The chapter where the second task truly takes place. It begins a few hours before the end of the previous chapter. You will notice that I chose to follow some details from the movie rather than the book as to how the Second Task starts.
HARRY XXX
"Susan. Don't bring anything with you. It's useless."
Harry was exhausted. All these days trying to find something for the second task without success wore him down. He also felt very tense, at the idea that he would very likely arrive to the Black Lake tomorrow without a way to go down. Still, he was still awake enough to tell that to his girlfriend.
"What do you mean? I could still find something tonight. I'm not going to abandon that close to the second task," she protested, while not raising the voice. Susan seldom raised her voice, unlike Hermione.
"Even if you find something, you won't be able to tell me before tomorrow morning. It will be too late to learn a new spell," he insisted. He didn't want her to lose anymore time for a lost cause. She already did more than he would ever have expected from her.
"We cannot be sure of that. Anyway, there are tons of books you cannot bring with you, you and Ron. Furthermore… What is the password of your common room?"
"What?" He didn't expect such a question.
"Give me the password to your common room. If I find, I'll come and tell you. Even if you're in your dormitory, I'll be able to come and see you. Hermione told me that girls are not stopped from entering boys' dormitories, just like in Hufflepuff."
"We cannot travel in the corridors at night," he blurted.
"So what? I would rather take the risk of getting a detention if it can help you get through this task alive."
She looked pretty determined. Harry didn't want her to have problems because of him. At the same time, it was true that he wouldn't hesitate himself to break the rules in order to find something by tomorrow morning. And he also needed to head for the Gryffindor Tower right away to continue their research. So he gave in.
"Okay. The password is Banana Fritters."
"Thank you. Bye."
She kissed him quickly on the lips. It didn't feel strange this time. Before he could think about it further, Ron patted his shoulder, and they both headed out of the library towards their own common room.
The journey to the Gryffindor Tower was silent. Harry was lost in his thoughts, trying not only to think about any possible way they may not have thought about to breathe under water. But they even looked at potions without results. At the same time, he thought of Susan. Students were not supposed to enter a common room that wasn't the one of their house. If Susan was ever found there, in the middle of the night furthermore, she could have big troubles. At least, unlike what she said, they would probably never catch her in the boys' dormitory. Harry didn't feel he would go there tonight to sleep. He felt this would be a night with his nose buried into books, his last chance to find something to get through the second task.
His thoughts wandered back to Susan. All of a sudden, he wished their kiss had lasted longer. Harry had enjoyed their first kiss at Hogsmeade. It had been different from his previous experience with Parvati. While Parvati almost jumped on him to kiss him passionately and took the reins most of the time, Susan was shy, hesitant. And truth be told, Harry had liked that, just kissing by the tips of their lips for who knew how long. The kisses they tried to share afterwards had been clunky at best, with Harry not really knowing what to do. He was uncertain when it came to kissing a girl in public. He never did that before. And Susan didn't seem to know what to do either. Except about a moment ago. It had seemed perfect in comparison to their recent attempts.
When they got into the common room, he and Ron, both exhausted, went through the books they had. At some moment, he heard Ron snoring. He thought about waking him up, but he decided against it. He wasn't sure that Ron could help anyway, in his state. He was even worse than for Harry or Hermione and Susan before they left. Harry went through all the remaining books they had brought, to no result. When he was done, he hid his face into his hands. It was over.
He thought about Susan, in the Hufflepuff common room, going through other books in the vain attempt to find a solution. Harry was glad to a certain extent that she found nothing. She must not have found anything, since she never appeared through the portrait hole. At least, she would not get into trouble because of him.
He thought of how their relationship had been over the five last weeks. Except their visit at Hogsmeade when they kissed for the first time and actually began to date, they didn't really have any quality time. When he went to the library that Friday before the weekend in the village, Harry had hoped he could at least solve one of the things that troubled his mind. But he got the impression that he only made it even more complicated. He and Susan spent most of their time together either during lessons or completing their homework or searching for a way for him to survive the second task. This was not really how he pictured a relationship. It was unfair, including for Susan, who wasted her time trying to find a spell or potion allowing someone to breathe under freezing water. She must not have a very good opinion of him right now, and he wouldn't blame her for that.
