The Fatal Enchantment

The Second Task

Harry's P.O.V.:-

I put the Gillyweed in my mouth. It was slimy and rubbery. Moody kept thumping on my back and flung me into the Black lake as soon as the cannon boom. It was like he was highly agitated about something looking at me like I was some idiot...
The first gulp of icy lake water felt like the breath of life. My head had stopped spinning; as I took another great gulp of water and felt it pass smoothly through his gills, sending oxygen back to his brain. I stretched my hands in front as I stared at them. They looked green and ghostly under the water, and they had become webbed. I twisted around and looked at my bare feet - they had become elongated and the toes were webbed too: It looked as though he had sprouted flippers.
The water didn't feel icy anymore either... on the contrary, it felt pleasantly cool and very light... I knew Neville would be killing himself by now. So I flipped out of the lake as I flung myself inside the lake again as I heard the cheering of the crowd. Soon I began swimming far into the lake that I could no longer see the bottom.
Silence pressed upon my ears as I soared over a strange, dark, foggy landscape. I could only see ten feet around me, so that as I sped through the water new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the incoming darkness: forests of rippling, tangled black weed, wide plains of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. I began to swim deeper and deeper, out toward the middle of the lake, keeping my eyes wide open, staring through the eerily gray-lit water around me to the shadow beyond, where the water became opaque.
Small fish flickered past like silver darts. Once or twice he thought he saw something larger moving ahead of me, but when I went nearer, I rolled my eyes to see that it to be nothing but a large, blackened log, or a dense clump of weed. There was no sign of any of the other champions, merpeople, my treasures - nor, thankfully, the giant squid.
Light green weed stretched ahead of me as far as I could see, two feet deep, like a meadow of very overgrown grass. I stared at the scenery in front of me, when all of a sudden something gripped my ankle. I twisted his body around and saw a grindylow, a small, horned water demon, poking out of the weed, its long fingers clutched tightly around my leg, its pointed fangs bared ...
I stuck his webbed hand quickly inside his robes and fumbled for my wand. By the time I had grasped it two more grindylows had risen out of the weed, had seized handfuls of my trunks, and were attempting to drag me down.
"Relashio!" I shouted, except that no sound came out... A large bubble issued from my mouth, and my wand, instead of sending sparks at the grindylows, pelted them with what seemed to be a jet of boiling water, for where it struck them, angry red patches appeared on their green skin. I pulled my ankle out of the grindylows grip and swam, as fast as I could, and fought until they were no more in sight.
"How are you getting on?" I heard all of a sudden. I almost had a heart attack. I whipped only to Moaning Myrtle floating hazily in front of me, gazing at me through her thick, pearly glasses.
"Myrtle!" I said - but once again, nothing came out of my mouth but a very large bubble. Moaning Myrtle actually giggled.
"You want to try over there!" she said, pointing. "I won't come with you... I don't like them much, they always chase me when I get too close..." Giving a thumbs up as a vote of gratitude I swam over where she told me to. Then, at long last, I heard a snatch of haunting mersong.

"An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took..."

Hearing it I began to swim faster and soon saw a large rock emerge out of the muddy water ahead. It had paintings of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears and chasing what looked like the giant squid. I swam on past the rock, following the mersong.

