I do not own Bleach or Harry Potter the both belong respectively to Tite Kubo and J.K. Rowling


With the egg's riddle solved, Harry was still faced a problem: how to survive underwater for an hour on the twenty-fourth of February.

After explaining scuba diving to him, Ron liked the idea of using the summoning charm again. He couldn't see why Harry shouldn't summon the equipment from the nearest muggle town. Hermione squashed this plan by pointing out that, in the unlikely event that Harry managed to learn how to operate scuba gear within the set limit of an hour, he was sure to be disqualified for breaking the Statute of Secrecy; as someone was bound to see scuba gear zooming across the countryside to Hogwarts.

"Of course, the ideal solution would be for you to transfigure yourself into a submarine or something" said Hermione. "if only we'd done human transfiguration already! But I don't think we start that until sixth year, and it can go horribly wrong if you don't know what you're doing."

"Yeah I don't like the idea of having a periscope sticking out of my head" Harry deadpanned.

"Well Harry, could always just attack someone in front of Moody" said Ginny "he might turn him into a fish or something."

The group shared a light chuckle as they remembered Malfoy: the bouncing ferret.

"Seriously though, I think your best chance is some sort of charm" said Hermione.

So once again it was back to the library. However, though they searched through their lunchtimes, evenings, and whole weekends. Went to Prof. McGonagall for permission to use the restricted section, and even asked the irritable, vulture-like librarian, Madam Pince, for help; they found nothing whatsoever that would enable Harry to spend an hour underwater and live to tell the tale.

The days before the second task ran down fast and before he knew it, it was the afternoon before the task. Harry sat with Ginny, Hermione, and Ron in the library, tearing feverishly through page after page of spells, hidden from one another by the massive piles of books on the desk in front

"This is hopeless" Harry groaned. "The only time these books even mention 'water' it's part of some recipe."

"I'm starting to think you should just go down to the lake tomorrow, stick your head in, and yell at the merpeople to give back whatever they've nicked, and see if they chuck it out" said Ron. "Best you can do mate."

"There must be something" said Hermione. "There just has to be!"

She seemed to be taking the library's lack of useful information on the subject as a personal insult; it had never failed her before.

"Even if we find a spell, what are the odds of Harry mastering by tomorrow" Ginny said hopelessly.

"Oh this is no use," Hermione said, snapping shut Weird Wizarding Dilemmas. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?"

"I wouldn't mind" said Fred Weasley's voice. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"

Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione looked up. Fred and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves.

"What're you two doing here?" Ron asked.

"Looking for you" said George. "McGonagall wants Ginny, and Hermione."

"Why?" asked Hermione.

"No clue…she was looking a bit grim, though" said Fred.

"We're supposed to take you down to her office" said George.

Ginny and Hermione stared at Harry, who felt his stomach drop. Was Professor McGonagall about to tell them off? Had she noticed how much they've been helping him? when he ought to be working out how to do the tasks alone?

Wait then why leave out Ron? He's been helping me too.

"We'll meet you back in the common room" Hermione told Harry and Ron, as she and Ginny got up to leave with the twins. "Bring as many books as you can."

"Right" Harry said uneasily.


"Harry Potter must wake up, sir!"

Harry opened his eyes. He was in the Gryffindor common room, Ron was still asleep in the chair next to him, some book left open on his chest, while his own was stuck to the pages of whatever book he was reading when he'd fallen asleep.

We must've fallen asleep waiting for Ginny and Hermione to get back, Harry realized, straightening his glasses, he could now see who had woken him. "Dobby?"

"Harry Potter needs to hurry!" the elf said frantically. "The second task starts in ten minutes, and Harry Potter…"

"Ten minutes?!" Harry shouted, jarring Ron awake in the process.

"We fell asleep" said Ron, catching on quickly.

Checking the clock, they found Dobby was right. It was twenty past nine, and they still didn't have a clue as to how Harry could complete the task.

"Hurry, Harry Potter!" squeaked Dobby, pulling at Harry's sleeve. "You is supposed to be down by the lake with the other champions, sir!"

