A Year at Hogwarts

chapter 10

The day of the third task came. Harry went to the Great Hall to have some breakfast before the task and was surprised to learn that no-one from his school was there. He walked over to Headmistress Daniels. "Isn't anyone coming today?" he asked her. "I'm afraid that Dumbledore has banned all visitors from our school following the assault on Draco Malfoy." She answered. "He attacked one of my friends," Harry protested, "one of your students!" "He was cleared on the grounds that she is a Muggleborn and so can do whatever he pleases. Sadly, the law isn't like it is in Australia where the perpetrator of a crime is punished regardless of blood status," She continued, "So, I refused to punish our students for attacking Malfoy and our Ministry refuses to extradite them. Things can work both ways Harry." Aunt Sarah came in a few minutes later and went over to Harry. "I'm sorry Harry," she said, "But I was not going to bring the girls down here until the heat has died down and myself and Uncle Alex have managed to arrange legal protection for them. I will bring them down for the final task though." "It's alright," Harry said, "As long as it keeps them safe, that's all that matters." "Restraining orders won't help because you have friends who like the girls and it would not be fair on them." Aunt Sarah continued. "What this country needs is to be brought into the 20th century." Harry said, "It makes me glad that I'm returning to Australia after this blooming tournament comes to an end." Hermione Granger stepped forward.

"Sarah Falk - how dare you kidnap Harry from his rightful home!" she accused, "he was in a loving home with his aunt, uncle and cousin before you took him away under the pretence of being Lily Potter's twin sister!" "Miss Granger, i don't know where you got your information from but you have a lot of strange ideas about me." Aunt Sarah said. "I read about Harry in many books and none of them mention Lily Potter having a twin sister!" Hermione shouted. "I'll tell you many things those books, authorised by your idol Albus Dumbledore, never mentioned," Aunt Sarah added, "Vernon and Petunia Dursley are registered magic haters. By law, Harry should not have been placed with them. They were the ones who dumped Harry on me, myself being in the Potter wills as guardian after Sirius Black." "That's a lie!" Hermione continued. "How do you know? Have you investigated the register? Do you know what was in the will?" Aunt Sarah asked, "Do you take everything Dumbledore says as gospel?" "She does," Ron Weasley said, "if it's not in a book either endorsed by Dumbledore or in the Hogwarts library, then it's a lie." "Miss Granger," Aunt Sarah said, "please go away and do not embarrass yourself any further." Hermione stormed off.

In the absence of supporters from his school, Daphne, Luna and the Weasleys arranged a support group themselves. Theodore Nott from Slytherin joined in along with Neville Longbottom and Marianne Valentine (who hated Cedric Diggory with a passion) who was also joined by members of each house. A few of them had helped Harry research some curses and hexes to use. The Reductor curse wasn't taught until seventh year DADA in Sydney, the spell being used by a fourth year roughly ten years ago when bullying a first year and the student in question was almost killed. Headmistress Daniels ruled that the spell was to only be taught to seventh years taking NEWT level Defence Against the Dark Arts to try and prevent such an incident happening again. All this made Harry feel slightly bad about abandoning them to return to Australia. The champions were led out to the Quidditch pitch. Harry had not been there (except for when Crouch held the first meeting about the third task) despite an invitation from several students to go flying. The hedges were now over fifteen feet tall, with four entrances, which Harry theorised was for each champion to enter the maze. Mr. Crouch cast the loudspeaker charm on himself. "Welcome to the third task. This morning, something was taken from our champions and put in the middle of the maze. Their task is to find their treasure for the treasure will provide the vital clue needed to find out about the final task. There will be many obstacles to prevent them from succeeding however. "Right now, Miss. Delacour is in the lead so she will enter the maze first followed by Mr. Potter, Mr. Diggory and Mr. Krum. The first three will get to pick the entrance they get to enter." He turned to the champions. "If in any case, you find yourself in trouble and need to forfeit the task, then send up red sparks with your wand." Crouch said, "The task starts now!" Fleur walked to an entrance and walked through. A minute later, the entrance sealed itself. A few minutes later, Harry picked an entrance and walked into the maze, the entrance closing behind him. He reached into his pocket and took out the map then activated it. He traced a quick route