Chapter 26: The Final Tasks
Thanks for all the reviews.
FFN is not working correctly right now, so I'm not getting any emails from that site. That doesn't mean I don't want you to review. That just means I'm not getting any reviews from there. So, if you want to review, go ahead, I'll probably get them eventually.
I was actually not going to post until they got their shit together, but I decided that that wasn't fair to those from AO3. It's not their fault FFN is glitching.
Hphphp
The second task came quickly, and it was quite boring for everybody watching. All they did was sit and watch the Black Lake for a good hour. Fluer came out of the lake first, but she didn't have her hostage. She was waylaid by the grindylows. Then Cedric came up second with his hostage, Cho. Then Krum came up third with Hermione. There was quite a commotion for a while there when Fluer thought that her hostage was going to be kept down at the bottom of the lake and she went into hysterics until the merpeople came up with her little sister.
"I was quite worried about Hermione there for a minute. I didn't know they were going to put her at the bottom of the lake," said Harry, leaning against his pseudo-sister. He had been quite worried there for a minute. Hermione was his best friend.
"I didn't either," said Millie. "I'm quite peeved about that," she said. She knew Dumbledore and the others that were in charge of this Tournament were cruel, but she didn't know that they would put children at the bottom of the lake. She certainly hoped that they had asked them first, or at least got their parents' permission, but she sincerely doubted it.
"I'm glad that Krum went and got her," said Harry, sitting up straight and craning his neck as if to see where his best friend was. He was very concerned about her and wanted to go to her right away, but he wasn't sure if that was acceptable at this point in time. "I was quite scared, and if he hadn't gotten her, I would have been just as scared as Delacour."
"I don't think that they would have left anybody at the bottom of the lake. That would have been murder," said Millie, at least she hoped those old men, and one woman, wouldn't resort to murder. Who knew what went through their minds for the thought of entertainment?
"I guess you're right," he said, giving a heartfelt sigh. "Still, she is my best friend, and I would have been very worried."
"I would have taken them to court and sued them for every penny they had if they had done that, and then I would have seen them in Azkaban," she said, giving him a one-armed hug. She would have done it too. She would have thrown them all in prison for murder, even if Hermione was just a mudblood.
"Too right," said Sirius, even though he hated talking about that prison. He would have thrown his money right behind Millie. He hated every single one of those people up on that panel. They seem to be too big for their britches.
"Let's go see if Hermione is okay," said Millie, getting up and making her way through the crowd. She felt they'd waited long enough. All the judges seemed to be doing was talking.
"Yeah, I wanna make sure she doesn't suffer any damage from being under that water," said Harry, following Millie through the crowd.
So, the three of them hurried down to the tent to make sure that Hermione was okay. They hurried across the grass and to the hospital tent. Opening the flap and entering, they saw her huddled in the back.
She was under a blanket, drinking some hot cocoa. But she was dry, and she seemed to be okay. Krum was arguing with his headmaster, trying to figure out why Hermione was his hostage when she was not his most precious person.
"Hermione!" Harry cried as he rushed to her side. "Are you okay?" he asked, giving her a huge hug.
"Yes, I'm fine," she said, returning his hug. Glad she had put her cocoa down before he came up to her. That would have been awkward.
"What were you doing at the bottom of the lake? I didn't know you were that important to Krum," he said, glancing to where the two Bulgarians were still arguing.
"I'm not," she said, also looking to where the two men were arguing, "I don't know why I was down there. I was simply his date for the ball."
"He seems to be pretty upset about it," Millie said, giving her a one-armed hug. She was pretty impressed by the way Krum seemed to be going at his headmaster. He was a very upset young man. She wasn't sure if he was upset for Hermione's sake or his own. But he was going to town.
"He is upset about it. He doesn't know why I was down there either. I'm not his most precious person. But I'm the only thing that they could find here at Hogwarts," Hermione said, picking up her cocoa and finishing it off. She put the cup back down on the table and wrapped her blanket around herself again.
