erbkaiser, Riskreader: Jen will not lose her sonar when she regains her sight. In fact, as I said in chapter 20, that rather than vision will remain her primary sense.

Aealket, chaosglory626: Luna's not in this chapter, unfortunately, and the way things are looking, she won't be in the next, either. I'm going to try to fit her in the one after that, though.

Procusi, skywiseskychan: According to the Potter Wiki (pretty much my last resort as far as info goes, and I've been known to toss some information from there out), the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol is the regular police force, Hit Wizards are "tasked with arresting dangerous criminals", and Aurors deal primarily with cases involving dark magic. The implicit assumption you two have about determining species is that spells for genetic analysis have been developed. I know things like that are common in fanfiction, but it's always seemed a bit "let's create magical analogues to technology we've only developed in the last fifty years" for my tastes. In my mental universe, blood magic – which, being classed as dark magic, is illegal for humans to practice in Britain – as well as certain potions can be used to determine parentage, but that's about it.

Anono Mous: I am not, in fact, an Avatar fan; I don't think I've ever watched a single episode.

For everyone who doesn't read Faery Heroes, I put a poll on my profile. Feed me your opinions!

Disclaimer: Was it Harry who suggested that he and Cedric take the Triwizard Cup together for a "Hogwarts victory" rather than the member of the "house of loyalty"? If so, I don't own the Harry Potter franchise; it belongs to J.K. Rowling, Scholastic Press, Warner Bros., and whoever else she sold the rights to.

Chapter 30
No "I" in Team

Never before had Cedric been so glad for an early thaw as he was now. Thanks to winter yielding its iron grip on the weather a few weeks earlier than normal, the night air was merely chilly rather than bitingly cold. That did not, however, mean he wanted to be out here in the empty courtyard any longer than absolutely necessary. He muttered to himself, "The note I sent her did say 11:30, didn't it?"

"It did."

He barely held back an unmanly shriek as he jumped in surprise. Whirling around, he was treated to the sight of Jen Black melting out of the shadows, a sly smile dancing on her lips. "Oh, did I scawe widdle Cedwic? Perhaps a prefect would know there are consequences to luring a younger student out of her dorm past curfew," she finished in a normal voice.

"It's the only time we wouldn't have everybody in the whole school following us around," he replied hotly. "What took you so long, anyway?"

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Moody was patrolling the shortest route, so I had to backtrack a bit." Stepping closer to stand beside him, she remarked, "You know, most girls would be put out that arguably the cutest boy in school doesn't want to be seen with them after asking her out on a midnight rendezvous."

"Ask… out? No, no, that's not what I was doing at all! I mean… er…" he trailed off, seeing her quivering lips. Right when he was beginning to feel bad at unintentionally leading her on, a smirk replaced her depressed expression, and the clues fell into place. "Oh, you have a cruel sense of humor."

"I know. So, where are we going? Your letter wasn't specific."

"Forbidden Forest, but we'll need to keep any faculty from spotting us. Do you know the disillusionment… charm?" Before his eyes and without making a single gesture, the Ravenclaw had faded from his sight. "How in Merlin's name?"

"Ring of Invisibility," came the answer, Jen's voice echoing from everywhere at once. It was a rather disconcerting sound, if he was honest with himself.

How many secondary foci does this girl have? Shrugging, he cast his own stealth spell and opened the front gate just wide enough for them to slip through. Since neither student wore a silencing charm, they could hear each other clearly as they walked the grounds, allowing them to stick together in the darkness. The uncomfortable quiet lasted until they reached the edge of the woods, where, now safe from prying eyes, they removed their respective hiding spells. He began explaining as they passed between the trees. "I've got a friend, Geoffrey, who plans to enter the DMLE when he finishes school. He did a little digging around and found out yesterday that the judges aren't using the arena for this Task; instead, they've apparently cordoned off a small section of the Forest for us to run around in. I thought you might like to check it out with me."

"Be careful, Badger dear. Your scales are starting to show." His fellow champion sped up enough to draw even with him. "I'm curious, though; what made you think about doing reconnaissance beforehand this time?"

He hesitated a moment. "Couple of reasons, I suppose. The last two Tasks were all about gathering information and planning. I didn't do that for the Slytherin Task and got my arse handed to me because of it; hearing later that other champions had been watching me practice with my golem was a bit of a wake-up call. The Ravenclaw Task went better, but only because some of the egg's clues clued me in about the maze's obstacles. Even the Gryffindor Task would have been impossible without knowing you telling me about the dragons the week before. Why would the Hufflepuff Task be any different?

