Title: Truth behind the name and the lies pt.4
Pairings: DracoxHarry, twincest, OliverxPercy, RemusxSeverus, CharliexBlaise,ViktorxHermione, future BillxFleur. Stalker Ginny! SeamusxColin, AdrianxNeville*hides*
Fandom : HP
Notes: An abused boy finds out he's a wizard and a hero; his tormented mind rebels. One person sees through the misconceptions to the real Harry and treats him the way he deserves. How does this change them both and those around them.
Chapter 40- Second Task
George had commandeered the Prefect's bathroom with Adrian to help Harry with his mediocre swimming. It was his way of helping, besides it gave him something to focus on besides his unexpected but very much wanted pregnancy
Adrian had deduced that Neville's overprotective gran had refused him swimming as well as flying lessons and was determined to teach him many things he hadn't had a chance to learn properly.
"Hermione, I was joking," Harry said wearily. "I know I haven't got a chance of turning into a champion by tomorrow morning."
"Oh this is no use," Hermione said, snapping shut Weird Wizarding Dilemmas which she had been reading to avoid thinking about tomorrow. "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, Draco, Neville, Adrian and Hermione looked up as Fred had just entered the bathroom.
"What're you two doing here?" Draco asked. "Aren't you supposed to be on patrol?" it was Fred's turn to do prefect duties.
"Looking for you," Fred said. "Snape wants you, Draco and you, Hermione."
"Why?" Hermione asked looking surprised.
"Dunno… he was looking a bit grim, though," Fred shrugged. "We're supposed to head down to his office,"
Draco and Hermione stared at Harry, who felt his stomach drop. It was time, they were taking Draco away but why Hermione? He turned even paler as he realized that his honorary sister was what Viktor would miss. He could lose them both…
Draco knelt, lifting Harry up to kiss him softly, "I'll be fine. You're doing well Adder. I trust you."
"We'll see you after the Second Task," Hermione told Harry as she got up to go with Draco and Fred, both of them looked very anxious. "
"Right," Harry said despondently, how was he supposed to do this?
Draco closed his eyes, staggering as he felt Harry's anguish. Slowly, he closed his mind to protect him from feeling Harry's worry and fear. He couldn't afford to cause his Adder any more problems by letting himself be made ill.
XoooooX
Harry marched as one condemned, he felt as utterly alone as he had that first day he knew he was a wizard and all he had was that dumb oaf Hagrid.
People kept wishing him luck for the next morning in cheery, confident voices; all of them apparently convinced that he was about to pull off another stunning performance like the one he had managed in the first task. Harry couldn't answer them; he just nodded, feeling as though there were a golfball stuck in his throat. By ten to midnight, he was silent as he stared into their living room fireplace. He had finished his last swimming lesson and had dinner, but Draco and Hermione had not come back. They weren't coming back…
It's over, he told himself. You can't do it. You'll just have to go down to the lake in the morning and tell the judges…
He imagined himself explaining that he couldn't do the task. He pictured Bagman's look of round-eyed surprise, Karkaroff's satisfied, yellow-toothed smile. He could almost hear Fleur Delacour saying, "I knew it… 'e is too young, 'e is only a little boy." He saw dreary rule obsessed Ravenclaws flashing their POTTER STINKS badge at him from the crowd, saw his fathers' crestfallen, disbelieving face…
Forgetting that Orion was on his lap, Harry stood up very suddenly; Orion growled angrily as he landed on the floor, gave Harry a disgusted look, and padded away with his feathery tail in the air, but Harry was already stumbling to his bed, burying his face in his Draco's pillow.
"Duermos," Harry whispered fifteen minutes later when he couldn't go to sleep.
Even his dreams would not let him rest…
The mermaid in the painting in the prefects' bathroom was laughing. Harry was bobbing like a cork in bubbly water next to her rock, while she held his Draco bound and gagged looking so cold and still over his head.
"Come and get it!" she giggled maliciously. "Come on, jump!"
"I can't," Harry panted, snatching at wildly for Draco, and struggling not to sink. "Give him back to me!"
But she just poked him painfully in the side with the end of her trident, laughing at him.
