Three days before the second task, Hermione finally managed to convince Harry to try Gillyweed. As he promised he would, Neville got a sample for Harry and together, Harry, Hermione, John, Neville, Ron, Mrs O'Leary, Alice and I walked down to the lake.
Krum was already there, having a swim, while a cluster of girls on the shore gossiping as they watching him. Hermione rolled her eyes when she saw them, but did not say anything. Harry stripped down to some swimming trunks he acquired from Hogsmede and stood there blushing and shivering in the cool spring sunlight. Mrs O'Leary had immediately rolled onto her back in the weak sunshine and gone to sleep.
"So, gillyweed's effect lasts about an hour, depending on how salty the water is," Neville said seriously. "When you put it in your mouth, do not swallow it, it will dissolve over the course of the hour, salt water makes it dissolve faster. The effect will begin immediately, you will lose the ability to breathe air and as soon as you enter the water you will grow gills, transparent eyelids and webbed fingers and toes. Got that?"
"I think so," Harry said apprehensively as he looked at the pot of plant material that Neville had brought with him.
"Good," Neville handed him a handful, "remember don't chew and don't swallow."
"Are there any spells that I can use to keep warm, because that lake looks freezing?" He looked at me.
"I'll see about it, but first I want to make sure the gillyweed works," Harry nodded, "well um, here goes nothing," he put the plant in his mouth and immediately started choking. Neville pushed him into the lake, Harry did not re-emerge.
"Oh God, I've killed Harry Potter!" Neville exclaimed as he ran his hands through his hair, I reached out with my legilimency, Harry was somewhat cold, but otherwise happily swimming around under the surface as he explored the lake.
"He's alive," I said with a smile, I picked up a pebble from the shore, it was plain brown rock, worn smooth by the lapping of the lake over many centuries. I took out my dagger, which I had taken to carrying and I began carving a rune onto its surface, at the sound the others turned to me. "What?"
"Why are you carving a pebble with a dagger?" Hermione asked, "actually, why do you have a dagger?"
"I'm making a runestone to keep Harry warm and I have a dagger in case I need a dagger," I returned to carving.
"What are you losers doing here?" A sneering voice said, "here to support a true champion?" We did not need to turn to know that standing behind me was Draco and his goons.
"Yep," I said not looking up from my carving, "Harry is having a swim."
"That pathetic cretin has probably drowned by now," Draco sneered.
"Draco, you are not wanted here," John said with a sigh, "so bugger off."
"Tsk tsk, what would your parents say if they heard you cursing so?" Draco said with a wide smile, "well, considering your family, I imagine they'd tell you off for the wrong kind of cursing." John flushed furiously, he lunged for Draco while Alice had to hold him back. I finished the rune and put the stone in my pocket and stood up. "What are you going to do shorty?" His goons started laughing loudly.
"Wow, shorty," I said totally deadpan, "I have never heard that one before and now I am mortally offended."
"Shut up blood traitor," he growled.
"Why should I?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Because I'm better than you," Draco said proudly.
"Yeah, no you're not, you are really not," I said drawing my wand "unless you want to prove that you are."
Draco blushed, but did not rise to the challenge, "I, I did not mean like that, I meant that my family is better connected that yours, and richer, and my blood is pure."
"Yet I'm the stronger magician, so, which of us is really better?" I asked.
"I am of course you stupid muggle loving slut!" He shouted.
Mrs O'Leary finally woke up, she looked around groggily, but standing up quick as a bolt when she saw Draco, she growled at him. "Looks like you've made Mrs O'Leary angry," I said calmly, repressing my anger, "that's not very nice of you."
"I don't care about your stupid dog," he said, "it can burn for all I care."
"That's not very nice, is it?" I asked my dog, who barked in agreement before returning to growling.
"Draco, you are not wanted here, please leave," John said through gritted teeth as he tried to rein in his anger.
"Oh, I don't think I will," Draco said with a smug grin, "you commoners should know, I can go where I want."
"Yes, so kindly go somewhere else," John said with as much calm as he could muster, his voice strained.
"No," Draco said, smiling cruelly.
"Please leave," John said, his voice slipping into the rather concerning calm anger that is common with the children of Athena just before they murder someone.
"Make me!" Draco snapped.
