AN: Once again, barely making it before the clock strikes midnight (for me, I'm in the Middle East for another couple months). Still, I'm making true on my goal of publishing once a week, and hopefully I can keep this going. I hope you all enjoy this week's chapter.

Nightwing2013 - Perhaps . . . I guess we'll just wait and see! Yeah, I wasn't all that subtle with that reference. Eichi is Nautilus, also from SAO. Just a nice little nod. It was a bit shorter, but I'm trying not to necessarily dictate how long a chapter will be, just so that I don't feel like I'm forcing things to go long . . . though I was also rushing or felt like it to get the last chapter (and this one) out, so that probably added to it being shorter. I guess we'll just have to see about the Fifth Task.

mwinter1 - Thanks! You'll just have to wait and see.

stars90 - Yeah, poor Tonks, but she signed up for it! Oh, I'd pity them if Mad-Eye was also there. Oh yeah, Harry has learned the art of Hermioneing quite well, haha.

scrappy8 - Thanks! Sirius still needs to tell Harry everything about Bellatrix. He's generally kept it close to the chest, except for Remus, Dora, and Dumbledore.

Mando-Vet - Thank you very much!

ulttoanova - Thank you! Glad to see I'm keeping you all guessing somewhat. I'll try to keep up the good work.

GreengrassRebel - Well, you just made the cut, and I just also barely made the cut for posting, haha. I'm still really humbled how much every one is enjoying this fic and all my little subplots. Thank you for the compliment to my writing. This story is leaps beyond where I started, and it's been cool realizing how far I've come as a writer in the time I've been doing this. As for the ritual . . . well, let me just shameless quote, "clever girl." Yes, in theory the ritual could be used to extend lifetimes, at the cost of your memories, but perhaps a bastardized version could be created, and perhaps Voldemort might look into it in the future, once he learns of it.

Chapter 38

Dora dodged the stunner, cursing loudly.

"Contact!" Dora called out, raising a shield which blocked another two quick spells, which blasted down her shield, and she grimaced, diving into a thorny bush to avoid the binding charm.

She cursed again, knowing that she'd have to ask Illeana to help pull thorns out of her back . . . again. Thankfully, her teammate and now good friend, considering she'd only known her for going on three weeks, was a fantastic partner. Illeana raised a shield, moving close to Dora, and the two of them worked to counter the spells of their attackers, but something that they had all learned over the past couple weeks was that their leaders were not only incredible duelists, but they were even better pairs. Not for nothing that they'd given the speech about learning to beat superior duelists. All of Dora's fellow classmates, and her squad especially, were all great duelists and warriors, but so far none of them had bested any of their instructors in the field. They'd gotten close, many of them had, but none of them had won a skirmish yet.

Whenever they thought they were about to have a chance, Carson Dallows would single-handedly show them the error of that belief. The bastard had been the world dueling champion about fifteen years previous, as they all learned thanks to Schoolboy. Not only had he been the world champion, he'd held the title for seven consecutive years when he finally retired.

"Merda," Illeana cursed. "I see Dallows approaching. We need to get out of here."

Dora took advantage of Illeana's flock of birds she'd put up to distract and hit Sloan with an advanced stunner.

"But we're so close," Dora nearly whined. "We can take Matthews, and then I think we have a real chance at Dallows."

"No," Illeana said. "We're not ready yet, and our mission is to me."

Dora sighed, but nodded. She did trust Illeana, and their team wouldn't work if they were split on decisions. Dora conjured three glass orbs and launched them into the air. Illeana sent three bright bursts of light into the glass orbs, which provided one large bright light, blinding the area, and Dora and her friend ran further into the woods, and almost immediately ran into another pair . . . Hollywood himself, Tristan, and his battle happy partner for the day, Branson.

Dora launched a quick stunner at Branson, who just barely managed to shield himself, his normal stupid, but endearing smile popping on his face now that he was back in a fight. Tristan quickly shielded himself from a strike made by Illeana, and all four of them started trading spells back and forth, but not for nothing, these two weeks had drilled teamwork in, and Dora and Illeana were a good combo, better than Tristan and Branson, the latter of whom loved a challenge too much to properly team up with someone when major stakes weren't on the line, and the former of whom preferred to just go with the flow of his partner, and was a good partner, but not a great leader.

