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Levi was going to murder anyone who even dared to touch him for the next two hours. Would firing off the most unforgivable of unforgivable curses get him expelled? Probably, but the irrational side of Levi’s brain couldn’t bring itself to care. He didn’t want to be disturbed, he didn’t want to be touched or talked to. All he could think about was the crucial part of his routine that morning that didn’t happen as per usual. He couldn’t get his usual fix and the absence had messed with his entire day.
It was the same sort of feeling as what someone would feel if they waited all day in line at their favorite cafe only to find out their favorite sandwich just sold out to the customer in front of them.
Which was honestly a horrible feeling.
Thus the aura that he exuded for the whole day was one of being even more pissed off than usual. He could tell the other students noticed as he noticed they gave him a wider berth than normal.
Even Isabel, who would usually tease him about being the most unapproachable Head Boy that Hogwarts has ever seen, was giving him space. Levi knew Isabel did not know the reason behind his especially foul mood but his best friend being willing to give him the space he needed meant a lot.
She was joined by Farlan as they both trailed a few paces behind their fellow grumpy Gryffindor. His two friends were wearing their normal grey uniform vest and slacks underneath their red and gold cloaks. Whereas Levi himself had long shorts on and a white t-shirt underneath his Head Boy cloak. Pinned to his cloak was that damn Hogwarts badge and the reason he was trekking towards the Black Lake, instead of remedying the missing part of his daily routine.
He could hear the shouts going up around him from the excited chatter of fellow students, black cloaks mixing with blue and brown ones. One particularly loud trio of students was shouting above the masses as they waved signs above their heads.
“Bets! Any bets! Will the stoic but beautiful Beauxbatons champion, Annie Leonhart, claim first place in today’s task? Or do we think the Drumstrang Warrior himself, Reiner Braun, will beat out the competition?” A Slytherin student with two toned hair called out enthusiastically.
Levi vaguely recognized him, what was his name again? Something with a J he believes.
“Bets! Any bets! Ten to one for Annie thank you very much,” the female Gryffindor student in the trio exchanged some money and a slip with another female student in a light blue cloak.
Levi watched as the girl’s brown ponytail swished back and forth excitedly as she went about accepting other bets.
The final member of the trio, a Gryffindor with a shaved head was widely jumping around as he exclaimed, “Or will Hogwarts very own, Levi Ackerman, our Head Boy, said to be the strongest wizard of our age group, take the first place spot today?!!”
Levi’s frown deepened at the mention of his name, he opened his mouth to tell him off but two flashes of red and strawberry blonde zoomed past him and stopped the words in his throat.
His scowl deepened as he saw money being passed to the ponytail girl and the shaved head kid from none other than his best friend Isabel, and one of their other friends, Petra Ral.
“Twenty to one for Levi? You got it Miss Isabel!” The shaved head kid - was his name Connie? - cheered.
“And another bet of fifteen to one also for Levi! Got you down Miss Petra!” The ponytail girl cheered with a bright smile.
Levi stepped up menacingly behind his ‘friends’ with a displeased scowl on his face. “Done trying to make money off of me are we?” He asked wryly, his distaste oozed from his voice.
Three frightened screeches were heard from the trio taking bets and Levi vaguely registered them quickly and wisely scurrying the hell away. The champion’s focus was on the heads of red and strawberry blonde in front of him.
“Oh don’t be such a sourpuss Levi! The betting is half the fun of the Triwizard Tournament!” Isabel beamed at him with a cheeky smile, any prior hesitation of speaking to him vanished.
“It’s also not like we bet against you Levi,” Petra added with a small smile as she straightened her Ravenclaw robes. “We think you’ll win.”
Levi registered Farlan coming up behind them, a teasing smirk on his face. “Sad you scared off those fifth years, Levi. I was going to place a bet of my own.”
The Head Boy clicked his tongue in disapproval, “You three are all horrible, why am I friends with you?”
“Because you loveeeee us!” Isabel cheered in a singsong voice.
“Besides Levi, you really think Eld, Gunter, and Oluo haven’t already placed bets much bigger than ours?” Petra asked in a teasing tone.
Levi sighed and he dragged his hands down his pale face, because logistically he knew Petra was right. Their other friends definitely would have placed bets by now.
He chose not to dignify that with a verbal response and continued his trek to the Black Lake. Levi’s bad mood was still there, simmering just below the surface but with the light hearted conversation, some of the tension had bled from his shoulders.
Levi boarded a boat with his three friends and made his way out to the stands that had been constructed in the middle of the black lake. Already many of the spots were filled, the sea of light blue, black, and brown all gathered to see the Champions compete.
