A/N: Second to last chapter! Finally we've reached the third task. Warning: Graphic Violence
"Everything will be fine, she'll be ok." Jemma told herself, Fitz, and Trip, but mostly herself. They were sitting in the bleacher-type seating area that was supposed to be the end of the task, where the winner would supposedly appear. Her foot was tapping the wood at an insanely fast pace, and Fitz had to nudge her shoulder to remind her to stop, because it was annoying everyone around them.
After she and Skye had said their goodbyes and she was taken away by the headmasters for the third time, Jemma had met up with Fitz and Trip to go sit with the audience. It had been explained to them just before the task started that it was a race. The three champions were placed on three different sides of the Forbidden Forest, and the first one to make it to the center was the winner. There would be a portkey to take the winning champion back to the finish, where most of Hogwarts and the two other schools were waiting.
Jemma was going to keep her eye out for green flares, each time Skye made it a certain distance, one of them would shoot into the air to signal her location. Bobbi's were going to appear as blue, and Grant Ward's were red. What she didn't want to see was a yellow flare in Skye's path, that meant that she was hurt or could not continue and she needed help. At least this time she was allowed help, though, and she was allowed to back out if she thought her life was in danger. Knowing Skye's personality, though, Jemma was afraid Skye would try to win even if she should back out.
It was dark, there was fog, and Skye was alone. She was the only being near the forest for at least a mile, if not more, and it made her shiver. The brunette wasn't sure why they had to wait till nightfall for the task, surely it would be hard enough during the day. There wasn't even much moonlight to see by. It would make seeing the starting flare easier, the signal for the Champions to finally enter the forest, but it would make stumbling and racing through the Forbidden Forest a lot harder. That was probably the point.
Just waiting, having to listen to the silence, broken occasionally by strange sounds coming from deep in the woods, wasn't boosting her confidence. It was putting her on edge, making her tense. Well, more tense than she was when she had been escorted to her starting point. Her wand was ready and her feet teetered between taking that first step into the forest and trying to keep still.
Her trance was broken when a bright red ball of light shot over the trees into the sky, exploding across and lighting the darkness up with enough red light that all the Champion's around the forest would be able to see. It was time to begin. Skye's grip on her wand tightened and she shot her hand into the sky, "Periculum!" A series of green flares shot up from Skye's wand into the sky, signaling her starting position. She knew the others would be doing the same, but she couldn't see their flares if they sent them up.
"Alright...let's go," The Hogwarts Champion took a breath, and then shot off into the woods. It was a race and she would need to hurry, but she would also need to be cautious and keep up her stamina. She needed to be wary and ready for anything. Life in the forest was versatile and Skye knew she had a good chance of running into nearly any sort of creature.
The music that had been playing only heightened Jemma's anxiety, and at the climax of the song, with a loud bang of a drum that made her flinch, what looked like a firework instead of a flare shot into the air in the distance where presumably the Triwizard Cup was awaiting a champion. Jemma sucked in a deep breath and tried not to worry, though it was an impossible task. Even though the task had hardly started, Jemma was relieved to see the green sparks that signaled Skye's starting location. She was far away from the firework, but no further than the red and blue flares sent up by the other champions. Jemma vaguely worried for Bobbi as well, but after everything that had happened, she couldn't bring herself to think about her anymore. Her main focus was Skye.
"There she goes." Fitz said quietly. Jemma's leg began bouncing again and from her other side Trip put his hand on her knee to stop it.
"Skye's tough, she'll make it. Hell, that girl might even win." Trip said cheerfully. Jemma wondered how he managed to stay so upbeat all the time. Maybe he could teach her how someday.
"I don't want her to win, I want her to shoot that yellow flare into the air and get out of there." Jemma replied. Trip smiled like she was joking, but she was dead serious.
"Come on, lil'mama, Skye can take whatever's in there. Just think about it. She's already gotten past bogarts, dementors, and a dragon." Trip pointed out, waving his finger in the air to try and make a point.
"Exactly, she's pushing her luck." Jemma sighed. She was usually a firm believer in preparation and knowledge, she hardly ever left anything to chance, but the tournament was beginning to change her view on a lot of things. "I should have broken the rules and made her a Felix Felicis potion." She sighed, putting her elbows down on her thighs and her chin into her hands. It was going to be a long night and it just didn't seem like enough to see the flare every few miles when Skye reached a checkpoint.
