Hellooooo! Here I am with chapter 19!
Thanks to: Adora81, ForeverTeamEdward13, Oogie and the anonymous reviewer who didn't leave their name… you guys are immense for reviewing!
Right, so this chapter doesn't actually start on the day of the Third Task, there's a little bit before it, but the majority of the chapter is about the Third Task…
And this'll be another one of my time skippy chapters… but most of it'll be on the same day, just skipping hours.
Disclaimer: I don't own anyone but Mia!
And the long, thin, blue centipede-like creature is my own creation. It has no name.
Chapter 19: The Maze
For the next few weeks, Bagman seemed to be around every corner. And he had definitely gotten the letter. Whenever he was eating at the staff table during meals, he always seemed to be sending nervous glances at them. They ran into him once, on a Hogsmeade trip, and he had quickly departed, face going slightly pale.
"Honestly, you two are lucky he didn't do you in," Mia said, leaning over the table as they ate breakfast.
"He wouldn't do us in; then he'd have to show the Ministry the letter," Fred said.
"Hm, oh! Let's see! Not paying two underage wizards after they made a bet," she held up one hand, "or blackmail," she held up the other, "not paying two underage wizards… or blackmail! I wonder what's a more serious crime!" she finished.
"Well, considering he did pay us-"
"In Leprechaun Gold!" George butted in.
"-in Leprechaun gold, then he refused to give us our money back!" Fred said.
"Just hope he doesn't decide to do something," Mia said.
"He looks like he's about to throw up," Mia commented on the morning of the Third Task, looking down the table to Harry. He had just finished reading an article in the Daily Prophet. "What d'ya reckon it's about?" Fred asked.
"What?"
"The news paper article." Mia shrugged, and then saw a first year placing a copy down next to him.
"Thanks," she said as she snatched it up. The first year just looked at her astonished. She read through the paper, her mouth dropping a few millimetres every paragraph.
"Potter can speak Parseltongue," reveals Draco Malfoy, a Hogwarts fourth year. "There were a lot of attacks on students a couple of years ago, and most people thought Potter was behind them after they saw him lose his temper at a duelling club and set a snake on another boy.
"Oh for fuck's sake!" she exclaimed, "'Set a snake on another boy' my ass! If it wasn't for Harry, this school'd be closed and I'd still be a god forsaken statue!" she threw the paper at the twins, who read through it. Shaking her head, she went back to eating her breakfast.
"Mia?" Angelina said coming up behind her.
"Mmm?"
"Potions Exam! Two minutes!"
"Ah, crap!" Mia shot up, "see ya later, guys!" she called, running after Angelina.
As they skidded into the dungeons, Snape looked up. "Cutting it very fine, aren't we?" he said coldly, then standing up, he said, "the Draft of Living Death. You have the remainder of the lesson to create a flask of it from memory. You should have learned the recipe from your previous homework. You may start." Snape sat down and Mia blinked for a minute, staring at her empty cauldron.
She managed to get through it by copying Angelina, though Angelina's potion was as clear as clear could be, Mia's looked a bit more like dirty sea water… but Snape declared she had passed. Just. "Honestly, I don't know how I got an Outstanding last year…" she said as she came up out of the dungeon.
"You buckled down and studied and stopped spending so much time with Fred and George!" Angelina told her.
"Yeah, but that was so boring!" Mia complained. Angelina just rolled her eyes.
Mia, Fred and George walked along to Great Hall at lunch. "Guys!" they turned around and saw Ginny jogging up to them, "did you know Mum's here?" she said.
"No," George answered.
"How do you know?" asked Fred. Ginny caught up with them and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Saw them coming out of the Great Hall at breakfast. Apparently all the champions' families have been invited to watch the last task. Bill's here with her, too, see!" they entered the Great hall and Ginny pointed to the Gryffindor table, where Mrs Weasley and Bill were sitting with Harry and Ron.
"Hiya, Mrs Weasley. Bill," Mia said as they sat down.
"Hello, dears," Mrs Weasley said, smiling.
"You alright, Harry? You look a bit… green" Mia said as she stabbed a bit of ham with her fork.
"Do I?" he asked. Mia nodded as Ron leaned over the table towards her.
"That's probably not helping."
"Right. Sorry." Mia smiled at Harry before going back to her lunch.
After about fifteen minutes, Mrs Weasley started eyeing Mia and George. "So, I got a letter the other week about…" she trailed off and pointed to the two of them. Mia stopped eating for a second and a small amount of pink crawled up her neck. That seemed to be enough for Mrs Weasley and she just smiled, while Fred tried to hide a laugh.
About half way through lunch, Hermione turned up, sitting down next to Harry. "Hello, Hermione," said Mrs Weasley, the slightest hint of coldness in her tone.
"Hello," Hermione replied, a bit meekly. Mia's eyebrows creased, and she looked from Mrs Weasley, to Hermione and back again.
