A/N: And here's the next chapter! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Godzilla. I only own my original ideas.
Chapter 56: The Second Task
The holidays had passed without much incident. Classes continued normally, and Harry watched as each of the other champions seemed to be doing something involving the Black Lake. Eventually, near the beginning of February, Cedric approached Harry in the library.
"Hey Harry, how are you doing?" asked Cedric, "are you classes going well?"
"Well enough," said Harry, "still puzzling over our clue for the tournament, though".
"Well, in my opinion, sometimes you just need to soak in the information," said Cedric, "perhaps take a nice relaxing bath to think on it".
Harry understood what he was doing: he was trying to give him a subtle hint on how to solve the clue. That evening, Harry brought the egg with him to follow this hint. He dunked his head under the water, and opened the egg. Suddenly, instead of horrible screeching, he heard beautiful singing.
"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"
He listened to it a few times over to ensure that he heard the full message. So, the task was to retrieve something, or more likely someone from beneath the waters of the Black Lake. Most likely they'd end up using one of his friends as the 'prize'. Harry definitely knew that as soon as it was possible, he was going to transfer to a different magical school, likely one outside of Europe. He might even look into independent study. It was becoming more and more clear that the people in power in the British magical society had no sense or regard for the lives of those under their watch. He mentioned his concerns to his friends, and the agreed to be careful.
The evening before the Task, Daphne was studying in the Slytherin Common Room when Professor Snape approached her.
"Ms. Greengrass," said Snape, "The Headmaster wishes to speak with you".
She followed her head of house, feeling something was off. She was aware Snape was on her (and by extension Harry's) side.
"Did Professor Dumbledore say what he wanted?" asked Daphne.
"No, he did not," replied Snape, "you must be cautious".
Daphne was brought up to Dumbledore's office, and went inside. The Headmaster was sitting serenely behind his desk, and there was an empty perch nearby.
"Ah, Ms. Greengrass," said Dumbledore, "you may leave us, Severus".
"As Ms. Greengrass' head of house, I am to be present at any meeting involving her," said Snape.
Dumbledore's expression fell, and for a moment something dark showed from within him.
"Now Severus," said Dumbledore, "why don't you just head out? There's no reason for you to stay here".
"I cannot do that Albus," said Snape.
"Very well," said Dumbledore, "now, Ms. Greengrass: tell me about your relationship with Mr. Potter".
"We're friends, simple as that," said Daphne, "we work together when studying. Nothing more than that".
"Really? That's not what the Daily Prophet is saying," said Dumbledore.
"Come now Headmaster, that's a Skeeter article," said Daphne, "anyone with a lick of sense knows she's a gossip columnist at best. But really Headmaster, why did you call me here?"
"You see," said Dumbledore, "we require your assistance with the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament. Your participation is mandatory".
Daphne went for her wand with Snape getting ready to back her up. However, Dumbledore was faster, and fired off two stunners in rapid succession. Dumbledore smirked to himself… he knew they would see his way.
The next morning, Harry noticed three people missing in the Great Hall: Hermione, Cho Chang, and Daphne. That afternoon, the champions were called out to the Black Lake. Harry realized what the tournament organizers had done, and suppressed the urge to snarl in fury as they confirmed what he'd guessed: they'd used students as hostages. The very students they were supposed to be responsible for the safety of!
"Welcome to the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament!" said Bagman, his voice magnified by a sonorous charm, "As you may have noticed, several people are not with us today… for they have been taken to the bottom of the lake, and await rescue".
"I'm all for giving them a piece of my mind later," said Harry to his fellow champions, "who's with me?"
"Vat for?" asked Krum.
"For using the students who they're responsible for as live bait," said Harry, "I don't know about you, but that sounds straight up criminal. But first let's rescue the kidnapped people".
"I agree," said Cedric, "my father works at the ministry, and I think he'd think this is interesting to hear about".
Harry removed his outer robe, revealing the wetsuit he had underneath (transfigured from a spare set of clothes). They sounded the cannon, and each champion used their own method to dive into the lake.
Cedric and Fleur both cast a spell that made a bubble around their head, while Krum partially transformed into a shark. Harry concentrated, allowing him to use the lung capacity of his kaiju self. He like the others dove into the lake, quickly vanishing into the dark waters. As he swam deeper, he saw Fleur being attacked by grindylows, and briefly his claws came out and he drove them off. As these creatures retreated, he realized Fleur has seen what he'd done. He put a finger to his lips, and gestured her to follow. Soon enough they reached the merfolk village, and the hostages. Harry saw the three people he expected… as well as a girl that looked related to Fleur. Krum and Cedric arrived soon as well. Harry pointed to Krum, and then to the ropes holding the hostages. Krum swam down, and used his shark teeth to bite through the ropes. The Merfolk gestured threateningly with their spears, and each champion grabbed their hostage and started swimming back out of the lake. One after another, each champion broke the surface, and swam to shore.
"Unbelievable!" shouted Bagman, "it's a four way tie!"
The champions and their hostages dried off, and had warming charms put on them by Madam Pomfrey.
"Is everyone alright?" asked Harry.
"Cold, but alive," said Hermione.
The other hostages concurred, as did the champions.
"I need to ask: how did you end up being the hostages?" asked Harry, "did they ask you the play this role or just kidnap you?"
"All I remember was being called up to the Headmaster's office," said Cho, "then the next thing I recall was waking up here".
Harry noticed a familiar reporter approaching and had an idea.
"So, in other words you were knocked out and dragged to the bottom of a freezing cold lake in February against you will," said Harry, "I'd bet someone would love to hear about this".
"Ah our champions!" said Rita Skeeter, "would you like to make a statement about how you feel about the tournament?"
"I think we'd like to agree to an exclusive interview in little while once we finish warming up," said Harry, "we promise, this story will be worth the wait".
The next morning, the front page of the Daily Prophet ran a revealing story.
Kidnappings at the Triwizard Tournament?
In the aftermath of the 2nd task of the Triwizard Tournament, a surprising revelation has emerged: The judges of the Tournament agreed to the kidnapping of four students, including Ms. Daphne Greengrass, Heiress of the Greengrass family, as well as Gabrielle Delacour, younger sister to Beaxbatons champion Fleur Delacour. The three Hogwarts students used this way reported that each of them were brought up to the office of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. The next thing these students recall was waking up on the shores of the Black Lake after being rescued. This leads to many questions: was the Ministry aware of the treatment of these students? Were their families? This reporter will not quit digging until the truth is discovered.
A/N: And there we go! With the way things are going, Dumbledore's going to be in hot water soon. Nothing like using tabloid writer to your advantage. In any case, next time, The Maze and the Ritual. See you then!