The second task was getting closer and, luckily, finally, Dudley found himself making more progress with the bubble-head charm. Lockhart had seemingly ran out of tips a few sessions ago, so now just supervised while Dudley practiced it. Dudley could now manage to keep it active for 40 minutes, and Lockhart was confident he could manage it for over an hour.

Dean had started teaching Dudley about teaching Dudley the bludgeoning hex, too, which was one of his specialties. Dudley had used the hex a few times, but his was nowhere near as good as Dean's.

"It's all about movement, Dud," Dean said. "Don't just cast the spell—you've got to swing your arm like throwing a punch when you cast it, and focus on clobbering your target."

Dudley planned to use the spell if he encountered Grindylows to break their long, strong fingers. He wasn't certain if it could be used underwater, however. Lockhart insisted he had used it to fight off a Kappa before, so Dudley felt it would be a handy spell to get good with. He also practiced a handy little spell that Ron found which shot a jet of boiling hot water at the target. Ron thought it would be handy in case the bludgeoning hex didn't work.

On one evening, Dean came back after a walk in the grounds with Parvati, with news that he had seen Krum swimming in the lake. It appeared he, too, had solved the clue in the egg and was working on something.

Halfway through January, they had a Hogsmeade Weekend. Dudley announced that he was going to go, he felt he needed a break from practicing. "We can check out Honeydukes and go to the Three Broomsticks?' he suggested to Ron.

Ron, however, looked suddenly uncomfortable. "Well, you see, I, kinda, said to Cho I was going to go with her. We're going to make it a sort of date."

"No worries," Dudley said, grinning.

"Going to get up close and personal in Madame Puddifoots, Ronniekins?" Fred and George had overheard, and wasted no time in teasing Ron, whose ears went red.

"You too seem jealous," Dean commented. "That Ron's managed to get the prettiest girl in school."

"There's no denying he's got good taste," Fred admitted.

"I still think he must have slipped her a love potion," George said. "In her pumpkin juice."

"I'm sure a love potion isn't al Ron wants to slip her," Fred added.

Ron threw a Cauldron Cake at him which missed, instead hitting Demelza Bobbins on the back of the head. Ron ducked down to hide as she turned around furiously and Fred and George laughed.

"Why haven't you asked Luna anyway?" Hermione asked.

"I never actually thought about it," Dudley admitted.

Hermione looked as if she was trying very hard not to roll her eyes, but failed. "Really—I'm going to declare, you are officially worse than Ron!"

"What?" Ron spluttered indignantly. "I asked Cho on a second date, remember. No way am I the benchmark of bad boyfriends."

Hermione laughed at that.

Dudley however, felt uncomfortable. Was he Luna's boyfriend? He hadn't really considered it.

Luckily, Ginny came to his rescue. "I'm going with Luna," she said. "You can come with us since Ron has other plans. How about you lot?" she looked at Dean and Hermione.

"I think Parvati wants me to go with her and Lavender and Neville," Dean said. "She hasn't exactly said that yet, but she's dropped hints. And unlike some, I'm not clueless enough to miss them."

"Hermione?" Ginny looked at her.

"I'll join you—I was going to stay at the castle and work on my homework …"

Ron goggled at her in disbelief.

"… but I don't want to be the only one, and Viktor is busy practicing for the Second Task."

"Good," said Ginny. "Then I'll have someone to talk too when Luna and Dudley sneak off for a good snog!"

"Ginny!" Dudley protested while Fred, George, Dean and Ron laughed.

On the morning of the Hogsmeade Weekend, Dudley met with Ginny and Hermione in the common room and went to meet Luna at the entrance. She was wearing a fur-lined white coat because of the cold and had a Russian style furry hat on which, in Dudley's opinion, made her look cute.

She didn't notice them immediately, being busy making what looked to be a snow gnome. "To guard the castle," she announced when they approached.

They walked down the lane to Hogsmeade together. Dudley felt like he should hold hands with Luna, but Ginny kept putting him off by giggling. He could see why Ron could be so exasperated by her sometimes.

"Are you ready for the second task?" Luna asked.

"Yeah, Lockhart's got me using the bubble-head charm for nearly an hour now," he said without thinking. He quickly clasped his gloved hand to his mouth. He had been meaning to keep that secret.

Hermione looked impressed. "Did Lockhart teach you that? I couldn't find any Bubble-Head charm in the books?"

The cat was out of the bag now, so Dudley nodded. "Yeah, he's had me practicing it since, well, last year."

Ginny looked curious. "What's the bubble-head charm?"

"It lets you breathe underwater," Luna announced. "Mum used to use it sometimes when catching plimpies—the fatter ones live near the bottom."

"Can you use it?" Dudley asked.

"A little, mum was really good at it. The key is to just forget you have the charm activated, just cast it and stop thinking about it. I could never manage it—well, not for long," said Luna.

Dudley filed that little tip away. Lockhart hadn't told him that. He had just taught him its use and the incantation and wand movements.

"So, the second task is to go underwater?" Ginny said shrewdly.

Hermione looked at Dudley. She had an exasperated look on her face, clearly annoyed that Dudley's big mouth had let things slip.

"Yes, Neville and I solved the egg clue last year," Hermione said. "But don't tell anyone! You've got to keep it quiet. The Champions are to go underwater …"

"Dean thinks the lake," Dudley said.

"Quite likely," said Hermione and continued. "And retrieve an object in an hour."

