Author's Notes:

- Potter belongs to Rowling

- I originally planned to have another "preparation" chapter as well as a "trial" chapter, but then I realized the Trial of Water wouldn't have nearly as much action as the Trial of Air, so I just made it one longer chapter.

Chapter 25: The Trial of Water

When Hedwig returned a few days later with the big batch of gillyweed, Harry and Hermione had both become used to casting spells underwater and were confident they could both defend themselves as well as perform an 'emergency escape,' which was the modified bubblehead charm and the featherweight charm nonverbally, underwater. At the side of the Black Lake, they warded a little private area for their exploration trips. Standing at the edge of the water with a few extra layers of robes, Harry turned to Hermione and asked, "Are you ready?"

She nodded in response. Casting warming charms on themselves, they shrugged off the robes and popped a dose of gillyweed in their mouths. It was springy and rubbery, and as they chewed it, it squirted some of its juices out. Thankfully, it didn't taste that bad. They wouldn't have to gag while keeping it in their mouths. As soon as breathing air began to feel uncomfortable, they jumped into the water. It only took a few seconds for the transformation to complete. Their hands became webbed as their feet grew larger and flatter. Slits opened up at their ribcages as water passed straight through their lungs. It was an odd feeling for Harry to get used to. The first thing they noticed about the lake was that the water was salty, but that it also tasted right. They gulped down their first few breaths of water. The next was that the water was a bit too warm- cancelling their warming charms, it felt much more comfortable.

He looked over to Hermione, who signalled to him that she was fine. They began swimming slowly away from the shore. Hermione pulled out a piece of parchment and quill, charmed to be waterproof, and began making sketches. Harry did the same. While neither of them had any proper cartography tools or training, they only needed the maps to be accurate enough for Harry to recognize some underwater landmarks.

The shallowest regions of the lake seemed rather ordinary. They only saw a few fish that darted away before they came anywhere nearby. They had to move deeper to see anything useful for navigation. Below them was a thick kelp forest. Neither of them could see the bottom, and they were both wary of the dangers that could be lurking in there. They swam over it, trying to keep track of how far they were moving as they sketched out their maps.

Suddenly, Harry noticed movement just below him. He whipped out his wand just in time to throw a bludgeoner at a grindylow that darted out from the kelp. Hermione, who was still sketching, was caught off guard as another grindylow went for her and wrapped its long fingers around her leg. Harry blasted it off with a bludgeoner while Hermione released her wand from her holster. They were quickly firing bludgeoning hexes all around them as a pack of grindylows swarmed towards them from below. They both swam upwards so they were a good three meters above the kelp again, easily picking off the few foolish grindylows that still tried to attack them. The rest retreated back to the safety of the kelp. Hermione quickly added a note to her map: "Grindylow packs!" she scribbled.

Harry knew that, on the day of the tournament, he could be doing all that again, except without Hermione as backup. They continued along the path they were on before, except higher above the kelp. Harry kept his wand out while Hermione continued mapping. The kelp ended at a cliff, where the lake rapidly got deeper. Harry couldn't see the bottom. Nodding to each other, they both swam down. Harry lit his wand with lumos, which gave them a few meters of visibility. They could see the lake bed, which Harry guessed was about fifteen meters from the surface. He could barely see the sunlight from this depth.

They continued along the bottom, taking note of anything peculiar. They passed by an old, rotting shipwreck. How did such a huge ship get here? wondered Harry. Then again, how did the Durmstrang ship get here? There were a few small caves and alcoves in the rockier parts of the lake, a few of which had creatures lurking inside. They even passed by the giant squid at some point. Harry had no idea how to defend himself against such a monstrous creature, but thankfully, he didn't have to. It swam past without any hostility. Harry could swear it even waved a tentacle at them as it left. They continued on, enjoying the sights that the lake had to offer, but ever cautious of another attack. They stopped cold, quite literally, when they reached the jellice breeding grounds. They were especially active at this time of year, and they could both feel the drop in temperature as the saw a giant ice structure anchored to the rocks with the creatures swarming over it. Individually, they would have been invisible, but the huge mass of semi-transparent blobs was hard to miss. They decided to cut their exploration short here, as the Gillyweed was due to wear off soon anyway.

