Title: Kiss.
Author: AspergianStoryteller.
Genre: Supernatural/General.
Summary: When a dementor tried to Kiss Harry Potter, it got more than it bargained for. And Harry did not walk away unaffected. Don't own Harry Potter.
Chapter 32: Lake Head.
Recap: Harry is now free of dementor magic and only needs to visit St. Mungos once a month, like Ginny. He's been extremely busy with school, mysteries and the Twiwizard Tournament. What's up with Mr. Crouch? Why does Harry have a piece of Voldemort's soul in him? But for now...
Hours later, Harry was sprinting frantically through halls, Dobby at his side. The house-elf had really saved him this time – gillyweed would make him breathe underwater, long enough, hopefully, for Harry to rescue Ron from the merpeople.
Shit. This was a wizarding contest? Sometimes Harry thought the muggles had far more common sense.
The grandstands from the first task had been taken and set up around the lake edge. On the pebbled shore between them and the water, a gold-draped table was set up for the judges to sit. Next to the table and up where everyone could see them, several large mirrors had been set up. Instead of reflecting the crowd, images from underwater showed in them. It was like the cameras and television screens that muggles used in sports.
Harry noticed this as he stood in line with the other champions, gasping for breath and rubbing a stitch in his side. He had no time to catch his breath before the whistle blew shrilly.
He kicked off his socks and shoes and waded into the freezing lake water. The cold covered his body in goosebumps and burned his legs. His numbing feet were slipping on slimy stones. Harry popped the gillyweed into his mouth and chewed quickly. It was rubbery and slimy like the octopus he'd had the other week, but not nearly so good tasting.
He hoped it would get to work soon; people were starting to laugh at him – he must look pretty stupid just standing there – and he was really, really, cold.
And suddenly, it was like a pillow was being smooshed into his face and something was cutting his neck. Harry tried to breath, but his head spun and his lungs felt achingly empty. He clapped his hands to the pain his neck, and felt large, flapping slits there... Gills...
Harry plunged into the water.
It was brilliant; he could breathe again! Delicious oxygen filled his brain. He could feel it gushing smoothly through his gills. Harry looked at his hands and feet. They were webbed and green-ghostly looking. His feet had become long like flippers.
The water was different too. It was cool and light. Harry kicked his feet and found he could swim very fast. It was awesome. He could see better too! Much clearer, and he didn't need to blink.
Oh wow, he'd swum out quite far already. He couldn't see the bottom of the lake any more.
Harry suddenly saw noticed that he was floating rather close to a mirror. Through it, he could see a section of the crowd onshore. He was probably showing up on theirs. He had the sudden weird vision of poking a face or writing a message, come on in, the water's fine.
Nah, he didn't have time. He had to rescue Ron! Harry flipped over and swum deeper into the lake.
XXX xxx XXX
'Gillyweed,' Severus muttered. 'I knew it! Potter has been in my office.'
'Not necessarily, Severus' Albus pointed out. 'He might have owl-ordered it.'
Severus snorted. 'Like hell he did. When I get my hands on him-'
'And there he goes,' Lucius noted. 'Perhaps the squid will get him first.'
'That's too much to hope for. It would spit him out.'
'The grindylows, then? He's getting close to a nest of them.'
'How do you know that?' Severus asked, surprised.
Lucius smirked.
'Bad dog,' someone hissed. 'You're not allowed in.'
Severus caught the conversation and narrowed his eyes.
'I know it's hard, but we have to have faith in Harry and wait until he comes out.'
Oh no. Them?
XXX xxx XXX
Rocks and plants and fish kept looming up at Harry as he swam, only able to see ten feet around him in the dark, murky water. There was large plains of mud, mazes of rock and forests of weed.
Harry saw school of small fish dart by. He felt very strange in this strange environment.
Hey, there was another mirror. Harry was just going to shot past it – he really didn't have time for distractions, but something caught his attention.
