Thanks to the few that reviewed the previous chapter, and their comments regarding the content. it is a relief to me that the changes felt natural to the readers, even if they did not for me. We have about another month's worth of chapters for Book Four to go, and I know while many are clamoring for faster updates, we need this methodical pace or else I would metaphorically lose my mind. the structure is important to keep me on task daily, and mixing it up right now wouldn't be wise among all the other things I have going on. Still, enjoy the next chapter, and talk to you all again next week! ~F
Chapter Thirteen
Task of Water
Hermione had devised a scheme to get Harry and Faykan to talk again. Draco had agreed to help her, while Ron remained unaware. Honestly, sometimes that boy could be so thick. The plan was relatively simple, utilize the Room of Requirement to make a place specific designed to keep Harry and Faykan in unless they worked together to get out. Hermione would wait in the Gryffindor common room in case one or the other tried to escape in that direction while Draco watched the seventh floor entrance.
Getting the two boys inside wasn't going to be that difficult either, Hermione mused as she saw Fred and George enter the common room. The only problem that might arise would be…
"Oi, Ron, Hermione. Professor McGonagall wants to see you two…" Fred called as they came over to her chair.
"We're supposed to take you down to her office, dunno why though." George said.
Wondering what Professor McGonagall would want, Hermione followed the three Weasleys out of the common room, her cunning plan completely forgotten.
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Albus smiled as Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley joined Minerva, Mr. Malfoy, the younger Miss Delacour, himself, and the rest of the Triwizard judges in Minerva's office. Mr. Percy Weasley was standing in for Barty Crouch, but Albus had heard the recent news of his taking ill, therefore he did not fret. The two Gryffindors looked confusedly at their Slytherin friend and the rest of the assembly.
"What's going on? Why are we here?" Mr. Weasley asked as he and Miss Granger entered.
"That, Mr. Weasley, is just what we are about to discuss, now that we are all assembled." Albus said cheerfully. "As you all know, the Second Task takes place tomorrow. What you and the champions do not know however, is that their task is to recover something dear to them from the bottom of the Black Lake. A treasure if you will. To give the champions the feel of danger, your four," he indicated the four children, "Will be put into enchanted sleep and taken under the lake for the champions to rescue, one for each champion."
"You're metal!" Mr. Weasley proclaimed, but Albus chuckled merrily.
"I assure you that no one will come to any harm, when you resurface the spell will dissipate, and if your champion cannot rescue you for whatever reason, the merpeople will return you to the surface after the time limit expires."
All three students start to protest immediately, but Albus waved his wand. They, along with the young Miss Delacour, slumped to the ground fast asleep. Another wave and they were floating in midair, ready to be taken down to the lake and submerged into the watery depths.
Albus was personally looking forward to what Faykan Undol would do in order to accomplish this task.
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Harry could feel his worry starting to creep up again as he made his way down to the lake with the other three champions. Fleur and Krum looked bored, while Faykan would occasionally steal glances at Harry, then immediately look elsewhere with his face flushing slightly. Harry was sure that Draco, Hermione and Ron would have been here to cheer him and Faykan on, but they were not.
Where could they be? Harry guessed they had to be in the stands across the lake with the rest of the spectators. The judges were sitting at another gold-draped table at the water's edge as the champions arrived. Professor Snape, McGonagall, and Madam Pomfrey were there as well. Snape purposely stepped past Harry, and pressed a large, slimy clump of Gillyweed into Harry's hand, nodding as he passed.
Harry kept the plant clutched tightly in his grip, as he had no pockets in his swimming trunks, and took several deep breaths to steady himself. Ludo Bagman was now moving among the champions, spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. Harry was on the very end of the line, next to Krum, who was holding his wand ready.
"All right. Harry?" Bagman whispered as he moved Harry a few feet farther away from Krum. "Know what you're going to do?"
"Yeah," Harry said, trying to sneak another glance at Faykan, who was between Fleur and Krum. He still looked rather skinny in his short trunks and tight shirt, much like Harry himself, but there was still more muscle that the other boy had grown there over the last three years…
Bagman gave Harry's shoulder a quick squeeze, which jolted Harry out of checking out his best friend, and returned to the judges' table; he pointed his wand at his throat as he had done at the World Cup, said, "Sonorous!" and his voice boomed out across the dark water toward the stands.
"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, the: One... two... three!"
The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause. They all dashed towards the water, Harry put the Gillyweed in his mouth and began chewing furiously as he waded into the lake; it felt unpleasantly slimy and rubbery, like octopus tentacles.
