11 Chapter 11 Taking the Second Task Sirius

The first interesting thing that happened of 2005 was Harry getting assaulted and squeezed nearly to death by a man he'd never seen before, "Come 'ere Pup!"

Sirius Black had been released from St. Mungo's and was finally free to see his godson for the first time in ten years. Though he had to meet Harry in Hogsmeade as opposed to Hogwarts which still had dementors flying around it. Understandably the man never wanted to come within a thousand feet of a dementor again.

His godfather brought him to a pub where he checked into a room and sat his godson down.

"So, I've been hearing all sorts of things about the adventures we've been on for the last year. Not that I disapprove, but what was that about?"

Harry shrugged, "When I first came to the wizarding world, they had books about my adventures too. I don't exactly remember doing those things either."

Sirius smirked and continued, "And what's this about you dying last year. That's not exactly a joke even I would approve of."

Harry shook his head and said, "I didn't have any say in that and I don't want to talk about it. Did you like Skeeter's articles?"

Sirius smiled and said, "Loved 'em pup. What did you have in mind for the second task? Can I help?"

"I already finished preparing for that one but there is something during the task you can do if you want though. I'll go over it with you later."

Sirius's smile faltered and silence fell for a few moments. He said, "Can you forgive me Harry? I wasn't there for you."

Harry waited a few moments before answering back, "Things don't always go the way you wanted them to."

Sirius raised an eyebrow and stated with a smirk, "Now when did the brat I used to change the diapers of get so wise?"

"Don't tell anyone, but I am secretly a genius. Only two of my friends know and Dumbledore suspects but he hasn't told anyone."

"A genius you say? We'll see about that."

An hour later and Sirius Black was lying prone on the ground in defeat. He had thought trying to show his godson his animagus form and explaining how he succeeded in only a few years without professional help would convince Harry of his own amazingness. Harry ended up asking twenty or so questions regarding the animagus process and now Harry was a large, nearly pure white Snowy Owl.

It was a bit surprising that when he looked inside himself to see what his innate animal was. He quickly saw a familiar looking snowy owl and felt a connection to it. After feeling out the process, he was able to shift his form into this owl.

Sirius was very clear that you couldn't choose your animagus, it was something that was already a part of you and Harry was not disappointed. The Snowy Owl was pretty much the largest species of owl and a bird of prey, top of the food chain. It was also native to the UK, Europe, and even North America so it would not be out of place if he was seen flying around. Throw in the symbolism and the pure color and Harry allowed himself to feel more than a little pride at the quality of his inner animal.

Sirius was dramatically banging his fist on the ground and called out, "Ok, you win, I give. You're a genius."

The fact that Harry got the Animagus Perk in advance but didn't know how to use it until now was something he would never speak of. His Godfather looked like his ego could use a little deflating.

Harry shifted back and began talking with Sirius Black in earnest about whatever he could think of. The reason was simple, when Harry went from that hell of a cupboard to that heaven of his parent's arms, the act of his parents telling him about their lives was almost therapeutic. Sirius Black had just gotten out of his own personal hell of Azkaban and Harry was now with one of the only three people in this world he considered family other than Lupin who he couldn't find and his cousin Andromeda.

Harry told him about his life with the Dursleys and only the fact that they had already been confirmed dead stopped Sirius from sending them on their way himself. Harry said he didn't remember what happened that night but showed up a year later in a park with new knowledge and a letter. It was that letter that told him to find out what happened to Sirius which led to Harry getting the details from the goblins.

Several parties tried to stall Sirius' trial through several means, but the goblins had already taken significant measures to prevent their interference beforehand in the week prior to the rat's capture. It was only thanks to that measure his godfather was a free man less than a month later.

Sirius was surprised that not only had Harry captured the rat, but had arranged ahead of time for the interference of others. Had Harry simply gifted Pettigrew to the DMLE, Sirius would likely still be in Azkaban

After a few more hours of conversation they had something of a plan which Harry later brought to Dumbledore, who immediately approved. Sirius would stay in Hogsmeade for the remainder of the school year and every weekend Harry would be allowed to go to Hogsmeade where his godfather would secretly train him to the best of his abilities.

Dumbledore's smile could not be brighter when Harry asked this of him and Dumbledore had no problem approving it. This did not constitute assistance from the school as 3rd years and above were allowed to go anyways and Harry only being a first year was at a disadvantage for not being allowed. Dumbledore even suggested using the path beneath the Whomping Willow to access Hogsmeade so the training could truly be done in secret.

Harry figured Dumbledore had been looking for a way to make things up to Harry for some time but the restrictions of the Tournament had prevented many of the ideas he could think of. He couldn't even hire a private tutor for Harry as paying for it himself or through Hogwarts was still considered assistance.

