"You said you'd already worked out that egg clue!" said Hermione indignantly.
"Keep your voice down!" said Harry crossly. "I just need to... sort of fine-tune it, all right?"
He, Ron, Y/n and Hermione were sitting at the very back of the Charms class with a table to themselves. They were supposed to be practicing the opposite of the Summoning Charm today, the Banishing Charm. Owing to the potential for nasty accidents when objects kept flying across the room. Professor Flitwick had given each student a stack of cushions on which to practice, the theory being that these wouldn't hurt anyone if they went off target. It was a good theory, but it wasn't working very well. Neville's aim was so poor that he kept accidentally sending much heavier things flying across the room, Professor Flitwick, for instance.
"In truth he had not even started working on the egg." Y/n told Hermione.
"Just forget the egg for a minute, all right?" Harry hissed as Professor Flitwick went whizzing resignedly past them, landing on top of a large cabinet. "I'm trying to tell you about Snape and Moody..."
"Snape and Moody?" Y/n asked lowering his wand with a frown.
This class was an ideal cover for a private conversation, as everyone was having far too much fun to pay them any attention. Apparently when Harry had left Y/n the night before he had run into Moody, Snape and Filch.
"Snape said Moody's searched his office as well?" Ron whispered, his eyes alight with interest as he banished a cushion with a sweep of his wand, it soared into the air and knocked Parvati's hat off. "What d'you reckon Moody's here to keep an eye on Snape as well as Karkaroff?"
"Well, I dunno if that's what Dumbledore asked him to do, but he's definitely doing it." said Harry, waving his wand without paying much attention, so that his cushion did an odd sort of belly flop off the desk. "Moody said Dumbledore only lets Snape stay here because he's giving him a second chance or something..."
"What?" said Ron, his eyes widening, his next cushion spinning high into the air, ricocheting off the chandelier, and dropping heavily onto Flitwick's desk. "Harry... maybe Moody thinks Snape put yours and Y/n's name in the Goblet of Fire!"
"Oh Ron." said Hermione, shaking her head sceptically. "We thought Snape was trying to kill Harry before, and it turned out he was saving Harry's life, remember?" She Banished a cushion and it flew across the room and landed in the box they were all supposed to be aiming at. "I don't care what Moody says." Hermione went on. "Dumbledore's not stupid. He was right to trust Hagrid and Professor Lupin, even though loads of people wouldn't have given them jobs, so why shouldn't he be right about Snape, even if Snape is a bit..."
"Evil." said Ron promptly. "Come on, Hermione, why are all these Dark wizard catchers searching his office, then?"
"Why has Mr. Crouch been pretending to be ill?" said Hermione, ignoring Ron. "It's a bit funny, isn't it, that he can't manage to come to the Yule Ball, but he can get up here in the middle of the night when he wants to?"
"You just don't like Crouch because of that elf, Winky." said Ron, sending a cushion soaring into the window.
"You just want to think Snape's up to something." said Hermione, sending her cushion zooming neatly into the box.
"I would like to know what Snape did with his first chance, if he is on his second one." said Y/n thoughtfully and his cushion flew straight across the room and landed neatly on top of Hermione's.
"Oh well done Miss Granger, Mr Grindelwald." Mr Flitwick called out and the lesson soon came to an end as Ron, Hermione and Harry continued to talk about Snape, Moody and Mr Crouch.
"I will catch up with you in a moment. I need to talk to Professor Flitwick first." Y/n told the three.
"Wha..." Hermione asked but Harry interrupted her.
"We'll save you a spot at the table." He said.
"Thank you, I shall not be long." Y/n told them as they began to leave with other students leaving Y/n and Professor Flitwick alone.
"Something I can help you with Mr Grindelwald?" Professor Flitwick said noticing him.
"I was hoping to resume my Charms tutoring with you professor. I always find I can learn a lot from you." Y/n confessed.
"Well, now that terms back underway that shouldn't be a problem." Professor Flitwick said proudly for a moment. "But shouldn't you be focusing on the Tri-wizard tournament this year Mr Grindelwald?"
