"What matters most is how well you walk through the fire."
~ Charles Bukowski
Chapter 50 ~ The Sea Doth Taketh
ECOTS
They reached it before sundown.
Harry squinted against the harsh glare, the sun low enough in the sky to make seeing problematic. What he could see of the island looked like nothing more than a giant sandbar, low rocky hills set farther back upon it, grasses swaying at the interchange between the rocks and beige-colored sands. It stretched several kilometers long, but Harry was still able to see the ocean on the opposite side of it. It was long, but it wasn't wide.
The island where Blackbeard allegedly fought his last battle was unremarkable, with the exception of two things.
The first was the ocean itself. The churning, broiling sea angrily rolled, waves battering an invisible barrier with enough force to crush any boat that dared make the approach. It was as if the waters were being driven by hurricane force winds, the rolling white caps large enough to make him give serious thought to just how badly they needed Riddle dead in order to actually win.
The day might be sunny, the seas calm on the rest of the Atlantic, but hovering not thirty meters from the boat was an invisible boundary where the blue seas turned gray, a non-existent storm seizing it.
And they would have to swim through it.
The second were the rocks.
Gray-black rocks stuck sharply up out of the sea, the sharp, uneven edges looking like angry teeth that had been filed down by a dentist who'd had his license revoked. The rocky barrier was like a low laying fence surrounding the island on all sides, and they'd have to get past that.
The trick would be to not let the waves crush them against it.
Bill Weasley let out a low whistle from his spot besides him.
Tense, Harry glanced towards the eldest Weasley child, raising an eyebrow.
Bill uttered nothing, just handing over the binoculars he'd been looking through to him.
Cautiously Harry looked through them.
Along the rocky barrier, scattered at intermittent intervals, were openings. They were about shoulder height, large enough for a hand to be stuck in. Squinting through the lenses Harry attempted to see inside the holes, failing.
Then Bill smacked a button on the side of the binoculars, everything magically zooming in to a shocking degree.
Just inside the hand-sized holes Harry could see jagged looking spikes.
"We think," Regulus stated, sarcasm shockingly absent, "that a blood sacrifice is required for entry." Harry dropped the binoculars down from his eyes, staring at the thing Voldemort had no doubt personally created. "I'd highly recommend that no one actually puts their hand directly into those. If memory serves, the Dark Lord so did like to poison anyone trying to gain access to his toys."
Bill let out another low whistle. "So you're thinking the spikes are coated in poison then. Savage, Voldemort. Savage."
Fred shot him a sidelong look. "I'm never," he said, "teaching you new slang again."
"I like Villiam's words," Fleur defended, the quarter-veela cozying up along Bill's opposite side. The eldest Weasley dutifully dropped an arm around her shoulders, Harry oddly able to not stare at her.
Ron, however, was not having the same sort of luck. In fact, he was practically drooling. Harry caught Luna's eyes, tilting his head towards his best mate, the Ravenclaw's pale gaze flickering with understanding.
She kindly reached up and closed Ron's jaw for him, giving him a comforting little pat on the cheek.
"Poison…so what would you suggest, Regs?" Tonks questioned, the Auror leaning with both arms on the railing. She was staring out at the entire island as if it had personally insulted her Muggle father.
Despite her words her expression and tone were serious.
Her piercing gray-blue eyes, the irises having changed to match the stormy sea she'd been staring at, turned towards her not-as-deceased-as-previously-thought-cousin. "How do we get past that without winding up 'swimming with the fishies?'"
The look Black turned on her was one typically reserved for the institutionalized. "I'd recommend cutting yourself deep enough to draw enough blood to flick inside. Perhaps if you have that pet wolf of yours bite you…"
The sound Lupin let out was distinctly un-Professor-like, Kaylens' attention snapping towards him in alarm.
Neville's brown eyes were narrowed, a game face Harry had never seen before present on the wizard. "Cutting ourselves near where sharks probably are, then getting back into the water…sounds great."
"One must admire the strategy," Regulus drawled. "It is a rather ingenious way of eliminating one's enemies."
"Sharks?" Diggles sounded distinctly uncomfortable, looking out of place without his purple hat. The man scratched behind his ear, shifting on his feet and rocking more than needed from the sway of the fishing trawler.
"There is also the possibility," Black drawled, "that after the blood is offered, that the rocks may attempt to trap you on them, sinking to drown you."
Everyone's heads swiveled to stare at him, Sirius' shadow not offering any form of acknowledgement other than, "As I said, the Dark Lord does not like people to play with his toys."
Once more Bill Weasley let out a long whistle, nodding towards the island. "That's one hell of a toy."
Ron gulped besides him. "How bad do we actually need to kill Voldemort? Maybe we could just lock him up somewhere…" He sounded hopeful.
Harry might have seriously considered that option had he not known better. "He'd find a way out," he said, hands once more tightening around the railing. "He found a way to beat death, I doubt Azkaban could hold him." Beating death…
Staring out at the sea, at the rocky island, Harry felt like his chest had grown tight. Voldemort had beat death once. He wouldn't the second time. Riddle wouldn't because he'd promised Kaylens. He'd promised he'd try.
One could not live while the other survived….
Bond or not, he had to try.
He didn't want to leave her alone.
Neville swore something that would have earned him a year's worth of detention. "Harry's right, Ron. We already know the bastard's chummy with dementors."
Harry, Ron, Bill and Luna all looked at him, his best mate's eyebrows raising. "So when did you start swearing?"
"Since a bunch of his zombies tried to kill Ginny and I." Neville didn't so much as blink, staring into the distance with a dark scowl. "Doesn't exactly endear me to niceties."
Bill let out another low whistle. "It's getting deep over here."
Fred Weasley just nodded, the twin seeming rather out-of-place without his twin. "Should have seen Nev's there in action, Bill. Never thought the wizard had it in him. Threaten Ginny though and wham! He pulls out the big guns!"
As Fred made exaggerated flexing motions, Neville slid an annoyed look towards him.
Bill let out a loud laugh, Fleur just rolling her eyes. "Boyz."
Harry was having trouble feigning relaxation as much as they were. Instead he let out a rough breath, fixing his attention on the island. The North Carolina sun beat fiercely down, its warmth a stark contrast to the magic he could feel rolling off that island. It was an unnatural, hateful magic. It tainted the air, making it taste off.
He could feel it.
The island was situated thirty kilometers away from the nearest of the other Outer Bank islands. It was a marvel that no Muggles had ever stumbled across it. Dumbledore had verbalized that he suspected Muggle repelling charms, but still…
Harry felt sodding sick from just looking at the thing.
"We will have to drop off several of you here, before circling around to the other side of the island," Mr. Weasley told hesitantly, looking like he was rethinking allowing several of his children to do this. "Seven of the gates are on that side, six here."
"We assume," Moody interrupted, "that the villain would require the blood sacrifice to be done at the same time. Once everyone is in position we'll shoot off a flare. Then, once we've visually confirmed everyone is at the gates we'll shoot off a second flare."
"Great, just lead the Death Eaters right towards us," Dean dryly remarked, Kaylens nodding alongside him.
"You let us worry about the Death Eaters," Moody growled. "Besides, they won't be your problem." With that….
Moody leveled his wand, shooting a blasting hex directly towards the water surrounding the island.
It didn't make it. It suddenly stopped,the light of it dying at the invisible barrier where the rabid waters began to churn.
Harry blinked. Moody was no slouch in the spell casting department. If his spells couldn't make it through…
"As I said," Moody growled, "they want to kill you, they have to get through that, and us first." The ex-Auror grinned a sharp toothed smile, looking like he would almost enjoy it if they tried.
The sound of approaching steps indicated Dumbledore finally joining them, the wizard already donning a swimming cap. "Indeed Alastor, we have reason to suspect that magic will not work within the barriers at all, at least…not by any traditional form."
Bill Weasley shook his head, his ponytail wagging with the motion. "This has goblin magic written all over it. I wouldn't be shocked if he'd bribed some of the rogue ones to do this." The wizard's voice had a subtle note of anger in it, Fleur reaching out and stroking his arm. She was staring with silver-blue eyes out at the island, her brow furrowing artfully, looking increasingly worried.
Harry didn't like this.
"Alright," Ron admitted, "McGonagall wasn't being a sadist." Harry had to agree. It was a kilometer away. Even if they did make it to the gates to give a blood sacrifice, they'd still be swimming with a bloodied appendage for nearly a hundred more feet.
Right now he would rather get bitch slapped by another of McGonagall's dragon-shaped waves over any of this.
"Can't we just use walkie-talkies?" Dean demanded, apparently having been thinking about the risk of Death Eaters seeing the flares. The wizard held up his backpack and gave it a pointed jiggle. "We could waterproof charm these-"
"Muggle tech isn't working," Black countered. "We had to charm this boat to get here, or did you fail to notice that no one was actually steering?"
Dean's expression fell, looking put out.
"How are we supposed to find and kill a horcrux with no magic?" Tonks sounded like it was the most bizarre undertaking she'd ever heard of.
Lupin, who had been oddly quiet the entire trip, shook his head. "I would imagine it'd have to be brought back and dealt with later."
"Oh goodie," Tonks muttered, "just the souvenir I always wanted. Next time, let's just get a postcard."
"Anything you say dear." Lupin dropped an arm around her, tugging her against his side, the gesture so casual that Harry was slightly shocked the two hadn't started this earlier. Tonks was drumming her fingers on the railing, her engagement ring glinting in the sun.
A lot had changed.
"An island with a hurricane-force sea, possibly surrounded by sharks, radiating with dark magic, and we can't defend ourselves," Fred jovially chimed in with a far-too-wide grin, glancing at Tonks and Lupin. "So, you two thinking of honeymooning here then?"
Tonks snorted in a distinctly unladylike fashion, Lupin sending the Weasley twin a withering look.
A thunk to the side caused Harry to nearly drop the binoculars. Kaylens had just tossed down one of the backpacks her and Dean had brought, the non-witch tying her hair back in a low slung ponytail. "No magic," she said simply, "no problem. Muggles have to do this kind of thing all the time."
Luna shot her a strange look, which was saying something given she typically held the award for 'strangest comments to leave a person's mouth.' "They hunt and kill horcruxes as a part of their after dinner routine?"
Kally was already crouching, rooting through the bag. "No, but they swim through things like this when boaters get in trouble and," she made a vague gesture towards the water with her free hand without even looking up, her entire arm disappearing into the pack, "dealing with sharks, waves, things like that."
It occurred to Harry that out of everyone there, that Kaylens was literally the only one who didn't look even a little uneasy. In fact, she looked downright relaxed.
Harry once again marveled at why she was snogging him of all people. Dragging a hand through his messy hair he shoved the binoculars off at Ron, his best mate seeing his intention, grunting and muttering, "Annnnd we lost him," under his breath.
Harry ignored that, crouching down right as Kaylens pulled out a full sized life preserver, tossing it carelessly behind her. She'd yanked out another and then another, Harry marveling at Hermione's spell work. "How much," he settled on, "is actually in there?"
Kally's head darted up, a strand of hair that she'd missed hanging in her eyes, a smile touching her lips as she saw him. "You of all people should know Hermione's good, Harry."
"Uh huh," he stated dubiously, aware of Hermione's tendency for over preparing. "So how much?"
Kaylens shrugged. "Potions, medical supplies, life preservers, food and water in case we end up stranded, flares, rope, and dry clothes." Tilting her head towards the one Dean was working on, she added, "His has the same, we just divided it up in case one of us loses our pack."
Harry shot Thomas a look that was met with a cocky grin. "Preparation Harry," he said in a boisterous infomercial tone, "is the key to survival."
"You sound like a Boy Scout."
"More like Hermione threatened me to within an inch of my life if you two," nodding towards him and Ron, "didn't come back with the same number of limbs and phalanges you'd left with."
