"In your lifetime, have you known peace?"
~ Rebecca West
Chapter 52 ~ Blood in the Water ~ Part 1
ECOTS
"REMUS!"
Regulus Black snared the small Auror bodily about the waist, tugging his cousin back from the water's edge. He'd seen what she had not – a fin swimming within the shallows, dangerously near.
Tonks rewarded her cousin's first and only attempt at heroism by driving her elbow back against his nose, the cracking of cartilage loud enough for even Harry to wince.
"You wretched spawn of Androme-"
Tonks bolted back into the surf without even listening to Regulus' shouts. Panic was in her. Remus was on board that ship. Kingsley, Arthur, Mad-Eye, Fleur-
Fred Weasley tackled her before she'd made it even five steps, the water barely up to her knees.
He hit her so hard it knocked her backwards over a meter. The two slammed into the surf, a tangle of limbs and shouts, water splashing in every direction. Tonks fought. "FRED! WHAT THE-"
Fred Weasley – who she was later going to hex bald - quite literally rolled on top of her, straddling to pin her roughly against the wet sand. Sea foam sprayed her in the face, nearly lapping over her mouth. "Tonks-Tonks look!"
"Fred! Your dad is out there! We have to-"
"Tonks shut the hellup and LOOK!"
Fred's jaw was vibrating. He almost never looked serious. Tonks' blood went cold. She wanted to scream at him, shake him off, but she knew she was outmatched in terms of strength. Without her wand she wouldn't win.
Or would she?
Tonks held still for a second, long enough for Fred's grip to loosen, a wave breaking against his back-
She jerked her leg out from under him, kneeing him somewhere unkind – she'd apologize later – shifting her weight and throwing him off her.
Fred let out a high-pitched, "Son of a-"
She was already scrambling back into the water when she was seized from behind almost violently.
Ron Weasley grabbed her, his grip so tight it was physically painful. Tonks was on her knees in the water, screaming, fighting, only for Ron to snarl into her ear, "Tonks sharks! There's sharks! Will you sodding STOP and look!?"
Tonks froze, pure and unadulterated panic seizing her as she watched a fin slice through the water not two meters from where they knelt in the surf. It was deeper there. She'd nearly-
Abruptly she was forcefully wrenched to her feet, violently pulled back, Ron grasping her with a strength the Auror hadn't known the Gryffindor had. It was out-of-proportion, reminding her of Remus'.
She was shaking, trying to think. She needed to think. She'd fought side-by-side with Remus for years. Him being in danger was nothing new. She just needed to calm…down. Assess the situation. Figure it out. She could do this.
Ronald Weasley still had a firm hold on her, standing beside her, his red hair slung across his face as he breathed heavily. "Sodding hell woman," he heaved.
Fred let out a pained groan of agreement from his spot on the ground, curled up in the fetal position. Tonks made a mental note to apologize to Molly if he was unable to have children.
Then again Molly had seven children. Rendering one impotent had to be at the bottom of her concerns list.
Tonks' attention snapped back to the sinking boat. "We have to get to them," she whirled around in Ron's grip, dangerously close to his face as she tried to face the group.
Poor Tres was leaning heavily on a large stick, his leg still jacked and unable to support weight on his own. Ronald Weasley eyed her as if he couldn't decide if she'd run away or not, but finally released his hold on her.
She seized the opportunity to plead, gesturing behind her. "We have to help them!"
Regulus waved a hand impatiently over his nose, a wandless episkey fixing the break. A barely controlled vein of fury vibrated within his tone. "We have to what?" he snarled, blood covering his upper lip. "Chum the waters to draw the sharks closer to us? Give the chondrichthyes a pre-shipwreck snack? You're not good to your wolf dead, Nymphadora."
The metamorphmagus' bare feet sunk in the sand. Ravenclaw, Regulus was right. They couldn't just run into the water like this. They'd never make it.
They'd be dead before they ever got to them.
A pained sound escaped her, Tonks spinning on her heels, Ron Weasley grabbing onto her again as if afraid she'd bolt off. She stared, barely making out the almost submerged mast.
