DISCLAIMER: Not mine. JK Rowlings.

DRACO MALFOY AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE

BY LADY LESTRANGE

The Second Task

Thank you to my reviewers. Love you all.

Draco came down to the lake as late as possible, but once again Potter wasn't there yet. Maybe with his winnings he would buy Potter a watch, he thought drolly.

It was freezing outside. Whatever possessed Dumb-as-a-door to decide to have the swimming contest in mid winter. Why hadn't he put this task first and the Dragons now? At the moment basking in Dragon's breath sounded infinitely preferable to a dip in the icy lake. Draco's teeth were starting to chatter, but they were forbidden to use their wands until instructed to. He just wanted a nice warming spell. His heavy winter cloak was not even warm enough to cut the chill. He pulled up the hood, although he hated to hide his hair and face from his adoring fan club that was cheering continuously. In a motion that could have been an adjustment of the cloak, Draco stole a hand under the cloak to check to be sure that the stem of gillyweed along with a small penknife were both safely tucked where they belonged.

Ludo Bagman could barely be heard above the Slytherin cheers, even with his sonorous spell. Ludo Bagman, affectionately known among the Death Eaters as Lewd Gagman, was droning on about the ages of the Champions and how he-and Potter had beaten the older Champions. Potter! Thought Draco, what did Potter have to do with it? He had beaten the older champions. Potter had come in second. What was this: one of those muggle-type advertisements for Potter? Well, Draco had news for Gagman, It was he who had the new and improved Achio spell, not Potter. And wait till they saw his work this time.

Draco shivered. He'd have to be quick with the warming spell, or his milky white skin would be covered with disgusting goose flesh. He'd look like a Christmas Goose instead of his debonair self, and he didn't want to waste the sexy green Lycra swim trunks that he had bought especially for the occasion.

At last, Gagman announced the beginning of the contest. Draco cast the warming spell and looked around at the others. He knew he should get on with the task, but this was the only one that he would have an opportunity to watch, and he couldn't resist. Both of the airheads did bubble head charms, and dove into the freezing water. Why did that not surprise him? Draco took a small vial out of his pocket and shrugged off his cloak, now that he was warm. He stood at the water's edge in all his magnificence. He pretended to ignore the oo-s and ah's of his fan club, until he looked around and realized that Viktor Krum had also shed his cloak. The muscles of his Quiddich body quivered in the cold, but nothing in his dark, brooding eyes seemed to acknowledge his discomfort. This was the man to beat, thought Draco as he handed his folded cloak to Pansy. She leaned in as if to give him a good luck kisses. He quickly turned his cheek and then smiled at her, before waving to his fans—or were they Krum's fans? —Nasty thought--

Standing in loose boxer type swim trunks with tiny sharks on them, Viktor raised his wand and began his spell. He transfigured himself into—an abomination. He was half shark and half man. McGonagall would have failed him. Didn't they teach transfiguration at Drumstrang? If Draco was confident before, now he was sure of his victory. He hid his out and out laughter behind his traditional smirk, and glanced up at his fan club. Their attention was back where it belonged. On him.

Gagman's words interrupted his thoughts. "Mr. Malfoy has only done a warming spell and is currently doing nothing but modeling his designer swimsuit. Perhaps he never learned how to swim—Of course, he could always do what Harry Potter has done—"

Draco turned, just in time to see Potter's mouth plugged full of gillyweed like some kind of chipmunk. Didn't he know he didn't have to eat the whole bush? It was such slimy stuff. Well, knowing Harry Potter, he probably liked the disgusting stuff. After all, he liked the Mudblood, and Weasley didn't he? And they were pretty disgusting.

Plowing into the water without removing his robe at all, Potter pushed past Draco. He was fully clothed, although by the look of the robes, he had slept in them and the lake water couldn't make them look any worse. "Hey Potter," he sneered. "About time you washed those robes. Better conjure some soap. They look like you used them to mop up the owlry."

Potter opened his mouth to answer, but apparently he had already swallowed some of the gillyweed. He gasped in air, that his newly sprouted gills couldn't handle. With the gills flaring at his neck, he plunged face first into the water, showering Draco with the cool drops.

