A Year at Hogwarts

chapter 9

 Ambassador Ramsey arrived ten minutes before the task was due to start and took Harry aside to tell him about what happened to Rita and the Prophet. "I know what Rita wrote was cruel but isn't fifty years a bit excessive for libel?" asked Harry. "If the crime was just libel, then I would agree with you. But she admitted to stealing letters sent by you, which was ruled by the ICW to be espionage. She also admitted to trying to find out your home address and to being an illegal animagus, which she used to spy on meetings regarding you and to find out where you lived. She even met up with the Dursleys who were only too happy to spill as much dirt about you as possible. Transcripts between her and them were found in her home and I managed to have them confiscated and destroyed." "Thank you," Harry said. "You're welcome Mr. Potter," Ramsey said, "Now go and win the task."

The four champions had been told to report to the Hogwarts entrance with their broomsticks. Mr. Crouch met up with them at the entrance. "This is the second task," he said, "You have to fly through those magical hoops in order to get to the finish. However, you will have to go through every hoop to qualify. In addition, you will have to collect flags of your individual colour – Mr. Potter, you collect red, Mr. Diggory – blue for you, Miss. Delacour – yellow and Mr. Krum – orange." The champions acknowledged what Mr. Crouch had told them.

"Also, you will be presented with targets you must hit with a spell – points will be greater the closer to the bull's-eye you hit. For your final result to count, you must fly through all the hoops, collect all the flags and shoot all the targets." He turned to Harry. "Mr. Potter, due to the problems with your leg, you can forfeit if you wish." "Nonsense," Professor Moody said, walking up. He was carrying a broom, "He can use this broom if he wants." Moody put the broom down and it started floating. It looked like you rode it like a Muggle motorbike. "There's nothing in the rules against it." Mr. Crouch said. He knew Mad Eye Moody had a prosthetic leg which made it difficult for him to ride a normal broom. Cedric, Fleur and Krum got onto their brooms while Moody helped Harry onto the borrowed broom. "GO!" Mr. Crouch said. The four brooms started flying. Krum was in the lead and Harry was close behind him. Quickly, he flew through the hoops and began to catch up with Krum. As they approached Hagrid's hut, he noticed the first group of flags. Krum had slowed down to collect but Harry had a plan. He raised his wand at them and cast: "Accio red flag." The flag flew into his hand and he put it into a bag, flying past Krum, who looked astonished. Fleur and Cedric had seen Harry and cast the same spell. Harry continued through the hoops and followed the route into the Forbidden Forest. Two targets were ahead. He raised his wand and cast a paintball charm at one, then the other. He was going too fast to see how well he had hit the targets. The next group of flags were approaching so he summoned his flag. As Harry continued flying, he wondered if he would see Draco or Snape during the task. What he didn't know was that they were in an empty classroom being guarded by a dozen Australian Aurors. Their wands had been confiscated and were in the possession of Ambassador Ramsey. Harry approached a hill which led out of the forest. He flew up it, continuing to fly through the hoops. As he fired at another target, an animal came up to him and breathed fire. Harry made a sharp turn left. He wasn't to know it was a Blast Ended Skrewt, bred by Hagrid - he wasn't taking Hagrid's classes . The distraction gave the others a chance to overtake him. Harry resumed his course and followed them. The course took them down to the Black Lake, where they practically skimmed it. There were several targets on the lake, but they were moving. Cedric took the lead as the final flags were collected. Then suddenly, Krum flew next to him and pushed the Hogwarts champion off his broom and into the lake. Determined to deal with Krum's cheating, Harry summoned his rival champion's broom and Krum also ended up in the lake. Fleur took advantage of this in order to take the lead and moments later, she crossed the finish line. Harry crossed it minutes later. Moody helped Harry off the broom while some people went to rescue Cedric and Krum. Ten minutes later, everyone was in the Great Hall to hear the scores. "The winner of this task is Fleur Delacour. She collected all the flags, flew through the hoops and made it back first. Her score from the targets is 89. Her overall score is 124. In second place, is Harry Potter. He also collected all the flags, although he came up with the idea of summoning the flags. He too flew through the hoops and hit the targets. His score from them is 93. His overall score is 120. In third place is Cedric Diggory. He too collected all the flags, flew through