The Slytherin and Gryffindor pair did not attract as much attention as they thought they would - apparently Krum going out with Fleur was also leaked during the ball - along with dozens of other couples that formed or who had hidden their relationships before then - the castle had plenty of gossip to discuss, and thankfully Harry and Daphne were not the sole focus of the whole Hogwarts rumour mill - just a portion of it.
Harry calmly poured some more syrup on his pancakes as he continued eating. Daphne was nowhere to be seen - much to the confusion of others, the newly established couple went everywhere together when they could for the past few weeks so far!
Some various rumours were spreading as students chatted in whispers behind the boy’s back, but he paid them no mind - after all he knew exactly where his girlfriend was. It was after all the day the second task took place…
“Harry… Did you have a fight with Daphne?”.
Turning his head, Harry could see Hermione Granger - looking at him with concerned gaze - he appreciated the concern of his friend, yet those kinds of questions were starting to bother him… yes Hermione was not the first one to ask.
“No, professor Snape called her aside near the great hall, saying it would take a while”
It was not the first question regarding Daphne Harry has received so far - and it certainly won’t be the last. It was intriguing how quickly rumours spread. Just a week of sticking close to her and the whole school knew they were dating. Now one single breakfast without the girl by his side… and somehow they all assumed the worst, or perhaps the most interesting gossip topic for why she was not there.
Swallowing the last bite of pancakes, Harry gulped down the remaining orange juice, before silently thanking Hogwarts elves for a nice meal and heading out towards where the champions were supposed to assemble before the second task.
It was cold outside, yet the great lake remained unfrozen. Various people were sitting on the stands nearby, waiting to watch the show.
Harry smirked, if only they knew that the only thing they would be seeing was the surface of the lake - perhaps the anticipation of who would emerge first kept them entertained? Perhaps it was the betting pool Weasley twins were overseeing?
The task announcement was short and brief - not even telling about the people that were below the lake, just “something precious”. Harry could see the worried gaze of Cedric Dygory as his eyes scanned the crowd - undoubtedly looking for Cho Chang in there, yet not finding her anywhere in the crowd, his expression darkened - perhaps he now understood the true meaning of ‘something precious’.
Victor and Fleur had grim expressions from the start - Harry had tipped them off, finding a similar event from past tournaments - where family members were taken hostage for better entertainment. Surely a crazy tournament which had real and nesting dragons as a first task could carry similar risks on the subsequent ones? Not only for the champions themselves, but for those close to them…
Still, he did not worry too much - he knew Victor would look out for Fleur, as being a Veela she was somehow weaker underwater. And it was not like the great lake had many dangers - in fact it was quite easier than the first task. He remembered hearing that hostages were safe, protected by merfolk all the time while underwater. Yes, even escorting the champion back up the surface. So the only real danger was getting lost, drowning or encountering a large flock of grindylows or other aggressive underwater creatures.
Upon the signal, four wands were waving in quick succession, as three bubble head charms appeared on the champions heads, while Victor transfigured his head to a sharks.
Harry had long debated on how he could more efficiently finish this task - certainly eating a magical ingredient which made him breathe underwater was one way - but it made him capable of only breathing underwater. What if he was faster this time around? Would he need to…. Stay underwater for the remainder of the duration?
This was why he just learned the bubble head charm. Compared to the various elemental magic he was learning day by day it was… quite simple.
Of course, he also considered transfiguration, similar to what Krum was doing now, but in the end the boy refrained from this choice. The transfiguration advantage was being able to quickly smell blood - like a shark - perhaps Victor was just worried for whoever was down there. Yet casting spells in such a form… only wandless magic would work. Even Harry was not confident in being able to change himself back wandl-essly after such transfiguration.
Soon the four champions were fully submerged and swam towards the depths of the lake. Shortly splitting up as they had no idea where exactly in the great lake to swim towards.
Well three of them at least - Harry still vividly remembered his first attempt. When he got lost, somehow met Myrtle who showed him the way… Well not this time. Having reviewed his memories of the event a few times he roughly knew the layout of the great lake, and where merfolk village was located, hence he quickly swam towards it.
