I would just like to apologise for the long delay between chapters and to thank you all for returning after this long gap. I do plan to post more chapters in the coming weeks to make up for breaking my once a month problem.

This chapter is tied very closely to the book (chapter 24) and is largely in preparation for the next chapter- the second task which will -hopefully(!)- be published before mid August.

There was a Hogsmeade visit in the middle of January and Chris was very surprised that Harry was going to go. Wyatt was planning to take advantage of the relatively empty castle and grounds to work on his plans for the second task which was now fast approaching and Chris would have thought that Harry would want to do the same thing. He didn't question Harry about this, not wanting Ron to think he was spying on Harry for Wyatt, but he did hope that Harry knew what he was doing.

As Hermione and Chris were treating the visit as a second date, they split off from Harry and Ron, leaving them in the Great Hall to finish their breakfast, promising they would meet up again in the afternoon in the three broomsticks.

As the pair of them walked through the cold, wet grounds away from Hogwarts, they glanced over at the lake just in time to spot Wyatt and Callum standing very close to the water's edge. As they continued to watch, Callum jumped impressively high into the air, flipped over and dived straight into the freezing cold lake, followed closely by the only slightly more hesitant Wyatt.

"They're mad!" Exclaimed Hermione. "It must be freezing- it's January!" Around Wyatt, a blue light seemed to be flickering on and off and Chris guessed that Wyatt's first plan, of finding a way to make his shield into a sort of waterproof bubble, wasn't going swimmingly.

"Nah." Replied Chris as they continued walking. "Callum has ridiculously insulated skin- one of the perks of being half manticore- he wouldn't feel the cold in the middle of Antarctica."

"What about Wyatt?" Pointed out Hermione. "Or are you going to tell me that another one of his powers is some sort of heat ray?"

"Actually, yeah." Replied Chris. "One of his powers is that he can blast this energy wave which combusts demons and that would probably be powerful enough to warm up the lake a bit." Hermione looked at him incredulously, not for the first time questioning the fairness of her fourteen year old friend having to compete against this all powerful super witch. "Although in this case he's using a potion to keep himself warm." Chris added.

"But why are they doing it?" Questioned Hermione.

"Well to practise for the second task of course." Said Chris- thinking that this close to the task Harry must have at least solved the riddle.

"The second task is in the lake?" Chris stopped dead in his tracks.

"You didn't know that?" He asked. Hermione shook her head. "Hermione, Harry has solved the riddle in the egg right?"

"He told me he was getting closer-" Began Hermione, suddenly very nervous for her friend.

"Hermione, the task is in a month! Even Wyatt is concerned about it enough to practise in advance." Hermione's eyes were now wide in worry, and also in slight anger- Harry had assured her that he had a good idea of what the clue was all about.

Xx

The pair didn't discuss any more about the challenge on the way into Hogsmeade. Hermione was too busy with her renewed concerns for Harry, while Chris was trying not to add anymore to her worries as he couldn't explain to her what the second task would be.

They spent a very enjoyable morning wondering around Hogsmeade. Wanting some privacy to catch up, they decided to bypass the crowded shops and instead head away from the village towards the shrieking shack which was practically deserted thanks to the brisk January temperatures.

"Is it really haunted?" Asked Chris sceptically, leaning on the railings to stare across at the large rundown old house. Of course Chris knew for a fact that ghosts were real- he had had enough celebrations attended by his dead aunt and Grandmother to convince him of that, not to mention all the ghosts he had met since he had been at Hogwarts, but his whitelighter senses were telling him that there was something more to this house than ghosts.

"No." Admitted Hermione- not seeing the point in hiding its true purpose given Snape had revealed Lupin's true nature at the end of last year. "It was built years ago for one of the students at the school who was a werewolf. Once a month he would come out here to transform away from the other students. Professor Dumbledore encouraged the rumours about the ghosts to explain away the howling."

"Wow really? And no one ever knew?"

"Some people worked it out." Explained Hermione. "I mean it's not easy to hide the fact that you always go missing on a full moon or have a particular aversion to certain herbs associated with Werewolves, but the boy got through all seven years without causing any major protests and actually came back as our defence against the dark arts teacher last year."

"Mum was turned into a werewolf once." Said Chris in an offhanded fashion. Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, beginning to question some of Chris' stories.

"No she didn't." She rejected instantly. "There isn't a cure for being a werewolf- there is no way she could have been one then and not be one now."

"Alright, she was a Wendigo." Conceded Chris, "But my Aunt Phoebe said they're practically the same thing. She said they are like a werewolf crossed with a Sasquatch."

