act two: little dark age
chapter forty-six

The more the two stood in the maze, the more Daphne grew worried for the battle ahead. She felt like a foolish little girl. Shaking and crying over something stupid, when in reality, she needed to be strong. She had a fight ahead of her, her friends lives were in danger. This was something bigger than the entire task.

Fluer was missing somewhere in the maze, now that was something that Daphne knew for certain and that was one of her main concerns. She had learned whenever a person forfeited the match, they sent up red sparks and she knew for certain she never once saw any sparks flying from the maze. So Fleur was still around.

But where was Fleur? That was the question that plagued not only Daphne's mind, but Harry's as well. The two had some sort of apparent hero complex. Wanting to help someone even if they got hurt, that was a flaw that the two shared and would later cause problems as they wanted to save one another. But, that's a story for another time.

Daphne ran her hands through her hair as her eyes flickered around the maze while she kept a grip on Harry who was slowly coming back to his senses. Wondering if she needed to take his wand and lead the way, but knowing the wand would not truly work with her as she was not Harry so it might do more harm than good.

There was no sign of anything blue or the silver haired veela, it was as if the screams had simply been in there minds. But she refused to believe that was another trick of the maze. It sounded so... real. It had to have actually been Fleur. Something had to have actually happened and she needed their help. So, where was she?

She saw no sign of the young witch. No sign of any sort of magical thing. What had she met? What had she seen? Where had she gone? Questions lingered in Daphne's head as her chest felt heavy as she stayed right at Harry's side while her head went to look in different directions to try to find some sort of answer.

The two had gone this far, hadn't they? What if Harry actually managed to win? Daphne knew that Harry wanted to be the Champion deep down. She knew he'd feel like he finally accomplished something if he won. And a ten minute run was only approving her suspicions of she was definitely not going to make it out of the maze.

Twice they took the same wrong turning. Finally, Harry found a new route and started to jog along it, his wandlight waving, making their shadows flicker and distort on the hedge walls. Then they rounded another corner and found himself facing a Blast-Ended Skrewt. Cedric was right — it was enormous. Ten feet long, it looked more like a giant scorpion than anything. Its long sting was curled over its back. Its thick armor glinted in the light from Harry's wand, which he pointed at it.

"Stupefy!" The spell hit the skrewt's armor and rebounded; pushed Daphne down and ducked just in time, but could smell burning hair; it had singed the top of Harry's head.

"Thank Merlin that wasn't me and I am so sorry," Daphne muttered trying not to flip out from laughing.

The skrewt issued a blast of fire from its end and flew forward toward him. Which caused Daphne to quickly move out of the way as the hairs on the back of her neck began to stand up as her anxiety grew worse in the moment.

"Impedimenta!" Harry yelled, the spell hit the skrewt's armor again and ricocheted off; Harry staggered back a few paces and fell over, "IMPEDIMENTA!" The skrewt was inches from him when it froze — he had managed to hit it on its fleshy, shell-less underside.

Panting, Daphne pushed herself away from it and ran, hard, in the opposite direction as she managed to grab Harry's hand — the Impediment Curse was not permanent; the skrewt would be regaining the use of its legs at any moment. They took a left path and hit a dead end, a right, and hit another; forcing the two to stop, heart hammering, Harry performed the FourPoint Spell again, backtracked, and chose a path that would take him northwest.

Harry and Daphne had been hurrying along the new path for a few minutes, when they heard something in the path running parallel to Harry's own that made him stop dead in his tracks and Daphne to fall over, causing Harry to surge forward to catch her in time.

"What are you doing?" yelled Cedric's voice, "What the hell d'you think you're doing?"

And then Daphne heard Krum's voice, "Crucio!" The air was suddenly full of Cedric's yells.

Daphne felt her body grow rigid before she sprinted forward without warning. Cedric's yells sending chills down her spine as she continued to try and find where Cedric was. She wanted to help - no, scratch that, she needed to help. Something in her was going ballistic and she couldn't keep acting scared and doing nothing, she needed to do something even if she was scared.

Horrified, Harry began sprinting up his path after Daphne, trying to find a way into Cedric's. When none appeared, Harry tried the Reductor Curse again. It wasn't very effective, but it burned a small hole in the hedge through which Daphne forced her leg, kicking at the thick brambles and branches until they broke and made an opening; Daphne struggled through it, tearing her jumper, and looking to herright, saw Cedric jerking and twitching on the ground, Krum standing over him.

