Chapter 17
The Third Task
With the Third Task looming, I spent a lot of my free time helping Harry practice different spells. I barely had enough time to finish my own homework, or to spend time with Cedric and my friends.
"At least we'll get top marks on our Defense Against the Dark Arts exam. We never would've known about all these hexes otherwise." Hermione said one day in response to Harry's concern about our lack of studying for our end of year exams.
"True," I agreed with a sigh. Our exams were scheduled to end the same day of the Third Task. I watched Ron perform the Impediment Curse on a wasp in the classroom we were using.
"We can use this information for when we are all aurors." Ron said excitedly as he examined the wasp he froze. I rolled my eyes, Ron would not make a good auror.
As June neared, the castle was full of excitement. Everyone was looking forward to the Third Task which was taking place a week before the end of term. I grew more and more anxious about the dangers that both my brother and boyfriend would be facing. A part of me wanted to take the invisibility cloak and follow them into the maze to make sure they stayed safe, but I doubted I would get away with it. Harry had told me that Professor Moody could see through invisibility cloaks with his magical eye.
Professor McGonagall had given us permission to use her classroom during lunch times to practice hexes because she kept walking in on us using different rooms. Soon Harry mastered the Impediment Curse, the Reducto Curse, and the Four Point Spell. All of these spells were going to be useful to Harry while in the maze. The Impediment Curse slowed down and obstructed attackers, the Reducto Curse which would let him blast solid objects out of his way, and the Four Point Spell made his wand point due North which would enable him to check if he was going in the right direction in the maze. Harry was still having trouble with the Shield Charm however, which would protect him temporarily from oncoming attacks.
"You're still doing really well though." Hermione encouraged Harry as she broke through his shield with the Jelly Legs Jinx. I giggled as Harry wobbled around the room.
"Come and look at this," said Ron as he looked out the window. We walked over to see what he was looking at. "What's Malfoy doing?" My curiosity peaked as I looked out the window to see Draco, Crabbe and Goyle standing below us. Crabbe and Goyle looked like they were keeping a lookout while Draco had his hands to his mouth as if he were speaking into them. I had a feeling they were talking to Rita Skeeter.
"He looks like he's talking into a walkie-talkie." Harry said curiously.
"Can't be," said Hermione. "I told you those sorts of things don't work around Hogwarts. Come on Harry, let's try that shield charm again.
Sirius was writing more, wanting to keep in touch with Harry as the Third Task came closer and closer. He urged him to continue practicing and not worry what was happening outside the castle walls. He wanted him to concentrate on being able to complete the task safely and then we could worry about other things.
The night before the Third Task, I made sure I had enough time to spend with Cedric. We met up after dinner and because it was such a nice evening we took a stroll through the castle grounds. Hand in hand we wandered around talking about my end of year exams and his confidence in completing the task tomorrow.
"Honestly, Chloe, I will be fine." Cedric said with a small chuckle. I had asked him for the millionth time if he was ready.
"You're sure?"
"One hundred percent," he reassured me. "You know, you're cute when you worry."
"Shut up," I said as a blush creeped up my face. "I just don't want to see you get hurt."
"I probably will get hurt, but it won't be anything I can't handle." He gave my hand a squeeze. "And when it's all over, you can obsess over my injuries as much as you like." He added with a wink.
"Just promise me you'll be as safe as you can," I gave him a worried look. "I don't know what I'll do if you're seriously injured."
"Let's talk about something else, to get your mind off the task." Cedric suggested. "Have you thought about coming over to my place over the summer?"
"I would love to," I said with a smile. "It will be nice to get out of the Dursleys house, even if it's just for a week."
"If you get along well with my parents, I'm sure they'd let you stay longer than a week." Cedric said grinning. "We could spend the whole summer together."
"That would be amazing," I grinned back at him. "We could practice quidditch together! I never get to practice over the summer."
"I could show you some of my moves," Cedric laughed. "You'll be miles ahead of your brother in flying skill."
"I already am," I said with a chuckle. "But to have a personal coach, that would definitely step up my game."
Our walk around the school grounds took us back up to the castle, and seeing as the night was getting late we decided to say goodnight. Cedric walked me to the entrance to the dungeons, like he always did. He embraced me before giving me a small kiss.
"Goodnight, I'll see you before the task." I said.
"Night, see you tomorrow." Cedric headed off towards his dormitory.
