Here's the update for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord". Enjoy!

* Review response:
reven228, Naginator, shugokage, FaleronDrace, GatorLHA2, Wyrtha, Lord Jace, The Swordslinger, Sk8ernv, McGeezel, geetac, god of all, armahgeddon, JPElles, Guest #1, Guest #2, Penny is wise, nopparitari, joseph33759, Arkisenn, CMVreud, Halitar, pandora vanity, Naxbetissa, thank you for your reviews, folks!
ALPHAQ69, you mean kill him politically? Remember that he was hurt the worst when his chocolate frog cards were canceled.
Dragon and Sword Master, well, no one said that she wasn't 'corrupted' before. ^^
Still Not Dead Yet, skywiseskychan, haha.
serialkeller, I generally tend to avoid killing characters left right and center, but... Anyway, I don't remember saying about Harry becoming a badass. I said he'll get a power up (which he did). Nowhere I said that he will suddenly be loved and adored by public.

* AN:
* I've finally posted that oneshot with Violet I've promised a long time ago. Link to the online and downloadable versions can be found in my profile.
* Also, I'm happy to announce that "Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio" manga is getting its well-deserved anime adaptation. The first episode is scheduled to be on air on 30 October 2013.

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form. Same with "Freezing" anime/manga series.

"human speech"
"wraith speech"
'human thoughts'
"powered speech / true prophecies by the seer"
"spells / parseltongue"
messages

chapter 65: The second task

Like it always happens, soon the infamous Hogwarts rumor mill moved on to the newer gossip topics, granting Harry and Draconica a chance to fade back into the general crowd from the spotlight they had put themselves into with the Yule ball. And while neither of them regretted going to the ball together, it was still quite nice not to be the constant center of everyone's attention...

As for the young Potter's dealings with one Lucius Malfoy, well, the green-eyed teen held two separate conversations with him. In one of those two, as a 'lord of a well-respected house' he was placating the man with promises that will still marry Draconica. But, of course, no sooner than he was ready for it... Meanwhile, in the other conversation – this one being conducted under the name of Potter – he was having a rather heated argument with Lucius regarding the said man's lack of proper respect for his fellow lord.

The head of the house Malfoy, of course, was sticking firmly to his believes that no one of a lesser blood status than his own deserved his respect in any way. And as such, he saw nothing wrong with the rude way his original letter to the young lord Potter was composed in. And he also saw himself well within his rights to reply rudely when Harry pointed out that his words were unbecomingly-impolite for a lord... In the end, after the third iteration of the argument, the green-eyed wizard just gave up, begrudgingly accepting that for him there was no quick and easy ways to make the head of the house Malfoy into a more civil converser.

Soon the new school semester began, and, like all other Hogwarts students, Harry once again had to attend the classes and do the homework he was assigned. That alone took a great deal of the free time he had been enjoying during the break. And then there was that damn Triwizard tournament he had to worry about. Sure, the second task was still almost two months away, but the dark-haired teen barely had any information about what he will be facing out there, and the tournament organizers were in no hurry to reveal any new bits of information by doing any noticeable preparations for the said task...

January passed without any major incidents happening at Hogwarts. And there still were no signs of anything being done in preparations for the second task, thus leaving Harry nowhere closer to figuring out exactly what he will be facing in a little more than three weeks than he was all the way back in December when 'Tori had solved the runes on the golden egg.

And with February already on the calendars, the green-eyed teen found himself worrying about the st. Valentine's day. What was he supposed to do with it this year? He really wanted to spend this day with Draconica, yet they couldn't afford to be seen as a couple yet – despite them going to the Yule ball together, they weren't courting. All pure-bloods from a certain circle knew that the Malfoy heiress was engaged, and her fiance wasn't him. If those bastards saw the two of them all lovey-dovey with each other, a painful and dangerous political fallout would follow, and Harry really didn't want that either for his blond vixen or for himself. If they were to spend that day together like that, they needed to be discreet...

The solution for that problem turned out to be quite simple, actually: the Chamber of Secrets. As they weren't in front of other people's eyes, no one really paid attention to the fact that the two of them had disappeared somewhere at the same time. Thus, Harry and Draconica got to spent quite a nice afternoon down there in the Chamber.

On the next day, February the fifteenth, Dumbledore made an announcement that the Astronomy lessons would be canceled for the next week. According to the old headmaster, the tower simply needed some maintaining, which was actually not that far from truth as the equipment out there definitely was a bit outdated. The young Potter, though, could read between the lines: the tower will be a part of the second task and so it was closed to the students to prevent them from learning what the said task will be. If he were to take a guess, the air element keys will be there.

