Pre-Chapter A/N: More chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
The length of polished wood slammed into my palm in one of the most reassuring feelings known to wizardkind. I briefly considered my options before deciding that searching the forest for Fleur would be a waste of time. So, I shot into the air at full speed, feeling the winds roar past my body with how fast I was moving. I had to weave and duck my way through the foliage that made up the canopy of the Forbidden Forest before I found myself in the open sky. And then I jetted off to the castle even faster than I had accelerated upwards.
It took me a matter of minutes to arrive at the Castle's massive door, only to find it barred to me. I searched along its surface for a few seconds before I found a groove where a key ought to go. Turning around, it was only then I noticed that the pebbles and sand that made up the grounds around the entrance had been replaced with keys. There were thousands of them, easily.
"Accio key," I said, and it was only my quick reflexes that saved me as every key rose up at once and began heading my way. I banished them with another wave of my wand, sending them flying backward and disturbing their arrangement in one fell swoop. If there had been some sort of clue there, then that was ruined.
I turned back to the door again, trying the handle and finding that it did not give. Next, I turned to the keyhole and tried it again with even more force. A bust. It was still locked and barred. I turned my attention to the keyhole next. It was made for a flat key, at least half again as wide as my pinky. That meant all the pinhole keys were disqualified. But was I really going to search for the right one by sorting through this mess? There had to be another way.
"Accio Hogwarts Key," I said, and just like before, every key seemed determined to heed my summons as quickly as possible. But then that gave me another idea as I banished them away again. The keys were responding to summoning charms, but one common thread we'd seen with this whole competition was how good the anti-summoning enchantments could be. So why were these keys responding to my summoning charms? Because they weren't spelled against summoning. Perhaps for this very reason. But what were the chances that this stage would have the right key open to being summoned? I felt it was unlikely, and if there was one thing I had learned about this world, it was that feelings were everything when it came to magic.
So I pulled at my magic and cast another summoning charm. Once again, all the keys rose as one and swarmed me. Instead of just banishing them to where they had been before, I overpowered the banishing charm and sent them flying off into the distance. On the floor, there was a single glint of silver. One lonely key that had not been affected by either my summoning or banishing spells sat there unmolested. I reached forward and picked it up, bending over. I turned to the door, and as I did so, I got another feeling: a niggle with my passive legilimency.
"I know you're here, Fleur. Your disillusionment is good but far from perfect," I said, with a haughty smirk that I knew she would have no choice but to respond to.
And I was right. In a flash of motion, she appeared right in front of me like the world had parted like some sort of veil in reality.
"My disillusionment is perfect, Monsieur Potter," she said with a scrunched nose. I smiled.
"Yes, it is, but yet I noticed you."
"Yet you noticed me indeed. I'll have the truth of how you did right after I have that key, Arry."
"You'd have to duel me for it, beautiful lady," I said, spinning my wand in my grip and practically daring her to send the first spell my way.
She made to say something but thought better of it, her hand moving to her own wand before she gave up, instead squeezing it in her grip.
"Yeah, I figured you wouldn't want to go that route," I said. We knew who the better duelist was between the two of us; there was no doubt about it.
"Just open the door, Arry."
"Nuh-uh. You have something I want, and I have something you want. That door is warded to resist anything you could send at it and is the only way into the castle. If you don't give me the clue for the second task, then I won't open the door and we all find ourselves stopped here," I said, lying through my teeth. I knew the door was reasonably warded, but I had no idea if it was the only means into the castle. It was just the most obvious one. I just had to sell that I knew more than I really did.
"I could just wait for Krum and Diggory. I reckon we'd have no trouble getting the key from you, three against one."
"You really don't think that, do you?" I asked, smirk widened.
"You can't beat the three of us," she said.
"Want to test that?" I asked, smirk widening. She sighed like she was dealing with a particularly annoying child before she pivoted.
"Let's make a deal, 'Arry'." She capitulated quicker than I expected. The urgency was probably at least partly inspired by the fact that Krum was definitely on her mind. While the Bulgarian was no threat to me, he was a massive one to her.
"Yeah, simple enough. You tell me the second clue and I open the door for both of us. Tick-Tock, Krum won't have much trouble with those Acromantula, we know," I said. Internally, I winced as I remembered that we weren't just three champions. I'd disregarded Cedric just as surely as the others had. What a pity.
"How about I lead you to the second coin after you open the door?" she said. I almost laughed. Was that the best she could do?