When I entered the common room, I noticed my friends all hanging out by the fire. I headed that way and joined them. Pansy was sitting in the armchair, doing some last minute studying for our Transfiguration exam that was tomorrow. Crabbe and Goyle were sitting on either side of Draco, and Zabini was on the floor, resting against the armchair Pansy was in. I found myself a cushion and brought it over and sat across from Zabini, my back to the fireplace.
"Were you with Cedric?" Pansy asked, not looking up from her notes.
"Yeah," I said with a small yawn.
"Wore you out did he?" Zabini said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes at him.
"We just walked around the school grounds," I answered.
"Sure you did," Zabini teased. Draco looked annoyed at his words.
"Whatever," I responded with a shrug. "What did you all do after dinner?"
"Study," said Pansy. "I want to be ready for this last exam. My mom will kill me if I fail."
"Who cares if you pass Transfiguration?" Crabbe said with a grunt. "It's not like that kind of magic is that important." Pansy rolled her eyes at him before continuing to study her notes.
"Crabbe, do you think anything is important?" I asked.
"Curses and hexes, especially the dark kind." He grinned at me stupidly.
"Except we aren't going to learn the dark kind of curses and hexes," I pointed out. "At least not here at school."
"That's true," Draco agreed with me. "I have parents that'll teach me anything I'd want to know. And trust me when I say that they know a lot of dark spells."
"Our parents are friends, so mine can teach me stuff too." Crabbe said as he puffed out his chest.
"I'd call them more acquaintances than friends," Draco sneered at him. "They don't really hang out much do they?"
"Suppose not," Crabbe mumbled.
"I am going to try and get some sleep," I said, standing up. "The stress of the Third Task is getting to me." Draco gave me a look of concern as I headed off towards the girls dormitory.
I hardly got any rest that night. I kept waking up, anxiety coursing through my body, every few hours. It felt like my heart was going to beat itself out of my chest. Eventually I gave up trying to sleep and decided to pull out my Transfiguration notes to study, hoping this would get my mind off the Task. Soon, the rest of the girls in the dorm woke up and I put my notes away, feeling ready for my last exam.
I walked down to breakfast with Pansy, ready to get some food into my stomach. We sat down, and I piled bacon and eggs onto my plate. A few minutes after we sat down, the boys showed up looking excited for the day. Just as I was halfway through my meal, the post was delivered. Draco received his copy of The Daily Prophet and opened it enthusiastically.
"Here it is!" He grinned, shoving the paper towards Pansy and me. Curiously I looked down to find an article written by Rita Skeeter, about my brother.
Harry Potter: Disturbed and Dangerous
The boy who defeated He Who Must Not Be Named is unstable and possibly dangerous, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Alarming evidence has recently come to light about Harry Potter's strange behavior, which casts doubts upon his suitability to compete in a demanding competition like the Triwizard Tournament, or even to attend Hogwarts school.
Potter, the Daily Prophet can exclusively reveal, regularly collapses at school, and is often heard to complain of pain in the scar on his forehead (relic of the curse with which You-Know-Who attempted to kill him). On Monday last, midway through a Divination lesson, your Daily Prophet reporter witnessed Potter storming from the class, claiming that his scar was hurting too badly to continue studying.
It is possible, say top experts at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, that Potter's brain was affected by the attack inflicted upon him by You-Know-Who, and that his insistence that the scar is still hurting is an expression of his deep-seated confusion.
"He might even be pretending," said one specialist, "This could be a plea for attention."
The Daily Prophet, however, has unearthed worrying facts about Harry Potter that Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, has carefully concealed from the wizarding public.
"Potter can speak Parseltongue," reveals Draco Malfoy, a Hogwarts fourth-year. "There were a lot of attacks on students a couple of years ago, and most people thought Potter was behind them after they saw him lose his temper at a Duelling Club and set a snake on another boy. It was all hushed up, though. But he's made friends with werewolves and giants, too. We think he'd do anything for a bit of power."
Parseltongue, the ability to converse with snakes, has long been considered a Dark Art. Indeed, the most famous Parselmouth of our times is none other than You-Know-Who himself. A member of the Dark Force Defence League, who wished to remain unnamed, stated that he would regard any wizard who could speak Parseltongue "as worthy of investigation. Personally, I would be highly suspicious of anybody who could converse with snakes, as serpents are often used in the worst kinds of Dark Magic, and are historically associated with evil-doers." Similarly, "anyone who seeks out the company of such vicious creatures as werewolves and giants would appear to have a fondness for violence".
