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Harry anxiously stood on the dock waiting to be taken to the platforms on the lake. He had spent all morning searching for Ron, Hermione, and Sofia. If anything he was most upset that she wasn't anywhere to be found. He needed her comforting voice and her signature kiss on his forehead just to stop him from thinking the worst of this task.
Holding his breath for an hour in the Black Lake was going to be hard enough without having to worry about where his friends had gone off too. Standing on the edge waiting to jump into the freezing water, he noticed Cedric looked distracted as well. Harry figured that could possibly come to his advantage.
He placed the slimy green Gillyweed into his mouth, gagging on the taste of it. The cannon shot rang through the crowd, and the other champions jumped into the lake. Harry felt someone push him from behind sending him flailing into the frigid water. He was amazed by the gills and webbed appendages he had, knowing they would come to his advantage.
Swimming through the lake was tough, tougher than Cedric could have imagined. He watched as everyone went their own way, and chose one himself. He had no idea what he was going to find at the bottom, he just hoped it wasn't his broom. He'd stayed up the half the night thinking of anything important enough to be considered a priceless treasure and be taken to the bottom of the Black Lake, but nothing had come to mind other than his broom.
He checked his watch again, the hour was ticking by and he still hadn't found anything. It felt as though the lake was bottomless, no matter how far down he swam there still seemed to be more distance to go.
Finally he saw it, or them rather, near the entrance to the Mer-city. Harry was already there, staring at the four bodies floating lifelessly. Cedric continued all the while watching as Sofia swayed with the rope tied around her ankle. He pointed his wand and she slowly began floating upwards. Harry turned to him, watching him wrap his arm around Sofia's waist. Cedric tapped his watch, before swimming off.
Cedric struggled while carrying Sofia's dead weight, with only one hand to propel both of them fowards he only wished she was consious and able to help him. He tried staying focused on getting out and into dry clothes, but he couldn't think straight holding onto Sofia so tightly.
He had not been expecting to see her. If anything he thought Cho would be the one, considering they had been unofficially dating for a few weeks now. Suddenly it occurred to him that the entire school would be watching him pull Sofia out of the Black Lake. It wasn't exactly a secret that they weren't friends, and this would definitely complicate things.
What seemed like nearly another hour later he broke the surface, gasping for air with a flailing Sofia at his side. He stopped there, not moving closer to the platforms until she stopped pulling away from him throwing her arms all around her. Finally her eyes connected with his.
"You okay?" He asked pulling her closer to him with the arm still around her waist. He felt her place her arm around his shoulder and cling to his body tightly while staring at him with frightened eyes. She nodded and helped him move their bodies toward the platform and the audience.
Cedric helped her up first, following quickly after her. Sofia was instantly wrapped in towels as friends and teachers surrounded her and Cedric. Pulling the towels tightly around her, Sofia began looking around realizing they were the first to return her eyes fell back onto the Black Lake.
"Cold," Cedric's voice asked from beside her. Sofia stared at him, biting her lower lip to stop her teeth from chattering.
"Freezing," she said with a small smile. He moved closer to her standing in front of her and rubbing his hands up and down her arms. "Aren't you cold?"
"I'll live," he told her, their eyes never leaving each others. She stepped closer, pulling her arms out and wrapping them around his waist and up his back. She didn't become aware of her actions until it was too late, everyone would be staring at them and as much as she wanted to pull away she couldn't let go of him. "Wow, you have no idea how much this isn't helping." Sofia laughed staring up at him.
"Sorry," he stepped away from her. Sofia watched with a smile as he tried pulling farther away.
"Wait," she held her hands firmly on his waist. Biting her lip she tried thinking of a reason not to let him go. He smiled at her, reaching up and pulling her loose hair behind her ear. Sofia's eyes quickly glanced to her side, and her thoughts were confirmed as a small group of third year Hufflepuff girls stared wide eyed and gaping at them.
Cedric noticed her eyes shift and followed, suddenly hit with a wave of guilt as he remembered he had a girlfriend to find in the throng of students. He didn't want to leave Sofia, especially while she shook slightly from the cold breeze that blew. He had to admit she looked cute as her teeth chattered, and small strands of hair clung to her face.
"Come on Ced," He glanced behind him and saw his waiting friends, and Cho making her way over.
"Go, celebrate." Sofia told him laughing slightly, watching as his friends surrounded him, and Cho came over throwing her arms around him. A pit formed in her stomach as he returned her embrace, lifting her a little off the ground with his arms around her.
"Sofia, what happened?" Angelina's voice called from behind her. Sofia's eyes were still on the couple a few feet in front of her.
"McGonagall called me into Dumbledore's office last night." Sofia said, turning to smile at her two best friends. "Apparently putting me in the Black Lake with Diggory as my only hope for rescue, is a new punishment of hers."
"You weren't worried he'd just leave you down there?" Katie asked with a small laugh.
Sofia glanced back, watching as Cedric stood speaking with his friends, an arm around Cho as she stared up admiringly at him. "He wants to win. Leaving me down there wouldn't have helped him."
At that moment Krum came up with Hermione at his side. Sofia let out a sigh, again glancing into the murky water for Harry. Hermione came to stand with the three girls, towels and a rode wrapped around her securely.
"Where'd you get a robe?" Sofia asked her glancing around for someone passing them out who she could have missed, tightening the hold she had on her own towels.
"Krum found one for me," Hermione said distractedly looking out at the Black Lake.
"He'll be fine, I'm sure." Sofia told Hermione.
