Harry Potter and the Elemental Wands

Harry Potter and the Elemental Wands
Chapter 7 - Fire and Water

Brown eyes wide, Hermione swirled around, her hair flying out behind her in an unnaturally slow motion. A dark shadow moved in the water behind her and she held out her wand to see what it was. Harry, even though he already had a fair idea of what it was, didn't even bother to see what the flickering light revealed. With a swipe of his hand, he caught hold of the back of Hermione's robes and with a short, sharp tug he pulled her out of the way of the incoming figure.

Hermione gasped, her free hand going almost involuntarily to her neck as her cloak was pulled sharply against it. Harry caught a glimpse of the creature's face as it blew past, disappearing behind them into the depths of the water.

A Merman! Harry's thought echoed strangely.

A what?

A Merman. Harry twisted his head around to see where the elusive creature had gone. They live here in the lake too.

Great, Harry. Hermione sounded distinctly rattled. Is there anything else you've forgotten to inform me about this lake? Perhaps a herd of Leviathans that migrate here every year?

Levi- What?

Never mind, Harry. I was just using them as an example. It wouldn't be possible for them to find their way into the lake anyway. They're huge.

Oh. I'll take your word for it.

So you should, Hermione replied, a little snippily.

Harry sighed, muttering to himself before returning his focus to the task ahead. Where is that Wand? he asked, almost growling with frustration. There has to be a way to find it.

Don't state the obvious, Harry, Hermione replied in a patronizing tone. What I'm worried about is the Gillyweed wearing off.

We don't really have much choice except to keep looking for it, Harry decided, though the thought made him sigh to himself. If we don't, Voldemort's going to arrive right at our doorstep and I don't think he's going to be happy.

No, I suppose not, Hermione admitted. But then, shouldn't we be out looking for your wand instead? That's the one You-Know-Who is looking for. If you get there first ...

That's probably not going to happen, he reasoned. We don't have the vaguest idea where the Wand of Earth is. We're probably still better off looking for yours.

But ... Hermione sounded pained. Oh, all right, Harry ... she relented.

They swam on in silence for a few minutes, their ears cracking slightly under the pressure of the swirling water. The darkness was almost impenetrable, except for the faint light enamating from the phosphorescent rocks in the far distance.

Suddenly, a beam of earthly light sliced through the lake, shining briefly, before fading away as abruptly as it had come.

What the ...

Moments later, the light reappeared as brilliant as ever and, as it had done just seconds before, dwindled away into the shadows.

What's going on? Harry asked, shielding his eyes against the harshness of the light.

And why did it start just then? Hermione added. Why didn't it start flashing when we were at the top of the lake?

The two exchanged a slightly nervous glance, speaking to each other through their eyes. Instantaneously, they both made the same move. Silently, Harry admitted to himself that the bottom of the lake was not the most idyllic spot in the world.

---

'How are we ever going to open this stupid portal?' Arandelle asked angrily, wand safely in hand.

Ron sighed. 'I don't know. You don't know. Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore probably don't know. Trelawney is the one who lives in this room. Why don't we just ask her?' His companion opened her mouth, perhaps to answer his question but he went on without pausing. 'In fact, why are we even bothering to sneak behind her back? Wouldn't it be better if we just confronted her about this whole thing? Dumbledore already knows that she's been opening portal behind his back. She's going to get fired anyway. Why don't we just ask her nicely how to open this damn thing so we can get this over with?'

'I'm glad you got that over with,' Arandelle commented drily. 'Now that you're done ranting, can we please get on with this? You're influence is rubbing off on me and making me irritated.'

'Speaking of ranting ...' Ron muttered that and a few other words under his breath. The rancid smell and heat of the Divination room was raising both of their tempers.

'And don't swear at me either,' Arandelle told him, her voice rising several tones. 'I'm not deaf, despite what you may think.'

Ron stared at her for a few moments as if puzzled. Almost defiantly, she stared back. The youngest Weasley boy raised an eyebrow slightly.

