I changed some things.
Friday, February 24, 1995
Slytherin Girls Fourth Year Dorm—2
Eden opened her eyes and held her breath for a moment.
After a few seconds, she came to a conclusion, and leapt out of bed and ran to the bathroom where she proceeded to violently throw up into the toilet. She was unaware of how long she sat there after she finished, and stared blankly into the depths with tears in her eyes.
Soft footsteps padded in behind her, and then hands were on her back. They rubbed up and down gently, and she continued to sob into the porcelain bowl before she was pulled away.
Pansy helped her out of the bathroom and into the dorm room where she was greeted with the sight of her dorm mates—her closest friends—and Snakey-Snape. The man immediately opened his arms, and she ran into them. He pulled her close as she sobbed into his chest and clung desperately to him.
While she had Lucius, Remus, and Sirius—who was a blood-father (the Godfather Ritual required him to blood-adopt her and Harry)—Snakey-Snape was the man whom she truly thought of as her father. It wasn't a decision that had been consciously made. After all, the last person she thought of as father had betrayed her in quite possibly the worst ways possible.
But she had realized just shortly after she came out of the Coma that, while she still called him Snakey-Snape in her head and to his face, in her heart, and with her friends, she called him tata—dad in Latin.
She suspected that he knew she thought of him this way, and perhaps maybe in some way thought of her as a niece, or perhaps—hopefully (would the self-delusions kill her?)—even as a daughter. He had never outright said anything, but, she had seen it in his actions.
She saw it in the way that he had forgiven Uncle Sirius, and Uncle Remus for all of the tormenting that they had done when they were in school. She saw it in the way that he had begun to loathe her mother. She saw it in the pure hatred that he held for her birth father, and the enmity he showed her brother.
He was always there for her.
He was always around for her.
He always gave her help when asked for, and even when not asked for.
She knew that part of it was the fact that he was her Head of House, but . . . he was how her father had once acted around her—only, he was . . . more. He was how Lily acted around Harry. He was how James treated her brother.
And it was all directed towards her.
"I don't want to do this anymore!" she sobbed into his chest. "Please, don't make me do this."
His grip on her tightened, and she felt the hands of her roommates fall on her as they wrapped her in their arms as well. "If it wouldn't cost you your magic, and therefore your Life, my child, I would do everything in my power to make it so you no longer had to compete.
"Even raise You-Know-Who?" she stuffily asked, her tone full of mocking.
"Even raise the Dark Lord." He said it reverently. She knew he held no more allegiance to the dead man, but even so . . . . Could it be that he was really willing to do that?
For her?
She pulled her head back enough to look at his face, and see that he was entirely serious.
Well then.
"You're the best, you know that, right?"
He smiled and gently stroked her hair. He pulled away from her after a minute more of snuggles, and wiped her face, and cleared all signs of her tears with a wave of his wand.
From the depths of his robes, he pulled out a Dark calming potion, and she tackled him in a hug before she swiped it out of his hands, and downed the strawberry-flavored potion.
The near-violent tremors in her hands, and near-crippling tremors in her spine ceased almost immediately. "I would like to reaffirm my prior statement: you are the absolute best . . . tata."
Snakey-Snape blushed, and preened slightly before he nodded his head. "Well. It's time to get ready. Get dressed, eat, practice if needs be. The Task is right after breakfast."
She nodded her understanding, and the man was gone with a dramatic swish of his robes. "He's so fun to fluster, isn't he?" she remarked to her friends once the door was firmly shut behind him.
Her friends laughed as they shook their heads. "Only you, Eden. Only you."
"What? He's my tata. It's my job to fluster him."
"You're ridiculous."
She preened. "Thank you."
Great Hall
Eden fidgeted with her fingers at the Slytherin table while Blaise dropped a mutilated strawberry into her oatmeal.
"Man, you did that wrong," Theo admonished as he placed three perfectly sliced strawberries into the enlarged bowl.
"I did my best, okay?" the dark-skinned boy snarled while he brandished his knife as if it were a weapon of mass destruction.
"Boys, please—" Pansy started before she cut off her words, the threat clear in her voice. She dropped a perfectly sliced banana into the oatmeal and preened slightly, even though it ultimately went unnoticed by the bowl's owner.
Daphne dropped in even chunks of a nectarine.
