After receiving Krum's uncertain answer, Harry tried desperately to determine their current direction and location within the maze.
But the thick, unnatural fog swallowed all points of reference completely, even the pale moonlight coming from above became blurred and indistinct, dim into useless gray light that provided no guidance at all.
The walls all looked identical in this murk. Everything looked the same.
"It's difficult," Harry gasped, his chest heaving with exertion from their frantic run, the dim light from his wand tip could only brighten a few steps ahead at most, barely enough to see the ground beneath his feet.
"This fog is too strange, too thick, and we just randomly picked a direction and ran for our lives without thinking about where we were going..."
His hand was shaking slightly from adrenaline and fear.
He tried raising his wand again with fading hope, forcing himself to concentrate despite his racing heart. "Point Me!"
However, the wand just lazily spun once in his palm as before, then drooped down powerlessly toward the ground, completely useless for navigation.
Whatever dark magic was affecting the maze had completely disrupted even the most basic directional spells. Nothing worked properly here.
Frustrated, Harry tried shooting red sparks into the sky next—the distress signal every student learned. When the patrolling professors outside saw them, they would understand immediately it was a distress signal and come rushing to rescue them.
The sparks shot from his wand tip, bright red and trailing, arcing into the fog.
But they merely flickered twice weakly in the dense fog before disappearing completely, swallowed by the gray as if they'd never existed.
"Looks like we'll have to find our own way out of this mess," Harry said grimly with determination despite the fear crawling up his spine.
"I hope Cedric and Fleur are alright. With fog this thick and unnatural, the people outside must have noticed something's wrong by now. Surely they have. But we can't just sit here and wait like helpless children. We're sitting ducks if we stay in one place."
Krum nodded in grim agreement, his face serious, wiping blood from the cut on his forehead with his sleeve.
The two immediately set off again, feeling carefully along the rough hedge walls, moving forward as quietly as possible, trying to control their breathing.
The maze was terrifyingly silent now, the previous sounds of battle and pursuit had faded into nothing. Only their own footsteps and suppressed breathing sounded particularly clear and loud in the thick fog, echoing slightly off the walls in the stillness.
Every small sound seemed amplified tenfold, making Harry wince with each step.
Perhaps it was luck, or perhaps fate leading them, but after just a few minutes of tense walking, checking every corner carefully for ambush, they came to a relatively open area where the narrow passages widened significantly.
At that moment, they stood at the edge of a circular clearing, perhaps twenty feet across, the ground was level and cleared of obstacles.
In the center of the clearing was a crude black stone platform, ancient-looking and covered with faint, barely visible runes.
And above the platform, gleaming even in the dim fog-filled light like a beacon of hope, was the Triwizard Tournament trophy that everyone in the school dreamed of winning.
"We found the trophy," Harry turned to Krum beside him, his expression somewhat strange and conflicted, torn between relief and deep suspicion. "What should we do? Should we both go grab it together? Share the victory?"
It seemed far too easy. Too convenient after everything.
Krum shook his head firmly, still gazing solemnly at their surroundings with narrowed, suspicious eyes, scanning the fog-shrouded edges of the clearing for threats.
"Something wrong," He muttered darkly. "Too easy. Trap, maybe."
Now was absolutely not the time to discuss ownership of the trophy or glory or international prestige.
Deadly green light could shoot out from the surrounding fog at any moment, from any direction, without warning or mercy.
Right now, their own lives were clearly far more important than the championship or fame or any of it.
Harry cautiously approached the trophy step by careful step, his boots quiet on the earth—he worried there might be other mechanisms, traps, or curses waiting to spring, some final deadly test.
His wand was raised defensively, sweeping the area, checking the ground for traps or trip wires.
However, just as his outstretched hand was about to touch the gleaming trophy's golden handle.
"Quickly! Over here! I see them!!"
An urgent and hoarse male voice came from the entrance to the clearing, cutting through the fog.
Multiple footsteps.
It was the people who had just attacked them! They'd found them again!
Harry's heart jumped violently in his chest, and he instinctively jerked his hand back from the trophy, looking around, searching for possible escape routes or cover or anywhere to hide.
Unfortunately, this clearing only had one visible entrance—the way they'd come in.
They had nowhere to run. They were trapped like rats in a cage.
Just then, the fog surrounding the clearing suddenly churned violently, dispersed by a sudden, powerful surge of magical energy that tore through it like a gale wind!
The two champions immediately held their wands ready in defensive positions, backs pressed together for protection, watching all directions.
Harry's palms were sweating.
The next second, two figures appeared clearly at the entrance, stepping into the clearing.
Harry could finally see clearly who had been hunting them through the maze like animals—it was two people in tattered, filthy clothing, a man and a woman.
Their robes were absolutely filthy and worn, stained and torn, as if they'd just crawled out of some dark dungeon or from literal years of imprisonment in terrible conditions.
The fabric was rotting in places.
Yet despite their disheveled appearance, their eyes held a chilling, pure brutality and madness that made Harry's blood run cold in his veins.
These were dangerous people.
The man had greasy gray hair like Snape's—possibly unwashed for years, hanging in clumps around his face. His entire gaunt face was deeply pockmarked and scarred, his skin looked sallow and unhealthy.
