The next morning he was standing with Hermione on one of the bridges at Hogwarts and Hermione didn't seem happy. "Danny you told me you'd figured the egg out weeks ago, the task is two days from now."

"Yeah I know, and I didn't say I figured it out I said I had it handled, and I don't know why your so mad but as far as I know I didn't do anything." Danny sighed and messed up his hair a little, "I guess Viktor already figured it out didn't he?"

"Wouldn't know, didn't actually talk about the tournament, actually we didn't really talk at all, Viktor's more of a physical being." Danny laughed a little before he could stop himself and he did everything he could not to laugh even more. Hermione seemed to quickly catch on as well, "I just mean he's not particularly aquatious."

Danny nodded, "Yeah, sure."

Hermione hit him lightly on the arm, "Mostly he watches me study, it's a bit annoying actually." Hermione then looked a bit serious, "You are trying to figure this egg out aren't you?"

Danny sighed, "I've tried everything, I even tried singing to the damn thing in a desperate attempt to get it not to screech at me."

"Danny these tasks are supposed to test you, in the most brutal way they're almost cruel." She tried to get him to look at her, "And, um, I'm worried about you, you got by the dragons mostly on nerve, I'm not sure it's going to be enough this time."

Danny then heard someone call to him, "Phantom!" Danny glanced at who it was before he started walking in the opposite direction, "Hey Phantom!"

Danny mentally sighed, "Cedric."

Danny decided to turn to Cedric and he looked at him, Cedric looked ever so slightly nervous, "How are you?"

Danny gave him a sceptical look, "Look if your just talking to me to insult me or something I don't want to hear it."

Cedric looked slightly alarmed, "No!" He sighed, "Look I realized I never really thanked you properly for tipping me off about those dragons."

Danny shook his head, "I just didn't want you going in blind when I knew something that could help you."

"Exactly." Cedric smiled a little, "You know the prefects bathroom on the fifth floor?" Danny nodded, "It's not a bad place for a bath, just take you egg and mull things over in the hot water."

Cedric walked away and Danny whispered to himself, "Was that a flirtation?"

Death seemed rather amused by that and assured him that, no, it wasn't, but was in fact helpful advice. That night Danny snuck into the bathroom and when he got into the water the fossetts for the different soaps automatically turned on. He had the egg with him at the edge of the bath and he looked at the scars he had everywhere.

The most recent one was on his stomach, if someone else had caused the wound you probably could have seen his organs. This scar was the first visual reminder he'd ever gotten from one of his episodes and it bothered him. He decided to push the scar out of his mind and focus on trying to figure out what he was supposed to do now.

There was a stain glass window of a mermaid and it looked at him, even the windows could move. Danny sighed, "Okay Death, any helpful advice?"

After a few seconds he heard a girls voice, "I'd try putting it in the water if I were you."

Danny looked over and was a bit surprised, "Myrtle?" Death then tossed the egg in the water and Danny sighed, "Really, you just had to do that didn't you?"

Myrtle ignored what he said to Death and smiled, "Hello Danny, long time no see." She then noticed that he was in the bath and Danny felt the urge to go under the water and drown himself. Myrtle then flew above him, "I was circling a blocked drain the other day and could swear I saw a bit of polyjuice potion, not being a bad boy again are you Danny?"

"Why would I want to look like anyone else when I already look this good?" Danny looked a bit more serious now, "So why should I put the egg in the water?"

Myrtle flew into the water before coming back up, "Well that's what he did, the other boy, the handsome one, Cedric."

Danny quietly sighed before going underwater and opening the egg that Death had pushed in. He was very glad he could hold his breath longer then normal people. He listened to what sounded like a song and he went back above the water when he heard the whole thing. "Oh my god there are merpeople in the lake."

Myrtle slowly got closer to him, "Oh, very good, it took Cedric ages to riddle it out, almost all the bubbles were gone."

Danny started getting uncomfortable as he tried to move away and spoke, "Evasive maneuvers." Death quickly caught on and used Danny's bath robe to hide him from Myrtle while he got out. Danny put it on as soon as he was out and Death urged him to leave the bathroom as soon as possible.

The next day he was with Ron and Hermione in the library trying to find some way to stay underwater for an hour without drowning. He could hold his breath for twenty to thirty minutes if he had to but that wasn't nearly enough time. He wasn't even paying attention until Moody walked in and spoke, "Hate to break up the scholar session."

The three looked at him, "Professor McGonagall would like to see you in her office." Danny started to get up but Moody stopped him, "Not you Phantom, just Weasley and Granger."

Hermione protested, "But sir, the second task is only hours away and-."

Moody cut her off, "Exactly, presumably Phantom is well prepared by now and could do with a good night's sleep. Go, now!"