Thankfully, Sirius was in no way a student or staff member of Hogwarts and had the grounds not been covered in Dementors, Dumbledore would have allowed the man to use the Guest Quarters at the School. Dumbledore also suspected another reason for Harry's plan. Sirius had been locked away and useless for a full decade. Now he was being given the chance not only to keep in contact with one of the last remnants of his family, but also to feel useful by training Harry himself as the only person who could do so. When Dumbledore saw Sirius during their most recent meeting, the man had the fire of life once more burning in his eyes, something he sorely lacked when he visited the man at St. Mungos a few weeks prior.

Had Dumbledore known the other reason Harry set up this arrangement, he would not have been so pleased. Harry pretty much told Sirius he could memorize several books a week and asked him to bring some from the Black Family Library each weekend. Sirius wasn't thrilled with returning to his prior home but he couldn't deny the request. Since Harry also told him the future was looking dangerous, Sirius also felt it would be wise to brush up on his family magics himself.

The only part of the meeting that Harry didn't enjoy was Sirius's hysterical laughter when he answered a question that had been on Harry's mind since Sirius obtained his freedom.

"What are you going to do about your Lordship? You have a target on your back since once you die, everything goes to some death eater right?"

Sirius had a maniacal grin when he said, "You mean what am I going to do about that fact that Malfoy wants me dead? I've already taken care of that pup. Should I die from anything but old age, you'll inherit everything, save a few trinkets for my favorite cousin and Mooney."

"What?"

It was at that point looking at Harry's dumbfounded expression Sirius started a five minute laughing fit. Harry was tempted to hex the man but this was likely healing him better than St. Mungos had so he couldn't in good conscious stop him. Next time though...

Two months passed quickly and on the eve of the day of the second task, the redheaded twins came up to the common room and said, "Hermione, McGonagall said she needs to speak with you."

Without looking up from the Runes book Harry gave her for Christmas, she said, "No."

The entire common room went silent. One or two students checked the windows to ensure the sky wasn't falling as Hermione Granger had just refused instructions from a teacher!

The twins looked equal parts impressed and distressed. Hermione told them, "I know what she wants and I have no intention of agreeing. Tell her to find someone else."

Neville realized what she was referring to and said, "Me neither, I'm not a very good swimmer."

The twins picked up on something and decided it was worth the risk to go along with it. They returned to McGonagall and gave her the pair's message. She was surprised they knew what she was going to ask and not surprised they refused. If she were their age, she wouldn't want to do it either. There wasn't anything further she could do so she asked the twins to fetch someone else.

This time they did ask what for as if the situation was worth refusing, they had the option of refusing to help. McGonagall caved as the point of discretion was preventing Harry from learning of it in advance. The fact that he already knew made that pointless. When the twins thought it over, they agreed to fetch the student. They knew he'd agree to help and he could in fact swim. That and if Harry knew about it, he likely already had a plan.

The next day had the whole school and the foreign delegates on some bleachers overlooking the lake. Several men with passive faces had been paid by someone to prevent anyone from approaching the lake for the past month. Cedric had already spent much of January practicing in the lake so this didn't impede him much. It did however stop Fleur and Victor from practicing as they only solved the egg after January. The one who paid these men was pleased when reports came in that there were no signs of Potter doing anything in the lake. He also made a few other arrangements to ensure the task went as he felt it should. Either do it with magic or not at all.

Harry lined up on the docks with the other three contestants. Unlike them, Harry wasn't wearing clothes that would be comfortable when wet which got a number of reactions, most of them concerned. Cedric simply raised an eyebrow and hoped the first year wouldn't show them all up too badly this time.

Up in the sky was a shining silver phoenix patronus cast by Dumbledore at Harry's request to keep the Dementors as far from the lake as possible. Thanks to this, Sirius was able to join the audience to watch the task.

Bagman used magic to turn himself into a loudspeaker and said for all to hear, "Well our champions appear ready for the second task and they have one hour to recover what has been taken from them. I have also been informed that to prevent outside interference, nothing not currently in the lake or on the Champion's person is allowed in the lake. Any wizard approaching the lake will be stopped and any object entering the lake will be destroyed."

The man seemed completely ignorant that this would prevent Harry from using the same feat as last time. The reason Harry was sure of the man's ignorance was that he figured the man had bet on him and didn't seem dispirited at the new policy.

Cedric and the other contestants all turned to face Harry and observed he still seemed lackadaisical about the new rule.

Bagman continued, "On the count of three we shall begin. One, Two, Three!"

The other contestants jumped into the water and waded out into the depths. Harry simply stood there while everyone watched him. The redheads both seemed a bit nervous.

Suddenly something broke the surface of the water. Harry's submarine stopped right in front of the dock and opened the hatch on its own, just as the timer he set for it instructed. Harry jumped in and shouted, "Now Sirius," before closing the hatch and submerging the sub.

