As soon as they emerged from the last of the woodwork, it was apparent Krum was very busy- he had stirred up a harpy nest, apparently, and several were chasing him down. They were shrieking and warning the other nests further ahead. He was rapidly firing stunning spells, forcing many of the harpies to dive out of his path, but many came at him from above, below, and beside him. While casting, he was slamming them left and right with his body. Harry and Cedric both knew they would have just as much trouble trying to take them alone as well, and decided to help Krum. Harry sent a wind-splitter to throw some of the harpies off balance, while Cedric cast a reductor at the side of the cliff. The blast of pebbles scared off a few of the creatures, and all three kept together, flying as a group to get through the mass of vicious avians. Harry suddenly felt something approach- looking around, he felt a sudden gust of wind and saw a slight shimmer as something moved past him. Fleur had decided to disillusion herself and fly past all three at top speed while the harpies were distracted. She's a sneaky one, Harry thought with some annoyance. She's more of a Slytherin than any of the Slytherins in Hogwarts.
Harry was the first to break away from the group as they were nearing the last of the nests. Confident in his dodging skills and thankful for his small size, he took on the last few approaching harpies by himself, evading all their attacks and leaving Krum and Cedric behind. Fleur had raced so far ahead he couldn't see her any more. He couldn't let her take a bigger lead. Thankfully, the next leg of the canyon had a fair bit of twists and turns, so Fleur would be having trouble maintaining her top speed. Another five minutes later or so, Krum had once again caught up to Harry and was about to pass him again, with Cedric lagging far behind. Up ahead, gorge became a much narrower ravine. There was barely any room to move left or right- dodging up and down were the only options. Krum, seeing what lay ahead, quickly moved above Harry just before the entered the next section.
Thankfully, it was a relatively straight ravine, and Harry could see the end of it in the distance. Unfortunately, it was also home to Echoscreamer Bats, and several carnivorous spiders were known to make webs in the area. The bats loved cramped spaces with solid, echoing walls- they could scream magically enhanced voises that perfectly resonated with their environment to instantly deafen and daze anyone who trespassed into their territory. It seemed that Fleur had gotten past them without difficulty, but given the number of broken spiderwebs, she had to deal with the spiders herself. Krum flew as fast as he could, careful not to scrape the walls. Harry did the same. However, about three-quarters of the way through, Krum suddenly rose to the top of the ravine and cast a silent Reducto above Harry's head. A shower of rocks pelted Harry as he desperately wiggled left and right, casting his shield charm to prevent the rocks from hitting him. His banging against the sides of the ravine bruised his shoulders and knees badly, while Krum shot ahead without so much as a scratch. Harry could hear a few shrieks of the bats as they awoke. He began to hear the din of the bats get louder and louder as they synchronized their voices. The pain in his ears quickly grew to the point where he was beginning to feel disoriented and off-balance. What I wouldn't give for one of Professor Sprout's pink earmuffs right about now, thought Harry. Only fifty meters to go... Ignoring the pain and keeping his eyes on the exit, he flew on, bouncing back and forth across the walls, feeling dizzy.
He regained his bearings as he put some distance between himself and the bats. It seemed that, in the meantime, Cedric had once again caught up to him. Why didn't the bats affect him at all? Harry noticed him cancelling a spell on himself- probably some muffling or deafening spell. Krum was far ahead and Fleur was out of sight, so both of the Hogwarts students had a lot of catching up to do. They only about three-quarters of the way there already, by Harry's estimate. Coming around a wide bend, he saw Krum struggling against something invisible. Harry couldn't see what it was, but as he approached, he was struck by a strong gust of wind. He struggled to fly against it, and a few meters further he was hit by another gust going in a completely different direction. He was being tossed around by the wind itself. He thought back to another simple spell that Hermione had taught him only days ago. "Now, if you ever need to see or visualize the wind for something, a good smoke spell should do the trick," Hermione had said. "Fumofluma!" Harry cried out, holding his wand ahead of him. Smoke streamed out as he maintained the spell. The smoke was quickly dissipated by the strong winds, but Harry could easily tell where the wind changed direction. Keeping his wand pointed in front, he charged forward, spraying a continuous stream of smoke ahead of him. Flying through two kilometres of the insane winds, he finally saw that the smoke he was spewing was no longer being blown away. Picking up speed, he realized he was on the final stretch- a fairly wide, open course with no more obstacles. In the distance, he could see a massive bird with its wings outstretched- it had to be the Zuu.
Harry had nearly caught up to Krum after the wind-buffeted stretch, and he could see Fleur in the distance. She was holding back, wary of trying to take on the Zuu on her own. A little less than five minutes later, they had caught up, and the massive bird was in front of them. Massive, in fact, hardly described it. Its wingspan was nearly as wide as the entire gorge itself. Obviously, it wasn't native to Scotland- it was a Persian beast, revered in ancient times as a god. A single flap of its wings was enough to blow all of them back- the bird wasn't letting any of them near the nest.
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