So guys, this is one loooooong chapter! I hope you enjoy it! Watch out for the change in P. coz theres loads of them!
The quidditch pitch was nearly unrecognisable. The hedges, which must have been 25 feet tall, went round the edges of the pitch. A narrow gap was visible. The entrance. The passage behind it looked long and dark.
Harry sat down in the stands. This task was obviously going to be like the last one. Long stretches of time where nothing happens as you can't see what is going on.
As soon as everyone had settled down, Bagman's voice, now magically amplified, boomed
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the third and final task of this year's Triwizard Tournament! Let me remind you how the points currently stand: in 1st place, with eighty-five points, we have Cedric Diggory!" He paused, to allow the crowds to cheer "In 2nd place, with eighty points, Victor Krum!" Another pause "And last but not least, in 3rd place, Miss Fleur Delacour!" he waited for silence "Mr Diggory shall enter first, then Mr Krum followed by Miss Delacour. Well then Cedric, on my whistle. Three... two... one..." the whistle was barley heard as the crowds had joined in the countdown. They all watched as Cedric disappeared in the darkness of the maze.
Cedric's P.O.V
As he turned the left corner of the forked passage Cedric not only lost sight of the entrance, but he also lost the sound of the crowd's constant screaming and shouting. The silence was unsettling. When he was starting to think that this wasn't actually as bad as he thought, he came around a corner and nearly fell onto a deep pit, to which he couldn't see the bottom. He noticed that his heart was going at twice its usual rate. He decided that the best thing to do was to stay calm, and think about his options. He could blast a hole through the 2 meter thick hedge, he could attempt to jump over the pit, or he could just fill the pit with something. The hedge was probably too thick to blast a hole in, and if he jumped he could fall. But he could fill the pit up. The question was with what.
He wiped the droplets of sweat from his brow. He smiled. He knew what to fill it with now. He pointed his wand at the pit.
"Aguamenti. Duro." He walked across the iced over pit. Then, he pointed his wand at the pit again. "Incendio." Now it was just a pit again.
After some time of wandering around, Cedric heard a scream. It sounded like Fleur. But it also sounded far away. It would take forever to get back to this point. He chose to ignore it.
He came round a bend, and nearly walked into a large, metal gate. He knew it wouldn't be open, but he tried all the same. It wouldn't budge.
"Alohomora." It wasn't open "Reducto." That worked. He walked through the remains of the gate. Suddenly, there was a rustle behind him. Was it some weird beast of Hagrid's? He spun round, expecting the worst. "Victor?" He hoped he didn't sound too relieved. "Hey! What are you doing?" Victor had his wand pointed at him.
"Crucio."
He threw himself at the floor and pointed his wand at Victor. Something was wrong with his eyes. He was pretty sure Victor's eyes had never looked so, well milky. But he didn't have time to discuss Victor's eye colour. He had to make sure that Victor didn't attack again.
"Impedimenta." Then, he sent up red sparks for Victor, so one of the Professors could save him. He ran, leaving a frozen Victor behind him.
It was only when he stopped, to retain his breath, that he realised something. He was the only champion left still going. That was, assuming Fleur had had to be saved. He lifted his foot to start walking again, but fell flat on his face. He turned his head and looked down at his foot. Roots were growing out the ground, and wrapping themselves around his ankle. After finding that tugging only made it worse, he used a severing charm to cut the roots away. He scrambled to his feet and started jogging down the passage. It was probably best not to stand still for too long.
He was just trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Victor had tried to use an unforgivable curse on him, when he walked around a corner and stopped instantly in his tracks.
The thing stood in-front of him must have been 10 foot long. The Blast-Ended Skrewt's tail was curved over its back and its sting made it look more like a scorpion. The Skrewt was coming closer. As he started to panic, he threw the first spell he could think of at it
"Avis." Blue birds shot out of the end of his wand. Why weren't they attacking it? It was only a few meters away now. Then he remembered.
"Oppungo." The birds started diving at the Skrewt, and trying to peck through its armour. But their efforts went unnoticed as the Skrewt kept crawling closer. He would have to stun it. But he would have to wait till it was really close, so he could send the spell at its fleshy belly. That would be now. "Stupefy!" the Skrewt froze. Cedric had to jump to his left as the Skrewt toppled over.
After some time, Cedric didn't know how long, he saw a sort of blue light ahead of him. As he drew closer, he saw the glint of metal. He broke into a run. The cup was made of glass and the edged were held together by metal. The words 'Triwizard Cup' were engraved on the front. Cedric reached out for the cup with both hands.
