Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K Rowling.

Chapter 10: The Unusual Completion of the Second Task

"Alright," Rowena began as she sat down in her designated armchair while I was reading a book about spells useful in water. "What is your plan for tomorrow?"

I closed the book silently and looked her in the eyes. "I plan to use something called gillyweed, it lets you grow…"

"I know what it does," Rowena interrupted with a pointed look.

"Okay, ummm," I stammered. "If the gillyweed doesn't work or runs out of time, I'll use a bubble head charm."

"Good precaution," she commented with a nod.

"I have practised using aguamenti to propel myself forwards, to make myself swim faster," I continued to explain.

"Efficient idea."

"I'm not sure what we're supposed to find, but I've hidden all my things in here, so they won't be able to take something valuable from me."

"Adequate preparation."

"Finally, I've found out which creatures reside in the lake and how to counter them. In case I have to fight one of the other champions, I've found some spells for that too," I finished confidently.

Rowena nodded thoughtfully, "You've prepared well for this, it should go without a hitch."

"I hope so, otherwise all those hours of lost sleep was for nothing," I tried to joke.

Rowena's face didn't move a muscle, she just continued staring into space absently.

"There is only one thing you have not prepared for," Rowena started with a frown.

"What is that?" I asked curiously, perhaps she had another nugget of wisdom waiting for me.

"Delacour is an enemy during the task. Do not hesitate if you see her," Rowena elaborated calmly.

I rolled my eyes at her, "Trust me, I'm well aware."

"We'll see."

-()-

The library was almost empty when I entered in the evening, all classes were cancelled the next day to accomodate for our second task. My feet led me to my usual spot in the library without thinking and I sat down heavily and opened a book on plants in lakes. The words entered one eye and went out the other, my focus was on something else. Or rather on someone else.

It would be interesting to see what her advice or help would prove to be. After this, I would get a good night's sleep and make up for my awful score in the first task.

I actually felt a sense of pride about my work to get through this task. If someone ever thought me lazy, this was the proof they were wrong.

I glanced at a watch and closed the book. My ability to focus had gone out the window, I just had to get this over with and move on.

Sounds of footsteps approached my position and soon the familiar blue of the Beauxbatons appeared at the other end of the aisle. I opened my mouth to greet Fleur but it died in my throat.

There were more than one. Five people clad in Beauxbatons uniforms walked towards me with their wands drawn. They hadn't passed my ward yet but would at any moment.

Their eyes all bore into me at the same time and I knew I was screwed. In perfect synchronisation they all lifted their wands and five flashes of red light seared towards me quickly.

"Protego," I shouted desperately and tried to evade the incoming spells.

The aisle was too narrow though and my shield shattered forcefully and flung me backwards into the wall with a heavy thud. I saw stars and tried to brace myself to stand up again, but a blur of blue kicked my arm angrily and my wand was lost to the storm of students.

"Please," I wheezed but to no avail.

"What a fucking idiot," someone said.

Unconsciousness greeted me.

-()-

When I awoke again, it was pitch black. Everything was blurry, everything was dark.

"The task!" I thought stressfully and began to fumble around the nightstand for my wand and my glasses. If it was night now, I could still attend the second task in the morning.

Hot knives stabbed me in the back mercilessly as I moved my arm out and around to find my glasses. Finally, my fingers touched the familiar frame and I panted heavily as I slipped my glasses on.

The blur was gone so I could see the dark outlines of the hospital wing, but it was deserted. The piece of holy and phoenix feather was on the night stand as well and I sighed in contentment as I felt the familiarity of my wand. As long as I had my wand, I could participate.

Taking a deep breath and bracing myself, I pushed myself to a sitting position. Guns of fire shot me in the back repeatedly and I was forced back down to a lying position.

This was not good at all, I couldn't even sit up, how could I even begin to contemplate walking or swimming?

If I could get to Rowena's Room, she could heal me, I knew she could. I chuckled bitterly and winced in pain as my back flared violently again.

