Harry Potter and the Battle of the Age

Chapter Fifteen

Deep Water

After the Quidditch Cup, the celebrations in Gryffindor Tower, nasty mutterings in the Slytherin dungeon common room, non-commitment but general pleasure at seeing a good match from the Hufflepuffs, and decided cheer from at least making into the finals in Ravenclaw effectively pushed Professor Trelawney's prediction from the students' minds. Of course, exam week drawing closer by the hour helped, also. Harry found himself more tired than he had ever felt, tired to his very bones. He didn't have time to think about anything besides his N.E.W.T.s, a fact for which he was rather grateful. Ron's anxious mutterings about his entire career and adult life being decided three weeks, than two and a half weeks, than just over two weeks from now had returned, catching most of his fellow classmates up in a feverish squall of nerves. Once Harry began to feel on top of his subjects, he almost enjoyed keeping his mind so busy--he had a spare moment between his class and dinner, so he picked up his Potions book and started reciting properties of certain ingredients. He had another three hours before he would absolutely need to get some sleep--he could get a lot of Herbology and Transfiguration work done; although Ron still wouldn't let him try and Transfigure him in to a goat. He had done it once before...

No, the thing that got Harry most nervous was that he was beginning to feel confident. No one should feel confident about the N.E.W.T.s. He never thought they would be easy, but he could at least remember everything he was supposed to, and, in most cases, anyway, felt that he really understood it. Well, he could tackle more Potions work, he supposed. He needed Rachel to give him all the tutoring she could, however; Snape was so angry at her being able to play in the Cup match that he was even less helpful than usual after when he returned that evening, which was saying something. He had gone back to what he did in Harry's fifth year after he caught him spying on one of his memories, involving Harry's father and unlaundered underclothes; namely, not speaking to him and acting as though any chair with him in it was empty. Harry was grateful for the undisturbed time to make his potions. Getting Snape to grade them was another issue, but Harry finally tuned out his nasty comments and ignored him when he gave him zeros--it would only last a few more days and he ought to do alright during the exam. Rachel also held her tongue; there were no more outbursts from either her or Snape so far.

One morning, about a week and a half from the exams, Harry got a note at breakfast saying that he had been excused from his first two afternoon classes (Herbology and, wonderfully, Potions), as they would have been basically study periods anyway. He wondered about it all the way to Care of Magical Creatures, where he met the rest of the class (he had been running rather late) and found that they all had them as well.

"All we've figured out so far is that Hagrid is taking us on some kind of--field excursion," Hermione reported nervously. "Or at least, he's doing something with us that will last longer than a normal class period..."

Harry glanced into the forest.

"Does, ah... Dumbledore know about this one?" he asked, hopefully nonchalantly.

"We don't know," Ron said, or rather croaked. "If we go into that bloody forest again..."

At that moment, Hagrid emerged out of his cabin, barefoot and wearing hairy, knee-length breeches that looked like beaverskin and a loose, light shirt.

"G'morning!" he called happily to the assembled crowd, mostly Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors. "Ah'v got a special treat fer ya today--you'll like this. Now," he said, looking around the students seriously. "This'll be our las' class together, 'cause I'm lettin' you all have yer next classes--how many are left here, three?--freed up, so you can study wherever you like; I mean, it's not like I'm gonna give you any new material a week before the N.E.W.T.s."

Hagrid gave them all another glance, than said rather gruffly,

"I'm proud of all o'you... I've seen you sudyin' yer little tails off, an' yeh've all been doin' real well here; rememberin' all yer lessons and all. Yer all gonna do fine on yer exams--o'course, I'm always here to help if you get stuck on sommat; jes' come down ter my cabin anytime, an' I'll help yeh. But fer today--today we're gonna do somthin fun."

He held up his hand as Ernie Macmillan shifted nervously.

"Now, it'll be educational too; don't you worry abou' that. What we're gonna do--" he paused one last time, apparently greatly anticipating this little excursion himself--"Is go and catch a glimpse... o' the giant squid."

There was a stunned silence, until Harry heard Rachel say weakly next to him,

"R--really?"

