"It's holding," Sirius said, practically bouncing in his seat in the stands. "It's holding, he's actually managed it, look-"
"I have eyes, Padfoot," Remus said, but those eyes didn't move from where they were locked onto the enormous glass lens that showed them what Harry was seeing; a clever use of the Protean charm, Sirius thought, and he was glad to know what was going on down there, but was also terrified that something would go wrong and he'd have no choice but to watch, helpless as Harry drowned.
Molly reached over and took Sirius' hand with the hand that wasn't holding Arthur's and gave it a squeeze. Sirius squeezed back but then pulled gently away so he could fidget instead, and so there'd be nothing holding him in place if he had to run out of the stands and dive into the lake himself.
"Oh, a grindylow," Luna said, pointing, and Sirius' head snapped up, but it wasn't Harry who'd found the grindylow, it was Fleur; she'd wound up in a thick forest of lakeweed. Her view shifted sharply and then shifted again - obviously she was looking around - and then once more to land on the creature that had seized her arm. There was no sound coming through the large lenses so Sirius wasn't sure if she said anything, but a moment later she got her wand free and blasted the grindylow loose with a jet of bubbling water.
Her viewpoint snapped around again and there was another one on her other arm. She jolted down, suddenly - they were strong, grindylows - and looked down at her legs, where another grindylow had attached itself.
"They're swarming her," Molly said, sounding worried; he wasn't sure that she knew what was between Harry and Fleur was fake, and had made a few comments that morning that made Sirius think she'd grown attached to Fleur on principle, despite not having met her. "Oh, the poor dear."
Fleur blasted another two grindylows loose but they kept coming back and just as he was thinking that at least they couldn't actually drown her because she had a bubblehead charm in place, the look through her goggles changed in a way that made Sirius think she didn't have it in place anymore. Sure enough, bubbles - the sort a person might release in surprise or if they were trying to say something - floated up through her lens.
After several tense seconds of sinking deeper and deeper, another bubblehead charm shimmered into being and Dora exhaled loudly beside Sirius. Sirius squeezed her shoulder. On Fleur's lens, several more grindylows went whizzing backward from spells, one was wrenched free and floated backward cradling its spindly fingers and yet another received a foot to its ugly horned head.
A small smile had found its way onto Remus' face now and it widened as Fleur's reddened, scratched hand yanked another grindylow loose.
"If you ever find yourself dealing with grindylows, folks," Bagman said, "take a leaf out of the lovely Miss Delacour's book… She seems to know what she's doing."
"Not bad," Sirius said, and though Remus' scent was pleased, he gave a small shrug.
"A few years with me as her teacher and I'd be disappointed if she didn't know how to handle herself against grindylows," Remus murmured. Sirius grinned and turned back to the lens in time to see Fleur sweep her wand around herself and send the last of the grindylows tumbling away. She spun again - perhaps checking she was safe - and then began to swim, pushing the lakeweed away as she went.
Sirius' eyes went back to Harry's lens.
The water was freezing on Harry's neck and arms but his head was protected by the bubblehead charm and the rest of him was covered by his wetsuit which was layered with warming charms. He'd be all right.
He hadn't seen any of the others yet. They'd had a bit of a head start on him - especially Krum - but they should all be heading in the same direction, and while the water was very murky and made it hard to see - even with the ball of light he'd conjured to hover at his shoulder - he surely should have been able to make out an outline in the distance, or a light, or something.
But, so far all Harry had seen was the odd fish or clump of lakeweed, and, as he sank deeper and deeper, rocks and a carpet of lakeweed along the bottom. Once, notably, he saw what he thought was one of the boats that first years crossed the lake in with a large hole through the side of it, and wondered how that had happened.
Point me, he thought, and his wand spun in his hand - a little slower than it would have in air - to point to the left and Harry adjusted his direction.
He passed another sunken boat, this one cracked almost in two, and then there was a broomstick with a broken handle, and then a few minutes later, the tail of a broom - a Cleansweep from the look of it - sticking directly out of the lake's sandy bottom.
Otherwise, though, the lake was untouched by the school, was a place completely alien to Harry, who'd never spent much time underwater.
