Chapter 6
To be Whole Again
Last Time
"I am already a target Harry, my aunt is the head of the DMLE that has put many dangerous criminals behind bars, so I am already a target for anyone who would want to take revenge against her, and my aunt has made sure I can take care of myself, so I do not think you will have to worry about me getting targeted. And coming to the point of sharing you. Harry I was raised knowing the Pureblood laws and culture, and I already knew that if we ever start a relationship, I would have to share you, and I have come to know enough about you to know that while you may not be able to focus all your attention on me, you will make sure that we both are happy." Susan assured Harry, before pulling him in for another kiss.
Once they broke up, Harry looked into her eyes and said. "Well then, there is only one thing to ask. Susan, will you be my girlfriend?"
Instead of replying, all Susan did was pull Harry back in for another kiss.
The Great Hall, Hogwarts, 26th December 1994
It was the day after the Yule ball and Harry was walking towards the Great Hall with a skip in his steps. Just yesterday Susan had agreed to be his girlfriend. Harry had been over the moon ever since. Currently, he was going for breakfast, when a voice stopped him.
"Hey Harry!"
Turning around, he saw that the person who called him out was Neville, the boy he had shared his dorm with for the past 3 years if you do not count the 6 years in the previous timeline.
"Hey Neville, how are you?" Harry said, while greeting Neville, he had no issues with Neville, he could not really fault the boy for not defending him when the house stood against him. Neville was a shy boy, mostly due to the upbringing he had, so one could not expect the boy to stand up against his whole house for him.
Once Neville had started to grow out of the shy and meek boy phase after the 5th year Ministry of Magic debacle, he had turned into an amazing friend for Harry. Particularly post-war, when Harry had finally taken up the titles of Lord Potter and Black but had no idea what it entailed. That's when Neville saved him and taught him what the pureblood traditions were, what the political structure looked like, and what was required from a Lord of his station. This led them to become great friends in the future.
So, no, Harry was not angry at the boy, he was in fact angry at himself, he was soo engrossed in getting along with Susan and Daphne that he had forgotten about his friend, the boy that stood as his best man in both his weddings.
"I am doing good. Listen, Harry, I am sorry for not standing up for you when our house turned against you, I am not as brave as the rest of you. I believed you when you said that you did not enter your name in the goblet, but I still let the others harass you, and did not do anything to stop it. I am sorry" Neville apologized while looking down at the floor.
Harry seeing that Neville was clearly nervous, decided to ease his worries. Putting a hand on his shoulder he said. "No issues mate. You were not part of the group that harassed me, nor were you a part of the 'Banish Potter' movement. I have no problems with you. And I really do not think you are not brave Neville. The hat is never wrong."
This seemed to ease Neville's worries, as he looked up towards Harry and outstretched his hand towards him. That Harry readily took.
"Thanks Harry."
"No problem mate. Now I do not know about you, but I am hungry. Let's go to the Great Hall for breakfast, eh?"
The two boys proceeded to walk towards the Great Hall, upon entering, they walked their separate ways, Neville going towards the Gryffindor table. While Harry moved towards the Hufflepuff table.
That did not surprise many now, as it had become more of a regular occurrence for Harry to sit on the Hufflepuff table during some meals, and even Luna used to join him some of the times. What did cause quite a surprise was Harry walking over to Susan and kissing her before starting to load his plate with food.
Even though many had already speculated that the two were a couple, this action confirmed it. Many girls were looking at Susan with jealousy in their eyes, but none more than a certain blue-eyed, blonde Slytherin.
Suddenly two squeals broke through the silence that had fallen on the occupants. Which caused both Harry and Susan to wince due to them being so near the source of the sound.
Susan playfully glared at her boyfriend. "Great! You just had to do that, didn't you? Now who is going to control those two? I will be hounded for details the whole week." Pointing towards Hannah and Su Li.
"We could always transfigure their lips shut you know." Harry replied nonchalantly.
"Why didn't I ever think of that!" Susan said while smacking her head with her palm.