Ron told him, after Harry announced him and Hermione that he and Susan were dating, while they were heading back to the Gryffindor common room and that Hermione had stayed behind, that he wasn't sure about Harry's relationship with Susan. He said he didn't see many common points between them. It may be true, to a certain extent. Harry had to admit that he was beginning to have doubts. Looking at Susan over these last few days, uselessly buried in books in the vain hope to help him, he thought that maybe it would be better to end things there. Didn't he break up with Parvati because things were not going well between them and because he still had feelings for Cho? He still felt something for the girl he failed to invite to the ball. His heart bumped each time he saw her, and also each time he heard about her. And he didn't want to hurt Susan, even less than Parvati, so maybe that would be the best thing to do. Maybe he should talk to her about it once the second task would be over.
The second task. It was over midnight now. Only a few hours separated him from his utter failure. Why didn't he follow Cedric's advice sooner? He would have had more time to find something to breathe under water. Harry imagined the mockeries and disappointed looks of everyone when he would tell them he couldn't perform the task.
However, this created a new resolve in Harry. He wouldn't abandon like that. Maybe he was condemned to fail at this task, but at least he would try. So he stood up, frightening Crookshanks who had cuddled in Ron's lap, although this didn't wake him up. Harry wouldn't wake Ron up. It was to him to accomplish this task, and he would try to get through it until the very end. He went to the dormitory, silently seized his Invisibility Cloak and left the Gryffindor Tower to go to the library.
He didn't know how many books he read. What he knew was that he fell asleep on a dusty tome, just like Ron, in the middle of the night, at one of the library's tables, and that he made a pretty disturbing dream of a siren keeping his Firebolt far away while he drowned into the water of the Prefects' bathroom. He only slowly became conscious of it as someone poked him in the side. He asked the siren to stop poking him.
"Dobby must poke Harry Potter, sir. He must wake up!"
To this, Harry did wake up, still in the library, and with a strange creature who had huge green balls as eyes, bats as ears, and a pencil as a nose. Or so he thought before he realized these were only the shapes of his features, which he recognized immediately from two years ago.
"Dobby!"
The elf was just the same as two years ago. Harry didn't get what he was doing here. The last time he saw the elf, he ordered Lucius Malfoy to free him. Then he…
"Harry Potter needs to hurry!" the house-elf he said with his high-pitched voice. "The second task starts in twenty minutes, and Harry Potter must…"
"Twenty minutes!" Harry almost strangled himself on these words. He looked at his watch. Dobby was right. Whatever questions had come to his mind as to what Dobby was doing here vanished instantly.
"Hurry, Harry Potter!" the house-elf kept insisting. "You are supposed to be down by the lake with the other champions, sir!"
"It's too late, Dobby," Harry said, not moving from his chair. "I'm not doing the task." This was over. He had no way to plunging into the lake and holding his breath for an hour. "I don't know how…"
"Harry Potter will do the task," the elf said. "Dobby knew Harry Potter had not found the right book, so Dobby did it for him."
"What?" Harry didn't understand. "You don't even know what the second task is…"
"Dobby knows, sir! Harry Potter has to go into the lake to bring back who is the most precious to him from the merpeople."
"I know, Dobby, but I can't…" Harry began, irritated.
"For that, Harry Potter must eat this, sir!"
He put his hands into his pockets. Harry was slightly surprised that Dobby had pockets. In fact, he was slightly surprised by his appearance, as he now wore socks, shirts, a jacket and a tie, along with a hat on his head. But what surprised and disgusted Harry especially was when he took out something green and grey, that looked like a ball of bundled rat's tails, and handed it to Harry.
"What is that?" Harry asked.
"Gillyweed, sir! It will make Harry Potter breathe underwater, sir! You must eat it right before you go into the lake."
"Are you sure about this?"
The last time Harry saw Dobby was during his second year. Harry recovered enough from his initial surprise to remember that Dobby was now working in the kitchens of the castle with other elves, but he didn't forget that the last times Dobby tried to help him, he almost couldn't get to Hogwarts for his second year, then was gravely injured by a rogue Bludger. The definition of helping was quite strange for this elf.
"Dobby is quite sure, sir!" the elf squeaked. He looked certain, but he had also looked certain when he sent Harry to the infirmary with the bones in his right arm totally crushed. "Dobby hears things, sir. He is a house-elf. He goes all over the castle as he lights the fires and mops the floors. Dobby heard Professor McGonagall and Professor Moody in the staff room, talking about the next task. Dobby cannot let Harry Potter lose his bones."