Harry frowned. "Phalanges?"
Kaylens held up a hand and wiggled her fingers at him. "Fingers."
Now he really was concerned. "She thought we were going to lose our fingers?"
The look his girlfriend shot him was one of utter amusement. "You have met yourself and Ron, right? I'd be more concerned if she didn't consider that as a very plausible possibility."
He made an annoyed sound, his gaze narrowing onto the top of her head as she once again began rooting around in the bag, tossing out more life preservers. "Such confidence," he drawled. "It's almost as if you think I'm accident prone."
Kaylens didn't even look up. "Dementors attacking while you played Quidditch, dementors attacking with me on the same Quidditch pitch, skipping stones tossed by the Giant Squid hitting you in the head, getting attacked at the Ministry, getting clawed by a werewolf in Hogsmeade, getting clawed by Remus at Grimmauld, falling out of giant, floating bubbles while fighting with Voldemort, getting-"
"Okay," he interjected, scowling, "point made."
Her gaze flickered up for a fleeting second, and Harry swore to things unholy that she was actually pouting. "I wasn't even done," she pointed out, "with the ones I know about." Pausing, she suddenly looked horrified. "Gods…those are only the ones I know about…"
Harry shot her a sympathetic look. "I did give you a chance to run," he pointed out.
The ship creaked loudly, but the look she shot him spoke volumes; she wasn't going anywhere.
For a minute Harry remained silent, just watching her as she unearthed more life jackets. They'd be leaving any minute, the reality sinking in. There was no more waiting, no more messing around. They might not all make it back.
And then there was what he and Kaylens had talked about.
He hadn't even told Ron or Hermione yet. He'd meant to, but somehow he hadn't found an opportune moment for bringing up the cheery topic of 'oh yeah I might be a horcrux and one of you might have to kill me in the near future.' Kaylens only knew because he'd ran into her immediately after talking to Dumbledore that first time, when he'd still been a bit unhinged and trying to break things off with her. And now…
Now she knew. It was confirmed, and the non-witch still wasn't running.
She wanted to make plans with him.
He tried to ignore what the mere concept of that did to the muscle inside his chest. It shook him, grounded him, sodding gave him something to fight for. The fact that he wanted to just sit down and think about that and only that when they were about to embark on a horcrux hunt was borderline dangerous.
Harry needed to focus on the task at hand, breathing slightly harder as he glanced through the wooden rails again, the agitated sea looking pissed.
"If magic doesn't work," he asked, question directed towards Kaylens and Dean, "how are the packs even getting on the island?"
"We're," Thomas gestured between he and Kaylens, "taking them."
"You're what?" Harry eyed the white caps nervously.
Dean made swimming gestures with his arms and gave his own shoulder a pointed pat. "They are packs, Harry. Surely you've heard of such a thing."
It occurred to Harry that at some point he really was going to kill Dean Thomas. For now though he recognized that the packs were more weight and probably something awkward to swim with. He didn't like the idea of Kaylens doing it.
He opened his mouth to say just that, but she was already narrowing her eyes. "Harry," she countered, having obviously prepared for this, "I'm a stronger swimmer than you. I'll be fine."
His mouth opened, racking his brain for an argument. Back at the Black Lake she had finished before him. She had already been sitting, almost serenely, on the beach when he and Ron had washed up on shore, quite literally flopping around and coughing up water.
She still couldn't do magic.
"There's got to be someone else," he settled on, "who can swim better than you."
Kally's mouth opened, making an offended sound, while Dean guffawed loudly. "Yeah Harry, there is. Me." Thomas gestured between he and Kally again. "I finished first, she was right behind me. Shocking I know, but us Muggleborns couldn't rely on magic for everything so tend to learn how to do that and do it well pretty young." The wizard frowned. "Speaking of, you were raised by Muggles. How aren't you a better swimmer?"
"Because my pathetic excuse of relatives locked me in a cupboard," Harry drawled, "while my cousin was at swim lessons."
Dean's jaw dropped, while Kally quite literally dropped the preserver she was holding, staring at him. "They what?"
Harry's jaw tensed, but he shrugged. "To be fair," he said calmly, "it was also my bedroom."
His girlfriend's fingers were opening and closing on thin air where she sat, having gone very still on the ground. Her mouth flapped wordlessly.
Harry sighed, forcing a strained smirk for her sake. "Not a big deal, Kally. I figured it out." He wasn't about to drown on her. Making mock above and below gestures, he added, "Above water good, below water bad."
For whatever reason that snapped her out of it, the noise Kaylens made akin to a rabid harpy, something flashing for a second within her eyes. "We're going to talk more about this," she promised dangerously. "Later. And I'm going to want details, like where they live, what they look like, when they're sleepi-"
It occurred to Harry that he'd just inadvertently sicked a killing machine – his girlfriend – on the Dursleys. "Not to spoil your fun," he told carefully, "but you can't hurt them."
She scowled beautifully. "Why not?"
"Because…" Luna interjected serenely, before Harry could even answer. Everyone's heads jerked towards her. The witch was so quiet at times it was almost easy to forget she was there. Now she just stared out at the sea, her eyes a perfect match for the waters. "Harry has heavy morals, Kally. He'd be upset if you did something bad because of him, wouldn't you, Harry?"
The blue-gray gaze fixed upon him, Harry holding it for a second, the corner of his mouth twitching. Luna had that effect on him.
She was also, regrettably, right. As terrible as the Dursleys were he didn't want anyone else going dark over it. Gaze flicking back to Kaylens, he tilted his head back towards where the Ravenclaw now sat, perched on top of a rotting crate. "She's right. They're not Death Eaters, Kally."
Dean made an uncomfortable sound, the wizard shifting his pack and grumbling about helmets.
Kally's eyes just flickered between Luna and him, seeming frustrated. "Fine," she conceded, dragging a hand through her long hair. "But I'm allowed," she fiercely added, focusing her attention fully back onto him and pointing a finger scarily near his nose, "to scare them a little, right?"
Harry outright snorted, hand reaching up and snaring her hand before she accidentally took out his eye. "Be my guest."
Crouched there, alongside her on the grimy deck, her hand captured within his own, he watched Kalliandra's lips twitch. "You give me the nicest presents, Potter."
"If you consider the chance to scare the hell out of my relatives a present then I've apparently set the bar pretty low."
Her eyes practically glittered in the sunlight. "I'm not a chocolates kind of girl."
"Thank Merlin for that."
"Will you two," Dean groaned, standing and shouldering his pack, "stop agreeing so much? It's downright depressing. I miss when you two used to fight."
"Not," Ron grunted, "alone."
"Thomas," Harry casually drawled, outright ignoring Ron and pointedly intertwining his fingers with Kaylens, "how bad do you want me to start asking, in a loud and easily overheard voice, how snogging Ginny was?" They were on a boat in the Atlantic with three of her brothers and father. He reckoned Dean wouldn't last long.
"Dirty move, Harry."
"Imply that Kaylens and I should start fighting again and I'll make sure to mention that we found you both in bed-"
A warm hand was instantly over his mouth, Kally having lunged forward to shut him up. Glorious golden eyes widened at him in a silent scolding. "I would really appreciate it," she hissed with slight amusement, "if you'd not get my best friend turned into shark chow."
Harry made no move to move. Instead he just looked over her fingers, inclining a skeptical eyebrow at her.
Her eyes narrowed.
He smirked beneath her hand.
Finally, slowly she removed it, still eyeing him distrustfully.
"So Thomas is your best friend?" he questioned darkly, the boat swaying beneath them. He had been aware, but he had rather been in enjoyable denial over it.
Kaylens just shot him a bewildered look. "Who else would it be?"
"I've heard," he said with shocking seriousness, "Neville's toad is nice."
"Trever actually died, Harry," Neville called, not removing his gaze from the island. It was like the wizard was sizing it up, looking for weakness.
Harry lifted a hand in silent apology. "Sorry to hear about Trevor," he called back, holding Kalliandra's gaze firmly. "You know…Hermione has a cat."
Dean made a flabbergasted, annoyed sound off to the side. Harry and Kally both ignored him, sitting there on the deck together, close, only the small pack between them.
Slowly, very slowly, Kally's lips twitched. "You're utterly," she whispered, sounding half amazed, "impossible, Potter."
"Good. I keep you guessing, you won't get bored."
Her lips parted in silent protest, only for Harry to squeeze her hand, changing the subject abruptly. Making plans…he couldn't linger on anything overly good with her right now. It'd distract him. It'd distract him bad. "Going on record," he instead stated, nodding at the backpack to indicate the change in his mood, "that I don't like this idea."
Kaylens rolled with it, as she always did. "Of course you don't," his girlfriend placated, shaking her head. Giving his hand a squeeze she extricated her fingers from his, resuming her search for vests in the never-ending pack.
"What if the expandability charm fails?" he demanded, trying to catch her eye. "Once you pass that barrier it might."
"We're not," she muttered, "going to actually put them on ourselves until we're past that. If they expand and start to sink we can just let them go. Otherwise we'll put them on. Besides, Hermione charmed them to float."
Harry swore silently, Ron deciding to walk by right then, right as Kaylens threw another preserver out, the Gryffindor Keeper snagging the glaringly orange vest right out of the air. Ron stared at it as if confused. "How exactly are we supposed to swim if we're bobbing around in these?"
Kaylens didn't even glance up. "The Muggle Coastguard does it all the time, Ron. Thing called rescue swimmers." Hearing nothing but silence the non-witch paused, clarifying, "They're so you hopefully don't drown."
Ron bristled. "I know what they're for. I just didn't know you could swim in them. You know…don't you just bob up and down in them until someone plucks you out?" The wizard bent his knees and made a bobbing motion.
Now Kally really did look confused, Harry almost smirking at the exchange. Muggleborn vs. Pureblood. That always was entertaining.
Before Ron could start spewing more Muggle inaccuracies, Mr. Weasley re-emerged from the deckhouse, tossing a slew of wetsuits onto the deck, beaming and commenting on the ingenuity of Muggles to combat cold water.
Within five minutes they were all changed, Tonks once again stripping without apology, Kaylens and Luna following suit. It was all Harry could do to not gawk at the one belonging to him, but he didn't miss the strange way that Ron gawked at Luna.
In fact, he sputtered something that sounded suspiciously like legs.
Harry made a mental note not to kill him – Hermione was his best friend too – and changed. The wet suits offered an extra layer of insulation that made standing on board the deck almost hot.
"Just in case the less intelligent amongst us need reminding," Black's acerbic words resonated, "pay attention to those near you, lest they get into trouble and you fail to notice." His legal guardian sent him a pointed look that had him bristle.
Harry opened his mouth to mutter something foul, only for a hand to fall on his arm.
Glancing back he saw Kaylens, an orange life preserver hanging open, the wetsuit clinging to her in a way that left not a lot to his imagination.
Harry about groaned. He hadn't figured out yet if having her around for this sort of thing was a good or bad distraction. For now he just let his gaze drop, running over her legs rather pointedly. "You're wearing that," he uttered, "later." He didn't have to explain his meaning, her lips parting in silent reprimand.
Unfortunately Regulus noticed, the wizard scowling darkly. "That's it, you two are on opposite sides of the island."
Kally's fingers abruptly slipped from his arm, Harry jerking around to face Black. "Are you really," he darkly demanded, "that eager to see why Voldemort's afraid of me?"
Black just met his gaze head on. "You'll both be liabilities if you're distracted, Potter."
Every muscle within him grew stiff, taut. "I'm not-"
"Harry…"
"We're not going to get put on-"
"Harry!"
He stopped mid-sentence, gaze shifting to Kaylens. She stood there, a bright yellow helmet dangling from her hand, the non-witch gnawing on her lower lip. "I think he's right…it's a good idea."
Things in his chest froze, the wires used for hauling up fishing nets groaning overhead as the boat rocked. He blinked, uncertain he'd heard her right. "Come again?"