Turning to hug her boyfriend, she said "You are the best Harry!". Before turning to face the two girls that squealed and looked at them with evil eyes, and moving her hand towards her wand. That got the two girls to look at Susan with horror in their wide eyes before they stood up and made a hasty retreat from the table and out of the Hall.
The Great Hall, Hogwarts, 26th December 1994
Daphne was sitting on the Slytherin table with her group of friends, having had her breakfast early, she was reminiscing about the Yule ball while waiting for her friends to get over with their breakfast.
She surprisingly had a fun time at the ball. At first, she was just going to join their friends, have something to eat, mingle a bit, and go back to her dorms. But that all changed when the champions entered.
Harry was looking great, especially now that he seemed to have gone through a growth spurt. He had grown a couple of inches, and he no longer was that scrawny kid, he had built up some muscles, and while it was not visible in the Hogwarts robes they wore. It was abundantly clear when he came in wearing that tight-fit formal robe, that showcased his muscles. Also contributing to the allure were his bright emerald green eyes.
Until now she had decided that she would not be dancing with him, as the bet that Tracey accepted on her behalf was not valid in her mind. Looking at him now, she was having second thoughts about that decision of hers. And also, for some strange reason, she was feeling a bit uneasy when she noticed Susan on his arm, coming in as his date.
That feeling only seemed to increase as she saw them dance on the floor and the way they seemed to be so happy. This caused her to decide that she would go talk to them, see how it goes, and maybe she would let Harry even take her for a dance.
Talking to them was surprisingly good, it was a different experience and a refreshing one, she was so used to Tracey's gossip and Blaise's short answers that talking to Harry and Susan was fun. She surprisingly also got along well with Susan, and both of them teamed up to tease Harry a bit.
Then, Susan surprised her once more when she encouraged them to go for a dance, she did not think that Susan would agree to it, let alone encourage them. But dance they did, and it was wonderful, Harry was being the perfect gentleman, flirting with her a bit, while he also seemed to notice her worries when they talked about a friendship between them, and did everything he could to ease them. Promising that he would be there to defend her if needed.
He did not imply that she needed saving as she was a girl, he rather showed that he had full faith that she would be able to protect herself, but also promised to be there if ever she required him. And that was a big relief for her, as now that she and her sister by association, had the protection of Lord Potter Black, no one in Slytherin would be dumb enough to harm them. Well, except for a blonde 'ferret', but she would easily be able to handle that 'ferret'.
' How come I never noticed the resemblance between Malfoy and a ferret, now that Harry said it, it's pretty hard not to notice the similarities.' This only caused her to laugh a bit, which she did her best to control before others caught the ice queen laughing. It would not be good for her image.
But she was not able to hide it from her two friends, both of them were staring at her while gaping.
"What?!" she snapped.
"Did you just laugh?" Blaise asked while Tracey continued to stare before her eyes turned devilish, and Daphne knew she was not going to like this.
"Was it something Potter said during the dance?" Tracey asked.
"You danced with Potter?!" Blaise asked, shocked that Daphne even allowed a boy to take her dancing, let alone Harry.
"After Tracey so foolishly accepted that deal with Harry, I had to dance with him. I do not fancy being called a coward or a cheat." Daphne replied sharply.
"Harry huh?" Tracey said teasingly.
This just caused Daphne to gain a red tinge to her cheeks and look down to somehow avoid others from seeing that she was blushing. But this only caused and already gaping Blaise's jaw to drop to the floor in shock.
"So, what did Harry say that made the ' Ice Queen' laugh?" Tracey asked in her mischievous tone.
Hearing the nickname, only caused Daphne to scowl before she let out a sigh and told them about the resemblance between Malfoy and a ferret that Harry had pointed out during the dance.
Both of them, hearing this snapped to look towards Malfoy, before Tracey doubled over in laughter, holding onto her stomach, and even the ever-calm Blaise was having a hard time controlling his laugh.