"Also… I'm not proud of it, but I really want to retake first place. I'm sure you know how most people call Hufflepuff the 'house of duffers' and say that we're tossed there because we're not good enough to get into any of the other houses. I'm sick and tired of listening to it year after year; by the time we leave Hogwarts, a bunch of us have heard it so much that we start believing it. It's said that Ravenclaw house gets treated like you're only good for doing other people's homework for them, so maybe you understand what I'm talking about."

"We're not used and abused quite as much as rumors might portray, but it does happen," Jen admitted with a nod of her head. "I had a Gryffindor in my classes try that with me early in the year, before the Tournament started. Some Irish boy; O'Findley, maybe? Anyway, he pretty much expected I'd be overjoyed to do all his assignments for him in exchange for a few minutes' attention from a proud Lion."

Now that was interesting. Some dumb kid tried to take advantage of the girl who would later slay a dragon and win a pair of duels against people three years older, more knowledgable, and more experienced? "What did you do in response?"

"Hexed him so badly that he literally had to crawl out of the library. I don't take abuse like that from the Head of my own Family, so I'm definitely not going to roll over for some boorish teenager."

"I'll keep that in mind if I ever find myself needing your help with anything again." He sighed and ran one hand through his hair in frustration. "Starting last year, when I joined the Quidditch team, my housemates finally had someone to put their pride behind. I beat Potter in the Quidditch match that year, and then the Goblet of Fire chose me as Hogwarts's senior champion? I just… I can't let them down."

"Trust me, I understand. The younger Ravens have placed me on a pedestal as well." Again they were silent, though much of the awkwardness had vanished. Soon enough, they reached their destination. Cedric whistled while Jen muttered, "Did they have to make it so big?"

The enclosed space was, as far as his Lumos showed him, probably two, three hundred feet wide, with the stadium seats from the arena framing one quarter of the circular boundary. Few of the trees had been removed, making tomorrow's Task even more difficult than it was already going to be. "Now I'm really, really glad we decided to look around tonight."

"Me, too." The crafty Raven flicked her wand to send numerous balls of light through the field; twisted shadows appearing where once there had been total darkness just made the forest even more ominous. She then let her focus lay flat on her palm, and it spun a few times before pointing forwards and to their left. "We didn't come here to gawk at trees. Our base is this way."

If I was forced to choose between regaining my sight and keeping my sonar, I'd more than happily stay blind, Jen thought later as she hopped over yet another deep pit in the ground. The little lanterns she had created were keeping Cedric from breaking his neck, but he was still stumbling about, the uneven terrain hidden inside the roots' shadows. To her, however, the forest floor may as well have been perfectly flat for all the trouble it presented; she could feel every rock, every fallen limb, every hazard in her path. Her awareness did not have the range that uninterrupted sight did, but in these woods, she would have the advantage.

Had the organizers just made their play-space small enough that she could feel the whole thing at one time, it would be absolutely perfect.

She led the older boy through the last of the trees so he could finally observe the waist-high earthen walls they had been approaching since they arrived at the enclosure; obviously she could not tell him how she truly knew where their token rested, but faking a locator charm was simple. He stepped past her and over the short bulwark to the sandstone castle sitting on one of four low platforms in the middle of the square space.

"How in Merlin's name are we supposed to move these things if they are all this big and heavy?"

Indeed, the replica of what could only be Hogwarts was massive, its highest spire stretching upwards until it was as tall as she was, and the rest of the object was on the same scale. She brushed her fingers against its surface; one of the many spells laid on it chose that moment to react, wrapping threads around her hand and wrist. Another shifted in response and pulled back the magic that was digging into the dirt like claws. How interesting. Without anyone touching it, it will stay stuck to the ground so as to resist magical movement, but one person would probably be able to push it around, though considering the size, that would still be an exhausting undertaking. I wonder… "Cedric? Would you be so kind as to grab this with me?"

He shrugged before obliging, and sure enough, his efforts produced yet another change in the charmwork. As if the heavy stone weighed no more than a feather, they easily hoisted it into the air. "Of course, Hufflepuffs are all about teamwork. The two of us working together could run each of these back here and put it in one of the places set out for them," she said, pointing to the empty daises.

"But how would we keep the other teams from stealing ours while we're running about?" he countered. "Those walls aren't going to stop anybody on their own. Are we supposed to enhance them before we set out?"

