Yo! Sorry about the wait. This has been an awful year for me both physically and mentally, because of course it has. I hope this 15k word chapter makes up for it. That's 11k more than the average for this fic, and 4k more than even the chapter with the first task. My laptop hates how long this is and is liable to crash any minute now, lol. Thank you to all readers so far!

Marcus had never had much interest in the Dark Lord. His parents, his father in particular, practically revered the Dark Lord and the dark arts, but Marcus had never really felt the same way. He'd never been against any of it, just that he hadn't cared about it as much as his parents did.

He'd never been one to question things though, so when his parents said unpleasant things about the Light and members of that side, he always went along with it and agreed. It was better than having to deal with an argument.

The Potters were a family his parents had always hated. There was no real reason for the hatred. The Potters were Light and the Flints were Dark, and that was all it took. Marcus had never understood, but he'd known there was no point in asking.

When the Potter twins were born, that hatred only worsened. Marcus hadn't understood that either. While he'd been young himself, hating two babies, even if they didn't like the Potters, was weird. But like everything else, Marcus had known better than to question it.

By the time Marcus started at Hogwarts, his mind had been filled with disdain for Dumbledore, the Gryffindors, the Potters. and anyone and anything related to them, even if most of it made no sense. And then, five years later, the Potter twins started at Hogwarts too.

His parents had done a lot of ranting about the twins, Rose in particular, since she was the one who'd defeated the Dark Lord. They'd been sure to include Violet in these rants too, only less often, but that wasn't odd. Most people talked about Rose more than Violet. Sometimes Marcus thought people forgot Violet even existed.

But Marcus didn't forget.

Maybe that was why he was one of the only ones not surprised when McGonagall called her name. What did surprise him was when she ended up Sorted into Slytherin.

He kept an eye on her after that, though he never spoke to her. The other Slytherins hated her, but Marcus didn't feel the same way. He didn't care much for hating other Slytherins for no reason. He preferred for them to give him a reason first. And Violet Potter hadn't given him any reason to hate her yet.

She was quiet, and smart, and her magic felt a little weird, but he never heard any of the professors say anything negative about her. Not even Snape! She became friends with Nott, which was good, and Granger, which was a little less good. Marcus tried not to judge. Friends with a Muggleborn aside, she still gave Marcus no reason to hate her. There were worse Slytherins in their House.

And then a year later, they found out the Potter twins were Parselmouths. The rest of the castle shunned them, but Violet didn't seem to mind, and Marcus started to keep a closer eye on her. She shot straight up to the top of Slytherin's hierarchy and she didn't even know it. It was funny in a way, but Marcus kept that to himself.

Sometimes Violet was confronted by other students. They liked to call her out for being Slytherin's Heir and demand she stop attacking others. She seemed to have a handle on things, so Marcus never interfered. All she had to do was say something or another in Parseltngie, and that was generally more than enough to scare them off. At least until seventh year Ravenclaw, Stewart, pulled out his wand.

When he saw that, Marcus decided it was time to intervene. Violet was only a second year, so Stewart using magic against her wasn't fair. Marcus thought if Stewart wanted to make things unfair, it may as well be unfair in Violet's favour.

Stewart was scared off, and Marcus became sort of a bodyguard for Violet. That wasn't really what he'd intended, but he didn't stop, and soon some of the other sixth and seventh year Slytherins, the ones who valued their House hierarchy, joined him.

Violet seemed confused by the whole thing, but she didn't question it. Nott, who probably understood more than she did, just looked amused, but for whatever reason, he didn't explain anything to Violet either.

Bodyguard duty went on for the rest of the year, and since Marcus failed his exams, continued the next year as well. They started teaching her some magic too. She didn't know it, but it was mostly in exchange for letting them hear her speak in Parseltongue. She was talking to her new pet snake, but she was often in the common room when she did, which meant they could hear her.

The common room was never quieter than during those evenings, so many older Slytherins gathered near Violet, listening raptly as she chatted obliviously with her snake. Marcus liked listening to her too.

Marcus thought Violet was a good kid. She was good for Slytherin House as well. It didn't seem like she liked Dumbledore much either. Maybe that was why Marcus decided he wanted to keep helping Violet even after he finally left Hogwarts. The problem was that he didn't know how.

And then he was approached by Peter Pettigrew.

Marcus had thought Pettigrew was dead, so seeing him was pretty surprising. Pettigrew telling him to follow him was surprising too. Marcus thought about it for a minute, then decided to follow. Pettigrew had no reason to hurt him, and Marcus was confident he could overpower him if he tried, whether that was magically or physically.

Following Pettigrew turned out to be a good thing, because he led Marcus straight to the Dark Lord.

The Dark Lord said he'd been wanting to meet Marcus for a little while now, and asked him what he thought about Violet Potter.

Marcus thought that was odd. Wasn't Rose Potter the Girl-Who-Lived? Why would he care to ask about Violet? Marcus didn't know how to answer. Would the Dark Lord get angry if he said he liked Violet?

Then the Dark Lord told him why he'd wanted to meet him. Pettigrew had told him about Marcus and the other Slytherins guarding Violet and that Marcus had been the one to start it. He wanted to know why.

Deciding to chance it, Macrus told him the truth. The Dark Lord listened to him in silence. Or so Marcus thought, at least. They were in different rooms, speaking through the door, though Marcus didn't know why. The Dark Lord seemed to think what Marcus was saying was funny, because he laughed a while before asking Marcus to help him help Violet.

It didn't take much convincing.

And now, a few months after that conversation, Marcus found himself delivering a letter to the Dark Lord. Violet had borrowed Nott's owl to write to him, asking him to give Marvolo her letter. Marcus didn't know what she'd written to him or why she was writing, but he didn't care. Violet and the Dark Lord getting along was a good thing, he figured.

It had to be.

---

The second task was drawing closer frighteningly quickly. Before Violet knew it, it was only two weeks away. Once again no one knew what to expect. None of them had been given any clues, but after what had happened during the first task, Violet knew to expect the worst.

Instead of focusing only on spellcasting, Violet branched out a little to learn more about potions and magical creatures too, just in case. Who knew what sort of knowledge she would need for the next task? It would give her a head start in preparing for the third task as well, whatever that would be.

Unfortunately for Violet, no amount of preparation would settle her nerves. Though she hadn't mentioned it to anyone yet, the nundu incident had terrified her. She'd started having nightmares about it too, but she was reluctant to rely too heavily on the dreamless sleep potion she'd been given.

Snape had warned her against using it too often due to its addictive qualities, and he'd trusted her to manage her usage on her own. Violet didn't want to break that trust and disappoint him.

She didn't want Snape to look at her like he did Rose.

Instead of taking the dreamless sleep potion on bad nights, Violet spent hours talking to Sauron or, if he was asleep, pouring over the Marauders' Map. She'd never had the chance to examine it very closely before.

The map was so interesting, and she could only wonder how the Marauders had done it. She'd asked Remus once, but all he'd done was wink and say, "That's a trade secret," so she hadn't pushed for details. Maybe he would tell her one day. She hoped he would.

Violet loved looking at the map and learned so much about the castle's layout. She hadn't thought there could be so many shortcuts in one place. Sometimes she and Sauron slipped out at night to explore too. The map showing her where everyone was at any given moment was extremely helpful, since she could use it to avoid being caught.

The interesting thing about that though was she sometimes noticed Snape following her. He never actually approached her, and she couldn't see him if she turned around to look, but Sauron could almost always smell him nearby.

Violet didn't know how Snape knew when she left the common room, or why he quietly followed her, or why he never took points off Slytherin or gave her detention for being out after curfew, but she continued her occasional nighttime explorations, though she was always sure to cut them short if she saw Snape nearby on the map.

It was best not to push her luck.

But Violet spent plenty of sleepless nights going over the map even when she wasn't exploring, and it was on one of those less-than-pleasant nights when she saw something strange.

There was someone in Snape's office.

That wasn't too odd on its own, of course. The problem was both that it wasn't Snape, and that Snape wasn't nearby. The dot with his name was in his quarters. Considering the time, he was probably asleep. So why was Mr Crouch wandering around Snape's office alone?

Violet frowned. Hadn't Crouch gone missing a while back? No one in the Ministry knew where he was, and from what she'd heard, nobody knew if he'd been kidnapped or disappeared willingly. What was he doing here? Should she go check?

There was a chance it wouldn't be safe, but what was the worst thing Crouch would do? Snooping couldn't get her in trouble with the Ministry, and she didn't care much about getting a detention or two.

Nodding to herself, Violet slipped out of bed and left her room. The common room was deserted and the fire had gone out, leaving the room very dark. Used to this thanks to her regular nighttime wanderings, Violet carefully maneuvered her way around the furniture and left the common room.

Snape's office wasn't far, so Violet quietly made her way down the corridor. It was freezing in the dungeons, the stone floor uncomfortably cold even through her slippers. Pausing, she lit her wand to check the map and saw that the dot labelled Bartemius Crouch was still in Snape's office.

