Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter One Hundred

Second Task

Harry stared at the ceiling of the fourth year dormitory. He tried closing his eyes so he could get some sleep but sleep kept eluding him. Frustrated, Harry went over all he had done to prepare for the task tomorrow in hopes that would stop his nerves. He had mastered the bubblehead charm, the gillyweed had came a week before the task and there was enough extra for him to try it out. It was interesting having gills and he was able to swim faster with web hands and feet. The twins had finished the map of the lake, putting a water resistant charm on it so it could survive underwater, and Harry was able to find the mermaid community easily. It was then, when he was able to see the other creatures that he might be facing, that Hermione suggested that they work on curses and charms that would help him.

Yes, I'm prepared for tomorrow, Harry thought to himself but ten minutes later he still couldn't seem to fall asleep. Harry got out of his bed and quickly walked downstairs in hopes … not really sure what he was doing but hoping, it would lead to sleep somehow. He sat on one of the couches and looked into the fire, this time trying not to think about anything and just relax, but that didn't work any better than thinking about the task had. Then suddenly he was thinking about what was going to be taken from him. He hadn't thought of this a lot, but he had wondered once in a while about what the merpeople would take from him. He wondered how they would take something off of the land … he had read about them and knew that they couldn't survive long on land so how would they be able to steal something from him. He also wondered what he would sorely miss if it was gone and it made him uncomfortable thinking about that.

"Harry," someone said and he felt them shaking his shoulder before he looked up and saw that it was one of the twins.

"Huh?" Harry grunted and realized that it was actually morning and he must have fallen asleep at some point. "What time is it?"

"About an hour before the task," Harry realized now that he was more awake that it was Fred who was speaking to him. "You probably should hurry and get ready."

"We've let you have a lie in because you looked so tried, but we figured it was time for you to get up," George added.

"Thanks guy," Harry said yawning and getting up to go to his room so he could get ready. He made sure to put on swimming trunks and then many layers of other clothes, it was rather cold today. He was glad that using gillyweed made the cold water that he was about to swim through bearable. Harry decided to skip breakfast/lunch; his nerves wouldn't let him eat much, so he just walked to the lake.

"Hey Harry," Cedric said giving him a weak smile and Harry was sure that he was doing the same. "You ready for the task?"

"Yeah, pretty ready," Harry sighed. "You?"

"As much as I can be," Cedric sighed. "You know if I knew this tournament was about facing dragons and take a swim in the lake in the middle of winter, I might have thought twice before joining."

"At least you put your name in," Harry pointed out and nodded his head.

"Yeah," Cedric said, "what was I thinking?"

Harry chuckled, "I'm sure after the task is done you'll remember."

"True … the celebration party after the tasks are always fun," Cedric chuckled too, they were both still nervous but Harry found it nice to have an idle chat with someone that had an idea of what he was going through. "Have you figured out what was taken from us, yet?"

"Nah, I couldn't think of anything … well beside my broom but that didn't seem right," Cedric said. "Ah, look there's Fleur."

Harry turned to look as Fleur came over to them, she barely nodded her head at him and then smiled at Cedric, talking to him. Harry didn't say much and it was a few minutes later that Krum joined them, he didn't talk much either but he was nice enough to Harry. Still, by the time that Krum got there, Harry was just wishing the task would start already. He hated waiting and he was sure that everything would be better once he was finally doing something.

"Ah, good you're all here," Bagman said smiling at them. "It seems you've all worked out your clue alright. Good, good. Well now's the time to prepare yourself, the task will start in five minutes."

Five minutes didn't seem to come fast enough as Harry and the other champions were lost in their thoughts. Harry also took off the many layers of clothes that he had as he noticed the others doing the same, however, he waited to use the gillyweed until Bagman announced that it was time to start. Neville assured him that the gillyweed would last for a few minutes over an hour and he trusted his friend, but wanted to have every second he could for the task.

Then all of sudden, simultaneously seeming to take forever and happen much too fast, it was time to start and he jabbed the gillyweed into his mouth and chewed as he walked into the lake. He saw the other three champions start casting spells but he didn't pause to see what they were doing as he jumped into the water. At first Harry was chilled to the bone and he thought that many he should have waited a few seconds to let the gillyweed take effect but even by the time he finished this thought, he was swimming on, now able to breathe underwater and pulling out the map of the lake.

As he scanned it, Harry noticed that none of the creatures in the lake were around him so he would have more time to look about the place. He was really glad that the twins had not only made the map show the creatures (which they had to look through several books to figure out how to do that since it was different than putting people on there), but they also decided to make sure that people showed up on it too. They thought it would be good for Harry to know where he was and where the competition was.

The other champions were starting to pass him now, but seeing as they were heading in all different direction, none of them towards the merpeople's community, he didn't mind. As he looked over to the goal of this task he gasped, causing bubbles of water to come out of his mouth not allowing him to see immediately if he had seen what he thought he saw but he started to feel a panic go through him. It can't be right … but there it was right on the map.

Cho Chang, Gabrielle Delacour, Hermione Granger, and Ivana Krum.

