Before Harry, Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur went into the Black Lake, Harry picked up his Gillyweed off the ground and ate it.
Then, Fleur pointed her wand at her own head and called out, "Headicus Bubblicus!"
As the words exited Fleur's mouth, an enormous bubble appeared around her head that made her features appear oddly wide and stretched.
Viktor was, of course, already wearing his shark costume.
As for Cedric, he performed a nonverbal spell to temporarily transfigure the first bit of lake he would encounter into land.
"Wow," cooed Amanda breathlessly, "That's my son that just performed one of the most difficult pieces of magic known to exist."
There was no arrogance or snobbishness in her voice or on her face. Her voice and face simply expressed a very proud mother soaking in her son's success and savoring it.
"Remember," Madam Maxime reminded them, "Any items you find are also yours to keep."
Next nanosecond, Dumbledore yelled, BEGIN!"
At this, Harry, Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur all entered the Black Lake to begin their searches.
Harry felt the best strategy to employ in this challenge was to capture as many items as he could until he got halfway into the lake and then return to edge of the lake and relieve himself of them. Harry thought this strategy would allow him to make as few trips as possible without having to carry to much at once.
Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur had similar ideas. However, Cedric only went a third of the way into lake, Fleur only went a quarter of the way into the lake, and Viktor only went a fifth of the way into the lake.
When an hour and a nanosecond had expired, Madam Maxime yelled "RETURN!"
Once Harry, Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur had returned to the edge of the lake, Bagman gave his evaluation of what he had seen.
"So," explained Bagman, "To a certain degree, the longer you waited to return your treasures to the edge of the lake and the longer between these trips, the better. However, there is a point where you would've waited too long, and it would have all gone for naught. I'd guess offhand that the maximum length of lake that any of you could have swan with your burdens without losing them is three fifths. Mr. Potter nailed it. He relieved himself of his first burden early enough to not have a near miss but late enough to have fewer trips. Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur, you three were all a bit too conservative."
"My eyes told me," observed Amanda honestly, "That Harry was also the best at seeing objects, at finding objects, and at capturing objects."
"You are sharp and attentive, Amanda Diggory," called out Lily Moon from her seat.
"Indeed, she is," confirmed Bagman, who was now counting how many objects each of the Four Champions had recovered from the lake.
"So," revealed Bagman, Harry recovered fourteen objects, Cedric caught eight treasures, Viktor got four items, and Fleur found six things. Now, we need to evaluate exactly what each champion retrieved to determine how pairs they each completed and how many bonus points they get."
"To determine point totals, " suggested Madam Maxime, "Why don't you investigate each Champions haul starting with the champion who recovered the fewest items and processing to the champion who found the most items."
"That makes sense," nodded Bagman.
Next nanosecond, Bagman sifted through the four things that Victor had brought out of the lake.
Viktor's haul included a galleon, a brick, a red straw, and a bottle of water.
"Please note," added Bagman, "That in some cases a pair will have been completed more than once. In such cases, I will only use one example of the completed pair to acknowledge that it has been achieved and move on unless there is specific reason to go into more detail."
"Viktor completed the wet/dry pair with the wet water combined with the brick. He achieved the light/dark pair with the dark brick matched with the light galleon. He clearly nailed the light heavy pair with the heavy brick in tandem with the light straw. The soft/hard pair is also obvious with the hard brick and the soft straw. He got the thick/thin pair with the thick brick matched with the thin straw. Now, depending on circumstances, bricks, straws, and water can all be either loud or quiet. Galleons are never noisy. Because a quiet galleon could be put together with a noisy straw, noisy brick, or noisy source of water, Viktor will receive credit for this pair. Viktor found four total items worth ten points each for a starting score of forty points. He also will earn seven bonus points for each of the six pairs he completed for a total of forty two bonus points. Viktor Krum's final score for the Second Task is eighty two points," Bagman informed them.
There was a spattering of polite applause.
Now," continued Bagman, "I'm going through Fleur's things."
Fleur's findings consisted of a large clear heavy vase, a thick green frisbee, a horizontal striped orange and white beach towel, a hot pink digital wristwatch with large black numbers, a black toy car, and a string of sky blue yarn.
"Fleur has successfully achieved the light/dark pair with the dark toy car and the light wristwatch. The light/heavy pair is covered by the heavy vase and the light yarn. The soft/hard pair is found by combining the hard vase with the soft yarn. The thick/thin pair presents itself with the thick frisbee and the thin yarn. Fleur snatched six total items for a starting score of sixty points. She completed four of the seven pairs for a total of twenty eight bonus points. Fleur Delacour's score for the Second Task is eighty eight points," revealed Bagman.
"Interesting," observed Ginny from the stands, "Fleur completed fewer pairs but ended with a higher score than Viktor."
"Remember," Luna reminded her, "That an item itself is worth ten points and a pair is worth only seven bonus points. Fleur found two more objects than Viktor. The scoring system gives the most weight to total items found."
