The Second Task
“You know what would be of great help right about now?” Draco Malfoy asked on Friday, January 6th, tossing what felt like the millionth book on underwater enchantments over his shoulder where Hermione caught it and scowled briefly at his misuse of the ancient text before answering, along with Harry;
“The Room of Requirement.”
Ron, who was slumped over and starting to sleep on an open book, jerked upwards and spun around, blurting, “What?” to which Hermione and Harry waved a hand, saying, along with Draco, in unison, “Later.” The redhead rolled his eyes then turned back to the book in front of him, groaning and turning one of its pages.
“Instead we have to read these ridiculous things,” Draco waved his current book in the air, which was layered in dust with the title peeling, but had once been called, ‘Underwater Breathing: The Real Secrets' before tossing it too, caused Hermione to catch it once again. “I swear some of that dust is mold. It’s fuzzy. And this one’s by Lockhart!” Draco chucked this book as hard as he could now and Hermione side-stepped to the right to let it fall where Ron turned swiftly to spit on the grinning face of Gilderoy Lockhart on the cover before continuing to read. Draco turned back around to face the looming pile he still had left beside him, and slammed his head on the desk, groaning.
Contrary to the struggles Hermione was having trying to help Draco, Harry was doing quite well on his own as he flipped through a copy of Advanced Transfiguration McGonagall had lent him, training up his skill in Cross-Species switches with Pigwidgeon (Hermione had paled when he asked for Crookshanks and temporarily broken her front of trusting his abilities, but Ron had eagerly given up the small owl). They were all going quite well; He’d started small with simply a goldfish, but had now managed a shark, and was reading through the section on Human Transfiguration while stroking Pig’s feathers.
“I really think we should at least try the Bubble-Head Charm, Malfoy. I know it’s hard but… Listen,” Hermione took a seat beside the blonde and placed a hand on his arm, smiling. “You're good at Charms, right? That’s your thing now, you and Harry. He’s the Transfiguration guy, and you're the Charms guy. So… You can do it. I know you can do it. Don’t you?”
The boy slowly lifted his head, turning to face Hermione, and grinned, nodding. “Yeah, I think maybe I could.”
Unfortunately he could not.
The Charm was advanced, N.E.W.T level, to be exact, and not something to be learned in a night, especially not when Draco was already quite tired from the day. But, if enough time and effort was put in through the rest of January, they knew they’d be able to help him do it, especially when Harry ended the night a goldfish himself, happy with the prospect that soon he’d manage to transfigure himself gills and fins, like a human fish. Or a merperson, he supposed. A human fish was just a merperson…
-*-*-*-
Throughout the rest of January, in a shocking turn of events, Hermione, Ron, and Draco all had a terrible month while Harry was in high spirits, his Transfiguration skills advancing everyday, and McGonagall’s praise of him with them.
“Oh, well done, Harry!” The Professor exclaimed one day in class as Draco slammed his head onto his desk in resignation and exhaustion while Hermione whirled around in horror at her favorite teacher praising someone other than her. Ron could clearly care less, already asleep on his desk from staying up all night trying to prove to Harry he could still be a good friend by reading all those dusty, moldy texts. Harry meanwhile grinned while watching his guinea pig prance around his desk.
This sort of thing quickly became customary, as McGonagall’s new prized student became Harry, and he finally found himself a subject he wouldn’t be constantly stressed over, other than DADA. But it only served to make the poor muggleborn feel worse.
She’d already been increasingly enraged by Rita Skeeter following the group around and practically begging for an interview, had almost given in to slapping him again when Draco had mentioned how a letter from his parents one morning alerted him that they were buying him a new bed, as their current House-Elf accidentally screwed with the washing and turned his sheets pink, and now she was getting stress in class to the point where her hair was starting to go frizzy, which only meant the worst in times like this.
On a lighter note, due to the Quartet cheering him up, Hagrid had returned to teaching classes again, and Draco had been attempting--to an extent that seemed to be causing him agony--to not make fun of the Half-Giant, something Harry’s praise for was the only thing keeping him from stopping. Though it hadn't been all that bad, as lessons were becoming a lot more fun now that Hagrid chose to continue his short substitute’s teachings of Unicorns, which were a lot more enjoyable and safe then skrewts, to a great extent.
When the 24th was starting to approach a bit too fast, the group finally decided to test their skills on the Saturday night before the upcoming Tuesday, and planned to meet Draco at the Entrance Hall to then sneak into the Prefect’s bathroom again and see if the boys could really manage to swim underwater with Transfigured gills and the Bubble-Head Charm.
Of course that meant explaining one tiny secret and trusting Draco to keep it, something Ron was very against but too tired to protest, and Hermione hated but saw the logic in. So, at dinner that evening, they spilled the beans to their former enemy.
“I knew it.” And they honestly should have expected that answer. “You terrorized Crabbe, Goyle and I in Hogsmeade last year, remember? Your hood came off. I figured you must’ve had an Invisibility Cloak.”