Albus Dumbledore should surely consider whether a boy such as this should be allowed to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. Some fear that Potter might resort to the Dark Arts in his desperation to win the Tournament, the third task of which takes place this evening.
"Hey, Potter! Potter! How's your head? Feeling alright? Sure you're not going to go berserk on us?" Draco called out as I finished reading the article. This must have been what Draco was telling Skeeter when Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I saw him from the Transfiguration window a while back. Draco loved to take any opportunity he could to talk bad about my brother. I had a feeling that deep down Draco was jealous of all the attention that my brother got and he would do just about anything to get some of that attention on him.
When I looked across the hall to see my brother's reaction, he seemed to not be bothered by the article. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle were now making faces and sticking their tongues out like idiots. I rolled my eyes, finding their actions to be childish. Moments later, Hermione rushed out of the Great Hall as though she had something important to look up in the library.
Ten minutes later, students emptied out of the Great Hall to head to their last exam of the year. Just before leaving, I noticed Professor McGonagall and Sprout pull aside Harry and Cedric respectively. I wondered what they were going to do in the final hours before the last task.
I sat down in the Transfiguration classroom, doing my best to concentrate on the exam in front of me. As the seconds ticked by, my anxiety grew worse and worse. Somehow I managed to finish my exam, feeling fairly confident I'd get a good grade. I was thankful I had spent time last night and early this morning studying my notes.
Soon it was lunchtime and when I got back to the Great Hall I noticed Mrs. Weasley and Bill hanging out with Harry. I looked around and found Cedric sitting with his mother and father. Cedric noticed me watching them and waved me over. Nervously, I headed towards them.
"Chloe," said Cedric with a smile. "You've met my father before." He gestured towards his father.
"Hello, sir." I said with a smile, stretching out my hand for a handshake.
"So, you're the girl that my boy won't stop talking about." Mr. Diggory said with a grin as he shook my hand. I blushed at his words.
"Dad," Cedric said embarrassingly.
"I hope you'll be cheering for your boyfriend rather than your brother," Mr. Diggory added, ignoring his son's embarrassment.
"I just hope they both make it out without any serious injuries," I said with an awkward chuckle.
"And this is my mother," Cedric said, gesturing towards his mother.
"It's a pleasure," she said as she shook my hand. "We look forward to having you visit during the summer." Cedric's mother gave me a warm smile.
"I am looking forward to it as well." I returned her smile. "I better get back to my table, I'll see you before the task." I said before leaving to eat my lunch.
"So, you've met the parents. Must be getting serious." Pansy teased as I sat down opposite of her.
"I would've met them eventually, it's convenient they are here to watch the last task." I said.
"So your relationship isn't that serious?" she asked, eyeing me carefully.
"I didn't say that, I just meant that I would've met them this summer if they weren't here to watch the last task. At least this way they aren't welcoming in a stranger." I corrected her.
"So it is serious! Spending time with his family this summer definitely means it's serious." Pansy gushed. I blushed as I grabbed a sandwich off a platter in front of me.
"Leave her alone, Pansy." Draco said as he rolled his eyes at her. "It's not like she'll be spending the whole summer with him." We ate the rest of our lunch in silence, which I was grateful for.
The rest of the day went by slowly, making me antsy. At the evening feast, Ludo Bagman and Cornelius Fudge were sitting at the staff table. Bagman looked excited for the upcoming task, but Fudge looked stern and was not talking. After eating as quickly as I could, I left the Slytherin table to join Cedric and his parents at the Hufflepuff table just before dessert was served. I wanted to make sure that I had time to wish Cedric good luck before he would need to leave for the Third the ceiling turned from a blue to a dusky purple and Dumbledore stood on his feet at the staff table and silence fell over the hall.
"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." Cedric stood up, looking a bit nauseous, and before he left he leaned down and gave me a kiss, not caring that everyone around us was watching.
"Good luck," I said as we broke apart.
"I love you, see you afterwards." Cedric gave me a smile.
"Love you too," I stood up and gave him one final hug before he left with the other champions.
Dumbledore continued his speech, but I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. My mind was consumed with worry for my boyfriend and brother. As soon as he was finished talking, I walked down to the quidditch field with Cedric's parents. His father was confident that Cedric would win and his mother just seemed to be concerned for his safety.
