94 Diagon Alley

On the strange monster, he has only seen its picture in "The Monster Book of Monsters".

It's a sphinx. Its body resembles that of a terrifyingly large lion: huge claws, a long yellow tail, and a tuft of hairs at the tip. But it has the head of a woman. She turned her long almond eyes to him as Harry approached. He raised his wand, hesitated. She didn't squat down to pounce, but just walked up and down to get in his way. Then she spoke, her voice low and hoarse.

"You're very close to your goal. The quickest way is to get past me."

"Then... can you please let me go?" Harry said, he knew what the answer was.

"No," she continued walking, "unless you can answer my riddle. One guess—and I'll let you pass. No—and I'll pounce. No Answer—I'll let you go away without hurting you."

Harry's heart sank. It was Hermione's forte, but not his. He weighed it, and if the riddle was too difficult, he could not answer it, the Sphinx would not hurt him, and he could find another way to the center of the maze.

"Okay," he said, "can I hear the riddle?"

Sphinx sat on her hind legs, blocking the middle of the road, and read:

First think about who always wears a mask,

The action is secretive and the lies are repeated.

Tell me something is always patched,

The middle of the middle, the tail of the tail?

The last time you told me I couldn't think of a word

Which word is often spoken.

Now connect them and answer me,

What animal would you rather not kiss?

Harry looked at her tongue-tied.

"spy...er...spy...er..." Harry paced. "The animal I don't want to kiss... is a spider! Spider!"

The sphinx smiled more affectionately. She stood up, straightened her front legs, and stepped aside.

"Thank you!" Harry was surprised by his own intelligence and rushed over.

Harry ran away and there was a fork in the road. "Show me the way!" he said to the wand again, which turned and pointed to a path to the right. He ran along the road and saw the light ahead.

The top three cups shone with seductive light on the base 100 meters away. Suddenly a dark figure rushed into the road in front of him.

Cedric took the lead and was racing towards the trophy at full speed. Harry knew he would never catch up. Cedric was much taller and had longer legs—

Then Harry saw a huge thing outside the hedge on the left, moving quickly this way on a cross road, Cedric was about to hit it, but Cedric's eyes Just staring at the trophy, not seeing at all—

"Cedric!" Harry shouted, "Watch out to the left!"

Cedric turned his head to see it, and hurriedly dodged to avoid colliding with the thing, but the action was so violent that he fell. Harry saw Cedric's wand fly out, and a huge spider crawled over and pressed down on Cedric.

"Stunned! Obstacles! Stunned!" Harry shouted.

It didn't work--maybe the spider was too big, or its magic was so strong that the spell didn't work on it, but irritated it even more. Harry saw in horror the eight gleaming black eyes and sharp pincers, and the spider had already swooped on him.

The spider lifted it into the air with its front legs, and he struggled desperately. He tried to kick it with his foot, and his leg hit its pliers, and there was an immediate excruciating pain. Without a second thought, he aimed his wand at the spider's lower abdomen and yelled "Pass out!" as he had done with the blow-tail; Cedric uttered the same spell. Combined, the two spells did what one spell couldn't do: the spider fell to the side, crushing a hedge, and its long hairy legs splayed across the ground.

"Harry!" he heard Cedric call, "Are you all right? Did it fall on you?"

"No." Harry exclaimed breathlessly. He looked down at his legs, bleeding profusely. There was something sticky on the torn robe, secreted from the spider's pincers. He tried to stand up, but his legs were shaking so badly that he couldn't support the weight of his body. He leaned against the hedge, gasped heavily, and looked around.

Cedric stood just a foot away from the Triwizard Cup, the trophy flashing behind him.

"Take it," Harry gasped to Cedric, "take it, you've arrived."

Cedric did not move. He stood looking at Harry, then looked back at the trophy, and in the golden light of the trophy, Harry could see the longing look on Cedric's face. Cedric looked back at Harry, who was struggling to get up against the hedge. Cedric took a deep breath.