“Sh!” Hermione leaned forward, face urgent as her eyes flicked around the table at the other Gryffindor’s. “Someone might hear you. You may know about the cloak now but no one else does. It’s supposed to be a secret. If people knew then--” “Your ability to bend the rules, sneak out whenever you want, and meddle with other people’s business would be spoiled, yes?”
Hermione looked ready to slug him. “No, I mean we’d be expelled.” Draco raised an eyebrow. “You think Dumbledore would expel his prized students? Everyday I find it increasingly baffling how you are the top of the class…”
“It doesn’t matter what would happen if people knew, I just need you to promise us you won’t tell anyone. Can you do that?” Draco looked over at Harry and, as he had done so many times this past month, nodded his head just to see the grin that would spread across his face. “Okay.”
At 10:00 o’clock, the Gryffindor friends met with the Slytherin by pulling him under their cloak quickly, and shushing him before he could complain about them giving him a heart attack, before all walking in sync to the bathroom, considerably more crowded than usual with a whole additional person added to their space the cloak tried so hard to obscure.
But, after a bit of cursing and foot stepping, they had at last reached their destination, and Draco hurried to get the water ready while Harry and Ron gawked at the place and Hermione set up their books and opened the bag they’d brought containing shorts she’d transfigured to swim trunks. The boys changed in separate stalls, then came out looking a little awkward with no shirts on, but Ron was bobbing his head trying hard to stay awake and Hermione had her nose buried in Draco’s Charm book so it was hardly anything to worry about.
Harry pulled out his wand and sat himself down on the side of the tub that was more like a pool and swaying his feet in the silvery bubbles while muttering an incantation for webbed hands and feet. Meanwhile, Draco sat himself down beside Hermione and listened to her explain the Charm they’d practiced, and repeated every detail, every wand movement, and every description.
When she was finally satisfied with his ability to do it, she let him try, and Harry looked up, finished with the webbing, and leaned in slightly to see how it worked.
Licking his lips, Draco raised his wand to his face and muttered, “Cupinbla.” With his words, a bubble rose out of his wand, small at first, but getting bigger as it rose to the top of his head where it popped, exploding onto his head, and causing his hair to get wet, but then that water sank down onto his neck where it surrounded it like a necklace, before rising into the air and forming a sort of upside down fish bowl around his head, which stretched his features quite absurdly.
Once the process had ended, Hermione leaned over and tapped the bubble lightly, but it just rippled a bit, not popping. She poked it with her wand, still nothing. Then she grinned and clapped her hands. “Well done, Draco, well done!” She then clapped a hand to her mouth suddenly, eyes going wide.
“What is it, Granger? Am I turning green?”
“No! It’s just--” “She said your name.” They all turned to Ron, who had jerked himself awake at the very sudden and strange sound of Hermione calling the Malfoy boy his real name and looked a cross between baffled and the want to go to sleep just because of it. “Your first name.”
The blonde’s eyes traveled over to Hermione, who lowered her hand to say, “I can take it back if you’d like. I won’t say it again.” But Draco was already shaking his head, beginning to smile. “No, it’s fine. Thanks, actually. For calling me my name. We’re friends right? We all are. Even you, Weasley.” Ron rolled his eyes at that and layed back down to rest his head on the Invisibility cloak as a pillow, but Hermione smiled genuinely and nodded, Harry doing so as well.
“Yes, friends.” Harry said, and there was a long pause of slight awkwardness before Hermione exclaimed, “Well get in then, you two, get in! We don’t have all night!” And Harry nodded and muttered the incantation for gills to appear on his neck before sliding into the water, Draco diving in immediately.
It was an amazing feeling, being able to spend as much time as he liked swimming underwater without needing to pop out and breathe, and Harry soon found himself able to handle flipping around with his newly acquired fins despite never being a strong swimmer. Hermione made sure their wands worked well submerged, while the two dueled under water, and, as the time passed, found that attempting to go back to bed dripping wet was impossible, and ended up drying themselves then discussing if they missed anything before nodding off to sleep, Hermione and Ron already curled up in close balls on their robes.
They were sleep deprived in class the next morning, but they still had a couple more days until the Task and, by some strange miracle, they were already ready for it.
-*-*-*-
Hagrid showed them golden Unicorn foals on Monday, ‘harmless babies’ he called them, and, for once, he was right. They really were just little children posing no threat, and therefore loved by all the class as they were allowed to pet them and feed them sugar cubes.
Harry didn’t get a chance to step towards one, however, as Hagrid drew him aside shortly after giving his demonstration. “You alrigh’ Harry?” He asked, to which the boy nodded. “Yeah, I’m good.” “That’s good.” Hagrid replied, nodding, his beady eyes twinkling. “Yer know, two months ago I would’er thought you could never do it, Harry, but after what yer did to that ol’ Ironbelly…” He shook his head, patting a hand on Harry’s shoulder so heavily it almost made his knees buckle under his weight. “You wasn’t lying before--I really think you could win.” Harry smiled, happy about the praise from his friend, which he had started to believe a bit too. “Thanks.”
