"Now that we have that cleared up, let's move on…"
Mavrick looked over the six champions, eyes narrowing slightly as if arranging them in his mind, then lifted his head. "First, let's make some groups."
He pointed casually. "You, you, and you. To the left…"
Without naming names, because frankly he did not remember everyone there, he simply pointed to one from each school and made his selection.
Harry, Fleur, and Krum as a result nodded and walked to the right, while the rest followed Maverick's gesture to the left.
It certainly looked random, but Harry knew his professor never did anything without reason. And why had it suddenly turned into a team exercise? Had Professor McGonagall not clearly said there would be no teaming up during the champion selection trial?
He hesitated for a moment, his Gryffindor brain already twitching, and before he could stop himself, his hand was in the air.
"Yes, Potter?" Maverick motioned for him to speak. "For a second, I thought you were Granger."
Harry rubbed the back of his neck, knowing better, but still asked anyway. "Um… Professor, does this mean the task requires us to team up?"
Maverick lifted an eyebrow and slid his hands into his trouser pockets.
"No," he said simply. "The six of you will not be teaming up with one another. And…" he paused, "no more questions about the task, please."
The six champions all nodded quietly, exchanging thoughtful glances.
"I bet there's some hidden meaning behind that…" With a hand on his chin, Harry murmured, inclining his head to the half-veela beside him.
"Really… is that your gut talking, Monsieur Harry, or is it your understanding of the professor, being his direct pupil?" Fleur asked, lips curling into a half smile.
The two were not strangers. They had known each other for three years now, meeting again and again during the Quidditch interschool tournament. Fleur, especially, had been making an effort to get closer to Harry, which, of course, Harry still did not have the faintest clue about.
"Wait... you're Master Caesar's personal apprentice?" Krum asked, clearly surprised. He was not unfamiliar with either of them for similar reasons, though he wasn't particularly close as Fleur was to Harry.
"Ah… how'd you know about that?" Harry asked, glancing at Fleur, clearly taken aback. After all, his training with Maverick was supposed to be a secret that not even the Hogwarts students or even the professors knew, except for a select few.
"You forget who I am, Monsieur…" the veela's smile did not fade as she gave him a sideways glance.
Krum: Are you two deliberately ignoring me?
"Now then." Maverick's voice pulled their attention forward again, "Before we go any further, I want to make sure of something. You should all be comfortable with the Disarming Charm, Binding Charm, Exploding Charm, and you should have some progress in transfiguration after training with your mentors. If not, raise your hand."
The champions exchanged quick looks, yet no hands went up. The past weeks of training had indeed been specifically structured around those very spells Maverick mentioned, and everyone seemed to have a decent grasp of them.
"Good…"
Maverick nodded once and raised his hand. The space around wavered, as if reality itself had taken a breath. The walls faded, the ceiling dissolved, and grass rolled beneath their feet, opening into a vast field like a football stadium. At each far end, a single white flag stood quietly in the distance.
"Amazing. What manner of magic is this?" Viktor Krum turned slowly in place, eyes wide as he took in the spectacle around them.
And it wasn't just him. Everyone except Harry and Cedric stood wide-eyed, taking it all in. The soft wind against their faces only deepened the confusion, making it impossible to tell whether this was reality or a carefully crafted illusion.
"Did we get teleported?" Fleur also spoke her mind, eyes drifting across the open field, her calm expression unable to hide the slight tremor in her gaze.
"This is just an illusion…" Harry said quietly, then paused. "...I think."
He and Cedric had faced similar scenes before during the first Muggle science class each year, but even so, the line between illusion and reality was never easy to tell.
Maverick paid no attention to their stunned expressions and spoke once everything was in place.
"Listen up."
His voice rolled across the open field, pulling their focus back to him even as disbelief still clung to their faces.
"On my signal, Group A," he said, gesturing to Harry's trio, "shall move to the right, and Group B to the left."
He lifted his hand once more, and the space beside him rippled as two shapes began to form, slowly stepping out of nothing.
They were not people, just towering humanoid figures, exaggerated in height, even taller than Hagrid and Maxime. Two stone statues clad in ancient armor, swords held firmly like warriors ready for battle.
Once again, the champions stood spellbound at the casual display of magic. This was not transfiguration, nor was it something taken from a storage ring. Just like their surroundings earlier, the figures emerged slowly, as if peeling themselves out of empty air.
Clang!
Clang!
The puppets acted as one, massive swords rising together, each blade towering over Viktor Krum, the tallest among them. Then, with a sharp, clockwork spin, they slammed the tips into the earth and locked their gaze forward.
"That's so cool… Ron would've been completely jaw-dropped, I bet." Harry said, eyes shining.
"Cool?"
Fleur swallowed and spoke hesitantly. The sword's impact had sent a small tremor through the ground, one they could feel even from where they stood. "Monsieur, do you English have another definition for cool?"