Tracy dropped in a mutilated peach.
Millie dropped in a subpar shredded green apple—they were supposed to be chunks.
Ambrosia Smith added grapes.
Septimus Pride dropped in blue berries while Evanius Rosier practically climbed on top of him to drop in five raspberries. Their playful bickering also, went unnoticed by the bowl's owner.
Antony leaned across the table—they were once more forced into the Queen's spot (by the Queen herself)—and sprinkled brown sugar on the mess.
Diana Nuvoue—the Queen of Slytherin, who had just gotten out of the hospital wing a couple days prior because she took a curse meant for Eden—poured thick, maple syrup onto the concoction before she added honey and Unicorn Milk. Where she got the Milk, Eden would never know—although, there had been rumors last year that her father owned a semi-legal unicorn farm.
"Eat up," Antony commanded after a minute of Eden just anxiously looking around.
She blinked a few times before she picked up a spoon and made sure to get a little bit of everything—as much as she could, at least—before she ate it. The sweetness of the fruits counteracted the natural bitterness of the Milk, and the honey, syrup, and brown sugar added a subtle sweetness to the extremely salty liquid.
Unicorn Milk was extremely expensive, semi-rare, and had amazing health benefits. The main benefit that a witch or wizard could get from the liquid, was it stabilized a stressed magical Core—be it from overuse or emotional trauma. As always, it was important to note, that it didn't make the Core grow, it just kept the Core from accidentally killing the witch or wizard, and also prevented Lash-Back, which, more often than not, killed the witch and wizard it hit.
Some other benefits, while not entirely proven, were: clear skin, cured the flu—the only other sickness next to Dragon Pox, muggle cancer, and Mystic Madness that wizarding kind hadn't figured out a cure to yet—and even made it easier to remember things.
She hoped that that one was true, but, considering her luck, it wasn't.
She had never had it before, due to the price—even though with her allowance, she could probably afford a large glass a week—but also mainly due to the fact that the only people who really consumed Unicorn Milk were high magic users like Aurors, duelers, and Unspeakables, along with others who used large amounts of magic on a daily basis.
She began to understand just why that was.
Eden reached for her glass of pumpkin juice while she ate, and nearly died when she discovered that it had been replaced with Milk. She quickly washed down the soul-crushingly disgusting liquid with some breakfast—she made sure to get as little Milk, and as many fruits as possible—before she glared at the two seventh years who were laughing from across from her.
"A warning would have been nice," she hissed before she shoved another large spoonful into her mouth.
"Oh, but sweetie, where would the fun be in that?" Diana asked sweetly over the laughing of their housemates.
Eden rolled her eyes, and continued to eat and drink—unfortunately—while she continued to peak over the heads of those around her.
"What are you looking for, dear?" Antony asked after the fifth time she practically stood on her seat.
"Draco. Have any of you seen him?"
Heads were shaken, and her lips pulled to the side as she frowned.
Draco, where are you? I need you.
Black Lake
Eden huddled in her cloak, and her teeth chattered as she came to stand next to Cedric. "You think they'd do a water challenge in the s-summer," she stuttered as an icy wind blew through her.
The boy—man (man-boy?)—laughed before he smiled at her. He was one of the few people who didn't seem to care that she was a Champion—he didn't hex her, but, he also didn't outright help her either. She also suspected that he was one of the reasons that the older Hufflepuff's had laid off of her after the whole Coma thing.
"Yes, you'd think so." He shivered as well, and laughed once more. "Warming charms would certainly help, but, I'm utter crap at them."
Her face lit up, and she cast the spell on both of them, not really thinking about her actions. He stared at her in awe for a moment before he nodded his thanks. Their attentions were quickly diverted by their Mentors as they were all pulled to the side.
"Please, please, please, tell me you have a plan," Snakey-Snape hissed as he pressed his hands into her shoulders and slightly shook her.
She couldn't help but smirk at him. "As I recall, Snakey-Snape, you once said that I have fifteen different plans for the simplest of scenarios. Why are you panicking this time?" she questioned and tilted her head to the side. The tails of her seven Dutch-braids rustled in the wind, and blew over her shoulder after a particularly hard gust of it.
"Because the last time you insisted you had a plan, you were in a Magical Coma for two months!" he responded in a low hiss. Her hair whipped him in the face after another gust of wind, and he pushed her braids behind her once more. "Just, please, Eden. I beg of you. Do you have a plan?"
