After several lessons of Sirius Black as a substitute teacher, the real Mad-Eye Moody had recovered from his time as a captive and started his duties as Defense teacher. Other than being a bit jumpier than usual, his teaching style wasn't much different from Crouch Jr's, and the students enjoyed his classes.
When Alex wasn't busy with classes and schoolwork, he looked up spells that might come in handy for the third task and practiced them. His friends took turns helping him, or he would practice the spells with the other champions. The four of them speculated what might be in the maze, and then worked out plans to combat or get around them. Alex also ended up showing the other champions to the Room of Requirement, so they could practice without being bothered by the other students, and allow the three Quidditch players to relax with friendly matches that wouldn't have half the school watching or articles being written about them.
During the next Hogsmeade visit (which had Aurors patrolling the streets), Alex ran into Ludo Bagman in the Three Broomsticks. Bagman offered help and advice, but Alex politely turned him down. Working with the other champions was one thing, but accepting help from one of the judges, especially as he hadn't offered to help the others, or even just Cedric (despite Bagman's claim of wanting a Hogwarts win), was a completely different matter.
In Care of Magical Creatures, they finished with unicorns and the next lesson was on nifflers. They were furry black creatures, rather cuddly, with long snouts, front paws that were flat like spades, and were attracted to treasure and valuable things. The lesson was spent having each person pick a niffler and have theirs dig up some gold coins that Hagrid had buried, with a prize for the student whose niffler dug up the most. Ron's niffler was very efficient and soon filled up his lap with gold coins. He turned out to have won, and was awarded with a large bar of chocolate. Meanwhile, Goyle tried to steal some of the coins, but Hagrid saw him and informed him that it was leprechaun gold, so there was no point in taking any.
That reminded the Gryffindor quintet about how Ludo Bagman had tried to pay his debts in leprechaun gold, and at lunch, they asked the Weasley twins if they had any luck in collecting their winnings, or at least getting their money back.
Fred shook his head. "Nope, whenever we tried to corner Bagman, he managed to find some way to escape us, or put us off."
"We tried blackmailing him about it, but he just sent a letter back saying we had been too young to gamble," added George. "He won't even give us the money we bet in the first place."
"And there's nothing else that we can blackmail him on," said Fred. "We did find out that he had been put on trial for passing on information to Augustus Rookwood, but Bagman had no idea that Rookwood was really working for Riddle, and so that plus his popularity as a Quidditch star helped him get off."
"Plus the whole thing was a matter of public record," George added. "The only good thing that's happened to us is that Sirius sent us a letter last month, saying he wanted to invest in our joke shop, and transferred five hundred Galleons to our Gringotts account. He also suggested some joke items, based off some pranks the Marauders had played, and ways to make them work."
"Then you don't need your winnings at all," said Beth brightly. "You've got Sirius investing in you, plus the money that Alex gave you."
Alex gave his sister a look. "You do realize that just because they've got a thousand Galleons invested in their shop it doesn't make up for the almost eighty Galleons they bet, or the couple hundred that they should have won? Most of it which happened to be their earnings from working at Petrov's Potions?"
"I know it doesn't make up for that," Beth said. "What I meant was that even though they lost out on money, they have enough money invested that they can still fulfill their ambition. I'd invest too, but Mum and Dad aren't going to let me give my share of the basilisk money to you, Fred and George."
"That's all right," said George. "As you said, we already have enough money invested that we can make Weasley's Wizard Wheezes a reality."
"Just buy our products when they come out and that's all we'll ask of you, Beth," added Fred with a grin.
"Well, after how Bagman's been treating you, I've lost any respect I've had for him," Alex said sourly. "I looked past the fact that he played for the Wasps, since he was still a brilliant Quidditch player and did a great job as Beater for the English national team, but this...And don't say that I should give up my dislike for the Wasps, Beth. They were the ones that started the feud with the Arrows, lobbing a wasp nest at the Arrows Seeker during a game."
"That was years and years ago," said Beth. "The Wasps should have apologized for the wasps' nest and the Arrows should have forgiven them, so there'd no longer be a rivalry."
"Oh come on, it's not like you never get passionate about the Harpies and favor them over other teams," Alex said with a snort. "Besides, the Arrows-Wasps rivalry isn't as bad as the one the Thunderers and Warriors have in Australia. If I remember Quidditch Through the Ages correctly, Australian wizards say 'Yeah, and I think I'll volunteer to ref the next Thunderer-Warrior game' whenever someone makes an outlandish claim or boast.
"That still doesn't mean - oh never mind, you have a point," Beth conceded, and then decided to change the subject to the last Defense class.
As Alex expected, Mr. Crouch ended up no longer working in the Ministry, though he wasn't exactly 'sent to the Centaur Liaison Office', or in other words, sacked. Instead, after recovering from the effects of the Imperius Curse, he was 'allowed' to quietly retire. He was granted a small pension, and instead of going to trial for smuggling his son out of Azkaban and being sentenced, he had to pay a fine and was more-or-less put under house arrest. His son, in the meantime, was subjected to the Dementor's Kiss at the conclusion of the inquest, and he ended up dying two weeks later, this time for real.
