of course this is happening inside your head [luna]

[Deleted]

Maze. It was a maze. As if this wasn't bad enough already, it had to be a maze of all things. Harry's hold on reality was tenuous at best as he filed into one of the bleachers, trying his best to keep his mind from wandering. it wasn't easy, and he could already feel his breathing speeding up. Harry searched through the pockets of his robes until he could take hold of the hilt of his wand, and then gripped it as tightly as he could. There. That was good. He needed a tether to reality. Neville said something - a lot of things, really - but Harry didn't hear any of it. Just that they had to get there first, they had to get to the Cup first - no, that wasn't real. Harry swallowed, and tried to grip tighter onto his wand, but found that it wasn't possible for his muscles to contract any further. When the cannon sounded to signal the start of the Task, Harry nearly jumped out of his seat. He began blinking rapidly, trying to find something, anything, to hold onto, since his wand obviously wasn't working.

LUNA LACHESIS TRELAWNEY

[Deleted]

The Triwizard Tournament masqueraded as a show of peace and brotherhood. Why, then, had Luna been asked to attend? Extra security of course. She shook her head sadly as she filed into the bleachers. If only people could practice what they preached. Sure, the kidnappings had been rather terrifying, and she had immediately sent owls to her sons to ensure they were safe. But things had worked out in the end, hadn't they? They always worked out in the end.

Luna gracefully shuffled through the mass of people, not really caring where she sat. She would know when she found the perfect spot. She was still moving among the crowd when the cannon sounded. She looked ahead toward the maze, wondering what wonderful creatures were hiding in its depths. As she turned her eyes away, she caught a familiar face, a face that was taut with a strange expression, one that was not happy. Luna stepped through the bleachers, not bothering to apologize for being in people's way. She sat down next to Harry and looked out at the maze, a typical dreamy expression on her face. "You seem troubled, Harry," she said sweetly, her silvery blue eyes flitting towards him.

HARRY JAMES POTTER

[Deleted]

Troubled? Troubled, yes, he most certainly was troubled, but that was nobody's business but his own. Harry gave Luna a tight smile. She didn't deserve his nerves, his unsureness. Luna always knew what to do, Harry felt. Even when others didn't necessarily like her choice, she knew what to do. Harry envied that. He envied a lot about Luna, actually, not that he'd ever gotten around to telling her that. Right, what was he supposed to do now? What was he supposed to say? The cannon had gone off and Anna was in the maze now, outside of his reach. Outside of any of their reaches. Like Cedric. That was the wrong though to have. Thinking about Cedric with a maze spread in front of him like a picture was not a good thing, not a good thing at all. Harry heard a girl's yell - Anna - and his blood ran cold. The spell she was using, the spell she had shouted, was for Acromantulas. As if there weren't enough parallels between this Tournament and his own already, now the last obstacle that he and Cedric had had to face was attacking his niece. "I am troubled." Harry told Luna abruptly. "I don't like mazes." He hadn't realized just how far deep the fear was until now, and Harry was slipping, slipping, slipping...

[Deleted]

Luna nodded solemnly, her eyes now trained on the maze. The towering shrubbery made watching the action difficult. It was a rather silly idea to have spectators in a scenario that couldn't be spectated. One had to rely on audio clues only, and with Luna's imaginative mind, such limitations could be dangerous.

There was a visible tightening in Harry's countenance when a scream echoed from the depths of the maze. It was rather early for such screaming, and Luna could only guess at its cause. Her eyes narrowed, trying to see through the maze to its depths and the champions within. No such luck. Her father had once written about a creature whose venom gave humans X-Ray vision. How she wished she had that venom now.

"Mazes can be scary," she said thoughtfully. She knew Harry's fear of mazes went much deeper than a fear of not turning in the right direction and reach a dead end. And she knew that the maze itself was causing a severe relapse. One would have to be blind not to. "And it seems rather callous of them to reuse this task knowing that you would be here."

