The Wolf's Lion ~ Harry Potter (Editing)

Chapter Thirty-Nine | The Second Task

"Welcome to the second task. Last night something was stolen from each of our champions. A treasure of sorts. These four treasures, one for each champion, now lie on the bottom of the black lake. In order to win each champion need only find their treasure and return to the surface. Simple enough. Except for this, they will have one hour to do so and one hour only. After that they'll be on their own. No magic will save them."

Ariana stood on a spectator tower in the middle of the Black Lake, the nippy air pickling at her exposed skin. She stood in between Harry and Cedric, wearing a crimson swim suit with black stripes on the sides, representing Gryffindor house.

Early this morning, Ariana had finally allowed herself to sleep at ten past four, having brewed the Syreni
Potion. It was complicated but she had managed to brew the notoriously difficult Polyjuice Potion during her second year for herself and her friends, so it wasn't a shock that she managed.

Now, she tried to ignore the nausea and anxiety she felt, staring out into the dark depths of the lake. As if the nerves from the task wasn't enough, Hermione and Ron still had not returned. Ariana had an awful feeling that the 'treasure' she had to retrieve would be a human.

Neville, the Herbology whiz, had supplied Harry with a plant called Gillyweed, which would allow him to survive underwater for an hour. He had offered Ariana but she had already got her plan sorted, not that she

Ariana pulled the cork from the vial of thick, purple goop. She sniffed the top and almost wretched, the horrid smell of fermented fish hitting her nostrils.

"Cheers," she said, raising the glass bottle at Harry. She took a swift gulp of the lumpy brew, immediately pasting a hand over her mouth, her eyes screwed shut. "Oh God! This is repulsive!"

Harry groaned and patted her back, giving her a lop-sided, sympathetic smile. The witch inhaled deeply and chugged the potion, hand clamped over her mouth as she waited for the bolts of sickness to pass.

Her skin prickled with what felt like hot needles, making her hiss in pain before biting her lip to stop her from yelling. She watched in amazement as the top of her swimsuit disappeared, shiny red scaled appearing her her breasts. They continued down her stomach, joining together around her lower back.

The crowd 'ooh-ed' and 'aww-ed' as they watched the potion take its toll on her body, all looking on as the shiny scaled trailed down the willowy curves of Ariana's body.

Ignoring the pain, Ariana smiled and laughed once in pure relief; clearly the potion was working well. Before the scaled reached her thighs, the witch quickly undone the wand holster around her lower leg and attached it over her bite mark.

"You may begin at the start of the cannon," Dumbledore announced.

The cannon fired immediately and Ariana dove into the cool water; it should of been much more cold but the potion seemed to of taken care of the effect of the temperature in her body.

As the other champions swam away, Harry plunged in and flailed around. Concerned, Ariana swam over and watched him calm down. The Gillyweed had done its job and given the bit webbed fingers, gills on the side of his neck and elongated feet like flippers.

Her held his thumb up and then looked down at Ariana's new tail. Her eyes followed his, then widened in shock. Her torso was covered in crimson scales, giving her a backless corset. They continued down to the tips of her toes and fanned out into a beautiful fin, flecked with gold.

She inhaled and was pleasantly surprised by the oxygen that flooded her lungs, instead of cold water that would put her in a watery grave.

She and Harry nodded at each other, giving the signal that they were heading off to locate their treasures. Ariana held her arms in front of her and wriggled her body to propel herself through the dark water.