Author's Notes:
Standard Disclaimer: It all belongs to JKR. That you JKR for letting us play with your toys.
I will continue to use the occasional song lyric in the story and will give credit at the time when needed.
This is the fifth book in my Slytherin Harry series.
Book 1 Harry Potter and the Muggle's Daughter.
Book 2: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Book 3: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Book 4: Harry Potter and the Blood Traitor's Daughter
Book 5: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
If you haven't read books 1-4 you won't know what's going on. But the bonus is you've got four completed books before you even get to this one!
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE
CHAPTER XXII
Wouldn't Flirt with You
HPHPHP
"Professor?" Ron asked.
Professor McGonagall set her quill aside and focused on him. "Hello, Ronald."
"Hello, Ma'am, you wanted to see me?"
"I did, Ronald." She pulled a drawer open and extracted a volume. She set the tome on her desk and slid it across to him. "I have something for you." Ron's eyes widened. "Your performance in class has improved such that I believe, with diligent work and proper instruction, you could begin the process."
"You're having' a laugh," Ron said without thinking. "Sorry, Professor," he amended at the look she gave him.
"I won't lie to you," she said. "It will be difficult, and likely take years before you are successful. But that success is entirely dependent upon you, Ronald. If you put in the work, I have every faith you will succeed." Ron glanced at the book again. She reached for her quill and dipped it in the inkwell. "If you will read the book and then write me an essay on the subject we can get started."
"H–how long?"
She eyed him for a few seconds. "As long as you believe to be necessary." Ron frowned. "Ronald, the effort you put forth will directly correlate to your success or failure with this. Further, this will require my time and effort. I do not have either to waste on an extracurricular activity my student cannot be bothered with… Am I understood?"
Ron stared at the volume for another few moments before reaching for it. "Thank you, Professor."
She graced him with a rare smile. "You're quite welcome."
He tucked the book in his bag. "I'll get started on it tonight." She nodded. He turned to go but stopped at the door. "Professor?"
"Yes?" she asked without looking up.
"Would you tell me what's going on between Ginny and Mum?
Professor McGonagall stilled. After a second she set her quill aside and focused on him. "I'm afraid what I can tell you is very limited. I also question if it is my place to do so."
"But then why did you move in with us?"
She watched him for a second. Far too late to turn around now, she thought. She stood and moved around her desk to the sitting area. "Sit down, Ronald."
HPHPHP
Arms crossed, a scowl on his face, Bill stood on a cliff overlooking the Black Loch. Far below the giant squid splashed about in the shallows of a small cove. Sirius glanced at him. "I know that look."
"What look?" Bill asked.
"The one you get when you know something's there but can't figure what it is." Bill grunted. "Everything's set, Mate," Sirius assured. "They won't even get wet."
"My sister is going to be in there for hours." Sirius grimaced. "She could be dead before the task even starts."
"Bill—"
"Harry shouldn't be in the tournament. The dragon shouldn't have broken free. I promise you, something is going to happen and whatever it is, the rest of the champions and hostages be damned, will be designed to kill Harry."
Sirius looked out over the loch. "Maybe we should swim it?" Bill glanced at him. "If something's going to happen it'll be in there. We've got a week. Lets get some gillyweed and search it."
HPHPHP
"You want to tell her, now?" Luna demanded. "What happened to telling her that morning?"
"I trust her, Luna," Ginny said. "I know you're still angry with her, but Rowena was right. She is desperate for someone to see beyond her appearance."
Luna glowered at her before turning on the others. "I suppose the rest of you agree with her?"
"Her sister is at the bottom of the loch too," Daphne said.
"We waited to tell them before. Why are we changing now?"
"She won't betray us, Luna," Ginny said.
"I suppose we're going to tell Viktor too?"
"I'm a bit more leery of that," Hermione spoke up.
"Why?" Harry asked.
"Because he's jealous of you."
"Jealous of me, what the hell is he jealous of?"
"You're becoming to close with Fleur."
"W–what?"
"It's what I told you before," Rowena said. "She's too pretty. He doesn't like that she's becoming friends with Cedric or Neville either."
"Excuse me?" Cedric said.
"Me?" Neville demanded. "He's a quidditch god. Why would he be worried about me?"
"Good question, Mate," Harry said. "I mean me I get, but you two?" Neville flipped him off.
"Oh yeah because statuesque blondes go for sawed off runts like you," Cedric retorted.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Here we go."
