Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delay. Life got in the way. I am now back and will try to keep this story coming at one chapter a week. Thank you for all the emails and encouragement to continue this story!

Chapter 32

In a surge of motion, each of the champions drew their wands from their holsters, preparing themselves for the chilling water of the Black Lake. From the looks on the champions' faces, each of them was fully prepared for the task at hand.

Two of the champions clearly had a plan as they both raised their wands high. Cedric and Fleur simultaneously cast the familiar Bubblehead charm before diving into the waters together, bright smiles on their faces as they swam side by side.

"Go, Cedric!" shouted the many Hufflepuffs present in the crowd.

"You can do it, Fleur!" shouted Regulus and the rest of their group.

While the charm was an interesting piece of magic, the first to truly shock the crowd was Victor Krum. Krum, who had been working on his transfiguration with Harry and her friends, had managed to complete his animagus training! The new animagus quickly ran off the end of the platform before transforming himself into a large mako shark and diving into the murky waters of the lake.

"Krum! Krum! Krum!" shouted the Bulgarian's many fans.

"Amazing!" Bagman shouted from his podium in excitement. "Victor Krum must be the youngest recorded Animagus in history! I hope he gets himself registered with his ministry! – Ah! - I have just been informed that Mr. Krum has indeed been registered thanks to his headmaster Prof. Karkaroff. That just leaves our very own Harriet Potter! I wonder what she has planned for us today! Hmmm. Young Harriet appears to be frozen in place. What is she-? Woah! Would you look at that?! She must have procured some Gillyweed! I hope that wasn't from Prof. Snape's private stores!"

Slits had quickly formed on either side of Harry's neck as she focused and formed her gills. Next, her fingers and toes elongated, and her skin webbed between each digit giving her the appearance of having consumed the famous aquatic plant. With a smirk on her lips, Harry ran forward and leaped into the icy waters of the Black Lake.

…

Tonks, who was assigned to crowd control for the event, laughed at the mischievous smirk on Harry's face. The younger witch was definitely learning much faster than the Auror had at that age. The pinkette couldn't help but smile at how quickly Harry had been able to adapt to her new abilities.

Tonks was glad that she could be there to share her experiences with Harry. When she was young, and had been struggling with her powers, the volatile witch had to figure out everything by herself. She had nothing but dusty old books that were written by those who had only secondhand knowledge of Metamorphmagi and their abilities. She was all alone until Harry appeared in her life.

Thanks to Harry and her friends, Tonks was even able to reconnect with her old boyfriend, Charlie Weasley. The two had not spoken since Charlie had left for the dragon reserves after graduation, which had left a bitter taste in her mouth. They had tried to keep it going through post-owl, but the distance proved too difficult for the young couple.

By chance, Tonks had run into Charlie after the first task while catching up with Harry and her friends. The two seemed to pick up right where they had left off, much to her surprise. Charlie had even confessed that while he enjoyed his work with the dragons, life had not been the same without her in it.

The two had been sending letters back and forth ever since. With luck, Charlie would be able to return to England by the end of summer. He had caught wind of a position in Wales on one of the UK's private dragon reserves. If he could claim that job, then the two would be able to become a couple once more!

With a content smile on her lips, Tonks returned her focus back to the lake to watch her young friend's progress on today's task for the tournament.

…

The first gulp of icy lake water brought Harry some much-needed relief. Once her head had stopped spinning from the inhuman transformation, the witch took another great gulp of water and shivered in pleasure as it passed smoothly through her gills. Once she was finished acclimating to the water, Harry stretched out her arms in front of her and stared at her hands as they changed to suit her needs.

Her once slender fingers now looked sharp and pale under the water, as they stretched and became webbed with small claws. She twisted around and looked at her bare feet, which had also elongated with the toes on each of her feet becoming webbed as well. Harry was now ready to move!

Thanks to the wetsuit, and thickening her skin, the water no longer felt as icy as when she first entered the lake. Harry swam deeper into the murky waters, marveling at how far and fast her flipper-like feet propelled her closer and closer toward her goal. The young witch was surprised at how easy it was to move forward and darted forward as quickly as her altered form could take her.

Harry had soon traveled so far into the lake that she could no longer see the bottom. She quickly flipped over and dove deeper into its depths, the only light coming from her outstretched wand.