They were too late. They were already sunk.
"Merlin Remus…swim. Swim. Please."
ECOTS
"We can't do anything," Professor Gai said, sounding stunned. "Even if we do make it past the sharks on the calm side…once we cross to the stormy side it's just a matter of luck if we make it back."
"We will have to trust," came Dumbledore's quite, resigned voice, "them to make it back to the open sea, or to us, on their own."
Harry did not miss the way Tonks' eyes shot towards them, the Auror's face torn in such an array of contrasting emotions that it was terrifying. Her hair had begun turning multiple colors, as if she'd lost complete and total control of what it was doing.
"And if they can't?" the Auror whispered.
Neville audibly gulped alongside them. "They'll have to. Dumbledore's right. All we'll be is more bodies that might get smashed against the rocks if we go out there after them. They can swim as well as we can given the circumstances." The wizard shook his head, almost in disgust. "The only reason we all made it through that was blind luck."
Harry couldn't argue with his dorm mate's logic, his hand clenching hard around Kaylens'.
Unlike Tonks she had not tried to rush the water; instead she'd gone preternaturally still, her golden eyes fixed upon the scene playing out before them.
"Our dad's on board…" Fred's voice was still high pitched.
Another shark joined the one patrolling the beach. It was as if they sensed their proximity, eagerly awaiting someone to tread into the shallows.
Tonks almost had.
The fin sliced like a well-sharpened blade through the unnaturally still black waters.
Farther out the mast disappeared.
With a violent lash of the tail one of the sharks changed directions with a large splash.
They were patrolling, moving back and forth. Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Suddenly Harry realized that they were wrong.
They were all wrong.
There was something they could do. Something insane. Just thinking of it had him feeling physically ill, but there wasn't any other choice.
This was war. If their comrades survived the shipwreck, if they somehow survived the turbid waters, the sharks would surely kill them. Even if they didn't kill them here, in the shallow waters, they'd kill them on the other side, or out in the open ocean. There weren't exactly underwater barriers for sea creatures.
With resolve Harry's fingers interlaced tightly with Kaylens, his voice loud enough to address everyone. "We can clear the water."
Everyone turned to look at him, Kally's gaze questioning. Dumbledore just looked like he was thinking, mulling something non-urgent over, as if the lives of five Order members weren't at stake.
"What do you mean by clear the water?" Neville asked, getting right to the point.
The roaring, rolling waves far out could be heard, the sadistic backdrop for their conversation.
Harry drug in a deep breath, wondering if it was too late to rethink this. "We can't help them swim to safety," he said urgently. "We'd get killed trying, but…if they do get out of that mess, the sharks will kill them."
They'd lost Diggles to a shark attack. Dumbledore had filled them in on the less pristine details. He thought that Voldemort had bewitched certain sharks around the island to be bloodthirsty, for human flesh.
The bewitched ones would behave in ways normal sharks wouldn't, and they'd try to kill any person they came across in the water.
Those in the water right now didn't know about the sharks. It was night now.
With the exception of Lupin, who could see in the dark, they'd never see them in time.
Harry's fingers clenched needingly around his girlfriend's, a cold coil rising in his stomach as he spoke. "Kaylens can kill them," he said, not meeting her gaze. He focused instead on Dumbledore. "The others…they won't be able to see in the dark, but Kally, Ron and I….we can. If we swim out, Kaylens can kill those things before they have a chance to eat the others."
His heart was pounding. Harry didn't want this. In fact, if he could come up with literally any other idea he'd seize upon it with the enthusiasm of a virgin being offered a first kiss by the prettiest witch in school.
But there were no other ideas; this was it.
Dumbledore was frowning, as if thinking very hard about something. Luna was frowning as well. "But Harry, do we even know how many there are?"
The words had barely left Luna Lovegood's lips when Kally's hand tore from his. She bolted closer to the water's edge, Ron swearing, releasing Tonks to bolt after Kally now, but Neville and Fred both held up hands, stopping him, obviously knowing something the rest of them didn't.
