The Third Task was set for June 24th, a Friday, but halfway through April Ludo Bagman called for all four champions to come to the Quidditch Pitch just as dinner was starting. He got one hell of a surprise when he was flipped off and Viktor stated to him that they didn't care what the maze looked like, having already seen it that morning during their exercising. When asked how he knew that, Alex was the one who sent a copy of the manifesto over to the moron, with one word, "Goblins." Ludo had rushed off, knowing that if anyone got word that he had been the one to give the goblins the manifesto to begin with, he'd be out of a job before you could say Quaffle.

Classes went as usual, every morning Draco and Luna would join their friends in exercising, the blonde wizard more determined than ever after receiving word that his father had been killed in Azkaban, where he had been sent after the World Cup incident. When his mother requested him return for the funeral, Draco had told her no, going in and getting the family ring, and immediately disowning her as a Malfoy for being a marked Death Eater. With Sirius once more in control of his family ring, he had removed her and Bellatrix Lestrange from the Black Family, and brought Tonks and her mother into the family once more. So Narcissa No-Name was out on the streets for less than a month before getting hit by a truck, she didn't stand a chance and Draco had lost both parents in a month, and his stance was much freer, as though without the weight of the world on his shoulders. Luna had instantly offered her home as somewhere for him to go should he wish over the holidays, and he had accepted with a passionate kiss.

Thanks to their daily exercising, each of the 10 were in the best shapes of their lives, which they were all thankful for. Penny had received her very own longbow and arrows from Firenze for Christmas, and a set of daggers from Alex and Hermione at the same time, the satyr excelling in long range fighting but very competent in hand to hand also. Grunhot and Thurhot were running low on things to teach the demigods, bringing in a few trainee Gringotts guards to train in battle against the pair every Sunday, and usually they would wipe the floor with the trainees.

In April, the two demigods had snuck down to Hogsmeade on a morning they had no classes, and went to the magical tattoo parlour, where the owner had simply nodded to them both and had them sit in a chair each. Both had their ideal tattoos in mind, and where they wanted them, so it was quick, easy, and relatively painless. Hermione, wishing to honour both her father and her grandmother, got Minerva's owl tattooed on her right upper arm, on the opposite side the her goblin one, and a large trident on her inner right forearm, getting a hint that it would be important in the future to be there. Alex had the same idea, honour his father and grandfather, so for both Hermione and Ares he got a water dragon tribal tattoo on his right upper arm, and for his father, he got a soaring golden eagle on his back. It took an hour for the tattoos to be placed and Lasting Charms put over them, the pain was minimal and they were back at the castle in time to take over classes.

When Severus had noticed the tattoo on Hermione's forearm, he almost passed out but after asking about any more, he did succeed in fainting, and when he awoke had many words with the teenagers, who simply stated that they wanted something that honoured those they respected. The fact that they had only been out of the Lotus Eaters' hold for just over 14 years truly didn't matter to them, they were already millennia old and a few tattoos weren't going to kill them. The wizard understood, after a few days of shooting them glares, and accepted that it was something that they both felt necessary, but was going to leave telling Wade and Kelly all to them.

The closer the day of the Final Task got, the sicker Hermione felt, knowing that it was to do with her gift of clairvoyance and the only reason she was getting sick was that the Fates were blocking the future from her. It got to the stage that she was bedbound most of the day, only getting up to eat in the lounge, walk to the office where she would sleep between tutoring sessions, and exercise, the only time she felt better was when in the water. Alex would pray to his father every day in an attempt to get Hermione to feel better, even if the Fates were to show something they already knew, like the creatures in the maze. They did that, and the witch felt better enough to go to the Great Hall for meals, but she still was unable to teach or attend her own classes.

And then, on the day of the Final Task, Hermione woke perfectly fine, feeling as though she hadn't been ill at all, "Alex! I'm better!"