As they surfaced, Hermione took note of where they were. They could still see their robes and shoes in a pile at the shore underneath their notice-me-not wards at a distance. Two hours of exploration and they had only managed to map out about a quarter of the lake. They knew what would keep them busy right up until the Trial of Water.

Harry and Hermione found that they had to do most of the work in preparation for the trial. Moody, unfortunately, wasn't much help with this trial. "Not many wizards think of hiding in a lake," was his excuse. "If they do, I'd just blast them from above on my broom." They still had their Saturday morning practice with him, as Harry knew he still had a lot to learn about combat and duelling. Luna and Neville couldn't accompany them, either. Neville had only just become comfortable with getting his face in the water. They ended up heading to the Black Lake every day after class, spending about two hours under the surface each day.

Over the next week, the two of them had several close encounters in the lake. Harry insisted on practicing defending both of them against Grindylows, causing him to take a few scratches while chivalrously leaving Hermione unscathed in the encounters. They also wandered into what they thought was another kelp forest, but turned out to be the edge of the merfolk village, where they had their kelp farms. They were nearly speared as they attempted to make apologetic motions to the merman-farmer. They swam away as quickly as they could and circled the entire village, taking note of where its borders were. The next day, they found where the old textbook had said the mer-village had been a few hundred years ago- there were many abandoned structures and the area seemed to be infested with some kind of red, bubbling coral- the water in the area was warmer, too. There were some other humanoid creatures there, poking at the coral with rocks and kelp stalks, playing around in the abandoned buildings. They resembled merfolk, but were smaller and had smooth skin, unlike the scales that merfolk had. Selkies, Harry remembered. Aren't they only supposed to be in the ocean? In fact, how did the merfolk get to the lake in the first place, anyway?

Harry found his answer in the form of an underwater tunnel. It appeared to be an underground river that passed directly underneath the Hogwarts grounds. They swam for several minutes, but as it appeared to have no ending, they decided to turn back. They figured it lead to the ocean at some point. On the way back, he noticed something man-made on the side of the underwater cavern. It was a huge disc, partially hidden because it had clams and algae growing all over it. At the center, however, was a familiar design. Harry tried whispering in parseltongue, ~Open.~ Even though his voice came out muffled by the water, the cover slid open, grinding away the molluscs from its surface. They both cautiously entered. It opened up to a small cavern, filled with air, and several large pipes leading away, much like the entrance from the second-floor girls' bathroom. They were both sure this was an alternate entrance to the chamber of secrets, but couldn't explore further until the gillyweed wore off. They went back to the shore, preferring to be where they left their clothes once they returned to their fully human form.

They managed to finish mapping out the lake in four days, but continued to swim for the remaining days to make sure he was even more familiar with the lake. Swimming at full speed from one end of the lake to the other, he could make the distance in about fifteen minutes. A very quick, rough search without checking the nooks and crannies would take an hour and a half. With the map in hand and remembering some of the better hiding places, a good search still took twice that long. Thankfully, his regular appearances helped him become more familiar with the "locals" of the lake. The mermen noticed him coming by and merely watched him as he took his usual route around the outside of the village, not quite on their guard as much as his first encounter. They also managed to encounter the giant squid every time. It seemed to enjoy chasing them down for fun, but it was never actually hostile. He found out that the selkies wandered everywhere around the lake, and some occasionally swam down through the tunnel, although the boiling-coral infested areas seemed to be their favourite, along with the jellice breeding ground. Some of the more curious ones actually swam up to Harry and Hermione, prodding them playfully with some kelp stalks before swimming away quickly and watching their reaction. Well, why not? thought Harry, and decided to work on his swimming speed and agility by playing tag with them. He kept losing, being unable to keep up with actual aquatic creatures, but it was still a fun way to end his training.

"You have the map?" Harry asked as they walked down the path towards the lake.

"It should be in your belt!" Hermione answered. "Along with your gillyweed capsules..."

"No, I'm talking about the Marauder's Map. Your job is to catch Rita in the act today," Harry said.

