The morning of February 24th came before Harry even felt ready, but he didn't know if he'd ever truly be ready for diving down into a freezing, vast lake to find something that had been taken from him. And worst of all, he didn't even know what it was. He'd checked all of his possessions this morning just to make sure, and they were all in order. He'd even gotten Ron to check behind him.

What he did notice, on the other hand, was the fact that his girlfriend was nowhere to be seen. He wasn't too worried, since he didn't see her the morning of the first task either, and figured she was already in the library or the Room of Requirement trying to get some last-minute research done for anything they may have missed. Harry wasn't in the mood for research, though. He wouldn't be able to learn anything else now, not with his heart in his stomach at just the thought of stepping a toe into that water.

Luckily, he was armed with a wetsuit that Lia's owl, Diana (along with about five others since she was too small to carry anything apart from a single letter) had dropped off the previous evening at dinner, already equipped with a wand holster and compartment with a handy pocket knife. "I figured it might be helpful in case you run into any crazy plants or something down there at the bottom," she'd told him. He really couldn't thank her enough. Before they left the common room, he also made sure to grab the jar of gillyweed Neville had gotten from Professor Sprout. Neville had instructed him not to eat it until right before the task began, and he knew better than to not listen.

When they got down to the lake, though, Fred and George were already making bets on who was going to win (and, it sounded like, who was going to die), and when he ran into Ginny, who was heading up to the stands with Lia and the girl that he'd caught George with at the ball, who only briefly narrowed her eyes at him as a reminder to keep his mouth shut, she hadn't seen Hermione either.

No one had seen her. Not Ron, not Neville, not Fred & George, not Billy, another one of the Hufflepuffs, Taylor, a Slytherin girl he'd gotten study notes from once, not Alan, a Ravenclaw who always wished him luck before Quidditch games. Not even Peeves, though he wasn't certain if the poltergeist would be truthful if he had or not. She knew the task was starting - surely she wasn't still at the castle, was she?

"Champions," Dumbledore's voice boomed into the air, "take your positions!"

Harry cursed under his breath, dumped the gillyweed into his palm, and handed the empty jar to Neville.

"We'll find her, mate," he assured Harry. "Meet you after. Good luck."

It wasn't quite the same as a good luck from Hermione, but the sentiment from Neville and Ron would have to do.

Fleur and Krum seemed to be just as on edge as he was when they all lined up on the makeshift pier. He felt a bit silly, and the looks that he was getting from the other students really only perpetuated that, but standing next to Krum and Fleur in a wetsuit while they were in swimwear, he felt sorry for them. They had to be freezing.

"Harry, you have not seen Gabrielle this morning, have you?" Fleur asked through chattering teeth. "I cannot find her anywhere."

"No, I haven't. I can't find Hermione, either. Maybe Gabrielle's with her."

"I have not seen my girlfriend this morning, either," Krum chimed in. "Maybe they are all together."

Harry's veins turned to ice as his gaze moved from the two of them to the surface of the lake. "They… they are all together, guys." When they only looked confused, he continued. "I think they're in the lake. I think they're what was taken from us."

Fleur let out a whimper. "Gabrielle… she… she barely knows how to swim. How could she possibly be-"

"I'm sure they're fine," Harry was quick to comfort her. "I mean… they've got to be charmed or… or something… you know." Krum looked like he was about to dive into the water before the starting sound, but he was resisting, though only just. "Surely they wouldn't just throw them down there without-"

The canon fired, and Krum was in the water before Harry could even think about jumping in. Fleur was right behind him, and Harry almost jumped in after her, then remembered that he had a pocket full of gillyweed. When he stuffed the wad into his mouth, he almost spit it out. It was slimy, salty, grainy, and chewy. Forcibly, he swallowed it down without chewing it much more, and a split second later, his entire body began tingling. His hands felt heavy, like he couldn't move his fingers. Same with his feet. And… were his toes getting longer? He really should have asked Neville more questions about this stuff, because after a couple precious seconds, he couldn't stand anymore, and started walking towards the lake like he was drawn to it, preparing himself for the temperature shock. He didn't get much time, though, because as he got to the edge, his suddenly slimy foot slipped, and he went plunging face-first into the black water.

