Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or anything else that may be referenced in this chapter. The bold underline italics text are direct quotes from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire book.

A/N: Mammoth thank you to you all for reading, reviewing, following and favouring, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter! :)

Chapter 14

The Slytherins had History of Magic the next morning, and Blaise wasted no time in telling his friends about what he and Potter had overheard. Their hushed conversation went unnoticed as Professor Binns ploughed through his latest lecture about Goblin rebellions and the Ravenclaws they were sharing the class with took long and detailed notes; seemingly immune to the labouriousness of paying attention in Binn's classes.

"But what were you doing out that late?" Crabbe asked quietly.

"Working on a graduation present for Irma." Blaise muttered. "But that's not important right now- after I helped Potter out the trick step, Snape showed up, and then Moody…"

Blaise recounted the conversation between Snape and Moody as best as he could remember it.

"… and then, Moody says 'if there's one thing I hate, it's a Death Eater who walked free,' while staring at the bottom left-hand corner of the map. He borrowed the map from Potter afterwards and sent us to bed." Blaise finished.

"He was staring at the bottom left-hand corner of the map as he mentioned Death Eaters?" Rose asked.

"Yeah," Blaise nodded, looking at her. "No offense, but it kind of seemed as though he was talking about Snape."

"No." Draco said, shaking his head. "Severus was never a Death Eater: he was just really good friends Father and his crowd, as well as Rose's mother. My father became a Death Eater, but Severus never did; out of respect for Rose's mother. He and my parents both said so when Rose and I first started learning about the war when we were kids."

"Maybe Moody thinks he was a Death Eater, though, because of his friendship with Lucius," Rose bit her lip. "And that's why he searched his office and all that stuff… But what d'you reckon Moody meant in talking about second chances?"

Draco shrugged. "…Maybe Severus had to be blunt with Karkaroff to get him to leave him alone about whatever it is he's bothered about," he said. "Maybe he lost his temper and threatened him- and Dumbledore found out and gave Severus the benefit of the doubt, but Moody reckons Severus meant his threat."

"It didn't really sound like that," Blaise shook his head. "It sounded… older- more serious. But I dunno; depends, I guess on what Karkaroff's bothered about."

"But Karkaroff was a Death Eater." Theo said. "Remember, Potter said so."

Rose bit her lip again, her brow creasing as she thought. A tiny doubt crept into her mind; making her wonder if whether Severus had actually been a Death Eater. Blaise said he had grabbed his left forearm as though it had hurt him; and when she and Draco learnt about the war, Lucius had shown them his Dark Mark- something, he'd said, was branded on the left forearm of every Death Eater… and Sirius had said that Severus had called her mother a Mudblood… But why would Severus lie and say he hadn't been a Death Eater alongside Lucius if he had? Despite his prejudices and superior attitude, Lucius was not all bad- he did, at least, care for his family…

The bell rang sharply, signally the end of the lesson. Rose started slightly at the sound and shook her head, trying to clear it of her musings. After all, Severus hadn't, at least to her definite knowledge, done anything wrong.

"You coming?" Draco asked her, as he swung his bag over his shoulder; he and the others having clearly moved on from the conversation as Rose had been thinking.

"Yeah," Rose picked up her own bag and followed the others from the classroom, shaking her head slightly to help clear it of any final doubts. If her doubts proved correct, it was likely that everything would change and the world would start raining cats and dogs in chaos- and that was the last thing Rose wanted.

As Rose pushed the last of the doubts from her mind and tuned into her friends' conversation- Theo was complaining about a portrait of a knight called Sir Cadogan, and his irritating habit of turning up in the Ancient Runes classroom to challenge a portrait of a three headed knight that represented the rune Eihwaz to a duel- the cloudy sky outside thundered.


As had happened before the first task, the amount of time remaining before the second task seemed to slip by at an alarming rate. Hagrid returned to teaching, and continued Professor Skepna's lessons on unicorns. It turned out he knew as much, if not more, about unicorns than Professor Skepna, though it soon became evident that he found their lack of dangerous features disappointing.