"We still haven't figured out what to do with her after I've found her," Hermione protested. "I mean, she apparently hasn't done anything illegal, so I can't get Auror Shacklebolt to arrest her or anything."

"Well, at least figure out what she looks like. And try to stop her from getting any good quotes. I don't know, maybe you can set her parchment on fire or something. Just stop her from writing about me... or you!"

"And you just focus on the trial, Harry. Good luck!" She gave him a quick kiss as they parted ways. Harry stepped into the champion's tent while Hermione went to the stands.

All four of the champions were there early, and all of them were dressed for the occasion. Harry was having trouble keeping his eyes off Fleur even without her aura, but so were the other two boys. Oddly enough, Fleur was the one looking the most distracted as she kept nervously glancing out towards the lake.

"Something wrong, sweetie?" Cedric asked her, rubbing her shoulders.

"Ze water is not ze best place for me," Fleur answered. "Much like ze Trial of Air for you, I only 'ope not to do too poorly for zis trial." She sighed, and then brushed Cedric's hands away. "And for today, I am your competitor, not your 'sweetie' Monsieur Diggory," she added.

"Right you are, then," Cedric laughed. "I've got a school to represent."

Krum was keeping quiet. Without robes covering him, his well-toned, athletic body was visible to everyone. He was obviously well-fed and well-trained, the byproduct of being both a professional athlete and now the favoured student of Durmstrang. Harry wondered how well Krum knew the lake. He'd seen Krum dive into the waters often to swim, but never once saw him at the bottom while he was doing his mapping. Then again, it was a pretty big lake. He hadn't seen Cedric or Fleur in the lake, either. He was sure they didn't know about the Room of Requirement, either, so where else could they have trained?

His thoughts were cut short as Ludo Bagman walked in. "Well well, everybody's here already! Then let's get started with the event, shall we? The ground rules for this trial are the same as the Trial of Air- no casting directly against your fellow champion on top of the other rules for the entire tournament. There are two additional rules. First, no casting spells against humanoid creatures, including the Merfolk or their property underwater. You can rest assured that they will not attack you."

Oh, good, thought Harry. Those mermen guards looked vicious, even after they got used to me. It was also the one part of the lake that Harry was unable to map.

"Secondly, there are four chests in the water today. Each of you will retrieve one of them. The second rule, of course, is that you may not take the chest from another champion who has laid their hands on."

So, a treasure hunt, thought Harry. Looking around the room, it seemed that nobody was surprised in the least.

"Inside each chest is a golden egg. You must get the egg out of the chest and return to shore in three hours or less."

Another egg? Well, at least I brought five hours' worth of gillyweed just in case. Harry unconsciously patted his belt. But a thorough search, for me, still takes three hours... and I've been exploring the lake every day for the past week! There had better be an easier way to find them...

"And finally, I'll leave you all with a hint. Listen to the song." Bagman smiled at them and left.

I hope that means the song will lead us to the chest...

An hour later, the stands were once again packed with spectators as the four champions stood at the edge of the dock. The first-years' boats had all been put away and the dock was dressed up so that it was far prettier than before. It was carpeted for the champions' bare feet, and the dressing-room tent placed at the end. The judges sat at a long table along the length of the dock so the champions had to walk past all of them to reach the water. At the very end were a drop-gate and a large clock, ready to count down from three hours, hung above. They were all waiting at the gate, eager for the trial to finally begin.

As a bang sounded from the judge's table behind them, the gate dropped and three of the champions dove in immediately. Harry popped a capsule into his mouth and began chewing. I guess nobody else bothered getting themselves gillyweed, he thought amusedly as he felt his body begin to change. As soon as he jumped in the water, he heard a noise he'd never encountered during his explorations. Calming down, he realized it was a song, but coming from multiple sources, causing it to overlap and sound distorted. Which way to go first? Left is the squid's nest. Right is the selkie hunting grounds. Harry decided to go left. The squid was friendly enough, but maybe the other champions wouldn't know that and it would be a perfect distraction for them- if the squid was actually resting at its nest, of course. The selkies, on the other hand, were rather unpredictable. They might help or hinder him, depending on their mood.

