Harry Potter:Diamond Heart.

Are all the champions here yet, Ludo?' A rather terse sounding, and increasingly fierce looking Mr Crouch demanded. He was a far cry from the thin, tired sounding man Harry had seen rambling on to Percy at the World Cup. He wasn't getting his assistant's name wrong anymore either.

'Not yet, Barty,' Bagman grinned. He seemed only more cheerful missing.

that

there

was

a champion

'Well we aren't waiting, tell these three about the task.'

'Right then,' Bagman boomed, clapping his hands together loudly. 'Welcome to the second task of the Triwizard Tournament.'

'Actually, Ludo,' Crouch decided, cutting in, 'if you don't mind, I'll explain.'

Bagman looked quite disappointed and even, dare Harry believe it, angry. He'd never seen the so overtly good-humoured man with such a violent glint in his eye.

'The second task,' the soon to be former head of the Department of International Cooperation began crisply, 'is upon you. I hope you have discovered the secret of your golden egg or you will be woefully unprepared for what is to come.'

None of the two other champions present looked particularly nervous and Harry wasn't either. He was going to win.

'As the clue states we have taken from you something that you will sorely miss, to clarify, we have taken a hostage that you must recover.' Cedric stiffened, visibly angry, and Harry caught him mouthing his girlfriend's name under his breath. 'To alleviate confusion,' Crouch continued, uncaring, 'as some of you may know the hostages of other champions, Ludo will tell you who your hostage is, you are not to interfere with the hostages of the other champions while they are being kept hostage, or afterwards.'

Harry nodded. That rule made sense. An unscrupulous rival might kill, or injure the hostage of another champion to ensure they failed the task. He was, however, more principally concerned with who had been chosen for him.

Bagman returned to the fore, accompanied by a stern looking Professor McGonagall and the all three headteachers.

He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the arrival of Fleur Delacour, who skidded to a halt amongst her rivals. She looked ever so slightly panicked.

Good, Harry thought, if she is distracted, she will be easier to beat.

He ruthlessly stamped down on the feelings that suggested he ask why, or do something to assist her. Fleur Delacour's concerns were not his, this worked in his advantage.

'My apologies,' she breathed, still gasping from running, 'I was unable to find my sister to say goodbye this morning.' Gabrielle is her hostage, Harry concluded.

It made perfect sense, she had mentioned her family's arrival, and given the pre-arranged nature of the tournament he doubted their timing was a coincidence. It struck him as slightly cruel, Fleur loved her sister more than anything else, even more, Harry imagined, than her pride.

It's more than slightly cruel.

He smiled, choosing to side with the vengeful grin that had threatened to spread across his face than the twist of pity he felt underneath.

It did rather make him wonder who they'd chosen for him. He couldn't have been arranged for in advance and there weren't really any people he'd sorely miss that they could take.

'Well,' Bagman announced slightly less jovially than before, 'now that we are all here I shall inform you each who you're hostage is.' He seemed rather less cheerful now Fleur had arrived. Harry suspected, from his offer of help and his attitude towards the other champions that Bagman had some kind of personal stake in his success. The man was known as a gambler and it would hardly surprise Harry were he to learn the former beater was trying to make the most of the long odds he had been offered at the tournaments beginning.

Harry smirked. He imagined those odds were a little shorter now.

The french witch, meanwhile, had made the same deduction as Harry had about her sister. There was a distinctly avian feel to her features and Harry was rather glad she had come to a halt on the far side of the group.

'Miss Delacour, as you might have gathered your hostage is your younger sister, Gabrielle. Mr Diggory, you are searching for your girlfriend, Miss Chang. Mr Krum was originally going to be looking for a friend and quidditch teammate, but he has taken ill and so you will be going after Miss Granger instead.' Harry raised an eyebrow, but Viktor Krum only grunted his understanding. 'Mr Potter,' Bagman grinned, his good humour restored, 'your hostage is Miss Bell.'

Harry attempted complete success.

to

stifle

a

laugh

without

'He is being serious, Mr Potter,' McGonagall snapped. 'Miss Bell was the only one willing to risk herself being your hostage in this task, without her, you would have been unable to compete and fallen far behind.'

It wasn't like I was going to refuse to save her, he fumed. If he was honest with himself he did feel slightly guilty for laughing. It what McGonagall had said was true then she might have just saved him from failing. It was a little unfair that he could have been penalised so harshly for not having anyone willing to descend into a lake and risk drowning for him, but he was more than slightly grateful she had.

He turned away from his head of house and looked out over the lake instead. The water was every bit as dark and uninviting as the icy pool in the Chamber of Secrets. The Black Lake was also rather too large for him to warm with a heating charm.

'This is going to be unpleasant,' he remarked, dipping a toe into the water to judge the temperature.

Fleur smiled, Cedric's mouth spasmed somewhere between humour and concern, and Krum chuckled.

'First to get caught by the squid wins,' he suggested in his Bulgarian accent, offering a hand to Harry.

'Or the Grindylows,' Harry reminded him, clasping Viktor's hand in his own.

'On my whistle,' Mr Crouch commanded and the champions divested themselves of their robes. He seemed a little happier than normal with the show of friendship, but it was hard to tell when his face was carved with permanent frown lines.

The whistle went not a second later.

Fleur was gone first, she pulled a slim veil up over her mouth and nose, tied it tightly, and dove gracefully into the lake. He did his best to ignore how good she looked in her swimwear. Harry pressed his wand against his chest, visualising the piece of transfiguration he was about to complete successfully for the fourth time. Cedric went next, dropping feet first into the water, his face and neck enclosed within a vibrating bubble. Harry hope he had done something to address the weakness of prolonged use of the Bubble -Head Charm, or he was going to get a horrible surprise the first time something punctured it. Pretty-boy Diggory wouldn't be half so attractive once the explosion of pressure caved in his skull.

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