"Well, at least you're safe," said Sirius, clasping her shoulder and giving it a squeeze.
"Can we get out of here now?" asked Harry, not really wanting to stick around in this tent, watching the two men argue and not doing anything else.
"Yes, let's," said Hermione, Agreeing 100% with that attitude. "Madame Pomfrey, could I leave now?" she asked, waving down the mediwitch.
The nurse came bustling over and checked her to make sure that she was okay, and then gave her go ahead for her to leave. The four of them left the tent. They made their way away from the crowds because they didn't really care about what the scores were for the contenders.
"Let's go back to my place, yeah? There are no classes today and it's a day off, so I don't think anybody would care if you went down to Hogsmeade," Millie said, putting her arm over Harry's shoulders and leading the way towards Hogsmeade.
"I don't know. I don't think we should leave the school grounds without permission from the professors," said Hermione, still wearing the blanket she wore in the hospital tent. It was still a bit nippy out. She was walking next to Sirius, who was walking behind Millie and Harry.
"You have my permission," said Sirius a bit pompously, as if he had the right. "And that's good enough." He gave her a rakish grin.
"Oh, alright," said Harry, who never turned down a chance to go to Millie's place. "I don't think we'll get in too much trouble as long as we're back before curfew," he said, turning to Hermione and giving her a wink.
"I guess," said Hermione.
So, they went down to Hogsmeade and spent a comfortable evening just relaxing at Millie's flat. And then Hermione and Harry made it back to Hogwarts right before curfew.
"Where have you two been?" asked Ron as they entered the common room. He confronted them just as soon as they walked in.
"We went down to Hogsmeade. Why?" said Harry, startled confusion showed on his face. As far as he was concerned, they didn't do anything wrong.
"McGonagall's been looking for you," the redhead said, a bit smugly. Harry was really beginning to think that Ron was not his friend.
"Oh, do you know why?" asked Hermione, starting to worry her hands. She really didn't like getting in trouble with McGonagall.
"She wanted to make sure that Hermione was okay after the task," Dean said, trying to relieve the girl's worry. He, on the other hand, didn't like it when his friends were upset.
"Oh well, I think I'll go and find out why," Hermione said, rushing to McGonagall's office. She didn't want to make the professor wait any longer than she already had.
Harry rushed after her. The two went to McGonagall's office to find out if they were in trouble. Hermione knocked on the door. They were bid to enter. They both entered the office and stood in front of the desk. McGonagall looked at them, frowning.
"Just where have you two been?" she said, her lips were pursed in that way of hers that made everybody feel as if they had done something wrong. She looked at them as if she had swallowed a lemon. Harry always felt as if he were five years old when he was in the presence of Professor McGonagall.
"We went to visit Millie," said Harry, his chin raised defiantly. "We didn't think anybody would mind. It is a Hogsmeade weekend."
"Next time, let somebody know you're going to be leaving the school grounds," the teacher said with a sniff. She then picked up some parchments and shoved them around her desk, as if to seem important.
"You wanted to see us," said Hermione, still worrying her hands.
"We wanted to make sure that you were okay after the task," Professor McGonagall said, actually showing a bit of worry to the young teenage girl.
"Madam Pomfrey gave me the okay and so I left," Hermione said, sharing a confused look with Harry.
"Yes, but you did not stay and find out what the scores were at the end," the professor stated as if that were important to her. She shuffled a few more parchments around her desk.
"I am not one of the contestants," the bushy-haired girl said a bit confused.
"But you were part of the task. I thought you'd like to see how your participation affected the outcome," the teacher said once more pursing her lips.
"With all due respect, ma'am, I was not asked to be part of the task. I did not want to see how it ended," Hermione said, fretting some. She was still very upset about being put at the bottom of the lake. She hadn't been asked at all if she wanted to be a participant in the task. She had just been taken and put at the bottom of the lake. As if it would be a great honor to be part of the Triwizard Tournament.