It had been ten minutes and Skye had kept a steady jog through the darkness of the woods, careful to keep an eye out. She had stopped a few times when she had heard curious sounds piercing through the silence of the woods, but forced herself to keep going. The cup had been placed in the center of the forest and the brunette only hoped she was going in the right direction. She had already had to deal with some annoying pixies, which she had fended off easily, stunning them with a simple spell before rushing on.
Just past the fifteen minute mark Skye stopped suddenly when she felt herself pass through some sort of magical veil, and it shattered like glass behind her. Green sparks shot up from the sky, signaling her position to those who were watching somewhere on the outside of the forest. She stared up at the flares, backing up, not wanting to stand still lest she lose too much time, and bumped into a rock, stumbling among the fog that covered the forest floor and let out a shriek as she toppled backwards.
It echoed through the forest, disturbing some nesting birds and they shot up from the trees, flocking away in the light of the green spark. She tumbled backwards and continued to fall, rolling down a steep hill, hitting roots and out jutting rocks along the way till she landed hard at the bottom in a pile of leaves.
"Shit!" She grabbed for her head, rubbing it and pulling her hands back to make sure that the sharp pain hadn't caused any noticeable damage. She found no blood on her hands and sighed in relief. The brunette scrambled back up, brush leaves off of herself and out of her hair. When she went to swipe her arm clean however, she brushed away more than just leaves. The Hogwarts Champion grimaced as she quickly shook off a spider, sending chills down her spine.
Skye took a look closer and regretted it instantly. Among the leaves the forest floor was riddled with spiders. She had heard the rumors about the giant spiders in the Forbidden Forest and it made her move forward slowly as she began to fear she may have stumbled into their nest. Jemma would have been fascinated. Giant spiders, how did they function, what did they eat, how they lived, etc. Skye wasn't interested.
She continued on, wand at the ready as she weaved her way over and under thick tree roots and through tunnels covered in webs. It made her skin crawl, but she had to keep going. The only direction was forwards. The deeper in she went, the faster she moved as the sounds around her began to shift. Finally she was running again, and stumbled out into a wide opening. She tripped in the dirt and fell forward, catching herself with her hands. The fog dissipated and she felt around with her hands, trying to get up, before she forced herself back so fast she almost fell backwards. Her hands had landed in a pile of decomposing bones. When she looked, the entire forest floor here was made up of them.
Another shriek moved its way up her throat but got stuck halfway out when she looked up. Spiders. More specifically, acromantulas. Giant spiders. Apparently, she could now confirm, that it was not, in fact, a rumor. Skye slowly glanced around, trying to keep an eye above her at the same time and grit her teeth when she discovered that all around her was a steep slope. She was in a basin of some sort. She could feel the adrenaline as her heart began to beat faster and her attempt to make an exit strategy more frantic. Then she saw it. A thick tree root jutting out from the rock and dirt, winding down into the ground along the incline.
Slowly, Skye began to creep towards her way out, hoping not to disturb the spiders. The hairs on her arms and the back of her neck were on end. She could feel thousands of tiny beady eyes boring a hole into her back. The brunette willed herself to stay calm and keep moving forward, always forward. Suddenly, and only for an instant, she stopped, hearing a loud this behind her. With bated breath, Skye turned, hoping not to see what she expected. She was right. A spider, half as tall as herself, stood not but a few feet from her. Another dropped down with a thud, taking a step forward,and it didn't take Skye any longer to turn tail and run.
The champion made a mad dash for the tree, leaping up with all her strength and grabbing tightly onto the root, pulling herself up. As she scrambled to pull herself over the ledge, she felt something snag her leg and she lost her footing, hitting her jaw down on the ground hard before her hands managed to hold on and keep herself from being tugged back down. She was in full panic mode, only just managing to grab her wand and turn around behind her. She made the mistake of looking. More spiders had quickly followed her, not wanting their dinner to escape, and two had a hold of her leg.
"Stupefy!" The pulse shot out from her wand, knocking the spiders back, and Skye pulled herself up, breathless and began to run and she didn't stop. She leapt over roots and rocks, slid down hills and skidded to a halt when she felt herself break through another magical barrier. It sent the same green sparks shooting up into the sky as before, but when she turned around to see if the giant spiders were still following her, the brunette found them clawing at the magical shield. The tired champion sighed in relief. Apparently the creatures were contained to their own section of the forest, per the magical barriers set up for the task.
Her lungs and throat burned and Skye wanted to stop and sit down and to take a break, but she also wanted to get out of the forest as soon as she possibly could. She could always quit, say the spell and shoot the yellow spell into the sky and get picked up...but then the entire school would be disappointed in her. She doubted Jemma would be upset. Jemma just wanted her alive, but Skye wouldn't be able to live with the guilt of quitting if she didn't try.
