Chapter 6

The Final Task

End of year exams seemed to sneak up on students and teachers alike. The objective for all students making their way through Hogwarts, or any school of magic for that matter, was to achieve as many Ordinary Wizarding Levels, O.W.L.s, and Naturally Exhausting Wizarding Tests, N.E.W.T.s, as possible. O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s are certifications which indicate a wizard's or witch's expertise in various aspects of magic. Students take exams for these certifications beginning in their fifth year, and all coursework is designed to improve the students' abilities to achieve several O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. levels. Muggle Studies played very little role in either type of exam, as such, testing in Charity's subject was not as closely examined as it was for others.

The first part of Charity's end-of-year exams consisted of a Muggle fashion show, whereby students came to the exam dressed as Muggle students. Charles scored high marks for his button down, oxford shirt, with points deducted for his rubber hip boots. Jessica and Bridget showed up in matching purple pajamas and bunny slippers, which they'd colored partly black to match Bnickel's markings (Charity had to mull over exactly how many brownie points they'd get for those). Ernie Macmillan hit the nail on the head with his white polo shirt, crisp khaki knickers, and brown leather loafers; however, it would be difficult for Charity to overlook the hot pink feather boa that topped it all off.

After the last exam they all headed out to the Quidditch pitch for the final task of the Triwizard Tournament. It no longer looked like a Quidditch pitch at all. A shrub maze had been grown there, with hedges twenty feet tall. The champions were to race each other through the maze to the center, fighting off obstacles of varying danger along the way. They were released into the maze at staggered intervals based on total points after the first two tasks. Diggory and Potter were tied for first and would be the first to enter, followed by Krum a few minutes later, and Delacour last of all. At the center of the maze was the Triwizard Cup. The first champion to reach the cup would be the grand winner.

Despite the high rising stands, which towered over the maze, it was difficult for the spectators to see exactly what was going on within the enormous shrub walls. Every once in a while Charity would catch some rustling in the bushes or a flash from a spell emanating from someone's wand. The Weasley twins were not selling any type of scope or other helpful device to aid in seeing through the bushes. Possibly this was because such a device was beyond their current capabilities, but more than likely it was because their mother was present. She'd come in lieu of Potter's parents, along with the families of the other champions. Charity remembered how Mrs. Weasley had gotten after the two boys after the Zonko's Zapper incident and didn't blame them for not wanting to give her reason to come after them again.

Charity was a bit reluctant herself to go say hello to Mrs. Weasley. Although Charity and Charlie Weasley had never seriously dated, Charity had apparently made quite a good impression on Mrs. Weasley at the one dinner she'd had at her home. According to Charlie, his mother was still put out that Charity had later accepted the invitation to the Hogwarts dance from one of Charlie's friends. This had all seemed very funny when Charlie'd told her about it a few months ago in Hogsmeade, not quite so funny when the overprotective witch was within striking distance.

Charity's thoughts were pulled back to the competition when red sparks shot up from a section of the maze not too far from the center. This was the signal the champions were to give if they were in trouble and needed rescuing. Everyone was surprised when Hagrid, one of the teachers patrolling the maze, emerged carrying Krum. He'd actually been the favorite to win, even with his delayed start. Karkaroff, looking extremely pale, rushed to Krum and accompanied him out of the stands. The odds had considerably improved for a Hogwarts victory, and the crowd became very excited.

"My money's been with Cedric all the way!" exclaimed an elated Professor Sprout next to Charity. She was head of Diggory's house. The prospect of impending glory for Hufflepuff was evident in Sprout's glowing face. Her frizzy grey hair and patched hat bobbed excitedly as she tried in vain to get a better look at what was going on in the maze. Hardworking, loyal Hufflepuffs, although well liked throughout the school, rarely found themselves in the limelight. A victory now would finally bring them some well-deserved recognition. Charity was rooting for the Hufflepuffs as well.

"C'mon Cedric," she said anxiously to herself.

The remaining champions had to be getting close now. A giant spider could be seen crawling over the hedge very near the center. Had one of the champions gotten that far? Its pincers raised high in the air, and Charity saw what looked like the top of someone's head in the spider's grip. It looked like black hair; that could be Potter or Diggory. A few moments later the giant spider quickly sunk from view. It would all be over in moments, and the agitated crowd began chanting the name of their favored champion.

"Harry – Harry – Harry," mixed with "Cedric – Cedric – Cedric," echoed throughout the stands. Not to be outdone, Madame Maxime stood up, blocking out many of the chants with her bulk, and bellowed "Fleur – Fleur – Fleur," along with the small contingent of Beauxbatons students.

The chants went on and on but nothing new happened. It was taking too long. Something was wrong. Had the spider finished the champions off before they were able to shoot off their sparks? Were they all helplessly lying in the maze? The chanting faded, then completely died away as these thoughts dawned on everyone. The patrolling professors finally rushed into the maze. Dumbledore could be seen pacing near the entrance. Professor McGonagall soon emerged with Fleur Delacour who appeared to be just regaining consciousness. The Beauxbatons contingent rushed to her.

