Alexandra Dursley {Golden Trio}

Chapter 52 - The Giant Squid

I just want to start off by breifly mentioning the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement. Everyday, black people in America live in fear of their lives, something the rest of us can only imagine. If you can help to raise awareness, please do. If you can donate money, please do. Nobody deserves this, so please do your bit to help. :)

 Use reducto! Harry thought to Al, as she kicked at the grindylows that swarmed around them.

 How am I supposed to use fire underwater? she asked, panicking.

 I don't know! Harry thought back, Do you have a better idea?

 Reducto! She thought, pointing her wand in every direction she could, Reducto! Reducto! The grindylows fled at the scorching water that flew by them. There was only one left, clinging to Harry's leg. Keep still! she thought and he obliged. But not before the grindylow managed to sink its teeth into his leg. Are you alright? she asked, swimming up to his leg to get a better view of the wound. It didn't look too bad, but nevertheless, blood spilled out into the water, creating crimson mushroom clouds.

 Do you think the giant squid can smell blood? Harry asked nervously.

 I know it can, she replied, trying to remain calm, Do you want to go back to the surface? I can take it from here.

 No it'll be fine, he said, swimming ahead, It won't try and eat us, will it?

 It absolutely will, Al replied. Did her cousin even read up on the different lake creatures?

 What? he asked, panicking even more.

 They're carnivores, Harry, Al explained, They'll eat anything they can get their tentacles on. He turned to her, and Al saw in the wandlight that he was really quite terrified by this development. Just swim, she told him, It'll be fine.

*****

 It felt like they'd been swimming for ages. Al's arms and legs were really aching, and she could see that Harry too was struggling to keep up his stamina. And then Al heard the beautiful symphony that she'd heard from the egg. The mermaids were nearby.

 Harry looked up at her and pointed in the direction the song was coming from. Over there?

 Yeah. They began to swim in that direction, when out of nowhere, a tentacle ploughed into Harry and coiled him up around him. He opened his mouth, clearly screaming in pain from the colossal suckers that were digging into his skin.

 Al considered putting out her wand and keeping still but no, that would be no use. If it lived down here, it probably had great eyesight, so putting out her wand would be no good to her. It would only put her at a disadvantage.

 Al swam around in a circle, holding her wand out searching for the body of the squid. Help me, she heard Harry think. She turned again in the water, only to come face to face with the giant squid's beak. It's two ginormous eyes seemed to glare down at her, and she almost forgot to breathe in her fright.

 She held her wand out, expecting her own tentacle any second now. But then, it winked, and before Al knew it, the squid had propelled itself and Harry upward and away from Al. Her stomach plummeted at the thought of Harry being killed by the Squid. She was alone, at the bottom of the Black Lake.

*****

 Al finally arrived where her treasured possession was being kept. She swam through what seemed like a mermaid town, trying not to look too hard at all the mermaids that swam around her in case they found it offensive.

 They had scaly grey skin and looked more fish than human - there was practically no resemblance to the mermaids she'd grown up with. And they had tridents. The image of her being skewered on one came far too easily.

 Al arrived in the centre of the town to see five figures tethered down on the bed of the lake with a thick seaweed rope. George and the Weasel she recognised - they were definitely hers and Harry's. She fired a silent cutting charm at the bottom of George's and Ron's ropes and found six tridents pressed up against her throat.

 "You will only take your own," one of the mermaids said to her.

 "I'm in a team!" she tried to say, but all that came out was bubbles.

 "This is the one," a mermaid said from behind the crowd. She was decorated with shells around her neck and waist, and wore a crown on her head, "She takes two."

 Al nodded her thanks to the mer-queen or whatever she was and grabbed the two ropes, before swimming back the way she came through the town. She passed Cedric on her way through the gates who gave her a thumbs up. She grinned at him and nodded in the direction of the hostages, before turning and swimming upwards.

 Soon enough she reached the lighter part of the water - she was near the surface. Making sure she had hold of both ropes, she got rid of her gills and then in a last burst of energy, kicked up to the surface. As soon as she breached the water, she hauled the two boys up after her, and they gasped for breath, blinking the water out there eyes and gazing around.

 "Where's Harry?" the Weasel asked as the three of them splashed their way to shore.

 "I rescue you from the depths of the Black Lake and the first thing you ask is where my cousin is?" she asked as they crawled onto the stony bank, shivering furiously in the icy February air. But he had a point.

 "Thanks, Love," George said, wrapping his arm around her and planting a kiss on her forehead as they crunched along the stones.

 Soon they reached the crowds of people who had been watching the task and a roar of cheers erupted as Bagman announced, "And the first to make it back with their champions in a time of fifty-three minutes is Al Dursley!" This was only met by more cheers.

 Madame Pomfrey wrapped them in thick fluffy towels and made them drink pepper-up potion. Al couldn't stop grinning as she looked around for her friends. But they were nowhere to be seen. "Al," Dumbledore said, sitting down beside her, "I need to know exactly what happened with the Giant Squid."

 "Well Harry got bitten by grindylows and made him bleed," she said, "and then the Giant Squid attacked him and dragged him away from me. But-but it winked, Professor. And it didn't even touch me! Have you seen Harry? I think he's in trouble!" Al said in a whirlwind of worry. She hadn't heard from him in a while.

 "The Giant Squid brought Harry up to the surface, where he remained in the water while Madame Pomfrey healed his wounds - presumably due to the gills," Dumbledore said calmly, but Al got the impression that he was quite panicked, "And then Harry dived back down into the lake. I'd thought he was looking for you, but it appears your paths didn't cross."

 Al tried her best to swallow the lump in her throat and George wrapped his arms even more tightly around her, "It'll be alright, Love," he promised, "Harry'll be ok."