A/N: I think I received more reviews for the last chapter than for any other chapter previously. Clearly, readers like tension-filled cliffhangers, and I'll have to use them more often... but to spare you having to wait any longer, I'm publishing this a day early. Enjoy!

Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "Harry Potter and the Price of Being Noble," by DriftWood1965. When Harry helps Fleur then rescues Gabrielle during the second task, the consequences for him go far, far beyond anything he could have imagined." Harry/Multi.

Chapter 38 - Rescue Me

Wednesday, February 24, 1995, 10:05 AM.

Death had come to visit Jasmine Potter in many guises: a dark lord, a troll, a basilisk, a dementor, a dragon, and more - far more than any adult should ever have to deal with, let alone a fourteen-year-old girl. Yet in the face of all those trials, she did not run, did not panic, and most certainly did not give up. Even when convinced that she wouldn't survive, she did not give up.

No, what Jasmine Potter did was strike out at whatever endangered her or those she cared about, determined to at least give others time to get away before the end.

The merpeople, however, weren't truly a threat. They had instructions to ensure that each champion only took the hostage assigned to them, and when they saw both Cedric and Jasmine freeing the wrong hostages, they moved to set things right. It wasn't their fault that their fierce visages made them look far angrier and more dangerous than they really were. And they didn't realize the degree to which a circling shark and a transformed veela had put them all on edge, causing them to hold out their weapons in a threatening manner without intending to.

So it was all an unfortunate misunderstanding. Terrible battles had been fought in the past due to similar misunderstandings, such as what happened to Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, and this was little different.

Perceiving a threat to not just the champions, but also to the helpless hostages - and her Hermione in particular - Jasmine's eyes glowed once again with renewed power as she shot four meters straight up, giving her the "high ground" as most of the merpeople were floating just above the lake bed, presumably to remain close to the hostages.

Jasmine had yet to receive any sort of tactical training or education in combat. She'd only learned a few dangerous spells and a bit of advice on when to use them, so she simply reached out to the best spells she could cast silently - nothing fancy, just brute force. What she didn't realize was that her nightly occlumency exercises with Hermione, despite not having gone on for very long, had already improved her ability to mentally focus. This not only gave her an extra edge in the speed of her spellcasting, but also allowed her to direct her anger in productive ways, thus reducing the chances that she might explode in a mindless rage.

That's not to say that she was thinking very clearly at this point, however. The only thing going through her mind was: You. Will. Not. Harm. Them.

In one direction she shot an overpowered banishing charm, in another a wide Lacero, then a Depulso, then another Lacero. As she was doing this, Viktor came barreling through in his shark form, slamming into the groups which Jasmine's spells missed. He refrained from biting them, but the force of his nearly one-ton shark body moving at almost thirty miles per hour was more than enough to break up groups and injure individuals. Jasmine frequently turned back to cast a quick Depulso, Lacero, or both at the groups knocked around by Viktor. This ensured that they didn't recover fast enough to attack him from behind as he swam off towards other targets.

Cedric realized what was happening shortly after Jasmine started firing off spells, so he began casting his own spells at isolated merpeople who weren't in the groups being targeted by Jasmine or Viktor. Most of these individuals were swimming high enough above the lake bed to avoid Jasmine's attacks and might have been able to overwhelm her had Cedric not prevented them from closing.

When Jasmine saw what he was doing, she shot him an appreciative look and nodded her thanks. Always have a Hufflepuff watching your back, she decided.

Shocked at both the speed and the ferocity of the attack from the humans, the merpeople soon withdrew, pulling numerous casualties with them. Jasmine saw enough blood in the water to know that she must have injured quite a few, and in one direction she saw a partially collapsed building, presumably the victim of one of her banishing charms. That one must have been a lot stronger than I managed during training, she thought in surprise.

All in all, the battle only lasted several minutes, but to those involved on both sides it seemed to have lasted quite a bit longer. Jasmine in particular was amazed at how much magic she had expended and might have worried about her ability to finish the task if she weren't so focused on saving the hostages next.

