Hogwarts: RotBTFD

Chapter Fifteen: MERMAIDS

[this is primarily an Elsa chapter because she narrates through the second challenge]

(Elsa)
I woke up the following day with my heart fluttering.
He almost kissed me!
He almost kissed me!!!
Calm down, Else.
I breathed. Hmmm...
Oh, right... Second task today. I forgot.
I looked at the giant golden egg on my bedside table. It supposedly had a clue for the next task at hand, but I don't know how it works.
I looked at the golden starfish at the top. I twisted it open...
An inhumane wailing lashed out of the egg as it split open. I abruptly closed it.
"What the-?"
"Sorry, guys." I apologised, "the egg, I'm trying to figure it out."
The others groaned and went back to sleep, but not Kandis Nolan.
"Elsa," she whispered, "I suggest that on your next bath, open it under the water. The password is..."
She ran over and whispered in my ear.
I looked at her oddly. She never really spoke, which I found rather odd. But, advice is advice, and so I followed it.
~
I got into the water in the Prefects' Bathroom, which I had to sneak into.
Alright...
I took the egg and brought it underwater. I twisted the starfish...
"Come seek us where our voices sound,
Don't listen to our voices above the ground.
And while you're searching, remember this;
We've taken two things you'll sorely miss.
An hour long you'll have to look,
And recover what we took.
But past an hour- the prospect's black.
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."
What could it mean?
I surfaced, gasping for air. What does it mean?
I looked at the stained glass window. It was an image of a mermaid.
Mermaid...
That's it!
I quickly got out of the water.
I must tell Anna.
~
"Anna! Anna!" I shouted. I bumped into Merida.
"Oh, hey Mer. Have you seen Anna?" I asked.
She shook her head, "last time I've seen her was early this morning. She went to use the loo."
Alright. Then, I'll tell Jack.
I thanked Merida and ran the other way, towards Slytherin.
"Jack!"
I bumped into Astrid.
"Watch it!" she hissed.
"Thanks for the sunshine." I said, sarcastically.
She sighed, "sorry, I... I broke up with Hiccup last night."
I gasped, "oh my gosh. Why?"
"He... he was cheating on me..." she hissed, "with YOU!"
"WHAT?!" I gasped, "I would never!"
"Yeah you would!" she spat, "Professor Del saw you and Hiccup sneaking off the other night into the forest."
"Oh, Astrid." I sighed, "I'm sorry you thought that way, but..."
I explained what we really did- that Hiccup was helping me with dragons, that he had Toothless with him, and all those other stuff.
Astrid smacked her forehead, "oh Thor, I... I messed up. I'm so sorry, I... I guess I have to apologise now."
I nodded, "hurry, before he goes for someone else."
She nodded and ran towards Hufflepuff, then she stopped.
"By the way, Elsa, Jack's been missing since this morning."
"Oh, alright. Thanks." I said after her as she ran towards Hufflepuff.
We've taken two things you'll sorely miss...
Oh no... they took Anna and Jack...
~
I stood on the diving board in my swimsuit.
I have to get Anna and Jack, or they'll die...
"GO ELSA!!!" Rapunzel shouted. I looked back and smiled at her.
Okay, what spell shout I use?
I have one hour to look...
What spell?
I considered using my ice powers, but that's not very practical, considering I can only use one spell in this task.
"Psst!"
I looked behind me. It was Hiccup. He held a vial in his hand. He rolled it towards me and I picked it up. It was a vial as small as the first metacarpal of my pinky.
"Ready?!"
No wait!
"Set..."
Not yet!
"Go!"
I awkwardly fell into the lake.
No choice.
I drank the contents of the vial and hoped for the best.
Suddenly, I felt my legs go weird. My neck started hurting and when I touched it, slits were appearing. Then, I couldn't breathe above the water.
I swam down and I saw that I had turned into a mermaid.
I stared at my cyan blue tail, my swimsuit was still on, but the bottom part seemed to disappear into the tail.
We're wasting time!
I swam as fast as I could towards a kelp forest. I heard something to my side. I accidentally released ice from my hand and I found a fish frozen solid.
"Sorry." I tell it as I swim faster.
I saw a clearing and swam towards it. I saw Mavis. She had a Mavis-shaped bubble around her entire being.
Of course. Fresh-water's bad to vampires.
