"I find it interesting that you were so willing to break Mr. Barrowmont's rules for the sake of Bobble," Mckenzie said. "It sounds like you had a particularly strict upbringing under his care, from dueling, to where you stayed, ate, slept…"

"It wasn't breaking the rules. Not really." Harri was fiddling with her fingers again. "I had to go out to Snatch and had to come home when I was done, but that doesn't mean I couldn't do other things."

"Really." Mckenzie couldn't help but smile. "Do you think that was in the spirit of Mr. Barrowmont's rules?"

Harri shrugged.

"I think it's safe to say that we both know it wasn't. So, what was the reason? Did you have a record of breaking Mr. Barrowmont's rules?"

"No! No." Harri shook her head jerkily. "When I was younger, maybe, but then I was a good girl. A good girl. It's just that...Bobble needed my help more than Mr. Barrowmont did. And I was still helping Mr. Barrowmont. So it just made sense to do it like that. It wasn't selfish if I was doing it for my friend."

"I see. So it was only for friendship that you were willing to go against Mr. Barrowmont's wishes?" Mckenzie leaned forward and spoke softly. "Are you certain about that?"

"Well..." Harri glanced away from Mckenzie and leaned in herself. "Mr. Barrowmont was looking tired at the recent dinners. More tired than he ever was before. And he talked about how he was so busy. And I thought...I thought that maybe if I broke the rules a bit, he wouldn't notice. It wasn't like he ever had time outside of dinners or special occasions anyway."

Mckenzie smiled. That much made sense.

"You've mentioned these dinners with Mr. Barrowmont before. How often were they?"

"Not very often. Every few days."

"And what kind of food did you eat?"

"Mr. Barrowmont brought the food. I don't know what kinds it all was, but I think it was mostly British. That was where the recipes for my food came from." Harri looked back down at her fingers. "I had to make my own stuff when I started dueling, too. Mr. Barrowmont made it before that."

"But you did live with Mr. Barrowmont, didn't you?"

"Mr. Barrowmont was very busy." Harri said.

"I see." Mckenzie liked Mr. Barrowmont less and less every time she heard his name. "Well, why don't you tell me what happened with Bobble? I'm sure it will be just as thrilling a tale as the last."

"Okay. So it was the morning..."

I had an early breakfast and I didn't put many clothes on. It was just underwear and a cloak to go over it all, with some more clothes in my pack, so I'd have something to wear when I met Carma and Rabbit later. I had to tie Bobble down in my pack so that her head could poke out without the rest of her floating in the water or getting lost when I moved around, and then we were set.

Apparating to the loch wasn't as bad as I thought. It was still early, but the sun was shining bright enough that the rocks didn't freeze my toes. I looked all around, just in case anyone was there, but it was just the water and Bobble and me.

I had a plan and I meant to stick to it. The first part was easy – I just had to go up to one of the trees and find a good branch and sever it. A few quick more severs and it looked something like a broom, but mostly just a pointed stick, and then I had to put a flying charm on it. Which I was good at, because I had to know how to do it to countercharm it for dueling.

I took my cloak off then and stuffed it into my spare bag, the one with my clothes in, and took a second to let the sun soak in. I knew I couldn't stay in it for long, 'cause of sunburns, but it was nice to feel it and the breeze and the warmth of the day. I took out one of my rings, then put a quick disillusionment charm on the bag, so nobody would know that I was there. And I made a portkey out of the ring, then slid it on my finger, just in case I panicked and I couldn't focus enough to Apparate.

I stepped up to the edge of the lake, all dark water stretching out between the mountains, and pulled my wand out of its sheathe. I cast a bubble-head charm then, not really a bubble-head charm, but more of a bubble-body one. For diving, 'cause I'd looked up how deep the loch was and I didn't want to just get crushed.

So I was stood there, with my flying stick in one hand, Bobble peeking out of her pack, and a big translucent bubble over me. I dipped my toe into the water and it parted around my shield, just like it was meant to, and I knew that I was going to be grateful for that when I got deeper. I lit my wand up with a little light, and it left a trail as I kept walking in, my lifeline if I needed to go back up.

