Harry worked studiously throughout February to prepare for the second task. His disarming charm, which was always above average, had become superb. He was confident in his ability to cast a releasing charmaccurately and reliably, and his placement charm was just as good. He had a jar of gillyweed, ready to be eaten immediately upon commencement of the task. He had even borrowed a bridle from Hagrid, which we would wear across his chest like a bandolier, ready for use during any potential kelpie encounters. He felt great.
Halfway through the month of February, Hermione stopped asking Harry about Ginny. Harry was relieved—he hadn't decided what to do about Ginny, but the problem seemed less and less important the farther away they got from the Yule Ball. Ginny had stopped looking at Harry expectantly, and Harry had stopped nervously obsessing about the times he would see her. Maybe Ginny had just forgotten things altogether.
Pansy certainly hadn't forgotten about Harry, though. She was constantly pestering Harry to study, study, study. Harry was glad, actually—he enjoyed his time with Pansy, and not just because of the sweets and the improvement to his grades. Pansy and Harry had always been friends, but they had always been a Harry-and-Pansy-Draco sort of thing. Their revising sessions were the first time that Harry and Pansy had spent significant time alone with one another. Harry actually found that he was looking forward to studying.
The night before the second task, Harry and Pansy were scheduled to study. Harry considered begging off so that he could relax, but he knew that he would just spend his time sitting in the common room, talking about the task with whoever happened to be around. Harry was confident in his preparations, and he didn't want to wind himself up by dwelling on tomorrow's impending challenges. Besides, Tracey was out on a walk with Theo, and Draco was nowhere to be found, so it wasn't like there was anybody in particular that Harry wanted to speak with. Not more than Pansy, anyway.
Harry and Pansy walked to the potions classroom together. When they arrived, Pansy sat down and immediately opened a potions textbook.
"Do you mind if we take it easy tonight?" Harry asked. "The second task is tomorrow, and all that."
"Oh!" Pansy put a hand to her breastbone in surprise. "I'm sorry, I had almost completely forgotten! Are you worried? Do you need to practice?"
"No, I'm all prepared," Harry said. "I don't really want to think about it… but I don't want to waste a lot of energy working on something else, either."
"I understand," Pansy said. She closed her textbook and tucked it back into her bag. "Have a seat. This is a no-stress zone, tonight."
"Sounds great to me," Harry said. He dropped into the chair next to Pansy and rested his chin on his hand. "I'm so sick of this tournament."
"You sound really tense," Pansy said. "You haven't really been able to relax much this year, have you?"
"Not at all," Harry grumbled. "It's the worst."
"Poor thing." Pansy reached out and lightly rubbed the back of Harry's shoulders. "You're carrying all that tension in your shoulders and your neck. Here, why don't you sit up a little?"
"I rather like slouching," Harry said.
Pansy stood and moved behind Harry. "I won't be able to rub your shoulders unless you sit up properly."
"Oh. Right, then." Harry sat up, and Pansy began to rub his neck and shoulders. Pansy was right; Harry had been feeling extremely tense this year, and her hands felt great. Harry could feel the muscles in his shoulders and neck begin to loosen and release. He closed his eyes and smiled…
"OUCH!" Harry jerked to one side. Pansy had dug her hands into an extremely painful area of Harry's back.
"That's a knot of muscle," Pansy said frankly. "You'll feel better if you let me get rid of it. Don't be a baby."
Harry rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. "Fine."
Pansy attacked the knot of muscle again, and Harry winced in pain. After a few moments, however, Harry could feel the tension leave his muscle. Pansy was right—he did feel better.
Pansy continued to rub Harry's muscles, moving past the corners of his shoulders and down to the tops of his arms. Pansy really knew what she was doing when it came to massages, Several minutes later, after Pansy's hands had roamed all over Harry's shoulders and neck, she lightly pushed at the center of his back.
"Lean forward."
"I thought you told me to sit up."
"I didn't realize how tense you were," Pansy said. "Now, lean forward so I can reach the rest of your back."
