Riddled
By Killing Curse Eyes
Chapter 25: The Task at Hand
-o-
Harry was on cloud nine for the next few days. She was only brought down when she got a certain copy of the Daily Prophet that was released several days after the ball.
She was front page news once again, this time for being a 'loose girl' who was leading on several different boys. There were pictures of her dancing with Viktor, Draco and a few others. But the worst one was one of her and Cedric Diggory. It captured the moments just before she turned her head away when he tried to kiss her and looked very intimate. She knew as soon as she saw the picture that Tom would be furious.
Harry herself was enraged—how dare they imply she was some sort of slut? She stomped down to her dorm to grab her diary and write to Tom about what happened. He would know what to do.
A message was already waiting for her when she opened up her diary.
I'm working on it, dearest.
What are you doing about it? She wrote, but even half hour later, he didn't respond. With a sigh, she gave up on waiting for his response.
When she finally left her dorm she found Draco and Pansy sitting on a sofa talking. They noticed her just as she walked out of the dorm and met her at the common room exit.
"You okay?" Pansy asked, concern written all over her face. Draco also seemed concern.
"Yeah. Tom said he was working on it." Harry smiled weakly. She just wished she knew what that meant.
"Good. I imagine he was furious." Draco commented.
"Yeah, probably." Harry nodded absently as she, Pansy and Draco walked to their favourite meeting place—the abandoned classroom. Their trip was silent after that until they opened the door to the classroom.
As soon as they stepped inside they blinked in surprise. Gone were all but five of the desks and instead there were several couches and beanbag chairs. The usual dust was gone and the floor was now covered in soft carpet instead of the cold, hard stone that was typical to the castle. The walls were decorated with Slytherin and Gryffindor banners. Hermione sat on one of the couches looking pleased with herself. Surprisingly, Fleur sat beside her.
"What the- how? When?" Harry gaped.
"I thought you needed some cheering up after the Daily Prophet's article. Fleur asked if there was anything she could do for you, so I suggested she helped me remodel this classroom." Hermione explained. "Do you like it?"
"I love it Hermione! This is brilliant!" Harry beamed. Pansy nodded vigorously in agreement.
"We're glad you think so." Fleur smiled kindly. "I know what it's like for people to say such things about you. If you need anything, I'm here to help, alright?"
"Thank you Fleur. That's very kind of you. Feel free to join us here anytime." Harry offered.
"I think I'll take you up on that, if it's alright with everyone else?" Fleur smiled genuinely.
"Of course it is." Pansy, Hermione and Draco said in unison. Upon realizing that they had all spoken at the same time, they burst into laughter.
"We'll have to invite Viktor, too." Harry added as she sat down on a green beanbag chair.
"For sure." Draco agreed. He still had a bit of hero worship for the Bulgarian seeker.
The others took seats as well and the day was spent joking and laughing in their own private common room, as it came to be called.
-x-
That evening Harry finally decided it was time to try and figure out the golden egg from the first task. She would take a bath and open it underwater, all the while hoping that the guy who suggested this course of action was right. Because if he wasn't, Harry had no clue what to do.
She ran a hot bath in one of the only two bathtubs in the dorm's bathroom. They weren't as big as she heard the prefect's tubs were, but it was sill larger and deeper than an average tub. As soon as the tub was full, Harry turned off the water and climbed in with the egg. She set it down on the bottom of the tub and carefully opened it.
As soon as she opened the egg she heard the muffled sound of a beautiful voice singing. She tried to make out the words, but it was no use. After thinking for a moment, she lowered her head until it was submerged in the water.
This was apparently the correct thing to do because she now heard the singing clear as day. She listened attentively as it cycled through the song several times, going up for air twice. After hearing the song enough, Harry closed the egg.
They would take something precious of hers and hide it in the lake. She would have one hour to find whatever it was that they took.
Harry bit her lip nervously. Obviously she was supposed to breathe underwater somehow. It was obviously possible, but she wasn't sure how. Not only that, but she wasn't a very good swimmer.
Harry sighed and decided to worry about it the next day. She could talk it over with her friends
(minus Viktor and Fleur) and see if they had any ideas.
Her main objective completed, Harry began washing herself. Once she had washed her hair and scrubbed herself clean she pulled the plug and let the water drain. She climbed out of the tub and wrapped a fuzzy emerald green towel around herself. She relaxed for a few moments in the steam before drying off and putting on her nightgown. She grabbed the egg and left the bathroom.
When she reached her bed she stored the egg underneath it once more and climbed in. She decided against writing Tom since she was too tired and instead let herself fall asleep.
