Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 91: The Second Task
"Welcome, Mister Potter. You arrive just in time." Barty Crouch, the organizer of the tournament, was the first person to come speak to him when he got to the lake.
Harry felt like the audience was much larger than during the first task. They had to build massive stands all around the Black Lake, where the task was going to be taking place.
He was soon guided into a white tent, where the other three champions had been waiting.
"Alright, all the champions are finally present." Mister Crouch appeared to be in a great mood today. He closed the tent and walked up to the front, standing in front of them.
Harry noted the furtive glances that the champions were giving him, and he could tell they were afraid of him now.
Not much he could do about it. His magic demonstration on the day of the ball had become engraved in the minds of everyone who witnessed it.
By now, these champions had started to realize that he was not someone they could compete with.
However, Harry had no intention of taking away the prize from these children. It wouldn't be just unfair, but also humiliating for him to do so.
He was only competing to fulfill his side of the soul contract and nothing more.
Albus Dumbledore was the only one who knew about this arrangement for the time being, so everyone else really thought they were only competing for second place at this point, unless something very drastic were to happen.
"Now… before I explain the task, I presume that all of you have managed to understand the hint we left inside the golden egg you obtained in the first task." Mister Crouch watched as all the champions nodded. All, except for one.
"Mister Potter?"
"Hmm? Golden egg? You mean the one we took from the dragon?" Harry asked. "I think I threw that away somewhere… was it important?"
"Wait… did no one tell you that the egg contained a hint for the second task?!" Now Crouch was starting to get nervous.
"No," Harry responded. But to be fair, he had left before anyone could explain that to him.
And since the day of the ball, he had only spoken with Dumbledore, who had likely assumed he already knew such a basic thing.
"So… you have made no preparations for today's task?" Mister Crouch asked.
Harry shrugged.
Krum, Diggory, and Delacour looked at each other and smiled. There was a ray of hope at the end of the tunnel. They had a chance of winning now.
"Oh… this is bad." Mister Crouch muttered while pacing in front of them.
"Just tell us what the task is about." Harry was losing his patience with this dramatic man.
"Very well," Crouch finally said. "The task will take place in the Black Lake. You will need to go underwater and rescue your target, who is being held in the depths of the lake. Each champion has been given a target to rescue. Someone important to you. Yo—"
"W-wait… who did you take for me?" Fleur Delacour looked very worried now.
"Ehm… I'm not sure, Miss Delacour. I was not in charge of that part. The Headmaster selected the four individuals and placed the enchantments on them. But there is nothing to worry about. They are completely safe down there."
"It's my sister, isn't it? She is not good with water. She can't even swim a little." Fleur said.
"As I said, everything will be fine. Albus Dumbledore has personally overseen them. Now please, let me continue… you will have one hour to rescue your target. If you can't do that in the arranged time, then the task will be considered a failure."
"Can we use any method to dive underwater?" Harry asked.
"Well, yes. You can, as long as it involves some type of magic. It is up to you how to complete the task," Mister Crouch said.
"Do we really not know who we have to rescue?" Cedric asked.
"As I said before, the selected targets are someone important to you. So it should be easy to recognize which one is yours."
Harry was now curious about who they picked for him. There was zero chance Morgan would offer herself for such a thing, so they must have picked a student. But Harry had barely spoken with the students since his first arrival.
"I will now take you to the platform we have prepared at the center of the lake." Mister Crouch made a hand gesture. "Follow me, please."
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Harry stood before the black waters of the lake. The other champions had already removed their robes and replaced them with something appropriate for swimming.
However, he was yet to change clothes and remained in his normal attire.
There was a loud ruckus in the stands, and he could clearly hear it all, even from this distance.
On the wooden floating platform, only the judges and a few of the professors were present.
Ludo Bagman, a short man from the Ministry, was using a voice amplification device to go over the rules of the task one more time so everyone in the audience could understand them.
Harry noticed that most people present were staring at him with curious eyes, likely wondering if he was planning on jumping into the water with his robes still on.
He had offered them no explanation.
"Are we ready to start?" Mister Crouch asked the champions one by one, and they responded with a resounding yes.
After exchanging a few words with Bagman, Crouch pulled his wand and held it up in the air. "You can jump into the lake after my signal. Then you will have one hour to finish."
A spark of light was conjured from Crouch's wand. It flew into the sky and exploded loudly, producing some very eye-catching sparks.
The three champions wasted no time.
Krum applied a transfiguration on himself, transforming into some sort of fish before jumping into the water.
Meanwhile, Cedric and Fleur used a more common method for this task. The Bubble-Head Charm was fairly simple but effective enough. Remaining underwater for an hour would not be an issue.
With the magical bubbles covering their heads, the two of them jumped into the water.
The only one who was yet to move was Harry, who seemed to be pondering about something.
"Mmm… now, let's see how we do this."
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