"The point is," Hermione said forcefully, "Viktor is jealous. He doesn't like Fleur being friendly with you three and he doesn't like that you three are friendly with her. He especially doesn't like it from Harry; because, let's face it, you are a massive flirt. I don't want to believe he would do anything to risk his cousin's life but we simply cannot trust someone with jealousy issues."
"He flirts with Ginny all the time," Harry protested.
"I didn't say he doesn't. The fact remains, you are a flirt."
"Whatever," Harry retorted.
"Not that I don't agree that Harry would flirt with one of Hagrid's skewerts if it would talk to him—" Daphne said.
"Wouldn't flirt with you," Harry retorted.
She ignored him and kept on. "—but doesn't telling Fleur, while not Viktor, exacerbate the problem?"
"It does," Ginny and Hermione agreed.
"So what do we do?" Rowena asked. The group exchanged looks.
Harry shrugged. "Votes?" He waited but no one seemed to want to go first.
"I think it needs to be just Harry, Cedric and Ginny who vote," Neville said.
"What?" Harry protested.
"You three are the ones in the loch, Mate. I think you three should vote, you should do it anonymously and it should probably be unanimous."
"I agree," Daphne said.
"Me as well," Hermione added.
"Don't look at me," Luna said. "I don't want to tell either of them."
Harry looked to Ginny and Cedric. "I guess we vote," Cedric said.
Rowena conjured three dice and three marbles. She passed one of each to Cedric, Harry and Ginny "Marble is tell them, dice is don't. Put them in your right hand," she instructed. The three did as she told them. She grabbed her witch's hat and held it out to Ginny. "Hand in the hat." Ginny stuck her hand in and Rowena closed it around her wrist. "Say, 'I make this choice.' and release the correct totem. Then say, 'This is not my choice.' and drop the second totem."
"I make this choice," Ginny said. "This is not my choice." She withdrew her hand from the hat. The process was quickly repeated with Cedric and Harry. Once Harry had withdrawn his hand Rowena turned the hat over. Three marbles fell out and rolled away.
"Shit," Luna muttered.
HPHPHP
Friday night, March third, Harry handed Ginny a small capsule. She popped it in her mouth and washed it down with a glass of water. "And that's all we can do," Luna said softly. It was the evening before the second task and she, along with her five friends plus Cedric and Rowena had gathered in the Room of Requirement. Sometime later that night someone would come and take the hostages the Goblet had selected. As they'd feared, it had been Cedric's not quite six-year-old half sister and not Rowena that would be joining Ginny in the loch. Fleur's eight-year-old sister and Viktor's nine-year-old cousin rounded out the hostages.
So much for having no underage participants.
"The hostages will be taken into the lake between 3:00 and 4:00am," Hermione said. "The task is slated to start precisely at 11:00. The time release for the gillyweed will take affect at precisely 11:01. Ginny will wake up; threatening the merpeople as necessary she will draw the appropriate runes on the other hostages before releasing them and at 11:05 Harry, Cedric, Fleur and Viktor will summon their hostage. If all goes well, the task will be over by 11:06."
"And if it doesn't, we'll go get them," Cedric said.
"Right," Harry agreed. He grimaced slightly.
"Are you all right?" Ginny asked.
"Just can't shake this headache."
"You've had it for like three days now."
"It's just the task."
"Want me to rub."
"Umm, let me think?" Harry pretended to mull the idea over and shifted to lie in front of her. Ginny brushed his hair aside and gently began massaging his temples.
"You gonna be all right?" Neville asked.
"Don't have a choice," Harry said.
"Yeah," Neville sighed, "right."
"By the goddess that's nice," Harry moaned.
HPHPHP
Fleur walked down to the tent at the edge of the loch with Madame Maxime beside her. The rest of the Beauxbatons students were still up in the Great Hall. None of them, nor the other guests gathered, were in any sort of hurry to begin filling the stands that had been erected at the water's edge. The morning of the second task had dawned frigid, wet and windy. It had not improved since.
Fleur didn't notice.
She had managed to put the tournament and the fact Gabrielle was going to be used as a hostage mostly out of her mind. Thankfully, because if the last few months had been like the last week she was quite certain she would have gone mad. Dreams of desperately swimming through the murky depths in search of her sister while she remained just out of reach no longer faded on waking. If anything, her imagination seemed worse during the day. Four days ago she'd been in class when her mind drifted to the upcoming task and she'd once again found herself in the shadowy depths. And finally, finally she managed to catch Gabrielle's hand. The instant of euphoria had been torn away when a giant sea serpent surged out of the depths. A single bite had left her holding nothing but Gabrielle's severed arm. People were still whispering about the blood curdling scream she'd let loose. Daphne had slipped her three phials of dreamless sleeping draught later that night. She had never been more grateful for anything in her life.
