"Now, since both also happen to be the granddaughters of the head of the main Veela enclave in Europe... and, together, are well-known to be the only children of the Head of the French DMLE... it still seemed to take the understanding of three teens to figure out what was going to happen, both in the water and afterwards, if we didn't intervene.
"Tell me, Chief Warlock Dumbledore, is magical Britain ready to prosecute a war against both magical France and the entire Veela populace? Because, if either or both of these young ladies were killed down there today, I think even people as stupid as you lot have proven yourselves to be could understand what was going to happen."
He waited for that to sink in before he turned back to Diggory. "Sorry, Cedric; you were saying?"
"Errr... yes," said Diggory getting his thoughts back in order. He turned to the now thoroughly stunned judges and said, "That's even more of a reason why Harry won this event. So, we don't care how you do it, but Harry comes first by a wide margin, Victor comes second, Fleur comes third and I come fourth. That's the order we rescued our hostages, which was what we were told the task was. We're agreed; now, make it happen. If you don't do it that way, all four of us will challenge your rulings, as per the contract, in an open court of findings."
Dumbledore stood a moment more looking into the faces of the resolute competitors and hostages before he turned back to the other four judges.
As the judges, again, huddled and conversed, Diggory gestured for the others to move away and form their own huddle.
Harry grinned and said, "Cedric Diggory... the idyllic Hufflepuff one moment, the epitome of Gryffindor courage the next."
"Shove it, Harry," he said, making Harry snicker, before looking at Delacour. "Is what Harry said true?" he asked. "Is there a feud between the Veela and Merfolk?"
"Oui!" she said. "Zough, I must admeet, even I forgot zat. It makes Monsieur... 'Arry's... show of bravery zat much more... impressive."
As they talked they were finally interrupted by Bagman's Sonorus. "The judges have reached a decision!" he cried.
The points were then tallied as the champions demanded. Harry received forty-eight points, Krum received forty, as did Delacour, and Diggory received thirty-eight.
Harry just snorted in amusement back at a grinning Diggory, and escorted his two wives back to the castle. This time, he walked back accompanied by the three champions and their hostages. Krum broke off to return to the ship to change, the Delacours broke off a short while later to return to their carriage to do the same, and the rest returned to the castle.
For after lunch, the competitors and their hostages were invited back to the bondmates' apartment.
Just before they entered, Professor Whittaker told them that while they were out a red-headed boy had first tried to gain entrance by demanding it, and then tried to fire curses and hexes at him. All of which, failed.
Glancing at each other, Harry turned back to the statue and asked, "Was one of those hexes... 'eat slugs'?"
"Yes, it was," replied the statue, chuckling. "That would have been an interesting experience, for a statue."
Hermione just muttered, "Ron. What an idiot."
"Well, at least we know the ward scheme for anti-curses and hexes holds up to a determined sub-par fourth year," grinned Harry.
While Harry and Hermione were changing out of their lake-dunked clothes, Daphne alerted Dobby to the influx of guests to arrive after lunch. Between them, she laid out the drinks and finger food she wanted to see served; with Dobby confidently making his own suggestions and promising he'd have everything ready while they were away. Because they would all have just had lunch, she made sure the finger food was only what Harry and Hermione called 'nibblies'.
She then fished the jar containing Skeeter out of her robes and placed it on the mantelpiece above the fireplace. "You best know, Skeeter," she said. "The jar has an unbreakable charm on it. Transform while inside it, and you'll shoot out in bloody mushed flesh and bone fragments through the air holes.
"Secondly, I'm placing a silencing charm on the jar so you cannot listen in on what's being said. We'll deal with you later. I suggest you use this time to consider just how badly you messed up."
She then stepped back a little and cast the charm on the jar. After they'd both had a quick shower to get the smell of the lake out of their hair and off their bodies, Harry and Hermione joined Daphne back in the living room. Quickly, Daphne helped her sister-wife with her hair, making sure it was dried, treated and brushed. And then helped apply a little light makeup before touching up her own.
"You know I don't think the makeup's necessary, don't you?" asked Harry.
"Of course we do, love," said Daphne, as she worked. "However, as the Ladies Potter... even if most people don't know that yet... we represent an image of the House. We have to look the part."
Once ready, the three dropped down to the Great Hall with lunch about to be served. Walking in, as usual, with a lady on each arm had now become commonplace for Harry as far as the other denizens of Hogwarts were concerned. Other than breakfast, that morning, none could recall when the three had done otherwise since their re-sort, except for when Daphne was attacked by Flint.
When Hermione was not on Harry's right arm that morning, some thought it meant they'd had an argument. However, they quickly rethought that belief when they saw it was Hermione who Harry rescued from the bottom of the lake.
So, the thoughts of three fellow students went from a sense of happiness during breakfast, to annoyance at lunch.
Ginevra Weasley had thought, with Hermione not on his arm that morning, an opportunity was presenting itself for her to be the one on that arm. And, eventually, be the only one on his arm. When Hermione suddenly popped her head out of the lake, conjured a small rowboat and hopped into it, Ginevra quickly realised what had happened. And her hopes were, once more, dashed.
Ronald Weasley thought the sight of no Hermione on Harry's arm meant she had broken it off with him and was soon to be running to his own arms in comfort. He'd been, while shovelling food into his mouth during breakfast, thinking about how he was going to make her wait - tell her he was considering things - before allowing her, out of the goodness of his heart, to be accepted back.
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