Disclaimer: I don't own nuttin, 'specially not Harry Potter nor any of the characters.

Chapter 79

"Whatcha gonna do today?" asked Ron through a mouthful of food.

"I'll probably go back to the room on the third floor and work on some of these jinxes."

Since he was exempt from his end of the year exams, he had been practicing during that time.

"Are you nervous?" asked Seamus.

"Terrified," admitted Harry.

"Harry!"

Harry looked up to see Cedric beckoning him over. "C'mon. He's waiting!"

He furrowed his brow but picked up the book he was reading. "Good luck with your exams," he told his classmates.

When he entered the side room, he saw Remus standing there. He beamed. He didn't know if he was going to get to show up or not. "I hope it wasn't any trouble for you to come here today."

Remus hugged Harry. "It wasn't any trouble at all. How about we go for a walk and get some fresh air."

"Umm. I'll put this up in the dorm first," he said indicating his book bag.

"Alright. Are you excited?"

"I'm nervous but I feel better prepared for this task than the other two."

"What all have you been practicing?"

Harry pulled out 3 pieces of parchment.

"Wow. A lot it would seem," Remus said while chuckling.

"Hermione and Gabriella are thorough."

After he put his things up, they started walking the grounds outside since it was nice out.

Remus told him about some of the marauder's escapades. Evidently the giant squid had a thing for Sirius. "Every time he got near the shore, it would appear."

As they were nearing the greenhouses, he saw Gabriella walk out with Astoria. He looked at Remus shyly and beckoned Gabriella over.

"Hey Harry! Professor Lupin," she said surprised.

"Gabriella, this is my honorary godfather Remus. Remus, this is my girlfriend Gabby Nott and her friend Astoria Greengrass."

Remus grinned at being introduced formally, despite the fact that he knew the girls from having taught them the previous year. "I hear you've been keeping Harry in line this year?"

"Someone has to," she said cheekily.

"Oh please," said Astoria. "You can't keep them apart."

Harry turned red.

"I need to go. I have my Arithmancy exam after lunch. Will I see you before the task?"

Harry nodded. "You should." He then watched her walk away with Astoria.

"Your parents would have loved to have met her. They would both be proud of you," said Remus.

"Even dad?"

"You mean about her being a Slytherin?"

Harry nodded.

"I'm sure James would have protested some but he would have eventually caved. It never took much prodding when it came to anything you wanted."

"I miss them," sighed Harry. "I don't really remember them but I miss them."

Remus put his arm around Harry's shoulders as they continued walking around the castle.

It was after dinner. Everyone was filtering into the stands to watch the next task.

Harry, along with the other champions, was in a tent off to the side with their family and friends.

Harry laughed as Remus told a story to Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Gabriella about how he and his dad had tried to scale the outside of the girls dormitories by broom to get someone's attention only to be caught by McGonagall.

"When James found what he thought was the right window, he looked in only to see McGonagall looking out at him. I thought for sure that she was going to kill us when we came inside," he chuckled.

"And I almost did."

Everyone jumped.

"Guests, please head on out to the stands to give our champions a minute to prepare. We will be starting shortly," said Professor McGonagall.

Harry hugged all his friends and Remus as they wished him luck. Gabriella gave him a kiss along with her hug and winked at him.

As they were leaving, Harry saw an invisible Snape hovering in the corner. He walked over there to retrieve the poncho with his name on it.

"Professor?" whispered Harry. Cedric's family was still leaving so he wasn't noticed and there wasn't any use pretending he didn't know he was there because of what happened a week prior in the Headmaster's office.

"I just wanted to wish you luck Potter. After this task, I need to speak with you about something important, about something that cannot wait any longer."

Harry perked up as he pulled the poncho on. He had planned on cornering the professor tomorrow to ask him about whatever this big secret appeared to be. "Alright. And thank you sir."

Harry watched the signature of Snape leave the tent.

