Harry Potter:Diamond Heart.

Neville had told him that a single hedge of this size would be more than enough to keep them out of sight, but Harry wasn't going to be casting any random spell. It would be best to have a conservative estimate before attempting something as supposedly dark as fiendfyre was. All four of the champions edged a little closer to the entrance of the task as they came to the same conclusions. When the gap was in seconds every meter would count. Krum was chuckling under his breath next to Harry as he leant forwards ever so slightly. The Bulgarian clearly would not be giving up any of his advantage if he could avoid it.

'Well I suppose that's really all there is to it,' Bagman grinned. 'Mr Krum…'

Viktor Krum leant forward a little further.

A shrill whistle blew and Krum flew forwards and into the darkness of the maze.

He's fast.

Harry was fairly fast, but Krum was something else. If he hadn't been magical Harry suspected he could have a good life as a track athlete. Fleur was counting down from forty behind him. When she got to twenty it would be Harry's turn.

He leant forwards. It rather reminded him of athletics back before Hogwarts. He'd been a damn sight better than Dudley, especially at anything involving running.

On your marks, get set…

Fleur reach eighteen and Harry's muscles coiled.

Go!

He was in the maze before Bagman had managed to blow the whistle.

It was dark. The hedges looked a whole lot taller from within, twenty feet seemed a lot more like twenty metres, as the definitely-no-longer-knee-high walls towered over either side of him as he ran. Krum's footprints went left at the first fork; Harry went right. He'd rather not catch the Bulgarian in the process of creating his shortcut. Harry quite liked Krum.

The path followed a gentle curve along what was likely to be the edge of the maze. Harry frowned and resolved to take the next left in towards the centre, he needed to get at least three hedges between himself and the edge as quickly as he could.

He ran full tilt into something very hard and bounced off into the hedge.

The walls of the maze shivered and Harry was sure he could hear the leaves whispering, but that all faded out of his mind when the original obstacle turned to face him, clicking its pincers menacingly. Who let Hagrid help?

Harry swore viciously and raised his wand, watching it rise up in each of the eight, almost life-size reflections of himself.

'Lacero,' he hissed. The curse put out one of the reflections, and the monstrously over-sized spider clicked furiously, thick, sticky green liquid dripping from its mandibles.

The curse Harry had used was designed to cut through flesh and muscle, but it seemed to do little more than gouge lines into the acromantula's carapace whenever Harry aimed at something a bit more vital than its spare eyes.

The giant spider surged forwards and Harry hastily dived underneath it, disillusioning himself and lying very still. The creature clicked slowly, stalking up and down over the top of him, but proved unable to find him. Instead it began to spin a web across the path, blocking Harry's way further into the maze. He'd forgotten how intelligent they were. Aragog had been able to speak, this was one was clearly capable of some strategy. Very fine fibres of their silk were sometimes used to make expensive clothing, but the webbing between Harry and his goal was as thick as his bicep and every bit as strong as steel.

He didn't have time or magic to waste carving his way through that; he couldn't surreptitiously use fiendfyre so close to the outside of the maze.

Then inspiration struck. A carapace wasn't too different to bone. It was called an exo -skeleton for a reason and he doubted the magic would see the difference between the two.

'Osassula,' he whispered, flicking his wand in an inverted c shape. His bone-splintering curse missed its original target off the spider's carapace, but it struck one of the legs instead, shattering it, and the acromantula stumbled, screeching in pain.

He fired off three more, crippling two more legs on the same side before the spider collapsed and his final curse flew harmlessly into the hedge.

Harry gazed down at the writhing spider curled up on the floor in front of him. Its legs were curled in on itself no differently from the garden spiders Dudley delighted in tormenting, and it was making a high-pitched, keening noise. He'd put it in such pain, it might have been kinder just to simply kill it.

His wand flared green and Harry frowned. He would never use that curse again, not if he could help it. The spider screamed when he stepped towards it, and jerked forwards towards the sound of his footsteps, pincers clicking.

Injured animals are sadly. And it's in the way.

dangerous, he

decided

From the dirt beneath him he conjured a long, thin, steel spike and, with a high powered Banishing Charm, sent it deep into the acromantula's skull. Hagrid would be upset, but Harry would be alive.

He stepped over the spider's still legs, dropped his invisibility, and ducked through the gap in the webbing.

The maze began to curve in towards the centre more dramatically, and Harry had to fight the rising temptation to burn his way through to the centre the further in he felt he had come. It was only a few moments before he heard heavy footfalls up ahead.

Harry immediately disillusioned himself.

Some horrific cross between a scorpion and a lobster was prowling along the path before him. It was a slimy nightmare of a creature. Harry was sure that Hagrid must love it dearly, whatever the hell it was.

A shower of sparks shot from forth from its end and it propelled forwards into the hedge, flailing its stinger wildly.

He made a split second decision that avoiding it was better than trying to fight something he knew nothing about and cast a noise suppression charm upon himself.

The creature was still thrashing about in the wall of the maze, stinging the hedge furiously and expelling gouts of spars as it drove itself deeper into the wall.

Harry sprinted past it silently and invisibly, trusting his charms to conceal him from the monster and hoping it's disgusting, fishy stench was a sign it had a very bad sense of smell and would not notice him.

There was another fork directly ahead of him, one that had no footprints on either path. Harry looked up into the slit of sky that was still visible to him, searching for any sign of the sun behind the clouds or hedges. There wasn't so much as a glimpse of it.

Idiot, he scolded himself, placing his wand flat on his palm.

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