The second task was going to be this week. I was a little nervous, not that I could do it because I knew I would be able to. I was mostly nervous that I was going to be putting someone in harm's way. I had narrowed it down to one of three people: Michael, Mandy, and Upton. Each of them being taken would make sense to me. I hoped there would be a moment where one of them was with me and they would be taken away. That would set up the story the best. If I had to guess, I would expect them to take Mandy away, but I didn't have anything to go on other than a hunch.
I was also waiting for Cedric to tell me the secret of the egg. I knew it would make sense if I figured it out on my own, but it was also supposed to be him paying me back for telling him about the dragons. Plus this whole thing was supposed to form a strong bond between the two of us. If I had been reading this story, I wouldn't be surprised if he kissed me, even though there were several reasons why he shouldn't do that.
I was currently coming out of Potions class. Nothing interesting happened during it, so I didn't say anything about it. I knew it was just filler for my day while I waited for the important parts of the story. Being inside a novel isn't always fun and games. In this particular book only the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were important. It was then that I ran into Cedric.
"Addie!" He called to me as he walked up to me. I looked over to him. "You need to take a bath."
"Excuse me?" I asked in offense. I knew what he meant to say, but that still wasn't something that you should say to a woman and I thought that I should try to be offended.
"I mean…you need to take the egg to the bath." He babbled. He seemed to be a bit flustered. The blush on his face was cute. I could think that without being attracted to him. "It works best if you hold it underwater. You can use the Prefects' Bathroom. The password is pine dust."
I had already decided that I wasn't going to use the Prefects' Bathroom. I could use my own bathroom and it would likely be free of Moaning Myrtle, a character that I greatly disliked. Since I was a Ravenclaw, I didn't need any help figuring out how to get it to work. I also wondered why Harry couldn't take it into his own bathroom. I was pretty sure that a bunch of guys didn't regularly take baths together and there had only been a few times since I had taken one with all of my roommates. We hadn't done it since Mandy and I had gotten together. We weren't going to snog in the bath. We were too young for that. The idea of that just grossed me out and I couldn't help but wonder if it was a sort of mental regression or it was due to the fact that I felt people my age really shouldn't do that with each other.
I decided to go back to my room and grab a towel. At that time, I noticed someone else in the room.
"Where are you going?" Upton asked me.
"To the bath." I explained. She probably got what I meant, but I was going to say it anyway. "Cedric said that I should try to open the egg underwater."
"Do you think that will work?" She inquired. Even though she didn't need to ask that, I knew that she had to for the sake of the story. I felt like some of the stuff I was saying was just being written sometimes and I had no control over what I said.
"I assume that he's telling me because he already did it." I declared. I didn't think he would lie to me.
"Well I'll come with you then." She offered. This time, I decided that I would let her. I didn't think that there would be any harm in letting her know.
"Okay." I agreed. "You'll want to grab a towel then."
The two of us headed into the bath, which was empty. It was still amazing how they basically had all of these indoor hot springs inside of the school. I knew a wizard did it, but if I ever got back to my own world, I wasn't sure if I would be able to take a regular bath or even a shower because I was pretty sure that I had become spoiled. Living here was amazing.
We quickly stripped and left our clothes on the concrete before I grabbed the egg and went into the water. Once inside, I opened it up and it screamed again.
"Why isn't it working?" I asked.
"I think you have to be under the water." Upton pointed out.
The two of us went underwater and the egg began to sing to me.
Come seek us where our voices sound
We cannot sing above the ground
And while you're searching ponder this
We've taken what you'll surely miss
An hour long you'll have to look
And to recover what we took
But past an hour, the prospect's black
Too, it's gone, it won't come back
I had to admit that it sounded really eerie. It would be really difficult to swim there, but I knew that I would be able to do it. I wouldn't fail because the stakes were too high. I knew I would be able to save whoever they took from me and if it was just like the book, Fleur's sister too. I couldn't be positive that things would go the same, but I assumed that they would. I was the main character and I was kind of feeling that main character energy right now.
