In Too Deep

The next morning he did not walk into the kitchen to already made coffee, so he made it himself and walked to the lab. Granger was also not there, so he sat down and started to read. She walked in 30 minutes later, looking haggard, clutching her tea for dear life.

“What was in that wine? I feel like I may die.” She sipped her tea and rubbed her temples.

Draco laughed (which made her flinch) and tossed her a hangover potion. “I warned you last night it wasn’t the cheap stuff. The French don’t make anything weak.”

Some color had returned to her face after taking the potion, and she sat down to read one of the many books on her desk. Draco decided that if she wasn’t going to bring the kiss up, neither was he. So he kept reading about tau protein studies in rats.

They sat in awkward silence for some time before Draco read something interesting.

“Hey Granger, come look at this,” he called over.

She got up and came to stand beside him, but he noticed she made sure not to touch him. Huh. She must remember the kiss, but is avoiding the subject. Interesting.

“This study showed that a diet consisting of incredible amounts of salt increased the tau proteins in mice. This led to them developing early onset Alzheimer’s” His brain was whirling. “Is Loch Morar saltwater?”

“No, it’s fresh water. I suppose it’s possible that something is leaching salt into it. Maybe something magical?” She had a far away look in her eyes. “Oh!”

She ran to her desk and rifled through her books for a moment. When she found the one she wanted she wrenched it open and started skimming. Draco got up and looked over her shoulder.

“Here it is! A study done recently by a witch in India. I knew I had read it somewhere!”

Draco looked at her confused. “Well, are you going to share or not?”

She flushed, and he pretended not to notice. “She was casting protection charms around her crops and noticed they were consistently dying. Upon inspecting the soil, she noticed it was higher in salt content than it was prior to the spells. This concluded that protection charms leave a salt residue!”

Draco looked at her, dumbfounded. How he found himself in the presence of someone so intelligent was beyond him. The way her eyes lit up when she discovered something new….

“You’re a genius!” He picked her up and swung her around by the hips while she laughed. He realized what he was doing and set her back down awkwardly. “Alright, let’s go find the protection charm and dismantle it! Hopefully it won’t take long for the salt to reside and we can get a blood sample from the surviving merfolk!”

“But Draco,” she said sadly. “The ministry has banned anyone from going to the loch. It’s illegal, remember?”

“Granger, you’re with an ex-death eater. And I know you broke into Gringotts. Something tells me laws don’t quite apply to either of us.”

………….

Very few people would’ve been visiting Loch Morar on a Thursday,even less at night, and none after the ministry prohibited tourism. This left no one to spot the two disillusioned figures walking alongside the water.

They had come in wet suits the Granger had acquired. She struggled to tie her hair back while Draco cast warming charms on both of them. The wetsuit hugged her body in all the right places, and Draco couldn’t help but admire the way it made her arse look.

“My eyes are up here Malfoy!” She snapped, while attached a wand holster to her thigh. Draco did the same.

“Alright let’s run through the plan one more time,” she said nervously. Draco could tell that this wasn’t her favorite idea in the world, but she wouldn’t let fear keep her away from discovering the truth.

“You’re going to swim ahead, because you’re a dreadful swimmer,” Draco listed off.

“I am not dreadful! It’s just not my strong suit!” She snapped again.

He rolled his eyes. “Sure. Anyway, you’re swimming ahead to set pace. We keep an eye out for any protection idols or circles. Wand tip to the back of the hand once means we’ve found it. Twice means you’ve seen something dangerous and to be on the lookout. Three times means we need to leave immediately. No apparating out without the other. Is that everything?”

“That sounds about right,” she said, her face pale in the moonlight. They both casted a bubble head charm followed by a bright lumos, strapped their wands down, and waded into the water.

It was cold, but bearable thanks to his warming charms. It was dark despite their lumos. They couldn’t see anything except the water around them. They swam for what felt like ages until a glint of light caught Draco’s eye. He took his wand and waved it to get Granger’s attention. When she looked, he tapped his hand once and pointed at the light he saw. She nodded and started swimming in that direction.

The light turned out to be a bit of bioluminescent weeds, but it gave Draco hope that they were heading in the right direction. They continued that direction and kept finding more and more of the glowing plants.

Suddenly, a massive creature swam in front of them. It didn’t even look at them as it passed by, like they were insignificant to it. It had the head of a horse, but the tail of a fish. A kelpie, Draco thought to himself. But that wasn’t what was significant. This one was bright gold, a coloring he had never seen in kelpies.

Three more swam by, followed by a much smaller one that had to be a baby. Draco was so enthralled by them that he almost didn’t notice Granger waving at him. When he finally looked at her, she tapped her hand twice. She had noticed a danger he didn’t see.

He nodded and followed her as she started after the kelpie. Soon they arrived at a small underwater cave that the kelpie disappeared into. What interested Draco more, though, was the glowing line around the cave. He waved at Granger once more, and she nodded before he could even point. She had seen it too. They swam to the line and clearly recognized a protection ring.

Victory rang in Draco’s head as they began undoing the charm. If he had to guess, this was an endangered breed of kelpie that someone was trying to protect. That would have to be a problem to solve later, as people were dying right now from the ripple effect of this charm.

The charm had just dissipated in front of them when Granger was suddenly wrenched away from him. Alarmed, Draco swam after the bubble trail left in her wake. He quickly swam upon her, she was battling off a swarm of grindylows. It would have been almost funny to see had her bubble head charm not faded in the scrap. He could see she was starting to struggle.

He tried to cast one at her but everytime it would come close to hitting its mark, she would be wrenched in the other direction. Running out of time, he started picking off the grindylow with her.

The last one had just started swimming away when Granger let out a cough that apparently led to a gasp. Her eyes widened and she started to sink like a stone in the water. Draco was faster than her and he swam to her and wrapped his arm around her waist and quickly apparated them back to the lab.

The landed in a wet pile of limbs and Granger’s hair that had come loose from its knot. Thankfully the force of the land knocked the water from her chest and she immediately started coughing and sputtering. Draco sat her up and beat her back to help her clear her lungs.

“Did we at least clear the damned charm?” She gasped out finally. “I was a little busy being drowned by grindylow to notice.”

Draco laughed. “Yes we got it. Did you see what it was protecting? Golden kelpie! We’ll definitely have to develop something to keep them safe once all of this is over! Thankfully I had the department of ‘Goodies for Creatures’ with me when we found them!” He chuckled again.

“You care about what happens to kelpies?” She rasped out in shock.

“Well of course! Didn’t you see them? They were magnificent! Who ever was protecting them had th-“

He was cut off by Granger ferociously snogging him like her life depended on it. This time, Draco decided he was going to let her.