Ron and Hermione left, Danny started packing up and Moody looked at him before shouting. "Longbottom, why don't you help Phantom put his books back."

Moody walked away and Danny glanced at Neville who spoke, "You know, if your interested in plants you'd be better off with Gorshok's guide to herbology. Do you know there's a wizard in Nepal who's growing gravity resistant tree."

Danny hit his head on the table, "I'm more concerned about finding one that will let me breathe underwater but that's not working out too well."

"You can always use gillyweed."

Danny suddenly sat up straight and looked at Neville, "Neville I could kiss you right now." Neville gave him a strange look, the next day as he was walking to the lake Neville handed him the gillyweed. "So this stuff will let me breathe underwater for an hour?"

"Most likely."

Danny raised an eyebrow, "Most likely?"

"Well there is some debate among herbologists as to the effects of freshwater versus saltwater."

"Then let me rephrase, will it work for around an hour?"

"It should."

"Great, and have you seen Ron and Hermione?" Neville shook his head and Danny sighed, "You seem a little tense Danny."

"Just concerned." Neville looked a bit confused but Danny wouldn't say anything after that, they took a boat to the platforms for the next challenge and waited.

Dumbledore eventually spoke, "Welcome to the second challenge, 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 only find their treasure and return to the surface."

Moody pulled him closer, "Put that in your mouth." Death was just about to push the man off the platform but Danny stopped him with a small gesture. Danny ate the gillyweed and looked at his clothes, due to his scars he managed to get a long sleeved shirt and swimming pants. The pants were black and the shirt had the Hogwarts symbol on it with the colors of his house, thank god for McGonagall.

Danny felt like he couldn't breathe and when the canon went off he dove into the water as soon as he could. He took a breath and he could breathe, so Neville had pointed him in the right direction, he smirked. His hands and feet were now webbed so he could swim faster, he decided to show off a little and did a flip over the water before going down again.

He used his flight to give him a slight speed boost and used his hearing to try and figure out where to go. He dove into a ravine and he heard singing, it got louder the farther down he went and he looked around. He swam through the tall plants in the water and looked around, he heard what sounded like a scream.

When he swam over there was nothing there, he decided not to waste time and continued searching. Something swam by him and he dodged it, as it swam away he saw that it was a merperson, well shit. Death urged him to follow and he did, he trusted the specter with his life and he hadn't led him wrong yet.

The singing got louder and he reached what seemed like a path marked by tall pillars and he saw four people in the water. Ron, Hermione, Cho Chang, and a girl with blonde hair, he was fairly sure he had seen her with Fleur a few times. He swam over to Ron first and untied the plant holding him in the water, a few seconds later Cedric showed up and used his wand to burn the plant holding Cho.

Cedric tapped his watch and Danny nodded before Cedric grabbed Cho and swam up to get out of the water. Danny was going to get the plant off Hermione too but the merpeople stopped him and he spoke, "Got a problem?"

"Only one." The merpeople swam away and Danny growled, a few seconds later a shark came out of nowhere and bit the plant holding Hermione. He'd bet that it was Krum, the boy grabbed Hermione and swam away, Danny waited to see where Fleur was but she was nowhere in sight.

He looked at the lone girl, he should leave but he couldn't, his boyfriend would say it was his hero complex. Danny took out his wand and looked around before blasting the plant and using his flight to quickly swim over. He grabbed the girl and swam like hell toward the surface, he wasn't going to leave her behind no matter who she was.

It was just his luck that the gillyweed's affects started wearing off not long after he started swimming up. He couldn't swim as fast now so it would take longer to get Ron and the girl out of the water, that wasn't good. Some of the merpeople tried to stop him and he growled, he still had the gills, he could take part of a breath.

He took as deep a breath as he could and used his ghostly wail, it was enough to get the merpeople off of him. He used his flight to quickly swim out of the water and he knew he needed to get out fast, he wouldn't last much longer. The merpeople were still after him and he had two options, he could either hold onto the two and risk them getting caught or let them go while he held off the merpeople.

He let the two go so they could float toward the surface and he used his wand to stun the merpeople. Danny was really starting to have problems now, Death grabbed his hand and just as he was about to blackout he broke the surface of the water. He took a deep breath and coughed out the little bit of water that had gotten into his lungs, he smiled a little. "Thanks."

Death put a hand on his shoulder and Danny climbed onto the platform, people helped him up and Seamus put a towel on his shoulders. Seamus shouted for someone to get him another towel and Dumbledore called for all the judges while Danny coughed up the last bit of water. Fleur then knelt next to him, "You saved her even though she wasn't yours to save, my little sister."

