Chapter 30: The Second Task
Sunday 19th February 1995.
Hermione was quite pleased with her most recent find.
It was winter in Scotland, just about as far north as one could go, pouring rain in buckets. And yet she sat here now on the shores of the lake, not only dry thanks to her umbrella spell, but warm due to the most powerful warming charm they'd managed to find so far.
Luna hummed softly to herself as she sat to Hermione's right and watched the surface of the water. It had been about twenty minutes since the quartet had vanished beneath it and they were due to return any moment now.
"Do you think, after all the Tournament hype has died down, we could all go in and explore it someday?" Luna asked quietly, drawing Hermione from her thoughts.
"I don't see why not. We've got the required spells and knowledge. And it's certainly a worthy place to explore. Almost seven and a half miles long and who knows how deep. We know for a fact there are merpeople and a giant squid living in there. And that's just this end of the lake."
Luna's face brightened even further at the thought of unknown creatures living in its depths just waiting to be discovered. Since her father had died several years before saving her mother, the number of random creature sighting reports the Lovegoods received had diminished, but Luna seemed to want to travel the world once she graduated and find as many of the curious creatures as she could.
Hermione sometimes wondered if the creatures she described could even be real, but given she had spent a large portion of her youth believing dragons to be myth and legend only to watch her two closest friends face down one each only a couple of months before, she was a lot more open to fairytales and other myths nowadays.
"I think it would be a lot of fun to…" She drifted off as a pair of familiar eyes breached the surface and locked onto her, though no other part of the face came above the waterline.
Hermione chuckled to herself slightly as her boyfriend hovered in the water, looking very much like the story-tale version of the creatures he was out to locate in the deep water, gazing up at the land dwellers and plotting to entice them down into the depths.
After a few silent moments, his head fully breached the surface and Hermione knew the plant had run its course. Three other figures breached beside him and she smiled at the four Champions as they swam back towards the shore and pulled themselves out of the chilly Scottish loch.
"Definitely looks like fun." Luna smiled as the two stood and waited for the four to approach.
"A lot more fun with that warming charm," Nym called as she came closer. "I know I should be freezing right now, but I feel fine. Even this torrential downpour isn't bothering me. I could stay out in this all day."
"Da. I am used to the cold, but this spell. I think it will be very popular back at Durmstrang."
"Oui, zis 'as been ze most pleasant swim since we arrived. And I am used to ze waters of ze Mediterranean. I wonder 'ow long ze spell will last in zis weazzur."
"We can put it to the test," Harry suggested, Hermione now very wary of the smile he was sporting as he knelt down by the shore.
"Harry… don't you dare." She got no further before a loud splat sounded from Nym's back and all three older Champions just stood there in surprise. When Nym turned to face her attacker, Hermione noted a large glob of sticky mud slowly sliding down her wet back.
"You didn't!" Nym growled, diving for Harry and sending the both of them sliding on the soft edge of the lake, both coming up far muddier than they had been a moment beforehand.
As Nym knelt up, Harry's hands became visible on either side of the tall girl and another two loads of mud shot away from the pair, soaring at the other two Champions who were unable to move in time to avoid the ammunition splattering against their swimwear.
"Oh ho. Is on my friend." Viktor chortled as he swept down, grabbed two big handfuls of mud and raced over to where the cousins were wrestling on the shoreline. He dropped both hands onto Nym as she sat on Harry's chest, the resulting impact spreading the dirty payload so that it dripped around her form and onto Harry giving Viktor a doubly successful effort.
Hermione shook her head as she stood and was surprised to feel a small glob smack into her right thigh. She turned and saw Luna standing there a giant smile on her face and a very dirty right hand. "You sneaky…"
The older girl released the umbrella spell, no longer caring about the falling rain and she grabbed her own fistful of mud and began to chase the wee blonde girl as the sounds of battle raged on the shore.
She caught the waiflike child as she dived behind Harry, making Hermione's shot go wide, but splattering the front of her robes as she landed in the soft wet mud of the lakeshore regardless.
Another shot connected with her back and Hermione spun again to see Fleur standing on the high ground preparing a second volley with a broad smile of her own. Hermione gave a wicked grin and stood quickly, dodging the second attack which hit someone behind her and dashed the short distance to the French witch, not bothering with ammo this time as she simply tackled the surprised girl to the muddy ground as well.
