Dazzling red fireworks climbed slowly up through the forest canopy in an unsteady, wavering trajectory, leaving trails of crimson light against the patches of sky.
Though the distance had weakened the sharp whistling sound until it became barely audible, the bright light still left a clear, unmistakable impression burned into the eyes of all three watching.
The firework exploded in a shower of scarlet sparks high above the treetops, the magical signal flare was doing exactly what it was designed to do, calling for rescue.
Harry, whose eyesight was naturally the sharpest of the three, squinted and concentrated. He vaguely caught sight of two dark shadows rushing toward where the firework had ascended at tremendous speed.
Two minutes later, the dark shadows rose into the air again. They flew rapidly in one direction, heading back toward the competition grounds. Within seconds, they had completely disappeared from view.
The three intense gazes that had been focused on that distant direction finally withdrew, reluctantly returning to the surroundings. Harry, Hermione, and Ron looked at one another in heavy silence, each clearly seeing the weight and concern reflected in the others' eyes.
"Someone's been eliminated already," Ron stated the obvious fact that they were all thinking.
But neither Harry nor Hermione said anything for voicing what they already knew. Sometimes the obvious needed to be acknowledged aloud.
"Who could it be?" Hermione asked, her breathing was still slightly irregular from their recent escape from the Devil's Snare. Her mind was already running through possibilities. "Which team couldn't handle it? Fleur's? Viktor's?"
No one could answer that question with any certainty as they had no way of knowing. But Harry privately hoped that it wasn't Neville and Luna who'd been forced to quit. Though he didn't particularly like Cedric on a personal level, on this competition ground they were all fighting for Hogwarts' glory and honor after all.
That was what mattered most right now, more than personal feelings.
The minor friction between him and Cedric, the awkwardness over Cho Chang and the general competitive tension wasn't nearly enough to make Harry change his stance. He wanted Hogwarts to succeed, even if that meant Cedric's team doing well.
The Omnioculars floating and hovering above their heads kept adjusting their angles with soft mechanical whirring, trying to capture the three young wizards' pale, mud-streaked faces and helpless expressions more clearly for the viewing audience.
Not knowing for certain whether Professor Watson's sophisticated contraptions could collect and transmit their voices along with their images, the three wisely said nothing more about someone being eliminated right at the competition's start.
They didn't want the thousands of spectators to think they were gloating over another team's failure, even if they felt some relief it hadn't been them.
Back in the murky swamp they'd just escaped, those aggressive Devil's Snare plants were still waving their thick green tendrils menacingly above the water's surface. The vines seemed to be actively sensing that living creatures were nearby, and hadn't moved far away from the feeding ground.
In the gloomy and sinister atmosphere of the Forbidden Forest, with mist curling between ancient trees and strange sounds echoing in the distance, the sight of those wriggling plants was truly terrifying. Harry and his two friends quickly moved further away from the swamp's edge.
Pulling his leg out of the clinging, sucking muddy wetland, making wet squelching sounds with each movement, Harry climbed awkwardly onto a large rock that was half-embedded in the soil and half-exposed above ground.
Without pausing to catch his breath or rest his burning leg muscles, Harry immediately turned around and reached down, grabbing Hermione's extended hand firmly.
Meanwhile, Ron supported Hermione's lower legs from below, bracing her feet with his hands, and together the two boys lifted and pulled, getting Hermione safely onto the rock with combined effort.
Finally, with Hermione now secure, Harry grabbed Ron's wrist with both hands. After some grunting and straining effort, with Harry pulling and Ron scrambling with his feet, Ron also escaped the clinging wetland and joined them on their temporary refuge.
Now the three of them could finally rest for a desperately needed moment, catching their breath and assessing their situation.
Hermione pointed her wand and murmured "Aguamenti."
The spell produced a steady stream of clean, clear water that sparkled in the dim forest light. She used it to carefully wash the thick, foul-smelling mud off their shoes and the lower portions of their trousers, scouring away the worst of the filth.
The three of them also took turns drinking some of the ice-cold fresh water, cupping their hands to catch it, letting the clean liquid wash away the taste of fear and exertion. The cold water sliding down their throats finally helped them recover some of their spirits and mental clarity.
"I've never 'hated' Professor Watson's brilliant ideas as much as I do right now," Ron muttered softly.
He warily glanced up at the hovering Omnioculars in mid-air, their lenses were pointed at him like accusing eyes.
He was afraid his voice would be captured by their magical recording equipment and transmitted to the ears of thousands upon thousands of watching wizards across Europe. The last thing he needed was to be caught complaining on live broadcast.
