Harry ducked under the opening of the tent and winced as the crowd roared in excitement. They were very loud and would likely be a distraction. He wished he could magically shield himself from the noise but he didn't want to risk it. He didn't know how to block out the crowd without blocking out noises that he might need to hear and he didn't want to use any extra magical energy – he was sure that he would need all the energy at his disposal for the obstacle course.

He could see the giant stone wall in front of him, with the large chasm between him and it. The previously empty bleachers were now filled with spectators and Harry was sure that they couldn't all be students – there were far too many of them.

"Our final Champion is Harry Potter!" Bagman announced him excitedly, his voice echoing around the area.

The crowd cheered again and Harry tried to block them out as he began to run towards the chasm. It felt good to run and expend some of his nervous energy, but the closer he got to the chasm, the more his nervousness turned to panic. From a distance the chasm had looked about ten feet wide, but now that he was closer he could see that it was more like fifteen feet. What if his propulsion spell didn't send him far enough and he fell in?

Harry sped up, running and fast as he could towards the chasm. He could hear Bagman making some kind of joke about how he thought Harry might try to jump over the chasm. Harry ignored him, all his attention on the chasm. He would have to cast the spell and jump at the exact right time, in three...two...one...

:Up: Harry hissed, his wand providing the needed movement as he jumped.

The result was amazing and, before Harry knew it, he was over ten feet in the air. Instantly, he began to fall and made the mistake of looking down.

Merlin! The chasm was more of a pit than anything and there were giant lizards in it. Lizards that, if the liquid shooting towards him out of one of their mouths meant anything, spit some kind of venom.

"Propellentem!" Harry cast hurriedly as he fell.

The spell hit him as though he was a bludger being hit by a giant beater's bat, and suddenly the fast approaching ground was a much bigger concern than the pit filled with giant, venom spitting lizards.

"Malacisso!" Harry shouted, his wand waving some kind pattern in the air as he fell head first towards the ground.

The ground rippled slightly beneath him and Harry hoped furiously that it hadn't been his imagination. If it had been, and the ground hadn't softened at all, this was really going to hurt!

Harry clenched his eyes shut and stretched out his arms, bracing himself for impact, any second now he would...bounce?

His eyes flew open in confusion as he bounced off the ground and back into the air. What? A cushioning charm wasn't supposed to make things bouncy, just softer.

There wasn't much time to consider what had just happened though as he falling again, though this time feet first. His second landing was a lot more permanent than his first had been and Harry winced as his legs impacted with the hard ground. Ouch!

Harry stood still for a moment, trying to move past the pain in his ankles and feet. His shoulders and arms were aching from his first landing, and he could hear Bagman exclaiming over his strategy.

But he didn't have time to stand still for long and, the second the pain in his legs had decreased a little, he set off towards the wall.

The wall was at least twenty feet tall and Harry could see little statues lined up along the top. It made him glad that he had opted for smashing through the wall, as opposed to climbing it. If he took the venom-spitting lizards as an indication, the statues were probably some kind of creature that would try and kill him.

When he was ten feet away from the wall, Harry slowed to a halt and pointed his wand at the wall.

"Ah," Bagman was saying to the crowd. "I think we know what he's going to do here..."

Harry ignored him, focussing all his attention on the spell and, more specifically his magic that he wanted to put into the spell.

"Expulso!" Harry watched as the blue spell sped from his wand towards the wall.

The wall exploded into bits of stone and he brought an arm up to protect his face from falling debris.

"Bloody hell!" Bagman sounded completely flabbergasted. "Did everyone else see that?"

Once the dust had settled, Harry nodded in satisfaction at the lack of wall in front of him. There was still wall to his left and right, but all that was left of the wall in front of him was a pile of rocks. Harry quickly made his way over the rocks, keeping a careful eye out for any of the little statues in case they really were creatures that would try and kill him, before turning his attention to the next obstacle.

This obstacle had to be the fire obstacle, since he'd already done air and stone, but he couldn't see fire anywhere. Instead, he could see the Golden Egg that he was supposed to be collecting about hundred feet in front of him. Between him and the egg was flat ground, and for the first thirty feet or so, two lines of stone statues – one on his left and one on his right.

