A/N: here's a new chapter. It'll be both the second and third task.
Today was the day of the second trial. Everyone was gathered by the lake with the champions lined up on the bay. Headmaster Dumbledore spoke and explained wat the task was.
In short a treasure was stolen from each of the champion which now lie on the bottom of the black lake. They will have an hour to take their treasures and go up to the surface.
"You're sure about this Neville?" Harry asked.
"Absolutely" Neville nodded.
"For an hour?" Harry asked.
"uhh most likely" Neville affirmed nervously.
"Most likely?" Harry asked stressed.
"well some say the effect differs between salt and freshwater" Neville said.
"what?! and you tell me now?" Harry asked incredulously.
"i just wanted to help..." Neville stated.
"yeah well you're doing better than Ron and Hermione. Where are theu anyway?" he asked looking around the crowd of people.
Neville POV
'probably under the lake' Neville thought. He observed the other boy and frowned. 'He's tense, well I suppose anyone would be at having to save someone from the bottom of the lake'
"you seem a little tense Harry." Neville said matter of factly.
"Do I?" Harry answered sarcastically neevous.
Neville pitied his friend, he's partly at fault after all. Like he would ever give Harry anything but a completely and assuredly safe option. Draco would love nothing more than to see the Boy Who Lived hurt and shamed but he'd kill the one at fault if by the end Harry became even more trouble than he already is. And right now that 'one at fault' could possibly be Neville so he wasn't taking any chances. He did in depth research after he found that page on gilliweed and yes though herbologists have debated on differences of reaction in different waters either way it would hold up to about an hour and losing the ability is noticible and takes some time so Harry would be more than able to swim up to the surface if such things were to happen.
After Professor Moody snapped at him, the other three jumped into the water while Harry was pushed in. Neville watched as his friend writhed in the water.
'what the bloody hell is he doing?' Neville thought to himself hearing similiar comments behind him. 'Merlin's beard please don't tell me he can't swim! Shit I killed Harry Potter!'
Then the second Hogwarts champion jumped over the water and dived in. Neville released a breath of relief, 'okay awesome i didn't kill Harry Potter'
Seeing that there was about an hour of waiting Neville went back into the crowd towards the twins then discreetly stood by them. This is so they can talk aa if they're not talking, cause the twins' friends tend to like 'overhear'ing.
"All that planning and Draco's still here." Fred said disappointedly.
"After all those hours of planning." George agreed sadly.
Neville rolled his eyes at their antics and peeked at the Slytherin side to see that yes Draco IS there laughing, surrounded by his friends and not on the bottom of the lake. He actually almost forgot about that.
"I'll tell Draco that you guys wanted him drowned to the bottom of the lake." Neville threatened playfully.
The twins looked at each other and shuddered "No thank you"
"can you imagine what it'd be like though?" Fred asked.
"there would be may mentions of his father and getting people fired." George.
"And it's water! You know how he hates getting his hair wet!"
Neville laughed at that "You joke now but I remember a time when you two was buried up to your neck under sand for a whole day when you pulled the prank that sprayed tinted water on to him. I think I saw you cry"
The twins tried to look offended turning their noses up "That was-" F
"extremely" G
"unjustified!" F
and then they both laughed with Neville.
"Jokes aside have you two found out anything about what happened that night?" Neville asked turning serious.
Fred sighed and shook his head.
"No trace of anything" George shook his head.
"we tried tracing magic," fred said holding up a finger.
"asked the paintings,"
"and searched the whole dorm"
"nothing" they finished.
Neville sighed finding himself filled with questions of who? How? What? Why? He rubbed his eyes with one hand.
"on the side note we did get info from the trolls" Fred said patting the younger boy's shoulder.
Neville lifted his head up and raised an eyebrow at him curiously and a bit wearilyy as well. The twins looked as if preparing themselves for an act.
"Well you see-" Fred started but was cut off as Jordan Lee ran up to them.
"Hey why aren't you too collecting bids?" The teen asked grinning at them.
And they discussed on who had the most possibility to win. And as ot turned out Cedric was the one who won. But of course Harry got a special mention as the hero he continuously prove himself to be. Neville sighed at that.
"We'll be hearing it tonight." George said grinning.
THAT NIGHT
Draco was pacing from one side of the room to the other and grumbling angrily. The others watch either exasperated or amused at the blond. Cedric was not present having been asked to rest while Astoria had important homework she procrastinated on doing for the next morning so she was back in her dorm buried in books and covered in ink.