He moved quickly through the water, having learned how to take full advantage of his gillyweed-morphed body, including his breathing technique. The minute-long head start that the others got was quickly eliminated when he saw Cedric swimming up ahead. He was using the modified bubble-head for breathing and had transfigured something into fins to wear on his feet. Harry waved as he passed by. He didn't see Fleur or Krum along the way, so he assumed they went in the other direction. He raced ahead, following the source of the music for several minutes. He stopped dead in the water when he realized he was right on top of it. If the chest was the source of the song, it was right below him- and in the middle of a kelp forest.

The kelp itself was extremely tall- almost ten meters in length. It could be packed with grindylows all the way down, and it was so thick he wouldn't even be able to see his own hand if he stuck it out in front of him. But on the other hand, Cedric would catch up soon- and Bagman had warned them that a champion couldn't take a chest that another champion had reached, right? He couldn't afford to let Cedric get to this one first or else he'd have to go search for another. He threw a few slicing curses straight down, causing some of the stalks to float away. There was some movement below as a few creatures ducked away. Harry couldn't tell if it was fish, grindylows, or something else. Casting a few more, he figured he was close to the lake bed by now, so he lit up the area with a light spell. He could make out something boxy at the bottom, but still mostly obscured by the long, leafy plants.

By now, Cedric had nearly caught up to him, following the same source of music. Well, now or never! Harry thought. He dove down as quickly as he could, and grabbed the box. As soon as he touched it, there was small flash, and instead of just a song, there were lyrics as well. He didn't have time to listen to it as he sensed many, many eyes on him. Oh no,he thought. Here they come.

Tightening the grip on his wand, he grabbed the chest with his other hand and swam up as quickly as he could. As soon as he moved, something grabbed his foot. He didn't even think as he blasted the grindylow away, but another lunged at his thigh. He kept firing off blasting curses while kicking as hard as he could, but they were swarming him. One was on his leg and another had its fingers around his neck. Sticking his wand behind him, he cast blindly, but a third grindylow gripped his right arm just as he released the spell, causing him to lose his grip. Desperate not to lose his wand, he let go of the chest as he punched the grindylow away with all his might. Freed of the extra weight and now with another hand to fight off the creatures, he continued blasting with his right and punching with his left. He was quickly free from the creatures as he hovered above the kelp once again. Back to square one, it seemed.

Cedric had paused to watch him. Seeing Harry fail to retrieve the chest, he dove down while casting a modified cyclone shield around himself. This one created a vortex of water that pushed away anything that was approaching him as he went straight for the chest. Harry could see a few grindylows get knocked around as they tried to grab Cedric. Upon reaching the chest, however, there was another flash of light and Cedric was pushed away. Shaking his head, he surfaced and gestured towards Harry, as if saying, "It's all yours," as he swam off to find the next one.

Harry couldn't perform the cyclone shield nonverbally yet, and trying to talk underwater made nearly all the incanted spells useless, but he couldn't cast his basic bludgeoners and blasting curses fast enough. There was one spell he could use that he could simply hold continuously, though it would barely injure the grindylows, it might make them uncomfortable enough to stop trying to catch him. Positioning himself straight above the chest again, he cast the water-boiling spell. He swam down in a spiral so that he would surround himself in a shield of hot water, but was careful not to burn himself. Nothing attacked him on the way down. Grabbing the chest again, he swam up as quickly as he could, in a spin again. One of the grindylows tried to attack, but he held his wand towards it and it quickly flinched away. He maintained the spell until he was once again clear of the kelp and immediately began searching for a safe clearing to work on opening the chest.

