Mina and Artemis did some digging on Ludo Bagman. As he was a famous ministry official it was not difficult to find. Mina had already known that he was a famous former Quidditch star, but she and Artemis had been surprised to find out that towards the end of Voldemort's reign of terror he had been put on trial for supplying information to Death Eaters. He had been acquitted, though, as Artemis pointed out, it was effectively on grounds of stupidity.

"He's easy to fool. He's probably therefore easy to control."

"And if he is being controlled by Beryl or someone, what is he doing with goblins?" Mina asked.

"Maybe she's recruited them; all she'd have to do is offer them more rights. Or maybe they have a separate stake in this that Bagman's involved in. We can't rule anything out at all."

"Does that include the possibility that he was a death eater and might still be?"

"That seems to me be the most unlikely scenario of all, but yes. Even that."

"And it may just be that we're being paranoid, and he's not guilty of anything."

"If that's the case then we're in luck, but this task presents a golden opportunity for anyone who wants to harm you. It's easy to make an underwater death look like an accident."/

Mina was far more worried on the morning of the second task than she had been on the morning of the first. Then she had no idea what was to come. Now she not only knew that she would be swimming in the same water as the giant squid, but that the ministry and the schools had no problems pitting the students against the most dangerous creatures in the magical world. If they had imported dragons there was no telling what foreign creatures they could have put beneath the lake.

And there was no telling what Ludo Bagman might do.

Mina sat down for breakfast a little over an hour before the task scheduled to begin-even wizards waited an hour after eating before swimming-but she had no appetite. She looked at the Gryffindor table hopefully, but Harry was nowhere near Ron, who's mouth was rather disgustingly full.

She walked over to Ron and asked "D'you know where Harry is?"

Ron had to spend six seconds swallowing his food before he could answer. "No. Professor McGonagall wanted him and Hermione for something. I haven't seen either of them since."

"All right. Thanks."/

The whole school was seated in a stadium that had been set up right in front of the lake. The champions stood just a few meters from the waves that gently spread onto the ground. They wore heavy coats, wearing only their bathing suites underneath.

Ludo Bagman's voice rang out. "Now we begin our second task! As our champions already know, something has been taken from them and is being held at the bottom of the lake! They have only one hour to get it back! But what they do not know, is that what has been taken is their partner from the Yule Ball!"

All three champions looked at Bagman in horror. People they cared about were being held in the lake?

But none of them were as worried as Mina. They all knew that the school and ministry would never place the hostages in any real danger. Mina could not be so sure about Ludo Bagman.

The vaguest of possibilities that Harry might be in danger from her enemies was enough to drain the color from Mina's face.

Your love is forever doomed to fail.

Bagman blew the whistle, and the champions threw off their jackets, exposing themselves to the cold. Mina stopped paying attention to the other champions as she pointed her wand at the water.

"Expecto Patronum!"

The silver phoenix show out of her wand dived straight down into the lake, a glowing area marking the spot where it rested. Mina then took out the gillyweed, a greenish blue plant reminiscent of seaweed. It tasted slimy and rubbery. The moment she swallowed she began to gag. Her head spun and she staggered forward, her arms grasping at her throat. She fell face first into the water.

It was a blessed relief. Water flowed into her mouth and out of her lungs. Yes. She was amazed to discover that she had lungs on the sides of her neck. Much needed oxygen returned to her head, clearing it.

Mina looked forward. Her patronus was still in the water. She kicked off of the bottom of the shallows, propelling herself towards it. The patronus began to move, deeper and farther into the lake. She swam after it, her hands and feet now webbed, enabling her to swim faster than she otherwise would have. The water in the patronus' wake was significantly warmer than the rest of the water in the lake.

Mina and her patronus hugged the bottom of the lake as they went deeper. The merpeople were sure to be at the center, where the lake was deepest. The bottom was full of tall, thick weeds.

After she had been swimming for a while her patronus suddenly changed direction. Mina stopped, having not wanted it to act that way. She quickly followed it, wondering what was up.

The patronus led her to Fleur, who was being attacked by a pack of small, green water demons. Grindylows.

Mina had her patronus fling itself at the grindylows, scattering them away from Fleur. She swam over to the other girl to try to help her, hoping that the patronus would keep the grindylows off of them for a few more minutes.

Fleur gratefully took Mina's hand, but Mina felt a long fingered hand wrap around her lower leg. She kicked the grindylow away with her other leg, but still could not hold onto Fleur. Two more grindylows had grabbed Fleur and were pulling her down into the weeds. She thrashed helplessly, her expression horrified.

Mina again tried to swim to Fleur, but a further two grindylows grabbed her arms and started to pull her down as well. In a rage, Mina pulled her hands together, causing the grindylows to collide. They fell into the weeds, dazed.

Mina could no longer see Fleur, and she had lost her patronus at some point. She dived to the point where Fleur had disappeared.

A large creature rose out of the weeds at that very spot. It was a seven foot tall merman. But he did not look like the mermaids of Disney movies. He was much uglier, bald with completely blue skin.

