Harry and Ron scrambled up the muddy slope as well. The earth was slippery beneath their feet, still damp from morning dew and moisture.
After reaching the top and carefully observing the battle scene spread before them, they found themselves nodding in agreement with Hermione's deduction.
"So, the current situation is..." Ron began, fishing around in his backpack with one hand.
He pulled out a slightly squashed sausage, one of the items they'd hastily grabbed from the Great Hall's breakfast spread what felt like a lifetime ago. He bit into it hungrily, chewing quickly to replenish his desperately depleted energy reserves.
Speaking around the mouthful of food in a way that would have earned him a stern rebuke from his mother, he asked, "This unlucky team got eliminated from the competition? They're out?"
Hermione and Harry's lips moved almost simultaneously, both opening their mouths to respond. But neither actually spoke, the words were dying before they could emerge. It was indeed an intriguing and puzzling question, one that didn't have an obvious answer based on the evidence before them.
What were the actual consequences of being defeated by the hunting squad?
When the Slytherins had flown over their heads just moments ago, Harry hadn't spotted anyone from the other three champion teams among the riders.
This absence meant that after being defeated, the victimized team hadn't been automatically transported outside the competition arena and lost their qualification and was removed from the competition.
Wait—that wasn't quite right!
Harry's peripheral vision caught sight of something he'd initially overlooked. On the other side of the gentle slope, partially hidden by the natural curve of the land, grew a patch of lush green vines.
His eyes flashed with keen insight as he noticed the subtle disturbance.
"This team is still in the arena," Harry announced with growing certainty, pointing decisively at the suspicious vines.
He moved closer, examining the evidence more carefully. "Look—there are trampling marks up there on those vines, fresh ones. The leaves are crushed but still green, meaning this happened very recently. After being defeated by Malfoy's group, these two people weren't magically transported outside the field like we might have expected. They're still in the competition."
After encountering the hunting squad and suffering their first defeat, these two had clearly grown considerably wiser about the dangers they faced.
They'd left their current position by stepping across a large patch of vine leaves spread across the ground, using the resilient vegetation to avoid leaving obvious clues or trackable footprints in the vicinity of their defeat.
It was actually quite clever.
However, when the trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed the same clever path out of that sea of vines, carefully placing their feet on the same thick vegetation, they immediately discovered something their competitors had missed.
At the far edge of the vine patch, where the plants gave way to normal forest floor, two freshly made footprints were clearly visible.
The fleeing champions had successfully avoided leaving tracks through most of their escape route, but had made one critical error at the end.
"Oh—" Ron glanced down at the footprints embedded in the muddy ground, his eyebrows shot up with surprised recognition.
A knowing smile spread across his dirt-streaked face. "It's Fleur and her teammate."
"How did you figure that out so quickly, Ron?" Hermione looked at him with genuine surprise.
Ron lifted one of his own mud-filled feet with and deliberately made another clear impression in the soft ground next to the two existing prints. Then he looked back at Hermione with an expression of smug satisfaction that made him look remarkably like one of his older brothers when they'd pulled off a successful prank.
No further explanation was needed. The comparison was obvious and unmistakable.
Hermione understood immediately, mentally kicking herself for not seeing it sooner. The difference between male and female footprints was quite considerable when examined carefully. And the prints left in the ground before them were far more delicate, smaller, and lighter than Ron's large, heavy impression.
With their understanding of each other, the three needed no verbal discussion before they set off in determined pursuit.
No one could know with any certainty what was about to happen in the unpredictable chaos of this competition. So conserving energy for the trials to come was absolutely crucial for survival.
They didn't dare chase their competitors too quickly or push themselves to exhaustion. Instead, they restrained their natural competitive pace and followed the trail carefully.
On a rugged forest path that wound between trees and over exposed roots, a girl with silver-blonde hair jumped gracefully across a narrow, zigzagging stream that cut through the landscape.
When she landed safely on the far bank and turned around to wait for her teammate, extending one hand in offer of assistance, her companion unfortunately lacked the stamina and athletic ability to successfully clear the brook's width.
Instead of landing safely beside Fleur, the girl tumbled awkwardly into the shallow stream with a tremendous splash. She landed hard on her side.
"Triana!" Fleur gave a small cry of alarm and concern.
Without hesitation, she immediately jumped back into the stream bed, which was paved with smooth pebbles that shifted. She waded quickly to her fallen teammate and helped pull the sputtering girl up from the cold water.