Viktor swam in tight circles around the center of the village, unwilling to move too far from his fellow champions in the face of the apparent threat. The merpeople had all retreated outside the village center, but they remained in organized groups and still looked like they could attack.

Fleur was still screeching impotently inside the bubble and kept throwing fireballs, not that they were doing any good. Jasmine wished she could give the enraged veela a hug to calm her and get her transformation to reverse, but there was nothing she or anyone could do for the French champion right now.

What a pain - we could really use the extra wand, Jasmine lamented. This was always going to be tough enough with three champions, a shark, and four helpless hostages. Now we have two champions, a shark, and five helpless individuals!

Cedric finished releasing the school-aged boy while Jasmine cut the bonds on Fleur's sister then freed Hermione. She so desperately wanted to pull her girlfriend into a hug, but this really wasn't a good time, even without taking the audience into account. Instead she looked to Cedric, who had one of his two hostages' ropes in each hand. When he nodded, she got the little veela to ride on her piggy-back style with her short legs wrapped around Jasmine's middle. Jasmine then grabbed Hermione's rope and turned to Fleur.

Cedric's hands were full and Viktor didn't have any hands, so it was up to Jasmine to deal with Fleur as well. How do I get myself into these things? she groused silently. The giant bubble couldn't be grabbed, but with her wand in her free hand she was able to banish the bubble up and away from her.

Fleur did not look at all happy about that.

Viktor saw that they were starting to move and so proceeded to rise higher and higher with each circle, scouting ahead for threats and hopefully intimidating anything that might recognize how much more vulnerable their group was now than when they had descended on the village earlier.

Wednesday, February 24, 1995, 10:20 AM.

About half a dozen meters below Viktor, Cedric Diggory kicked hard, the two hostages he was dragging along preventing him from swimming as fast as he could normally. Behind him came Fleur in her bubble, blasted along every so often by a Depulso from Jasmine's wand. Bringing up the rear, Jasmine had a small veela clinging tightly to her back while she dragged her girlfriend along by a rope.

Every time Jasmine banished Fleur's bubble several meters up through the water, she would search around for possible threats. The champions were extremely vulnerable right now, and she was glad that she had intimidated the grindylows on the way down - she wasn't sure she would be able to handle them very well at the moment.

She was sure she could see merpeople following behind and well out of range, but there wasn't anything she could do about them. Just try to come a bit closer, though, she silently dared them, and I'll show you a bit more of what I'm willing to do to protect us. She was tempted to cast a few laceration charms blindly behind her but decided that it would just be a waste of energy.

The trip back up was far, far worse for Fleur than the trip down had been. Every time Jasmine hit the bubble with a banishing charm, it spun. And twisted. And spun. Fleur was no longer raging now - not because her anger had abated, but because it had been overwhelmed by motion sickness. By the time they were a little more than halfway to the surface, Fleur's avian form had already vomited twice... and was promptly covered by the sick as she was spun around some more, which only caused her to feel queasier.

Usually, transformed veela returned to their human forms once their anger had been sated. Occasionally they could be induced to return by being calmed by the right sort of people. Fleur Delacour would have the dubious honor of becoming the first veela known to have her transformation reversed through sheer nausea. She would later get Jasmine to swear an oath to ensure that this remained known to only a very small, select group of people. Fleur had had dreams of making history, but not like that.

Partway through the ascent, Jasmine started feeling pain along her neck, signalling that the gillyweed's effects were about to end. She quickly reached into her pouch and pulled out a pinch more of the slimy stuff - a bit less than the full fifteen minutes that Neville had measured out. She needed enough to finish the task, but she didn't want to be stuck in the lake for any longer than was necessary.

After they reached the top of their ascent, both Jasmine and Cedric seemed to arrive independently at the conclusion that it was better to simply keep swimming below the surface rather than try to rise above it and revive the hostages. Waking them up just so they could help swim through an icy lake hardly seemed fair - and what if they couldn't all swim?

