Her head bobbed up above the water for a moment, bringing consciousness rushing back in like the surging tide. It felt like she had suddenly awakened from a deep, peaceful slumber. But, if she had been asleep, why was she wet? Her groggy mind tried to process it but, before she could, she was suddenly submerged in the cold water once again. Shocked, Cho's eyes bolted open, before instinctively squeezing shut again to block out the sting of the water. Instead, she tried to take stock of her surroundings with her other senses; water sloshed and splashed around her and she was pressed against something solid, with her arms wrapped around and legs resting against it. As something kicked beneath her, she realised it had legs too.

It was a person. Why had she been sleeping underwater with another person?

Right; that was it. She'd agreed to be a hostage; she remembered that now. That meant that the solid, legged thing she'd been cataloguing had to be Cedric. She tried to move her hands to hit his chest – they were still underwater, and she hadn't had the chance to take much of a breath before their plunge back in, so she was rapidly running out of air – but they wouldn't budge. He must have used magic to secure her to him. While she appreciated the cleverness and difficulty of the spell – it really wasn't designed for human targets, and using it thusly required much more effort and concentration – it didn't exactly make this easy for her. She started to kick her legs, hoping to draw his attention to the fact that she was alert or to at least speed up their progress, but at that moment she felt her hands being loosened and her body being lifted up above the water. Thrashing her limbs around to help propel herself upwards, she strained her head for the surface, relieved when it broke through the water into the fresh air beyond. She spat out the water in her mouth and, flailing a little to keep her head up, started gasping in the welcome air.

Cedric's arm wrapped around her waist to steady her, and he directed her towards a metal rung that she reflexively gripped, revelling in the ability to focus on inhaling air rather than staying afloat. All she could think about was how wonderful breathing felt. "Cho, the ladder's in front of you," he said softly. "Marietta and I will help you out."

She wiped the water from her eyes before focusing her attention on the ladder and the hand reaching down in front of it. Taking it in a tight monkey grip, she let them help her out, Marietta pulling and Cedric pushing while she stumbled up the rungs. Somebody wrapped a blanket around her as Marietta and Cedric's friend Bobby helped pull him out, and, teeth chattering with the incessance of a bobble-head doll, she gripped it to her body tightly in her quest for warmth.

Only when Cedric was out did she notice the excited chattering of the crowd around her as they celebrated their return. A few of the people closest to them thumped Cedric on the back in congratulations as he passed them on his way to her, and she watched him smile and nod and politely thank them in return.

When he was out of their reach, she walked towards him, stepping easily into his embrace. She wanted to say something, feeling that it would be appropriate, but wasn't sure what to say. Should she thank him for coming down to get her, or tell him that he'd almost drowned her in the process? Should she congratulate him for succeeding, or ask how he'd gone? Should she express how she felt about him when she was still working it out for herself? If he'd truly saved her from something, it would have been easy; she would have expressed her complete and enduring gratitude. The protocol was a little hazier when it came to someone putting their life in danger to rescue you from something that really wasn't endangering you in the first place, however. The problem, in her opinion, was that it really was the kind of moment where a declaration of love would be the most appropriate thing to say, recognising what he'd done without exaggerating the deed, but they weren't quite there yet. Close, perhaps, but not yet. "You've still got a bubble around your head," she ended up saying, and he finally removed the charm, resulting in the last dredges of water that had been resting on it coming down on him like a light flash shower. She giggled at the sight and, instead of worrying about what to say, pulled him closer to her, tucking her head into his shoulder and smiling into the damp towel as he did the same to her. In that moment, physical presence and comfort was enough.

After a moment, she moved her head back so she could see him properly. "Hello."

"Hello."

"I have to admit I don't really know what to say."

He grinned broadly, and she felt herself grow warm inside despite the water droplets still clinging to and running down her skin. "Me neither."

Rolling her eyes at them both, she leaned in to kiss him. The warm pressure of his mouth felt like a thawing heat against her lips, which were still clammy from the lake. Her hands reached up to grip his hair, dry and fluffy but streaked with random patches of water, the motion dislodging the blanket from her shoulders. She ignored its absence at first, not wanting to cut short the feeling on his tongue against hers, but soon grew too cold to continue. Smiling, she pulled back and picked up the fallen blanket, swinging it around herself again.

"You taste salty," Cedric murmured, running his hand through her waterlogged hair.

"You taste perfect," she replied, just as quietly, reaching out to take that hand in hers and hold it against her cheek. She felt like she was floating, and she wasn't sure whether it was an aftereffect of the potion, the almost-drowning, or the kiss. All she knew was that, while she mightn't love him yet, what she felt was a pretty close approximation of the feeling.

"Alright," Marietta's voice cut through her haze, bringing her crashing back down. "Sorry to interrupt, but Bagman's coming over to fetch you, and if you're still snogging when he gets here he'll probably announce it to everyone right after confirming that it is indeed the two of you. So unless you want everyone to know…"

The couple separated, neither of them wanting the cooing play-by-play over their 'canoodling' that they were certain Bagman would provide. Their hands found each another, however, and hung clasped between them.

"Where's Krum?" Cedric asked.

"Huh?"

