Champions

Harry was shaking with both fear and chill as he dove in to the frigid waters of the Black Lake, remembering belatedly to shove a wad of gillyweed into his mouth and chew. As he tried to get past the horrid taste and nauseating texture of the plant currently in residence in his oral cavity, he saw the other three Champions as they sped off into the dark, cold waters of the Hogwarts lake. He also saw the small swarms of grindylow as they quietly stalked the other Champions. And himself, he noted dully as he looked down into the weeds of the lake, his newly enhanced eyes catching the small reflection of light that their little, beady, black eyes caught as they looked toward the surface, directly at him.

He idly wondered, as he felt the last of the changes wrought by the gillyweed take hold in his body, why the grindylow hadn't attacked him while he had been sitting motionless in the water above them. He wasn't about to stick around to give them more chances, however, and he kicked his feet experimentally. He was unprepared for the sudden burst of speed, and the grindylow watched with primordial interest as he twisted and turned through the water, getting used to his... fins.

Harry shot through the water, feeling the rush that usually followed a ride on his Firebolt, as he accelerated through the water using his newly grown fins. It was intoxicating as ever, he thought with a slight grin, the feeling of flying through some medium. Water or air, it didn't matter, as long as he knew that in that realm he was free.

His freedom quickly came crashing down around him as he came into view of Fleur, who was struggling in vain against the pack of grindylow that had been stalking her so closely and had apparently found an opportune time to strike. Their strong, lithe fingers easily ripped the french veela's wand from her, and her fingers, numb from the cold, put up little resistance to the minor demons. Harry contemplated simply leaving her to her fate, but his legs wouldn't cooperate with his head, which may have worried him if he hadn't known exactly why he couldn't move. Damn his bloody conscience.

Suddenly, Harry was in motion, spiraling downward, into the crowd of grindylow gathering around the writhing body of the entrapped woman who had enraptured the hearts of so many men. He damn near flew into the water demon nearest to the bubble around Fleur's head that was allowing her to continue breathing, grabbing the offending beast by the skull and staring into its soulless black eyes.

This is my domain, you ignorant beast, Harry rammed his thoughts into the creature's brain, paying no mind to the pain he must be causing it, I am the God of this realm, and YOU-WILL-NOT-CHALLENGE-ME! With that final mental battering ram, he released the pitiful beast's skull from his grip, and it sped away into the dark abyss that he knew was where its kind called home. The rest of the minor water demons quickly followed suit, not willing to risk the wrath of the one who had defeated their Alpha-Male.

Fleur, finally freed from the grip of terror and scales that had paralyzed her moments before, began to search frantically for her lost wand. Harry decided to spare the poor woman the trouble of finding it herself, and summoned the magical twig to his palm and handed it to her, business-end pointed toward himself.

She stared deeply into his eyes for a long moment, trying to gauge his intentions, before grabbing her wand and shouting a quick 'thank-you', distorted by the partial-pressure gradient at the edge of the bubble, where the air that she was breathing met the water that he was inhaling. He nodded quickly and gave her a lopsided grin, pointing in the direction that he knew their stolen friends lay, just a few hundred meters from the site of her attack.

They swam side-by-side into the village, both taking a moment as they swam to admire the sub-marine metropolis that the merpeople had likely constructed over countless centuries, countless generations, and over countless bodies of their brethren, each of them mourned and celebrated by each generation. The city was truly a work of beauty, he thought, feeling the weight of their intrusion into such a sacred place settle onto his shoulders, like the stares of millions of merpeople, living and dead, boring into his soul.

He tugged on the sleeve of his beautiful, temporary companion, trying to convey with his eyes how important it was that they leave this holy city as quickly as they could possibly move. His eyes swept over the ever-increasing number of onlookers to their depressing parade of power over them, he could see in their eyes that they feared the two land-dwellers who had, however reluctantly, entered into the city that they called home, the city that was promised to them as safe.

Harry was struck with red, burning anger at Dumbledore's forceful intrusion into the lives of these mistreated people. How dare that old man shove the presence of his people into the midst of the people who had called this place home for thousands of years, people who had lived, bled, and died for this small piece of something they could call their own, safe from invasion and conquer from outside forces. How dare he?

The anger in Harry's eyes must have shown, as all of the mermaids backed further behind the trident-carrying mermen, those with children fleeing the scene entirely, to protect what little they had. Harry understood their feeling well, and made a fast decision.

His eyes sought out the chieftain, the most important person in the merpeople's society, the man who could overturn his people's laws with a single word, should the opportunity demand such an action. As Harry's eyes fell onto the oldest merman he had seen, he knew that he had found the man he was looking for, and so, after gesturing to Fleur to go ahead without him, he swam up to the elderly chieftain, floated down to his knees, and bowed his head to the wizened half-fish.

Harry had closed his eyes when he had bowed his head to the chieftain, and as such didn't know what was going to happen to him. He highly doubted that a wizard had ever submitted himself to the mercy of a merman before; Such a grievous blow to the ego of a land-dweller it would be, to bow your head before an inferior species. Harry barely contained the sneer that threatened to erupt onto his face at the thought of the wizards' precious dignity, and where that dignity and pride had brought them. Forced to bow before another wizard, one of ideals that they did not believe in, morals they did not share. And all to preserve their precious pride. Such foolish people they were, the men and women he was forced to call his kin.

Harry stiffened as he felt cold metal come to rest on his left shoulder, the curve of the weapon in sharp contrast with the flesh of his body. He dared not look up into the eyes of his punisher, he did not want to know who killed him, should they choose to take his offer of repentance for his race because he would rather not know and be free of hate, than know and hate his punisher for something that Harry himself had offered his life for.

And suddenly there was singing, soft at first, but slowly growing in volume as more and more and more merpeople joined in the sorrowful aria emerging from the compassion they saw in the young human who had unknowingly invaded their home, a young human who, when he had realized the depth of his people's transgressions, had willfully offered his own life as repayment.

And the people of this sub-marine city sang for him, the compassionate human. They sang for him.

They sang for change.


AN: That's it. I put up a one-shot that I'm actually kinda proud of.

I wrote this because I always thought it odd that the merpeople would just agree to let a bunch of humans traipse 'round the center of their culture in Great Britain.

Maybe I looked to far into it, but its done.

And I wanted to write about Harry showing off his scary-ass-Gryffindor side.

And please, people. I'm begging you. Please review. PLEASE! I want to know how I've done with my writing. I can't know unless you, the readers, tell me what you think. So please just take a moment of your time to write a short review.

Please review.

-Brandon.