"That hurts - get off- ouch -"
"Harry Potter must wake up, sir!"
"Stop poking me -"
"Dobby must poke Harry Potter, sir, he must wake up! Master Draco made Dobby promise and Master Blaise too."
Harry opened his eyes, he was still in curled up on Draco' side of the bed. He sat up, fumbling for and straightening his glasses, blinking in the bright daylight.
"Harry Potter needs to hurry!" squeaked Dobby. "The second task starts in ten minutes, and Harry Potter -"
"Ten minutes?" Harry yelped. "Ten - ten minutes?"
He looked down at his watch. Dobby was right. It was twenty past nine. A large, dead weight seemed to fall through Harry's chest into his stomach.
"Hurry, Harry Potter!" squeaked Dobby, plucking at Harry's sleeve. "You is supposed to be down by the lake with the other champions, sir!"
"It's too late, Dobby," Harry said hopelessly. "I'm not doing the task, I can't do it."
"Harry Potter will do the task!" squeaked the elf. "Must not abandon young master Draco. Draco says he believes in you. He asks that the Lion save the Dragon. Master Draco knew Harry would not wake up in time, so Dobby did it for him!" he waved his hand and used elf magic to dress Harry in warm swim clothes and handed him the potion from Fred. "Go Master Harry. Must bring back Master Draco.
"- 'the prospect's black,'" Harry recited, staring, horror-struck, at the elf. "'Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.' Dobby - what've I got to do? I'm scared."
"You must be going sir!" squeaked the elf, and he put his hand on his bony hips. "Right before you go into the lake, sir drink Mr. Fred's potion!"
Actually since Potions was more George's thing it was probably one of George's creations.
"Don't forget the potion will make Harry Potter breathe underwater, sir!"
"Dobby," said Harry frantically, "listen - are you sure about this?"
"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 to serve Masters Draco, Severus, Remus and you Master Harry sir. Dobby heard Mr. Fred and Master Harry in this very room sir, talking about the next task… Dobby cannot let Harry Potter lose his Master Draco!"
Harry's doubts vanished; he jumped to his feet, grabbed the Potion, and put it into his pocket, then tore out of his fathers' apartments with Dobby at his heels.
"Dobby is supposed to be in the Manor's kitchen, sir!" Dobby squealed as they burst into the corridor. "Dobby will be missed - good luck, Master Harry Potter, sir, good luck!"
"See you later, Dobby!" Harry shouted, and he sprinted along the corridor and down the stairs, three at a time.
The entrance hall contained a few last-minute stragglers, all leaving the Great Hall after breakfast and heading through the double oak doors to watch the second task. Harry's stomach growled and he was forced to ignore it, he had to get his Draco back. He needed him, everyone; Mr. Lucius, Miss Cissy, Papa, Dad, Hermione, Fred, George, Blaise, everyone was relying on and expecting him to get Draco back. He cast a cheering charm on himself silently.
Harry flashed past, sending Seamus Finnigan as well Colin and Dennis Creevey flying as he leapt down the stone steps and out onto the bright, chilly grounds.
As he pounded down the lawn he saw that the seats that had encircled the dragons' enclosure in back November were now ranged along the opposite bank, rising in stands that were packed to the bursting point and reflected in the lake below. The excited babble of the crowd echoed strangely across the water as Harry ran flat-out around the other side of the lake toward the judges, who were sitting at another gold draped table at the water's edge. Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor were beside the judges' table, watching Harry sprint toward them.
"I'm… here…" Harry panted, skidding to a halt in the mud and accidentally splattering Fleur's robes but was clear-headed enough to spell them clean once more. He cast a warming charm on himself to drive away the shivers.
"Where have you been?" said a familiar voice that sounded tight with unease. "The task's about to start!"
Harry looked around. Lucius was sitting at the judges' table; Mr. Crouch had failed to turn up again. Must still be ill…
"Now, now, Lord Malfoy," said Ludo Bagman, who was looking intensely relieved to see Harry. "let him catch his breath!"
Severus smiled at Harry, but Karkaroff and Madame Maxime didn't look at all pleased to see him. It was obvious from the looks on their faces that they had thought he wasn't going to turn up.