I bit my lip determinedly and pushed as strongly as I could to sit up straight. Swords of pain slashed across my back relentlessly and it felt like someone had decided to plunge spikes into my back.

I laid back with a heavy, painful sigh. The possibility of me leaving on my own was slim. I could only lay back tiredly and think.

How had I even ended up here?

I was supposed to meet Fleur in the library and then those people had arrived. Who were they?

Remembering felt like trudging through mud. I could recall forms of blue standing above me, red lights crashing into my chest.

"They must have been Beauxbatons," I muttered to myself.

Why would they even attack me though? I was their champion's friend.

That also raised another question, how did they know I was there. I always took great caution to make sure I wasn't followed.

As far as I knew, only four people knew where and how I hid. Rowena, Hermione, Ron and Fleur.

My heart slammed like a hammer in my chest. It couldn't be, surely? Had Fleur betrayed me?

Rowena obviously couldn't have told anyone. Ron and Hermione could've but I heavily doubted it. Fleur was the only person left. I was attacked by Beauxbatons as well, could she have sent them there?

Of course she had, I was such an idiot. If it wouldn't have hurt so much to laugh, I would have laughed at my own stupidity.

With that sombre thought, the peace of unconsciousness visited me again.

-()-

"Good morning Harry," a sad voice uttered just as I woke from my slumber.

The sun was now casting its rays violently inside the hospital wing, striking me in the eye relentlessly.

The voice belonged to a grey haired man in aggressively purple robes, Dumbledore.

"Sir!" The task, I need to go to the lake," I started urgently.

"The task was three days ago Harry," Dumbledore interrupted sadly. "You've been unconscious for four days."

I blinked and it felt like someone had dumped a pile of concrete on my stomach.

"Then I didn't attend the task," I said in horror. "Have…have I lost my magic?" I stuttered with my eyes wide open.

Dumbledore gave me a tired smile, "Your magic is as strong as ever."

"But the contract said that I would lose my magic if I didn't do the tasks," I countered with a frown.

Dumbledore sighed heavily. "You attended the second task. You were just not conscious while doing it though."

I stared at Dumbledore for several seconds before taking a long breath and exhaling slowly.

"How?"

Dumbledore put his face in his hands. "Your hospital bed was taken out to the lake and you laid by the edge during the entire task," he explained warily.

I swallowed loudly, "I lay unconscious for an hour in front of the entire school."

"In essence, yes," Dumbledore replied honestly.

"Do you know who attacked me?" I changed the topic quickly.

"Specifically? No," Dumbledore began. "But others in the library claimed a 'group of Beauxbatons' entered about when you were attacked."

"So no one was punished?"

"Not really," Dumbledore answered tiredly. "We judges decided that the safety of everyone involved was at risk. Therefore the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang delegates have returned to their schools until the third task."

"The safety of everyone was at risk the moment you decided to host this stupid tournament. It is too late now!" I roared in anger at him. "Didn't all those other students in here give you the message?! Did the fight in the great hall not give you the notion that it was unsafe for us here?"

Dumbledore sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly, "I know Harry. We've all made mistakes."

"Goodbye Sir," I said coolly and closed my eyes again.

Not soon after, I heard low thuds as he left the hospital behind.

I had done the second task while unconscious. I could only imagine how it must have looked for the crowd. It must have been pathetic, this was prime material for Malfoy and his ilk. I didn't really care enough anymore, but this was an embarrassment on a larger scale than petty insults. This was an international embarrassment. People in France would read about it in their newspapers, just as the British would in theirs.

Delacour had fooled me, tricked me and sent her goons after me.

I had feared the first task. I had prepared for the second task. The third task was the first one I would look forward to.

Delacour would pay.

-()-

Two days later, I was finally released from the prison called 'hospital wing'. My back was still sore in places and I couldn't move as freely as I would have liked.

I trudged slowly out of the hospital wing and aimed to immediately go to the fourth floor. Slowly but surely, as I grew closer to the staircases, I began to see people in the halls.

