Second Task
"Harry, wait!" Cedric panted, finally catching up to the fourth year Gryffindors.
"Hello Cedric! Um... why is your hair wet?" Harry asked him.
"I know what the second task is." Cedric muttered to him.
"OHMYGOSH!" Harry squealed, jumping up and down and squealing. "Wait.... you are the first to figure it out, yes?"
"I think so? Viktor and Fleur haven't mentioned anything, and you have purposely done absolutely nothing to even try and figure it out yet." Harry grinned sheepishly when Hermione glared at him.
"Okay, good. Let's go find the Queen of the Night Time!" Harry grabbed Cedric by the arm and dragged him off, Hermione, Ron, Neville and Ginny following closely behind.
"Harry, that is not our astronomy professor's name!" Hermione scolded.
Harry skidded to a halt. "Since when?" He said, looking shocked.
"I- forget it. Just keep walking."
When they arrived at the astronomy tower, Harry knocked on Professor Sinistra's office door. She opened it, looking mildly irritated, pulling it almost shut behind her.
"Your majesty." Harry bowed deeply. "I come bearing gifts." He pulled a somehow completely undamaged pumpkin pasty out of his robe pocket and handed it to her.
"I'm not giving you a homework extension Mr Potter, you asked me the same thing yesterday. Off with you."
"Hey! The extension is well deserved, I'm a poor little orphan being forced to die in a school competition here!" Harry said, looking mock outraged. "Anyway, I'm here about him." He pointed at Cedric, who looked incredibly confused.
"What has Mr Diggory done that merits you knocking on my office door on my evening off, Potter?"
"He figured out the second task. First. You owe me 20 galleons. So does Snape." Harry grinned when the puzzled expression on his astronomy professor's face became a scowl.
"Seriously? I was SO sure Miss Delacour was going to figure it out first. No offence Diggory." She said, shoving a bag of galleons into Harry's waiting hand.
"To be fair, someone technically told me." Cedric said helpfully.
"Oh did they now?" Sinistra raised her brows. "Well, that rather changes things then, doesn't it?"
"Ah, Harry, Cedric, thank goodness I found you!" The group turned around to see Fleur, looking elegant as always, but rather flushed and out of breath. "I know what ze task is!"
"Oh?" The astronomy Professor raised a brow, and Fleur blushed. "How did you figure it out?"
"By accident, I suppose. Eet was a, what do you call it? A happy mistake."
"Well then, Mr Potter. We have a bit of a dilemma. Who gets the cash?"
"Me!" He exclaimed. "Cedric found out first."
"Yes, but he was told. Fleur found out on her own."
"By a complete fluke!"
"Enough." The group turned around once again, to see Snape stood directly behind Ron, who leapt about a foot in the air and scampered closer to Hermione.
"The money is mine. Mr Krum informed his headmaster he had figured out the contents of the egg about half an hour ago."
"What? How?" Harry cried, looking aghast.
"Be experimenting, Potter. Now, hand it over." Snape held out a hand expectantly.
"Nuh uh." Harry shook his head, hugging the bag close to his chest. "It's mine!"
"Expelliarmus!" The bag was ripped from his grasp and floated over everyone's heads, into the waiting hand of Remus Lupin.
"How is it yours???" Sinistra yelled, looking furious. "Harry is still completely clueless!"
"Am I?" Harry said with a smirk. "Or have I been pulling your leg from the very beginning?"
"Potter-"
"What is going on?" Ron asked loudly. Everyone turned to look it him. "Hey, it's not my fault not one is explaining anything!"
"Basically, we all made a bet on who would figure out the egg first. Remus bet on me, me on Cedric, Snape on Vicky and Sinistra on Fleur. Winner gets 20 galleons from each of the losers."
"Oh my Merlin, Harry! I give up." Hermione rubbed her forehead, looking fed up. "When did this bet get made?"
"Severus here got in a little.... spat... with Harry." Remus said, smirking. Me and Aurora just happened to be passing by at the same moment."
"Anyway, what none of them realised was I figured out what the egg was weeks ago! Way before we even made the bet" Harry interjected, smiling brightly.
"You WHAT? POTTER!" Harry jumped back, in case the astronomy professor tried to strangle him.
