A/N – Later in this chapter, there will be a part where I switch back and forth between POV's very quickly. I tried to make it as clear as possible for you guys, so I hope it ended up alright. Thanks!
"Knox." Alex whispered. She held her wand tightly in her sweaty palms, carefully stepping through the portrait hole into total darkness. She walked slowly through the halls, pausing every once in awhile to light her wand and check where she was going.
"I'm glad you came." Alex whispered.
"Did you think I wasn't going to show?" Draco said just as quietly.
"Not a lot of people are brave enough to wander the halls this late at night."
"Do you consider yourself to have a lot of bravery?" Draco asked.
"I do."
"If you think so, come with me. I have something to show you." Draco said taking her hand. He pulled Alex back out of the Room of requirement into the deserted hallway.
"Where are you taking me?" Alex complained. The damp grass squished under her sneakers.
"It's only a little further." Draco said rubbing his cold hands together.
He stopped in front of the black lake and removed his boots. Draco slipped his pale toes into the chilly water. He waved his wand over himself and blue light surrounded him. "Do you mind getting a little wet?"
"We`re going into the lake?" Alex frowned.
"Don`t worry, you won`t be cold." Draco said. "Just take my hand."
Alex reached forward hesitantly, and grabbed Draco`s hand. The instant their hands met, both students felt a wave of heat course through their systems.
"That spell only works if you trust each other." Draco said quietly. "As long as you keep direct contact with each other, you will have all the qualities of a snake. You can now breathe underwater, see underwater, you`ll never get cold, and of course, you can speak parseltongue." Draco said proudly.
"That`s amazing! How come I`ve never heard of that spell?" Alex said excitedly.
"Because they don`t teach dark magic at Hogwarts."
"Dark magic? I don`t think that`s allowed.."
"It isn`t. My great grandfather invented that spell and it`s been a family secret ever since. Not a word to anyone about it." Draco threatened.
"This spell isn`t even registered? I don`t know about this..."
"Trust me, I`ve used it thousands of times. There`s nothing to worry about, as long as we always stay together and hold hands."
"And if we don`t?"
"Then the spell is counteracted and you won`t be able to breathe underwater. That wouldn`t be so great if you were in the middle of the lake, now would it?"
"Let`s do it!" Alex said.
Alex was the type of person who would never back down from a challenge, or in this case, a risk. After all, she had quite the reputation to keep.
"And just for a bit of safety..." Draco waved his wand and a bright green ribbon wound around their joined hands. "This ribbon is magically strong. Not much could break it, so we should be okay."
Alex took a deep breath and gracefully dove into the black lake, pulling Malfoy alongside her. Once they were underwater he said,
"Did I also mention that this spell only lasts for an hour?" He smiled.
Alex stared at Malfoy`s face, because his grin was slowly stretching...stretching until his mouth was as wide as his whole head. His tongue split into a fork shape, and his eyes turned red. The hair on his head shot back into his skull, his skin turned emerald green, his arms and legs grew closer to his body...
It was not until then that the petrified Alex noticed that all these horrific changes were happening to her too. She tried to scream, but an explosion of bubbles was all that came out of her mouth.
All of a sudden, her vision became crystal clear and her screaming turned to hissing.
"What have you done to me?" Alex hissed at Draco.
"Don`t you ssssssssssssee? Thisssssss issss how we can win the contesssst." snake-Draco hissed.
"I don`t undersssstand." Snake-Alex said back.
"We will usssssse the ancient magic of the sssssssssnake to show the teachers who hassssssss the besssst magic!"
"Do you ssssee the ribbon on your tail? If that sssstays tied, the sssspell won`t break." Draco said.
Alex looked at her scaly tail and to her surprise, found a golden yellow ribbon tied securely. She also saw that Draco had a royal blue ribbon on his tail.
"Don`t sssssstray too far." Snake-Draco said, swimming off into the black waters.
Meanwhile, back in the Griffindor common room...
"Oh no! Harry will be so mad! He told me to keep an eye on her!" Hermione said to Ron.
"S o how are you going to tell him?" Ron said loudly.
"Tell who what?" Harry said walking down the boys` tower staircase.
"Nothing!" They both said too quickly. Their guilty faces made Harry instantly suspicious.
"What`s Alex done this time?" Harry asked.
"That`s just it, I don`t know." Hermione said.
"We'd better go find her before she gets in trouble." Harry says, grabbing his invisibility cloak.
The black lake...
The water was getting colder. Alex spun around in the water uncomfortably. Her red eyes scanned the black lake. She couldn't anything this late at night, when the only light source was the moon.
"Draco?" She called out in her weird hissing voice.
Nothing. She couldn't find him anywhere. Alex started to get really worried. She wasn't sure how much time was left.
Alex started swimming upwards, in case she had to go to the surface soon. The further up she swam, the lighter the water was.
She swam up and up...right into the rocky lake bottom. She hadn't been swimming up; she was at the lake floor now!
The light she thought was the surface was actually a glowing ball of magic, sitting in a pile of loose rocks on the bottom.
"This is it. This is the unknown magic Draco was talking about. This is how we will win!" Alex smiled, picking up the ball of light in her fangs.
Your soul is strong, Alex Russo.
A voice echoed out of the glowing ball. Surprising, Alex dropped it back to the stones below. When it hit to rock bottom, it exploded. Screams shots out and echoed throughout the lake, making ripples all the way to the surface. Alex was thrown backwards, landing upon a flat rock in the distance.
The lake grew silent again. Alex warily swam closer again, and saw that the once glowing light was now a simple stone, that was blood-red in colour. Alex picked it up gingerly in her teeth, frightened of another explosion. Her worries were in vain; the stone laid still.
Back to Harry, Ron and Hermione...