“And, I gotta say, that bloke really came through, didn’t he, Harry?” The Half-Giant nodded over to the Malfoy boy, who was tossing cubes to a baby Unicorn a safe distance away, a fond smile threatening to tug at his lips as she threw her head in the air and struggled to catch them. “Yeah…” Harry said, smiling himself with the same fondness when the Unicorn stumbled forward to lick Draco’s hand for more sugar and the boy flinched just slightly, stiffing up for a split second before softening and raising his other hand to pet the foal's head. “He really has…”
Draco looked up, caught his eye, and stepped back. Harry turned away, shaking his head, and looking up at Hagrid, who was grinning, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “What?” The boy said, oblivious, while the Half-Giant simply chuckled, shaking his head. “Nothin’. Nothin’ at all…” He lied, rather terribly, as Hagrid tended to do, but Harry shook his head, thinking nothing of it, and instead stepped forward to pet the foal’s as well.
Draco leaned over to speak to him as the kids turned to ask for more sugar from Hagrid, asking, in a very low voice, "You think you're ready for this, Potter?" Harry nodded, sending him a confident smirk. "Yeah, I think so."
"Well you better be. We aren't on the same team anymore, remember? Let's see how good of a swimmer you really are…" A year ago, Harry wouldn't have taken this taunt lightly. A year ago, he would've pushed Draco and yelled at him, before sneering and rolling his eyes. But this wasn't a year ago, this was 1995, which was why the boy instead chose to wink, turning back to petting the unicorn but continuing to watch him out of the corner of his eye and say, "Yes, we'll see…"
And instead of cackling and giving Crabbe or Goyle a high five, Draco instead let his arrogant demeanor slip into softness as he smiled with sincere gratitude at the boy beside him, still surprised how he was living his long buried wish every single day. But he wasn't complaining.
-*-*-*-
Harry was convinced that his breakfast on January 24th was the shortest breakfast he’d ever had at Hogwarts, for anybody. Everyone was eager to get the best seats possible to watch the Second Task--which he found ridiculous because they wouldn’t be watching much of anything if everyone was underwater--and therefore scarfing down food with an insane amount of speed. Hermione had done some ‘light research’ on the best appetite for swimmers and was now regulating every bite of food Harry and Draco consumed in the rough twenty minutes they had before McGonagall warned them to head down to the Lake, taking in none for herself, which Ron both shrugged off and was appalled by, if that was even possible.
But eventually it had to be time. Eventually, Harry and Draco had to stand, accept the well wishes of every Hogwarts student they passed, and make their way through the snow down to the Lake.
“Oh no…” Draco groaned out of nowhere as he nearly slipped on some well hidden ice. “The Lake is gonna be freezing…” He said, already shivering at just the thought or because of how cold it was already, and Harry tended to agree.
Why couldn’t the Task have been on maybe… February 24th, or something?
Just as there had been seats enclosing the dragon and the Champions facing it, now those same seats were arranged like bleachers around the bank of the lake, a couple rows already filled with chattering kids, and the rest of the Champions all already standing at the bank, clutching their wands and looking much more confident than they had in the tent before facing their respective dragon’s.
Hugo and Anya were talking in hushed whispers with Karkaroff, while Viktor paced back and forth in front of the bank, the Beauxbatons kids were sitting in a circle, not talking, just staring at the water, and Cedric stood still, arms behind his back. He turned and spotted Harry and Draco, grinning and waving. Draco managed to wave back, while Harry hardly managed a friendly smile, feeling the familiar jealousy rise up in him like an Ironbelly after a long nap.
Soon, in less than half an hour, the stands had turned from hardly a fifty people to now packed to the brim with students of all schools, screaming, hollering, cheering, babbling, overall creating a lot of racket that made it impossible for the Champions to do anything other than stand aimlessly and silently, staring out across the water, which they did.
Eventually, Ludo Bagman arranged them to be spread along the bank, five feet apart, rotating between schools. Viktor, Fleur, Cedric first. Then Anya, Tess, and Harry. Finally he lined up Hugo and Fernando, making Draco end up at the farthest end. Harry had to notice that the Durmstrang kids were all in athletic, fit for the water clothes, while the Beauxbatons kids were wearing slim leotards. But Cedric, Draco, and himself were about to look pretty absurd swimming in robes. Oh well.
"All right Harry?" Bagman whispered as he moved the boy a few feet towards the bank more than the others. "Know what you're gonna do?"
Harry looked around at him, confused by the strange question--he's a judge what's he doing?--but nodded anyway. "Yeah, yeah… I'm good." No one noticed his whisper to Harry, but Harry couldn’t help but notice Bagman said nothing to the other Champions.
Once he was back at the judges' table, which was directly behind the Champions and draped with golden cloth, four out of the five judges already there--Crouch wasn't back, but neither was Percy there in his place, strangely--Bagman raised his wand to his throat as he had done at the Quidditch World cup, muttered "Sonorus!" and then continued his next words with a magnified voice for all to hear.
"Well, all our champions are ready for the Second Task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One… two… three!"
