chapter 29

Garry's class walked uncertainly into the large empty chamber in the West Wing dungeon. It had a high ceiling, easily fifty feet above their heads, with two platforms at the far end, one short and the other tall. The Muggle-born recognized them as diving platforms, but there didn't appear to be a pool. The ceiling showed a bright sunny sky, and extended down the walls to reveal the surrounding mountains, cutting off and returning to standard stone walls just above the highest diving platform. If you didn't know you were in a dungeon, you would think the room was an outside walled-patio. The room itself was as warm as the nice summer day the ceiling showed. They couldn't even hear the current pre-winter storm raging outside the castle's walls.

Harry looked back at Lockhart with a wary expression. He just knew there had to be a prank involved in this. He moved over to one side of the room while most of the others grouped in the middle. Harry held Hermione's hand as Susan, Hannah, Neville, Ron and Draco trailed behind them. A few of the more observant, and smarter, students slowly started moving towards Harry's group.

Lockhart closed the door behind him and shouted happily, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" The students all turned to watch as he swung his wand. The floor vanished, dunking the entire class into the huge pool, except for Harry and friends who were standing on the walkway by the wall.

Lockhart watched carefully and used his magic to assist those who were poor swimmers to the edge of the pool. It wouldn't do to drown any of his students, much as some of them might deserve it.

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he yelled, again, laughing manically. "You were all told this room contained a pool, yet none of you thought it might be right under you!" He waved his wand a second time and dried the soaking wet, and very angry, students.

Harry and company were laughing so hard he thought they would wet themselves. Only Draco managed a mediocrum of decorum by chuckling instead of whole body laughs as the others did.

"All right! Witches' changing room is on the right," He pointed to a door on the right wall beside the entrance wall. "Wizards' is on the left," he indicated their door. "Swimming attire is in each locker and will automatically size to fit you. You each will select a locker by placing your hand on it. After today, your locker will appear in the changing room when you enter and disappear when you leave. Hurry up now, chop-chop!"

Ten minutes later the Wizards were staring at the swimsuit clad Witches, who were returning the favour. Both sexes were wearing turn-of-the-century one-piece suits, the only real difference between them was the girls' suits made allowances for chest size while the boys' suits were not as tight in the groin area. The universal colour on the students' faces seemed to be blushing red, the exceptions being the Muggle-born and a few of the Half-bloods. With any luck no one would drown because they were too distracted by the revealing costumes — although the Muggle-born and the more knowledgeable Half-bloods were disgusted at the conservative cut of the suits, especially the boy's almost full-body suits with shoulder straps and leggings that extended halfway to their knees.

Garry took control rather handily. "Today we're going to see how gillyweed works and meet a few dozen Grindylows in their native environment. Later we will learn the Bubble-head Charm, which has many uses outside of underwater." Minutes later the entire class was once more in the pool.

The Pure-blood males found it a quite enlightening class, especially when they saw how clingy the wet suits were on the Witches when they climbed out of the pool at the end of class. The Witches, it appeared, were just as interested in what they saw, but with far more blushing.

It was, Lockhart, decided, a very successful introduction to the new D.A.D.A. course material. He knew the smarter students were already planning to use the Bubble-head Charm in potions class to avoid noxious odours. The few students who didn't know how to swim he had quickly paired with others, with orders for them to practice in the pool as homework. Hermione and Luna seemed especially pleased at the prospect of teaching Harry what he needed to know, and showing him a certain amount of skin in the process.

Garry was sure that soon a request for an indoor pool at Grimmauld Place would make its presence known.

(⊙_◎)

Headmistress McGonagall had started several new classes at the school Garry was pleased to notice. First, all incoming new students were given a test on their knowledge of both Muggle and Wizarding worlds. Based on those results they either took a four-year class on Wizarding Traditions and culture or they took a four-year class on Muggle culture so they could pass as a Muggle without appearing as idiots in either dress or understanding technology — the first year was an overview, the other three went into details.

Similarly, tough rules on magic use outside of classrooms were in place, with a three-strikes rule implemented — first was points deduction, then detentions, then suspension. She tackled bullying head-on, with the same penalties. No one had "privileges" due to their station. This was not popular among the Pure-bloods, especially those in Slytherin, who felt their "rights" as naturally superior Wizards and Witches were being disregarded. They bitterly complained at the blatant discrimination forced onto them.