The quidditch field was filled with hedges that reached twenty feet into the air. There was a single gap in front, where the champions were going to enter the maze. I said my goodbyes to Cedric's parents and went to sit down with my Slytherin friends.
"There you are," said Pansy as I sat down next to her. "I was beginning to worry you weren't going to come watch."
"Why wouldn't I come watch?" I asked. Draco sat down on the other side of me.
"Nerves," said Pansy with a shrug.
"I am nervous, but not enough to not come watch." I said with a sigh. I looked out to the field and saw Hagrid, Moody, McGonagall, and Flitwick walk out around the maze. I figured they were going to patrol the outside of the maze.
"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 eighty-five points each, Mr. Cedric Diggory and Mr. Harry Potter, both of Hogwarts school." The stand erupted with cheers and applause, showing support for both champions. "In second place with eighty points Mr. Viktor Krum of Durmstrang Institute. And in third place Ms. Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons Academy. So on my whistle, Harry and Cedric. Three, two, one." Bagman gave a short blast from his whistle and I watched Harry and Cedric enter the maze.
Harry's POV
As soon as I entered the maze, the sounds from the stands behind me disappeared. The maze must have been enchanted to block out any outside noise. I lit up my wand using lumos and heard Cedric do the same. About fifty yards into the maze we reached the first fork.
"See you," I said as I took the left fork and Cedric took the right. I heard the whistle for a second time and knew Krum would be right behind us. I sped up, wanting to take advantage of my early lead. I took a right, holding my wand up to help me see the path. Bagman's whistle blew for the third and final time, all of the champions were now in the maze.
I kept looking behind me, feeling like someone was watching me. The maze grew darker as the sky turned to a dark navy. I reached the second fork and used the Four Point spell to help me decide which one to take. My wand pointed to my right, straight into the hedge, so I took the left fork and knew I would have to take the next right to get me going in the right direction again.
Cedric's POV
After Harry and I split ways, and after I heard the whistle blow two more times I ran into a blast-ended skrewt, which had grown to an enormous size. The skrewt was at least ten feet long now, and greatly resembled a scorpion. When the skrewt heard me, it came charging in my direction. I dived out the way, but one of the ends of the skrewt blasted me, making my right sleeve catch on fire. I quickly put it out with aguamenti, but my sleeve was still smoking. It turned around again, and this time tried to use its stinger to injure me. I dodged the stinger, and sent a stunning curse at it. The curse rebounded off of the skrewts armor, doing no damage to it. Instead of trying to stun the skrewt again I ran as fast as I could to a path on my left. I could hear the blast-ended skrewt stomping around behind me, looking for something to blast or hit with its stinger.
I saw a light ahead of me and the outline of someone, it had to be one of the other champions. I kept running until I could make out who it was, it was Harry. He looked as though he hadn't encountered anything in the maze yet, lucky for him.
"Hagrid's blast ended skrewts," I said, trying to catch my breath. "They're enormous, I only just got away." I took another deep breath before running off on another path.
Harry's POV
After Cedric left me for the second time, I encountered a dementor in the path in front of me. It stood twelve feet tall, a hood hiding its face. It was reaching out with rotting scabbed hands, gliding towards me. I heard its rattling breath and could feel a clammy coldness stealing over myself. I knew what I had to do. I thought of the happiest thought I could, getting out of the maze and celebrating with Ron, Hermione, and Chloe. I raised my wand and cried out, "expecto patronum!" A huge silver stag erupted from the end of my wand and charged the dementor. It fell back and tripped over the ends of its robes. I had never seen a dementor do that before.
"Hang on," I thought out loud. "You're a boggart! Riddikulus!" The shape shifter exploded in a wisp of smoke. My patronus disappeared, no longer needed. I wished it would've stayed and kept me company. I continued on, hoping to reach the center of the maze soon.
After taking some wrong turns, and turning back to find the right path I encountered a golden mist. I approached it cautiously, wondering if I could blast it out of the way. I used the Reducto Curse on it, but the curse just sailed through the mist doing nothing. I stood in front of the mist, debating a course of action when I heard screaming coming from nearby.
"Fleur!" I yelled into the darkness. There was silence, staring around me wondering what happened to her. I took a deep breath and ran into the enchanted mist. The world around me turned upside down, I was hanging from the ground. My glasses dangled on the end of my nose, threatening to fall off. I clutched them to my nose, terrified. I felt as though if I tried to move my feet, I would fall away from the earth. I stood there, thinking of what I should do. I shut my eyes and pulled my right foot away from the grassy ceiling. Immediately, the world righted itself and I fell forward on my knees. I took a deep breath before standing up and running away from the golden mist.
