"How does it go again?" Katie questioned earnestly as she chewed the end of her quill. It was late into the night of February twenty-third, and she and Harry were in the library trying to work out the egg's clue for the Second Task.

Harry yawned before speaking. "Come seek us where our voices sound... We can not sing above the ground... And while you're searching, ponder this: We've taken what you'll sorely miss... And hour long you'll have to look, and to recover what we took... But past an hour — the prospect's black..."

"Too late, it's gone, it won't home back," Katie finished. "And you reckon it's merpeople?"

Harry shrugged nonchalantly. "That's what Myrtle said. What are they going to take, though?"

"I'd be more worried about how you're going to breathe underwater for an hour." Katie said with the quirk of an eyebrow.

"I could always use the Summoning Charm to get a pair of aqualungs." Harry suggested glumly. Katie furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"A pair of what, sorry?"

Harry blinked at her before his face dropped in realisation. "Er — nothing — it's a Muggle thing."

There was a shuffle of footsteps as Ron and Hermione rounded the shelves. Hermione placed a large stack of books down on the table before taking a seat, while Ron dragged himself along behind her, looking as though he would rather be anywhere but the library in the present.

No one uttered a single word as they all flicked through piles and piles of spellbooks, desperately scanning for anything that could help Harry breathe under water, but they found nothing. Nothing.

"I don't reckon it can be done," Ron said flatly. "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 that she was poring over the tiny print of Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charms with her nose about an inch from the page. "They'd never have set a task that was undoable."

"They have." Ron said, snapping a book shut and sliding it away from himself. "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."

"You could always become an Animagus like Sirius," Katie jokingly suggested with a yawn. "Turn into a goldfish whenever you please."

"Or a frog." Harry mumbled.

"I'd love to be an Animagus." Katie said absent-mindedly as she turned another page.

"You damn near became a werewolf last year." Ron stated.

Katie's mouth momentarily twitched into a smug smirk. "Got the scar to prove it."

"You shouldn't joke about that!" Hermione snapped. "You could've been really hurt, Katie."

"Yeah, well, unluckily for you, I'm still here." Katie responded and Ron snickered, earning them both glowers from Hermione.

"Oh, this is no use," Hermione cried as she slammed a book shut. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?"

"I wouldn't mind," came the voice of Fred Weasley. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"

Katie looked up. Fred and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves, accompanied closely by Chris.

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

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

"Why?" Hermione quizzed, looking surprised.

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

Katie glanced aside at Harry, and by the anxious expression on his face, she could tell that he was thinking the exact same thing as her — that McGonagall had found out about Ron and Hermione helping Harry work out his clue, but then it didn't make sense that McGonagall hadn't also summoned Katie.

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

"We'll meet you back in the common room," Hermione said to Harry. "Bring as many of these books as you can, OK? See you in the morning, Katie."

"Night." Katie muttered uneasily.

As Fred and George led Hermione and Ron from the hall, Chris rounded on his sister. His eyes scanned over her face and he frowned.

"You should go to bed," he said, a slightly demanding tone to his voice. "You look like you haven't slept since 1886."

"I feel like a haven't slept since 1886." Katie quipped with a yawn.

"Watcha doing?" Chris asked as he twirled one of the open books around to read it. Panicking, Katie quickly snatched the book back and Chris raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Homework." Katie lied hastily, but her voice quivered, selling out her deception.

"Yeah? And what class uses the book Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts?"

Katie let out a string of nervous noises. "Potions."

Harry sighed in agitated and rubbed his temples. Katie wanted to kick herself for how stupid that lie sounded. Chris eyed the two of them suspiciously, but instead of interrogating his sister further, he simply lowered his voice and spoke only to her.

"Are you OK, Kat?" he asked seriously.

Katie nodded. "Fine."

"I don't believe you." Chris stated firmly.

Katie rolled her eyes. "Bully for you."

Chris sighed in defeat.

"Alright — be like that, but you know that I'm always here if you need to talk, right?" Chris said.

