Chapter 4-26 The Second Task

• During having Charms classes, while practising the Banishing Charm, Harry tells Ron and Hermione he figured out the clue and what happened the night before. They speculate about Snape possibly being involved in putting Harry's name in the Goblet.
• Harry also sends a letter to Sirius telling him what happened.
• The following days Harry, Ron and Hermione look for solutions to Harry's second task, which will require him to stay under water for an hour. Ron suggests summoning an aqualung from the nearest muggle town, but Hermione dismisses this because he'd be disqualified for breaking the International Code of Wizard Secrecy. Hermione thinks the best thing is some kind of charm. Harry asks Professor McGonagall's permission to use the Restricted Section of the Library and for help from Madam Pince, the librarian, but he finds nothing useful.
• Time is running out. Harry gets back a letter from Sirius asking when the next Hogsmeade weekend is. No answer to his problem for the second task is in the letter since Harry forgot to ask.
• Hagrid continues teaching the Care of Magical Creatures with Unicorns. He seems to know as much about them as he knows about monsters.
• The evening before the second task, Harry is desperate. Ron and Hermione help him search in the Library for a solution in books like Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes, Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts and Weird Wizarding Dilemmas and Their Solutions. The closest thing they find is a Drought Charm but it's not powerfull enough to dry up the lake. Fred and George turn up saying they've been sent by Professor McGonagall to get Ron and Hermione.
• After the Library closes, Harry continues to search in the common room in books he borrowed like Madcap Magic for Wacky Warlocks, A Guide to Medieval Sorcery, An Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Charms, Dreadful Denizens of the Deep and Powers You Never Knew You Had and What to Do With Them Now You've Wised Up. By the time everybody has gone to bed, Harry is still without an answer and decides to go back to the Library wearing his Invisibility Cloak. Using a ¤ Lumos to get some light he enters the Library and starts searching again.
• The next morning Harry is woken by Dobby. Harry fell asleep in the Library, his face in Where There's a Wand, There's a Way. The second task of the Triwizard Tournament starts in ten minutes. Dobby tells him Harry has to get Ron back. He gives Harry Gillyweed which will allow him to breathe under water, Dobby overheard Moody talking to McGonagall about the second task. Harry speeds downstairs to the lake. Krum, Fleur and Cedric are already waiting, as well as Dumbledore, Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Bagman and Percy at the judging table.
• Bagman amplifies his voice with a ¤ Sonorus and announces the task will now begin. Eating the Gillyweed Harry enters the lake. He temporarily grows gills in his neck and dives down in the lake.
• On his way down, Grindylows try to catch him but with a ¤ Relashio he manages to shake them off. He also encounters Moaning Myrtle who came to see the event and gives Harry a tip on how to avoid the Grindylows. He finally reaches the bottom hearing the Merpeople sing the song from the egg. The Merpeople are emerging from all directions. Four people are bound to the tail of a stone merperson, Ron, Hermione, Cho Chang and another girl which Harry believes to be Fleur's sister, all unconsious. To free them, Harry tries to get a spear from the merpeople but they refuse to help. Harry gets a rock and manages to free Ron. Next he tries to free Hermione but the merpeople prevent him from freeing the others.
• Cedric arrives with an enormous bubble around his head. He frees Cho and takes her up. Next Krum arrives, in swimming trunks and his head Transfigured into a shark. Harry gives Krum the stone and Krum takes Hermione up.
• Realising Fleur won't make it, Harry defies the merepeople, challenging them with his wand to let him free Fleur's sister also. They back down and Harry takes Ron and Fleur's sister up, arriving just in time before the effect of the Gillyweed wears off.
• Ron, regaining consiousness, tells Harry that the song was not meant to be taken literally, that nobody was really in any danger. Now Harry seems to have lost precious time waiting for the others.
• Madam Pomfrey takes care of everybody. Fleur, very upset, checks on her sister Gabrielle.
• Dumbledore is in deep conversation with the chief of the merpeople, and has a quick conference with the other judges afterwards.
• Fleur thanks Harry for saving her sister.
• Bagman announces the judges reached a decision. Fleur, although using a Bubble-Head Charm, failed and gets twenty-five points. Cedric, using the same charm, but outside the time limit. gets forty-seven points. Krum gets forty points. Harry, however returning after the others, arrived first at the scene according to the merpeople but stayed to ensure the rescue of all the hostages, therefore gets forty-five points.
• The third task will be in June., The champions will hear details one month before.