The Weasley Mayhem {A Weasley Love Story}

|Chapter Thirty-Six ~ The Second Task|

As the cannon sounded, everyone dived into the cold, dark depths of the water and split up. My vision was poor under the dark water; it felt like someone had thrown a blanket over my head. Darkness surrounded me. I swam away from the platform, just like every other champion to perform my spell.

Pulling my wand out from my leg brace I performed my spell that had taken me the whole night to perfect. Once the spell was cast, I went to place my wand back away but my legs were gone. In their place was a large blue tail, full of scales. I ran my hands down along the side, touching my scaly tail. The soft, scaly tail flicked out when I moved my leg slightly. My red swimsuit ripped at the ribs leaving my waist bare with a few scales inching their way up my skin.

I took a deep breath of water, even though I found that I didn't need one, and was marvelled at the fact that the water didn't affect me at all. Grinning to myself I swam deeper into the depths of the dark, black lake, searching for my 'treasure' in the merpeoples village.

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I had been swimming for what felt like hours – in reality it had only been five minutes – when I heard the ghostly voice of what I presumed was the mermaids singing. The noise drew me in, like a bee to the pollen of a sweet smelling rose. I followed the noise, hoping that it would lead me towards my treasures.

I saw a tail dash through the green ribbons of seaweed. So I followed the voice, that was gradually getting louder and louder as I got closer to my destination.

The merpeople's village boundaries was marked with large rocks that had paintings of the merpeople carrying spears, chasing the giant squid from their area. Their homes were built out of stone, stained with dark green algae, some with a weed garden and a pet grindylow staked to a rock. A massive statue of a merperson was in the centre of the village, marking the town square. Each treasure was tied to the giant statue.

"George!" I gasped through the water as I saw my treasure suspended in the water, tied to the statue by the same seaweed I had just swam through. His pale face looking back at me, his beautiful eyes closed. Alongside him his ginger twin was also suspended, my two treasures side by side. I reared back a bit and saw all of the other treasures. Ron, Hermione, Cho, Fleur's little sister, a boy from Ravenclaw that was Nanette's date to the ball and what surprised me the most was Katrina Sanderson the cold hearted Ravenclaw that I presumed had some link to Poliakoff.

The mermaids watched me closely with their cold dead eyes as I untied my both of my treasures. The mermaids hissing as I took away two of their catches. A noise coming from behind me announced the arrival of someone else. I turned to see Harry approaching. He watches as I point to my watch and then the surface, trying to convey the idea of time. I quickly swam up to the surface, Fred and George's robes gripped in my hands.

I wasn't far from the surface when something grabbed onto me and pulled me back down. It's claws ripping into my tail, blood being produced as it clutched onto me harder. The smell of blood seemed to draw more green creatures, grindylows. Remembering back to my third year defence against the dark arts lessons I remembered that the way to overcome a grindylow was to break their incredibly strong grip.

Remembering a spell that I hadn't used in a while, whose sole purpose was to rip something, I clutched my wand tighter in my hand, pointed my wand and yelled my spell.

"Diffindo!" I yelled, even though it came out muffled, I watched as the blue jet hit the grindylows, sending them away from my body. Unfortunately they took some of my scales with them. As soon as I was sure they were gone I proceeded towards the surface.

When our heads broke the surface the crowed cheered and Fred and George took in a big gulp of air before tugging me along with them to the platform, still in part fish form. When I was learning the transfiguration spell, I never learnt the reverse of it so I would have to get the help of Professor McGonagall.

"That is probably the most impressive use of transfiguration I have seen in a while." Professor McGonagall said to me as she helped Lee, George and Fred pull me up onto the platform, me still bleeding.

"Thank you." I said shyly. Out of nowhere, Fleur hands me a towel in order for me to dry off. I sat on the platform with Fred and George, hoping and waiting to see Harry's head break the surface of the dark water. He was right behind me at the village so he should be coming up straight after me, so of course I was shocked to see Cedric break the surface along with Cho. "Harry should have been next. He was right behind me!" I yelled as I leant over the railings, George clutching my arm to steady me as I swayed on my feet. Professor Dumbledore rushed over to help the pair up out of the water, whilst Victor surfaced – the shark head disappearing – with Hermione.

"Krum! Krum! Krum!" The Durmstrang boys cheer. This is the point where I start to get worried for Harry. The next person to emerge was Nanette along with the Ravenclaw boy. Immediately Fleur who starts yelling at her in French pulls her out of the water, and she doesn't sound too happy.

"Pourquoi n'avez-vous pas ma sœur?" (Why didn't you get my sister?) She demanded, her voice getting louder and louder as she starts crying.

"Je ne savais pas que tu avais pris sa retraite!" (I didn't know that you had retired!) Nanette yelled, equally as loudly.

"Ladies please, stay calm." Professor Dumbledore said, looking out over the water panicked. The clock on the platform chimed, signalling the end of the hour. My heart dropped, I was Harry's teammate... It was my job to make sure he was safe. Suddenly Ron and Fleur's little sister break the surface, coughing and spluttering. Fleur's face instantly relaxes as she bends down to the steps to help her sister out of the cold lake. The next minute Harry breaks the surface, his wand lifted into the air. Obviously he used a spell since he managed to propel his body onto the platform.

"Harry!" Dumbledore yelled, rushing over to him and patting the boys back, making him spit out water. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Get him another towel." Barty demanded Hermione immediately gave him hers.

"I want all the judges over here now." Dumbledore said, walking up the steps to the upper deck of the platform.

"You did great Ari." Cedric said, coming up next to me as I stood to one side with Fred and George.

"She did, didn't she?" George asked, wrapping his arm around my waist protectively.

"Best damn person down there." Fred said, slinging his arm over my shoulder.

"Attention! Attention! The winner... is Miss Tonks and Mr Diggory!" Dumbledore announced, the crowed of Hufflepuffs and the Gryffindors cheered... although the Gryffindors cheers seemed half hearted. "For showing unique command of the human transfiguration spell and the bubblehead charm. The way I see it, Mr Potter would have finished first alongside Miss Tonks had it not been for his determination to rescue not only Mr Weasley but the others as well. We've agreed to award him second place! For outstanding moral fibre." This announcement caused the Gryffindors to break out into roars, just like the lions we are.

"All that moral fibre eh?" Fred called over to the dark haired boy.

"Blimey, even when you go wrong it turns out right." Ron grumbled slightly, his hair still dripping.

"Well done 'moral fibre'." George yells as we step off of the small boat and head up to the castle, whilst Harry goes to talk to Barty. "You know I always had a thing for mermaids." George said, winking down at me as he pulls me closer into his body, sharing our body heat.