The Fatal Enchantment

The Third Task

                I was wearing my, with my school robes on it. It was the day of the final task. And I would be giving my last exam of Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests, better known as N.E.W.T.s. I just hope that I do really well like I had done in my OWLs.
"Stop it Mia!" shouted Hermione. "The way you're going you're making Percy and myself look like Fred and George to me."
"Hermione..." I said. "these are my N.E.W.T.s exams. I can't afford to do badly in them if I want to have a job at the Ministry of Magic, or even be a Professor at Hogwarts."
"Professor at Hogwarts?" asked Hermione as if she'd gone on high alert.
"Yes, Hermione, you heard it right. I have applied for the post of assistant professor and school coordinator." I said with a smug face. "Only in summer with Dumbledore let me know whether I've got the post or not." She nodded as she looked at me with wide eyes.
"I can't believe you're giving N.E.W.T. s at my age, and next year I'll have to call you Professor Potter." She said. "I mean there's no doubt you'll get the job. I mean you make Percy, look like an idiot with those scores of yours. I mean you gave O.W.L.s along with Oliver and you got higher scores than Percy or even that Voldemort fellow!" she said. And of course, being me, I smirked at her with pride.
Breakfast, the next morning, was a very noisy affair at the Gryffindor table on the morning of the third task. The post owls appeared, bringing Harry a good-luck card from Sirius. It was only a piece of parchment, folded over and bearing a muddy paw print on its front, but Harry appreciated it all the same. A screech owl arrived for Hermione, carrying her morning copy of the Daily Prophet as usual. She unfolded the paper, glanced at the front page, and spat out a mouthful of pumpkin juice all over it.
"What?" said Harry and Ron together, staring at her, as I looked up from my Transfiguration notes.
"Nothing," said Hermione quickly, trying to shove the paper out of sight, but Ron grabbed it.
He stared at the headline and said, "No way. Not today. That old cow."
"What?" I said. "Rita Bimbo Dimbo Skeeter again?"
"No," said Ron, and just like Hermione, he attempted to push the paper out of sight.
"It's about me, isn't it?" said Harry.
"No," said Ron, in an entirely unconvincing tone. But before Harry could demand to see the paper Draco shouted across the Great Hall from the Slytherin table.
"Hey, Potter! Potter! How's your head? You feeling all right? Sure you're not going to go berserk on us?"
Malfoy was holding a copy of the Daily Prophet too. Slytherins up and down the table were sniggering, twisting in their seats to see Harry's reaction. Though, as soon as I glared at the lot, they gulped and shut their nuzzles...
"Let me see it," Harry said to Ron. "Give it here." Very reluctantly, Ron handed over the newspaper. Harry turned it over and found himself staring at his own picture, beneath the banner headline, as he read aloud, well loud enough for us:
'
HARRY POTTER DISTURBED AND DANGEROUS'

The boy who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is unstable and possibly dangerous, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Alarming evidence has recently come to light about Harry Potter's strange behavior, which casts doubts upon his suitability to compete in a demanding competition like the Triwizard Tournament, or even to attend Hogwarts School.
Potter, the Daily Prophet can exclusively reveal, regularly collapses at school, and is often heard to complain of pain in the scar on his forehead (relic of the curse with which You-Know-Who attempted to kill him). On Monday last, midway through a Divination lesson, your Daily Prophet reporter witnessed Potter storming from the class, claiming that his scar was hurting too badly to continue studying.
It is possible, say top experts at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, that Potters brain was affected by the attack inflicted upon him by You- Know-Who, and that his insistence that the scar is still hurting is an expression of his deep-seated confusion.
"He might even be pretending," said one specialist. "This could be a plea for attention."
The Daily Prophet, however, has unearthed worrying facts about Harry Potter that Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, has carefully concealed from the wizarding public.
"Potter can speak Parseltongue," reveals Draco Malfoy, a Hogwarts fourth year. "There were a lot of attacks on students a couple of years ago, and most people thought Potter was behind them after they saw him lose his temper at a dueling club and set a snake on another boy. It was all hushed up, though. But he's made friends with werewolves and giants too. We think he'd do anything for a bit of power."
Parseltongue, the ability to converse with snakes, has long been considered a Dark Art. Indeed, the most famous Parselmouth of our times is none other than You-Know-Who himself. A member of the Dark Force Defense League, who wished to remain unnamed, stated that he would regard any wizard who could speak Parseltongue "as worthy of investigation. Personally, I would be highly suspicious of anybody who could converse with snakes, as serpents are often used in the worst kinds of Dark Magic, and are historically associated with evildoers." Similarly,"anyone who seeks out the company of such vicious creatures as werewolves and giants would appear to have a fondness for violence."
Albus Dumbledore should surely consider whether a boy such as this should be allowed to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. Some fear that Potter might resort to the Dark Arts in his desperation to win the tournament, the third task of which takes place this evening.