"Very well, you may go," McGonagall said, waving them away, as if they were inconsequential.
So, the two went back to their common room and did their homework for the week. Getting that out of the way left them free time. Hermione fretted more, wondering if she was going to have nightmares about being captured and put at the bottom of the lake for the rest of her life. Harry did his best to keep her calm and reassure her. But he too wondered if he was going to have nightmares about his best friend being at the bottom of the lake for the rest of his life.
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A newspaper article came out that tried to say that there was a love triangle between Viktor Krum, Harry Potter, and Hermione Granger. That lasted all of one day before Sirius Black and Millie Foster descended on the Daily Prophet and threatened to sue them for everything they had, and they retracted the article.
They reprinted a withdrawal the next day that stated that Rita Skeeter was being free with her words once again. Said reporter was also put on suspension for a month because of her 'free words'.
After that time went on and it was mostly just homework and time with friends. A few more Hogsmeade weekends and time with Millie and Sirius. And soon enough, the third task came about. Again, it would be boring for the spectators. It wasn't even time for the third task, and they could tell it was going to be boring because the quidditch pitch was overtaken by a large maze.
"How are we supposed to see through that?" asked Harry as he and his friends overlooked the large maze. They were on their way to Millie's place, but they stopped to look at the maze.
"I have no idea," said Hermione, examining the maze with interest. It was a charming piece of magic. It was very intricate. It was slow growing, which was very strange because magic could make it grow so much faster, so she didn't understand why they were doing it so slowly.
"Are we just supposed to sit and watch it?" asked Dean, who had been thoroughly bored at the second task. All he had done was sit and stare at the water.
"I guess so," said Neville, rubbing the back of his head. He too had been thoroughly bored at the second task and didn't have any idea what they were supposed to do for the third task.
"That seems right dull," said Seamus, saying what everybody else was thinking.
"Well, there's nothing for it," said Harry, turning and starting to walk away. "We're just going to have to bring our own entertainment."
"What do you suggest?" inquired Hermione, catching up with him.
"Well, I know what you're going to suggest," said Harry. "You're going to suggest we bring books," he said, giving her a smile to take the bite out of his words.
"There's nothing wrong with the good book," she said primly.
"Yeah, I agree with you there in this case," he said, nodding his head sagely. "They're light and easy to carry and we can always put them away if something exciting happens."
"Too right," said Dean.
And with that, the group continued to move away from the maze, and started heading down to Hogsmeade. They were walking down the road when suddenly out of the woods came a man in a hooded robe. Who grabbed Harry. He pulled him towards the woods, while the other teens started throwing curses at him.
Harry elbowed the man in the solar plex and headbutted him in the head, he then turned around and kneed him in the balls. The man let him go and keeled over and Harry and the teens ran towards Hogsmeade. They didn't stop until they got to Millie's place.
"Well, that doesn't bode well," said Harry as he entered Millie's house. They were all sitting inside Millie's back door out of breath and panting.
"What happened?" asked Millie as she came into the room. She could see that they were all distressed.
"Somebody just tried to kidnap Harry," said Dean, from his position, with his hands on his knees and his head down. He was still trying to catch his breath from their mad dash through Hogsmeade.
"What do you mean somebody tried to kidnap Harry?" she asked as she rushed to Harry's side. She put her arm over his shoulders, but she looked at everybody's faces, trying to see what they were talking about.
"I mean, somebody just ran out of the woods and tried to kidnap Harry as we were walking down here," Dean said, looking up and staring into her face so that she could see that he was telling the truth.
"How did you get away, yeah?" Millie asked, looking over Harry, making sure that he wasn't hurt. Then she started looking over everybody else to make sure they weren't hurt either.
"I used the self-defense you taught me," Harry said, a bit proudly. He wasn't hurt. He was a bit scuffed up, but he wasn't hurt.
