Before the Third Task
Jake was irritated that he had been woken up in the wee hours of the morning and dragged across the entire school grounds just to see...
"Behold, champions!" Bagman spoke up. "This is your final task."
"It's a maze," Victor noted aloud.
"Indeed, it is a maze," Bagman responded. "But not just any maze. It is absolutely filled with dangerous magical traps and terrifying creatures that can't wait to leap out at you and take a bite!" He exclaimed with suspense in his voice. "That's why your maps from the second task are so important. Without them, navigating the ever-changing maze will be near impossible!" Bagman glanced at Fleur with pity. Most officials, himself included, believed she was a lost cause in the tournament without a map.
Looking at the maze with its tall plant walls, Jake raised his hand and asked a question. "So, how are the spectators supposed to see anything with these tall walls? It doesn't seem like a very fun event for them if they just watch us go into a maze and then can't see anything after." Jake's explanation made perfect sense to everyone there. "There were some students who complained about not being able to see what happened on the pirate ships in the second task because they were so high in the air."
"That's..." Bagman started before pausing. "Huh, we didn't really think about it, did we?"
"I believe I have an idea about that," Dumbledore spoke up. "There's a certain set of runes we can apply to each of the contestants' uniforms that will allow us to constantly scry their locations in real-time. Then we simply project our scrying spells onto a screen for everybody to see."
"That's absolutely brilliant!" Bagman snapped his fingers. "Well then, with all of that taken care of, why don't you all head back? You want to be well-rested for tomorrow, after all."
"Then why did you make us wake at the crack of dawn?" Jake muttered as he yawned to himself. He looked over at Harry, who was genuinely sleeping standing up. Jake wondered if he had heard any of the explanations at all...
Meanwhile, Fleur was glaring contemplatively at Victor. Jake figured she was truly gunning for him to steal his map.
With the unnecessary display taken care of, Jake headed back to bed...
…
A few hours later and with only a bit more sleep, Jake was sitting at the breakfast table with a yawn. Harry looked equally tired, almost falling asleep in his oatmeal.
"Honestly," Hermione muttered, upset next to her sleepy boyfriend, "why they felt the need to show you all the maze at the crack of dawn is beyond me. It's not like it wouldn't still be there at noon." The third task always had the highest fatality rate, and Hermione didn't want anything happening to Harry because he was too tired to react. "Make sure you go to bed extra early, alright Harry?" She said, to which he just tiredly nodded.
Jake felt a familiar tap on his shoulder and turned around to see Luna with Blaze in her arms, giving him a smile.
*Chirp chirp.*
His phoenix familiar Blaze, who he hadn't seen in a while. Looked like he was in the early stages of molting. 'He's growing up from a baby Phoenix to an adult Phoenix,' Jake thought, with a tear in his eye. 'They grow up so fast!'
"The final task is tomorrow," Luna said, somewhat seriously. Out of character for her usually nonchalant self, Jake noticed.
Jake gave her a nod. "That's right."
"Are you still planning on winning?" She asked him.
"You bet I am," Jake said confidently. "I'm finally going to get that prize money I've been waiting 6 months for!" He exclaimed. Surprisingly, instead of cheering him on, Luna just frowned to herself a bit. He wondered why Luna was looking so solemn about that. Was she afraid he'd get hurt in the competition or something?
"*Chirp... chirp.*" Even Blaze's chirps sounded unusually sad. 'What the hell was going on?' Jake wondered to himself.
"You're still on about getting some money," Hermione said. "Everyone's won way more than a thousand galleons from betting at this point."
Jake felt irritation at her comment. "Well, excuse me for being so bloody poor. I arrived at Hogwarts with nothing but the clothes on my back. I didn't have any money to bet." he said, feeling depressed.
Luna interrupted him by tapping on his shoulder. "Yeah, Luna?" Jake asked. "What is it?"
She had a shy look on her face. "Since tomorrow is your last day with the tournament and all, why don't we go out and do an early celebration, just you and me? Come on, let's go," she said, not even giving him the opportunity to argue as she casually dumped his molting familiar in Hermione's indignant arms and she started walking towards the exit of the Great Hall.
"Thanks for watching Blaze for us, Hermione!" Jake called out to her without giving her a chance to respond as he left to follow Luna. Jake figured an early celebration was a grand idea as he followed after her. He caught up to her in the hallway and asked where they were going. Luna told him they were going all the way to Hogsmeade.