A suspicion forced its way to the front of her mind. "Or maybe we have to choose one of three strategies. Do we both search for tokens, leaving our base defenseless; keep one of us here while the other manhandles them so we don't lose our own; or both stay back and take out the opposition, then go out once we're the only ones left standing?"

"Ugh. Put like that, I don't like any of those options… Oh, bugger."

"What?"

He turned to her, his face crumpled in a grimace. "What happens when one or two tokens have been taken already, assuming both champions of that school aren't out of the picture? Those two, three, even four might very well team up, at least until the successful team has been taken down. Defense will become more and more important as the Task goes on."

Unless we take steps to end it quickly. Jen ran her sonar over the statue again, paying close attention to how the spells on it had been woven. Tethering, that clever little anchoring one, and several to stop anyone from working around the rules, whether by shrinking it, levitating it, charming it weightless, or transfiguring it into something else. They're all tied into runic clusters, too; amateur enchanting at its finest.

A small grin appeared as she considered her options. This style of enchanting was faster and simpler than writing the full thing out in runes, but it had some downsides as well. Only effects for which charms were already known could be used, as the spells had to be cast into the containment clusters. Additionally, a simple finishing charm could theoretically get rid of them, though it would require overpowering the magic to an insane degree. Throw in runes to keep the enchantment charged, and even she would be hard-pressed to break through it with sheer brute force.

That was where the third disadvantage raised its ugly head. 'True' enchanting caused the magic to stay inside the object on which the script was carved, but permanently charming it as done here was no different from ensorcelling it temporarily. The spell was still on the outside, which meant it could be manipulated, weakened, and even unraveled.

"We need to visit the other schools' bases."

Confusion was obvious in Cedric's voice. "Why?"

"For one, we should find out where they are so we aren't running around lost tomorrow, and for two, I want to see if I can't make our job a little easier."

It took them several minutes, but eventually they did find another token. There was no doubt in Jen's mind who it belonged to, either. "I wonder if our and Potter's bases were put so close together intentionally."

"You sure this is his?"

"The token is a bloody phoenix," she said sharply, jabbing a thumb at the offensive visage. "He's Dumbledore's Golden Boy, Dumbledore has a phoenix companion, do the arithmancy." Our respective locations may or may not be coincidental, but the imagery here is anything but. Potter may have come out ahead in the Ravenclaw Task, but that's one out of three. He just isn't having that good of a showing, especially for someone touted to be our generation's 'Leader of the Light'. The old goat wants the public to continue their worship of him and his cause, and they won't bother if Potter keeps dropping the ball like he has been. Every mistake the boy makes the Dark more and more attractive.

She ignored the Badger's hum of agreement as she examined this token, and sure enough, the exact same spells as on their own were present. Perfect. Reaching out with mental fingers, she started plucking away at the strands of magic where multiple enchantments crossed, checking for where the fabric of energy frayed most quickly. The more spells were laid on an object, the easier they were to disrupt by this subtle approach, though few people could taking advantage of that fact. The ability to sense the currents of magic – be it through magesight, aural detection, or a tactile method like her sonar – was a necessity.

One tearing motion of her left hand later, and the protections were history. She strangled the cackling laugh that threatened to spill out and hastily reapplied the protections, tying them collectively to a single runic cluster. This should still prevent finishing charms from being entirely effective while simultaneously weakening it to her own strategy and thereby requiring less time that an opponent could use against her. With several harsh flicks of her blank wand and a flash of light for Cedric's benefit, she sighed, "All right, this one's done. Onto the next."

"Wait, what? What did you just do?"

"I may have modified the spells on the token to be easier for me to remove tomorrow."

He gaped at her. "You're sabotaging the other champions?"

"Sabotaging, tactical planning, winning, call it what you will. I have been told many times that I am a Raven with a Snake's heart—" albeit solely by the few people who know me well "—and I will not ignore any advantage that is handed to me on a silver platter."

"So you're going to cheat, instead?" he demanded.

The Baron save me from idealistic Hufflepuffs, she pled mentally. "Absolutely. Besides, you don't have any room to criticize, Mr. 'Let's-check-out-the-playing-field-beforehand'." At his wince, she continued, "We, all of the champions, started cheating almost the moment our names were drawn from those Goblets. Messing with the enchantments on these statues to give our team an edge may be a little more direct than, say, finding out that we have to steal eggs from dragons or watching other champions practice with wandless foci in order to counter their strategies, but otherwise it is no different.

"If you're still uncomfortable with this, though, fine. I'll see you tomorrow. Don't hurt yourself on your way back to the castle."

