The Veela’s Champion Chapter 14

The day of the third task of the Triwizard Tournament began with cloudy skies that went with a cold chill in the air.

A hedge maze that was twenty feet tall covered the entire Quidditch pitch, with stands sitting at the entrance to it where the Champions gathered. Behind them stood three schools worth of students, each section colored accordingly to their corresponding Champion.

He caught Apolline and Gabrielle, along with Fleur’s friend Aimee, watching them from the Beauxbatons section. The Hogwarts section was almost entirely yellow with Hufflepuff colors to support Cedric, although some of the Gryffindor younger years still wore red in support of him.

Eventually, after the stands seemed to fill up and everyone was ready, Bagman pointed his wand to his throat before muttering, “Sonorus.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am here to announce that the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! Currently in first place stands Mr. Harry Potter, with 89 points. In second place, and also from Hogwarts, stands Mr. Cedric Diggory with 85 points!” The Hogwarts section of the stands erupted in loud cheers. “Following them is Mr. Viktor Krum of Drumstrang Institute with his 80 points! And in fourth place is Miss Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons Academy with 71 points! Our champions current standing will dictate the order in which they enter the maze, starting with Mr. Potter!”

Harry made his way to the entrance to the hedge maze, and looked over at the other Champions. He caught Fleur’s eye, and she nodded at him, and he sent a smile back.

“On my whistle, Harry.” Bagman said. “Three - two - one!”

The whistle blew and he rushed into the maze, the tall hedges casting dark shadows which made it difficult to see. Harry took the first right turn once inside, and immediately took another left as he followed the maze to the outskirts. He didn’t know where exactly the maze’s exit would be, and so he was left blindly navigating through the hedges.

Faintly, in the distance he could hear Bagman’s whistle blow again, and for a moment Harry was tempted to double back and search for Fleur. They hadn’t worked together in the second task, and it had worked out badly for her, which made Harry want to help her this time around.

That said, the two of them had an unspoken agreement to do the tasks on their own. It began with their wager in the first task, with the two of them only cooperating on learning the bubblehead charm for the second task. There was also the part about the third task being a maze and not underwater, meaning Fleur wouldn’t be hindered as much.

He continued to make his way through the maze, often having to double back all while trying to remember sections he already navigated. Dead ends seemed to constantly appear, all while Harry dodged magical creatures like acromantulas as well as strange magical obstacles.

“~damn, shit!” He heard someone exclaim as he made his way through a new area.

Harry turned a corner to see Cedric sprinting towards him with dirt lining his clothes which were also partly singed. “What happened?”

“Some of Hagrid’s blast-ended skrewts are in here with us!” Cedric exclaimed.

As if hearing him speak, one of the giant creatures appeared from far behind where Cedric was running. It looked like a giant scorpion mixed with a crab, an intimidating stinger at its back with fire being sprouted from its front.

Harry didn’t wait around, instead followed Cedric’s lead as he took off and began blindly racing through the maze once again. The older Hufflepuff separated from him at some point, leaving Harry alone and lost once again.

That was when he heard Fleur scream.

“Fleur. Fleur!” He called out, running in the direction of her screams.

He sprinted around several turns and continued running as her screams got louder. He soon ran around one corner, with Fleur’s screams becoming practically deafening to his ears signaling how close he was. That was when he saw her bloody and broken body.

Fleur was a mess of shredded blonde hair and crimson blood, her Beauxbatons uniform torn to smithereens by whatever spells injured her. She looked up at him with one swollen blue eye, her other eye missing, while she desperately tried to move towards him.

That was when he felt her Veela allure wash over him… or rather, something that was a poor imitation of Fleur’s Veela magic. Her expression changed to possess a manic smile unlike anything he had seen before, her arm reaching up towards him.

“Riddikulus.”

He let out a shaky breath when his spell made contact and dispelled the Boggart, making it vanish with a poof of smoke. Harry was connected with his girlfriend in an intensely intimate fashion, and knew what her magic felt like from being with and around her so many times. As such, he was well-versed with the feeling of Fleur’s Veela allure, and could instantly tell the half-assed attempt the Boggart made at imitating her.

‘I must be getting close.’ Harry mentally told himself, guessing that he must be heading the right direction if he was running into so many obstacles. As such he continued walking and making random turns throughout the maze until he found himself facing a very unexpected sight.

A creature he had only read about in myths and tales, along with some of his books on magical creatures, stood in front of him. It had the body of a lion with the head of a beautiful woman, as it sat calmly before him without attacking. ‘A Sphinx.’