The man was confusing but at least he would finally learn what he had wanted to tell him all year.

He then focused on some meditation techniques to calm his nerves now that he didn't have any more distractions in front of him.

The Headmaster spied Severus entering the stands and smiled. He thought back to the previous weekend when he had disclosed what Madam Pomphrey had told him.

"What's wrong with him?"

"It's like I told you Severus. He's fine."

"Albus ..."

Albus sighed. Honestly. Severus never let him have any fun. He eyed the man and decided that maybe bluntness was the way to go. "Harry went to Madam Pomphrey because he couldn't find anything in the library that described what he was seeing and became concerned."

"He's seeing things?"

"Oh yeah," snickered Albus. "Your son is more powerful than I think you realize."

"What exactly," asked Severus as he leaned forward, "does that mean?"

"This past summer, after learning to meditate, he began to see magical signatures."

The window in the Headmaster's office shattered causing Fawkes to squawk in indignation and surprise. Albus waved his wand at it so that it would repair while he looked over at Severus bemusedly.

"That would mean ... no. You have to be mistaken. He's not shown any of your power level in anything he does!"

"He can control it naturally, Severus. He thought that his power level was normal. Poppy said he passed out when he realized that he was on par with myself, though it wouldn't surprise me if after he's trained it's discovered he has more power than I do."

Perhaps that had been the wrong thing to say because Severus became two shades paler. "How can he control that much power naturally?" he asked - clearly not wanting to deal with the implication's that could bring about.

"How can anyone do anything naturally? It's just something that's done. She said that he didn't think he's ever used half of his power, and the time he came the closest was during the first task to summon his broom."

Severus clearly remembered feeling the wave of magic that had washed over him. "Not even half?" he choked out. He reached into one of his robes many pocket's and pulled out a calming draught and downed it.

Albus watched the myriad of emotion's go through Severus' eyes. He was starting to panic. Time to derail whatever he was thinking.

"Severus!"

Severus looked up, slightly startled.

"I've been trying to get your attention for ten minutes."

Albus chuckled again at the memory, coming back to his own surroundings as Severus sat down in the stands near the other professor's.

Albus had suspected Harry's ability to see magical signatures for a few months now to be honest, especially after the Rita Skeeter incident. He had known that Harry would be powerful but had expected it to be made known in his first year. His name had appeared in the Book of Souls before he had even been born. That wasn't exactly a common occurrence. Of course, Harry had to go and throw them all off by having a natural affinity for controlling his power. He chuckled slightly and watched as Severus said something to Filius.

Thankfully, the discussion of Harry being able to see magical signatures had distracted Severus from talking about Harry's dreams.

And earlier this morning, Severus had informed him that he was going to tell Harry that he needed to talk to him after the task. At the slight nod he received, he assumed that Severus had done so.

"Welcome to the 3rd task for the Tri-Wizard Tournament. As you can see, behind me, there is a maze. An hour ago, I placed the Tri-Wizard Cup somewhere deep within it. Our contestants will be entering it where they will face many types of obstacles. The first to reach the cup is declared this years Tri-Wizard Tournament Champion!"

The crowd roared.

"First to enter the maze, tied in first placed are the Hogwarts Champions, Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter!"

Harry and Cedric entered the enclosed circle area near where Dumbledore was speaking.

"Entering 5 minutes after them, from Durmstrang, is Victor Krum!"

Krum came out. Harry saw Hermione giggling in the stands. She had mostly stayed with Harry but she did meet his parents in the tent.

"And entering 5 minutes after Victor Krum, from Beauxbaton Academy, is Fleur Delacour!"

Harry laughed because he saw Ron's eyes nearly bug out and Hermione hit him disgustedly.

The Champions gathered around Dumbledore. "Now we'll have people patrolling the outer hedges. If you get into too much trouble and need to call it off, send up red sparks with your wand. They will come in and retrieve you."

They all nodded.