"Oh, I'll make you spoilt little-" John mumbled as he started towards Draco before being again restrained by Alice and Ron, "let me at him, I'll teach him manners."
"Tsk, tsk, your friend over there seems to need anger management," Draco said coolly, his goons laughed again.
"Then stop making him angry," I said suppressing my own anger so I did not punch him in the face, repeatedly (although it was a rather enjoyable thought).
"Oh, but he's so easy to manipulate," Draco said happily, his eyes shining with sadistic glee.
"Go away Draco," I said before turning my back on him and walked towards the others.
"Oh no, you do not walk away from me!" Draco shouted after me.
"It seems I am," I replied, not looking back. I re-joined the others where they had dragged John away from Draco, Neville looked ready to faint.
"I hate that smarmy little prick," John growled as we sat down, I took out the pebble and began carving again.
"I hate him as well," I replied, there was a chorus of agreement.
"He scares me," Neville whispered.
"Don't let him," Alice said, "he's a bully, they just want a reaction, if you ignore him, he gets nothing and will move on to a different target. Unfortunately John is not very good at ignoring him," John blushed, but did not object.
I looked along the shore, Draco was telling off his goons, "no, he's not bullying you to make himself feel better, he's doing it to impress his goons. He will carry on as long as they react, it's not your reaction he wants, it's theirs."
"So, how do we stop him?" Alice asked.
"For now, we don't," I said unhappily.
Draco started walking towards us, "looks like someone wants round two," John commented.
"He's not getting it," I summoned a wall of air to hold Draco back, he walked into the invisible wall and fell over, we burst out laughing. Draco stood up and pressed his hands against the wall, looking utterly confused, I also cast a spell that prevented us from hearing them.
"It's the world's most irritating mimes, which is saying something," John said as we watched Draco and his goons pound on the wall.
"How are you doing that?" Neville asked, his eyes wide at me casting such a powerful spell without using my wand.
"A lot of practice," I replied.
"It's almost like watching a Laurel and Hardy movie," Alice commented as one of the goons punched the wall and started screaming as he injured his hand. "Only in colour, and with less comedy, so really not like a Laurel and Hardy movie."
"I don't know," I said, "it's quite funny when you realise the wall is only about five feet long."
"Still not as funny as Laurel and Hardy," Alice said smiling, "let me guess, you've never watched a Laurel and Hardy movie?"
"Nope, never even heard of them," I said with a smile.
"Unacceptable!" Alice exclaimed, "I must rectify that, at some point."
"One of them seems to have grown a brain cell," John commented, I looked over, they had their wands out and were all pointing at one spot on the wall.
"Yep, that'll do it," I said, removing the invisible wall, but as it was invisible they did not notice.
"Fire!" Draco shouted, a chorus of spells were thrown at where the wall had been, they crashed into the side of the hill we were standing on.
"We're through!" Draco exclaimed to much cheering from his goons.
"You could have held that," Alice said.
"I'm not sure, Draco is not actually that weak off a wizard, most of his goons are, but he isn't, between them, they might have broken through eventually," I replied.
"We beat you," Draco said smarmily as he swaggered over.
"Congratulations," I replied sarcastically, "six of you got through a barrier I had already taken down."
Draco blushed, "yeah well, we're better than you."
"Except you were stopped by a wall you could have walked around," I replied.
"Shut up you slut," I swallowed my anger.
"Wow Draco, you used the same insult twice within an hour, how creative of you."
"Yeah well it's true, you've been with Harry, John, Krum, goodness knows who else and now you've moved on to Alice, you're a pathetic nymphomaniac."
I did not reply, I was furious, my anger had boiled over, I clicked my fingers, Draco turned into an aardvark. He sat down and looked around, before looking at his claws and then the rest of himself, he made a sound that was a kind of squeak and ran back to the castle. "I'm going to kill Skeeter," I said, my voice icily calm, but underneath I was boiling over with anger.
"She's not worth it," Hermione said, in the excitement I had forgotten that she and Ron were there. I looked back at the others, Neville had fainted and was being looked after by John.
"What happened to him?" I asked.
"He went when you turned Draco into an aardvark," John replied.
