The morning of June 24th Harry was probably more nervous than he'd been the entire time he'd been back, including right after Pettigrew had made off with the diary. While Moody was still mysteriously Moody, Harry really didn't feel he'd done anything that could possibly affect Voldemort that much, especially as they'd only technically met the once.
Even though he still suspected that Voldemort might take advantage of all the publicity involved in the Third Task to start something – especially as from what he understood Voldemort had mostly just pretended he didn't exist for a year to try and get his hands on the prophecy, which wouldn't have been necessary had he died in the graveyard liked planned – he really didn't have much more of an idea about what was going to happen than anyone else. Harry thought he might know why things weren't playing out exactly like they were supposed to.
Peter Pettigrew was rotting in Azkaban and not off running into Bertha Jorkins and then Voldemort in Albania. What did that mean, though? Was Voldemort still in Albania? If he had gotten tired of waiting, was he back in Britain? Had he found any of his old followers? Was he planning anything?
Harry didn't know the answers to any of those questions but he wasn't about to take any chances. One thing he did know was that, even if it killed him, Cedric Diggory would live to see the 25th.
After breakfast, Harry followed the twins into the chamber off the Great Hall and wondered who, if anybody, would be there for him. Sirius would, of course, but Harry saw him all the time since they both lived at Hogwarts most of the year and the Weasleys would also be attending, but that was because the twins were competing.
"Wotcher, Harry," Tonks greeted him, answering his question. Remus was standing next to her.
"What are you guys doing here?" Harry asked, surprised.
"I'm Sirius's cousin so since you're his godson and he has custody of you, that practically makes us family," she announced.
"And I'm your back-up godfather," Remus explained.
Harry cocked his head. "Why would I need a back-up godfather?"
Remus looked a little awkward. "Your parents…they loved Sirius to death, believe me, but they didn't necessarily have as much faith that he would make it to thirty. He was rather reckless after all."
"Was not," Sirius denied. "And I seem to have made it to the ripe old age of thirty-four just fine."
"That's really not that old," Tonks interjected, glancing at Remus.
"It is for the next year or so," Sirius said sternly.
"How can you possibly say you're not reckless?" Remus demanded. "I seem to remember one incident of reckless in particular that got you unceremoniously thrown into Azkaban for a good decade!"
"Okay, seriously, what is with these widespread delusions about me having ever stepped foot in that assuredly vile place?" Sirius demanded.
"Maybe they just find that easier to believe than you abandoning your tragically orphaned godson?" Tonks suggested.
"I said I was sorry!" Sirius insisted. "What do you think, Harry? I would ask Moony, but he's clearly delusional as well."
Harry merely raised his eyebrows.
"Ah, Wrackspurts, of course," Sirius nodded.
"So, Harry, is it true what Rita Skeeter wrote about you?" Tonks inquired.
"Probably not," Harry replied promptly. "But just to be sure, you should probably elaborate."
"About your love square?" Tonks clarified.
"You mean 'love bisected triangle'," Sirius corrected.
"Right, that," Tonks agreed absently, staring seriously at Harry.
"Dear God, no," Harry assured her.
Tonks let out a sigh of relief. "Good. I mean, don't get me wrong: I really like you, kid, and if girls are going to chase after you there's nothing you can do but if I find out you're playing with them than we WILL have issues."
Harry gulped. "Understood."
As they started to make their way outside, they were stopped by Amos Diggory. Harry took the opportunity to see that Fleur was still checking Bill out. Well, that was one relationship he wasn't managing to interfere with, although who knew how an altered war – or, with any luck, none at all – would affect them?
"Congratulations on getting that bill passed," Mr. Diggory was telling Remus.
Remus nodded. "Thanks. It took awhile and I'm sure the bill's opponents having something planned, but I'll deal with that when it comes and just appreciate the fact that werewolves have full rights and legal action can be taken for job discrimination now."
"And Harry Potter…you must be so full of yourself since you're ahead of Cedric in the point totals," Mr. Diggory said, turning to him.