"Are we supposed to fight those?" Krum asked, a few beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
Nearby, Cedric's group also stood frozen in much the same state, scared and stunned, yet unable to hide the flicker of admiration in their pupils.
The only thing separating the massive statues from living beings was their stone bodies. Otherwise, even their smallest movements looked nothing like puppets, their chests also rising and falling like real, breathing creatures.
They were not wrong. This was neither transfiguration nor mere puppetry. Maverick let out a quiet chuckle and continued. "The rules are simple. The puppets will attempt to bring down the flags on each end, and your job is to stop them. You are not allowed to run, meaning you must engage..."
"...do not be fooled by appearances. Those swords might look like stone, but they will cut you clean in half. They're enchanted to deflect spells on a direct swing. Your only real chance to disarm one is to catch it off guard."
Was it necessary to spell it out? Those swords obviously were not built for gentle taps. The same thought crossed everyone's mind.
The longer they listened, the more uneasy they became. The towering size alone was terrifying already, and with all the extra buffs Maverick kept listing, an actual dragon started to sound much better.
"Don't expect the puppets to act brainless either." Maverick continued. "If you attack, they will respond. That's where teamwork comes in. Rotate offense and keep them occupied."
He paused, thinking that should be enough, then added with a smile, "You have thirty seconds. Each group go to a flag and get ready."
"Wait, Professor…" Harry raised his arm quickly, but Maverick ignored him outright. "Twenty-seven seconds…"
Clung.
Clung.
The two puppets wrenched their swords free and rolled them onto their shoulders like warriors answering a call, and suffice to say, that was more than enough to terrify a bunch of teenagers.
"Twenty-five seconds…"
"Move, Potter! Obviously that's all the instructions we're going to get…"
Krum yanked Harry forward and broke into a run, Fleur right on his heels. On the far side, Cedric was already leading his trio, and soon, both teams had reached opposite ends of the field.
"Five!"
"Where are the dragons? Didn't all the clues point to there being dragons?" Harry bent over slightly near the flag, catching his breath as he blurted it out.
"Is this really the time to worry about dragons?"
"I agree with the Superstar. We must come up with a plan… now."
Fleur also spoke between breaths, her gaze locked on the puppets in the distance. Monsters, she corrected silently, watching one scrape its huge blade across the grass while stepping toward the center, as if preparing itself.
"Didn't Professor Caesar already lay out a plan? Keep it busy and don't let it get close to the flag." Harry said, also looking ahead.
""But for how long? What counts as winning? Do we destroy it, or just disarm it?"
Fleur's questions were perfectly reasonable. Maverick had skipped all of that and moved on without pause. Across the field, Cedric's group was having the same confused debate, though they already looked more organized, with the pretty boy clearly stepping into the role of leader.
"For now, let's do just that." Krum tightened his grip on his wand and stepped forward. "You two take left and right. When it gets close," he glanced at Harry, "try to disarm it first. Then when it turns on you," he looked at Fleur, "you strike. I'll rotate in after. We focus on pulling it away from the flag first if bringing it down proves difficult."
"Hm. Sounds good." Harry thought it over for a moment, then nodded.
"But then what?"
"We'll figure it out then…" Krum turned to Fleur, then stiffened, eyes snapping forward as a faint tremor rolled through the ground. A German curse escaped him before he spoke in English. "What kind of speed is that…"
Indeed.
The moment Maverick's countdown ended, the behemoths lunged forward, massive footsteps pounding the field as they sprinted apart, moving far faster than creatures of solid stone had any right to.
"Spread out. Try disarming first. If that fails, bind it. If that doesn't work, blast it apart!" Krum called out sharply, and Harry and Fleur reacted immediately, breaking off to either side.
The role of leader had settled on Krum without anyone realizing it, but in that moment, instinct ruled over thought.
"Merlin's saggy beard… Expelliarmus!"
Harry blasted a streak of red magic as the behemoth rushed him, only for the sword to flash up and swat the spell aside like it was nothing, the rebound flying straight back at him.
Boom!
"Damn!"
He twisted away at the last second, hitting the ground in a rough roll. The air where he had stood exploded behind him. That had been way too close. His heart pounded, sweat creeping down his forehead.
Thud thud thud thud.
No time to think.
The behemoth charged straight at him, sword lifted high for the kill. Yes, kill. Harry was absolutely certain that if that massive blade connected, the Boy Who Lived would become the Boy Who Died.
He lifted his wand, but a boom sounded and red light flashed from the side as another spell arrived first. It all happened in a split second, but the puppet was even faster, as if moving on pure instinct as its blade snapped across to bat the magic aside and twist the strike away.
Grrrrr.
The ground tore beneath its feet as the beast skidded to a stop. Fortunately for Harry, it ignored him and sprinted the other way toward Krum. At least what his professor had said was true. The thing really did switch targets to whoever attacked it last.
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Author's Note:
🔥 Drop those Power Stones! 🔥
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