Hagrid beamed and nodded

"Awesome!" came the reply, her American accent becoming pronounced, as it tended to do when she was excited. Harry did a double take. Rachel gave him a can't-you-believe-our-good-luck look. Meanwhile, Ron had gone all grey again.

"Is that, ah... totally... safe?" Hermione asked timidly.

"O'course it's safe!" Hagrid replied cheerily, waving a hand in the air. "It's seen enough merfolk so as not to be spooked by the likes o'you, and it knows what tastes good and what don't anyway. Yeh can't go yer entire time at Hogwarts w'out seein' the squid," he stated firmly. Noticing that they had less-than-thrilled looks (except for Rachel, whom Harry decided was clearly insane), he took on a more solemn tone and said,

"Now, really, if yeh've listened to me, how many times have yeh found yerself hurt? Look here--I've lived here since I was thirteen, year-round, an' I know these grounds back an' front. Yeh'll be far off, anyway. C'mon--who can 'onestly say that they wouldn't trust me to keep 'em safe? Really, now!"

Some students exchanged glances, but Harry said,

"Come on, he has--he has shown us, er... sort of dangerous stuff before... but aside from that one year with Malfoy, who was a git, and the hippogriff, no one here has gotten really hurt, have they? I'm not--I'm not nervous," he added, mostly truthfully.

"I'm not!" Rachel said, as though it was the rest of them who were mad.

"Tha's the spirit, Harry, Rachel!" Hagrid beamed again. "Squids are peaceful creatures anyway; they're more like to be scared o'you and run aw... er, swim away, than take a swipe at yeh."

He took one last look around the class, then sighed just a bit and said,

"But I'm not gonna' take any of yeh if you're really afraid," he said. "There's really not any risk; yeh'll be far off, but... anyone who doesn't want ter come can stay behin'."

Hagrid strode to the front of the class and made a motion to follow him. Rachel went without hesitation; Harry followed, hiding his own hesitations. Hermione's eyes squinted and she made a small noise in her throat, clearly not wanting to offend or disappoint Hagrid but also holding her own serious reserves about going into the lake. But she followed Harry, and Ron went after her. Than Ernie Macmillan, to Harry's slight surprise, and Hannah Abbot went to Hagrid's side. Dean Thomas and Neville Longbottom came over, and a few Hufflepuffs. In the end, roughly half of the class went with Hagrid, while the other half stayed behind. Hagrid's beard turned down and his beetle-black eyes crinkled a bit with disappointment, but he quickly hitched the smile back on his face and waved the other students off, each looking like they where turning their backs on the gallows.

As they were walking toward the lake, Harry began to grow a little excited, despite himself. As long as they really did stay a fair distance... it was his last year at Hogwarts. Why not be able to say he saw the giant squid? It seemed to be friendly enough when the bold students (namely Fred and George) tickled its tentacles on sunny days. And it saved little Dennis Creevey from drowning once...

As if reading their minds Hagrid turned to them and said,

"Now, I know yeh might no' think it, but I would not put any of yeh in serious trouble if I knew of it, and I would know of it. I promise yeh, as I would promise Dumbledore--" he looked around, serious once more--"Yeh'll all be completely safe."

He spoke like he was swearing a solemn vow, and Harry did feel himself give a little. Sometimes Hagrid's 'interestin' creatures' had gotten him into trouble, but that was mostly outside of class... and he wouldn't argue that Hagrid did know more about living creatures and their ways than anyone else he knew of.

They soon reached the lake, where Hagrid had them all put Bubble-Head charms on themselves, since they wouldn't be down very long. He pulled out a rubbery little ball that looked like tied-together rat tails, which Harry and a few good herbologists recognized as Gillyweed. That was how Hagrid planned on getting down to the depths of the lake, and he had a few more stored in his pocket for an emergency. Neville looked somehow comforted.

Harry wondered if they were going to have to fight off the nasty little grindylows he had faced in this very lake his fourth year, or worse, but Hagrid somehow seemed to know his way around the lake as well as around the forest. They passed mostly through open water, their robes billowing out gracefully like the movements of everything else in the water, including the undulating weed beds fairly far under them. Hagrid only had to shake his finger warningly once at Dean, who was floating a little deep--he had warned them of the importance of listening to him, which everyone found they were happy to do in the dark, murky water.

