103 Horror of the Clockwork Maze

"Welcome everyone, to the final task of this year's Triwizard Tournament!" Fudge announced.

The audience let out a roar of applause. The sound drowned out every other noise in the Quidditch Pitch.

"As you saw, a maze now surrounds the Triwizard Cup," he continued. "As we speak, the maze is filling with untold dangers that lie between our four champions and the grand prize!"

Hermione glanced over at Rose, who was doing a surprisingly good job of hiding her excitement. Her eyes were wide, but she showed no other sign that she knew what was inside that maze.

"The champions will enter the maze in order based on their current standing. That means Mr. Krum will enter, followed by Mr. Diggory. Ms. Delacour will enter next, then finally Mr. Longbottom!"

Hermione looked at each champion in turn. The confidence with which they entered the pitch never faltered, and each one stood ready to enter the maze.

"Before we begin the task, I want to take a moment and thank everyone who has given the past year of their lives to this monumental event." He glanced down at a piece of parchment. "First, of course, Mr. Ludovic Bagman, Head of the Department of Games and Sports, and Mr. Barty Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation."

There was a polite applause as both men stood up and received recognition. This was repeated after the heads of each school were recognized, and various Ministry staff and personnel that Hermione didn't know.

"Last, but not least," Fudge said, taking out and reading from an index card, "the team of people who have worked tirelessly to construct the maze and everything within it. These people, who wish to remain anonymous, have spent nearly every waking moment putting not only this task together, but the previous two as well. It is thanks to their hard work, dedication, and sacrifice that we have had such a wonderful and successful tournament!"

Hermione smiled and cheered, knowing full well that the "anonymous team" was sitting next to her.

"Oz would be proud," she whispered to Rose.

Rose beamed at her, then turned her attention back to the maze.

"One last thing before we begin," Fudge announced. "Each contestant will be given a bracelet to track them through the maze. This allows us all to watch them progress and enjoy the excitement!"

Professor Dumbledore fitted bracelets to each champions' wrist. As he did, Neville noticed that each bracelet had four charms on it. Each charm glowed with a faint light.

"What are the charms for?" Neville asked as Dumbledore fitted his bracelet.

"If one of your companions fall unconscious, one of the lights will go out," Dumbledore told him.

When he finished, Dumbledore held them at the start of the maze. On Fudge's word, one of the blocks moved and revealed an entrance inside.

Neville waited behind Cedric and Fleur and watched Viktor run into the maze. A few seconds later, the maze began to change.

Sections of the maze whirled around exactly like the cube Hermione had given Rose. When it stopped, the entrance had resealed itself. The maze didn't shift as much in the two minutes between Viktor running in and Cedric running in.

After the two minutes had passed, the entrance reopened and Cedric ran inside. Once again, the maze shifted around, slowing down after six seconds. Shortly after Cedric ran inside, images appeared of Viktor and Cedric inside the maze. Each one took up a corner of the giant cube.

Neville watched them for seven minutes until the entrance opened and Fleur ran inside. After shifting around, it settled in and an image of Fleur joined the others.

He kept his focus off the images, despite the temptation to look whenever the crowd cheered. Instead, he kept himself occupied counting down the seconds until he'd be let in.

"Twelve! Eleven! Ten!" someone that sounded like Rose shouted. More voices joined hers as she counted down.

"Five! Four!" Most of the crowd had joined in by then. "Three! Two! One!"

The entrance block slid open, and Neville darted inside.

Inside the maze, the walls and ceiling glowed deep violet, projecting an eerie light. He glanced back and saw the walls slide behind him, cutting off his view of the entrance.

Neville turned back and ran deeper into the maze, picking directions at random until he decided he was far enough inside. He drew the Sword of Gryffindor and swung it at a wall. It bounced off with the clang of metal hitting metal.

"Metal, changes at random, and purple for some reason," Neville muttered.

He walked slowly, keeping an eye out for traps. A few minutes later, he stumbled upon something else in the maze.

Neville held his sword at the ready when he heard something clicking up ahead. For a moment, it sounded like a bird chirping, but too mechanical.

He looked towards the source and saw a metal beetle. It had a white, segmented body and stared at Neville though lifeless eyes while it clung to the ceiling.