"Gone off me a bit, hasn't she?" said Harry lightly, folding up the paper. He was so angry and pissed off, especially with the tension of the Tournament. I looked over at the Slytherin table, to see Draco, Vincent, and Gregory were laughing at him, tapping their heads with their fingers, pulling grotesquely mad faces, and waggling their tongues like snakes. I took a pumpkin pie and got up and aimed it at them.
"Multiplicaveris Tres" I muttered as I pointed my wand at the pies and threw it at the three. It went and hit their faces, smearing their faces with pumpkin and sugary goo.
"How did she know your scar hurt in Divination?" Ron said. "There's no way she was there, there's no way she could've heard -"
"The window was open," said Harry. "I opened it to breathe."
"You were at the top of North Tower!" Hermione said. "Your voice couldn't have carried all the way down to the grounds!"
"Well, you're the one who's supposed to be researching magical methods of bugging!" said Harry. "You tell me how she did it!"
"I've been trying!" said Hermione. "But I... but..." An odd, dreamy expression suddenly came over Hermione's face. She slowly raised a hand and ran her fingers through her hair. May be even I had that expression.
"Are you all two alright?" said Ron, frowning at us.
"Yes," said Hermione breathlessly. She ran her fingers through her hair again, and then held her hand up to her mouth, as though speaking into an invisible walkietalkie. Harry and Ron stared at each other. "Mia and I've had an idea," Hermione said, gazing into space. "We think we know... because then no one would be able to see... even Moody... and she'd have been able to get onto the window ledge... but she's not allowed... she's definitely not allowed... we think we've got her, well Mia definitely has! Just give me two seconds in the library - just to make sure about Mia's theory!" With that, Hermione seized her school bag and dashed out of the Great Hall as I packed my stuff and stood up to go to the examination hall with Roger and Marcus.
"Oy!" Ron called after her. "We've got our History of Magic exam in ten minutes! Blimey," he said, turning back to Harry, "she must really hate that Skeeter woman to risk missing the start of an exam. What're you going to do in Binns's class – read again?"
"Well I'm leaving for my finals" I said as I went and joined Roger and Marcus.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After Exams ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After exams we all went and changed into something more comfortable than our uniforms. I changed to my as I hung out with them. I cannot afford to hang around much with Barty, or both of us will get caught.
I went on talking as I walked into Bill. He's the only decent guy out here in the Weasley's apart from Ronald, Fred, Percy and George of course.
"Hey, how were your N.E.W.T.s?" he asked me.
"Am failing" I said sarcastically.
"Stop joking." He said and then bent to my ears as he whispered. "Hey don't tell Dumbledore I told you this," he said "but he came yesterday to meet mum, dad, Charlie, Percy and me, and he told us you're the new school coordinator and substitute teacher, especially for Transfiguration." He said. With that he winked jokingly and then glanced somewhere far away. I followed his gaze along with Roger and Marcus to find him staring at Fleur Fairy princessDelacour and she was staring back at him, not looking at her parents and mother, even though she spoke in fluent French with them. Ooh... do I detect love at first sight.......
"Come on boys... let's leave the two love birds alone" I whispered as we left.
That evening we went down for the last task. I embraced Harry into a tight hug, as tears escaped my face. I was having a very bad feeling. And for the first time, felt sorry for Diggory. I felt something bad was about to happened. So I took out my necklace that I'd bought at Borgin and Burkes and transferred some of my powers to it. I went up to Diggory and put the necklace around him.
"Please be careful. I don't love you. But that doesn't mean that you should die before time." I said and then joined Barty's side. He looked confused as Dumbledore began to speak.
"Silence! Earlier today, Professor Moody placed the Triwizard Cup deep within the maze. Only he knows its exact position. Now, as Mr. Diggory..." said Dumbledore as the crowd cheered; especially from the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw sides, "...and Mr. Potter..." as the crowd from the Gryffindor side along with Roger, Graham, Marcus, Lucian, Terrence, Miles Bletcheley, Cassius Warrington, and Peregrine Derrick, along with Blaise and Theo. "...are tied for first position, they will be the first to enter the maze, followed by Mr. Krum..." as Karkaroff encouraged the Slytherin supporters and Dumstrang to cheer more and more, "...and Miss Delacour. "The first person to touch the Cup will be the winner!"
The crowd cheered, as Dumbledore turned to the champions, and I was allowed to stay since I was according to him, Moody's assistant.
"I've instructed the staff to patrol the perimeter. If, at any point, should a contestant should wish to withdraw from the task, he or she need only send up red sparks with their wands. Contestants, gather round... quickly! In the maze you'll find no dragons or creatures of the deep. Instead, you'll face something even more challenging. You see, people change in the maze. Oh, find the Cup, if you can, but be very wary. You could just lose yourselves along the way." He then turned to the crowd again. "Champions! Prepare yourselves."
"Cedric, good luck! Good boy!" said Mr. Diggory embracing his son as he smiled in his tears.
"On the count of three... One..." said Dumbledore. The cannon boomed, as Harry and Diggory went in. I smiled as Harry turned to look at me, as Barty sneakily pointed out the direction of the cup to him. the bushes of the maze closed as I prayed that all the contestants would be safe.