'We have to get out of here,' he declared. 'I don't know whether its this putrid stench -' he waved his arms energetically around the room '- or whether its something else, but we're both getting annoyed and that may ruin the chances of further relations so lets get on-'

'What did you say?' Arandelle gave him a very piercing look, which was intensified by her amber eyes. 'What was that about 'further relations'?'

Ron said nothing but turned scarlet, and somehow became very interested in the the carpet. After a few moments she began to blush too, her ivory skin growing rosy.

'Listen, Ron,' she said in an unnaturally calm and even voice. 'I know you, well, like me and I'm more than touched that you think so.' She paused and took a deep breath before continuing. 'But there is another girl out there, waiting patiently for you. I wouldn't want to ruin your life by trying to be her and failing and so, before you waste your time on me, I think I'll just stay out of your private life.' She said this all very fast.

Ron blinked. 'I wouldn't want that,' he said slowly. 'I'd rather have you in my private life for a short time than not at all.'

'No you wouldn't,' she disagreed.

'Yes I would. I can endure the pain.'

Arandelle threw up her hands in frustration. 'Men!'

Ron gave her a sly look. 'Women?' he said tentatively.

'Boy.'

'Girl.'

'Weed.'

'Dandelion.'

'Um ... Lucifer.'

'Angel.'

'There's a very sweet person under all those freckles, did you know that?' Arandelle smiled.

'No, actually I never noticed that ...' Ron trailed off.

She gazed demurely up at him. 'How very unobservant of you, Weasley.'

Almost regretfully, he tore his own eyes away from her face. 'We should get back to work,' he muttered, ears going red.

'Of course,' she agreed, blushing again. She turned back to the fireplace. 'What haven't we tried?' she muttered more to herself than to Ron. 'Maybe we should go and ask Trelawney.'

'Let's see if there's anything else we can do first,' he suggested.

'We've tried everything complicated,' Arandelle mused. 'We've looked in all of her books for a Gateway spell and that took us a while ... I can't think of anything else we could try. Neither of us are advanced enough to perform a Gateway spell on our own ... Maybe we should get your smart friend Hermione to help us.' She shot a very quick glance at Ron.

'She's probably down at the bottom of the lake with Harry looking for that Wand,' he replied, staring into the happily burning flames in the fireplace. A sudden thought dawned on him. 'Maybe we should check the inside of the fireplace, or up the chimney.'

Arandelle looked doubtful. 'I don't know, Ron. Somehow, I don't think that she puts out that fire often enough to ramble around in the chimney.'

Ron frowned, then his eyes lit up. 'That is!' he said. 'Whenever someone else is in here, the fire is always burning, no matter how hot it is. She never puts it out, and she won't even let any of her students get near it - even with a cup of tea. I think we just have to put it out to active the spell.'

As he pulled out his wand, his eyes glazed over as if he was trying to remember something. 'Plo ...' he muttered 'Ploof ...'

She raised an eyebrow. 'The rain charm?' she asked gently.

Ron grinned apologetically. 'Yeah. What was it?'

'Pluventia,' she prompted.

'That's it!' he snapped his fingers enthusiastically. 'Sorry 'bout that.' He pointed his wand at the dancing flames. 'Pluventia!' he cried.

The eruption of the invisible clouds was more than a little surprising. It did, however, manage to extinguish the fire but it also succeeded in drenching other inhabitants of the room. Dandy stifled a giggle as Ron's usually spiky hair flopped over his eyes.

'That's a very good look,' she commented, with an absolutely straight face.

He glared at her, though the practiced expression was considerably softened. He opened his mouth to throw back a retort when another noise reached her first.

The room was filled with the sound of a small explosion but there was no recoil, nor any other effect that would normally accompany such a noise. Ron and Arandelle glanced at each other, then turned to the fireplace. There were no flames in the grate but what appeared to be a swirling vortex of crimson light. It remained there, tendrils of opaque light extending toward the mantle shelf.

