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WHILE evelyn had borrowed harry's invisibility cloak to sneak into snape's cabinet, harry, ron, and hermione were at hogsmeade.
"where is he?", hermione asked, looking around.
"shh! don't be so loud hermione. we don't want people to be suspicious of us", ron said.
hermione simply rolled her eyes.
although hermione and ron weren't exactly on good good terms, they were getting there. at least they were talking.
a black dog suddenly trotted towards the three, making them confused.
"harry, it's me", the dog said, almost making ron squeal.
"sirius??", hermione asked, to which the dog just nodded.
the three children squatted down as they listened to sirius's warning whilst he was still in his animagus dog form.
"so you're saying that mr. crouch's son was a death eater?", harry whispered.
sirius nodded. "I find it peculiar that that man hasn't been showing up to work lately. and how he had just sent his son to azkaban without hesitation. seems a bit cruel don't you think?"
hermione hummed.
"perhaps we ought to go ask winky. she may know something", hermione suggested.
the three then parted with sirius as they headed back towards hogwarts and into the kitchen, where the elves worked.
though dobby was grateful that dumbledore had hired him and winky, winky was flat out drunk, saying how much she missed her ex-master and how she wanted to go back.
"w-winky's...guarding a secret f-for winky's ex-master", winky hiccuped.
though the three had tried to get out what the secret was, winky was a stubborn and loyal elf even when drunk.
the three sighed as they headed towards the library, where evelyn had told the three to meet her at.
"where is she?", ron asked, bored.
"she's probably 10 minutes late like always", hermione chuckled, opening her book up to read while she waited.
and just like predicted, the girl was indeed 10 minutes late.
"I'm so sorry guys! I got caught up doing something", evelyn huffed, taking a seat beside hermione.
"I hope that something wasn't snogging malfoy", ron teased as he made a fake gagging face.
evelyn gasped. "of course not! there's more important things to worry about right now".
"like the competition", harry continued.
"speaking of which, do you two know what it is?", hermione asked, not even bothering to look up from her page.
"nope. although I hope it doesn't have to do anything with using too much brain power though. my brain cells have been dying since this tournament started", evelyn sighed, slumping into her chair.
"now if that isn't the most relatable thing I've heard", ron snorted, making harry and hermione smile.
—✼—
as if june wasn't already hot enough, evelyn's palms were so sweaty that it could probably provide water to a whole village.
"how good is your sense of direction?", malfoy asked the girl.
"huh?"
malfoy rolled his eyes. "for merlin's sake evelyn! it's literally a maze! you must have some sense of direction don't you?", malfoy asked.
evelyn avoided the boy's gaze and fondled with the hem of her grey t-shirt.
"alright contestants, 5 more minutes", one of the professors called out.
evelyn then hugged malfoy tightly, making him stiff.
he slipped his arms out of the girl's embrace and hugged the girl back. gently, he placed a kiss on the top of the girl's head.
"if you're lost or you think you can't make it, remember to alert them by shooting the red signal up in the air with your wand", malfoy reminded.
"come on dray, have more faith in me!", evelyn pouted, making malfoy gently pinch the girl's cheek.
"by the way", evelyn whispered, totally serious now.
"hm?"
"keep this safe for me", evelyn said as she slipped her hands into malfoy's pockets.
evelyn gave the boy a look, as if warning him to not take whatever she had sneakily put in his pocket out. he patted the girl's head as he watched her run off, waving with her usual smile.
"since there's 2 hufflepuffs, we've decided for one to enter first and the other enter 1 minute later, using the same entrance", dumbledore announced.
evelyn and cedric looked at each other. with both agreeing that cedric would go in first, the whistle was blown, signaling the start.
exactly one minute later, evelyn ran into the leafy maze, seeing the entrance behind her slowly close up.
though the maze was made up of leaves and twigs, evelyn had learned that plants could be very problematic and just as vicious as a dragon.
evelyn's eyes darted from every direction as the girl kept running. from time to time, she had heard leaves rustling behind her, but didn't want to bother herself with it too much.
everyone's goal was to reach the center of the maze and grab the triwizard cup. but for evelyn, her priority was to find either harry or cedric.
panting, she suddenly heard a growl and a feminine scream, making her heighten in fear. she pressed her back against the wall of leaves, catching a glimpse of the animal—no, the man that was rushing towards her.
thinking she was going to get caught, she had realized the person was victor krum. but before she could even speak, a hand covered her mouth from behind, making her elbow the person in the stomach.
quickly turning around, she realized that it was harry.
"my goodness harry!! I'm so—"
harry once again covered the girl's mouth, forbidding her from speaking. when victor krum had arrived, his wand acted as a source of light, as if he couldn't see.
indeed, the man's eyes were not the chocolate brown that they used to be. in fact, they were pure white now; no pupils or iris.
evelyn's eyes widened in terror as krum walked by them, totally ignoring their presence and running off.
a few minutes later, harry finally spoke.
"I believe he was possessed. he had attacked fleur and I had sent out the red signal for her", harry briefly explained.
evelyn then grabbed onto harry's hand so that they wouldn't get separated from each other. as if luck was on evelyn's side, she had spotted a struggling body, specifically cedric diggory's.
"impedimenta!", harry casted, making the 10 feet blast-ended skrewt slow down.
evelyn quickly helped cedric up to his feet. the three had traveled together, meeting a sphinx that was blocking their way to the shortest route.
the female sphinx has a body of gold, with the head of a human and almond-shaped eyes.
in order to pass, the three had to solve a riddle that the sphinx had given. it was a clue hinting to the last creature that they needed to face in order to get to the cup.
"first think of the person that lives in disguise,
who deals with secrets but tells naught but lies.
next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend,
the middle of middle and end of the end?
and finally give me the sound often heard,
during the search of a hard-to-find word.
now string them together and answer me this,
which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?"
harry's immediate thought was the dementor, as no soul or being would want to be kissed it that. but it was too easy, thus he asked the opinion of cedric and evelyn.
"the first two lines refer to a spy", cedric mumbled.
"the second clue is indicating the letter d. the letter in the middle of the word middle, and at the end of the word end", evelyn deduced.
"what sound is often heard when searching for a word?"
"errr...". harry scratched his head, making a lightbulb go off.
"it's er! and string them all together. spy-d-er. spider!!", harry exclaimed, to which the sphinx had nodded and let the three through.
evelyn smiled as she skipped past the sphinx. her mood had slightly inflated until she felt her entire jaw drop.
a spider—that was over 15 feet in width and length—with extra furry legs and pristine beady red orbs was sitting on top of its web, like a king.
evelyn's entire existence seemed puny compared to the spider itself.
the three froze in fear, as they stared back at the enormous predator.
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