"Oh, I'm getting into so much trouble for that, and I cannot bring myself to care," I said as I sat down, my anger subsiding. The weird beetle was back, sitting on a rock nearby, I noticed it out the corner of my eye. It was just sitting there, watching us, I became suspicious of it again. That was twice it had turned up, and I remembered what Sirius said about Skeeter stealing his book, it could not hurt to check. I reached out with my mind to probe the beetle's, I found a human mind, it was an animagus. I had a quick look inside, it was Rita Skeeter, I stunned her mind and the beetle collapsed. I cast the spell Sirius had sent after our fireplace discussion, to force her to turn back into the annoying reporter herself. The other were shocked when Skeeter appeared, followed by furious glares.
"What the hell just happened?" Hermione asked.
"Skeeter is an animagus," I replied, "it's how she gets her scoops, she turns into a beetle and flies into where she's not wanted and listens to conversations that she's not privy to. It's how she found out about Hagrid," I woke her up.
"What on Earth happened?" Skeeter asked as she roused herself, before looking at us, she scuttled backwards, but her back was soon pressed up against a large rock. She had a look like a cornered animal. Mrs O'Leary growled and padded up to her, apparently not trusting people who suddenly appear from beetles (a wise life choice there).
"Well Ms Skeeter, what do you have to say for yourself, before I turn you over to the Aurors?" I asked. Her eyebrows flew up, "don't even try to escape, I'll knock you out before you get ten feet."
"You wouldn't dare!" Skeeter exclaimed, her voice wavered nervously and her eye flicked around the area, there was no-one else there, the crowd of girls had left when Krum had stopped swimming.
"Wouldn't dare what?" I asked, "knock out a trespasser and illegal animagus?"
"I, I, I'll disown the article I wrote about you, say my source was wrong, that he had a vendetta against you, that he was a spurned suitor." She rambled about things she could do to help me in exchange for her freedom.
"How long do you reckon you would last in Azkaban before your mind snaps?" I asked, "two months? Three?"
"Sirius Black lasted years," Skeeter said hopefully.
"Yes, but Black had a strong will, and could turn into his animal form when he needed a break. A luxury you won't have because they will know you to be an animagus, you will be prevented from changing and you are far from strong willed, I'd give you maybe six months at best."
Skeeter swallowed, "please, I'll do anything," she grabbed for me, reminding me of Pettigrew, "just don't send me to Azkaban. Kill me if you must, I know you want to, just don't send me to the Dementors."
"I wanted to kill you, but Azkaban is a much more fitting fate," I said grinning down at her. At that moment Harry surfaced, "look what I found," I called to him.
Harry looked from me to Skeeter and back again, he spat out the gillyweed, his gills vanishing. He pulled himself out the lake, teeth chattering, "I thought she was banned from the school, how did she pass the gates?" I pulled the lake water off his body and put a layer of warm air around him, "thanks."
"She is an animagus," I replied, "I'm taking her up to the castle. The Aurors can have her for trespassing, invasion of privacy and being an unregistered animagus, and if I remember correctly there are laws that ban animagus from being journalists, for fairly obvious reasons."
"Let's get going then, I want to see her behind bars," Harry said angrily.
"I don't think you'll have to wait too long," Hermione commented. "Look!" A group of people were walking towards us, it appeared to be Snape, McGonagall, Uncle Alistair, Dumbledore and an aardvark.
"Miss Skeeter," Dumbledore said, sounding almost angry, the shimmer in his eyes replaced with a hard look that I was not used to seeing on the old man's face. "What are you doing here?"
"This woman was spying on us," I said, "she is an unregistered animagus, a beetle, and if I remember correctly that means she broken at least four laws. Invasion of privacy, trespassing, being an unregistered animagus and being a journalist whilst being an animagus."
"If she's correct, Skeeter's definitely broken the law," Uncle Alistair commented.
"Take her to the tower we kept Pettigrew in," Dumbledore said frowning his most disappointed frown, "please send an owl to the Aurors."
"Yes Professor, come on you," he grabbed Skeeter by the shoulder and roughly pulled her to her feet, began pushing her towards the castle, he placed his wand to her back and cast a spell on her (probably to prevent her from transforming).
"Remember the reason we're here," Snape reminded the Professor.
"Miss Harker, would you please turn Mr Malfoy back into a human please?" Dumbledore asked, the twinkle back in his eyes.
