Absolute darkness brings absolute fear.
With each passing second, the three men standing motionless dared not move even as they had probed and found solid ground beneath their feet. Yet the phantom fear of falling into a bottomless abyss tormented them constantly.
Hermione still held the school badge and map Professor Breen had given her, while Ron was carrying a comical backpack filled with food from the dining hall.
"We must do something."
Suddenly, Harry gritted his teeth and said,
"We can't just stand here all the time."
"But we can't find our way."
Ron gasped for breath, his voice despairing.
"Phew, maybe we missed a clue."
At such a moment, Hermione knew very well the importance of keeping her wits about her. She tried hard not to look at the surrounding darkness and focused all her attention on Harry and Ron.
"What did Professor Breen say, he said that we will be transported to different parts of the Forbidden Forest through the stone door. Oh yes, but now we"
"We should keep going."
Harry still gritted his teeth, knowing what Ron was about to say and preemptively saying it himself,
"Perhaps there's no such thing as the right path, and the most important thing is to keep walking."
Harry's words startled Hermione and Ron considerably. Hermione's fear-tinted brown eyes widened.
"How did you come to this conclusion, Harry?"
"I don't know, maybe."
Harry knew that what he was saying might be amusing, but in their current situation, they seemed to have no better alternative.
"Instinct."
Harry said, then quickly added,
Harry said, then immediately supplemented, "We can't give up here, not if we're defeated by some dangerous thing in the competition. There's no point talking about it. But now, we haven't even officially entered the stadium. If we fall down here, we will make Gryffindor and Hogwarts a laughing stock!"
A moment of silence, then Ron stammered.
"You're right, Harry. Fred and George would laugh at me for the rest of my life because of this."
Making judgments based on intuition certainly does not conform to Hermione's habit of rational thinking. However, there seems to be no other good way besides doing so at the moment.
"You're right, Harry. We can't waste time here. At least we should give it a try."
After a brief moment of thought, Hermione took a deep breath.
"I'll be at the front, Harry following me at a distance of five feet behind. You, Ron, will follow Harry at a distance of five feet behind. If you see me suddenly disappear, don't worry - keep going and follow me."
Hermione said as casually as she could.
"If that happens, it means there's a trap ahead, so you just change directions."
Harry didn't heed Hermione's suggestion, directly circled around her and said it lightly,
"This is my idea, Hermione, of course I should lead the way."
Before Hermione could speak, pale-faced Ron suddenly laughed twice, a grimace of a smile.
"Perhaps that's the purpose of a brave companion."
Saying that, he reached out and pulled Hermione's arm, dragging her back behind him.
"Hey, you two!"
Hermione angrily called out, but it cannot be denied that Harry and Ron's actions dispelled a lot of the fear that had been secretly growing in her heart.
"At least we can't lose to Cedric."
Harry said something without much thought, then raised his wand with the glowing tip and moved forward step by step.
It was hard to say how long they had been feeling their way through the darkness, or how far they had gone.
In fact, in such a space with no reference points, it was hard for them to keep moving straight in one direction; perhaps they were always walking in a big circle.
Apart from them, no light appeared, and no exit or trap could be found.
But strangely, as time went on, the fear in their hearts did not deepen but instead, a inexplicable sense of security was born.
Even Ron's pale complexion was gradually fading and turning rosy.
"How far have we walked?"
Talking without a topic to keep the fear at bay, Ron suddenly asked.
"At least from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade."
Harry estimated the degree of his physical exhaustion and gave an answer.
The bright light that broke through the darkness was as unexpected as the dark had come.
The three people who felt themselves to be in a closed room suddenly felt a damp, rotting air 'smash' against their faces, and then the vibrant world reappeared before their eyes.
Without a doubt, they were in the Forbidden Forest. The massive canopy of trees blocked out the sunlight, and everything around them was a deep shade of green, even the brown tree trunks were covered in lush green vines and moss.