Three days later, just at the beginning of the weekend, Harry learned about one other place to look for the keys during the second task. That platform being constructed near the center of the Black lake could serve no other purpose after all. Of course, there still were two more keys he didn't know where to look for yet. Sure, he had some ideas, but...

Fire element key's most likely locations were the coal storage facilities near the railway station of Hogsmeade – though, to be honest, the green-eyed teen had no idea why it was there: the Hogwarts express ran on magic and didn't need conventional fuel – somewhere around the kitchens or, possibly the disused hall that held public floos. Considering that the tournament should stay on the school grounds only, Harry and his friends agreed that the floos' hall was the most likely place for the fire key.

Earth element key was much more difficult, though, for it might be placed almost anywhere, both inside the castle and on the surrounding grounds. It might be in some room in the dungeons, or it might be in the Forbidden forest. Hell, it might be hidden under some random rock on the snow-covered grassy hill! A greenhouse full of deadly and challenging magical plants was yet another possibility... And it looked like the young Potter had no choice but to either wait for something else to give away the position of this key, or hope that the tournament organizers will be kind enough to reveal where it is just before the task...

~/ *** \~

The day of the second task of the Triwizard tournament finally came. And despite his best efforts, Harry still had no idea where the Earth element key will be hidden. But at least he was pretty sure about the other three and, with the help from his friends, he had developed a pretty sound plan for the task. Now, if only he could have the information about the final key...

Anyway, back to reality, the green-eyed Potter was standing next to his fellow champions in the center of the arena where they fought the magical beasts in the first task. This time, though, the arena was devoid of any simulated terrain, bar from what looked like a miniature Mayan pyramid several yards in front of the champions. On top of this pyramid, there stood a large bronze chest with four locks. Apparently, the elemental keys they were supposed to collect were needed to open this chest, and the one who would do it first, will win the task.

This guess of his was confirmed completely when Ludo Bagman announced the rules of the task. Unfortunately, the man didn't reveal the positions of the keys in his speech, but in the end that actually wasn't needed: the magical 'mirrors' installed around the arena to let the spectators follow the champions' progress were also showing the locations of the keys. Air ones were on top of the Astronomy tower, the Fire ones were indeed in the hall of floos, the Water ones were on the floating platform in the middle of the Black lake, while the Earth ones were in some clearing in the Forbidden forest. And, apparently, the champions were allowed to collect these keys in any order they wanted, which suited the green-eyed teen just fine.

Finally, after some more windy speeches by the other tournament officials, the task began. Victor Krum immediately headed towards the lake, while both Cedric and Fleur chose to go after the key in the forbidden forest first. Harry, following his plan, sped towards the castle instead. And after passing right through the front doors, he headed onto the first floor, where the hall of floos was located. To be honest, he was a bit surprised that he met no magical traps or anything else to impede his progress yet.

As it turned out, he needn't have worried as once he was two rooms away from his destination, he ran into the first trap. It was a humbling experience as he didn't even sense it before it was triggered. Thankfully, it was nothing really dangerous, just a quartet of arcane orbs rapidly firing stinging hexes at him from different angels. Still, Harry had to spend at least thirty seconds hiding behind a bubble-like magical shield, before he could continue on his way.

Trying to be more cautious now, the young Potter resumed his progress towards the Fire key. He managed to avoid triggering the next three traps, but he had to defuse the cluster of runes that was supposed to nastily shock anyone trying to open the door into the hall of floos. Quickly transfiguring some random debris into a brick to keep the door open – the runes would have wire the trap back up is he let the door close – the green-eyed teen slipped inside the dimly-lit hall. And immediately found the world around him freezing with fear as a good dozen of dementors began swarming upon him.

"Expecto patronum!" Harry shouted, casting the only spell known to be able to protect you from those foul beasts. And while it was very taxing, he managed to summon his patronus at its full power. The strange serpent-like creature let out a soundless cry, before charging at the closest dementor, wrapping its clawed arms around the thing and throwing as far away as it could.

While his patronus was brutally pushing the dementors away, the young Potter managed to relax a bit and analyze the situation a bit more rationally. And it became clear to him that he was not facing the real guards of the Azkaban prison but rather their imitations created by boggarts... Shaking his head slightly, the dark-haired teen began casting 'riddikulus' charm while thinking of dementors in clown make-ups being hit by various pies thrown at them.

