Christina awoke early that morning to an empty bed instead of one with Hermione in it. Probably still in the library with Harry. . . she got dressed and prepared herself for the task. She took her instant darkness powder downstairs and got breakfast. Neither, Fred, Harry, Hermione, or Ron were down there. Had she missed the event? She spotted Cedric eating by himself as his friends looked on nearby, he seemed quite green. She took her food and went and sat across from him, "You look positively radiant" she said jokingly and he put his head down on the table.
"Did you know merpeople live in the Black Lake?" he said brooding. She laughed.
"I guess I do now. I'm worried about the giant squid, what if you get eaten?" she said and Cedric choked on his water and it dribbled down his shirt.
"Please, stop." she laughed again and went quiet. She took a bit of stone from the floor and warped it into a clover.
"Here. I found it. . ." she said with a sly smile. He turned it over in his hand and closed his eyes smiling, grasping it in his hand.
"Thank you. I'm gonna need this" she smiled and continued eating. Their conversation continued but with less references to their imminent task and before they knew it the Great Hall was being deserted as students went down to the lake for the second task. Christina took a deep breath, and got up, forcing Cedric up too as he pretended to be asleep.
"Come on, one true champion" and then headed with the crowd. By the time they reached the lake, Fleur and Krum were already lined up along the edge and Bagman ushered Cedric and her to their respective spots, and a blank spot was still open for Harry. Had he overslept? It was ten minutes till the start and still no sign of Harry. Did he give up? I thought they weren't allowed to not do the task? Ludo Bagman was now checking his watch every few seconds to see when the task will start. With only three minutes left, Christina turned to see an out-of-breath Harry Potter run down the lawn to the lake.
"I'm . . . here . . ." Harry panted, skidding to a halt in the mud and accidentally splattering Fleur's robes.
"Where have you been?" said a bossy, disapproving voice. "The task's about to start!" Christina looked around. Percy Weasley was sitting at the judges' table — Mr. Crouch had failed to turn up again.
"Now, now, Percy!" said Ludo Bagman, who was looking intensely relieved to see Harry. "Let him catch his breath!" Dumbledore smiled at Harry, but Karkaroff and Madame Maxime didn't look at all pleased to see him. . . . It was obvious from the looks on their faces that they had thought he wasn't going to turn up. Harry bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath. Bagman placed Harry on the very end of the line next to Christina.
"All right, Harry?" Christina whispered. "Know what you're going to do?"
"Yeah," Harry panted, massaging his ribs. Bagman pointed his wand at his throat as he had done at the World Cup, said, "Sonorus!" and his voice boomed out across the dark water toward the stands. "Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One . . . two . . . three!"
The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause; without looking to see what the other champions were doing, Christina performed her diffindo charm, took out the instant darkness powder and it burst and she couldn't see but knew to get extremely hot, angry, upset. . .and a few seconds later she saw the lava drip from her fingers and jumped into the lake.
First she extended some of iron from above her head to make an opening once it touched the air and soon she was breathing underwater. She headed to the very bottom of the lake and continued feeding more iron to the tube, she wanted to get the most tubing now so that she didn't get any water on her by going deeper. It seemed to be working, she propelled herself through the water and began searching for whatever was stolen from her.
Silence pressed upon her ears as she soared over a strange, dark, foggy landscape. She could only see ten feet around her, so that as she sped through the water new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the oncoming darkness: forests of rippling, tangled black weed, wide plains of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. She swam deeper and deeper, out toward the middle of the lake, her eyes wide, staring through the quarts to the eerily gray-lit water around her to the shadows beyond, where the water became opaque. Small fish flickered past her like silver darts. Once or twice she thought she saw something larger moving ahead of him, but when she got nearer, she discovered it to be nothing but a large, blackened log, or a dense clump of weed. There was no sign of any of the other champions, merpeople, — nor, thankfully, the giant squid. Light green weed stretched ahead of him as far as she could see, two feet deep, like a meadow of very overgrown grass. Christina was staring unblinkingly ahead of herself, trying to discern shapes through the gloom . . . and then, without warning, something grabbed hold of her ankle. The weight of the iron was so immense however, it could not drag her body down. Christina moved her wand and pointed it at the creature
"Stupefy!" and it flicked off her like a bug. She looked down and noticed it was a grindylow, a small, horned water demon. She just zoomed along and faster now. She turned full circle in the water, the silence pressing harder than ever against her eardrums. She knew she must be even deeper in the lake now, but nothing was moving but the rippling weed. Christina started to swim a bit higher over the weed to avoid any more grindylows that might be lurking there. She swam on for what felt like at least twenty minutes. She was passing over vast expanses of black mud now, which swirled murkily as he disturbed the water. Then, at long last, she heard a snatch of haunting mersong.