Harry frowned at that confused. "My bones? What are you talking about?"
To his knowledge, Harry never owned a collection of bones. He wasn't Snape who was keeping all kinds of strange and ugly things within jars in his office. And if he ever happened to own one, it would certainly not be at the bottom of the Black Lake, but rather at the bottom of his list of valuable possessions. Unless Dobby was talking about the bones in his body. For a moment, Harry irrationally panicked at the idea that some of them were missing, thinking about how Dobby broke a few of them two years ago.
"Your bones, Harry Potter. The bones you went to the Yule Ball with. Dobby remembers very well. He's the one who prepared your dinners on Christmas."
Harry was even more horrified than with his original and irrational thought. "You mean… Bones? Susan Bones?" Dobby nodded. "They've got Susan?"
"The thing Harry Potter will miss most, sir!"
Harry didn't need more time to react. He grabbed the Gillyweed from Dobby's hands and rushed outside the library.
"Good luck, Harry Potter!" the small elf squeaked behind him, but Harry was already far away. He couldn't give a damn about Dobby or anything right now. The words of the song coming out of the egg were clearer than ever in his mind.
Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching, ponder this:
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour, the prospect's black
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.
Everything made sense now as he ran across the corridors. The song never referred to an object or a possession that he owned. He barely gave any thought to it in the past few weeks, for he focused on finding a way to get under water. What the merpeople would take never looked important to him. But now, he was cursing himself internally, thinking how stupid he was. He never actually considered that they could be kidnapping someone. We've taken what you'll sorely miss. Why didn't he think about that possibility? It wasn't a broomstick or an Invisibility cloak or a wand or any object that Harry would miss the most. It was the people he cared about, the people he loved that he would miss the most. His mother, his godfather, his best friends… his girlfriend.
He was blaming himself for ever asking her to date him now. He brought her into all of this. But this thought was nothing when compared to the new determination that filled him and which made him push away everyone on his path. In this moment, he didn't care that it was Dobby who gave him the strange plant in his palm. To save Susan, he was ready to do everything.
He crossed the Entrance Hall, where a few late people were heading towards the grounds. Harry arrived to the shores of the lake, stopping in a slide in front of the judges and the other three champions who had already arrived.
"Ah, Harry. Here you are," Dumbledore said pleasantly, as if he was talking about the weather.
"Where have you been? The task is about to begin," Percy said. It seemed that Bartemius Crouch was absent once again.
"Now, now, Percy. Let him catch his breath," Bagman said. He looked quite happy and relieved to see Harry, which wasn't the case of Madame Maxime, Karkaroff, and Fleur. Krum seemed too lost in his own thoughts, and Cedric was smiling tensely. The three of them wore swimsuits.
"You can catch your breath, Harry, but you need to change fast. Here." Dumbledore showed him a small cabin.
Harry went inside. A red and black swimsuit with the crest of Gryffindor on it was waiting for him. His name was written in gold on the back. He put it very quickly, leaving his clothes behind while he kept the Gillyweed into his closed fist.
When Harry came out, they were installing the champions and the judges into small boats. They were similar to those he used three years ago to cross the Black Lake as he came for the first time at Hogwarts.
"This way, Potter," Professor McGonagall instructed him.
He took place with her in one of the boats that she indicated. Cedric was installed with Professor Sprout, the Head of his own house. Krum was with Karkaroff and Fleur was with Madame Maxime. As for Dumbledore, Bagman and Percy, they occupied a fifth boat.
"FORWARD!"
Dumbledore said in a very clear voice, and the five boats crawled forward. There were other isolated small boats around them, but the five that transported the judges and the champions occupied some kind of honor place as they headed together, in parallel, towards the heart of the Lake.
"Ready, Potter?" McGonagall asked him.
"Yes. I guess," he responded.
He noticed that she was looking at his closed fist. Harry tried to hide it. "I don't know how you got your hands on that, and I don't want to know. But I'm glad you did."
Harry was afraid for a moment. Could Professor McGonagall guess that Dobby spied on her while she discussed with Moody and that he helped Harry? It was better to not tell her anything.
