Harry Potter 04 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

more magic than the giant squid did.
    ‘You’ve got until three!’ Harry shouted; a great stream of bubbles burst from him, but he held up three fingers to make sure they got the message. ‘One …’ (he put down a finger) – ‘two …’ (he put down a second) –
    They scattered. Harry darted forwards and began to hack at the robes binding the small girl to the statue; and at last she was free. He seized the little girl around the waist, grabbed the neck of Ron’s robes, and kicked off from the bottom.
    It was very slow work. He could no longer use his webbed hands to propel himself forwards; he worked his flippers furiously, but Ron and Fleur’s sister were like potato-filled sacks dragging him back down … he fixed his eyes skywards, though he knew he must still be very deep, the water above him was so dark …
    Merpeople were rising with him. He could see them swirling around him with ease, watching him struggle through the water … would they pull him back down to the depths when the time was up? Did they perhaps eat humans? Harry’s legs were seizing up with the effort to keep swimming; his shoulders were aching horribly with the effort of dragging Ron and the girl …
    He was drawing breath with extreme difficulty. He could feel pain on the sides of his neck again … he was becoming very aware of how wet the water was in his mouth … yet the darkness was definitely thinning now … he could see daylight above him …
    He kicked hard with his flippers and discovered that they were nothing more than feet … water was flooding through his mouth into his lungs … he was starting to feel dizzy, but he knew light and air were only ten feet above him … he had to get there … he had to…
    Harry kicked his legs so hard and fast it felt as though his muscles were screaming in protest; his very brain felt waterlogged, he couldn’t breathe, he needed oxygen, he had to keep going, he could not stop –
    And then he felt his head break the surface of the lake; wonderful, cold, clear air was making his wet face sting; he gulped it down, feeling as though he had never breathed properly before, and, panting, pulled Ron and the little girl up with him. All around him, wild, green-haired heads were emerging out of the water with him, but they were smiling at him.
    The crowd in the stands was making a great deal of noise; shouting and screaming, everybody seemed to be on their feet; Harry had the impression they thought that Ron and the little girl might be dead, but they were wrong … both of them had opened their eyes; the girl looked scared and confused, but Ron merely expelled a great spout of water, blinked in the bright light, turned to Harry and said, ‘Wet, this, isn’t it?’ Then he spotted Fleur’s sister. ‘What did you bring her for?’
    ‘Fleur didn’t turn up. I couldn’t leave her,’ Harry panted.
    ‘Harry, you prat,’ said Ron, ‘you didn’t take that song thing seriously, did you? Dumbledore wouldn’t have let any of us drown!’
    ‘But the song said –’
    ‘Only to make sure you got back inside the time limit!’ said Ron. ‘I hope you didn’t waste time down there acting the hero!’
    Harry felt both stupid and annoyed. It was all very well for Ron; he’d been asleep, he hadn’t felt how eerie it was down in the lake, surrounded by spear-carrying merpeople who’d looked more than capable of murder.
    ‘C’mon,’ Harry said shortly, ‘help me with her, I don’t think she can swim very well.’
    They pulled Fleur’s sister through the water, back towards the bank where the judges stood watching, twenty merpeople accompanying them like a guard of honour, singing their horrible screechy songs.
    Harry could see Madam Pomfrey fussing over Hermione, Krum, Cedric and Cho, all of whom were wrapped in thick blankets. Dumbledore and Ludo Bagman stood beaming at Harry and Ron from the bank as they swam nearer, but Percy, who looked very white and somehow much younger than usual, came splashing out to meet them. Meanwhile Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur Delacour, who was quite hysterical, fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.
    ‘Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she ’urt? ’
    ‘She’s fine!’ Harry tried to tell her, but he was so exhausted he could hardly talk, let alone shout.
    Percy seized Ron and was dragging him back to the bank (‘Gerroff, Percy, I’m all right!’); Dumbledore and Bagman were pulling Harry upright; Fleur had broken