"An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took . . ."
Christina swam faster and soon saw a large rock emerge out of the muddy water ahead. It had paintings of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears and chasing what looked like the giant squid. Christina swam on past the rock, following the mersong.
". . . your time's half gone, so tarry not
Lest what you seek stays here to rot. . . ."
A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. Here and there at the dark windows, Christina saw faces . . . The merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at Christina as she swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch her better, their powerful, silver fish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands. Christina sped on, staring around, and soon the dwellings became more numerous; there were gardens of weed around some of them, and she even saw a pet grindylow tied to a stake outside one door. Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching her eagerly, pointing at her quartz eyes and giant pole sticking out of her head, talking behind their hands to one another. Christina sped around a corner and a very strange sight met her eyes.
A whole crowd of merpeople was floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a mer-version of a village square. A choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions toward them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue; a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Five people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson. Fred, Ron, and a little blonde girl whose clouds of silvery hair made Christina feel sure that she was Fleur Delacour's sister, and Harry who was being attacked by several merpeople with spears. 'Of course' Christina thought humorously.
Christina sped toward the hostages, half expecting the merpeople to lower their spears and charge at her instead, but they ignored her and continued restraining Harry. The ropes of weed tying the hostages to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong.
Christina swirled around, staring about. Something sharp . . . anything . . . I'm sharp! She morphed her hand into a dagger and began to hack at the ropes binding Fred, and after several minutes' hard work, they broke apart. Fred floated, unconscious, a few inches above the lake bottom, drifting a little in the ebb of the water. Christina then went towards Harry and raised her rock hand as a threat to the merpeople. They just laughed at her. She tried to communicate with Harry or the merpeople but it was difficult considering she couldn't talk nor move swiftly. However as she got closer the merpeople released Harry and Christina took Fred by the arm, and watched Harry go for Ron as she zoomed to the surface. Before she reached the top she made hundreds of small cuts on the inside of the iron suit and bent so that all the pieces sunk to the bottom.
Her head broke the surface of the lake and the wonderful, cold, clear air was making her wet face sting. Fred gasped along with her and was immediately brought back to reality.
"You alright?" she said panting and taking his arm closer to the cheering crowd. Fred rubbed his eyes and then kissed her, "Told you, you wouldn't drown" she smiled and kissed him back and turned around. Where was Harry?
"He was just behind me..." Christina said as she stopped swimming. She looked down and tried to see through the water but nothing was visible even when she stuck her head under.
"I'm sure Ron's just heavy, have you seen him eat?" Fred joked, but Christina wasn't sure. If she could lift a 6"1 person surely Harry could lift a smaller one? Just then Harry, Ron, and Fleur's sister's heads popped up from the water, she laughed as she watched Ron spit out a spout of water and turn to Harry to say "Wet, this, isn't it?"
" Harry!" Christina said and he nodded, still gasping for air.
"What did you bring her for?" Ron asked while they all swam back to the masses.
"Fleur didn't turn up, I couldn't leave her," Harry panted.
"Harry, you prat," said Ron, "you didn't take that song thing seriously, did you? Dumbledore wouldn't have let any of us drown!"
"The song said —"
"It was only to make sure you got back inside the time limit!" said Ron. "I hope you didn't waste time down there acting the hero!" They pulled Fleur's sister through the water, back toward the bank where the judges stood watching, twenty merpeople accompanying them like a guard of honor, singing their horrible screechy songs. Christina could see Madam Pomfrey fussing over Hermione, Krum, Cedric, and Cho, all of whom were wrapped in thick blankets.
