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Severus felt no calmer during the second task than he had during the first. Dumbledore had off-handedly mentioned this task was somewhat safer than the first, but now that he knew exactly what the task was, Severus couldn't agree in the slightest.
Something very important had been taken from each Champion and placed near the bottom of the Black Lake, guarded by merpeople. The competitors had one hour exactly to retrieve this important item.
Of course, that meant they had to discover a way to breathe underwater for an extended period of time. And in Potter's case, learn to swim as well, apparently, which would explain why he'd been catching her and Granger near the Prefect's bath and then out by the lake over the past couple of weeks. Granger had been attempting to teach Potter to swim.
Unfortunately, the important 'items' taken from the Champions that they had to rescue were people. This did not bode well. Potter's reaction when she learned who her 'important person' was only increased that sentiment.
"Ron?" she exclaimed incredulously in question to Dumbledore and McGonagall. "Seriously? Ron? I mean, he's a friend, and I love the guy like a brother, but he's the person I find most important in my life?"
"Well-"
"It's probably actually Hermione. But she's Krum's important person, isn't she? That's what you said, right? Even though they only started dating less than two months ago. ...Oh, but it's the same for Cedric, isn't it? He and Cho also only started dating then. And I've only known Ron for like, four years!
"...Why is Fleur's person the only one that makes sense!? It's like you decided, 'Oh, that Champion hangs out with that person a lot, let's stick them at the bottom of the lake'!" And then she threw her hands up in the air in an obvious gesture of frustration and walked over to the other competitors on the pier, who were watching her in amusement.
Severus turned away quickly, very nearly laughing. It had only been a handful of years, but Potter had come a long way.
In the beginning, she'd never talked back to adults, regardless of how upset or confused or annoyed she'd been. But now it seemed she no longer felt that way and was deliberately talking back. She never went overboard with it, and she was always careful about the timing, but she did do it.
She must have been greatly annoyed. While Dumbledore had acknowledged that Potter hadn't entered her name into the Goblet of Fire, he'd made no progress on finding the true culprit. As far as Severus knew, there was no search happening at all.
And so, Potter was once more stuck competing, this time shoving a handful of what Severus immediately recognized as gillyweed (his eyes narrowed) into her mouth, before diving into the lake.
Unlike the first task, there was no way of seeing what was happening down in the lake, leaving the spectators in the stands staring at the rippling water for a while, before they turned to their neighbours to chat as they waited for something interesting to happen.
Severus had no desire to speak to anyone and remained as he was, the fingers of his right hand absently passing over the soulmark hidden under the sleeve of his left wrist. It didn't hurt, which was a good sign. Whatever was happening to Potter right now, it wasn't putting her in mortal peril…
Potter was the first to emerge from the lake, well before the hour-long time limit, Weasley in tow, the boy regaining consciousness the moment his head broke through the water. They swam back and were immediately fussed over by Poppy, who most certainly wasn't enjoying this tournament.
The spectators turned their attention back to the lake and watched eagerly, expecting the other Champions to return. And sure enough, Delacour emerged a moment later, though surprisingly, she was alone and panicking greatly.
Diggory was the next to emerge from the lake, Chang with him, just barely making it in the time limit. And finally, a fair few minutes after the time limit, Krum and Granger emerged as well, at which point Dumbledore spoke to the Chief of the Merpeople to retrieve Delacour's younger sister, who was returned safely just a few minutes later.
Severus turned his attention back to Potter, curious to see how she was going to react now that it was clear everyone was safe and out of the water. And just like he'd expected, the moment the scores began being shown, Potter simply walked off, not bothering to see any of them, least of all her own.
Once again whispers broke out as she did this, but the girl didn't look back. She was making it clear that even though she was competing, she was doing so unwillingly.
Still, Dumbledore was sure to loudly announce her scores the next morning in the Great Hall during breakfast. But yet again, Potter paid it no attention, instead opting to tell Granger and Weasley, and rather animatedly at that, about the strange dream she'd had the night before that seemed to have heavily featured drowning goats.
Severus had a feeling it wasn't goats that had been drowning…
That's it for now. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!