"The second task is today! Aren't you curious what it is?"
Ginny and I are in the library. We had attempted to study but got distracted.
"I am, but you need to finish telling me what happened in Hogsmeade and your first kiss!"
"Oh! Yes," I begin, when Ron taps me on the shoulder. I turn around and see Hermione too.
"Are you alright?" I ask them.
"McGonagall needs us in the hospital wing, c'mon." Hermione informs.
"Who'd you kiss, Eliza?" Ron asks, leaning over to hear our conversation.
Ginny turns around and smiles. "It's none of your business Ronald."
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"Did I catch some big disease and I'm the last one to know about it?" I laugh, back at the topic at hand.
Ron laughs. "No, Eliza, it's for the second task."
"Hey, I'm like Harry, I did not put my name in that thing, so um goodbye." I stand up and begin to walk away. Hermione grabs me.
"It'll be alright, Eliza. Come with us."
"Well, see you later Ginny, remember my funeral requests if I don't come back!"
~~~~
"For this task, our contestants are going to have to go into the black lake to save something very important to them." McGonagall begins to explain.
"Gabrielle, you will be Fleurs. Ron, you are Harry's, Eliza, you are Cedric's, and Hermione, you are Viktor's." As she says this Ron glares.
McGonagall continues. "I am going to put you four in a deep sleep with breathing protection and then you will be placed in the lake. The contestants will have one hour to save you. You will be guarded by the merpeople. If your siblings or friends do not successfully rescue you, I promise we will bring you to safety."
The four of us stare at each other in slight concern. Professor McGonagall waves her wand and everything goes black.
~~~~
I burst above the water in Cedric's arms. People are cheering and I try to figure out where I am.
The task.
The lake.
The sleep.
"You alright?" Cedric asks, panting and struggling to swim us both to the decks.
"Yes, you?" I spit out half of the lake.
"I'm fine."
The professors help haul us onto the shore and Ginny runs up to me with a blanket.
"You alright?"
"Yeah." I didn't even realise I was shivering until then. Ginny hugs me to help warm me up.
And then Harry resurfaces.
We run up to him. "Are you alright?" we ask.
He was shivering too, and people are wrapping him in blankets. "Yeah. I think so."
Someone picks me up from behind and squeezes me.
"You alright?" Draco's concerned voice comes from the person who picked me up.
"I will be when you stop squeezing all the air out of me." I wheeze.
"Sorry!" he puts me down and hugs me.
I laugh and place my hands on his chest. "It's perfectly alright," I squeeze the water from my tresses. "I'm going back to Ginny now, okay?"
He bends down and kisses my nose. "Alright love."
I run back to Ginny to continue telling her the events of Hogsmeade.
"So what were the points again?"
"Cedric and Harry tied." Ginny reminds me, helping dry my hair with a charm we learned from Hermione.
"Oh yeah! This is really hard for me, Ginny. I mean c'mon, picking between one of your closest friends and your brother? I love them both..."
"True."
"I'll just root for both of them and be happy for whoever wins."