She nodded. "Don't worry, Snakey-Snape. I have a plan. I'm actually feeling more confidant for this Task than the last Task, now that I'm calm. Everything is going to be fine."
He sighed softly in relief. "I'll believe that fully once I see it, but . . . I will trust you. For now." She nodded her thanks. "Is that what you're going to be wearing?" he asked a few moments later.
She spotted Mad-Eye walking towards them, and sent a wandless tripping hex at him. She did not want to deal with Crazy-Face.
"Oh, ye of little faith," she admonished playfully, "no, it's not. I just find it a little too cold for me to take my robes off just yet, even with the warming charm on my skin." She carefully made sure that her bag with its many new protection charms and spells on it was still situated against her right hip. She had presents in it that she wanted to give to Tom, and that was the day that she remembered.
Sigh.
Dumbles voice echoed around them, and she had to repress the urge to hex him. "Well, it's time to take it off and cancel the warming charm."
She groaned, before she did as she was instructed. Once the charm was canceled, she pulled off her long, black robes to reveal a dark green halter bikini top—similar to the one she wore when practicing with Tom—and silvery-green swim-shorts that went to mid-thigh. A wand holster was attached to the top of her right arm, and the handle of her wand brushed against the heel of her hand when she flexed it.
She ignored the painful jeers she got from the stands, and when she turned to stand next to Cedric, caught her brother's eyes. The anger in them didn't surprise her.
The hatred did.
She stared at him for a second longer before she moved next to Cedric once more after she handed her robes off to Snakey-Snape.
"Ready?" he asked. He eyed her lean muscles with confusion—it wasn't common for witches or wizards to have muscles if they didn't require it.
Apparently, being Tom's best friend required it—it didn't matter that they now dated, this entire thing had started before that fateful night in December.
She looked at Cedric with a furrowed brow, completely unimpressed with the judgement before she smirked. "I was born ready."
She really wasn't, but . . . there was absolutely no need for him to know that.
The canon soon went off, and Eden was off without pausing to cast any spells like the other Champions. The moment she touched the water, however, her wand was in her hand, and she began to cast the many swimming spells and charms that she and Tom had worked tirelessly on—they could only be cast underwater.
Along with the spells to help her swim faster, stronger, and further, she cast spells to help her see underwater, and to withstand the pressure of deep diving. Soon, she soared through the water as if she were on a broom in the air—not that she'd ever do something so foolish.
She stared in awe at her surrounding as she swam to the bottom of the lake, her mind and soul completely baffled at what she saw. It was also, at that moment, that she began to really curse her attraction to shiny things—really, she should have the magpie Spirit Guardian, not Tom.
Every hundred or so yards, she'd get severely distracted by something that caught on the light, and she'd have to—not want to, needed to—go look and see what it was.
She would definitely come back after the Task.
She shook her head and tore her eyes away from the glittering diamond ring she had spotted and swam away—success!—only to swim back—failure—and put the ring on her finger—success? The thick band shrunk to fit her slim finger, and she couldn't help but wonder if it would work if she would try to put it on her wrist.
She shook her head and continued on with the Task.
She would most definitely come back, even if she died.
Especially if she died.
She would haunt the lake and hoard—focus, Eden! (strangely, it sounded like Tom's voice).
She was finally able to swim away from the Trove of Glittery Things, and shot off to another dip in the lake bottom. The pressure of the water made her ears pop, even with all of the spells she had cast to protect herself against that kind of thing—she must have cast them wrong. She paused, looked around, and when she was sure she was alone, recast the spells, and the pressure eased only slightly. She cast them a few more times, yet nothing changed.
She must be too deep.
She shrugged her shoulders and continued on, and nearly groaned when she came to another dip in the lake bottom. Seriously, how deep was the Black Lake? As she swam at high speeds, bubbles were left in a long trail behind her.
A sharp pain blossomed in her back, and she screamed.
She turned and raised her wand, ready to defend herself against some kind of sea monster, only to be filled with a hellish and unholy rage when her eyes fell upon Viktor.
She hated him.
He paled under her gaze, but held his ground with his wand pointed at her. It would have been slightly more intimidating if he didn't quake. And if he didn't have a wiggly bubble spanning the bottom half of his face.