Illeana turned up the heat, chaining her spells together, and Dora enhanced everything she sent at Tristan, or did her best to counter Tristan and Branson's spells, putting Tristan on the defensive before finally Illeana sunk a bludgeoning spell through Tristan's defensives, breaking his wand arm's wrist, and he grunted in pain before Illeana took him out with a stunner. From there, she and Dora started unleashing an offensive wave at Branson, who's smile never faded, even as he was slowly overwhelmed. When they'd first started, Branson had been more than capable of besting nearly any of them, even in pairs, but after weeks of learning how to fight as a team, even the best of them were struggling to hold up against nearly any pair in any of the squads or platoons. They were getting much better.

Unfortunately, just as they finally disarmed and stunned Branson, their instructors caught up to them, and this time Dallows was already with them. Dora could only feel a smidge of satisfaction as she and Illeana managed to stun Matthews before they were overwhelmed and she found herself wrapped up in vines.

"Close, but tactically foolish to engage your other squadmates knowing we were in the area," Sloan said. "Now, you know the deal."

Dora and Illeana groaned, but nodded, knowing they had one hundred crunches, one hundred pushups, one hundred burpees, and had to cast one hundred stunners, one hundred blasting curses, and one hundred cutting curses at a twenty five meter target before they would be able to get back into trying to evade their instructors and hunt down, engage, and defeat their fellow trainees. The team that evaded the least successfully and the team who defeated the least amount of opponents had extra duty during their two days of refitting and recovery before they'd go to the field. None of them wanted to spend extra time cleaning dishes in the kitchens or pulling an extra shift of watch in the barracks.

Her eyes met those of Illeanas, and she knew they were both of the same mind. As tired as they were, as much as they could use the break, they were going to crush out the punishment and then get back to the hunt.

**HP**

"Fuck, I can feel parts of my body that I didn't even know I had," Cole said with a groan, as he dropped into his bunk, looking like a boneless mass.

"Yeah, and we're the morons who volunteered for this treatment," Steph said with a chuckle.

"Could be worse," Barry said, his face focused on the latest letter from his wife, a smile on his face. "We could be back in week one just starting. We're halfway done. We move onto four man teams next week. Then we have squads, full platoons, and then nearly a whole week to rest and refit so we don't look starved to death during graduation."

"I don't know if I have much left in me though," Tristan said with a sigh. "This is much rougher than I had thought it would be."

"Hey, you're not leaving us, Holly," Dora said warningly. "Other squads have let some of their people go, but we're not going to do the same. We'll get you through this. You're close. We're all so close. Trust me, I would honestly love to be back in England watching my brother compete in the next Task of that blasted Tournament, but I'm not going back a failure, and I'm not going to let any of you go back one either."

Tristan sighed.

"Alright, Cam, but when they give us that two day pass just before graduation, you're letting me buy you a drink."

"You're buying me more than one, I'll have you know," Dora said with a smirk.

"Ha! Fine," Tristan said. "Alright, let's hear some stories. Cam, tell us some more about Harry's adventures. I love hearing second hand accounts that explain more than the random newspaper articles. I'll tell some raunchy stories since I know you're all dying to hear them. Steph can tell us something one of her kids did; Eichi can tell us more about that fiance of his that is clearly out of his league, and Schoolboy can recite some damn book from memory for us."

"Just like a child," Barry said with a snort. "Always wants a story before bed. You're just like my two year old daughter."

"Well, stop being so damn good at telling stories then!" Tom protested, coming to Tristan's aid. "You always get the voices just right! Hell, I'd pay to have stories recorded as you read them out loud."

"Yeah, me too," Dora agreed, and Barry shook his head as all around, the rest of the squad chimed in with their agreement. While they all had stories, it had become rather tradition for Barry to recite a story for them before they all passed out.

"Alright, alright," Barry said with a laugh. "I'll humor you children again, but first, I do want to hear another one of Harry's tales. That Chamber of Secrets story had me on pins and needles."

"You and me both," Dora muttered. "Alright, we'll move to Harry's third year and I'll tell you the story of how he got his mangy Godfather out of prison."

"Ooh, then we'll do a prison theme for storytime tonight," Barry said, his smile widening. "I'll tell you an abridged version of the Count of Monte Cristo."

