XxXBeautifulXxXDreamerXxX: Thanks so much! I'm really hoping I can write it as well as it's been playing out in my mind for the past couple of years :D Reviews please :)
Harry came back from the prefects bathroom and told her what the egg had said and that they needed to find a way to breathe under water for an hour. She looked up at him after rubbing her eyes for a moment, "Just a sec."
She ran up the stairs and to her room, "Hermione, Harry and I need a way to breathe under water for an hour, got any ideas?"
"No but I'm sure the library has something." The girl perked up at getting to go to her favorite room in the castle, "We can make a day of it tomorrow!"
"Okay, I'll let Harry know." Bridget said turning around to head back down the stairs.
Hermione stopped her, "Wait! You said your dad was part frog right?"
"Yeah." She replied confused.
"Frogs can breathe through their skin under water." Her friend informed her.
Bridget turned around dumbfounded, "I don't even know that, how do you?"
"When you told me what animals you had bond spirits with, I looked up all the things they could do." Hermione shrugged.
"Okay well let me go tell Harry then I guess you and I will head to the bathroom." She gave a half smile and headed back down stairs to find Harry and Ron waiting for her, "I guess we're spending the day in the library tomorrow. Hermione doesn't know of anything off the top of her head."
"Great like I don't have to do enough for classes." Ron groaned and they all turned to the noise of Hermione bounding down the stairs with a bag in her hand, "Where you off to? A date with Vicktor?"
"No actually, a date with Bridget." Hermione smiled at him then turned to Bridget, "Ready to go?"
"Yeah." She answered as Ginny, Fred, and George walked over to where the four were standing and snuck George a wink as they were about to walk off. She stopped Hermione when they were by the door to the common room, "You realize if I pull this off then the rest of the group will start to ask questions."
"Yeah, but you don't have to answer them if you don't want to." Hermione spoke quietly back.
"It feels wrong them not knowing." Bridget looked over to the group who were still standing there talking, "I would trust them with my life, so why not my secret?"
"It's entirely up to you." She placed a hand on her troubled friends shoulder.
Bridget paused for a moment then called out, "Hey, Ginny, want to come with us?"
Ginny perked up at the invitation, thankful to not have to be stuck with the boys, "Yeah!" The girl ran over to them, "Where are we going?"
"The bathroom." Hermione stated as they walked through the doors.
Bridget gasped for air as her head broke above the water, "Are you sure you read that right about frogs?"
"Yes I swear." Hermione said helping her friend sit up, "You were down there sixty seconds longer than before."
"So three minutes, that'll be a lot of help." She sputtered still catching her breath.
Ginny piped in, "Better than I can manage."
They had explained to her about Bridget on the walk there and what they were trying to accomplish. Ginny had no problem accepting the concept of one of her closest friends being different, in fact she thought it was cool as the younger girl had put it.
Bridget readjusted the straps on her bathing suit, "I just don't see how in a day I'm going to figure out how to breathe under water, it took me close to thirty minutes just to connect with the dragon."
"But you said you brought out the chameleon in just a few seconds." Hermione huffed.
"Yeah but I had also been playing around with that one. Being able to camouflage yourself is really friggin awesome." Bridget put her hair up into a bun attempting to get out of the water.
"No you're staying in there until we figure it out!" Hermione almost pushed her back.
She groaned, "Hermione, I wont be able to do anything if I get water logged. Let me just take a five minute break outside of this bath tub."
Her friend backed off and she climbed out of the water that she had been in for almost close to an hour. She sat down and stretched. Ginny turned and looked at her, "Why don't you try forgetting you have lungs?"
"What?" Both of the other girls spoke at the same time.
"Hermione said that when frogs are in the water they don't use their lungs at all, why don't you try connecting with your inner frog and forget you have lungs and literally try to breathe through your skin?" The redheaded girl looked up at her from her stoop next to the bath tub.
Bridget held her hands up in surrender, "Worth a shot." She sat down on the tile, still wanting a break from the water and closed her eyes and concentrated, "Connect with my inner frog."
She wasn't sure what she was doing, she just tried to imagine having amphibious skin and webbed hands, she tried to picture herself with smaller lungs and spending more than an hour under water without any air. Bridget wasn't sure how long she had sat there, but when she finally opened her eyes the girls were looking at her wide eyed, "What?"