She had expanded Quidditch game days to be Parents Days as well, allowing parents to visit their children if they wanted. Muggle-born families had special arrangements so they could visit as well, and see their children using magic.

She brought back Slughorn for the pre-OWL students and allowed Snape to teach only the students looking for a NEWT certificate. The rest of his time, he spent in research. He was almost pleasant, Garry was astonished to discover, with a wicked sarcastic wit. Slughorn also took over as Head of Slytherin House.

The Duelling Club was still ongoing, although separated into four groups so that students could always find a time that didn't conflict with their schedules.

(⊙_⊙)

The results of Yaxley's more thorough interrogation back at the Ministry were less than pleasing. Either Voldewhore had obliviated him of the necessary memories, or a compatriot had done so. They had learned nothing of where the evil Wizard was hiding, who was helping him, or what his plans were, except possibly to kidnap Harry Potter.

Garry's alert charms around the old Riddle mansion were intact and untripped. A quick personal check revealed the building as empty as it had been when he had placed the charms over a year ago when he had visited the graveyard. He had renewed the charms, anyway, in the hope his enemy might make a mistake. He could only hope the plan for rebirth was going to be the same as it had been in his past.

He didn't dare do more from fear that the evil Wizard would detect it and ruin any possibility he had of stopping the resurrection. Or at least intercepting the results and dealing with the mad-wizard before he fled to parts unknown. It had always puzzled Harry as to why Voldewhore had been so insistent on having his resurrection on June 24th when the Summer Solstice was June 21 at 7:34 in the evening — which was 8:34 in Little Hangleton, an hour's time to the east. Was there perhaps a special boost to a revival ritual done three days after the solstice? Considering that the third Tri-Wizard task started at sundown, 10:34 in the evening and there was a three hour difference there, too, perhaps there was a special reason to delay the ritual. Three days later, three hours, three components to the ritual — perhaps that mattered? Whatever the reason, it seemed that Voldewhore was intent on repeating the ritual he had performed in Harry's future. Which was actually a relief. . . now Garry didn't have to worry that Voldewhore had found another method to resurrect himself.

Garry's only recourse was to proceed as if he knew nothing of the future past and concentrate on pranking . . . no, assisting, he was assisting . . . Harry in his preparations. The rest of the school, though . . . .

(◎_⊙)

The Christmas Ball went as Garry expected, except this time Fleur asked him to be her date instead of Roger Davies as he remembered. Also different was Hermione and Luna attending as Harry's dates. Neville attended with Susan, and Hannah, making him the envy of most males at the function Garry was pleased to note, and taking attention from Harry. Harry was envied for his having two dates, sure, but his choices left much to be desired, according to the male population at Hogwarts. Hermione, while a beautiful date, had the reputation of a pushy know-it-all uninterested in the more feminine aspects of her personality, which put off most of the boys. They were looking for a girl a bit more deferential to their egos. And Luna was, well, Luna. Despite her ethereal beauty, her reputation as an oddball shook off almost all interest in her as a date. Ron came in with Draco and, to Garry's shock, did not spend his time at the buffet table stuffing his face.

Garry had a wonderful time, and was entirely in his element — who knew dancing could be so much fun? He reserved most of his dances for Fleur, but whenever she had another partner, he found more than enough Witches interested in dancing with him. Fleur seemed annoyed, when she noticed, that he so easily managed to find a dance partner when she accepted a request from another student. She was more used to watching her dates pine for her from the sidelines when she wasn't right with them. He was, she appeared to finally realize, a challenge to her as a Veela. 33If she wanted to keep his attention then she would have to work at it. Her allure did nothing to help her. She had to rely entirely on her own intelligence, wit, and charm. A most unusual and challenging situation for her.

And he was rather relieved not to hear, via his listening charms, Ron and Hermione having a rocking row over her being someone else's date. That pairing was well and truly out of question. He could finally safely ignore the prat. Although with his jealousy under control, and his eating habits approaching those normal for most people, Garry could almost see him as a casual friend to Harry, which Garry could now support. Harry had enough friends as support that Ron's jealousies, should they arise, would not be nearly as personally devastating as they had been in Garry's future past.