He held his breath, trying to get his bearings, but he'd never been very good at swimming, and though he knew the gillyweed would allow him to breathe, his instincts were fighting to allow him to try. But his lungs were starting to burn, and he was wasting time. If he was right, if Hermione was what had been taken from him and was now stashed somewhere in the bottom of the lake, the hour was going to go by quick. He didn't have a choice. He opened his mouth and inhaled.

Water rushed into his lungs not only through his mouth but through his neck as well. When he touched the skin, it felt like he'd grown gills. Gross. His feet were now fully webbed, as were his hands, and he found that the new intake of water to his body energized him. He also had no trouble swimming, kicking his feet and zipping through the water nearly as fast as he expected the merpeople to. Blindly reaching to his side, he slipped the wand from the holster and attempted a nonverbal Lumos. The tip illuminated right away, not that it helped much.

Even though the sun had been shining when he jumped in, down in the depths of the lake, there was very little light. And even with the extra coming from his wand, the visibility was terrible in the murky water. How the hell was he supposed to see anything? Much less find something. Or someone, he reminded himself. He squinted, as if that might help (it didn't), then continued swimming, thankful for the speed. Every once in a while, he stopped to check the timer he'd set.

Fifty minutes.

Forty-three minutes.

Thirty-six minutes.

He felt like he'd been swimming for days. What was even less reassuring was that he hadn't even seen the others. What if he was going in the opposite direction? He thought he'd been swimming towards the middle, but there was no way to tell.

Thirty minutes.

Then, he heard it. The song.

Harry kicked his feet harder than he had been, swimming as fast as he could in the direction of the voice. Thankfully, it didn't sound like it was movie, so he figured he was going the right way. Unless, of course, it was a trap. In which case he was screwed. But no, he couldn't think like that. He didn't want to threaten the merpeople, of course, but if Hermione's life was on the line, he might not put it past himself to pull out the knife strapped to his thigh. Even with the gills, his lungs were burning from how hard he was panting, and his legs were starting to ache from the effort of pushing unused muscles to their limits.

He knew the merpeople and the squid were not the only inhabitants of the Black Lake. Neville and Hermione (and even Lia, briefly) had warned him about possibly aggressive fish along with grindylows and an assortment of other creatures he probably shouldn't be too keen on running into. Which, of course, made him only more nervous.

Right now, though, he couldn't worry about what he could run into and instead had to focus on getting wherever the hell it was he needed to go. The song was getting louder and clearer, so he kept on, ignoring the way his body was protesting.

He should have expected it not to be this easy, though. He'd been lucky that so far, he hadn't encountered anything except a few schools of harmless, beautifully bioluminescent fish, and he could've sworn he did see the squid out of the corner of his eye at one point. The light coming from the tip if his wand only let him see about six meters ahead, so when a wall of reeds appeared in front of him, and no matter how far he went to the sides, it didn't seem to end. His only way was through it.

Of course it was.

As soon as his full body was in, he felt claws against his ankles, small fingers wrapping around his legs, dragging him down. "Get off!" he yelled, kicking his legs and just trying to swim through the oncoming horde of grindylows, but they were relentless. More and more joined until they were stronger than him, grabbing his arms and hands. So many that no matter how much he wiggled and twisted, he couldn't escape.

"Relashio!" he managed to yell, though his words came out gargled and muffled. Nevertheless, his wand seemed to understand, and jets of water propelled the creatures a couple feet away, stunning them in the process. It took a couple tried to get all of them, but he managed and kicked away again, casting Protego on himself as he did. He wasn't sure if it would do anything, but he figured it wouldn't hurt. He couldn't swim nearly as fast while parting through the plants, even with the knife helping him out, and it wasn't long before a few more grindylows were on him, but as they sped up, they bounced right off his shield, and Harry sent up a quick thanks to Professor Moody for teaching it to him.

He checked his watch - twenty minutes left. Twenty minutes to find Hermione and get her back to the surface. Or was it just twenty minutes to find her and it didn't matter how long it took to get her back? Either way, he still had no idea where she was. At least the reeds were thinning.

