Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Warner Brothers bought me out.

"I can't believe it!" Ron shouted. "I honestly can't believe it!"

"Ron…" Hermione groaned.

"Hermione missed her O.W.L.s! Hey – I just saw a pig fly by outside!"

"Very funny, Ron," Hermione said, shaking her head. "I only missed the Herbology test. I'm sure Sprout will let me make it up. Besides, I heard you only got a 63% on yours."

Harry shook his head as well, but he was smiling. What better way to spend the last week at Hogwarts than listen to Ron and Hermione snipe each other?

"Ron," Harry said, "I didn't take my Herbology O.W.L. either."

"Actually," Ron said mischievously, "Dean, Seamus, and I had a bet going how many you'd miss. I thought you'd miss two, to tell the truth."

"What?" Hermione said, scandalized.

"Why would I miss my O.W.L.'s?" Harry asked, perplexed.

"You always end up in the hospital wing at the end of each year. Dean thought you'd miss them all."

Harry shook his head again, even more exasperated. "I'll see you two out at the quidditch field?" Harry asked.

Hermione nodded, and Ron said, "Yep! Ravenclaw doesn't stand a chance!"

Harry waved goodbye and silently agreed. Slytherin was already out of the running due to their significant defeat against Gryffindor. Hufflepuff was even further away. And Ravenclaw was down by 110 points – which meant Ravenclaw would have to catch the snitch, and before Gryffindor could score too much with their veteran beaters. Not bloody likely…

Harry stood at the side of the pitch, silently waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. He liked getting out early. Some reason the quiet helped him prepare for the event.

The next player to arrive wasn't Angelina or Alicia, like usual, but Cho herself. Harry found himself staring at her, but he decided against going over and talking with her. She probably wasn't disposed towards chatting with him after the Christmas fiasco. Still, he was a little surprised – in the entire 15 minutes before the game began, she never once looked over at him.

Before he knew it, Madame Hooch was blowing her whistle to begin the game, and he was high above the action, circling around and scanning below him for any sign of gold. Cho was doing the same, only about 20 feet in front of him.

"…Gryffindor scores again," Harry heard Lee announce. "20-10."

Suddenly, Cho stopped. Harry quickly halted as well, worried that something was wrong.

"Hi, Harry."

Harry looked over. Cho was facing him, smiling kindly. Harry couldn't help admit it was a sweet smile as he felt his throat grow dry. He knew that his jaw was probably hanging open a little. Cho smiled wider and… winked?

Harry almost lost grip on his broomstick. His stomach turned a few times, and he suddenly noticed Cho was no longer there.

"What?" Harry asked involuntarily, looking around.

Harry finally spotted her, nearly halfway to the ground and diving fast. And if he wasn't mistaken, the snitch was right in front of her.

Harry swore and quickly got his broom moving again and dived at the ground. But before he could descend even 10 feet, Lee's voice called disappointingly over the crowd, "And Cho Chang catches the snitch. Ravenclaw wins, 160-20. Ravenclaw wins the quidditch cup."

Harry leveled off, not believing what just happened. He had… lost?

He suddenly heard a soft voice to his right. Cho was right next to him, and she caustically said, "Now we're even, Potter."

Harry's mouth hung slightly open, and Cho contemptuously swerved away and descended to join in the Ravenclaw cheering. Harry descended as well and joined the Gryffindors at the cup presentation ceremony.

"It's ok, Harry," Ron said consolingly.

"You did your best," Hermione added.

Harry scowled and noticed that Cho was looking right at him, a smug and satisfied expression on her face.

Harry listed quietly as Dumbledore presented Cho with the coveted Quidditch Cup, after which he turned to Ron and Hermione and said, "Let's get out of here."

Harry nursed a small grudge against Cho, but he couldn't simmer too much. He still had a lot to do. In between studying for his remaining three O.W.L.s – Charms, Divination, and History of Magic – he had one important thing to take care of.

"Where are you going?" Lavender asked as Harry was heading towards the common room's exit. She subtly stepped between him and the portrait.

Harry tried not to groan. He felt a little guilty about not spending time with her lately, but this was the absolute worst timing. He nervously tightened his grip around the topaz hidden in his robe pocket.

