The last month before the final task was filled with training. Every evening, every weekend, every hour Harry had free, Sirius was there either teaching Harry a spell that Sirius already knew or one Hermione had found that they thought might be useful. Add to that a lot of physical training, and Harry was facing the month from hell.
During this month, almost the entire school became obsessed with the Quidditch tournament. Slytherin had played Ravenclaw first, a good match to kick off the games in the professional stadium because both teams had plenty of experience with each other. Slytherin had won, but it had been close and, from the accounts Harry was able to get afterwards, a good match to watch with plenty of action.
The next game was Hufflepuff vs Beauxbatons, which had been great for Hogwarts morale but less exciting for the crowd. Of the three schools, Beauxbatons was the only one who didn't have organised Quidditch teams and only had pick-up games organised by the students. They had put a team together for the Triwizard Quidditch Cup just to participate, and the more organised and experienced team had walked over them.
The last match was Gryffindor vs Durmstrang. Durmstrang was always going to get the last match once it was confirmed that they were indeed going to play in front of the public. The last game getting scheduled between a Hogwarts team and a visiting team made sense, and they wanted the teams that would be the most entertaining, which wasn't Beauxbatons. The bit that had caused a little tension was which Hogwarts team would get to play them for that match, but they had drawn lots at the start of the year to work out when each team was going to play and Gryffindor had won the last match.
It was a real shame Harry and Hermione were stuck at the castle for the game. One stroke of luck was that the Wizarding Wireless Network had decided to cover the game, so Harry and Hermione were able to listen. The bad news was that Sirius didn't give Harry the time off from his training to just sit and listen. Luckily, though, Sirius had Harry running laps around a clearing between the castle and the Forbidden Forest, so Harry set the wireless in the middle of the loop he was running, cranked up the volume, and listened as he ran.
Hermione wasn't running with him; for the most part, she took the time Harry was doing physical training to revise for the exams that were just around the corner for her. Sirius, however, had shifted into his animagus form and was running next to Harry. Harry had asked if it was worth him learning to be an animagus on the off chance he could have a form that would help him either in the task or in avoiding being captured. Unfortunately, according to Sirius it would take too long and too much time away from other training. He had, however, told Harry that if he wanted to learn after the tournament was over he was more than happy to teach him, and subject to their parents approving Ron and Hermione as well.
As Harry listened to the match, it sounded like there was a lot of action from the chasers, and Harry cheered every time Ron saved a goal. His friend did save more than he let in, but unfortunately the Durmstrang chasers had the edge over the Gryffindor chasers. Though Ron had a better average than Blet the Durmstrang keeper, there were just more shots taken at the Gryffindor posts, so the Durmstrang team was inching a lead. Sirius had Harry switch to running spell drills, just practising casting the spells he had already mastered. They both knew it was pointless to try Harry on something new while Ron was playing in his big Quidditch match.
Durmstrang may have been leading but they didn't have the world class seeker they had hoped for at the beginning of the year. The Gryffindors, on the other hand, had Ginny Weasley. Ginny was no Harry, especially when it came to playing seeker. However, she had taken something with her that none who had watched her in the other matches this year would have accounted for when planning their strategies, a brand new Nimbus 2001. She and Ron had asked if Ginny could borrow the gold from Harry for the broom and then pay it back from the basilisk gold. Harry hadn't had a problem with that, and the 200 Galleons the broom had fallen to now that the Firebolt was the top dog was not an amount of gold he needed to worry about. So, Harry had ordered the broom for Ginny and made a note to get the money back from the basilisk fund.
Harry was just starting his warm down when the commentary on the wireless shifted to excitement as the Snitch chase began. Ginny's opponent was a Durmstrang girl by the name of Vovk who was constantly following Ginny in the chase, snapping at her heels and trying to unsettle the younger Gryffindor girl into making a mistake. Unfortunately for Vovk, intimidation tactics don't have a good track record against Gryffindors, and Ginny held her nerve long enough to snatch the snitch from the air, winning Gryffindor the match and the tournament. As the oldest Gryffindor left in the castle who wasn't Hermione, Harry took it upon himself (with Sirius's help) to make sure that there was a massive party waiting in the common room when everyone got back.
