Eric was in a good mood recently, which made Ginny uncomfortable. Maybe it was the most recent article in the paper? Rita Skeeter had changed tact, suddenly portraying Eric as some misunderstood genius. Framed for everything he had done wrong by a jealous Fleur and Krum who were angry about being upstaged by people younger than them. Ginny was barely mentioned at all. Ginny wondered what had caused Skeeter’s sudden change of heart when she’d been almost completely framing Eric as a villain up to now.

It was almost time for the final task, in early May. It had originally been supposed to take place in late June, but Dumbledore had requested it to be moved earlier according to the rumors. It would take place the day after everyone’s final exams finished. Even after exams were finished there was usually a full week before everyone left on the Hogwarts express. It was supposed to be extra time if people needed to make up exams or the highest level NEWT exams for the seventh years needed some extra time for the practical tests. Basically, Hogwarts just wanted to make sure the Hogwarts express would only have to make a single trip for even the stragglers so they added that extra week just in case.

Exams were done. Lockhart was bragging about how he’d taught Ginny and especially Eric everything he knew and that with his help they would obviously win the whole thing. A pretty obvious guess based on the results from so far. Fleur and Krum looked grumpy, even if they still seemed to have hope that they could win the final event.

Ginny’s friends had wished her well and brought out their little flags to cheer for her again from the stands. It was the day of, and what had used to be an open field near the great lake had transformed into a massive hedge maze.

All four of the champions were lined up in front of the maze.

“All right folks!” Ludo Bagman said, “The task is about to begin. As a reminder, the Champion’s goal is to reach the center of the maze and touch the Triwizarding trophy there first. The champions will go out with a delay in minutes equaling their difference in points in the events so far. In first place is Ginny Weasley with a combined score of sixty two between the first and second task. Next is Eric Potter with a combined score of Fifty nine. Then Fleur Delacour with Fifty seven. Then finally Victor Krum with Fifty six. So Ginny Weasley’s first, three minutes more to Eric Potter, two minutes for Fleur Delacour, then one last minute before Victor Krum enters. It may not seem like much folks, but competitions like this can be won by mere seconds! Our two older competitors will have to work smart and fast to defeat our two younger Hogwarts champions! Between them and the center of the maze will be all sorts of enchantments and beasties to test their wit and strength.”

Fleur and Victor both gave Ludo Bagman a glare at that, but the man ignored them.

“Nooowwwww. Let the final task of the Triwizarding Tournament begin! For all the glory, for ultimate victory! Let our Champions fight through the maze to prove which of the three schools has the brightest young witch or wizard of their generation! Ms. Weasley will go first on the blast of the cannon. Caretaker Filch, why don’t you set us off?”

There was a moment, then in a giant blast the old school caretaker lit the fuse on the giant cannon. With a giant boom, there was a loud flash as the gunpowder inside went off and let out a plume of smoke.

Ginny turned to the maze and started jogging into the gap into the maze. If she had to win this so Eric wouldn’t, then that was what she was going to do. After he had almost drowned Alexa, she wouldn’t let him get away with it and reap the rewards of being the winner after everything.

The opening into the maze closed behind her and the cheering of the crowd suddenly disappeared and she was dropped into eerie silence. Only the sounds of slithering branches and rustling of leaves sounded around her. Ginny used her magic senses to feel around her and froze when she detected everything around her. The hedge… It was one creature shifting and squirming. Changing the paths just out of sight even as the section around Ginny remained the same. The vines and branches undulated just behind the hedge walls like the beating of an ancient heart pulsing through it.

Ginny felt a bead of sweat form on her brow as she looked around to the visually still corridor of motionless hedges in front of her with T junction thirty feet away.

She used her magic tendrils to grab her clothing and lift herself upwards in hopes to rise above the maze. But as she neared the top, the tall walls of the hedge tilted inwards and formed a closed arch above her. The branches fused together as Ginny darted farther to try to get around them. But in moments the whole top section had tilted inwards and plunged her into darkness. Ginny quickly returned to the ground, not wanting to waste too much of her magic.