It took him some time to deal with all fourteen boggarts, but in the end Harry emerged victorious. And seeing no other immediate threats, the dark-haired teen dismissed his patronus and began cautiously walking towards an ornate stand at the far end of the hall – he could see the four identical Fire keys there...

Just as he passed the middle of the room, the fireplaces on both sides of the room suddenly lit up with ghostly-blue flames, making the young Potter jump in surprise. But seeing as it wasn't going to attack him just yet, he continued creeping towards the stand with the keys... Much to his surprise, he couldn't detect any traps around the stand, nor on the keys themselves. Shrugging at it, he picked one of the keys and began carefully walking towards the exit from the hall.

Just as he once again passed the middle of the hall, those ghostly-blue flames in the fireplaces roared and started spitting a large number of fireballs in random directions. Once again forced to hide behind his magical shield, Harry waited for the firestorm around him to calm down. Unfortunately, it looked didn't look like the fireplaces will run out of magic any time soon... Sighing in annoyance from finding himself in a situation like this, Harry waited till most or the randomly-fired fireballs were flying not in his direction. Then, he dropped his shield and quickly cast the most powerful protective charms against fire he knew, before darting towards the exit from the hall.

It looked like Luck was on his side here, and only a few fireballs hit him, scorching his clothes a bit, but otherwise doing no damage. But as soon as he was out of the hall, the young Potter found himself face to face with a large box floating about the level of his head. And before he could even blink, the side of the box that was facing him opened, releasing the contents of the box.

'Maybe I should thank Dudley for this...' Harry thought: apparently those countless 'Harry hunts' that his cousin liked to organize when they all still lived at the Privet drive did give the green-eyed wizard some good reflexes. Otherwise, he was sure he wouldn't have dodged the boxing glove on a spring that shot at him form the box...

The green-eyed teen managed to reach the Astronomy tower quickly and without any problems. And while he really wasn't expecting any traps on he routes between the key locations, he was still pleasantly surprised that there indeed weren't any... Quickly covering the final flight of the stairs – he had checked it for any magical traps already – the young Potter found himself standing right in front of the door leading onto the tower's roof.

Surprisingly enough, there also weren't any magical traps activated when someone either touched the doorknob or opened the door. Oh, well... Shrugging at this revelation, Harry carefully opened the door and walked onto the top part of the tower. And he immediately found himself in a thick cloud of obviously-magical fog that completely hid whatever was located in the center of the roof. This fog was so think that the dark-haired teen could barely see the fingers of his extended hand.

"Finite incantatem!" The green-eyed Potter cast, hoping to deal with the magical fog. Nothing happened: the fog remained as thick as it was moments ago. "Well, duh." He sighed. Apparently, it won't be this easy, and he'll need to bring out more 'big guns'. "Ventus!" A powerful gust of wind left his wand, but, again, it failed to produce any visible results. He tried again, this time pouring even more power into his spell, but once again, the damn fog remained right where it was. This was rather baffling, as a wind magic even as weak as this one should have blown the fog away, even if just a little bit. So, this was something else.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to the dark-haired wizard: there was no fog on the 'mirror' when he was back at the arena. And if it was created after the task started – assuming it was indeed a real fog – would the spectators still be able to see anything going on up there? That was rather unlikely. Which left only one option: this fog was nothing more than illusion he got caught in. Or, in other words, he was simply hallucinating this fog... This was a good idea, but it left Harry with one big problem: he had no idea how get himself out of this illusion.

It took the young Potter several tries, but in the end he managed to find a counter-curse to partially remove the fog. Maybe he shouldn't have had... After all, with the fog no longer as thick he could see a big number of menacing silhouettes surrounding him. Some looked like dragons or their lesser brethren. Others appeared to be some sort of gargoyles, while the rest didn't even a definite shape. And all of these silhouettes were slowly circling around him, sometimes coming a bit closer – but not close enough for him to see them clearly – sometimes backing away till they were barely visible in the still-present fog.

So, more illusions? Harry raised his wand to try another counter in order to dispel this hallucination, but before he could do anything, one of the silhouettes rushed towards him, moving so fast that it appeared as a gray blur. And it hit him, making him stumble a couple of steps back from the sheer force of the hit...

