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Chapter 29

Harry watched from the small dock surrounding the stands that had been erected for the second task, as an angry Fleur yelled at the tall woman who was the Headmistress of her school then stomped her way down the pathway to join the other gathered champions.

"You!" she said pointing at Harry. "You knew! Why did you not tell me they would take my sister?" she screamed as she approached, a tiny flicker of blue flame appearing in her hand.

Harry didn't back up despite the primal urge. "Sister?" he asked. "They took our dates… Why didn't they take yours?"

The flame in her left hand became a more solid ball. "How should I know! You seem to be the one that…"

Harry's hand flashed out capturing her left wrist as she brought it up and forward in a slapping motion, and he looked directly in her eyes. "Fleur! You need to get a hold of yourself! I didn't know anything about them taking your sister! I didn't even know for a fact that they were going to take our dates!" he growled.

"I only suspected! And I warned you!" he continued. "Then I went so far as inform the Hogwarts staff, as they had not even been told by the Ministry… If I were to guess only Dumbledore knew here before he left!"

"I have two very good friends down there!" he said as he let her wrist go and gathered the older girl into a hug. "You need to calm down," he whispered in her ear. "Stick close to me… I have a plan. We'll have them back safe and sound before you know it."

She pulled away from his warm embrace, her eyes brimming with tears. "I don't… You have a plan?"

He nodded slowly, keeping his eyes firmly on hers. "I do. I don't want to see any of the people down there hurt, especially for anything as stupid as this game."

Cedric stepped up next to him. "Fleur, you may not know this, but Harry is the scion of the Black family, as well as the head of the Potters… and one of those people down there is a ward of his."

Her eyes widened as they moved back and forth between the two. "Who?" she asked.

Harry sighed. "Hermione… Her becoming a ward of house Black was an accident… Her father tasked me with looking after her after an incident, and our magic took it from there..."

"And they still took her?" she asked, her mouth agape.

"It's not exactly something we go about telling people Fleur," he said.

Cedric chuckled. "But it is not something you exactly hide either Harry, she made quite a stir when she showed up at Madam Marta's."

Harry smirked. "Yeah, well, that was to be expected right?"

Cedric broke out in a laugh. "It was, a muggleborn going to Marta's and being presented like a pureblood, it was the talk of the town… Madam Marta even had two people withdraw because of it."

Harry's eyes grew hard. "She didn't say anything about that," he growled.

Cedric shook his head. "She wouldn't… she's friends with my grandmum, that's the only way I know. She said it has happened before…"

Harry nodded slowly, his mind already working on a plan to offset her losses. "Anyway," he said, turning back toward the distraught woman. "Yes, I have a plan. As soon as I had an idea of what they were planning I started working on it."

He gave her a lopsided grin. "And it all starts with what is in this bag." He tapped the large canvas bag at his feet with a toe.


Madam Maxime made her way to the podium and stood with the other headmasters. "Fleur is quite angry about this turn of events, as am I!"

Headmistress McGonagall sighed as she spoke. "As are we all. We, like you, did not expect the goblet to select her as the hostage based on a single dance with her sister after she managed to slip into the Great Hall. It was completely unexpected."

Maxine nodded. "I understand, truly, and she has been scolded for her part in creating the problem, but something such this should not have been possible."

"Your students have no one to blame but themselves," groused Karkaroff.

"Why, because she danced at a ball with her little sister when she turned up?" Maxime snapped. "Nonsense! Gabriele may have been in the wrong to have done as she had, but we are at fault for not finding such a loophole!"

Amelia Bones stepped in at that point. "Peace, all of you. Steps have been taken to see that all of the hostages come through this unharmed."

Madam Maxime sighed again. "So I understand, but it was hard enough telling those girls' parents about what was happening this morning, if something were to happen to their youngest…"

"We have done our best to see that nothing does," Madam Bones replied.

"I just hope it was enough," Said Maxime with a sad tone.


Fleur watched as the young man in front of her adjusted the strange cylinders on his back and then moved on to several other pieces he had added to his strange bathing costume, which appeared to be made of some form of strange thick but flexible material, and large oddly floppy things on his feet.

"Harry?" Cedric asked. "What is all of that?"

