A/N: This is it! The second task! You can all breathe a sigh of relief, now.
Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "Past an Hour the Prospect's Black," by White Squirrel. Harry fails to find anything that will let him breathe underwater for the second task. Even worse, he knows that Ron and Hermione have been taken hostage — and according to the clue, they'll die if they aren't rescued. What's a desperate, reckless, underaged wizard to do?
Chapter 37 - Welcome to the Black Lake
Wednesday, February 24, 1995, 8:00 AM.
When Jasmine woke up the morning of the second task, she wasn't sure how she should be feeling. Anxious? Worried? Excited? If she was going to be honest, she'd have to admit that she felt all of those things plus more that she couldn't identify. It was worse than any morning of a Quidditch match. It was even worse than the morning of the first task, when she knew she'd be facing down a nesting mother dragon.
She knew, though, that she would have Hermione to soothe and calm her. Indeed, she expected that Hermione's presence would be even more beneficial now that they were a couple than it was when they were simply friends. As Jasmine got dressed, she noticed that Hermione had already gotten up and left. Crookshanks was there lying in her bed, but there was no Hermione anywhere to be seen. This struck her as a little odd — she would have expected her girlfriend to be there from the time she woke up, given what she'd be facing later that morning.
Underneath her outer robe she had on a one-piece bathing suit which Mrs. Granger had sent — a professional swimmer's suit, as Hermione had described it. Around her waist was a belt with a couple of pouches, procured by Dobby from somewhere, and in the pouches she already had the gillyweed stored. On her right forearm and right calf she secured two small knives, also procured by Dobby.
Gotta remember to ask him where he gets all this stuff, Jasmine thought idly.
Hermione was also not down in the common room reading a book on a couch in front of the fire, as Jasmine had expected her to be. The first tendrils of doubt started invading the back of her mind as she approached Neville. "Hey, Nev, have you seen Hermione this morning?" she asked.
"No, sorry," he replied. "But I've only been here for a few minutes. Do you think she already went down to breakfast?"
"I wouldn't have thought so," Jasmine said, growing increasingly agitated with worry, "We always go down together. Right now, though, I'm hoping that's what she did."
Neville's eyes widened and he said, "You don't think she..."
"I really don't know," Jasmine replied while shaking her head, "but I'm getting worried."
"C'mon," he said as he took her by the arm and started pulling her along before she could say anything else. "Let's go down to the Great Hall and see if she's there."
Jasmine didn't object as Neville led her out of the common room. To her, it was easily the longest walk through the castle she'd ever had to endure.
Wednesday, February 24, 1995, 8:15 AM.
When Jasmine entered the Great Hall behind Neville, all she could think to do was scan the Gryffindor table for familiar faces. Hermione was nowhere to be seen, but she did spot the Weasleys eating together, so she made a beeline for them with Neville right behind her. Sitting down next to Ginny and across from the twins, she immediately asked, "Have you seen Hermione this morning?"
Ginny didn't know what was wrong, but she was able to recognize the tightly controlled tension and fear in Jasmine's voice, so she just as quickly responded, "No, I haven't seen her since yesterday."
"And good morning..." said one twin.
"...to you as well," said the other twin.
"Children these days," they said in unison, "No manners whatsoever."
"This is no laughing matter," Neville said firmly as he sat next to one twin and across from Jasmine. "Hermione seems to be missing, and she might have been taken."
"Oh, Merlin!" Ginny said, worry clear in her voice. "You don't think... but I thought we had that covered! She was supposed to be safe!"
"Taken?" the first twin asked.
"What covered?" the second twin asked, equally confused.
Ron didn't say anything, but he did stop eating long enough to pay attention to the new conversation.
"Ginny and I have been working with Hermione to prepare Jasmine for the second task," Neville explained, "and we figured that they were going to take something for her to find." The Weasley boys all nodded, so he continued, "But then we realized that it was more likely that they'd be taking a person, not a thing, so we took precautions to try to protect the people most likely to be used as hostages."
