CONSTRICTED/ ✓

19 / The Maze

"Please stay safe, Oak."

Oak smiles down at his sister, who shuffles nervously as she waited for the final task to start. "You know I'll stay as safe as I need to, to win."

Willow sent him a glare that bordered on frantic. "You should try to stay as safe as you need to live."

Oak shrugs with a sharp grin. "Same thing, sister dear."

Willow clearly doesn't think so, but she is forced to hurry back to the viewing stands as the brass band begins to play.

Up on the bleachers her thoughts spin so fast with the worry misses every word that Dumbledore speaks, for she already knew the details of the task. Being friends with one victor and sister to another has few perks, but this is definitely one.

When the cannon fires, she is startled back to reality just in time to see Oak's heel disappear behind the tall hedges; he broke away from the clearing at full sprint. Willow's insides twisted into knots. Discouraged that she had missed seeing her brother for that final moment, she focuses on Harry, who approaches the daunting maze with much more caution, same with the other victors.

Caution that was necessary, Harry soon discovers as he ventures deeper into the foreboding fog between the grim hedges. The mist muffles the sound around him, and he finds it impossible to tell which way he came from.

In the morbid quiet his only company is his own soft breaths and somber footsteps. The deep haze did not silence the distant screams however, and the boy felt his blood turn to ice and his throat tighten, sore to let in his heavy breaths.

With his heart beating franticly in his ears, Harry almost didn't hear the rustling of gravel awaiting for him around the corner. He cautiously pulls out his wand as he creeps around the noisy corner, and to his relief, a familiar face greeted him - well, almost familiar.

Harry found himself face to face with Oak, his eyes wide and glazed over as if in a trance. Harry's eyes flickered down to the boys hands, finding his palms coated with a thick, dark liquid. His skin began to crawl.

Seeing Harry's stare, the older boy is quick to wipe the stain onto his pants. "These damn hedges have some sharp thorns." Oak says with a disarming smile straining across his face.

Harry is still wary, but is pulled from the odd expression on Oak's face by the rustling of branches behind him. He turns, cautious and alert only to watch a wall of dark hedges part to reveal a clear, blue gleam of light. The Triwizard Cup.

He slowly faces Oak again, watching the expression on his face darken. The strange smile still remains, but Harry is not foolish enough to think there is anything the boy is happy about at the moment.

"I hate to do this to you Harry, but you leave me no choice." His grey eyes flash black as he stalks towards the smaller boy. Harry trips over his feet in his haste to get away from the madman, and he lands hard on the bracken of the path, scraping the skin of his palms.

Oak stops his advance however, his head tilting as he abruptly reconsiders. He seems to be talking to the hedges as he says, "But... you're Willow's friend... She would want you to be safe." He shook his head vigorously, "I want you to be safe." There is a gleam of obsession in Oak's eyes as he slowly looks down to Harry with wide eyes, and it lodges a shard of icy fear into his heart.

As if Oak took the boy's face as one of disbelief he said, "Really Harry, I do. More than just safe, actually. If it wasn't for Miles..." The grey eyes become adoring, but no less crazed. "But no, I have Miles." He reminded himself.

The ice in Harry's heart had spread over his entire body now in a spread of fearful, painful shivers. He doesn't understand what the older boy was talking about, he doesn't want to. Insane, a voice whispers in Harry's ear. He can't help but agree.