It was so… vast and yet oddly claustrophobic. So eerily quiet, but then occasionally he'd hear something and it would be as loud as if it had happened right beside him, only there'd be nothing in sight. Occasionally he thought he heard voices but he didn't see anyone else.
He swam on.
He had a brief scuffle with a pair of grindylows about fifteen minutes in but they'd barely laid a finger on him before he was casting a Procellus that swept the pair of them up and away and after that they were mostly content to glower at him from a distance.
After about another fifteen minutes - at least, Harry hoped that he was only halfway through his time - the shapes of strange, rocky buildings loomed out of the water's gloom and Harry felt a stab of relief because his legs were beginning to ache and he was breathing hard in his bubble.
There were a few merfolk drifting around but not nearly as many as Harry thought there should have been given the number of buildings.
Kind of scary was how Ron had described them back during the Christmas holidays, and it wasn't an unfair description. They had greyish-green skin, long green hair and shiny yellow eyes that greatly resembled the fish eyes he'd used in Potions before. Their tails were long, silvery grey, and oddly… pointy, with jagged fins and spines. Most of them wore necklaces and bracelets made of pebbles and fish bones, and a number of them were also armed with long spears and tridents, or nasty looking daggers.
Seek and reclaim with words or wand, the egg's clue had said, so Harry gripped his wand tighter and kicked over to the nearest merperson.
"Er, hi," he said. "I'm looking for my friend for the task?" The merperson's smile revealed sharp yellow teeth. Harry readied himself but it only raised a webbed hand and pointed further into the village. "Thanks," Harry said, and swam on.
He passed what looked like a stable - filled with strange, scaly creatures with a horse's front half - only fins instead of legs - and the back half of… an eel or sea serpent, perhaps, long and finned and serpentine. They were all various shades of blue and green, and their manes were like kelp and coral, except for one which had a mane that looked like bulrushes and made Harry realise what they probably were:
"Kelpies," Harry said to himself. They didn't look like the kelpie he'd seen before - at Malfoy Manor, years and years ago now - but then, he'd never seen that kelpie underwater, either; it had either been in the shallows or out of the water altogether.
Harry continued on, finally reaching what looked like a large, rocky coliseum in what he thought was the centre of the settlement. It was almost undoubtedly where he needed to be, since it looked like it was lit up inside and he could see merfolk queueing at what must have been the entrance. He was just trying to figure out how best to approach the coliseum - swim up and go in from above, or just join the queue? - when something made him turn.
He couldn't have said what - sound, maybe, but if it had been it hadn't been loud and he couldn't have said what the sound was, or perhaps it had been the movement of water, or maybe it had just been an instinct, a sense - but he did turn and just in time to see an enormous shark rushing toward him, mouth open to reveal rows and rows of razor teeth-
Ventus, Harry thought, aiming not at the shark but to his left; the wand movement was just slightly modified so that rather than push something else, it pushed him, propelling him quickly to the side just as the shark would surely have collided with him. Harry lifted his wand again, ready to hit it with a Body Bind when he realised it was only part of a shark. The gills transitioned into a pair of broad human shoulders which were attached to a male human torso, arms - one of which had goggles secured to it - burgundy trunks and pale legs.
"Krum?" Harry blurted. The shark's mouth widened into- a smile, maybe? It was hard to tell, but it didn't look as menacing as it had a moment ago. Had Krum been trying to scare Harry for a laugh? He certainly looked disturbing enough; there was the shark's head, obviously, but the effect of the partial transfiguration was equally disturbing, looking more like the sort of botched self-transfiguration that might happen in a N.E.W.T. transfiguration lesson, but Harry presumed it had been deliberate, and it was obviously working for him so far. "I think we have to go in there." He pointed.
Krum didn't stick around, ploughing through the queue of merfolk at speed; they all scattered as soon as they saw him coming, and Harry couldn't fault them since he'd just done exactly the same thing.
Harry swam after him.
Getting into the coliseum thing itself was easy enough - while they didn't scatter at the sight of him the way they had for Krum, they did float back to let him pass - but a pair of burly merfolk wearing scaly chestplates stopped him with spears when he tried to enter the arena itself.