Harry was quick to get through after Daphne, after he had helped push her through the shrubbery finally as his robes began to tear due to the hedges before it closed back up behind him. The boy looked at where Daphne's eyes had fallen before knowing something had to be done.

Harry pulled himself up and pointed his wand at Krum just as Krum looked up. Krum turned and began to run while Daphne attended to Cedric who was on the ground, shaking viciously.

"Stupefy!" Harry yelled as he pointed his wand at the famed wizard from Durmstrang.

The spell hit Krum in the back; he stopped dead in his tracks, fell forward, and lay motionless, facedown in the grass. Harry dashed over to Cedric and Daphne, who had stopped twitching and was lying there panting, his hands over his face as Daphne helped him sit up while checking to make sure there was no outward signs of an injury.

"Are you all right?" Harry asked roughly, grabbing Cedric's arm causing the boy to be yanked up while Daphne stayed on the ground.

"Yeah," panted Cedric,"Yeah . . . I don't believe it . . . he crept up behind me. . . . I heard him, I turned around, and he had his wand on me. . . ." Cedric got up and offered Daphne a helping hand, to which she took, "What are you even doing here?"

"Long story," Daphne responded before looking over at Harry and crossing her arms tightly across her chest with a sigh.

He was still shaking, he, Daphne, and Harry looked down at Krum, "I can't believe this . . . I thought he was all right," Harry mumbled, staring at Krum.

"So did I," the hufflepuff agreed as he tried his best to get a grip on himself, the curse clearly having lingering affects on him.

"Did you hear Fleur scream earlier?" Harry asked after a moment of silence as his head turned in the slightest so that he could see Cedric.

"Yeah," Cedric spoke after a moment as he began to rub the back of his neck before looking around.

"You don't think Krum got her too?" Daphne asked as she looked down at the durmstrang boy, wondering if he was trying to take everyone down one by one.

"I don't know," Harry's words were slow as he tried to think of what could've happened to the half-veela witch.

"Should we leave him here?" Cedric muttered under his breath, as his gaze fell back on the wizard who had cursed him.

"No," Harry spoke after a moment, "I reckon we should send up red sparks. Someone'll come and collect him . . . otherwise he'll probably be eaten by a skrewt."

"He'd deserve it," Cedric muttered, but all the same, he raised his wand and shot a shower of red sparks into the air, which hovered high above Krum, marking the spot where he lay.

"We've got to get moving," Daphne looked between the two boys as she inhaled deeply, "We can't all keep standing here like this. We're practically targets for anything and everything that happens to see us."

Harry and Cedric stood there in the darkness for a moment, looking around them. Daphne fiddled with her hands awaiting someone to say something.

Then Cedric spoke up, "Well . . . I s'pose we'd better go on . . . ."

"What?" Harry questioned before agreeing, "Oh . . . yeah . . . right . . ."

It was an odd moment. He and Cedric had been briefly united against Krum — now the fact that they were opponents came back to Harry. The two of them proceeded up the dark path without speaking, then Harry and Daphne turned left, and Cedric right. Cedric's footsteps soon died away. The two moved on, continuing to use the Four-Point Spell, making sure Harry was moving in the right direction.

It was between him and Cedric now. Daphne knew his desire to reach the cup first was now burning stronger than ever, but Harry could hardly believe what he'd just seen Krum do. The use of an Unforgivable Curse on a fellow human being meant a life term in Azkaban, that was what Moody had told them. Krum surely couldn't have wanted the Triwizard Cup that badly. . . . The two sped up.

Every so often they hit more dead ends, but the increasing darkness made Daphne feel sure they were getting near the heart of the maze. Then, as Harry strode down a long, straight path, he saw movement once again, and his beam of wandlight hit an extraordinary creature, one which he had only seen in picture form, in his 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 tuft. Its head, however, was that of a woman. She turned her long, almond-shaped eyes upon Harry and Daphne as they approached. He raised his wand, hesitating. She was not crouching as if to spring, but pacing from side to side of the path, blocking his progress.

Then she spoke, in a deep, hoarse voice, "You are very near your goal. The quickest way is past me."

"So . . . so will you move, please?" Harry asked, knowing what the answer was going to be.

"No," she said, continuing to pace, "Not unless you can answer my riddle. Answer on your first guess — I let you pass. Answer wrongly — I attack. Remain silent — I will let you walk away from me unscathed."

"Fuck," Daphne couldn't help but curse, she hated riddles and she knew when it came down to it that they needed Hermione to get past this.

