But if they didn't try and test it, the situation would remain completely unclear, wouldn't it?
That was indeed the undeniable reasoning, and everyone gathered understood it perfectly. Neville had probably already prepared himself mentally for sacrifice—he was using his own elimination to purchase their hope of passing this challenge.
Cedric's lips moved without a word, wanting desperately to say something more to dissuade Neville from being rash and throwing himself into danger. But ultimately, after several starts, he said nothing at all.
Because some sacrifices, however painful, are destined to be necessary. Someone had to go first.
"I'll go with you," Harry suddenly spoke after a brief silence.
"There's no need, Harry—" Neville was genuinely surprised, his eyes were widening.
"Just me alone is enough for this," Neville insisted. "First, let's see what actually happens when someone steps on those panels, then you can all figure out how to respond based on what you observe."
"We can't take unfair advantage of you, can we?" Harry said in a deliberately light tone, though his eyes were serious.
"We can't just let you make the sacrifice alone, Neville. That wouldn't be right. Besides, if the two of us go together and encounter any danger or attack, we can help each other, watch each other's backs. That would greatly increase both our chances of survival and success."
Hermione bit her lip hard. In her heart, she didn't want Harry to take such an enormous risk. But Harry was absolutely right—it did seem somewhat unfair, even cowardly, to let only Cedric's team companion test the waters while they hung back in safety.
"If that's the case," Ron said slowly, "it should be more appropriate for me to go instead."
Both Harry and Hermione immediately understood what Ron meant without further explanation. He believed the two of them were more excellent, more capable, more crucial to the team. And as the person volunteering to test the waters and potentially be eliminated, he obviously represented better cost-effectiveness.
"I've already decided, Ron," Harry said with immovable calm.
"I'll go with Neville. Look—" he gestured down at the glass panels, "there are exactly two glass panels here at each level. Perhaps Professor Watson's intention all along was for two people to go together, not one. Maybe that's a clue."
Well, this explanation did have some actual merit to it.
So, after a moment of silent acceptance, Neville and Harry positioned themselves at the very edge of the platform. The others stood in a protecting semicircle behind them, watching the two brave pioneers with expressions mixing respect, fear, and gratitude.
"If you're attacked the instant you step onto the glass panels—" Hermione drew her wand with a sharp motion, looking solemnly at Harry and Neville with determination in her brown eyes.
"Don't move around or try to dodge. We'll help you block the attacks with shields, then you can immediately climb back up to safety."
"We'll help too," Fleur said firmly.
Fleur and Viktor reached a silent consensus through their eye contact and subtle nods, and Fleur stepped forward to speak for both of them.
A suppressed and tense atmosphere flooded the air on the floating platform.
Everyone gathered drew their wands in unison, holding them at the ready, alert to possible attacks from all directions. Meanwhile, Harry and Neville slowly sat down at the platform's edge, their legs were dangling over empty space.
Even though he had experienced many dangerous situations and big dramatic scenes before, Harry couldn't help but feel his nerves stretched tense.
When his anxiety peaked, stretched to its limits, he seemed to actually hear the surging darkness far below emit a menacing, hungry roar that called to him.
Neville's expression wasn't nearly as relaxed as it had been moments before either. He pressed his lips tightly together until they were bloodless, and his face was covered in a sheen of cold sweat that made his skin glisten.
"Are you ready, Neville?" Harry swallowed hard, his throat was clicking.
Neville nodded curtly, squinting as he observed the seemingly calm and empty space stretching before them. The light from two shooting stars streaking across the artificial sky illuminated his face a ghastly white.
"Then, I'll count to three, and we'll jump down together onto the panels," Harry said.
Neville nodded again, unable to speak. The people on the platform behind them assumed a battle-ready posture, wands raised, alert to threats from all directions.
"Three, two, one!" Harry counted down.
SNAP!
The moment their bodies lost the solid support of the wooden platform, fear raged wildly in Harry and Neville's hearts like a caged beast released.
Their stomachs lurched. However, when their feet made contact with the glass panels after falling just a few feet landing with small thuds, that overwhelming fear immediately vanished, replaced by cautious relief.
The glass panel was surprisingly very stable, not swaying or tilting at all when they stepped on it. It felt solid as stone beneath their feet.
Harry breathed a deep sigh of relief, his lungs were emptying.
He quickly looked around in all directions, the endless cosmic space remained perfectly calm as before. No hidden enemies emerged from the desolate void to launch a severe attack on them without warning.
'It seems they aren't planning to act immediately,' the thought flashed through Harry's mind.
This was actually quite normal, after all, he and Neville hadn't yet moved beyond the protective range of their companions still on the platform above them.
If an attack were launched at this very moment, their friends would be able to intervene and shield them. The attackers would gain nothing.
Harry straightened his back, forcing his posture to project confidence. He wiped the cold sweat that had gathered on his forehead with his sleeve, then looked across at Neville standing on the parallel panel.
Neville's expression was remarkably similar to his own, also using his sleeve to wipe the sweat from his temples and brow. Seeing Harry looking at him, Neville responded to Harry's gaze with a knowing smile that said we're in this together.
CRACK!
At that precise moment, a sudden sharp sound like ice breaking caused everyone who had just begun to relax their guard to freeze immediately!
The instant the strange, ominous sound reached his ears, Harry felt his scalp go numb with terror, every hair was standing on end. He looked down at his feet in absolute horror, fortunately, mercifully, it wasn't the glass beneath his own feet that had shattered. His panel remained intact.