As he blew the whistle, its echo was the only thing you could hear as the stands had become far too loud with cheers and applause. Harry instantly bent down and pulled off his shoes and shocks, Cedric and Draco did the same, while the other Champions began to wade into the water, casting various spells on themselves.
Once his feet were bare, Harry stood up and did the same, pointing his wand at his feet and then his neck, wading through the water as fins and gills began to grow on his skin.
Meanwhile, Cedric and Draco both pointed wands at their necks and walked forward as bubbles popped out of their wands and rose on top of their heads.
Draco had been right, Harry had to admit, the water was insanely cold, and it burned like an icy knife cutting into his skin as he plunged into it, but he had to keep going. The quicker he found his precious thing and got out of it, the quicker he’d be warm after all, right? Once he was waist deep in the water, his clothes sodden and heavy, he looked over to see Draco with a bubble over his head and nodded once. The boy nodded back, giving a thumbs up before diving into the icy abyss.
Harry plunged in too, only because his gills had finally completed growth, and he’d suffocate if he didn’t get the proper oxygen he needed for them soon; water. So he dived in, and with his newly acquired webbed feet and hand, was swimming off with a burst of speed, sucking in icy water that passed smoothly through his gills and to his brain and seeing perfectly through a fish-like film Hermione had suggested he add to his eyes.
The water was still icy cold in some places, but anywhere on his body there was fish skin--his feet, hands, neck, and eyes--he felt pleasantly cool. Which was good, because if only those parts could keep moving through the sea, then he’d be fine. Swimming in a circle and marveling at how fast he was even though he’d already seen that in the Prefect’s bathroom, Harry charged into the inky black depths of the lake, ready to face whatever challenge it had in store for him.
As he cut through the water at incredible speed, Harry moved so fast he couldn’t see a thing he was passing, only blurs of green and brown, sometimes something shiny catching his eye but never any sign of merpeople or, thankfully, the Giant Squid.
He had been moving for some ten minutes now, when suddenly, springing out of a patch of weeds beside him, a grindylow reached forward to grab his ankle, long fingers cutting into his skin. Harry whirled around, seeing as its pointed teeth bared and it leaned its head back, prepared to bite him, but he was faster, whipping out his hand with one webbed hand and firing, “Relashio!” at it and, despite only a large bubble issuing from his mouth, the spell shot out sparks that sent the grindylow, and some friends that had recently appeared with it, down to the depths of the water.
Before they could retaliate Harry had turned and swam, at full speed, ahead where he had been swimming before, shooting more sparks whenever he felt anything touch his ankles, even seaweed.
“Hello, Harry. How are you getting on?” Harry slowed to a stop and spun around screaming, “RELASHIO!” and feeling as if he might have a heart attack when he saw the sparks only go through the floating, ghostly blue form of Moaning Myrtle.
“Myrtle!” Harry tried to shout, but only bubbles escaped his mouth, to which Myrtle giggled. “Not well, I see. The blonde one told me to find you, and let me say, he was doing much better than this.” Harry felt the old rivalry rise up in his chest at that. Somehow, he wanted to do better than Draco. Hagrid had said one of the two of them was bound to win, but there was a part of Harry, however small, that wanted it to be him.
“You might want to try that way,” Myrtle said, pointing one finger towards the sea to Harry’s left, her right. “I won’t come with you… I don’t like them much, they always chase me when I get too close…” Harry gave her a thumbs-up to show his thanks, still quite confused what she was doing here--he hadn’t seen her sense Second Year--then set off once more, swimming some feet higher over the weed to avoid more grindylows.
He swam for what felt like at least another twenty minutes, and, while he was passing long expanses of black mud, he heard a haunting song lift itself over the water, the same words Draco had recited to him trapped inside.
“An hour long you’ll have to look,
And to recover what we took…”
Harry swam then even faster, and saw a large rock emerge out of the mud ahead, covered in haunting paintings of merpeople, carrying spears and chasing what appeared to be the giant squid. Harry swam past it, following the sound of the song.
“...your time’s half gone, so tarry not
Lest what you seek stays here to rot…”
Turning around a sharp rock, Harry stopped suddenly as he saw he had seemingly reached his destination. He had arrived at a cluster of crude stone dwellings cut with twisted designs and gaps for windows, where Harry could see faces swimming here and there, wielding spears and baring their teeth at something he couldn’t see. These faces bore no resemblance at all to the painting of the mermaid in the prefects’ bathroom, as these merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair, looking to almost be made of seaweed. Their eyes were yellow as well were the chipped teeth they bared at the unseen force inside the stone building.
It wasn’t unseen for long, as suddenly a loud roar echoed through the water and a long tentacle sprang forward to grab a merperson before pulling her down. Harry gasped, a small bubble escaping his mouth, as the Giant Squid grabbed onto the stone formation that was hiding it and climbed out, its tentacles breaking the rock.
There was a small form riding it, with a large bubble around his head, clutching a woman to his side with long, flowing blonde hair.
Immediately Harry swam towards the squid with a new burst of speed, slowing and hiding behind a rock once he was close enough to make out the kid on it, hiding behind a rock so the squid wouldn’t think it was suddenly hungry for more again.
