shy ↳ Scorpius Malfoy

Chapter Twenty Nine

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I give you— the greatest— the fabulous— the one— and the only Triwizard Tournament! If you're from Hogwarts, give me a cheer."

The sound of Ludo Bagman's ridiculously loud voice reaches Alice once again. Given the fact that the three of them are in the Black Lake, the voice is slightly muffled. The three of them descend in the water with great ease, with help from the Gillyweed.

"If you're from Durmstrang give me a cheer," Ludo Bagman's voice says.

Alice hears a loud cheer from some of the students.

"And if you're from Beauxbatons, give me a cheer!"

The cheer from them isn't as enthusiastic as those from the other two groups.

"The French are getting into this," Ludo remarks. Alice can't help but smile a little at this. "And they're off... Viktor's a shark, of course he is, Fleur looks remarkable, ever plucky Harry is using Gillyweed, clever Harry, very clever— and Cedric— well, Cedric, what a treat, ladies and gentlemen, Cedric is using a Bubble Charm to cruise through the lake."

Alice notices Cedric approaching the group through the water with a giant bubble around his head, allowing him to breathe. The three raise their wands and simultaneously fire the Engorgement Charm at Cedric through the water.

Poor Cedric turns and looks at the group, confused. The Charm hits him and the water around him begins to glow gold.

The boy begins to grow, and grow, and grow some more. He looks around himself, panicked. The trio watch as Cedric floats up to the surface, helplessly.

"But no, what's this..." Ludo Bagman is saying. "Cedric Diggory is ascending out of the water and seemingly out of the competition. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, we don't have ourselves a winner but we certainly have our loser. Cedric Diggory is turning into a balloon, and this balloon wants to fly. Fly, ladies and gentlemen, fly. Fly out of the task and out of the tournament and— oh my, it gets wilder still, around Cedric, fireworks exploding, declaiming— "Ron loves Hermione"— and the crowd loves that. Oh ladies and gentlemen, the look on Cedric's face. It's quite some picture, it's quite some sight, it's quite some tragedy. This is a humiliation, there's no other word for it."

Albus smiles and high fives Scorpius in the water. The blonde haired boy turns to Alice, smiling, but it falls once he sees Alice's expression.

It was a horrible thing to do. They humiliated Cedric terribly, and the poor boy never saw it coming. He didn't deserve it. Alice just took part in crushing him. He deserved a chance at winning the tournament, but they just ripped that away from him. The guilt washes over Alice in waves.

Scorpius lowers his eyebrows, concerned. Alice understands that humiliating Cedric was necessary to save him, but she still feels guilty.

Albus gets his friends' attention and points upwards. Scorpius nods and the three of them swim upwards. As Cedric ascends, people start laughing. The guilt hits Alice again.

Everything changes. The world is suddenly darker, almost black. There's a flash, and a bang. The Time-Turner ticks to a stop. It is now the present again. Scorpius emerges through the water.

"Woo-hoo!" Scorpius exclaims. The boy looks around, surprised. His two friends are no where to be seen.

"We did it!" Scorpius says again, hoping to get a reply from Albus or Alice, hoping that this is a silly joke.

Still, neither of them come out of the water. Scorpius treads across the water.

He ducks his head underwater, peering around for his friend. But nothing.

"Albus... Alice," Scorpius looks around. "Albus! Alice!"

***

A/N: I had to revise this chapter and the next few when I realized that Alice can't be in the next part, because of the time changes. This will make the story shorter, sorry if it throws you off :/