"I give up, I'm hungry." Ron complained as he stomped through the Hogwarts grounds. "How do we even know this is where she went?"
"Where else could she be? She wouldn't go home, and she wasn't on the Marauder's map. That means the only place she could be is in Hogsmeade." Hermione said.
"My dad gave me this map one year before we started at Hogwarts so I could memorize the castle. I made sure she never saw it in my room at home, so how would she get to Hogsmeade?" Harry said.
"Maybe she found the secret passageway without the map?" Hermione replied.
"That's possible, she can sometimes be a conniving little-"Harry started,
"Look! Over by the black lake!" Hermione interrupted him.
The all turned in time to see a dark figure stagger out of the water and collapse onto the shore. The trio rushed over to see who it was.
"Malfoy? What happened to you?" Hermione sank to her knees beside him. Draco was on his hands and knees, heaving buckets of water from his lungs.
Once he could finally catch his breath he said, "Get away Mudblood, it's none of your business."
"Don't call her that." Ron said automatically.
"Enough tell me what happened to you." Harry said impatiently.
"I fancied a swim." Malfoy said sarcastically. He stood up and turned to stare out over the lake.
"Do you know where Alex is?" Hermione said nervously.
"W-what?" Draco's eyes got big for a second before he recovered. "No, I don't know where she is, what do I look like, her babysitter?"
"You do know where she is, don't you." Harry said, interpreting his hesitation.
"No, I-"
"Tell the truth, Malfoy!" Harry yelled pointing his wand at Draco's throat.
"Okay okay, just don't hex me." Draco said holding his hands up.
At his words, Hermione and Ron both pulled their wands out and pointed them at Draco as well. "Talk. Now." Hermione said, her eyes blazing.
Draco thought quickly on his feet, "Alex went for a walk around the grounds."
"And?"
"Well I actually WAS going for a swim, and she spotted me out in the water."
"And?"
"So the little witch shot a body bind spell at me while I was diving off a rock."
"She WHAT? She could have killed you!" Hermione screeched.
"And?"
"And of course I started drowning since I couldn't move."
"So where is she now?"
"I'm not done my story yet. So she must have realized at that point that I was drowning so she swam out to "save" me. Alex pulled me close to the surface, but she disappeared after that. The last thing I saw of her was her arm shooting a spell at me that unbound me. Then she sunk." He said all very quickly.
"And you didn't try to find her after she saved your life?" Harry yelled.
"Hey, I barely got to the edge when you lot showed up!"
"Why didn't you dive after her!"
"I was going to get help."
"We're wasting time fighting about this, let's go get her!" Hermione said over the boys' voices.
Harry redirected his wand at Hermione and cast a bubble-head charm over her. Hermione did the same to Ron and Harry.
"What about me?" Draco said.
"You not coming, you were part of the problem." Harry snarled.
"Exactly, what's one more pair of eyes?" Draco pleaded.
"Let him come, he can't make things worse." Hermione said casting the charm on Malfoy.
The four kids jumped in the lake and started searching for Alex.
ALEX
The spell was starting to wear off. The scales covering my skin are splitting into arms and legs again. Draco never told me how painful this part of the spell was.
HARRY
The bubble head charm was cast perfectly, I'm so glad mother taught me this one. The water's getting deeper.
The magic stone slipped out of my mouth, as my forked tongue was shrinking, turning human.
Draco swim's fast. He must have a private pool at his mansion. He's so fast that I can't keep up with him anymore. The water's getting colder.
The last of my scales have fallen off, and now I am fully human. The only problem? I can't breathe.
We reached the lake floor. It's covered in seaweed and moss. How will we find Alex in this mess? Draco points towards to the left, and we continue our searching. The water's getting darker.
If only I had my wand! I wonder what happened to it when I turned into that horrible snake...
Ron waves his arms at me. I think he spotted something. We all swim over in excitement, to see that all he found was a stupid glowing rock. How is that going to help my sister? Draco seems interested enough though. The water's getting quieter.
I'm really panicking now. My lungs are aching for air, but the surface is so far away...
Hermione grabs my hand and pulls me forward. I think I see something in the distance. Could that possibly be Alex? The water's getting foggy.
I can hardly see anymore. My chest in about to explode from lack of air oxygen. I cry out for Draco. Oops, there goes my last breath of air.
We found Alex! Thank god. I take her limp body in my arms and try to swim. She's too heavy for me, so Ron takes her from my arms and swims ahead of me. Where did Draco go?
Someone's arms surround me. Is that you Draco? Or am I just hallucinating?
My head breaks the surface and the bubble-head charm disappears. Ron is already dragging Alex to the shore. I wait until Hermione surfaces, and start swimming after my sister.
I hear someone talking to me. I can't make out the words, but I'm disappointed that it isn't Draco's voice. I decide not to listen to the speaker.
Draco walks over to me, shivering, while I hold my sister's hand. I see that he went back for the stupid glowing rock that he now clenches in his hand. I scowl at him.
Back to 3rd person's POV...
"Alex, please wake up." Harry shakes Alex's unconscious body.
Draco pockets the rock and walks steadily over to Alex. He pulls Alex`s pant leg up past her knee.
"What are you doing?" Harry demands.
Draco ignores him, pulling his drenched pants off. He sits down next to Alex and ties his blue ribbon around the gold one on Alex`s ankle.
Alex`s eyes shoot open and she starts coughing up lake water. Ron thumps her on the back to get more water out of her lungs.
"What`s going on?" Alex chokes out. Her voice is very raspy.
"Oh, Alex your okay. Don`t ever do that to me again." Harry gives her a hug.
"What happened?" Alex turns to Draco.
"I`m sorry." Draco whispers. "Will you forgive me?"
Silently, Alex leans over and captures Draco`s lips with her own.
Sorry, for the wait, but I hope you liked this chapter.