This particular mirror was connected to one set up by a large group of students in Harry's year. There were Dean and Seamus, oh and the Weasleys and Neville and Ginny's friend from Ravenclaw, Luna. And right in the middle of them were two people Harry had seriously not expected to see. They all waved at him.
Harry's eyes widened. 'Holy- oh shit!'
Something had clamped on to his ankle. He kicked and blasted grindylows as they rose from the weed to grab him and drag him down. In the mirror his friends were yelling and cheering.
'Relashio!' The spell came out of his mouth as bubbles and out of his wand as jets of hot water. It burned patches of the grindylows green skin an angry red.
Harry saw mirror in flashes as he battled the little water demons. The twin and Dean and Seamus all gave him thumbs up. One of the twin held up a large parchment poster reading "GO HARRY!"
Harry wasn't sure if he should be amused or frustrated that they weren't taking this more seriously. Did they think this was just a game? Didn't they know that Ron was in danger?
Yeowch! Damn grindylow!
XXX xxx XXX
'Yikes,' Fred murmured, lowering the sign. 'He looks serious doesn't he?'
'That's his game face,' Seamus said.
'Nah, Harry's game face looks a lot happier than that,' George said.
'Harry does know that this is a game, right?' Neville asked. 'He knows that the hostages aren't actually in danger?'
...
'Harry's not daft,' Dean said. 'Of course he knows. Probably. Er...'
XXX xxx XXX
Finally, Harry thought. He'd lost them. His legs were pretty scratched up from the swarm attack, but otherwise he was in good shape.
Okay, he must be getting close now, there was the place Myrtle had pointed out. Rocks with merpeople drawings on them, like cave paintings. A group of them were depicted chasing the giant squid with spears. They were the warrior sort? Great. Harry swum around the rock, and noticed something on the other side.
'No way,' he blubbed. A snake. An enormous snake drawing. Curious, he peered closer at it. It was etched into the rock and painted green. Two little yellow shells filled its eye spaces. The basilisk. What was a picture of it doing here? Had the merpeople encountered it?
Hang on, wasn't the chamber like, underwater? Harry followed the rocks. Each of them told a story. The castle being built, fighting off invading creatures, explorations into the lower castle...
The basilisk was painted more than once. The merpeople must have met it. And the squid, for here was a picture of the basilisk and giant squid battling.
'Wow...'
The final rock bore an alarming painting that was obviously a warning. The basilisk, deadly eyes staring, mouth wide open and baring dripping fangs. Not too far away was the entrance to a cave. Harry would bet money on where it lead.
Ah, he didn't have time for this! Ron! How much time had he just wasted dawdling here? Promising himself he'd think about this later, Harry flipped over and swam back the way he'd come.
After about twenty minutes Harry was finally getting closer to his destination, for he could hear snatches of Mermish song:
'An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took...'
It echoed eerily in Harry's brain. He swam faster.
'... Your time's half-gone so tarry not,
lest what you seek stays here to rot...'
Harry swam even faster, until his legs were straining, and tried not think of Ron's body never leaving the lake again. Like Ginny in the Chamber.
The merpeople's village was a cluster of primitive stone huts and caves being nommed on by rainbows of algae. Most of the houses had gardens of weed and a few had pet grindylows tied up. There were windows, out of which peered faces unlike the ones of muggle fairytales.
Grey skin, dark green, long and wild hair, yellow eyes and yellow teeth. Long, powerful, silvery fish tails. The merpeople wore ropes of pebbles around their necks and waists. They poked their heads out to stare at Harry.
Harry kept swimming and soon reached the middle of the village. Lots of merpeople were outside now, pointing at him and whispering to each other excitedly. Some of the braver ones even came right up to him and touched him and said hello and asked questions.
'Enjoying your swim, human?'
'Do you come here often?'
'How does the lake compare to dry land?'
Their voices were croaky and harsh, their touch was cool and softly scaly.
'Do you know the potion-man?'
