A/N: Hey guys. In response to a few of the guest reviews, I've changed Edith's name to Apolline; I'd forgotten that she was named in Deathly Hallows. Just wanted to put this up here so there's no confusion over the name change.

It was all so stupid. She'd fought Grindylows countless times before – they were easy; she'd been able to fight them off since she was twelve – but the water had gotten to her. It had been a challenge to muster up enough power to drive even them away, and she'd known in that instant that she wouldn't be able to get down to whatever it was that awaited her at the bottom of the lake. Something would trip her up eventually. She wasn't afraid of failure – she practically lived for pushing herself to the point of almost-failure and seeing what came out of it – so the idea of swimming up empty-handed after trying her best didn't bother her all that much. What she was afraid of was getting halfway down and being killed by something that she would have defeated with her eyes closed on dry land. She wasn't willing to risk everything for a mere title, especially when the odds were so skewed against her.

Besides, she knew how these tournaments worked. Equal weighting wasn't given to each task; the last one was the only one that really mattered. So they weren't competing for the title yet, just for how the handicaps would play out in the final task. She wouldn't even be risking her life for a title; she'd be risking it for an advantage when she did go after the title.

So she turned back. It still felt strange doing it; she had always been the type to throw her all into each little thing she did, and this didn't feel like she was giving it her best shot. Instead of pushing the wall until it couldn't move any further, she was essentially identifying from a distance that there was a point at which it would just collapse over her, crushing her under bricks and mortar, and deciding not to bother trying to find another way. And that felt disturbingly like giving up. However, she knew it was the right thing to do. No mindless game was worth her life, whatever amount of glory winning might bestow upon her.

The water around her lightened as she propelled herself through it. Although everything in her wanted to get to the surface to see her sister, she swam slowly but steadily. A Muggle diving book she had read in preparation for the task – there were few wizarding books dedicated to diving, with most writers assuming that people would just scour Charms textbooks for useful spells anyway – had described a phenomenon called decompression sickness and methods to protect yourself from it. Fleur had memorised its recommendations and ran them through her head as she ascended. The illness, once she'd deciphered the Muggle technical jargon, did not sound pleasant, and she didn't want to have to spend the next few weeks having it treated.

Interestingly, she wasn't sure whether or not she was particularly susceptible to it. Magical blood usually protected against such diseases, but there was a good chance her Veela ancestry would weaken her defences against it. There was a chance that she could be more vulnerable to it than most Muggles due to that fact alone.

As the outside world grew nearer, she wondered if the spectators would assume somebody had already found their treasure. It wouldn't occur to them that somebody might simply turn back around again. Rather contrarily, and in an effort to keep her spirits up, she anticipated their reaction. Bagman would probably be gleeful at the impressiveness of such a speedy return, only to falter over how to announce it when he realised she was alone.

Another reason that it's obvious Harry Potter wants to participate, she thought. If he really wanted out of it, he'd just jump in and immediately climb back out.

She hoped her parents had already found Gabrielle. Thoughts of her sister had been banished to the back of her mind for the duration of the task, but she let them seep back into her conscious thoughts now that she didn't have to focus on survival anymore. Her sister would be disappointed for her. Gabrielle had been hoping Fleur would win the tournament and show their snotty classmates – the ones who, despite supposedly supporting the anti-discrimination policy ratified by the Ministère français, acted as though the sisters went around stealing and corrupting boys as it took their fancy – that she was stronger than they could have ever imagined. She wouldn't be disappointed in her, though, and that was the important thing.

Admittedly, it was tempting to swim back down and drift underwater for a while so that her schoolmates would think that she had fought harder and gotten further than she really had. The reactions to her resurfacing would be brutal, and put their past unfounded censures to shame. The idea didn't last long, however; she was used to their judgement and scorn, and wasn't going to let it delay her reunion with her sister.

Her head broke the surface, little droplets of water running down the bubble that encompassed her head in an attempt to return to their home, and she started to make her way towards the dock. An announcement was made, but the bubble and the sound of the spectators yapping away drowned it out.

Although her parents looked relieved as they ran to her, they couldn't disguise their stress. And Gabrielle still wasn't with them. Fleur didn't know how long she'd been underwater for, but she'd expected Gabrielle to have arrived before she returned.

Their hands gripped her arms and helped pull her out of the water and cast a spell that slowly started to dry her. "Are you alright?" Michel asked, speaking in quiet, rapid French so that nobody around them would understand his words. The judges would be told the truth, of course, but those around him didn't have to be. Excuses could be devised and given later; this was the time for the truth.