Before Rose quite realised what date it was, the three weeks she set aside for her potion to simmer were up, and it was time for the potion to be tested.

"Er- are you sure that's safe to drink?" Pansy wrinkled her nose, staring with distaste at the contents of the cauldron. The potion kept its pus yellow colour, but the light grey smoke that once floated from it now gushed in dark grey steam, and the potion was bubbling in a manner similar to a Polyjuice Potion.

"I think so," Rose nodded, looking up from the minute colour drawing Severus had sketched of what the finished potion was supposed to look like. "It matches the picture."

"Let's see if it works, then," Draco said, extinguishing the fire beneath the cauldron and ladling some of the potion into a vial.

The Slytherins made their way to the room on the seventh floor; finding it equipped with a large square fish tank filled with water, a muggle wetsuit, a change room, some sofas, a fire, several bookshelves filled with both magical and Muggle games and a large stopwatch hanging one wall. Rose changed into the wetsuit and climbed into the fish tank, shivering slightly at the cold water. Draco handed her the vial and Millicent prepared to set the stopwatch.

"Drink when I say, yeah?" she asked Rose, who nodded. "Three… two… one… drink."

Rose drank deeply as Millicent pressed 'start' on the stopwatch. The potion tasted disgustingly of slimy, wet fish, and burned the back of her throat painfully, but she forced herself to swallow. As the potion ran down her throat, Rose felt her body begin to transform, very rapidly indeed. Her legs shrank and spliced themselves together into a tail, her arms and hands moulded themselves fins and pressed themselves into her sides. Her hair smoothed itself into her back, covering her body from her tail to her top lip, turning into dark red scales. Her glasses seemed to melt into her scales as her head receded back into her shoulders and her nose lengthened, thinned and sharpened…

"Holy Mother of Merlin," Theo breathed. Pansy nodded.

Swimming in the fish tank, exactly where Rose had been standing moments before, except below the water, was a Swordfish. It was of an average size, its scales the same dark red of Rose's hair and eyes the same emerald green as hers. Its underbelly to the neck was the same black as Rose's wetsuit, and from the neck up to along the bottom of its sword, the fish's flesh was as pale as her skin.

"How do we work out if she's still got her mind?" Crabbe asked. "Wait till the end of the hour, or try and ask her?"

"Try and ask her I guess," Blaise shrugged, and approached the tank. Swordfish-Rose looked at him through the glass. "Er- do you still have your mind?" he asked.

Swordfish-Rose swam forward and slashed her sword from side to side as though to shake her head.

"Does that mean no?" Draco asked anxiously.

"I think it means she didn't hear you, Blaise," Millicent said, turning away from the stopwatch and closing her eyes, wishing for something.

"That means she's got her mind," Goyle said.

"Yeah, but it can't hurt to make sure," Millicent replied, as her wish for a small whiteboard and marker was granted by the room. Carefully, Millicent wrote: 'SWIM AROUND IN CIRCLES IF YOU HAVE YOUR HUMAN MIND' in block letters backwards across the whiteboard and held it up to the fish tank's glass, so that Swordfish-Rose could see it. It appeared that she could read it and therefore did have her human mind, for she began swimming fast around the large tank in circles.

Draco smirked triumphantly. Theo glanced at the stopwatch and saw that there was still around fifty-five minutes before the potion would cease to have an effect. "Chess, anyone?" he suggested. Draco agreed and summoned a magical chess set from one of the bookshelves. They others sat around to watch them play while Swordfish-Rose divided her time as evenly as she could between watching and testing out how fast she could swim, and learning what it felt like to turn sharply, and how to roll and anything else she could think of that may help her escape if she was attacked in the Black Lake.

