Happy Birthday to Xamusel! Hope your birthday is a fun one!
Nimue Potter was beyond pissed, and the reason lay solely on the death trap masquerading as a tournament. She had only barely avoided being dragged into it by immediately calling in her lawyer (who also happened to be her cousin, Andromeda) who took all of five minutes ripping every attempt the Ministry and Dumbledore made in dragging her into a tournament she did not volunteer for.
For one thing, the 'entry' wasn't even in her handwriting. The second she had learned magical contracts were a thing (and she had spent a considerable amount of time studying and later using them to enforce poker debts), she had refused to sign anything with her proper name. Flitwick, once he had taken her aside to question why she always signed her homework with N. P., had accepted this and so had the other teacher.
The slip Dumbledore had caught clearly had the name "Nimue Potter" on it.
Secondly, Nimue had an alibi for the entire time the goblet was accessible for the students to put their names in.
Considering her past run of luck, she had deemed it necessary to have a late-night study party regarding the tournament to better help the champion...especially if it was a Ravenclaw.
Nimue had fallen asleep in an odd puppy pile in the middle of the common room, near the center. It would have been impossible for her to slip out of the dorms without waking a least one other student up, never mind the fact that her best friend Luna tended to use her as a teddy bear at night.
More importantly, the tournament was only supposed to be open for those who were of age and therefor legal adults. Nimue was only fourteen and honestly she wanted nothing to do with the tournament in the first place.
So unless the ministry wanted to make her a legal adult as well, and remove the trace from her wand, she refused to participate. After all, she hadn't put her name in and it was rude to take away the spotlight from Cedric who had been chosen as champion.
Coincidentally thanks to the late night study session, Nimue was able to give Cedric a considerable amount of information that could prove useful to him later. It helped to smooth things over with the Hufflepuffs.
None of that mattered at the moment. The tournament committee, in their infinite wisdom, had apparently taken several students (and one foreigner) hostage. And due to the inherent laziness of wizards, had never bothered to remove the 'extra' from the list! They had simply given her a zero to make things easier for them.
As a result, they had taken one hostage too many. So they decided to spin it in a way that made it look like it was intentional, rather than accidental by offering 'bonus points' for saving the 'spare' hostage, when swimming in deep water was already hard enough with one hostage to rescue.
To that end, Nimue did something unusual when the task started, the second she realized who the 'extra' was.
"Accio cauldron!" she snarled, before diving into the water.
The second she grabbed the cauldron, she began to sink deep into the lake.
"Oh no! Someone, get her out now!" said Hermione horrified.
"Miss Granger, I'm sure miss Potter will be fine," said McGonagall.
"You don't understand, Nimue doesn't know how to swim!" said Hermione.
"What?!" came the horrified outcry of several, including the teachers.
"What do you mean she can't swim?" demanded McGonagall.
"She told me once she never learned how, because she has a severe allergy to the chemicals in public pools. Her school took them to a public pool once and she was hospitalized for a week because of how bad it was," said Hermione. "And since her aunt refuses to take her to natural water sources, she never learned how to swim."
"How do you know about this?" asked Flitwick, as several teachers were already trying to get her out of the water.
"I suggested meeting up during the summer and going swimming," explained Hermione. "That's when she told me about her severe allergy to the chemicals. Apparently the doctors ran a full set of tests after it happened."
"She's not coming up!" said Pomphrey.
"Oh dear...then again I did see her studying the bubblehead charm after she helped Mr. Diggory figure out the clue..." said Flitwick.
"I hope Nimue is alright," said Hermione.
Under the surface of the water...
Okay, so maybe jumping into the deep part of the lake with a cauldron to help her sink fast wasn't the best idea. But she wasn't trusting the champions to rescue her best friend, especially since one of them was a creature of fire.
She had looked up veela once. She knew damn well most of them were fire-oriented, and everyone knew fire and water did not mix.
Strangely, she didn't feel the least bit afraid. Far from it...being this deep underwater was oddly calming in a way she couldn't explain.
At least she didn't have that horrible burning sensation of last time...seemed she could handle sea water. And why didn't she feel as cold? She had read somewhere that the deeper you went, the colder it got unless you were near thermal vents...never mind the fact it was February in Scotland, which should have made the water beyond freezing!
Nimue could sense she was getting closer to the bottom. How strange...shouldn't she had felt suffocated by now from the pressure?
There was an inaudible thump as she landed on the seaweed-covered bottom of the lake. She was surprised her quick and dirty casting of the bubblehead charm had done so well. She hadn't been sure if she had pronounced the words correctly.
She let go of the cauldron, as it had served it's purpose.
Some instinct told her to go a certain direction, so she did.
It was really weird, walking along the bottom. Even more strange was the fact she was able to see perfectly fine. Shouldn't the water be more murky and dark?
As she kept walking, she noticed something almost glowing in the distance. It was faint, and hard to see. Was that the merfolk village?
Closer inspection revealed that no, no it wasn't. It was some sort of bone wrapped in something, and positively covered in seaweed, among other things. It was large, and when she got even closer it was clear there was some sort of odd carving along the bone.
Well, she was going to need something to deal with those mermaids and maybe she could use this to give those damn officials a piece of her mind for taking Luna.
Her hand reached out and did it's best to grasp the 'handle' of the odd bone. Not once did it cross her mind that this might be a bad idea.
The thing was big, and it had clearly been sunk into the mud for a considerable amount of time. Her hands kept slipping due to all the seaweed.
