Chapter 19: Chapter 20
Tonks had spent the past ten days thinking about her situation with
Harry. She had yet to reach any resolutions.
It had been the best relationship she'd ever had, but the simple fact
was that the mere thought of getting into bed with him got her
hackles up now. How was she supposed to be comfortable with the
idea that only decency was keeping Harry from fiddling about with
her soul if she ever relaxed too much around him? Hells, she
wouldn't trust herself with that kind of power. She'd certainly been
frustrated enough with both past boyfriends and even Harry a few
times that it would be tempting, doubly so since it was apparently
undetectable.
She almost found herself wishing that Adrastia Zabini had never
showed up. She'd been happy then, if a bit frustrated by Harry's
secrecy. But that was no way for an auror to be thinking, Moody
would have certainly lectured her ear off if she did. Moody would
also have tried to haul Harry off to Azkaban if he ever learned about
this, not that she had any intention of telling him.
She had come to watch the second task of the tournament in the
hopes that some epiphany would illuminate the correct decision.
Unlike the first task however, she wasn't here with Penny and Sirius.
She was in fact hiding from them. Instead of her usual energetic hair
color and style, it fell down to her upper back in coal black waves.
Combined with unassuming robes, minor facial alterations and blue
eyes, she knew that she was unrecognizable.
Passing the lake on her way to the stands, she had to wonder which
genius thought that watching the surface of a lake for an hour would
be fun. Probably Bagman. The former quidditch star was well known
in certain circles of the Ministry to not think his ideas through very
well.
As she was looking for an out of the way spot to sit, she noticed
something that put a look of distaste on her face. Or rather someone.
Adrastia Zabini was there, once again dressed far too expensively
and looking towards the pier where the two remaining champions
were preparing. There was quite a bit of space around her.
Coincidence or had she driven people off somehow?
Tonks knew that it was probably a bad idea and she didn't really
have any reason to do it, but she made her way towards the woman
anyway.
"Looking for your next victim?" She asked coolly as she sat down
next to her.
Adrastia looked at the unfamiliar-but-familiar woman who had just
sat down next to her with a raised eyebrow, wondering who she was
for a moment before she placed the voice and presence.
"Auror Tonks, what a pleasant surprise." She said without a hint of
sarcasm.
"Zabini." Tonks returned tersely.
"Did you come to watch Harry compete?" Adrastia asked, pretending
that there was no tension in the air.
Tonks grunted an affirmative, inadvertently making a passable
imitation of her mentor.
"The venue for this event is terrible. Honestly, why would anyone be
interested in watching the surface of a lake for an hour?" Adrastia
complained, unknowingly echoing Tonks' earlier thoughts. "But at
least I get to see Harry topless, so I suppose there is that."
Tonks ground her teeth together and prevented her hair from shifting.
"Just looking at that chest hair makes me want to run my fingers
through it." Adrastia went on in a murmur, somehow contriving to
sound like she was licking her lips without actually doing it.
Tonks knew about that particular impulse. Harry did have some very
nice chest hair and it was currently visible since he was only wearing
swim trunks. Not too coarse or thick, but thick enough that it was
more than just a few sad hairs sticking out. It was one of the bigger
hints towards the fact that he wasn't just an early bloomer. It wasn't a
topic that she wanted to talk to this woman about though. In fact, she
didn't want to talk about Harry's chest with anyone right now.
"A bit young for you, isn't he?" She asked snidely and somewhat
hypocritically.
"Old enough to be fucking the law." Adrastia drawled with a wide
smirk, amused at her double entendre.
"Very funny." Tonks growled.
"Why so sour, Nymphadora?" Adrastia asked, still smirking and
deliberately aggravating the Metamorphmagus. "Frustrated?"
"Don't call me that." Tonks ground out, more incensed by the
familiarity than the use of her full name for a change.
Unexpectedly, Adrastia gave a resigned sigh. "He told you, didn't
he? I suppose I was being too optimistic in thinking that he would
listen to me and keep quiet. Why are you here?"
Tonks didn't really know why she had approached Zabini. Maybe out
of some vague hope that it would help her resolve the mess that now
lay between her and Harry. Maybe because she knew that the
woman was a serial killer and couldn't leave it alone. Maybe
because she subconsciously blamed her for the problems that she
and Harry were having.
"What Harry sees in you I will never understand." Adrastia continued
when Tonks didn't say anything. "You are as dull as the rest of the
sheep."
"I suppose you think he should be with you then?" The
Metamorphmagus retorted scathingly, struggling to control her
temper. The murderous bitch was talking to her like she was a small,
stupid child. Wordplay had never been her forte, something that was
a problem when dealing with razor tongued monsters like Zabini or
Malfoy.
"Perhaps for a while." Adrastia replied placidly. "It would be an
interesting change of pace to spend time with an equal. There are so
few of them in the world and most are quite disagreeable."
"Until you got bored and killed him, right?" Tonks asked sarcastically.
She wasn't even going to dignify the woman's sense of superiority
with a response.
Adrastia chuckled again. "You do Harry a disservice."
"What?" Tonks asked, not sure what she meant.
"If he was such easy prey, we would not be having this
conversation." Adrasta elaborated and leaned closer, her demeanour
suddenly taking a dangerous edge. "If he was easy prey, you would
be cursing him for abandoning you while I played with him." As
quickly as it came, the Italian witch's true nature was once again
concealed. "Or perhaps you would never have given him the time of
day to begin with."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tonks demanded, not allowing
herself to be unnerved by this woman.
Adrastia gave her a condescending sideways glance. "You should be
honest with yourself, Nymphadora. Had he been an ordinary
fourteen-year-old you would not have been attracted to him in the
least. It was a relief to let him take the lead, wasn't it? It is after all
the nature of sheep to follow."
Tonks' jaw clenched tightly, streaks of blazing red appearing in her
black hair, even her eyes took on an orange tint. The other woman
was infuriating and it was exceedingly hard to keep her powers in
check. The fact that she was right made it ten times worse. The
notion of getting romantically involved with a fourteen-year-old was
laughable, but not in Harry's case because he was special. She had
liked his take charge attitude and the ability to take the back seat
that came with it. A couple of her past attempts at a relationship had
been quite stressful because she had needed to be more assertive
than she would've liked to keep from having her Metamorph ability
taken advantage of. Then there was that one boyfriend that had
been so timid that he probably had less personality than Mr. Purple.
Harry's easy confidence had been just right, not pushy but also not
passive. It had been the first time she was really able to play around
with her abilities during sex without feeling like someone else's toy.
Harry had ideas and suggestions, but she had never felt humiliated
by them or had cause to think that he was annoyed if she refused,
nor had he ever asked her to transform into a different woman under
the guise of roleplay. And that was all aside from the fact that he was
a genuinely great guy.