At that, all three Weasley boys blanched, now realizing what Neville meant when he said that Hermione may have been "taken," but Jasmine didn't notice because she half-stood and started looking around the Great Hall. At the Hufflepuff table she saw Cedric sitting with Cho Chang, which meant she was safe. He looked at Jasmine and smiled, but the smile disappeared quickly when he saw how worried she looked.
Next she caught the eye of Fleur at the Ravenclaw table. Fleur just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, apparently not knowing who might have been taken as her hostage. Over at the Slytherin table Jasmine saw Viktor, who returned her look with a frown and a shake of his head. Apparently he did know who would be his hostage, and he wasn't happy about it.
Looking up at the staff table, she didn't see either Headmaster Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall. Dumbledore was probably off supervising last-minute preparations for the task, so no surprise there. She was a bit taken aback by McGonagall's absence, however. I wish she were here, Jasmine thought. I'm sure she would be able to help. Somehow.
Sitting back down, she told Neville what she had just learned. "Wait," said Ron, who in the meantime had moved from his seat on the other side of Ginny to sit down next to Jasmine. "you mean you've been working with the other champions? Aren't they, you know, the enemy?"
"Absolutely not," said Ginny, scowling at Ron's characterization. "They all agreed that if actual hostages were taken, then they should work together to save them. They don't believe that there is any sense in competing if that puts the hostages at extra risk. Neville and I started out working with Hermione to help Jasmine, but soon we were helping all of the champions. We discussed the spells they would use, how they would reach the hostages, you name it."
Both twins nodded at the wisdom of that decision and were clearly impressed with what their little sister had been up to. Ron frowned in thought and said, "Given all the things that have happened to us over the past years, we can't trust the adults to keep hostages safe. And it's their fault that Jasmine got sucked into this dangerous competition in the first place."
Jasmine looked over and gave Ron a small smile. He'd apologized already for how he had acted after her name came out of the Goblet of Fire, but it hadn't been a very good apology. In some ways, though, this was a more sincere and heartfelt statement of support for her than she'd heard from anyone else short of Hermione, Neville, and Ginny.
"Quite right, brother of ours," the twins said simultaneously.
"We'd offer to help," the second twin said.
"But there probably isn't anything to do at this point," the first twin said.
"You need to eat, Jasmine," Ginny said, dishing some eggs onto a plate that she'd put in front of her. The others joined in, adding toast, bacon, juice, and milk to the breakfast they wanted her to eat. Jasmine sighed deeply, remembering the many times Hermione had done the same thing for her.
"Not too much," Neville cautioned, "she's going to be exerting herself underwater soon, and we don't want a heavy breakfast slowing her down."
There was never any danger of that happening because Jasmine only picked at what was in front of her. She was far too distracted by worry over what had happened to Hermione. It was a virtual certainty now that she'd been taken as a hostage for her — that she'd been put in danger because of Jasmine and for the entertainment of others. Jasmine was wishing that she'd gone with her earlier instincts to clear a path to the Chamber of Secrets so she could hide the witch who was and had long been the most important person in the world to her.
Now that witch was missing. If anything happens to her, Jasmine thought, I'm going to take it out of someone's hide...
Recognizing how distressed their green-eyed champion was getting, Neville and the Weasleys tried hard to distract her, but they didn't have a lot of luck. Even the twins' jokes didn't get more than a half-hearted smile out of her. Ginny, too, recognized the problem and suspected that there was only one solution for it: a kiss from Hermione. As much as she didn't want to see that sort of thing, she was starting to wish that she could, at least this one time.
Wednesday, February 24, 1995, 9:05 AM.
Jasmine was so absorbed in her own concerns that she didn't notice when Professor Flitwick came up behind her. "Miss Potter?" he greeted her. "I should escort you down to the Black Lake for the second task. The other champions have already left, and there's less than half an hour before it starts."
Surprised at how late it had gotten, Jasmine almost jumped out of her seat.
"Do you mind if we walk with you?" Ron asked. The Charms professor didn't have any objection to that, so the group of six Gryffindor students and one professor left the Great Hall and made their way down to the Black Lake. Even from the castle's front entrance, they could already see that stands had been erected and were filling up with spectators.
