chapter twenty-six : the second task

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Juniper was waiting anxiously with Fleur and Viktor beside the judges' table. It was the day of the second task and to say she was nervous would be an understatement.

"Where is he?" she muttered, glancing around for Harry. Her cousin had yet to show up.

"I'm . . . here . . ." Harry panted, skidding to a halt in the mud and accidentally splattering Fleur's robes.

"Where have you been?" a bossy, disappointingly voice said. "The task's about to start!"

"Now, now, Percy!" Ludo Bagman said, who was looking intensely relieved to see Harry. "Let him catch his breath!"

Harry bent over, hands in his knees, gasping for breath. June placed her hand on his back.

"All right there, cousin?"

Harry nodded, unable to say something as Bagman addressed the rest of the students.

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One . . . two . . . three!"

The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air, and the stands errupted with cheers and applause. June pulled off her shoes and socks before putting the Bubble-Head charm over her mouth. Then, she waded into the water, not bothering to see what the other champions were doing.

The lake was so cold she felt the skin on her legs searing as though this was fire, not icy water. Her sodden robes weighed her down as she walked in deeper; now the water was over her knees, and her rapidly numbing feet were slipping over silt and flat, slimy stones.

Juniper dived into the cold water and started swimming towards the dark depths of the lake. Silence pressed upon her ears as she swam over a strange, dark, foggy landscape. She could only see ten feet around her, so that as she swam through the water new scenes seemed to loom suddenly out of the oncoming darkness: forests of rippling, tangled black weed, wide plains of mud littered with dull, glimmering stones. She swam deeper and deeper, out towards the middle of the lake, her eyes wide, staring through the eerily grey-lit water around her to the shadows beyond, where the water became opaque.

Small fish flickered past her like silver darts. Once or twice she thought she saw something moving ahead of her, but when she got nearer, she discovered it to be nothing but a large, blackened log, or a dense clump of weed. There was no sign of any of the other champions.

Light-green weed stretched ahead of her as far as she could see, two feet deep, like a meadow of very overgrown grass. Juniper was staring unblinkingly ahead of her, trying to discern shapes through the gloom . . . and then, without warning, somethinh grabbed hold of her ankle.

June twisted her body around and saw a Grindylow, a small, horned water demons poking out of the weeds, its long fingers clutched tightly around June's leg, its pointed fangs bared — Juniper stuck her hand quickly inside her robes and fumbled for her wand — by the time she had grasped it, two more Grindylows had risen out of the weed, had seized handfuls of June's robes, and were attempting to drag him down.

"Relashio!" Juniper shouted and from her wand came a jet of boiling water. She pulled her ankle out of the Grindylows' grip and swam as fast as she could, occasionally sending more jets of hot water over her shoulder at random; every now and then she felt one of the Grindylows snatch at her foot again, and kicked out, hard; finally, she felt her foot connect with a horned skull, and looking back, saw the dazed Grindylow floating away, cross-eyed, while its fellows shook their fists at June, and sank back into the weed.

Juniper slowed down a little, slipped her wand back inside her robes and looked around, listening. She turned full circle in the water, the silence pressing harder than ever against her eardrums. She knew she must be even deeper in the lake now, but nothing was moving except the rippling weed.

Juniper frowned as her black hair floated in the water beside her. She kept turning around, looking for something that gave her an idea of where to go, but she found nothing.

Eventually, she started swimming over the weed — a bit higher this time since she wanted to avoid any Grindylows — and swam on for what felt like at least twenty minutes. She was passing over a vast expanse of black mud now, which swirled murkily as she disturbed the water. Then, at long last, she heard a snatch of haunting mer-song.

"An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took . . ."

Juniper swam faster, and soon saw a large rock emerge out of the muddy water ahead. It had paintings of merpeople on it; they were carrying spears, and chasing what looked like the giant squid. June swam on past the rock, following the mer-song.

". . . your time's half gone, so tarry not
Lest what you seek stays here to rot . . ."

A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. Here and there at the dark windows, June saw faces . . . faces that bore no resemblance at all to the painting of the mermaid in the Prefects' bathroom, she realised.

The merpeople had greyish skins and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. They leered at June as she swam past; one or two of them emerged from their caves to watch her better, their powerful, silver fishnails beating the water, spears clutched in their hands.

Juniper swam on, staring around, and soon the dwellings became more numerous; there were gardens of weed around some of them, and she even saw a pet Grindylow tied to a stake outside one door. Merpeople were emerging on all sides now, watching her eagerly, pointing at the bubble of air that was around her mouth. June swim around a corner and a very strange sight met her eyes.