Not wanting to get caught, she put out the light, folded the map, and slipped it under her shirt. Satisfied, she continued on a few steps, turned the corner, and froze when she heard an odd thump. She stood still, breath misting in front of her on every quiet, shaky exhale. She waited a full minute, but when she heard nothing else, she tip-toed the last few feet to Snape's office.

The door was slightly ajar, and she approached to peek through the gap. She could only see a fraction of the office and there was no one in sight. She heard another thump, saw a quick flash of green, and then there was nothing. No more lights, and no more sounds.

Slowly, Violet began to push the door open, and she nearly screamed when a hand suddenly clamped down on her shoulder from behind.

---

Severus woke abruptly when an alarm sounded in his head. He sighed. A fourth year girl had left her room. He sighed again when another alarm rang, signalling she had left the common room as well.

Potter again, he figured.

She'd been doing that a lot recently. She was having nightmares again, he expected, and assumed she'd either run out of dreamless sleep potion and didn't want to ask for more, or was hesitant to take it too often, which he'd warned her against.

He followed her some nights when she slipped out of the common room, but he didn't always bother. From what he'd seen, she wasn't getting into any mischief and always returned to her room before long, so he let her be for the most part.

Severus was rarely lenient towards students, even his Slytherins, but he still wasn't entirely sure how to treat Violet Potter. The other one was an arrogant dunderhead, which made her easy to dislike, but this one confused him.

He knew he couldn't allow this behaviour to go on though. He'd decided to leave her be until after the second task, which was only a fortnight away. If her nightly wanderings continued after that, he planned to sit her down and discuss what was happening, and he was prepared to get Lupin involved if he had to.

Severus intended to ignore the alarm, but suddenly, his gut told him to get up and follow the girl. He didn't know why he was suddenly getting that feeling, but not one to ignore his gut (he'd long since learned his lesson there), Severus quickly donned a robe and left his quarters.

Potter was already gone from the common room by the time he arrived, but he hadn't expected otherwise thanks to the second alarm he'd heard in his mind. Fortunately, no one else was around, and he was glad he wouldn't have to deal with anyone other than Potter.

Severus exited the common room and quietly made his way down the corridor, following the path Potter had to have taken. She would see him coming on that map of hers if she'd brought it with her again, he figured. She typically did. Either that or her snake would notice, as he often accompanied the girl.

Severus knew the map existed, though he wasn't sure how exactly it worked, and Lupin, the blasted werewolf, had only shot him a grin when he'd asked him about it. Lupin claimed he hadn't given the girl the map, but whether he knew where she'd gotten it from, he didn't say.

He'd decided to leave that be for now as well. Rose Potter had their father's invisibility cloak, so what did it matter that this one had a map? It put the twins on a more even footing, at least, even though the two always ended up in dangerous situations.

Severus turned the corner and spotted Potter up ahead. She was standing outside the door to his office. He frowned. What was she doing? Approaching quietly, he watched her begin to push the door open slowly.

He grabbed her by the shoulder before she could open the door all the way, and she whipped around. The instant he heard a sharp intake of breath, he clamped his hand over her mouth, stopping a scream before it could begin.

There was a pause as Potter stared up at him wide-eyed, breathing harshly through her nose, and then she calmed and grabbed his wrist to lower his hand from her mouth.

"Mr Crouch was in your office!" she said quickly.

"...What?"

"Mr Crouch was in your office," Potter repeated. "I swear I'm not lying!"

Severus tensed. "You saw him?"

Potter hesitated. "Well no, I didn't see him exactly," she said haltingly. "But it had to be him."

Something to do with that map of hers, Severus guessed. She seemed too convinced for someone who hadn't actually seen anyone with her own eyes. She told him about the sounds she had heard, and the flash of green light she had seen as well, and Severus hid a frown.

It would be foolish to take her at face value, but Potter also had no reason to lie to him about something like this. If she was lying, why? But if she wasn't lying, what had Bartemius Crouch been doing in his office in the middle of the night when he was meant to be missing?

He looked at her. She stood before him defiantly, still gripping his arm, trembling in the cold winter dungeon air, the thin robe over her pyjamas doing nothing to shield her from the chill. There were goosebumps on her skin, and her breath misted every time she exhaled. Was it really that cold down here? He'd gotten so used to it that he didn't even notice half the time.

"Go back to bed, Potter," he said finally.

Potter hesitated, looked at the partially opened door, then nodded and retreated down the corridor. She glanced at him over her shoulder, eyes again flickering to the door, and then she vanished around the corner.

Severus waited until he could no longer hear her footsteps, then turned his attention to his office door as he slipped out his wand. The room was empty when he entered, but he hadn't expected otherwise.

He took a few minutes to examine the office, but nothing had been touched. The shelves and everything lining them were exactly as he'd left them, and the things both on and in his desk remained untouched as well. The only thing that looked to have moved was the little green box of floo powder sitting on the mantle.

That didn't surprise him. Potter had mentioned seeing a flash of green light. That must have been the floo.

Crouch may have noticed Potter outside the office and decided not to risk incapacitating her to escape that way. There was another door that led to the potions classroom, but as it was directly next to his office, Potter would have seen Crouch leave that way as well. A third, hidden door led to Severus' quarters, but Crouch wouldn't have known about it, which left the floo as the only possible exit.

But that only answered one question. Why Crouch had been in his office in the middle of the night, Severus still couldn't say.

With nothing in the classroom having been touched, Severus turned his attention to the store cupboard. He had multiple cupboards for storing potion ingredients: one in the classroom, one here in his office, and one in his personal laboratory. The ingredients stored in these cupboards varied, but the ones kept in his office were rarer and somewhat more valuable than the ones kept in the classroom, and were typically only used by his older students.

Severus was meticulous about keeping track of his inventory and often had students checking and making notes of his stock during detentions, leading to detailed logs, which he always double-checked.

Gathering these logs, Severus began the slow process of cross-checking the stock of ingredients to see if anything had gone missing. Though what Crouch would have wanted with potion ingredients, he couldn't say either.

---

The days sped by distressingly quickly. Violet tried to distract herself from the nerves of the upcoming task by focusing on her lessons, but nothing was interesting enough to manage it for long except the unicorn foals they studied in Care of Magical Creatures.

The skrewts had gone and eaten one another, leaving only two behind, so Hagrid'd had no choice but to plan something else and it seemed unicorn foals were what he'd settled on. He said it was because even the boys could approach the foals, and for once, not a single student in the class complained about the lesson.

But one interesting Care of Magical Creatures lesson wasn't going to do much to help calm Violet, and she was quickly back to being both nervous and a little bit afraid.

What if something like the nundu happened again?

On the one hand, Violet thought it was a bit of a silly question. The Ministry had received some backlash for including the nundu, which was a creature even the older students could have died to easily, and she didn't think they would want to risk more criticism, especially from foreigners.

The Triwizard Tournament was a pretty big deal, after all, and the entire world was watching it closely. The Ministry probably wanted to avoid anything that would give them any negative publicity. Violet and Rose competing despite being below the age limit was already something many were questioning, and the nundu's inclusion had only made things worse.

On the other hand, the Ministry was filled with idiots.

Violet sighed over the dinner she wasn't eating. This was probably going to suck.

---

The morning of the twenty-fourth of February was bright and cold, and Violet wasn't in a very good mood. She was tired from tossing and turning all night, and she was an anxious mess, agonizing about the task even though she tried to damnest not to show it to the other Slytherins. Theodore being missing didn't help much either, and she was stuck listening to Draco's extremely unhelpful advice over the breakfast she was picking at.

A few minutes before breakfast ended, Violet and her fellow competitors were led from the Great Hall to the grounds outside where a tent had once again been set up just shy of the quidditch pitch.

The students filed in quietly, and none of them were very happy to see Bagman, who looked to be in a disgustingly cheerful mood. Crouch was nowhere to be seen, and Violet frowned.

Snape had made no mention of what had happened the other night, and Violet hadn't asked, but with nothing new going around about Crouch, she assumed he was still missing.

She'd checked the Marauders' Map a few times after that, but Crouch's name hadn't appeared anywhere near Snape's office. Whether that was because he didn't need to go back there again, or because he'd realized how close he'd been to getting caught, she wasn't sure about, but it was suspicious regardless.

She'd tried checking the rest of the map as well, but there were hundreds of named dots, so it wasn't exactly an easy task to spot one name in particular. She hadn't seen his name, but she supposed that didn't mean he wasn't still in the castle.

But if Crouch was in the castle, and had been for at least the last two weeks, surely one of the professors would have found him by now, right?

...Then again, Pettigrew had been in the castle for literal years without being caught, so maybe she was giving the adults too much credit.