"... your time's half gone, so tarry not
Lest what you seek stays here to rot..."
A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. Here and there at the dark windows, I saw faces... faces that bore no resemblance at all to the painting of the mermaid in the prefects' bathroom...
The merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at me as I swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch me better, their powerful, silver fish tails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands. I speeded on, staring around, and soon the dwellings became more numerous; there were gardens of weed around some of them, and even saw a pet grindylow tied to a stake outside one door. Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching me eagerly, pointing at my webbed hands and gills, talking behind their hands to one another. I sped around a corner and a very strange sight met my eyes.
A whole crowd of merpeople was floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a mer-version of a village square. A choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions toward them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue; a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Four people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson.
I spotted my sister Alexia tied between Hermione and Cho Chang. There was also a girl who looked no older than eight, whose clouds of silvery hair made me sure that she was Fleur Delacour's sister. All four of them appeared to be in a very deep sleep. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths. I sped over to Alex, as I cupped her oval face with my webbed hands. Her face appeared in peace as her head lolled about in the water. She... she was my treasure! I began to untie each and every one, especially Alex, Hermione and Cho. The ropes of weed tying them to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong. Sirius's knife, which he had gifted me for Christmas, was lying in my trunk, therefore of no use. I looked around. Many of the merpeople surrounding them were carrying spears. None of them help. I began to untie again, when all of a sudden a merperson came and hissed in his language.
"ONLY ONE" he hissed at me.
All of a sudden someone came and he had yellow vest with black trunks... it was Cedric. He had a huge bubble around his mouth through which he was breathing. He untied Cho, glanced at Alexia, and then pointed at his waterproof wrist watch telling me to hurry up. I went to Hermione, when all of a sudden someone looking like a man with the head of a shark came and snatched her past me. So now it was only Alex and Fleur's sister. There was no time to waste. I took hold of both of them as I fought with the merpeople. I was very much out of time.
My legs were now seizing up with the effort to keep swimming; my shoulders were aching horribly with the effort of dragging Alex and the girl... and my I was drawing breath with extreme difficulty. I felt the pain of my neck again. I kicked hard with my flippers and discovered that they were nothing more than feet... water was flooding through my mouth into my lungs... I was starting to feel dizzy, but light and air were only ten feet above me... and I have to get there... I have to save my sister along with Fleur's. Kicking my legs harder, I swam to the top of the lake. And then my head broke the surface of the lake; wonderful, cold, clear air making my wet face sting; as I gulped it down, feeling as though I would never breathe properly before, and, panting, pulled Alex and the little girl up with him. I began swimming.

Barty's P.O.V.:-

At last I saw Potter arrive to the top with Lexi. Her eyes blinked wide open gasping for air, like she'd suffered from a nightmare. They swam to the shores. Taking a bath robe, I went and help her up as I saw Potter being dragged into the lake again.
Mudblood Granger helped up the half-breed Delacour, while I went and helped up Lexi. Taking the robe and tying it around her. Even the blood traitor and sidekick of Potter's – Weasley helped her up. I meanwhile; helped up Lexi as I wrapped the bathrobe round her and tied the string of the robe tightly around her waist, accentuating her bust area. My mouth watered as I glanced at it, but removed my eyes as I smiled at her. Oh Merlin! I am so in love with this woman. If only she knew how I feel about her... and if only Severus allowed me to woo her as Barty... but to hell with it. Soon Master shall arise, and I can claim a nuptial event with Lexi as my bride for a prize for serving him and offering him to kill Potter. But now, I am beginning to doubt myself, as to whether I should do it. It would hurt Lexi. I decided to play my part cunningly, to offer myself as leverage to Dumbledore, when the time arrives. That way... I'm safe from any sort of harm.
Meanwhile Madame Maxime was trying to restrain half-bree Delacour, who was quite hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.
"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she 'urt?" she said.
"She's fine!" Lexi tried to tell her, but steam came out of her mouth. She must have frozen in the lake for sure. Delacour broke free of Madame Maxime and was hugging her sister.
"It was ze grindylows... zey attacked me... oh Gabrielle, I thought... I thought..." she said.
"Come here, you," said Madam Pomfrey to Lexi. She seized her and pulled her over to Hermione and the others, and forced a measure of very hot potion down her throat. Steam gushed out of her ears. It was a very funny sight. Immediately Potter flipped onto the deck.
"Yes! Whoo!" shouted the crowd.
"Gabrielle! It's fini!" said the half-breed.
"Harry, well done!" Lexi cried. "You did it, you found out how all by yourself!" If only she knew... how I'd helped her brother.
"You're alright. You're alright now." Dumbledore said.
"Get him another towel." Lexi shouted.
"I want all the judges over here, now." Dumbledore said. I gave curt nod and went and joined them. Dumbledore was discussing the points and all and I sneaked a look at Lexi. I saw Delacour mumble something as she kissed Potter's cheeks and did the same to Weasley and surprisingly Granger scowled. Krum mumbled something as he took out something from the mudblood's bushy mane.
"Attention!" said Dumbledore while the crowd cheered and Karkaroff encouraged for his school. I saw Lexi come from the crowd as she did the amplifying charm, and then shocked me. She put her two fingers in his mouth and whistled as she held the wand near her mouth. The crowd immediately cringed shutting their ears and mouth. Merlin! This woman is something...
"Attention! The winner is... Mr. Diggory!" said Dumbledore as the stupid Hufflepuffs cheered. "Who showed unique command of the Bubble-Head Charm. However, seeing as Mr. Potter would have finished first had it not been for his determination to rescue not only Mr. Weasley, but the others as well, we've agreed to award him... second place..." the crowd cheered. "for outstanding moral fibre!"
The Slytherins booed as Lexi slapped their heads.