"Dobby, I can't do the task" Harry said hopelessly. "I don't know how…"

"Harry Potter will do the task!" squeaked the elf. "Dobby knew Harry had not found the right book, so Dobby did it for him!"

"What?" They couldn't believe it Ron and Harry had spent days researching when the little elf had the answer all along.

"But you shouldn't even know what the second task is" said Harry.

"Dobby knows, sir! Harry Potter has to go into the lake and find his Ginny."

"Ginny? what about…" Harry's blood ran cold, as he realized what the elf was talking about. "They've got Ginny" he whispered, horror struck.

"What?!" Ron shouted.

"The thing Harry Potter will miss most, sir!" Dobby confirmed.

'But past an hour, the prospect's black,

Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.'

"Dobby, what've I got to do?"

"You has to eat this, sir!" squeaked the elf, and he put his hand in the pocket of his shorts and drew out a ball of what looked like slimy, grayish-green rat tails. "Right before you go into the lake, sir, gillyweed!"

"What does it do?" Ron asked, staring at the plant.

"Make Harry Potter breath underwater, sir!"

"Dobby" Harry said frantically. "You're sure this'll work, right?"

He couldn't quite forget that the last time Dobby had tried to 'help' him, he had ended up with no bones in his right arm.

"Dobby is quite sure, sir!" said the elf earnestly. "Dobby hears things, sir, he is a house-elf, he goes all over the castle as he lights the fires and mops the floors. Dobby heard Professor McGonagall and Professor Moody in the staffroom, talking about the next task. Dobby cannot let Harry Potter lose his Ginny!"

That was good enough for Harry, grabbing the gillyweed, he tore out of the common room with Ron and Dobby at his heels.

"Dobby is supposed to be in the kitchens, sir!" said Dobby, clearly upset he couldn't go and lend his support. "Good luck, Harry Potter, sir, good luck!"

"See you later, Dobby and thanks!" he shouted, as the elf vanished from sight.

"You know, we have to talk about this 'your' Ginny thing" said Ron, as they rushed through the entrance hall.

"Not a good time Ron" said Harry.

"Yeah well I'm just saying better you than some other bloke."

Harry wasn't sure if this was because Ron had faith he'd save Ginny or if he was simply trying to keep his mind off the fact his sister had been taken. Either way it really wasn't the best time for this conversation.

Once outside Ron broke off from Harry to go find Hermione in the stands, while he continued down to the lakeside to join the judges and the other champions.

"I'm, here" Harry called, skidding to a halt in the mud, accidentally splattering Fleur's robes.

"Where have you been?" said a bossy, disapproving voice. "The task's about to start!"

Apparently Mr. Crouch was still ill, as Percy was there taking his place at the judge's table.

"Now, now, Percy" said Ludo Bagman, who was looking interestingly relieved to see Harry. "He's here that's all that matters."

Karkaroff and Maxime didn't share his opinion, looking far from pleased to see Harry. Obviously that didn't think he was going to show up.

Bagman then had the champions space themselves out about ten feet apart, along the lake bank. Harry was on the very end of the line, next to Krum, who was wearing swimming trunks and holding his wand at the ready.

"All right, Harry?" Bagman whispered as he moved Harry a few feet farther away from Krum. "Know what you're going to do?"

"Yeah" said Harry, confused by the man's interest in him.

Bagman gave Harry's shoulder a quick squeeze and returned to the judges' table; he pointed his wand at his throat as he had done at the World Cup, said, "Sonorus!" and his voice boomed out across the dark water toward the stands.

"Our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. 1 . . . 2 . . . 3!"

The crowd went wild as Bagman's whistle echoed in the cold still air. Not bothering to worry about the other champions, Harry kicked off his shoes and socks, threw off his robe, stuffed the handful of gillyweed into his mouth, and waded out into the lake.

The freezing waters felt like daggers as Harry waited for something to happen. He could hear laughter in the crowd and knew he must've looked stupid just standing there without showing any sign of magical power. But that didn't matter all Harry wanted to do was rescue Ginny, and he was starting to worry that Dobby made a mistake.

Then suddenly, Harry felt as though an invisible pillow had been pressed over his mouth and nose. He tried to draw breath, but it made his head spin; his lungs were empty, and he suddenly felt a piercing pain on either side of his neck.