Suddenly, Violet realized Bagman had started talking, and she zoned back in just in time to hear him explain what they had to do for the task. Fortunately, all she'd missed was the irrelevant preamble. That was probably a good thing though, she figured. Listening to Bagman usually only soured her mood.

"Your second task will be quite a bit different from the first task," said Bagman. "There won't be any immediate dangers to contend with, which I'm sure will be a relief," he added with a chortle.

No one laughed with him.

Bagman cleared his throat. "For this task, you'll be locked in a room that reflects the place you fear the most. Your challenge will be to escape from this room within one hour. Additionally, the person most precious to you has been hidden away somewhere in this room, so you'll have to find them too. You won't be able to escape until you do."

The four champions exchanged glances.

"Points will be awarded based on how quickly you manage to find your precious person and escape, along with what sort of spells you use while doing so," Bagman explained. "And that's about the meat of it," he finished with a broad grin.

Violet frowned. That didn't sound too bad. The interesting thing was that he'd said the room would show the place they feared the most, not the thing. At least she wouldn't have to worry about dementors. Or nundus. She wasn't sure which of them would be her greatest fear at this point. But the place she feared the most was a whole other thing.

What place did Rose fear the most, she wondered?

And the precious person thing was interesting too. Was that why Theodore had been missing all morning? He hadn't come out of his room when she'd knocked, and he'd missed breakfast, and none of the other Slytherins claimed to have seen him. She hadn't noticed Hermione anywhere either, now that she thought about it.

But once again, Violet didn't know what to do. Bagman hadn't given them enough information to make any sort of plan. All she knew was that she had to find someone and get out of a room, but she doubted it would be as easy as casting the unlocking charm. What would they have to do to leave?

Well, at least she had some time to think about it. Bagman told them they would be following the same order as the first task, which meant Violet would be competing last.

Rose left the tent first and, sighing quietly, Violet sat down, attempting to come up with a plan.

---

For the second time that year, Severus found himself sitting in the quidditch stands with a headache brewing as the crowd shrieked and laughed far too loudly for his taste. But just like in November, there was no getting around it. It was time for the second task and he was once more being forced to sit and watch.

Although, if he were being honest with himself, he would have been here even if he'd been given a choice. He had to see how Potter would fare, after all, especially after the nundu from the first task.

Just as before, they were told little about this task. A person precious to each champion had been taken and hidden in a room, and the champions had an hour to find that person and escape the room.

Sitting in the centre of the quidditch pitch was a large cube. It was white all around, and had one door and no windows, making it impossible to see what was inside.

Taking everything at face value, it didn't appear this challenge would be dangerous. The task was to get out of an escape room. It couldn't be too difficult. Escape rooms in general were mostly foreign concepts to wizards, as it wasn't easy to lock a wizard in a room with no way out due to the existence of magic. Severus wondered how the champions would react.

Krum and Delacour would be somewhat confused, he figured, but what about the Potters? Minerva's Potter might have experienced an escape room before, but he doubted the same would be true for his Potter. And what would the room be? It was impossible to say just yet.

"At least there aren't any magical creatures involved this time," said Minerva.

"As far as we know," Filius added.

Severus sighed quietly. That was true. While they had been told nothing regarding creatures, it couldn't be said none were involved for certain. And creatures or not, Severus was sure there would be other traps in the room. He was expecting puzzles as well, though how the champions fared with them depended heavily on what sort of puzzles they were.

"Now, please welcome our first competitor!" Bagman called out as he magically amplified his voice. "Rose Potter!"

Were they following the same order as the previous task? Strange. Severus had thought all four champions would compete simultaneously, or go from whoever had the most points to the least. Was there a reason it had to be this specific order?

Rose Potter stepped onto the pitch from the left, led by Filch, and was met with overwhelming support from the crowd. There were cheers, applause, and whistles, and Potter grinned and waved at her supporters as she followed Filch to the cube.

Despite the crowd reacting mostly well, Severus noticed the response wasn't quite as positive as during the first task. Some of Potter's supporters had since changed their minds and decided to support someone else, it seemed.

Filch opened the door and, smile fading, Potter nodded slowly and stepped inside. Filch slammed the door behind her, and when he did, a projection of the room appeared in the air before them. There were a few images hovering level with the stands, giving them a closer view of the room from somewhere a little over Potter's head. Interesting. Severus wasn't familiar with this spell.

It was sensible, this spell. It was the only thing allowing them to see what was happening inside the room, which was necessary unless the audience was meant to sit around staring at nothing for however long these tasks would take.

The room Potter was in was fairly small. It was a simple room with four windows, two doors, and basic furniture. There was a couch, two armchairs, a coffee table, two small side tables, and a short bookcase, all made of light wood. It appeared to be a sitting room, and considering the small television in one corner, it was a room in the Muggle world.

But it was very rundown.

It looked old, the once-white paint on the walls stained yellow with age and peeling in places. The furniture was old as well, scratched and discoloured. The cushions were all flat and faded, and one of the side tables was lopsided, a leg broken and taped in a poor attempt to mend it. The books on the bookcase didn't look to be in very good condition either and were stacked haphazardly in no particular order.

The few windows, though clean, didn't let in much sunlight, making the entire room look even smaller. There was nothing on the walls either. No photographs, no paintings, no drawings, no shelves of knickknacks. Nothing to show this was a home of any sort.

Where on earth was this dismal place?

Potter took a couple of steps forward and looked around with a frown, but whether she knew what or where this room was Severus couldn't say.

"If I was Ron, where would I be?" Potter asked herself, perhaps unaware the audience could hear her. She looked around more, but the answer seemed rather obvious. From what Severus could see, there wasn't much to the room. It wouldn't be difficult to find Weasley.

And sure enough-

There were two doors on the walls. One was behind Potter, the door she'd entered and would have to exit from, and the second was on the wall to her right. She headed straight to the second door. It was a wooden door, its paint peeling, its handle loose.

Potter grabbed the handle and turned it carefully as she pulled open the door. It was a small linen closet by the looks of it, and standing propped up in the space between the door and the shelves was an unconscious Ron Weasley.

"Ron!" No longer supported by the door, Weasley fell forward and Potter caught him just before he hit the floor, slowing his fall. "Ron! Wake up!" Potter cried in panic as she shook him.

Weasley stirred and groaned. "Five more minutes, mum..."

Laughter rang through the crowd. Filius snorted, and Minerva put her face in her hands and shook her head in disappointment. Fred and George Weasley, meanwhile, booed loudly. Severus just sighed.

"Get up before I hex you!" said Potter, reaching for her wand.

"Alright, alright! Jeez!" Weasley hurriedly pushed himself to his feet, but it was only then that he seemed to realize he wasn't, in fact, in bed. "Whoa. What the hell? Where are we?" he asked, looking around with a confused frown.

Potter hesitated. "I think... I think this is the orphanage Violet lives in," she said slowly. She shut the door to the linen cupboard. "Dumbledore brought me here once when I was little, and told me about Violet and stuff." she looked at Weasley. "I don't remember where the place is or what it's called, but I'm pretty sure it looked like this."

"Wait, so, you met her before you got to Hogwarts?" asked Weasley, surprise colouring his voice.

Potter shook her head. "No, I didn't even see her. There was no one around when we went. I only saw the sitting room, where Dumbledore explained things, and then we left."

The orphanage? Severus felt something unpleasant in his gut. This was where Potter lived? He'd seen the outside, which looked decent enough, but he hadn't been able to enter the building and so, hadn't realized how...miserable it truly was.

He laughed derisively. It reminded him of his childhood home.

The audience, on the other hand, didn't seem particularly interested in this reveal. Most of them seemed rather bored. A fair number of the older Slytherins were frowning and exchanging glances, but other than that, he only saw a few Ravenclaws and a handful of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors who looked even remotely uncomfortable.

There was surprise among the professors as well, Severus noted. Even Minerva and Filius, seated to his left and right, looked as if they'd been caught off guard. It seemed he wasn't the only one unaware of Violet Potter's living conditions. Moody, meanwhile, was watching closely, frowning.

Back in the room on the pitch, Weasley frowned again. "But...why is your escape room your sister's orphanage?"

Potter shrugged. "I don't know for sure, but Bagman said something about how the rooms would 'reflect our fears' or something like that."

"Oh."

They didn't say more on the matter because nothing more needed to be said.

"I can't say I'm surprised," said Minerva quietly. "It's pure chance that Rose is the Girl-Who-Lived. You-Know-Who's curse could just as easily have hit Violet, and if it had, maybe Rose would be the one living in the orphanage instead of Violet. It seems Rose is well aware of that."

"Has Albus ever said why the girls were separated?" asked Filius suddenly.

"He said their aunt and uncle couldn't take in both girls," said Minerva, tone betraying her disapproval.

"You're a fool if you believe that," said Severus with a scoff.

Minerva sighed. "I can't even argue with you."