Harry's P.O.V
It was starting to get dark, and everyone had just stopped paying attention to what was happening, since Victor had been saved half an hour ago. It was quite a warm, windless evening, but suddenly an icy cold breeze whipped through the stadium. Nobody really noticed, and if they did, they didn't care to think why there was a breeze colder than the Arctic on a wind-free day. Five minutes later, everybody who had acknowledged the breeze had already forgotten about it.
Sometime later, just as Harry was sat finishing a History of Magic essay he had in his pocket, there was a huge flash of light. When everybody had stopped shielding their eyes, they found Cedric Diggory, clutching the Triwizard cup, lying in the grass in front of the maze. Ludo Bagman's voice was barely hear-able above the applause
"Well, it looks like Mr Diggory here is out Triwizars champion! Ladies and Gentlemen: Cedric Diggory!" There was more applause. Ludo was slightly confused now; that had been Cedric's cue to stand up, smile, and wave. He went to go and see if Cedric had fallen asleep of exhaustion, or if he had passed out. But after nudging him, and eventually slapping him, Cedric still hadn't woken up. He called over the other judges. They were all starting to get worried now. He still hadn't woken up. They called over Professor. He did some spells, none of which really had any effect. Professor Dumbledore was trying to calm a worried Amos Diggory and his wife. The crowd was getting restless. They wanted to know what they trouble was. Then, several minutes later, an announcement was made
"Ladies and Gentlemen. I must now announce, with great regret, that Mr Cedric Diggory no longer walks amongst us. Please all make your way to the Great Hall, so we can pay our respects. Thank you."
The crowds were generally under shock. Cedric's parents had tears streaming down their face as they headed for the Great Hall. Harry saw several Hogwarts teachers walking round, crying silent tears. Professor Moody was the only one who didn't seem in shock. He was busy with Dumbledore, trying to find out the last spells Cedric had cast, and trying to find out what had happened.
Harry was in one of the stands further away, but he was still sure this was happening; Professor Moody's face started changing. The scars started disappearing till they were smooth skin, his nose was shrinking, and his hair was turning from its usual grey to light blond. But, before he could see anymore, Dumbledore grabbed the rapidly changing Professor Moody by the collar, and with a crack, dissaperated with him.
Dumbledore's P.O.V
It was a shock to all of them, Cedric's death, but what was even stranger was, whilst Alastor had been helping him find out what spells Cedric had last cast, Alastor didn't really sound like himself. And his hands were smoother than they usually were. So was his face. Dumbledore was a clever man and he knew it, but he hadn't been able to foresee this.
Once he had disappeared into Alastor's office with a stunned whoever-was-pretending-to-be-Alastor, he told one of the portraits on the wall
"Fetch Minerva. Tell her we have an intruder. Then fetch Severus." He sighed as the portrait walked out of its frame. How had this happened? Who was this imposter? What had they been trying to do?
Minerva stumbled in
"Albus, what's this about an im-"she stopped as she looked at what was behind his shoulder. "It... it can't be! Barty Crouch Junior! How?" Severus was now also stood in the doorway.
"severus, would you care to go down to the kitchens and fetch the house elf Winky? Bring her back here. Then, bring the strongest Veritaserum you posses." He would have to find out what was going on. Winky would confirm Barty's story, he was sure of it.
He went and took the hip-flask from Barty.
"Ingenious. Alastor was always known for drinking from his own hip-flask." He opened the lid and let the contents splatter over the office floor. "Polyjuice Potion. Now I wonder... Minerva, help me search for a set of keys in here." They quickly found the keys. He walked over to the chest. It was only on the 7th key, that they found what they were looking for. Inside the chest, there was a deep pit. Inside, there sat an ill looking Alastor Moody. His fake leg was gone, as was his eye, and his grey hair had been cut unevenly. "How very clever. They would have had to keep him alive. And look Minerva. See where his hair is shorter than it is elsewhere? That's where his hair was cut off for the Polyjuice Potion. He looks like he's freezing down there. I shall throw him my cloak."
Suddenly, there was a cry of
"Master Barty! What is you doing here?" Winky looked up at him "You is killed him! You is killed my Master Barty!"
"Calm yourself Winky. He is not dead. And as to what he is doing here, we will find that out very soon. Severus, please give him some Veritaserum." As soon as that had been done, Barty was ready for questioning.
Barty's P.O.V
"Can you hear me?" a calm voice said. He didn't want to anwer, but part of him just did, without him wanting to.
"Yes."
"Good. Why are you here?"
"My Master sent me." He answered without pausing to think.
"Who is your Master?"
"The Dark Lord."
"Why has he sent you?"
"To curse the sorting hat. To make it resort Potter into Slytherin. He hoped that this would make him become friends with the Malfoy Scum's son. Then he would start to think like a Slytherin. And eventually he would come to hate you. He would try and get rid of you."
"Then what about Cedric? Why kill him?" Dumbledore asked
"That was just a bit of fun. To cause terror. To show that the Dark Lord is back."