When Viktor reached the dock, he didn't exit the water as Jasmine had expected but instead slipped under the dock, transformed back into a human, and cast the bubblehead charm on himself. When Cedric arrived he joined Viktor, and together they eased Fleur's bubble under the dock when Jasmine's final banishing spell pushed it close enough.

What are they doing? Jasmine wondered.

When she reached the others, exhausted from the physical and magical exertion, she noticed that Fleur's slow transformation back into her normal form had finally completed, though she looked absolutely pitiful. Jasmine ended the Ebublio jinx, and Fleur renewed her own bubblehead charm. As bad as she looked, she was currently the best off of all of them since she hadn't expended nearly as much magical or physical effort thus far. After using a few cleaning charms on herself, she moved to Jasmine and hugged both her and her little sister. When Jasmine looked back over her shoulder, she saw that the little veela was grinning broadly, as if she hadn't just been involved in a life-or-death situation.

Jasmine next looked around at the other two champions and frowned, wondering why they were waiting here. Viktor seemed to understand what was going through Jasmine's mind and pointed at his neck, then at her, then grasped both her hand and Cedric's. After a few moments, Jasmine realized that he was trying to tell her that they would all stay together until her gillyweed ended. The others could leave now, but they wouldn't leave her behind, even though she was safe.

Despite being immersed in water, Jasmine discovered that she could still get misty-eyed. Just a little.

Wednesday, February 24, 1995, 10:43 AM.

Nearly fifteen minutes late, the champions began to emerge from the lake and climb up onto the docks. Cheers of excitement and welcome faltered a bit in surprise as the champions helped each other out of the water and stood there together with their hostages, almost as if they had acted jointly rather than as competitors.

One of the first to reach the dripping students was Madam Pomfrey. "Are either of you injured?" she asked Jasmine and Hermione brusquely. When they said no, she moved on to the others. She didn't necessarily believe them, of course, but if they were coherent enough to answer her question, she could check on the others before returning to do a more thorough exam.

Having hit on the idea that they could more easily stay close by if they assisted the Hogwarts healer, Neville and Ron were right on her heels carrying numerous warm blankets. And the two Gryffindor wizards just happened to ensure that their blankets went first to Jasmine and Hermione.

"Here you go," they said almost simultaneously as each held out a blanket to the two witches. Only Ron's blanket was taken, though, as they huddled up together under it without saying a word. They just held each other close and shivered. Neville was neither surprised nor offended; if Ron was surprised, he didn't say anything.

What did surprise both of them was that Jasmine seemed to have acquired a barnacle - a small, cute, blonde barnacle who simply wouldn't let go of the auburn-haired witch. As Gabrielle snuggled closer to Jasmine in an effort to get warm, the stresses of the morning finally began to take their toll, and she appeared ready to doze off.

Fleur took Neville's blanket and huddled in close to the other three, giving the impression that she'd have been under there with them if only their blanket had been large enough. "I told you we'd save 'er," Fleur said softly in Jasmine's ear. "And zank you for saving me and my sister. I am so ashamed - by letting my emotions take over, I could 'ave caused both 'er and me to die. We both owe you so much more zan we can ever repay."

Jasmine shook her head and hugged Hermione tighter while putting her free arm around Gabrielle, causing the half-asleep veela to nestle even closer to her savior. "You don't need to thank me," she tried to insist. "Anyone else would have done the same."

"No, zey wouldn't," Fleur said, "especially for veela, but it doesn't matter if zey would or not. You did, and zat's what eez important. My sister and I will forever be in your debt. My whole family will, too, I zink."

Jasmine wasn't quite sure what to say to that, so she returned her attention to her girlfriend. "I was so scared that I'd lose you," she whispered softly to Hermione. "I've been worried all morning, right from when I got up and couldn't find you. And then when I saw you floating in the water... it looked like you were dead."

