The prefect's bathroom was sparkling, that was for certain.

It had been only the day before when the world came crashing down around Harry, and so, her plan was amazingly healthy - plunge herself into the Second Task and preparing for it so she didn't have to face Ginny or her classmates from the other Houses. As unhappy as she was, Hermione decided to let Harry have this one day - not two, she insisted, one - and so Harry was here, in the bathroom, waiting for the water to fill up the tub.

The prefect bathroom was amazing, Harry thought, and worth becoming Prefect just to use. Softly lit by a pretty candle-filled chandelier, and a polished marble floor, with space for what looked almost like an inset swimming pool. A hundred golden taps, each with a different color gem embedded, were around the circular tub, and from the rack of towels, it appeared to be full of bright whites and golds, and honestly looked really good.

She was not here to appreciate the bathroom.

Once the tub was filled, she removed everything, and deciding to take Cedric's advice, brought the egg under the water.

She held her breath, uncertain at first, but decided to crack the egg open under the water - it only made sense. Bracing for a howling scream like before, she was greeted by a pleasant surprise.

Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching ponder this;
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour, the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.

Harry took her head out of the water, gasping.

"Ooh! You look different!" Came a voice, and Harry shrieked, dropping the egg in the water. Covering her chest out of some unknown reflex, she turned to see Moaning Myrtle. It suddenly dawned on Harry, she hadn't been in the bathroom where she had died recently, or at least not when she was there last.

"M-Myrtle!" She exclaimed, surprised.

"It's been awhile. You look... good." The ghost said, giggling a bit. "So, you solved it?"

Harry nodded. "I-I think?"

Myrtle giggled, floating very close to the girl who lived. "That's good. So, maybe you wanna stick around? For me?" Harry shivered, Myrtle freaked her out every time.

"I really have to go," Harry excused, getting up. "Can you look away? Thank you." Harry got up, dried off, and dressed to leave. Before leaving, she wrote the poem down on a piece of paper. Using the Invisibility Cloak, and carrying the egg and Marauder's Map, Harry started a-walking back.

It wasn't long before an interruption in the form of dropping the Golden Egg and the Map. Outside of Filch's office. Which wasn't far from Snape.

Harry held her breath, scared to so much as breathe, and thing seemed dire until Mad-Eye Moody walked around the bend.

Moody looked directly at Harry, and the magical eye seemed to spin at her specifically, even as he turned and started talking to Snape and Filch. They conversed over the Egg, and Snape pointed out someone had broke into his office.

"And there's..." Snape trailed off. "That. Parchment." He glared, and Harry realized what he saw. The Marauder's Map. "That parchment, this egg, belongs to Potter. Where is-" Snape stammered, as though unsure how to refer to Harry. "Where's Potter?" The potions master settled on. Mad-Eye's eye landed on it, as did Snape, and they both cast spells as different times.

"Accio parchment!"; "Incendio!"

Harry nearly yelped as the Map was set ablaze. Moody quelled the fire.

"This? I bought this myself, Severus." He said, his eyes rolling across the torched front. "It was the last, too, Severus, so don't be so hasty next time." His magical eye darted from Harry to focus on the Map...

It wasn't long before the teachers left, and Mad-Eye walked up to Harry, and ripped the Cloak off of her. "So, Potter... This is yours?" Harry nodded. "Marauder's Map, what's that?"

"I, uh, I found it. In my third year. It's a map of the school." Harry said, and Mad-Eye seemed content.

"Have it back, Potter. Be more careful." Moody said, smirking. He looked at the egg he had taken off of Filch's hands. "As for this, do you want it back? Or could I study it myself?"

Harry shrugged. "Feel free. I think I solved it." With a nod, Moody left, and, now no longer needing to carry the egg, she hurried back to the common room, carrying the torched map.

Back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry looked at the map, surveying the damage. Moody had quelled the fire fast, but still, the damage was irreversible. The map had been folded, and the burn appeared in the center, so while parts were in tact, there was almost a dozen holes of varying sizes charring through the pages - the seventh floor corridors, the corridor near Snape's classrooms, the majority of the dungeons, and the exit to Honeydukes, to name a few. It was frustrating.

But, she felt herself slipping, tired, and before she knew it, she had fallen asleep on the chairs in the common room.

"Harry? Wake up..." came the voice of Ron Weasley.

For the past few nights, Harry had fell asleep on the couch, too tired and scared to return to the dormitory. And now, was Monday - the day everyone came back to Hogwarts, and the day of the Second Task.

