Disclaimer: I don't own "Harry Potter", it is hereby © to J.K. Rowling. I wrote this story when I was 11-12 years old and between the years 2001-2003, so the actual "Order of the Phoenix" had not been released yet. Errors in spelling and grammar have been purposely left in to preserve originality and my skill as a young writer. This story is complete. This is a repost.
Chapter Twenty two: The Third Trial
"Ha. Ha. Ha." Akira said, rolling her eyes.
"Lighten up a bit, Akira. You're certainly in a dark mood." George said.
"I would think that I should be in a dark mood! I just slapped across the face!" Akira said, her temper rising.
"Ok, we get it, just chill ok?" Fred said apologetically.
"I'm going to go find my sister…excuse me…" Akira said, stepping in between the twins and walking to the castle.
"Well…um…bye?" George said as she walked away.
The rest of the team proceeded to their dormitory and found Akira talking to Cho. Harry walked in unnoticed by Akira or Cho and heard Akira muttering to her sister in Chinese. He was headed up the staircase to the boys dormitory, when he heard Cho's voice.
"WHAT?! No way…She did not!" Cho shrieked.
"She did. Look." Akira said, turning her face to the light so her sister could see a bright red mark on her face.
Harry knew just by listening, she was telling Cho about Whitney hitting her.
"SHE IS SO DEAD!!!" Cho screamed running for the portrait hole.
Harry had run downstairs and pulled her away from the door before she could get very far.
"Let me go, Harry…" Cho said calmly through gritted teeth.
"No." Harry replied.
"Let me go."
"No. I won't. There has been enough pain today, Cho. We don't need anymore."
"You're right." Cho said, sighing as she stopped trying to break away from Harry's strong grip.
Harry waited a little while before he let her go. He didn't want her to make a break for the door when he let go of her. Cho had simply stood where she was let go and had her head down. Harry pulled her over to a couch. He sat down, leaning against the armrest, while Cho leaned against Harry. He held her close and occasionally patted her on the shoulder. It was quiet again for a few minutes, but the silence was broken by Ron bustling in.
"Harry! Cho! The Third Trial is in a week! I haven't got a clue what it is though. It's not a maze, thankfully!" Ron exclaimed.
The Gryffindors in the common room murmured in excitement.
"Excellent!" the Twins said in unison.
"About time!" Lee Jordan said. "We've only been waiting for the third trial for at least two months!"
Ron, Harry, Cho, Fred, George, and Lee all laughed and several others had joined the contagious laughter. The laughing diminished to silence and everyone sat quietly for about five minutes.
"Echo!" George said to the ceiling.
His voice bounced back to him only, it didn't say what he had just said. Instead it responded with, "What?"
"We can talk to the castle!" Fred whispered loudly.
He began to shudder with obviously faked fear.
"I heard that!" said the ceiling.
"It can hear everything!" Lee cried.
The ceiling started yodeling and kept going until it was singing like a banshee. Everyone covered their ears.
"SHUT UP!" roared all the Gryffindors in the common room.
Then there was silence once again.
Cackling laughter filled the air. Running down the stairs, was one of Fred's friends.
"I got you!" he cackled.
"No you didn't you stupid git! I knew it was you all along!" Fred responded fiercely.
"Whatever."
The boy left through the portrait hole, muttering something inaudible.
"Who was that?" Ron asked curiously.
"Oh, someone we know." George replied, tilting his head towards Fred and Lee.
"Who?" Ron persisted.
"Someone we know. Now drop the subject." Fred said.
The next day in Transfiguration, Harry and Cho made some final improvements to their projects, exchanged their gifts, and received top marks. Cho had put a moving picture of herself in the frame. Her photo would wink and smile at Harry and often wave and do other things. Harry put the locket around Cho's neck, and she opened it, read the engraved words, and saw the photo of Harry inside. She smiled at it. Harry's picture smiled back.
"Thank you." She said to Harry at the end of class.
"Thank you, Cho. The frame was beautiful. I'm going to my dormitory to put it on my nightstand." Harry said, grinning.