"Mirror." Ginny pointed, Hermione unable to speak.
Bridget got up and walked over to the mirror and couldn't help but gasp. Her eyes were as large as the entire socket, and her cheeks and forehead had taken on a slight green tint with a small black outline around them. She lifted her hand to touch one of the colored spots and was surprised to see that there were small webs between her fingers and they two had a green tint, along with spots going up her arm and all the way down to her legs. She turned around to look back at her friends, "Yeah I'm pretty sure I'm going to get asked some questions."
"That is so cool." Ginny repeated for at least the fifth time since they had told her.
"Time to test it I guess." Bridget said stepping foot in the water and when she did she felt her lungs begin to fill. She dipped her body all the way under and grabbed onto the base pipes of the bath so she wouldn't float back up and was surprised when she could breathe without a problem. She laughed at herself and got a bit scared when no air came out but then she remembered she was breathing though her skin. She stayed in the water until she couldn't stand the boredom any longer and resurfaced.
"Two hours and forty three minutes." Hermione smiled at her.
"Yeah, I even went and got us snacks." Ginny said handing Bridget a towel and signaling the sweets laid out on the floor, "To celebrate."
"Tell me you didn't get them from Fred and George." She laughed with a large smiled wrapping the towel tight around her. She noticed all of the green was gone from her skin and she wondered how long she would have to concentrate on it before the second task.
Ginny scoffed, "God no, do you think I'm daft!"
The three girls laughed and when the bell rang nine they knew they needed to be heading back since they were already going to be late for curfew. When they returned Fred and George were making jokes while Harry and Ron played chess. Fred looked up at the girls when they returned, "Why were you gone three hours and only Bridget's hair is wet?"
"We were testing to see if there was anything we knew that could make someone breathe under water for an hour." Ginny spoke up first, knowing that Bridget probably didn't want to explain her back ground this late at night with as many people in the common room as there were.
"Figure anything out?" Harry looked at them hopeful.
Hermione sighed, "Lets just say we still need to go to the library tomorrow."
"Great." Ron groaned, "More homework and it doesn't even give me a grade."
"It keeps your two friends alive." Bridget glared at him then stated she was going to go upstairs and dry her hair. When she returned, Hermione was sitting in a chair reading and Harry, Ron and Ginny had all retired to their rooms for the night. Only a few people were in the common room and they were all getting ready to head up to their rooms for the night. Fred and George were sitting on the couch facing each other, each with books in their laps. She leaned over the couch, "Ah and what is it that has the brilliant Fred and George Weasley studying?"
She leaned and picked up the book from Georges lap and laughed, "Ah, charms, so we aren't studying then?"
"Not for class anyhow." Fred said closing his book looking at her as she bent down and moved the books from the center of the couch then proceeded to hop over the back and sit in between the two.
"You two are masters at charms, you don't need to worry about the business." She smiled at them.
"Well we have to worry about the investor aspect." George rubbed his eyes.
"I don't like you two being serious. It isn't normal." Bridget looked from one to the other, "I'll invest."
"What?" They both said at the same time.
"I have all of my families money, orphan and unknown brother remember?"
"Bridge we can't ask you to do that." George placed a hand on her lap.
"You aren't, I'm offering." She smiled at him, "I think it's a good business idea."
"But what if something happens and you need it?" Fred leaned closer to her.
"Okay how about this, you two keep working on prototype products and see how interested people are in buying them and if it's a decent success by the time you two graduate, I'll invest." She watched as they thought about it for a moment.
"I dunno, still doesn't feel right." George said deep in thought.
"Then you'll pay me back, with two percent interest." She offered.
"Now that sounds like a deal Georgie." Fred looked at him with a large grin.
George looked up at his brother and girlfriend smiling widely at him, trying to convince him it was a good idea, which it was he just didn't feel right about taking said girlfriends money. Finally he let out a sigh, "Four percent interest and you have a deal."
"Okay, whatever." She laughed and they all shook hands. Fred looked around and noticed only Hermione was left in the common room.
"Well I think I'm off to bed." Fred picked up his things and headed for the stairs and yelled back to them, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
"Which isn't a lot." Hermione added throwing her bag over her shoulder, "See you in the morning Bridget."