If Harry had been less pressed for time, he'd have stopped to appreciate the beauty of what appeared in front of him once he got through the wall. How many students had gotten to see this? He'd heard of Atlantis as a kid, and this was probably as close as he was going to get. It was nearly an entire city. A small one, of course, but there were actual buildings made of stone and mud, the top of which were well above his head, with tunnels between some of them. He put out the light on his wand because he didn't need it - merpeople streetlights were illuminating everything with a foggy glow. The water didn't seem quite as murky here, or maybe it was just his imagination. Or maybe it was just the sheer amount of activity.

He'd never imagined he would see so many merpeople in his life. They were everywhere, seemingly going about their day as if they didn't have three students held hostage somewhere. Nervously, he trudged forward - he was running out of time quickly, he reminded himself - but they ignored him. He should have gotten here sooner, because he'd never get a good look at them like he wanted to. It didn't matter, though, because in the center of their town, there they were.

Hermione, Gabrielle, and another girl (Krum's girlfriend, he assumed) suspended in the water, tied to large rocks that weighed them down to the bottom. Harry's heart caught in his throat at the sight. She looked… he hated to say it, but… she looked dead. It only took a few powerful kicks to swim up to her, check her pulse.

She was alive.

Of course she was alive. He didn't know what he was worried about; it wasn't like they'd allow anything to happen to a Hogwarts student, let alone a student from one of the other schools. But still, she was limp and cold and felt clammy under his webbed hands. Worst of all, the other two were still there, which meant Krum and Fleur hadn't arrived. What if they didn't? What would happen to these two?

Fifteen minutes.

Without any hesitation, Harry cut the rope tying Hermione down, grabbing onto her hand so she wouldn't float away. It took a bit of effort without the grip of pruny fingers, but he managed to hook his elbow through hers to hold her still. Thankfully, Krum showed up right behind him, terrifying him with the shark's head instead of his own, but he quickly bit through his girlfriend's rope and dragged her towards the surface.

That just left Gabrielle. And Fleur was still nowhere in sight. He couldn't just leave her there. If Fleur didn't show up, what would happen to her? They didn't have much time left, and if Fleur wasn't there by now, she probably wouldn't make it before the hour was up. Harry had to make a decision.

He kicked towards Gabrielle, only slowed a little by Hermione's weight dragging behind him. He pulled out his knife again, and when one of the merpeople rushed up to stop him, he brandished his knife at the creature, who recoiled.

"Only one!" it hissed.

"No, you took her, too. You said we had an hour to recover what you took. I'm recovering her. Nothing in the song about how many people we're allowed." Hermione would be proud of him for that logic, as the merperson took a second to think about it, then realized that Harry was right. Either that, or they simply didn't care, because they backed off, albeit with a scowl, and let Harry retrieve Gabrielle. She seemed heavier than she probably should be, and he was having a bit more trouble breathing. He checked his watched and cursed.

He had ten minutes to get back to the starting point. Or did he just have to make it to the surface? What were the rules? With the dead weight of two extra bodies, Harry could barely swim, no matter how hard he kicked. He tried to push them from their backs, but that wasn't much better either. Part of him wished they could wake up and swim themselves, but he had no idea how deep he was or if they would be able to survive the pressure should they be down there without whatever charm had been placed on them.

He wasn't going to make it. That's all he could think about. Or he'd have to pick one. Of course he'd choose Hermione, but if something happened to Gabrielle, he'd never forgive himself. Neville had promised the gillyweed would help for an hour, but he could feel it getting more difficult to breathe, like his gills weren't taking in as much oxygen. At least he could see light from somewhere, from the top, where he was swimming straight up, but he had no idea how far away it was.

"Come on!" he grunted, more gargled than his voice had been before. "A little help would be nice!" He knew it was no use. He knew no one was listening, but Dumbledore had always said that help would always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it, so he asked. And technically, he was still at Hogwarts.

He was kind of banking on a lot of technicalities today, wasn't he?

But apparently it worked, because with a rush of water, something was suddenly underneath him, and he could barely see with how fast he started traveling through the water. He had to grab only Hermione and Gabrielle even tighter so they wouldn't float away before he could even think about looking down to see what was carrying him. What the hell?

It was a kelpie. A kelpie. He didn't even know they existed down here, and he knew Hermione would be absolutely beside herself if she could see it. Otherwise, it was actually kind of fun. Kind of like a broom. Kind of like Buckbeak. Except a lot wetter and a bit slower. He'd have to tell Sirius about this.