Potion-man- Snape? The merpeople knew Snape?
Right in the middle, there was a choir of merpeople singing the egg-song, and behind them, a large stone statue of a merperson. The hostages were tied to the tail.
Asleep.
Harry didn't have a knife on him to cut through the thick weed rope binding them, and the guards wouldn't lend him a spear.
He found a sharp rock on the ground to cut Ron free, and started on Hermione when the other champions still weren't there. What was taking them so long?
Several pair of hands immediately grabbed and pulled him away from the hostages.
They told him to take his hostage and leave the others, but Hermione was his friend too, and he didn't want Cho of the little girl who looked like Fleur to die either.
'Let me go!' he bubbled.
The merpeople laughed.
Harry squirmed and wiggled and was about to bite his way out (it had worked with Dudley, maybe it would work on merpeople?) when he suddenly felt dizzy and floaty-headed.
It came on so quick he didn't even have time to think oh crap, not now!
And then there was green water around him and filling him and he was the water. There were moving things with pulsations and tingles floating in him. And slower growing things that hardly moved at all, and warm pulsing, tingling things, and he becoming bigger and there were more warm things- something was tugging -
Harry jerked awake. His body felt heavier than he remembered, more solid. Smaller. His head still felt like it was wet and full of things. Dizzy. What the hell just happened?
The living, moving things with pulses and tingles - no, his captors, the merguards were peering at him oddly. In front of him, so was Cedric. The older boy was looking at him in concern. Or at least, Harry thought it was concern. Cedric's features were stretched under the bubble around his head. Harry followed his gaze down and was shocked to see that Cedric had pulled his Medi-Alert tag out from under his robes.
'Cedric,' he blubbed.
Cedric's eyes returned to his face abruptly. He looked relieved.
'Are you okay?' he mouthed.
Harry nodded.
'Fleur's coming!'
Fleur? Harry pushed out of the guards' now loose hold and saw that Viktor had turned up. Interesting. He'd tranfigured him self. Partly. The guy had a shark head, and was attempting to bite Hermione loose. Harry could see this was going to end up with Hermione bitten in two so he hit Viktor on the shoulder and handed him the rock he'd used to free Ron.
Harry watched the older boys swim away with Cho and Hermione, feeling extremely relieved. Now Fleur just had to come and get her relative and everyone would be okay!
... Where was Fleur? What was taking her so long? After five minutes, Harry decided he couldn't wait any longer and cut the little girl free. The merguards tried to stop him, but backed down when he pulled his wand out.
Soon he was on his way up and out.
XXX xxx XXX
The trip back was faster than the trip forward. There were no hitches, until Harry got to the grindylow area near the end.
'Fuck off!' he bubbled/yelled at the little monsters. He blasted them with hot water again. Damn, just how many grindylow nests were there in the lake anyway? At least they weren't attacking Ron and the girl. The hostages had protective enchantments on them.
Harry kicked a grindylow away, then clapped a hand to his neck. It was stinging again. That could only mean – his time was up. He had to resurface soon.
He gave Ron and the girl a heft up first and kept sending grindylows flying so he could follow them.
Ten seconds passed, and his fins were receding, his gills had shut, he couldn't breathe and the grindylows kept coming.
Oh no, another swarm! More than ten additional terrors were scratching and biting him and dragging him down by his feet. They were being drawn in by the smell of his blood spilling into the water.
Harry's mouth was filling with water. It was cold and wet and he was starting to choke on it. His body was heavy and sore and his head was hurting, especially his sinuses. Darkness was creeping in on him...
Something warmer gripped his arm and pulled him. Harry was going up and up in a blur of murky green and black and then -
'Harry? Harry!'
Ron's voice was loud in his ear. Oh his poor, fuzzy, hurting head.
'Are you okay, mate?'
Harry coughed.
'Ron?' he spluttered.
'I'm here,' Ron said. 'I've got you. Are you alright?'