Katie bit her lip as she felt a pang of guilt in her stomach. Chris was only checking in on her and she was being really rude to him.

"Sorry," she said, running a hand through your hair. "I'm just—"

"Stressed, overwhelmed," Chris cut her off with a small smile, "I know, it's OK."

"Chris, are you coming?" Niall poked his head around a bookshelf. "Hi Katie — Harry."

"Yeah, yeah, sorry," Chris mumbled before facing Katie again. "Go to bed."

Katie snorted. "What are you now, my legal guardian?"

"I'm as good as."

"Touché."

A little while later, Madam Pince had come scurrying into the library. Stretching, Harry got up, picking up a small stack of books to carry back to the common room with him.

"I think I'm going to go to bed." he said sleepily.

Katie didn't look up from her spellbook. "Mhm — goodnight." she hummed.

Harry had begun to walk away when he realised that Katie hadn't moved from her seat. Sighing, he turned back around and gave her a vexed are-you-serious look.

Katie glanced up, spied that Harry was looking at her, and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"And you're going to bed too." he stated sternly as he took her arm and attempted to pull her from her seat. She resisted and remained rooted to the chair.

"No way," Katie countered. "If you think I am going to let you do this task tomorrow unprepared, then you have another thing coming, Harry James Potter."

"And if you think I am going to let you wear yourself out searching for a non-existent spell, then you have another thing coming, Katerina Charity Blair."

A smirk played at Katie's lips. "You know my middle name?"

"Chris told me." Harry said quickly.

"Did you ask him?" Katie teased, allowing her smirk to fully form on her face.

Harry sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "Maybe... Anyway, that's not the point," he added. "You have to go to bed."

"Well, I don't have to," Katie said rather matter-of-factly and somewhat sarcastically. "I could just, you know, let myself pass out from exhaustion."

Harry let out a dry laugh and gave Katie's arm one, hard tug, successfully pulling her up and out of her seat.

"Please go to bed." he whined.

"But—"

"Potter! Blair! What are you two doing here at this hour of the night?"

Katie and Harry jumped around in fright. Madam Pince was whisking towards them, putting out all the lamps in her path. She clapped her hands angrily and the pair.

"Off to bed, both of you." she snapped.

Harry glanced at Katie, smiling smugly. "Yeah, Katie."

Katie smacked him upside the head, and he winced, but laughed nonetheless. Grabbing her bag from underneath the table, Katie stuffed in as many books as she could carry without breaking her back. Harry eyed the bulging bag suspiciously.

"You are going to sleep, aren't you?"

Katie shrugged. "I'm not tired." But as soon as these words left Katie's mouth, so did an enormous yawn. Harry rolled his eyes to express how fed up he was before he took the bag from Katie.

"You give me this..." Underestimating just how heavy the bag would be, Harry's knees buckled a at the weight of it.

"Hey!" Katie tried to pull the bag back. "My school books are in there."

"Yeah — no classes tomorrow, twat," Harry joked. "I'll give it back to you after the second task. Now, you go to bed, and I'll keep looking for a spell."

Katie frowned. "But you're the one who needs energy for tomorrow, not me."

"Katie, you look exhausted. Seriously—"

The Slytherin hastily grew bored of Harry scolding her, so she pressed her lips to his, which quickly shut him up.

"What was that for?" Harry asked when Katie stepped back.

"Just in case I don't get to see you before the Second Task," Katie replied, smiling. "And maybe I just wanted you to shut up."

"Charming." Harry said sarcastically while grinning.

"Right, I'll see you in the morning." Katie said.

"Maybe." Harry added.

Katie glared at him. "I'll see you in the morning." she said firmly, making Harry chuckle.

They said their final goodnights before leaving the library — Harry continuing on up the stairs and Katie making her way down to the dungeons. It must have been quite late because the corridors were completely deserted, and the flames in the torches that lined the dungeons were all but dying sparks.

