LITTLE MISS MUDBLOOD – ACT 2 : SCENE 1 : CHAPTER 76
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Y/N's potion was going well – they had started to create several different recipes, and were now testing them on ownerless rats (so helpfully supplied by Goldfish and Crookshanks). To say the least, Y/N had a vendetta against any rats or mice or anything of the sort, seeing as the last time she trusted a rat, it turned out to be a cowardly traitor.
Sadly, none of the recipes, so far, have worked. The test subjects either blew up, drowned, turned into half-worms, or just disappeared from existence. It didn't help that classes were still in attendance (how dare the school year continue!), but Y/N was keeping her cool, correcting her mistakes and fixing any measurements.
And then a month and a half passed, and it was already the evening before the task. Now, Y/N was panicking – THE TASK WAS THE NEXT DAY, and she didn't have a backup plan. Maybe she could write to Mrs. Malfoy again, the last time she had sent her a letter wasn't too long ago, just a few nights ago . . .
"Y/N! Y/N! It's working, look!" Anthony said excitedly, watching the rat swim around in the basin.
Her heart skipping, Y/N scurried over from banging her head on the wall and peered inside; sure enough, like he said, her potion was working. She didn't get her hopes up too high, however, because many times before (such as attempt numbers 7, 38, 46, 82, 168, 234, and 467), everything had half-worked, and then it went downhill.
"Where's the timer?" she said hurriedly, keeping her eyes on the rat.
"I've got it," said Daphne, shaking with anticipation.
Five minutes passed . . . then ten . . . twenty . . . twenty-five . . . .
At the thirty-minute mark, the door creaked open, startling them – Theodore and Blaise walked in, whistling. Y/N half-wished they had brought snacks with them but thought against it – even the tiniest crumb could mess up her whole potion, and she didn't want to risk anything.
"Snape's looking for you, Anthony," they said suspiciously, and mysteriously backed out of the room.
"Dammit!" he groaned, dragging his hands down his face. "I wanted to see if it worked or not! Stupid, stupid Snape!"
Y/N waved him off, not taking her eyes away from the still-swimming rat. "Go, Anthony, I'll tell you if it did. And how many times do I have to tell you to watch that mouth of yours?"
Soon after Anthony had left, the rat sunk to the bottom of the basin, and Y/N groaned, thinking it was dead. But –
"Y/N, look! It's walking around, it's not dead!"
Her eyes shot open, refocusing on the rat. It was, in fact, walking around the bottom of the basin, trotting along the perimeter of it with unlost energy. Y/N's heart seemed to be running miles as the time passed. Daphne refused to tell her how long the rat had been underwater, but it wasn't until Y/N saw little bubbles rise to the surface of the water did she quickly pull the little rat out, tapping the water out of its lungs and looking expectantly at Daphne.
"Sixty minutes," she said flatly, and a moment paused between them before Y/N started crying, collapsing onto the floor with victory.
"Fuck!" she cried, laughing as she repeatedly hit her head on the stone floors. "I did it! I did it! We did it!"
"Damn right," Daphne grinned widely, jumping up and down with excitement. She fell onto the floor next to Y/N, smiling in her tear-stricken face as they latched onto each other, sobbing their stress away.
Y/N felt significantly lighter the next day as she stood at the judges' table with Cedric, Fleur, and Krum, a messy feeling of need lingering on her as they waited for Harry. Draco had . . . well, he thought the best way to wish her luck was to snog her face off an hour before, privately, in his room with the curtains drawn. She didn't know when she had agreed to that – probably when he had brought her up to his dorm so she could get a good and full nights' sleep, but it wasn't like she was complaining.
Quite the opposite, actually.
Harry was now sprinting toward them, looking like he had just woken up and forgot about the task – which he probably did.
"I'm . . . here . . ." he panted, skidding to a halt in the mud and accidentally splattering Fleur's robes. She gave him a dirty look.
"Where have you been?" said Percy, who was sitting where Mr. Crouch was supposed to be, and subbing in for him. "The task's about to start!"
"Now, now, Percy!" said Ludo Bagman, who was looking intensely relieved to see Harry. "Let him catch his breath!"
Dumbledore had smiled at Harry, but Karkaroff and Madame Maxime didn't look at all pleased to see him. . . . It was obvious that they had thought he wasn't going to turn up. If Y/N was being honest, she didn't either. She half-thought he was going to bail on them.
Ludo Bagman was now moving among the champions, spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. Y/N stood in between Fleur and Cedric, her hands shaking as she pulled off her clothes to reveal a deep green swimming suit, which was two pieces and showed a lot more than necessary. She uncorked the potion with one hand and held her wand in the other, staring out into the lake, hoping and praying that her potion worked on humans . . . but still - she thanked Merlin that they allowed more than just a wand for the second task, or else she would've been in big trouble.
"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. One . . . two . . . three!"