"Impossible girl," Regulus Black muttered darkly, still feeling his nose, as if inspecting it to ensure it was still straight.
Harry felt like his heart was battering against his ribcage, but he remained still, not moving. He had to trust her. He had to trust her to not get killed, and it was killinghim.
Kally stopped ankle deep in the surf, the sea foam curling around her spectacular feet. It was strange, the things he noticed in the middle of chaos, but Kalliandra had spectacular feet. Even her toes were perfect. Harry wasn't sure he'd ever told her that, but he would. As soon as they were off this damn island he'd bore her by listing off everything he appreciated about her sodding form.
Right now though…Kally hadn't dared enter the water any deeper. Instead she'd sat down in the surf, her legs folded beneath her, both of her hands plunging into the foam and sand, her eyes clenching shut.
As Harry watched, he suddenly recognized exactly what she was doing. He'd seen it once before, after the Battle of Grimmauld, when she'd risked discovery by the Ministry of Magic, when she'd risked everything just on his word, all to help him find a rat.
She could sense life energy.
Harry took a cautious two steps closer, aware that getting any closer would make things harder for her. He still wanted to be close enough to grab her if she lost consciousness and went careening into the waters face first.
He could see her breathing slowing, her chest rising and falling in a pronounced way that did damn interesting things to the shirt covering her.
Suddenly the air was getting heavier, thick. It was like he was no longer breathing in the unique blend of gases that made up Earth's atmosphere, but was instead breathing some type of plasma. The hair on the back of his neck began to rise, the pressure increasing-
Harry heard someone off to the side groan, not sure who and not caring. It was taking all of his effort, all of his energy to just stand, his feet sinking into the wet shoreline. Golden pinpricks had begun to prickle within the air around her, a type of golden fluid rolling off the skin around her wrists, pouring down into her fingertips-
The golden light poured into the water, stretching out, moving swiftly in every direction. It was like seeing hundreds of jellyfish lighting up the dark waters.
One-by-one the bolts of energy halted, stopping as they ran into physical obstacles within the water.
Harry didn't know who fell to their knees first. He thought it might have been Neville, the wizard groaning. Harry couldn't blame him – the pressure within his own head had built to a level that was painful. He managed to remain standing, but he heard the sound of some of the other's collapsing.
The pressure was so intense it was like being trapped underwater.
Kally's breathing had grown erratic, her long tresses framing her face, every smooth centimeter of it screwed into the deepest concentration. She looked pained, like what she was doing was tangibly hurting her. Harry wanted to shake her, to make her stop-
He knew better.
And then one of the fins, the one closest to the beach, began to jerk around. It looked out of control. The splashing was manic, chaotic. It lasted maybe twenty second.
Then a large, gray body flipped, floating unnaturally, and for the first time Harry got an actual good look at one of the sharks.
The underside of it was already decayed. Chunks of its flesh were missing.
Another thrashing began, not much farther out, a second shark suddenly floating lifelessly.
That was followed by a third.
Then a fourth.
That was when Kaylens let out a pained sound, the golden lights abruptly flickering out. The pressure surrounding them all abruptly lifted, Kally falling forward onto her hands in the water, gasping deeply. Flecks of golden light still danced within the air around her, looking like beautiful, tiny fairies flying around her.
Only they weren't fairies.
Harry reached her in three steps, his knees slamming into the surf alongside her. His hand was already on her shoulder, clenching tightly. "Kally…"
She was breathing hard, those gorgeous, full lips of hers parted as she panted. "I know…" she gasped, "I know why it was so easy to kill that shark yesterday."
Harry's grip relaxed upon her, his hand growing still. She looked horrified, her eyes clenching as if she felt sick. He said nothing. He just waited.
"It's because it was already dead."
"Yeah," he ground. "I saw." Kally's head darted up, question in her glittering gaze. Like always, when she drew heavily, her irises sparkled with an aberrant glow.
Months back he'd used that as an excuse at Grimmauld to steal a kiss, to snog her senseless in front of Ministry officials. Now he just tilted his head towards the nearest and newly 'dead' shark, the thing's decaying pelvic fins flapping in the surf.