'F-fine,' Harry tried to stop coughing. 'Let's -' cough 'go.'
'I don't think she can swim very well,' Ron took the little blond girl's arm. He slipped his other arm around Harry's chest. 'And you're in sorry shape. Hang tight Harry, we're not far from land.'
Harry was too busy hacking up water and nursing a sore head to protest and swim himself back, though he did manage to kick along a bit. Around them, merpeople were popping up, either smiling or looking worriedly at them.
The moment Ron's feet touched solid ground, the merpeople were pushing them out, and Percy, Hermione, Fleur and several professors were pulling them out, hugging them and wrapping dry blankets around them. Professor's McGonagall and Moody supported Harry as he coughed, panted and shivered. Madam Pomfrey was there in seconds, clearing his airways with a flick of her wand and sitting him down so she could force pepper-up potion and blood-replenisher down his throat and heal his numerous scratches.
Harry breathed deeply and pulled his blankets anxiously. He wanted to snuggle into them, but he'd only just gotten his breath back.
'Are you alright, Potter?' McGonagall asked, her voice tight with worry.
'I'm fine,' Harry murmured. He was tired.
'You did good, Potter,' Moody growled. 'Now just sit tight and rest.'
'Mm hm.'
'Well done, Harry,' Dumbledore smiled at him, though his eyes were very relieved. 'You did very well. We'll announce the scores soon, but it's alright if you doze off.'
'Harry!' Hermione dumped another blanket on him and hugged him. 'Are you alright? You look awful. I was so worried about you!'
Viktor pointed out that Hermione had a water-beetle in her hair. It sounded like he wanted her attention, but he also gave Harry a relieved look. Cedric and Cho joined them, and Ron when he escaped from worried-big-brother!Percy. Fleur (who was extremely grateful to them for saving her sister Gabrielle) gave them cheek-kisses and she and Gabrielle added themselves to the blanket-huddle.
Harry leaned his head tiredly on Hermione's shoulder and closed his eyes. Pepper-up or not, he was bloody exhausted from everything. The group's chatter and Bagman's magnified voice echoed dimly in his ears.
'Alright!' Ron cheered. 'Moral fibre! They didn't think you were an idiot Harry!' He patted Harry's shoulder. Harry smiled. He was glad they weren't giving him a low score for being thick enough to think the hostages were actually in danger. Yay.
Bagman announced that the third task would be on the fourth of June. Thank god, that was ages away.
Harry became more aware as the crowd began to break up and Madam Pomfrey was beginning to herd the wet group up and away to get dry. Cedric's parents whisked him and Cho away to talk and hug some more. Fleur and Gabrielle smiled at them again before joining their own parents. Viktor went to see his dad, and after making sure Harry was not going to relapse on her, Hermione went with him.
'Oi,' Ron said. 'It's weird people afraid of Professor Lupin. He's so nice.'
Harry looked up. The students who were paying enough attention to recognise Professor Lupin were greeting him with enthusiasm, after all, he was a favourite ex-teacher, but some of them were eyeing him nervously, remembering that the kindly man turned into a fearsome creature during the full moon.
Remus Lupin smiled at Harry, yet another person who looked very pleased to see him safely back on dry land.
'Woof!' Padfoot barked hello and bounded up to Harry, licking him thoroughly when he got there.
'Padfoot, hey,' Harry murmured, raising his arms to hug his dogfather. 'It's good to see you. You too Professor,' he added. 'Is it okay for you guys to be here?'
'It's fine,' Remus said. 'We wanted to be here. Sorry we couldn't make it for the first task. How are you feeling?' he asked.
'Tired.' Harry unfolded his nest of blankets to let Padfoot in. The dog licked him again and lay on his lap. He was warm.
'As soon as you're dry you can go straight to bed.'
'Hey Harry! Ron!'
The Weasley kids joined them with a poster and snacks. Actually, several students Harry knew, and Hagrid were there too.
'It's good to see you both alive and not fish food,' said a twin.