Clapping his hands around his throat, Harry felt two large slits just below his ears, flapping the cold air.

I have gills? Thank you, Dobby!

Without a moment to spare, Harry dived into the water. The first gulp of icy lake water felt like the breath of life. His head stopped spinning; he took another great gulp of water and felt it pass smoothly through his gills, sending oxygen back to his brain. He stretched out his hands in front of him and was surprised to find the gillyweed had done more than just grant him gills. It had transformed him completely; his hands and feet had become webbed.

The water didn't even feel icy anymore, instead it felt pleasantly cool. Testing his new amphibian like limbs, Harry was surprised by how fast he could propel himself through the water, swimming so far out into the lake he couldn't see the shore.

Ok I'm coming, Ginny. While Harry had decided not to use his Soul Reaper powers in the tournament; kidnapping his friend definitely changed his view on the subject. Extending his senses, he was able to pick up on three human souls in the lake other than Cedric and Krum, along with another soul that felt similar to Fleur's.

The soul that was similar to Fleur's led Harry to believe it was a family member. The other three he identified as Cho Chang (obviously Cedric's hostage), Ginny (his own) but the third soul was certainly a surprise.

Hermione?! Harry could only reason that she had been taken as Krum's hostage due to her going with him to the ball. Still he now knew where to go, so Harry dived down into the dark depths, using the hostage's spiritual pressures as his guide.

Good thing too, as Harry found that he could barely see more than ten feet ahead of him. New scenes seemed to emerge suddenly from the oncoming darkness: forests of rippling, tangled black weed, wide plains of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. He swam deeper and deeper, out toward the middle of the lake, his eyes wide, staring through the eerily gray-lit water around him to the shadows beyond, where the water became opaque.

Light green seaweed stretched ahead of him as far as he could see, two feet deep, like a meadow of very overgrown grass. Then, without warning, something grabbed hold of his ankle.

Harry twisted his body around and saw a grindylow, a small, horned water demon, poking out of the weeds, its long fingers clutched tightly around Harry's leg, its pointed fangs bared. Remembering what Remus had taught him about the water demon, Harry stomped his free foot on the creature's fragile fingers, freeing himself just as more grindylows rose out of the weeds. The water demons seized Harry's legs, attempting to drag him down. Desperate to get free and get back to rescuing Ginny, Harry flared his spirit energy as much as his human body would allow.

Just as he hoped the gridylows backed off as they now realized that Harry wasn't a regular human. The water demons were smart enough not challenge a reaper and quickly retreated back to their den.

"Wow you sure scared them."

Harry whipped around and saw Moaning Myrtle floating hazily in front of him, gazing at him through her thick, pearly glasses.

"Myrtle!" Harry tried to shout, but only bubbles came out of his mouth. Moaning Myrtle actually giggled.

"You want to try over there" she said, pointing. "I won't come with you. I don't like them much; they always chase me when I get too close.

Harry gave her the thumbs-up to show his thanks and set off once more, careful to swim a bit higher over the weed to avoid any more grindylows that might be lurking there.

He swam on for what felt like at least twenty minutes. He was passing over vast expanses of black mud now, which swirled murkily as he disturbed the water. Then, at long last, he heard a haunting mersong.

"An hour long you'll have to look,

And to recover what we took . . ."

Harry swam faster and soon saw a large rock emerge out of the muddy water ahead. It had paintings of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears and chasing what looked like the giant squid. Harry swam on past the rock, following the mersong.

". . . your time's half gone, so tarry not

Lest what you seek stays here to rot."

A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. Here and there at the dark windows, Harry saw them, the merpeople. They had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks.

Apparently his earlier burst of spirit energy was more powerful than he thought as the merpeople all bowed he swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to get a better look at him, their powerful, silver fish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands, and hand over heart in a warrior's salute.

Maybe Ron was right and I could've just yelled that they give Ginny back.

Harry sped on, and soon the dwellings became more numerous; there were gardens of weed around some of them, and he even saw a pet grindylow tied to a stake outside one door. Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching him eagerly, pointing at his webbed hands and gills, talking behind their hands to one another. Harry sped around a corner and a very strange sight met his eyes.

