Marauders' Godson Book 4: The Goblet of Fire

Chapter Thirty-Five

"Does it seem odd to you," Harry whispered, "that we haven't met anything yet, and it's been about ten minutes since we got into the maze?"

"Don't jinx our luck," Edward responded quietly, secretly agreeing with him.

Harry snorted. "Can't jinx what we don't have." Edward chuckled.

Cedric suddenly burst onto the path they were on. He was panting, and the left sleeve of his robes was smoking. Gabriel followed behind him, a cut on his face.

"Blast-Ended Skrewts?" Edward guessed.

"They're enormous!" Gabriel agreed. "We only just got away. Don't know why Hagrid got them in the first place."

Cedric shook his head. "Good luck," he told them both, then disappeared along another path with Gabriel right behind him.

"Hope we don't run into a Skrewt," Harry remarked.

"Mm," Edward agreed, leading him on.

They turned a corner, Harry slightly ahead, and found a dementor gliding towards them. Edward noticed the lack of frost and chill and hissed, "Boggart, Harry!"

Harry blinked. "Oh, right. Riddikulus!"

The dementor exploded into a cloud of smoke. Then it reformed into the Mirror of Erised. Edward groaned and raised his wand.

"Riddikulus!"

The reflection showed Edward wearing a clown outfit.

"That's almost as terrifying as the dementor," Harry snorted. "You as a clown, I mean."

"Better than the alternative," Edward pointed out flatly, and Harry gave him a concerned look.

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About ten minutes later, they ran into their second obstacle: a wall of mist. Harry looked incredibly confused. "What is it?"

"I think it's Anti-Gravity Mist," Edward said hesitantly, "but it could be..." He pointed his wand at the mist and intoned, "Veritatem Revelio!"

A blank, monotone voice spoke from the wand. "Anti-Gravitatis Caligo."

"Always right," Harry muttered with a smirk, earning a swat on the arm. "Oi, it's true!"

Edward laughed and muttered a few spells. The wall disappeared from view. "Let's-"

A loud scream interrupted him. Edward and Harry froze in alarm.

"Fleur?" Harry shouted.

Silence.

"What d'you reckon happened?" Harry whispered.

"Well," Edward frowned, "either Fleur met something from the maze -- I doubt it would make her scream that loudly -- or, Crouch Junior's made an appeara-" He froze. His mind had just made the connection.

"What?" Harry demanded immediately.

"Barty Crouch Junior is Alastor Moody," Edward breathed in Parseltongue. "Merlin, why didn't I see it before?" He cursed. "Expecto Patronum!"

The striped, transparent snake flew from his wand and turned, waiting. Edward quickly explained everything he'd learned about Crouch Junior and his suspicions about Moody, then finished with, "Barty Crouch Junior is disguised as Professor Moody." He added another complicated spell that made it so only Dumbledore could hear, then sent the Patronus off.

"What was that last spell?" Harry frowned.

"Well, we don't want anyone else to hear what we've learned, right?" Edward said dryly. "Dumbledore will let the right people know.