Black Plague

Chapter 41

I was way in the lead. And was unquestioningly going to win. Everyone was sure I would. So was I.
I dressed in the same thing as the first trial I figured the Dragon Hide Cloak gave me an advantage. Not that I would probably need it but being too arrogant is a good way to get killed. Especially with a competition like this.
I gave Draco a kiss and walked to the maze confidently.
Krum walked up to me. "Good vluck Harry." I smirk. "You too."
"You ventered yourself in za tournament didn't you?" I smiled and winked. "I'll never say."
"But vhy go to all ze trouble?" I laughed and shrugged. I thought over what I wanted to say but ultimately decided why not, what the hell. "Well, I couldn't care less about the glory, I already have that. And I have plenty of money. There were two reasons I joined the tournament. One, I would get emancipated and Dumbles could no longer steal all my money. And two, The Dark Lord offered me the honor of ruling by his side, if I entered and win. But, I decided I don't care enough about the wizard world to be a Dark Lord, so I ended up turning that offer down a few months ago. So now, I guess it's just to prove to myself I can."
He stared in awe at me. "Ze Dark Lord asked you to rule vith him?" I smiled and nodded. "And you turned zeet down?" I nodded again. "Ya, I want to be an assassin I think. Work in the shadows. I will still help him if he ever needs it, but otherwise I want nothing to do with the power struggle."
"Jesus, I never stood za chance." I smirked and shook my head. "No, not for a second."
The only reason I said anything to him was because I knew he supported the dark cause.
And that he had great respect for the Dark Lord. Actually, most of the people from Drumstrang supported the Dark faction.
"Did you kill Dumbledore zen? I heard ze vrumors zat you did." I shrugged. "I was going to. But then he keeled over before I could."
He looked at me closely. "Vould you tell me if you had?" I smirked "nope. Think about it. What would have happened if Dumbledore was murdered?"  He just looked at me lost. Okay so he wasn't the brightest. "He would be immortalized and it would unify the light wizards. But, what is happening now?" He was silent again, not answering. "They are falling apart and flailing around aimlessly. They are lost without their beloved leader. So no, I didn't kill him. But even if I had, I would never tell anyone."
He nodded, understanding flashing in his eyes.

Soon, the third trial was about to start. I shook Krum's hand and walked to the entrance. The announcer said some words that I paid absolutely no attention to and blew a whistle for me to start. I entered the maze and stopped to consider which way to go. The plants that were acting as walls began grabbing for me. I blasted them and began moving again. Any time I stopped they tried to reach for me. So I kept moving. I came to a blast-ended shrewt. It was huge. Ten feet long. It began shooting fire at me. I didn't have room to dodge so I threw up a shield and sent a couple severing spells and cut his fire blasting tail off and severed his head. I carefully walked past him and kept moving. Next came Acromantulas.  He was a huge hairy spider. I shuddered at how gross he was and hit him with a couple Stupify Maximus and knocked him out. I kept running down the maze. It seem like forever before I came across a Draco laying dead on the ground. "This is all your fault." Came Snape's voice. I dropped to the ground sobbing. It took longer than I would like to admit for me to realize it was a Boggart. But to be fair in my second year my boggart had been a Dementor. I stood and wiped my eyes. "Riddikulus" the scene changed and I ran past. I ran through some blue mist and everything began tuning topsy turvy. I was running on the ceiling. Struggling to keep my balance, so I didn't hit the living walls. I came to a few more beasts as I ran through the maze. Usually just stunning them. Not bothering to kill them unless they almost hurt me. Mostly because I didn't care, they were just acting in their nature. And maybe they would revive and stop one of the other contestants. I came to Delacour trapped in the shrubbery wall and shot a red flare for her before running past. The floor began trying to grab me so I ran even faster. A while later I saw Krum, he raise his wand and shot a spell at me. There was no room to roll out of the way, so I dropped down to one knee and hit him with a number of spell, then hit him with a Stupify. I shot a blasting spell at the ground as the vines had started to grab my legs, and I ran past his past his body. I saw the plants on the ground grabbing him, but didn't bother sending a flare. He did try to curse me. Fuck him. After fighting a few more dangerous beasts, I came across a sphinx.
I stood before it as he spoke with a deep earth shattering voice.
 In spring I am gay in handsome array; in summer more clothing I wear; when colder it grows, I fling off my clothes; and in winter quite naked appear.

