All three teams had been thoroughly, brutally put through their paces in their respective trial chambers.
This time, notably, none of them rushed headlong back inside to seize whatever advantage speed might offer. Instead, they each warmed themselves by breaking Redstones and gathered to rest near the massive block of ice, catching their breath.
"Can someone please tell me what happened to you all in there?" Fleur asked, her curiosity was overflowing as she looked around at the silent group with searching eyes. "You all look like you've been through hell."
"It's a long story, Fleur," Viktor shook his head slowly, his manner was strange and withdrawn. He glanced at her briefly, a flicker of hesitation crossing his face, before his dark gaze dropped back to the ground as though the snow at his feet held great interest.
Driven by some unspoken, collective instinct, no one shared what their specific group had encountered inside their chamber. Even so, they could all tell from the varying types of damage visible on each team that the challenges had been different for each group, and that none of them had been easy to overcome.
Hermione sat on a cold stone near the ice block, chin resting thoughtfully in her hand, eyes distant and unfocused, lost in thought. As the minutes passed in relative silence, broken only by wind and the occasional cough, a gradual light began to kindle in her brown eyes.
"Come on, Harry—let's go back in!" She suddenly sprang to her feet completely ignoring the curious stares of the others watching her, and pulled Harry back toward their chamber entrance by his sleeve.
Viktor and Cedric exchanged a significant look across the space. Then they too rose silently and strode toward their own chosen passages.
Once again, Harry and Hermione stood inside the ancient Greek-style dueling arena, swept through constantly by swirling snow and howling wind that never seemed to cease.
"Oh!" Harry scanned the arena floor with wide eyes and immediately let out a startled sound of surprise.
The ice floor, which had been riddled with deep craters from the Guardian's stone projectiles during their last attempt, had been restored completely to a flawless, mirror-smooth sheen. The ground that the Stone Guardian had torn open and destroyed was whole again as though nothing had ever happened.
"It seems as though everything resets automatically to its original state the moment a challenger leaves the chamber," Hermione observed with interest.
Harry nodded, then asked, "You've thought of a way to deal with it, haven't you, Hermione?"
"I have a few ideas," she said, brushing a loose curl from her face with one hand, her expression was turning serious and focused. "Based on what we learned from our failed first attempt, we can draw some useful tactical conclusions about the Guardian's behavior and limitations."
She raised one finger like a professor giving a lecture.
"First—the two Stone Guardians are essentially immovable, rooted to their positions. They won't chase us or leave their designated spots. I think Professor Watson arranged it that way deliberately, to reduce the difficulty somewhat and make this trial actually solvable."
'Reduce the difficulty,' Harry thought with some irony, though he said nothing aloud and simply nodded along.
"Second—whichever one of us attacks a Guardian first, it will focus its attacks exclusively on that person until someone else damages it." She raised a second finger. "My guess is that it won't switch targets unless a different person deals actual damage to it. It's locked onto whoever hit it last."
Harry pushed aside his scattered thoughts about their near-death experience and met her eyes with focused attention, listening intently.
"What else, Hermione?"
"The third point is more of a working theory that needs testing," she said as a keen light flashed through her clear eyes.
"You noticed, didn't you, Harry? After the Guardian awoke and became active, it attacked exactly four times in sequence. It fired three separate rounds of stone projectiles, and when those had no effect on driving us away, it moved on to a different tactic—tearing up the ground and tossing massive chunks of ice at us."
Harry listened, completely engrossed now, his mind was racing ahead to see where she was going with this.
"What does that tell us?" Hermione asked rhetorically.
"If the Guardian's attack pattern only has two distinct modes—projectiles and ice blocks," Hermione continued, drawing a slow breath that misted visibly in the air,
"and if it always follows a fixed, predictable sequence rather than adapting dynamically, then that means we can anticipate its attacks with certainty, doesn't it? And if we can anticipate them reliably, predict exactly what's coming and when, we have a real, genuine chance of defeating it."
Harry's lips parted slightly in understanding. He was quiet for a few seconds, processing, then nodded slowly.
His voice was low and steady when he spoke. "Knowing the enemy's attack pattern definitely gives us an edge, you're right. I noticed something too—the interval between each stone projectile volley was about five seconds."
