"It doesn't seem so difficult after all, does it?" Fleur held out that sphere of brilliant crimson light before the group with a triumphant smile that lit up her entire face, and Hermione's face flushed a deep, mortified red at the sight.
"Indeed—" Cedric nodded earnestly, his expression was thoughtful and understanding. "It appears this was the back door Professor Watson deliberately left for us. He never intended for us to clash directly with the giant stone golems in combat."
"We've been tricked again," Harry said with a note of frustration mixed with admiration, shaking his head.
By this point in the competition, much of what they'd faced had tested their wit and flexibility of thought rather than their combat prowess or raw magical power. It was almost becoming a pattern.
"Let's go!" Luna seized Hermione's hand suddenly as Hermione stared at her own self-doubts, speaking with cheerful optimism. "Let's retrieve the key! No point dwelling on it!"
"Finally, another challenge down," Harry said, sliding his wand back into his sleeve with a long, relieved exhale that misted in the cold air. "One step closer."
Fleur, to her credit, made no further comments about Hermione's "clumsy" overcomplicated method, showing unexpected tact. Instead, she walked briskly alongside the group as they left the Trial Chamber through the transport door, the crimson sphere was floating along with her like a tame pet.
"Hurry, let's see if this will work!" The group jogged eagerly toward the massive ice-blue crystalline barrier that dominated the center area, and Cedric watched Fleur's crimson sphere with eager anticipation dancing in his eyes. "Finally, we can claim the key!"
"But what exactly should I do with it?" Fleur asked uncertainly, looking between the glowing sphere hovering above her palm and the towering ice block.
"Perhaps if you let the light make contact with the ice, it will activate," suggested Viktor, who had just demonstrated his own considerable intellectual prowess with the golem solution and was riding high on that success.
Fleur followed his suggestion without hesitation. Under the tense, barely-breathing gaze of everyone present, she slowly brought the crimson sphere toward the ice block's smooth surface.
SHHHZZZT!
The moment the red sphere made contact with the ice, the light was absorbed into it instantly, disappearing like water soaking into sand!
HISSS...
Before their delighted, widening eyes, white vapor began to rise dramatically from the seemingly indestructible ice block. Clouds of mist wafted up. The thick crystalline barrier melted at a visible rate, water running down its sides in rivulets!
Hope surged through the group like electricity.
However...
"What's happening?" Harry clenched his fist in frustration and struck the now-smaller ice block forcefully with the side of his hand, yet it didn't budge even slightly.
As the ice stopped melting abruptly and remained stubbornly sealed around the key visible at its center—tantalizingly close but unreachable. the joy on everyone's faces froze and then crumbled like the ice they'd hoped would disappear.
"I see," Cedric's expression fell, understanding with crushing disappointment. "One sphere of light isn't enough power to melt it completely. We can't cut corners or take shortcuts, we have to complete the challenges in all four Trial Chambers. All of them."
"If we..." Viktor furrowed his thick brow, looking back toward the stone door of the arena Chamber they had just conquered so cleverly.
"You mean to suggest we go back and fight the stone golems again, hoping to get another sphere of light from a repeat victory?" Harry quickly grasped Viktor's meaning. "It is worth a try."
"But this kind of loophole..." Cedric hesitated.
"Regardless, we should try it," Viktor said firmly, jaw set with determination. Then he turned toward Fleur with a questioning look. "I can accompany you if you'd like to test it out, Fleur."
"I'm willing to give it a shot, Viktor," Fleur replied casually, shrugging with nonchalance.
Once they understood the trick, dealing with two stone golems was almost effortless. In under three minutes of coordination, they emerged from the arena carrying an identical crimson sphere, both looking pleased with themselves.
Unfortunately, when they offered this second red sphere to the ice block with hopeful expressions, nothing changed at all. The sphere made contact, was absorbed, and... nothing. The ice remained exactly as it was.
"Well, that didn't work," Viktor conceded with a heavy sigh, accepting defeat gracefully. "I suppose we have no other choice then. We do this the hard way."
Five long, grueling hours had already passed since the competition began, testing their endurance severely. Everyone was exhausted to their absolute limits, running on adrenaline and determination.
The champions realized with sinking clarity that the lengthy competition itself served as its own brutal trial of their perseverance and mental fortitude.
"So then," Harry looked between Viktor and Cedric, his face showing the weariness they all felt, "what comes next? Which challenge?"
"Let's head to my Chamber," Viktor suggested without hesitation. "With six of us working together now instead of me alone, things should become somewhat easier."
All the champions wanted desperately to finish this ordeal as quickly as possible and finally rest. And since dealing with the stone golems had required no real physical exertion or magical drain, the large group quickly rushed back into Viktor's snowy mountain environment.
Standing in the open plaza beneath the raised stone platform where the lighthouse stood like a sentinel, the group carefully surveyed their surroundings assessing the battlefield.
Three winding pathways spread out before them like spokes on a wheel, disappearing into the blizzard. Had their teams been all at full strength, they could have stationed one or even two people to defend each path comfortably.
"At the start of my first attempt, there were three house-elves," Viktor explained to the others, his voice carrying the frustration of repeated failure.
"They appeared from one pathway together, and once I understood what I needed to do, I disposed of them relatively easily with just basic stunning spells. But then a few seconds later, goblins appeared on a different path. Since they came from different directions simultaneously, I had more trouble managing them. I couldn't eliminate them all before they damaged the lighthouse.
Of course, that was just the beginning."
