Chapter 1
"Mostly he just watches me study...it's a bit annoying really."
Harry bit back another laugh. He had seen them a few times in the library and the longer Krum watched her, the easier it was the see her patience wear thinner as she battled with her desire to remain polite.
"I've seen a few times..."
"Oh Harry he's very nice really! You should have come over...his English isn't the best but you know about Quidditch, I'm sure you would..."
"Hermione its fine, I'm just sorry Ron messed up the end of the ball for you two. I don't think I've ever seen you so...relaxed?"
There was the hint of a smile as Hermione stared down into the mist.
"It was fun...I don't much know if I would do it again but I'm glad I didn't just wait for Ron to come to me as a last resort...don't look at me like that, of course I knew he would ask me eventually. I just got tired of being second best."
Harry watched the wind tug her hair free from its loose braid for half a moment before her words sunk in.
"You're not second best...you could never be second to any one Hermione, you're...you're brilliant!"
He couldn't decide if the tiny laugh she let out was good or bad but at least she wasn't shouting.
"No, I mean it...I suppose I just always thought that, being as smart as you are...you would know how important you were...I just didn't think..."
He didn't get a chance to finish as Hermione threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, mumbling something about "boys" and "really no just be quiet" into his scarf.
Harry managed to free his arms enough to wrap them around her waist, pulling her into him as a comforting warmth spread through him.
"...Mione...you know you're my best friend, right? No matter what?"
He felt her shake her head and mumble Ron's name.
"How many times has he ditched me now? Ron's great...he really is but I never know what's going to set him off. I know I get it wrong with you sometimes but I always know you'll come back."
A flash of yellow caught his eye and Harry looked up to see Cedric hovering at the edge of his vision, looking a little sheepish. Hermione glanced around and tried to wriggle out of Harry's grip but he tightened his arm around her and rested his chin on the top of her head.
"Sorry to...interrupt...I was just looking for you...to say...to say that the prefects bathroom is a uh...great place to think that clue over...uh...you know, mull it over in the water."
He readjusted his bag on his shoulder and ran off before Harry could even begin to ask what he meant and Hermione was leaning back so she could talk properly.
"It wouldn't hurt to try...you're running out of..."
"Time, I know. You think if I don't crack it, I won't have to do the task? I was just thinking of refusing to do it at all...this whole 'life or death' thing is getting old."
He reached up and tucked a lose hair behind Hermione's ear.
"Please be careful...magical contracts can be tricky to get out of. Participating might mean actually making an attempt to win or it might mean just showing up and sitting around with the judges...it might strip your magic if you back out or it might fine you or it could even kill you...I know the tasks could kill you as well but at least you have a fighting chance?"
Harry released her from his grip, running one hand down her arm so he could take her hand and lead her back towards the castle.
"I wouldn't have gotten though the first task without you...what do you say we stake out the prefects bathroom and see what happens?"
Sitting in a stuffy cupboard outside a lavatory in the middle of the night was not most people's idea of fun. Harry couldn't even call it his idea of fun and he had been known to attempt some pretty unusual things in his time at Hogwarts. Even Hermione, who everyone knew had an unusual idea of fun, was starting to question to point of the entire exercise.
"What is it with prefects and long baths? They have their own perfectly usable bathrooms in their houses. I can't see what could be so fancy about a secret bathroom in the middle of the school, miles away from..."
She suddenly blushed, sitting in such close proximity in the cramped space, Harry could practically feel the heat radiate off of her.
"...oh."
Harry grinned as he realised what had gotten her flustered.
"I doubt it's anything as bad as that - broom closets are the more traditional venues."
She sent him a mock-scathing look.
"And what would you know about broom closets Mr Potter?"
Harry shrugged, butting her shoulder with his.
"I've been getting pretty well acquainted with this one over the last hour...I swear that broom handle has tried it on with me at least three times now."
Hermione giggled.
"I wonder if they've realised were not in the common room yet...we were supposed to be meeting Ron and Ginny after dinner to work on the clue."
Harry turned the golden egg over in his hands as his mind filled with images of Ginny. She was wonderful, she truly was but he couldn't get over the nagging suspicion that he was supposed to feel something for her. A little voice in the back of his mind had been telling him it was the expected thing for months.
"Hmm...I don't know about you but I don't think I really want to share a broom closet with Ron..."
She looked up at him, her features thoughtful.
"What about Ginny? Or even Cho? I heard you asked her to the ball."
Harry openly laughed at that one.
"Ginny is an amazing person but...all I can think of when I see her is that little girl who put her elbow in the butter because the Boy Who Lived was sitting at her table. I know she's over it now but...first impressions and all and Cho..."
Cho was a harder one. She was, without a shadow of a doubt, Cedric's girlfriend and it was never going to happen - realistically he had known that from the start.
"...she's the same but different...I don't think anything was ever going to work out with someone I was too scared to talk to. A crush is just a crush I guess. To be honest, Hermione, you're the only constant I really have. Everybody else just drifts in and out depending on how much they want something from me."