"Exactly! And the projectiles don't track us or adjust their trajectory mid-flight—they only go where they're initially aimed!" Hermione's voice rang with excitement and certainty.
"As long as we time our movements right and understand the pattern, we can dodge them every single time! It's just mathematics and timing!"
"There's still one significant problem, though," Harry said more cautiously, bringing them back to reality.
He tapped his spiked foot against the ice meaningfully. "We can walk on it now without slipping. But this surface still severely limits our mobility and speed."
"Which is exactly why I'm not planning to fight it on the arena floor at all," Hermione announced, her eyes were lighting up with the thrill of having solved the puzzle.
She pointed to the surrounding walls which rose easily thirty feet high.
"We fight from the top of the wall!!"
'From the top of the wall?!' Harry's eyebrows shot up in complete astonishment. That was... actually brilliant.
"Think about it carefully, Harry," Hermione said, turning to face the stone barrier behind her and gesturing up at it.
"The walls are significantly taller than the Guardians by at least ten feet. So, in theory, when the Guardians launch their stone projectiles in those flat trajectories we saw, all we have to do is lie completely flat behind the wall's edge and the volleys can't reach us at all! The wall becomes our shield!"
"You're absolutely right!" Harry turned the strategy over rapidly in his mind, examining it from every angle, and the surprise on his face gave way to a broad, bright grin of excitement.
"You're a genius, Hermione. What are we waiting for? Let's get that key!"
The two of them moved immediately, energized by having an actual plan.
Inside the circular dueling arena, the two Stone Guardians stood like silent sentinels on opposite sides of the central axis. Harry and Hermione made their way carefully to the right Guardian again positioning themselves at the far end of the right half of the arena.
Scaling the thirty-foot wall was no small feat, requiring careful use of climbing charms and levitation. But they managed it, pulling themselves up and over onto the stone steps of the seating area.
The wall's edge was roughly five or six feet from the nearest stone step of the spectator seats. Harry studied carefully the angle at which the Guardian had raised its arm to fire during their previous encounter, working out the geometry in his head.
If they stayed close to the first row of seats, pressed against that back wall, they could avoid the projectile volleys entirely by simply lying down.
With the stone projectiles no longer an existential threat to worry about, they didn't need to stand together for mutual protection. They spread out several meters apart, forming a wide angle with the Guardian between them in a loose tactical arc.
"Ready, Hermione? I'm pulling its aggro!" Harry shouted across the arena, using the gaming terminology Professor Watson had taught them in tactical training.
After hearing her answering shout of affirmation, he drew a deep breath and held it, steadying his nerves.
Whoosh—CRACK!
This time, Harry led his opening attack with a powerful Levitation Charm rather than a direct curse, driving a small stone he'd picked up deep into one of the Guardian's glowing eye sockets. If that left the creature unable to aim its projectiles accurately, so much the better.
ROAR!
The thunderous, earth-shaking roar sent a powerful gust of wind crashing over them as expected, right on schedule. But it caused neither of them any real trouble this time. They were prepared. They simply leaned aside and let the shockwave pass over and around them harmlessly.
Here it comes, Harry thought, his heart rate was accelerating.
After another furious roar, the Guardian's pattern holding exactly as Hermione predicted, the creature raised its massive arm and a deep amber glow began to pulse across its stone surface, building intensity.
Harry's heart leapt in his chest. He dropped flat immediately onto the stone steps, pressing his back against the cold rock, wand angled carefully over the edge of the wall toward the arena floor below for a clear shot.
Out of an abundance of caution, he threw up a magical shield as backup protection.
CRACK—CRACK—CRACK!
Dozens of fist-sized stone projectiles slammed violently against the wall's crest in a hammering barrage that sounded like artillery fire.
The air roared with shockwaves, loose debris and stone chips flew in every direction, and Harry could feel the steps shuddering beneath him as though struck by a earthquake. The impacts were tremendous, devastating. But—
We held.
The wall held.
Whoosh!
Through the obscuring cloud of dust and smoke that filled the air, a streak of vivid green fire arced up into the sky, the visual signal Hermione and Harry had agreed on beforehand to coordinate their attacks.
Hermione burst upright from her prone position and leveled her wand with steady hands at the Guardian below.
"Reductor!" she shouted.