She winced. "If I'm by you, Harry, I'm going to be watching you. I'm going to be worried about you. I-"
"Too damn bad," he cut her off, not caring if he sounded like an ass. "I'm not risking you getting hurt when I'm not there."
"Potter…" She said nothing else, just those two entreating syllables.
"Meet me halfway here, at least on this," he grated, expression serious. Then, for good damn measure he forced, "Please."
For a second her eyes flickered, the slightest of stirrings of magic there, within her irises' depths, but finally she sighed, brushing a loose strand of hair from her eyes. "I'm fighting a losing battle here, aren't I?"
He'd once said the exact same thing to her, right before he'd run off on her in Hogsmeade. Still….the admission had him breathing easier. "Yes."
"You both," Regulus drawled tautly, "sicken me. But given you're not the ones giving orders. Separating you will still be-"
Harry turned, fixing Black with an annoyed look. "If traditional magic doesn't work on the island wandless might," he countered. "We might need that, and mine's going to work a hell of a lot better if I'm near her." Gesturing at Kaylens, he didn't miss the strange look in Black's gaze. The war bond wasn't something that was exactly known, but judging from the expression on the ex-Death Eater's face he'd grasped his meaning.
Standing there, face unshaven and hair beginning to look something close to unkempt, Casper suddenly looked a hell of a lot like Sirius.
Before his godfather's shadow could respond Dumbledore had walked up, swimmer's cap and wetsuit on, smiling amicably. "In this case, Regulus, I do believe Harry is correct. Though your concerns are warranted, I trust that Harry will be able to remain, what is the phrase….clear headed?"
The sound Regulus made was clear indicator of his confidence in that.
The fact that Dumbledore had just agreed with him definitely caught Harry's attention, the Gryffindor Seeker observing the Headmaster seriously.
He was a horcrux. Dumbledore had confirmed it, stating he had been working on ways to perhaps…get around it without death becoming a necessity. Harry had merely sat there, feeling numb.
He'd told Kaylens. He'd told Kaylens because it was already too late, he'd already sodding claimed her. An absurd, irrational part of him had wanted to make plans with her, for after everything was over, so he could have something to look forward to if he managed to make it out of all of this, but….
He hadn't wanted this for her.
She'd stubbornly insisted that she wasn't going anywhere.
Somehow he hadn't been surprised.
He hadn't told her about what the hell Hermione had been up to, or about Dumbledore's suicidal intention to not necessarily make it off the island though. The wizard had trusted him. A part of him, somewhere, realized he needed to start following orders. He needed to not argue in the thick of it, otherwise someone could die.
That didn't mean he was going to follow a suggestion from Black if it wasn't a sound idea though, and Dumbledore had just backed him. An uncomfortable, unpleasant feeling squirmed in his stomach, the Headmaster continuing on.
"We will need," Dumbledore continued pleasantly, "wandless magical ability to be high, Regulus. Let us maximize what we have on board. Speaking of….William?"
Bill had just finished taking off his dragon tooth earing out, tossing it to his father, who fumbled with the catch. "Yeah, Big D?" The cursebreaker grinned incorrigibly, Harry suddenly aware of just where Fred and George had gotten some of their personality.
"In your experience with goblin wards, how often is wandless magic effective when wand magic is not?"
Bill shoved his red ponytail beneath the wetsuit's hood. "The goblins don't ward against it, if that's what you mean. It's too hard to counter usually, because you're trying to guard against the essence of magic, as opposed to the specific wand types."
Fred immediately slid into place alongside his brother, making a curious hrm-ing. "So you're telling me I could just walk in and rob Gringotts with a few waves of my hands? Hrm…reckon Georgie and I got ourselves a new retirement plan."
"Fred," Mr. Weasley stated, sounding horrified, "you're only nineteen."
Fred looked scandalized. "I know! And a year late on my retirement already. The shame I've brought to our family!"
The look Bill shot was withering. "Charlie dropped you on your head when we babysat you both. That's the only explanation."
Fred snorted, but Dumbledore stuck to the point. "So…there is that prospect."
Bill just nodded. "Goblins don't tend to expend time and money on the outlier possibilities. They go for the mainstream risks. A lot of wizards can do one or two wandless spells, but enough to actually break into somewhere they're guarding?" The wizard shook his head. "There's not enough people that are that proficient at it to be a problem."
The Headmaster turned to Regulus with a benign grin. "Well there you go, Regulus. Now haven't we caused the children enough distress for one day?"
Whatever happened next Harry ignored, having already turned back to Kaylens. "So you're swimming with me-"
Her lips parted, as if about to protest something, but it was Dean who spoke, the hood pulled over his head and making him look like some kind of alien dredged up from the deep. "Not sure I followed that whole," waving a hand at Dumbledore and Regulus, "thing there, but you don't need to be on top of her." The wizard had obviously been listening in, putting things together.
Kally just sighed, Dean pressing, "Besides, no offense mate, but they're right. You take one end, we'll stick her at the other. You'll be on the same side but not in that whole 'snoggable distance' thing. Given how distracted you get, she'll be better off swimming next to me anyway." The dark skinned wizard tugged his helmet on, buckling the clip under his chin.
Harry bristled. "The hell she is."
"I took care of her before," Dean said levelly. "She'll be fine."
"How about," Harry bit, "you let me deal with-"
"I'm just trying to strike a balance between the two of you distracting one another and being near one another, alright Harry? Makes sense you both want to be by each other, especially if Dumbledore thinks it's a good idea, but let's not have you drown because you keep looking for where she is, alright?"
"Guys."
Harry ignored Ron, levelling a serious look at Thomas. He did not like that idea, but he wasn't entirely wrong. Still, Harry didn't like the idea of not being able to reach her if something went wrong.
"Come on, Harry," Dean told with a seriousness not typically found in his dorm mate's repertoire. "Meet me in the middle here. You made Kaylens meet you."
For a second he thought he was going to argue with him, opening his mouth to do just that, only-
He didn't.
"Fine," Harry said. "But if anything, and I mean anything happens to her, and I mean so much as a scratch-"
"No offense mate, but reckon I'm a bit more observant of her than you given today's track record."
Harry made an angered sound, aware he'd screwed up already today. "If you weren't Kaylens best friend…" he half growled, Ron interrupting.
"Guys!"
Both Dean and Harry finally turned their heads towards the Gryffindor Keeper, glaring. "What?"
Ron hooked a thumb over the edge of the trawler. "Case either of you were curious, Kaylens is already gone."
Harry balked "What?!"
Moody let out a loud laugh, clearly having observed the entire exchange.
Ron just rolled his eyes. "Your girlfriend," he stated, as if talking to a simpleton and making a mock 'swimming fish' gesture with his hand, "is already swimming."
And that was when Harry realized that Kally wasn't standing by them anymore. Taking three strides to the edge he looked over the railing, scanning the blue-gray waters below the boat, spotting his girlfriend already in the water, the backpack bobbing on the surface alongside her.
The infuriating non-witch waved.
One day, Harry decided, she was going to give him a heart attack.
As if reading his mind she casually called up, "In case anyone was wondering, there are sharks."
Harry's heart skipped abruptly, as if contemplating stopping.
The distinctive thunking of wood impacting against rusted metal was heard, Mad Eye Moody walking over to peer over the edge with him, calling down, "How many, girl?"
Kaylens' face disappeared beneath the water, peering beneath. Harry's grip clenched against the railing, turning white by the time she came back up.
She yanked her head back out, shouting, "Three! That I can see. I'm pretty sure they're attracted to whatever that," she waved a hand back at the invisible barrier where the sea turned from calm to churning, "is. They're just going back and forth in front of it."
Moody let out another barking laugh, slapping Harry hard on the back. "You know Potter, I like her."
Another splash was heard, Dean Thomas having jumped down into the water with her. The Death Eater wasted no time in shoving his wand beneath the surface, casting a hasty spell, Kally instantly shoving her face back beneath to see what he'd done.
A second later she was treading water and sending Dean a mock pout. "You scared my friends away."
"Sharks, Kal?" Thomas repeated, sounding like he rather thought she'd gone insane. "Seriously?!"
"They're harmless."
"They'll bloody well eat you!"
Harry made a strangled sound with his throat, Moody guffawing. "Oh I really like her. Hang onto that one, Potter." Moody thudded him against the back so hard that this time he actually got knocked into the railing, Harry grunting.
Moody had already wandered off, talking to himself about how they hadn't made witches like that since Tonks, Harry realizing with a slow, creeping horror that he was dating a non-witch with an insanity level that apparently reminded Moody of Tonks.
As if to confirm his worst fears, Kingsley finally emerged from below deck, where he'd been the majority of the time, listening to the wizarding radio for news on the plague. "You know some of the teenagers are out there swimming?" he questioned curiously.
That was all it took.
A second later Harry was scrambling for a helmet, tossing it onto his head and struggling to buckle it, ignoring Ron's churlish arguments about 'why did they need to wear the bloody things,' and Bill's counter-arguments that the 'Muggle head gear' was meant to 'keep his bloody head intact.' Someone mentioned the coastguard again, Harry making a mental note to ask Kaylens about that later.
Much later. For now…
Harry vaulted himself over the railing, falling the four meters down into the ocean himself, surfacing and spitting saltwater, the sound of Dean and Kaylens arguing the first thing to greet his ears.
It occurred to him that for once he and Thomas were actually on the same page.
ECOTS
The wizards in her life were all absolute idiots. It was almost enough to make her forget where she was, floating in the Atlantic alongside a dilapidated fishing trawler, meters away from a frightening, storming sea.
Kally forced herself to relax, saving her energy for when she would need it, the Reach letting the life jacket do the work for her. She bobbed in the sea's gentle crests, wet hair slung beneath her helmet, hanging in her eyes as she fixed Dean Thomas with an irritated look. "Humans aren't exactly their favorite meal, Dean."
Her best friend simply sputtered at her. "Not their favorite- you do realize they have teeth, Kal?"
"Oh, so that's what those shiny white things were?" she feigned ignorance, rolling her eyes.
Dean made an annoyed sound, it almost as if they were somewhere else, in another time, not about to do something that could bring about their deaths.
"I can't believe I have to actually tell you this," he muttered darkly, "but Kal, please don't play with the sharks."
"For once," grunted an incredibly familiar voice, "I agree with him."
Kally's annoyed gaze shifted from Dean to where Potter floated, several meters off. "You two agreeing?" she quipped. "I may pass out in shock."
Potter shot her a look, his black hair slickened against his brow, messily hiding his scar. "Please don't, at least not until you're on dry land." Something humored glinted in his gaze. "Not that I'm protesting the results, but I'd really rather not have to give you mouth-to-mouth again."
Kally blinked, her mouth opening in slight amusement. Merlin, she'd nearly forgotten that snogging him….her nearly drowning was how the entire thing had started. The horrible coughing, the disorientation in that pond, Potter the only sane thing she'd been able to comprehend for several minutes.
By the time she'd been fully aware of what was happening Harry's hands had already been smoothing her hair away from her face, shivers that had nothing to do with the cold water raking through her, his mouth moving to hers in a whole new different way.
"I'm still blaming all of that," she told, lips twitching, "on being oxygen deprived."
Harry snorted. "Whatever you need to tell yourself." Harry was studying her, water droplets beading on his glasses, the black wet suit taut against his shoulders, Kally's breathing slowing...
Dean let out a loud groan, immediately snapping his fingers just above the water. "Kal!"
She blinked, casting Dean a sheepish look. Potter, on the other hand, had a slow, knowing smirk crossing his jaw line. "And to think," he relayed, "I was going to growl at you for that stunt you pulled." Potter shoved his wet hair out of his eyes, adding, "Seriously Kaylens, who just jumps overboard?"
