Prankster's Champion - A Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter Sixteen

The start of the new term came and went, and Magnus was focused on figuring out a way to breath underwater. There were tons of ways, really, but he wasn't sure what the best would be. He'd given Harry a hint though, after seeing the Gryffindor struggling, and mentioned the prefects' bath to him. It was confusing, Magnus could tell that much from Harry's face, but he knew that the boy was, hopefully, clever enough to at least figure it out from there.

He hadn't slacked on his homework though, in fact he was quite interested in it, if only to have an excuse to hide from the twins more often. After the night in the baths with George, he'd found himself unable to do much aside from blush around the twin as his mind wandered back to it. This, though, allowed Magnus to come across a potion he might not otherwise have found.

A week before the tournament, quite late at night, he'd been reading over a potion book he borrowed from a seventh year. He perked up as soon as he saw 'underwater breathing potion' and began reading very intently.

'Although this potion only lasts for a short duration of fifteen minutes, a single swallow allows the user to breath underwater as though it were air. Similar to it's main ingredient, gillyweed, the potion creates gills on the user, either on their neck or ribcage. As opposed to the gillyweed though, the Underwater Breathing Potion allows the user to also breath normal air. If secured properly, this potion can be kept with the user and drank underwater to sustain the gills for longer.'

"Yes, yes I found the answer. Now... oh boy almost a week to brew it." A worried look overtook Magnus's face, but shook his head before quickly getting up, bookmarking the page, and snuck out of the Gryffindor common room.

Magnus had managed to sneak into Snape's supply closet, though how he did it he wasn't entirely sure. He hadn't seen or heard a sign of teachers, Flich, Mrs. Norris, or Peeves even. He wasn't one to take his luck for granted though, and stuffed the ingredients he needed into his cauldron to carry. It would be best to brew the potion somewhere no one else would be, and he knew just the place.

He scurried towards the one girl's bathroom that no one used. No one, that is, unless you counted the strange ghost Moaning Myrtle. Magnus didn't much like her, but he would make nice with her as long as he needed to get the potion made.

About to round the last corner before the bathroom, Magnus came to a sudden halt, hearing the ominous thump of Professor Moody's wooden leg as he limped down the corridor. "Blasted leg," Magnus didn't dare to peak around the corner, in fact he moved further back and slipped into a broom closet, hoping Moody's eye wouldn't find him there.

"I'll never get used to this stupid body," Moody growled, growing ever closer to the corner. "I'll be happy to go back to normal, as soon as that bloody Potter is out of the way. Only a few more months... Just a few more months." Magnus could hear the low, grated cackle of Moody laughing, turning down the opposite corridor to Magnus.

The Ravenclaw's heart was thrumming almost as loudly as Moody's leg against the ground. He didn't know what he just heard. Didn't know what it even meant. All he knew is that wasn't something he should have overheard, and it scared him to the bone.

He had to push that to the side though, focusing on running to the girl's bathroom once he could no longer hear Moody, and shut the door quickly behind him. Brewing the potion was the only thing he needed to focus on right now. Whatever Moody- or whoever that was- was talking about... He could figure it out after the second task.

The morning of the second task, Magnus was up early and collecting up his potion. He'd enchanted a flask, a little larger than his hand, to hold it all. It worked like a normal flask, but with a charm around the neck of it to allow him to drink underwater. He only hoped that the potion was correct, as he had only very minor information about it outside of the brewing.