Suddenly, a piercing scream tore through the silent maze—a girl's cry, shrill as an owl's screech slicing through the night sky.
"Fleur?" Harry called out. But there was no answer.
"Professor, can you see what's happening with Fleur?" Orli asked, worry creeping into her voice.
Snape shook his head silently, gesturing for her to keep watching.
In the mirror, Harry ran several steps toward where the scream had come from and discovered a strange golden mist floating ahead of him.
"Avery. You can eliminate all living obstacles, but you can't handle the mechanical traps, can you?" Snape sneered at the mirror.
"Or perhaps you're too busy dealing with the other champions to manage everything at once?"
Harry approached cautiously and cast a Blasting Curse at the golden mist, but the spell passed straight through without any effect whatsoever.
"Heh." Snape let out a derisive snort. The Blasting Curse was designed for solid obstacles; Harry's attempt was a complete waste of time.
"This is the combined effect of several Confundus Charms," Snape explained to Orli.
"Breaking through requires time, but the fastest method is to charge straight through and overcome whatever illusions you encounter."
In the mirror, Harry hesitated for a moment, then took a deep breath and plunged into the enchanted mist. Orli couldn't see what he was experiencing, but his entire body seemed frozen within the fog. Then, squeezing his eyes shut as if summoning tremendous effort, he managed to move his right leg forward one step—finally emerging from the golden mist. Harry collapsed to his knees, gasping deeply before scrambling up to continue running. Behind him, the mist shimmered with ethereal light in the moonlight.
He began wandering aimlessly through the maze again. For ten minutes he encountered nothing—just dead ends, twice taking the same wrong turn. The mirror showed no other movement, no red sparks shooting skyward. What had happened to Fleur... Orli wondered. Perhaps she'd already been eliminated—hopefully Professor McGonagall and the others would rescue her quickly.
In the mirror, Harry finally found a new path and began jogging along it. At least from Harry's perspective, the task was mind-numbingly dull so far. His wand's light flickered, casting distorted shadows that danced across the hedges. He rounded another corner—and this time came face-to-face with a Blast-Ended Skrewt.
Cedric hadn't been exaggerating—it was enormous. Ten feet long, resembling a giant scorpion with its long stinger curled over its back. Thick armor plating gleamed in Harry's wandlight as he aimed his wand at the creature.
"Stupefy!"
The spell ricocheted off the Skrewt's armor and nearly took Harry's head off—he ducked just in time, but it singed the top of his hair. The Skrewt blasted a jet of fire from its tail and lunged forward.
"Professor?!" Orli cried out, panic rising in her voice.
"Not yet," Snape said grimly.
"The moment we enter that maze, Hogwarts will be immediately disqualified for cheating."
"Impedimenta!" Harry shouted in the mirror. The spell bounced off the Skrewt's armor again. Harry stumbled backward and fell to the ground.
"Impedimenta!"
This time the Skrewt froze just inches away from him—he'd hit its unarmored belly. Gasping for breath, Harry scrambled to his feet and sprinted in the opposite direction. The Impediment Jinx wouldn't last long; the creature could resume moving at any moment.
He took the left path—a dead end. Tried the right—another dead end. Forced to stop, he used the Point Me spell again, then backtracked and chose a path leading northwest.
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