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The second task…

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Harry woke up feeling the sunlight on his face. As he opened his eyes he realized Daphne had already left. Memories from last night came back to him as he still struggled to believe that he had been helped by Draco. He had heard Malfoy and Daphne's conversation and apparently Draco had already warned her about Theo. It was then that Harry realized why Draco was keeping an eye on her during the dance last night. Harry had misinterpreted it.

He had to admit that things would've ended up badly had Draco not arrived in time. Harry didn't know how he felt about it. He knew Draco wouldn't be happy about it either. He had already started to feel awkward as he thought about facing the prince of Slytherin house. He couldn't exactly hide from Draco. Also, just thinking something like that was ridiculous. However, he knew that things would now be weird between them but Harry owed him one, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

He also didn't understand the nature of relationship between Draco and Daphne. If Draco had gone after her last night to protect her from Theo then it meant that he cared for her. But he had also been looking after Daphne's sister. If it wasn't for Daphne Harry knew Draco wouldn't have helped him. She had never mentioned that she shared some kind of relationship with Draco but then again Harry barely knew anything about her personal life.

He sat there thinking about last night when he saw Neville and Tracey walked into the infirmary.

"How are you?" Neville asked.

"A lot better," Harry said smiling.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know," Neville said. "I could've helped…"

"It's alright, Neville," Harry said before he looked at Tracey. "How is Daphne?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said. "I thought she'd be here."

"I haven't seen her since I woke up," Harry said. "She did not go back to the dungeons?" he said as he looked over to the other side of the room. Theo was still lying unconscious. Seeing the Slytherin there relieved Harry as he was worried whether Theo had done something again. But if Daphne wasn't with him or Tracey then where was she?

Tracey saw the worried look on his face. "Don't worry about her," she said. "The second task is today so you need to focus on that. Neville and I will look for Daphne."

Harry realized that Tracey was right. With everything that had happened last night he had totally forgotten that today was the second task of the tournament. He was still feeling a little weak as he wondered if he would be able to take part. It's not like he had another choice though. If he didn't participate then he would lose his magic and it was the last thing that he wanted.

He groaned as he got off of the bed. Neville and Tracey approached to help him but he stopped them. "I'm fine," he said. They looked at him with worry as Harry took the support of the bedside table when Pomfrey entered the infirmary.

"Ah, glad you're awake, Mr Potter," she said in her dry, sarcastic tone. "Make way." Tracey and Neville quickly moved away to let the medi-witch do her work. She examined Harry from top to bottom and then pursed her lips. "Normally with such weakness I would recommend a full day's rest but apparently that won't be possible in your case, eh?" she said looking at him. "I bet you hate the tournament right now?"

"The hate increases with each task," Harry said smirking.

"Drink this," Pomfrey said as she handed him a small vial. Harry knew its taste would be bad so he just held his breath and gulped it down all at once. He immediately felt a lot better with his weakness gone almost completely.

"Um, did you see Daphne leave, Madam Pomfrey?" asked Harry.

"No," she said. "She was with you last night when I left. I'm only coming in now. She must've left somewhere in between then, I suppose."

Harry nodded as Pomfrey cleared him to go before she went over to Theo. Neville helped him up before they left the infirmary along with Tracey who then said that she was going to the dungeons to look for Daphne once again. Harry had also started to worry about her as Neville took him to their dorm.

Harry found a new set of jersey on his bed along with a letter next to it. It was an invitation asking him to be at the black lake by nine. It was then that he realized something and immediately went for his trunk. Ruffling through his things he sighed in relief when he found his parents' picture perfectly safe in there. He also found his broom, his cloak and his map too as he looked at Neville with confusion.

"All of my important things are safe," Harry said.

"Maybe it means something else?" Neville said thinking. When neither of them could arrive at a conclusion as to what the clue meant by something important that would be taken away from the champions Harry decided to leave it as he was already going to know what it was once the second task started. So he and Neville headed for the great hall to have breakfast.

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Harry made his way towards the lake where he could see people had already started to gather. There were some faculty members and some reporters from their respective media outlets. Harry immediately noticed Skeeter who stood out amongst the bunch. Looking at her made him wonder once again as to how she could've known about him and Daphne.

As he was about to reach the lake Draco walked past him and Harry stopped still. "Make sure you save Daphne," Draco whispered as he walked past him. It was subtle so no one would've noticed but Harry had heard him clearly as he stood there wondering why Draco would say something like that.

He watched Draco walk way before continuing to head for where the champions had been told to arrive. It was the central platform on the lake where he could already see Viktor, Cedric and Fleur and he didn't miss the looks on their faces.

Fleur seemed to be crying while Viktor and Cedric had this grim look on their faces which made Harry wonder what was going on.

"Is everything alright?" he asked Cedric as soon as he arrived at the platform.

The Hufflepuff looked at him like he would cry any moment now. "You don't know yet?" he asked.

