Cassia's POV

The third and final task was tonight. Even though Dumbledore told us not to worry, I can't help but feel like something bad might happen...which is why I asked if I could help the staff patrolling the outskirts of the maze. Thank goodness they said yes.

At dusk, we walked onto the Quidditch field, which was now completely unrecognizable. A twenty-foot high hedge ran all the way around the edge of it. There was a gap right in front of us; the entrance to the vast maze. The passage beyond it looked dark and creepy.

In the stands, a small orchestra consisting of brass and drums was playing an upbeat tune, while the crowds cheered for the champions. Ron, Hermione, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were among those people. I saw the Beauxbatons girls were doing a dance routine that strongly resembled the Macarena, except instead of singing the words to the song, they were saying a cheer for Fleur in French.

Dumbledore, Moody, Professor McGonagall, Snape, and Professor Sprout also came out onto the pitch.

"Sonorus!" Dumbledore yelled, with his wand pointed at his neck.

The music and cheers died down and everyone in the stands took a seat.

"Earlier today, Professor Moody has hidden the Triwizard Cup deep within the maze. Only he knows it's exact position," Dumbledore announced. "Now, since Mr. Diggory-"

The Hufflepuffs abruptly stood, cheering loudly for Cedric, some of them holding banners.

"-and Mr. Potter-"

All the Gryffindors stood up and cheered in the same manner as Harry's name was announced.

"are currently tied for first place, they will be the first to enter the maze. Followed by Mr. Krum-"

Every one of the Durmstrang boys stood up, chanting "Krum! Krum! Krum! Krum!"

"-and Miss Delacour."

The Beauxbatons girls squealed as they clapped for Fleur.

"The first person to touch the cup will be the winner!" Dumbledore finished, earning another round of cheering from the audience. "We will have people stationed at every entrance to the maze, so if any contestant wishes to withdraw from the task, he or she need only send up red sparks with their wand."

"Champions, gather round."

Harry, Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur all gathered around Dumbledore, while I stood 1 or 2 feet away so I was within hearing range. I wanted to know what exactly Harry and Cedric were going to face during this final task.

"In the maze, you'll find no dragons or creatures of the deep. Instead, you'll face something even more challenging," Dumbledore warned the champions. "You see, people change in the maze. Oh, find the cup if you can, but be very wary--you could just lose yourselves along the way." His voice grew louder as he ordered everyone to their marks.

McGonagall, Snape, Moody, Professor Sprout, and I walked in different directions to assume our posts, where we would be patrolling the maze.

"Good luck," I heard Amos Diggory whisper to Cedric as he embraced him.

One by one, the teachers entered the outskirts of the maze. I was the last one to enter, and as I did, I could hear Dumbledore telling the champions to start at the sound of the cannon. And once again, Filch fired it too soon (surprise, surprise...)

I retrieved my wand from the waistline of my pants and muttered, "Lumos." Now I could see where I was going, or if anything were to, say, jump out at me and try to attack me. Steeling my nerves, I started to patrol the maze, keeping my eyes open so I wouldn't miss a thing.

Harry's POV

Cedric and I hurried forward into the maze. The towering hedges cast black shadows across the path, and, whether because they were so tall and thick or because they had been enchanted, the sound of the surrounding crowd was silenced the moment we entered the maze. I felt almost as though I were underwater again. I pulled out my wand, muttered "Lumos," and heard Cedric do the same just behind me.

After about fifty yards, we reached a fork, and looked at each other.

"See you," I said. Cedric gave me a short wave before taking the right, while I took the left.

I hears the cannon fire for the third time. Krum had entered the maze. I sped up. My chosen path seemed completely deserted. I turned right, and hurried on, holding my wand out in front of me, trying to see as far ahead as possible. Still, there was nothing in sight.

The cannon fired in the distance for the fourth time. All of the champions were now inside the maze.

I kept looking behind me. The odd feeling that I was being watched was upon me.

The maze was growing darker with every passing minute as nightfall drew near, the reddish-pink tones of sunset fading as the sky's color started deepening to navy. I reached another fork.