The Hogwarts champion took his place by the other Champions to wait for the task to begin. He turned to look behind him to see Isabel, Farlan, and Petra join Eld, Gunter, and Oluo nearby.
He closed his eyes and tried to focus. Very soon he could rectify the missing part of his morning routine.
Whispers of a different sort started up around him though that had his eyebrows twitching in annoyance.
“Hey, where’s Silver today?”
“Right…? It’s weird he’s not here to antagonize Gold. He’s usually always here!”
“I know it’s oddly quiet without the insults flying back and forth.”
“Ssssh careful, what if he hears us?”
Too late, nosy shits. Levi groaned internally. But of course they would gossip about that being missing. Anyone would if something that had been commonplace for the last five years suddenly vanished.
Levi knew why it was missing and it caused the simmering annoyance to get closer to a boil. If he wasn’t allowed to move soon, the Head Boy is pretty sure he’d lose it.
“Champions! Welcome to the 2nd Task!” Headmaster Zackly boomed out through a voice that had been amplified with a sonorous spell.
Finally. It was taking the Headmaster long enough. Levi turned his attention to the older man.
“Last night, something was taken from each of our champions. A treasure of sorts. These four treasures, one for each champion now lie on the bottom of the Black Lake. In order to win each champion need only find their treasure and return to the surface,” Headmaster Zackly continued, his eyes sparkled with mischief. “They will have one hour to do so, and one hour only.”
As Levi expected, murmurs went through the crowd at Headmaster Zackly’s words. Levi could already hear the fringes of gossip as to what the Headmaster could possibly mean that a treasure had been stolen.
Levi scoffed, whoever’s idea this task was, Levi would like to personally maul them. Not murder, that would depend on how the task went, just seriously injure and cause a lot of pain.
No one touched his treasure except for him.
Logically he knew the cause of the gossip. It was mainly because something precious could mean a lot of things. A precious book, maybe a piece of jewelry that was a family heirloom of sorts, or even a favorite piece of clothing that was worn all the time. The Head Boy honestly rolled his eyes at those guesses. This was the Triwizard Tournament for troll’s sake.
But the most popular guess was that a precious person was stolen from the champions. Which honestly, if any of the students had any sort of brain whatsoever then they’d be able to figure it out.
From an outsider’s perspective, the theory had the most weight behind it. Levi noticed a particular lanky beanpole wasn’t around Mr. Warrior this morning. Bertolt was his name, if Levi remembered correctly. The boyfriend of the Drumstrang champion, was nowhere to be found in any of the stands.
Levi also noted that shy stuttering blond Ravenclaw, Armin Arlet, was also missing from the crowds of students. The other students definitely had to be blind not to have seen how protective the Beauxbatons champion was of her boyfriend. Levi knew that everyone had expected Armin to be right next to the stoic girl, cheering her on before she dove into the lake.
From what Levi could gather from the gossip he had heard on his way to the lake, no one had seen Bertolt or Armin since very late the night before.
Not that Levi needed the confirmation, he knew what was taken from him and could only assume the other champions had something similar taken from them. The missing significant others of the other champions were honestly not his concern. His only concern was his treasure.
He had to resist the temptation to smirk as he caught wind of some more gossip from the surrounding students.
“That theory can’t possibly be right. It doesn’t fit all the champions.”
“What do you mean? Both Braun and Leonhart’s boyfriends are missing.”
“Okay, but what about him?”
“Oh shit that’s right.”
“See? Who’s his precious person? Who could possibly be the most important to Mr. Potions Genius himself?”
“I did a headcount, all of his friend circle is here to cheer him on.”
“Odd, I’d thought they’d pick Isabel.”
Levi’s face darkened, he didn’t want to imagine his best friend, who was practically his sister underneath the Black Lake. But, and he felt like such an asshole for saying so, he almost wished they had picked Isabel.
How had they found out?
He had been so careful.
Not even Isabel knew and that was saying something.
Levi gazed out at the menacing, dark waters of the lake. His mission started to set itself firmly in his mind. He’d win this alright. Nothing was going to stop him from getting back what was his.
“Wait, you guys don’t think it could be Silver?”
“What?! No way! They despise each other! They loathe each other.”
“Yeah there’s no way Silver would be a precious treasure to Gold.”
“Then how do you explain his absence?”
“He’s probably looking for his best friend, duh.”
“Oh that’s right. He’s not here either.”
Levi tuned out the gossip at this point as he deemed it unimportant. They could gossip all they wanted. They’d unfortunately get all of their answers, and relatively soon if Levi had anything to say about it.
