Part 6: Task
Harry, 24th June, 1995
Minisinoo

"Where's Dumbledore?" Harry asked Cedric.  They were waiting in a room outside the little stadium where spectators had assembled on the evening of the Third Task.  Mrs. Weasley and Bill had come to be with him, and Cedric had his parents.  But Harry and Cedric had been pacing around nervously.  Now, they met in the middle of the little room.

The taller boy looked down at him and smiled.  "Dunno.  Haven't seen him all day."

"He got called away," said a voice behind them, and Harry felt a heavy hand come down on his shoulder.  He turned.  It was Professor Moody.  "An emergency."

"More important than the Triwizard Tournament?" Harry asked.  He felt . . . abandoned.

Moody grinned at him.  "There are more important things in the world than this damn game, Potter."  He patted Harry again, then slapped Cedric's back, too.  "Good luck, you two.  Do Hogwarts proud."

"Yes, sir," Cedric replied.  But his face looked troubled.

When Moody had moved off, Harry asked, "You nervous?"

"I'd be an idiot if I weren't."

"Yeah," Harry agreed, feeling foolish.

Cedric must have realized how he'd sounded because he patted Harry's shoulder in turn, too.  "Sorry.  Shouldn't have snapped.  But yeah, you could say I'm a bit nervous."  Abruptly he dropped the hand and shoved it in his pocket, as if not sure he had a right to be that familiar, but Harry didn't mind.  "So -- good luck in there, all right?"

"Yeah.  You too, Cedric."

Dumbledore still hadn't arrived by the time the task was to begin.  Harry wasn't sure what to think, and neither were Fudge, Bagman or McGonagall -- never mind the other school Heads -- but Moody appeared serene, and so Harry relaxed.  If there were a real problem, something dangerous, Moody would've called it off.  He was too famously suspicious.

Bagman summoned the Champions out into the arena and introduced them to wild cheers from the crowd.  Harry felt his heart in his throat as he looked up at the people, then he was being directed towards the entry in the giant hedge, Cedric beside him.  They looked across at one another, nodding slightly.  Bagman blew his whistle and they both entered the maze together.

Green hedges soared up twelve feet to either side of them, making a narrow aisle where the evening light grew dim.  Sound from outside was cut off and Harry felt as if he were underwater again.  He lit his wand with a quiet, "Lumos!" and heard Cedric do the same just behind him.  At about fifty yards in, they came to a fork, and by unspoken agreement he went one way while Cedric went the other.  "See you," he said, though he hoped he didn't, at least not in the maze.  He hoped he reached the cup first.

Well, if he survived blast-ended skrewts and boggarts.  He did run into Cedric again after all, who warned him about the skrewts.  Shortly after, he heard Fleur scream but was caught in enchanted mist trying to reach her.  By the time he got away, she was nowhere in sight, then he had to tangle with a skrewt himself.

Free of that, he heard what he hadn't expected in the maze:  Cedric speaking in angry surprise to Krum, then Krum's own voice calling out, "Crucio!"  Cedric began to scream.  Harry didn't think, just ran, trying to find his way through to Cedric.  Cedric had been nothing but kind, especially since the dragon task.  He didn't deserve to be tortured.

Harry had to blast his way through a hedge to find Krum standing over Cedric, watching while Cedric convulsed on the ground.  Harry whipped out his wand, but Krum had heard him and tried to flee.  "Stupefy!" Harry yelled, hitting Krum square in the back.  Krum fell onto his face in the grass.  Harry wasted no time on him but ran to Cedric instead.

The older boy lay on his back, panting hard, hands over his face.  Harry knelt down and gripped his arm.  "Are you all right?"

Cedric didn't reply for a moment, then he dropped his hands and sat up with Harry's help.  He appeared . . . stunned.  Harry began to worry that maybe Krum had done something more than just the Torture Curse.  "Merlin's Beard," Cedric said finally, rubbing at his eyes.  "He got me.  That bastard.  He got me and I didn't even see him."

Harry was still gripping Cedric's arm.  "I can't believe it either," he replied.  "I thought he was all right, Krum."

"Not Krum -- Moody."  Cedric's face wore such a look of pure terror that Harry actually moved back but Cedric grabbed him anyway.  "We have to get out of here, Harry.  Moody's not Moody.  He's Barty Crouch, Jr., the Death Eater.  He Altered my memory and I don't know what he's done to Dumbledore.  This Task is a trap.  We have to get out of here and back to the Hufflepuff changing rooms."

