Chapter Nineteen
Imbolc took place at the break of dawn. Everyone symbolically “bathed” in the river near the clearing, splashing some water on our faces and some of the younger kids splashed water at each other. Then we chanted while the Priestess walked around and lit candles. The feasting involved light brunch foods, lots of greens, teas, and fruits. Then everyone hurried back to the castle in time for our first class of the day.
“Where were you?” Hermione asked as I walked up to my friends outside the Charms classroom.
“Had a nightmare and woke up early, so I decided to go on a walk since I was already up,” I shrugged.
Hermione frowned at me, but said nothing. I knew she would be suspicious of me voluntarily waking up early, but it was the best I could come up with without involving somebody else. Maybe I could get some of the little Slytherins to say they needed my help with something for the next holiday? Hermione would easily believe I would wake up early to help little kids and wouldn’t ask too many questions out of respect for their privacy. I didn’t like lying to my best friend, but I knew how important it was to keep the Old Ways secret and I didn’t think Hermione would understand.
In the Hogwarts Army meetings, we continued working on self defense and muggle weapons. Medieval muggle weapons that is, as there appeared to be an unspoken consensus among the muggleborns to not let wixen society know about guns or bombs.
We spent one meeting on swords, with wooden swords. Most of the noble kids had fencing or swordfighting lessons as a child. We mainly went over the importance of keeping track of your feet so you didn’t fall over them, which was easily translated into duelling and self defense. Swords weren’t very practical, when most wixen fighting was done at short distance. In the modern day, swords were really only used as a status symbol for the rich or to kill some dangerous animals, as our experience with the basilisk proved.
Archery was slightly more useful, as few wixen were able to aim spells over a long distance. And most wixen would not expect to be surprise attacked by a teenager with a bow and arrows. The initial lesson was very chaotic and it was a good thing we were using magically blunted arrows, however a few kids showed an interest or a talent in archery. Fred and George, who were almost comically horrible at archery, mentioned experimenting with a line of prank arrows that could shoot spells instead of arrow tips.
The younger years seemed to regard this as great fun. They seemed to have varying levels of awareness, some rather oblivious and some interested in learning to fight as we trained the older years to fight but not intending to get involved in the war. It was the kids like Colin Creevey and his brother Dennis, who seemed determined to be as involved as possible that concerned me.
The upper years seemed to take the Hogwarts Army deeply seriously. Many had mentioned that they were glad there were opportunities to learn to fight and wouldn’t know what to do without it. I had a bad habit of considering those in fifth, sixth and seventh year, above me in school but younger than me mentally, as adults. They were children, who I was training to fight because they would be better off knowing how to fight than not. I hoped nobody would get involved in Dumbledore’s Army.
Harry was quickly becoming Professor Slughorn’s favorite, much to his distress. We attended the regular Slug Club dinners and made polite conversation with the other students. I took the opportunity to talk to the older years about the OWLs, the increased course load and how many classes were feasible to take in sixth year while pursuing time consuming extracurriculars.
Moody began testing the Imperius curse on the four of us with Dumbledore’s supervision. None of us really had parental permission, but it appeared Dumbledore was willing to make an exception given the likelihood of us facing Death Eaters. He did make us promise that we wouldn’t tell Molly, especially Ron who actually needed her permission.
Being under the Imperius Curse was terrifyingly relaxing. It was a wave of calm, free from any worries. It felt so fundamentally wrong, but so tempting to give into the ease of the curse. I was able to resist Moody's instructions, but I wasn’t very aware of my surroundings and could not fight back against an opponent while under the curse. After a few times, I found that focusing on being in control of my mind and framing it as control vs lack of control rather than stress vs peace was helpful in shaking off the curse.
Harry did better than I did at shaking it off, although he had the opposite problem of me, lashing out with his magic and forcing us to duck for cover. Hermione struggled with disobeying the curse, a problem she said stemmed from her trust of authority figures. Ron had a similar problem as me, his struggle between fighting the curse and obeying it causing him to be unable to fight, but ended up dropping for cover and rolling into the nearby desks.