It fired a dart at him, which he quickly deflected with his sword. He slammed the sword at it, hoping to knock it off the ceiling. Oddly enough, it seemed to fall back onto the ceiling. After avoiding another dart, Neville caught it again with the sword, this time taking off its head.

The broken pieces fell to the floor, and he picked through the remains, in case something turned out to be useful.

Neville looked up from the broken remains of the mechanical bug and saw corridors shifting up ahead. He moved quicker, stopping to avoid an actively changing area. His efforts were rendered futile when the section he was in shifted.

When the area stopped, Neville noticed that the walls were starting to change color to blue.

"Either that happens when one of those dies, or it changes as I get closer to the middle."

Neville ran into the blue section, noting that the color of the walls was definitely more blue than purple.

He saw two more spiders crawling on the ceiling, and held his sword at the ready. He approached them with caution, then felt his foot fall an inch farther than he'd expected.

Instinct kicked in and Neville hit the floor as a blast of fire scorched the air above him. He looked up and saw the spiders taking aim at him.

Neville rolled aside to dodge a pair of darts that flew through the still hot air. He climbed to his feet and sliced one in half with a single motion. The other dropped on him, but he sidestepped it and caught it with his sword.

Neville glanced at the remnants of the two spiders, then heard clicking from further into the maze. He moved quickly, hoping the others were having an easier time than he was.

Hermione watched the champions progress through the maze on a similar "screen" to what Rose used for the second task.

"I give up. What are those?"

"Clockwork horrors," Rose replied, wearing the biggest grin Hermione had ever seen.

"I thought no one could make those," Luna said.

"Uncle Oz found a way."

"Why did he show you?" Hermione asked. "I thought he'd be more responsible than that."

Rose stuck out her tongue at Hermione while Luna smiled.

"Those are just the little ones," Luna said. "The big ones are much more exciting."

Hermione sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose.

"Rose, what did I tell you about trying to kill them?"

"To try harder?"

Hermione blinked then turned back to the maze.

Fleur walked into a cavern and found six mechanical spiders, accompanied by a larger gold one. Instead of a green gem, the gold one bore a blue gem upon its head, and held a turret on its back.

When it saw her, it turned and fired a bolt of lightning from the turret at her.

Fleur screamed as electricity surged through her, then retreated as fast as she could. Her wand drawn, she destroyed one of the smaller bugs as they followed her back into the maze.

She heard a familiar clinking sound behind her, and turned to find that three of the bugs were closing in on her.

Darts flew through the air, and she cursed as a few found their marks. She destroyed two of the bugs, but more replaced them.

They surrounded her, cutting off any chance for another retreat.

Just when she thought they had her, she heard a crash and looked behind her.

Neville's sword flew into one of the bugs. He swung his rope around, throwing the first into two more.

Fleur hurled the broken remains in a flurry at the others, buffeting them to scrap.

"Zhank you," she said.

"Are there more?"

"A beeg gold one is up ahead," Fleur told him.

"No problem," Neville replied, holding the sword up. "Can you cover me?"

"I can try, but eet uses lightning instead of darts."

"Thanks for the warning."

Neville and Fleur ran into the cavern. Fleur hung back and took care of the small bugs while Neville took care of the big one.

"Clear," Neville said after he'd finished.

"Vhat?"

"Are there any more bugs?"

"Vhat does it look like?"

Realizing Fleur wasn't going to tell him, he surveyed the area himself.

"Looks like we're getting closer to the yellow zone," Neville said, looking through another exit. "We're probably going to find more of those gold bugs."

"Yellow zone?"

"It's the colors of the rainbow," Neville said. "Probably ends on red."

Fleur and Neville continued through the maze. As Neville had predicted, they ran into more of the gold bugs, but encountered a new one near the orange section.

It was hard to discern its actual color, as it reflected the orange-yellow light of the maze. It was more intricate than the others, and the gem on its head was distinctly gold.

"Any ideas?" Fleur asked as they hid behind a corner.

"Heat the blade," Neville said. "They're durable, but the sword can cut clean through metal when it's hot."

"Vhat do I do?"

Neville looked at the hilt of his sword. A dial was attached to it, which he spun until a purple container faced the blade. He pressed the dial and it sent purple fluid flowing over the blade.