Hermione tightened her hold on Jasmine, saying, "I'm sorry I scared you."

"So what happened?"

"I don't know," Hermione answered. "I went to bed as usual, but at some point I woke up in the Headmaster's office. He looked pleased with himself, but Professor McGonagall was there, too, and she looked furious. He told me I had the privilege of having been selected to help you in the second task, as if it were a great honor; and before I could object everything went black. The next thing I knew, I was in the water with you, waking up and being helped up to this dock."

"I can't believe him!" Jasmine growled, getting angry again at what had been done to her girlfriend. Hermione didn't want to take a chance of Jasmine blowing up again, so she whipped the blanket up over their heads to hide them completely. As soon as she moved the blanket, she threw off a large, ugly beetle which had been crawling across the outside of it. While she kissed her girlfriend soundly, the beetle flew off in the direction of the judges.

Neville and Ron had followed Madam Pomfrey, moving on to the others who had exited the water and handing out blankets and mugs of hot cocoa. With their backs turned, they didn't see the pale blue and green glowing lights that flashed under the edges of the blanket hiding the two Gryffindor witches. No one could see how the glow fully encompassed the youngest veela, who had her head buried in Jasmine's shoulder and had fallen asleep by that point.

No one noticed, that is, except Fleur, who was crouched in front of the other three, shielding them from the sight of those milling around on the docks or still sitting in the stands. She not only saw a faint blue and green glow under the edges of the blanket, but actually felt them as they seemed to reach out from under the blanket and grasp her.

Wednesday, February 24, 1995,10:50 AM.

Had Jasmine been paying attention, she would have learned that Cedric's hostage was in fact his own father, Amos Diggory. She'd met him briefly the previous summer, which was why she thought he seemed a little familiar, but the murky lake water had distorted his features. Both Diggory men were approached by Dumbledore, who was eager to find out exactly what had happened in the Black Lake.

He knew Amos somewhat from the Ministry, and also knew how honorable his son was, so he expected that he'd easily get information from Cedric. He couldn't interrogate them alone, though, because the other judges insisted on being there as well.

"Mr. Diggory," Dumbledore said, addressing the Hogwarts champion, "I was quite surprised to see you all come out of the lake together and apparently working as a group. Can you shed some light on this mystery?"

"All of us champions decided weeks ago to work together to ensure the safety and survival of the hostages," Cedric asserted. Amos, already very proud of his son, puffed out his chest a bit more at this revelation.

"There was hardly any need for that, my boy," Dumbledore said a bit impatiently. "The hostages were never in any danger. I made sure of that personally."

"You may say that, but none of us believed it for a second," Cedric snapped back, not even trying to show the headmaster the respect he'd usually given him in the past.

"Now see here!" Percy exclaimed. "You can't say that to us!"

"Oh, stuff it, Percival," Cedric said shortly.

Disappointment clear in his voice, Dumbledore asked, "But why did you believe that the hostages would be in any danger?"

"You are the same people," Cedric said, looking around at all the judges and officials, "who supposedly guaranteed the protections around the Goblet of Fire originally, yet an underage witch was entered without her knowledge and has been forced to compete in deadly tasks anyway. And we still haven't heard any results of any investigation into how that happened or who did it! Since your guarantees didn't work for the Goblet originally, none of us trust you to guarantee anyone's safety in the tasks."

"But Ced," Amos said, his brows furrowed in confusion, "I thought Potter cheated..."

"No, Father," Cedric said hotly, cutting him off. "Jasmine didn't cheat. She's honorable, loyal, and trustworthy. She's a better Hufflepuff than most of the people actually sorted into that house, and none of the professors here have done anything to stop the rumors about her or the school-wide hostility towards her."

"Ja," added Viktor Krum, who had been standing close by and unnoticed. "I have been disgusted by vat I have seen in Hogwarts."

Amos Diggory looked disturbed, and Dumbledore felt sick at the fact that there were so many witnesses to all of this. The last thing he needed was for people to start talking about the failure of the investigation or why the Girl Who Lived was being endangered.