Valentine's Day brought no changes to the romance scene, but did remind him of something that always had puzzled Garry in his first life: The number of students who had paired up while in Hogwarts and actually remained together as adults. At least until Volderwhore had done them in. Sure there was a lot of random dating and couples meeting and breaking up in that seven-year period, but when a couple declared themselves with an engagement, it always lasted. And he wasn't counting those marriages arranged by the parents — those marriages usually had one or both spouses keeping significant others as "secret" lovers.

That magical teenagers would marry their sweethearts in school and stay married flew in the face of Muggle experience. In the Muggle world, those marriages rarely lasted and the divorce rate easily matched the marriage rate in the population. On the other hand, divorce in the Wizarding World was a rare occurrence — Celestina Warbeck's two divorces being the scandalous exception that proved the rule. Now that he had a chance to observe, though, he noticed something he had missed the first time around.

When he carefully watched couples, he noticed their magic seemed to shift with time. Was it possible that when a Wizard and Witch — or other combinations, such as Ron and Draco — spent enough time in a voluntary love-based relationship that their magic began to adapt them to each other? To smooth over the rough edges that would normally form stumbling blocks to a long-term marriage? It didn't always work that way, as the adult Celestina proved, but mostly it did. Did the still growing magic of the teens make possible a flexibility that the adults' more rigid and settled magic did not?

Hermione and Harry seemed to "fit" together far better than he remembered them doing in his future. Certainly, without all the drama of that Harry-future had faced in his second, third, and fourth years, it was easier for the Wizard to form an attachment. That it blossomed so well in the here-and-now was gratifying.

The previous year's Christmas and Valentine's Day, Hannah and Susan had been sitting with Harry, but now they were with Neville. Had magic dissuaded them? Or was it that they were teenagers, and you simply could not predict what they were going to do next? Or had they decided that sharing Neville as ménage à trois made more sense than ménage à cinq with Harry?

Watching how Hermione and Luna seemed to accept sharing Harry without jealousy, and Harry's happy equal acceptance of each girl seemed to support his conjecture that magic accommodated them. It had to be their magic working together that made a ménage à trios like that possible, because normally no Muggle-born Witch would agree to such an arrangement. Her background of only seeing and hearing about exclusive couples would make that almost impossible to accept. Two Muggle girls agreeing to share a boyfriend in the Muggle world was simply nothing that ever happened, or was extremely rare, especially when both clearly intended to marry their boyfriend at some point in the future.

When he reviewed his memories of couples who had married — and not an arranged marriage — soon after leaving Hogwarts, such as all the Weasleys, the Tonks, the Diggorys, and others, they seemed quite happy. Apparently, marrying your high school sweetheart (or sweethearts) in the magical world was not only possible, but a good long-term strategy for happiness!

That Harry would have a large family as a result was a foregone conclusion. With two wives, how could he not have a flock of kids? That would make Harry very, very happy, Garry knew. It made him somewhat envious, as well.

Although, now that he considered it, Fleur did seem to seek out his company, usually under the guise of questions regarding magical defence and his personal experiences in combating Dark Wizards. He had the impression that if he didn't sit at the Headmistress' Table that Fleur would have come over to his table and sat beside him rather frequently. And she did seem to spend quite a bit of her time in the Great Hall during meals looking over at him — but then again, so did a number of the other Witches, and a few Wizards, in the Great Hall. She certainly was taking a more hands-on approach than other Witches, frequently touching his arm while they talked or bumping her hip into him if they happened to be walking together as she asked questions about her classes. And while she wasn't the only Beauxbatons' student to send him a valentine, she delivered hers in person and blatantly flirted with him! There was none of the embarrassed red-face that the other Witches all sported when talking with their hoped-for beau.

Garry was truly happy that Harry was having the life Harry-future-past had never had. And he intended to live that life as vicariously as possible — oh, how he was going to spoil those kids when they reached the toddler age! To make sure that he could do so, though, he was going to have to convince the boy that he was more than welcome to bring his family into Grimmauld Place. He knew Sirius wouldn't object to that situation!

(⊙_◎)

The Second task was rather anti-climactic. Harry's hostage was Hermione, of course, Fleur's was Gabreille, Victor had a Beauxbaton's girl, and Cedric's was Cho Chang, just as last time in the future-past. Garry, as he had promised, stationed himself beside the hostages and made sure they were never in any danger whatsoever. He had also made sure, the night before, that the four Champions understood that their "hostages" were in no danger whatsoever. Fleur, while upset at her sister being taken, wasn't anywhere near the state of near-panic she had been in during Garry's future-past life.