Harry stood still, turning his body to look behind him. Ron and Hermione behind him were a comical expression of shock. He guessed that he must look something similar now.
Then, Harry noticed that they were standing in a considerable area of marshland filled with ferns and green vines, the water reaching their ankles.
The marshland was unfamiliar, not the one they had helped Snape catch water snakes before.
"How long has it been?"
Hermione saw Harry looking at his watch and asked subconsciously.
Harry looked at Hermione, then looked down at his watch with a look of confusion on his face.
His expression alarmed Hermione and Ron.
Could it be that a lot of time had passed?
The dimming sunlight made it hard for them to accurately determine the time.
"It's probably--"
Harry blinked fiercely to confirm that he hadn't seen incorrectly.
"Two minutes."
The three of them stared at each other, speechless.
"So, this was just a bluff?"
Ron grinned, letting out a dry, hacking laugh.
"I think so."
Hermione said,
"Mental tactics. That's quite interesting, Professor Breen is good at that. When he was teaching us against the Inferius in second grade, and when we were practicing against Hagsmeade in third grade."
However, from Hermione's serious expression, she didn't think the 'little trick' they had just done was particularly fun.
"Where did that door go? Oh well, whatever. At least we're out."
Ron rubbed his shoulder of the backpack, looking relieved.
Not to mention the physical exhaustion, their spirits had undergone a rigorous test in such an isolated environment, leaving them all looking exhausted.
A piercing scream echoed through the dim forest, and the three immediately raised their wands, looking in the direction of the sound.
A few surveillance mirrors moved through the damp air, leaving a faint ripple, before hovering around them in a circular formation.
The three of them standing in the water instantly tensed up, knowing that they should now be in front of the entire European magical community.
"Cough cough--"
Ron shifted his gaze away from the surveillance mirrors and coughed twice with a clenched fist in his mouth.
"I think we should... Merlin's beard!"
Ron's scream was sharper than the sound of the surveillance mirrors breaking through the air. Before Harry and Hermione could even ask, they were terrified to see that Ron was lifted into the air upside down!
"What is that thing?"
That snake-like, contorted green vine froze Harry for a moment, but he immediately tried to jump up in shock. However, he soon discovered that his ankle, deeply sunk in the mud, was tightly bound by the green vines, and they were quickly creeping up his calves!
"Damn it, we've fallen into a devil's net!"
In this moment, Hermione, who had always been highly praising Professor Breen, was secretly cursing his cunning and 'excessive' tactics!
He didn't even consider that the warriors just emerged from the darkness and might need some time to catch their breath, so he set the portal's landing in a devil's net!
However, they were no longer first-year students, and something like this wasn't enough to make them completely lost.
Almost simultaneously, Harry and Hermione pointed their wands at their feet.
Hermione's wand spat out a blue bellflower-like flame, while Harry's produced a bright orange flame.
The two flames roasted the shallow waterhole, causing the devil's net around them to loosen and quickly retreat to a greater distance. Ron, who had been suspended in the air for several feet, fell heavily into the water.
"We must get out of here quickly!"
Hermione shouted,
"All of this is it!"
Hermione's reminder wasn't necessary. Harry quickly scanned the area, and without hesitation, targeted the nearest place to climb ashore. Ron, who had fallen quite hard, didn't waste time with lamentations either. Ignoring the mud smeared all over his face and the wet sports clothing sticking to him, he coughed vigorously to clear water from his nose and throat while struggling to follow Harry and Hermione up the shore.
At least dozens of vine heads rose from the marsh, which was floating with a thin mist of noxious gas, swaying like snakes preparing for an attack, following behind the three and staying at a distance where the flames could not reach them.
This terrifying scene must have caused a lot of people around them to panic and scream, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione were too preoccupied to notice.
Just as the three of them who had just jumped ashore were about to speak about their 'survival', they were attracted by a faintly visible streak of fiery red fireworks that shot up into the sky.
