A/N: So, I've been away for a while and for that I'm sorry I haven't been able to write anything, or anything good anyways, but now I am back and sorry for being away for too long. Hope you like the story!
P.S: Still need a beta reader dudes, So yeah...It's out there, Please respond ASAP
Chapter 9 - The big show and the second task.
"Malfoy" She said as the aforementioned blonde whipped his head around and widened his eyes when he saw who was standing in the doorway of the bathroom. His eyes that were normally cold along with a cruel smirk plastered along with it were now watery and shining in the dim lighting of the room. He had red rings around his eyes as a testament about how much he had cried. Rosalie stood frozen in shocked, for four years she had known the slytherin prince and never, ever had she seen him give off any emotions besides anger, pride and cruelty but now she took in his form, it was broken and hopeless.
She carefully approached him with her hands palm outwards to show that she didn't mean him harm. He looked at her mistrustful and slightly angry, both of which she could understand. She was his enemy and for her to see him cry like this must be difficult. She softly knelt beside him and looked him in the eyes her own green eyes studying his grey ones. "What's wrong"
"What's it to you Potter" He spat rubbing his eyes furiously quenching the moistness that had grown there.
"Wow, All bark and no bite. Somethings wrong with you or you wouldn't be acting this way now tell me" She said gently but firmly
"You shouldn't bother, no-one can help me now" He said morosely, shaking her head she snapped "Yes there is now you can either tell me or tell the headmaster"
He looked up at her and into her green eyes that flashed with determination and a deep promise that no matter what he said or denied would make no difference to her, she would make him say it. Sighing his shoulders slumped and he let loose a we more tears before he took a deep breath and he began his tale.
"My dad wants me to take the mark on my fifteenth birthday, but I don't want to, I swear I don't" He said she placed a hand on his shoulder gently and he took another deep breath before continuing "He said there's something big coming, something bigger than last time and he wants me to be one like him"
"But I thought you wanted to be like your dad" She asked confused slightly, didn't Malfoy always want to be like Malfoy senior?
"Growing up I was taught that being magical made me better than everyone who didn't but when I met Granger and well...You I sort of changed my mind" He admitted
"So you stopped being a prat where you ever gonna share that with oh I don't know me? Instead of acting like a git all these years" She asked
"I wanted to but what could I do? I'm the son of a well-known dark family and you're you! I couldn't do anything except what people expect of me...But I don't want to take the mark" He said softly a stay tear falling down his cheek
"So what are you going to do?" She asked him worry for him building up inside of her.
"Nothing. I can't do anything, No-one can, I'm stuck forever doing what is expected of me. I'm sorry for this, I shouldn't have said anything" He said before he walked out of the room. She chewed her bottom lip harshly as she stood to her feet. Somehow she had managed to walk back to the common room and was accosted by her friend who asked her what was wrong.
She toyed briefly with the idea of telling Hermione but she dismissed it with a simple "I'm fine". For now she would say nothing but work on ways that she could help the slytherin whose tear-stained face she could not erase from her mind.
Rosalie sighed in total boredom, she was stuck here in the library when outside the snow had finally melted and for once, in the cold February afternoon the sun had broken and it let out a few warming rays that hit the ground outside giving the grass, which only few short days ago was hidden away by the icy shards of snow and sleet, a healthier green glow on it. She could be out there right now, flying through the air letting the cold air nipping at her face as she dived and swirled and let go of everything that was going wrong this year. But she wasn't, instead she was here in the Hogwarts library with her best friend trying hard to not look in the direction of her maybe boyfriend as he sat with two of his friends cramming for his newts.
"You told me you had the egg figured out weeks ago!" Hermione snapped slamming yet another dusty book down on the table
"And I may have stretched the truth a little" She said wiping her eyes and blinking trying to wake herself up.
"A little! Rose the tasks in three days!" Hermione said going full on freak-out mode that meant that she would grab any book that looked like they held information about the golden egg, so far they had gotten six large dusty books collected on the table and Rosalie felt sure that more would be added to the pile later on.
When the bell rang for dinner they packed away the books and walked down the corridor with Hermione muttering to herself about spells that may or may not help solve the clue.
"Rosie!" A voice called from behind them, both turned and when they saw the Hufflepuff prefect they smiled and Hermione excused herself and walked to the great hall joining Ginny in a conversation.
