Gillyweed? Who Needs That?
Once more the schools found themselves watching nervously as their contestants prepared to enter a trail that no one should ever truly want to. The Black Lake, no matter how pretty it may seem, was not somewhere that many students willing centered past the shallows into, knowing what kind of creatures lurked within it. No one was stupid enough to swim in it, and yet Neville found himself shifting nervously as Harry looked almost excited to be doing so, bouncing up and down in that way that he had noticed that the boy often did. Neville found himself desperately wishing that Hermione or Ron, or anyone, was around to deal with the other boy.
The taller boy walked up to Harry, his hand patting his pocket as he checked that the plant was still there. And smiled once he knew that it was.
“You really shouldn’t show off that you have something important like that,” Harry said suddenly, slipping up on the other boy before Neville had noticed that he had gotten so close. “It will only get your things stolen,” the smaller boy explained, know from too much experience with the Stoll brothers and Weasley twins just how pit pockets looked for their marks. “What is is any way?”
The other Gryffindor flushed and pulled out the roll of plant, holding it out to Harry. “This is Gillyweed,” Neville said covertly, lowering his voice so that others wouldn’t hear as they headed to the boats. “It will allow you to breathe under water for an hour.”
Neville watched as green eyes flickered between the plant and the boy holding it before Harry simply shrugged, making no effort to take the offered solution. “No need,” the boy said, offering no form of explanation to his bold statement.
It wasn’t long before the horn was blowing and the contestants were diving into the water, but though the older three students had cast charms to help them with the task, it was Harry that moved through the lake as if he was born to do so. The youngest wizard was far away from the other three and among the mere folk before the older three students had even gotten past the grindlylowes.
The mere folk watched as the boy swam away with the red headed one tight in his grasps and couldn’t help but wonder why he was holding back.
Harry was the first to finish the task, much to the surprise of everyone else. When the judges announced the scoring, Dumbledore faltered over the spell that the boy had used, not knowing what it was.
”Gillyweed,” the man masquerading as Mad Eye Moody supplied readily, though he knew that it wasn’t just as the Headmaster did. The boy had no gills at all and was under for much less than an hour. He would never learn just what the boy had truly done. He might have reconsidered a decision or two if he had known.