"Okay," Harry looked uneasy as he looked at the sphinx before saying, "Can I hear the riddle?"

The sphinx sat down upon her hind legs, in the very middle of the path, and recited: "First think of the person who lives in disguise, Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies. Next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend, The middle of middle and end of the end? And finally give me the sound often heard During the search for a hard-to-find word. Now string them together, and answer me this, Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?"

Harry gaped at her,"Could I have it again . . . more slowly?" he questioned tentatively.

She blinked at him, smiled, and repeated the poem, "All the clues add up to a creature I wouldn't want to kiss?" Harry asked.

"Something you wouldn't want to kiss? Uh, me," Daphne joked before getting serious as she scratched at the back of her neck, "A dementor?"

"A person in disguise," Harry muttered in response to Daphne, staring at the sphinx, "who lies . . . er . . . that'd be a — an imposter. No, that's not my guess! A — a spy? I'll come back to that . . . could you give me the next clue again, please?"

She repeated the next lines of the poem. "The last thing to mend," Harry repeated, "Er . . . no idea . . . 'middle of middle' . . . could I have the last bit again?" She gave him the last four lines. "The sound often heard during the search for a hard-to-find word,' " said Harry, "Er . . . that'd be . . . er hang on — 'er'! Er's a sound!" The sphinx smiled at him. "Spy . . . er . . . spy . . . er ." Harry pieced it together, pacing up and down.

"A creature I wouldn't want to kiss . . . a spider!" The sphinx smiled more broadly, She got up, stretched her front legs, and then moved aside for him to pass.

"Thanks!" Harry exclaimed happily, and, amazed at Daphne's own brilliance, as he dashed forward, "Merlin, we're lucky right now."

They had to be close now, they had to be. . . . Harry's wand was telling him he was bang on course; as long as he didn't meet anything too horrible, he might have a chance. . . . Daphne broke into a run. They had a choice of paths up ahead. It was almost as if she was competing now.

"Point Me!" Harry whispered again to his wand, and it spun around and pointed him to the right-hand one.

Daphne dashed up this one and saw light ahead. The Triwizard Cup was gleaming on a plinth a hundred yards away. Suddenly a dark figure hurtled out onto the path in front of them. Cedric was going to get there first.

Cedric was sprinting as fast as he could toward the cup, and Harry knew they would never catch up, Cedric was much taller, had much longer legs — Then Harry saw something immense over a hedge to his left, moving quickly along a path that intersected with his own; it was moving so fast Cedric was about to run into it, and Cedric, his eyes on the cup, had not seen it —

"Cedric!" Harry bellowed, "On your left!"

Cedric looked around just in time to hurl himself past the thing and avoid colliding with it, but in his haste, he tripped. The two saw Cedric's wand fly out of his hand as a gigantic spider stepped into the path and began to bear down upon Cedric.

"Stupefy!" Harry yelled; the spell hit the spider's gigantic, hairy black body, but for all the good it did, he might as well have thrown a stone at it; the spider jerked, scuttled around, and ran at Harry instead, "Stupefy! Impedimenta! Stupefy!"

"Oh my Merlin," Daphne seemed to be freaked out by the giant spider, but something else grabbed Cedric, causing him to scream, "DAPHNE! HARRY!"

Harry was grabbed by the spider as it crawled around him and was clearly getting violent. Harry tried to kick it and Daphne found herself torn on who to help. She grabbed Cedric's wand and shouted a spell at the spider before doing the same to the vines on Cedric, which freed him and got him to help as well.

Cedric yelled,"Stupefy!" too, but his spell had no more effect than Harry's — Harry raised his wand as the spider opened its pincers once more and shouted "Expelliarmus!"

It worked — the Disarming Spell made the spider drop him, Daphne surged forward and managed to catch Harry on top of her, the girl absorbing his fall with a grunt. Without pausing to think, he aimed high at the spider's underbelly, as he had done with the skrewt, and shouted "Stupefy!" just as Cedric yelled the same thing. The two spells combined did what one alone had not: The spider keeled over sideways, flattening a nearby hedge, and strewing the path with a tangle of hairy legs.

"Harry! Daphne!" She heard Cedric shouting. "You all right? Did it fall on you?"

"No," Harry called back, panting as he rolled off of Daphne while looking in an intense around of pain while looking worried, "Daphne? Are you okay - you're so stupid to do that!"

"Sorry for saving your ass," She panted as she rose to her feet before she rose to her feet as she looked down at Harry.