"Oh… That's gold! How did we never work that out?" Tracey wheezed out while struggling to stop laughing, which caused most of their housemates to turn their attention towards her.
Daphne also noted that the attention was also diverted as soon as Harry entered the Great Hall with Longbottom in tow. As usual, he did go to sit on the Hufflepuff table, but what really got Daphne's eye to twitch was when Harry kissed Susan. What she did not notice was Tracey's grin when she also looked towards what she was looking at.
While she had no issues with Susan, she in fact liked Susan a lot, she was a change, and one that she definitely was looking for, she always wanted a friend whom she could talk with, who shared similar interests to her, whom she could debate with about the politics, or laws, and even joke around with. Susan turned out to be the girl that she wanted to have as a friend, and she also got along really well with her, especially after her dance with Harry. But she had no idea why she was feeling agitated whenever she saw her with Harry.
Library, Hogwarts, 26th December 1994
Harry and Susan were in the library, now that the Yule Ball was out of the way and the second task coming closer, Susan now wanted to make some progress in finding out the clue whatever it took. It looked like Susan was more determined than before to see her boyfriend win the bloody tournament.
"We have been at this for days. Tried every spell we know. I even discretely asked Aunt Amy to give me some revealing spells, but even those did not work. Why won't this bloody thing just tell us what is the clue?!" Susan shouted in frustration.
It was a good thing Harry had remembered to set up the silencing wards, otherwise, they were sure to be banned from this place for a lifetime.
"What's the matter Susan?" a voice called out.
While both the occupants turned to see who had called out, they noticed it was Daphne, and she had just crossed the silencing ward and was looking at them with curiosity.
"Hey Daphne! It's just this bloody egg won't budge." Susan greeted; a bit deflated.
"Isn't this the egg you had to get in the first task?" This time the question was directed towards Harry.
"Yeah, the same. The judges said that the clue for the second task is in this egg, but we are just not able to find out." Harry replied. When suddenly, he got a brilliant idea. Winking at Susan discretely, he asked Daphne. "Do you want to try it?"
Daphne just shrugged and sat beside Harry, which did get Susan to grin a bit wider.
She found it a bit odd, when just before she opened the egg, both Harry and Susan conjured a pair of earplugs and put them in their ears. She should have known something was wrong when she saw this, but the excitement of a new mystery getting the better of her as always.
As soon as she opened the egg, she found out exactly why they both were using ear plugs. A wail so loud that she had to drop the egg and squeeze her ears shut with her hands. It was like running a nail on a blackboard.
Harry calmly picked up the egg and sealed it shut, while he had a shit eating grin directed at Daphne, and Susan was no better, giggling behind her hand.
Once Daphne calmed down enough, she started to glare at the two laughing teens. "You could have told me about it!" She exclaimed.
"Now where's the fun in that?" Harry replied, before running to hid behind Susan when a wand was levelled at him.
"Coward" mumbled Daphne with a scoff, and this only served to make Susan laugh more.
If one noticed carefully, you would be able to see a small smile play on the ' Ice Queen's' face.
Once everything had calmed down, Daphne decided to help the two solve the clue, she was attracted to mysteries like a moth to fire. Maybe that's the reason she became an unspeakable in the future.
First, they decided to bring Daphne up to speed, by going through all the different ways they had tried to get the clue and all the theories they had. Daphne did bring a different point of view for the group, while Susan was thinking that some part of the egg needs to be transfigured to hear the sound instead of the screech, Daphne wondered if the screech was the clue itself.
But even after an hour of trying, they were not able to work the thing out. Nothing seemed to be working. Deflated, the trio decided to meet there every day at the same time when they all had a free class, and try to solve the thing any way possible.
Hogwarts Grounds, Near Black Lake, 26th January 1995
Harry had decided to let Susan and Daphne know that he had 'solved' the egg. The trio had been meeting daily in the library, sometimes in an unused classroom, and after a week or two, they had started to meet on the grounds once they had finally given up on trying to find a spell to solve the clue in the library.