"Get into position. We will begin in a few minutes."

They all moved to where the hedge opened up. "Mr. Diggory, Mr. Potter, at the sound of the canon you may enter the maze."

When it blasted, Harry and Cedric pulled their wands out and entered.

"Lumos Maxima," said Harry.

He heard Cedric do the same thing.

At the first split, Harry went left and Cedric went right.

Back in the stands, Fleur Delacour had just entered the maze and the hedge closed up behind her.

"They can no longer hear us," the Headmaster said to the crowd, "and instead of us waiting in painful silence like we did during the second task, I have come up with a way to see how they are progressing."

Albus then uncovered 4 large spheres and floated them to where everyone could see them.

"I've been told this is something like a muggle television."

The crowd cheered, excited by seeing each of them in action.

"Point me Tri-Wizard Cup."

The wand spun around and Harry headed in the direction it pointed to just to run into a dead end.

He jogged back the other way and found a new path, only to be brought up short by some type of long snake.

"A snake?" Harry laughed. He then started hissing to it.

In the stands, everyone watched mesmerized - except Minister Fudge. He appeared to be spluttering in shock.

"Calm down Cornelius. Being a parselmouth does not make him evil."

"You knew about this?"

Albus nodded. "It was discovered his second year."

Harry had just nodded at the snake and cast a spell that would temporarily put a protective barrier around it so no one else could hurt it. He hissed his thanks and took off at a jog again.

In the stands, every one watched as the champions fought various things. Surprisingly, Harry did seem to have it the easiest. He encountered far less than the other champion's.

"Merlin!" exclaimed Harry. Everyone turned to see what he had come up on. When a Dementor floated into view, the crowd shrieked.

Gabriella felt her bracelet warm a second before Harry called out, "Expecto Patronum!"

"Woah!" the crowd exclaimed. A corporeal stag had leapt out of Harry's wand and circled the Dementor.

"Wait a minute, you're a boggart!" exclaimed Harry. "Riddikulus!" he cried out a second later.

The boggart dementor exploded into a million pieces. He then seemed to realize that his patronus was still standing there.

Harry waved his wand to cancel it and watched as it leapt back into his wand tip.

The area became a lot darker when it winked out.

As everyone exclaimed over the patronus, Severus leaned over to whisper to the Headmaster, "How did he keep the patronus going when he cast the 2nd spell."

"No idea," said the Headmaster, clearly amused as well as intrigued. He turned to look at Severus and even though it was brief, he saw the pain in the man's eyes at the fact that his son' patronus represented James instead of himself. He whispered, "Severus..."

"Don't," he snapped.

Albus sighed and returned his focus back to the spheres.

Harry rounded the corner to find another empty row. As he was jogging down it, he heard Fleur scream.

"Fleur?" yelled Harry.

She screamed again.

Harry took off racing down the row to her voice only to be brought up by one of Hagrid's mani-squids. It was huge - easily 8 feet long.

Thankfully, they had discovered in class that it was easily distracted by shiny things.

Harry quickly pulled some leaves off of the hedge and cast, "Lucere" on them. It made them glisten and the thing went for them and not him.

As Harry neared the next split, he saw a jet of red sparks shoot up in the air. 'That must be Fleur,' he thought.

In the crowd, they watched as the Beauxbaton's Champion was brought out by McGonagall and Sinastra. A plant had gotten her.

Harry, meanwhile, was running from Hagrid's Blast Ended Skrewt.

"Stupefy! Impedimentia! Stupefy!" Then he tripped over his own feet. "Impedimentia!" he yelled as he rolled away.

The last one hit the underside of the Skrewt where there was no shell which slowed it down. He then took off in the other direction.

"I've really got to talk to Hagrid about his pets," muttered Harry.

The crowd laughed - while Hagrid just grinned.

