"You said you'd already worked out that egg clue!" said Hermione indignantly.

"Keep your voice down!" said Harry crossly. "I just need to - sort of fine-tune it, all right?"

He, Johnny, Ron, and Hermione were sitting at the very back of the Charms class with a table to themselves. They were supposed to be practicing the opposite of the Summoning Charm today - the Banishing Charm. Owing to the potential for nasty accidents when objects kept flying across the room. Professor Flitwick had given each student a stack of cushions on which to practice, the theory being that these wouldn't hurt anyone if they went off target. It was a good theory, but it wasn't working very well. Neville's aim was so poor that he kept accidentally sending much heavier things flying across the room - Professor Flitwick, for instance.

"Just forget the egg for a minute, all right?" Harry hissed as Professor Flitwick went whizzing resignedly past them, landing on top of a large cabinet. "I'm trying to tell you about Snape and Moody...."

This class was an ideal cover for a private conversation, as everyone was having far too much fun to pay them any attention. Harry had been recounting his adventures of the previous night in whispered installments for the last half hour.

"Snape said Moody's searched his office as well?" Johnny whispered, his eyes alight with interest as he Banished a cushion with a sweep of his wand (it soared into the air and knocked Parvati's hat off). "What'd you reckon Moody's here to keep an eye on Snape as well as Karkaroff?"

"Well, I dunno if that's what Dumbledore asked him to do, but he's definitely doing it," said Harry, waving his wand without paying much attention, so that his cushion did an odd sort of belly flop off the desk. "Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stay here because he's giving him a second chance or something...."

"What?" said Ron, his eyes widening, his next cushion spinning high into the air, ricocheting off the chandelier, and dropping heavily onto Flitwick's desk. "Harry... maybe Moody thinks Snape put your name in the Goblet of Fire!"

"Oh Ron," said Hermione, shaking her head sceptically, "we thought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out he was saving Harry's life, remember?"

She Banished a cushion and it flew across the room and landed in the box they were all supposed to be aiming at.

"I don't care what Moody says," Hermione went on. "Dumbledore's not stupid. He was right to trust Hagrid and Professor Lupin, even though loads of people wouldn't have given them jobs, so why shouldn't he be right about Snape, even if Snape is a bit -"

"-evil," said Ron promptly. "Come on, Hermione, why are all these Dark wizard catchers searching his office, then?"

"Why has Mr. Crouch been pretending to be ill?" said Hermione, ignoring Ron. "It's a bit funny, isn't it, that he cant manage to come to the Yule Ball, but he can get up here in the middle of the night when he wants to?"

"You and Johnny just don't like Crouch because of that elf, Winky," said Ron, sending a cushion soaring into the window.

"Well, he abuses a member of my pack," Johnny seethed, his eyes turning red at the thought. "And I can't do nothing about it."

"And Ron justs want to think Snape's up to something," said Hermione, sending her cushion zooming neatly into the box.

"I just want to know what Snape did with his first chance, if he's on his second one," said Harry grimly, and his cushion, to his very great surprise, flew straight across the room and landed neatly on top of Hermione's.

"Heard anything from my sperm donor of a father?" Johnny asked, trying to ignore the pit of hate and jealousy in his stomach.

"No," Harry shook his head, then hesitantly saying, "I've got to send him a letter tonight. Anything you want me to tell him."

"Tell him not to bother coming to the Manor this summer," Johnny said, banishing the cushion to the box. "And if he shows up, I'll get every fucking Auror in this country on his arse."

That conversation ended in a tense silence. Then they turned their attention in an instant to the most urgent problem facing Harry: how to survive underwater for an hour on the twenty-fourth of February.

Ron quite liked the idea of using the Summoning Charm again - Harry, Hermione and Johnny had explained about Aqua-Lungs, and Ron couldn't see why Harry shouldn't Summon one from the nearest Muggle town. Hermione squashed this plan by pointing out that, in the unlikely event that Harry managed to learn how to operate an Aqua-Lung within the set limit of an hour, he was sure to be disqualified for breaking the International Code of Wizarding Secrecy - it was too much to hope that no Muggles would spot an Aqua-Lung zooming across the countryside to Hogwarts.

