AN: I'm currently trying to figure out if you like my notes or not...I'm probably annoying you xD Whatever. Please read and vote and comment and enjoy! I'm pretty happy to be able to bring you this new chapter and yeah....love you guys :3

On the morning of the 24th of February Alice sat at the Gryffindor table happily eating breakfast. The twins hadn't even let her choose where she would sit, as Fred had taken her right arm while George took the left one upon her entering the Great Hall dragging her to the table. It wasn't like she was complaining though as it was the morning of the second task and she was quite excited to see what it was about.

"It's finally time! I swear if it isn't as exciting as Cedric made it out to be, I'm going to take that son of a banshee – "

"Merlin Amara, you've been swearing so much lately," interrupted Alice her with a laugh.

"Sorry, I can't help it. George showed me that really funny book full of swears and I can't help but use them. They're just the best. Now what I was going to say before you interrupted me so rudely was that I will take that son of a banshee and drown him in the Black Lake. Maybe the Giant Squid will be excited about it," finished Amara eating her breakfast contently.

"I know why I like her," grinned George and gave Amara a high five. "You bet that I'll help you."

"I wouldn't have thought any other way."

"This is some really weird kind of flirting if you ask me," said Lee, his eyes darting from Amara to George.

"Oh you're just jealous," said Alice with a roll of her eyes.

"You know, I just think that little Georgy here is afraid of what his girlfriend is going to do to him if he doesn't agree with her," said Fred.

"You've better not said that just now, Weasley. If you think your brother is scared than you should watch out for your life while I try to drown you," said Amara standing up.

Fred's eyes went wide as he too stood up, leaving the Hall in a hurry. Alice tried to contain her laughter as Amara chased after the red head, not caring that all eyes were on them.

"I love that girl," said George suddenly, making Alice stop eating the piece of bread she was holding. The way she sat there, mouth open, hand with bread hanging in midair, eyes wide with surprise, would have made anyone crack up with laughter that just about looked at her but it was the way she was looking that made them shut down. Her eyes were full of surprise but also wide with worry as she looked at one of her best friends.

"You mean that? Like are you for real? Because you haven't even been together for that long. I'm just asking, after all Amara's my friend and I want to make sure that you're not rushing things," said Alice carefully after putting the bread on her plate.

"I am...I mean I do. You know, sometimes you just have to look at someone and you know 'that someone is the right one'. Although it's a one in a million chance to find that special someone," said George with a small laugh. His gaze went over the different people that were sitting at the tables but Alice could see that they didn't mean anything to him, at least not in the love kind of way. Sure he had his friends and family that were at school with him and he surely loved them dearly but Alice could tell that there was something different behind the way he looked at Amara. Even a blind person could see that.

"You know, I believe you. Although I must say that what really surprises me is that you and her went to school together for 6 years until you made a move on her. Why did you wait so long?" asked Alice curiously.

"Because this fella over there was shy, that's why," said Lee with a grin that only caused him to get a swift punch in his side by George.

"Ouch don't do that, that actually hurts buddy."

"Oh, don't be such a baby Lee, take it as a man. You brought it onto yourself," Alice said and looked at George. "But really. You were too shy to talk to her?"

"Maybe I was," said the redhead finally, looking at her. "You know, Fred always used to tease me about it. Said I wasn't brave enough and all. He said I should have been sorted into Hufflepuff and not Gryffindor."

"He did not! Oh that git is going to get something once he is back," said Alice, house pride taking her over.

"In his defence, he didn't know that his future girlfriend would end up being sorted there. Now we know that even someone as badass as you can be sorted into Hufflepuff," said George grinning widely.

"Calling you badass is a compliment by the way," said Lee. "He only ever calls himself or Fred that."

"I know Lee," said Alice with a playful role of her eyes. "I know George nearly as long as you do."

"Just saying, just saying."

"Whatever. To get back to the point: I will give Fred hell for his bullying of the house of Hufflepuff and I am happy for you George, that you finally were able to ask out Amara. Because of me I might add. So you owe me one, basically."

"Don't worry I'll remember that," chuckled George.

"Now let's get going, I want to see what the second task is about and I want to make sure that my boyfriend is still alive by now...," said Alice and stood up.

When they stepped outside and went down the lawn, they saw that the seats that had encircled the dragons' enclosure in November were now ranged along the opposite bank, rising in stands that were slowly filling up with people and reflected in the lake below. Alice was currently looking around in hopes of finding Fred or Amara or both but no she had no such luck as she soon gave up and just climbed onto the stands together with George, Lee, Ginny and Alyssa.

"What do you suppose the task will be?" asked Ally her older sister, an excited tone to her voice.

"I don't know but I can assure you that I'm just as excited as you are," said Alice with a chuckle.

"Hey have you seen Ron or Hermione lately? I was hoping that we could all sit together but I can't find them," Ginny said while craning her neck, trying to see everyone sitting on the stands.

"Actually, Fred and I were told by McGonagall that Dumbledore wanted to see them yesterday. That actually was the last time I saw them too. I can't remember seeing them inside the common room I believe," explained George.

"That's weird. Maybe they'll appear anyway. Have you seen Harry though? He's kinda late, isn't he? I mean I've seen Cedric, Krum and fire-skirt standing there for quite some time now but Harry is nowhere to be seen," said Alice, a bit worried that the bespectacled boy wouldn't make it in time.

"Did you just call Fleur 'fire-skirt'?" asked Fred while sitting down next to her.

"I did. And welcome back, I'm glad you're not dead," said Alice turning around to look at him. Fred looked like he had just run a marathon, where he had tripped about a dozen times. Amara too ad come back and had plopped down right into George's lap, contently smiling and looking nothing like Fred.

