hapter 11

The Second Task

Harry's POV

I barely made it in time to the Second Task. I almost overslept, having stayed up late trying to figure out how I was going to complete this Task. Fortunately for me, Dobby had come up with a solution for me. He woke me up and handed me some slimy plant.

"It's gillyweed." He squeaked as he helped me get up. "You eat it, and it'll allow you to breathe underwater."

Now I was at the edge of the Lake, at the end of the line, Krum on the other side of me. Bagman was announcing the start of the Task. I was trying to catch my breath.

"On the count of three then. One, two , three." Bagman blew his whistle and cheers erupted from the stands

Without looking to see what the other champions were doing, I took my shoes and socks off. I stuffed the gillyweed in my mouth and waded into the Lake. I chewed the plant until I was covered to my waist in the cold water. I swallowed the rest of the plant and waited. I could hear jeering from the crowd and I knew I must have looked ridiculous just standing there.

Suddenly I felt like a pillow was being pressed against my mouth and nose. I couldn't breathe anymore. I clapped my hands around my throat and felt two large slits against my skin. I had gills! I flung myself forward into the water. I started gulping water and felt it pass through my gills. My hands and feet formed webs between my fingers and toes, which made it much easier to swim in the water. I dove, feeling finally ready to finish this Task.

Cedric's POV

When I heard the whistle blow that signaled the start of the Second Task, I pulled my wand out and performed the Bubble-Head Charm. Once my head was encased with a bubble of oxygen, I dove into the Lake. The water was chilly, and it took me some time to get used to it. Visibility wasn't great, so I cast lumos with my wand to help me see.

I made my way towards the bottom of the lake, or at least what I thought was the bottom. I came across a forest of seaweed. I knew I needed to be careful here because grindylow were known to hang out around seaweed. A minute into me swimming through the seaweed I felt a hand grab at my ankle. It was a grindylow; I pointed my wand at it and thought relashio and my wand pelted it with what looked like a jet of boiling water. The grindylow let go of my leg and I continued to swim down.

Harry's POV

I was looking around the water, feeling pressure against my eardrums meaning I was deep in the lake now.

"How are you getting on?" I heard a voice say. I spun around to see Moaning Myrtle staring at me.

"Myrtle!" I tried to say but only a bubble came out of my mouth.

"You'll want to try over there." She said pointing to my right. "I won't come with you, I don't like them much. They always chase me when I get too close."

I gave her a thumbs up and swam in the direction she pointed. I made sure to stay out of the seaweed because I didn't want to be attacked by a grindylow again. After what felt like twenty minutes I finally heard a glimpse of the mersong from the Egg.

I swam faster and soon saw a large rock emerge in the water ahead. It had a large painting of merpeople fighting off what looked like the Giant Squid. Here and there, in the dark windows of their dwellings, I saw faces staring at me. The merpeople had grayish skin and long wild dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow as was their teeth.

I kept swimming through the small town until I arrived at what looked like the town center. Merpeople swam around menacingly, holding up spears. Up ahead of me, I saw a choir of merpeople singing the song from the Egg. They were in front of a statue of a merperson and on the statue there were four people tied to it.

Ron was tied between Hermione and my sister. Chloe! I thought to myself as I started heading that way. There was another girl there as well, she looked to be about eight years old. Her hair looked exactly like Fleur's, she must have been her sister. It appeared like the four of them were put under a deep sleeping spell.

I looked around and thought that maybe a merperson would let me use one of their spears to cut down Ron. I was regretting not bringing a knife with me. The merperson I asked to use their spear laughed at me and said they were not to help. I ended up using a jagged rock I found at the bottom of the statue.

When I finished cutting Ron's rope I attempted to release my sister. I was quickly stopped by one of the merpeople. They held me back as they shook their heads

"You take your own hostage, leave the others." One said gruffly in my ear

"No way!" I attempted to say, only bubbles came out.

"Your task is to retrieve your own friend, leave the others."

"She's my sister!" I gestured to Chloe, her head was leaning against Hermione's shoulder. It was clear I could only save one of them, and I had already cut Ron's rope. Where are the other champions? I thought furiously as I looked around.

Cedric's POV

I felt like I had gotten lost. I wasn't sure where I was or where I was supposed to be going. Eventually, I heard singing coming from the depths. The merpeople, I thought to myself as I headed in the direction of the singing. They were singing the lines from the Golden Egg, and I was glad they were. I followed their voices until I reached what looked like a village. There were buildings that resembled houses with plant boxes outside them. I even passed a house that had a pet grindylow tied in the front of the house.

When I reached the center of the town, I saw a large statue where four people were tied, although one was already loose, kind of just floating there. It looked like Ronald Weasley. He must have been the one to cut Ron loose, made sense seeing as they were best friends. I looked at the other four and my eyes fell on Chloe. Her long black hair floated in the water above her. She appeared to be in a deep sleep, she looked peaceful as she floated in the water. A flash of panic went through my body, how long could she survive under the water like that? Hermione must have been down here for Krum, and the last girl I didn't recognize but she clearly was related to Fleur. I looked around and saw Harry was there, holding a jagged rock.

"Got lost." I mouthed at him as I swam up. "Fleur and Krum are coming now." I swam up to Chloe and took out a knife from my pocket and cut the rope holding her down. I gently grabbed her waist and started to swim up to the surface.

When my head broke the surface, cheering erupted from the crowd in the stands. I was the first champion to complete the task. As soon as Chloe's head broke the surface she started sputtering and taking in deep breaths.

"Cedric!" she cried as she flung her arms around my neck. "You did it!" We were both soaking wet, and I wanted to get out of the cold water as soon as possible. I swam over to the edge of the lake and pulled myself out of the water. Chloe followed me and soon we had thick blankets draped around our shoulders.