For the first ten minutes, the band had continued to play upbeat, exciting songs, but by now it had died out and the audience had taken to waiting. It was dead silent, nothing could be heard except for the occasional squeak of the bleachers and Jemma's foot incessantly tapping on the wood. Fitz and Trip had already given up on trying to break her bad habit.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a bright red flare shot into the air, signaling that Ward had made it to the first checkpoint. Jemma's head shot back up, and she was disappointed to find that the color hadn't been green. Of course Ward would be the fastest runner, he was all buff and muscular and probably ran in his sleep. She tried not to think about any reason Skye wouldn't already be at the first checkpoint, but she was quickly relieved when both blue and green flares shot into the air, nearly at the same time. It didn't bother her that Skye was only barely ahead of Bobbi, all she wanted was for her girlfriend to survive.
Skye was having to take it slower now. She knew that she was deeper in the woods, there was almost no light now. Her wand was lit just enough for her to see ahead, but not so much that it was at its maximum brightness. She didn't want anything stumbling onto her in the dark. The brunette had already been hearing howls and strange calls for the past several minutes now. She couldn't distinguish what they were, they were so far off, but she knew she didn't want to mess with it.
The tree tops here were thick, blocking out any light that the moon could provide, if the clouds had even moved away from in front of it. It was so dark this deep in, Skye doubted it. The Hogwarts Champion's legs were throbbing. She had already run a long way, and she had no idea if any of the others had even reached the cup. No one had come to get her yet, so she supposed the task wasn't over. She also hadn't run into anyone else, so she took that as a good sign as well. If she had stumbled onto another Champion that would mean she had gone in the wrong direction.
It was nearing the thirty minute mark. She knew that there were at least two more barriers she needed to pass through before she reached the center of the forest, or at least the center of the task. She wasn't able to keep up with the other Champion's progress. The thick canopy prevented that much. Skye had been walking now for several minutes, with no incident other than some thick gooey tar pit she had almost fallen into. She found this unusual. With all the rumors running about the forest she knew something had to be coming. It seemed rather silly that she would go the entire task with only having run into some spiders.
Skye had thought, for the briefest of moments before being plunged into the complete darkness, that she had seen some centaurs running in the distance, but that had been a while ago, long after the spiders. If she weren't in a hurry, she would have liked to have gotten a closer look. She knew centaurs were dangerous, but from what Jemma and the Professors had said, they were also highly intelligent creatures, being part human, and were on good terms mostly with the school. Having half a horse for a body wouldn't be so bad right about now...She was out of stamina and the silence was starting to slowly drive her crazy. Perhaps that was a test in itself. It was almost deafening. Her ears were starting to ring. She missed the rustling beyond her in the dark.
The sound of the sparks from above startled her to a standstill as she felt herself pass through another magical field. Just one more till the cup. I can do this, She thought to herself, not wanting to speak and make any more sound than necessary. Who knew what could be out there. She had heard one of the other Slytherin students who was friends with some of the Durmstrang students talking about a massive three headed dog. That would be something she would like to avoid.
The brunette decided to pick up the pace. If there was only one more magical barrier, then she was close. She had taken the last stretch pretty slow after the spiders, and this was a race after all. She might as well try. The Hogwarts Champion decided to risk it. Finding a path to run was hard when it was so dark. "Lumos Maxima," the tip of her wand grew bright, illuminating her way through the underbrush of the forest. It was only a few minutes later she saw light up ahead. Her heart raced, some from the running and some from the sudden rush of adrenaline. It could be the cup.
Either Skye had slowed down and was now in last, or something horrible had happened to her and she didn't even have time to signal for help. Ward and Bobbi's flares had gone up again, but the sky was yet to be lit by another green one.
"She'll get there." Fitz assured her. It didn't comfort her at all. Before, Skye had been able to keep up with at least Bobbi, but it had been seven minutes since the blue flare had been visible and Skye still hadn't made it. Something had slowed her down, and Jemma didn't like the idea that she'd run into something. Panic rose up from her stomach to her throat when a yellow flare shot hundreds of feet in the air, and several professors on broomsticks flew out over the forest to go help. She was relieved, but only slightly, when she realized that the yellow flare had come from Bobbi's zone in the forest. If there was something bad enough to scare Bobbi into backing out, she didn't like the idea of Skye staying in there.