Hermione laughed, not sure whether Chris was telling the truth or not. She shivered slightly in the cold winter air and Chris took of his jacket, wrapping it around her shoulders over her billowing cloak. He was only wearing a T-shirt under his jacket, however and goose bumps quickly appeared on his arms and, seeing this, Hermione suggested they should head back to the three broomsticks to warm up over some butterbeer.

The three broomsticks was, as usual, crowded but the pair spotted Harry and Ron sat at a table across the room, and so, after Chris bought them both butterbeers from the friendly land lady, they weaved their way through the mass of students to join them. Harry greeted them both cheerfully, but Ron seemed considerably less enthusiastic about the new company.

"Hey, so why is your brother trying to catch pneumonia in the lake?" Asked Harry who had apparently also witnessed Wyatt's water experiments.

"Really Harry?" Said Hermione, her voice laced with concern and annoyance. "Can you think of no reason why Wyatt, the magic school champion, would be in the lake?" Harry looked at her in confusion and shook her head.

"It's January." He pointed out. "You'd have to be mad!"

"Yeah." Concurred Ron. "And even if you ignored the temperature, no one swims in the lake, or does ne not know about the Giant Squid?" Ron sounded noticeably less concerned with Wyatt's welfare than Harry and even sounded slightly cheerful. Hermione however ignored Ron's comment, and instead hit Harry hard on the arm.

"Ow!" Exclaimed Harry, shifting his chair a few inches back from his friend. "What was that for?"

"You lied!" She hissed. "You said you were close to solving the clue for the second task."

"Yeah, and I am." Lied Harry, his eyes flicking from Hermione to Chris in the hope of an explanation.

"Then how come you don't know why Wyatt would want to swim in the lake?"

"Because I-" He broke off, knowing there was no point in continuing this deception. "So Cedric wasn't kidding that I should take a bath with the egg?" He asked Chris. Chris considered this for a moment, but decided if another of the Champions had already told him this clue then it didn't count as cheating it he confirmed the tip.

"I'd say it could definitely help." He nodded.

"Doesn't he ever go into the office?" Hermione whispered suddenly. "Look!" She pointed over to the far corner of the room from the door which was noticeably dim and shadowy and there sat Ludo Bagman- one of the judges of the tournament. He was talking very quickly and quietly with a group of rather menacing looking goblins.

Chris agreed it was odd that the judge would be away from the ministry when there were still five weeks until the next task, but he didn't have time to think much more on this as suddenly the man stood up, and the group hastily turned away from him to focus on their drinks.

"He's coming over!" Muttered Ron who could still keep an eye on Bagman from his position at the table. Indeed, Chris could hear the shuffling footsteps and grunted apologies of the large man as he squeezed his way through the crowd in their direction.

"Harry!" He said as they arrived, ignoring the presence of the other three. "How are you? Been hoping to run into you! Everything going all right?"

"Fine thanks." Harry replied politely but uncertainty and then Bagman asked to speak to him in private. He agreed and, slightly hesitantly, he followed Bagman as he once more navigated his way through the pub, this time in the direction of the bar.

Hermione, Chris and Ron couldn't hear what Bagman was saying to Harry, but the man looked distinctly edgy, his eyes kept darting away from Harry towards the goblins in the corner who were watching the pair closely.

The pair talked for a short while and Harry seemed to be asking a lot of questions with Bagman answered quickly- becoming increasingly nervous until finally he seemed to get to what he wanted to discuss. The group could still not hear the discussion, but Bagman didn't seem to be enjoying himself- he now looked distinctly disappointed, but before the discussion could continue, Ron's twin brothers- Fred and George- appeared at Bagman's side and the ministry official hastened away.

"What did he want?" Asked Ron as soon as Harry had re-joined them.

"He offered to help me with the golden egg." Said Harry, much to the shock his friends.

"He shouldn't be doing that!" Said Hermione. "He's one of the judges! Dumbledore wouldn't be happy if he knew Bagman was trying to persuade you to cheat! I hope he's trying to help Cedric as much!"

"He's not. I asked." He told her. Ron didn't seem to seem to care if Diggory was getting help or not, but Hermione seemed very indignant about the whole conversation.

"Those goblins didn't look very friendly." Said Chris, changing the topic, "I wonder what they are doing here."

"Bagman said they were looking for Crouch." Replied Harry. "He said that he hasn't been into work for ages- recons he's ill..."

"Why wold they been looking for Crouch?" Questioned Hermione. "They normally deal with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical creatures, not that of International Magical cooperation." Harry shrugged- suggesting they might need an interpreter.

