The weeks following Christmas Break were nothing out of the ordinary for the two Ilvermorny witches. They continued their classes just like they would at their school back in America. Magnolia finally started to get better marks in Herbology thanks to Neville's tutoring and he started to understand Divination a little better thanks to Magnolia's expertise. Nicole maintained her high grades although her main concerns were focusing on the Tournament. She had always taken pride in her grades when it came to school and she would never let them slip even if it meant that sometimes she couldn't have as much fun as she wanted to. Nicole and Magnolia had stayed up late the night before the second trial to better prepare for what was to come the next morning. Although they had cracked the riddle months ago, the witches were still faced with the problem of what the Black Lake would take from the Champions.
**The Day Of The Second Trial**
Nicole awoke early in the morning to make sure that she had a good meal before the inevitable water trial. She walked over to where she left Magnolia the night prior to wake her up. When she reached the bed, she took one of Magnolia's pillows that had fallen onto the ground and smacked the bed where she had been sleeping. After the soft thud of the pillow hitting the covers, Nicole noticed that Magnolia did not react to the pillow, she lifted the blanket on the dark purple bed to notice that her friend was nowhere to be seen. Nicole assumed that Magnolia had already gone to the Great Hall to get something to eat, but when she reached the hall, Nicole still couldn't locate her. She knew that this behavior was definitely out of the ordinary for Magnolia, but she could not waste the time before the task wondering what her friend was doing. After eating, Nicole got dressed in her cranberry purple two-piece bathing suit. She decided to add a red shawl that draped over her shoulders so that she could be warm walking through the fields of Hogwarts. She still couldn't help but wonder what Magnolia had gotten herself into this time.
Nicole had just reached the edge of the dock when she spotted Harry walking with Neville towards boats. She then caught out of the corner of her eye, Neville discreetly giving Harry something to put in his pocket. The three met up as one of the boats pulled towards where they were standing. They boarded the boat and sat across from one another. When he sat down, Harry asked Nicole if she had seen Ron or Hermione at all that day.
"I haven't seen anyone today now that you brought it up. I've looked for Mags all day and I thought she had just run off somewhere," Nicole replied.
"I thought that I was going crazy when I didn't wake up last night to Ron yelling about spiders," Harry acknowledged. The trio of students wandered onto the boat and took their seats as they sailed across the Black Lake when Nicole turned to Harry to ask about his strategy.
"Um, Neville got me some of this stuff... I'm not entirely sure what it does but I think I trust Neville enough not to kill me," The boy replied while pulling the slimy plant out of his pocket.
"Oh that's Gillyweed, well... I hope it works out for you," Nicole said hesitantly while looking over at Neville who was also looking quite nervous about the whole ordeal.
**The Second Task**
The five Champions climbed up onto a large wooden podium where Dumbledore and Mr. Crouch stood waiting for them. After making a loud announcement to the crowd, the group took their places in line while Dumbledore explained the rules to everyone in attendance. The Champions have one hour to retrieve something they have misplaced from the bottom of the Lake before the time runs out. They could use any means necessary to get their items from the Lake, but they are only allowed to retrieve their own item.
The water below the Champions was cold, freezing almost due to the weather that Hogwarts had during this specific task. Nicole looked above her head to see Mr. Filch with a match in his hand, standing next to a large cannon. The cannon that signaled the start of the task rang through the air and all of the Champions jumped straight into the icy water. Harry, however, was pushed in by Professor Moody rather ungracefully. Nicole, without thinking, swiftly channeled her Metamorphmagus abilities to appear as one of the mermaids in the lake. She found herself swimming with ease to the bottom of the murky water to see where all of her friends had been that morning.
