All I Have Left

Chapter Sixty Three

I stand in between Fleur and Cedric, rocking back and forth on my heels nervously. I scan my surroundings as I pick at the ends of my silk robe that covered the one-piece, green swimsuit I was wearing, tuning out the conversation between Cedric and his dad, Amos.

Where is he... I think to myself,...where could he be?

I had my wand held tightly in my hand, flip flops on as I came to the conclusion Harry was late. So I scanned the rest of the area, most students there already, but no sign of Daphne, Ronald, or Hermione, the only other people I believed could calm me right now.

I looked behind me and saw Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxine grinning to themselves, looking quite glad Harry wasn't there, and I squint my eyes at them, but turn back around nonetheless. 

Then, a loud noise of footsteps slamming against the wooden dock came from behind us and we all turned to see Harry running quickly and hurriedly towards us. He then stopped so suddenly and abruptly that mud splattered all over Fleur's robe, earning a glare from the girl. 

"I'm... here..." He pants, putting his hands on his knees, gasping for breath. 

"Where have you been?" Percy asks, standing up from one of the judges chairs, since he was substituting for Mr. Crouch, and glaring at Harry. "The task's about to start!"

"Now, now, Percy!" Ludo interrupts, looking extremely relieved to see Harry had actually showed up, as was I. "Let him catch his breath!"

Dumbledore smiled at Harry, but Professor Karkaroff and Madame Maxine looked displeased to see him, not even bothering to hide it on their faces. 

Ludo then started to separate us, ten feet from one another. Harry was at the end of the line, next to Krum, Cedric next to him, me next to Cedric, and then Fleur next to me. Ludo then returned to the judges table, pointing his wand at his throat to amplify his voice for the whole audience to hear.

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle." I listen as I mutter the spell I practiced on myself, soon experiencing a ripping feeling on the sides of my neck, hoping that's how it's supposed to feel. "They have precisely one hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One... two... three!"

The whistle echoed through the shrilly air and I wasted no second to set off into the lake, hoping the spell I had casted was going to work. 

The water was so cold, it felt like the water was on fire, not that it was icy cold. I walked through the thick water, as fast as I could, closely behind Cedric, and when the water was at my waist, I suddenly felt like my throat had closed up.

I couldn't breathe; my throat was closing up and I was gasping for air, but it wasn't working, which meant my spell had worked, I had supposed. That just meant I had to enter the water quicker. 

I ran further into the water, soon the water being up to my neck, and I dive my head underneath the cold, shrilly liquid, my hair suddenly being soaked and it felt as though the air had suddenly filled my lungs, but it wasn't air, it was water.

I pressed my hands to the sides of my neck, feeling deep lines on the sides, as though someone had carved them into my skin. 

The spell had worked; I had Transfigured gills onto myself. 

I chuckled airily to myself, the sound being drowned out by the water, and beam, but remembering I was on a time limit and set out to search for whatever has been taken from me. 

I had kept swimming and swimming, eventually so deep that I couldn't see the bottom, and the silence was scary and eerie, unsettling in a creepy sort of way.