Evanora

One-Shot: Goblet of Fire - Second Task

Pain seared out of Harry's neck as slits began to form - Gills. Madeye shoved him into the water at the sound of the cannon, and he belly-flopped into the water, still writhing in pain. He looked down at his feet to find that they had turned into flippers, and his hands were webbed. The gilly weed worked! He leaped up above water into the air and let out a "YEAH!" Before diving back down again. He swam through the long, thick strands of seaweed, completely clueless of what he was supposed to do. An hour-long you have to look, to recover what we took. He thought. As he swam farther into the lake, he could hear voices singing the song that he had heard underwater when he opened his egg in the bath. He saw fuzzy arches in the distance and swimming mermaids around the arches. Suddenly, something large whooshed past him, with flowy hair and a long, scaly tail. He was caught off guard but kept swimming toward the arches, and five dark, still figures came into view. At a closer look, he realized that Evanora, Hermoine, Cho, and a small blonde little girl floated while tied to the bottom of the lake floor with a long strand of seaweed. He placed his hands on Evanora's face and felt around to tell that she was petrified, but small bubbles of air leaked from her nose and mouth every few seconds. Her dark, brownish-black straight hair flowed around her head in the water. He looked towards Hermoine, who was in the same state as the rest of them. He backflipped in the water downwards to reach the knot that held Evanora down and began to untie it, and when he did, her body floated upwards. Suddenly, Cedric Diggory, another component in the tournament cast a spell that broke the rope holding Cho. He linked his arm with hers and pointed to his watch at Harry. They were running out of time. Harry grabbed his wand and pointed at Hermoine's rope, preparing to break it, until a Mermaid held a pitchfork to his throat and hoarsely screamed at him.

"But she's my friend too!" Harry said as three mermaids held their pitchforks to his neck on all sides.

"Only one!" A mermaid hoarsely yelled and they all swam away. All of the sudden, a large shark swam in front of Harry with his mouth open and Harry frantically swam to the side, realizing that the lower half of the shark's body was human legs. The shark grabbed and ripped Hermoine's rope and pulled her away. Now there were only two people left: the small blonde girl and Evanora. Harry couldn't leave the blonde girl here, but he was running out of time and nobody else was there to get her. He linked Eva's arm with his and cast a spell to break the other girl's rope, and pulled her with him back through the seaweed. Harry was running out of time. Above water, there were five minutes left in the tournament. Hermoine rose to the surface with Victor Krum, and his face morphed from a shark back to normal. Fleur, another contestant, stood worried for her sister who she could not rescue because she was forced to retire and could 'take no further part in this task' according to Dumbledore. Back down under the water, Harry's webbed hands, gills, and flipper-like feet dwindled away, and he couldn't breathe the water anymore as he struggled to bring the two up to the surface. A small, squid-like being grabbed his leg and tried to pull him deeper underwater. He had no choice but to shove Evanora and Fleur's sister up to the surface while a million tiny squids grabbed his head, arms, and legs. He shouted muffled screams underwater that couldn't be heard. He was pulled deeper and deeper into the water as he struggled to get oxygen. Suddenly, he cast a spell and the squid swam away, frightened, but Harry couldn't make it to the surface when everything started to get dark until he felt a tight grip on his arm that belonged to a human that he couldn't see as everything faded out. Harry felt a rushing sensation on his body as if water was shooting against his skin, and suddenly he shot into the air with the hand still gripped on his left arm. Harry coughed for air as his left hand was given to a frantic, dry Ron that pulled him up first, and then Ron pulled up soaking wet Evanora and they both flopped onto the water-soaked, wet, stands where Hermoine and Ron were beaming at Eva speechlessly. She had just saved Harry. The last dong of the clock signaled the end of the Triwizard tournament. Evanora came into Harry's view. She had exhaustedly laid on her back as her chest rose and fell quickly as she panted for air. Harry stared bewilderedly at her as he panted for air that he missed when he was underwater. Hermoine wrapped a towel around Harry and one around Hermoine. They sat up and stared at each other as water dripped down their face. "You just saved me," Harry panted. "I only returned the favor," Eva said, breathless as they leaned in for a tight hug. They stared at each other, forgetting where they were. All Evanora's makeup had come completely off in the water, leaving no trace after being soaked for an hour. Harry noticed for the first time that she had very faint freckles that swept her cheekbones, and three bold ones dotted the top of her right cheek. Evanora noticed his green eyes matched the dark color of the lake they had just emerged from. Fleur ran up to Harry and thanked him, breaking the gaze of the two. "You saved my sister even though she wasn't yours to save! Merci beaucoup!" She said in a french accent, gripping the sides of Harry's head and planting a kiss on the top of his head and then resuming to stand by her friends and hug her little sister. Harry has a crush on Cho, Evanora thought, looking away. Ron said baffled:

"How did you do it?" He said staring at Harry and me.

I responded when Harry didn't. "When I saw that Harry wasn't there, I dove back down, and he was floating, and his wand was sinking, so I got it and grabbed Harry, and then," she made a waving gesture.

"Well don't hurt yourself," Ron said laughing as she struggled to speak in between breaths. Hermoine laughed in delight.

=============LATER===========================

Evanora sat in the Gryffindor common room replaying the events of today in her head