Harry chuckled. "Muggle diving gear," he said with a shrug.

The eyes of those around him grew wider, as he finished up by kneeling and rinsing out his mask. As he stood and gave them a shrug, he spoke. "Look I had a lot of help looking for spells and things to do this, and this ended up being the best choice… I've got a rune based talisman to help with the cold… and I wasn't positive about the viability of me using the bubble head charm for such a long time, as my core isn't as mature as you lots' are… Especially as it is not something even taught, for that reason, till much later… The only other choice we found was the Gillyweed Neville found and all our research showed it was unpredictable in duration when ingested by someone that had not reached their final maturity."

The rest of the champions looked at each other then back towards Harry. "Besides, this is something I'm comfortable with… and gave me a couple of more options as well," he said, picking up the remaining cylinder by one of the odd shaped handles with a grunt. "Let's do this, stay as close to me as you can, we'll worry about racing back once we have reached our people."

The champions looked at each other and gave a quick nod, following the youngest champion to the starting area.

Filius smiled when he saw Harry approaching. "I trust everything is functioning properly for you Mr. Potter?" asked the diminutive man, knowing full well that Harry had left nothing to chance with his own equipment let alone with the equipment that he had helped them procure for the people below the surface.

"In perfect order sir," he said.

"Good, line up at the marked positions, once the Minister and Ludo have completed their introductions," he said, gesturing to the speaking men in front of he stands. "A cannon charm will signal you to begin. Good luck to you all."

When the cannon blast sounded all of them were in the water within moments...

Harry by simply stepping off the edge and dropping directly down, while holding his mask in place and then tugging the large extra cylinder in after him.

Fleur whipped off her robes, exposing her silver one piece bathing costume for the first time. With a flip of her wrist she cast a quick succession of spells then dove gracefully into the water.

Cedric was close behind her, doing much the same before disappearing beneath the surface.

Krum, however, had chosen to try something somewhat different and only paused to remove his outer robes before diving in.

Harry took a moment beneath the surface to orient himself and test his air supply once more, before reaching down and cracking the chemical light on his waist, making he area around him glow a soft green.

Pulling the cylinder he had carried into the water in front of him he grasped the grips on ether side and triggered the small electrical engine, setting the propeller in motion and shooting forward, catching the two free swimming champions in front of him quickly.

He looked around for the third as he moved into the lead, when a large shadow passed over his head. He came close to screaming as the shape of a Great White Shark came into view, only for it to dodge suddenly to its side to show the back half was that of Victor Krum.

Looking wide eyed at the other champions, a look they also shared, he relaxed minutely as the odd looking transformed wizard began making slow loops around them.

Shaking his head he turned back to the task at hand and tugged the trigger of the sea scooter, causing it to pull him deeper into the depths, the other champions following closely.

Shortly he reached toward the center console of the scooter and flipped a small stud, a small screen lit up with a pulsing light to one side. He smiled, the homer was working just as they had planned.

He turned to the people behind him and pointed into the darkness, before twisting his body slightly, to point the water scooter in the appropriate direction.

Long minutes seemed to pass as they continued into the inky blackness. He checked his air gauge; he had begun with two full tanks, more than enough, but he knew from experience that a stressful dive used more air than a person may realize. So far so good. He checked his watch; they were just over fifteen minutes into the task.

Harry was amazed as they began to pass over what appeared to be a forest of seaweed, if it had been any other time he may have been tempted to investigate further.

Suddenly flashes of light drew his attention. Turning he saw Fleur and Cedric under assault from what looked like small pinkish colored octopi, they had drifted somewhat lower than he had toward the seaweed. In his mind's eye he saw the page on them that had been in he file Croaker had prepared on the dangers of Black Lake, Grindylows.

Generally they were considered pests, only dangerous to the very young or infirm or, as in this case, great numbers. Harry's eyes widened as the swarm continued to grow.

Cedric proved to be the luckier of the pair, as he had not been as close and Krum's sudden pass through the crowd disrupted them enough for him to make his way out of the seaweed.

Harry growled into his regulator as he spun on the spot, pointing the sea scooter's nose down below the swarm and pulled the secondary trigger, sending a twin trail of bubbles out of small tubes hidden in the bottom.

