(Gilderoy Lockhart)
The deafening boom of the starting cannon echoed across the Quidditch pitch.
Harry Potter immediately sprinted into the maze, disappearing between the towering hedges.
Exactly one minute later...
Another cannon blast announced Ivan Karkaroff's turn.
The Durmstrang champion entered at a calm, measured pace, showing none of Harry's urgency.
One minute after that came Fleur Delacour.
She offered the audience one last dazzling smile before vanishing into the green labyrinth.
And just like that...
The Third Task had begun.
Unlike the poor spectators of previous tournaments, who had apparently been expected to stare thoughtfully at a collection of hedges for several hours while pretending they understood what was happening...
Our audience actually had something to watch, thanks to me obviously.
The great crystal sphere shimmered.
Its image shifted smoothly between the three enchanted camera spheres drifting invisibly through the maze.
Gasps rose from every section of the stands.
"It works perfectly!"
"We can see everything!"
"It even changes viewpoints!"
I folded my arms with quiet satisfaction.
Beside me, Aurora smiled knowingly. "You're doing it again."
"Doing what?"
"The proud smile."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
She simply raised one eyebrow.
"...Perhaps a little, can you blame me?" I admitted in the end.
Meanwhile, Ludo Bagman's magically amplified voice thundered across the stadium.
"And Potter comes across his first obstacle!"
I blinked. "...Ludo."
"Yes, Professor?"
"The audience can see the crystal."
"...Yes?"
"So... why are you narrating everything they are currently watching with their own eyes?"
Bagman looked momentarily confused. "...It's traditional."
"I see."
Apparently, commentary was one of those professions that became physically painful if the commentator remained silent for longer than ten seconds.
The crystal focused on Harry, who had stopped before what appeared to be an ordinary patch of golden mist filling the corridor ahead.
Only...
Nothing inside the maze was ever ordinary.
Harry frowned thoughtfully and cautiously extended his wand.
"Specialis Revelio."
Nothing happened, so he tried another.
"Homenum Revelio."
But still nothing.
Then another.
A probing charm.
A detection charm.
Even a simple pebble picked from the ground disappeared into the mist without producing any visible reaction.
The audience watched in silence.
"He is being cautious," Amos Diggory observed approvingly.
"A wise approach." Dumbledore stroked his beard.
Harry stood there for another several seconds, visibly thinking.
I couldn't help smiling.
Good.
Very good.
Instead of charging forward immediately… He was actually trying to understand the obstacle.
Unfortunately, the enchantment before him was rather specialised.
Unless one already knew what it did...
Or happened to possess rather obscure theoretical knowledge...
There was very little to detect.
Harry finally lowered his wand, took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and then...
He simply ran straight through it.
I couldn't help laughing.
"Ah… The quintessential Gryffindor solution. When in doubt… charge ahead."
Aurora chuckled beside me. "And somehow it worked."
Indeed it had.
The moment Harry entered the mist, the world around him visibly shifted.
The crystal's enchantment allowed the audience to see exactly what he was experiencing.
Suddenly...
The ground became the ceiling.
The hedges appeared to grow downward instead of upward.
The sky spun beneath his feet.
Several spectators cried out in surprise.
A first-year Hufflepuff grabbed his friend's sleeve. "He turned upside down!"
"No." I shook my head. "He only thinks he did."
The golden mist did not alter gravity, instead, it altered spatial perception.
An exceptionally unpleasant distinction.
Anyone attempting to walk carefully would instinctively try to correct for the imagined shift in orientation.
Which usually resulted in staggering into the hedge...
Walking in circles...
Or collapsing onto the ground while one's inner ear insisted the world had ended.
The correct solution was exactly what Harry had chosen.
Don't stop.
Don't think.
Just keep moving.
Harry stumbled once as his senses screamed contradictory information at him.
His arms pinwheeled wildly.
Several people gasped.
But then, momentum carried him forward.
He burst out the opposite side of the mist at full speed before his confused brain had time to convince his body that the sky belonged beneath his feet.
A few seconds later he blinked twice, shook his head, then looked back at the harmless-looking golden cloud.
"...Lucky," Tonks muttered.
Aurora smiled. "Sometimes bravery and luck are difficult to tell apart."
"Very true." I nodded wisely.
Behind Harry, the crystal briefly switched to Ivan.
The Durmstrang champion stopped several metres before the same golden mist.
But unlike Harry, he didn't cast a single spell.
Instead, he simply observed it quietly, his eyes narrowing almost imperceptibly.
Then, to my surprise, he smiled.
"A Spatial Disorientation Fog," he murmured. "Interesting."
Without the slightest hesitation… he closed his eyes, folded his wand into his sleeve, and walked calmly through the mist.
The audience fell silent.
"He... closed his eyes?" Sirius asked.
Ivan continued forward at an unhurried pace.
Without visual input, the illusion had nothing to manipulate. His balance relied solely on his inner ear and sense of touch.
When he emerged from the opposite side, he opened his eyes again as though nothing unusual had happened.
"...Show-off," I muttered.
Grindelwald would undoubtedly approve.
When the image shifted to Fleur's viewpoint, the audience immediately quieted.
Unlike Harry, she didn't hesitate.
She studied the shimmering curtain of golden mist for only a few seconds before taking a cautious step inside.
The enchantment took hold almost instantly.
From the crystal sphere, we could see her expression tighten as the world around her abruptly seemed to rotate.
She compensated surprisingly well.
One careful step.
Then another.
Her balance wavered only slightly as she adjusted to the sensation of walking with the sky apparently beneath her feet.
"Excellent balance," Aurora commented beside me.
"It helps that she's a good dancer," I replied. "Veela are known for being exceptionally graceful."
Fleur continued forward at a measured pace, refusing to let herself panic.
Unlike Harry, who had simply charged through the obstacle, she relied on precision instead of speed, and it worked.
A few moments later she stepped out of the mist, and immediately stumbled.
Her foot caught on a tree root hidden beneath the grass.
For one glorious second, the French champion pinwheeled both arms wildly as she fought to stay upright.
The entire stadium collectively inhaled.
"No..."
Then, just as it seemed inevitable that she would plant her face into the ground...
She twisted elegantly at the waist, caught herself with one hand, spun the stumble into what almost looked like a deliberate flourish, and rose smoothly back onto both feet.
That was a close call.
A faint blush spread across her cheeks.
"...Merde," she muttered under her breath.
The crystal sphere faithfully carried every detail.
A ripple of laughter spread through the stands.
Even Madam Maxime covered her mouth, clearly trying not to smile.
I couldn't help snorting. "Not quite so graceful after all..."
Aurora elbowed me lightly. "Don't laugh."
"I'm trying not to."
"You most certainly are not." Rosmerta remarked with a chuckle.
Meanwhile, Fleur lifted her chin with all the dignity of a queen pretending absolutely nothing embarrassing had just happened.
If confidence alone could rewrite history, everyone might have believed she'd intended the manoeuvre from the beginning.
"...An elegant recovery!" Bagman announced enthusiastically.
"It certainly recovered," I murmured.
Sirius leaned over from behind me. "I give it a nine."
"For the landing?" I raised a brow.
"No, for pretending it never happened." Sirius barked a laugh.
"Under the circumstances, that's probably the best she could have done," Remus nodded in approval, but the twitch of his mouth showed he was clearly restraining a smile.
"Fair enough." I agreed.
The audience chuckled once more as Fleur brushed an imaginary speck of dust from her robes, composed herself, and continued deeper into the maze as though nothing whatsoever had happened.
…