-ϟϟϟ-
The party was a success. Harry and Sirius weren't quite up to the same standards as Fred and George, but Sirius had something the twins didn't: a pile of gold that was bigger than he could ever spend. Sirius made a quick run to Hogsmeade and bought out Madam Rosmerta's entire supply of butterbeer and a selection of sweets from Honeydukes. Harry was in charge of asking the elves to supply the rest of the food and trying to find some music. Luckily, a second year had a wireless that she was happy to lend Harry for the evening.
The last touch was decoration, and Hermione was convinced to help by Harry. It took a little pleading on his part, as the end of year tests were next week and Hermione was of the opinion that everyone should be taking the evening to study rather than partying. But she admitted that even without a party there was little chance that there would be any studying done that evening.
When all the students got back to the castle, word of the Gryffindor party soon spread around the other houses, and quite a few members of other houses turned up to celebrate a Hogwarts win. The younger two Weasleys were loving all the attention they were getting. Ginny was being called the woman of the match for catching the Snitch, and Ron was getting plenty of recognition because if he hadn't been such a good keeper the points difference would have quickly become too much for Ginny to overcome with the Snitch.
Harry and Hermione spent the first half of the evening listening to Ron give a blow-by-blow recount of his point of view of the match. They weren't the only ones either, as quite a few people, including some from other houses, were hanging on his every word. For the second half of the evening, Hermione had pulled Harry onto the dance floor, and despite the fact that Harry's legs were aching from all the exercise he had done earlier he found he couldn't refuse Hermione when she wanted to dance with him. He wasn't the only one to get dragged onto the dance floor; he wasn't surprised to see one of the girls who had been listening to Ron pull him to the dance floor as well. What surprised Harry was the girl who was doing the dragging: Susan Bones. Susan had a reputation of being rather shy and a bit of a wallflower, so Ron must have really caught the Hufflepuffs eye for her to be acting so bold.
-ϟϟϟ-
The night before the third task, Harry and Charlus were both called to the headmaster's office. Harry was a little apprehensive at being called into the headmaster's office, to him it was either because he had done something he couldn't recall or he was about to be hit with one more tournament bombshell. When they got there, Headmaster Greengrass wasn't alone, but instead joined by Director Bones and two other wizards who Harry didn't think he had ever met before.
"Good evening Professor Potter, Mr. Potter, please come in and join us," The headmaster said as he ushered to a couple of chairs.
Once Harry and Charlus had taken their seats, it was Director Bones who took over. "Charlus, Harry, it's been a while. As you know, the Triwizard Tournament Third Task is tomorrow, and that's the window of opportunity that You-Know-Who intends to use to kidnap you, Harry. We are here today to hopefully prevent that, and to give us the best possible opportunity to come and get you if you are. This is Director Croaker of the Department of Mysteries," she indicated one of the wizards Harry had never met before, "and this is Auror Moonshine. We are going to spend the next few hours going over the plans we have and making the necessary preparations."
The plan, while not simple, could rather easily be summed up. The Aurors acting as Harry's bodyguards were getting some reinforcements. For the next twenty-four hours at least Harry's, Hermione's, and Charlus's privacy was revoked, there would be eyes on them at all times. That part was to prevent any attempt to kidnap Harry outside of the task. The Aurors couldn't go into the maze with Harry, so they were going to be patrolling the outside of the maze and flying over it on brooms. Once the champions were in the maze, they were going to make sure no one got inside to kidnap Harry.
The last thing was tracking magic. Croaker and Moonshine were going to load Harry up with every form of tracking spell they knew, and Croaker gave Harry a ring that could cast a beacon spell if Harry put magic into it. The spell was supposed to make it really easy to track someone or something when it was set off. Lastly, they were going to monitor Harry's Trace report back at the Ministry. Normally, as a Hogwarts student Harry's Trace report was not looked at while he was in school. There were going to be two full squads of aurors waiting for any kind of signal from Harry to come and retrieve him.
It was annoying to be told that he wasn't going to have any privacy for the next twenty-four hours, but in a way it was also reassuring. Harry knew that this wasn't really about him, this was about preventing Voldemort from coming back, and he hadn't felt this secure since before his name came out of the Goblet of Fire.