Harry used his sleeve to wipe away the water dripping steadily down his face from his soaked, muddy hair. Hearing Ron's heartfelt complaint, he could only respond with a bitter smile and a slight shake of his head.
The three young wizards sat close together among the towering trees that rose like pillars around them. In the deathly still forest, there was no cheerful sound of birdsong, no rustling of small animals in the shrubs.
The only sounds were the occasional soft popping noises of air bubbles seeping from the waterlogged soil into the swamp water and finally releasing themselves in the form of bursting bubbles on the surface.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Another kind of loneliness, different from the absolute isolation of the dark void they'd traversed, but equally oppressive, weighed down on their spirits in a direct and tangible way.
What should they do next?
Harry's green eyes glanced at the black enchanted board that Hermione held tightly in her hand, watching it nervously as though it might suddenly display crucial information.
His lips parted slightly, preparing to speak. Then his gaze shifted and he noticed the somewhat weighty school badge hanging in Hermione's robe pocket. A gleam flashed in his eyes.
"Give me the badge, Hermione," Harry said suddenly, extending his hand.
Hermione had been concentrating fully, staring intently at the blackboard's blank surface, watching for any sudden hints or position markers that might appear. She unconsciously touched her pocket at Harry's request.
But just as her fingers closed around the stone tablet, just as she was about to pull out this critically important item that represented their path to victory, she came abruptly to her senses. She looked at Harry with sudden alarm, her eyes were widening.
"What are you planning to do, Harry?" she asked suspiciously, clutching the badge tighter.
Harry sighed secretly, knowing his intention couldn't be hidden from her for long anyway.
"I think it would be more strategically appropriate for me to keep it, don't you?" Harry said as lightly as he could manage, trying to make it sound obvious. "It would create a useful misdirection for the other teams. I mean, think about it—the other three teams and their badges would definitely be kept by their respective champions."
It went without saying that whoever was most likely to be holding and protecting the badge would be subjected to concentrated attacks from opponents.
"If that's the logic we're following, mate..." Ron swallowed hard. He forced an ugly, strained smile. "Then the badge should actually be kept by me."
Harry fully expected that Hermione would definitely refuse both suggestions, would insist on keeping the badge herself as the champion. But to his genuine surprise, after her gaze flickered between them two for a moment, she actually pulled out the stone badge from her pocket.
She tossed it through the air to Ron.
Ron fumbled slightly but managed to catch the badge. He turned the stone tablet over in his hands repeatedly, examining it from all angles as though checking it, then smiled at Harry.
Under Harry's watchful gaze, Ron carefully tucked the precious badge into his chest.
"Shouldn't we be discussing our actual strategy now?" Ron said, trying to sound casual despite the weight of responsibility literally pressed against his heart.
"Like, who should we try to deal with first? Oh, and Professor Watson said that board can mark all the teams' positions when it activates, but he didn't specifically say which colored dot or position marker belongs to which team, did he?"
Harry stood up from his slumped, resting position and began flexing his joints, preparing his body for the high-intensity physical activity and magical combat that was surely to come.
"Best not to run into Cedric's team if we can avoid it," Harry said thoughtfully. "If we can somehow manage to take the badges from Fleur and Viktor instead then at least we can ensure Hogwarts... Oh!"
A sudden rustling sound came from deep within the forest.
Harry immediately looked sharply in that direction. At first glance through the dim forest light, he let out an instinctive shriek similar to the one Ron had made earlier before being hoisted up by the Devil's Snare.
Receiving Harry's warning signal, Hermione and Ron, who had both been resting in relatively slumped, relaxed positions, immediately jumped up from the rock as though electrocuted.
Hermione quickly returned to Harry's side, taking up position at his left. Meanwhile, Ron stood behind them both, positioned on the centerline between them, forming an instinctive defensive triangle formation. This was exactly as they'd practiced countless times in Physical Education class.
The visibility in the dense forest was extremely poor. Beyond a hundred feet or so, everything became dimly obscured and indistinct. Hermione squinted hard and examined carefully for two seconds but couldn't make out anything unusual at all.
"What did you see, Harry?" Ron said the urgent question from his position behind them.
"Those things!" Harry's voice came as shrill with fear and confusion. His arm extended, pointing into the murky distance.
"I don't recognize them at all... some kind of magical creatures I've never encountered. There are five of them, moving together like a pack. I've never seen anything like them before in my life, but they don't look easy to deal with!"
In Harry's view, about a hundred feet away through the gloom, a group of fierce-looking magical creatures cloaked in darkness and shadow were moving toward them. But they weren't charging or rushing. They were strolling, walking almost elegantly, with an eerie grace.
