The Second Task

Friday 24th February 1995, 9:25am.

Harry was waiting for the Second Task to begin, shuffling nervously from foot to foot. There he was, in the cool Scottish air, wearing nothing but a pair of swimming trunks and a singlet. He was grateful for warming charms, not for the first time.

Standing next to him, less than an arm's reach away was Fleur, as she had taken to being. Ever since she returned from France, having been allowed to spend a few weeks recovering from her ordeal at home, she had spent most of her time as close to Harry as possible. While he had found it unnerving at times he was happy to help if it made her feel safer.

Thankfully everyone else on the bank were keeping their distance after Harry growled out for them all to give him some space. It wasn't for him, but Fleur still felt really uncomfortable around any other men. He didn't blame her.

For the first time since Ron had started acting like an idiot Harry was thankful for it. He knew the other boy would come around soon enough, but given how Fleur affected Ron he was happy it wasn't yet. He shuddered to think of the damage that would be done.

"Where is Daphne?" He muttered to himself.

Fleur hugged his arm, reaching in to whisper in his ear. "My sister iz missing as well, I zink zey are under water."

Instead of letting go of his arm when her bit was said, she stayed clutching his arm. The longer she held it the more confused Harry felt. His heart was racing, a shiver ran up his spine, and his stomach wouldn't settle.

"They took humans? The objects that are hidden in the lake are people? Are they crazy?" How could the organisers be so stupid?

In lieu of answering Fleur just hugged his arm tighter. Try as he might, Harry couldn't ignore the fact that she was only wearing a swimsuit. Even though it was conservative it was still swimwear, something that his attention was drawn to as he realised that the only thing between her breasts and his arm was a very thin piece of silk.

Harry had never before been happy for the presence of Ludo Bagman, but he was rescued from doing something stupid when the bumbling fool moved in and starting arranging the four champions. Now the four were spread out along the bank, 10 feet between them, waiting for the next task to begin.

Harry didn't pay attention as the introduction to the Task was given, knowing that it was probably full of pointless yabbering for the audience. Without hearing the start signal, he watched as the other three champions entered the water.

Instead of rushing he took two breaths to settle himself before reaching down and picking up a large flat stone. By now everyone had noticed that he was still on the bank and were yelling at him. Some was encouraging, many were calling him a coward or even nastier things. He shut them all out.

Letting his wand-tip heat up he brought it to the stone, scorching the surface into a pattern. When he was happy with what had been drawn, he pushed some magic into the stone and tossed it high into the air. When it was less than a meter above the surface of the lake it started to spin and hovered in the air.

Everyone was watching confused as the stone started spinning faster and faster, until it was a blur and something no one but Harry was expecting happened. The stone transformed, and in its place was a boat which dropped to the water.

For those who had been Hogwarts students it was familiar, being the same as the boats the first-years used before the Sorting ceremony, only twice the size. Harry stepped off the bank and into the boat.

Reaching under one of the bench seats he pulled out a trunk and opened it. The first thing he pulled out was a wetsuit, which he put on, before strapping his wand to his right thigh. He pulled out a large dive-knife and strapped it to his left calf.

Pulling out a large box he carried it to the front of the boat, speaking out as he did. "Forward!"

The boat started moving forward at a decent clip, faster than the audience anticipated, but Harry didn't seem to notice as the entire time he was bent over the box in his hand. What they didn't know was that Harry had taken a page out of the muggle playbook and the box was essentially a magical Fishfinder.

Just like the transporting of the premade boat it hadn't been easy for Harry to perfect the process, and he was thankful for the books at Potter Island and in the Potter vault. Several members in the extended Potter Family had Masters in Enchanting, Ancient Runes, or both, and Harry had access to many of their textbooks and personal notes. He had used all of them.

Harry and Sirius had read thousands of pages, hundreds of scrolls, and dozens of scraps of paper for any hint that could make his vision for the Task become a reality and they had succeeded. The box he was holding him would alert him to anything larger than a big fish, how many there were and their sizes, and how deep they were.

So far it had picked up a few things, what they were Harry couldn't tell, but he knew they weren't what he was looking for. They were too small. All in the early four feet range. So he pushed forward. The task had only started 10 minutes ago, he had plenty of time.

A loud beep alerted him to a change on the box, as there now was a 5 foot 8 inch being 5 meters down, 10 meters in front of the boat. "Stop!"

The boat responded instantly as he studied the readings. The larger creature was surrounded by the smaller things he had been reading earlier, with more streaming in. Obviously one of the other Champions was being attacked by whatever the smaller creatures were.

Grabbing the last large item out of the chest, a large helmet, he put it on and jumped into the water. Swimming straight towards where the box had told him they were he soon could see Fleur amongst the seaweed being attacked by swarms of Grindylows.

