another love; harry potter

twenty-four

\ wherein she realizes she is the one he cares for the most /

"HAVE YOU FIGURED it out?" I asked, looking out at the lake. We were standing at the docks, seconds away from diving into the lake and finding the person we cared about the most. 

"Yeah," said Harry uneasily, holding out a small fist of something green and slimy. "it came to me when I woke up." I might have laughed were it not for the circumstances we had found ourselves in at the moment. "I'll barf before I swallow it."

"You'll be fine," I said, my thoughts drifting to a question I hadn't had time to ponder over yet. 

who would I have to save?

"GO!" shouted a booming voice, snapping me back to reality.

"Volo essi syreni," I muttered, before promptly jumping into the water. My legs merged into a shiny tail and I could feel the gills growing on either side of my neck. After taking a second to get used to the temperature and the feeling of being underwater, I began swimming to the bottom of the lake, but on the way, I passed a mermaid, who didn't fully believe I was one of her kind. 

"You look different," she hissed, studying me. I froze. "You lie?"

"No, I'm a mermaid," I said quickly. She looked me up and down suspiciously, before shrugging. 

"Must be young. Where you going?"

"...to the prisoners," I said. She raised an eyebrow and I waited cautiously before she began leading me to them. I seemed to have been the first champion there, because there were five students tied up and unconscious. I could clearly see Hermione, Cho, Gabrielle, James McCoy, and...

The girl on the very end looked scarily familiar. She had dark hair and a silver ring on her hand, along with a thin, lightning-bolt shaped scar on her wrist. 

And she was me. 

But that didn't make sense, because I was here, about to rescue someone- James. 

I didn't have much time to think about it, though; Cedric swam over, his head encapsulated by a large bubble, and used a rock to untie Cho and swim back to the surface, and I knew Krum wouldn't be too far behind. 

"Why you wanted to come here?" the mermaid hissed. 

"Er- Dumbledore said mission, bring one."

"Mission?" she frowned. "I did not hear."

"Special mission," I said. She eyed me before nodding and swimming off. I quickly grabbed a jagged stone and cut the rope that tied James to the bottom of the lake. Just as Viktor Krum started approaching with his weird shark head, I grabbed James and began swimming up to the surface. The second my head was out of water, I said the counterspell just as James regained consciousness. 

"Holy- fucking- where are we?" James panted.

"I'll explain later. Can you swim?" I asked, the gills on my neck disappearing. 

"...no." I rolled my eyes. "Hey, you can't dance!"

"Fair. We're even," I said, helping him swim before we pulled ourselves onto the docks, shivering. Fred and George came over with three warm, fluffy towels, wrapping them around me.