"Stupid Potter, ever the Golden Boy!" he spat out as he paced harder "Had to be a damned hero every fucking minute of his life! That attention seeking do gooder. And Dumbledore! Always leaking with favoritism just because his precious Gryffindor wanna be hero didn't get first place he just had to mention stupid unnecessary things like his heroic acts of all things! Like the clotpole needed to be celebrated to do foolish and unreasonable things. Why can't he think? There was no way that any of the school would let anyone who was not a champion actually get hurt there! If you can win then fucking win! If you won't then don't fucking turn it into a bloody thing of bravery and heroism! And Cedric's the one who won!"
And the rant went on for about another half hour they barely tried to stop him knowing that it would be futile. Midway, when Draco went a bit extreme on the insults Fred tried to defend Harry and say that he actually did act heroically that day, only to be glared down and talked to submission. It seemed like Draco was extremely pissed this time, even nore so than the other times which is riddiculous if you were to know that he constantly complain about the wizading hero for more than an hour each day. Neville had once years ago (two in fact) tried to dissuade the anger his blond best friend had for his spectacled roommate who was also the Boy Who Lived. But alas his attempts though valiant was pointless so he stopped after their argument turned into an all out spar and duel. So no one inturrupted the rant after that and opt to just do the piling reports and researching they hadn't done due to recent events.
After finishing Draco finally slumped down in his chair at the head of the table. The twins chuckled and teased him for being so out of breath earning a weak glare and a middle finger in return. Luna smiled humorously as she drew a line in her sketch of what looked to either be a flower or an extremely explosive chart, which since it's Luna could honestly be either.
"While on that topic" Fred said ignoring the glaring prince. "With Merlin playing babysitter and mentor to our beloved 'king'-" he does air quotes "does that mean that we won't be training with Merlin this summer?"
George, Neville and Draco looked at him in surprise as if not having thought of such a possibility, and they haven't. Luna was the one to answer.
"I hardly think they will have time for us when they need to train themselves" Luna said wistfully not lifting her eyes from the chart she's making.
"Wait that's horrid! I can't believe that slipped my mind!" George exclaimed standing up then turned to Draco "Are you sure Em hadn't contacted you at all lately?"
Draco shook his head "No, if I was I'd have told you. This is actually getting quite peculiar. I had never managed to avoid him this long in the past even when I was trying to, this him not contacting me is very new."
"Exactly! Em's the type who worries a lot when it comes to Draco! He used to contact us every other just to check in on him and see if he's lying about anything." George said.
Draco scrunched his eyebrows and turned to look at him "He did what?"
The twins look at each other guiltily while Neville went back to doing his report. "Probably shouldn't have said that" Fred said.
"So he made you check up on me? The wanker! I told him to stop doing that! I thought Cedric was the only one he write to about it! Nev you know anything about this?" he asked his trusty friend who averted his eyes to avoid Draco's "Oh wonderful my Slytherin friends write ro my father, are you telling me that you tattle on me too?! Some friends I have!"
Neville cleared his throat nervously then finally faced the blond "To be fair Dray, you do tend to skip things in your letter. Merlin was usually just concerned.
Draco looked absolutely miffed "when have I ever-" he started
"like the time when you forgot to tell him about the big fight with Neville first year" George cut in.
"Or when you forgot to tell him you almost met Voldemoet, though you didn't know it was him, in the forest." Fred counted with two fingers, clearly having a ball at this.
"Oh and second year you made seeker, through notorious means, but you didn't tell him. He was up the wall when I wrote to him about your first match. You know even if he can't stop you from doing it he'd have liked to at least watch." Neville put in.
"And third year when you got Buckbeak-"
"Alright! fine. I didn't tell him everything. But it was only because he worries too much. If he didn't freak out everytime I get a bloody scratch then I wouldn't find writing details of my life such a task. I mean how is it that I'm allowed to chase down monsters and dark creatures in the night but flying a broom in a perfectly normal game of Quidditch had him in ulcers!" Draco waved his arms around to deliver his point.
The other teens wouldn't say it but they all agreed with the blond. They had all seen the love that the immortal warlock showered on their snarky blond friend. It's a funny sort of love like a doting parent slash mad mentor where the man would go from wiping food of Draco's face one minute and telling him to jump down a cliff and use magic to save himself the next. Well it's probably his millenia old age getting to him.
"Either way that's not what matters right now. Especially with the last the last task ahead whoever made Harry into a champion will be moving soon." Neville said changing the subject.
"I already told Cedric to closely mind stupid Potter on the last task. With Cedric there, I don't worry as much." Draco said waving his hand in a nonchalant manner.
Of course none of them know something horrible was to happen in the next task.
LAST TASK
Cedric's POV
Having entered the maze from a different gate then Harry's Cedric cursed his luck. The headmaster had earlier told them whoever got a hold of the cup first, wins. But to Cedric the most important thing to do at the moment is find Harry.
