EDITED
February 17, 2014
If you find any grammatical/spelling errors, please politely let me know. I am not a professional, nor do I claim to be an experienced author. I do make mistakes that I am trying to clean up. Thank you, enjoy.
...
[Chapter 14: The second task.]
The past few days had been an absolute blur. Anytime I spent without Cedric, I was with the Weasley twins. I rarely hung around Harry, Ron, or Hermione anymore, and they didn't seem to care. It kind of hurt me more than I thought it would, and I longed for their companionship again.
Cedric had once again managed to make me late for my class by distracting me with the undeniable Diggory charm. This had become somewhat of a habit, but he always flirted his way into getting me a late pass. The female teachers at Hogwarts rarely recieved flattery, so Cedric was a certain God-sent to them.
"Your such an idiot!" I giggled, shoving Cedric playfully as we wandered the empty halls.
"That's the thanks I get?" He teased."I see how appreciated I am. I need a proper thank you."
I looked up at him, a small smile gracing my face before I slinked my arms around his neck and pulled him down to my level, meeting him in a half way kiss. I could feel him smile against my lips, and as I went to pull away I could hear a small noise of disapproval, and he pulled me back again, this time seeking a deeper kiss. He made me feel dizzy. I take pride in being at least slightly intelligent, but when Cedric kissed me, I was just a stupid girl, barely able to remember her own name.
After being engulfed by the giddy feeling, I pulled away, giggling like an airhead, "How's that for proper 'Thank Yous'? Now, I need to go before I'm any later!"
"Okay, fine," He grumbled, hugging me, and then sending me off towards Professor Flitwick.
Walking down the empty hall, the Professor's door finally came into view. Opening it, I smiled in a cross between nerves and apologies. Flitwick gave me a short (no pun intended) look of dissaproval, and grabbed the late pass from my hand. I scanned the classroom and saw Hermione, Ron, and Harry, all sitting together at a table. I took a deep breath and mustered up my courage; this could be my opportunity to start gaining back their friendship. I didn't want to lose them.
I sat at the small table with the trio, and vaguely heard Harry hiss, "Just forget the egg for a minute, all right?"
I set my books down next to Ron and slightly diagonal from Harry and Hermione, and couldn't help but smile a bit at the conversation. Hermione was no doubt still on his arse about his recent laziness, and Harry didn't want to hear it.
As I sat down, they gave me a look that clearly said, 'Why are you even here?'
I felt the small sting of a less than friendly welcome, but tried to ignore the gnawing feeling.
We were supposed to be practicing the opposite of the Summoning Charm today-- the Banishing Charm, owing to the potential for nasty accidents when objects kept flying across the room. Professor Flitwick had given each student a stack of cushions on which to practice, the theory being that these wouldn't hurt anyone if they went off target. It was a good theory, but it wasn't working very well. Neville's aim was so poor that he kept accidentally sending much heavier things flying across the room-- Professor Flitwick, for instance.
"Snape said Moody's searched his office as well?" Ron whispered, his eyes alight with interest as he Banished a cushion with a sweep of his wand (it soared into the air and knocked Parvati's hat off... the ugly thing.). "What... d'you reckon Moody's here to keep an eye on Snape as well as Karkaroff?"
"Well, I dunno if that's what Dumbledore asked him to do, but he's definitely doing it," said Harry, waving his wand without paying much attention, so that his cushion did an odd sort of belly flop off the desk. "Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stay here because he's giving him a second chance or something...."
"What?" said Ron, his eyes widening, his next cushion spinning high into the air, ricocheting off the chandelier, and dropping heavily onto Flitwick's desk. "Harry... maybe Moody thinks Snape put your name in the Goblet of Fire!"
"Oh Ron," said Hermione, shaking her head sceptically, "We thought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out he was saving Harry's life, remember?"
She banished a cushion and it flew across the room and landed in the box we were all supposed to be aiming at. Harry looked at Hermione, with an odd sort thinking face.