"Besides you?" Dean pointed out, not helping. "And can you both quit the innuendos? It's disturbing as hell."
Potter shot him a look, opening his mouth to inevitably retort something sarcastic, Kally groaning and cutting him off. "It wasn't an innuendo, Dean. And you two wouldn't stop arguing," she pressed, "over who I was swimming by." Glancing between the two wizards, kicking her feet lightly to avoid drifting towards the barrier, she added, "Seriously, there are more important things going on, and it would be really nice if you two could try to at least pretend to get along for some of it."
She was greeted with identical looks of annoyance.
"Occasionally," she clarified. "I'm not totally insane."
Potter fixed her with a look so intense that she was certain he'd argue, but instead-
"Fine." His cutting, malachite gaze turned from her towards Dean, Harry grunting, "Thomas, truce?"
Dean eyed Harry as if he'd lost his mind. "Truce?" he choked on a half-laugh. "I never had a problem with you in the first place!"
Potter's expression grew shockingly stony. "That a yes then?"
"Depends, you going to keep fantasizing about my murder out loud?"
Harry looked like he wanted to hex something. "If I really wanted to murder you, Thomas, I'd have let Ron finish you off when he caught you with Ginny."
"Oi, Harry! Caught him with who?!"
The loud voice had come from above their head, from a person still on board the ship and looking over the rail. All three heads jerked up to find Bill Weasley staring down at them with a look half-way between shock and the color green.
"Harry!" the eldest Weasley shouted down. "What do you mean caught him with!?" It was obvious what Bill was thinking.
Fleur just patted him consolingly on the shoulder, murmuring, "There, there Villiam. Your sister she iz becoming a woman-"
Overhead Bill made a strangled sort of sound, disappearing from the railing. Dean just shot Harry a mildly annoyed look. "Oh good," he drawled, "her oldest and scariest brother knows we started snogging again."
"I'm," Harry corrected, a wave rolling past, "her scariest brother."
"You're not related."
"Might as well be," he countered, voice lowering. "And if you hurt her, or do anything to help that snake in any way, Thomas, I guarantee Bill will seem like a kitten compared to me."
"Harry…" she practically whispered, not even certain he heard her. "Can you please just not threaten to kill-"
"I'll take it," Potter drawled stonily, having heard her and anticipated her protest, "into consideration." Not once did his gaze leave Dean. Something annoyed slid through her, her gaze shifting towards the island of doom almost longingly. There was something undeniably simple about things that tried to kill you. Everything else…
Was just complicated.
Someone else jumped overboard, Professor Gai's head surfacing to shake out his mane of light brown hair. A second later the wizard had thumped his helmet onto his head, water pouring down his face as he buckled the chin strap. "Oi! Water's got a bit of a kick to it doesn't it?" he greeted.
For all intents and purposes the two other wizards didn't even notice. Instead Dean's gaze was locked onto Harry's, Harry's locked onto his, the two staring levelly at one another as if sizing the other up. The sea moved around them, Kally giving Tres an apologetic wave as he started to swim on over.
"Well Thomas?" Harry demanded as soon as the professor's head was underwater and out of ear shot. "Think you can handle those terms, or no?"
Dean's mouth had hardened into a thin, angered line. "You mean the terms where you assume I'd want to kill the two witches that mean the most to me? Gee, let me think on it for a bit."
Kally slapped the water in Dean's direction, snapping, "Seriously, Dean?"
"Damn Thomas," Harry drawled bitingly, "seems like you've got a bit of a chip on your shoulder. Might want to take care of that."
For a second Kally thought he was going to argue, wondering exactly how well their island assault would go if the two started outright hexing one another. Only instead of arguing Dean grimaced, sounding tensely resigned.
"I suppose," Dean ground, "that's fair enough."
Potter's expression grew rigid. "Good." A second passed, then another…"But I promise you…you hurt Ginny, Kaylens, anyone for Riddle-"
"It's not," Dean intractably growled back, "going to happen, Potter."
She could practically hear Harry's tense breath. "Fine."
"Fine," Dean stiffly repeated, looking back to see Tres approaching, the wizard's head still underwater as he swam. "Then are we good? Otherwise doing this might be a bit difficult."
Harry too was looking towards the DADA Professor. "Less good," he uttered, "and more I'll make a concerted effort to stop suggesting to Kaylens that you have a horrible accident."
"Seriously, Potter?" she demanded, cutting in.
"Oh it's Potter now," Dean stated, smirking slightly. "You're in trouble now, Harry."
Harry just glared. "Shut it, Dean."
"Nah, taunting you is a hell of a lot more fun now that you've got a witch to threaten you with."
"She's not," he corrected, "a witch."
Kally leaned her head back on the water and made a defeated sound. "I really hate you both so much…"
Tres' head abruptly broke the surface alongside the three of them, the wizard spitting water out like a fountain and grinning.
Both Potter and Dean went eerily quiet.
Kally closed her eyes wearily, sighing, shivering. The wetsuit helped, but it was still cold, and she had no intention of remaining still very long.
"Kally."
Cracking her eyes, she found that Potter's were now firmly fixed on her, studying her with unconcealed unease. "You okay?"
"Asides from annoyed with two of you? Yes." Wet hair dripping down, her eyes swept over him assessingly, quickly. "You?
He just nodded. "Yeah." Potter's brow furrowed under his bright yellow helmet, looking like he was thinking about something…
The wizard abruptly moved, swimming the few strokes to her. His hand grabbed onto her arm. "Potter wha-"
A fifth and sixth splash were heard, Bill and Ron Weasley in the water, a sudden sweeping warmth flooding through her, Kally outright shuddering. Sucking in a breath she couldn't miss Potter's self-satisfied smirk.
"Better?"
Still shivering, ignoring the way that Potter's hand had fallen away from her arm, dropping beneath the water's surface to grip possessively onto her side for just a moment…
Kalliandra absently nodded. "Potter," she said, "you are ridiculously useful."
Fingers squeezed against her ribcage, another wave of pure warmth washing over her, combatting the chill of the water. "Only," he told, feet still kicking, "when I don't forget to take care of you." The backpack bobbed in the water alongside him, it having been charmed by Hermione to float like a life preserver. The way Harry was looking at her though…
Her lips parted, words rushed. "I don't need taken care of, Harry." She was acutely aware that he hadn't wanted her coming in the first place, and still…
Beneath his helmet he frowned heavily. "Actually," he stated seriously, "sometimes you do. Like in cold water when you can't keep yourself warm."
She made a disgruntled sound, silently conceding his point.
Potter was still studying her, his bright green eyes looking sodding apprehensive. "Only you," he dryly told, "could fault me for being worried before we swim through that." He nodded towards the invisible barrier, Kally sighing and also conceding that point.
A nearby splash was heard, Bill Weasley having reached where the group bobbed in the water, waiting for their next order.
"Thomas," Bill stated, "we need to have a little chat." It was not a request.
Dean just groaned, "Not you too."
Bill frowned, his red ponytail tucked beneath his wetsuit's hood. "Too?" he repeated.
"Ron might have tried to kill him this morning," Harry supplied, his gaze still firmly on her in the water. Ron, surprisingly, wasn't trying to kill anyone currently. Instead his head was buried beneath the water and clearly searching for sharks.
The cursebreaker had simply turned back towards Dean, stating forebodingly, "Morning?"
Even Professor Gai had frowned, looking like he rather was considering the need to intervene before one of his students lost his head.
Dean just held his hands up, dropping several centimeters lower in the water until the lifejacket caught him. "How about a stay of sentencing? You know, until after we're back."
"No thanks," Bill replied easily, grinning incorrigibly, suddenly looking like he was rather enjoying this. "Now would be a good time."
Dean groaned again. Loudly. "Look, Ginny was worried about all of this and didn't want to sleep alone, alright? That's it. Besides, she's my friend. I wasn't going to leave her alone."
Ron's head had darted out of the water in time to hear the exchange. "Just friends? So what was that last night? Leading my sister on?"
If possible, Ron sounded madder about that then he had about physically catching them snogging the night before.
Bill glanced at them for clarification. "What happened last night?"
"There might," Harry supplied, "have been some snogging involved."
Bill snorted. "Yeah, I figured that. How much snogging?"
Harry floated alongside her, smirking. "You talking about me or him?"
The look Kally shot him could have killed, a swift hiss leaving her lips. "Harry."
Harry shot her a look of mock innocence. "What? I'm trying to help distract him long enough for your buddy to flee."
She outright groaned, knowing full well that most certainly wasn't what he was doing. Professor Gai even looked somewhat concerned. "Did this happen to be," he stated shrewdly, "when we requested all years share the same dorm for the night due to the dementor risk?"
Harry smirked more. "Again, you talking about for Dean or me?"
There was a loud groan from off to the side, Dean disappearing beneath the water in a clear attempt to drown himself.
Tres was frowning down at the water, seeming semi-concerned about his student, while Bill just looked towards Potter, as if he had failed to understand what was now happening. "Shared dorms?"
"Yeah, they wanted to keep us all together in case the dementors came back." Harry suddenly looked like he was already thinking better of his next sentence, but pressed on anyway. "And they were just snogging, Bill. That was it. Dean was actually being kind of…" It looked like he was about to gag on the words, "a gentleman to her."
Bill Weasley seemed to consider this, whilst Dean – who had recently been forced back to the surface thanks to his life jacket – gaped at Potter's defense.
The eldest Weasley just made a contemplative sound, turning to eye Dean curiously. "So…treated her like a gentleman. That so, Dean?"
"Kally," Dean pled, staring at the Weasley like he were a viper, "kill me. Please."
Kally didn't get a chance to ask his preferred method, a shout coming from overhead. "Wotcher snoggers!" Tonks was leaning so far over the edge it was a marvel she hadn't fallen overboard herself. Had it not been for Remus' tight grip on the back of her shirt she might have.
Remus just shook his head, concerned eyes raking over her and Harry. "Be careful."
Tonks gave another cheery wave, the trawler already starting to move, leaving a grimy oil in its wake. "See you on the island if it doesn't kill us first!"
"Well…isn't that reassuring," Tres stated, watching the boat leaving them. "Almost makes me wistful for the zombies."
Dean snorted, loudly.
Kally just frowned as the oil drifted closer. "That can't be sanitary," she murmured, almost to herself, before feeling Potter's grip squeezing against her side before letting go. The loss of contact with him she immediately missed, but treading water and touching weren't really compatible activities.
Minutes passed, finding all of them treading water just outside the barrier, several spells cast to send the sharks away once more. Dean was at one end, Kally finding herself next to him, followed by Bill Weasley, Ron, Professor Gai, and then Harry. They all floated there, several meters apart, eerily quiet.
Harry had relented, choosing the far side of the group when Bill had promised to 'watch out for her.' Potter only looked like he was slightly rethinking this plan.
As if reading her mind he called too casually, "Dean, anything happens to Kaylens-"
"I've got her, Potter," Dean promised, peering down the row. "Seriously mate, if you were any more fretting you'd be a chick."
"I'm not fretting!"
"Sure you're not," Dean called dubiously. "Explains why she's starting to look pissed off-"
Down the line her overprotective boyfriend shot her a look. "Sorry Kal, but I haven't seen this lot almost drown. Don't fancy seeing that again."
Her lips parted, staring. They'd already been over this. "You know very well, Harry, that that wasn't my fault."
Harry's gaze met hers resolutely, eyes narrowing slightly. "You stopped," he half growled, "breathing."
"Because I was stunned and a Death Eater threw me-"
"Kaylens, you drowned?" Ron's sudden question cut both her and Harry off, Kally finding every single person staring at her, even Bill.
Dean made a sputtering sound. "Wait, so that whole mouth-to-mouth thing before…that wasn't a joke?"
Potter's expression grew taut. "Nope."
