Oh hai Reader, welcome to the next chapter of Cruel Angel Thesis. I hope you enjoy it as much as I had writing it and now on to the review.
girani4: Thanks, and I thought Sephylon was the Deus Ex Machina of this story. Also yeah, I have finished the OG PAKC and within the year too!
And now story time.
Whether Hagrid was trying to make up for the Blast-Ended Skrewts, or because there were now only two skrewts left, or because he was trying to prove he could do anything that Professor Grubbly-Plank could, they didnt know.
But Hagrid had been continuing her lessons on unicorns ever since he'd returned to work. It turned out that Hagrid knew quite as much about unicorns as he did about monsters, though it was clear that he found their lack of poisonous fangs disappointing.
Today he had managed to capture two unicorn foals. Unlike full-grown unicorns, they were pure gold. Parvati and Lavender went into transports of delight at the sight of them, and even Pansy Parkinson had to work hard to conceal how much she liked them.
"They are so adorable!" Claire whispered softly.
"God." Alex said annoyed, rolling his eyes, "Your such a girl sometimes."
"What do you mean sometimes?" she said insulted.
"You okay. Harry?" Hagrid muttered, moving aside slightly, while most of the others swarmed around the baby unicorns.
"Yeah." Harry said.
"Just nervous, eh?" Hagrid said, clapping a massive hand on his shoulder, so that Harry's knees buckled under its weight, "I'd have bin worried before I saw ya take on that Horntail, but I know now ya can do anything ya set yer mind ter. I'm not worried at all. Yeh're going ter be fine. Got yer clue worked out, haven' ya?"
Harry nodded.
By the evening before the second task. The usual six Gryffindors and the three Beauxbatons witches sat in the library as the sun set outside.
"It's so nice, being all together for a moment." Adri said, leaning back in her seat, "Especially with all these fresh couples having formed."
"Fresh couples?" Neville said curious.
"Yeah! Like Alex and Hermione!" Adri said, earning herself an angry jealous glare from Ron when she mentioned that, "You two are a couple now right?"
Alex and Hermione exchanged a look, before looking to the French witch.
"You know... It's really vague." Alex said, shrugging his shoulders, "Not like Harry and Claire though."
The two looked away from each other, having been sending each other flirtatious looks the entire time.
"What?" Harry said, not having followed the conversation.
"Nothing." Alex said, waving him off.
"Yeah." Adri agreed, waving them off as well, "Just go back to eye fucking each other."
Fleur let out a annoyed groan, trying to read her book as her friend poked her in the side. "I noticed something madame Delacour..." Adri said with a mischievous grin, "You haven't spend a lot of nights in our room."
"It's nothing like that!" Fleur said defensively, "You wouldn't understand."
"I think Adri knows exactly what a boy and a girl do behind closed doors." Amelie said, a slight hint of a smirk on her lips.
"And what would that be?" a voice said.
Harry, Claire, Alex, Ron, Neville, Hermione, Fleur, Adri and Amelie looked up. Professor Jeager had just emerged from behind some bookshelves.
"It's uhm..." Amelie said, looking from the professor and her eye fell on Ron, "Play chess?"
"What're you doing here, professor?" Ron asked.
"I work here, Ron." the professor said, "Anyway, I was looking for Alex, Ron and Miss Lacroix. You are requested in the headmaster's office."
"Why?" Amelie said, looking surprised.
"Can't say, sorry." Jeager said as the three students got up and followed him.
The next day was a chilly but bright morning, the seats that had encircled the dragons' enclosure in November were now ranged along the opposite bank, 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 the judges were sitting at another gold-draped table at the water's edge.
Harry, Claire, Cedric, Krum, Romanova and LeBlanc were beside the judges' table, waiting for the task to begin.
"So, your ready?" Charles said, standing a few feet away from the other champions with Fleur, who was wearing her silver bathing suit under her powder blue robes.
"I am... After what you told me." Fleur said, noticing her boyfriend, as discreetly as possible, left his eyes wonder. "See something you like, professor?"
"Yes." he said bluntly.
"I like it when your honest." she said with a confident smirk, "How about we..."
"Maybe..." Charles said, returning the smirk, "If you win."
"Your on..." she said with a smile.
"Just... Come back safe." he said, turning away but not before whispering into her ear, "My flower."
With a positive shiver going down her body, she walked over to the other champions.
Ludo Bagman was now moving among the champions, spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. Claire was in the middle of the line, between Cedric and Fleur.
