𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱, fred weasley

˗ˋ 40

CHAPTER FORTY
✧
-: sixth year :-

── IN WHICH IT INTENSIFIES

. . .

Elodie was panicking.

Truly, right down by the bottom of the Black Lake was the very last place in the list of locations suitable for panicking. It didn't matter whether or not she had a perfectly cast bubble-head charm allowing her to breath, she was surrounded by water, and a crushing feeling.

It was the very last thing on the list of things to have a potentially life-altering realisation as well. She doubted that Dumbledore or Madame Maxime or anyone with common sense would allow the hostages to die. 

But all the same, the riddle had said that if they failed to retrieve the unspecified object within the hour than it was too late, it was gone and wouldn't come back. And so, Elodie had to panic whilst trying to find where Fred was.

And so she swam forward, only just about able to see ten feet in front of her, murky water surrounding her from every side. She altered her course a couple of times, trying to find absolutely anything in the water. 

Her panic had faded slightly as she became accustomed to being surrounded by water and the constant pressure of knowing the hour was ticking by. 

That was until something grabbed her ankle. 

It was a Grindylow, a disgustingly ugly creature that Elodie remembered studying a couple of years ago. "Fuck." She swore, her words making an odd sound as they bounced around the bubble that surrounding her mother. 

She struggled to clasp her wand properly, but once she did, it was pretty easy to get the creature off of her ankle. The Grindylow left a rather painful looking bruise on her ankle from where it had clutched on (apparently for dear life), and she winced, wondering if there was any of that balm from Charlie left. 

She shook her head slightly, reminding herself that she didn't have time to wonder whether or not she had any of the balm that had fixed the scar on her arm. Elodie was in fact in a rather dangerous situation - there simply wasn't time for her to think like that. 

And so, ignoring the dull pain that circled around her ankle, stemming from the already bruising marks from the Grindylow's grasp, Elodie pushed forward.

It seemed to her that she was swimming in circles. She seemed to pass the same patch of seaweed, the same dark grey rock. But everywhere was like that, and it was a question of whether or not she was going in a circle or in the direction she wanted to be going in. 

There was no way for her to tell how much time had passed either, but if she was to guess, she was pretty sure that around half of the time had passed, maybe more. 

This thought urged her forward, and she finally seemed to be progressing somewhere as she actually heading into a forest of long, reaching seaweed. Elodie had never felt so surrounded by something before, and it was truly like she was in the middle of an extremely crowded forest, except it was nowhere near land.

"Come on.." She muttered to herself, reaching forward and using her hands to try and part the seaweed quicker and quicker. Eventually, she came out on the otherside and began swimming along a stretch of the bottom of the lake that consisted mostly of dark mud. 

Despite the lack of anything, the girl didn't give up and forced herself forward, and finally she began to see something in the distance. First a rather large rock, then what seemed to resemble houses made out of that same sort of rock.

She didn't know what exactly she had found, and whether or not it was relevant to the task, but she propelled herself along to it. Elodie neared the rock, and it was shown to have merpeople painted on it.

Making the link between the rock and the egg clue instantly, Elodie began to feel a little more optimistic as she continued to swim, into the dwelling of merpeople.

She could only glance over at those who left their homes for short seconds, and was surprised on how they appeared, nothing like she imagined. But there was no time to think about it, ignoring those who moved to watch her.

She swam round a corner and her fast pace slowed, an odd sight before her eyes.

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. 

And just like that, Elodie knew she had found Fred.