A Nexus Devil

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Jake was the first one to enter the maze because of his perfect score in the second task. He glanced down at his robes. Stitched on the fabric over his chest were some special runes that were supposed to allow the spectators to see him navigate the maze.

Dumbledore had also politely asked Jake to cut down on his swearing because there could be younger children watching.

Apparently, there had been a lot more profanities used in the castle ever since Jake transferred in, as the impressionable kids tried to emulate "the school champion".

Jake, in return, told him no and asked Dumbledore why they were letting young children watch a violent bloodsport… Dumbledore had nothing else to say to Jake after that question.

Jake took a look around the maze, and everywhere he saw was just leaves, vines, and walls. It was also depressingly dark because they decided to hold this challenge at night for some reason.

Jake pulled out his map to see if he could get a bead on where he needed to go. "Let's see here," he said to himself, "I got to go up, left, right, up, down, right, right, left, down, up, left, right... holy crap, it just keeps going." Jake just gave a sigh, realizing this was going to take forever.

He followed the first direction as he ran forward through the endless sea of vines and took the first left in front of him.

He was running full sprint and his eyes widened as he slammed his heels on the ground and stopped. Instead of dirt being on the ground in front of him, there were a bunch of leaves stacked up on top of each other.

Jake figured to himself sarcastically that that didn't look suspicious at all. He fired a small burst of flames from his palm that immediately set the pile of leaves on fire.

As they burnt away, underneath was revealed to be a bunch of very sharp spikes sticking up, ready to impale anyone foolish enough to step on the trap without checking.

"Jesus Christ, they aren't fucking around in this place," Jake said to himself. "That trap was straight out of Indiana Jones." He laughed to himself.

"AND JAKE GREMORY NARROWLY AVOIDED DEATH WITH HIS QUICK THINKING!" The announcer's voice blasted over the maze for Jake to hear.

He just gave a wave to no one around him, but he figured all the people spectating the event through the scrying spell would appreciate it.

Jake took a few steps back before taking a running leap and jumping right over the spike pit.

As he continued on, he checked his map again and he was glad he did because the entire maze had apparently shifted in just that 30-second pause he just had! Now he had to take a left followed by a second right.

He continued down the twisting path until he saw a large shadow in front of him. He slowed his sprint for the second time as he approached the shadow and he got closer look at it.

Jake was surprised at what he saw in front of him. He knew it was a real creature, but he didn't think he'd ever see one unless he visited Egypt at some point in his life.

Standing in front of him, almost 10 feet tall with the face of a man and the body of a lion, was a sphinx!

The sphinx, noticing Jake's approach, called out to him. "Hello there, human," it smirked, cocking its head to the side, and said, "To move forward, answer my riddle.

" Jake knew of the supposed legends surrounding the sphinx: if you answer its riddle, it'll let you pass peacefully, but if you refuse to answer or you fail, then it's going to attack and try to eat whoever had failed in its eyes.

"Dammit," Jake thought to himself. He was never any good at riddles. "All right," he responded to the beast, "Hit me with your best shot... wait, no, not your best shot. Hit me with something that a 5-year-old could solve."

The face on the sphinx just gave him a deadpan stare, like it was looking at an absolute buffoon. But that had been the first time somebody had ever willingly admitted their lack of cleverness to the beast, so it acquiesced and chose to give him an easier riddle.

"The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?" The sphinx asked.

"..."

…Jake had absolutely no clue. He paused for a moment, placed his hand on his chin, and thought deeply, muttering to himself the phrase of the riddle over and over again.

"The more you take, the more you leave behind... What am I?" He repeated to himself. After contemplating for another 30 seconds, Jake finally snapped his fingers in realization.

"I've got it," he said to the sphinx confidently, "You're clearly an ex-girlfriend!"

Back at the start of the maze, in the spectator stand, all the people watching Jake try and solve the riddle just facepalmed in disappointment.

"An ex-girlfriend?" Hermione called out, watching what she considered to be an educational travesty. "Why the hell would he come up with that answer? Do sphinxes even have relationships?"

"Ha! I hope he gets mauled," Draco Malfoy cheered. "And if you're so smart, Granger, what's the answer to the riddle supposed to be?"

"Well, it's obviously footprints," she answered haughtily.

Everyone else watching just kept their heads down and didn't say anything, too afraid to admit that none of them had gotten even close to the correct answer either…

Back in the maze, the sphinx was just staring at Jake once again with a deadpan expression. It had given him an easy riddle and he had still failed, 'so now it could only come to this', the beast thought to itself.

"No," it spoke out loud, "you have failed to answer correctly, and therefore you must die."

With that, the sphinx bared its fangs and lunged towards Jake, claws first.

Jake widened his eyes in shock. He had somehow answered incorrectly when he was sure that was the right answer! He ducked out of the way of the claws coming towards his face.

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