The surprise from stares was long gone, but I had expected stares of mocking or perhaps sympathy. The pure disgust which radiated from the people I walked past took me by surprise. A Ravenclaw I met looked like he wanted to send me back where I just came from. Did me missing the task really make Hogwarts this angry? Were they blind?

"Harry!" I heard someone call out to me and I turned around to find Ron and Hermione standing in front of me.

"Hello," I replied tiredly with a small smile. "Any of you know why I'm being looked at like I commited genocide?"

They exchanged a look and fidgeted nervously. "It's a long story, we can tell you in the common room," Hermione said and dragged me off towards the Gryffindor tower.

Reluctantly, I followed her wake. Rowena could wait until I had some answers.

I'd always felt like Gryffindor's tower was one where warmth permeated through the room nicely and the crackling of the fireplace added to the cosy feeling.

When the portrait swung open to reveal the familiar interior, something was distinctly different. Cool glances were directed at me briefly before they pointedly ignored me. What could I have possibly done to make my own house mates look at me with daggers sharp as steel?

I shivered as I sat down in an armchair in a corner of the room. Ron and Hermione sat down on a couch in front of me hesitantly and waited quietly.

"Care to explain this sudden hostility?" I snapped angrily and immediately regretted it. These two were the only ones I'd seen since exiting the hospital wing which didn't appear to find my very existence abhorrent.

"It all began on the morning of the task. We were at breakfast and Delacour suddenly stood up in the middle of the great hall," Hermione began with a frown.

"And?" I demanded.

"And she started this speech," Ron continued quickly.

"What kind of speech?" I asked suspiciously, it felt like I was falling down the Gryffindor tower.

"She started to explain why you were a…a bad person," Hermione explained.

"'Despicable human being' was the term she used," Ron supplied honestly.

"Why?" I asked in confusion.

They exchanged another look, "According to her, you have bewitched Roger Davis to make sure you went with her to the dance," Hermione whispered.

I sat quietly, so Delacour had discovered my master plan. All that about being a puppet master.

"Wait," Hermione began suspiciously. "You didn't actually do it, did you?"

I sat silently and she must have taken that as enough to answer, "Incredible," she muttered.

"Anyway," Ron continued with a uncertain glance glance at the brunette. "She went on to show a document which proved you had used some confundus charm or something, signed by some doctor."

"That made everyone hate me?" I asked incredulously.

I realised that it didn't look good, but the treatment I'd received so far had been outright hateful.

"There's more. She went on to explain how you had attacked a little girl once. Apparently, four Beauxbatons saved her. The girl in question even admitted it. After that, Delacour explained how you had snuck into the Beauxbatons carriage and rummaged through her room."

I frowned at this, there was no way to actually prove this was wrong if the witnesses were on her side.

"Finally, Malfoy stepped forward and declared that he had been tormented by you, before he was 'thankfully' saved by four students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang," Ron retold in a frustrated tone.

"That's not good," was all I could muster.

'Not good' was a huge understatement though, it was a catastrophe of enormous proportions. Fleur had not just attacked me to prevent me from participating, she had masterfully turned the entire student body against me. It didn't matter that the other schools weren't here anymore.

It was ironic. I always felt in control and so brilliant for manipulating her, but it was the other way around all along. How had she discovered my plot though?

"She finished by saying how she told us all of this to warn us of you. To make sure that you didn't get away with anything else and all that crap," Ron finished slowly.

"I see," I uttered shortly.

I didn't see it though. My mind was a wirwar of thought and confusion. I needed to visit Rowena now. She would know what to do, because the outlook was dark currently.

"Thanks for the briefing," I started shortly. "But I need to leave."

With that I stood up, ignoring the flash of pain in my back and strided as gracefully as I could through the portrait hole. Silent as a mouse, I snuck towards the fourth floor and let out a relieved sigh as the familiar silver door stood out against the dull Hogwarts walls.

-()-

The silence stretched on for what felt like eternity. She hadn't uttered a word as I entered the room, when I walked towards her or when I sat down. My master hadn't even so much as cast a look in my direction. Did she know I was here?