Waist-deep in the freezing water he stopped, swallowed, and risked another glance at his best friend, he saw Faykan waving his wand in a complex pattern as he splashed through the water, his face and body elongating and his skin turning silvery-blue. Finally he dove beneath the surface, and Harry saw the whip of a tail flash before slipping under the water.
Then, quite suddenly, Harry felt as though an invisible pillow had been pressed over his mouth and nose. He tried to draw breath, but it made his head spin; his lungs were empty, and he suddenly felt a piercing pain on either side of his neck.
Harry clapped his hands around his throat and felt two large slits just below his ears, flapping in the cold air... He had gills. Without pausing to think, he did the only thing that made sense, he flung himself forward into the water.
The first gulp of icy lake water felt like the breath of life. His head had stopped spinning; he took another great gulp of water and felt it pass smoothly through his gills, sending oxygen back to his brain. He stretched out his hands in front of him and stared at them. They looked green and ghostly under the water, and they had become webbed. He twisted around and looked at his bare feet, they had become elongated and the toes were webbed too. It looked as though he had sprouted flippers.
The water didn't feel icy anymore either... on the contrary, he felt pleasantly cool and very light... Harry struck out once more, marveling at how far and fast his flipper like feet propelled him through the water, and noticing how clearly he could see, and how he no longer seemed to need to blink. He had soon swum so far into the lake that he could no longer see the bottom. He flipped over and dived into its depths.
Silence pressed upon his ears as he soared over a strange, dark, foggy landscape. He could only see ten feet around him, so that as he sped through the water new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the incoming darkness: forests of rippling, tangled black weed, wide plains of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. He 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 shadow beyond, where the water became opaque.
Small fish flickered past him like silver darts. Once or twice he thought he saw something larger moving ahead of him, but when he got nearer, he discovered it to be nothing but a large, blackened log, or a dense clump of weed. There was no sign of any of the other champions, merpeople, nor, thankfully, the giant squid.
Light green weed stretched ahead of him as far as he could see, two feet deep, like a meadow of very overgrown grass. Harry was staring unblinkingly ahead of him, trying to discern shapes through the gloom... and then, without warning, something grabbed hold of his ankle.
Harry twisted his body around and saw a grindylow, a small, horned water demon, poking out of the weed, its long fingers clutched tightly around Harry's leg, its pointed fangs bared. Harry fumbled for his wand on his write holster. By the time he had removed it; two more grindylows had risen out of the weed and were attempting to drag him down.
"Relashio!" Harry shouted, except that no sound came out... A large bubble issued from his mouth, and his wand, instead of sending sparks at the grindylows, pelted them with what seemed to be a jet of boiling water, for where it struck them, angry red patches appeared on their green skin.
Harry pulled his ankle out of the grindylow's grip and swam, as fast as he could, occasionally sending more jets of hot water over his shoulder at random; every now and then he felt one of the grindylows snatch at his foot again, and he kicked out, hard; finally, he felt his foot connect with a horned skull, and looking back, saw the dazed grindylow floating away, cross eyed, while its fellows shook their fists at Harry and sank back into the weed.
Harry slowed down a little, slipped his wand back into his holster, and looked around, listening again. He turned full circle in the water, the silence pressing harder than ever against his eardrums. He knew he must be even deeper in the lake now, but nothing was moving but the rippling weed.
"How are you getting on?" said a voice out of the gloom.
Harry thought he was having a heart attack. He whipped around and saw Moaning Myrtle floating hazily in front of him, gazing at him through her thick, pearly glasses.
"Myrtle!" Harry tried to shout, but once again, nothing came out of his mouth but a very large bubble. Moaning Myrtle actually giggled clearly having forgotten about Harry blinding her.
"You want to try over there!" she said, pointing. "I won't come with you... I don't like them much; they always chase me when I get too close..."
Harry gave her the thumbs-up to show his thanks and set off once more, careful to swim a bit higher over the weed to avoid any more grindylows that might be lurking there.
He swam on for what felt like at least twenty minutes. He was passing over vast expanses of black mud now, which swirled murkily as he 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..."
Harry 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. Harry 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. Here and there at the dark windows, Harry saw faces... faces that bore no resemblance at all to the painting of the mermaid in the prefects' bathroom...
The merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at Harry as he swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch him better, their powerful, silver fish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands.