"I hope your right." The younger girl said, turning with a small smile as she began drying her hair with a towel. "It's hideously frizzy isn't it?" She asked with a scared laugh.
"What did you do to McGonagall to disserve such a punishment?" Sofia joked, rubbing her hands over the towel Hermione had on her head. "You're never going to fix this frizzy messy you call hair."
"You're one to talk, you're hair looks twice as bad as mine." Hermione teased, causing a self-conscious Sofia to run her hands through her hair, dropping her towels.
"Awful punishment," a voice said behind Sofia and she turned hesitantly to look at the person it belonged to. "I heard about the argument in front of McGonagall's class yesterday." Cho finished, smiling a little awkwardly at Sofia.
"I suppose she wanted to assure it would never happen again, though I doubt this will stop another argument." Sofia stated quickly picking up her disregarded towels and glancing at Cedric who stood with his friends oblivious to what was occurring between the girls.
"At least you get to say you were part of the tournament." She continued to smile, and Sofia's frown was beginning to set in permanently.
"Yeah, tied to the bottom of a lake with no hope of rescue but Diggory, I'd pass on that in a heartbeat if I had the choice." Sofia said with a weary smile, her friends beside her sniggered softly.
"You think he wouldn't have saved you?" Cho asked concerned, casting a worried glance to where her boyfriend stood.
Sofia used all the restraint her had not to laugh at the fifth year in front of her. The look on Cho's face, as she realized that the golden boy she was dating had the capacity to leave someone in harm's way was priceless. Sofia knew he wouldn't have left anyone down there, even his worst enemy. She just liked the fact that Cho was trying to fathom the possibility.
"If I was ever going to be tied to the bottom of a lake I'd want him to get me out." Sofia admitted.
"He's a good guy," Cho said with a soft laughing as she finally recognized the joke. Sofia nodded not sure if she was being told this or if Cho was asking. She heard someone near her choke on a laugh, and cause Cho's smile to falter a bit, but Sofia was glad to see Cho's smile became widen as if understanding it was another joke and she turned back with her hand instinctively finding Cedric's.
"A good guy? What are you getting him dates now too?" Angelina asked her face looking in disgust as she watched Cho smile sweetly at Cedric.
"No, I just want him to leave me alone. What better way than giving him a girlfriend that won't let him out of her sight." Sofia smiled unconvincingly.
"I think you were down there too long." Angelina said, "You're not thinking straight."
"What's that suppose to mean?" Sofia asked, but was cut off as the crowd erupted again.
Ron and Fluer's sister were making their way to the platform, but Harry was nowhere to be seen. The crowd was so excited to see them finally emerge, Ron and the young blond girl were brought onto the platform and wrapped in towels quickly. Sofia was beginning to worry that Harry was going to run out of air before he made it back up. She ran a hand through her wet hair and caught Cedric's stare. He took a step towards her, dropping Cho's hand.
"Sofia," Hermione called as she ran over to where Harry had just landed. Sofia turned quickly, dropping Cedric's gaze. She ran over to Harry, kneeling at his side.
"Finally," she breathed kissing his forehead. "You scared me half to death."
Sofia wrapped one of her towels around his shoulders, waiting for others to return with dry ones. She leaned the side of her head against his, her eyes swimming through the many legs in her eyesight from the floor.
"I'm fine, Sofia," Harry told her sighing.
"Yeah, alright," Sofia said pulling away from him and standing. She placed her arms tightly around her damp robes, failing to block the cold winter breeze from her body..
Hermione continued to speak, but her words were lost to Sofia. Catching a glimpse of Cedric, suddenly her thoughts were filled with his voice ringing in her ears from the previous night. She didn't even realize Dumbledore had announced the winners until the students around her erupted into cheers and applause. She turned to Harry with a smile.
"You wanted to be a part of the tournament, at least you got that." Katie laughed as she walked back up to the castle alongside Angelina and a shivering Sofia.
"I didn't expect to be the challenge," Sofia sighed, pulling a towel tighter around her.
"We both know you enjoyed being swept up in the arms of the most handsome guy in school." Angelina teased.
"I was tied to the bottom of the Black Lake, it wasn't as romantic as you make it sound." Sofia explained harshly to both her friends.
"Still this tournament has changed everything, hasn't it? Suddenly you're all doe eyed for Diggory again." Angelina laughed slightly as the girls neared the castle walls.
"You are a treasure of his, aren't you?" Katie laughed as the two girl walked ahead of Sofia, leaving her glaring at their departing forms. She slowly sulked into the castle behind them.
Harry sat with Sofia that night, curled up on the sofa in front of the fire. She watched the flame dance and stroked Harry's hair absentmindedly. She couldn't stop thinking about being in the icy water with Cedric's arm around her. He had too much of an effect on her, and she didn't like the feeling.
"This tournament is only going to make things worse isn't it?" She asked blinking away tears. She didn't want to say any more. Her problems had nothing to do with Harry and the last thing she wanted was to complicate his life anymore.
"Only if you let it," Harry told her, squeezing her hand. "If you look at it another way, it's really fixed things hasn't it. You've spent more time with him these past few months than in years before."
"You say that as if it were a good thing," Sofia sighed, leaning her head on his.
Thinking about it, she couldn't decide whether what McGonagall had done was a punishment or if she really thought Sofia meant a lot to Cedric. Either way, Sofia needed to figure out her feelings and decide how to hide them. The last thing she wanted was to fall back into the pull of nice guy Diggory again, only to be disappointed.
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