In the stands, Mr. Bagman announced the start of the match with his magically amplified, booming voice.
"Ladies and gentlemen! The final task of the Triwizard Tournament begins—now!"
The crowd erupted in thunderous cheers, and flags waved like a rolling sea.
Because Harry and Cedric were tied for first place in points, they would be the first to enter the maze.
They stood at the maze entrance, the towering hedges casting deep shadows behind them.
Harry instinctively looked back, searching the Gryffindor stands for familiar faces.
He saw Ron vigorously pumping his fist, and he also saw Hermione and Lia.
Hermione's face was filled with overflowing worry, while Lia simply watched him quietly. Her sky-blue cat eyes held no cheers, only a deep, bottomless gravity.
Then, she mouthed a word at him.
"Be careful."
Harry understood. He nodded and tightened his grip on his wand.
Filch's whistle pierced the air sharply.
Harry and Cedric exchanged a glance, then stepped forward simultaneously into the darkness.
The maze hedges were a full twenty feet high. The moment they stepped inside, the roaring noise from the outside world was instantly cut off by an invisible barrier.
All that remained was the sound of their own heavy breathing and the rustle of their feet on the damp earth.
The biting air carried the strange scent of rotting vegetation interwoven with unknown magic.
Lia sat in the stands, but her senses had already transformed into intangible tendrils, extending into that enormous maze.
"It's so quiet," she said to Hermione. "All the sound is being swallowed. I can only smell damp earth and leaves, and a rust-like scent of fear."
Lia became a commentator, explaining the situation inside to Hermione.
Five minutes later, Krum entered the maze.
Another five minutes after that, Fleur Delacour also disappeared into the entrance.
Inside the maze, Harry advanced cautiously.
He gripped his wand tightly, being exceptionally careful at every fork in the path.
He remembered 'Moody' Professor's advice: turn right, always right.
But Headmaster Dumbledore's meaningful look in the end, along with Lia's silent warning, had planted an instinctive seed of doubt about that advice in his mind.
At a three-way fork, he, as if guided by a ghost, chose the left path.
Not far ahead, a grating, rustling sound reached his ears.
A Blast-Ended Skrewt suddenly charged out from the shadows of the hedge, its body covered in thick armor, its tail spewing scorching flames.
"Stupefy!" Harry shouted.
The red light hit the Skrewt, but only made its massive body sway. It only succeeded in thoroughly enraging it.
Harry dodged frantically, retreating while casting spells continuously.
This monster was much larger and fiercer than the ones Hagrid had raised.
Just as he was about to be backed into a corner, another, more powerful red light shot from the side, striking the Skrewt's unprotected underbelly.
The monster let out a piercing shriek and collapsed to the ground with a crash.
Cedric ran over from another path.
"Are you alright?" he asked breathlessly, his handsome face full of lingering fear.
"I'm fine, thank you," Harry also sighed in relief, his back already soaked with cold sweat.
The two looked at each other, seeing the same gravity in each other's eyes.
The dangers in this maze far exceeded their imagination.
"Should we go together?" Cedric suggested.
"Yes," Harry agreed without the slightest hesitation.
In the stands, Lia's brow furrowed slightly.
"The magical fluctuations in the maze are strange," she said quietly to Hermione.
"Some areas are violent, full of aggression, like that Skrewt just now. But other places are terrifyingly quiet, waiting for someone to fall in."
Hermione took out her binoculars, looking futilely at the tall hedges. "We can't see anything."
"I can'smell' it."
Lia closed her eyes, concentrating all her energy on her sense of smell.
"Hermione... Krum's scent has changed. That solid, black-bread-like scent of his own has vanished, replaced by a hollow, puppet-like smell. The string attached to it... is connected to 'Moody' Professor!"
Hermione's heart leapt into her throat.
"Controlled? The Imperius Curse!"
"The magic controlling him smells the same as the scent on 'Moody'! He's heading towards Harry and Cedric right now."
Deep in the maze, Harry and Cedric were trying to solve a Sphinx's riddle.
Just as Cedric gave the answer and the Sphinx moved aside to let them pass, a vicious green curse shot towards them from behind.
"Crucio!"
A voice devoid of emotion rang out.
Harry and Cedric whirled around to see the expressionless face of Viktor Krum.
His eyes were empty, like dusty glass beads, staring fixedly at Cedric as he raised his wand again.
"Get out of the way!" Harry yelled, pushing Cedric aside with all his might.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry roared in retaliation.
Krum's wand flew from his hand. But the man himself lunged forward, bare-handed.
"Impedimenta!" Cedric cast the spell in time. An invisible force slammed Krum hard against the hedge, knocking him unconscious.
"Has he gone mad?" Cedric asked, shaken and pale.
Harry stepped forward and checked Krum's eyes.
The dark irises were dilated and lifeless. "He's under the Imperius Curse."
Cedric's voice trembled slightly. "He was using the Cruciatus Curse just now."
Not daring to linger, they bound Krum securely with spells and continued towards the center of the maze.
And at that moment, a shrill scream, abruptly cut off, tore through the silence of the maze.
It was Fleur's voice.
In the stands, everyone stood up in alarm and uncertainty.
A red spark shot up from somewhere in the maze—the signal for a champion in distress.
"Fleur Delacour is out of the tournament!" Bagman's voice held a note of regret.
"It's Barty Crouch Jr.," Lia's voice was icy. "I smell it. That stench mixed with the bitterness of Polyjuice Potion and the rot of lies erupted where Fleur was attacked, then quickly disguised and receded. He's imitating a defeated person!"
"Hermione, he's going into the maze himself now!"
Hermione murmured, "He's going to personally ensure... ensure that Harry is the first to get that trophy."
In the maze, Harry and Cedric were getting closer and closer to the center.
They could see the triwizard cup standing quietly on a pedestal not far ahead, emitting an enticing, dreamlike blue glow.
Side by side, they walked towards the trophy radiating the blue light.
In the stands, Lia's body went rigid, the fur on her ears and tail standing on end.
"It's there!" Her voice was tight, filled with unprecedented gravity. "It's that trophy! All the scent of death, all the threads, are emanating from that trophy!"
In her [Eye of Truth], that trophy was no symbol of glory at all.
It was enveloped in a thick, ink-black cloud of dark magic.
Countless invisible, foul black threads extended from the trophy, entangling the entire maze.
And the two thickest threads were tightly bound around Harry and Cedric's ankles, tightening with every step they took closer!
All around was a roaring sea of cheers, the stirring music for the soon-to-be-crowned champion, a spectacle of flying confetti and waving flags.
And in this ocean of joy, Lia's scream seemed so tiny, so powerless.
"Don't touch it—!"
No one heard. No one looked back.
In the maze, Harry and Cedric's hands, under the gaze and blessings of the entire world, simultaneously grasped the cold trophy emitting its alluring glow.
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