'What was that?' Harry thought. After all, the illusions were supposed to be intangible. Either this was a very powerful hallucination that affected more than one sense, of there was some serious spell-work involved. Something like those arcane orbs, but shooting concentrated blasts of wind, working in perfect synchronization with the movements of illusionary beasts. Deciding that the second variant was more likely, Harry tried to think of a way to extract himself from the situation he found himself in – the beasts' 'hits' did prevent him from casting anything after all, but as long as he didn't try to do any magic, the illusionary monsters didn't attack him.

Since he couldn't do anything while on the roof, the green-eyed teen stepped back inside the tower and enchanted his robes to hold a moderately-powerful shielding charm. An enchantment like this wouldn't last very long – half an hour at most – but Harry was positive that he wouldn't need it for even that long. Hoping that his plan would work, the young wizard returned onto the roof, only to find out that the fog returned to its original state.

Annoyed by this really minor setback for some reason, the young Potter tried the specific counter he used the previous time... Only to find out that it didn't work anymore. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he started going through other possible counters. After a couple of minutes, he finally found the one which canceled the original fog illusion this time, leaving him once again surrounded by beastly silhouettes lurking in the still-thick fog.

"Finite incantatem!" Ignoring the wind spell hitting his shield, he fired at the approaching silhouette. A moment later he was rewarded by the sound of something dissipating... So, yes, this was indeed a simple visual illusion with some charms behind it to make one think that the 'monsters' could hit for real. A couple of seconds passed, and Harry could hear the arcane orb he had just dispelled returning back to existence. Damn! Whoever did this spell-work was really an outstanding charms master.

Ah, whatever, the dark-haired teen decided. If he couldn't deal with the 'offensive' magics supplementing the illusion, he could just deal with the said illusion first – hopefully the arcane orbs would dissipate on their own after that... Once again, it took him more than just a few tries to find the right counter, but in the end Harry was finally free from those hallucinations and could now see the roof of the Astronomy tower clearly.

It was now completely bare, save for a single metal object in the very center of the roof. This object looked like a flattened half-sphere about a meter in diameter and only half-a-meter in height. Since he could see nothing else there, the young Potter assumed that the keys should be somehow inside this construct, and so he approached it. Indeed, on its top, the metal blob had four holes sealed with glass panels; and on the bottom of each hole there was an Air element key. Now Harry only needed to find a way to get his key out of it hole.

He tried vanishing the glass, but it didn't work. Trying to levitate it away also produced no results. Likewise, none of the many unlocking charms he had tired produced any positive results. Irritated by this, the young Potter hit the glass with his fist and was rewarded with a multitude of cracks appearing on it. So, he hit it again, this time applying much more strength. And he did manage to break the glass, though, now his hand had several bleeding cuts...

Healing them with a quick Episkey charm, Harry picked the key, before walking to the edge of the tower's roof. It was time to begin the next phase of his plan for the task: namely, summoning his trusty Nimbus 2000 form the Gryffindor dorms – while he hadn't tested his summoning charm on such distances, the young Potter was sure he'll be successful there – and fly it to the platform in the middle of the Black lake to collect the Water element key.

Indeed, while it took quite a lot of power from him, and almost a minute of waiting, Harry was able to summon his trusty broom from where he left it under the notice-me-not charm on a windowsill of an open window in his dormitory room... Mounting his Nimbus, the green-eyed wizard sped towards the Black lake.

While he was still flying above the cliff on which the castle stood, the young Potter saw a figure emerging from the lake near where the waterfront was more sloping. Looking closer, he could make out long blonde hair, meaning that this was Fleur Delacour. Apparently, the French witch had just collected her second key too. While not overly worrisome, this still meant that Harry had a very little advantage over his fellow champions at best: if he wanted to do his best – and he had to, because of the trice damn contract with the Goblet – he better hurry up.

His flight was going fine, until got within about a hundred meters from the floating platform in the middle of the lake. There, he ran into a powerful ward that stopped his broom. Unfortunately for Harry, only his broom was stopped; he himself, in accordance with the laws of physics, continued moving. Cursing out loud, the dark-haired teen began thinking of ways to survive the fall – he was about forty or so meters above the surface of the lake, after all.

"Aresto momentum!" This spell indeed slowed Harry's descent, but the young wizard was still sure that as he was right now, his fall would still result in a few broken bones. At least now he had another precious second to think. Unfortunately, the only idea to pop into his head was one of those self-enhancements he had picked from a book he had read several months ago. In particular, the one that hardened one's skin and bones. Still, while this enhancement did make one much more resistant to physical damage, one would still feel every ounce of pain from the hits.