"Oh, I have already solved my clue for the second task sir. Now I wish to return to learning as much knowledge as I can." Y/n slightly lied.
"I see. Well, I suppose it's not a bad thing to want to learn, but I can only teach you once a week now. Is that alright?" Professor Flitwick asked him.
"That would be fine professor." Y/n told him.
"Very well then, see me in my office after dinner on Thursdays." Professor Flitwick told him
"Thank you Professor." Y/n bowed his head gratefully. "I was wondering sir, is it possible for our first lesson back, if you could teach me to cast...a bubble-head charm?"
Obedient to Sirius's wish of hearing about anything odd at Hogwarts, Harry sent him a letter by brown owl that night, explaining all about Mr. Crouch breaking into Snape's office, and Moody and Snape's conversation.
Y/n was sitting thinking of another problem entirely, how to help Harry survive underwater for an hour on the twenty-fourth of February. While he had now convinced Professor Flitwick to teach him the bubble head charm, He and Harry would have to find different methods to achieve the task. He wanted to avoid suspicion of them working together to solve the task, While he didn't think it was against the rules, He also didn't want to lose the advantage of helping one another in the next task if they were discovered and it became against the rules.
"Of course, the ideal solution would be for you to Transfigure yourself into a submarine or something." Hermione said.
"A subma...What is that?" Y/n asked confused.
"Oh, It's a kind of muggle vehicle that can stay underwater for long periods of time." Hermione explained to him. "If only we'd done human Transfiguration already! But I don't think we start that until sixth year, and it can go badly wrong if you don't know what you're doing..."
"Yeah well, I don't fancy walking around with a periscope sticking out of my head." said Harry now. "I s'pose I could always attack someone in front of Moody, he might do it for me..."
"I don't think he'd let you choose what you wanted to be turned into, though." said Hermione seriously. "No, I think your best chance is some sort of charm."
Harry buried himself once more among the dusty volumes, looking for any spell that might enable a human to survive without oxygen. However, though he, Ron, Y/n and Hermione searched through their lunchtimes, evenings, and whole weekends, though Harry asked Professor McGonagall for a note of permission to use the Restricted Section, and even asked the irritable, vulture-like librarian. Madam Pince, for help... they found nothing whatsoever that would enable Harry to spend an hour underwater and live to tell the tale.
Time was slipping away as though somebody had bewitched the clocks to go extra-fast. There was a week to go before February the twenty-fourth there was still time...there were five days to go, he was bound to find something soon... three days to go...
With two days left. Harry started to go off food again. The only good thing about breakfast on Monday was the return of the brown owl he had sent to Sirius. He pulled off the parchment, unrolled it, and saw the shortest letter Sirius had ever written to him.
'Send date of next Hogsmeade weekend by return owl.'
Harry turned the parchment over and looked at the back, hoping to see something else, but it was blank.
"Weekend after next." whispered Hermione, who had read the note over Harry's shoulder. "Here, take my quill and send this owl back straight away."
Harry scribbled the dates down on the back of Sirius's letter, tied it onto the brown owl's leg, and watched it take flight again. What had he expected? Advice on how to survive underwater? He had been so intent on telling Sirius all about Snape and Moody he had completely forgotten to mention the egg's clue.
"I am curious as to why he wants to know about the next Hogsmeade weekend?" said Y/n.
"Dunno," said Harry dully. The momentary happiness that had flared inside him at the sight of the owl had died. "Come on...Care of Magical Creatures."
Whether Hagrid was trying to make up for the Blast-Ended Skrewts, or because there were now only two skrewts left, or because he was trying to prove he could do anything that Professor Grubbly-Plank could. Y/n didn't know, but Hagrid had been continuing her lessons on unicorns ever since he'd returned to work. It turned out that Hagrid knew quite as much about unicorns as he did about monsters, though it was clear that he found their lack of poisonous fangs disappointing.