"I'm so proud of you," said Millie, putting a hand on his cheek and looking dead in his eyes to show how proud she was.
"Well, I'm glad you taught me self-defense," said Harry, giving her a megawatt smile.
With that, the teens enjoyed their day, but they stayed close to Sirius and Millie for the rest of the day. They did tend to spook at loud noises though. They jumped every time somebody slammed a door shut or closed the window. They hoped that it would go away soon. Nobody liked being that skittish.
Sirius even made sure to walk them back to Hogwarts. He even went to talk to the headmaster and let him know that there was an attempt on Harry's life. They weren't sure what to do about it. Because nothing really happened, and they didn't get a good look at whoever it was that tried to take him.
The headmaster called Harry up to his office. Harry made sure to bring Millie and Sirius with him. He called them on the mirror and they were there within ten minutes.
"You wanted to see me, Headmaster," he said as they entered the office.
"I wanted to see you. I do not know why you brought Miss Foster and Sirius with you," the man said from behind his desk. He ran his hand down his long beard as if he was looking at them in a grandfatherly fashion.
"I wanted to make sure that I had representation," Harry said. He took a seat in one of the chairs in front of the desk and waited for Millie and Sirius to do the same.
"Do you not trust me, Harry, my boy?" Albus asked, looking over his half-moon spectacles as if he expected the answer to be 'Yes, of course I do trust you'.
"With all due respect, sir, I don't know you," Harry said, looking a bit contrite. He wanted to trust the man, but he really didn't.
"Very well then, there is nothing for it. Would you care for a lemon drop?" The old man offered. Obviously, never having been told, it was unusual for old men to offer young children candy.
"No, thank you," all three of them said.
"I called you here to ask if you would consider not going to Hogsmeade for the rest of the year," The headmaster said as if it were already a done deal. He really wanted Harry to stay at Hogwarts for the rest of the year where he figured he would be safe.
"That would be no, sir. I very much enjoyed my time in Hogsmeade. That and Millie and Sirius both live there," Harry said, giving the man a confused look, as if he couldn't believe he gave him that suggestion.
"Be that as it may, an attempt was made on your life going down there and I do not want to risk it again," Dumbledore said as if his word were law.
"And I got away, sir," Harry pointed out, tilting his head to the side.
"However, next time you may not. The next time the perpetrator may succeed in obtaining you," the old man said, making a valid point.
"I think I can get away again," Harry said, sounding like an arrogant teenager.
"And if it does not happen that way?" The headmaster asked, also tilting his head in a quizzical way.
"I think I'll take my chances, sir," the teen said, still coming off is a bit arrogant.
"Sirius, surely you can see that this cannot happen. Harry is very important to the wizard community, and he must be protected at all costs," Albus pleaded, turning to the oldest adult in the room. Besides himself.
"I can't wrap him in bubble charms and keep him cocooned at all times, Albus," Sirius stated, seeing the logic in both sides of the argument, but wanting to go with Harry's side.
"We must endeavor to keep him safe," The old man said, a pleading quality to his voice.
"He has to be able to be a teenage boy. I'm not going to keep him wrapped up, not for your sake. We've taught him everything he knows to protect himself. He got away this time. I'm sure he can get away again. We'll do what we can to keep him safe, but we're not going to keep him locked up," The dogman said, looking at Harry fondly, but also wanting to wrap him up, just like Albus wanted to do. The attempted kidnapping had scared him just as much as it seemed to do the headmaster. But he couldn't, like he said, wrapped the boy up in cotton and keep him under lock and key.
"And you, Miss Foster. Do you feel the same way?" The headmaster said, turning to the last person in the room.
"You bet your arse I do," Millie said, just to be defiant. She too, could see both sides of the argument, and she too wanted to keep Harry under lock and key, but she also wanted him to be independent.
"Very well then. I can see you will do what you will," Dumbledore said, pretty much ending the conversation.
