Chapter 6 - The Final Task

After the disaster the Second Task almost turned out to be, the following months of peace were treasured by most. The peace, for the Mahoutokoro students, mainly consisted of hanging out, studying, and helping their champion train for the third and final task.

The relative peace ended on May twenty seventh. That day, the champions went to meet with Ludo Bagman, who would tell them what the final task would be. Turns out, the final task was an overgrown hedge maze. The maze would be filled with magical traps and creatures. Who ever got to the middle and touched the Triwizard Trophy first would win. The would be sent in depending on how many points they had from the first two tasks.

Now that they knew some of what to expect, it was easier to prepare and cut a lot of things from the 'to research' list.

June twenty fourth, the day of the final task, Keiko was surprised when she walked into the Great Hall for lunch. Her parents were waiting for her! Excitedly, she rushed forward with Pina to greet them. The four of them spent an enjoyable afternoon relaxing together.

All too soon, the sun was setting, and it was time for the final task to start. The two Hogwarts champions entered the maze first. Soon after them, it was Keiko's turn to enter the maze.

With Pina flying above, the witch and familiar duo managed to avoid the dead ends. Just as they were approaching the first obstacle they would face, Pina unexpectedly let out a warning screech. On guard, Keiko slowed to a stop, glancing around warily.

Suddenly, Keiko felt an inner peace she had first felt just recently. Recognizing the spell for what it was, the Imperious curse, she tried to gather the will to fight it off. Unfortunately, the peace was so soothing, she was having trouble thinking of more than her flash of recognition. Trying to hold onto the thought, she tried her hardest to break free. She couldn't. The little voice in her head was telling her to find Cedric or Fleur and stop them from reaching the trophy. After mostly failing to break out of her trance, she managed to satisfy the voice by telling it she would find the trophy and guard it against them. With that thought in mind, she made her way mostly unhindered to the trophy in the middle of the maze.

Upon reaching the middle of the maze, she saw the two Hogwarts champions reaching for the trophy. The little voice in her head was saying to hex the older boy. Seeing how bad that could end for him, she tried her hardest to fight the demanding voice. She failed. Luckily for both him and her, she managed to hold off long enough that by the time the spell reached where the two boys were standing, they were gone.

Feeling the spell on her vanish, Keiko breathed a sigh of relief. Knowing that the competition was over, she sent up red sparks. This way, she would be retrieved and wouldn't have the find her way out.

By the time she was out of the maze, it was chaos in the stands. Two of the champions had disappeared without a trace.

It took quite a while, but eventually, they returned. If Keiko thought before there was chaos, this was like a kicked anthill with people running around everywhere.

Finding out what happened, later in their accomidation, from her fellow Mahoutokoro students that were close enough to hear what was going on, shocked Keiko. A Dark Lord was resurrected and the older champion had been killed!? It was almost to much to believe.

Fortunately for the Japanese students, they were homeward bound the next day. They wouldn't have to deal with a Dark Lord being around.