Sink or Swim

28

Harry's POV

April 15th, 1912 - 2:00am

The water was freezing. It was worse than freezing. I felt as though I would die as soon as I made contact with it. If it wasn't for the continuous ringing in my ears that soon cleared up to give way to the screams and the cries as I had resurfaced, I would have assumed I had died. 

I breathed for air, moving and twirling around in the water to find my friend. 

"Fred!" I cried, "Fred!"

I whirled around when a sudden cough and spluttering sounded from behind me. I found him, swimming while his head was tilted up to the sky with his eyes closed. His blonde hair was matted alongside his face and I made my way to him in the water. 

"Fred," I panted, "you alright?"

He nodded, breathless as he grasped my arm, "the chairs, Harry. We need to find the chairs."

I nodded and looked around helplessly, craning my head this way and that before I finally spotted them. The only thing was though, was that I wasn't the only one who spotted the chairs.

"We need to go," I said, "now!"

Fred took off swimming alongside me as I targeted one of the chairs. An older man, obviously rich as he wore a suit swam towards it. The chair was bobbing away from the ship fortunately for us, as we needed to get as much distance between us and the large boat immediately. 

I heard the ship creak as it continued to sink behind us and shivers ran up my spine. Determining whether or not it was from the actual water or the situation right now, was debatable. 

"Hey," I shouted, "leave that alone, it's mine!"

The rich man turned to me and smirked evilly as he took the chair in his hands, "sorry son. Poor scum like you don't deserve to live."

I grumbled and swam to him, reaching him with anger in my system and grabbed onto the chair on the opposite side of him. 

"Let it go," I said, "now."

"I had it first," he said. 

I scowled and clenched my fist before I swung it back and punched him right in the face. I heard the yelling and screaming from other passengers all around me but focused on distracting him so I could swim my way away from this man with my chair. 

I punched him again and sighed with relief when he finally let go of the chair and swam away from him quickly. I sighed when I looked down at the chair -or what was left of it - in my hands. It was just the part that I had attached the life jacket to, the top back rest that had been saved. The rest of it was merely floating away somewhere near the ship. 

Speaking of the ship...

I turned around as I used the chair to stabilize me, and gasped at what I saw.

I was about thirty feet away from the ship, but was far enough to see that the only lights that were on now, were the ones on the A Deck. The crew had just begun to work on the top two boats that were on the roof of the Captain's quarters. The large ship loomed tall in the darkness of the night, and as Fred swam up next to me with his own chair, we watched in pure fear and fascination.

"Come on," he said, "we got to sit on top of these chairs...use them as, well, chairs."

I nodded, tearing my eyes away from the ship before I bit my lip. I pressed the chair flat down onto the surface of the water and tried to hoist myself up onto it. The chair rocked back into the water and I flopped over, accidentally swallowing a mouth full of the salt. I coughed, trying to calm my mind as a rush of adrenaline flowed through me. 

"Try hoisting yourself on it through yours stomach, like the way you sleep. On your stomach," he said. I nodded. I took in a breath and placed one hand on the opposite end of the chair and one hand near my body and dragged myself onto the chair. It seemed to even out with my weight and I laid still for a few minutes, letting it rock back and forth before I slowly adjusted myself so I was sitting carefully on the small space provided. I looked over to find that Fred had successfully done the same.

"Now what?" he said.

"Now we have to get as much distance from them as we can," I sadly said. I looked back at the ship and the many passengers that were panicking in the water before I leaned over and began to paddle. I adjusted myself so I was back on my stomach, as did Fred who followed my movements, and we used our arms to propel us away from the boat and towards the many lifeboats that were so far away. 

We just needed to reach them safely. That's all. And then I'd see Jane and-

My own thoughts were interrupted by a hand around my ankle, dragging me back under the water. I yelped as Fred shouted and was only able to see his shocked face before I was submerged. 

Two hands were pressing down on my head, pushing me under neath the water as I struggled to resurface. I fought against them, grabbing the wrists of the man before identifying a silk material. It was the man from earlier. 

The one in the suit. 

I fought and kicked endlessly as he kept pushing me under. 

I couldn't die. Not now.

I slowly felt the air being taken away from me. My mouth opened, trying to somehow find any source of air but only letting out my own air instead. I roared underneath the water, fighting against this man for my own life before I felt him being lifted off of me. I swam back up to the water, coughing for air once I resurfaced. I blinked the water out of my eyes, and focused on the chair that was in front of me. I frantically swam towards it and grasped it before I turned around to find Fred choking the man that had tried to kill me.

"Get your fucking hands off of him!" he yelled. I looked over breathlessly and grabbed Fred's chair, keeping it with me so nobody would take it while he was taking care of the man.

"He doesn't deserve to live and neither do-"

Fred yelled and shoved the man under water, before he brought him up again and punched him two, three, four times. The man was knocked unconscious and Fred threw him back before he made his way to me.

"You alright?" he asked, scanning my face as I tried to regain my breath and steady my heartbeat.

"Yeah," I said, "I just want to get to her, mate."

Fred nodded and smiled, "we'll get you there. Let's go."

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Next chapter will be up soon. It's the last chapter after this. One more to go and then it's the epilogue. 

Don't be so sure about Harry living by the way. Remember, there's a lot of distance between the lifeboats and them, and many things can happen.

B-)

Love,

s