Chapter 25
"We've got to breathe underwater for an hour?" Harry asked, his eyebrows in danger of disappearing entirely. Eliza nodded and showed him the clue again.
She had finally taken the egg into the bath with her, heard the clue, and then spent another hour in the cooling water trying not to panic.
It was the start of January and classes had just resumed, Hermione had been badgering her about the egg so finally Eliza had been forced to use Moody's cryptic clue.
"But…that's impossible!" Harry insisted, he had been dragged out of bed by his sister at half eleven at night and they were not in the common room fretting together.
Eliza shook her head, it couldn't be impossible, there had to be a solution.
"Have you told Fred?" Harry asked, looking intrigued. Eliza shook her head and resisted rolling her eyes with great difficulty.
When the article about her first kiss had been published she had thought that her life was over, but fortunately Fred had taken it well and had spoken to Professor Dumbledore, who then in turn wrote a strongly worded letter to the editor of the Daily Prophet who had reprimanded Rita Skeeter. There had been no more articles about either Fred or Eliza since. Of course the silencing of Skeeter couldn't prevent the onslaught of hurtful and often distasteful comments that had reached Eliza's ears. All of Gryffindor house seemed delighted by the blossoming romance and even Mrs Weasley had written to say that she was pleased that Eliza wasn't "stopping the dreadful tournament from ruining your teenage years".
"We'll go to the library in the morning." Eliza nodded and then the twins went to bed.
She used Fred's spell, it had been amazing. It had stopped her sleepwalking and gave her the most incredible dreams, that night she dreamt about Chocolate frog cards, her sketches flooded in and out of her dream and when she woke up she picked up her sketch pad and started flicking through it absent-mindedly.
"Did you figure out the clue?" Hermione's unexpected whisper made Eliza jump so much she nearly grabbed her wand.
"Oh, sorry, did you though?" Eliza nodded. Then without looking at Hermione she walked into the bathroom and locked the door.
She stood in front of the mirror for a few minutes, trying not to panic, then had a long shower holding her breathe for as long as she could. About a minute, she was going to drown. She couldn't even swim!
When she returned to the dormitory Hermione was sat on her bed, idly flipping through the sketches.
"Alright?" She asked, Eliza nodded and sat down as Hermione went to have her shower.
She stared at her sketch pad for a good ten minutes before she read the caption under one of the witches; discovered the magical properties of Gillyweed….
She gasped and jumped up, she opened her Chocolate frog card tin and found the card of Elladora Ketteridge and then ran downstairs, she almost collided with her brother and Ron who appeared to be in serious discussions with the Weasley twins.
"Careful Eliza…you okay?" Ron asked, Eliza nodded and pulled Harry away from the group.
"What, what is it?" He asked, Eliza passed him the card, he read it quickly and then a grin spread over his face and he picked her up and spun her around several times.
"How can we get some?" He asked, when he put her down. Eliza looked around the common room and spotted Neville coming down the stairs, she ran up to him and pulled him over to Harry, he looked bewildered.
"Neville?" Harry asked, Eliza nodded and passed Neville the card.
"Neville, we need some Gillyweed, can you get us some?"
"Gillyweed? Sure, it might take a few days, it's tricky to find and the lake's frozen over but…"
"Eliza will help." Harry interrupted, correctly interpreting his sister's actions.
"Great, we'll start this afternoon, what do you need it for?" Eliza beamed at Neville as Harry explained, they weren't going to drown!
The morning of the second task had arrived with alarming speed. Eliza sat up in bed and felt the familiar waves of anticipation and pure dread was over her.
Eliza and Neville had spent their free time searching the frozen reed beds for the plant. Eliza enjoyed spending time with Neville and when they finally found the plant they were so pleased with themselves that they ended up abandoning homework for the night and spent the time playing Gobstones and Exploding snap like they used to do in first year.
Eliza pulled herself out of the memories and looked at the jar of Gillyweed resting on her bedside table, the thought of eating it wasn't pleasant but the alternative of drowning wasn't appealing either. Next to the jar was a note from Fred, it was the instructions for the charm he had invented for her, she knew the logistics of the spell by heart now but still kept the note by the bed to remind her of why she was sleeping so well.
Looking across the dormitory Eliza was surprised to see Hermione's bed empty. Glancing at the clock it was only 7.30, Hermione usually stayed in bed till 8. Shrugging it off as a bad night sleep, Eliza went about her morning routine as normal. It was only when she joined Harry in the common room who told her than Ron was also up early that she started to get suspicious. Relations between Ron and Hermione had been extremely strained since Christmas but Eliza knew better than to think they were together somewhere making up.
When Eliza and Harry reached the Great Hall the noise was almost deafening. The excitement of the second task appeared to be making everyone very loud and cheerful. Eliza and Harry sat down next to Ginny.
"Morning, how are you both feeling?" She asked tentatively, Harry tried to mumble fine but the word died in his throat, Eliza merely looked at her plate, her face paling.
As the twins picked at their breakfast George joined them, the fact that he was on his own was also very unusual.
"Hey guys, Eliza, have you seen Fred? He didn't come back last night after seeing Professor McGonagall."
