AN I was going to upload this chapter Saturday, but I woke up sick, and have been mostly sleeping the last few days, thankfully I'm better now, and now able to get it posted, enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own HP or Marvel
Chapter 33 The Second Task
"We can go to Honeydukes if you like," Cho suggested, pointing that way.
Harry agreed, and the two of them entered the shop; after Christmas, the rest of winter break had gone by fast, and so was January. It was now the third week into the month and ever since the Yull Ball, Harry had found himself hanging out with Cho often, despite the cold weather they would meet each other on the Quidditch Pitch, and either sit in the stands and talk or if it were too cold or snowing they'd find a place inside the castle to talk in private, so, when Cho had asked Harry if he would like to go to Hogsmeade with her, Harry didn't hesitant to agree to go. Cho was fun to hang out with, and she knew a lot about Quidditch.
Harry and Cho headed into Honeydukes to look around, the moment they entered, people turned to stare at them, but Harry didn't know if they were staring at him because they recognized him or because it was freezing out and he only wore black jeans and a light blue jumper, and no jacket or cloak, every since he activated his Jotunn gene at the end of his second year, Harry didn't get cold easy, and didn't see the point in wearing a cloak or jacket when he didn't need to unless there was a good reason.
"I think I'll get my grandmother something; she loves wizard sweets," Cho said, they walked through the store, taking their time checking out all the shelves and laughing at the different sweets and what they did when eaten. Cho picked out her grandmother a few things, and Harry bought some stuff he was planning to try and trick Sirius with, maybe even Loki.
After Honeyduckes, Harry and Cho walked around Hogwarts enjoying the sights until Cho got cold and asked to go into The Three Broomsticks to warm up; the place was a bit crowded, but they were able to find a table in a corner to sit. Cho ordered some hot chocolate, and Harry bought a butterbeer and they sat and talked about Quidditch, their classes, and anything else they could think of while they enjoyed their drinks.
Harry's thoughts kept drifting to the last couple of weeks; not only did he find time to hang out with Cho, but he also had to do his schoolwork, along with practicing magic and finding a way to breathe underwater for an hour; they had decided Harry could use Gillyweed, it was Remus Lupin's idea, Sirius had sent him an owl asking if he knew a spell or charm that would make someone breathe underwater for an hour, he had written back that either a Bubble-Head Charm or Gillyweed would work, when they looked up both, Harry, Loki, and Sirius had decided Gillyweed sounded like the best option.
Harry was in the middle of a Quidditch conversation with Cho when someone pulled out the extra chair at their table and sat down, which caused Harry and Cho to pause their conversation and turn to said person, and Harry groaned when he saw Rita Skeeter sitting there.
"Excuse you," Cho said rudely; Skeeter ignored her.
"Are you on a date, Harry?" Skeeter demanded, "Is this lovely lady who you went to the Yull ball with? Is she your girlfriend?"
"Isn't there someone else you can go bother?" Harry demanded. "We were having a conversation."
"Ooo, what about?" Skeeter asked, digging in her bag and pulling out a notebook and quill. "Would you care to give me an interview, Harry? Maybe on your plans for the second task? I can get us an article in a magazine. Reigna Ikol doesn't read Witch Weekly, does she?"
"I don't think so," Harry said, finding the question odd.
"Excellent," Skeeter said, "So, what's your friend's name?"
"She's sitting right there. You can ask her," Harry said.
Cho and Harry glanced at one another while Skeeter started writing something down; Harry caught Cho's eye and nodded toward the door with his head, she nodded in agreement, and Harry stood and picked up his bag. Cho did the same, and without another word, they left the Three Broomsticks and headed back to Hogwarts.
Unfortunately, come the following Monday, Harry would find out that walking out on Rita Skeeter didn't stop her from writing an article about him and Cho in the back pages of Witch Weekly, he would find out after leaving Charms to head to his next class and Draco Malfoy and his friends called out to him.
"Hey, Potter!" Malfoy called out; Harry paused and turned around.
"I'm on my way to History of Magic, Malfoy. What do you want?" Harry demanded.
