Capítulo 48: Harry's Race Against Time
Harry and the other champions all dove into the lake as Bagman's countdown ended. He slowed down and waited for the transformation to complete as he watched the others split up and head in different directions. Cedric and Fleur were both using the bubble head charm while Krum had taken a completely different approach and transformed part of his body into a shark. It was clearly not an animagus transformation but one done with a wand and Harry wondered what negative side effects such a move might also have. A loss of intelligence was almost a given, although for a task as simple as 'Find Hermione' it would probably be adequate.
Once the others were out of sight Harry cast a disillusionment charm on himself, hoping it would help him avoid any underwater threats and prevent his competition from following him. He then cast the tracking charm and was relieved to see the bright golden line once again spring forth from the tip of his wand and point down and eastward towards one of the deeper sections of the lake. He began swimming as fast as his new body would allow towards where the magic was pointing him. Cedric had chosen to search in this direction as well, although it was probably a lucky guess on his part. Harry caught up with and passed the other Hogwarts champion less than a minute later, despite the fact that Cedric had left the starting point almost thirty seconds before he had. Cedric's head shot up and looked around, but he could not see through Harry's disillusionment charm. Harry smiled as he swam past Cedric and thought about how glad he was to have the gillyweed. Cedric and Fleur had no chance of catching him as long as they used the bubble head charm, although Krum might be able to with his partial transfiguration.
Harry realized a moment too late that he was paying too much attention to following the golden line and not enough to his surroundings when he came over a small underwater hill and found himself face to face with an equally surprised giant squid. The squid's senses were much more adept at finding predators and prey it could not see so it was able to quickly find Harry even through the disillusionment charm. The huge animal began to panic at the sudden perceived threat and thrash its arms about wildly. Harry dodged as fast as he could, but he was not able to completely escape the giant squid in such close quarters. One of its huge arms hit Harry in the side and managed to knock his wand out of his hand and send him flying through the water several feet.
He hit the lake bed with a soft grunt and immediately started looking for his wand. Fortunately the tracking spell was still working and so he knew that it would be found at the nearer end of the golden line. Unfortunately though, his wand was now directly under the giant squid. Knowing he had no choice, Harry swam as quickly as he could towards his dropped wand. The squid sensed him swimming under it and began to sink to the lake floor trying to crush Harry under itself. As Harry reached his wand he knew he could not swim fast enough to avoid the squid so he spun around and yelled "Reducto!"
The curse hit one of the squid's many arms and opened a large, bloody gash in it. The squid did not scream in pain but instead quickly retracted its arms and began to slowly move away from Harry, who it now knew was a major threat. Harry began to swim away, eager to put some distance between himself and the squid, as the large animal seemed to think about whether or not to pursue him. To Harry's immense relief the squid slowly began to retreat, allowing him to continue on with the second task.
Harry's tracking charm had ended as soon as he cast another spell, a major flaw with the spell as far as he was concerned, so he recast the spell and restarted his journey towards Daphne. His violent encounter with the squid had taken less than two minutes, but he was still unhappy with the set back. After few uneventful minutes Harry swam over the edge of an underwater valley and spotted his target. Daphne, along with the other three people taken from the other champions, was tied to the lake floor and surrounded by merpeople. Unsure whether or not they would try and attack him, Harry disabled his disillusionment charm and approached cautiously. As he got closer the merpeople spotted him but made no movement to attack him or stop him, although he found that they were holding spears or tridents.
Once he reached Daphne he saw that she appeared to be unconscious. She did not seem to be breathing and when he put his hand over her heart he could not feel it beating. Knowing that he had reached her well under the hour he had been given, he assumed that she had been placed in some kind of magical stasis. Using a cutting charm he removed the ropes tying Daphne and wrapped one arm around her in order to carry her. He began to swim towards Hermione but a group of the merpeople jumped in his way and began threatening him with their weapons. Harry frowned and guessed that the champions would only be allowed to take one hostage. Harry knew that the other champions still had over fifty minutes to rescue the people that had been taken from them so it was not imperative for him to take them yet. First he needed to get Daphne to safety.