"Mrs. Weasley," Harry said, "you didn't believe that rubbish Rita Skeeter wrote in Witch Weekly, did you? Because Hermione's not my girlfriend." Mia looked up at George, who just shrugged, so she looked at Fred… who also shrugged.
"GOOD LUCK, HARRY!" Mia yelled along with the Weasley's and Hermione as he exited the Great Hall after dinner.
"Does he still look like he's about to throw up?" Fred asked.
"Yep," Mia replied, then added, "Poor kid."
Finally, Mia, Hermione and the Weasley's had filed into the stand, with Mrs Weasley, Ron and Hermione in front of Mia, George, Fred and Bill. They were in the stands around the Quidditch pitch, only… it wasn't the Quidditch pitch anymore, it was a maze. One, green, massive maze. And in the middle was the Triwizard Cup. Once everyone was finally settled in the stands, Bagman's voice echoed around them.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! Tied in first place, with eighty-five points each- Mr. Cedric Diggory and Mr. Harry Potter, both of Hogwarts School" every Hogwarts student started to cheer.
"WOO! BEAT DIGGORY'S ASS, HARRY!" Mia yelled.
"In second place, with eighty points- Mr. Viktor Krum, of Durmstrang Institute!"
"Whose gunna get his ass beaten by Harry," Mia shouted.
"And in third place- Miss Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons Academy!"
"Who, once again, is going to get her ass beaten by Harry!" down below, Harry waved at them, and they all waved back. Mia stuck up her thumbs up at him and he grinned a bit. Just a bit. He still looked like he was about to throw up.
"So ...on my whistle, Harry and Cedric!" Bagman said. "Three- two- one-" a shrill whistle sounded and Harry and Cedric entered the maze.
"C'MON, HARRY!" Fred bellowed. They watched as Harry and Cedric parted at a fork, and Bagman blew his whistle again. Krum entered. Finally, Fleur followed. Mia's eyes flicked between all the champions.
For a while, the champions just wandered around in the maze, but the spectators could see what kind of beasts were waiting for them. Such as a massive scorpion type thing that Cedric ran into. He managed to get away without too many injuries (much to Mia's disappointment) and crossed paths with Harry briefly.
Mia's eyes drifted to Fleur, who seemed to be in some kind of small battle with a long, thin, blue centipede-like creature. She got away, but not before the creature managed to spit some kind of poison at her.
George slipped his arm around her waist and she leaned into him, still watching the task (Harry had just defeated a Boggart). Next to them, Fred started whisper something to Bill. Mia caught the words 'soppy' and 'lovey-dovey'. Mia leaned over and hit him over the head, then settled back into George.
Suddenly, a scream broke through the noise o shouting students, and everyone looked towards the maze. Fleur Delacour had obviously met something she couldn't handle. "Damn, if she's that bad, I hate to think how bad the other Beauxbatons students are! She's meant to be the best! Couldn't get pass the grindylows, can't get through a maze…" Mia mused.
"It's not funny, Mia," Hermione said, "She could be dead!"
"Oh, I'm sure she's fine," Mia replied.
Suddenly, Krum turned around, seemingly abandoning the route he was taking. He backtracked until he met Cedric. "YES!" Mia yelled.
"What?" Fred asked.
"He was three left turns away from the Cup! He's moving away from i-" she faltered when Cedric convulsed, then fell onto the floor, yelling and twitching. "OH MY GOD!" Mia shrieked. She leaned forward over the barrier, her head coming level with Mrs Weasley's. George grabbed onto her hips to stop her from falling. Down in the maze, Harry came racing around a corner, Stunning Krum and helping Cedric to his feet.
Mia slowly stood up, eyes wide, and she said, "that… but that… that was illegal!" she yelled. Cedric shot up some red sparks and soon, he and Harry parted.
The people in the stands watched as Harry came up against a Sphinx, where as Cedric just wandered aimlessly around the maze. "c'mon, Harry," Mia muttered, "the Cup's right there. Right there! Get past the Sphinx! C'mon Harry!" she had started fiddling with her necklace again, and George's arm tightened around her.
Finally, the Sphinx let Harry pass, and now he and Cedric were both so close to the shining Cup in the middle of the maze. They both started running. Cedric was in front of Harry. "No, no, no! Beat his effing Hufflepuff ass, Harry! C'mon," Mia was moaning. If Cedric won, Mia would personally make sure that Harry felt guilty about him for the rest of his life.
Suddenly, a massive, black, hairy spider collided with Cedric. In front of them, Ron grimaced, and flinched when the spider lifted Harry up. After minutes of both Harry and Cedric sending spell after spell at it, two spells hit the spider's under-belly, making it keel over. Mia breathed a sigh of relief. Harry was alive. Unfortunately, Cedric was in better shape.
