A/N: Thank you for your reviews! We've finally come to the beginning of the climax of year 4 ... I apologise in advance ^^"

Rita Skeeter kept her promise. Hermione kept an eye out, just to be sure, but she never spotted the bug again at Hogwarts and the articles were far tamer than they had been. If she felt the need to slander someone, it was ironically Dumbledore.

Hermione certainly wouldn't complain about that. The Ministry probably wouldn't play along for long, but that wasn't her problem.

What was her problem was the Third Task. A month before it would take place, Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch sr. came to Hogwarts and informed them that there would be a maze in the centre of which was the Triwizard Cup. Whoever reached and touched it first would be the winner. Of course there would be several obstacles on the way there.

Well, maybe her lessons in defensive and offensive magic would pay out now.

The day of the task, Hermione was once more dressed in her duelling robes as she went to the Quidditch Pitch, where the maze was, in the company of her friends. Harry and Ron were now, much more than before, stables in their friends group, as Ron and Pansy were still together, despite their constant bickering. Luna and Greg were also still a couple and with them there was no bickering. They were actually the sweetest couple Hermione had ever seen; Greg worshipped the ground Luna was walking on and Luna was obviously very happy with him. She also seemed to be very happy to have friends and since Hermione remembered all too well how it was not to have any, she could rely. The two Gryffindors and one Ravenclaw joined the Slytherins every time they were not in the Slytherin common room or in the Chamber of Secrets. Hermione considered telling them about the Chamber soon. All three of them knew about Noodles and had kept him a secret. She didn't think they would tell anyone. But that was something to think about when the task was over.

When they approached the Quidditch Pitch, she noticed that the stands had been raised so that the audience would be able to see what the champions were doing. From Lucius she knew that Abraxas had been far from the only one who had complained about not having seen a thing during the Second Task.

Draco pulled her into his arms and kissed her. "Good luck. Be careful."

"Don't worry. I'll be fine."

"More than fine. You'll win this thing." He smiled at her.

"That's the plan."

Like in the previous tasks, Hermione met with Ludo Bagman and the other champions, this time only Viktor and Cedric.

"Are all of you ready?" His question was accompanied by his usual cheerful smile.

Like with the dragons, Hermione was unexpectedly calm. Cedric looked nervous, Viktor's smile with which he had greeted her, had also looked strained, but Hermione felt ready. She had trained with some of the best duellists all year. She couldn't have been more prepared than she was.

Bagman navigated them to the opening of the maze and left them there to climbed up a platform from where he could also see over the hedges to comment on what was going on.

While he was getting there, Hermione turned to her fellow champions with a small smile. "Good luck."

"You too." Cedric's voice sounded genuine. "You really did great, you know. I was worried when I heard you were chosen, because you're younger than us. But I guess you surprised everyone."

"Thank you. You also did great. Both of you."

Viktor remained quiet, but she guessed he was just nervous and he wasn't the most talkative person to begin with.

Bagman had finally reached his platform and his voice boomed over the stands. "Welcome and thank you for coming to support our three remaining champions in the final task!"

Booming applause.

"When I count to three, the champions will enter the maze. Whoever reaches the Triwizard Cup first, will be the winner of the Tournament! Our spectators can already see what they will face on their way, but for them, it will all be a surprise." He turned to the champions. "If you're hurt and feel like you can't go on, shoot up red sparks from your wand and someone will get you out. Please demonstrate."

They all shot up red sparks.

"Very good! You are not allowed to fight each other. Play fair in there! Without further ado – one … two … three!"

Hermione ran and immediately turned to the right while the boys kept running straight ahead. She had hardly made it around the corner when she saw about 20 Cornish Pixies, which reminded her of a very unfortunate Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson with Lockhart. Without stopping, she raised her wand at them and shouted "Immobulus!" Unable to flap their wings, they fell to the ground. Bagman was shouting something, but like last time, Hermione blocked him out.

She came to a fork and stuck to the right again, but this time her choice led her to a dead end. She turned around, only to be face to face with a huge spider, as big as a small pony. She only hesitated for a second before raising her wand. "Stupify!" The spider froze and she ran past it.

It was almost satisfying when she came across one of the Blast-Ended Skrewts. They had the size of a big dog now and were just as ugly and vicious as before. A flame shot out of one end and grazed her arm, but the dragon leather of the duelling robes protected her. She wasn't hurt. The Skrewt was. It took her all she had to only use a "Bombarda" to blast it out of the way, instead of a "Bombarda Maxima". That would have been overkill.

She really hated these things.

She kept running, but what awaited her around the corner, shocked her. Viktor and Cedric were facing each other and Viktor was attacking Cedric, who just kept blocking him. What was that about? They weren't supposed to fight each other. She just wanted to keep running, ignore that stupidity, when Viktor suddenly shouted "Crucio!" and Cedric fell to the ground, screaming. She heard voices from the spectator stands, Bagman was speechless for the time being. Hermione raised her wand. "Stupify!" Viktor fell to the ground, stiff as a board.