By now, Harry was able to hold the Bubblehead Charm for several hours, while fighting one of us nonstop. He could also hold the Bubblehead Charm while swimming on the surface of the Great Lake. We couldn’t exactly test Harry holding the spell, fighting an enemy and swimming at the same time, but Harry seemed reasonably confident. Harry swimming in the Great Lake with a Bubblehead Charm as we took notes from the short caused the gossip mill to be very confident the Second Task had something to do with the lake. I had Lavender discretely start a few rumors of varying levels of plausibility about other potential tasks, just to keep everyone guessing.
On the night before the Second Task, we sat in the Ravenclaw Common Room as Luna, Maggie and Ginny, who was a regular visitor to our tower, cheerfully tried to encourage Harry. Moody stomped in with Flitwick at his heels.
“I need one of Potter’s friends to come with me,” he announced gruffly.
“We get a choice who gets kidnapped by the mermaids?” Ron asked.
“I assumed somebody was going to get black bagged at some point during the day,” I commented.
This set off a flurry of whispers in the Common Room. At least the other Ravenclaws had the decency to be subtle about their eavesdropping and were pretending to read or work on homework instead of staring at us. It was greatly appreciated.
“Just choose someone. And quickly, we need to get to Dumbledore’s office,” Moody said.
“Not the third years,” Ron said, to Ginny’s swift complaining.
“I’ll do it. I’m the oldest of us and I won’t be in any real danger. Besides, this will be like a super long nap, I need to catch up on my sleep,” I said.
“If you’re sure,” Harry said, hesitant for anyone to be in any danger, real or fake.
“I’m sure. Remember, rescue Fleur’s sister as well if Fleur isn’t there by the time you reach the mermaid village. Aim for the one hour limit, but it’s successfully getting back that really matters. If you refer to me as or in any way imply I am a damsel in distress, I will put itching powder in your clothes and refuse to help you with homework. Hermione, please bring my bag to the task with you,” I said.
I pulled off my outer robes, sweater and boots and stuffed them in my bag, leaving me in my socks, pants and button down shirt which would hopefully be as light as possible for swimming. I handed Hermione my bag and gave everyone a quick hug before heading out with a vaguely amused Moody.
“So, is Dumbledore getting parental permission for the whole kidnapping minors thing?” I asked.
“Ask him,” Moody grunted.
When I entered Dumbledore’s office, I saw a willowy silver haired woman standing next to a little girl, presumably Fleur’s mother and sister as well as Eleanor Shirasagijo, Krum’s date to the Yule Ball and a fully grown adult. So Dumbledore was getting parental permission in Gabrielle’s case and treating me as an adult, which was understandable given my mental age.
“Miss Hawk, I presume you understand why you are here?” Dumbledore asked, eyes twinkling.
“We are here to be kidnapped by the merpeople for the champions to retrieve in the task,” I summarized, coming to stand by Shirasagijo.
“Indeed. You will be placed under a sleeping enchantment which will break once you come to the surface, should your champion be successful in retrieving you. If they are not, you will be retrieved once the task is over. You will not be in any danger during the duration of the task. Are there any questions?”
“How will we breathe while underwater?” Shirasagijo asked.
“I will be casting Bubblehead charms on you that will not break until you reach the surface,” Dumbledore explained genially.
After a moment, Dumbledore gestured to the seats in front of his desk, “If you would please sit down.”
Gabrielle and Mrs. Delacour spoke briefly in French and embraced before the little girl sat down.
“It’s going to be alright,” I said with a smile. “My name is Zo.”
“I’m Gabrielle,” she said shyly.
Dumbledore raised his wand I felt very sleepy. I vaguely thought that this seemed much stronger than your standard sleeping spell and-
Cold!
Very cold, whose idea was it for a bunch of children to be swimming in the freezing cold lake in the middle of February? Given I didn’t have hypothermia, I assumed Dumbledore cast a warming charm on us while we were asleep but it was very rude to have it break once we reached the surface.