Before the discussion could get much further however, it was interrupted by a new arrival in the pub; Rita Skeeta. Hermione glared at her as she approached. She was talking very fast and looking very satisfied about something. The group got up to leave, but as they passed the hack reported, they heard her muttering some very unfair things about Ludo Bagman himself.

"Trying to ruin someone else's life?" Called Harry loudly, making Rita's eyes widen as she saw who had spoken.

Rita had recently published an article on the Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Rubius Hagrid, about the fact that while his father had been a wizard, his mother was a giant. Chris knew that Harry, Ron and Hermione were good friends with Hagrid and they were upset not only about the article, but also the fact that Hagrid hadn't been seen since- his most recent classes had been taken by Professor Grubbly-Plank- and Harry was quick to make his anger known.

The whole pub became very quiet as everyone watched the exchange between the two as Skeeta offered Harry an interview.

"...Would you call him a father substitute?" She asked, quick quotes quill at the ready. Suddenly Hermione shot to Harry's defence, gritting her teeth in anger.

"You horrible woman." She said. "You don't care do you, anything for a story."

"Be quiet you silly little girl, and don't talk about things you don't understand." Snapped Rita, her cold eyes hardening as they settled on Hermione. Hermione looked as though she was about to attack the woman.

"Let's go." Said Hermione, apparently reconsidering her plan. "C'mon." She grabbed Chris' hands, brushing past Rita as she exited the pub followed closely by Ron and Harry. They could feel the eyes of most of the pub on their backs as they left and hear the scratching of Rita's quill.

Ron seemed to disagree with Harry and Hermione's tactic of dealing with Rita- giving them dark warnings about what Rita was going to write about them next. Hermione didn't seem to care about anything Rita could say and was walking at such a fast pace back towards the castle that it was all the boys could do to keep up and by the time they were back with in the gates, she had broken into a run, heading towards Hagrid's cabin.

Not knowing Hagrid all that well, and suspecting that his presence would do little to aid Hermione's cause, Chris broke away from his friends, heading instead towards the lake where Callum and Wyatt were still working hard at finding a way to complete the next challenge.

"How's it going?" He called to his brother from the bank of the lake. Wyatt was noticeably shivering, but didn't seem too disheartened.

With a grin and a wink, he conjured his shield, but rather than have it cover his full body, the orbs appeared just around his head, more densely packed than his usual shield, making it a much darker blue than usual. He then ducked under the water, disappearing for several minutes, before suddenly erupting from beneath the surface, landing neatly on the edge of the lake right next to Chris.

"Pretty well I guess." He replied with a modest shrug. "So, how was your date?" He asked, wiggling his eye brows slightly. Chris rolled his eyes.

"You're starting to sound like Uncle Coop." He said, but he couldn't hide his small smile as he thought about his time with Hermione- right up until Rita Skeeta's intervention that was.

"That well, eh." Grinned Wyatt, kneeling down to offer an arm to Callum to help him out of the water. The half-manticore seemed completely unperturbed by the temperature of the water as he stood, topless, in the brisk January air.

"How about you?" Retorted Chris. "Spoken to Fleur recently?"

"Of course." Replied Wyatt, unabashed about the topic. "Although we're not talking much at the moment so we can focus on the task 'without fear of manipulation'." He added slightly bitterly, clearly quoting the final part from a conversation with the French Champion. "Hey, it's still early, fancy heading back home for a bit?"

"We've barely got back to Hogwarts, why do you want to leave again?" Wyatt shrugged, picking up his shirt and putting it back on.

"I want to check the book of shadows." He replied. "My powers aren't all that effective under water and I want to see if there is anything I can do to about that."

"You could try using a wand." Suggested Callum, sending a few dancing blue sparks from his own wand. "Mine worked." Wyatt rolled his eyes. He had still not mastered the use of the wand to a high standard- even Chris seemed to have a better grasp on the subject than him.

"Besides, you spent all Christmas looking through the book for anything that could help you." Pointed out Chris. "Why don't you check the library instead?"

"Fine." Conceded Wyatt unhappily. "I'll go by myself." And with that, Wyatt turned tale on Chris and Callum and headed down the path towards Hogsmeade.

"Is he alright?" Asked Chris, slightly concerned for his brother."

"I think he misses being the big fish in the small pond." Replied Callum with a shrug. "He's found something in the magical world he can't do as well as others and now he's seen what the other champions can do, he's no longer the all-powerful master witch he's ego has come to expect of him."

"Aww, the poor little twice blessed air to Excalibur." Cooed Chris in mock sympathy- struggling to empathise with his big brother's situation.

"Don't worry, he'll get over it." Callum reassured Chris as they began to head back towards the castle. "Just let him kill a couple demons while he's at home and he'll come back as calm as a Koala."