'We would have lost a bet otherwise,' said the other.
'Not that we would have bet otherwise.'
'You were brilliant,' Ginny said.
'Absolutely brilliant!'
'Amazing! Apart from you almost drowning though.'
'I can't believe you took it so seriously!'
'To the the castle now!'
'Who's the dog?'
'Hey Professor!'
'Could you all give Harry some space?' said professor asked. He shooed Padfoot off and helped Harry up. Harry lent against him as they walked back up the castle.
It was a slow walk back. Harry listened to talk and spoke back a little. When they got to the Hospital Wing, Harry fumbled into a set of dry robes and fell asleep on the first bed he could crawl onto.
XXX xxx XXX
'When did you get a Medi-Alert tag?' Fred asked.
Bugger. Harry had hoped no one but Cedric had noticed that. He'd totally forgotten to tuck it back into his robes when he came out of the lake.
'Last year,' he said. 'I had an accident.' His dorm mates had already seen his necklace, but he wasn't going to explain everything with them, the Weasley kids, and Luna there.
'What kind of-'
'Later. But could you not, you know, tell people about it? It's kind of embarrassing, and you know there's already unpleasant rumours going around about me.'
The twins smiled in unison.
'It's fine.'
Harry had slept for hours after the second task. When he woke up, Madam Pomfrey had scolded him for overworking himself and made him eat a warm meal before filling him with more pepper-up and a nutrition potion. Then she asked him what happened in the lake. Cedric, when he and Cho came out, told her how he had found Harry struggling in the grip of the merguards before going completely limp on them. When he saw the Medi-Alert, he though Harry might be having a kind of epileptic seizure.
'I thought he was having some kind of seizure,' he said. 'Why the hell are they still letting him compete? It's bad enough he's under-age, but with a medical complication on top of that?'
'Mr Potter will be fine,' Poppy said. 'I will check him quite thoroughly when he comes out.'
'Good.'
'I didn't know Harry was sick,' Cho murmured under her wrap. 'Does he really have epilepsy?'
'... You'll have to ask Mr Potter that. But don't press him. Now go huddle with someone warm.'
Harry told her what he thought he had happened: an out of body experience. Apparently it was likely to happen sometime. He just wasn't expecting it then. It could be worse. It could have happened while he was fighting grindylow.
Remus and Padfoot were with him after he woke up, and since he'd eaten, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Moody, Bagman, Nathaniel and Hermione had all been in to visit him, then Cedric and Cho.
'Harry,' Cedric said seriously. 'I know it can be awkward, and it's not exactly my business, but I'd like to know if there's something potentially dangerous affecting you. I'm the other Hogwarts champion and a Prefect. I can help if something happens.'
Harry shifted in his bed and, after a quick, whispered discussion with Remus and Padfoot, made the older students promise not to tell anyone that an extremely close shave with a dementor had affected him quite badly, and he was most certainly not mentally unstable but had symptoms similar to epilepsy and earlier, depression. He was dealing with it fine and only needed time to recollect himself when he had a "space out."
This was what he wound up telling his visitors too. Fred and George he would tell the whole story to later. Not Percy though. He'd tell his mum and Harry was so not ready for Mrs Weasley to have a panic attack over him. The visitors were also sworn to privacy. It helped that Harry had been just out of sight of the scrying mirror when he spaced out completely.
Before leaving (kicked out by Madam Pomfrey because her patient needed to rest and there were too many visitors anyway) the twins told Harry to look forward to more lost bet-dares taking place soon. The first one they were aware of started tomorrow night. Padfoot grinned and woofed approvingly when he heard this. His ears and tail perked right up.
Harry enjoyed his time with them, and when Ron and Hermione came back, they had a good talk about the mysterious goings on.
XXX xxx XXX
Readers, do you want me to use "these speech marks" instead of 'these ones?' A reviewer said I should, but I'm used to using '.' However, if you guys like "" better, let me know.