The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause; without looking at the other champion, Y/N downed the potion and flung it with her stuff, shivering as she waded deeper and deeper into the water.
A shot of fire whisked through Y/N and she breathed in sharply – until all of a sudden it became much too suffocating to breath, like slime had filled the walls of her lungs. Then, sharply, she couldn't breath at all, and she did the only thing that made sense – she dove into the water, and with great courage and stupidity, breathed in.
The first breath of the freezing lake water felt like the breath of life. Grinning to herself, she felt herself grow stronger by the second, and she could practically feel her blood vessels dilate as new cells filled her body, to allow an aquatic alter-ego to take over. The icy water was no longer unbearable – on the contrary, she was quite warm, and a cozy feeling was now regulating throughout her body to keep her from developing hypothermia.
Y/N had now swam so far into the lake that she couldn't see the bottom. With the added strength from the potion, she breathed in the water and dived into its depths, her wand alight to let her see. She was so so glad she had been a swimmer before Hogwarts, for now she journeyed through the lake with ease, gazing around at the strange, dark, and foggy landscape before her.
Silence pressed upon her ears as she swam. Even with her wandlight she could only see ten feet around her so that as she sped through the water new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the oncoming darkness: forests of rippling, tangled black weeds, wide plains of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. She swam deeper and deeper, out toward the middle of the lake, her eyes wide, staring through the eerily gray-lit water around her to the shadows beyond, where the water became opaque.
There was, however, a faint light coming from beside her, and with a closer look, she realized it was the Slytherin common room. Only few people were inside, resting lazily as they curled up in front of the fire instead of freezing out in the snow. She wished she could be them, but realized with a horrific jolt that she was on a time limit, and swam away.
Small fish flickered past her like silver darts. Once or twice she thought she saw something larger moving ahead of her, and with a terrified jolt, she swam deeper into the lake.
Time passed, and Y/N felt her muscles tighten with anger. She felt as if the black lake was simply too big, and the task was useless and dumb and stupid, and –
A bloody, ghostly figure cut Y/N off, floating in front of her as she halted quickly, curling up to herself – with a closer look, she realized the Bloody Baron was in front of her, as sullen-faced as usual as he stared.
"Follow me," he said dully, and turned on the spot, drifting away. With no other choice and partially thinking that he was leading her away from the 'treasures', she reluctantly swam after him, through the midnight waters and deeper into the lake.
She felt like he was wasting her time, because at least fifteen minutes had passed. But then – then, at long last, she heard a snatch of haunter mersong.
"An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took . . ."
The Bloody Baron gave her a look before ascending straight up, not giving her enough time to utter out a 'thank you' before disappearing from sight. But she paid no mind to that fact as she swam faster, soon seeing a large rock emerge out of the muddy water ahead. It had paintings of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears and chasing what looked like the giant squid. Y/N swam on past the rock, following the mersong.
". . . your time's half gone, so tarry not
Lest what you see stays here to rot. . . ."
A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. Here and there at the dark windows, Y/N saw faces . . . faces similar to the merpeople that occasionally passed the common room windows, but they passed too quickly for her to comprehend.
The merpeople had greyish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick robes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at Y/N as she swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch her better, their powerful, silver fish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands.
Y/N sped passed, not particularly caring enough to take in the scene as she looked for her 'treasure' – and then she found it.
A whole crowd of merpeople was floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a mer-version of a village square. A choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions toward them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue; a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Five people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson.
With great horror, Y/N saw Anthony tied between Ron and Gabrielle, a girl no older than twelve and a girl who Anthony had taken interest in – she was also Fleur Delacour's sister. All five of them appeared to be in a very deep sleep. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths.
Y/N sped toward the hostages, half expecting the merpeople to lower their spears and charge at her, but they did nothing. The ropes of weed tying the hostages to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong. Wholeheartedly wishing she had a pocketknife on her, Y/N swam down to Anthony, touching his face softly and peering at the other hostages – Hermione and Cho Chang. She couldn't care less about Chang, but felt a great wave of terror wash over her as she peered at Ron and Hermione.
Looking at a merman expectantly, she raised her eyebrows – he shook his head. With a defeated heave, Y/N came to the realization that they were there to make sure they only took their hostage.
A figure in the distance alerted Y/N – squinting, she looked through the water to see Harry swimming toward her, his glasses askew and his wand in his hand. He joined her, tilting his head to ask why she was staying.
"Er – I wanted to make sure Krum got Hermione, and Anthony's madly in love with Gabrielle," she said clearly, her voice sounding throughout the water. "I don't particularly care for Chang, though."
He nodded, and gestured that he would stay with her.
Soon enough, Harry pointed behind Y/N and she turned to see Cedric swimming toward them. There was an enormous bubble around his head, which made his features look oddly wide and stretched.
"Got lost!" he mouthed, looking panic-stricken. "Fleur and Krum're coming now!"