"Just wondering how you could get two girls to like you, even if one is a Mudblood?" Malfoy asked; his friends laughed.
"Watch your mouth, Malfoy." Ron orderd, he was ignored.
"What the hell are you babbling about?" Harry demanded, Pansy Perkinson held up Witch Weekly and tossed it at Harry, who caught it with one hand, laughing Malfoy, and his friends fled out the door, heading towards the Greenhouses.
"That was weird," Ron said, looking towards the front doors they went out of.
"Ignore them," Hermione said as Harry flipped through the magazine until he got to the very back article titled Harry Potter, In Love or a Cheater?
"Rita Skeeter again, I should have known, " Harry said, leaning against the wall to read the article.
"We'll be late for class," Hermione warned.
"Loki won't take points from us." Ron pointed out. "Especially not from Harry."
Harry ignored them both as he read the article; Rita Skeeter had started the article making Harry look like someone out of a romance novel by claiming Harry said he was in love for the first time, and that he went on and on about how good it felt, and how happy he was, then switched to saying Harry was a manipulator and a cheater, and was seeing Hermione Granger behind Cho's back, and that Hermione was cheating on Pietro Maximoff and both Cho and Pietro were crushed, the article made him and Hermione sound like terrible people. And Harry had no idea how Skeeter found out Hermione had gone to the ball with Pietro.
"What did Skeeter write?" Hermione asked; Harry handed her the magazine got off the wall and headed toward the History of Magic classroom, Hermione and Ron followed, both trying to read the article as they walked.
"You're late," Loki said when Harry entered the room, she sounded more curious than annoyed, but then Loki took in Harry's annoyed expression and walked over to him. "What is it? What's wrong?"
Ron, who now had the magazine handed it to Loki, who took it and began to read. Harry watched as Loki's face turned from curious to angry, as her eyes flashed and her nostrils flared.
"I warned that bitch." Loki snapped. She closed the magazine and glared at it. "Damn, I told her the Daily Prophet, I didn't think of her getting an article in a magazine, technically she didn't go against my warning. So, I can not kill her. Or should that matter?"
"What warning?" Harry asked as Loki handed him the magazine, and went to her desk, she didn't answer him, as she searched her desk drawers, then pulled out a scarlet piece of parchment, and a matching envelope, Harry knew what they were, a howler, but had no idea how or why Loki had them, as she dipped her quill into the ink, and the whole class watched in silence as she wrote Rita Skeeter while mumbling threats that ranged from turning Skeeter into a frog to gutting her like a fish. The moment she finished, Thori appeared in the window as if he had been summoned by Loki, who tied the howler to his talon, then he flew off, and Loki turned back to the class and smiled.
"Now, back to today's lesson," Loki said. "Harry, sweetheart; you and your friends have a seat." Loki walked back up to the front of the room, and Seamus leaned over and whispered to Dean.
"Remind me never to piss off Professor Ikol." He said. Dean nodded in agreement.
January faded away, and February brought another round of snow and even colder weather. Their school work got more challenging, and more of it. Harry, Hermione, and Ron still spent their time in Loki's chambers doing their homework, but with Sirius present, there was a bit more joking around which resulted in them taking longer to finish their work. Unfortunately, Harry had not been able to trick Sirius or Loki into eating one of the joke sweets he bought from Honeydukes, so he tried to get Fred and George, who was also too smart to fall for it. So, Harry gave them to Ron, who thankfully hadn't gotten mad instead laughed after the joke wore off. It helped that Harry was willing to eat some to make up for playing a trick on Ron.
Thathankfully Harry hadn't had any more pain in his scar or a dream of Voldemort since the night of the Yull Ball, the next day after that night, Harry had sat in Loki's chambers all day while Loki performed whatever magic she could think of on his scar trying to figure out the connection between him and Voldemort and how to break it. Unfortunately, Loki had been unsuccessful to find out how to break it, but fortunately, she was able to put a temporary block between Harry's mind, and Voldemort's.