Once she reached the bottom on the lake she spotted Magnolia, Hermione, and Ron along with 2 other student tied to jagged rocks. Nicole swam over to Magnolia and used her scaly claws to rip at the rope and free her friend. As she grabbed onto Magnolia's hand, she spotted Harry speeding towards her looking surprisingly normal, although now he had gills, webbed feet, and hands. He immediately looked concerned when he saw both Ron and Hermione tied down. As soon as Nicole and Harry made eye contact, Krum swam towards them with the head of a brooding shark. He shredded the rope holding down Hermione in one swoop and bolted towards the surface of the water. Nicole then realized that if she didn't catch up to Krum, it would hurt her standing in the game. She nodded towards Harry, wishing him luck, and rapidly swam towards the surface after Krum.
She managed to surpass the half shark half Krum hybrid and reach the podium first. Nicole and Magnolia were escorted back up to the podium and given a towel to dry off. Many minutes had passed without a sight of Harry. However, Magnolia had pointed out that Fleur was on the podium without her sister. Nicole looked out to the motionless water before peicing together was probably happening below. She sprang back into the water, passing Cedric pulling up a Ravenclaw girl that she did not recognize to the surface. She reached the middle of the Lake where a tall patch of seaweed looked like it had Harry trapped. When she got closer to the boy, she noticed it was not just seaweed that wouldn't let Harry go, it was the Merpeople. She caught sight of him struggling to get Ron and Gabrielle to the surface and swam towards him to make the mermaids that were causing him trouble release him. When they saw that Nicole looked just like them, they backed off of Harry, but by that time, the powers that the Gillyweed had given Harry ran out. Nicole grabbed hold of Ron and Gabrielle, shooting them towards the top of the Lake so that she could get to Harry.
Up on the podium, Magnolia spotted Ron and Fleur's sister bobbing to the shore. Before they had popped up, Cedric Diggory swam up to the rest of the Champions with a giant grin on his face. Magnolia really did not appreciate his attitude seeing as her best friend and Harry were still in the water. As soon as she saw Ron and the little girl, she and Hermione ran over to help them onto the platform. Ron carried the girl through the water and helped her get to Fleur then turning to tell Magnolia and Hermione that the time was about to run out.
In the midst of the action, Nicole grabbed Harry by his hand to bring him out of the water. Which seemed to cause her more trouble than she expected however and realized that it would take her a long time to get Harry on the platform with him not being able to move his body. Harry must have realized this fact as well because he then whispered, "Acendio," causing the pair to hurl towards the surface and land on top of the platform. The crowd could be heard around the two celebrating, but not yelling for them. Instead, the group of students were congratulating Cedric and Viktor. There was an uproar in cheering when the two boys came over to where the Champions were stranding. The only people who ran up to Harry and Nicole were Dumbledore and their friends.
After a few minutes of calming everyone down, Dumbledore announced that even though Harry did not finish the trial in time, he would still be receiving third place for his efforts to save another person down in the Lake. The students from the other schools could be heard booing at this, some saying it wasn't fair but Dumbledore dismissed them by reminding them that they had not been picked for the games, therefore they had no right to challenge the standings of the Champions. The final score of the second task was read aloud by Crouch, Nicole Reynolds: First Place. Viktor Krum: Second Place. Harry Potter: Third Place. Cedric Diggory: Fourth Place and Fleur Delacour: Fifth Place. Harry turned to Nicole and thanked her for helping him in the Lake. "That's what friends are for Potter" Nicole laughed walking over to Magnolia.
"What happened Mags, how the hell did you get to the bottom of the Black Lake?"
"I'm not entirely sure, one minute I remember returning to our room from getting a late night snack, and the next it was like I was floating. I passed out and just now woke up when we hit the surface." Magnolia shared. "Anyways, first place is amazing Niki! I knew the whole Metamorphamagus thing would work!"
The group of misfits including Nicole, Magnolia, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and the big man, who the girls found out name was Hagrid, all walked back to Hogwarts celebrating their victories. While walking, Harry wondered alittle ahead of the group before letting out a yelp. The group ran over to see what the fuss was about and saw Barty Crouch's hat and wand laid in the leaves but the man was nowhere to be seen.
"A Director of Magical Law Enforment would never go anywhere without their wand," Hagrid grumbled to himself, " 'Mere kids stay close until we get back to the castle."
(just some cool concept art from the movies of the merpeople)