But she didn't appreciate having that pointed out. Not by anyone and
especially not in this manner by this woman.
"It really is too bad that Harry didn't listen to me." Adrastia went on
with a sigh. "Telling you hasn't accomplished anything save to cause
trouble. No doubt you were happier in your ignorance."
That was also true and another thing that Tonks didn't like having
pointed out.
"Unlike you, Harry isn't a heartless monster." She ground out.
Adrastia smirked, recalling that Harry had been fully intending to
strangle her to death for the dangerous secrets that Sirius had
spilled. "Isn't he?"
"I'm not listening to this." Tonks said suddenly and stood up.
"Give Harry my love when you talk to him." Adrastia said in a
cheerful, friendly manner.
Tonks didn't reply and practically stomped off.
The Italian witch chuckled to herself, amused at how riled up the
Metamorphmagus had gotten. It was almost too easy really, what
with the girl's temper and jumbled feelings. She may have prefered it
if Harry had not told her about Sex Magic or The Joining, but it
looked as if it would not spread further and there might be some
advantages to this too. The obvious trouble between them could
open up some possibilities to improve her own standing with the
powerful young wizard, though care would have to be taken.
However useful an association with Harry Potter would be in the
future, she had not merely been taunting the auror when she implied
that he was a monster. There were many kinds of monsters in the
world, all of them dangerous if you stepped on their toes.
She looked back over the lake, noting that the task had already
begun. With an eyeroll at the complete waste of time that the British
Ministry of Magic had organized, Adrastia left the premises. At least
she'd gotten to talk to Harry's soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend, so it wasn't a
total loss.
Meanwhile…
Harry stared at the dark waters of the Black Lake, wondering who
they had put under there for him to rescue. Ginny? They weren't
close anymore, but she was the only one aside from Luna that came
to mind even vaguely. He was closer to Professor Vector, but he
doubted they would use a teacher. He really didn't have much in the
way of friends in Hogwarts.
He glanced to the side. Fleur looked sexy as hell in her one piece
silver bathing suit, especially with the way her nipples were pebbled
from the cold. She also looked worried sick. It might be why she'd
forgotten that she was a witch and could cast a Warming Charm.
"Who did they take for you?" He asked.
"Gabrielle, I zink. I 'aven't been able to find 'er since yesterday."
Fleur replied worriedly.
The veela's answer revealed a flaw in Harry's thinking. He had
assumed they would only take people from Hogwarts.
His face twisted into a scowl. Who was under there? He'd seen
Penny sit down with Luna earlier, but he hadn't been able to catch
sight of Sirius or Dora. He didn't think anyone knew that they were(or
had been more likely) together, but he wouldn't put it past
Dumbledore to have known.
"'Arry, I know we are opponents, but would you agree to cooperate
for zis task?" Fleur sounded as if making the request pained her.
It probably did. Pride was inconvenient like that.
But Harry understood why she felt that she needed to swallow that
pride with her sister in danger. Her fire and Light based strength
would be severely diminished in the cold, wet Dark. The bottom of a
deep lake was no place for a daughter of Sun and Sky.
"Of course." He said with a nod.
Fleur favored him with a grateful, relieved smile.
"Are our champions ready?" Bagman asked loudly, a Sonorous spell
amplifying his voice for all to hear.
"Just get on with it." Harry grumbled. He'd been in a bad mood for
days now, the last thing he wanted was to listen to more of
Bagman's blather or look at the gleeful malice on Umbridge's face.
He could practically hear her hoping for both him and Fleur to die in
the lake. Even with all other considerations aside, he would have
survived just to spite her.
And on the topic of spite, he put another Itching Curse on her. If he
had to spend an hour diving in a freezing cold lake to save one of the
few people he cared about, then the fat toad could spend it
squirming.
It got him another look from Dumbledore, who had no doubt felt it,
but Harry had no regrets. The old man must already have a pretty
solid idea about his wandless abilities and was too fond of secrets to
tell anyone.
"Errr, yes, of course." Bagman stammered. "Well, the task will start
on my whistle and the champions have precisely one hour to retrieve
what was taken from them. On the count of three then. One… two…
three !"
Bagman might have been going for a sense of urgency with his
countdown, but Harry unhurriedly summoned the items he'd left
nearby and put his wand back into its holster on his right arm.
He grabbed the altered diving mask first. The straps had been cut off
so as to not get in the way, replaced by a specialized sticking charm
placed on the rubber. The clear plastic lenses were also enchanted
to keep any gunk from sticking to it and blocking his vision.
The second item was a dark blue scarf, which he tied around his
head so that it covered his mouth. He could feel the enchantment on
it providing its own air supply and cutting off all external sources.
He looked towards Fleur again. The veela had a Bubblehead Charm
active around her head. That would work too, but she had clearly
never heard of the old RPG player's axiom; never do with a spell
what you can do with magic items.
They nodded at each other and jumped into the water.
Elsewhere on the lake shore.
Goran put down the binoculars that he'd been using to observe the
mark(and the sexy veela next to him). It was time to get this job
done. He'd already scouted the terrain and determined the best time
to attack.
According to the information provided by his anonymous client.
Potter would need to save someone from the colony of merpeople
on the bottom of the lake. Attacking while he was there would be
stupid since the fishfaces would probably not react well to that. Best
to do it while he was going back up and burdened with an extra
body.
He brought out a mouthful of gillyweed and stared at the
transformative plant distastefully. He wished he could just use a
Bubblehead Charm, but it would be stupid to skimp out on an
advantage simply because it was uncomfortable.
Death Eater stooges A, B, C and D prepared for their job somewhat
differently than Gojkov…
"Alright lads, let's show Potter and the half-breed whore their place."
Stooge A said motivationally when he saw through the omniculars
that the champions had begun their task.
The other three gave a cheer of agreement and put on their Death
Eater masks, tugging on their matching robes to make sure it all fit
properly. Then they cast Bubblehead Charms and jumped into the
lake.
Harry looked to see if Fleur was alright after the grindylows were
repelled. She gave him an uncharacteristically meek nod and they
continued exploring the bottom of the lake.
He imagined that she felt very far out of her element right now. He
could feel the darkness and silence of their surroundings pressing in
on her the deeper they got. Not the Dark of the Void, but the
darkness of a place that never saw sunlight. The Light of his own
magic was also diminished, but unlike Fleur, this was no detriment
for him. If anything it was an advantage because he would be less
prone to emotional responses.
Harry estimated that they had spent just over thirty minutes in the
water when the merpeople village came into view. Fleur tried to rush
towards it, but Harry grabbed her hand before she could, ignoring
her impatient look.