“You are near your goal. The quickest way is past me.” It spoke to him.

“Can I move past you then?” said Harry, guessing what the answer was going to be.

“No, not unless you can answer my riddle. Answer on your first guess — I let you pass. Answer wrongly — I attack. Remain silent — I will let you walk away from me unscathed.”

His stomach flipped in worry, a bead of sweat rolling down his brow. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

The sphinx then began to recite its riddle.

“ First think of the person who lives in disguise,

Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies.

Next, tell me what’s always the last thing to mend,

The middle of middle and end of the end?

And finally give me the sound often heard

During the search for a hard-to-find word.

Now string them together, and answer me this,

Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?”

“Something I would be unwilling to kiss?” Harry thought aloud, trying to transition his mind from being focused on fighting through the maze to solving a riddle of all things. “As well as someone who lies and uses disguises? That must be a imposter… no, a spy? Could you repeat the poem?”

The sphinx smiled, and did as he asked.

“A hard to find word? And string that together with ‘spy’? I… um, spy-um? No, er… wait, er?” The riddle snapped into place. “Spy-er? Spider?”

The sphinx smiled more broadly, and its legs stretched over to let him pass. Harry just stood there stupefied for a moment, before grinning and walking past the creature. “Thanks!”

He didn’t sprint through the next section of the maze, instead walking calmly as he continued on through until a distant blue light caught his attention. He turned towards it and began making his way over until he recognized that the light was in fact the Triwizard Cup.

Suddenly, a figure stepped in front of him and blocked the way. Harry blinked, his eyes adjusting to the light as Fleur’s face came into view. Unlike him, Fleur was unmarked and unscathed by the maze, not looking the slightest bit out of breath.

“Looks like you beat everyone.” He said with a slight smile.

“Oui.” Fleur said, and he could just feel the smugness radiating off her as she let him approach the cup while she stood nearby. “I figured I would wait for ze next person to show up before I took it. If it was Cedric or Krum, I’d either defeat them or just take it. But with you, I thought we could take it together.”

“Together?” Harry frowned, not liking the idea. “You were the one here first. You should take it.”

“There’s no sense in leaving you here for someone to retrieve you, Harry.” Fleur replied. “We can take it together and share ze victory”

“I’m not a legitimate Champion, you’re the one who entered the tournament wanting to make a name for yourself.” Harry felt himself getting irritated at her humility.

“There are more important things than fame and glory to me, mon amour.” She brushed a hand against his cheek softly, and all of his frustration seemed to dissipate. “Do this for me, Harry.”

“Very well.” He caved, feeling exhausted after reaching the end of the tournament. “I’ll take the cup with you.”

“We take it together!” Fleur nodded. “On three!”

“One!” She called out.

“Everything is part of the plan, Wormtail.” For some reason, Voldemort’s words from his dream replayed in his mind then. “The maze. The cup. The champions. Every thread is woven into the same tapestry, all leading to the boy coming to me.”

“Two!” Fleur continued counting.

“Soon he will arrive, and if he survives the ritual… then I’ll make him watch as I torture his little whore.”

“Three!” She finished counting, and Harry reached for the cup at the same time Fleur did. And yet, right as he made contact and the world began to spin, he still remembered Voldemort’s words.

“But before I dispose of the Veela… maybe I’ll let you and my other Death Eaters take turns on her, Wormtail.”

/////

“BWAH!” Harry nearly threw up as they landed, his vision spinning as his back slammed violently against the ground.

“eep!” Fleur was only moderately more graceful, not fully falling to the ground as her hands managed to hold her up. “Mon dieu! What was zat?”

He groaned as he sat up, managing to somewhat recover as he looked around. That was when Harry froze, realizing that they weren’t back at Hogwarts nor at the start of the maze like he expected. Instead they were in a graveyard, one that he eerily recognized.

The tussle of earth signaled the arrival of someone else then, as a dark cloaked figure headed their way with a blanketed cloth bundle in their arms. He could just make out their words as they came closer. “~are two of them, my Lord. What shall I do?”

A high, cold voice, spoke then. “Kill the spare.”

The cloaked figure raised its arm, revealing a wand that was pointed directly at Fleur. Harry shot up in panic, reaching towards her. “Fleur, move-”

His body jerked in pain suddenly, his scar burning as he began to writhe in agony. All the while he couldn’t help but watch as the cloaked figure moved in for the kill.

