Once we all returned back to the castle and school, any thoughts about the Tournament were long forgotten once more. It seemed everyone had 'forgot' their professor's assigned them homework over the break. The professors weren't too pleased when everyone returned back without any of their homework done. Not even Hermione. Okay, she had more or less of hers done. Like she would really just not do her homework for two weeks. They ended up giving us the next few days to catch up.
Halfway through January, once everyone was caught up with their homework, we were rewarded with a Hogsemede trip. Hermione was a bit surprised when Harry signed up to go.
"I just thought you'd want to take advantage of the common room being quiet," she said. "Really get to work on that egg."
"Oh I - I reckon I've got a pretty good idea what it's about now," Harry said a bit easily, not looking at any of us.
"Have you really?" Hermione said, looking impressed. "Well done!"
He's lying, he must be. He has no bloody idea what his egg means. He hasn't had any time to figure it out. He's been spending all his time with me since we got back finishing our school work. I mean, unless the answer came to him in a dream from an angel, he hasn't figured it out. He's just trying to ease our worries.
I turned my attention back to the newspaper I was reading until I happened to see the front page.
"For the love of God!" I said suddenly.
"What?" Ron asked, looking up confused.
"That God forsaken Skeeter woman's at it again." Harry, Ron, and Hermione scrambled to crowd around to see what I was screaming about.
"What's she got to say now?" Harry groaned as he started skimming the article.
"Well, long, ridiculous, probably 95% completely fabricated story short, she's now reporting Hagrid is some murderous, bloodthirsty giant," I scoffed while rolling my eyes.
"How did she find out?" Ron asked, his mouth open.
"It's a load of bullshit, that's what it is," I said angrily, not paying attention to Ron.
"Steph, watch your mouth around the first years," Hermione chastised.
"What does she mean, 'we all hate Hagrid'?" Harry spat as he read. "What's this rubbish about Crabbe getting a bad bite off a flobberworm? They haven't even got teeth!"
"And Draco getting attacked by Buckbeak. Yes, it happened, but Hagrid warned us not to provoke them. That dumbass openly provoked him, it's his own damn fault," I continued.
"Seriously, Stephanie, watch it around the younger kids," Hermione said sternly, slapping my shoulder.
"Sorry, Mione," I grumbled. "She's just such an infuriating character! I mean, twisting and turning the truth to get a good story is one thing, but down right lying-"
"She's not lying," Ron spoke up.
"What?"
"She's not flat lying. During the Yule Ball," Ron started. Hermione shifted next to me and Ron cleared his throat before he continued. I guess the Ball was still a bit of a touchy subject between the two of them. "During the Ball, I went out for a bit of a stroll. I was hiding in some bushes and heard Hagrid and Maxime talking. He started asking about 'which side was it' for her and about is own past before he flat out said he was a half-giant."
"What's the big deal if he's half-giant?" Harry asked.
"No one who knows him will really care 'cos we know he's not dangerous. Besides, I think most of us knew it anyways. But, they're just vicious, giants. It's in their natures, they're like trolls...they just like killing, everyone knows that."
"What'd Maxime say?" I asked.
"She denied anything he asked her," Ron replied. "Kept saying 'it vas big bonez'."
"I don't know who Maxime thinks she's kidding," Harry said. "If Hagrid's half-giant, she definitely is. Big bones...the only thing that's got bigger bones than her is a dinosaur."
"Harry," I said, folding the paper up and looking at him. "If you ever get the chance to, oh I don't know, do stand up comedy or host Saturday Night Live, don't. You're not that funny."
"Oh, c'mon," he said smiling faintly. "So maybe I'm not always the funniest person, but you gotta admit, that was a good one." I bit my lip to restrain from smiling or laughing. Okay...so that time he had been a tad funny, but I wasn't going to let him know now.
"Whatever," I said with a smile, rolling my eyes, and playfully slapping his shoulder. He grabbed my wrist and twisted my arm around me, like I was hugging myself, and pulled me closer to him.