He had also noticed a distinctly human presence lurking among the
tall weeds carpeting the muddy lake floor. He waved Fleur to stay
back while he took a look at it.
Goran knew something was wrong the moment that Potter stopped
and looked directly towards him. He shouldn't have been able to see
anything among the tall weeds, but he clearly had.
The boy, who he would have taken for a man if he didn't know better,
had his wand out and was obviously expecting trouble. So much for
cursing him in the back and being done with it.
He jabbed his wand towards the boy, focusing all of his will on the
desire to kill. The bright green beam of the Killing Curse flew from
the tip.
Much to his surprise, Potter dodged the slow moving spell as if he'd
been expecting it and returned fire with a much faster piercing hex,
forcing him to swim away with all the grace his aquatic form granted
him. He saw the spell shred the weeds and kick up the mud and
knew that it would have been lethal if it had hit him. The boy wasn't
playing around.
Goran scowled. He hated it when the client left out important details,
such as the fact that the target was more than just some puffed up
celebrity brat and was genuinely dangerous.
Well fine . It wasn't the first time that he had to actually fight instead
of winning with a sneak attack. He couldn't cast another Killing Curse
due to the pure focus it required, not without getting perforated by
Potter's spells first at any rate, but he was no slouch as a dueler.
He'd manage.
Harry jabbed his wand forward several more times, sending more
piercing hexes and a few bone breakers at the assassin, only to be
frustrated when they were nimbly avoided. The man's presence was
definitely that of a wizard, but he looked half fish and swam like one
too.
Goran meanwhile was unpleasantly surprised by the ability of his
target. Potter's spells were powerful, dangerous and most of all fast,
faster than they had any right to be under water. Everyone knew that
things moved slower through water than air, spells being no different.
Harry happened to disagree with this bit of 'knowledge'. He had
questioned why something that had no mass would be slowed by
water and eventually concluded that it was all in the caster's head.
They expected the spells to move slower in water, so they did.
Conversely, Harry expected them to move normally, so they did.
Fast or not though, gillyweed granted one an absurd amount of
mobility in water and Goran had little trouble swimming out of the
way and it left him with all the time in the world to send a return
volley of deadly spells.
Harry wanted to curse. The spells coming at him might be slower
than normal, but so was he. He put up a strong shield to block them,
but that just put him on the defensive while the assassin battered at
it and whenever he got enough breathing room to return fire, the
slippery bastard easily dodged. He needed to try something else.
What though, that was the question. A skilled wizard could reduce
the wand motions of most spells to barely anything and Harry was
such a wizard, but there were some limits to it. He couldn't cast any
cutting curses because trying to make a slashing motions
underwater would either take too long or be too small to bother with,
not to mention that they would probably get dodged anyway.
Anything with a physical component would be slowed by the water
and rendered useless. Elemental or area of effect spells would be
either impossible, ineffectual or flat out suicidal due to the water.
Transfiguration was right out because transfiguring liquids for combat
purposes was iffy at the best of times and fell into the category of
Very Bad Ideas if you were actually in the liquid when trying it.
That really only left him with some of the more esoteric wandless
spells of his own making, and there was exactly one spell in that
category that he could cast with enough speed to make it viable.
Goran's eyes widened in shock when he saw Potter thrust out a
hand and a trio of dart like spells rushed out from it. What the fuck
had he been sent to kill? Seriously, what kind of fourteen-year-old
used wandless magic? His shock was even more pronounced when
the smallish cluster of spells actually tracked him .
A shield was put up and the spells easly blocked, but the Serbian
assassin was now thoroughly unnerved.
Seeing the assassin preoccupied with his attack made Harry smile
grimly under the scarf he was wearing. Magic Missile for the win.
Each of the little force bolts would only do about as much damage as
a solid punch and were easy to block, but they were excellent for use
as a distraction.
Forgotten by the two combatants, Fleur watched the underwater duel
with a sense of frustrated helplessness. Had they been on dry land,
she would not have hesitated to fight off this attacker beside Harry.
But they weren't on dry land. They were deep underwater where her
magic was pitifully weak and she dreaded the thought of joining the
fight in this state. She had nearly become a casualty of that first
Killing Curse that Harry had dodged and there had been a few other
spells that had whizzed by close enough to drive home the danger of
the situation. She knew that any shields she could conjure might well
not be up to the task of blocking a spell from the assassin if he
turned his attention towards her. She didn't know if she could even
cast any kind of useful spell. In a twist of cruel irony, this doubt would
only serve to weaken her magic further.
She felt like she was abandoning Harry, but there was no choice.
Gabi was still somewhere in the merpeople's village and time was
running out. She would just have to hope for the best and hope that
Harry won. If he lost, then all she could do was hope to be left alone
with her sister and maybe whoever Harry's hostage was, depressing
as the thought was. An even grimmer worst case scenario was that
none of them would be leaving this lake alive.
Her swim deeper into the village went unimpeded, though there was
quite a bit of traffic in the other direction. Fleur had noticed the
merpeople gathering to watch the duel happening on the edges of
their settlement and figured these were going to gawk as well. No
use hoping that they would actually help .
It didn't take her long to reach what she assumed was the
underwater version of a village square, where she saw the
unmistakable sight of her little sister's silvery blonde hair floating
around her head. If she wasn't underwater, the sight of her tied to a
stake with her skin taking an unhealthy pale green color in the
gloomy lighting would have forced Fleur into a veela transformation.
The man next to the eight year old veela had to be Harry's hostage.
She remembered seeing them together after the first task. He
represented a problem.
Fleur had been so focused on her sister that she had given little
thought to anything else. She hadn't even been able to properly
appreciate Harry's half naked state back on the pier. Now that
Gabrielle was right in front of her and Harry was busy with whoever
that wizard was, she realized that saving both hostages was well and
truly up to her. That was the problem. Namely, Fleur didn't think she
could carry both her sister and Harry's hostage back to the surface.
But she had to try. She felt ashamed enough of the fact that she
hadn't even tried to join the fight against the assassin, if she just
grabbed her sister and skulked away like some base coward while
Harry fought for his life, she'd never be able to live with herself.
Aside from the fact that such an action would undoubtedly put an
end to any hope of making Harry her mate, he was also a friend.
The two hostages were tied to their respective stakes with tough
weeds and it was dishearteningly difficult for Fleur get them free. It
took her four casts of a Severing Charm to slice through the weeds,
whereas she would normally need to be careful not to overpower it.
The Locomotion Charm she tried to use to get the two unconscious
bodies to follow her without needing to be carried fizzled out after
mere seconds just like she had feared it would. It had been cast
correctly, but she just couldn't muster the power to make it last. Left
with no choice, she grabbed her eight-year-old sister with one hand
and the thirty-plus looking man in the other and started the slow slog
back towards Harry. Being so reliant on someone else burned her
pride fiercely, but facts were facts. Swimming to the surface with just
her legs while weighed down this much was simply not going to
happen.