Kally made a disgruntled sound, closing her eyes in resignation. The water lapped around her, the invisible barrier to the churning, deadly part of sea not five meters away. It was like standing before a raging waterfall, contemplating jumping.
Opening her eyes, she glared towards Potter. "Harry this situation is entirely different."
"Define," Dean stated slowly, carefully, "different."
Fortunately Potter answered for her. "After Hogsmeade, a Death Eater tried to drown her when she was unconscious."
"Ah." Dean sounded like he'd just thought of something. "So that's why you've got this phobia of her-"
"Finally!" Harry burst, gesturing at Dean. "See Kaylens? Dean actually gets it."
She hissed a breath. "I wouldn't have nearly drowned if you hadn't of stunned me."
"What would you have preferred? I let the Broussard cut your jugular?"
"Wait, you stunned her?" Professor Gai stated, clearly catching up.
"Yes," Harry clipped unapologetically. "Stun the hostage, remove them from the equation." Spotting the look Dean was throwing him, he defended, "Broussard was threatening to kill her. I had to try something."
"Savage, Harry," Bill said, looking somewhat awed and turning to look at her. "So, did it work?"
She met Bill's curious expression with an annoyed one. "If you count them tossing me into a pond unconscious immediately after then yes, it worked."
Bill immediately grimaced, nodding. "Right. Harry, different situation. Your girl's gonna be fine. Weasley's honor." Bill shot her a sympathetic look, Kally's eyes narrowing as she glared towards her boyfriend.
"So is that what that whole thing at the Order meeting was about? You were scared of a repeat incident?"
Harry winced. "Partly."
She groaned loudly, the fishing trawler still not in sight on the other side of the island. "Harry I was fine-"
"You almost weren't."
"Obviously I was enough to make out with-"
"Wait what?!" This time it was Ron, the Weasley gaping. "Is that how-"
Harry groaned. "Ron…"
Ron didn't get the hint, spinning in the water and staring at him. "You snagged a snog after giving a chick mouth-to-mouth, Harry? That's….that's…"
"Ron," she stated, sounding only slightly dangerous.
"That's bloody brilliant."
Bill was eyeing his kid brother with growing concern. "We really need to talk about how to actually pick up girls with you, don't we?"
"Ronald," Tres stated, "I do hope that waiting for a witch to drown is not your ultimate plan for wooing one. Otherwise you may be waiting awhile."
"Hey!" Ron defended. "I wasn't the one who actually did that. Shouldn't you lot be more concerned about, Harry?"
Harry's head had tilted, ignoring all of them to send her a pointed look down the row of swimmers. Despite the arguments going on the corners of his mouth were twitching. Kally's own lips twitched ever-so-slightly back. She could hear the others talking, chatting, but the sounds all dimmed to background noise.
Never once had it even occurred to her that he'd be worried because of that. She'd nearly drowned. She would have had it not been for him.
Hermione was right: Potter really had a 'saving people thing.'
She wet her lips in the water, chewing on the corner of her mouth, Potter's gaze flickering over hers across the gray-blue surface.
That was when Professor Gai cleared his throat.
"Not to interrupt the impending detentions I'm obligated to give all of you after this dorm-enlightening discussion," he stated, "but the boat's in position."
Kally pulled her eyes from Harry's, finding the trawler situated directly across from them, on the other side of the island. The slight movements off the edge of it had to be the others jumping overboard, getting ready. Besides her Dean reached out, giving her arm a quick squeeze, his eyes fixated not on the boat, but on the sky.
He was either looking for Death Eaters or for the flare. For now…
The sky was empty.
And then it wasn't.
A dim, red flare shot off from the boat, Kally tensing, breaths quickening. The group's joviality instantly drained away. All talking stopped.
Before them the sea churned viciously, white caps rolling end-over-end towards a rocky barrier and shore, one that could surely kill them.
Alongside her Bill Weasely drew in a rough breath, a bubblehead charm cast over his face. The eldest of the Weasley children cast a look around him, offering a grim, reassuring smile.
Then he swam forward, his form melting through the barrier, it suddenly glowing a bright blue where his body was-
He was torn away and thrown into the torrent of waves, disappearing like nothing more than that rubber duck portkey.
Professor Gai was quick to follow, looking as if he were chewing something, gills forming on the sides of his face.
Dean's hold slid down her arm, finding her hand, his large fingers intertwining with her own beneath the water. She could feel his wand clenched between their palms, Dean's lips muttering first a bubblehead charm, and then a warming charm that spread over them both, Kally shivering from the sensation…
Her skin was still prickling when he'd released her.
And then her best friend, hauling the backpack with him, dove forward.
Kally's fingers stretched out over the sea's surface, searching, snaring around her own backpack's strap, clenching onto the fabric. Her hazel eyes flickered towards the others for the briefest of seconds, finding Potter staring straight at the barrier, bubblehead charm already on him, breathing hard, focused.
A second later he'd dove through, Ron right behind him.
Kally sucked in a shuddering breath, now alone, a single person drifting within the ocean. The churning water before her roared like a rampaging waterfall, every person she cared about having disappeared within it.
Following wasn't a question.
She dove in right behind them.
ECOTS
Until that very second Harry had no idea that water could hit so hard.
It was like being hit with a battering ram.
Harry was brutally torn through the barrier and thrown three meters into the air by an upsurging crest. Everything in the world flipped end-over-end, the water beating him brutally until another wave threw him violently into the air.
Somewhere he heard Ron's sharp bellow over the roaring waters.
It disappeared in an instant.
Harry fell, and when he hit the water the sea smashed against his jaw with the strength of a heavyweight knockout. For a harsh second he was disoriented, the bubblehead charm popping loudly around his head, a wave of pressure pounding into his skull.
The surging sound, painfully thunderous and loud bashed through his eardrums.
The bubbling and foaming sea greeted him a second later.
Bubbling. In that second Harry realized that he had already been shoved deep beneath the water, his gaze painfully squinting through the saltwater, vision burning as the dark waters above him churned angrily. His legs were caught in a current, its deadly grip keeping him pulled beneath the surface despite the buoyancy of the life jacket.
Before he knew it he was screaming, bellowing beneath the waves as he fought, kicking, smashing his hands against the water as if he needed a foe to fight, to hit-
His head broke the surface, Harry gasping in a lungful of lifesaving air an instant before the next whitecap bashed against his face, blinding him, forcing its way up his noses and into his lungs
He was coughing, choking. Harry couldn't see, but he forced his arms moving, digging deep and fighting against the surging current with everything he had. The others…he had no idea where the others were, a deep and sickening fear in his gut.
McGonagall's waves had nothing on this.
There was nothing he could do but fight. His arms were burning, muscles screaming in a way they never had before. For the first time he understood all the sayings about 'going up against giants.' You couldn't. You couldn't fight a giant without magic and hope to survive.
The sea was like that. For every stroke forward he was flung backwards, then sucked beneath, and when he was lucky enough to surface quickly he was thrown viciously to the side.
The moments where he managed to stay above the water long enough to breath were infrequent. As Harry crested a wave, the water churning beneath him like a vortex straight out of mythology textbooks, he glimpsed Professor Gai, and despite the deadly swells, despite the violence of the waves, Tres caught sight of him too, managing to lift a hand in a totally out-of-place wave, as if he'd just encountered Harry on some random Muggle road.
The Professor's gills from the gillyweed were already gone.
Harry had just enough time to silently damn Voldemort and his anti-magical wards before being viciously torn back beneath the waters, again, choking on water.
ECOTS
Kally managed to hang onto the backpack for all of two seconds.
Then the magical charms Hermione had placed on it popped away, one-by-one, the cruel cold of the water assaulting her without remorse, the bag torn from her hand and thrown to the sea before she could see where it'd even went.
She did see the bag all but explode, everything that had been inside of it thrown into the water as the expandability charm shrunk.
The bubblehead charm Dean had placed on her broke loudly, the surrounding water assaulting her.
Kally shoved her face down and dove beneath the terrifying swells, swimming just beneath the surface, making headway. She wasn't strong enough to fight on the surface. All that would do would tire her, kill her quicker. But this…despite the current she could do this, as long as the current didn't take her completely…
Sean had told her that. He'd taught her that.
The force, weight of the water was painful. Her eardrums felt like a pressurized bomb was about to go off.
Holding her breath was the hardest part. When she needed air breaching the surface wasn't guaranteed, her lungs, chest screaming.
The cycle continued. Kally managed to get closer, closer to the island in small increments by swimming beneath the surface, breaking through the churning waters' surface when she could no longer breath, gasping desperately as the swirling maelstrom attacked.
Kally couldn't see past each swell. She saw no one. They were all hidden behind the large crests rolling towards the island, the unfeeling waves swirling in all directions, driven by an invisible storm that did not exist.
The sky overhead was still sunny.
She let the waves and current do most of the work for her, content to let it move her when it went in the direction she wanted, only fighting against it when it didn't.
Her face surfaced once more, snaring breath after breath as she struggled, the life vest near useless against the sheer pressure and power of waves nearly twice her height.
She almost didn't see it in time.
The rock came out of nowhere, right in front of her face, her body almost thrown against it to a violent death.
She missed being impaled on it by mere centimeters.
Kally's hand flew out, snaring onto a rocky shard, her hand tearing wide open and shoulder screaming as the sudden jolt sent her in a new direction, her body slamming roughly down. The rocks were rough, enough to tear at her skin from the slightest touch, ripping open the wetsuit as she slid out of control with a squelching thud.
The tumultuous slide didn't stop until her shoulder slammed against something hard, her head striking something, only the helmet saving her. Sucking in breath after breath, her head ringing, vision swimming, she tried to keep her eyes open as the ocean's angered spray brutalized every inch of her it could reach.
Foam rolled past her face, Kally sputtering a salty gasp as she realized that she was on land. Not safe land, but land. Laying there she gasped for a moment, the roaring ocean like the most sadistic surround sound she'd ever encountered, only seconds passing before she lifted her head to look at her surroundings. She was on the barrier. She could see one of the holes that blood needed flicked into, Kally almost laughing in relief-
The water bottle came out of nowhere.
The plastic container slammed into the rocks right in front of her nose, thrown with enough force to have killed her. No doubt it had burst from one of the backpacks, Kally realizing too late that Hermione's idea of taking supplies had done little more than turn the supplies into potentially deadly pieces of shrapnel.
The next wave slammed into her a second later, the impact crushing her between the pounding water and the rocky barrier, driving the breath from her lungs, smashing her as if she were nothing more than a small fish.
Kally was screaming, pain erupting in every inch of her, the Reach having no control of what happened to her body. She was at nature's mercy as another wave slammed into her, the battering force almost enough to kill her.
The suction of the writhing foam being pulled back into the sea nearly drug her with it, her bloodied fingers clawing at the stones, desperately holding on. Face down, on the saltwater-slickened rocks she desperately panted-
The next wave hit.
The body slammed against the rocks near her, Kally's head jerking up, fingers curled tightly in the rocks as she caught sight of a head of red hair, the helmet cracked.
The sea's suction yanked the limp body of Bill Weasley back into the churning ocean before she could so much as move.
Now Kally screamed for a whole new reason.
ECOTS
Harry managed to not drown – barely. Mainly because at some point he'd been thrown into Ron, quite literally.
The two slammed into one another, grabbing ahold of each other and using their combined weight to combat the waves. Going under was easier, faster. The problem was Harry had gone too deep, the undertow seizing him-
Ron had seized him by the back of his wetsuit, almost angrily throwing him up and out of it, Harry coughing, choking.
His best mate's werewolf strength had kept him from drowning in an undertow, Harry smacking Ron's arm in a silent thanks.
There wasn't time for talking.
They dove back in.
Gaze burning, peering beneath the water, his ability to see in the dark had worked well beneath the waves. Fifteen meters ahead he could see vicious black rocks, looking like spikes sticking up. He'd been able to gesture at Ron, somehow getting the point across.