Silence pressed upon her ears as she soared over a strange, dark, foggy landscape. She could only see ten feet around her, even with the low-powered Lumos. As she sped through the water, new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the oncoming darkness. She spotted entire forests of rippling, tangled black weed, and wide plains of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. Harry swam deeper and deeper, out toward the middle of the lake, her eyes wide, staring through the eerily gray-lit water around her to the shadows beyond, where the water became opaque.

Small fish flickered past her like silver darts surprising the young witch with their impressive agility. Once or twice, she thought she saw something larger moving ahead of her, but when she got nearer, she discovered it to be nothing but a large, blackened log, or a dense clump of weed. There was no sign of any of the other champions, merpeople, Hermione, or thankfully, the giant aquatic beasts of the lake.

Light green weed stretched ahead of her as far as she could see, two feet deep, like a meadow of very overgrown grass. Harry was staring unblinkingly ahead of her, trying to discern shapes through the gloom until, without warning, something grabbed hold of her ankle, startling the crowd that watched her journey.

Harry twisted her body around and saw a grindylow! The small, horned water demon had its long spindly fingers clasped tightly around Harry's leg with its pointed fangs bared. Harry quickly struck out with her her wand and cast a silent cutting curse at the ugly water demon, causing it to lose its hand, and the desire to drag her down into the depths of the lake. With a bubbled shriek, the grindylow fled, leaving a bloody trail behind in its wake!

Harry pried her ankle out of the grindylow's' severed claw and swam, as fast as she could, occasionally sending more silent curses over her shoulder at random. Every now and then she felt one of the water demons snatching at her feet again, and she would kick out, hard. Finally, she felt her foot connect with a horned skull. After looking back she saw a dazed grindylow floating away, cross-eyed, while its fellows shook their clawed fists at Harry and sank back into the weeds of the lake floor.

Harry slowed down a little, nearly slipping her wand back inside its holster until she remembered the last time she so carelessly put her wand away during one of her adventures, and looked around. She turned full circle in the water, the silence pressing harder than ever against her eardrums. She knew she must be even deeper in the lake now, but nothing was moving but the rippling weed.

"How are you getting on?"

Harry thought she was having a heart attack. She quickly whipped around with her wand at the ready and saw Moaning Myrtle floating hazily in front of her, gazing at her through her thick, pearly glasses.

"Myrtle!" Harry tried to shout with a stern look on her face, but once again, nothing came out of her mouth but a very large bubble. She couldn't help but crack a smile at the end as she also was a prankster at heart. Moaning Myrtle actually giggled at the warring emotion on Harry's face!

"You'll want to try over there!" she said, pointing. "I won't come with you. I don't like them very much. They always chase me whenever I get too close."

Harry gave her the thumbs-up to show her thanks and set off once more, careful to swim a bit higher over the weed to avoid any more grindylow that might be lurking around.

She swam on for what felt like at least twenty more minutes. Harry was passing over vast expanses of black mud now, which swirled murkily as she disturbed the water. Then, at long last, she heard the eerie sound of Mermish echoing around her.

"An hour long you'll have to look, to recover what we took."

Harry swam faster and soon saw a large rock emerge out of the muddy water ahead. It had paintings of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears and chasing what looked like the giant squid. Harry swam on past the rock, following the haunting melody.

"Your time's half gone, so tarry not, lest what you seek stays here to rot!"

A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. Here and there in the dark windows, Harry could see faces. Faces that bore no resemblance at all to the painting of the mermaid in the prefect's bathroom.

The merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their jagged teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles and shells around their necks. They leered at Harry as she swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch her better, their powerful, silver fishtails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands.

Harry sped on, staring around, and soon the dwellings became more numerous; there were gardens of weed around some of them, and she even saw a pet grindylow tied to a stake outside one door. Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching her with curiosity, pointing at her webbed hands and gills, talking behind their hands to one another. Harry sped around a corner and a very strange sight met her eyes.

A whole crowd of merpeople was floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a primitive village square. A choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions toward them. Behind them rose a crude sort of statue of a gigantic mermaid which had been carved from a boulder. Four people were bound tightly near the base of the massive stone statue to large wooden stakes.