I kept walking, letting the loch swallow me up, until the water was over my head and I could look down to see the steep drops that were just about to come. I built myself up with a few deep breaths, then hopped forward. The water still acted like water, wrapping all around my and my shield, and it seemed quite content to keep dragging me down.

It didn't take long for the sunlight to start fading, for me to be able to see nothing but the trail of light I was leaving behind and the darkness all around me. Anything could have been out there, but I had to tell myself that I knew what was. It was water and fish and some plants and nothing else. Water is just air for different animals.

I looked down into the nothing and gripped my broomstick. I felt myself being tugged, faster than I could have fallen, down, down, until there wasn't any light but the trail left by my wand, and still I kept going. I saw silvery scales flash, black wormy creatures wiggling past, tendrils of green floating in the water. It was colder, too, so cold I could feel it even through my shield. But I had to hold tight, keep going. It was all for Bobble.

I was ready to fall forever when we stopped. I looked down at Bobble and she looked up at me and I couldn't help laughing. We'd done the hardest part. I was so far under the water that nobody could have found me, and I was looking for something with the same fate. The difference was, somebody knew where Bobble's limb was, and that person was sitting in my bag.

I took one last look at the silver trail i'd left, my lifeline to the surface, and kept my wand steady. I mounted my broomstick and let one foot hang,, just low enough to touch the waterlogged earth and keep me vertical, and started to fly through the water.

Bobble looked around. She'd chatter when she knew, when she saw herself, and all I had to do was get her there. But that gave me time to think, about where we were and what we were doing. My lifeline was the only thing keeping me connected to the above. My charm was the only thing stopping the water from crushing me forever. I was ten thousand feet deep and searching for miles, all for the sake of my friend.

It was the only thing that would have made it worth it, really.

We were being thorough with it, going in a pattern that would cover the whole lake. My light would tell me where we'd been and with every pass, I could see it, and then the next time another, and the next time another. It made the void seem so much nicer, when we had a ribbon to let me know how far I'd gone, and how close escape would be. If I thought about that, instead of the dread, of the unknown all around me, I wouldn't get scared.

When Bobble finally snapped her teeth, I almost jumped right out of my skin. There'd been no sound for so long that I wasn't expecting it, just barely remembered to stop my broomstick. There were fishbones and bigger fishbones and dirt and rubbish and all kinds of things on the floor of the loch. Most of it was half-rotted, broken and decayed, but there was one thing that wasn't.

There was a pristine white bone, against the off-yellow and the muddied others, and it was covered in the same kinds of runes that Bobble was. She was almost rattling in her bag, so eager she was to get to it, and I had to grab a tight hold of the bone to pull it out of the mud. With a few tugs, I had a leg in my hand, and the biggest smile on my face.

"I've got it!" I told Bobble, and she clacked her teeth together. "Not so fast! We have to get to the surface first. I didn't strap you down for nothing!" I told her, but I did stick the leg in along with her, tucked the foot under a strap, so she'd know it wasn't gone. I was happy too, for her, and for the sake of leaving behind the lakebed. I wanted to see real light and her real things and feel the sun on my skin again.

Following the trail back was easy, just like I'd hoped, and my heart leaped along with my body when we broke the surface and got to the shore. I looked around right after, just in case anybody was there, but we were alone still. I destroyed my flying stick, countercharmed my portkey and my light trail, then dried myself off. Bobble was rattling again, but I had to get dressed first. Then I found us a nice place beneath the trees, where the sunlight poked through the canopy.

I took Bobble out carefully, laid her out on the leaves, and ran my fingers along the leg. It was so pretty, just like the rest of her, and I was happy to put it where it ought to have been. It popped into place, and she could move it. She twisted it this way and that, like she could start walking at any moment, and she was laughing as much as I'd ever seen her.

"I'm so happy, Bobble!" I pulled her in for a hug. I wished she'd have had her arm, so she could hug back. "You're halfway whole already!" She nodded with me, then, and I let her spend some time enjoying moving her new leg before I had to pack her away again. She wasn't happy about that, but she couldn't move by herself with just one. "I just hope the next place isn't as creepy..."