"Shouldn't they be back by now?" Fred asked his brother, glancing at the clock in the common room. "Why? You want to get another snog from Tori?"

Fred had finally cracked and decided to tell George about what happened. He was sworn to secrecy, but of course, Fred doubted that would last. "How many times do I have to say this. We did not snog." Fred rolled his eyes, watching a group of girls enter the portrait.

"Mhm," George replied, fiddling with his papers for the next day. They were planning on taking bets. It was nearing midnight by then, and Tori hadn't been back yet. "Maybe McGonagall's helping Tori with an extra lesson. She's always going on about how she needs to bring her Transfiguration grade up."

Fred nodded, yawning, and running his fingers through his hair. "Y-yeah. Maybe it's that."

The twins decided to head up to their dormitory, where Lee laid passed out, snoring with his mouth open. George sniggered, pondering some sort of prank.

The next morning Fred had to be shaken to be woken up. "We're going to be late for the task! Come on, we've got to be down by the docks!"

"Alright! Alright! I'm getting up." Fred muttered, rubbing his face.

Tori was still nowhere to be seen. Angelina and Alicia have assumed she was with them, and no one seemed to know where she was. Fred had a bad feeling about this. The last time this happened, Tori was petrified for a month.

He tried to act as normal as possible. Maybe she was helping Cedric get ready for the task. Yeah, that was probably it. He and George were one of the first to arrive down by the lake. They decided to use that to their advantage.

"Three guys!"

"One lady!"

"All four go down!"

"But will all four come up?"

They bumped into Ginny, who turned to them and glared. "Don't be so mean." The twins only looked at each other before going back to exactly what they were doing.

"Hey, Harry! Don't you reckon you should be down there already? Hey, have you seen Tori?" Fred asked the boy on the hilltop after taking a bet. Harry shook his head, looking at the lake panicked.

"What's going on? Hey... where's Ron and Hermione?"

"They're at the bottom of the lake!"

"What?!" Fred looked at him bewildered. "Tori too. They're part of the next task..."

"How... how can she— they breathe?"

"I don't know. I have to get down there."

Filled with the sense of dread and horror, Fred quickly rushed towards the docks, taking little bets along the way.

"Welcome to the second task." Dumbledore's voice rang through the three stands, lined with students. Fred hadn't gotten the chance to tell the others what had happened. He was squished between Ginny and George.

"Last night something was stolen from each of our champions. A treasure of sorts. These four treasures, one for each champion, now lie on the bottom of the black lake. In order to win each champion need I'll only find their treasure and return to the surface. Simple enough. Except for this, they will have one hour to do so and one hour only. After that, they'll be on their own. On the count of three, then. One... two... three!"

The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air;
the stands erupted with cheers and applause as the four champions dove in. "I can't believe Tori is missing this!" Angelina shouted over the cheers.

"She's not missing it. She's in it!" Fred shouted back, causing the group to look at him. "Harry told me... the mermaids, they took students!"

Meanwhile, Harry was swimming far and had just reached Ron. He glanced around, seeing all four of the hostages appeared to be in a very deep sleep. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths.

Harry sped towards the hostages, half expecting the merpeople to lower their spears and charge at him, but they did nothing. The ropes of weed tying the hostages to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong.

He looked around. Many of the merpeople surrounding them were carrying spears. He swam swiftly towards a seven-foot-tall merman with a long green beard and a choker of shark fangs, and tried to mime a request to borrow the spear. The merman laughed and shook his head.

"We do not help," he said in a harsh, croaky voice. "Come ON!" Harry said fiercely (but only bubbles issued from his mouth), and he tried to pull the spear away from the merman, but the merman yanked it back, still shaking his head and laughing

Harry swirled around, staring about. Something sharp... anything ...

There were rocks littering the lake bottom. He dived and snatched up a particularly jagged one, and returned to the statue. He began to hack at the ropes binding Ron, and after several minutes' hard work, they broke apart. Ron floated, unconscious, a few inches above the lake bottom, drifting a little in the ebb of the water.

Harry looked around. There was no sign of any of the other champions. What were they playing at? Why didn't they hurry up? He turned back to Hermione and Tori, raised the jagged rock, and began to hack at Hermione's bindings, too.

At once, several pairs of strong grey hands seized him. Half-a-dozen mermen were pulling him away from the girls, shaking their green-haired heads and laughing.

"You take your own hostage," One of them said to him. "Leave the others..."

"No way!" said Harry furiously – but only two large bubbles came out. "Your task is to retrieve your own friend... leave the others..."

"She's my friend, too!" Harry yelled, gesturing towards Hermione, an enormous silver bubble emerging soundlessly from his lips. "And I don't want them to die, either!"

Tori's head was on Hermione's shoulder; the small silver-haired girl was ghostly green and pale. Harry struggled to fight off the mermen, but they laughed harder than ever, holding him back.

Harry looked wildly around. Where were the other champions? Would he have time to take Ron to the surface, and come back down for the others? Would he be able to find them again? He looked down at his watch to see how much time was left – it had stopped working.

But then the merpeople around him started pointing excitedly over his head. Harry looked up and saw Cedric swimming towards them. There was an enormous bubble around his head, which made his features look oddly wide and stretched.

"Got lost!" He mouthed, looking panic-stricken. "Fleur and Krum're coming now!"

Feeling enormously relieved, Harry watched Cedric pull a knife out of his pocket and cut Tori free. He pulled her upwards and out of sight.