Snape loved taking points from Harry, and had certainly never missed an opportunity to give him punishments, or even to suggest that he should be suspended from the school. However, Snape did not seem like the type to put a student in the face of danger. I continued to scribble down occasional notes and fling things toward the box. I kept my mouth shut about the small dispute, though; I had already formed my own opinion.
"I don't care what Moody says," Hermione went on. "Dumbledore's not stupid. He was right to trust Hagrid and Professor Lupin, even though loads of people wouldn't have given them jobs, so why shouldn't he be right about Snape, even if Snape is a bit--"
"--evil," said Ron promptly. "Come on, Hermione, why are all these Dark wizard catchers searching his office, then?"
"Why has Mr. Crouch been pretending to be ill?" said Hermione, ignoring Ron. "It's a bit funny, isn't it, that he cant manage to come to the Yule Ball, but he can get up here in the middle of the night when he wants to?"
"You just don't like Crouch because of that elf, Winky," said Ron, sending a cushion soaring into the window.
"You just want to think Snape's up to something," said Hermione, sending her cushion zooming neatly into the box.
I bit my tounge harder, holding both my breath and opinion.
"I just want to know what Snape did with his first chance, if he's on his second one," said Harry grimly, and his cushion flew straight across the room and landed neatly on top of Hermione's.
...
Things began to slip by quickly, February 24th was approaching at a deadly rate.
It was the 22nd, two days until the tournament.
Cedric and I were sitting in a patch of grass in the courtyard; I sat Indian style, with his head in my lap, and playing with his hair.
He seemed very cool about the whole situation, but I was so nervous I felt like my insides were on the verge of eating themselves.
"Have you figured out what you're gonna do to breathe underwater?" I asked, rubbing my ring finger across his forehead and into his hair. He'd finally told me about the riddle and what he thought it meant. There were merpeople in the lake as far as I knew, and if they were to have an hour underwater, one would need a charm or herb or something to breathe whilst immersed.
"I think I have a pretty good idea," He said distractedly, "I'm just sort of thinking about what they're taking from me..."
"Something of great value." I shrugged a bit.
His expression turned grim, and he began to look the slightest bit queasey.
"Hey don't worry." I smiled reassuringly, "You'll do amazingly."
He smiled back up at me, but it looked almost forced.
...
Finally, the day of the tournament arrived. I was in the library, doing a tiny bit of research on charms. There were a few hours left until it started, and Cedric was off preparing himself.
"Acacia!" Professor McGonagall said rounding a corner.
"Hello Professor!" I smiled cheerily, shutting my book on patronus charms.
I wasn't even sure if I supposed to be reading them, and yet I was. After being a muggle for so long, I wanted to soak up every bit of knowkedge about magic I could.
McGonagall gave me a fleeting look of guilt and worry, possibly even a hint of pity, "You are needed at the front of the school."
"What's this about?" I asked, feeling my stomach begin to flip nervously. Had I done something wrong?
"I'm afraid I cannot tell you." she sighed, "Come with me."
I stood up and followed dutifully behind her. Today had the perfect amount of sun and shade, though there was a thick tension in the air-- more or less due to the competition. As we sauntered down the lawn I saw that the seats that had encircled the dragons' enclosure in November were now ranged along the opposite bank, rising in stands that were temporarily empty and reflected in the lake below.
When we entered the front part of school, I saw Viktor's cat-eyed girlfriend, an eight year old girl with masses of silvery blonde hair (she resembled Fleur), and Ron. I looked to Ron; our facial expressions matched perfectly: confusion.
"Hello, young witches and wizards. I am afraid I cannot expedite this process-- just know it is all in sake of the Triwizard Competition." A strange man with black hair streaked in gray said softly.
A golden shimmer encircled my wrists, causing my hands to unwillingly clap together. All of our hands were bound magically, and my mind instantly began processing the situation.
