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

Escaping the Lake

I swam on for what felt like at least twenty minutes. I kept passing over vast expanses of black mud now, which swirled murkily as I disturbed the water. 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..." I swam 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 could see 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 went on, staring around, and soon the dwellings became more numerous; there were gardens of weed around some of them, and I 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 saw a very strange sight.  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.  Ron was tied between Hermione and Mikayla. There was also a girl who looked no older than eight, whose clouds of silvery hair made me think that she was related to Fleur. 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 toward the hostages, half expecting the merpeople to lower their spears and charge at me, but they did nothing. The ropes of weed tying the hostages to the statue were thick, slimy, and very strong. For a fleeting second I thought of the knife Sirius had bought me for Christmas—locked in my trunk in the castle a quarter of a mile away, no use to me whatsoever right now. I looked around. Many of the merpeople surrounding them were carrying spears. I swam swiftly toward a seven-foot-tall merman with a long green beard and a choker of shark fangs and tried to mime a request to borrow the spear. The merman laughed and shook his head.  "We do not help," he said in a harsh, croaky voice.  "Come ON!" I said fiercely, but only bubbles issued from my mouth. I tried to pull the spear away from the merman, but the merman yanked it back, still shaking his head and laughing. I swirled around, staring about. Something sharp... anything... 

There were rocks littering the lake bottom. I dived and snatched up a particularly jagged one and returned to the statue. I started to hack at the ropes binding Ron, and after several minutes' hard work, they broke apart. Ron floated, unconscious, a few inches above the lake bottom, drifting a little in the ebb of the water.  I looked around. There was no sign of any of the other champions. What were they playing at? Why didn't they hurry up? I turned back to Hermione, raised the jagged rock, and began to hack at her bindings too—  At once, several pairs of strong gray hands seized me. Half a dozen mermen were pulling me away from Hermione, shaking their green-haired heads, and laughing.  "You take your own hostage," one of them said to him. "Leave the others..."  "No way!" I spat furiously—but only two large bubbles came out.  "Your task is to retrieve your own friend... leave the others..."  "They're my friends too!" I yelled, gesturing toward Hermione and Mikayla who's head now laid on Hermione's shoulder, an enormous silver bubble emerging soundlessly from my lips. "And I don't want her to die either!" the small silver-haired girl was ghostly green and pale. I struggled to fight off the mermen, but they laughed harder than ever as they held me back. I looked wildly around. Where were the other champions? Would I have time to take Ron to the surface and come back down for the others? Would I be able to find them again? I looked down at my watch to see how much time was left— it had stopped working. But then the merpeople around me pointed excitedly over my head. I looked up and saw Cedric swimming toward the hostages. There was an enormous bubble around his head, which made his features look oddly wide and stretched.  "Got lost!" he mouthed, looking panic-stricken. "Fleur and Krum're coming now!"  Feeling enormously relieved, I watched Cedric pull a knife out of his pocket and cut Mikayla free. He pulled her upward and out of sight.

Mikayla's POV

I reached the top of the water, taking a gasp breath for fresh air as the crowd cheered. Mikayla and Cedric saw to the stands, Mikayla spotted Fleur wrapped in towels. "Gabrielle." Mikayla spoke worryingly, the poor young girl had no one coming to save her. Mikayla took only one towel mainly because she was planning a rescue mission just in case. "Thanks for saving me love." Mikayla gave Cedric a kiss on the lips. The crowd erupted in cheers, Mikayla turned to see Hermione and Krum swimming towards the stands. Mikayla helps them out of the water anxiously watching the lake water. Mikayla saw two people splash into view, Ron and Gabrielle were struggling to swim, Mikayla took off her towel before diving back into the Lake, helping Ron with Gabrielle. "Accroche-toi à moi, Gabrielle. Je t'adonne à Fleur en toute sécurité." Mikayla told the young French girl to hold onto her and she'd safely bring her to Fleur. Gabrielle nodded, wrapping her arms around Mikayla's neck, and her legs around her waist. Mikayla pulls out her wand, "Ron hold onto me." Ron did as instructed, "Carpe Retractum" A orange stream of light resembling a vine, connected Mikayla's wand with one of the pillars of the platform. Mikayla mutters another spell, and the three kids, float quickly towards the platform where Fleur stood. When they reached the platform, Fleur took Gabrielle quickly wrapping towels around her, Mikayla helped Ron onto the platform, "Where's Harry?" Just then, Harry came flying out of the water, hitting the platform he had jumped off of. Mikayla, Ron and Hermione rush to Harry giving him towels. "I'm glad you're safe, but I'm going to leave you now to talk with Cedric." Mikayla informed Harry, getting a approving nod, before rushing back over to her boyfriend.