Draco kept half an eye on the clock after Theo defeated him and went onto play and defeat Pansy, Millicent, Crabbe and Goyle. "Twenty seconds," Draco said tersely, as the stopwatch struck that, his gaze flickering to Swordfish-Rose for a fraction of a second, and returned to the stopwatch even faster, just as Blaise and Theo wrapped up their game- Theo victorious once more. "…Five… Four… Three… Two… One. An hour."

The Slytherins turned their attention to the fish tank and watched as Swordfish-Rose began to grow. Human legs sprouted from the tail and arms and hand from the fins. Swordfish-Rose's head extended from her shoulders and her scales seemed to crawl up her back as her usual and long and chaotic red hair replaced it. Larger and more human-like the Swordfish grew until Rose stood in the tank, clad in the Muggle wetsuit; not a pin to choose between her and Draco's triumphant grins at their work.

"It worked!" Rose cried delightedly as she climbed from the tank. "I was me; but I was a Swordfish!"

"For an hour, too," Draco nodded. "Now, as your coach, I have devised three rules that you must follow during the second task." He continued, clearing his throat importantly. "Rule number one: be utterly selfish and you'll stay utterly safe. Rule number two: get whatever they nick from you from the lake as fast as you possibly can. And rule number three-" here Draco paused and lowered his voice for dramatic effect, as well as to emphasise the importance of the rule.

"-Win."


The night before the second task, Rose found it difficult to keep still. Despite the comforting knowledge that her potion was finished and worked as it was supposed to, nerves still coursed through her, making it impossible for her to settle. People kept wishing her luck as they passed where she sat in the common room with her friends, their voices confident and expressions slightly amused as they took in the way she was practically bouncing up and down in her seat, twiddling her thumbs and tugging at the ends of her hair.

"Rose," Draco began through clenched teeth- he was trying to defeat a smirking Theo in chess and failing miserably. "If you don't keep the hell still I will be forced to kill you."

"I'm nervous." Rose defended herself. "You try having to swim underwater for an hour and see how you-"

"Oi, Malfoy!" Vaisey, a rather outspoken second year boy approached them as he entered the common room.

"What?" Draco asked.

"McGonagall wants to see you in her office."

"Why?"

"Dunno- didn't look happy, though."

"Reckon it could wait?"

"Sure," Vaisey snorted loudly. "If you want a lifetime of detention."

"What've you done?" Blaise asked Draco as he got up and Vaisey crossed the room to his mates.

Draco shrugged in response. "Nothing, as far as I'm aware. This isn't over," he added to Theo, gesturing to the chessboard, despite the fact that Theo was one move away from checkmate. Theo's smirk grew wider.

"You keep telling yourself that, mate," he called after Draco as the boy left the common room.

Draco did not return as the common room slowly began to empty. Rose felt rather anxious- perhaps his helping her with the second task broke some ancient Triwizard Tournament rule, and now he was being forced to pickle frog spawn with his teeth or something?

"Is that even possible?" Pansy asked interestedly and rather amusedly as Rose posed the question to her and Millicent in their dormitory after their group had given up on waiting up for Draco to return.

"With everything that's happened in this tournament so far I wouldn't be surprised," Millicent remarked darkly as the girls got into bed.

"Neither would I." Rose agreed, her gaze flickering out of the dormitory window and following a school of fish's progress into the darkest depths of the lake and out of sight. Shivering slightly, Rose pulled the hangings around her bed closed as the last lit candle in the dormitory was extinguished. She rolled over onto her side so her back faced the window for good measure and waited for sleep to come; missing the ripples that spread through the lake, as though four people were pencil-diving beneath its surface.


Rose found it rather difficult to eat breakfast the following morning. Her stomach was a whirl of knots from nerves, and it was only the feeling of the stainless steel vial containing her potion clenched tightly in her fist under the table that stopped her from losing her head completely and running away and hiding in some distant far corner of the castle. The potion had worked in the room on the seventh floor, yes, but the lake was much bigger than a fish tank. Questions began to twist through Rose's brain; questions she couldn't believe had never thought to investigate before. What if the water in the lake had a funny effect on her Swordfish self and she was unable to complete the task? What if she didn't find whatever had been taken from her within the hour? What if she returned to human form and was too far under the lake to reach the surface before she ran out of air? How would she even have air if she transformed underwater?