Harry was more than happy with all that was going on in the past few weeks, the trio had grown closer, and they would try and solve the egg, but more times than not end up just talking and joking around, they had even gone for lunch during the recent Hogsmeade weekend and their friends had tagged along post that.
Hannah, Neville, Su Li, Luna, Tracey, and Blaise had all decided to join them once they had their lunch, all surprisingly got along well with each other, at first, the awkwardness was visible as there was a Gryffindor, and three Slytherins in the group. Which caused Neville to be more closed off than his usual self, but that awkwardness went out the window once Tracey decided to make it her mission to make Neville talk and laugh. The group shared quite a few laughs at their antics.
They could see other students talking while they stared at this strange group. The group consisted of students from all the houses, which was quite a rare sight to see. But they did not care about others staring, they were having a great time, and were making new friends.
Today, as Harry was making his way towards the same spot on the grounds where the trio used to sit nowadays, he had decided to let them know about the clue. As he neared he was able to see the girls were already there, but along with them was another group of students, with their backs to Harry. Harry could perfectly make out which the group was, looking at the blonde hair that the boy in front had, it was clear that the group was Malfoy's. Which made Harry take out his wand and silently approach them after making sure he was invisible.
As he neared, he was able to make out what Malfoy was talking about.
"… associating yourself with Blood-traitors and half-bloods. Can't really expect anything else from a half-breed like you anyways." sneered Malfoy, that alone made Harry angry, but he did not do anything right now. He spoke the truth when he said that Daphne was able to protect herself. But if any spell was fired, Harry would not wait before making himself known.
"Seems like the daddy's boy has finally grown a pair of balls. Insulting me out in the open." came Daphne's reply, she was more amused than anything.
"Shut up Greengrass! Malfoy is more man than your Potter would ever be." Parkinson screeched, trying to defend Malfoy.
"Oh, is that so? I seem to remember Malfoy running away when Granger punched him right in the nose last year. While Harry has been able to take down a dragon." Susan interjected, defending her boyfriend.
The remainder of that incident only seemed to infuriate Malfoy, Harry knew he was trying hard not to take out his wand and curse the two girls.
"Ooh, did that actually happen? I never heard of that!" Daphne asked, acting surprised, but one could clearly see the amusement she was trying to hide.
"Yeah. Harry told this to me last week. It was our first Hogsmeade meet. When this ferret and his two goons tried to insult Granger and Weasley. Granger apparently punched this ferret so hard, he fell on his ass and ran away talking about his daddy" Susan replied before both she and Daphne started laughing.
Hearing this, Malfoy had enough, and just when he was about to curse Susan, a spell from behind impacted Malfoy, and in his place now stood an actual ferret.
All with shock on their face turned to see Harry Potter standing behind them with his wand out and pointed at the group. Before Malfoy's goons could take out their wands, Daphne and Susan had already disarmed Parkinson and Nott, leaving Crabbe and Goyle to be disabled by Harry.
Harry decided to have a bit of fun. He did the same routine he remembered Moody doing in the original timeline. Which caused quite a commotion, Nott and Parkinson were running behind a ferret, trying to get it out from inside Crabbe and Goyle's pants. This continued for some time before Harry took pity on the boy and turned him back.
He walked really close to Malfoy, making it clearly visible that Malfoy was quite a bit shorter than Harry, and less muscled, making him back away. Before he could back away any further, Harry pulled him by his collar before whispering in his ears. "Pick your fights carefully ferret. I am the Lord of the Black house, which your mother is a part of. Just imagine the things I could do. I could annual your mother's marriage to your daddy, I could take away all the dowry that was given to the Malfoy family by the Blacks, I could disown your mother and you."
With each word, Malfoy was starting to pale more and more. His previous anger turned into sheer terror when Harry mentioned disowning him and his mother, and more so when he mentioned taking back the dowry. He knew while his family was wealthy, half of their wealth had come from his mother marrying into the family. And if that was taken away, he would never be able to live the same lavish life he was so used to living.
