The Start of It All
“Exactly where do you think Hermione is ?” Ron grumbled to Harry as the pair made their way to the Great Hall. They were late, disastrously so, all that late night reading, searching for answers had taken its toll on them. “It’s the morning of the Second Task and she’s mysteriously vanished, probably chumming it with Krum. Traitor.”
Harry tried for a nonchalant shrug, his best friends had been particularly snappish with each other as of late and he knew well enough to keep out of it. He wasn’t particularly worried about Hermione’s absence, she knew how to take care of herself well enough. His mind was struck as it always seemed, these days, on the Triwizard Competition. Being perpetually on the verge of death, did that to someone.
“Listen,” he murmured to Ron as they passed a group of giggling Ravenclaws, “Dobby told me the most peculiar thing this morning. He pressed a bundle of this slimy seaweed into my hand, told me to watch for Malfoy and disappeared. He gets more odd every time I see him.”
“Malfoy ? What does Malfoy have to do with anything ?”
“Dobby is under some sort of impression that Malfoy needs my help. Absurd isn’t it ?”
“You probably misheard him mate. I doubt Dobby would be looking out for Malfoy of all people,” Ron muttered as he dropped down into his seat at the Gryffindor table, “toast and beans ? Surely it wouldn’t kill Dumbledore to splurge every now and then.”
As his friend tucked into his breakfast, Harry’s eyes found themselves drawn to the Slytherin table. Malfoy’s cohorts were crammed at the table as usual, tossing insults and jabs at each other but the blonde was noticeably absent. It hounded him for a second, two seconds before Harry resolutely shoved it away. Malfoy was the least of his ever mounting list of concerns. Between Voldemort, the competition, Barty Crouch and Karkaroff, the blonde menace listed low on his rank of priorities.
“Potter,” McGonagall swooped down just as he’d finally managed to convince himself to eat breakfast, “come along now. The Second Task is due to start.”
So Harry discarded his untouched piece of toast, found himself wrangled into a hug from Ron and trailing after McGonagall a second later.
Outside, stands had been set up by the Black Lake and were already filling up with students. He took his place alongside his fellow competitors. Bagman with his usual pomp, stood up and began a wild, detailed explanation of what awaited them in the lake. Harry, nerves shot, barely heard and caught only vague phrases important, taken, gone.
Then the canon was shot and everything else faded away. Harry shoved the seaweed into his mouth, swallowed it roughly and jumped into the water. It was icy, near excruciating and as he stood there, half submerged he wondered about the efficiency of Dobby’s plant. But then it was working, skin forming between his fingers and toes, gills sprouting up at his neck. A wild cheer went up in the stands and he dived.
It was gloomy and dull but the deeper he swam, the less it bothered him. He encountered a particularly vicious grindylow that slinked away as he shot a curse at it. When he’d reached the very depths of the lake, he wondered exactly how much time had passed. Wondered if he was even swimming in the right direction.
Then he heard it; the hauntingly beautiful mersong. Over and over, reminding him of the fate that would befall whatever it was that he’d lost. Around him were dozens of mer, but he didn’t spare them more than a second glance because there suspended in the water held by seaweed were two bodies.
Cho Chang but his gaze fluttered past her to the blonde haired boy beside her. Paler than ever, eyes closed in sleep but looking awfully similar to death for Harry.
He knew straight away that this was his important. Malfoy barely knew Fleur or Krum and wild jealousy rebelled at the idea of Malfoy being Cedric’s important. Harry hated Malfoy, there was no question about that but he needed him too. Malfoy was perhaps one of the few people who didn’t see him as a pawn or a saviour in the making. He could be as vile as he wished in Malfoy’s presence and the boy returned the favour. It was a necessary breath of fresh air.
In seconds, Harry had him loose and hovered debating whether to wait for someone to rescue Cho Chang or not. No, he decided, he’d get Malfoy up first and then come back if necessary. Two others had already bypassed him, time was running out.
Decision made, he began the ascent to the surface. As he broke through the surface, Malfoy tucked under his arm, Harry heard rather than saw the wave of chaos that went through the crowd. Freed from the charm that had held him under, Malfoy began to sputter and cough.
His eyes shot open, grey darkening as he took in Harry and the arm around him and then the wild crowds gawking at them.
He blanched.“Get off Potter,” he all but yelled as he struggled away from Harry’s grip, “what in the blazes do you think you’re doing ?”
“Saving your life, you miserable git.”
“And exactly why was I in that insufferable lake in the first place ?”
Harry was saved from responding as Cedric broke through the surface with a coughing Cho Chang.
The Hufflepuff’s eyes went from one boy to the next and an odd, amused expression overtook his face. “Is this your treasure, Harry ?”
“I—” Harry started and was cut off by a seething Malfoy.
“Another one of his convoluted schemes no doubt,” he spat out, “you take care to keep away from me, Potter.”
Quite done with arguing, Malfoy began to swim back towards the docks where his band of Slytherins waited for him. Parkinson bundled him into a towel, Zabini casted some sort of heating charm at him, both of them yapping away. Malfoy went willingly into their embrace and that was very last Harry saw of the blonde before the crowds engulfed them.
Harry pulled himself onto the docks and was met with a sopping wet Hermione and gruffy Ron.
Hermione caught him into a tight hug, pressing a little kiss against his head. “Oh Harry! You were gone so long, we began to worry.”
Ron however did not share her sentiments. “Malfoy ? Draco Lucius Malfoy ? The merpeople took Malfoy ? Why in Merlin’s saggy balls would they take Malfoy ?”
Eyes blazing, Hermione turned to Ron, “Honestly Ronald, that’s what you ask ? Who cares if Draco was Harry’s person ? I was Krum’s and we barely know each other.”
“At least now we now what Dobby meant,” Harry said with a nonchalance, he didn’t quite feel. Ron would have debated more but Bagman was weighing in, scoring them as before.
Despite finishing last, Cedric and Harry were tied in first place, followed by Krum and then Fleur, who’d been hurt quite badly rescuing her sister.
As Madame Pomfrey began herding them towards the hospital wing, insistent on checking them all out, Harry’s mind went back to Malfoy. Malfoy who was the noticeably absent yet again. Malfoy who he’d miss the most. It was completely absurd, unthinkable but completely true as well.
“Don’t worry about it Harry,” Hermione whispered nudging him gently in the side as Ron marched ahead of them. “Draco will forget it soon enough. Everyone will.”
That was all well and good, however Harry doubted he’d ever forget it anytime soon and vowed to hound Malfoy into remembering, if only to share his torment with him.