Striding past him, she only made it two dozen paces before his voice rang out. "Wait, wait." He jogged up to her, shoving his hands in his pockets as he came up beside her. "You're right. We've been cheating since day one; I just didn't want to admit it to myself. It's just… it goes against everything I've ever been taught about fair play, about basic honesty."

"Is it really unfair if everyone is doing it, though? Seems like we're following the unwritten rules at that point."

He shrugged in grim uncertainty. After walking far enough for her to orient herself to the pegasus statue that could only represent Beauxbatons, he asked, "So… if you're going to run around collecting the tokens by yourself, I guess I'll hang back and protect our own. Any suggestions on what the defenses should be?"

She knew he was asking so they could move past their uncomfortable conversation, but she let it slide; he had, after all, raised a valid concern. Temporary wards are out of the question; I can't erect them without using all my fingers to aid my concentration, and there is no way I could disguise that as wanded magic. "I can throw a few charms or quick enchantments onto the walls, I guess; maybe make them taller as well so anyone attacking will have to do more than just step over them. I was kind of hoping you would have a idea for that." In all honesty, she had been so preoccupied with her plan to take the tokens that she had not given a thought to how to keep theirs safe.

"Well, Transfiguration is my best subject," Cedric said with no small degree of pride. "If you'll take care of the charms, I'm sure I can come up with something."

Barty Crouch glared at the roped-off section of the Forbidden Forest in front of him. His Master was becoming impatient at how much longer He had to wait before He could capture the Potter boy and utilize him for His return. Still, there were only two more Tasks including this one, and he had already created plans to subtly assist Potter so the brat would reach the Triwizard Cup first. Feeling the first tingles of the Polyjuice wearing off, he pulled a silver flask from his pocket and took a quick swig.

"It's not even twelve yet, old friend. You really should cut back on your liquor intake unless you intend to drink yourself into an early grave."

He took a moment to ensure none of his hatred, rage, or panic was displayed on his face before he turned to the newcomer. Albus Dumbledore was without a doubt the greatest threat to his Master's plan; on rare occasions, He had even spoken of the headmaster with the kind of grudging respect only found between long-standing but still much-hated enemies, though that did not mean He wasn't going to make the so-called Leader of the Light suffer before his death. If the old man discovered Barty was Barty, the Dark Lord would have no one to assist Him in His ambitions, and Barty refused to let that happen. "And what if that is, in fact, my intent?"

"Then I think Margaret will be disappointed that you should choose such a means to join her on the other side of the Veil." The old man clapped one wrinkled hand on his shoulder. "Come, it makes little sense for us to watch the Task from down here. Let us adjourn to our seats."

"Welcome, welcome, to the Hufflepuff Task!"

Danny fidgeted where he stood, eager to get this whole thing over with. He had not wanted to be part of this Tournament at all, but once in it, he assumed it would be simple enough. After all, he had already faced a cerberus, giant spiders, a basilisk, and Voldemort twice. With those credentials, he should have been in the lead from the very first Task.

He wasn't. That Black, a Dark witch of all things, had been doing so well until what even he would agree was a ridiculously unfair ruling on the part of the judges just rubbed salt in his wound.

"For anyone who wasn't paying attention nearly two months ago, this Task is very much like the game Capture the Crup, with each school making up one team. As such, it was brought to our attention that it would put Potter at a severe disadvantage to go through this alone—" The former Beater paused at the boos echoing throughout the stands. I sure hope that's for Black and how she was disadvantaged last Task and not against me. "As I was saying, he has been given the opportunity to bring a partner onto the field with him. Mr. Potter, who have you chosen?"

He cleared his throat nervously before calling out, "I choose Neville Longbottom." Standing on his right, his godbrother smiled faintly, and he was hit by a fresh wave of guilt. Though raised as brothers in all but blood, the two boys had drifted apart shortly after the start of their first year, with him spending time with Ron and Neville making friends with several other green-thumbed students he met in Sprout's Herbology Club. Hermione putting Neville in a body-bind when he tried to stop them going after the Stone that June – he had not been present when Danny had his revelation about the thief's identity, and they just had not had time to explain things sufficiently at the time – had soured their relationship further.

While they were still friendly whenever they were in the same room, they hadn't gone out of their way to spend time with each other. Yet, maybe because Neville was just that much better of a person than he was, the Longbottom scion had stood by him when everyone else but Hermione thought he had snuck his name into the Goblet. His quiet explanation, 'We may have different interests and get on each other's nerves now and again, but we're still family', had made Danny feel terrible for never once seeking reconciliation.

