Harry's Blasting Curse slammed into the Blast-Ended Skrewt, and its guts burst out through its exposed underside.
The stench of rotten fish and decayed shellfish instantly spread through the air.
Harry clapped a hand over his nose, muttered a quiet apology to Hagrid under his breath, and hurried away.
He apologized because last December, Hagrid had complained to him—
That these skrewts were far too fond of killing each other.
Back then, only ten were left from the batch Hagrid had raised.
Now Harry had taken one more out, and Harry had no idea whether Hagrid would be heartbroken.
In reality, Hagrid was heartbroken.
Because the one Harry killed… was Hagrid's last remaining skrewt.
The other nine had already died in brutal infighting.
When Hagrid saw the scene through the magical Recording Stones, the man cried like a three-hundred-kilo child.
Of course… Harry didn't know any of that yet.
He continued deeper into the maze, completely unaware that danger was creeping closer with every step.
Meanwhile, Hermione was still strolling along like she was taking a leisurely walk.
She had already cut through obstacle after obstacle and arrived at the very center of the maze.
And there, in the most obvious location, sat the Triwizard Cup.
But Hermione didn't reach for it.
Because touching the Cup meant the match ended.
And she hadn't forgotten why she'd entered the Triwizard Tournament in the first place.
She wasn't here for a trophy.
She was here to fight Voldemort—to test her strength against him.
The Cup was just a bonus.
Before the match, Arthur had told Hermione that if she wanted to find Voldemort, she simply needed to follow Harry.
So after confirming the Cup's location, Hermione turned and left the center.
Now she needed to find Harry's position—
Before she missed the battle she'd been waiting for.
Up in the stands, the audience couldn't understand what they were seeing.
The Cup was right there.
So why wasn't Hermione taking it?
Only "Moody" watched Hermione's retreating direction with growing alarm.
Because that direction… was exactly where Harry was.
At that moment, "Moody" stopped caring about the risk of exposure.
He drove Krum straight toward Harry.
Harry spotted Krum and was about to greet him—
Only for Krum to attack without a word.
"Moody" didn't intend to kill Harry with Krum.
He needed to herd Harry toward the Portkey—the fake Triwizard Cup.
So every spell Krum cast avoided lethal intent.
But Harry didn't know that.
Under the pressure of Krum's relentless barrage, Harry could only flee—running blindly toward whatever lay ahead.
At the same time, "Moody" manipulated the maze's traps to obstruct Hermione.
He needed to keep her from arriving and helping Harry break free.
Hermione dealt with the traps snapping at her from every direction, all while thinking grimly—
Her cousin had been right.
The moment she showed even the slightest intention of heading toward Harry, the obstruction began.
Voldemort really was planning to strike Harry at this moment.
Hermione quickened her pace.
She had to reach Harry before Voldemort made his move.
To make the coming spectacle easier to enjoy, Arthur sent Hermione a message through their mental link—telling her to take a Recording Stone with her.
Hermione obeyed, plucking one from the side of the path and pinning it to her chest.
That single action forced "Moody" to rein himself in.
With a Recording Stone on Hermione, he couldn't keep using traps so openly against her without being seen.
So he turned his attention fully to Krum—continuing to drive Harry onward.
By now, Harry had started to realize something was wrong.
He didn't know Krum well, but he'd heard enough about the famous Quidditch star's character.
Krum wasn't the kind of person who fought dirty for victory.
He certainly wasn't the kind who attacked relentlessly like this.
But Krum's assault was too dense, too suffocating.
Harry had no time to think.
All he wanted was an opening—any opening—to get away.
After rounding a corner, Harry realized Krum hadn't followed.
Relief washed through him.
Then he looked up—
And saw, not far ahead…
A Triwizard Cup.
Harry didn't know it was fake, but he immediately sensed something unnatural.
Why had Krum vanished the moment they reached this area?
The audience was equally confused.
Because now they were seeing something they shouldn't have been able to see.
Two Triwizard Cups.
The location "Moody" had chosen for the fake Cup had been a blind spot—one without any Recording Stones.
But Hermione had arrived wearing one.
So the fake Cup was now broadcast in full view of the stands.