Harry stared at Cedric.  Had the older boy lost his mind?  "What do you mean Moody's not -- "

"Listen to me," Cedric said, practically shaking him.  "Moody means for you to win and get to the cup.  But it's a portkey and it'll take you -- us -- to a graveyard where You Know Who is waiting.  He'll take your blood for a spell to reincarnate.  I told Dumbledore and he didn't -- well, he didn't disbelieve me, but he was going to check some things.  Now I'm here in the maze, Dumbledore's missing, and while I can still remember what happened in between, the me in between didn't remember the real truth till just now.  You've got to believe me, Harry.  He's trying to kill you."

Frowning, Harry pulled away.  "Cedric, you're talking crazy.  Moody's trying to help me -- he's been helping me all along.  That curse must have addled your wits -- "

"No, it cleared them.  Moody -- I mean Crouch -- Altered my memory, but I remember now.  I remember everything."  And despite twilight dimness of the hedge, Harry could tell that Cedric was regarding him very strangely, as if he were seeing someone besides Harry.  There was a warmth there that made Harry slightly uncomfortable, and only confirmed his fear that Cedric wasn't himself.  "We have to get out of here and find Dumbledore," Cedric said.  "And stop Crouch."

Harry knew his entry in this Tournament was part of some dangerous game, but he didn't think Cedric had it quite right.  "It's Karkaroff who's the threat.  I overheard him talking to Snape -- and just now, with Krum attacking you . . . It's Karkaroff, if it's anybody."

"No!" Cedric insisted, looking almost desperate.  "It's not Karkaroff.  It's Moody -- but he's not Moody.  He's just pretending to be.  He's taking Polyjuice.  Harry, listen to me.  If things go the way they did before, You Know Who is going to come back, he's going to kill me and wound you and everything's going to change.  But now I don't know what'll happen.  I did change something.  Moody didn't make Dumbledore disappear last time."

Harry was gaping at him.  "What are you talking about?  You're not --"

"Time-Turners.  I know you know about them.  Harry, listen -- "

"Are you Cedric?"

"What?  Of course I am!"

"I mean, are you from the future or something?"

"No!"  Clearly frustrated, Cedric ran a hand into his hair.  "It was somebody else.  I can't tell you more, I can't.  Just . . . trust me.  Please.  Things are not what you think.  I've already changed what happens a little and I don't know how anything will turn out now.  We have to see if we can find Dumbledore.  And for God's sake, don't touch the cup!"

Harry blinked and stared at the hand Cedric held out towards him.  He didn't know what to do.  "Tell me who told you all this.  Tell me that and maybe I'll believe you."

He watched Cedric wrestle with the demand, then sigh and drop the hand.  "I can't, Harry.  There are some things I can't tell you.  It's too dangerous.  I need you to trust me; I've never lied to you."  He looked Harry in the eye.  "Please.  I'd never hurt you.  I'd never let anything happen to you if I could stop it."  And there was something about the way he said that, the raw intensity of it, that alarmed Harry, reminding him of the funny look Cedric had given him a minute ago.  It didn't sound like Cedric at all.  Why would the real Cedric say something like that?  Or if it was the real Cedric, what if he were trying to make Harry give up on the Task?  Krum had turned out to be rotten.  Maybe Cedric was as well.  Harry didn't think so, but he'd trusted Krum.  Maybe Cedric, too, had been lying all along.  Pretending.

"I don't know what's going on," Harry said to him cautiously, holding his eyes so Cedric (or whoever he really was) wouldn't notice him shift his grip on his wand, "But Moody's helped me from the very beginning.  Yeah, Dumbledore's not here, and that's strange, but Moody wasn't worried -- "

"Of course he wasn't!  He's the one who did something to him!  Harry, please -- "

Harry whipped his wand up and aimed it right at Cedric, shouting, "Stupefy!"

The spell hit Cedric square in chest, knocking him onto his back.  "Sorry, Cedric.  Or whoever you are.  I'm not sure I trust you, either."

And Harry went on.

Half an hour later, his hand touched the softly glowing cup only for it to yank him off his feet and land him, out of breath, in a graveyard.  Feeling the searing pain in his scar that announced the presence of Voldemort, Harry realized that Cedric had been telling him the truth.

Part 7: Masks

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