Harry Potter And The Unexpected Friend

Cedric Diggory was in a violent battle with an acromantula, and the giant spider was winning. Cedric had been knocked to the ground and the acromantula had him pinned down, its huge fangs ready to strike and release their venom into its victim. Cedric could hardly move and his wand appeared to have been knocked out of his hand and out of reach.

Harry reacted immediately and jumped into battle to save the older champion who had become his friend. A strong cutting curse aimed at one of the spider's legs severed it in half and drew a pained hissing noise from the beast. Its attention turned towards Harry and as it approached him Cedric was able to free himself and crawl away towards his wand.

"Conjuctivitus!" Harry said as he pointed his wand towards the acromantula's many eyes. When the curse hit the spider's eyes it howled in pain and frustration because it could no longer see. Cedric took advantage of the creature's attention towards Harry and hit one of its back legs with a strong Reducto that shattered the appendage and left it useless. Harry's next spell was one that would almost certainly be considered dark if it had been used on a human being, but he had no problems using it on a spider. "Cruormorsus!" he called, causing a dull orange spell to fly towards and hit the spider. As it did the acromantula's blood became slightly acidic, causing the beast to violently shake in pain. Harry held the spell for a few seconds longer and soon the animal was curled up in a ball making strange cries of pain.

"I think you beat it, Harry." Cedric said as he walked over to the other champion. Harry had stopped the spell, but the animal was still clearly in excruciating pain.

"I wasn't sure what that spell would do. Now I feel a little bad about using it, even on an acromantula." Harry said softly. He then walked towards the spider and cast another cutting curse, this time on its neck. The spider died immediately. "It would have died anyway, I just hope I saved it a little pain." he explained.

"I understand. It was the nice thing to do." Cedric agreed. He then turned his back towards Harry to look around the maze, still trying to figure out which way he wanted to go. "This tournament is pretty crazy, huh?"

"I'd say so." Harry answered. For a moment neither of them said anything else, but then Harry decided it was time to leave. "Hey Cedric…"

"Yeah Harry?"

"I'm sorry about this."

"Huh?" Cedric said as he turned his head back towards Harry. He immediately saw that Harry had his wand pointed at him, but Cedric had no time to draw his wand and defend himself. Harry silently cast Stupefy and his fellow Hogwart's champion dropped to the ground as soon as the spell hit him. Harry almost felt bad about this, but figured he had done enough to help Cedric by saving him from the acromantula. Besides, what he did wasn't against the rules. He shot sparks into the air so that someone would come and help his friend before leaving the area behind him.

It was only minutes later that Harry turned another corner that looked like countless others he had seen in the past few hours, but this time something was different. The corner led to a long straight hallway and at the end the path the Triwizard Cup was softly glowing as it stood on a pedestal. Harry grinned in excitement, he was finally at the end! He began running towards the Cup and realized a moment later that it was good he was running because the maze's walls began to crash down around him. Harry ran as fast as he could and was only barely able to keep ahead of the falling bushes that threatened to crush him. When he reached the clearing at the end of the path he took a moment to catch his breath before walking up to the Triwizard Cup.

The trophy itself was beautiful and Harry thought with a smile that it would look good hanging up in his dorm room. As he reached towards it he stopped with his fingers only inches away from the Cup. He could feel magic flowing off of it, but he was unable to identify what spells had been cast on it from the feel alone. He paused, wondering if this was some trick and not really the Triwizard Cup. Unfortunately he had no way to know for sure. It certainly looked like the Triwizard Cup. Harry cast the diagnostic charms he knew on the cup and was able to determine that it had not been poisoned and there were not any deadly curses placed on it, but beyond that he was clueless.

After a few moments he decided that he had no choice but to take the Triwizard Cup and see what happened. Taking one final breath to prepare himself, Harry grabbed the cup and immediately felt a familiar pulling sensation at his navel.

"A portkey!" he said in realization as he vanished. Harry had never liked traveling by portkey, but remembered the tips he had heard on how to land safely unlike his last journey by portkey. Even so when he landed he dropped down to a knee and immediately had his wand out ready to face anything. He was still surprised by what he saw…

"HARRY POTTER WINS THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT!" Ludo Bagman's voice called out as the crowd erupted into cheers so loud that Harry was tempted to put his hands over his ears to protect himself from them. He looked around and saw that the portkey had dropped him on a huge stage that had been erected in front of the maze's entrance. Fleur Delacour was seated in a chair towards the back of the stage looking quite unhappy. Harry then noticed that Cedric Diggory and Viktor Krum were both being led out of the maze and towards the stage. Krum also looked disappointed, but Cedric was surprisingly laughing as he looked at Harry. Harry smiled back, happy that Cedric apparently didn't hold any hard feeling towards him for what happened in the maze.

"Congratulations, Harry." Cedric said after leaping onto the stage. "But that was still a dirty trick you used."

"I know, but I said I was sorry." Harry reminded him as they both started laughing about it. Krum calmly climbed the steps to the stage and nodded slightly in Harry's direction. Harry shrugged and decided that was as much of a congratulations as he was going to get from the Durmstrang champion. The crowd, meanwhile, had not quieted down in the least. The cheers only became louder when Harry proudly raised the Triwizard Cup over his head for all to see. As he did he scanned the crowd looking for his friends. Eventually he found them and saw that they were all excitedly waving at him and cheering.

"Come, Harry. There is still much to be done." Ludo Bagman said from behind him. Harry nodded and walked towards the podium that Bagman had positioned himself behind. Another tournament official was motioning for him to place the Triwizard cup on a small stand in front of him and Harry happily did so. They had to wait several minutes for the cheering to die down so that Bagman could begin the presentation, but eventually he did.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today is a monumental day for our world." Bagman began. Harry looked at the older man curiously. His normal speaking voice was excited and spontaneuous, but he was now talking in an odd monotone and as if he were reading from a script. "Truly, a day for the history books. You, Harry Potter, are more important than you realize."

The crowd continued to cheer. They, apparently, did not share Harry's concern that something felt a bit off about the whole situation.

"You will bear witness. You shall see the rise of the greatest wizard of our age." Bagman continued. He then pulled a galleon out of his pocket and turned towards Harry. "Tonight, the Dark Lord lives again!" Bagman then thrust the galleon towards Harry and as it touched him Harry once again felt the odd pull at his navel which he knew meant the coin was a portkey, this time definitely not one taking him to a safe location. In the brief moment before he disappeared, Harry looked into Bagman's eyes. They were dull, emotionless, and looked slightly clouded over.

'The imperius curse!' Harry was able to think before he vanished.

In those few short moments the cheers of the crowd turned to screams and panic. This only escalated when Ludo Bagman pointed his wand in the air and yelled "Morsmordre!", causing the dark mark to appear in the sky. The first one to act was actually Cedric Diggory, who promptly knocked Bagman unconscious with a stunner to the back. Aurors and Professor Dumbledore rushed to the stage, but by that time there was little they could do.

Harry Potter was gone, and they had no idea where he could possibly be.

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