A whole crowd of merpeople was floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a mer-version of a village square. A choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions toward them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue; a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Four people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson.

Ginny was tied between Hermione and Cho Chang. There was also a girl who looked no older than eight, whose clouds of silvery hair made Harry feel sure that she was Fleur Delacour's sister. All four of them appeared to be in a very deep sleep. Their heads lolled onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept flowed from their mouths.

Harry sped towards the hostages, finding the ropes of seaweed tying them to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong. He swam to the nearest merman and did his best to mime that he needed to borrow his spear. The merman apologetically shook his head.

"Apologies Reaper, but we cannot interfere" he said in a croaky voice.

Of course it's not that easy. For a moment Harry considered turning into a Soul Reaper and just using Nakatsukasa to cut them free, but he didn't want to risk having his soulless body floating up to the surface if he didn't have too.

Grabbing a jagged rock from the lake bottom, Harry started hacking away at Ginny's bindings, and after several minutes of hard work, they broke apart, leaving her floating, unconscious, a few inches above the lake bottom.

Harry looked around but there was no sign of any of the other champions, in fact he could sense that they were still a good distance away. Not wanting to leave anyone behind, Harry turned to Hermione to free her. But before he could start on her bindings, half a dozen mermen pulled him away from Hermione.

"Reaper, you can only take your own hostage" one of them said.

"No way!" said Harry furiously, but only two large bubbles came out.

For a moment the mermen looked afraid that the they'd be forced to try and defend themselves against an angry Soul Reaper. But then they started pointing excitedly at something over Harry's head. He looked up and saw Cedric swimming toward them. There was an enormous bubble around his head, which made his features look oddly wide and stretched.

"Got lost!" he mouthed, looking panic-stricken. "Fleur and Krum are coming now!"

Relieved, Harry watched Cedric pull a knife from his pocket and cut Cho free. He pulled her upward and out of sight.

Harry looked around, waiting. Where were Fleur and Krum? Time was getting short, and according to the song, the hostages would be lost after an hour.

The merpeople started screeching animatedly. Harry turned and saw something monstrous cutting through the water toward them: a human body in swimming trunks with the head of a shark….it was Krum. He appeared to have transfigured himself…. badly.

The shark-man swam straight to Hermione and began snapping and biting at her ropes; the trouble was that Krum's new teeth were positioned very awkwardly for biting anything smaller than a dolphin, and Harry was sure if Krum wasn't careful, he was going to rip Hermione in half. Darting forward, Harry hit Krum hard on the shoulder and held up the jagged stone.

Krum seized it and began to cut Hermione free. Within seconds, he cut through the rope; he grabbed Hermione around the waist, and without a backward glance made for the surface.

Now what? Harry thought desperately. He could still sense that Fleur was a whiles away. There was nothing to be done except….

Snatching up his makeshift dagger, Harry moved to free the little girl but once again the mermen got in his way. Harry's spirit energy flared, as he glared at the now frightened merpeople.

"You've got until three!" he shouted; holding up three fingers to make sure they got his point. "1…" (he put down a finger) "2…" (he put down a second one)

They scattered and Harry quickly freed the small girl from the statue. Hugging the girls close to him, Harry kicked off from the statue and started for the surface.

It wasn't easy; he could no longer use his webbed hands and Ginny and Fleur's sister were like sandbags dragging him back down. The merpeople were rising with him, but Harry didn't pay them much mind; he didn't think they'd want to challenge a reaper.

Instead Harry just kept focused on reaching the surface but as the gillyweed started to wear off, he started to feel the weight of his efforts. Harry's legs were seizing up from struggle to keep swimming; his shoulders were aching horribly, screaming for him to release Ginny and the girl.

Gone were his amphibian traits, leaving him fully aware of the water flooding his lungs, growing dizzy from the effort Harry started to think he wouldn't make it. The world was starting to go dark around him and then he felt it; wonderful, cold, clear air stinging against his wet face; he gulped it down, feeling as though he had never breathed properly before.

Panting, Harry pulled Ginny and the little girl up with him. All around him, wild, green-haired heads emerged from the water with them, but gone was their fear, instead they were smiling at Harry.