"Say," Ron whispered to Jasmine as they walked down the path, "did you ever think to check the map? You know, to at least confirm her location?"
"Gah!" Jasmine half-shouted. "I can't believe I didn't... so distracted... I'm such an idiot!"
"Don't worry about it," Ron continued to whisper. "Like the twins said, it's too late to do anything about it. All you'd have been able to do is confirm that she isn't in the castle."
"You seem to be especially troubled, Miss Potter," Flitwick observed dryly. "Is it simply a case of nerves before the task?"
"No, Professor," she said, an edge of anger creeping into her voice. "It's Hermione. I think she was taken to be a hostage for this task — and right out of her bed sometime in the night, too. She shouldn't have been, though, because she had a letter from her parents denying her permission to take part in the Triwizard Tournament as anything but a spectator."
"Several of us have them," Ginny said when she noticed the professor's look of surprise. "When we figured out that they might take people instead of objects, the most likely hostages for each champion wrote home for such letters. We were hoping that they would prevent certain people from being used like this against their will."
"Apparently not," Neville said with a scowl.
"She might not have been given a chance to show that letter," Flitwick suggested slowly, hoping that there was a good explanation for what had happened.
"Well, that's no better, is it?" Ron said severely. "She'd have shown it if she could, which means that she was taken and used without being given a chance to say or do anything."
"So she wasn't even asked for her consent," Jasmine said, her anger growing now. "That's wrong in just so many ways. It's bad enough that I've been forced to risk my life in this stupid tournament against my will, but now the organizers are doing the same to other students. What gives them the right? Who gave them the authority to decide life and death for us? If anything at all happens to her, I'll... I'll..."
Jasmine didn't get a chance to finish that sentence. Neville quickly recognized that her distress and anger were mounting again, so he put his arm around her in a show of support. He didn't know how likely it was that she might blow up again, but he didn't want to take any chances. Ron, who was walking on her other side, mimicked his action. He didn't know anything about her anger issues or the damage she might be able to cause, he just wanted to comfort a good friend who seemed like she needed it.
Flitwick had an idea of what was going on, though, and he was very glad to see that the two boys' actions were starting to calm the young witch. He didn't know much about what the two Gryffindor witches were going through — nobody who hadn't gone through it themselves could, evidently — but he knew enough to be very, very worried about what might happen if someone harmed one and the other was allowed to fully express her rage.
According to goblin historians, the Portuguese Rebellion of 1755, which had the distinction of being the shortest goblin war ever, started when the wizard half of such a couple was accused of theft while they were both visiting the Lisbon branch of Gringotts. When they objected, the wizard was taken into custody, and the witch was kicked out of the bank. That was a decision the Senior Branch Supervisor wouldn't live to regret.
When the witch returned with aurors and ministry officials, the goblin representative refused them admittance and said that the wizard in custody would be tried and found guilty by the end of the day. For goblins, being found guilty of theft led to only one punishment, and it was just a question of how painful the convicted thief's last minutes or hours would be.
The ministry tried to break in, causing the goblins to declare a rebellion and drive the aurors off. The enraged witch, who was now desperate and had nothing left to lose, returned an hour later in full battle regalia and attacked the bank single-handedly, using spells of such power and destructive force that the defending goblins stood little chance. She then began moving through the subterranean city like an avenging angel, taking on hordes of goblins that were now desperately defending their homes.
The battle beneath Lisbon rocked the entire city, destroying over eighty percent of Lisbon's buildings and killing tens of thousands of muggles. The survivors had to be obliviated and fed a story about an earthquake — it was the only explanation that even vaguely fit the massive devastation. Neither the couple nor any of the thousands of goblins who worked in or lived under the bank survived. Even today, no goblins did business in Portugal — magicals there got their banking services from dwarves who were based in Switzerland.
It was because of that incident, and after learning the true nature of the couple's bond, that the goblin ruler at the time, Hellraiser I, made it an official decree that the goblins would tread lightly around such couples and do whatever was reasonable and within Gringotts policies to keep them happy.
