Beta: JG Nelson (alias)
Original Release Date: 5/27/18
Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the canon Harry Potter universe or any other universe, in addition to any references to things in the real world that currently exist. AU.
Chapter Sixty Two – A Watery Performance
"Witches and wizards, welcome to the Triwizard Tournament! I am Lee Jordan, your commentator for the day. On my left is Professor McGonagall, Hogwarts Transfiguration professor. Right beside of me on my right is Professor Snape, Hogwarts Potions Master, and beside him is Professor Flitwick, Hogwarts Charms professor! Thank you professors for agreeing to join me on commentating this monumental event!" announces Lee Jordan enthusiastically.
Raucous applause erupts from the students on one of three platforms stationed on the water in a triangular pattern.
"With the help of the Marauders Emporium, there are several cameras stationed throughout the murky lake water that will show us where the champions are, and how well they are doing! You can see varying video feeds as they are called, on the screens above each platform. The goal of this very first task is for our champions to retrieve something that they have lost, without being informed of what they have lost! Camera folk, are your champions ready?" announces Lee with a two by two grid of the four champions faces displayed on screens in front of the judges, commentators, and overhead screens.
Receiving an affirmative from each champion, Lee opens his mouth to speak before a cannon booms and the video feeds show champions beginning to move. Withdrawing his wand from a robe pocket, raises it into the air and shouts, "ACCIO FIREBOLT!" before sticking his other hand into another pocket and pulling out a slimy ball of grey-green rat tails(*1) and putting it into his mouth, choking it down just as his Firebolt arrives. Weakly grabbing a hold of his broom, Harry struggles for air before quickly mounting his broom and zooming into the murky depths of the lake.
"And Potter starts of by summoning his Firebolt and consuming a…Professor Snape, what was he eating?" announces Lee.
"Gillyweed" answers Snape shortly, crossing his arms.
"Gillyweed…fascinating. What will it help Harry achieve in this task?" inquires Lee curiously.
Sighing, Snape answers, "It will assist Mr. Potter with breathing underwater by providing a set of gills and webbing between his fingers and toes. However, as this task is two hours long and the fact that Gillyweed only lasts for roughly an hour, Mr. Potter will have to achieve the task in a single hour or have another dose of Gillyweed."
"And using his Firebolt is a bold interesting move for moving under water. How do you feel about that, Professor McGonagall?" inquires Lee turning to his left.
"I'd say he's playing to his strength honestly" answers Professor McGonagall proudly.
"And how about Viktor Krum's Transfiguration into a shark?" asks Lee.
"Mr. Krum's partial Transfiguration of his head into the head of a shark is very masterful while still leaving the rest of his body untouched" answers Professor McGonagall with smile.
"Professor Flitwick, what is your take on Miss Delacour and the bubble she has created around her?"
"Miss Delacour has taken the Bubblehead Charm and expanded the area of effect to affect her ability to breathe. However, this may hurt her ability to swim by expanding the Bubblehead Charm to encompass her entire body. Still a very good job on having enough skill to modify a spell" answers Professor Flitwick.
"Lastly, Mr. Malfoy is just…swimming" states Lee in disbelief as the video feed shows Draco doing the breaststroke in the direction that he has been pointed in.
Moving deeper into the lake, Harry looks around at his first and possibly last time, in the lake and it's murky depths. 'Now I have to find something I've lost or misplaced. But what have I lost?' Harry thinks to himself.
Slowing greatly, Harry keeps his head on the swivel, looking side to side, earnestly looking for anything that doesn't belong. Pushing aside the weeds, Harry continues to search as time passes by.
"And Viktor Krum enters into the hundred meter range of the goal!" announces Lee excitedly.
Frustrated, Harry look around and takes a deep breath before a suffocating sensation spreads out like a spider's web from his neck and chest. Dots forming and darting around his vision, Harry frantically scrambles to fish the last gillyweed out of his robe pocket, before struggling to choke it down, eager for the sweet relief from the overwhelming drowning sensation flooding through his entire body. Seconds after swallowing the gillyweed, Harry feels the pain recede and the constricting feeling in his chest release. Shakinghis head side to side, Harry mutters and bubbles flow out of his mouth, "One hour left then roughly. Better pick up the pace."
Tightening his grip on his Firebolt, Harry jets forward causing the weeds around him to gently wave as he zooms out of sight.
"And finally Harry Potter enters into the hundred meter range of the goal!" announces Lee practically shouting with glee as the overhead screens show a top down view of Harry riding into the area on his broom.
