Chapter 26 - The Second Task

[heidi]

No: HPFGUIDX 9347


In which Our Hero acts all heroic, thereby showing moral fiber, in the eyes of
all but Karkaroff.

The chapter opens on Harry explaining his adventures with The Egg and the Eye
from the night before - describing Snape's words and actions, quoting Moody
(well, quoting Barty Crouch at least); the first scene ends with Harry &
Hermione accomplishing their banashing charms.
Harry then writes to Sirius and the chapter turns to the task of figuring out
how Harry can survive underwater for at least an hour.
And they don't figure it out.
They try. They look for charms, they look for transfigurations, Harry gets some
words of encouragement from Hagrid, and Hermione & Ron, the night before the
task, go missing. Harry spends that night in the library and is woken by Dobby,
bearing Gillyweed  (we learn later that it was basically planted on him by
Crouch).
The action moves briefly lakeside, and then it goes underwater, where Harry
meets the Merpeople, sees who, other than the Squid, lives in the lake, and
finally, finds the hostages tied to a rock in the Mer Village (let's call it
Hogsmeade By The (I Mean In The) Sea). Harry is the first to reach the hostages
and after cutting Ron free, he tries to rescue Hermione (and intends to rescue
Cho and Fleur's sister as well) but the merpeople stop him. He stands by,
nonetheless, until Godric and Krum arrive, but fleur never does, so Harry keeps
the merpeople away from him with his wand, rescues the girl we later learn is
named Gabrielle, and goes up to the surface, both hostages in tow.
When they reach the surface, after Ron has helped Harry get Gabrielle to shore,
Ron calls Harry a prat for waiting to make sure everyone was rescued, but thanks
to a description of what Harry did from the Merchieftainess, the judges (all but
Karkaroff) give Harry enough points to have him tie with Cedric.

Questions:
1. Did Harry show moral fiber or was be being a prat?
2. Why didn't Harry look for any potions or plants to help with the task? Does
he automatically veer towards charms and transfigurations for any particular
reason, or is he genetically inclined to those areas, given that they were his
parents' specialties?
3. Does Percy's protectiveness of Ron in this chapter change how you think of
him?
4. What about Hermione & Krum's relationship?
5. If you were an H/H Shipper, would you consider the fact that Harry went to
rescue Hermione before Cho as evidence that he likes her? How would you
interprit this if you were an R/H shipper?