Mrs. Weasley was definitely a talker, as Florence had gotten to stay at the visitor's lounge for atleast an hour and a half, before the redheaded woman had slowly started to minimize her chattiness, Florence seizing the opportunity to bid her good bye, Molly insisting that she came over at the burrow during the summer, as she had a very lovely time with her.

The Third task was going to start in a few hours, which Florence had spent roaming the entire castle in search of her two friends, who were hiding at the Hufflepuff commons to see and talk to Cedric before his big moment. Florence was rather surprised to see the passage to the commons wide open, and a full blown party in the Hufflepuff commons, a large banner draped across a bunch of Professor Sprout's hanging plants saying 'Cedric Diggory, Champion of our hearts', which was, admittedly, a very hufflepuff thing to do. There were a mix of other students from different houses, but not everyone was present. She inferred that the other half (possibly excluding Slytherins, were somewhere supporting Harry, as Fred and George had rushed off suddenly.

Nicolai was sipping from a suspicious looking cup, chatting away with Cedric and Cho, who had their fingers intertwined, while Alexander was tense beside her, clearly trying to avoid the two Hufflepuff girls who were staring at him intently.

"Florence," Alexander breathed out in relief as soon as he spotted her friend, "Jillian is by that corner, and Olivia's been looking like she wants to bury me since I got here. Please tell Nicolai that we have to go."

"You're just making it out to be awkward when it's really not, Xan," replied Nicolai, overhearing his desperate plea, "And I'll have you know that Jillian's not staring at you, but me."

"I wasn't even assuming that she was staring at me," Xander scoffed, "Just—can we go?"

"Can we stay for a couple of minutes, though?" protested Florence as she collapsed onto one of the couches, " I just spent the past hours asking around to almost anybody if they had seen you. I'm tired, and thirsty." she eyed the cup in Nicolai's hand. Raising her brows, she turned to Cedric questioningly, "I didn't know you Hufflepuffs had the resources to serve booze in a party."

Cedric simply chuckled, "No, it's Professor Sprout's famous lemon juice recipe." he smiled, Florence snatching the cup out of Nicolai's hand at that, chugging down the remaining contents, before letting out a noise of satisfaction, "That is good."

"Rude," remarked Nicolai, who, to Xander's delight, had started to gather her jumper onto her arms, "Well, Diggory, my clique and I better get going to the Tournament grounds. We need good seats when we cheer for Hogwarts' victory."

"Thank you, Nicolai, Florence and Alexander. It means a lot that you guys came."

"I'll see you at the grounds," Florence told Cho, giving her a brief hug before trailing out of the Hufflepuff commons with her friends.

The venue for the third task no longer looked like the infamous Quidditch Pitch that Florence had spent most of her years playing in, but now a thick, high-rising maze that stretched as far as her eyes could see stood in its place. Even Xander, who had stood on his toes, could not see where it ended as they took a seat on the second row of one of the stands that was set up at the entrance point of the maze.

The Beauxbatons students were punctual as usual, sitting at their designated area in their light blue school robes. Alanna was able to spot Florence from the fast-growing crowd, giving her a small wave before averting her attention back to the front. The space between each person began to narrow down as more Hogwarts students arrived, and by the time the tournament would start, the whole venue was packed with people. Some even had to sit on the grass below the stands, two of them being the Weasley twins who looked as if they wanted to be there willingly, the two of them draping the Gryffindor flag on their shoulders. Cho arrived moments later, sitting beside Florence as she beamed with complete pride as Cedric smiled at her direction.

The Durmstrang students walked in ten minutes before the Tournament formally started, marching in neat rows and as well as when they piled in to their seats.

Soon enough, Hagrid, Professor Moody, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick came walking into the stadium and approached Bagman and the champions. They looked as if they were giving brief instructions to the four, who listened intently and nodded at every word.

The four of them walked away in different directions, to station themselves around the maze. Bagman now pointed his wand at his throat, muttered, "Sonorus," and his voice began echoing throughout the whole venue.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! Tied in first place, with eighty-five points each — Mr. Cedric Diggory and Mr. Harry Potter, both of Hogwarts School!" His speech was cut off by a wave of roaring applause that came from the vast majority of the audience, "In second place, with eighty points — Mr. Viktor Krum, of Durmstrang Institute!" More applause. "And in third place — Miss Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons Academy!"

Since Harry and Cedric both tied in the first place, they were given a head start into the maze, a short blast on Bagman's whistle hurried them forward into the maze. Seconds later, Krum was let into the maze, the Durmstrang student giving one last wave to his schoolmates before jogging into the unknown. Fleur went in last, with minimal enthusiasm showed by the other students of Beauxbatons, but the look of determination still remained on her face.

Then there was silence, which indicated that the crowd had now realized they had absolutely nothing to do or watch while the champions were in the maze. From the silence, Florence heard her boyfriend's rather loud voice, saying to George, "You know, atleast we had something to watch when they set the bloody dragons loose."