Hermione back at the table just stared at the molting bird In her arms. "I don't even know what you're supposed to eat…"
"You should go ask Dumbledore he's also got a phoenix familiar doesn't he?" A helpful student spoke up as Hermione just let out a sigh and stood up to go talk to the Headmaster about what to feed a magical bird.
…
"So this is Hogsmeade, huh?" Jake commented as he looked around. "I don't know, I expected it to be grander, I guess, for how much the students talk it up." He was somewhat mildly disappointed that it was just one street and a handful of shops.
"It used to be... there used to be far more to the British Wizarding World than just Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. But sadly, the two Wars have taken a great toll on our population, and now this is all we have left. The fact that we even have a functional government with such a small population, in the first place, has always been a bit silly, in my opinion. My dad has written about that a bunch of times in the Quibbler. But not a lot of people read our paper. I think we only have something like seven subscribers in the past year," Luna explained.
"Oof," Jake thought to himself. "That's not exactly great numbers, there." He asked, "So how do you guys afford to, you know, live on such a meager income?"
"Oh, it's quite simple, really," Luna explained. "You know, wizards don't exactly cost much money. With magic, it's actually easy to grow our own food quickly, and we can repair any damaged clothing or housing with just a few charms. Most wizards actually live basically for free. Enough about that, though. There's Honeydukes! Let's go inside."
The two devils and one phoenix walked into the candy shop. "I don't really have any money at the moment to buy anything here," Jake admitted sadly.
"Oh, that's okay," Luna said. "I borrowed a bunch of money from Harry. He has plenty, after all the bets made on you." Jake just nodded, proud that Harry was coming in as a true bro again.
Knowing that it wasn't his non-existent money that was going to be spent, Jake and Luna went a little bit crazy and got almost one of everything candy-wise in the entire store. By the time they left, they had a mountain of chocolate in each of their arms, stacked a foot high, as they just snacked on the delicious treats in pure ecstasy.
"*Nom nom.* So, what else is there to do in this small little town?" Jake said as he devoured another bar of chocolate. One of the best perks of being a devil was that he could eat as much as he wanted and never gain any weight unless he wanted to. Luna herself was also enjoying this aspect as she finished her tenth chocolate bar in the past five minutes.
"Now we have to go to the Three Broomsticks. It's the only bar in town. Well, actually, there's another bar called The Boar's Head, but that one has a bunch of creepy drifters, and I don't think the owner ever actually washes his utensils or cups, which is weird because all it takes is the flick of his wand..." Luna rambled off.
The two of them walked into the Three Broomsticks and found that it was packed with Hogwarts students and older witches and wizards alike. Considering this was one of the three pubs in pretty much the entirety of Wizarding Britain, and the other two were basically dingy dung holes, Jake could see why this place was so much more popular. They sat themselves down at a secluded table that was mysteriously unoccupied because they were the protagonists. As the waitress approached, Luna ordered them butterbeers.
"Hey, this beer is pretty good," Jake said as he took a sip. "I'm also surprised that they're so willing to serve alcohol to kids in school."
"You'd have to drink a lot of these to get truly hammered," Luna said, taking a big gulp, "or just have a really low tolerance like that guy over there."
*Burp!* "Madame Rosmerta," the drunken man with a beer belly and a balding head, shouted out, "I love you so much, a-and I loooove your booze at this place toooo. More, please! And Marry me!"
Madame Rosmerta, who was currently tending the bar as the bartender, casually flicked her wand. A spray of water shot forth and blasted the man in the face, immediately sobering him up. Not sparing him another glance, she just continued serving another customer. 'That must happen quite often', Jake thought to himself. Luna was just giggling away at the show.
Eventually, they finished their drinks, and Luna grabbed Jake's hand, leading him to a new place, saying she had one last spot to show him. "It's a shame that you've been so busy with this tournament that you haven't really had a lot of time to explore Hogwarts and all of its interesting places this year," Luna said.
Jake couldn't help but agree with her. He had spent the majority of his time here training for the tournament or just learning magic in general. Hell, he barely even attended more than a handful of actual classes or socialized with as many people as he probably should have. He supposed he was just focused on other things. Maybe next year, if he was still going to Hogwarts, he'd be forced to actually attend classes and socialize and explore the place more. But those were thoughts for later.