"You're welcome." Cho answered.
Together they walked to their next lesson, Charms.
"Today we're learning how to do Hovering Charms. You'll be working in pairs. So everyone pair up." Professor Flitwick said before anyone could sit down.
The class of Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs sat down and pulled out their books.
"The spell is 'Angela Wingardium'. But of course, we all saw Miss Chang make a lovely use of this charm at the Second Trial. So all of you know what to expect. Miss Chang, you can help me by helping the students who are having trouble with it. And tell them what happens if fear rises too high when this spell is cast. This also happened to you. But it bought Mr. Potter some time to save you…so explain." Professor Flitwick said in a squeaky voice.
"Well…um…You see, when you cast this spell, if you are afraid or have high negative emotions, the spell will die, because in order for it to work properly, you have to have no fear. You have to think happy things and just let go of all your negative emotions. I cast the spell to save myself, but it was broken because, my fear was rising. Of course, I'm sure you all would be afraid if you were me out there…That's basically it. Uh…any questions?" Cho said, explaining it to the class.
She looked around for any hands in the air.
"Yes?" She asked, seeing a Hufflepuff boy's hand in the air.
"I was wondering…since fear and negative emotions is what cause the spell to die, would it still work if someone were overexcited or really happy?" he asked.
"Yes it would. It'd be quite strong too." Cho replied.
The boy nodded.
"Perhaps, a demonstration for the class, Miss Chang?" Flitwick suggested.
Cho nodded and pulled out her wand.
"Angela Wingardium!" She cried.
Just as before, white wings of light attached themselves to her and she rose up higher and higher until she was five feet from the ceiling chandelier. The class oohed and aahed.
"Clear a space! I'm coming down!" Cho shouted from the top of the room.
The students got out of the way and sent desks to the walls, leaving a large empty space for her to land.
Cho quickly thought of something that truly scared her. She shot down to the stone floor like a bullet, slightly shaken. She brushed off her robes and turned to the class.
"So…we should start practicing then." She said.
Flitwick nodded and led the class to the grounds where everyone tried the spell. Most of them fell the second they were in the air. Harry, Hermione, and Ron were the first to master the spell. When the class ended, the Gryffindors went to the Quidditch training field, got out their brooms, and spent all of class zooming around through the air. Thankfully, Madam Hooch informed them that the classes that had been wrecked were restored. Though everyone had noticed once they walked into Flitwick's class.
The lessons that day flew by just like the rest of the week did. The teachers said that the Third Trial was to be unannounced until the day of the event. The students were highly excited and couldn't wait for the last trial. Finally, the day arrived. The House pairs were summoned to the grounds. They saw tall black walls that surrounded the whole area. There were stands for onlookers and a table for the teachers.
"The Third Trial is an obstacle course. House pairs, you will choose three friends of your house to help you retrieve an item. The Silver Staff of Ire. The five of you must bring it out of the course and present it to Dumbledore." McGonagall explained. "The school will be out in a few minutes. Then the house pairs can make their selection."
The students filtered slowly onto the field, gazing at the black walls that surrounded them. The school made a large circle around the eight of them.
"Now you may make your selection, Gryffindor first." McGonagall said.
Cho looked at Harry, her brown eyes glittering. Harry looked back at her and saw the silver locket gleaming in the sunlight.
"I choose…" Cho said slowly "Akira…"
"Ron…" Harry continued.
"And Hermione." Cho finished.
The three of them stepped forward and stood by Harry and Cho. The other houses made their selections and the group of twenty-four silently walked towards the entrance of the obstacle course. The rest of the school made it's way to the stands and sat down. It was like a buzz that grew louder. No one spoke still.
Dumbledore walked onto the grounds, explained the rules, and pulled out a whistle from his pocket. He blew into it and a long, shrill note sounded. Harry, Cho, Akira, Ron, Hermione, and the others rushed into the obstacle course and took the nearest path.
"Uh oh! Mist Demons!" Hermione cried, pointing ahead.