"Rose? Earth to Rose… Rose!"

"Huh?" Rose jumped back to reality as Pansy touched her shoulder lightly.

"You were doing a weird breathing thing." she said.

"What sort of breathing thing?"

"A breathing thing where you don't actually breathe."

"I'm nervous." Rose said defensively.

"I'm not critising," Pansy held up her hands in surrender. "You should breathe, that's all."

Rose pushed her hair from her eyes with her free hand as her grip tightened around the vial and she returned her breathing to normal. "You're right- sorry."

"Don't worry about it." she smiled. "All a bit weird, isn't it; without Draco and that whistle?"

"Yeah," Rose nodded. Draco had not been seen or heard from since he had left the common the previous night. It was weird without him, she reflected. He should be sitting opposite or beside her, she thought: giving overly-pompous pep talks and threatening to sell her stuff if she died. "Where d'you guys reckon he is?"

"Dunno," Goyle shrugged. He looked rather thoughtful for a moment or two, then stood up and scanned the far side of the hall.

"What are you doing?" Millicent asked, puzzled. Goyle sat down and thought for a bit longer before replying.

"Anyone seen Weaselbee this morning?"

The others scanned the Gryffindor table as he had done, thought for a moment, and shook their heads.

"Would you say that he was something Potter would miss quite a bit should he, er, cark it?" Goyle asked.

"Yeah," Pansy nodded. "But what's- oh, no." she breathed, staring at Goyle in shocked realisation. "Last night, when Draco was called to McGonagall's office- you don't think-" she broke off as Goyle nodded, looking grim.

A sort of strangled hiccup of despair slipped from Rose's lips and the vial containing her potion slipped through her fingers and fell to the ground with a sharp thud as she buried her head in her hands. The questions that twisted through her brain vanished, being replaced almost instantly with the crushing weight of a phrase from the second task's clue:

'But past an hour the prospect's black; too late, it's gone, it won't come back.'

"Hey- you'll get him back." Blaise said, placing a hand on Rose's shoulder reassuringly, correctly reading her thoughts.

Rose looked up and Blaise stopped his breath from visibly catching at the amount of fear in her expression. "How do you know?" she whispered. "What if I don't find him in time? I'd never forgive myself if- if he died because of me."

"He won't." Blaise replied softly. "The moment you drink that potion and you see it works you'll focus, and I'll be very surprised if you don't win. You and Draco family- it goes without saying that there's no way you're going to let yourself lose him to a stupid tournament."

"Never," Rose shook her head, determination slowly starting to replace her fear. "I'll get him back. Not only is he family; if I don't he'll come back as a ghost and never let me hear the end of it."

"That's the- er- spirit," Blaise grinned. Rose laughed slightly.

"Attention students." Dumbledore stood up as the hall fell silent and all eyes turned to him. "The second task of the Triwizard Tournament will be commencing shortly; and I would like to invite the judges to make their way to the Black Lake; and the champions to follow with Mr Bagman now."

"See you later," Rose said nervously as she stood up.

"Good luck!" Pansy said as she and the others stood up and hugged her as Fleur and Krum said goodbye to their own friends. The Gryffindor table rang with murmurs: Harry was not there.

"You might want this," Blaise slipped the stainless steel vial into Rose's hand.

"Yeah; thanks," she nodded.

"Stay safe, yeah?"

"I'll try." Rose smiled. Blaise looked for a moment as though he wanted to say something more, but he merely smiled back and wished her luck. Rose left the Hall alongside Fleur, Krum and Bagman as the three schools applauded their champions.

