She knew what it was already but it wasn’t until she was proven right that she managed to knock a bit of sense into herself. At first, it felt like her legs fell down from under her - but when she felt the sticky substance, dread began to fill her being. With a surprised yelp, Flo found herself being dragged further and further away, into the unknown. The dust that began to rise irritated her nose and she tried not to breathe it in. She held her hand out, blindly reaching for help. She wanted to scream but the webbing that was expertly weaved prevented her from doing so. Slowly and painfully, the strands began to tighten, and the layers felt like they were beginning to multiply - as if the Acromantulas were taking their time and putting great effort into making her a giant mummy. “Somebody,” she said in a hoarse voice when the strands began to choke her neck.

“Help.” she croaked in vain, oxygen supply beginning to be cut off. She could hear Gracie’s Diffindo in the distance, but the next, she could feel herself being… tossed? Moved? Thrown? Flo couldn’t guess, nor could she breathe. In her mummified state, she was pretty much useless.

Click, click.

Click, click, click.

Even though her eyes were closed, she could sense their presence. As much as she loved spiders and venom, she definitely didn’t like the ones that are currently making the move to make her their meal. She tried to think clearly - as clear as she could, since she was running out of time. The seconds were quick to fade into nothingness. How come none of them ever noticed she had been dragged away? Oh right, she remembers - she was too small. Having worn flat shoes for that occasion, this is probably one of the things that was meant to work against her. Maybe this is why the goblet was crazy - she wasn’t cut out for these events.

Click, click.

Click, click, click.

Use your bloody big head, you delusional witch, she told herself hotly. Use it, use it. As the insistent clicking neared, Flo’s capacity to think began to blur - she could feel a few warm tears beginning to leak from the corners of her eyes due to the pain. Unable to take one last intake of breath, she had to concentrate and trick herself.

But trick herself to do what? The atmosphere of the maze was starting to get to her. It felt like some sort of dark magic. Dark Magic.

Suddenly the image of Giovanna and Natanaele came to mind. The nightmare has returned. She could feel herself falling, falling, falling away - her body dispersing into thin air. Then everything began to change once more, as if in a haste.[1]

She found herself in front of rusty, wrought iron gates. Withered leaves tickling her bare feet - it made a disorienting sound when she pushed on and exerted effort to open the barrier. It was like having an open tunnel at her disposal - as she walked, life and color seemed to drain from her surroundings. Vines ascended and reached through cracked patterns in the walls. A fountain in the middle stopped working and suddenly turned parched.

It was as if the word 'forgotten' had been personified.

"Deborah..." a weak voice resounded.

"Mother?" Her steps quickened, and the gates from behind her a while ago got further and further away.

She didn't know the one who called her was none other than a fellow champion trying to wake her up.

1.	Spoiler: This is a vision necessary to further key events in her timeline. I just had to insert it here.

With so many beasties now out of commission, Gracie relaxed, all tension seeping from her shoulders in one swooping breath. There were still some, of course, but they were preoccupied by the others, who appeared keen on showing off if they weren’t busy holding their own–

But one of them was missing, and just, what.

“Guys...” Gracie whirled about, hoping– and failing– to spot the fifth member of their party; the other girl was nowhere to be seen. Shit damn shit. “Where’s Clarence?”

Needless to say, Gracie wasn’t fond of the girl; while she was quiet and generally inoffensive– and Gracie, in turn, left her alone –there was just… something about Deborah Clarencieux, that grated on the Quidditch captain’s nerves. But today she was a teammate, and the rules had been clear: they were to find the Cup together. Without even one... It didn’t bear thinking about. And so wildly Gracie scanned the clearing, dashing away from the others– sliding beneath one still-upright acromantula, to peer around the heap of another. Nothing. Nothing nothing nothi–

Except there– lying some feet away, decidedly footless –was one of Clarencieux’s flats, pointing like a compass towards the nearest burrow. Indeed, a few of the spiders were already retreating—satisfied, maybe, by what they probably had. Who they had.

Gracie clawed at her face, lips clamped and a strangled sound tearing past them anyway. Bloody Clarence.

She tried counting from ten; she gave up at six. Darting forward, she snatched up the shoe, and cupped her other hand by her mouth. “GUYS,” she yelled– waving it when one of them finally looked over. “I’M GOING AFTER CLARENCE.”