-ϟϟϟ-
The task was held on a Saturday, so Hermione and Ron had just finished their week of end-of-year tests. Hogwarts always held the unimportant in-school tests in the weeks before the external O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. exams. For one, it gave the students taking the exams a little longer to revise, but it also meant that the examiners who marked the exams for the Ministry only needed to come to the school once. This meant that, despite it being the morning of the Third Task, Ron was on his post-exams high. "No more hard work until December."
Harry just grumbled as he picked at his breakfast. He hadn't had to sit any of the tests, as Triwizard champions were exempt from them. Hermione had found a way to keep from fussing over her results like she usually did, instead fussing over Harry. "You really should eat a full breakfast Harry, you want to be at full strength this evening."
Harry knew she was right, but just like with his first Quidditch matches he was nervous and it was upsetting his stomach. He wasn't nervous about the task, he felt he had prepared as much as possible for that, and even if he didn't win he would put in a good showing and walk away. No, what he was nervous about was the possibility of having to fight Voldemort.
As much as Harry was convinced that Director Bones had done everything she possibly could to keep Harry safe, he knew how his luck ran. There was a better than average chance that by the end of the day Voldemort would be back. And even if Voldemort wasn't holding a grudge for the whole "destroying his body" thing from when Harry was a toddler, there was no way Voldemort wasn't going to try and kill him after Harry had stopped him and Quirrell from stealing the philosopher's stone.
Harry spent more time fiddling with his bowl of cereal than actually eating it, but eventually he finished enough of it that Hermione was satisfied. The trio were just about to leave when Professor McGonagall approached them with a smile on her face.
"Mr Potter, please come with me, there is a surprise for the champions," she told him.
Before Harry could say anything, one of Harry's bodyguards stepped in and put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "There is nothing on the schedule about an event, what is going on, professor?" He added the last word with a slight stutter, as judging by the man's apparent age (about a few years younger than Sirius) Professor McGonagall would have been one of his teachers when he was a student here, meaning standing up to her probably wasn't the easiest thing for the man.
Professor McGonagall let out a sigh as she obviously wanted to surprise Harry, but the Auror was right to be cautious. "The champions' families are invited to spend the day with them. I was going to show Mr. Potter to where they are waiting."
"They will all need to be security checked first. I don't appreciate this being swung on my people at the last second like this." The Auror really didn't sound happy.
"My apologies, Petters, I was under the impression you and your teams were informed about this. It is a traditional part of the tournament and I believed you were given a full copy of the scheduled events." Professor McGonagall obviously liked being questioned by a former student as much as the Auror enjoyed questioning her.
"Well apparently someone didn't include this on the lists we got."
Deciding to end the exchange that was getting increasingly awkward to listen to, Harry stood up and held out a hand to Hermione and asked her and Ron to come along as well. McGonagall tried to say it was families only, but Harry shot that down immediately. "Professor, I will decide who I count as my family." He walked off without saying anything more. He didn't need the professor to lead him to where the families were, that's what the Marauders' Map was for. When he checked it, the families were waiting in the same side chamber that the first years waited in before the sorting. Hermione, Ron, and the bodyguards quickly caught up with Harry as he went to meet with his grandfather and godfather.
After the checks were done and the Aurors were convinced that Sirius was exactly who he claimed to be, the entire group of them made their way up to the shared accommodation that Harry, Charlus, and Hermione shared. The other families all went for a walk around the grounds, but not only were the Aurors uncomfortable with Harry just wandering around, there was also very little point in it. Why would Charlus or Sirius, who were at the castle regularly, be interested in sightseeing? Everyone was far happier in the living room of the suite just relaxing and talking.
-ϟϟϟ-
At seven o'clock, Harry and the others made their way down to the Quidditch Stadium. The Third Task was scheduled to start at eight, but the champions had to have one final briefing on the rules, and there was likely to be some press pictures and such.
