Chapter twelve

The second task

No one spoke of that evening as it was clearly hurting Cynder, and Spyro understood why this was a situation to fear. He had deduced that Malefor was attempting to come back to power but needed this mutant infant's help, which could only mean that this infant was more powerful than anyone they had met.

The next few weeks passed by with regular visits from Harry and his friends. There were a few incidents with Cynder having her mind invaded, only for that Snape man to be called and preventing her condition from worsening. Cynder could feel that this man had some form of black magic on him, but he did help her stay herself, so she decided that he could be trusted, for now.

The day before the fabled second challenge was rather eventful to say the least. Both dragons had stayed out of trouble for a good while and so the Daily Prophet hadn't posted any dragon related news on the front page yet. The dragons were relaxing by the window of Hagrid's Hut when the door burst open! The dragon's were on their feet in an instant, but relaxed as soon as they saw that it was only Harry.

"hello Harry" Spyro called over to the boy, who on closer inspection wore a face of pure dread. Cynder noticed this and was instantly on edge,

"what's happened?" she asked, ready for action.

"I know what the next task is," the boy told them, "I have to swim into the depths of the Black Lake and bring back something that has been taken!" Cynder wasn't impressed, but she could see in the boy's eyes that he wasn't done,

"and what was taken, exactly?" she asked cautiously. She had an inkling of an idea of what had been taken and was preying to the ancestors that she was wrong.

"they've taken Ron!" Harry exclaimed in panic. Yup, Cynder was right.

"I bet you have a plan to get him back though, right?" Spyro asked him, hoping for a bit of good news.

"well," Harry confessed, "it isn't my idea. A friend of mine, Neville Longbottom, he told me about a plant called Gillyweed that should help me breath underwater." This piqued both dragons' curiosity.

"where is it then?" Cynder asked,

"Neville will give it to me on the way to the task, I just hope I can make it." Spyro smiled at the boy,

"don't worry, you will make it" he reassured him "and we will be watching too, won't we Cynder?" Cynder nodded at this,

"Dumbledore came to us the other day and offered us to put on that human disguise again to watch, and we will stay out of sight of that reporter too" Harry smiled, at least he would be having his friends watch him.

The next day was the big day. Harry walked to the Black Lake alongside Neville and as they neared the stands that were magically constructed around the lake, Nevil reached into his pocket and handed him the Gillyweed,

"you're sure about this, Neville?" he asked, knowing that his life was in his friend's hands,

"absolutely," Neville told him,

"for an hour?"

"most likely" this wasn't so reassuring,

"most likely?"

"well, there is some debate among herbologists as to the effects of freshwater versus saltwater." Harry was now feeling that he had a better chance just holding his breath than with the plant in his hand!

"you're telling me this now? You must be joking?!"

"I just wanted to help"

"welcome to the second task!" Dumbledore's voice echoed over the lake, "yesterday, something was stolen from each of our champions. A treasure of sorts. These four treasures, one for each champion, now lie at the bottom of the Black Lake. In order to win, each champion need only find their treasure and return to the surface. Simple enough." Harry was feeling increasingly nervous as he changed into his swimming gear, what surprised him was that there were two people who were just staring at him, after looking at them more closely, Harry recognised them from the Yule Ball, it was Spyro and Cynder!

"put that in your mouth" Mad-Eye Moody muttered to him as he passed him, and Harry quickly shoved the Gillyweed into his mouth. Dumbledore continued his speech,

"except for this; they will have but one hour to do so, and one hour only, after that, they'll be on their own, no magic will save them." Harry suddenly felt like he was going to be sick! He was about to spit out the Gillyweed when Mad-Eye slapped him on the back a few times until the whole plant had slid down his throat! "you may begin at the start of the canon." As the words left the man's mouth, a cannon shot boomed across the lake! Three of the champions expertly dove into the lake, Harry was just shoved in by Mad-Eye!

Spyro and Cynder looked on in slight worry, harry hadn't moved at all since falling in!

