The blast blew a hole in the maze hedge, which the Durmstrang champions were able to progress through. Well, making your own path hadn't entirely been out of the rules had it, and it wasn't as if the skrewt had been much help otherwise. Despite any weary feeling in their limbs, the team clambered through and found their bearings the other side.

What was left of the skrewt was being examined by what appeared at first to be an over-large lion. It was as if the Hogwarts caretaker had taken a growth potion, but as it finished poking the skrewt it turned its attention to the students.

Her face was that of a woman, despite her huge paws and her lion's tail. She looked somewhat displeased to be interrupted by the skrewt sailing through the hedge wall, but her expression lessened in irritation on realising she would now be able to challenge the Durmstrang champions with her little task. Meanwhile, the champions came to realise what they were faced with, and perhaps became a little excited since these rather unusual creatures were meant to guard treasure!

"Champions," she greeted, "I have a riddle for you before you may pass on your route to the cup. You have only once chance to answer. Guess correctly and I will let you carry on your way, but choose wrongly, and you may join your skrewt." Her lips curled into a smirk and her tail flicked like an impatient cat's.

On understanding the champions were ready, she recited her riddle.


It had not been her first choice, not at all, but those who had transported her here had promised her a great reward for a slightly simpler riddle, and she was awfully hungry. If the reward didn't arrive, these students, or those wizards would certainly do in payment.

Lyov had recovered enough from the unexpected anxiety-inducing skrewts to focus on the task at hand. Including the hole that Magdalena had created through the hedges. He took slow, deep inhales through his nose, letting them out of his mouth in measured breaths. After a moment he was able to smirk; he felt a little more like himself. He raised an eyebrow at her, his pupils relaxing from their wide-eyed dilation.

He followed after her, stepping over the mess she had made of the hedge before smirking. Christian and Baldric were bugging Aliya as they came through. “You handled that skrewt like a real champion, Aliya. I think you’re better than Baldric.” Lyov rolled his eyes as their friends tried to out do one another. He was looking for the remains of the - and then he - Lyov stopped short and put his hand out to stop the others behind them.

Christian was so intent on trying to impress Aliya that he almost walked right into Lyov.

Lyov was nearly cursing in his head. A sphinx?! Why had they followed Magdalena through her hole? He pursed his lips before frowning, hands resting on his hips as his hand held his wand tightly. Lyov was terrible at riddles. Regardless, he mumbled her words to himself after each sentence. When she was done, he felt no more equipped for solving it than when he’d first seen their newest obstacle.

Eyes flickered to each champion before finally settling on Magda for a moment. He bit his lower lip, briefly, before they turned in to counsel each other. His voice was soft. “Anyone good at riddles?”

Magda didn’t shoot a glance in the other two boy’s directions; she was sure Aliya was well-equipped to deal with them herself this time. Besides, they knew who their company was.

Making a similar face to the one Lyov made, she walked in relative silence beside him. (After a few whispers about the stakes of their bet.) While her classmates scanned the path or joked around, Magda had looked toward the top of the hedge, eyes intent on glints of gold. Thus the appearance of the sphinx was sudden for all of them.

Her wand came up again. The fur and swishing tail were not the sort of gold she’d anticipated or particularly welcomed, and the woman’s face earned a suspicious stare. While she found sphinxes fascinating in any other element, the never-ending task was starting to irk her. And though they had prepared for everything, it was certainly a change of pace from the wand-heavy obstacles they’d faced thus far.

As the woman’s tongue spun anything but the gold she so wished to see, Magda hung on to the words, letting a few take the forefront in her mind. By the third line, she’d set a spell[1] in the dirt of the path. Each letter glowed like hot metal as the creature’s puzzle was scrawled. As the lines cooled, Magda’s eyes danced over them. When the sphinx finished, she quickly waved her wand again and began to manually add the first couple of lines from memory[2].

As her classmates huddled to consult each other, she returned Lyov's gaze. “Riddles don't bite or sting.” Her tone and gaze seemed to suggest that her spellwork should obviously help. If they had been trained to remember things quickly at Durmstrang, seeming them written out could still be helpful. Particularly a riddle. (And then her eyes circled the group to add that none of them should dare give the wrong answer.)

She backed up a little, looking over the words in the dirt.

“My tenth is in floss but not in loss”

It was the last one that had stuck, that she had lingered on before going back to the start.

“The—” She began. 'Letter F,’ she finished in her head, deciding quite quickly that it was best not to say the words allowed as she worked it out. She turned to the others and caught Lyov’s eye.

Going back to the top, she looked for a similar pattern in the first line and found it. She suppressed a smile, but only just. By the third line, which had been the first in the dirt, she was confident that she was doing it correctly. The smile became more obvious. A few moments later… “Hippogriff,” she said, looking up and locking eyes with the sphinx, speaking in a carrying tone. “Our answer is Hippogriff.”

As the sphinx conceded, the group cheered. The Oberteil gave Aliya a friendly squeeze around the shoulder and didn't fend off the compliments from the boys. If Baldric and Christian were pushing the cat's limits as they carried on, cheering, she was beholden to their correct answer to the riddle. Magda's smile broke into a toothy grin as the others passed her. She turned to Lyov, and the tip of her tongue came out between her teeth.

1.	A transcribing spell
2.	Another/manual transcribing spell

The Sphinx had let the Durmstrang team be on their way, and was content to have a couple of blast ended skrewts for a snack while she waited for the task to finish. The Durmstrang five had seen quite a number of the very physical foes, from the trolls, to the skrewts, and the suits of armour. The fire had been quite a foe to contend with, and the sphinx had almost been a refreshing break from all the spell-slinging, dodging and fighting.

Surely they were close now, for even the Durmstrang students were beginning to feel the task was sapping their remaining energy. There was the glow, familiar to the Goblet of Fire not far ahead, and one of the five was sure they'd just overheard the cries of the Salem half-giant not far away.

The blue glow became ever stronger as they rounded a bend and it was dead ahead - the cup was practically in their grasp! But then this maze was never going to make it easy - as a giant paw landed in their path, and a huge, wet globule of slobber hit the grass path not far from their feet. The gigantic, three headed dog was a relative of the infamous Fluffy who had once guarded the Philosopher's stone when Harry Potter first entered Hogwarts. It, with three snarling heads and sharp shiny teeth, stood between the Durmstrang team and victory, and it hadn't had it's dog food that morning.

The dog disposed of, Durmstrang burst into the opening where the cup had been, the fireworks were already in the air and the cup was gone. Instead, they found a smaller cup with ribbons of Durmstrang tied round it, propped on the lower step, which when seized by all five hands would portkey them to the stands.

E1, Durmstrang did not pick the cup square