She raised her wand and cast a lumos charm to light up the area. She eyed one of the walls of the hedge maze. Maybe she could cut through… But she shuddered as she imagined the whole mass of living branches attacking her all at once. Yeah, best not to risk it…

Well, no flying above, no cutting through the walls. She’d just have to run through the maze and hope that the thing wouldn’t attack her unless she did it first.

So she started jogging through the maze, her wand held at the ready as she used her magic sense to detect any threats. After a minute or so the tall walls of the hedge maze shifted again to straighten and revealed the sky above and a little light filtered down to where Ginny ran.

The maze kept squirming disturbingly just out of sight and trying to confuse her by shifting the maze's path when she wasn’t looking. But Ginny could sense what it was doing. She took the turns that might go towards the center. Unfortunately she soon figured out that she was not the best at navigating so even when she saw what the maze was doing she had difficulty figuring out which way was deeper into the maze and which was closer to the edge.

Ginny was glad for Alexa making her exercise for so long. She’d been jogging at a decent pace for minutes and she was only slightly out of breath after getting so in shape. She wondered if Eric was in the maze by now…

— — —

Fleur pushed through another obstacle room. Occasionally the maze would open up and form a larger clearing with an additional challenge. Fleur figured that she had to complete these challenges to get deeper into the maze. She had a tracking spell that she was using to navigate to the center, and it always led her to the clearings. But it kept changing what way she should go, the right path to the center. She wasn’t sure what was causing it, but she was sure she was steadily making her to the center as the spell guided her. She was already at a disadvantage with her being so many minutes behind Ginny and Eric so she had to be fast.

Fleur wouldn’t mind if Ginny won. It would bother her of course and be a disappointment after how hard she’d worked for this. But Fleur could shake Ginny's hand and know that there would be no hard feelings between them. Even Krum was alright enough, even if it would be a surprise if he were to win over her. Especially since he was even at a larger disadvantage than she was.

Now Eric on the other hand… Eric had to lose. He had been insufferable ever since she had gotten last place on the second task. Always taunting her in the hallways about her loss and ignoring the anger of the boys that always trailed behind her like hungry dogs looking for scraps. Those boys all disgusted her. Yet they chased away most of the others that tried to bother her. Eric hadn’t cared and taunted her anyways.

She finished the clearing challenge, she had to pierce a set of wards to reveal the path onwards that had been concealed up to now. She ran through the exit and deeper into the maze. Suddenly she turned the corner and saw Eric coming at her from the opposite direction.

“Oh, Fleur?” He called out as he came to a stop, “Fancy seeing you here. Still ready to lose? Guess this is the wrong way if you’re here. I must have really backtracked somehow.”

Fleur felt her anger flare as Eric turned around, dismissing her completely and started jogging off in the other direction. She gritted her teeth. She’d sworn to her Veela mother that she’d never use this. Her mother had told her it was only for if a lovestruck man was about to attack her and she had to defend herself.

But she couldn’t lose! She reached within herself and felt her magic rush to her command and gather in her lips.

“ErIc, sToP,” Fleur said with a massive pulse of magic, “You LoVe mE. YoU’d do AnYtHing fOr mE, WoUldn’t yOu? YoU shOuLd hElp me wiN as a siGn of yOur loVe, Eric.”

Eric froze and turned around with a slack jawed expression on his face. After a moment of looking at her, his eyes glazed over as he stared at apparently nothing.

“Of course my love,” He said slowly, “I’d do anything for you.”

Fleur let out a sigh of relief and allowed her magic to sink back within herself away from her mouth. It was just another spell. Her mother would never need to know. And the spell should stop his devotion to her after an hour or two. Plenty of time to win the competition while he still followed her orders.

“Show me the place you were last that you thought was deeper in the maze,” Fleur ordered.