"I'm fine. I came across some Grindylows and struggled to fight them off. I knew that something would trip me up eventually, and that I wouldn't be able to get back out. It wasn't worth dying over. But where is Gabrielle? Is she still missing? Why are you not looking for her?"

"We know where she is," Apolline said, her voice careful as she draped a blanket around Fleur's shivering shoulders. "However, she can't be here at the moment."

Almost subconsciously, Fleur tightened the blanket around her, seeking its warmth and protection. Her stomach felt sick and her chest tight; so much of her magic had been used to fight the Grindylows that she had been even more susceptible to the effects of water than normal. "Why not? Where is she?"

Neither of them wanted to tell her. It was obvious in their silence, in the way the stress and concern chased the relief off their face like a cat darting after a mouse, in their shared glance. As the time passed, her mother's gaze flickered towards the water anxiously for the briefest moment before she forced it back to Fleur again.

That moment, however brief, had been enough. The serrated pieces locked together in Fleur's brain, instantly revealing the grotesque picture her ignorance had been protecting her from all morning. Now that it fit, it seemed so obvious, as if there'd never really been any other feasible explanation for Gabrielle's absence; the young girl often lost track of time when she was immersed in her world of dreams, but she knew that she did, and she would never have allowed herself to get lost in one of her daydreams so close to the start of the task.

And that's when her heart broke. She should have known; she should have realised. Her sister had gone missing, and she'd been so busy concentrating on the task that she had failed to link it all together. Failure mightn't scare Fleur normally, but this one was inexcusable. The only thing keeping her from throwing herself back in despite the rules that leaving the water meant forfeiting the task were the two sets of arms that had wrapped around her and the knowledge that she would still be unable to reach her sister anyway. Going back down would be for nought.

But, she thought desperately as she struggled against her parents, it's better than leaving her there.

"They say she will be safe," Michel whispered in her ear. "There will be a change of administration next year in any case. But they promise that she will be safe."

"I'm back up. Why can't they bring her back up too? There's no point to keeping her down there…"

"They won't want to confuse the other champions by having a merperson swim past with a hostage," Apolline said bitterly. "For all their words on safety, they don't want to jeopardise the task. But she will be safe."

"Maxime authorised this, didn't she?" She felt her mother nod into her shoulder, and Fleur's hand twitched towards the pocket holding her wand. "Please keep me away from her. I don't want to give her ammunition by cursing her, and I will… If I see her, I will."

Fortunately for all involved, perhaps, it was Albus Dumbledore who approached them to obtain her recount of events, and who discussed the matter with the merperson who had been keeping an eye over her progress and the obstacles she came up against along the way. After all, she was steadily feeling her strength return to her, and she knew that the soon-to-be-demoted Headmistress would not care to feel the results of that strength.

A/N: Thanks again to everybody who has followed, favourited or reviewed this so far. I believe I've responded to all of you. I'm updating a few days early this week as we're going to be busy over the next few days, but will be returning to the usual schedule next week. (I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!)

So, onto the guest/not-logged-in reviewers:

Bronze:
Especially after Harry's name was drawn from the Goblet. How can it be unbreakably magically binding when Harry wasn't involved? If any of age could put anyone else's name in, couldn't some seventh year have put Mrs Norris or Dumbledore in as a joke? Good point about the champion thing; you'd think they'd have mentioned them when announcing the Tournament if they were still well-known. I disagree with the training exercise comment, though; that was the case with a lot of what went on over the years, but Dumbledore wouldn't have known Harry's name would be put in the Goblet. I tend to think it's just the Ministry trying to celebrate 'getting over the war' and Dumbledore being roped into hosting it because Fudge approached the other schools first or something.

Guest:
Thanks for pointing that out; I'd forgotten she was even present in DH and hadn't thought to double-check, but I've changed it now.

PaC:
Firstly, my apologies for forgetting Apolline's name; given how minor a role she had, I forgot she was named in DH. As a sidenote, Edith is an Anglo-Saxon name that is common in France, and the character actually wasn't present for that conversation as she and Amelia had gone ahead while Michel waited for Fleur. Secondly, thanks for letting me know your thoughts, but I can't respond to them here without bogging down the A/N. If you have a or AO3 account and want to discuss them, feel free to shoot me a PM. I do think that most of what you mentioned, e.g. character names and chapter length, does just boil down to personal preference, though. As a quick point, I liked the link between Veelas' vilification and romance novels. I see the problem as primarily stemming from how society perceives female sexuality as dangerous, so it's interesting to consider how romance novels and, ah, the 'male equivalent' factor into that.