Chapter 178: Rescuing The Damsel (1/2)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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Quinn closed both of his eyes, and now all he could see was the scene transmitted by the artificial eye from Project: Drone Vision. In the originals, Fleur had somewhat gone through the same thing, and in that time, she had come out without any major mishaps.
While the situation had changed this time around — the three champions had gotten to their hostages without much hassle or problems, but that didn't mean Fleur would come out unharmed as well. He contemplated his next move, and with the loud discussions from stands made him think that he needed to make a discussion very soon.
He opened his left ”unconnected” eye to see the judges' reactions and saw that Dumbledore, Bagman, Karkaroff, and Crouch all were looking at his overhead illusion, but other than the low varying level of worries, all men looked otherwise unbothered — it was only Olympe Maxime who looked genuinely anxious about her champion's condition.
Fleur's unheard words were still sounding loud in his years.
Then there were sudden gasps all across the stands as everyone saw Fleur's bubblehead charm shrunk dangerously close to her face — receding from below the neck level to just below the chin.
'Okay, I need to do something — or she's going to drown,' he thought, feeling a little panicked himself, 'and it's going to happen in front of everyone else — yup, yup, yup, I should do it right now.'
Immediately, the water beneath his feet, which was keeping him afloat above, gave way, and he sank below without making a splash, leaving behind just a hint of a circular wave from where he was standing.
On the judges' platform, Karkaroff glared at Dumbledore, ”Where did he go, Dumbledore? What are your students doing now?”
Dumbledore glanced at Karkaroff and shrugged with a hint of a smile on his face, ”I have no idea what he's doing. Mr. West.. . for the most part.. .. likes to do things on his own, at his own pace, at his own discretion.”
”You lie. First, you enter two champions, and now this!”
”He hasn't done anything yet, Igor,” Dumbledore pointed up at the illusion still running, ”let's see what he does; I'm sure it will be entertaining and isn't that what we are going here for?”
Dumbledore merrily laughed while Karkaroff frowned deeply.
Sitting by their side, Olympe's eyes were fixed with the illusion; she tapped away at the armrest of her chair, with a pit sitting in the base of her stomach. She had complete confidence in Fleur to handle herself, but that was when Fleur had a wand in her hand — right now, she didn't have one, which in itself was the worst nightmare for a witch.
”I see him.. . I can see Mr. West,” said Barty Crouch Sr, as stern as ever. He hadn't shown up at the Yule Ball or for work at the ministry because of bad health, but he was back now — healthy as a bull.
Everyone saw Quinn in the illusion, swimming towards Fleur from her backside as the artificial eye was positioned at Fleur's front.
Tracey sitting in the stands, nudged Astoria and whispered, ”It's just like the time when he came outside the common room windows.”
Astoria nodded as she and everyone could see that Quinn's hands and feet had gained webbing, and he had gill flaps on his neck and chest.
”Where did he ditch his clothes?” Tracey turned towards the speaker and gazed at Eddie, who was sitting beside her watching the illusion with a thoughtful look. In the illusion, Quinn was in nothing but a pair of swimming trunks.
Dumbledore studied the illusion — specifically Quinn, and assessed the gills and webbed feet and hands. ”Those aren't from gillyweed like Mr. Potters.. .. then, they are transfigurations, hmm. But why does he have gills on his chest — wait a minute, are they directly connected? Oh my, if that's the case, then that's some impressive work.” Even from seeing just an image fabricated from Quinn's memory, Dumbledore could tell precisely what magic Quinn was using.
.. .
Quinn shot every grindylow, trapping Fleur with jets of stunning spell directed through his fake wand. Not a single little snickering water midget was able to escape or even had a chance to escape. He came to the front and was immediately stunned.. .
'She's unconscious,' he saw that her bubblehead charm was still intact, 'but she isn't getting enough air through it.' he poked his fake wand into her bubble and cast a much sturdier bubblehead charm, once again resuming an ample supply of oxygen for Fleur.
Quinn grabbed her by the waist and looked up; he could send her back to the shore right from here, but that would attract attention and with it suspicion. His power stint last year, which led him to split the lake, garnered a lot of attention. Students and professors alike had visited and staked the lake for weeks to figure what had happened.