Hagrid kept his promise and held a good eye over all of the students, who swam for about half an hour behind him, occasionally lost in grey-green water, and sometimes marvelling at graceful, twisting plants and small silvery fishes. Hagrid abruptly stopped. Harry could just make out a large boulder ahead of them, or rather a jagged row of boulders, its outline barely visible in the clouds of silt. This they swam up to, and they could see a bigger rock, behind theirs, which, upon further examination, proved to contain a large, black spot from the centre to the lake floor.

"A cave!" Harry said, although he could make no sound. He tugged on Rachel's sleeve and pointed to the outline of its mouth. She nodded. Hagrid swam forward, and for a nasty moment Harry thought they were going to swim into it--this may've been more than he had bargained for. But Hagrid made it clear through many gestures that they were to stay put behind the rocks. He swam alone, flipper-like feet shooting jets of bubbles, toward the yawning entrance.

Harry felt his knees bend nervously as he pressed himself, beside his classmates, along the huge line of boulders. There may have been another row on the other side of the cave, as if a large fence was surrounding the squid's apparent home. Hagrid took a long branch of seaweed and began drawing a line in the lake floor there, stirring up silt. He took something Harry saw was a clump of some kind of fish flesh (he thought Hagrid had smelled funny) and waved it around, creating a pink cloud in the water in front of him. Harry's heart raced, and Rachel gripped his arm as they waited, until--nothing happened.

Time always seems to pass slowly when you're waiting for something, especially when you're waiting particularly anxiously and you can't quite decide if you want the thing you're waiting on to happen or not. Even taking this into account, the linger behind the boulders seemed to last at least a quarter of an hour. Harry was just considering waving Hagrid over--perhaps the squid was out hunting, or swimming, or off doing whatever squids do--when Rachel's grasp on his arm tightened, and he perceived many small, startled movements around him and saw excited pointing.

A lone tentacle had snaked out of the cave, toward the fish. Harry's heart leapt into his mouth and all the sinews in his body seemed to tense as the tentacle was followed by another, then another (It was happing! It was happening!), then the base of the many arms--and before he knew it he was looking at the giant squid, mostly out of its home.

Hagrid slowly passed it the fish clump, while stretching out his other hand and gently patting another of the squid's longest tentacles. The giant sea monster hesitated, then, in a move as quick as lightening, snatched the food away and stuffed it into its mouth, under many tiny tentacles that resembled a sparse moustache. He thought a few people screamed, but Hagrid didn't move. And the squid didn't take its other tentacle away. A few moments later, it slowly reached out another long arm and gently began probing Hagrid's deep pockets for more fish.

The giant squid looked about as Harry imagined it--a bulbous head, about ten or twelve tentacles of various thicknesses and lengths, and about twenty-five feet long in all. It wasn't the biggest giant squid around, according to his copy of Fantastic Beasts, but this was absolutely fine with Harry. Its smooth, rubbery skin was a greyish colour, almost lavender, and on its head and the tops of its tentacles were greenish-grey, mottled spots. Its eyes, however, as large and round as the golden plates they ate off of in the Great Hall, were brilliant and similarly coloured. A deep gold liquid rim surrounded eyes of deepest jet black, like the ink it probably shot out at times. The gold portion was flecked with different shades of that bright colour. They were so large, and round, and reminded him so much of wells of some thick, cool liquid that Harry was mesmerized.

After a moment Hagrid motioned with his hand for some to come and touch it, but even from Hagrid this was half-hearted. He seemed to expect the shaking of heads that he got from every single student. He made a thumbs-up to show he understood, the outstretched all five fingers, which Harry took to mean they were leaving in five minutes. A few students, by that time, had grown bold enough to lean over the boulders or float just a bit closer to the squid, but only Hagrid fed it. The squid wasn't doing much, yet nobody could take their eyes off it. Neville was curled up against the rough rocks and holding on with white knuckles, but his expression, whenever Harry caught sight of it through the fishbowl effect the Bubble-Head Charm gave his face, looked thrilled and fascinated. Rachel's was similar, although she too hadn't let go of Harry's arm. The squid, however seemed to be growing nervous at the sight of so many creatures now around it, and it looked to be inching back into its cave, shy but almost seeming to want to please Hagrid, or perhaps to want more fish. Hagrid rubbed the tentacle now around his shoulder fondly and let go, and the squid slowly crept back into its cave, the last bits of tentacle waving in the undercurrent almost as if waving good-bye, a gesture which most of the group returned.