Harry's watch beeped just as they broke the surface, and the kelpie had disappeared before he could even thank it. Hermione began immediately gasping for air as if waking up from some trance, as did Gabrielle, but Harry remembered Fleur saying she couldn't swim that well, and figured that helping her not panic might be a tad but more important. The young girl clung to Harry immediately, breathing heavily as well and looking around like she had no idea what was going on as she came to.

"Harry?"

"Harry!" Hermione called, swimming over to him immediately. "You saved her too?"

"Of course I did." They weren't too far from the starting point, only a few meters away, and as soon as they got close, Harry saw Fleur breaking through the crowd and reaching down to help pull her sister out of the water. As he lifted Hermione onto the platform, he realized his hands were no longer webbed, and he could feel water running through his toes again. He assumed his gills were gone too.

As soon as Hermione was out, she turned around to help Harry while Gabrielle was being fussed over by Fleur, and Dumbledore was right next to them, quick to hand out warmed towels while Madam Pomfrey did a quick inspection of everyone involved. Most of his body was still okay, but now that he was out of the water, the air was suddenly much more frigid.

"McGonagall had called us all to her office last night, Harry. I'm so sorry I couldn't... I mean I didn't think they'd take us. And she said we'd be okay if you didn't get there in time. Some sort of stabilization charm that I think I want to learn at some point if I can get it out of her again, but I really did want to tell you. I tried to figure out a way to pass the message along-"

"Hermione," Harry said firmly. "Look, I love you but please stop talking for just a minute? I really just need to breathe."

Hermione's jaw dropped. "You what? "

It took Harry a second to realize what he'd said. He hadn't even thought about it. It had just come out. Did he even know what that was supposed to mean? "I-"

"Attention everyone!" Dumbledore's voice boomed out, and Harry had never been so glad to hear it. "The winner of today's task is Viktor Krum!" A roar of applause came from their side of the stands. "Yes, yes, much congratulations to Durmstrang! However, I do have to note that Mr. Potter did manage to rescue both Miss Granger and Miss Gabrielle Delacour when he realized that her sister would not be able to, and for that, we are awarding him an additional twenty points!" The Hogwarts students cheered this time, though it was a little less enthusiastic; everyone knew Dumbledore awarding Harry additional points for random acts of heroism was nothing new. It didn't matter to Harry - Gabrielle being safe meant more to him than winning this entire tournament. What did he need with a thousand Galleons anyway?

After the tournament was over, Harry had changed into actual clothes, and they were mostly warmed up, Hagrid invited Harry, Ron, and Hermione back to his hut for tea and rock cakes, and to catch up, since they'd seen very little of him outside of classes. Though they politely passed on the rock cakes, they appreciated the tea, and Harry appreciated the extra time to figure out what he was supposed to say to Hermione. He didn't love her, did he? He did love her. As a friend. But she was his girlfriend, so did that mean that he had to actually love her now? What did it even feel like to love someone? It wasn't like anyone had ever really loved him that he still knew. Except for Sirius.

He did love Sirius. But that was family. It was different. Wasn't it? And was loving someone the same as being in love with someone? Was he in love with Hermione?

"Ya all right, Harry?" Hagrid asked from across the small table, and Harry looked down at his tea, realizing he'd barely touched it. Ron and Hermione were staring at him, too. Hermione a little more intensely.

"Yeah," he managed to mutter. "Sorry, just… still a little… waterlogged, I guess."

"I'm just glad yer okay. And proud of ya for savin' that girl. Not like Viktor Krum would have ever done somethin' like that." Hagrid grinned, and Harry knew he didn't mean anything by it, but it was true. Krum did what he needed to do and left. They really hadn't been competing against each other up until this task, and he was interested to see what the next one would entail. He just hated that Fleur even had to participate when she couldn't win; she'd been disqualified for not completing the second task.

"I just wanted to make sure she'd be okay."

Hermione reached over to take his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. Maybe he was stalling at Hagrid's a little. He knew she hadn't forgotten what he said, and he knew they'd have to talk about it, and he knew that as soon as they were alone, it would come up.