"Hey Ced, What's up" She asked fidgeting with her bag strap
"The egg, Have you figured it out yet?" He asked looking intensely at her and she almost blushed under his gaze.
"Yes...In the sense of not actually doing it then yeah, I've got it solved" He smiled when she joked but bent closer to her ear and whispered in "The prefects bathroom midnight, I can help" He said before pecking her lips and making his way back to the library presumably to grab his books, she stood in the hallway blushing and wondering what he could mean by his cryptic clue.
Idly she pulled up a strand of her black hair and sniffed it a little "I guess it's time for a bath"
She waited outside the entrance to the bathroom with a small bag filled with a towel and her swimming costume. She chewed her lip wondering if he had forgotten to meet her or maybe it was a huge joke and he was laughing in the common room with his friends. "Hey Rose" Cedric said coming round the corner with a bag and a towel as well. "Hey Ced" She said before he walked to the portrait and whispered the password Pine fresh and the door swung open to show the prefect bathroom in all of its glory. There was a huge swimming bath sized bath and an uncountable amount of taps.
Cedric switched them on and the aroma of lavender and soap filled the room as the room filled with the smells of a typical bath. She fingered her bag and said "Um..Ced I need to change"
"Oh right...Sorry" He said before turning his back to her. She changed quickly and dived into the warm water and when she had resurfaced she saw that he had already changed into a pair of blue swim trunks. She waited until he too had slipped into the bath water before grabbing her egg from the pile and asking "So now what do I do"
"Watch" He said smiling before taking her hand in his and slipping them and the egg below the surface. When the clasp at the top of the egg had opened instead of the shrieks that usually accompanied it there was a soft vibration as the water began to send ripples through the mountains of bubbles that had accumulated in it. When she saw that Cedric had submerged himself she too slipped below the waves surface, she too submerged herself pushing her black pony-tailed hair out of her face when it spiraled around her. Then in an instant the sounds of singing filled her ears.
Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching ponder this;
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour-long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour, the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.
She swam back to the surface gasping for air. "You see" Cedric said helping her sit against the side of the bath as she regained her breath and brushed suds from her eyes "Something we'll sorely miss? And what's taken it" She asked when she could breathe freely "Think about it" Cedric urged
"Mere-people" She realised suddenly as Cedric smiled brightly at her before pulling her flush against him and kissing her softly.
When they pulled apart she bit her lip before looking at him seriously "Cedric what are we?" She asked
"What do you mean" He asked her back as she broke from his grasp and climbed out of the bath "I mean, We kiss and went to the ball with each other...What does that mean, I mean are we something" She asked as she toweled herself dry and forgoing changing again she simply tied her robe around her body and after putting her stuff away looked back at him.
"I don't know Rose...What do you want us to be" He asked her as he too climbed out.
"Well...I want us to be...Together you know like a couple" She said
"So why can't we" He said smiling widely
"Look at the paper Ced...I mean if that's what they're like when we weren't going out imagine what it'll be like when we do date" She said
"So what? I don't care about what people say"
"But I do, I couldn't ask you to go through all that again especially with Rita's vendetta against me. You leave next year...Maybe this is a sign that we shouldn't be together"
"I don't care and neither should you! Rose I know it'll be hard but I want to be with you" He said holding her close
"Just promise me one thing" She said
"And that is"
"Don't leave me"
She didn't see Hermione the next morning and in lieu of going to the great hall for breakfast she dipped her hand into her stash of sweets before heading to the owlery to check for a reply from Sirius. Munching on a chocolate frog she climbed the still icy steps to the room and thought back on her Godfather. She felt a little upset that he hadn't contacted her at all this year but with all the ministry looking for him and with Buckbeak to care for she could sort of understand why he hadn't had time. Being a full-time fugitive from the law will take time after all.
As she stepped into the room containing all the owls in the school she was accosted by an unfamiliar owl bearing her name written in familiar writing on aged parchment.
Taking it from the offered leg she stroked the bird which preened under the attention and opened the letter breaking the seal she began to read
Dear Prongslet,
Sorry about the delay but the ministry has been closing in lately and it's been harder to contact you. But I may have found permanent residence in London. But as far as the tournament goes Prongslet it looks like you're on your own. But know this, Me and Moony believe in you because you are the smartest kindest bravest woman I know, and it's not just because I'm your Godfather. Good luck, I'll be in touch but don't send Hedwig she's too recognizable.
