"She's fine!" Harry assured as loud as he could, swimming faster. Fleur clearly couldn't enter the water when she was in her veela state, and she prowled the bank until Harry was close enough to let Gabrielle down, the little girl hitting the shallows and sprinting into her sister's arms. Fleur immediately calmed, muttering in French and smoothing a hand down her sister's wet hair. Ignoring Ron as he was bundled away by Percy, Harry hurried to Fleur's side. "She's okay, right? The merpeople wouldn't let me take her at first, but you didn't show up I couldn't leave her there."
When Fleur looked up at him over Gabrielle's head, her eyes were filled with tears. "I was attacked by ze grindylows," she sobbed. "I lost my Bubble'ead charm. Water ees not my strongest element." There were still embers flying off her hair, and Harry squeezed her shoulder.
"I got her. She's fine." Next thing he know, he was being dragged into the sisters' hug, Fleur pressing kisses to his face.
"You saved 'er, even though she wasn't your 'ostage," she breathed thankfully. "Zank you, 'Arry." "I couldn't leave her there," Harry repeated, hugging Fleur. Now that he was closer, he could see she had dozens of vicious-looking cuts all over her skin, blood dripping down onto the sand. "Fleur, you need to see Madam Pomfrey."
"She's not the only one, Mr Potter." Harry's head snapped up to see the mediwitch in question stood behind him, lips pursed as she surveyed the scene. "All of you, come with me. Honestly, sending children into the lake in February, it's a wonder you didn't all go hypothermic!"
With Fleur refusing to let go of Gabrielle, the three of them followed Pomfrey over to the first aid tent, where the other five task participants were waiting. Cedric and Cho were huddled together in a fluffy towel, otherwise no worse for wear. Viktor had an arm wrapped around a shivering Hermione, his head human once more, and nearby Ron was sat in a towel of his own, glaring at the Bulgarian boy.
Pomfrey wrapped a towel tightly around Harry's shoulders, then thrust a vial into his hand. Harry recognised it as Snape's extra-strength Pepper-Up potion, and downed it happily, sighing as the steam began to gush from his ears.
"Gabrielle first," Fleur insisted stubbornly when the matron turned to her. Pomfrey huffed, but obligingly wrapped the girl in a towel and gave her a potion too — only then did Fleur allow her to start healing her wounds. "Alright, Harry?" Cedric asked, his grey eyes dark with concern. "You were down there a long time."
"I'm fine," he assured, casting a Drying charm on himself. He cast one on Gabrielle too, and the girl's violent shivers lessened. "You? Cho?"
"We're both okay," Cho promised, managing the barest smile. "I don't really remember much, to be honest. One minute I was in Dumbledore's office, the next I woke up in the middle of the lake." Cedric definitely didn't look impressed by the proceedings, and Harry didn't blame him. He would probably be far more furious himself if it had been Neville or Draco or even Ginny especially Ginny, after her ordeal with the Chamber two years ago — but obviously Dumbledore had done the choosing, if he thought Ron was who he'd miss most.
"Harry!" Hermione gushed, eyes bright. "You did it! You worked it out all by yourself!" She sounded equal parts surprised and impressed, and Harry smirked; no one would even believe him if he admitted to getting help from Snape of all people.
"I told you I had it sorted."
"You haff a water beetle in your hair," Viktor said to Hermione, reaching up to gently brush the beetle away. Hermione smiled at him, but turned back to Harry. "What were you thinking, going back for Fleur's sister like that? You wasted so much time! Viktor said you were there before any of the others."
"I was thinking I wasn't going to let a nine year-old die, Hermione," Harry bit out, wondering how she and Ron both could just trust Dumbledore when he said nothing bad would happen. The first task had been dragons, and they thought everything was going to be perfectly safe?
He could see Dumbledore conferring with the mer-chief at the edge of the water, and then gathering the other judges to discuss something. Harry barely paid attention to the scores — he didn't care if they gave him a zero, as long as he was done with the task. Still, it didn't surprise him to hear that Dumbledore had somehow managed to spin his decision to save Gabrielle into some sort of example of martyrdom, giving him extra points for it. He was tied for first with Cedric now.
"Just one more to go," Cedric said as they were all herded up to the castle, towels still draped around them. "Then it's all over."
"Thank fuck for that," Harry declared vehemently. He didn't have to think about the bloody tournament for three whole months; then they'd be told about the third task, and a month later it would be done. "Merlin, I can't wait to take a bath." Cedric laughed as Cho made a loud noise of agreement, and they glanced back at Viktor and Hermione; Viktor seemed to be trying to talk to Hermione, while she just wanted to walk up ahead to talk to Harry. Harry was glad Viktor knew he had no interest in Hermione, or it would all look a bit suspicious.
All Harry wanted was a hot bath, a hot drink, and bed, in that order. And to call Seren Du — he needed to talk to Remus about getting a present for Snape. The man had definitely saved his arse on this task.
.-.-.
The day after the task was a Saturday, and Harry was inordinately pleased not to have to go to classes. He emerged for breakfast wearing a thick jumper and two pairs of socks, his Gryffindor scarf wrapped around his neck — even after the Pepper-Up and a long bath, he couldn't quite shake the chill that had settled into his bones. He sat with the other champions and their assorted crowd at breakfast; everyone else who had been in the lake was layered up as well, except Viktor. "I am Slavic," he said by way of explanation, reaching for the coffee pot.
Fleur had Gabrielle sat on her lap, and was dropping kisses on the girl's silver-blonde hair every few minutes. She was still clearly shell-shocked from thinking she had failed her sister in the worst of ways. Harry squeezed her hand under the table, offering a supportive smile.
"I get that you lot were all risking your lives down there and everything," Fred remarked from across the table, "but it was a bit boring for the rest of us to watch."
Harry had wondered about that. "Did they not have screens, or anything with tracking charms so you could watch?"
Both twins shook their heads. "We sat and stared at the lake for an hour," Cassius confirmed in a drawl. "It was thrilling, really."
"You'd think they would've figured something out," Cho mused, leaning into Cedric's shoulder, swamped by a huge Hufflepuff Quidditch Team hoodie with 'Diggory' on the back. "The tournament being a spectator sport and all. At least the first task was fun to watch."
"Hopefully the third task will be more entertaining," Harry said. The other three champions groaned.
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