Some spectators, misunderstanding everything, even assumed Hermione had "seen through" the Cup in the center and realized it was fake…
Not knowing the truth was the opposite—
The one in the center was real.
This one was the trap.
Following Arthur's instructions, Hermione didn't reveal herself.
She observed from concealment, then quietly asked through her mental link, "Cousin… what's going on? Why are there two Triwizard Cups?"
Arthur replied, "That's Barty Crouch Jr.'s plan. The one Harry's seeing is the Portkey."
Hermione's eyes brightened.
"So if I touch that Portkey… I can go straight to Voldemort and fight him now?"
"Don't rush," Arthur said. "Voldemort's still a wraith. Let Harry go first—then you follow the spatial disturbance with Apparition."
"Also—hide yourself properly. If you're careful, you can give everyone a live broadcast of Voldemort's resurrection."
Hermione didn't even hesitate.
That sounded fun.
She agreed instantly.
Neither of them bothered to consider what would happen if Harry didn't touch the Cup.
Because they knew Harry far too well.
That boy had a real weakness.
Itchy fingers.
If there was something in front of him, he wanted to touch it.
Examples?
Second year—he touched Dumbledore's phoenix in the headmaster's office.
Only for Fawkes to choose that exact moment to burst into flame and be reborn.
Harry had nearly panicked himself into a heart attack, convinced he'd killed the headmaster's bird with his hands.
Then there was the second Triwizard task not long ago—
Harry had been fascinated by the protective barrier around Hermione and poked it.
If Hermione had been using Bubble-Head Charm instead, Harry might've popped it.
Even in the original timeline, when Harry and Hermione used the Time-Turner to go back—
Harry had been so curious he'd wanted to twist it a couple times.
Hermione had smacked his hand away for it.
So yes.
Sometimes, Harry's hands really were… a problem.
That was why Arthur and Hermione weren't worried at all.
Harry would touch it.
And sure enough—
Even though Harry sensed something was wrong, he still approached the Cup.
Maybe his brain hadn't even caught up yet…
But his hand moved first.
His fingers landed on the metal.
And in the next instant—
Harry and the Cup vanished from the spot.
The stands exploded into noisy confusion.
People shouted over one another as panic rose through the crowd.
In that chaos, Barty Crouch Jr.—still wearing "Moody's" face—made a subtle motion, trying to slip away.
But Arthur had been waiting for that.
A single spell—
And "Moody" froze mid-step.
A full-body bind.
He couldn't move at all.
It wasn't a standard Body-Bind.
It was Arthur's own creation—an improved binding spell that combined the strengths of the Full Body-Bind Curse and an eastern immobilization technique.
It locked the entire body.
And it lasted far longer than either original method.
It solved the Full Body-Bind's weakness—only restricting certain movement patterns—
And also solved the eastern technique's weakness—its short duration.
Now "Moody" was frozen in place, unable to twitch.
He knew he'd been exposed.
But he wasn't afraid.
His master's orders had already been completed.
The only regret left in his heart…
Was that he might never see his master again.
Arthur rose from his seat and vanished—
Reappearing beside Dumbledore.
The sudden arrival nearly startled the old headmaster.
Dumbledore hadn't seen Arthur move at all.
In truth, Arthur had used Apparition—an improved version, yes, but still Apparition.
The reason Dumbledore failed to notice wasn't because the spell was unfathomable—
It was because Arthur's understanding of space had risen to a terrifying level.
After the Kunlun incident, Arthur realized his own shortcomings in spatial arts.
So he spent time learning from Ranni—absorbing her knowledge of space.
By now, Arthur's spatial attainment had reached roughly forty percent of Ranni's.
Forty percent might not sound like much—
But Ranni's depth and accumulation in the Path of Space was something very few in the Lands Between could compare to.
And Arthur had studied under her for less than half a year—without even using the Zen Garden's time-flow advantage.
Even with extraordinary talent, he couldn't possibly reach her level so quickly.
Yet even at only forty percent…
It was enough to make Dumbledore fail to sense Arthur's movement.
Which, in itself, proved just how terrifying Ranni's mastery of space truly was.
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