Katherine Frances's Blog, page 260

A Harry Potter Fanfic by me (and sequel to Kim Shimmers and the Screech Owl)

(Art not mine, couldn’t find credits. Let me know if you know them!)

This Harry Potter fanfic will be posted, if all goes well, every weekend.

Chapter 16

The Real Thing

The first person to break the water’s surface was Fleur, but Madam Maxime didn’t seem enthusiastic when she did, so Kim inferred she must not have done the proper thing. What was more, she came out spluttering and a bit panicked, thrashing towards the doc until someone helped pull her out.

Next was Cedric, and with him Cho, surprisingly. Kim didn’t really understand until she remembered that Cho had gone with Cedric to the ball. Suddenly it made sense. That was the ‘thing’ the merpeople took that the champions must recover. Kim figured that explained why she hadn’t been able to find Hermione or Ron that morning as well. So which of them was Harry’s responsibility, and when would he finally get to them?

After a moment’s thought, Kim figured Hermione must belong to Krum, which only left Ron for Harry. This was confirmed moments later as Krum burst from the water, his head still badly transfigured into a shark. He started to change back to human as they paddled for the doc. Kim found it rather romantic that Krum’s treasured person was Hermione rather than a longtime friend from Durmstrang. She wondered momentarily who Fred’s treasured person would be, but that didn’t take long to figure out. It would be George. But Kim was alright with that. She held out hope though that perhaps she would be second or third on that list.

“He’s gone quite a lot past the time…,” Luna said, but she certainly didn’t need to.

“I know,” Kim said, her eyes not moving from the big clock standing beside the judges’ table. They’d been watching it for minutes now, waiting for Harry to burst out of the water in the nick of time… only the nick of time had come and gone. Come on Harry. I know you love to slide in at the last second, but you’ve really outdone yourself this time…

Kim’s heart was thundering. She wondered what it meant that he was so late. Did that mean he completely failed? The others had been past the time by a minute or so as well…Kim supposed it didn’t matter as long as he wasn’t dead down there, which was also a distinct possibility. It wasn’t as if anyone could see what was happening from the surface.

But then the water erupted with a black mass of hair as Harry emerged, spluttering and coughing, and hoisting up two bodies.

“Two?” Kim wondered aloud. One was Ron, but the other was a small girl with blond hair.

“Maybe she’s Fleur’s?” Luna suggested.

“I think you’re right,” Kim said, squinting at the pretty little girl as she began to flap about in the water. The stands were cheering in amazement and confusion alike, which only heightened as green heads emerged from the water. Kim drew in an awe filled breath.

“Merpeople,” she breathed. She stood on her toes to get as good as look as possible. There was 20 or so of them, and they had fish like skin and green thickly locked hair. They were screeching something dreadful, but they were smiling all the while. Complaints echoed through the stands, people asking why the Merpeople had followed the contestants out of the challenge area, and why were they yelling? But Kim knew it was a simple answer.

“That’s what their voices sound like above water,” Kim explained to Luna. “Underwater that would sound nice, I’m sure.”

The creases around Luna’s eyes crinkled. “It sounds a bit like a chorus of tortured cats.”

Kim nodded in agreement as the merpeople helped Harry, Ron, and the girl up to the docs. They seemed very enthusiastic about Harry, smiling at him, and raising their arms in a gesture Kim thought might be meant to convey admiration or victory. Kim watched as one of the merpeople huddled close to Dumbledore, as if speaking with him. When Dumbledore stood up strait and turned to the other judges, the merpeople sank back into the water, fin’s cutting the surface easily before they dove back into the depths. The judges convened, probably discussing the scores.

Kim didn’t really care about the scores. Harry was alive and that was all that mattered. But when they announced that Harry had been awarded tying points with Cedric due to his outstanding moral fiber shown by his determination to save the other hostages, Kim found herself cheering just as loudly as the rest of the crowd. So that was what took him so long, she thought, shaking her head lightly, but she was smiling. Oh Harry… what am I going to do with you… one day that heroic attitude is going to get you or someone killed.

An angry tugging in Kim’s stomach wiped the smile off her face then. It was unexplainable, unreasonable. Why does this keep happening? she wondered, begging her insides to calm down. Why was her stomach suddenly in knots? Go away! Can’t I just have a moment of peace? I’m so sick of being worried all the time…

She tried to push away the anxiety, but she couldn’t fully enjoy the celebratory mood that everyone else seemed to be in now. She faked it though, so no one would ask her any questions. It wasn’t as if she could possibly explain it if they did.

