Ron came to with no small amount of confusion and it took him a few moments of staring blankly around the large, bubble-dome he was in and at the shapes lurking in the dark water beyond to get his mind into gear.

Then, everything came back rather quickly; McGonagall coming to wake him in the early hours of the morning and telling him to get dressed, him reaching sleepily for his trainers before remembering he'd have to wear his school shoes, giving Harry and Malfoy a nervous nod as he left the dormitory to join McGonagall in the common room. They'd gone to Dumbledore's office where Dumbledore, Bagman, and Pemberley explained that he was a hostage but that he'd be perfectly safe, and then they'd given Ron a black long-sleeved wetsuit with a large Walpurgis crest on the front of it to change into. Realising he probably wouldn't be able to take his shoes, he'd severed the heels and tucked them into the suit under his armpits, then gone back out, surrendered his wand when they asked him to, and then… nothing.

Until now, anyway.

He was bound to a stone pole with a glowing orb of light atop it by thick rope that was somehow coarse and slimy all at once, and the heels of his shoes were hard and incredibly uncomfortable in his wetsuit, but they were there which was the main thing.

Chang was tied to the pole next to his, her head lolling and also dressed in a black wetsuit, only with the Hogwarts crest across her front. Beyond her was what looked like a tinier version of Delacour - Harry'd been right in thinking it'd be her sister, though Ron couldn't remember her name - and beyond her was- was not what they'd planned for at all. Ron's heart stopped and he tried to move that way, but the ropes wouldn't let him.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, and then thought, Incendio. He felt sudden heat in his hands and wriggled a little, twisting his hand to guide it onto the ropes. A moment later they fell away, charred, and Ron bent awkwardly to burn away the ropes at his ankles too.

When he was free, he ran straight to Hermione. He lifted a hand and thought Rennervate without much hope - the only things he could manage wandlessly with any consistency were Accio and Incendio - and sure enough, Hermione remained limp. Ron burned away her bindings anyway - ankles first, then hands - and lowered her to the stony ground, propped up against her stone pole instead of bound to it.

Harry, he thought, was going to be beside himself when he got here.

Ron wandered over to the filmy edge of the bubble dome and squinted out into the murky water; while the lights on the poles lit up the inside of the dome well enough, they really didn't do much for the outside at all. Outside was dark and there were shadowy figures - merfolk - moving around, though not particularly close by. He couldn't see any shapes that might be the Aurors or Ministry staff Bagman and Pemberley had assured him would be keeping an eye on the hostages, but he supposed they were probably keeping out of sight to make the whole thing seem more daunting.

Ron reached out and pushed a finger through the dome. It didn't leak (or burst, thank Merlin) but his finger was cold and came back wet. He pushed his whole hand through without issue - obviously getting out wouldn't be a problem. He could go right now if he wanted, except he'd be leaving Hermione, and the odds of bumping into Harry on the way weren't great which meant Harry'd get here and not know where Ron was, which- No, best to just wait.

How long would he have to wait, he wondered, shaking his hand dry. Had the task started yet? Was Harry in the lake already, or was he sitting with Malfoy and Ginny at breakfast wondering where Hermione was, wondering if Ron was all right and if Ron had managed to smuggle the gillyweed?

Ron glanced back at Hermione, Chang, and baby Delacour, then headed around behind them to peel the top half of his wetsuit down and retrieve his shoe heels. He shook each of them, relieved to hear the muted sloshing of water inside, and then pulled his wetsuit back on with some difficulty and tucked a heel into each sleeve of his suit instead, where they'd be much more accessible.

Baby-Delacour was beginning to stir when he returned to what he assumed was the front of the dome; she came to with shaky, gasping breaths and then began to sniffle.

"Hey," Ron said, stepping into her line of view with an awkward wave. "Fleur's sister, right?" Her bottom lip trembled. "What do you say we get you untied, eh?" Oddly, that didn't seem to reassure her - she looked frightened.

"F-Fleur?" she asked in a high, musical voice.

"She's probably on her way to us right now," Ron said. "She'll be here soon, don't worry-"

The little girl said something in French and Ron winced; she probably didn't speak much English.

He took a slow step toward her and she gave him an uncertain look but held still while he burned her bindings away like he had his own and Hermione's. She rubbed her wrists.

