Stormseeker: Borrowed Destiny

Chapter 70: Under the Water

---

I spend a good deal of the remaining time leading up to the second task learning how to cast the Bubble-Head Charm. It's probably just as well that I didn't try learning the Propulsion Charm, too, since it's only a few days before the task itself that I can successfully cast the Bubble-Head Charm and keep it active. I manage to kill myself with one of my early miscasts, in which I somehow conjured a bubble of toxic gas over my head instead of breathable air.

I managed to find a curse that should suffice for propulsion, as well, tucked away in one of the dark magic books Lucius gave me. "Warning," the books reads. "Be careful to brace yourself when casting this spell. It can cause the caster to be pushed backwards." It's called the Energy Stream Curse, and can produce a continuous stream of energy from the caster's wand to knock aside anything in its path. I wouldn't have even thought of it if I didn't remember the icy maze guarding the Philosopher's Stone in first year.

The Daily Prophet mentions that there's an investigation ongoing into the mysterious disappearance of Rita Skeeter. They suspect that someone she wrote a negative article about her might have had it out for her. However, as she wrote negative articles about a lot of people, that didn't exactly do much to narrow down potential suspects.

Then, the day of the task arrives in late February. I find myself to be surprisingly relaxed about this. My spells will get me through the day, and it seems far less likely that I will die here than against the dragon. And it's highly unlikely that someone is going to Obliviate me here.

I glance across at the crowd, smiling at the reassuring waves of my friends. But where's Draco? I don't see his blond head among the usual group.

"What sort of dark magic do you intend to use this time?" jeers the crowd. I ignore them and step forward to the lake as directed.

When the task begins, I cast a Bubble-Head Charm and dive into the water. It's ice cold, so I add a Warming Charm on top of that. I still don't know how to swim, and it takes me a bit to get going, aiming curses in the opposite direction to propel me along. My robes get heavy and wet, slowing me down. Maybe it would have been better to strip down to something more skin-tight.

I really should have done some practice with the Energy Stream Curse beforehand, but I only discovered it a few days before the task. And a good thing I did, too, or I'd be getting nowhere in here. It's easy for me to cast, less easy to get it to propel me where I intend to go.

It's dark down in the lake, and I mutter "Lumos" to get some light going. I take a look around, trying to get my bearings. But creatures come out of nowhere and swarm over me. Small, horned water demons clench at my body and put their hands around my neck. What are they, grindylows I think? Didn't Remus teach about them last year? I wish now that I could remember the class.

I try to fight back, struggling against their grip and sending offensive spells at them. There's too many of them. They're dragging me down, and choking off my air. My head's getting light. Darkness overtakes me.

---

I wake in my bed in the Slytherin dorm. Well, that's my first death for this task. Hopefully my next attempt will go better. Damned grindylows. I'll have to try to avoid them.

Out for the task again. I strip off my heavy robe this time and leave it on the shore. I keep my trousers and the bag of holding inside their pocket, however, just in case I need something that's inside of it.

Warming Charm, Bubble-Head Charm, Wand-Lighting Charm, and into the water. I propel myself through the water, trying to avoid the area where I ran into the grindylows before. I've gotten better with controlling my movement, but I still have no idea where I'm going.

"How are you doing?" says Myrtle, appearing in the water beside me after I've wandered around for quite some time.

"Myrtle!" I say.

"You might want to try that way," Myrtle says, pointing. "I won't go with you, though. They don't like me very much."

"Thanks, Myrtle," I say, smiling at her and propelling myself in the way she indicated.

I hear singing down in the depths, and approach what might be some sort of village. There are crude stone buildings, and fish-like faces peering out from the windows at me. They look nothing like the mermaid in the prefects' bathroom. Is this what merfolk really look like?

Then, in the center of the village, there's a large statue of a merperson, and two people are bound to it with ropes, as well as two other spots that might have held other people until recently. They appear to be asleep, with thin streams of bubbles emerging from their mouths. I don't recognize the little girl, but Draco is there tied next to her. I see, what they stole wasn't an object, but a person.

Draco is obviously the one for me. I go up to him and look over the ropes, and pull out the knife Sirius got me for Christmas last year. I fumble with it and almost drop it, but I get Draco free in due order.

I've no time to lose. I put my arm around Draco's waist and propel us away as forcefully as I can manage. I focus hard upon the curse, putting more energy into the spell to give me a continuous stream. Two others are ahead of me, so I need to make up for lost time.

