Basilisk Eyes

Chapter 48: Accio glasses

A cold hand with a vice-like grip had latched onto his wrist and was pulling him down and down into the seemingly endless depths of the tank. Harry had barely been able to gasp a breath of air before he was submerged. At first, he fought to rise to the surface but the hand that held him was so strong and torpedoing through the water, that he finally went limp and allowed himself to be pulled. His lungs were burning and just when he thought he would explode from the pain, they burst to the surface.

He gasped for air and flailed, trying to keep his head above the waves that were tossing him around—he was certain that they were no longer in the dormitory. The air whipped around them, the water heaved in swells that carried him up and then dropped him down. The briny water filled his mouth and stung his nose. He spat it out and gulped in air. It felt so good to breathe. The hand had let go of his wrist and he wasn't sure where Mei was or even if it was Mei who had grabbed him.

He was totally disoriented and dizzy—it seemed like they had traveled straight down and then the world tilted upright when they emerged on the surface of the water. His eyes were closed tight against the blinding sun and the stinging salt water.

A wave buoyed him up and then he was crashing down and he went underwater and then he wasn't sure which way was up. He opened his eyes under the water hoping to be able to figure out up from the sunlight. The sea salt stung his eyes and he closed them again, but he'd gotten a sense of direction from the glimpse of light that he'd seen and realized that he'd been moving down and righted himself. He burst to the surface again and the hand grabbed his wrist again.

"For Merlin's sake, I thought you'd be able to swim, Potter!" Mei bellowed at him. "Those cursed papers. Bloody hell."

It sounded like she was swatting at something, but Harry bobbed under water for a second, then came sputtering up to the surface with the help of Mei's hand on his arm.

He was trying to scream "I can't swim!" but he kept going under water. A big fish fin rubbed against his leg and he started, thinking it must be a shark, and then realized it had to be Mei's tail.

"What's that?" she asked.

"I" sputter "can't" gasp "swim!" gurgle.

"Yeah. I figured that out. Now, I'm going to be arrested for drowning the Boy Who Lived," Mei sighed. "That's just what I need."

"Hey!" Harry protested throwing his head back to keep his mouth above water. He kicked his feet and his torso rose a bit out of the water. His trainers felt like they weighed a stone each.

"Don't worry—I'm not going to let you drown."

"Don't" gulp "ever" sputter "do" gasp "that" sputter "again" gulp.

"Okay, okay. Settle down, Potter. But why were you sticking your hand in my tank? That wasn't cool!" Anger flashed through her voice again.

She held him by both arms so that his head stayed above water and he was finally able to speak without getting waterlogged.

His anger was abating now that he could breathe. "I thought you were drowning. I couldn't hear you and you weren't answering and I didn't know where you went."

Harry realized how silly it sounded now that he was saying it out loud.

Mei barked a laugh in response that sounded like the seals at the zoo. He had a vision of a selkie from a book he'd read during primary.

"I'm not going to drown! I'm part sea creature. I can be in the water for a long time," she hooted with laughter.

"But you said you couldn't live in the ocean," he reminded her, feeling chagrined.