The crowd in the stands was making a great deal of noise; shouting and screaming, they all seemed to be on their feet; Harry had the impression they thought that Ginny and the little girl might be dead, but they were wrong . . . both of them had opened their eyes; the girl looked scared and confused, but Ginny merely spit out a great spout of water, blinking in the bright sunlight.

"You ok, Ginny?" Harry asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm ok" she smiled, the she noticed Fleur's sister. "Seems you brought a guest."

"Fleur didn't turn up" Harry panted. "I couldn't leave her,"

"Turns out the song wasn't that serious" Ginny laughed, not surprised Harry's refusal to leave the girl.

"But the song said…."

"It was only to make sure you got back inside the time limit."

Harry just felt both stupid and annoyed. He'd gone crazy with worry and threatened the merpeople for nothing!

"Help me with her" said Harry, wanting to take his mind off what just happened. "I don't think she can swim very well."

They pulled Fleur's sister through the water, back toward the bank where the judges stood watching, twenty merpeople accompanying them like a guard of honor, singing their horrible screechy songs. Harry could see Madam Pomfrey fussing over Hermione, Krum, Cedric, and Cho, all of whom were wrapped in thick blankets.

Dumbledore and Bagman stood beaming at Harry and Ginny from the bank as they swam closer, while Percy, who looked a ghostly pale and somehow much younger than usual, came splashing out to meet them.

Meanwhile Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur Delacour, who was hysterically fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.

"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she hurt?"

"She's fine!" Harry tried to tell her, but he was so exhausted he could hardly talk, let alone shout.

Percy grabbed Ginny and dragged her back to the bank ("Percy, I'm fine!"); leaving Dumbledore and Bagman to pull Harry to his feet. He had practically just reached shore when Fleur rushed over, taking her sister into her arms.

"It was the grindylows… they attacked me…. oh Gabrielle, I thought… I thought"

Looks like I'm not the only one that took the song seriously Harry noted, as Pomfrey dragged him over to the others, wrapped him in a towel, and forced a hot potion down his throat, causing steam to gush from his ears.

"You did it, Harry" Hermione cried. "You found out how all by yourself!"

"Well…" Harry would've told her about Dobby, but then he noticed Karkaroff watching him. He was the only judge who had not left the table; the only judge not showing signs of pleasure and relief that Harry, Ginny, and Fleur's sister had returned safely.

"Yeah, that's right" he said, raising his voice slightly so that Karkaroff could hear him.

"You have a water beetle in your hair, Hermione" said Krum.

Harry had the impression that Krum was drawing her attention back onto himself; perhaps to remind her that he had just rescued her from the lake, but Hermione brushed away the beetle impatiently and said,

"You're well outside the time limit, though, Harry. Did it take you ages to find us?"

Harry couldn't help but notice the tone surprise in her voice; Hermione knew it should've been a simple matter for him to just follow their spirit energy back to them.

"No…I found you ok"

Harry's feelings of stupidity were growing. Now that he was out of the water, it seemed perfectly clear that, regardless of his problems with him; Dumbledore wouldn't have permitted the death of a hostage just because their champion hadn't turned up.

Why hadn't he just grabbed Ginny and left? He would have been first back. Cedric and Krum hadn't wasted time worrying about anyone else; they hadn't taken the mersong seriously.

Dumbledore was crouching at the water's edge, deep in conversation with what seemed to be the chief merperson, a particularly wild and ferocious-looking female. He was making the same sort of screechy noises that the merpeople made when they were above water; clearly, Dumbledore could speak Mermish. Finally, he straightened up, turned to his fellow judges, and said, "A conference before we give the marks, I think."

The judges went into a huddle. Madam Pomfrey had gone to rescue Ginny from Percy's clutches; she led him over to Harry and the others, gave him a blanket and some Pepperup Potion, then went to fetch Fleur and her sister. Fleur had many cuts on her face and arms and her robes were torn, but she didn't seem to care, nor would she allow Madam Pomfrey to clean them.

"Look after Gabrielle," she told her, and then she turned to Harry. "You saved her," she said breathlessly. "Even though she was not your hostage."