I looked around for Fleur, but saw no sign of her anywhere. I hoped that she was okay, and continued on my way. I couldn't help but feel like she was out of the running. For a moment, as I wandered through the maze, I felt as though I could actually win this thing. Confidence filled my body as I rounded a corner and found myself face to face with a blast-ended skrewt.
Cedric's POV
I continued to wander through the maze, getting closer and closer to the center. At some point I heard someone screaming, it sounded like Fleur. It came from far away, so there wasn't anything I could do to help her. I hoped that she was going to be ok, and continued on my way.
I encountered a hinkypunk, a translucent and cloudy creature with one leg. As I approached it, it started throwing fireballs at me from its lantern. I used the shield charm to deflect the fireballs away from me. The hinkypunk was close to the corner, so I used lumos duo to corner it and make it solidify. Once it was dazed, I used the Knockback Jinx on it five times which caused it to disappear in a puff of white smoke.
Once the hinkypunk was gone, I rounded the corner and continued on my way. After walking a few feet I heard a noise from behind me. Thinking it was another creature I would need to fend off I turned around. I was face to face with Viktor Krum. He had his wand hand up, pointing at me.
"What are you doing?" I yelled as Krum stalked towards me. "What the hell do you think you are doing?!"
"Crucio!" Krum said calmly, pointing his wand at me. A wave of pain flooded my body, pain like I had never experienced before. It felt like all the nerves in my body were on fire, like knives were piercing every inch of my body. I felt my eyes roll around in my head as I let out screams of anguish, unable to do anything to save myself. After what felt like forever, the pain stopped. I laid on the ground, my hands over my face, breathing heavily. A few moments later I heard a voice next to me.
"Are you alright?" It was Harry. He grabbed my arm roughly and I sat up carefully.
"Yeah, yeah. I don't believe it. He crept up behind me. I heard him, I turned around and he had his wand on me." I stood up, shaking.
"I can't believe this, I thought he was alright." Harry said as we stared down at Krum's unconscious body.
"So did I."
"Did you hear Fleur scream earlier?" Harry asked.
"Yeah. You don't think Krum got her too?"
"I don't know." Harry responded slowly.
"Should we leave him here?" I mutter quietly.
"No, I reckon we should send up red sparks. Someone will come and collect him. Otherwise he'll probably be eaten by a skrewt."
"He'd deserve it," I muttered before raising my wand in the air and fired red sparks into the night sky. We stood there for a moment in silence. "Well, I suppose we better go on."
"What? Oh, right." Harry said. We walked together up the path, and when we came to the fork Harry turned right and I turned left, leaving each other once again.
Harry's POV
I moved on, using the Four Point spell at every intersection. The competition was between Cedric and me now. The feeling of a possible win grew inside me, giving me incentive to continue one. But I could hardly believe what I had just seen. Krum couldn't have wanted to win the Triwizard Cup that badly to use an Unforgivable Curse.
Every so often I hit more dead ends, but the increasing darkness made me feel sure I was getting closer to the center of the maze. As I strode down a dark path I saw movement once again. My beam of wand light hit the most extraordinary creature, one I had only seen in picture from. It was a sphinx. It had the body of an over large lion, its paws were huge and it had a puffed tail. Its head, however, was that of a woman. She turned her long shaped eyes on me as I approached.
"You are very near your goal. The quickest way is past me." She said in a gruff voice.
"So, will you move please?" I asked, knowing already she would decline.
"No," she said as she paced in front of the path. "Not unless you can answer my riddle. Answer on your first guess, I'll let you pass. Answer wrongly, I'll attack. Remain silent, I will let you walk away from me unscathed." I felt my stomach tighten as I considered my options. If the riddle was too hard, I could stay silent and walk away and find a different route to the center.
"Okay, can I have the riddle?"
"First, think of the person who lives in disguise. Who deals in secrets and tells not but lies. Next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend, the middle of middle, and end of the end. And finally, give me the sound often heard during the search for a hard to find word. Now, string them together and answer me this; which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?" I gaped at the sphinx.
"Could I have it again? More slowly?" I asked tentatively. She repeated her riddle, smiling. I cast my mind around, thinking of creatures I would not like to kiss. I thought out loud, trying to figure out the riddle. The first part was a reference to a spy, so I decided to come back to that part.