Eliza shook her head, and looked at Harry her heart constricting, she could see the cogs turning in his mind, and he looked up at her with wide eyes.
"We've take what you'll sorely miss…too late, it's gone, it won't come back. Oh my…they've got Fred and Ron…and Hermione, for Krum…I can't…"
Eliza tuned out of his ramblings, she tried to keep a clear head, Fred wouldn't get hurt. She tried to convince herself that it would be fine but she couldn't help remembering the reason the tournament was cancelled, she heard Professor Dumbledore in her head 'until the death count became so high that the tournament was discontinued'.
Eliza barely noticed when Professor McGonagall came to collect her and Harry, the next thing she knew she was in the tent. She forced herself to concentrate on the instructions but her head felt like she had too many thoughts.
After another seemingly small amount of time Eliza found herself outside the tent, she wasn't looking at the audience, her mind was still spinning. She heard a whistle but didn't move a muscle, it wasn't till the other champions had reached the water's edge that she realised the task had begun. She could feel the adrenaline building and she pushed the Gillyweed into her mouth, it was like chewing a piece of foul smelling rubber.
When she was waist deep she felt her mouth constrict and suddenly she couldn't breathe, doing the only thing that made sense she dove into the water and took a breath, the oxygen entered her lungs and relief swam around her head.
After ten minutes she had lost track of the other champions and was on her own. In another scenario she could have seen the beauty of the green waters of the lake and enjoyed the feeling that swimming gave her but she was so concentrated on getting to Fred that the ambience of the lake was lost on her.
Every so often she could hear snatches of the mermaid's song but she couldn't figure out the direction in was coming from. She felt like she was swimming in circles, surely an hour was nearly up. She also felt as if she was being watched but she couldn't see anyone, or anything, near her.
After a few more minutes the paranoia grew and she stopped swimming and looked around her. She was alone; she looked around again, still alone. As she was about to swim off something grabbed her ankle, looking down she saw that a Grindylow had hold of her, automatically she kicked out and caught the creature in the mouth, greenish blood was spreading in the water and it appeared to have alerted more Grindylows to danger, suddenly Eliza was surrounded.
As she was about to pull out her wand another creature grabbed her arm, they were pulling her down. One of the Grindylow had its hands around her throat blocking her gills. She felt something heavy on the back of her head and her vision began to blur…
"…they were all around her, sir!"
"It is unusual for them to attack with such force but it has been known to happen. What do you think, Poppy?" Professor Dumbledore's voice was mild but even in Eliza's disorientated state she could hear his anger and concern.
"I think she is coming round. She definitely has concussion and the scratches have Grindylow oil in them so they will take a few weeks to heal, I'm concerned about the neck bruises, they…"
"IS SHE OK?" Harry's voice was coming closer and Eliza willed her eyes to open, to reassure him.
"Calm yourself, Mr Potter, she is coming round now. How are you feeling, Miss Potter?" Eliza opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was back inside the tent and was looking up at concerned faces. Professor's Dumbledore and Snape were stood near her head, Madam Pomfrey was at her side and Eliza could just make out Harry and Cedric at the foot of the bed.
She looked over at Madam Pomfrey hoping for an explanation. She felt terrible, she had a splitting headache and her throat felt like it was on fire.
"You were attacked by Grindylow, it was a miracle that Mr Diggory was passing, you have had a lucky escape, Miss Potter." Madam Pomfrey turned away to prepare some potions and Eliza looked over at Cedric.
"I was heading back to the shore with Cho and I saw a disturbance in the water, I thought it was nothing but then I saw blood so I swam over and the Grindylow were all over you. I shot a few spells and swam over to you. I thought you were dead." Cedric looked pale and young.
"It is a wonderful trait of Hufflepuff house that you demonstrate so proudly, Mr Diggory, loyalty, your friendship with Miss Potter overrode your desire for the tournament." Professor Dumbledore smiled and Eliza could tell that Cedric was pleased; Snape however looked to be suppressing a snort.
"Is Eliza ok?" Fred's voice came through the tent and Eliza sat up suddenly, she hadn't rescued him! A wave of dizziness passed through her and Madam Pomfrey forced her back down, Professor Snape left the group and was replaced by Fred and Professor McGonagall,
"Are you ok?" Fred asked urgently, Eliza nodded trying to convey how annoyed she was at her failure, "Don't worry Harry got me out but Percy has been fussing over me so I couldn't get away. I thought you were…" Fred left the sentence open and Professor McGonagall nodded at the unfinished statement.
Eliza looked up at her teacher and noticed how pale she looked, her mouth was thin but her eyes were flushed with concern rather than anger.
"We will remove the Grindylow involved in the incident from the lake, they are unable to lie so it will be easy to get to the bottom of this." Eliza nodded but felt herself blush with embarrassment as she recalled kicking one of the creatures in the face.
The teachers left the group to give out the scores, Professor Dumbledore informed Eliza that they could only give her one point for using the Gillyweed, Harry and Cedric were now tied in first place.
When the rest of the school had left the lake Madam Pomfrey insisted on levitating Eliza up to the hospital wing where she would spent the remainder of the weekend. Normally Eliza would attempt to pretend she was fine but she was so tired and sore that she simply nodded and fell asleep before they had even reached the castle walls.