Harry bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath; he had a stitch in his side that felt as though he had a knife between his ribs, but there was no time to get rid of it; Ludo Bagman was now moving among the champions, spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. Harry was on the very end of the line, next to Viktor, who was wearing swimming trunks and was holding his wand ready. Hermione's boyfriend gave him a weak smile.
"All right. Harry?" Bagman whispered as he moved Harry a few feet farther away from Viktor. "Know what you're going to do?"
"Yeah," Harry panted, massaging his ribs, they ached a bit in the cold. Wait following his fall last year all his bones had healed properly so that meant the ache was in his mind, another thing he'd bring up in his next mind healer appointment. If he lived through this…
Bagman gave Harry's shoulder a quick squeeze which made Harry stiffen in response- the man put him on edge with his overt courtesy 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. "Well, all 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; one… two… three!"
The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause; without looking to see what the other champions were doing, Harry pulled off his shoes and socks, pulled the potion out of his pocket, tugged the cork out and poured it into his mouth, and waded out into the lake.
It was so cold he felt the skin on his legs searing as though this were fire, not icy water. His sodden robes weighed him down as he walked in deeper; now the water was over his knees, and his rapidly numbing feet were slipping over silt and flat, slimy stones. Waist-deep in the freezing water he stopped, swallowed, and waited for something to happen.
He could hear laughter in the crowd and knew he must look stupid, walking into the lake without showing any sign of magical power. The part of him that was still dry was covered in goose pimples; half immersed in the icy water, a cruel breeze lifting his hair, Harry started to shiver violently as he felt his body grow warmer and then, quite 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 - Harry clapped his hands around his throat and felt two large slits just below his ears, flapping in the cold air, he had gills. He closed his eyes and dove straight in gripping his wand, the first gulp of icy lake water felt like the breath of life. His head had stopped spinning; he took another great gulp of water and felt it pass smoothly through his gills, sending oxygen back to his brain.
The water didn't feel icy anymore either… on the contrary, he felt pleasantly cool and very light. The water was different outside them in the hot prefect's bathroom tub, which was the size of the pool that Dudley had his swimming lessons as a grammar school student. Harry struck out once more, marveling at how far and fast his feet propelled him through the water as he started to relax- he couldn't drown, and noticing how clearly he could see, and how he no longer seemed to need to blink. The potion had made his weak eyesight a bit stronger. He had soon swum so far into the lake that he could no longer see the water's surface.
Silence pressed upon his ears as he soared over a strange, dark, foggy landscape. He could only see ten feet around him, so that as he sped through the water new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the incoming 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 shadow beyond, where the water became opaque.
Small fish flickered past him like silver darts. Once or twice he thought he saw something larger moving ahead of him, but when he got nearer, he discovered it to be nothing but a large, blackened log, or a dense clump of weed. There was no sign of any of the other champions, merpeople, Draco - nor, thankfully, the giant squid.
He closed his eyes focusing on the connection from the ring that Narcissa gave him but got nothing. What was it Blaise said?
When an empath is linked to someone, they can easily "reach out" and feel the one to whom they are linked, and then know how that one feels, emotionally and physically, and sometimes even perceive what they are doing. When a link deepens to a bond, the empath doesn't even have to "reach"; it is as if the other person is constantly standing right next to the empath.
A mistake that some empaths make is bonding to someone, and thinking that it will go both ways. If the other person isn't also an empath, or if the other person isn't strongly attached to the empath, then they probably won't form a bond back to the empath. Those situations can easily lead to a frustrating relationship where the empath who bonded feels everything that goes on with their partner, but the partner doesn't feel what is going on with the empath.
He had a link to Draco, an empathic one. A link through their very soul, Draco was missing he was down here somewhere but where? He closed his eyes; the Dragon would guide the Lion and raise him up? Their destinies were bound up with that of the Wizarding world? In that case he needed to be sure he wouldn't lose Draco for good…
Harry reached out farther, 'Where are you Draco?'