She aimed her wand, and bright ball of white built up on the tip of it before it shot at him and hit the bridge of his nose, before it spanned both of his eyes like a spider web. It sunk into his skin, and he began to claw earnestly at his eyes.
She was content with his punishment, as he'd be stuck there for at least five minutes—at most ten—unable to see a thing. If something attacked him while he was blinded, well . . . . Who would they believe? The girl who was obviously injured by a type of cutting spell, or the boy who cast the spell that injured the girl and who also happened to be uninjured by any type of Magic himself?
She thought the answer was obvious.
Eden continued on her trek to the bottom, and used the pain in her back as a focuser, and quickly found what could be the treasure.
Treasure?
What treasure?
She didn't see, treasure. She saw something completely different.
Hostages.
When it finally and fully processed what it was that she stared at, cold, cruel rage filled her body before her thick magic shot out in a Raw Wave that had everything bowing before it as it raged for her.
Spectator Stands
Severus stared at the dark water as his body thrummed with agitation and concern as he stared at the lightly rippling surface. If he thought that the last challenge was bad—being forced to watch the girl he saw as family go up against an XXXXX class Magical Creature—than the Second Task was utter Hell not knowing what was happening to her.
It was only made worse by the fact that he had the knowledge of exactly what type of creatures lived in the Lake and what morals they held themselves to.
His stomach churned, and he Prayed to the Olde gods that he would be able to keep his meager breakfast down.
He was brought out of the monotony of worry, fear, and nausea, when, almost as if a muggle bomb had gone off underwater, the surface of the lake about 500 yards in front of him rose roughly nine feet in a large, wide dome before it fell with a violent crash as Magic escaped the middle of what was apparently a bubble.
Waves shook the piers they were on, and whispers broke out around him.
)()()(
His hand slipped into his robe pocket, and gripped the glass vial.
What happened down there?
His grip tightened.
Is Eden okay?
The glass shuttered under his grip.
Is my daughter alive?
He let go of it before it could shatter and ruin everything.
Bottom of the Black Lake
Eden inhaled deeply, and tightened her grip on her holly wand before she swam forward and incinerated the rope that tethered Draco to the strange stage-looking thing. She swam through the burning bubbles and wrapped her arms around him and started for the surface.
The spells that surrounded and protected her, extended to him without a thought.
The Drain began.
Stands
Three minutes later, Eden and Draco broke the semi-smooth surface of the water, and he started to cough as water dripped down his face. She spit out the water that had made its way into her mouth and wiped her braids out of her armpit, while Draco wiped the hair out of his face.
Together the two fourth years swam towards the docks that seemed a million miles away. They eventually made it, and the two were helped up onto the wood, and magicked towels and blankets wrapped around them immediately. They were thick and warmed, and felt like nice, warm hugs. Healers swarmed Draco.
"Are you alright?" Frantic hands were on her face and neck as they angled her head back.
"I'm perfectly fine," she said wearily, "I'm just a bit cold. Thank you, thank you, alright—enough already, tata!" The man intent on smothering her leaned back onto his heels. "You should check on Draco. He was down there longer than I was."
She was wrapped in his arms, and a kiss was placed on her wet hair before he did as requested, and the two began to fidget over Draco.
After the teen shoved them away with a fond grimace, Eden spoke. "I'm so glad you're alive! I was so worried this morning when I couldn't find you, and then I was so angry when I saw you chained to the bottom of the Lake, and—" She cut off and wrapped her arms around him once more, and her magic started to snap around at those who tried to approach the trio.
She dutifully ignored the sharp pain in her back when he hugged her close, and once again when Snakey-Snape wrapped his arms around the both of them.
It was both amazing, and completely awful what adrenaline could do to a person.
The surface of the Lake was broken once again, and the three pulled away to see Fleur floating in a cloud of red. She was panicked, crying, and obviously extremely injured. She was pulled out of the water, and the healers ignored her cries of pain. She was quickly fussed over by the healers and her schoolmates.
"The little girl," Eden whispered after a moment. She remembered seeing Draco, Granger, Chang, and a little blonde girl she hadn't seen before. She glanced at the clock, and frowned thoughtfully when she saw there was only twenty minutes left in the challenge.