Luna tilted her head and looked at Harry. She was going to get whiplash, turning her attention from the maze to the man at her side. Her pale, dainty hand reached out for his, and she gave it a gentle squeeze, anchoring him to reality. "You can't live your life in the past, Harry. She'll be fine," she said quietly. She was acutely aware that the sole female contestant was a relative of Harry's, making the direness of the situation hit even closer to home. But her voice was confident, as were her thoughts. The girl had been chosen by the goblet for a reason. She would be alright.

HARRY JAMES POTTER

[Deleted]

Harry nodded when Luna said that it was rather callous for whomever designed tasks to reuse the maze. There was so much that could go wrong within the maze, especially since the only safety net was the Champions’ own judgements. No one wanted to give up in a situation like this; no one wanted to be the one to forfeit the first task. He hated the idea of the maze, and he hated even more that something as simple as a row of hedges placed in random configuration could cause him to unravel so completely. Luna’s hand was a brief comfort to Harry, but her words had the opposite effect. “I’m not choosing this, Luna!” He snapped. If he had a choice, he would choose not to panic at the idea of having a Triwizard Tournament, not to panic at his niece being chosen as Champion, not panic at seeing a maze. But he didn’t choose it, just like he hadn’t chosen to be a Champion the first time, and he hadn’t chosen to be the reason Cedric died, and he hadn’t chosen to be the Chosen One! “I just –” Harry was going to say that he needed air, but since they were already outside, and their area of the stands wasn’t actually that crowded, it seemed like a weak excuse. “I can’t watch this.” Harry said after a moment. He stood in his place, and then shuffled out of the box they were sitting in. Maybe not knowing anything would be worse, but Harry felt like he was going to vomit if he continued to watch the maze any longer.

LUNA LACHESIS TRELAWNEY

[Deleted]

Harry was losing it, and Luna was pretty sure that nothing she could say would make things better for him. He was lost in his own head, tethered there by ghosts of his own past. Luna could see that. Anyone paying attention could see that. But Luna was helpless to stop them. All she could do was provide a light in the perpetual darkness. Her eyebrows raised in mild surprise as Harry rose to his feet, shuffling through the crowd she had just walked through. She rose as well, following him through the mass of people. She could hear the grumbling and even some annoyed swearing, but she ignored them. She was used to foul words from people. They rolled off her back as easily as water. Her only focus was on Harry.

When he walked, she walked. When he stopped, she stopped. She could anchor him to the world, but she couldn't fight his demons for him. When the time seemed right, she spoke again, her voice soft and gentle. "Remember to breathe, Harry. You can't do anything if you don't breathe." It wasn't a jab or teasing notion. It was just blunt observation. Forgetting to breathe reduced oxygen to the brain, creating a feeling of claustrophobia. And the last thing Harry needed on top of his mania was a feeling of being trapped. She let her hand rest on the man's shoulder and murmured, "Just breathe."

HARRY JAMES POTTER

[Deleted]

Elbowing his way through the crowd wasn’t that difficult for Harry. When people saw him coming, looking slightly frantic, they assumed it was just Auror business, and they moved out of the way with minimal dirty looks. When he finally broke free from the clutches of the crowd, Harry immediately made a beeline for the back of the stands, where he would not only be in the midst of the people, but where people also couldn’t see him. He slumped over, and was surprised to hear Luna’s voice – he hadn’t really expected her to follow him. When she told him to breathe, Harry realized that it was harder than it seemed. His breaths were shallow, and forcing himself to slow down made Harry feel dizzy. He did as he was told, though. For all of her peculiarities, Luna always seemed to know what was best for people, especially in times of crisis. Her hand on his shoulder was a surprising comfort, especially since somewhere in between his seat and the crowd Harry had lost his grip on reality entirely. “Why is this happening to me?” Harry muttered. He knew that there were reasons, of course, many of which sounded like alphabet soup in his head, but he had been doing so well when it came to managing his childhood trauma. Now, though, it seemed like everything was reminding him of…everything, really. He didn’t know what to do, so he just peered up at Luna, hoping she would have an answer.

LUNA LACHESIS TRELAWNEY