Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter nor am I attempting to make any personal gain from this story.
Harry Slithers-in: Goblet of Fire: Chapter 21: Rita Skeeter
As they made their way to the shore Robert Davis broke away from the crowd and helped them. He was anxious to ensure Tracey was alright. She replied that she was fine and she was never in any danger. Although Robert was relieved to hear that he was still unhappy.
When they left the water they were greeted by Madam Pomfrey. "Here quickly cover yourselves with these," she said giving them each a warm blanket to wrap around themselves. "Take this." She gave them each a measure of pepper-up potion. In moments steam was hissing out of their ears.
They could hear Ludo Bagman's voice in the background. "And now our second champion has emerged from the lake," he was saying. "It's a one-two for Hogwarts as Cedric Diggory comes ashore with his hostage, Cho Chang. Let's have a round applause for Diggory." Several people clapped and cheered as Cedric and Cho reached the shore and were bundled up in blankets by Madam Pomfrey.
Sirius had meanwhile joined Harry. "Well done," he said. "By my calculations you were the only one who made it back within the one hour time limit. I think Diggory missed out."
"I hope the others are ok," Harry said, looking out over the surface of the lake.
"They'll be fine," Tracey said. "None of us were ever in any danger."
A moment later there was a disturbance on the lake surface as four people emerged from the depths. Several distant shouts could be heard from them. Madame Maxime rushed into the water making Harry think someone had been hurt.
"Something's wrong," Robert said. Everybody turned to see what had happened. Dumbledore now hurried into the water as well. Harry and the others watched as Madame Maxime carried Fleur and her sister to the bank. Harry gasped in shock when he realised Fleur had badly injured her foot. Blood could be seen seeping through a bandage.
Harry looked at Tracey who was now as pale as a ghost. He followed her eyes and realised she wasn't looking at Fleur but at Hermione Granger who was bleeding almost as much as Fleur.
There were several moments of confusion as the judges and teachers crowded around the two bleeding students. Robert and Sirius stayed with Harry and Tracey. All four of them speculating about what had happened.
Eventually the judges returned to the table. After a few moments of discussion Ludo Bagman stood. "Can I have your attention, please?" he said loudly. "It appears that Fleur was attacked by several Grindylows that mauled her quite badly. She managed to complete the task thanks to some assistance provided by Viktor Krum but will require further treatment.
"Hermione Granger was a victim of an accidental knife slip that occurred when Krum was freeing her from the lake-weed vines which had been used on all the hostages. Both students will recover fully from their injuries.
"In light of these events points are awarded to the champions as follows: Harry Potter was the only champion to complete the task within the time allotted. Despite some differing opinions, he is awarded 50 points." Harry noticed Bagman and Dumbledore were glaring at Karkaroff as he Bagman was speaking.
"Cedric Diggory, who completed the task in just over one hour, is awarded 47 points. Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour finished together and in fact assisted each-other on the mission despite rules stating no champion was allowed to help any other. In the circumstances, however, it has been agreed that neither champion will be penalised. Instead both have been awarded 40 point for their efforts.
"After the second task the champions' scores are as follows: Potter – 93; Diggory – 82; Krum – 80; and Delacour – 76."
Loud applause greeted Bagman's announcement of the scores. Harry and Tracey had by now reached the other champions and both were looking suspiciously at Hermione's wound. Bagman had claimed Krum's knife had slipped while he was cutting through the vines but the wound they could see was no knife wound. It looked more like a bite.
Sirius joined them a moment later. "Clearly the so-called safety precautions were not up to scratch," he muttered just loud enough for them to hear. He approached Hermione. "Are you sure you're alright?"
"I'm fine. It's only a scratch," she replied. Everybody present could see it was more than just a scratch.
Sirius stepped away and pulled out an old piece of parchment. A moment later he approached Hermione again and reached out, plucking a beetle out of her hair. "I'll take care of this for you," he said.
Sirius pointed his wand at the beetle. There was a sudden flash of light which caught everybody's attention. Sirius dropped the beetle which suddenly began to grow. Seconds later Rita Skeeter stood where the beetle had been moments earlier. Another flash of light and Skeeter lay unmoving on the ground. "That will hold her long enough for the aurors to get here," Sirius said. "With your permission, Headmaster, I would like to join Harry and the others. Is somebody able to take care of her for me?"
"How did you know that beetle was Rita Skeeter?" Dumbledore asked.
"The same way we caught Peter Pettigrew last year: a secret artefact from my personal collection."
"I'll take care of this for you," Professor Moody said as he limped over and pointed his wand at the immobilised figure of Rita Skeeter. "Nice petrifying charm by the way, Black."
Madam Umbridge had now joined them. "Professor Dumbledore. I was under the impression you had banned Ms. Skeeter from the grounds and yet here she is. Explain."