Bagman was bouncing on the balls of his feet rather anxiously as he led the champions down to the Black Lake. "You haven't seen Harry at all this morning, have you Rose?" he asked her.

"No, sorry," Rose shook her head. Bagman bit his lip, looking worried.

Rose tried her best not to think as she Fleur and Krum stood by the judges' table- Percy Weasley was filling in for Mr Crouch once again- and waited for Harry to arrive. The stands surrounding the lake were packed to bursting point by the time Harry sprinted into view and arrived at the judges' table, skidding to a stop and splattering Rose's cloak with mud.

"I'm here! I'm here!" he panted, trying to catch his breath. Percy Weasley looked deeply disapproving and Madam Maxime and Karkaroff less than thrilled. Dumbledore and Bagman, however- the latter more evidently than the former- were quite delighted.

"Where have you been; the task's about to start!" Percy snapped.

"Now, now Percy; let him catch his breath!" Bagman waved Percy away and took Harry aside. Returning after a whispered conversation, Bagman pointed his wand at his throat and made his voice echo around the lake for all to hear.

"All the champions are now ready for the second task; which will start on my whistle. The champions have precisely one hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then: one… two… three!"

The whistle gave a long shrill blast, and without looking to see what the other champions were doing, Rose pulled off her cloak, and kicked off shoes and socks, straightened the sleeve of the muggle wetsuit she wore, uncapped her vial and drained the contents in one.

The potion burned her throat as it had done before, but she transformed as she had done in room on the seventh floor, though her mind felt oddly fogged. The green clad supporters I the stands erupted into cheers and gasps and the sight, but Rose barely heard as she used what was left of her human body to help fling herself beneath the surface of the lake.

The moment the water surrounded her, Rose's mind cleared. It was like Blaise said, once she found the potion worked in the lake, she focused.

Determination pumped through her as Swordfish-Rose swam through the lake, looking around. The water was not icy cold as it had been when she had waded through it as a human, on the contrary, it was pleasantly cool. Though dark, her surroundings glowed a soft green, reminding Swordfish-Rose of the light that came through the windows of the Slytherin common room and its dormitories. She took comfort from this as she swam deeper into the lake, schools of fish of all sizes passing her as she listened hard for any sound that could relate to the task. But so far, there was nothing.

She swam towards the middle of the lake as fast as she could, feeling very conscious of how timeless it felt underwater, and the fact that she had no real concept of how much time had passed. As she reached what she thought to be the middle of the lake and flipped down deeper to its very depths she estimated around fifteen minutes passed.

The bed of the lake was coated in long green weeds like overgrown grass. Swordfish-Rose swum above it, feeling rather wary. Her caution was in vain, however, as she felt something grab her tail. Spinning around, Swordfish-Rose saw about five Grindylows wrapped around her tail, trying to pull her down into the weeds. She lashed out with her sword; the Grindylows hissed with pain and released her, but more swam up and grabbed her. Swordfish-Rose kept fighting, twisting around and slashing her sword from side to side through the water; time seemed infinite in the haze of water demons, but finally, there was a pause in the onslaught of Grindylows: providing her with an opportunity to escape. She took it, rising high up above the weeds and shooting away.

She made up time after the attack, swimming faster than ever to escape the Grindylows. They did not seem to pursue her, however- perhaps they had all been injured or another champion had arrived for them to target, Swordfish-Rose didn't know. She forgot all about them, however, as what was unmistakeably snatches of mer-song reached her.

"An hour long you'll have to took

And to recover what we took."

Swordfish-Rose swam faster, her heart rate speeding up in anticipation as she passed a large rock covered in paintings depicting mer-people in battle with the giant squid. Swordfish-Rose followed the mer-song through what was unmistakeably the outskirts of a village.

The crude stone dwellings were stained with algae and became larger in number as she continued through the village, following the mer-song.

