Chapter Thirteen: The Lake

¡°I do hope that the majority of you dim-minded people in my class have remembered to do that summary on powdered eye of newt and essence of Murtlap. If you haven¡¯t, then don¡¯t be surprised to see a ¡®Fail¡¯ in the report card in your parents¡¯ hands.¡±

I could hear Snape¡¯s harsh words even from outside the classroom, where I was standing in the dark stone hallway. In my hands I held my Imperceptible Cloak.

Inside, I heard shuffling as someone got up, and footsteps as that someone walked up to the front of the class. There was silence, then, ¡°What¡¯s this? Ah, a note. I¡¯m afraid I¡¯d forgotten that you have not the sense to speak, unfortunately enough.¡± A pause as he read it. ¡°She¡¯s sick, is she, in the hospital wing? Well she¡¯d better get down here fast, I believe that Madame Pomfrey¡¯s healing abilities are very quick at getting truancy pupils back into class.¡±

Ha! Do you still like him now, Kora? He thinks you¡¯re wagging Potions.

I couldn¡¯t answer back. Instead I waited.

It was ten minutes before Snape started them on our usual practical potion making. I waited some more for Jim¡¯s signal. It came shortly.

Okay, he¡¯s heading for the storerooms to get newt eyes for me. Get in now!

I pulled on the Cloak, making sure that the hood was completely over my head, then pushed open the dungeon door.

A few people turned to see who had come in. I was delighted to see each one of them turn back to their cauldrons ¨C the Cloak had worked. I had been standing right there in front of them, and yet they had acted as if I was simply one of them. No gawking , no nothing. I could see that Jim was looking for me. It was weird because he was looking right at me at some points but his eyes always seemed to slide away, like the Cloak was repelling them.

I couldn¡¯t waste my time hanging around waiting for him to notice me. I followed Snape through the door in the dungeon that led to where all his spare ingredients were kept.

It was as gloomy as the classroom itself. Dark and stinking of who knows what, the storerooms seemed to stretch on forever. I let Snape go on his way, and began to search the shelves for what I was looking for.

Lace wings¡­boomslang¡­wood nymphs¡­unicorn horn, porcupine quills, Grindylow fingernails, wolfbane, aconite¡­Snape had a lot of stuff to keep himself amused. Finally I found a row of small jars marked ¡®Gillyweed¡¯, filled with greenish, slimy looking stuff. I had just taken two jars off the dusty shelf when Snape returned. With a shock I froze, but he rose on tiptoes and merely squeezed past me, even muttering a ¡°¡¯scuse me,¡± as he went. I was amazed. This Cloak certainly was useful.

When I went back out, Jim didn¡¯t notice. Only when I sat next to him and slipped the Cloak off did he wake up to my presence. Hello! When did you get here? ¡°A long time ago, Jim. Listen, I¡¯ve got the stuff. Today, after school?¡± Uh, won¡¯t people notice us diving into the lake? After school, people will be coming up to the castle from the Greenhouses. ¡°They won¡¯t notice if we went in the other end of the lake. I think we got enough for about an hour and a bit, that gives us a lot of time to reach the middle wherever Frances had knocked it in ¨C¡± Shh! Snape!

I whipped my head up and found myself staring up at the pale sinister face surrounded by his soot black hair. Snape said in his most probing voice, ¡°And when did you come in, Ms Rastrick? I didn¡¯t hear the door open.¡±

I managed a shrug. ¡°I guess I came in while you were in the storerooms, sir.¡±

He narrowed his eyes, and I felt dislike the same time I felt my crush on him bloom.

¡°I suppose you have been cured of your sudden ailment?¡± ¡°Oh, yes, that¡¯s why I came down here, I wouldn¡¯t miss Potions for anything, sir.¡±

He just looked at me even more suspiciously, but then turned away and walked off.

I sighed in relief. ¡°Imagine the death sentence for stealing from the Potions storeroom.¡±

Yeah. Gran¡¯s told me that it might be a month¡¯s worth of detentions, or suspension. ¡°Your gran talked to you about stealing at Hogwarts?¡± Hey, she wanted to make sure that I didn¡¯t get into trouble. ¡°And here you are aiding me to rob the Potions teacher.¡±

¡°Who are you talking to?¡± cried Casey Hodgekin.

The lake was cold. I felt the tingle the moment I stuck my feet in the water.

¡°Ooh! I don¡¯t how we¡¯re going to pull this off, Jim.¡± Well we¡¯d better! Seeing as we¡¯d already stolen Gillyweed, we can¡¯t look back now. ¡°I was joking, Jim. Look ¨C¡± I unscrewed my jar of Gillyweed and hoiked out the contents into my hand. Seeing the string of goo it left hanging on the mouth of the jar, I felt slightly put off. Still, I forced the whole fistful into my mouth and chewed on the rubber like thing. It felt terrible, but I managed to swallow. Jim was staring like he couldn¡¯t believe what I had done. I did a fake bow and said, ¡°There, now you do it.¡± At least, I tried to say it. All of a sudden my throat closed up, and I was dry retching like a madman. I was choking, that was what. As quick as I could help it I tossed myself under the murky lake water, submerging my head totally. Only then did I find myself able to breathe again.

