Part 3
Emmeline woke up drowsily to murmuring. Or, at least, she dreamt someone was murmuring a rhythm. She might have sworn someone still was but half awake and, still immediately, she registered that she must have been dreaming. She exhaled deeply into the sleeping figure beside her. If she didn't know any better, anyone might have assumed that Edgar's quiet, massive form was dead but he breathed in so deeply and over such a long period that you would have been forgiven for thinking so. He got to sleep so quickly too. It irritated her. He exhaled steadily. And then in her half sleep agitated for waking herself up and for Edgar still sleeping deeply, she registered the sound of moving water. That's what it must have been: water she heard in her dream but registered it as someone trying to tell her something. She started to drift off again to the sound. It might have been Dorcas taking one of her now legendary long baths and she hadn't been sleeping well. Every time Emmeline or Edgar or Alastor or even Lupin was awake they had all recently reported that they saw Dorcas awake no matter the hour and that she had been for the past several days. A bath would soothe her but Emmeline thought she would tell her maybe not do so at two in the morning, not to run the tap like that.
"What time was it anyway?", she thought as she snuggled closer to the furnace of Edgar's heat but then thought, "that's not the sound of water running through a tap was it?"
It wasn't the sound of water muffled by the thickness of an old sturdy wall. It sounded naked and sparkling like a fountain. She could hear the water next door yes, but she realized also that she could hear water in the room. Or understood the impression of it being also in the room. She inhaled to ground herself and opened her eyes. Did the light in the room seemed odd? She slowly peeled herself away from Edgar so as not to wake him. Dorcas… Dorcas! She moved in slow motion to not agitate the bed even though it probably would not have mattered. When Edgar slept deeply, he slept very deeply. Emmeline turned slowly to lay on her back and felt the weight of her own interrupted sleep pool in her limbs as she pushed herself up slowly. It would not register until very shortly after what the oddness of the light might in imply in the room but it soon would. She watched Edgar as she swung her foot over the side of the bed in slow motion and then the other like a cat landing both feet almost simultaneously and both prematurely feeling the thing that had woken her up. She was now completely awake. She was awake and ankle deep in water. Now that she wasn't in bed she forgot Edgar entirely. She could now see the light from under the crack in the door refracted in the room lightening it, the ripples of water caused by the movement of her feet as she head to the door and from wherever the water was coming from.
Dorcas! Emmeline always knew she would flood the house with one of her baths one day! The door lurched and stuck as Emmeilne wrenched it open. She now heard the water for where it was, everywhere accompanied by the groan of the swelling of the dresser's base. The entire hallway was filled with water and steadily rising. Emmeline powered to the bathroom and without knocking pried the door open ready to cause a commotion when she heard another door open and Dorcas, fully clothed, emerged with a look of confusion on her face. The bathroom door sat open on its hinges. Dorcas trudged over to Emmeline a look of confusion and fear, Emmeline understood that fear. If it wasn't Dorcas-
"Where is all this water coming from?", Dorcas asked flatly. Emmeline now had not the faintest idea, her idea was standing in front of her fully clothed. They heard someone bound up the stairs. Sirius emerged soaking wet from the staircase.
The three of them looked back and forth at each other for the briefest moment, it was clear that all of them might have assumed this was the others' fault. Dorcas started to search for a source of the water as Sirius began to talk. Dorcas nudged Emmeline out of the way as she clarified the taps weren't on as she heard Sirius explain that the bottom floor was flooded but it was only up to his calves or so, as he explained Lupin came crashing up the stairs also soaked, also confused, the only one of them besides Dorcas carrying his wand.
"I climbed up the stairs but turned back around to wake Lupin because I couldn't get past the last step." Dorcas continued to open doors. She knocked on the bedroom doors as she heard the groans of a the younger Prewett swearing baldly at being woken up. She started to mutter under her breath. Emmeline looked over her shoulder and felt the coldness that had started in her feet spread upwards. It could never have been a bath, she realized the water was too cold. Edgar emerged shirtless and hulking carrying his wand.
"What do you mean you couldn't get up the stairs?," cut Dorcas even as she asked, she went into each room searching, searching for something muttering under her breath and knocking on and opening doors. Lupin chimed in that there was a ceiling of water at the top of the stairs where the water was flowing down.
"It was like looking at a pool in reverse or something."
"What?" said Dorcas coming out of the room she had just been in. All of them heard Gideon bellow and then the door flew inward off its hinges, as the Fabian emerged from the same room Dorcas had also shirtless. Lupin repeated himself as the Gideon screeched, "what in fucks name is going on?"
