It had been almost two months since Cedric and Jamie had spoken last. January quickly melted away, the start of a new year and school term taking swing and thoroughly distracting students. Jamie split her time between stressing over Cedric who was quite keenly ignoring her and figuring out how best to breathe water for whatever lay ahead for the second task.
It was around Valentine's Day that Jamie began to express guilt over not having helped Harry figure out the clue inside the golden egg. She had voiced her concerns to Severus one evening while meeting for tea, and he had pointed out how she hadn't been feeling guilty about not assisting Fleur or Viktor who had become very good friends to her.
"This competition is supposed to challenge each of you and push you out of your comfort zones, both academically and physically," her grouchy godfather reminded her. "You managed to do your part to interpret your clue and I assume you have been preparing for how to best tackle the second task, your brother is supposed to be doing the same."
"Well, when you put it like that," Jamie shuffled her feet, her bottom teeth tugging at her upper lip.
"You have figured out how to best tackle the second task, correct?" Severus prompted after letting her marinate in her silent guilt.
"Bubble-Head charm," Jamie replied. She had been practicing with Fleur (after they had both painstakingly made sure they both had cracked the clue) in the Prefect's bathroom to perfect their charms.
"Very suitable," her godfather nodded in response.
"Harry," Jamie called out to her brother in between classes as they crossed through the courtyard. She slung her arm around him as they walked, lowering her voice to speak discretely into his ear. "Figure out the egg, yet?"
"No," Harry groaned, looking stressed. "Have you?"
"Yup," she said popping her lips. "I can offer a small suggestion, if you want…"
"I don't need my big sister holding my hand through this," Harry grouched.
"Fine, figure it out for yourself then—"
"Wait," Harry stopped her from dancing away from him. She smirked. "Just a small clue. Tiny."
"Prefect's bathroom…you know where it is?" she waited for him to nod. "Password this month is valor. Stop in sometime in the evening this week, as close to curfew as possible, and take a soak. Might do you some good."
"Wait—what?" She watched Harry fight the urge to life up his arm and do a test sniff, sure she was making fun of him.
"Bring the egg with you, Harry," she rolled her eyes and waved, jaunting off to her next class and chuckling at his bemused expression.
"So, are we supposed to take the riddle thing literally, you think?" Jamie asked as she and Fleur walked down to the lake together on the morning of the second task. Students were trailing around them, shouting with glee and excitement, but leaving the girls well alone. They knew better.
"With zis tournament so far, I theenk we should take everyzing absolutely sereeously," Fleur responded.
The four champions had been given warm fleece zip-up jumpers and matching pants to wear over their bathing suits before and after the task to keep warm. Fleur's was powder blue with her name and school emblem, and Jamie's was scarlet colored with the Hogwarts logo and her last name in Gryffindor gold as well. Viktor's would be a dark gray set with red accents and Harry had been given a matching Gryffindor set like Jamie.
"I just wonder what's been taken," Jamie replied, watching as her French friend nodded, her face as pale and nervous as Jamie felt. It was like there was a swirling pit inside her stomach, she hadn't been able to eat for the last three days.
The gathered at the platform that had been set up, stands lofted above so everyone could watch. The crowd was roaring with excitement, she caught a glimpse of Xolia perched at the front of the stands, snapping pictures. They waved quickly to each other.
"You ready, Miss Shacklebolt," Dumbledore greeted her before focusing his attention on Harry, per usual. She grimaced but was distracted as Professor McGonagall joined her to wait with her until it was time for the task to begin.
"You're going to do splendidly, Jamie dear, don't you worry," her favorite (don't tell Severus) professor comforted her. She could hear the gang in the stands cheering them on.
"What if I can't do it, professor," she mumbled quietly.
"You can Jamie, I know you can," her professor assured her. "You are capable of extraordinary things; you need to have faith in your abilities as well."
"Welcome to the second task," Barty Crouch Sr., was projecting over the speakers of the viewing stand towers. "Last night something was stolen from each of our champions—a treasure of sorts. These four treasures, one for each champion, now lie on the bottom of the Black Lake. In order to win, each champion need only find their treasure and return to the surface."
The four champions began to strip off their warm layers, looking rather green beneath the gills so to speak.
"You've got this, chin up," Severus muttered to her as he walked past. She forced herself to smile, standing near the edge of the platform, shivering in her one-piece swimsuit provided for her. It was black, with a racer back and thick red bands crossing over her chest, a thin gold band running through the middle.
"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start at the sound of the canon. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them," Crouch called out.
Harry stood beside her and out of the corner of her eye she noticed he had started to choke and convulse.
"Harry—" she turned to him, grabbing his shoulder as the canon went off, startling the crowd. Mad Eye was beside Harry as well and shoved him into water. She lifted her wand and pointed it to her face, diving into the water alongside Viktor and Fleur.