Fleur kissed his cheeks, "Thank you, thank you." She then went over to Ron and did the same since he helped get her sister out of the water.

Death put a hand on his shoulder again before Hermione ran over, "Danny!"

"Oh hey."

"Are you alright, you must be freezing." She put her towel on him before speaking again, "Personally I think you behaved admirably."

"I finished last and nearly drowned."

"Next to last, Fleur never got past the grindylows."

Dumbledore then spoke, "Attention!" When nobody paid attention he used a spell to project his voice, "Attention!" Everyone shut up immediately, "The winner is Mr. Diggory!"

Cedric and his friends cheered as Dumbledore continued, "For showing unique command of the bubble head charm. However seeing as Mr. Phantom would have finished first had it not been for his determination to rescue not only Mr. Weasley but the others as well we've agreed to award him second place!"

Danny was a bit shocked and Ron and Hermione congratulated him as Dumbledore once again continued. "For outstanding moral fiber."

People cheered and everyone was eventually able to leave, as he was walking down the dock to head to the school the twins and Ron talked about why he won. He stopped when he saw Crouch standing at the end of the dock, "Congratulations Phantom, a fine achievement, well done boy."

Danny smiled a little, "Thanks."

Ron shouted, "See you at Hagrid's Danny!"

Danny nodded and Crouch continued, "I'm sorry we haven't spoken, your story is one I've heard so many times. Quite remarkable really, tragic, of course, to lose one's family, never whole again are we? Still life goes on, and here we stand, I'm sure your parents would be very proud of you today Phantom."

Moody suddenly spoke, "Bartimaeus, not trying to lure Phantom into one of the ministry's summer internships are we? Last boy who went into the department of mysteries never came out." Crouch's smile slowly faded and he stepped closer to Moody, he stared at him for a second before walking away. "And they say I'm mad."

Crouch looked at Moody again before leaving and Death seemed like he was going to kill Moody if he got too close. After what just happened he was more protective at the moment, Moody took a drink from his flask before walking away. Later that night he was walking with Hagrid, Ron, and Hermione in the woods and the tall man spoke, "Now I remember, I remember when I first met you all."

"Biggest bunch of misfits I've ever set eyes on, always reminded me of myself a little, and here we are four years later."

Ron laughed a little, "We're still a bunch of misfits."

"Well, maybe, but we've all got each other, and Danny of course, soon to be the youngest triwizard champion there's ever been!" Hagrid and Hermione then cheered and began to chant the schools name and Danny spotted something on the ground. Ron joined in as they started singing a small song and Danny's scar started to hurt so he put a hand over it.

He walked around a tree and his eyes widened when he saw someone sitting under it, it was Crouch. Danny then yelled to Hagrid, "Hagrid, either get Madam Pomfrey or help me out over here!"

The three came running and Danny checked Crouch's pulse, he didn't have one, "He's dead."

The trio's eyes widened and Hermione spoke, "Are you sure?"

"I know how to check a pulse, he's dead." Danny felt Death lean closer to the man and for a few seconds he saw the specter and he took Crouch's soul. Death held it like it was glass, the soul of a dead man that didn't deserve to die like this, and Death seemed almost solemn. Death soon disappeared but Danny could still feel his presence, Death already took care of the soul.

He later found himself heading to Dumbledore's office and he heard the headmaster speak. "A man has died here Fudge and he won't be the last, you must take action."

"I will not, at times like these the wizard world looks to it's leaders for strength Dumbledore."

"Then for once show them some."

"The triwizard tournament will not be cancelled, I will not be seen as a coward."

"But surely that is what's right, no matter what others think."

"What did you say, what did you say to me?"

Moody suddenly spoke in the room, "Excuse me gentlemen, might interest you to know this conversation is no longer private."

The door suddenly opened and Danny was leaning on the doorframe, he was just about to knock but he put his hand down. Fudge looked at him, "Oh Danny, Danny how good to see you again."

Danny looked at Dumbledore, "I can come back later."

Dumbledore put up his hand to stop him, "Not necessary Danny the minister and I are done, I'll be back in a moment, minister after you." Dumbledore handed Fudge his hat, "Oh Danny do feel free to indulge in a licorice snack in my absence, but I have to warn you, they're a wee bit sharp."

Dumbledore, Fudge, and Moody then left and Moody used his wand to shut the door behind him. Danny leaned on one of the glass cases and when it started moving behind him he stepped away from it. When he did a strange bowl like thing with some sort of glowing liquid in it came out and Danny looked a bit confused.

Death urged him to walk over and Danny took out his wand before moving the liquid to try and figure out what it was. Within seconds he saw images in the liquid and it felt like he fell though the bowl and into the room the images were showing.