As they advanced on the lake, Harry got the impression that it was getting colder by the minute. He rubbed his arms in the hope of generating some heat. He looked into the water, now free of ice, but clearly still icy. He didn't expect it would get warmer in its depth. Feeling the viscous plant into his hand, Harry was suddenly afraid that it wouldn't work. What if it had other effects than those Dobby talked to him about? Was the elf reliable? What if he died after eating this plant, or if its effects were so different that Harry could not go deep into the lake? What would happen to Susan? Looking at the darkness below him, he wondered where she was right now. If the merpeople kidnapped her, where were they holding her prisoner? How? Was she conscious as the boat calmly drifted towards the heart of the Black Lake?
Harry soon distinguished three tall wooden towers, and as they kept approaching, he soon saw lots of people standing on these towers. The boats of the champions headed towards the middle tower as the crowd welcomed them with cheers. Harry, however, was just as deaf to those cheers as he had been to those during the first task. For now, all that mattered to him was to get Susan and bring her back. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her because of him. In fact, he already couldn't forgive himself for unwillingly bringing her into all this.
The boats approached the middle tower. One by one, judges and champions climbed onto the wooden floor of the tower. Harry received several claps on the shoulder by many people, to which he remained indifferent as he took place with Fleur, Krum and Cedric near a place where Harry guessed they would have to jump from.
Harry heard Ludo Bagman announcing something, with words that Harry barely registered. The only ones that he heard clearly were the last.
"They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then." Harry braced instinctively. "One… Two… THREE!"
Without thinking, Harry put the Gillyweed into his mouth and jumped into the cold water.
The whistle, the cheers of the crowd, everything vanished the instant he entered the water. It was so icy that he had the impression that his skin was burned. All the while, he was forcing himself to swallow the sticky plant Dobby gave him. He couldn't breathe. He started convulsing, but despite the violent protest of his lungs, he refused to breathe. Until he couldn't hold it back.
To his great surprise, this brought him great relief. He felt as though he just got a breathe of fresh air. He breathed again, and this did him even more good. The water didn't feel cold anymore. It felt pleasantly cool now. He brought his hand to his head, only to realize that they had become webbed. His feet were webbed as well when he looked at them. It was working. Harry could hardly believe it, but Dobby seemed to have really helped him this time. This became even more evident as Harry swam, realizing how easy it felt, and also how his vision was improved. He remembered that he only had one hour, and he dived down.
Harry had learned how to swim when he was very young, but the speed and easiness he reached thanks to the Gillyweed were impressive and could not compare to his earlier experiences. Despite this, he first only met water as he plunged deep into the depth of the Black Lake, the darkness increasing as he travelled deeper into the body of water. Despite his improved vision, he couldn't see very far in front of him. Small fishes swam past him from time to time. Luckily enough, there was no sign of the giant squid.
Then he began to meet rocks and long weeds. He had reached the bottom of the lake, but it kept going down ahead of him. Harry felt that he should follow this natural path. Something was telling him that the merpeople were in the deepest regions of the Black Lake. He reached large forests of weed, both black and green, and rushed through them, pushing aside the marine leaves in front of him. He advanced relatively fast to his taste. It looked easy. Too easy.
This came to an end when something grabbed Harry by the leg. He immediately turned to see what or who grabbed him. Harry recognized immediately a Grindylow, the water demon Remus taught them about last year, emerging from the weeds. Harry saw one while visiting Remus in his office, and they followed lessons about this creature, who had a horn and a habit of grabbing people who got near them. How could he have forgotten that these creatures settled in weed beds?
Without thinking whether this would work under water, Harry drew his wand.
"Relashio!"
The jet of boiling water that emerged from his wand forced the Grindylow away, and Harry swam in the opposite direction as quickly as he could. He didn't make a few meters before another Grindylow brushed his ankle, without managing to get a hold. Harry quickened his pace further and threw Revulsion Jinxes around him regularly to deter any unwanted marine companion.
Harry was relieved when he got out of the weed forest. It would be better to avoid them from now on. He resumed his swimming, getting farther and deeper into the lake.
Avoiding the weed forests made it more complicated and longer, but Harry kept going down, only meeting two or three more adventurous Grindylows who quickly regretted trying to attack him. He didn't meet anything more dangerous. And then, after a very long time, he began to hear the same song he heard for the first time in the Prefects' bathroom three weeks ago.
Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
Harry launched forward, his heart beating fast. He came upon a large stone with paintings that showed what looked like to be merpeople chasing a creature similar to the giant squid.
And while you're searching, ponder this:
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
The song was even more scary under the lake. Following it, Harry soon met a set of stones which were arranged in too much a linear fashion to have occurred naturally. Weeds were arranged around these rocks like gardens, and he even saw a Grindylow chained to the ground, like some kind of dog. From inside these houses, for they had to be houses, strange marine beings looked at him as he travelled through what had to be an alley for them.
The merpeople did not look at all like the siren painted in the Prefects' bathroom. They had grey skin, long green hair, yellow eyes and broken teeth. The idea that Muggles had about sirens was clearly wrong.
Harry kept swimming under the watchful eyes of the inhabitants, his wand ready, in case they would attack him. But they didn't. He followed the song that seemed to come from what looked like a village center.
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
In the village center, a high statue rose, which took the shape of a gigantic merperson. Four figures were attached to the tail of the statue.
Harry lunged forward, his wand at the ready in case the merpeople tried to stop him, and he went straight for the red hair floating in the water.
"Susan!"
He tried to scream, but only a large bubble of air came out of his mouth. He approached her unmoving shape, fearing the worst for a moment. He arrived in front of her and cupped her cheeks.
"Susan!" he tried to scream again. She didn't move. She had her eyes closed. However, bubbles of air kept coming out of her mouth.
But past an hour, the prospect's black
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.
It didn't come from the merpeople this time. These lyrics came back to his mind. Susan must have had enough oxygen in her organism to keep her alive for an hour, which a great part was lost now. He had no time to lose.
Susan was attached with weed to the statue. He tried to untie it, to no effect. He kept shooting glares over his shoulder, always expecting the merpeople to attack, but they did nothing. After trying for about a minute to undo the ropes, he gave up. He had to cut them. He thought about using his wand to perform a Severing Charm, but thought better. He remembered how people could cut themselves if they used it inappropriately, and the ropes were too tight around Susan. He couldn't take the risk of harming her. He looked around, searching for anything sharp that would help him cut these ropes. Many of the merpeople around the village center were carrying spears, but they didn't look like they wanted to help anymore than they wished to attack him. Still, he was about to try and ask one of them for help when he noticed rocks on the bottom of the lake. He picked one that seemed particularly sharp and went back to Susan, proceeding to cut the weed.
It required several minutes of hard work, but Harry managed to free Susan of her bonds. She drifted away from the statue, still unmoving, her red hair moving around almost in a Veela fashion, and Harry seized her by the waist. He was about to carry her out of this place when he took a look at the three other hostages.
He stopped in his tracks immediately. The person who was tied next to the place where Susan was an instant ago was Hermione. Then there was Cho Chang, whose sight caused his heart to jump in horror, and finally a little girl. She wasn't older than eight-years-old, and she had silvery hair flying around her face in the water. Of course. Hermione was the person Krum was supposed to save, and Cho had to be Cedric's. The little girl was surely Fleur's sister or someone in her family she cared a lot about. Harry never thought that Fleur could have a sister, and one who was so young.
Harry looked at the three of them, then to Susan. He took his decision immediately. Neither of them looked well.
But past an hour, the prospect's black
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.
Cedric, Krum and Fleur were nowhere to be seen. He couldn't leaver anyone behind. He released his grip on Susan's waist, leaving her drifting to the ground of the lake, as he attacked Hermione's ropes.
He was seized on the spot by several people. Harry fought against their grips, but half a dozen merpeople dragged him by force away from his best friend.
"You take your own hostage," a voice close to his ear said. "Leave the others."
"No way! She's my friend!" he yelled, only producing bubbles of air.
"Your task is to retrieve your own friend. Leave the others," the voice said again, while the others laughed.
How could they say that? Harry struggled to release himself from their grip, but they simply tightened it and kept laughing. He looked desperately at Hermione, at Cho. He didn't want to lose them either. And he couldn't let the little girl here either. She was so young. In the meantime, Susan's body kept drifting to the bottom of the place. He had to get them out of there, all of them. He couldn't just leave with Susan and let the others here to die.
Some excited screeches came to his ears at this moment. The grips of the merpeople lowered and they released him. Harry swam away immediately, and looked around to see what caused this reaction.