Today he had managed to capture two unicorn foals. Unlike full-grown unicorns, they were pure gold. Parvati and Lavender went into transports of delight at the sight of them, and even Pansy Parkinson had to work hard to conceal how much she liked them.
"Easier ter spot than the adults." Hagrid told the class. "They turn silver when they're abou' two years old, an' they grow horns at aroun four. Don' go pure white till they're full grown, 'round about seven. They're a bit more trustin' when they're babies...don' mind boys so much...C'mon, move in a bit, yeh can pat 'em if yeh want... give 'em a few o' these sugar lumps...
A queue soon formed with Y/n who was curious about the small unicorns joining it behind Hermione. As they waited Y/n saw Hagrid talking with Harry, No doubt he was trying to give him some courage. But from the look on Harry's face it didn't seem to be doing much.
It was the evening before the second task now and Y/n was inside the room of requirement. He had been coming back here more recently to practice using the Bubble-head charm. The room was far different than it had been before. Instead of looking like a small study it had now changed it's shape and size to accommodate for a large pool of icy cold water that took up most of the room. Y/n had worked out that Krum had been preparing for the cold depths of the Black Lake and that he needed to do the same.
Y/n took out his wand and pointed it to his head now casting the charm. A large bubble of air began to cover his head and he turned his head to a clock that formed on the room's wall. Once he saw the time he entered the pool.
The water was freezing and Y/n immediately shivered, but he knew he couldn't back down and so submerged himself beneath the cold water. The first time he used the bubble-head charm underwater the experience had not been a comfortable one as he had to constantly remind himself that he could in fact breathe rather than hold his breath. The more he practiced however the better he got at controlling the charm. He was seeing if his control would be enough to last for the hour he needed in the task.
Time passed by as Y/n swam around at the bottom of the pool, He could tell his bubble was about to run out soon and so began to swim back to the surface. When he broke through the water the bubble burst and Y/n let out a deep shivering breath.
He turned his head to look at the clock on the wall and saw that fifty-eight minutes had passed.
"Just barely making it..." he said pulling himself out from the tank and picking up a towel to dry himself off "But it will have to do." He sighed as the pool in the room disappeared and was replaced with a cozy bedroom with a fire designed to warm Y/n up as he changed back into his clothes.
When he was dressed Y/n felt much warmer and sat down in a chair as he let tiredness overtake him.
'A small nap should not hurt.'
Harry meanwhile was sat with Hermione and Ron in the library as the sun set outside, tearing feverishly through page after page of spells, hidden from one another by the massive piles of books on the desk in front of each of them. Harry's heart gave a huge leap every time he saw the word "water" on a page, but more often than not it was merely "Take two pints of water, half a pound of shredded mandrake leaves, and a newt..."
"I don't reckon it can be done." said Ron's voice flatly from the other side of the table. "There's nothing. Nothing. Closest was that thing to dry up puddles and ponds, that Drought Charm, but that was nowhere near powerful enough to drain the lake."
"There must be something." Hermione muttered, moving a candle closer to her. Her eyes were so tired she was poring over the tiny print of Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes with her nose about an inch from the page. "They'd never have set a task that was undoable."
"They have." said Ron. "Harry, just go down to the lake tomorrow, right, stick your head in, yell at the merpeople to give back whatever they've nicked, and see if they chuck it out. Best you can do, mate."
"There's a way of doing it!" Hermione said crossly. "There just has to be!" She seemed to be taking the library's lack of useful information on the subject as a personal insult, it had never failed her before.
"I know what I should have done." said Harry, resting, face down, on Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts. "I should've learned to be an Animagus like Sirius and Y.."
"Harry!" Hermione quickly cut him off. "That's supposed to be a secret."
"Well it's not like his would help in the lake anyway." Ron said. "Still, you could've turned into a goldfish any time you wanted Harry!"
"Or a frog." yawned Harry. He was exhausted.
"It's supposed to take years to become an Animagus, and then you have to register yourself and everything." said Hermione vaguely as she thought of Y/n's quick success in achieving the task, now squinting down the index of Weird Wizarding Dilemmas and Their Solutions. "Professor McGonagall told us, remember...you've got to register yourself with the Improper Use of Magic Office. What animal you become, and your markings, so you can't abuse it..."
