The Boy Who Made the Right Choice

14- The third task

The third task came around quicker than the second. 

Crowds of hundreds of cheering students were scattered about the stands surrounding the opening of an intimidatingly tall hedge maze. The singing and cheering for each different champion clashed against eachother in the atmosphere; the Bauxbatons girls doing some sort of frolicking dance as they sang in French; the Durmstrang men banging on drums and doing wild tricks with their fire torches; and a dozen Hogwarts students playing a cheerful tune with professor Filch as their conductor.

Draco stood with the other champions in the tent reserved for the four of them. No one said a word to eachother, and he much prefered it that way. Where is Harry? He nervously started tapping his fingers on his knee.

It wasn't even the third task in general that he was worried about - it was that the chances of the Death Eaters invading the tournament in the final task were now extremely high. For some reason, Draco just couldn't get the worries and what ifs out of his head no matter how hard he tried. All he wanted right now was a kiss from Harry.

"Draco?" A voice hissed from one of the changing rooms. Making sure no one else heard it, Draco followed the voice inside the small, curtained room. For a second, no one was there. But then Harry's head popped out from thin air, then his entire body appeared.

"What in the name of Merlin?!" Draco exclaimed.

"Invisibility cloak." Harry said simply, gesturing to the silvery, silky cloth in his hands.

"You and your sneaky little gadgets-" Draco was cut off when Harry cupped his face and kissed him.

"Don't die." He said against his lips as they let go. "Even though you would be the one telling me that right now."

"Probably not," Draco ran a hand through his hair. "I probably wouldn't've realized that I liked you if I'd hadn't seen your name entered."

The corners of Harry's lips slowly curved upwards, but Draco couldn't help but notice the flash of disappointment in his emerald eyes before it was gone. "Like me?"

Draco's face turned red with blush creeping onto his cheeks. He scratched the back of his head. "Well I mean..." 

Before either of them could get another word out, a blaring horn roared from outside, demanding the champions' prescence. 

"Good luck," Harry said as he draped the invisibility cloak back over his shoulders.

Draco smirked knowingly. "I won't need it." Leaving his boyfriend to ponder what he'd meant, Draco snatched his wand and left through the archway with the other champions, out into the curious, preying eyes of the students and professors in the stands.

He hadn't known until two days beforehand that the third task was a race through a maze. That knowledge gave Draco a boost of confidence. Draco had no idea what the other champions' capabilities were, but he was good at making accurate assumptions: Like Cedric Diggory, being the son of a wizard who worked for the Department of Regulations and Control of Magical Creatures at the minsitry, was more than sure to have had experience with magical creatures of the forest - another sure guess, that there would be monsters in the maze.

Viktor Krum was, like Draco, a seeker. A star one at that. He'd undoubtedly have a good eye for finding patterns and knowing where to search for -what he'd presumed they'd be looking for- the Triwizard Cup.

Fleur Delacour, Draco was close to having no idea at all what to expect from her. But she was a smart witch, and intelligance was nearly half of what you'd need to beat a maze.

And how did Draco know this? He had the hedge maze in the gardens back at Malfoy Manor to thank. He'd lost track of how many times he'd found his way in and out of that thing. The first time must've been when he was just six or seven. And knowledge of mazes was what Draco was sure would help him on the path to victory in this task.

Dumbledore stepped up to a podium and demanded silence from the crowd. He said something about who would enter the maze first and that only professor Moody knew the exact location of the cup, but Draco couldn't pay any more attention. His gaze darted across the stands where the Gryffindors were standing. Then, his grey eyes caught sight of Harry.

Their eyes locked onto eachother.

Harry mouthed something that Draco couldn't decipher. Then Dumbledore called for a huddle up among the champions, just like in the first task. The four of them huddled around, listening intently to the old man's voice over the sound of muffled cheering outside the bubble. 

"Now, in the maze, you will 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 weary; you may just lose yourselves along the way."

Upon that last, cheerful note, the headmaster left to stand up on the podium once more as the champions each made their way over to one of the four narrow openings.

The blaring horn bellowed throughout the air once again, and the champions disappeared beyond the dark, misty walls of the maze.

~~~~~

Draco raced through the towering hedge walls of the maze as soon as the opening behind him closed up; the cold, misty air blowing like knives against his face. Each and every direction looked the same. Of course it does. He could almost hear the voices of his parents echoing in the back of his head every time he went into the maze back home.

"Follow your mind," his mother would say. "Play it for your life," his father would lecture.

He took a swift turn into the bush when a loud, ear piercing scream rang throughout and above the towering hedges.

Fleur.

Draco turned to a narrow lane on the right, immediately stopping dead in his tracks when he spotted Fleur's unconscious body laying deadly still at his feet. He let out a silent gasp and stared in horror as claw-like tendrils extended from the bush, wrapping themselves around Fleur's form as the monstrous hedges swallowed up the girl like a beast devouring its prey. 

Draco wanted to breathe but he couldn't. Every muscle in is body tensed and he felt like he was going to throw up. The slimey, plant-like tentacles swerved and swishes at his ankles threateningly, making him back up quickly.

He brushed the back of his hand against his cheek and disappeared back off into the maze. Where's the map when you need it?

"Malfoy!" A puffed out, cracky voice called from off somewhere in the distance. Draco spun around in time to see the Hufflepuff senior on his stomach, with his wand out of reach, attempting to claw his way across the ground as dozens more tendrils clasped around his ankles, slowly puller the older boy under the ground.

Draco stepped forward toward Cedric when a bright blue light shone in the corner of his eye. He turned his head; there, standing on a stone stand in the middle of a square hedged yard only fifty metres away, was the Triwizard Cup.

"Malfoy!" Every cough and splutter that escaped Cedric's lips urged Draco more and more to turn back around and help him. He looked back at the cup, then at Cedric. Then his eyes darted between the two again, and this time, he aimed his wand at the plant swallowing Cedric's body. 

"Reducto!" The vines eating away at Cedric's feet gave way as the exploding spell blasted against them. They retreated back into the wall of hedges as Cedric coughed out more dirt and grass that he'd unpleasantly gotten in his mouth. He looked up when Draco offered a hand. Without saying a word, he took it as he retrieved his wand and stood up.

"Thanks," Cedric puffed, his usual perfect hair now messy and tangled in twigs from the monster. 

"It's nothing." Draco refrained from putting a hand up to check his own messy hair now. It'd be unbearable to even look at, so he didn't think about it.

"You know, I really would've thought you'd let it get me."

"So did I." But at what cost? Draco reminded himself. If anyone dies here because of me, how much money can make up for the loss of someone's life? None. That's why the cup isn't worth it.

Their heads spun at the exact time to lay eyes on the glowing blue cup only fifty metres away.

Their eyes locked for a second, then they ran.