Then, turning around, she blasted the nearest spider full on the face (–“Arania exumai!”–) and stomped into the burrow, shredding web and muttering angrily under her breath.

That’s how it went, actually. For the next five minutes, that was all Gracie did—shred, banish, mutter. By the time she came upon Deborah’s immobile lump, the animagus even looked capable of tearing through the web with her bare hands– human-shaped, and all.

(Which wasn’t to say she looked furious, because that would be wrong. Rather, it was a very neutral expression—save, of course, for the calm, murder-y look in her eyes.)

Silently she pointed and slashed, until the webs fell away in clean, precise strips. Beneath it, they revealed, was her housemate. Just lying there. Like a lump. “Merlin’s sagging…” Gracie drew close. “Clarence. Clarence.” No response. Gripping her shoulder, Gracie gave it a slight shake. “Clarence.”

Still no response. Gracie’s expression, impossibly, darkened. “Deborah,” she barked, and was gratified to see the girl stir. Finally. Some people… “Come on,” she sang, in a singsong voice, stepping back. “Up.”

She didn’t wait to watch her stand. She was already a few feet ahead when she realized she was still holding Deborah’s shoe. “Oh, right.”

Turning around, she looked at Deborah straight in the eye and Transfigured the shoe into… a puppy. A tiny, breathing, soot-black puppy. “You’re not getting him back,” she told Deborah, the pup squirming in her hold to lick her chin, and went right on climbing her way out. “Get yourself some real shoes.”

And then she was out of the burrow, throwing herself back into the fray with a murderous look on her face and a puppy held close to her chest.

It had all got a bit hairy amongst the acromantula webs for the Hogwarts champions. They were beginning to grow weary after so many tasks. The maze seemed to be stretching out for miles and miles. But these plucky students were determined to find the cup, to bring Hogwarts to victory. They would go down in history with their other classmates who had served as champion before now, but they would be the ones to find the cup.

Still picking cobwebs off their clothes as they hurried, the five rounded a bend and then stopped in great surprise. For up ahead was a pedestal and atop of it was their glittering prize!!

Weary bones were all forgotten in an instant and the five bounded forwards in glee to seize the cup - for no other team was in sight. Five hands clapped upon it, and they were about to whoop for joy when instead of being whisked away by portkey, or streamers falling from the sky, there was a great clanking of metalwork and the tinkling of glass. What had been one cup as they seized it was now six, thirty six, and more. Each cup was sprouting another and another.

As soon as the Cup trembled – then replicated – with that telltale shiver and poppop!, Gracie’s joyous, sunrise expression of triumph bled into one of guttural, incoherent rage.

The Gemino Curse! The bloody, effing, Gemino Curse. Of all the things– Stepping, jerking back as though burned, the Slytherin fought for composure, that slip in composure just as jarring as the reason who had caused it. The Gemino Curse was a crafty, awful, devious thing, a prime example of the dual nature of Charms; harmless, even amusing enough by itself, it was pure hell to deal with when paired with darker intentions—especially when it took you by surprise. Given its rapid, simple nature, there was a lot of room for harm with it, much like a virus…

And frankly there was something just plain creepy about it, watching it in action. Merlin knew she could swim, but the sight of it still inspired feelings of dread regardless, the ones that so often preceded the ones of drowning.

She could do this, though. It was Gemino, but it also seemed just Gemino—and nothing else. And if it was triggered by physical touch, then…

Adjusting the warm, squirming bundle of fur tucked within the inner pocket of her hoodie (–and keeping a protective hand over it, as its cold nose brushed against her chin), Gracie took a breath. There was no time left to second-guess herself; literally every second there were more, and the pile before the champions was already vast, spread out and growing. In her strongest, loudest voice, she shouted, “IMMOBULOUS!”[1]

And then, just like that, the gradually deafening tinkle and clatter of the Cups diminished, the lot of them immediately going quiet and still. It wasn’t all of them – and indeed, the ones left over still multiplied – but it was enough, maybe, to give Team Hogwarts something to work with.