"Of course you are my love, it's the 24th today," the wizard groaned as he tried to get more sleep.

Hermione wasn't having it though, sitting on his waist and snogging his brains out, "Get up, I need to run in the forest."

After working out what was going on, Alex nodded and rushed to tell a still sleeping Penny, who threw a pillow at his face, so he left her a note just in case. Still in his pyjamas, the young man followed his love out of the castle, the second they left the doors, they changed into Thor and Epona, and raced across the grounds and into the forest, relishing as the power of nature rolled over their bodies. Soon they were joined by Nye, who would be leaving in a few days to start his journey to Camp Half-Blood, and spent many hours being animals, having great fun at it too.

Much too soon for their liking, Firenze found them near a small pond in the forest, "Unfortunately it is time for you two to return to Hogwarts, the task that will start the Second War begins in an hour."

Sullenly nodding, the horse and wolf nudged both of their friends before returning to the school, only 30 minutes remaining. As soon as they left the forest they returned to human form and transfigured their pyjamas to robes, wrapped their arms around them and head towards the Quidditch pitch.

"Alex, Hermione, where have you two been?" Fleur called out, waving them over to where Gabrielle, Apolline, and a man stood, "You've met my mother and sister, and this is my father, Marcel."

"A pleasure to meet you sir," the demigods shook the man's hand.

"Oui, my love, she speaks highly of you," his English was fractured, nowhere near as good as his family's.

"Oh, we are being called for, I'd like to sit with all of the families of Fleur, Cedric and Viktor, if you would join me Minister Delacour?" Hermione asked.

The Veela nodded, "Of course Mademoiselle Hippia."

The couple smiled and head over to where Viktor was waving, "Alex, Hermione, these are my parents, Viktor Senior and Ana, and you've met my lovely Iliya."

"Pleased to meet you both"

"Da," the two adults said, their son translating for them.

"Oh, umm, Viktor, can you ask if they would like to sit with Mia during the task? She'll be with the Delacours and hopefully the Diggorys."

The Seeker did so and the responding 'Da' and nods were greeted with smiles, and then the couple was off again, this time to where Cedric was standing, "Alex, Hermione, nice to see you've left the call of the wild. My folks, Amos and Enid Diggory."

"Heard a lot about you two from my boy here," Amos said, his handshake strong but trembling, he was nervous for his son.

"Hopefully it's been good sir," hearing a whistle, Alex sighed, "We should get over there Cedric. Mr Diggory, Mrs Diggory, Hermione is sitting with the other families, if you would like to join her."

"We would like that," the plump witch responded, kissing her son before following Hermione to the stands.

"Well mate, time to face our destiny," the Hufflepuff rested his hand on his shorter friend's shoulder, "Ready?"

Alex laughed, "Cedric, this is barely a blip on my destiny, but even still, not in the slightest am I anywhere near ready."

That had the three listening teens laughing, "Just so long as you're certain. Remember you two, no floating."

Fleur and Alex grinned, "Would we go back on our word?"

"Yes" the other two said joking, knowing they wouldn't.

The three school heads approached, along with Arthur, Percy and Bagman. Seeing the Minister, Alex waved, "Minister Weasley, nice to see you again sir. Have you been well?"

"This ruddy tournament has given me an ulcer but other than that," Arthur grinned, "And yourself?"

"About the same sir"

Many staff and all of the Aurors had red stars on their hats, Minerva explaining, "You get into trouble and need to resign your place, send up red sparks and stay put, someone will be there to get you as quickly as possible. Each of you, as stupid as it is too say, stay as safe as possible in there."

"We will Minerva," Alex said for them all.