"What I don't get is how she found out. She wasn't eavesdropping around you, Ron, was she?" Hermione asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
"I think I would have seen her if she was anywhere near me," Ron replied a little annoyed.
"Then how on earth could she have found out? You don't think Hagrid would have told her, do you?" Hermione questioned.
"No, definitely not," Harry sighed, shaking his head.
"If she keeps spying on us like this and terrorizing our friends, I'm going to get to the bottom of this somehow," Hermione said determinedly before standing up and going to bed.
The weeks leading up to the Second Task suddenly seemed to turn into just two. Harry had finally come to me a few days ago saying he had just figured the egg out. I knew he had been lying before. He said Cedric came up to him one day and wanted to repay the favour of offering some 'friendly advice' on the task.
"Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching, ponder this:
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour- the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it wont come back"
"Okay," I said slowly. "But what on earth does that mean?"
"Mermaids...I think. I'm, er, not exactly sure. All I've got is mermaids and a time limit of an hour, but that's it."
"We'll figure something out, I promise," I told him, squeezing his shoulder and kissing his cheek.
Harry and I had tried to work out the clue on our own, yet we had no such luck. When he finally told me he hadn't figured the egg out until then, we promised we wouldn't tell Hermione unless we absolutely needed to and had no idea what else to do. Well of course, the point came when we had no idea what to do. Hermione wasn't too pleased when she found out Harry had just figured out the egg.
"You said you'd already worked out that egg clue!" said Hermione indignantly.
"Keep your voice down!" said Harry crossly. "I just needed to - sort of fine-tune it, all right?"
"Right, fine tune. Hang on while I 'fine tune' my Charms essay," I said sarcastically.
"Have you even started that thing?" Ron asked.
"Nope. That's the point," I replied curtly. Harry and Hermione both narrowed their eyes at me a bit. "Sorry."
"I'm sure we can figure something out. We figured out the First Task in less time with less people, we should be able to knock this one out of the park," Hermione said turning to her book.
Sadly, Hermione's hypothesis wasn't quite right. At first we went and looked in the library during breaks. We couldn't find anything helpful and started spending any free time we had in there. What had originally been weeks to solve the Task suddenly became less than twenty four hours, and the four of us were still clueless.
"Of course, the ideal solution would be for you to Transfigure yourself into a submarine or something," Hermione said. "If only we'd done human Transfiguration already! But I don't think we start that until sixth year, and it can go badly wrong if you don't know what you're doing..."
"Yeah, I don't fancy walking around with a periscope sticking out of my head," Harry said.
"I wouldn't really fancy it, either," I yawned while tossing the book I was looking at away.
"I don't reckon it can be done," said Ron's voice flatly from the other side of the table. "There's nothing. Nothing. Closest was that thing to dry up puddles and ponds, that Drought Charm, but that was nowhere near powerful enough to drain the lake."
"Stephanie, what about those aqua-Lungs things Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan use in the first Star Wars? Is there any spell or potion you can think of like that?" Harry asked.
"Harry, they're Jedi's. Let's be realistic about it," I yawned again, leaning my head on his shoulder. "I reckon they're pulling our legs; it can't be done."
"There must be something," Hermione muttered, moving a candle closer to her. Her eyes were so tired she was poring over the tiny print of Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charms with her nose about an inch from the page. "They'd never have set a task that was undoable."
"They have," said Ron. "Harry, just go down to the lake tomorrow, right, stick your head in, yell at the merpeople to give back whatever they've nicked, and see if they chuck it out. Best you can do, mate."
"There's a way of doing it!" Hermione said crossly. "There just has to be!"
"I know what I should have done," said Harry, resting, face-down, on Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts. "I should've learned to be an Animagus like Sirius."
"Yeah, you could've turned into a goldfish any time you wanted!" said Ron.
"Or a frog," yawned Harry.
"Or an octopus or something. Y'know, something that could actually rescue something that was fairly sized without getting killed in the process," I offered.
"It takes years to become an Animagus, and then you have to register yourself and everything," said Hermione vaguely, now squinting down the index of Weird Wizarding Dilemmas and Their Solutions. "Professor McGonagall told us, remember...you've got to register yourself with the Improper Use of Magic Office...what animal you become, and your markings, so you can't abuse it..."