"Well," said Weasley, as Severus turned his attention back to the projection closest to him, "let's just look for a way out." Weasley looked at the main door, and then at Potter again. "Think the door's unlocked?" he asked curiously.

"Probably not!" Potter laughed.

"Might as well try anyway." Weasley strode to the main door and tried the handle. Turning it didn't seem to do anything, so he pushed at the door, then pulled. "Alohomora!" He checked again. "Crud."

"Still locked?"

"Yeah."

Potter looked around the room, her hands on her hips. "I've been to an escape room once before, and there're supposed to be puzzles and stuff," she said. "But this room looks so...empty. I don't see anything obvious. There has to be something hidden around here somewhere."

Weasley nodded in agreement. "Let's split up and look for clues."

"Sure thing, Fred," said Potter with a grin.

Weasley frowned. "I'm Ron."

Potter's grin widened.

Potter and Weasley went through the sitting room, examining the walls, checking behind and under furniture, flipping through the books on the bookcase, and poking through the linen closet as well. After a few minutes of a mundane conversation no one was interested in listening to, Weasley picked up a cushion from the couch and released a sound of triumph.

"Found something!" he exclaimed. "There're two letters inscribed on the couch here," he announced to Potter. "T and V. What do you think it means?"

Potter blinked. "I guess it means check the TV," she said wryly.

"Uh, what's a TV?"

"Never mind." Leaving the linen closet, Potter crossed the room to the television and examined it closely. She ran her hands along its top and sides, and its back as well, though she didn't lift it to check its underside. Then she began pressing buttons. The television wasn't plugged in, of course, but it still turned on when Potter pressed the power button, much to her obvious surprise, and to Severus' surprise as well.

The screen displayed the very room Potter and Weasley were in and, more specifically, the front door. As they all watched, a small panel appeared on the wall beside the door, level with the door handle. Within the panel was a set of buttons numbered zero through nine. Four of these numbers lit up, one at a time. Three, one, zero, seven.

The television screen went dark.

"I guess we're just supposed to memorize those numbers," said Weasley, frowning again. "Three, one, zero, seven. Should be easy enough to remember-it's your birthday."

Potter's eyes lit up. "You're right! I didn't even realize that. That's pretty lucky."

Which to Severus, meant it had been done on purpose.

"I don't remember seeing anything by the door though," Potter added as she and Weasley headed for it. "See? The wall's completely flat."

Weasley checked as well, running his fingers over the spot the panel had appeared in the image on the television. "Yeah, I don't feel anything at all," he confirmed. "Doesn't seem like anything here can be pushed in either."

"Revealing charm?"

"Yeah."

Potter cast the spell and, sure enough, a panel appeared in the wall with numbered buttons. Exchanging a glance with Weasley, Potter pressed the buttons according to the order revealed earlier and, unsurprisingly, the door sprang open, allowing the two to exit.

"Well, that seemed easy," said Filius as the students in the audience cheered, and in some cases, booed.

"Too easy," Minerva agreed with a sigh. "I'm glad it wasn't dangerous, but this seems too simple to make much of a challenge."

Severus didn't bother telling them there was a good chance this task, like the first one, had been rigged in Rose Potter's favour as well. It was difficult to say for sure, as the other three, and most importantly, Violet Potter, hadn't competed yet, but Severus was confident in his assumption.

But that only made him question things all the more. Why rig the tasks in Rose's favour? Was it truly because she was the Girl-Who-Lived and the culprit wanted her to come out of the tournament looking good? Or was there a more nefarious reason behind it?

And just as before, Potter's scores only proved the theory of things being rigged.

Bagman and Albus both gave her a ten, the highest they possibly could, and a score that was far from deserved. Percy Weasley, who was substituting for an "ill" Crouch gave her a five, which was certainly more fair, though still more than Severus would have given her. Maxime, meanwhile, gave her a three, and Karkaroff gave her a two.

Her total score was thirty out of fifty for this task, and sixty-two out of one hundred for the entire tournament thus far.

Again, Severus sighed. Yes, this was more proof. Not every judge had been influenced by whoever was behind this though. It seemed only Bagman and Albus were being unfair, and he wouldn't have said Albus was showing anything other than innocent bias (as Karkaroff and Maxime had previously shown for their own champions) if it hadn't been for the score Albus had given Violet in the first task. Surprisingly, Percy Weasley's score seemed the least biased in any regard.

There was little time to think on the matter because a moment later, Krum stepped onto the quidditch pitch, and Filch led him to the cube-shaped room. Just as with Potter, projections appeared in the air, showing them what Krum was seeing in closer detail. But the room had changed, and the location of Krum's escape room was quite a surprise.

"A quidditch pitch?" said Minerva, eyes wide. "The place he's most afraid of is a quidditch pitch?"

"It's actually rather sensible," said Filius, looking at Krum with newfound interest, "considering his already prolific career. I expect the places he loves the most will also be a quidditch pitch. You can love and fear a place in equal measure."

A little surprised himself, Severus frowned and focused on Krum and the room he was in. He appeared to be out on the pitch, but looking carefully, there were noticeable corners visible. The 'ground' was grass, the 'ceiling' was a clear sky, and the light looked like natural sunlight. Most of the room was empty, except for the three goalposts to the right and the door behind him. And then Krum looked up.

Perched precariously, and no doubt with a spell, in the centre goalpost was Granger. She seemed to be asleep. Severus hoped the spell keeping her there was a strong one. If Granger moved even slightly, she would fall quite a long way.

Frowning, Krum looked around. Severus supposed he was attempting to find a way to get up to Granger. But to everyone's surprise, a broomstick was hidden behind one of the goalposts.

It was easy for Krum to rise and hover high enough to reach Granger, though it took a bit of effort on his part to carefully pull Granger off the goalpost and into his arms while he remained balanced on his broom. Slowly, he guided the broom back down to the grass and dismounted where he gently set Granger down.

Granger hadn't moved and didn't react as Krum shook her and called her name. Severus frowned. Strange. Weasley had woken without much trouble, hadn't he? Surely all of the 'precious people' had been put into an enchanted sleep using the same spell.

It took an aguamenti to the face for Granger to wake, and a quick drying charm before she had the chance to get annoyed.

"V-Viktor...? Wh-where are we?" asked Granger in confusion as she pushed herself to her feet.

And so, Krum explained to Granger the same thing Potter had to Weasley, telling her whatever Bagman had said about the task. It didn't take long for Granger to understand, and she nodded.

"Right, okay." She looked around. "So, we just need to find clues that'll lead to a way out, right?" She frowned. "Not that there's really anywhere to look," she added.

That was true enough. There had been more places to search in Potter's escape room, which was truly saying something, as that room had been sparsely decorated.

Krum and Granger checked the ground thoroughly, and looked up at the sky as well, though they found no clues. Finally, some fifteen minutes later, Granger sighed.

"What about that broom?" she asked abruptly.

"Broom?"

"The broom you used to reach me," said Granger. "Were there any clues on it? I mean, it can't be anything too elaborate, but there must be something strange about it. There has to be! There's nothing else here."

Krum frowned but took up the broom without comment and examined it closely. The audience had gotten rather bored with nothing interesting happening, so most watched in silence, staff and students alike.

"There are three lines here, I think," said Krum suddenly. "See? Here," he said when Granger approached. And sure enough, three faint lines carved into the dark wood were barely visible on the handle where the broom's name was meant to be. They looked like scratches, and Severus would have completely dismissed their presence if he'd been the one looking.

"Three... Then the clue must mean we either need three of something or-" Granger cut herself off to look around, and her eyes quickly fell upon the goalposts. "We should check those," she declared. "Since you have that broom, maybe you should check the top of the posts in case there's something there."

Krum nodded and once again mounted the broom. Once he was in the air, Granger began examining the post closest to her and knelt on the grass to get a better look at the bottom. Frowning, she pulled out her wand and began casting general revealing charms. Above, Krum did the same.

Nothing happened for a few minutes, resulting in further boredom from most of the audience. And then, suddenly-

"I found a button!" Granger exclaimed.

"I did as vell," said Krum only seconds later. Before either of them could say anything more, Krum pressed the button and suddenly, a beam of red light shot out of it, hitting him in the centre of his chest. Krum fell unconscious immediately and slipped off of his broom. Screams rang through the audience.

Fortunately, Granger looked up from her own button just in time. "Arresto Momentum!" she cried, perhaps instinctively, and Krum's fall slowed enough for Granger to lower him carefully onto the grass. "Viktor!"

Severus watched curiously as Granger rushed to Krum's side. He couldn't say the stunning spell hadn't caught him off guard. Nothing like this had happened in Potter's room. There had been no danger at all, frankly, so this was unexpected.

"It's a good thing Miss Granger was paying attention," said Filius with a frown. "Mr Krum could have been in some very serious danger falling from so high."

Minerva nodded in agreement, her lips pressed together in a thin line, but she didn't speak.