Annoyed, she used both hands and did her best to get some leverage considering how thick the mud was. It would be bad if she got stuck and had to dig her way out...Luna was counting on her.
Unnoticed, the carvings along the bone began to glow from an internal light. She was so focused on getting Luna and removing her from this situation she didn't even notice.
A strange energy surged from the bone, which later revealed itself to be a massive hook almost as tall as she was!
That energy didn't stop at the hook...it rushed into her like a searing wave. The charm she had around her face popped without any warning, and water crashed against her skin. Panic set in, but still she held onto that hook.
Something surged into her core, almost overwhelming it. Almost like it was testing her or something.
For a moment, she thought she would pass out and subsequently drown.
And then something caused her to take a breath underwater. Admittedly a horrible, terrible idea.
Except...she wasn't drowning. She took a second breath, mostly out of instinct.
She was breathing.
Disbelief filled her features. What the actual hell? How was she breathing underwater when the bubblehead charm was gone?! What was going on?
Sensing something coming, she ducked down, her hand never leaving the hook.
It was some sort of shark-person, only the features were all wrong and out of proportion. It took her a second to realize that it was likely Krum.
She was suddenly reminded of her self-imposed task.
It took a few tries, but eventually she was able to pick up the hook. It was oddly light for something that size. It wasn't until she was on land again that she would realize it had shrunk to something that she could carry with ease.
Above the water...
Hermione was terrified she had lost her only real friend in school. Despite being a Ravenclaw, Nimue had been nothing but nice to her and they had a shared love of obscure books and ancient runes. Admittedly she didn't have Nimue's instinctive knack towards potions, but you couldn't have everything.
One by one, the champions started to come up. First was Fleur, who was utterly distraught about the fact she couldn't even reach the hostages. Then Krum, and finally Cedric. Everyone waited with baited breath to see if Nimue came up.
No one had their hopes up, considering Hermione had all but said she couldn't swim.
So you could imagine the shock everyone got when Luna came up...followed by Nimue who looked absolutely pissed.
Needless to say once Luna was more alert, she helped her best friend swim to the shore. The small girl beside them helped as well, though she was barely doggy paddling herself.
Before any of the teachers could say a thing, a very pissed off Nimue lit into them all.
"Which one of you blithering idiots thought it was a brilliant idea to take not only an 'extra' hostage, but a fire-oriented underage witch into the deepest part of the lake?!"
"They were perfectly safe!" said Bagman, sputtering.
"Considering your idea of safety nearly had a fourteen year old in a well known death competition against three adult magicals and a bloody dragon all because you wanted the extra publicity, I'd sooner expect a flobberworm to suddenly speak the Queen's English!" snarled Nimue.
It was rather odd seeing her lit into the judges for dragging Luna and the small girl (both of whom had been swiftly dragged into the clutches of Madam Pomphrey to avoid them freezing further), but also rather gratifying.
"Miss Potter, we were under the impression you were unable to swim?" said Dumbledore, trying to change the subject. He was not successful.
"I didn't. I walked to the merfolk village," said Nimue flatly. "I don't know how to swim."
"You are alright, aren't you?" asked Hermione.
"Apparently sea water is easier on me than pool water was. Pretty sure I just had a bad reaction to the chemicals they use to keep it sanitary," said Nimue absently. Her wand was already sparking with implied violence.
Considering the mess they were in, the adults all silently agreed to drop the matter. No points were given to her, as Andromeda had made it clear she would screw them over with a rusty spoon if they dared try to drag her client into a magical contract under false pretenses.
Coincidentally Cedric now had the perfect way to repay Nimue for the information she had given him, and the help for the second task. By the end of the year Nimue could at least claim she was passable at swimming, though she hadn't the faintest idea where the odd marking on her shoulder had come from.
It almost looked like tentacles climbing up her left shoulder. Even stranger was the fact that the giant squid in the lake started coming closer to shore whenever she was near the lake. Very strange.
"I think I've found it," said Hermione. It had been over a month since the...incident...at the lake, and they had been discreetly trying to find out what the markings on the hook meant.
"Oh?"
"According to this book of fascinating legends of obscure magical tribes, there is a trickster god named Maui renowned for having a magical fishhook that allowed him to transform into multiple animals," said Hermione. "Some of the markings fit the one on the bone you found."
"Wait...you think I found a trickster god's hook?" said Nimue.
"Considering your luck?" countered Hermione.
"...That's fair," said Nimue. "So how would that explain how I was suddenly able to breath, or the weird tattoo that showed up on my arm?"
"Only a divine artifact can break the curse placed by another divine artifact," said Luna dreamily.
"That would fit...I mean according to this the hook was made by the gods for Maui," said Hermione. Then she blinked as that sentenced filtered. "Divine artifact?"
"Luna has the Sight, we know this," said Nimue, as she turned to the girl. "What do you know?"
"You had a cursed energy around you. It's gone now, and your magical core feels a lot less restrained," said Luna. "I think the hook removed something that shouldn't have been there in the first place."
"...And knowing my luck, it's possible my father pissed off someone or something he shouldn't have with his antics and got a curse placed on me. Or some distant ancestor did," said Nimue with a groan.
Hermione said nothing, as Nimue's luck was that chaotic. She also wouldn't put it past James Potter, especially what little people had let slip about him.
"So her natural abilities are starting to come back?" asked Hermione.
"That would be my guess," said Luna.
"Fun," said Nimue dryly.
