Chapter 94
The Second Task: Saving the one you care for
The second task was scheduled to take place right after Valentine's day, and would be taking place out on the lake. The champions weren't told much, but were given an egg, and told that they had to figure out what it was about, that it would give them a clue about their tasks. They had all figured out that they would have to figure out a way to save someone out in the middle of the lake, under the waves, and had to figure a way to be under for many hours to find them. The three of them all had different ideas on how they were going to be doing this, and they were all really nervous about whether or not they would be able to last long enough to find the thing that they were after. They had decided that they could do the bubble head charm as a backup, but also wanted a main way to do this.
Viktor Krum had decided that he would do a transfigure spell on himself to do this task, like he did the first task. He was looking up ideas about what he was going to have to transform into to be able to do this, and smiled when he found the perfect thing.
Fleur Delacore had decided that she would call on one of her friends that she had made while here, and ask her if there was a way that she could transfer her ability to her. She talked to the young mermaid that she had befriended from the lake, when she helped her out when she had gotten sick, and was floundering on the lake side when the Giant Squid accidentally put her up on the shore. She had helped the young lady, and made sure that she made it back to the lake safely. Yes she would her friend if she could get the ability one last time to breath water like she could for a short amount of time.
Cedric Diggory did the one thing that he could think of, he went to one of his more interesting teachers and asked if he could get him some Gillyweed to be able to breath underwater. Professor Snape looked at the young man and just nodded. He said, "you know I'm not supposed to be helping you with this, but if I just turned my back to say look at some papers over on my desk, and my storage locker just happened to be open, you could get it, and I wouldn't no the better." The professor sneered and turned his back on the student, and Cedric took the hint, and got it quickly before leaving.
"Thank you for telling me that sir, I'm sorry for bothering you and I will find another way to find it." He wasn't beyond doing this, and was happy that no one was around to see him getting help from the professor.
Snape just waved at the student and turned watching him go. "Good luck Mr. Diggory, we are hoping that you will bring the win to the school." He said this as the champion was out of hearing, and went back to what he was doing with the papers, and stirring a cauldron that had a healing potion in it. He was happy that he was able to help, and that the Hufflepuff had the nerve to come to him, instead of his own Head of House for the help. "You would have made a great Slytherin my boy, I wonder why the sorting hat put you with them. I guess I will never know."
The champions were meeting with the heads and the Minister of Magic going over what they were going to be doing this task. "Ok, you each have someone down there that means a lot to you, and they are waiting for you to go and rescue them. Don't worry, they are in no danger, they are under a sleeping spell, and a breathing charm. There is nothing that can happen to them, you just need to go find them and rescue them. You have two hours to find them and bring them back. Don't worry, they will be under the breathing charm until they come back up even if you don't find them in time. Now do you all understand what you are supposed to be doing? You will all be doing this at the same time, and will be going against each other against the clock. This will be scored on how much time it takes you less than the two hours. Good luck, and have fun." Arthur smiled at the champions before shaking each of their hands, and going back to the stands with the other heads, leaving the champions to themselves.
When Minister Weasley raised his hand to signal them to start, they all went to the edge of the water, and dove in. As soon as he was in the water, Cedric took the gillyweed and stuck it in his mouth starting to chew it, finding that it worked fine and was able to breath under water easily. Viktor changed his head into that of a shark and had an easy time of breathing also, swimming off towards where he thought they would find whom they were looking for. Fleur was met by a mermaid who gave her a hug, and then blew something into her face so that she could breath underwater. Cedric and Fleur followed Viktor down into the depths, and were soon seeing different types of sea creatures, and the Giant Squid lazily watching them with his eye. They decided to follow Viktor to see if he had any idea about where they were supposed to go, and were soon awarded by the sight of a beautiful underwater city of gold. They saw that it was a city of the merfolk, and Fleur asked one of them if they knew where the people that they were looking for were.