Back in the room, Granger had managed to wake Krum and finished explaining what had happened. Granger deduced pressing the button on its own triggered the stunning spell, and tested that by pressing the button closer to the ground on its own, this time with Krum casting the shield charm first.

Sure enough, this button reacted with a stunning spell as well.

"We must have to press both buttons at the same time," said Granger, voicing the same thing Severus had been thinking. "Why don't you press the one at the top, while I do the same with the one at the bottom? And don't forget the shield charm, just in case!"

Krum agreed to the plan, grabbed and mounted his broom, and made his way up to the button that sat just below the goal of the tallest post. Granger, meanwhile, took her place in front of the button near the bottom of the same post.

"Ready?"

"Yes!"

The two cast their shield charms and pressed their respective buttons simultaneously. Stunning spells hit both shields and as Krum remained hovering, Granger frowned and stepped away from the posts.

"They're missing something," said Minerva with a frown. "I wonder if there isn't a third button hidden somewhere."

"There were three lines on the broom," said Filius. "It may have been indicating both the three goalposts and there being three buttons."

Severus was thinking much the same. It didn't appear as if this task was particularly complicated. A third button seemed the most likely. It would be on the same post too, he was sure.

Granger told Krum the same thing, and they again began to search. It didn't take them long to find it. But there was a problem.

"How in the world are we going to be able to press all three of these at the same time?" Granger looked as exasperated as she sounded.

The third button was in a very inconvenient place. It was too high for Granger to reach from the ground, but too low for Krum to reach from where he had to hover for the top button.

There was nothing in the environment around them they could use. Levitating a branch would have been sufficient, but there were no trees, let alone branches. Transfiguration would have been a good option as well, but there was nothing to transfigure aside from the broom, which Krum required to reach the topmost button. So, what would they do?

Severus was struggling to come up with a solution himself. Magic was the only answer, but what spell would be the most useful? All they needed was something with some force behind it.

"Okay," said Granger. "It's a bit silly, but I've thought of something." She took a few more steps back, warned Krum to do the same, and raised her wand. "Aguamenti!"

"Water?" said Minerva. "What could she be planning?"

Severus had no answer, but he watched a jet of water shoot out of Granger's wand. Brow furrowed in concentration, Granger altered the jet until it became thin and sharp. Then, she carefully directed this jet of water to the button. There was another stunning spell, which Krum blocked swiftly.

"She increased the force of the water by thinning the stream," said Filius. "Very impressive considering Miss Granger is only a fourth year."

"Yes, but how will this help?" Minerva wondered. "Using water is all well and good, but there are still three buttons and only two wands."

"Two wands is all they need," said Severus, beginning to guess Granger's plan. It was a simple plan, all things considered, but it wasn't a difficult puzzle.

"We have two options," said Granger, getting Krum's attention. "Either you give me your wand to use on the bottom two buttons while you use the broom to reach the top one, or, well, the other way around. I prefer the first option. Unless you know how to cast two jets of water with one wand or have any other ideas."

Krum shook his head. He looked at the buttons on the post, and then at Granger, and held out his wand. Granger seemed a little surprised, but she accepted it and, without a word, Krum mounted the broom and took off. He hovered in front of the top button and waited.

On the ground, Granger held her wand in her right hand and Krum's in her left. She looked uncomfortable. Severus couldn't blame her. Using another's wand always felt unpleasant unless the wand was similar to one's own. Somehow he doubted Granger and Krum had similar wands.

Severus was more surprised Krum had handed his wand over so easily. Either he trusted Granger a great deal, or the thought of losing his wand didn't bother him. Severus couldn't say which was more likely. All he knew was he would never have given his wand to someone else so quickly.

"Aguamenti!" Water shot out of the ends of both wands Granger was holding, the stream noticeably weaker from Krum's wand.

Concentrating, Granger again attempted to sharpen the jets. She managed it almost immediately with her own wand, though it took another moment or two for her to manage it with Krum's, and she directed the streams to just below the two buttons. Once sure the stream wouldn't weaken and they were in position, she called up to Krum.

"Are you ready?" Once she received confirmation, Granger counted down from three and flicked both wands up so the jets of water hit the two buttons. Up above, Krum pressed the third button at the exact same time, and with no more fanfare, there was a click and the door swung open, revealing the exit. As Krum descended and got off the broom, Granger stood.

"Well, that was suspiciously easy," she said, handing Krum his wand back, echoing the very thing Severus was thinking.

But was it easy on purpose, Severus wondered? Surely it was. Perhaps whoever was behind the planning had made note of the criticism from the first task and had taken them into account for this one. Perhaps they hoped they wouldn't be accused of rigging the second task if it was easy for all four competitors.

Once they'd left the room, Krum's scores were displayed for everyone, just as Potter's had been earlier.

Karkaroff, of course, gave him a ten, Albus and Bagman gave him a nine, Weasley gave him a five, and Maxime gave him a four. His total for this task was thirty-seven out of fifty, and his total for the entire tournament thus far was seventy-three out of one hundred.

Karkaroff was being biased, but the nines given by Albus and Bagman also seemed too high given what Severus had seen. However, the puzzles, if it was worth calling them as such, had been so simple he couldn't be sure how the scoring was meant to work. Especially considering Granger was the one who'd ultimately solved the thing. She'd used magic to press the buttons as well, while Krum had simply hovered on a broom and pressed the button by hand.

Krum had scored seven points more than Potter in this task and was eleven points ahead of her in total, making the scores much closer than Severus had been expecting.

"We're halfway through," said Filius, "and I believe Miss Delcour will-ah, there she is."

Sure enough, Delacour was out next. Like the two before her, she followed Filch in silence and entered the cube she was directed to, Filch shutting the door behind her loudly. The crowd leaned forward in anticipation, wondering what this room would be, but they were quickly disappointed.

It was a hospital room, a private one, Severus assumed, given the single bed that stood in one corner. It was a wizarding hospital, the room mostly empty and lacking the medical equipment hospital rooms in the Muggle world had, but the bed was enough for most to know what they were looking at.

It was a rather boring room and a boring fear for Delacour to have, common though her fear of hospitals was. The audience sat back with groans, some already looking disinterested.

Severus, however, watched Delacour closely, curious to see how easy this would be. Potter and Krum had faced no real struggle, and he wondered if the same would happen here.

Delacour looked around curiously, but just as with the others, there weren't many places for someone to be hidden. The first place Delacour looked was the supply closest opposite the bed, and that was exactly where she found her precious person-a friend, Severus guessed by her age and uniform.

"Valérie!"

The brown-haired girl was propped up and unconscious, and Delacour reached into the closet to shake her. The girl, Valérie, didn't even stir.

"Valérie!" Delacour shook her again. "Réveille-toi, Valérie!" She cast aguamenti on her friend, but the other girl still didn't wake. "Tu dois te réveiller!" This time there was panic in Delacour's voice. Then she paused, took a few breaths, and raised her wand again, casting rennervate. (Wake up, Valérie! You have to wake up!)

The girl woke with a groan of discomfort, and Delacour's eyes lit up. "Valérie!"

Valérie winced. "Arrête de crier!" She stepped out of the supply closet and looked around. She frowned. "Où sommes-nous?" (Stop yelling! Where are we?)

Quickly, Delacour explained the task. Valérie frowned again.

"Un hôpital? Mais pourquoi as-tu si peur des hôpitaux?" (A hospital? But why are you so scared of hospitals?)

Delacour hesitated and, eyes on the floor, said, "Gabrielle. Quand elle était toute petite, elle..." She shook her head. "Je t'expliquerai plus tard." Instead, she told Valérie they were meant to search for puzzles to find a way out, and the two started their search immediately, chattering away in a rapid stream of French. (When she was very little, she... I'll explain later.)

Severus knew passable French. Paris was host to a bi-annual Potions conference he always attended, and he'd learned some of the language to make things a little easier. The girls' earlier conversation had been simple enough for him to understand, but he could only catch bits and pieces of what was being said now that their conversation had turned casual, so he stopped the translating he'd been doing for Minerva and Filius.

The girls wandered through the room, searching everything they could. There was nothing behind the curtains, and the window opened onto a blank wall. They took apart the bed but found nothing there, and the supply closet Valérie had been in was empty. There was a counter along one wall, but it was bare, and it was the cupboards above and below the counter that finally yielded a result.

Valérie opened the top left cupboard and a beam of red light shot out of it almost instantly. Considering what happened during Krum's task, Severus figured it was a stunning spell. Fortunately, Valérie was just barely short enough that the spell shot over her head and it struck the wall behind her.

Delacour had been crouching to check the baseboard, and she jumped up as Valérie whipped around. They stared at the wall, then began speaking quickly, Valérie pointing at the cupboard she had opened. They opened another cupboard door, and the results were the same. Again they began to discuss what had happened.

From what Severus could translate, they believed the cupboard doors had to be opened in a certain order, and the stunning spells were the consequences of opening the wrong door.