A group of a dozen grindylows was about to bite the boy, yet they turned to ice and started floating upwards just from a glance from Harry - he never skipped his combat magic training to this day, while legilimency practice and time with Daphne occupied a lot of his time nowadays, he still kept training hours the same, rather sacrificing some of his reading time instead - aimlessly reading time or souls related books was not leading him anywhere anyways, it was better to wait until he glimpsed into Voldemort's mind to know exactly what it was that kept the bastard alive.
Arriving at the gates of the village, Harry could see that merfolk were clearly surprised not expecting a human to get here so fast.
Suppressing his smirk, he bowed as per the customs of the merfolk. They certainly did not expect that as well, especially from such a young human at that - they started speaking something in their language - unfortunately Harry did not learn it - there were hardly any books in it, hence he prioritised other languages first - for example there were various runic ones wizards seemingly loved to write books in, Harry already learned a few common dialects in it and was studying rarer ones like Egyptian ones.
Still, there was at least a gesture for this situation - outlined in some travelling book he found in Knockturn Alley of all things! Gesturing symbols which were supposed to convey that he did not know their language or something along the lines. Merfolk discussed among themselves one more time, before nodding in greeting and letting him swim inside.
Overlooking the submerged people, Harry quickly located the one he came here for - his girlfriend Daphne. Though somewhat curious he looked at the other hostages as well. As expected there was Cho Chang, Fleur's sister and… a young looking boy, who seemingly had some of Victor's features? Harry mused - perhaps he was Victor’s brother? A relative? Or simply a friend - undoubtedly Krum would tell him about it later.
A cutting charm cut the chains holding Daphne in place, then the boy hugged her and swam back, as well as casting a bubble-head charm on her.
He already knew that the magically induced sleep would wear off as soon as the hostage reached the shore… or could freely breathe. All that “precious thing would be lost” was just a hoax to hype up the task.
And there was no need for bubble head charm - but he suspected having one might wake her up early.
And surely Daphne’s eyelashes fluttered as she yawned and slowly opened her eyes, which widened in panic with unfamiliar environment, but relaxed on landing on Harry.
“So you saved me… thank you Harry. It was certainly a surprise, when professor Snape took me to see the headmaster, who then explained the task to me…”
She leaned in for a kiss only for the bubbles to collide and bounce their heads back - bubble head charm was designed to protect the caster somewhat, otherwise bubbles would simply pop from underwater pressure or colliding with a bypassing fish or underwater plants.
Harry chuckled as he hugged her - “We can do that later, Daph” - then he waved his arm, showing the environment around - “We still have plenty of time to finish the task… What do you say about a short date below the great lake?”
Daphne’s eyes gleamed, the looks deep inside the lake were certainly interesting to see! - “Sure! Lead the way!”.
The crowd was getting bored with no action happening. Shortly after the task began, frozen grindylows bodies surfaced to the top, before they melted and then other creatures just gulped them down quite quickly. But now… the surface of the lake was calm like a mirror.
Spectators were discussing various random topics to pass the time as simply looking at the lake surface was… boring. Why did they choose a task like this? Couldn’t Dumbledore set something up to let them see what was happening? Surely, even something as simple as Alastor Moody using his fancy eye, then dropping his memories in a pensieve, before letting spectators see them would work… sure with some delays, but they would know what was happening!
Unfortunately nothing of the like happened, yet after what felt like hours - the great lake surface stirred once again - and Cedric and Cho emerged. Headmaster Karkaroff could only grumble - looks like Hogwarts is in the lead again… But nothing was certain until he heard what actually happened inside…
Shortly, Victor Krum emerged together with Fleur Delacour as well as two young kids. Then finally, just a few minutes later, Harry and Daphne emerged, their faces red for some reason, their hair wet - perhaps they temporarily undid bubble-head charms inside?
The crowd never stopped cheering - once again all champions succeeded in the task, the only thing left was awaiting the scoring from the judges.
Kakaroff could say he was rarely shocked - being a headmaster of a magical school made one hear and see weird things every day! Yet the recounting of merfolks left him stupefied for a moment….
Apparently Harry Potter reached his hostage in seven minutes… He was polite and non-aggressive to the merfolk guarding the village, apparently even knew their greeting customs!
Things got weird from here on out… Instead of going back to finish in just under twenty minutes… The boy took the time to chat with the girl as they swam around the great lake…. He heard they visited the giant octopus, swam around looking at the various corals on the floor, then somehow even lost the merfolk that was keeping an eye on them, before they finally showed up at the surface after doing who knows what!
