"I think perhaps your celebration can wait until after we announce the winners?" Dumbledore said.
Dudley pulled away from Luna and glanced up at him sheepishly. Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling though and he offered a hand to first Luna and then Dudley to help them out of the lake.
There were a few wolf whistles from the crowd, notably from Fred and George.
Percy hurried over with a towel each. He looked pale and shaken. "How are you feeling? Are you ok?" he asked, a little anxiously.
"We're fine, Perce, just cold," Dudley said, accepting the towel and wrapping it around his shoulders.
Hermione came hurrying over. "What took you so long, did you get lost?"
"Myrtle," Dudley said in a low voice.
"Moaning Myrtle?"
"Yeah, she sent me the wrong way—git,"
"You arrived well after the time limit, Dumbledore was getting a little worried. He was about to send someone after you," Hermione said.
Out of the corner of his eye, Dudley noticed Fleur had gone to the waters edge to greet her sister, who had been returned by a powerful looking merman.
"I went in entirely the wrong direction, then doubled back and saw Neville with Lavender, then Krum with you,"
"At least you found me in the end," Luna said, giving his hand a squeeze. "That's all what matters."
"Cheers," Dudley said, cheering up.
"What happened? How come you were so late?" It was Lockhart, he had hurried over, looking anxious.
Dudley sighed and told Lockhart about Myrtle sending him the wrong way.
"I never liked that ghost," Lockhart announced. "Blatant sabotage—we should request a rematch."
Dudley thought that was extremely unlikely. It was over and done with now.
"We've got out work cut out if we're going to win this thing," Lockhart said, looking nervous at the prospect. "It won't do any good to finish second—or, Merlin forbid—third or fourth! Nobody remembers second place, Dudley. We'll have to win the third task—that's the one that counts."
"Daddy says it's the taking part that is more important than winning or losing," Luna announced. "As long as you do your best, that's all what matters."
Lockhart looked like he was going to reply to this, but before he could, Ludo Bagman's voice boomed out.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows...
"Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points."
Applause from the stands.
"I deserved zero," said Fleur throatily, shaking her magnificent head.
"Dudley Dursley also used the Bubble-Head Charm managed to find his hostage and return, albeit well past the time limit and was the last to return. For that, we award him 35 points."
"Better than Fleur at least!" Lockhart said, loudly. Fleur shot him a nasty look.
"Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points."
Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior.
"Neville Longbottom demonstrated excellent use of Gillyweed and was the first to return with his hostage, managing to do so two minutes after the time limit. Therefore, we award him 45 points!"
The stands erupted in cheers for Neville who was looking proud of his accomplishment.
Dudley applauded too. He had to admit, Neville was surprising a lot of people. He frowned slightly, trying to figure out where he was placed now—Math had never been his strong suit.
"53," Luna said, coming to his rescue.
"Ok, what are the others on?"
"Viktor has 80 total," said Hermione, "Fleur has 58,"
Dudley swore. "I had been hoping I'd be above her at least. That's annoying."
"Neville is in the lead with 91," Hermione finished.
"Wow!" Dudley was impressed.
"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June," continued Bagman. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."
It was over. Dudley thought dazedly, as Madam Pomfrey began herding the champions and hostages back to the castle to get into dry clothes...it was over, he had got through...he didn't have to worry about anything now until June the twenty-fourth...
Lockhart was following him, his hand was on his shoulder.
"Don't worry, Dudley, don't worry!" said Lockhart. "We'll work hard and be sure to win the third task. It's going to be difficult, but don't forget, you have me in your corner. We'll find a way to succeed, don't you worry"
Ron and Dean were waiting for Dudley to walk back to the castle. Neville had said his goodbyes and already gone with Lavender.
"What took you so long?" Ron asked.
"Yeah, we were thinking the giant squid had got you," said Dean.
"Moaning Myrtle," Dudley said, bitterly, and proceeded to tell them all about Myrtle sending him the wrong way.
"That spotty faced cow," Ron said, furiously.
"Ron! She's not a cow!" Hermione said, 'She's just a sad, bullied ghost."
"Yeah, and if she had her way, there'd be a new ghost in Hogwarts," Ron said, darkly. "If Dud's bubble-head charm had failed …"
Dudley hadn't considered that until now.
"Dudley could have shared her bathroom," Dean suggested.
Dudley pushed him into a bush, making him swear when the prickles got him. Ron laughed.
