Disclaimer:
I do not own MR or HP
Note:
Okay, I seriously have no idea what to put for this chapter... I know there are probably more events that I could put in, but I don't think that Max (and the rest of the flock) needs to get associated with them because she probably wouldn't be there, and Harry and the gang didn't want them interfering or something like that. In other words: I'm winging it. Heh, get it? Winging it? As in the flock has wings, and most of Harry's plans are... Yeah I suck at jokes.
So much had happened to fast. The day Nudge had returned, Krum and a man called Crouch had been attacked. Then Harry had freaked out in the middle of Divination. He wouldn't tell the the flock and I why, but I had the feeling that Hermione and Ron knew. I didn't blame him entirely. We weren't the best of friends. We each had very different pasts, most of which we haven't fully explained to the other. They definitely have some holes they didn't bother to fill, as did we.
We stood, lined up, ready to go into our final task. A maze.
I felt uncomfortable, remembering those awful times back at the School. The mazes they would have us run over and over again. Burning us, hurting us when we stopped. We ran until we were out of breath. Just like lab rats. Then again, I suppose to them we were lab rats. We were just dumb experiments.
Dumbledore was saying something, sounding important. His voice was only in the back of my mind though. I looked to the other four competitors. Fluer's eyes kept shifting from me to the crowd, she was scanning it probably for her friends and sister. Krum's eyes were dark and clouded over in thought. Cedric looked like he was about to sweat bullets. Harry looked to me for a second and we exchanged a quick glance. I nodded firmly, he nodded, but he was practically shaking. I turned, and looked through the audience.
There were a lot of signs for Harry, Cedric, Fluer, and Krum. There were maybe four for me, three excluding the one that said that I sucked. "...When the cannon goes Mr. Diggory and Mr. Potter will enter the maze and-"
BOOM!
It was almost deafening as the cannon went off. Cedric and Harry looked to each other, and then started to move forward. I watched as the maze closed in on them, and I couldn't suppress a small gulp as I thought of the maze. Hopefully they wouldn't have anything that would hurt us if we stopped. Not like most of the mazes I've been through.
I told you not to do this Max.
My eyes snapped open, alert. The voice was talking to me? For the first time in months? Now?
'Glad to know you haven't forgotten about me,' I thought bitterly.
Max, this isn't a time to joke around, this is why I said you shouldn't be here.
'You're a little late, aren't you?'
Just don't finish the maze.
'Wh-'
"And now Mr. Krum will start!" Dumbledore called out, interrupting my thoughts. I watched as Krum walked up to the new entrance to the maze, and walked in. Again, the maze swallowed him whole.
'Now then, what were you saying?'
Just don't finish the maze, it repeated. I let out a soft sigh, why was this thing always so confusing?
'Isn't that the point though?'
Do you really want eternal glory?
I thought for a moment, 'No. Not really.'
Again, Dumbledore interrupted my thoughts. "And now Miss Ride shall enter the maze." I nodded to myself, and walked to the entrance. I took one last glance back, and saw the flock waving at my nervously, along with Ron and Hermione. I nodded to them, and walked forward. The maze quickly swallowed me, and I was shrouded in darkness. I looked around, trying to figure things right. 'So, are you going to help me?'
There was no reply, which didn't surprise me. I started walking forward. I might as well get lost in this maze. I started walking through the maze, looking around. The walls were to close together so there was no way I was going to be able to fly away. I grabbed my wand, and muttered, "Lumos." This offered some light to the unlimited vision. I continued to walk pointlessly through the maze. I wandered through aimlessly, it was so dark and the maze and the rustling wasn't helping.
I turned a corner, and found a strange lion-like female creature looking to me. I felt my insides twist. If that wasn't something from the School, but then again I wasn't in a normal place. I'd seen things that I thought I'd only see in the school. I bit back the feeling to ask her if she really did come from the school.
"You're very near your goal miss," she whispered. She didn't seem like she was in pain from anything. I starred at her for a moment, but didn't move. When I didn't do anything, she continued, "You can get to your goal the quickest by going behind me. You just need to answer a riddle. Get it right: go ahead, get it wrong: I attack, just walk away: I'll do nothing."
"Sure, let's hear the riddle," I said, sighing. I wasn't the best with these things, but I might as well.
"As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives,
Each had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
each cat had seven kits,
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
how many were going to St. Ives?"
Was she kidding? She wanted me to do math? "Okay, give me a second," I muttered. I bent down, and started writing in the dirt with my wand. "So it's one man, and he had seven wives. So eight, and then seven times seven would be..." I held my head, getting a headache. "Mind repeating it one more time?"
The female creature nodded, and repeated the riddle again.
"So, I was going... and then there was a man- But wait, was the man and all of those people going to St. Ives too?" I looked to the creature, but she only smiled, as if I had just said the answer out loud, but didn't know it. I smirked. How I wish I could read minds.