Everything had seemed so simple before leaving from Beauxbatons for Hogwarts. The tournament felt an answer to her prayers, a chance to prove her intelligence, skill, strength and heart, to show that she was far more than her accursed appearance. Pretty, could not do the research. Pretty, could not solve a puzzle. Pretty, could not cast a single spell. Intelligence, skill, perseverance, bravery and a hundred other qualities would see her through to being crowned the winner; but never her perfect skin, teeth, hair or whatever else someone might claim. She was veela and not even the injuries she'd suffered facing the dragon had been enough to mar her appearance. Even her hair was nearly grown back. Perfection, but no substance, that was how well more than 99% of the world viewed her. The tournament was supposed to have changed that.
Only she'd come to find she was far less intelligent than she'd thought. She even doubted she had been intelligent enough that had she found that book before the selection, she would have made the same decision Angelina Johnson had. Anger had fueled her response to Cedric when she'd said she would have still entered. She feared foolishness would have made that answer truthful. She did not believe she would have connected the dots to today and foreseen Gabrielle would be her hostage. Even if she had, she feared she would have thought of it as just some grand adventure her sister would have been able to participate in.
No, ever since the first task she had slowly been coming to the conclusion she had displayed nothing of the cunning, daring, strength of character or anything else that might have seen her win the tournament. She was instead, blind, arrogant, foolish and, her greatest sin, lazy. The things she had not even considered to think astounded her. Things like Gabrielle being used as a hostage, the possible need for a second wand. Never mind going to the effort of ensuring she could summon the egg, she had never even thought of the possibility. The facts were, without the efforts of Harry and his friends she would not have completed the first task at all. She would have been completely dependent on Madame Maxime letting things slip to even know what the second task was to be. The worst part of all of it was, for her, the task was exactly as it was supposed to have been and she had failed. Harry, despite facing active sabotage and ultimately battling a dragon that had broken free of all controls, had succeeded.
And now she knew the truth. She had been jealous. She had been arrogant. She had been foolish. And everything she thought or had planned to retrieve Gabrielle safely paled in comparison to Harry's plans. Her plan wouldn't even have included gillyweed. Given she still had three months of treatment before her lungs would be fully healed she didn't want to even consider the agony the Bubble Head Charm would have been. And now, now if his plan worked, Gabrielle would be in her arms within five minutes of the task starting; and she wouldn't put so much as a toe in the water to retrieve her. And if things went wrong, Harry's method of getting to the hostages was far quicker than hers. And all of that ignored the biggest question. Who was trying to kill Harry? Would they make another attempt during the task? Were their plans enough to deal with an attempt on his life if it happened?"
"Over my dead body," Fleur muttered angrily.
"What was that, my Dear?"
"Nothing, Headmistress, just going over some of the spells I might need."
Madame Maxime placed a large hand on her shoulder. "It will be fine. You will see. Your sister is in no real danger."
"Yes, Ma'am," Fleur agreed. Praying Harry's plan would be enough she stepped into the tent.
Harry stood on the balcony in the clock tower. The wind was whipping, blowing low scudded clouds heavy with icy water across the sky. The rain came in waves. From one minute to the next it could transform from light mist to driven buckets. White capped waves raced across the surface of the loch, crashing with as much ferocity against the cliff walls as he'd ever seen. It was breathtaking; literally and figuratively.
Hermione stood beside Harry. He seemed oblivious to the wind, rain and freezing cold, not having moved in nearly thirty minutes. "Harry?" she ventured tentatively.
Harry glanced at her before returning his gaze to the loch. The moment was gone; ruined by the docks transformed to stands, the champion's tent on the beach opposite, and, there, the mizzenmast of the sunken Durmstrang rising sharply out the water. He clenched his hand tightly. "Why am I waiting?" he asked quietly.
"Sorry?"
"Something is going to happen, Hermione. It's obviously supposed to happen sometime after the task starts." He turned to face her. "So why am I playing right into their hands by waiting?"
She opened her mouth, stopped, started and stopped again. "I don't know," she finally said.
"Exactly," he said. He pulled his broom from his pocket and enlarged it.
She grabbed him. "Harry, you can't."
