Chasing Love

Chapter Sixty-Two - Second Task

All the students rushed down to the lake where the stands had been moved to so the students would all have a clear view of the second task. Eliza laughed as the twins ran ahead of the group, wanting to get a good seat, beside her was Oliver, who smiled happily. Angelina, Katie and Alicia were behind them and were quickly talking about what they thought the second task was going to be.

Once, they had all taken their seats, they began to look around to see any indicators about what was going to happen. All the champions, parr Harry, were stood alongside the lake as they waited for it to start. "Where's Harry?" Eliza asked as she searched for the young boy, "He's going to be late or miss it altogether!" 

"He'll be here, he wouldn't miss it!" Fred and George comforted her. 

Suddenly, they caught sight as Harry ran down the lawn and over to the lake where he then bent over, his hands on his knees, as he tried to regain his breath. Ludo Bagman then started to move the champions so they were equally apart.  

After that, Bagman pointed the wand at his mouth and then just like at the world cup his voice was projected over the entire audience, "Well, all our champions are ready for the Second Task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One... two... three!" The whistle was blown and the entire stands erupted into cheers and applause. Harry pulled out something from his pocket, stuffed it into his mouth before jumping into the lake. Nothing happened to him though, he just paddled in the water, chewing quickly as he got paler and paler due to how freezing the water was. 

Some of the students, mainly Slytherins, in the crowd started to laugh. That was until he grew gills and flung himself down into the water. Eliza cheered along her friends, happy that Harry seemed to be okay. "Where are Hermione and Ron?" She asked her friends.

"I didn't see them at breakfast." Fred replied, "They are probably lost in the crowd."

"Or perhaps they're the precious things that the champions need to get." 

"Could be." 

They could see nothing, all the champions were somewhere in the water, out of sight from the audience, "Well if I knew it was going to be so boring, I would have stayed in the common room and revised." Fred told his friends causing Eliza to snort, "What?"

"You would rather sit and be bored than actually revise. It's always the same, with you two." She shook her head at the twins, "You two are terrible." 

"But you love us."

Just before the time was up, Fleur got out of the water, with nothing to show for, someone put a large towel over her as she shivered heavily. 

After what seemed like hours, Cedric came up out of the water, Cho Chang in his hands, the two smiled happily at each other as they regained their breath. 

Soon after him, Krum with Hermione, came up, both gasping for air, "I've found her!" Fred shouted at Eliza with a small grin on his face causing her to laugh. 

And then Harry came up to surface, with both Ron and Fleur's little sister, "I thought he was only supposed to get one person!"

There was lots of moving and talking down by the lake, Harry and Ron were covered in a towel each and Hermione spoke happily to them. That was until Fleur made her way over to them, kissed Harry on both cheeks and then proceeded to kiss Ron on his cheeks, "Did Ron, our little brother, just get kissed by her?" Fred and George looked to be in complete shock.

"I believe so." Eliza smiled at her two friends. 

Everyone went silent, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows...

"Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points." There was a low applause around the audience. 

"Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour." There was a loud cheers from the Hufflepuff students in the crowd, "We therefore award him forty-seven points.

"Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points." Karkaroff clapped quickly, looking superior at all the people surrounding him. 

"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect. He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own." Eliza crossed her fingers as she hoped that Harry would be given a good amount of points, "Most of the judges," Bagman glanced over at Karkaroff nastily, "Feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However, Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."

Eliza and Oliver hugged each other happily, everyone in the crowd applauded loudly at the joy that the two champions that had won the most points were the two Hogwarts ones. 

"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June," Bagman informed eveyone, "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."

Madam Pomfrey guided the champions and their precious things into the castle so they could be checked over and change into dry clothes. 

"It's nearly all over!" Fred and George said happily, "Bets in to who they think will win."

"Krum." Alicia replied, "Did you see how angry Karkaroff was when Cedric and Harry have beaten him, he'll have something up his sleeve."

"It looks as though either Harry or Cedric are going to win, they're the best!" Angelina told them, "Harry's properly good at it! And Cedric isn't too bad."

"I hope Harry wins. It'll be good if a Gryffindor was to win it." 

"Would be great, wouldn't it?" 

"Shame we didn't get in." Fred and George looked wishful, "We would have been great."

"I don't think any of your pranks would win against a dragon or mer-people."

"You never know." George said to them, "We could have surprised everyone."

Angelina snorted, "Only one of you would have got in! You two are brilliant together but on your own you would be useless."

"That's mean." Fred told her, "We'd be great without each other."

"You'd be even more useless because Eliza wouldn't be there to help you!" Angelina added.

Fred and George glared at her, "We don't need Eliza to succeed!"

"Of course they don't! They're both brilliant when it comes to making pranks, together and on their own." Eliza defended her two best friends, "Come on now, it's rather cold."