As the Second Task drew nearer, Harry began to grow nervous; three days before the twenty-fourth, Harry woke up to find a note attached to his pillow, telling him to use Gillyweed, and a handful was in a ziplock bag, next to the note. Harry had immediately took it to show Loki and Sirius, after reading the note Loki declared it was written by the same person who left the note warning Harry about the dragons, who was the same person that put his name in the Goblet of Fire, Sirius, and Loki both decided right then, that Harry was spending the rest of the school year, in their chambers, they even warned both Dumbledore and McGonagall about the person who had gotten into Gryffindor Tower, the scariest thing was when the Fat Lady was confronted about it, she swore she hadn't let anyone in the tower that didn't belong. If she was telling the truth then they had no idea how the person got in there.
Loki had tossed the Gillyweed the letter writer gave Harry in the trash, not trusting something given to them by an unknown person, Sirius had already bought Harry some weeks ago anyway, and security had been tightened around the castle, with every staff member and Sirius taken turns to walk the castle at night, and guarding the entrances to the houses.
The night before the second task both Sirius and Loki had guard duty off, and they along with Harry were sitting around the room when there was a knock on Loki's door, when Loki answered it a nervous-looking second-year Hufflepuff informed them in a shy voice that Professor Dumbledore wanted to see Mr. Black in his office, and he was to come alone.
"What the hell does Dumbledore want me for?" Sirius demanded.
"You better go find out," Loki said; Sirius stood, walked over to the door, paused to kiss Loki on the cheek then walked out it, Loki closed the door, as he left, and came over and sat next to Harry, neither spoke as they waited for Sirius to come back, soon time ticked on, over an hour had passed. Still, no Sirius; Harry put his head on the table and was nearly asleep when the door finally opened, and Sirius walked in.
"What took you so long?" Loki demanded, impatiently.
"Dumbledore," Sirius said, closing the door and running his hand through his hair, "He wanted me to be the thing Harry missed the most."
"What?" Loki demanded, crossing her arms as Sirius walked over and sat down; Harry looked at him confused.
"The thing Harry has to get back from the merpeople isn't a thing, it's a person; Dumbledore wanted me to be it," Sirius explained, "Dumbledore wanted me to allow myself to be put under some sleeping spell and tied up at the bottom of the lake, I told him no way, I can't miss this task like I did the first, and besides, I needed to be awake and alert in case Harry needed help."
"And what did Dumbledore say?" Loki asked.
"Made me help find someone who would agree," Sirius said.
"Hermione or Ron?" Harry asked.
"Neither," Sirius replied, "Believe it or not, I was his third choice; both Ron and Hermione had declined before me; Ron's reason was his mum would kill him if he did something like that. Hermione said Harry needed his friends cheering him from the stands."
"So, it is Cho." Loki guessed.
"What?" Harry demanded.
"Sorry, kiddo, I didn't want to involve any of your friends, but you needed a hostage to rescue, and I have to be above water awake in case something goes wrong," Sirius said.
"Not to mention what I may have done if you had not returned tonight," Loki said. "I'm guessing you helped take the hostage to the lake?"
"Wait, Cho is down there now?" Harry demanded, standing, and as if she knew what Harry was thinking Loki grabbed his wrist and pulled him back in his seat.
"Sit, you can't go charging down to the lake tonight," Loki said, "You have to wait until the task."
"I carried Cho down there myself; I nearly refused to hand her over to the merpeople," Sirius said. "Don't worry, Dumbledore assured me they all will be safe."
"Who's the other hostages?" Loki asked, curious.
"Amos Diggory for Cedric, Fleur's little sister for her, and the weird redhead from Durmstrang's weird brother," Sirius said, "The one I feel sorry for the most is Fleur's sister. She couldn't have been more than seven or eight, I doubt the kid even fully understood what was going on."
"That's just a small child," Loki said, scowling.