"Cool," said Ginny. "And you don't have to worry. Unlike some, I can keep a secret," she gave Dudley a poke.

"Hang on, no you can't!" Dudley protested. "You told me all about who liked who on the train last year! You couldn't wait to blab!"

Ginny laughed. "That was different, that was to try and give you and Ron a nudge in the right direction."

"Oh, and what else did you say?" Hermione asked, giving Ginny a thoughtful look.

"That Crabbe likes you," Ginny said immediately.

"Oh shut up," Hermione scooped up a bit of snow and threw it at Ginny, missing.

Dudley laughed, but Luna looked serious. "I wouldn't go out with Crabbe if I were you …"

"As if I would!" Hermione looked outraged.

"His father was a Death Eater." Luna continued.

"What?" Dudley stopped laughing at Hermione and stared at Luna.

"It's true," Hermione said. "Well—he was suspected of it. I checked up on old Death Eater trials before. He pleaded imperius."

"Daddy wrote an article for the Quibbler—'Death Eaters' among us. Crabbe's father, Goyle's father, Malfoy's father all featured,"

Privately, Dudley felt that appearing in The Quibbler would make them seem even more innocent since most people failed to take the magazine seriously.

"I don't know why they don't just kick the whole house out," Dudley said, after a few seconds. "Seems to be full of junior Death Eaters."

"They're not all bad," Luna said, fairly. "I heard Tracey Davies is quite nice—she's Roger's sister. And Flora and Hestia Carrow have sat with me in potions class before."

From Dudley's experience though, all the Slytherins were garbage. He had had nothing but bad experiences with the lot of them. Especially Malfoy. He was a complete wart.

After shopping, they went to the Three Broomsticks. The pub was as crowded as ever.

"Doesn't he ever go into the office?" Hermione whispered suddenly. "Look!"

She pointed into the mirror behind the bar, and Harry saw Ludo Bagman reflected there, sitting in a shadowy corner with a bunch of goblins. Bagman was talking very fast in a low voice to the goblins, all of whom had their arms crossed and were looking rather menacing.

It was indeed odd. Dudley thought, that Bagman was here at the Three Broomsticks on a weekend when there was no Triwizard event, and therefore no judging to be done. He watched Bagman in the mirror. He was looking strained again, quite as strained as he had that night in the forest before the Dark Mark had appeared. But just then Bagman glanced over at the bar, saw Dudley, and gave a quick wave.

"He keeps offering to help Neville," Hermione said in a low voice. "Says he's taking a liking to him. Neville was quite annoyed about it. Felt like Bagman was only offering him help because he's the worst Champion."

"Yeah, what's with Neville, lately—he's more normal now, but earlier he was … you know," said Dudley.

Hermione sighed. "I can't believe I need to explain it to you … in fact, actually, strike that, yes I can. Neville's sick of everybody thinking so little of him. He's had it from his grandmother, from the Slytherins, from Snape and then from you, and he's finally had enough of it. He's determined to win the Triwizard Tournament to, well, shut everybody up."

"He is doing well," Luna commented. "Everybody in Ravenclaw was impressed with his summoning charm."

"He thought of that all by himself," Hermione admitted. She glanced around to make sure Neville was nowhere nearby and lowered her voice even more. "It surprised even me! I wasn't expecting it, but he did brilliant! He's even worked out how to get to the bottom of the lake on his own too!"

Dudley was surprised at this. He had expected Hermione to be the brains behind the team. He frowned, suddenly realizing, was Neville right about him? By expecting Hermione to be the one behind Neville's success, did that mean he did think little of Neville and his skills.

Dudley was pulled from these thoughts by the appearance of none other than Rita Skeeter.

"Dudley! Good to see you, ready for the next task?" she asked, sitting down, uninvited. "And this is the girl you went to the Yule Ball with?"

"How did you know that?" Hermione asked, her eyes narrowed. "I thought you were banned from the school grounds."

Rita gave her a contemptuous look and glanced at Dudley. "Is this your girlfriend, Dudley?" she asked.

Dudley narrowed his eyes, hating to be put on the spot like that. "Me and Luna are, well, dating," he said.

"Excellent," Rita said. "I saw Neville, too, has found himself a girlfriend, what's her name?"

"We need to go!" Hermione announced, standing up.

"Go?" Dudley was confused.

"Yes, remember, we said we'd meet Dean," Hermione said.

"We did?"

"So forgetful," Ginny said, standing up too. "Come on, Dud, bye Miss. Skeeter."

"Yeah, erm, see you around, Miss Skeeter,"

Rita looked slightly put out but nodded. "Of course," she said, with a nod. Her expression turned sour when she glanced at Hermione however.

"What was that about?" Dudley asked, once they had left.

"Come on, Dud, she was clearly fishing for info," said Hermione.

"She'd twist everything you say too," Ginny said. "Dad knows her well."

"You saw the article about Neville, and about Hagrid. You shouldn't speak to her, Dud," Hermione said.

Dudley thought about that. So far, Dudley had never had a problem with Rita, and Lockhart had spoken highly of her. Still, there was no denying that the article about Neville had been greatly exaggerated and twisted. Possibly the story about Hagrid too, which exaggerated the creatures he had shown them.

"Daddy doesn't like her either," Luna said. "Come on, let's go back to the castle. We can play gobstones."

Dudley thought that seemed a good idea. He took Luna's hand in his, causing her to smile broadly, and together he, Luna, Hermione and Ginny headed back to the castle.