"Albus," Sirius said, nodding his head at the man, and shooing the other two out.
And with that the three left. Feeling they had accomplished what they came to accomplish. Which was not to let the headmaster walk all over them. Millie and Sirius gave Harry a hug and then left. Harry went back to his common room and reflected on what happened. He wondered where the headmaster thought he got off telling him what he could and couldn't do. He was just his headmaster, after all. There were times he just didn't trust that man.
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On the morning of the third task, a weird thing happened to Harry. He woke up with a wound on his arm. He didn't understand what had happened. He went to the school nurse and asked if she could find anything wrong. It was just a cut on his arm. There was no magical residue of any kind. It was as if somebody had taken a knife and cut his arm. She healed the arm up and made a report.
Harry went to the task with all his friends and sat and watched the maze with everybody else and was bored out of their minds. They made sure to bring books, read and watched the maze and read, and watched the maze and read and watched the maze. Soon there were flashes of light from when the contestants were fighting whatever monsters or spells were in the maze, but that's all the audience ever saw. About an hour later, the maze fell just like that, and Cedric Diggory was in the middle of the maze holding the Triwizard Cup.
And that was the end of the Triwizard Tournament. The crowd went wild and there was a great party in the Great Hall for the winner. It lasted for hours.
That night when Harry went to bed, he had a dream. It was the Dark Lord. He was alive. And he was talking to Harry.
"I'm coming for you, Harry Potter," he said.
Harry could see him plain as day, and he didn't look human. He looked like a snakehead. He had no nose, no hair on his face. He had no eyebrows. His skin was almost scaly. His fingers were long, almost unnatural looking. And he was looking straight at Harry when he talked to him. As if he knew he could see him in his mind.
Harry woke up almost screaming. He immediately got on the mirror and called Millie. "Millie!" he said into the mirror. "Voldemort is back," he said, scared out of his mind.
"How do you know this?" she asked, clutching her robe to her chest. Those were words she never wanted to hear coming out of anybody's mouth.
"He came to me in a dream," Harry said, running his hands down his face in a weary gesture. He couldn't believe what was going on. Let alone what he was saying.
"He came to you in a dream?" she asked, not doubting him for a minute. But wanting to make sure that that is what he was saying.
"Yes, he came to me in a dream, and he said he was coming for me," Harry repeated. He looked around the room nervously, just to make sure none of his roommates were hearing what he was saying. He had cast a silencing spell over his bed, but he wanted to make sure that it was working.
"Okay, you need to calm down, yeah? Tell me exactly what he said and exactly how he looked," she instructed, making calming gestures with her hands, and keeping her voice as tranquil as possible.
So, Harry did just that. He told her everything he knew.
"Okay… so… he's alive. This is not good. We need to tell somebody. But who are we talking to? We know the ministry won't listen to us so... We need to tell Dumbledore… No. First we'll tell Sirius, then we'll decide who to tell from there, yeah…" She was rambling to herself as she was pacing back and forth in front of the mirror.
"Millie," Harry said, getting her attention by raising his voice a bit.
"Yeah?" she said, stopping her pacing.
"I'm scared," he said, in a soft voice.
"I know you are, sweetie, but there is nothing I can do for you here right now. Um, let me talk to Sirius and we'll see what we can do, okay?" she said, trying to sound reassuring. She wasn't sure how well she pulled it off because she was scared, too. This was not something she was used to dealing with.
"I guess there's nothing else I can do. I'll just… read, I guess. There is no going back to bed for me after this, I can tell you that," he said, scrambling to get out of bed to do something besides just lay there. He tried his best not to wake his dormmates.
"Yeah, you do what you can. I'm gonna go see what Sirius says about this," she said, moving to get dressed. She was going to go over Sirius's house and wake him up.
"Okay, Millie. I love you."
"I love you too, sweetie."
With that, the two disconnected and did their very best to keep calm in what was going to be the oncoming storm.