Exactly like the hallways, the Slytherin common room was completely empty. Katie went straight up to her dormitory, feeling that sleep was slowly overtaking her. Pansy, Millicent, Daphne and Tracey were already fast asleep when Katie arrived. Katie lazily changed into her pyjamas before climbing into her four-poster, drawing the curtains around herself.

Despite her exhaustion and heavy eyes, Katie lay awake for most of the night, tossing and turning. A pool of nerves was swirling in her stomach. She just hoped that Harry had found something — anything that would help him complete the Second Task.

On top of this, every time that Katie found herself drifting off to sleep, she would awake with a start to the shrill voice of her father's murderer screeching, "Avada Kedavra!"

This image had been keeping Katie restless for months now. Pansy no longer woke up to comfort her, because Katie had managed to stifle her screams of terror every time she jumped awake, and then she would curl up under her covers, knees hugged tightly to her chest, and silently cry herself to sleep.

She knew that she should talk to someone, she just didn't know who. She definitely did not want to burden her friends with her problem. Besides, she already knew exactly what their responses would be. Harry would suggest that he write to Sirius and ask for some in depth philosophy to recurring nightmares, Ron would probably shrug it off and say that Harry himself often had recurring dreams and they were harmless, while Hermione would definitely make a huge fuss and suggest that Katie seek therapy with Dumbledore — who was a very busy man that Katie would much rather not disturb.

Pansy had already helped Katie enough, and as far as she knew, the nightmares had stopped, so Katie didn't want to worry her again. Katie felt as though she had kept the truth about their dad's death from Chris a secret for too long to tell him now — so she guessed she would just have to suffer in silence.

Of course, she could always go to Draco... She shook that thought away harshly. Why would Draco care?

***

"Would you ever relax!" Pansy scolded Katie at breakfast the next morning. Katie had been so distracted that she hadn't noticed she was raking her fork across her plate, creating a ghastly scraping noise that was causing everyone within ear-shot to cringe.

"He's not here," Katie mumbled anxiously. "Why is he not here?"

She was talking about Harry. Katie arrived in the Great hall for breakfast at seven o'clock, after waking up from a short two hours of sleep and finding that she couldn't drift off again. It was now nine o'clock, and Harry hadn't been seen at breakfast all morning.

"He's probably already down at the lake with the other champions." Pansy shrugged nonchalantly, seemingly more interested in her pancake than Katie's worries.

Katie was shaking her head. "So he just skipped breakfast?"

As well as Harry, Ron and Hermione hadn't shown up for breakfast either. The only logical assumption that Katie had was that they were still in the Gryffindor common room searching for a spell for Harry to use.

Ten minutes later, Pansy suggested that they make their way down to the lake for the Second Task. Katie complied and while casting glances behind her for any sign of Harry, Ron and Hermione, followed Pansy and Draco from the Great Hall.

The lawns were alive with excited bustle as students swarmed out of the castle. Even from a distance, Katie could see that the seats that had encircled the dragons' enclosure in November were now ranged along the bank of the lake, rising in stands that were already packed.

Draco made sure that they got good seats, saying that he wanted to get a perfect view of Harry embarrassing himself. Katie wasn't sure that anyone would get a good view of anything at all — the lake was a black abyss and extremely deep, and you couldn't see anything that was further than two feet below the surface.

Only a few people were scattered across the lawns now, having left later than the others. The judges, Professor Dumbledore, Karkaroff, Madame Maxime, Ludo Bagman and Percy Weasley (who was filling in for a supposedly sick Barty Crouch), all took their seats behind a golden-clothed table. Cedric, Fleur and Krum were standing beside the judges, but Harry was no where to be seen.

Katie chewed her lip nervously. Rising on her toes, she peered over the heads of the crowds to get a better view of the Hogwarts grounds. That was when she saw it... A small figure, hair askew, pelting across the dewy grass towards the lake.

"There he is!" Katie said excitedly, relief flooding her. Draco looked at where she was pointing and scoffed when he realised that Harry had indeed showed up to take part in the Second Task.

