A/N: Welcome back for another chapter! Hope the beginning of May has been going well for you. No notes for the moment, so I hope you enjoy the chapter!
As March brought warmer weather to Scotland, the four Triwizard Champions were sent an invitation to meet with Bartemous Crouch and Ludo Bagman near the Quidditch pitch. The four arrived together, nervous as to what this meeting might entail.
"Ah, welcome champions. If you would be so kind as to take a look at the Quidditch pitch." Crouch said, gesturing with his hand to the pitch. The field had been expanded, the normal encircling ring being nearly twice the diameter it was before, with the seating expanded to cover the two long sides of the pitch completely. What was most surprising was within the pitch, a hedge maze was being grown, currently only a foot tall. "I believe Mr. Hagrid and Professor Sprout will have the hedges ten feet high by the end of May. The first friday of June, will be the day of the task. Your scores will determine when you get to enter the maze. Viktor, as you are in the lead, you will be entering first. Two minutes after you, Mr. Potter will enter. Thirty seconds after him, Mr. Diggory. Ms. Delacour, you'll follow two minutes after. We believe this is the best way to provide bonuses for those who scored well on the first two tasks, while not making it impossible for those who didn't to still come out on top. Your goal will be simple, make your way through the maze, and at the end is the TriWizard Cup. Once you have it, it should teleport you to the winner's podium, where we will then retrieve the others from the maze and have our awards ceremony."
"What should we expect to see in the maze?" Cedric asked, a look of sadness on his face as he looked over the destroyed Quidditch pitch.
"That is a secret my good man. This is meant to be the ultimate test of your quick thinking. We were aware that you could possibly work out the first task, hiding dragons so close to the school is a difficult thing, and we provided explicit hints for the second. This one you have no such preparation. Obtain a wide breadth of knowledge, and use it to solve the maze, defeat the enemies within, and claim your prize. Mr. Diggory, you also need not worry, the pitch will be restored to normal, actually better than before once we are finished. As thanks for letting us use it, we are providing Hogwarts with new Hoops and bleachers for their quidditch pitch." Crouch said, and Bagman beamed.
Cedric seemed satisfied with that, before nodding. "Alright Mr. Crouch, I guess we better get training."
"I wish you all the best of luck, and hope your preparations are sufficient for the challenges ahead. Let it be known, all precautions have been taken, teachers will be waiting just on the edge of the pitch, able to make their way to any section within 4 minutes as we have practiced. Should you receive an injury that means you cannot continue, you will send up Red Sparks, and one of the teachers will remove you from the maze. Doing so forfeits your ability to win, but will prevent further injury. We are doing what we can to decrease injuries in this tournament." Crouch said.
"Und yet you still kidnapped 4 minors for ze second task." Fleur said bitterly.
"None of them were in any danger. The merfolk were informed that they were to bring them to the surface once the time limit was over, and the stasis spell they were in had been double and triple checked for effectiveness." Crouch said, a solemn look on his face.
"And when ze merfolk attacked 'Arry for rescuing my sister?" Fluer prodded.
"A misunderstanding. The merfolk were informed that a champion was to take only one person from the lake, to prevent the first champion who got there from taking them all and preventing everyone else from finishing. Since the time limit was not up, the merfolk were still operating under the assumption that it was possible for you to come and rescue your sister." Crouch said. "I apologize that we could not make this clear, but we wanted the stakes to seem higher to encourage more urgency. This is why we used people as opposed to personal objects. You may love a specific hairbrush, but you wouldn't likely dive in a lake to get it."
"I suppose. There will be no such trickery this time, yes?" Fleur asked.
"None, while we expect you to do everything within your power to win the tournament, we do not want any deaths this year. As such, only you four, and the teachers when you require assistance, will be entering the maze. You acknowledged and consented to the dangers when you entered the tournament, that was made explicitly clear, and the teachers who are serving as emergency staff are vetted volunteers. Professors Moody, McGonagall, Sprout and Snape are excellent wizards of the highest magnitude, and are more than capable of handling the dangers of the maze to make their way to you. This does not mean that there is no danger within the maze, there will be creatures in there that CAN and will kill you if you are not prepared. If something were to incapacitate you, it is very possible you would be unable to throw up sparks, and we cannot interfere without that, as doing so would violate the magical contract that was signed by the staff to not interfere with a champion until they have forfeited." Crouch said.
That hung over the heads of the contestants a bit, although they knew the risks. All of the tasks have been possibly deadly. Tangling with a dragon or swimming into a merfolk colony were dangerous, and this maze would be no different. It was something else though to have someone directly tell you that you could die, and that people wouldn't be able to help you.
The Champions finished their conversation with Crouch and made their way to the Sphinx Club room, each opening a different text on magical creatures, latching onto the one hint that Crouch had given them. It wasn't hard to believe that among the more dangerous things they could encounter in the maze would be creatures.
"Anyone have any idea of things that would be small enough to fit in the maze, and dangerous enough to be obstacles?" Harry asked, looking around to the other champions.
"Acromantulas." Cedric said, shivering a bit at the thought. "I've heard some can get as big as a horse, and even if they aren't that size, a swarm of them would be a terrifying thing."
"A Boggart." Fleur said, her tone neutral. "A manifestation of fear in the maze would be quite an obstacle, as while the spell to deal with it is easy enough to cast, managing it under pressure would be difficult."
"I imagine some plants might be used as well. We could prepare for all the creatures in the world, but be caught off guard by a Spiked Bush that shoots its thorns at us." Viktor said.
"Looks like we might need to assign people into focusing more on plants and creatures. Knowing what we're fighting might be more important than how we fight it." Cedric said, thinking a bit.
"Do you think they'd have a contingency for us just plowing straight through the maze with an explosive spell?" Harry wondered.