If she didn't get distracted—not likely—and didn't run into anything—again, not likely—she could be in and out just before the challenge ended—once more, not likely.
But . . . what would Tom do? Would he go and save the girl he didn't know, or would he stay with whomever he rescued?
. . . too late it's gone . . .
While she thought, she had been looking at the French girl. Fleur looked to her and Draco before pure horror dawned on her face. "No," she whispered, "not Gabrielle."
. . . it won't come back.
She stumbled to her feet, and towards the edge of the pier, her face contorted into one of pain, as she dropped the blood-soaked towel off of her trembling shoulders.
Screw it.
All who were watching the injured blonde, were shocked when, with a shout from another blonde, Eden stood, and was already in the water before anyone could do anything about it.
"Uncle Severus," Draco said after a moment, horror clear in his voice.
"Yes, Draco, what is it?"
"Eden's hurt."
All eyes turned to the fluffy white towel, which had a long, light red line that went in a straight diagonal. The man hissed as fear ate him whole once more.
The injury wasn't from a creature. With a wave of his wand, he saw the Magic Residue in the blood, and knew immediately that it had been a Curse that she was injured by, and after Scanning the Residue, either her magic was keeping her from bleeding out, or the Curse was eating her magic.
"That idiot girl!"
All chose to either ignore, or heed the panic in his voice.
Black Lake
Eden kept her eyes focused and in front of her, her breathing even, and her mind on the blonde girl she was going to attempt to save.
Why are you so foolish, love? (did Tom do a voice transplant into her head?)
She swam past Krum, and she swam past Cedric, but paid the two—four—no mind as she continued in her foolish quest.
Tom was going to kill her—yes, yes, I am (stop that!)
Gabrielle.
Ignore the voice in her head, and get Gabrielle.
Something glittered in the corner of her eye, and she paused. No. No shiny. Eden Potter! No! Shiny! No! Bad! Stop! GABRIELLE!
Eventually—it took her much longer than she'd be willing to admit (there are far too many shiny things in the Lake). Like seriously, what do people do? Sacrifice their sparkles? Why? She felt like hitting people over the head and lecturing them on the importance of glitter.
But not right now.
Eventually, she made it back to where the hostages—'treasures'—had been kept. She bit down her anger once more before she swam up to the girl and pulled her wand to shoot a cutting hex at the rope to free her.
Time ran out.
The only reason that she knew with a surety that the time was indeed up, was because the Grindylows that hovered on the outskirts of the throne-like structure, convened on the two young girls.
After the shock wore off—two seconds—she shot the intended cutting hex at the rope and wrapped her hand around the upper arm of the younger girl before she started to fight the creatures while the merpeople did nothing but watch on with disinterest.
As she ascended, many illegal curses, hexes, and jinxes left her wand tip, and the water around her lit up as they either made their mark, or missed and destroyed something else.
(she was unaware of the fact that the light of her powerful spells could be seen from the piers, and that many people—especially Severus—were starting to panic)
Slowly—far, far too slowly—the Grindylow's numbers started to decline—along with her magic levels—but, as they did so, their viciousness increased with each death. She swam up a few more feet, and a pained scream left her mouth as a trident spike slashed into her back.
It seemed that the merpeople were no longer bystanders in the impromptu war.
As her magic started to swirl around the slashes on her back, her back arched again, and she almost lost her grip on Gabrielle when another trident cut into her back. She blinked away the black spots in her vision, and tried to swim away, only to receive two more deep cuts—this time on her stomach. She inhaled deeply, and wrapped a shield around the unconscious girl and pushed her up towards the surface that seemed to be an eternity and a half away.
She hoped at least one of them would make it.
Something hit her head, and she winced before her world went dark.
Saturday, February 24, 1945
Head Dorms
She opened her eyes and glared at Tom's room, her head only slightly foggy.
Until it wasn't.
"Tom!" she shrieked. Panic filled her when she remembered exactly why she was in the middle of his room, in the middle of the night—day. She ran forward and shook his groggy form. "Wake up!"
"Eden?" he groaned. "What's wrong? Why are you wet?" He woke up. "You're bleeding, what—"
"Wake me up, Tom!"
"What? Why? I need to heal you!"
"You need to wake me up because I'm at the bottom of the Black Lake surrounded by blood-thirsty Grindylows and pissed off merpeople. Now, wake me the bloody hell up, Tom!"
