The Potion Princess

The Second Task

"It's not that I don't believe that Harry can do it,"  Audra said, leaning over the edge of the dock.  "It's just that everything in his life seems to go horribly wrong."

She was standing between Fred and George, the whole school staring out into the lake.  As far as tasks go, it was decidedly more boring to watch than the dragon, considering they were all searching for signs like an unexplained ripple in the water. 

"He'll be fine."  George said, for the millionth time.  "I'd be more worried about yourself."

"What are you talking about?"  Her focus broke for a second as she whipped around to stare at him.  She'd been on edge for this task too, even though she proclaims her faith in Harry to anyone who so much as looked at her in a way that implied differently.  She'd yelled at even more people than she had the morning of the first task, and today was no different.  Audra was on edge with everyone, even the Weasley's.

"Did you or did you not attack a certain Pansy Parkinson?"  Fred asks, smirking.  He was jumping up and down to keep warm, and she could hear the jingle of galleons in his pockets.  They had taken up their betting pool again, and just like last time, Audra had put ten galleons on Harry. 

"She deserved it."  And more, really.  She had been running her mouth about Hermione, and Audra just wasn't about to sit there and take it.  Pansy's not going to open her mouth for a good few days, let alone use it to talk bad about Audra's friends.  "You wouldn't have sat there either."

They fall quiet, staring out into the water.  There's nothing to see, and she's not sure why everyone had turned out to stare at nothing when they could sit by an open window and listen to the announcer.   Emmeline and Clary were on the other platform.  Emmeline kept hugging Clary.  Ron and Hermione were no where to be seen, though Fred and George swore that they had been fine last night. 

The mystery of where Harry's friends was solved when the first champion emerged from the water, pulling a gasping Hermione behind him.  "Oh Merlin."  Audra shoved her way through the crowd to get to the ladder, grabbing onto Hermione's hand, helping Krum shove her up the ladder.  "They stuck you in the lake?"

"I'm okay."  Hermione's teeth were chattering, hair long and dripping all over the dock.  "Viktor got me out."

Which was very comforting and all, more so now that his face didn't look like a shark, but Audra still stood guard over both of them until they had drank all the pepper up potion Madame Pomfrey gave them.  "My Seester!"  Fleur broke away from her headmistress and came over.  "Did you see my seester?"

Hermione stared at her, maybe shocked by the sheer beauty of Fleur even when she was crying.  "I'm sure she'll be fine,"  Audra found herself soothing, filling another goblet full of pepper up potion.  Fleur didn't drink it.  "Harry's down there, he won't leave her, I promise."

She had been saying it as an empty promise, but sure enough, Ron, Harry, and a little girl who must have been Gabrielle broke the surface of the water a good twenty minutes later.  Audra and Hermione leaned over the water to grab onto Ron and Harry, pulling them up onto the dock while Fleur dragged Gabrielle into her arms.  "You saved her!"  She looked a little wild, but she pulled both boys into a hug, and gave Audra one for good measure.  "Even though she vas not yours to save!"

"Git,"  Ron muttered, trying to wring out his robes.  "Thick headed nutter, trying to save all of us, almost drowned he did."

"You idiot!"  Audra said fondly, and then she was launching herself at him, too, forcing a potion into his hand and wrapping him in blankets.

"You aren't still mad?"   He looked a little weak at the knees, and he was shaking from the cold.

"Not even a little,"  which was a lie, but that was okay, because the judges decided that Harry was a hero and gave him a good score anyways, and she got to hug him, too. 

"Party in the Gryffindor room!"  George said, wrapping his arm around her.  And upon seeing Fleur added, "You're welcome to come too."

Fleur watched him for a small moment.  "Any chance z'ere is an older brother?"

"Er,"  George blinked, momentarily stunned, probably an effect of the veela blood that they were all feeling.  She wonders how Emmeline would act if she got close enough.  "Not here."

Fleur laughed.  "After the third task, then."

This party wasn't as big as the first, but it was still louder than any other room she'd ever been.  The twins had gotten food again, and the Weird Sisters were once again blasting, but Audra decided that she was going to hang around in the background.  She did not want to think to much about the last party that she attended, so when Angela and Katie came and started up a conversation about quidditch, she was grateful.

"You don't have anything to worry about, you know."

Katie had left to go talk to Lee, and now it was just Audra and Angela.  They had been talking about the herbology essay due that Audra hadn't even started (she despises Herbology, and Emmeline said she can't copy her this time), and personally, she thought she had a lot to worry about considering its due in two days.  "What?"

"With Fred."  there was a yell from behind them and an explosion, followed by Fred's announcement of a new product they'd developed together.  "I knew you wanted to go to the dance with him.  It was bad of me to say yes."

"It's alright."  And she found that it was, really.  "I had a good time with Damien, in the end."

"Well, he couldn't keep his eyes off of you."  Angela smiled.  "Trust me, there's no one who can compete with you."

The party gets better, after that.