"As it should," nodded Hermione.
"Time to sort out Cedric," continued Bagman.
Cedric's collection contained vivid yellow lemon drop sticker, a set of colorful party noisemakers, a deep midnight blue wallet, a very thick pile of gold bars, a bag of heavy marbles, a plain piece of white printer paper, a yellow pillowcase, and a yellow pillow.
"Cedric's credits include the light/dark pair with the light sticker and the dark wallet, the light heavy pair with the light piece of paper and the heavy marbles, the soft/hard pair with the soft pillowcase and the hard gold, the thick/thin pair with the thick gold and the thin sticker, and the loud quiet pair with the quiet sticker and the loud noisemakers. Cedric captured eight total items for a starting score of eighty points. Add on his seven bonus points per pair with five pairs completed and Cedric's total comes out to one hundred and fifteen points for the Second Task," piped up Bagman.
"Good job, Ced," beamed Amanda, "I'm very proud of you for scoring above one hundred."
"Thank you, mom," replied Cedric, "I really appreciate your support."
"The way you kept transfiguring lake into land like it was as easy as rolling a pair of dice was a visual wonder to behold," cooed Amanda, "I've very grateful to be your mom and I'm very proud of what a great person and a great wizard you've become. Your dad would have loved to have seen that lake to land transformation."
"It's his own fault he missed out on seeing it and I don't feel sorry for him," snarled Cedric, "He's driving himself away from people because of his excessive pride, which has cause him to become snobbish. He made his own bed, and he can lay in it. I'm really appreciative of your support, mom. I'm also very appreciative of the wonderful way you've treated Harry, Viktor, and Fleur all this time."
Amanda just smiled back at Cedric.
Bagman, meanwhile, was surveying Harry's loot and realized that Harry had completed all seven pairs.
"Harry," said Bagman admiringly, "Completed the wet/dry pair with a wet bottle of Coca Cola Classic and a dry black comb. He also achieved the hot/cold pair with a mini globe filled with burning flame and its matching globe filled with frozen snow. The light/dark pair is present via a sky blue balloon and a dark brown balloon. The light/heavy pair is checked off by a light orange fwooper feather and a heavy silver safe. The soft/hard pair is taken care of by virtue of the soft ball of cotton and the hard pair of dice. The thick/thin combo is knocked out by the thick baseball glove and the thin confetti. Last but not least, he has the loud/quiet combination with the quiet pile of flour and the loud whistle. This means that Harry's starting score was one hundred and forty points. Add in the seven bonus points for seven pairs completed and he's up to two hundred and seventeen points. He also earns an additional seventy seven point bonus for completing all of the pairs for a final score of two hundred and ninety four points. Harry Potter is the clear cut winner of the Second Task."
At this, Neville, Hermione, Ginny, and Luna burst into huge outbursts of applause in the stands.
"Now," said Bagman, "Let's give the floor to our champion of the Second Task, Mr. Harry Potter!"
"First of all," said Harry humbly, "I would like to take this moment to thank my fellow champions Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur for all of their support leading up to the Second Task. We have all worked together in preparing for the Second Task and all four of us of worthy champions. I'd also like to thank my friends Neville, Hermione, Ginny, and Luna for their support. I'd also like to acknowledge the kindness of support of Mrs. Amanda Diggory. Her kindness, compassion, and warmth are an inspiration to me. And fuck Rita Skeeter."
Amanda smiled at the acknowledgement of her and smirked at the anti-Rita sentiment.
"Now," explained Dumbledore, "The Third Task shall take place on June 24th. Because Harry has the highest score today, he will get a head start in the Third Task. Cedric will begin the Third Task one hundred and seventy nine seconds after Harry. Fleur will commence the Third Task twenty seven seconds after Cedric. Viktor will be at the biggest disadvantage starting six seconds after Fleur. All of them will have a chance to win the Third Task and the Triwizard Cup depending on how well they perform."
"Harry, Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur will be informed of the contents of the Third Task about a month and a nanosecond ahead of time," finished Bagman.
At this, Dumbledore, Bagman, and Maxime walked away to attend to other matters.
Amanda, however, went up to greet the champions.
"Congratulations, Harry," said Amanda sincerely, "You were by far the best today and you deserved first place."
"Thank you, Amanda," nodded Harry gently, "It takes a lot of courage and humility to admit that someone else was better than your son."
"I'm still proud of Cedric, though," said Amanda clearly, "He did really well. It is interesting that you were the most aggressive in terms of taking the fewest breaks and how that paid off. More than anything, I find the relationship between the four of you inspirational."
Harry, Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur all smiled at each other.
Then, in solidarity with each other, they exchanged a group hug while stepping on each other's feet.
The Four Champions were truly close now.
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As this will be the last update to Harry Potter and the Champions Closer Ties before Thanksgiving, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Very Happy Thanksgiving. Be safe everyone!
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