"You foolish, arrogant, little-"
"How did you work it out then, Remus? If you didn't already know Harry knew?" Hermione asked, looking more curious than fed up now.
"I didn't. A..... friend heard you talking to Dobby earlier and told me."
"PADFOOT, YOU LITTLE SNITCH!" Harry yelled.
"Dogs can't talk, Harry." Cedric said.
"I DON'T CARE! IT'S HIS FAULT!"
"Potter, explain yourself!" Sinistra demanded.
"Fine. I figured it out when I was annoying Draco and opening it behind him randomly, because I was bored and he was a fun target, and he threw it at me in retaliation and it landed in the black lake and started singing." Harry said. "So we decided to keep it quiet and prank his lovely Godfather and my lovely Honorary Uncle and our coolest Professor!"
"Awww, I'm the coolest?" Sinistra's anger seemed to melt away instantly as she smiled at Harry.
"Well, McGonagall is impossible to beat to be fair, but you are a close second!" Harry said.
"Fair, no one can compete with Minerva."
"You would be higher on the list Mr Snake, but you get a bit grumpy when you're tired." Harry said. "Anyway, I'm hungry. Toodles!" Harry strutted off, his friends close behind.
"I would be less tired if you would just leave me alone, Potter!" Snape shouted after him.
"Wait. Did he ever actually tell us what the task is?" Remus asked suddenly.
"Nope." Said Sinistra
"Little menace."
"Indeed." Snape turned on his heel and swaggered away in his typical bat-like fashion.
Meanwhile, Harry's little gaggle of gossip girls were having a giggle.
"So anyway, what is the task? Ron asked.
"We have to save the people we love most from the black lake." Harry said. "But what they don't know is that there's a whole other prank taking place right this minute."
"You what?"
"Okay, so basically....."
The day of the second task dawned bright and early. Harry would have woken up serenely, smile on his face, but he didn't. Because Dobby tipped a glass of cold water on his head.
"OI! What was that for?" Harry said indignantly, shoving the elf off his bed.
"Master Harry Potter was going to miss the task!" Dobby exclaimed.
"What? Oh, oopsie! Thanks Dobby, can you leave whilst I change?"
"Of course Master Harry Potter." He disappeared with a crack and Harry quickly chucked some clothes on. Ron and Hermione were nowhere to be found, as expected. Ron was self explanatory. Hermione simply because she'd been seen studying alone with Krum in the library (intentionally) and Harry and Daphne had been carefully implanting the rumour that they liked each other (purposefully).
Harry jogged down to the black lake, where everyone was waiting for him.
"You're late!" Ginny scolded, shoving something in his hand. "Moody told Neville there are anti summoning spells on the hostages, so he got you this instead. As soon as you eat it dive in the water."
"Thanks Ginny." Harry said, tugging off the clothes he had only just put on and shivering in his swimming trunks. He wished he owned a muggle wetsuit.
"Champions at the ready!" Bagman's once again magnified voice rose over the crowd. Harry took his place beside Cedric, who grinned at him.
"When the canon fires, you can go." Bagman told them. Everyone waited with bated breath, the silence was deafening.
BOOM!
Harry shoved the Gillyweed in his mouth and dove. The water was freezing and he tried to yell when he broke the surface, but suddenly all the air was whooshed from his lungs. Oh.
He let himself sink into the water as he felt a sting on the sides of his neck, and suddenly his lungs were filled with air again. He made a mental note to give Neville a trillion people points later.
He swam down, eyes adjusting to the murky water. He saw Cedric up ahead, bubble head charm working well for him. Fleur and Krum were nowhere to be seen.
He kept swimming, down and down, until the sudden appearance of Myrtle made him jump.
"The hostages are that way." She pointed, simpering at him. "Good luck!"
Harry gave her a thumbs up and swam off. She'd need people points now too.
He kept swimming in the direction Myrtle told him. It was remarkably uneventful. After what felt like days, he found the village.
None of the other champions had arrived yet. Harry, having been coached on Mermaid etiquette by Hermione, did not swim directly to the hostages, but to the Mer-person who was clearly in charge. He bowed low, and offered them a handful of pearls. Real ones - Daphne had given him her bracelet that she was given as a courting gift when her father tried to get her to start courting in preparation for her arranged marriage.
