A fairly short update, and I realize it's been a while. Sorry about that, things got a bit crazy/busy for me, some personal stuff. Hope you enjoy! BTW... 229 followers, 120 favorites, 31 thousand views? Thank you guys very much for reading the story! I'm honored so many people enjoyed it.

I've never wanted to quit something more in my life. Even more than Divination class.

But I was still a Triwizard Champion, and Gryffindor would be shamed for a long time if their champion just quit, when he was so close to winning. Cowardice was what Slytherin's did. Not us.

"Remember the charms." Hermione said nervously. The path to the Quidditch field—the new maze—hadn't seemed so long when I was going there to join the team.

"And hope that no one shows up." I muttered. "They've probably got an some awful stuff in there."

"Yeah, but can't be worse than a dragon." Hermione said lightly.

"At least the cup should be alright…" I remembered. "Professor Dumbledore said Moody will check it and put it in the maze himself."

We waited, in the tent, as crowds gathered, and the right officials showed up. I surveyed the other champions. The wild cards were Fluer and Krum—I knew Cedric wouldn't be in on anything. The Durmstrang headmaster knew something, but if anything, being afraid of Voldemort was good character evidence. I hesitated, glanced around. I could hear the crowd getting louder, heard announcements begin.

"A word?" I asked Cedric, jerking my head towards the corner. He hesitated, but walked over.

"Something up?" He asked in a low voice.

"Be on your guard." I warned. "There's reason to believe that there's a death eater, here, on school grounds, and he might be out to sabotage the tournament." Cedric gave me a look.

"Such as?" He asked.

"Kill a champion?" I offered. "Be careful."

"Are you barking?" He hissed. "You can't be serious."

"Completely." I retorted. "Just as serious when I told you we'd be facing dragons." That made him pause. He glanced around, looking at the contestants before shutting his eyes for a moment. When he looked at me again he didn't show any sign of disbelief.

"If needed… will we work together?" He asked. "Can I count on you?" I smiled faintly, half-amused at the irony of how this tournament was going, even though we were possibly going to be murdered in the process. As much as everyone in Hogwarts—Slytherine aside—would cheer if both of us worked together, it would probably offend Durmstrang and the Beaubaxton girls so much they'd never want to come back.

"Yes." I said, offering a hand. Cedric shook it firmly.

I wasn't really scared until I saw an acromantula. A magically bred spider big enough to eat a person, or a horse. It clacked its pincers and rushed at me.

"Incendio!" I shouted. I had aimed at the ground in front of it, but it had rushed forward and been hit straight on by the curse. It stopped charging though, as it was now on fire.

I ran, turning a corner and fleeing down the hedge-corridor as fast as I could. It met another path, and now I had three possible ways to go. I picked straight, not noticing the odd shimmering.

My world abruptly turned upside down. Literally. I froze in shock. Below my feet, the stars stretched out on a perfectly flat sky, as if I was walking upside down on the magic ceiling in the Great Hall. Above my head was grass. I mentally tried to run through the charms and curses Hermione and I had practiced. I could only remember two through the panic, but I was pretty sure none of them dealt with the world turning upside down.

I slowly reached up, trying to grab some branches of the hedge, while curling my feet upwards to meet the grassy sky…

And fell over, the world righting itself as abruptly as it had reversed. I took a few shay breaths and stood up as quickly as I could, hoping no one had seen that.

The screams almost made me jump. It was sheer shriek of agony, followed by bellows of rage.

I blasted my way through the hedge wall, and dove through the hole, finding myself in the middle of the chaos. The two Americans, and Krum, of all people. Annabeth was already on the ground—it had been her shriek I had heard. Percy was standing between her and Krum.

"Crucio!" Krum roared, sending a curse at Percy, who deflected it off the blade of his sword before simply hurling it at Krum like a huge throwing knife.

Krum easily summoned a shield charm, blocking it, only for Percy to full on body-slam him, knocking the wand out of Krum's grasp. I ran forward just as Krum managed to throw Percy off.

"Stupefy!" I shouted, hitting Krum squarely in the chest. He collapsed. Percy regained his feet and somehow had the sword in his hands again, raising it for a blow. I grabbed him before he could finish Krum off. "No! The Ministry will punish him!" I shouted. "You can't just kill him now, it'd be murder!" Percy backed off, his attention turning to Annabeth. The girl shakily regained her feet, looking weak, barely able to stand. Percy grabbed her under the shoulders, saving her from falling down.

"That hurt." She muttered faintly.

"It's an unforgivable curse." I said, looking at Krum again. I couldn't believe it. Even if they had scared him, I couldn't believe he'd use an unforgivable curse, just to win a tournament…

"It felt like I was in lava." Annabeth said weakly. "Like every part of my body was in agony, every nerve on fire."

"I'm getting you out of here." Percy said firmly, picking her up. "You need to see a doctor."

"People have been tortured into insanity, with that curse." I said, looking around. "To use it on another person—automatic life sentence in Azkaban."

"They should make it stricter." Annabeth managed to say. The girl looked shaken. "Execution, maybe."

"Who are you two?" Another voice asked. All three of us turned to see Cedric Diggory staring at us. "What happened to Krum?" We paused for a moment, Percy and Annabeth exchanging a look. Percy abruptly turned and carried Annabeth away.

"Two students from America, helping with the tournament. They were patrolling to make sure nothing happened…" I explained lamely. "Krum attacked them. Used crucio."

"You're barking!" Cedric looked shocked.

"No." I told him. I looked around, feeling a little exposed knowing that the Americans had just left and wouldn't be back. It had been nice knowing two extra people were watching out for me.

"Well, good luck." Cedric said, and walked off, vanishing around a corner. It took me a second to realize we were still competing for a fortune and "eternal glory" for the winner. I shook off my surprise, sent up red sparks so the Professors could find Krum, and ran off down another hedge row, not following Cedric.

There it was... I froze for a moment, staring at the glow. The Triwizard Cup. I couldn't believe it, I had gotten there before Cedric or Fleur…

As if summoned by thought, I heard footsteps, and turned to see Fleur stumble out around a hedge aisle.

She looked at me, amazed. I looked at her, the cup, and remembered the warnings of Percy and Annabeth.

"Wait!" I commanded, holding my hands up. "The cup might be cursed."

She took off running towards it, and I charged after her. I caught up with her halfway down the aisle, grabbed her, and shoved her into the side of the hedge.

"Fleur, listen to me, the cup might be cursed!" I shouted. She raised her wand, making me do the same.

"Accio!"She shouted, her French accent making it harder to understand. I turned, looking as the cup sailed towards us. I jumped in front of her, she grabbed my shoulder and tried to push me aside, the cup touched my hand—

And the earth fell away, the world twisting and shifting. I hit the ground and felt grass, heard Fleur shout in surprise. I opened my eyes, looked around.

A grave, with a statue of a grim reaper/angel cross standing over it. I read the name off. Riddle. Alarm surged through me, a feeling of horror settling on me. I remembered flaming words written in a chamber by a boy only a bit older than me…

"Where are we?" Fleur asked, barely understandable through her accent. I stood, raised my wand.

"Riddle—Riddle is Voldemort's real name." I said quickly, trying to resist the urge to yell or shot. "The name on the grave-it has to be his father."

"Impossible." Fleur said, fear showing on her face.

"Maybe not." A chuckling, rat-like voice remarked. We both spun. A man in a robe was walking towards us, holding something in his arms.

"Kill the spare." A snake-like voice hissed. The man raised his wand.

"Avada-" The man began.

"Stupefy!" I yelled quickly.

"Reducto!" Fleur screamed.