Thankfully, a spell from Salazar Slytherin's journal could solve this problem. The so-called berserker's curse made one completely unable to feel pain for a period of time. It fell out of use around the late thirteenth century as it often did more bad than good – after all, pain was a natural signal that one's body is damaged, and ignoring such signals could lead to some results that are far from pretty...

Quickly casting this curse onto himself, Harry rolled into a sloppy cannonball. And less than a second later he hit the surface of the lake, descending at least two meters deep into the chilling to the point where they felt hot waters... Still strongly affected by the impact he had just survived, Harry floundered to the surface; cold water and his now wet and heavy clothes not making this any easier for him.

Taking a life giving breath of air as he finally surfaced, the young Potter looked around: he was maybe twenty meters away from the platform. Good. He didn't fancy spending much more time in this chilling water... Any plans to get to the platform went down the drain when Harry felt a thin bony arms wrap themselves around his feet. Grindylow! Without really looking down there – he had no desire to put his head under the water again – the green-eyed teen fired several revulsion jinxes. Apparently, at least one of them hit the creature, as it released his feet from its grip. A follow up of stunning curses hopefully ensured that it would not attack him again in the nearest future...

Still, not wanting to try his luck with the rest of the pack which ought to be lurking nearby, Harry swan towards the platform as fast as he could. And once he was safely on it, he dried his clothes and his hair with magic, before casting the most powerful heating charm he knew – even though he spent less than a minute in the water, he felt chilled to the bone.

Done with this problem, Harry canceled the self-enhancement and walked onto the elevation at the center of the platform. There stood a large bowl filled with a transparent greenish liquid. On the bottom of this bowl there was a key. Next to the said bowl there was a couple of simple iron goblets... Somehow, despite being much more cheerful, this whole setup strongly reminded the young Potter of Voldemort and the cave where he stored one of his horcruxes.

Indeed, the green-eyed teen quickly confirmed that one couldn't reach the key unless all of the liquid was gone from the bowl. The problem – if one tried to just pour it out, it would return into the bowl. And there was way too much of the liquid for it all to be fit into just two small goblets. Many more were needed... And once Harry was sure that the goblets weren't charmed against being magically tampered with, he cast geminio charm on them, eventually turning just two of them into three whole dozens. That was enough to bale out the liquid from the bowl.

Once he picked the key, the young Potter saw that all of his copies of goblets got dispelled, while the bowl was instantly refilled will the very same green liquid. Finally, a new key appeared on the bottom of the bowl.

'Heh.' He chuckled to himself. With three keys already in his possession, he had only the one to retrieve. The said key was somewhere in the Forbidden forest, and the green-eyed teen decided that he should use his summoned broom to the max: why walk all the way when flying was much faster? He tried summoning his Nimbus 2000 again, but it appeared that the whatever invisible barrier surrounded the platform prevented his broom from getting close.

This meant that before he could get his broomstick back, he needed to put some distance between himself and the platform he was currently on. And Harry most definitely wasn't looking forward to swimming in the freezing-cold water again.

Firing a weak bombarda at the wooden floor of the platform, the young wizard produced several splinters large enough for his plan to work. Of course, the amount of magical power he needed to put into this was almost ridiculous, but in his mind it was still better that swimming half across the lake... Picking the largest splinter, he transfigured it into a small boat. Plunging it into the water, he got over into it and then made it move with a well-used application of a water-hose charm.

Once he was sure he was outside the platform's ward's range, the green-eyed teen once again tried summoning his broom. And once it was once again in his hands, he mounted it and not really caring about what will happen to his boat flew towards the Forbidden forest...

While the 'point me' obviously wouldn't work on the Earth element key itself, Harry easily found out that it did work when he 'asked' for the position of the trial he needed to pass in order to obtain the said key. The said trial was set up in a large clearing a hundred or so yards into the Forbidden forest. Judging by the scorch marks on the ground and on the trees, it was the very same same clearing where the beasts for the First task had been kept.

The trial itself was set up in the following way: in the center of the clearing there was a small pyramid, on the top of which there were the keys – well only one now, as three other had already been collected. The pyramid itself was surrounded by ward that looked like a large bubble. Finally, there was a dozen of clay golems, each as tall as a human, patrolling the clearing and ready to pummel anyone who dared to try to gain access to the key into the ground with their large fists.