"What the hell is this?" I yelled, struggling with the invisible ropes like everyone else.
The small eight year old girl let out a high pitched whine and began crying, choking on her owm sobs. Ron was paper white, the cat-eyed girl's face was fearful and she was trembling; I was trying to pry off the magical bonds and streaming every colorful curse word under the sun.
"This will be a lot less of a fuss if you cooperate. We are going to place very powerful sleep spells on you, and push you to the bottom of the lake." The man said, as a few people gathered us up and herded us towards the black lake, "But don't worry about drowning."
"This is just lovely." Ron squeaked.
"Excuse you? Prospects black!" I repeated, "That means one of us could be trapped down there forever! I do not want to be squid food!"
At this, the eight year old cried even harder (okay yes, I felt a little guilty), and the cat-eyed girls eyes widened in disbelief.
The man was silent and began to do sleep spells one by one. He did the little girl first; and then the Cat eyed girl, learned to be called Jenna; and then I was up before Ron. I felt the sleep spell surge once like a huge pulse wave, before being pushed into the black lake below. It was so cold I felt the skin on my body searing as though it were fire, not icy water.
I sunk deeper and deeper, being weighed down by the sodden robes toward the middle of the lake, my eyes drooping, staring through the eerily gray-lit water around me to the shadow beyond, where the water became opaque. My arm was tugged on by an ugly creature. The merepeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. I barely got to scream in horror before falling deeply into a dark slumber.
...
I woke up as my face hit the water's surface, cheers sounding through the courtyard. I drew a deep breath through my lungs, feeling as if they were on fire; I looked around madly and saw Cedric beside me, holding my arm, and looking a bit breathless as well.
"Are you okay?" he asked frantically, searching my face.
I nodded my head yes, and practically threw myself at him with a nice long kiss on the mouth.
I had almost forgot we were being spectated until booming cheers and claps echoed through the courtyard. I snapped my head up and saw the many people standing on their feet whooping. I blushed madly, and Cedric looked a bit pink himself.
We swam towards a tented area of the dock, him still holding my arm, pulling me along.
As we approached it, people with towels were waiting for us. First, they pulled me up and wrapped the towel tightly around my shoulders; next they pulled up Cedric and repeated the process. As soon as we caught our breath, Cedric grabbed me and yanked me into a tight hug.
"I was so worried." He said, kissing my hair.
I buried my face into his chest, hugging him back, and holding in the tears.
"Before I went down I kept wondering if you'd be okay tryong to find me," I said worriedly.
"You were the one tied, trapped, and floating around with merpeople, and you were worried about me?" He asked, giving a small laugh.
"I guess there's not a lot that scares me," I shrugged, "but you getting hurt is one of them."
He stroked my sopping wet hair, and kissed my forehead; he kept repeating soothing words, making me a bit less hysterical. He was okay, and that's all that mattered to me.
My heart suddenly did a nervous spin when I realized Ron wasn't up yet, and he had been down there with me.
We moved aside, waiting for the other champions; Cedric didn't let go of me as we stood away from the judges and close family members.
Soon after us, Viktor and Jenna showed up, followed by and empty-handed Fleur.
As soon as those three were pulled from the black ice bucket, Madam Pomfrey shoved us aside and began making a huge fuss about keeping us warm so we didn't catch colds. I hugged Cedric tighter with the nerves churning deeper.
"They'll be okay." Cedric whispered, "I saw them down there, it was all well. I promise."
I snuggled into him and clenched my eyes shut, forcing myself to believe it was true.
Long outside the time frame, three heads broke the still water's surface.
Ron spouted water from his mouth and instantly began bickering at Harry. I laughed half-heartedly; a smile stretched across my face, and I cheered along with the crowd.
They pulled Fleur's sister, Gabrielle, through the water, back toward the bank where the judges stood watching, twenty merpeople accompanying them like a guard of honor, singing their horrible screechy songs.
