LIKE LIGHTNING | Harry Potter x Reader Fanfiction

⁕ the clock is ticking ⁕

Y/N's POV

The stands were jampacked with all the students from Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. I watched Harry as he was told the rules for the final third task. My palms were sweaty and I could feel my heart almost beating out of my very chest. This was it. After the tournament, things might finally get back to normal. The sky was turning a pretty shade of oxford blue and the stars twinkled above, but no matter how beautiful the castle looked against the setting sun, it was the least of my concerns. 

Something was nagging at me. Something other than the third task of the Triwizard Tournament. There was an ugly feeling building in the pit of my stomach. Everything had seemed off ever since I had seen the mysterious man with Professor Moody in his classroom. But I saw Professor Moody standing in the field right in front of me, and he looked perfectly normal. His fake eye whirring around in its capsule. 

I turned to Hermione, who was staring out at the high hedges in the Quidditch pitch. Her eyes traveling over the tops of the greenery. She was definitely thinking of all the different creatures that lived inside them. And then that thought made me feel worse. She saw my worried face and turned to me, concerned. 

"Are you alright Y/N? You look really pale." She expressed, grabbing my hand.

"I guess I'm just a bit worried for Harry, that's all." I said, ignoring any thought that said there was more than that. 

"I am too, but I'm sure he'll do great." she reassured. Ron was having the time of his life, and was laughing along with the twins and Ginny, who were sitting next to us. 

"Yeah... he will." I said, rolling out my shoulders and turning to hear was the rest of the group was discussing. 

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My nerves slowly left my body as the tournament went on. At times the crowd would die down, realizing that we were only staring at 20ish foot hedges. But then it would get rowdy again when there seemed to be movement in the bushes. The band that I never even knew we had would play tunes every few minutes and my voice was hoarse from screaming along with the twins. Only or twice did we see red sparks fly up into the air, and murmurs of suspicious ran through the crowd. Who could it be? 

Eventually we saw Fleur and Krum bring brought back to the stands along with a few of the other teachers. Fleur looked very frightened about what was in the maze and Viktor seemed disoriented, like he didn't know what was going on. It had been at leasta 2 hours since the four champions had entered the maze and I was feeling a slight push on my lower abdomen. Of course I had to go the the loo- right when the final two where close to the cup. 

Rolling my eyes at myself, I tapped Hermione's shoulder and told her that I would run down to the Quidditch pitch bathrooms real quick. She nodded her head and I sped off as fast as my feet could take me. I bumped my way through the stands, my eye still on the field. Nothing semed to be happening except for a couple of bushes moving in the back. Small patches of dark clouds would drift over the top of them. As if the maze was creating its own personal weather. 

I had almost reached the entrance of the locker rooms when I felt a hand grab the back of my shirt and pull me back. A gutteral scream left my mouth before a piece of fabric was put over my mouth and nose. I flailed my arms around, hoping to grab onto something but the world swam before I lost conscious and was plunged into darkness. 

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I was being dragged across the floors of the castle. I could tell without even opening my eyes. The stone floor had hiked up my shirt and the stone was scratching up my skin. Whoever had a hold on me was muttering to themselves. Something about how this would cause more trouble. Opening my eyes, I blinked a few times before trying to yell out. But I was gagged, and the more I tried to speak, the more the fabric got into my mouth, making it impossible to breath. At my small sound, my captor gripped me tighter before letting go of me with one hand and bringing some tainted fabric to my nose once more. I shook my head before falling back asleep. 

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I came back into consciousness once more. I was being lifted onto their shoulders. I was able to mumble once before I heard the sound of locks unopening and metal scraping on metal. I whimpered and tried to move my unbined arms to my back pocket where my wand was, but it had been taken. I felt myself being thrown down and I prepared for impact but felt myself fall for longer than expected. The walls around me were solid stone, a sort of brownish, and the colors streaked as I fell down into the chasm. I landed with a thud onto my side and heard a crack.  I had broken my arm. I cried out as much as I could and felt tears spring into my eyes. 

The pain was unbearable and my body shuddered as I cried on the hard dirt floor. And the wind had been knocked out of me, I gasped for breath. There didn't seem to be enough air and my chest moved up and down in rapid pace as I intook as much oxygen as I could through my nose. The last thing I saw before hitting the floor, was the same boy Harry and I had seen in the pensieve. His eyes wild and body wearing Professor Moody's clothes, he took a swig of the same flask I had seen every day of term.... it was Barty Crouch Jr.