Slowing down at the sight of individuals tied to a rectangularly shaped and roughly hewn stone slab. Nearing the slab, Harry notices something bright floating in the water at the slab. "Is that a blonde mop swimming?" remarks Harry jokingly.
Disentangling himself from his broom, Harry keeps one hand on the broom and haphazardly swims to the stone slab before landing on the narrow ledge in front of the slab. Looking to his right, Harry spots Draco bashing a rock against interwoven strands of weeds individually binding Pansy Parkinson to the slab. Opening and closing his mouth like a fish gulping in water and expelling air bubbles, Draco finally hacks away and frees Pansy after a few minutes of work.
Turning finally to the two remaining people bound to the slab, Harry lets out an enormous bubble as a shock of blonde hair waves gently in the depths. Looking back at him with lifeless eyes is none other than "Daphne" exclaims Harry with a furry of bubbles.
Narrowing his eyes, Harry grabs the rock that Draco had dropped and begins to carefully slice the bindings restraining Daphne. Pulling Daphne towards himself, Harry carefully wraps Daphne's arms around the broom and lowers her to the ledge. Returning to the last individual bound to the slab, Harry pulls himself over and comes face to face with a silver haired girl, much younger than anyone allowed at Hogwarts.
'I've never seen her before. I wonder if she's from a different school' Harry thinks to himself. Pausing to figure out how to rescue the girl while also saving himself and Daphne, Harry finishes slicing through the restraint and pulls the unknown girl in close with his left arm. Fishing his Firebolt from Daphne, Harry slowly mounts the broom before pulling the unknown girl onto the broom before struggling to get Daphne onto the broom.
Kicking off as much as he can underwater, Harry starts the ascent to the shining surface above. Several seconds later a tingling sensation spiderwebs from his throat and his chest begins to become constricted. Tightening his grip on the broom, Harry increases the speed of ascension greatly and dots begin to appear before his eyes. The sound of water roars past, overwhelming Harry's senses, vision black as the trio erupt from the lake and roughly in the middle of the platforms filled with students.
Floating roughly two meters above the lake surface, the sound of applause reverberates around the lake before Harry weak from a lack of oxygen, falls off of his broom and into the lake. Face up in the water, Harry begins to sink, not attempting to save himself. Cries of alarm ring out and Daphne comes to her senses before coming to the startling fact that she is hovering in the air on a broom.
Feeling arms tighten their grip around her waist, Daphne looks over her shoulder and notices the silver haired girl tightly clinging to her. Looking down, Daphne spots a pair of redheads swimming underneath her and watches as they dip underwater briefly before resurfacing with Harry being supported by both of them.
"Harry" whispers Daphne quietly, stomach dropping several meters into the water below. Moving the broom forward and towards the shore, Daphne touches down and lets the other girl get off first before dismounting the broom and putting it over her shoulder.
Shaking the water from her hair, Daphne strides towards the twins now carrying Harry between them on land, still several hundred meters away from the hospital tent. "Wait! Let me help" calls out Daphne reaching them before grabbing Harry's right wrist, placing her thumb on his PRT and sending the champion out of their sights. Sighing in relief, Daphne begins to make her way to the tent as the twins chorus from behind her, "Thanks!".
Daphne pushes through the crowd of students and getting stopped by the gruff defender of the medical tent, Professor Moody.
"Potter's lover eh? You can go in then, just don't cause a rucus" growls Moody.
Moving deeper into the clearly enlarged interior of the tent, Daphne notices the sound of the students milling around outside has disappeared. Rounding a corner and facing down a hallway with four flaps, Daphne pauses before Madam Pomfrey's head pops out of a canvas flap of a door frowning before motioning with a hand down the corridor. Entering into the canvas walled off room, Daphne sees Madam Pomfrey attending to Harry who is sitting up.
"Thank goodness you had the brains to activate Mr. Potter's PRT or whatever it's called. Too much longer and he might have had to go to Saint Mungoes. But really, placing humans under water even under water with breathing charms, is still far too much. But what do I know; I'm just the school nurse who sees everyone who gets injured from these 'tasks', even with Mr. Potter's guardian's involvement with safety gear. Still, if this is the first task, I daresay that the following ones will be even more dangerous. Anyways, Mr. Potter, you and Miss Greengrass should take a blanket-" before popping her head out the flap and saying, "Just a minute please and then I'll be with you" then retracting her head and finishing, "You two should take a blanket apiece and a Pepperup Potion and keep warm. Then go see what the judges have to say about your performance" before waving her wand quickly over Daphne and disappearing from the room.