1.	Freezing Charm

Atticus ran down the poorly luminated maze, his eyes darting from left to right as he looked for the next part of the challenge. What they had encountered thusfar had honestly disappointed him so he was hoping for the group's next encounter to satisfy his need for more excitement. That being said, he also acknowledged in the back of his mind that ultimately it was best if the Hogwarts team sped through their obstacles as they could reach the cup first. That was the primary goal - the dream that they were so close to realizing. He looked at the other champions and smiled - his companions were all very skilled and talented in their own right, especially Gracie who Atticus found only mildly irritating mostly due to the fact that she had secured he VP spot in the club and he had not. Atticus had a hard time when others succeeded where he did not - but this competition was a team competition. All that mattered was Hogwarts bringing home the cup.

As the team rounded the corner Atticus' eyes widened as he saw one of the maze's vines lash out at Gracie. Luckily, she reacted instantly and split the offending vine in two before surprisingly diving into the vines - a moment later emerging unscathed. He raised an eyebrow and deduced that she must've cast a protective charm before diving into the vines, which explained a lot. Atticus decided to approach the rogue Tentacula - as Slant determined - differently. He knew that he wouldn't be able to pull off his borderline reckless acrobatics on this obstacle has the vines would surely grab him out of the air before he could clear them. Running forward, Atticus fell into a roll and wordlessly cast "Concusso!" into the tangle of violent vines. The spell hit the vines with an echoing boom! as Atticus tumbled through the stunned plants.

Unfortunately the Tentacula were not stunned  for a long enough period for him to effortlessly get through to the other side! As he was about to make the final leap through the wild patch of vines, one lashed out and grabbed his left leg. He was jerked back, leading him to fall to the ground with a sickening thud. He felt blood rush from his nose as he looked up and did his best to blink the dirt from his eye. He turned and angrily shouted "RELASHIO!" as he pointed his wand at the vine. Red sparks shot from the wand and landed on the vine, causing it to react violently as it twisted and shriveled away from his leg. He pushed up as hard as he could with his non-wand arm and stood back up, quickly dashing over to where Gracie was.

Atticus wiped the blood from his face as he muttered "Episkey." and waited for the rest of the champions to make it across. The group quickly recovered from their battle with the Tentacula and found themselves running towards where they hoped the cup would be. After a moment they arrived at a dusty, web-filled clearing. Atticus narrowed his eyes at the webs he saw in the distance and frowned. He hated arachnids of all forms. From the little spiders in the far corners of the dorms and towers to Acromantulas. He had no love for the little buggers and as a result has absolutely no qualms about being needlessly violent with them. He watched Gracie run across and expertly handle the Acromantulas thrown at her, cleverly glueing them to the ground.

Atticus ran forward, wand at his side as he began to see the Acromantula come out from the woodwork. He looked from side to side as two began to flank him and slowed his pace, and stepped towards his right side. "Manardorum!" He roared, knowing the spell had been too little practiced and was too difficult to achieve wordlessly. A fiery red whip burst from his wand as he cracked it, striking both Acromantulas and driving them away. He dispateched of one more in the same way before breaking into a sprint in effort to reach a safe distance from the creatures. Thinking he had finally made it free, Atticus was unpleasently surprised when he felt his foot sink into one of the heavier webs and get stuck. An Acromantula came from the shadows and closed in on him quicker than he could produce a fire whip, making him panic. He pointed his wand at the approaching Acromantula and muttered "Effodio." and watched as the a chunk of the spider's right side exploded into the air. He jerked free from the web and made it a safe distance away before hearing Slant shout about going to rescue Flo.

He looked back at the most recently fallen Acromantula and smiled grimly at his handiwork, deciding after a moment that a gouging curse was a little overkill. Nonetheless, it was an effective method of self defense and it helped him climb out of that situation. He waited and hexed or stunned any remaining Acromantula he saw as the rest of the champions made their way to him. He was glad to see that Flo had returned to the group and now it was time to advanced to what they hoped was the cup! Atticus felt his anxiety building further as every minute went by - it wasn't the danger that gave him anxiety, in fact he enjoyed the adrenaline rush - he wanted the win. A minute later the group rounded a corner to see the glorious Tetrawizard Cup sitting upon a pedestal in a small open area.

"The cup!" He shouted, his voiced filled with a mixture of excitement and austerity as he leapt forward with the group to grab the cup. To the student's dismay, it began replicating itself and after just a few seconds there were over a hundred cups! Slant was first to react by cleverely immobilising every cup in her reach. Atticus pointed his wand at the ground in front of him and jumped, casting his self-invented propulsion spell to throw him back a dozen feet in order to give him room to operate.

