The Girl in Black

23: The third task

Aurora was sitting in the office of Mcgonagall just minding her own business reading her book although she was listening to every word said between Minerva and the other teachers.

They were discussing the third task, a maze, she thought it was the same kind of idea as the second task, a stupid idea. Like the tournament is meant to be fun and exiting but all the people in the stands couldn't see shit, they stayed only to see who was first out of the water but after an hour everyone was so bored they even started playing a muggle game called 'Uno'.

She didn't say anything during the meeting though and so she said it to Minerva right before she walked out on her way to class.

Aurora was not very concentrated during class though as she had moody in her head constantly, he was behaving more weird than normally and she had a feeling she recognised him from somewhere.

Not a long time ago Bella had told her about Barty crouch junior, a friend of her mother but Aurora had never seen him only on pictures but if she was honest with herself she only looked at those pictures to look at her mom and never paid much attention to the others.

She had found the old video camera of her mom in the attic last summer. There were a few videos in there, among other things there were videos of Barty in there, and something of him let her think about Moody.

She pushed the thought in the back of her head, they were probably distantly related like almost every pure blood. Nothing special she told herself.

———

Cedric was sitting on the edge of a window looking outside with glassy eyes.

"What's wrong?" Cedric looked up surprised at seeing Aurora but he calmed down after he clearly saw who it was.

"The tournament."
"Sorry I don't get it?"
"I actually never wanted to participate."
"Ow why did you then?"
"Well to please my dad to be honest, he was so happy when he heard that the tournament would be held and he already looked so proud that his son was old enough and he asked if I would do it and I can't refuse him, he's so proud and I can't hurt him can I?"

The words flooded and it costed Aurora a minute before she had processed it all.
She hugged him not knowing what to say, but she felt that it was appreciated.

They talked a bit about so what everything, mostly animals, and then she wished him good luck as it was already late and the third task would be the next day.

Everyone was in the tribunes excited for the task to begin, students with musical talent had been practicing ever since the other schools arrived and now it was finally their moment to shine.

Cedric and Fleur looked scared, even Krum did but that was nothing compared to the terrified look on Harry's face.

When Harry came out of the champions tent everyone went quiet for not even a second before they started shouting and singing again.

Aurora knew nobody thought of it anymore but she could see the shame on Harry's face, Hermione had told her that Harry hadn't slept for a week because of stress and that was a thing that clearly left it's marks.

The champions got cheered on and then disappeared in the maze, the students kept cheering but after a while they knew it was useless. The maze was so big there was no way they would still be heard.

The crowd got bored after a while so the musicians played some fun and popular music hits and a kind of party started.
Everyone was still excited about what was going on but it was probably more fun for the people in the maze than for them.

The students excitement got interrupted by a scream that came out of the maze, definitely Fleur.

The teachers ran around and did something, Aurora wasn't quite sure what but they retrieved Fleur.
She was stunned but after some care from Mcgonagall totally fine.