Ironically, she wasn't stopped from taking Sirius as well by any
merpeople because all of them had gone to see the spectacle of two
wizards having at each other on the outskirts of their village.
Back with Harry and Goran, both were deeply frustrated. The fight
had reached a stalemate that didn't look like it was going to get
resolved. The watery battlefield severely restricted their spell
selection and reduced their duel to what was essentially a lethal
version of laser tag. The only new development had been that Harry
had improvised a way to use wandless magic to push himself
through the water for short bursts of movement, which just made it
so that they were both missing pretty much all of their spells.
Goran was in fact seriously considering just giving up and retreating.
He hadn't gotten to the ripe old age of forty-eight in his chosen
lifestyle by being stupid and greedy. He'd been promised a lot of gold
for this kill, but it was starting to feel like it wasn't worth the risk.
There was a swarm of merpeople nearby nervously gripping their
tridents, gillyweed didn't last forever, Potter's defense wasn't budging
even under some of the darker spells in his repertoire and his
offense might become too much to handle if he was reduced to the
swimming speed of a regular human. Backing down from a fourteenyear-old wizard grated, but not as much as getting killed by one
would.
The Death Eater contingent in the Black Lake had failed to consider
a few things when they made their 'plan'. Things such as the effect of
water on voluminous robes and how they would find their quarry in
the first place. Thus they spent an unnecessarily long time waddling
about in the lake like a bunch of particularly inept and confused
hippos.
Had it not been for the fact that Harry and Goran's duel was taking
place close to the illuminated underwater village, they would have
belatedly realized their mistake only by the time that Harry and Fleur
were already out of the water.
When they did find their target, they were confused by the duel
taking place. Exchanging baffled glances, they made the universal
group shrug of thugs that couldn't be bothered to think too hard and
went in for the attack. Umbridge had paid them to kill everyone and
they certainly had no problem doing that.
Goran had nearly wrestled his pride and greed into submission and
decided to retreat when an opportunity showed up. He'd been
keeping an eye on the merpeople just in case they decided to attack
and saw two blobs of the silver blonde hair characteristic to veela
and another unconscious man. The other champion had showed up
and she had the hostages. Potter was supposed to be a hero type
and hostages were always useful against those.
Dodging around another piercing hex that would have gouged a hole
out of his thigh and deflecting two more of those annoying little
wandless spells, Goran charged at his new target like a torbedo.
Harry's eyes scrunched in confusion for just a moment before
widening in alarm as he saw where the assassin was going. He shot
after him desperately, using wandless magic to propel himself as fast
as possible.
The merpeople saw the two wizards that had been fighting on their
very doorstep charging at them and scattered. Fleur had only just put
down her burdens at what she judged was a safe distance from the
ongoing duel when she saw that the attacker was going straight at
her. Her desperate but weak spells were easly deflected and caused
him only a minor delay.
It was enough however to let Harry catch up and crash into assassin
before he could grab her. They tumbled into the mud and were
immediately engaged in a clumsy and ineffectual grappling match.
Harry had a slight edge due to several factors. For one, he was taller
and his runes made him half again as strong as someone of his size
and build should be. For another, he had also dropped his wand prior
to the collision, knowing that it would be useless at this range.
Despite being a very different sort of wizard from what most British
would consider 'normal', Goran still considered his wand to be his
most priceless possession and clung to it fiercely, even if any spells
he tried to cast at this range would be near useless due to the
interference of Harry's own will.
A mere few feet away, Fleur's face developed an angry scowl. She
was really starting to hate being the damsel in distress. Before she
could join in on the tussle though, she saw yet another problem
approaching. Four wizards in black robes and white masks.
Voldemort and his Death Eaters had confined most of their activities
to Britain, but they were recognizable across all of Europe.
Trying to get either Harry or the assassin to break off their struggle
and notice the approaching killers was tough without being able to
speak, but they did eventually glance in the direction that she was
pointing towards and then did a quick double take to make sure that
their eyes weren't deceiving them.
Unfortunately for them, the Death Eaters had closed into spell range
by then and, seeing all of their targest more or less in the same
place, let loose with blasting curses.
Harry and Goran's eyes both bulged in an identical manner, united in
their incredulity. They both recognized that the spells coming
towards them were blasting curses, but neither could quite believe
the thick skulled stupidity they were seeing.
Harry had researched what spells were good for underwater use and
how some of his favorites would react, blasting curses being among
them.
Goran didn't do that, but the Balkans had seen quite a bit of war
during his lifetime. He had a pretty good idea what underwater
explosions were like.
There was a damn good reason why neither one of them had used
anything like that despite how frustrating their fight had been. It was
just not worth the risk and neither one was willing to experiment with
things that might end up blowing up in their face.
All animosity between them was instantly forgotten as they
scrambled to save their lives. Goran cast the most powerful shield he
could manage. Harry only took a moment to mesh his own magic
into the assassin's shield spell, enlarging it to cover all five of them
and and specifying what it was to hold back as he did so.
The four slow blasting curses cast by the Death Eaters detonated
soon after with a muted boom.
Funny thing about explosions, if they happened in the air, much of
their energy was expended to compress it. Water was massively
harder to compress and moved with the pressure wave of the
explosion rather than absorbing it.
The shield they cast was up to the task of deflecting the pressure
wave, leaving the people behind it unscathed.
The Death Eaters were not so fortunate. All of them had been under
the mistaken but understandable belief that water would make the
explosion weaker, so they had cast with as much power as possible
to offset this and didn't for a moment believe themselves to be in any
danger at the distance they were at. The pressure wave reached
them a few moments after the explosion.
Another difference between air and water explosions was that the
power of the compressed air wave was mostly deflected from the
human body due to the very different densities. In an underwater
explosion, the pressure wave passed through the body and lost very
little of its power. When it hit the air-filled pockets inside the body, it
instantly compressed the gases in them, blocking blood vessels,
rupturing the lungs and intestines, tearing tissue and causing brain
hemorrhaging.
The Death Eaters were wizards, so the damage wasn't as severe as
physics said it should be, the innate will to survive intrinsic to
everything that lived influencing their magic to protect them, but they
were still unconscious and in critical condition. The air in their
Bubblehead Charms should technically have gotten compressed too,
but magic had an unreliable relationship with physics at the best of
times, so that didn't happen, nor did their brains start bleeding.
Harry and Goran slowly dropped the shield, glanced at each other,
remembered that they were supposed to be killing each other and
instantly became as tense as statues.
A pregnant moment passed and then Goran very slowly and very
deliberately relaxed.
With equal care, Harry did the same.