"Merci," she said, offering him a shy smile. He had no idea how to reply to that, so he just smiled back at her. She turned with a swish of hair - so much like Fleur - to look around. After a glance at Ron, she wandered away to explore the dome, not going as far as to poke at it like Ron had, but she did peer out into the gloom with wary curiosity. After a moment, she moved further away this time looking above them. Ron felt like he should keep an eye on her, which was a bit ridiculous - she really couldn't go more than about ten feet in any given direction and they seemed to be perfectly safe inside the dome - but she was so small.

Chang woke only seconds later, not quite as frightened as baby-Delacour had been, but her calm seemed forced and rather fragile.

"Are you allowed to?" she asked, when Ron offered to free her from her pole.

"Dunno," Ron said. Chang bit her lip, glanced at Hermione's slumped form, then at Ron and baby-Delacour and nodded.

She didn't move far once she was freed, just stood there hugging herself like she was cold. Ron was warm in his wetsuit, so she shouldn't have been.

"Has it started yet?" Chang asked, lowering herself to sit at the base of her pole. She wrapped her arms around her knees.

"Dunno," Ron said.

"Right." Chang blew out a nervous breath, eyes darting around the dome. "All right, so I suppose we just wait."

"Pretty much," Ron said.

"Right," Chang said again. She chewed her lip and Ron heard her mutter something to herself that sounded a lot like, You agreed to this, you can do this, he'll be here soon. She took another deep breath.

"Ron?" Hermione was awake, getting to her feet with a crease between her eyebrows, even as her eyes traced the dome and flicked from Chang to baby-Delacour before landing back on Ron.

She had the slightly panicked look on her face that Ron associated with teachers announcing surprise tests, the look that said Hermione felt unprepared for something, and while it was almost never warranted in lessons, she wasn't prepared for this. Not the way Ron was. Sure, she'd 'supervised', thrown in her opinion when they discussed ideas and plans, had helped them find spells that worked well underwater and practice some of them, had helped Harry check the working for his bubblehead charm, but she hadn't practiced with gillyweed, hadn't got into the pool with them much, hadn't prepared because they'd decided it would be Ron going in for Harry, and they'd assumed Popa or Morozov would be in for Krum; Ginny had floated the idea of it being Hermione once - mostly teasing - and Hermione had primly informed them that the idea of Krum valuing her over anyone else was a bit ridiculous given they'd only been together a couple of months.

And yet, there she was, two hundred or so feet underwater, with a large Durmstrang sigil across the chest of her wetsuit. The thing Krum would miss most, which… well, Ron wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"This wasn't the plan," Ron said, and pulled one of his shoe heels out of his sleeve to toss to her. Hermione - being Hermione - fumbled the catch a little, but caught it and seemed to realise what it was.

"Ron," she said, looking between it and him. He thought she might argue, but then logic seemed to kick in - inevitable, given it was Hermione - and she secured it in her own sleeve. "Thank you."

"It's enough for-"

"Eight minutes," she finished for him. "I know."

"Maybe nine," he said. "You're smaller than me." But they didn't know for sure because she'd never tested it on herself before. Why hadn't they tested it on her, even just as a precaution? They'd been so prepared, him and Harry, but not for this-

"And I just eat it?"

"Yeah," Ron said. "Fair warning, it's gross." She wrinkled her nose, but the rest of her expression was grimly determined and he knew she'd do it.

"Any idea what the time is?"

"Nope," Ron said, and trailed after Hermione as she went to examine the dome. She reached for where her pocket would have been if she wasn't wearing a wetsuit - looking for her wand, out of habit, he guessed - then frowned. "It's safe," he said, sticking his hand through it.

"Ron!" Hermione said, tugging his hand back through. He flicked water at her, grinning and she huffed, then reached out herself to brush her fingers along the dome.

"See?" he said, as she examined her hand. "Safe."

"Apparently." She glanced over at baby-Delacour, who was on the other side of the dome. "You've already had a look around?"

"Yeah," he said, and went to sit at the base of the pole he'd been tied to originally - Chang was still sitting beside hers, hugging her knees. "Not much in here and it's hard to see out there."

Hermione spent a few moments squinting out through the dome, then came to sit beside him. Waiting wasn't something Ron much liked, but he'd had plenty of practice and so had Hermione. Even this situation wasn't completely new; they'd waited for Harry as hostages before, and not even that long ago. It was only a few months ago that Wormtail had had the two of them bound in the Room of Requirement, waiting. Compared to that, this was downright pleasant.

"Who'll be first, do you reckon?" Ron asked.

"To get here?" When he nodded, Hermione shrugged. "I don't know. Harry, hopefully." Ron grunted. "You don't agree?"

