A/N - Anyone who is quite familiar with canon might have already noticed that there are quite a few simple paragraphs of copy-paste in this fic. It's not usually block sections, as I go through them and make changes here and there, but just to be clear, I wanted to make sure it was known, as a reviewer complimented me on several small things which are actually in canon (peeves hiding in suits of armor singing, live hooting owls on christmas tree, etc). Those things, and others are not my property. Neither, sadly, are Harry and Draco.
All that Draco felt was burning shame.
Professor McGonagall had insisted, once she was revived by Professor Snape, that as his house head (as technically he was still playing Harry's role), she would be the one to host his detention.
Because of this, only one night to go before the Second Task, Draco was spending his evening writing lines in the Tranfiguration classroom.
I will not use misuse potions and I will not indulge in indecent activities on Hogwarts premises.
Indecent activities.
Draco found it hard to believe that any teacher would even attempt to seriously enforce that in a school of over a thousand hormonal teenagers.
He, Harry and Severus had had only a short time to concoct a reasonable explanation for the two Malfoys before McGonagall had been revived. Snape had been utterly disgusted with the pair of them, particularly Draco for his blatant narcissism in making out with himself.
McGonagall was equally disgusted for the same reason, though just as shocked, if no more so, at the idea that Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter were seeing each other. It didn't help that the story they fed her had been along the lines of 'misusing potions for sexual intent' as Snape put it. The story was that Harry had taken the potion the night before but thought it hadn't worked. They had protested vehemently at the idea of anyone thinking that either of them were so kinky, but Snape declared that that was his portion of the punishment for the pair of them for stealing from his office and taking the body swap potion without consulting him.
That there were stilltwo Dracos after an entire day had briefly confused McGonagall, until Draco had used quick thinking to point out that the potency of the potion relied on the brewer's skill, and that 'Malfoy' had stolen from Snape himself who was a Potions Master of high rank.
What they would do if Harry's body did not transform very soon had yet to be decided.
The rest of the school whispered about the pair with some amusement. Thankfully a less embarrassing rumor had got around that Malfoy had dosed an oblivious Harry with polyjuice potion for a dare. Thankfully no one had got wind of any other details.
Up at her desk, McGonagall looked up as his quill stopped scratching to give him a pointed glare. Sighing, Draco returned to his lines. He tried to ignore as, for the fourth time that evening, McGonagall shook her head in disapproval before continuing marking papers.
…ooo000ooo…
"-utterly disgusted with both of you –"
"Merlin Sev, give it a rest!" Draco cut in loudly, thoroughly agitated at this point. "We were only snogging in an empty classroom, everyone's done it!"
Snape bore down on him like a dementor poised to attack.
"Clearly he hasn't." Harry muttered sullenly from his own desk, where he was still doing lines.
Snape's head twisted on his neck so fast it was almost comical. "What did you say Potter?"
For Harry had finally, finally returned to his old form during their detention with Snape. Unfortunately for Draco, he had not had the chance to take advantage of this more distinguished, refined version of Harry Potter they way Harry had with himself earlier that day.
True, slicked back hair did not suit Harry in the slightest, but Draco was mesmerized with the way Harry still carried himself, and that he hadn't realized he would need to shake off the habit of pronouncing his words so precisely, and cut back on smirking and half-lidded cold stares. Not that Draco wanted him to stop...
He had the airs of a pureblood Slytherin prince. In imitating Draco he had, in Draco's opinion, far outdone him.
"Draco!"
Draco snapped to attention as a heavy book was slammed down in front of him.
"Stop mooning and listen to me!" Snape snarled. "One would think neither of you had ever seen each other before!"
I don't think I really have.Draco thought to himself as his eyes drifted back to Harry, who shot him what could only be described as a seductive smirk.
"Good lord!" Snape hissed, half to himself "Am I talking to the walls? Potter, Malfoy listen to me: in light of your recent behavior, I require both of you to report to either myself or Madam Pomfrey to discuss health matters."