"And here we are," Luna said as she led him up a large hill to the top. "Set at the top is the ugliest tree you've ever seen in your entire life. This," Luna said, "is the Whomping Willow."
Jake was only mildly interested. "So, what exactly is so special about this tree?" he asked.
Luna just giggled. "Why don't you walk up to it and touch it and see what happens?" Jake figured that didn't 'sound completely ominous at all' but he just shrugged as he walked up to the tree.
As Jake approached the tree's trunk within about 20 feet, the strangest thing he had ever seen happened. The entire tree bent backward, its branches forming a whip-like structure, and swung right at his head.
"Holy shit!" Jake exclaimed as he instinctively threw up a shield in front of himself. The massive tree branches smacked into the shield with tremendous force, causing significant cracks to appear. "Damn, that thing can hit hard," he muttered. He heard mad cackling from Luna behind him as he quickly retreated from the menacing tree and ran up to her. The tree angrily shook its branches at him before appearing still again. Jake wasn't going to fall for its trickery a second time. That was the last time he would ever approach the murderous tree.
Luna's eyes were teary from laughter as she giggled. "What the hell, Luna? I could have died there," Jake exclaimed exasperatedly, but soon he joined her in laughter. "Why the hell would they keep a tree like that in a school?"
Luna shrugged between her giggles and explained that it was one of the seven mysteries of Hogwarts. Nobody quite knew why it was there, except for Harry, who seemed to uncover the truth behind all the castle's mysteries.
Their little outing had come to an end as the sun began to set. They decided to head back to Hogwarts for dinner, although they weren't particularly hungry after devouring all the chocolate. Luna emphasized the importance of a balanced meal to keep Jake's strength up for the next day.
While walking back to the castle, Luna stopped and turned to Jake. "Thank you, Jake. I had a lot of fun today, and it has been the best year at Hogwarts for me ever! I never really had a real friend until you showed up," she said sadly.
"I'm glad I could spend time with you too, Luna," Jake replied. "And remember what you said to me on our first day? That was just our first adventure of thousands to come. Well, I'm looking forward to all of those in the future."
Luna's smile turned a bit sad, and she approached Jake. She asked him to bend down a little, and she planted a small kiss on his cheek. Jake felt a bit mortified by the display of affection, considering Luna was only 13, but she laughed it off and said it was for the possible future.
Luna smiled but still looked a bit sad. "I'm not going to say goodbye because that would be the wrong thing. Instead, I'll see you later, Jake. Yes, indeed, I will see you later, Jake Gremory." With that mysterious statement, she turned around and skipped back toward the castle, whistling a Wizarding tune Jake had never heard before. Unbeknownst to Jake, Luna had tears in her eyes because this was the last time she would see him for a long time…
…
The next day had arrived, marking the final day of the tournament. Jake and the other competitors had their own tents to prepare themselves to their absolute best.
The tent flaps opened, and Jake was surprised to see Serafall herself entering his tent. "Hi, Jake!" She said with a gleeful tone. "I just wanted to come and wish you good luck and let you know that I'll be watching and rooting for you personally." She then did something that shocked Jake a bit—she ran up and gave him a tight hug.
"I really appreciate that, Serafall," Jake said from within her embrace. "I'm glad you could take time off your busy work schedule to make it and watch me win this thing."
After about 20 seconds, they separated from the hug, and Jake noticed a tinge of sadness in Serafall's expression, similar to Luna's the night before. "Well then," Serafall said, "I don't want to keep you from where you have to go." She spoke solemnly, adding, "So I'll just say one last thing; I'll see you later, okay, Jake?" Without giving him a chance to respond, she solemnly left his tent.
"Geez," Jake said to himself, "Have Serafall and Luna been in secret communication or something? They're acting like I'm going to bite the dust here in this challenge. It's just a maze filled with a couple of man-eating creatures… I'll be fine," he said aloud, trying to pump himself up.
"CHALLENGERS, PLEASE EXIT YOUR TENTS. IT IS TIME FOR THE FINAL TASK TO COMMENCE," the announcer called out. "AND THE FIRST ONE TO ENTER THE MAZE WILL BE JAKE GREMORY!" Jake exited his tent, ready to finish the tournament.
-end chapter-
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