That was not the only reason he wanted Neville beside him now, however. Like his Uncle Remus, the boy was clever and calm, keeping a cool head in tense situations. He could not count the number of times Neville had come up with alibis when they were kids and left evidence that they had done something or been somewhere they really should not have. His godbrother was also as loyal as any Hufflepuff; Ron, who he had also considered for this spot, had proven himself not to be, and he was still a little worried that the redhead would up and leave him again when the going got tough.

"Very well, Mr. Potter. Okay then, let's get cracking. The senior champions will enter the forest at precisely noon, which gives all you juniors ten minutes to find your tokens and set up any little tricks and traps you want, though you can't go after the other teams' tokens until the seniors are inside as well. Mr. Longbottom, you will be with the juniors while Mr. Potter waits here. And… Go!"

The younger champions, all older than Danny, shot into the woods.

Cedric raced through the trees, eyes flicking suspiciously at every wavering shadow and rustle of leaves. With all eight of them inside, being cursed in the back was a very distinct possibility. That would put a distinct crimp in his plan to reclaim first place.

Breaking through the foliage, he stopped in his tracks and stared. Well, she's certainly been busy. Stone walls now stretched over his head, fifteen feet tall if they were an inch, with a wooden door sitting in the middle of the wall in front of him. He reached for the knob, only for a voice to ring out, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Jen? How am I supposed to get in, then?"

"Keep looking."

He rounded the roofless building to the side opposite the obvious entrance, confused about what she meant. There was no opening here. Just as he was about to ask for clarification, a pale hand slipped through solid stone and crooked a finger at him before vanishing once more. Points for her, he thought as he slipped through the illusion. If I didn't know better, I'd think she cast the exact same charm as what's on the portal from the Muggle world to Platform 9¾. "Wow, you really outdid yourself there. What would have happened had I touched the door?"

"Oh, just enough to keep you from doing it again," she replied with a grin as she pointed to the blank wall that showed no hint that there was a door on the other side. "It isn't even real, anyway. Since you mentioned doing some transfiguration last night, I left plenty of material around for you to work with."

"Thanks," he said idly, glancing at the large rocks strewn about the floor. Plans gamboled through his head like a litter of kneazle kittens.

"All right, I'm off. Bringing back the tokens should be as easy as taking candy from a baby."

"Yeah, okay." He held up one hand for her to high-five as she walked past. She vanished from sight right before she would have exited the portal. "Good hunting."

Looking back and forth between the glass panes floating before the crowd, Lily was quite displeased with the suspicions unfolding in her mind. All the champions besides Danny and Neville had moved far too confidently to where their tokens were 'hidden' to be sheer happenstance, but the layout of the forest was supposed to be a mystery. Was her son the only one competing honorably? "Don't the judges care that everyone is cheating?"

"That's a bit of an open secret about this tournament. Honestly, I thought you already knew about it," Remus said from her left. "While cheating is officially grounds for a point deduction, the reality is that that only happens if the champions are caught in the act. Otherwise…"

She harrumphed and returned her attention to the screens. At least the scenes they showed were not all bad. Jenny's work, for instance, had been truly impressive during the time that she could actually be seen; the viewing crystals scattered throughout the forest only showed a single angle each, and none of them were high enough to peer over the walls she had raised. The Diggory boy was now inside as well, but they seemed to be working off a purely defensive strategy, much to Lily's disappointment. She may have had to strangle the desire to cheer her daughter on out loud throughout the previous two Tasks, but that did not mean she had not enjoyed watching Jenny compete just as much as she did Danny play Quidditch.

Speaking of her son, from the corner of her eye she saw him and Neville flash scarlet before falling limply to the ground outside their base.

"What in the…" She trailed off as their attacker was revealed. Jenny faded into sight inside the low walls before stepping closer to the large phoenix statue. Wand waving like a conductor's baton, she finally tapped the token, which immediately flashed with a brilliant white light. A graceful sweeping gesture transfigured it into a small disc even as it flew into her pocket. She then – somehow – turned to face the camera to wave goodbye mockingly before once more disappearing.

One section of students, all of them bedecked in Ravenclaw blue, exploded into shouts and laughter, joined shortly by a large portion of Badgers and even a few of the younger Slytherins. In an uncomfortable reversal of what Lily was used to from her own school days, it was the Gryffindors who by and large sat stone-faced and silent.

