Prankster's Champion - A Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty

Magnus was too busy staring in at the dark entrance tunnel of the maze, feeling his fingers tingling and a bubbling excitement to look up at the stands. This was the one task he felt truly prepared for, and he wanted to win.

"So... on my whistle, Harry and Magnus! Three - two - one -" Bagman blew his whistle, short and quick, and off the two ran. It was silent as soon as they entered, and the dim light from outside was even darker inside. "Lumos" both of them muttered, their wands flaring with light for them to see as they ran down the maze.

They came to a fork finally, and stopped just long enough to glance at one another. "Don't die," Magnus teased, grinning at Harry.

"See you," was all Harry replied before the two bolted once more going in opposite directions.

Magnus heard the whistle once more, signaling that Viktor had entered, and then a few minutes later after he'd taken a few turns, the third whistle for Fleur.

For a long while, Magnus didn't encounter anything. Dead ends were everywhere, and at times Magnus could swear the bushes were moving. After a time, he got fed up of finding himself in spots he thought he had been. He tugged out some parchment from his pocket, because what Ravenclaw wouldn't have spare parchment. Setting the end of his wand on it, he muttered a few words, before an almost inky substance leaked from his wand. A small, dark blue dot appeared on the parchment, and after a moment he pulled his wand back. He began moving, and the ink moved with him, dragging a long line behind it.

He was off once more, the parchment in one hand and wand firm in the other. The scream of Fleur was the first thing he had heard since the whistle, and it sent his heart racing. Looking around towards the sky, he saw no sparks, no sign of anything after that, and continued on.

The silence around him was deafening, worse than even the dark depths of the Black Lake. At least there he could hear ambiance. In the maze, there was nothing outside his own footsteps. It made his skin crawl. The silent isolation was worse than facing a dragon head on, that burnt his arm so badly he still got pity stares.

Ten more long minutes went by, and Magnus was certain the hedges were changing. The parchment showed many spots where he had turned before but turned out to be a dead end. Even so, he was making progress.

The sound of chittering behind him made him spin around, wand up and stuffing the parchment into a pocket. A massive, well over the six feet they had been earlier that year, Blast-Ended Skrewt had spotted him. It was surveying Magnus, and after a moment, suddenly darted forward.

Magnus waved his wand out towards the skrewt, his feet beginning to move him backwards, and a flash of red sprung forward from his wand. It slammed into one of the skrewts eyes and sent it skittering backwards. It only slowed for a moment though, and Magnus gritted his teeth. "Stupid buggar doesn't stun easily, huh." He grumbled to himself.

He found himself up against a hedge suddenly and growled, finding yet another dead end. He pointed at the ground, another nonverbal cast, and suddenly the scorpion-like creature found itself sinking into a massive pit of gooey mud. It let out wails of protest, attempting to pull its long legs up, but just found itself getting pulled deeper. Magnus huffed and waved his wand in a circle, pointed at the stinger poised to strike, and a thick glob of web shot out, latching on and wrapping around the stinger. Taking a running jump, Magnus used the web and swung himself over the body of the Skrewt, narrowly minching the pinchers, and took off running.

Magnus barreled around a few corners before slowing once more, his chest heaving for breath and hand so tight around his wand that his knuckles were white. Once more he pulled the parchment from his pocket and stared at it. He'd gotten even further into the maze, and with the long hedge corridors getting darker and darker, he was hoping he was getting close to the center.