This was true, as boredom descended upon the audience thirty minutes in to the competition. Nothing was heard from the maze that indicated that something interesting was going on, as the hedges were probably sound proofed. The families and friends of the Champions, however, remained tense as every minute ticked by.

Just as people had thought things were not going to get interesting, a red spark shot up into the air, making the teachers scramble up from their seats, pulling out their wands as they hurriedly made an opening in the hedges, to get to the person in need faster. It was Viktor Krum, who looked weak and feeble as Hagrid carried him towards Madame Pomfrey who stood guard, McGonagall following suite. Igor Karkaroff looked absolutely livid that his Champion came out of the maze first and empty handed, but calmed down once he saw the state that Krum was in. He looked dazed, a sullen look on his face as Madame Pomfrey continued to interrogate him about his condition. A few students rose from their seats to get a better glimpse of what was happening.

Viktor was soon shielded from prying eyes, Madame Pomfrey walking him over to the medical tent, where the other Durmstrang students rushed off to as well. The Beauxbatons students, as cruel as it sounded, were slightly beaming with pride, knowing that for once their champion would not be the last on the ranking for the last Tournament.

But their celebration was short-lived, as the their Champion came hobbling out of the maze next, barely able to stand and was shaken up so badly. She had launched into full rapid fire complaining in French as soon as Madame Maxime reached her, despite her feeble condition, she was still talking without end, the crowd only hearing a glimpse of Krum's name at her complaint. She, too, was escorted to the medical tent.

It was now only Cedric and Harry who were inferably still in the maze, the tension as to who exactly would win rose higher with every minute. Silent bets were now being made, faint murmuring heard from Hogwarts' place at the stands. Would their victor be from the Gryffindors, or the Hufflepuffs? They were going to find out in a few moments.

However this revelation was not at all as happy as anyone expected it to be. No one carried the trophy victoriously as they jogged out of the maze, nor did anyone do a victory lap infront of the whole crowd. Instead, it was a very sudden occurrence, that took even the teachers by surprise.

Evening began descending upon them, and there was no sign of the two champions yet. The students were brought dinner at the field, some had gone up to their rooms for a quick lie-down before returning to the stadium. Darkness of the night had descended upon them when it had happened.

It was Harry, who had somehow managed to portal himself onto the entrance point of the maze. There was an instant uproar of cheers and hoots of happiness, however, the crowd was silenced as the took a better look at Harry.

Florence gasped audibly, the physically exhausted looking boy was not only clutching the Triwizard cup in one hand, but an unconscious looking Cedric in his other arm. Florence's first instinct was to clutch Cho's hand, as she had sensed the panic beginning to brew.

"Harry, Harry!" The now simmerinng down crowd heard Dumbledore call, hobbling over to the Champions quite frantically. Confusion descended upon most of the people, who were trying to make sense of what was actually happening. Harry told Dumbledore something inaudible from where the crowd stood. Cornelius Fudge was trailing behind Dumbledore, and he gave out a gasp as soon as he saw Cedric's body.

"My God — Diggory!" it whispered. "Dumbledore — he's dead!" The words were repeated, loud enough for a few people to hear. "He's dead!" "He's dead!" "Cedric Diggory! Dead!"

Cho Chang watched in utter confusion as Fudge tried to pry Cedric off of Harry, a series of murmuring spreading as to what exactly was happening.

"What's happened?"

"What's wrong with him?"

"Diggory's dead!"

These words rang painfully in Florence's ear, and slowly, she could feel Cho's skin growing cold, her face flushing dead white as she continued to stare ahead at what was happening. Dumbledore began protesting that the boy was simply ill, and needed immediate medical attention, however his stillness and Harry's look of shock said otherwise. And that was when the tears began to leak from Cho's eyes.

Amos Diggory then hurtled himself forward, followed by his wife who was barely able to keep up as she went into a frenzy of hysteric fits of sobbing.

There were screams of terror all throughout the audience, and some girls were now sobbing in fear, falling apart in each other's arms. Cho, who was now stone cold in Florence's grip, had released a faint whimper, before detaching herself from Florence's grip and running over to the front to see him.

"Merlin..." Nicolai continued to mumble over and over , fear stricken like the rest. Alexander was now trying soothe both her and Florence, despite his own struggle to keep himself calm. Florence continued to stare ahead, not processing how exactly she should react, but had felt a pinching sensation in her heart when she had gotten a glimpse of Cedric's lifeless body. Chills ran down her spine, and a single tear escaped her eyes.

Fred made his way over to Florence as quickly as he could, putting his arms around her protectively as if he could actually shield her from everything completely, and tucked her head against his chest. "Hey, it's okay, you're fine...we need to go..."

"Is he really?"

Fred looked hesitant, "I don't know for sure, love. But we need to go... it's a chaos already...George is with Ginny, he'll meet us inside."

"But what about Cho...?"

"She... I don't know where she is, love...but she'll be fine...we need to—we need to go."