Harry POV

"She's acting very strange," he commented close to the end of their latest extra session with Moody.

None of the others had questioned why he had taught them underwater spells today, and Harry felt reasonably sure that they'd be fine during the Second Task. At least if they didn't get any more surprises than they were already expecting.

But Marina had been avoiding him for close to a week. He'd only found out about her breaking down and crying in Hogsmeade because Skeeter had made sure to spin a sordid tale out of it. All the while he'd been sitting in Hagrid's hut, convincing him to come back.

They only had three weeks left until the next round and she was avoiding him.

"Probably embarrassed about Hogsmeade," Ron said and fixed the singed sleeve of his robe.

"She wouldn't avoid Harry for that," Susan disagreed and pulled her hair back into a fresh ponytail.

"It's not just Harry," Hermione chimed in and put away her wand. "I heard the girls talking before. She's avoiding Sirius too, not answering his letters."

At that, Harry straightened. Avoiding him was one thing, but avoiding her father meant trouble. Normally, she grinned like the Cheshire cat every time she got a letter from home – so what was going on that she was avoiding Padfoot?

"Less gossip, more cleaning up," Moody growled behind them and made them jump. They were supposed to be tidying up the class room.

"Professor-" Hermione started but the man cut her off.

"I heard. Whatever it is, Black can handle herself. Now go."

"What is going on, lass?" Mad-Eye asked her and she sighed. It had only been a matter of time before someone called her out on her behaviour as of late.

"Nothing you need to worry about," she replied and sent the last of the desks back to their rightful places.

"Potter worries," he grumbled and Marina closed her eyes.

Of course he'd be worried after she'd avoided him for two weeks now.

"He should be focusing on the Tournament," she countered and sheathed her wand.

"Aye. But he won't as long as he's wondering what's wrong with you."

"Wednesday is the full moon and we're going home for it," she sighed and faced her mentor. "I'll tell him and Dad then."

Merlin knew she was not looking forward to that conversation at all.

After calming down somewhat, she'd made appointments with the advocate and the goblins. Then she'd gone to Dumbledore and requested permission to leave school to deal with the mess her mother had dropped on her. He'd granted it.

David had taken those days off and accompanied her of course, despite her protest.

Lily and her mother had stayed true to their decision and had signed over all their personal savings to a new account, with her in charge of it but Remus named as heir. It had been sitting in the vault for over a decade – and her mother had not been without means, apparently.

The money was enough to live off for the rest of his life, if he stuck with his current spending habits and stayed alone. Personally, Marina was hoping he wouldn't. And now that he had regular income, he'd started saving up himself, even though he insisted on paying his share of groceries and supplies at home.

It had taken hours, in company of David and her mum's advocate, to get the goblins to fuse the vaults into one and sign the money over to her godfather.

Remus was going to snap. The actual transfer of funds depended on his signature, since Marina wanted his vault transferred into the one the women had opened – he wouldn't lose as much interest like that. Now to get him to sign...

Then she'd visited the Ministry and had been granted permission, thanks to Amelia pulling some strings, to go to the Department of Mysteries and get the prophecy off the shelf. She was the only one who could do it without getting cursed.

But she wanted it out of there, just in case the Death Eaters figured out who her supposed opponent would be and got their hands on it. She'd watched it with David, once, before shattering it.

All that, she had done without telling anyone about it; not her Dad, not Remus, not Dumbledore.

She wasn't a complete moron though. They needed to know.

February 16th 1995

"It was a harmless one," her father said after they'd dragged themselves upstairs to eat breakfast.

He was referring to the full moon. The transformation had been as painful as ever for Remus, but he was already up and running today. It was rare.

"Sure was," she agreed and got out juice and milk. "He's already on his way down."

"That's fast," Harry grinned and sat down, his hair wet from his shower. One of his Christmas presents had been a new pair of glasses and he was proudly wearing them; they had the same round shape and his old ones (and James') but the frame was thicker and red-black. They were finally the right size too.

Once their wolf joined them, they dug into breakfast together. Given that in a week's time they'd be facing the Second Task, she was astounded how relaxed they all were.

She should have known better.

"So are you going to tell us what's going on with you?" her Dad asked her as soon as they'd all put their forks down.

Marina sighed and leaned back, waving her wand in a silent Summoning Charm. Parchments upon parchments came sailing down the stairs and onto the table. The one on top was her mother's letter.

"Start with that," she told them quietly and pointed at it. "It's kind of self-explanatory."