Harry never thought he would feel so happy to see Cedric Diggory in his life. He was swimming in his direction, a gigantic bubble around his head. Harry wondered what charm it was and why he didn't find it through his extensive research.
"Got lost!" Cedric said quickly as he arrived at Harry's level. He was in a hurry, and Harry could understand him. "Fleur and Krum are coming now!"
This relieved Harry. He looked around to find back the sharpened stone he used to free Susan and give it to Cedric, not wanting to lose any time, but it proved useless as Cedric brought a small knife which he began to use immediately to free Cho. Harry thought of himself an idiot as Cedric barely needed a minute to free her. Why didn't he bring something like that?
Cedric seized Cho by the arm. Before he moved up, he looked to Harry and tapped his watch on his wrist. Harry nodded as Cedric swam up and disappeared with Cho. Harry remained there, relieved that Cho would be out of danger, but worried for everyone else. He wouldn't leave before he made sure that Hermione and Fleur's sister were carried up to safety as well.
A few minutes later, something looking like a shark. Showed up and swam towards him. Harry then noticed it had a human body. It was Krum. He headed towards Hermione and started cutting the ropes with his teeth. Fearing he might accidentally cut Hermione in half with his large teeth, Harry approached him, patted him on the shoulder, and gave him the sharpened stone.
Krum seized it without saying a word, not that he would have been able to say one, and he cut Hermione's ropes within moments. Then he rose with her and disappeared as well. Only Fleur's sister remained.
Harry waited for Fleur. He waited, and waited, and waited. But she didn't show up. Time was running out. He looked at his watch. It didn't work anymore. The water must have made it useless. He looked to Susan still drifting on the ground. He needed to bring her back to the surface. But he couldn't leave Fleur's sister here. He couldn't leave her to die. He saw the merpeople swimming around him, watching him closely. They wouldn't let Harry get close to the little girl. Well, to hell with that. He drew up his wand, grabbed the sharpened stone that Krum let fall to the ground, and swam towards the little girl. Immediately, a wall of merpeople formed between him and the last hostage who was still tied. Without hesitation, he pointed his wand at them.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
This time, despite no sound coming out either, the merpeople didn't laugh. They looked scared. Maybe they knew as much on magic as the giant quid knew, but Harry couldn't care less.
"I'm counting until three!" he resumed, raising three of his fingers. Seeing them, he wondered whether the fins were not reduced in size, but didn't care at the moment. "One… Two…" He slowly put down two fingers. He was about to put down the last one when the merpeople scattered, giving him free passage. Harry rushed towards the girl and cut the weed as fast as he could. He then seized her by the waist, swam down towards Susan who he also seized at the same place, then swam up to the surface as quickly as he could.
It was way more difficult to swim now. Harry was not only carrying two people with him, but he was also trying to swim upward instead of downwards, and he could only use his feet to push him forward.
He pushed as much as he could, for he knew not much time was left. He knew it because it became more and more difficult for him to breathe. He felt a burning pain to his neck and lungs, and the water was getting colder around him. He was beginning to need more air. He also noticed that his fingers were no longer webbed. His vision was getting blurrier. But the darkness was slowly giving way to some light ahead, and he kept pushing.
Until something grabbed his ankles. He looked down to see two Grindylows after him. And more were coming from the forest of weeds right under him. Harry tried to push them away with his feet, and their grips were too strong. And more of them were coming.
Not thinking, seeing the light up that seemed so close, Harry threw Susan and the little girl up. After he did that, Grindylows were all over him, biting his arms and legs, even trying to get a hold on his head. Harry scrambled to take his wand as he felt his last breath of air leaving his lungs. He finally got hold of it.
"RELASHIO!"
A large wave of heat thundered around him, sending all Grindylows away. Harry looked up and swam up, but he didn't make a single meter up. He felt no force in his arms and legs. His vision was getting blurrier as he felt himself slowly falling into the forest of weed, back into the depth of the ocean, as the light of day was only maybe ten meters up. But he had no force left. He thought about his friends. He thought about his mother he would never see again. He thought about Susan.
The last thing he heard was what sounded like a muffled scream.
"Haaaarrrryyyyy!"
It was the last thing he heard as darkness engulfed him and he raised his right arm one last time towards the surface.
Stay tuned the next chapter that will conclude the Second Task.
Please review.
Next chapter: someone underwater