Both boys frowned, confused, but at least listening to the Professor.
"Health…matters." Draco repeated
"What?" Harry said
"Before your relationship escalates to the point where precautions need to be taken." Severus clarified, and was gratified at the mortified expressions both students gave him.
"Absolutely not. I already know everything I need." Draco said very firmly and hastily, understanding immediately. Across the room, Harry gaped like a fish.
Snape merely stared back dispassionately. "It was not a request. Professor McGonagall quite agrees."
"But…but why?" Harry said finally, his face red. "Are you saying wizards can get pregnant?"
There was a moment of silence in which Draco and Severus could only exchange looks of disbelief.
"It's just," Harry blundered on realizing he had sounded like an idiot "why would I need to – er – take precautions?"
"In short," Snape said "to prevent veneral diseases spreading through the school."
Draco and Harry looked indignant, but before they could begin protestations and denials, Severus held up a hand.
"This is not up for discussion. You will choose yourselves whether to speak to Madam Pomfrey or myself."
"Well I'm not taking sex advice from you." Harry said, sounding utterly horrified.
Draco swung around in his seat. "Are you crazy? Do you want to tell Pomfrey about us!?"
"Well don't sound so horrified!" Harry shot back, hurt.
"I didn't mean –" Draco began
"You can have your lover's tiff later." Snape ordered. "Now decide."
…ooo000ooo…
Harry emerged from the dungeons triumphant.
In the end, excruciating as Snape's sex ED session had been, he and Draco had worked hard to make sure it was just as mortifying for the professor as it was for them.
They had elected to have the session with Snape, and as a couple rather than individually, just for the purpose of carrying out their plan.
They had interrupted Snape's lecture intermittently for the entire half hour with earnest and in depth questions about pleasure enhancement, often going into unnecessary detail, and asking about various acts that were either so kinky or so disgusting that they had great trouble keeping straight faces.
Snape had known exactly what they were up to, but was still bound to answer their questions, which meant the session was a success for the boys, and an exercise never to be repeated for Snape.
However Harry would have been lying to himself if he didn't admit it had still been embarrassing,
Just before they left, however, a fifth year appeared in the doorway asking for Draco Malfoy to report to the headmaster's office.
Snape seemed to know what it was about, and told Harry that he would see Draco tomorrow when both boys protested that they had plans for the rest of their evening.
"You don't understand," Harry moaned, distressed as Draco gathered together his things "we need to get to the library, to research for the task tomorrow!"
Later.Draco mouthed at him from behind Snape's back before he left.
"Surely Draco has done all the research you need by now?" the professor said incredulously
Harry replied by dropping his head into his folded arms.
"Please tell me you are not serious." Snape said "You have yet to solve the clue?"
"We solved it," Harry said, a ball of panic growing inside him as he realized that not only was he on his own now, but also that there was not guarantee of finding the information he needed in time "but I still don't know how I'm going to do it."
"The task is tomorrow morning!" Snape said unnecessarily
"I know!" groaned Harry "But there's been a lot going on in my life recently in case you hadn't noticed!"
There was a long moment of silence, until Harry finally got to his feet.
"I need to get to the library. I could still find something."
"Very well." Snape said, his voice oddly stiff "It is of no concern to me, as long as you refrain from plundering my potions ingredients."
"Right." Harry grumbled, making for the door.
"I have just received a large owl order of Mediterranean plants." Snape continued in the same voice. "It would be remiss of me not to upgrade the security on my personal stores."
Harry stopped dead, hand on the door knob. Mediterranean plants?
"I have decided to use one of my student's pet's names as my password until I change the wards tomorrow. No one will expect it."
Harry opened the door, respect for his least favorite professor dramatically increased.
…ooo000ooo…
The entrance hall contained a few last-minute stragglers, all leaving the Great Hall after breakfast and heading through the double oak doors to watch the second task. They stared as Harry flashed past, sending Colin and Dennis Creevey flying as he leapt down the stone steps and out onto the bright, chilly grounds.
