Tired. So tired. Hope you enjoy this chapter.
Harry POV:
"Do you know who's entering?" Harry asked Hermione and Ron as they strolled the grounds that morning after breakfast. It was Saturday, the sky was clear and the day was warm. Harry would have had quidditch practice under normal circumstances.
"I heard Angelina's going to put her name in tomorrow," Hermione replied, "but I don't know who else will."
Harry nodded, intrigued by the idea of someone from Hogwarts winning the tournament.
"One thousand galleons…" Ron murmured distantly. "What would you do with it, if you won?"
Harry shrugged. "I'm not allowed to enter, none of us are old enough."
Ron gave him a light shove. "I know that! But what would you do with the thousand galleons?"
"I dunno, buy a new cauldron?"
Ron rolled his eyes, turning to Hermione. "What would you do with a thousand galleons?"
She never got to respond, because at that moment they were interrupted by none other than Percy Jackson.
"Hey guys!" he said brightly as he caught up to them.
"Hi," said Harry and Hermione, as Ron pretended to be very interested in his fingernail.
"What are you guys talking about?" he asked.
"Well-"
"Defense Against The Dark Arts." Ron interrupted. "We were talking about your magic 'immunity,' " he said. Harry wondered what Percy had done to make Ron so petty.
"I don't have magic immunity," Percy said, confused. Ron narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth, but Hermione saved him from embarrassing himself by interrupting. There certainly was a lot of that going on.
"We were actually discussing Professor Moody's lesson on Monday." she said quickly as they reached their destination: a shaded area under a tree by the lake.
"I think it was terribly inappropriate to be teaching fourth years that kind of thing. And now Dumbledore is reinstating the Triwizard Tournament? Did you know someone actually died in it forty years ago?"
"No, I didn't," Percy replied politely. He sat down with the group at the base of the trunk.
"But I think the Defense Against The Dark Arts classes have been better since the first one, at least."
Hermione shifted, getting ready to do her rant again.
"That's because he's following the curriculum that he's meant to! I'm not saying that we don't need to learn real-world spells, but honestly, that whole lesson was just kind of disturbing. We shouldn't be learning that kind of thing until sixth year, if not seventh. It's just not realistic to assume-"
She was interrupted, not by Harry, Ron, or Percy, but by a splashing sound from the lake. The Durmstrang ship had been bobbing peacefully on small waves as some of the students milled around onboard, not sure what to do with their fur coats in the relatively warm weather. A group of boys who had taken theirs off were messing around on the wooden plank that was still attached to the shore.
The splash had been caused by one of the boys being pushed off, and he fell into the lake. He popped up, spluttering, as his buddies began to laugh. Harry gave a small smile as the boy tried to act angry, but gave up and started laughing with his friends. Percy was smiling too.
"Anyway," Hermione continued, "I think that-"
She was cut off by a gurgled yelp as the boy in the water disappeared under the surface.
Percy leapt to his feet and dashed towards the lake, with Harry right behind him. Hermione and Ron hadn't seen it happen, and had to scramble after the two boys.
The boys on the ramp were staring over the side into the water, shouting frantically as they realized that their friend was nowhere to be seen.
Harry ran as fast as he possibly could, but Percy was unbelievably quick. He shed his robes while running and revealed the muggle clothes he'd arrived in. Not hesitating even for a second, Percy dove into the water after the Durmstrang boy.
Harry pulled up short at the edge of the lake with his wand out, dimly aware of Ron and Hermione still a ways behind him.
He really hoped that the boy was just playing a trick on his friends for pushing him, or that the giant squid was lonely again, but he had a horrible feeling that this was something worse.
Before long, Percy and the other boy would run out of air. He had to go down there.
Ron and Hermione ran up, gasping for breath at the unexpected exercise.
"What," Ron panted, practically doubled over. "the, bloody, hell- Harry!"
Harry jumped into the lake, not getting nearly as much distance as Percy had, but still in the general area where they'd both disappeared.
The lake was sunny enough near the top, but as Harry started to descend it darkened drastically. He'd taken his glasses off and thrown them somewhere before he jumped in, so that wasn't helping either.
He was swimming blindly now, straining to see something, anything. He was going to have to go up for air soon, but he hadn't found anything.
His chest seized uncomfortably as he started to run out of oxygen, and he could hear the blood pumping in his ears.
Lungs burning, Harry swam upward as strongly as he could, hoping he could get air quickly enough to go back down. What if Percy and the Durmstrang student were drowning? What if whatever took the other boy took Percy too? He started to feel panicky, and as he pushed through the water towards the surface he could feel his adrenaline kicking into overtime.
He was close enough to see the light shimmering through murky darkness when everything started to go horribly wrong.
Percy POV:
When that other student got sucked down into the lake, I could feel it. I could sense the monster in the water. I knew it was retreating to the deep parts of the lake, where the Durmstrang boy would be done for, if he hadn't already drowned.
Sprinting to the lake, I dove in with the vague memory that Harry was behind me, but I didn't think he'd actually jump in. It was a good thought, but now I had to make sure that both he and the other boy didn't die.
Rocketing through the water at speeds that would have made most people explode, I tracked the monster to a large cave in the foundations of the lake. There was no way Harry could follow me down here, which was a relief.
