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Harry's Shorts: 2.0	By : Gandalfs-Beard Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 22119 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Harry Potter or any associated properties (that would Rowling and various companies), nor do I make any money from the production of this work

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
Summary: The second task was looking like it might be a disaster, and then the unthinkable happened.

The Best Task of All

The second task was not going well at all, thought Harry, but at least one of the champions had rescued their hostage.
Cedric swam for the surface with Cho and passed out of sight into the darkness. Harry looked around wildly, but there was still no sign of Krum and Fleur. Where were they? Cedric had said they were coming! What was taking them so long?
Time was running out. Harry looked at his watch and sure enough, the hour was almost up; not to mention that he had no idea how long the gillyweed was supposed to last. With only a minute left to go, he decided that it was no use waiting any longer. It was up to him. He would have to save them all by himself now. He reached out with his sharp rock again to sever the strong rope of seaweed binding Hermione.
"No!" rasped one of the mermen, grabbing at Harry's arm again. "Take yours only…your task…"
Harry angrily whipped out his wand.
"I know—you already told me!" he yelled soundlessly at the jeering mermen who were still waving their spears, "But I don't care—I'm taking them—now back off!"
Harry knew they couldn't hear him, but the sight of his glare and his wand seemed to do the trick. The mermen stopped laughing, looking scared now. But they remained in place, their wild green hair drifting around their heads. Harry pointed his wand at them.
"I'm warning you—"
The mermen scattered and Harry turned back to his task, thankful that they apparently had no magic of their own. He looked at the wand in his one hand and the sharp rock in his other hand and wondered how he could have been so stupid. He pointed his wand at the seaweed tethering Hermione to the statue.
"Diffindo!"
Fortunately, his wand responded to his intention. Harry hadn't been entirely certain that it would, given that he couldn't produce any sound while he had gills. He filed that knowledge away in the back of his mind when the rope of seaweed holding Hermione snapped and he aimed his wand at the leafy yellowy-green tendril binding Gabrielle. Once Gabrielle floated free, Harry grabbed her and wrapped one arm around her waist, then he clutched Hermione around her waist with his other arm and seized Ron's robes with his free hand. He kicked off and made for the surface.
Without any hands to propel himself upward, and the dead weight of the three freed hostages dragging him down, the effort was excruciating. He was relying entirely on his legs to swim now, and his muscles were screaming at him and his shoulders were badly aching. The darkness above told him that they were still very deep. He spied the merpeople swirling around at a distance, wondering if they would take this moment to strike while he was at a disadvantage. It was at that point he saw it—the giant squid bearing down on them.
The merpeople fled and Harry was fearful that the squid would be after him next, not entirely certain that it was as friendly as the Creeveys had claimed. He kicked out even harder, his heart beating against the wall of his chest like a jackhammer…it was getting harder to breathe…but he could definitely see light ahead…not much further now—he hoped…the pain in his arms and legs was almost unbearable…he was weakening…
And then, to his horror, the fingers holding Ron's robes yielded to the strain and Ron slipped from his grasp, sinking into the black depths.
"NOOOO!" Harry bellowed uselessly.
There was nothing he could do—not while he still had two other hostages to save. The dizziness from lack of oxygen and the sharp pains in his neck told him that the effects of the gillyweed were wearing off. With one last, furious burst of adrenaline, he pushed forward and broke the surface of the lake, gasping and spitting out water.
As soon as they hit air, much to Harry's relief, Hermione and Gabrielle woke up. He released Hermione who seemed to be managing fine on her own now, but Gabrielle was still clinging to him like a barnacle, frightened, and he wondered if she even knew how to swim (not that he had ever had any lessons himself, for that matter). Hermione gently peeled Gabrielle off Harry and took the little girl in her arms.
"I'm going back down," said Harry, panicking and hoping that Ron didn't wake up while submerged.
"No, Harry, you can't," said Hermione shrilly. "Your gills are almost completely closed over. You'll never make it."
"I've got to try," yelled Harry. "Take Gabrielle and go."
"Harry, don't be an idiot!" Hermione shrieked. "Ron will be fine while he's in the enchanted sleep—you won't be fine without any means of breathing underwater."
"But the merpeople—"
"—will look after Ron," said Hermione forcefully. "The song wasn't meant to be taken seriously. It was just to make sure you kept to your time limit."
"Well that's bloody stupid!" Harry snarled. "All it did was scare me half to death, thinking that something terrible was going to happen to the hostages. Why wouldn't I be? That's what the song said—obviously the champions were meant to take it seriously."
Hermione blinked twice and looked appalled.
"You—you're right Harry! That was a horrible thing to make you believe. I'm so sorry—"