"Know what?" Harry asked.

"Cho, Hermione and Fleur's sister Gabrielle are missing," Cedric said.

"What?" Harry said. "What do you mean 'missing'?"

"You remember how the clue said that something important will be taken from you?" Cedric said. Harry nodded as he realized what Cedric was going to say next. "It meant the people who you care for. Through last night's Yule Ball the coordinators figured out who we all are close to. For me and Viktor it was our partners Cho and Hermione. As for Fleur, she only went with Roger out of formality but everyone here knows how much she loves her sister since they are family. You went to the ball with Luna, right? Did you see her this morning?"

"I did," Harry said. He'd met Luna in the great hall while having breakfast half an hour ago. It was then that he realized what Draco meant when he told him about 'saving Daphne'. His heart skipped a beat as he thought of the worst. Tracey had been looking for Daphne since early morning. He looked around and found Neville standing with the rest of the audiences so Harry walked over to him.

"Did Tracey find Daphne?" he asked.

"No. Why?" Neville asked.

Harry felt a chill as he looked at the lake. There was no way the coordinators could've known about it. Did Skeeter tell them?

"Harry, what's going on?" Neville asked.

Harry could feel his anger rising slowly. He said nothing as he walked away but not before glaring at the coordinators who were standing beside the judges' table talking to each other and laughing over something. However, with his anger rose his worry for Daphne as he hoped his intuition was wrong.

He joined his fellow champions as the challenge was about to start. Neither of the four was happy with what had happened to them or rather the people they cared about. "Let's meet by the Quidditch ground after dinner," Harry said looking at them. "It seems they won't back off unless we push."

Cedric, Fleur and Viktor looked at him when the announcement was made for them to take their respective positions as it was almost time for the challenge to start. They said nothing to Harry but they gave him a nod of agreement.

"Everyone please pay attention," Barty's voice echoed through the air as everyone quieted down. "Welcome to the second round of the tri wizard tournament. As you all remember, in the previous round each champion had to acquire a fake egg from the dragon. Inside that egg was a clue that would lead them to the goal of the second challenge. They had two months to find out the clue. Now for the champions themselves, I suppose you all now know that someone that you dearly love has been missing since morning. You don't have to worry. They are fine. They are currently under this lake somewhere and you have to find them. However, if time runs out and you can't rescue them by the end of the hour, you know what the clue said. Now, seeing that Mr Krum finished first in the previous challenge he will be given a five minutes head start. That means he will have a total of one hour and five minutes to finish the challenge. As for the rest of you, your time limit will be one hour. I hope you utilized these two months properly and so, without any delay let the second challenge begin…now!"

Karkaroff patted his star student on the back. "Good luck," Viktor heard his headmaster say before he nodded and jumped in the lake.

Harry, Cedric and Fleur stood at their respective places waiting for the first five minutes to pass. As it came near Harry took out the green blob of gillyweed that Neville had given him. According to him this thing would allow Harry to breathe under water for about an hour. Harry didn't know how close that 'about' part was or how much confident he felt about it but he trusted Neville's knowledge in herbology. So he put the green blob in his mouth as the signal was fired for the remaining three champions to start the challenge.

It was hard to swallow the thing because of its slimy consistency as Harry tried not to throw up. He somehow pushed it down his throat and gasped hard as it went down his food pipe, temporarily blocking his breathing before Harry jumped into the water.

It was cold in the lake, very cold as he waited for the gillyweed to do its thing. It took about a minute, according to Neville, for the gillyweed to start working as Harry slowly realized that he no longer felt cold. Also, his neck started to itch very badly. As he reached for a scratch he felt long slits form on his neck and realized he could now breathe under water. It was then that he also saw a thin film of skin form between his fingers, making his hand look like a duck's webbed feet. As for his toes, they had elongated like the flippers of a scuba diver as he now found it very easy to swim.

Harry smiled, unable to believe how great the gillyweed was working. He took a mental note to thank Neville once the task was over before he followed Cedric and Fleur. He knew he needed to listen to the song that the clue had talked about and soon enough he could hear a faint, echoing sound in the distance that sounded similar to what he had heard from the egg.

If Daphne was his 'goal' in this challenge then Harry had lots of questions on his mind. The first and most obvious was how did the coordinators knew about him and Daphne because there was no other way that they could've decided on her to be his goal for the task. The second question was that Draco had told him to save Daphne. That meant he knew that she had been taken under water for the tournament. But then how would've Draco known something like that? It raised a lot more questions in Harry's mind as he wondered whether it was Draco who had told Skeeter about him and Daphne in the first place. It could be possible because Malfoy always looked for ways to get back at Harry.

But then Harry wondered why Draco would do such a thing. After last night he had an unwanted respect for the Slytherin prince after he had saved Harry and Daphne from Theo. As his confusion rose Harry decided to ignore them until the second challenge was over as he headed towards the source of the sound.

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Thanks for reading…