Sirius Black got a trunk out and set several small items in front of the bleachers. He then used his wand to remove the shrinking magic on them and now there were several 80" monitors in front of the bleachers. Hermione took over from there and used a remote to turn them on.

Harry got a signal from his sub showing he was now live. On each monitor was a feed to one of the cameras on his sub looking out and a picture of him inside the sub appeared in the corner of each monitor. Harry turned on a microphone and said, "Testing, testing, do you read?"

Sirius smiled and picked up the microphone Hermione already turned on and handed to him. He said, "Padfoot to Potter, we read you loud and clear. How you doing Harry?"

Harry responded from the monitor, "Not bad. For anyone who has no idea what is happening, the answer is Magic. We'll just leave it at that." Hermione shook her head but couldn't keep the smirk off her face.

The main feed came from a camera in the front of the sub so the audience could see what Harry was seeing in the lake as if they were there with him.

Bagman, who had removed his voice amplification charm, said, "Was that thing already in the lake?"

Sirius said into the mic, "Harry, Mr. Bagman wants to know if your sub was already in the lake."

Harry answered back from the monitors, "Yes, I parked it here last year. I would have just shrunk it and carried it like these monitors, but I can't use shrinking or enlarging charms so I had to plan ahead." That was a lie of course but he still wanted people unaware of his skill in magic.

Bagman nodded, that was not against the rules so he had no problem with it.

Sirius asked, "So what are you going to do Harry?"

"Well, there are three places of interest in the Black Lake. The Sunken Ship, the Giant Squid's nest, and the Merman Village. I'll be checking those out to see where whatever has been taken from me has been placed."

Harry knew it was likely in the Merman village, but he put a lot of effort into this so he wanted to make it a show. Besides, the Merman village was about a kilometer out and both the Sunken Ship and Giant Squid's nest were only a little out of the way.

First stop was the ship. Harry turned on the headlights of the sub which allowed the camera to see the ship they were closing in on. Harry spoke into his mic, "This boys and girls is the Silver Wand. Before the invention of portkeys in the 12th century, those incapable of apparition or without a Floo relied on this ship to take them to and from Hogwarts each year. It was as traditional as the Hogwarts Express is now. It lasted for two centuries before it finally succumbed to the years when magic could no longer restore it. Here it has rested for the last seven hundred years."

Harry drove the sub around the ship, turning the camera to an angle so the monitors would see it though it wasn't what Harry was facing.

Once done with the ship, he turned off the lights and piloted the sub further into the lake. He had in fact used a dozen submersible drones with cameras to map out the lake in the second week of December so he had no problem finding things. A few of those drones placed markers around the lake bed Harry's sub could use to triangulate its own position in the lake and the position of everything else.

Back on the surface and watching the screens, Bagman was slightly upset the spotlight had been taken from him. On the other hand, if Harry had done nothing then the whole group would spend the next hour watching the surface of the lake waiting for something to happen. He decided to see it as an opportunity and took his time to consider the applications.

Those who watched the monitors suddenly gasped when the lights turned back on and the giant red squid was looking at Harry. Its enormous body completely dwarfing the small submersible. A tentacle reached out and wrapped itself around the sub, bringing it to the creature's eye. Harry turned the camera and dimmed the lights so it could be seen clearly.

Harry turned on the mic and said, "The bane of ancient mariners and students at Hogwarts, should the latter decide to go for a dip in the lake. Or at least that's what the chocolate frog card says."

The squid released the sub and swam away a moment later. Harry continued, "The card isn't quite accurate however. This squid is ticklish and enjoys bread which some students often throw into the lake. This fellow is also known to scoop up any first year who falls out of the boat and drops them back in. It is of course a magical squid, as the non-magical types are not ticklish, do not live in freshwater, and do not eat bread."

Harry let the lights shine on the ground for a few moments revealing a lack of anything before saying, "To the village!"

Hermione couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes at Harry's narration. She looked around and confirmed most of the audience was engrossed in the monitors. Up to this point Harry hadn't used a single spell so she wondered how he would be judged.

Ten minutes later the monitors showed some grindylows approach the sub and try to grab something. However nothing they grabbed felt like flesh so after a few moments they got bored and left Harry alone.

Harry dimmed the lights further as the next area seemed to be magically lit.

The monitors showed the whole of the Merpeople village to many who had never seen it before. One of them approached Harry's sub and the monitor showed Harry waving back and smiling. The merperson swam away and the others simply stood outside their houses and watched Harry's small sub float past them on the underwater street.

Harry turned his mic back on, not because he had something to say, but because the merpeople were singing and he felt the audience might want to listen.

"An hour long you'll have to look,

And to recover what we took.

Your time's half gone, so tarry not,

Lest what you seek stays here to rot."