"A sound often heard during the search for a hard to find word," I said, still thinking. "Er, wait a second! Er is a sound!" The sphinx smiled at me. "Spy, er. Spy, er. A creature I wouldn't want to kiss? A spider!" The creature smiled more broadly. She stood up and moved aside to let me pass. I dashed forward, thanking the sphinx as I passed her.
I broke into a run, knowing I was close to the end. There were a few paths to choose from in front of me so I used the Four Point spell and my wand pointed to the right hand path. I dashed up this one and saw light ahead. I could see the Triwizard cup ahead of me. Suddenly a dark figure ran out in front of me, it was Cedric. He was on track to reach the cup before me.
Then I saw something immense over the hedge on the left of us, just ahead of Cedric. It was moving so fast, Cedric was about to run into it.
"Cedric! On your left!" I shouted at him. Cedric turned and moved out of the way just in time as the thing came crashing down. In his haste he tripped and his wand flew out of his hand. A gigantic spider began to bear down upon him.
"Stupify!" I yelled and the spell hit the spider's gigantic hairy body. But it did no good, the spider jerked slightly and turned around to run at me instead. "Stupify! Impedimenta!" I tried over and over again, but it was no use. The spider reached me and lifted me into the air and my leg connected with its pincers and pain flooded my body. I could hear Cedric below me, trying to stun it too. I faced the spider, still being held by its front legs, and as it opened its mouth I yelled, "expelliarmus!" It worked, the spider dropped me back onto the ground.
I landed on my legs, pain shot up my already injured one and I crumpled onto the ground. I aimed up at the spider's underbelly and shouted, "stupify!" Cedric yelled the same curse at the same time, and with our spells combined the spider keeled sideways flattening a nearby hedge.
"Harry," Cedric yelled. "You alright? Did it fall on you?"
"No," I called back, panting. I looked down at my leg, and it was bleeding freely. I tried to stand up, but my leg was shaking badly and did not want to support my weight. I looked around and saw Cedric standing feet from the Triwizard cup.
"Take it then, go on take it." I said watching Cedric. "You're right there." Cedric didn't move, staring at me. Slowly he turned to look at the cup and I could see the longing look on his face.
"You take it, you should win." Cedric said with a sigh. "You saved my life twice in here."
"That's not how it's supposed to work." I argued back. I felt angry, my leg hurt and after all of my efforts Cedric had beaten me to the Cup. "The one who reaches the Cup first gets the points. That's you, I'm telling you I am not going to win any races on this leg."
"No," said Cedric as he moved closer to me and away from the Cup.
"Stop being noble," I said feeling irritated. "Just take it, then we can get out of here." Cedric watched me steadying myself, holding onto the hedge.
"You told me about the dragons. I would've gone down on the First Task if you hadn't told me what was coming."
"I had help on that too." I snapped, trying to clean up the blood with my robes. "You helped me with the egg, we are square."
"I had help on the egg in the first place." Cedric argued back.
"We're still square," I said as I tested my leg. It shook violently as I put pressure on it.
"You should have gotten more points on the Second Task. You stayed behind to get all the hostages, I should have done that."
"I was the only one thick enough to take that song seriously. Just take the Cup."
"No," said Cedric. He stepped over the spider's legs to join me. He was serious, he was willing to step aside from the glory that Hufflepuff house hadn't seen in centuries. "Go on."
I looked from Cedric and the Cup. For a moment I pictured myself walking out of the maze with it, being cheered on by the crowd. Then the image faded, and I looked into Cedric's face.
"Both of us." I said.
"What?"
"We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it." Cedric stared at me.
"You, you sure?"
"Yeah, yeah." I said, nodding. "We've helped each other out. We both got here. Let's just take it together." For a moment Cedric looked as though he couldn't believe his ears.
"You're on." Cedric grinned at me. "Come here," he grabbed my shoulder and helped me limp towards the plinth where the Cup stood on. When we reached it we both held out a hand over one of the Cup's gleaming handles.
"On three," I said. Cedric nodded in agreement. "One, two, three." We both grasped a handle and instantly I felt a jerk somewhere behind my navel when we touched the Cup. My feet left the ground, and I couldn't let go of the handle my hand was on. It pulled me onwards with a howl of wind and color, Cedric by my side.
AN: Thank you for reading this far! Getting close to the end of this book, please leave me a review!