85 Tri-wizard Maze part-2

When Harry heard the riddle, he became confused and asked, "err, can you repeat it one more time, a bit slowly?" But the manticore replied with a growl, "no, only once. Now either answer it or die."

At that instant, Harry became stiff as stone with fear while Neal frowned, "the maze was designed by Professor Moody. Why did he put this one if he wants Harry to win it? Don't tell me he wants Harry killed? Nah, Moody is an Auror on Dumbledore's side and even put so many death eaters in Azkaban. He wouldn't do that.

or Maybe, he wants to bet on me to help? That's probably the case. Let's wait for a while before helping out. The others seemed to be a bit far away."

Meanwhile, outside of the maze, Moody was lurking around while keeping an eye on the champions. He let out an evil smile after discovering Harry at the center of the maze, "yes, it's the perfect scenario as I envisioned despite Krum's setback. Now, will Slytherin fight with it while Harry claims the prize or will it be Slytherin taking the prize for himself?

It doesn't matter. If things go south, I would just have to abduct Harry with the portkey. No one would stop me anyway. In their eyes, I will be rescuing a student. While I could no longer be able to spy on Dumbledore and the ministry, as long as the dark lord welcomes me, it would be more than enough of a reward."

Back to the maze, Neal was getting frustrated with Harry taking a lot of time and Krum is on his way.

"Fine, I guess I have no choice but to try it." Neal, who is in the form of a giant horned serpent, unleashed his second of the six abilities while continuing to stay invisible.

For a moment, the manticore saw a blue flash of light glow behind Harry before its eyes went blank.

It suddenly repeated the riddle once again, surprising 14-year-old Harry.

Neal was also surprised to see his second ability, hypnotism worked on a strong magical creature like the manticore. It led him to wonder whether he can hypnotize human beings too.

To confirm that, he needs to test on someone but that is something he can think of later. Right now, getting past this beast without being caught is necessary.

After listening to the riddle two more times, Harry broke the riddle into three parts.

"The one who lives in disguise and the one who lies, it's an imposter, a fraud, an impersonator, swindler, a con artist, or a spy.

Last thing to mend? The middle of the middle and the end of the end? This one's tough.

The word that is often heard during the search for a hard to find? Er… that would be… hang on, isn't Er, a sound?

The combined words would give a creature name that I would be unwilling to kill. If one asks me just the last line, I would say a dementor but, hmm… I need to solve the second part of the riddle.

Hang on… that won't be necessary. I just need to think of a creature that ends with "Er".

The first one also means spy, Hmm, perhaps, Spider?"

Harry's eyes widened in surprise as manticore said, "You are correct, please proceed."

He was just contemplating the answer and talking aloud to himself. And yet, once the answer is out from his lips, Neal took an opportunity to control the manticore's senses, making it believe that Harry said the answer to it.

Harry Potter thought the process was this way and continued to walk towards the cup with a big smile on his face. "Yes, I beat Krum and even Neal.

The manticore moved aside, giving him the way. Under Neal's hypnosis, it also gave way for the invisible horned serpent.

The Triwizard cup was gleaming on a plinth just a hundred meters away.

Neal, on the other hand, followed until 20 meters and stopped following because of two reasons.

One, there's nothing between Harry and the cup.

Two, Neal feared that he would break the deal, consuming by greed. After all, he too wanted to grab the cup and become the winner.

He may be a Slytherin, a dark wizard, and sometimes display his cunningness too but still, he keeps his word.

In the end, he stared at the cup from far away.

It was then he detected something strange with the cup. If he was a human being, he wouldn't have sensed but being in an animagus form of a powerful magical beast, he could sense a familiar spell on it.

Just when Harry was about halfway away from the cup, Neal figured it out and fell into thoughts. "It has the same vibes as grandfather's chair. It is a portkey but where does it lead? Maybe, it leads from the center of the maze to the outside where everyone is sitting. Hmm, this makes sense because if it isn't a portkey, then, the winner could be ambushed by other contestants on the way.

But, why does it feel that the portkey spell on it was super strong? To get outside, which is barely 500 meters away, powerful magic wasn't needed right. Usually, when one uses more magic power, the result will be better. That would mean either it was done so that no one else could jinx the cup or the distance is far away from here.

Wait a second…"

It was then something else clicked in his mind, "Professor Moody intends Harry to win, isn't he? Considering being one of the strongest Aurors, he must also be the one who used confundus charm on the goblet like me.

At the Quidditch world cup, there's a sighting of death eaters and grandfather told me that village of Greylin is the safest place to hide from them. He was probably referring to the death eaters.

If that's the case, they would love to take revenge on the boy who killed their master. If the Triwizard is a touch-teleportation type portkey and if Moody betrays Dumbledore, then, once Harry wins the tournament by grabbing the cup, he will be sent to a place far away from where even Dumbledore wouldn't able to find."

When he thought that way, everything became sense for some reason. But, everything is just his speculation with no conclusive evidence.

Harry was only 30 meters away from the cup and he might reach it very soon.

To be safe, Neal decided to touch the cup along with Harry. He carries a portkey that teleports him to Greylin. His grandfather made him turn his favorite bracelet into the portkey so that he can escape any urgent situation.

It was then, all of a sudden, the silent manticore behind him let out a powerful roar and rushed towards him while attacking all of a sudden.

It managed to free itself from Neal's hypnotism and attacked him with shooting spikes from its spiky scorpion tail.

Neal was suddenly taken aback for he never expected his spell would be broken.

He was a little bit late to completely evade the attack and one of them struck his back.

His invisibility wore off and his serpent form revealed with a spike pierced his back. Neal turned back into his human form. The spike was taken off from his back during his transformation. Poison seeped into his body.

Harry stopped in his tracks and turned around. His eyes widened in surprise. "Neal?"