A bubble of air clung to her face from her nose and mouth, allowing her to breathe fully. She turned her head, treading beneath the murky waters, catching sight of Harry thrashing as he grew gills and fins. Figuring he was alright, she turned, only to recoil in surprise as Viktor swam by, his head charmed into that of a shark.
She stuck her wand into the holster at her hip, shoving a strand of bang that had escaped her braid behind her ear and began swimming toward the center of the lake.
It was dark, dim sunlight filtering in from the surface only growing fainter as she swam deeper. Little silver fish flitted around her, reflecting the murky light in bursts of shimmer. She began winding her way through a forest of seaweed, utterly creeped out and not loving that she was alone, having separated from the other champions from the very beginning.
She hadn't known where exactly to go, her gut had told her to swim towards the bottom-most center of the lake, which was where she was head. In the distance she began to make out the eerie lights of the mervillage, a smile flitting across her lips as she realized her instincts had been correct.
Glancing at the watch strapped to her wrist, she realized time was quickly slipping by underneath the waters of the lake.
As she swam closer to the village, the merpeople were suddenly everywhere, swimming low to the bottom and watching her cautiously, spears and tridents clutched in their webbed hands. Four figures were floating in the center of the underwater village, their legs chained to keep them from floating to the surface.
She squinted and let out a scream of terror, recognizing all four individuals. They must be unconscious…or worse, she began to panic, her terror at being so far beneath the surface getting to her.
Ron, Hermione, Gabrielle Delacour who had arrived for the semester, and -
"DAD!" She cried shrilly; her voice garbled under the water. Kingsley was floating, eyes closed and still, looking ghost-like. She swam frantically toward him, tugging at the chain to release him.
"Dad, Dad no," she could feel herself starting to choke and hyperventilate, her bubble of oxygen doing nothing to settle her hysteria. Viktor and Harry appeared, Harry pointing at his watch to tell her to hurry.
Jamie couldn't breathe, she couldn't get herself to concentrate, her hands fumbling at the chain. She began yanking at it with all her might, screaming in panic.
"Your wand!" Harry roared at her, watching as Viktor bit the chain, breaking it so he could bring Hermione to the top.
"JAMIE!" Harry had appeared in front of her and shook her, trying to settle her. "Use your wand!"
His shaking seemed to do the trick, she cleared her mind enough and grabbed hold of her wand from its holster, shooting a quick spell to sever the chain, Kingsley's body automatically began rising toward the surface. She began to swim after him but caught a movement of distress from Harry.
With the clock ticking, she realized it was strange Fleur hadn't come to the surface. More panic began to sink in, and she began to swim back toward the seaweed forest to find her friend.
"No…you must return to the surface," a mermaid stopped her, trident pointed to stop her.
"Please—my friend, she hasn't made it here yet," Jamie protested. Harry was surrounded by merpeople, all angry with him, as he attempted to free both Ron and Gabrielle.
"Return to the surface!" the mermaid insisted.
"My friend!" Jamie tried to swim around them but was prodded with the trident. She shoved past the mermaid, realized they were obviously instructed not to actually attack the champions, making her way toward the forest. Harry was shouting, wrestling with the mermaids as he freed both Ron and Gabrielle.
A blur of movement startled her, and she shrieked, backpaddling in the water as a swarm of grindylows shot out from the seaweed. Screaming, she began thrashing as their barbed tentacles began wrapping around her, pulling her down. She hated this— hated this!
Harry was there, reaching her hand, his wand shooting out spells as she screamed and thrashed to get free. They were breaking the surface as the grindylows retreated, her bubble of oxygen bursting immediately.
"DAD! DAD! DAD!" she was screaming, thrashing in the water, tears blinding her eyes as Harry tried to keep her above the water while also trying to comfort a startled Ron and Gabrielle who had awoken.
"FLEUR! OH MY GOD!" Jamie was beside herself, shrieking and thrashing in the water. "WHERE'S FLEUR! OH MY GOD! SOMEBODY HELP!"
"Jamie, Jamie, I'm here!" Kingsley had been waiting on the dock for her and immediately jumped into the water to comfort his daughter. She clung to him, sobbing, as the rest of the school looked on in shock.
"Dad I can't find Fleur," she sobbed into his neck.
"Shh, she's here, it's alright, she couldn't complete the task," Kingsley tried to settle her as she pointed to wear Fleur was weeping on the platform, covering in scratches from grindylows and holding her arms out for Gabrielle as Harry and Ron helped her to the ladder. "I'm here, I'm so sorry, it's okay, everyone is okay, you're okay."