It made sense to Severus, and it made sense to Minerva and Filius as well, once he filled them in on what the girls had deduced. But what was the order? And what was the clue that would tell them? And where was this clue hidden?

The girls began their search anew, going over everything in the room again, but they found nothing.

Valérie released an explosive sigh and placed her hands on her hips. Delacour looked just as frustrated. They were running out of time and hadn't found anything. There had to be something in the room, but even Severus hadn't noticed anything peculiar yet.

Suddenly, Delacour raised her wand and levitated the mattress off the bed. Looking curious, her friend backed out of the way as the mattress fell to the floor with a heavy-sounding thump. And there, having been hidden under the mattress, they found their first clue.

There was some sort of drawing on the box spring. There were ten squares separated by a line with five on top of the line and five below, and inside every square was a letter.

From left to right, the top five squares read 'T, H, U, Q, and D1'. The bottom five squares, meanwhile, read 'N, S1, S2, D2, and C'.

Severus frowned. That didn't spell anything, and it didn't appear to be an anagram either. The numbers were odd as well. What did they mean? Only repeat letters had numbers, and this had to do with the order of cupboard doors, considering the image resembled the counter and ten cupboards, but how exactly did these numbers and letters reveal an order?

Eyes narrowed, Severus stared at the image. Inside the room, Delacour and her friend were doing the same. They chattered away rapidly.

Oh. Now that he was hearing them, the answer to the puzzle was surprisingly simple. Severus sat back. Unless the girls were particularly slow-witted, they would figure the answer out soon.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Delacour and Valérie traded a nod. Delacour moved to the counter, and Valérie raised her wand, perhaps prepared to cast a shield charm if needed.

No spells were required to open the cupboard doors, so all Delacour had to do was reach out. She opened the third cupboard first, and there was no stunning spell, signalling she had made the correct choice.

"Alright," said Minerva, "I'll bite. You have that irritating look on your face-the one you get when you've managed to beat me in chess. What is she doing?"

"The image on the box spring tells them the answer," said Severus. "It isn't much of a puzzle as long as you can count to ten."

"Count to ten?" Minerva repeated, surprised.

"In French, that is," said Severus. "On the image, the third square has a 'U' on it. It's for un, which is French for one. The fifth square is 'D1' for deux, meaning two. The number is there because there are two D's, and the same applies to the two S's. Square one is 'T' for trois, or three, and it goes on in that way. 'Q' is quatre for four, 'C' cinq for five, 'S1' six for six, 'S2' sept for seven, 'H' huit for eight, 'N' neuf for nine, and 'D2' dix for ten. All they must do is match the lettered squares to the cupboard doors."

Minerva frowned again. "You're right, that is simple."

And it was simple for Delacour and her friend as well. She opened every door with no trouble, and Valérie wasn't required to cast a single shield charm. Since the clue had even specified the order in which the repeated letters were to be used, it was nearly impossible to make a mistake.

There was a click and the exit opened, much to the relief of Delacour and her friend, and they made for the door immediately. Once they were out on the quidditch pitch, Delacour's scores were revealed.

Maxime, as expected, gave her a ten, Albus gave her an eight, Bagman gave her a seven, Weasley gave her a six, and Karkaroff gave her a four. Her total score was thirty-five out of fifty for this task, and sixty-nine out of one hundred for the tournament thus far.

Delacour had scored two points less than Krum and five points more than Potter, and currently sat four points below Krum and seven points ahead of Potter in terms of their total scores.

Severus had little to say on the matter. Delacour had done fine, and just like all the other scoring, some were biased in one way or another. Regardless, he was beginning to realize that magic was barely necessary for the current task, and he wasn't entirely sure how to feel about it.

"Well, that just leaves young Violet," said Filus. "It doesn't seem as if we'll see anything more dangerous than a stunning spell, but I suppose it's too early to say anything for sure."

Silently, Severus agreed. So long as nothing like the nundu happened again, and Potter didn't get hit in the chest with a stunning spell, she would be fine.

Hopefully.

---

The crowd's roar deafened Violet as she stepped onto the field, and she wasn't sure if she was surprised or not when she realized there were a fair few more cheers than there'd been during the first task. But maybe she was imagining that. Honestly, it was too loud to tell for sure.

She followed Filch to the strange cube and passed him a glance when he opened the door and pointed inside. She stepped across the threshold but had only a second to look around before Filch shut the door and the room was plunged into darkness.

Violet swallowed hard. From what little she'd managed to see, the room was a small one. She didn't like small, dark rooms. And considering Bagman had said these rooms would reflect their fears, Violet had a feeling she knew exactly what this room was.

Pulling out her wand, Violet lit the end of it, and when she cast the light across the room, she sighed, resigned. "I knew it," she murmured. "It's been a while since I was last in here." She took a deep breath, and then another one, and then a third, trying to stop the tremble in her hands. "Let's get this over with."

She looked around. If this was an escape room, there had to be puzzles, but she couldn't see anything.

The door she'd entered through and would also have to exit from was locked, and as expected, an unlocking charm didn't do anything to help her. The other three walls were blank, and the only item in the room was the metal bucket in the back left corner, though it was mercifully empty. She examined it, but it gave her no clues.

Moving to the middle of the room, Violet passed her wand light over the wall in front of her. Theodore was in here somewhere, but it wasn't as if there was anywhere for him to be hidden. Casting a revealing charm on the walls would probably be the best way to go. There had to be something behind them.

Concentrating, she cast an alternate version of lumos which sent an average lightbulb-sized orb of light into the air where it hovered in the centre of the ceiling. She needed to cast other spells and she wouldn't be able to keep her wand lit while doing so. There was no way she was going to stand around in the dark either.

"Tempus." Smoky numbers appeared in the air, showing her the current time. She had nearly an hour to complete this task.

Casting the revealing charm on the wall left of the door did indeed end up showing her something unexpected. Runes. There were three of them, all about as big as her hands, and stuck to, but sticking out of the wall. Fortunately for Violet, she recognized all three of them.

"Enemy, Lost, Closed?" Violet made a thoughtful sound. What could that mean? She knew their literal meaning, of course, but...

Unsure it was safe to touch the runes, Violet turned her attention to the back wall instead and cast the revealing charm again. She frowned. "Potions...?"

A long shelf had appeared at her eye level, lined with identical vials. They were all filled with liquids of various colours, but she couldn't see anything that served to identify them. Did she have to do that herself?

Violet was decent enough at potions, being the third best in her year, but she was only a fourth year. Would these potions reflect that lack of knowledge? Or had they been prepared assuming she had the same knowledge as a seventh year? It would be a bit of a problem if it was the latter, but she also wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that way.

Honestly, she wasn't sure if anything could surprise her after that nundu.

Turning her attention to the final wall, the one to the right of the door, Violet cast the revealing charm for the third time. This wall looked quite a bit like the first one, except instead of runes, there were letters. They didn't seem to spell anything. Maybe she had to swap them around? Could she even do that?

"Tempus." Violet squinted at the smoky letters in the darkness. Fifty minutes left. So, where was Theodore? Finding him was her priority. They could work together to find a way out after that. She turned back to the first wall, the one to the left of the door, and examined the runes closely.

Violet touched the first rune with the tip of her wand, but nothing happened. She frowned. Did she need a spell? She'd learned last year that some runes needed spells to become active. Were these like those?

"Might be worth trying." Nothing happened when she cast the spell, but when she lowered her wand, the rune moved down the wall. Surprised, she paused before again moving her wand, and again the rune followed it. No matter where she directed her wand along the wall, the rune followed every movement.

Did she have to rearrange the runes?

She tried that, but still nothing happened. She was missing something. She had to be. Blowing out a breath, she stared at the runes again, thinking hard. Suddenly, she realized the answer was staring her right in the face. "Wait, is this-?"

Violet had missed these lessons because she'd been in a coma at the time, but Hermione's meticulous notes had detailed something new they'd covered in Ancient Runes.

The interesting thing about runes was that, like potions, runes were very versatile. With very small tweaks, a rune could be turned into a completely different rune with an entirely different meaning.

Adding or removing lines could do this, and so could switching lines with other lines in the rune. Turning runes upside down was another thing that could change their meaning, though this was used in a very specific way: opposites.

If turned upside down, the rune for 'clean' would become the rune for 'dirty'. 'Day' would become 'night', 'hot' would become 'cold', and so on, which meant...

Carefully, Violet used her wand to turn the three runes on the wall upside down, and rearranged their order. Now, instead of saying 'closed', 'enemy', and 'lost', the runes read as 'open', 'friend', and 'found'. Violet cast the rune activation charm again.

The runes started to glow, and then the wall started glowing too, and before Violet could even react, the entire wall disappeared, revealing an alcove. Standing inside this alcove was a very unconscious Theodore.