Harry stepped forward cautiously, stopping just before the first two statues. If this was the fire challenge then the statues probably had something to do with it and, if he had to take a guess, Harry thought that they statues were probably going to shoot fire at him – it was how he would have done it anyway.

He tightened his grip on his wand, before bringing it up to draw the elaborate hand movement for the shielding spell. "Cingo!"

Immediately the orange shield appeared before his eyes and, while Harry could only see the shield in front of him, he knew from experience that was encircling his entire body.

That done, Harry took another step forward. The fire was instant – surrounding him, roaring, consuming, warring against his shield to try and get at him. Harry grimaced as he felt his shield begin to weaken, though he was quite sure that it would last him to the end of the statues. He walked quickly though, just in case, trying to ignore the sight of the red and orange flames, licking at the surface of his shield. It felt disconcerting, to be so close to fire and not feel it's heat.

He lasted about ten feet at a walking pace before the flames swirling around him began to get to him. They were just so close, so all consuming, and he could feel them fighting his shield. At first it was just a niggle in the back of his mind but the further through the flames he got, the more afraid he felt.

Harry broke into a jog when he thought he was about twenty feet through the fire (though he couldn't really tell, the fire was completely surrounding him and he couldn't see anything other than flames). Sure the faster pace would make it harder to stay focussed on the shield, but it would be worth the risk if only he could get out of the flames quicker.

Eventually he broke free from the flames, but despite the fact that he could see the sky again his fear continued to increase. He felt suddenly cold, as though ice water had just been flung over him, except the coldness wasn't just from the outside – it felt as though it was coming from inside him as well. As though his heart and lungs were turning to ice.

Suddenly, Harry heard screaming. The sound was blood-curdling and like no other sound he'd heard before. He looked around desperately, trying to find where the noise was coming from. Who was screaming? Was this part of the obstacle course? Was he supposed to save them?

The first thing Harry saw as he looked around was the Golden Egg about seventy feet in front of him, the second thing he saw were the tall cloaked beings to his left and to his right.

They weren't moving, just standing there – their dark cloaks moving gently in the light breeze.

Suddenly, Harry remembered something he'd read years beforehand, when he'd still been researching the Wizarding World. Azkaban was guarded by Dementors, tall humanoid creatures who wore dark cloaks and had an aura of terror.

Which possibly explained what they were (though only if whoever had come up with this obstacle course was completely bonkers!), but he couldn't remember ever having read about how to fight them.

Harry took a step forward, ignoring the goose bumps that were breaking out on his skin as the screaming in his head got louder. He took another step, carefully watching the Dementors for any sign of movement. When they didn't even twitch, he broke into a sprint towards the Golden Egg.

He could do this, he could, he was sure he could. He just had to ignore the screaming woman in his head.

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

Harry shook his head sharply to try and block out the voice. He ran on, before a pricking on his neck made him look back over his shoulder in case something was chasing him – but there was nothing there. He looked forward again, at the Golden Egg that he was aiming for. Surely once he'd gotten there they would take the Dementors away – only forty feet left.

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" The voice screamed again.

Thirty feet...

Suddenly there was another voice. "Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside, now..."

Twenty feet...

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead -"

With only ten feet left, Harry ran like he'd never run before, anything to get rid of the voices and the paralysing fear that was all but consuming his body.

Finally he reached the Golden Egg, but he didn't stop. He barely even slowed down, just enough to snatch the Egg off its pedestal, before continuing on – away from the Dementors.

He had only run another ten feet when he saw a tent, identical to the one at the start of the obstacle course, with Professor Snape standing outside of it, a sneer on his face and a silver white doe beside him.

"In here, Potter." Professor Snape instructed him.

Harry ran towards him, the Golden Egg tucked under his arm, before slowing in surprise when the terror began to fade. It was strange, by the time Harry was standing next to his favourite professor the terror had all but gone. Leaving only a feeling of nausea in his stomach and a cold sweat covering his skin.

"Inside." Snape said, jerking his chin sharply towards the tent.

It felt surreal, to step calmly inside the tent after all that had happened in the last ten minutes, and even odder to have Madame Pomfrey fussing over him as though he was a first year with a cold.