With a muttered curse, Draco decided it was time to go. He pulled the stopper on the vial and downed the Whale's breath potion. Uncertain of what to do with the vial now that Pansy had taken his cloak back to the stands, he glanced up at the Slytherin girls. With a lazy smile, he tucked the empty bottle back under the right side of his jock strap, opposite the gillyweed and penknife. The reaction was instantaneous. Half of the Slytherin girls stood and whistled and cheered the other half hid their faces in laugher or embarrassment. Their smiling faces were the last thing he saw a he raised his wand and apparated to the mer-city at the bottom of the lake.

No one was in sight. He had of course beaten everyone to the city, even though he was the last to leave the shore. The hostages were not hard to find. They were tied in plain sight. There was Weasley, the Mudblood, Cho Chang and another little girl, obviously a veela, Fleur's little sister, Draco surmised. He wondered who Potter was supposed to choose—one of his friends or the love of his life.

Draco had no such problem. He went immediately to Tully and stuffed the stem of gillyweed in her mouth. Although he pushed the gillyweed half way down her throat, she didn't swallow and her eyes didn't open. Apparently, he had to cut her lose before the spell was broken. Draco sliced through the bonds with the penknife and once again tried to get her to swallow the gillyweed. Although the spell was supposed to last until they reached the air, Draco had no intention of carrying a house elf when she could swim for herself. As soon as the spell was broken, she would not be able to breathe. That should happen, right now, thought Draco with a wave of his wand. Her eyes opened in surprise. Terror showed on her face as he forced the gillyweed down her throat. She gagged once and had clung to him, but she had faced much worse at Malfoy Manor and after all, she was only a house elf. Before she actually turned blue, she turned green.

Once he realized she was breathing, he smirked at her. Immediately she grabbed his hand and started kissing it. He could just imagine what he would be hearing if she could talk under water. Oh Master Malfoy, you are the mostest wonderfullest master in the wide world—or the wide sea—"

Draco saw just below him, Potter at last get to the hostages. He started to try to take one of the merpeople's swords. They refused. He got a piece of rock and started hacking at Hermione's bonds. Well, thought Draco, that told you who he cared most about. The merpeople again stopped him. Draco would have dearly loved to watch the show, but decided it was time to go.

He pointed upwards and she nodded, immediately setting off at a brisk pace to the surface. He swam up after her, but was considerably slower without fins and webbed feet. At the surface, he turned to see exactly where the judge's stand was located and pointed her in that direction, with a snap of his fingers. At Malfoy Manor, that snap meant do it now and be quick about it. Tully understood and instead of swimming she went pop and disappeared. He thought he better apparate immediately to make sure she kept her head underwater until the gillyweed wore off.

With a wave of his wand, he joined Tully on the shore and promptly picked her up and deposited her back into the lake where she could breathe. The hands that clung to his leg and rubbed his calf told him what a wonderful master he was. She wasn't going to let go of him, so he gave in and dragging her along, moved to a out jutting rock that allowed him to dangle his feet in the water. Under the lake, Tully began to give him a foot massage with her strangely webbed elfin hands. Draco sighed and waved Madam Pomfrey away when she tried to give him a blanket. His warming charm was working fine and he was enjoying watching the girls drool.

Draco stretched and flexed and settled back to watch. Watch what? What on earth were all of these people watching? The top of the lake? They couldn't see the Champions. This had to be the most quintessentially boring event in history. For this they cancelled Quiddich?

Ludo Bagman was outlining what Draco must have done under the water in his sonorous voice, but he didn't have a clue. Rita Skeeter was standing just a few feet away apparently wondering if it was too early to ask Draco anything. She had an acid quill, but she was just a little afraid of the Malfoys. "Well, who wouldn't be?" thought Draco as he motioned her over to him. She came to the edge of the water.

"Closer," Draco said snidely and watched her step into the frigid seaweed green water with her beautiful gray silk covered pumps. He imagined that in her line of work, she had to learn quite a number of cleaning charms.

"What did you see?" she asked.

"Nothing."

"None of the Champions?" she began, disappointment apparent in her face. "Krum? Potter—"

"Oh, yeah, Potter. I hesitate to call him a Champion, but yes, I saw him down there."

"Well, what was he doing?" asked Rita in exasperation.

"Playing: Eenie, Meenie in the Pond—

Catch a wizard by the wand—"

Rita started to laugh—her Quick Quotes Quill scribbling furiously--

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Lady Lestrange