Lasting Legacy

44. The Second Task

James' POV

This is it. At 10am, the second task starts.

Adeline has given me a copy of her clues, I tried to solve it many times but failed, and according to Roxanne, Catriona couldn't either. Alexander, the Durmstrang champion, had exchanged clues with Adeline's sister, Eva, they've got nothing as well. The other Durmstrang champion exchanged clues with Lydia, the Beauxbatons champion, but they've got nothing.

We practically trapped dad in the corner the other day for hints. Al, Scorp, Roxanne, Dominique, and me. But dad refused to give us anything. So everyone was clueless, well except maybe Sikrorth got something, but they didn't tell.

I arrived at the task venue half an hour earlier again, which is the Quidditch Pitch like last time. However, unlike last time when the Quiddith Pitch didn't change a lot, it has been transformed into a maze, and there were 12 towers in there, each tower was marked with a number. Suddenly, I saw a burst of fire, I bet there is either a blast-ended skrewt, or worse, a dragon in there.

15 minutes before the task starts, 5 people, I recognized Professor Abott, our Transfigurations Professor and Head of Hufflepuff House among them, were leading one person from each team out of the tent, in Professor Abott's case, she's leading Catriona. They apparated away. Maybe to the towers?

"Sup, Jem, whatcha doing here?" a voice sounded behind me.

I turned around, "Teddy! What're YOU doing here?"

"I am, after all, the Minister's personal secretary. The Minister asked me to be here, so here I am," he shrugged.

"What do you have to do?" I asked.

"Oh, I'll just jot down the whole competition progress, and the scores," Teddy said, "Why are you here so early?"

"What's the task about?" I asked him.

He hesitated, "I shouldn't tell you but the task is going to start and you won't be able to tell the champions. Besides, I think they already know by now. You have the clues with you?"

I nodded and fished out a copy of the clues which Adeline gave me.

"The clues are simple, if you know the way to decode it. The letters are shifted, so what you need to do is shift it back. The first clue is shifted 4 letters forwards, meaning what originally is A, becomes E. B becomes F, W becomes A, X becomes B, and so on," Teddy started.

I stared at the first clue and shifted the letters one by one, and the clue starts to make sense.

"The second one is similar, only it is shifted 2 letters forwards..."

I interupted him, "Meaning A becomes C, B becomes D, Y becomes A, Z becomes B and so on!" I stared at the clues, as I shifted all the letters back in place, it all made sense.

"So one of the champions from each team has to save their partner within an hour! Shit! Now the clues make sense. We all though it was useless!"

Teddy chuckled.

"How is this marked? Is it like last time?"

"Partly. It depends on what they did in there. There're 3 parts, the first part's like Quidditch, you score a Quaffle, 10 points. You get the snitch, 150 points," Teddy started.

"You defeat a creature, 10 points. You save your partner, 150 points," I finished.

"Not really. It's 20 marks for each creature and 500 marks for saving your partner. The second part depends solely on the person in the tower. It says in the clues they can alert their partner, the judges would mark them on that, they have cameras to see what are the champions doing in the tower. The third part is the time. 5 marks will be given for every minute they finish earlier than one hour. The task ends as soons as an hour is over and they have to leave the maze, or all the champions managed to save their partners."