"You should get, uh, dressed, and ready." Ron said. "I also think I figured out what you need to do." Ron explained how over the night, he had tried talking to teachers, and managed to get something called gillyweed from Professor Sprout. Harry nodded, grateful, before getting up.

Half an hour later, Harry was sprinting across the field, a small bit of gillyweed from Professor Sprout in hand, towards the clearing where the Tasks were to be held.

Arriving, Harry could see a huge clearing, space for spectators to watch. It was currently completely empty, but Harry was glad to have arrived on time. There, was also Cedric, Viktor, Fleur - that was no surprise, the other champions - as well as the headmasters. Percy was here on behalf on Mr. Crouch, Ludo Bagman was here as a judge...

And Rita Skeeter was here for interview. In fact, she was currently in a row with Dumbledore, and while both of their demeanors were calm, the air around them felt stained.

"You have slandered one of my students, Ms. Skeeter." Dumbledore was saying. "You can write your articles about me if you want, but he's a fourteen year old, in the midd-"

"Yes, exactly, and the world wants to know about the Boy Who Lived." Rita said calmly, filing her nails against the palm of her right hand.

"You aren't permitted on these premis-" Dumbledore said calmly, although his temper seemed to be rising.

"For the Triwizard Tournament I am, I'm the designated reporter."

"But Ms. Skee-"

"And it's not slander, slander is spoken." Rita pointedly added, before turning to leave. Her eyes instantly fell on Harry. "Aah, Mister Potter."

"Miss Potter." Harry corrected, knowing she was going to just handwave it.

"It's a pleasure to meet you again." She said, sticking out her right hand, and Harry saw the skin was scratched up and raw. "Well, Potter?"

"Why did you..." Harry asked, her voice rising faster than she thought.

"Publish the truth? Because the wo-"

Harry had enough already, and with a slight touch of profanity, left Rita's presence, much to the journalist's annoyance.

"You're scared of the truth, Potter. Admit it now, and maybe the world will see this as a small slip."

Harry sat in a corner, far away from the journalist, and Cedric walked over.

"Hey, Harry." He said, looking at the girl who lived.

"'ello." Harry muttered.

"Look, I don't know why she hates you, but, uh..." Cedric stammered. "You're a good guy." Sentiment appreciated and wording with lots to be desired, Harry thanked Cedric, and started focusing on the stadiums filling up, as Rita interviewed the judges. Harry wondered where Ron and Hermione were in the stands, but it was too far away to tell.

Half an hour from there, an influx of students arrived - students who had gone home for the Christmas break - and the stadium filled up.

"Sonorus." Bagman said quietly behind Harry, before speaking, his voice bouncing of the very clouds themselves it seemed like. "Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle." Bagman shouted into the field. "They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them, lest they lose it forever!" He looked at the champion, before holding up three fingers.

"Three. Two. One. Go!"

Not looking at the other champions, Harry proceeded to swallow the gillyweed, jumping into the water. She was wishing Ron had told her what this did, but she quickly found out as a burning sensation streaked across her neck. Ooh... Gills. Gillyweed. That made sense. Harry could feel her fingers and toes warping, becoming webbed.

As a transformation occurred, Harry could feel something twisting inside of her painful, and she dove in the water regardless. As she hit the water, the twisting left, and she realized that, despite being cold and murky, it felt... almost warm, and inviting. She swam through the water, looking for something - no merpeople, no champions, no giant squid (thankfully), and nothing that could be deemed a "sorely missed"...

Swimming further and further, time felt like it was going away fast, when Harry heard another poem being sung through the water.

The time has slipped, a quarter gone
The bodies bound, you hear our song

The bodies bound? Harry couldn't help but get nervous off that line alone, but in due time, Harry passed by something - some rock above? - that plunged the area in darkness. Harry was stuck swimming in darkness, the only light guiding her being the ambient lighting of the sun from the other end of the lake, and small cracks in the rock ceiling above.

Your time's half gone, so tarry not
Lest what you seek stays here to rot

Just as the words finished, Harry's eyes laid upon what appeared to be four statues, tied up to some sort of rock... Wait, those weren't... stat...

Harry felt a burst of worry in her, as she realized who it was on that rock - Cho Chang, Cedric's girlfriend; a Durmstrang girl; a girl who seemed to be around eight, with the same silver hair as Fleur; and as the fourth was Hermione.