Harry sped on, staring around, and soon the dwellings became more numerous; there were gardens of weed around some of them, and he even saw a pet grindylow tied to a stake outside one door. Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching him eagerly, and pointing at his webbed hands and gills, talking behind their hands to one another. Harry sped around a corner and a very strange sight met his eyes.
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.
Ron was tied between Hermione and Draco. Harry felt a pant of shock as he realized where all his friends had gone the night before. There was also a girl who looked no older than eight, whose clouds of silvery hair made Harry feel sure that she was Fleur Delacour's sister. All four of them appeared to be in a very deep sleep. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths.
Harry sped toward the hostages, half expecting the merpeople to lower their spears and charge at him, but they did nothing. The ropes of weed tying the hostages to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong. For a fleeting second he thought of the knife Sirius had bought him for Christmas, but Harry figured a silent spell would work underwater as well as it did above.
Slashing his wand at the ropes tying Ron to the stone, Harry poured his will into the single thought, 'Diffindo!' the woven weeds snapped, fraying away as Ron started to float upward slightly, and drifted a little in the ebb of the water.
Harry looked around. There was no sign of any of the other champions. What were they playing at? Why didn't they hurry up? He turned back to Hermione, raised his wand, and started to concentrate…
At once, several pairs of strong gray hands seized him. Half a dozen mermen were pulling him away from Hermione, shaking their green-haired heads, and laughing.
"You take your own hostage," one of them said to him. "Leave the others..."
"No way!" said Harry furiously, but only two large bubbles came out.
"Your task is to retrieve your own friend... leave the others..."
"They're my friends too!" Harry yelled, gesturing toward Hermione and Draco, an enormous silver bubble emerging soundlessly from his lips. "And I don't want them to die either!"
Harry struggled to fight off the mermen, but they laughed harder than ever, holding him back. Harry looked wildly around. Where were the other champions? Would he have time to take Ron to the surface and come back down for Hermione and the others? Would he be able to find them again? He looked down at his watch to see how much time was left; it was nearly fifteen minutes to the hour.
The merpeople started screeching animatedly. Harry turned and saw something monstrous cutting through the water toward them: it looked like a massive silver-blue eel with a dragon's head; a sea serpent. The beast darted forward, zigzagging between the merpeople and spiraled around Harry and the hostages. If Harry had to guess, the serpent was nearly as long as the basilisk he had killed two year previous.
As the enormous head passed Harry, he could see the large blue eye focus on him for a moment, then Faykan's voice sounded in his head, "Got lost, Hurry up Harry, Fleur and Krum're coming now!"
The serpent then moved its massive head and tore the ropes binding Draco, dragging him by the remaining ropes like a tether as the serpent rose upward quickly, propelled by its massive tail.
Harry felt rather relieved, and awed at the power his best friend possessed. He looked around, waiting. Where were Fleur and Krum? Time was getting short, and according to the song, the hostages would be lost after an hour. The merpeople started pointing excitedly over Harry's head. Harry looked up and saw a human body in swimming trunks with the head of a shark cutting its way toward the hostages… it was Krum. He appeared to have tried to transfigure himself like Faykan, but badly.
The shark-man swam straight to Hermione and began snapping and biting at her ropes; the trouble was that Krum's new teeth were positioned very awkwardly for biting anything smaller than a dolphin, and Harry was quite sure that if Krum wasn't careful, he was going to rip Hermione in half. Darting forward, Harry hit Krum hard on the shoulder and held up a jagged stone he had scooped up from the lakebed. Krum seized it and began to cut Hermione free. Within seconds, he had done it; he grabbed Hermione around the waist, and without a backward glance, began to rise rapidly with her toward the surface.
Now what? Harry thought desperately. If he could be sure that Fleur was coming... But still no sign. There was nothing to be done except...
He snatched up the stone, which Krum had dropped, but the mermen now closed in around Ron and the little girl, shaking their heads at him. Harry pulled out his wand.
"Get out of the way!"
Only bubbles flew out of his mouth, but he had the distinct impression that the mermen had understood him, because they suddenly stopped laughing. Their yellowish eyes were fixed upon Harry's wand, and they looked scared. There might be a lot more of them than there were of him, but Harry could tell, by the looks on their faces, that they knew no more magic than the giant squid did. "You've got until three!" Harry shouted; a great stream of bubbles burst from him, but he held up three fingers to make sure they got the message. "One..." (he put down a finger) "two..." (he put down a second one)…
They scattered. Harry slashed his wand and severed the ropes binding the small girl to the statue. He seized the little girl around the waist, grabbed the neck of Ron's robes, and kicked off from the bottom. It was very slow work. He could no longer use his webbed hands to propel himself forward; he worked his flippers furiously, but Ron and Fleur's sister were like potato-filled sacks dragging him back down... He fixed his eyes skyward, though he knew he must still be very deep, the water above him was so dark...
