"Harry, tell me again," Hermione demands.
"Come seek us where our voices sound."
"The black lake, that's obvious," Elizabeth says.
"An hour-long you'll have to look," Harry speaks.
"Again obvious, though I must admit potentially problematic," Hermione mutters.
"Potentially problematic? When was the last time you held your breath under the water for an hour Hermione?" Harry asks.
"Look Harry, we can do this. The four of us can figure it out," Ron speaks. Mad-Eye Moody appears in the doorway.
"Hate to break up this scholar session but Professor McGonagall would like to see you in her office. Not you Potter 1, just Potter 2 and Granger.
"But sir, the second task is only hours away and..." Hermione protests.
"Exactly. Presumably, Potter is well prepared by now and could do with a good night's sleep. Go. Now! Longbottom!" Elizabeth's face hits with realisation. Neville appears from behind a bookcase. "Why don't you help Potter put his books back."
"You know, if you're interested in plants you'd be better with Gorshok's Guide to Herbology. Do you know there's a wizard in Nepal whose growing gravity resistant trees?"
"Neville. No offence, but I really don't care about plants. Now if there's a Tibetan turnip that will allow me to breathe underwater for an hour then great."
"I don't know about a turnip but you can always use gilliweed." Harry face lights up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2ND TASK~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Weasly twins are shouting, busy taking bets. Harry is walking along with Neville, he has some green plant life in his hand. "You're sure about this Neville?" Harry asks.
"Absolutely."
"For an hour?"
"Most likely."
"Most likely?" Harry says stopping in is tracks.
"Well, there is some debate among herbologists as to the effects of freshwater versus saltwater."
"You're telling me this now? You must be joking."
"I just wanted to help."
"Well, that makes you sight better than Elizabeth and Hermione. Where are they anyway?"
"You seem a little tense, Harry," Neville says as the walk on the dock.
"Do I?" Harry says looking around.
"Welcome to the second task. Last night something was stolen from each of our champions. A
treasure of sorts. These four treasures, one for each champion, now lie on the bottom of the black lake. In order to win each champion need only find their treasure and return to the surface. Simple enough. Except for this, they will have one hour to do so and one hour only. After that, they'll be on their own," Dumbledore speaks.
"Put that in your mouth," Mad-eye tells Harry. Harry puts the gilliweed in his mouth and starts choking.
"You may begin at the start of the cannon." The cannon fires and the champions enter the water, three of them dive in while Harry is pushed. Underwater the effects of gilliweed take hold, Harry's hands and feet become webbed.
"What's the matter with him?" Seamus asks.
"I don't know I can't see him," says Dean.
"Oh my god, I've killed Harry Potter!" Neville says loudly putting his hands no his head. Harry flies into the air like a dolphin and the crowd cheer.
Harry swims among the fish and rocks. Singing voices start echoing. Fleur gets trapped, she screams. "The Beauxbatons champion Miss Delacour has unfortunately been forced to retire. She will take no further part in this task," Dumbledore's voice echo's. Harry is still searching around. He hears muffled screams. He finds Elizabeth, Hermione, Cho Chan and a blonde girl from Beauxbatons tied in place by their ankles. Cedric is there, he takes Cho with him. Harry sets about freeing Madison and Hermione but vicious merpeople appear.
"But she's my friend too!"
"Only one," the merpeople hiss. What looks like a shark approaches at high speed, it has legs and it's Viktor. He takes Hermione and heads for the surface. Harry frees Elizabeth. Cedric and Cho emerge the crowd cheers. Viktor and Hermione next, the crows chants 'Krum, Krum, Krum'. The Beauxbatons girls look worried. Harry looks over and sees the blonde girl that Fleur was unable to rescue. He loosens her rope too and starts heading for the surface with the both of them. He's attacked and gets held down, he pushes Elizabeth and the girl towards the surface.
Elizabeth and the girl come up, they are coughing but safe. Madison helps the little girl swim to the dock. They're helped out of the water by a girl from Beauxbatons. Underwater Harry casts a spell which propels him towards the surface, he flies out and lands on the decking where the crowd are. "Harry!" Dumbledore shouts. Elizabeth holds the towel close to her.
"Get him another towel," Barty says.
"I want all the judges over here now," Dumbledore mentions for them to go over to that direction.
"You saved her, even though she wasn't yours to save. My little sister!" Fleur speaks. Fleur kisses Harry on the face.
"Thank you! And you... You helped!" Fleur says to Elizabeth.
"yeah... a bit," Elizabeth says. Fleur kisses her cheek too. "Merci." Hermione comes up to Harry with a towel.
"Harry!"
"Hermione," Harry greets.
"Are you alright? You must be freezing! Personally, I think you behaved admirably." Hermione kisses Harry on the head.
"I finished last Hermione," Harry says sadly.
"Next to last." Harry, Ron, Elizabeth, Remus and Hermione talk for a while. Elizabeth notices the young Beauxbatons girl still shivering. She takes her towel off and wraps it around the small girl.
"Thank you," the small girl whispers.
"You're very welcome," Elizabeth walks back over to the group.
"But you'll be freezing," Hermione says.
"No I won't," she turns to Remus and quickly takes his folded cardigan off of his arms and wraps it around herself. Remus chuckles and pulls her into a side hug.
"Attention! Attention! The winner is... Mr Diggory!" Dumbledore speaks. Cedric and his friends cheer. "For showing unique command of the bubblehead shark. The way I see it, Mr Potter would have finished first had it not been for his determination to rescue not only Miss Potter but the others as well. We've agreed to award him second place! For outstanding moral fibre."
As they're walking away from the lake Harry's friends are cheering him.
"All that moral fibre eh?" Fred says.
"Blimey even when you go wrong it turns out right," Ron says.
"Well done 'moral fibre'," George jokes. Barty Crouch waits for Harry.
"Congratulations Potter, a fine achievement. Well done boy. I'm sorry we haven't spoken after all your story is one I've heard many times. Quite remarkable. Tragic of course, to lose one's family. Never whole again are we? Still, life goes on. And here we stand. I'm sure your parents would be very proud today Potter," Barty says. Mad-Eye approaches them.
"Bartimus! Not trying to lure Potter into one of the ministry's summer internships, are we? The last boy who went into the department of ministries never came out!" Mad-eye jokes-ish. Barty walks away from him.
"And they say I'm mad."