Albus was watching the three champions when he saw something strange on Krum's sphere. It was like he was hit by a curse. The angle was bad though, so he couldn't be sure but since no one else had been casting at that time in the maze, it wasn't one of the other contestants.

Perhaps 10 minutes later, Krum came upon Diggory.

"CRUCIO!"

The entire stadium stood up, alarmed.

On Harry's sphere, they saw him react to Cedric's screams.

Harry couldn't find a direct path to get to Cedric so he quickly found what he thought was the closest point to the screams, took a deep breath, pointed his wand at the hedge and yelled, "REDUCTO!"

It shot a hole through it.

As Harry climbed through, he saw Cedric twitching on the ground with Krum pointing his wand at him.

"Stupefy!" he shot at Krum.

He then ran over to Cedric. "Are you alright?"

Cedric caught his breath and nodded before slowly standing up with Harry's help. "He seemed like an okay guy."

Harry grimaced. "He is an okay guy." At Cedric's shocked looked, he explained what he meant. "He has the Imperious curse on him."

In the stands, the crowd gasped.

"How can you tell?" asked Cedric.

"Moody spent 3 months on that curse with us. How to fight it, how to recognize it. I saw it in his eyes before I stunned him."

Cedric walked over to Krum and knelt down beside of him as if examining him. He then slowly stood back up. "Reckon we should send sparks up for him?" he asked once he was sure he had shaken off the effects of the curse.

"Yeah. Hagrid's Blast Ended Skrewt is two rows over."

Cedric then sent sparks up over Krum's body. "Back to it?" He indicated the maze.

"Hold on." Harry attempted to transfigure a leaf into a piece of paper. It worked but it was sloppy. "I'm glad McGonagall didn't see me do that. She'd give me a weeks worth of detention." Harry then wrote on the piece of paper using his wand, 'Has imperious curse on him'.

"You can't transfigure a leaf but you can write with your wand?" asked Cedric as he watched what Harry had done with fascination.

"I'm pants at Transfiguration. I've been able to write with my wand since my first year."

Harry stood back up and they walked to the intersection together. He turned left and Cedric turned right.

Then it was down to two.

In the stands, Albus had rushed to where Krum was brought out. Cornelius was right behind him. After a quick examination, Albus nodded. "He does indeed have the imperious curse on him."

"We need to find out who put it on him," said Cornelius to one of his body guard Auror's.

While the adults were discussing Krum, the spectators watched as Harry encountered an anti-gravity enchantment. His glasses floated up and hair stood straight up on end. His shirt (he was in muggle attire) and poncho also kept trying to ride up.

When Harry took the next step, he crashed into the ground.

"Ow..."

After a fight with devil's snare, Harry came upon something that he had thought was only a myth.

A sphinx.

The crowd ooh'd and awe'd except for Hermione. "If he gets the riddle wrong, that sphinx will kill him!"

"This is Hermione's area of expertise, not mine," he mumbled.

In the stands, Hermione flushed.

"Okay. Let me hear it."

The sphinx nodded and recited a riddle.

"I've heard that before," he mumbled. He paced back and forth for a couple of minutes then burst out, "A Spider! The answer is a spider!"

The sphinx stretched its legs and moved to let Harry pass. "Thank you Gabriella," he muttered. She had begged him to help her with a puzzle book that included a chapter on riddles.

He ran down the path. There were no alternate paths that he could see. When he rounded the next corner as he followed the maze he saw it.

"The cup!" he squeaked.

Taking off at a full tilt run, he started heading toward it. But then Cedric came out of no where in front of him.

There was no way he could out run him.

Movement suddenly caught Harry's eyes.

An acromantula!

"Cedric, on your left!"

Cedric ducked right to avoid the spider clawing at him.

"Stupefy!" yelled Harry. He judged that he used about half of his power level but the spider so large that the spell merely bounced off of it.

However, it did make the spider realize that Harry was there.

