Loki Laufeyson and the Goblet of Fire

Chapter 21; The Dark Lord's Offer

    (Told from Loki's point of view)

I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't that when I got down to the Quidditch field I expected to see rows and rows of hedges lining the field. Some were even crawling outside of it.

"It's a maze." I remarked, after Cedric commented angrily at what they had done to it. We met Bagman down by the edge of the maze, and explained to us what it was all about.

"It's simple— the Triwizard Cup will be in the middle, and the first Champion to touch it will receive full marks. The people with the most points will enter first, and we'll see who makes it to the middle! Should be fun."

He did tell us that Hagrid would be providing the creatures, which was one red flag that signaled that this would, undoubtedly, not be fun.

After that quick speech, we headed up to the castle. However, I saw Harry and Krum break away from the group, which peaked my curiosity. I lingered back for a while, and then sped after them. Krum brought Harry all the way to the edge of the forest, and faced him with a stern look on his face. I snuck around behind one of the trees and eavesdropped.

"Nothing." Was the first word I heard, which was from Harry. "She's my friend, nothing else. She's not my girlfriend. That's just that Skeeter woman making things up."

"Hermy-own-ninny talks about you a lot." Krum commented. I stifled a laugh from the way he says Hermione's name.

"Yeah, because we're friends." Harry replies. There was a silence.

"You haff never... you haff not..." Krum stammered.

"No." Harry replied firmly. He paused for a moment. "But Loki... he is. Apparently Skeeter missed that, or she just wanted to talk about me because I'm more famous. I guess they've been dating since last year or so, I'm not sure."

"Oh." I could hear a definite change in his tone of voice. He sounded angry.

"I guess you didn't realize..." Harry muttered. "I was his friend once, but he's gotten strange. Really strange. He's in Slytherin now, he's started—"

There was a sudden movement behind one of the trees. Not mine, but it caught my eye.

"Vot vas that?" Krum asked.

Suddenly, a man staggered out of one of the trees. It took me a minute to recognize him— it was Barty Crouch.

He was talking very strangely, as though there was a person there that only he could see. Both Harry and Krum were looking very confused.

"Vosen't he a judge?" Krum asked.

"Yeah..." Harry said wearily.

I was feeling lightheaded. Harry said some things that I couldn't make out, when Crouch grabbed him and told him to get Dumbledore. Harry told Krum to wait with Crouch as he got the headmaster. Crouch was talking strangely again.

I held onto the tree for support. My eyes were blurring slightly. I couldn't quite know why. I fell down and rubbed my eyes.

"Vot are YOU doing here?" I heard Krum yell. "You bastard!"

He kind of just looked at me, when I saw him get tackled by Crouch. There was a red flash and Krum didn't get up.

I was having my own problems. I saw Crouch run into the forest, but I couldn't do anything about it. My vision was turning strangely red.

"You bitch." I said to no one in particular. Maybe I was thinking saying something would drag me out of this stupor, but I was wrong.

I fell onto my back and closed my eyes, immediately going unconscious.