They'd reached the barrier, surfacing.
The rolling whitecaps battered against the vicious looking geology, sending plumes of white water spraying up with each strike. The battering force ought to have been enough to send the rocks chipping away over time, but instead they were holding against the laws of erosion and nature.
Treading water in the near-hurricane waters, it was all they could do to avoid being thrown viciously against them.
"Count it!" Ron bellowed, grabbing Harry by the back of his wetsuit and twisting him around to watch the oncoming waves. Harry growled in annoyance at the manhandling, snaring back onto Ron's arm with a vice grip, the two back to back in the water and watching from both directions.
The first swell rose beneath them, the two bobbing with it, Harry counting…
Count the next wave's impact. They'd ride it out, then make a swim for it between waves.
Simple, right?
"Move after the next one!" Harry bellowed.
"Geeze, and here I was hoping we could STAY AWHILE!"
Before he could retort about the hexing Hermione would give them both if either got crushed, water sprayed him in the face, Harry sputtering. He squinted against the onslaught as the next wave rolled beneath them, sending them drifting high up, then dropping back down as they rode the swell. Waiting…waiting…
"NOW!"
Ron's arm yanked Harry around so damn fast he barely recognized what had happened, his best mate practically launching him through the water and taking off right behind him. He wasn't complaining about Ron's bite or the unnatural strength it'd given him, speed essential.
Harry reached the rocks and threw himself onto them, scrambling up and snagging Ron by the arm, hauling him up behind him.
They had precisely three damn seconds before the next brutal wave bashed against them. It sent them sprawling, sliding over the slick-rock and careening against the barrier that Riddle himself had created. On all fours Harry shoved himself up, spitting and choking on water, coughing heavily. Ron was doing the same, the frothing sea surrounding them on all sides.
The rocky outcropping surrounding the island was long, Harry peering down its length, looking for the others to see if they'd made it. He could see Professor Gai clinging to the rock like a half-dead guppy, Dean gripping the rocks in a desperate effort to hold on while they held position. His chest lurched, his grip on the rock so tight he was drawing blood, Harry scanning…
He was just in time to see a bloodied Kaylens screaming, her voice lost amidst the waves, waving frantically at Dean and pointing at something. Harry followed her finger…
In the water something was bobbing limply, a speck of yellow visible against the gray waters.
It was like a bludger had taken him in the stomach, Harry unable to breathe even before the next wave broke against them. Bill.
Kaylens was standing, teetering on the edge of the rocks, bleeding, her eyes scanning the waters, mouthing soundless numbers.
A frigid realization swept him; she was counting the waves, the time they were taking between crests.
There was no time to react, to bellow at her to stop.
She'd dove back into the churning fray, Dean Thomas right behind her.
ECOTS
Kally swam down, lungs burning, seizing as she did the exact opposite of everything that made sense and same away from the rocks. She had to get far enough away to avoid being thrown against them again. If she was…
She wasn't sure she'd hold up. Everything in her already hurt, screaming. She hadn't felt this kind of pain since Potter had thrown her down the stairs at Grimmauld, trying to get her out of Remus' path after he'd transformed into a werewolf.
A sudden movement near her, underwater sent her into a near panic as the solitary thought of shark flew through her mind. Kally spun, the current nearly taking her, nearly inhaling the salty Atlantic.
The dark form was just Dean, Dean-bloody-Thomas swimming after her, Kally almost letting out a relieved laugh. The wizard was already starting to surface-
Kally's head broke the angry waters with him, the calm scene beneath the water instantly lost to the raging rampage that was this cursed sea. Dean's hand latched tightly onto her arm, causing her to hiss at the pain. The whole of her right arm was nothing more than a raw patch of skin, a rough abrasion running its length from her last encounter with those bastard rocks.
Dean didn't give a rat's ass though, his grip strength doubling remorselessly onto her as the waves tried to tear them apart, both of them scanning the water for Bill.
"THERE!"
Dean had already dove away towards Bill's limp body, grabbing the wizard by the back of the shoulders, the Weasley's broken helmet against Dean's chest as he started to swim backwards. "Kal-"
She already had a hold of Dean, shouting back, "I KNOW!" Her eyes were raking the rocks, looking for the safest route back in, yet every sodding one still looked deadly. The first time had nearly killed her, and Bill…
The two of them hadn't picked a good spot to get onto the rocks. That was now obvious. Not that either of them had been given a choice.
The towering swells were nearly impossible to see around, the sea rising and falling heavily around them, Dean's ragged gasps as he tried to stay afloat while keeping Bill's head out of the water sending her heart racing.
A swell went down in front of them, Kally spotting Professor Gai scrambling between the waves breaking against the rocks, their professor holding a hand up at them, the wizard counting for them, clearly trying to time it for them given that, from his vantage, he could see what was coming better.
It was well over a minute before something happened.
The professor started to wave them in, frantically, Kally's head turning back-
There was a fin in the water.
She tried to scream, but couldn't. The sound died in her throat, it clenching, not working.
Her blood, or Bill's, had attracted it. She didn't know whose.
Her head whipped around to find that Professor Gai was gesturing to move, and to move fast.
Waves slammed against the rocks, Kally and Dean swimming after them. Somehow, by sheer sodding luck they made it without being body slammed against it, the shark circling only meters behind where they were.
Professor Gai had already dropped down to his knees, shouting at them. "What happened!?"
Kally snared a hand onto a rocky shard, holding on as the foam rolled over them. "I don't know! I think he got slammed into the rocks!"
Dean was already bent over Bill, smacking the wizard's face, getting nothing. Tres snagged Dean roughly by the wrist, his medical training something they needed as he snapped, "Don't jostle him!"
Dean gaped outright, gesturing at the violent waves they'd just been in. "Have you seen it out there?! We're past jostling and well onto jirate cycle!"
"We have to keep his neck intact!"
"Bit bloody late for that isn't it!?"
In the distance she could dimly hear yelling, her head darting up, hair slung in her face-
Through the mist and spray she could see them: Ron, Potter. They were okay. Ron appeared to be pinned to the rocks, Harry shouting at him, the two fighting.
"He's not breathing."
Kally's head whipped around to stare, her breath stilling despite the tumult around them. Tres' hand was moving from beneath Bill's nose to his neck, fingers shoved beneath the wetsuit and feeling frantically.
The look on the professor's face turned ashen, pale. Suddenly the thirty-something year old Professor looked young, scared, not at all like the DADA Professor that had gotten them through Dublin and past murderous undead.
Another wave slammed down, all three of them hunkering down and doing their best to remain on the rocks.
Tres' head shot up. "We can't resuscitate him here," he ordered. "We have to get him to shore." Light brown eyes darted around, landing on the doorways.
A sudden shouting resounded, Kally's eyes darting towards Potter and Ron, finding them both pointing-
A flare was in the sky.
The others were in position.
Dean had seen it too, already dragging Bill farther onto the rocks towards one of the holes. A second later her best friend tried to stick his hand in-
"No!"
Tres had snared his hand an instant before the metal spike slammed down, nearly taking off Dean's fingers. He was breathing hard, staring in shock.
Professor Gai released his grip on his student, ordering, "Poison. Remember what Regulus said!"
Dean nodded, stunned, slamming his hand down onto a sharp rock, tearing open his hand until it bled freely, the brash Gryffindor all but flinging his blood into the small opening, hitting the spikes with bloody drop after bloody drop.
It wasn't until the angry spike was coated that it suddenly glowed a deep red, the rocks around it beginning to glow, lighting up the churning gray waters around them.
His hold on Bill never once waivered,
Professor Gai had bolted between the waves, desperately headed for another doorway to do the same.
Despite the doorway having received its blood offering, it wasn't opening. Kally stared, not moving. Dumbledore and Regulus had been right. "We need thirteen, Dean," she managed, staring at Bill's limp, lifeless form.
But would the wards accept Bill's blood? Would they know that he wasn't alright?
She slid across the rocks to them before she could think about it, snagging Bill's hand and stabbing it onto the same rock Dean had used to tear open his own hand, blood oozing out. Her hand was instantly on his, smearing it onto her fingers, letting it pool into her hand, Dean gaping at her.
It wasn't until she had enough blood that she bolted towards the next nearest entryway, overturning her palm and flinging it inside-
Nothing.
She ran back, retrieving more, repeating. The process was agonizingly long. Dean couldn't move, he couldn't help her, because if he let go of Bill for even a second he might wash away. This time when she flung the blood though…
It glowed red.
Good enough.
She could hear Dean shouting after her, Kally already bolting farther away, slipping and sliding until she was almost out of ear shot. Finally she slid past the last doorway, another hole in the rock visible, as was the penetrating and rusted spike within it.
Kally slammed the back of her forearm down onto a sharp rock, that part of her arm already bleeding, letting out a scream from the pain as more blood welled up.
She was gathering it in her free hand a second later, breathing hard, heavy, flinging the blood inside the doorway, hoping it wasn't mixing with Bill's.
It didn't.
It glowed red.
Her gaze shot down the length of the rocky barrier, finding that it was a long chain of glowing red, seeing the others, all except Bill, standing.
Then everything around her rumbled, the doorways opening, allowing a clear path through them without the risk of impalement. The raging sea suddenly stopped, a clear, watery path between the rocky barriers and the shore now present. Behind them the sea continued to rage, and yet…
The water between the barrier and the beach was smooth, clear, looking like it belonged on a vacation magazine cover.
Dean and Professor Gai were trying to move Bill, dragging him towards the water. This was still too easy, something wrong. Kally's eyes began searching. There were gaps in the barrier, where the water could get through the interchange between turbid and calm seas, but no human could safely fit.
A fin slid through the small space. An impossibly large fin.
It was the one Professor Gai had seen.
They didn't stand a chance.
"WAIT!" she screamed, Dean and Tres' heads darting up a mere meter before going in, their water shoes sliding dangerously on the rocks. She was gesturing, shouting, Harry and Ron already running down the length of the rocks, dodging breaking waves as they rushed towards Bill, slipping and sliding along the barrier-
If they jumped in they were dead. Even in the calm waters, with that shark there and all of them bleeding, they were dead. She could only imagine what kind of sharks Voldemort had permitted here, and they couldn't use magic.
All of a sudden she deeply regretted having argued with Dean about sharks and the food chain.
She looked down at her fingers, concentrating, concentrating hard, feeling a slight tingling on her fingertips.
It was good enough.
Kally hovered there on the edge of the rocks, staring at the others. Even at this distance she could see the sudden comprehension on Dean's face.
"Kally NO!"
She threw herself headfirst into the water, the calm surface bubbling around her. She kicked, moving as fast as she could, swimming a few lengths out. She'd been bashed against the rocks before, pain in every single movement. She was bleeding from her whole right side, warmth from the abrasions and her arm flowing freely into the tranquil blue.
Her head surfaced, Kally stopping, floating there in the water, utterly defenseless. She could hear Dean, Potter screaming her name.
She ignored them.
She began smacking her hands on the surface, furiously. Imitating a dying fish wasn't hard, the blood pooling in the water around her. The tingling, the healing from the unicorn blood within her had already started across her skin, prickling across her flesh, but she was screaming, shouting, trying to get that thing's attention before she could heal.
The others…they wouldn't heal the same way she did. Maybe Potter would, but the others?
She stood a chance.
They did not. Not with a hundred more meters to swim. Not with Bill's dead weight.
Kicking her feet, screaming, she tried to draw the shark towards her, away from them.
It worked.
The fin turned away from the rocks, moving towards her.
Kally threw herself into the water, swimming away from them, swimming for her life.
ECOTS
Harry lunged-
A powerful grip snared onto him, slamming him against the rocks and pinning him, Ron's forearm near his throat. "Leave her!"