Hermione was tied between Milicent and Lady Diggory. There was also a girl who looked no older than eight, whose clouds of silvery hair made Harry feel sure that she was Fleur Delacour's sister, Gabrielle. All four of them appeared to be in a very deep sleep. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths.

Harry sped toward the hostages, half expecting the merpeople to lower their spears and charge at her, but they did nothing. The ropes of weed tying the hostages to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong. With a smile, she remembered the knife Sirius had bought her for Christmas and quickly pulled it from its sheath on her thigh.

She began to slice the ropes binding Hermione, and after only a few moments, they were cut apart. Hermione's unconscious form floated a few inches above the lake bottom, drifting a little in the ebb of the water. Harry noticed something was wrong right away, as her cheeks were a shade bluer than they should have been! As quickly as she could, Harry placed a powerful stasis charm over Hermione. Hopefully her spell would strengthen the one that was currently keeping her alive.

Harry, however, was now faced with another problem. Looking around, the young witch realized that she could not sense her fellow champions! What were they playing at? They should be close enough for her to feel their magic by now. Why weren't they here yet?

The worried champion hurriedly turned toward Gabrielle, the palest of the hostages, and began to cut away at her bindings. All at once, several pairs of strong gray hands seized her, halting her rescue attempt. Half a dozen mermen were dragging Harry away from Gabrielle, shaking their green-haired heads, and laughing at her attempt to struggle.

"You will take your own hostage and leave," one of them said to her. "Do not touch the others."

"No way!" shouted Harry furiously, but only two large bubbles came out of her mouth.

"You will take your own hostage and leave," the merman ordered again with a glare. "Do not touch the others!"

"Can't you see that something is wrong with them!?" Harry argued with a spurt of bubbles as she gestured frantically toward Gabrielle and the remaining hostages. "They might not be my hostages, but I don't want them to die either!"

"Some sacrifices are necessary, for the greater good," the merman said cryptically. "I suggest you leave. We have our orders."

'Orders?' Harry thought to herself. 'What orders? Who could be ordering around the merfolk?'

Gabrielle's head was now resting on Millicent's shoulder; the small silver-haired girl appearing more blue by the minute. Harry struggled to fight off the mermen, but they only laughed harder than ever while holding her back from the weakening captives.

Harry looked around wildly. Where were the other champions? Would she have time to take Hermione to the surface and come back down for the rest of them before it was too late? Would she be able to find them again?

The young witch looked down at her watch to see how much time remained, but it had stopped working! The face had cracked during her struggle with the mermen and been waterlogged by the frigid waters of the lake.

With her mind made up, the young witch took a deep breath and screamed, letting out a burst of wild magic and freeing herself from her captors! With a twirl of her wand, the mermen were blasted away with burns across their chests and arms. Harry quickly immobilized those closest to her before casting several basic stasis charms upon the hostages, hoping to prolong their lives.

Behind her, the mermen were regrouping. Their weapons were held at the ready in their webbed hands as they hurriedly swam forward to stop her. Suddenly, the merpeople charging her pointed over her head and shrieked in anger. Harry looked over and saw both Cedric and Fleur swimming toward them, their wands pointed threateningly at the aquatic warriors as they pelted them with a flurry of hexes.

Each champion had an enormous bubble around their heads, which made their features look oddly wide and stretched. Fleur appeared even more strange as, at the sight of her sister's deathly complexion, shifted partially into her more avian form.

In her anger, Fleur began to cast a multitude of boiling hexes at the merpeople that were charging Harry while Cedric defended her from the side. Utilizing his skills in transfiguration, Cedric transformed their spears into ropes, wrapping them around their foes before binding them all to the statue in the village square.

"Get lost on the way?" Harry bubbled, grateful for their timely arrival.

"Swarm of grindylow," Cedric's distorted voice echoed from within his bubble. "Thankfully Fleur was there to save my ass."

"Oui, you are lucky zat eet ees so cute," Fleur said with a smile while checking over her sister's condition. "Ah! Nice charm work, Harry. I know zat eet eez not your forte, but eet eez safe to say zat you 'ave saved zeir livez. Zee spell on zem would not 'ave lasted much longer, especially on a 'alf veela. Zey only need a few leetle eemprovements to last until we return to zee surface."