"Why not—"
"Because you—"
"—Someone entered me in this to get me killed. Because the tasks weren't enough on their own they decided to sabotage me in the first one. So, thinking like a killer, when would you go after me in this one?"
"Harry—"
"When, Hermione?"
"When you were the most vulnerable, of course."
"And when will I be the most vulnerable?" he asked pointedly. Harry knew she had come to the same conclusion as him when her eyes widened fearfully. "Find Cedric," he said. "Tell him he's on his own with Fleur and Viktor. Everything stays the same except they summon their hostages the second the task starts."
"But what do I tell them when you aren't there?"
"That I got on my broom, flew off into the clouds and you haven't seen me since."
"But—"
"The task starts at eleven; whether I'm there or not."
"But what if the Goblet punishes you for starting early?"
"The task says I have to retrieve her within an hour of it starting. It doesn't say a word about where I start from."
"But what about freeing the other hostages?"
"That's not my task. It won't punish me for it."
Hermione frowned. "I don't know," Harry."
"It didn't punish me for starting the last one early."
"You're going no matter what I say, aren't you?"
"Yes."
She threw her arms around him, hugging him fiercely. "Then go."
She let him go and he started ripping his clothes off till he was in nothing but board shorts. From his bag he extracted a knife, a spear gun and six bolts for it. He strapped the knife to one leg; the bolts to the other, and the spear gun to his left arm, making sure it didn't interfere with the action of his spare wand moving to his hand. He patted the pockets of his shorts, ensuring his gillyweed was there. Last he checked the action of his wand to his preferred hand.
"Everything?" she asked.
"Yep." He kissed her cheek, threw his cloak over his shoulders and mounted his broom. "Love you, Mione," he said, shooting off as he pulled the hood up.
"You too," she whispered. She stared into the seemingly empty sky for a second before turning and hurrying for the stairs.
Luna spotted her first. "Where's Harry?"
"Change of plans," Hermione said.
"Change of plans?" Daphne demanded.
"Yes. Come on." The other four hurried after her.
"I trust you're going to explain?" Daphne hissed.
"No time." Hermione broke into a run.
Harry rocketed out over the lake till he reached where he figured to be over the deepest point – it was surprisingly close to the cliff face that passed for the shore. Just the depth alone, some seven hundred fifty meters, would have given most people pause, not Harry. Descending to just a few feet above the surface he glanced at his watch. He had fifty-five minutes to find the hostages, free them and get back to Ginny before she woke. And, if he hit his bet, set whatever was waiting for him in motion by cutting her bindings. He stuffed a handful of gillyweed into his mouth and in the time it took to shove his cloak into a pocket of his shorts it had worked its magic. The sharp pang in his neck hit and he jumped. The icy water rushed into his gills with life-giving oxygen. He took a second to orientate himself, grateful he'd done this a number of times already, before giving a kick with his now webbed and flipper-like feet. Shooting up to the surface he grabbed his broom and dove. Water had no effect on it shrinking back into its case and he was fifteen meters deep by the time it was safely stuffed in his last pocket.
Having only practiced in clear blue waters, Harry hadn't known quite what to expect in the loch but it became dark far sooner than he'd have guessed. Triggering the release on his wand he muttered, "Lumos," stuck his wand in his mouth and kept diving. Down he plunged, deeper and deeper, going for near ten minutes before he detected a glow emanating from below. He let out a breath – was that possible when sporting gills – Bill and Sirius' directions had been spot on. "Nox," he said. His light went out and he moved his wand back to his hand. Angling for where the light was the brightest he continued down.
Only a few seconds further on Harry saw his first merperson. The creature was pretty much as imagined, with the lower body of a fish and the upper of a human. He couldn't have gaged its age but the creature was about the same size as him. His arms and chest were lean but well muscled. His hair was long and tangled, while his face seemed a bit frog-like, with overlarge eyes and an overlarge mouth filled with teeth that looked dangerously sharp. The merperson clutched a spear in his hand and the instant he saw Harry he flipped in the water and flashed away. Gillyweed or not Harry realized he wasn't going to out-swim one of the creatures. Harry continued down and it was only a few seconds more that he got his first glimpse of the merpeople colony. A vast field of glowing seaweed stretched before him. Every twenty feet or so there was a bit of a cleared area in the strange grass, centered in the clearings were woven huts seven to eight feet across and maybe ten high.
"I told you," Hermione said, "we were in the clock tower when he got on his broom and flew off."
"What do you mean he flew off?" Bill demanded. Hermione and the others may have given him a heads up but it wasn't taking any of his acting skills to play his part.