Everybody watched in dismay as Cedric didn't even take one step towards the Cup. Instead, he walked back to Harry. Then he helped him up, and together, they both walked (well, Harry limped) towards the Cup. They paused for a second, before, at exactly the same time, they grabbed the handles.
And disappeared.
The crowd seemed to fall silent. Only a few whispers passed. Mrs Weasley was the first to speak, "Well, where are they?" there was the slightest note of panic. The crowd exploded. People shouted over each other, asking the same sort of questions. 'Where are they?' 'What happened?' 'Where did they go?' Down at the bottom of the stands, Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge were conversing quietly. After a few minutes, Dumbledore faced the spectators.
"We have decided that Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Moody, and Professor Hagrid will enter the maze and search for Mr Potter and Mr Diggory." The professors nodded and entered the maze.
"But… Harry and Cedric ain't gunna be in the maze!" Mia shrieked over the noise of the crowd.
"They need to do something constructive!" Hermione replied.
After about five minutes, Dumbledore offered for the spectators to leave and return to the castle, but nobody moved from their place.
Moody, McGonagall, Flitwick and Hagrid finished searching the maze with no sign of Harry or Cedric. Mia licked her lips and started to fiddle with her necklace again. George wrapped both his arms around her, pulling her closer.
"Hey! Where's he going?" Mia pointed to Karkaroff, who was sliding away through the gap between two stands. He was clutching his arm and his skin had gone pale. Ron shrugged, muttering something under his breath that Mia didn't catch.
They waited for what seemed like all night, but the stars didn't disappear, and the sun didn't come up. They waited and Mia started to wonder when they would have to leave. What if Harry never came back? They'd have to leave at some point. What if Harry never came back? They waited. In the first few rows of the stands, Mia saw that Fleur's sister had fallen asleep and was lying across her mother's lap. They waited until-
Harry seemed to appear for nowhere, slamming into the ground, lying face down, clutching onto the Cup and… Cedric Diggory. Who wasn't moving. Noise erupted around them. Screams and shouts and running footsteps.
"Oh my god, I think he's dead!" Mia cried.
People in the stands were slowly flooding out, crowding around Harry, Dumbledore, Fudge, the Cup and Cedric's body. Mia, George, Fred, Bill, Mrs Weasley, Hermione and Ron among them.
Dumbledore yanked Harry up, who let go of the Cup, but not Cedric. Harry whispered something to Dumbledore, no one could hear them over the noise of the crowd. Fudge crouched over Harry as well, and whatever he said was repeated up the stands. 'He's dead!' 'Diggory's dead!' 'Cedric! He's dead!'
Mia clasped onto George's arms, which were still around her, her eyes wide. "I didn't actually mean it when I said for him to die in the Tasks!" she whispered franticly.
"He'll need to go to the hospital wing!" Fudge said. "He's ill, he's injured-Dumbledore, Diggory's parents, they're here, they're in the stands..." he trailed off.
"I'll take Harry, Dumbledore, I'll take him-"
"No, I would prefer-" Dumbledore was cut off.
"Dumbledore," Fudge said, "Amos Diggory's running... he's coming over... Don't you think you should tell him- before he sees- ?"
"Harry, stay here- "
Next to Mia and George, Cho Chang got pushed to the front. Tears fell off her face, leaving streaks down her cheeks. She tried to move forward towards Harry and Cedric, and for a second, Mia wondered why. Then she remembered that her and Cedric had gone to the Yule Ball together. Did it carry on after that? Obviously.
Several people around Cho grabbed onto her to stop her moving, including Mia, a first year boy, and a girl with curly strawberry-blonde hair, who was whispering things into Cho's ear. She slowly stopped trying to get to the middle of the crowd.
The conversation in the middle carried on. "Its all right, son, I've got you... come on ...hospital wing..."
"Dumbledore said stay," Harry replied, clutching harder onto Cedric. "You need to lie down... Come on now..." Moody hauled Harry through the crowd, they passed Mia, who brushed his arm with her hand lightly. Harry seemed to glance at her, but she could tell he couldn't really see her. At the moment, he was blind to everything around him.
Cedric Diggory's mother and father pushed through the crowd, falling to their knees by their dead son. Mia closed her eyes. She really hadn't meant it when she told the dragon to bite his head off in the First Task.
So there we are. Cedric Diggory is dead. The Third Task is over. Harry won. And he's been taken to Moody's office. We all know what happens there.
So… this chapter was kind of hard to write. You know, mainly the bit where Harry and Cedric were in the graveyard and everyone was left in the stands… I think I did ok…
So… there's probably only going to be one or two chapters left of this story… but… I was thinking… I might do a sequel… you know, set during Order of the Phoenix. I mean, I have a few scenes set out in my head between Mia and Umbridge… and we'd also get to see Mia and George's relationship progress.
So… please review