Dumbledore himself, at that time and when planning for the second task, had extensively investigated the abnormality. Both times, he had examined the lake for a month and talked with the merpeople. All he got from his efforts was that the giant squid (Kraken) had been active a lot, moving around, causing underwater waves, but other than that, even they didn't know the cause of the bizarre incident.
Quinn knew all of this because he had chanced upon Dumbledore talking to a merperson. That very day Quinn had gone and made sure that the entrance to the Aquatic vault was hidden from sight so that if Dumbledore ever did go close to the entrance, he would miss it.
Standing on the water was fine, but if he sent Fleur up from here, that would be a massive giveaway and might turn him into a prime suspect.
Quinn swam up, pulling Fleur with him; he had to shoot a couple more grindylows on the way, but otherwise, Quinn got Fleur out as soon as possible.
Outside on the surface, everyone saw Quinn and Fleur pop out of the water. They watched as Quinn set Fleur flat on the water surface as if it was solid and himself used the lake surface to climb up before picking up Fleur in his arms and walked towards the stands.
Poppy came running out on the platform from where the champions had jumped as he got close to the stands. ”Quinn, how's she, status?”
”She's fine, just fainted. Her bubblehead charm shrunk and couldn't provide enough air to her,” replied Quinn, ”she'll be fine — just need to get up on her own.”
”Okay, pass her up,” she needed to check for herself just to be safe and sure.
Quinn clutched his fake wand and was about to wave it in the motion for a body levitation charm but felt Fleur's arms tighten around her neck.
”.. . .Quinn,” he heard a soft and faint whisper. He glanced down and saw Fleur looking at him with half-lidded eyes.
”Yes? I'm here.”
”.. . .Gabrielle.”
”She's fine,” he said, as unlike her, he knew that the hostages weren't in any danger.
”Where.. . is she?”
”.. . She's fine and safe.”
Her eyes once again began closing, but before they fully closed, she spoke on last time, ”Bring her up, please.”
Quinn sighed as his lie failed the deception check, ”.. .. Yeah, I will get her up.”
”Hmm.. . .”
He sent her up to Poppy to get checked up and brought up back to health. Now it was time to get Gabrielle back up. He turned around, and before the judges could say anything, Quinn sunk back in, not giving them a chance to stop them.
Quinn knew that Dumbledore would call up a merperson who would then go back to get Gabrielle back up.. .. while that was fine, it would take too much time — Fleur might be up and running, and if she saw her sister still missing, she would panic; as such, he wanted to get Gabrielle before Fleur woke up.. .. Because Quinn was sure that Fleur was barely half-conscious in their conscious.
Quinn cut the connection to the artificial eye and, with it, erased the illusion. He finally opened his right eye, and immediately, water around started to move, and he zapped towards the merpeople village to retrieve Gabrielle. He cut the water magic just before he was within sight and swam normally towards the statue to which Gabrielle was tied.
He stepped on the lake bed and finally saw an asleep, floating Gabrielle. He walked normally as if he wasn't in the water, and when a merperson swam in his path, Quinn waved a hand, gesturing to move aside. But the merperson didn't move and stared at Quinn sternly.
Maybe it was because Quinn was in a hurry or because he had so much water around him, and it felt terrific as if power was filling him that he waved his hand once again, and the merperson was swept away by an underwater wave, leaving the path free which Quinn briskly walked to reach Gabrielle.
He simply looked at the five merfolk standing nearby, and they didn't dare approach him. He untied the little Veela, and just like his sister, he took off with her, this time just faster, courtesy of water magic. The merpeople could only stand and watch as Quinn left with the hostage that they had to protect.
When he finally emerged, everyone screamed, cheered, and applauded as if he was a champion. Quinn stared at them with a partially surprised expression. Then his face changed from surprise to a bit of furrow in his brow because he saw a wide awake Fleur wrapped in towels, staring at him — no, staring at Gabrielle, who had woken up from her enchanted sleep (coming out of the water was the trigger.)
He walked to the champion's platform and waved his fake wand, which made the water under his rise up, pushing him up — he kept it pretty wobbly just to be safe.