Chapter 43.3- Doom Days

Each of the floating stone platforms stood a considerable distance away from the ledge, and from each other, but it was clear that they made up some sort of path to the larger platform at the edge of the room. The platform that I could see that both Krum and Cedric were on their way to. That was probably where the next coin lay. I took a breath before casting a featherweight charm on myself. It took to some extent as I shot myself at the platform wit a silent venti. The wind charm blew me off like a canon, and to prove that. Had far from thought this through, I overshot the platform I’d been aiming for. Fuck.

‘Carpe retractum’ I mentally invented, sending my body flying back at the platform that I’d overshot by quite some margin. Of course when I saw the stone surface hurtling towards me— or was that the other way around? I rethought the plan and added a new element, casting a cushioning charm a scarce few seconds before I smashed into the rock. It felt like landing on a pillow. I’d overpowered that by a fair bit. Panic?

I turned to the next platform, trying to decide a different strategy. The present one was far from efficient. Cedric was essentially trying to split the platform into pieces and levitating rocks to form a stone bridge between him and his next platform. A single finite could ruin his whole thing and send him screaming to the ground. I wasn’t going to take a cheap shot like that in front of the wizarding world but there was no guarantee the others would be similarly restrained. Krum was too far away that I could clearly see how he was making the jumps but copying him was far from my intention. Especially since I’d had an idea.

This was going to hurt if it failed. I called to my mind as much of a frog’s anatomy as I could remember from my biology class, and then transfigured both my feet in one fell swoop. It was a quick transformation, never giving myself the chance to second guess my choice here and watching my legs morph underneath my trousers into giant frog legs. My featherweight charm was still in place so that was an additional boost. I took a breath before jumping, and this time, I only overshot thinnest platform by some small margin. After a quick carpe retractum and cushioning charm, I decided that this was working.

I took another breath before jumping to the next platform, and this one I nailed spot on. That was when I heard the sound of stone grinding and turned around to see that Fleur had arrived. I turned away from her and jumped to the next platform, before quickly jumping to the next one, overtaking Cedric smoothly. I decided my next target, and went for it only to be forced to seize and pull myself towards another platform as a spell shot through the space I was about to fly through.