Year 4 (pt. 3)
The next day came far too quickly. Michael put on his suit and did his hair up nicely and then remembered he promised to meet Luna before she met up with Neville so he left to find her. He went to the spot they planned to meet up and immediately was in awe with the dress she was wearing. It was a white kimono dress with lace details. Her hair was done up in a waterfall braid with small, pastel blue and pink flowers in it. She looked a little nervous, which Michael was taken aback by because he had never seen her nervous before.
Michael smiled at her and said, “Wow. You look better than amazing.” He could see a smile creep across her face. Michael continued, “Everyone is going to be jealous of Neville you know.”
“I was so surprised that he asked me. I’m surprised he knew the meanings of flowers.” Luna said. Michael thought it was nice to see how much effort Neville put into finding flowers. Gerbera daisies, symbolizing beauty, innocence, and purity. All the words he used to describe Luna as he asked her to the ball. “You look quite dapper yourself Michael.”
Michael smiled and nodded at this. As he did, Ginny came around the corner. “Holy shit, Luna!” Ginny exclaimed loudly. She hushed herself a little before saying, “You look absolutely incredible.”
Ginny was wearing an emerald green suit. It looked a little baggy on her but it really worked with her personality. Her bright red hair complimented the suit in a way that left Michael stunned. Ginny noticed Michael looking at her and said, “Oh, this is one of my brother’s old suits. I told my mom I didn’t want to wear a dress so she tailored it to fit me better. I think it turned out quite well.” Luna agreed that it turned out well and Ginny continued, “It took forever to figure out my hair though. Hermione ended up just curling it a little and moved it out of my face. She is going to meet us outside the great hall before the dance starts.”
The three of them walked down to the great hall and as they did, Neville came over to them. He was wearing the standard dress robes, black and very neat. He came up to Luna and offered his arm, which she took and said her goodbyes to Michael and Ginny.
After a while, Ernie Macmillan, a Hufflepuff in Michael’s year came to go to the ball with Ginny. “Oh, uh… a suit.” He said as he offered his arm to her. She looked to Michael and gave him a ‘you better save me from this dance’ look and Michael silently nodded to assure her he would.
After Ginny left, The Champions and their partners were left, except Hermione. They were waiting for her and Michael even asked Viktor if he has seen her, to which he responded with no. Some time passed and all of a sudden their attention was directed to someone walking down the staircase.
Hermione walked down in a blood red, off the shoulder, a-line dress. The dress was made of both silk and tulle and reached past her feet dragging a little behind her. She slowly walked down the stairs and looked at Michael. Her hair was in a half up, half down style and curled. Michael was lost for words and before he could even begin to say something Dumbledore came into the room.
“Everyone is waiting for you to come in. You will walk with your partners into the room and then begin the dance. After a bit, people will then join you.”
Fleur was first, then Viktor, then Michael and Hermione, and then Harry. Michael and Hermione locked arms and walked into the great hall. On either side of them were students clapping and cheering them on and once they got to the center of the room they faced each other and started the dance they were taught weeks ago.
After a bit, Dumbledore and McGonagall joined and so did other students. They danced for a while before Hermione said she wanted a break. Food was put out around the sides of the room and the band, The Weird Sisters, started playing. The dance was becoming more of a party and Michael wasn’t very happy about it. He could handle a dance and its formalities, but a party seems overwhelming to him.
He noticed Viktor staring in his direction and when he looked to see what he was staring at, he realized he was staring at Hermione, who was talking with Parvati Patil who went with Harry. Michael eyed up Hermione and decided to talk to Viktor.
As Michael approached Viktor, he noticed how Viktor quickly looked away from Hermione as if he did something wrong.
“If you hurt her, you are going to be more than dead but if you make her cry you’ll wish you were dead.” Michael threatened in a way a dad threatens his daughter's boyfriend and gave him a push towards Hermione’s direction. Viktor looked back towards Michael for a second before gaining the confidence to ask Hermione for a dance. With this, Michael went to get a breath of fresh air and left the party.
Michael was looking up at the stars outside when he felt someone lean against him.
“You know I saw all that right?” Ginny said with a chuckle. Michael rolled his eyes.
“He needs to know that there are consequences for hurting my friends.”
“Oh I am soooo lucky to be your friend, aren’t I?” Ginny said in a teasing voice but still with sincere meaning. Michael smiled and nodded. “Ughh, you need to get back in there and dance with me. Ernie was too threatened by my suit to want to dance with me.”
“Ugh, of course he is…” Michael said. Ginny grabbed his arm and dragged him back to the party.
The night went by fast, Michael, Ginny, Luna, Neville, Hermione, and Viktor hung out a lot and after the party went out and watched the stars near the edge of the lake together. Michael knew that this would be a memorable night for all of them. He was even starting to like Viktor more because he, Viktor, and Ginny started up a conversation about quidditch and it was more entertaining than he expected it to be.