Skye finally reached the barrier and her flare lit up the sky before the professors returned with Bobbi. Skye was just moving slowly, Jemma told herself. She hoped Skye had just gotten lazy and started walking and liked to think that was what was happening instead of the possibility that she'd gotten hurt and refused to back out. If that was the case, Jemma would kill her when she got out anyway, so she hoped her girlfriend would make the smart decision. There was only one more barrier to go before the finish, as the audience had been told, and Jemma hoped that either Skye would make it, she would send up a yellow flare and give up, or that Ward won the tournament. All of the three insured that Skye got out alive, so that was what Jemma was desperately wishing to happen.
She used all her energy and surged forward, jumping over fallen trees and roots, sliding over rocks, and making one last sprint for the tree line and she came into a clearing. It was flat, clear, only dirt on the ground, and completely void. "Damnit," Skye groaned under her breath, hands on her hips as she spun around in the open clearing. Nothing. There was no cup. She still had further to go it seemed.
Once her frustration wore down, she realized she was out of breath again. She should have paced herself. The brunette sighed, taking a moment to let her burning lungs cool, and she looked up. The sky had finally opened up a little, giving off lots of light in the open clearing since there were no trees to pierce through. The moon was white and beautiful. It was large and round tonight. How fitting for the final task. The clouds had dissipated and out here in the darkness all the stars in the sky were shining bright along with the moon. Skye was thankful all of a sudden, for the chance to see it. It was beautiful out. She found it ironic that such a scary place could hold such a secret treasure.
However, this wasn't the treasure she was looking for, and she needed to keep going. She began to walk back towards the treeline, knowing she would need to venture back into the darkness to head towards the Triwizard cup. She got almost to the edge of the trees when finally the ringing in her ears was pierced by a shrill howl that echoed out throughout the woods. It made her blood burn and her adrenaline from before was starting to spike. This howl had not been like the others. It had not been far off and distant, something to not concern herself with. No, this had been close.
Listening suddenly became her very best sense as she stood frozen at the edge, just before the treeline. She listened hard and for a moment, there was nothing. Skye was about to sigh when she heard something even more heart stopping than the bone chilling howl. Heavy breathing..
Fuck.
Even in this silence, Skye knew that if you could hear breathing, it meant whatever it was was close. Super close. Too fucking close. It wasn't her own, she knew that much, because she was holding it. As she released it, she turned her head to look back into the clearing, straining her eyes in the light. She could see nothing, but as she listened, the sounds grew louder and louder until she could even hear footfalls against the damp dirt. Suddenly, she saw movement beyond the tree line as whatever it was came closer to the light. It looked pale and she had to squint to try and see it.
"Nox," She whispered quietly and the wand went out. She had tried to remain silent, but the blinking out of light made whatever it was she was watching still. Skye remained still too, breath caught in her throat. She was losing valuable time not moving, but if she dashed, whatever it was might see her. Clearly she had made a mistake. The pale figure in the distance moved closer, finally its head coming into the light past the trees. The brunette's eyes widened and she could feel a scream building in her throat, stopped only by digging her fingernails into her palm.
She recognized the creature from her defense against the dark arts class and from Jemma's books on magical creatures when they had been preparing for the tasks. She knew they could all look different and take on different forms, but the concept was the same. The pale, lanky creature she saw before her was blind in one eye. She could tell by the way it favorited its left side, sniffing the air and scanning the clearing. It was skinny, so much so that it's spine ridges were popping out along its hunched over back, leading into a small stub of a tail.
Skye knew now she would rather take on the three headed dog and all the spiders at the same time than take on this. She wasn't equipped to take on a werewolf. It all made sense now, the moon, the howling. She needed to reach the next barrier. It wouldn't be able to cross then and get to her...but for that, the brunette would have to move. And she couldn't.
Her palms hurt where she was squeezing them so tight. They were numb. She didn't notice the trickle of blood her nails had created, and when a drop landed onto the dirt, the hairless creature's ears snapped to attention. It's head turned, left eye coming around as it moved itself to stand up on its hind legs.
Skye could feel her heart pounding in her chest. Surely it could hear her. She needed to hide or to make a run for it. Something. Anything, but she was frozen. It was like someone had cast a spell over her legs and she couldn't move. She watched as the beast sniffed the air more and her eyes darted down to her hand. The Slytherin girl let out a gasp at the blood. It smelled her. Her eyes snapped back up, mouth hanging agape as the werewolf's head snapped to attention, single round golden eye landing on her.