The next thing that I needed to do was find some gillyweed. I wondered if I would just be able to ask Professor Sprout about it. She would probably give me some if I asked nicely. There was no reason to steal it like Harry did. Actually, it seemed like Harry did a lot of unnecessary things to prepare for the tournament. Maybe he just was used to people not helping him because of his terrible upbringing. If I wanted to, I could do an analysis of his character, but that wasn't something for right now.
Once we were done with the bath, we noticed that Luna and Maria were in the room.
"Did you two just come out of the bath?" Maria asked. It seemed like a bit of a stupid question because it was kind of obvious due to us wearing bathrobes and the fact we had wet hair.
"Yeah, Cedric told me that I needed to use the egg underwater." I explained.
"So what did it say?" Luna questioned.
"There was singing. It sounded like sirens or something." I replied. I knew it would be hard for me to explain what they said.
"They're typically just called merpeople." Maria stated. "Do you think that they're going to bring some here for the tournament?"
"That or we'll go somewhere they live." I declared. "It also said that I have to go underwater for a whole hour."
"You could use the bubble charm." Maria suggested. "It'll give you an unlimited supply of air by creating a bubble around your head."
"But that sounds like that would make it harder to see." I replied. I knew that was why Fleur had failed her task. "I remember in Herbology, Professor Sprout mentioned a plant that would make it so you could breathe underwater. I was probably going to ask her if she had any."
"You know that sounds like a great idea," Luna commented. "Just remember, mermaids like shiny things. It's a known fact."
"Luna, the things your dad writes about aren't facts." I told her. I was pretty sure that things didn't really even shine that deep underwater. Of course, I had nothing to base it on considering that I had never been that deep underwater. Not to mention, it would be hard to carry something shiny and swim at the same time.
The next day, Upton and I went to see Professor Sprout to ask her if she had any gillyweed. It turned out that she was happy to give me some. She also told me that I would need to drink extra water when I was on land because it would take more than an hour to wear off. I didn't want to get dehydrated, but it was so much easier if I just asked her for some.
While we were walking back, I decided to tell Upton about what happened with Mandy because I knew she wouldn't tell anyone else. It was a little bit embarrassing talking about it. I was really grateful that I knew she wouldn't tell anyone.
"You let her pet you?" She asked before giggling. "That is one of the weirdest and probably sweetest things that I've ever heard. So, how does it work? Do you just think about becoming a cat and suddenly, you're a cat?"
"Yeah, pretty much." I answered. I couldn't explain how it worked any better than that. At that point, Hermione came over to us.
"Upton, I'm glad that I found you." She said. "Professor McGonagall said that she wanted to see us."
Upton and I looked at each other for a moment and I would pretty sure both of us knew what it meant. I was a little bit surprised to be honest, but I supposed that it did give her more to do in the story.
"What about?" Upton asked. I knew that they couldn't tell her that she was going to be kidnapped.
"She didn't say. She just told me that I needed to bring you to her." Hermione explained.
"Can I have a moment to talk to Addie first?" The younger Granger requested.
"Don't take too long." Hermione replied before she walked away.
"Addie, promise me that you can do this." She said. I was pretty sure that she was scared. I was scared too.
"I can do this." I assured her. I would definitely be able to do it. "I promise you."
She then started to walk off and I knew that I wasn't going to see her for a while. I was a little bit scared, but I knew she would fine. She had to be fine. I had to keep telling myself that she would be fine.
So, I walked back to the Ravenclaw dorm alone. I had the gillyweed and I basically knew what to do. It was a little bit late, so it would probably look strange when Upton didn't come back.
"Hello, Love." Mandy replied before she kissed me. I kissed her back. "I thought Upton was with you."
"Professor McGonagall was talking to her about something." I explained. Of course, it looked strange right now when she didn't come back.
At bedtime, I could tell the other girls were confused by Upton not being there.
"Where is she?" Maria asked. "It's almost curfew."