He'd done the very same thing to Ron not a minute ago. He'd tried to run to his brother, Harry cursedly aware that if they didn't get the doorways to open first that they wouldn't be able to help Bill at all.
He wasn't dumb. He knew damn well that no one floated face down in the water like that while still drawing breath. He'd seen it before, with Kaylens.
Only there was no safe place for anyone to get Bill breathing again, not where they'd stood. They'd have to move to do that, and they couldn't move unless Ron threw his blood on a doorway.
By the time he'd gotten done shouting that into his best friend's face Ron had grown red, finally listening.
Now Harry found himself in the same damn position. "Get off me!"
"No!" Ron's blue gaze had turned icy, something trembling dangerously in his expression. "We've gotta go, Harry! For once in your life trust her to take care of herself!"
He felt like he'd been punched in the gut. He felt sick. Bill's body was drug off the rocks, down into the water with Dean and Professor Gai. In the distance he could see splashing, Kally too far off to reach.
Not in time anyway.
He felt sick.
Something he'd never seen before was in Ron's gaze. It was a whole new kind of terror, his best friend shaking, the wetness in his gaze not from the water.
Bill.
Harry's throat clenched, and then he nodded, holding up his hands. "Okay….okay."
Ron remained there, waves battering around them for another brutal second, as if making sure-
Then he shoved him towards the doorway with a growl, the two bolting onto the calmer side of the rocks and jumping in after the others.
Harry swam for the shore like the life of another depended on it.
He'd barely made it, staggering up onto the rocky-sand, rocks crunching beneath his feet. Bill had been deposited into the surf, no time wasted, Professor Gai already over him, shoving down on his chest, compression after compression being delivered, the DADA Professor shouting orders at Thomas regarding the airway.
A frighteningly familiar golden light erupted from the water, far off down the shoreline, the light blazing for a brief second-
Then nothing.
Harry's blood ran cold.
He was stumbling forward before he could realize what he was doing, his attentions torn between Bill and Kaylens. CPR was a team sport. Tres had taught them that much, and Bill was Ron's brother. He couldn't just leave him to have to jump in.
"Ron," he choked, "are you-"
Ron was still on all fours on the ground, coughing on inhaled saltwater. "Yes," he wheezed, having already anticipated his question, "now go."
Tres and Dean were oblivious to the exchange, the two focused solely on Bill, Tres attempting to cast another spell with a miraculously unbroken wand, getting nothing out of it.
Black had been right. Wand magic didn't work here.
"But-" Harry choked. "He's your brother."
Ron sounded like he was being strangled. "He's yours too."
Professor Gai's helmet flew off, slamming against the sand and rocks, the wizard still shoving hard and fast. "-twenty three, twenty four, twenty five-"
The crunching of Bill's ribcage could be heard, Harry's skin crawling. Harry couldn't yank his gaze from Ron, frozen. "If you wanted me to go to her," he practically bit, "then why'd you not let me-"
Ron's ragged growl cut through the air, his friend's hand shooting out and grabbing onto his leg like a vice. "Because if she'd done all that," he practically growled, "just for you both to get eaten it'd have been pointless." Fierce, conflicted eyes met him. "Kaylens would have come back to kill me from beyond the grave for letting you, Harry." Ron's burning gaze then shifted, fixating onto his brother, looking unbelievably numb.
Harry stood there for a half second of indecision, not knowing what the hell to do. Only twenty seconds had passed since the golden flash, but-
"Harry," Ron ground hollowly, not looking at him. "No one else…no one." He didn't have to finish what he was saying. Harry already knew.
No one else dies.
Ron's angered gaze fixed onto him. "Now get her."
Harry was already running, feet pounding across the sharp rocks, the water shoes they'd all donned doing little to combat against the sodding pain, but he didn't sodding care. He ran down the beach like a man possessed, the realization that he was running away from his pulseless brother, leaving his other brother to sodding help, not having a clue if the others had even made it…
He burst through a patch of tall grass, smacking the surprisingly sharp blades out of the way, sliding on rocks-
Her body was prone in the surf, face down, sea foam rolling around her.
Harry's heart practically flat lined.
He'd skidded across the strange mix of rock and sand that seemed to define this cursed place, throwing himself down into the surf besides her, the wetsuit over his knees tearing and leaving a bloodied trail as he grabbed her roughly by the shoulder-
Kaylens' entire body abruptly shook in a racking cough, her weak hand snaring reflexively around his forearm, a sudden shock of defensive electricity riffling across his flesh as if she intended to harm him-
Her magic jarred him, it only just stopping in time.
"Kaylens," he choked, shoving her over, the non-witch flipping limply over onto her back as another wave rolled past, soaking her hair, her helmet lost somewhere.
It took him a second to see it, the bright yellow thing having washed up farther along the beach, teeth marks visible within it.
It was crushed beyond recognition.
Harry's hands grabbed at her head, shoving her hair away from her face, searching for marks, searching for damage-
Kalliandra's fingers tightened, her nails digging against the neoprene of his suit, the infuriating, impossibly suicidal, stupid woman quietly choking, "I'm fine, Harry."
His hands froze, half-tangled in her hair, her bloodied arm telling a different story. He blinked, staring, unable to formulate anything other than a barely coherent, "What?"
She was breathing harder, deeper, another watery cough shaking her. Had it been a different situation, somewhere else, the things her chest did when she coughed would have distracted him. They would have made him consider throwing her down to do things to her. But now, here… "My helmet," she wheezed, breathing as if she'd just run a marathon, "I hit it with it."
And then, to his shock, Kaylens started to laugh.
She laughed, half-hysterically.
Then her fingers slipped away from him, the non-witch rolling over onto her side in the sparse inches of water, ragged coughs and laughs shaking her entire frame, a ragged piece of wetsuit flapping off her arm. He could only stare, his hands frozen on the thin air where she'd just been.
"You…hit it…with it," he repeated, stunned.
She panted harder, choking on a ragged gasp and a ragged laugh. "He didn't," she coughed, "appreciate it." Another wave broke against them, spray flying around their faces, Kally's glorious golden eyes clenching against the foam. Harry watched as Kaylens' fingertips curled, sinking deep into the sand, trying to keep from being sucked back into the sea-
Harry grabbed her again, stopping the shallow water she lay within from pulling her back out with it. "You hit the shark?"
"In my defense," she rasped, "he was trying to eat me." Slowly, gingerly she moved, Harry's grip abruptly abandoning her as she shoved herself shakily up onto her arms and knees. Harry was so sodding stunned he couldn't move, frozen in place, rocks digging against his shins.
"It was," she breathed, bruising already starting across her cheek, "unbelievably impolite."
She was on all fours, breathing hard, hair hanging in her face. The wizard staggered to his feet, standing to look between her and the water. Out in the sea he could see a gray body floating, the tail the wrong side up, it obvious what had happened.
She was a living grim.
Harry's eyes suddenly blazed, unchecked fury alive within them. He'd grabbed a hold of her arm that wasn't bleeding, tearing her to her feet so fast that even he was shocked at the violence, releasing her angrily as soon as she was upright. "Kaylens, what the hell was that?!"
The witch blinked, stumbling on weak legs, looking almost disoriented. Bill was dying, and she was laughing. "There was a shark," she said, as if it were the simplest, most obvious answer in the world.
Harry's mind flew, wrapping around this. She'd drawn. She'd drawn alone, in the water, on an island that practically pulsated with dark magic. She'd swam away from them.
Had he not done similar things himself mid-battle he'd have grabbed her and shaken her as violently as possible.
Instead he stared. "What the hell," he growled, barely maintaining control, "were you thinking?"
Water sloshed around their feet, the blue-gray color tinged with something coppery, Harry knowing damn well what it was. Her blood.
Champagne colored eyes blinked at him, Kaylens lips parting, voice weak. "All of you were bleeding."
"So were you."
She shook her head, her long hair hanging limply in front of her face, obscuring one of her eyes. "You wouldn't have made it," she half-whispered. "Not swimming with Bill, with all of you bleeding like that. Not without magic-"
Harry stared at her as if she'd lost her mind, his gaze raking down her arm and side, the non-witch clearly having been bashed against the rocks. He had minor cuts and the one large gash on his hand. Her side looked damn near mangled.
"You were bleeding," he challenged, abruptly snaring her arm and twisting her to inspect, "worse."
Every centimeter of Kaylens smooth skin instantly shuddered beneath his touch, the sodding sensation that contact with her always caused affecting him as well. Her skin was icy, cool, all the warming charms having long since worn off, everything about this, about her distracting.
She shivered. "That," she swallowed, "was the idea. I didn't want it near the rest of yo-"
"I'm aware," he hissed viciously, "of what you we're doing." His gaze raked over her quickly, turning her without apology as he scanned her, his hand roughly gripping her hair and checking the back of her head again to ensure she hadn't been bashed in it with something. That'd at least explain a lot.
Kaylens made a gagging, wheezing sound, Harry jerking her around to face him. His green gaze blazed without restraint, his fingers so tight on her wrist that it was a marvel she wasn't cringing in pain.
"Kaylens, you could have been killed!"
"I wasn't." Something sparked within her gaze, her head slowly shaking.
Standing there with her, standing so close in the dying sun of a North Carolina barrier island, Kaylens' hair sopping wet and dripping down her shivering form, sand stretching out endlessly behind her, Harry could have been beholding an image from one of his damn dreams. But he wasn't.
Blood dripped slowly down her brutalized arm, staining her hand, her fingers red…
A drop fell to tinge the sand with cruor.
Cogency fled him.
He yanked her closer, staring her down. "What was your plan?" he demanded, heart pounding at the sight of her crushed helmet laying in the surf.
Her mouth had parted, those delicious sodding lips of hers barely breathing. She was still unsteady on her feet, Harry's other hand abruptly rising and grabbing onto her opposing shoulder to ensure she didn't go down. Drawing made her weak. She could have drowned.
She was still shaking her head. "When water's calm I can swim fast, Harry."
"So," he angrily bit, "do sharks."
He could visibly see her wince, but understanding swirled within her irises. "I know."
She'd known the risk, and she'd taken it anyway.
She'd promised. She'd promised to try to make sure she was still alive for him once everything was said and done, once everything was over, and then she'd gone and done something like this. He could hear his pulse pounding in his ears, fear over what she might do next to get herself nearly killed, fear for his brother laying in the sand farther down competing with one another, assaulting his every sense.
Bill.
The hard part of Harry's throat rose and fell in a rough swallow, his gaze instantly tearing from hers to scan the beach, the water, searching for threats. "We've got to go." His voice was so gruff even he barely recognized it.
Her eyes widened in recognition. "Bill."
Harry's hand dropped from her wrist to snare her fingers between his, tugging her with him. She was alive.
Ron had been right.
He should have trusted her.
Anger still flooded his veins like a toxin, scar almost burning.
He smacked the tall grasses out of their way, Kaylens' disorientation from drawing suddenly, without her wand not enough to have rendered her unconscious. Thank Merlin. Had it…
She would have drowned.
He'd breathed for her once before. He wasn't eager to repeat the experience.
"How'd you know drawing was going to even work?" he demanded, vaulting over a rock, Kaylens with him at every step.
"I didn't." She sounded winded, Harry slowing his pace only marginally to glare back.
"You didn't?" he dangerously rumbled, growing louder. "So what was your plan when it caught you? You were just gambling that it would work?"
"Yes." At some point they'd released one another's hands, now running alongside one another, Kaylen's panting.
Harry was going to kill her. He was going to throw her down and sodding kill her. Tie her up and keep her from ever going anywhere again. He-
His scar was burning. Something sizzled with extreme intensity, his skin abruptly burning. Harry stumbled, wincing, grabbing onto his forehead as if a bludger had suddenly struck him.
Kally's feet stuttered, sliding to a stop on the sand, the non-witch's hands on either side of his face in a heartbeat as far off someone began groaning in pain. It took him a moment to realize that the sound was coming from him. A wave of cold, cool fury washed through him.