Although he was quite far away, Katie could clearly see that Harry was still wearing his uniform, unlike the other champions, who were all wearing attire fit for taking a dip in the Black Lake. Trust Harry to think it'd be a good idea to go swimming in his robes.

Harry had barely arrived and caught his breath when Bagman started spacing the champions out along the edge of the lake. He then returned to his judges panel, pointed his wand at his throat and spoke. His voice boomed across the lake, instantly silencing any ongoing conversations amongst the students.

"Well, 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!"

The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air, and the stands erupted with cheers and applause. As though a natural instinct, at the sound of the whistle, Cedric, Fleur and Krum shot forward, casting spells on themselves before disappearing into the blackness of the lake.

Harry, however, did not seem as eager to swim in the lake as the other champions. He kicked off his socks and shoes and waded out into the lake. He kept walking... just slowly walking, until the water was above his knees, then he stopped. There was a rumble of laughter in tbe stands and Katie's stomach twisted uncomfortably.

"He didn't figure it out..." Katie whispered to herself.

"Of course he didn't, the stupid prat," Draco laughed coolly. "Mind you, all he had to do was eat some Gillyweed."

Katie's head whipped around to look at Draco — an expression of disbelief painted on her pale face, despite the fact that her eyes had been narrowed into a menacing glare.

"And you didn't think to tell me that?" she said. Her voice trembled slightly with anger.

Draco's eyes flashed mischievously. "Why the bloody hell would I help Potter?"

"Do you know how many all-nighters I pulled searching for a spell for him to use!" Katie cried in exasperation, still glaring at Draco, who only shrugged.

"That was your choice, not mine, Blair."

Katie opened her mouth furiously to speak, but she had barely gotten a single word out when everyone in the stands gasped. Katie averted her eyes to the lake to find that Harry had completely disappeared.

"He just sprouted gills!" Seamus yelled excitedly a few rows ahead.

Katie turned to Draco, a smirk etched on her face. Draco seemed to be extremely annoyed, but covered it up with a roll of his eyes.

"Whatever," he mumbled. "He still has to get by the Grindylows."

***

A short time past the hour mark, Cedric broke the surface of the water, an unconscious Cho Chang clutched closely to his side. The stands exploded with applause — especially from the Hufflepuffs. It was at this moment that Katie understood why Ron and Hermione hadn't shown up to breakfast. When McGonagall summonded them to her office the night before, it was so they could be hidden at the bottom of the lake for a champion to find.

The lyrics of the merpeople's song echohed in Katie's head.

"But past an hour — the prospect's black... Too late, it's gone, it wont come back..."

Suddenly, Katie's heart was beginning to beat much faster than it had been only seconds before. She stared hard at the steady water, as though her burning gaze would magically suck Ron and Hermione out of the lake.

Minutes after Cedric returned with Cho (who was now fully conscious), a second pair of heads emerged from the icy lake — Viktor Krum and Hermione Granger.

Fleur had to be rescued from the lake about a half an hour after the task had begun after she was attcked by Grindylows. Katie shuddered at the thought of what would happen to the person that she was supposed to find in the water.

Minutes ticked by. An eerie silence had fallen over the school as everyone stared anxiously out at the lake. Katie hadn't even noticed that she had risen from her seat and was bobbing nervously on the balls of her feet.

A ripple-like disturbance occurred near the centre of the lake. Katie froze, as did the rest of the students, and held her breathe. Three heads surfaced from the water, one of which was Harry. The other boy was unmistakably Ron, and the third was a very small girl. She had a long trail of silvery hair like Fleur's (it remained bright and sparkling despite the fact that it was soaking wet), and Katie assumed that this could only be Fleur's sister.

Much to Madam Pomfrey's objections, Fleur thrashed into the shallows of the water and snatched her sister from Harry's clutches. Percy Weasley mirrored Fleur's actions and worriedly dashed towards Ron, who shoved him off in a disgruntled manner.