"Well if they don't know how to be obvious, then I don't know what that was." Bridget laughed.
"I'm okay with it." George said leaning down to kiss her. They rarely had any time to themselves and Fred and Hermione always knew when it was time to give them some. When he pulled back he paused for a moment nuzzling his nose to hers then swiftly pulled her on to his lap, "So what happens if you can't figure out how to breathe under water for an hour."
She looked away, knowing now that she could but Harry couldn't, and she didn't know how that would work if they didn't find anything, "I don't know."
"I mean there's the bubble headed charm but you don't two don't have enough time to practice that even with as good as you are." He shifted getting comfortable, "Don't want to risk it becoming unstable without knowing how deep you'll be."
"Yeah." She said, glad knowing there was at least an option, "But let's not talk about the tournament, it's all that's been going through my head the past few days."
"Alright then." He smiled then flipped her over on the couch laying on top of her, "How about we talk about you wanting to invest in our business."
"I thought we just did!" She laughed playfully shoving him.
"Yeah we did but I want to make sure that you mean it and you aren't just doing it because of me."
"No. I think it's a good idea." She said playing with the fabric of his shirt, "I mean look at how well Zonkos does and they aren't even in a much trafficked area."
"This is true." He smiled at her.
"And you two are coming up with genius original ideas." She looked up at him, "And I feel like if I were to be an investor that would put me in a very good place financially when I finish school."
"Me too." He smiled kissing her again. This time she held him there and wrapped an arm around his neck. George tangled a hand in her hair and she could feel him trying to wrap his arm around her waist so she arched her back so he could get his hand in between her and the couch, and when her chest touched his she heard him take in a sharp breath. When she realized what had happened she gently broke the kiss.
"Sorry." She shyly laughed with a blush across her cheeks.
"Oh that was nothing to apologize over, just not something I expected." He grinned at her, "Which reminds me I wanted to talk to you about something."
"Okay." She said a little worried, either something good was about to be said, or she was about to become a tester and investor in their business.
"I was thinking that I don't want to take this too fast." He looked down at her, "I want to wait until at least we're both seventeen…to go…you know…all the way."
She blushed at the fact that he was even thinking of that far ahead with her. She nodded with a laugh, "That's fine."
"Why are you laughing?" He tried to pout.
"Because the normally so confident and outgoing George Weasley had a problem spitting out the phrase all the way." Saying it made her laugh even more.
"Well just saying the phrase when it refers to you is a lot for a man to handle." He grinned.
"Ah, there's my George." She smiled as she pulled him down for another kiss. They laid on the couch kissing and talking for another hour until she yawned and he said that she needed to get her rest, doubting she would get much the next night and she agreed despite wanting to spend more time with him.
The next day Bridget was on her way to the library and as she was walking down the stairs, Fred and George were walking up them. George pulled her to the side in an empty corridor and gave her a swift kiss, "I just wanted to wish you luck in case I didn't get the chance to see you tomorrow."
"Yeah you'll be busy taking bets." She laughed.
"And punching anyone who bets against you." He gave her a mischievous smile.
"Well that would mess up the odds now wouldn't it?" She laughed again.
George pondered something for a moment, "Have you ever thought about being an accountant? Perhaps mine and Fred's? Because you seem to know a lot about this stuff."
"I'll think about it, I don't want to get involved too much in your dreams."
"Oh trust me you are already very involved in my dreams." George leaned back down to kiss her, sandwiching her in between the wall and his body. She could feel all of his muscles from Quidditch and thanked god for beaters. Even though he knew that she was more than likely on her way to the library to meet up with the others, he held her there, not wanting to let her go, but they were interrupted by a voice.
"Ms. Faltey, Mr. Weasley. That is not very appropriate behavior." Their heads snapped to the end of the corridor where Professor McGonagall stood looking at them. George was shocked at how fast Bridget was able to move away from him and looked between the two women. McGonagall addressed them again, "Mr. Weasley, I'll speak to you later. Ms. Faltey a word?"
"Yes ma'am." Bridget said not even looking back at him to follow the woman, George knew if it had been anyone else Bridget wouldn't have cared really but he guessed since McGonagall was head of their house she was someone that Bridget should listen to and respect explicitly.
