Title: The Second Task Author: Illiamwa Summery: Just my own version of what happened in Harry's second task in the tri-wizard tournament in the Goblet of fire.

The Second Task



IT was one in the morning and Harry was still stumbling around the shelves of the restricted section looking for anything that could help him underwater. He kept telling himself over and over again. next book. one last book. in the next one.

The mermaid in the prefects' bathroom was laughing, while Harry was under her jumping up and down. Harry tried anything to jump higher so he could hear the spell that the mermaid was whispering, which would give him gills.

"Come and listen!" she giggled maliciously "Come on, jump higher so you can hear!" Harry kept on moaning

"I can't, I can't! Please talk louder!" the mermaid jumped out of the portrait and began to poke him with a large spear she had in her hand "no, no" Harry wailed "don't poke me!"

"But Dobby must poke Harry Potter, so he wakes up!" Dobby said as Harry opened his eyes. Harry looked around him. He was still in the library; the invisibility cloak had fallen off of him and his face was resting on a large book titled Where there's a wand, There's a way. Harry quickly looked at his watch and then tried to grab the book, and find something in it as he ran to the lake.

"No!" Dobby squeaked as he grabbed the back of Harry's shirt "Dobby had found a way! Harry mustn't go with out his spell!"

"What spell?" Harry asked as he loosened Dobby's grip

"The spell that will help you find your weezy sir!"

"Weezy?"

"Yes, oh yes! The Weezy that gave me my sweater!"

"You found a spell to get me to the merpeople?"

"Oh yes!" Dobby said as he pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket "Dobby sweeps the floor, and he hears teachers say where the book is!" Harry grabbed the piece of paper, and quickly read it.

"Thank you Dobby!" Harry said as he ran out of the library. Harry ran as fast as he could down to the lake and next to the booth that was set up for this occasion, in front of the moved stands.

"I'm. here." Harry panted as he sat in a chair in the tent

"'Bout time!" said a bossy, disapproving voice behind him "The task is about to start!" "Now, now Percy, or should I saw Weatherby, let him catch his breath" said the voice of Ludo Bagman as he put his hands on Harry's shoulder "Got a plan?"

"Yes Mr. Bagman. I do" Harry said as he caught his breath. Ludo smiled and then led the four members out of the tent as he started to make the announcements

"Sonoros! Well, all of our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They will have precisely one hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One. Two. three!"

Harry pulled off his shoes and socks (not knowing what to expect) and then went a few inches into the water until it covered his feet. The icy cold water felt like burning water to him. Harry looked at the crumpled piece of paper Dobby had given him, and then read the spell. Harry took out his wand and, Gibiliy! Harry waited for a second but nothing happened. He tried one more time and Gibiliy! But once again nothing happened. Harry stared at the laughing crowd in the stadiums, laughing, and the Slytherin students calling out rude remarks. Harry suspected the spell Dobby had given him was a difficult charm, and most fifth years couldn't do it. Harry decided to try one more time he held his wand strait up above his head and, Gibiliy! This time instead of nothing happening, a blast of electric blue light came shooting out and surrounded him, making a blue dome around him. It looked as if blue electric were spinning around the dome as it touched the water. Right when it touched the water the dome disappeared, or turned invisible. Harry feared the spell had worn off but to his amazement the shallow water he was standing in sped away. Harry walked deeper into the water, and for about five feet all around him there was now water. It was as if a circular force field around him was keeping the water out.

Harry's feet squished against the wet sand as he ran deeper, and deeper into the water. Harry walked for about ten more minutes, watching the guppies and other fish swim around him as he went looking for Ron. Harry was watching a peculiar frog that giant bulging eyes, he suspected a student had casted a spell upon it, and he was about to do the counter curse when he noticed how far he had gone under water. He stared up and saw walls of water reaching up to about fifty feet high. Harry walked more and accidentally slipped on a slippery rock and his head fell into the water, but he quickly pulled it out.

Harry walked farther as the water around him started to get darker almost black, and he was so deep under, only little light shone from the top of the top of the tube Harry made in the water. Harry guessed he was almost one hundred feet under water as he reached an entire forest made out of giant see trees. Harry pushed the sea trees away as a blue face popped out behind it with horns on top of its head. The creature (Harry recognized immediately as a Grindylow) stuck his hands through the invisible tube wall that kept the water out. Harry was about to hit the Grindylow with Relashio, when its blue scaly arm turned a bright red color and started to smoke as if it were on fire. The horned water demon quickly let go and swan back into the meadow of overgrown waterweeds.

Harry marveled at how strong the shield was, when about thirty Grindylow's had jumped out of the tangled seaweed. Sixty arms popped into the tube force field Harry had made, but they were quickly pulled out as they turned red and smoked. A few more horned water demons tried to reach Harry but nothing worked. All of the Grindylow's had suddenly stepped back as something had emerged from the under water wood's. It looked like a Grindylow but much larger and it had a thick beard that looked as if it were made of seaweed. Instead of just an arm or leg coming threw the walls, half of the body of the Grindylow went through. The giant Grindylow stuck out its clawed hands and grasped them around Harry's neck. The slimy, scaly hands began to squeeze harder as its face came within an inch of Harry's. Harry was so startled he had dropped his wand, and his face turned a dark purple color as he stared at the giant Grindylow. It must have been the king Grindylow because it had a large horn between its two little ones (when the others hadn't) and the large horn had a gold ring encrusted with jewels on it. Smoke bellowed from the face of the Grindylow, and it started to bubble. This Grindylow staying in much longer than the other had but it's beard started to flame so it quickly stepped back.

