Go Lightly ━ Harry Potter (1)

xiv. Blow 'Em Away! (Pt.2)

       She feels weird. Strange. Peculiar. He looked so disappointed when she explained how she would've said no, if he asked her to the Yule Ball. She supposes that he doesn't recognise how badly her friends would react, if they actually caught on and figured out that they were friends. Essentially she's befriended their rival, their enemy, especially when it comes to her cousin, and even Pansy to an extent, considering her weird thing with Hermione.

       But then, how would he know? Holly's friends, as wonderful as she thinks they are, are stubborn, and the sort that take disloyalty incredibly seriously. And yeah, maybe if she had been with them since the start, they would be a little more forgiving towards this, but she hasn't even been their friend for a year yet, and already, she's turned around and made friends with someone they all despise.

       The idea of that makes Holly wonder. She likes to think that she's always been ambitious, but has she always been cunning, or even resourceful? Sometimes she wonders if the reason the Sorting Hat barely touched her head was because she's been shaped by Durmstrang, she's like this because that's what it took to survive.

       All of this confuses her... And this is all because she made a friend.

       (How ridiculous!)

       "Where have you been?" asks the boy standing in for Crouch. Holly remembers him being there during the Yule Ball, too. "The task's about to start!"

       "Now, now, Percy!" says Bagman, grinning from ear-to-ear. Holly catches his glance for a second, and she figures he wants her to return a smile, but she does not. "Let him catch his breath!"

       Before Holly can ask Harry what took him so long, she's assured to the side of the bank. She holds onto her necklace, as she stands next to the lake. Thank God she's been swimming in the lake ever since she got put in this tournament, because she's been able to get her dad to send the swimsuits she once bought for Durmstrang's swimming team, the ones so streamlined they cut your fingers when first worn.

       "Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then," says Bagman. Holly grips onto her wand, and she hears Millicent, Daphne, and Tracey scream go Holly

       "One..."

      Holly looks at the lake.

      "...two..."

       Her eyes narrow a little. She's going to win this.

       "Three!"

       As Holly bolts into the water, she begins to mutter the warming charm learnt at Durmstrang, speeding up as it starts to work. She glances over her shoulder, realising she's metres ahead of the others, already.

       She can do this. She can do this.

       Right before she dives underwater, she says the Bubblehead Charm, and as the large, opaque bubble surrounds her nose and mouth, she cuts into the water's edge, diving underneath and swimming forwards.

       She knows that Viktor used to be on the swimming team, and that he's taken it back up recently, but she also remembers how she was always faster. There are few benefits to being short and small, but one of them is that she's naturally a little faster when swimming, compared to a big, muscular Quidditch player.

       Holly keeps on swimming, further into the lake. She knows that the mermaids live close enough to the dungeons that they see them swim past every day, but not so close that they can see their little kingdom, from the other side of the glass. So she swims on, speeding up when she sees the huge rock that she thinks looks like one of the stone heads from Easter Island, because she knows that you can see it, in the distance, outside of the window in the boys' dorm room.