She swam back into the kelp forest as I got into the clearing.
What now?
I felt a pulse towards the inside of the kelp forest. I swam towards it.
"Anna!" I shouted.
Anna was tied up to an underwater tree thing. She was tied along with two other people I didn't recognise.
I swam as fast as I could towards Anna and I tried to untie her.
"You'll be alright, Anna." I told her, "just stay with me."
I undid her ropes and let her float to the surface.
Alright. Jack's next...
I swam up close to the surface and scouted out the area.
I spotted a mermaid village in the distance. I swam as fast as I could towards it.
Suddenly, I felt something pull my tail. I turn around, and it's Hans. He had webbed feet and some sort of oxygen mask. He smiled that evil smile and pulled out a knife from his pocket.
I released ice and froze his hand with the knife. In his agony, he released me and I swam away as fast as I could.
I reached the mermaid village as I heard a chime and then, Littlemore's voice that echoed through the water;
"Thirty more minutes, I repeat, thirty more minutes. Hogwarts currently in the lead with one rescue. Beauxbatons next with one rescue. Durmstrang last with no rescues."
I swam around the mermaid village, and then I spotted a large statue.
"Jack!"
There he was, white hair flowing along the water.
I swam as fast as I could towards him and I tried to pry open his chains.
Why was it chains? It was ropes with Anna.
I looked at the others with him. I saw that guy Mavis went with last night. Johnny, I heard her say. I also saw Heather, the girl Hans went with. Oh, poor Heather. She doesn't know how cruel Hans is.
I saw only one way to open these chains.
"Hang in there, Jack." I told him.
I froze the chains and broke them off, Jack was free.
"Durmstrang is out with no rescues." Littlemore announced.
Hans gave up that easily?
I looked at Heather, no Hans to save her.
I knew he was heartless.
I let Jack float to the surface and I swam towards Heather. I froze her chains.
"That's not yours!" a mermaid hissed.
I shook my heart, "but no one will save her!"
"His loss!" another hissed as they pushed me away from Heather.
I only saw one way to get past them. I froze their tails, making them sink to the bottom. I swam towards Heather and broke her out. I let her float up as I followed her. My tail started breaking into two, then my gills disappeared.
~
I surfaced as a boat came by to fetch us. Professor Peri was manning the boat, and I saw Anna and Jack in it. Jack held his hand out as I got onboard. I helped Heather in.
"Why did you save Heather?" Peri asked me as we closed in onto shore.
"Because Hans wouldn't." I replied.
Anna rolled her eyes, "of course he wouldn't. He's a heartless freak."
"What?" Heather asked, confused. Anna launched into the story of how Hans is a jerk.
Jack wrapped me in his towel, "you alright?"
"I'm fine, Jack. Really." I assure him.
"That was fantastic, you know." he admired, "you risked to save someone who wasn't even your goal."
I nodded, "well, I couldn't just leave her to die down there, now could I?"
I saw Mavis surface with Johnny and a boat manned by Professor Chullin went over.
~
We reached shore as Rapunzel ran over and hugged me, wet and all.
"That was great!" she said, "you saved Heather!"
We stopped and faced Littlemore.
"The rankings so far," Littlemore announced, "Hogwarts in first place with a total of 164 points, Beauxbatons in second with a total of 143 points, and Durmstrang in last with a total of 78 points.
I smiled as my friends cheered. Maybe I can go through all this without revealing my powers.
"Heather!"
We turned and faced Hans. He was soaking wet, and he ran towards Heather.
"I was so worried!" he obviously lied.
Heather walked up to him, "and I was worried that you would be a convincing liar, but you won't do that again!"
Heather pulled out her wand, "Stupefy!"
Hans flew backward, and landed unconscious in Mavis' boat.
"What the?!" Mavis exclaimed. She and the boy and girl she rescued manoeuvre around Hans' unconscious being.
"We can all take a rest now." Littlemore added, "the next task would be in three months, because we need the time to prepare. Our champions could use these three months to their advantage. Good luck to us all!"
Everyone applauded, except for Hans of course.