F O R T Y

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When Adeline woke up the morning of January 24th, the Triwizard Tournament probably should've been on the forefront of her mind.

But Adeline was much worried about something – well, someone – else. Estelle had seemingly disappeared off the face of the Earth the previous night, not showing up for dinner or even for bed that night. Adeline was a little concerned, but she remembered many days where Estelle would stay so late at the library that Madam Pince would have to physically force her out. Plus, Adeline had fallen asleep extremely early the night before, so exhausted from studying up on underwater creatures that she practically crashed when her head hit the pillow.

However, when Adeline woke up that morning, Estelle's bed appeared untouched and none of the Ravenclaw girls had seen her anywhere. She wasn't at breakfast either, which confused Melanie and Ophelia as well. Neither of them had seen her anywhere, and when Adeline got so worried that she went to ask Professor Flitwick, he just stammered out a nonsense reply and couldn't seem to look her in the eye.

The Black Lake seemed to be living up to its name that morning. When Adeline took the boat out to the center of the lake, despite Ophelia and Melanie both trying their best to distract her, all she could do was stare down at the water and think about how she was going to be swimming under it in just a few short minutes.

Just before she met up with the other champions, George met up with her and leaned down to press a kiss to her cheek. "You're going to do amazing, Addie."

Adeline smiled softly up at him and squeezed his hand before taking off her jacket and standing on the edge of the platform. The cool winter wind whipped around her, and Adeline wrapped her arms tightly around her in an attempt to stay somewhat warm in her thin swimsuit.

"Welcome to the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament!" Ludo Bagman loudly announced, causing the stands of attendees to quiet down. "Last night, something was stolen from each our Champions. Treasures. These four treasures – one for each champion – now lie at the bottom of the Black Lake."

A sickening idea appeared in Adeline's mind, but the mere thought of it was so awful that Adeline  tried to push it back down again. She glanced up to see Melanie, Cedric, Ophelia, Fred, and George all standing on the edge of one of the barriers, grinning excitedly down at her, and while Adeline was happy to see them, it didn't make her feel any better when she realized that Estelle wasn't with them.

"In order to win," Ludo continued. "Each champion need only find their treasure and return to the surface. Simple enough. Except for this. They will only have one hour to do so, and one hour only. After that, they'll be on their own. No magic will save them. You may begin at the sound of the cannon!"

When the cannon suddenly went off, Adeline dove into the water and quickly cast the Bubblehead Charm. Once she was sure that she could breath properly, Adeline swam deep into the lake and was suddenly thankful for the swimming lessons her parents had forced her into when she was a child and the hours she had practiced swimming in the bath in the Prefect's bathroom.

As she swam deep into the murky lake, Adeline couldn't help but notice just how quiet it was. Normally, Adeline didn't mind and even thrived in quiet environments. But there was something about the dark, murky water and the fact she couldn't seem to hear anyone or anything that made the lake so eerie.

Up ahead, Adeline saw something move through the seaweed and she swam towards it to get a closer look. But when she saw the fanged teeth and bristled head of a Grindylow, Adeline flinched back and swam farther away from the small creature.

Adeline continued to swim, and soon enough, she began heard the sound of faint voices. When she swam even deeper into the lake, Adeline soon realized that the voices were in fact singing.

An hour long you'll have to look,

And to recover what we took.

Your time's half gone, so tarry not

Lest what you seek stays here to rot...

Adeline swam more frantically at this point, pushing through the seaweeds and making sure to carefully avoid the Grindylows that were sneakily swimming through the weeds and seemingly ready to attack anyone who showed even a hint of provoking them.

Her surroundings slowly started to change. Before it was a mass of green weeds and plants Adeline couldn't identify. But as she swam closer to the bottom of the lake, there were now these large, jagged rocks with paintings on the side depicting greyish creatures with jagged yellow teeth and wild dark green hair.

Well those certainly didn't look like Ariel.

These mermaids started to appear out of their caves the closer Adeline got to the center of the mermaid's dwelling. While they weren't attacking her, they seemed to be staring at Adeline as if she were bait, leering as she swam past. Adeline instinctively laid her hand on top of her wand sitting in the holster on her leg.

As Adeline swam closer, she could see four large objects floating in the water, but because of how dark and murky the water was, she couldn't see what exactly the objects were.

Then Adeline finally reached them, and she realized that they weren't objects at all.

If she weren't underwater, Adeline would've gasped. She recognized the fiery red hair of Ron Weasley and Hermione easily, and there was another small girl floating beside them that had silvery blonde hair that looked similar to Fleur Delacour's.

But it was the sight of Estelle at the bottom of the lake that shocked her the most. Her dark hair seemed to blend in completely with the water around her and seemed to float above her head like the nearby seaweed.

Adeline hated that she was the reason that Estelle was floating unconscious at the bottom of the lake, but she couldn't dwell on that for too long. She had to focus on getting Estelle out.

Harry was already swimming in front of the Champions, trying his best to free Ron with a jagged rock that he had grabbed from nearby.

Adeline carefully pulled her wand out of the holster and prayed the spell would work underwater. "Diffindo!"

The rope holding Estelle's leg severed, and Adeline quickly swam over to her. Adeline caught Harry's eye and gestured to her wrist, trying to signal to him that they had very little time left. She then wrapped an arm around Estelle's waist and began swimming up to the surface to the lake.

The first thing Adeline noticed when she broke through the surface of the water was Estelle gasping for air beside her, seemingly broken out of the coma-like state she was in when under the water. The second thing Adeline noticed was the screams from the spectators in the stand, excited to see the first Champion make it back from underwater.