"...Hermione, we were joking," said Harry wearily. "I know I haven't got a chance of turning into a frog by tomorrow morning..."
"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's voice. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?" The four of us looked up; Fred and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves.
"You two are a talking point. What're you doing here?" I asked, rubbing my tired eyes.
"Looking for you, actually," George said. "McGonagall wants you, Stephanie. And you too, Hermione."
"Why?" Hermione said, looking surprised.
"Dunno...she was looking a bit grim, though," Fred said.
"We're supposed to take you down to her office," George said. Hermione and I looked from each other to the two boys, confused.
"We'll meet you back in the common room," Hermione told Harry and Ron as we got up to go. I could see my own anxiety and weariness reflected in her face. "Bring as many of these books as you can, okay?"
"Right," said Harry uneasily.
"We'll be back in a quick jiffy," I told Harry, kissing him quickly on the lips. "We'll come back and figure this thing out."
"'A quick jiffy?' Stephanie, you're not some country bumpkin," Hermione said once we'd left the library.
"Or are you?" Fred and George countered together.
"No, I'm not. Sage got me reading this new book series, and one of the girls is a country bumpkin. I guess Stevie Rae is just contagious," I replied.
"Stephanie, you don't think McGonagall learned we were trying to help Harry? You don't think she's going to get onto us for it, do you?" Hermione asked, a hint of worry in her voice.
"No. If she did, don't you think she'd want to talk to either Harry or you, me, and Ron? Besides, I don't think she'd send these goofballs to retrieve us," I said while gesturing to Fred and George.
"So, Miss Lovebird Cradey, how was your first Valentine's Day with boy wonder?" Fred asked as we turned a corner to another corridor.
"Why do you ask?" I asked, scrunching my eyebrows.
"Just wondering. Did you two...you know?" George smiled mischievously to Fred, wiggling his eyebrows.
"If you're referring to what I think you are, then no, we absolutely did not engage in any adult activities. We're fourteen, for goodness sakes," I replied quickly.
"You two're no fun," Fred frowned.
"Even if we did, like we'd tell you," I said while rolling my eyes.
"So then what did you two do if you didn't 'knock boots'?" George countered.
"Well..." I started thinking about that day.
I woke up Thursday morning, clueless to what I would encounter throughout the day. It was my first Valentine's Day with Harry, not to mention my first V-day with a boyfriend that I really liked. After the rings he got us for Christmas, I was sure whatever he did would be sweet and romantic.
Once I was awake enough to sit up and think about getting ready, a single rose materialized and fell onto my lap. I picked it up gingerly and turned the stem, looking at the delicate flower, a smile slowly making it's way onto my face. Once I was dressed and ready for the day, I pulled my hair back with a few bobby pins and clipped the rose in with it. I grabbed my bag and padded my way down to the common room, smiling brightly.
I walked over to Harry who was sitting on the arm of a chair, waiting for me.
"Morning, Steph. Nice rose," he said, lightly touching the flower in my hair.
"Thanks. You had something to do with it, didn't you?" I asked smirking at him.
"You caught me," he said raising his hands in fake surrender. "Happy Valentine's Day." He placed his hand on my neck and pulled me into a quick kiss. We pulled apart, two giddy smiles on our faces. He laced his fingers between mine and we made our way down to breakfast.
The house elves really seemed to get into the Valentine's Day spirit. Heart shaped pancakes (the kind Hallmark and card makers advertise, not an actual representation of the organ that resides in our bodies), fillings to make every kind of crepe imaginable, and fruits of every shade and hue of red possible. Some fruits, I do believe, had been transfigured into unnatural shades of pink; unnatural for that fruit, at least.
Transfiguration seemed more lax than normal. McGonagall, perhaps, had also been influenced by Cupid's arrow. Okay, so maybe she wasn't lost in her own la-la land with some charming wizard, but she seemed to notice the rest of us were. At the start of class, she started briefly explaining a new topic to us. After a few minutes of students repeatedly asking McGonagall to repeat what she had said or McGonagall getting onto students for PDA and such, she backtracked and told us to continue practicing the same spell as before.