The Mer-chief looked at the pearls carefully then accepted, taking them from Harry's grasp and gesturing the guards to trop the ropes around Ron when Harry pointed to him. Harry grabbed him but didn't leave. Instead, he waited.
Cedric was next. He too bowed and offered a gift to the Chief. Cho's ropes were released and Cedric joined Harry, waiting.
Krum came next, with a shark's head. He did the same as The other two, and Hermione was released.
They waited for Fleur for what felt like hours. Eventually she appeared, looking thoroughly beaten up. She bowed and offered a gift just like the others and Gabrielle, her sister, was released. The champions began to rise to the surface together.
Harry noticed just in time that Fleur had fallen unconscious. They were almost at the surface when she had started to sink instead of rise. Harry shoved Ron upwards and dived back down, Swimming after her as quickly as he could, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her up with him. His lungs began to burn, the Gillyweed wearing off.
He broke the surface, gasping.
"Cedric!" He called. The others weren't far away, no one yet back to shore. The cheers were deafening. Cedric looked back and gasped, swimming back to help Harry pull Fleur to shore.
They made it onto the shore and were instantly swamped. Hermione, Ron, Cho, and Gabrielle were all looking incredibly confused.
Madam Pomfrey rushed down to meet them, tending to Fleur first. Once she awake and wrapped up in blankets, she turned her attention to the other three champions.
"Goodness me, it's a miracle you haven't all got Hypothermia!" She muttered.
"LOOK!" Someone from the stands yelled suddenly. Everyone fell quiet, looking at the four rescued hostages, who were changing before their very eyes.
Before anyone knew it, Hermione, Ron, Cho and Gabrielle were four completely different people.
"Um." Hermione, now Penelope Clearwater said. "I thought it was the people the champions loved the most that were being put in the lake?"
"Yeah?" Gabrielle, now Vincent Crabbe, said intelligently.
Ron, now Blaise, Sniggered.
"Eez this a prank?" Cho, now one of the Beauxbatons girls, asked.
"Well, this wasn't supposed to happen!" Bagman said brightly. Harry noticed Crouch was sat next him, scowling.
"No, it wasn't. What is the meaning of this?" Karkaroff demanded.
"Well, we thought it was a bit odd that you were deciding who we loved the most, so we decided for ourselves." Harry said. "Actually that's a lie, we just pulled names out of a hat."
"Also side-note, how awful of you to enchant students to sleep against their wishes and put them in the lake?" Cedric added.
Murmurs spread through the crowd. Harry grinned.
"Oh before I forget, Neville gets 50 people points and Myrtle gets 20." He said to himself.
"Well, this is a bit of a pickle." Bagman said.
At that moment, the Chief rose to the surface. Dumbledore went to speak with him.
"The Chief informs me you all showed the utmost respect and waited to one another to rise to the surface. He tells me Mr Potter arrived first, then Mr Diggory, then Mr Krum, then Miss Delacour."
"Let's confer."
In the end, Harry received 50 points, Cedric 45, Krum 40 and Fleur 30.
Soon enough, the champions were released by Pomfrey and said their goodbyes as they split off to join their own friends.
"Nice one, Harry!" Ron said. "I gave Dean and Seamus a fright when I sat down behind them, they thought I was in the lake!"
"It was so funny." Neville said, grinning. "Good job, Harry."
"Thanks Nev, it was all down to you though. Gillyweed, genius!" Harry clapped him on the back.
They all headed back to the castle. Ginny, Ron and Draco in the lead again, arguing over quidditch. Neville and Luna close behind, discussing turnips, maybe? Harry wasn't sure. Harry himself walked slowly behind with Daphna and Hermione, the two bickering.
"You know." Harry said loudly, stopping walking. Everyone turned to look at him. "That was such a poorly designed task. No one viewing was able to see anything at all!"
"Yes, Harry, we discussed this already." Hermione said impatiently.
"I know but, like, it wasn't even good weather! You all got drenched and for what? Gasp! Payback time!"
If all the tournament organisers and teachers had rainclouds that couldn't be banished floating above them and drenching them for three solid hours, Harry had nothing to do with it.
He definitely didn't give Peeves water balloons either.