"Hmm, well I do actually have a pretty good prison story," Tristan mused. "I like it . . . though I would really hope Steph's kids and Eichi's fiance don't have good prison stories."

"Well . . . I do actually have one that involves my kid and my husband," Steph said with a laugh.

"I also have one involving my fiance," Eichi added with a grin.

"Si, I also have one," Illeana added, smirking.

"Well, this is not the topic that I thought we would bond over," Cole said sarcastically, "but I'm too excited to hear all of these stories to complain, so let's get this show going!"

**HP**

"Potter, stay after class," Mad-Eye barked out, and Harry glanced up from where he was studying his shadow tome.

He glanced at Ron and Hermione who glanced at him in confusion, but he shrugged, not super concerned. Harry focused back on his mentor for the last five minutes of class, listening to him talk about the various general counter-spells that could be used to counter most average curses and charms.

Once again, Harry found himself wishing that he could have had Mad-Eye or Remus for his first two years of schooling, rather than the piss poor teachers he'd had instead. Finally though, Mad-Eye was excusing the class.

"Go on ahead," Harry said, knowing it was the last class of the day. "I'll catch up."

"Okay, Harry," Hermione said with a nod.

"You're just putting off losing at that game of chess you owe me," Ron said, with a sad shake of his head. "Imagine that, the Champion of Gryffindor, scared to lose to his best mate in a game of chess."

"Oh get out of here you prat," Harry said with a chuckle. "I'd make a snappy comeback about beating you, but we both know that I won't."

"Never will," Ron sang as Hermione led him out, chuckling slightly, and Harry grinned as he saw them run into Viktor Krum, and he knew that Ron would be mostly stammering while Hermione would be blushing. Overall though, Ron had gotten much better around Viktor, now that he was making an effort to talk with their group for Hermione's sake. Ron too was trying for Hermione's sake . . . and probably because Angelina, Alicia, Katie, and Ginny had not disguised their intent to absolutely eviscerate him if he didn't control his temper in regards to Hermione with Krum, though Harry had at least let Ron know that Hermione wasn't super serious about Krum, and that Krum would be leaving at the end of the year anyway, which helped.

Once everyone had filed out, Harry approached with a smile.

"Hey, Mad-Eye, what's up?"

"You've been doing good work this year, lad," Mad-Eye said, and Harry's smile widened.

"Thanks, but I owe most of it to you, Dora, Sirius, Remus, and my friends," Harry said.

Mad-Eye snorted. "While I agree that every person you just mentioned deserves credit, do not short change your own abilities and work ethic. Still, like I said, you've done good work. You've been working hard too. Real hard."

"Yeah," Harry agreed, nodding a bit wearily. He almost felt bad with how much this Tournament had claimed his life, along with the social lives of his friends.

"The Fourth Task is in a couple days," Mad-Eye said. "Not much more you can accomplish in that time frame, if you get my meaning."

Harry frowned slightly, not sure if he was hearing correctly and Mad-Eye rolled his real eye.

"Sometimes, some proper rest and relaxation can help just as much as proper preparation," Mad-Eye said. "You've been working hard . . . your friends, just as hard. I certainly won't tell you to do anything nor can I help you with the Tasks, but I've always felt some rest was crucial before I'd go on a mission."

Harry smiled in understanding and he nodded, already having an idea of exactly what he wanted to do.

"Thanks for telling me good general advice for life," Harry said with a grin, and Mad-Eye smirked. "I'll see you around, Professor."

"Yeah, keep up the good work, Potter."

Harry walked out and started making his way back to the Gryffindor Common Room when he ran into a friend.

"Ah, 'Arry!" Fleur said, her smile widening, and she swooped in and kissed him on both cheeks and then pulled him into a fierce hug. "Et es a beautiful day, non?"

"It is indeed, Fleur," Harry said, now quite used to her show of affection. "In fact, I was thinking that I could use a break from training today, and perhaps you and your friends would like to join me?"

Fleur's eyebrow raised, and she glanced over at Mael and Liah who were with her who both shrugged and nodded looking interested.

"Alright . . . here's what I had in mind . . ."