Merpeople were rising with him. He could see them swirling around him with ease, watching him struggle through the water... Would they pull him back down to the depths when the time was up? Did they perhaps eat humans? Harry's legs were seizing up with the effort to keep swimming; his shoulders were aching horribly with the effort of dragging Ron and the girl...
He was drawing breath with extreme difficulty. He could feel pain on the sides of his neck again... he was becoming very aware of how wet the water was in his mouth... yet the darkness was definitely thinning now... he could see daylight above him...
He kicked hard with his flippers and discovered that they were nothing more than feet... water was flooding through his mouth into his lungs... he was starting to feel dizzy, but he knew light and air were only ten feet above him... he had to get there... he had to...
Harry kicked his legs so hard and fast it felt as though his muscles were screaming in protest; his very brain felt waterlogged, he couldn't breathe, he needed oxygen, he had to keep going, he could not stop…
And then he felt his head break the surface of the lake; wonderful, cold, clear air was making his wet face sting; he gulped it down, feeling as though he had never breathed properly before, and, panting, pulled Ron and the little girl up with him.
All around him, wild, green-haired heads were emerging out of the water with him, but they were smiling at him.
The crowd in the stands was making a great deal of noise; shouting and screaming, they all seemed to be on their feet; Harry had the impression they thought that Ron and the little girl might be dead, but they were wrong... both of them had opened their eyes; the girl looked scared and confused, but Ron merely expelled a great spout of water, blinked in the bright light, turned to Harry, and said, "What? Where am I?" Then he spotted Fleur's sister. "Who's she?"
"Fleur's sister. I couldn't leave her behind," Harry panted.
"Bloody hell Harry, you're a prat," said Ron, "you didn't take that song thing seriously, did you?"
"The song said…"
"It was only to make sure you got back inside the time limit!" said Ron. "I hope you didn't waste time down there acting the hero!"
Harry felt both stupid and annoyed. It was all very well for Ron; he'd been asleep, he hadn't felt how eerie it was down in the lake, surrounded by spear-carrying merpeople who'd looked more than capable of murder.
"C'mon," Harry said shortly, "help me with her, I don't think she can swim very well."
They pulled Fleur's sister through the water, back toward the bank where the judges stood watching, twenty merpeople accompanying them like a guard of honor, singing their horrible screechy songs.
Harry could see Madam Pomfrey fussing over Hermione, Krum, Faykan, and Draco, all of whom were wrapped in thick blankets.
Dumbledore and Ludo Bagman stood beaming at Harry and Ron from the bank as they swam nearer, but Percy, who looked very white and somehow much younger than usual, came splashing out to meet them. Meanwhile Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur Delacour, who was quite hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.
"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she 'urt?"
"She's fine!" Harry tried to tell her, but he was so exhausted he could hardly talk, let alone shout.
Percy seized Ron and was dragging him back to the bank ("Gerroff, Percy, I'm all right!"); Dumbledore and Bagman were pulling Harry upright; Fleur had broken free of Madame Maxime and was hugging her sister.
"It was ze grindylows... zey attacked me... oh Gabrielle, I thought... I thought..."
"Come here, you," said Madam Pomfrey. She seized Harry and pulled him over to Hermione and the others, wrapped him so tightly in a blanket that he felt as though he were in a straitjacket, then forced a measure of very hot potion down his throat, causing steam gushed out of his ears.
"Harry, what the hell!" Faykan said. Harry was shocked to see his friend was finally speaking to him again, but confused as to why he was upset. "Why on earth did you stay down there so long?"
"Well…" said Harry. He was rather embarrassed about taking the song literally, but he noticed Karkaroff watching him. He was the only judge who had not left the table; the only judge not showing signs of pleasure and relief that Harry, Ron, and Fleur's sister had got back safely. "Yeah, well, you know…" said Harry vaguely, raising his voice slightly so that Karkaroff could hear him.
"You haff a water beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny," said Krum. Harry had the impression that Krum was drawing her attention back onto himself; perhaps to remind her that he had just rescued her from the lake, but Hermione brushed away the beetle impatiently and said, "You're well outside the time limit, though, Harry... Did it take you ages to find us?"
