At last the day of the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament had arrived. Harry tried his best not to let the excitement that had built up effect him, but as the date drew nearer the anticipation had grown to a fever pitch in the castle and it was impossible to ignore. He told himself that he should be proud to have done so well in the tournament as it was, but he knew that if he did not win the tournament he would be very disappointed. Harry had never worked so hard for anything in his entire life and at last he would have the chance to prove himself in front of everyone.
With about an hour left before the task was to start Harry, Daphne, Hermione, and Neville went to the spot where the Quidditch pitch once stood but was not a massive maze that Harry would have to navigate, The hedges that served as the maze's walls had grown since Harry last saw it and he knew that there would be no easy way to go through or over them. The stands were already at least half full and they were spending their time talking, laughing, and singing to a band that was playing festive music. All things considered, Harry thought it was a great setting for the third task.
"Wow. How many people do you think are going to be here?" Neville asked as he looked around.
"I don't know. Thousands." Harry answered as he led them to the front where they could sit down. None of the other champions had arrived yet, but Ludo Bagman was there talking to one of his assistants. Harry noticed that when Bagman saw him his face took on a very confused expression, but it quickly went away and was forgotten as Harry returned to the conversation his friends were having.
"I should have looked harder Harry, I know I could have found a way through the maze…" Hermione was saying as she looked at the massive obstacle in front of her. Harry laughed in response to her concern though.
"Stop worrying about it, Hermione. I am as ready as I can be." he assured her.
"Still, you should be careful." Daphne reminded him. "There is really no telling what they have in there. People have died in this tournament, do not underestimate it." Harry nodded in agreement, he had gone through this on his own just hours earlier. Winning the tournament was not something worth dying for, but he would fight for it none the less. He had long since vowed to win the tournament, an action that had resulted in a number of positive changes in his life, so there was no way he would let this chance slip by him.
"So what does Krum think, Hermione?" Harry asked.
"That he would rather be playing Quidditch." Hermione answered. "Karkaroff was really the one pushing him to enter the tournament and now that he's gone Viktor just seems bored with it. He'll do his best, but his real goal is to not get hurt and endanger his Quidditch career."
"That's probably the smart thing to do." Harry commented. "Cedric and Fleur won't be holding back though, at least judging from what I have seen so far. They're all good competitors, but I would guess that Cedric is going to be the toughest opponent."
"And he'll be the second one in the maze, right after you." Neville added. Due to their performances in the first two tasks Harry would enter the maze first, followed a few minutes later by Cedric, then Krum, and finally Fleur. It gave Harry a slight advantage, but by no means guaranteed his victory. The group continued chatting until a few minutes later when Hermione saw Viktor Krum arrive. She then wished Harry good luck and gave him a hug before walking off to talk to the Bulgarian champion.
"She's going to break up with him. Not right now, of course, but soon." Daphne commented as she watched Hermione and Krum talk on the other side of the stands.
"What?" Harry said in surprise. "I thought Hermione liked Krum."
"She does, just not enough. Did you know he asked her to come back to Bulgaria with him?" Daphne asked. "He even offered to help her transfer to Durmstrang."
"No, she didn't tell me." Harry answered.
"Even Krum could see that things are getting dangerous in England these days. He thought she'd be safer there with him, and he's probably right. But Hermione told him that she couldn't leave, no matter how dangerous things got. Apparently they argued about it but she wouldn't change her mind."
"When did this happen?" Harry asked, wondering why Hermione had told Daphne and not him. His friend had seemed a little distant over the past few weeks.
"Over the past few days for the most part. She wanted to tell you about it but thought you didn't need to worry about her love life with the third task coming up." Daphne said. Harry frowned, wishing that Hermione had talked to him anyway. At the very least he could have told her that he supported her decision. It wasn't surprising that Krum wanted nothing to do with the problems in England though, it was after all not his home. Still, Krum seemed like a good guy and it would have been nice to have him as an ally.
"I'll talk to her after this is all over with. I suppose I haven't spent much time with her lately either. I've just been busy." Harry said with a shrug. It was true. He felt like his days had been overwhelmed with schoolwork, practice for the tournament, studying potions with Neville, and spending any free time with Daphne that his friendship with Hermione had been neglected. He vowed to fix that once the tournament was finally over and behind him.
"Hey Harry, ready to lose?" a friendly voice asked from behind him, causing Harry to turn around and look for its source. He saw a smiling Cedric Diggory walking towards him holding hands with Cho Chang.
"Cho, it's great to see you again." Harry answered, smiling. "Although I do wonder why you still waste your time with this berk."
"Oh, he's good for the occasional laugh." Cho answered, trying not to giggle while making fun of her boyfriend. "Probably the same reason Daphne keeps you around."
"Exactly." Daphne answered before Harry could say anything.
"Harry, do you see what you've done?" Cedric replied. "You've turned them both against us. Next thing you know they'll be picking on Neville too."
"Leave me out of this." Neville wisely commented, resulting in laughs from everyone else.
'You ready for this, Harry?" Cedric asked seriously.
"I think so." Harry answered with a nod. "What about you?"
"As ready as I'll ever be. I just wanted to say that you've really impressed me, Harry." Cedric said. "When your name came out of the Goblet of Fire I thought you would be lucky to survive the tournament, but here were are nearly at the end and you're beating all of us. Whatever happens, you should be proud of yourself."
"Thanks, Cedric. That means a lot to me." Harry replied sincerely. "I really shouldn't be in this tournament to begin with, and you would be winning right now if I wasn't."
"That's not your fault, Harry." Cedric answered. He knew better than to think that Harry had put his name in the Goblet of Fire and had never really believed it. "Still, I hope your ready to get your ass kicked by me today."
"I look forward to seeing you try." Harry said with a laugh. A moment later a loud voice was heard calling for the champions to assemble at the entrance of the maze for final instructions. Harry looked around and noticed that in the time they had been talking the stands had completely filled up with eager spectators. "Sounds like it's time to go…"
Before he could leave or say anything else Daphne wrapped him up in a tight hug and softly said "Be careful, good luck." to him. Harry nodded and hugged her back before letting go of the embrace and turning towards the maze. He glanced sideways to see Cho had Cedric in a similar hug, except she appeared to be crying as Cedric assured her he would be alright. Nodding, she finally let go and the two Hogwarts champions approached the third and final task of the Triwizard tournament side by side. Ludo Bagman was at the entrance to maze motioning them over, and when all four champions were there he began to go over what was expected.
"Very good, you're all here. Congratulations on making it this far." Bagman said. "But this will be the most dangerous task yet. If, at any time, you can no longer continue in the maze all you must do is fire sparks into the air and someone will come get you. The first person to grab the Triwizard Cup will be declared the winner. Now, are there any questions?" Bagman looked from person to person, giving them the chance to say something but none of the champions seemed to have anything they needed to ask. When his eyes landed on Harry Bagman's mouth opened as if he had something to say, but quickly closed his mouth and once again got a confused expression on his face which he tried to shake off so that he could continue.
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