**HP**

Harry walked into the Common Room, and glanced around, seeing Ron and Hermione, sitting with a group of their yearmates, which included Neville, Parvati, Dean, Seamus, Lavender, Ava, and Aaron. Most of the focus seemed to be on Neville, who was likely telling everyone about the previous weekend when he'd been let out of Hogwarts again to spend time with his parents. To say Neville was happier than Harry had ever seen him was an understatement, but if there was anyone who could understand just how happy Neville had to be to have gotten his parents back, it was Harry, and he really was happy for his friend.

Ginny was with some of her own yearmates, all of whom were around Fred and George who seemed to be demonstrating one of their inventions. Of all the other Weasley siblings, it was definitely Ginny that seemed to like pranks the most and who always seemed interested in seeing what the Twins had cooked up.

Lastly were Angelina, Katie, and Alicia who were looking bored, sitting at one of the tables, school books open, and parchment in front of them. He wasn't sure if they were doing homework or preparing for the training session that they were supposed to be having in the next hour, but he was hoping to derail their work, regardless of what it was.

Harry made his way over to his three favorite chasers, all of whom looked up as he approached and smiled at him, and his own smile widened. He grabbed the seat right in between Angelina and Alicia, and went through the normal ritual of fending off them ruffling his hair and pushing Alicia away as she planted a kiss on his cheek.

"So, I have an idea to shift plans for today, if you're up for it," Harry started off, and all three girls focused on him, looking interested.

"What to, Harry?" Angelina asked. "I feel like we're close to cracking those clues, and then we get trade with Fleur and really start prepping for the Fifth Task. Though, more prep work on what to prepare for in the Forest is a good idea too."

"No, nothing to do with the Tournament," Harry said, smiling at Angelina in particular. "The Fourth Task is this weekend, and I think we could use some time to just blow off some steam. How about we go down to the Pitch and fly a bit? Maybe have a pickup game of Quidditch?"

Angelina's eyes brightened before she reigned it in slightly. "Harry, you know I'd love to, but we really should focus on the Tournament. You've got to survive and now the gods are saying you need to win."

"I know, but Mad-Eye agrees. Some rest would do us good," Harry said. "Besides, this Tournament will end, but we still have a Quidditch Cup to win next year, especially since one of us definitely needs to enter the Quidditch League with a winning record."

"He makes a good point," Alicia said, smiling at Harry. "It's been too long since we really have flown just for fun, and we don't want to get rusty."

"Alicia and I have gotten a lot of improvement into the fields we wish to enter, but it only seems fair that we work to help you too, Angie," Katie said, nodding in agreement.

"It's not like it matters," Angelina said, starting to look a bit dejected. "I probably won't make the League anyway. This year didn't help, but my dad will make sure I'm married off before I can sully my reputation, even if I impress some scouts."

"First of all, you're one of the best Quidditch players I've seen play," Harry said firmly.

"Second, you will one hundred percent impress some scouts," Alicia added sternly.

"And if you want to play in the League, nobody is going to stop you," Katie finished softly. "Trust us. We know."

Angelina looked at them gratefully and then sighed and shook her head.

"Fine, let's go play some Quidditch."

"Well, not if you're going to sound that unmotivated," Harry said, mock-pompously.

"Alright, you little twerp," Angelina said, eyes narrowing, and Harry took off running, laughing with Angelina hot on his heels.

Just what they needed . . . some levity and relaxation.

**HP**

"Alright, I'll admit it, this is brilliant!" Angelina called over as she went zooming by Harry and he grinned, feeling a level of peace now that he was in the air on a broomstick again.

All around him, his friends were also enjoying themselves, and it had expanded quite a bit. He had Katie, Alicia, Angelina, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny all on brooms happily, while Neville and Hermione were sitting in the stands watching, talking with some of the other bystanders. Beyond his closest friends, he had Fleur and her five best friends. Liah and Mael were both in the stands with Neville and Hermione, while Annika and Esmerelda had joined Fleur and the rest of them on brooms. Fleur had gotten the word to Krum, who had come out with two of his friends, Mikel and Yusuf, to fly, and lastly was Cedric, Cho, and even Marina, Susan, and Beatrice Haywood. Susan joined the small group in the stands, while the rest took to the skies.