Freezing the cups was proving to be hard work as so many had already replicated from what appeared to be the Gemino Curse and the ones that were yet frozen continued to do so. "Manardorum!" He shouted, doing his best to whip the tetrawizard cups as far away from each other as possible. The more they touched, the more they would replicate. Atticus decided between freezing them and seperating them from each other they could at least do damage control on how many cups they were dealing with. If it took the team too long, the other schools would get an bigger advantage than they already had.

Elysia made her way through the maze in a flurry. Time flashed by incessantly, and the hedges around the witch made her feel as if the labyrinth were endless – that she would spend the rest of her life within its terrifying closeness. She certainly wasn’t doing as well as she hoped – but then, she had managed to make it through the maze thus far, hadn’t she?

The dugbogs were easy enough, but the Hufflepuff was aware that the tasks would increase in difficulty as they trekked deeper into the leafy depths. Hogwarts was a team, and Elysia knew teamwork better than anyone else in the maze – being a Huffler and all. A satisfied grin chased the girl’s features while she twirled and twisted her way across the disintegrating ice – battered and broken from the various spells laid upon its surface.

A short bark of laugh passed through her lips as Gracie swam her way through the tentacula. She was a bright witch, and one Elysia was glad to have by her side in a fight. A rather thick vine lashed out from the main plant and gripped itself around the witch’s waist. With a curse and a yelp, Elysia slashed her wand toward the plant, “Diffindo!” falling from her lips. The severed vine fell to the ground, twitching as it oozed plant juices on the ground. She rubbed her stomach, where the vine had cut into her skin, and glared at the plant. She advanced on the tunnel of tubers slowly – wand outstretched. Two vines reached out simultaneously – and with a twist of her wrist, the vines joined together, as if bonded by a strong adhesive. She continued that way through the tower of terror – permanently sticking vines to each other, or to themselves.

With an additional cut to her cheek, and a bleeding gash upon her right calf – Elysia continued on through the maze, eyes peeled for any sign of danger. Acromantulas?!? Though Ely had a nagging suspicion that they might make another appearance, the Hufflepuff had hoped that after the first task, the tournament officials would think better of putting such dangerous creatures near the students – even if they were well equipped to dispatch the problem. Immediately accosted by aggressive arachnids, Elysia didn’t have much of an opportunity to look around to see what everyone else was doing. With every wave of her wand, another of the acromantulas fell to the ground, stunned or hexed beyond recognition.

Though Elysia heard a commotion in the background, battle lust had set in, and the witch’s eyes saw red. She glanced up – realized that Gracie had the situation well under control, and looked back to her next couple of opponents. The creatures were numerous, and Elysia soon found herself retreating toward the exit Gracie had created. She held off the creatures as long as possible – then followed her team farther into the darkness.

As the cups started to multiply, Elysia swore loudly. “Evanesco!” She called, and dozens of the cups vanished into thin air. She continued yelling her curse as the cups continued multiplying. As the rest of the team added their own efforts into combating the impressive spellmanship, the faux cups started to thin out – but even if they could clear away the strong magic, what was their next move?

Such anguish and disappointment for the Hogwarts students! A false cup with a duplication spell broke their joy and excitement of seizing the cup first. A decoy! They had foiled pogrebins, traversed the swamps of dugbog, and escaped the hungry acromantulas but this was possibly the most infuriating of the lot, and a simple trick.

Undeterred, but beginning to feel rather tired despite their age and fitness, the Hogwarts five pressed on, and Merlin help any challenge that crossed them now!

Another check of direction at a fork and the telltale glow of something nearby like the Goblet of Fire led them in the correct direction. Nearby they could hear the sound of feet and exclamations of other teams, which only hurried them on. They were almost there - they could feel it! Even the maze began to look all the nicer, with roses weaving up through the hedges and flooding the path with colour. It smelt glorious, of victory, of happiness, and of …

The scent of these beautiful roses was not without price, as their knees began to give way, overcome by the deep need to sleep and curl up for a lovely refreshing nap, for they were so very tired. They had done so very well, and it wouldn't harm to just have a little refreshing sleep in this beautiful maze… If only they knew that to the right and back on themselves was the cup…

By the time the Hogwarts team emerged 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 Hogwarts tied round it, propped on the lower step, which when seized by all five hands would portkey them to the stands.

C2, Hogwarts did not pick the cup square