"That's impossible!" James finally whispered, his eyes wide in shock and disbelief. "Only cloaks made from demiguise hair permit true invisibility. She doesn't have one!"

"I guess she found another way," was Lily's gentle reply. She cut her eyes to the five Blacks in attendance, her sorrow tinged with self-loathing and not a little envy.

"No courtesy at all," Jen quipped as she stepped over the fallen Veela, dismissing the invisibility spell around her. "The rest of us might have wanted a chance to take her down a few pegs too, you know."

Next to the rearing Abraxan, the Bulgarian wizard straightened from his crouch. His voice was soft as he replied, "I should haff known it vould be you looking for de tokens, dough I hoped dat vould not be de case."

"You mean you didn't want to see me?" She laid her left hand over her heart. "Viktor, how could you say something like that? I'm so hurt, I might just cry."

"As you English vould say, Jen, boollsheet. I vould not believe dose tears for a moment. You are not so veak as to cry vhen you could curse de odder person instead." Her chuckles affirmed his understanding of her character. Pointing to the statue they were competing over, he asked, "Vhat are ve going to do about dis?"

She abandoned her saddened façade completely, enthusiasm taking its place. "I seem to remember you requesting a rematch when we were all laid up in the hospital wing after the wandless duels." She spread her arms to indicate the small clearing in which the Beauxbatons base was situated. "It's not like we don't have the time and space."

"If you can get rid of de valls, I vill move Delacour out of de vay."

Give me the more magically expensive job so I waste my reserves before we even start, she thought with approval. Forget the bad boys; I'll take a crafty man any day. A downwards flick of her blank wand melted the waist-high barriers into mud while a second movement in the opposite direction pulled clumps of stone from the ground to surround the statue. It would not do to chance it becoming collateral damage.

"Very nice. I had not dought about doing dat." Viktor stood in front of her, his wand positioned in front of his face in a classic duelists' salute. "Are you ready?"

She pulled out the skirt of an imaginary dress as she dropped into a shallow curtsey. "Impress me, pansy man." Her bent knees let her spring to the side to dodge the spell that immediately shot from the Quidditch star's wand.

The duel was on.

He's dead-set on beating me this time, she mused; thanks to her sonar, she had felt the tree behind her former position burst into flame, reinforcing her desire not to be hit. Good. I would find him taking me lightly to be incredibly insulting. A wave of her right hand caused large panthers to rush out of the mud she had created while a surreptitious gesture with her left caused them to move even faster, thought that did not save them from the tongues of electricity that pierced them.

Starting from that first interchange, it became clear that Viktor was far, far better than her in a conventional fight, the experience from years of mandatory dueling classes giving him an edge that she just could not counter without resorting to dark magic or casting with both hands. Working with a unfamiliar focus in the Slytherin Task had apparently disadvantaged him more than she previously believed. As the minutes flew by, she found herself casting fewer hexes of her own and raising more ethereal and physical shields to protect herself. That did not mean she let up on offense completely; spears of conjured ice flew at him while transfigured animals, running the gamut from cow to crow to cobra, rose from the remains of their predecessors.

Once she started copying the flow of the spells McGonagall taught and then analyzing the results on her own time rather than try to move to the unfamiliar final form directly, that class had become much more informative. She really owed the catwoman an apology for her initial disinterest.

A shouted "Reducto!", the first incantation her opponent had uttered since their match began, gave her ample warning to leap out from behind her most recent earthen wall before it became rubble ripping through the space she had occupied. Doing so, however, caused her to roll over one of several poorly-aimed nets he had conjured early on; the ropes came to life and wrapped themselves tightly about her, squeezing the air from her lungs.

She had paid so much attention to the curses he was unleashing that she had ignored the charms on the bindings and thereby walked right into his trap.

Viktor walked up to the space by her head, looking down at her face with a hesitant smile. "You are an excellent duelist, better by far dan I vas at fourteen, but it looks like dis is my vin nonedeless." A puzzled expression found its way onto his face, for she was not angry or afraid.

No, she was grinning as well, for her blunder was nothing compared to his.

One of the benefits to her particular style of magic, besides the lack of easily stolen focus, was that she understood how various spells were related. The summoning and banishing charms, for instance, were taught as a pair, but Flitwick never discussed exactly how they were nothing more than the creation of either an attractive or repulsive force between the target and the caster, nor did he explain that they were therefore very similar to the levitation charm taught in first year, which was simply a variable force pushing away the ground. She personally believed the normally helpful quarter-goblin kept his students in the dark because he himself was unaware of this. On the other hand, she could use those common principles to create effects those spells were never intended to cause.