"Fine," I said looking down at the aardvark form of Draco Malfoy, I clicked my fingers and he turned back to human. He sat on the ground for a moment before jumping to his feet and turned as if to flee
"Wait there Mr Malfoy," Dumbledore said, Draco froze, "I want to know what happened here."
I told Professor Dumbledore what happened, repeating the argument word for word, then Draco told a different story where we attacked him and his friends out of nowhere. "I think this is very obviously Miss Harker and her friends fault, they attacked Mr Malfoy and his friends," Snape said looking down his nose at us. "I bet it was Potter's idea, he has always been jealous of Mr Malfoy," the incredulous look McGonagall gave him from behind his head was hilarious.
"Except that's totally out of character for them, especially as they have Mr Longbottom with them," McGonagall replied. "That boy is so scared of his own shadow I doubt he could hurt a fly," Neville frowned, but said nothing at her assessment, mostly because it was unfortunately true (if rather hyperbolous).
"Miss Harker's explanation of what happened is more plausible," Dumbledore said, "but that does not excuse her disproportionate response to Mr Malfoy's taunts. Thirty points from Mr Malfoy for bullying and another twenty for lying to a teacher, twenty points from Miss Harker for using unreasonable force to solve the situation. Ten points to Mr Hex for standing up for his friends and family, ten points to Mr Longbottom for an excellent use of gillyweed and ten points to Miss Harker for catching a trespasser."
"What?!" Draco exclaimed, "they're getting rewarded for attacking me. You'll hear from my father about this."
"They are not getting rewarded, I deducted points, I would have taken more if you had not been so consistent in your attempts to anger them. Especially as you were aware of what Miss Harker is capable of, and her rather short fuse," Dumbledore said calmly, I blushed slightly at his analysis.
"Bah," Draco exclaimed, stalking off, "my father will hear about this!" He shouted over hisshoulder as he disappeared off into the grounds.
"You already said that!" Harry shouted back.
Dumbledore shook his head, "Professor," Snape interjected, "you were too harsh on him and too lenient on Miss Harker. Yes, he did taunt Miss Harker into attacking him, but she has received no overall punishment for their actions, if she performed those action outside the school she would surely have been in far more trouble."
Dumbledore stroked his beard, "I suppose you are right Professor Snape, Miss Harker, you will report to Professor Snape this evening after dinner for detention."
"Yes Professor," I said, unhappy at the punishment, but aware it could have been a lot worse.
When the arrest of Rita Skeeter made front page news the next day it was also reported that she was being charged with libel on top of the crimes she had committed at Hogwarts. No-one seemed sad about it (except her son), even the Daily Prophet was unrepentant in their attacks against their former star writer, Skeeter had pleaded guilty the moment she was in custody. She had not been sentenced yet, but it looked likely she would be spending time in prison and would never be hired as a reporter ever again, her career was ruined.
The day before the second task we were sitting in the Common Room, the latest Draco incident mostly forgotten. Harry and Ron were arguing over the relative merits of various broomsticks and Quidditch teams, Hermione and Neville were talking about obscure plants. Alice and I were in theory doing homework, but we spent most of the time engaging in each other's company. A first year entered the Common Room and took away Hermione and Ron to see McGonagall, who had sent for them with a vague message about preparing for the second task.
"What do you reckon she wants?" Alice asked.
"She's going to knock them out and put them in the lake," I replied.
"How do you know that?" Harry asked across the room.
"Simple," I said turning to face him, "the egg said they'd put something precious to you at the bottom of the lake. What's more precious than your best friend?"
"Okay, that explains Ron, but why Hermione?"
"Krum, of course, he has a thing for her, so he's going to have to save her," Harry looked a little confused.
"Surely he's got a friend in Durmstrang?" Harry asked.
"In case you haven't noticed," Alice started, "he's treated specially by Karkaroff and he's fawned over by the others at his school, who are hoping for fame by association. He's followed everywhere by that screaming mob of fans, yet he's very much alone because most people like him because he's famous. But Hermione does not, making her the most important person in his life at the moment."
"When I talked to him, he didn't seem to like or trust his schoolmates much," I added, "I think one of the reasons he likes Hermione so much is that she treats him like a person, not a tool."