And it did. When they finished up at Hagrid's and wanted to get back to the common room before curfew, Harry was met once again with a slew of congratulations and back pats from everyone who was still up. He thanked Neville for about the fourth time for the gillyweed, and he was able to avoid talking to Hermione for a second longer because Neville starting asking him all kinds of questions about what he'd experienced when he ate it.

Hermione took a seat in front of the fire, warming up the last bit from the lake, then the walk from Hagrid's hut. Her hair still wasn't fully dry, and sticking out at all kinds of angles. It was very cute. He'd been finding more and more cute things about her lately - things he hadn't noticed before. Like the way she always chipped her nail polish off almost immediately after she applied it. The way she twirled her hair around her finger. The way she cut up all her food into small pieces before she started eating anything (except dessert). She wore fuzzy socks with cats on them. She always put her hair up when she had thinking to do - either in a ponytail or a bun depending on how hard the task was - but curls always ended up falling out. Even the way she rolled her eyes at him made him smile.

Okay, maybe being some sort of in love with her wasn't far off.

"Hey," he said as she moved her feet so he could sit down next to her. Her socks were blue today, with polka dots on them.

"Hi," she whispered. Her hand found his, threading their fingers together while her head took its place on his shoulder.

"So, um… I just wanted to… er… I mean, about earlier. What I said…" Hermione picked up her head and opened her mouth like she wanted to speak, but didn't interrupt. Instead, she just nodded, and Harry continued. "I… don't know exactly what… what that's supposed to mean, to…" Harry glanced around the common room, but no one was listening, "to love someone. And especially when we've barely really been together and I've never… I've never loved someone before, Hermione. Besides Sirius. And honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what that means, but… with you, it's… I feel like you're already kind of like my family. Not just you, but… I care about you. I want to be around you and protect you and kiss you and do homework with you and go to Hogsmeade with you and do all of those things, but… I have no idea how to love someone. And I'm not saying that I can't. But I don't think… I don't want you to think…"

"Harry," she finally said, licking her lips and giving him a soft smile. "We're fourteen. I don't think we are supposed to know what being in love with someone feels like, but… I've always loved you in some way. I've loved you as a friend, and I don't… think it's much different, really. I mean my feelings are obviously stronger for you than they were at the start of the summer." Harry nodded in agreement, glad she was able to put better words to it than he could. But again, that was nothing new either. "So… you said you didn't mean to say it, but if you did, and if you do, I could probably say it back simply based off of what I'm pretty sure I'm feeling. But if you want to take some more time-"

"I… think I do, yeah. Not that I didn't mean it, but I don't think I'm ready to… say it properly yet."

It was Hermione's turn to nod. "Of course. No expectations."

"Right. No expectations." Harry smirked at the memory. "I wish you could've seen the look on your face, though. It was priceless."

Hermione pulled away only enough to smack him in the arm, and everything was back to normal.

Eager to have a break from the studying and the tournament, students were buzzing to get to Hogsmeade the first weekend in March. Thankfully, the weather was starting to warm up a bit, and it was beautifully sunny. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Katie had planned for a double date at the Three Broomsticks, but Ron wanted to go by Zonko's and Hermione had to go to Tomes and Scrolls, so they decided to just meet for lunch.

She ended up walking out with a couple bottles of ink that changed color when words were spelled wrong and a iridescent quill that Harry had to buy for her when she kept glancing at it, but the price kept making her second guess herself.

So, while she was buying her ink, Harry stood in line behind her with the quill behind his back, surprising her with it as soon as they got back onto the street. The look in her eyes was worth more than all the money in his vault.

"Harry, you can't… you can't spend this type of money on me, I-"

"Well, unfortunately I can't return it," he argued with a smirk, pushing the wrapping back in her hands when she tried to give it to him. "Consider it an… early birthday present. Or… a late Christmas present. Or an 'I saved your life and I'm really glad you're my girlfriend' present."

Hermione couldn't help but blush. "I… well, I suppose that type of present isn't completely unheard of. Maybe the saving my life part but, I think that's normal for you. Though I'd say I'm usually the one saving your life, aren't I?"

"Oh, most definitely," Harry laughed. "I wouldn't have made it through the past three and a half years without you." He reached down to take her hand, pulling her close as they walked.

It was a few more minutes before she spoke again. "Thank you, by the way. For the quill."