"Point me," I whispered to my wand, holding it flat in my palm.

The wand spun around once and pointed toward my right, into solid hedge. That way was north, and I knew that I needed to go northwest for the center of the maze. The best I could do was take the left fork and go right again as soon as possible.

The path ahead was empty too, and when I reached a right turn and took it, I once again found my way unlocked. I didn't know why, but the lack of obstacles was unnerving me. Surely I should've run into something by now? It felt as though the maze were luring me into a false sense of security. Then I heard movement right behind me. I held out my wand, ready to attack, but its beam fell only upon Cedric, who had just hurried out of a path on the right-hand side.

Cedric looked severely shaken. The sleeve of his shirt was smoking. "Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts!" he hissed. "They're enormous- I only just got away!" He shook his head and dove out of sight, along another path.

Keen to put plenty of distance between myself and the skrewts, I hurried off again.

Cassia's POV

A scream shattered the silence. A feminine scream, to be exact. It seemed to have come from ahead, so I went straight.

Several moments later, I found Fleur lying on the ground, with Viktor kneeling over her as several roots slowly emerged from the ground, wrapping themselves around her.

The sight took me back to first year, when Harry, Ron, and I had snuck up to the third floor to try and protect the Sorcerer's Stone.--our first obstacle had been Devil's Snare.

Viktor rose to his feet and walked away, not even acknowledging my presence. As he passed me, I caught a glimpse of his eyes. I noticed that they were glassy, sort of like Harry when he doesn't have his glasses on. Something had to have happened to him to cause this, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Kneeling beside Fleur, I placed my hands on the roots constricting her, specifically the one around her torso. "Don't move," I instructed, to which she gave no response. I squeezed the root, burning it and the others. They released Fleur, allowing her to stand up. I felt pity for her. She seemed frightened to death.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yes...yes, I am fine," she whispered, though her eyes told me different. With a shaky hand, she raised her wand to the sky, sending up red sparks.

I wrapped an arm around her to support her. "Fleur, I'm going to take you out of the maze. Okay?"

She nodded and allowed me to lead her. I retraced the route I had taken to come to her aid, until we were out of the maze. A few of Fleur's friends, along with Gabrielle, rushed over to her, leading her to Madam Maxime.

Meanwhile, I resumed my post, continuing to patrol and keeping an eye out for the red sparks that signified another champion throwing in the towel.

A slight pain resonated through my head. I shrugged it off, thinking nothing of it, but I felt another one come on. This one was much stronger than before. Chills ran down my spine, making me feel like I was being watched. I turned around, pointing my wand ahead of me, only to find there was nothing there. And then something bad happened.

My arms were pinned painfully behind my back. On instinct, I fought against my attacker to the best of my ability, but they simply threw me over their shoulder and carried me off to who knows where. I pounded on their back and tried to kick their stomach, and even burned their arms, trying and failing to get them to let me go.

Cedric's POV

Aside from the Blast-Ended Skrewts and two of the maze's hedges closing on me when I tried going down a certain path, I hadn't really run into any more danger. I definitely dodged a bullet. Hopefully I wasn't jinxing myself.

Every so often I hit some dead ends, but the increasing darkness made me feel sure I was getting near the heart of the maze. Then, as I strode down a long, straight path, I saw movement once again, and my beam of wandlight hit an extraordinary creature, one which I had only seen in picture form, in my Monster Book of Monsters.

It was a sphinx. It had the body of an over-large lion: great clawed paws and a long yellowish tail ending in a brown gift. Its head, however, was that of a woman. She turned her long, almond-shapes eyes upon me as I approached. I raised my wand, in case she tried to pounce on me. She was not crouching as if to spring, but pacing from side to side of the path, blocking my progress. Then she spoke, in a deep, hoarse voice. "You are very near your goal. The quickest way is past me...if you can solve my riddle. Answer on your first guess -- I let you pass. Answer wrong -- I attack. Remain silent -- I will let you walk away from me unscathed."