It quickly scuttled towards him. When Harry tried to run, he realized he couldn't. There was devil's snare in this part of the maze as well, and it had caught a hold of his ankle.

"Lumos Hren!" He shot a spell at the plant, which then released him. When he looked up, the spider was over him, using the hedges to walk on.

Before he could react, it picked him up and started wrapping him in a web.

Harry pointed his wand at the pinchers and yelled, "Expelliarmus!"

As he was falling, he realized in hind sight that was perhaps not the best spell to use.

When he landed, he felt his leg break. However, he ignored it and shot "Stupefy" at the underside of the spider.

Harry watched as the spider toppled over.

He then realized that Cedric had shot a stunning spell at the same time he had. He had actually forgotten about Cedric.

Then, he collapsed fully to the ground.

"Harry, are you alright?"

"No. My leg is definitely broken. I think I'm just going to move into the hospital wing."

Cedric chuckled. "I don't know a binding spell but I do know a pain numbing one."

Harry nodded so Cedric cast it on his leg.

"Help any?"

"Some." Harry then glanced at the cup. "Take it. As soon as you do, then Madam Pomphrey can fix me."

Cedric looked at the cup longingly but shook his head. "No. You've saved me twice in here. It should go to you."

Harry shook his head. "I'm not even supposed to be in the tournament. I certainly didn't enter. You're the Hogwarts Champion, not me. Take it."

"No. I wouldn't have got past the first task if it wasn't for you so actually that's 3 times you've helped me."

"I was told about the dragons and I saw Karkaroff and Madam Maxime near the enclave. It was just fair to put us all on even ground," Harry gritted out around the pain in his leg.

Cedric glanced at the cup again then back at Harry. "I'm not taking it."

Harry sighed. "I'm not going to win any races with a broken leg."

In the stands, the crowd watched with anticipation.

"Together," Harry said finally. "Let's take it together. It'll still be a Hogwarts victory but you'll have to help me to the cup. I doubt I'll be able to get there on my own."

That seemed acceptable so together, the two of them headed towards the cup.

The crowd was cheering.

As Cedric helped Harry up, he asked, "What will you do with your half of the money?"

Harry steadied himself before leaning on Cedric. "No idea. You?"

"Put it towards an apprenticeship if I get one."

Harry sucked in a deep breath. His leg really hurt and he couldn't put hardly any pressure on it. He could tell it wasn't just fractured, it was broke. "What are you hoping to do?"

"Hopefully get a job in the law enforcement department at the ministry, like my dad."

Harry nodded.

They approached the cup. "On three. One. Two. Three."

When they both grabbed a handle, they were whisked away across the land.

"What the-?" Albus said as he stood up. "When I put that cup in the maze, it was not a port key."

A/N: First of all, I wanna thank everyone for the review's that I'm getting. I really do appreciate them. =) It always brightens my day. *hugs to everyone*

A/N: Now as for those that took me up on my bet, since some of you got the calming draught right, you each get half a cupcake. His swift mood change also caused a window to explode. Clearly accidental magic can happen at any age. ;-)

As for the viewer. While appliances like tv's and such can't work in the magical world (too much magic floating around), I figured that Dumbledore would be crafty and smart enough to come up with something. And until the champion's were brought out of the maze, none of them knew the viewer had been focused on them. No one knew about the Viewer's existence either until Dumbles uncovered it at the last moment. No one else can make them and they require a specific set of circumstances in order to make them. It had to be boring from the normal book point of view not knowing what was going on for so long, so I needed a way to remedy that.

Up next: Well, lots of stuff happens actually. I technically could post the chapter now but what good is a cliff hanger if I turn around and immediately post the next chapter? *grins and ducks a flying pitch fork* I should have it posted late Tuesday/early Wednesday.

Oh, and Graven, I'mma tell Moody that you stole his magical eye! See what he does to you for that! *snicker*
Just-one-of-many-readers - I understood your review just fine. Thank you very much for it! =)