AN: nope, not a cent gained out of this.
CHAPTER 17 - Fear
The return trip was much the same as the descending one, with the only difference being that the giant octopus had come closer ‒out of curiosity was Chandra's bet‒ although it limited itself to observing and occasionally snatch one of the repulsed merrow-goblin hybrids to eat.
The real troubles started once they all reached the surface. In fact, as soon as their heads got out of the water, the hostages awakened and things went south very fast: while Luna was Luna and stared around with eyes full of wonder, Hermione and Cho started panicking for some reason, but the worst one was Liliana, with her deathly calmness and her eyes scanning all around her. Chandra knew that expression, she had tested the necromancer's patience enough times to recognize it right away; she dearly hoped that whatever sweet nothings Fleur was whispering to Liliana would work, or that task was going to blow up spectacularly.
"And the champions all emerge at the same time!" announced Bagman's booming voice over the din of the students and guests "It's a race for the first place! What a performance!"
None of the four teens paid him any attention, instead they brought the hostages to the relative safety of the wooden structure where they had started the task.
Madam Pomfrey ‒who apparently was one of the precious few to see the obvious flaws of the task if her mutterings of freezing were anything to go by‒ rushed immediately towards them with warm blankets, which were completely ignored by Liliana in favor of marching towards the judge panel.
Three things happened at the same time: Dumbledore asked if everything was all right sounding as jolly and courteous as always, Ajani cursed in his mother tongue, but both were drowned by the Sharkan Vol lookalike demanding "What is it, girl?" with a sneer that would have made Malfoy envious and a tone that made it clear he didn't actually care.
Liliana's pale skin tinted purple as runes bloomed on it and shadows coalesced in front of her despite it being midday, forming two vaguely humanoid shapes that seemed to greatly scare the local judges.
"Why was I on the bottom of the lake when my answer had clearly been no?" demanded the necromancer positioning herself between her shades, fists balled on her hips and voice dripping contempt.
Her summons had silenced the gathered people, from the youngest child to Chandra and Fleur, so her words were heard perfectly from all the presents.
Before any of the judges can offer an explanation though, Hermione ‒who had been hugging her pet phoenix for extra warmth‒ added her two cents: "Your answer? I wasn't asked anything! Last thing I remember before awakening in the lake was leaving the Great Hall after dinner!"
With her words being echoed by a teary eyed Cho Chang, the attention of all the gathered turned towards the judge panel.
"I would like to know too," said Ajani in a level voice that still spoke volumes of his mental state "We had agreed that any hostage had to be willing to participate, since you were completely immovable from the idea of having them."
Dumbledore said nothing, but for once his expression wasn't jolly and his eyes didn't twinkle.
None of the other four offered any kind of answer, if one didn't count the Durmstrang headmaster's pitiful whining as he tried to crawl away from the shades.
"Answer me!" shouted Liliana making all her runes flare brighter for an instant.
The shades moved a "step" closer, towering over the guilty judges even more than scant moments prior.
"Expecto patronus!" came a female voice from the guest stands and a glowing, silvery badger charged through the air to place itself between the shades and their victims.
It was soon joined by an equally silver phoenix and Dumbledore said: "That will be enough Miss Vess, I promise you that I'll get to the bottom of this. Call back your dementors."
Liliana turned a withering glare on the elderly headmaster before nodding stiffly and snapping her fingers. The shades turned towards her, hissed something unintelligible and then vanished. The necromancer didn't wait one other second before turning on her heels and marching away, the crowd parting to give her ample berth.
"Go after her, she needs you," said Chandra to Fleur "I'll try to salvage the situation here, because I really fear we've got another misunderstanding brewing."
The French champion nodded and left after her lover. The pyromancer assured herself the others were all right then went to speak with the judges, who had been joined by Madam Bones.
Explaining the situation to the law enforcement's witch turned into a careful dance around the truth, something Chandra wasn't really good at, but everything turned out all right in the end thanks to the fact that shades were decidedly tamer when confronted with the dementors they had been taken for. Incorporeal undead they might have been, but at least they didn't feed on misery and human souls. Of course, the redhead edited the shades actual nature: she was brash, not stupid.
Regarding the judges, Madame Maxime, Karkaroff, Crouch and Bagman had decided that those particular hostages were the only possible option, so they had stunned them ‒in the back in Liliana's case after her negative answer‒ and consigned them to Ajani and Dumbledore to apply the safety measures of the case. Needless to say, neither the elderly headmaster, nor the leonid and particularly not Madam Bones had been happy with the explanation, and the witch had promised consequences for all of them after the needed investigation.
With her job done, Chandra found Hermione again and went back to the castle to rest, sparing only a moment to congratulate her fellow champions and to thank them.
As practically everyone in Hogwarts, Pansy Parkinson had witnessed Potter's friend summon two dementors and threaten the judges with them. She had seen in particular Karkaroff's reaction, and it was no great secret that the man had been one of the Dark Lord's best in the previous war.
That night, Pansy pondered long and hard on her standing in the big picture. She knew she was only a pawn to Draco and his father ‒especially since they hadn't contacted her with the expected marriage contract after her disfigurement‒ so she wasn't going to delude herself thinking the Dark Lord would value her any more than that when he returned. On the other hand, she could get in touch with Vess ‒now that was a real dark witch, not a murmured name supposed to return from the dead‒ and come clean in exchange for some protection, offer her to be her eyes in the Snake Den, and maybe gain a decent place in her inner circle.
But was it a risk worth taking?
"Weasley, we need to talk," stated Malfoy's hated voice from behind him as the boy's two bodyguards blocked the way.
Ron turned with an insult on his tongue but the blonde raised his empty hands to still him.
"Peace Weasley, I'm not here to fight," he said before letting his arms down "I heard you stood up to the uppity mudblood, put her in her place."
"What it is that you want, Malfoy?" Ron asked narrowing his eyes "Yes, I cursed Granger, but I didn't do it for your pureblood idiocy."
"The why matters little Weasley," replied the other boy smirking "What matters is that you had enough spine to show her who's boss. I think I owe you an apology, I never thought you'd be so bold!"
"Yeah," echoed one of the two goons, Ron wasn't sure which one "Real big brass balls Weasley!"
"Oh, well, you know... It was nothing..." the redhead muttered.
"But then Potter ruined your day eh?" asked Malfoy sneering "That bloody whore thinks she's the best of the lot."
"Yeah... She's a hot bird, but that temper..." agreed Ron "And her friend too, one scary dark witch she is."
"Yeah," echoed the other bodyguard "That's one hot chick!"
"I have a bone to pick with Potter too you know," said Malfoy leaning closer, as if to reveal some grand secret "What do you say we make them pay?"
"What do you mean?" asked Ron, alarm bells tingling in his head.
"Relax Weasley, it'll be just a prank, some harmless fun to show them we're best," explained Malfoy raising his hands in a pacifying gesture "Nothing like you were thinking. We're Slytherin but we're not killers."
"So it's just a prank? What kind?"
"The fun kind," was Malfoy's chuckled reply "Fun for us, of course."
The other two boys ‒who had moved next to the blonde‒ chucked too, as if it was some funny joke. Then Goyle added a couple of pelvic thrusts to better illustrate the concept.
"We'll slip them some love potion," added Malfoy "I bet you can guess the rest. So, you want in?"
There was a voice in Ron's head, one that sounded a lot like his mother's, that kept telling him it was a really bad idea, but then he thought that once Potter saw how good he was she would surely become his girlfriend and his mom would be happy that at least one of her sons was working towards grandchildren.
So he smiled and accepted Malfoy's offered hand. What could possibly go wrong?