Gabrielle was clinging furiously onto Harry’s neck and he was struggling to tread water with the additional weight of a small child. We were in the middle of the lake and there were large stands barely visible on the shore.
Well, I supposed if they didn’t want me to help, they shouldn’t have had me wake up freezing cold in the middle of the lake. I summoned a small wooden boat and helped Harry lift Gabrielle into it before we clambered into it ourselves.
“See, I told you it would be alright,” I said gently, casting drying charms on all of us and summoning a thick blanket. Blankets were good for distressed children.
“I ‘ought Fleur vas going to come and get me,” she said in heavily accented French as I wrapped the blanket around her.
“I waited for the full hour and she didn’t come. Krum came and got his hostage, he had a shark head by the way. I think Fleur must have been attacked by something,” Harry said.
Gabrielle gasped. Yeah, telling the already scared kid her sister had been attacked in the death tournament probably wasn’t the best.
“I’m sure your sister is fine. We should get back to the shore, she’ll probably be there” I said, turning around.
I jolted to see the dozen merpeople surrounding us. I should have been more aware of my surroundings, I thought as the merpeople smiled at us. I waved my wand to propel the boat forward. The merpeople swam alongside us. We reached the dock, where the boat bumped gently along the wooden planks.
On the shore, Madam Pomfrey was trying to shove a mug into Krum’s hands as Mrs. Delacour tried to calm a frantic and injured Fleur.
“Fleur!” Gabrielle exclaimed, clambering out of the boat and rushing towards her sister, who swept her up in a hug.
“Excellent job, Harry,” Bagman said, helping us out of the boat. “You’re past the deadline, but are unharmed, rescued your hostage and saved the little Beauxbatons girl as well. That’s gotta count for something, eh?”
“Here’s your bag,” Hermione said with a smile, giving me a hug and handing me my school bag as she and Ron walked up. “How was your nap?”
“I had a rather rude awakening in a lake of freezing cold water, but I was blissfully asleep before that,” I said, pulling on my thick, winter robes. After several years in the wixen world, I felt strangely underdressed in just a shirt and pants.
“Krum got back within the hour,” Ron said.
“But Harry rescued the hostage of another champion in a brave and compassionate act, done out of concern for a little girl who he believed to be in danger which demonstrated his noble and empathetic nature,” I said, addressing the beetle on Hermione’s shoulder.
“Wha- get off, shoo,” Hermione said, flicking Rita off her shoulder. “I hate it when she does that.”
“Do you think we should go rescue Harry from Bagman?” Ron asked.
“Mr. Bagman, is it time for the scores to be announced?” Hermione asked.
“Oh, yes, if you’ll excuse me,” he rushed off to where Dumbledore was talking with a mermaid at the water’s edge.
“Good job mate,” Ron said, as we walked to where Madam Pomfrey stood.
“Mr. Potter, sit down. Where are you injuries and don’t you even think of lying to me,” the mediwitch threatened.
“You saved Gabrielle,” Fleur said, coming up to Harry. “Even though she was not your 'ostage.”
“Er, yeah, she was just a kid and you hadn’t showed up in the hour, so I couldn’t leave her there,” Harry explained awkwardly.
“‘Ank you,” Fleur said, kissing each of Harry’s cheek.
“And you, ‘ank you as well,” Fleur kissed each of my cheeks before pulling away.
“Of course. Harry wouldn’t have just left her there,” I assured Fleur.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision. Merchieftainess Murcus
has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore
decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows,” Bagman said dramatically.
"Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubblehead Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty five points."
"Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was first to return with his hostage. We award him forty three points,” Bagman continued grandly.
"Harry Potter used a Bubblehead Charm to great effect. He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own. Most of the judges feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However, Mr. Potter's score is forty five points."
“That’s rather absurd, considering Krum easily came in first. You deserved forty, maximum,” I commented.
“It’s the inherent bias toward Britain,” Hermione nodded. “That’s what you get for putting two of our Ministry officials on the judgement panel.”
“The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June. The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions,” concluded Bagman.