"And that's without getting into all of the dangerous situations that have happened in this school in recent years," Cedric continued, "You can't keep out rampaging trolls, you let a basilisk run loose for most of a year, and you allow dementors to attack students. Of course no one can trust you to keep hostages safe, especially when you've admitted that someone entered Jasmine in this tournament to harm or kill her!"

Everyone was suddenly very keen to hear more about these events - everyone except Dumbledore, of course. He already knew all about them and had worked hard to keep the stories from being discussed extensively by the general public. He couldn't risk having politicians or bigoted officials from the Ministry trying to interfere with Hogwarts, something that would do much more harm than good in the long run. Rumors being spread by students was one thing, but if people came to genuinely believe that he couldn't keep Hogwarts safe, he'd have a lot more trouble leading the fight against Tom when he finally returned.

"Now, now, Mr. Diggory," Dumbledore said, desperate to steer the conversation in another direction, "I don't think we need to waste time with ancient history like that. What matters right now is what happened down in the lake."

Cedric wasn't quite ready to let the previous topic go, but he recognized that everyone did need to learn what happened. "Well, as I said we all worked together. And we were right to be worried about the safety of the hostages. When we got to them, one of them was waking up - the little girl. And once we started to free them, the merpeople all attacked at once. I wasn't even looking when it started. We'd have all been slaughtered if it hadn't been for Jasmine."

Dumbledore's eyes widened in surprise, but before he could say anything, Percy stepped in. "What did she do?" he asked with a frown. "She didn't violate any Ministry laws or regulations, did she? Did she threaten you in any way?"

"I'm not sure what she did, exactly," Cedric admitted, frowning at Percy's implications. "It all happened so fast and was over quickly. She just started casting powerful spells, driving off or injuring the merpeople. There was a lot of blood in the water, so I know she injured some. So did I, I'm sure, because soon after she began casting spells I joined her. Once we drove them all off, we finished freeing the hostages and came back here as quickly as possible."

Amos pulled his son into a sideways hug. "I'm really proud of you, Cedric, really proud. And I promise I'll look into what happened down there. In all the years I've worked in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, I've never heard of merpeople acting like that."

"Never?" Cedric asked.

Amos shook his head and replied, "No, never. They aren't usually violent at all. At least, not unless threatened in any way. And you champions didn't...?"

"No!" Cedric exclaimed.

"I didn't think so," Amos said. "Which is why I'm so concerned." He turned to Dumbledore to continue, "You wouldn't know why they'd suddenly behave so violently, would you?"

Before Dumbledore could respond, the French champion marched up and shouted, "Who was responsible for putting my sister down zere? And who was responsible for putting 'er to sleep?"

"Madam Maxime chose her to help you," Dumbledore said in an effort to calm the enraged witch, "and I cast the spell to put her in an enchanted sleep."

"Zen you are both criminally negligent!" she cried out, causing gasps of shock from the growing crowd around them. "You, 'eadmistress, 'ad no right to get 'er to participate in zis tournament! And you, 'eadmaster, failed in your spell because she was waking up when we got zere. If it 'ad not been for Jasmine Potter, my sister would be dead! Murdered! And it would be your fault!"

Everyone in the crowd was horrified at what they were hearing. They had been more than willing to believe that Dumbledore would keep everyone safe, but now they were learning that a little girl almost died. "I only asked 'er if she wanted to 'elp," Maxime said in an attempt to defend herself.

"It does not matter," Fleur interrupted. "You 'ave no authority to send 'er to the bottom of an ice-cold lake in February. Only our maman can give permission to do zat, and she would never do so. You will be 'earing from her and my grandmere about zis!" Maxime blanched at that, apparently knowing how much trouble the Delacour family could make for her.