Beyond them was a large, round space with a rocky, sandy bottom and at the centre of it was a dome containing the hostages.
It looked a bit like what the Avae Apara spell did, only instead of glowing orange it was clear like a bubble, and seemed to be filled with air. Harry wasn't entirely sure what state he'd expected the hostages to be in, but he certainly hadn't expected them to be awake and loose; Hermione was sitting near Cho, and Gabrielle was sitting a little ways away from them, watching Ron pace.
Harry moved forward and one of the spears jabbed him in the shoulder; not an actual attack but hard enough to break the skin and draw blood. Pain raced through his arm and Harry just hoped Krum was himself enough to not react to blood in the water.
"I need to go in," Harry said, pointing. Neither moved. Harry set his jaw and raised his wand. With sinister, pointy smiles, the pair drifted aside.
Harry eyed them as he kicked into the arena and was almost impaled by a trident. The almost wasn't even because of anything he did, it was sheer luck that the aim of whoever'd thrown it was slightly off; as it was, it sliced the side of his wetsuit open, flooding it with freezing water and leaving a thin cut over his ribs.
The second trident he was ready for and stopped with a firm Protego, but the kelpies took him by surprise; a pair of them bore down on him and Harry reflexively tried to dive out of the way but it didn't work all that well in water, wasn't as quick as on land, and didn't get him as far; he was hit hard, not by the kelpies but by the spears of the merpeople aside them. They could have run him through if they'd so desired but they didn't, hitting him with the butt ends instead - one in the head hard enough to make his vision white out for a moment and pop his bubblehead charm, and one in the back between his shoulderblades that forced him to release that last, desperate breath he'd taken. Bubbles streamed out of his mouth.
Aercapitis, he thought, not bothering to cast his personal version of it; it didn't need to withstand changing pressure, only hold up at the pressure he was already at, so the basic version would do and if it didn't then at least he'd be able to get a breath or two in.
Harry sucked in a breath and the bubble wavered but held.
Good enough, he thought grimly, and lifted his wand again. He wasn't quite able to stand on the bottom so he sort of hovered there while the two kelpies and their riders circled him with rather ominous intent. Behind them, on the other side of the arena, shark-Krum was similarly under attack, fending off a merperson who seemed to be controlling a school of about ten grindylows. Harry couldn't tell who was winning but then the kelpies were charging toward him again and he had to take his eyes off Krum and think about himself.
Ventus, he thought, and propelled himself out of the way. He eyed the fallen trident that had grazed him earlier but he didn't actually want to hurt them, and - more to the point - the only weaponry he'd had any experience with was Gryffindor's sword back in second year and that had been for a total of about three minutes.
I'd probably stab myself accidentally, Harry thought, and flicked a Body Bind at the nearest Kelpie instead. It went rigid, momentum carrying it into the arena wall, though it didn't look like it hit particularly hard.
"Expelliarmus," Harry said, and disarmed the second rider. He pushed off the sandy arena floor and swam hard toward the dome, where Ron, Hermione, Cho, and Gabrielle were all on their feet now, apparently aware that something was happening, but they were all looking around rather than watching him or Krum, so he wasn't sure they knew what-
There was sudden pressure on his ankles - grindylows - and Harry was yanked backward. He twisted awkwardly in the water, trying to kick his legs free, but with little success. A hasty Procellus dealt with one of them but there were four others-
"Acrisphaera," Harry said, already wincing in preparation. The water around him sizzled and crackled, and he felt the bite of static on his arms, neck, feet, and exposed side, though not as strongly as the grindylows did; they all jerked, temporarily stunned, and Harry cast a hasty Fluctus to create a sudden current that would sweep them all away.
There was a shrill noise from the arena's entrance; Fleur had taken out the pair of merfolk standing guard and propelled herself forward with jets of air from each hand - she was using both her wand and Gabrielle's wand, it seemed. She slashed them through the water, buffeting another couple of merfolk and a kelpie back.