"No deal. You could just as easily get lost once the door is opened and ditch me," I refuted her attempt easily.
"You have to trust me. I mean, it's not like you can do anything to stop me from lying to you about what the clue is," she said. I shrugged instead.
"You'd better tell the truth then, because if I feel you've lied, I'll turn this key into slag," I said, looking her in the eyes to drive home how serious I was being.
"You're mad. You'd lose same as me," she said.
"Sure. But then I'd lose on my own terms. Look me in the eyes, Fleur. You know I will," I said, sending her the feeling that I was being completely honest through the small amount of legilimency her defenses were allowing me to bring to bear on someone of her species.
"Damn it, Arry," she said, and I smiled.
"Want to test me and see? If I even sense a drop of dishonesty, or think I've sensed a drop of dishonesty, then this competition ends here. Instead of being the first Triwizard winner in centuries, you'll be part of the first set of champions that didn't even manage to choose a winner despite no one dying. Still historic, but much less glorious," I said with a smirk, and she growled in response before resignation took over her appearance and she sighed instead.
"The clue said the coin will be found where the sausage is made, where Hogwarts' truest helpers rest their heads," she said, and I looked her in the eyes, considering the key for a second.
"It was the truth, I swear it," she said next, and I still remained silent for a few seconds before I saw her begin to move towards her wand.
"Fine, I believe you," I said, and she breathed a sigh of relief as I walked forward and shoved the key into the door. The lock presented no resistance as I turned it twice, each turn accompanied by a click. When I was done, the key disappeared, and the door swung open. I bolted through, Fleur mere seconds later, before the door swung itself shut once more.
"So, see you later," I said, bolting up the stairs at my full speed before taking a sharp turn left and dashing into a secret passage that cut the time between this part of the castle and the other in half. I ran the whole distance. The clue was an obvious one once again. "Where the sausage gets made, where Hogwarts' truest helpers rest their heads," the answer was clear.
"Ouuuu, Itsy bitty Potter has come to play," a voice said in front of me as I dashed out of the passageway. Hogwarts' resident poltergeist looked at me with visible menace in its eyes.
"Peeves," I hissed.
The poltergeist floated above the ground, visible menace on its clown face as it waited almost patiently. By its side floated so many water balloons that it was difficult to count their total. He had been waiting for me, there was no doubt about that.
"What do you want?" I asked in a whisper, calculating and considering the spells I could use against a creature like this one. A fair amount of them were darker than I was comfortable even incanting within Hogwarts' wards, and a good portion were unlikely to work against a creature with his…unique constitution.
"Ickle Potty has been trawling about the castle, all sneaky-hidy-like. Hiding from Peeves' mischief and getting up to his own. Itsy-bitsy Potter climbed up the waterfall, itsy-bitsy Potter ran into Peeves on the castle wall, itsy-bitsy Potter goes SPLAT!" He screamed the last word, and then with a wave of its hands, dozens of the water balloons flew straight at me. With a wave of my wand, I banished them back at the mischievous creature, but they just phased through him as he made himself incorporeal for a second. Then he snapped his fingers.
"Peeves has been learning new tricks to deal with nasty little Potter and his mischief," the poltergeist said, and that was when I noticed that there were more suits of armour in this hallway than there should have been. Just as they all came to life, bringing their weapons to bear.
'Confringo,' I mentally incanted, turning to my left, only for the one I aimed at to bring its shield between itself and the curse, and send the curse right back in my direction. I ducked; the curse hit the top of the passageway door behind me, triggering a small cave-in and forcing me to roll forwards to avoid the falling stone and debris from hurting me. Of course, rolling forward brought me even closer to the suits of armour.
"Is Itsy-Bitsy Potter about to go splat?" Peeves asked, turning to my floating recording device. He seemed to be doing his best impression of a presenter of some sort as one of the suits of armor stepped next to me and prepared to smash me back into the ground with its mace. As it lifted the mace up to begin its swing, I shot upwards after it.
My wand was shoved right in its helmet, and this time my blasting curse connected quite solidly. Of course, I hadn't thought that one through, so irritated at being stopped by this silly poltergeist of all things, and got sent backward from the backlash of my own spell. A hasty spell slowed down my speed and allowed me to land softly against the caved-in remains of the passageway I'd used to get here. With a growl, I flicked my wand, and the approaching suits of armour were beset upon by a dozen dogs, each one of them a perfect mimicry of Sirius's animagus form. I'd seen Padfoot enough times that when I tried a quick transfiguration like that, he was the first image to come to mind.