At first they had all been flying around, but soon after they all felt properly warmed up, they decided it would be fun to have a couple short pickup games of Quidditch. They didn't break out the snitch, deciding to instead focus on the other positions, and plussing up the number of beaters and chasers. Krum and Cedric both became beaters, along with Fred, George, Beatrice, and Yusuf. Harry and Cho joined Ginny, Angelina, Katie, Alicia, Fleur, Annika, Esmerelda, and Marina as chasers, making it so each team had five chasers, and then Ron and Mikel were the two teams keepers.

What made it fun was that they decided they were determined to do their best to mix things up, splitting up established teams as much as they could. This meant Harry had Fleur, Ginny, Annika, and Angelina as his fellow chasers. George, Cedric, and Yusuf were his beaters, and Mikel was his keeper. That made the other team's chasers Alicia, Katie, Esmerelda, Marina, and Cho. Their beaters were Fred, Krum, and Beatrice, and their keeper was Ron.

Harry zoomed around, watching as Angelina threw the quaffle to Fleur, who quickly passed it to Annika, but Katie flew forward and intercepted it. Harry zoomed forward and he saw Katie's smile widen as her eyes met his, and she tossed it back to Alicia and moved to block him, but he winked at her as he spun around her. Alicia however had already passed the quaffle to Marina, who dropped it as a bludger hit her in the back, with Beatrice whooping in triumph.

Harry laughed, as they continued the game, with Fred and George often going out of their way to hit each other with bludgers just as often as they had any of the chasers. It was also fun having so many of the people being people playing outside of their normal positions. In the end, Harry's team just barely clinched a win with Angelina making the final goal, her smile wide and her eyes shining, making the afternoon of fun more than worth it in Harry's books.

Mad-Eye had been right. Some R&R had been needed.

**HP**

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Fourth Task of the Triwizard Tournament!" Bagman exclaimed triumphantly. "Today, we will witness a Task that will showcase our champions' strength, skill, endurance, and wisdom!"

Harry was a bit nervous, looking at Bagman. So far, none of them had been told the event yet, meaning this right here would be their brief. He also didn't have Dora or Sirius in the stands cheering him on, which made him a bit sad, even if he was glad they were both in their courses. He did still have quite the large cheering section for him, and he could hear his other adoptive sisters loudly cheering his name.

"Now, this task is a race! You see, this is split into two parts," Bagman continued. "If you look all around the lake, you'll see various obstacles set up that our four Champions will have to navigate. They will run around the entire lake one time, navigating the various obstacles and hitting the various targets that have been set up and which will appear when triggered. Points will be assigned for both accuracy and speed, and points will be taken away for missing the target or for not even managing to attempt to hit a target. Once the contestants have navigated the ground course, they will take to the skies! Once again, they will navigate the course around the lake and return to where they started. The journey is a total of 5 km. Penalties will be assigned for missed targets, for missing rings, for failing obstacles, and for being slower than their fellow champions."

Bagman grinned.

"Now, it is time to begin, so will all four champions make their way to the starting point."

Harry made his way to the starting point, near the bank of the Lake, with Fleur, Krum, and Cedric, the latter two of whom looked extremely confident. He couldn't blame them. Krum was an international athlete, and one of the most gifted flyers in the world. The second leg of the race was arguably built for him, and he was sure to be a strong competitor in the first leg based on his fitness level. Harry of all people knew just how fit many Quidditch players were. Krum's show of accuracy at the First Task told Harry that he wasn't likely to struggle with hitting targets, and his showing in the Second Task was proof he had a quick wand too. Cedric too was in good shape for this task. One of his patrons was Heracles, the god of athletes. That told Harry that Cedric had godly favor on his side for the first leg, and Harry knew that Cedric was a superb flyer. Not quite as good as Harry himself, and nothing on Krum, but still superb. With his dueling abilities, he stood strong to be in the lead at the end of the first lap. Even Fleur was in phenomenal shape. Harry knew that he was in great shape himself, but he knew that this was going to be a hard Task to win.

"On the cannon blast, the champions will have to hit a target at forty meters, out there on the lake. They can only move on once they've hit the target or once they have missed a total of three times, accruing three penalties."

Harry moved his fingers, getting ready to draw his wand as he gazed out on his target, seeing it next to the other three targets. Forty meters was a fairly long distance for them to hit on. He was confident he could . . . and unfortunately confident his fellow Champions could, but he had hopes they might miss once or at least would be slower to hit. He suspected he was going to need all the help he could get to win this one.