Harry leaned forward and put his head down in his arms. He closed his eyes and let Pansy rub all the tightness out of his muscles. It was… great.
When Harry opened his eyes, he discovered that he had fallen asleep. His glasses were slightly askew on his face, and half the world was blurry. Pansy had stopped rubbing his shoulders, and was sitting in the chair next to him, quietly turning the pages of a magazine.
Harry moved his hands, adjusting his glasses to sit properly on his nose. Pansy saw his motion and turned.
Harry was surprised by the look on Pansy's face. She smiled, but it was a smile that Harry had never seen before. It was a small smile with closed lips, unlike the self-satisfied smirk she wore when she had just said something clever, or the wide smile she plastered on her face whenever she was (or wanted to appear to be) having fun. This smile felt different. It felt like a private smile, an affectionate smile, shared just between the two of them.
"Do you feel relaxed?" Pansy asked.
"Absolutely," Harry said. He sat up and stretched his arms. "I feel like I could take on the world."
"Good," said Pansy. "We want you at your best tomorrow."
"When I come in first place, I'll owe it all to you," Harry teased.
"Don't let Draco or Tracey hear you saying that," Pansy said.
"I don't see Draco or Tracey around here, do you?" Harry asked.
'No," Pansy said softly, leaning forward. "I don't."
"Then there's nothing to worry about," Harry said. He yawned, and raised his fist to cover his mouth with the back of his hand. When he finished yawning, Pansy had leaned back and was looking down at her magazine.
"It's about time we head back," Pansy said. "You're tired."
"I know," Harry said reluctantly. But he didn't want to go. He'd rather spend more time with Pansy. He wanted to see that smile again. Nevertheless, Harry stood when Pansy stood, and the two walked back to the Slytherin common room.
When Harry and Pansy entered the common room, Pansy split away, saying that she was going to go look for Millicent. Harry said goodnight, and began to look for Draco and Tracey. Harry hadn't wanted to think about the task, but it would be stupid of him to not do one final review of their plan.
Harry saw Tracey cuddled up near the fireplace with Theo Nott. Harry decided not to interrupt them. It would be easy enough to ask Draco.
Except that Draco was nowhere to be found. Draco wasn't in the common room, and he wasn't in their dormitory. Harry even checked the piano, but Draco was simply not to be found.
Harry found Crabbe and Goyle playing a game of Exploding Snap, and asked the two large boys if they knew where Draco had gotten off to. According to Crabbe, Professor Snape had called Draco away while Harry had been off with Pansy. (Goyle hadn't noticed that Professor Snape had even entered the common room.) Neither Snape nor Draco had given any indication of when they would return.
Harry thanked Crabbe and Goyle for being perfectly unhelpful, then went off to bed.
*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*
When Harry awoke on the morning of the second task, it was unseasonably warm. Objectively, it was still a cool day, but compared to the normal February weather, the air felt positively balmy. Thick white fog hung close to the ground, obscuring the mountains surrounding the castle.
Harry had hoped to speak with Draco on the walk down to the lake, but Draco was still nowhere to be found. Hermione was also strangely absent. Harry was left with only Tracey to review his plans. Tracey, as always, was bursting with confidence for Harry's abilities. By the time they reached the shore of Black Lake, Harry felt calm and prepared. There was none of the panic that had been present before the first task.
Harry was dressed in his quidditch uniform, except that he had left his bulky outer robes behind. The rest of the uniform was fairly form-fitting, and the lack of extraneous material would help Harry move quickly while underwater. Harry had already removed his shoes and socks, which sat next to him in a small pile at the edge of the lake. Tucked in the pocket of his pants was a small jar of gillyweed, ready for prompt consumption, and draped diagonally across his chest like a bandolier was the bridle he had borrowed from Hagrid.
The other champions were also dressed to maximize speed. Diggory had also worn his quidditch uniform, and gave Harry a grin when he saw that they matched. Krum was dressed in nothing but a simple pair of swimming shorts, and gave no sign of discomfort in the cool February air. Both Diggory and Krum had their wands out, and were holding them loosely at their sides.