The girl Fleur called Triana had light blonde hair several shades paler than Fleur's silver color, and her face was dotted with some light brown freckles. Her ponytail, which had been tied neatly at the back of her head when the competition began hours ago was now thoroughly soaked by the stream water.
The wet hair hung limply down her back, dripping steadily and leaving dark patches on her already-stained Beauxbatons uniform.
When she lifted her dripping face from the creek, blinking water from her eyes and gasping for breath, her eyes were brimming with frustrated tears that tried to spill over and run down her cheeks.
"First it was those immature Mandrakes with their paralyzing screams, then a whole swarm of—" Triana began in a voice choked with emotions.
"Blast-Ended Skrewts," Fleur finished for her.
"Bred by Hogwarts's gamekeeper, Hagrid. They're extremely aggressive and unpredictable." Fleur's weary blue eyes blinked slowly as she explained, showing her own exhaustion. Her voice was slightly hoarse from exertion and stress, and specks of dried mud dotted her high cheekbone.
"That's right—Blast-Ended Skrewts!" The girl called Triana repeated with vehement emphasis as she left the stream bed with Fleur's support.
The moment her feet touched the muddy bank, she immediately cried out indignantly. "This is completely targeted against us! It's unfair! When the competition finally ends, I'm absolutely going to file a formal protest with the judges! This can't be legal!"
"I've already told you multiple times, Triana—" Fleur said with patience despite her own obvious exhaustion and frustration.
"Bryan wouldn't deliberately target us or Durmstrang just to help Hogwarts win this tournament. That's not the kind of wizard he is. He's too proud for such petty manipulation, or you could understand it better as him having the natural bearing and integrity of a truly strong person."
Fleur's voice carried absolute conviction despite the terrible circumstances they found themselves in. "Whatever dangers and obstacles we've encountered in this forest, I can guarantee you with complete certainty that the other three teams have definitely faced equivalent challenges as well."
"You like him, Fleur," her teammate Triana pointed out sharply, almost accusatorily. "That's why you think so well of him."
"If you can't remain objective and focused on the competition, Triana," Fleur responded with a flash of anger.
She glared at her teammate with real irritation now. "Then I can strongly suggest you leave the field, just like Judy did. In any case, I'm going to persist and fight until the very end of this competition."
Triana immediately fell silent. Her complaints died in her throat.
Anyone who could successfully pass through the dark, psychologically torturous space Bryan had set up as the competition's opening trial without suffering a complete mental breakdown possessed an unyielding character and core of steel.
Unless all hope was completely lost, such a person wouldn't voluntarily give up or surrender.
"Time's up!" Triana suddenly called out.
The two continued walking forward along the forest path, trying to put more distance between themselves and the site of their earlier humiliation. But after just a few steps, the bright glow suddenly emanating from the enchanted blackboard clutched in Fleur's hand caught her attention.
She called out nervously and immediately brought the board directly before her eyes to examine it.
At one glance, at that very first look, the two disheveled and exhausted girls held their breath in unison. Their eyes went wide with alarm.
Only three light points remained visible on the board's dark surface. The four had become three.
Besides the red marker that represented their own team's position, the other two blue markers that had been positioned at the map's extreme edges during the last check, the ones representing their remaining competitors showed interesting positions.
One blue dot was moving toward the map's center in a straight line. Just as they'd expected, this team was heading for the middle ground. The dot was currently positioned less than five grid squares away from Fleur and Triana's red marker.
The other blue marker was strange. Rather than choosing to approach the map's center, where badges could be won and lost, it was circling along the boundary line instead, hugging the edges of the mapped area.
"How can there only be three teams left..." Triana said with deep uncertainty and growing suspicion.
She stared at the map as though it had personally betrayed her. "If it's because we—"
"No," Fleur interrupted firmly.
Gazing intently at the relative positions of the three light points displayed on the map's surface, Fleur's blue eyes flickered with light as she rapidly processed the implications.
"The red light point representing us is still clearly on the map. This proves my earlier guess was correct—we haven't been ruled out or eliminated."
She paused, organizing her thoughts. "The current situation—"
Fleur's brows furrowed slightly as she worked through the puzzle. "Unless the team that was just close to us on the previous refresh has completely lost their ability to move freely, has already been forced to leave the field, or..."
She trailed off, the alternative possibility forming in her mind.
"Or what?" Triana demanded, staring at the contemplative Fleur with burning, anxious eyes.
In the brief moment when her thoughts wandered down this new path, the light emanating from the map blackboard suddenly went out without warning. As darkness once again occupied her vision, returning the board to its black state, a chilling possibility leaped fully formed into Fleur's mind.