As he settled down in an empty alcove, he realized he was getting extremely tired and gasping for oxygen, gulping the water as quickly as he could. Was that really that tiring? he thought. He then noticed his fingers weren't quite as webbed as before and he realized that his gillyweed was running out. Popping another half-hour capsule in his mouth, he nearly had to cast an bubble-head charm on himself to keep breathing before the gill slits in his chest returned to full size. Well, at least I know it's been half an hour, he thought. He inspected the box, noticing a small plate at the top now bore his name along with a time inscription: 0:16:56. That must have been when he first touched it. It was locked shut with three differently-shaped locks, none of which had keyholes. He listened carefully to the song that it was repeating over and over:

You have nearly claimed your prize

The egg you seek is just inside

The first lock doesn't like this taste

But do not quench its thirst with haste

The second latch thinks it's too warm

But it must grasp a solid form

A cold, the third's about to catch

It bickers with that second latch

Before I'm open, I'll say clearly

That I love the water dearly

Do not let me take a breath

Because it will be my death

The final warning was the easiest to understand. If it touched air, it "died," and that almost certainly meant he'd fail the trial. Second latch was easy- it's too warm even in this chilly lake in January, so it needed to be colder... and any colder and the water would be frozen. It needed a solid block of ice. Harry cast a freezing charm at nothing in particular, aiming to freeze the water at the tip of his wand. The water got colder, but didn't freeze. That was odd, he thought as he poured more strength into the spell. He finally managed to see frost crystals sprout from the end of his wand and jabbed it towards the latch. It clicked open. Success! he thought. However, the tiny ice cube he had created quickly melted and the latch shut itself tight again. He sighed, but left it shut, thinking, At least I know how to open it later.

He then looked at the first latch. It doesn't like the taste? What could it possibly be tasting? Harry thought about licking it for a second to see if something was on it, but decided that was ridiculous. There was also the fact that he was probably being watched by a large audience, with his image being projected in front of all the stands. Alright, there's got to be a way to do this with dignity, he thought. He waited until the song repeated and listened to the line afterwards. Quench its thirst? But we're sitting in water already... He then realized what it meant. He was sitting in salt water. That was why the freezing spell needed more effort than usual as well. Now how could he purify the water around him? There was the simple water-cleaning spell used for potions (which Snape never taught, forcing all the students to use his pre-distilled water. Harry was sure he gave the cleanest water to the Slytherins). He tried using it on the lock. No luck, as the clean water quickly mixed and got swept away in the small currents before the latch unlocked. Aguamenti might do the trick, Harry surmised. It always conjured fresh, drinkable water, after all. He held his wand right next to the latch to be sure he could cover it with the stream of water from his wand. After ten seconds, he wondered if it was really working, but the line did tell him not to be hasty. He kept his wand on for a little longer. After thirty seconds of spraying fresh water onto the lock, it popped open. He ended the spell thankfully, and the latch closed again. Thirty seconds to open it up and only one second to close again. That's just not fair, he complained to nobody in particular.

The third latch supposedly bickered with the second. It made a bit more sense now. The second latch needed ice, so he shot a jet of boiling water at the third. After a few seconds, the latch popped open, closing just as quickly when he finished his spell. Harry realized the problem immediately. He could, with a bit more effort, freeze a bigger block of ice for the middle lock easily. But the first lock took thirty seconds of fresh water and closed after one second. The last lock took about five seconds of boiling water and also closed after one second. He sat around for a few moments, thinking about what to do. He either needed a more permanent source of fresh water or heat. He pulled out his map, looking over all the little notes that he and Hermione had made over the past few days.

The boiling coral! he realized. The nearest batch was at the abandoned mer-village, where the selkies liked to play. Harry picked up the chest and began to swim as fast as he could. It took him about fifteen minutes to get there while lugging the chest with him, forcing him to take out another dose of gillyweed on the way. He did pass by the huge, jellice ice-structure along the way and thought about breaking off a chunk of ice, but he could freeze the water easily enough, now that he knew he just had to give the spell a bit of extra strength. As he reached the coral, he saw the selkies playing again, this time a few of them had skewered some jellices on bits of wood (presumably from the shipwreck) and were cooking them on the coral. I wonder what they taste like. He didn't waste any time trying it, though, as he picked up a rock and broke off a chunk of the coral, which continued to bubble as it fell into the sand below. Realizing he needed to pick it up, he transfigured the rock into a pair of tongs, then stuck the piece of coral to the third lock with a simple sticking charm. Five seconds later, the latch clicked open and stayed open. Harry quickly poured as much effort as he could freezing the water at the tip of his wand. Within seconds, he had a fist-sized block of ice, which he stuck to the middle latch with another sticking charm. The ice block was melting rapidly beside the burning coral, and Harry hoped it would last long enough for him to open the first as well. He shot a strong jet of fresh water at the first latch, constantly watching the block of ice shrink. It had diminished to the size of a pea when all thre clicked open and the lid swung open. The plate at the top of the chest flashed again, now displaying a second time of 1:08:26. Harry breathed a sigh of relief as he scooped up the egg. The entire chest disappeared when he had the egg in his hands.