Fleur was wearing a tight, full-body swimsuit, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Even though she was covered from neck to toe, she was extremely distracting. Harry caught Percy Weasley giving Fleur more than a second glance, and Madame Maxime was forced to cover Fleur in a towel after Roger Davies leaped into the lake and attempted to swim to Fleur while proclaiming his love.
Harry was pleased to see that he was the only champion who had thought to bring a bridle.
Ludo Bagman arranged the four champions on the edge of the lake. He announced that the champions would have one hour to recover what had been taken from them, then blew a loud whistle to mark the start of the task.
Harry pulled the jar from his pocket and removed the gillyweed. The slimy mass caused his stomach to lurch. He closed his eyes and wolfed it down, trying to get it out of his mouth and into his stomach as soon as possible. When he swallowed the last of it, he opened his eyes and glanced around.
Diggory and Fleur were waist-deep in the lake. As Harry watched, they each cast a bubblehead charm and dove forward into the water. Krum, meanwhile, had transfigured the upper half of his body into a shark, and was swimming toward the center of the lake with powerful strokes of his arms.
Harry moved forward to the edge of the water. The gillyweed would start to work any second, and he didn't want to spend too much time above the water once his gills developed…
…and there it was. Harry felt as if a thick pillow had been dropped over his mouth. He dove forward into the lake, and felt the delicious rush of water over his gills.
Harry swam forward. His hands and feet had become webbed, and he moved quickly through the water. After a few strokes, he had caught up with Diggory and Fleur. He passed them easily, and then passed Krum a few moments later. As Harry left the other champions in his wake, he began to look around the lake, searching for whatever it was that had been taken from him.
Harry found the lake to be surprisingly empty. Obviously, it was full of water. But Harry had expected more fish than the handful that he had seen when he first dove underwater. He had expected to see the giant squid, but every time he approached a dark mass floating in the water, it turned out to be a rotting log, or a clump of weeds. The lake, Harry decided, was boring.
Harry kept the bottom of the lake in sight—with only an hour to recover the item that had been taken, Harry doubted that he would be asked to play hide-and-seek through the vast expanse of open water. Harry anticipated that the item would be hidden but unguarded, like a treasure hunt. If Harry could find it, he could have it.
Harry cruised deeper and deeper into the lake. He kept himself several yards above the tips of the kelp in the massive weedbed that was now below him. Harry saw flickers of motion through the weeds, confirming that his caution was well-founded—those were grindylows, waiting to catch an unsuspecting champion.
Finally, Harry caught a snatch of mersong floating through the water. He adjusted his course—it seemed to be coming from slightly to his right—and began to swim more aggressively. He followed the song through a scattering of large boulders, and then found himself in the merpeople village.
In the center of the village was a large, ugly statute, cut roughly from an enormous rock. The bottom of the rock was untouched, and halfway up, the carving resolved itself into the torso of a man. At first glance, it appeared to be the torso of a merperson, but something seemed off. When Harry looked more closely, he realized that the statute had a squid for a head. Harry found it horrifying, in a visceral but almost indescribable way. The colony of merpeople surrounded the statute, and a haunting choir was singing a variation of the song that had been contained in Harry's egg.
At the base of the statute, four bodies floated in the lake. They were tied to rocks, and small bubbles emerged from their mouths. At the far left was Draco, and next to him was Hermione. Cho Chang was third in the line, and the last person was a small, pretty girl that Harry assumed was Fleur Delacour's sister.
Harry swam swiftly toward Draco. Although Hermione was his friend, as well, only Draco could reasonably be called the thing that was most valuable to Harry. Besides, if Hermione was Harry's to rescue, who was supposed to rescue Draco?
Harry swam to the base of the rope. It was thick and rough. There were sharp rocks strewn about on the bed of the lake, and Harry could probably use one of the rocks to cut the rope, but it would take a long time. There had to be a better way…
…like his wand.