"No... I found you okay..."
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Albus stood after talking with the Merchieftainess about why they had not attacked Undol on sigh like he had asked them to. Apparently the boy had used powerful transfiguration to become the merfolks' greatest fear, a sea serpent. The boy was resourceful indeed, but Albus was certain that if the Third Task did not break the boy, his fallback plan would. He turned to the other judges and said, "A conference before we give the marks, I think." He would not have Harry come in last just because he took the song seriously.
Surprisingly it took very little to convince all the judges, except for Karkaroff, that Harry deserved nearly as many points as Faykan for his act of 'heroism'. Madam Maxime was opposed to the idea at first as well, but Albus won her over by saying that even though her champion had failed they would give her half the total points she could have won, instead of zero.
Ludo Bagman finally nodded and magnified his voice, booming it out so that the crowds in the stands could hear.
"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 head.
"Faykan Undol, who used an impressive display of self Transfiguration, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour. We therefore award him forty-seven points."
The crowd cheered again.
"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," Bagman looked pointedly at Karkaroff at this point, causing Albus to smile slightly, "feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However… Mr. Potter's score is fort-five points."
"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."
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Severus had patiently waited for just the right moment to punish Theodore Nott for assaulting Undol. And he had finally found the perfect opportunity, a few weeks after the Second Task. He had seen Nott and the Parkinson girl tormenting Potter and Granger with Skeeter slates toe rag of a paper. As the four Gryffindors talked amongst themselves, they left the article forgotten on a seat beside them. Severus carefully levitated it back over to the Slytherin side of the classroom, between Nott and Pansy Parkinson.
And then, he waited. Nott could never resist the urge to taunt the Gryffindors in his class, mainly because he thought himself immune to Severus' wrath. He was about to learn differently.
It happened as Severus was inspecting Potter and Undol's potion. He sneered over at the pair of Gryffindor boys and loudly made a derisive comment about the article.
"Nott!" Severus yelled, causing the boy to jump, startled. "As much as you find Miss Granger and Mr. Potter's social life fascinating, I must ask you to refrain from discussing it in my class. Ten points from Slytherin."
The entire class was shocked into silence. Nott gaped, open mouthed, but Severus wasn't done there. Stalking over to the boy's caldron, he pointedly looked at the empty chair on which rested the copy of 'Witch Weekly'. "Ah… and reading magazines under the table as well are we Nott? A further ten points from Slytherin. I am disappointed in your terrible representation of our house Mr. Nott, stay after class." He said, snatching up the magazine and stalking away, noticing the excited whispers and giggles of the Gryffindor students, "Everyone get back to your brewing," he said firmly, and there was a mad scramble to obey.
Severus smiled wickedly; he was only getting started with Mr. Nott's punishment. The lesson's end could not come swiftly enough. As the class filed out, Severus fixed his black eyes on Nott. The boy was shifting nervously in his seat, unsure how to fathom the situation.
Striding menacingly over to the Nott, Severus leaned over so that he was face to face with him. "How dare you," he hissed softly, and Nott furrowed his brow in confusion. "Don't think I don't know what you were up to during the Yule Ball Mr. Nott…" Severus continued, relishing every second of fear in the horrid child's face.
"Did you honestly think you could get away with beating and cursing another student Nott…? I would have thought you smarter than that."
Severus stood again, glaring down at the boy, "barring any punishment from the Headmaster, Slytherin house will lose another two hundred points for your actions, and you will have detention with Filch for the rest of the year. Now get out of my sight…"
Nott glared back at Severus, but fled without comment.
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Sirius walked carefully down toward Hogsmeade Saturday afternoon for his meeting with Harry. He had sent them a letter the previous day with the owl that had brought the Hogsmeade weekend dates to him, telling Harry and his friends to wait for him at the stile past Dervish and Banges at two. He had also said to bring food, he was getting rather sick of rats, although Buckbeak still seemed to be enjoying them.
When he reached the designated place, he sat down, tail wagging in anticipation for the arrival of his godson. He didn't have to wait long. Harry turned the corner leading into the village with Hermione, Ron, Faykan, and a blond boy that Sirius didn't recognize.
"Hello, Sirius," Harry said happily when they had reached him.
Sirius trotted to them and sniffed Harry a few times, just for fun, then inspected the other boy, sniffing around his legs then looking at Harry for confirmation of his trust.
