22

…what you'll sorely miss…

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Tracey felt someone tap her on the shoulder and turned around to see it was Neville. She was surprised to see him there as she looked around worried if anyone had seen them together as where she was standing it was mostly filled with Slytherin students.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Something's not right," Neville said.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"You didn't find Daphne, did you?" he asked.

Tracey looked at him before shaking her head. "Do you know where she is?" she asked.

"I think I do," he said before he looked at the lake. Tracey followed his gaze as the realization hit her.

"You…can't be serious!" she said.

"I heard that Cho, Hermione and Fleur's sister Gabrielle are missing too," he said. "Before going into the lake Harry gave me this look. He didn't say anything but he seemed to have realized something. He looked angry…"

"But if what you're implying is true then…then how could they have known?" she asked. "We've done everything to keep this all a secret."

"Rita knew," Neville said. "It's possible that for a few galleons she told the coordinators about Harry and Daphne."

"You know what this means though, right?" Tracey said. Neville nodded slowly. "If Harry and Daphne come out of the water together then it's all done for. I…I don't know if I can protect her from my own housemates. Then there's Astoria…"

"Hey, it's going to be alright," Neville said putting an assuring hand on her shoulder. "Whatever happens, all four of us will deal with it together."

"Neville, you don't have to…"

"But I do," he said interrupting her. "Harry chose me as his friend. Before him I had no one at Hogwarts. As his friend it's the least I can do. You look out for Daphne and I'll look out for Harry."

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It had been almost half an hour although deep underwater Harry had no idea how much time had passed. Following the sound he had finally reached the merpeople's village. He could see it in the distance when Fleur, Cedric and Viktor swam up to him. It was then that Harry got a better look at the tactics that they had come up to be under water for the challenge.

Cedric and Fleur were using simple bubblehead charms to allow them to breathe underwater. While the spell's longevity depended on how well the caster could cast it Harry still thought that using a bubblehead for a task like this was somewhat bothersome. Initially, he had also thought of using that spell but then he had changed his mind after Neville told him about the gillyweed.

As for Viktor, the Bulgarian seeker had scared Harry and everyone else when they first saw him in his shark form. He had effectively transfigured the top half of his body into that of a shark. Harry didn't really understand the principles behind Viktor's spell but it apparently seemed to be working as the seeker could clearly breathe underwater. However, because of the spell he couldn't talk to them which was an underside as Harry thought that they clearly came up to him because they had something they wanted to talk about.

"What's going on?" he asked Cedric and Fleur.

"Well, we are almost at the merpeople's village and there's no doubt that that is where they have kept Cho and everyone else," Cedric said. "I was thinking that maybe we could all work together because I clearly don't trust this tournament after they kidnapped students just for the sake of entertainment."

"Are you suggesting we help each other?" Fleur asked.

"I was implying on that, yeah," Cedric said. "I can see the cold water is already starting to get to you. You're half veela. Water is your weakness. The same goes for your sister. You probably won't be conscious by the time you take yourself and Gabrielle to the surface. Not to mention you are tired. Besides, we both had to use the bubblehead charms at least twice on our way down. Just think how difficult it will be when we'll have to do it again while carrying our respective companions. Viktor can't even use his hands because of his transfiguration so he will have to partially undo his spell that would allow him to take Hermione off to the surface." He then looked at Harry. "Who is your companion, Harry?"

Harry looked away. He didn't want to say it but it couldn't be avoided. Even if he didn't tell them they will see eventually who it was once they all reached the merpeople's village.

"Look out!" Fleur's scream grabbed their attention as they saw a group of merpeople heading their way with tridents and spears, ready to strike. One of them threw their tridents towards Cedric who dodged it at the last second. Under water they were at a clear disadvantage against the merpeople.

Viktor was quick to respond as he fired a series of spells towards the lake creatures, making them scatter immediately. However, that only caused more problems for the champions as now they had to look around to see where the merpeople were coming from. They all had their wands in their hand. Viktor had already partially undone his transfiguration and was quickly on the offensive as he successfully hit two of the merpeople, possibly killing one of them.

"Don't kill them!" Cedric shouted at the seeker looked at him before baring his sharp, shark teeth. Harry didn't know whether Viktor had grinned or looked angrily at the Hufflepuff but he had his own problem to deal with as he narrowly dodged a merman before firing a stunning hex at it. Harry noticed that spells travelled a lot slower under water as the merman had easily dodged it before coming after him with a shrill cry.

"Are they supposed to attack us?" Fleur asked.

"I don't know," Harry said as he cast a shield which shattered when the merman hit it with its trident.

