Rose Dursley: The Girl Who Lived

21. The Second Task

Dumbledore was sitting at his desk reading when McGonagall came into his office. He put down his copy of the Daily Prophet, then looked up and smiled at her. McGonagall scowled at him in return.

"Is everything okay, Minerva?" said Dumbledore.

McGonagall glared at him, and went to sit down on a chair. "No, everything is not 'okay', Albus," she said. "I've just been speaking to Miss Dursley."

The smile dropped momentarily from Dumbledore's face. But he quickly switched back to his cheerful expression. "Have you?" he said. "And how is she doing?"

"She's confused," said McGonagall.

"Is she?" he said. "Problems with her lesson, do you mean?"

McGonagall banged the desk angrily with her fist. "Don't you dare be facetious with me, Albus," she said. "You know why she's confused."

Dumbledore winced uncomfortably at her tone of voice when she said his name. "Now, Minerva, I really don't know what you mean," he said.

McGonagall lowered her voice as she spoke to try and calm her temper. "She is confused because she is a boy trapped inside the body of a girl," she said.

Dumbledore shook his head. "Is this another one of your muggle theories?" he said. "It's simple. Miss Dursley is biologically a girl, that's all there is to it."

McGonagall stood up angrily. "If you really believe that, then you're an old fool," she shouted. "Talk to her, then you will see the truth."

McGonagall then turned around and stormed out of the Headmaster's office. Dumbledore shook his head as he watched her leave, then went back to reading his paper.

~~~~~

A few days later, it was time for the second task of the Triwizard Tournament. The announcement went out that it was happening on the Black Lake.

Rose met Ron as he walked down towards the lake.

"Hey," said Rose. "Have you seen Hermione this morning? I can't find her."

"Hi," said Ron. "She had a meeting with McGonagall last night. I've not seen her since."

"Okay. I guess she's down at the lake already," said Rose.

When Rose and Ron reached the Black Lake, they could see some platforms had been built out on the water. The platforms were already beginning to fill up with excited children.

On the middle platform, the three champions stood waiting for the task to begin. As Rose and Ron arrived at the platform, Dumbledore started his announcement.

"Last night, something special was taken from each of our champions," said Dumbledore. "That treasure is now at the bottom of the lake. They have an hour to retrieve it, starting from... Now!"

A cannon fired, and the three champions dived into the lake. As they swam down under the water, the crowds cheered with excitement.

After a few minutes, the surface of the water settled and there was no more sign of what was happening. The noise of the crowds gradually died down when they realised there was nothing to see.

After about twenty minutes had passed, Fleur Delacour burst out the surface of the water. She coughed and spluttered, then struggled to swim back to the platform. As she got close, some of the girls from Beauxbatons helped her out of the water.

"Fleur Delacour is eliminated," Dumbledore announced. "Two champions remain."

There was a bit more noise from the crowds after that. But after a while it soon died down again.

"This is kind of boring," said Rose. "The task with dragons was a lot more exciting."

"Yeah," said Ron. "Maybe there's fun stuff happening under the water?"

"Probably, but we can't see any of it up here, can we," said Rose.

"Yeah, good point," said Ron. "I guess they didn't really think this through."

Rose slouched back in her seat and started humming a tune to herself. Ron leaned forward and looked around the rest of the people standing around.

As Ron looked, he spotted Fleur Delacour. She had got out of the water now, and was trying to dry herself. She had a big towel that she was using on her hair, but she was still dressed in only her swimsuit. Her thin body, covered in just that small amount of wet fabric. Her skin glistened as the water dripped from her.

The longer Ron watched, the more he could feel his blood rushing. His face was going red, and he could feel himself getting hotter.

At that moment, Ron remembered that he was sitting next to Rose. He didn't want her to catch him perving on Fleur. Ron slowly leaned back in his seat and looked round to make sure he hadn't been caught.

But when he did, Ron saw that Rose was also staring at Fleur. She was staring unblinking, and her face had turned red.

"Hey," said Ron.

Rose blushed even more when she realised that Ron was looking at her. "Hey," she said.

"What you said before. About you not liking any boys," said Ron. "Is that cos you like girls?"

"Oh, umm, well," Rose said.

"It's okay if you do," said Ron. "It's like my Auntie Cassy. I mean, she's not my real aunt, that's just what we call her. She's one of mum's best friends, they went to Hogwarts together."

Rose sat up nervously. "Err, kind of," she said.

"So, you're a lesbian then?" said Ron. "That's cool."

"Err, well I'm not really sure about a label yet," said Rose. "I'm still trying to work it out myself."

"Well that's okay," said Ron. "Whatever you are, you're still my best friend."

"Thanks, mate," said Rose.

Ron gave Rose a gentle punch on the arm, then they went back to looking out across the water. As they were looking, two heads popped up out of the water. When Rose looked closer, she realised it was Viktor Krum and Hermione.

Rose gasped. "Hermione!" she said. "I hope she's okay."

"Ooohh, that must be why we couldn't find her this morning," said Ron.

Rose rushed down to the edge of the platform as Hermione swam closer. When she got near to the edge, Rose reached down and pulled her out. Ron passed a towel over, which Rose wrapped around Hermione. Then she pulled her in for a big hug to warm her up.

"Are you okay?" asked Rose.

"I'm fine," said Hermione. "Just a little wet."

As Hermione started drying her hair, there was another splashing sound behind them. This time it was Cedric who came up. He had Cho Chang with him, and another young girl.

"My sister," cried Fleur. "You saved her."

The three of them were helped from the water, and given towels to dry off. Once they were dry, Fleur came over to Cedric.

"Thank you for saving her," she said.

Fleur wrapped her arms around Cedric and kissed him on his cheeks. Cedric smiled and blushed at her affection. Cho watched them both and glared at Fleur.

Once the task was all over, everyone started to make their way back to the castle.

"Let's go back to the common room," said Hermione. "I need to sit in front of the fire and warm up."