Stay - Mattheo Riddle

Chapter 165

"I'm . . . here . . ." Kirrapanted, skidding to a halt in the mud and accidentally splattering Fleur's robes, Harry appeared next to her, even more out of breath than she was, he skidded on the mud and somehow managed to do the same thing that his sister had, earning a glare from Fleur.

"I'm here," Harry choked out as he struggled to catch his breath, leaning on his sister slightly for support. She looked over at him and saw the deep, dark patches under his eyes, he had clearly been up the whole night, and she could only guess that he was trying to figure out how he would pass this task

"Where have you been?" said a bossy, disapproving voice. "The task's about to start!" Kirra and Harry looked around. Percy Weasley was sitting at the judges' table — Mr. Crouch had failed to turn up again.

"Why don't you ask your mum, she will fill you in on all the fun we had las-" Kirra joked sarcastically but was cut off by Harry jabbing her softly in the side of the ribs, causing her to turn and glare at her brother, but not before noticing Percy's cheeks going even more red than his hair

"You watch your mouth P-" Percy began to growl at the girl but was cut off

"Now, now, Percy!" said Ludo Bagman, who was looking intensely relieved to see Kirra and Harry. "Let them catch their breath!" Dumbledore smiled at Harry and Kirra (Kirra sneered back at him), but Karkaroff and Madame Maxime didn't look at all pleased to see them... especially not the girl. . . . It was obvious from the looks on their faces that they had thought that the twins weren't going to turn up.

Kirra and Harry both simultaneously bent over, hands on their knees, gasping for breath; Kirra had a stitch in her side that felt as though she had a knife between her ribs, but there was no time to get rid of it; Ludo Bagman was now moving among the champions, spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. 

Harry was on the very end of the line, next to Kirra who was wearing Huffepuff shorts and a singlet. Kirra gave her brother a small thumbs up, both of them trying to hide the immense fear that they were feeling right about now. Kirra turned to look at the other side of her, Krum, who was wearing swimming trunks and was holding his wand ready. 

"All right, Kirra?" Bagman whispered as he moved Kirra a few feet farther away from Krum. "Know what you're going to do?"

"Yeah," Kirra panted, massaging her ribs. Bagman gave Kirra's shoulder a quick squeeze and then went over to Harry and did the same before he returned to the judges' table; he pointed his wand at his throat as he had doneat the World Cup, said, "Sonorus!" and his voice boomed out across the dark water toward the stands.

"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle. They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One . . . two . . . three!" The whistle echoed shrilly in the cold, still air; the stands erupted with cheers and applause; without looking to see what the other champions were doing, Kirra pulled off her shoes and socks, pulled her potion out of her pocket, stuffed it into her mouth, and waded out into the lake.

It was so cold she felt the skin on her legs searing as though this were fire, not icy water. She felt herself freeze up in fear but she tried to keep herself calm, reminding herself that she needed to go and find Mattheo. Finally, the potion she had made began to take effect.Suddenly, Kirra felt as though an invisible pillow had been pressed over her mouth and nose. 

She tried to draw breath, but it made her head spin; her lungs were empty, and she suddenly felt a piercing pain on either side of her neck — Kirra clapped her hands around her throat and felt two large slits just below her ears, flapping in the cold air. . . .  She had gills.