Prisoner of Harry's Heart

Chapter 8: The Second Task

Harry and Hermione were sat at a table in the library (again), trying to make sense of the screaming golden egg. Harry had set silencing wards around their table, so as not to endure the wrath of Madam Pince when there was a sound above a decibel in her library. They were having no luck. Then again, who would have any luck when you hear an unearthly screaming coming from the thing that is supposed to stop you from dying? They packed away, fed up, when Cedric wandered up to them. "Hey, Harry, thanks for the clue about the dragon."
"No problem, you would have done the same for me."
"Yeah, so have you figured out your egg yet?"
"No."
"Well, you might want to mull it over in some water. Use the prefect bathroom, the password is pine fresh. See you."
Harry was confused (like normal), whereas Hermione seemed to have inferred something from Cedric's cryptic clue. "Merpeople! They can only speak in water." Upon hearing this, Harry conjured a trough and filled it with water. He then stuck the egg under the water, performed a bubblehead charm on him and Hermione, before plunging his head into the water next to the egg. Hermione did so too, but a little hesitantly. When Harry saw her face appear on the other side of the egg, he opened it.
Merperson's song here
After hearing the song several times to memorise it, they retreated. After casting warming and drying charms on them both, Harry banished everything he has conjured. "So they'll steal something of mine, stick it in the black lake, and I'll have to retrieve it in under an hour. Seems easy enough."
"What do you think they'll take?"
"I dunno, my firebolt is the only thing I own of real worth, so I assume that?"
"Now for breathing?"
"The weird bubblehead thing, and I'm sure I can move jet like through water somehow. Anyway, that's one problem solved, now I can relax."
"Transfiguration essay."
"Do I really need to do that?"
"Unfortunately, yes."

----------

It was the day (well, really the night) before the second task, Hermione was helping Ron with yet another essay he failed to complete on time, while Harry was lounging about, watching Hogwarts on the Marauder's map. He suddenly shot up, his hand pointing towards the door, eyes focused on some point on the map. The door to the common room opened, and Professor Moody walked in. Hermione saw him before Ron. "Hello, Professor Moody! Why are you here?"
"Sup, Barty?" Harry's exclamation had everyone looking at 'Moody'. "What do you mean?"
"I mean you're Bartemius Crouch. The only question is why? I also saw both you and Barty at the first task, so that means you would have to be Crouch Junior."
"Do you have any proof of these allegations?" Harry's hand pointed towards the hip flask Moody always carries, and the bottom of it fell off, spilling polyjuice potion onto the floor. Harry disappeared for two seconds, before returning with both Dumbledore and Snape. "You two know what that is?" Both teachers looked towards the ground. Dumbledore, seeing the potion, stunned and wrapped 'Moody' up in an instant. "Thank you, Harry, for bringing this to my attention. Now, we must wait until the potion wears out, before we can know who he really is."
"Barty Crouch Senior, his father gave his mother polyjuice to break him out of Azkaban. He's been living under the imperius curse for years. He was the one who cast the dark mark on the Quidditch world cup. You either know of the rest of his atrocities, or you don't want to."
"Thank you, Miss Granger. Now, I must insist that you go up to my office, that's what I sent him here to do. Now, all of you, it always seems later than it is after excitement like this, so I encourage you all to go to sleep early tonight. Don't want to miss the task tomorrow!"

----------

The next day, Harry was worried. Hermione had not come back up after going to Dumbledore's office last night, and Lavender had confirmed that she had not been in her dorm either. After checking the whole castle, Harry was forced to concede temporary defeat if he wanted to live through the tournament. He scanned the crowd, just on the off chance that Hermione was there. He was listening to the rules, but didn't hear until Bagman said "Hostages." He immediately apparated to his face. In the same magically enlarged voice, he spoke, "Hostages? As in people?"
"Yes."
"Would one of those people be my girlfriend?"
"That is your hostage, yes."
"Start the task." Nervously, Ludo shouted to begin. Not even five seconds later, all the hostages were on the beach, next to their champions. Also, everyone involved in the planning of the second task was chained up, their wands, broken in half, floating above their heads, also on the beach. Harry spoke to them at large. "Did you think it was a good idea to do this to people? At a school, no less? Forcing me to fight for my own life, when I didn't enter, is one thing. Forcing me to fight for the life of someone else will see you lose yours next time you pull this stunt. Do I make myself clear?" All of the prisoners, including Dumbledore, looked frightened at the sheer weight of magical power behind his words. They quickly agreed, letting Harry release them before he raced to make sure Hermione was ok. He was relieved to know that Madam Pomfrey also shared his rage. Together, they started to heal all of the hostages together. He also destroyed the goblet of fire, refusing to take part in it's magical bond anymore. To most people's surprise, it worked.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Sorry if it's a little short, I do write these in about 20mins after all. If you want a more in-depth work, I'm working on some, but I won't publish two at once.