I was surprised when Harry dashed out of class suddenly during break. We had a whole other session of Transfiguration left, where the heck was he going in such a hurry? We normally just stayed in class until the second block, just talking and goofing off. I shrugged it off and went over to sit by Hermione, Jennifer, and Parker.
I returned to my seat at the sound of the bell, starting to get a bit worried since Harry hadn't turned up yet. Ten minutes into class, he came walking back in, slightly winded. McGonagall looked up from her desk, gave him a look that said 'if it weren't Valentine's Day, you'd be in detention until you graduate, Potter', and returned back to her papers.
"Where were you?" I asked turning to him.
"You'll find out soon enough," he replied nonchalantly. I narrowed my eyebrows at him, wondering what on earth he had planned up his sleeve. I shrugged it off, figuring I'd find out soon enough.
Soon enough I did.
The end of our second block ended, more than likely leaving us students with another red and pink induced meal.
"Would you care to join me for lunch?" Harry asked just outside the door.
"Er- yeah," I replied a bit confused. We always ate lunch together. In fact, we ate all meals together. Not because we were dating, but we were best friends in the same house. I followed his lead, none the less, feeling my stomach start to grumble with hunger. Reaching the Entrance Hall, I was shocked when we didn't turn into the Great Hall, but rather continued walking on out the door into the Courtyard.
"Where are we going?" I questioned.
"You'll see in a minute," he said with a sly smile. I watched him as we walked, trying to see if his face would give away any hints. Either I wasn't good at reading between the lines, or Harry's feelings were behind a brick wall. We walked across the Courtyard and grounds, my curiosity increasing each second. He continued to lead me across the grounds, eventually up to Hagrid's hut. I looked at him confused. He just smiled and opened the door, leading us in.
If I would have been led her blindfolded, I wouldn't have guessed it was Hagrid's hut. Okay, well maybe I would have. Hagrid's furniture was moved to the sides of the room, a red-checkered picnic blanket and a picnic basket on the cleaned floor. A warm fire was crackling heartily in the fireplace.
"Lunch?" he asked again, gesturing to the blanket before us and offering me his hand. I took his hand smiling and sat down on the blanket with him.
"What's this all for?" I asked looking around the room. It seemed like the whole room was glowing red. Maybe it was from the light of the fire or the fact Valentine's Day was stuck on my mind.
"It's our first Valentine's Day together. I wanted to do something special and cute," he said while opening the basket and started pulling out the food.
"Orange soda, cut pears, and...chicken alfredo?" I said while looking at the food he pulled out. I smiled and finished, "These are all my favorite foods."
"Correct," he said with a small smile pulling out the last container of food. "And red velvet cupcakes with cream-cheese frosting."
"Jennifer told you to bring those, didn't she," I said with a knowing smile.
"Yes," he replied with a chuckle. "She said to bring them unless I wanted to be single after today." The two of us laughed and started digging into the lunch he had prepared.
"Can I talk to you about something?" Harry asked as I finished off my chicken alfredo a while later.
"Sure."
"Well, I just wanted to talk about us. Exactly how I feel about us and our relationship."
I honestly have no idea what I expect to come out of his mouth when he starts talking about our relationship. Sometimes I can read him like a book, but other times I'm clueless as to what he's thinking or about to say.
"Ever since we started dating people have been talking about us, mostly that we won't last long. I've heard some say that we're just silly teenagers, or that it's just puppy love, that it will never go anywhere and won't last forever, that we're not really in love. They're all wrong. If what I feel for you isn't love, then I don't know what love is. I may not love you with everything I have. We are only fourteen after all, but give it time and I will. I have a feeling that if we keep going like this, we'll only come closer to a real love. I really do care for and love you," he said sincerely, taking my hand as he spoke. I smiled and bit my bottom lip, heat starting to flood my cheeks. I moved across the blanket and cuddled up next to him as his arms wrapped around me, pulling me close.