"Hit it with a fire spell," Neville said, holding up the sword. "Any spell is fine."

Fleur hit the sword with a blast of flame, wreathing the sword in fire.

Neville grinned. "Firecracker, eat your heart out."

He ran in, knocking bugs away as he ran towards the new one. He cleaved through one of the three gold bugs like they were made of butter.

The silver one fired a bolt of lightning at him, which he deflected with a wave of his sword. A gold one turned on him, but Fleur took it out with another fire spell.

The silver bug snapped at him with the blade on its head, but he knocked it aside and took out the turret on top of it. Another few hits and it went down.

He turned back and saw Fleur take out the last of the bugs.

"Clear," he called.

"Clear," she replied, having acclimated to his habits.

Neville held up his wrist and checked his bracelet.

"Four lights," he said. "Cedric and Viktor are still up."

"Zhen ve should keep moving!"

They ran into the orange zone, encountering more of the silver bugs.

Neville began to notice that Fleur's hits were landing a little close. He idly wondered how competitive she was when a burst of fire nearly hit him.

As the maze turned red, the gaps between the swarms of bugs disappeared, and Neville and Fleur found themselves fighting for every step. Neville also noticed that the changes to the maze were less drastic. He also noticed that gravity didn't always apply, as he found out when the section of the maze on which he stood suddenly rotated.

"Vhat happened?" Fleur asked as she fought back more bugs.

"I'm fine," Neville said, clearing the surrounding bugs. He got an idea and lept to Fleur's side.

Sure enough, he fell onto the bugs.

"Gravity's whatever direction we want it to be!" he exclaimed as he destroyed a silver bug.

"Good to know," Fleur called back.

Neville glanced ahead and saw a blue light from around the corner.

"We're almost there!"

He heard a crash from up ahead.

"So are zhey!"

Fleur lept onto the wall, stumbling as she adjusted to the new orientation. She shielded herself as bugs fell on her, but didn't stop running until she rounded the corner.

Neville hopped onto a wall and sliced through the bugs as they fell on him. He took more hits as he rushed to catch up with Fleur.

He rounded the corner and found a large cavern, but the significant feature stood in the center of it.

A large, black bug stood in the middle of the cavern. This one resembled a beetle much more than the others. Ridges lined its back, topped by a forked turret, and the gem on its head was blood-red.

Most importantly, the blue glow of the trophy came from inside King Bug.

Across the cavern, Viktor and Cedric fought another swarm of bugs. They kept stealing glances at King Bug, but remained overwhelmed by the onslaught of smaller bugs. Neville's own swarm held him at the entrance. He watched as Fleur ran towards King Bug.

The tip of King Bug's turret began to glow.

So long as it's just lightning, we'll be fine.

A green ray lanced out at Fleur, and Neville's instincts kicked in, causing him to abandon the swarm. He pressed the dial on the sword, then flung it across the cavern. Medallyne oil coated the sword as it reached the other side of the cavern. By the time it dug into the wall, Neville was already running. He dove and knocked Fleur out of the way of the ray. The vine pulled them both to safety, missing the beam by millimeters.

"Get off!" Fleur shouted when they crashed into the ground.

She shoved him aside and climbed to her feet. Fleur fired spells at King Bug, but none of them phased it.

It turned back towards them, and when Neville looked, he realized what the beam did.

The chunk of the wall where the beam hit had been turned to dust.

"Disintegrate?" Neville exclaimed. "It's firing disintegrate at us! They are actually trying to kill us this time!"

Somewhere far off in the distance, Neville was certain he could hear Rose cackling madly.

Neville glanced back at Fleur and saw her hit the floor to avoid another disintegrate. Bugs poured into the chamber on both sides, and Neville ran to contain the bugs on their side.

We need a plan, Neville thought as he cut through them.

Across the cavern, Cedric ran inside, hurling bugs outside to clear himself a path. Viktor followed close behind, blasting any bug that came near him. When they were both through, Viktor conjured a cobblestone wall to seal off that entrance to the cavern.

Neville saw King Bug taking aim at Viktor, and ran back in to draw aggro. He was a few feet from King Bug when he saw a red flash out of the corner of his eye. He tumbled to the ground to avoid it, then again when King Bug attacked him.

"Fleur!" Neville shouted. "What are you doing?!"