Just like the First Task, there was a place set aside for the champions to wait, but as they were using the Quidditch Stadium they used one of the locker rooms. Before Harry went in, he turned to say what he feared may be his last goodbye to the people he considered family, but before he could say anything Hermione pressed herself against him and claimed his lips. This wasn't the chaste peck on the lips that they often shared, nor was this a passion filled snog that they did when they had some time when it was just the two of them. In this kiss Hermione was trying to tell Harry how important he was to her, and that she wasn't going to accept him saying goodbye. She was showing him a very real reason for him to do everything he could to make it back to her.
When Hermione broke the kiss she just quietly said, "Good luck Harry." She turned and walked away before he could even try and say goodbye.
Ron gave Harry a fist bump and said. "You got this mate."
Sirius pulled Harry into a hug and told him. "Remember, cast first and don't stop moving."
Then Grandfather Charlus pulled Harry into a hug as well. "You can do this Harry, stick to the plan and remember you have something worth fighting to come home for. Good luck."
Harry walked into the changing room and found Krum already there with Bagman and the three headteachers. After a quick nod to his fellow champion, Harry sat down on one of the benches and waited. He didn't have to wait long as within five minutes both Cedric and Fleur had arrived.
Once they were all there, Bagman didn't waste any time in getting down to telling them what was happening. "Right then, as you all know we have a maze for you today. The Triwizard Cup will be at the centre, and the first to lay their hand on it will win the tournament. You will be entering the maze in the order determined by your points so far. Mr Potter, you have 88 points and will enter first, Mr Krum you have 80 points and will enter second. Miss Delacour with 73 points will go third, and Mr. Diggory with 69 points will enter last.\
"Each point is worth twenty seconds of head start, so after Mr. Potter enters, Mr. Krum will enter two minutes forty seconds later. Miss Delacour will enter two minutes twenty seconds after Mr Krum, or five minutes after Mr Potter. Lastly, Mr. Diggory will enter one minute twenty seconds after Miss Delacour, or six minutes twenty seconds after Mr. Potter. These times are significant leads, but don't be disheartened; the maze is large and complicated enough that those leads can be overcome. All that's left for me to say is do your best, and your schools and countries will be proud of you whatever the outcome is. Good luck." With that he walked out, leaving the head teachers with their champions.
Headmaster Greengrass pulled Harry and Cedric to one corner of the room while the other heads did the same with their champions. "Right boys, I want you to know that, while I and every Hogwarts student out there is rooting for you to win, that is not as important as being able to walk out of this. If you get opportunities, take them and definitely try and win, but I would much rather one of the other schools win than have you get hurt." He gave Harry a look, then said, "Remember there is a good chance that there is more in that maze than we put in there. Be cautious. Treat everything with suspicion. And whatever you do, don't let your guard down." After that, he had to go and make sure everything was going according to schedule outside.
Harry turned to Cedric and held out his hand. "Just wanted to say good luck."
Cedric snorted in derisive laughter but shook Harry's hand anyway. "Harry, look at how the tasks have gone so far. It's going to take a miracle rather than good luck for anyone else to win this. And of all of us, you deserve it. You duelled a dragon and won, you saved all of the hostages from real danger and you saved that little girl again from that bloody shark. Even if a miracle does happen, it won't change the fact that it's you who deserves the win."
The two Hogwarts boys thought they were talking quietly enough that nobody could hear them, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Fleur walked over to them and said, "Oui, I agree with Monsieur Diggory. Without you, my little sister would have died. While I will still do my best to win, no one deserves the win more than you."
They all sat around in silence for a while until they were summoned to go stand on a stage in front of everyone while Bagman did his usual bit to hype up the crowd. Considering that the Ministry was well aware of what was planned for this task, Harry couldn't fathom why they still had spectators at all. Sure, the champions were bound to compete, but the only excuse Harry could come up with for the crowd was that the public who had been allowed to come and see this last task had had to pay for their tickets.
-ϟϟϟ-
Hermione and Ron watched from the stands seated between Uncle Charlus and Sirius. Now that Hermione was away from Harry, she was letting her nerves show. Up until now she had been putting on a brave face all day so as not to add to Harry's problems, but now she was hugging her knees to chest wishing that it was a safe Harry she was holding.
Eventually all the hype and explanations were given, and Hermione watched as Harry and the others were moved to the starting point. There were more words being said but Hermione was too focused on watching Harry, terrified that this may be the last time she would ever see him. Part of her was screaming that she should follow Harry, to fight by his side and keep him safe. Unfortunately, she knew if she did that Harry would forfeit the tournament, and that itself could kill Harry.