“Avada Kedavra!”

The green light left the cloak figure’s wand, heading directly at Fleur. Harry could only watch in horror, the light moving too fast for him to do anything in his agonized state.

And yet Fleur reacted fast enough, darting out of the way as she slid to the side with a grace only a Veela could possess. She didn’t raise her wand to fight back, as that would have taken too long, as she instead raised her hand. Out of her bare palm came a fireball that she launched at the cloaked figure, and it darted across the clearing before hitting both him and the bundle he carried.

A shrill shriek split the air, the man’s robes burning away to reveal the visage of Peter Pettigrew underneath. The man who betrayed Harry’s parents screamed himself hoarse as Fleur’s Veela fire burned him, and in his panicked state he dropped the blanketed bundle which was also partially on fire.

Harry managed to collect himself then, the pain from his scar dissipating as he sat up and stood. He then pulled out his wand and pointed it at Pettigrew. “Stupify!”

His spell collided with a panicked Peter Pettigrew while he was desperately trying to put out Fleur’s Veela fire, sending him flying across the clearing before he collided with a large headstone. Strangely enough, Harry couldn’t help but recognize the name upon it.

TOM RIDDLE

“Just what is going on?” Harry couldn’t help but ask aloud.

“Oui, I was wondering ze same.” Fleur said from his side, her wand out and pointed at Pettigrew’s unconscious form.

The pieces were slowly snapping into place within the confines of Harry’s mind then, as he slowly turned to face the blanketed bundle that Wormtail had dropped. It laid on the ground innocently, the front of it turned away from them. He approached it with his heart beating loudly, and reached out with a foot to nudge it over.

“Harry Potter!” The disgusting face of Voldemort faced him then, as the Dark Lord occupied the tiny body within the bundle.

“What is that?!” Fleur asked in horror from behind him.

“It’s Voldemort.” Harry noted, his voice coming out calmer than he actually felt.

He studied the Dark Lord’s infantile body, seeing that much of it had been scorched from Fleur’s attack. Both of its arms were burnt and nearly dismembered, with half its body and face not much better off. In fact, Harry was shocked he was still alive.

“I never should’ve trusted that incompetent rat.” Voldemort spat in contempt. “So much planning and preparation, only to be inconvenienced by some Veela whore.”

Fleur hissed in irritation, all while Harry kept his wand pointed at the baby form of Voldemort. “So you’re the one who put me in the tournament? And it was all so that I could get here? What exactly did you want with me anyways?”

“Isn’t it obvious, Potter?” The Dark Lord glared at him. “A new body to signify my return, along with disposing of you for good. After you were dead, there would no one to stand in Lord Voldemort’s way.”

“I’ve heard enough of zis!” Fleur pointed her at Voldemort, infuriated over the thought of Harry being killed. “Let’s kill him and be done with it.”

Voldemort let out a laugh that sounded downright creepy in his baby form. “Foolish girl! You cannot kill Lord Voldemort.”

“He’s right.” Harry agreed, causing Fleur to look at him in shock. But he wasn’t about to give up, and wouldn’t return empty handed. “But we can bring him back to Hogwarts with us, and from there hand him over to Dumbledore and the Ministry. They’ll make sure to show how weak you’ve really become, Tom, able to be beaten by two teenagers when you had every advantage imaginable. We’ll expose who you really are, a Dark Lord trapped in the body of a baby who’s still bitter about his muggle father abandoning him.”

Voldemort’s infantile form became so red with rage that Harry thought he would explode, the infant’s veins becoming visible as the Dark Lord fumed. Suddenly, Voldemort closed his eyes, and his entire body became frozen before he spoke. “This will not be the last time we meet, Harry Potter-”

“Stupefy.”

He knew exactly what Voldemort was trying to do in that moment, in that he was going to turn into a ghost and leave his body like he did in Harry’s first year. And so Harry acted quickly, using the stunning spell while hoping it wouldn’t kill Voldemort in his weakened state.

He turned to Fleur then, his Veela girlfriend watching him with a hooded gaze that signified they would be very busy after arriving back at Hogwarts. Yet their activities could wait for later, as Harry instead told her his plan. “I’ll restrain Voldemort and Pettigrew, and you can grab the cup to take us back to Hogwarts.”

Soon they would arrive back at Hogwarts with a beaten and restrained Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew in tow, and Harry’s life would become much easier from that point onwards.

Disclaimer: All Characters are over the Age of 18.