(Gilderoy Lockhart)
With Ivan Karkaroff's magical signature completely absent from our crystal network, there was unfortunately very little we could do about him.
My magnificent invention had been designed to follow the champions through the maze, after all.
Not to track invisible people who had deliberately enchanted themselves to become invisible to magical scrying.
A rather irritating oversight.
I made a mental note to correct that in the next version.
For now, however, the audience had no choice but to watch Harry Potter.
Fortunately...
The boy was proving to be surprisingly entertaining.
The crystal sphere followed him as he navigated another corridor of the maze.
Harry moved cautiously, his wand held firmly in front of him.
When a faint shimmer appeared across the ground, he immediately stopped.
"Good," I muttered.
Harry crouched and examined the floor.
It was a trap.
Judging by the faint magical distortion, probably a triggered enchantment.
He cast several detection charms before carefully stepping around it.
The audience applauded.
"Excellent!"
Ludo Bagman immediately took over the commentary.
"And Potter has spotted another trap! What fantastic awareness from the young champion!"
Harry continued.
A few minutes later, he encountered another obstacle.
Then another.
A cursed vine.
A swarm of Cornish pixies.
A corridor that attempted to rearrange itself around him.
Harry dealt with each one.
Sometimes through clever spellwork, sometimes through brute force, and occasionally by simply running away.
I had to admit, the boy had improved considerably in the last few months.
When I first met Harry Potter, he had possessed plenty of raw talent but very little discipline.
He had been brave, certainly.
Perhaps even courageous to the point of recklessness.
But talent alone wasn't enough.
This task required knowledge, experience, and preparation.
And Harry had clearly spent a considerable amount of time preparing for this tournament.
I leaned back in my seat. "Not bad."
Tonks glanced toward me. "Not bad?"
I nodded solemnly. "Quite impressive, actually."
Harry had just blasted an enchanted plant into a dozen smoking pieces.
"He's talented."
Aurora smiled. "You're impressed."
"Naturally." I gestured toward the crystal.
"Look at him. He's already mastered several advanced defensive techniques, and his spellcasting is considerably more precise than it was a year ago."
Harry ducked beneath a curse coming from an enchanted mannequin before firing a stunning spell over his shoulder without even looking.
When the spell struck its target, the audience erupted in applause once more.
I raised an eyebrow. "Very good."
Rosmerta looked at me. "How good?"
I considered the question. "Perhaps half as good as I was at his age."
Tonks immediately snorted. "Only half?"
I looked offended. "Are you suggesting I am exaggerating?"
"Yes."
"That's hurtful." I placed a hand over my heart.
"Is it inaccurate?" She raised a brow.
I opened my mouth, then closed it.
Aurora laughed softly.
I pointed toward Harry. "Regardless, the boy has potential."
I watched as Harry carefully navigated another section of the maze.
"If he continues developing at this rate, he could become one of the greatest wizards of his generation."
I paused. "Perhaps even one of the greatest wizards in the world."
Tonks raised an eyebrow. "That's quite the compliment coming from you."
"I am capable of recognising talent other than my own."
"Sure you are..." Tonks said sarcastically.
"I do it all the time." I defended myself.
"Only when you're not busy admiring your reflection in a mirror, and that's hardly ever."
"Tonks." I pretended to be offended.
She grinned and stuck out her tongue.
I decided to ignore her.
Harry had just reached another junction and paused.
He looked left, then right, and cast a detection spell.
I smiled. "He's finally learning how to be cautious."
Aurora leaned closer to me. "It seems Miss Granger is quite a good influence on him."
I looked at her. "What makes you say that?"
Aurora gestured toward Harry. "Before they started dating, Harry never took his studies nearly this seriously."
I blinked. "...That's true."
I thought back to the Harry Potter I'd first encountered.
A bright young wizard, talented, but lacking direction.
Hermione Granger, meanwhile...
Well.
There was a reason teachers had always been fond of that particular girl.
She was frighteningly intelligent, extremely hardworking, and possessed the sort of determination that could probably move mountains if someone gave her enough time and books.
"Miss Granger has certainly had an effect on him."
Rosmerta smiled. "She's keeping him focused, they remind me so much of James and Lily."
"Indeed."
I watched Harry continue running deeper into the maze.
Then I frowned slightly. "Although..."
"What?"
I stroked my chin. "He's still far too reckless."
Tonks laughed. "He's a Gryffindor."
"That isn't an excuse for rushing headfirst."
"But it explains quite a lot." Aurora chuckled.
I couldn't argue with that.
Harry disappeared around another corner and the crystal shifted slightly to keep him in view.
I watched him carefully.
There was something different about the boy now.
He wasn't simply surviving like in the past.
He was adapting, learning, and growing stronger with every obstacle.
I smiled.
Perhaps I had underestimated him. Not his talent, since I'd always known he had that.