"Next time I see you harass any of my friends. Believe me, there will be a lot to pay, and your family coffers are not full enough for that." With this final warning, Harry let Malfoy fall on his ass before Malfoy scrambled to pick up his wand and run back to the castle, his goon following his example.
Looking back at the girls, he was able to see that while they had their hands on their hips and were trying to glare at him, he was able to see the amusement they were fighting to hide.
"While I knew you both could take care of yourselves. I just was very much tempted to turn Malfoy into an actual ferret for once." Harry replied, trying to play innocent.
Hearing this, Susan could not hold back and snorted, and before long all three were laughing.
"So, what do we do now? We have less than a month left." Susan said.
"I actually have solved it." Harry replied, smirking at both of the girls.
"Come on Harry, get real. We all know Susan and I are the brains in this group. There is no way you were able to solve it." Daphne replied, acting shocked, and Susan was also nodding her head.
"Is that so? Then maybe I won't tell you how to solve it. Go ahead use your brains and try to solve it." Harry countered, the smirk remaining on his face.
"Oh, come on Harry! We were only joking. You will not actually keep us in suspense, will you?" Susan asked, trying to use puppy eyes to get Harry to fold.
Harry just made a thinking pose, before replying "No." Causing both the girls to pout cutely.
"How about if I write your potions assignment for you." Daphne tried.
"No."
"How about I give you my stash of chocolate frogs." Susan offered.
"No."
"Harry, if you do not tell me the clue right this instant, you will be coming with the both of us this Sunday when we go shopping." Susan threatened.
This made Harry paler than Malfoy, and before long he was blabbing out the clue and how he solved it.
"So…. You broke into the prefect's bath and dropped the egg inside which you so strangely decided to take with you for the bath?" Daphne repeated slowly, while both Susan and she were looking at Harry as if he was crazy.
"Yep" Harry replied.
"Okayyy…. First, you are going to give me the bathroom password, and second. What the hell is something that you will sorely miss?" Daphne questioned.
"I thought through each and everything. I have some personal belongings, but I am not really attached to them, if they were taken, I wouldn't miss them much. There are my parent's things but those are locked in my trunk, and I already have made copies of the album I have of them." Harry replied.
"So, what could the organizers take that you would sorely miss?" Susan questioned.
"The only thing I can think of is that they would take someone rather than something, as that is the only thing one would sorely miss." Harry said this while looking at Susan pointedly.
Both the girls understood what that look meant. Susan just got up from her place and sat on Harry's lap, before kissing him soundly. Harry's arm instinctively went around her waist, keeping her in place, while Susan's was in Harry's hair, pulling him closer.
Daphne quickly diverted her gaze. Not wanting to intrude on a private moment. But also feeling jealous. After spending so many days with Harry, she had finally come to the conclusion, that yes, she did have a crush on Harry.
' Keep it in Daphne. Hopefully, this is just a stupid schoolgirl crush thing and will fade away with time.' Daphne steeled herself.
' But what if it is not? What if you are actually falling for Harry? What if Susan does not want to share and keeps him for herself? You know you would do that if it was you in her place.' Called out a voice in her head.
Library, Hogwarts, 26th January 1995
The entire group was in the library, Harry had decided to let all their friends know about what the clue was and that he was supposed to search in the Black Lake for Susan for an hour.
Now that the clue had been solved, all they needed to figure out was how to get Harry to be underwater for an hour, without drowning.
"What about transfiguration?" Su Li suggested.
"No way! That's too dangerous! Even if you are powerful, you are not going to transfigure yourself or have anyone else do it. Understood?" Daphne replied while saying the last part to Harry firmly. Which Harry readily agreed to, not wanting to anger the witch any further
"How about bubblehead charm?" Blaise suggested.
"Too weak, easily breakable." Hannah countered.
"There has to be a way! I mean, we can't be the first to wonder how to hold our breath underwater for such a long time, can we?" Tracey said, a bit frustrated.
"If only we could conjure some gills on you." Susan said wistfully.