The woman had sunken cheeks, her facial features were withered and skeletal, looking not much different from a corpse or Inferius that had been partially preserved.
It must be said that just from their appearance alone, just from the aura they showed, Harry could feel heavy pressure and instinctive fear crawling up his spine.
And moreover, something else troubled him...
Harry looked carefully behind the two approaching figures—nothing there but swirling fog and darkness.
Based on the sheer number of different spells that had flown at them during their desperate escape, the variety of voices shouting, he was certain the enemy consisted of far more than just these two; there were definitely more somewhere in the maze.
Perhaps they'd split up to search?
However, if it was just these two people here now, he still had a fighting chance of winning or at least surviving long enough for help.
Two against two were better odds.
"Potter..." the woman hissed in a scratching, damaged voice that sounded like rusted metal, her wand was trembling in her bony fingers.
Not from fear but from excitement and anticipation, like a predator finally cornering its prey after a long hunt. "Finally—"
"Swish!"
Before she could finish her gloating sentence, before she could cast anything, several thick vines covered with sharp, cruel thorns, like vipers lying in patient ambush, suddenly shot out explosively from the hedges on both sides of the clearing!
They moved with shocking speed for plants, cutting through the air with a sharp whistling sound, precisely stabbing toward the two Death Eaters' limbs and exposed necks with deadly intent.
"Protego!" The woman shrieked in alarm, her reflexes were sharp.
Though the woman seemed half-crazed, her combat reflexes weren't slow at all.
Her shrill scream and the incantation of the Shield Charm rang out almost simultaneously, overlapping into one sound!
A translucent magical barrier instantly deployed in front of her and the male Death Eater, shimmering like glass in the dim light.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sharp vines slammed hard against the barrier repeatedly with tremendous force, making dull, heavy impact sounds that echoed across the clearing.
Some thorns punctured through slightly, leaving scratches on the barrier's surface before being stopped.
It was the professor's Devil's Snare!
Harry felt slightly relieved, hope was surging through his chest like warmth.
Since Devil's Snare had appeared here, actively attacking, it meant the professors must have discovered the anomaly in the maze. He only needed to hold out until help arrived.
Seeing the Devil's Snare's attack temporarily suppress and distract the two enemies before them, seeing them fully focused on defending themselves.
"Now's the time! Hit them while they're distracted!" Harry roared, hesitating no longer, seizing the opportunity.
He lunged forward, his wand precisely aimed at the female Death Eater who was entangled by the wriggling Devil's Snare, whose barrier had just absorbed the repeated impacts and was flickering weakly.
"Expelliarmus!" he shouted with all his force and magical intent.
Intense red light shot from his wand tip in a beam, heading straight for the enemy's wand hand.
At the same time, showing impressive tactical awareness, Krum understood immediately what Harry was attempting, reading his strategy instinctively.
"Reducto!" He roared.
His Reductor Curse didn't shoot directly at the enemy herself, but instead slammed hard with devastating force into the ground directly in front of the female Death Eater's feet.
Instantly, dirt and broken stones exploded violently in a shower of debris, not only further interfering with her vision and balance, making her stagger backward, but the powerful shockwave of the explosion caused her Shield Charm barrier to flicker violently, nearly collapsing under the combined assault from two directions.
It was perfect coordination.
Harry's Disarming Charm pierced through the crumbling, weakened defense at precisely that perfect moment of vulnerability.
The female Death Eater's wrist was struck directly by the red light, and her wand immediately flew from her hand, spinning through the air in a arc to be caught firmly by Harry's free hand.
He gripped it tightly.
She'd lost her weapon!
Victory!
Harry's heart leaped with joy—a witch without a wand was like a tiger without claws, far less threatening, practically helpless.
However, the very moment this confident thought arose in his mind, not only did the female Death Eater not panic or retreat or show even a flicker of fear, she actually grinned an even more twisted and horrifying smile.
Her empty hand suddenly reached with ease toward the tattered robes at her waist and pulled out another wand, hidden in a pocket!
A backup wand she'd kept hidden!
This wand had a completely different design and color from the first, clearly not her original match, probably stolen from some unfortunate victim.
The female Death Eater cackled with that scratching, damaged voice that made Harry's skin crawl, the new wand was pointing directly at Harry's chest threateningly, her sunken eyes were flashing with mad and vicious light.
"%#&;&*..." She hoarsely shouted an incomprehensible incantation Harry had never heard before in any class or read in any book.
There was no dazzling light, no flash of color, only a dark, living black vapor that shot out like a striking snake, precisely hitting Harry's right arm before he could even think to dodge!
"Ngh!" Harry cried out in shock and pain.
Harry didn't react in time, couldn't dodge fast enough, and began groaning as the impact hit him.
He felt no immediate sharp pain, but instead a bone-chilling numbness spreading rapidly from the impact point, as if his arm had been frozen solid in a freezer for several hours or plunged into ice water.
Looking down in horror, his heart was racing with fear as he saw the struck area of skin rapidly turning pitch black.
In almost an instant, his forearm below the elbow had completely turned black.
And this eerie blackness was visibly spreading up his arm at an alarming rate, creeping steadily toward his shoulder!
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