She busied herself doing the dishes while her family grew very quiet behind her, reading her mother's parting words to her.

Her father's emotions were a conflicting mess between sadness, outrage and a certain degree of hurt; presumably because she hadn't trusted him with her secret.

Remus was just about the same, except for the hurt. He was far more outraged that Rose had unloaded all of it on her.

Harry just seemed very confused, and she knew he was still wondering why she'd avoided him.

When she turned around again, they were all looking at her with sad faces. But she couldn't handle their sympathy, not knowing what Harry had yet to see.

So she walked over and hovered her wand above the letter.

"You all need to touch it for this," she whispered, so her voice wouldn't break. The men obliged and she activated the memory charm.

It was odd to watch. Their eyes went blank as the letter acted as a makeshift pensieve and let them see the memory Marina wished her mother had never included. But Harry deserved to know.

By the time the three of them moved again, she'd cleaned the kitchen and was out of distractions.

Harry was so stunned he couldn't even speak.

"She knew?" her father croaked, horrified. "Lily knew?"

"Apparently," she nodded and hugged herself around the middle. If possible, their grief for their friend had just grown. "But there was no way of knowing when and where. And trying to prevent it could have gotten them killed sooner. So they decided to..."

"Pretend for Dad," Harry finished quietly, his tears burning in Marina's eyes.

"And for you," she told him gently. "Mum saw that you and I would make it out alive. If they'd tried to change the future..."

"It could have killed us." He sounded like he didn't think that was such a bad thing.

"How is he?" she asked, sitting in their living room and nursing her second butter beer. Her father had accompanied Harry upstairs when her brother had decided to spend some time alone before they went back to the castle.

"Listening to the wireless and pretending it doesn't bother him."

Remus sat across from her, a forlorn look on his face; her Dad was torn between confusion and hurt, not that he let it show.

"Who else knows?"

"Just David," she shook her head. "He was with me when I opened it."

"Let's keep it that way. If people found out that Rose knew and didn't do anything..."

They'd label her a traitor because no one understood the Sight.

Remus shifted, the Gringotts papers in hand, and felt like... he was bracing himself. Marina cut him off before he even had a chance.

"Remus, don't even think about arguing. Just take the damn money already."

"It's yours and Harry's."

"Moony, I have more money than I could possibly spend. Grandpa made sure of that. Same for Harry. And it was literally Mum's dying wish that you get it."

"Take it," her father insisted before Remus could keep arguing. "Kitten's right. We have enough."

And her goof of a father was still saving up funds for her – as if she needed it.

Defeated, her godfather reluctantly signed the papers. One would think she had asked him to jump into a volcano or something.

"What is it with everybody and money lately?" Carmen asked, stunned, after Marina had told her friends what had been going on lately, albeit the edited version.

"What do you mean?"

"Uncle Ben divided the family fortune last week and gave Dad his share. Then he split half of it and gave each of my siblings and me equal savings."

Benjamin was one of the Rockefellers of the wizarding world. Compared to the Nott fortune, the Blacks were only moderately well-off. If he had handed Jupiter his share of the inheritance...

"Well, it is Jupiter's, technically."

"What am I gonna do with so much money?" Carmen asked dryly. Their friends hid their laughs with fake coughs and sneezes. Elvira was wealthy enough and just grinned.

"Stop freaking out, first of all. The galleons don't bite. And I haven't touched my fortune either."

But it did make for one hell of a safety net, just in case.

"You're doing fine without it, so just ignore it until you need it," Elvira agreed and finished her homework assignment with a wave of her wand.

"Why is everybody spreading money all of a sudden?" Angelina wondered as they were getting ready for their next classes.

"Because people managed to break out of Azkaban, a Death Eater managed to get into Hogwarts of all places, and the Dark Mark was seen for the first time since the war," Marina replied. "They don't want to admit that they are getting scared – but they are."

For good reason too. Voldemort and Bellatrix made a lethal and insane combination.

"Does Mad-Eye have any idea yet why Crouch entered you into the Tournament?"

"No. Nobody can figure out what the point of that is, other than to get rid of Harry and me without having to face aurors. Problem is, Crouch could have killed us at anytime until he was exposed, if that had been the point."

Marina couldn't tell them about Harry's nightmares, in which Voldemort wanted her brother delivered to him.

"Crouch said it's for a ritual," Trish tossed into the conversation.

Of course she would remember that.

"Resurrection of Might." By Bone, Blood, Flesh and Pain.