"...what were they thinking?" Pomfrey muttered quietly, as she shoved a large piece of chocolate into Harry's hand. "...Dementors! Never in my life..."

Harry looked around the tent for the other Champions, but he presumed they were all in different rooms – if they were still in the tent at all.

The chocolate Pomfrey had given him worked like a charm and within minutes, Harry was feeling more relaxed than he had all day. Then Pomfrey gave him a light blue potion which soothed the pain in his limbs from his hard landing at the beginning of the course.

"Are you feeling tired, dear?" Pomfrey asked him, with a concerned frown.

Harry took a few seconds to try and decide on an answer. "No more than I would expect, ma'am."

Pomfrey looked taken aback. "Are you sure? You don't feel exhausted?"

Harry shook his head. "No, ma'am."

Pomfrey didn't seem to know what to do with that information but, after a few more minutes of fussing, she temporarily dismissed him back out of the tent to hear the judges' scores.

Despite the calming effects of the chocolate, Harry was reluctant to leave the safety of the tent, but he slowly trudged his way outside.

Professor Snape was still standing outside the tent and, now that Harry had calmed down a bit, he was able to pay more attention to the silver doe standing beside his professor.

It was beautiful! And completely unlike anything he had seen before. Harry reached out a hand to touch it, but the doe skitted away from him as though it was a living creature.

"This way, Potter." Snape instructed him, leading him back towards where he had encountered the Dementors. The doe walking in front of him.

Harry followed reluctantly, before pausing in surprise when he realised that the Dementors weren't effecting him. Had they been taken away? No, they were still there. Then what...Harry stared at the silver doe, was it protecting them?

"And now the judges' scores!" Bagman announced.

Harry forced his attention away from the doe, to where the judges were sitting in raised golden seats near the stone wall that he had demolished.

Madame Maxime was first and, as she raised her wand, Harry realised he had no idea what kind of score he would be getting. Had he done well? He'd smashed through the wall relatively easily, he thought, and his shield had held for the fire, but his face plant at the beginning of the Task probably hadn't looked very impressive and he certainly hadn't known what to do for the Dementor.

Madame Maxime waved her wand and a silver ribbon flew out of it, forming the number nine.

Harry's eyes flew towards Professor Snape's face in surprise. "Really?"

Snape didn't say anything, but he wasn't sneering in disdain – so did that mean he agreed?

Sirius was next and Harry' stomach felt as though it was tied up in knots waiting for his godfather's decision. Of all the judges, Sirius' opinion was the one that mattered the most to him.

A silver ribbon, identical to Madame Maxime's, flew out of Sirius' wand and slowly formed the number nine.

Harry almost leapt in his excitement. Two nines?! (One of which being from Sirius!) Did they not care that he hadn't known how to deflect the Dementor?

Dumbledore was next and he scored him eight, then came Bagman whose ribbon formed the number ten.

"But I didn't know the spell for the Dementor." Harry murmured in confusion.

"You refrained from tears, unlike one of your opponents." Snape commented dryly.

Madame Brusilova was next and, as her silver ribbon formed the number eight, the crowd roared in excitement.

"Forty four." Snape sounded almost impressed. "I believe that puts you in the lead, Mr. Potter."

23-23-23

It took Harry another ten minutes to be officially released from Madam Pomfrey's care and then another five to listen to Bagman's instructions regarding the next task. Apparently the Second Task wouldn't be until February and the Golden Egg contained a clue for it.

Finally they were dismissed and Harry made his way towards the large tree near the lake where he and his friends often sat, the golden egg tucked under his arm.

They were all there waiting for him, except for Takashi and the twins, and they greeted him enthusiastically as he drew near.

"You were amazing!" Neville exclaimed, standing up and flinging an arm around Harry's shoulder.

Draco looked almost as excited. "Very well done, Harry!"

"Thank you." Harry acknowledged, stepping out from under Neville's arm and sitting down with a proud grin. "I still can't believe they brought in Dementors!"

"I can." Luna smiled dreamily. "They're not all bad, you know."

Harry raised an eyebrow incredulously. "Have you ever been near them, Luna? Because they feel horrifying!"