Such as, for instance, spinning herself in a half-circle while laid out on the ground.

Shocked at her maneuver, Viktor did not step back as he should have, allowing her feet to whip around behind his ankles and pull his legs out from under him. A clenching of her fists vanished the web binding her, and she threw herself on top of her competitor. She slapped the wand out of his grip with her left hand while with her right she flung his arms out to his sides and temporarily paralyzed his voluntary muscles from the neck down. Straddling his hips and greedily sucking in the sweet, sweet air his ropes had denied her, she finally panted, "Not quite. You could have won – should have, to be totally honest – but letting down your guard like that was a mistake. If you had stayed back and kept your wand on me, I would have been at your mercy, but you gave the 'helpless damsel' an opportunity to turn your own trap against you. In the end, you were just too damn gallant for your own good.

"You did as I asked, though, and for that I thank you. I am most definitely impressed."

Jen sat there for a minute just catching her breath, noting with pleasure how she could almost feel his gaze grow hot as his head, despite him repeatedly jerking it back, gradually drifted towards her heaving breasts. What she could actually feel confirmed where his attention lay. Maybe not so chivalrous, after all. A wicked grin grew as she wiggled ever-so-slightly against the bulge pressing between her thighs. Barely audible, she murmured, "Is that the wand you normally use to charm your conquests, perchance?"

He groaned and dropped his head to the ground with a quiet thump. "Prokletoto neshto ima sobstveno mnenie."

Laughing, she dragged herself up his body as she leaned forwards. "He hasn't done anything wrong," she whispered in his ear, "so please, for me, don't strangle him too badly tonight." She gave his burning cheek a quick peck before rendering him unconscious.

"Pleasant dreams."

Cedric looked over the battle taking place below him. He had not been lazy despite him having the easier job; as soon as Jen departed to steal the other teams' tokens, he had set about transfiguring and conjuring numerous obstacles to any would-be attackers, and he was now glad he had done so. With a quick swirl of his wand, he repaired yet another golem, and the automaton raced back into the fray.

Eberhardt cursed in her native tongue as she tried to deter the pride of stone lions circling her. She shouted, "Leroux! Do someding!"

"I'm a leetle busy!" the Frenchman snapped back, hopping away from the company of badgers snapping at his heels. Though not as inherently dangerous as the large felines surrounding his temporary ally, the animals were smaller and more numerous, making them harder to stop. If they brought him to the ground, they were also fully capable of inflicting serious injuries.

And that is just another reason why people should never underestimate Hufflepuffs.

The German junior had been the first to lay siege to his base, though the girl fled the moment his golems woke up and began moving in force towards her. When Leroux had arrived a short time later, they had agreed to join forces and worry about who would take the castle token back when they actually had it, something they clearly understood neither was capable of on their own.

That had been almost fifteen minutes ago, and they had advanced only a few feet since. Thanks to Jen raising the high walls, Cedric had needed to do little more than create enough active defenses to hold the invaders off, permitting him to conserve his magic for the off-chance they succeeded in entering.

"Accio wall!" shouted the Durmstrang champion. She flew through a gap between lions; since the edifice was much heavier than she was, the charm pulled her to it rather than the other way around. Forcing her way through the grass the Hufflepuff bespelled to grab at her ankles, she laid one hand on the knob.

Though he could not see the wood of the false door, he certainly noticed when it flashed with azure brilliance. Eberhardt shrieked as she was thrown away from the base, lightning still crackling on her skin, and into a tree some twenty feet away. He could not help but gape and recall Jen's warning. If that's her idea of 'just enough to keep you from doing it again', I'm scared to see what she'd use if she was really trying to hurt somebody.

The electrocuted girl moaned lowly as she struggled to sit up. As much for her own safety as to keep her from rejoining the fight, Cedric carefully aimed his ash wand at the tree she lay under. "Cavea radicum," he intoned, his spell ripping the roots of that tall pine out of the ground and wrapping them around her.

Leroux snarled and blew the harassing badgers away with a wide-area banishing charm. Snapping his wand up, he sent a jet of dark red light at Cedric, who dropped to the floor of his wall-mounted platform to avoid it.

Well, that certainly did not look like a spell I want to experience firsthand. He raised his head and peered at the stone arms decorating the inside surface of the wall; maybe it was time to get a little more aggressive. With a complex animation charm, the same one he had used on his golem during the wandless duels so it would respond to his voice, he commanded, "Throw!" The hands lowered to grasp chunks of rock he had set up for just this purpose and whipped around, flinging the projectiles at blistering speeds towards the lone enemy still standing.