Harry rotates his body from the bed and dangles his legs over the bed. "Feeling better?" asks Daphne quietly.
"Yeah, just had a pair of gills for roughly two hours, saved you and another girl, passed out and woke up here. I'm doing fairly well. How about yourself?" quips Harry.
Rolling her eyes at Harry's response, Daphne grabs one of the blanket from the table by the door and a Pepperup Potion before answering, "Can't complain now that I'm aware of where I am. Let's go see what kind of score you got and you can fill me in with what happened."
Following suit and grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around himself before casting a Warming Charm on both he and Daphne, Harry grabs a Pepperup Potion and follows Daphne out of the door. Exiting the tent, the two are met with a throng of mostly Gryffindor students who clap loudly as the couple make their way from the tent to the judging area. As the flow of students grows stronger, Harry grabs a hold of Daphne's hand as they proceed into a clearing in front of the judges table. Looking around, Harry remarks, "I guess Fleur is still being checked out at the medical tent."
"So you're saying that you showed up and Malfoy was rescuing Parkinson and left, leaving just myself and the other girl bound to the slab, and you decided to be a hero and rescue both of us?" inquiries Daphne quietly.
Pointing towards one of the overhead viewscreens, Harry says, "Look at the video footage of it then if you don't believe me."
Looking up towards at the screen, Daphne watches as an overhead view of Harry flying through the water into the area around the slab before watching herself and the girl mount the broom start the ascension and go off camera.
"But how did…the cameras, the placement, that entire thing work?" inquiries Daphne confused.
"Marauders Emporium knew about this just a few hours before the task started and placed cameras and…buoys or something to keep them from sinking and roughly in the correct area to make a rough perimeter around the slab in a hundred meter diameter. Πr^2, so something like 31,416 meters around, but there isn't a camera every meter, one in each of the four cardinal directions facing towards the goal, and they were disguised as to not draw attention to themselves" answers Harry casually.
"What…what did you just say? Pie r squared?" stutters Daphne trying to wrap her head everything.
"That's just the calculations of the distance around the stone slab when it is the middle point of a perfect circle, and in each direction from the slab is a hundred meters. Anyways, I didn't know about this until afterwards, but-" coughs Harry, briefly hunched over before continuing, "but I didn't check the schematics until after the task. Going in blind for the task is much more fun" answers Harry.
"I-I see" answers Daphne, caught off guard for once.
As Fleur and the silvery haired girl enter into the clearing for the champions and their rescues, the group of judges breaks apart and take a seat at the judges table, Lee's voice rings out, "And it looks the judges have finished their discussions and are ready to give scores for our champions. And first up is Viktor Krum from Durmstrang! For Transfiguring himself into a shark, retrieving his rescue, and doing this all under the two hour time limit, the judges award Mr. Krum…a perfect ten from Headmaster Karkarov, an eight from Madame Maxime, a nine from Dumbledore, an eight from Mr. Crouch, and an eight from Ludo Bagman. Bringing Viktor Krum in at forty three points."
Clearing his throat as the numbers disappear from the air above the judges who sent the numbers up via magic, Lee continues, "And next we have Fleur Delacour from Beauxbaton who attempted some form of air bubble charm but retired early from the task who receives a disappointing five from Headmaster Karkarov, a seven from Dumbledore, a surprising nine from Madame Maxime, a seven from Mr. Crouch, and a seven from Ludo Bagman. With our calculations, Miss Delacour receives a total of thirty five points."
"Up next is Draco Malfoy, the Slytherin Hogwarts Champion, and one who will—fine professor I'll not add any more. Mr. Malfoy swam out a ways before consuming a potion, one that is all but guaranteed to help him breathe under water, and retrieve his rescue of Pansy Parkinson under the two hour time limit. He receives a seven from Headmaster Karkarov, a nine from Dumbledore, an eight from Madam Maxime, an eight from Mr. Crouch, and an eight from Ludo Bagman. Totaling Mr. Malfoy's points, he has received forty points, pushing Miss Delacour into third place" as the overhead screens update, showing the four champions and their point totals.
"And lastly is the Gryffindor Hogwarts Champion, HARRY POTTER!" announces Lee as a surge in volume from the audience.