Hearing this, Neville who was silent until now, suddenly snapped his neck to look up. Eyes widening.
"You have something for me Neville?" Harry asked, knowing full well that Neville was going to suggest Gillyweed.
"Gillyweed. Just yesterday Professor Moody gave me a book on rare plants. It mentioned Gillyweed giving a person the ability to breathe underwater, by giving them gills." Neville said, a bit shy as all were looking towards him.
Hearing that caused Harry to frown. He had not forgotten about the fake Moody or Crouch Jr. but as he was required to make the Triwizard cup into a portkey, Harry had decided to leave the man alone for now. But he would need to think of something. He could not let the idiot Fudge, just come over and have a dementor's kiss ordered.
"That's brilliant Neville! Now we only need to think about how will we get it." Susan excitedly replied.
"That's not an issue. I will just get it owl ordered from Diagon Alley." Harry replied.
"Great! So now all we have to do is wait for the task." Susan replied.
"You do not have to agree to be the hostage, Susan. Who knows what's down there." Harry said, looking worriedly at Susan. Though he knew nothing would happen, that did not mean he was not worried for Susan.
"Do not worry Harry. I have full faith that you will be able to get me out before anything happens. And the organizers will make sure everything is fine unless they want the head of DMLE after their heads." Susan replied, trying to soothe Harry with a kiss.
Nobody but Tracey noticed the jealousy that was palpable in Daphne's expressions.
Hogwarts Grounds, Near Black Lake, 24th February 1995
Entering the Champion's tent, Harry immediately noticed he was the last Champion to arrive. Viktor Krum was already there wearing a wet suit, leaning against the tent pole with the usual scowl on his face. He greeted Harry with a nod.
Next, he noticed Fleur. Harry was sure she would be commanding most of the attention due to her silver swimsuit, an outfit that showed off her curvaceous figure and full breasts. When she noticed Harry had entered the tent, she gave him a small smile.
The last Champion in the room was Cedric, wearing a similar wet suit to Krum's but in Hufflepuff colors. He as well greeted Harry with a smile and a wave of his hand.
He noticed all of the Champions were nervous, as they all knew what was taken that they would 'sorely miss', Cedric and Krum's hostages were their respective dates, while Fleur's hostage was her sister, Gabriele.
As the Champions made small talk, mainly to ease their own worries regarding the safety of the hostages, they were interrupted when the judges entered the tent and explained what they already knew, their respective Yule Ball dates were taken, while for Fleur the hostage was her sister.
Soon they were moving towards the Black Lake. Harry could clearly hear the cheers of the crowds in the stands around him. There were catcalls, jeers, and shouting around him. No doubt most of them were focused on the Veela wearing a tight swimsuit.
While all the Champions were in their swimwear, Harry was still in his casual robes. Just before the task was set to start, Harry took off his robes and the wolf whistles and cheers seemed to increase, while he could also see Fleur staring at him appreciatively. He knew why, it was due to the ritually enhanced body. He had grown in height and gained a considerable amount of muscle mass.
As soon as the cannon sounded signifying the start of the task, Harry made sure to cast a warming charm on himself before chewing down on the Gillyweed he had procured.
Almost immediately he felt the effects of Gillyweed take place. He started to feel some lacerations form on his neck before they transformed into gills and he was able to breathe. Also, the change occurred on his hands and feet. His feet elongated and transfigured to make them look like those muggle flippers that the scuba divers use. He also noticed that his hands also began to appear webbed and making navigating through the water for him a bit easier.
With the transformation complete, Harry set off, but did decide to show off a bit, with full thrust, Harry broke vertically through the surface of the water and shot out 15 feet in the air, before diving straight down into the Lake.
Knowing where the Grindylow colony was Harry made a beeline for the colony, wanting to make sure that Fleur was not attacked this time around.
Upon reaching his destination, Harry took out his wand and produced a light so bright that it was visible to the audience above the water as well. And as predicted the Grindylows fled, them being the creature of the dark, could not bare light so bright.