"Yeah," said Harry, who was now heartily wishing he'd left all three girls tied to the statue.

"You are truly honorable, Harry" she said, kissing him twice on each cheek.

Harry could feel his face burning and wouldn't have been surprised if steam was coming out of his ears again. Ginny on the other hand glared furiously at the Frenchwoman, who had the nerve to smirk teasingly at the younger girl's obvious jealousy.

Bagman's magically magnified voice boomed out beside them, making them all jump, and causing the crowd in the stands to go very quiet.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows: Fleur Delacour, 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."

The crowd cheered but Fleur looked far from happy.

"I deserved zero" she tearfully, still shaken by her inability to save her sister.

"Cedric Diggory, who 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."

The Hufflepuffs were now going crazy; It was Cho's approval especially that brought a grin to Cedric's face.

"We therefore award him forty-seven points."

Harry's heart sank. If Cedric had been outside the time limit, he most certainly had been.

I'm sorry Hagrid.

"Viktor 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 particularly hard, looking very superior.

"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect" Bagman continued. "He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own.

Most of the judges," Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look, "feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However, Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."

Harry's stomach leapt; he was now tying for first place with Cedric. Ginny leapt and wrapped her arms around Harry, as she and Hermione laughed and applauded with the rest of the crowd.

Fleur was applauding too, but Krum didn't look happy at all. He attempted to engage Hermione in conversation again, but she was too busy cheering for Harry to listen.

"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June," Bagman continued. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."

As Madam Pomfrey herded the champions and their hostages back to the castle to get into some dry clothes; Harry decided that the next time he was in Hogsmeade, he was going to buy Dobby a pair of socks for every day of the year.


Unbeknownst to Harry and his friends, that was no ordinary beetle that Hermione had brushed out of her hair. Flying until it was hidden safely in the shadows of the outer rim of the surrounding forest, the beetle transformed into none other than Rita Skeeter.

The vindictive reporter had been using her abilities as an animagus to spy on people for years, to collect information for her stories. Her current targets were Hermione and Ginny, who had the nerve to insult her. Unfortunately for the crooked reporter, they had a very good friend watching out for them.

"So spying on children, now."

Rita practically jumped out of her skin, spinning around coming face to face with a smirking Yoruichi.

"Funny thing is, I'm fairly certain you aren't a registered animagus" Yoruichi continued. "Now what would the Ministry say about that."

While she didn't have a personal vendetta against Skeeter; Yoruichi didn't approve of anyone that would deliberately target children, especially using such a cruel medium as the media.

"Oh please, I don't know who you are" Skeeter scoffed. "But I'm untouchable."

Sad thing is she really believed that. Over the course of her carrier Rita had collected dirt on a number of higher ups in the Ministry of Magic; unfortunately, for her that wasn't going to save her now.

She couldn't explain how it happened, one minute she was leaving Hogwarts grounds, preparing to write a slander piece against Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley. The next she was in her beetle form stuck inside a glass jar on the desk of the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; it's head Madam Bones, glaring down at her as she read a letter in her hands.

"Well Ms. Skeeter it seems we have much to discuss."


Prophet Reporter Under Investigation

Rita Skeeter: Illegal Animagus

Ex-Daily Prophet reporter: Rita Skeeter was delivered to the office of the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Madame Bone's office where it was discovered that she was in fact an unregistered animagus; a beetle.

Madam Bone's reports that it was the work of an anonymous party, who in addition to bringing Ms. Skeeter to their attention, they had also left a written statement that she had made use of her ability to illegally spy on a number of her article's subjects.

The Daily Prophet was in no way aware nor supports this reporter's actions and will comply fully with the DMLE's investigation into the matter.

"Justice at last" Hermione said triumphantly.

"And you're very welcome" said Yoruichi.

It was a week after the second task; Harry was in the middle of another training session with Yoruichi, when Hermione, Ron, and Ginny burst into the room, holding a copy of the Daily Prophet.

The kids couldn't help but take pleasure in the fact that Rita Skeeter was finally paying for all the pain he caused Hagrid.

"Thanks a lot, Yoruichi" said Harry.

"Believe me it was a pleasure" she smirked.