The Black Queen | F. Weasley

49. Lending a hand to Harry

Ten minutes had passed when the next two people appeared. Salem recognized them to be Cassius and Graham and she cheered for them loudly as they swam toward the tower she was standing on. Thirty minutes had gone by and she was starting to worry about Harry when she had noticed that Fleur had returned without her hostage.

"Have you seen Harry by any chance?" Salem asked the minute Cassius and Graham were wrapped in towels and blankets and sat down exhaustedly down on top of the lower deck. They were both shivering violently and their lips had turned blue.

"H-he w-was still with the o-others. H-he was h-having a b-bit of a r-row with the Selkies about w-wanting to t-take more than ju-just Fred's little bro-brother." Cassius said as his teeth chattered and gratefully accepted some more blankets from people who were rushing forward to warm him and Graham up again. She righted herself immediately and shrugged the comfort of all the blankets and towels off of her shoulders.

Fred looked at her in confusion and concern started to swirl in his brown eyes. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going back in," she replied and her eyes were glinting with determination.

His eyes bulged and he looked at her incredulously. "You've got to be joking."

"Freddie dear, for once I'm not pulling your leg." Salem said as she grabbed her wand out of its holder that was strapped to her arm. Fred yelped as it dawned on him too late that she was actually going through with it. Without further ado she sprinted back to the ledge and dived back into the water as Fred watched on helplessly how his girlfriend disappeared under the surface of the water.

"Bulla in aerem." She mumbled as she pointed her wand at herself and a small bubble of air appeared at the end of her wand growing larger and larger within a few seconds, before moving over her face, allowing her to breath once more. Swimming as fast as she could she followed the route she had swum earlier that morning.

The familiar planes of mud stretched out in front of her and the aquatic plants swayed leisurely with the current. Grindylows peeked out of their hiding places curiously as she waded past them. Her heart sped up as the view of the rocky wall came into view and if possible hastened even more, slipping through the notch swiftly and hearing the soft melodies of the Merpeople's song echo through the pondweed meadow.

The bubble around her head worked perfectly, but altered the looks of the outside slightly making everything seem oddly wide and stretched. It was inconvenient to say the least, but changing into a siren for such a long amount of time had taken a big toll on her body, and thus Salem had to deal with it to the best of her ability. Her bones were growing tired and started to feel heavy as she continued to push herself forward. She had to save Harry...

A dark shadow caught her attention and her heart plunked down to her stomach when she realized that it was swimming straight toward her. She narrowed her eyes and tried to identify whatever it was that was moving in her direction. A terrified screech escaped her mouth when the creature was close enough and her eyes took in the horrifying shape of a shark's head. As fast as she could she swam out of its way and turned quickly to check if she was still in danger. It was then she noticed that it wasn't even really a shark, it was half human as well, and Salem recognized the red swimming trunks of Krum as it kept on swimming with Hermione in its arms.

A shuddered sigh left her lips, at least Hermione was safe then...

Breathing in deeply she recovered from the shock and started swimming again. The tip of the archway came into view and that sight encouraged her to kick herself forward harder. She laughed in relief when Harry came into view. The boy was heading her way already and his eyes widened comically when they settled on her. He was dragging Ron and a girl, Salem knew to be Fleur's little sister Gabrielle, along with him but was obviously struggling with keeping them moving through the water. She was by his side within seconds and took ahold of the little girl. Together they were able to manage just fine.