Beyond her, Krum had made a dash for the dome, dodging- were the merfolk throwing balloons at him? He looked like he was going to make it, but Harry didn't actually see if he did because static prickled at all the places his skin was bare and he turned, wand raised to see a merperson holding the leashes of three eel-like creatures, though they weren't like any eels Harry'd ever seen pictures of; they were large, probably almost as long as he was tall, and about as wide around. They had a head like a crocodile but they weren't scaly; they were long, and sleek, a greyish green, except for the pulsing, glowing yellow spots on their sides.
One of them hissed revealing sharp black teeth, and Harry winced again as more static prickled at him. He eyed the creatures, fingers curling more securely around his wand.
"What the bloody hell is that?!" Ron exclaimed. Hermione had no idea either but she seized a sharp rock off the ground and held it out in front of her like a knife; Gabrielle was screaming and hiding behind Ron and Cho had scrambled away, reaching for her own sharp rock.
The shark-headed creature straightened, standing and fire glowed in Ron's hands in warning, but the creature held its hands up and- and Hermione thought she knew those hands, thought she'd admired that chest before, after Viktor's early morning swims in the lake...
"Viktor?!" she asked incredulously, and the shark's head nodded, then stumbled, nearly overbalancing. A moment later, he stuck his head back out through the dome, and Hermione exchanged a baffled look with Ron. Ron let his fire go out and gave Gabrielle an awkward, comforting sort of pat on the shoulder; she'd stopped screaming but she was very pale.
Viktor returned another moment later, still sharky, but he lifted his wand and after several long seconds and complicated wand movements, the shark's head shrunk and then Viktor looked like himself again, though his face still looked a little grey.
"Vos hard to breathe like that," he said gruffly, and Hermione let out a shaky laugh and dropped her rock. "Sorry for scarink you," he added.
"We weren't scared," Hermione heard Ron mutter and rolled her eyes at him, but went to hug Viktor. He was dripping wet but Hermione was in a wetsuit so she didn't really mind. He kissed her quickly but firmly and Hermione felt her cheeks heat. "You're not hurt?" he asked.
"No, no, I'm fine, I was just-" Surprised to be the thing you'd miss most, she finished silently, because that was not a conversation they should have now. It was going to be awkward enough without an audience. Thankfully, Viktor had been reassured enough by her no that he didn't seem to need to hear the rest; he pulled her wand out of a holster strapped to his arm and offered it to her.
"This is yours, I think," he said.
"Yes," she said, relieved to have it back in her hand. "Thank you." He smiled at her, but was serious again a moment later.
"Ve should go."
"I-" Hermione glanced back at Ron, wanted to wait until Harry got here so she could be sure they were both headed back up to the surface safely, but her being here would be one more thing Harry would have to worry about, and it also wasn't fair on Viktor, who really was competing to win and so couldn't afford to wait around just because she wanted to. "-yes, all right."
"I vill do you like me," he said, and lifted his wand.
"You- what?!" Hermione brought her arms up to cover her face when she realised what he meant. "No!"
"I am very good," he said.
"No," she said again.
"Is not painful," he said, rubbing a hand over her arm and trying to gently get her to lower it. She resisted him. "And is not permanent-"
"It is painful," she snapped, surprising herself. She knew why she was against it, of course - Wormtail, Harry, the forest, her as a rat - but she hadn't realised the idea of being transfigured wasn't just something that made her nervous and uncomfortable, and was instead something she was against with every fibre of her being. What Viktor was proposing was only partial transfiguration, so it might not be as painful and as disorienting as full-body transfiguration, but there was still every chance it might be, and she wasn't going through that again, not willingly, and not if she had any other option at all.
And she did, this time.
"I have gillyweed," she said. "I can use that." She glanced at Ron, looking for permission - what if he wanted it back now that there was an alternative, even if that alternative was horrible and she-
Ron nodded and Hermione sagged with relief.
"How much?" Viktor asked, eyebrows raising, then pulling together.
"About eight minutes worth," she said.
"Is probably not enuff if ve have issues on vay," he said.
"It is if we go straight up," she said. He grunted and cocked his head.
"Vot about dolphin instead of shark?"
"What- no!"
"Seal?"
"It's not-"
"I could do whole transfiguration?" he said. "If you worry about partial not looking good." Ron snorted a laugh from somewhere behind her.