"…your time's almost gone, so tarry not,

Lest what you seek stays here to rot…"

Merpeople were pointing at her as she swam past, their greyish-skinned hands half covering their mouths and their yellow eyes alight with interest, and yellowing teeth glinting at her as they whispered. Their long, wild dark green hair reminded Swordfish-Rose all too forcefully of her own, human hair as she reached what was, she thought, a mer-version of a village square. A choir of Merpeople stood in the centre of the square, singing the song. Behind them was a statue of a gigantic merperson. Beside the statue was Harry-who seemed to have eaten Gillyweed-, and floating beside him, in a deep sleep, was Ron. Tied to the statute by thick ropes of weed were Madeline, Draco, and a young girl with silvery hair who could only be Fleur Delacour's sister. Like Ron, they were all in a deep sleep.

Harry stared at her as she swam forward and hacked at the ropes binding Draco to the statue with her sword and freed him. Swordfish-Rose considered waiting to see why he was still hanging around, but figured that Fleur and Krum would be coming soon as the Grindylows had not pursued her, and as she looked at Draco, his own words returned to her: "Be utterly selfish and you'll stay utterly safe...Win."

So she flicked her sword at Harry in the best imitation of a wave she could muster, before spearing the right shoulder of Draco's robes and shooting upwards towards the surface of the water.

But as she swam, Swordfish-Rose felt her body start to become human again. Her tail became legs and feet, her fins arms and hands…. her scales became her hair; her glasses unmoulded themselves as her face returned to normal… she was human again, and so close to the surface of the lake- she gripped Draco's shoulder and pushed her in front of her, but she was running out of strength and had no air-

With one last surge of strength, Rose kicked and pushed Draco above the surface of the lake. She had no energy; no air, she was floating backwards down into the depths of the Black Lake, her eyes drifting shut-

Then a hand closed around her wrist and pulled her upwards quickly. Rose gasped as air found her lungs.

Draco looked at Rose expectantly as he released her wrist and she gulped down air, the both of them treading water. "Did you win?" he asked over the cheers and applause from the crowd.

"Y-yeah," she replied, regaining her breath. "Thank you for helping me."

"Don't mention it," Draco beamed, before throwing back his head and laughing triumphantly. "Good job, Flower," he grinned, and began helping her through the water towards the bank of the lake. "C'mon; let's get out of here."

Severus smirked proudly at Rose as she and Draco emerged from the lake. Before he could speak, however, Madam Pomfrey descended upon them, wrapped them up tightly in thick blankets and forced a very large measure of Pepper-Up Potion down their throats. She then dragged them over to Fleur Delacour, who was fighting tooth and nail against Madam Maxime to return to the water.

"Ze Grindylows! Zey attacked me-"

"Draco!" Hermione arrived and hugged him. "You were one minute outside the hour- and I thought- I thought-"

"Never," Draco grinned, kissing her cheek. "I'm far too good-looking."

Rose moved away slightly as Draco kissed Hermione's other cheek and it was clear they were going to snog. As she did so, Viktor Krum emerged from the water with Madeline to thunderous applause. Madam Pomfrey hurried over to them, and all that was left was to wait for Harry.

Soon enough, however, Harry, Ron and Fleur's sister broke the surface of the lake. Percy hurried to meet them, and Madam Pomfrey went to help them recover as Percy returned to the judges and they went into conference.

Ludo Bagman's voice echoed around the stands. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have made our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and therefore we have decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows:

"Miss Fleur Delacour, although she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Headed Charm, was attacked by Grindylows as she approached her goal to the extent that she was unable to retrieve her hostage: we award her twenty-five points."

Fleur shook her head, "I deserved zero," she said.

"Miss Rose Potter-Snape, who used a potion of her own invention that turned her into a Swordfish, was the first to return with her hostage, though she returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour. We therefore award her forty-seven points." The Slytherins in the stands cheered, hissed and applauded loudly.

"Mr Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of human transfiguration, which was effective, nevertheless, and was second to return with his hostage: we award him forty points."

Karkaroff, looking very superior, clapped particularly hard.

