When exam time came, Alex was exempt from taking them due to the fact he was in the tournament. Therefore, he spent the time doing research in the back of the library or practicing spells with the other champions. On the morning of the third and final task, he was planning to do the same, but during breakfast, Professor McGonagall came up to him. "Mr. Romanov, the champions are congregating in the chamber off the Hall after breakfast," she said.
"But the task's not till tonight!" said Alex, accidentally spilling scrambled eggs down his front, afraid he had mistaken the time.
"I'm aware of that, Romanov," she said. "The champions' families are invited to watch the final task, you know. This is simply a chance for you to greet them."
As she walked away, Alex couldn't help grinning. His parents, and likely Sirius as well, would be here, and possibly any other family members that was able to take the time off of work. He quickly finished breakfast, and his friends headed off to their History of Magic exam.
Once inside the chamber, he noted that Cedric and his parents were just inside the door. Viktor was over in a corner, conversing with his dark-haired mother and father in rapid Bulgarian. He had inherited his father's hooked nose. On the other side of the room, Fleur was jabbering away in French to her mother. Fleur's little sister, Gabrielle, was holding her mother's hand. She waved at Alex, who waved back, grinning. His attention then focused on the group standing in front of the fireplace. His parents, aunts and uncles, Sirius, Remus, Mrs. Weasley, and Bill were there.
"Hello, dear," said Ana, hugging her son and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "We invited Molly to come along, since she's practically like family, and Bill was able to take time from work, so he came as well. Your Grandmum Lise would be here too, but she got off shift an hour ago and needs to get some sleep."
"The rest of your grandparents couldn't take the whole day off work, but they'll be able to come in the evening to watch the task," said Stephan. He hugged his son, followed by everyone else, other than Bill.
"You all right?" asked Bill, grinning at Alex and shaking his hand instead. "Charlie wanted to come, too, but he couldn't get time off. He said you were incredible against the Horntail."
Fleur Delacour, Alex noticed, was eyeing Bill with great interest over her mother's shoulder. Alex could tell she had no objection whatsoever to long hair or earrings with fangs on them. Bill, however, did not seem to notice this at all.
"I'm fine, Bill," Alex replied. "Aunt Maria, Uncle Tobias, I'm surprised that you were able to get time off work. I thought the Ministry was on a state of alert after 'a Dark Wizard claiming to be Voldemort has appeared and gathered followers'."
"We are here in our official capacity, Alex," Aunt Maria explained. "Even though the plot was found out and everything, Minister Fudge thought it best if there were some Aurors standing guard just in case. Kingsley Shacklebolt and Tonks are keeping an eye on the maze for the morning, and Tobias and I will take over for the afternoon. The four of us will be guarding during the task."
"It's great being back here," said Bill, looking around the chamber (Violet, the Fat Lady's friend, winked at him from her frame). "Haven't seen this place for five years. Is that picture of the mad knight still around? Sir Cadogan?"
"Oh yeah," said Alex, who had met Sir Cadogan the previous year.
"And the Fat Lady?" said Bill.
"She was here in my time," said Mrs. Weasley. "She gave me such a telling off one night when I got back to the dormitory at four in the morning -"
"What were you doing out of your dormitory at four in the morning?" said Bill, surveying his mother with amazement.
"Probably the same thing I did," said Ana with a laugh. "I used to sneak out and have nighttime walks and snogging sessions with Stephan when we were dating."
Mrs. Weasley laughed, her eyes twinkling. "Oh Ana, we're so much alike. Bill, your father and I had been for a nighttime stroll. He got caught by Apollyon Pringle - he was the caretaker in those days - your father's still got the marks."
"Why don't you give us a tour, Alex?" Aunt Sarah asked. "I would love to see if anything's changed since I was last at school."
"Yeah, okay," said Alex, and the group made their way back toward the door into the Great Hall. As they passed Amos Diggory, he looked around.
"There you are, are you?" he said, looking Alex up and down. "So, I see that you need the help of the other champions just to-"
"Dad, that's enough," interrupted Cedric. "Alex is perfectly capable of holding his own, and you know the only reason he's in the tournament was because Crouch Jr entered his name in hopes of using it as a way to kill Alex and bring the Dark Lord back. Besides, all of us champions decided to work together, because other champions have died past tournaments and we want to keep it from happening in this one. Also, I was under the impression that the tournament was also about promoting international wizarding cooperation, and our working together shows that."
Mr. Diggory flushed. "I'm sorry, Alex, I just wanted Cedric to win very much, and I let what Rita Skeeter wrote before she was discovered to be an unregistered Animagus influence me."
"It's all right, Mr. Diggory," Alex said politely, and he followed his family out the door.
Alex had a very enjoyable morning walking over the sunny grounds with his family, showing them the Beauxbatons carriage and the Durmstrang ship. Mrs. Weasley was intrigued by the Whomping Willow, which had been planted after she had left school, and reminisced at length about the gamekeeper before Hagrid, a man called Ogg. Alex's parents and aunts and uncles remembered Ogg as well, as he hadn't retired until the year the Marauders had started school, which was when Hagrid had moved from being the assistant to full gamekeeper.