He pointed a long, sharp spear at her. "Find your hostage."

"But what about Fleur?" Mina tried to shout, though only bubbles escaped her mouth. The merman still seemed to understand.

He lowered his staff to the right a little. "She has failed. Complete the task. Find your hostage."

Mina wanted to scream some more, but he moved closer and she saw dark red on the stone blade of his spear. She followed where the spear was pointing. The bottom seemed to get deeper in that direction. Mina had no choice but to go that way, having lost all sense of where she was.

Mina swam higher above the bottom so as to not tempt the grindylows again. She was extremely troubled. Not only would Fleur not be able to rescue her hostage, but the merpeople were watching them and hadn't lifted a finger to help. The threat of the one merman to run her through with his spear had seemed too genuine.

It wasn't just the absence of her patonus that made Mina feel colder.

At last she came to her destination, a village of merpeople. There were mud huts of various sizes circling the village center, where hundreds of merpeople had congregated. Behind them were three poles in the lakebed, a hostage on two of them. The hostages were unconscious, ghostlike and pale.

One hostage was missing. Mina guessed that Krum had already rescued his. The remaining were Harry, and a small blonde child that must have been Fleur's little sister.

Mina swam to Harry's pole. He was tied to it with a rope. She grabbed the rope, gritted her teethe, and pulled it in opposite directions with all her might. The rope snapped, causing Harry to fall into her arms.

She layed him gently on the bottom and swam to the pole of the little girl as well. Two merpeople blocked her way.

"You have your hostage. Go."

But Mina was not going to let the little girl stay down there alone under the circumstances. Not when there might have been something evil at foot, and not with the beings who had let her sister be taken.

"Fleur's not coming!" she tried to shout, again only producing bubbles. "You know that!"

The merpeople looked at each other for a second, then parted, allowing Mina to free the little girl as well. She grabbed Harry in one hand and the girl in another and swam straight up at the surface.

There was a problem when she broke the surface however. The gillyweed was still affecting her, and she still could not breathe the air. Harry and the girl began to stir next to her as their heads rose above the water, but Mina had to keep her head submerged.

Mina did not hear the screams of the crowd as Harry did, nor see Dumbledore and the other judges come out onto the beach, wands raised. She did feel the pull as the judges speedily summoned them back to the shore as they had with Krum when he had resurfaced. She panicked, not knowing what was going on, but Harry put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her that everything was all right.

She was still part fish when they reached the shore and had to remain in the water for a few more minutes until she turned fully back into a human. When she stepped out of the water, freezing as if she was standing next to a hundred dementors, she was immediately given a large warm towel. She looked at Harry, wrapped in his own towel, who was smiling at her. Nearby Krum and Hermione, also in large towels, were talking excitedly.

"Gabrielle!"

Fleur Delacoure was there, cut up from grindylow claws, but mostly unharmed. She ran to her sister and gave her a big hug.

"I'm sorry! It vas ze grindeelows. Zey attacked me!"

Fleur turned to Mina. "You saved her, even zough she vas not your 'ostage!"

"I thought-" Mina began, relieved to see Fleur all right.

"Zank you!" Fleur gave Mina a big hug, then turned to Harry. "And you! You 'elped!"

"Actually I di-" but Harry stopped when Fleur gave him a kiss on the cheek, which was red when she walked away with Gabrielle.

Mina gave him a mock punch on the shoulder. "Don't get any ideas." It occurred to her that she and Harry hadn't even shared that much of a kiss.

Harry laughed. "Don't worry about that."

"Ahem." It was Ludo Bagman, talking into his wand. "After a discussion with the chief of the merpeople, we know what has happened in the lake and have made our decisions!

"Fleur Delacour displayed an impressive use of the bubble head charm, but was attacked by grind lows and never reached her hostage. We award her twenty-five points." There was cheering, though it seemed muted.

"Victor Krum used an incomplete form of transfiguration that was nonetheless effective. He was the first to reach his hostage and returned five minutes passed the one hour limit. We award him forty-seven points." The cheering for Krum was the usual deafening sound.

"Mina Aino used gillyweed to great effect along with a truly astounding patronus. She was also attacked by grindylows, but was able to fight them off. Having seen Fleur taken out of play, she rescued Fleur's hostage as well when she reached the hostages. We feel that this demonstrates high moral fiber, and award her forty-three points."

The cheering for Mina was louder than even the cheering for Krum. "You're still tied for first place!" Hermione shouted. Mina hugged Harry, both of them dazed and relieved that it was over. When she let him go he pulled her back, and kissed her on the lips.

"Wowee!" Bagman shouted. The cheers of the crowd began to turn to oohs and awes as people saw Mina and Harry kiss. They parted, Mina holding her hand to her lips, euphoric.

"The final task will be on June 24th!" Bagman shouted. "We shall let the champions know what to expect before then."/

I hope the shippers are happy now.

If anyone likes the X Men check out my story What Price Innocence?