Searching for the boy, I was equally relieved to feel that he was alive, although he wouldn't be for long at this depth. I had to get him out of here.
The water propelled me to the edge of the cave, where I was able to get a good sense of where the monster was and what it looked like.
Good news: it wasn't huge.
Bad news: it had lots of teeth.
The creature looked like a prehistoric shark, but bigger and more maneuverable. It had tentacles and a long, jagged sword nose. It practically screamed "I will eat you on sight." I wondered how long it'd been living here.
Luckily, it hadn't eaten the boy yet, but it was about to. I watched it settle onto the sandy bottom before lifting the Durmstrang student's limp body to its mouth, and decided it was now or never.
Bursting into the cave with a swirling water vortex, I slid Riptide out of my pocket and attacked, barely giving the monster time to think before it was covered in cuts and sword wounds. It dropped the boy and charged at me, and it was fast. I propelled myself out of the way and willed an air bubble to form around the unconscious student, so that he could breathe if he was still alive.
I must've been distracted a split-second too long, because the monster rammed into me and probably would have bitten me in half if not for my ADHD reflexes.
The monster seemed confused as I slipped away so I took a second to think. Obviously the thing was fast, so I probably shouldn't try to avoid it forever. Riptide didn't seem to be slowing it down much, which left my power over water and my ability to speak with sea creatures. (Did this thing count as one?)
I opted to go with water powers, because in my experience monsters don't usually listen when you try to talk to them.
As the shark-fish-crocodile-squid hybrid thing shook off it's disorientation, I readied myself for an attack. As expected, it charged.
I solidified the water in front of me into a shield, taking the opportunity to arm myself with ready-made water tentacles and blades as the monster rammed into it. It shook its head and tried again, realizing quickly that it couldn't get through. One of it's tentacles slid around the shield towards me, but I sliced it off with a makeshift water blade. The monster shrieked in pain and got really angry.
As fast as I could blink, it had come over the top of my shield and was about two inches from my face. I threw my hands up and propelled myself down, successfully saving myself from dying as the creature froze in place. Thickening the water around it even further, I grew the invisible water bubble until I was satisfied with the makeshift prison.
Glad to be done with the creature, I caught my breath and studied the creature. I didn't know what it was, but obviously it wasn't supposed to be here.
I got a sick feeling in my stomach as I thought about it. What if my presence here was attracting monsters? I was putting everyone at Hogwarts in danger.
I jolted, remembering the boy who was almost breakfast for the monster. I swam for the bottom as fast as I could.
Thankfully, the air bubble was still intact, but I couldn't tell if he was breathing. I grew the bubble and walked right into it, hoping against hope that I didn't just save a dead body.
I dashed over to the Durmstrang student, who was still. Putting a hand on his forehead, I concentrated. A jet of lakewater shot from his mouth and onto the sand, but he didn't wake up. I clenched my fists in frustration and concentrated harder.
I could feel the blood pumping through his heart now, but it was slow, barely moving. I was afraid of what would happen if I messed with it, so I decided to take him back to the surface as quickly as possible.
I picked up his limp body and willed the air bubble to carry us out of the cave and up into the light. We surfaced in the middle of the lake, and I propelled us to Durmstrang ship as fast as I could while still appearing to be swimming normally. I could hear frantic shouting from multiple sources, and I spotted Ron and Hermione sprinting across the grounds with a teacher. I neared the back of the ship and swum around to the shallows where the boy had originally fallen in.
The teacher, (Flitwick, maybe?) saw me and splashed through the water to help. As he got closer, I willed myself to be wet, and pretended to look exhausted.
The students on the Durmstrang boat and the ones who had gathered by the lake shore all had stunned looks on their faces, but I ignored them and concentrated on getting to the grass. Flitwick conjured a magical stretcher and whisked the unconscious boy away, giving me a look of amazement as he went back into Hogwarts.
The students who had originally pushed the boy into the water hurried to follow him, which left me with Ron, Hermione, and a few other bystanders.
"That- that was-" Hermione spluttered, trying to find the right words.
"That was bloody amazing!" Ron exclaimed, and I had to wonder about his sudden change of attitude towards me. Hermione nodded mutely. I think she's still in shock.
I frowned. "Wait, where's Harry?"
Ron and Hermione paled.
"He went in after you!" Hermione squeaked out, "He's probably drowned by now!"
I opened my mouth to reply, but felt yet another disturbance in the lake.
Harry Potter was in danger.
Sleep. But first, reviews.
Covid-20: I apologize, but the spooky chapter just did not come to me. But I will definitely be getting to the Yule Ball around Christmas time, if that means anything.
Alexandra Goddess of Heroes: Yep. Or maybe both... *cackles evilly*
Guest: Unfortunately, I do not have an upload schedule, I've tried doing that but it never really works and I hate deadlines, even self appointed ones. The most I can say is that I'll probably update once a week or so, usually on the weekends.
Zara Bennle: See above. (I wish I could be vigilant enough to stick to a schedule...) Thanks for the review!
FanficObssessed0238: Thank you so much! It means a lot that you take any time out of your day to read my story.
That's all for tonight. I need SLEEP.
Don't forget to favorite, follow, and review! Peace out,
LadyHW