Flitwick was roused from his internal musings by their arrival at the Black Lake. Ginny and the twins headed for the stands, but Ron and Neville refused to be separated from their friend, which Flitwick thought was a good idea. Headmaster Dumbledore was waiting with the judges, and it wouldn't do to have a major altercation just before the big event.
"Good luck, Miss Potter," he said before moving off to join the rest of the staff. He didn't miss the slight glow behind her eyes when she looked over and thanked him.
Wednesday, February 24, 1995, 9:15 AM.
Albus Dumbledore had been having a good morning. Pleased that he had arrived at such a convenient solution for his problems with the hostages and had successfully gotten all four to the bottom of the Black Lake to be bound and guarded by the merpeople, he had been looking forward to what he hoped would be an exciting competition. Well, as exciting as was possible, given that those watching wouldn't see any of the actual competition except when the champions dove into the water and then emerged again about an hour later.
Now that I'm thinking about it, maybe this wasn't a very good choice for an event, he considered. Oh, well, too late now.
Not even Minerva's sniping had been enough to shake his good mood. He really didn't understand why she was so upset anyway. Granted, one of her Gryffindors is being held at the bottom of an ice-cold lake, and it's one of her favorite students, but the girl is perfectly safe. Why, I created and cast the protections for her personally! What could possibly go wrong? Minerva was acting like she didn't trust me, though… as if I did something inappropriate.
It was the behavior of the champions that had started to disturb him and ruin his good mood. All of them looked very upset, whispering to each other and casting nasty, even hateful, glares at the judges and other tournament officials... including him! They should be excited and anxious, or perhaps a bit worried about their performance, but this... Dumbledore was at a loss as to what was wrong with them.
Maybe I should have the elves check the food for potions, he thought, in case there is something that's negatively affecting both them and Minerva.
He'd tried to ignore the feelings of foreboding as he listened to the other judges chat, putting on a positive face in order to not upset anyone else with what was surely just mild paranoia. Or indigestion, perhaps. But then Dumbledore looked up the path towards the castle and saw Jasmine Potter approach with some other students and Filius. "Ah, good," he said to the other judges, "Miss Potter is almost here, so we'll be able to get things started shortly."
Then Miss Potter and two of her friends separated from the others, and he noticed that one of the two boys who had an arm around her was Ronald Weasley. Could they be repairing their friendship even faster than I had hoped? he asked himself. That would really help my plans al...
All thought stopped for him when she caught his eye. Looking at her closely now, he saw anger. He saw hate. He saw power. It was only a slight glowing behind her eyes, but it would be plainly evident to any witch or wizard who was familiar with the buildup of magical energy. It was not something he had expected to see with a fourth-year witch.
All of it — the anger, the hate, and the power — appeared to be aimed directly at him. It was almost as if she blamed him for someth….
"Lady? Gentlemen?" Dumbledore said as he quickly turned to the other judges and officials. "Maybe we should move this event along and get started, hm?"
Wednesday, February 24, 1995, 9:25 AM.
As Jasmine approached the other champions, Fleur saw her two companions separate from her and stay back a bit, presumably to give her a chance to talk without having two boys just hanging off her. I guess they don't want to leave her entirely alone, Fleur concluded. But they also aren't competitors, so they have to keep a little distance. Those are very good friends, I think.
"Do you know who was taken?" was the first thing Jasmine said as she joined the group.
"One of my friends vas missing this morning," Viktor said with a deep scowl. "He had a letter to prevent that, though."
"Non," Fleur said while shaking her head, "my friends were all zere zis morning."
"Same here," Cedric said. "I assume you saw Cho with me at breakfast, so she's fine despite not having a letter from her parents. Everyone else who's reasonably close to me was at breakfast, too. I didn't see anyone missing. What about you, Jasmine?"
Taking a deep breath in an attempt to remain calm, she answered, "Hermione was gone this morning, and no one has been able to find her. I'm pretty sure she was taken as my hostage." The others all shared Jasmine's concern, but Fleur was the most upset. She wasn't sure if the others could see the glowing power behind the younger witch's eyes, but she knew they couldn't see the power roiling around her, and now it made sense, if Hermione was the one taken from her. For one half of a bonded couple (even if the bond wasn't complete yet) to be put in danger like that….