Cedric and Fleur once again used the Bubble-head Charm and swam down. As before, Fleur was waylaid by the Grindylows. Victor half-transformed to a shark and ended up accidentally biting his hostage trying to undo the ropes holding her to the village merman-statue.

Harry, though, took the marauder route and chopped two pieces of wood off the dock with a cutting hex. He transformed them into small tubes he attached to his ankles with a sticking charm. Then he cast a banishing spell on the insides that turned the tubes into mini-jets that shot him through the water at high speed. Like last time, he used gillyweed to adapt to underwater. He arrived at the hostages, freed Hermione, and shot back to the shore in well under half-an-hour. Unfortunately, though, he had to wait out the gillyweed's hour-long effect before getting out of the freezing water — that cost him a few points, but not nearly as many as Victor's biting his hostage.

Still, he had the best time and won the second task handily. Oddly enough, though, when Krum returned to his normal appearance he had waist-long blonde hair . . . . however did that happen?

Although, watching Harry flounder in the pool in the dead of night learning how to manoeuvre with those jet-ski tubes and not end up with his knees against his chin spinning in circles underwater would be a treasured memory, and blackmail material, for the next hundred years, Garry decided.

Because Rita didn't trash Hermione this time, there wasn't a repeat of Hermione's trip to the Hospital Wing from booby-trapped hate mail in March. It helped that the Headmistress had changed the Castle enchantments to divert owls with curses and howlers to another room where the House-elves dealt with them. Aurors took the truly dangerous mail and tracked down the senders for an appropriate fine and punishment. Nevermore would Molly Weasley's dulcet tones reverberate around the castle as she berated her children for their various in-school transgressions. Thank Merlin.

(◎_◎)

Fleur, it appeared, had told her parents more than a bit about her Hogwarts' Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. And that she was interested in him, to Garry's stunned surprise.

The first he realized it was when a short and quite plump Wizard sought him out just after the Judges announced their scores for the Second Task. The man was nattily-dressed, with better than average looks, and wore high-heeled boots. He had a little, very pointed black beard.

Smiling as he approached, the Wizard bowed, saying, "Zhank you for the warning about our daughters, and for safe-guarding zhem as you did. I am Monsieur Edgar Delacour."

Smiling broadly, Garry replied, "And I am Monsieur Gilderoy Lockhart, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, six-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award, Hogwarts' beloved Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Slayer of Basilisks, and detector of Dark Wizards.

"Thank you for your kind words, but it is my job to safeguard all students at Hogwarts. I take the job very seriously — I do have a reputation to uphold, after all!"

The French Wizard gave the appearance of being a kind and jovial person. "Oui, that is as my daughter has told us." He paused a moment then continued, "On behalf of my wife and daughter, would you do use the honour of attending a small dinner party at our manor this Friday?" He held out a small ornate envelope.

Caught off guard by the invitation, Garry took the envelope and carefully opened it. The details were there, including a brief note at the bottom stating the letter itself was a portkey timed to bring him to their manor at the proper time. All he had to do was tap the envelope with his wand saying, "I accept," and the letter would notify, via an entry in the Delacours' Invitation Book at their home, that he intended to come. Then, on the proper date and at the right time, the portkey would activate. If he didn't accept, the letter remained inert.

The French Wizard bowed a second time, "Zhank you for your time, I must attend my wife and daughters now." His eyes flicked in the direction of the Hospital Tent where Madam Pomfrey was only now releasing her captives, er, patients. Krum carried off the long-haired blonde look quite well, Gary noted, although his scowl seemed etched in stone at Madam Pomfrey's inability to restore his proper hair colour. More than a few of the Witches in the audience seemed to like his new look.

Giving the French Wizard a broad smile in return, Garry said, "Yes, of course, I understand." Faced with the choice of creating an international scandal by refusing an invite from such an important figure in the Wizarding France government, or having the chance to meet and impress such a powerful figure, Garry took out his wand and tapped the invitation. "And, I would be delighted to attend your dinner party."

Gilderoy had only dreamed of making such an important contact, and Garry was quite pleased to see the invitation give a soft glow in response. And to note Monsieur Delacour's acknowledging nod.