Her lips parted soundlessly in a silent 'oh.'
"Shit Kally-kins, that freaking hurts," Fred groaned from his spot on the sand, shamelessly rubbing his genitals as he shot Tonks a vicious glare.
The metamorphmagus didn't seem to notice. She just stared out to the sea, clearly looking for Remus.
"How many?"
Both of their heads jerked up, finding Neville standing there, warring looks of concern and business on his face. "How many were there?"
Kally wet her lips, swallowing. "Six, that I could find," she told. "Four are dead. They're all dead, but-"
"The bastard reanimated them." Regulus Black practically sneered the words. "That always was a favorite trick of his – reanimating dead things. Pity the same trick worked with him, or we wouldn't be dealing with this mess." His dark gaze fixed firmly onto Harry now, growling, "Next time you rebound a killing curse onto someone boy, make sure you finish the job."
Had the situation been different, Harry might have laughed. "I was one."
"No," he drawled, "excuse."
Splashing drew all of their attention back down the beach, Tonks once again ankle deep in the water, Ron rather looking like he was developing a twitch in one of the veins in his forehead. "Two left." She frowned. "That's still enough to kill them."
The fishing trawler could no longer be seen.
Everyone turned to look at Kaylens, Harry internally wincing. "Think you can do that again, Kal?" Dean asked.
She nodded, looking far too weak for Harry's liking. "Yeah. Things that are already dead…they're easier. Just…" she shook her head. "I have to get closer. I can't actually touch those other two. They were hovering too close to the breakers out there."
All of their eyes turned towards the brutally deadly rocks, the ones separating the turbid and crashing sea from the unbelievable calm of the beach's sound.
"That's right where they'll be swimming…" Luna breathed.
Ron swore under his breath, already yanking his shirt off and kicking off his socks. "My dad's out there. I'm going with you."
It was like someone had shaken Tonks' Auror protectiveness awake, the witch whirling around. "Like hell you are, Weasley! You're underage!"
Ron met her gaze humorlessly. "Actually, I'm seventeen, and I'm only seven years younger than you."
"Exactly! And I bet sharkie likes young meat, so I'm going!"
Until then Dumbledore had remained eerily silent. "I believe," he stated, "that removing the remaining sharks would be prudent." His blue eyes, devoid of their half-moon spectacles, turned upon them. "If Harry thinks it can be safely done."
Harry about laughed. "Safely? No. Done?" He shared a quick look with Kaylens, his girlfriend offering him a tentative smile, giving him cause to nod. "Yeah, we can do it."
"Then by all means, Harry. We shall-"
Despite himself Harry found himself cutting the Headmaster off. "No," he said firmly, grasping Kally by the arm and helping her to her feet. "We need a wandless magic user on the beach with the rest of this lot. Plus your arm would be like ringing the dinner bell, Professor." Harry's fists tightened, meeting Dumbledore's eyes, waiting.
They couldn't lose Dumbledore. They couldn't.
To his great shock the Headmaster did not argue. Instead, he merely looked resigned, something passing through his eyes.
"Very well, Harry."
Harry wasn't sure if he felt relieved or not. He just nodded, unbelievably grateful that Dumbledore wasn't arguing.
Neville, however, was eyeing Harry like he'd recently gone insane. "You'll never see them before they're on you."
Harry shook his head. He couldn't believe that he was the one suggesting that his girlfriend and best mate take a casual swim through shark infested waters to play at supernatural fishermen. "The three of us can see in the dark, Neville. I'm willing to bet that'll translate pretty well underwater."
In the dark Kally's gaze found his. "You're actually suggesting I do something." She sounded almost awed.
Harry's own gaze was full of confliction. "Well…yeah."
"Damn Potter," she murmured, still looking a bit weak on her feet, "you are unbelievably sexy right now."
Harry's jaw actually dropped, flapping soundlessly. His grip tightened around her arm, silently wondering at her strange turn on's.
Kaylens just smiled innocently at him.