“Of course, my love,” Eric said in a breathless tone. He turned and started jogging back the way he came. What Fleur didn’t see was Eric’s face spread in a wicked grin and his lovestruck expression faded away as soon as his back was to her. Now wasn’t this just rich…

— — —

Ginny sent a bright lumos charm in a bright flash at the pack of five acromantulas gathered at the center of the clearing. The large spiders all startled as she did it the second she emerged from the maze. They scattered, but slowed as they reached the edge of the space. Ginny puffed up to make herself big and imagined what Hagrid had done with the first Thestral to scare it off last year.

“Rah! Gah! Away spiders!” She shouted as she blasted them with bursts of light with her wands. The spiders hesitated but after blasting her light at them one more time to scare them, it broke their resolve and they fled, crawling up the walls of the hedge and over the top to flee. The hedge across the way rippled and opened the gap to the next section of maze once they were gone.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Ginny went through the maze again, running as it shifted around her just out of sight. She reached another clearing. It appeared to be empty. She looked around as the path behind her closed to leave only an uninterrupted hedge behind her again.

Suddenly she spotted the exit to the clearing to her right. That was odd, was there no challenge for this one? Ginny started running towards the exit, only to stop when she saw a body sprawled on the ground. Her heart pounded as she ran as she recognized who it was. No, it was impossible… She couldn’t be in the maze! Had Eric done something?

Alexa’s head rolled over and Ginny saw that there was water pouring out of her lips. She wasn’t breathing.

Ginny stood over Alexa’s body hyperventilating and panicking as she tried to think of what to do. Alexa!

She was about to cast a spell, when she suddenly stopped. Wait, what was happening? Why would Alexa be drowning in the center of the maze? Suddenly in a burst of realization Ginny angrily pointed her wand at the drowning Alexa.

“Exilium!” She chanted. The boggart shifted into a dozen different forms and let out a piercing wail as her spell tore it into pieces and dispersed it into raw energy again, destroying the controlling consciousness of the ghost-like creature.

Ginny sagged slightly before shaking her head and recovering. Probably overkill for just a boggart, but…

Ginny continued to the exit to the clearing and stomped hard a few times on the ground where the Boggart had been to clear out the last dregs of her anger. Stupid thing making her think that Alexa was in trouble… She hated Boggarts.

She continued in the maze and kept going. She suddenly stopped as she heard Eric’s voice from just around the corner.

“...final challenge before the end. Thanks for the help. We can’t let you control more minds with those luscious lips. I’m doing everyone a favor by sealing them. Who knows how many men have fallen prey to you already? A few days of silence ought to teach you a lesson about brainwashing people…”

There were some muffled feminine groans as Ginny’s eyes widened and she raced around the corner. She gasped as she took in the scene. Fleur was sinking into the side of the hedge maze, her wand on the ground. Eric had a needle and thread of magic and was nearly finished sewing Fleur’s lips closed with a thread of magic in a series of stitches. Fleur was groaning in pain with tears running down her face as she was slowly sinking into the walls of the maze. Eric was taunting her as he kept sewing her mouth closed with his magic. Little bleeding holes lined her lips top and bottom as Eric pierced them with his invisible needle of magic and his magic threads threaded through them.

The both of them turned to look at Ginny as she stood there in shock at seeing the scene.

“Oops, this is awkward,” Eric said, “But you know how it is, Ginny. Cutthroat competition. Got to do everything you can to win. A little mind control here, a bit of well earned revenge for it there.”

“Let her go!” Ginny said.

“Why should I? I was having so much fun. She tried to control my mind! I think the turnaround is only fair. Why should I let you stop me? I’m between you and the trophy. I can take as much time as I like with Fleur here. We both know that as much as you’ve improved you still can’t take me on in a fight.”

Fleur tried to shout something but it came out as gibberish as her lips stayed stuck together as Eric’s thread kept them sealed.

“I know,” Eric told Fleur conversationally and used his magic to pull her out of the hedge slightly so she didn’t sink fully inside, “It’s rather tragic that she’ll be forced to watch and do nothing as I finish up with you. Now let’s keep sewing, I was almost done…”

“I saved your life!” Ginny said, “Don’t you remember, you ungrateful piece of shit! I could have let you die but I sent Fawkes to save you! Let her go!”