Madam Pomfrey fussed around us as she tried to help dry us off. She gave us a pepper-up potion that warmed up the inside of my body as I drank it. Chloe was drying her hair with a towel, crowded by her Slytherin friends.

"I can't believe that you've been under the lake this whole time!" I heard Pansy exclaim as she put her arm around Chloe's shoulder.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Chloe was saying to her friends, trying to calm them down. She turned to look at me and gave me a bright smile. Her eyes sparkled with pride and I felt my face flush a little. How did I get so lucky to be with someone like Chloe?

Chloe's POV

I was staring at Cedric, smiling, as my friends crowded me. He was the first champion back, well the first successful champion to complete the Task. Fleur had apparently been attacked by the grindylow and was unable to finish the Task. Pansy was holding my shoulders with an arm and talking about how worried everyone was when I didn't turn up to breakfast that morning.

"Even Draco was starting to get worried." She was saying with a wave of her hand. I turned and looked at her.

"Was he?" I asked curiously. I hadn't been spending much time with Draco lately and felt a ping of guilt. I had been so consumed with helping Harry with the Second Task, and spending as much time with Cedric as I could that I was neglecting my friendship with him.

"He thought that maybe Cedric did something to you." Zabini started to explain. "He was ready to go fight him, if it weren't for me he probably would've stormed the Hufflepuff dormitory."

"Where is he?" I asked, looking around. There was no sign of Draco anywhere.

"When Cedric pulled you out of the water, he left." Pansy shrugged. Just then another cheer came from the crowd as Krum emerged from the lake, his head was in the shape of a shark's head. He was pulling Hermione from the water as his shark's head turned back into its regular shape. That meant Harry was the last champion left to complete the Task.

I made my way back to Cedric, wanting to be close to him. We sat together as we waited for Harry to turn up. My head was resting on his shoulder, and our hands were intertwined. A bit of steam was coming out of our ears from the pepper-up potion; making us look a bit funny. I was content sitting with him, and I wanted to stay by his side for as long as I could.

After what felt like hours, Harry finally broke the surface of the Lake. With him was Ron and a silver-haired girl that must have been Fleur's sister. Madam Maxine was holding Fleur back as she tried to run to her sister. Harry and Ron were having a conversation in the water as they helped the little girl get to the edge of the lake. It looked like Ron was telling Harry he was daft if he thought that Dumbledore would have allowed the hostages to die in the lake.

"Harry was the first one to you guys." Cedric said, hearing what Ron was saying. "He could've been the first champion to complete the task."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he was there at the statue where you were tied up. He even had already cut Ron loose when I got there." Cedric moved his arm to be around my shoulder. "When I saw you under the water, I must admit I felt a little panicked."

"You did?" I asked, was I blushing from the pepper-up potion or what Cedric had just said?

"I don't know what I would've done if I had lost you." Cedric's brown eyes looked into my sea green ones. "Chloe, you're the most important person to me."

"I am?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing, it almost sounded like a confession of love.

"You are, these last few months with you have been the happiest of my life." He continued, a blush creeping up his face. Or was that the pepper-up potion too?

"I-" I was interrupted by Harry who came over after he had drunk his pepper-up potion and had a blanket over his shoulders.

"Chloe, how are you feeling?" He asked, sitting down next to me. "Cedric." He added as he nodded in Cedric's direction.

"I'm fine, the pepper-up potion is doing its work." I said motioning to my steaming ears.

"Good, I just wanted to thank Cedric." Harry saiding turning to face Cedric. "Thanks for saving my sister."

"Of course, she's very special to me." Cedric said, giving Harry a curt nod. I felt my face get hot with embarrassment. Was Cedric going to tell everyone how important I was to him?

Then I realized something. The line from the Golden Egg, "We've taken what you'll sorely miss", did it refer to the champion's most treasured person? It must have. Fleur's hostage was her sister, who was clearly an important person to her. Krum had Hermione as his hostage, they must have really hit it off during the Yule Ball. That left me and Ron for Harry and Cedric. Obviously Ron couldn't have been Cedric's hostage; they barely even knew each other. I really must be the most important person to Cedric.

A part of me was feeling a twinge of jealousy towards Ron. Ron was Harry's most important person, not me. I was his sister, his twin sister for goodness sake. Shouldn't I be the most important person to him?

Harry gave me a quick hug before returning to Ron and Hermione. This whole time, the judges had been in conference to decide how to divy up points between the champions.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision." Ludo Bagman's voice boomed overhead. "Merchiefenist Merchis has told exactly what happened at the bottom of the Black Lake, and we have decided to award marks out of fifty for each champion as follows. Fleur Delacor, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points."

"I deserve zero." Fleur said as she shook her head.

"Cedric Diggory," I squeezed Cedric's hand, "also used the Bubble-Head charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour. We therefore award him forty-seven points."

The Hufflepuffs, and many of the rest of the students, cheered for Cedric. I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before turning back to listen to the other champion's scores.

"Victor Krum used an incomplete form of transfiguration which was nevertheless effective and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points."

Karkaroff clapped loudly, as well as the rest of the Durmstrang students.

"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect. He returned last, well outside the time limit of an hour, however, the Mercheifenist informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages. And the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own. Most of the judges feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However, Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."

Harry was now tied in first place with Cedric. I could see Ron and Hermione clapping Harry on his back. I noticed Krum trying to engage Hermione in conversation, but she was too busy cheering Harry on to notice.

"The third and final Task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June. The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions." Bagman finished with a huge smile on his face. The Second Task was finally over.

AN: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It was interesting to write from a couple of different POVs. Please leave a review!