Fleur quickly managed to wriggle free of her grip and get back to her feet, dashing away towards the even muddier figures by the water's edge and Hermione followed, now planning to get Nym and Harry who had flipped positions, with Harry now looming over his cousin as she tried to fend off his extremely mud-laden arms as he plastered the mud all over her front.
Hermione grasped two big handfuls as she approached and slopped them over Harry's unaware head, covering both him and Nym in a substantial amount of the substance and making Luna and Viktor laugh at the looks on their faces.
They all froze as a throat cleared behind them and the group turned as a muddy unit towards the sound. Professor McGonagall stood there, her own umbrella charm keeping the rain off her typically neatly robed form.
"I do hope none of you are planning on going back inside like that. Mister Filch would be devastated should you spread that all over the castle."
Hermione blushed and tucked her filthy hands behind her back as she tried to hide the evidence from the stern woman, but her eyes bulged out in shock as a ball of wet dirt soared past her vision and splattered across the thick front of the professor's robes. The group gave a collective intake of breath as the teacher looked down at her front and gave a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth.
Her eyes shifted upwards once more and with a deft flick of her wand, which didn't even break the umbrella spell, a large portion of the lakeshore lifted up and dumped over Harry's prone form, covering him from head to toe in the thick gloopy substance.
"My apologies, Miss Delacour, Mister Krum. I seem to have gotten a little on you there. A delightful game, Mister Potter. Your father and his friends enjoyed a round or two themselves. Do clean off before coming inside. I wish you all well in your preparations."
As the teacher turned and walked away, a second flick of her wand cleaning her robes, the group turned as one to look at Harry, who was now almost buried in a pile of mud, but still grinning like a lunatic.
He reached out and Hermione leaned down to assist him up, but instead found herself pulled down into the sticky mud and with a cackle of laughter, the game was on again.
ϟ
Friday 24th February 1995.
The knot in Harry's stomach had been growing all morning.
It had begun as a small pinch in the back of his abdomen, that had Harry thinking he'd slept the wrong way once Hermione had gone off to her own room for the night. But as time had moved forward and he'd gotten dressed and joined the usual group for breakfast, he found it getting stronger and spreading throughout his torso.
To add to his worry, Hermione was still not here. She'd not waited for him in the common room, and that was odd enough, but now he was here in the Great Hall he could see that she was not around. And worse yet, none of the others had seen her anywhere in their own travels to the large hall.
He wasn't too worried, he could still feel her presence nearby but was having an unusual amount of difficulty pinning down exactly where she was. Harry grabbed several pieces of her preferred toast from the table and, without a word to the others, headed off towards the library.
Perhaps she was simply trying her best to find an answer to his foolish promise before push came to shove at ten o'clock when the task was due to begin.
The small knot however became a tight clenching when Madam Pince confirmed that Hermione had not been in the library since she was kicked out right on curfew the night before. Something that had apparently confounded Professor Snape who had been waiting nearby hoping to find her out after hours and yet had not been able to catch her in the act.
Harry focused his magic inwards and followed the feeling that always led him right to her. Even without a defined location, he should be able to pop to wherever she was holed up and find out why she was hiding from him, today of all days.
She had been upset when he had begged her not to stay with him last night, as he was certain whatever the organisers were planning to take would be taken then, and he didn't want her getting in trouble for being found in the boy's dormitory.
As he settled his mind, he followed the connection, but still could not locate the other end. When he tried to pop to it regardless he found a stern negative response from his magic and panic set in as realization dawned.
It wasn't a trinket.
His movements through the school had confirmed her location was outside of the building and fear threatened to overwhelm him as he considered his options.
Without any further thought, he popped to the only other place he could think of. Surprised shouts greeted him as Harry looked up at the family gathered at the dinner table in the small flat Remus and Sirius had been occupying since his arrival at the school.
The tether in his magic now pointed back up at the school, confirming Harry's worst fear as several unclear voices washed over Harry's panicked face.
"HARRY!" Sirius finally broke through as he felt a firm grip shake him out of his mind. "What's wrong?"
"Hermione's missing." He mumbled, voice so quiet he doubted if even Sirius had heard.
"Missing how?" Remus questioned, stepping over to join them.
"I can't find her in the castle. She's been missing all morning. No one has seen her…"
"Can't you find her?" Natalie questioned, kneeling beside Sirius and laying a gentle hand on Harry's shoulder. The soft smile she gave him hurt almost as much as the feeling in his chest. She was expecting him to find her little girl, but Harry knew now that he could not.