What! Hey, you¡¯ve got gills! I stuck my head above the water and, without a breath, said, ¡°Well what do you think the book told us? Come on ¨C¡± I dove in, delighting in my new ability. Jim joined me a short while later, and we began the swim to the bottom of the lake.

It seemed impossible that we were doing this. Just a jump back in time I had been quietly residing at home with my Pop without any idea that I was even going to Hogwarts School. Now I was swimming around with my best friend in the school¡¯s resident lake after classes, looking for a wand that had dropped into it the day before. We stuck close together, because the deeper we went the darker it became. All of a sudden our navigation depended entirely on the light of my wand, which I had switched on with a bubbly, ¡°Lumos!¡± Talking did not go so well underwater but thoughts did, and Jim was trying his best to cheer himself up.

How about that Quidditch match yesterday, eh? It was pretty good, Hufflepuff totally lost but it was a good score. It was better than what Belgium ended up with. You know, what both Houses need are new Seekers. Cody and that other guy just took too long to find the Snitch. I was unable to comment and say that Cody had been wonderful and that Jim was just jealous. Do you have any idea where we¡¯re ¨C

Jim¡¯s fear hit me at the exact same moment that his struck himself, so I gave a huge jump in the water and snapped my eyes around for what he had seen.

I didn¡¯t need to. In that moment of fright Jim had already projected it into my mind. I saw for a split second a green, pebbly-skinned creature with long thin hands, then I saw the real thing in the light of my wand.

A Grindylow! Jim exclaimed. I remembered seeing Grindylow fingers inside Snape¡¯s storerooms, and shivered underwater. Gran has one in the pond in our back yard! Did that mean he was fond of it or something? Because I was about to blast it away before it tried to hurt us. I rose my wand and when Jim didn¡¯t object, I forced through the bubbles, ¡°Flipendo!¡±

A sort of whirlpool created around the creature and, shrieking, it was swept out of our sight. But the whirlpool had spread to our spot of water as well, and I grabbed Jim before he could get washed away from me. Together, we rushed through the bubbles and foam that the whirlpool left, and a short time after that I felt my shoulder hit the sandy bottom of the lake silently. Jim was beside himself. Are you crazy? Using that spell in water? Didn¡¯t you realize what was going to happen? We could¡¯ve lost each other!

I just beckoned for him to look at where I had landed, and in the light of my wand he stretched his face into a huge smile. Hey, we found it! He pulled out his wand from where it had been half buried in the sand, and tucked it into his jeans. I¡¯d just like to say, he told it, that was a great battle you put up to that Avery git. I¡¯ll never lose you again.

I wasn¡¯t listening to his thoughts. I was staring at a large lingering shape lying on the lake floor in the nearby darkness. I nudged Jim, and he was silent when he saw it. Together, we approached it as slowly as we could in the water.

What the hell is that doing in the middle of the lake?

We dragged the ancient trunk up the bank at the far side of the lake. It was nearing late evening but I didn¡¯t care. We had something that was so old that it was covered in the carvings of the earliest runes of wizard kind. The trunk was thicker and larger than the average trunk you took to Hogwarts, and although it was wrought from wood and covered in moss it hadn¡¯t decayed from the water. Judging from the weight of it as we tried to haul it into the bushes away from view, it had something sealed inside it.

Why the hell would someone dump something like this? Jim was cautious. He had been all against me for pulling the thing up, but gave in at the end out of his own curiosity. I just shrugged and put the side of my face against the old wood, as if listening for something inside it.

¡°Whatever this has in it, Jim, somebody must¡¯ve thrown it into the lake because he had wanted to get rid of it. Maybe there¡¯s something tremendously evil in here.¡±

Oh, it¡¯s always something evil that has to do with it, isn¡¯t there? Jim quickly pulled up the wall between us. I was sure that he hadn¡¯t meant for that thought to reach me, but I didn¡¯t mind. I did always think that everything had something evil to do with it, and I had a feeling that I was right with this one. I ran my finger over the large keyhole and positively hissed with disappointment. ¡°The key¡¯s not here.¡± Yeah! And that¡¯s a good thing! Say there was a terrible curse that would be unleashed on the first person ¨C no, the first two people to open this trunk, like they have them in Egypt. Then we¡¯d be in trouble. Honestly, Kora, we shouldn¡¯t have brought it up here. If there is something bad in there, we shouldn¡¯t be meddling with it.

Jim was right. But I couldn¡¯t just leave it undiscovered. Maybe later if I found the key, I could come back for it. ¡°Help me move it more into the bushes, Jim.¡± You¡¯re not planning to go further with this, are you? ¡°Maybe later. I don¡¯t want anyone taking this up to the teachers.¡± Alright. But we have to go up to the Great Hall right after this, okay? ¡°Yes, Jim. Help me, will you?¡± Intriguing, very intriguing.