**HP**

"At least this one doesn't seem too dangerous," Angelina said with a sigh. "Just a good old fashioned race."

Around was a smaller, but still enthusiastic group of supporters. Of Harry's family, only Remus was there to support . . . well and Mad-Eye of course, but Sirius and Dora were still gone. However, Kingsley, Alexis, Savage, Siobhan, Aisling, Penny, and Chiara had all come to support Harry both for his sake, and for their friends and coworkers who couldn't be there to support him.

"I bet Harry's got the edge on wand speed and accuracy, or at least he's near the lead on that," Savage said. "I mean, from what I've seen, they're all good, and Delacour might give Harry a run for his money, but he should be a bit better than Diggory or Krum."

"Krum's an air elemental though, and an international athlete," Kingsley said grimly. "That's going to be hard to overcome, even with how naturally talented and skilled a flyer Harry is."

"Cedric has patronage from Heracles too," Alicia said with a grimace. "A race like this was built for those two."

"Well, let's see what happens," Siobhan said, bouncing Aisling slightly and the girl cheered happily.

"Awwy!"

Around her, many of the supporters smiled at the enthusiastic little girl.

Finally, the cannon blast sounded and they all watched all four of the champions draw their wands. Harry had the quickest draw by a hair, and he did get his spell off the quickest, nailing his target, but unfortunately there was to be no reprieve as all three of the other champions also hit their targets.

They all took off running, and it seemed there was roughly four hundred meters of running before they hit their first obstacle, which was a set of walls that they had to get over. Krum and Cedric had already started pulling away in the spring, but here they clearly showed their strength, easily using their height and strength to throw themselves up the walls and over. Harry and Fleur were neck and neck just behind the two, straining themselves to keep up as they continued to climb over six different walls of various heights and duck under walls with the bottom meter missing before they took off running again, Krum and Cedric putting more distance between them and the other two champions, but Cedric was slowly taking and increasing the lead.

They reached a set of tilted blocks that they had to jump across, trying to keep their balance, moving fast, but that's where the first targets popped up, and Cedric in the lead floundered a bit trying to hit the four rapid targets that appeared, managing to hit two and clip one enough to count as a hit, even if not a very accurate one, but he missed his first cast. Krum managed to hit all four, having seen Cedric, though his accuracy wasn't quite as good as normal with different targets appearing, so they were not in the exact same place as Cedric's.

Most of the crowd was busy watching Krum and Diggory who were hitting all of the new obstacles earlier and earlier, only glancing back at Harry and Fleur to see how they reacted to the obstacles when they reached them. Diggory was in fine form showing his magical strength by blasting apart a boulder, clearing his way forward, showing his skill by swiftly applying a flame freezing charm, allowing him to escape a fire trap unscathed, and then showing more of his physical strength as he carried a large boulder, reminiscent of the one that the Titan Atlas had been cursed to carry, nearly fifty meters, before setting it down and continuing his run, diving under or over walls and nailing targets with quick spellwork as they appeared. He was quite firmly in the lead based on position, though he had three penalties from having missed three targets throughout the race, and he likely would lose some points for accuracy on some of his hits compared to his fellow champions. Krum for instance had hit more accurately and had only missed one target, even if he was almost two hundred meters behind Diggory as they made the last turn of the lake.

Fleur was in third, nearly three hundred meters behind Krum, but with nearly a hundred meters on Harry, but she had taken no penalties thus far and was doing quite well on accuracy. Still, she was hurting for position, and she seemed to know that she needed to move faster through the ground portion since her youngest opponent was a brilliant flyer. Harry so far had the best accuracy and was about tied with Fleur on speed, but he knew he was still in trouble. The only reason he was so close to Fleur was that she had taken the time to successfully counter a Rune trap that raised a barrier trapping the occupant inside, whereas Harry had just used brute magical strength to blast his way out, saving him precious time. Unfortunately, it had only really helped a little since Fleur had used her own elemental abilities to run directly through the fire rune trap, not even bothering to counter it or apply any protections.

"Gods, look at how quickly Krum is gaining on Diggory," Chiara murmured, and indeed it was true.