He nodded his head, and stared into her eyes as he lifted his wand. "Remember: you can fly, Eden," he said calmly, and then waved his wand. She nodded her head, and her frantic thoughts calmed.
Friday, February 24, 1995
Black Lake
There were more injures.
Her eyes opened, and burned at the amount of blood that clouded around her. She looked at her arms, and was displeased to see two more cuts on her right arm, and three on her left. Pain wracked her body, and she looked around, and saw that she had sunk nearly back down to the bottom of the Lake.
She screamed, and with a flourish of her wand, was able to send her attackers back far enough, that she was able to wrap her magic around her feet, and rocket towards the surface. She grabbed a hold of Gabrielle along the way, and held the taller girl close as she consciously wrapped her magic around her too.
A sharp pain in her left foot made her look down. Besides the fact that a spear now impaled her foot, she also noticed that about fifty creatures were hot on her trail. She forced herself to go faster despite the heavy Drain already on her Core, and soon she and Gabrielle broke the surface of the Lake.
Without the added friction, the two shot up at a rapid pace before she was able to stop and hover about 20 feet above the now violently churning water. Grindylows filled up ten of the feet between her and the water as they desperately reached for the two.
She pointed her wand, and with a shouted illegalish spell, a bright blue ball of light left her wand and sent the creatures scrambling back into the water to collect their dead—the ones who had died in the air had turned to mist.
She hovered for a few more moments with the young girl attached painfully tight to her before black spots appeared in her vision from blood loss and magical Drain.
She ignored the violent roaring of the crowd as she turned towards the piers. She slowly flew over to the wooden structure, and when they were twenty feet away, fell along with Gabrielle ten feet to the churning water as she used the very last ounce of her magic. People scrambled to catch the pair with spells and failed.
The blonde fell on top of the raven-haired girl, and Eden began to sink before Gabrielle dove down and grabbed her and pulled her above the water. She spit the water out of her mouth, and the two weakly treaded water before Snakey-Snape, Draco, and Cedric were in the water and pulling them out, and laying them on the pier.
Her vision swam as people hovered over her. They were shoved away, and large hands were on her face. "You foolish little girl," Snakey-Snape hissed thickly as he held her head in his hands. Both ignored the drops of water that fell from his hair and onto her face.
"I'm sorry . . . tata," she whispered. Draco came to hover over her as well—Gabrielle and Fleur had been thanking him. "I couldn't let her die . . . . They attacked the moment that time ran out . . . they attacked before I even got to her."
Before the darkness in the corners of her eyes took over, she saw the horror on his and Draco's face when what she said registered.
It appeared that the Challenge wasn't as safe as previously assured.
Location Undisclosed
He didn't care about the racket he made when he slammed the door open. He ignored the two men in the room, and swiftly moved to stand in front of the occupied chair. He threw a blood-soaked towel on the floor, and dropped a glass vial with a singular, long black hair on top of it.
"I got the hair. Will the blood work?"
It was silent as his Master contemplated. "No. I have done further research since we last spoke. It must be fresh. Taken straight from her veins, and immediately placed into the cauldron. I doubt a stasis charm will do what is needed."
He groaned. "I did this to save my daughter. How is bringing her to you going to save her?"
"Revenge."
His Master clearly didn't understand who his daughter was.
That didn't surprise him.
"I—What?"
"You want revenge, yes? Against those who have wronged your daughter?"
"Yes."
"Then you will bring her to me, and revenge shall be brought upon all of those who dared to harm her."
Even you?
"Why? Why would you bring revenge for her?"
"Because I once knew a girl whom I would have burned the world for, had she only asked. She was the one person who was better than me in every way that mattered."
"You loved her."
"Yes." There was a distinct wistful tone in his voice.
"You still love her."
Something dark crossed the Dark Lord's face, before it faded as he stroked the feathers of a slightly larger than normal raven. "With my entire soul. And that, that is why I am willing to exact revenge for your daughter. All I need in exchange to do so, is Noah Potter." He bit his lips to keep the tears from falling. "Do we have a deal?"
No.
"Yes."
I hope you guys enjoyed it. I love hearing your feedback and opinions. Your comments seriously make me smile until my face hurts. Honestly, I think my family is a little tired of it, because I also squeal...a lot...heh...