They were seriously going to have to have a really long talk later. He might even bribe Pomfrey to check her for recent head injuries. For now he just managed to formulate words, croaking, "So…what do you think? I know it's a long shot…"
She carelessly shrugged. "I'm strangely comfortable with it."
Tonks had apparently had enough, looking between Dumbledore and them with an increasingly annoyed expression. "Are you lot insane? What kind of plan is this?"
Ron grimaced, tossing his pants aside, having already stripped down to his boxers. "The only one we have?"
Tres sat down with a heavy grunt.
"It's a touch of insanity," Fred groaned,, "just a tad shy of Janus Thickery admission, with a dash of Gryffindor bravado and a sprinkling of logic."
Harry just nodded, releasing Kally and dragging his own shirt off. Tossing it onto the beach, he heard Dumbledore agreeing. "My, what a fair assessment, Frederick. I dare say…we may need to use those descriptors of the event to the rest of the Order during the debriefing."
Fred and Ron snorted simultaneously.
Regulus just glared blackly at them all, fixing him with a particularly malevolent look. "Potter, if you drown my apprentice…"
Harry tugged off his belt – well, Dean's belt – and tossed it onto the ground. "I thought she was Snape's?"
"Please," he dryly bit, looking offended, "I claimed her months ago. Severus wouldn't recognize talent if it bit him in the ass."
"We'll get him back." Kally's voice broke through their conversation, both men turning to see who the hell she was talking to.
It was Tonks, who was standing on the beach, looking furious. Her sea-green hair was rapidly turning red at the tips, as if steam was trying to come out of her head. "I do not," the Auror stated, "like feeling helpless."
Kaylens just smiled, almost wickedly. "Don't worry, Tonks," she placated slyly, "you'll get used to it."
Then the damnable witch, who Harry was only just realizing had already stripped down to her undergarments – there wasn't time to go back for their wetsuits - darted into the water without them.
Harry swore and rushed after her.
ECOTS
"I can't believe this bastard created undead sharks. I mean seriously, who DOES that?" Ron bellowed between strokes, the three of them swimming at full tilt towards the barrier.
Kally half choked on a laugh, only pausing mid-stroke to duck her head beneath the water once more, looking for signs of impending approach. She didn't see anything. Feeling the water disturbed along either side of her, she could tell that Ron and Harry were doing the same, all three of them searching in other directions.
In the still water, she could actually see.
She yanked her head out of the water, breathing deeply, twisting and looking back towards the shore.
They were halfway between it and the barrier, nowhere near any form of land or safety, and completely and utterly at the mercy of any shark that came near them.
Kally's breaths swiftened, trying to not let fear take over. "I think," she managed, "I think I can do it from here."
Ron's mouth hung open, bobbing as he tread water. "What if you pass out?" he demanded. "We can't have that this far out."
Harry just shook his head. "Ron's right. Let's make it to the-"
That was when all three of them saw it – a fin coming towards them.
That made the decision for them.
"I don't think we have a choice," she hissed. With that her eyes slammed closed, breaths coming quicker. She was trying to concentrate, trying to draw-
A sudden disturbance of water, following by the heavy sound of impact sent her eyes flying open. She hadn't seen what had happened, but Harry was somehow in front of her, a look of malice on his face, one arm outstretched before him.
She was just in time to see a shark flying backwards in the air, the magic on Harry's fingers practically sizzling.
"Any time now," he called darkly, "would be good."
She hadn't even seen that one.
Her eyes slammed shut again, it harder to do this while moving. She tried to relax, letting only her legs move. They lightly kicked, her head barely staying above water as she concentrated.
The tingling began across her skin, that familiar crawling…
ECOTS
Harry's arm practically vibrated. He hadn't planned to. He hadn't tried to. Yet a blasting charm had burst out of his hand the second he'd seen the shark that they'd all missed going directly for his girlfriend.
He curled his fingers in towards his palm, clenching it into a fist, breathing like he'd just run one of those Muggle marathons his Aunt constantly talked about 'possibly doing one day.' Only he hadn't run anything. He'd swam fifty meters and then taken out what looked suspiciously like a sodding Great White.