After experiencing the strangeness of sleeping in the Gryffindor tower again, that morning, Harry had waited for Draco outside Slytherin in his invisibility cloak until the very last minute, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Where was he? Didn't he care that Harry might not have found a way to breathe under water? Impossible. He must be ill ... why hadhe been called to the headmaster's office?
If Harry had not been so panicked about his own situation he would have ran to the hospital wing, or tracked down the headmaster to ask about it. As it was, he was running very late and could not afford to make any detours.
As he pounded down the lawn he saw that the seats that had encircled the dragons' enclosure in November were now ranged along the opposite bank of the lake, rising in stands that were packed to the bursting point and reflected in the lake below. The excited babble of the crowd echoed strangely across the water as Harry ran flat-out around the other side of the lake toward the judges, who were sitting at another gold draped table at the water's edge. Cedric, Fleur, and Krum were beside the judges' table, watching Harry sprint toward them.
"I'm . .. here ..." Harry panted, skidding to a halt in the mud and accidentally splattering Fleurs robes.
"Where have you been?" said a bossy, disapproving voice. "The task's about to start!"
Harry looked around. Percy Weasley was sitting at the judges' table – where was Mr. Crouch?
"Now, now, Percy!" said Ludo Bagman,"Let him catch his breath!"
Dumbledore smiled at Harry, but Karkaroff and Madame Maxime didn't look at all pleased to see him. ... It was obvious from the looks on their faces that they had thought he wasn't going to turn up.
Harry bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath; he had a stitch in his side that felt as though he had a knife between his ribs, but there was no time to get ridof it; 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 wearing swimming trunks and was holding his wand ready.
Finally, Bagman pointed his wand at his throat, said, "Sonorus!" 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, then. One . . . two . . . three!"
The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause; without looking to see what the other champions were doing, Harry pulled off his shoes and socks, pulled a handful of a slimy looking sort of weed out of his pocket, stuffed it into his mouth, and waded out into the lake.
The previous night he had been about to head to the library to research Mediterranean plants so that he knew what to look for in Snape's stores, when he had caught sight of Neville, who was reading on his bed.
It was odd, being back in Gryffindor so abruptly that it was almost as if he had never left, but equally it was like returning home. He knew that he had changed though, because his house mates often looked at him oddly when he spoke, or even when he just walked by. Even as he approached Neville, the other boy looked up, eyes flickering to Harry's shoulders for some reason. Unconsciously he shifted his posture.
"Neville?" he said, taking a chance "Do you know anything about ... Mediterranean plants?"
Of course he had. Neville might not be the smartest, or the coolest wizard, but in the one class he did do well at, he excelled.
He had turned up at Snape's office just after midnight under his cloak, looking for Gillyweed.
"Hedwig." he had said confidently to the door.
Nothing happened. The wooden door in front of him remained firmly locked.
Pet's name. Had he meant pet name?
"Dunderhead." he tried.
Nothing.
It had taken him five minutes of repeating Snape's repertoire of insults before he thought of Draco in despair, wondering where he was.
A light bulb flickered on in his brain, and he remembered Draco's owl.
"Chiron." He said, wanting to kick himself.
The door opened.
…ooo000ooo…
It was so cold he felt the skin on his legs searing as though this were fire, not icy water. His sodden robes weighed him down as he walked in deeper; now the water was over his knees, and his rapidly numbing feet were slipping over silt and flat, slimy stones. He was chewing the gillyweed as hard and fast as he could; it felt unpleasantly slimy and rubbery, like octopus tentacles. Waist-deep in the freezing water he stopped, swallowed, and waited for something to happen.
He could hear laughter in the crowd and knew he must look stupid, walking into the lake without showing any sign of magical power. The part of him that was still dry was covered in goose pimples; half immersed in the icy water, a cruel breeze lifting his hair, Harry started to shiver violently. He avoided looking at the stands; the laughter was becoming louder, and there were catcalls and jeering from the Slytherins, and for a moment he felt quite depressed.
