My Love ✧ George Weasley

56 - The First Back

Adriana

It was hard work, swimming back to the surface with George. He weighed a lot more than I did, and was a lot taller than me, so it took a lot of strength to pull his unconscious body with me. I also lost use of one of my arms, the one that was now holding onto George.

I was getting ready to just stop and hope that I float up to the surface, when I saw the first stream of light shining through the murky water. That gave me the last bit of energy I needed to continue paddling up toward the surface.

At last, my head broke the surface of the water, and I took deep breaths of fresh, crisp air as I did my best to remain above the water, cheers filling my ears. With my last bit of strength, I pulled George up to make his head break the surface as well. He quickly regained consciousness, panting as he took deep breaths of air like I was.

Once he realized where he was and who he was with, a large grin took over his face. "You fucking did it, Adriana!" he shouted over the applause. "I knew you'd do great!"

I couldn't form words as I let out a breathless laugh before starting to swim over to the bank of the lake, where all the judges were waiting. As soon as George and I got out of the water, Madam Pomfrey rushed over to us, throwing thick blankets over our shoulders before ushering us over to a small table, where blankets and vials of potions were sitting.

"Take this, both of you," Madam Pomfrey said, shoving one vial of potion into each of our hands. I gulped down the very hot potion along with George, which ended up warming my whole body after I swallowed it. I hadn't even noticed I started shivering until it stopped.

"Adriana!" I turned to see Fleur rushing over to me, a blanket wrapped around her as well. "Is Gabrielle down there? My sister, is she alright?"

"Yeah, I think so," I answered. "She's asleep, just like everyone else was. What are you doing up here?"

"Ze grindylows," Fleur replied. "Zey attacked me, and I could not go on... Oh, I 'ope she will be alright..." Fleur then walked back to her headmistress, frantically speaking in French.

I sighed as I turned back to George, who was still grinning as he watched me. "You're the first back, I think," he said. "Well, the first back with their treasure."

I looked around us, noticing no other champions other than Fleur. "Huh. I guess you're right."

"I always am," George smiled, opening up his blanket and gesturing me toward him.

"I highly doubt that," I said, smiling back as I opened my blanket slightly to wrap my arms around his torso. George wrapped his arms around my shoulders, fixing his blanket so it would be wrapped tightly around the both of us.

"Hey, Adriana!" someone, who sounded identical to the person I was hugging, exclaimed. George and I both looked over in the direction of the stands to see Fred and Lee walking to us.

Once they stopped in front of us, Fred continued talking to me. "I found George. Do you still want me to ask where the hell he's been all morning, or have you two talked that out already?"

"I think I've figured everything out already," I replied, my grin growing wider. "Being at the bottom of the Black Lake under an enchantment seems like a pretty reasonable explanation for why he wasn't at breakfast."

The four of us shared a laugh before I felt George place a gentle kiss on the top of my head. "Sorry about that, love," he said into my wet hair. "I would've told you that I wasn't gonna make it to breakfast, but I unfortunately had to stay and go into the lake without any of the other students knowing."