Aria Ashborn has always been invisible at Hogwarts. In fact, she has been left out of the main storyline for three years. After a coincidental encounter at the World Cup, she is thrust into the plot of Goblet of Fire. This year is going to be differ...
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The cannon sounded and the second task had begun. Harry had just swallowed the gillyweed said to allow him to breathe underwater for an hour. The sky was grey and misty and the air was chilly. Harry struggled with the gillyweed when he felt himself being pushed into the black lake. Now, underwater, he struggled as he felt a change in his body. Suddenly, he stopped thrashing and realized he could breathe again. He looked down to see that his feet and hands were webbed and he felt gills had formed on his neck. It had worked! He leaped out of the water with joy and did a backflip in the air. He could hear the crowd cheer. He wondered if any of his friends were out there. He hadn't seen them since last night.
No time to think about that now, he thought. He had to focus on the task which was finding whatever treasure had been taken from him. He swam through the murky water, past all the many strands of seaweed, until he came to a clearing. Through the silent water, he could suddenly hear voices. The voices of the singing merpeople which he had heard when he opened the golden egg underwater. All around, he could see merpeople lurking. They did not attack which struck him as odd. He swam through the merpeople village until he saw a cluster of them in the distance. As he approached it, however, he could see that it wasn't clusters of merpeople but actually his friends.
Four figures floated, cold and dead looking in the water. Attached to each of their ankles, a rope which went all the way down past where Harry could see. The first figure was Ron, then Hermione, then Aria, and then Gabrielle. Harry suddenly became worried about what would happen to them if he didn't rescue them. He went straight to Ron's ankle to untie the rope. Suddenly, a mermaid near Harry made a loud noise that sounded like a high pitched squeal. Harry turned to see Cedric swimming over to Aria. He had what seemed to be a bubble, covering his mouth and nose. Cedric took out his wand and with a flash of red light, Aria was free of the rope. Cedric supported her with one arm and tapped his watch, looking at Harry with the other. Harry nodded.
Cedric then swam Aria backup to the surface. As soon as they broke to the surface, Aria felt an immediate rush of air to her lungs and she awoke suddenly. She looked around, momentarily confused. She then remembered everything that had happened the night before and turned to see Cedric, her rescuer. They smiled at each other before he let go of her arm as she could swim on her own. He followed Aria as she swam over to the platforms and the crowd cheered as Cedric had been the first to finish. When they reached the platform, Aria was immediately helped up by Ginny. Cedric was helped by a few Hufflepuffs. Aria suddenly felt very cold. Having been in the water so long, she was used to it. Now, she was greeted by an icy chill and if she didn't get warm soon would catch pneumonia.
Ginny wrapped Aria in first a bathrobe and then two towels. Aria then sat next to Cedric, who was also wrapped up, and Ginny. As she warmed up, Aria saw Viktor rise from the water with Hermione and Ginny hopped up to help Hermione. As soon as Hermione was settled, she took a seat next to Aria and Viktor went over to his Durmstrang friends.