"Daddy always suspected the Hogwarts ghosts of plotting a hostile takeover at the school," Luna said, thoughtfully. "Led by the Fat Friar. Maybe getting rid of Dudley was the first step in their plan."
Dudley did what he usually did when Luna spouted nonsense, he ignored it. "Yeah, well, I've got to pay her back, haven't I?"
Hermione sighed. "I thought you'd left all that behind, Dudley. Getting revenge on people. Don't tell me you're going to go back the way you were."
"I'm not going to beat her up," Dudley said.
"I don't think you can beat up a ghost, Dud," Dean pointed out.
Dudley ignored him. "But what's the harm in tossing a dungbomb at her. She deserves it."
"It was throwing dungbombs at her that got you into this mess in the first place!" Hermione said, through gritted teeth.
"I don't think you should," Luna said, suddenly. "It's quite mean to do things like that to people. So I can see why Myrtle was sad. I bet that's why the ghosts want to take over Hogwarts …"
"Fine, I'll leave it," Dudley sighed. He could never win against Hermione in an argument, and now she had Luna on her side too.
The Gryffindor party went long into the night. Dudley was asked by quite a few people what had went wrong and every expressed anger at Moaning Myrtle.
"Still, at least Neville didn't let the side down," George said after Dudley had told them what had happened with a wink. Dudley gave him the finger.
Neville was keeping to himself, sat in a quiet corner with Lavender, Parvati, Dean and Seamus rather than joining in the celebration. Hermione was also not celebrating. She had gone to her dorm room for an early night after enduring teasing for being the thing Krum would miss the most.
Dudley, too, got teased for kissing Luna in front of everyone but didn't let it get to him. Ginny asked him every detail about the lake and what happened and especially about the merpeople.
"They're not like I expected," Dudley admitted, afterwards.
"Yeah, I've seen the muggle versions of mermaids," Ginny said. "Like covergirls from Playwizard Magazine with fish tails."
Over the next few days, Dudley developed a routine where he would meet Luna each morning and they would have breakfast together. Luna had a lot of interesting stories about places she had visited. Her father, it turns out, enjoyed traveling, and had taken her to visit many places in the world—usually in search of some creature or another or to find out the truth about some local legend. Dudley, whose sole trips abroad had been to Spain with his parents, listened eagerly about all the new places. He felt a little envious that Luna had been to places like Ireland, Austria and Morocco, while he hadn't.
On one morning, they were greeted by Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. It was the first time that Dudley had encountered him since the second task.
"What?" Dudley snapped, eying Malfoy like he was a slug.
"Just here to congratulate you on your performance," Malfoy said smirking. "And wondering how it feels to be outclassed by Longbottom of all people."
"Shove off, Malfoy," Dudley growled. "You're not worth my time."
"If I lost to Longbottom I'd quit in embarrassment," Malfoy continued. He must have been feeling brave since Dudley was alone except for Luna and there were no other students around. "Although, I'd be embarrassed enough dragging Loony around with me."
Dudley turned around slowly, his fists clenched by his side. Having Malfoy insulting him was one thing, but now he was starting on Luna too.
"I'm warning you, Malfoy … one more pop at me or Luna …"
"Or what? Last time we dueled, you ended up the hospital wing," Malfoy sneered. This was true, although Dudley had won the duel, the snake that Malfoy had summoned had bitten him quite badly.
"Just ignore him, Dudley," Luna said. "It's obvious he's jealous."
"Jealous? What do I have to be jealous of?" Malfoy demanded while Crabbe and Goyle laughed.
"Dudley is one of the Hogwarts Champions, and he's ten times the wizard and ten times the man you'll ever be," Luna said, matter-of-factly.
Malfoy flushed and reached for his wand. Luna, however, was quicker, hers was in her hand and pointed at Malfoy's chest.
"I know a lot of spells, Malfoy," Luna said, brightly. "The latest issue of the quibbler had a spell to turn your ears into kumquats."
Dudley laughed, even though he wasn't sure what a kumquat was. Judging by the puzzled expression on their faces, neither did Crabbe and Goyle.
"What's going on here?" it was Mad-Eye Moody. He didn't look pleased.
"Just having a discussion," Dudley said. He guessed that Moody's eye had seen what was happening through the wall of the Great Hall and had come to investigate.
"If you're going to be having … certain types of discussion … it's best to them elsewhere," Moody said. "And alone," he added, pointedly, looking at Malfoy with distaste.
Malfoy scowled but walked off, Crabbe and Goyle in tow.