Dumbledore and Ludo Bagman stood beaming at them from the bank as they swam nearer, but Percy, who looked very white and somehow much younger than usual, came splashing out to meet them. Meanwhile Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur Delacour, who was quite hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.
"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she 'urt?"
"She's fine!" Harry tried to tell her, but he was so exhausted he could hardly talk, let alone shout. Percy seized Fred and Ron and was dragging him back to the bank ("Gerroff, Percy, I'm all right!"); Dumbledore and Bagman were pulling Christina and Harry upright; Fleur had broken free of Madame Maxime and was hugging her sister. "It was ze grindylows . . . zey attacked me . . . oh Gabrielle, I thought . . . I thought . . ."
"Come here, you," said Madam Pomfrey. She seized Harry and Christina and pulled them over to Hermione and the others, wrapped her so tightly in a blanket that she felt as though she were in a straitjacket, and forced a measure of very hot potion down her throat. Steam gushed out of her ears.
"Well done you two!" Hermione cried. "You did it, you found out how all by yourself!"
"Yeah, that's right," said Harry, raising his voice slightly so that Karkaroff could hear him.
"You haff a water beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny," said Krum. Christina had the impression that Krum was drawing her attention back onto himself; perhaps to remind her that he had just rescued her from the lake, but Hermione brushed away the beetle impatiently and said,
"You're well outside the time limit, though, Harry. . . . Did it take you ages to find us?"
"No . . . I found you okay. . . ."
"Yeah, it was me who got there last." said Christina.
Dumbledore was crouching at the water's edge, deep in conversation with what seemed to be the chief merperson, a particularly wild and ferocious-looking female. He was making the same sort of screechy noises that the merpeople made when they were above water; clearly, Dumbledore could speak Mermish. Finally he straightened up, turned to his fellow judges, and said,
"A conference before we give the marks, I think." The judges went into a huddle. Madam Pomfrey had gone to rescue Fred and Ron from Percy's clutches; she led them over to Christina and the others, gave him a blanket and some Pepperup Potion, then went to fetch Fleur and her sister. Fleur had many cuts on her face and arms and her robes were torn, but she didn't seem to care, nor would she allow Madam Pomfrey to clean them.
"Look after Gabrielle," she told her, and then she turned to Harry. "You saved 'er," she said breathlessly. "Even though she was not your 'ostage."
"Yeah," said Harry, and Christina saw Fleur bend down, kiss Harry twice on each cheek, then said to Ron, "And you too — you 'elped —" "Yeah," said Ron, looking extremely hopeful, "yeah, a bit —" Fleur swooped down on him too and kissed him. Hermione looked simply furious. Christina was laying on Fred's lap when Ludo Bagman's magically magnified voice boomed out beside them, making them all jump, and causing the crowd in the stands to go very quiet.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows. . . .
"Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points." Applause from the stands.
"I deserved zero," said Fleur throatily, shaking her magnificent head.
"Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour." Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd; Christina saw Cho give Cedric a glowing look.
"We therefore award him forty-seven points." Christina's heart sank. If Cedric had been outside the time limit, she most certainly had been.
"Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points." Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior.
"Christina Bataskill made her way through the water in her hand-made submarine and returned with her hostage ten minutes outside the time limit. We award her forty points." she was positively delighted and was being high-fived by Ron and cheered for by the Gryffindors.
"I tied with Krum!" Christina said excitedly.
"In your home-made submarine no less. . ." Fred said while laughing incredulously.
"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect," Bagman continued. "He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own." Christina, Ron and Hermione both gave Harry half-exasperated, half-commiserating looks.
"Most of the judges," and here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look, "feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However . . . Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points." Christina, Ron and Hermione, caught by surprise, stared at Harry, then laughed and started applauding hard with the rest of the crowd.
"There you go, Harry!" Ron shouted over the noise. "You weren't being thick after all — you were showing moral fiber!" Fleur was clapping very hard too, but Krum didn't look happy at all. He attempted to engage Hermione in conversation again, but she was too busy cheering Harry to listen.
"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty fourth of June," continued Bagman. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions." It was over, Christina thought dazedly, as Madam Pomfrey began herding the champions and hostages back to the castle to get into dry clothes . . . it was over, she had got through . . .she didn't have to worry about anything now until June the twenty-fourth. . . .