"Krum. I know we have to go through the whole publicity rigmarole, but I figure he's probably found somewhere private to wait for the others to come back up. He's good at finding hiding places when you give him half a chance. Might be a good idea for us to tag along if he doesn't mind."

"Krum and Hermione have come back up?" Cho asked, glad for the extra clue as to how Cedric had gone.

"I assume so; Granger wasn't at the pier when I reached it, and I didn't overtake him on the way up, so…"

"He isn't, actually," Marietta replied, comprehension dawning as to what Cedric had meant. "There was a big to-do about it earlier; Granger's come back up, but not with Krum; it was Potter who brought her back."

"But..."

"I know," Bobby chimed in. "The judges haven't decided what to do about it yet. They haven't said anything, mind you, but the Weasley twins..."

"Of course," Cedric said, his eyes drawn to Bagman as the man approached them, a joyful spring in his step as he struggled to make his way through the crowd, Madam Pomfrey trailing close behind him. The man was using his magnified voice to try to shepherd people out of the way, but most of them seemed to either be too occupied trying to reach Cedric or too interested in chatting to the ex-Beater to care. "They seem to be able to overhear anything."

"Has anyone else come back up?" Cho asked, seeing it as her opening.

"Fleur pulled out early on; got spooked after fighting some Grindylows, apparently. Krum's not back yet."

"How long was I under?"

"Just under an hour, I think."

"Congratulations," she told Cedric, squeezing his hand. "It sounds like you did really well."

"It wasn't really all that hard," he demurred, self-conscious at the praise. "It was just a lot of swimming, really."

Hufflepuffs were used to playing as a team and celebrating as a team, with an all-for-one and one-for-all mindset that didn't leave much room for personal excellence or commendations. It was so unlike Cho's own house, wherein most people stuck together in small groups of two or three friends, that she always found it endearing in its sense of group togetherness. Her housemates tended to be jealous of their time, not wanting to offer it to other people unless their other obligations were already completed, while Cedric's friends seemed to give it to others as if they had an infinite amount of it. While Cho would quickly get frustrated by the constant disruptions that would come with that kind of lifestyle, part of her longed for his gift to effortlessly befriend and maintain friendships with a large group of people.

"You're just being modest," Bobby said, clapping him on the back once more. "We're all proud of you, man."

"I'm glad they had someone keeping an eye out on you," Cho admitted, nodding towards the Headmaster as he conversed with a merperson who had surfaced shortly after they had.

Cedric flashed her a grateful smile at the change of topic. "I don't think it was just for the champions' sake. I came across some merpeople guarding their children on my way to find you; it was probably also to make sure we didn't harm any of their young or their settlement."

"You saw merchildren?" The sight was a rare one; merpeople usually kept their children out of negotiations with humans, so the few people who caught a glimpse of the youngsters were usually being lured into a trap. "What was it like down there?" The lake had always been a source of half-hearted curiosity for her; she wanted to know about the secrets that lay hidden in its depths, yet she feared that the answers would put her off ever wanting to swim there again. Regardless of her dilemma, it seemed a shame to have gone down there without getting a sense of what it was really like.

"I caught a glimpse of one as it went back into hiding," he said. "And the lake was what you'd expect it to be; beautiful, but eerie and filled with dangerous creatures. They all tended to stay at the very bottom of the lake, which would be why we've never seen any of them. There was also some sort of underwater river; following it was rather surreal as it felt like you were aboveground even though you knew you weren't. It kind of felt like I was suspended in mid-air above it, flying without any sort of assistance."

"Mr Diggory! Miss Chang!" Ludo Bagman's loud voice cut through their conversation, causing them to wince. "Congratulations on both making it out safe. We're here – "

"I'm here to check you both over to make sure you're not injured," Madam Pomfrey explained, cutting him off. "He's here so he can then report your conditions back to the judging committee."

"I'm fine," Cedric said. "Cho, are you – ?"

"I'm a bit cold, but nothing unexpected."

"Then I'll examine Mr Diggory first," the matron responded. "He's more likely to have sustained unknown injuries. Unfortunately, there was no medical tent provided for this task, so we'll just have to find some clear space nearby. Mr Bagman, could you perhaps – ?"

The man cheerfully directed a nearby group of students to relocate; when the space was large enough for the matron's satisfaction, she conjured a reclining chair for Cedric to lay on and, as she prepared herself, called back, "I'll be back to see you in a jiffy, Miss Chang."

"Thank you," she responded.

"She seems to think that us having additional reasons to want to know about your health takes away from how interested we are in making sure that you're both alright," Bagman said wryly.

Well, you did send us down there in the first place, she wanted to say, but she instead smiled with awkward politeness and waited for her turn under the school matron's scrutiny.

A/N: Thanks again to everyone who has followed, favourited or reviewed this, and to my lovely brother for beta reading this.

To the guest reviewer: Thanks! More informed and wary, maybe? And you got it in one; Ceorl was an errand-rider of Rohan who told Théoden about the Battle of Helm's Deep.

To adenoide: A similar case could have been made had Harry taken Gabrielle up instead, though. He has no idea that Fleur isn't coming, and he does know that the task is supposed to be safe, so he has no reason to prioritise Gabrielle. So, by that logic, the only person he could have taken back up was Ron.