"He won't leave if you're still down here, and I don't reckon he'd leave her, either." He nodded at baby-Delacour, who'd just sat down about six feet away, though she wasn't looking at either of them. "Or Chang, for that matter."

"Harry can't rescue all of us," Chang said, sounding amused and a little skeptical. "That'd defeat the entire point of all of this, and- well, we're quite safe."

"Want to try convincing him of that?" Hermione muttered, and Ron snorted without any real humour because he wasn't sure they were safe either; a hostage situation where they were all trapped underwater was the sort of thing that could go very wrong, very quickly. It'd be so easy for Voldemort to arrange an 'accident' down here.

Suddenly the dome seemed very sinister, little more than a thin layer that was keeping them from drowning. What if it popped, or wore off? Ron would be all right - he'd take his gillyweed and swim to the surface - and so would Hermione, though they'd be in a bit of trouble if they came across any of the lake's inhabitants without a wand. But what about Chang and baby-Delacour?

They'd have to split the gillyweed, obviously. They'd have four minutes each and it'd just have to be enough…

"If something happens," Ron said in a low voice, "get to Chang." Hermione raised her eyebrows but didn't look confused; he wondered if she'd been thinking along those same lines.

"You'll get Gabrielle?" she asked, nodding at the girl, who was now only about three feet away; she seemed to be shuffling closer but stopped at the sound of her name and gave Hermione a narrow-eyed look.

"Yeah," he said. "Hopefully it's not even an issue-"

"The Champions will come," Hermione agreed, "and we'll all be fine."

"Exactly," Ron said. "Just… Constant vigilance, right?"

"Exactly," Hermione said, relieved. She slipped her hand into his, warm and a bit sweaty and holding on tighter than if she was perfectly calm. It was all right though; Ron gripped back just as tight.

Bagman's briefing in the tent by the shore of the lake didn't contain anything unexpected; they were to swim to the bottom of the lake and retrieve something that had been taken from them, and they'd have an hour to do so. As with previous tasks, they were allowed their wands and could do with them whatever they liked (as long as it was legal) and unlike other tasks, they could take with them whatever they wanted. Harry assumed that was to allow for gillyweed and, honestly, that was probably the only helpful thing anyone could take anyway.

It was a cold morning - Harry had the goosebumps on his arms to show it - and the lake water was even colder; Harry was shin-deep in it at the moment able to feel slimy sand between his toes, but all of that was secondary because he still couldn't see Hermione in the stands. He'd found Dora - hair bright pink, probably purely for the sake of being visible to him even though she'd probably have been green with nerves without conscious effort - and Draco and Luna's blond and Ginny and the rest of the Weasleys - doubtless invited because of Ron's involvement - were red, and he could see Padfoot and Moony just because of their proximity, but no Hermione.

No Marlene, either, but Harry'd seen her earlier with Shacklebolt and Dawlish and Wellington and a handful of other Aurors, so he assumed she was working, and probably had to stand somewhere else.

Hermione though… When Hermione hadn't shown up to breakfast, Ginny'd asked Lavender and Parvati where she was and they'd said she was already gone when they woke up. They'd suggested she'd gone to wish Krum luck - Ginny had rolled her eyes and pulled a face at that when she reported back - and it wasn't impossible that that was where she was, but Harry'd sort of thought she might have come to wish him luck - though differently to Krum. But, she hadn't shown up since then, and if even if she didn't want to see Harry for whatever reason, then she'd surely still watch the task with their lot, only she wasn't there, and-

"All ready, Harry?" Pemberley asked, and after a moment's hesitation, patted Harry's shoulders in a bracing sort of way.

"I s'pose," Harry said. Fleur glanced over at him and then away. Harry didn't look at her - mainly because he was still scanning the stands, but also because her long wetsuit - a pale blue-grey - clung to her in a way that left very little to the imagination and she would definitely not appreciate him staring.

Krum wore only burgundy wetsuit trunks - apparently he didn't feel the cold or had better warming charms than the rest of them - while Cedric wore a sleeveless wetsuit that was almost identical to Harry's only it was yellow and black instead of just plain black. Cedric also looked a lot better in it than Harry thought he did.

"Welcome," Bagman boomed, "to the third task, ladies and gentlemen!" Harry adjusted his wand in the forearm holster that had been provided with his suit and looked out over the lake as Bagman explained to the audience what was expected of the Champions. "... one last thing before we get underway… When I said they'd have to retrieve something they'd sorely miss, I really ought to have said someone." Both Krum and Cedric's heads snapped up at that, though Fleur looked pale and composed.

