Obligatory Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any character, story element or plot item originally published in the Harry Potter books or movies that I may refer to in this story. I'm merely playing in the sandbox.

Chapter 18

Soon, they were heading out to the pitch. Harry looked around for what may be the last time. He still wasn't sold on the idea of staying, like Dumbledore was suggesting. There are a lot of wonderful memories here. A lot of terrible ones, too. Do I want to keep going on with this?

Someone waved from the judge's group, the Ministry representative that he still didn't know the name of. He walked over. "Now that we're all here, we have our labyrinth. The goal is the center of the Trial, where you can collect the Triwizard Cup. Once collected, the Trial is over, as is the competition. If there is a tie, we can split the title and the reward, but it is every witch and wizard for themselves in there."

The others looked at each other and nodded. "It's been an honor," Viktor said, reaching a hand out towards the others in the impromptu circle.

"The honor is mine," Harry spoke softly. "We must stay in touch."

"Absolutely," Fleur said, hand joining theirs in the center.

Cedric was the last, "All right, let's give them a show."

They broke and lined up. With the scoring irregularities due to Bagman's interference and Crouch's behavior and probably being influenced, they were lined up at different entrances. When the cannon was fired, each took off. Harry had the plan of getting to the cup, then waiting to see who arrived second if he was the first. They would take the cup, as long as it was safe. If he wasn't first, it didn't matter to him anymore.

Harry rounded a corner and considered his concerns. He still had a lingering fear that Crouch wasn't the only threat. Who Imperioed him? He couldn't be questioned and even the one guy who tried to read his memories was hospitalized for a week after. The thought stopped as he ran headlong into a Dementor.

His wand practically leapt into his hand as he cast his Patronus. The creature actually stumbled, then fell to one side. "What? Oh." He banished the boggart easily. As he passed the swirling mass trying to gather itself back for another attack, he cast an ice charm on it to freeze it to the ground. He couldn't kill it, but he was certainly not having it follow him.

As he passed along the maze, he found it began shifting. Thankfully, he knew where he entered and roughly where the center was. Repeated castings of a Point Me Charm had him stay oriented. Some part of him thought about blasting through a few rows to get there quicker, but he didn't. Something about his magic scans of the hedge rows from that first day they were shown the maze bothered him.

As he reached the Sphinx, both were surprised by swearing and a gout of flame that shot in the air. "What was that?"

"I'd say Cedric tried to burn the bushes and it didn't go well for him. Hope he's okay." He turned back to the surprised looking Sphinx and smirked. "Was that your riddle?"

"No, but good try." She settled herself for a moment, then looked down at him with a haughty gaze that would put Fleur to shame. "If you answer my riddle, you may pass. If you are incorrect, you and I will fight. If you don't know the answer and walk away, I will leave you in peace."

Harry nodded. "May I have the riddle please?"

The Sphinx nodded. "What breaks yet never falls, and what falls yet never breaks?"

Harry considered the wording of the question for a long moment. The riddle clearly had two answers, one for each half of the question. Behind him, he heard the entrance to the area where the Sphinx held court closed. He sighed at the loss of the escape option, but he kept his eyes forward. He didn't want to lose his orientation by looking back. I really hate word games.

He weighed out another answer, thinking about ice and conversations, but that would only fit the first half, breaking the ice when meeting someone new. At this rate, I'll either have to fight a legendary magical creature or be here all night. "Wait. Night falls, so the second answer is night…and day breaks."

"You may pass."

"Thank you," he said, walking around her and moving on. He barely made it past the hedge before it closed, and he was attacked by one of the monsters that Hagrid had come up with. This one, he had no issue with killing. It was never supposed to exist. Moony and Sirius both had thrown a fit at the idea of him breeding these monsters.

The lobster like creature blasted towards him, stinger poised to strike, but Harry whipped his wand like a whip, cutting curse taking the stinger off, then peppering it with piercing curses to punch holes in the armor. Some ricocheted off, but he managed to do enough damage that the pair of Bombardas that he followed with, then a reductor at the hole in the armor finished the creature off. He passed by, then lit the beast on fire. "No need to lure anything else over here."

He glanced around the corner and saw a strange cloud. He cast a light spell into the cloud, then shifted the wand around. "A vertigo effect." His first instinct was to cast a blasting curse through it first but wasn't sure who he might hit behind the cloud. "These guys are insane. Whoever came up with this, I want to send them through this maze challenge by challenge."

He tried a simple Finite, then a few other spell cancellations. Finally, looking up, he levitated the cloud, moving it section by section as he passed through. He kept his eyes on the target, soon reaching the center of the maze. On the far side, he could see Cedric fighting with an Acromantula. He ran through and used a Banishing Charm on the Spider to shove it back.