Several loud thumps mixed with a short cry, and then there was silence. Cedric peered over the edge and immediately found Leroux. The Frenchman lay unmoving on the ground under a pile of fist-sized stones, red lumps already forming on his head.

"Not bad." The Badgers' hero glanced in the direction of the voice, and he was unsurprised when his teammate rippled into existence. "Permission to approach unmolested, General?"

"You have the tokens? Already?"

"Wasn't hard. Potter was pitiful, and the Durmstrang base was abandoned once I fought Viktor for Beauxbatons's." She rubbed her ribs with a grimace. "He's a lot tougher with a wand, though, make no mistake about that. He'd have won if I hadn't caught him with a sucker punch."

Cedric shuddered; his own experience fighting the Bulgarian was bad enough. Still, I wonder when she and Krum became familiar enough for her to refer to him by his first name. Shaking off his idle curiosity, he called his transfigured defenses back and motioned her on. He clambered down the short ladder he had created to see over the top edge of the walls and waited for her to slip inside through her hidden opening. "Let's see them."

She smiled and pulled three grey discs, no larger than a sickle, from one pocket of her trousers before placing them in the middle of the unoccupied pedestals. Three finishing charms returned them to their natural states.

Castle, sailing ship, winged horse, phoenix. That's all of them. "How do we let the judges know for sure that we have them?"

Jen pursed her lips for a moment before tapping her wand against a cluster of runes he had not noticed were carved into the square stage below their own token. "I tied all the transfigurations together to keep anyone from being able to take them apart the easy way. You made that ladder and platform from the rubble I left out, I'm guessing?"

He nodded before helping her dismantle the walls. Once everything had been returned to how it was when they first saw it the previous night, a loud whistle sounded.

Four Tasks down, one more to go.

Jen, Cedric, Viktor, Potter, and Longbottom were forced to wait for nearly half an hour in a small, hastily-erected tent. Conversation was sparse and tense, and all of them were ecstatic when a mediwizard walked in to tell them that the other three competitors had had their injuries treated sufficiently for them to receive their scores.

The black witch was honestly surprised that she had only wounded one of the fallen, and even that was indirectly.

Bagman stood from his chair among the other judges. "Though this Task went quite a bit differently than expected, we have decided how to award your points. As each team was to work together, both champions from a single school will receive the same score.

"In first place is, who else, Hogwarts!" The crowd screamed, and Jen and Cedric waved to their adoring fans. "Not only did they collect all three tokens, they were the only ones still standing at the end. Diggory, Black, take thirty points for your valiant efforts!

"Second place was difficult to determine, but we ultimately decided that since Leroux was conscious a few seconds longer than Eberhardt, twenty points go to Beauxbatons." Both French champions, none too happy about having to hold the other up, glowered even as their school cheered.

"Durmstrang, you two receive ten points, though I will tell you right now, Mr. Krum, that the skill and tactics you displayed during that duel with Black nearly convinced us to award second place to your school." Bagman waited out the scattered applause from the Eastern Europeans before continuing, "Finally, coming in last, is Potter and Longbottom as they were the first ones taken out, just five minutes after the Task officially began. You get no points.

"Now, we the judges have tallied up all the points we awarded over the course of these Tasks, and I have to say, the results are surprising. First place overall… is a tie!" The spectators began jabbering away, and the former Quidditch pro raised his hands for silence. "Yes, yes, Diggory and Krum are dead even with 116 points apiece, but they should take care not to get too comfortable; Black is breathing down their necks from an extremely close third, being just one point behind them. Potter, Delacour, Leroux, and Eberhardt are practically in a different race altogether, with 90, 85, 74, and 65 points, respectively. These scores will determine the timing with which our brave champions enter the fifth and final Task, which will take place on the sixteenth of June, giving all you students something to look forward to for when you're through with your exams. More details will be shared on that day.

"Until then, ladies and gentlemen, goodbye!"

Good grief, Lily, why won't you let me rip on you for just a little bit?! It's like kicking a hurt puppy or something. I can't believe I'm saying this, but… be more like James!

Prokletoto neshto ima sobstveno mnenie: Damn thing has a mind of its own. Thank you, Google Translate.

I'm going to be completely honest: I had no idea the points were distributed like that until I added them all up for this chapter. That said, the results could not have been better had I planned the whole thing out.

Silently Watches out.