Padfoot.
She smiled and rolled her eyes at the warning, honestly it wasn't as though she went deliberately looking for trouble! She quickly penned a reply before burning his note in a spy-like way to conceal him from prying eyes. Then she heard the bell for her first lesson, Herbology, and sighing as she had done a lot these past few days and headed there, trying in vain to stop thinking about a certain Hufflepuff.
The morning of the 24th of February was fairly cold but when the night had vanished a small inkling of light broke through. Rosalie looked down at her breakfast and attempted to eat a few bites while her stomach did flips in her belly. In her pocket lay the slimy thing that she had looked up 'Gillyweed' from the hyper house elf Dobby.
She wondered privately if it would actually work or if the Gillyweed would fail and she would drown in the black lake. She wondered if life would be easier down there and not as messed up or confusing as it was now.
She looked around for Hermione and couldn't find her in the crowd of people, she turned around and unconsciously letting her eyes slip to the Hufflepuff table, her eyes landing on the very boy she was trying hard to ignore.
Amongst other sixth years Cedric was picking at his food much like herself but he looked a little worse for wear. She sighed and looked away before once again, Mcgonagall walked over to her as Sprout did to Cedric and told her "It's time to go Potter"
And then they were walking down the banks of the black lake where the seats that had encircled the dragon enclosure for the first task were now pressed around the edge of the lake. As they neared they could hear the excited babble of the audience and each syllable she heard cemented the dead weight in her belly. She breathed through her mouth trying to quell the rising vomit pool in her throat.
She noticed that Fleur and Krum where both here as well as their respective head teachers neither of whom looked happy to see her standing. And then when she presumed that Cedric had arrived with professor sprout Ludo Bagman man began to space them out evenly. As she moved to her place at the end she saw that Mr Crouch had one again failed to show up and that instead Percy Weasley had taken his place. The elder Weasley looking at his brother with disdain from his perch on the judges table among other esteemed individuals.
Bagman smiled at her making her smile a little uncertainly at him back and she waited in the cold air watching her breath make white spirals that reminded her faintly of the dragon she had faced earlier in the year.
She faintly heard Bagman talking as she slowly took off her robes and embraced the cold in her swimming costume and from the corner of her eye she saw the others doing the same and then she gently took out the Gillyweed. Then once the shrill whistle broke through the cold air she walked towards the water her wand brushing her knee as it moved inside the confines of her holster. She grabbed the Gillyweed and stuffed the plant inside her mouth and began to chew it as hard and fast as she could. It felt unpleasantly cold and slimy kind of she imagined Octopus tentacles would taste. She stopped walking and waited.
Seconds past and she could hear faint laughing in the audience and she knew that she must look a tad stupid with just standing in the all without an ounce of magic power to be shown.
Then in a second it felt as though someone had placed their hand over her nose and mouth. She attempted to draw breath but the accompanying feeling made her head spin. Her lungs burned with the lack of oxygen getting into them and then a sharp piercing pain either side of her neck added themselves to the mix. She grabbed her neck attempting to claw at whatever was making them hurt when she breathed her fingers against a pair of slits either side of her neck. She had gills. Without thinking she did the only thing she could think of, she flung herself head first into the water.
She gasped as the first gulping of icy lake water eased the pain in her lungs. Quickly her head had ceased it's spinning and the she stretched her hands outwards and studied them. They had become webbed and looked ghostly green under the water. She looked at her feet and they too had changed. They had elongated and become webbed also. Smiling as she felt the weight of the task lift from her shoulders she dived deep into the depths of the lake.
She could see as much as ten feet in front of her meaning that as she sped through the water everything took on a looming effect as it emerged from the gloom around her. Sh swam deeper and towards whats sh assumed to be, the middle of the lake.
As she moved through the water fish darted out of the way their silvery bodies casting glinting shards through the water and once or twice she could have seem something bigger. And then through the muddy water the haunting song began to sound
An hour long you'll have to look...
The words echoed in her mind and she began to swim faster in the water. She soon saw a large rock emerge out of the murky water in front of her. As she neared the rock a few markings became figures of merepeople on it; they were carrying spears, chasing what looked lied the giant squid that inhabited the lake. She swam past the rock following the sound of the singing
Lest what you seek stays to rot..