"Better me than you," Harry muttered automatically. When he realized what he's said, his eyes widened in mild horror. "I mean, er…"
"Even with this slight disadvantage don't count Ced out yet," Mr. Diggory said loudly, opting to ignore Harry's inopportune comment. "You may have a head start but he can still come from behind and beat you. After all, he's done it before."
"Dad," Cedric looked embarrassed. "Not this again…"
Harry snorted. "Like the rest of the Quidditch team would let me forget. And I've had an advantage over Cedric in the last two tasks."
"And what's that?" Mr. Diggory demanded, outraged.
"He's too noble," Harry explained. "That will probably serve him well in life – assuming it doesn't get him killed. And speaking of: Cedric, graveyards."
"Run like hell," Cedric answered without having to think.
Mr. Diggory looked confused. "What?"
"Later," Harry quickly said, darting out of the chamber and leaving Cedric to try and explain.
"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Sirius asked him right before he joined the other champions at the start of the maze. Harry had enjoyed his day with Remus, Tonks, and his godfather, but it had been somewhat less enjoyable than it might have been since he knew very well what could happen and hoped that even if he couldn't avoid it, it at least wouldn't get any worse than it had been the first time around.
"Not even slightly," Harry confessed. "But what else can I do?"
"I don't know," Sirius answered the rhetorical question. "But remember, the minute you need me, Dumbledore, or a whole squadron of Aurors, contact me on the mirror and tell me where you are. If you're in the graveyard, getting there shouldn't be a problem but even if you go somewhere else, we'll find some way to deal with this."
"Thanks," Harry said, before quickly taking his place amongst the champions. It always unnerved him when his godfather stated acting serious.
After all, that meant that they were probably doomed.
----
Harry had been in the maze for at least half an hour now and he was really starting to appreciate Crouch Jr's efforts the first time around in clearing his path as he'd had to deal with no less than four over-sized blast-ended skrewts, three acromantula, and some kind of snake. The snake hadn't been so bad to deal with, actually, as it had immediately stopped trying to bite him once it saw that he was a 'speaker.' He didn't quite get why snakes were always so eager to listen to him just because he happened to speak their language – or at least he would for as long as he was a Horcrux – but then again, if Pareseltongue was really even half as rare as he'd been lead to believe, none of the snakes he encountered (save the basilisk) had likely encountered another Parselmouth and thought he was a novelty of some kind. Which he was. Still, convincing the snake not to follow him around the maze had eaten up a good chunk of his time.
Harry turned a corner and nearly walked right into a sphinx. He groaned. "Not again…I'm really no good at riddles."
"It is your bad luck to have met me then," the sphinx replied.
"Can I just go?" Harry asked. "Seriously, I'll find a different way."
"No," the sphinx replied. "I'm going to ask you a riddle and if you get it right you can go past."
"And if I get it wrong or try to leave, you'll attack, right?" Harry asked.
The sphinx nodded. "Right. Do not worry, though, as I am not permitted to kill you. That said, healers can work all sorts of miracles these days."
"I don't suppose it's a spider, is it?" Harry asked wryly.
The sphinx blinked. "You don't suppose what is a spider? Me? I quite clearly not. And when was the last time a talking spider asked you riddles, anyway?"
"I don't actually recall that ever happening," Harry answered. "That said, I meant 'was that the answer', although your reaction tells me that it's not. How about 'a man'? That's the answer to the stereotypical sphinx riddle."
"As if I would be so unoriginal," the sphinx sniffed. "Now stop guessing and let me ask you the riddle before I decide to start counting those guesses and land you in a coma."
Harry opened his mouth to tell the sphinx to go ahead and ask him, but decided not to push him luck and just gestured to her instead.
The sphinx smiled lazily. "That's better. Now, let's see…They have not flesh, nor feathers, nor scales, nor bone. Yet they have fingers and thumbs of their own. What are they?"
Harry stared at her for a minute. "Come again?"
Patiently, the sphinx repeated, "They have not flesh, nor feathers, nor scales, nor bone. Yet they have fingers and thumbs of their own. What are they?"