Bridget followed McGonagall to her office and sat down in the chair that was offered. The older woman handed her a cup of pumpkin juice and she accepted and waited for the woman to speak and after she had poured herself a glass she did, "Bridget have you figured out the clue yet?"
"Yeah, we know that it's an hour looking for something in the black lake." She said thankful that the subject wasn't her and George, "But the problem is finding a way for Harry to breathe under water for an hour."
"So you have a way then?" McGonagall peered over her cup.
"Yeah, my dad he was part frog." Bridget explained about the night before.
"Yes, I forgot Patrick was more on the reptilian side." Her aunt had a sound of slight disgust in her voice.
"Hey he made up for it when it counted." She pointed out.
"Yes, well I'll let you be on your way to the library." The older woman said and Bridget stood up gathering her things to head out the door, "Oh and Bridget, about Mr. Weasley."
Bridget turned, ready for the worst but instead her aunt wore a smile, "Well done."
She laughed as she walked out the door then heard the Professor walk out of her office heading towards the common room and remembered that she had wanted to talk to George as well and became worried about what the woman would say to her boyfriend. Bridget just shook her head and headed for the library.
As she, Harry, and Neville rode the boats to the platforms there was no sign of Ron, Hermione, or George. Fred had even asked her if she had seen him and it just added to her anxiety about the task. She was focusing on recreating what she had done in the bathroom, because they had only managed to get enough gillyweed for Harry.
He had been pestering her about how she was going to be able to breathe and she would just respond, "I'll explain later."
By the time she had reached the platform and was lined up with the others she was sure that when she hit the water she would be ready. Dumbledore announced that since she and Harry were on the same team and had gotten to work together last round they would be timed separately then the two would be averaged. Cedric nudged her and she looked at him as he leaned down to speak, "You're going to be okay doing this right?"
"Yeah, it's a part of me." She shrugged, "Plus I've been preparing since the docks."
"Okay good." He said before the cannon went off.
Once it shot off she jumped off of the platform and as her body submerged in the water she felt air enter her body and she could see clearly in the murky water. She looked around and saw Harry looking at his hands and feeling his new gills. Watched as he smiled and did a flip in the air when he came back down they began swimming and that's when he noticed the change in her physique.
"You really have some explaining to do." He said and she nodded with a laugh. They swam through the seaweed and finally came upon five bodies floating in the water. They looked at the five and knew that they were each meant to take one.
She swam over to George and knew exactly what McGonagall had wanted to talk to him about. Bridget looked at Harry and noticed his hesitation, "What's wrong?"
"Ron or Hermione? I can only take one." Harry informed her after the merperson had almost attacked him.
"What do you want to do?" She asked.
"You take George up, be first and I'll be up soon."
"Okay." She said gabbing Georges arm, "Remember Harry, you don't have a lot of time."
He nodded and watched her ascend to the surface. When she broke she immediately lost her frog skin and she and George swam over to the platform. She looked and saw Fleur sitting there now franticly looking in the water, the little girl must have been hers.
Cedric was the next one up with Cho and Bridget looked at the clock. She reached a hand out to Cedric to help him out of the water, "Harry?"
"He was still down there, he looked like he wasn't sure what to do." Cedric looked into the water with her.
"That's because he doesn't." She murmured then waited and watched as Vicktor and Hermione came up. She knew that Harry should be up soon, there was less than five minutes and she knew that the gillyweed would be wearing off soon.
George had his arm around her shoulders and Hermione and Cedric were next to her while she stared into the lake. When Ron and Fleurs little sister broke the surface but Harry didn't, she knew something was wrong. She looked at Cedric, "How's your throwing arm?"
"Great." He replied.
"Good." She said throwing her towel to the side and backing up a few steps, "Give me a burst."
He nodded and put his hands down low for her and she broke out into a full run and jumped her feet landing in his hands and he thrust her into the air, giving her more momentum when she broke into the water. Cedric could tell when he gave her energy she hadn't had enough time to prepare and she knew it to the moment she broke into the water, breathing wasn't as easy this time, it was as if she had just gotten done running ten miles, but she swam as hard as she could reaching for Harry.