She looked down at his leg. It was bleeding freely. The two could see some sort of thick, gluey secretion from the spider's pincers on his torn robes. He tried to get up, but his leg was shaking badly and did not want to support his weight. He leaned against the hedge, gasping for breath. Cedric was standing feet from the Triwizard Cup, which was gleaming behind him. Daphne wrapped an arm under Harry's arm as she supported him.

"Take it, then," Harry panted to Cedric, "Go on, take it. You're there."

But Cedric didn't move. He merely stood there, looking at Harry and Daphne. Then he turned to stare at the cup. Daphne and Harry both saw the longing expression on his face in its golden light. Cedric looked around at Harry again, who was now holding onto the hedge to support himself. Cedric took a deep breath. She knew this was a hard decision and a loss for someone.

"You take it. You should win. That's twice you've saved my neck in here," Cedric looked back at the two as he shook his head, "Especially your girl. Daphne deserves the win, one hell of a fighter."

"That's not how it's supposed to work," Harry panted out as he looked at the Hufflepuff.

"Harry," Daphne muttered as she looked at the boy that she was supporting before looking at Cedric, "I say just take it and run. Snatch and run bitch."

"The one who reaches the cup first gets the points. That's you. I'm telling you, I'm not going to win any races on this leg," Harry repeated as he sighed, "I'm only weighing Daphne down."

Cedric took a few paces nearer to the Stunned spider, away from the cup, shaking his head,"No," he spoke firmly.

"Stop being noble," Harry huffed irritably. "Just take it, then we can get out of here. Daphne needs to see her father and Madam Pompfrey."

"You need too," Daphne muttered as she looked at him, "For goodness sakes, I'll take the damn thing."

Cedric watched Harry steadying himself, holding tight to the hedge, "You told me about the dragons," Cedric spoke, "I would've gone down in the first task if you hadn't told me what was coming."

"I had help on that too," Harry snapped, trying to mop up his bloody leg with his robes, "You helped me with the egg — we're square."

"I had help on the egg in the first place," Cedric looked at Harry as he tried to argue with the boy.

"We're still square," Harry repeated, testing his leg gingerly; it shook violently as he put weight on it; he had sprained his ankle when the spider had dropped him, Daphne sighed taking more weight.

"You should've got more points on the second task," Cedric admitted mulishly, "You stayed behind to get all the hostages. I should've done that."

"I was the only one who was thick enough to take that song seriously!" Harry exclaimed bitterly. "Just take the cup! Grab it and get us out of here!"

"No," Cedric repeated as he looked at the boy leaning on the girl.

He stepped over the spider's tangled legs to join Harry, who stared at him. Cedric was serious. He was walking away from the sort of glory Hufflepuff House hadn't had in centuries. He took Harry's weight to help Daphne as he looked at the Gryffindor.

"Go on," Cedric repeated, he was making sure one of the Gryffindor's claimed the cup.

Cedric was refusing the cup. Daphne knew that was something that was honorable to decide and foolish. She didn't understand why both boys had to be prudes and fight over who was taking the cup, she found it insane.

"I'll grab it, girl power, let a girl win," Daphne looked between the two as she narrowed her eyes at Harry as if saying 'speak'.

"Both of us," Harry muttered not a second after receiving Daphne's look, "Well, the three of us. There's finally a girl winner, and we all get the glory."

"What?" Cedric asked, clearly confused by Harry's statement, "That's...are we sure about this?"

"We'll take it at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it, all three of us will," Harry began to explain as he looked at the boy.

Cedric stared at Harry, he unfolded his arms under Harry, "You — you sure?"

"Yeah," Harry agreed, "Yeah . . . we've helped each other out, haven't we? We both got here. Let's just take it together."

For a moment, Cedric looked as though he couldn't believe his ears; then his face split in a grin. "You're on," he looked happy.

"Come here." He grabbed Harry's arm below the shoulder and helped Harry limp toward the plinth where the cup stood.

When they had reached it, they both held a hand out over one of the cup's gleaming handles. Daphne found herself feeling a sense of pride as she looked at the cup, standing with the two other Hogwarts students who had made it through the maze.

"Daphne's hand touches it first, ladies first," Cedric repeated as he looked at the row of they had formed, all supporting one another, "Count."

"On three, right?" asked Harry,"One — two — three —" He and Cedric both grasped a handle after Daphne had, but they both had a grip on her before it began.

And that sinking feeling hot.