Eric turned to her in disbelief, “You’d use that on this? You barely even know Fleur. What about your friends? I thought you would save it for one of them. I don’t want to harm them right now, but that might change someday.”

“Let her go,” Ginny repeated in a wavering tone.

Eric hesitated for a second before letting out a disappointed sigh, “Gah, fine. But we’re really even after this. No more calling in that card in anymore.”

He tugged Fleur out of the wall of the hedge maze. He lifted Fleur’s discarded wand and tossed it into the rapidly closing divot in the hedge with his magic. In seconds the hedge was a flat wall again and the wand was buried deep within. Eric dropped Fleur to the ground.

“Alright, you can have her,” Eric said, “I’m going to go ahead and win. I had no idea you liked her so much. Only one more challenge before the trophy itself. Fleur’s helpful little spell confirmed it.”

Eric turned and jogged a few feet and turned the corner. Ginny sensed him entering a large clearing with her magic even as she rushed up to Fleur who was still on the ground tearing at her sealed lips with her hands and trying to scream.

Ginny got close and grabbed Fleur on the shoulder as she sat there tearing at her face with her fingernails.

“Fleur! Fleur I can fix it. Just stay still and I’ll fix it,” She said urgently. Fleur paused and nodded urgently with desperation in her eyes as she stared up at Ginny from where she sat on the ground.

“Mmmmhhhhh!” Fleur said as she kept nodding.

Ginny reached down and tapped her wand on Fleur’s lips. At the same time as she tapped it, she had her magic tendrils go through and disrupt Eric’s odd magic thread, an enchantment of some sort. It shattered and Fleur let out a gasp as her lips came unsealed.

Fleur started babbling at Ginny in French and looked rather panicked.

“Calm down, I don’t speak French, I don’t understand,” Ginny said, “Wait, just stay still. Let me just heal your lips real quick. You’re still bleeding a bit.”

Fleur went silent and stared up at Ginny without saying anything.

“Episky. Episky. Episky,” Ginny chanted and the little holes Eric had pierced in Fleur’s lips healed over to show fresh skin again.

Fleur wiped at her bloodstained lips and felt at them with her fingers for a moment before appearing to calm down.

“Thankz you,” She said in relief with a heavy french accent, “Thatz was horrible. He iz a madman.”

Ginny reached down and helped Fleur to her feet.

“Are you okay? He didn’t do anything else to you?”

“No,” Fleur said, quickly returning to her normal unaccented English as the panic began to fade from her voice, “That was it. He ambushed me. I thought that I’d enchanted him with my voice, but he still attacked me somehow.”

“Well, first off don’t try to mind control people,” Ginny said, “But whatever you did, your Veela magic in your voice, it never worked on him. He was just playing with you if you thought it did.”

Fleur was confused, “What? But he was with the other boys, the ones that always follow me around and think that I do not notice them. Why…”

“He wanted to listen to your voice,” Ginny said, “So he could make it into a spell he could use himself. He wants to replicate your Veela magic, he just used those other boys as cover so you would think he was the same as them. Luckily I’m pretty sure he gave it up, it must not be as easy for him to copy as he had hoped…”

“That… You knew this? What he was like, this whole time?”

“Pretty much. Look, we’ve got to get out of here. He might come back and try to do something else horrible after grabbing the trophy.”

“No,” Fleur suddenly said before grabbing Ginny by the shoulders, “You must go on. We can not let him win the tournament, get away with what he did. I will act as a distraction for you.”

“But… you’ve got no wand,” Ginny said, “You have no idea, he’s too powerful. He’d defeat me in seconds. All we’d be doing is putting ourselves more at risk for no reason. You at risk most of all since you don’t even have a wand.”

Fleur hesitated before shaking her head, “No. Don’t worry about me. I can take it. I’ll distract him and you sneak around. You only have to reach the trophy first, you do not have to take him down.”