Harry woke early in the morning and pulled out her diary. She noticed that Tom had left a short message the night before and she dutifully replied. She then went on to explain what the second task would be and asked for some advice. She waited ten minutes for a reply before becoming impatient and giving up for the time being.
It was only after getting dressed and eating breakfast that Harry remembered what day it was. It was December thirty-first, Tom's real birthday. As soon as she realized this, Harry told something she forgot something inside their dorm and hurried back to her diary. Tom still hadn't responded, so she simply wished him a happy birthday and expressed her regrets for not being there to celebrate with him.
Harry didn't bother waiting for a reply. She headed to the private common room to meet Pansy, Hermione and Draco. She arrived a few minutes later and plopped down on a beanbag chair. She looked at her three friends and sighed.
"I know what the first task is." Harry told them. She went on to explain her problem to her friends and asked them for advice.
"Gillyweed should do the job." Draco suggested. "It will let you breathe underwater for an hour and will transform your body in a way that makes it easier to swim."
"That sounds perfect, actually." Harry blinked in surprise. She didn't think they'd have any ideas off the top of their heads. "Where can I get some?"
"Professor Snape should have some. I'll see if he'll give me any." The blond offered. "He's rather fond of me."
"Is there any truth to the rumour that you're his godson?" Harry asked. It was a rumour floating around the school for quite some time.
Draco snorted. "No. I don't even know where that came from."
"Oh. Okay. Anyways, getting the gillyweed would be great, thanks." Harry smiled.
"No problem. But you owe me one, deal?"
"Deal."
-x-
The next few weeks passed in a blur. Draco indeed procured gillyweed for Harry, and so Harry could go about school life as normal without worrying about the second task.
At the end of January, Peter Pettigrew was released from Azkaban. Shortly afterward he disappeared. He was never seen in public and some speculated that he must have hidden himself in the muggle world. Others believed he went back to living life as a rat. Personally, Harry thought it was the latter.
Harry continued to do well in her classes and continued with her advanced studies, as well as her chemistry and math studies. Hermione was right there studying alongside her. The two witches progressed through most of the fifth year material and could probably pass their OWLs at this point.
Much of Harry's time was spent in the private common room with Hermione, Pansy and Draco, with Fleur and Viktor joining them two or three times a week. Viktor and Hermione were currently dating, as were Draco and Pansy.
Though fond of Viktor, Hermione kept writing to Marcus biweekly. She privately admitted that yes, she still liked Marcus, but she liked Viktor too. She said she wanted to give Viktor a chance since Marcus appeared to have no interest in her. Things were going well between the bookworm and the Bulgarian seeker. The two had a lot in common, surprisingly. Contrary to popular belief, Viktor cared about more than just quidditch and was rather studious. Hermione even managed to make him rethink his beliefs about house elves.
Pansy and Draco on the other hand had a much more volatile relationship. While they cared about each other, they often bickered and fought. Usually about silly things, but at the end of the day they would always reconcile. Usually their reconciliation involved a fair amount of snogging.
Fleur was still single and lamented the fact that few boys were ever interested in her as a person, instead admiring her solely for her beauty and veela allure.
Harry's love life was only slightly better than Fleur's. Tom had said she was his weeks ago, but insisted on discussing things in person at the next Hogsmeade weekend. Harry felt like she was in some sort of limbo with Tom. Like they weren't dating, but they were clearly more than just friends.
Meanwhile, she had to put up with other students calling her a slut. Tom had forced the Daily Prophet to print a retraction, but the damage was already done and half the school was treating her horribly.
Cedric Diggory apparently felt rather bad about what happened between them and apologized to her. He said he felt really bad about everything and genuinely thought she was starting to like him at the ball. He also promised to do his best to defend her when he heard people talking about her behind her back. Harry thanked him, but the two didn't interact any more than that.
Harry found more comfort in Fleur, who had faced similar ridicule before. The girls at Beauxbatons were all jealous of her beauty and allure and made up rumours about her. Fleur told Harry to stay strong and ignore them. She also reminded Harry that not only was she not a slut, but that even if she was, there's nothing wrong with that. It was a lame insult that Harry shouldn't take seriously, and after awhile, she didn't.
Harry also kept up regular correspondence with her godfather. She found that writing him was a bit of a chore. He was rather hung up on her use of parseltongue in the first task and wouldn't let it go. He tried to convince her that Tom was Dark and leading her down that path. But not to worry, of course, because Sirius was there to help her. Sirius also kept inquiring about whether or not she would be willing to come live with him instead of Tom. Each time Harry firmly told him no, but he kept asking persistently.