Harry drew his wand from his pocket. He had forgotten that he was carrying it, as he had not been required to use it yet during the task.
"Drbfnbdo!" Harry's cutting curse was muffled by the water, but the spell was unaffected. The bright light sliced cleanly through the rope, and Draco was free. Harry grabbed the rope and began to swim back toward shore. A few hundred yards after leaving the village, Harry passed Cedric Diggory, and Krum was not far behind. But as Harry grew closer and closer to shore, he realized that he had not seen Fleur.
Harry slowed, then stopped, treading water. He certainly should have seen Fleur by now, but she was nowhere in sight.
Harry thought for a moment. He didn't truly believe threat contained in the merpeople song, that the hostages would be killed if not rescued; at the beginning of the year, Dumbledore had mentioned that the Tri-Wizard tournament was trying to reduce its casualties. Tying four children to a rock at the bottom of a lake under threat of death was no way to accomplish that goal. It was probably done for show, as a way to impart some urgency onto the champions. If Fleur didn't make it to the village in time, her sister would be returned to the surface unharmed.
But Dumbledore had made no guarantees about the safety of the champions themselves. In fact, the dark wizard who entered Harry into the tournament was counting on the tournament's risks leading to Harry's death. So even though her sister wasn't in danger, the same could not be said for Fleur herself.
Harry looked down at the weeds. Grindylows and kelpies were native to northern lakes and marshes. If Fleur was from southern France, somewhere near the Mediterranean Sea, she might not have any idea of the threat they would pose, or how to defeat them if attacked. And if Fleur had been dragged into the weeds, it would explain why Harry was unable to see her swimming through the lake.
Harry let go of Draco's rope, and left his sleeping friend floated peacefully in the lake, next to a large log. The current in the lake was minimal, caused only by the wind blowing at the surface of the lake. It certainly wasn't strong enough to drag Draco away, and Harry couldn't see anything that would present immediate danger. Harry began to swim downward, toward the weeds.
It didn't take Harry long to locate Fleur. One particular portion of the weedbed was thrashing with activity. As Harry swam closer, he saw dull flashes of light through the murky water. He parted the weeds with his webbed fingers, and found Fleur locked in a battle with a half-dozen grindylows. The bubble of air surrounding her head was noticeably smaller than it had been when she first entered the lake. Fleur couldn't maintain that charm for much longer, and she was rapidly consuming her air with gulping, panicked breaths. As Harry moved to help, a grindylow bit Fleur in the wrist; she opened her hand in pain, and her wand fluttered to the bottom of the lake.
Harry started blasting grindylows with the releasing charm, but by the time he had hexed two or three, the first had already shaken off the effects of the spell and latched back on to Fleur. It was a losing battle; Harry would never be able to hex them all at once. Harry needed a more permanent solution, and he knew just what to do.
Harry swam to Fleur's arm, where a grindylow was tugging at her bicep, dragging her toward the bottom of the lake. The water demon was so intent on its actions that it didn't notice Harry's approach. When Harry grabbed its finger, the grindylow seemed to realize that something was amiss.
Harry moved his hands in opposite directions, and there was a sharp crack in the water as the finger broke. The grindylow squealed in pain, and Harry was certain that he had its full attention. Harry grabbed and snapped a second finger, and the grindylow released Fleur's arm and swam away into the weeds.
Now that one of Fleur's arms was free, she could help him. Harry turned and looked Fleur, but her eyes were wide with panic. She didn't understand.
Harry pointed at her eyes, and then at a grindylow which was tugging on her leg.
Watch.
The second grindylow was more tenacious than the first. Harry snapped four of its fingers before it retreated into the murky water. When he looked up at Fleur, she nodded in understanding.
Harry grabbed the fingers of a third grindylow, and Fleur began to attack a fourth. The water was filled with cracks and pops as the two champions snapped the brittle fingerbones of the water demons. Fleur was working on the fifth of the grindylows when the sixth, realizing that the attack was a lost cause, released on its own accord and hastily retreated.