"what's the matter with him?" a boy nearby asked

"I don't know" another boy responded, "I can't see him"

"oh my gosh!" a round faced boy exclaimed in horror, hands rummaging through his long black hair, "I've killed Harry Potter!" this must be Neville! But as soon as he had said this, Harry leaped out of the water, did a flip in the air, and dove right back in! Spyro and Cynder smiled,

"I do believe, Mr Longbottom," Cynder announced as she made her way to the edge and watched Harry dive deeper into the lake, "that you have definitely not killed him"

Almost half an hour later, Spyro and Cynder watched in surprise as the Beauxbaton's champion was pulled out of the water, and as Dumbledore announced this, they quickly got on with their jobs. Oh yes, Dumbledore had given them an important task for that day. He had told them that if someone were to exit the water without their treasure, both dragons were to first ensure that the champion was safe, before waiting for the end of the task, and when that happened they were to be given a special spell called a Bubble-Head charm so they could dive down and retrieve the treasure themselves. Both dragons grabbed a towel from nearby and flew them over to the despairing girl and draped them over her. She was terrified and wet and cold and had clearly lost someone special to her.

"don't worry, miss" Cynder reassured the champion, "everything will turn out fine, you wait and see"

A good while later, the hour was almost up and Cynder didn't want to admit it, but she was starting to worry because no one else had surfaced yet! Suddenly, out of the water burst the boy called Cedric, with a girl with him! He had completed the task! The audience erupted into applause as he made his way back to the platform.

"lets get to work" Cynder announced to Spyro, and both dragons quickly rushed to get more towels. As they were draping the towels around both soaking individuals, another two people burst from the depths; one was none other than Hermione, and the other seemed to be a creature with a human body and a shark's head! The head quickly started transforming into the head of Victor Krumm. There was still no sign of Harry and Ron anywhere though, and time was running out.

"hurry up Harry" Spyro whispered as he and Cynder draped even more towels over Victor and Hermione.

A few minutes later, a clock nearby struck the hour, the time was up! And in that second, Ron and a girl both dragons didn't recognise burst to the surface of the water! Fleur quickly rushed to the water's edge and helped the girl out of the water, she must have been Fleur's treasure!

"but where's Harry?" Cynder asked Spyro as they quickly got more towels for them, Spyro shrugged, and Cynder knew that no magic could save Harry if he didn't surface in the next few seconds! Suddenly, to the cheers of everyone in the audience, Harry burst from the lake, wand aloft! He flew all the way to the platform, coughing and spluttering! Both dragons quickly rushed over with towels as Dumbledore checked that he was ok.

As dumbledore went over to talk to the judges, Fleur rushed over with the girl holding her hand.

"you saved her" she exclaimed as she looked Harry in the eye, "even though she wasn't yours to save. My little sister. Thankyou!" she then kissed him on each cheek. She then stood up and walked over to Ron, "and you, you helped!"

"well, yeah a bit" Ron agreed before she also kissed him on each cheek, before she rushed off with her sister once again, Cynder chuckled at Ron's dumbfound expression, "merci" he whispered in shock.

"Harry!" it was Hermione, she rushed up to them and gave him her towel, "are you alright? You must be freezing! Personally, I think you behaved admirably."

"you can say that again!" Spyro agreed, "that was very brave of you Harry"

"I finished last, guys…" harry started, but Cynder interrupted him,

"next-to-last, Fleur never got past those Grindylow things" she smiled at him after saying this. Harry couldn't help but smile too, so did Spyro, Ron and Hermione, Cynder being happy was a rare occasion at the best of times.

"attention!" Dumbledore shouted over the din of the audience, he made his way to the group and he seemed to be purposely blocking Spyro and Cynder from view of one of the stands. On getting no acknowledgement of his request, he whispered to the dragons "cover your ears" before placing his wand to the side of his neck and saying in an amplified voice that boomed across the lake "ATTENTION!" before continuing "the winner is… Mr Diggory!" to the great cheers from the stands, "who showed innate command of the Bubble-Head charm." So that's what the Bubble-Head charm was! "however! Seeing as Mr Potter would have finished first, had it not been for his determination to rescue not only Mr Weasley, but the other as well, we've agreed to award him… second place!" the stands exploded with cheers for Harry, and even Spyro and Cynder joined in! "for outstanding moral fibre" Dumbledore finished, but no one actually heard him.