Harry sank to the lake floor and picked up a rock as the merpeople watched on curiously. "Celario rock." he said softly as he cast the first part of the tracking charm on the rock which he then dropped back where he found it. He was fairly certain he could find this spot again without it if he needed to, but having the charm there to help reassured him.
He then pulled Daphne close towards him and began to swim towards the surface. Harry was relieved to see that the merpeople seemed happy to let him go. Harry swam up and out of the valley and began to head back towards the viewing platform. He had not gotten very far when he suddenly stopped and began looking around. He had been by this part of the lake before, but this time it seemed different somehow. He didn't have to look for very long before he found what had changed.
About two dozen grindylows had hidden themselves behind plants, under rocks, in the mud on the lake floor, and in various other places in order to set up an ambush. They had clearly seen him approaching but had not yet made their move, choosing to wait until Harry was a little bit closer and it would be harder for him to escape. The creatures were vicious and quite dangerous when they hunted in packs but they did have several weaknesses. One of them was their speed. Harry could easily out swim them when using gillyweed, however that would be much more difficult to do while carrying an unconscious person.
He did however have one trick up his sleeve that they would not be expecting. In his preparations Harry had wondered how muggle underwater vessels moved. Most of them used propellers to force the water in one direction and push the ship in the other. Others used jets that did something similar. It seemed obvious to him that if he could find a spell that would do that he could propel himself underwater much faster than he would be able to swim. At first he had considered conjuring or transfiguring something into a propeller but realized actually holding and using it would be difficult. Finally the perfect spell to use had come to him and he was a little shocked by its simplicity.
"Aguamenti!" Harry said, grasping his wand tightly and pointing it behind him. Immediately a strong jet of water began pouring out of his wand, but since it was already underwater the force propelled Harry forwards. That, combined with his fin-like legs that were still kicking as strong as he could, enabled Harry to swim much faster than the grindylows even though he was carrying Daphne. Seeing that their ambush had failed, the grindylows began chasing after him but it soon became clear they were too late. Harry was simply too fast for them. Eventually they returned to their hiding spots and angrily waited for the next opportunity to come around.
It did not take long after that for Harry to reach the surface. As first his head then Daphne's rose out of the water the waiting fans began to clap and cheer loudly. Harry began swimming towards the viewing platform and felt the effects of the gillyweed beginning to wear off. If he had stayed underwater the gillyweed would still be working fine, but the transformation rapidly begins to reverse once the person begins breathing air again. Harry reached the platform just as his body finished transforming back to its normal state.
"And at just over thirteen minutes, our first champion to complete the task is Harry Potter!" Ludo Bagman announced to the excitement of the crowd. Harry was still trying to get Daphne safely on the platform when her eyes opened and she started coughing. Once she was finally on the platform he magically dried and warmed her and pulled her into a hug. She leaned heavily on him, still weak from the effects of the spell that had been used to keep her unconscious.
"It's ok Daphne, I've got you." Harry said, trying to comfort her. "You're safe now." Daphne nodded and laid her head on his shoulder. A member of the tournament crew approached them with a large towel which Harry gratefully took and covered them with.
"What about the others? Hermione is down there." Daphne asked.
"I know. They're still down there. There is still about fourty minutes left so hopefully they will be able to make it too." Harry answered.
"You're going back down there, aren't you?"
"If I have to." Harry responded seriously. He didn't really want to, but he was not willing to innocent bystanders get hurt in this stupid tournament. "I need to go talk to Bagman, will you be ok here for a minute?" Daphne nodded her head and reluctantly released her hold on him. Harry smiled and gave her a quick kiss before walking towards Bagman who was still talking to the crowd which was eagerly awaiting the next champion.
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