The spell connected, but with the creature's weight, it only moved a short distance. This allowed him to get to Cedric's side. "Why didn't you grab the cup? That would have ended this."

"They never said what would happen to the monsters you guys were fighting. Do they stay in the same area or just run free?"

"Good point." The pair stood side by side and began cutting the spider down. Three legs removed and the creature turned and ran.

"Let's go look at this cup, make sure there's nothing else." Harry shook his head. "We spent the last week on detection charms and such to make sure there were no nasty surprises."

"I thought Crouch put your name in the cup."

Harry shook his head. "He was under the Imperius. Who put him under the Imperius?"

"Your life is terrible, Harry." Cedric shook his head. "I can't think about having to be that paranoid all the time."

"Constant Vigilance!" Harry called out, then shrugged. "Yeah, you get used to it." Harry walked up and began casting on the cup. "Portkey charm." He frowned as he kept casting. "This isn't right."

"The cup was the end, Harry. Maybe it's supposed to take the winner to the stage."

His results were distorted. Why does the portkey look like this? The range was strange. There were mixed readings. Like the spell was corrupted. It was showing a short distance, like it was going to drop the holder onto the stage, but then sometimes it was far away, out of Scotland. "I think something's wrong with it. The range portion of the spell is wrong."

As he worked, Fleur joined them, then Viktor. "Who was first?"

"Harry, but he says something's wrong with the portkey."

"What is it?"

Harry straightened, piecing it together as he examined the spell itself. It was layered. Harry could see two casters in it. He'd figured that part out when Moony was teaching him the portkey spell. He'd accidentally cast it on something the man had set as a portkey. "It's a trap."

"What do we do?"

Harry looked up at them, taking in each concerned face for a long moment. They were his friends. They had stood by him, since the night of the Ball. He slipped a hand in his pocket in a casual motion, as though he was thinking. "Tell Luna I'm sorry." With that, he activated his Go Away Disk.

"No!" Fleur stepped forward, then turned away, then fought the spell. "Harry, don't. We can get help!" Even as she was speaking, Viktor and Cedric cast sparks into the air.

"Harry don't please. Don't make me say that to her." Fleur was begging now, and Harry's stomach twisted at the sound.

Harry hung his head, then grabbed the Cup, feeling the hook sensation at his navel. The last thing he saw before the swirling mass of colors took over was that he was heading away from the stage. "Well, time to find out who's trying to kill me."

Moony jerked upward from the stands at the dual jet of sparks. "That's from the cup."

"Something is not right," Laurant said

As he turned to say something to him, he felt the pebble in his pocket begin to warm. Harry was now out of the device's range of detection. He looked to the stage, having spoken with Dumbledore. He had confirmed that the Cup was a portkey to take the winner onto the stage. He knew there was a chance the portkey effect could negate the detection runes on the stone, but as the hedges fell, the creatures inside confined by magical restraints, he could see no one on the stage.

He turned to the center and saw that Fleur was on her knees, reaching forward to the now empty podium. Viktor was comforting her, and Cedric was looking at the stage. He had his wand to his neck. "Something's gone wrong with the portkey."

Moony leapt forward and ran to the center, easily reaching the podium first. "What happened?"

"Harry scanned the portkey, he said the range was wrong, something about it having two ranges."

Moony sagged. "It was two portkeys. Layered or double triggered. He took it, didn't he?"

Fleur nodded. "He used that concealment charm that he uses to get around the school. Suddenly he and the podium were gone, and I tried to stop him, but I couldn't get close to him. I was crawling because I could look at the ground, but then suddenly, it was gone."

Laurant was next to arrive, reaching down to lift his daughter. She clung to him for a moment. "Papa, he is in trouble."

Laurant nodded. "I don't know how to track these."

"I do." Dumbledore was there next. As he cast spells at the podium, he frowned. "Something was cast on this to obscure the portkey, which may be why the result didn't read as a layered portkey." He looked at Moony. "I think I can say without violating any trusts that his OWL in Arithmancy is sufficient to have identified the spell work properly. He must not have scanned the podium."

"He didn't." Cedric answered gravely.

The headmaster looked older again. Moony had seen him like this a few times in the first war against Voldemort. He didn't like seeing him this way now with his adoptive nephew at risk. "I didn't think to suggest that. He was just being cautious, but he's young."

"We need to find a way to track him."

Remus pulled a pebble from his pocket. "Whatever his destination, this is now broken. It should track to its partner anywhere in Scotland."