His heart pounded in his chest at the idea that what was taken were people. He shoved the map back in his pocket as he quickly swam in the most direct path he could take to the merpeople village. That turned out to be a bad idea when he quickly found that he was surrounded by grindylow. Luckily he had his wand ready and he could easily remember what Remus had taught him last year, Harry cursed two of the creatures before they could get too close to him. However, the third had grabbed his ankle and he could see more coming after him. He cast the shielding charm, something that he had worked on the last week thinking that would be a good spell for him to have. It worked really well in the water because it actually pushed the water that was surrounding him at the grindylow, forcing them backwards except for the one that had his ankle. He now had time, to curse the grindylow that was holding him which was easier since he could now concentrate on it. As soon as he was freed he started swimming as quickly as he could, still going straight ahead. Harry realized that he would have to face more grindylows, but he was now prepared for them. He cast a shielding charm every few minutes until he was out of the seaweed and knew the grindylow were less likely to attack now.

Now that he had a few minutes to think he realized that he should take out the map again. A careful check of the map reviled that if he kept going forward he would run into another patch of seaweed and more grindylows, but if he swam a little to the left and then came back he would likely have an easier time. There were other creatures in the lake, but luckily none of them seemed to be near him. He looked at his watch and noticed that only fifteen minutes had past even though it felt like much more time. He was glad that Hermione had thought to make the watch water resistant. The thought of Hermione and the fact that she was being held captive got Harry moving quickly again, though he did go around the seaweed, thinking that would be faster in the end.

Harry was relieved when he saw the merpeople, even more so when they didn't attack him. Though, they didn't need magic due to the sheer number of them that were there. Harry realized that he wouldn't have been able to fight them all anyway. They seemed to be there just to guard the captives and some of them even lead him to where they were. Again, his heart pounded in his chest at the sight of Hermione, Cho, a little girl who had to be Fleur's little sister and a woman that was Viktor's mum. They were all floating there unconscious and it would be easy to imagine that they might be dead …

Harry moved over to Hermione and cut her loose, but he didn't leave, like he knew he was supposed to, to finish this task. He couldn't. Not without knowing that the others would be saved too. He didn't try to cut loose the other captives, he knew the merpeople wouldn't let him, but he did take out the map again to see where the other champions where. He could see that Cedric wasn't far off and Fleur was pretty close to him. Viktor on the other hand was coming from a different angle though he too seemed to be getting closer. He watched the map as the minutes clicked by and he was starting to get anxious that the others seemed to be going so slowly. He knew that they were trying but sitting there waiting for them was killing him.

Then Cedric was at the entrance of the merpeople's village, and he put down the map and watched as he came closer. It seemed that Cedric had used the Bubblehead Charm so he could breathe underwater.

"Fleur's right behind me," he said upon seeing Harry and then moved over to free Cho. Harry couldn't even manage to feel jealous that Cedric got to save Cho … it would have been nice to be her hero … but he didn't even think of that at the time. He just nodded his head and waited for the other champions to come. He looked at his watch; with all his waiting there now was only ten minutes left, what was taking them so long.

Luckily it was then that Viktor showed up with a sharks head and tried to free his mum from her bonds but his head wasn't ideal for that. Harry gave him a rock to use and quickly after that Viktor was gone. Harry was left waiting again, this time he pulled out the map, he thought Fleur would have been there by now, because she had been close to Cedric … but he couldn't see her anywhere near the merpeople village. Where was she, she had been right there before. He pushed the map back in his pocket, the time was going to run out and he wasn't going to leave this little girl in the lake not sure what would happen when the time did ran out.

When he moved to cut the girl loose, the merpeople pointed their tridents at him but he wasn't going to back down. Even if he was outnumbered and surrounded by angry merpeople he was going to take the girl with him. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at what he thought was the leader, who luckily raised his trident so it was no longer pointing at Harry and the rest of the merpeople did the same. Harry then cut the girl loose grabbed her and Hermione's hand and started pulling both of them up towards the surface. If he had more time he probably would have swam underwater, that would have been a little faster, but he knew he didn't have long before the gillyweed wore off. In fact, he barely had time to break the surface before he was breathing through his lunges and not the gills.

"Harry," Hermione said, coughing at little as soon as her head broke the surface of the water. "You did it … er … why is Gabrielle here?"

"Is that her name," Harry asked as he put his arms around the girl making sure that she would stay above the surface, she didn't seemed to be in a talkative mood as she clung to him. "I couldn't leave her behind … Fleur wasn't there …"

"Of course you couldn't," Hermione said, going on the other side of the girl as they all swam back to land. "I knew you were going to take the clue too seriously."

"What do you …" Harry started to ask and then he sighed. "You were never in real danger, were you?"

"None. Dumbledore wasn't going to let anyone get hurt," she said.

"I didn't even think about that," Harry grumbled as they were getting closer to land. When the trio returned to the starting point they were meet by Fleur, who grabbed her sister out of their hands hugging her close and seemed to be hysterical with worry. The next thing Harry knew Pomfrey was pulling him and Hermione up, wrapping them in blankets and giving them a potion. She didn't wait; as soon as she was done she turned to Fleur's sister and did the same to the little girl.

Then Bagman was talking again, telling them the score that each champion got. Cedric got 47 points for getting back first, but outside of the hour time limit. Victor got 40, Fleur 25, which she didn't think she deserved after failing to save her sister, and Harry actually ended up getting 45 points because he showed moral fiber. All in all he was happy with how the second task had worked out.