I cleared my throat and immediately regretted it as my back complained silently. When I winced her head turned sharply towards me, staring me straight in the eye. I got the feeling that she was looking for something in my eyes, but I didn't get the same sensation as legilimency.

"I was wrong," Rowena ground out shortly.

She sounded as if those words put together offended her, hurt her and embarrassed her at the same time.

"About what?" I asked with a strained smile.

"My approach to all of this," she began and gestured to me and herself. "I had carefully planned a precise schedule for how you would learn everything and in what order."

I nodded in understanding and waited for her to continue.

"I have realised that special conditions are in place currently," she admitted and paused. "We will have to deviate from the curriculum I planned."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise, was this her admitting that me learning runes when my life was in peril was a mistake?

"What does this mean?"

"It means that we will focus on things which will benefit you right now," she stated shortly. "I don't like it, but we will have to wait to learn some things until later."

"Does this mean that I'll finally learn duelling?" I asked with an excited grin etched over my face.

"This is the reason I wanted to wait with 'duelling'. You don't know what it is," Rowena replied with a frown.

"Duelling is when two or more people fight each other," I quickly defended myself.

"True, but can you say you haven't learned any duelling yet?" Rowena countered with an arched eyebrow. "Just because we haven't used the spells in an actual duel doesn't mean that they can't be used in one."

"You're saying that writing runes in green paint and dancing will be useful in a duel?"

"Definitely," she said as her frown deepened. "Your mind is too narrow minded as of now. Duelling isn't an exercise in power, knowledge of spells and speed. Its most important aspect is creativity."

"How am I supposed to defeat someone in a duel without knowing spells?"

"That you have to ask that question proves my point."

I huffed indignantly and sent her a venomous glare, "How do you do it then?"

She sighed tiredly, "Many different ways. My point is that duelling is the culmination of everything else you learn."

"Will I be able to paint someone into defeat?" I asked rhetorically.

"Yes," she stated with a stern look. "What you need to understand is that any kind of magic can be used to duel someone. You only need the creativity to realise how to use it."

"Just admit some things were quite useless."

Faster than a lightning bolt, she whipped her wand out and sent a green spell straight in my chest. It felt like a swarm of bees had decided that my chest was their personal chair.

"What are you doing?!" I growled angrily. "I just came back from three days knocked out cold!"

Rowena wore a disgusted snarl on her face, "I want you to understand one thing clearly," she explained slowly in a tone colder than ice. "You will listen to what I am saying otherwise there will be consequences."

"Doesn't give you the right to hex me," I replied sourly.

"It does. I'll do whatever I want. I will use the cruciatus to get a message through if I have to. Don't. Push. Your. Limits," she declared and pinned me with a death glare which left me with no doubts that she would actually do it.

"Then you're no better than Voldemort," I replied in disgust.

Rowena actually laughed at that, "You have no idea what Voldemort is, you have no idea what I am."

"I know what Voldemort is."

"Do you really? Then why did he survive the rebounded curse? Why are you having nightmares about him? What is his ultimate goal?" she countered calmly with an amused look.

"He is a murderer, that is all I need to know."

Rowena shook her head in exasperation, "I am a murderer. Your headmaster is a murderer. You are a murderer."

"Quirrell was an accident, as you very well know" I roared in defence. "And don't you dare compare Dumbledore to Voldemort," I added in a low tone.

She looked at me in disappointment, "I think we should continue this conversation tomorrow, when you've cooled off a little. We actually have some important matters to discuss."

I snarled viciously, "You assume I will return here."

"The thing which makes me and Voldemort different is that I want to teach you, Potter. I am your only way of beating him."

"If the only thing which makes you and Voldemort different is that, I made a grave mistake in choosing you for a teacher," I spat out venomously.

She stood up and raised her chin to look at me condescendingly, "For once, take a decision using rational thought and not emotion."

That said, she strided off gracefully into her own quarters and the silver door swing shut behind her.