"Come back up quickly, Neville! Now!" But immediately afterward, Hermione's hoarse, desperate scream brought Harry's heart leaping into his throat.
He hastily shifted his gaze to his companion, catching only a glimpse of a helpless, almost apologetic smile at the corner of Neville's mouth in his peripheral vision, then—
CRASH!
Amid a noise of shouting from many people, the glass panel beneath Neville's feet shattered completely into powder, into glittering fragments that fell away into nothing.
Before Harry could even begin to reach out to grab him, before his arm could extend more than a few inches, Neville's entire body plunged straight down into the yawning abyss.
He was swallowed instantly by the surging dark waves, disappearing completely from everyone's sight as though he'd never existed.
Harry watched helplessly as Neville disappeared from view in less than a heartbeat, his mind was going completely blank with shock.
Before he could even begin to react or process what had happened, a strong hand suddenly grabbed his collar from behind and lifted him directly from the glass panel back onto the safety of the platform.
Harry looked back in confusion and saw that it was Cedric who had pulled him up with desperate speed.
"Thank you—" Harry said with a wooden, emotionless expression, still in shock.
Cedric only shook his head weakly, unable to speak, looking heavily at the place where Neville had disappeared into the churning darkness.
"Damn it! Damn it all!" Fleur's frustrated scream drew everyone's scattered attention.
They saw her frantically waving her wand in complex patterns, her face was twisted with effort and anger.
"When that boy fell just now, I immediately planned to use a conjured rope to pull him back up, but my wand isn't working at all! Nothing's happening!"
'The wand isn't working?!'
This revelation was truly a bolt from the blue, another disaster!
Including Harry, everyone began flicking their wrists urgently, trying desperately to cast any spells.
Soon, through panicked experimentation, they discovered that Fleur was absolutely right, no matter how they tried, no matter what incantations they spoke, their wands could only emit one or two feeble, pathetic sparks before dying. No proper magic would manifest.
"We can't even use magic anymore," Ron collapsed heavily onto the ground, his face deathly pale, bloodless.
"We're completely finished now. This is impossible."
Wands were the champions' last reliable means of protection and offense. Suddenly losing access to magic entirely, everyone fell into barely controlled panic that threatened to overwhelm rational thought.
"What kind of sadistic trick is Bryan playing on us?!" Fleur angrily stuffed her useless wand into her pocket with excessive force, walked to the edge of the platform and looked down irritably at the scene below.
With one careful glance, her brow twitched with realization.
"Harry, your glass panel didn't break!" Fleur's sharp reminder cut through the chaos.
However her observation didn't particularly stir most people, who were still processing the loss.
They all knew Harry's glass panel hadn't broken, otherwise Harry would have been eliminated along with Neville in the same moment. That much was obvious.
But Hermione's mind immediately grasped the deeper significance of Fleur's reminder. She stopped worrying uselessly about Harry's safety, took two quick steps to Fleur's side, and frowned deeply as she looked down at the glass panel Harry had just stepped on and the two still-intact glass panels waiting ahead in the pattern.
"Neville, he..." After several seconds of stunned silence, Harry finally came to his senses, his thoughts were catching up to events.
His eyes twitched as he grabbed Ron's hand, seeking reassurance. "He's definitely not actually dead, right? Tell me he's not dead."
"What are you talking about, Harry?" Ron looked at Harry somewhat strangely, confused by the question.
"If falling down there meant certain death, why would Professor Watson go through so much elaborate trouble tormenting us with all this? He could send us all to meet God with one spell if he wanted us dead. But Neville has definitely been eliminated from the competition, that's certain. Oh, Merlin, you're really lucky, Harry—your glass panel didn't break! You could have fallen too!"
"Phew..." Harry slowly nodded, his racing heart was beginning to slow down.
He didn't explain to Ron that the moment he saw Neville fall helplessly from the glass walkway, plunging into darkness, he had immediately recalled that desperate scene in the graveyard where Voldemort was resurrected.
Watching helplessly, unable to do anything, as Ron and Hermione were struck by the Killing Curse. It was the same helplessness, the same horror.
"This seems..." Harry's breathing finally began to ease back to normal.
Fleur slowly withdrew her gaze from the glass panels, her brows were slightly furrowed in concentration.
"Bryan has prepared for us a... hmm, how do you say... a game of chance and bravery?"
"What do you mean, Fleur?" Viktor quickly asked, stepping closer.
"What have you figured out? Explain."
Fleur didn't answer his question directly, but instead looked at the contemplative Hermione, who was clearly working through the same logic.
"What's your opinion?"
"The same as yours..." When everyone's eyes converged expectantly on Hermione, she bit her lip nervously.
"Professor Watson seems to have planned it exactly this way from the beginning."
Hermione pointed down at the glass walkway with a trembling hand, speaking in a not particularly certain tone, still working it out.
"Without a doubt, this glass walkway leads directly to that glowing object we need to obtain. Each level has exactly two glass panels positioned side by side—one is solid and safe, like the one Harry just chose by pure chance.
The other will shatter when stepped on, and the person who steps on that false panel will fall into elimination, just like what happened to Neville."
Everyone looked again at the mysterious glowing object in the distance, whose exact distance still couldn't be accurately judged. They were all rendered speechless by the implications.
"How are we supposed to play this game?!" After a long, heavy silence, Ron let out a miserable, despairing wail that echoed in the cosmic void.
————————————
For More Chapters; patreon.com/FicFrenzy