' Now Fleur should be safe. Now onto finishing the task.' Harry thought as he made his way towards the Merpeople village.
Once he reached the village, he was greeted by a crowd of Merpeople, all holding their tridents, looking at him warily. Near the village center, Harry could see the hostages floating.
As Harry swam over to the hostages. He noticed that indeed Fleur's hostage was her sister. While he was tempted to free her as well knowing the animosity between the Merpeople and the Veela species, he also knew that doing so might not be a good idea. He had already dealt with the Grindylow, so Fleur should be able to save Gabrielle.
Moving his gaze, Krum's hostage was indeed his girlfriend, the girl who had been his date to the Yule Ball. While Cedric's as predicted was Cho. Then finally Harry's hostage, Susan, her face completely blank as she floated about gently in the water, her dark red hair waving about all around her.
Swimming over to Susan, Harry took out his wand and flicked it while pointing it towards the rope that was holding onto Susan. The cutting curse sliced through the rope and freed Susan, who immediately started to float up towards the surface of the water slowly.
Harry looped an arm around her and propelled them up. Their path to the surface was without any obstacles. Soon they broke through the surface and Susan started to come out of her enchanted sleep.
"Harry?" Susan choked out, spitting out water as she came to her senses.
"Hey Susie, had a nice swim?" Harry asked teasingly, his voice a bit different due to the effects of the Gillyweed.
"Shut up! Now take me towards the stands. I am freezing" Susan said while shivering due to the cold.
Hearing this, Harry took out his wand and cast a warming charm over Susan, making her sigh in relief. Once that was done, Harry made his way towards the stands while holding onto Susan.
Once Susan was out, Madam Pomfrey rushed over to Susan to cover her with a thick blanket and handed over a cup of hot chocolate. Susan took the drink gratefully and made her way towards the deck's edge. Giving Harry some company as he was still under the effects of the Gillyweed, hence he was not able to come out from the Lake.
They were sitting in silence when suddenly something broke through the water, and they could see an injured Fleur trying to make her way towards the deck. Harry noticing this dashed forward to make his way towards Fleur, and once making himself aware, Harry looped an arm around Fleur's waist and helped her make her way towards the shore.
But Harry did notice that Fleur did not have Gabrielle with her, which caused him to frown.
' I made sure to clear out the Grindylow colony, then what could have attacked Fleur?' Harry thought.
While Fleur was being tended to by the Matron, she was hyperventilating and screaming in rapid French.
"Je dois la sauver. Laissez-moi revenir en arrière." Fleur seemed hysterical.
While not knowing French himself, he had a pretty good idea of what Fleur meant. Knowing Gabrielle might be in danger due to the animosity between the Merpeople and Veela nation, Harry pushed himself to the limit to reach her as soon as possible.
Reaching the place where the hostages were kept, Harry noticed that both Krum and Cedric's hostages were not there, meaning that they either were already out of water or making their way back to the stands.
Floating there alone was Gabrielle, and with growing dread, Harry noticed a male Mer was making his way towards Gabrielle. Harry not wanting to wait to verify the Merpeople's intention fired out a stream of boiling water between the Merpeople and Gabrielle.
As soon as the Mer fell back, Harry dashed forward, cut off the ropes holding Gabrielle in place, looped an arm around her waist, and shot up. Noticing that the Merpeople were following. Harry pointed his wand behind him and fired off a high-speed stream of water, propelling them faster through the Lake while slowing down the Merpeople.
Harry felt the effects of the Gillyweed start to wear off as he pushed more magic into his wand, intending to be out of the water as soon as possible. Just as the transformation back to his normal form was completed, they were propelled out of the water, into the air, and were going to land directly on the deck. Harry made sure to keep Gabrielle above him, making sure he took the full brunt of the impact.
"Gabrielle!"
AN
So that was the chapter.
Integrating of Daphne into the group, a bit of conversations.
And the second task.
Next up, some Daphne Susan convo, some trips, some fights, need to plan XD