Crouch, it turned out, was even worse than harry had realized.
Dumbledore showed him pensieve memories of the trial of Crouch's son. Any Muggle court would have had a father recuse himself from judging his own son's case, but Crouch had sent his own son to Azkaban. It was a worse punishment than anything Muggle law had to offer, and the man hadn't hesitated.
Worse, Dumbledore explained that he and Voldemort were inextricably connected through his scar. The curse that had destroyed Voldemort's body had created a connection between both of them. Dumbledore had even admitted that he often didn't tell Harry everything, not because he didn't believe Harry was ready, but for fear that Voldemort might find a way to reach through the connection the other way.
The thought that Voldemort might be spying through his eyes gave Harry nightmares over the next few weeks- ordinary ones this time. He was learning to tell the difference. For the first time, he almost regretted Dumbledore being so forthcoming.
The idea that Voldemort might be using Harry to find out who he cared about most so he could target them worried him the most.
He talked to the others about it, and Steven and Hermione hadn't seemed nearly as worried as he was. According to them, there were enough spies in Slytherin alone that any competent Death Eater would already know who he cared about.
Steven even warned him against trying to go it alone and push all his friends away. He said he'd tried it once, and it had been terrible.
Further questioning revealed that his descent into pushing his friends away for their own good had lasted only a few hours. Given Steven's nature, it surprised Harry that it had lasted even that long. He'd have expected it to only last five minutes.
In the end, Harry decided that if he couldn't do anything about it, he couldn't worry about it. That was Ron's advice, and for once it was good advice.
"I had a rat spying on me for years," Ron said. "If I think about it for more than a minute, it starts to drive me mental."
In retrospect, Ron's experience most closely matched his own, although at least Ron hadn't known he was being spied upon until later.
Still, this advice was enough for him to finally put his worries aside and start preparing for the third and final trial.
A nasty article from Rita Skeeter about his collapse in Professor Binns' class was enough to make Harry irritable again. What worried him was that the class was entirely composed of Gryffindores, all of whom were supposedly on his side.
Skeeter didn't have Slytherin spies there, and Binns didn't even remember his collapse the next day. Binns rarely even remembered Harry's name correctly, so he wasn't likely as Skeeter's source.
Hermione seemed to have an idea about how Skeeter had done it, and she went to see Peridot of all people on the morning of the final challenge.
Although the challenge wasn't going to occur until nightfall, Harry was called that morning to meet with the other champions and their families. An invitation had been sent to the Dursley's; Harry was unsurprised not to see them there. What did surprise him was that he felt a little disappointed.
He would have thought that any idea of the Dursleys coming to see him succeed at anything would have gone out the door by the time he was five, but apparently there was still a tiny part of him that craved their affection.
What made it worse was seeing Amethyst and Pearl and Peridot and Winky gathered around Steven. Although they weren't at all a traditional family, they all loved him. They weren't even biologically related, and they were showing Steven more love in a single morning than Harry had received from his own family in his entire life.
The gems weren't even biological and they were better people than the Dursleys.
Of course, there were probably a few of the more moderate Death Eaters who were better people than the Dursleys.
It wasn't until he saw Mrs. Weasley and the twins that Harry realized that Ron's family had come to support him where his own family hadn't.
The warm glow that gave him supplanted the fear that had been gnawing away at him about the final task. For a few moments he almost felt normal.
"Mrs. Weasley, this is Pearl...she's Steven's 'aunt'." Harry said.
"I'm not actually his aunt," Pearl said. "I'm not sure why everyone keeps saying that."
Steven looked up at her and said, "It's easier?"
"It's nice to meet you," Mrs. Weasley said politely. "I've heard about you from Ron and Ginny in their letters."
"Ginevra is a diligent student," Pearl said. "She's a pleasure to teach."
She didn't say anything about Ron as a student, which was probably for the best. Ron was a little scared of Pearl anyway; as far as he was concerned, she was what Professor McGonagall would be like once she was ten thousand years old.
Or worse, Hermione if she was thousands of years old and controlled a classroom.
Mrs. Weasley chose to ignore the slight toward Ron and simply extended her hand. Pearl shook it, If Mrs. Weasley was uncomfortable with the fact that Pearl wasn't human, she didn't show it, which was more than a lot of adult wizards managed.
Even the decent ones tended to be condescending, outside of a few like Dumbledore who were more accepting.
Harry had a great deal of fun showing the Weasleys around the grounds. While Mrs. Weasley had attended Hogwarts when she was younger, there had been changes made since she graduated, changes that she talked about at length.