"Itsy-bitsy Potter thinks he can ruin Peeves' funny time. Nuh-uh," the poltergeist said, and snapped its fingers again. My dogs that had been doing an admirable job of delaying the knights suddenly glowed a sickly green and turned about, shooting in my direction. What the heck?
I scowled and with a thought, fire bloomed into being. I incinerated my own creations before they could get more than a few steps close to me. I turned to the ghost and fired a spell that just passed through its incorporeal form.
"Nuh-uh, itsy-bitsy Potter. No cheating. Play Peeves' game," he sang, floating about to a different end of the hallway. At those words, the knights began to approach again. I mentally took stock of what I had to keep track of. Peeves had some of his water balloons left, and if Tom Riddle's memories were anything to go by, then those balloons could be filled with anything from water to acid. Then there were the suits of armour. Their weapons could cause massive damage. And then there were those shields, spelled to reflect magic. It was a stroke of genius by the organizers, I had to admit it.
Recruiting the Poltergeist to do their dirty work wasn't a bad idea. The only issue with that was that there was only a single Peeves, and if he was here with me, then the other Champions were guaranteed to be having an easier time than I was. That caused some irritation to bubble up in my stomach, but when did I lament silly things like fairness and the odds? I am Doom. I am the difference maker, the tipping point, the final boss.
This—this silly ghost was nothing but a distraction. I slashed my wand from one side to another and brought a storm of wind into being that pushed all the knights to my left backward a few steps at a time until I roared and brought even more of my magic to bear. Then they were flying down the hallway, off into the distance. For the next set, the ones to my right, I turned the ground beneath them into quicksand with a single transfiguration.
And then with a twirl of my wand, I brought the black flames of House Black to bear, focusing my wrath, hatred, and desire for the things that stood in my path to just stop existing. It went for the Knights, and just as expected, Peeves moved in their direction to stop the spell, and I took my chance, nailing him with a spell that passed through him. The poltergeist turned in my direction to gloat and never managed to react as the black flames stopped heading towards the Knight and looped back in his direction. He noticed, of course, but instead of dodging, he tried to turn incorporeal, and his scream brought pleasure to my ears as he shot backward.
The creature did not even turn around as it fled the hallway, the knights falling, the suits of armour losing their animation as he fled. Good riddance, I thought.
I turned into the hallway, beginning to make my way to the kitchens. From here, it was about a five-minute walk as I travelled the castle's back-and-out-of-the-way corridors. Of course, I could not help but notice how things were different. The portraits were alive with a sort of enthusiasm I hadn't ever seen them exhibit. They scurried about from frame to frame, watching me travel through the castle and whispering to themselves. If my instincts were right, then they were probably keeping track of the other champions just as thoroughly, and it was not until I spotted a familiar armoured man dash through a painting of a farm into another one that had a woman seated in front of a grand piano.
"Sir Cadogan. Sir," I called his attention, turning to him. But it was like he could not hear me. No matter how much I shouted his name, he did not respond. He did not even react like he could hear anyone calling my name. And perhaps most damning was the fact that none of the other portraits could hear me either. And trust me, I tried.
It was probably some alteration to the castle's wards to prevent the champions from being able to interact with the portraits and getting an unfair advantage through that. Still, it was annoying as all hell. But admittedly less annoying than it would have been if Fleur or Krum could just give their clues to portraits and find their way to the Kitchens with little effort. That would have sucked—especially with Peeves having done his level best to waste as much of my time as possible.
I turned the next corner and was stopped with a rattling sound from one of the suits of armour that lined the walls. This was one of those random hallways that just happened to have close to twoscore suits along its wall.
The armour ripped itself open, and I was met with myself. Except that it was not me. Not truly me, at least. It looked just like I did, except that it had a pair of red, glaring eyes with yellow sclera. "Hello Harry. I am your Doom," the facsimile of me said with a cackle that turned into full-blown laughter. I diagnosed the creature for what it was in a matter of seconds. A boggart. I knew the right counterspell, but as I watched my body be stricken by laughter from something that was clearly not funny, I felt rage replace reason. This was a version of me that had lost control, fallen prey to the madness within.
My wand tore through the air, and instead of the transformative counter-curse, it was black flames that I called into being. Flames that devoured the creature whole in a matter of seconds. I could taste its fear, its pain, its despair in the air as it screamed its last act in this world.
A/N: And so we've got the next part of the third task. Next three chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)(same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.