"I suppose because Mr. Crouch was a loyal member of the Ministry, they chose this way to avoid a huge scandal," Hermione speculated after the quintet read the Daily Prophet articles on the whole situation. "It looks better for the Ministry to have him 'retire'."
"Well, as long as he's no longer working for the Ministry and out of the public eye, that's fine with me," said Alex. "But I bet Sirius wishes Mr. Crouch had been sentenced and gotten a punishment other than a fine and virtual house arrest."
"Sirius would think like that, since Mr. Crouch was the one that sent him to Azkaban without a trial," Neville pointed out. "Anyway, we'd better head over to Transfiguration now."
The Easter holidays came and went. Ana sent the quintet each an Easter egg, the size of a dragon egg, consisting of a chocolate shell stuffed with taffy and a bag of the fruit drops that Granny Ilsa made. Mrs. Weasley did the same, though the ones she sent were stuffed with homemade toffee.
"Ooh, I love Granny's fruit drops," said Beth, popping a strawberry-flavored one in her mouth. "They're always delicious."
"Remember when we used to help her make them when we were younger?" Alex asked, sounding nostalgic as he ate a cherry-flavored fruit drop. "They were the only things we were allowed to help her brew, until we turned nine and were allowed to help with the brewing of the simpler potions."
"That was fun," said Ron with a smile, remembering the dozen or so times he'd brewed fruit drops with his friends. "And after they'd set and cooled, we were allowed to eat one or two, and got to take a bag of them home."
"Lucky you," said Hermione, who had no such memories as she hadn't befriended them until after starting Hogwarts.
"Sorry, Hermione, we just got, what's the word, nostalgic," said Neville. "But you did get to brew fruit drops that one time when you visited the summer before second year. So there's that."
"That's right," said Hermione, recalling the incident. The day after she had arrived, the quintet had taken her to visit Petrov's Potions in the afternoon (when it finally stopped raining), where Granny Ilsa had told them that her jar of fruit drops was low and suggested that they refill it for her by brewing some more. Since the others had helped make it so many times that they'd memorized the recipe, they gathered all the ingredients and taught Hermione how to brew the drops.
In the last week of May, Professor McGonagall held Alex back at the end of Transfiguration. "You are to go down to the Quidditch field tonight at nine o'clock. Romanov," she told him. "Mr. Bagman will be there to tell the champions about the third task."
Of course, Alex already knew what it was going to involve, but he simply acknowledged what Professor McGonagall had said. So at half past eight that night. he left his friends in Gryffindor Tower and went downstairs. As he crossed the entrance hall, Cedric came up from the Hufflepuff common room.
"I wonder what the maze is going to look like," said Cedric. "And where it's going to be."
"Since we were told to go down to the Quidditch pitch, it's probably there," said Alex, making a face. "It is the only place on Hogwarts grounds that's big enough to fit a challenging enough maze."
Cedric made a similar face. "I wonder what the pitch will look like then."
The two of them walked out onto the ground and towards the Quidditch field. As they got close, it was evident that it was no longer smooth and flat. Instead, it looked as though somebody had been building long, low walls all over it that twisted and crisscrossed in every direction.
"They're hedges!" said Alex, bending to examine the nearest one.
"Hello there!" called a cheery voice. Ludo Bagman was standing in the middle of the field with Viktor and Fleur. Alex and Cedric made their way toward them, climbing over the hedges, waving greetings to the other two champions.
"Well, what d'you think?" said Bagman happily as Alex and Cedric climbed over the last hedge. "Growing nicely, aren't they? Give them a month and Hagrid'll have them twenty feet high. Don't worry," he added, grinning, spotting the less than-happy expressions on Alex's and Cedric's faces, "you'll have your Quidditch field back to normal once the task is over! Now, I imagine you can guess what we're making here?"
"A maze," the four champions chorused at once.
"That's right!" said Bagman. "A maze. The third task's really very straightforward. The Triwizard Cup will be placed in the center of the maze. The first champion to touch it will receive full marks."
"We simply have to get zrough ze maze?" said Fleur.
"There will be obstacles," said Bagman happily, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Hagrid is providing a number of creatures...then there will be spells that must be broken...all that sort of thing, you know. Now, the champions who are leading on points will get a head start into the maze." Bagman grinned at Alex and Viktor. "Then Mr. Diggory will enter...then Miss Delacour. But you'll all be in with a fighting chance, depending how well you get past the obstacles. Should be fun, eh?"
Alex, who knew only too well the kind of creatures that Hagrid was likely to provide for an event like this, thought it was unlikely to be any fun at all. On the other hand, it would be sufficiently challenging, and he and the other champions had been preparing for this for the past two-and-a-half months, after all. The four of them nodded politely to Bagman's question.
"Very well...if you haven't got any questions, we'll go back up to the castle, shall we, it's a bit chilly..."
Bagman hurried alongside Alex as they began to wend their way out of the growing maze. Alex had the feeling that Bagman was going to start offering to help him again, but just then, Viktor said, "Now that ve have some more information about the third task, ve should decide on a real plan."
"Zat is a good idea," said Fleur. The four champions quickly hurried towards the castle, leaving Bagman trailing behind, a rather disappointed look on his face. Once inside the castle, they ducked inside the room next to the Great Hall and quickly made plans to meet in the Room of Requirement tomorrow evening, after dinner, to discuss things.