"...Hermione, I was joking." said Harry wearily. "I know I haven't got a chance of turning into a frog by tomorrow morning."
"Oh this is no use." Hermione said, snapping shut Weird Wizarding Dilemmas. "Who on earth wants to make their nose hair grow into ringlets?"
"I wouldn't mind." said Fred Weasley's voice. "Be a talking point, wouldn't it?"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked up. Fred and George had just emerged from behind some bookshelves.
"What're you two doing here?" Ron asked.
"Looking for you." said George. "McGonagall wants you, Ron. And you, Hermione."
"Why?" said Hermione, looking surprised.
"Dunno... she was looking a bit grim, though." said Fred.
"You don't think something's happened to Y/n do you?" Hermione asked worried.
"Of course not." Ron quickly dismissed the idea. "She'd called all three of us then."
"We're supposed to take you down to her office." said George.
Ron and Hermione stared at Harry, who felt his stomach drop. Was Professor McGonagall about to tell Ron and Hermione off? Perhaps she'd noticed how much they were helping him, when he ought to be working out how to do the task alone?
"We'll meet you back in the common room." Hermione told Harry as she got up to go with Ron - both of them looked very anxious. "Bring as many of these books as you can, okay?"
"Right." said Harry uneasily.
It was morning when Y/n awoke. As he opened his eyes he saw that the ceiling above him was unfamiliar. "Where am I?" He groaned and sat up. As his eyes adjusted to the light he could see he was still inside the room of requirement. 'Did I fall asleep?' Y/n wondered as he got up now and stretched.
The task...the task was today! Y/n quickly turned his head to the clock to see that it was almost nine o'clock in the morning. He had no time to waste he had to get down to the lake. He could only hope that Harry had found something.
As he reached the lake he saw that the seats that had encircled the dragons' enclosure in November were now ranged along the opposite bank, rising in stands that were packed to the bursting point and reflected in the lake below. The excited babble of the crowd echoed strangely across the water as Y/n walked to the other side of the lake toward the judges, who were sitting at another gold-draped table at the water's edge. Cedric, Fleur, and Krum were beside the judges' table, watching Y/n walk towards them. Fleur and Cedric had friendly enough looks as both gave him a smile but Krum did not have an inviting look upon his face. Y/n didn't care about that right though for he noticed one of them was missing.
"Where is Harry?" He asked looking around.
"Late, as are you." a voice called out and Y/n turned to see Percy Weasley was sitting at the judges' table. Mr. Crouch had failed to turn up again.
"I'm... here..." Harry's voice panted, and they turned to see him skidding to a halt in the mud and accidentally splattering Fleur's robes.
"Where have you been?" said Percy's bossy, disapproving voice. "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 smiled at Harry, but Y/n saw Karkaroff and Madame Maxime didn't look at all pleased to see him. It was obvious from the looks on their faces that they had thought he wasn't going to turn up.
Harry bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath.
Ludo Bagman was now moving among the champions, spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. Y/n was placed between Krum who was wearing swimming trunks and was holding his wand ready, and Harry who was on the very end of the line.
Y/n knew that his robes and clothes would only be a hindrance in the cold murky waters of the Black Lake. So he reluctantly began to strip down until he was in only his boxer shorts. As he stripped he could hear both the Cheers and Jeers of the crowd watching, He chose to ignore them though. He needed to focus on the task ahead. He needed to find whatever it was that had been taken from him and get it back.
He felt slightly nervous as he picked up his wand, would the charm last long enough? He wondered. He looked over to Harry now wondering what he was going to do for the task. Ron and Hermione would have helped him find something the night before. They would be watching over him and Harry cheering them on. But at this Y/n began to feel rather self-conscious. Hermione would be watching him perform the task in just his underwear...
The quicker the second task started the better.