But in my rush to get out of the lake, I lose control of my Energy Stream Curse. I burst into the air, flying straight away from the surface of the lake. Everything looks tiny and black beneath me. I drop my wand in surprise, but it's still attached to my wrist chain. I try to grab it again even as Draco and I start falling.

"Leviosa!" I quickly cast on Draco, sending him drifting more gently down toward the shore. I'm falling too fast. "Spongify!" I hit the ground, and bounce off of it up into the air again, and slam into the castle wall with a crunch.

---

I wake in my bed again. Well, that was unpleasant. Third time's the charm, I suppose.

I make ready for the task again. Strip off my robe, Warming Charm, Bubble-Head, Wand-Lighting, and into the water one more time. I know exactly where I'm going this time, and focus my Energy Stream to send me straight there in a continuous flow.

This time, I get there first. There's a Katrina and Cho Chang tied to the statue in addition to the other two. I'm sure as the Abyss not going to rescue my wife, however. How did they determine who to put here, anyway? I bring out the penknife and get Draco free.

I grab Draco firmly around the waist with my right arm, and send off an Energy Stream to send us back toward the shore. I'm more careful about keeping control of it, slowing down as we approach the surface, and use shorter bursts to get us the rest of the way out.

I'm the first out of the lake. Is it cheating to have foreknowledge of future events to give myself an advantage? Well, I suppose not, considering it's still using my own natural magical abilities to do so. It's not like I was really trying to win the tournament so much as survive, anyway.

"Rennervate," I murmur, pointing my wand at Draco.

"Mrr, huh?" Draco says. "Oh, hello, Stormseeker. Did you win?"

"I'm the first out of the lake, and there's no sign of the others yet," I say. "If they don't give me top marks for that, I might have to hex someone." I snicker softly.

Draco and I sit on the shore waiting for the others to return.

Madam Pomfrey comes out of a tent and approaches us. "I must look you over to make sure you're alright," Pomfrey says.

"I'm fine," I say.

"You always say you're fine, even if you're about to keel over dead!" Pomfrey says. She runs a few quick diagnostic spells over me. "Well, it appears in this case that you're correct. I'll leave you be, then."

Cedric returns with Cho, and Viktor with Katrina, but Fleur doesn't appear to have the little girl with her. "Gabrielle!" Fleur is saying. "Is she alright? She isn't hurt, is she?"

"I'm sure they wouldn't actually really endanger anyone but the champions," I assure her reasonably.

Sure enough, a pair of merpeople appear at the surface of the lake briefly and leave the little girl on the shore. Fleur goes over to Gabrielle's side, looking much relieved.

Ludo Bagman begins announcing the scores. "Harry Potter used the Bubble-Head Charm and a very creative use of the Energy Stream Curse. He arrived with twenty-nine minutes left, and was the only champion to return within the time limit. The judges award him the full score of fifty points!"

I have to lay back in the grass and laugh about that. And it only took me two deaths to do it, too!

"I never would have thought to use the Energy Stream Curse like that," Viktor says. "What's so funny?"

"You know why I came up with that?" I say. "Because I can't swim!" I roll on the ground laughing.

---

With the second task out of the way, and with me even having managed to complete it without using any Unforgivables, the next stretch of school promises to be a bit more relaxing.

I really don't want to teach the Killing Curse to my friends. It could be extremely dangerous if any stray spells go flying around. But Hermione won't leave me alone about it.

"I got the Imperius Curse down well enough," Hermione says.

"You got it down way faster than I did," I say. "You had Crabbe doing cartwheels in no time!"

"Well, it wasn't exactly no time," Hermione says. "Still, when are you going to get to the Killing Curse?"

"I think it might be best to do that spell one-on-one," I say. "Why are you so eager to learn it?"

"You did have a point about it," Hermione says. "If you want something dead, it's the cleanest and most efficient way of doing it. And it would be good to know, in case I ever need something to die by the most expedient means possible."

"I concede," I say in exasperation. I'm not going to get out of teaching it at least to Hermione. Let the extermination of the castle's vermin commence again.

---

"Hey, Sirius," Draco says in our dorm.

Padfoot cocks his head at Draco and shifts into human form. "What is it, Draco?"

"You know I love you, right? You're my favorite cousin?"

Sirius gives Draco an odd look. "What's this about?"

"Oh, I was just wondering if you'd mind if I spent Easter holidays at your place," Draco says.