Ginny hesitated, “Are you sure? We should just leave, it’s not worth it. It’s just a trophy.”

“I know,” Fleur said with anger blazing in her eyes, “But it can not be Eric’s trophy, I couldn’t stand it. That’s all that matters. Do you understand?”

After a moment, Ginny nodded back. “Okay. I understand.”

“Alright, Ginny,” Fleur said with a deep breath, “Behind me, I’ll go first. If you give me your wand for a moment then I will cast all the charms I know to hide you.”

Ginny hesitated, but then complied. After Fleur cast a dozen charms at Ginny, she offered the wand back to Ginny after only a second’s pause.

The two of them ran in the direction Eric had disappeared off to, the last clearing between him and the trophy that would let him win the whole tournament…

— — —

Eric groaned as he looked down on the battered Sphinx.

“C’mon you stupid cat… person thing. Just let me through the wards already. I can see the stupid trophy right there.”

“You… You must solve my riddles first,” The Sphinx groaned.

“Quit wasting my time! They were way too hard and I defeated you in battle anyway. Just let me through already!”

“I won’t drop the wards unless you solve my riddles. It doesn’t matter if I am defeated or not. It is my duty to only let those who solve the riddles pass, to the best of my abilities. Including keeping the wards up as long as I can.”

Eric hesitated and then groaned.

“Gaaaaahhhhh! I made it almost to the end with my restrictions too! I’ll have to do it myself, I wasn’t put in Ravenclaw and forced to solve stupid riddles all the time for a reason.”

Eric reached out and felt the ward keeping him from the trophy that he could see just beyond the barrier. On the other end he could see three long and thin paths coming from the other end of the maze in a rough circle. Huh, maybe this wasn’t the only path to the center?

Eric felt the weak part of the ward and pushed with his magic. It was strong, resisting his efforts for a few seconds before shattering. Even then the whole ward didn’t fall, only weakening a bit. Eric felt more weak points and began pressing on them to systematically dismantle the whole ward. The barrier between him and the shining trophy came down.

“Hey! Eric!” Fleur’s voice suddenly called out from the entrance, her mouth absolutely blazing with magic just like how she’d tried to control him from before.

“Fleur?” He said as he turned around with a smile. He had plenty of time to get the trophy, he was between her and the trophy, no way she made it past him, “What possessed you to come here after me? Alone? Ginny just left you behind and fled in fear? That’s out of character for her. Although she never really cared about the tournament anyways, only the Goblet of Fire’s magic stopped her from dropping out before every task. You should have heard her st-st-stuttering every time she tried to back out as the Goblet’s magic sank into her. It was hilarious. Oh, and you don’t even have a wand either. What are you even going to do to me?”

“I’ll tell the Aurors what you did, you brute!” She said, “You’ll be arrested!”

“Did what?” Eric said, “You look perfectly fine to me. Ginny must have fixed you up before she ran away. Seems to me you have no proof at all that I did anything to you at all.”

Fleur’s eyes flickered to the side and she started smiling. Eric whirled around and saw Ginny appearing from thin air next to the triwizarding trophy. Her hand was reaching out for one of the handles on its side.

“No!” Eric shouted and took his magic tendrils and looped himself around his clothing and launched himself at high speed towards Ginny and the trophy. Who knew how the Ministry or Dumbledore would verify who touched the cup first. He couldn’t lose now, when he was so close!

Eric was flying through the air at high speed, Ginny’s hand less than a foot from grabbing the trophy. Eric was flying through the air and felt his hand just barely brush the trophy first before Ginny touched it. Yes! He had done it despite the girls’ trick! Eric used his tendrils to stop his momentum as both Eric and Ginny curled their hands around the handle of the trophy fully.

“Hah!” Eric gloated as he looked at Ginny, “I got it firs-”

Before he could say more, a hidden enchantment in the trophy suddenly revealed itself. Before either of them could react the portkey enchantment unfolded itself and encapsulated the both of them in bubbles of magic. In a single instant the enchantment let out a powerful flash and the both of them were gone.