The name of the damn ritual was as pretentious as the dark wizard who'd invented it.

After everything that had happened, she'd gone and gotten the bloody book from Grimmauld Place. The book described the gruesome process, but of course it took more than just the ingredients for the spell. What wasn't in her copy of the book was the incantation – or how the hell to stop it.

"What does it do?" Sam asked, looking pale.

"Exactly what you're thinking. Which why we are not gonna let it happen."

"But what if we can't prevent it?" Katie questioned quietly.

"Then Merlin and Morgana help us all." Because this time Lily wasn't here to die for her son and throw the curse back at Voldemort.

February 24th 1995

"I don't feel so good," Harry mumbled at breakfast. It was their last reprieve before they'd have to go down to the Black Lake and face whatever horrors the judges and Crouch had come up with.

"I'd have been surprised if you did," she muttered back, her own stomach queasy.

For all their preparation and planing, and the fact that Viktor and Fleur had joined as well so they'd all make it out alive, they had no idea what was about to happen.

No one had commented when they'd claimed one end of the Gryffindor table for themselves, all their friends surrounding them. The rest of Durmstrang was still at the Slytherin table, much to Karkaroff's approval, while Beauxbatons stayed with Ravenclaw.

But their anxiety stemmed from the simple fact that there were people missing from their group: Carmen, Ron and Elvira. And while you're searching ponder this, we've taken what you'll sorely miss. Only the fact that Mad-Eye, steadily keeping his eye on them, wasn't reacting to their missing friends at all, had kept them from panicking. They'd taken her and Harry's best friends and Viktor's soon-to-be girlfriend hostage. And Fleur's little sister Gabrielle.

Crouch Jr really needed to rot in hell.

"They wouldn't really let anything happen to them, right?" Susan asked nervously, shoulder to shoulder with an anxious Hermione.

"Not if they can help it," Marina agreed calmly. However...

"But who knows what Crouch did. They might not be able to do anything," Harry mumbled under his breath, voicing their collective thought.

"We 'ave to get zem out," Fleur said in a slightly hysterical tone – she was worried sick.

"Ve vill," Viktor said confidently, even though he was just as nervous. He really liked Elvira.

Marina laid her head on her crossed arms on the table. Champion anxiety times four.

"You have the Gillyweed, right?" she heard Hermione ask quietly, as if afraid anyone would hear who wasn't supposed to.

"Two batches," Harry replied grimly. They only had an hour, but there was no need to drown.

When the judges rose from the teacher's table, they knew it was time. Marina was aware that Remus and her father were already by the lake, along with Fleur's and Viktor's parents.

"Let's go," she mumbled, not any more thrilled than the others. As one, their entourage rose with them and they made their way out of the Great Hall. Their fellow students had quieted their chatter to whispers, more than likely speculating.

Down by the Lake, they had conjured stands for the schools and the families to watch, but that was just about it. Made sense, of course; the Taks would be happening under water.

"We get them all out," Harry said grimly. "No matter the scores, we get them out."

Viktor and Fleur nodded in agreement, the French girl by now thoroughly disillusioned. She'd never expected to be risking her sister as well as herself.

"Keep your eyes open," Marina added as they all took off their robes. "The Giant Squid is the only thing down there that'll leave us alone. Everything else will try to stop us."

But danger lurks within our realm, You'll have to fight to stake your claim.

Between the selkies and the grindylows alone, they'd have a hell of a time. Generally, the merpeople were peaceful with humans, but they were also feral. And the four of them were about to enter their territory.

Bagman, as per usual impossibly cheerful about the whole thing, greeted the audience and gave the whistle to start their deadline.

Viktor, Fleur and Marina immediately started waving their wands, meanwhile Harry stuffed the Gillyweed down his throat; the taste was abhorrent.

Fleur had obviously been thinking as same as her, because before long they were looking at each other with bubbles around their heads.

Viktor dove in first, in need of water, seeing as he'd partially transfigured himself into a shark.

The girls followed him into the lake, their wands lit, and started searching.

Harry caught up to them soon, the transfiguration complete. Her brother had gills now and was sporting flippers.

For a few minutes, they all swam together. Then their natural competitiveness set in and they parted ways, swarming into different directions. It would increase their chances of getting there in time.

Any other day, and any other lake probably, Marina would be enjoying this.

But she could practically feel dozens of eyes on her. The grindylows were circling her already.

Then she saw why they hadn't tried to kill her yet and froze – which was akward in water.