She swam towards a cluster of crude looking rock dwellings that had stained over time with algae that seemed to loom out of the darkness all around her. As she swam through the village she looked inside the dark holes that served as windows and as she did Rosalie saw faces. She flashed back to the painting of the mermaid in the bathroom that she had looked at with Cedric.
The faces that looked at her had greyish skins and long wild dark hair that curled around them. The ones that didn't swim away in fear had yellow eyes and grey cracked teeth. Around each of their necks was a think ropes that had various tones and pebbles attached. As she continued some emerged from their caves with their spears clutched tightly in their hands.
She sped on quickly a chill running down her spine and then she neared what looked like the 'village' square. A huge crowd of merepeople gathered around a statue of a mereperson. Floating behind them were four people bound to the tail of the statue.
She swam uncertain towards the hostages, would the merepeople charge at her with their spears lowering them until they met with her flesh. But as she neared the hostages they made no move towards her. Hermione was tied between two unknown people. One was a little girl probably aged around eight with silvery blonde hair. From that she felt sure that it was Fleur's sister. And the other was a small boy aged around thirteen, and from the clothes that were similar to Durmstrang's clothes she presumed it to be Viktor's hostage. Cho Chang was there also at the end. She passed her eye to Hermione's foot, a strand of thick green weed that was very strong and very slimy. She passed a thought to the knife that Sirius had given her via owl mail on Christmas that was locked up inside her trunk inside the castle.
Cursing her stupidity she looked at the floor and spied a sharp looking stone on the bed of the lake. Prising it from it's silty prison she swam back to the weed. Hacking away at it she freed Hermione from it's grasp and then she looked at the others. Cho's head was resting on the Bulgarian boys shoulder and the silver haired girl was now ghostly pale. Where were they?
Chewing her lip she looked at the three people. She swam to the other weeds with the rock in hand and tried to hack at them too. "Only one!" A mereperson said pointing their spear underneath her neck and pressing it hard. "But I don't want them to die either" She said although all that came our was a large bubble, around her the merepeople began to laugh but then an excited childish looking one pointed over her shoulder and she turned rock in hand to come face to face with Cedric.
He had an enormous bubble encasing his head making his features look stretched and sometime they distorted as the bubble shimmered in the water "Got lost" He mouthed to her "Fleur and Krum're coming" And then he grabbed her from under the water and hugged her although their bodied tried to float away. Then he dived down to Cho's weed rope and gave a silent cutting charm and then grabbed her body. Fighting the small stab of jealousy that rose inside of her Rosalie swam to him and put her hand on his shoulder and smiled before he rose out of sight. One down two to go she thought.
Then the merepeople began to screech loudly she looked up and saw Krum had transfigured himself, badly into a shark. The shark-man Bulgarian swam towards the Bulgarian boy. He began to bite and snap at the bindings but the issue was that with Krum's new teeth being positioned in a new place it became clear that he wouldn't be able to free the boy. Swimming towards the Bulgarian she tapped him on the shoulder and offered the jagged stone. nodding in thanks he hacked at the weed before grabbing the boy in a fireman's carry and swimming to the surface.
She waited for a few more minutes before she swam back to Hermione and once she had made sure that she wasn't going to float off she made to hack the young girls bonds away.
The merepeople did the same as last time but instead of cowing like she did before she grabbed her wand from her holster and pointed it at the mere man who had his spear at her throat. This time they seemed to understand what she meant this time and they looked fearful and there yellow eyes went wide. When they till did not move she held up three fingers "You have until three" she shouted as bubbles flew from her mouth.
"One (She put down a finger)...Two(She put down a second)" And they all scattered and she darted forwards and in few seconds she had hacked the weed attached to the silvery blonde haired girls ankle. When she had freed the girl she seized her around the waist and then grabbed the neck of Hermione robes and kicked off the bottom of the lake.
She moved slowly and she became very aware of how heavy the two bodies were. They felt like sacks of potatoes dragging her down to the bottom. She looked up and fixed her eyes forwards at the surface of the lake.
Her shoulders ached with the strain of carrying to non-moving bodies, her legs were seizing as she pushed harder to support both herself and the two people she carried with her body.
She drew breath with difficultly as she grew more aware of how wet the water really was inside of her mouth. The piercing pain in the side of her neck was back and the darkness was certainly thinning as she still swam. She could see the daylight break through the gloom. A tiny pinprick of light in the distance.