The grey curse-light cut cleanly through the air and struck the Guardian's single support leg, that thick oval column of stone it stood upon. A substantial chunk of it cracked away with a satisfying sound, falling to the ice.
This will actually work, Hermione thought, her spirits soaring with hope.
Each individual hit didn't deal massive damage, wasn't devastating on its own. But the spell's magical cost was low and sustainable. Chip away long enough, steadily and patiently, and they could bring the entire thing down.
Just as Hermione had predicted with her analysis, the moment she struck the Guardian and dealt damage, it abandoned Harry completely without hesitation.
With grinding, lurching movements that sounded like millstones turning, it rotated its massive body toward her new position, both arms already beginning to glow with bright amber light as it prepared its next volley.
Five—four—three—two—one!
Harry counted down internally, timing it perfectly.
A cloud of dust and debris swallowed Hermione's position completely as the projectiles hammered the wall where she'd been standing. In that same precious instant, Harry seized the opening and launched himself up like a spring releasing.
He grabbed the loose rubble littering the ground around him and put it to work.
In the space of those five seconds while the Guardian was locked into its attack animation, the stone column supporting the Guardian had been worn down by another visible layer, thanks to Harry's relentless Levitation Charms sending chunk after chunk of stone slamming into the leg.
The third wave of projectiles followed close behind on schedule. Harry flung himself flat again without hesitation, letting the stone rain clatter harmlessly past his protected position, while Hermione used the cover to press her own assault on the support leg with everything she had, spell after spell after spell.
ROAR!
The Guardian's attack pattern held absolutely true, fixed and predictable, just as they'd theorized.
Three volleys of projectiles spent according to its programming, the Guardian let out another earth-splitting roar that echoed off the walls. It drove both massive arms deep into the ice floor and wrenched free an enormous slab with tremendous strength.
By the rules of aggro they'd identified, this attack should be aimed at Hermione—the last person to damage it.
"Hermione!" Harry called out sharply, his voice was tight with tension and warning. "Big one coming!"
"I know! I see it!"
The great slab of ice, easily the size of a small house, arced up on a high parabolic trajectory. This attack, unlike the projectiles, could definitely reach them on the wall.
Hermione watched, forcing herself to remain calm and unflinching, as the Guardian slowly hefted the massive block and trained its glowing eyes directly on her position. Then—
Whooooom!
The air screamed, fiercer than any winter gale as the ice block flew.
Hermione locked her gaze on the Guardian's motion, reading its body language. The instant the ice left its grip and was committed to a trajectory, she sprinted hard to the right, legs pumping.
BOOM.
The impact rolled through the entire arena like summer thunder, shaking everything. The entire dueling floor shuddered violently.
"Hermione!" Harry shouted desperately into the wall of swirling ice crystals and dust blocking his view completely.
"I'm fine, Harry—keep going!" Her sharp voice pierced through the dense fog of ice and debris. "Don't stop!"
Harry's hammering heart steadied with relief. He returned immediately to the work of destroying the support column, spell after spell.
BOOM—BOOM.
Two more ice-hurling attacks followed in quick series. The heavy blocks caved in an entire corner of the sturdy wall, and a shower of stone shards rained down on both of them. Harry and Hermione each took a few hits.
But in the end, they came through unscathed.
Then the clumsy Guardian, following its rigid programming, reset its pattern and resumed firing stone projectiles from the beginning of its sequence.
CRACK—CRASH!
Round after round, attack after attack. They fell into a rhythm now—dodge, attack, dodge, attack.
After four complete cycles of the pattern, the support column now riddled with cracks, whittled dangerously thin by their relentless assault could no longer bear the Guardian's immense weight.
The Guardian let out one last, furious roar.
Harry and Hermione watched, breathless and frozen, as the towering stone figure began to tilt. Slowly at first, almost gracefully, then all at once.
It crashed to the ice-covered ground with a tremendous boom that echoed like thunder. Under the crushing force of its own massive weight and the violent impact of the fall, it shattered completely, crumbling into a scattered field of rubble both large and small.
Silence.
One second passed. Two seconds. Three seconds.
Harry and Hermione stared at each other across the arena.
Then they both erupted simultaneously into a triumphant cheer of joy and relief.
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