"You alright, Claire?" Fleur said concerned.
"I am." Claire said, doing a few warm ups, "You?"
"Never been better." she said.
Bagman pointed his wand at his throat as he had done at the World Cup, 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; Claire cast the Bubble-head charm, one last Warmth Charm over her body and took a dive.
Silence pressed upon her ears as she soared over a strange, dark, foggy landscape. She could only see ten feet around her, so that as she 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. She swam deeper and deeper, out toward the middle of the lake, her eyes wide, staring through the eerily gray-lit water around her to the shadow beyond, where the water became opaque.
Small fish flickered past her like silver darts. Once or twice she thought she saw something larger moving ahead of her, but when she got nearer, she 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, or the giant squid.
Light green weed stretched ahead of her as far as she could see, two feet deep, like a meadow of very overgrown grass. Claire was staring unblinkingly ahead of her, trying to discern shapes through the gloom... and then, without warning, something grabbed hold of her ankle.
Claire twisted her body around and saw a grindylow, a small, horned water demon, poking out of the weed, its long fingers clutched tightly around her's leg, its pointed fangs bared. On first instinct, Claire send a blast of magic, knocking the creature out. Pulling her ankle out of the grindylows grip and swam, as fast as she could, occasionally sending more jets of magic over her shoulder at random; every now and then she felt one of the grindylows snatch at her foot again, and she kicked out, hard, finally, she felt her foot connect with a horned skull.
Claire continued on, the silence pressing harder than ever against her eardrums. She knew he must be even deeper in the lake now, but nothing was moving but the rippling weed, careful to swim a bit higher over the weed to avoid any more grindylows that might be lurking there.
She swam on for what felt like at least twenty minutes. She was passing over vast expanses of black mud now, which swirled murkily as she disturbed the water. Then, at long last, she heard a snatch of haunting mersong.
"An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took..."
Claire 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. Claire 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, Clark saw faces... faces that bore no resemblance at all to the painting of the mermaid in the prefects' bathroom.
The merpeople 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 Claire as she 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.
Claire sped on, staring around, and soon the dwellings became more numerous, there were gardens of weed around some of them, and she even saw a pet grindylow tied to a stake outside one door. Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching her eagerly, pointing at her hands and feet, talking and giggling behind their hands to one another. Claire sped around a corner and a very strange sight met her 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. Seven people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson.
Alex was tied between Ron and Amelie. There was also a girl who looked no older than eight, whose clouds of silvery hair made Claire feel sure that she was Gabriella, Fleur's sister. A smaller boy with an uncanny resemblance to LeBlanc, just next to Cho Chang and a young girl with flowing red hair. All seven of them appeared to be in a very deep sleep.
Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths.
Claire sped toward the hostages, expecting the merpeople to lower their spears and charge at her, but they did nothing. The ropes of weed tying the hostages to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong. Sending a powerful Blasting Charm at the bottom of the ropes and they broke apart.
Alex floated, unconscious, a few inches above the lake bottom, drifting a little in the ebb of the water.
It was very slow work, she kicked her legs furiously, but Alex was like a sack filled with potato's, dragging her back down... she fixed her eyes skyward, though she knew she must still be very deep, the water above her was so dark.
She kicked hard with her feet and then she felt her head break the surface of the lake. Disabling the Bubble-Head Charm, wonderful, cold, clear air was making her wet face sting, she gulped it down, feeling as though she had never breathed properly before, and, panting, pulled Alex up with her.
The crowd in the stands was making a great deal of noise, shouting and screaming, they all seemed to be on their feet, Claire had the impression they thought that Alex might be dead, but they were wrong.
Alex had opened his eyes, merely expelled a great spout of water, blinked in the bright light, turned to Claire, and said, "Wet, isn't it?"
Hermione, Neville, Jeager and Dumbledore stood beaming at Claire and Alex from the bank as they swam nearer.
Claire and Alex was being fussed over by Madam Pomfrey covered in thick blankets when Fleur emerged from the lake, carrying her little sister.
Charles stood beaming at her from the bank as they swam nearer, though he looked very white. Fleur lifted her sister up, and Charles helps her back up to the bank before turning and helping her up as well.
"Thank you, Charles." she said, giving him a wet hug, "I was almost trapped by the grindylows."
"Your welcome." he said back when he heard a giggle.
The two turned around and they saw it was Gabriella who had giggled. "Fleur, is he your boyfriend?" she asked her sister in their mother langue.
