An American at Hogwarts: Book Two

Chapter Fifty-One

A/N: I know that in the books the third task takes place at the end of June and the school year goes into July, but in all the books before this the school year ends in June, which makes way more sense. I have no idea why JKR decided to randomly extend the school year by a month for the fourth book, but in this story, it's going to end around the middle of June like usual. Also, this chapter's dedicated to Alexius1551 for making AN EPIC FREAKING COVER for this series! Thank you!!! They posted the link on my message board, so if you haven't seen it, go check it out!

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The twins were tied up back to back, and as far as I could tell, they were the only pair down here at the bottom of the lake. I spotted Tamsin Applebee floating along next to them; she was a Hufflepuff chaser and the other Hufflepuff prefect, and she and Cedric usually had each other's backs through all those activities.

Ron and Hermione were also floating up there, along with Cho Chang a few other people I didn't know. Cedric and I cautiously made our way through the crowd of merpeople, and when we got to the front we saw Harry standing there, looking incredibly relieved to see us.

I waved cheerily, trying not to stare too much at the merpeople around us. Harry looked pale and panicked, which I didn't totally get; he'd already cut Ron free, and since Hermione was definitely there for Krum, he had no more reason to stay.

Cedric and I moved forward and pulled out our diving knives to cut our respective hostages free. I made a mental note to whine at the twins about making me save both of them instead of just one person later, but honestly, I was glad Dumbledore hadn't split up the twins. It just wouldn't feel right if he'd picked one of them over the other.

The twins and Tamsin floated just a few feet above where they'd been, waiting for us to take them up. Ced started swimming towards them, but I turned to look at Harry.

Come on, I thought, motioning for him to grab Ron and swim up with us. Harry shook his head emphatically, pointing to the other hostages. I shook my head a little, but I really had no way to argue with him like this. I passed him my diving knife, which I could tell he appreciated, and I just had to hope he wouldn't get penalized for choosing to stay behind.

The twins were tied together by a piece of seaweed, which was incredibly helpful for the time being. I grabbed the seaweed and, thanks to how much lighter they were in water, was able to pull them to the surface without much effort at all.

Just before we broke the surface, I had Ced pass me his diving knife, and I cut the piece of seaweed keeping them together. As soon as our heads broke the water they woke up, flailing and gasping for air along with Tamsin. Once the twins got their bearings, they turned to me with matching grins on their faces and flung their arms around me in a hug. My head slipped under the water, and I had to rely on my diving gear once again until they let go.

I popped my head back up and glared at them, but it only made their grins wider.

Cedric, the twins, Tamsin, and I started heading for the dock, which wasn't too far of a swim. Everyone was cheering, jumping and screaming for us as they saw us coming closer.

"NICE WORK!" Angelina screamed, helping the rest of our friends pull us up out of the water. We were overwhelmed with tackle-hugs and people jumping up and down around us.

Madam Pomfrey descended on us in seconds, clearing off the crowd and fussing over all five of us to make sure we were okay. She wrapped us in blankets and tried to run us through a basic checkup, but she could only keep the excitement of the crowd at bay for so long.