With that said, she began to weave her wand in a dance of complex motions until finally smiling to herself in satisfaction.

"Krum is coming up right behind us," Cedric stated as his wand sent out an unusual flutter of pulses. "Looks like we may need to tie his girlfriend to him. He appears to be further along in his animagus training than he let on."

Sure enough, Krum in shark form, appeared in the murky waters and was speeding towards their location. Once he was upon his fellow champions, the large shark slowed down and moved as if to bite down on his girlfriend's restraints before he was intercepted by Cedric.

"Watch those teeth fish brain!" the Hufflepuff shouted through his bubble which caused the shark to freeze. "I'm fairly sure that Millicent would like to keep her lovely hands attached to her wrists. Can you use magic like that, or will you need help with her?"

The shark could only shake its large head in a negative manner, showing them that he was without magic while in his current form.

"Thanks to Harry here our loved ones are still alive," Cedric said. "It looks like the spell that was keeping them under stasis was wearing off. Most likely due to the magical properties of the lake influencing the charms that were keeping them under. Hmm, this spell feels a little odd…"

"Eet would appear zat you are correct," Fleur agreed appearing slightly miffed. "Zis does not feel like ze spell of a wizard. Maybe ze goblet? Well, whoever zaught zat eet was a good idea to place a veela under zee water ees an imbecile. Let's return to zee surface so zat I can give whoever ees responsible for zis a piece of my mind!"

After a nod of agreement from the other champions, and a few transfigurations later to attach Millicent to Victor's transformed state, the group quickly gathered their respective hostages and headed back toward the surface. Irritated at the unexpected conflict with the merfolk, the friends moved as quickly as they could in order to complete the second task.

…

Meanwhile, the crowd was in uproar!

"What is the meaning of this!?" shouted a member of the crowd.

"Who ordered the talking fish to let the hostages die?!" came another irate voice.

"You lot better figure this out now!" bellowed an angry Amos Diggory as he made his way toward the judge's box. "If I find out that this was planned for 'entertainment' Ludo, then I promise you an honor duel by the end of the day! My wife should have never been-"

"Silence!" bellowed the powerful voice of Dumbledore in anger as he flared his magic to subdue the spectators.

"Return to your seat Amos," Moody whispered to his old friend as he gripped his arm. "We'll get to the bottom of this."

"My fellow wizards and witches," the headmaster called out over the crowd. "It is unknown at this time who could have done this heinous act; however, I assure you that the ministry and the council of judges will be looking into this matter in great depth. Once the champions have returned, and their points awarded, we will begin investigations into how this could have happened. Please remain silent until it is time to cheer for our triumphant champions and thank you for your understanding. Minerva?"

"Yes, Albus?" Professor McGonagall asked once she had made it to his side.

"Due to these unforeseen circumstances, I must depart to follow an inquiry of my own. I need you to take my place as a judge for the remainder of this task and to watch over the students until my return," he told her. "I fear I have become complacent and that something terrible has been allowed to happen."

"Of course," the transfiguration professor replied. "We will be awaiting your safe return."

"Fawkes!" the powerful wizard called out.

In a flash of flames, Dumbledore's phoenix appeared and landed on his outstretched arm.

"To Nurmengard Castle, my old friend," the ancient wizard whispered to his familiar before vanishing in a torrent of flames.

…

At the headmaster's departure, the audience had finally simmered down to a quiet drone as they continued to converse amongst themselves. While the crowd had been temporarily appeased for the moment, there were those amongst them who seemed to become even more apprehensive at what the merman had said to Harry.

These wary individuals were members of the older crowd who, while not as aged as Dumbledore, had been participants in the great war that took place during the 1940's. Each of these battle-hardened wizards and witches glanced at one another before rising to their feet and making their way toward the exit. They knew that something was wrong with the headmaster's hurried departure as the man would never leave his school unless it was an emergency.

Dumbledore voluntarily leaving his seat of power, for any period of time, was definitely a cause for concern. He only ever left Hogwarts for mandatory meetings of the Wizengamot or to fulfill his duties as Supreme Mugwump. For him to leave so suddenly, something must be terribly wrong.

After all, there was only ever one man besides Albus Dumbledore who claimed to fight 'for the greater good'.