"Maybe they don't want us working together," Cedric said. "Everyone, move away from one another."

They all did what Cedric had suggested and saw the merpeople stopped attacking them immediately. They remained there watching the champions for a minute before they left. "Well, that's a problem," Fleur said. Her breathing was ragged as exhaustion was catching up to her. She hadn't expected to be attacked by a bunch of merpeople and her veela side was not happy that she was in the cold water for over half an hour now.

Cedric looked at her before coming over to Harry. "Looks like we'll have to be responsible for their safety," he said.

Harry looked towards the merpeople's village. He was desperately hoping for Daphne to be alright. "What can we do?" he asked.

The Hufflepuff looked a little doubtful before he spoke what was on his mind.

(A few minutes later…)

The merpeople guarding the 'goals' of the second task saw someone coming towards them. They were on guard but then saw it was just a boy with flipper-like legs as he went for the older blond girl on the left post on which she was tied to.

Harry saw Daphne tied on the post and he did his best to control his anger. He knew he needed to stick to the plan if this was going to work. He took a look at the merpeople who were guarding the posts. There were five of them. Harry then swam up to Daphne and saw she had been put under a stasis spell. There was also a thin, translucent shield around her which probably protected her from the water's cold temperature. He didn't know much about it as it was the first time he was seeing something like that.

He then looked at the other three – Gabrielle, Cho and Hermione. They all had the same translucent shield covering them. Harry then took out his wand before looking at the merpeople. They all now had their eyes on him since he had his wand out. He needed to be quick as he fired a bright red spell which split into five parts before dissipating.

Before the merpeople could understand what Harry had done he quickly cast another spell covering the gap between him and the merpeople in black smoke before quickly slicing the binds off of Daphne, Gabrielle, Cho and Hermione. He heard the angry cries of the merpeople as a trident and a few spears headed for him through the smoke. Harry narrowly dodged them before casting weightless charms on all four people that he had just freed from the posts when he heard another scream from the merpeople followed by the faint sound of spells colliding.

Without wasting any more time he grabbed all four of the 'goals' before giving it his all as he began swimming towards the surface. He knew it would take him some time because they were quite deep under water. He looked back and saw Cedric and Viktor keeping the merpeople busy. He needed to get to Fleur.

Despite using the weightless charm it was difficult to carry four people with him as Harry did his best to swim as fast as he could. However, the drag being generated because of the water made him slow down and it was then that he saw something that made him worry.

Underneath him was a long stretch of pondweed which had started to move, and not because of the water current. Suddenly they started growing in length and soon covered Harry from all sides as he felt them wrap around his legs before they started to pull him down. He fired a series of slicing hexes without even looking, hoping that some of them would let him out of this situation. Luckily two of his spells hit and his leg was freed. He then swam straight upwards as fast as he could as the pondweeds elongated, following him.

Even with the gillyweed Harry knew he couldn't swim faster than his own abilities. He could barely swim before so he knew that his lack in the skill was the reason why he was slowing down, not to mention he was getting tired as his shoulders and legs had started to hurt. He was tightly holding the ropes which had Daphne, Gabrielle, Cho and Hermione on the other ends of them as Harry continued firing slicing hexes behind him every few seconds hoping to gain distance between him and the pursuing pondweeds.

However, in doing so he lost his way as he realized he wasn't where he was supposed to be. He had come into another part of the lake and he had no idea in which direction he needed to go. The water was much darker here and even with the gillyweed he was finding it difficult to see things clearly. With his senses heightened he could feel – through the water current – the pondweeds coming after him. He looked up and the surface still looked very far. He knew that the pondweeds would grab him before he could reach to the surface. He was also tired as he had used up quite a lot of his physical and magical strength to run away while carrying four people at the same time.

Harry slowly turned around and fired a signal spell hoping that either Cedric or Viktor would see it before he let go of everyone except Daphne and began to fire slicing hexes at the incoming pondweeds. About half a minute in and Harry was all out. He felt weakness and exhaustion taking over him. He wasn't properly healed at the start of the tournament either because of last night's fight between him and Theo and with the rejuvenation potion that Pomfrey had given him in the morning starting to wear off Harry could feel his weakness return.

As he felt the pondweeds wrap around him Harry held on to Daphne for his dear life. At first he wanted to let her go but then he wasn't sure what would happen to her so he had decided to hold on to her. He closed his eyes and smiled thinking how he and Daphne had spent the last night hugging each other while sleeping in the infirmary when suddenly the grip of the pondweeds around him loosened. Harry felt a bright flash of light before hearing a familiar voice. He slowly opened his eyes and was shocked to see Fleur there.