After that, they went to bed, all three in gloomy moods, thinking about four innocent people tied to the bottom of the lake. Harry was more concerned about Cho than any of them; he had a hard time falling asleep. When woken the following day, he skipped breakfast, his stomach too jumpy to eat. None of the family spoke when it came time to walk down to the lake, Ron and Hermione had shown up to walk with them, but they too didn't speak, until they stopped at the end of the deck by the lake, then they all wished Harry good luck, Loki, giving him a small hug, Sirius ruffled his hair, Ron patted his back, and Hermione squeezed his hand. Then Harry began to walk towards the end of the deck, where the other champions were already waiting.
The whistle blew, and the crowd cheered, not looking to see what the other champions were doing; Harry pulled off his shoes and socks, took the Gillyweed out of his pocket, popped it in his mouth, then jumped into the lake, he started chewing on it, when suddenly out of the darkness of the lake, something shot up, attacking Harry's face, he tried to cry out as he flung the thing off him, which caused him to spit out the Gillyweed accidentally, and it snuck towards the bottom of the lake, and out of sight.
"Damn," Harry thought as he took a deep breath and he held it, then looked up toward the top of the lake; he guessed he was just going to have to fail this task, which probably would cost him what little bit of a relationship he had with Cho, but he couldn't hold his breath for an hour. Harry went swimming back up toward the top when that thing came at him again and started clawing at Harry.
Then more of them joined their friend in attacking him and pulling on his clothes and hair, Harry had to swim downward to get away from them, and that's when he saw that it was Grindlylows, not able to get to his wand, Harry held his hand out and blasted a jet of gold magic at the water demons, and they all went flying across the lake. Harry then went swimming back up toward the top, when something wrapped around his leg and started pulling him down toward the lake floor. Harry looked down and noticed it was giant seaweed. Harry pulled out his dagger and began to hack away, at the weeds, but then another one shot up out of the dark, wrapped around his wrist, and pulled hard, causing Harry to drop his dagger, then more wrapped around him, his arms and legs, even his waist. Harry struggled as the weeds dragged him to the floor, holding him down, as the seaweed wrapped around his whole body.
Harry choked on the water as he struggled to breathe, he tried to keep his mouth closed, but it was hard; he had held his breath too long, and his lungs needed air. He needed to let someone know he needed help; with some effort, Harry was able to get his arm free and reached over to try and call Loki and Sirius on his watch, he wouldn't be able to speak, but hopefully, they would realize Harry was in trouble, but as Harry reached for it, he noticed the stone on his bracelet glowing brightly, and an idea came to him. Making a quick decision, Harry ignored his watch and removed the bracelet instead. As he had hoped, with it gone, his Jotunn half kicked in, and Harry began to turn blue as the seaweed wrapped around him froze, and Harry was able to break free and stood.
Harry looked down at his feet, surprised. In this form, he could stand on the bottom of the lake floor, but he still had to hold his breath to keep the water out, but maybe he could save Cho now. He just needed to figure out how to with this form, an idea formed in his head, and Harry held out both hands, touching the water in front of him, he closed and concentrated. Harry could hear a weird noise, as the water froze in his hands, after a moment, he opened his eyes and grinned. He had somehow frozen the water around him, and shaped it into a tunnel, just by picturing it in his head. Taking a chance, Harry let out the breath he was holding, and air filled his lungs. He somehow had a pocket of air in his frozen tunnel.
Harry picked up his bracelet and dagger, stuck them in his pocket, and walked on, hoping he was going in the right direction to find Cho. As he walked. Harry looked around and saw fish and other creatures swimming around on the other side of the ice, and he passed a few Grindlylows that had not been happy about not being able to reach Harry, who did the mature thing and stuck his tongue out at them. The ground Harry was walking on was also frozen, along with any seaweed or anything on the floor of his tunnel.
Harry looked around, trying to find any sign he was going the right way, he paused a moment, then walked on. It felt as if he had walked for hours when in the distance, he could hear someone singing the words from the egg, and Harry began to quicken his steps, and soon a large rock emerged from the muddy water ahead, with a painting of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears and chasing what looked like the giant squid. Deciding the merpeople probably wouldn't be happy with him if Harry froze their watery home, he took a deep breath and swam out of his icy tunnel, figuring he should be able to hold his breath long enough to grab Cho and swim back to his tunnel, then take a deep breath and swim to the top of the lake. There was one problem with that, Harry had a hard time finding the location of the hostages and had to go back to his tunnel to catch his breath a couple of times before he realized he was able to freeze the water around his head, leaving him a way to breathe as he swam through the muddy water of the merpeople's home.