"However, Mr. Potter failed to return in under the two hour mark, but did recover Miss Delacour's rescue whom I'm just now being told is her sister. Let's find out what the judges have awarded Mr. Potter. A pitiful five from Headmaster Karkarov, a wonderful nine from Dumbledore, a seven from Madame Maxime, an eight from Mr. Crouch, and a perfect ten from Ludo Bagman. Combined, Harry Potter receives thirty nine points, just a single point from catching up with Draco Malfoy.
Walking away from the crowd, Harry walks side by side to Daphne as the head towards the castle casually remarks, "You should finish the rest of your Pepperup Potion."
Stopping midstep, Daphne glares at Harry, not breaking eye contact as she downs the dregs of the potion with steam blowing out of her ears, before answering, "Happy now?"
Chuckling, Harry answers, "I am now, especially since you're hotter than you were before, and less likely to get sick now."
"Hotter than I was before? What's that supposed to mean?!" demands Daphne narrowing her eyes and placing her hands on her hips, an aura of freezing cold radiating strongly off of her.
"Well, steam just billowed out of your ears, so I assumed you got hot enough inside to boil water" remarks Harry smirking.
Nostrils flaring at the quip, Daphne continues to glare at Harry for several seconds before continuing on alone towards the castle. Watching her receding figure for a few seconds, Harry dashes and quickly catches up asking with concern in his voice, "You're not mad at me are you?"
Turning around, Daphne answers frowning, "And why would I be upset? I mean only rescued me from the bottom of the lake that I was unwillingly put into, had my boyfriend rescue me and another girl from the watery depths, found out that he was then outside of the time limit for the task, and then heard a quip of likes that I've never heard before, I'm not mad at you" becoming more and more sarcastic as she proceeds.
Exhaling loudly before chuckling softly, Harry begins to speak before silvery hair overwhelms Harry's vision and arms around him in a hug with a French accent exclaiming, "You 'ave saved moi seester!"
Returning the hug awkwardly, Harry answers, "I figured as much, silver hair and all. So how are you two?"
Sweeping the hair out of her left eye, Fleur answers, "Moi am fine. Gabrielle es too thanks to you" as Gabrielle pops her head out from behind Fleur, flushing as her eyes meet Harry's.
"Moi performance es disappointing, I 'ave to do better in the next task" remarks Fleur wistfully.
"I have to wonder what the next task will be since we've now swum in the lake. We won't find out until shortly before hand anyways" remarks Harry before indicating with his hand towards Daphne, "This is Daphne Greengrass, my girlfriend. And Daphne, this is Fleur Delacour. Her mother runes the French Marauders Emporium and both help us test new products."
"Et es a pleasure to meet you" remarks Fleur smiling at Daphne.
/*somewhere elsewhere*/
"Thank you for your tremendous help today" remarks Sirius looking at the four students standing in front of him. Taking a handful or two of galleons out of a bag continues, "Two galleons for each of you for your time today. Just don't forget to study" Sirius says handing the twins, Luna, and Ginny two galleons apiece.
/*elsewhere*/
"Harry Potter! I'd like a word with you!" exclaims a loud and demanding voice.
Turning around, Harry spies a pile of blonde hair piled on top of itself, a pair of gaudy spectacles, and a vice like grip on a crocodile clutch, marching her way across the grass, a portly and sweaty photographer following behind her, following further and further behind. "Oh Harry, I'd like to have an interview with you" remarks Rita Skeeter in a sickeningly sweet voice.
Looking at the reporter and without breaking eye contact, Harry gently grasps Daphne's wrist and wordlessly activates her PRT before activating his and leaving Fleur all alone with the predatory journalist.
"Not very socialable is he" mutters Rita in a disgusted undertone before turning to Fluer and turning her charm back on, "Now Miss…Delicious was it? How do you feel—" before being interrupted by Fleur, "Et es Delacour Mademoiselle. Good day" before turning on her heel and striding off towards the rest of her school.
Nostrils flaring, Rita storms off, leading the balding photographer in her wake.
Source(s): (*1) - harrypotter wikia com/wiki/Gillyweed
Author note: Thanks for reading, favoriting, etc! Sorry it's been a while but I've been very busy in real life. Hopefully later this year I'll be able to push out a lot more content and more regularly. Real life has been very busy for me. And if things seem a little, rough, it's due to me writing on paper, then transposing it to electronic document, and then I try to refine afterwards but probably have missed a few areas. Thanks to DarkerThanYin for doing a quick equation check on the perimeter on my math.
PS. I've gotten to meet Chris Sabat (Vegeta and Piccolo from Dragon Ball) since the last chapter. That took one of my weekends to work on this.
Have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend and Memorial Day!