"You will be 'earing from zem also, Dumbledore," Fleur added before turning around and stalking back to where her sister was still sitting with Hermione and Jasmine. Igor Karkaroff looked rather smug at seeing Dumbledore being taken down several notches, and Maxime appeared to be in trouble, too. He smirked, seemingly pleased that the person he had picked to be Krum's hostage had no political connections that could cause similar problems for him. He had been a bit annoyed at first when Albus told him that he wanted to use Krum's original hostage for someone else, forcing him to pick a Durmstrang hostage at the last minute, but now he was glad for the earlier inconvenience.

"This is a bad business, Albus," Bagman said, shaking his head. "This could cause an international incident, and we're already having problems on the international scene because of what happened at the World Cup. This tournament was supposed to repair our reputation, not ruin it even further! What in Merlin's name were you thinking?"

Assailed on all sides now, all Dumbledore could do was try to deflect. "This isn't the time for these arguments," he announced. "We need to focus on scoring the task so we can move on."

Judging by the grumbles, most seemed to recognize what he was trying to do, but they also couldn't deny that scoring the task was necessary - not to mention complicated due to how the champions had chosen to complete it. Only Bagman seemed eager to get to the scoring.

Once all of the judges had separated themselves, they spent more than twenty minutes arguing over how to score the competitors. They called over each of the champions to interview them - all except Jasmine, that is, who refused to leave Hermione's side. She couldn't have cared less what score she received and therefore was unconcerned with how her refusal to meet with the judges would affect their decisions.

Wednesday, February 24, 1995, 11:12 AM.

All during this, Jasmine and Hermione remained huddled together under their blanket, with Gabrielle continuing to doze in Jasmine's lap and her arms wrapped around Jasmine's middle. Fleur, when she wasn't berating this or that tournament official, crouched either by Jasmine's or Hermione's side, usually with one arm wrapped around them. She would have preferred it if she could have been the one to hold her sister, but she wouldn't deny Gabrielle the chance to be so close to her heroine and now her personal savior.

She had never mentioned it to the two English witches, but her sister had long idolized Jasmine Potter, the Girl Who Lived, looking up to her as a role model for herself and witches generally. Fleur knew that Jasmine would have instantly rejected such treatment, especially since it was due to something that had happened when she was a toddler, so Fleur realized that this might be Gabrielle's only chance to revel in a little hero-worship.

"Jasmine, why are we staying here?" Hermione eventually asked.

"We're waiting for the scores?"

"Right," Hermione said. "And do you care what your score is?"

"Nope," Jasmine responded, starting to see her point. Looking down at the blonde barnacle in her lap she nudged her a couple of times to wake her up. Once she had the girl's attention, she smiled and asked, "Wanna blow this popsicle joint?"

"Quoi?" Gabrielle asked, completely befuddled and not even entirely awake yet.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Jas, don't confuse the poor girl. She's had a hard enough day as it is." She smiled at the little veela and explained, "What this crazy witch means is, are you ready to leave?"

"Ah - oui!" she answered, beaming, so they all stood up and started making their way back to the castle while Fleur continued to hover close, unwilling to let her little sister get too far out of her sight. Somehow Gabrielle managed to worm her way in between Jasmine and Hermione, wrapping her arms around both their waists.

Dumbledore didn't observe this because at the time he was at the edge of the lake, trying to find out from one of the merpeople what their version of events was. The other judges and officials were too focused on arguing with each other to pick up on it, either.

But their departure didn't go completely unnoticed. Ron and Neville were the first to see, since they had kept their eyes on their Gryffindor friends as much as possible, and they quickly followed. Cedric and Viktor noticed shortly thereafter and also followed. None of the champions cared very much at this point what their scores were, though they were admittedly more curious than Jasmine was.

Amos Diggory didn't understand his son's attitude, but he realized that there was more going on than he knew about and let him go, choosing to stay behind to get the scores and learn what he could.

"You didn't get breakfast, did you, 'ermione?" Fleur asked after a couple of minutes.

"No, actually, I didn't," she answered. Her stomach chose that moment to growl loudly, causing Gabrielle to break out into giggles.