Hagrid led them back the way they came, their water-slowed movements seeming frustratingly contrasted to the bubbles of excited speech longing to burst out of them. When they finally broke the surface of the water, already warm from the mid-morning sun, they broke their Bubble-Head Charms and clamoured on to the shore after their shoes, all talking at once.

"Did you see how fast it could move?"

"Those tentacles!"

"It's skin was kind of pretty..."

"Did you see those eyes?" Harry added his own share of the chatter, ignoring the fact that each one of his three friends was talking as well. Hagrid, whose Gillyweed had run out neatly a few inches below the surface, simply stood back, shaking his head like a dog drying off and laughing.

***

Everyone in the class ended up thanking Hagrid for the best lesson they had ever had, and those who hadn't gone down quickly found that the squid was all their classmates could talk about the rest of the day. Neville caught Ginny in the main hallway, not even out of his sopping robes yet, and started talking about it with wide eyes and a huge smile on his face. When Ginny finally figured out what he was talking about, she looked both extremely happy for him and extremely jealous.

"Welcome, welcome... this class is going to be basically just a question and answer... what smells like the--the lake?" Professor Lupin raised his head in confusion that afternoon and was met with another rush of excited speech. Lupin, whom Harry thought had always had something of a special interest in animals, was fascinated, and they spent well over half the lesson telling him happily about their morning in the lake. Harry also found it very difficult to settle down and study that night, because all the younger students wanted to hear more about the story they had started at breakfast.

"And when it put the fish in its mouth I swear you could catch just a glimpse of fangs..."

"Oh Ron, you could not!"

"Don't laugh! You could see a bit!"

"I think they have beaks, anyway..."

"Alright then, Rachel, I mistook the glint of the razor-sharp beak for fangs..."

***

The next day, however, Harry deeply regretted missing the night. He did an hour of History of Magic, just because his pride wouldn't let him completely blow off even a useless subject, except maybe Divination. Then he spent nearly two hours reciting various important details of Transfiguration properties back and forth with Rachel and Hermione. Then he had to do a bit of actual assigned work--Snape was still giving them essays, even though all the other teachers in the school knew better than to have them do anything but study. After that, he fell asleep on the couch in front of the fire reading off Herbology notes, only to be awaked half an hour later at midnight for one last Astronomy lesson. He needed to be sure from Professor Sinistra that his phases of Jupiter's moons were right, otherwise he would have just studied his charts the next afternoon.

The next day, Thursday, was just as hectic. Since Hagrid was letting them use the library during his class period, he managed to get a little more Defence Against the Dark Arts technical work done--written procedure, identification, etc. But Lupin had pulled him aside the previous class and told him his Defence capabilities were better than plenty of adult wizards he had seen, and even Hermione was coming to him for help with the practical parts. He wasn't worried about that exam.

That night it was another rousing round of Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and more Potions memorization. Harry's schedule was frantic and crammed, but this process of circulating through his classes, re-reading his notes, rattling off memorization, and practising spells was somehow comforting. He wasn't an absolute genius, but he was beginning to feel, again, that he basically understood the principles and techniques he would need to do, and was preparing himself properly. That was a thought which seemed to strike him constantly--he was getting prepared. He felt cautious, but able. He could do what he needed to do. These vague but strangely uplifting feelings started to come over him more and more often, especially as he practised Defence Against the Dark Arts. Which it well should. It was, after all, his best subject.

***

Friday dawned rather cool for July, and misty. Harry even allowed himself a very short walk after lunch, as it was still much more pleasant than usual at midday.