-()-

The night was spent in my own bedroom right next to her own, I wanted to get to the bottom of this first thing in the morning. Why had she even chosen me as an apprentice if I had so many 'problems needed to be rectified'?

As I shut my own shining silver door behind me, I found Rowena already sitting in her armchair with her hands folded in her lap, waiting for me.

I raised my eyebrows and sat down in front of her.

"I want to apologise," Rowena began as she looked me in the eye. "I shouldn't have snapped the way I did."

My eyebrows rose even higher, my master admitting she was wrong yesterday was surprising. Her actually apologising was equally ludicrous.

"I'm sorry too," I stammered forward quickly. "I shouldn't have compared you to Voldemort."

She gave me a sad smile, "It was a fair comparison, hopefully, I'll never go as far as to actually use the cruciatus."

"So do I," I replied awkwardly. I had expected another screaming match, she had actually caught me off guard with this calm and apologetic demeanour.

"I think we need to discuss the recent events before anything else," Rowena started and changed the topic expertly.

"It's a mess," I declared with a pained smile.

"It is," my master admitted. "Manipulating messes is easier though."

"I think that it has been proved that my ability to manipulate was abysmal," I countered with a sad smile.

"No, we underestimated Delacour. I won't let that happen again," she replied with a determined glimt in her eye. "She embarrassed and attacked you, that means she attacked and embarrassed me. I will help you set the board straight."

I felt as if someone had pulled off a backpack full of stone off my back, I had feared she would leave me to my own devices again.

"We can't do much about anything though, just ride out the storm," I pointed out with a sigh. "With the witnesses on her side, we can't prove her wrong."

"No," Rowena replied with a stern look. "Delacour has also made mistakes. She didn't take anything you said or did out of context or twisted actions and words. No, she outright lied about things."

"Doesn't matter, it's what people believe that is important. Just look at my godfather."

"The truth is covered in a blanket of lies. However, she is not skilled enough to weave a blanket which covers the entirety. There are loose ends, inconsistencies, things which don't make sense. Expose this," she encouraged calmly.

"What are these things which don't make sense?"

"First of all, why did she expect that the entire Hogwarts population would turn against you after something she said. She and her schoolmates have attacked Hogwarts students for months."

"That's true, how could everyone forget about that?" commented with a frown.

"My guess is that someone influential from Hogwarts supported her, someone who should oppose her."

"Why?"

"Because if someone who has been openly in opposition to her then sided with her in some kind of 'common goal' type of arrangement people would believe it more."

"Who would that be though?" I asked rhetorically. "It's probably Malfoy or some other Slytherin, they spoke up for her."

She arched an eyebrow, "Just a reminder here. You were almost placed in Slytherin."

"Why does that matter here?"

"What I want to tell you is that houses are determined mostly based on expectation and desire, not actually the traits ascribed to each house," Rowena explained vaguely.

I blinked at her a few times and sighed, "What will I need to do?"

"Investigate," my master stated simply. "Find out who is really on Delacour's side. Find out why Malfoy would lie for her."

"Shaming me in front of the entire school is probably enough for him," I replied honestly. "That is no prejudice or anything."

"Perhaps, but he didn't just shame you though. He shamed himself by admitting that you 'bullied' him. Would he really do that?" Rowena demanded.

"No, he wouldn't," I replied with a frown. "Do you think he acted under some kind of spell or imperius?"

"No, he looked completely fine as he spoke, and I can recognise all forms of controlling someone."

"Wait," I declared suspiciously. "How did you see him? You said you couldn't leave the confines of this room."

"I can't physically leave the room, no. However, I have a way to view things which happen around Hogwarts, but it is limited," Rowena explained with a straight face.

"Care to tell me what that way is?"

"Not yet," she finished simply. "Find out more about all of this and we will talk more about it."

"I will try," I declared determinedly.

"You should leave and attend your classes. Return here at eight, then we have some grave matters to discuss."

WIth that ominous statement, she left me alone with only the sparkling fireplace keeping me company.

Hopefully, the day wouldn't be as grave as to prevent me from coming back here at the end of the day.