That Friday, the portkey delivered him to the patio behind the Delacour Manor. His ensemble was a light plum that he felt suited the occasion. Tucked into one of his expanded pockets was his complete autobiographical collection. These were the deluxe editions, with additional sidenotes and an extra chapter each. The last two books, Burrowing with a Basilisk, and Restraining a Rat also had both Harry Potter's and Hermione Granger's autographs. The latter had been astonished to be included in the signings. And thrilled. He had wanted to include Ginny Weasley's autograph, as well, but her part in the Basilisk affair was a secret that he could not allow out.

There were two other families attending the party, apparently close friends of the adult Delacours.

Garry played the Lockhart card fully. By the time he left, Fleur's parents, and their other guests, were giving her sidelong looks that clearly said, "Are you kidding me? You LIKE this prat?" And Fleur was giving him a glare that threatened to melt the polar icecaps. Oh, to be a fly on the wall as Fleur attempted to tell her parents that Garry wasn't really the awful dandified twit he had appeared as that evening.

Gabrielle, Fleur's younger sister, thought he was hilarious and by the end of the evening was saying his signature "Order of Merlin, Third Class. . . ," spiel in synchronization with him, to both their amusements.

The second invitation had been a surprise and he began to suspect that maybe Fleur was more serious about this than he had thought. And she was a very attractive young Witch with, he had discovered, a delightful wicked wit. For that second visit, instead of a bottle of wine, he had brought a small vial of ground Basilisk bone and a signed Wizarding photograph of him standing in front of the dead Basilisk. The parents had been much more approving when he left that evening. That he had spent much less conversation telling everyone how great he was and more on how Wizarding society in Great Britain needed to change probably helped.

Things progressed to the point where the invitations were almost weekly. Fleur's complaint about Garry's swimming pool prank, which he had pulled on every class, had caught Gabby's attention, and in answer to her questions he had described a few of his other pranks. Gabby, it appeared, loved pranks! And on his next dinner engagement, he had discovered that Gabby had clearly declared to her parents that if Fleur didn't want him, she would gladly take up the burden.

Garry discovered he quite enjoyed his time spent with Fleur. He found himself looking forward to each invitation as an opportunity to be with her without being under the watchful eyes of the entire school! Plus, as his dating the young Part-Witch hadn't occurred in his future-past, he didn't need to guard himself against inadvertently revealing something of the future-possible.

He did manage, though, to slip her a protection ring on her birthday. It was a simple copper ring that would react with a protego-like shield if it detected harmful magic headed towards the wearer — just in case an imperioused Champion might sneak into the maze.

That he had replaced Bill Weasley as her probable partner did not disturb him in the slightest. If Bill had been her one and only destined mate, then nothing Garry could do would change that. If Bill was going to win the Witch, then Garry and Fleur would breakup over the summer. If she didn't, well, then, maybe she preferred him over Bill because of his sheer power as a Wizard — that they were both immune to her Veela-aura put them on equal footing in that respect. Last time, he had only been a "little boy" and not suitable as partner, especially considering his teenage angst and tendency to hide from others. But now? Well, he was a powerful adult and wasn't afraid to let others know it — being humble was not part of Lockhart's personality, and Garry was certainly keeping to that reputation.

(⊙_◎)

Garry and Dobby had culled the Death Eater ranks to the point where Voldewhore would find little to no response when he sent out his call at the end of his rebirth in the Graveyard, should things go pear-shaped and that happen as it had in his future. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's "Inner Circle" minions were either dead or trapped in Azkaban. The other minions, those still alive, were in greatly reduced circumstances and couldn't just leave their jobs in response to his call without losing those jobs. And none of them were well-off enough to just give up their livelihoods. Without his financiers, Voldewhore would be hard-pressed to pay his people, or even to provide for himself, now that Lockhart owned and had emptied his vaults — and those of his followers. And losing Yaxley, and access to his vault, had been a big blow to the not-quite-dead Wizard's plans.

Those Death Eaters still alive had gone to ground quite thoroughly, doing nothing that might draw the attention of the DE-Vigilante, as they called him. Getting his attention, they knew, was a sure death sentence. And the Ministry's new policies of automatically arresting anyone with a Death Eater mark and interrogating him or her with veritaserum didn't help them, either. Thirty-seconds under veritaserum was a one-way ticket to Azkaban as a simple question, "have you committed any illegal acts?" led to a litany of gruesome murders they had participated in during the first War, including half-bloods and those they called blood-traitors. Not to mention battles they had fought with Aurors, which in itself was a crime with Azkaban time as punishment. And if an Auror died during one of those battles, well, that guaranteed a long stay in the Wizarding prison. And even without that, there were the other crimes they had committed — bribery, fraud, and theft to name just a few.