"Okay, so if all those people weren't going to St. Ives, but I was so... One. One person was going to St. Ives."
The creature smiled once again. "Final answer?" I nodded, gripping my wand a little tighter.
"Correct," she nodded, and moved out of the way. I smirked, and walked past her, not glancing back.
Soon enough I felt like I was getting closer to the center, I started to hear footsteps. I looked over, and saw Harry running toward me.
"Max," he panted.
"Harry," I nodded. "What are you running from?"
"Nothing, I'm trying to beat the rest," Harry replied, though I didn't believe him. He gave a worried glance over his shoulder, and then back to me. "Come on, I think the cup is this way." He started jogging again. I walked behind him. I quickly lost him. I started walking through the maze again, not really knowing what to do. I didn't want to win, I couldn't risk the flock getting well known. There was another pair of feet running toward me. The opposite way of where Harry had just come from. I turned, Krum was running straight toward me, wand out.
He let out a grunt, and said something in a foreign language. Before I could do anything, a red light flew out toward me. I immediately jumped out of the way, pressing myself hard against the bushes. I felt a branch pressing hard against my arm, and I felt it dug into my skin a little, but it was better than being hit by whatever that was. Krum shouted something again, but I couldn't really care at this point.
"Expelliarmus!" I shouted, pointing my wand at him. His wand was knocked out of the way. I knew it wouldn't last long, but at this point it was my best bet. I knew I couldn't punch the guy out. He had the upper edge with a better knowledge on how to use a wand.
Only about a minute of running and I started to hear the footsteps again. I was starting to sprint, and my lungs were just starting to ache. Again, this wasn't much of a problem. I was used to these kind of extremes, running up the stairs in Hogwarts had only helped with this a little. He was going to catch up. How was he faster than me? Then again, I had heard he was some famous sports player.
I started twisting through the maze, hoping to lose him. After a while, I stopped hearing his footsteps. I started walking around, trying to calm myself. This was terrible. First I was attacked by Foreign Guy and now I was even more lost now. Then again, this was a maze. I started walking around, bored. How much longer until this was over? Couldn't Harry, Cedric, Fleur, or Krum win already?
Suddenly, something exploded into the air. I looked up, giant red sparks were starting to fall. As I was wondering who had given in, I heard the breeze. I turned around, to find that there were dozens of branches moving wildly. I watched, as the breeze started to reach me. The sparks were across the maze, how could it be so close to me. Natural instinct threw in, fight or flee. In this case, the breeze looked to strong for me to even fly against it, even if my wings could fit in the space. So, I fled.
I started running again, trying to get away from the strong winds. As I ran, I ran into Harry and Cedric. They were in front of me by a few feet. I started sprinting, trying to get as far away from it as possible. "Don't suppose you know a spell?" I asked, looking to the two boys, and then back behind me.
"Can't you just fly?" Harry retorted.
"Walls, limited space, no room," I replied, starting to breathe a little harder. As we rounded a corner, we could make out the faintest blue glow way in front of us. The three of us looked, and started running. I had the feeling it was the cup, and it looked like there was enough space for me to be able to fly out of this maze. We came out into the clearing. The cup was in front of us. "One of you take it, I don't want it," I said immediately.
"She's right, Cedric, you take it," Harry said, motioning for him to grab it, looking like he didn't want anything to do with the cup.
"No, you saved me back there Harry, you take it," Cedric said, taking a glance back at the wind. I felt myself becoming agitated. If they didn't hurry I would take the cup just to get this over with.
"Both of you take it," I snapped, glancing over my shoulder. It seemed the winds had become more furious, and were now tossing and throwing the branches around. We watched as some of the walls started to combine, making it impossible to escape any other way. What was happening?
"You too Max," Harry said, his eyes shifting around nervously from either side of the walls.
"No, I don't want eternal glory," I replied. I almost took a step back, and then remembered that if I did, that wind would make a salad out of me.
The winds had surrounded us almost entirely now. It felt like it was circling us, almost like we were in an eye of a tornado or hurricane. The three of us looked around, there was no chance I was going to be able to fly away in this wind. I looked from Cedric to Harry, who looked back to me in turn. "On three then," Harry said.
"One," Cedric counted.
"Two," I followed, sticking out my hand.
No! I heard the voice shout as I started to reach my hand out.
"Three!" Harry shouted, and the three of us shot our hands out for the cup. The second we touched the cup, I felt something inside of me twist. It felt like I was being tossed around, and flown around the room without my wings being needed. The three of us screamed, and then landed with a hard thump on the ground.
Sorry that this was a little short. And I know that I kinda jumped, but I didn't really know what else to put. I might go back after the story is done, and add a chapter possibly maybe if I ever feel like it. If I do, I'll probably do it before I put up the next chapter. If there was anything you people really want to see or something, I guess I could try.
Oh, and did I forget something... HARRY POTTER COMES OUT TODAY! And I would go, if my parents weren't really mean and they would let me go out on a school night. -.-'