Her letters soon became short and clipped while his no longer contained anecdotes about his time at Hogwarts and with her parents. Harry tried to be patient with him, but eventually resorted to ignoring his letters.
Harry wasn't sure how she felt about Sirius anymore. She hoped this was just a rough patch and that they would eventually work through it. Sirius was one of the few links she had to her parents, after all. She didn't want to lose that.
As the second task approached Harry made sure to send Sirius a brief letter that let him know she had a plan for the second task and to stop worrying about her.
-x-
One cold February day the champions, judges, and spectators gathered by the lake. The champions were outfitted in swimsuits – Fleur's was a silvery blue, Harry wore an emerald green one, and Viktor was outfitted in blood red. Despite the warming charms the champions were allowed to cast on themselves, they were freezing.
Harry was cursing whoever decided it was a good idea to make them go swim in the lake in the middle of winter.
She clutched the gillyweed in her hand and waited for the task to begin. At the shrill sound of the whistle, she walked into the water and began chewing the gillyweed.
Shortly after swallowing she ducked her head under water so she could breathe through her new gills that appeared on her neck. Her fingers were green and webbed. Her feet were elongated and webbed as well. The water no longer felt freezing, but instead pleasantly cool.
Harry swam through the water swiftly, searching for whatever it was that they had taken. She could barely see three metres in front of herself and ended up swimming around rather randomly.
Suddenly, she felt something grab her ankle. She turned around and saw a grindylow holding her ankle. She tried to cast relashio, but instead the spell simply sent a jet of boiling water at the creature. None the less, it let go and Harry continued her search once more.
After what seemed like forever she heard the song from the egg. She had to be close. She followed the sound of the merpeople's voices with a victorious grin on her face.
She came upon a cluster of crude stone dwellings. She occasionally saw a merperson in one of the windows, but ignored them and quickly sped ahead. The dwellings became more numerous until they looked like some sort of underwater village. She saw a crowd of merpeople in front of houses in what looked to be some sort of village square. There was a large statue and Harry saw three people tied to it – Hermione, a little girl with silvery blonde hair that resembled Fleur, and finally Tom.
Harry was surprised to see Tom, as she would think he wouldn't go along with this, but immediately knew she was supposed to save him, even though Hermione was her friend, too. She swam over to him and tried to undo his ropes to no avail. Frustrated, she closed her eyes and willed the ropes to vanish. They did.
Harry grabbed Tom and started swimming back to shore. As she swam she saw Fleur was having trouble with several grindylows. Harry shot jets of boiling water at them until Fleur was free. She nodded at the older girl. Fleur looked beyond grateful as she nodded back.
Harry then continued swimming to shore with Tom. She wasn't sure which way was to shore, exactly, so she swam directly upwards until she broke the surface. She looked around until she saw the crowd gathered around the dock. She dived back under so she could breathe and started swimming in the correct direction.
She guided Tom to the dock and started to push him up since she couldn't leave the water yet. Someone helped her get him up on the dock, as she was too weak to do it by herself. Once he was on the dock, Tom awoke. He was bombarded by people who had rushed over with blankets as soon as Harry arrived at the dock with him. He took a blanket, thanked them and pulled out his yew and dragon heartstring wand from a holster on his wrist. He cast drying and warming charms on himself and looked around for Harry.
Harry was just walking towards the shore, the effects of the gillyweed having just worn off. People rushed to her with blankets and towels, much like they did to Tom. She politely thanked them as she walked over to Tom.
"Tom!" She cried as she threw herself at him and hugged him tightly. He returned the hug with one arm, a half smile upon his face.
"Hello to you too, Harriet." Tom said.
"Are you okay? I didn't think I'd see you here." Harry babbled in excitement.
"I'm fine, brat. I didn't expect to be here, but when they told me the goblet chose me as your hostage I figured I might as well come." Tom explained.
"I see." The talked quietly for a few more minutes, but were interrupted by the sound of Ludo Bagman's magically amplified voice. It seemed that Fleur and Viktor had also returned.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached a decision!" Harry glanced at the judges and noticed that Crouch was absent once again with Percy Weasley taking his place. "Merchieftess Murcus has told us everything that happened at the bottom of the lake, and so we have decided to award marks out of fifty as follows...
"To Miss Fleur Delacour, who used the bubblehead charm, returned second to last, and managed to save her hostage with assistance from another champion, we award thirty-eight points.
"Mr Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of transfiguration, which was none the less effective, and was last to return with his hostage, we award him forty points.
"Finally, to Miss Potter, who used gillyweed to great effect, helped another champion and returned first with her hostage, we award forty-eight points."