Harry massaged his neck as he saw something emerge from the under water forest. It was Cedric. He had obviously seen thirty-one Grindylows' attacking something, and he might of thought it was another contestant so he came to help them. Cedric's jaw dropped inside some bubble around his head as he saw what Harry had done. Cedric stared at the magnificent charm Harry had done when a Grindylow grabbed his ankle. A second later five more Grindylows' grabbed his ankle and started to pull him under. Harry immediately took out his wand and, Relashio! A blast of orange fire came shooting out of his wands, and shot towards the Grindylow's. The flames hit them in the back, and the howled in pain as they went back to their hiding. Cedric mouthed, "thank you" and than swam higher where the water demons wouldn't come for him.

Harry began to walk some more when myrtle had stepped inside his water shield.

"Hey Myrtle!" Harry said

"This is much better than what the others did. Krum tried to turn himself into a shark and did an awful job! He looks hideous! And Cedric and Fleur did some bubblehead thing. And these water things attacked Fleur, and it was awful! She looked horrible!" Myrtle began to laugh as she remembered how "horrible" Fleur looked.

"Have you seen the merpeople?"

"Yeah over there!" Myrtle said as she pointed to her left

"Thanks!" Harry began to walk some more when he reached a house made of shells, and pebbles stuck together by mud. Out of the window the mermaids were singing the same song from the eggs, but they immediately stopped when they saw what Harry had done. Harry walked down the street (that was covered in starfish and sea enchants) with all of the merpeople staring at him. Harry walked more (he accidentally tripped over a starfish once) when he saw four people tied up; Ron, Cho, Hermionie, and another girl he guessed was Fleur's sister. Harry quickly ran up to them and began to untie them all when a large merman grunted

"No! One hostage each!"

Harry refused and stepped up more so that all of the hostages were in his water shield. Once in the air the hostages began to wake up, and scream

"Why are we tied up?" Cho asked in a worried voice "Were still under water!" Harry began to untie all of them with a uniting charm when Ron said

"My gwad! You did a water parting charm! But why are you taking all of us?"

"Because one hour is almost up, and after that - gulp- you the merpeople's" Ron began to laugh, and managed to say

"You believed that song? C'mon Dumbledore would never let that happen, just because the contestant was to slow!" but it was too late, Harry had already untied all of them (and they couldn't go back into the water because the spell was broken, since they touched the air). The merman, and mermaid protested as all four of the hostages left with one person, but they were to afraid to go through the water shield, and all they would do is stick their spears through, but Harry light them on fire, and the hadn't protested since. All four of them started to walk out of the village when a large red tentacle went thought the shield and wrapped around Harry's neck. It was about to pull Harry into the water but Cho; Ron, Hermionie, and Fleur's sister grabbed Harry's legs and tried to pull him back in. The giant squid's tentacle started to pull Harry and his head was in the water, when the band of mermen from the cave took their spears (some that were burnt) and poked the giant squid until he swam away.

Harry thanked the mermen, and then felt guilty that he made them break Dumbledore's rules. The walked some more when they reached the Grindylow territory. Cho, and Fleur's sister Gabriel screamed at the sight of them, and Harry told them that they wouldn't dare come near them. They walked some more when they reached the school of guppies and saw Cedric. Cedric tried to say something when he saw Harry with all of the hostages, but Harry just shrugged because he couldn't hear what Harry was saying threw the bubble surrounding his head. Cedric followed them until the reached the beach and the bubble wore off. Gabriel ran immediately towards her sister and Madame Pomfrey forced her and the rest of the hostages and the contestants to the medical tent. Harry had server bruises all over his neck, because of the Grindylow, and there were lots of missing skin from where the giant squid had got him. She poured thick orange goo on his skin that hissed and sizzled as the bruises and loss skin healed.

Harry explained to Cedric, and Fleur, why he had taken all of the hostages (they understood, because to get to one of them, he had to put all of them in the air, since they were al next to each other, and he couldn't put them back because the charm was already broken when the touched the air). Krum came waddling out of the water (with his normal head) looking very annoyed since Hermionie wasn't there when she should have. Harry saw Dumbledore talking to the king merman, and than went to consult the judges.

"Everybody!" Ludo began "We are scoring each person out of fifty. We must first inform you that young Harry Potter had done a remarkable water parting charm. He first defeated the entire Grindylow fortress, including the king, and reached the mer-village first. The hostages were under a charm that would put them to sleep until they reached air. Harry was surrounded on all sides by air, and when he reached his hostage Ron, he undid the charm since Ron reached air, and he accidentally undid the charm for all of the others. Harry couldn't put the hostages back into the water since the charm was broken, so he took them with him! And for his excellent performance, of the spectacular water parter charm, getting all of the hostages back, and being the only one to make it in time, we award him full point!" The crowd cheered and clapped (except Malfoy and his friends who booed and shouted mean comments) "And in second place! This man had gotten to the mer-village only a second too late, but he would of gotten his hostage, and he got back only a minute after so we award him forty-five points!" The crowd also cheered (including Malfoy and his gang). "In third place, this man tried to do a shark transfiguration but only turned his head into a sharks head, he also reached the captive cave, but found no one so he came back seven minutes out of the time limit, so we'll award him 39 points!" the crowd cheered and the Durmstrang students sent up blue and green sparks (their school color's). "And in last place this woman did an excellent bubblehead charm, but unfortunally she was attacked by Grindylow's so she had to surface, but we award her twenty-five points!"

Harry glanced over at Fleur who was hugging her sister and muttered "'should of gotten zero points." After Fleur was finished hugging her sister to death she went over to Harry and said "You zaved her! Zank you!" and with saying that she gave Harry a kiss on each cheek, when Ron blurted out

"I helped too!" Fleur smiled and kissed Ron on either cheek saying

"Yes you did!" After Fleur walked away, and Ron stopped blushing, Hermionie and Hagrid came over shouting

"Harry, you're in first place!"