"Rita Skeeter is clearly an unregistered animagus who has been using this ability to spy on people. It is thanks to Mr. Black that she has been caught. In doing so Sirius has fulfilled the task I set him; that being to provide additional security at Hogwarts during the Tri-Wizard Tournament. I think our highest priority now is to get the students back into castle. Minerva? Can you handle that while I await the aurors," Dumbledore said.
"All students are to return to your Common Rooms. You have until after lunch to do whatever you wish but remember you do have classes this afternoon. Dismissed," McGonagall said.
Harry spent the next couple of hours describing what happened in the lake to his enthralled housemates. Among the questions he faced were: What is it like being deep underwater? Were you worried about being attacked by monsters? What were the Merpeople like? And: Do you have any idea how Granger got hurt?
He did his nest to answer these and other questions. Some of them he simply had no answer for. He didn't speculate about how Hermione's injuries had occured. He had seen enough, however, to know they were bite marks: a fact he kept to himself.
After lunch classes resumed but nobody was really interested in the lesson. Especially after Dumbledore knocked on the door and asked to speak to Draco Malfoy. They later learnt Malfoy had gotten himself a weeks' worth of detentions. Apparently he had been helping Rita Skeeter get into the grounds and knew all about her being an unregistered animagus.
That night Draco was forced to explain his actions. "The truth is I was helping her get information on several different people in exchange for leaving Harry alone," he began. "Let me assure you I would never do anything to endanger Harry, or any other Slytherin. Skeeter wanted dirt so I helped her learn things about other, less important people. I think most people here would agree Hagrid shouldn't be a teacher. He has no qualifications and clearly doesn't know how dangerous some of those things he shows us in class really are."
"That is certainly true," Pansy said.
"I have to agree with Malfoy on that," Nott added.
"Even so, what makes you think helping Skeeter is ok? You know she was banned from the grounds," Harry said.
Malfoy looked straight at Harry. "I was doing it to help you."
"You should have told Snape or Dumbledore," Harry replied. "If the truth about Skeeter had come out sooner we would all be better off now. You wouldn't be in trouble and I wouldn't have had to spend the last couple of weeks trying to avoid her."
"I don't know why you like Hagrid," Malfoy replied angrily. "Professor Grubbly-Plank was a much better teacher and I for one learnt more from her in those few lessons than I learnt from Hagrid in the whole of last year."
"We're not talking about Hagrid," Tracey interrupted. "We were talking about why you've been helping Skeeter. And anyway I'm just as concerned about what happened to Granger and Delacour; especially after we were assured no lives would be put in danger during the tournament."
"Yeah, about that," Nott said. "There are so many things that could have gone wrong already in this tournament it's surprising there have been so few serious injuries."
"I just hope the last task won't be so dangerous," Harry said.
"Do you know what the last task is yet?" asked Tracey.
"No. We haven't been told anything yet," Harry said. "I think there might be an investigation going on into what happened today. No doubt I will be told more in due course, however."
Nothing more was said about the tournament until Saturday morning when Dumbledore asked all four champions to meet him in the room they had gone into the night they were selected. There he said the third task would happen on June 24 and that more information would be supplied at a later date.
That afternoon Sirius called Harry and asked to meet him that evening. At this meeting Sirius said, "I have some news about Barty Crouch senior and Rita Skeeter. It will be published in tomorrow's daily prophet anyway but I think you should know now."
"Ok. What's happened?" Harry asked.
"Crouch senior died this morning of a heart attack. Prior to his death, however, he was convicted by the Wizengamot for aiding a prisoner to escape from Azkaban; of unlawfully detaining someone without their consent and of being an accessory to the disappearance and possible murder of Bertha Jorkins, a Ministry of Magic official who has been missing since July last year. Apparently she found out about Crouch hiding his son and was going to reveal all until he wiped her memory and had her transferred to another Department."
"Is his death suspicious?"
"No. He died as he was being escorted from the courtroom. It seems he just couldn't handle the shock of what had happened.
"As for Rita Skeeter, she has been sentenced to one year in Azkaban and heavily fined. You won't need to worry about her for a while," Sirius finished.
"Thanks for telling me this."
"Do you know what the third task is yet?"
"Only that it will take place on June 24. We will be given more information closer to the date."
"Keep practicing whenever you can. You are comfortably in the lead and most people now expect you to win from here but remember your original plan. You don't have to win, you just need to do your best." Sirius then pulled the Marauder's Map out of the bag he was carrying and gave it to Harry. "I'm going to be away for the next month or so developing the new mirror phones and getting them ready for release at the end of June but no doubt you'll find a use for this."
"Thanks, Sirius, although I intend concentrating on my classes for now," Harry said.
"Don't study too hard. Make sure you have some fun while I'm away; just don't get caught," Sirius said, laughing.
"Don't worry, I won't get caught. Bye. Sirius."
"Bye. Harry.
When he returned to the Common Room he told the others about Crouch and Skeeter and, later, told Tracey about the rest of his conversation including the fact he had the map back.