School Exchange (Drarry) ✓

Chapter 12

When Harry awoke, Draco wasn't around. He well knew that Draco woke up on time, but for him to completely disappear was weird. He wasn't even at the common room.

He was late for his second task, and he wouldn't have woken up without Ron's furious tapping on his shoulder, but the mysterious disappearance of Draco was scaring him even more.

Thanks to Draco, he, Fleur, and Cedric exchanged notes for the golden egg clue. Champions were only not allowed to conspire against another during the torunament, but they said nothing about helping each other with the clues. At least, that's what Draco said after reading the 3-inch thick book of rules for the triwizard torunament. After figuring out the clues, however, the 3 thought it was best to find their solutions individually, avoiding rumours from spreading.

Remembering his final research from 3 days ago (and a lot more of Neville and Hermione's help), he stuffed the lump of gillyweed into his pocket before running down to the Great Lake. As it turns out, all of the champions were also just on time. Harry guessed that this was due to some sleeping charm. His head was still spinning as he imagined how Draco would be here, encouraging him and holding his hand and telling him it's okay even if he doesn't win. And after finding whichever thing that he treasured the most-

Oh.

Fleur seemed to figure out right as Harry did, letting out a pitiful, high-pitched wail. The commentators ignore them, continuing to engage the crowd while announcing instructions. Cedric must've realised as well, starting to question the game organisers while Viktor Krum looked ready to confront and punch someone, chest puffed and fists balled. 2 escorts were trying to calm him down, but all it seemed to do was agitate him further.

Harry would've joined them in demanding a proper explanation, but the commentators were pushing them to the edge of the lake, going on with the competition anyway. Harry felt bad for Fleur who was shaking and crying, clearly not in the right state of mind for anything. Especially not staying underwater for a full hour.

Harry doesn't look back, a new found wave of energy rushing through his veins as he realised that his best chances for Draco being safe was to quickly finish the stupid task. He squashed the disgusting ball of weed down his throat, ignoring the sandy slimy aftertaste and jumped straight into the water. Not wasting any time, he swims, happy to find that due to the nature of his webbed feet, he is able to propel himself forward a lot faster.

Harry looks around frantically for any signs of Draco. The water is reflective his vision was impaired by the messy growth of seaweed and algae. He sees Cedric struggle through this particularly mangled patch of plants, having more difficulty than Harry due to the huge bubble charm around his head.

Finally, after a good 30 minutes of swimming, Harry was the first to find a group of merpeople settled in a weird formation of rocks. And, right there, Draco was tied to the rocks by a thick strip of seaweed on his ankle, along with Cho, Gabrielle who was Fleur's sister and who Harry recognised as Krum Yule ball date.

Harry makes his way past them with determined strokes. The other competitors weren't there yet, probably thanks to the speed advantage gillyweed gave him. He tries to untie the seaweed, which proved to be a rather difficult thing to do. Harry suspected a charm was placed to prevent the knots from unravelling. After 5 minutes, he gives up and picks up a sharp stone, sawing at the seaweed until it frayed and eventually snapped.

Harry wrapped an arm around Draco's waist, swimming upwards. The crowd claps madly as soon as they surface, but Harry just gets more worried by the second, his body being too still for Harry's comfort. Cedric popped up from the water surface, shaking Cho's body as well. Only after a full minute, Draco started to cough, as did Cho. He could hear Cedric sigh in relief as the sleeping charm (or whatever it was) faded.