No one else was coming out. This was taking way too long. Urgent whispers began to spread throughout the crowd and rising panic was evident in the eyes of every student. Professor Sprout rushed down to Dumbledore to see what she could do. Charity elected to stay back with the students in the stands.

"Professor Burbage, what's happening?"; "Shouldn't they be out by now?" the frightened students asked as they huddled around her. She put her arms around as many of them as she could.

"I don't know exactly what's happening," she would truthfully answer. "I'm sure it's all going to be fine," she'd then lie.

After what seemed like hours, there was new movement at the entrance of the maze. The champions were back! Their appearance was met by a burst of cheers, but upon closer inspection, the crowd realized that something was wrong. Neither of the boys was moving. Through the increasing blur of frantically moving bodies, Charity saw Dumbledore flip one of the boys over; it was Potter, who stirred slightly. He was clutching Diggory and didn't seem to want to let go. As Dumbledore was quietly talking to him, Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, who'd come to judge this final challenge, approached them and suddenly shouted,

"He's dead!"

Fudge's exclamation sent shouts and screams cascading through the crowd. Charity lost sight of anything that wasn't happening right in front of her as several students rushed towards the field, while others merely stood still and sobbed. At last Cornelius Fudge, wand to his throat, addressed the crowd in a stern tone and told them all to calm down and have a seat in the stands. It was as if they'd all been waiting for someone to tell them what to do because everyone obeyed immediately. The field was now cleared, with Dumbledore, Potter, McGonagall, Moody and Snape nowhere in sight. Madame Pomfrey could be seen making her way to the castle with a stretcher; its occupant was covered in a white sheet. She was followed by Professor Sprout who looked like she was trying to support a very distraught man and woman, whom Charity could only assume were Diggory's parents.

Fudge spoke to the crowd, "Tragedy has once again cursed the Triwizard Tournament. Your fellow student, Cedric Diggory, has died." It's what they'd all been screaming about moments ago, but it was jarring, nevertheless, to hear Fudge announce it with such finality. A new wave of stifled sobs broke out. "I assure you, the Ministry will thoroughly investigate the matter, and whoever is responsible for this tragedy will be duly punished. Now, if I may ask the remaining Hogwarts staff to assist the students in an orderly fashion back to their dorms." Between Professors Burbage, Flitwick, Hagrid, Vector, and Sinistra, and the house prefects, the students were organized in house lines and led back to the dorms.

Charity went with the Hufflepuffs down to their dormitory. She had never been there before and followed the head prefect. The line of Hufflepuff students continued down a long wide corridor, past the entrance to the kitchens, as if in a trance. The head prefect stopped at a window. As Charity looked out at the clear sky, studded with thousands of shining stars, she wondered how such a tragic evening could be so remarkably beautiful. Then she remembered that they were underground.

"Good evening," the prefect said to the window, which slid open, and they all crawled through into the Hufflepuff common room. Charity followed the last student in. She expected Professor Sprout would be busy for some time with the Diggorys, so she stayed with the students until their head of house returned.

The Hufflepuff common room struck Charity as a giant flower. There was a large circular open area in the middle surrounded by seven smaller alcoves that curved out like petals. The walls were a soft, sunny yellow and several round white tables and chairs were grouped in the center area. Two of the alcoves looked like entryways to the girls' and boys' dorms, while each of the others was populated with colorful cushy chairs and a small fireplace. The whole scene was quite cheery, and may have gone a long way towards comforting them all if the first thing they laid eyes on hadn't been a large canary- yellow cake setting on a table in the middle of the common room. On top of the cake was a small figurine of a black-haired wizard with his wand outstretched. In large letters, around the sides of each layer, the huge cake read:

Cedric

Diggory

Our Champion & Hero

The entirety of the Hufflepuff house and Charity stopped dead in their tracks, looking only at the huge black words. After a brief moment of complete silence, a torrent of wails and sobs ensued as they all broke down. Even Charity, who had managed to keep herself pulled together for the sake of the students until now, completely lost it and sank to her knees, clinging to whoever was next to her, a flood of tears taking over. The entire world had changed for these students since they'd last left this room.

Amidst her sadness, Charity felt traces of anger. She was angry with Dumbledore, with everyone who had decided bring the tournament back. They knew it was dangerous, that students had died in the past, yet they just couldn't leave it. She was fed up with wizards and witches who felt the need to flaunt their magic. 'Greater unity between the schools my arse!' she thought, 'Why couldn't they just have a Yule Ball and leave it at that. No, we had to pit our students, children, against one another to see who has the biggest wand!'

As Charity wrestled with her thoughts, the sobs in the room slowed to sporadic sniffles. She looked around and saw that many of the students were moving to and from the cake table. Several small candles flickered on the table around various objects that the students had brought there, and were continuing to bring. Cedric's Quidditch Captain's robe lay across the front of the table. On top of it sat a golden snitch, probably from one of his victorious games. Several framed O.W.L. certificates also littered the table. The students' faces were determined as they built this makeshift memorial to Cedric. It was a marvelous example of the resilient human spirit that won't stay down long, lying in the dirt bleeding, but instead finds a way to heal itself.

