Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The school band is playing in the stands. Everybody's cheering, hollering, screaming the name of who they want to win.
Viktor Krum is stretching his legs, bending his knees and lunging forwards, jumping on the spot to get his blood racing.
Fleur Delacour is smiling at the crowd, muttering spells to herself under her breath while she waves one pretty hand out to them
Harry Potter is staring nervously at the mouth of the maze, the hedges looking like jaws opened up wide to swallow him and never let him free again.
And Cedric Diggory, poor, poor Cedric Diggory, is as dumb as a rock as to what's going to happen to him. This maze will be the end of him, and he's smiling with those perfect teeth of his out to the Hogwarts stand, waving his wand to send little sparks in the house colours.
Sage sees this as she skids to a halt at the entrance to the pitch, almost running into Professor Snape (who stepped out of the dark like fucking Nosferatu). "Hello, Professor," she says. "I need to get past."
"Students not participating in the Tournament are to be seated in the stands," he snarls, his pallid face contorting at the sight of her. "You are not exempt, no matter how ill you are."
"I'm not ill," says Sage. "I just need to talk to Cedric."
"Mr Diggory is preparing for the task, he doesn't need any distractions."
"I'm not distracting him, I just need to tell him something," says Sage. She's about ready to blow her top. "Let me past, you fucking arsehole."
"Language like that," Snape spits, his face reddening, "will not be tolerated. I wonder what the Headmaster will have to say about this." He grabs her arm and leads her towards the teacher's stand. And as his fingers connect with the bare skin of her arm, a serpent and a building on a dock and a large white doe appear before her and the world around them blackens. She stumbles sideways to avoid colliding with the deer, and Snape frowns at her.
"It's a snake and a boathouse," Sage whispers, her voice two octaves at once. "It's a great snake the size of a log."
Snape lets go, and Sage's vision returns. "What did you just say?" Snape asks, staring at Sage as if she had two heads. And she takes this moment to dive away from him and bolt back towards the open area.
She sees Cedric entering the maze, and she's screaming his name like murder, but he doesn't hear her and walks into the maze. And then Sage does the stupidest thing she's ever done in her whole life.
The blood thumping in her ears blocks out the screams of excitement and horror, as she runs into the mouth of the maze.