"Did something happen with your father?" I ask.

"Um..." Draco looks at the floor. "He kind of branded me a blood traitor and told me I'm not welcome in Malfoy Manor again so long as he draws breath."

I stare at him. "This is about Hermione, isn't it?"

Draco nods. "He was not happy about the Yule Ball."

Sirius gives Draco a big hug. "Ah, Draco, I never knew you had it in you! I'm proud of you, cousin!"

"You're smothering me, Sirius," Draco says, worming his way free after a minute. "Do you mind if Hermione comes to visit for a bit, too?"

"She's certainly welcome if she wants to come," Sirius says. "I ran away from home when I was sixteen, you know. I was lucky that my uncle was willing to give me some money."

"He couldn't actually disown me or anything, at least," Draco says. "Not his only heir."

---

Easter this year falls upon the final day of the full moon, so Padfoot, Moony, and I wind up spending the holiday together in furry form, and sleep all through the following day. When we wake up later in the evening, we discover that Hermione has already arrived by the portkey she was given before leaving Hogwarts.

"I was wondering when you furballs were going to get up," Draco says lightly.

"Hello, Hermione," I say. "Did you have a good Easter with your parents?"

"It was nice," Hermione says. "Oh, they gave me some sugar-free candy to give to you guys." She points to a box on the table.

"What's the point in sugar-free candy?" Sirius asks in puzzlement.

"Hey, Remus," Draco says. "There any chance you could accompany us to Diagon Alley tomorrow? We've got some stuff we wanted to look into."

"Certainly," Remus says.

"A trip to Diagon Alley?" I say. "That sounds like fun."

"Can I come?" Sirius asks.

"Eh, why not, I'm sure they're getting plenty used to the idea that Harry Potter has a dog," I say, shrugging.

So we make an outing of the next day. We stop in and do a little shopping. I pick up another book on medieval Latin in hopes of deciphering some of the more obscure words in the Chamber of Secrets books. We've come a long way on our Latin, but without the Book of Truths, it constantly feels like we're missing some key piece of the puzzle.

"Let's go to Gringotts now," Draco says.

"Need more money?" I ask.

Draco shakes his head. "Not for that. We wanted to do a blood test on Hermione. See what families she's really descended from."

"You're not afraid that you might wind up being disappointed?" I ask.

"It's not going to actually change anything," Draco says. At my look of surprise, he says, "You don't seriously think I really believe that Ravenclaw's secret heir stuff, do you? When it comes down to it, it doesn't really matter who she's descended from. She's still the best witch in our year, hands down."

"Now you're thinking like a Chelseer," I comment offhandedly.

We head over to Gringotts. Draco explains to the goblins what he wants, and Hermione gives over a blood sample for them to run their tests on.

After a while, the goblin Bogrod comes out again to give us the results. "We have determined that she is not the heir of any of our vaults. And it does not appear that she's descended from Rowena Ravenclaw, nor any of the other Hogwarts founders, at all."

"Her magic couldn't have just come from nowhere," I say.

"The best we can determine is that she might be descended from Merlin," Bogrod says.

"Merlin?" Draco says excitedly.

"That's not saying much, however," Bogrod goes on. "The majority of the wizards in modern Britain are descended from Merlin."

"Oh," Draco says, deflated.

"The magic in her bloodline must have been dormant for a long, long time if she's not descended from any of the current magical families," I say.

"Yes, the old families prefer to disown their Squibs, but that doesn't change their blood," the goblin says. "We would still be able to tell she was descended from one of them."

"Are you alright with this, Draco?" I ask.

"Of course," Draco replies with a snort. "Actually, to tell you the truth, I didn't really expect anything different anyway."

"Hmm... Out of curiosity, how far back do your records go?" I ask the goblin.

"All the way back to Atlantis, to some degree," Bogrod replies. "But there aren't any descendants of Atlantis around anymore."

"Can you test for that?" I wonder, raising an eyebrow. "Just out of curiosity."

"We could, but I don't see why," the goblin says. "The Atlanteans are dead and gone."

"Is it difficult?" I ask.

"No," Bogrod says. "We have a device in storage that will only respond to someone who possesses the blood of Atlantis. But no wizard in recent times has ever successfully activated it."

"I say we give it a shot," I say, quirking a grin. "Now I'm curious."

"Very well."