"No." He whispered. "I can't reach her."
"What? How?" Andromeda queried, standing behind the adults in front of him. "We've never been able to keep you two apart before."
"Because… me and Nym…" Harry was terrified. Not only was she in danger, but he was responsible for her being stuck there.
"Harry, take a deep breath and talk to us. We can't help if we don't know what's going on." Natalie smiled again, and Harry felt his shame grow.
"She's what I'll miss most. She's in the lake. They've taken her."
The shame and terror slowly twisted in Harry's chest and took on a new form as the adults digested what he had just told them.
"Well, that was obvious to anyone with eyes. You've told anyone and everyone who'd listen what she means to you." Sirius smirked, giving his arms an encouraging squeeze. "Pop on down there and get her out. If it's part of the task they can't stop you."
"That's exactly why I can't," Harry mumbled once more, drawing odd looks from the crowd.
"Why not?" Natalie asked softly.
"I can't use elf magic in the tasks. Nym and I promised. It would be cheating. So we made a deal. And now…"
He felt tears begin to well in the corner of his eyes and the feeling in his chest churned once more.
"They've taken her. Taken my friend. And I can't pop to her, because she's part of the task now." The churning in his chest heated and began to coalesce into something entirely new. "They've taken her." Anger began to tinge his voice and he stood taller than before.
"Harry?" Remus's voice felt distant now as his focus shifted back up to the school.
"They… THEY TOOK HER!" Harry shouted and with a surprised gasp from the adults, he vanished once again.
He was lucky that no one was present in the Entrance Hall when he arrived with a crack, his usual calm demeanour gone, replaced entirely with the angry visage he reserved for those who crossed him and his family.
These idiots had taken Hermione down into the lake, and from the way Natalie was talking, they hadn't even bothered to get her parents' permission to do so. He stormed once more into the open hall full of students and quickly located the other three Champions.
"You three. I know what they took. It's already down there." He puffed as he rushed up to them all.
"Good morning to you too, Harry. Breakfast? We'll be going for a swim soon and it's advisable not to swim for an hour after eating, you know." Nym quipped in her usual fashion.
Harry turned his eyes on her and her mood shifted instantly. "What… what is it?"
"Hermione. She's down there. And probably people important to all of you, too." He explained without preamble. "We have to go now."
The other three immediately nodded, none caring for food now that they understood the stakes. The two foreign attendees seemed to be considering just who might have been taken as their own hostage and by the looks on their faces, he didn't think they were liking the answers.
They all ignored the odd looks from the confused students still eating as the four exited the castle together and headed for the lake past the trickle of students already heading out to the stands to wait. "You're sure, Harry?" Nym asked as they passed a group of chattering Hufflepuffs who waved at them as they passed in the cold morning air.
"Positive. I…" He glanced around and noted there was no one within earshot. "I can't pop to her. You know what that means."
Nym went white, something that was nigh impossible given her ability and Harry knew he'd hammered the reality home to the older girl.
"Let's go get her then."
Harry nodded as they quickened their pace, the other two Champions hot on their heels.
ϟ
Amelia yawned as she stretched her back while the trio of new arrivals headed off to their assigned locations.
She glanced over to the stands and rolled her eyes. Some of the students had already started filling it and the workers still hadn't finished it. Assembly had been completed the afternoon before, but they were still working on it adding flags and decorations. Pointless minutiae she couldn't care less about.
Her job was simple, keep the attendees safe. She had three-quarters of the Auror force on site today, spread throughout Hogsmeade and the grounds of the school. Despite having been instructed to arrive at dawn, some were still filtering in even now.
She was very glad she had assigned Moody to handle the deployment in Hogsmeade for the day. She'd still be down there herself with the rate these idiots were moving and the task was due to start in a little over an hour.
A quiver shot up her spine and Amelia spun on her heel to find Alastor approaching from behind, wand drawn and a smirk on his face.
"Good to see a few years in the big chair hasn't lost you yer edge. Village is set to go. Seems word went out an hour ago that you'd assigned me as a third party for setup. The last few arrived five minutes ago looking like they well remembered my last visit to the Academy."
"Glad I could make your morning, Alastor. Formations good?"
"Aye, they've got Hogsmeade covered, lass. How bout these lazy bastards?"
She sighed as she watched three of the Aurors she'd just sent to guard the stands lean against its structure chatting away to one another. "You're sure I can't convince you to come back? Academy standards aren't the same with you here."
