Chapter 50 The Final Task

At dinner Remus, Bill, Mrs. Weasley, Emily and I joined Ron Harry and Hermione at the Gryffindor table. The dinner consisted of many three more courses than usual and much to Remus and Mrs. Weasley's chagrin I hardly ate anything. Finally Dumbledore stood at the staff table and addressed the Great Hall.

"Ladies and gentlemen, in five minute's time, I will be asking you to make your way down to the Quidditch field for the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament. Will the champions please follow Mr. Bagman down to the stadium now."

"Well, that's my cue, see you all after the task!" Choruses of "good luck" followed me as I headed out of the Great Hall with Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor. We walked onto the Quidditch field

which was now completely unrecognizable. A twenty-foot-high hedge rall all the way around the edge of it. There was a gap right in front of us which could only be the entrance to the vast maze. Just as Professor Dumbledore had said the stands began to fill roughly five minutes later. The air was full of excited voices and the rumbling of feet as the hundreds of students filed into their seats. The sky was a deep, clear blue now and the first stars of the night were starting to appear. Hagrid, Professor Moody, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick came over to us. Each one of them was wearing large red luminous stars on their hats, all except Hagrid who had his on the front of his moleskin vest.

"We are going to be patrolling the outside of the maze." Professor McGonagall informed us. "If you get into difficulty, and wish to be rescued send red sparks into the air, and one of us will come and get you, do you understand?" The four of us nodded with understanding.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Mr. Bagman addressed the crowd. "The third and final task of Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! Tied in first place, with eighty-five points each, Mr. Cedric Diggory and Miss Allison Potter, both Hogwarts School! In second place, with eight points, Mr. Viktor Krum, of Durmstrang Institute! And in third place, Miss Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons Academy! So, on my whistle, Allison and Cedric! Three...Two...One..." There was a short whistle blast and Cedric and I raced forward into the maze. I couldn't have made it more that fifty feet into the maze before I heard Mr. Crouch give a second blast of the whistle, meaning Krum had entered the maze. Lighting the tip of my wand, I picked up the pace and continued to move further into the maze. I turned right and hurried further into the maze. I took a left, but that path led to a dead end. I continued on to a second fork in the road and began to feel uneasy about the lack of obstacles in my path so far. There was a sudden hurried movement behind me, I whipped myself around wand in hand to find Cedric stumbling out of another path I hadn't noticed. He looked severely shaken and the right sleeve of his robe was smoking.

"Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts!" He hissed "they're enormous, I only just got away!" he shook his head and raced along to another path. Carefully avoiding the path that Cedric had just come from, as well as the path he had just taken, I hurried along. As I raced around the next corner I reached my first obstacle. Standing twelve feet tall, with matted fur and snarling teeth, it was a werewolf. My heart raced as I took in the sight of it. Of all the creatures I had encountered at Hogwarts Remus' werewolf form had been the thing that terrified me the most. I was incredibly surprised that Professor Dumbledore would allow a werewolf to be let loose in the maze. The werewolf continued to snarl and growl but it hadn't caught sight of me yet. Using the fact that the werewolf hadn't taken notice of me I took a deep breath and tried to plan my next move. Now that I had a moment to think I glanced up at the sky and was relieved when I realized it was not a full moon. I should have known better. I thought to myself Remus would never come to Hogwarts and risk the safety of hundreds of people when it was a full moon out. Standing in front of me in the maze was not a werewolf, but a boggart disguised as a werewolf.

"Riddikukus!" I cried out, banishing the Boggard to a wisp of smoke.I continued through the maze turning left, right, left again. There was a golden mist in the air of the path ahead. I had no idea of knowing what the golden mist was. While I debated going forward or doubling back I hear a silence shattering scream. It was Fleur I was sure of it. I took a deep breath and ran through the mist. The world turn upside down and I was hanging from the ground, my red hair hanging down covering my face. Well at least I'm not dead. I huffed trying to blow the hair from my face. It felt as if my feet were glued to the grass, which had now become the ceiling. Below me there was nothing but dark open sky. None of the spells I practiced with Fred and George would have been of help in that situation so I had to resort, once again, to thinking of a backup plan. Closing my eyes I tried the first thing I thought of I tugged my right foot away from the grassy ceiling and was relieved when the world righted itself. I fell to my knees, but at least I wasn't hanging from the ceiling anymore. Running forward I came to a junction where two paths met. I had no idea of knowing which direction Fleur had gone from here.I chose the path to the right but continued thinking about Fleur. There were no sign of red sparks so either so had gotten herself out of trouble or she was in such trouble that she couldn't reach her wand. One champion down. A sick feeling rose in me as I realized what I had gained from her misfortune.

The cup was somewhere close by, somehow I knew that. I ran into nothing but dead ends for several minutes, then I rounded a corner to find myself facing a Blast-Ended Skrewt.

"Impedimenta!" I bellowed. I had been lucky enough to hit the Skrewt on its fleshy shell-less underside. The Blast-Ended Skrewt remain frozen in place and I continued along the path. This was a new path I hadn't been down yet, but I heard something in the distance that caused me to stop dead.

"What are you doing?" Cedric yelled. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Krum spoke next but only one word.

"Crucio." The air was suddenly full of Cedric's yells. Horrified I blazed through my path trying to find a way to Cedric. When one didn't appear, I decided to make one. Blasting a hole through the hedges I climbed through. The scene I walked in upon was one of the most horrifying things I had ever seen. Cedric was jerking and twitching on the ground, Viktor was standing over him. I pointed my wand at Krum and without hesitation I stunned him.

