Runes Master

Final Frontier

Time passed once again and Harry worried more and more. He got the meeting he asked for with Dumbledore but he didn't learn anything more than anybody else at Hogwarts already knew. The true Moody was found in his magical trunk after it was forced open. He was in too bad of a shape to keep teaching, and missed his magical eye. Percy Weasley, who was chosen to replace Mr. Crouch as judge, was given the task to be the interim teacher for DADA. He could, at least, teach theory and the basics. The Weasley was horrified by the curriculum of his predecessor. He went to a strict study-practice schedule that, at fault of being original, kept them up to date.

Harry didn't mind much. He was studying and progressing on his own. To develop some awareness and awaken the muscles he neglected this year for rune books, Harry had his friend throwing spells at him. He simply had to dodge. Ron, Hermione and Luna were sending tripping jinxes one after another. Hermione winced more than once when he landed on his rear, but she understood the need to be aware of your surrounding in a maze.

Stunner, shields, immobilization, explosion, repelling, attracting, orientation spells and many more were practiced in an endless chain to remember each and every one of them in battle. He even practiced a variant of the snake summoning spell to have scouts in the labyrinth.

Harry's rune project was finally taking form and he started to test it secretly under everyone's nose. It needed a few adjustments, but Luna and he worked restlessly at it. Harry had to take a few days to power up all the runes necessary. The result was grand. Luna and Harry, the day right before the Third task, looked at their work in awe.

"We did it, Luna. I wouldn't have been able to do it without you," Harry said dreamily, probably the result of too much time working with the blond Ravenclaw.

"We sure did, and thank you. That's nice of you to say that, knowing you drew the vast majority of the runes there," she answered modestly.

"In this particular case, you know that the drawing of the runes wasn't the hardest part. Your speed increased something incredible by the way."

"Thank you again, Harry! Practice make perfect, and this project was the perfect opportunity. What are we going to use it with first?" she asked, curious.

Harry smiled wide.

"Don't worry. I know just the perfect thing."

Fleur, Viktor, Cedric and Harry were standing in front of a humongous wall of green. Harry wondered how they would clean the field once they would be done.

"The champions will be going in one after the other, depending on the score they had. The more points they gathered, the earlier they get in. The order will be: Harry Potter, Fleur Delacour, Cedric Diggory and finally but not the least: Victor Krum! Cheers for those four courageous souls that will face the unknown in this last task!"

Harry really thought that this man was enjoying this too much. Wasn't it a few weeks ago that a judge was Imperiused and killed? Harry and his friends kept their speculations of that event for themselves, but they didn't forget. This was the perfect occasion for Voldemort to trap him. Harry's moves would be predictable to an extreme in this Task. But how could Voldemort even try to get him? Last time, he didn't even have a body! His rare dreams along the years showed him that much. He had a… form, nothing more. No matter. He was as ready as he could be, given he wasn't allowed anything else than his wand. But wasn't cheating a part of the Tournament as well? He had one other thing with him, his trump card. He simply had to have the enemy in throwing distance.

"BANG!"

And there he went, running alongside the green walls. He figured that a running target would be harder to hit. If Voldemort was, somehow, waiting for him at the middle of this place, he had to reach him before anyone else.