"You can't start the task without him, Professor," Hermione pleaded. "Harry would never abandon her."
"It looks like he has to me," Karkaroff retorted.
"I told you, zee boy is a coward," Maxime said.
"Oh yes," Hermione retorted disdainfully, "that's why he cursed a dragon and then led it away from everyone else."
"The task must start at the assigned time," Karkaroff said.
"You can't let them, Sirius!" Sirius grimaced.
"'e 'as no control over zis, Girl."
With Harry missing, the task set to start in five minutes, and the commotion Hermione was creating, no one was paying the other three champions any mind at all and Cedric took advantage of it to slide over to Fleur and Viktor. "Vat is happening?" Viktor asked under his breath.
"I don't know," Cedric said, "but we're supposed to summon them right away, no waiting. You've already drawn their runic names on your palm right?"
"But 'ow? She will not 'ave time if we summon zem right away?"
Cedric shrugged. "Not sure, though I imagine it has something to do with that." He nodded at where Hermione was arguing with the judges.
Dumbledore shook his head. "I am sorry, Miss Granger. Wherever Mr Potter is, the task must start as scheduled. The best I can offer is that regardless of his location, he will have the same time as the other champions to complete the task."
"You better hope he completes the task," Bill warned.
"All I can say is," Cedric said, "you thought there were fireworks after the last one."
As Harry watched, a smaller mereperson darted out of one of the huts. A moment later, on its, well, on its tail, a second merperson followed. The first of the creatures swam directly at Harry till it was within about four feet when it suddenly realized he was there. It stopped, stared at him for about two seconds, whipped around and darted back behind the second merperson. It was a good thing Harry had gills because he'd have inhaled about half the lake without them. The second merperson was definitely female. She stared at him. He stared at her. She raised her arm and pointed. "There."
Harry followed her direction. About fifty meters further on was a hut a good twenty meters in diameter and the same high. From their research he knew it was a central gathering chamber for the elders. The best translation of Mermish to English was rotunda. Harry nodded. "Thank you." A flip of his feet and he glided to it. Merpeople watched him curiously from the doorways of different huts but none tried to stop him. All of the merpeople he had seen since the first were either female or children. And other than their teeth, they hadn't been armed. Apparently the task was just the loch and finding the hostages, and the champions weren't expected to actually fight the merpeople… He hoped.
Moving purposely, he arrived at the rotunda to find two males guarding either side of the entry. They were massive; probably twice as large as the first male he'd seen. They each held trident spears and watched him approach. Harry slowed as he went past but neither did anything to impede him entering.
Inside, Harry found a large grouping of males with a smaller number of females interspersed among them. Most were no bigger than the first male he'd seen with none approaching the two standing – or perhaps, floating – sentinel outside. The merpeople turned on his entry. A male and female floated down before him. Each wore a string of shells tied around their necks; The Elders. Beyond them, tied to four different altars were the hostages. Harry stopped before the elders. "Greetings," he said, bowing his head respectfully.
"The task has not begun yet," the female said." Harry grimaced.
"Has something happened?" the male asked.
Before Harry could respond the merpeople sank, almost as one, to rest on their tails on the lakebed where they stayed with heads bowed. Harry turned and found himself face to face with the goddess. He goggled. She just watched him. Lady of the Loch, he reprimanded himself. This is the Loch… Duh. Recovering quickly enough he sank to the lakebed and knelt. "My Lady."
"You will all leave," the goddess said. "Go to the cavern. Stay till I come for you." She stopped and waited. Neither Harry nor the merpeople moved. "Now," the goddess intoned. Fast as a blink the merpeople left and he was alone with her. For a few seconds he could hear the merpeople shouting outside the rotunda but very quickly there was silence. "We are lucky, Harry Potter," she said.
"Lucky?"
"The nuance of Deity. A command to them is not considered help to you."
Harry frowned but decided he'd ponder her words later; provided later was in his future. "However you want to phrase it, I'll take it."
She smiled. "Fare well, Harry Potter."
Harry bowed his head. "Thank you," he said. When he looked up again she was gone. He turned for the altars. Leaving Ginny he worked as fast as he could to trace the appropriate runes on the arms of the other three. He then cut them loose from their bindings before using a Lassoing Charm to tie them all together. With a quick glance at his watch, 10:25; and not allowing himself to look at Ginny, he set off with his cargo of three hostages.
Author's notes:
Yeah, I know, kind of a cruel cliffhanger.