Goran gave the man he'd been hired to kill a curt nod and started
swimming away, not turning his back until he was well out of range of
spellfire. To hell with the money, he was fucking done with this job.
The gillyweed would be wearing off soon and he was not going to
tangle with the stupidly powerful fourteen-year-old anymore, certainly
not after working together with him against the four masked idiots.
Fleur gave Harry a confused look, but he just shook his head,
summoned his wand into his hand, cast Locomotion Charms on
Sirius and Gabrielle and started swimming back to the surface. He
cast another Locomotion Charm on the Death Eater who he judged
to be the least damaged, wanting some answers for this clusterfuck.
For the other three, he dispelled their Bubblehead Charms and left
them to drown. These Death Eaters all had familiar auras, he'd last
seen them the night that Luna's father had been killed and he was
not feeling particularly merciful.
On the surface, things were much less exciting.
The public grumbled about how boring the second task was and
many left in a huff.
At the judges table, Ludo Bagman fretted nervously as he realized
the problem with an underwater event. Next to him, Dolores
Umbridge was red faced and sweating, the Itching Curse making her
incredibly miserable and short tempered. The only consolation she
had was that Potter and the veela abomination would not be coming
back from the lake.
That consolation was dashed dramatically when they did come back,
and turned into outright horror when she saw the extra in Death
Eater paraphelia they brought back with them.
She was not the only one to be horrified, as the terrorist regalia
caused the audience to burst into shouting before Dumbledore's
Sonorous enhanced voice boomed from nearby and assumed
control.
The DMLE was contacted and Dolores Umbridge belatedly realized
that she should have used some more discretion when hiring killers.
Surfacing with a knocked out Death Eater had somewhat predictable
results. Predictable insofar as chaos can be.
Harry had been given an express checkup by Madam Pomfrey and
then hustled along into the headmaster's office, barely even given
time to dress. Fleur had been taken aside by Madam Maxime and
her family, but he supposed that the aurors would talk to her
separately.
So Harry now sat in the headmaster's office alongside his recently
awoken godfather, awaiting the arrival of Amelia Bones.
Harry figured that the DMLE director must be quite put out with him.
This should really be the job of the head of the Auror Office, Rufus
Scrimgeour, but the high profile nature of it meant that it got bumped
up to her. The same as the last two incidents that had involved him.
Politics.
And high profile this was. The audience had screamed downright
cartoonishly at the sight of an unconscious and nearly dead Death
Eater. No wonder Voldemort had almost won.
"Harry my boy, what in the world happened in the lake?" Of course it
wouldn't be the headmaster's office without the Headmaster, who
was obviously fishing for information. He was sitting behind his
massive desk in a blatant 'I'm in charge here' move. No doubt it was
his numerous titles as well as the fact that he was one of the
tournament oraganizers that had allowed him to wheedle his way
into an investigation that he technically had no business being part
of.
"Let's wait for Madam Bones, I don't want to repeat myself." Harry
rebuffed and turned to his godfather. "So how did you end up in the
lake, Sirius?"
Dumbledore's face didn't change but Harry got the sense that he
wasn't pleased at being denied. That was just too damn bad.
"Dumbledore showed up and said they needed a hostage for you to
rescue. I figured it was better me than someone else and I wasn't
sure if they'd resort to force if we all refused to come quietly." Sirius
explained with a shrug.
Someone else meaning either Penny or Dora no doubt. "Thanks,
Sirius. That was surprisingly noble of you."
"What the hell do you mean 'surprisingly'?!" Sirius spluttered.
They continued to bicker good naturedly for the next ten minutes,
both taking an inordinate amount of pleasure in ignoring the old
wizard sharing the room with them.
At long last, the door opened and admitted the formidable DMLE
director. After the pleasantries were exchanged she moved one of
Dumbledore's chairs so that it forced him and Sirius to turn their
backs on the Headmaster if they wanted to see her. Harry figured
that was probably a deliberate move on her part, a sort of 'no,
Dumbledore. You aren't in charge, I am'. More politics.
"Alright, start at the beginning and tell me everything." She ordered.
Harry was about to give her a slightly edited version that left out the
technical triple homicide he'd committed after the fight was over, but
Dumbledore butted in before he could start.
"If Harry is willing, we could watch his memories in my pensieve."
Professor Babbling had mentioned pensieves during their lessons. A
very advanced bit of runework and enchanting to make one of those.
They were quite rare due to the effort involved in their making and
the subsequent high cost of buying one. Harry had been thinking of
trying his hand at making one eventually. It would make for an
interesting project and you could never have too many magic items.
The suggestion was annoyingly clever of the old man though. It was
much harder to give a false memory than lie and he couldn't refuse
without looking suspicious. Fortunately, Harry could simply cut off the
memory before he canceled the Bubblehead Charms on the other
three Death Eaters. Nothing particularly sensitive had happened
before then.
"Sure."
Occlumency made it fairly easy to segment the piece of memory he
wanted to extract and soon all four of them were observing it.
"How did you know he was hiding there?" Bones asked when she
saw him dodge the opening Killing Curse.
"Something just felt off." Harry shrugged. He was just thankful that
the memory didn't show his Magesight, though that was interesting
in and of itself. He surmised that it was because Magesight was
actually a bit of a misnomer. He wasn't seeing the magic with his
eyes, but with his mind. It only appeared to him as a visual
manifestation because it was the easiest way for his mind to show
him such an abstract concept.
"He's using gillyweed." Bones said in surprise.
"What's that?" Harry asked. It sounded like it had something to do
with Herbology, a subject that had never interested him overmuch.
"Gillyweed is a transformative plant that grows in certain parts of the
Medditeranean Sea. By ingesting it, one takes on aspects of an
aquatic creature, such as gills and fins, as well as gaining superior
underwater vision. It is believed to have been used in rituals
dedicated to Poseidon in Ancient Greece and there is speculation
that it led to the creation of the merpeople, as that is when mentions
of them first appear." Dumbledore explained, his inner educator
shining through for a moment.
"That explains why the bastard was so fast." Harry muttered.
"Why didn't either of you use a more wide area spell?" Sirius asked
in confusion, seeing the stalemated duel.
"Wait for it." Was all Harry had to say in response.
"Impressive use of wandless magic, Harry." Dumbledore
complimented when that part came up. He didn't seem at all
surprised. "Might I ask what kind of spell that is? I've never seen the
like of it."
"Magic Missile, an Evocation spell of the First Circle." Harry
answered drolly.
All three were curious and wanted to know more, but he wasn't going
to tell them that he was ripping of Dungeons & Dragons for
inspiration.
"Bastard." Sirius said a few minutes later when the assassin saw
Fleur and rushed at her, but then grinned when Harry barreled into
the man.