"Mon dieu," Fleur whispered as she walked over to Jasmine and pulled the witch into a quick hug. "We will get 'er, you will see," she said softly into the younger witch's ear. Leaning back, Fleur was heartened to see the girl smiling slightly, the most positive expression she'd had since arriving at the docks. "I promise you," Fleur added, "we will get 'er back safe and healthy."
The short conversation ended when Ludo Bagman and Percy Weasley approached the champions. "I assume you all found the clue in the egg and so know what you have to do?" Bagman asked, entirely too jovial given the circumstances. The champions all nodded with grim expressions on their faces.
"Good, good," Bagman continued, still happy and somehow ignoring the nasty looks he was receiving. "Then you just have to find your hostage and return as soon as possible. First one back with their hostage is the winner!"
"The second task will begin in just a few minutes," Percy Weasley added, his stiff, no-nonsense demeanor a stark contrast to Bagman's attitude, "so I suggest you all get yourselves ready."
All four champions took off their outer robes, revealing that they had all chosen to wear swimsuits. Jasmine was the only one of the four to think to wear knives, probably due to her muggle upbringing. Magicals tended to reach to magic and nothing else in order to solve problems; muggles, muggleborn, and muggle-raised tended to think of tools and technology as well.
Standing nervously at the end of the docks which had been constructed specially for this event, the champions waited anxiously for the signal to begin.
Wednesday, February 24, 1995, 9:30 AM.
As soon as the canon blast sounded, Jasmine took the hour-sized lump of slimy gillyweed and stuffed it into her mouth. While she waited for it to take effect, she noted that Viktor dove right in and seemed to blur as he cast the self-transfiguration spell in mid-air. Fleur and Cedric cast warming charms on themselves first, then the bubblehead charm before diving in. As soon as Jasmine felt the sharp, cutting pain on the sides of her neck which signaled the appearance of gills, she followed the other three into the cold, murky water.
She already knew which direction she needed to go and quickly saw Fleur and Cedric a half dozen meters below her. Amazed at how well she could see, even through the darkened water, she decided that the gillyweed must confer even more benefits than Neville had known about. Catching movement out of the corner of her eye, she immediately looked and saw a large, long, greyish shape moving fast through the water.
After a moment, she was able to tell that it was a shark — a Great White shark, too, if she remembered that movie correctly. She'd only been able to see a few minutes on the telly before she was chased out of the room, but it certainly made an impression on her at the time. I hope that's Victor, she thought nervously to herself as she watched it circle menacingly another dozen or so meters below the other champions.
As she moved closer to Fleur and Cedric, she saw that they were both casting the locator spell to see if they could get a direction on a tracking charm for any of the hostages. Jasmine joined them, searching for the particular tracking charm she and Hermione had placed on her the previous night.
None of them got a positive hit. The tracking charms either didn't work underwater or had been removed.
Each gave the other a grim look, then they all started swimming towards the center of the Black Lake, hoping that the merpeople's village was the right location for the hostages and that the map they had all studied was accurate.
Wednesday, February 24, 1995, 9:45 AM.
It didn't take long for them to reach the point near the middle of the lake which Viktor believed was probably above the merpeople's village. Unfortunately, it was also very near a large kelp jungle — an area which, according to Ginny's research, would probably be home to packs of grindylows. They didn't have to actually go through it, which was lucky, but going straight down they'd only be a few meters from the edge — close enough for grindylows to attack, if they were feeling brave.
As the others dove, Jasmine moved a bit further away from the kelp and kept a close eye on the jungle border. Deciding that this was not a time to act conservatively, she cast Relashio whenever she saw suspicious movement in the kelp. Some of it was probably unnecessary, but she hoped that the show of force would be intimidating enough to not only keep the grindylows at bay right now, but also later when they were returning and too burdened with hostages to be able to fight easily.
Should have thought of that earlier and made plans to deal with it, Jasmine lamented.
She didn't know if it was Viktor's shark form, her spells, or a combination of the two, but the trip down to the bottom of the lake was just as uneventful as the trip across when they were near the surface.