She kicked harder with her flippers to find that they were back to being plain old feet, water began to flood into her mouth and into her lungs as they once again burned for oxygen. She began to feel dizzy but she knew that light an air were merely a few scarce feet above where she swam. She couldn't give up...not now.
Rosalie kicked her legs harder and faster that it felt as though her muscles were screaming in protest;she couldn't breathe, she needed oxygen. Now. She had to keep going she couldn't stop.
And then she felt her head break the surface of the water and she greedily sucked in oxygen the wonderful cold air tickling her face as she hair plastered the side of her face. Panting hard she pulled both Hermione and the little girl up to the surface. Around him Green haired heads of the merepeople stuck out of the water along with her but this time they were smiling at her benignly.
The crowd in front of them was making a huge noise; shouting and screaming. Nobody seemed to be in their seats and she could see Cedric holding out a blanket for her. She turned to the two next to her and for a moment she thought they were dead until they had opened their eyes. The little girl blinked and looked terrified and Hermione spat out a huge spout of water before looking at her friend and smiling. "YOU DID IT!" She screamed happily then she looked at the little girl confused "Fleur didn't show up and I couldn't leave her" Rosalie explained
"You prat! The song wasn't real" Hermione said as they pulled Fleur's little sister towards the stands. "I didn't know! I panicked" Rosalie said to her friend who smiled and hugged her tightly "You wouldn't be you if you didn't"
They reached the stands and were pulled out and onto the banks where a hysterical Fleur and Cedric met them. "Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she 'urt"
"She's fine" Rosalie said too exhausted to shout at the french girl
"It was ze Gryndylows! zey attacked me...Oh, Gabrielle. I thought...I thought" The older french girl said to the younger who were hugging while sharing a blanket.
Rosalie found herself being dragged by Hermione who presented to Madame Pomfrey who poured a hot potion down her throat that made her insides burn.
As soon as the nurse freed her she found herself being wrapped up tightly in a thick blanket she looked up to meet the grey eyes of Cedric.
"You're well outside the time limit...Did it take you ages to find us" Hermione asked
"No...I found you okay" She said feeling dumber by the minute. Now she was out of the water and th threat of the Gillyweed not working allowed her to think freely. It seemed obvious that Dumbledore would have placed precautions to make sure that no-one was hurt. Why hadn't she just grabbed Hermione and left.
She looked over the edge of the blanket at Dumbledore whop seemed to be in deep conversation with the Merepeople. Eventually he stood up and turned to the crowd sending a smile at Rosalie. "A quick judges meeting before we give the marks" He said before the judges went into a huddle.
After being freed by Madame Pomfrey Fleur walked over to the trio of Hermione, Cedric and Rosalie looking for once less than the confident teenage dream that she was. "You saved 'er" She said "Even though she was not your 'ostage"
"Yeah" Rosalie said though now she slightly wished she had just left her to the statue.
Fleur bent down and hugged her tightly "Thank you" She whispered into Rosalie ears sounding more human like than the unobtainable girl image she upheld at the school.
Then the magically enhanced voice of Ludo Bagman boomed over the chatter "Ladies and Gentlemen, We have reached our verdict" He said "To Miss Fleur Delacour, We award her Twenty five points"
"I deserved Zero" Fleur muttered and Rosalie squeezed her hand comfortingly earning a small smile form the french girl
"To Mr Cedric Diggory, We award Forty seven points" Large rambunctious cheers broke out from the Hufflepuffs and Rosalie smiled brightly at him.
"To Mr Viktor Krum, we award Forty points" Durmstrang gave loud hoots and cheers and Karkaroff clapped particularly hard looking mighty superior as he stared down his nose at the people around him his eyes lingering on Rosalie longer than any one else.
"To Miss Rosalie Potter, We award" She held her breath, She knew that Cedric had lost points because he was out of the time limit and she certainly had been, her heart sank a little "Forty Five points"
Her stomach leapt. She was now tying with first place with Cedric! Fleur and Cedric congratulated her with smiles and Viktor sent her a smile form where he was stood. Rosalie laughed along with her friends.
"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June. The champions will be informed what is to be coming within the month" With that Bagman and the other judges left together walking back to the castle.
It was over, Rosalie thought in a daze as she pulled the blankets tighter around her. No more until June twenty-fourth.
And on the way to the castle she linked hands with Cedric and made plans for the future, not knowing what was to come.