She was faced with several creatures that had the heads and forequarters of horses and tails of rather oversized fish.

Problem was, there was really no way to tell whether they were hippocampi, relatively friendly water beasts, or kelpies – shapeshifting water demons that tricked people onto their backs and turned them into lunch.

Marina had ridden a hippocampus before, when she'd been on vacation, and knew how to treat them right so it didn't end up killing her, offended.

But kelpies... the most famous one, or infamous really, was Nessie. Even the muggles knew the creature to be real, even though the Ministry made sure no one actually believed it. The beast seemed to enjoy turning into the giant serpent and scaring people... probably eating some of them.

She really didn't have time for debating this, so she charmed some of the weeds close-by to wind around the creatures' legs and basically tie them up.

All of them started struggling instantly, trashing against what they normally ate. The weeds weren't strong enough to hold them for long, but it told Marina what she needed to know anyway.

One of the creatures was not a hippocampus but a kelpie. Its eyes had flashed angrily, indicating the instinct to change shape and break free.

She sliced the plants apart, freeing the beasts, and summoned a bridle to put on the kelpie. She wouldn't dare insult the hippocampi like that.

Mentally thanking Remus for the thorough lessons on dark creatures, she placed the bridle, rendering the kelpie harmless for the time being, and lodged hooks into the soil to keep it chained there; until the merpeople decided to idiotically free it, that was.

One of the blue-skinned hippocampi swam over to her, butting its head against her shoulder. Their behaviour resembled that of horses a lot. She petted it gently, taking a second to lament the fact that she didn't have time to stick around, and swam on.

She needed to find Carmen.

When she finally reached the merpeople's city, she was pretty sure that time was running out.

Viktor was already there, hovering over their unconscious friends, and looked like he'd had a nest of grindylows tear at him.

Fleur and Harry were appraching just as she reached Carmen, who was well and truly out of it. That was probably a good thing.

Fleur was bleeding from long gashes in her legs, indicating she'd had trouble with the selkie's pets.

Harry had tiny little marks all over him, like needles, telling her that there were shrakes in this lake. The fish had sharp, porcupine-like needles covering them.

Simultaneously, they severed the ropes that held their friends, when suddenly Viktor's shark-head snapped around.

Marina looked over her shoulder – and almost fainted.

She was looking at what she would have sworn was a sea serpent. Except of course they were in a lake – and there was only one type of lake serpent that resembled its ocean-living relative like this.

That raving lunatic brought a Selma.

It explained her Bulgarian friend's shocked reaction, that even the shark snout couldn't hide. Selmas were viciously violent and fed on human flesh. Their skin was too thick to stun them. Freezing them didn't do any good, since they were native to the icy lakes of Norway.

The only way to survive an encounter with a Selma was to somehow lure it into a net, or something equally tangled, and then get the hell away.

Problem was, they couldn't very well do that and get their friends out.

The beast was approaching fast, in spite of its length of at least 80 ft., and even though Marina knew that logically there was no way to tell – it looked hungry.

Fleur, after gaping at the beast, started gesturing frantically at the rest of them.

Marina, experiencing their collective fear, struggled to stay conscious and motioned her brother to take the hostages and swim. Right now, he was the fastest.

But apparently, he wasn't convinced and rightly so. Nothing was fast enough to outswim a Selma. Nothing but a fellow serpent.

The merpeople around them looked just as terrified as them, obviously not in on Crouch Jr's machinations until now.

There was really only one option, Hail Mary though it was.

Marina removed her bubble and prayed her Mermish pronounciation was right.

"Go, free the Kelpie!" she yelled into the water, before restoring her bubblehead – which was harder than it sounded since she had to do it non-verbally.

The selkies looked flabberghasted for a second but some of them took off in the direction of the creature, telling her they'd been watching.

Kelpies and Serpents were not friends. Unleashing one monster on the other was the only plan she could come up with that wouldn't get them eaten in the next ten seconds.

Viktor grabbed Elvira, Harry Ron, Fleur Gabrielle and Marina Carmen, and they all sank to the lake floor, apparently in agreement that not being noticed was their only chance to stay alive.

Harry, who'd learned about dark creatures last year, looked at her like she'd lost her marbles. And maybe she had. Maybe the kelpie would just call dibs on them as lunch – but what other option was there?

Right on cue, the few merpeople returned in the speed of someone running – or swimming – away from something.