"Don't worry Hermione, Harry has got this. Remember the troll, giant spiders, the basilisk, a werewolf, Dementors, a dragon, merpeople, a shark, and of course Voldemort himself three times. Harry has come out on top every time," Ron said, trying to offer her some comfort
"Ron, you can't seriously expect Harry to beat Voldemort if he needs to," Hermione snapped at him.
"I believe it, Hermione. I have to," Ron whispered without looking her in the eye. Realisation struck Hermione; Ron was clinging to that belief because the only other option for him was to panic about his best friend.
A whistle was blown, and Harry jogged into the maze diapering from view. A small part of Hermione was just thinking how terribly this task was designed from a spectator's point of view when Ron pulled out the Marauders' Map. "I borrowed this from harry earlier, thought it would help us see what's going on." Hermione thought that was brilliant and quickly opened it up and said the passphrase. The walls of the maze weren't on the map, but it was better than nothing.
Hearing the passphrase, Sirius looked over and spotted the map. "Here, pass me the map a second." Hermione reluctantly passed it over.
"I, Padfoot the barking mad, do demand editing access," he said as he held his wand against the map. Then, with a lot of concentration, constant checking of layout of the maze, and about a hundred and fifty small waves and twitches of his wand, over the course of a few minutes a number of lines appeared on the map showing the layout of the maze. The other three were so busy watching Sirius that they missed two more champions entering the maze. Finally, he tapped the map again and said, "Update managed."
"It's that easy to edit the map?" Ron asked as he took the map back from Sirius.
"For me, yes. Any of the four Marauders could do it. Our magical signatures are encoded into the spell work, preventing anyone else from being able to edit it, but I was always the best at changing the artwork." Sirius shrugged.
The four of them then started to watch the dot labelled Harry as it made its way through the maze. Left, left, straight, right, pause, straight right, long pause.
"Why do you think he keeps pausing like that?" asked Ron.
"Traps and obstacles," Charlus reminded him. "Harry is probably running into them. I just wish I knew what was happening."
After about half an hour, Hermione pointed to something on the map. "Look there, coming towards the stadium!" She pointed her finger at where Barty Crouch's name was quickly headed towards the Quidditch Stadium from the edge of the map.
"It's Junior. Stay here, I'll grab an Auror and go deal with this. I won't let that bastard anywhere near the maze, let alone Harry." Sirius said before transforming into his animagus form so he could run faster and sprinted down the stairs of the stadium.
Charlus huffed something under his breath but stayed where he was and watched the map. They saw as Sirius ran up to two Aurors, pause for about forty seconds, then all of them sprint off towards where they had seen Crouch's name on the map. They watched as Sirius ran right past him, then started running around in circles looking for Crouch. The Aurors ran past Crouch as well.
"Is he flying?" asked Ron.
"Too slow for flying," Charlus said, trying to work it out for himself. "Maybe invisible?"
Then Hermione saw Crouch walk right through where she knew there was a wall. "Wait." She opened the map up a little more looking for something. "That's it. He is in a secret tunnel. The one that comes out at the Whomping Willow. Come on, we can get to the Willow faster than Sirius can or Crouch can. We can stop him as he climbs out.
The three of them got up and ran down the stairs as fast as they dared. They ran to the first set of aurors they could see and Charlus yelled to them, "Sirius was wrong, Crouch is in a secret tunnel under us. The exit to the tunnel is next to the Whomping Willow. We can get to the exit first if we hurry."
They were just about to turn and rush out of the stadium when there was a loud explosion from inside the maze. Suddenly, Hermione realised what she had missed. The tunnel ran directly under the Quidditch pitch, Junior didn't need to exit at the willow and sneak around to grab Harry, Junior was already in the maze with Harry.
Hermione pulled open the map to see where Junior and Harry were, only to see them practically on top of each other. Suddenly the two disappeared from the map, and Hermione knew that meant they were gone from Hogwarts. The strength in Hermione's legs gave out and she collapsed to her knees as she cried out, "HARRY!"