One of the older students, a tall blonde boy who Charity had often seen palling around the corridors with Cedric, came down with his Bible opened. He stood in front of the table, while the other students and Charity gathered around him, some sitting with their hands folded, others kneeling, as he read in a slightly shaky voice:

"What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.1"

When he finished reading, he focused his tear-filled gaze upward and said, "Good for you Ced, good for you."

Professor Sprout came back just before midnight with swollen red eyes, and coaxed the students up to bed. She and Charity stayed in the common room. They sat on the cushy chairs in one of the alcoves, curled under blankets. The alcove was now lit only by the glow from candles still flickering on Cedric's memorial. Occasionally, they would respond to a yell or scream issuing from a student's restless dream, but mostly they sat together in the dark room, speaking in hushed tones as Professor Sprout updated Charity on what had been happening in the castle during the past few hours.

"We've been teaching with Barty Crouch Jr. this whole school year!" whispered Sprout urgently.

"What can you mean? Crouch…isn't he with the Ministry? He was a judge at the first task."

"That was Crouch senior. He's dead now, they're saying the junior killed him!" At this, Charity gasped loudly and covered her mouth, hoping she didn't wake any students.

"We've been teaching with a murderer? But why did I never meet him?" Charity asked.

"Because he attacked Alastor Moody right before school started and has been disguising himself as Professor Moody ever since by using the Polyjuice potion." Charity's eyes widened in disbelief and Sprout continued, "Severus noticed a while back that he was missing some of his stores – key ingredients for the potion. He figured it was a student playing some kind of prank. None of us ever considered it was Moody, er, Crouch Jr."

"But why did he do it?" asked Charity, growing more fearful and more confused by the minute.

"Completely off his rocker, that one. He fell in with some Death Eaters a while back and landed himself in prison. Everyone thought he'd died in Azkaban." She eyed Charity now and said, "You would have been just a little girl then, so you won't remember…well, that whole thing's a story for another time. The point is, see, he's not dead and had some crazy idea that he was serving You-Know-Who by posing as Moody and causing all kinds of hijinks here." She looked at Charity significantly, with tiny flames reflected in her eyes, and said, "He's the one who entered Potter in the tournament."

To hear You-Know-Who and Potter mentioned in such close succession sent a cold current up Charity's spine. She could vaguely remember that day when she was a young girl, and the entire wizarding community was caught up in the story of how Lord Voldemort had met his doom. All Charity understood at the time was that Voldemort was a really bad, scary guy and if you said his name out loud, you'd grow hairy warts all over your nose. The story went that Voldemort had murdered James and Lily Potter, a young but very well respected couple in the wizarding community, and that he'd tried to kill their baby son as well, but somehow little Harry had escaped. No one had heard from Voldemort since, so it was presumed that he'd somehow either died or lost all of his powers that night. Rumors often surfaced that he'd been spotted somewhere or other. Charity'd even heard a few rumors that put him at Hogwarts after Harry Potter had arrived, too tempting of a connection she supposed. She personally liked to joke that she was sure she'd just seen what's-his-face having bangers and mash with Elvis at the local pub.

"But you said Crouch Jr. is completely nuts, right?"

"Yes...but…well…," Sprout glanced at Charity, then away, clearly deciding how much she should share.

"Pomona!" Charity said in a harsh whisper. "Don't clam up on me now! I'm a professor too, you know. Don't you think I ought to know just as much as everyone else?"

"OKAY dear – but don't say I didn't warn you." After another moments' hesitation, she spoke again, but this time in such a low voice that Charity had to lean in close to hear her, so close that she could feel Professor Sprout's warm and slightly dilly-scented breath on her face as she spoke, "The Potter boy is backing up his story. He says the Triwizard trophy was a Port-Key that transported him and Diggory," (there was a slight tremble to Sprout's voice when she said his name) "to a grave yard where You-Know-Who killed Diggory and used Potter's blood to bring back all of his old powers."

"No," Charity said very quietly with a mix of wonder and dread.

Sprout nodded her head sadly and said, "Well, Fudge isn't having any of it. I suppose all we can do for now is wait and see how things shake out between him and Dumbledore." This left very little to say, and the two professors settled back in their chairs. The silence that then filled the room was more conducive to their own private thoughts than it was to sleep.

In the very early hours, just before the first faint glow of sunlight, Professor Sprout convinced Charity to return to her own room for some sleep. Charity gave Bnickel a carrot and then collapsed on her bed. She only slept for a few hours, but managed to miss breakfast by the time she awoke. She still had time to catch the students before they left for the summer, so she dressed quickly and rushed down to the entryway to give those that would allow it one last hug. She packed herself up soon after, and headed home to her parents' quiet Victorian house on a quiet wizard street in the middle of a quiet Muggle neighborhood to chew over the recent events and try to make sense of it all.

1 1 Corinthians 2:9