Madam Pomfrey was still fussing over us.
Dumbledore and Ludo Bagman stood beaming at Harry and Ron from the bank as they swam nearer, but Percy, who looked very white and somehow much younger than usual, came splashing out to meet them. Meanwhile, Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur Delacour, who was quite hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.
"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she 'urt?"
"She's fine!" Harry tried to tell her.
Percy seized Ron and was dragging him back to the bank ("Gettoff, Percy, I'm all right!"); Dumbledore and Bagman were pulling Harry upright; Fleur had broken free of Madame Maxime and was hugging her sister.
"It was ze grindylows... zey attacked me... oh Gabrielle, I thought... I thought..."
"Come here, you," said Madam Pomfrey. She seized Harry and pulled him over to the rest of us, and forced a measure of very hot potion down his throat. Steam gushed out of his ears.
"Harry, well done!" I cried, over joyed. "You did it, you found out how all by yourself!"
"Well--" said Harry, but he stopped mid-sentence, glancing over to the judge's table. "Yeah, that's right," said Harry, raising his voice slightly so that Karkaroff could hear him.
Dumbledore was crouching at the water's edge, deep in conversation with what seemed to be the chief merperson, a particularly wild and ferocious-looking female. He was making the same sort of screechy noises that the merpeople made when they were above water; clearly, Dumbledore could speak Mermish. Finally he straightened up, turned to his fellow judges, and said, "A conference before we give the marks, I think."
The judges went into a huddle. Madam Pomfrey had gone to rescue Ron from Percy's clutches; she led him over to us, gave him a blanket and some Pepperup Potion, then went to fetch Fleur and her sister. Fleur had many cuts on her face and arms and her robes were torn, but she didn't seem to care, nor would she allow Madam Pomfrey to clean them.
"Look after Gabrielle," she told her, and then she turned to Harry. "You saved 'er," she said breathlessly. "Even though she was not your 'ostage."
"Yeah," said Harry.
Fleur bent down, kissed Harry twice on each cheek (He began blushing so madly it was ridiculous), then said to Ron, "And you too--you 'elped--"
"Yeah," said Ron, looking extremely hopeful, "yeah, a bit--"
Fleur swooped down on him too and kissed him. just then, Ludo Bagman's magically magnified voice boomed out beside us lot, making us all jump, and causing the crowd in the stands to go very quiet.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. 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 as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points."
Applause from the stands.
"I deserved zero," said Fleur throatily, shaking her magnificent head.
"Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour." Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd.
I looked to him beaming,"I'm proud of you."
Leaning up, I gave him a slight kiss and he muttered, "It doesn't even matter. I was more worried about you than I was the marks."
I blushed.
"We therefore award him forty-seven points."
"Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points."
Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior.
"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect," Bagman continued. "He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own."
Ron and I both gave Harry half-exasperated, half-commiserating looks.
"Most of the judges," and here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look, "feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However... Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."
I was very caught off-gaurd and shocked. I stared him smiling, then laughed and started applauding hard with the rest of the crowd. I was happy with him, being such a good person.
"There you go. Harry!" Ron shouted over the noise. "You weren't being thick after all-- you were showing moral fiber!"
I laughed at Ron, that must've been what he was yelling at Harry for. I began clapping hardly, the charm bracelet from Cedric clattering noisily on my hand.
Fleur was clapping very hard too, but Krum didn't look happy at all. He attempted to engage Jenna in conversation, but she was too busy cheering Harry to listen.
"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June," continued Bagman. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."
It was over. Madam Pomfrey began herding the champions and hostages back to the castle to get into dry clothes... it was over. I didn't have to be nervous again until June the twenty-fourth...
At that moment I couldn't care less that Harry and Ron weren't talking to me at the moment. They were safe. That's all that mattered.
I wonder what the Weasley twins will have to say about my little display of affection. Oops.