With the judges heading off, Ludo sticking around, and the helpers leaving for their spots around the maze, the champions stood there patiently waiting. Finally the former Beater magnified his voice and spoke, "Welcome to the Final Task of the TriWizard Tournament. The champions will be entering this maze, face both the challenge of finding the center and the trophy within, and the challenges of various spells and creatures. The champion will enter in the following order, Alexander Olympius, 10 minutes later Cedric Diggory, 1 minute after Mr Diggory Viktor Krum, and then a total of 25 minutes after Mr Olympius' entry, Fleur Delacour shall enter. To win the tournament, simply grasp hold of the trophy and it will transport you back to this spot. Very well, Mr Olympius, at the ready."

The moment the cannon went off, Alex raced into the hedges and immediately transformed into Thor, knowing he would ace less challenges as a wolf, be faster, and would easily find the center with his sense of direction. 10 minutes flew by quickly, and with only a brief encounter with a Blast Ended Skrewt that he soared over the top of, when the cannon went off, Cedric was in the maze followed a minute later by Viktor. There was only one creature that Alex really was concerned about, and that was the Sphinx, but he knew where she was, he and Hermione might have cheated slightly and had Nye soar overhead to find where in the maze the monster was, and that was where Alex was staying far from.

A flash of something out of the corner of his eye concerned him, someone had sent up red sparks already, and Fleur wasn't even in the maze yet. Hoping that his fellow champions were alright, Alex sped up, intent on ending this barbaric event before someone was killed, they'd already beaten the previous tournaments and he intended on having no one die during this one, and then have Minister Weasley ban it from ever being put together again.

Finally the final blast sounded, and Alex knew that Fleur was in as well as either Cedric or Viktor. As he was thinking that, another set of red sparks went up, and they were much closer to him than Fleur could be, but there had been no sound coming from there, concerning the demigod greatly. He was mollified by the fact that if dead or unconscious, they couldn't have sent up the sparks, so trudged on.

Hermione was in the stands with three worried and nervous families, they'd all seen the two sets of sparks but no one had called out which of the boys it had been who were bowing out, or what their statuses were. Alex had been in the maze for 40 minutes now, Fleur 15, and they must be getting close to the center, or had taken seriously wrong turns. She was clutching onto Penny and Gabrielle's hands, Iliya was sitting between her legs, worry causing her to squash the brunette's foot, but Hermione didn't notice, she was worried too, "Come on Alex, show me you're alright."

He'd done it, he'd found the middle. Going back to human form, the demigod's eyes were fixated on the gleaming trophy in the middle of the clearing. He never noticed the huge spider until, from out of nowhere, Fleur tackled him out of the way, "Alex!"

Seeing the spider was really an Acromantula, not that it mattered in the big scheme of things, the demigod felt a chill run down his spine, he really hated arachnids. Another scream came from his friend, and he saw her trying in vain to get it from her, so did the one thing he knew would work. Calling forth 2 lightning bolts, he called to the witch, "Fleur, don't touch it!"

Seeing what he was holding the Veela transformed herself and flew from the spider, just as the two bolts and two more hit it. One of the bolts would have been enough to kill the Acromantula, but Alex was mad, it had hurt his friend, he could see the blood from a wound. But with 4 pulsing bolts in the already dead body, it was going to happen, the spider grew and burst, sending it's liquefied insides everywhere. Both teens were covered and both very quickly threw their stomachs up.

Groaning as she transformed back, Fleur hit her friend around his gooey head, "Alex, that was disgusting."

A wave of his hands had them both pristinely clean once more but still feeling dirty, "You have no idea. I didn't intend on having that happen."

Their bothers were removed though when their eyes hit the trophy, "You deserve it Alex, I mean, you did save my life."

"Like you didn't do the same just moments before that? You should take it, give Beauxbatons some glory."

"We don't need it," the witch thought for a moment, "If we take it together, then we both win, both get the 1000 galleons and the supposed eternal glory. What do you think?"

Moving over to the trophy, they held their hands over it and counted together, "1"

"2"

"3," and they both touched the trophy at the same moment. And at that same moment, they both felt the tug of a Portkey behind their navels, transporting them to places unknown.