𝚍𝚛𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚜

The Second Task | 1

ᴡᴏʀᴅ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ- 828

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"Are you sure about this, Neville? For an hour?"

"Most likely,"

"Most likely?"

"Well, there's still some debate amongst Herbologists about the affects of saltwater versus freshwater -"

"You're telling me this now? You must be joking!"

***

"Put it in your mouth!"

Harry took the plant and stuffed it in his mouth, gagging at the taste. He chewed it and attempted to swallow but it came back up. He heard the canon fire and the splashing of water.

He finally was able to get it down his throat, he felt a hand slam down on his back and he was in the water.

He thrashed around and felt his throat tightening and expanding, he brought his hands to his throat and felt . . . gills? His hands started growing thin bits of flesh in between his fingers.

He swam up and pushed himself out of the water, doing a flip and diving back in.

He quickly swam through the water, a mermaid blew past him, he watched as they disappeared.

***

Who was that? Fluer?

***

Harry stopped dead in his tracks, there were . . . ropes? And . . . people tied to them?

He recognized all of them, Hermione, Fleur's little sister, Gabrielle, Cho, and . . . Draco? What was Draco doing here?

He quickly swam over to Hermione, he pointed his wand at the rope. A mermaid quickly swam up to him, pointing her trident at his neck.

"You must only take yours!" she screamed.

Harry was terribly confused, Hermione was probably for Krum, he turned to Cho and pointed his wand at the rope. The mermaid once again swam up to him and put her trident to his neck.

"Take only yours!"

His head filled with possible reasons for why he couldn't take them, he couldn't think of anything.

Suddenly Cedric came up beside him, grabbing Cho, he tapped his watch, signaling he was running out of time.

A shark suddenly came right at Harry, he ducked out of its way. It was Krum, he bit the rope off and grabbed Hermione, bringing her back to the surface.

That left . . . Draco. Why would Draco be down here for him to take? He didn't know why, he quickly moved to his rope. He fired a spell at it, breaking it, he grabbed Draco's arm and started back towards the surface.

He looked to his right, Gabrielle was still there, no sign of anyone coming to get her.

He let go of Draco's arm and swam towards Gabrielle, the mermaid reappeared quickly, stabbing her trident at his throat.

"Only take one!"

The mermaid disappeared almost as soon as she came, he had to think quickly.

He could rescue Draco and himself and leave her down there . . . or he could rescue both of them . . . but possibly not himself.

He quickly fired the same spell at Gabrielle's rope, setting her free. He grabbed Draco and Gabrielle, pushing them up to the surface.

The mermaids didn't come, Harry felt relieved, he swam towards the surface. However, before he could get to far, he felt something grab his ankle, it looked like a little goblin-mermaid creature. He quickly shook it off, as it let go, hundreds of the little things swam towards Harry, grabbing onto him, not allowing him to move. He felt his throat tighten, the hour was almost up, he wouldn't be able to make it.

***

Draco breached the surface, a little girl by his side. He didn't think, he grabbed her and pulled them both towards the stands. He helped her up the small ladder, pulling himself up after her.

Hermione quickly came up to him, wrapping him in a towel. "Here, Draco, are you alright?"

Draco smiled slightly. "Yeah . . . but where's Harry?"

"He hasn't come up?" Hermione asked frantically, paying no mind that Draco just called Harry by his given name.

"No . . ." Draco said, his voice filled with worry.

***

The creatures pulled him down, sinking him farther and farther from the light. His eyes felt heavy, he blinked slowly, too weak to try and break free.

***

The bell rang.

It sounded through the quiet stands, everyone's eyes searching the water, trying to find Harry.

Draco frantically looked around, his eyes darting to any ripple made in the surface of the water.

***

He couldn't breath, he really thought he would live longer than this. Rita Skeeter will be publishing quite the article about this.

***

Draco flung the towel off his shoulders, moving closer to the water.

"Malfoy . . ."

Draco moved closer, not fulling trusting himself that Harry would be alive. Or that he would even be able to bring him back up.

"Draco!"

He ignored the girl's cries.

"DRACO!"

He finally whirled around at the sound of his name, he stared right at Hermione.

"What?" he asked impatiently.

"You can't possibly be going in there,"

"Well, I am, Granger." Draco said.

Just as the girl was about to retort, he stood and ran to the edge of the stands, diving into the dark water head first.