"Congratulations, dearest." Tom whispered in Harry's ear. "You're in first place."
"The third and final task shall take place on the twenty-fourth of June." Bagman continued. "The champions will be notified of what is coming exactly one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."
"Mr Riddle, Miss Delacour, you two are welcome to join us at Hogwarts for the evening to warm up." Dumbledore said with a benign smile.
"I'll take you up on that, sir." Tom smiled charmingly. "Thank you so much. I've never really seen Hogwarts before."
"Of course, of course. It's the least I can do, my boy."
-x-
Harry introduced Tom to Fleur and Viktor shortly after they all returned to the castle. Tom joined the Slytherin table for lunch, much to the joy of most of the Slytherin females. Though they were disappointed when he completely ignored everyone but Harry and her friends. Harry on the other hand, was delighted with this.
Harry told her friends she need to speak with Tom privately, and her friends graciously agreed to let them use the private common room for as long as they needed. Harry and Tom thanked them, then proceeded to the private common room.
They arrived shortly thereafter. Tom closed the door and cast a privacy ward to make sure they wouldn't be interrupted.
"So..." Harry said as she stood there awkwardly.
"Yes, dearest?" Tom smirked as he slowly walked towards her.
"Uh... Well..." Harry stammered as Tom stopped right before her. She gulped. It took her a few moments to find the words she wanted to say. "Where do we stand?"
"Where do you want to stand, Harriet?" Tom asked lightly.
"Is it not obvious what I want?" Harry said boldly. She was fight down a blush, and losing badly.
"Yes." Tom agreed. "It is."
"So then it's up to you."
"Indeed. Well then." Tom stared at her a moment. She started back into his artificially blue eyes.
Suddenly, he broke eye contact and lowered his head until his lips were gently pressed to Harry's. After a few seconds he pulled back.
"Does that answer your question, dearest?" Tom smiled softly. It almost looked out of place on his face. Harry liked it, though she privately thought his more maniacal grins were far more attractive.
She nodded, a ferocious blush overtaking her face.
"Good." Tom smirked. He leaned down again and pressed his lips to Harry's once more.
He kept the kiss slow at first, but soon pressed against Harry's lips harder. She gasped in surprise and Tom used the opportunity to push his tongue into Harry's mouth.
Tom held Harry's hips while she gripped his shirt. He pulled Harry closer and continued to move his lips against hers.
Harry was in paradise. She loved the way Tom felt pressed up against her, the feeling of his lips on hers, the way his tongue explored her mouth, and the way he would occasionally nip at her bottom lip.
After several intense minutes the two broke apart, panting lightly. Tom rested his forehead on Harry's, keeping his hands on her hips. Harry released his shirt from her tight grip and grabbed Tom's hands.
"You are aware we must keep this quiet." Tom told the jade eyed girl softly. "People will believe I am taking advantage of you. That I'm too old for you."
"You're not that much older..." Harry grumbled, then sighed. "But yes, I know. Can I tell Pansy and Hermione? They can keep their mouths shut."
"I suppose so." Tom agreed. "If it gets out we'll deny it. So long as there is no evidence, we shall accuse them of slander."
"Should I be concerned that you consider people saying that you're dating me is slander?" she teased.
Tom smirked. "Yes."
Harry removed one of her hand's from Tom's and lightly smacked him on the chest. "How rude!"
"It's only because our... relationship is illegal, dearest. I would be in a lot of trouble if this gets out." Tom said.
"What is our relationship anyways? Are we boyfriend and girlfriend, or...?"
"I suppose you could consider us that. I prefer less... juvenile terms myself, but that is essentially correct." He said.
"Less juvenile terms?" Harry inquired with a blush. She felt like a little girl all of a sudden. "Like what?"
"Partners, lovers... The label doesn't really matter, though. Simply put, you are mine."
"And you're mine." Harry said hesitantly.
"I suppose so, dearest, I suppose so."
-o-
AN: We-e-e-llll... They finally kissed. I hope it was all right. I've never written people kissing before. I hope the kiss makes up for the fact that the chapter is a bit short...
Anything my lovely readers want to see in fourth or fifth year? I need some ideas. I have several subplots for sixth year, but not enough for fifth, and need some filler for fourth. I can get by without it, but I'd like to try and work some things you guys suggest into the story. It can be something simple like Harry getting new, cuter glasses (as one amazing reviewer suggested).
Anyways, thank you for all your support you guys. I never thought my story would be this well received. I imagined it being one of those "lucky if you get 100 reviews" stories.
Love you all!
Eliza