By the next two days, the five first-years were the talk of the school. Embarrassingly enough, someone started the name 'The Indestructibles', and soon that was what was being shouted at them in the halls.
"Honestly, people have forgotten all about me being Umbridge's son and the expecto dementor thing just because I can do a bit of magic," Levi said in the common room one night.
"Levi, it's not just a bit of magic, you can do wandless magic! That's incredible!" Ali exclaimed, braiding her hair. She had finished all her homework except her seventh-year Charms homework, which was to master nonverbal spells by the next class
"Thanks," he replied, blushing. His only homework left was the foot-long essay for Binns about Merglite the Indecisive, having long since finished McGonagall's homework on mammal-to-mammal Transfiguration. Skoren was sitting with a desk Levi Conjured for him, carefully and methodically pruning a plant that had frequent mood swings.
"Really, that's how the original mood rings were created," Skoren had explained. "Some of this plant was crushed and the juice was used to-"
"I'M GOING TO BE CRUSHED?" The plant had howled, and it had gone hysterics again. It had taken fifteen minutes to calm it down.
"Speaking of your spell, when are we going to to send the dementor to get the thing?" Ali asked. "I can't get any more clues because… well…" She trailed off, tears glistening in her eyes.
As soon as Levi hit the window with the Reductor Curse, the squid had, incredibly, managed to resist the flow of water and escape, the mermaid still in his clutches.
"Yeah," Levi said, attempting to comfort her. "I'm sorry."
"No, it's okay," Ali said, wiping her eyes. Suddenly she stood up, a glint in her eye. "But I'm tired of not knowing! I'll send a message to Blake and Rose at dinner and we'll meet up by the lake.
"Ali, I'm warning you, there may be some difficulty with that," Levi reminded her. "When I checked through the new window, the runes seemed a whole lot stronger."
"Well, it can't hurt to try," she retorted fiercely, and Levi agreed.
As soon as they sat down to eat dinner, Ali grabbed a handful of asparagus and some mashed potatoes. She put them down on her plate and spelled out, 'MEET AT LAKE AT MIDNIGHT.'
"Ibi manent in aeternum," Ali hissed, once again demonstrating the Indestructibles' talent for creating spells by merely speaking Latin. The Permanent Sticking Charm worked, and Ali carefully Levitated it under the table and to Rose's foot, where she jabbed her ankle several times. Rose picked it up, showed it to Blake, and gave a thumbs up under the table.
"She got it," Ali said excitedly. "Finally, we're going to find out!"
Unknown to them, someone was watching from another table. They held an Invisible Extended Ear, a new product from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, to their ear, listening in to the entire exchange.
There would be more than five people at the lake that night.
"Chamaeleo," Ali said, pointing her wand at herself. The Bedazzling Hex did it's job - now, whatever part of the wall Ali was blocking, she looked identical to it. She slowly moved around.
"Can you see me?"
"Not at all - Chamaeleo!" Skoren said, pointing to himself with his wand.
Only Levi was left. He stowed his wand in the wand pocket of his robes.
"I'm going to try something new," he said. He pointed at himself and did not say anything. A moment later, his silent Bedazzling Hex had come into effect.
"Nonverbal, wandless magic!" the place where Ali should be said in amazement. "What next?"
"Quick!" Skoren hissed, and they set off into Hogwarts.
When they arrived, Blake was complaining, "-tired, cold, it's about to pour rain, and they're not here!"
"Oh yes we are," Levi said behind him, in the creepiest voice he could manage.
"ACK!" Blake yelled. "Where are you?"
"Finite," all three said at the same time, and appeared in front of Rose and Blake.
"Good point, Blake, it is about to rain," Skoren remarked. "Ali?"
"Impervius Maxima," she said, and soon a shimmering shield was protecting them from the oncoming droplets of water.
"Now, Levi, are you ready to do this?" Ali asked, worried.
"I- I don't know," he confessed. "It's scary, being able to talk and be friends with dementors, honestly. I mean - they were my very first friends. And now this thing might have the answer."
"Levi, the mermaid never-"
"I know, Ali, but somehow I think this is meant for us. For all of us."
There was silence.
"Ali, where's the Hufflepuff common room?"
Silently, they walked along the shoreline, until they got to the very place where it stopped and met one of the Hogwarts walls.
"Well, I thought we might go down to the bottom and see it, first," Ali said quietly.
"How?" Blake asked nervously.
"Well, I was… experimenting with Professor Flitwick-"
Skoren snorted. "Flitwick's in love with you, I tell you. He'll do anything for you."
Ali shot him a glare. "I didn't ask for your opinion. Anyway, I've created a version of the Bubblehead Charm meant for the entire body. I told him that it was to dive down to the bottom of the lake for Skoren and get some interesting plants."
"Imagine what McGonagall would say if you asked her that," Skoren said, smirking. He then imitated her Scottish burr, yelling, "Absolutely not! Twenty points from Hufflepuff!"
"SHH!" Ali quieted. "The incantation's the same as the Bubblehead Charm. Bulla."
The Latin word for bubble actually came out of her mouth. It convulsed, and the words became a large glimmering bubble which surrounded Ali completely. As soon as the gap close and she was completely surrounded, it shrunk in on her and became skin-tight.
