PRANKSTER [1] ↝ C. DIGGORY

forty-four

"Did you hear?" Heidi Macavoy asked Maxine O'Flaherty, both of Hufflepuff, from where they stood harvesting their blades of knotgrass at the table across from Clary and Vasantha in Herbology.

"They still haven't found him." Clary could hear Jeremy Stretton saying to Marcus Turner, also of Ravenclaw, a few tables over. "Disappeared without a trace after the Second Task."

No matter where Clary looked that day, all conversation surrounded a common topic, with few others in between: the disappearance of Barty Crouch from the Ministry of Magic. As one of the judges, he was supposed to turn up for the Second Task at the Black Lake, however he never showed up, claiming he was ill and sending Percy to judge in his absence, not that Percy had spoken to any of his siblings while he was there. While at first nobody thought anything of his absence, Harry had approached the rest of them later on, explaining that Sirius Black had found this to be quite suspicious, as Crouch was never one to take a day off from his duties, especially with something as important as the tournament.

As the weeks went on, however, and the judges continued to make announcements about the upcoming Third Task, his absence became more and more noticeable, and the letters from him had become much less frequent until they had stopped entirely. Rumors flooded the school about where he may have gone, and what sort of trouble the old wizard could have gotten into.

As for Cedric, who stood with Newt at the table next to theirs, harvesting their own knotgrass, all he could think about was the upcoming Third Task, whatever it may be, despite the knotgrass harvesting having been supposed to make for an easy, stress free morning. While the task was still a couple of months away, taking place at the beginning of June, the champions still had yet to learn what exactly they would be doing to determine the winner of the Triwizard Tournament, leading to stress arising from all of them, at least as far as Clary could tell. Though she didn't know Viktor and Fleur all that well, Fleur seemed worried whenever Clary would pass her in the corridors, instead of her usual bubbly yet snobby demeanor, and Viktor's usually calm and collected self didn't seem quite as calm or collected in recent days. While Harry and Cedric were tied for first place, it was still anyone's game, which heightened the stakes immeasurably.

When Professor Sprout finally let the students go for lunch, Clary watched as Cedric nearly rushed from the room, his mind still unable to think about anything not revolving around the Third Task. He'd come so far over the past few months, and after all this time, he was so close to victory. Clary was much more lax about leaving the greenhouse, slinging her messenger bag over her shoulder and following after Newt and Vasantha, who moved a little quicker in the pursuit of the lunch they'd been so impatiently awaiting since the beginning of the class.

The three of them found Cedric outside of the greenhouse, pacing back and forth as he waited for his friends. When he finally saw them exit the small building, he sighed in relief, crossing back over to them and taking Clary's hand with a small, strained smile.

"Hi," Cedric said. "Sorry about that. It was just so noisy in there, I needed to get out and clear my head for a moment."

"It's okay," Clary assured him, squeezing his hand softly as they began their trek back to the castle, to get to the Great Hall for lunch. "You've got time," she assured him. "I'm sure they'll make some announcement regarding what you have to do, but if not, just remember that all four of you are in the same boat, and they won't know anything either. And you're prepared, I know you are, no matter what the task ends up being."

"Do you know what you need?" Newt asked as they reached the castle, shooting his best friend a grin as he gestured into the Great Hall. "You need a nice, relaxing meal to take your mind off things. No talk about the tournament, or whatever happened to Crouch, but an afternoon with your best friends, free from stress."