He looked up and saw her reaching for him and he did all he could to reach back. She pulled him up to where her arm was around his waist and tried to swim back up but she didn't have the air. Bridget saw his wand in his hand and she pulled it into hers, but knew it wouldn't work as well so she really had to concentrate as the world began to go blurry and pointed up muttering, "Ascendio."
She and Harry went flying onto the platform and he was still wrapped in her arm and she gave him a hit to his back and he began coughing up water. She was having a hard time catching her breath and Cedric and George rushed to her side with more towels. Cedric spoke first, "I'm beginning to think you might be mental."
"That's been an ongoing debate for years." She laughed with a cough.
"You weren't ready for that! You could have died!" He tried to reprimand her but he was to relieved that she was alright.
"I'm alive. That's all that's really important right now." She smiled.
George smiled at that too, "I can agree with that."
Dumbledore got up to announce that even though Bridget came up first her time averaged with Harrys meant that Cedric won and she gave him a pat on the back as he celebrated. Then Dumbledore went on to explain that Harry's will to save all the hostages and Bridgets bravery to jump back into the water to save him they were getting second place. Everyone around them celebrated and they just leaned on to each other for support as they laughed and embraced.
On the boat ride back it was Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George and Bridget and she now had to explain about being a Primal. She kept glancing at George who wasn't looking at her and she was scared to know what he would do now knowing about her family background. Everyone else was right along with Ginny on it being awesome and she then explained how it wasn't. When they got back to shore Harry went off with Barty Crouch and the rest of them began the walk back to the castle.
All those that had been in the water went to go and change and she wished she could have gone with George to be able to speak with him. When she got done and went out her door she was met by George right outside the door, "A Primal?!"
"Yeah." She said quietly.
"Why didn't you tell me?" His voice somewhat loud.
"We don't like to talk about it, would you want to go around advertising it?" She thought about it for a moment, "Never mind don't answer that."
"You told Hermione." He said.
"Yeah back during summer after I had just found out, she's my best friend!"
"And I'm your boyfriend!"
She huffed, "I wanted to tell you but how exactly do you just bring something like that up? 'Oh by the way I'm part of an ancient group of families that screwed up and tried to bond with animals to get their benefits.'?"
George stopped for a moment, realizing that yes that would have been something hard to bring up in conversation, but she still should have told him, "Its been two months though! How could you not have said anything?"
"I'm sorry! Do you want to know everything about me in a day? I'm still learning about what the hell this is that I'm going through!" She held her arms out questioning and George just gave her a look saying that he did want to know, "You know what fine. I was born in Caithess, Scotland where my mothers side of the family was from. My father was a death eater that had begun working for the order once he ask my mom to marry him. When I was five our house in Gillock was attacked when the Death Eaters, who still worked for Voldemort even though he was gone, found our house and my dad died buying my mom, brother and I time to escape. We moved to America hoping that they wouldn't follow us there and when I was eight and my brother of fifteen left to go god knows where and my mother just let him go. A year or so later my mom is chasing my up the stairs battling death eaters once again who were all yelling 'if you just give us the girl we'll go away.' And when your dad returned to the house my mom was laying there dead.
Then I got thrown into to a completely different culture since I had spent the majority of my cognitive life in America and when I was fourteen I hit the weirdest kid of puberty a person can and am told that on both sides of my family I have animals inside me and I have no one to else that knows whats going on and the people who do don't want anything to do with me because I went through the process so much younger than any of them did so I'm literally all alone in this. So I'm sorry if I didn't want to tell you because most days I even hate saying it to myself!"
George just stood there looking at her, not knowing what to say and she waited for him to say something, but when his eyes moved away from hers she couldn't just stand there anymore, she turned to head down the stairs, "Forget it."
He cursed at himself, not knowing what to do. He didn't want her to just walk away, he wanted her in his arms. By the time he had gotten his feet to move and was down stairs she was long gone with Hermione and Ron. Fred grinned at him, "Well she left in a huff. Wonder why?"
"Shut it." George spit at him.
"Ya didn't chase after her mate, you always have to chase after them, but no now she's already left and you have to wait until her return before you can plead on your knees for forgiveness and since you didn't chase her then you're going to have a lot of pleading to do, and doing it on your knees would probably be best." Fred smiled at him with a laugh or two.
"I said shut it!" George snapped and looked at the door then turned around and went up to his room.