"You need to be more careful, Dursley," Moody growled. "I know what happened with you and Nott last year. You never know what people are capable of—constant vigilance, Dursley. Constant vigilance."
When Moody had stomped off, Dudley glanced down at Luna and grinned. "That was brilliant—the look on Malfoy's face."
Luna shrugged. "Well, you defended me, so I thought it was my turn to defend you. Now, come on, or all the good food will be gone," and she tugged on his hand to lead him into the Great Hall.
The day after his encounter with Malfoy, Dudley was surprised to see Neville waiting for him in the Common Room.
"I'll catch up with you at breakfast," he said to a very irritated looking Lavender. "Got a minute, Dud?"
"Sure," Dudley said, a little uncertainly. Though he and Neville were back on friendlier terms now, they weren't exactly close.
Wondering what was up, Dudley followed Neville our of the portrait and down a corridor where they arrived at a deserted classroom.
"I've got to apologize," Neville said, looking down at his feet.
"For what?" Dudley furrowed his brow. He couldn't think of anything Neville had done wrong really.
Neville sighed, sat on a desk and ran his hand through his hair. He had been growing it out—Dudley had only just realized, it was reaching the length of his jaw.
"I had help with the dragons," Neville said finally. "Moody ... he, kinda, gave me a hint. Told me to remember Hagrid's class."
"Ah! That's why Hagrid showed us the dragons!" Dudley said, excitedly. He felt stupid for only just realizing that.
Neville nodded. "Yeah, well, Moody dropped me the hint and also dropped hints about using a simple charm."
"Accio," Dudley said. All the pieces were falling into place now.
"The thing is, Hermione did some reading—objects used in the tournament are supposed to be protected from spells. Things like chests, keys and ..."
"Eggs," Dudley finished. He frowned. "So, what ... you're saying somebody forgot to charm the egg?"
Neville shook his head. "No, I don't think Dumbledore would forget that. I think Moody removed the incantations on it."
"Why would he do that? Wait, you mean he wanted you to win?"
"Yeah, that's what I think," said Neville.
"What does Hermione think?"
"I haven't mentioned it to her, I don't know what she'd say,"
Dudley wondered why Neville had come to him. He wasn't exactly known for being one of the brightest in the class.
"He's an auror right, well, ex-auror? Maybe he's doing it to protect you—I mean, if someone put our names in the Goblet of Fire to kill us ..."
"Why didn't he help you though?"
Dudley frowned. That was a fair point. "Maybe he didn't get the chance?" he suggested, but he knew it was a rather tame reason.
It was a puzzler.
"You said you were going to apologize for something?" Dudley asked, finally.
"Oh, yeah—listen, mate, I should have told you about the dragons. I mean, I though Lockhart had told you—but I should have mentioned them anyway. I just wanted to prove myself, you know," Neville was looking at his shoes.
"Don't worry about it," Dudley said, bracingly. "It's fine, we got by it, didn't we?"
"Yeah," Neville grinned. "Task Two though, I want you to know, was all on me. I used Gillyweed. I read about it in a book that I ..." he trailed off.
"What?" asked Dudley.
"A book I borrowed off Moody," Neville finished, frowning. "You don't think he gave it to me knowing what the second task would be?"
"I do," Dudley said. He suddenly had an idea too. "Hey, you don't think he's not helping me because I've got Lockhart do you? I mean, Lockhart failed on the first task, but he taught me the Bubble-Head charm for the second."
"That makes sense," Neville said nodding. "So, Lockhart's helping you and Moody is secretly helping me."
"Do you think Dumbledore knows?" Dudley asked.
"No, he's too ... well, fair, I reckon this is Moody on his own. I bet he thinks with Lockhart guiding you and him giving me hints that he can get us through this tournament and spoil whoever put our names in's plans," said Neville
Dudley nodded, feeling that Neville was correct.
"Anyway, I best go meet Lavender, she'll be angry if I don't," Neville said with a grin.
"Yeah, I'll go and meet Luna—though, she doesn't really get angry. Though, she sometimes gives me this sort of look, and I know I've done something to annoy her," said Dudley.
Neville laughed. "I'm glad you're going out with her. Luna's very nice. I dunno if you noticed but she looks happy now."
Dudley hadn't noticed. "I thought she was always happy?"
"Well, kind of," Neville admitted. "But it's more of a genuine happiness. Surely you've noticed the way she smiles when she's with you."
Dudley hadn't noticed, but he felt pleased that he was making Luna feel happy. He felt the same way.