Breaking the ward, the young Potter could see, would take time and concentration, and was something that he wouldn't be able to do if the golems kept attacking him. So, these clay constructs had to be dealt with first... Still hovering high above the clearing on his broomstick, Harry tried blasting the golems apart with powerful bombarda curses, but it quickly became apparent that the magical constructs were much sturdier than they looked. Cutting and piercing curses, as well as a variety of fire and water conjuration spells also had little to no effect.

Seeing as no magic he was supposed to know as a fourth year would work on the golems, Harry decided that he should change his tactics a bit: he could always trap them even if he couldn't destroy them. So, he magically excavated a large and deep hole in the ground, before luring the golems towards it. They proved to be not very intelligent ones, as one by one they all fell into this trap.

Done with this thread, the green-eyed wizard headed to pyramid. Dismounting from his broom, he studied the ward that kept him away from the key. While it did look impressive, he knew that it shouldn't be that hard to break – it was a part of the task designed for seventeen years old school students after all... Unfortunately, the easiest way to break a ward, namely, destroying the anchoring runic array, was out of question as it was obviously located inside the ward.

It took Harry quite a few rather high-level detection spells, but in the end he found a weakness in the ward that he could exploit. It was actually a rather glaring weakness: the ward could only prevent animate objects and spells from crossing its perimeter. This meant that while summoning charm wouldn't work on the key, he could still get it with nothing more than a hook on a long shaft.

Transfiguring a branch that he found lying on the ground into the tool he needed, the young Potter managed to collect the key. But once the key was outside the ward, another dozen of golems sprang to life, advancing towards him from all sides. The green-eyed wizard didn't falter even for a moment, though, and quickly mounting his broom, he zapped high into the air, before speeding towards the stadium, intent on finishing the task as soon as possible.

Just as left the forest, Harry saw Victor Krum running towards the stadium from the castle. But as he had a speed advantage thanks to his broom, the young Potter knew he'll arrive to the 'finish' before the Durmstrang champion. And, indeed, by the time he flew into the arena, Victor had barely covered a quarter of the way from the Hogwarts' main gates to the stadium...

"And Harry Potter is the first one to return with all four keys!" Magically-amplified voice of Ludo Bagman announced as the green-eyed teen dismounted his broom a few steps away from the pyramid with the chest that stood in the center of the arena. "Now, Mr. Potter, if you would be so kind to open the chest..." Nodding, the dark-haired teen climbed up the pyramid and inserted the four keys into their respective keyholes. The keys glowed light-blue for a moment, before disappearing, while the chest's lid opened. But Harry could see only a magical shroud of darkness inside. "And now, pick a ball from inside the chest." Following Mr. Bagman's instruction, the green-eyed wizard stuck his hand into the darkness, before pulling it out a moment later, holding a metal ball in his fingers. The said ball had number '2' etched on it. "Congratulations, Mr. Potter." Ludo continued. "You will be instructed about this ball after all champions finish the task."

Nodding, the young Potter headed to the first aid booth: madam Pomfrey wouldn't rest until she was sure that he and all other champions were well... Just as he was about to enter the corridors hidden under the spectators' tribunes, Harry heard Mr. Bagman announce the Durmstrang champion completing the task as well.

In the end, Harry had to wait for almost twenty minutes before the last of the four champions – it was Cedric, whose hands and feet looked like he stuck them into an electric fan; apparently, that pack of grindylow decided to get really serious with him – had completed the second task. And once all of the champions were patched up by madam Pomfrey enough to be able to hear their scores while standing in the center of the arena, the judges announced the said scores.

Harry got nine from madam Maxime; ten from Ludo Bagman; and eight from Percy Weasley, who was substituting for still-ill Mr. Crouch. Dumbledore and Karkarov gave him six and five respectively – apparently they both didn't like the fact that he used his broomstick during the task like he did... Still, in the end Harry still had scored quite well in this task: only Victor Krum got more points.

Once the scores were announced, Mr. Bagman asked the champions to go to the waiting room, where he will give them the instructions for the Third task.

"Alright, congratulations on successfully completing the second task of the Triwizard tournament." Ludo said cheerfully as he entered the room – all four champions were already there. "At the moment I will not disclose what the third task will be..." The man continued. "You will get more information about it later. But I ask you to keep the balls you have gotten from the chest safe – they will be your keys in the final task. Everything clear?" Receiving nods from all champions, Mr. Bagman continued: "Well, off you go, then!"

That's all, folks!
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