"Theo!" Violet pulled him out of the alcove and lowered him to the floor. "Theo!" she called again, shaking him by the shoulders. He didn't even stir. "Rennervate! Aguamenti!" Theodore still didn't react, and Violet frowned as she cast a drying charm on him. He was still alive, she noted as she set a shaky hand on his chest. She could feel his heart beating against her palm. But it was slow.

Really slow.

That couldn't be normal, right? This had to be part of the task, and that meant something in this room had to wake Theodore up. But what?

Violet looked around, squinting in the dim light from the orb on the ceiling. The rune wall had disappeared, so that couldn't have anything to do with it. The letter wall, meanwhile, was still a complete mystery to her, so she hoped it wasn't that.

"Which leaves the potions wall." Leaving Theodore where he lay, Violet approached the back wall and examined the shelf of potions. It didn't take long to find the odd one out. Every vial was full to the brim except for one.

There was a vial of clear liquid that was missing a good mouthful, leaving it three-quarters full. They hadn't learned about any clear potions in class yet.

Picking up the vial, Violet held it up to the light. Yep, definitely a clear potion. It might as well have been water. Hesitating only slightly, she uncorked the vial. Nothing happened, so Violet held the vial up to her nose and took a careful sniff.

Wormwood and... She sniffed again. Was that valerian? A clear potion that possibly had wormwood and valerian as ingredients. She glanced at Theodore. And a potion that was keeping Theo unconscious.

"Then, is this...?" Violet examined the potion again. Was this the Draught of Living Death? Corking the vial, she set it back down and looked at the other potions. Out of the fifteen of them, only one was green.

With much less hesitation this time, Violet picked it up, uncorked it, and gave it a sniff. Dittany, she thought. This had to be Wiggenweld, then, which meant...

Wiggenweld in hand, Violet returned to Theodore, and with some difficulty, managed to prop him up enough to pour the green potion into his mouth. She rubbed his throat to make sure he swallowed it, and seconds later, Theodore's eyes fluttered open.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," Violet greeted.

"Only if sleeping beauty had a raging headache," he replied with a groan. "...Where are we?"

Helping Theodore to his feet, Violet explained everything Bagman had told them about the task. He frowned as he listened, pulling out and lighting his wand as he did so.

"So, this is the place you're most scared of?" he asked once she'd finished explaining. "Where the hell is this?"

"The Cupboard," said Violet.

Theodore frowned. "The cupboard?"

"The Cupboard," Violet corrected. "Capital T, capital C."

"Oh." Theodore looked around. "Shit."

Violet laughed humourlessly. "Yeah. So, here's what I've found so far." She filled him in on the runes, potions, and letters walls she'd discovered using the revealing charm earlier.

"Right, okay," said Theodore when she'd fallen silent again. "The rune wall's gone, which means we probably don't need it anymore. The potions wall might be done with, since you needed that to wake me up. And as for the letters wall..." He turned to examine it.

"I have no idea what it's meant to mean," Violet admitted, "but I didn't spend much time on it either. There are fifteen letters, most of them are repeats, and they move around the same way the runes did," she explained quickly, "but I've no idea what to do with them."

Making a thoughtful sound, Theodore used his wand to move the letters around, but when nothing seemed to happen, he set them back in their original places. He looked at the potion wall. "You think the potions and letters are connected?" he asked curiously.

Violet frowned as too focused on the right wall. "Maybe the letters are related to their names? Like, there are two W's on the wall, and one of the potions on the shelf is the Wiggenweld. And one of those D's could be for the Draught of Living Death, which is there too."

"That's what I was thinking," Theodore confirmed. "Maybe the letters have to be rearranged in the same order as the potions. There are fifteen vials and fifteen letters, so they have to be connected, right?"

"...Right." Violet's frown deepened. "Guess it's worth a try."

Theodore nodded. "You're better than me at potions," he said, "so you tell me what they are, and I'll move the letters around."

"Sure." Violet moved to the potions shelf. There were fourteen vials on the shelf, along with a gap where the Wiggenweld had been. Violet knew she was decent enough at potions, but the Draught of Living Death being there was concerning. They weren't supposed to learn about it until sixth or seventh year.

How many other potions would be like that?

"Alright," said Violet, "let's see..." She picked up the first vial. The potion inside was bright red. She knew about a few red potions, so the colour alone didn't help much. She uncorked the vial and took a careful sniff. "This is Pepperup," she announced. She'd already brewed it a couple of times for the hospital wing, so it was easy enough to recognize.

"We already have a problem," said Theodore. "There are two P's here."

Violet looked over so she could check the letters in the light of Theodore's wand. There were also two A's, B's, C's, D's, N's, and W's, and there was one S. She frowned. "Do you think it matters where the double letters go? Or do you think they have to be in a specific place?"

"I don't know why it would," said Theodore with a frown of his own. "That would just be stupid."

"As stupid as the people running this bloody tournament?"

"...Touché."

"You might as well put one of the P's up at the front, then," said Violet with a sigh.

Unfortunately, it turned out the placement did matter.

Theodore randomly picked one of the P's and moved it to the front of the rest of the letters, and the instant it moved into place, a jet of red light shot out of the potion wall. Not having expected it, Violet was unable to react in time and the red light hit her square in the chest.

"Violet!" Theodore lurched forward, but he wasn't able to catch her in time and she fell hard. "Dammit!" Violet was unconscious, and that, coupled with the red spell, made what had happened obvious. "Rennervate!"

Violet woke with a pained groan. "What the hell was that?" she asked as she sat up. She felt a twinge in her chest and coughed until she was left breathless. Theodore used a spell to fill the empty Wiggenweld vial with water and handed it to her.

"You were hit in the chest with a stunning spell," he explained. "Probably wasn't great for your lungs."

Violet drank the water in two gulps. "Guess it was the other P," she said, sounding a little wheezy, lowering the once again empty vial.

"Do you want to continue?" asked Theodore. He looked worried.

Brushing hair out of her face, Violet nodded. "It isn't as if we have much of a choice. I'll just use a shield charm. Should be enough to stop a stunner."

"Alright." Theodore moved back to the letter wall and like Violet had suggested, moved the second P up to the front. This time nothing happened. "Guess it was right this time," he said, sounding relieved.

"Too bad there are five more double letters," said Violet. She sighed but picked up the second vial on the shelf. This one had a teal-coloured potion inside. She had a feeling she knew what this was, but she uncorked it to smell it anyway, just in case. "Antidote to Common Poisons," she said. They'd studied this one in second year, so it was easy to recognize.

"There are two A's," Theodore warned.

Violet nodded and raised her wand. She couldn't hold a shield up for very long, so she had to be quick. "I'm ready."

"Alright, three, two, one!"

"Protego!" Violet cast the spell just in time to block another jet of red light. "Other A, I guess."

"Yeah."

Not saying much more, they moved on to the next one. Third was a sunshine yellow nutrient potion, and though there were two N's, they got lucky when Theodore got the first N in the right place immediately.

Fourth was a yellow, bubblegum-scented Babbling Beverage, which they'd only covered in class back in October. There were two B's as well, and they once again lucked out with the letter placement.

The fifth potion was a little harder to figure out. The potion was a pale blue and smelled like lavender, which was quite pleasant, but Violet didn't recognize it at first. It was only when she thought the scent was rather calming that she suddenly realized what it probably was.

"Oh, I think this is a Calming Draught."

"I thought you said you didn't know what it was," said Theodore with a frown.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure," Violet admitted, "but I skimmed through the textbook back in September, and we're supposed to cover Calming Draughts later this year. I'm pretty sure it said they're light blue and I swear I saw lavender in the ingredients list."

Theodore shrugged. "Well, I guess that's better than not knowing at all. There are two C's though."

Violet sighed. "Of course there are." She raised her wand, and it was a good thing too, because they got it wrong this time and she had to block another stunning spell.

The sixth potion was one Violet wouldn't have recognized if it wasn't for Snape. The purple liquid smelled like lavender and was exactly the same as a potion that sat in her bedside drawer. "Dreamless Sleep," she said. With two D's, Violet had to cast another shield charm, and she managed to block yet another stunner.

The next potion was a Sleeping Draught, she realized quickly. They'd learned about them only last year. It was almost identical to the Dreamless Sleep from a moment ago, with both being purple and smelling like lavender. The only difference was that Dreamless Sleep was slightly lighter in colour.

"There's only one S," said Theodore, "so you don't need to worry about the shield charm this time."

Violet sighed a bit in relief. "At least that's something." And when Theodore placed the S in its spot, Violet examined the potions shelf. There were another eight vials left. Why were there so many?

Picking up the next vial, Violet looked at it closely. It had a mother-of-pearl sheen to it, and when she uncorked it, silver steam spiralled out of the vial, even though the potion wasn't hot. She didn't recognize this one at all.

Frowning, Violet smelled the potion. Her frown deepened. It smelled nice. Really nice. But she couldn't place the smell. She held the vial out. "Do you know what this is?"

