˗ˋ 42

                                    

                                          
CHAPTER FOURTY TWO
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-: sixth year :-
                          
── IN WHICH THE TASK IS OVER
                          
. . .

                          


                          
Everyone in the crowds were screaming, so loud that you could hear it from underwater. Rosie had swam away from where she left Harry, although she ended up getting far too curious about what was going on and returned, resurfacing above the water just by the stands.
                          
"Oi prats." Rosie said,  lucky to find that the twins were stood right by the side of the platform, and they glanced down. 
                          
"Didn't die then?" George said, looking a little more iritated than Rosie expected him to be. "Rosie, you just went down into the Black Lake - do you know how dangerous that is."
                          
"Don't lecture me about danger. Neither of you can do that." Rosie made a face, pulling herself out of the water just a little bit, trying to transform from the mermaid form back to human. 
                          
"How did it go down there?" Fred asked, crouching down and holding out his hand and helping Rosie out, the girl sitting on the side of the platform, trying to ring the water out of her hair. 
                          
"I can tell you that anytime - what's happening?" Rosie replied, and the two twins looked over to the middle podium, where Madame Pomfrey was trying to warm up the champions and the people they rescued. 
                          
"Dunno." George shrugged. "Can't hear anything. But you could right? If you just go and swim right on over there." He and Fred crouched back down simultaneously.
                          
"That way, you have a proper ending to your story that you'll tell us later." Fred continued, smirking before placing his hands on Rosie's shoulders and pushing her back into the water. 
                          
The girl resurfaced a few moments later, fully transformed back into a mermaid. "You're a prick, Fred Weasley. Now get back as fast as you can and bring me warm clothes." She said, before disappearing under the surface.
                          
She swam over to the centre podium, noticing that the chief merman and his wife just by the front, talking to Professor Dumbledore, who was crouching down by the edge. 
                          
He was speaking Mermish, and she moved just a little closer so she could hear him. They were confering about what had happened underwater, and she winced when she heard the merman mention a strange mermaid. 
                          
And it just so happened that Dumbledore glanced her way, shaking his head slightly before returning to his discussion. She really hoped this wouldn't affect Harry's score, because if it did, she would be the first to protest it.
                          
Finally, Dumbledore rose, moving back to Ludo Bagman, who's magnified voice soon boomed across the lake, everyone falling quiet as he spoke.
                          
First, Fleur Delacour, who had recieved 25 points. Unfortunately, the Beauxbatons champion had been attacked by Grindylows and couldn't rescue her person - which was the girl that Rosie had helped free. 
                          
Then Cedric. Rosie tried to emerge out of the water a little more, the liquid limiting her hearing slightly. Fourty seven points - he did so well. 
                          
Rosie beamed, despite the fact that Cho was beside Cedric, who immediately turned to her with a smile. Of course, he didn't know that it was her that helped him, but it still kinda hurt that he would never know, never smile at her like that.
                          
Her eyes widened at her thoughts - she didn't care that Cedric wouldn't smile at her. She didn't even know why she had been so worried. He survived, it wasn't exactly hard.
                          
And just as she was in the middle of her internal battle, she felt someone watching her. Of course, it was the exact person she was thinking of.
                          
Cedric was staring at her, his grey eyes taking in her appearance. Panic set in - did he recognise her? As the a mermaid or as Rosie? In the centre of the podium, Bagman announced Krum got forty points.
                          
Swallowing, Rosie looked back at Cedric, who met her eyes again. His eyes began to widen, and he glanced over at the other stands, searching for something. Harry had been given forty five points, tying him first place with Cedric.
                          
"Oh no." Rosie mumbled, Cedric's eyes setting back down on the mermaid, having been searching the stands for a few moment. He mouthed something, frowning and looking confused. 
                          
He was figuring it out, and before he could get any further she ducked back into the water, swimming as fast as she could over to the shore, where Fred and George should be meeting her with some clothes.
                          
Hoping that Cedric actually didn't recgonise her, and it didn't ruin anything.
                          
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