But his potential.
If he continued down this path...
One day, Harry Potter might truly become a remarkable wizard.
Of course...
He would still have a very long way to go before reaching my current level.
I leaned back comfortably. "Still..."
I smiled proudly. "Half as good as me isn't a bad starting point."
…
The deeper Harry ventured into the maze, the more difficult the obstacles became.
By now, even I had to admit that the boy was doing remarkably well.
He had overcome traps, magical creatures, cursed plants, and several enchantments specifically designed to confuse and disorient him.
Then...
Harry suddenly stopped.
The crystal sphere zoomed closer.
"What is that?" Bagman asked.
Harry stood at the entrance of a narrow corridor, and something was lying directly in his path.
The creature was enormous.
Harry raised his wand and approached slowly, every step cautious.
The audience leaned forward.
As Harry drew closer, the crystal sphere provided us with a clearer view.
The creature had the massive body of a lion, but instead of a lion's head, it had the face of a woman.
Several students immediately gasped. And for a brief moment, I thought the same thing.
"Another manticore?"
But Bagman's voice immediately corrected me. "And Potter encounters a sphinx!"
A murmur swept through the stadium.
"Ah." That made considerably more sense.
Sphinxes were rare, extremely rare.
And unlike manticores, they weren't generally interested in eating everyone they encountered.
The creature lay completely motionless.
Harry remained several metres away and waited for it to move.
But nothing happened, the sphinx didn't move a single muscle.
It didn't even seem to notice him.
Bagman sounded confused. "But... wait a moment."
He leaned toward the crystal sphere. "Why isn't it moving?"
Harry took another cautious step, but still nothing.
"Could it have fallen asleep?" Bagman asked in confusion.
The audience began whispering and Harry approached even closer.
He was now standing only a few feet away from the enormous creature.
His wand remained pointed directly at its head.
"Potter appears to be checking whether the sphinx is conscious," Bagman announced.
Harry slowly crouched, and then he frowned, something wasn't right.
He moved closer, and very carefully, he extended one hand.
The sphinx didn't react.
Harry's expression finally changed.
He stared at the creature for several seconds, and then he whispered. "It's dead."
The stadium fell silent.
I frowned.
Dead? I leaned forward in my seat.
That didn't make any sense.
Sphinxes were extraordinarily powerful magical creatures.
They didn't simply drop dead, not without a reason.
I watched the crystal sphere carefully.
There were no obvious wounds, no blood, no visible curse damage, nothing.
The creature simply appeared to have collapsed where it stood.
Aurora frowned beside me. "That's strange."
"Very." I narrowed my eyes.
Something about this situation felt incredibly wrong.
Bagman seemed to be thinking along similar lines. "But how could this have happened?"
He looked toward the other judges. "Did someone accidentally place a dead sphinx inside the maze?"
I shook my head. "No, that couldn't be it."
That would be absurd.
The maze had been inspected, and every creature had been accounted for.
More importantly...
I glanced toward the crystal sphere.
Harry was the only champion we could currently see.
Ivan Karkaroff had somehow vanished from our magical surveillance.
And that was the only possibility that bothered me.
My eyes narrowed.
There was another wizard inside the maze.
One who had deliberately concealed himself from our crystal network.
One who had already demonstrated considerable magical ability.
Ivan Karkaroff.
But...
I immediately dismissed the thought.
Surely not.
I looked at the enormous corpse again.
A sphinx was not an easy creature to kill. Even highly experienced wizards would have struggled against one.
It possessed immense physical strength, considerable magical resistance, and a mind capable of reasoning on the level of a human.
Killing one would require either overwhelming power...
Or exceptional preparation.
And Ivan Karkaroff was seventeen years old.
Seventeen.
He was talented, certainly.
Perhaps unusually so.
But killing a sphinx?
That seemed… Ridiculous.
Even for an exceptionally gifted young wizard.
"Could it have been poisoned?" Aurora asked.
I shook my head. "Perhaps."
I studied the creature. "But there's no visible sign."
Dumbledore had been silent throughout the discussion.
Now he leaned forward slightly. His blue eyes remained fixed on the crystal.
"Perhaps," he said quietly, "we should consider that the sphinx may not have died naturally."
I glanced at him. "That's precisely what concerns me."
Harry suddenly looked up.
His expression had changed.
He was staring at the corpse, then at the corridor beyond it.
He seemed to have realised something. The sphinx was blocking the only obvious path forward.
Which meant that someone had deliberately left it there.
Or...
Someone had killed it.
And if that was the case...
Then the question wasn't simply who had killed the sphinx.
It was why.
I watched Harry slowly raise his wand.
The atmosphere inside the stadium became noticeably tense.
For the first time since the Third Task had begun...
I had the distinct feeling that something was very, very wrong.
And somewhere inside that maze...
Ivan Karkaroff was still missing.
…