She didn't understand. She had trained with him for months. He had never, not once, shown any sign of viciousness. And now he had used an Unforgivable? What the hell? She walked over to Cedric, who was just getting up. "Are you ok?"

He looked as shocked as she felt. "Yes. Thanks." His voice was shaky.

So was Bagman's. "Mr Krum is disqualified. Two more champions remaining."

"They want to continue?" Cedric looked even more shocked.

"Apparently." She looked at Viktor, who had just thrown his whole future away. An Unforgivable Curse meant prison, meant Azkaban.

"Miss Riddle, Mr Diggory, you may continue!" Bagman's voice boomed from his platform. "I was just informed that there are Aurors in the audience, they will take care of Mr Krum."

Hermione and Cedric looked at each other for a moment longer. This had to be a bad joke.

Why would Viktor do that? He had known that everyone could see what he was doing.

Well, it seemed they had to solve that problem once the task was over.

She looked at Cedric, shrugged, and ran.

Two more spiders and several more Skrewts later, a man was standing in front of her. For the first time since the incident with Viktor, she froze. He couldn't be here – how could he be here?

The man she had believed to be her father for far too many years walked towards her and then it came to her. This wasn't him at all - it was a Boggart. She remembered the Boggart lesson in her third year and how she had failed. Lupin had wanted to let her try again, but due to a lack of available Boggarts, this had never happened.

For a moment all she felt was the racing of her heart, but then she straightened. She was no longer the little girl who had cowered in her room, hoping not to attract this man's attention. She was a capable witch and even if the real him would have tried to hurt her now, he wouldn't stand a chance. The easiest spells she had learned would stop him and leave him helpless, at her mercy for once. And who was he anyway? He wasn't her father, her father was somewhere in the stands, disguised as one of his Death Eaters. She wasn't the daughter of Daniel Granger, she was the daughter of Tom Riddle, one of the most powerful wizards of their time. She could deal with a bloody Boggart.

"Riddikulus!" It wasn't the funniest thing she had ever seen when he fell over his own feet and on his face, but she didn't need to defeat him, she just needed to get past him. She jumped over his fallen form and continued running.

She could see the Cup. It wasn't far away anymore, but between it and her was one last obstacle and it wasn't to be underestimated.

The body of a lion, the head of a woman. It was a sphinx. She was pacing up and down, her almond-shaped eyes on Hermione. The creature didn't look menacing at all, but Hermione knew that she was highly dangerous. "You're very close now. You can answer my riddle and if you give me the correct answer, I let you pass." Her voice was surprisingly pleasant. "If you give me the wrong answer I will attack. If you give me no answer at all, I will let you walk away."

The cup was so close. If she managed to get past the sphinx, she would almost certainly win.

"Alright. Please tell me the riddle."

The sphinx looked pleased. "What is the building with the most storeys?"

It didn't take her long. It was obvious that the sphinx didn't mean the highest building, neither the highest Wizarding building nor the highest Muggle building. There was a trick to it, like to all riddles.

It wasn't storeys, it was stories. "A library."

The sphinx smiled and stepped aside.

However, the moment Hermione was past her, Cedric came from the other side. She started running, so did he and they both leapt for the Cup and touched it at the same time.

The feeling of travelling by Portkey was not unfamiliar to Hermione, but she hadn't expected it now.

One moment they were at the centre of the maze, the next they were standing in a courtyard of what looked like a manor house, the Cup falling to the ground between them. The building was not nearly as big as Malfoy Manor, nor as well-kept. It looked old, some windows were broken, and there was a large clocktower. The clock stood still and there was some kind of symbol on the clock face.

Was this part of the task? She met Cedric's equally confused eyes when suddenly a voice screamed "AVADA KEDAVRA." A blinding green light and Cedric fell to the ground. She flung around, raised her wand, but it flew out of her hand and to the other side of the courtyard.

"Crucio"

Pain. More pain than she had ever experienced. Every nerve of her body seemed to be signalling nothing but pain.

She screamed and her legs gave way. She hardly felt it when she hit the ground.

When the pain subsided, she heard Dumbledore's voice. "Well, I did not expect that. Moody wanted to make sure that you would be the one to get here, no one else."

She turned her head and saw the former headmaster. His familiar smile was on his face, as if he hadn't just killed a boy.

It dawned on her that Viktor's attack had not been his doing. The Imperius Curse, probably. He was supposed to stop Cedric so she would win. She should have let him.

"What do you want?" She tried to sit up when another Cruciatus hit her. She screamed again and when it was over, she was trembling.

"Tell me, Miss Riddle, is your father alive?"

Hermione's looked around. There had to be a way out of here, there had to be …

"Crucio!" Again, she screamed, her back bending. Next thing she knew was Dumbledore leaning over her. "Is your father alive?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about. You know he's dead."

"Crucio!"

She understood why people lost their minds, if this went on for long enough. Hermione had had no idea that it was possible to feel so much pain at once.

Her muscles were twitching, trembling. "Well, I think he's alive. And I think the easiest way to get him out of hiding is to kill you. Do you think he will care, Miss Riddle?"

"He's dead," she croaked.