"It's easier to move when it's skin-tight," she explained. "Come on! We don't have all night!"
Everyone cast the 'Bubblebody Charm', as Ali called it, and began wading into the water.
The person stepped out from behind a tree.
"Bulla," they whispered. "Chamaeleo."
The caster wasn't as strong at the charms as the Indestructibles, but they worked, and they doubted that if they lay low, the five wouldn't see them.
"Brilliant," he whispered, and waded into the water silently.
Levi was right - the water was so charged with Runes it was like walking through electricity.
"No wonder McGonagall banned swimming in the lake," yelped Blake. "How are we going to make any progress."
"I wonder… no, maybe… okay," Skoren muttered to himself. "Everybody stand back. I'm going to use a Rune."
"You know Runics?" Ali gasped.
"jā," he said simply. The word yes radiated into everyone's mind.
"Okay," Skoren said, setting his jaw. "banōn."
'Bane,' a voice whispered in Levi's head, and the runes in the water were suddenly gone.
"It disables Runic Wards," Skoren explained. "It's like… the Killing Curse."
As everyone pondered this, the runes suddenly flooded back. And this time, they were fully charged with electricity.
"Everybody, we all have to say it to keep it at bay!" Levi bellowed.
"Banōn! Banōn! Banōn!" everyone shouted, and eventually, the runes disappeared completely.
"It's because we're near the Hufflepuff dormitories," Ali sighed.
"Teamwork, friendship, yeah yeah," Skoren said. "Look - there's a window!"
Everyone dog-paddled through the water to the window and sat on the ledge. Priscilla Dornan was snoring loudly. Rose giggled.
"Oh no!" Ali exclaimed. "The window has no runes to protect it!"
She was right - the window was cracking with it's protectors gone.
"Quick!" Ali hissed at Skoren. "NOW! DO SOMETHING!"
"Berγan," Skoren said hurriedly, and runes appeared out of nowhere, docilely swimming about in the water.
"Why aren't they attacking?" Ali demanded.
"Because I created them," Skoren snapped back.
"Okay guys, enough," Levi intervened. "Let's find our window, Skor."
They swam about, checking different ones, until Rose called, "I found it! OH NO!"
They all swam as frantically and quickly as they could. Rose was turned away from the window, her face redder than her hair.
"What is-" Skoren began, but stopped when he looked in the window.
Charlie Minneal and Fabian Nartrodder were kissing passionately in a corner of the room. Everybody swam away from the frame, their faces crimson.
"… I'll never be able to look at them again without-" Skoren began.
"WITHOUT WHAT?" Ali shrieked, suddenly furious. "WITHOUT THINKING THEY'RE POUFS? IS THAT WHAT YOU WERE GOING TO SAY? WELL YOU KNOW WHAT, MISTER-"
"I WAS NOT GOING TO SAY THAT!" Skoren bellowed back.
"YEAH, RIGHT!" Ali screamed. "YOU NO-GOOD DISGRACE!"
Skoren froze. His eye twitched. "Don't. Call. Me. A. Disgrace."
Ali froze too. "Oh, Skor, I'm so sorry-"
"Forget it," he snarled. "Don't even try."
And he swam away, back to the surface, blasting runes out of the way.
Ali burst into tears and swum after him.
"Well, there's no use trying to find it without them," Levi said morosely to Blake and Rose. "It looks like we won't be finding out the secret just yet."
"Wait!" Rose called after the two boys. "Can I do something?"
"What?" Levi asked nervously.
"Well… this," she replied, and sent pink sparks out of her wand in the shape of a heart, then swam away.
"C'mon, mate," Blake urged. "If they look out the window and see us, they'll think we did it and we'd be the biggest pansies in the school."
Levi didn't reply, but swam away anyway, destroying the runes. He wasn't in the mood to talk.
No one noticed a dark shape slither away from the window frame.
"I think I got enough for the Prophet," The follower said aloud. They swam away.
Skoren and Ali were still having a shouting match at each other at eleven. Charlie and Fabian had long since gone to bed, still smiling faintly at each other.
"Silencio. Silencio," Levi said in a monotone voice at both of them. Ali turned and started to mouth furiously at Levi, but no sound came out.
"I think you've both proved your point," he said sourly. "Go to bed."
Ali shot one last glare at Skoren, then one more at Levi, before storming up to her dormitory.
"Finite," he muttered, and Skoren could talk again.
"Let's go to bed," Levi said before he could say anything.
"Fine," he muttered.
"And I expect you to be civil with Ali, just so that we can discover what's under the window."
There was no reply.
(Thanks to larrissa hazel malfoy for reviewing! Please review, as it is the only way to replenish my lifeblood… haha just kidding! Anyway, my sister asked me which Indestructible I relate to most, and I decided on Skoren, because I like plants and because of his slightly, er, for lack of a better word, pompous attitude. Also, I study linguistics, so his connection with proto-germanic runes is kind of something of me that I threw in there. It's crazy how much power they all have! But we'll find out why soon enough. And as for Skoren and Ali's fight - yes, I know it's Ron and Hermione, but this is going to be a lot more vicious. TRUST ME.)
~PPB