There were three of them. When it saw Hermione, it turned into Ron.
"Which one's which?!" Akira exclaimed.
One of the demons turned into Cho when it saw Harry and the other turned into Harry when it saw Cho.
"Ok, now I'm really confused!" Cho said.
They weren't the only group having trouble with the Mist Demons. The other three groups were having trouble as well.
"There's only one way to tell the difference. If their eyes flicker orange or red, it's a demon." Cho said to them.
"You're not Ron! You are!" Hermione shrieked.
The Mist Demon Ron's eyes were flickering. The other demons eyes started flickering as well.
"Rayden!" they shouted at the demons.
The demons disappeared and they ran towards a distant stone podium with a long silver stick glimmering valiantly. They came to a sudden halt when Akira nearly fell into a murky pond of black water.
"Watch out!" Akira warned.
"How are we going to get across?" Ron asked.
"Hermione, last year, when we were looking for something to help me with the Second Task last year, there was a drought charm in there that could drain small ponds!" Harry exclaimed, his memory flashing back to that day.
"I know! I remember! But I forgot the spell!!!" Hermione said in anguish, running her fingers through her hair in frustration.
"Look! There's a rope!" Cho said, pointing to a thin rope a few feet above them.
"I'll go first." Said Akira.
She leapt upward before anyone could stop her and began to swing back and forth. Then she leapt off on the other side of the pond.
"It's alright! One at a time ok? I didn't get hurt, so Ron, you next, then Hermione, then Harry-" Akira said, but was cut off.
"I'll go last." Harry interrupted.
"Ok then the order is; Ron, Hermione, Cho, then Harry." Akira responded.
Akira threw the rope over to Ron who caught it and climbed on. He swung over and landed next to Akira. He let go of the rope, sending it to Hermione. She climbed on and swung over to the other side, the threw the rope back. Cho got on and began to sway over the water. A spiky hand grabbed her ankle and attempted to pull her down.
"It's a Grindylow!" Cho shouted, identifying the creature.
Harry had taken a daring leap and pulled it off. He nearly fell into the murky depths of the pond, but Cho had caught his arm and pulled him up onto the rope. Together they reached the other bank where the others stood.
"Are you ok?" Akira, Ron, and Hermione asked.
"I'm fine." Cho replied.
"Harry?" the three of them asked.
"I'm fine also," Harry answered. "C'mon! Let's go!"
They continued on fortunately not running into any more obstacles.
It had been at least an hour of walking. Finally, they could clearly see the staff gleaming ten feet away from them. A lion with a woman's head was blocking the direct path to it. A sphinx.
"A sphinx…" Cho muttered.
"To venture forth you must answer, three questions that will let you pass me. Answer wrong, I attack, answer right, I move aside." The sphinx said.
"May we hear the riddle?" Harry asked.
"Of course. A bird that burns to die and ash is from which it lives, what a person is called who always gives, what a person calls fibs." The sphinx answered.
"This one's fairly easy…we just need to place the right word…" Akira said.
"The first question…the answer…it's phoenix!" Hermione said.
The sphinx grinned.
"The second one…it's generous!" said Ron.
The sphinx grinned again.
"And the last one is lies!" Cho said.
The sphinx grinned broadly. She stepped aside and let them pass. Together the five of them reached the stone podium where the Silver Staff of Ire glowed. The five of them reached out and picked up the staff. The Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw groups soon enough just to see Harry, Ron, Cho, Akira, and Hermione disappear. Both pairs quickly ran out of the course, dodging every possible thing. They reached Dumbledore and gasping for breath, the ten of them tried to speak, but could not.
"They've gone. Disappeared." Melly said, straining to keep herself calm.
"It is time." Dumbledore said looking at Melly through his half-moon spectacles.
Melly understood his gaze.
"N-no! Cho c-can't-she can't…!" Melly choked through tears.
"What's going on?" The nine others asked.
"Cho Chang is going to die tonight." Melly replied, tears streaming down her face.