I felt like being in Ravenclaw prepared me especially for this day. For the last four years I have had to answer riddles every day. Sometimes more than once a day. This one was almost too easy.
"A tree" the sphinx stepped aside. "You may pass" I nodded in respect at him and ran down the path. I saw the cup and picked up my speed. I had almost reached the cup when I felt a mouth snap at me. I turned my wand raised to see a runespoor. A six foot long snake with orange and black stripes. "Hello great one"  I said, half bowing to it, but never letting it leave my sight.
"Oh a ssspeaker" said the one on the left. "Yes, I hope you won't mind if I grab this cup. I do not wish to bother you."  The snakes began arguing amongst themselves and I backed away. My back hit the cup and I felt as my body began spinning and turning. Ah a port key. I found myself back at the beginning of the maze, looking at the crowd. The cup behind me. All of a sudden the crowd broke into cheers. I smirked at them and walked to Draco and sat down.
"Anyone still in there?"
He nodded. "Just Victor Krum." I chuckled. "Ya, he's not coming out any time soon. If ever." Draco's eyes bugged. "What did you do?" I looked at the maze. "Well he tried to curse me. I just returned the favor. Then the ground grabbed him. I would have sent a flare like I did with Delacour, but you know, he tried to curse me." I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Shit! When was that?" I tapped my lip in thought "I don't know, probably a couple hours ago." Draco looked horrified. He really need to get used to my violent tendencies.
"Do you think he's dead?!" I smiled at his panic. "I don't know. Probably not. But, I didn't send very nice spells at him. And I only stunned the acromantula so he could be. Maybe he shouldn't have tried to cursed me." I shrugged.
"Hades! You have to tell them!!" I groaned "fine." I stood up and yelled to the judges. "I saw Krum trapped in the ground. I didn't send a flare for him like I did Delacour, because I thought he send one himself. But Draco said he's still in the maze. So you should probably save him." All the judges and teachers began running towards the maze. McGonagall came to me. "Harry, how long ago was this?" I gave her a grave look."I think it was a couple hours ago. But it's hard to say for sure." She was cursing Godric as she scurried off.
"Well, I'm glad you're alright. And that Krum didn't hurt you. I love you... Even when you're kind of evil." I grinned "thanks, I love you too" deciding to ignore the evil part. I mean, I definitely wasn't a saint.

It took about an hour for someone to find Krum. By now everyone was in a panic. Even Draco was worried. I moved and sat on Draco's lap, in an effort to distract him. I looked at Draco. "Why do people care what happens to Krum? He's not from our school, and most of us don't even know him? He was the competition so why does it matter so much to everyone?" Honestly confused.
Draco sighed " sweetie. People care because he's alive and people value life." I scrunched my face, as I pondered his words. "That's not true. I've never had anyone value my life. Except you. I'm was a freak, a loser, a pawn, a prophesy, an inconvenience just for breathing. I had to earn my value. Why would people value his life though? It doesn't make any sense."
Draco gave me a sad look and hugged me close. "You shouldn't have had to earn your value either. You have value just by being a Wizard. Just by being alive. And you should have always been treated as such. That's why you ended up messed up and confused. It's not okay to just randomly kill people Hades
They all have value." I laughed.
"That's definitely not true, or we wouldn't send dementors after people souls." He sigh. "That's true. But they have to really fuck up for that"
I huffed "no, they fucked up and got caught. There are plenty of people walking free that have done things just as bad. Your dad, Snape, The Dark Lord. There mistake was getting caught. They are punished for being poor and not being able to afford good defense, for being carelessness or for their stupidity.... Thus society must consider the poor, stupid, and careless people less valuable. Because that's there true crime. Maybe I was less valuable because I was poor." I said thoughtfully.
"Krum is a famous quidditch player, so he must have money. Maybe that's why everyone cares." I nodded at my deduction.

"Oh look at that, he's fine. See? Everyone worried over nothing." Krum was glaring at me. I smiled and pointed my wand at his discreetly. Making sure his memories didn't make it out like I was trying to kill him.
I changed his memories to him throwing his curse at me, we exchanged a few spells and then we went our separate way. Later he tripped and fell when the ground grabbed him. He wasn't able to pull free. He sent a flare as I passed, but it wasn't powerful enough for the judges to see it, with the shrubs and ground surrounding  him.

His angry sneer turned more sheepish and he looked away. I turned to Draco and smiled. "See, it all worked out."
He nodded in agreement. Done trying to explain things I would never understand.