Harry rushed over to Hermione, looking at her. The ropes seemed to be tight. Really tight. Because of the webbed hands, dexterity was not a strong suit, so she went for the second best - she pulled out her wand, and tried to cast a spell to cut the ropes.

The words came out of her mouth as bubbles, and all that happened was her wand sparking helplessly. She looked around, before seeing a jagged piece of rock, quite some distance below. Swimming down to grab, Harry came back up and started cutting Hermione loose, being careful to avoid injury.

With one final motion, the rope snapped with a ripple in the water, and Harry pulled back her hand - not soon enough, as the jagged rock had cut into Hermione's skin on the final swipe.

Harry looked at the other three, and felt relieved seeing Cedric Diggory - who had some giant bubble around his head, like a helmet - pull out some switchblade and quickly cut Cho loose and left. Annoyed at his fellow student's actions, she saw Krum arrive next, transformed as some weird mix of a shark and a man. Helping Krum get the Durmstrang girl loose, Harry turned her attention to the eight-year old girl.

If Harry had to guess, it was Fleur's sister. Fleur was nowhere to be seen, and time was running out.

Harry decided.

Cutting Fleur's sister loose, Harry held both Hermione and Fleur's sister, and started swimming back, just as a poem rang through the water.

Remember death, we're at the end
Your time ran out to save your friend

With her, the young girl and Hermione both starting stirring, and Harry felt herself swimming faster, to avoid either of them getting hurt. As the sky went from a murky black to the sky's green-water haze color, Harry dove up, breaking through the water.

Swimming back, Harry arrived to three things - an arguing trifecta of judges; a panicking Fleur Delacour, and the champions who had returned and their 'hostages' wrapped up in blankets to get warmer.

Fleur was in hysterics, and seemed to be physically fighting Ludo Bagman to return to the water. "Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Iz she alive? Iz she 'urt?" Eyes resting on Harry, the champion seemed to relax significantly, slumping helplessly as she waited for Harry to return fully.

People got their wits together, and in due time the scoring was here - Fleur thanking Harry for saving Gabrielle. Although Dumbledore insisted she was never in any actual danger, the amount of water and choking both Hermione and Gabrielle seemed to experience made Harry doubt that statement, at least a bit.

The scores placed Harry on a tie with Cedric, to her surprise and bewilderment.

"You did-" Hermione started with a choked voice, before coughing again. It was clear that despite being on land for almost half an hour now, not all of the water was out of her lungs. "You did it!" She hugged Harry, and even gave her a light peck on the cheek. "You did it!"

Harry couldn't help but blush for some reason, but as the excitement from being in first - at least, tied with Cedric for first - was wearing thin fast to the realization of what would happen when she returned to the castle.

Still. She wanted this victory, so this victory she was having.

AN: Big bombshell, why was Hermione given to Harry and an unnamed Durmstrang girl to Krum? Well, it was a domino effect. Because of two big facts, Hermione was not able to do SPEW, due to helping Harry with the social transition after taking Feminea Inextensi. As such, she never felt the need to get into the kitchen, and in fact currently still doesn't know. Because of this, she never saw Dobby here at Hogwarts, Dobby either doesn't know or isn't supposed to meet up with Harry; and as such Dobby couldn't give Harry the gillyweed. So, someone needed to help with the idea, and also make sure she was up in time for the Task. Playing into a secondary chain reaction set off by that second fact (which is still secret), Hermione and Krum didn't hit it off at all in this strikenor in the original ugh chemistry what chemistry/strike, so Hermione was off the table for Krum. As such, this means that Krum would not be rescuing the girl he danced with at the Yule Ball that he barely remembers her name, so as such, Krum got someone else. This meant Hermione and Ron were vying for the same spot as Harry's "sorely missed"; since I want this fic to lean towards Harry/Hermione, that meant Hermione was the one to be taken. This cleared two issues, as now Ron was able to help Harry the day to wake her up, on top of helping with the idea of gillyweed. Bravo, me!

The Marauder's Map is proving a plotline problem for the future, both near and far. In so many respects. So I am sorry Harry, but it had to be burned. She can keep part of it, but it needs enough damage to fix my problems. Also, I've committed to doing Harry/Hermione I think, I suck at writing relationships so uh bear with me As for the chapter name, Underwater Secrets is the name of the Golden Egg's song from the film!Goblet of Fire's OST

FINALLY, next chapter will focus on the ramifications of the article Rita wrote, considering most of the Hogwarts student (Malfoy included) returned after Harry arrived for the task. So, uh, be warned.