"That's not their fault." Luna protested. "They can't help it if they're..."

"Terrifying, soul eating, nightmare inducing monsters?" Draco finished for her.

Daphne, leaned forward and reached out a hand which Harry squeezed gently, before releasing. "I'm glad you are alright."

"So am I." Harry let out a breath. "I don't think I have ever been so scared in my life."

"You're not supposed to admit that sort of thing, Harry." Draco admonished.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Draco, if I hadn't been scared there would be something terribly wrong with me."

"Bravo, Harry!" Theo leant over and clapped Harry on the shoulder. "That was one impressive blasting curse."

"Krum took six curses to get through the wall." Neville added with a grin. "Viterova took seven."

"Really?" Harry gave him a sceptical look. "Why?"

"Because it was three feet thick." Theo exclaimed, as though it should have been obvious. "You blasted through three feet of stone in one spell."

"What did the others do?" Harry asked curiously, he'd only heard Bagman's vague commentary and, while he could guess what some of his narration might have meant, he wanted to know all the details.

"Cedric tunnelled under the wall." Draco said with a horrified shudder. "He was covered with mud by the time he came up the other side."

"Don't exaggerate." Neville admonished. "The ground wasn't even slightly wet. He was covered in some dirt definitely, but it wasn't mud."

"Both of the Beauxbatons girls went over the wall, but they were attacked by the Gargoyles at the top." Theo took over the explanation. "The brunette..."

"Moreau." Daphne put in primly.

"...climbed." Theo finished. "But the veela actually flew over."

Harry's mouth dropped open in shock. "What?"

"Obviously fullblooded veela have wings when they transform," Neville pointed out. "We saw them at the World Cup Final, but apparently part veela can transform too."

"She must have flown over the chasm then too." Harry realised.

"Yes," Draco confirmed. "And much more gracefully than you did."

Harry grimaced. "I probably looked ridiculous."

"Not as ridiculous as the brunette looked trying to levitate little plates to stand on." Theo grinned. "She almost fell in multiple times and the lizards hit her with venom more times than I can count."

"Krum transfigured a bridge across." Neville took over the explanation. "But it was falling apart at the end and he barely made it across. Cedric levitated things just like Moreau, but he did a better job of it.

"What about the fire?" Harry asked with interest.

"The veela just transformed and walked through." Theo answered. "Though she did look a little singed by the end of it all."

"Cedric and Viserova walked through as well." Draco added.

"They probably used the spell that makes flames feel as though someone is tickling you." Harry guessed. "I thought of that spell, but I didn't know anything about it other than the fact that it existed."

Theo grinned. "The brunette..."

"Moreau." Daphne corrected with a frown.

Theo rolled his eyes. "...tried to shield like you did, but something must have gone wrong because she was looking pretty singed when she came out the other side."

"Krum's shield held up much better." Neville added simply. "Though not as well as yours."

"The Dementor was the worst part." Daphne said with feeling. "The only person who knew what to do was Viserova. The rest of you looked completely terrified."

"It was awful!" Harry admitted. "I was so scared I was hearing voices."

Luna looked up from the daisy chain that she was making. "Not just voices, memories."

Harry frowned questioningly. "What do you mean?"

"Aren't Dementors supposed to bring out your worst memory or something?" Neville asked uncertainty. "I remember Gran talking about it once." He added when everyone looked at him weirdly.

"But why would I hear a woman screaming?" Harry asked in confusion. "I don't even know what my worst..." He trailed off in horror.

"What?" Draco asked.

"I heard a woman screaming," Harry answered slowly. "She was pleading for something and she kept saying, not Harry, not Harry."

His friends all stared at him uncomprehendingly, except for Luna who had turned her attention back to her daisy chain.

"What if it was my mother?" Harry asked, his stomach churning in dread. "What if it was her, just before she died?"

Neville paled, as Draco's mouth twisted in horror and Daphne reached out a hand to lay on Harry's arm.

Harry scrambled to his feet, leaving the golden egg sitting on the grass. "I need to find Sirius. I'll see you all later."

23-23-23

A.N. Oops, so this chapter ends with a bit of a cliffy too. Sorry about that, haha.