"It's alright Sirius," Faykan said, "Draco has our full confidence." Sirius barked once, then began to lead them all back to the cave he was hiding out in with Buckbeak.
After the last of them had squeezed inside and bowed to Buckbeak, Sirius turned back into his human form. They all smiled up at him, and the blond boy stepped forward to shake Sirius' hand. "Hello cousin Sirius," he said, grinning.
"Um, are we related?" Sirius asked, hoping against hope.
"Yes, I'm Draco Malfoy, son of your cousin Narcissa."
"You're Cissy's boy." Sirius said happily. He had heard from Faykan the year previous of how he and Harry were friends with his cousin's son. Ignoring the offered hand, he embraced the boy, lifting him off the ground and spinning him around once. Draco gave an indignant little squeak of surprise which made Sirius only squeeze him tighter.
"Ooh its good to finally meet someone else who isn't insane in this family besides your mother and me." Sirius said, finally letting Draco down and giving him room to breath, swooping down on Harry next. He could tell that everyone was looking at how thin and dirty he looked.
"I smell chicken," he said after releasing Harry. Harry pulled open his bag and handed over the bundle of chicken legs and bread.
"Thanks," said Sirius, opening it, grabbing a drumstick, sitting down on the cave floor, and tearing off a large chunk with his teeth. "I've been living off rats mostly. Can't steal too much food from Hogsmeade; I'd draw attention to myself."
He grinned up at Harry, but Harry returned the grin rather reluctantly.
"What're you doing here, Sirius?" he said.
"Fulfilling my duty as godfather," said Sirius, gnawing on the chicken bone in a very doglike way. "Don't worry about it; I'm pretending to be a lovable stray."
He was still grinning, but seeing the anxiety in Harry's face, said more seriously, "I want to be on the spot. Your last letters... well, let's just say things are getting fishier. I've been stealing the paper every time someone throws one out, and by the looks of things, I'm not the only one who's getting worried."
He nodded at the yellowing Daily Prophets on the cave floor, and Ron picked them up and unfolded them. Harry, however, continued to stare at Sirius.
"What if they catch you? What if you're seen?"
"You five and Dumbledore are the only ones around here who know I'm an Animagus," said Sirius, shrugging, and continuing to devour the chicken leg.
They talked about everything that had been happened since the previous summer, starting with the World Cup. Sirius told them about how strange it was for Barty Crouch to be missing out on so many important events. They talked until half past three, when Sirius insisted that start heading back to the castle.
"Now listen . . ." He looked particularly hard at Harry. "I don't want you lot sneaking out of school to see me, all right? Just send notes to me here. I still want to hear about anything odd. But you're not to go leaving Hogwarts without permission; it would be an ideal opportunity for someone to attack you."
"No one's tried to attack me so far, except a dragon and a couple of grindylows," Harry said, but Sirius scowled at him.
"I don't care... I'll breathe freely again when this tournament's over, and that's not until June. And don't forget, if you're talking about me among yourselves, call me Snuffles, okay?"
As they started to leave the cave, Sirius grabbed Faykan's arm to stop him, "A word please…"
They waited for the others to go outside then Sirius faced Faykan with a stern look, "I heard from Harry somewhat of what occurred between the Yule Ball and the second task." Faykan flushed and looked down.
"Don't," Sirius said, tilting the boy's head back up. "Harry also said he decided that he wanted to be your friend above anything else. So stop avoiding him okay? He really cares about you, and it hurts him to not be able to talk to you." Faykan nodded, still blushing, and Sirius shoved him gently to the cave entrance and changed into Padfoot to go scrounge another newspaper for himself.
Potential Spoilers Ahead, You Have Been Warned!
Anyone else that uploads here regularly notice that the system to write in more content has been acting weird for some time now? for some reason the text doesn't wrap correctly when I reach the end of the page width, but keeps going as though im in Notepad... its very annoying... But anyway, primarily canon regarding what happens under the lake, which makes sense because how would any influence above water have actually affected the merpeople, and even moreso the grinylows hiding to attack the unwary. If anything, I strive to keep my changes as realistic and natural as possible... probably from an intense distaste for stories that have random and unrealistic changes to the story for absolutely no reason except that the author just felt like it (not that im completely innocent of that, but theres a clear limit to how much I can stand) Has anyone else experienced something like that, where your reading a fic, and just wondering how or why the author could possibly expect events to happen that way, with zero explanation as to why? maybe its just me and being anal about consistency, but that's my thoughts on the matter... Until next time everyone! ~F