And the rollback of the constricting laws passed by the previously Dark-influenced Wizengamot had gone a long ways towards restoring equality for the non-Pure-bloods. The political climate was decidedly anti-Dark, meaning no one could bribe their way out of a trial or sentence. The new required oaths promising that the Wizengamot members, and the bureaucrats, would be fair honest in their dealings in the Ministry, as best as they could, had eliminated corruption. Anyone violating those oaths would find their magic forcing them to confess their misdeed to their supervisor and then the Aurors, and appropriate punishments issued. Wizengamot members would confess their misdeeds at the next scheduled meeting and, again, the appropriate punishments would be assigned.

Sirius and Remus had taken The Gilderoy Lockhart Investment Fund and pushed it hard. There were now several dozen new businesses in the Wizarding World. Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade were booming with customers. The Weasley twins' "Telly" shop was a grand hit — they had managed to launch it just in time for Christmas. They had a staff of a dozen doing nothing but adapting the Muggle devices to the magical environment and selling them as fast as they could produce them. Their summer experiment to keep Bell happy had paid off in huge dividends. All they had to do was produce those OWLS and NEWTS at Hogwarts to keep Sirius and Remus backing their store.

Far too soon, the third and final Tri-wizard task was upon them. There was a heavy Auror presence as the other two countries involved had contributed their share to the protective force. Having them patrol in threes would prevent any interference by a hidden Death Eater. And, when two patrols met, they traded a partner. That made it effectively impossible for Voldemort to somehow manage to get a Death Eater from each country onto the same triad for more than a quarter of an hour, or for one Death Eater to control the other two — far shorter than the time the Champions were expected to be in the maze.

At Garry's insistent suggestion, there was a reflection spell in place over the maze that allowed the spectators to easily see and follow the champions as they traversed the maze. The Champions, however, would see nothing if they looked up.

He suspected he would find himself torn between following Harry and following Fleur, his now unofficial "girlfriend." She would become his fiancée after she graduated in a few weeks. He quite looked forward to that. Her fiery nature translated to rather torrid moments when the two were alone — nothing more inappropriate than snogging, but wow, what snogging!

"Ah, Minister Bones!" Garry said happily as he caught sight of the harried Witch. "Everything looks wonderful. You must have checked everything at least three times yourself, just as I would have done in your place. Unfortunately, my duties here at the school precluded me from providing any assistance otherwise things would be flawless!" He was posed perfectly in the waning sunlight as dusk approached so as to give the impression he had done all the work, beaming with pride as he looked out over the hedge maze.

He pretended not to notice her rolling her eyes.

"By the way, has anyone checked the Trophy Cup for alterations to its portkey destination? It wouldn't do, would it, to have our winning champion stolen out from under our noses by such a simple tactic?"

"Yes, Gil," the Minister said a bit frostily, "I personally checked the trophy this morning. It has one destination portkey spell on it, set to enable as soon as the first Champion enters the maze."

"Wonderful!" gushed Garry. "And you never let it out of your sight until you placed it in the maze centre yourself, right?" He flashed a brilliant smile at her. "And put an alarm spell on it so that should anyone come within five feet of it you would know? With a second alarm spell on the first that would go off if someone tries to dispel the first?"

Minister Bones stared at him. It wasn't difficult to pick up her frustration with him, mingled with a bit of chagrin that he was right, she hadn't put any alarm spells on the trophy cup. She had just verified the cup's existing spells.

She smiled at him, a very non-humorous smile that said I'm doing this just to keep you happy and not because it really needs to be done and because I know you won't shut up about it until I do. "That's a splendid idea, a last minute check."

Sourly, she turned and waved at a nearby trio of Aurors. A moment later, the four of them trudged off towards the maze.

Garry laughed to himself. He had already apparated to the cup and checked it over just a few minutes ago. It was clean, it would not portkey the winner away from Hogwarts. There were no signs of any tampering at all.

There were also no signs of any activity at the graveyard, either.

It was all very worrying. Perhaps he had been a little too thorough in eliminating Death Eaters. In any case, all he could do was soldier on and hope for the best. He turned and with a jaunty walk headed back to the Great Hall for a little last minute pranking . . . advice, advice, he going to be giving the boy a bit of advice.