Headmaster Zackly had finally finished droning on about the rules, what to do if a champion wished to retire from the task, and the placements from the first round.
The Head Boy carefully caressed the set of small but intricately designed glass bottles that lay safely in his pocket. They were freshly brewed, he had made them as soon as he had figured out what the next task was going to be. The first to allow him to breathe underwater, the second to increase his eyesight in the dark, and the third to boost his speed.
As the call for the countdown started, Levi brandished three out of his five bottles between his fingers. At nine seconds, he was prying the first cork off with his teeth which he leviated into his bag that he had given to Isabel earlier. At eight seconds, he was bringing the first bottle to his lips, the contents quickly disappearing. From seven to six seconds, the process was repeated with bottle number two, then again with bottle number three as the clock struck four.
Levi rolled his shoulders backwards as the clock hit three. He cracked his neck from side to side as the big two appeared over the lake. He felt his potions start to take effect exactly when he expected to and the second the clock hit zero, Levi was running into a dive straight into the Black Lake.
He was going to find his treasure if it was the last thing he did.
•~•~•
A flurry of bubbles left Levi’s lips which if he was above ground, it would have been understood as a string of curse words that were in no way appropriate for public society. By his mental count it had been almost twenty minutes since he had dived in and that was unacceptable. Who knew what the crazy tournament bastards had done to make it possible to put his treasure underneath the Black Lake? It couldn’t be anything good.
The Head Boy angrily pushed some kelp to the side as he kept his wand out in front of him. His potion was still helping him see in the dark waters so there was no need for lumos. Levi strained his ears, because that’s what the clue had said wasn’t it. Come and seek us where our voices sound?
The only issue with that statement is that the Black Lake was fucking enormous. Levi had been swimming and craning his ears for even the slightest sound of merfolk and had so far heard nothing. More bubbles left his lips as he let loose another string of curses.
He was about to change direction and try a different section of the lake when he finally heard it in the distance, singing. The Gryffindor quickly swam towards the sound as he cast a quick protego spell in front of him as a precaution.
As Levi pushed aside more kelp, he finally got closer to where the singing was coming from, an underwater city structure of sorts. The raven could’ve smacked himself for not having found such a large structure right from the beginning.
He carefully kicked his feet so he was propelled towards the structure. When the Head Boy was close enough he could see the merfolk that were patrolling the city, all carrying rusty looking tridents of some sort. Levi cringed at how dirty the weapons looked, how could the merfolk stand to carry such disgusting looking things?
It seemed like there were more headed towards the city center. The Gryffindor stuck to the shadows created by the underwater structures as best as possible so as to avoid detection. By the sheer power of will and his espionage skills, Levi made it the outer ring of the city center.
There floating suspended with a leg tied to a piece of kelp that was anchored to the lake floor, was his treasure.
Of course there were two other figures floating on either side, but Levi’s only focus was on his own treasure. The gorgeous brown locks that floated in the lake water. The long eyelashes that almost kissed the cheekbones that they touched.
The Head Boy longed to simply make a mad series of angry swim strokes just to get to his treasure but the lurking forms of the merfolk standing guard gave him pause. Would they attack him? Or are they just there to ensure the treasures stay safe? Would they back off if they see a champion approaching?
Well, only one way to find out.
Levi was not going to be separated from his treasure for a moment longer.
He brandished his wand with as quick of a swish as he could manage underwater, thousands of counterspells flew through his brain as he tried to think of what would be the most effective. Petrificus totalus? Could potentially work but could also be too slow. Levicorpus? Could have less success underwater. Stupefy? Simple but probably the most useful. With that decided, the Hogwarts champion revealed himself and swam towards the center stage.
To his slight shock, the merfolk didn’t budge from their position, they merely glanced in his direction and then left him alone. That suited Levi just fine. He quickly swam the rest of the way up to his treasure. All surroundings completely faded away as he placed his hands on his treasure’s cheeks.
This was all sorts of wrong.
His treasure shouldn’t be like this with cold, clammy, wet skin. His treasure should be warm, full of life, and boisterous with boundless energy.
The Gryffindor placed his forehead against that of his treasures, his eyes closed and a flash of gorgeous blue-green eyes and an even more beautiful smile appeared behind them.
Levi had to get his treasure out here.
The Head Boy threw his body backwards into an elegant underwater backflip and went towards the kelp that was attached to his treasure’s right foot. The knot was quickly undone and his treasure floated upwards just a little bit. No physical reaction so whatever spell that was keeping the treasures unconscious seemed to be pretty strong.
There was no sign of the other champions yet, Bertolt and Armin still hung in suspension. The thought of freeing at least maybe Armin quickly crossed Levi’s mind. It would certainly make his treasure happier. But the thought of hoisting two people to the surface seemed like a massive pain in the ass.