Bagman returned to the judges' table, he pointed his wand at his throat as he had done at the World Cup, said. "Sonorus!" and his voice boomed out across the dark water toward the stands. "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
Y/n could hear the water sloshing as he and other champions began to wade forward into the lake. It was so cold he felt the skin on his legs searing as though this were fire, not icy water. As he walked in deeper, now the water was over his knees, and his rapidly numbing feet were slipping over silt and flat, slimy stones. Soon the water had come up to his waist and he pointed his wand to his head casting the bubble-head charm. Once he had done so he submerged himself beneath the waters
The water was somehow even colder underwater as if Ice were trying to entomb his body. He had to keep moving if he wanted to keep his body warm and so he started swimming. Soon he had swum so far into the lake that he could no longer see the bottom.
Silence pressed upon his ears as he swam over a strange, dark, foggy landscape. He could only see ten feet around him, as he moved forward through the water new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the incoming darkness, forests of rippling, tangled black weed, wide plains of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. He swam deeper and deeper, out toward the middle of the lake, his eyes wide, staring through the eerily gray-lit water around him to the shadow beyond, where the water became opaque.
Small fish flickered past him like silver darts. Once or twice he thought he saw something larger moving ahead of him, but when he got nearer, he discovered it to be nothing but a large, blackened log, or a dense clump of weed. There was no sign of any of the other champions, merpeople, nor, thankfully, the giant squid.
Or so he thought... Looming out of the darkness a large shape began to appear. Y/n tightened his grip on his wand and held it out before him. He however was taken aback when a large eye opened and stared directly at him.
What should he do? Should he try to flee? No, the squid had already seen him it would be useless to try that.
Then...Attack? He wasn't sure if this would be the right all either.
But then the eye looked away from him and he started to lower his wand, somehow he knew that the squid was not interested in him as food.
He watched as the Giant Squid peacefully passed by him disappearing once again into the dark waters.
He then swam on for what felt like at least twenty minutes. He was passing over vast expanses of black mud now, which swirled murkily as he disturbed the water. Then, at long last, he heard a snatch of haunting mersong.
"An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took..."
'But what did you take?' Y/n wondered as he swam faster and soon saw a large rock emerge out of the muddy water ahead. Y/n swam on past the rock, following the mersong.
"... your time's half gone, so tarry not
Lest what you seek 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 that bore no resemblance at all to the painting of the mermaid in the prefects' bathroom.
The merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at Y/n as he swam past, one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch him better, their powerful, silver fish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands.
Y/n remained cautious and continued on, soon the dwellings became more numerous, there were gardens of weed around some of them, and he even saw a pet grindylow tied to a stake outside one door. Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching him eagerly, pointing, talking behind their hands to one another. Y/n sped around a corner and a very strange sight met his eyes.
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.
Y/n could see Harry up ahead and he swam towards him getting his attention.
As soon as Harry saw him he tried to talk only for bubbles to come out.
Y/n could see that Harry had webbed feet and fingers. Whatever he had done was working. Harry pointed urgently to the people now and it was now Y/n could see who the were,
Ron was tied between Hermione and Cho Chang. While Atticus was on the other side of Hermione next to a small girl who looked no older than eight, Her clouds of silvery hair told him that she was Fleur Delacour's sister.
So this is what they had taken, The people the champions cared for most. Y/n looked and saw that 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.
Harry moved toward the hostages, and Y/n watched half expecting the merpeople to lower their spears and charge at him, but they did nothing. Y/n began to swim over as well. The ropes of weed tying the hostages to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong. He looked around. Many of the merpeople surrounding them were carrying spears.
"Do you not have your wand?" Y/n asked Harry who shook his head in response.
He then looked back at the hostages. Five in total, so...one for each champion then? Atticus was undoubtedly chosen for him, but his eyes kept gravitating towards Hermione.
As Y/n was trying to work out who to take Harry swam swiftly toward a seven-foot-tall merman with a long green beard and a choker of shark fangs and tried to mime a request to borrow the spear. The merman laughed and shook his head.
"We do not help." he said in a harsh, croaky voice.