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 vater, 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, his stolen posession - 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 stuck his webbed hand quickly inside his robes and fumbled for his wand. By the time he had grasped it, two more grindylows had risen out of the weed, had seized handfuls of Harry's robes, 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 grindylows 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 inside his robes, 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.
Finally he decided on a direction 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 . . . alien looking, not at all what he had expected merpeople to look like. They 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, 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.
Hermione and Cho Chang he recognized immediately. 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.
And beside her, hundreds of feet under the water he so feared, head lolling in the current, his hair billowing out like a silvery halo, was Draco.
All four of the hostages appeared to be in a deep sleep. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths.
Harry sped toward them in a panic, 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, but as he tugged at the ones bound around Draco's chest, his hand knocked against a potions vial which was suspended from a silver chain around Draco's neck.
The potion was vaguely familiar looking to Harry, but luckily there was a small piece of parchment attached to the vial with string, with a message written neatly in waterproof ink.
CALMING DRAUGHT. Administer immediately on resurfacing please.
The neat handwriting was Draco's. Harry would recognise it anywhere, having been forced to forge it for the last few months.
But was Draco even here? Something you will sorely miss ... but had he been kidnapped? The note indicated not, but Draco would never have agreed to this! Unless his 'dislike' of water was not as serious as Harry had gathered. But if that was so, then why the calming draught?
He could not float around thinking for too long; it had taken him far too long to find the place, and there was a time limit. He looked around. Many of the merpeople surrounding them were carrying spears.
He swam swiftly toward a seven-foot-tall merman with a long green beard and a choker of shark fangs and tried to mime a request to borrow the spear. The merman laughed and shook his head.
"We do not help," he said in a harsh, croaky voice.
"Come ON!" Harry said fiercely (but only bubbles issued from his mouth), and he tried to pull the spear away from the merman, but the merman yanked it back, still shaking his head and laughing.
Harry swirled around, staring about. Something sharp . . . anything . . .
There were rocks littering the lake bottom. He dived and snatched up a particularly jagged one and returned to the statue. He began to hack at the ropes binding Draco, and after several minutes' hard work, they broke apart. Draco floated, unconscious, a few inches above the lake bottom, drifting 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, unsure whether he should rescue her as well. She was important to him too, after all. He knew she must be Krum's hostage though...
After a moment, he raised the jagged rock, and began to hack at her bindings - 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 ..."
Harry treaded water for a moment, staring at Hermione. What would happen if Krum didn't turn up?
...the prospects black...too late it's gone, it won't come back...
This was a school competition though, wasn't it? Dumbledore would never let students get hurt, or die.
Unhappily, but deciding to put his trust in the headmaster, Harry pulled Draco close and kicked off. Before the lake floor disappeared into the gloom however, he thought he saw Cedric darting into the square.
Conscience assuaged, Harry began the ascent to the surface in earnest.
It was very slow work. He could only use one of his webbed hands to propel himself forward; he worked his flippers furiously, but Draco's usually lithe frame felt like a potato-filled sack 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, . . .
After what seemed like ten minutes, Harry's legs were seizing up with the effort to keep swimming; his shoulders were aching horribly with the effort of dragging the dead weight...
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 Draco up with him.
A/N - apologies for copy/paste dump. Harry did the second task both in my fic and in canon, it wasn't important to my plot to change it so I didn't. I didn't want to skim over it, and I thought it would be better just to use it straight from canon (a few alterations have been made all the way through obviously - for instance Bagman didn't talk to Harry as I wasn't interested in having his Goblin episode in my fic).
Please let me know by PM if my chapters are muddled up, I fixed up chapters 15 onwards and I think I posted them in the right order but there is always a chance it got messed up.
PS - I recently re-read Arithmancy Master's review and noted that I had not said anywhere in this fic so far that Snape is actually Draco's godfather. It was stupid of me, but I actually forgot that it wasn't canon! Too much fanfic reading for me, oh dear...