"Is Percy going to act as judge tonight, or did the Ministry find a replacement for Mr. Crouch?" Alex asked as they walked around the greenhouses.
"The Deputy Head of the department was promoted to the Head position, and she'll be the judge tonight," Uncle Tobias said. "Percy will be present, though, since he's working as her assistant."
Mrs. Weasley beamed. "Since he got worried that something had happened to Mr. Crouch and went to investigate, though the Aurors got there first, Ms. Eldridge thinks that Percy is capable and trustworthy and is giving him training to further his career. He even got another raise."
"That's great for Percy," said Alex. Vera would certainly be pleased to hear that. Well, the part about the raise wouldn't matter to her other than the fact that it would mean that the two of them could be financially secure, since things like love and family was more important to her than money.
They returned to the castle for lunch, where Aunt Maria and Uncle Tobias went to sit at the Hufflepuff table with Cara and Aunt Sarah and Uncle Niko went to sit at the Slytherin table with Ivan and Jonas.
"Mum - Bill!" said Ron, looking stunned, as he joined the Gryffindor table. "What're you doing here?"
"Come to watch Alex in the last task!" said Mrs. Weasley brightly. "Ana and Stephan invited us. I must say, it makes a lovely change, not having to cook. How was your exam?"
"Oh...okay," said Ron. "Couldn't remember all the goblin rebels' names, so I invented a few. It's all right," he said, helping himself to a Cornish pasty, while Mrs. Weasley looked stern, "they're all called stuff like Bodrod the Bearded and Urg the Unclean; it wasn't hard."
Fred and George joined them, and Ginny and her friends stopped to say hello to her mother and oldest brother before going on to the Ravenclaw table. Alex was having such a good time he felt almost as though he were back at home; he had forgotten to worry about that evening's task. Partway through lunch, he noticed Aunt Maria and Uncle Tobias move to the Ravenclaw table so they could talk to David, and Aunt Sarah did the same to talk to Vera.
When lunch was over, Aunt Maria and Uncle Tobias went out to the maze to relieve Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt. As the two went to get their lunches, Tonks greeted Sirius and wished Alex good luck in the final task, and Kingsley Shacklebolt nodded at the group and wished Alex good luck as well. The group whiled away the afternoon with a long walk around the castle, and then returned to the Great Hall for the evening feast. Ludo Bagman, Percy, and a middle-aged, brown-haired woman that was presumably Ms. Eldridge had joined the staff table now. Bagman looked quite cheerful, but Ms. Eldridge looked rather stern and spoke to nobody except Percy and Professor Dumbledore.
Alex's grandparents arrived and greeted him fondly before taking seats at the Gryffindor table. There were more courses than usual, but Alex, who was starting to feel really nervous now, didn't eat much. As the enchanted ceiling overhead began to fade from blue to a dusky purple, Dumbledore rose to his feet at the staff table, and silence fell.
"Ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes' 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."
Alex slowly got up. The Gryffindors all along the table were applauding him; his family, friends, and the Weasleys all wished him good luck, and he headed off out of the Great Hall with Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor.
"Feeling all right, Alex?" Bagman asked as they went down the stone steps onto the grounds. "Confident?"
"I'm okay," said Alex. It was sort of true; he was nervous, but he kept running over all the hexes and spells he had been practicing in his mind as they walked, and the knowledge that he could remember them all made him feel better.
They walked onto the Quidditch field, which was now completely unrecognizable. A twenty-foot-high hedge ran all the way around the edge of it. There was a gap right in front of them: the entrance to the vast maze. The passage beyond it looked dark and creepy.
Five minutes later, the stands had begun to fill; 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 were starting to appear. Hagrid, Professor Moody, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick came walking into the stadium and approached Bagman and the champions. They were wearing large, red, luminous stars on their hats, all except Hagrid, who had his on the back of his moleskin vest.
"We are going to be patrolling the outside of the maze, with the Aurors," said Professor McGonagall to the champions. "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 champions nodded.
"Off you go, then!" said Bagman brightly to the four patrollers.
"Good luck, Alex," Hagrid whispered, and the four of them walked away in different directions, to station themselves around the maze. Bagman now pointed his wand at his throat, muttered, "Sonorus," and his magically magnified voice echoed into the stands.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! Tied in first place, with ninety points each - Mr. Viktor Krum of Durmstrang Institute, and Mr. Alexander Romanov of Hogwarts School!" The cheers and applause sent birds from the Forbidden Forest fluttering into the darkening sky. "In second place, with eighty-eight points - Mr. Cedric Diggory, of Hogwarts School!" More applause. "And in third place - Miss Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons Academy!"
Alex could just make out his family and friends applauding Fleur politely, halfway up the stands. He waved up at them, and they waved back, beaming at him.