Angry bubbles issued from Harry mouth and he tried to pull the spear away from the merman, but the merman yanked it back, still shaking his head and laughing.
"Harry. Use my wand a moment." Y/n said handing out his wand to him.
Harry nodded and took the wand now as he pointed it to the vine holding Ron down, He tried to cast a spell...but nothing.
"What...why is it not working?" Y/n said confused as Harry handed him back the wand.
"Diffindo!" Y/n cast at the binds holding down Atticus and immediately they broke apart. Atticus floated, unconscious, a few inches above the lake bottom, drifting a little in the ebb of the water.
Harry looked around and found a rock now. He raised the jagged rock, and began to hack at Ron's bindings too
Y/n looked around there was no sign of any of the other champions. What were they playing at? Why didn't they hurry up?
He had freed Atticus, Harry was rescuing Ron all that remained was to free Hermione now. Y/n knew that Hermione most likely had been chosen by the judges as Krum's hostage, a thought that annoyed him to no end, Y/n didn't see the problem in taking points from Krum if he could. He raised his wand and pointed it at Hermione's binds.
At once, several pairs of strong gray hands seized him. Half a dozen mermen were pulling him away from Hermione, shaking their green-haired heads, and laughing.
"You take your own hostage." one of them said to him. "Leave the others..."
Harry stopped trying to cut Ron's binds and tried to say something furiously but only two large bubbles came out.
"Your task is to retrieve your own friend...leave the others..."
"She is more than my friend." Y/n said annoyed, gesturing toward Hermione.
Y/n struggled to fight off the mermen, but they laughed harder than ever, holding him back.
Harry looked wildly around. Where were the other champions? Would he have time to take Ron to the surface and come back down for Cho and the others? Would he be able to find them again? He looked down at his watch to see how much time was left...but it had broken.
But then the merpeople around him pointed excitedly over his head. Y/n and Harry looked up and saw Cedric swimming toward them. There was an enormous bubble around his head like Y/n's.
'He used a bubble-head charm too...' Y/n thought as he got closer.
"Got lost!" he mouthed, looking panic-stricken. "Krum's coming now!"
Harry watched Cedric pull a knife out of his pocket and cut Cho free. He pulled her upward and out of sight.
Krum was coming his chance to rescue Hermione had been lost but it didn't matter. She would be safe at least. That's what mattered most.
"Harry go now! Before you lose more points!" Y/n shouted to him.
Harry began to shout but only bubbles continued to flow from his mouth.
"Do not argue with me Harry Potter! I will be right behind you. Now go!" Y/n told him again.
Harry looked reluctant but not knowing how long he had left himself grabbed the drifting Ron and swam upwards.
Y/n watched as Harry left. Krum would be here soon but where was Fleur? Time was getting short, and according to the song, the hostages would be lost after an hour...surely they wouldn't let the hostages die? Y/n wasn't sure he wanted to take the risk of finding out.
The merpeople started screeching animatedly. Those holding Y/n loosened their grip, staring behind them. Y/n turned and saw something monstrous cutting through the water toward him. A human body in swimming trunks with the head of a shark...It was Krum. He appeared to have transfigured himself but badly in Y/n's opinion.
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 awkwardly for biting anything smaller than a dolphin, and Y/n was certain that if Krum wasn't careful, he was going to rip Hermione in half. Darting forward. Y/n hit Krum hard on the shoulder and held up his wand. Krum looked at him and Y/n quickly cast Diffindo on the binds. Once he had done it Krum grabbed Hermione around the waist, and without a backward glance, began to rise rapidly with her toward the surface.
Y/n supposed it was time for him to return to the surface with Atticus as well but what about the other hostage? If he could be sure that Fleur was coming... But still no sign. Y/n knew that he couldn't leave the little girl behind...
But with Krum gone the mermen now closed in around Atticus and the little girl, shaking their heads at him as if they knew what he was thinking. But not caught unawares this time Y/n raised his wand towards them. "You get one warning, just one. Get out of my way..."