"Of course, the ideal solution would be for you to Transfigure yourself into a submarine or something," Hermione said. "If only we'd done human Transfiguration already! But I don't think we start that until sixth year, and it can go badly wrong if you don't know what you're doing...."

"I know human Transfiguration," Johnny raised his hand. "And I can't only turn into a werewolf, I know how to change my appearance using my wand."

His three friends looked at him funny.

"What? My grandfather taught me," Johnny said innocently. "All the guards in Nurmengard were situated outside of the grounds, leaving me, him and my mother, and my grandfather removed the trace on me so I could practice magic without the Ministry up my arse, but Human Transfiguration is very complex, Harry, I think your best chance is some sort of charm."

With two days left, Harry started to go off food again. At breakfast, the brown owl Harry used to send a letter to Jakob arrived back.

Send date of next Hogsmeade weekend by return owl.

"Let me guess? Uncle Jakey wants to meet you in Hogsmade," Johnny said in a fake baby voice, wiping away an invisible tear. "Is he scared baby Potter is having nightmares?"

"You're mental," Ron muttered from beside him, causing Johnny to grin.

"That's life," Johnny shrugged, starting to sing to himself. "That's what all the people say, you're riding high in April, shot down in may..."

Ignoring his cousin, Harry turned the parchment over and looked at the back, hoping to see something else, but it was blank.

"Weekend after next," whispered Hermione, who had read the note over Harry's shoulder. "Here - take my quill and send this owl back straight away."

Harry scribbled the dates down on the back of Sirius's letter, tied it onto the brown owl's leg, and watched it take flight again.

"What's he want to know about the next Hogsmeade weekend for?" said Ron.

"Dunno," said Harry dully. "Come on...Care of Magical Creatures."

"Did you mention to him about not coming back?" Johnny asked, linking hands with Hermione and kissing her head, causing the girl to giggle.

"Uh, no," Harry said slowly. "I forgot. I'll mention it in the next one."

"Where've you been?" Pansy asked Johnny as she approached the group of four.

"Well you spend all fo your free time with Dani so I spend mine with my girlfriend," Johnny shrugged, not looking in his best friends direction.

"Aw, you're jealous!" Hermione pointed out.

"I don't get jealous," Johnny said bitterly, glaring heatedly at Harry.

"Yes you do," Ron butted in.

"With Krum" Harry pointed out.

"Your father's and Harry's relationship-" Ron continued.

"With any boy who enters a five meter radius with Hermione-" Pansy continued on from them.

"Alright! I get it!" Johnny seethed, letting go of Hermione and storming on ahead of his friends.

Whether Hagrid was trying to make up for the Blast-Ended Skrewts, or because there were now only two skrewts left, or because he was trying to prove he could do anything that Professor Grubbly-Plank could, they didnt know, but Hagrid had been continuing her lessons on unicorns ever since he'd returned to work. It turned out that Hagrid knew quite as much about unicorns as he did about monsters, though it was clear that he found their lack of poisonous fangs disappointing.

Today he had managed to capture two unicorn foals. Unlike full-grown unicorns, they were pure gold. Parvati and Lavender went into transports of delight at the sight of them, and even Stephanie Cattleman had to work hard to conceal how much she liked them.

"Easier ter spot than the adults," Hagrid told the class. "They turn silver when they're abou' two years old, an' they grow horns at aroun four. Don' go pure white till they're full grown, 'round about seven. They're a bit more trustin' when they're babies...don' mind boys so much....C'mon, move in a bit, yeh can pat 'em if yeh want...give 'em a few o' these sugar lumps..."

"You okay, Johnny?" Hagrid muttered, moving aside, while most of the others swarmed around the baby unicorns. The Half-Giant noticed how Johnny was distancing himself from his peers and grew concerned. Johnny was sat on a tree trunk, about ten metres away from the group

"No," Johnny muttered, crossing his arms and looking towards the ground. He knew it was pointless lying to Hagrid. "No I'm not."

"Was' the matter?" Hagrid asked, placing a comforting hand on Johnny's shoulder.

"My friends seem to think I'm jealous," Johnny said, lifting his head to look at his friends patting and feeding the foals. "B-but I'm not. I-I'm just insecure."