"Um, nowhere," Harry said.

Lavender crossed his arms and Harry could tell she was angry. "I'm sorry," Harry said contritely. "I'll be right back and we can take a walk around the grounds or something. But I've got something to take care of."

"You don't trust me," Lavender said accusingly.

Harry privately agreed, at least to some degree. Despite being his girlfriend, he didn't trust her as much as Ron or Hermione. "It's not about trust," Harry said insistently. "I'm not telling anyone. Please, just trust me."

Lavender sat back down in her chair next to the fire. Harry figured she was a little peeved, but at least she wasn't blocking his path now.

Harry quickly made his way out of the castle, trying to avoid the main passageways. While he wasn't trying to be completely unnoticed, he didn't want everyone to see what he was doing. As soon as he slipped into the unused north staircase, he knelt down on the stone floor and opened his bag up. Whereas it usually contained his school books, parchment, quills, ink, and notes; now it only contained one item – his invisibility cloak.

Harry slipped the cloak over him and ran down towards the lake. Unfortunately, it was a warm and clear day, and there were students relaxing down by the shore. Harry scowled and walked further down to the shore where there were no students around and muttered the bubble-head charm, pointing his wand at his head underneath the robes.

Taking one last look to make sure nobody was looking he waded into the waters and ducked underneath the surface. Once under, he slowly swam along the bottom towards the center. After about 50 feet, he came upon the same weeds he encountered last year. But this year, the grindylows seemed to recognize him and merely glower at him from a safe distance.

Harry didn't pay them a second look and focused on swimming onward. As he continued deeper into the lake, his body was starting to feel a bit odd. As he paddled, Harry wondered why that was, until he realized that it was probably the water pressure. He looked up briefly and noticed that the sun's light was very dim – a small diffuse glow from above. I wonder how far down I am…

Harry looked back down and was rewarded by the sight of the bottom of the lake. Finally! He looked around, searching for any sign of the merpeople huts, but the bottom was rather cloudy today and the whirls of mud obscured his vision beyond 10 feet.

At last he saw a crude stone dwelling and swam faster towards where he remembered where the town square was. Harry silently thanked the murky waters; he managed to get all the way to the town square without a merperson even noticing him.

He quickly slipped into the large stone formation on the other side of the square. Harry was hoping it was a town center so he could talk with the mermish chief. But he quickly smiled as he saw that the building was something better.

"What are you doing in my house!" demanded a fierce mermaid. Harry instantly recognized her as the chief that Dumbledore talked with after the second task last year.

"I need to talk with you about something," he said urgently, pulling out the small topaz.

It was hard to keep quiet. Harry was so used to telling Ron, Hermione, even Lavender, what happened. But he knew he couldn't. The more people that knew the final resting place of the topaz, the more likely it was to end up being recorded in some history book. And the more likely it was to ever to fall into a dark lord's hands. He hoped that it would be safe, buried two hundred feet below the giant lake, but he knew that there was no place that it would be safe forever.

Harry entered the commons from his trip; most of his friends immediately noticed the odd look on his face.

"What's the matter, Harry?"

"You all right there?"

"What happened – did Filch catch you doing something?"

Harry brushed off the questions. Besides not being able to answer them, he wasn't in the mood to anyway.

"Lavender," he asked softly, "are you ready for that walk?"

---

A/N: Well, there's one chapter left. I apologize for the lateness, but my computer's acting on the fritz. In case you feel angry, there's leftover fish.

Castus: Thanks!

Katani: Glad you liked it!

I Fart: It's getting hard to track your many names. I might just go back to calling you Mt. Dew.

Microchick: Yeah… Kevin had some rework ahead of him…

Kal: I haven't thought about who has the other two jewels. Maybe it would be kind of funny to have Dobby end up with one of them…

Erinamation: It's ok, Kal covered for you.

MyrhFire: :)

Hrei: Well, Hermione did have to go to the O.W.L.s And it doesn't really have to make sense how Harry got the gem. After all, the shadow creature tossed them back to where they started from. It makes sense that he might as well give one to Harry.

Kaelli: Whoa, calm down. There's only one chapter left. Kinda pointless not to finish the story now, huh? :)

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