He quickly swam back to the docks, but then realized the problem. He just ate the gillyweed a few minutes ago. He'd have to wait about twenty mintues for it to wear off before he could climb out of the water. He glumly lingered just below the dock, swimming back and forth with nothing to do. A few minutes later, a few selkies swam up to him, wanting to play. They were eyeing the egg. Harry instinctively gripped the egg tighter, and, to be safe, cast the strongest non-permanent sticking charm on it. One lunged towards the egg just after he completed the charm, and he spun out of the way. The other selkies laughed as they copied the first one, each one lunching towards the egg as Harry pulled it out of their path at the last second. A few of them came close to grabbing the egg, while some others crashed right into him. He knew it was against the rules to hurt the selkies, and he didn't want to hurt them anyway. They were just being playful, after all. The impromptu game of bullfighting ended when Harry felt the gillyweed wearing off and he swam to the surface as quickly as he could.

He was greeted with loud cheers and applause as his final time came out to be just under one and a half hours. He stepped into the medical tent for his checkup, where the mediwitches congratulated him, saying, "You've won first place in this event! Fantastic show, Mr. Potter!" He was a bit perplexed by this as he saw Krum sitting outside the tent.

"I won?" he asked. "Isn't Krum the winner? I saw him outside."

"Oh, well... you'll find out about that when they ask for the scores," the mediwitch said. "Just between you and me... well, I'm not supposed to say this, you know, healer-patient confidentiality and all, but... you probably shouldn't talk to him right now. He's... grumpier than usual."

The mediwitch unstuck the egg from his hand for him, and after everything else checked out, they sent him to the dressing-room tent, where he put on warm robes and shoes. Back outside, Harry looked towards the stands, hoping to catch a glimpse of Hermione. He couldn't see her anywhere. He then looked further, towards the journalist and photographers' section, hoping to see her keeping Skeeter busy. No such luck there, either. Sighing, he slumped down onto a chair to watch how Cedric and Fleur were doing on the images projected by the display orbs. Cedric still toting his chest along, probably in search of the boiling coral or something else to help him with the latches. Fleur was chasing down some selkies who had taken her trunk, but since they couldn't cast spells against them, and Fleur was far from graceful in the water, she was having trouble getting it back. The audience was concentrating on her, which was the most amusing thing to watch at the moment. Harry wondered if they had watched him play with the selkies for twenty minutes before climbing out, as well. The trial ended just before the time limit, after two hours and fifty minutes. Fleur had taken the longest, and could only get her chest back after the selkies got bored with it. Cedric finished not too long after Harry began watching. It was now time to announce the scores.

"In fourth place is Mr. Viktor Krum of Durmstrang, with a score of eighteen points. Mr. Krum was the second to find a chest, which earned him twenty points. Unfortunately, when a few selkies decided to have some fun, he cast a spell against them, which is an infraction that cost him ten points as well as the rest of the trial. He did earn back eight points for demonstrating a strong swimming ability and an excellent offensive against a pack of grindylows. Mr. Krum will enter the final task without an egg from the Trial of Water."

No wonder he looked furious, Harry thought. His eyes darted over to his competitor. Krum looked like he was about to murder Bagman for essentially announcing his failure to the world. Eighteen points was the lowest score of any of them had received in any of the trials so far.

"In third place is Miss Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons, with a score of forty-five. Miss Delacour was the last to retrieve her chest, earning her ten points, and also the third to open the chest, earning fifteen, and third to leave the water with her egg, for another fifteen points. She earned five bonus points for being the quickest to solve the riddle of the locks... once she finally had possession of her chest." The audience got a laugh as a sequence of Fleur chasing the selkies was replayed. Fleur's dissatisfaction was offset by the fact that, despite her poor performance, she still wasn't in last place, and she managed to keep her head held high.