"What have yer' got to be insecure about?" Hagrid asked sitting next to him. Even sat down, Hagrid was still tall. Him and Johnny were actually the same height while sitting.

"My father and Harry, Krum and Hermione, Dani and Pansy," Johnny said, not showing Hagrid the tears welling up in his eyes.

"Johnny, Hermione picked you," Hagrid said, slapping Johnny on the back. "As for yer' dad, well I can't justify why he's been avoiding you all year, especially after what happened with yer' mam, but I know Pansy is a loyal friend to you, she wouldn't just forget about you for a random girl."

"I-I know your right," Johnny said, taking a breath. "But in my head it doesn't. There's like a voice in the back of my head contradicting everything. It tells me Hermione will leave me for Krum, my father considers me a disappointment and prefers Harry over me. They'll all realise eventually that I'm dead weight and cast me off aside."

"For someone who gets full marks in every exam, yer really are stupid," Hagrid grinned, shaking his head. "Like I said, I can't justify your father, but yer' mates love you, Johnny."

"There's actually two voices inside my head," Johnny said. "My inner wolf, I named him Mozart, after the composer? And then there's my own voice, and they're always battling against each other."

"And what does Mozart say?"

"Hermione and I are mates, you know that soulmates?" Johnny said, looking to where Hermione was sat stroking the unicorn foal.

"Well I think you just answered your question on why she picked you," Hagrid laughed. "Mates are destined to meet, fall in love and spend the rest of their lives together, but to complete the full mating process, yer got to mark her, Johnny."

"Y-you mean-?"

"Make her a werewolf," Hagrid muttered sadly. "Of course, she wouldn't be an ordinary werewolf like Professor Lupin, she'd by like you. She'd willingly keep her mind on a full moon without Wolfsbane, she'd have purple eyes as she's only a mate, but she'll still have the fangs and the claws. She'll be the Queen of the Supernatural."

"I'll talk to her about it," Johnny muttered. "Thanks Hagrid."

"No problem at all, Johnny."

On the evening before the second task, Johnny sat with Harry,Hermione and Ron in the library as the sun set outside, tearing feverishly through page after page of spells, hidden from one another by the massive piles of books on the desk in front of each of them.

"I don't reckon it can be done," said Ron's voice flatly from the other side of the table. "There's nothing. Nothing. Closest was that thing to dry up puddles and ponds, that Drought Charm, but that was nowhere near powerful enough to drain the lake."

"There must be something," Hermione muttered, moving a candle closer to her. Her eyes were so tired she was poring over the tiny print of Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes with her nose about an inch from the page. "They'd never have set a task that was undoable."

"They have," said Johnny. "Harry, just go down to the lake tomorrow, right, stick your head in, yell at the merpeople to give back whatever they've nicked, and see if they chuck it out. Best you can do, mate."

Ron laughed but Hermione whacked her boyfriend around the back of the head.

"There's a way of doing it!" Hermione said crossly. "There just has to be!"

She seemed to be taking the library's lack of useful information on the subject as a personal insult; it had never failed her before.

"I know what I should have done," said Harry, resting, face-down, on Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts. "I should've learned to be an Animagus like Jakob, my Dad and Sirius."

"Yeah, you could've turned into a goldfish any time you wanted!" said Ron.

"Or a frog," yawned Harry. He was exhausted.

"It takes years to become an Animagus, and then you have to register yourself and everything," said Hermione vaguely, now squinting down the index of Weird Wizarding Dilemmas and Their Solutions. "Professor McGonagall told us, remember... you've got to register yourself with the Improper Use of Magic Office... what animal you become, and your markings, so you can't abuse it..."

"...Hermione, I was joking," said Harry wearily. "I know I haven't got a chance of turning into a frog by tomorrow morning...."

"Oh this is no use," Hermione said, snapping shut Weird Wizarding Dilemmas. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?"

"I wouldn't mind," said Fred's  voice. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"

Johnny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked up. Fred and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves.

"What're you two doing here?" Ron asked.

"Looking for you," said George. "McGonagall wants you, Ron. And you, Hermione."

"Why?" said Hermione, looking surprised.

"Dunno... she was looking a bit grim, though," said Fred.

"We're supposed to take you down to her office," said George.