"Vinning!"

Neville lept away from another attack from King Bug, nearly running into Cedric in the process.

"Any ideas?" Cedric asked.

"Hit it til it breaks?" Neville offered as Viktor threw a curse at King Bug.

King Bug shrugged off the curse as more bugs swarmed the room from the other side.

"Seal the exit!" Neville called to Cedric as he ran at the swarming bugs.

Neville began slicing through them with a Medallyne-enhanced sword, only turning his focus back to King Bug when he heard Fleur scream.

She dragged herself into the corner. A trail of blood led from her leg to King Bug's saw. She climbed to her feet as Cedric closed the other exit, trapping them all inside with King Bug.

Viktor waved his wand and conjured a flurry of daggers. With another wave, they soared at King Bug, but none of them left a scratch on its armor.

King Bug fired at Fleur, who dropped prone again to avoid the beam.

Cedric ran back to Neville as he finished off the last of the smaller bugs.

"Hitting it isn't working," Cedric said as Viktor tried dropping rocks on it.

King Bug turned from a barely standing Fleur to a more threatening Viktor. It fired another disintegrate when Neville had an idea.

"Sound!" he exclaimed. "Hit it with sound!"

"Why?" Cedric asked.

"Nothing ever thinks to be immune to sonic energy!"

Cedric shrugged and aimed his wand at King Bug.

A low, deafening roar filled the cavern as a pillar of sound erupted from Cedric's wand. It hit King Bug dead on and the creature emitted a shrill scream. Chunks of metal fell from King Bug as the sound died down.

Viktor looked at Cedric, then conjured his own spell. A large, black rock appeared in front of him, covered in fire. He hurled it at King Bug, and it exploded on contact. When the smoke cleared, King Bug had a few new dents.

Neville ran in, hoping to finish it off, but instead it turned and fired past him. Neville dodged, thinking himself the target, but realized its goal when he looked behind him.

Bugs flooded the room from the hole King Bug made, each one firing on them as they marched inside the cavern.

Fleur fired another stunner at Neville while his focus was on the bugs, but he deflected it with the sword.

Cedric took aim at King Bug for another shot.

"Duck!"

He swiveled right and fired a stunner at Neville. Neville tumbled under it, and it hit Fleur before she could react.

Viktor hurled another meteor at King Bug, but to Neville's dismay, it didn't go down. Neville ran in to draw aggro, while Cedric resealed the exit, slowed down by the hits he took from the bugs.

As Viktor prepared for another assault on King Bug, it fired a disintegrate at the wall behind him.

Cedric ran across the cavern to cover the bugs coming out of the wall as Viktor sealed it.

Despite Neville's efforts to take down King Bug, he knew the sword had rejected the oil and returned to its original composition. His attacks no longer phased King Bug, who turned its attention, and turret, to Fleur.

Neville slammed the dial, using shot two of three of Medallyne oil, then flung the sword at the wall and dove for Fleur. He reached her as the line went taught, but realized he'd fallen into a trap.

King Bug's shot cut through the vine and sent Neville and Fleur tumbling to the floor. He tried to grab the sword, but King Bug kept him pinned down.

"Use the wall!" Cedric shouted as he and Viktor cleaned up the bugs. "You can–"

"I know!" Neville shouted, grabbing Fleur. He left the sword behind and ran on the wall, getting Fleur out of danger.

Viktor prepared another meteor, but King Bug fired on him while the rock was still half-formed.

"Krum!" Cedric shouted.

Helpless to stop it, Neville watched as Cedric dove at Viktor, knocking him out of the way, but taking the disintegrate head on.

"No!" Neville shouted.

His heart stopped. Fleur was unconscious, but a hit from disintegrate…

Cedric fell to the floor, unconscious, but alive.

He's not dust? How'd he make his save? We can't…

Neville set Fleur down in the opposite corner as King Bug began to advance on Viktor. When he did, he caught a glimpse of the bracelet. Two lights remained, but another thought struck him.

You planned for this, didn't you?

He turned his attention back to King Bug and Viktor. Viktor aimed his wand for another attack, but King Bug caught him in the arm. He dropped his wand, catching it in his off hand.

With a quick leap, Neville was back on the same wall as King Bug. He ran towards them both.