"It wasn't your fault," said Harry grimly. "You didn't come up with this stupid task! Anyway—the merpeople did a bunk as soon as the Giant Squid arrived. I can't just leave Ron behind—he could be floating away in the currents as we speak. At least I sort of saw the direction he was falling."
"Dumbledore can come back for him—he'll find Ron—he won't let anything happen to him."
"But..."
"No buts, Harry!" said Hermione sharply, "Now come on, help me with Gabrielle."
Harry relented, knowing that Hermione was right. There was no way now that he would make it without gills and flippers. Holding Gabrielle between them, Harry and Hermione eventually made it back to the platform. Dumbledore's anxious features came into view, his long white beard billowing in the breeze.
"He's still down there," Harry sputtered and gasped as he clambered onto the platform. "Ron—he's still down there and the merpeople swam off when they saw the squid."
Dumbledore swore, something that Harry had never heard him do. Hermione looked scandalized. Wand in hand, Dumbledore dove from the platform into the lake with a great splash. The next thing Harry knew, Fleur was at his and Hermione's side, clutching Gabrielle and crying.
"You saved 'er," she sobbed. "You save my seester, even though she ees not your 'ostage."
"Well, yeah," said Harry, perplexed, "Why wouldn't I?"
Then Fleur swooped in on him and kissed him full on the lips. Hermione was furious. Steam was coming out of her ears when Fleur released Harry's lips from her own. Fleur, still crying and oblivious to Hermione's livid features said, "and you—you 'elped save my Gabrielle," and kissed Hermione full on the lips too.
When she had finished snogging Hermione, Fleur beamed at the pair of them and took Gabrielle in her arms once more. Hermione was stunned and touched her lips where Fleur's had been. Harry grinned at her.
"Not so bad, was it?"
Hermione turned scarlet and swatted him on the shoulder and then said shyly, "No, it wasn't so bad, Harry."
The next thing Harry knew, his soggy wet head was clasped in Hermione's hands and she was kissing him so deeply it made his toes curl. When Hermione finished snogging him, Harry was in a blissful daze and wondering why he had never thought to ask her to the Yule Ball.
"Wh-what was that for?" asked Harry when the fog in his brain began to clear.
"For saving me, silly," said Hermione, beaming at him.
"But—you said—you were safe the whole time."
"Yes! But like you said, Harry, you couldn't possibly have known that for certain."
And then she kissed him again, and this time Harry kissed her back, his fingers tangled in her dripping wet curls.
"Bloody hell!" he heard someone familiar saying in an exceedingly wounded tone of voice.
Harry and Hermione stopped snogging and peered guiltily at a thoroughly drenched Ron, rivulets of lake-water streaming from his robes. Dumbledore wrung out his wet beard and proceeded down the jetty to confer with Madame Maxime and Karkaroff. The expression on Ron's face looked exactly as it had looked when Harry's name had come out of the goblet. Krum was standing next to Ron looking…not angry precisely, though there was a strong hint of that glinting in his eyes, but more disappointed than anything.
"I had feeling," he said stiffly.
Harry gulped, preparing to grab his wand if necessary.
"Er…" said Hermione awkwardly, her voice a bit squeaky. "I'm sorry, Viktor."
"No," Krum shook his head and sighed. "I knew zat there vos somethink between you two, but I hoped zat maybe I vos wrong."
Harry felt relieved that Krum wasn't going to punch him, but curiosity got the better of him.
"So…er… What happened to you?"
"Ze giant squid," said Krum, chuckling wryly and shaking his head. "I transfigure myself into half-shark. Ze squid does not like shark very much, I find out ze hard vay."
Then Krum gave Harry a wink and stalked off the pier, leaving Ron behind who was shooting daggers at Harry and Hermione with his eyes.
"So," said Ron angrily, "I see how it is. You ditched me for Hermione and left me to die—"
"It wasn't like—" Harry started to say.
"Don't be stupid, Ron!" Hermione snapped, barreling over Harry. "You know as well as I do that you were perfectly safe."
"Yeah—but Harry didn't know that!" he snarled. "And what's with all the snogging? I thought you were in love with Vicky—"
Slap!
"Ow!" Ron gaped at Fleur in shock, holding his hand to his cheek where she had slapped him.
"You do not talk to them zat way!" she said haughtily. "You should be happy for your friends to finally be togezzer. Ees in newspaper zat they are een love—Viktor know better also—'e wait for 'Arry to ask before asking 'Ermione to Yule Ball heemself."
And with that, Fleur beamed at Harry and Hermione once more and sauntered down the pier to the lakeshore hand in hand with her sister who was smiling and waving goodbye at them.
Ron stood there glowering at them for another moment before whirling around and storming off the platform.
Harry raised his eyebrows and rubbed his itching scar, then flicked a water-beetle from Hermione's hair.
"So, how long d'you reckon this time, Hermione?"
"Before he gets over it, you mean?"
"Yeah!"
"I'd say you'll be lucky if Ron calms down before the end of term," Hermione sighed.
"That's what I thought," said Harry, drawing Hermione closer again, "But he can bugger off if he thinks I'm giving you up for him."
More whoops went up from the stands—the loudest of which came from the Weasley Twins—and a hundred cameras snapped as Harry and Hermione kissed again... and the water beetle scurried away.
- 7
- 8
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Harry's Shorts: 2.0