Chapter 36: The Purple Boy

As the common room buzzed with excitement about the upcoming Second Task, Fred, George, and I talked quietly at a table. "So Dungbombs first then?" George said, looking at us.

"Right. Dungbomb, then vanishing robes, then shower, then the purple smoke." I said, listing off the steps of our newest prank.

"Make sure," Fred said, "when you get his robes, get his wand too. So he can't summon them back."

"K. We need to lead him to the locker rooms quickly, so we don't get caught. And there's one thing else we might need." I said, thinking of a brilliant idea.

"What?" the twins asked at the same time.

"An Invisibility Cloak." I said with a grin.

The three of us exchanged looks, because we knew just where to find one.

"Got it." Fred said, walking down the stairwell with George, carrying a shiny cloak. The common room was louder than ever, with people bustling out the door to get good seats for the Second Task.

We were to perform our brilliant prank just after the Second Task, once we got everything in place. First, we were to have someone push Malfoy into the lake, forcing his pompous self to take a bath at the castle. There, George was to wear the Cloak and vanish his clothes and take his wand. George would then give me the Cloak and Malfoy's clothes and I would lead Malfoy somewhere near the Quidditch pitch. Then Fred would take over and stick Malfoy's feet to the ground and cover Malfoy with a sticky purple smoke. We're hoping he'll be stuck there until dark. Our plan is foolproof, as if Malfoy suspected us he would have to admit he had jumped into the lake during the Second Task, which would have disrupted the festivities.

But first, we had a boy-whose cloak we had just stolen-to support.

The Second Task took place literally in the middle of the lake. The seating areas were on large platforms above the water. Fred and George wandered around with their betting box. I found us seats with some other Gryffindors wearing Harry Potter badges. I looked around for Ron and Hermione, but they were nowhere to be seen.

The task began shortly after. The champions' goal was to dive in the deep lake and find "what valuable thing they had lost" in an hour. A shot was fired and the four students jumped into the Black Lake, with Harry being the last to hit the water. We cheered nonetheless.

After that the task wasn't very exciting. We waited on the lake for about a half hour until the first champion popped out of the water- it was Cedric Diggory. He was holding Cho Chang, which apparently was the thing he 'lost.' I clapped without much enthusiasm.

Shortly after was Viktor Krum. I gasped loudly, and peered over the edge of our stand. Viktor was holding a soaking wet Hermione. She coughed as he carried her to the stands.

Fred and George were looking at me funny. I realized I was still standing up. I sat back in my seat awkwardly, still shocked.

After Viktor was Fleur Delacour. She looked very beaten up, and she was not carrying anyone. Someone made an announcement that Fleur had taken herself out of the task. I felt bad for her, but I was again wondering why in the first place she had done this tournament, if she knew she didn't have the skill for it.

I realized then that this meant Harry was third. It wasn't last, but third wasn't very good. And what made it worse was that the clock was almost to one hour, and Harry wasn't back yet. Nervous whispers broke out among the crowd.

Finally, just before the clock chimed, Harry rose to the surface. He was carrying not one-but two people. Ron Weasley and a little girl. We all looked down at the commotion as Harry came to the stands. The little girl was apparently Fleur's sister, and she was very grateful Harry saved her. However, yells began to break out among the stands when the voice announced that Harry had received second place-above Viktor- because of his 'moral fibre' for saving two people.

All I knew was that Harry Potter was probably the only person on the planet to receive higher scores in the Triwizard Tournament for moral fibre.

But I'm not complaining.

We cheered Harry's name as we got the first part of our prank in motion. The twins and I had Lee Jordan sneakily trip Malfoy, who fell right into the lake. Crabbe and Goyle helped him up, but as we suspected, he marched immediately to the showers.

I went to my post at a marked tapestry just outside the bathroom Malfoy went in. The plan was going perfectly as George came out, quickly slipped the Invisibility Cloak over my head, and gave me Malfoy's clothes. He whispered to me, "The git showers in his underwear apparently, so this is all I got." I stifled my laughter as George ran off. I used a spell to levitate his clothes into the air and had them follow me to the Quidditch pitch.

Malfoy was running after them in a towel, so I sped up. Once we got to the field, I hucked the flying clothes farther away and dashed off, still under the cloak. I met Fred in our hiding spot and watched as used another spell to glue Malfoy's feet to the ground. The poor boy struggled, his towel falling off-revealing his white underwear.

Fred threw a purple ball-one of our products- which exploded in front of Malfoy, covering him in thick purple dust. I fell over, doing my best to laugh silently. Then, Fred and I crept away from the purple boy and went through a door into the locker rooms.

We then let out all our laughter. "That was definitely a new favorite of mine," Fred chortled. "Excellent job, darling."

"Excellent job to you, too." I said clutching my said.

"We better go find George," he said, "He'll want to get a view of Barney, the purple dimwit."

"You go. I want to stay here a bit. I miss it," I said admittedly, gesturing to our Quidditch locker room which we hadn't been in in over a year.

Fred simply nodded and left.

I touched the bench that was in the center of the room. It may have sounded stupid, but I really did miss this place. And I really missed Quidditch. I made a promise to myself that I would play a lot of games with Fred and George over the summer, to make sure my skills were still there.

"Vat vas it you vere lauving about?" I heard a rough voice say, interrupting my thoughts. I jumped as I turned around to see none other than Viktor Krum, leaning against a wall.

"What do you want?" I hissed. I didn't know why I was so angry at him, but I knew it had something to do with him coming out of the water with Hermione.

"I vant to know vat you vere lauving about." Viktor Krum said, "Does it 'ave to do vith da purple boy outside?"

"Maybe." I said curtly. He raised an eyebrow at me. "Yes." I said finally. "But now it's my turn to ask a question." I raised the eyebrow at him this time.

Viktor didn't respond. He just looked at me expectedly.

I sighed, but didn't hold anything back: "What is going on with you and Hermione Granger?! You went to the ball together. You saved her in the lake. I saw you two in the library not too long ago. What's going on?"

Viktor looked surprised-if a small widening of his eyes counted as 'surprise.'

I waited for his response. I waited for a whole minute. Finally he said with his Bulgarian accent, "I like your friend."

I narrowed my eyes at the older boy. "You can't get-errrrr- You're going to leave soon and-uh-" I started to say something several times before I said, " Hermione's the best girl you will ever find. Break her heart and I'll break your legs. And your fingers."

This time, Viktor Krum laughed. It was a harsh, rough laugh. But it was a laugh.

"You ar very vunny, Miss..?"

"Coy. Ami Coy." I said before giving it a second thought.

"Vell Miss Ami Coy. I promise to ve nice to Her-me-one-ee." He said, still laughing slightly.

At this time, I realized I didn't have a clue what Viktor Krum was doing in our locker rooms. I asked him, and he responded saying he wanted to see the Quidditch pitch before the Third Task was set up, and he heard noises.

I didn't really know what to say to him after that. "Well, um, good luck. And be nice." I said, turning to leave. I felt his hand on my arm, turning me around. I flinched when I saw how close he was to me. "Thank you. I vill," he said to me.

I shuffled back awkwardly before leaving the locker room.

So to summarize: One of the Hogwarts champions is an attractive boy, the other Hogwarts champion is one of my best friends, the Beauxbatons champion is my newest girl-friend, and the Durmstrang champion is now dating my best girlfriend.

Now, who to vote for?