Harry gasped for a second time when he recognized the woman to be that of Narcissa Malfoy, and the boy was of course none other than Draco, who zapped the squid’s head with his wand only once before steering it up to the surface of the water, clutching his mother safe and close and speaking to Myrtle as he rose.
Draco had been doing much better than he had, clearly.
Once they had gotten a safe distance away, Harry came out of hiding and swam through one of the windows, finding himself inside the rock formation and seeing a whole crowd of merpeople singing in chorus around a crude statue of a gigantic merperson, where seven people were still bound tightly to the tail. Harry recognized them as Ron, Hermione, Cho Chang, Beatrice Haywood--whom Fernando had gone to the Ball with--a girl who looked no older than eight and identical to fleur, an old, scrawny man with gray hair, and, explaining his absence from the judge’s table, Percy Weasley.
All of them could have been sleeping in any other situation, their heads lolling and fine streams of bubbles escaping their mouths. Harry sped towards them, the merpeople letting him pass--apparently fine with a plain Champion sense he had no Giant Squid in sight--and slowed to a stop, thinking about which one could be his. Hermione was his best friend but also dating Viktor, and he wished Cho could be his girlfriend but of course she was with Cedric, so that left Ron, whom none of the other Champions seemed to have any connection with.
He sped towards him, tugging at the ropes bounding him that seemed to be made of weed so slimy his hands kept slipping. He’d never get them off manually.
He heard shouting and turned to see Tess had arrived, with a bubble around her own head, asking a merman if she could borrow his spear. He only laughed and waved her off, and she turned back to the hostages and Harry, looking just as helpless as he felt.
“The rocks!” The two turned, and saw Fernando plunging towards them, cutting through a patch of weeds with his own jagged rock and pointing at the rocks surrounding the statue below them. “Use the rocks!”
Harry and Tess nodded, and swam down to pick up the sharpest rock they could find hurriedly, before rising to cut the weed wrapped around their respective hostage. It took some time, but eventually Tess undid Percy first and shouted, “Good luck!” before rising to the surface, then Harry was finished too, and Fernando soon after.
Harry gestured to the sea behind them and the rest of the hostages, then tapped an imaginary watch on his wrist, miming ‘where are the others?’ to Fernando, who merely shrugged. “They’ll come or they won’t come, but we have to move, before the merpeople get angry.” He then too was swimming his way up with Beatrice. Harry watched him go then turned to the quiet weeds, creasing his brow in confusion.
He raised his jagged rock, done with waiting, and attempted to hack at Hermione’s bonds. Almost immediately, the merpeople lunged forward and grabbed him, pulling him away from Hermione and laughing. “Take your own hostage!” One yelled in a hoarse, croaky voice. “Leave the others…” A female growled.
“No way!” Harry growled, thrashing against them all, but still only bubbles escaped his mouth. “Let me go!” But the merpeople wouldn’t let go, only laughing. “She’s my friend too! Let me go!” Suddenly, they did, but not because they were listening to him, Harry realized too quickly, because they were listening to someone else.
Or, something.
“HARRY!” Harry looked up, and saw the squid was back, swimming full speed down to him, tentacles pushing in and out, and Draco clinging to it for dear life, looking panicked. “WATCH OUT!”
Instantly Harry had swam out of the way of the squid as it collided with the merpeople, and continued to hack at Hermione’s bonds as the battle he’d first seen upon arrival here resumed. “What are you doing?” He turned around as he saw Draco slide off the squid’s back and swim over to him, staring at him as if he were mad, though he hadn't been the one with the bright idea to befriend the Giant Squid, had he?
“You have to go, Viktor will come for her. Leave!” Harry shook his head as the bonds fell and he moved Hermione over beside Ron. “Listen to him, Harry!” Both boys turned to see Cedric swimming towards them, a bubble like Draco, Fernando, and Tess’s around his head too. “Krum is coming right now!”
Draco nodded and swam back over to the squid’s back, no doubt about to prepare to lift it back up to the water, but Harry was focused on Cedric, who had pulled a knife out of his pocket and was cutting Cho free. He grabbed onto the boy's sleeve, gestured to the barren and quiet sea around them and the hostages remaining, trying to ask what to do about them. Cedric winced, and Harry had to notice his robes were torn, and several rips let a bit of blood pour through before disappearing in swirls in the water. “Fleur and Hugo are dueling.” Was all he said before wrapping a hand around Cho’s waist and rising to the surface out of sight.
“Let’s move, Harry.” Draco said urgently, zapping the squid’s head as he had before and also rising upward out of sight. Harry looked around, biting his bottom lip in worry, but then the merpeople started screeching and Harry spun around to see something monstrous cutting through the water towards them; a human body in swimming trunks with the head of a shark. It was clear that Krum had tried to transfigure himself just as Harry had, but badly.
He slowed to a stop, looking as confused as a shark head could at the sight of Hermione free, but nodding once to Harry as the best show of thanks he could give and swimming towards her, grabbing her around the waist and rising rapidly with her, leaving Harry alone once more, with the two remaining hostages, plus Ron.