"You're welcome. There's really not many other people I'd rather spend my money on, and I know you'll use it when you correct all of my homework, so really it's a win for the both of us."

On the way to the Three Broomsticks, they stopped by Gladrag's because Hermione saw a pair of socks on display in the window she wanted to get for Dobby, and a quick stop by Zonko's because Harry wanted to get a couple of chocolate frogs, but ended up getting distracted by a set of fail-safe juggling balls that would come back to his hands no matter if he caught them or not. There weren't many people in the store, so Harry and Hermione spent a few minutes pretending they were the best jugglers in the world, with Harry even pulling off some kind of under-the-leg trick that ended up with him on the floor with the balls still bouncing between his hands.

"Oh my God they weren't kidding!" Hermione was doubled over in laughter, nearly on the floor as Harry tried his hardest to get the balls to stop so he could get up. Harry didn't think he'd ever heard her laugh that much, so he may have put on a bit of a show to stand and try to adjust his glasses with the balls bouncing against his cheeks and knocking them askew again. Hermione just clutched at her side, begging him to stop so she could breathe again.

It was more trouble than he anticipated, though, because when he said the spell the box indicated would un-animate them, it only made them go faster, which, of course, sent Hermione into another fit of giggles.

"Harry!"

"I'm not doing it on purpose! I swear!"

Even the girl behind the counter deemed them the best entertainment of the day, refusing to help until the balls began pelting Harry in the side of the head with a force that almost knocked him over.

He ended up buying them anyway because Hermione kept letting out giggles at the thought of getting to see the show again. "You've got to give those to Ron to try," she said with a grin as they headed to the Three Broomsticks.

"I was thinking about regifting them to Malfoy, honestly. Might keep him busy for a bit."

"You should've bought two, then! Then maybe if you got them close enough together, they'd keep bouncing between the two of them." She started laughing again, trying to get her words out during breaths. "It would… it would look like they're… like they're throwing them at each other! Who do you think would get in trouble?"

"Depends on who catches them," Harry laughed back. "McGonagall would probably award points to Ron."

"If I wasn't worried he'd hex me into next year, I'd throw them at him myself."

"What, you don't think you could take him?"

"Not if I didn't want to get expelled," Hermione smirked.

"Maybe George's girlfriend will look out for you," Harry said sarcastically.

"George's got a girlfriend?"

Harry's eyes widened. He had no idea where Ron came from, but evidently he and Katie had followed right behind them into the Three Broomsticks. Maybe they thought Harry and Hermione saw them and held the door open for them. Either way, the cat was out of the bag. Hermione's hand flew to her mouth.

"Different George," Harry quickly lied without missing a beat. "One of the first year Hufflepuffs. He came up to me for an autograph after the second task, and asked for one for his girlfriend, too. I asked for her name and he couldn't even remember. Said he had four."

He had no idea where the lie had came from, and he knew it was overly explained for some people to believe it, but Ron just let out a snort. "Oh, yeah. What a catch these days, those eleven-year-olds."

Harry quickly broke eye contact to shoot Hermione a panicked look, walking straight to a table and taking a seat beside her. "So, er… did you find something at Zonko's?"

"Yeah! Fred and George wanted me to grab a couple things for them, so whenever you come over for the summer, be careful of… anything they give you, really. There's no telling what they're trying out."

"As long as it's not a Ton-Tongue Toffee. I think Dudley's still recovering from that one," Harry laughed.

"Good," Hermione muttered. "I still can't believe you've got to spend the summer with them. Why can't you just come back with me? Mum and Dad wouldn't mind, I'm sure. At least until Sirius can sort things out."

"Wait, really?"

Hermione shrugged. "I mean… I could always ask. It's worth a shot. Even if it's awkward, it won't be as awful as being with your family."

Harry thought about it for a moment. What if he could spend a summer somewhere else? He'd been spending the majority of them at The Burrow lately anyway. Why hadn't he thought about it before? Even spending day and night in Sirius's cave with him would be a thousand times better than having to deal with the Dursleys. And though he knew it would be awkward if he were to stay with Hermione, if things got too weird, he could always ask to stay with the Weasleys if he had to.

"That… might be fun, yeah," he replied with a grin.