Harry noticed something red up ahead and realized he was seeing Wanda's red hair as she was trying to cut her brother free. Harry didn't want Wanda to see him all blue like this and ask questions; after all, Harry didn't know if turning Jotunn in for the task was legal in the tournament, though he doubted there was a rule against it, Harry stood out of the way to allow Wanda to free Pietro, he noticed beside Peitro and Cho. There was only one more hostage, Fleur's sister. Cedric had already saved his father and left the lake.
Once Pietro was free, Wanda grabbed him by the waist and looked around, trying to see out into the muddy water, Harry had no idea what she was looking for, maybe worried for the other hostages, but then she looked Harry's way and a moment later she took off out of the water. Harry wondered if she had thought he was some underground monster or something, but shook off the thought, and swim over to Cho, pulled the knife Sirius had bought him for Christmas out of his pocket, and in no time, Cho came free, and being careful not to touch any of her exposed skin, Harry grabbed Cho by the waist, and picked her up easily, and put her over his shoulder, then paused and looked around like Wanda had done. It had to be almost an hour since they all jumped in the lake. Where was Fleur? Harry, in good conscience, couldn't leave a little girl down here to drown.
Holding tightly to Cho with one arm, Harry swam over to Fleur's sister, took his knife out of his pocket again, and started cutting at the weeds tying the little girl's ankles to a large rock, when suddenly a group of merman surrounded him, pointing spears.
"Take only your hostage and go." one demanded.
"I'm not just going to leave the little girl down here," Harry argued. "What if Fluer got lost or gave up or something?"
"Only yours." The merman repeated.
Harry sighed, switched Cho over to his other shoulder, then reached out and grabbed one of the spears the merman tried to pull it back, then he and Harry started playing tug-a-war with the spear. Harry pulled it toward him, and the merman would pull it back, Harry didn't even take time to think about how he was able to almost outmatch the merman even though Harry was only using one hand, and the merman both. But then Harry got frustrated when the other four tried to get involved, and accidentally sent ice spreading up the spear, the mermen squealed and dropped the spear, and they all went hurrying away from Harry; he was pretty sure he heard one scream out Frost giant. Ignoring them, Harry turned back to the little girl, got her free, put her over his other shoulder, and swam toward the top; he was going to be the last out of the lake, but he didn't care, it still meant one more task done, and only one to go.
Harry could see light up ahead, showing he was almost to the top, when a giant tentacle reached out and wrapped around his waist, pulling Harry back down toward the bottom of the lake, he let go of Cho, and Fleur's sister, hopefully, they'll float to the top and someone will pull them out. Harry struggled to get free, he looked to see what had him and noticed it was the giant squid, Harry had no idea why the squid grabbed him or what it was doing, but he wanted out of this damn lake already, he's been down here long enough. Harry couldn't reach either of his knives or wand that was in his pockets, so, he decided to try and get rid of him like he did the Grindylows, but Harry didn't know his wizard magic didn't work the same in this form, so when he stopped punching the tentacle holding him and held out his hands to blast the giant squid with magic, it was sheets of white-blue ice that shot out of his hands and struck the squid's face, it wrenched back, loosening his grip on Harry, who, gathering all the power he had, shot another blast of ice, which hit the squid in its face again, and made him angry, it let go of Harry and started smacking at him with his tentacles, Harry easily dodged out of the way, then was able to grab one of them, then like he did the mermen's spear, he formed ice growing up the giant squid, Harry watched as he froze within seconds, just one problem it didn't stop at the squid, the whole lake around him started to freeze over, and Harry decide now would be a good time to get out of there, and took off swimming towards the top of the ice, busting his way through any ice the formed in his way.