"Who?" Cedric asked Dumbledore, who was standing on the shore behind him. He glanced at Harry. "Did you know?"

"Yeah, I'd figured it out- you didn't?"

"No!" Cedric said, and then looked back at Dumbledore. "Who?"

At the same time as Karkaroff, Maxime, and Pemberley, Dumbledore drew a wand from his robes and offered it to Cedric. Harry reached out to take Ron's familiar wand from Pemberley, and then glanced at the other Champions.

Cedric was holding a wand Harry didn't think he recognised, expression stricken, and Fleur's expression had barely looked at what was presumably Gabrielle's wand before sliding it into her holster beside her own. And Krum-

"Whose is this?" he asked Karkaroff, holding a familiar wand up. His voice was unsure, but there was a hint of menace in there as well.

"It belongs to-"

"Hermione," Harry finished for him, feeling numb. "That's Hermione's wand." Krum's thick eyebrows drew together into a fearsome scowl.

"I bet that's caused a bit of a stir," Bagman said jovially, as Harry forced himself through the shock and let cold resolve settle over him; if Krum couldn't get Hermione out, he would; they could split the gillyweed Ron had hopefully managed to smuggle down with him, and- well, it was far from ideal, but they could make it work- "Judges, if you'd give our Champions their final bit of equipment…"

Harry looked at Pemberley with no small amount of apprehension, but Permberley only passed him a pair of what looked like leather Quidditch goggles.

"You should be able to see through them just like your glasses," Pemberley said. "But if not, I can adjust the charm." Harry pulled his glasses off and held the goggles up in their place, and Pemberley was right. He strapped the goggles on. "I can hold onto those if you'd like?" Pemberley offered, nodding at Harry's glasses. The only other options were for Harry to try to banish them over to the stands, or to take them with him, so it probably made the most sense for them to stay with Pemberley.

"Thanks," Harry said.

"As you can see," Bagman said, "we've done a tricky bit of spellwork that will let you all get a bit of a look through the eyes of a Champion… The looking glass on the top left should be Delacour's, the one beside it should be Potter's - thought he'd appreciate being beside Delacour-" Bagman chortled at his own joke and Harry glanced at Fleur, grimacing. "No wandering eyes, Harry," Bagman chided, "because we can all see exactly what you're looking at!" Harry looked hastily at the sky, cheeks hot. There was a smattering of laughter from the stands. "Diggory's got bottom left and Krum's got bottom right, and with that, we're ready to go! Judges, if you'd return to me..."

"Good luck," Pemberley whispered, and led the other judges away. Dumbledore reached out to pat Harry on the shoulder as he passed.

"Ready yourselves, Champions…" Bagman said.

"Good luck, everyone," Cedric said. Krum nodded, already glowering down at the water.

"I won't be needing luck," Fleur said, with a toss of her long, silvery hair.

"I'll take it if she doesn't want it," Harry replied grimly, drawing his wand. "But, yeah, good luck to you too."

"If there was anyone that didn't need luck it'd be you," Cedric said, grinning at him. "No hard feelings if you're not still winning after this, right?"

"Apparently 'e does not care about winning," Fleur said, twirling her own wand. Harry couldn't tell if she was mocking him or not until she blew him a kiss - the crowd cooed and cheered - and he realised she was definitely mocking him.

"Your hour starts... NOW!"

Krum dove into the water without doing anything at all and Harry had a moment to think that didn't bode well for Hermione at all and then shook himself.

He lifted his wand.

"Aercapitis," he said, and knew he'd mucked it up as soon as he got to the movement for Phase Two of the spell and circled his wand tip too far - that'd muck up the thickness of the bubble and that'd affect how it handled the pressure once he got deep… Harry finished the spell, mostly because he didn't know what'd happen if he stopped part way through, but cast a Finite on himself almost immediately and started again.

Fleur and Cedric - both having donned bubblehead charms of their own - waded out and disappeared smoothly into the water.

Bagman was babbling away, suggesting Harry might have met his match with the bubblehead charm and did Harry have a back up, because time was ticking...

"Focus," Harry muttered, forcing himself to ignore Bagman. "Aercapitis." He got it right this time - the circle in Phase Two of the spell just the right size and not tracing back over itself - and his bubble bloomed into place. He splashed awkwardly out until he got to waist depth and the lake's bottom dropped suddenly away.

"There he goes," Bagman said. "Better late than never, and I suppose we'll see how his charm holds-"

Then, Harry couldn't hear Bagman at all because he was diving under.