He idly wondered how normal teenagers spent their Saturday nights.
"Harry," Ron breathed, sounding like he'd just seen a display of the new Firebolt, "you just bitch slapped a freaking shark."
Harry shot an incredibly disbelieving look towards Ron. "And?"
"That's wicked."
Despite himself his mouth twitched, a slight smirk there, before he jerked his attention back to the water, ducking his head beneath and letting his dark-adjusted eyes search. He might be able to see in the dark but they'd all been wrong – it was still hard to see beneath the surface.
Lupin had explained that to him before: there had to be trace amounts of light somewhere for the extra layer along the backs of their eyes to actually work.
Unfortunately water ate light like nothing he'd ever seen.
Seeing nothing, Harry jerked his head back up, gasping for breath. The fin was still out there, moving back and forth, as if temporarily disoriented. As for the other one-
He had no idea where it was.
"Damn't!"
Ron's hand plunged underwater, dragging Kaylens up out of it by her shoulder. It took Harry a second to realize that she'd sunk beneath the surface in her efforts to concentrate, terror sliding through him. This…this wasn't good.
If anything went wrong it'd be his fault.
"Kaylens…"
"It'd be a lot," she whispered, sounding as if she were having trouble, "easier if the two of you would just stop….talking." Water lapped at all of them, Ron now firmly holding onto her arm, Harry aware of how much harder that would make it for her.
Golden light had already begun to roll from her fingertips, Harry turning in the water, looking for signs of the other one.
The one he could see started to head back, straight towards them.
"Shit," he bit. He glanced back abruptly at her, finding that his best friend's arm, the one attached to his girlfriend, had turned into that of a werewolf's claw. Ron had unnatural strength – no wonder he'd partially transformed.
He had a sneaking suspicion it might be Ron's new dream to bitch slap a shark.
"Guys," he said somewhat urgently, "it's coming back."
Kally made a frustrated sound, the air suddenly growing thick, pulsating-
Golden liquid rolled off her hands and onto the water's inky black surface...
Then it shot forwards, writhing like a snake across the water, barely missing Harry and jolting past until it snared around the approaching, undead battering ram with a fin. It grabbed on as if it were nothing more than a cattle in need of lassoing from some old Western. The shark jerked, still trying to swim-
The pulsating, heady pressure suddenly increased, Harry's ears screaming-
It ended with an abrupt pop, the pressure suddenly released.
The shark lost all buoyancy, bobbing to float on its side, one of its decaying pectoral fins clearly visible.
"Salazar," Ron cursed, "how many of these are there again?" He let go of Kaylens, but only after shooting her a dubious look to make sure she wasn't going to drown on them.
Kally responded by tiredly leaning back in the water, floating on her back. "One more," she breathed. "I-that's all I could feel. There could be more, but none were here before."
Harry didn't like the sound of that.
Ducking his head beneath the water, he concentrated, his hand held down towards the bottom of the sound. He needed to see. He needed a bit more light to do that. He needed to know what the hell they were working with.
An orb of flames burst to life in his hands, flickering an unreal blue underwater. It sent light flying out in all directions, the rippling tides and currents suddenly visible.
The sea floor turned out to be not fifteen meters below them. It was fairly shallow here, but that wasn't what caught his attention.
No.
What caught Harry's attention was the shipwreck they were floating above. A shipwreck with other dead corpses, corpses of people, was right beneath them.
The word Adventurer was emblazoned in rotting wood across hull, an old and torn sail flapping silently in the water, as if moving in an undead breeze.
Suddenly Harry understood why they hadn't been able to see or find any evidence of Blackbeard's ship on the actual island. They'd looked through the binoculars from all angles for at least an hour, but had assumed it was magically hidden. Now he understood.
They hadn't seen it because it was under the freaking water.
Harry's head jerked back up, hair wetly slung over his brow as he stared at the other two with wide eyes. "Did you-"
Ron nodded. "Yeah mate."