The pale animal's front gangly hands slowly made their way back onto the ground, digging into the dirt. Skye tensed as she watched its hind legs reposition. The beast's mouth stretched back, opening just a little, a growl coming out and vibrating across the clearing. The Slytherin took a hesitant step back into the trees. The action released from the werewolf such a powerful, ear shattering roar that she almost fell back. It's powerful back legs sprang and suddenly it was bounding for her at full force.
"Impedimenta!" Skye shot her wand out and a force blasted into the charging werewolf, knocking it back into the dirt, causing it to whimper, but the brunette didn't hear it. She as dashing through the darkness deeper into the forest. She had to reach the last barrier before it got closer to her. The howl the reached her ears told her that it had not given up. Werewolves were ferocious, destructive creatures and she knew well that if they didn't have something to release their frustration on, they would hurt themselves. Their prefered scapegoats being humans.
The Slytherin girl had never run so fast. Her breaths came in gasps through the mouth, her lungs and throat on fire, burning with the effort to keep up with her legs. She could hear the scrapes of earth and rock behind her as the werewolf passed over, pursuing her with a vengeance.
"Stupefy!" It missed.
"Stupefy!" Another miss.
"Impedimenta!"
This caused the werewolf to trip and slide forward onto its face, but it recovered too quickly and Skye couldn't keep turning to shoot spells at it in the dark. She could barely see where she was going, let alone try to see behind her to cast spells on the approaching animal.
It was almost on her. She could hear its panted breaths as it chased after her. It's steps louder. Skye took the risk and turned again as she ran to cast another spell.
"Sectumsem-"
The unfinished cruse slashed weakly into the misshapen wolf as Skye went tumbling back into the dirt, having tripped hard over an upturned root and slamming her head against the ground. It made her head pound and she felt dizzy as she tried to scramble up when suddenly there was a weight on her back. No, NO-
Desperately, the Hogwarts Champion gripped her hand around her wand, only to find it wasn't there. She had dropped it when she fell. When her eyes landed on it, it was in reach, and Skye lunged for it.
Her hand stopped short and a blood curdling scream shot out from her throat as a hot searing pain shot through her shoulder. She shrieked again and the brunette thought her heart had stopped when she heard a crunch. Skye could smell its breath as it tore away most of her leather champion's robe, taking flesh with it. The claws of its hind leg dug into her lower back, making her cry out again as it kept her still. It was going to kill her. She was going to die. She was going to die in the most gruesome way possible at the age of seventeen because of a dare.
Her wand was out of reach, and the werewolf was going in for the second bite. She could feel its breath on her neck. Jemma was going to find her as a ghost, wandering the halls of Hogwarts and kill her again. Jemma. She couldn't leave Jemma. She couldn't die here. Skye's muscles tensed as she felt teeth on her neck, just before pressure.
Suddenly all she could think of was the Triwizard cup. It filled her mind, filled her thoughts. If she could just get to the barrier she would be safe. She thought of it hard and in as much detail as her mind would allow. It had been so long since she had seen it at the beginning of the year, but she shut her eyes tight anyway. Skye cried out as she felt the animal's teeth sink into her neck, but the cry was cut short, and the werewolf's jaws slammed down into the dirt. There was a loud crack and the pale wolf howled in frustration, lashing at itself with it's claws, It's prey was gone. Vanished. Only small pieces of it left behind.
A final set of green sparks, larger than the last, shot into the sky as the brunette apparated across the magical barrier and slammed into the dirt of a small clearing, glowing blue with the pulsating light of the Triwizard cup. Her face landed hard in the dirt and she writhed on the ground, screaming up to the night sky as she grasped at her arm and chest. Pieces of her clothes were missing, but worst of all, so were pieces of her flesh. All down her arm was riddled with deep incisions not made by the hungry werewolf, though it's puncture wounds remained on her neck and shoulder. Parts of her chest were slashed open too, and she was gasping for breath as her hands grabbed the dirt, trying to regain some sense of time and space.
The blue caught her eye. High on a pedestal of intertwined roots, the Triwizard cup rested, waiting to be grasped and take the victor to the finish. Skye couldn't even comprehend what it was at this point. It was a portkey. It was going to get her out of here and to Jemma. It was going to get her to help.
Skye gasped, the strain of trying to stand was too much as she pulled herself up against the roots of the stand. Her splinched hand reached out and she grit her teeth together as her flesh clasped firmly around one of two handles on the cup. A great blue beam shot up from the sky from the center of the forest and both the Champion and the cup vanished from the task.
The Triwizard cup went rolling out in front into the grass as Skye fell, writhing against the ground again, staining the grass with her blood, which was also all over the trophy cup, her cries of agony echoing over the stands and piercing through the triumphant music.