"Here it comes." Harry commented dryly.
"There were four of them?" Sirius said incredulously when the Death
Eaters arrived.
"Yep."
"Oh dear." Dumbledore sighed a moment later when all four Death
Eaters fired off their blasting curses. He obviously knew what was
going to happen.
"Well, that would explain the condition of the one you brought back
with you. The preliminary report I got from the healer was that he
looked like he'd been torn apart from the inside." Bones said dryly.
To his surprise, Harry felt a flash of grim satisfaction from her at
seeing the fates of the Death Eaters. Somebody was hiding some
pretty strong hatred under that paragon of law veneer.
"Huh, I didn't expect that one to just leave." Sirius said when the
memory moved into the last part, where Harry and the assassin had
silently decided to put an end to the hostilities.
"Shared danger can make for some unexpected allies." Dumbledore
said sagely.
"Or it could be that the gillyweed was about to wear off and he knew
he'd be at a disadvantage." Bones pointed out cynically.
"It could be." Dumbledore admitted as the memory ended, moving
on to the next question. "Why did you only bring back one?"
"The others were already dead." Harry shrugged uncaringly. All four
of them had been dead ever since they cost Luna her father. It had
only been a matter of when he next ran into them and informed them
of that fact.
"How could you tell?" Bones asked skeptically.
"Trust me, I could tell." Harry replied unhelpfully.
The look this got him from the DMLE director made it clear that she
didn't believe a word of it, but had to accept it because proving it
would be impossible. Harry also suspected that she didn't care
enough about a few Death Eaters to really dig into it either.
"Well, this task has certainly been more exciting than it was
supposed to be." Dumbledore sighed again.
"You don't say?" Sirius asked sarcastically.
"Maybe I should register myself at the Ministry as a
Resistomurdermagus with all the failed assassination attempts
lately." Harry mused, making his godfather snicker.
"You're definitely being targeted." Bones admitted. "These were
obviously two separate attempts, almost certainly by two separate
people or groups. And the one you brought back has been identified
as Royston Welch, a known associate of the group that attacked you
during the Quidditch World Cup. I'd be willing to bet that the three
you left in the lake will be the same."
"Do you think you'll be able to get the name of the instigator out of
him?" Harry asked.
"Probably not." The DMLE director admitted in frustration. "We'll
investigate of course, but I doubt they'd be stupid enough to have
talked to them in person, and even if they did would have probably
used a Memory Charm to cover their tracks."
"Pity." Harry said. He would have liked to have taken care of
whoever wanted him dead personally. The archaic rules that
governed the Tri-Wizard Tournament allowed a champion some
pretty broad self-defense privileges. Killing someone for an infraction
like this was well within them and would have served as a poignant
message to stop fucking with him. "What about the other one?"
"I don't recognize him, but I'll make inquiries. I could arrange an
auror guard for you while we investigate this."
Not that long ago, Harry would have jumped at the chance to request
a certain Metamorphmagus to be given the task of protecting him.
She'd have to stay in his room of course, to make sure that nobody
tried to kill him in his sleep. In fact, it would be safest if she slept in
his bed too.
But that was before. The thought of having his girlfriend(exgirlfriend?) around all the time with their current situation wasn't
really appealing. He could already imagine the awkward silences
and stilted conversations.
The thought of having an actual auror guard wasn't even considered.
It would drive him up the wall to have one or two of those around all
the time.
"Thank you for the offer, Madam Bones, but I don't think that'll be
necessary. Hogwarts is the safest place in Britain after all." And if
there was a trace of sarcasm in his voice, then nobody called him
out on it.
The evening of the same day.
Harry was on the Astronomy Tower again, staring at the sky and
thinking. He wished it wasn't cloudy so that he could see the Void,
the Darkness Between the Stars.
Ever since he had killed those Death Eaters at the Quidditch World
Cup, he had suspected that it was influencing his mind. Now he was
certain of it.
All of the runes carved on his head were made to touch his mind in
one way or another, and so they did. The raging touch of the Sun
was easy to detect, there was no subtlety to it, it simply magnified all
his passions. The more he drew on the Sun, the worse it got.
The Void was different, insidious and sneaky. He still wasn't sure
about the full extent its influence on his mind and soul, but some
things he knew for sure. It muted his emotions and pushed him to
kill, to send it more souls. No wonder the dementors were the way
they were, lost completely to the Dark.
He had killed three people today and felt only satisfaction. Quite a bit
of that was because of Luna no doubt, but he had dispelled those
Bubblehead Charms with barely a thought. No remorse and no
mercy.
Perhaps strangely, this didn't bother him. He had done all the soul
searching over it that he cared to already. The idea that there was
some primordial magical entity pushing him to be more ruthless was
honestly more disconcerting, though even that wasn't too scary now
that he had identified it. The Void was, in essence, nothing. Who
feared nothing? He still had full control of his faculties and could
make his own choices. If he was going to be more inclined to kill his
enemies than spare them, then so be it. It had yet to steer him wrong
and the notion of killing being wrong was just an abstract concept
pushed by society anyway.
"'Arry?"
"Fleur." He said back without turning around. He had sensed the
veela's distinctive aura before she had spoken. "Did you come here
for the view?"
" Non, I was looking for you." She replied and moved to stand beside
him. Then she shivered inside the heavy robe she was wearing as a
particularly cold gust of wind passed by. "Are you not cold?"
That was a fair enough question since Harry was only wearing a Tshirt and it was winter in northern Scotland.
"A little." He admitted. "But I've always liked my weather to be on the
colder side." The fact that he could use his magic to regulate internal
body temperature played no small part in allowing him to enjoy the
chilly wind without being uncomfortable. It had certainly made
swimming in the lake less unpleasant.
"You are mad." Fleur declared with authority, making him chuckle.
"What did you need me for?"
"I wanted to zank you." She said quietly, suddenly much more
subdued. "For 'elping me in the lake. I could not 'ave done it wizzout
you."
"There wouldn't have been assassins in the water without me either."
Harry pointed out.
"Zen ze grindylows would 'ave defeated me." Fleur retorted with a
bitter undertone. "I would still 'ave failed to zave Gabi."
"She wasn't in any real danger." Harry shrugged, finding this less
prideful version of Fleur kind of strange.
"We didn't know zat." She refuted and continued sternly. "Now stop
protesting and let me zank you."
"Alright, thank away." Harry said in amusement and turned to face
her.
That was all the invitation Fleur needed. She stepped forward and
hugged him, making sure to press as much of herself against him as
possible.
" Merci, 'Arry, for zaving Gabi and protecting me." She said, perhaps
a bit more breathily than strictly necessary, and pressed a kiss on
the corner of his mouth.