The realization made her entire body shudder with alarm.
"Or that team has already caught up with us," Fleur said in a whisper. "They might have moved faster than we anticipated, and their position marker could be overlapping with ours right now!"
Triana froze completely. Her wet ponytail dripped steadily down her back. Before she could open her mouth to speak, a solemn voice suddenly came from behind them.
"I think your speculation is quite reasonable, Fleur," Harry said with a grave expression, stepping out from concealment.
The two Beauxbatons girls had just begun to turn around, when a piercing shriek shattered the Forbidden Forest's tranquility!
Simultaneously, crimson lightning erupted from behind them. The vivid red light dispelled the Forbidden Forest's gloom for a brief, dazzling moment.
Fleur watched with wide, horrified eyes as that forked red lightning rapidly approached her position, crackling through the air. The spell moved with frightening speed, crossing the distance between them in less than a second.
Her hand, which had been hanging seemingly relaxed at her side but never quite releasing her wand shot up at extreme speed!
Bang!
The stunning spell struck the shimmering magical barrier of Fleur's hastily erected Shield Charm with tremendous force. The impact created a spectacular visual display as the spell's energy was deflected and dispersed.
It transformed into a sky full of beautiful crimson stars that scattered in all directions, showering down like magical fireworks.
Fleur's heart, which had leaped to her throat in that moment of immediate danger, finally calmed somewhat as she realized she'd successfully blocked the attack. But the brief moment of relief was shattered instantly.
The instant her sharp vision caught sight of the messy-haired boy jumping out aggressively from behind a thick elder tree, emerging from concealment with his wand raised for another strike, her blue eyes contracted to extremes.
Something's wrong!
The thought had barely crossed her panicked mind, when two different shouts rang out simultaneously from behind both Fleur and Triana!
"Expelliarmus!" Hermione's voice called clearly.
"Expelliarmus!" Ron echoed a fraction of a second later.
The two Beauxbatons girls felt their bodies go suddenly, completely numb. A strange tingling sensation spread rapidly from their wand hands up their arms. Then their wands, which they'd been gripping desperately just moments before were wrenched violently away by an overwhelming magical force.
"You could have taken both their wands in one go with a single spell, Harry," Ron said with an unrestrained grin spreading across his face.
He jumped up athletically to catch Triana's spinning wand as it arced through the air, snatching it cleanly from its trajectory, and landed. "You're skilled enough for that. But you just had to be gentlemanly about it, didn't you?"
"Oh, I'm not like Malfoy—ahem," Harry began, then caught himself.
Remembering suddenly that he was being watched by thousands upon thousands of people through those floating Omnioculars, he hastily changed his wording to something more tactful.
"Malfoy and I don't have the same style. I don't particularly like ambushes or striking from complete concealment."
Surrounded and completely disarmed, trapped between three wand-wielding opponents with no means of magical defense, Fleur's face turned pale. The blood drained from her cheeks, leaving her looking almost ghostly.
But remarkably, just one second later, her complexion returned to something approaching normal color.
Facing Harry, she smiled radiantly.
"Oh, Harry," Fleur said in a tone of delighted recognition, as though they'd run into each other at a social gathering. "So, it's you who's caught us. I should have guessed."
As Harry approached more closely, Fleur's intimate and familiar tone caused an uncomfortable flash of awkwardness to cross his face.
He worked hard to maintain his composure and distance, to not recall the time he'd danced with Fleur at the Yule Ball.
After nodding to Fleur and then to the girl beside her who looked utterly despairing, Harry forced himself to adopt a serious tone.
"Hello, Fleur,"
"I'm afraid we don't have time for extended reminiscing or pleasantries, Harry," Hermione interjected crisply, taking a breath.
Her wand remained pointed steadily at the two Beauxbatons girls.
"So... I imagine you must already know what request we're going to make of you, yes?"
"Ah, of course—" Fleur's surprisingly relaxed smile made the Gryffindor trio frown privately.
And what she said next made their hearts sink rapidly to the very bottom of their chests.
"Unfortunately, its already gone."
Fleur spread her hands wide in a helpless gesture, palms up, showing them her empty pockets with an expression of innocent regret. And her casual words reminded her teammate of their situation.
The girl called Triana looked at Harry with a somewhat schadenfreude expression replacing her earlier despair.
"You're one step too late. A rather pale faced and extremely unpleasant boy and his gang of followers already took our school badge..."
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