Gossip {Sherlock Holmes/Harry Potter}

Chapter Thirty Seven

Pierce felt the tight grip around his leg that continued to forcefully drag him deeper and deeper below the water. It grew darker and darker as Pierce struggled to free himself. He turned his head around and used his wand to create some light. With his wand illuminating dimmly in the water, he was able to make out the creature that had a hold of him.

A grindylow had a strong hold around his leg, the ugly green creature with it's sharp little horns and sickly green and long fingers that were curled around him. It aggressively pulled and yanked him attempting to drag him further down, but Pierce used his free leg to kick at it. His foot smashed against the dark creatures head, causing it to screech and release it's grip. Pierce shook his leg free but suddenly his arm was grabbed, luckily it was his free arm that didn't hold his wand. Using the butt of his wand, he struck the other Grindylow through it's arm.

It snarled at him, attempting to bite as he freed himself once more. He saw others heading in his direction, but quickly aimed his wand in their direction, repelling them with a jinx. He glanced down at his leg as he saw the water was turning red around him. From where the first Grindylow had latched itself to his leg, he could see a deep cut running down his leg. He cursed to himself as he wasn't able to tend to it without wasting time.

He still needed to get to Julius.

Pushing on, Pierce forced himself to swim through the pain, even though the lake water made the wound burn terribly. Eventually, his leg was cramping up from the pain, making it even harder to swim, but Pierce didn't stop. He continued his search for his best friend, unsure of how much time had past.

He had never realized how big the lake was until he found himself swimming in it, in search of his friend, he was struggling to come upon where Julius was being kept. Until he saw movement in the distance. Squinting his eyes, he could make out a few bodies, he figured it was either the other competitors or the merfolk judging on their side.

Swimming in the direction cautiously, the bodies vanished but Pierce was able to come upon the community of the merfolk. He swam about, watching as a few young merpeople swam away quickly to hide from him.

Finally, he came upon the location to see those that were taken for the task. He saw Julius, Ron, Hermione, Cho and Fleur's little sister.

At first, he was slightly puzzled by Hermione's presence. He knew that Julius was the one selected for him to retrieve as none of the other champions were close with the boy. But he was confused as to who had Hermione since Harry was dear friends with both her and Ron. Then he realized that Ron was obviously the selected for Harry, which left Hermione as the selected person for Krum.

He groaned internally and rolled his eyes.

"Of course." he muttered to himself. "He's only known her for how long...and she's...ugh...really?!"

Rather than wasting more time cursing Krum's name to oblivion, Pierce moved over to where Julius was. The boy's eyes were closed as Pierce used his wand to cut at the binds. Once Julius' body was released, Pierce was startled by the commotion of Krum coming out of nowhere, his stupid shark head cutting through Hermione's binds and hauling her body away.

"What a charmer."

He noticed that Harry and Cedric were also there, but there was no sign of Fleur. Cedric and Harry seemed to be arguing over something, but Pierce still not sure of how much time was left, knew he had to get Julius to the surface.

Pulling his friend up, Julius began to stir and when they reached the surface, Julius spit water right into Pierce's face.

"Thanks, mate." Pierce sighed. "Thank you so much."

"I'm in the lake! I'm in the lake!" Julius screamed.

"Yes..bu-"

"I DON'T LIKE SWIMMING, PIERCE!"

"I hadn't noticed, Julius. I hadn't noticed at all." Pierce said flatly as Julius climbed all over him, trying to get out of the water.

"Stay still!"

"There are things in the lake, Pierce. THINGS!"

"Merlin...I'm about to bring you back down there, stay still!"

"You wouldn't dare!"

"I would!"

"ARGH SOMETHING TOUCHED MY LEG!"

"IT'S ME, YOU ARSE! I'M THE ONE HOLDING YOU!"

"Oh. Right....GET ME OUT OF THE WATER!"

"STOP YELLING!"

"YOU STOP YELLING!"

"I'M TRYING TO SAVE YOU!"

"Pierce...how are you saving me if I'm still in the BLOODY WATER?"

"That's it, I'm drowning you!"

John squinted his eyes out to look out at the water.

"I think...I think Pierce misunderstood the task. Shouldn't he be Julius over here..."

Sherlock was preoccupied with a fuzzy on his jacket.

"What is he doing?" Sherlock asked.

"I think...I think he's attempting to drown the boy."

"Example of true friendship."