Feeling relieved, Y/N watched Cedric pull a knife out of his pocket and cut Cho free. He pulled her upward and out of sight.
Harry watched out for the other champions while Y/N dove deep below, grabbed a sharp rock, and sawed at the weed. Within a minute, Anthony floated a foot above the lake bottom, drifting a little in the ebb of the water. She traded spots with Harry, looking around.
The merpeople started screeching animatedly. Looking around, Y/N saw something monstrous cutting through the water toward them; a human body in swimming trunks with the head of a shark. . . . It was Krum. He appeared to have transfigured himself – but badly.
The shark-man swam straight to Hermione and began snapping and biting at her ropes; the trouble was that Krum's new teeth were positioned very awkward for biting anything smaller than a dolphin, and Y/N was quite sure that if Krum wasn't careful, he was going to rip Hermione in half. Apparently, Harry thought the same, and swam up after cutting Ron loose to give Krum the rick, and join Y/N. Within seconds, Krum had done it; he grabbed Hermione around the waist, and with a curt nod to Y/N, began to rise rapidly with her toward the surface.
Harry and Y/N exchanged terrified glances – now what? If they could be sure that Fleur was coming. . . . But still no sign. There was nothing to be done except . . .
Harry snatched up the stone, which Krum had dropped, but the mermen now closed in around Anthony, Ron, and Gabrielle, shaking their heads at them. Y/N pulled out her wand.
"Get out of the way!" she said sharply.
The mermen, who had been laughing, froze. Their yellowish eyes were fixed upon Y/N's wand, and they looked scared. There might be a lot more of them than there were of Harry and Y/N, but Y/N could tell, by the looks on their faces, that they knew no more magic than the giant squid did.
"You've got until three!" she shouted, holding up three fingers as her other hand wielded her wand. "One. . ." (she put down a finger) "two . . ." (she put down a second one) –
They scattered. Harry darted forward and began to hack at the ropes binding Gabrielle, and Y/N kept an eye on the mermen, to make sure they weren't going to attack at any given second. At last, she was free, and Y/N seized Gabrielle around the waist, grabbed the neck of Anthony's robes, made sure Harry had Ron, and kicked off from the bottom.
It was very slow work. She could no longer use her arms to propel herself forward; she worked her legs furiously, but the gathered weight of Anthony and Gabrielle weighed her down. . . . She fixed her eyes skyward, Harry right behind her, though she knew they must still be very deep – the water above them was so dark. . . .
Merpeople were rising with them. She could see them swirling around them with ease, watching them struggle through the water. . . . Would they pull them back down to the depths when the time was up? The potion was wearing off, Y/N could tell – her arms and legs were getting weaker, coldness gradually filled her being . . . she was drawing breath with extreme difficulty, and her slimy lungs were now becoming, well, not-so-slimy. The new cells of an aquatic alter-ego were dying off – without them, her blood vessels reduced to their natural size, and she was becoming herself again.
Holding her breath, Y/N pushed through the pain as she saw daylight ahead. She didn't check to see if Harry and Ron were behind her anymore . . . light and air were only ten feet above her . . . she had to get there, she had to . . .
Y/N kicked her legs so hard and fast it felt as though her muscles were screaming in protest; she had never gone this long in water, or had the extra weight on her when swimming . . . .
And then she felt her head break the surface of the lake; wonderful, cold, clear air was making her wet face sting; she gulped it down, feeling as though she had never breathed properly before, and panting, pulled Anthony and Gabrielle up with her. Grinning, she looked behind her and found Ron, looking confused – but there were no signs of Harry.
Looking up and down the shore, Y/N didn't see him – and with a daunting feeling, she knew he was still in the water, whatever he had used wearing off now –
Pushing Ron out of the way, Y/N went to dive back in, but a voice stopped her –
"Y/N!" called Daphne panickedly, coming to stand before the water. "You can't go back in there! It's been an hour – your potion wore off!"
But Y/N ignored her and dove back into the water, holding her breath as the liquid ice encased her. Swimming as fast as her tired body could take her, Y/N pushed herself deeper and deeper, looking fearfully around the waters for Harry –
And then she saw him, wandless and trying to fight off tens of Grindylows by himself – the mermen around him watched, not doing anything –
Flashing nonverbal red sparks, Y/N herded off the Grindylows, swimming deeper to grab Harry . . . but his mouth was slung open, and air bubbles were leaving it . . .
With a kick to a stray Grindylow, Y/N shoved her wand into Harry's hand and pushed his limp body up, shouting,
"Ascendio!"
With a great wave, Harry flew up and out of the water and Y/N, having used her last breath, felt her mouth fill with water . . . her lungs burned, and the heavy urge to breathe overwhelmed her, squeezing her until she finally gave it, allowing the water to pass into her lungs . . .
And, giving up the struggle, Y/N allowed herself to succumb to the deep waters, sinking deeper and deeper into the lake.