"How did you escape Azkaban?"
"My mother was dying. She knew she was. She begged my father to let us swap places. He loved her like he never loved me, but he agreed." Winky had been silent all this time. She shouted
"No Master Barty! You is giving us away, you is!" He ignored her and continued "They came to visit me. When they arrived, my mother took Polyjuice Potion with my hair. I took potion with hers. The dementors didn't notice. They felt two people entering, one dying, and one healthy. They felt two people leave, one of which was also dying. My father staged her death. He held a small funeral. My mother's grave lies empty."
"But what happened when you got home?"
"He put me under the imperius curse. I was weak. I couldn't fight against it. He made me wear an invisibility cloak day and night. And Winky used her magic to bind me to her. But she had sympathy. She begged my father to reward me for being good. After years of Winky's begging, he finally agreed to let me watch the Quidditch cup. I hadn't been outside in years and I loved Quidditch. But I was starting to get stronger. There were times when I was completely myself. Like in the box during Quidditch. I saw a wand sticking out of a boy's pocket. I hadn't been allowed a wand in years. So I took it. Winky didn't realise. She is scared of heights so she was hiding behind her hands. My father dismissed her as soon as he found out what I'd done. She had failed him. She had let me attain a wand."
Dumbledore's P.O.V
This had been cleverly planned out. He wanted to ask more questions but he didn't have time. He had to go to the Great Hall to pay his respects to Cedric. But would he tell everyone? He couldn't say that an Death Eater who had been inside the school for the whole year had sent Cedric to Voldermort to be killed. He would, of course tell the other Professors, and Amos the truth. Not that they would all believe him.
Harry' P.O.V
They were all sat in the Great Hall. There was no longer a buzz to the crowd. Most people were just sat in silence. But those talking all went quiet as Dumbledore walked up to the front. He snapped his fingers. The banners, which were all bearing the Hogwarts crest, turned to canary yellow with the Hufflepuff crest.
"We are all here to pay our respects to Cedric Diggory. All those who knew him would say that he was a kind, loyal friend. He was clever and he worked hard. Those who didn't know him, he made a model Hufflepuff. He made his way through the Triwizart tournament. He even got to the cup first. Unfortunately, as he landed outside the maze, he twisted his ankle, fell forwards and knocked his head on the rim of the cup. I can assure you; he died a quick, painless death. Now, would you all raise your glasses to a true Hufflepuff. To Cedric." Everybody raised their goblets and chanted
"To Cedric."
When everybody had eaten, Dumbledore stood up again.
"Now, for some more news. As I am sure all Hogwarts students are aware of, at the start of this year, there was a resorting. I am now apologising, as the hat can't. It was extremely muddled up. It spent the last 3 days and nights of the holidays composing its song. Why I left it so late, I can't tell you. But it was so tired, it accidentally resorted Harry." He looked at Harry "The choice is yours Harry. If you wish to return to Gryffindoor you may. However if you feel you are beginning to sympathise more with Slytherins, I shall not force you to leave. As I said earlier, the choice is yours." Harry's heart leapt.
"I think I'll go back to Gryffindoor, Pforfessor."
"You know I'm sorry don't you guys? I spent the entire year being a twit." Harry said to Ron and Hermione, as he stood in the doorway of their compartment in the Hogwarts Express. Hermione's face broke into a smile.
"Of course we forgive you! I mean, we've both been idiots as well!" she looked at Ron, who was busy trying to find out whether the bean he was eating was coconut or baby wipe flavour."Haven't we Ron?" she asked, giving him a glare
"What? Oh yeah, we have. Sorry. Here, I'll move my stuff for you."
Just when the train was about to start moving, they were all sat eating Bertie Bott's every flavour beans, when Draco burst in
"You've got to see this! Crabbe and Goyle have got Snape hanging by his ankles, 2 feet off the ground!" They all rushed after him. Harry laughed. Crabbe and Goyle had levitated Snape by his ankles and summoned ropes from a tree so that he was dangling in the air, whilst trying to make sure that his robes didn't flap to the ground. He really looked like a bat now. A very angry bat.
"Looks like Crabbe and Goyle actually have some brains in them!" Harry said.
"Actually, they still don't. I suggested it." It was Draco. Harry held out his packet of beans
"Want a bean?" "Yeah. Ooh! Mint!" he put it in his mouth and bit down. His face went bright red. Harry couldn't stop laughing. "What have you got?" Draco gasped "Mouldy cheese! You maggot! It's a disgusting flavours box!" Harry smiled. "You could have asked!"
They were flung to the side as the train started to move.
So guys, this is the last chapter. I just want to say thanks to all the people who have followed this story, and who have supported me with reviews, views and other stuff. I hope you enjoyed the story!