Harry Potter and The Salvatore School Students

Chapter 22: Mermaid

As the tournament was being announced, Harry stood next to Hope who was standing in between Harry and Cedric. Hope looked around, "I don't mean to sound like the crazy ex, but where's Landon?" Hope asked Harry.

Harry shrugged, "Disappeared with Ron and Hermione, I guess..."

"Last night, something was stolen from each champion. A treasure of sorts. Now, these lie on the bottom of the lake. In order to win, each champion need only find their treasure and return to land. Easy enough? On top of this, the champion will have one hour to do so and one hour only, Start!" Dumbledore's voice announced from nearby speakers as Harry swallowed the gillyweed, Hope chanted her spell, "Respirare Aqua", and the 5 champion's dived into the water.

Hope frowned as the gills grew on Harry. She then raised an eyebrow as his feet became webbed and hands soon followed. Harry then decided to show off and do a little flip out of the water as Hope rolled her eyes. She then swam off, deep into the Black Lake towards the direction of some distant mermaids singing.

Harry dived back under and also went in the direction of the voices, into long, thick seaweed. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Fleur. He decided to ignore it and move on. Little did he know, a few minutes after, she was dragged down towards the deep depths of the Black Lake.

As Harry continued, he began to see huge fish-like creatures who swam too fast to be able to see but he had a sneaking suspicion of what they were: Mermaids. Fleur unfortunately forfeited soon after due to the near-death experience of being dragged to the bottom of the lake and almost drowned.

Harry finally found himself out of the seaweed, into a clearing with one single stone-made structure. Under it, he spotted 5 people, floating yet tied to the ground by seaweed. Hope was just a little ahead of him. She saw Landon and swam quickly over. They may have had their differences but deep down she loved him and could certainly never let him die. "Lecutio Maxima!" Hope yelled, and, although muffled underwater, the spell worked and sent a surge of electricity into the seaweed and burning it loose so that Landon could float up to the surface. Supporting it was a air bubble so none of the electricity killed everything in the water. 

Hope then turned to a smaller child that was attached to the furthest seaweed. She realised it was Fleur's sister. Hope had seen Fleur just 30 minutes earlier, practically beside her. When Hope realised that Fleur had been disqualified, it was too late. Landon had reached the surface and she had already been accounted for. She gave Harry a look and pointed to the little girl as she then went up to the surface to make sure Landon was ok.

Harry, however, was faced with a bigger decision. Not only was there Fleur's little sister for him to save, but there was also Ron, Hermione and Josie. Luckily, Cedric swung in, just in time to grab Josie because the choice could become any more difficult. Upon swimming up to the surface, Cedric looked down at Harry, tapping his wrist to indicate that time was running out. Harry nodded gratefully: now he only had to take 3 people up to the surface.

After untying the seaweed from Ron's legs, Harry pointed his wand at Hermione's seaweed, about to free her before a group of merpeople pointed their pitchforks at him, "Only One!" They hissed in Unison. They then swam away as some sort of shark-like creature swam through them. It was later revealed that it was none other than Victor Krum, ready to literally sweep Hermione off her feet.

Now Harry had the unmistakable choice between Ron and Fleur's sister. Despite the obvious rules, Harry simply could not leave the poor girl there so he waved his wand and made a ball of light shoot out of it, freeing Gabrielle Delacour. Harry then tried to swim up with both students- his webbed hands and feet slowly disappearing and his gills sinking back into his neck.

To make matters worse, the merpeople were less than happy that Harry tried to take two people despite the warning they gave him. Scratching and biting, the merpeople tried to drag Harry under. Harry quickly released Ron and Gabrielle, letting them float up to the surface as he yelped in pain, blood oozing out of his ankles.

Through all the agony and pain, Harry managed to reach his wand, flicking it until a surge of fire burst out of it, hurting if not killing the creatures around him as he swam up to the surface, just as the clock tower reached it's 6th ring. This meant he had successfully passed the task just in time. As he reached the dock, Hope rushed over and passed him her towel, "You saved her! Well done!" Hope congratulated.

As it turns out, Fleur was thinking the same thing. She hurried over to Harry, Gabrielle on her arm, "You saved her even though she wasn't yours to save! My little sister! THANK YOU!" she cried out, kissing him on the cheeks. She then turned to Ron to kiss him on the cheeks too, "And you, you helped!" she insisted.

The judges then rushed over to Harry, "Attention! ATTENTION!" Dumbledore boomed, "The winner is Hope Mikaelson!" he announced. The Salvatore Students clapped and so did Hope's little inner circle which was apparently enough to make a hell of a lot of noise, "However, seeing as Potter would have come second had it not been for his determination to rescue not only Mr Weasley but the others as well, we've agreed to award him his rightful SECOND PLACE! For outstanding moral fibre!"