He felt a faint echo; deeper in the lake…Harry swam weakly straight down blasting anything that got in his way. He hadn't been allowed lessons until Fred and George decided to teach him. now he could do a little better then dog paddle? Whatever it was they called it…
Harry barely noticed some water monster thing cornered Fleur but he had more pressing concerns. 'Draco, I'm coming…' vaguely realizing those were grindylows…
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 snatch of 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…"
Harry's heart twisted, Never! He growled to himself. He couldn't leave Draco here to rot…he'd rather die then live without Draco…
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 faces… faces that bore no resemblance at all to the painting of the mermaid he'd seen in the prefects' bathroom during his swimming lessons.
The merpeople 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. They leered at Harry as he swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch him better, their powerful, silver fish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands.
Harry sped on, staring around, 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 gills and 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 of a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Four people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson.
Draco was tied between Hermione and Cho Chang. There was also to Harry's surprise Bill Weasley, Fred, Percy and George's oldest brother. Of course Blaise, Charlie and Mr. Weasley said that Bill and Fleur were mates. He knew that Bill and Fleur's eggs wouldn't survive down here. The lake would kill papa because it was so cold. All four of them appeared to be in a very deep sleep. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths.
Harry sped toward the hostages, half expecting the merpeople to lower their spears and charge at him, but they did nothing. The ropes of weed tying the hostages to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong. For a fleeting second he thought of the he'd used to cut his pork chop at the Yule ball but then he looked at his wand and thought about the Severing jinx, he had decent control of it. He could use it to cut Draco free…
Harry looked around; many of the merpeople surrounding them were carrying spears. He shivered he didn't like them much.
He began to slice at the ropes binding Draco with his Severing Jinx and after several seconds of concentration they frayed and broke apart. Draco floated, unconscious, a few inches above the lake bottom, drifting a little in the ebb of the water.
Harry looked around. There was no sign of any of the other champions. What were they playing at? Why didn't they hurry up? He turned back to Hermione, raised his wand to cut at her bindings too.
At once, several pairs of strong gray hands seized him. Half a dozen mermen were pulling him away from Hermione, shaking their green-haired heads, and laughing.
"You take your own hostage," one of them said to him. "Leave the others…"
'No way!' Harry snapped furiously,
"Your task is to retrieve your own hostage leave the others."
'She's my sister!' Harry yelled, gesturing toward Hermione, 'And I don't want them to die either!'
Cho's head was on Hermione's shoulder; the large redhead was ghostly green and pale in the dim 'lighting' of the Black Lake. Harry struggled to fight off the mermen, trying to cast the spell he'd used on his friends last week but they laughed harder than dodging the flashing of coloured lighting from his wand. Harry looked wildly around, 'Slytherin's Ballocks'- so what if Draco and Blaise were rubbing off? Where were the other champions? Would he have time to take Draco to the surface and come back down for Hermione and the others? Would he be able to find them again without his connection to Draco to guide him? He looked down at his watch to see how much time was left but it had stopped working. He had forgotten to make it impervious to water…
But then the merpeople around him pointed excitedly over his head. Harry 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. Oh yes the Bubble Headed Charm, he'd practiced that just in case the potion ran out.
"Got lost!" he mouthed looking panic-stricken, "Fleur and Viktor are coming now!"
Feeling enormously relieved, Harry watched Cedric pull a knife out of his pocket and cut Cho free. He pulled her upward and out of sight.
Harry looked around, waiting. Where were Fleur and Viktor? Time was getting short, and according to the song, the hostages would be lost after an hour…
The merpeople started screeching animatedly. Those blocking Harry loosened their grip, staring behind them. 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 Viktor. He appeared to have transfigured himself- but badly.
The shark-man swam straight to Hermione and began snapping and biting at her ropes; the trouble was that Viktor's new teeth were positioned very awkwardly for biting anything smaller than a dolphin.
Harry was quite sure that if Viktor wasn't careful, he was going to rip Hermione in half. Darting forward Harry hit Viktor hard on the shoulder and nonverbally cast the Severing Jinx while holding on tightly to Draco.
Viktor grabbed Hermione around the waist, and saluted before he began to rise rapidly with her toward the surface.