"Oh my God, dad, I thought—I thought—I hated that, I hated it—I thought," Jamie was shaking and crying into her father's shoulder, something she had hardly ever done even as a young child, absolutely breaking down as all three schools watched in surprise. Jamie Shacklebolt had never been known to cry, yet she was having a complete breakdown from her trauma beneath the Black Lake.
At some point Kingsley was helped out of the water, Severus actually physically reaching down to haul her out of the water. She was immediately surrounded by Guinevere, who had been in the stands, Professor McGonagall, and Fleur. Everyone around them was solemn, pity in their eyes as they watched the girl so unafraid of everything be completely shaken by her time in the water.
"Darling, breathe, it's okay, it's over," her mom was comforting her. Someone wrapped Jamie in a blanket and suggested they move her to the infirmary so her scratches could be cleaned, and she could take a calming draught.
Madame Pomfrey was already present and handed over a vial of the calming drought, which Jamie was ordered to drink. She began relaxing almost instantly, sniffling, as she clung to her parents like a little girl. Her swollen eyes noticed Dumbledore and the other game keepers crouched at the edge of the platform, speaking to a mermaid who wore a crown of coral.
"The red-haired one arrived first, one hour over the limit," the mermaid told the men in accented English. "her panic caused her to stay beneath the surface and then she tried to find the yellow haired one, but her treasure was released second to the one of the shark head. The black haired one, he arrived second with the shark, but he stayed to ensure all treasures were released, however misguided. The yellow haired girl obviously did not finish."
The men began talking earnestly, arguing with each other as Jamie was helped to her feet.
"It stands as follows: for arriving first and valiantly looking for a missing competitor, Jamie Shacklebolt shall finish with forty-seven points. For arriving second and ensuring all treasures were released, Harry Potter will finish with forty-five points. For arriving second as well but for releasing his treasure first, Mr. Viktor Krum has scored forty points. Unfortunately, Miss Delacour was unable to complete the task, however, her excellent use of the Bubble-Head charm will award her with twenty-five points as she goes on to the third task."
Jamie was shocked that she had scored so high, her mouth falling open as her father gave her a kiss on her forehead in congratulations, ruffling her hair. She allowed herself to be led toward the hospital infirmary, the rest of the students who were exiting the stands giving her space, looking at her solemnly and with pity.
Jamie had been an emotional mess all day. The calming drought had worked for a time, but she was still upset from the events beneath the water. Madame Pomfrey had recommended she spend the night in the infirmary to settle her nerves and rest, and after some prompting, her parents had reluctantly returned home.
She was weepy, had asked that her friends and Harry stay away, as she tried to process her fright from the second task. She hadn't liked it one bit, hadn't thought it was very clever, and was a little upset they all had been put through something so traumatic. She knew she may have been acting like a baby, but the words in the riddle had made it seem quite clear if they hadn't been unable to finish the task then their loved ones would be lost forever.
Wiping her eyes, she sniffled away inside her little infirmary bed, the curtains drawn for privacy as she licked her wounds and tried to get over everything.
"Shack," a voice appeared and she immediately turned her face, hiding her tears in vain. Cedric poked his head through the curtain and she felt her lip tremble.
"Hey now," Cedric moved to crouch in front of her, cupping her face with his hands. "I hate to see you like this; you gave me an awful fright when I saw you crying like that." He wiped away her falling tears with his thumb.
"You were so brave, Jamie, and you did so well," he tried to soothe her as she let out a gasping cry. All of the sudden she was clinging to him, crying, and she allowed him to rub her back and press soothing kisses to her forehead and cheeks.
"It's okay now, you're okay now," Cedric rocked her gently, stroking her hair as she calmed herself.
"Now you see why I can't let myself love you," she hiccupped quietly. "This kind of stuff hurts too much already with the people I have no choice but to already love."
"I see your point," Cedric rested his cheek against the top of her head. "I still love you anyway, though."
"I hate that you do," she choked out, trembling and gasping for air as she tried to settle herself down.
"Jamie, can you let me love you tonight, just for tonight?" Cedric was so warm against her, so safe. "I promise, just for tonight. Let me take care of you."
She knew she wasn't in the right frame of mind, knew she was processing a traumatic event and was incredibly emotional, but Cedric was there and he was real and he was promising to love her. She needed the love tonight, she craved it.
Before she could think twice, her lips was crashing against his and they were slowly sinking back into the bed. They were a tangle of limbs as she allowed herself to be swept away and distracted by Cedric, his kisses so tender and soothing as he worshipped her body.
It felt so warm, she thought for a fleeting moment, to be loved. It was like a ball of warm spreading inside of your belly, a warm blanket keeping you safe.
He left her fast asleep later in the evening, cheeks flushed and emotionally and physically exhausted, finally resting after her long day.