Surely he could take some points from not getting to the ‘finish line, but not too much - after all the hostage was the first to be rescued…. Others could certainly argue he finished in eight minutes as that girl regained consciousness at that time… Unlike other hostages who only did so an hour later at the lake surface.
His saving grace was that Victor seemingly was held back by helping Fleur girl deal with grindylows - he could certainly argue more points for his champion for such actions… if not for that, Victor would have been first to emerge!.
After summing up the points the Durmstrang headmaster could sigh in relief - Harry and Victor were in the lead, followed by Fleur and Cedric. It was weird having two ties between scores with only four champions, but at least his school was doing well so far…
Harry sighed as he climbed the headmaster's office stairs one more time. Similarly as with the first task, the headmaster called him here again… Opening the door he saw professor Snape, with his dark pink hair inside as he suppressed his chuckle - seems like his latest potion prank worked fine!
He was sure to share the memory with the twins later. He was very thankful for them for teaching him so much throughout their lessons! But he did not do much pranks on other students - rather focusing on professor Snape instead, to the amusement of others. Even Fred and George did not dare to mess around with the greasy bat that much, perhaps one prank per year at most - after all, the head of Slytherin was famous for giving too long and tedious detentions in such cases. Yet Harry had seen that champions were thankfully exempt from detentions!
“Good evening, headmaster, professor”
Severus Snape sent a chilling glare towards his way as he hissed - “I will get you back for this Potter! Do remember you will still be taking potions next year, where triwizard champion rules will no longer apply!”
Albus chuckled as he addressed them both - “Welcome Harry, please take a seat” - he turned his head to the potions master - “as for you, Severus, I should remind you that deducting points for previous years events is not allowed! Besides, your hair looks fine!”
Severus just grumbled in response as he awaited further instructions from the old fool… How often he hated his job…
Headmaster took a pause as he popped a lemon drop into his mouth, he overlooked his two guests and refrained from recommending any candies for them - they wouldn’t take it anyway. Instead he called for Hogwarts elves and soon some tea was served, along with some cookies.
“Now, you might be wondering why I have called you here, in fact I simply wanted to assert your progress in legilmency. While I have not clashed with Tom for quite some time, Severus here should know best his strength in mind arts and would help you see if you are capable of breaking through him while he’s unguarded…. Or atleast protect your own mind while you attack at the same time… ”
Harry gulped - it took him months just for wandless surface thoughts spell, then just a few weeks of practice with Daphne and the headmaster assumed he was ready? On other hand he knew just how weak Voldemort was at the time… At least his body - he had no idea how that ugly-baby form affected his mind.
Dumbledore sipped his tea, and added some lemon drops inside - as if it were sugar cubes, before taking a greedy gulp and spilling more information - “In fact, based on Tom’s current half-wraith state when he possessed Quirinus I believe he will attempt a revival ritual soon. He glanced at the sky as his glasses reflected the vast cosmos - “The stars and planets will align just right in a few days, then it would be suitable for ritual execution, my astronomy calculations say it will stay like this for a few months even” - another gulp of tea followed - “Which is why we must try now, while he’s still vulnerable”
Snape smirked - “Do not expect me to go easy on you Potter, while your defences are solid” - he practically spat the word with hints of jealousy inside - “Defending while attacking at the same time is a different manner all-together!”
Harry nodded, gulped down some tea to calm his nerves, before taking a deep breath and pointing his wand at the potions master - legilimens!.
Dumbledore simulated a few scenarios - taking Severus as he pretended to be unguarded was doable - if only for a few seconds before the greasy bat kicked him out of his mind.
Yet all other scenarios… Like attacking while defending his own mind was certainly a challenge.
At Least in the simulation where he was asleep and both Ablus and Severus tried to break into his mind - they either got him awake to defend properly, or Harry’s passive shields warded them off.
The boy sighed in relief - at least his mind was safe. But it was said Voldemort was even better than those two at legilimency, would his defences hold against him?
Turning towards the headmaster he awaited to see what he had to say - was another exercise incoming?