"In second place is Mr. Cedric Diggory of Hogwarts, with a score of sixty-seven. Mr. Diggory was the third to find a chest, giving him fifteen points, and the second to open his, earning him twenty, and the second to exit the water with the egg, earning him another twenty points. He also gets an extra fifteen points for excellent demonstrations of a modified cyclone-shield charm, modified bubble-head charm, and an extreme skilful partial human transfiguration of his feet. He did, however, lose three points for attempting to touch Harry Potter's treasure chest."

Cedric shrugged sheepishly as he leaned towards Harry. "Hey, I had to give it a shot," he said.

"Finally, in first place is Mr. Harry Potter, with a score of ninety-five points. Mr. Potter was the first to find a chest, first to open it, and the first to exit the water with his egg. Each of these feats earned him twenty-five points. In addition, he will receive an additional twenty bonus points for excellent use of gillyweed and a nearly flawless performance throughout the entire trial. The only thing keeping him from a perfect score was poor timing with his gillyweed and a rather simplistic repertoire of spells."

Hey, don't blame me if I stick with what I'm good at, Harry thought. He wasn't complaining, though, as he had just scored the highest score in the tournament thus far. I guess good planning and preparation can still beat Krum, he concluded happily. This single trial was enough to vault him from last place to a first-place lead. With everyone clapping and cheering wildly, he looked around the stands for Hermione, but she was still missing. He was now getting antsy, wondering if something had happened to her during the trial. He was ushered back into the champion's tent.

"Congratulations on a fine performance and a wonderfully entertaining Trial of Water, champions!" Bagman happily proclaimed. Unfortunately for him, he was met with unamused glares from Krum and Fleur, while Harry was simply distracted. Cedric was the only one who gave him a smile. "Ahem. Well, on with the show, as they say. Your next trial will be the second Trial of Champions, in four weeks. That's February 11th, by the way. This will be one of the greatest tests of your creativity and preparation. Are you ready for this?"

His attempt to drum up some excitement was met with three unamused stares from the older champions and Harry glancing out of the tent. "It will be a wandless duel!"

"What?" all of them shouted together. Wandless magic was almost unheard of, save for very specialized skills like occlumency, the Seer's visions, animagus transformations... none of which were really duelling material.

"Oh, no, you won't have to perform wandless magic," Bagman chuckled. "It's a standard duel until you're knocked out of the arena or subdued, but the only additional rule is no wands. You're allowed to bring in any other kind of tool that you can carry in your hands. The tools, of course, must be magical in nature, non-living, and of course no dark magic or dark artifacts." Well, darn, thought Harry. I was sure I was capable of lifting Hermione into the arena. I wonder how much Moody weighs?

Harry left the tent as quickly as he could. Most of the crowd had already left, and Harry still couldn't see Hermione in the stands. Fearing the worst, he began running towards the castle, but as soon as he ran past the bleachers he heard, "Harry!"

Hermione was hiding beneath the seats. Harry ran up to her, asking "Are you alright? Why are you hiding under there?"

"I'm fine," she answered. "But I didn't get to Skeeter. I got distracted by something on the map..."

"Distracted? What could have distracted you from getting back at Skeeter? Was it serious?" Harry asked. His question was answered when a big, shaggy black dog leapt out from the shadows behind Hermione and pinned Harry down, wagging its tail madly.

Hermione sighed. "Yes, Harry, it's Sirius."

Author's Chapter End Notes:

- for those of you who are keeping score: Harry 197, Fleur 177, Cedric 170, Krum 141.

- I hate writing poetry. I'm going to avoid writing the sorting hat songs as much as I can.

- The kelp in this story is actually pretty short. Real kelp can be over 50m long. Scuba diving through kelp is kind of scary, with the possibility of getting tangles.

- Breaking off coral is very, very bad! Real coral grows extremely slowly, like 1-2cm/year. Let's just say that this is magical coral that grows really quickly, and that British wizards aren't all that concerned about the environment. (unlike those Algerian wizards!)