I don't own Harry Potter.

Reviews that give constructive criticism is more than welcome, but flames aren't.


The Treasure Hunter.

As he stepped into the sea idly chewing the gillyweed he had in his mouth carefully and letting the magical plant's properties seep into his body, Harry felt the water pull back with the waves only to wash into his legs again while the level rose gradually while he was bathed in the early morning sun. Finally, he felt the beach just drop away, and Harry forced his head under the water just as he felt the gillyweed's properties begin to transform his body.

Submerged, Harry dove down beneath the surface without a splash.

Through his diving suit, Harry could feel the pressure of the sea which was nothing more than a light squeeze, but what took his attention the most was the temperature. It was significantly colder than the water he had swum in during his holiday, but it was somehow more refreshing. It was like filling a bath with warm water, only for you to realise you'd got it too hot and let in cold water for too long.

It was beautiful down here. Harry had seen pictures of the underwater world for a long time since he had known for some time that his work would mean he would have to go under the sea, so he could find the odd treasure ship or something that doubled as treasure. But while to some people, the world underneath the surface in Australia, the Caribbean, or even in somewhere in the Pacific was awash with colour, the seas around Britain were nothing to dismiss.

Off the coast of Britain, the sea was a rich turquoise green with a forest of weeds and ribbons of rubbery reddish grown kelp in comparison to the blue waters he had seen in the Caribbean. It was a strong contrast, but Harry was looking forwards to visiting the oceans around the planet. In the meantime, he would rather be here than in Hogwarts.

A week ago, Harry had participated in the Triwizard Tournament's first task where he had to try and survive a dragon so he could get his hands on the Golden Egg the people behind the Tasks had placed in the dragons' clutch of eggs. They had planted the eggs in the middle of an arena for the different Champions, and all of them had to find some way of getting past the dragon. Nesting mothers were dangerous. They were like any other protective parent, only they had fire and other bodily weapons available which made any attempt to steal the eggs suicide. No one in their right minds would want to go anywhere near a nesting mother dragon, just like nobody in their right mind would want to go anywhere near the Triwizard in the first place.

Harry had come up with two scenarios of how he had gotten into the Tournament. The first was whoever had planted his name into the Goblet had done so on the first night Dumbledore had announced what was happening that year before Harry put in his plans to keep watch over the damn thing.

The only problem he could see with that idea was while it worked certainly it allowed such a short window to get his name into the Goblet. But it worked.

The second scenario was somebody had simply found out about the surveillance and they found a way around it.

In truth, Harry didn't expect to find any definitive answers to the questions, since both ideas had merit in their own way. And since he wasn't sure who the Death Eater or whoever was responsible for getting him involved in this mess in the first place, he wasn't sure how to find the answers in the first place. All he knew was he was involved in the Triwizard Tournament whether he liked it or not. The good news was he knew what the Tasks entailed since he had cheated on a level none of the others had achieved, or even thought about.

Anyway, the first task was over. Not only had he managed to deal with the dragon, but he had also managed to grab hold of the Golden Egg and he had it currently at his home away from Hogwarts since he did not want the wretched thing anywhere near Hogwarts right about now. For his performance… Bagman had awarded him high points, but since the idiot was betting strongly on him because of his careless gambling, that was not a surprise. Dumbledore and Maxime were both impressed with the way he had managed to get through the task by demonstrating his knowledge of dragons. Crouch had also been impressed, for his magical proficiency. The only thing Harry was worried about those three judges was Dumbledore would know that little tidbit about dragons liking music and were susceptible to the sounds of a melody was contained in dozens of dedicated books, and while it wasn't entirely difficult to find since the library was full of dragon books, it showed Harry had research skills and thought on his feet. Those music charms were also easy to use if you knew where to look.

Harry was becoming truly worried by all of the clues he was letting Dumbledore see, and he was hoping the next task which was much more simplistic would not require too many spells which most fourth years would not know. He would have to just hope for the best from now on.

As for Karkaroff…Harry wasn't bothered about the biased and rather low score the Durmstrang headmaster had given him, apparently because he hadn't made the task exciting enough as Viktor bloody Krum had.

Karkaroff had received a lot of boos for his openly biased manner, but Harry didn't care. The Dumstrang Headmaster could be as biased as he liked, but if he seriously thought he was going to get away with it even if he witnessed a task where Viktor's competitors weren't as 'good' as Viktor was, he would likely get another thing coming. But Harry didn't mind. He was not in this to win. He was in this to survive because someone had put his name into the Goblet.

He was just relieved he had managed to get through the Task, and once he was freed from them he had returned to the castle so he could decide which treasure in the British isles to go for. The trouble was there were dozens of them to choose from. In the end, he had chosen a shipwreck off the coast of Scotland, it seemed appropriate given the task that was coming up fast. The more practice he got into diving off the coast of Britain, the greater his experience with gillyweed and in developing his endurance. The only issue he had was he would need to keep up his supply of the weed. The good news was the plant was sold in Hogsmeade; gillyweed had dozens of applications like many other plants, and while it was slightly pricier than other potion ingredients, it was wholesaled to the masses.

Harry guessed as potions master Snape would have it in stock, but he didn't want to depend on the potions master. It might be easier to set up a break-in in Snape's potion supply cupboards, but it was not a good move. Snape would know who it was who nicked the gillyweed the moment he saw Harry pop some of it into his mouth. The last thing he needed was more aggro from the potions master. Snape was already out for his blood after the entire mess with Malfoy. Snape had seen through him whereas Dumbledore's blinders were well and truly extended, and it only made the enmity between them stronger.