"No!" Hermione said, a shrill edge to her voice. "No, it's not a matter of what or how it looks, it's- I- I don't like being transfigured. Please."
Viktor opened his mouth but before he could get any words out, several things happened; firstly, there was a rumble outside that shook the lake floor beneath Hermione's feet and, only a second or two later, a huge, blindingly bright burst of light that lit up the dark, murky water beyond the dome. Hermione could see humanoid shapes - people or merfolk - and also some that were distinctly not human, and wondered what was going on out there, if it was Harry, and if he was all right. And, secondly, Viktor went positively green.
"Gillyweed, then," Viktor said sounding strained, guiding her toward the opposite side of the dome. "Ve should go."
The merperson made a strange clicking whistle and dropped their tethers. The eel-things darted forward through the water like arrows, one darting to his left, the other to his right, and the third came right at him, dodging the jet of boiling water Harry shot at it. It wove through his legs like a cat, then around his chest and over his shoulder like a snake, only everywhere it touched burned, not hot, but painful all the same, in a way that made his teeth clench and his arms and legs seize and then go limp. Harry sank to his knees on the sandy, rocky ground, gasping and it was all he could do to keep his loose fingers wrapped around his wand. The shudder that racked him was only partly because of the cold water leaking into his wetsuit.
The eel that had touched him curled around the merperson, then slithered back towards Harry.
"Propello," he gasped, and it shot sharply up through the water like a cork out of a bottle. The other two were circling smaller and smaller with each pass, closing him in.
They were moving too quickly for him to be able to target them properly - he tried a couple of spells at random places, hoping one of them would swim into it, but they didn't. He tried to sweep them away with a wide Fluctus, but it barely slowed them and within moments they'd circled back in, just as close as before, and to add insult to injury - or rather, injury to insult - every now and then one of them would lash out and zap him with its tail.
Harry managed to block a couple of tail attacks with Shield Charms, and pushed off the bottom of the arena to try to swim out of their little circle, but the third one had returned by then and was swimming lazily above him, blocking him in.
"Densissima." It didn't look any different but he knew the water above him had gone thick, like syrup because the eel-thing up there was moving very, very slowly. As if in retaliation, its sides flashed and, perhaps because the water was thick, or perhaps because this was a stronger attack than the zaps had been previously, or perhaps because it had just decided to try something different, Harry could see it, like miniature lightning, bright yellow and forking through the water toward him.
Water was conductive so a Shield Charm wouldn't do anything and he couldn't move thanks to the other two eel-things so, desperate, Harry held up his wand. They'd practiced controlling fire before the first task and he hadn't been all that good at it, but this wasn't fire, and he didn't really even need to control it, just redirect it. He didn't even care where he redirected it to, as long as it was away from him. His wand trembled in his grip, miniature bolts of lightning sparking from the tip of it and then he shifted his aim and sent it zigzagging through the water. It missed the merperson by quite a bit, and thudded into the stone wall of the arena with force that shook the ground, even through the water.
Harry blinked.
One of the eel-things circling him made the water crackle, forcing him to focus again.
Acrisphaera, Harry thought, and sent his own crackle back, though it probably hurt him more than them; if anything, the yellow on their sides glowed brighter as a result. The glowing, though, gave him an idea; it was fairly dark down here - not well lit at all with the exception of the glow coming from the hostage dome, so-
"Lumos Maxima!" Harry said, and bright white light poured from his wand. The eel-things shrieked and fled, and even the merperson who'd been supervising them put an arm up to shield their eyes. "Ventus!" Harry said, and funneled air into the water to send himself shooting toward the dome. He was almost there, almost-
There was no resistance at all as he shot through the side of it at about head height - his bubblehead charm vanished - and then there was no water to hold him up-
"Culcitum!" he said, because he didn't have enough time to get all of the words for Mollis Impulsum out; he landed on suddenly cushioned rock, bounced off, and then bounce-skidded along less soft rock before coming to a stop.
He winced and pushed himself into a sitting position, only to find himself with an armful of Hermione.