Then the walls start to collapse around him 'Oh just wonderful' he thought as he sped up his pace. A moment later he saw a red spark in the sky. 'who is that? is that Harry? What happened?' he thought panicked and rushed in the direction of the light.
As Cedric turned a corner he immediately turned back as a spell rushed past him. He panted and took a peek to see Viktor Krum getting closer with an arm raised to fire a spell.
"Krum?! Whats the matter with you?" Cedric asked and deflected another spell the other boy fired at him.
Cedric groaned as a blasting spell hit his arm and comtinued to parry the curses fired by the Bulgarian wizard. 'I don't have time for this!' he thought sending out a reducto whuch was parried.
A spell Krum sent made Cedric tumble backwards and as he was about to send another blasting spell he saw Harry coming from the corner.
"Get down!!" Cedric cried out and shot the spell to the distracted Krum. Cedric rushed up and kicked Krum's wand away pointing his wand at the half concious boy, ready to completely knock him out. But Harry pushed on his wand arm stopping him.
"Don't! He's bewitched!" Harry said struggling to hold of the older boy.
Cedric looked incredulously at him 'Draco's right you are riddiculously heroic' he thought as he shook off the Gryffindor.
After that was a chase for the cup. They both stumbled and ran pushing at each other to get to the cup first. And then Cedric was dragged down by the undergrowth pulling at his feet continuing on wrapping itself around his body.
'shit. My wand! I' he thought struggling with the undergrowth as his wand was seperated from his hand. He looked at Harry and saw the other boy stopped to stare at him as if contemplating whether to help or not. Which is fair in Cedric's opinion, it's a competition after all. But Cedric can't let Harry get to the clearing on his own, whoever planned against the Gryffindor would probably be waiting. So Cedric while struggling with theundergrowth decided to appeal to the other's sense of heroism.
"Harry! Harry!" Cedric shouted in panic, which he was actually feeling at that moment if he was honest.
The dark haired boy finally gave in and sent a reducto to the undergrowth and then rushing back to help Cedric untangle himself.
"for a moment there i thought you were gonna let it get me." Cedric said smiling wearily at the boy.
"For a moment there so did i" Harry said smiling back.
Together they went to the clearing with Cedric watching the closely the surroindings around the glowing cup. He was even more cautious as he saw no one and nothing there. Then he stared at the cup itself finally remembering that this was a competition and how if he touched that cup first he would be the first TriWizard Champion in so many years. 'father would be extatic.' he thought wistfully but then sighed as he looked at the younger boy who was staring at the cup looking rather enraptured.
"Go and take it. You saved my life." Cedric said making the other boy look at him shocked but then a firmness set into those green eyes.
"Together" Harry said, Cedric blinked at him and smiled inside 'A fair and caring hero, maybe he'd make a fine Knight after all.' "one, two, three" they touched the cup.
And suddenly they were in a different place, landing on their fronts. They slowly stood up and looked around.
"I know this place." Harry said.
"It's a portkey. Harry the cup is a portkey." Cedric said then widened his eyes " we're in a graveyard" he said softly. Remembering Luna's dream, he looked for the cup.
"I've been here before" the green eyed boy said.
"Harry-" "Cedric-" "we have to get back to the cup, now!" they said at the same time. Then Harry held his head in his hand as if in pain.
"What's wrong? Harry, quick the portkey!" Cedric whispered urgently as he pulled on the other's arm. Harry nodded then groaned again stumbling with Cedric's help.
Then there appeared a tall bald and grey skinned man with no nose and a man looking very similiar to a mouse. Then it clicked in Cedric's head 'Peter Pettigrew then the one beside him...'
"Voldemort?" Cedric whispered to himself making Harry turned to him wide eyed. But Cedric didn't care what he just let out right now the only thing on his mind was to get Harry Pottet out off there Now! As he was about to use old magic to blast the two away Voldemort spoke.
"kill the spare"
Without having finished casting Pettigrew yelled "Avada kedavra!" And all Cedric could see was green light and a pair of bright green eyes before his world turn dark.
BACK AT HOGWARTS
Draco slumped down on his seat a hand grabbing at his chest. His eyes widened and he turned his gaze to the maze in panic. "No..." He whispered not hearing his friends questions if he's alright only proceeded to stand up and rush away from the crowd.
A/N: waaahhhh Cedric's dead! Oh no! what will happen to the knights now that they actually face death? well we'll see two chapters ahead. Btw I know the task is the one from the movie but as I've said I haven't read Goblet of Fire in yearsss so what I write is basically what I saw in the movie so teah. Oh and from this point on things will get a bit less canon compliant. Just a heads up.