For the following two weeks, Kim tried to convince herself that she had plenty of time before the next challenge. It wasn’t until June after all, and it was still only the beginning of March. But that didn’t stop her stomach from churning every time she thought of it. And really, it was impossible not to. Everyone in the entire school was talking about it, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were constantly telling recounts of what happened under the lake to everyone and their cousin. Kim, of course, got to hear every single one of Ron’s exploitative and extravagant versions of the story, since she found herself spending a lot more time with the three. Fred and George always seemed to be off, busy with something else.

“Are you all right Kim?” Hermione asked her one morning at breakfast. Ron had just been giving another one of his ‘recounts’ of events, though it was quite fictional, Kim was sure. But no matter how fictitious the stories were, they still reminded her of the impending doom that seemed to be pressing down on her from the inside.

“Hm?” she asked, looking up out of deep thought, though she had simply been staring at her eggs and poking them around.

“Are you all right? You seem kind of out of it lately,” she said.

“Oh, yeah… I’m just worried about the next challenge.”

“Why?” asked Ron with a grin. “Harry’s got it.”

“Yes, because he so easily managed it the first two times,” Kim said sarcastically. She had since been told about how Dobby had given Harry the gillyweed at the absolute last minute, and quite by chance. Harry most certainly would have failed the challenge completely without it, though she supposed in this case he would have been safe none the less. It wasn’t as if he would’ve drowned while standing lamely on the dock, just would’ve suffered a severe case of embarrassment. But that didn’t make her feel at all sure the same would be true for the next challenge. After all, it was the third and final of the tournament. It was sure to be the most difficult, most dangerous.

“I’ve got months,” Harry said.

“That’s what you said last time.”

“She’s right, you know,” Hermione added.

“But this time’s different. This time they’re telling me what the challenge is, so it doesn’t much matter if you see a vision of it, does it?” Harry said.

Kim frowned at her eggs some more. “I don’t know… I’m still going to try. Something tells me it’s not going to be that straight forward. Whatever I see… it might be more useful than whatever they tell you. Like, if they had told you you were facing a dragon, you still wouldn’t’ve known how to fight it… if I had seen you with your broom, that would’ve made the whole thing loads easier.”

Harry shrugged, seeming like he saw her point.

“I know I shouldn’t be stressing about it,” Kim sighed, rubbing her eyes. “I just can’t help feeling like-…” But she didn’t want to say it. She didn’t want to say like something is going to go terribly wrong. She didn’t want to alarm Harry unnecessarily, but at the same time, what if not telling him caused him to walk into the third challenge unprepared for what was to come? The Diviner’s Curse, she thought. To tell or not to tell. To act, or not to act…

“Feeling like what?” Harry asked after a long pause.

“Nothing. I’m just a worry wart,” Kim said, but there was no lightness in her tone. Still, Harry didn’t press it. I’ll keep up with the divination. If I see something substantial, then I’ll tell him. But not before then.

On the first Saturday of March Hogwarts had another Hogsmeade trip. Kim couldn’t seem to corner Fred and George long enough to ask them what they’re plans were. A bubble of worry rose in her stomach about it. Fred’s been acting strange lately, hasn’t he? What’s been keeping him so preoccupied? And why won’t he talk to me about whatever it is anymore…

But before she had a chance to go after the twins about it, Harry invited her to come with them to Hogsmeade.

“We’re going to be meeting Sirius there,” he whispered at dinner the day before.

“What?” Kim exclaimed. Kim had heard little bits and pieces of the stories about Serious since Harry had found out that his god father wasn’tactually guilty of the murderous crimes for which he was convicted, and still running from the law for. “Here?”

“At Hogsmeade, yeah,” Harry said. Kim thought this sounded a bit like madness, but she didn’t press it because Harry already sounded worried.

“Sure, I’ll come along,” Kim said. She was a little anxious to meet the man who had spent so many years in Azkaban, but intrigued at the same time. She would just have to pocket her worries about Fred for another day. After Hogsmeade, she told herself. I’ll just talk to him. I’m sure we’ll get everything sorted out.