The mermen seemed to have understood him, because they suddenly stopped laughing. 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 him, but Y/n could tell, by the looks on their faces, that they knew no more magic than the giant squid did.
Y/n began to move his hand getting ready to cast when they all suddenly scattered. Y/n shook his head and darted forward and pointed to the ropes binding the small girl to the statue, and at last she was free. He seized the little girl around the waist, grabbed the neck of Atticus's robes, and started to swim up from the bottom.
It was very slow work. Atticus and Fleur's sister were like potato-filled sacks dragging him back down... He fixed his eyes skyward, though he knew he must still be very deep, the water above him was so dark.
Merpeople were rising with him. He could see them swirling around him with ease, watching him struggle through the water... Would they pull him back down to the depths when the time was up? To make matters worse his legs were beginning to cramp up with the effort he was making to keep swimming. his shoulders were aching horribly with the weight of dragging Atticus and the girl...
It was also getting harder to breathe with every kick that he made, He knew the bubble head charm was about to wear off at any moment, and just as the darkness above was starting to thin and he could see daylight above him...it did.
With his bubble-head charm broken, he was in trouble now, water had started flooding through his mouth into his lungs... he was starting to feel dizzy, but he knew light and air were only ten feet above him... he had to get there... he had to...Y/n kicked his legs so hard and fast it felt as though his muscles were screaming in protest, his very brain felt waterlogged, he couldn't breathe, he needed oxygen, he had to keep going, he could not stop...
And then he felt his head break the surface of the lake, wonderful, cold, clear air was making his wet face sting but he didn't care as he inhaled deeply feeling as though he had never breathed properly before, and, panting, pulled Atticus and the little girl up with him. All around him, wild, green-haired heads were emerging out of the water with him, but they were smiling at him.
The crowd in the stands was making a great deal of noise, shouting and screaming, they all seemed to be on their feet. Y/n didn't have a moment to think about it as Atticus and the little girl both had opened their eyes.
The girl looked scared and confused, but Atticus merely yanked himself out Y/n's grasp. "Get off me!" He said angrily.
Y/n felt angry and annoyed. It was all very well for Atticus, he'd been asleep, he hadn't felt how eerie it was down in the lake, surrounded by spear-carrying merpeople who'd looked more than capable of murder.
"Just shut up Atticus..." Y/n told him breathlessly. "And help me with her, I do not think she can swim very well."
"You can help her yourself blood traitor!" Atticus spat as he turned his back on the two and began to swim towards the crowd and judges.
Y/n just continued to pant as tried to reach out for Atticus to come back but he never did. Y/n groaned knowing he would have to take the little girl himself.
"Are you able to swim?" Y/n asked the girl but she shook her head.
"Alright...Alright, Hold on to me, okay?" Y/n asked the little girl still unsure if she could understand English very well. She seemed to understand however and held onto him tight.
Y/n began to move his legs which screamed in protest once more causing him to wince and groan. Each kick was more painful than the last but determined to get the girl back safely kept him going and tired but triumphant they reached the bank.
He pulled Fleur's sister through the water, back toward the bank where the judges stood watching, twenty merpeople accompanying the two like a guard of honor, singing their horrible screechy songs.
Y/n could see Madam Pomfrey fussing over Hermione, Harry, Ron, Atticus, Krum, Cedric, and Cho, all of whom were wrapped in thick blankets. Percy, who looked very white and somehow much younger than usual, seemed to be fretting over an annoyed Ron.
Dumbledore and Ludo Bagman stood beaming at Y/n from the bank as he swam nearer, but Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur Delacour, who was quite hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.
"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she 'urt?"
"She is safe..." Y/n tried to tell her, but he was so exhausted he could hardly talk, let alone shout he fell to the bank now and began to cough up a large amount of water. It burned his throat but it did admittedly make him feel better.
Dumbledore and Bagman helped pull Y/n upright while Fleur had broken free of Madame Maxime and was hugging her sister.
"It was ze grindylows...zey attacked me...oh Gabrielle, I thought... I thought..."