Loki had been on the deck pacing in worry, everyone and their hostages have made it back, including Cho and Fleur's sister despite her failing the task, there was only a minute left, and no sign of Harry. Loki stopped pacing and looked around, Sirius was standing at the very end of the deck next to Ron with his hands in his pockets staring out into the water. To anyone who didn't know Sirius, as well as Loki, did, he would look like he was patiently waiting for Harry's arrival, but Loki knew Sirius better than anyone, and she could tell just by how quiet he was being and how he was standing that he was two seconds for jumping into that lake and going in search of Harry. Both of them had already had to be stopped from jumping into the lake when Cho surfaced without Harry.
Loki looked over at Cho, she was sitting on the deck next to Amos Diggory, on Amos Diggory's other side, was Cedric, behind them stood an older woman, who Loki guessed was Mrs. Diggory, because of how much she was fussing over both of them, next to Cedric was Fleur, then her sister, all of them had been checked by Madam Pomfrey then given blankets, and something to drink, the children had hot chocolate, Mr. Diggory was drinking something stronger, across from them on the other side of the deck was the Maximoffs, both have been checked and also given blankets and hot chocolate, Hermione sat next to Pietro talking to him, and Professor Schmidt stood behind them, her hands on her hips, glaring at Hermione as if she didn't want her there.
Loki walked over and stood by Sirius, he looked at her, then pulled out his pocket watch, and looked at the time.
"It's now been an hour, I'm going in after him" Sirius said, then the crowd gasped. Loki and Sirius looked toward the lake thinking Harry had emerged, but all they saw was a sheet of ice forming over the lake.
Loki dropped to her knees, as Hermione came running over, and stood by Ron. They watched Loki put her fist through the ice, busting it, then started breaking pieces away, Sirius dropped next to her trying to help, at that moment, Harry suddenly burst through the ice in his Jotuun form, pulled himself up on it then collapsed there, breathing heavily, as he faded back into his Midgardian form, and started shivering, apparently there was a limit to him not getting cold, and laying on a frozen lake, soaking wet, in freezing temperatures was it.
"Harry," Loki signed in relief and crawled across the ice, grabbed his arms, and started pulling him towards her, Sirius reached out and helped Loki, pull him onto the deck, then Loki waved her hand over Harry, green magic surrounded him, drying his clothes, while Sirius slipped his jacket off and wrapped it around Harry's shoulders, and not caring about the whole school plus to others watching, Loki pulled Harry to her, hugging him, he opened his eyes and looked up at her.
"You and your father need to stop making me worry," Loki said, refusing to let Harry go, while he slipped his arms into Sirius's jacket, and zipped it up, then Harry snuggled back into her, and closed his eyes, he felt exhausted, and he didn't care who saw him snuggling to Loki, she was his mum, and he wanted to sleep.
"I..dropped, the Gillyweed," Harry whispered, "I had to improvise."
Loki hugged Harry tighter, while Sirius wrapped his arms around both of them, Ron and Hermione sat next to Loki, and asked if Harry was alright, then Madam Pomfrey came hurrying over, a blanket in one hand and hot chocolate in the other, Loki covered Harry's legs with the blanket, took the offered hot chocolate, allowed Pomfrey to check Harry, then shooed her away once she was done.
"Why did Cho appear before you kiddo?" Sirius asked.
"It was that damn giant squid," Harry said. "Bastard grabbed me and wouldn't let go."
"So, you decided to freeze the lake?" Loki asked as Cho sat next to Sirius.
"It was an accident. I was trying to freeze the squid." Harry defended, behind them, Dumbledore was talking to some merman who popped up, over on the other end of the deck Professor Schmidt, Madam Maxime, Ludo Bagman, and Barty Crouch were huddled together talking, Wanda and Pietro were whispering to each other, and every few words glanced toward Harry, the group around Harry ignored them all.
"Is Harry alright?" Cho asked, she reached out as if she was going to touch his knee, then pulled her hand back, as if she was too shy to do so, and snuggled back into her blanket, which did little to help, since she was soaking wet.
"He's fine," Sirius assured her, as Dumbledore stood and walked over to the judges, and joined their conversation.