He grabbed his rock off the surface floor, and swam towards Fleur’s sister, whipping out his wand as the mermen surrounded him once more, and bellowing, “Relashio!” at one, sending him toppling backwards and freeing the path for him to reach Fleur’s sister. They scattered after that, allowing him to hack the robes easily and hold her small body tight.
“EVERTE STATUM!”
He hadn’t held her for long, however, before being forced to let go and suddenly flown backwards by the force of a spell fired from somewhere towards the water Cedric had come from. He was sent spiraling backwards through the water before slowing himself to a stop and squinting to see Hugo had arrived, cutting the bonds on the old man with a knife just as Cedric had.
“Where’s Fleur?!” Harry shouted fruitlessly, bubbles coming out once more, but Hugo ignored him, and Harry pursed his lips, looking towards the sea. He had to be moving, Draco was right, but he also had no clue what might happen if Fleur never arrived, and this poor child was left here alone. She was a child, she couldn’t be left here to rot, as the song suggested. The judge’s wouldn’t do that, right?
“They stopped doing it when the casualty rate got too high…”
Mind made up, Harry grabbed Fleur’s sister off the ground where she had sunk, grabbed Ron as well, and began to make his way through the water towards the direction Cedric and Hugo had both come from.
No longer having his hands to help him swim, Harry had to rely only on his flippers, the bodies in his arms' awful weight made him move slower than he would have without the transfiguring, and just his terrible swimming skills to rely on. He waded through weeds and dug through mud, pushed past rocks and scanned the sea as best he could for any sign of Fleur or worse, grindylows, but found nothing.
Finally, as he swam past a patch of thick weed, he heard a weak voice call, “‘Arry!” and spun around. A pale, slim hand had raised itself out of the weeds, waving weakly in the water once before falling. “‘Arry!” Harry swam towards it quickly, digging through the weeds and finding Fleur’s body, covered in scratches and bruises, other hand weakly clutching her wand, eyes widened at the sight of her sister.
“Gabrielle…” She said, even weaker than Harry’s name, and Harry nodded as he set the girl down beside her older sister, thankful for the loss of weight, and feeling happy to see Fleur grateful too as she muttered, “Thank you… Thank you…” as she caressed her cheek.
Harry tapped his wrist and pointed at the endless darkness above them and Fleur suddenly turned serious, nodding, and starting to stand. “Can you swim?” Harry mimed by pretending to stroke through the water and she nodded once more. Harry swam a few feet higher, holding onto Ron’s arm, and gesturing for her to grab his leg. She got the message, and grabbed her sister’s hand, forming a sort of chain they could swim together in. Harry began to kick up to the surface, using one webbed hand to propel himself upwards, but mostly relying on his kicking fins.
They hadn’t made it a few feet before Fleur let out a blood curdling scream, and Harry looked down to see she and her sister were currently being pulled down by over ten very angry looking grindylows, a hoard quickly making their way to join the feast.
“‘Arry help! Help us, ‘Arry! HELP!” The blonde screamed with all her might and Harry turned and fired as many “Relashio’s” as he could at them, but they were too many and too persistent. They grabbed and clawed at the Delacour’s, biting and growling, and Fleur’s screams echoed around the water, before being consumed by water, and Harry noticed, to his horror, that her bubble had burst--the hour was up. She was now sinking towards the depths below and the wrath of the grindylows, letting go of Ron and her sister.
“FLEUR!” Harry bellowed, a large bubble now escaping from his mouth, the largest yet, but the grindylows had grabbed him too, and he was forced to let go of Ron as one particularly vicious one sank its teeth too far into his hand and he howled in pain.
They were going to die here, he was sure of it. The grindylows were dragging them down, and he could see nothing but his own blood swirling through the sea and their pointed teeth. And then, as they pushed him viciously onto the rock beside Fleur, Gabrielle, and Ron, he saw nothing but stars, his head pounding as if being stabbed by a thousand knives.
We’re gonna die, we’re gonna die, we’re gonna die, we’re gonna die…
He had no clue how much time had passed but finally, after what easily could have been an eternity, the sound of the grindylows snapping their teeth was gone. Harry suddenly felt warm, a new darkness falling over his closed eyelids, and then a hand grabbed onto him, and he was rising up in the air, before being set onto some slimy surface.
Then he was rising. Up, up, up… And a voice was warning him about something. A voice he recognized, faint at first, but then coming to the surface of his hazy mind just as he and that voice rose to the surface, and he opened his filmy eyes, and saw the platinum blonde head of Draco Malfoy, feeling a wand get shoved into his fist.
“Your gills!” It was shouting. “Get rid of your gills!” He didn’t know why--hardly understood what was happening to begin with--but Harry did what he was told and raised his wand to his gills, muttering the incantation to remove them and just like that his head broke through the surface of the cold lake, and he sucked in a fresh breath of cold, clear air, remembering where he was, what he was doing, and what had happened, and spinning around and around to see that he had been rescued by Draco and his Giant Squid, Fleur’s unconscious body laid safe on their laps, Ron and Gabrielle sitting behind them.
