Chapter 36
As if in it was in slow motion, I see how her jaw drops. I feel the color rising to my cheeks. Man . . . This is not the way I imagined I would say I love you for the first time. Well . . . What can I do? It already came out. Still, I am kind of glad I told her. How knows how long I would have endured seeing her with Krum. Funny, we are more sincere when we are angry. I go down the stairs until I'm just a few feet away from her.
"Please, say something." I beg.
She is standing there with wide eye and her mouth open, like a statue. I try to avoid making eye contact. I am actually afraid that she would yell at me or something maybe ran off, I wouldn't be surprised if she did. But she doesn't, she is there still processing the huge bomb I just threw at her. I close my eyes and wait patiently for her to do something.
Caressing my supple cheek, she lifted my chin; our noses almost touching. She smiles at me with that smile that I love. Without thinking I lean in and kiss her. If I already told her I loved her, why don't kiss her?
Her lips so soft yet sweet, there was a moment of hesitation I must confess. Our lips are together for a short period of time. But in that period of time I feel sudden warmth all over my body. I knew I wasn't going to feel something like this with anyone else.
I pull away, I look for disgust, hatred, aversion or dislike on her face, but I found nothing but a little smile. Softly. Lovingly. That kiss; hard, but soft; fiery but cool; a split second but also forever. There was no longer a need to be subtle. The question that had been on my mind, had been answered before it ever got to be asked.
I take her face with both of my hands; stroke her checks with my thumbs carefully, as if she would break any second. I pull her for another kiss, this time more confident. God, I could kiss all day if she let me.
She draws back, after what seems forever. I open my eyes again, grinning from ear to ear. I put my hands on her waist, and she puts hers on my shoulders.
"I love you too" she whispers. I feel my heart is about to explode with excitement.
I chuckle. "What were we doing before all of this happened?" I ask.
"I can't remember" Hermione tells me.
I grab Hermione's hand and intertwined our fingers. I sit on the steps of the stairs and she sits next to me, her head on my shoulder. We have a nice chat, for the rest of the night until is time to go back to the common room. Just when she was leaving to her room I call her.
"I am sorry," I apologize. "For yelling at you. I let my feelings take over me."
"It's okay" she assures me. "It is nice to know that you care. Besides, if you hadn't exploded, who knows how long it would have taken you to tell me that you liked me."
"If I remember correctly, I think I yelled love you" I say.
"You did" she smiled. "I just wanted to make sure I had heard correctly"
. . .
It was a week before the second task and Harry hadn't figured out the egg.
"Harry you need to move on this" I scold him, while we were walking on the covered bridge.
"Don't you think I know that" he snapped at me. "Gosh, you sound like Hermione."
I roll my eyes. "I don't understand what a bunch of wailing has to do with this." he says. I stop dead in my tracks. I had completely forgotten to tell him about the egg. Should I tell him? He did tell me about the dragons, but it was just because he said to my father. He wasn't really planning on telling me. We are friends. I think I have to tell him, I owe him.
"I think you should get a bath . . . " I say
"That is and awesome idea, just what I need in fact." he says sarcastically.
"I mean it. You know the prefect bathroom on the fifth floor? It's not a bad place for a bath. Take you egg and think things over in hot water" I say. He looked at me as if I was crazy. I grinned. "Just saying."
One night before the second task I was sleeping in the room when someone burst into.
"Hey, get up! Harry is close to figuring out the egg." Ron says. I shook my head as I get up of bed.
"I am killing Harry for waking me up to help out with his problem that should have figured out weeks ago" I mumble as Ron leads me to the Library. A few days ago I looked into a Charms book, to see if the was any charm that could help me with my problem and then I found it. The bubble head Charm. It was useful.
Harry told us what the eggs said and the theory he had about the lake.
Well, congratulations, you found out what you had to do. Now, let see how are going to breath. I thought.
"How I am supposed to breath under water for an hour?" Harry said frustrated.
"Weasley, Granger! McGonagall wants to see you both in her office now" Moody said, rounding the corner of where we were.
"Why?" said Hermione, looking surprised. Harry and I glance at each; we are the ones that usually are in trouble, not them.
"You are not in trouble. Just go. Longbottom! Help Mr. Potter and Mr. Black put this books away" said Moody.
"We'll meet you back in the common room," Hermione told us as she got up to go with Ron — both of them looked very anxious.
"Right," said Harry uneasily as they walk away.
"What now?" I ask him, when they already left.
"I don't know" Harrys says frustrated.
"What are you doing?" Neville asks, as he takes some books and puts them back to shelve.
"We are looking for something that can make Harry breathe for an hour" I comment.
"You know, if you're interested in plants, you'd be better off with Goshawk's Guide to Herbology. Do you know there's a wizard i-in Nepal who's growing gravity-resistant trees?" said Neville.
"Neville, no offense, but I really don't care about plants. Now, if there's a... Tibetan turnip that will allow me to breathe underwater for an hour, then great. But otherwise . . ."
"I don't know about a turnip. But you could always use gillyweed."
Then he explains how to use the Gillyweed and bla bla bla, I was so tired I didn't pay attention. We went to the common room and at last I went to bed.
I woke up a little worried next day. Ron never came back, which means that Hermione never came back either. When I got downstairs to see if they were there, I found it empty.
"Have you see Ron?" Harry asked coming down the stairs.
"No"
"He didn't come back to the room last night" said Harry.
"I know, neither did Hermione . . . Do you think they are alright?"
"Uh yeah, probably" he said unsure.
The entrance hall contained a few last-minute stragglers, all leaving the Great Hall after breakfast and heading through the double oak doors to watch the second task. I walked to the judges table where Krum and Fluer are sitting. Minutes later Harry arrives, panting.