Approaching them unnoticed, Harry drew his wand and sent out a powerful Banishing charm. Five Grindylows were sent flying, which was enough to allow Fleur to bring her own wand to bear, sending some of the creatures tumbling through the water with her own Banishing charm.

Harry grabbed her arm and started swimming to the surface, sending Banishing and Stunning charms at the chasing Grindylows. Fleur followed his lead, swimming upwards while sending spells downwards. The broke the surface together and Harry was quick to drag her to the boat and into the safety that it provided.

While Fleur recovered her breath Harry went to the front of the boat and picked up the box he had left there. The Grindylows obviously didn't want to break the surface but there were almost two dozen directly under the boat waiting for them to enter the water once more.

Thinking quickly Harry decided the best plan of attack. "Fleur, can you get me two stones out of the trunk next to you?"

The French girl looked at him questioningly but did as he asked and gave him the two stones. Wand-tip lit from the heat he was pushing through it, he started carving Runes into the stone. He handed one to Fleur when he was finished with it as he turned to the second one.

"Fleur, when I drop this stone over the end you need to charge that rune. Do you know how to do that?" He looked at her expectantly.

She nodded. "Oui."

"Are you ready?" He waited for her to nod once more, before pushing magic into the stone and dropping it over the side. He turned to see her wand glowing as she charged the other rune, and quickly stepped over and reached out.

He closed his hand around the stone so that it was trapped in between their two hands and they were both holding it. Fleur was about to speak up and question him when a wave of force hit the boat and it started shaking.

"Forward!" Harry called out as he let go of the stone and Fleur's hand.

As the boat shot forward once more Harry walked over to the box to see the effect of what he had tried. The Grindylows were slowly sinking to the bottom of the lake, and Harry only hoped that they were only stunned and not permanently damaged.

"What was zat 'Arry?" Fleur had approached while he was bent over the box.

"A Stunning Rune. Fortunately water acts as a good conductor and so the single Rune was enough to stun everything within a large proximity and all the Grindylows chasing us have been dealt with. The second rune was a simple shielding one that countered the effects of the offensive rune and so we were fine." He hadn't looked up from the box as it was starting to show larger creature which he believed were the Merfolk. "Twenty degrees left!"

The boat responded once more and Harry was happy with the adjustment. Fleur spoke up once more. "How are we to find them? Time passing fastly."

Harry looked up at that and put his hand on her arm to comfort her. "We are getting closer, I'm sure of it." Anything else he was going to say was cut off by four quick beeps from the box.

There were dozens of creatures in the six-and-a-half feet to seven foot range, which must be the Merfolk, and four smaller creatures were stationary a few feet apart. One was a little under 5 feet, one was 5-5, and the last two were 5-6. They had found the lost treasures.

When they were directly over the target Harry called out for the boat to stop and looked at Fleur with a smile. "They are beneath us, let's go."

Grabbing the helmet which he had taken off after they climbed into the boat, the pair jumped into the water. Swimming down, a settlement came into view. Following singing they arrived in a large space which had a choir of Merpeople singing, a giant statue of a Merperson, and many more citizens of the deep sprinkled around waving at them.

Attached to the tail of the statue were four women, Cho Chang, Hermione, Daphne and Gabrielle. Swimming over to the four, Harry drew his knife and slashed the rope attached to Daphne's legs, before handing the knife to Fleur who did the same with her sister.

Taking the knife back he slashed the ropes attached to the other two girls before returning it to its sheath. He turned around to find a trident at his throat, held by an angry Merperson. "You only take one!"

"Woah, calm down." He raised his arms up to show he wasn't threatening them. "They are my friends, just making it easier when the other Champions get here. Fleur, go to the boat, I'll wait and look after them."

"Are you sure 'Arry?" She seemed worried to leave him down there.

He smiled at her and nodded. "Go, I will be fine. I'm just going to wait to make sure that everything is fine."

With Fleur swimming to the surface, Gabrielle tucked under her arm, Harry turned his attention to the village. It was fairly large, much larger than he expected. If it was a human village he would guess that there was room for maybe as many as 200 inhabitants, but he wasn't sure if that translated. It probably would be rude to ask.

Almost 10 minutes later Cedric came swimming up to the hostages. He waved at Harry before indicated the time by tapping his watch, the Gryffindor just nodded and the older student swam away. Now it was just Harry, Daphne and Hermione in the village and he was starting to get worried.

Without any warning a half-shark, half-man, creature rocketed into the village square. The Merfolk were terrified for a moment, before bursting into applause. Krum had arrived.

Grabbing hold of Daphne's arm he unzipped the wetsuits pocket and pulled out the stone in it, pushing his magic into the Rune it was activated. Harry and Daphne shot straight up, and in a second were at the surface. As they broke the surface Daphne gasped and came to.

She took a few deep breaths, and looked around to get her bearings before focusing in on him. "How long was I down there?"

Harry laughed as he started pulling her towards the boat only a few meters away. "Long enough I would say, let's get back to shore."