"Mr Harry Potter used Gillyweed to great effect; though he returned last and well outside the time limit of an hour," Bagman continued. "However, Merchieftainess Murcus informs us that Mr Potter was the first to reach the hostages, and his determination to return all the hostages to safety, not merely his own, was the delay in his return."

"No," Hermione said as Draco opened his mouth, smirking.

"Oh, come on, M: it's a really good one, not that bad, I promise!"

"Does it involve mockery of consideration?"

Draco fell silent. Hermione smirked.

"Most of the judges,"- here Bagman threw Karkaroff a very nasty look indeed- "feel that this displays moral fibre and merits full marks; however, Mr Potter's score is forty-five points."

"There you go Harry- you weren't being thick; you were showing moral fibre!" Ron shouted over the applause.

"Or maybe-"

"No, Draco."

"The third and final task of the tournament will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June," Bagman continued. "The champions will be notified of what will occur precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions during this task."

As the stands erupted into cheers and applause once more, out of the corner of her eye, Rose saw something behind Draco's right ear. She turned slowly, paling considerably and hardly daring to believe it, then a loud and piercing scream escaped her.

"BEETLE!" She shrieked, scurrying away from Draco as fast as she could.

"What?! Where?!" Draco jumped, whirling around where he sat. Bile flooded Rose's mouth and her blood ran cold as she saw the beetle properly. She scurried away ever faster. Draco looked at her, his eyes widening as he realised.

"GET IT OFF!" he bellowed, leaping to his feet.

"DON'T COME NEAR ME!" Rose shrieked. "NOT WITH THAT ON YOUR HE- AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" She screamed anew, tears of terror filling her eyes as the beetle flew from behind Draco's ear and began to move, unmistakably, towards her. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Rose turned to run but slammed into someone; someone who wrapped their arms around her and quickly turned her away from the insect, stroking her hair and murmuring that everything was going to be okay; and Snape, Millicent, Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle were taking care of it; that it wasn't going to hurt her. Her eyes half closed, Rose clung to the murmurs and to the murmurer as though they would save her life-

Retching noises suddenly cut through the air.

"Draco's throwing up." Theo's voice said quietly. "Blaise; is she-?"

"I dunno," Blaise replied and Rose realised it was he who was holding her. "Rosie-?"

"Zabini!" Severus called sharply. "It's com-"

But it was too late. Through her half-closed eyes Rose saw the beetle shoot past Blaise, just as he spoke his nickname for her. 'The beetle was on Draco,' Rose realised numbly. 'And as a Swordfish I pulled Draco to the surface of the lake. I was close to the beetle- might have even touched it without realising-'

The thought made her head spin. Rose pushed away from Blaise, bile climbing her throat as she threw herself to the ground, crawled to the bank of the lake and was as violently sick as Draco.

She was only dimly aware of Madam Pomfrey kneeling down beside her, pulling her hair from her face and helping her to her feet as she finished being sick. Rose drank deeply from a vial that the matron pressed into her hand. Instantly, her churning stomach was soothed and her head cleared, though she still felt rather shaky.

"Better?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"Y-yeah." Rose nodded.

"Good. Right, champions and their hostages come with me, now please."

As she and Draco- and their friends, who came to their aid after they saw them leaning on each other for support and almost falling over- made their way back up to the castle with Madam Pomfrey and the other champions, Rose couldn't help but smile. She was now coming second to Harry in the Tournament by only three points and the third task wasn't for ages. She could now, she hoped, be permitted a small holiday from the Tournament to focus on other things. The incident with the beetle had been far from pleasant, yes, but as she and Draco tried to convince Madam Pomfrey that they wouldn't be ill again so that she would let them return to the common room instead of staying the night in the Hospital Wing, Rose reckoned there was a slim chance of her coming across the beetle again.

'Despite the fact you never quite know with them,' she thought, 'that beetle honestly didn't look as though it had any special powers.'

A/N: Please review! :)