"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One . . . two . . . three!"
The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause. All the champions, except Harry, jumped into the water… I murmured the spell and a bubble covers my mouth and nose, similar to oxygen mask.
It was so cold I felt the skin my legs searing as though this were fire, not icy water. At least I could breathe under water.
All right, where am I supposed to go? The bottom, maybe. I could only see ten feet around me, so that as I sped through the water new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the oncoming darkness: forests of rippling, tangled black weed, wide plains of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. I swam deeper and deeper, out toward the middle of the lake, his eyes wide, staring through the eerily gray-lit water around him to the shadows beyond, where the water became opaque.
I was staring unblinkingly ahead of me, trying to discern shapes through the gloom . . . and then, without warning, something grabbed hold of my ankle. I twisted my body around and saw a grindylow, a small, horned water demon, poking out of the weed, its long fingers clutched tightly around my leg.
"Relashio" I yelled. The grindylow untangled itself from my leg and swam to another direction.
I swam on for what felt like at least twenty minutes. I was passing over vast expanses of black mud now, which swirled murkily as I disturbed the water. Then, at long last, he heard a snatch of haunting mersong.
"An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took . . ."
I swam faster and soon saw a large rock emerge out of the muddy water ahead. It had paintings of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears and chasing what looked like the giant squid. I swam on past the rock, following the mersong.
". . . your time's half gone, so tarry not
Lest what you seek stays here to rot. . . ."
A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides.
A whole crowd of merpeople was floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a mer-version of a village square. A choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions toward them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue; a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Four people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson.
Ginny was tied between Hermione and Ron. There was also a girl who looked no older than eight, whose clouds of silvery hair made me feel sure that she was Fleur Delacour's sister. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths.
Okay, so there are four people, who am I supposed to rescue? My first reaction was to take Hermione and leave, but when I saw Ginny I had my doubts. Should I take Hermione or Ginny? I am sure Ron is of Harry. I look around and see that Harry is already there, looking like he is debating with himself. So the little girl is Fluer sister and Hermione is more likely to be from Viktor, after all she was his dance partner and Ginny was mine, so I will take Ginny.
Thankfully I had the pocket knife my father gave me a few years ago. I cut the vines on Ginny's legs and hands and swamp up. When I reached the top Ginny woke up too, so they were just sleeping! I just hope Harry is okay down there.
Madame Pomfrey handed us two thick white towels.
"Hey, you were the first one who went up to the surface again. Congratulations!" Ginny said and I shook her hand and said "Thanks"
What is taking Harry so long? He actually got there first. Attacked by grindylows maybe?
"What did you use to save me?" Ginny asked.
"Just a bubble-head charm." I told her.
Then I saw Krum and Hermione coming to the surface. I ran towards them, I reach out my hand for Hermione, she took it and pulled her up and hugged her.
"Tony, I am getting you wet" Hermione said. I chuckle.
"I don't care, I am already wet." I say, wrapping a towel around her and taking her checks with both of my hands, giving her a kiss. Krum cleared his throat and I turned to him.
"I still don't like you, but thank you for saving her" I told him. Vicky nods and goes to celebrate with his friends, not without looking at Hermione before. Hermione watched everyone before saying.
"Where is Fleur sister?"
"Still at the bottom. Fleur never got past the grindylows, so she lost." Lastly Harry showed up with Ron and Fleur's sister.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows. . . .
"Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points." Applause from the stands.
"I deserved zero," said Fleur throatily, shaking her magnificent head.
"Anthony Black, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour." Enormous cheers from all the students in Hogwarts. I was happy, I had won. "We therefore award him forty-seven points."
"Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points." Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior.
"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect," Bagman continued . "He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own."
"Most of the judges," and here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look, "feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However . . . Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."
Everyone, caught by surprise, stared at Harry, then laughed and started applauding hard with the rest of the crowd. Oh, we are now tied in the first place. "There you go, Harry!" Ron shouted over the noise. "You weren't being thick after all — you were showing moral fiber!"
"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June," continued Bagman. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Ginny and I were walking back to the castle with Hagrid enjoying ourselves until Harry wondered by himself on the road and called us over. There, lying on the ground dead was Mr. Barty Crouch.
We all stood there watching Mr. Crouch's body. Hermione looked like she was about to cry, Ginny was crying on George´s shoulder, the twins looked shocked, Ron was a bit green, while Harry, Hagrid and I remained emotionless.
"What do we do now?" asked Ron.
"We carry his body to the castle. We can't just leave him out here. We also need to find Dumbledore" I said.
"You are right. Come on" Harry agreed.
Hagrid picked up Mr. Crouch's body, meanwhile the rest of us walked behind him closely.
"Are you alright?" I ask Hermione, who is still shaking a little.
"Yeah, it's just that… I have never seen a dead body before." she murmurs.
Soon we made it back to the castle, Hagird, Harry and I decide to go to Dumbledore's office.
"Hopefully it won't take long, I will see you on the common room as soon as I can, okay?" I tell Hermione. She nodded and kissed me before leaving with the others.
Hello everyone! Did you miss me? I bet you did, likely just because you wanted to know what happened between Hermione and Tony. So . . . did you liked it? Did it covered your expectations? If not . . . well. . . sorry. In case you we wondering, yes, at some point Tony and Hermione made it official and now they are boyfriend and girlfriend. Hallelujah. It was about time, dont you think? Two years liking a girl a never saying a word must be hard. Anyway, I hoped you liked the chapter just as much as I did, while I was writing it and updating I big smile was on my face. I will see you soon.
-Lobo Sombra