'This is going to be interesting,' Arandelle said simply. Then, with a slightly mischievous look, she curtsied. 'What're you waiting for, Mr. Weasley?'

'Someday you're going to have to teach me how to do that.'

'Do what?'

'Use people's weaknesses to patronize them.'

'We'll see.'

'Ladies first,' Ron offered, bowing in turn.

'If you insist, Mr. Weasley,' she flashed him a girlish smile as she stepped neatly into the fireplace and through the portal.
He shook his head disbelievingly but smiled. 'How did I get myself into this?' he muttered to himself. 'I wonder if it's too late to back out ...'

And he, too, stepped past the grate and was instantaneously consumed by the revolving light.

The rain continued to cascade down in the Divination room, consequently ruining everything in sight.

---

Harry decided that the lake was considerably deeper and bigger than the last time he had visited it. Deep in his mind, he knew that this wasn't possible but what other explanation was there for it? He and Hermione had been wandering around for quite a while without success - and any moment know, their Gillyweed would wear off, adding an unseemly amount to their already large pile of problems.

Harry? Hermione jerked him out of his silent brooding.

What?

Are you paying attention? she sounded almost shocked. We do have work to do, Harry.

You've been telling me that for quite a while now. Harry reached up to stop his glasses from slipping off the end of his nose. Is this leading somewhere?

Are you talking about the light, or our conversation?

The latter, actually.

I would've thought that you'd be concentrating on our search, she pointed out, sending Harry a twinge of guilt. But the two amount to the same thing anyway.

Oh, really? Harry replied halfheartedly.

Yes, really. If you'd been paying attention to what you were supposed to be doing, you'd have noticed that our search is at an end.

Harry's heart leapt. Excitedly, he looked around to see what Hermione had been talking about. Almost immediately his eyes fell upon what looked like a small brown stick glued to the mud at the bottom of the lake - what would've been an ordinary dead branch except that it was surrounded by the swirling light. It seemed to be the source of the beacon that had lured the two of them to its aura. A small piece of sodden parchment dangled tantalizingly from the tip of the Wand and Harry dove down to retrieve it, Hermione at his heels.

What does it say? she asked as he reached out to pull it away but he didn't even get the chance to read it out before he was swept up violently by an immense figure and hurtled away at a high speed.

The giant squid! Hermione shrieked in his mind as she was blown backwards by the creature's momentum.
And indeed, Harry seemed to be caught up in its many thick tentacles which, no matter how hard he struggled, would not yield. The squid made a sharp turn back to where Hermione was floating, binding Harry tighter than before.
The translucent bubbles that shot towards the surface were the only indication that Hermione had cast a spell. The water muffled her voice far beyond anything coherent but she jerked her wand in the squid's direction, her eyes full of fear but blazing at the same time. A jagged beam of harsh purple light jetted across the water, hitting the squid full in its ugly grey face. It stopped dead in its tracks, forcing Harry's glasses off his nose and into the water where they sank down into the mud. Hermione let out a deep sigh, tiny bubbles streaming from her nose and mouth.

Nice Impedimenta Jinx, Harry commented, slowly letting the adrenaline born anxiety ebb away. Here, help me with these tentacles, will you?

He struggled again, attempting to free his arms from the dead wait of the many arms that rested on top of them. Hermione smiled faintly. It took a moment for Harry to realise that the expression on her face resembled something close to nausea.

Hermione, are you okay? he asked, concerned, trying to focus his eyes on her without his glasses.

She smiled again. I'm fine, Harry ... Just a little surprised that it only took one jinx to stop it.

Harry stopped very suddenly. Come to think of it ... he replied slowly. Even Hagrid's giant Blast-Ended Skrewts took more than one try to get through. Maybe we should hurry up and get that Wand in case it starts attacking us again.
She nodded and bent over to retrieve the Wand. No sooner had her fingers closed on it than Harry felt the squid shudder.

Hermione! he gasped. The squid's unfrozen! Use the Wand!