~
With everything that had been happening, Michael completely forgot about the fact he needed to find a way to breathe underwater for an hour. It was the day before the task and he still didn’t have a clue of what he was going to do. He was looking for Hermione everywhere, because if anyone knew what he should do, it would be her, however after looking through the castle for two hours and asking tons of people, he couldn't find her. After a while, he stumbled into Ginny and Luna, who were going to the library to study.
“You still haven’t found Hermione yet?” Luna asked. Michael shook his head.
“I don’t know how I’m going to breathe underwater tomorrow! I was hoping Hermione had a spell or something but I still can’t find her.” Michael complained.
“You know if you even find her she is going to scold you for waiting so long to figure this out.” Ginny said and Michael just rolled his eyes knowing that's exactly what would happen.
“Can you guys help me then?” He pleaded to them. “I can help with whatever homework you need if you help me.”
Luna and Ginny thought for a moment just to keep Michael on edge before agreeing to help find a solution. As they continued to walk to the library, Luna said, “I know of this position that I read in a book recently that can help you breathe underwater. I'm not sure how long but it's better than nothing.”
Michael and Ginny looked at each other and shrugged before agreeing they should brew this potion. While it wasn’t a difficult potion, something was eating away at the back of Michael's brain. Where could Hermione possibly be? Luna bottled up the potion and gave it to Michael.
“If you break this potion I will kill you.” Ginny said to Michael because she was long since ready to be done making this potion long before they even started. Michael gave her a cocky smile and a thumbs up before going back to his dorm to try and get at least a little sleep.
~
The next day Michael woke up and went to the great hall for breakfast. He continued to look around and still couldn’t see Hermione. Later in the day when everyone started to gather by the lake and go onto the platforms in the middle of the lake, created for the task, Viktor went up to Michael and also asked where Hermione was.
“I’m not sure. I have been looking since yesterday for her.” Michael said.
Just then, Dumbledore announced, “This is the second task. Each champion will have one hour to go to the bottom of the lake and save the person who means the most to them.” Then Dumbledore told the champions that when they hear the bang, the timer starts.
Michael stood on the edge of the platform and looked into the ice-cold water. “Here goes nothing.” He said as he downed the potion they made yesterday. He could basically hear Hermione telling him not to drink potions that aren’t tested but it was too late. He heard a loud bang, and he jumped into the water. Michael quickly realized taking his huge sword with him wasn't a great idea as he sank quickly to the bottom of the lake. Michael looked around and he couldn't see anything but 10 feet in front of him. He used his leviosa spell and made his sword lighter then started swimming around for a while until he heard the same singing as before. He quickly realized what direction the singing was coming from and went towards it, still on edge because he can't see anything around him. Michael made it into a seaweed jungle and what little visibility he had before was now gone. If he saw anything, he would kill it instantly which was unfortunate for a random octopus thing that screeched at him and Michael grabbed and crushed it.
Michael made it to a massive area that looked like a sunken part of Hogwarts and the closer he looked, he noticed Hermione along with 3 other people, important to the other champions. Michael was relieved that he had found Hermione but wasn't too happy it had to be underwater. Michael swam toward Hermione before being stopped by a mermaid-like creature that pointed a trident to his throat. “Watch where you point that thing you might stab someone,” Michael said, surprised he could talk underwater. The selkie pulled away from Michael before throwing the trident at him which he grabbed and threw back at the selkie, killing it. Michael swam towards Hermione again before being hit in the back of the leg with another trident. Michael turned around and saw an army of selkies ready to fight Michael so he pulled his sword off his back and pointed it at them ready to fight.
One of the bigger selkies screeched at Michael and tried to impale him but Michael blocked his weapon with his sword. He then grabbed the selkie’s weapon and stabbed him with it. Michael had to think quickly and it seemed the trident would be more effective than his sword so he stabbed his sword into the ground and started attacking the selkies with one of their own weapons. Michael had to remember to thank his father for teaching him how to use more than one weapon as he effortlessly fought the many selkies that were attacking him.
Even though Michael could take a bunch of them at a time he was still getting tired and making mistakes and getting cut or stabbed by them every now and again which was worrying Michael so he started to back away towards Hermione because he knew he was running out of time. He also wasn’t too sure how much longer the potion Luna made was going to last. He stabbed one of the selkies as he swam up to grab Hermione. As he did, he had to stab another selkie who was going after him. Michael almost left his sword in the ground before catching a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye. With Hermione in one arm, he used his other to swim towards the ground and get the sword. Michael swam as fast as he could to get out of the water. Slashing and stabbing as he rose he had to throw Hermione out of the water and onto the platform in order to fend off the rising selkies.
When he got to the surface, he saw Fleur shaking and crying and Viktor cursing while pacing the platform. He got out of the water and Dumbledore announced, “THE WINNER OF THIS TASK IS, MICHAEL BUTCHER!” As he heard this, Hermione started opening her eyes and Michael ran up to her.
“Are you ok?” Michael asked her. She looked at him clearly confused and in a daze, looking at the blood from his newly acquired wounds dripping onto the ground. But before she could ask anything about them, Ginny and Luna came running up to Michael and tackled him into a hug celebrating that the potion worked and that he won the task.