Suddenly free, Fleur swam immediately toward the surface of the lake. Harry followed at a more leisurely pace. As he rose through the water, he cast a quick summoning charm and retrieved Fleur's wand from the mud of the lakebed before following Fleur to the surface.
At the surface of the lake, Harry discovered that the fog had lifted. He could see the shore, and an enormous clock was ticking down toward the end of the one hour time limit. There were approximately ten minutes left in the task.
Harry handed Fleur her wand. Fleur renewed her bubblehead charm, and moved to swim toward the center of the lake. Harry didn't understand—why was she still trying to complete the task? There was no way she was going to be able to finish in ten minutes, and she was already exhausted.
Harry grabbed Fleur's foot. He opened his mouth to speak, but realized that the gillyweed prevented him from forming words in the open air. He had instinctively been keeping his gills, which were located on his neck, under the surface of the water.
Harry was forced to simply jerk his head toward the shore. This way. Let's go.
Fleur shook her foot free. "Ma soeur!" she shouted. Apparently she had seen her family in the stands at the start of the task, and had noticed her sister's absence.
Fleur dove back into the lake, and Harry let her go. There was no way to tell her that her sister wasn't in any real danger. And Fleur knew how to escape a grindylow, now, so she wasn't likely to drown.
Harry tucked his head underwater and began swimming downward, toward Draco. Or, rather, toward the empty space in the lake where Draco should have been floating.
Draco was gone.
"Mwubrfwubr," Harry burbled, cursing. Where could Draco have gone? Harry scanned the water, searching for any sign of his friend. Distantly, Harry could make out the shapes of the other champions—Diggory and Krum, coming closer, and Delacour fading away into the distance. There was nothing out here in the middle of the lake, absolutely nothing. The only thing Harry had seen in the water was that enormous log, the one he had left Draco floating next to.
Now that Harry thought about it, the log was gone, as well. Had Draco and the log both been carried away by the same thing? Regardless, if Draco was floating in the water, Harry would be able to see him. That meant Draco wasn't floating; he had to be at the bottom of the lake, somehow.
Harry looked down. Draco wouldn't be in the weeds; Harry had been in the weeds himself, and he wasn't so distracted by helping Delacour that he would have missed Draco sinking into the kelp. Harry quickly scanned the edges of the weedbed, gradually moving his gaze from the nearest edge to the farthest. Close to the farthest edge of the kelp, almost at the edge of his vision, Harry caught sight of the log that had been floating in the water next to Draco. It had settled onto the bottom of the lake, resting just above the sediment. It was strange behavior for the log to suddenly drift that far, but if the log was there, perhaps Draco was also close by.
Harry began swimming toward the log. As he did so, he noticed that the kelp was waving slightly in the water, the tips of the long weeds pointing toward him. The kelp was affected by the miniscule current caused by the blowing wind at the surface of the lake, but that was because the weeds were insubstantial. Both Draco and the log had significantly more mass; they shouldn't have drifted anywhere, and certainly not quickly. Besides, the log was on the opposite side of the weeds, which meant that it had been drifting against the current.
Which was impossible.
Something must have taken the log to its new location—but Harry would have seen that. Which meant… that perhaps the log wasn't a log.
Alarms started going off in Harry's mind. Harry stripped the bridle off his shoulders, acting on a horrific hunch. He released the bridle in the water in front of him and pointed his wand. "Abtwollomufb!" Harry incanted, and the bridle froze in place under the effect of the placement charm. He immediately pointed his wand at the log. "Abpponnomufbs!" The bridle rushed through the water and delicately wrapped itself around the nearest end of the log.
As soon as the bridle landed, the log was no longer a log. It twisted and transformed into a finned horse with sharp claws and vicious fangs: a kelpie. It had been floating in the lake, disguised, and Harry had left Draco in its clutches. Harry's stomach lurched with fear—just past the kelpie, pushed down into the mud, was Draco.