"So ... on my whistle, Alex and Viktor!" said Bagman. "Three - two - one -"
He gave a short blast on his whistle, and Alex and Viktor hurried forward into the maze. The towering hedges cast black shadows across the path, and, whether because they were so tall and thick or because they had been enchanted, the sound of the surrounding crowd was silenced the moment they entered the maze. Alex felt almost as though he were underwater again. He pulled out his wand, muttered, "Lumos," and heard Viktor do the same just behind him.
After about fifty yards, they reached a fork. The two stopped and made small talk as they waited for the other two champions. A minute later, they heard Bagman's whistle for the second time. Cedric had entered the maze. Five minutes later, the whistle blew in the distance for the third time. All of the champions were now inside.
Once Cedric and Fleur had reached the fork, the four of them of decided to take the right fork, and set off in that direction, using the Point Me Spell so that they could make sure they were heading in the right direction. At some point they ran into a couple of Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skwerts, which were now enormous, being ten feet tall and looking like giant scorpions. The champions ended up with singed sleeves before they were lucky enough to hit the Skwerts in their fleshy, shell-less underside with Stunners and Impediment Jinxes and able to escape.
Further on, the four ran into a boggart, which turned into the dead body of Fleur's sister Gabrielle. Fleur backed away, looking horrified. "Non!" she cried. "Gabrielle!"
"Calm down, Fleur, it's only a boggart," said Alex, patting her on the shoulder while Cedric stepped forward and dealt with the boggart.
After about an hour, in which the champions ran into two dead ends, went through a strange mist, and had to answer a riddle from a sphinx, they reached a path where they could see the Triwizard Cup gleaming on a plinth a hundred yards away. "We're finally there," said Alex in relief.
The others grinned. "Let us go and get the Cup," said Viktor.
The four set off down the path, but Cedric let out a shout and pushed Alex and Viktor out of the way. Fleur, who was right behind them, heard the shout and dodged. The four of them looked up to see a giant spider, probably an acromantula, scuttle down the hedge and onto the path. Viktor's wand had gone flying out of his hand when he fell, but Alex Summoned it for him. The champions all got to their feet and faced the acromantula.
Apparently they were all thinking the same spell, for they shouted "Stupefy!" at the same time. Bolts of scarlet light shot from their wands, two of them managing to hit the underbelly, while the other two hit squarely in the head. The combination of four Stunners was able to take down the acromantula.
"Phew!" exclaimed Cedric, looking relieved. "If I hadn't seen a dark shape on top of the hedge, we would have ran into it."
"All right, now let us get ze Cup," said Fleur. The four of them edged around the Stunned acromantula and reached the plinth. "So, how are we going to all touch it? Zere are four of us, and only two handles."
"The handles aren't exactly small," said Alex. "Two of us can grip the top parts, and the other two can grip the bottom parts." Viktor and Alex moved to the left handle, while Cedric and Fleur moved to the right one. On the count of three, they grasped a handle.
Instantly, Alex felt a jerk somewhere behind his navel. His feet had left the ground. He could not unclench the hand holding the Triwizard Cup; it was pulling him onward in a howl of wind and swirling color, the others at his side. A few seconds later, they found themselves in the front of the maze, tangled together as they had all lost their footing, but still managing to hold on to the Cup.
The judges rushed over, shocked looks on their faces. "Do you mean to say that all four of you grabbed the Cup together?" demanded Bagman, his shocked look turning to one of panic.
The champions let go of their hold on the Cup in order to get to their feet. "Yes, ve did," said Viktor defiantly. "Ve decided that since ve were all friends and could not decide on vich one of us should vin the Cup, ve vould vork together and grab the Cup at the same time."
"It's great for international wizarding cooperation," Cedric chimed in. "Isn't that the point of the tournament?"
"But how do we pick a winner now?" asked Ms. Eldridge blankly. "Someone has to win the Triwzard Tournament."
Professor Dumbledore's shocked look had turned pleased. "Why don't we just declare it a tie and split the prize money between them?"
The Acting Headmistress of Durmstrang sputtered, "But - but- that has never happened before!"
Madame Maxime asked, "Why should zat matter? Ze champions wanted to work togezer and get ze Cup at ze same time. "
"I suppose since Mr. Krum and Mr. Romanov had the most points before the final task task, you could say that they technically won," Ms. Eldridge pointed out. "We could declare Hogwarts and Durmstrang as the joint winners, but split the prize money between the four champions, since they worked together and clearly wanted to make things a tie."
After some discussion, the other judges decided to go with this. Bagman, not sounding very happy at all, announced that the judges had decided that Alex and Viktor were the joint winners, but because all the champions had worked together and grabbed the Cup at the same time, the prize money would be split between them and they would all get acclaim.
Predictably, while many in audience were happy with this, others weren't, since they had wanted a clear winner, not a four-way tie with a technical win shared between two schools. However, the verdict couldn't be changed, so those unhappy people had to swallow their disappointment.
The four champions then spent the next hour being fussed over by their family and friends (after Madam Pomfrey and Grandmum Lise had checked them over and healed any minor injuries they had gotten) before going off to get some rest.