"I'm sure. I actually like it here. Don't have to spend all my time looking over my shoulder. Plus, give me a few years and the standard will be up across the board. Get 'em early, Amy." He said with a wicked grin.
"Please tell me you aren't putting firsties through the usual wringer you used at the Academy?" She questioned, staring at the old man.
"No, not firsties." Both his eyes avoided her gaze as he stepped back towards the nearby tree.
She chuckled as she shook her head at the man's behaviour. At least it meant this generation might actually have a bit of backbone and talent if they joined her corps. Unlike the idiots currently standing guard over the new dock that the organizers had installed which was to be the launching point for the task.
A point four figures were fast approaching. Figures that not one of them seemed to have noticed in the slightest.
"Move!" The youngest of the quartet demanded trying to rush past them and onto the dock, only to be stopped by two of the Aurors putting their arms in the way at the last second, seeming utterly surprised to see someone there.
"Oi, whatchu doing? Dock's off-limits til the task starts. Stands are over there, kid."
The young Potter boy fixed the Auror with a stare that looked wrong on his small face. "Move, now!" His voice was almost icy and he didn't raise it at all. It slightly chilled her that such a young man could fill his voice with such anger.
"You deaf? Stands are over there. Only Champions on the dock, and not until the task is ready to start."
"We are the Champions, you blithering moron!" The Tonks girl hissed, her complexion ruddy as she stood behind Harry.
"Good fer you. Tasks not started yet. Sod off and come back later."
The girl laid a warning hand on Harry's shoulder as Amelia sighed heavily again, glancing over at Moody who had both eyes fixed on the encounter, but didn't have his wand trained. Instead, he had a grand smirk on his face and seemed to be enjoying the show.
He noticed her gaze and his smile grew as he nodded back towards the group. Great, she thought. Teachable moment?
"Eef you do not move, we shall be forced to move you." The French Champion added.
All three Aurors laughed as they looked at the four children before them and Amelia rolled her eyes. This lot needed some serious work on how to handle the public. While keeping people off the dock was the command she'd given them, mocking the Champions was certainly not what she had in mind.
"Last chance," Krum growled, and Amelia could no longer stand and watch.
"Trouble here?" She asked as she approached, just out of the eye line of all the Champions.
The three Aurors straightened. "No ma'am, just following orders."
"Move," Potter whispered.
"No!" Clemens replied again. "It's not time yet!"
"What is the problem, Mister Potter?"
"My girlfriend is down there. And if these idiots try keeping me from her any longer, I'll kill them."
The Aurors' faces collectively fell at the perfectly delivered threat. The boy hadn't raised his voice or made any silly gestures. Just delivered the line as though he truly meant it while staring them down. She doubted Moody could have delivered it and sounded any more sincere.
"Now see here, lad. You can't be threatening an Auror like that!"
"I didn't threaten an Auror. I threatened three. NOW MOVE!"
The boy raised his voice for the first time and Amelia could feel the pulse in the air from here. "You really think that this can work?" She questioned.
"Yes." He replied, quietly once more.
"Wasn't asking you." The Aurors and older Champions all turned to stare at her in surprise. "This lot each faced down a fully grown nesting mother dragon alone and they all won. If the idiots running this show have truly taken 'what they'd miss most' and you're the only thing standing between them and it. Do you really think you can keep them from it?"
She smiled at the Aurors before her who seemed to realize the magnitude of the threat that stood before them and finally drew their wands. Which was apparently the final straw for Potter.
Out of nowhere, a wand appeared in his hand and with a growl he swept both hands from right to left. With a wave of purple energy, all three Aurors were tossed like leaves to the left, landing hard. Before any of them had hit the ground though, the boy had waved the wand a second time and a bubble formed over his face. The two silent spells from the youngest of the competitors had even Amelia surprised.
"Shit, grab on or get left behind," Tonks shouted as she too conjured a bubblehead charm and shot off down the dock after the boy.
Amelia watched as the other two followed suit and Tonks fired a lasso spell around Potter's waist, the shimmering rope of magical energy wrapping around his core, the two foreign Champions following on auto-pilot. They each cast a lasso of their own that wrapped around each of the boy's legs. Her confusion mounted as the spells didn't seem to bother the charging boy as he leapt into the air and cast one final spell.
"Accio mervillage!"