Bogrod leads us back through the expanse of Gringotts storage. We come to a small room occupied only by a strange crystal device of no familiar design. If anything, it almost seems to remind me of Torn Elkandu, but how can that be? Besides, it doesn't have any runes or anything on it.

Hermione goes up to the device and places a hand upon it. Immediately, the crystal flares to life, giving off brilliant blue light. Her eyes widen, and she breathes, "Oh, my..."

Bogrod gapes. "I... did not expect that. Perhaps the Atlanteans are not all dead after all." He looks to me questioningly. "Did you know this would happen?"

"Nope," I reply. "But I had to know."

"Hah!" Draco says. "You're a genius, Stormseeker. This is better than being Ravenclaw's secret heir! She's the last Atlantean!"

I smirk at him. "What would you have done if she'd turned out to be just another Mudblood of nothing?"

"I'd have told my father to screw himself and run off with her anyway," Draco says. "But now I can rub his face in it!"

I laugh softly. "Ah, Draco, how you've changed."

"So, Hermione, what does it do?" Draco asks.

"I have no idea," Hermione admits.

"Take it, if you want," Bogrod says. "I'll mark in the records that it was passed on to an heir of Atlantis."

"You know..." I say thoughtfully. "You say no wizard has activated this in a long time. But Hermione has a lot of Muggles in her family tree. What if the descendants of Atlantis are out among the Muggles instead, and have no idea about it?"

"That's preposterous," Bogrod says.

"Well, maybe I'll take this and see if I can find anyone else that will make it light up, magical or Muggle," Hermione says. "I don't have to tell them where it's really from..."

"That's your prerogative," Bogrod says.

---

Hermione gets everyone she can convince to touch the crystal device to test them, but no one else at Hogwarts can activate it, whatever it does. Draco sends an owl to his father to try to convince them that Hermione is the last heir of Atlantis, which results in a Howler being dropped on the Slytherin table the next morning.

The third task is announced a month before the event. A hedge maze has been erected on the Quidditch grounds, much to the chagrin of the Quidditch players. Personally, I think it looks better this way.

Then, I spot movement over by the Forbidden Forest. What could that be? It almost looks like a man. Curiously, I go over to take a look.

It's Mr. Crouch. The senior one, that is, who hasn't been seen in months. He's babbling incoherently.

"Weatherby," he addresses me dimly. "Weatherby, where is my tea?"

"Mr. Crouch?" I say, raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing here? Are you alright?"

"Dumbledore..." Crouch says. "Must warn Dumbledore... Dark Lord... Harry Potter... Bertha... my son... all my fault..."

That doesn't sound good, whatever he's talking about. But I still don't trust Dumbledore. I'm not beholden to him. And what if Dumbledore realizes that I've known about Moody for months and told no one and done nothing about it?

Life would be so much simpler if the right thing to do were clearer at times. How did things get to this point? Life goes on, one way or another, but I don't know that I like the path I've taken up to this point.

"What do you want to tell Dumbledore?" I ask.

"Dark Lord... grows stronger," Crouch says thickly. "I escaped... This is all my fault..."

I could send a Patronus off to Dumbledore and have him here in minutes. But something stays my hand.

And then Moody approaches from behind me, and I half turn to look at him. "What's this?" Moody asks.

"He's obviously not in his right mind," I say. "He's speaking nonsense. And he thinks my name is Weatherby."

"The Dark Lord... my son... must warn Dumbledore..." Crouch Senior mutters.

"See? Nonsense," I say.

"So I see," Moody says darkly.

"The tournament... rigged..." Crouch goes on. "Dark Lord... has plans... it's a trap! Trap!"

Crouch Senior could blow his cover. I fear for what Crouch Junior might do to his father. Can I just leave him to this Death Eater's mercy? He may not be the nicest person around, but he's not a bad person, and his son was a Death Eater. It's not like he was sent to Azkaban for no reason.

Moody raises his wand to Mr. Crouch, and I step between them and cast, "Protego!"

"What do you think you're doing, boy?" Moody asks.

"The right thing," I say with a sigh.

"Why would you think I was about to attack him?" Moody asks.

"Constant vigilance!" I retort.

Moody snorts. "Your diligence is admirable, but misplaced. Step aside, Potter."

"No," I say.

"Potter, I'm warning you..." Moody says.

"Do what you must," I say. "I must stand by the choices that I can live with."

"So be it, then," Moody says. "Obliviate. Stupefy."