The squid gave an terrible scream that wavered through the water around them and echoed back from unseen caves. Jerking violently, it brought one tentacle down on the bottom of the lake, smashing Harry's glasses and burying the remnants deep in the mud. With a wet slurp, it withdrew its appendage and began to advance on Hermione, Harry struggling under the dead weight of its limbs.

The young witch's eyes widened as the massive creature bore down upon her. She wrenched the Wand from the mud and scooted away, just as tentacle smashed down where she had been only moments before. Weaving awkwardly between the mass of waving tentacles, she sent out a distressed cry, Harry, I can't hit it without hurting you!

Try! he roared, still working to free his arms.

For a second, it looked like she was about to cry - but at his words, she nodded determinedly. She brought the Wand in front of her in a wide arc, holding it firmly in her right hand. At the last moment, she hesitated for just a moment and, in doing so, made up her mind for the last time.

Stupefy!

Harry squinted harshly to watch as the blurred orange bolt of light plunged towards him. He jerked his head away - it didn't matter where it went, as long as the Reductor curse did not hit him instead of the squid. Squashed between two tentacles, he felt the curse collide with his captive, who shuddered before it was spirited away into the depths of the shadowy water. Harry had learned the Reductor curse the previous year, when he had been learning hexes for the Triwizard Tournament, but even they would not penetrate a giant Blast-Ended Skrewt unless performed by several highly trained wizards at the same time. Having encountered both the giant squid, and the Skrewt, he wouldn't have jumped to any conclusions about which was stronger.

He glanced at Hermione, who was floating gently a few feet away from him. She looked back, looking a little astounded. Then, both in turn, switched their gaze to the Wand in her hand, its fragmented parchment message still whole and attached.
Whoa, was the only word that could describe Harry's feelings at that moment.

---

'I know this is going to sound a little stupid,' Arandelle began, her eyes wandering over the place they had just walked into. 'But it's hot in here.'

'D'you think?' Ron replied but he, too, was taking in the details.

It didn't feel like a room - nor did it feel like it was somewhere outside. All they could see, no matter what direction they looked in, all they could see was fire, which left no doubt that they were in the right place. Fire was before them, behind them and all around them. If there was something hiding behind those flames, they would have to wait until they were right on top of it to see it.

'And we were going to escape from Trelawney's room because it was hot ...' Arandelle muttered. 'All that seems a little stupid now.'

Ron tore his eyes away from the scenery to grin at her. 'At least this place doesn't smell bad,' he reasoned. 'We're one step closer to finding that Wand of Fire,' he continued. 'We took so long figuring out that putting out the fire was the key that Harry and Hermione are probably waving their Wand under Dumbledore's nose right now.'

Arandelle laughed, the first time that Ron actually remembered her laughing out loud, not giggling or smiling. It was a warm, golden, strangely addictive sound even in the hollowness of the land of fire. She caught him staring at her and blushed.

'What?' she asked him curiously. Ron reddened.

'Your laugh,' he muttered, his ears a brilliant shade of scarlet. 'It's just .... never mind.'

'I won't if you won't,' she grinned.

'Deal. Let's get on with this.'

'Which way do we go?' Dandy asked, waving her hands about.

Ron looked around. 'Your guess is as good as mine,' he admitted. 'Mind you, we've also got to look out for those protecting spells that the Sorting Hat mentioned.'

She gave him a disgruntled look. 'We don't even know how big this place is. We could be wandering around here for all of eternity.'

'We'd better get started then, eh?' Ron flashed her a mischievous grin. Arandelle shook her head, but said nothing.

Taking her by the hand, Ron began to walk. She followed him without resistance, but the two of them walked in an uncomfortable silence. They hadn't been traveling for very long when Ron stopped very suddenly.

'Look!' he hissed urgently, flinging out hand a to stop his companion.

Arandelle blinked several times. The creature sprawled out lazily in front of them was big, red and scaly, its tail curved into a flat, scythe-like blade and its wings folded neatly by its side. 'A-a dragon?' she demanded, the whites of her eyes showing, making her look half demonic.