The guards of the folk told her that they didn't know, but they had heard rumors that they were being held in a deeper part of the lake near the bottom.
She thanked her new friends and started heading down towards the bottom where they were directed while the other two were looking also in different directions. She was the first to find the person that was down there for her to find, and was surprised to find her little sister, Gabrielle. She went down to where they were and found that they were held with a simple locking charm on the chains, and she easily freed her sister, before heading back to the surface. She passed the other two, and laughed a bit when she saw they were looking in the wrong direction. She decided that this was a tournament, and that it wouldn't be right to help them with what they were doing. She swam up to the surface and once she broke the surface near the stands, there was an uproar of applause and cheers as Gabrielle woke up and looked at her sister. She smiled and thanked her for rescuing her, and they were both checked out by Madame Pomphrey to make sure that they were all right. She found that it had only took her 1 hour to find her, and was happy to have a high score of another 95 for her effort. She bowed to her supporters, and smiled as she went off to find her friends to see how the others were going to do.
Cedric was the next to find his target, and smiled as he saw his beautiful girlfriend Cho Chang tied there, and he quickly undid her, but not before giving her a kiss and then swam up to the surface with her still unconscious body in his arms. He was happy that she was still alive, for she was still breathing. He came up just as Fleur was sitting down, and found that it had taken him 1 hour 15 minutes to rescue her, and he was given a score of 90 for the task. He went and got checked out and kissed Cho again properly this time that she was awake now and congratulating him on rescuing her. He sat down with her next to Fleur and Gabrielle talking quietly as they watched out for Krum and when he would be coming up.
Viktor himself was having a bit of a problem finding his target. He of course had seen the other two come back with their packages, and wondered briefly on which way they had come from. Then he decided to go ahead and follow the way that they had come from. Eventually he found where they had gone, and found the young lady that he had taken to the Yule Ball waiting for him down there. He quickly freed her, and swum up to find that he had just barely made it under the 2 hour mark. He was given an 80 score for the effort, but found that they were going to be close to this anyway. He was cheered as were all the other champions, and found himself changing back as soon as he came out of the water. He went with the other champions, and awaited the next set of instructions.
"Well done champions, well done. Now the next thing that is on the schedule for the schools, is the school Quidditch Tournament. While this isn't officially part of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, we have discussed it, and since your scores are so close, we will be adding points to your score for the tournament. 300 points for the first place team, 250 points for the second and 200 for the third place team. This will mean that there will be some interesting ideas on how this is going to work out, and the champions will be the ones that will be captaining and choosing their house team. The third task will take place at the end of the year, and will culminate in the award ceremony for the champion of champions." Arthur smiled at this, and then sent them all off to the castle for a well deserved rest.
Harry groaned now. He knew now that he wasn't going to be on the team, at least not as the starter, for Cedric was a good seeker, and they wouldn't need his skills as one for a starter. He walked up to Cedric and asked. "Can I speak to you a second Cedric." When he nodded, they walked a little bit back from the others and Harry voiced his opinion. "I know that your good, and I wouldn't want to be taking this away from you, but I was wondering if I could be the back up seeker for our team for the tournament?" Harry looked up at the older boy with hope in his eyes.
"Well Harry, I know exactly how good you are, but there are probably going to be a lot of people trying out for the team. I know that I am the one that's in charge of it, but I don't know who to pick. I know that I want your brothers Fred and George as Beaters, that's a given for they are the best in the school, but the others I don't know. I will tell you what, I will make you the reserve, because you are that good, and I will let you know when the practices are. Don't worry Harry, I was going to ask you anyway." Cedric smiled at the younger boy, and slapped him on the back. He had always liked Harry, for not only was he a good guy, but he was also a damn good seeker. They made their way back to the castle, and walked silently to their own dorms. Harry thanked Cedric again and made his way to the portrait of the fat lady before making his way inside to sleep after saying good night to his friends and kissing Hermione.