"We'll meet you back in the common room," Hermione told Harry as she got up to go with Ron - both of them looked very anxious. "Bring as many of these books as you can, okay?"

"Right," said Harry uneasily.

"Can I talk with you a minute?" Johnny asked, suddenly building enough confidence.

"Uh," Hermione said, looking at Fred and George, who both nodded for them.

"Well, remember the whole Mozart thing I told you about?" Johnny asked, leading Hermione to a secluded part of the library.

"Your inner wolf," Hermione confirmed with a nod.

"Yes, well he told me something, and he said I should go through with it..." Johnny trailed off, causing Hermione to grow concerned. "He said we're soulmates, you and I, and the only way to complete the process is-"

"By turning me," Hermione finished Johnny's sentence. "I'd be okay with that."

"W-what?" Johnny asked, his arms circling around Hermione's waist. "Mione, you need to give this proper thought."

"I have," Hermione said, placing her hand on Johnny's neck. "I've thought about it ever since you've gotten bitten, it would bring us closer than we already are, and it's got a nice ring to it."

"What has?"

"Queen Hermione Jean Granger-Grindelwald," Hermione whispered, kissing Johnny softly. "And King Johnathan Fleamont Gellert Grindelwald, King and Queen of all things Supernatural."

"Don't forget future Minister of Magic," Johnny joked, causing Hermione to giggle as he poked her side.

"We'll complete the process tonight."

With one final kiss, Hermione followed Ron and the twins out of the library and Johnny sat back down with Harry.

"You coming to the Gryffindor common room?" Harry asked Johnny tiredly. Johnny nodded. Staggering under the weight of as many books as they could carry, Johnny and Harry returned to the Gryffindor common room, pulled a table into a corner, and continued to search. There was nothing in Madcap Magic for Wacky Warlocks... nothing in A Guide to Medieval Sorcery... not one mention of underwater exploits in An Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Charms, or in Dreadful Denizens of the Deep, or Powers You Never Knew You Had and What to Do with Them Now You've Wised Up.

Crookshanks crawled into Johnny's lap and curled up, purring deeply. The common room emptied slowly around them. People kept wishing Harry luck for the next morning in cheery, confident voices like Hagrid's, all of them apparently convinced that he was about to pull off another stunning performance like the one he had managed in the first task. Harry couldn't answer them, he just nodded, feeling as though there were a golfball stuck in his throat. By ten to midnight, Johnny and Harry was alone in the room with Crookshanks. They had searched all the remaining books, and Ron and Hermione hadn't come back.

Johnny awoke the next morning in an empty Gryffindor common room, well he thought it was empty until Seamus and Dean came stumbling down the stairs.

"We're late!" Seamus yelled at Johnny, rubbing red and gold face paint on Johnny's cheeks. "We've on;y got ten minutes!"

"You what?!" Johnny yelled, rushing out of the common room behind Seamus and Dean, suddenly feeling like they were in an action movie as they sprinted down steps and slid down railings  The entrance hall contained a few last-minute stragglers, all leaving the Great Hall after breakfast and heading through the double oak doors to watch the second task. They stared as the three boys flashed past, sending Colin and Dennis Creevey flying as they leapt down the stone steps and out onto the bright, chilly grounds.

Johnny rushed towards where the judges and the champions were.

"I'm...here..." Johnny panted, skidding to a halt in the mud and accidentally splattering Fleur's robes.

"Where have you been?" said a bossy, disapproving voice. "The task's about to start!"

Johnny looked around. Percy Weasley was sitting at the judges' table - Mr. Crouch had failed to turn up again.

"Now, now, Percy!" said Ludo Bagman, who was looking intensely relieved to see Johnny here to support Harry. "Let him catch his breath!"

Dumbledore and Harry smiled at John h, but Krum, Karkaroff and Madame Maxime didn't look at all pleased to see him....

Johnny bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath; he had a stitch in his side that felt as though he had a knife between his ribs, but there was no time to get rid of it; Ludo Bagman was now moving among the champions, spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. Harry was on the very end of the line, next to Krum, who was wearing swimming trunks and was holding his wand ready.

"All right, Harry?" Johnny panted as he moved Harry a few feet farther away from Krum. "Know what you're going to do?"

"Yeah," Harry whispered.

"Where's Hermione and Ron?"