'Where's Harry when you need him?' Ron muttered under his breath. Aloud, he said, 'We have a dragon with its back to us, most likely guarding the thing we need right now. Okay, Dandy, what do we do?'

'Don't call me that,' she told him firmly. 'And, of course I don't know what we're supposed to do. Maybe that rain charm again, or something.'

'That sounds good,' Ron agreed. 'You'd better do it, then.'

Arandelle shrugged. 'If it makes you feel better.'

She drew out her wand from somewhere in her robes and made a shooing motion in his face. 'You'd better move back a bit,' she suggested.

He did that, though a little suspiciously.

'Pluventia!' she cried, thrusting her wand in the direction of the dragon.

And for the second time that day, invisible clouds filled the area, thickening the air before erupting and sending rain down in crystalline sheets. Fortunately, the rain missed Ron. Unfortunately, the rain missed most of the dragon too. The massive beast turned a curious slitted yellow eye on them.

Ron swore loudly as Arandelle backed away, a mix of rain and hair rivuletting down her shoulders . 'Run!' he ordered. When she hesitated, he shook her on the shoulder. 'We've got to go! It's going to turn on us in a minute!'

But as he turned to run, she grabbed a handful of his robes, making him stop. 'Look, Ron!' she hissed. 'It's the Wand of Fire!'
And indeed, that was what it looked like. Sitting on what seemed to be a single spherule of flame just behind the dragon's head was a single, gnarled Wand, hovering gently in the warm air. A small piece of parchment dangled from its tip.

Ron grimaced as he ran the situation through his mind. 'I guess we can't back off now,' he concluded, though his own words surprised him. 'How do you feel about staying here and finishing off that dirty beast?'

Arandelle swallowed hard but nodded. The scarlet dragon slunk towards them, even as the rain began to clear up. 'Okay,' she said, pushing up the sleeves of her Hogwarts robes. 'Let's give the rain charm another try then, shall we?'

'On the count of three.' Ron pulled out his own wand. 'One ... two ... three!'

'Pluventia!' The roar of their combined spell rang through the flames. Ron could feel the power of the charm drawing the clouds to their position at a tremendous speed and humidity was already tugging at his face; this one would be a definite storm.

The dragon did not seem too pleased with this. It gave them a distinct glare before rushing the last hundred yards between them. With a wide sweep, it swung its bladed tail in a direct arc in their direction, smashing the flat side into Arandelle, who immediately collided involuntarily with Ron. He landed hard on his shoulder several feet away but the dragon's tail, powered with momentum and inertia, continued to hurtle Arandelle through the air until she finally crashed into the dragon's scaled side with a dull thud, where she slid limply to the floor. Blood trickled from a small cut on the side of her head.

The unseen clouds erupted as Ron stared, horrified, at her crumpled form. The dragon let loose a hair-raising shriek as the water gushed down upon it, smoke wisping from its oversized nostrils. With a smooth sound, like the rustle of feathers, it unfurled its wings and took off into the marbled scarlet and gold horizon.

Ron was astounded that they had managed to drive off the dragon, but not so much so that he had forgotten that his companion was injured. In several hurried strides, he was at her side, carefully propping her up on his arm. She seemed only unconscious; she was breathing, though raggedly. As he reached out to touch the slice on her head, her eyes flitted open, like an elegant black and gold butterfly.

'The Wand ...' she murmured, her amber eyes looking strangely unfocused.

'The dragon flew away, Dandy,' he told her. 'It's okay now.'

'The Wand ...' she repeated before her eyes slid shut again and she slackened under his grasp.

Ron set her down gently, got up, and moved over to the Wand, which was rotating slowly. Cautiously, he reached out, half afraid that it reject him. But as he touched it, he heard a sort of click and felt the tingling of unearthed power beneath his fingertips. He pulled the Wand away from its glowing pedestal and caught the parchment with his other hand, holding it firm so that he could read the message printed on it in mysterious gold ink.

'At the center of the earth.'