They all turned towards Gideon except for Dorcas who seemed to not have even noticed the outbursts, "What did you say Lupin?", she was already taking off her coat and she let it fall to the floor as she approached the stairs she heard what he said as he said it again, and felt what he meant at the same time as she descended the staircase. The staircase wasn't completely flooded as one might have expected but filled with air. The water wasn't flowing down the stairs like a waterfall or it was, it just created a seal of water on that floor first. Dorcas pulled her foot up.
"Everyone get your wands.", she said matter-of-factly. Alastor would have lost it to think that anyone did not already have them but he wasn't there. They looked at her.
"Now!" Emmeline barked, maybe to will herself to move also. This was the second time in as many days that Dorcas had witnessed Emmeline gather her resolve and marshal everyone else's simultaneously. Dorcas disappeared beneath the surface of the water and into the stairwell. She heard and saw the water rush down the stairs and it would have been beautiful had she had the time to admire it. She did look up and saw the clear blueness of the water above her. She steadied herself as she scrambled down the stairs, the furniture was groaning, swollen with water, the water downstairs was up to her knees and it was becoming more difficult but she could still maneuver quickly enough. Sirius came crashing down the stairs inelegant but purposeful. He went straight to one of the couches where he must have been sleeping.
"Dorcas?", he said.
"Lumos," she said and the end of her wand was already submerged when she held her arm down. Her wand threw the light filling the room and she could see the extent of the damage. The little furniture was starting to tip over in the balance. Edgar was now surveying the damage too as he cast a glance over his shoulder, he had assumed that the room would have been completely flooded and that Sirius and Dorcas had cast a spell to keep themselves under water.
"Find it, Sirius."
"I'm looking…", he said earnestly trying to keep calm.
"Dorcas…" Edgar said as she started to throw open the kitchen cupboards. He had never seen magic like this. All of the taps were off, he couldn't understand where all this water was coming from, how it moved, how it was contained.
"Hold this," Dorcas she said as she passed Edgar her wand. Emmeline and Lupin were now downstairs. Edgar, who was much taller than all of them did not have to lean over to keep the wand underwater the level was rising ever higher. Sirius made a noise and retrieved his wand floating amongst and between some cushions.
"Where did we put the wands from earlier?" she was met with silence. She walked slowly arms outstretched to balance herself. "Where? did we put? the wands?" she said through nearly gritted teeth, she took her own wand back from Edgar. Fabian started to talk but couldn't remember , so closed his mouth again. He might have rested his hands on his knees to think but they were submerged.
"Everyone repeat after me," she said not unlike a frustrated professor. Dorcas said a spell or a combination of spells and they repeated after her. The water bubbled and gurgled impartially. She looked around and said to no one in particular and almost inaudibly, "we need to find those wands, now."
Edgar nodded, "Emmeline upstairs." He said almost casually and she waded blue from the cold and fear. He knew she couldn't swim.
"Look for them upstairs," Dorcas called after them. They all spread out, Gideon grabbed Emmeline's shoulder to steady her and help her make her way upstairs but both were downstairs again, spit out from the force of water rushing down from above them or beside them or where the water was coming from. The waterfall on the stairs was much stronger now. No one's magic was doing anything. They couldn't move the water out of the way. The water was chest high and they saw Emmeline and Gideon make another attempt they all assumed they made it up the stairs by sheer force of will which, of course they both had. The water was still lower upstairs but she realized none of her spells worked, soon the house would be flooded and then after that where would the water go?
"Accio wands," said Gideon tried knowing it wouldn't work. He raised his eyebrows toward Emmeline who let out a sigh and nodded her head. Gideon was back downstairs with a crash, plop and splutter.
Dorcas was still muttering under her breath, chanting. She had never been in a situation quite like this before. Any other day and, certainly under different circumstances, she would have loved this. She tried to get herself worked up to stop the source and yet, the house was turning into an enormous indoor pool. The water was cold, yes, but its sound was low and steady and even friendly. She was soothed despite herself. She could feel her heart rate steady and feel herself relax. Underwater, she could feel a slight- of course, a current! She could have kicked herself. She looked underwater for something anything that might work and found nothing. She could maybe use a pillow? No, it wouldn't tell direction as easily. Sirius' wand floated… Maybe… It may work, she thought, after all she might be able to call her own wand to herself.
"Expelliarmus!" she said and Edgar's wand flew out of his hand and into Dorcas awaiting hand. He was stunned.