Leonhart was capable, she’d be able to rescue Armin just fine.
With that decided Levi created an air bubble around his face so that he could consume his fourth of five potions. One to increase his strength. It took effect quickly and Levi swam up and put an arm around his treasure’s waist and he headed for the surface.
•~•~•
“Ladies and gents it’s been about thirty minutes since the champions dove into the Black Lake!” Connie Springer yelled excitedly out to the stands of students that were watching. The excitable Gryffindor was really sinking into his role as the main tournament announcer. “So far there’s no sign of any of the champions so it’s safe to assume that no one has yet recovered what was stolen from them just yet.”
Murmurs went throughout the crowd again, heavily hushed debates as to who was correct with their treasure theory. Activity buzzed through the stands as people shared the bets that they had made and how much they were hoping to win if their chosen champion won.
Then bubbles appeared on the surface of the lake.
A hush fell over the crowd.
Had a champion returned?
Who had managed to recover their treasure?
A head of raven hair surfaced from the murky waters of the Black Lake and the hundreds of students in black cloaks unanimously let out a ferocious cheer.
Levi Ackerman was the first to return!
Hogwarts had won the second task!
Some of the more curious students however were standing on tiptoes and craning their necks.
If the precious person theory was correct, then who was the infamous Levi Ackerman’s precious person?
Who was even more dear to him than his best friend Isabel?
Curious eyes peered and they saw a head of brunette hair cradled tenderly in the strong arms of the Hogwarts champion.
Was that?
No.
It couldn’t be.
But it was. Because cradled in the arms of the Gryffindor Head Boy was Eren Jaeger. The very same Eren Jaeger who was a fifth year Slytherin prefect. The very same Eren Jaeger who had had an intense rivalry with Levi Ackerman since the Slytherin’s first year. The very same Eren Jaeger who was referred to as Silver whilst Levi Ackerman was called Gold.
It was well known throughout the halls of Hogwarts.
Levi Ackerman and Eren Jaeger were sworn enemies.
They despised each other. They loathed each other.
There was absolutely no way that Eren Jaeger was Levi Ackerman’s precious person.
All eyes were on the pair, the buzz of happy students slowly dying down as everyone took in the situation and realized just who Levi Ackerman had recovered from the Black Lake. Even the Drumstrang and Beaubaxtons students stood in awed silence since even during their short time here, they had been subjected to the infamous rivalry during their time at Hogwarts.
All eyes were on the pair as the Hogwarts champion, uncapped a glass bottle, similar to the ones he had drunk from when the task had begun. The contents were quickly and almost tenderly tipped into the Slytherin’s mouth.
•~•~•
Levi waited for the color to come back to Eren’s face as the effects of whatever spell that had imbolized his treasure underneath the Black Lake vanished underneath the effects of the Head Boy’s final potion. A healing potion to remove the effects of magic on the consumer and deal with any minor injuries.
The color returned to the normal warm tan that Levi was so used to staring at. He watched with bated breath as those gorgeous blue-green eyes that he could honestly get lost in, slowly blinked open.
Life came back to them and Eren blinked a few times as the Slytherin came back to himself.
Levi closed his eyes briefly and took a quick deep breath.
This was it.
Everyone would know now.
The Hogwarts champion watched as Eren took in their surroundings, the crowded stands, Levi’s arms that were around his waist, the outcome of the 2nd task. The Head Boy noticed the exact moment when his treasure came to the same conclusion that Levi had this morning.
“They know now?” Eren asked simply in a quiet whisper.
“If they don’t, there'll certainly be a lot of rumors,” Levi replied, concern filled his eyes as he worried over if Eren would be upset about this. Over having their secret exposed in such a way.
Instead, his treasure smiled with a shine that was brighter than the sun. “Well! We couldn’t hide it forever could we? Honestly, I’m a bit glad for this. Now I can say how much I love you in public.”
Levi blinked and then stared at his treasure and how earnest Eren had been with those words.
Fuck it.
Who cared who knew?
They had always planned on telling people eventually. It was just a fun game to see how long they could convince all of their friends that they still hated each other.
So honestly just fuck it.
He could love his treasure in public. Finally.
“I love you too, Eren,” Levi breathed out, his lips quivered with a small fond smile.
Then with hands on his treasure’s cheeks, Levi brought Eren’s face close to his own and crashed their lips together in a bruising kiss.
Finally, he had fixed his usual morning routine.
•~•~•
All eyes were on the pair as Levi Ackerman kissed the shit out of Eren Jaeger.