Alexandra Dursley {Golden Trio}

Chapter 51 - The Second Task

Vote if you think Snape's a prick :)

 Al made a slashing motion with her wand, and the pillow in front of her sliced open, letting hundreds of tiny feathers burst out into the classroom. "Haha! I did it!" she exclaimed, turning to George. "Did you see that?"

 He looked amused at her, "I did indeed. Well done!" He wrapped his arms around her and kissed Al softly once on her lips. They felt tingly where he'd touched her. She smiled at him and he kissed her again, longer this time, until she broke away. "What is it?" he asked, looking slightly disappointed.

 "I've only got the summoning charm left to do," she said to him, "And then I've got all the silent charms I'll need down there."

 "Alright then," he said, chuckling at her, before demonstrating and explaining the appropriate charm.

*****

 "Al, what if you can't do it in time?" Harry asked her as they left the library at eight o'clock. It was the night before the second task and they still hadn't got an incantation for the spell.

"Harry, I can do it. I'm sure I can," she promised, "I know that I'm close. I'm probably just using the wrong Elemental Law." He nodded, but didn't look at all convinced. "Please, Harry," Al said stopping in the hallway, "The best thing you can do is get some rest." He nodded again and walked off down the corridor.

 Al turned and headed the other way to the Slytherin common room. She was going to set up camp by the fire that night and work until she found the answer. She was a Slytherin for a reason. She was going to get this done.

*****

 Al yawned in the dimming light of the fire and checked her watch. It was one thirty. She wasn't done. She wasn't any closer than when she'd started. She'd tried every form of Grammatica. Drawn every graph from Numerology. Applied every law on animal transformations under the sun. And nothing.

 So I can't have tried everything, Al thought, taking a sip of water. I must be missing something.

 Chinese Numerology! Of course - it was covered as a sub-topic in fifth year. From what she'd heard, it wasn't covered in depth. She jumped up and hurried down the corridor for the girls' dorms and then knocked repeatedly on the right door.

 "What?" the groggy fifth-year prefect that answered snapped.

 "I need to borrow a book from someone that does Arithmancy," Al said and the girl looked like she was going to kill her. "Please?" she asked, "It's really important."

 The prefect considered, "How important?"

 "I'll bring shame on the whole of Slytherin if I don't get this right by tomorrow morning," Al said urgently.

 "Is it for the tournament?" the prefect asked, her eyes lighting up. Al nodded. "I'll lend you my book. But I want everyone to know that I helped you."

 "Yeah, sure," Al said eagerly, "Anything."

*****

 Al was stood by the lake, swaddled in a jumper over her wet suit, stood next to Daphne and Theo, who were proof checking all the notes she'd made. There was a combined total of forty-seven sheets of parchment used to calculate the incantation and the wand movement and that was excluding all the dead ends. It all looks good to me," Theo told her, putting down the last sheet.

 "We're going to find our seats now," Daphne told her, "Draco's saving them. Good luck!"

 Al checked her watch again. Ten minutes to go. Where was Harry? Her stomach began to buzz with nerves as she peered around, hoping he'd be making his way through the crowd at any minute. It looked like the judges had noticed his absence too - Karkaroff in particular was looking very smug. Where is he?

 "We will have to start without Mr Potter if he doesn't arrive in the next three minutes," Percy Weasley told the champions, who nodded.

 I'm coming, the voice in Al's head told her.

 "He's on his way," she told McGonagall who was stood near her, "He'll be here any second."

 Sure enough, as Al glanced across at the castle, and a black-haired boy was hurtling down the lawn at break-neck speed, clad in Gryffindor robes. "There!" she shouted, pointing, as Harry approached the stands and shoved through the straggling crowds.

 "Sorry," he gasped, "I overslept."

 "You overslept?" Al repeated, "I told you to get some rest!"

 "I was in the library," he told her, now bent over with cramp, "And I found the answer," he waved his fist at her, which had some sort of green-worm thing in it.

 "I told you I'd sort the spell out!" she shouted again, "And I did! And you arrived at the last minute! You're in your robes, too! You could've-"

 "Temper, Dursley!" Snape shouted, coming up to her, "Detention with me tonight."

 Bagman waddled over to them, "You alright, you two? Ready?"

 "Yes," Al said shortly and impatiently, "We're ready." They lined up on the bank with the other champions. "OK," Al whispered to him, "We're going to wade in, and I'll perform the spell. As soon as I've done it, you need to dive down and gulp the water - that's how you breathe. As soon as you reach the surface, I'll undo the transfiguration. Got it?"

 "Three..." Bagman's magnified voice called out, "two...one!"

 The five champions waded into the water. Al was significantly quicker than Harry, who was being weighed down by his robes. She rolled her eyes, grabbed his wrist, and dragged him out. "Ready?" she asked. He nodded. She placed her wand on his neck and tapped it, "Eel singshee," she said. A perfect set of gills appeared there and Harry obediently dived down.

 "I'm afraid I don't recognise the spell Dursley and Potter are using," Bagman's voice called from the stands, "Can we get our Professors to have a look?" Al performed the spell on herself and followed Harry, gulping water and feeling it pass through her gills.

 She soon found him, but couldn't see far into the murky depths of the water - she could see why it was called the Black Lake. Lumos, she thought, and her wand tip lit up, illuminating more of the area around them.

 Cool, Al heard Harry think as they swam further down to the bed of the lake, When did you learn to do that?

 When you were prattling about with the Weasel doing God knows what, she retorted, trying to get her anger across.

 Whatever, she heard him think back, Where should we go from here? But, before Al could reply, a bony hand grabbed her leg.