A whole crowd of merpeople were floating in front of the houses that lined what looked like a mer-version of a village square. A choir of merpeople were singing in the middle, calling the champions towards them, and behind them rose a crude sort of statue; a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Four people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson.

Ron was tied between Hermione and Liam. There was also a girl who looked no older than eight, whose clouds of silvery hair made June that she was Fleur's sister. All four of them appeared to be in a very deep sleep. Their heads were lolling onto their shoulders, and fine streams of bubbles kept issuing from their mouths.

June's eyes fell eventually on Harry, who seemed to be having some argument with one of the mermen.

That's my cousin, June thought, always making friends wherever he goes.

She swam towards them and saw Harry looking relieved when he spotted her. Upon nearing him, she saw that his hands had become webbed and was that gills she spotted?

"What's the problem?" she asked, hoping they could hear her.

"He wants to retrieve the others, too," the merman said.

"Harry, I'm pretty sure you only need to bring up one," June said. "I'm sure Dumbledore has everything under control."

When Harry looked stubbornly at her, she shrugged. "Whatever, cousin, I'm going up. It's too cold for my taste to be here." She shivered and swam over to Liam.

It had surprised her that he was the one she missed most. But on the other side, he had become a good friend of her.

"Let's get you back to the surface," she whispered, taking her wand out once more to cut him free. When that was done, she put her wand back inside her robes before slinging an arm around his waist and pushing herself off the ground.

And so their journey back to the surface began. June's muscles were aching; Liam was a dead weight. She mentally thanked Dumbledore for choosing him and not Fred or George. Only Merlin knew if she could drag them to the surface.

Slowly, the surface came into view and a feeling of relief overwhelmed June. Soon enough, they'd be safe and well on the shore again.

Juniper felt her head break the surface of the lake; wonderful, cold, clear air was making her wet face sting. She pulled Liam up with her and was relieved to see he opened his eyes upon breathing in the fresh air.

The crowd in the stands were making a great deal of noise; shouting and screaming, everybody seems to be on their feet.

"You figured it out!" Liam squealed, engulfing her in a tight hug. "I knew you would! What's that on your face? It looks weird. And I can swim!"

Juniper laughed at the amount of things he said.

"Yes, I figured it out," she said. "It's the Bubble-Head Charm, you know, so I can breath underwater. And that's wonderful Liam!"

"Can you do one for me too?" Liam asked. "You know, just to be sure?"

"You just want to breath underwater, don't you?"

". . . Yes."

Juniper rolled her eyes. "Fine." She pulled her wand out of her robes and performed the spell on him.

"This is amazing!" Liam exclaimed, before diving underwater.

"Come on," June said, pulling him back to the surface. "It's cold and I want to get out."

The two of them swam towards the bank where the judges stood watching. June kept an eye on Liam but he seemed to be doing pretty well.

The moment her feet touched the ground under her, she stood up and pulled Liam with her. Juniper felt utterly exhausted and stumbled upon walking out of the lake.

Madam Pomfrey came hurrying towards them with two thick blankets as June removed both her Bubble-Head charm as well as Liam's.

"Here you go, dears," she said, placing the blankets around their shoulders as the two of them sat down on the ground. "You did great."

"Thank," June replied, shivering as she pulled the blankets closer.

"We're the first ones!" Liam exclaimed, turning around while beaming proudly. He didn't seem bothered by the cold at all.

"Yeah, I know," June said, trying to warm herself.

"June!" a voice came from somewhere behind her, and in less than a second, Sirius was towering above her. "I'm so proud of you!"

He knelt down and engulfed her in a tight hug, not caring at all that she was completely wet.

June leaned against his chest, thankful for his warmt. "Thanks, Paddy."

"Hey, Junior!" Tonks' voice came and a second pair of arms was wrapped around her. "After this, you won't need to do any trials to get into Auror training!"

"Nymphadora!" Andromeda's voice came from afar making June laugh while pulling back from the duo.

"Thanks guys," she said, before pulling Liam closer since he had no one.

"Ah, look who we have here," Sirius said, smiling down at Liam. "Hello, Liam."

"Hello, sir," Liam said politely.

"I like him more every time I see him," Sirius told June.

She grinned. "Yeah, he has that affect on people."

"June?" Liam said quietly, as Sirius and Tonks made their way back to the stands to watch the other champions come up.

"Yeah," she replied, turning to look at him.

"Thanks for coming for me."

Juniper smiled and ruffled his hair. "Anytime."

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Published 29.01.2021

I hope you enjoyed it & tell me what you think of it!

No Charlie in this chapter since I wanted June and Liam to have their moment (I just love them so much okay) but he'll be in the next chapter!!

Ps: for all the Star Wars fans; I have published my first ever Star Wars fanfic so you can check that out if you want!

Have a good day/night y'all!