"You're welcome." Harry replied, not particularly surprised by the way
she had chosen to express her thanks. He'd long since caught on to
what she was offering, though he was surprised by her patience.
He'd never heard of a woman that would be willing to keep at it this
long without any success, but maybe it was different for veela.
Fleur lingered in the embrace for a few seconds more and only took
a step back when it was on the edge of becoming more than just a
friendly hug. His magic felt cold again, but it didn't seem as
threatening as it did months ago and the surprising warmth of his
body made for a nice contrast.
"You know, Gabi was disappointed zat she didn't get to talk you."
She said, moving on to the real purpose of this meeting.
"Why would she want to talk me?" Harry asked in confusion. He was
no stranger to people wanting to meet him by now, but he hadn't
thought that he was a particularly big deal outside of Magical Britain.
"I told 'er what 'appened in the lake and how you protected both 'er
and me. You are 'er new 'ero now." Fleur told him, amused. She
didn't mention that her parents also wanted to meet him. She had
written to her mother about her intentions towards Harry in the hope
that she would have some advice to improve her chances of
snagging him for herself. Her mother had been intrigued about the
man that had caught Fleur's attention and her father worried about
his little princess already picking out a husband for herself. Either
way, they wanted to meet Harry and get the measure of him.
Fleur herself was wary of letting that happen. Her constant hints and
subtle invitations were as much to let him know that she was
available as they were to gauge the status of his current relationship
without being crass and outright asking. His continued refusal to act
on any of those hints or invitations told her that it was probably still
persisting, though she had noticed that he seemed moodier lately. If
Harry's relationship with this Nymphadora woman was finally
collapsing then the last thing she wanted to do was scare him off by
introducing him to her parents.
"Ah, I see." Harry said with a wry nod, subconsciously puffing out his
chest a bit. People practically worshiping the ground he walked on
because of Voldemort's defeat had been bewildering, but getting
praised for something he'd actually done did send his ego on an
upward climb.
" Oui, she was most insistent zat I was to invite you to our 'ome in
France for the summer." She said, noting his reaction with
amusement. Fleur wasn't even making it up, Gabrielle really had
insisted that she invite Harry to spend the summer with them, though
it was entirely possible that their mother may have planted the idea
in her head.
"Your sister sounds like an officious little thing." Harry commented,
also amused.
Fleur gave an unrestrained laugh at that rather accurate description.
"You 'ave no idea, she 'as been ordering people around since she 'as
been able to talk. I used to get terribly annoyed by eet when I was
younger."
Her laughter made Harry smile. It was a beautiful sound and it also
had a hint of magic in it, though he doubted she was aware of that.
"I've never liked bossy people, but I'm sure I could make an
exception for your sister."
"You don't 'ave to worry, our mozzer 'as managed to teach 'er
enough manners to make 'er zound cute instead of annoying." Fleur
assured him.
"Well that's a load off my mind." Harry joked wryly.
There was a moment of silence before Fleur decided he needed a
prompt. "Zo… would you like to visit France over ze summer? You
could bring Luna and Nymphadora wizz you and I could show you
what a proper magical country eez like." She hoped that his girlfriend
wouldn't be an issue anymore by that point, but she couldn't exclude
her from the invitation without coming off as petty and manipulative.
Harry's smile faltered despite her amusing little poke at magical
Britain and he sighed, turning to stare back at the sky.
"'Arry? What eez wrong?" Fleur asked nervously, worried that she
had stepped too far.
Harry took a deep breath and let it out. "Nothing much really."
"Eet does not zound like nozzing." She ventured carefully.
Harry shrugged before deciding that he might as well tell her. He had
tried talking to Luna about the problems that he and Dora were
having, but for all of her qualities, his best friend was not the person
you went to if you wanted understanding in this sort of situation.
Luna could have the most remarkable insights into the truth of
things, but grasping why Dora might be upset with him right now
escaped her.
"I told Dora about the Joining ten days ago. She said that she
needed time to think and hasn't spoken to me since."
Fleur winced. Veela were expressly warned to never, under any
circumstances, tell anyone about the Joining. They could tell their
chosen partner only once the process was finished. Veela did not
truly consider themselves married until the man(or occasional
woman) they picked for themselves was so hopelessly in love with
them that there was no risk of betrayal. Gabrielle too would be given
this warning once puberty hit and the cravings in her awoke. It had to
be this way, or else their existence would never be tolerated by the
suspicious humans that they needed to mate with. Nobody wanted to
go back to the bad old days.
"She doesn't know that the Joining is in any way connected to veela
in case you were worried about that." Harry added dispassionately.
That did actually make Fleur feel a lot better, but she focused on the
part about his girlfriend troubles.
"I am zorry to hear zat." She said, doing her best to sound
commiserating instead of pleased.
Harry wasn't fooled but chose not to mention it. Fleur had made it
clear what she wanted and Harry figured that if he had a girl that he
wanted and she was taken, he would also be happy to hear that she
was about to become single. Getting upset with people for having
their own desires would be silly. "Can't be helped I suppose. How do
veela deal with this issue?"
"We find someone we like and decide zat we will stay wizz zem for
ze rest of our lives." Fleur answered quietly.
"So you don't deal with it, you just go ahead and do what I almost did
to Dora." Harry said cynically.
"We need wizards to continue our species." She defended.
Harry gave a tired sigh at that. "An acceptable evil then? I suppose
there are worse fates in the world than being magically addicted to a
supernaturally beautiful woman."
Fleur didn't really have anything to say to that.
"Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't have been better if I had just
stayed quiet and continued performing the Joining." Harry continued
musingly. "Everything seemed to be going so well for us back then."
But Harry could never bring himself to do that. As soon as he'd
learned about the Joining from Adrastia, he had started identifying
discrepancies in Dora's behavior.
She used to get a bit jealous if she heard that some girl or other
wanted to get into his pants, but that had slowly petered out over
time. She had become more patient and less willful with him. Yes,
things had been good, but Dora had undeniably slowly been
changing according to his preferences, just like Adrastia said.
Harry's upbringing had left him much more cynical and willing to do
morally ambiguous things than most people and then there was his
dabbling with Light and Dark, Pettigrew's accidental murder, the
killing of those Death Eaters at the World Cup, the deal with Adrastia
and now the latest debacle from this morning… suffice to say that his
moral fiber had acquired quite a bit of necessary flexibility.
Something like this though… changing a woman to suit him better…
that he simply wasn't comfortable with.
"My fazzer is a 'appy man " Fleur said almost reluctantly.
"I'm sure he is." Harry chuckled, genuinely amused. The question
wasn't whether he was happy now, but if he would have chosen the
life he now had before Fleur's mother had worked him over.