The Aurors following him had been good at blending in and seeming like a part of the crowd. There were times he almost felt like they weren't there at all, although he would eventually spot them once again trailing him.
Finally, the time for the last task was at hand.
They were all standing at the entrance to the maze, and he and Steven were to be given a head start because of their scores. Victor Krum had won the second task, but not by enough, so he would be following shortly behind them with Fleur trailing behind.
They were to send up a red flare if they needed to give up and be extracted. The audience had screens, but they only covered particularly dangerous parts of the maze; much of the maze was dark to everyone.
Harry felt tense; if Voldemort wanted to assassinate him, this would be the perfect time. Hiding in a dark part of the maze, Voldemort's men would have little trouble in sniping at him. Worse, if he spent too much time obsessing about them, he might miss one of the actual challenges and be eaten by o9ne of Hagrid's pets.
For the first time, the lack of Aurors following him around felt less like a blessing and more like a curse.
He and Steven took off running, separating at the first split. Part of him wished they could stay together; Steven's shield and bubble would make him feel safer, even if they weren't useful against an Avada Kedavra.
Steven had promised to look out for him, but they'd both agreed that running together might make the other schools think they were colluding. It would make the suggestion that Hogwarts was cheating with a second candidate seem much more believable.
By itself, that wouldn't have been enough to sway either of them. Harry's safety was more important than any task or even their school's reputation. However, Hermione had worried that working together might be considered cheating by the magical contract with the Goblet of Fire.
The list of possible penalties that she'd researched had been enough to make Harry think twice about it. No one knew the exact curses that had been laid in the cup; the records had been lost for a long time. They'd just have to muddle through as well as they could.
Harry ducked as fire exploded over his head. Hagrid's blast ended skrewts had grown to a monstrous size. The one in front of Harry was as large as a small automobile.
His first spell bounced off its shell.
He cast again, this time waiting until it reared up to show its softer underbelly. The creature froze, and Harry ran onwards.
He was running, but had to stop as the hedges in front of him disintegrated. Steven went flying, pursued by a familiar giant orange gem.
It had to be a boggart; Harry cast a Riddikulus spell, and the creature melted away.
"Are you ok?" he asked Steven.
Steven nodded, looking a little stunned. He'd apparently had his own encounter with a Skrewt, as his robes were burned on one side.
Leaping to his feet, Steven was soon running ahead of Harry.
It occurred to Harry that running behind Steven might be the best place to be. Steven would run into any traps or monsters, and Harry would be much less likely to be surprised. Yet the one physical advantage he had over Steven was endurance. Harry had little doubt that if they ran long enough he'd be able to outdistance Steven.
It was the best of both worlds. No one could accuse him of cheating, but he'd still get some protection from Steven with a possible chance of pulling out a win at the end.
Steven ran into dead ends sometimes, which made Harry's plan a little less straightforward than it might otherwise be. He had to pretend to be lost down a side passage sometimes, before resuming the chase.
His strategy proved to be successful when he saw Steven fighting a giant spider up ahead. The spider was even larger than the Skrewts, and he stepped forward to help his friend, but it soon became clear that he wouldn't need it.
Steven ducked and dodged and climbed up the spider's legs before climbing on top of the spider and shooting it in the eye with a spell that made it stiffen up and topple over.
For a moment Harry wondered why he hadn't simply bashed it in the head; if he'd had Steven's strength, that's what he'd have done.
It occurred to him then that Steven simply hadn't wanted to hurt the spider. It was harder to knock someone out by bashing them in the head than the telly would indicate. According to Hermione, that could lead to permanent brain damage.
It was far kinder simply to use a spell to stun a creature, which probably was the kind of spells Steven had been drilling himself in.
The Sphinx was undoubtedly supposed to have clues if they answered it's riddles, but Steven simply took a different path.
He was attacked by more Skrewts and Harry could see that the fights were finally causing his endurance to flag..
Now was his chance.
As Steven knocked the last of the Skewts out with a spell, Harry went flying past him, sprinting. They were close to the end of the maze; he could see the goblet in the distance.
It was a straight run, and Harry had a lifetime of experience running from Dudley and his friends. Steven was tired and there was no way his shorter legs could keep up with Harry's longer stride.
He glanced backward to see how far ahead he was; he almost froze as he saw Steven's bubble flying toward him.
Steven had grown to the size of a man, and he'd somehow lost control of his bubble and fallen so that he was spinning around inside it.
Harry's eyes widened in horror' he was going to be crushed by the ball.
Just as it was about to hit him, it vanished. Steven flew forward, crashing into him and shoving him into the Triwizard Cup.
In a flash, they both vanished.