I remembered reading about the sphinx once, last year. I had been absentmindedly flipping through pages in the book, after I had stroked the spine, obviously -- Zachary had learned that lesson the hard way -- and I happened to come across a page that described a creature known as the sphinx. From what I'd read on the page, the sphinx was a known legend among Greeks and Egyptians. Anyone who couldn't solve her riddles correctly were devoured. Although it wasn't enough to give me nightmares, that last part had intimidated me a little bit.

I was never good at logic or riddles, a fact which I had learned from experience, about two years ago, before Cassia and I started dating. I had gone to the entrance of the Ravenclaw common room to pick Cho up, since we were going on a date that night. The doorknocker sculpted in the likeness of an owl had asked me the riddle, and I couldn't solve it for the life of me. Cho had wound up opening the door for me. Even though she told me it wasn't my fault, that those riddles are really difficult even for her, I felt embarrassed.

I sighed. Cassia, where are you when I need you? But then I stooped myself. As much as I wanted Cassia with me, getting help from her would be cheating. I had always made it a point to play fair, in Quidditch and with my schoolwork, and I wasn't keen on going against that principle.

"Tell me the riddle," I requested, trying to keep my nerves at bay.

The sphinx sat down upon her hind legs, in the very middle of the path, and recited:

"It grows and blossoms, it dies and wilts,
It happens in the beginning and happens in the end,
It can make you cry, it can make you sad,
It can make you smile, and can make you brave."

You've got to be kidding me. It's a "what-is-it" riddle. That was the one I had failed horribly on.

I turned these clues over in my mind. Whatever the answer was, each clue described it. It grows and blossoms, it dies and wilts. My first thought was that it had something to do with a flower, but then I knew it couldn't be the answer. It didn't correspond to the other three clues. The second clue had me stumped, so I decided to skip it and move on to the last two.

"It can make you cry, it can make you sad, it can make you smile, and can make you brave..." What makes a person both happy and sad at the same time? The only thing that came to mind was love. Wait a minute. I replayed the clues once more in my brain, quickly realizing that my answer had to be right.

"Love! The answer is love!" I exclaimed.

The sphinx smiled broadly. She got up, stretched her front legs, and then moved aside for me to pass.

"Thank you," I breathed.

Amazed at how I managed to figure that all out, I ran forward. I was so close to winning, I could practically taste it. Hufflepuff would finally receive the long-awaited glory and recognition it deserved. I would be able to make my father proud, even though I didn't care for his bragging about me at times.

A bloodcurdling scream resounded throughout the maze. It wasn't Fleur--she'd been the first one to bail out of the task. I got an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. The scream sounded exactly like-

My eyes widened in alarm. "Cassia!" I ran in the direction of the screams, my heart pounding harder with every passing second. How could she be in danger? She was patrolling the outside of the maze, with four of the teachers. Surely one of them would have heard her and came to her aid, but I didn't hear any footsteps other than my own.

Cassia screamed again, much louder this time. Hold on, love. I'm coming...

When I finally came upon her, I felt as if my world had come crashing down. Cassia lay on the ground, in front of a masked Death Eater. She wasn't moving or breathing. Her gorgeous green eyes were now dull and unseeing. I had arrived too late.

"No..." I whispered to myself. Tears pooled at the corners of my eyes, threatening to fall, but I blinked them away.

It took me a couple of minutes to realize that Death Eaters couldn't have snuck in the maze without getting past the teachers. So that meant it wasn't real. It had to be a Boggart!

I aimed my wand at the dastardly scene. "Riddikulus!"

The scene before me vanished with a crack, another image quickly taking its place. Cassia was now standing before me, but she looked much different than usual. For one, her eyes were a much darker shade of green. 

"Hello, Cedric," she greeted. Her voice was nowhere near as benevolent as it normally was. There was an icy quality to it, like she had a bad taste in her mouth and couldn't get rid of it. "I thought I might find you here. It's about time I told you something that I should have said a long time ago."

"Which is...?" I raised an eyebrow.

She smirked. "That I'm breaking up with you. I don't know why I ever said yes to dating you, but it was a mistake."