Harry looked up at Loki and nodded his head towards Cho, understanding what Harry wanted, she waved her hand, and green magic swirled around Cho, drying her.
"Thank you," Cho said, sounding grateful, at that moment Fleur came running over, dropped in front of Harry, pulled him from Loki, and hugged him. "Hey!"
"You saved her." Fleur cried, ignoring Cho's protest of her touching Harry, she kissed him on both cheeks. "My sister, you saved her, though she was not yours to save. Thank you." Fleur stood and hurried off back to her sister, and Sirius started laughing at Harry's confused face.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we reached our decision." Bagman's magnified voice said, Sirius, and Loki, pulled Harry to his feet, and they all stood to listen. "Mercheiftsiness Murcus has told us what happened at the bottom of the lake. We have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows, Fleur Delacour, though used an excellent Bubble-head Charm, was attacked by Grindlylows and failed to retrieve her hostage, therefore is awarded twenty points. "
"Cedric Diggory was the first to finish the task and return safely with his hostage, well within the time limit, but we have been informed he was not the first to reach the hostages, therefore, we award him fifty points." The crowd cheered and clapped, the Hufflpuffs being the loudest.
"Wanda Maximoff used Gillyweed to great effect and returned with her hostage ten minutes before the time limit was up and was the second champion to finish the task. But was the first to reach the hostages, but did not leave right away, she showed signs of being concerned for the others, which is the reason she didn't immediately grab her hostage and swim to the top, so because of this, we have decided she would be awarded forty-five points. Now, I turn the announcement over to Professor Dumbledore; he has something to say."
"What about Harry's points?" Hermione asked.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have had a long talk with the merchief, and Harry Potter showed signs of being concerned not only for their hostage but also for Miss. Gabrielle Delacour, and not only did he save Miss. Cho Chang, but also, Miss. Delacour and I have been told he had to battle five Mermen warriors to do it, he was a minute past the hour time limit, but we have also been told that the giant squid is partly to blame for that, so, therefore we award Harry forty-five points also."
Everyone started to cheer and clap, Harry's face turned red when everyone turned to look at him. He ducked his head down and tried to hide his face in his hair; Sirius ruffled his hair, grinning at Harry, and Loki leaned in and whispered.
"Once you're up to it, I'd like to see your memory of what happened in the lake" Harry nodded in agreement.
"Now, I am sure you all are confused about how Harry looked when he surfaced, and the freezing of the lake. There is no need to be alarmed; Harry used an ancient freeze charm to be able to freeze the water and breathe as he walked through the lake." Dumbledore lied, "If you have never heard of such a spell, well, it is because, as I said, it is ancient, and you won't find it in any current books; Harry must have discovered it in one of Professor Ikol's antique books. She does have a fine collection of books even older than I am, and that's saying something."
A few chuckles went across the crowd as Dumbledore stepped back and allowed Barty Crouch to step forward. Harry was tied in second place with Wanda Maximoff.
"Ladies and gentlemen, just one more thing we must say." Barty Crouch said. "That concludes the second task. The third and final task will be held on June twenty-fourth. The champions will be notified of what is to come a month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions, have a good evening."
"Is it just me, or does Crouch look sick," Sirius asked. Loki shrugged, not caring, as she put her arm around Harry and started leading him up toward the castle where Harry was playing to take a nap. Loki glanced at Sirius, he gave her a small smile, three months before they have to worry about another task, and then this damn tournament will be over, and Loki and Sirius can go on with making a happy life for themselves and their little family.
AN: Wanda wasn't worrying over the other champions or hostages, as they think, she was watching for Harry, making sure he made it, and when she spotted him, she left, and since he was far away, and it was dark under the water, she didn't see that he was blue and couldn't see his red eyes from there.
I was originally going to have Sirius be Harry's hostage, but decided, no, with him and Loki so set on protecting Harry, and keeping him safe, he would not want to be out of it during the second task, I choose Cho just to be different than cannon, same with him turning Jotunn for the task, I just wanted to try and make it a little different.
Not sure whose POV next chapter will be in, but I'm hoping I can get to the third task I'm only two or three more chapters.