Harry helped his fiancee into the boat before clambering aboard himself, to see the two French girls wrapped in towels. It was the one oversight that Harry had missed, and it left him smacking his head. Towels? I forgot bleedin' towels!

As soon as they were on board the Beauxbatons Champion conjured thick, soft towels and wrapped them around the pair. "Thanks Fleur. Return!"

At his command the boat turned around and started to travel towards the point where its journey started from on the lake, at three times the speed. The girls let out exclaims in shock, and several squeals, but Harry just enjoyed the exhilarating speed.

Before they knew it the boat was coming to a stop on the shore of the lake, in front of the stands that had been set up for the audience. Quickly getting off the boat, Harry held out an arm and helped the girls off the boat one after another.

The audience were cheering like mad, but Harry wasn't sure who they were praising. He saw Cedric and Cho standing with Professors Sprout and Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey a little way up the bank. Seeing the group arrive, the nurse hustled over.

"Is anybody injured?" The nurse started fussing over them all.

She ran several diagnostic spells, and healed the many cuts the Grindylows had given Fleur. She seemed relieved that there was nothing more serious with any of the four, but was soon distracted when Krum swum to shore with Hermione in tow. He transformed back before they were swarmed by the overzealous nurse.

Seeing Neville nearby Harry sidled over. "Hey Neville, what was the point it watching? Could you all see what was happening down below?"

"You didn't know? There were projections in front of the stands for all to watch. We could all see what the four of you were doing." Neville grasped Harry's arm. "What was up with the stones?"

"I'll tell you later. I wonder how they got the projections to work?" Harry was instantly thinking of ways to make it happen. Nothing came to mind.

A hush fell over the crowd as Dumbledore and the other judges stepped forward. "We have been conferring and have arrived at the scores for the second task. Miss Delacour, you were the only Champion to return to the surface within the time parameters, and you showed ability with the Bubble-Head Charm. However you also ran into trouble with the Grindylows. After much debate you received a score of 39 points."

There was a round of applause at that. "Mister Diggory, you also showed skill with the Bubble-Head Charm and arrived a minute after the allocated time, we score you 46 points."

The Hogwarts students were cheering like mad, but Harry was fuming. "Boo! Boo! Terrible judging! Boo!"

Slowly everyone stopped clapping and looked at him shocked. What was Harry complaining about? He hadn't been scored yet, so what was his problem? Was he just jealous that the other Hogwarts Champion scored so highly and he might get less?

The judges seemed more shocked than the audience, and Dumbledore stumbled out a responsed. "Harry… Ah… What is your… Ah… Complaint with the judging?"

"As I understand it the Task was to find our… Hostage… And then surface in under an hour. Fleur is the only one who did that and therefore should receive 50 points, the full amount. That she was attacked, and received a little help from me, is irrelevant as that was never mentioned in the information we were presented with for the task. You never said that we would be penalised for accepting help from one another when we were under water and therefore you cannot deduct her score because of it. Cedric deserves a high score, I am not disputing that but by the rules of the contest Fleur's must be equal or more accurately higher than his." With his rant finished he just glared at the judges.

The five judges, with Percy once more standing in for Crouch, looked awkwardly between them before settling upon Albus being the one to answer once again. "I appreciate your feeling on the matter, Harry, however the judges have made their decisions and they are final."

The crowd were murmuring, debating the validity of Harry's argument, and why he had even spoke up. A hundred different crazy theories were circulating around the large crowd. The judges however were all refusing to meet Harry's gaze.

"Mr. Krum." Trying to divert attention away from Harry's outburst, Dumbledore turned to the next Champion. "That was a nifty bit of transfiguration if I say so myself. You were outside the hour-mark as well, and for that reason we scored you at 40 points."

There was a polite round of applause at that, certainly loudest where the Durmstrang students and supporters were seated. Harry was still glaring at the judges. How did Krum beat Fleur's score, he took even longer than Cedric to finish?

"And finally the score for Mr. Potter." Dumbledore was looking in Harry's general direction but was refusing to meet the boy's eyes. "While Harry finished third, his skills with Runes was most extraordinary. On top of that his rescue of Miss Delacour, and his insistence on waiting with the other hostages to make sure they were all safe led to special consideration. For these reasons we scored in Mr. Potter's favour to a total of 45 points."

The Hogwarts students, and members of the general British magical community who were in attendance, were cheering like mad. The two Hogwarts students had scored the highest in the Task. To the locals watching it was most definitely seen as a victory.

Harry waited for the cheering to stop before speaking up once more. "I'm sorry, but in protest to the… Corruption that is rank in the judging process of this tournament, I must refuse the points. Good day."

Not waiting for a response he walked past the stunned judges, fiancee on his arm, and away from the lake. Refusing to look back he heard the growing rumble as the crowd started talking about what they had witnessed. Harry didn't care. He had completed the Second Task