"No flesh, feathers, scales, or bones…that rules out all living things…except plants, I guess, but they don't have fingers or thumbs. The no b ones things rules out most dead things as well. I guess it could be a statue, but that's just if I were thinking literally and not taking into account the fact that this is a riddle…Hey," Harry stopped as a thought occurred to him. "Is it okay if I think out loud?"
The sphinx shrugged. "Be my guest. That's bound to be more interesting than watching you just stand there for five minutes. You'll have to tell me what you've decided on once you have your answer, though."
"Can do," Harry said gratefully. "I think better verbally anyway. Let's see…fingers and thumbs could be a kind of measurement? I know you can have a finger of either whiskey or scotch but I can't think of anything for thumbs…well, there is having a thumb of gold, but I think that had more to do with millers and dishonesty or something like that…Let's see…if there are fingers and thumbs involved, there is probably a hand involved, but it's not on anything that was once living. A robot? I highly doubt a mythical creature would be up-to-date on Muggle technology, though, since most magical humans don't know anything. Still, a hand made out of synthetic material sounds promising, I just need to think more about something wizards might be familiar with. What do wizards do when they lose a hand? Use a hook? That doesn't have any fingers or thumbs, though. Wormtail had a silver hand, but since he had to have Riddle create that, it's probably too complicated or obscure for most people…Wait."
"Yes?" the sphinx, who was starting to look a little dizzy watching Harry pace back and forth and think in circles, asked eagerly.
"How about a hand covering? Like a glove or a mitten?" Harry asked.
"You need to pick one," the sphinx said sternly.
"If it's not right and that's my guess, does it really matter which one I go with?" Harry didn't really see how it would.
"Of course it matters!" the sphinx insisted. "You have to do these things properly or no one will take you seriously."
"Fine," Harry sighed. "Let's see… I know one of them has a thumb and four fingers while the other has one thumb and one giant finger but I can't remember which is which…the one with the four fingers is more convenient than the one with the one finger because there's more mobility and all your fingers don't keep bumping into each other. 'Mitten' is a much nicer name than 'glove' so you would think it would go with the nicer hand covering, but I think it might actually be the opposite. Since the riddle asked for 'fingers' to be plural, that would make my answer glove."
The sphinx took a moment before answering. "That was so much more complicated than it had to be."
"We all have our faults!" Harry said defensively, crossing his arms. "One of mine is that I'm really bad at riddles."
"And can't tell the difference between gloves and mittens," the sphinx added helpfully.
Harry glared at her. "I can SO tell them apart! I just get the names mixed up! It happens." He paused. "But yes, that too. So…was I right?"
"Yes, you can go," the sphinx said, stepping aside to allow him to pass. "And make sure to brush up on your riddles!"
"The sad thing is I did brush up on them!" Harry called back.
He turned a few more corners and stopped short at the sight of Voldemort laughing over Cedric's body. "What? But…how? There's no way he got to Hogwarts so easily, it took Draco a year…Boggart." Cedric dying and Voldemort returning would be his greatest fear at the moment, wouldn't it, as they both could happen, had happened that night. "Riddikulus!" he cried, remembering the cheer that had gone up when Voldemort had finally lay dead after yet ANOTHER botched Avada Kedavra sent Harry's way. You'd think he would have learned his lesson the first time and used a different, equally lethal curse, but apparently h e couldn't be bothered.
"Point me," Harry whispered. Following the path the spell had indicated, he reached the clearing the cup was in just as Cedric and the twins did.
"I can't believe the hedge tried to eat us," Fred said before he noticed them. "I mean, what is wrong with these people that they would stick us in a maze with deadly creatures when the maze itself was trying to kill us?"
"I don't know, but look," George said, pointing to the Cup.
"Where are Viktor and Fleur?" Harry asked.
"Back there somewhere," Cedric gestured vaguely behind him. "I haven't seen any sparks nor heard any screams so they're probably fine."
"What now?" Fred asked. "We lunge for the cup? Whoever touches it first gets it? We're all about equal distance away so it could be anyone's game but that seems like such an arbitrary way of deciding it."
"We could try dueling for it," George offered.