Viktor's voice carried obvious frustration and residual stress. "On the third wave, centaurs appeared on the final path. They never approached the lighthouse directly like the others, instead standing at a distance and using ice arrows, forcing me to move closer to defeat them and leave the lighthouse exposed. During my previous attempts, the lighthouse had always taken some damage by this point. But when the fourth wave came—"
Viktor paused, his jaw was clenching at the memory.
"House-elves, goblins, centaurs, werewolves, vampires, even dragons—well, of course, they weren't real dragons, just ice sculptures roughly the size of house-elves.
But suddenly their numbers exploded—dozens of them at least, maybe more. I lost count. They scattered all over the field in chaos, coming from every direction, completely overwhelming me. A single coordinated attack from them could shatter the lighthouse completely!"
Harry studied the three pathways carefully, his green eyes were moving along their lengths, observing where they met the plaza and noting the terrain. The passage entrances were flanked by steep rocky slopes covered in jagged stone formations and ice. His gaze lingered thoughtfully on the frozen trees surrounding the area.
"What if we created barriers to physically block some of the pathways?" Harry suggested, thinking of castle sieges. "Force them all down one route?"
"It won't work," Viktor said helplessly, shaking his head.
"I already tried exactly that in my second attempt. The ice creatures just climb over the slopes and charge into the plaza anyway from unexpected angles. It just creates problems for the defender. When the pathways are open and clear, at least the creatures bunch together as they enter, making them easier to attack with area spells.
If I block the entrances, they scatter everywhere and climb indiscriminately over obstacles. Besides, I should mention that digging pit traps in the ground doesn't work either—they simply navigate around them like they can see underground."
Fleur paced around the stone platform thoughtfully, examining it from every angle.
"It seems this challenge has no real shortcuts or clever tricks," she observed. "Well... how long do you think the candle will burn? That's our time limit, yes?"
"It shouldn't exceed ten minutes based on the thickness," Hermione said with absolute certainty.
Seeing the surprised looks from everyone saying: how could she possibly know that?
Hermione continued casually, as though it were obvious, "It's simple to judge, really. The red mist that keeps us warm only has a ten-minute effective duration before wearing off. Professor Watson designs everything to connect. If the candle burned longer than ten minutes, we'd freeze to death before completing the challenge. Therefore, it must burn for ten minutes or less."
"Then why are we waiting and wasting time?" Fleur asked eagerly, vibrating with impatient energy. "We should start immediately! The sooner we begin, the sooner we finish!"
Despite her enthusiasm and eagerness to dive in, they still took some time to coordinate their tactics properly. Rushing in without a plan would be suicide.
In this regard, Viktor and Fleur clearly couldn't compare to the four Hogwarts students who had spent over a full year absorbing Professor Watson's intensive tactical and strategic teachings.
After a brief intense discussion among Hermione and the other three Hogwarts champions, their battle strategy appeared quickly, each person's role were becoming clear.
Fleur and Viktor took positions directly on the stone platform where the lighthouse stood, serving as the final defensive line and last resort. If anything got through, they would handle it.
Luna, having sustained significant injuries during the earlier forest battle against Slytherin, fell back to a secondary support role rather than frontline combat. She would move across the field freely to eliminate any enemies that broke through the main defensive lines.
Harry, Hermione, and Cedric each took responsibility for one pathway, determined to clear all incoming monsters before they could advance further toward the lighthouse.
Though Viktor had been clear and emphatic that blocking pathways and setting pit traps would prove to be ineffective, Hermione still found ways to provide tactical advantage through creative thinking.
BOOM!
A tall spruce tree was felled by a powerful cutting spell, crashing down into the snow with a tremendous sound.
Using additional cutting spells with precision, Hermione divided the thick trunk into segments of equal length, then carefully arranged these wooden posts at each pathway entrance, forming a funnel-shaped barrier that narrowed the approach.
"If completely blockading the entrances causes creatures to scatter and panic, then instead we'll create a controlled jam that slows them down without cutting off their passage entirely,"
Hermione explained her reasoning to the group watching her work. "This way they're delayed and forced into a tighter formation but stay orderly. And easier to hit with spells."
"Oh!" Cedric gave Hermione an enthusiastic thumbs up with both hands, his face was bright with admiration. "You're absolutely brilliant, Hermione! That's perfect!"
Hermione smiled modestly at the praise, though her cheeks colored slightly. Then she began helping Cedric and Harry construct similar barriers at their respective pathway entrances, working efficiently.
The preparation consumed several more minutes.
This meant the red mist energy surrounding them would no longer have sufficient reserves to sustain them through the upcoming ten-minute battle without replenishment.
However, if they all left the Trial Chamber simultaneously to replenish their protective energy, certain preparations they'd made would "reset" when the chamber reinitialized. All that work would be lost.
Hermione devised a solution to this problem.
One person would remain in the Trial Chamber holding the space while the others left together to replenish their energy with fresh red stones. Once the "main force" returned warmed and protected, the remaining person would leave to recharge separately while the others held position.
While this strategy didn't require great intellectual brilliance, the clear, systematic thinking behind it earned Hermione gushing praise from everyone else and helped restore morale.
It also restored the confidence that Hermione had felt badly shaken during the earlier encounters with the golems, when Viktor's simple solution had made her complex plan look foolish.
When Viktor came sprinting back to the stone platform at full speed after being the last to replenish, Hermione drew herself up, cleared her throat importantly, and called out with an imposing voice that echoed across the plaza,
"Release the monsters!"
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