The Serpent of Durmstrang // A Harry Potter FanFiction

Chapter Sixteen

The spell left his wand even before the first merman reached him.

There was little time to think of transfiguration. For his part, Harry quickly sent a Stunner towards one of the mermen. It worked, but only barely as the stunned merman was immediately replaced with three, coral spears pointed forward.

Harry hurriedly looked around, realizing that Fleur and Cedric were also being surrounded by the merpeople. Fleur was panicking, from what he could make out, while the Hogwarts Champion was already fighting back with spells. The decision he made had less to do with his affection for Fleur, but more of common sense. At least, he would like to say it to be so.

Casting a blasting curse towards a group of merman that had come too close for comfort, Harry quickly swam towards Fleur, an unconscious Aleksander in tow. The French witch's eyes widened. She looked terrified, though not frozen in fright. While Harry and Cedric were fending off the creatures, Fleur had been working on, and successfully, cut her sister's bonds free.

The water around them continued to swirl with activity. A quick glance told Harry that most of the mermish population had now gone into hiding, panicking and in fright. The only ones left were the soldiers and their leader, seemingly slowly boxing them in. They weren't in a hurry to hurt or kill them. Instead, they were trying to enclose them into a small space. This was not a kill-order, but a hostage-taking situation.

Harry pointed towards their hostages, before pointing up. At this point, Cedric had joined them, with an unconscious Cho in tow. He had nodded, though looked around in concern as the mermish soldiers continued to box them in ever so closer together. They were trapped in all fronts, save up and down.

They can speak no words, but Harry knew what he needed to do.

Harry quickly motioned for all of them to hold onto each other. It took little convincing as Harry pointed downwards, and showed them both his wand motion. The Bombarda Spell was known to every seventh year student, and Fleur immediately caught on. Cedric gave a doubtful look, before nodding reluctantly as Fleur had already hugged Gabrielle tight and grabbed a hold of Harry.

With a quick motion, Cedric also clung to Harry, keeping Cho in between them. This was their best chance, as all three champions pointed their wands down to the bottom of the lake.

When the mermish soldier saw this happen, they quickly sped up at the command of their leader. They seemed to have abandoned their slow and steady approach. Instead, they wielded their spears menacingly, pointed forwards in an attempt to subdue their charges with intimidation.

Harry held up his webbed hand and counted down.

Three.

Two.

One.

"Bombarda!" All three of them shouted, though muffled by the water surrounding them. Their intent was there, however, and so was their wand movements. Immediately a strong burst of energy shot down, and propelled the six teenagers upwards. This had the unintended consequence of crushing parts of the lake floor, and blasting away the mermish soldiers that were already too close for comfort.

The spell, however, was not quite enough. It didn't push them all the way up towards the lake's surface. While the force was strong, there were six bodies that were being dragged down by the water. It was clear they needed to do it again, and fast.

Mermaids were known to be beautiful, elegant, and lithe. But few knew that they were also very aggressive and relentless. The tales about their cousins of the sea, the sirens, were also true for their folk, though less mischievous and cared little for drowning innocent victims. The freshwater folks were less warlike, but that doesn't mean they don't have the propensity to be so when agitated.