Before he even knew what was happening fingers were against his burning scar, the merest touch causing a growl, Harry collapsing, dropping down, crouching on the sand, shouting-
He could feel him. He could feel him close, a vicious whisper within his mind. Yessssss Harrrrrry. Givvve in. Fightiiiiing….itssss ssssooo worthlesssss. The othersssss….ssso uncaring.
Distantly he could feel the pain in his knees, sharp rocks digging through the neoprene and cutting into his flesh. He could hear his name, Kaylens shouting it, something urgent, frightened in her voice.
Leeavvve Harrrry. Come to me. You know why now, don't you? Come to me, and you can live. Come to me and sssshe doesssnt have to die. Ssssssserve meeeee. Rulllllle with meeee. We can togethhhhhher. Lasssssh outtttt Harrrry. You do not neeeeed them.
His chest was rising, falling, heaving as the angered, heavy, adrenaline laced fury flew through him, pumping through his veins. The intrusion into his mind, the words…he couldn't tell where he began and the other voice began.
Dumbledore liesssss. He knew all along, Harrrry. He kept thissss from you.
Harry's muscles vibrated with tension. Dumbledore had lied. He'd manipulated them. The words in his mind made sense. They were on an island about to die and for what? For a stupid war? For a fight between two old wizards? For-
Lips slammed against his, Kaylens suddenly on him. The back of Harry's head bashed against the sand, the weight of the non-witch fully on him, straddling him, her hands everywhere.
Voldemort's voice within his mind stuttered.
Kaylens.
Instantly Harry had seized her hips, throwing her over, onto her back. Muddy sand slung from her hair, striking him in the face, the non-witch letting out a startled sound, but she didn't stop.
Her hands clung to him, tight against the wetsuit sticking to his chest, pulling him hard against her mouth, his mind clearing of everything except her. The pain, the burning in his skull was abating, lessening, the voice weakening. The fog was clearing. Occlumency…he could fight this. He could fight him.
Harry kissed her with everything he had.
Ten seconds, then twenty, then thirty passed. Finally, unable to even breathe he jerked back, away from her lips, finding her hair tangled, fisted within his bloodied grip. Kaylens was flat on her back, half sunk into the sand beneath his weight, her chest heaving with needing breaths as she stared up at him with swollen lips.
It took him a second to realize what had happened; she knew. She knew he was a horcrux. He'd told her about Occlumency, how he had to clear his sodding mind for it to work, to defend against him. He'd told her how his scar burned when Voldemort tried to get in, and how being with her let him sodding forget everything.
Being with her helped; he could clear his mind. It was just him and her, and screw everyone else. Everything was simple.
Whatever he'd been about to do under Voldemort's influence she'd stopped him, by quite literally throwing herself at him.
Breathing hard, unable to utter apology, he stared down. She was under him, like she'd been last night, only this time…
This time was different.
"Thanks," he ground hoarsely, swallowing hard.
She just nodded, understanding written upon her expression, lingering within her eyes. "No problem," she gasped.
Harry drug his body off hers, snagging her hand, a barely whispered, "Come on," shamefully managed.
They reached the others within minutes, the dull burn of his scar remaining, but held at bay. The fierce anger he'd felt at her for doing something so brash, something so typically Gryffindor, along with the piercing fear and knowledge that he could have lost her had given Riddle a way inside his head.
The bastard had been waiting for a moment of weakness to get to him.
It would not happen again.
It was already too late though. Thanks to that moment of weakness the bastard had seen through his eyes, and seen where they were.
He'd be coming for them, and soon.
They reached the others right as Tonks came running over the cresting sand dune, sliding to a halt, staring in horror. Her now blue-green hair hung limply around her heart shaped face, her expression looking like her heart was shattering.
Ron was bent over Bill giving chest compressions. Professor Gai was breathing for him around the helmet, Dean keeling to the side and breathing unsteadily as if he too had just been given the workout of his life.
They'd practiced CPR in DADA class. It was exhausting. There was nothing elegant or easy about slamming down on another person's chest repeatedly. That was the whole point: to violently shove until the heart was literally smashed beneath your hands from the outside, it a poor mimickery of its natural pumping but the only option when it had stopped.
The three had clearly been switching on and off to do it, and yet…
Bill still lay there, his skin a pale, ashen-gray, gaze cracked and unseeing. Each time Ron's hands pressed down on his brother's chest Bill's body shook. It shook loosely, in an unnatural, atypical way. It was uncontrolled. One didn't realize what they were seeing until they actually saw it, but the human body rarely moved without some form of control, measuredness to the movements. But now…
Bill's just shook.
A loud swearing resounded from the hill alongside Tonks, Regulus Black standing there, dark hair and unshaven scruff dripping as he saw the scene. Behind him the others were coming; first Fred, then Luna and Neville.
Dumbledore and Diggles were nowhere in sight.
Harry's gaze desperately caught Tonks, his hand still gripping Kaylens' fiercely. Everything in him went utterly, completely still. His mouth opened, jaw flapping wordlessly, scar burning.
Tonks just shook her head, eyes moving from him to Bill. "Diggles is dead." The words were hollow.
Alongside him Kaylens made a sound. She'd known Diggles, fought alongside him in the Battle of Grimmauld. They'd been on friendly terms.
He didn't know what to say. Instead he just stood there, staring, watching Sirius' ghost, an alleged Muggle doctor and self-declared Healer all but shoving Ron out of the way, the wizard's wand as ineffectual on Bill as everything else had been. Spell after spell was tried, a defibrillation charm tried and failing to so much as cause even the slightest spark.
Regulus was checking Bill's pulse, Professor Gai telling, "We've already done that."
Regulus' cold black eyes locked cruelly onto his. "We're doing it again." He swore. "Nothing."
"I know," Tres confirmed, Dean having jumped in to begin compressions once more, on the opposite side of the body from Regulus.
Black just looked at the determined Gryffindor's face. "You might as well stop, boy," he said, words emotionless. "Without defibrillation no one regains a pulse in the field."
Dean's lips curled back, a cursed, "No," spat out.
Regulus just watched, no malice in his words or expression. "Even with immediate hospitalization and advanced care, Dean, the chances of regaining a pulse on an adult drowning victim hover at less than five percent."
Harry felt the wind driven from his lungs. Fred Weasley stumbled forward, Ron grabbing his brother before he could lunge to get in the way, Harry's best friend for once the composed one, fighting as Fred tried to get past him, shouting that it wouldn't do any good to interfere.
It was like Harry was hearing all of it through noise cancelling earplugs. The sounds were all distant, like he wasn't there, a dull hiss still within his mind.
He closed his eyes, slowing his breathing, clearing his mind.
Kaylens' hand slipped from his, Harry missing the sudden fierce look in her eye.
ECOTS
"Defibrillation, it's just electricity…right?"
Regulus shot her a look, his gaze narrowing in contemplation. Kally had fallen to the ground alongside Dean, a hand placed on his shoulder, her entire form feeling shaken, pained from Potter throwing her around under that bastard snake's influence. She'd also drawn in the water, but not much. It hadn't taken much to kill that oversized fish.
She was weak, shaky, but not dead.
A spark of something lit within Black's gaze, the wizard comprehending before anyone else did. "Both sides of the chest, girl," he growled, "one on the top right, one on the lower left below the nipple, along the side."
Kally was already nodding, pushing Dean gently out of the way.
A second later her hands were on Bill's chest, shoved beneath the wetsuit, breaths coming quicker, eyes clenching shut. Pressure was building in her ears, building around her, pressing down as she desperately fought for control.
The static electricity prickled across the back of her neck, her wet hair almost crackling-
The jolt shot out of her hands into Bill Weasley's chest the next instant, the jolt knocking her back. Dean was already there, Kally smacking against his chest, strong hands grabbing a firm hold of her, his arms physically shaking from his previous exertions as he held her upright, both of them on their knees on the ground-
Regulus was checking for a pulse, shaking his head-
Kally tried again.
Then again.
It wasn't until the fifth time, her vision beginning to leave, filling with black spots that Regulus shouted something. It sounded like he's back.
She could barely breathe, leaning fully against Dean now, her friend's warm arms wrapping protectively around her, muttering dark things at her for that 'stunt she'd pulled back there.'
A wane smile touched her lips, Dean's grazing her ear. She could hear Professor Gai ordering Neville to take over breathing for Bill. The wizard still wasn't breathing on his own. She could hear Regulus questioning 'why in the hell the helmet was still on him' and 'have any of you imbeciles checked?'
She heard a squelching, sickening sound, her eyes blearily fluttering open.
They'd finally removed the cracked helmet.
A piece of Bill's skull had come off with it.
ECOTS
A stringy chunk of ripe, red flesh stretched out like a piece of uncooked, sinewy meat between Bill's skull and the inside of the helmet. Professor Gai had frozen, the helmet in his hands, a clear liquid draining out of the hole in Bill Weasley's skull.
A strange, lobed material could be seen from Harry's angle, a sudden vomiting heard off to the side, Fred Weasley doubled over, losing it.
Ron's hold remained firm on his brother, blue eyes staring vacantly at the form of his brother, Neville trying to not gag as he dutifully continued providing rescue breaths despite the clear futility.
Professor Gai had nearly recoiled, staring in slow-moving horror, while Regulus Black's expression did not so much as move, no emotion in his unfeeling eyes.
Then slowly, very slowly he lifted a hand, placing it on Neville's shoulder. "Stop Longbottom."
Neville stopped, hovering, looking like he was fighting down gags at the clear stench of brain matter he had to be breathing in, being that close to it. Regulus just shook his head, grimacing.
"No!" Fred was wiping vomit off his face with his hand. "You said he has a pulse. He's still-"
"It's a muscle," Regulus stated unaffectedly. "It can self-regulate itself, so yes…it might pump, for now." An overwrought line traced across the wizard's thin mouth. "With that degree of brain damage it will not for long." The potion's master turned to observe the two brothers, an unreadable shadow passing through his eyes, something almost like apology in them.
It was so brief it was almost not there at all, Professor Gai making a strangled sound. "We…we won't be able to get him breathing on his own, boys." He too turned his attention towards Fred and Ron Weasley. "The damage…I am so sorry."
Harry couldn't look away. He stood there, fists tensing, breathing harshly. Kally had torn away from him, to try to help, having restarted Bill's heart. The non-witch now looked terrible and all for nothing.
There wasn't anything they could do.
Fred was stammering something weakly about 'if they got him to Mungos,' but Tres and Regulus were both shaking their heads. "Even if we could Fred, Mungos cannot repair this." Something particularly strained was on Tres' face.
He had to be thinking of how very close Amarante had come to the same fate.
Dean Thomas was on the ground, his arms wrapped tightly around Kaylens, clutching her against his chest. He had his face buried in her hair, muttering things about her being alright, his hands on her.
Harry was numb. He felt numb.
He couldn't even muster the jealousy, the strength to walk over there to tear Dean away from her. So he just stood there, staring as Regulus Black finally stood up, backing away from Bill Weasley's dead body, Professor Gai's fingers checking the pulse of the eldest Weasley's carotid, his eyes closing, just waiting…
Silence hovered like a heavy cloak, then finally…
"He's gone."
Ron grunted, his friend's jaw so tense it vibrated viciously, his grip on Fred turning white with the force.
From up on the hill Tonks let out a heart wrenching sob. It took him a second to realize that they had been friends, that Tonks and Bill had gone to school together.
It was the equivalent of him seeing Hermione or Ron laying there, blood and brain matter on the sand.
Harry turned a deadened gaze on the others, cruelly aware that moments before he'd been tussling with Kaylens in the sand, snogging the breath from her lungs, Riddle in his head.
"Voldemort knows," he ground numbly, green gaze sweeping across the survivors, "and he's coming."