"Take it, you should win. You saved my life twice."

"It's not the rules," Harry said. He was annoyed, his legs were hurting so badly, he was hurting all over his body now trying to get rid of the spider, and after so much effort, he was defeated by Cedric, just like when he asked Qiu to dance. "Whoever gets there first gets the score, you get there first. I'm telling the truth, I can't run on this leg."

Cedric took a few steps towards the comatose spider, a little further from the trophy. He shook his head.

"No."

"Don't push your style," said Harry impatiently. "Take it, take us so we can get out."

"You told me there were dragons," Cedric said. "If you hadn't warned me in advance, I would have been eliminated on the first project."

"That's when I got help first," said Harry impatiently, trying to dry the blood from his leg with his robe, "you told me the secret of the golden egg—we're even. ."

“Someone helped me first,” Cedric said.

"We're still even." Harry carefully probed his injured leg. As soon as he put the weight on it, the leg trembled violently. He was sprained when he was thrown by the spider. ankle.

"You should score a little higher on your second project," Cedric said stubbornly. "You stayed behind and rescued all the hostages. I should have done the same."

"I'm the only one who is stupid and takes that song seriously!" Harry said angrily, "Get the trophy!"

“No,” Cedric said. He stepped over the tangled spider legs to Harry's side. Harry glared at him. Cedric is serious. He was giving up an honor Hufflepuff had not received in hundreds of years.

"You go," Cedric said. It seemed that he used all his perseverance to say this. But he looked resolute, folded his arms, and seemed to have made up his mind.

Harry's eyes moved to the trophy. In the light of the trophy, he was in a trance for a moment, as if he saw himself walking out of the maze holding it. He held the Triwizard Cup high, the crowd cheering in his ears; he saw Qiu's face glowing with admiration, clearer than ever... Then the hallucination disappeared, and he saw Cedric's stubborn face in the dark.

"Let's go together," Harry said.

"What?"

"Two at the same time, still Hogwarts wins. We are tied for champions."

Cedric glared at Harry and let go of his arms.

"You—really?"

"Sure," said Harry, "of course... we helped each other get over it, didn't we? We got here together, let's go get it together."

For a moment Cedric can't seem to believe his ears, then he smiles.

"Listen to you, come on."

He grabbed Harry's arm and limped towards the trophy. After walking, the two raised their hands above a flashing handle.

"Count to three, okay?" said Harry. "One-two-three-"

He and Cedric each grab a handle.

Harry suddenly felt as if the back of his navel had been pulled. His legs were off the ground, but he couldn't let go of his grip on the Triwizard Cup, which dragged him forward amid the whistling wind and swirling colors, with Cedric beside him.

Outside the arena, at the moment when the two warriors met the top three cup, although Gwen saw nothing, she was almost fainted by the severe pain between the temples, George He wrapped his arms around her back to keep Gwen from sliding off the seat.

"What's wrong!" he shouted anxiously.

"I don't know," Gwen was in a trance, her eyes couldn't focus and there was only a fog in front of her. After a minute, the grinding feeling did not retreat, she said instinctively: "For Merlin's sake, Harry has to make good use of his invisibility cloak."

Harry felt his feet hit the ground, his injured leg softened, he fell to the ground, and finally let go of the Big Three Cup. He looked up.

"Where are we?" he asked.

Cedric shook his head. He stood up and pulled Harry up, and the two looked around.

It was completely out of Hogwarts territory, and they had apparently flown miles—maybe hundreds of miles, because even the ring around the castle was gone. They were standing on a dark overgrown cemetery and could see the black silhouette of a chapel behind a tall yew tree on the right. On the left is a hill. Harry could make out a fine old house on the hillside.

Cedric looked down at the Triwizard Cup, then looked up at Harry.

"Did someone tell you that this trophy was a door key?" he asked.

"No," said Harry. He surveyed the cemetery, surrounded by shadows.