"Crucio."

The pain lasted longer than before.

Dumbledore was pacing now

"What do you want?" She tried to buy time, tried to think of something, anything.

"I want for Riddle to come back. I want another war and want to make those fools believe that they're only alive because of me." He stopped his pacing, standing a few feet away from her. "I want absolute power."

Her wand was so far away and she could barely control her trembling body now.

"You could have become Minister, they offered it to you after the war."

"Crucio!"

Her breathing was ragged when the pain finally ended. She felt tears on her face.

"Don't act stupid with me, Miss Riddle. You and I both know that the Minister doesn't have absolute power. Look at that whimpering fool Fudge."

Her mind was racing. She could apparate away, if she could only get to her wand. He would never expect her to be able to apparate.

"Why did you show Harry all these memories about my father?"

"Ah, he told you. But what does it matter now? Are you trying to buy time?" He was looking down on her again, that bloody smile on his face.

"You're going to kill me anyway, aren't you?"

"I am. And I'll send your body to Malfoy Manor." His smile grew. That sick bastard. "You're right, what does it matter? I was planning to use him as a martyr. The story about your father's Horcruxes, seven of them, I suppose he told you?" She managed a small nod. "I was going to send him on a Horcrux hunt, let him destroy some random objects that were supposedly your father's Horcruxes. Tragically, it would have turned out that the last Horcrux your father created was an accidental one."

Accidental? That was ridiculous. Hermione had read up on Horcruxes, just out of curiosity. You couldn't accidentally create a Horcrux. It was a very deliberate act. But most people wouldn't know. Not everyone had access to the library at Malfoy Manor, which was probably one of the few which had books about that topic.

She had to get to her wand.

No, she realised, she had to get to Cedric's wand. It was much closer. But still a meter or so away. Her muscles were still convulsing painfully. She could barely move, let alone quick enough and with him watching.

"He accidentally made Harry Potter a Horcrux when he tried and failed to kill him."

Hermione wanted to laugh. This would have been funny, if Cedric's dead body hadn't been lying only a metre away from her.

Then she remembered the first spell of Blood Magic Igor had taught her. The blood fog. Sanguis Nebula.

She needed to cut herself. She didn't have a wand and now wasn't the time to try wandless magic for the first time. She only had one go. If she failed, he would kill her instantly.

She turned her head to the side, as she lay on the cold stone floor. All she saw were dead leaves. No, there were some stones lying around and the edges of one of them looked rather sharp.

"After finding all the other Horcruxes, Harry would have found out that he was the last one." His voice was still perfectly calm and he as pacing again as he told her about his mad plan.

Hermione managed to force herself to take the stone into her hand. She tried to close her hand around it, tried to squeeze it hard enough for its sharp edge to cut her. Igor had told her not to cut her palm, to cut any other part of her body instead, so she would still be able to hold her wand in both hands and fight – but that didn't matter now. There was not going to be a fight. She would lose a fight. Even under the best of circumstances, she had no chance against this madman. As it was, she couldn't even grab the stone hard enough to draw blood, her muscles wouldn't obey her.

"He would have sacrificed himself," Dumbledore continued, unaware of her train of thoughts. "And I would have defeated your father in a duel more legendary than the one against Gellert."

Hermione knew how she could force her hand to cramp shut, she just didn't know, if she was brave enough.

She thought of her father, of Draco, the Malfoys and the Notts. Of everyone who had become so important to her. The people who had become her family.

No, she couldn't die here. She had to go home.

She took a deep breath. Her voice was raw from screaming when she spoke, but she tried very hard to make it sound mocking, to provoke him. "You would have lost, you pathetic fool."

He turned around in anger. "Crucio!"

She screamed, her body bending in odd angles, and her hand clamped shut, the sharp edge of the stone cutting into her flesh. Why didn't it stop? It lasted longer than ever before and it felt like forever.

But then it stopped. Hermione took a shuddering breath, her body trembling and muscles twitching harder than ever. But there was blood on her palm. She could feel it.

It took all her remaining strength to focus. She did not use the incantation, she didn't want to warn him. Like the first time she had done it and all the times she practised, she just focused on the flaw of her blood, imagined it to change into fog, wrap itself around Dumbledore, protecting her from his sight, if only for a few precious seconds.

And it did. She had practised the spell often enough after the first time and she had managed to become as effective as Igor. The fog moved fast, wrapped itself around Dumbledore, blinding him.

He screamed something at her. She didn't understand. It didn't matter.

As best she could, she rolled to her side. Every muscle in her body protested against the movement. And it was so hard to move at all! She screamed in frustration about how hard it was to reach for Cedric's wand until she finally wrapped her fingers around it.

She sobbed in relief and just wanted to apparate away, but then her eyes fell on Cedric's dead body. They hadn't been friends, but he had treated her with kindness and respect at all times. He didn't deserve to be left behind. Besides, it was time for people to see what Dumbledore was capable of.

Painfully, she reached out with her other arm and just as Dumbledore stepped out of the red fog she had conjured from her own blood, she apparated away.

~tbc~