Now what? Harry thought desperately. If he could be sure that Fleur was coming but try as he might still no sign of her approach. There was nothing to be done except…
He pointed his wand at the merpeople again and growled, 'Get the hell out of my way!'
No words flew out of his mouth, but he had the distinct impression that the mermen had understood him, because they suddenly stopped laughing. Their yellowish eyes were fixed upon Harry's wand, and they looked scared. There might be a lot more of them than there were of him, but Harry could tell, by the looks on their faces, that they knew no more magic than the giant squid did.
'You've got until three!' Harry growled; but he held up three fingers to make sure they got the message. 'One…' he put down a finger, 'two…' he put down a second one and they scattered. Harry darted forward and cast the Severing Jinx at the ropes binding the huge red head to the statue, and at last she was free. He cast Carpe Retractum on Bill and Draco holding the rope tightly in his free hand, his wand pointed down towards the lakebed, 'Ascendio!" there was a powerful whoosh and they all exploded out of the Black Lake.
Harry felt his head break the surface of the lake; wonderful, cold, clear air was making his wet face sting as he realized the potion had warn off as he broke the surface and he gulped it down. The tiny Slytherin was feeling as though he had never breathed properly before, he was panting as he pulled Draco and Bill up with him. All around him, wild, green-haired heads were emerging out of the water with him, but they were smiling at him.
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 Draco and the oldest one of the hostages might be dead, but they were wrong. Both of them had opened their eyes; Bill looked confused to see him but Draco merely coughed discretely, "I knew you could do it love. A bit cold isn't it?" Then he spotted Bill. "What did you bring him for?"
"Fleur didn't turn up, so I couldn't leave him," Harry panted. "He's family."
"Adder, you were so brave," said Draco, "but Father wouldn't have let any of us drown, neither would uncle Sev."
"The song said -"
"It was only to make sure you got back inside the time limit," Draco cupped Harry's wet face in his hands and kissed him deeply.
"C'mon," Harry kissed him back, "Bill, you can swim can't you?" if the twins knew how didn't he?
The large man chuckled, "There's a swimming hole near the Burrow, Dad taught us to swim early. He grasped Harry's wand loosely, "Finite Incanteum." Making the loose rope release him and Draco. He wrapped an arm around Harry and grinned, "Let me help, you look tired." Casting warming charms on them all with Harry's wand, Bill swim with his arm around Harry towards the shore.
Draco wasn't far behind, he was grateful for the warming charm.
On the bank where the judges stood watching, twenty merpeople who seemed to be accompanying them like a guard of honor, were singing their horrible screechy songs.
Harry could see Madam Pomfrey fussing over Hermione, Viktor, Cedric, and Cho, all of whom were wrapped in thick blankets.
Headmistress McGonagall looked both worried and pleased that they were safe while Ludo Bagman stood beaming at Harry, Bill and Draco from the bank as they swam nearer, but Blaise who looked very gray and somehow much younger than usual, came splashing out to meet them. Meanwhile Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur Delacour, who was quite hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.
"William! Oh William! Are you 'urt?" the female Veela called out.
Bill grinned, "Just peachy mademoiselle. Let me get these boys to the bank and I'll show you I'm right as rain."
Blaise seized Draco and was dragging him back to the bank.
"Blaise, I'm all right!" Draco said trying to reassure his brother.
Severus and Remus were pulling Harry upright; while Fleur had broken free of Madame Maxime and leapt into her mate's arms.
"It was ze grindylows… zey attacked me… oh William, I thought… I thought…" she broke into fresh sobs.
"Come here, you," Severus began as he seized Harry and hugged him close before Remus wrapped him up in a thick wool blanket.
Harry was wrapped so tightly in a blanket that he felt as though he were in a straitjacket, then papa forced a measure of very hot potion down his throat and steam gushed out of his ears.
"Harry, well done!" Hermione cried rushing to hug him, her happy reunion with her Viktor on hold when Harry was on land. "You did it, you did all by yourself!"
"Well -" said Harry. He would have told her about Dobby waking him up under Draco's orders, but he had just 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, Draco, and Fleur's mate Bill had got back safely. "Yeah, that's right," Harry forced a smile raising his voice slightly so that Karkaroff could hear him.
"You haff a water beetle in your hair, Ahren," said Viktor.
Harry had the impression that Viktor was drawing her attention back onto himself and he didn't mind, Viktor was Hermione's future and Draco was his. He smiled to himself thinking that Viktor was really nice to his sister.
Hermione blushed as her boyfriend removed the beetle and said, "You're well outside the time limit, though, Harry. Did it take you ages to find us?"
"No, I found you easy. I found you because," he looked into Draco's eyes, "Our connection isn't one way anymore." He pressed his hand to Draco's heart, "I reached out with my heart for his and I felt his love out there." He said softly.
Harry's feeling of stupidity was growing, now he was out of the water, it seemed perfectly clear that Mr. Lucius and the organizers' safety precautions wouldn't have permitted the death of a hostage just because their champion hadn't turned up. Why hadn't he just grabbed Draco and gone? He would have been first back, Cedric and Viktor hadn't wasted time worrying about anyone else; they hadn't taken the mersong seriously had they?
Lucius 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, Mr. Lucius 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 try to rescue Draco from Blaisé's clutches, only to be growled at by the protective Veela.
So Severus wrapped his godson up tight before he led him over to Harry and the others, gave him a blanket and some Pepper-up Potion.
Fleur and her mate Bill made their way to them, 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 or Severus to clean them. She turned to Harry. "You saved 'eem," she said breathlessly. "Even though he was not your 'ostage."
"Yeah," said Harry, who was now thoroughly embarrassed he hadn't done as he was expected.
Fleur bent down, kissed Harry twice on each cheek.
The tiny Slytherin felt his face burn and wouldn't have been surprised if steam was coming out of his ears again, then said to Draco, "I didn't expect that." He hid his scarlet face in his boyfriend's wet scratchy blanket.
"It's alright Adder," Draco, looking extremely proud of him, "I'm sure you didn't -"
Fleur swooped down on him and kissed him too, "You're a lucky young man to have such a brave beau."
Hermione looked simply proud of all her 'family', but just then, Ludo 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. Mer-chieftainess 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."
Applause from the stands.
"I deserved zero," Fleur said throatily, shaking her magnificent head of silvery blond hair.
"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."
Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd; Harry saw Cho give Cedric a glowing look.
"We therefore award him forty-seven points."
Harry's heart sank. If Cedric had been outside the time limit, he most certainly had been.
"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 an unknown but obviously well-brewed potion 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."
Hermione gave Harry half-exasperated, half-commiserating look.
"Most of the judges," and here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look, "feel that this shows great courage and loyalty- apparently he had a connection with all the hostages. This act of integrity merits full marks. Therefore Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."
Harry's stomach leapt - he was now tied for first place with Cedric. Draco and Hermione, caught by surprise, stared at Harry, then laughed and started applauding hard with the rest of the crowd.
"There you go. Harry!" Draco shouted over the noise before kissing him softly. "You weren't being irresponsible, you were showing great courage and loyalty! I knew you had it in you."
Fleur was clapping very hard too, and Viktor looked proud of his fellow Seeker.
Hermione turned to Viktor and tugged on his sleeve, "About what you asked before Harry came up from the Lake, I'd love to visit your family."
"Oh Ahren, you've made me so happy."
Hermione blushed, "I know." Both of them agreed they'd never felt this way about anyone before.
"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."
It was over. Harry thought dazedly, as papa and Madam Pomfrey began herding the champions and hostages back to the castle to get into dry clothes. It was over, he had got through the Second Tack and he didn't have to worry about anything now until May the twenty-fourth…
Harry was going to find some way to thank Draco for believing in him and for telling Dobby to wake him. He couldn't forget Fred and George; they helped him with his swimming and gave him that wonderful potion. If he won he was giving them his winnings, hell if he didn't win but lived he was going to ask Mr. Lucius to find the best place in Diagon Alley for their dream Joke shop. He had his own vaults to spend money on his family and he owed the twins so much….
That was a long chapter. Full of more Draco and Blaise then Harry, oh well. We'll see more of Harry soon.
Exceeds Expectations? Acceptable? Outstanding? Troll? What do you think?