"Stupefy!" The spell hit Krum in the back, he fell forward and lay motionless in the grass. I dashed to Cedric's side, I was relieved to see that he had stopped twitching and was lying on the ground panting.

"Are you alright?" I asked placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah." Cedric breathed. "Yeah...I don't believe it...he crept up behind me...I heard him, I turned around, and he...he had his wand on me." Cedric got up but he was still shaking.

"I can't believe this. I thought Krum was alright." I started down at Krum.

"So did I." Cedric added bitterly.

"Did you hear Fleur scream earlier?"

"Yeah, though I didn't know it was her. Thought it might have been you. You don't think Krum got her too?"

"Honestly, I don't know." I shook my head.

"Should we leave him here?"

"No." I told him firmly. "We should send up red sparks, someone'll come and collect him, otherwise he'll probably be eaten by a Skrewt."

"He'd deserve it." but all the same, Cedric raised his wand and shot a shower of red sparks into the air, which hovered high above Krum, marking the spot where he lay.

"Well I s'pose we'd better go on..."

"Uh, yeah." We went our separate ways, it was all down to Cedric and I now. Even though time was ticking I couldn't help but think about Krum. The use of an unforgivable curse on a human being meant a life term in Azkaban. I continued on my path only coming across a dead end once in awhile. The darkness had begun to increase leading me to believe I was nearing the cup. At the end of a long straight path I crossed paths with a sphinx. It had the body of a lion with large clawed paws and a long yellowish tail but the head of a woman. She turned her long almond-shaped eyes in my direction and spoke.

"You are very near your goal. The quickest way is past me."

"So you'll move?" I grumbled ready to be finished with the horrid maze.

"No, not unless you can answer my riddle. Answer on your first guess- I let you pass. Answer wrongly- I attack. Remain silent I will let you walk away from me unscathed."

"Ok, let me hear the riddle." The sphinx sat down in the very middle of the path and spoke.

"first think of the person who lives in disguise, who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies.

Next, tell me what's always last thing to mend, The middle of the middle or end of the end?

And finally give me the sound often heard during searching for a hard-to-find word.

Now string them together and answer me this, which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?"

"A person who lives in disguise, well that's a spy of course...What's always last thing to mend?...I've got no idea about that bit...end I suppose...The sound often heard would be er...Spy-er, Spy-er... A creature I wouldn't want to kiss...The answer's a spider." I tond the Sphinx quite proud of myself. The sphinx smiled broadly stretched her front legs and moved aside, allowing me to pass. After a hundred feet or so I could see the Triwizard Cup gleaming. I broke into a run putting all my might into reaching the cup. A dark figured hurtled forward from another path, Cedric had arrived and he was closer to the cup than I. But something was moving in a hedge to Cedric's left. I called out for him, but Cedric was moving too fast to stop, but he was able to turn in time to stop himself from colliding into the enormous figure. A gigantic spider stepped out of the hedges. I fell backwards tripping on a root, this drew the spiders attention to me. It moved surprisingly quick for such a large figure. The spider was bearing down on me, and was able to snap at my leg with it's razor-sharp the pain in my leg I made several attempts to stun the spider, but was only successful once Cedric joined in.

"Stupefy!" We called out nearly in unison. The spider keeled over sideways,flattening a nearby hedge.

"Allison!" Cedric shouted. "You alright, did it fall on you?"

"No!" I called back. I examined my leg the spider had gotten me my robes were torn where it had snapped at me, I was losing blood fast. I tried to get up , but my leg was shaking badly. Pulling myself up, I leaned against a hedge, gasping for breath, and looked around. Cedric was standing only four feet from the Triwizard Cup.

"Take it then!" I bellowed. "Go on talk it, you're there!" But Cedric didn't move, he just stood there looking at me. Then he turned to stare at the cup with a longing expression.

"You take it!" He called back. "You should win, you saved my neck in here."

"That's not how it's suppose to work!" I hollard back. "The one who reaches the cup first gets the points. That's you. I'm telling you, I'm not going to win any races on this leg." Cedric took a few paces in my direction, away from the cup, shaking his head.

"No." he said.

"Stop being noble, just take it, then we can get out of here!" I yelled.

"You told me about the Dragons. I would've gone down in the first task if you hadn't told me what was coming."

"I had help on that too, and you helped me with the egg. We're even."

"I had help on the egg in the first place." Cedric said.

"We're still even."

"You should've got more points on the second task. You stayed behind to get all the hostages. I should've done that."

"I was the only one thick enough to take that song seriously! Just take the cup!"

"No." he repeated. Cedric Stood on the side of me, leaning on the hedge, his arms folded in defiance. Meddling Hufflepuffs and their loyalty. I was about to tell Cedric off for being so stubborn when I thought of a solution that would make us both happy.

"Both of us." I said.

"What?"

"We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it." Cedric started at me for a moment before unfolding his arms.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. We've helped each other out haven't we? We both got here, Let's just take it together."

"You're on, come here." Cedric grabbed my arm and pulled it over his shoulder. He helped me limp over to where the cup stood. When we reached it we each stretched out a hand for one of the cups gleaming handles."On three then?" I nodded.

"One."

"Two."

"Three"