The Stand

The Second Task

Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement "Hello Albus. I need to see my niece for house business."

Dumbledore nodded "Of course. Feel free to use any empty classroom."

Susan got up and walked away with her aunt while Harry and Neville shared a smug look.

Once they were alone in the classroom, Amelia turned to her niece "What did you do?"

Susan shook her head "What do you mean?"

Amelia sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose "When you came to Hogwarts, I advised you to meet the heirs of all the other Most Ancient and Noble houses since you will work closely together in the future."

Susan nodded, unsure of where her aunt was going "So?"

"Those heirs are Harry Potter, Daphne Greengrass and Neville Longbottom" Amelia continued "Apparently, they are very close. And you antagonized one of them. Harry."

"He's a cheater" Susan yelled "He's taking away Hufflepuff's glory!"

"I always told you to never jump to conclusions" Amelia berated "You should've gotten an oath out of him. Instead, you pissed Harry off. And by doing so, you pissed all of them off. And they spoke to their parents, or in Harry's case, his godfather."

Susan was getting worried as Amelia's rant continued "All of us Most Ancient and Noble houses have an alliances which dates back to centuries ago. However, due to YOUR actions, we will be kicked out of the alliance."

This caused Susan to gasp in fear "What? They can't do that!"

Amelia growled "They can Susan. If all of the other houses agree, one of the houses can be removed. We are alone now Susan. We have some small alliances but no one would mess with us because of those houses. If we are attacked, they don't need to help us. We are screwed Susan."

Susan was finally realizing her mistake as her aunt finished the rant "And it's all because of you."

Harry groaned in annoyance "This is bloody impossible!"

Daphne sent a glare at her boyfriend "Language. But yes, it is."

"Okay, we could explore transfiguration" Parvati held up a book "You could transform part of you into some underwater creature."

Padma shook her head "That could work. The issue is, that will take a long time to perfect. We can't take the chance that it goes wrong."

Neville leaned back in his chair "I have an idea, which involves no magic whatsoever."

"What" Harry's eyes widened.

"Gillyweed" Neville explained "It allows one to breathe underwater. We have some in the Longbottom storerooms."

"Can you get it" Harry asked.

"Of course" Neville laughed "There's the floo, you know. It won't be hard to get it. I'll get some right now, even."

Neville strode off to McGonnagall's office for her floo. As he left, Parvati looked around "Where's Rishi?"

"Flitwick called him to his office" Harry answered while reading more about gillyweed. A second later, it hit him "He's the thing I'd sorely miss."

The next day, armed with gillyweed, Harry ran down to the Black Lake, with the other champions already there. He quickly ate his gillyweed, hoping that by the time it started, he'd have gills.

Bagman grinned "Now that everyone is here, let's begin! Your job is to rescue someone down in the merpeople village! Ready? 3... 2... 1... GO!"

Harry jumped into the lake, now equipped with gills. And with his ability to swim, he quickly made it down to the village.

The village looked amazing. It was like a well-run machine, with everyone doing something. Harry was amazed at how efficient they were. He could never imagine wizards running a wizard like this.

He looked around and saw Rishi. He appeared to be asleep and was tied together with ropes. Luckily, he was able to get the ropes off with a Diffindo. He was about to leave until he was struck with a thought.

He looked at the other tributes and was shocked. He found Hermione also bound. Harry guessed that she was for Krum since they went to the ball together. Cedric's tribute was a Hufflepuff in their year, his cousin Megan Jones. Those two didn't make him angry though. The last one did.

Fleur's tribute looked to be her sister since the two looked similar. What made it bad, was that the girl was about 8 years old. And what made it worse, was her heritage.

Since Fleur was a Veela, her sister must be one as well. And Veelas were creatures of fire from Harry's knowledge so that meant...

As if on cue, Harry heard a feminine scream which must have come from Fleur. Harry sprang into action. He ran towards Fleur's sister, intending to get her to safety.

Sadly, the merpeople did not like his plan. 3 of them charged at him, so Harry fought back. He sent a Reducto at one and then bound the others. He didn't want to start a war between humans and merpeople. Another Diffindo freed the girl so Harry grabbed her and swam up with her and Rishi.

He poked his head up and noticed that he was the second one back, thought the first was Fleur. When he fully emerged from the water, he heard Fleur wail "I couldn't 'elp 'er!"

Harry waved his hand "Fleur?"

Fleur turned to him "'Arry?" She then turned and noticed her sister "Gabrielle!"

She ran and hugged her sister tightly as Rishi woke up "What's going on?"

Fleur smiled at Harry "Thank you 'Arry" giving him a kiss on the cheek

Rishi's eyes widened "Did I miss something?"

Harry shook his hand and laughed "You didn't. I grabbed Fleur' sister when Fleur couldn't make it and she thanked me."

"You know that we weren't in danger, right?" Rishi asked.

"I do now" Harry chuckled.

Slowly, all the other champions came from the water. Cedric returned next with Megan. Krum came after him with Hermione. Harry and Rishi went to their friend, who was shivering immensely. All of the champions and hostages made small talk until the judges had the scores.

"Fleur performed a successful Bubble-Head Charm" Dumbledore announced "However, she did not have her hostage upon her return and never reached the village. For that, we award her 25 points."

"I deserve none" Fleur muttered.

"Viktor returned outside of the one hour limit" Dumbledore continued "He performed a successful transfiguration on himself to become part-shark and did return with his hostage after arriving at the village third. We give him 40 points."

Krum nodded at Dumbledore while talking to Hermione.

"Cedric also performed a successful Bubble-Head Charm. He did, however, return outside the time limit but had his hostage while arriving second at the village. We give him 47 points." Dumbledore said.

Cedric smiled while he comforted his shivering cousin.

"Finally, Harry used gillyweed to get to the village. He arrived there first and rescued not only his hostage, but Fleur's as well. He also returned within the time limit and first. We award him 50 points." Dumbledore said to celebrations around him.

Harry did the math and grinned. He was in first with 94. Cedric had 86, Krum had 82 and Fleur had 62. He was comfortably in first and in position to win.

Leaving the judging area, Harry and Rishi walked over to their friends, who whooped with joy. Daphne kissed her boyfriend upon seeing him "That's for a jo well done."

Harry smirked "What happens if I win?"

Daphne whacked him on the back of the head "Prat."

Draco laughed "Lovebirds! Come on! Party in the room!"

Chuckling at Draco's words, the group headed to the Room of Requirement, drunk on happiness.

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