Cedric looked at Harry's wand in amazement. He had performed his own lumos spell but the light from his wand was barely visible in Harry's wand light. "What's that?" He asked nodding at Harry's wand.
Harry smiled at the older student. "Brighter light." It had been in one of Salazar Slytherin's Parseltongue books and one of the few parseltongue spells he had made work. "If I've got to be a Parselmouth at least I should get something out of it."
Cedric grinned back. "True; though light alone isn't going to get you that Trophy."
"Won't hurt though," Harry argued jokingly. Fifty yards into the maze, the path the two champions had been racing along came to a fork.
"I'm going this way," Harry said as he nodded down a path.
"I'll go this way then. Good luck," Cedric replied.
"You too," Harry answered. He watched Cedric disappear down the path for a few seconds and then he walked a couple of steps into his fork and stopped to wait.
"I'm coming in now," Fleur said a minute later causing Harry to smile. He stepped back to where the path forked and waited for his bondmate. His smile grew even larger when she asked. "Is zat your wand or are you 'appy to see me?" When she caught sight of the light from his wand.
"Very funny love," Harry replied. He could see her jogging up the path toward him, her own wand lit with the same intense light. "I am very glad to see you though."
After they exchanged kisses, Fleur replied. "I don't like it in 'ere."
"Let's just finish it and get out then," Harry replied. "Hermione, we are at a fork. I am standing directly in front of it. Any way better than the other?"
"Not yet. Well maybe the left one. Go a little further."
Harry and Fleur started down the left-hand path, while Hermione studied the map. She noticed a something strange. "HARRY! It's Mr. Crouch. He's not dead. He seems to be walking around the maze."
"Is he near one of the four professors who are patrolling the edge? McGonagall, Moody, Flitwick or Hagrid?"
"No..wait…I see McGonagall, Flitwick and Hagrid but Moody's still not showing on the map."
"Gabrielle, can you go look on the south side of the maze and see if you see Mr. Crouch," Harry asked. "Take Ginny with you."
"Okay Harry. Oh and Viktor Krum just entered the maze."
At the next fork, they queried Hermione once more and she directed them down the left path once more. Again and again as they had to choose paths Hermione guided them as best she could.
"Shouldn't we have encountered something by now?" Harry finally asked Fleur when they still had not encountered an obstacle.
"I would 'ave thought so. Maybe zey all wandered out of zese paths or we're going toward a dead end zat doesn't need to be protected," Fleur shrugged. "Or maybe ze real challenge was our nerves and zere are no obstacles."
"That's not likely," Harry muttered.
"You need to go to your right more," Hermione said. "You're going away from the center."
A short distance away they found a right turn and took it, but still there was nothing. No creatures, no spells, not even a garden spider (for those who have read my Champion's tale).
"I don't..." Harry started but stopped when the hedges shuffled behind them. Harry and Fleur spun quickly and crouched low with their wands raised. As they had practiced, Harry kept his wand lit while Fleur had a defensive spell ready on her tongue. Again the leaves of the hedges moved.
"What do you think," Harry asked, but just as he finished, a person raced out of another path. In Harry's wandlight, they could see it was Cedric. Smoke was rising from his robes as if they had been ignited and then extinguished.
"Hagrid's skrewts," Cedric exclaimed when he saw them. He glanced over his shoulder and then back at them; the danger he had just faced was clearly evident in his eyes. "They're huge now. Hexes just bounced off of it. I barely got away. I wouldn't go that way if I were you." He nodded back up the path he'd just come from. With another glance over his shoulder, he turned and bolted up another path.
"So it's not just our nerves," Fleur said. "Guess we've just got lucky so far."
Harry didn't reply, but only gripped his wand tighter as they continued along the way they had been traveling. Fleur led the way around another corner and came to a stop.
"What?" Harry asked but was already looking past his bond mate. He was first confused because he only saw a doppleganger of himself. Another Harry Potter, one with a cold hard look residing on it's face was staring back at them.
"Boggart!" Fleur exclaimed.
Harry only spent a second trying to figure out why something about himself would be Fleur's greatest fear, before he yelled "NO!" and raced past her. The Boggart slowly changed from Harry into a Dementor.
When Lupin had suggested the possibility of Boggarts in the maze, Harry already knew what his would turn into. The trick was imagining something that would make it funny. It was Sirius who made the suggestion. Bringing the image up in his mind he leveled his wand "Riddikulus!" Harry shouted. The Dementor in front of him found itself with three cigarettes between his bony fingers and he was reading an adult magazine. Even Fleur couldn't help but laugh at the image. With a crack the Boggart was gone.
"Thank you." Fleur said to her bond mate. "but.."
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