"Yes, this is my man little sister." Fleur said as Madam Pomfrey came over and began to fuzz over the two Delacour sister's as well.
"I guess I am." Charles returned in French, kneeling down and offering his hand to Gabriella, "Charles Jeager, nice to meet you."
With a big smile, she shook his hand, "Gabriella Delacour." she said, "And if you hurt my sister, I will kick your ass."
"Believe me, Gabriella." Charles said with a nostalgic smile, "If I would, I will be handing you a wand."
He watched Madame Pomfrey forced a measure of very hot potion down Fleur's and Gabriella's throat. Steam gushed out of their ears.
Soon enough, the other champions, along with their hostages, had returned and all where being looked after by Madame Pomfrey.
Dumbledore was crouching at the water's edge, deep in conversation with what seemed to be the chief merperson, a particularly wild and ferocious-looking female. He was making the same sort of screechy noises that the merpeople made when they were above water; clearly, Dumbledore could speak Mermish. Finally he straightened up, turned to his fellow judges, and the judges went into a huddle and they began to speak.
"You're well outside the time limit, Harry." Claire said, sitting next to him, "...Did it take you ages to find them?"
"No..." he said slowly, "I found them okay..."
"Oh god." Claire said, "You took the song too serious, didn't you?"
"I... Maybe..." Harry mumbled, "You have a water beetle in your hair."
But before Claire could brush the beetle away, Jeager rushed up to them, conjuring a glass jar out of thin air and scooping the beetle in it.
"Nice." Jeager said, closing the pot and looking at it, "A fine addition to my collection."
"Didn't knew you collected insects, Professor." Harry said.
"I like collecting things. It's a bit of a hobby of mine." their professor said, as he continued to study the new addition, "What can I say? I gotta catch them all."
But just then, Ludo Bagman's magically magnified voice boomed out beside them, making them all jump, and causing the crowd in the stands to go very quiet.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows...
"Claire Kent, who like many of our champions, demonstrated an excellent Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with five minutes inside the time limit of an hour. We therefore award her the full fifty points."
Enormous cheers from the Gryffindors and surprisingly some of the Beauxbaton students in the crowd. But Harry's heart sank, if Claire had been just inside the time limit, he most certainly must be out of it.
"Fleur Delacour, like many of our champions, demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, and came back second with one minute inside the time limit. We award her forty-seven points."
"Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was third to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour." Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd, Claire saw Romanova give Cedric a glowing look. "We therefore award him forty-six points."
"Romanova used an form of Transfiguration to grant her the ability to breath underwater, and was fourth to return with her hostage. We award her forty points."
"Viktor Krum meanwhile used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was fifth to return with his hostage. We award him forty points.", Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior.
"Jakub LeBlanc, used a Waterbreathing potion, was sixth to return with his hostage, we award him thirty-eight points."
"Harry Potter used a Bubble-Head Charm to great effect," Bagman continued. "He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was second to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own."
Claire, Alex, Ron, Neville and Hermione gave Harry half-exasperated, half-commiserating looks. "Most of the judges," and here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look, "feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However... Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."
Harry's stomach leap, he was tying for second place with Fleur, just a few points behind Claire. "There you go. Harry!" Claire shouted over the noise, "You weren't being thick after all, you were showing moral fiber!"
Cedric, Fleur and Romanova were clapping very hard too, but Krum and LeBlanc didn't look happy at all.
"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June." Bagman continued, "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."
After getting back to the castle and changed into dry clothes, Alex and Hermione where walking through a corridor, getting a peace of quite before the inevitable party in the Gryffindor Common room.
"Say Hermione, about what Adri said a few days ago." he began coming to a stop and turning to face her, "What is going on between us?"
"We are friends, right?" Hermione said a bit confused.
"Yeah, but..." he said concerned, as he placed his hands in his pockets, "We went to the Yule Ball together... Doesn't that change anything?"
"Like what? Falling in love or something?" she said, still a bit confused, "I really like you but I can't say that I'm in love with you. I don't want to be in a relationship. I am too busy with my studies... I don't think I am ready for a relationship just yet."
"Yeah sure..." he responded, with a weak smile, "We're still friends right?"
She nodded, as she watched Alex walk ahead with his head down.
End of the chapter, hope you enjoyed it.
Many thanks to everyone who read, review, favorite or follows this story as usual.
For now I wish you all a fantastic day, if you enjoyed my work don't forget to leave a review and I hope to see you ladies and gents next time.
Mischief Managed.