Seconds later, the kelpie followed. But it was no longer a mock-hippocampus. It had taken the shape of an enourmous serpent, matching the one currently looking for a meal.

It was like watching a film, the two dark beasts colliding. Technically, kelpies were smarter than most creatures, but serpents were as well.

How in the name of Morgana did they get past two fighting serpents? Because they had to get away while they were busy. And quickly, because Harry's gillyweed would soon lose effect.

She almost screeched when something knocked her over from behind.

Wand up, she turned to find the hippocampi, butting the other champions gently too. Well, gently for them but it still knocked them forward.

The beast she'd petted before – recognisable by the mane – looked at her and the turned sideward, bucking once.

They're offering us a ride.

So grateful she felt like hugging the horse-like creature, she gestured for the others to get their friends on the hippocampi's backs.

From the sound of it – she refused to look – the Selma and Kelpie were still clawing and biting each other. But at some point they'd likely decide that there was enough food to go around.

The team of hippocampi waited rather patiently until the knocked-out hostages were secured and until they'd mounted beasts of their own.

Then they were off.

At the speed they were swimming back, they'd get out of the water before Harry's gills would disappear. Though at this point, drowning was decidedly not the worst possibility.

Merpeople's screams reached their ears despite the distance their new water-dwelling friends had put between them, telling her that the monsters had stopped fighting each other.

They'd started hunting.

One could only hope that the selkies would have enough sense to hide in the nooks and caves they knew better than the intruders Crouch had brought.

When they were close enough to shore that they could probably walk back, they dismounted and pulled off their friends.

But while the other three immediately made for dry land – which was the sensible thing to do – Marina couldn't just leave.

The Kelpie wouldn't eat the Hippocampi, but the Selma most definitely would. She couldn't leave the creatures at the monster's nonexistent mercy, especially after they'd saved her and her friends.

Hoping against all odds that the water-horses would understand what she was doing, Marina summoned a giant net, made of steel and dragon hide; she'd have to let the magizoologists know that she borrowed it from the reservoir. It reached from the water's surface to the bottom of the lake. Not even the Selma was strong enough to get through; it would keep the dark beasts away from her rescuers until someone could figure out how to get rid of them.

Spell-flashes hit the net from behind her, and she turned to find the other champions reinforcing it with Hardening Spells, while Harry was guarding the hostages.

Marina faced the hippocampi, one of which rubbed its head against her. Apparently, message received.

Finally, they headed for the shore.

Madame Pomfrey was the one awaiting them as soon as they set foot on land. None too pleased about any of this, she fed them potion to warm them.

Fleur was refusing to let go of Gabrielle, same with Viktor and Elvira. The latter was barely awake and aware yet when the Seeker kissed her in relief.

The audience was cheering at the display, Marina just shook her head.

"Your timing is atrocious, Viktor," she said dryly. But she couldn't blame him after what had just happened. A bloody Selma.

Carmen blinked sluggishly against the effects of whatever spell she'd been under. Before her friend could ask what had happened, Marina sensed familiar emotions near-by.

A few seconds later, Elias and David dropped to their knees next to them, both crushing them in a group hug.

Harry and Ron were undergoing similar treatment by utterly worried and relieved Susan and Hermione.

The rest of their friends were holding back but hovering in proximity as well.

Not in the mood to feel relieved just yet, Marina looked up and glared ate the assembled judges, teachers and ministry employees.

"There is a Kelpie in that lake," she snapped. "And as if that isn't dangerous enough, he brought in a freaking Selma!"

Collective gasps were the reaction.

"If it hadn't been for the hippocampi – that have no business in clear water either – we'd all be serpent food by now."

Dumbledore was the only one not listening, because he was talking to a merperson. In fluent Mermish, of course. And with every screech the merpeople's chief let lose, the headmaster got paler. Remus, who was fluent as well, actually swayed and held onto her Dad for support.

"Kitten-," her godfather said hesitantly, "-the kelpie..."

"Is the one from Loch Ness. I know."

She'd figured that out when the monsters had been fighting. The kelpie was too big to be any other.

The ministry employees and Hagrid huddled together to come up with a plan to extract the beasts and get them back where they belonged.

Th judges gathered to discuss scores.

Meanwhile, the champions and their friends stayed right where they were – on the ground – and looked at each other in complete understanding and dread.

Bringing in a Selma meant Crouch had accepted the possibility of them dying down there, despite needing Harry for the ritual.

So the only question on all their minds right now was:

Just what had those maniacs come up with for the Third Task?