N.E.W.T.s were to start the following Wednesday. A final Hogsmead trip had been scheduled for Friday evening, if any students felt confident enough to take the night off. Many were planning to go for only half an hour or so, even Hermione. Lately she had been shutting herself up in her room, often much to her roommates' dismay, as was her custom when studying. But oddly, she had agreed to go with Rachel and Ron for a quick walk and drink to clear their heads before devoting the weekend to studying.

"After all, a half-hour or so when you've got the entire weekend, plus Monday and Tuesday... that's alright," she said, almost as if she was convincing herself; or rather, she had already convinced herself and was trying to keep it that way. "If I don't breathe every once in a while, I'll drive myself mad. I've been studying hard for weeks, and I really do know my subjects."

Harry had looked up from his Transfiguration book.

"Er--Hermione?"

"She's been getting a bit of coaching," Rachel replied, glancing up from her own notes. "Hermione, you know it all back to front. And you know you're going to study all weekend. Take the half-hour."

Harry now recalled this conversation as he walked along the courtyard, thinking. He would also like to plan in just a bit of time for a breather, and he really felt he could afford it. But really wanted to tackle that bit Transfiguration he had been having trouble with... he decided as he walked through the oak front doors that he would plan for a quick break at Hogsmead after doing that for a while. He probably wouldn't see the others, but they could all go after the exams for a proper graduation party.

That night Harry kept firmly to his plan, but he was having trouble concentrating. Rachel, who was still banned by Snape but planned to sneak out after N.E.W.T.s anyway, sat across from him with her own energy potion--a potent blend of herbs, mainly peppermint, which worked very well--studying a time period in History of Magic she had discovered she was particularly rocky on. She looked up with a sigh and took a sip, rubbing her cheek. She caught sight of Harry.

"Harry--what's wrong?"

For Harry sat with his face buried in his hands, not moving.

"It's--it's my scar," he admitted quietly, looking up at her from between his hands. "It's burning."

"What?" Rachel slipped out of her chair and came around to the other side of the desk, where Harry sat. He took off his glasses and put them on top of his complicated notes on human to bird Transfiguration, the arrows and drawings of which had started to swim ages ago. He rubbed the old scar. His forehead seemed warm.

"Does that... mean anything, do you think? I mean, is--He--trying to see through you again?"

"I don't know," Harry admitted. "It's done this before and not been important, years ago... but it stopped once he quit trying to do Occlumency on me..."

Rachel looked worried. Harry gave his head a final brisk stroke, but winced. Rachel put her own cool hand on the lightening bolt above his eyes. It was soothing against the burn.

"You're pretty warm," she said. "Maybe you're ill?"

"Yeah..." Harry murmured. This made sense; he'd had a slight but persistent headache all day, the kind which are always made worse by studying. But something nagged at him.... He shrugged it off.

"Yeah," he said, more confidently. "I've just been peering at these notes too long. Just got a bit of a headache."

"Why don't you lie down for a minute?"

This seemed to be a wonderful idea. Harry nodded vaguely. For a few moments, nothing could be heard except the cackle of torches for light, the faint buzzings of insects near the open window, and the scratch of Rachel's quill as she wrote out flashcards for herself. It was warm in the room; the air outside was thick and promised a summer thunderstorm soon. Harry lay still and shut his eyes, but did not fall asleep.

Suddenly there was a different noise from outside the window. Rachel's quill paused. It sounded almost like a far-off yell... or scream. Harry looked up. Then there was a rushing noise, which he recognized as definitely screaming, not of one person but of many, many people, all terrified. He jumped to his feet.

"What the--"

Rachel got up, and Harry followed her to the window. She got there before him, and stiffened. Her hand flew to her mouth and she gave a muffled cry. She seemed frozen.

"What?" Harry cried, hastening to the window. He leaned out into the balmy summer air for a better look.

"Toward Hogsmead," Rachel said faintly, but Harry needed no direction. The emerald-green, jewel-like glistening of the Dark Mark stood out like a beacon against the purple clouds. It was directly over where the village should be. Directly over most of the students in the school. Directly over Ron and Hermione.

And a walking distance from Hogwarts.