Tori was still asleep, being dragged along with Cedric. He glanced back a few times, making sure she looked okay. She looked a bit pale but otherwise calm.

He began to see the tip of the stands when his foot was caught in a large piece kelp. He struggled for a moment and decided to push Tori to the surface while he cut himself loose.

Tori was immediately awoken the moment her head broke out of the water. She took a huge breath, only for her mouth to be filled with water. She went back under, quickly kicking upwards. She struggled only for a moment, then kept herself afloat.

The crowd was screaming and cheering loudly. Tori felt a sigh of relief before realizing Cedric wasn't with her. She turned around every direction, trying to see him through the murky water.

There was a loud splash next to her, and Cedric had just come out. "Oh, thank Godric." Tori's face broke out into an immediate grin.

Cedric grinned as well, grabbing her and helping her up towards the judge's table. They all marked something down in their sheets while Madam Pomfrey came over and began immediately fussing over Cedric and Tori. She made them sit wrapped in large towels. She sat next to Fleur, who for some reason didn't have her sister with her.

Fred felt a great relief seeing Tori pop out of the water. He wanted to rush down and see if she was okay, but the crowd began to scream once again. Krum and Hermione had just submerged. Percy, who was there for some odd reason, stood nearby, watching the water for no doubt, his own brother.

Krum and Hermione were placed next to Cedric and Tori, all of them shivering. Madam Pomfrey handed each of them a Pepper-Up Potion. It smelled like peppermints. "You Alright?" Cedric asked her. Tori nodded, squeezing out her hair.

"I think I'm flattered I'm the thing most you'd miss most."

Cedric laughed. "Well, I care about my friends."

The crowd in the stands was making a great deal of noise; shouting and screaming, everybody seemed to be on their feet all of the sudden. Tori looked out to see Harry with Ron... and Gabrielle.

Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur Delacour, who was quite hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water. "Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she 'urt?"

Gabrielle was struggling to stay afloat, so Tori quickly shoved off her blanket and leaned over the floor, pulling the soaking girl upwards. Cedric grabbed the back of her shoulder, keeping her from falling in.

'She's fine!" Harry's voice was hardly a shout, he did look exhausted.

Percy seized Ron and was dragging him back to the bank ("Gerroff, Percy, I'm all right!")  Dumbledore and Bagman were pulling Harry upright. Fleur had broken free of Madame Maxime and was hugging her sister, who had left Tori soaking wet once again.

"It was ze Grindylows... zey attacked me... oh, Gabrielle, I thought... I thought ..."

Tori turned to see Dumbledore was crouching at the water's edge, deep in conversation with what seemed to be the chief merperson, a particularly wild- and ferocious-looking female. He was making the same sort of screechy noises that the merpeople made when they were above water; clearly, Dumbledore could speak Mermish. Finally, he straightened up, turned to his fellow judges, and said, "A conference before we give the marks, I think."

The judges went into a huddle. Madam Pomfrey had gone to rescue Ron from Percy's clutches; she led him over to Tori, who patted him on the back. Madam Pomfrey gave him a blanket and some Pepper-Up Potion then went to fetch Fleur and her sister. Fleur had many cuts on her face and arms, and her robes were torn, but she didn't seem to care, nor would she allow Madam Pomfrey to clean them.

"Look after Gabrielle," She told her, and then she turned to Harry. "You saved 'er,' she said breathlessly. "Even though she was not your 'ostage."

" Yeah," Harry said, who was going red. Fleur bent down, kissed Harry twice on each cheek. Cedric and Tori were trying not to laugh out loud at the young boy's face of shock. Fleur then said to Ron, "And you, too – you 'elped –"

"Yeah," said Ron, looking extremely hopeful, "yeah, a bit –"

Fleur swooped down on him, too, and kissed him. She then turned to Tori, who was still shivering under her towel. "'Ank you for pulling her from de water! She is not the best seemar!" She squeezed Tori in a hug so hard Tori thought she'd just dry out like a wet rag. "No. Problem." Tori squeaked.

Ludo Bagman's magically magnified voice boomed out beside them, making them all jump, and causing the crowd in the stands to go very quiet. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Mer-chieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows...

"Miss Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by Grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points."

There was applause from the stands.

"I deserved zero," Fleur said throatily, shaking her head.

"Mr. Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour." Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd. Tori gave Cedric a glowing look. "We, therefore, award him forty-seven points." Tori nudged him with a grin.

"Mr. Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Trans-figuration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points." Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior.

"Mr. Harry Potter used Gillyweed to great effect,' Bagman continued. "He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own."

Tori gave Harry a half-exasperated, half-commiserating look. He wanted to save everyone?

"Most of the judges"– and here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look – "feel that this shows moral fibre and merits full marks. However... Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."

Harry was now tied for first place with Cedric. Cedric didn't seem to care, he just clapped with a grin on his face. "Atta boy, Harry!" Tori shouted.

Fleur was clapping very hard, too, but Krum didn't look very happy at all. He attempted to engage Hermione in conversation again, but she was too busy cheering Harry to listen.

"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June,' continued Bagman. "That's the day after my birthday," Tori whispered to Cedric, who smiled. "The champions will be notified of what is coming, precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."

i need this for something in the future!
what's one thing you feel tori always says?
ex. ron says bloody hell

also hey lee cult.
you've guys been pretty quiet lately.
i miss you