"That's the thing-"

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One...two...three!"

Johnny watched as Harry swallowed a green substance and threw himself in the water. After what felt like hours, Fleur broke the surface of the water, alive but unconscious as Johnny dived in the water to get her, getting loud cheers as Johnny saved the girl from potentially drowning.

"You're okay... you're okay..." Johnny mumbled to her as she woke up. Johnny lifted her onto the platform where Fleur was attended to by Madam Pompfry.

"S-she's still down there!" Fleur cried. "My leetle sister!"

And that's when Johnny realised what the champions had to safe. Cedric had to safe Cho, his girlfriend. Fleur had to safe Gabrielle, her sister. Harry had to safe Ron, his best friend. Which meant the teachers thought Krum and Hermione were together.

Cedric popped up fifteen minutes later with Cho, and then Krum with Hermione.

"Hermione!" Johnny shouted, relief flooding through him as he lifted the girl out of the water, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist. Noticing Krum on the edge of the platform, glaring at Johnny, the Grindelwald boy shoved the Bulgarian intentionally back into the water.

"It was an accident!" Johnny raised his hands in defence. Harry's head broke the surface of the water, panting, pulling Ron and the little girl up with him. All around him, wild, green-haired heads were emerging out of the water with him, but they were smiling at him.

The two boys pulled Fleur's sister through the water, back toward the bank where the judges stood watching, twenty merpeople accompanying them like a guard of honor, singing their horrible screechy songs.

Dumbledore and Johnny stood beaming at Harry and Ron from the bank as they swam nearer, but Percy, who looked very white and somehow much younger than usual, came splashing out to meet them. Meanwhile Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur, who was quite hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.

"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she 'urt?"

"She's fine!" Johnny told her, seizing the blonde around the waist to stop her from diving in.

Percy seized Ron and was dragging him back to the bank. Dumbledore and Bagman were pulling Harry upright; Fleur had broken free of Johnny and was hugging her sister.

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

"Come here, you," said Madam Pomfrey. "And you, Grindelwald, you're soaked from your little rescue mission."

She seized Harry and Johnny and pulled them over to Hermione and the others, wrapped them so tightly in a blanket that Johnny felt as though he were in a straitjacket, and forced a measure of very hot potion down their throats. Steam gushed out of his ears.

"Harry, well done!" Hermione cried. "You did it, you found out how all by yourself!"

"Well -" said Harry, but he had just noticed Karkaroff watching him."Yeah, that's right."

"You haff a water beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny," said Krum. Johnny had the impression that Krum was drawing her attention back onto himself; perhaps to remind her that he had just rescued her from the lake, but Hermione brushed away the beetle impatiently and said, "You're well outside the time limit, though, Harry.... Did it take you ages to find us?"

"No... I found-" Harry was cut off by Johnny punching Krum with a clean right-hook to the nose.

"For fucks sake, it's Hermione!" Johnny roared, causing many people to gasp. "And I don't take to nicely to people flirting with my mate, so what would look nicer in the trophy cabinet, your heart or your throat?"

"Neither," said Hermione, grinning. "They'd lose their look after a while."

And with that, mainly to take Johnny's attention away from Krum, she kissed him, causing many cheers and whistles to burst out.

"It's ironic that they're wolf-whistling," Johnny whispered, resting his head on Hermione's.

The judges went into a huddle. Madam Pomfrey had gone to rescue Ron from Percy's clutches; she led him over to the others, gave him a blanket and some Pepperup 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," said Harry.

Fleur bent down, kissed Harry twice on each cheek, 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.

"And you, you saved me!" Fleur said, turning to Johnny to kiss both of his cheeks. Hermione looked quite furious, but just then, 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. Merchieftainess 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....

"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."

Applause from the stands.

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

"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. "We therefore award him forty-seven points."

"Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points."

Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior.

"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."

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

Harry was now tying for first place with Cedric. Johnny, Ron and Hermione, caught by surprise, stared at Harry, then laughed and started applauding hard with the rest of the crowd.

"There you go, Harry!" Johnny shouted over the noise. "You weren't being thick after all - you were showing moral fiber!"

Fleur was clapping very hard too, but Krum didn't look happy at all, especially with his bloody nose. 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. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."