"She's more stamina than a cheetah," said Fred, still trying to get his breath back.

"You know that cheetah's can't run fast for long, do you? But I get what you mean. She's better than you," chuckled Alice.

"You mean faster. No one is better than me, not even George," said Fred with a grin.

"As long as your happy believing it, I won't say a thing brother," said George who grinned equally as wide as he had nothing more to do than laugh about his twin brother.

"How d'you mean that?" asked Fred sounding confused.

"Oh nothing," said George leaning forward. "Look it's Harry!"

Harry was sprinting towards the judges table where Fleur, Cedric and Krum were standing and starring at him. He came to an abrupt halt as Alice could see him panting like crazy. She watched one of the judges' stand up and look at him disapprovingly.

"Is that Percy?" asked Alice surprised to see the older Weasley there and not Mr Crouch.

"It is. Crouch is not there so he is on his behalf. Maybe he'll give Harry better points that way?" suggested Ginny with a hopeful look.

"I don't think so. You know our brother, Gin. If it's not right it's bad," said George.

Alice saw Ludo Bagman talking to Harry before he pointed his wand at his throat and started speaking, officially introducing the second task.

"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!"

The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause; without really knowing what was going on Alice could see the champions getting ready to jump into the lake.

"Wait...that's it? We have to wait here for an hour until they come back up? We don't even get to see what's happening?" asked Alice confused.

"Seems so," said Fred with an irritated look on his face.

"That's boring," whined Ally who was never really good at waiting for a certain amount of time. She looked at Ginny trying to make the girl come up with something they could do to make time go by faster.

"Don't look at me like that, I can't help you either," said the red haired girl who looked equally as irritated as her brothers did.

"What did Bagman say again? They have to recover what was taken from them?" asked Alice after a while. She had started trying to figure out what the task was about and she felt as if the answer was in reach.

"Yes, that's what he said. Why are you asking?" asked Amara looking over to her friend. The girl looked very comfortable the way she sat in Georges' lap, her back pressed against his upper body.

"Have you seen Cho anywhere? Or Ron or Hermione? I'm guessing that they are down there," explained Alice her idea, pointing to the lake.

"You mean they've drowned?" said Amara wide eyed.

"No but maybe Dumbledore did something to them that made them able to stay down there? Maybe Harry has to rescue Ron, Krum Hermione and Cedric Cho?"

"What makes you think that Krum has to save Hermione?" asked Fred curiously.

"Because he fancies her," interrupted Ally them. "He took her to the Yule Ball and he's with her all the time in the library. He likes her."

"Well, that would explain their current absence. Isn't the lake extremely cold though?" said Amara contemplative.

"Are wizards or not? I don't think the cold would be something stopping Dumbledore," said Alice with a chuckle.

"Yeah well, the man is what? At least a hundred years old, I'm pretty sure he doesn't feel anything anymore," grinned George.

"Hey, that's not very nice," said Amara and flicked George against the forehead.

After about half an hour the first champion left the water. Fleur had apparently been stopped by something, Grindylows guessed Fred, and had to leave the lake.

"No surprise that fire-skirt didn't make it," said Alice who was internally counting the minutes passing by.

"I hope it's over soon," said Alyssa with a yawn.

Another half an hour passed by and Cedric appeared together with Cho who was immediately cared for by Madame Pomfrey. Alice saw that the Hufflepuff boy had used the same charm as the Beauxbaton girl as both had opted in using the bubblehead charm. When Krum emerged from the water together with Hermione there was an uproar as the Durmstrang boy had tried to transfigurate himself into a shark which did not go as planned as the boy only had the head of a shark. Now everyone was waiting for Harry as the Gryffindor still was nowhere to be seen.

"Come on Harry," muttered Alice under her breath. Ginny was shaking next to her as the girl was worrying for the boy that something had happened to him. Finally he too emerged from the water together with Ron and a blonde girl that very much resembled Fleur.

"He did not make it in time, did he?" asked Alice the group around her.

"No one did. I think Cedric was slightly out of time too," said Dean, who was sitting behind them and who was the only one wearing a wristwatch.

The crowd in the stands were making a great deal of noise right now, as it seemed to many that Ron and the little girl were dead but Alice could see Ron scolding Harry for something he had apparently done wrong. When they reached the bank where the judges stood watching Madam Promfrey began fussing over the girl and Ron too while Harry was being fussed over by Fleur. The girl seemed very happy and thankful that she kissed Harry on both cheeks.

"Oh look how red he gets!" said George trying to contain his laugh.

"Well he technically just saved her sister, I guess. Though I'm sure they weren't even in danger since Dumbledore would never do that," said Alice while watching the judges starting to discuss which points to award to whom.

Suddenly, Ludo Bagman's magically magnified voice boomed out, making the champions 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...

"Miss 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.

"Mr 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 cheer from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd; Alice and Amara were standing on there tiptoes cheering and clapping the loudest.

"We therefore award him forty-seven points."

"Mr 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.

"Mr Harry Potter used Gillyweed to great effect," Bagman continued.

"He smoked weed?" said Dean irritated behind them.

Alice snorted. "No he didn't. Gillyweed is a kind of grass you eat to gain gills."

"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 return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own."

"Sure, he had to play the hero again," said George with a roll of his eyes.

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

"He's tying with Cedric!" said Alice excited. "He's tying! They are both tying for first place!"

"It's okay, love. We've all seen it," said Fred with a laugh. He put his arm around her waist and pulled her into him, kissing her forehead.

The next task would take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June and Alice was sure that Hogwarts had a really good chance at winning the whole tournament.