If Hermione was going to say anything else it was lost as the giggling group of prefects who had taken over the bathroom an hour ago went thundering past their hiding spot. A brief check of the marauders map told them the coast was clear and within moments they were hidden under the invisibility cloak and sneaking through the door.
The prefect's bathroom was a sight to behold. White marble as far as the eye could see and the bathtub.
"I take it back, Harry; I think I know why they take so long...this is glorious!"
She headed straight for one of the many taps, turning on as many as she could reach and laughing brightly as the different coloured waters gushed out into the mammoth tub. Harry couple remember the last time he'd seen her with a look of such unreserved, child-like glee on her face.
"So you're settled on being a prefect now?"
She looked almost scandalized.
"Harry! There are plenty other reasons for being Pre...you're joking aren't you...oh you are terrible."
Harry's bright grin didn't falter, even when she flicked a handful of bright pink water at him, soaking the front of his shirt. He kicked off his socks and shoes, rolled up his trousers and settled at the edge of the pool, tossing the egg between his hands.
Hermione waited until the huge pool was almost overflowing before turning off the taps and joining him at the edge.
"What now?"
They both stared at the egg, almost willing an answer to appear on the steamy surface.
"Maybe it's supposed to be under the water? The screaming might be a defence against something? "
Harry nodded, leaning forwards until her could hold the egg under the water. Nervously, he twisted the clip to open it, bracing himself for the ear splitting scream.
Realisation dawned across Hermione's face as, instead of the horrendous screams, an ethereal melody drifted up towards them.
"Oh my...Mermaids! Their voices can't be heard properly out of the water...you'll need to stick your head under the water to hear it..."
Harry faltered, his hand pausing half way to tugging his shirt off. Thankfully, Hermione caught the movement and laughed.
"Just jump in, I'll hit you with a drying charm later."
Ten minutes and several trips underwater to listen to the clue later, Harry had slowly managed to relate the whole song to Hermione. The final time he surfaced, she was standing at the side with a fluffy white towel for him, the map sitting open beside a sink.
"We need to get out of here, dry yourself off and I'll sort the charms once we get away from Filch."
It was difficult trying to manoeuvre the two of them along the dark corridors under the cloak, especially as Harry was very conscious of the way he must be dripping on the floor. Filch had been so close on their tail that they had to slip into the supply closet of an unused classroom until he was a full floor away.
Hermione quietly muttered the drying spells under her breath until Harry looked less like he had been thrown in the Black Lake and more like he'd been dragged through a hedge backwards.
"Your hair is always a mess; no one will notice much of a difference."
They had expected the Spanish Inquisition from Ron when they returned to the common room but they hadn't been prepared for the openly shocked stares from the rest of their house until the realised what they must have looked like - hair mussed from the humid bathroom and out of breath from running from Filch. Ron must have been building up a good head of steam for some time because the ensuing rant was one of his loudest to date.
"Where the bloody hell have you two been!? Viktor Krum not good enough, you gonna go for the other champions as well? Cause I"d pay good money to see you and Fleur-"
They never got to hear what Ronald Weasley would pay good money to see because he found himself pressed against a wall with the tip of a wand digging into his throat.
"I dare you to finish that sentence..."
Ron tried to push Harry away but he stood firm.
"Come off it Harry, it's just a joke...you've seen the way she's been hanging off all the champions, she's got no self-respect! I guess that mental Skeeter woman was right...I mean..."
There was a real fire in Harry's eyes when he drove his fist into Ron's face.
That was the moment that all hell broke loose. It felt like a thousand hands were pulling Harry back towards the portrait hole, away from where Ron was struggling against the Twins.
"Harry please stop!"
It was Hermione's voice that broke through the blood pounding in his ears and Harry shook himself back to reality to find Neville struggling to hold him back whilst Hermione put herself between him and the rest of the room.
"You can't expect me to let him talk about you like that!"
She sighed quietly, visibly upset by Ron's words but staunchly refusing to let it show.
"I don't expect you to get yourself expelled because of him either. He's just as bad as Malfoy sometimes and he isn't worth it. Please, Harry...we have work to do."
She picked up the golden egg from where he had let it fall to the floor and pressed it into his hands before looking up to Neville who was trying to slip unnoticed away from the limelight.
"We might need your help Neville...could you and Harry grab any books you have on water plants? I'm going to ask Professor McGonagall if she'll extent our curfew."
Twenty minutes in the library with Neville and they had already started to pull a plan together for the second task.
Breathing underwater of an hour wasn't the problem - a simple bubblehead charm would more than suffice but Harry had admitted that he wasn't the strongest or fastest swimmer and Neville pointed out that the lack of oxygen was hardly going to be his only challenge.
Hermione refused to let him anywhere near the lake without a Plan B for if the charm failed or he was attacked.
When Neville pulled a book of water plants he'd gotten from Professor Moody across the table and flicked to the page of gillyweed, Hermione lit up.
"Of course! But it's too late to send out an Owl Order for some now and we'd have to steal it from Professor Snape...oh but if he seen you taking it before you got into the water you'd probably be penalised. What if..."