"Look at me, I'm unarmed!" he called to King Bug, hoping to draw its attention away from Viktor and an unconscious Cedric.

He succeeded.

King Bug hit him with the flat of its blade as he neared it, and Neville had to stumble to stay on his feet. He lept back to recover, keeping King Bug in his line of sight. It kept its sights and turret trained on Neville.

Neville held out his hand to summon the Sword of Gryffindor, but King Bug lashed out when he did. It lept forward on its mechanical legs and dug its saw into his side. He jumped back and fell to his knees, pressing one hand on his gaping flesh wound.

"Is that all you've got?" he panted. "I've had worse than this!"

King Bug turned away from Neville, no longer finding him a threat.

Viktor hurled another meteor at King Bug. The explosion on impact sent Neville flying towards the far wall. He gasped when he hit the ground, his own blood appearing black in the red light.

He stared up at King Bug as it advanced on Viktor. His vision was going fuzzy, made worse by the light.

Focus, Toad! Just get the sword, and you can win this!

"Why bother?" a familiar voice said.

He reached out his hand, ignoring the additional person inside the cavern smirking at him.

"You can't summon it from here," Evil Neville said. "You're too far away."

When your goal's in sight, run towards it until you collapse from exhaustion, then crawl the rest of the way.

"Exhaustion's one word for it," he muttered. With his outstretched hand, Neville dragged himself closer to the sword.

"Viktor won't hold it for long. What are you going to do then?"

Another explosion rocked the cavern, but King Bug still marched closer to Viktor. Another moment later, and another few centimeters for Neville, Viktor took a hit from the saw. He knocked it away with his bare hand, but King Bug swung back and knocked Viktor to the ground.

"Time's up."

Neville watched as King Bug turned around slowly to face him.

"And Krum goes down!" Bagman called. "It's not looking good for our champions! Longbottom's the only one still standing… metaphorically, of course!"

Hermione squeezed Ron's hand.

Not again. Please, not again.

She could feel Ron's blood flowing through her fingers, smell it on her clothes. Her head began to throb.

"It'll be alright," Ron whispered. "He's not me."

Hermione returned to reality and saw Ron looking at her with concern.

"Thank you."

She glanced at Rose and saw her squeezing Luna's hand. Looking closer, she saw Luna squeezing Rose's hand just as hard.

"It might just be Longbottom, but he's not going down without a fight!" Bagman called.

Neville had only managed to drag himself another foot by the time King Bug caught up to him. It didn't fire on him; it was just toying with him.

"Just like every other time when things go wrong," Evil Neville said. "Just give up like you always do. Wait for someone else to come and save you."

"There isn't anyone," Neville said. "No one's going to save me this time. That's why I've got to save myself."

He rolled aside, leaving a trail of blood from King Bug's blade. Neville tried jumping to his feet, but pain erupted from his wound, and he fell back to his knees.

King Bug loomed over him and readied its blade.

Neville closed his eyes and held out his hand.

Please be close enough!

The blade descended on him as he felt a familiar hilt enter his grasp.

In one motion, Neville slammed his thumb on the dial, snapped his eyes open, and swung the sword over his head.

CLANG!

The saw fell to the floor beside Neville, and he rolled aside.

One hit point left, he told himself. Shadow once killed an entire hit squad with only one hit point left. One's plenty.

King Bug swung its stump at him, but he rolled under it, screaming in pain when he did. He sliced the sword through King Bug, taking off one of its legs. It stumbled back, but Neville stayed on it. In one motion, he forced himself to his feet and cut off the turret from King Bug.

The creature let out a cry of pain, mirroring Neville's own screams. He fell back to his knees, but didn't stop pressing ahead.

"I survived," Neville breathed.

He drove the sword into King Bug.

"I lived."

With a loud grunt, Neville forced the sword through King Bug's body.

"And I win."

King Bug stood motionless in the cavern, but after a few seconds, it began to shake. Pieces fell off its body, one by one, until the gem on its head fell. Once it hit the ground, the gem shattered.

The cup sat among the wreckage, casting a bright blue light on the red of the maze. The glow got brighter, and Neville saw his wounds heal. He reached down and picked up the cup. When he did, blocks shifted around and formed a pathway out of the maze. He and his recovered companions walked out into an applauding crowd.