"It's almost lunch time," Jasmine pointed out, smiling down at Gabrielle, "and I think we would all benefit from something to eat."

Now with a purpose other than to simply get away from the lake and the competition, everyone started walking a little more briskly towards the castle.

Minerva McGonagall felt that she was at a crossroads. Watching Jasmine and Hermione leave, followed closely not only by their two Gryffindor friends, but even by the other Triwizard champions, she realized that she had a choice to make.

She could follow as well, showing support for the girls and offering what comfort she could while apologizing for not having been able to stop Hermione's kidnapping. If she so obviously took their side, however, the Headmaster might be less likely to trust her going forward. On the other hand, if she stayed, she might retain the Headmaster's confidence, but she risked breaking the trust she'd worked so hard to build with the girls over the past weeks.

Albus liked to preach about making the choice between what was right and what was easy, yet while it sounded nice in principle, it didn't offer any guidance in distinguishing which was which. Sometimes both choices seemed right; sometimes both choices were hard.

Finally, Minerva made her decision and hurried to catch up with her Gryffindors and the champions. Regardless of what happened with Albus, the girls needed some adult support. For years she had been telling every new group of students that the house they were sorted into became their family. This made their head of house like a parent.

Well, it was high time she started acting like one for her surrogate Gryffindor family.

Finally, the judges stopped arguing, and Dumbledore called for everyone's attention. "After much debate and careful deliberation, we have come to a decision about how to score the champions. Because they chose to work together, we will be giving each of them a single score instead of separate scores from each judge."

The crowd stopped talking and started paying attention, hoping to learn more about what had happened. Dumbledore looked around and noticed that none of the students in question were visible. Frowning, he turned to the other judges and asked, "Do any of you know where the champions are?"

Now they all started looking around, but without success. "Has anyone seen the champions?" Bagman asked the crowd.

"They all went up to the castle," Amos told them.

"Without waiting to hear our decision?" Percy asked, outraged. "This is about them. They need to be here."

Amos shrugged and responded, "I don't think any of them care very much at this point. Their goal was to rescue all of the hostages, not win the task."

"That is unacceptable!" Karkaroff said with a scowl. "Someone has been interfering with Viktor!"

"No," Amos said, "He looked quite eager to join the others. They all struck me as very close to each other."

Karkaroff continued to grumble, and Maxime simply looked troubled, unwilling to meet anyone else's eyes.

Resigned, Dumbledore continued with his planned announcement, even though none of the most important audience was around to hear him. "Fleur Delacour, because she was unable to participate in most of the rescue, is in last place with thirty points. Viktor Krum, who performed an excellent self-transfiguration, is next at forty-five points. Cedric Diggory, who used the bubblehead charm and participated in a fight with the merpeople, also receives forty-five points. Jasmine Potter, who cast several impressive spells and came back with three incapacitated people, is in first place with forty-eight points."

After giving the crowd a chance to talk about that, he continued, "I'd just like to dispel any rumors now and say that the fight with the merpeople was due to an unfortunate misunderstanding. They did not intend to attack the champions, but rather to ensure that the champions did not take the wrong hostages. They appeared hostile and their intentions were misunderstood. The problem with the hostage for the Beauxbatons champion was also a mistake. They realize that now, however, and since none were injured very seriously, they do not blame any of our champions and hold no ill will towards any of us. They accept that there was fault on both sides."

With those words, everyone walked away with the conclusion that there had never been any serious danger for the hostages - it had all been just a misunderstanding, after all. It didn't occur to anyone that the misunderstanding with the merpeople had nothing to do with what happened to Gabrielle Delacour, or that the danger she had been in had not been addressed. Instead, they simply assumed that the Headmaster had taken care of everything.

A/N: No, this will not be a multi-pairing fic. As you will have noticed by now, there are many different kinds of bonds in the magical world, all involving glowing magical lights. A bond has formed here, yes, but it's not like the one between Jasmine and Hermione. It's actually much more interesting than that.