"Come here, Grindelwald." said Madam Pomfrey. She seized Y/n and pulled him over to Hermione and the others, wrapped him in a blanket and forced a measure of very hot potion down his throat. Steam gushed out of his ears.
He felt warmer now but the exhaustion was still there.
"Y/n!" Hermione cried and he turned his head to look at her. "You did it, you and Harry found out how all by yourselves!"
"You haff a water beetle in your hair, Herm-own-ninny." said Krum. Giving Y/n the impression that Krum was drawing her attention back onto himself, perhaps to remind her that he had just rescued her from the lake, but Hermione brushed away the beetle impatiently and said. "You're well outside the time limit, though, Y/n...Did it take you ages to find us?"
"No...I got there just after Harry did... Was trying to work out... how to save you and Atticus...Viktor showed up after... I made Harry leave with Ron... and Viktor took you when I severed your binds..." Y/n breathed out beyond tiredly.
"Why did you bring the little girl?" Ron asked him curious.
"I waited for Fleur...But she never came... so I decided to save the little girl as well..."
"Y/n, you prat." said Ron. "You didn't take that song thing seriously, did you? Dumbledore wouldn't have let any of us drown!"
"The song said..."
"It was only to make sure you got back inside the time limit!" said Ron.
But Y/n was too tired to care anymore. He sat down and leaned his head back just looking up at the sky.
Dumbledore was crouching at the water's edge, deep in conversation with what seemed to be the chief merperson, a particularly wild and ferocious-looking female. He was making the same sort of screechy noises that the merpeople made when they were above water. Clearly, Dumbledore could speak Mermish. Finally he straightened up, turned to his fellow judges, and said, "A conference before we give the marks, I think."
The judges went into a huddle. Madam Pomfrey had gone to fetch Fleur and her sister. Fleur had many cuts on her face and arms and her robes were torn, but she didn't seem to care, nor would she allow Madam Pomfrey to clean them.
"Look after Gabrielle." she told her, and then she turned to Y/n. "You saved 'er." she said breathlessly getting his attention as he slowly lowered his head to look at her. "Even though she was not your 'ostage. "
"It was the right thing to do...I could not just leave her down there all alone." said Y/n.
Fleur however just bent down and kissed him.
Hermione looked simply furious, but just then, Ludo Bagman's magically magnified voice boomed out beside them, making them all jump, and causing the crowd in the stands to go very quiet.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows...
"Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points. "
Applause from the stands.
"I deserved zero." said Fleur throatily, shaking her magnificent head.
"Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour." Enormous cheers erupted from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd "We therefore award him forty-seven points. "
"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect and was second to return with his hostage a minute after Cedric. We award him forty five points."
"Harry you're tied for first with Cedric!" Ron said excited.
The Gryffindor's in the stands broke into an even louder cheer seemingly realised the same thing.
"Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage. We award him forty points."
Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, looking very superior.
"Y/n Grindelwald was the third champion to use the bubble-head charm," Bagman continued. "He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Grindelwald's delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own. Saving Miss Delacours hostage, aiding Mr Krum in freeing his hostage and attempting to help Mr Potter."
Ron, Harry and Hermione all gave Y/n half-exasperated, half-commiserating looks.
"Most of the judges." and here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look. "Feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However... Mr. Grindelwald's score is forty two points."
It took a Y/n a moment to register.
Ron and Hermione, caught by surprise, stared at Y/n, then laughed and started applauding hard with the rest of the crowd.
"Y/n you are in second place!" Hermione cheered.
"There you go!" Ron shouted over the noise. "You weren't being thick after all...you were showing moral fiber!"
Fleur was clapping very hard too, but Krum didn't look happy at all. He attempted to engage Hermione in conversation again, but she was too busy cheering for Y/n to listen.
"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June." continued Bagman. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."
It was over. Y/n thought dazedly wanting nothing more than to go to sleep for a long time, as Madam Pomfrey began herding the champions and hostages back to the castle to get into dry clothes...it was over, he and Harry had got through...Hermione and Ron were safe...he didn't have to worry about anything now until June the twenty-fourth...