"You do not want to spend ze summer in France zen?" She asked
unhappily, going back to the question that he had never answered. In
her eagerness to get Harry for herself, she had forgotten to consider
that his opinion on veela might sour or that he may not be interested
even if he was single.
Harry stayed quiet for a few long moments before he answered. "Ask
me again some other time. I'm not in the mood to be thinking of
vacation right now."
Fleur gave him a relieved smile and agreed. It wasn't what she had
been hoping for but it was better than what she had been afraid of.
Tonks detested guard duty. It was boring as hell and no amount of
shapeshifting helped to get rid of the ache in her legs from standing
in one spot for so long. Even healing spells didn't work. It made her
wonder whether the ache was all in her head.
She wasn't alone in suffering this onerous duty, but John Dawlish
was an arse and didn't count as good company.
The irony of being assigned to guard the Death Eater that had tried
to assassinate Harry earlier in the day wasn't lost on her. She had
stomped away from that event due to a mixture of frustration with
Zabini and a belief that it would be boring only to end up here.
According to Bones, it could take as long as a week before the
bastard was in any shape to be interrogated. His insides were
apparently such a mess that he'd been minutes away from dying
when Harry had hauled him out of the water.
That meant that she had more guard duty to look forward to. Joy.
It was giving her plenty of time to think about what she was going to
do about her relationship with Harry at least. She had always gotten
frustrated with it before and found something to distract herself with.
No such luxuries when on guard duty.
The hours of her shift ticked by with glacial slowness and Tonks
finally decided what she had to do. She would call Harry on the
mirror he'd given her tomorrow and ask him to come over.
The next day.
Harry pulled at his T-shirt and rolled his shoulders. Then he sighed
and looked at Luna.
"Well, I'm off to get dumped." Dora had finally called and said they
needed to talk. Those words carried plenty of dread in them as it
was, but her tone had also been grim enough to make it clear what
was waiting for him once he got there.
"I don't understand." Luna said. "You were happy together, why
would Nymphadora dump you?"
"People generally don't like having their souls manipulated." Harry
sighed again. He'd noticed that he was doing a lot of sighing lately.
Luna scrunched her eyebrows at him, obviously not understanding.
She just didn't see what the problem was. To her mind, if you trusted
someone enough to let them in, then the Joining of Souls wasn't
manipulation but an expression of love and trust. Maybe she was
right, but Harry was of the opinion that it only worked in that kind of
fairy tale fashion of it was performed by both parties. What he had
been doing with Dora had been horribly skewed in his favor.
Harry ran his fingers over Dora's naked back and frowned in thought.
Things had not gone as expected.
As soon as he had showed up at her apartment, she had pulled him
into a kiss and proceeded to drag him into the bedroom. Normally
he'd take this as a good thing, but she had been tense the whole
time. Her soul had remained guarded even during orgasm. If she
hadn't seemed so determined that this was going to happen, he
would have stopped.
"This isn't going to work." Tonks sighed after a few minutes of
silence.
"It was just a test then?" In that context, everything made sense.
"Yeah." She said lamely. "I had to see if I could relax. Sorry."
"It's okay."
They lapsed into silence for another few minutes before she got up
and started getting dressed. Harry followed suit in awkward silence.
Once they were done, they looked at each other and shifted.
Awkwardly.
"So…"
"Yeah…"
More awkward silence ensued.
Harry gave an irritated sigh and rubbed at his forehead. This was
pretty much exactly what he had imagined things would be like now.
Dora was right. This wasn't going to work, not with that big 'sorry I
accidentally performed Soul Magic on you. Oh, and I could do it
again and you'd never know it' hanging between them. "I guess I can
consider myself dumped?"
A flash of guilt passed over Tonks' face, but she nodded all the
same. "I'm sorry. I just… can't."
"It's okay." Harry repeated. "I figured it was going to end this way.
Heh, you were out of my league anyway."
She gave a weak smile at that and decided to go along with his
attempt to lighten the atmosphere. "Says the guy with a veela
throwing herself at him."
He had told her about Fleur and her hints, not to mention that Witch
Weekly and Teen Witch Weekly had been speculating about his love
life for months now. Even the Daily Prophet had gotten in on it in the
aftermath of the Yule Ball, despite supposedly being a respectable
newspaper and not a tabloid. Fleur and Luna were the most common
choices, though there were also a few runner ups among his fangirls
for some reason.
"I'd rank a sexy auror Metamorphmagus above a veela." Harry
countered, almost able to feel as the awkwardness diminished.
"I guess I am pretty amazing." Tonks agreed, puffing out her chest
and giving herself an extra cup size for emphasis.
"Yeah, you are." He nodded. "And not just because you have
adjustable boobs."
Her smile was stronger and more genuine this time and she held out
her hand. "Friends?"
Harry ignored the hand and went in for a hug instead. She made a
brief sound of surprise but hugged him back anyway.
Harry kept holding on far past the point when most hugs would have
ended, knowing that once he let go it would be over between them.
"Take care of yourself, Nymphadora." He said eventually.
"On account of the circumstances, I'll forgive you for using my full
name just this once." She mumbled.
"You're so generous." He mumbled back.
"And don't you forget it."
"I'll see you around, Nymphadora."
"Thin ice, Harry."
He smiled and let go. All things considered, it could have been
worse. There had been no angry accusations or screaming and they
were still on good terms, but it still felt as if he had lost something
beautiful and it hurt.
Dolores Umbridge knew that she was in trouble. That captured
Death Eater would squeal as soon as Bones put the pressure on
him, something which was slated to happen any day now.
She hadn't known that the man had been one of Voldemort's
followers, nor did she care. What she cared about was that Bones
would come down on her like a ton of bricks as soon as she had an
excuse. The muggle loving bitch never did have any sense of
priorities. Who cared if she had tried to have Potter killed? He was
just a disgusting halfblood.
Unfortunately for Umbridge, Bones would care and there was
nothing she could do about it. The Death Eater was being held in the
DMLE's private infirmary under twenty-four hour guard. As both the
Senior Undersecretary and acting head of the DIMC, Umbridge
could go to a lot of places, but that wasn't one of them. Even if she
could, she wouldn't have the privacy to silence him. She lamented
her lack of talent with the Imperious right now. What good was the
Cruciatus in this situation? None, that's what.
Cornelius might have been able to protect her even from this, but not
when Wizarding World's darling was involved. Harry bloody Potter,
the Boy-Who-Just-Wouldn't-Die. She had relied on the Minister's
protection for years now while she cleaned up the Ministry, but she
hadn't forgotten the lessons learned on her way to the top. If you had
nobody to protect you, then suck up to someone until you did. If
there was nobody powerful enough to suck up to, then you kept your
head down.
Perhaps it was time to take a vacation? Just until things settled down
a bit.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone