Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing except Chloe and anything else you don't recognize.
Here is chapter 19. Sorry it took me so long to get up, I was a little unfocused. Anyways, enjoy!
Chapter 19:
The Second Task
Cedric POV:
Where is she? She said she'd be here! I hadn't seen her at all this morning. I was so nervous. She's like my good luck charm! I was so worried about her. Had something happened to her? Had Moody done something to her? I shuddered at the thought. I know Moody doesn't like her but would he really go so far as to hurt her? Or worse, get rid of her permanently? No, no don't think about that, that's not going to help with this task. I need to focus. Besides, I'm sure she's fine, she's strong. That's just one of the many things I love about her. I walked to the boats that would carry us out to the lake with my friends. I haven't talked to them for a while since I've spent so much time with Chloe, which I preferred honestly. I saw Filip-oh how I loathed him, I loathed all the comments he gave Chloe, all the attention he gave her. It really bugged me-getting into one of the boats with his Durmstrang friends. Maybe he knows where Chloe is, I already know that they're friends, as much as I don't want to admit it.
"Filip," I called. He turned to face me. "Have you seen Chloe?" I asked, walking up to him.
"No," he answered, shaking his head. Dang it. Where is she? Maybe she's coming here with Emma.
"Hey Cedric," that was Emma. I turned to face her expecting to see Chloe standing beside her smiling her beautiful smile at me but it was just Emma, looking quite excited. Chloe was no where to be seen.
"Hey," I said, not looking at Emma. I was searching the crowds to see if Chloe was coming. "Have you seen Chloe?"
"Not since yesterday," okay, now I was worried. It apparently showed to. "Don't worry about her Cedric, she'll be fine," Emma said. "She's probably already there, you know Chloe." That actually wouldn't surprise me, if she was already there. "Come on let's go, you don't want to be late for the second task." I sighed. She was right. I didn't want to be late for the second task. Besides, I committed to this Tournament. Maybe I should've listened to what Chloe said about the Tournament being suicidal, that dragon nearly burned me to a crisp! It was so hot in that arena.
Me, Emma and my group of friends climbed into one of the boats and it headed to the three tower things in the middle of the lake. I noticed Chloe wasn't there, as far as I could see, once we got to the middle tower. Where was she? I was barely aware of what my friends were telling me. I was still on the look out for Chloe. It wasn't until Emma spoke up that I started paying attention to my surroundings and I realized that it was really cold today. Perfect weather for swimming,
"Cedric," she said, putting her hands on my shoulders. I looked at her. She was pretty, but not as pretty as Chloe. She had dark brown hair, brown almond shaped eyes and tan skin. "You need to stop worrying about Chloe, she's probably here somewhere and she's defiantly fine." She was right about that last part. "Now, what do you think she would tell you right now?" I thought about it for a moment. Emma raised her eyebrows, waiting for my answer. "Well?" I sighed. She was almost as persistent as Chloe. No wonder they were friends.
"She'd probably tell me to calm down and focus on the task." Emma chuckled.
"She would tell you to calm down and focus on the task." Wow, Emma's only known Chloe for a few days and she almost knows her as well as I do! I guess once you crack open her protective shell she's an open book. "Now you get over there and do your stuff," I smiled at her.
"Thanks, Em,"
"Anytime, now get over there it's starting soon!" She said, pushing me to the edge of the platform where Krum, Fleur and Harry were. Alright, this was it, the second task. Everything was set. The bubblehead charm would start working once I got in the water. Everyone was chanting excitedly for one of the four of us. Dumbledore's voice rang out over all the excited chatter.
"Welcome to the second task," he said. "Last night, something was stolen from each of our champions. A treasure of sorts." He continued. "These four treasures-one for each champion-now lie at the bottom of the lake, in order to win each champion need only find their treasure and return to the surface. Simple enough, except for this, they will only have one hour and one hour only after that they are on their own." Harry was choking or something beside me, it was kind of hard to miss. "You may start at the sound of the canon," the canon sounded immediately after. Krum, Fleur and I all dived in. Harry soon followed. The bubblehead charm felt a little strange. It would defiantly take some getting used to, but I didn't need it for very long. Just long enough to get my treasure-whatever it was tat they stole-and get back to the surface. I swam to the bottom of the lake and listened for the Merpeople, listening for that sweet song. I swam amongst the under water foliage. It wasn't the cleanest down here but oh well; I'll just shower or something after this task. I honestly can't understand why Chloe is so afraid of the lake it's really not that bad.
I check my watch. I still had some time left. I kept my ears strained as much as I could under water, listening for that song.
Come seek us where our voices sound, that was the song! It was very faint. I went in the direction that I swear I heard it coming from. We cannot sing above the ground, it was getting closer. I was apparently going to right way. An hour long you'll have to look, to recover what we took, it was louder. I was almost there. The Merpeople continued to hum the melody. It continued to get louder and louder. I broke free of the seaweed and kelp to see a city like place. I could vaguely see Merpeople swimming around the tall stone pillars. I swam into the city. This is probably where the treasures were hidden.
And that's where I saw them.
Four figures floating in the center of the city, held down by some seaweed or something. But only one of them caught my eye. It was Chloe! So that's what happened. Moody kidnapped her! She seemed to be asleep or unconscious and thank goodness to. The results would be disastrous if she was awake. One, because she couldn't swim and two, she was afraid of the lake. I had to hurry and get her out before she woke up. I swam up to her a pulled out my wand. I send a red spark to the seaweed rope on her ankle. It cut the rope and Chloe floated up a few centimeters. I swam up to her and looped my arm around hers. And then I saw Harry, just floating there. What was he doing? We were running out of time! I tapped my watch with my wand to tell him. It's kind of hard to speak with a bubble around your mouth! He nodded and I began to swim back up to the surface as fast as I could. I must get Chloe out of the water before she wakes, completely out of the water. I don't want to her to freak out and almost drown herself in her hest to get out of the water. Not that I was going to let her drown. I would never forgive myself then. I could feel the bubble starting to wear away. I had to hurry. I checked my watch. Crap, thirty seconds over the one hour limit.
I broke through the waters surface. I felt movement beside me and heard someone sputtering. She hadn't woken up had she? I looked beside me. She had indeed woken up and she looked absolutely terrified as she started to panic.
Chloe POV:
Ugh, what happened? And why am I all wet? Wait wet? I looked around and saw a black liquid surface all around me. I was in the black lake! I started to panic. I wasn't even aware of the arm that was securely looped around mine. I tried to swim to the nearest land, wherever it was. That only resulted in me falling under the water. When I tried to swim up, I only went down lower. I was losing air. I suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around me and I was pulled up. I sputtered as I came back up to the surface. I looked to see who had saved me from my death and saw Cedric. Of course, this was a Tournament thing.
"Cedric," I gasped.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Kind of," I was still in the water! Something could grab my ankle and pull me down!
"Let's get you onto some dry land," yes please! I clung onto Cedric as he swam to the bottom platform of the middle tower. There were some people there to help us up and I realized just how cold it was outside today. I was freezing cold! Fortunately, as soon as I was out of the water I was wrapped in towels and a bath robe.
"Chloe, are you okay?" Emma asked.
"No, no I'm not okay, I could've died down there." I answered, pulling the towels tighter around me, trying to get warm.
"Well, at least you're out of that. You have Cedric to thank for that." I snorted.
"I hold Cedric responsible for being trapped under that sorry excuse for a lake." Yes, I think it's his fault I was down there but that doesn't mean I'm mad at him. I love him. Emma chuckled. Hermione and Krum were the next to come up. They were pulled onto the platform and wrapped up tightly to. I noticed Fleur was already up. Had she gotten her person or whatever it was that they had handed off to the Merpeople?
"Has Fleur finished the task?" I asked. Emma shook her head.
"She never made it past the Grindylows." Hah, knew it. She's the girly-est girl of the whole Beauxbatons School. That was when Cedric decided to but in.
"Hey Chloe," he said. "How are you dong?"
"I'm freezing," was my simple answer. He chuckled as he put his arm around me and rubbed it, trying to create friction therefore warmth. It didn't help- he was all wet to-but I didn't want to tell him. I was enjoying his arm around me, rubbing up and down on my arm. It was soothing. "So, did you finish in the hour?" I asked. I never checked.
"No, I was one minute behind," he answered.
"Well, that's still good," I replied. Ron and the little blonde haired girl appeared from the water. Fleur was quick to go and help the blonde haired girl out. That must have been the person she was supposed to save but then was attacked by the Grindylows and was unable to save herself. It was then that I noticed that Harry wasn't here. Surely, he was supposed to save one of the two that came up. He suddenly came shooting out of the water and landed on the platform. There were a bunch of cheers as he was quickly wrapped in towels. Dumbledore went to go talk to Crouch about the performances in black lake most likely.
"Well, that was spectacular," I said, referring to Harry's grand entrance. Cedric laughed. There was chatter everywhere. It just sounded like noise. Dumbledore stepped through the crowd. He called but either no one listened or they just didn't listen. He pointed the wand at his throat, making his voice louder when he yelled,
"Silence!" It hurt my ears but I couldn't cover them because my hands had another duty; keeping the towels around me to keep me warm, which wasn't really working. "The winner is, Mr. Diggory!" I couldn't help but cheer in excitement. I was happy for him, I really was. I would hug him but I didn't want to expose my wet self to the harsh cold winds. "But seeing as Mr. Potter would've won, had not been for his determination to rescue, not only Mr. Weasley but the others as well, we award him second place for outstanding moral fiber." More cheers rang out through the air. Karkaroff wasn't too happy though. Yeesh, this guy has problems.
At the Hufflepuff common room:
I ran my fingers through my wet hair as I walked down the common room. I had just gotten out of the shower. I walked to the common room and was greeted by the sound of excited conversation. I didn't need to ask. It was another celebration in Cedric's honor. This probably wasn't going to end until the Tournament was over, which was only one task away. I made my way down to the common room.
"Chloe," that was Cedric. I smiled at him as he made his way over to him.
"Way to go," I said, wrapping my arms him and squeezing him tightly. His arms wrapped around me and he squeezed me in return. Oo, tinglies. "And I feel compelled to say thank you," I said once we had broken apart.
"Don't worry about it." He said. We smiled at each other.
"Chloe, Cedric, come on! We have some celebration stuff to do!" Emma exclaimed, running towards us and grabbing both of our hands. She pulled us into the crowd. Something tells me that Emma had a hand in the planning of this little celebration. Let the chaos begin!
Okay, that was chapter 19. There's going to be a couple more chapters and then this story will come to a close. But there will be sequels so don't worry. And I also created an HP roleplay site. There's a link in my profile so please check it out and join if you want. If you want to be a moderator for it, please message me. R&R!