They too were awake, coughing up water and blinking wildly, looking around in surprise.
“You're welcome.” Draco said with a sly grin, turning to face them and careful to make sure Fleur was still safe on his lap. Harry grinned thankfully, Ron rolled his eyes, and Gabrielle sprang forward to hug him. “Thank you, sir! Thank you!” Draco smiled sheepishly and patted her back awkwardly, while Harry laughed. “Yes, thank you, Draco.” The blonde nodded once.
The crowd was going ballistic, Harry registered, as he turned to look at the screaming mess of people. “We all thought you died.” Draco said, following his gaze. “Why’d you try to rescue them?” He nodded to the Delacour’s as Gabrielle let go of him and hugged her unconscious sister, who was starting to choke up water and regain consciousness. “You didn’t take the song seriously did you?”
Harry frowned, feeling his cheeks go red, and turned away, pointing his wand at his hands and feet and beginning to mutter the incantation to dispel them angrily while Draco and Ron burst out into fits of laughter.
Draco began to steer the squid towards the bank, sliding off it once they reached shallow land and waving goodbye as a very angry and worried looking Percy bounded towards them, still wet and getting wetter as he waded through the water. He looked quite white, and somehow younger than usual, as he immediately grabbed a hold of his little brother and hugged him. Ron groaned in response while Harry noticed Tess giggling as she and Fernando waded in after him, going to the Delacour’s instead, who both looked very confused with bleeding skin from the grindylows.
“Bless you, Harry.” Fernando said, shaking his head. “Yeah, Scarhead.” Draco agreed, coming back over to punch him in the shoulder. “Look at all this fuss. Couldn't you just get back here third like you were supposed to?” Harry felt himself go red once more but stumbled back in surprise as suddenly Fleur, who had seemed to remember everything and regained control of herself hugged him fiercely.
“You saved us! You didn’t have to but you did! Thank you!” She pulled back and kissed him once on each cheek and Harry felt as if his face had become a tomato. “And you!” She turned to Ron and pushed Percy off him and into the water with little effort, causing Draco to snort and Tess to run forward and help him stand. “You helped!” Fleur exclaimed to Ron whose eyes widened and he raised his chin, grinning. “Yeah,” He said, looking hopeful. “A bit.” She kissed him too, and he looked just as red, if not more as Harry.
Madam Pomfrey than pushed everyone aside to drag Harry, Ron, and the Delacour’s forward, chastising Draco for diving back in after him--Harry got the since everyone probably had as he saw the blonde step back on dry land and immediately get scooped up in a tight hug by his mother. Madame Pomfrey immediately wrapped him in a towel and shoved a cup in his hands, telling him to drink it before doing the same to everyone else. It was a hot, unappealing liquid that filled his body quickly with warmth he cherished and pushed a bit of steam out of his ears.
Hermione sat beside him, Krum quickly following and struggling to keep a towel on her shoulders as she grinned at her friend. “That was brilliant, Harry, absolutely brilliant!” She exclaimed and Harry nodded, grinning. “Yeah, thanks…”
“You have a water beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny,” Krum was saying, trying to pick the thing out but Harry got a sense he was trying to make sure her attention was on him. She brushed the thing away impatiently and said, “But you’re still insanely daft. Why’d you have to save Fleur and her sister, Harry? You’re well outside the time limit…”
Harry wished people would stop pointing that out as he was starting to feel quite bad about it, and instead turned to stubbornly focus on the judges table, where they were all discussing what to do, Percy even somehow being allowed to vote with them, even though he was still shivering under a towel and was underwater half the Task. They called over some of the Champions, including Krum, and spoke with them, no doubt about the details of what happened in the Lake, while Dumbledore went over to the water’s edge, speaking in deep conversation with the chief merperson, speaking some screechy sort of Mermish. Finally he stood, and went back to the other judges, who continued to speak together even as they had finished talking with the Champions, now in a huddle.
Madam Pomfrey had now returned and was treating Harry and the others victim to the grindylows cuts, and Hermione turned from them, now praising but also somehow chastising at the same time Draco’s befriendment of the Giant Squid and recklessness to go back for Harry, twice.
“All Slytherins know the Squid… No I’m not telling you how… Granger, he’s my friend, he’s your friend! I had to save--Oh I’ll still get top marks… For the squid, Granger!”
Harry couldn’t help but chuckle a bit, his sour mood softening as he listened to them banter. But just then, Ludo Bagman stepped back from the judges huddle and placed his wand to his throat once more, his magnified voice boomed out and caused the still crazed crowd to go quiet. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision.” Everyone seemed to lean forward in anticipation, eyes wide.
“Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows… Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows and dueled with a fellow Champion when she approached her goal, failing to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points.”
Applause came from the stands, specifically the Beauxbatons kids, but also from some starstruck boys and girls, as Fleur shook her head, folding her arms tight and muttering, “I deserved zero.” but also glaring at Hugo where he stood some feet away beside Anya and Karkaroff.
“Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, returned fifth and with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour. We therefore award him forty-six points.” Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd rose up, as well as some Slytherin who began to flash modified badges towards Harry and Draco, which now read, “POTTER AND MALFOY STINK.” Harry felt his heart sink, but not because of the badges. If Cedric had been late, then he most certainly had been too.
“Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was sixth to return with his hostage, though she had been freed by Harry Potter. We award him thirty-nine points.” Karkaroff applauded the loudest, looking very superior, and Harry rolled his eyes.
“Tess Whitlock used a Bubble-Head Charm as well, arriving fourth in the time limit, with her hostage, acquired by herself. We award her forty-seven points.” Immense cheers from the Beauxbatons kids.
“Anya Sallow used Gillyweed to great effect, making her the first to return her hostage. For that, she will receive the full fifty points.” Immense cheers from the Durmstrang crowd.
“Fernando Escarra used a Bubble-Head Charm too, and was third to arrive in the time limit with his hostage. We award him forty-eight points.” Immense cheers from Beauxbatons again.
“Hugo Olsson used Gillyweed as well, engaging in a duel with Fleur Delacour to escape the Grindylows first and being successful in doing so, as well as firing a spell against Harry Potter. He arrived outside the time limit and engaged in foul play, so we will award him twenty-six points.” Weak cheering from the Durmstrang kids, and considerable booing from the stands as well.
“Harry Potter partially Transfigured himself into fish of some sort to obtain his hostage, and according to Merchieftainess he was the third to reach his hostages, despite arriving last and well outside the time limit. This was because he refused to leave the hostages and instead insisted on returning them all safely, not just his own, even leaving to find Miss Delacour and rescue her as well.”
Ron, Hermione, and Draco all gave him astonishingly similar looks of exasperation and commemoration he would have laughed at if it weren’t for the situation he was stuck in now.
“Most of the judges,” Here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a poorly hidden glare, “feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However… Mr. Potter’s score is forty-six points.”
Harry’s stomach lept with the earsplitting cheers of the crowd, and his friends all spun around, eyes wide and caught by surprise, but then laughed and started applauding hard with the rest of the crowd.
“Finally,” The crowd started to hush and Hermione grabbed Draco’s arm who blinked at her, confused, for a moment before focusing back on Bagman, licking his lips. “Draco Malfoy, for reasons we can’t quite grasp,” He shook his head, looking astonished by the words coming out of his mouth. “Managed to befriend the Giant Squid of the Lake as well as use the Bubble-Head Charm to be the second to reach his hostage, and second to return with her. But, even when he had completed the Task, the boy refused to stay out of the water, returning not just once, but twice to protect and rescue Harry Potter from the grindylows, and bringing him and the other hostages and Miss Delacour back to us. For this, the Judges all agree to not only limit awarding him full marks, but also award bonus points for these shows of befriending and moral fiber, giving him sixty points.”
Harry thought the cheers of the crowd would break his ears, but instead he added to it, hollering and clapping and even laughing when he caught sight of Draco’s face, the palest it’s ever been. He looked as if he might faint and probably at least would have buckled down to the ground if it weren’t for his mother clinging to him and kissing him on both cheeks, causing his friends to laugh some more.
Sixty points… Sixty... As Narcissa finally managed to grab a hold of herself and congratulate her son Draco looked over at Harry and smirked, winking in the most ‘I win’ manner Harry had ever seen. He only nodded and gave a thumbs up because he had, indeed won, fair and square.
Bagman, stopping from clapping politely along with basically everyone else on the bank, raised his wand and, just as he had in the First Task, displayed the current scores of everyone in the sky.
Draco Malfoy, 98 points.
Harry Potter, 86 points.
Tess Whitlock, 85 points.
Cedric Diggory, 81 points.
Fernando Escarra, 80 points.
Viktor Krum, 79 points.
Anya Sallow, 79 points.
Fleur Delacour, 55 points.
Hugo Olsson, 54 points.
Draco swayed on his feet and Narcissa caught him, but he still looked pretty green from the sheer amount of points he now had compared to everyone else, and he didn't miss the aggressive looks he was getting from Karkaroff.
“As I told the Champions before, one of them had to be eliminated in this Task. Due to being in last place, we will now eliminate Hugo Olsson from the Tournament, but thank him for his participation up until this point.” Bagman’s final words were drowned out by the booing of the Durmstrang kids but Harry didn’t care. Served him right for fighting Fleur and him--it should have been illegal to begin with.
“The Third Task will take place at noon on the twenty-fourth of March. The Champions will be notified what is coming one week beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the Champions.” Bagman finished off with that, and Harry realized that finally yes, it was over. He had two months until the next one but for now, he could rest. He had got through, in second place at that, with Draco bound to win with that much of a lead, and he was still safe in the high 80s.
Maybe Hagrid was right… He thought as Madam Pomfrey hurried him and the other Champions and former hostages up the steps to the castle. Maybe one of them really could win…
Harry was actually quite sure one of them could win now and knew, as he caught Draco’s eye and saw his stunment had turned to a grin, that he thought so too.