a familiar voice said. "Harry?"

"Yeah," Harry said, and then Ron dragged him down as a spell crackled overhead.

"Neat bit of spellwork by Garcon!" Bagman said. "She's managed to trap all of Hogwarts, and half of Walpurgis." There was a flash of blue and a grunt, and then the platform shuddered as someone landed heavily. Harry tried to vacuum the fog into his wand the way Padfoot had on the weekend, but that didn't work either. Ron was conjuring small balls of flame and light to little avail.

"Protego!" Harry gasped, deflecting an orange spell. Footsteps made the platform shake. "We need to move." He huffed as someone tripped over him, then thought Ostendere me omnia. The arena lit before his eyes again; the pink platforms and tower, and the bodies of the Champions and their team members were bright with different colours of magic, though Harry had no idea who was who; glimmering ribbons of a brownish green and bronze lay prone, as did a deep, swirling navy blue and a misty lilac and gold. Gold flecked with glittering black was flinging spells in the general direction of silky silver, who was flinging spells back. Both were missing by a long way, clearly unable to see. A soft green and pink was edging carefully around the still forms of people, patting them down, looking for something - or someone.

Ron's spiky gold and green shifted beside Harry.

"This way," Harry murmured, and stood, leading Ron to the edge of the platform. He released Ron to leap to the next one - a staircase, spiralling upward - then reached back. "Put your hand out," he said, and Ron did. Their hands could just meet in the middle. "Jump," he said, and half-pulled Ron across the gap; if jumping onto something he couldn't see was hard, Ron having to jump when he couldn't see at all had to be harder.

He led him up the spiral stairs and they jumped back across to a tower platform. There were invisible rungs up to the next level - some twenty feet above, Harry guessed - and when they reached it, Ron made a quiet, relieved sound.

"Fog's gone," he puffed, and Harry nodded, letting his vision fade. He swayed a little, as the world went dull, and blinked a few times. "Now-"

"No sudden moofs," said a sharp voice.