"Remember, Harry," Garry said as they walked down to the Tri-wizard maze. "If anything goes wrong and you need to escape, the emergency portkey phrase is 'there's no place like home,' and it'll bring you straight back to here. Oh, and don't forget to click your heels together three times while you say that, that's very important, don't you know." He smiled down at short Wizard who was staring back at him with a sceptical expression. Garry wondered how long it would take the boy to notice that his shoes were now a gleaming ruby-red.

"And just to keep Sirius happy I've placed about a dozen tracking spells on your person and clothes. If anything happens, I, Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, six-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award, Hogwarts' beloved Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Slayer of Basilisks, and detector of Dark Wizards, will be right there before you can say 'Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, six-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award, Hogwarts' beloved Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Slayer of Basilisks, and detector of Dark Wizards.'"

"By the time I say that, it will be too late!" Harry exclaimed, He sighed deeply. "Is all that really necessary, Gil? I mean, isn't all this overkill? After all, the second task went perfectly."

Garry waffled a bit before saying quietly, "Harry, I'll let you in on a little secret." He paused and leaned closer. "This, and the next week, are Voldewhore's last chance to get at you before you're at Grimmauld Place and beyond his reach for the summer. In his present form, he might not survive until Fall. So, no, this is not overkill. In fact, no one knows this, but I plan to take you home tonight rather than risk you here at the school."

Harry looked back at him solemnly and slowly nodded.

"Now, give 'em hell, Harry!" Garry finished as he gave the boy a slight push towards the judging stand, in front of which the other Champions were waiting with Ludo Bagman. Garry tuned out what the windbag was saying as he carefully looked over the crowd in the stadium. He waved to Sirius and Remus, and the rest of the family, in the stands — Sirius looked to be laughing at Harry's new footwear. He turned back to the four Champions just as Harry joined him. Harry was too nervous to notice the odd looks everyone was giving his flashy ruby-red shoes.

Bagman blew his whistle and off Harry trotted.

Garry split his attention between the crowd watching the reflected maze and Harry. He was interested to see that unlike his time in the maze, Harry was having a bit of a rougher experience and running into far more creatures than he had. It seems that Crouch had made Harry-future-past's way through the maze easier. Well, good, at least this time the Maze was a challenge to all of the Champions, with no one receiving unfair advantages! Well, except for the fact that Harry was a Fourth Year while the other three were Seventh Years. Hmm. In that case, was making Harry's way through the maze easier unfair or merely making up for the unfair advantage the other three had over him? Oh, well, it didn't matter. Garry didn't care if Harry reached the Trophy Cup, just that he emerge from the Third Task unharmed.

This time, without the Death Eater's interference, it was much more of a race than before. Harry, though, had a different thought process than the others and his solutions were sometimes a bit more straightforward. His response to the Blast-ended Skrewt was pure marauder — he disillusioned himself and casted a spell projecting the image of a second, smaller Skrewt peering around the last turning several yards behind Harry. The real skrewt, seeing the smaller one, instantly moved to attack, charging around the corner in pursuit of the retreating image and forgetting entirely about Harry. Or, perhaps, wanting to eliminate the competition before getting to his snack. In either event, Harry rapidly ran to the next maze turn before the Skrewkt discovered his deception.

Unlike like the future-past, though, all four Champions reached the maze center at the same time. The four Champions made rather quick work of the Acromantula, and then faced off against each other. There was no argument this time over who should grab the Trophy first, it was a simple race — that ended in a tie! As in Harry's future, nevertheless, the moment they touched the Trophy, they were portkeyed away.

This time, however, they appeared sprawling on the judges' platform and not in a dirty, decrepit, dangerous graveyard. After a brief moment's confusion, Bagman rallied and immediately started congratulating his four winners as they clambered to their feet. He approached Cedric first and pumped his hand up and down like he was trying to pump water from an old-fashioned iron water pump. He finally let go and turned to Victor, repeating his incessant hand shaking and congratulations before turning to Fleur, and finally to Harry. He pulled Harry slightly away from the other Champions, separating him from them as he congratulated the young Wizard.

That was when it happened. Ludo let go of Harry's hand and slapped him on the shoulder with his left hand. As soon as the older Wizard lifted his hand, Harry disappeared.