Chapter 10: Did I Blow It?

24th November, 1976.

Bloody Hell… bloody hell! I can't do it, I just can't do it. What was I thinking? I should just go and off myself or something.

"Lily, don't worry, you're going to do well." Oh Alice, always the optimist. I wish I could believe her but I know what's going to happen. I am either going to fail miserably or die.

I am currently sitting in my enclosure and I'm supposed to be preparing myself for the first task. The other champions are with their Head teachers whereas I am alone. No idea why, really. But, this way I get to stay with my friends, who being the angels that they are, have decided to stay with me.

"Alice, I really cannot be positive right now. I am going to die."

"Lily, how many times do we have to tell you that you're not going to die, for it to actually register in your brain?" Also, did I tell you that James invited his stupid arse into my enclosure without my permission? No, I did not. But, he did.

Ugh. I can't believe they're actually making me wait for my death so long. Just give it to me or set me free from this task. Oh good God.

"Good morning, everyone! I hope everyone has had a fantastic stay here and I'm happy to announce that it's finally time for the first task of the Wizarding Tournament. In this task, the four champions must dive deep into the waters of the Black Lake to find the treasured eggs of the Giant Squid that resides in the lake. Each champion must bring back one egg and one egg only to the surface. Champions, you have an hour to find these eggs and bring them back with you. And remember, this is a race, so you will be marked on the time taken by you to come back. Now, the game will begin at the sound of the can—" BOOM! A large deafening sound was heard that reverberated through the air. It sounded similar to a cannon's. It seemed Filch had done his job before time and now everyone was looking around like mad, wanting to confirm if this was the signal for the game to start.

Suddenly, Edouard from Beaubatons jumped into the lake and Jennifer, the Ilvermorny girl, looking somewhat furious, followed suit.

Aleksander the hunky Durmstrang-er looked at Lily and gave her a smile. He then jumped into the lake, too. Lily was really baffled as to what to do. All around her, people were shouting, she was wasting time and she knew it. But she was scared, she couldn't help but be. She thought she couldn't do it, but then she turned her head to the side and saw all her friends cheering for her.

Alice, Marlene, Mary, Remus, even Peter was clapping and cheering. Sirius was shouting furiously at her to 'Just fucking jump', but James caught her eye and he mouthed something along the lines of 'I know you can do it'. He did now, did he? That pushed her to do it.

Lily finally cast the Bubblehead Charm and jumped into the water. It hit her like a ton of bricks but she got over that feeling in a second. The Charm allowed her to breathe under water and even see more clearly. Lily thought she could get used to this.

Lily started swimming at full speed but after a while realized she didn't know where to go. She thought she would just follow one of the other champions but none of them was in sight. She removed her wand and cast a 'Lumos' spell. Waving it around, she found on the lake bottom, something that looked suspiciously like a tentacle. It was slithering away, so Lily decided to follow it.

Around her, the weird looking plants were starting to move and snap as she passed them but Lily still kept following the tentacle. One green plant wrapped itself around her ankle. She tugged at it hard but it didn't budge so she blasted it with her wand. Once free, she went in the direction of the tentacle.

Lily felt like she was so far behind everyone, she was losing. That's when she saw Aleksander struggling to free himself from the killer plant. Lily decided she should help him and she did just that. Aleksander gave her a weird look but then grinned thankfully. He started swimming again and Lily started swimming beside him.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a sickly green-coloured creature-thingy with small horns (that Lily knew was a Grindylow) popped up and attached its arms to Aleksander. He pulled it away and blasted it as far as he could. Lily noticed that there were several of them coming behind her and Alek so she pulled him by his arm and started swimming as fast as she could. She caught sight of the tentacle again but this time it came with a pair of Giant Squid arms. Lily figured she was close to the eggs and so did Aleksander.

Lily looked behind her to see that the Grindylows weren't following them anymore. She figured it was probably because of the Giant Squid swimming right in front of them. Lily had never seen it up close so she hadn't realized how daunting it could be. People were not exaggerating when they called it 'giant', she thought to herself.

But Aleksander had a different thought process going on. He figured that if the squid was here, the eggs couldn't be very far and that he would just have to go past the squid, which (FYI) stretched as long as he could see. He started swimming away from the squid and then around it. He thought it would take time.

Lily, on the other hand, observed some things while staring enormous creature. One, it was definitely covering some scene behind its body and two; she could very distinctly see the moving tail of a mermaid near its tentacle. Lily decided to follow the mermaid because she looked like she knew what she was doing. Lily realized that Aleksander had gone the exact opposite way but she figured she would have to trust her instincts on this matter.

And later, she was glad she did, because the mermaid had found a way past the Giant Squid safely. Plus, it had led her right to bunch of very large shapes that looked like eggs, placed on a rock. There were three eggs on the rock, which meant someone had reached here before her. The rock was surrounded by merpeople standing at some distance which startled her a little. She was afraid that they might attack.

A scuffling sound near her brought Lily back to her senses. Edouard had popped up out of nowhere and now he was very quickly swimming towards the eggs. Lily wanted to stand back and see what happens to him, but he seemed pretty confident about it, and Lily figured it was race, so she copied him and swam quickly to the rock.

The mermaids did nothing to them. They were just standing guard with what looked like tridents and scowls on their pretty faces, ready to fight, in case someone broke the rules. Edouard grabbed an egg first and started swimming upwards. Lily, without paying much thought, did the same. She swam as fast as she could, to catch up with Edouard and, eventually, did. She could feel her Bubblehead Charm lifting as they both came up, breaking the surface together.

Lily could only hear people shouting, hooting, clapping and screaming. She was still coughing and sputtering water as she swam towards the land. She was aware of the heavy egg in her hand and that made her really happy. She, Lily Elizabeth Evans, had done it! She had completed the first task with ease. She didn't know why she had been so afraid.

It looked like Jennifer had come first. Lily and Edouard were tied for the second position whereas Aleksander hadn't come up at all. Lily was a little nervous for him, but mostly she was really cold. As if reading her mind, someone came and wrapped a towel around her. She turned around to see her friends behind her and hugged each of them with one hand, keeping the egg in the other. She saw James, Sirius and the rest of the Marauders smiling at her proudly and she too felt joy run through her.

Lily was so happy that she might have done her happy dance if it wouldn't have caused her social embarrassment. She dropped her towel to the ground to show off the egg that she had brought, to the others. Her friends gasped and she looked down at her clothes to see if they were still there (which thankfully they were) and then at the egg. She gasped too.

The 'egg' that she had brought back, was rough and hard, looked exactly like, and was as heavy as, a rock. (Hence, the collective gasps.) And Lily thought she would faint. She had gone through everything so bravely, only to come up with a rock! She felt so stupid, so embarrassed, so disappointed. She'd had one job! She looked at her friends and saw confused and depressed looking faces. God, she was damned!

"I blew it, didn't I?"