Harry grinned when he spotted the shipwreck. The wooden hull of the ship was nestled in rotting sections on the seabed in between a number of rocks; the ship must have passed through the rocks before being smashed against them either in bad weather or because the captain had made a stupid mistake in his navigation which had resulted in the ship being reduced to matchwood. Harry swam around the wreck, seeing for himself that the wooden hull was disintegrating as the seawater and the small lifeforms which lived in the water were slowly consuming every inch. There were whole sections that looked like the wood was being hollowed out while the surface of the wood was covered with corals. As he studied the site, Harry found a number of gold coins buried under the sand. With a flick of his wand, Harry summoned the gold and jewellery out of the sand, and thanks to a conjured net he scooped it all out and put the treasure in it.

Once he was finished with the site around the wreck, Harry turned his attention back to the ship knowing there had to be more treasure stored inside when it went under. While he wasn't an expert, Harry could see that his earlier guess made sense; there was so much damage to the ship itself, far more than you would expect with an old-fashioned sailing ship, crashing on the rocks was the only thing that truly made sense. It was quite sad, really; once upon a time, this ship, like so many others before and so many others that followed afterwards, must have been a magnificent sight to behold on the seas. Now it was reduced to this, a rotting collection of planks and chunks of wood which was being consumed every day by what lived in the sea.

It was the same with the ship's cannons; they were covered in barnacles, but Harry could see the centuries of exposure to the seawater had taken its toll on the iron. Harry smiled as he took in the sight of the coral. With a gentle flick of his transformed hands and feet, Harry gracefully swam over the wreck while he tried to find a way to the main hold.

Something swam by his right ear. Recoiling, Harry looked around quickly for the animal, and he quickly turned and found himself looking at a long black eel.

Getting a quick grip over himself, Harry went on his way. The problem with the ship itself was it had crashed into the rocks and it had collapsed in on itself, so it was hard for him to get into the hold where the gold the ship had carried was. It took him a while but he managed to find a way into the lower section of the ship, but before he could swim inside, he caught sight of something thanks to his enhanced sight. And it torpedoed into his side like a giant bludger.

The blow knocked Harry right into the wooden side of the wreck, grazing his back, and he banged his head. Dazed and in pain from the impact which had knocked him senseless, Harry looked around for the source of the blow and he found it quickly. Swimming around the wreck like a flexible organic torpedo was a large sea leopard. The sight of the marine predator made Harry wonder what was going on. Had he accidentally entered the animals' territory, or had he simply stumbled across it and it didn't like his presence?

When he noticed the animal suddenly swam towards him so fast Harry knew when it hit him he would be lucky to get out without any kind of injury. Forcing the pain away and hoping he was faster than the seal, Harry whipped out his wand and yelled, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The green magic of the killing curse shot out of his wand, bubbling through the magic as the curse was fired. The sea leopard managed to get out of the way just as it saw the unusual threat, but it continued to swim towards him. Harry backed away, realising that this fight was not going to be easy. Sea leopards were more agile than a shark, and it was their native environment. Meanwhile, the sea leopard quickly recovered and it shot towards Harry again.

Harry raised his wand, prepared to fire another curse but the sea leopard came at him so fast, opening its mouth and exposing its sharp teeth, he realised something. The sea leopard smashed into Harry just as the idea bloomed into his mind, and it latched onto his arm and bit down hard. Harry grimaced with pain, gasping and letting out a few bubbles of air as the pain of the bite registered. Drops of blood seeped out of the wound, staining the sea red with his blood. The sea leopard had one hell of a bite, but Harry quickly fought through to control the pain, and when he did he twisted himself around and aimed the tip of his wand into the sea leopard's face.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The tip of his wand flashed green. The sea leopard was unable to get out of the way in time. It was killed, but he had to prise the animal's jaws open and let it float away. Harry's eyes followed the drifting animal as it floated away. He knew sooner or later the sea leopard would be found by another, more powerful predator and eaten. He was filled with regret, regret he had been forced to kill an animal that was either hungry or just defending its territory. But at the same time, Harry was relieved it was over.

The staining of the water with the blood brought his attention back to his wound, and Harry quickly worked to cast healing charms and spells to diagnose the wound and to heal it. Once he was finished, Harry swam inside the wreck while he kept his wand up and ready. The sea leopard had taken him by surprise, he didn't want that to happen again.

As he entered the hold, Harry didn't bother searching aimlessly for the gold. He had no idea how long the gillyweed lasted, so there was no point in wasting valuable time. He raised his wand and he enlarged the bags he had brought for the gold before he silently summoned the treasure, and guided it all into the bags. Once he was sure all of the gold and gems had been accounted for, Harry shrunk the bags down and he left the wreck.

It was as he began the slow rise to the surface that he felt the tell-tale signs of the gillyweed wearing off. But he continued on his way, hoping there was enough of that magical plant's effects in his system to keep him going until he reached the surface. The gillyweed finally gave out as soon as the wizard was only a foot beneath the surface, but he'd been prepared for it and used the last vestiges of whatever air he had left in his lungs to push himself to the surface while at the same time he used a spell specifically designed for this kind of danger and he found himself lifted out to the surface.

On the surface, Harry gasped and spluttered. Some of the saltwater entered his mouth, causing him to choke, but he managed to spit the water out of his mouth quickly. When he was fully recovered Harry swam slowly to the shore. Climbing out of the water, Harry grabbed the towel out of the bag he had left there, and he turned grinning at the sea.

He'd had fun; barring the sea leopard attack and the gillyweed wearing off (he would have to make sure he took a second and third supply, just in case, in future), it hadn't been too bad under there. But as he looked out over the sea, Harry, taking in the view and the light of the sky, he was amazed by how beautiful it was. Dawn was pretty much over, but the sky was a golden yellow, but the clouds were a pinkish red and seemed to be blended with the golden yellow like oil on water.

"I'll have to do this more often," he promised himself before he picked up his stuff and he turned to leave the shore.