Out of The Shadows (Golden Trio Era) {1}

Gills?

Harry's POV

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One... two... three!" The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause; without looking to see what the other champions were doing, I pulled off my shoes and socks, pulled the handful of gillyweed out of my pocket, stuffed it into my mouth, and waded out into the lake. It was so cold I felt the skin on my legs searing as though this were fire, not icy water. My sodden robes weighed me down as I walked in deeper; now the water was over my knees, and my rapidly numbing feet were slipping over flat, slimy stones. I chewed the gillyweed as hard and fast as I could; it felt unpleasantly slimy and rubbery, like octopus tentacles. Waist-deep in the freezing water I stopped, swallowed, and waited for something to happen. I could hear laughter in the crowd. I knew I must look stupid, walking into the lake without showing any sign of magical power. The part of me that was still dry was covered in goosebumps; half immersed in the icy water, a cruel breeze lifting my hair, I started to shiver violently. I didn't look at the stands; the laughter was becoming louder, and there were catcalls and jeering from the Slytherins... 

Then, quite suddenly, it felt as though an invisible pillow had been pressed over my mouth and nose. I tried to draw breath, but it made my head spin; my lungs felt empty, and I suddenly felt a piercing pain on either side of my neck— I clapped my hands around my throat and felt two large slits just below my ears, flapping in the cold air... I had gills. Without pausing to think, I did the only thing that made sense— I dived forward into the water. The first gulp of icy lake water felt like the breath of life. My head had stopped spinning; I took another great gulp of water and felt it pass smoothly through my gills. I stretched out my hands in front of me and 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 I had sprouted flippers. The water didn't feel icy anymore either... on the contrary, I felt pleasantly cool and very light... I struck out once more, marveling at how far and fast my flipper-like feet propelled me through the water, and I noticed how clearly I could see, and how I no longer seemed to need to blink. I looked down; I had swum so far into the lake that I couldn't see the bottom anymore. I flipped over and dived deeper. It was very silent as I soared over a strange, dark, and foggy landscape. I could only see ten feet around me; as I sped through the water, new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the oncoming darkness: forests of rippling, tangled black weed, wide plains of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. I swam deeper and deeper, out toward the middle of the lake.

I looked around, my eyes wide, and stared though the eerily gray-lit water around me to the shadows beyond, where the water became opaque. Small fish flickered past me like silver darts. Once or twice I thought I saw something larger moving ahead of me, but when I got nearer, I saw that it was nothing but a large, blackened log, or a dense clump of weed. There was no sign of any of the other champions, merpeople, Ron— 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— not blinking— ahead of me, trying to discern shapes through the gloom... and then, without warning, something grabbed hold of my ankle. I twisted 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 my webbed hand quickly inside my 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 robes, 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, occasionally sending more jets of hot water over my shoulder at random; every now and then I felt one of the grindylows snatch at my foot again, and I kicked out, hard; finally, I felt my foot connect with a horned skull, and looking back, saw the dazed grindylow floating away, cross-eyed, while its fellows shook their fists at me and sank back into the weed.  I slowed down a little, slipped my wand back inside my robes, and looked around, listening again. I turned full circle in the water, the silence pressing hard against my eardrums. I knew that I was very deep in the lake now, but nothing was moving but the rippling weed. "How are you getting on?" I startled, thinking that I was having a heart attack.

I whipped around and saw Moaning Myrtle floating hazily in front of me, gazing at me through her thick, pearly glasses. "Myrtle!" I tried to shout—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..."  I gave her the thumbs-up to show that I was grateful and set off once more, careful to swim a bit higher over the weed to avoid any more grindylows that might be lurking there.