"I've heard them talk, too. I've also heard people say that...that' I'm only with you for your fame and money. I think they're just jealous of what we have, because I, too, really love and care for you. Wholeheartedly, honest to God, undoubtedly, one-hundred and fifty percent, in love with you," I said, smiling to myself, snuggling into his body some more. I picked up a cupcake, scooped a bit of icing off of it, and wiped it on Harry's nose.
"Why on earth did you do that?" he asked with a laugh wiping the icing off is nose.
"I dunno, just felt like it," I said with a silly smile. He picked up a cupcake and stuck it onto my nose, leaving a fair amount of icing on my own nose.
"Thanks, Harry. Thank you so much for frosting my nose," I said sarcastically while squinting my eyes. He leaned in and kissed my nose, cleaning off the frosting and making me squeal. He leaned down more and kissed me. I smiled into the kiss as I tasted the cream-cheese icing on his own lips. I wrapped my hand around his neck and pulled him deeper into the kiss. He, obviously, didn't argue and leaned into me more.
"Cookie?" He asked while offering a plate of cookies to me.
"Sure," I smiled while pulling one off the plate and up to my lips. I was seconds away from closing my teeth around the delectable cookie when my nose caught the scent of something I've come to recognize in a split second.
"Something wrong?" Harry asked with a mouthful of food as I pulled the cookie away from my face.
"What kind of cookies did you say these were?" I asked, looking at the cookie carefully.
"I didn't, but they're peanut butter."
I nearly jumped out of my skin as I launched the cookie across the room.
"What's the matter with you?" Harry asked, looking at me.
"I can't believe I haven't told you before now. I'm allergic to peanut butter."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Stephanie. I had no idea."
"Don't worry about it, you had no idea. Now come here," I said while leaning in.
"Wait," Harry said, pulling back. "I just ate a cookie. There still might be some peanut butter residue on my lips. I wouldn't want to send you to Madame Pomfrey just because of a kiss."
"I guess you're right," I sighed leaning back.
"There's something I don't understand. I've seen you eat Reese's before. They're your favorite candy. How can you eat something that's 80% something you're allergic to?"
"Well we didn't know I was allergic to it until I was 10, and by that time I was addicted to them. Sometimes my aunts treat me and let me have some peanut butter cups, but they have to have a special potion ready to keep me from swelling up like a balloon."
"So you'd risk an allergic reaction just to eat your favorite candy?"
"I almost risked the same thing just to kiss you," I said shyly, looking down at the ground awkwardly.
He cupped my face in his hand and raised it so we were looking at each other.
"I'd risk anything for you," I whispered as the two of us continued to stare at each other. He leaned in and kissed my forehead.
"I almost forgot, I got this for you, too," Harry said while turning around and picking something up from behind a chair. He turned back around and present a black and white stuffed dog with a red heart over its left eye. Over the dog's ears were a pair of feathered earrings, and around his neck was a heart necklace with a pair of keys on the chain, too.
"Oh my gosh, Harry, they jewelry- it's beautiful," I gushed, running my fingers over the fuzzy feather earrings and the cool metal of the necklace.
"I'm glad you like them," he said, pulling me into another kiss. He looked at his after we had broken apart. "Our lunch period's almost over. C'mon, let's go before we're late to Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"I don't think Moody will be as laid back as McGonagall just because it's Valentine's Day," I said standing up. I took the jewelry off the stuffed animal and put it on, stuffing my dog into my bag. We walked back up to the castle and class hand in hand, and I may be wrong, but it seemed as if we were walking a little closer than we had before.
Moody did not start class on time, which was lucky for Hermione. Five minutes after the bell she came into class looking disheveled and aggravated.
"Mione, what's got your wand in a knot?"
"It's all that unpleasant Skeeter's fault," she said, ripping her books out of her bag.
"Oh no, what now?" Harry groaned.
"She was sulking around trying to spy couples. She kept asking where you were, Harry. I wouldn't tell her though, of course."