Diggory had dominated on the ground, having managed to gain an additional hundred meters in his lead, but now that they were in the air, Krum was using his elemental abilities to cut out all drag, and he was elegantly and swiftly flying through the rings that designated the agility course in the sky, and barely seemed to even slow as targets appeared before he'd hit the target. In fact, many of the viewers would later think they saw some of Krum's spells bend from their original direction into the targets, which many realize could very well have happened with Krum fully in tune with his elemental abilities.

"This isn't Harry's Task," Alicia said sadly. "He's in great shape and is a great flyer, but so are all of his fellow competitors. His magic won't help him here, whereas all three of the others do have magic or godly assistance to help them."

"He's doing great though," Hermione said. "He hasn't had any penalties and he could make up some of the difference."

"Yeah, but not on Krum," Penny said with a shake of her head. "On the ground, maybe, but Krum's flying perfect in the sky, and he's almost done. He's used his wind elemental abilities to crush nearly every obstacle in his path, and his own prodigous skill on a broom made everything else look easy. He's almost done. Cedric went from being three hundred meters ahead to probably finishing a hundred meters behind, but they're still leagues ahead of Fleur and Harry."

"Harry's gaining on Fleur," Ron said excitedly

"Not fast enough," Ginny mumbled.

It was true, Harry was the better flyer, and everyone could see it, but Fleur was still brilliant, and as she bobbed and weaved through rings, shot through fire, and hit targets, it was clear that Harry was going to end up dead last for time on this event. They could only hope that the penalties and accuracy helped, but Bagman's prediction of the Tournament still being open for grabs was about to come true. Krum had just come from the rear for an impressive victory.

They all cheered as Fleur and Harry finally came flying in fast, landing, looking exhausted from the course, but as Angelina had said at the beginning, at least there had been no real risk of death.

**HP**

"Now for the judge's decision!" Bagman said, and Harry couldn't help but beat himself up on the inside. He knew he'd done his best, but his patrons had literally just told him that he needed to win and he'd just clearly lost his lead.

"Mr. Potter came in last for time, but had the greatest accuracy of all four champions and tied for the quickest reactions. While he showed great strength of magic with his brute strength approach to several of the rune traps, the lack of finesse did not properly demonstrate his knowledge and magical ability. However, his flying was superb, and was ranked second among all the champions. Mr. Potter's score is 35 points!"

Harry gritted his teeth, knowing he was now quite likely in third for the Tournament. He'd been so focused on moving faster, he hadn't thought that the judges would hold his brute force approach against him, but clearly they had. Still, he could hear a lot of people cheering his name, which cheered him up slightly.

"In third place, with having tied for the fastest reaction time, and coming in third for time, Ms. Fleur Delacour, who also showed a masterful display of her fire elemental abilities and was the quickest through all the Rune traps. Ms. Delacour has been awarded 40 points!"

Harry clapped for his friend, happy for her, even if he was angry at himself.

"In second place!" Bagman roared, and the crowd went quiet with anticipation. "This champion was the first to complete the first lap and completed all the physical obstacles in the fastest time. He took second in time overall, but had three penalties on his first lap, which is partially offset by being the first to reach each of the obstacles. Mr. Diggory has been awarded 45 points!"

Hufflepuff along with most of Hogwarts went nuts, cheering for Cedric, and Harry clapped for the boy who was slowly becoming a friend.

"And in first place, with the fastest through the course, the fastest through the air portion of the course, and truly brilliant display of the air element, Mr. Viktor Krum with a score of 48 points!"

Durmstrang cheered loudly, and once again Harry clapped politely, smiling slightly as he could hear Hermione cheer a bit, only to get mocked by Angelina, Katie, and Alicia.

"Now for the totals, in fourth place, with 155 points, Viktor Krum of Durmstrang!" Bagman exclaimed.

Krum was still in last, but now it was only by a few points. He'd just made a huge comeback and could easily take the lead with only a few point lead in the next task.

"In third place, with a score of 161 points, Harry Potter of Hogwarts!"

He could here his cheers and he smiled, even if he was mad at having lost his lead.

"In second place, with a score of 163 points, Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons!"

Harry clapped loudly, proud for his friend.

"And in first place, with a score of 166 points, Cedric Diggory of Hogwarts!"

It was still anyone's game. Three more tasks to go.