The power she could feel in that spell chilled her as he shot into the water like a dart and realization settled over her.
"Fuck!" She moved back from the water and tapped her badge, sending a message out to all the attending Aurors. "Task has begun, get everyone along the lakeshore and prepare to levitate any debris that breaches the surface. We're going to have large chunks of stone coming up. If the water surges, combine shields and hold it back."
She felt Moody come up beside her again, face far less amused this time. "When this is over, you and I are going to have a chat about that boy, Alastor. I hope like hell that village has good foundations."
He nodded in return and they both faced the lake, wands at the ready.
ϟ
Harry was beyond angry at this point.
Hermione was in danger because of him and people were getting in his way. He could feel the pulse in his magic getting stronger as he descended through what he knew from personal experience to be freezing cold water, but he didn't care right now. His anger was keeping him warm and Hermione needed his help.
He felt the muscles in his legs and stomach twitch occasionally under the pressure he assumed came from his fellow Champions as his wand drew him ever onward.
Water and unknown particulates rushed past his face and he thanked the power with which he had cast the bubblehead charm as it acted not only as a breathing source, but a buffer against what would have been a series of very painful impacts at the speed they were achieving.
Out of the darkness came a large looming shadow and Harry prepared to fire a spell before he recognized it as stone and he used a burst of unformed magic out of his left hand to dash to the right around it, having to push harder at the last moment as the tension around his body and limbs kept him from moving as far as he had hoped.
The chunk of rock looked as though it had been shaped as it rushed past but he refocused his attention downward. Thankfully, wherever the mervillage was located, it didn't take him directly through some outcropping of rock, all that was ahead of him was open water as far as he could see. With the exception of the occasional additional chunk of rock shooting up past them.
A small corner of his mind wondered how the merfolk could launch such heavy objects upwards through the water, but that was a query for later. He could see the lake's bottom coming into view below him now, dark reeds flickering in the gentle currents and when he looked forward once more, a much larger looming shadow formed. The village was directly ahead.
He called his magic to his hand once more and as the buildings became clear, used it to maneuver as he twisted and turned and shot between them, up an alleyway that seemed to lead further in. He picked up speed as he zipped between the buildings and it felt like a weight had been lifted off of him.
Harry had to dodge a few pieces of buildings that jutted out beyond the norm, but soon he was free of what he assumed were houses and was now in a large open square with a giant statue at its centre.
He had no time to take in the design though as the spell finally ran its course and he twisted hard against the bindings, moving quicker than expected as the bindings no longer seemed to be there, bringing his legs to bear as he impacted the ground hard.
An enormous cloud of silt and debris filled the water around him and Harry groaned at the pain in his legs from the impact. But he did not let it distract him now. He was close, the call in his magic was stronger than before. Hermione was here somewhere.
Harry moved to stand but was knocked free of the lake bottom as a loud shudder travelled outwards and several groaning sounds filled the water around him. He turned in the water but could not see any immediate threat in the clouded vicinity. He closed his eyes and found the thread that led him to Hermione when he popped and noted it was now behind him.
He turned to face the feeling and dug his feet into the thick goopy soil. With a thrust of his wand, he conjured a stream of water and waved it in front of him to clear the debris from his sight. A strange hissing began to sound all around Harry, but he paid it no mind as he could once again see the large statue in front of him and his blood chilled while his anger peaked.
Hermione was tied to that statue and the sight of her there would never leave him as long as he lived.
Her skin was pale as ice in the deep dark water and her hair shifted in the gentle current stirring the water around her. She could have been sleeping, but there was no discernable movement of her chest, so could just as easily have been dead. A thought Harry immediately regretted as she now looked to him like a corpse tied to a rock at the bottom of a lake and Harry's anger boiled.
He wasn't even sure what the spell was, but magic pulsed up his arm and through his singing wand. The rowan wood relished in the enormous amount of energy it channelled and with a groan the entire statue imploded, tossing the poor hostages about but releasing them all from their bonds.
Harry felt a hand touch his shoulder but it immediately released and he launched forwards, his feet coming free from the lakebed with a squelch and he sailed through the water towards his goal.
At long last, after hours of worrying, Hermione was back in his arms again.
But he did not relax. She was still not responding. Her body felt cold in his arms and she was limp against him. Turning in the water, he pointed his wand downwards and forced another jet of water from his wand, gradually propelling him directly upwards, he hoped.