"I suppose you're right," Harry said, "being that famous sounds miserable."
"Harry," I said, smiling at him, "you're also that famous, if not more so, it's just that you have friends who like you for who you are. Also, you are not treated specially by the teachers, so you are not treated specially by everyone else."
"I'd never thought of it like that," Harry said.
"Oh, Harry, I made you something," I took the finished carved rock out of my pocket and walked over to him, I handed it over.
"Um thanks?" He asked as he turned over the rock to look at the symbols. "What is it?"
"It's a heater, a surfacing spell and an emergency signal," I pointed at one of the symbols. "Press there and it will release a blanket of heat around you, at a stretch it might accommodate two people, but I wouldn't stretch it any further." I pointed at another symbol, "press that one to instantly be lifted to the surface, it is powerful enough for about five people and finally." I pointed at a different symbol, "if that fails, this one activates an emergency beacon and I will try to save you, it has an effective range of about one mile. If anyone asks I was practising my Ancient Ruins to make it."
"Thanks Janet, this will be really useful," he smiled, before faltering. "But, what if they don't let me take it in?"
"Just tell them it's your lucky rock or something," I said with a shrug.
"I'll get the gillyweed tomorrow morning," Neville said, "it works best fresh."
"Thanks Neville," Harry said with a smile.
"It feels good to be useful," Neville said neutrally, but his eyes showed sadness and hurt.
"What happened?" I asked, concerned for him, "is it your Gran?"
"Yeah, she keeps calling me useless because I don't want to be an Auror like my, like my," his voice shook and tears sprung to his eyes, "like my parents," he managed to choke out.
"She's wrong Neville," I said sitting next to him and awkwardly putting my hand on Neville's back. "Everyone has their own talent, you're the best herbologist amongst the students, she should be proud of you for that."
"That's easy for you to say," Neville said venomously, "you're perfect, the school's golden girl, you get everything right all the time."
"Neville, you're a far better herbologist than me, you've talk about plants I'd never even thought about, like that gravity resisting tree and that tree that grew spaghetti."
"I did like the idea of getting my own spaghetti tree," Neville said wistfully.
"See, I bet you'll get your name in the history books for breeding a new plant, or discovering something, it could be you out of all of us who is remembered longest."
Neville smiled and wiped away a tear, "yeah, I guess you're right, I was being stupid, I shouldn't let my Gran drag me down, I'm my own man."
Lavender's head popped around the door to the Common Room, "Neville, can you help with something quickly?"
"Yes Lavender!" He said quickly standing and running over to the door, he left without another word.
"He is so whipped," Alice commented.
"Yeah, but I think he likes it," I said with a smile.
"Whipped?" Harry commented.
"Yeah," Alice replied, "completely under her control, enthralled by his feelings for her so he'll do what she asks."
"Oh, kind of like how John's been following Luna around like a puppy lately," Harry said, nodding sagely.
"Yeah, kind of like that, except I don't think she's aware of it," I said.
Harry smiled, "I just realised how many couples there are, there's you two, Neville and Lavender, John and Luna, Hermione and Krum and whatever is going on with Winsbury and the other Janet."
"I'm sure you'll find someone one day Harry," Alice said.
"Maybe, or maybe I'll end up like Dumbledore, an old man married to his job," Harry said as he started at the ceiling.
"Well, you have got a few admirers," I said, looking over at Ginny, who was staring at Harry from across the room, she quickly buried her head in her book.
"Ginny? She my best mate's sister, that would be weird," he said, shaking his head.
"Never say never Harry," I said with a small smile, "I'm dating my best friend remember."
"Aw, shucks," Alice said blushing, she started twirling a lock of her hair between two fingers absent-mindedly.
"That's different," Harry replied awkwardly.
"I'm just saying, never say never," I smiled at Ginny, who was trying very hard (and failing) to make it look like she was reading an upside down copy of Beedle the Bard rather than staring at Harry.
"We are not having this conversation," Harry said, getting up and walking off.
"We've got to stop playing matchmaker for our friends," Alice said with a giggle, she kissed me on the nose.
"I just want them to be as happy as we are," I kissed her on the cheek.
"Get a room!" Shouted one Gryffindor, but we barely heard him.