Seconds later small explosions came from deep in the sea weed as the oxygen pellets ruptured sending a cascade of bubbles into the swarm above, scattering the cloud. Harry rushed to the injured girl's side and had her safely away before they could regroup.

Harry gripped her tightly as he moved them a safer distance away. He could see she was barely couscous and having trouble breathing, worried that her charms were on the verge of collapse he removed his rescue harness and fastened it around her and pulled the tab, rapidly filling it with air and sending her toward the surface, promising himself he would see her sister safely back in her arms personally.

Harry then checked he direction of the homer and turned his sea scooter back toward the depths.

He glanced toward the two remaining champions; Cedric was looking little worse for wear, though tired, but seemed determined to continue. As for Krum… well that he just had no way to judge.

It wasn't much further when they began to hear singing in the distance and Krum immediately shot off in that direction, leaving the remaining pair behind. Glancing over his shoulder toward Cedric he saw the older boy wave him onward. Giving him the thumbs up he depressed the trigger for the motor further and zoomed into the darkness.

Harry arrived just in time to watch Krum's awkward pass to use his shark like teeth to grab and cut the line that held Hermione tethered to the bottom. His breath had caught in his throat as all he could see at first was what looked like Krum pulling her away by her leg.

He shook his head when he saw the tether in his mouth, as they disappeared into the darkness surrounding the village.

Moving quickly he moved to Alex and examined her. She was floating in some form of suspended state. Shrugging to himself he pulled the knife loose from the scabbard on his calf and cut the line, then using a D-ring on his harness he attached himself to her.

Knowing that Fleur would not be coming he moved toward the one figure he did not know.

A younger looking blond girl, an almost perfect miniature version of her sister was floating in the light current in front of him. As he moved forward the merpeople did as well, their tridents held in a threatening manner. "One only!" one of them seemed to sing in a harsh tone.

Harry glared at the fish like person, wishing he had a way to communicate with them.

His frustration turned into a smirk as he reached behind Alex and grasped an object he knew was placed with each contestant.

In short order he had the mask over the girls face and flooded with life giving air. He watched as she began to stir, her eyes fluttering open.

As soon as he was sure she was fully awake, he made his intentions known through his gestures and released the D-ring from her belt. She nodded and gave him a thumb's up, as she began her ascent.

He watched her float upward for a moment before moving once more towards Fleur's sister, only to be blocked once again.

Frustrated he pointed toward the girl and then back towards the darkness and shook his head, as Cedric passed by with Cho in his arms, giving him a concerned look and tapping his watch.

Harry glanced at his own, he only had fifteen minutes! He grabbed his air gauge next, checking out of reflex, he still had plenty but his margin of error was shrinking fast!

Grimacing he acted as if he were moving away. He would only have one chance at this.

He extracted the last pair of oxygen pellets from the sea scooter's weapon and placed them gently between the fingers on his left hand, careful to keep away from the manual plungers and making sure he could still operate the sea scooter, he then attached one of the pair of D-ring clasps from his harness to the small ring at the rear of the scooter.

Next he pointed the sea scooter so he would pass close to the girl and he fully depressed the trigger.

His father had told him once about using this particular mode at one time and how violent it had been as it shot him through the water during a pitched underwater battle between the forces of S.P.E.C.T.E.R and the American frogmen assigned to recover a stolen nuclear weapon.

In the end he had said it was just something that he would need to experience to understand, and should only be used as a last resort.

As it was Harry felt as if the harness he was wearing was trying to pull through his body as the Sea Scooter shot forward trailing a mist of bubbles at nearly twice the speed it was capable of with the motor alone.

He knew this would only last for a short burst as Q had been forced to use a much smaller tank from the original to make it more portable, but for this it should be enough.

In the blink of an eye, he was next to the young girl and had sliced her tether free, pulled her tight against her body and wrapped himself tightly around her.

As he did he released the oxygen pellets from his other hand and depressed the controller fully again shooting directly up this time, in another extreme burst of speed.

Bubbles erupted in a plume behind them, and a little off to the side, soon after.

A smile grew on his face as he caught up to Alex and slowed, allowing her to grasp hold and be carried along toward the pier as well as the surface.