Taking the vial, Theodore took a look at it, and when that wasn't enough, he sniffed it too. "Smells like books," he said.

"Books?"

"Yeah. Books. ...Toothpaste. ...Coffee... And, uh, a cat? No clue what it is." Theodore handed the vial back to her.

"Where the heck are you getting cat from?" said Violet in amusement. She raised the vial to her nose again. She could smell it better now that she was paying more attention, but there being multiple scents made it hard to pinpoint what each one was. "I'm definitely getting coffee," she said slowly, "and it smells more like the library than books specifically." There was something else there too. "The Astronomy Tower?"

"What?"

Violet shrugged as she lowered the vial. "Not like, the stone, or anything. I don't really know what it is, just that it reminds me of the Astronomy Tower." More than just the tower, it reminded her of a dark night with cool wind, and she had no idea why. "What the hell is this potion?"

"Maybe we should just leave that one for now," said Theodore. "We can always come back to it. I'll just leave a gap in the letters. What's the next potion?"

The ninth potion was a Nausea Relief, and since they'd already placed one of the N's for the Nutrient Potion earlier, they were able to move on to the tenth potion quickly. This one was blue, and Violet wasn't sure what it was until she uncorked it and saw blue smoke emerge from the opening.

"I'm pretty sure this is Wolfsbane," she said. There was no need to explain any further. She'd seen it a couple of times last year when Remus had been around. He'd talked about the potion a little as well since then, and the blue smoke was the biggest indicator of what it was.

Theodore nodded. "Right, good news and bad news. The bad news is that there are two W's, the good news is that there aren't any more double letters after this."

"Thank Salazar for that."

"Ready?"

"Yeah, go for it."

Theodore moved one of the randomly picked W's and just as she'd been doing for the other double letters, Violet cast a shield charm. A spell was shot at her, but more than one thing was different about it.

Instead of a red light, a white light shot out of the wall, and it flew out not immediately, like the stunning spells from before, but a few seconds later. Violet's shield charm had already fallen by the time the jet of white light appeared.

Eyes widening, Violet tried to cast protego again, but though she succeeded, the white spell was much stronger than her shield and shattered it instantly. Fortunately, she'd started to pivot as she cast the spell, and instead of hitting her chest, the white spell caught her upper left arm.

But instead of knocking her out, the spell cut her. Violet didn't even feel anything at first, but then her heart beat and the heat hit, causing her to cry out in both pain and alarm. Her wand hit the floor with a clatter as she grabbed her arm instinctively, and Theodore rushed over, his face pale.

"Here, let me see," said Theodore, trying to pry Violet's hand away. They both looked down, but Violet's vision was blurred by tears of pain, so Theodore was the only one who got a good look. "Oh, hell. That's bleeding pretty bad."

Violet laughed almost hysterically, but that only worried Theodore more.

"Hey, look at me," said Theodore. He cupped her face in his hands. "C'mon, look at me, Violet. It's just a cut. This isn't the same as the first task. It's just a cut."

Violet swallowed hard. Her vision was still blurred, but she could tell Theodore was looking her in the eyes. His hands moved to her shoulders, and he gripped her a little too hard, but it helped pull her back into herself.

"We're nearly finished," said Theodore. "There are only a few potions left to sort through and then we'll be out of this stupid room, so let's just get it all over with, okay?"

Violet took a shaky breath. "Y-yeah. Yeah. O-okay."

Looking relieved, Theodore removed his tie and bound her upper left arm as well as he could. They weren't sure how much it would help, but it had to be better than nothing. Violet wiped her face with her sleeves, picked up her wand, took a deep breath, and turned back to the potion shelf.

Theodore was right. They were nearly finished, and the sooner they got this over with, the better. There were seven vials left, including both the wolfsbane and the nice-smelling potion they hadn't been able to identify.

Since they'd gotten the W for the wolfsbane wrong, Theodore moved the second one into place, and once that was done, they moved on, trying to get back into the swing of things.

Violet picked up the next vial, this potion dark red. She uncorked it, gave it a sniff, and nearly laughed. "Blood Replenishing potion," she announced. They'd covered it in class in September, and she'd brewed a few of them in Snape's place for the hospital wing as well. "Guess it would've come in handy if I'd gotten cut worse," she said a little wryly.

"Wonder if that was on purpose," said Theodore.

"Wouldn't put it past them."

"We've already done the other B," said Theodore, "so you shouldn't have to worry about this one."

"Next one's Wiggenweld," said Violet, "and the one after is the Draught of Living Death." She'd identified both earlier, and since they'd already placed one W and D in place for other potions, they were able to move on quickly without any issues.

"Three more," said Theodore, "if we include the one we aren't sure of."

"Right," said Violet, nodding to herself. The cut on her arm was throbbing painfully under Theodore's tie, but she was trying to ignore it.

The next potion was blue and Violet realized what it was as soon as she uncorked it and saw it emit pink smoke. "Cure for Boils." This was the very first potion they'd ever brewed in first year, so it was hard to forget. They'd already placed the other C as well, so Violet turned her attention to the final vial.

The potion inside it was thick and brown. She had no idea what it was and told Theodore just as much.

"Well, this and the one we couldn't figure out earlier are the only ones left," he said. "One starts with A and the other P. Any ideas?"

Violet sighed. "No," she admitted. "I guess these are learned about in later years. We're lucky I even recognized half of these."

"We'll just have to guess, then, and there's no way to know what spell will be cast if we get it wrong."

"There's nothing we can do about that," said Violet. She braced herself, wand it hand, incantation for the shield charm on the tip of her tongue. But she was also ready to move if she saw white light instead of red.

Theodore moved the P to the end of the row of letters and...nothing happened. Violet remained tense, and Theodore moved the final letter, the A, to spot number eight, which they'd skipped earlier and as soon as it was in place, they heard a loud click and turned to see the door open.

"Thank Salazar!" Theodore exclaimed.

Violet laughed, relieved for more than one reason, and they hurried for the exit, both of them shielding their eyes from the light once they were standing out on the quidditch pitch.

Their eyes had barely even adjusted to the sunlight when the judges displayed Violet's scores.

Maxime gave her an eight, which surprised her considering she was an enemy champion. Percy, who she supposed was there in place of Crouch, gave her a seven. Karkaroff and Dumbledore both gave her a five. That made sense for Karkaroff, but she also couldn't say she was surprised by Dumbledore's score. He hadn't given her many points in the first task either. She doubted he'd given Rose a five though. Bagman, meanwhile, gave her a measly three.

She'd gotten twenty-eight out of fifty for this task, and her total score up until now was fifty-three out of one hundred.

The scores seemed blatantly unfair from some, but though she didn't know how the other three had done, she had a feeling she was definitely in last place.

Turning away, Violet headed for the castle, Theodore falling into step beside her quickly.

"What do you think?" he asked her quietly.

"I never really wanted to win or anything," said Violet with a frown, "but I didn't think I'd be scored so low. I know I didn't do that bad in either task."

"Looks like Dumbledore and Bagman are the ones being the most unfair," said Theodore. He glanced over his shoulder, but they were alone, since everyone else was still in the quidditch stands. "Crouch gave you a pretty bad score last time too, but Weasley seemed alright, so maybe Crouch is just a git in general."

"Maybe," Violet agreed.

"I wonder how the others did?"

Violet laughed again. "Better than me, that's for sure."

Theodore sighed, but he sounded annoyed. "Yeah, you're probably right." They were quiet for a moment, but once they'd entered the castle and saw it was deserted, he spoke again. "Seems a bit too obvious though, doesn't it? Bagman's one thing, since he's bet on your sister winning just for the money, but Dumbledore..." he trailed off, unsure.

"That's what I'm questioning too," said Violet. She tugged him into a shortcut that led directly to the hospital wing. "Bagman's motives are obvious once you learn he owes money to the goblins, but what exactly is Dumbledore after?"

"It definitely isn't the glory of a Hogwarts victory," said Theodore. "You winning would accomplish the same thing. A Girl-Who-Lived victory, on the other hand, might be more likely."

"Agreed," said Violet, "but doesn't that seem a bit silly? There may not be a lot of people doing it, but he's still being criticized for the scoring in the first task. I bet that'll happen again too. Is it really worth dealing with that just so Rose can win?"

"True," said Theodore thoughtfully. "The tournament promises eternal glory, but no one remembers previous winners after a few years anyway. Maybe that'll be different for your sister, since she's the Saviour, but I guess there's no way to know.

So what exactly were Dumbledore's real motivations if it wasn't specifically a Rose victory? Violet wasn't sure where to begin to guess.

That's it for now. Next chapter will be a bonus scene because just like the first task, I initially wrote Violet's bit from Sev's POV and want to include it because it would be a shame to just delete it. My laptop if quite literally screaming at me now, so looking forward to reviews! Laterz!