"Thank goodness you're all right!" she said, already pulling back and getting upright again. "We've got to- Viktor-" She hugged Ron quickly. "Look after each other and I'll see you at the top!" She hurried back to Krum, who was floating just outside the dome, shark headed. Hermione stuffed a handful of what Harry could only assume was some of Ron's gillyweed into her mouth, then took his offered hand and let him pull her through and into the water. Harry'd been right in thinking there wasn't much to be seen from inside; he could see blurry flashes and shadows moving about out there, but otherwise not much at all.
"She's got half," Ron said, pulling Harry to his feet. His expression was grim and eyes were on where Hermione had disappeared. "Not the plan, and not ideal, but Krum wanted to transfigure her like him and she wasn't having it-" Harry imagined not. "-and at least this way we know she's got a reliable way to breathe-"
"Absol-lutely," Harry said, shivering. Cedric and Fleur hadn't made it in yet; Cho and Gabrielle were both still there, the former biting her lip and looking fruitlessly out into the gloom and the latter standing just slightly behind Ron looking at the light at Harry's shoulder with interest. "So that leaves you with… w-what, eight minutes?"
"Thereabouts," Ron said, shrugging. "It'll be enough."
"It'll h-have to be," Harry said, drying himself with a flick of his wand so his teeth would stop chattering. "Here, before I forget." He passed Ron his wand and Ron's expression brightened. "Krum knows that Hermione's only got eight minutes, right?"
"Yeah-"
"Cedric!" Cedric had just stepped into the dome, and, other than wet, he looked remarkably unruffled, at least compared to Harry who had a tear in his wetsuit and was covered in cuts and scratches and burns. Cho threw herself on Cedric with enough force that they both almost fell back through the dome.
"Fleur?" Gabrielle asked, looking up at Harry with big blue eyes.
"She's here," Harry assured her, "just not here." Or she had been. He'd lost track of her when he was up against the eel-things, but she'd get into the dome soon… He glanced out again, though he knew he wouldn't be able to see anything of use. "She-"
"French, mate," Ron said.
"Oh, right." Harry grimaced; he'd picked up very little French from Fleur, mainly because she spoke good enough English that there'd been little need for him to even try. "Er… Fleur." He pointed at the dome. "Soon." He gestured around them. Gabrielle didn't seem reassured, but she didn't look any more worried, so that was something, Harry supposed.
As soon as Fleur gets here we'll go, Harry thought; he had no idea how much time was left but he had to make sure he got back within the hour, not because he cared about how he placed in the Tournament, but because Merlin knew what would happen if Ron wasn't back up at the surface before time ran out - would the merfolk claim him back? Maybe he could send Ron on ahead, if it came to it, and just catch up with him once Fleur arrived...
Ron hadn't said a word; he either knew there'd be no convincing Harry to leave Gabrielle, or didn't want to convince Harry to leave her, was prepared to wait. Harry thought it might be the latter, honestly - Gabrielle was Fleur's little sister; it was easy for Harry to look at her and imagine a much older, blonder Stella. Perhaps Ron was seeing a younger, blonder Ginny. Even if he wasn't, even all things-sisters aside, Gabrielle was small and nervous and nine. They couldn't just leave her.
Cedric and Cho straightened from where they'd been scribbling in the sand and Cedric cast bubblehead charms over both of them. He gave Harry a salute as he and Cho stepped out of the dome.
He and Ron could go too - wherever she was, Fleur had to be nearby - but- well, Harry'd seen her, and hadn't seen Cedric, but Cedric had been and gone now and Fleur still hadn't made it to the dome. Where was she? Could she have made it this far and had something happen out in the arena?
Another minute trickled by and Harry was uncomfortably aware that that was enough time for Fleur to have drowned if something had gone wrong, and it was seeming more and more likely that something had gone wrong because she still wasn't there.
"I'm going to look for her," Harry said, heading for the dome. "She was right out there earlier, so I'm going to make sure she's not- er… that she hasn't been caught up."
"Yeah, good idea," Ron said, nodding with obvious relief. "See what's taking her so long," he joked, giving Gabrielle a gentle nudge and a smile that she returned, hesitant.
"Back in a bit," Harry said, casting his basic bubblehead charm again - he'd redo it properly when they left. Ron nodded.
Harry'd almost reached the edge of the dome, but certainly not touched it when the whole thing collapsed.
