The Potions Master's Daughter (Book Three)

Chapter 25

The champions all went down to the lake together. Most people were already in the stands waiting for it to start. I scanned the crowds for my friends but I didn't see any of them. I wondered what McGonagall was doing with them that would take this long.

There was a pier that was empty. The four of us followed Barty Crouch to the end of it.

"You will all begin here. There is something at the bottom of this lake that we have taken. You have to retrieve it within the hour allotted in order to score points. Going over the hour will greatly reduce the number of points you receive. Like last time you will be scored out of 10 by each of the judges which will be added together for your final score. You of course can use any method you wish to retrieve your stolen item. When the cannon goes off is when you should jump in. You still have half an hour before the cannon sounds so you can talk or practice or whatever you need to do."

He walked away as the four of us chatted amongst ourselves. Each of our Headmasters came over and wished us luck.

At last all the announcements were over and everyone was watching the clock counting down to when the cannon would sound.

5...4...3...2...1...Boom! The cannon went off and Harry shoved the Gillyweed in his mouth and dove into the water. Viktor jumped into the water smoothly and performed a bobblehead charm once in the water. His head morphed into a shark's head but the spell wasn't executed perfectly because you could see parts of his human face too. Fleur slid off the dock hesitantly into the water and decided making a small bubble around her face was the best way to go. She dove into the water as I stood on the pier still.

The crowd was urging me to jump in but I was cold. We had all been told to change into bathing suits but now I put back on my jacket, leaving my legs bare. I sighed, it was better than nothing. I had been practicing my flying the most so my liftoff was smooth as I hovered about an inch above the water. I cast the reflection charm as I started in the middle of the lake and started to make a spiral out looking for anything that didn't belong. The crowd could see everything I could since I had blown up the picture to take up a large portion of the sky. After only about 5 minutes of looking I found what I had been looking for. There were four people asleep shackled to the bottom of the lake. It was Blake, Hermione, Ron and a little girl I recognized as Fleur's little sister.

Although I was really close to Hermione, Ron and Blake I knew I was supposed to save Blake and leave Ron for Harry and Hermione for Viktor. I went over to where Blake was underwater and concentrated on making a vortex. The water started to spiral around in a circle quickly and then started to recede. Soon there was a human sized hole in the water all the way down to the bottom of the lake. I started to unshackle him and levitate him up. I hadn't expected the mermaids to be able to reach him but there were able to reach out and grab onto Blake. I couldn't move him. Thinking quickly I froze the water around the vortex so the mermaids couldn't move and new mermaids couldn't get through.

Now I was able to levitate Blake all the way up to me. I carried him over to the pier still hovering an inch or so above the water. I set him down on the dock and bent down and began to shake his shoulder.

"Blake, get up," I said.

He opened his eyes and sat up, "Are you okay? Did it work?" he asked.

I laughed, "Yeah it worked perfectly. Are you okay? Do you know what just happened?"

He nodded, "McGonagall told us what was going to happen. How long did it take you?"

I shrugged, "About 10 minutes or so. So you're sure you're okay?"

He stood up next to me, "Of course, great job Jess."

I smiled at him, "I just hope Harry is okay."