Harry Riddle || Harry potter

Chapter 31: Harry Riddle vs The Sea Monster Pt II

His vision was blurred, his ears clogged, and he was quickly running out of air. Underwater, everything seemed to be in a state of slow motion. He could make out the Plesiopant's long body and could vaguely see the flexible flipper wound around his calf, but he was in a state of too much panic to even attempt to struggle. His mind raced with wild thoughts, most of them not even pertaining to the situation at hand.

Would his father be disappointed that he died for such an unimportant reason? Would Dumbledore be happy to have him out of the way? Was this some elaborate plan of the Headmaster's to kill him? Would his father mourn him? Would he be happy he was dead and therefore out of the way? Or maybe he would have another child to replace him? And, possibly, his most unwelcome, yet most persistent, thought was: Would he see his mother when he was dead?

Oddly, Harry's oxygen deprived brain registered that he was rather cold and numb, even though the water was still very warm.

Harry's racing thoughts seemed to freeze. Cold. Cold. That was the key. Plesiopants were cold blooded creatures - the water they swam in had to be warm to keep them alive. If the water was cold, though . . .

Harry started to reach for his wand. His brain was practically shutting down from lack of air, but he still managed to pull the piece of wood from its holster, which was strapped to his arm. He really didn't know if a wand would work underwater, but he was desperate.

The boy frantically tried to think of an appropriate charm. He'd used one to freeze some boiling water once. He hoped it would work. "Congelo," he spluttered out through the water, screaming the word mentally and concentrating as hard as he could. The liquid took its opportunity and rushed into his mouth, choking him.

Almost as if from a third person viewpoint, Harry noticed the water start to gradually change from its almost-too-warm temperature to an uncomfortable cold.

Harry felt the hold on his leg gradually be relieved, and he immediately started flailing towards the surface. He was sure he was completely out of air.

And, just as soon as he had decided that his life was over, his head broke the surface. He inhaled more oxygen than he thought was humanly possible.

"Harry!" Hermione's voice sounded incredibly relieved. "You're okay!"

Draco automatically moved to hold Harry up. Harry vaguely noticed through his gasps that Neville had also come back above the water at some point.

"What'd you do to get the monster to let go of you?!"

"It - It doesn't like the cold," Harry choked out. "I cast a spell called Congelo."

Hermione's face froze. "Congelo? You - you cast Congelo?" She turned chalk white. "We have to get out of the water."

"What? Why?" Neville asked, his eyes growing big.

"Congelo is a freezing charm. The entire lake is about to become one giant ice cube in about five minutes."

Harry began hissing a long spiel in Parseltongue, unaware he wasn't speaking English. Hermione didn't seem to notice, while Neville looked at him oddly.

"Come on!" Hermione continued. "We'll have to swim under the boat." The flimsy wooden rowboat had overturned, but it was still floating, trapping them underneath it.

Harry was too scared to make any attempt to move.

"Come on, Harry," Draco snapped, grabbing his wrist and tugging at him. "I know you can't swim, but we've got to go!" The blond managed to pull Harry underwater and guide him under the boat. Once they all resurfaced on the other side, they could already feel the water hardening. The shore was about ten feet away.

Harry began to follow his instincts and kick his feet and paddle with his hands.

After several frantic seconds of flailing about, the shore was only about two feet away, but the water was almost solid. Draco, Hermione, and Neville had already made it to the rocky shore.

Harry was panicking. He began to swim as kick and paddle as hard as he could. The shore was almost in reach.

Suddenly, he tried to kick, but his foot was held back. His heart jolted - he was stuck.

Draco seemed to have come to the same conclusion. He got down on his knees and reached out his hand as far as he could.

Straining, Harry just managed to grab a hold of it. Hermione and Neville had joined the effort by latching onto Draco, who by now was pulling hard to get Harry's foot out of the ice.

Harry closed his eyes. He couldn't bear to watch the water freeze around him. He'd surely be stuck there forever, and either die of hypothermia or hunger or thirst or—

Suddenly, with a loud crack and a snap, Harry felt his foot freed. With great effort on the part of his three shore-bound friends, he was pulled through the quickly hardening water in front of him and onto land, just as it changed into ice.

They had all collapsed into a pile of tangled limbs, but none of them had the energy to move. All of them were breathing heavily, gasping for air.

Harry, incredibly, was the first one to have some semblance of a recovery. He rolled off the top of the pile and pulled himself up into a sitting position. He reached down to massage his icy foot. He checked his holster for his wand, only to find it empty.

Concerned, but too tired to be panicked, he glanced around the small shore, only to find his wand a few feet behind him. How it got there, he didn't know, but at this point he couldn't bring himself to care.

He picked up the wand and pointed it at his foot, muttering, "Glacialis Abrumpo." The ice instantly disappeared and his foot went back to somewhere around its normal temperature. His toes still felt odd, though he was too relieved about his continued survival to really take notice.

"Ssso," he breathed out, subconsciously hissing his 's's in place of speaking Parseltongue, "I wonder what'sss through the next door?"

Hermione, Draco, and Neville all gave a collective groan.