Harry's face went a bit stern at that last line. He continued into the heart of the village where he saw a large statue of a merperson and tied to it by a cord of bundled weeds was four humans.

Harry asked into the mic, "Which one's mine?"

Sirius seemed more than a little amused and asked Dumbledore, "Which one is Harry's?"

Dumbledore sighed when he remembered that his first pick and second pick had both figured it out ahead of time and refused. He said, "Ronald."

Sirius said back into the mic, "Dumbledore says it's Ronald."

Harry asked back, "Who?"

Bagman said, "The small ginger boy," which Sirius repeated back.

Harry noticed that one of the hostages was indeed the redhead he played chess with. He wasn't particularly great with faces, especially underwater.

The location with the statue seemed to be a village square of some type and was surrounded by merpeople, most of which carried tridents. Luckily Harry's sub really wasn't that large so it did not appear threatening to them.

It approached the hostages and Harry was inwardly glad he went with a sub instead of drones. How would drones free a bound hostage? Harry's sub of course had many extras built in for many circumstances. But there was something he had to do first.

Harry spoke into the mic and said, "Hey, I need confirmation, will any hostage that doesn't get rescued actually be left here? I need someone to tell me otherwise or I'll get them all and damn the tournament." The camera shifted to the little girl floating in the water.

The judges discussed this and determined there was not much point in leaving it out now. Dumbledore said, "The song is merely for atmosphere, no harm will come to those left in the care of the merpeople."

Sirius said into the mic what Dumbledore told him and Harry let out a sigh of relief. He said, "Thank you. That being said..."

A mechanical arm came into the monitor screen and placed something against the red headed hostage. It suddenly attached itself to him like a belt. Harry then attached another object to him which looked like a block with a fan.

Harry then used an arm that had some sheers on them to cut the rope. The yellow belt suddenly inflated which caused the redhead to quickly float to the surface. Harry switched the monitor feed from the front camera to the top camera. The merpeople around the village watched with interest and wondered what was going to happen. A moment before the hostage reached the surface, the inflated belt massively increased in size and became a raft that held the redhead above the water. The block he attached turned on and started dragging the raft in the direction of the shore like a small motor boat.

Harry however piloted the sub off to the side and parked it there. He said back into the mic, "I hope you don't mind if I make one hundred percent sure."

Harry wasn't aware of it but the mother of the little girl was watching from the audience and was more than thankful that someone was keeping watch over her daughter.

The rest of the audience had no problem with Harry as they now had the best seat in the house. The monitor had a full view of the statue and the remaining hostages so they'd be able to see what happened themselves.

The judges were simply going to rely on what the merpeople told them had happened to score the contestants, but now they didn't have to.

Harry's hostage had awoken in his raft that was currently speeding towards the shore. His brothers told him Harry would definitely rescue him but this was certainly not what he expected. Where was Harry? His raft arrived at the shore and he was met by people with blankets who explained what had already happened.

A few minutes later Cedric came by and spotted Harry. He had a bubble head charm and swam up to the Gryffindor first year and practically shouted, "Really Harry?!" He had no idea he was on television and that his reaction earned an assortment of laughs from the crowd. He shook his head and took out a knife to slice the ropes and free his hostage. Harry was tempted to give them another raft but decided against it. He already helped him enough.

Another few minutes passed and a half man half shark appeared wearing a Durmstrang uniform. He too took a long look at Harry's sub while Harry waved back at him. The seventh year seeker tried to rip through the rope binding his hostage with his hands but they were too slimy and thick. If the man asked for help he'd give him a knife but offering before he asked would be insulting. After a few moments of looking Victor found a sharp rock. He actually attempted to get one of the merman's tridents but they laughed at him. He used the rock to slice the rope then grabbed the line with his shark jaws and swam away.

A few more minutes passed and Harry said into the mic, "Time?"

Sirius said, "Fluer's out. Seemed she got attacked by Grindylows. Times up in two more minutes so if you have another of those boats feel free to use it."

Harry's sub approached the statue again. One of the merpeople said, "Only one," through his glass. Harry said back, "I'll wait till time's up in a minute ok?"

The merperson thought about it for a moment before nodding.

Sirius said though the mic, "Time's up pup, bring her home."

Harry already had an arm positioned to place another belt on her. He then attached not another motor block but a line which tied her to his sub. Harry cut the reed corded rope and the belt inflated again. This time Harry's sub rose with the hostage and the moment it reached the surface and turned into another raft, Harry floored it and sped the sub towards the shore. At full speed the kilometer back to shore was traversed in a few minutes. The sub landed ashore where another woman quickly made her way to the raft Harry was dragging and grabbed the little girl into her embrace.

Harry opened the sub hatch and stepped onto the shore, still completely dry. Sirius chuckled and walked over to the sub to shrunk it for Harry as per the plan.

Harry could tell from his smile that Sirius had a very good day.