Chương 49: The Descent into the Deep
There was no one in the hallway to witness the confrontation, person, or portrait, and for that, Harry was thankful. He did not want to have to deal with the reactions from anyone that would have seen what had happened right now.
The young couple walked hand in hand down to the Great Hall to eat their lunch and to be seen by the teachers and other students. They wanted to be in a very public place when the three morons were discovered.
It was about ten minutes later when a fifth year Slytherin prefect came running into the Great Hall to speak with Professor Snape.
"Excuse me sir, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle are in the hospital wing. The girl told her Head of House, "No one knows what happened but they are in pretty bad shape."
Without saying a word, Severus Snape got up from the head table and strode out of the Great Hall towards the hospital wing. He was sure that Potter was involved in this somehow and he sent a glare at the boy on his way out.
They spent the rest of their day wandering around the grounds and talking about non-tournament related things to keep Harry's mind off the upcoming task.
They went to bed that evening a bit worried about what the morning would bring.
Harry awoke sometime around six in the morning but he couldn't figure out why. Something wasn't right; he just couldn't put his finger on what was bothering him. Not being able to feel Hermione's emotions, he guessed that she was still asleep. They had stayed up rather late talking the night before.
He decided to wait in the common room for her to get up so they could go down for a light breakfast before the second task began.
After about thirty minutes, Ginny came down from the girls dormitories.
"Good morning Harry. Are you waiting for Hermione to come down?" Ginny asked him as she took the seat across from him.
"I don't think that she is up yet. We were up late talking but I wanted to go to breakfast with her. You don't have to wait for us. We will meet you down there." Harry replied.
"Are you sure?" seeing his nod, Ginny decided to go ahead and go down to the Great Hall for breakfast before Ron showed up and ate everything in sight.
Harry watched Ginny head out the portrait hole and head down for breakfast. Realizing that he was still tired he decided to lie down on the couch to wait for Hermione to wake up.
The next thing Harry knew was that Dobby was roughly shaking him. "Master Harry must hurry down to the Great Lake. The task is about to begin and you must rescue Mistress Hermione!" Dobby said while wringing his hands.
"What! I've been here all morning and Hermione never came down. What happened?" Harry said while sprinting up to his dormitory to retrieve his swim trunks and gillyweed.
He was furious. 'How did Dumbledore get Hermione to participate in the task?' He dressed quickly and realized that he was going to miss the start of the task if he did not get down there fast. Seeing no other option, Harry threw open the window in the room and hopped onto his Firebolt, pushing it to its maximum so he would get to the lake in time.
The crowd was getting antsy for the second task to begin. The problem was that the fourth champion had not arrived yet.
Just as Dumbledore was about to announce the start of the task he noticed a spec in the sky getting larger fast. It was Harry Potter making his way down to the lake on his broom. Distress and anger were clearly visible on his face by the time he was close enough for Dumbledore to see it clearly.
Trying to avoid a nasty confrontation before the task began, Dumbledore announced, "Let the task begin. Champions you have one hour to retrieve what you will miss most from the bottom of the lake."
The other three champions dove into the water immediately. Cedric and Fleur used the Bubble Head Charm and Krum did a partial transfiguration, turning his upper body into that of a shark.
Tossing his broom to Neville, Harry pulled out some gillyweed and stepped over to the edge of the platform. He shot a murderous glance at Dumbledore and said, "This isn't over. If anything happens to her while she is down there you won't like the consequences." stuffing a large chunk of gillyweed into his mouth he dove into the water.
Rita Skeeter was absolutely beside herself in glee. Harry Potter had just threatened Albus Dumbledore in front of dozens of witnesses! She began to put together the beginnings of her front-page story in her head as she waited with everyone else for the champions to complete the task.
Harry felt the familiar sensation of gills forming on his neck and his hands and feet turning into flippers once he had swallowed the gillyweed. Diving deeper, he swam out towards the center of the lake to where he knew that they would be keeping the hostages.
He skirted around the grindylows and dove deeper, following the ridgeline down towards the singing he recognized from his egg. He didn't know how long he had been in the water searching for the merpeople's village because his watch had broken when he forgot to cast the water proofing charm on it in his haste to get to Hermione in time.
The lake was huge and it was not easy to find the village. If Harry could have screamed, he would have. He knew that he was running out of time and the clue was very clear that he would loose her if he did not rescue her within an hour.
Just as he crested a rise on the bottom of the lake, he noticed that the plant life cleared out and he could see a village below him. In the center of the village were four posts but they were empty. In a panic, Harry swam up to them and began looking for any sign of Hermione.
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