"Maybe she had a family emergency and the two of them needed to go home?" I suggested. That idea actually would have sounded plausible if I didn't know the truth.
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen Cho around lately either." Mandy noted.
"Well I hope everyone is alright." Luna declared.
That night, I had a little bit of trouble sleeping. I was pretty sure that knowing what was going to happen ahead of time made me more afraid. I had a few nightmares of failure. I wasn't scared of drowning. I was scared of Upton drowning and me not being able to save her. I was scared of losing my best friend.
The next day, we were taken to the site of the next task. I was wearing a blue and silver one-piece swimsuit with a pair of goggles on my head. I chose to forego a bathing cap because I didn't really know how to use them. I didn't think it would make a big difference.
"Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the second task of the Triwizard tournament." Ludo announced. "Each of our contestants have had something taken from them and will have one hour to find and retrieve it."
You know it probably wouldn't be good publicity to say that they had basically kidnapped people to use as props for the tournament. It would be especially bad if I did not know that everyone was going to be saved. Were they really okay with letting people die if we couldn't make it back with them?
"Champions, on your marks. Get set. Go!" Ludo announced before the four of us jumped into the water.
I ate the gillyweed as soon as I was in the water. I felt something weird happen to my neck as I found that I could breathe. Once I was there, I started to listen for the sounds of the mermaids. I was able to locate it after about 25 minutes. I wasn't sure how I knew it had been that long, but I did. They weren't giving us a lot of time to spare. I was there before everyone else was.
It was then that I saw Upton, Hermione, Cho, and Gabrielle asleep and chained to the ground. I was surprised that I managed to remember her name. Part of me just wanted to free them all, but I knew I couldn't. I tried to remember the spell to cut Upton free.
It was at that time that Viktor came and freed Hermione. He was going to be the first one back. I saw Cedric was swimming towards me, but Fleur was nowhere to be found, so I would definitely have to save Gabrielle as well.
I then remembered the severing spell and cast it to cut the chain around Upton. At that point, Cedric came and freed Cho and began to swim with her to the surface. I took a breath and cut the chain around Gabrielle.
"No. Only one." The mermaids cried as they started to attack me. I managed to evade them and swam towards the two of them. I grabbed them and managed to successfully get the two of them back to shore. I wasn't sure how long it took, but I didn't care because I had done it. Maybe there was a Gryffindor part of me after all. I heard that a lot of people had traits from several houses.
"And Corner has both of the remaining hostages!" Ludo declared. I remembered the sleeping spell wore off as soon as they reached the surface.
Fleur quickly hugged Gabrielle and then she hugged me.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you." She cried. "You saved my sister. I am in your debt."
Come to think of it, I wasn't sure if Harry had ever done anything with that debt. I didn't want to ask her for anything because I was simply doing the right thing.
"Alright, now we have the judging." Ludo declared. "First, we have Miss Fleur Delacour, who used the Bubble Charm but was not able to rescue her hostage. Still the judges have decided to award her 25 points."
"I deserved zero." Fleur stated. She probably hated feeling like a failure.
"Next we have Mr. Cedric Diggory who also used the Bubble charm and managed to make it back with one minute to spare." Ludo explained. "We award him 50 points."
There was some clapping for him.
"Third, we have Mr. Viktor Krum." He stated. "He returned with his hostage with 7 minutes left. He will be awarded 65 points."
There was loud cheering from the Durmstrang group.
"And finally, we have Miss Adelaide Corner." Ludo replied. "She used gillyweed, but did not return within the hour limit. However, we have been informed that she did find the hostages before anyone else and also would have been able to return within the time limit if not for the desire to insure that all of the hostages were returned and not just her own. We award her 65 points."
I was just glad that it was over, even though I knew things were only going to get worse from here. The final task was the worst of them all and I was pretty sure that not everyone was going to get out of this one. For now, I figured that I could just bask in the glory of victory, and save the pain for later.
So Addie managed to save Upton and Gabrielle. Was it surprising that it wasn't Mandy? Please don't forget to review.