Harry could feel his magic seeping into the girl in his arms, trying to warm and wake her from her slumber but nothing seemed to have an effect. After what felt like ages, he finally breached the surface and felt a pair of familiar arms instantly grip him tightly.
Relief filled his body as he blinked away the pain of going from dull to bright and noticed a pair of brown eyes looking into his own.
"Good morning, Harry." Hermione smiled before she leaned in and gave him a gentle kiss.
Harry felt the knot of tension he'd been holding all morning break and he pressed into the kiss as well. "I was so afraid."
"Wish I could say I was. All I remember is going to sleep last night, worried about you and wishing I could hold you in my arms. Apart from being freezing and wet, this is still one of my favourite ways to wake up."
Harry couldn't help but laugh at his girlfriend as he gave her a good look over checking for any lasting damage from her time below. When he was finally satisfied she was okay, he turned in the water and shifted Hermione onto his back.
He could see the other three Champions all had their respective hostages and were already helping them out of the water and onto the dock. Harry grinned as he got another kiss on the cheek and an amused voice sounded in his ear.
"Giddyup seahorsey."
He smiled as he tucked his arms up under Hermione's bottom with his wand pointed behind them and used the same stream of water to push them forward, though not at nearly the same frantic pace as before.
By the time they arrived, all six of the others were out of the water and Fleur and Krum reached out to help them both from the water. Hermione refusing to let go of her piggyback ride.
"That vas most impressive, Harry. But you made something of a mess." Viktor chuckled as he helped him to his feet on the dock.
Harry looked around to see what he meant and saw the large chunks of rock that had soared past them in the water had been going fast enough that they'd breached the surface of the lake. And they weren't rocks, but large chunks of the merfolk village that his anger-fueled summoning spell had wrenched free of their structures.
He blushed slightly as he noticed several Aurors were still levitating one of them over to the far side of the lake where the Giant Squid was collecting them and disappearing beneath the waves.
"Well, serves them right," Hermione growled from her place on his back and Harry nodded in agreement. Had they taken some foolish little trinket, he'd have been content to take his time in retrieving it.
"It seems, Madame Bones 'eard your spell and arranged ze Aurors. Zey managed to catch all ze pieces zat we dodged. Zough Nym took an 'it to 'er shoulder. Ze nurse is fixing 'er up right now." Fleur explained, a tinier version of the girl latched onto her waist and looking about fearfully at the gathering adults at the far end of the dock behind Moody and an unfamiliar woman.
Nym was seated nearby, a water-logged Cedric sitting next to her as the school nurse tended to the girl's shoulder, but she looked alright, so Harry allowed his eyes to drift further.
Just behind Krum where he stood at the end of the dock with Harry was his fiance who looked a lot less fancy dripping freezing lake water rather than dressed in veela finery. He gave her a soft smile which she returned as he caught sight of movement approaching down the dock.
While Moody stood at the far end, wand drawn and keeping anyone from coming closer, a woman was approaching who he thought could give Professor McGonagall a run for her money when it came to the looking stern stakes. She lifted a monocle that was affixed to her robes to her eye and swept it over the scattered Champions and their hostages before coming to a stop at the group and fixing her eyes on Harry.
"Well, that was a rather impressive show of magic you all just gave us." Harry recognized her voice from before he'd tossed the Aurors aside, and now he noticed the badge on her robes, he paled slightly at the idea he might be about to face the music for his rash actions. "A shame that half the audience hadn't even managed to sit down before you returned. Barty had spent a fortune on a tracking… I believe he called it a camera, to follow your progress and relay it to the crowd."
"So the plan wasn't just to have a crowd staring at the surface of a lake for an hour outside in February. That's a relief." Nym chuckled from the floor.
"Quite." The woman replied. "Mister Potter, I wondered if I might have a word?"
"And you are?" Hermione queried from her place atop Harry.
The woman smiled at them softly, breaking the stern face she'd borne so far. "Yes, my manners are lacking there. I am Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I was here to ensure the security of the task. Was here for the last one too, but didn't actually get to see most of the action then."
"Neither did I. But I'm told these three performed spectacularly." Harry smiled at his fellow competitors.
"Of course. So, that word?"
Harry shrugged and Hermione gave a light chuckle at the movement. "Go ahead. I've nothing to hide from this lot."
Madame Bones glanced at the other Champions, several of whom still had their wands to bear as though they didn't trust her at all right now. Harry certainly didn't blame them.