“Harry, while I think you are good enough, at least for a single attack against Tom, he would become aware of the connection you share through your scar. Inside his mind you must focus on one thing only - figuring out how he is alive. There are many methods of immortality you see and we need to know what he did in order to survive past death.” - headmaster popped yet another lemon drop into his mouth - “While some say I am an archmage and expert in magic, I am afraid soul magic is my weak topic. I am roughly aware of a dozen or so ways one could possibly survive without a body, and unfortunately each of them requires different ways of dealing with it…”
Harry nodded - he knew that much, with the looming threat of the dark lord over his head he even prioritised it above the whole time loop issue - there’s no way he would end the loop even if he could, as long as he had no way of dealing with the dark lord.
In a way the time loop was both a blessing and a curse - he had a lot of time to learn and prepare strategies on how to deal with Voldemort once and for all, yet repeating events over and over… with all his friends forgetting what happened in the past… All those resets against Dumbledore where he was stuck for a whole decade! That was certainly painful… And now this time Daphne will too…
Harry quickly focused his occlumency to push the uncomfortable thoughts aside - he would deal with them later, now he must focus on the task at hand.
“Should I try it today then, headmaster?”
Albus Dumbledore reached for the bowl of lemon drops, only to stop realising it was already empty, with a less cheerful mood he addressed his student - “Not now Harry, your mind is exhausted from constant practice and especially from today’s events. Take a break from mind arts training for tomorrow, then we can try reading Tom’s mind the next day” - he glanced out into the night sky once more - “we still have that much time before the stars align”
Harry nodded as he bade farewell and exited the office. Snape remained and the boy could already hear complaints about how champions were exempt from points reductions and detentions. The boy smirked, at least that improved his mood somewhat. Even that point deduction rule was caused by him in a way - perhaps the headmaster added it after seeing Snape deduct an increasingly larger and more unreasonable amount of points from him after each lesson.
He smiled - today was a day for yet another Gryffindor party - which was probably already ongoing as it was already midnight. Then - his heartbeat sped up - he had a girl waiting for him at the room of requirements. Luckily she could get engrossed in potion making and other training activities and perhaps would not mind him coming that late. It was certainly an eventful day for her as well.
The next morning arrived as Daphne lazily opened her eyes, quickly finding Harry who was reading a book.
They exchanged their happy morning as the girl got ready while Harry was still reading. First few days she was surprised to learn just how little sleep Harry actually needed - just four hours was apparently enough for him to be well rested, while she herself slept at least eight every day… perhaps even whole ten on weekends like today!
On weekends like this she could afford the luxury of staying in the room of requirements for the whole night! Perfects were people too, and while they checked who was in the dorms at night on school days, on weekends or after huge events like Yule, they turned a blind eye towards empty beds.
Daphne was about to prepare her mind shields for their usual mind arts practice as Harry’s reminder from yesterday resurfaced in her mind - ‘right, no mind arts practise for today… Ah! Today is Hogsmeade weekend!’ - she snuggled closer to her boyfriend and picked up the book she found in his collection - it was still some time before the gates to the village opened, sure it was possible to sneak there using the secret tunnel, but why take the risks? It’s not like they were in a rush.
Daphne turned a page as she enjoyed her boyfriend's warmth from her side - she smiled, yes even staying like this made her heart flutter with happiness. She hoped their relationship would stay like this - Harry certainly desired more happiness in his life. She still shuddered from the bits of memories from the boy she received from time to time - as he got better he failed less or at least a random memory of him was not shown to her in case he failed to breach her occlumency shields.
In memories she saw, a lot were the same - something that looked like a repeating nightmare - Harry was about a year younger, he was sitting in the grass near the great lake as a flood of dementors rushed around him. She even saw him getting kissed! If that had been real… Harry would not be here with her anymore… She pushed uncomfortable thoughts aside - surely it’s normal to have a nightmare after a dreadful event. She asked him once about it and he told her the tale of his godfather and his rescue.
It was understandable he would dream of such nightmares after that dreadful night with hundreds of dementors - she herself had some after just being near one in the train.
Pushing her unpleasant thoughts aside the girl focused back on her book - ‘Potion design and invention” - there was still some time to kill before Hogsmede gates opened.
Before long the time passed and the pair climbed down to the floor of the castle, before following others towards the gates that lead into the village of Hogsmeade.