Cedric shook his head. "No good, there are two of you and Harry and I are alone. Even if only one of you dueled it would still be three people squaring off and that's not even. One person would get ganged up on or just sit back and watch the other two exhaust themselves and that won't prove anything."
"Then what do you suggest?" George asked.
"We all made it here at the same time so it's a tie," Cedric said simply. "Regardless of whatever school we've been entered under, we're all Hogwarts students."
"We had hoped to get all the prize money," Fred said mournfully. "But you're right. A tie it is." He reached out for the cup and Cedric did the same.
"NO!" Harry burst out.
The other three turned to look at him strangely.
"What's wrong?" George asked. "Can't stand the thought of a tie?"
Harry shook his head. "I'm all for tying. In fact, you three can win and I don't have to get any credit for all I care. I just need to be the first one to touch that cup."
"Why?" Cedric asked.
Harry hesitated.
"If you don't tell us, we're going to assume that everything's fine and grab it," Fred warned.
Harry sighed. "I don't know for sure but there's every chance that that cup is a Portkey that will bring us to a graveyard where a madman is trying to revive Voldemort."
"A graveyard, you say?" Cedric asked thoughtfully. "Is that why you kept saying-?"
"Yeah," Harry admitted. "It was."
"Why didn't you warn us, then, if you were so concerned?" George demanded.
"Honestly, it didn't occur to me," Harry confessed. "Sorry."
"Why don't you find out one way or another and throw a rock at the cup or something?" Fred suggested. "If it's a Portkey, we'll just send up sparks and explain that the cup is gone. If not, then we'll just pretend it never happened."
"That won't work," Cedric said, shaking his head. "The Cup IS a Portkey one way or another but to prevent the winner from getting ambushed on their way out, the Cup is supposed to take us to the outside of the maze."
Well, Harry hadn't known that but it would explain why grabbing the Cup in the graveyard had taken him to the outside of the maze instead of the center or even took him anywhere at all as if Crouch Jr had been the one to make it a Portkey at all as he wouldn't want to give him a chance to escape. Although flinging Harry's body at it and letting the world know Voldemort was back might have appealed to him.
"We can let the Portkey go then send up sparks and as we're the only ones here and all agree to tie we can explain that we all won when someone comes to check on us," Fred suggested.
"No, I…I need to go there," Harry disagreed.
"Why?" Cedric demanded. "If you're right you'll just get yourself killed."
"Possibly, but I need to stop him and now's my best chance," Harry said urgently.
"I don't like it," George said, shaking his head. "If you're wrong you end up winning the Playoffs and if you're right you go alone to some sort of ritual with a madman and get yourself killed."
"It has to be done," Harry said shortly.
"Then we're going with you," Cedric told him.
The twins nodded their agreement, their faces full of grim determination.
"No, I need to do this by myself," Harry insisted.
"We're standing closer than you," Fred pointed out. "If you don't say yes we'll touch the Portkey without you and see what happens."
That couldn't happen. They would just get themselves killed and as he was still a Horcrux literally had NO chance of stopping Voldemort.
"Alright," he agreed reluctantly. "Cedric and either Fred or George can come, too."
"Why only one?" George demanded.
"Because one of us needs to stay here and send up sparks. By the time you're rescued, you'll know if we're outside of the maze or if we need you to tell Dumbledore that the Cup was a Portkey, we reached it, and now we're missing," Harry explained. He pulled out his invisibility cloak and two daggers and handed them to Cedric. "And whoever goes with me needs to keep this on at all times. They won't kill me right away, but they will kill you. And if you see a giant snake, kill it with one of these or the Avada Kedavra."
"Okay," Cedric agreed solemnly.
The twins exchanged looks. Finally, George took a deep breath and said, "You go. Your name came out of the Cup so you go."
"Are you sure?" Fred looked torn.
"Just…don't you DARE die on me," George said, his voice a little higher than normal. "Or I swear to God…"
"I wouldn't dream of it," Fred promised.
As the three designated graveyard travelers, reached out to touch the Portkey, Harry really hoped he'd be able to keep that promise.