"Wh…What are you doing here?" he asked in a tired tone.

"I saw your signal," she said. She looked even more exhausted than him but maybe it was because she was more experienced that she had taken control of the situation…for now. "I can't use any powerful spells because I'm at my limit," she said sounding out of breath, "so I will take Gabrielle and another one while you take the remaining two and then we'll try to make it to the surface."

Harry didn't see how her plan would work but at least it was better than nothing. He looked down and saw that the pondweeds had temporarily stopped coming after them. They were still trying to grow but not as quickly as before. Maybe their magic was running out. So Harry looked at Fleur and nodded before he grabbed on to Daphne and Cho while Fleur had Gabrielle and Hermione as the two started swimming upwards.

They were soon joined by Viktor and Cedric who ensured that they weren't being followed by the merpeople or the pondweeds before they stopped as they were about to reach the surface. Cedric took Cho while Viktor took Hermione before they all looked at each other.

"Now's the part where we have to decide who gets to go out first," Cedric said. He was obviously surprised to see Harry with Daphne but he didn't say anything as he knew it wasn't the right time.

"Fleur should be the one," Harry said without hesitation. "The longer she and Gabrielle stay under water the more dangerous it will get for them."

Fleur was almost brought to tears as she saw both Cedric and Viktor agree to Harry's suggestion instantly. When she had first been chosen as a champion she saw them as nothing but a hurdle in her way to reach to the tri wizard cup yet here they were letting her win the second challenge just because they were worried for her and her sister's safety. How she could have misjudged them, she thought. She thanked them before she took her sister and swam towards the surface.

"So who is next?" Viktor asked.

"Let's all go together," Cedric said. He looked at Viktor and Harry to see if they had any problems with the suggestion.

"Harry?" Viktor said.

"Don't look at me," Harry said. "I don't care if I win or lose. I just want this tournament to be over with."

"Alright then, it's decided," said Viktor. "We will surface together."

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The audience didn't know that this would be the most boring one hour they could've spent. Unlike the first challenge where they could see the champions fight their way to grab the eggs, in this task the audience could see nothing. They had only realized it after the champions had gone into the lake and the first few minutes had passed without any action or an unexpected event taking place. Some considered it even worse than having to sit through the history class.

And so it was that some students indulged in talking amongst each other while others just kept looking at the lake hoping that one of the champions would surface any time.

Tracey and Neville were with Luna and the rest of the Ravenclaw students, away from the prying eyes of the Slytherins and the Gryffindors as they looked at the lake with worried eyes. They were now assured of the fact that Daphne had been taken down in the waters. However, that wasn't the only concern that the two had. Once Harry comes to the surface with Daphne everyone would know that something was going on between the two of them. Tracey was obviously worried about Daphne and even more for Astoria.

She glanced at the huge clock that was in the middle of the lake. Only five minutes remained before the challenge would come to an end. At least one of the champions would've surfaced by now so she wondered what was actually going on under water. It was then that Fleur came out of the water and gasped loudly as she pulled her unconscious sister behind her. Her friends helped her up on the platform as she finished the task with almost five minutes to spare. However, Tracey didn't miss the half-vela looking angrily at the coordinators. She wasn't surprised. To think that they had risked Gabrielle's life just for the sake of a tournament was really a low move from the coordinators. Beside, just like Fleur Gabrielle was also Half-vela which meant that water was a weakness for her as well. Anything could've happened under water that would've risked Gabrielle's life. Yes, measures were probably taken for their safety however; nothing was for certain with the tri wizard tournament.

The students cheered for the Beauxbatons champion when Harry, Viktor and Cedric surfaced at the same time with their respective partners. While everyone clapped the students from Gryffindor and Slytherin had the look of confusion as they saw Harry pull an unconscious Daphne behind him before the two were pulled up on the platform. The horn was blown marking the end of the second challenge as everyone cheered for the champions. The judges began to discuss amongst each other the points that each champion would get.

Harry looked at Daphne as she regained her consciousness before slowly opening her eyes. She was shivering so he wrapped his own towel around her as Tracey, Astoria and Neville came up to them.

"I'm sorry," was all Harry could say as he felt like he would cry.

Daphne said nothing as she was hugged by Tracey and Astoria. Harry slowly stood up and walked a little away from her and stood beside Neville who looked at him as he placed a hand on Harry's shoulder.

"What now?" Neville asked.

Harry saw as Tracey and Astoria took Daphne away. She didn't even looked at him as he felt a mix of emotions. "I don't know," he said slowly as he watched her go.

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Thanks for reading…