Hermione opened her eyes as wide as physically possible, straining to see.
She made her wand emit its brightest light with a:"Lumos Maxima" and shone the powerful beam furiously in the direction Harry was pointing, sweeping it back and forth like a searchlight.
But she saw nothing.
"Are you absolutely sure you didn't see wrong, Harry?" Hermione raised her voice. "I can't see anything at all out there!"
"Me neither... Maybe you're hallucinating from stress, mate," Ron suggested weakly, though his breathing sounded like a blacksmith's bellows being pulled.
"Absolutely not! I'm not imagining this!" Harry's expression grew increasingly tense. "Those things look somewhat like horses.... Oh, and they have these leathery bat-like wings, and heads that are a bit like that Bowtruckle you dealt with in class, Hermione. Oh Merlin, they've spotted us! They're definitely coming this way now!"
As soon as Harry finished his urgent description, a breeze rippled through the forest around them, stirring leaves and causing branches to creak.
Though Hermione and Ron still couldn't see the creatures themselves, the onrushing wind, let them know that Harry's alarming words were completely true.
"I know what they are!" Hermione suddenly cried out with recognition and horror mixed together. This happened just as the lush grass and ferns fifty feet in front of them showed clear signs of being bent down and disturbed by the passage of large, heavy bodies.
"RUN!" Hermione shouted at the top of her lungs.
She didn't wait for questions or discussion. She immediately spun on her back and jumped down from the side of the rock. Harry and Ron followed her down from the rock without hesitation.
Ron yelled as they ran, "What the hell are they, Hermione?"
Hermione didn't answer the question. Instead, while fleeing at top speed, she turned her head. Her face had gone ashen with fear. She pointed her wand back at the large rock where they had just been resting mere seconds ago.
"Bombarda!"
The moment the spell's light touched the rock's surface, a thunderous, ear-splitting explosion erupted with incredible force. The shattered rock fragments flew in all directions like deadly bullets. The blast wave knocked over smaller trees nearby. Even the three fleeing students were caught partially in the blast radius.
An angry, otherworldly hiss filled the air. Additionally, clear clopping sounds reached Ron's ears as he was struck by several pieces of flying debris and couldn't help howling in pain.
"Can you explain, Hermione?" Harry gasped out between breaths.
While still running at full speed, he also turned and cast a spell behind them, trying to slow their pursuers. "Stupefy!"
His stunning spell flew true through the air. It accurately hit what must have been the head of the leading beast, based on Harry's targeting. But before Harry could feel any joy or satisfaction at the successful hit, the creature's incredibly hard skull simply scattered and deflected Harry's spell like water off stone.
The beast continued pursuing them without being affected in the slightest.
"Ordinary offensive spells won't work on them, Harry! Don't waste your energy!" Hermione called back. "Their skin can repel magic like dragons can! They have natural magic resistance!"
As she ran, she waved her wand repeatedly, sending out streams of spell-light in different directions. "Bombarda! Diffindo! Reducto!"
She aimed not at the creatures but at the environment, blasting down the not-so-thick trees on either side of their path, felling them to create obstacles. Trunks crashed down behind them.
"We need to create physical obstacles and barriers so they can't catch up! Slow them down with terrain!"
Even though Hermione and Ron still couldn't actually see the threatening creatures pursuing them through the forest, they could now pinpoint the beasts' precise locations through sound alone.
The three fled desperately toward areas with denser trees, where the vegetation grew thicker, hoping the vegetation would impede creatures. They kept blasting down trees and creating deep holes in the ground with explosive spells, leaving a trail of destruction.
Harry made a split-second decision. He stopped briefly, and cast a powerful fire spell behind them. "Incendio Maxima!"
A wall of flames erupted across their back trail, blocking the path.
The fire couldn't spread very far in the damp forest. But the clouds of hot steam that rose from the flames, combined with the intense heat and the crackling barrier of fire itself frightened away the pack of beasts that had been pursuing them so relentlessly.
The creatures' angry hisses turned to sounds of confusion and retreat.
They ran for approximately twenty more exhausting minutes until Ron's ankle got painfully caught and tangled in some thick, woody vines as he tried to pass through them at full speed. The sudden snare jerked him to a halt and sent him sprawling forward onto the floor.
After Harry quickly released a precise Severing Charm to free Ron from his entanglement, and before Harry and Ron could catch their breath enough to ask the questions that were clearly burning in their minds, Hermione spoke between heavy gasps.
"Oh... if I'm not mistaken..." She paused, gulping air. "Those creatures... they're a wild Thestral herd."
————————————
For More Chapters; patreon.com/FicFrenzy