"Well then… you'll be up first Harry. The cannon firing will be your signal to proceed. Good luck to all of you." Bagman said as he walked off. Harry took his place at the entrance to the maze and tried to calm himself before he began. In the background Bagman was speaking to the audience and informing them all of the rules for the third task, although Harry wasn't really paying attention. Suddenly the crowd began to quiet down as they all waited for the cannon to fire. Harry pulled out his wand and wrapped his fingers tightly around it as the excitement in the crowd began to rise. Moments that felt like hours passed as Harry eagerly waited to begin.
BOOM!
Finally, the cannon fired and Harry happily ran into the maze. Seconds later he ran into a wall and was forced to make his first decision of the day: whether to turn left or right. Neither option appeared any more attractive than they other, so Harry picked one at random and turned left, heading deeper into the maze. He had walked about twenty paces in that direction when he met his first obstacle of the day, although this one made him laugh instead of shiver in fear. A group of about a dozen cornish pixies was flying straight towards him and they appeared to be quite angry. This was something that even an average wizard should have no problem with, although he did remember it being too much for Gilderoy Lockhart to handle in second year.
"Stupefy!" Harry called out, altering the wand movement slightly so that the stunner was a bit weaker but covered a larger area. As the bright red light hit the pixies they immediately dropped to the ground unconscious. Harry looked at the tiny blue creatures with and laughed, wondering what else he would find in the maze. His thoughts were interrupted by a loud roar that came from somewhere deeper into the maze. The roar was easily as loud as a dragon's, although it sounded different and must have come from something else. It seemed that the more dangerous obstacles would be found farther in to the maze.
The sound of the cannon firing forced Harry to start moving again. He knew that it was the signal for Cedric to enter the maze and he wasn't that far ahead of the other Hogwart's champion. He looked back to see if it was possible to see Cedric from this point in the maze, but at that moment the huge bushes making up the wall of the maze grew together and blocked his view and his way back. The new wall looked just like all the others, meaning it would be impossible for him to tell if the maze had changed unless he remembered what it looked like previously. His thought that attempting to map out the maze would be useless proved to be absolutely correct.
Harry turned and continued in the direction he had been heading. Soon he was faced with another decision on which way to go and this time chose to turn right instead of heading straight. He knew that the Triwizard Cup was roughly in the center of the maze so decided that he would try to head in that direction, although he knew that there was no way he would find a direct route. The path he was on lead him through many twists and turns, but the path did not branch out and offer him a choice to head in a different direction. After a while he began to get a bad feeling that this part of the maze led to nowhere, a belief that was confirmed a few minutes later when he ran into a dead end. He groaned in frustration as he had no other choice but to turn around and retrace his steps. He doubted it would be the last time that happened to him today.
Once again Harry heard the cannon firing, this time meaning that Viktor Krum had now entered the maze. Harry wished he had some way of knowing how the other were doing but that was impossible. The only sign that he would have they were in trouble would be if they shot sparks into the air, and that had not happened yet.
Harry continued on and began to explore new paths that would hopefully lead him to the Triwizard Cup. Eventually he game to a circular clearing that had five paths leading off in different directions. As he stood there deciding which way to go he heard the soft sounds of some creature coming towards him. He turned to face the new challenge with his wand ready to defend himself when he saw dozens of creatures that looked like grey lobsters with green spots approaching him. The small animals were closer than he thought they would be and Harry knew he was very fortunate to have spotted them when he did. Harry recognized them to be mackled malaclaws and while it was doubtful they could kill anyone a bite from a malaclaw would make a person unlucky for about a week. Any champion that was bit by a malaclaw would therefore almost certainly not win the tournament and was likely to get hurt by one of the maze's other obstacles.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Harry called out, casting the body bind curse on all of the creatures at once. Even with the curse in place the lobster-like creatures were still attempting to bit him, although they couldn't get any closer. Harry then levitated them all into the center of the circular room where he thought one of the other champions might come and disillusioned them. Harry laughed as he walked out of the circular room and into an unexplored path. He would know better than to walk through the center of the room, but maybe his competition wouldn't. He did not want any of them to get hurt, but he would take any advantage he could get.
The cannon then fired for the fourth and final time. Now all of the champions were in the maze. Harry felt that he probably had a decent advantage on the others but the maze was so confusing that it was hard to tell how much of one he had. He felt a renewed since of urgency rising in him and knew he would have to move fast if he wanted to win.
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