The Flower and the Badger

Chapter 17

A couple weeks had passed since the Yule Ball. Anna and Cedric's relationship was as strong as it ever was, if not more so. One day while Anna was in Transfiguration, she was summoned to Dumbledore's office. Anna was puzled as to why. After all, she hadn't done anything wrong. At least, not that she knew of. But then again, it wasn't entirely impossible that Draco had tried to frame her for something.

When she entered his office, she was surprised to see Snape there as well.

"Is there a problem Headmaster?" Anna asked in confusion, and Dumbledore shook his head. "Not at all. As you may or may not know, the second task for the Champions is for them to find a treasure that has been lost to them. We have deduced that you are the person that Mr. Diggory cares about the most, therefore you are his treasure."

"So he's going to have to find me then?" Anna asked, and her heart sank as Dumbledore nodded. With her luck, she would probably wind up on the bottom of the Black Lake or something. Anna went to say something else, but then everything went black.

Cedric had been supposed to meet Anna in the library, but she hadn't shown up. An hour later, when she still hadn't shown up, he started to get worried. Maybe something had happened, maybe she had run into Draco or Millicent. He met Harry in the hall. "Have you seen Anna? She was supposed to meet me in the library but she never showed up."

Harry shook his head. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen Ron or Hermione either."

Something clicked in Cedric's head. The egg...what it had said about having to find a treasure that was lost...he sincerely hoped that he was wrong, but he didn't think that he was. Anna was the treasure that he would have to find. And if Harry hadn't seen Ron, that probably meant that Ron was Harry's treasure. Cedric had known that this tournament would have been dangerous for him, but he hadn't thought that it would endanger Anna as well. He was regretting ever putting his name into the Goblet now.

Anna's eyes fluttered open. Something was wrong, everything was still dark. Her eyes fluttered around, seeing seaweed everywhere. She hated when she was right. But why was she the only one that was awake? Everyone else that was down there with her, Hermione, Ron, Fleur's sister, they were all still asleep. So why had she been the only one to wake up? Whatever charm they had used to keep the others from drowning was no longer working on Anna, and she had to hold her breath. But she couldn't hold it forever. She tried to swim towards the surface, but there was a rope keeping her in place, and she didn't have anything to cut it. Anna began to panic. She was going to die here, after everything that she had been through. Water entered her lungs and she began flailing about, her body jerking around. Right before everything went dark ionce more, she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist, and she began to float upwards.

Cedric gasped as he rose to the surface of the Lake, his arms securely around Anna, who was limp in his arms. What was wrong? Why wasn't she waking up? He swam towards the dock, and Dean and Seamus helped to get her up. Once Cedric had gotten up there as well, he placed two fingers against her neck, and his face paled when he realized that she wasn't breathing. "Something's wrong!" He shouted, and Dumbledore quickly scurried over. Kneeling down, he muttered a spell, and a moment later, Anna gasped and started coughing up a good deal of water.

"Mr. Diggory, would you please bring Miss Potter to the infirmary?" Dumbledore asked, and Cedric quickly nodded, gathering Anna into his arms.

"C-Cedric..." Anna whispered through chattering teeth. "W-what happened? Why w-was I in the L-Lake?"

"You were my treasure." Cedric answered as he walked quickly towards the castle. "I'm so sorry love. If I had known that entering would put you in danger-"

"N-Not your fault." Anna answered. "Don't b-blame yourself."

They reached the hospital wing about ten minutes later, and Pomfrey shook her head as she started tending to Anna. "It isn't a normal school year unless I have one Potter or another in here at least once. It seems like whatever charm they had used on you was broken."

"Broken?" Cedric asked. "But none of the others suffered like this."

"Which makes me think that hers was broken intentionally by someone."

Cedric's eyes widened. "You mean that someone was trying to kill her?"

"It's too early to say for sure, but that's what it seems to look like. Miss Potter, do you have any enemies?"

Anna scoffed. "Too many to count I'm afraid."

Pomfrey had given Anna a warming draught and she was already starting to feel immensely better. Pomfrey let them leave the hospital wing, but she gave Cedric strict instructions to make sure that Anna rested. Anna had the feeling that Cedric wasn't going to be leaving her side anytime soon.

As they left the hospital wing, they stumbled upon Ron, Hermione and Harry. They looked a little wet, but nothing too terrible. Definitely nothing like what Anna had been.

"What bloody happened?" Harry asked. "People were saying that you were dead."

"Because that's what someone was trying to do." Anna answered, causing Hermione to gasp. "We don't know who it was, but Madame Pomfrey highly suspects that someone was trying to off me."

"Bet you anything that it was Malfoy." Ron said bitterly, but Anna shook her head. "How would he? I don't think that he has the knowledge. Plus, he would have to be in the Black Lake to break the charm and last that I checked, he was as dry as could be. I don't think that it was any of the students."

One thing was for sure though. They would have to figure out who it had been and why they had tried to kill her, before their next attempt was successfull.