Wednesday, February 24, 1995, 9:55 AM.
When the underwater village finally came into view, Jasmine was surprised at how large it was. That wasn't good — the larger the village, the more they'd have to search to find anyone. And what if the hostages aren't all in the same place? Jasmine suddenly realized. We didn't plan for that!
Before panic could set in, though, she saw Cedric pointing, and when she looked in that direction, she saw Krum circling over what looked like it might be the center of the village. There was a large statue of some sort there, and in front of it were four human figures, tied up and floating lazily just above the lake bed. That's them! Jasmine thought excitedly. She immediately followed the other two, remembering to stay behind and above them to provide cover in case of attack.
As they moved in, Viktor moved out, making much larger circuits around the village center. Jasmine noted that the merpeople were all watching Viktor closely and held their weapons in a defensive position, as if they expected an attack from the Durmstrang champion. It was then that it occurred to Jasmine that the merpeople might not realize that the shark was a champion.
Yet another thing we didn't plan for, she thought. Some champions we're turning out to be...
Those thoughts were cut short when Jasmine and the others got closer and were confronted by a horrifying sight: one of the hostages was waking up! Jasmine had no idea who it was, though she seemed familiar. In fact, other than Hermione, she didn't think she knew any of them: one male, the age of a student; another male, much older and who seemed vaguely familiar; one female, very young.
Suddenly, Jasmine realized why the little girl seemed familiar. That's Fleur's little sister! From the Imbolc celebration! Gab-something or other. I can't believe they decided to use someone so young...
Jasmine looked down at the French champion swimming below her, but Fleur had recognized her sister already and was starting to transform — a very, very bad idea under water. Her fire wouldn't work and her feathers and wings would make it harder to swim. That wasn't the worst part, though: her beak was now starting to push out against the bubble that was allowing her to breathe.
With no time to come up with a better plan, she quickly cast the Ebublio jinx on Fleur, trapping her in a large bubble which appeared to be filled with air rather than water. It was only a couple of seconds after this that Fleur's sharp beak pierced her bubble head charm, which would have caused her to drown if Jasmine hadn't already enclosed her in a much larger bubble.
Thank you Professor McGonagall! Jasmine thought.
Jasmine next used the superior speed provided by her webbed hands and feet to zoom past Cedric and land in front of the hostages — specifically, the now-conscious little girl who was panicked and struggling due to a lack of oxygen. Jasmine could see the fear in her eyes as she reached out to her, desperate for someone to save her.
Jasmine's first instinct had been to go directly to Hermione, but she couldn't risk letting this girl drown, and she knew Hermione would approve of the decision. She cast the strongest bubblehead charm she could and watched as the little veela started taking in huge gulps of air, her face showing an expression of extreme gratitude and something that Jasmine thought might be adoration.
When Jasmine turned around, she saw Cedric bringing Fleur's bubble with him as he approached. Fleur raged in there in her avian form, but her talons and fire were having no effect on the bubble created by Jasmine's spell. Jasmine pointed at Cedric, raised two fingers, and with a questioning look pointed at the two male hostages. She saw Cedric's eyebrows shoot up when he looked closely at the older man, but she didn't have time to wonder what their connection was; instead, she reached down for the knife strapped to her calf and handed it to Cedric. As short as the ropes tying them to the lakebed were, she didn't want to take the chance of a spell accidentally cutting a hostage.
Unfortunately, with all of the unexpected things happening, neither she nor Cedric noticed the merpeople edging in closer. Everything was fine when Cedric cut the rope which secured the older man to the lake bed, but when he went to cut the rope attached to the school-aged boy and Jasmine made to free Fleur's sister, screeching came from all sides as the merpeople surged forward in apparent anger, tridents and spears pointed right at them.
Viktor was nowhere to be seen. Fleur was trapped in a bubble and would have been even more useless if she'd been outside it. Cedric was focused entirely on the rope he was cutting because the screeching was muffled by his bubblehead charm.
Only Jasmine looked up in time to see the merpeople coming at them from all directions. Oh, shite, she thought, we're all gonna die...