A/N: Hello everyone! Welcome back to another fic :) Between work and my Frightober series on YouTube this month, I haven't had any mental acuity these past few weeks. Where has the time gone?!

This one is for Round 7 of The Houses Competition, where I'm in Ravenclaw House and writing for Potions. This competition, we have to write a drabble (500-1000 words) as well as a standard (1000-3000 words). This fic is the Drabble of the two. Prompts are listed below.

Thank you kindly to HadrianPeverellBlack, and BeaWrites for the beta!

Word Count: 570

Disclaimers/Warnings: underwater; hostage

Summary: Hermione wakes up unsure of where she is. Why is she wet? And then she remembers it's the Second Task.

Prompts:

The Houses Competition Y10 R7

[Location] The Black Lake

"Into the Lake"

Darkness surrounded her. Hermione shivered at the icy feeling encompassing her, despite the pressure keeping her in place. Numbness seeped into her limbs, and it took great effort for her to even notice that she still had fingers and toes. She couldn't feel anything.

Hermione floated in place, something tight and slimy around her ankle. She couldn't move, her muscles tightly seized up as if caught in a full-body bind.

Or petrified.

This feeling was the same as her second year. Her eyes stayed firmly glued shut, but she could hear a strange echoing in her ears. There was nothing to smell, not even the anti-septic scent often associated with the too clean infirmary that she had spent several months in. No, this wasn't like when she was petrified. When she had been stuck as a statue for those long four months, with nothing to occupy her mind except the comings and goings of the Infirmary, Hermione thought she would have gone insane. Harry had visited her at the end of each day, recapping their classes and explaining the homework.

He had been a blessing in disguise to her.

Harry. Her brother in all but blood.

"Hermione!"

She could have sworn she heard him just now, albeit muffled, as if they were underwater. Where was he?

Where was she?

She tried to remember back to last night. She had been doing last minute prep for Harry in the library. Today was the day of the Second Task. They had been researching the Black Lake when she and Ron had been summoned to Professor McGonagall's office…

Oh no…

No, they told her the enchantment would last until her head broke the surface of the water! Why was she conscious now? Her body was still petrified, and if her supposition was correct, she was tied to the lake bed with seaweed.

"She's my friend too!"

That WAS Harry! Relief filled Hermione at the thought that he was okay and made it to the hostages okay.

There was a tugging at her ankle, and then a greater feeling of weightlessness. A strong arm wrapped around her waist, and Hermione couldn't help but wait anxiously to be brought to the surface.

Her first breath of air was more of a gasp as the enchantment freezing her faded. Hermione wrapped her arms around Viktor's neck, and guilt immediately hit her, even as he reversed the partial human transfiguration he had done.

She hadn't thought of him at all while she was down there.

"Where's Harry?" she asked him. He gave her a confused look. "My brother, did you see him?" The momentary relief on Viktor's face confused her, but his arm tightened around her waist as he began to swim them to the shore where the tournament organizers waited.

"He is strong. He stayed to make sure all hostages stayed safe," Viktor replied. Hermione clung to Viktor as he swam, letting him do his thing, letting out a watery laugh.

"He has such a saving-people thing."

Viktor hummed in response. All too soon, he hauled Hermione out of the water and onto the docks where Madam Pomfrey waited with heat-charmed blankets, before pulling himself out. Hermione couldn't help it as she rested against Viktor, waiting for the other Champions to surface.

She smiled.

"Thank you for saving me."

Viktor, in a rare display of emotion, rested his cheek on the top of her head.

"Always."