"Many magical plants can regrow quickly by feeding off of ambient magic in the air. In a place as old and full of as many magicals as Hogwarts? Probably wouldn't be able to keep them cut down for more than a few seconds. Too short of a time to blast and then make your way through." Cedric said. "Sprout talks about how she offered to plant more Whomping Willows during the war to fight off invaders if they ever came. Dumbledore denied her because the Whomping Willow doesn't differentiate between friend and foe."
"Could a Whomping Willow be grown this fast?" Viktor asked.
"Doubt it, it took 20 years for the first Hogwarts one to grow this big. Sprout wanted to transplant some from across the country that had grown maybe 1/5th the size, those only take about a year, so maybe Hogwarts could manage that in a couple months, but they wouldn't be too threatening on their own." Cedric said. "Neville would probably know more. I thought I knew Herbology because I liked working with Sprout, but he's got me blown out of the water."
"It is often frustrating that the younger students are outpacing us so." Fleur said. "I was ze top of my class in charms, yet Harry and Padma can match me spell for spell despite being much younger."
"We're just doing our best. I guess we might just be overachievers." Harry said, rubbing his neck in embarrassment.
"It's gotten you second place in a tournament designed for students much older, so it's certainly doing something right." Cedric said. "You're not even trying to win and you're blowing me out of the water!"
Harry laughed a little at that before looking into his book, although his mind wasn't focused on reading. He honestly felt very bad about the whole situation. Viktor, Cedric, Fleur, they had all entered out of a desire to win, to leave their mark in history as a winner of the Triwizard tournament. Harry, though, had come in, already having more fame and money than he wanted, and was ruining it for them. If he hadn't been entered Viktor and Cedric would probably be neck and neck in the tournament, and Fleur probably would have been doing much better, since she wouldn't have been worrying about Harry. Harry didn't want to be in this tournament, and his presence had been weighing everyone else down. They could have prepared more on their own if they weren't having to share information with him. They could have had more practice with an equal opponent if he hadn't been here needing to be caught up.
Harry carried his end of the bargain for the rest of the day, bringing up creatures he found in his book that might be possible candidates for obstacles, and helped theorize about how to defeat certain creatures with limited spell use, but his heart wasn't in it. As he was about to leave, Fleur pulled him back into the Sphinx Club room.
"Mon amor, you seem troubled, what is wrong? Are you worried about the final task?" She asked, concern present on her face.
Harry couldn't help but smile as she worried for him. He appreciated it, and decided it would be better to just tell her what he was thinking. "I'm worried that I've just been holding the rest of you back this entire time. You three would have had more time to focus on improving yourselves instead of catching me up." Harry said, letting that inner self loathing demon, who looked suspiciously like Vernon Dursley rear its ugly head.
"Per'aps 'Arry, but we would also 'ave not 'ad access to ze Sphinx Club. We would not 'ave learned of ze dragons so quickly, or 'ave figured out our egg clue without ze 'elp of Luna. We would also 'ave not thought to work together. 'Arry, you are not 'olding us back, you are driving us forward, and being an inspiration. I joke zat I am upset zat you and Padma are better at charms than I, but it inspires me to be better so zat I can keep up." Fleur said, pulling him into a hug and planting a kiss on him. "We would not 'ave done as well as we 'ave without you 'Arry, I know Cedric and Viktor would tell you ze same. I hope zey would not kiss you though. I do not believe your other girls would like it."
"Daphne'd find it funny." Harry said, lightening the mood a tad.
"She would wouldn't she?" Fleur responded, a laugh filling the room.
As Harry stepped out of the Sphinx Club room, ready to head to bed, he saw Viktor, shifting awkwardly on his feet. "Viktor? Everything okay?"
"Ah, yes Harry. I was… merely thinking. I wanted to speak with you, but knew better not to come between you and Fleur at this moment." Viktor said, his eyes glancing towards Fleur's form as it made its way down the hallway.
"Oh, what did you need to talk to me about?" Harry asked. He didn't blame Viktor for not wanting to get between Fleur and him. Fleur could be scary, and even scarier if she started throwing fireballs.
"I… I am very smitten with your friend Lavender. I enjoyed her company immensely at the Yule Ball, and in the moments between then and now that we have managed to be alone. She is a remarkable woman, one I find myself becoming more infatuated with every time I speak with her. I know you say you have no say on who the girls date, but I would ask your blessing, and your advice, for how I may court Lavender." Viktor said, his tone humble and formal.
Harry wasn't overly surprised. He could see that Viktor was falling for Lavender ever since the Yule Ball. He also knew she had a particular soft spot for him, although perhaps didn't reciprocate his feelings fully. Maybe that would change with time though, Harry knew she liked him, just wasn't as infatuated as he was. "Well, I have no problems with you dating her, so I guess consider that my blessing, although it means nothing without her backing it up. As for how to court her, the best thing I can say is be honest. With yourself and her about your feelings. I think she may reciprocate your feelings a bit, but I could very well be wrong. I didn't know Fleur was in love with me until she told me, so my eyesight for romantic interest is unreliable at the best of times."
"I thank you then Harry, I admire your bravery in things like this. No matter how complicated your love life is, you simply charge forward, doing what you can." Viktor said, clapping Harry on the back.
"Well, worrying about things rarely changes the outcome, I guess on some things I've just learned to let it go." Harry said, although he recognized how hypocritical that statement was. Just a moment ago he was worrying about how he hadn't helped everyone enough, how he had been holding them back. Yet here was Viktor, actively asking for help. It wasn't about the tournament, but it was still something that Harry's presence had actively caused. If Harry wasn't in the tournament, Viktor and Lavender would likely never have spoken, yet, if Harry was right, they were about to become a couple.
Maybe he had been worrying about nothing after all.