I aimed my wand at the Boggart Cassia and shouted, "Riddikulus!" Another crack sounded as the Boggart Cassia vanished, disappearing inside a locked chest that, I noticed, had appeared on the spot. It probably appears to lock the Boggart back up once it's repelled by someone.

I made my way around the chest, continuing on the path ahead of me, and then took a right. To my surprise, Viktor was approaching me, his wand pointed directly at me. He was yelling something in Bulgarian. And at that moment, Harry approached, standing directly between us.

"Get down!" I yelled to him as a curse was fired our way. "Get down!"

Harry dropped to his knees and crawled out of Viktor's line of fire right away. Simultaneously, Viktor tried to hit me with a second curse.

I pointed my own wand at him. "Expelliarmus!"

Viktor was blasted backwards, and he landed flat on his back, falling unconscious once he hit the ground.

I ran past Harry and kicked Viktor's wand away, for good measure. Before I could curse him as payback, Harry ran up to me and tried to restrain me.

Harry's POV

I ran up to Cedric and tried to push his wand arm down so he couldn't curse Krum. "No, stop! He's bewitched, Cedric!" I said, trying to restrain him.

"Get off me!" Cedric snapped, pushing me away. 

"He's bewitched!" I repeated.

Cedric ignored me and ran back the way Krum had entered from. I chased after him, and somehow we wound up wrestling together while running, trying to push each other out of the way. We rounded a corner, and there was the Triwizard Cup. 

"Yes..." I muttered.

We raced towards it. Trouble was, roots sprang up from the ground, trying to trip us. Cedric narrowly avoided them twice, but the third time, the roots got him, and he face planted onto the ground.

I stopped running and looked back at him. Several more roots were wrapping themselves around his legs and upper body, pinning him to the ground. He tried to crawl away, but their hold on him was gradually growing stronger.

I looked ahead, at the cup, but then returned my focus to Cedric.

"Harry!" he shouted as more roots wrapped themselves around him. "Harry!" He struggled continually against the roots. "Harry!"

Leave him, leave him to his fate, a voice in my head told me. Forget him and grab the cup. It's what you want, isn't it? To win?  I then remembered what Dumbledore said before the task began, that people change in the maze, and we "could just lose ourselves along the way". The maze was feeding me terrible thoughts. I shook my head. No. I never wanted eternal glory. He can have it for all I care, but I'm not going to ditch him like this.

"Harry!" Cedric pleaded once more.

I whipped my wand out and aimed it at the roots. "Reducto!"

The roots exploded on one side and immediately retracted, letting go of Cedric. I grabbed his hand, helping him to his feet. "T-Thanks," he stuttered.

"Don't mention it," I replied. 

"You know, for...for a moment there, I thought you -- you were gonna let it get me," he panted.

I nodded. "For a moment there, so did I."

"Some game, huh?" Cedric joked, trying to lighten up the mood.

"Some game," I echoed softly.

The wind started blowing like crazy, all of a sudden, and we saw the maze wall behind us starting to close.

"Let's go!" I ordered.

We sprinted to the cup -- and thankfully, no more roots tried to trip us -- but the minute we got there, we stopped. I didn't make a move to grab it. Cedric deserved it; I already had enough fame as one of the Children Who Lived, and I didn't want any more.

"Go on, take it!" Cedric said, making me look at him in surprise. "You saved me, take it!" he insisted. He looked as though this was costing him every ounce of resolution he had, but his face was set, his arms were folded, he seemed decided.

I looked from Cedric to the cup. For one shining moment, I saw myself holding the Triwizard Cup aloft, heard the roar of the crowd, saw Cho's face gleaming with admiration...and then the picture faced, and I found myself staring at Cedric's shadowy, stubborn face. "Both of us."

"What?"

"We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it," I suggested.

Cedric nodded, liking the idea.

"One -- two -- three!" I counted slowly. We each grasped one of the cup's gleaming handles. Instantly, I felt a jerk somewhere behind my navel. My feet had left the ground.

I couldn't unclench the hand holding the Triwizard Cup; it was pulling me onward in a howl of wind and swirling color, with Cedric at my side.