Souls were more complicated than memory, of course. He still felt like he was Harry, whatever that meant. All he could do was assume that it would be obvious if something was wrong about being an empty shell with a displaced soul… (now was not the time to think about it, don't think about it, everything is fine!) Right? Probably.
He set the ring down on the countertop. He didn't need it anymore, but he felt naked without it on.
Near tears for some reason, Harry scrubbed his face clean and double-checked his belongings. Now was not the time for babyish tears, he was running late for the task.
The Cloak refused to leave him but magicked itself into an old-fashioned, heavily patterned black robe. It was very wizard-y in that it was horribly garish, especially combined with the jeans. Tapping his holly wand to check its position in its holster caused the pocket of the Cloak to heat. The Elder Wand sniffed in jealousy. How? Harry had no idea, but he could tell that was what happened.
"I'd better keep both of you, just in case," he said out loud, to a wand, like it was a person. "No, don't huff at me like that. I promise I will use you, yes you're very pretty, yes I see your wood grain, it's lovely." He called the shadows to transport him, landing in a secluded corner beside the hedge maze.
The stands were full, and as he ran up to the front, a large group of officials and professors turned to give him unhappy looks. Fleur and Viktor were both standing at the entrance of the massive maze, peering inside.
"You are late, young man!" An official pulled him forward, pinning another small scrying stone to the front of his robe. "You'll be heading in first, at the signal. The first to reach the Goblet of Fire wins."
"Harry James Potter!" Mama, closely followed by Sirius, stomped across the field, anger set in her eyes.
"Oh shit," Harry mumbled. "I'm ready, I'm ready, start the task now!"
"Do not curse, young man, everyone can hear you."
"Then everyone will hear where I learned my swears from because my mum looks like she's going to lecture me and it will be ugly!" The crowd roared with laughter, the students well aware of Alabasandria's wrath. Hearing Harry Potter get a dressing down from his mum sounded like the perfect pre-show entertainment. Luckily the officials, taking a look at her terrifying face as she marched closer, took pity on Harry because there was a loud boom from a cannon, and Harry was ushered towards the entrance.
"Bye, mum! Bye, dad! I'll be fine! Sorry, love you! Bye, adoring fans!" Harry turned to face everyone, waving at the roaring crowd, and sent his parents a thumbs up. Before he could get his lecture, which would no doubt occur regardless of the task or the scrying stone amplifying her words for everyone to hear, Harry ran into the maze. The tall hedges closed behind him and cut off the sounds and light - leaving him in eerie darkness. He flicked his wand to cast lumos and a huge wave of blue fire flew from the tip of his wand instead.
"Haha, oops," Harry mumbled, cognizant of the audience watching his every move. Now was not the time for his magic to be broken. The fire flared around him, slinking around the grass like a snake. It followed him underfoot deeper into the maze, illuminating the area around him.
Harry made sure his audience that he was holding hostage got a constant stream of commentary as he wandered the maze. Surely Bagman or someone was commentating as usual, but Harry figured everyone vastly preferred his insight. It was so rare that he had an audience, let alone one that was unable to talk back and thus tell him to shut up. One of the greatest joys in life was being a dramatic bitch, and everything had been so serious lately.
"Can't help but notice the lack of magical creatures," he said, having just maneuvered around an odd, oily slime patch. "Did I mess with your budget with all the beasts I exploded?" He came to a series of stone plates resting on the ground, forming a runic circle.
"I should have brought my broom!" He shouted at the sudden thought. "Holy hell, I could have flown over all this mess. Fuck, I'm so stupid." With a heavy groan, he crouched on his heels to glare at the numbers set into the rock."Is this a maths problem!? I'm not doing maths! Frankly, I would rather die."
He stared at the evil, evil numbers. He hated Hogwarts.
"Seven?" He guessed blindly, having not attempted to solve the thing at all. He walked around the edge of the circle seven times, then hopped on the seventh stone. It faintly glowed and the whole thing disappeared. It was for the best that it worked, he would have burnt the spell apart with fire before he willingly did any maths.
The next obstacle, further down the path - "I sure hope this is the right way," Harry announced to his audience. "I haven't been paying attention to where I'm going at all!" - was the first magical creature he'd seen.
"I'm very sorry," he told the sphinx. "I'm actually really, really, bad at riddles. Could you repeat it?"
"I will repeat it once more and once more only," she sniffed impatiently. "What do you call a very fast duck?"
Harry's brain was soup in his ears. He was a jock, not a nerd for hell's sake! Why couldn't they have just given him another monster to fight!?
"Okay, counter riddle. I'll ask you one and -"
"That is not how this works, human."
"What has already murdered a basilisk and a dragon and will murder you if you don't let him by?"
"Y-you?" the sphinx said after a moment.
"Correct. May I pass?"
The sphinx got the hell out of his way.
After a few more minutes, Harry emerged from a long, winding path into a little courtyard. Sitting in the center, on a fancy pedestal, sat the golden, gleaming Goblet.
"Huh," Harry said dumbly. "That seemed way too easy?" He'd only blasted through the hedges with his fire a couple of times when he'd gotten really lost and turned around and none of the traps had caused him considerable trouble. Hell, he barely had a scratch on him, and that was mostly from the mosquitos.