Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [4]

⚡️ Chapter 56 ⚡️

Vega and Harry were quite frantic by the time they arrived next to the other champions – Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour and Viktor Krum – who were all staring at the two of them in confusion. The judges were sitting nearby but none of them seemed much bothered by their behaviour, except –

"Where have you two been?"

It was a bossy, disproving voice, and Vega looked up to see that it was none other than Percy Weasley, who happened to be sitting at the judges' table – Mr. Crouch had failed to turn up again.

"The task's about to start!" Percy told them, not quite caring that Harry was panting like he had run a marathon (which he quite had) and that Vega was trying to discreetly adjust her swimwear.

"Now, now, Percy!" Ludo Bagman said, who was looking intensely relieved to see Vega and Harry finally make their appearance at the task. "Let them catch their breath!"

Dumbledore smiled at Vega and Harry as per usual, but Karkaroff and Madame Maxime didn't look to be much pleased – it was quite obvious from the looks on their faces that they had thought the two Gryffindors weren't going to turn up at all. Otherwise, none of them seemed to be interested.

Harry bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for breath; he had a stitch in his side that felt as though he had a knife between his ribs while Vega tried to help him by patting his back, fairly concerned.

"This is why you should eat well and exercise well," Vega told him, trying to smile but it was weary.

They didn't have much time to get themselves used to what was in front of them – Ludo Bagman was now moving among the champions, spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. Vega was pulled to the very end of the line, next to Harry. Viktor was next to him, then Cedric and Fleur.

Viktor was dressed in blood-red swimming trunks and a brown muscle shirt with the Durmstrang emblem on his chest. Next to him, Cedric was dressed just like Harry – except in the yellow and black colours of Hufflepuff and the Hufflepuff crest over his heart. Harry was in his Gryffindor colour.

The two females, Vega and Fleur, were provided with their plain one-piece swimsuits – with the older female in her school's powder-blue colour and the younger in red of the Gryffindors, their emblems over their hearts and their surnames written contrastingly in silver and gold.

"All right, Harry and Vega?" Bagman whispered as he moved Harry a few feet farther away from Viktor and then Vega further ahead. "Know what you're going to do?"

"Yeah," Harry panted, massaging his ribs.

Bagman gave Harry's shoulder a quick squeeze but Vega moved out of the way to avoid having him do the same to her. Instead, he returned to the judges' table and pointed his wand at his throat.

"Sonorus!" Bagman said and his voice boomed out across the dark water toward the stands. "Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One... Two... Three!"

The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause. Vega glanced toward Harry as he quickly ate the gillyweed and then she dove into the Great Lake below.

It was freezing cold – Vega felt like the icy water was more like fire than anything else. She wanted to get back outside and into the warm Gryffindor common room. But she quickly concentrated on sprouting out her own gills to breathe and swam around to look for Harry's current predicament.

Unlike her, Harry entered the water in a very ugly manner – he didn't dive in, he fell into the water. And Vega watched as he immediately started to clutch tightly at his neck, which she pulled back.