"Dorcas, I-"
"You're tallest," she said which meant nothing to anyone. She let go of her wand and, she had no occasion to know before, but it floated to the surface. Dorcas started chanting again and the wand, which might have been carried away, spun on the surface of the water like a compass. The water was nearly up to her shoulders. It might be easier to swim, she thought a little gleefully to herself. She thought she heard he name or someone else being called over the sound of furniture bumping into itself, collapsing under its own weight. Gideon who was about Dorcas height was crouched on a little perch of something trying to not get any more soaked then he was. He caught a little of what she said, something something lignum localis something. The wand pointed towards the steps. She chanted something else, maybe this time a discrete spell and her wand sped like a joyful, little tugboat across the water. All of them could only watch her now. Everyone had exhausted all the magic that might be useful here. Edgar watched as her wand stopped at the line of the steps. The room was no longer illuminated by the soft even glow of the light from underwater but it cast eerie sidelong shadows in the air. He was tall enough to just trudge through the water but soon he and Fabian would be the only ones. Dorcas picked her wand up and made for the steps. Edgar got in front of her but even he couldn't make it up the stairs alone. Lupin and Sirius could already tell and half waded, half swam to get to the stairs. Fabian right behind them. All of them would have to use themselves against the insistence of the waterfall which was dangerous. Edgar whistled from the stairs. Gideon chose to be part of the order out of obligation and righteousness. He was in the order for his brother, for his sister, for his mother for his late father, for his aunts and cousins but sometimes he just wanted to sleep. That's all. He didn't feel it was so much to ask for. He splashed into the water. They had to use themselves like an interlocking shield to get up the staircase, they couldn't levitate, Dorcas tried. The ball of air Fabian sent ahead of them to part the water bounced off of the ceiling of water on the top floor and came hurtling back at them knocking them over. Edgar couldn't try anything at all. He sighed and felt, maybe for the first time in his life, even in his physical bigness and strength that he was only, even with magic, just a man.
For a brief moment, Dorcas was weightless as she broke through the pane of the second floor under a strange gravity. They all blustered through the water. Emmeline glowed against the light of Dorcas wand, all of her blood was gathering in her core. This was the second time she had seen Dorcas fully clothed and soaking wet. Dorcas let go of her wand again and it sped off and snaked around an open door and the hall was plunged into darkness. Of course, they were kept there, of course no one had been told. Edgar trudged in front of her to shoulder the door open against the weight of whatever was behind it. Dorcas disappeared behind the door.
"Lumos," said Sirius. The water stopped swirling around them. Dorcas wedged her way out of the door carrying several wands above her head one of which was lit above her and they had to wince against all of the light. Lupin pushed Sirius hand underwater. Dorcas' shoulders dropped as she exhaled. She was smiling and all of them exhaled sighs of relief too even though they weren't sure what had just happened or how.
When they escaped earlier, just narrowly, lots of wands had been misplaced or kicked around in the shuffle but it was literally by luck and luck alone that everyone in the Order had kept their own wands. Miles and miles away a wizard was not so lucky. He was being told "not to scream or he would be given something to scream about" and circled around by a witch in the darkest shade of green you have ever encountered in a non living thing. She almost glowed with a force of darkness. Everyone around them seemed bored. A few people from that very circle were trying to locate several more witches and wizards who were not in that circle because they had also lost their wands. They, of course, would eventually be found. All of them would be found, the missing witches and wizards and the wands but unfortunately not all by members of the Order.
"Edgar," Dorcas turned relaxed now. She held out the wands and he pointed instinctively to his own.
"Good," Dorcas said. "Felicitum amistadis. An honest mistake.", she said out loud and handed him his wand. Edgar's eyes flew open, none of that seemed like a mistake at all. Dorcas turned to avoid a discussion. She was held and slowed by the water, she hoped that worked… She held her wand aloft and swished it in the air and the water did nothing. She shook her head. She turned her wand in the air again, the house made something like a contained belch and slowly very, very slowly the water level in the house went down through the opened drains over the course of several hours accompanied by all of them with containers scooping water out and throwing it, bodily, from a window conjured for the purpose since the house had none of its own which was why it was chosen in the first place. Once the water dropped enough and out of frustration and assured that it could be explained away, the door that led to the kitchen in the nook was opened and the water sloshed against where it should have fallen out but didn't. They closed the bottom half of the door and scooped the water out bowl by bowl by cup by drawerful into the street. Not a few of their neighbors too woke up, if temporarily, to the sound of water that they explained away when they awoke to see the city covered in a mist and the previous night's rain.
Daybreak found Alastor wandering through the damp house filled with broken cracked furniture. He and Dorcas surveyed the damage. She had snapped the other wands in half already.
"I did tell everyone where they were." Alastor said.
"You didn't tell me, though," she said.
"None of you were listening, as usual," he retorted.
"Was I even here?" she replied. They looked at each other and smiled. Alastor raised his wand.
"I tried that," Dorcas said. They looked at each other again. They maintained eye contact while Alastor waved his wand over his head, one of his hands still in the pockets of his great coat and the water gathered itself, swept itself into a neat, round mass. Dorcas snorted. She too waved her wand and they pulled the remaining water from where it was hiding and set it in the tub to drain where no one noticed anything off or odd in the readings of their instruments at the local water treatment plant because they dealt with that amount of water and more every single day.