Harry swam down to his friend as fast as he could, heart heavy. Kelpies dragged their victims to the bottom of a lake because that was their favorite place to eviscerate the helpless prey. If Draco had been gored by the kelpie, Harry wasn't sure he would be able to make it back to shore in time to save his friend.
As Harry approached the pacified kelpie, he was relieved to see that there was no blood in the water. It seemed that this particular kelpie had seemed to be more interested in stealth than carnage. Draco appeared to be unharmed—Harry could only guess that the kelpie was waiting until Harry was out of sight before it attacked its victim.
Harry reached the bottom of the lake. Harry grabbed the rope that was still tied to Draco's feet and, pushing his feet into the mud, hauled his friend free of the sticky sediment. Draco's body popped free in a plume of silt, occluding the water and briefly clogging Harry's gills. Harry pulled Draco upward, away from the lakebed, and as Harry swam out of the cloudy water he discovered that his detour to deal with the kelpie had cost him the race. Both Diggory and Krum had managed to pass him by. Harry moved through the water faster than the other champions, there was no way he was going to make up that distance before the other two reached the shore. He could have done it if he was riding his Firebolt, but not swimming.
Although, there was something else he might ride.
Harry dove downward and seized the kelpie's bridle. The horse-thing swam toward him, perfectly docile. Harry threw his leg over the kelpie's back and quickly tied Draco's rope around the kelpie's neck. Harry tightened his legs, seized the kelpie's bridle in both hands, and gave it a firm snap. "Hbyabh!" Harry shouted.
The kelpie bolted forward, churning through the water with powerful strokes of its fins. Harry was almost blown off the kelpie's back by its initial surge, and only his firm grip on the bridle kept him atop the kelpie's back. Harry slowly pulled himself forward until he was hunched low over the kelpie's body, his cheek pressed against the beast's neck.
Ahead of Harry, Krum and Diggory were still struggling through the water. Harry was closing the distance quickly, but the two other champions had nearly reached the shore. Harry dug his heels into the kelpie's side, urging it to go faster, but it seemed that the kelpie had reached its maximum speed.
Harry could see that Krum was dragging Hermione behind him, her rope clamped between his teeth. Diggory, meanwhile, had tied Cho Chang's rope around his waist and was thrashing through the water, tugging her behind him. The lake was growing shallower by the second, and Harry could see the feet of the ministry officials waiting in the shallows, waiting to help the champions and the hostages out of the water.
And Harry could see that he wasn't going to make it. The kelpie was fast, but Krum and Diggory were near enough to the shoes that they could stand up at any moment. They were neck and neck, and Harry was too far behind.
Harry had one final chance, one last desperate moment of inspiration. The champions had to retrieve their hostages—that was the challenge presented to them in the task. It didn't matter if Cedric or Krum made it back to the shore ahead of Harry, as long as they didn't have their hostage when they did it. Harry drew his wand, took aim at the rope trailing behind Diggory, and fired a spell. "Drbfnbdo!"
The cutting curse sliced through the water, but the powerful movements of the kelpie's body had ruined Harry's aim. The curse narrowly missed Cho Chang's face, and snipped a large chunk of her hair free from her head. Harry's spell missed the rope altogether, and impacted harmlessly in the sand.
"FWUBF!" Harry screamed into the water. That had been his last, best chance at redemption, and he had come closer to cutting Chang's throat than the rope. Harry reluctantly lowered his wand—one near miss was enough.
Why had he stopped to help Delacour? He had been winning. Decisively. Now, though… now, instead of reveling in the cheers of his adoring fans, Harry was forced to watch as first Diggory, then Krum emerged from the water ahead of him.
Harry had lost.
A/N: Several reviewers have been grumbling about Harry's stupidity lately, and I was hoping to get some specifics. Is it the girls thing? General lack of cleverness? Over-reliance on his friends? Or is Harry just making decisions that you don't like? Everybody has been rather general about it, so I wanted to solicit some more specific feedback.
In other news, I just played through Chrono Trigger this week for the first time in several years. Great game. Made me want to write a time travel fic.