"Then why do you look so ticked?" I asked.
"I told her off about what she wrote about Hagrid," she said nonchalantly.
"What?" Harry and I asked together.
"Calls me a 'silly little girl' and I shouldn't talk about things I don't understand. Pfft, says she could tell me stories that could curl my hair... 'not like it needs it,'" Hermione said, talking more to herself at this point than us.
"Mione, I'd be really careful if I were you. She may be a filthy liar, but she seems to have the entire wizarding world wrapped around her manicured finger. There may not be anything in your past she can dig up, but I'm sure she can make something up just as bad," I warned. I've seen muggle tabloids. I've seen how the media can destroy people. I just hope Skeeter doesn't trash her too hard.
We reached McGonagall's office and entered quietly, still unsure of why we were here.
"Ah, Mister and Mister and Weasley, thank you for your services, that shall be all," McGonagall said to the boys, waving them off. "Miss Cradey, Miss Granger. If you will join Miss Delacour and Miss Chang and have a seat." I took the seat to Gabrielle's, Fleur's little sister, right and Hermione took the seat to my right.
"Why 'ave you called us 'ere, Professeur?" Gabrielle asked in her cute, little girl, French accent.
"I could imagine Stephanie and Hermione," Cho started. "But I'm not in your house, and Gabrielle isn't even a student here."
"I believe I can answer your question, Miss Chang," Dumbledore said, entering the room from a side door. He crossed the room and took his position next to McGonagall.
"Why are we here, Professors?" Hermione asked.
"That is an excellent question, Miss Granger. As I'm sure you're all aware," Dumbledore started, giving Hermione and I a knowing look, "the Second Task of the Tournament is only hours aware. I'm sure, as all of you are close with at least one champion, you may have been given insight on the task tomorrow morning. If not, allow me to fill you in."
He pulled out his wand and stirred the air with it a bit. A, almost hologram like, picture of the same golden egg each champion appeared in the air. The tab on top unscrewed, opening the egg to us. Rather than the screeching we heard when Harry opened his, a beautiful, enchanting voice filled the room.
"Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching, ponder this:
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour- the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it wont come back"
"What exactly does that mean, Professor?" I asked. I shook my head slightly, sensing some déjà vu as I had asked Harry the same thing before.
"Well, Miss Cradey, allow me to explain. The voice emitted from the egg was that of a mermaids. Whether you are aware of it or not, there are merpeople inhabiting the Black Lake. The students of Hogwarts and the merpeople usually keep to themselves. For the Second Task, the merpeople have agreed to allow the champions into their realm in order to retrieve what has been taken.
The four of you each belong to one of the champions, if you will. You are the person they would miss most; their deepest treasure."
Hearing this, I smiled to myself. I was Harry's deepest treasure. Somehow, phrasing it that way rather than 'he loves me' seemed much more sweet and romantic.
"How exactly will we be taking a part of the Task, Professor?" Hermione asked, reading my thoughts and probably everyone's in the room.
"We will place the four of you under a simple, yet powerful, sleeping spell. You will be placed under the spell here. You will then be placed in the Black Lake at a specific location where the champions will need to rescue you within the hour time limit. If they do not, the merpeople will return you to the surface unharmed. Don't worry about being underwater for so long, we will also allow you to breathe while you are submerged.
"If there are no more questions, we shall begin to place each of you under the spell," McGonagall said. Dumbledore and McGonagall walked over to Cho and began with her, going down the line.
"Hermione, how's Harry going to get through the task?" I asked. "If...if he and Ron haven't figured something out my morning, what will he do?"
"I'm sure the two of them will figure something out. I hate to say it, but if he doesn't come up with some plan, he'll more than likely wing it and be able to make it far enough," Hermione said reassuringly. I turned back around, McGonagall and Dumbledore just finishing up Gabrielle and advancing on me.
"Ready, Miss Cradey?"
"Ready," I sighed. The two of them waved their wands, speaking the incantation as they did. I leaned back in my chair, feeling my eyes start to droop. I closed my eyes, feeling myself slipping into unconsciousness.