While she seemed amiable enough, this woman did work for the same group who had just kidnapped his girlfriend, what looked like Fleur's sister, Krum's fiance and Nym's closest friend outside the family. Madame Bones pulled out a notepad, leaving it hovering in the air and set a quill on it with a tap of her wand.
"Alright then. For starters, what on earth motivated you to summon the entire mervillage?"
"The person I care about the most in this world was at the bottom of this lake tied to a statue for the entertainment of a crowd. I wasn't letting her stay down there any longer than necessary." Harry deadpanned, not letting his eyes drift from the woman's face as he spoke.
"Not a fan of swimming?" A couple of the others laughed at the comment, but Harry did not. He was still wary of exactly where this conversation was going and he felt his skin heating again with anger as he was reminded of just how dangerous this tournament could be. "But why summon the village?"
"That is easy." Hermione chimed over his shoulder. "If you need to get to something, or bring it to you, but have no idea how it is secured, would you summon the item you wanted, or the thing holding it?"
Madame Bones looked at her in confusion, so Harry clarified for her.
"I knew Hermione was being kept down there. But was she inside a structure? Was she tied in place? If tied, was it by the foot? The hand? The neck? What would have happened had I summoned her and she was chained to something by the throat? I could have killed her while trying to save her."
Bones's eyes widened as she considered that as Harry continued. "I knew that the merpeople were involved in the kidnapping, due to the clue, and that the group living in this lake did so in a village. I assumed it would be secured to the lakebed in a manner that would make it a good anchor point.
"If you try to summon something that cannot be moved and pump enough magic into the spell, you get pulled to it instead."
Harry shrugged again as he explained what he had considered at the time to be patently obvious. He felt Hermione's arms tighten around him and her smile at his neck as she pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek. "My clever little hero."
He blushed in response. "Did you consider that parts of that village might not be as secure?"
"No, that was a surprise. It does make a lot more sense though than the idea that the selkies had formed some form of underwater trebuchet and were lobbing giant chunks of stone upwards through the water."
The others laughed at his face as he stated this, and even Harry had to laugh at the ludicrousness of the idea that had occurred to him on the way downward.
"Very well. Almost have what I need. There were two occasions, very close together where the water surged heavily. The Aurors managed to contain it at this end so there was no damage. But, what caused them?"
Harry turned to Hermione, who nodded to him before he turned back and sighed. "I think, can't really confirm, but think that maybe the village wasn't as well secured as I thought. Once I impacted the lakebed, there was a significant shifting of it under me once the summoning spell ran out. I think…"
He looked bashfully at the others on the dock before continuing. "that I may have lifted the village a few centimetres off its foundation. The up was gradual, the down was sudden."
Harry ignored the surprised looks directed his way as he continued. "The second one, if I had to guess, was probably when I released the bonds of the hostages."
Nym fell over cackling with laughter as Madam Pomfrey gave her a foul look, picking up the hand she had been healing for burns. "Released the bonds. Harry, you vapourised the whole statue."
"Non, eet was still zere. 'E turned it to dust in ze water. But it made quite ze shockwave."
Madame Bones looked shocked as she stared at the words on her notepad. "Well, yes. I suppose that would do it. Not intentional. I think that should be all I need for now."
"Happy to help." Viktor chimed, holding Mady's hand as the Champions came down from their collective mirth and glared at the woman.
"Quite." She replied and with a nod, she tucked her supplies away and headed back up the dock.
Hermione once more snuggled tightly against Harry's back and he felt her lips at his ear. "Have you calmed sufficiently now?" He pulled away enough to see her face and gave her a curious look. "Harry, you're dry. You were so angry that your magic was giving off heat."
He glanced down to check and noted that she was right, his clothing was completely free of water and his skin had a red tinge to it.
"She's right," Nym added, standing in front of him. "That's how I burned my hand. The water was boiling off of you when we caught up down at the bottom of the lake. After you managed to shake us off by zipping between the damned buildings, you maniac."
Harry blushed again, but their comments led his thoughts back to the fact Hermione had been taken from her bed. "Can you cover for us?" he asked his cousin. "We've somewhere we have to be."
"Sure thing, shorty. Go have yourselves a snogging session while I get teased mercilessly for Cedric being what I'd miss most."
Harry and Hermione smiled at the meta as she gave herself some extra heft, enough to keep them hidden from the adults now coming down the dock and without another thought, they disappeared into the air.