154 The Other Side

Hogwarts, Black Lake, Feb. 24th

Opening his eyes the first thing he did was yawn. It was a mistake.

Water immediately rushed into his mouth and Harry could do nothing to stop it but close his mouth, hoping it would hold.

Blinking his eyes, trying to get a better look at his surroundings while ignoring the sting. He didn't have his glasses, but he was obviously underwater, yet in a cave and was tied down with some sort of green rope so he wouldn't float to the surface. There were blurry things next to him but were grayish green, each with long tails and holding something.

Struggling to get free Harry's chest hurt more and more every second but a soothing voice from below calmed him down. "The special Land-folk has awoken"

"I guess this is why this one had to be kept separate."

"I can see that but what do we do?" Another voice replied, while at the same time Harry's vision started to go dark.

"Just leave it there, it's not our problem or fault"

As the callous words left the creature's lips Harry started to struggle even more to break free but to no effect.

It was getting harder and harder to keep going, and as Harry's struggle slowed he felt something press against his leg. Reaching down into his pocket was his wand!

Grabbing his wand and willed all his despair into it and his magic roared in response. It was Aqua Eructo.

However, unlike the previous times Harry used the charm there was no surge water that left the wand but instead the water around him visibly shuddered, or whatever the equivalent for water was.

The water seemed to roll over itself and slowly compress, pushing the creatures and itself further away until Harry was completely dry and left the cave empty of water.

Looking around having now floated down to the bottom of the cave Harry noticed that his glasses were nearby. They must have fallen off when he was placed here.

Glancing at what he now realised to be Merfolk he grimaced, he would like nothing more than to pay them back after leaving him to drown but he swallowed his anger and used occlumency to calm down. Thinking about it for a second he knew that unlike the other hostages which were given potions his grandfather had to place him under with spells instead but Harry couldn't imagine that Dumbledore would make such a mistake.

Walking to the entrance of the cave and the wall of water which was keeping the merfolk out Harry felt something wash over him, he stopped briefly and used occlumency once again but there was nothing affecting his thoughts or magic.

Shaking his head, deciding to figure out what happened later Harry reached out his hand to the water and it passed through. Before he could even think and spear-like object was thrown straight at him.

"Shit!" Harry said, just barely dodging it and ready his wand and looked above, seeing what looked like 30 merfolk and more coming.

"I really hope I'm right"

Closing his eyes Harry knew that this was going to be a hit or miss, and would likely tire him out. Collecting himself, he had to believe that his grandfather's advice was true.

"Aqua Eructo"

Feeling the control of water he recognized from each time he used the charm yet no force behind the spell he saw that the water was following his command. Waving his hand over his face and muttered "Spiritum Bulla," and felt the bubblehead charm take effect.

Running straight through the wall with little resistance Harry used his new found control over Aqua Eructo to push him out of the water faster than the merfolk catch him.

He must have been held deep below the surface and as far as he could tell nowhere near the over hostages as it took well over 10 minutes to reach the surface.

Not wanting to try his luck Harry used a simple freezing charm to create something to stand on. Unfortunately, he utterly misjudged the power needed and the icy platform he made was incredibly large.

Dismissing the bubblehead and Aqua Eructo charms he immediately felt tied and only just was able to stay standing. However a loud screech insteadly made Harry ready himself for what was coming.

Slowly a large number of merfolk surfaced, and as more and more came up until Harry just gave up on counting, he prepared himself and shouted "Vermillious".

Red sparkes erupted from his wand and told those around him he needed help. Not that he was counting on help, the Triwizard Tournament was many things but it wasn't safe.

As soon as the spell left his wand the merfolk went into a frenzy and climbed onto the ice.

Only then to be blasted off by Harry. As time went on and more and more merfolk were defeated those Harry had fought off earlier had returned, each anger then before.

The fight was going on for what seemed to be ages to Harry until something else stole the attention of his attackers.

There at the edge of the platform was Nathan and Hermione. Rushing over to them while having to fight his way through the merfolk Harry couldn't help but smile knowing his brother was safe despite everything that went wrong to him.

"Expelliarmus" Nathan yelled, and the red light from his wand blasted the merfolk into the air.

"Nathan, good to see you're ok"

"I wouldn't say fighting for our lives is 'ok' but sure"

"You don't actually think that right? I was already winning before you showed up" Harry said, shocked.

"Uh, no" Nathan replied rather timidly, "but still overconfidence kills, right?"

"I guess," Harry said "anyway, Hermione's still asleep?"

"Yeah" pausing for a second to send a peculiar severing charm which sliced through multiple of the merfolk weapons, before saying "Actually why aren't you asleep?"

"I'm honestly not sure. Grandpa had to cast the spells on me because I was needed on short notice instead of using potions like the other champions but there's no way he got the spells wrong, and I'm pretty sure the reason why the merfolk are attacking us is because of some weird curse."

Humming in agreement Nathan sent another round of spells at the merfolk while eyeing Harry and red light he was shooting from his wand wordlessly.

"What spell are you using?

"Stupefy. Shouldn't you know that? I thought it was taught in the fourth year" Harry asked

"Huh"

"What did you think I was using some 'evil dark spell'?" Harry said in a deep voice while simultaneously knocking five merfolk unconscious.

"Honestly I wouldn't even care at this point, I swear we've been fighting for hours. And Professor Flitwick said it was a difficult charm and he didn't expect the whole class to learn the spell"

"Really that's your excuse? There's no way Mum won't make you learn all of the fourth year spells if your grades get worse again" Harry said.

Agreeing nonverbally, Nathan then struck the merfolk with a powerful gale which pushed most of them in the water. Turning to the last few merfolk he said "I swear they just keep coming back"

"Who even cares at this point we're almost done and help has to be on its way by now. Better question is what was that spell? There's no way that was Ventus"

"It was," Nathan replied to Harry's doubtful look. "I just gave it a bit more of an oomph, you know. More to the point, why aren't you using powerful spells? I saw where you practice over the holidays and most of the surrounding trees were knocked down".

"I'm exhausted," Harry said softly.

Looking at his brother Nathan couldn't help but be surprised. Harry always seemed to know what to do - hell he had help more from Durmstrang during his second year than Ron did by his side!

"Are you sure you should be fighting?

"We're almost done, after we finish taking care of these persistent fuckers I'll take a nap" Harry said, rolling his eyes. While he was severely sleep deprived he still was able to fight as Nathan's equal and he wasn't even using darker spells.

The two brothers fell into a comfortable silence for a while after that, simply wishing to finish the fight now. Spell after spell yet the merfolk with nowhere to go but back into the lake and leaving Harry and Nathan tired out but safe and unharmed.

"If you want I can keep watch" Nathan offered.

"Nah I'll be-"

Cutting Harry off Nathan continued by saying "If they come back I'll wake you up alright?"

Think on it for a moment Harry conjured three chairs, and sitting down he said "sure".

As Harry started to fall asleep the last thing he saw was Nathan moving the still sleeping Hermione to one of the chairs he conjured while also blasting a sneaking merfolk off the icy platform.