Adeline didn't realize that she was the first until well after the pair swam to the platform and had several blankets wrapped tightly around them. All she cared about in that moment was seeing how Estelle was doing and trying her best to warm up.

"I'm so sorry you had to get dragged to the bottom of that lake!" Adeline apologized. "If I had any idea they'd even do that, I would've told you guys."

"Merlin, I didn't realize that I'd get roped into all these dangerous scenarios with you too," Estelle laughed, running her hair through her towel in an attempt to dry it off. "But don't even worry about it. I don't think anyone was anticipating they'd be dragging students to the bottom of a lake."

"Are you alright though?" Adeline questioned furthered.

"I think I'm about to freeze my arse off, but I'm perfectly okay," Estelle reassured. "You don't need to panic over me. You saved me from the bottom of that lake anyway. I don't really have anything to complain about, except for my hair being soaking wet."

Adeline reached over and wrapped Estelle in a tight hug, grateful that her best friend was back safe and wasn't unconscious and surrounded by a bunch of terrifying mermaids underwater.

Their peaceful moment didn't last for too long, however, as their friends came rushing over to greet them.

"Melanie figured it out about five minutes after you dove into the water," Ophelia said quickly as she arrived, gesturing over to the clearly proud-looking brown-haired girl. "She was just staring down at the water and then she suddenly screamed 'They've got Estelle!'"

"I can occasionally be smart," Melanie laughed. "I'm just glad to see that you two are okay."

The next champion to appear out of the water was Fleur, but she didn't have her sister with her. Instead, she swam to the dock, sobbing and holding onto her leg. "Grindylows!" Fleur cried as several Beauxbatons students pulled her out of the water. "'Zey attacked me! I need to go back! I need to go back for Gabrielle!"

Once Fleur had several blankets wrapped around her, Adeline wrapped a comforting arm around a still panicking Fleur's shoulder. "They would never leave your sister down there like that," Adeline quietly reassured. "I'm sure Gabrielle will be okay."

Fleur was still in near hysterics until Gabrielle and Ron broke the surface of the water a few moments after the bell chimed with Harry following close behind. Crying with happiness, Fleur helped her little sister out of the water and pulled Ron and Harry into a tight hug. Hermione began fussing over the two boys immediately after Fleur let them go, and the three teenagers seemed happy to finally be back together.

Ludo Bagman's voice came booming out over the lake, causing the crowds of students to go very quiet. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Mercheiftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the Champions," He informed the crowd. "Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by Grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points."

Adeline saw Fleur's face fall at this. "You did wonderful, you know," Adeline told her in an attempt to make her feel better. "I'm sure if the Grindylows attacked any of us the way they attacked you, we would've gotten that same score."

"For her successful use of the Bubblehead Charm and arriving first with her hostage, we award Adeline Reyes with the full fifty points!"

Adeline beamed as the Hogwarts students began to cheer. All around her, news cameras were flashing in an attempt to catch the Champion's delight over getting full points for the task.

"Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was second to return with his hostage," Ludo Bagman continued. "We award him forty points."

Headmaster Karkaroff clapped especially hard at this, and looked around at all the other Headmasters with a look of superiority.

"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect. He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Mercheiftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own. Most of the judges feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However...Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."

Ludo Bagman had to stop for a few moments as the Hogwarts students applauded loudly and began to cheer. "This leaves Fleur Delacour in third place, Viktor Krum in second place, and our two Hogwarts champions Adeline Reyes and Harry Potter in first place!"

Adeline nearly fainted right then and there. But instead she beamed and wrapped her arms around Harry's shoulder, who still seemed a little dazed but was just as ecstatic nonetheless. Once she had let go of Harry, her three best friends practically dived on top of her out of excitement.

The boat ride back was spent celebrating Adeline's huge win. After they got back to shore, Adeline and George said goodbye and told their friends they'd meet them back at the castle but wanted to walk alone together for a few minutes.

George grinned a little to himself with he noticed Adeline reached into her bag and carefully put a certain blue and white knit hat on her head before wrapping the thick blanket tighter around her. "I'm glad I didn't die from drowning, but I feel like I'm about to get hypothermia."

Laughing, George wrapped an arm around her shoulder, helping warm Adeline up even more than before. "Lucky for you, I'm incredibly warm."

Adeline grinned softly to herself as she leaned her head into George's chest. However, there was another question on Adeline's mind that she had been wanting to ask ever since she got out of the lake, but she didn't have the time to talk to George until just now. "Are...are you mad? That Estelle was chosen instead of you?"

"If we had been dating for a lot longer, then I'd probably be jealous," George admitted. "But we've only been together for about a month, and you and Estelle have been best friends for over six years. Melanie and Ophelia, too."

"So you're not mad or angry?"

George shook his head and smiled softly down at her, causing Adeline to breath a quiet sigh of relief at the reassurance. "If it were me there instead of you right now, I know Freddie probably would've been dragged to the bottom of that lake instead of you."

There would probably be some girls who would've been offended by George's statement. But Adeline knew how much Fred meant to George, and even if Adeline was with him for much longer than a month, she could never match up to the bond the twins shared.

Adeline reached out from under the blanket and interlaced her fingers with George's. "You know you're absolutely wonderful, right?"

George grinned and gave Adeline's hand a tight squeeze. "I try my best. Now let's get you back up to the castle, love. I have the feeling you're going to be wanting more than a few butterbeers."

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a/n:

the end of the semester is approaching really fast, and with that comes finals week :(( so it may be a little harder for me to update but i will still try to consistently update this book!!

i hoped you all enjoyed the chapter and that you have a lovely day!!

- g ♡