"Did we what?" Kaylens sounded exhausted, like it was taking nearly all of her energy to just remain afloat.
"Blackbeard's ship," he said forcefully. "It's right under us."
Kally managed a tired sound of acknowledgement. "Okay, and that-"
Harry nearly splashed the water in excitement. "It's where Dumbledore thinks he'd have hidden the horcrux!"
Now her eyes flickered open less groggily. "Oh."
"Damn right, oh," Ron stated. "Now we can find this thing and get the hell out of here."
Harry spun in the water, splashing Ron in the face. "Didn't Black say Blackbeard had marooned his ship on shore, or in the shallows? That it was still above water but stuck?"
"Yeah."
"That's what the barrier is for then. Between here and there…I bet this whole section," waving his hand between the beach and the rocks, "I bet it all used to be above water, or a hell of a lot more shallow. Voldemort sunk it to hide it."
"Let's just add defacing nature to his long list of offenses," Kally wryly groused.
Harry was fixating, trying to think. They needed to get under the water, deep enough to search the wreckage. Unless-
He'd dove beneath the surface, only a meter, ignoring Ron's loud yelp after him. Underwater he extended a hand, gaze fixing hard on the ship…
The thought left him with force: Accio, horcrux!
He felt the spell leave him. He felt it move through the waters, sending a rippling out in every direction, and yet-
Nothing.
Harry re-emerged, swearing. "Summoning doesn't work."
Ron afforded him a skeptical glance, clearly still scanning their surroundings for sharks. "I'm no Hermione, mate, but even I could have told you that. How dumb do you think Voldemort is?"
"Guys…"
Harry's attention jerked back towards Kally. The non-witch had stopped floating on her back, and was now peering towards the rocky barrier, something pained on her face. "The others aren't at the barrier."
Harry's gaze abruptly jerked towards it, swallowing, his chest suddenly sinking as his temporary find was forgotten.
The others hadn't appeared on the barrier rocks. They hadn't appeared there at all, and there was still one shark unaccounted for.
Ron's expression had grown grim, the wizard already swimming towards it, digging deep. Harry just glanced at Kally. "Can you-"
"Yeah," she answered before he could finish. "Yeah, I'll be fine."
A second later she'd taken off after Ron, swimming, Harry following. Like before they stopped every few strokes, checking for sharks, taking turns so the waters were never not being patrolled.
There was no sign of the final shark.
Ron was the first to reach the barrier, flinging himself onto the rocks and dragging himself up. The red head wasted no time in grabbing both he and Kaylens by the upper arms, tearing them unceremoniously out of the water and onto the safe side of the barrier.
The barrier was divided into two sides, and a jagged line of tall rocks separated the calm side from where the invisible storm raged, acting like an unnatural, two-meter high wall.
In that unnatural wall were narrow breaks, just wide enough for a person to walk through. Those doorways had opened thanks to the blood they'd given the day prior. Beyond that, the only indicator that the sea even raged on the opposing side was the ocean spray misting over the top of the jagged surfaces.
Kally winced as she lay there, murmuring, "Ron, I'm really liking that whole," she waved a hand around soundlessly, "werewolf strength thing you've got going on."
Harry nodded his agreement, clambering to his knees. The sharp rocks dug against his shins, the ocean spray frigid. He muttered a warming charm beneath his breath that sent instant heat blazing through him, then grabbed onto Kaylens' and Ron's arms, the same charm muttered, sending warmth through them as well.
Laying flat on her back, Kaylens shuddered agreeably, her soaked brassiere doing nothing to hide what the cold was doing to her.
They might be in the middle of a sodding war, but it still took Harry an act of Merlin just to tug his gaze away from the rise and fall of her chest, her wet lingerie clinging to her in damn interesting ways as she simply tried to just breathe.
Drawing had drained her,Harry having no illusions about that.
Harry gave her arm a squeeze, muttering, "Stay here."
The way Kaylens nodded proved she was not about to argue, the non-witch's eyes closing tiredly, her fingers wrapping around a crack in the rocks as if she didn't fully trust them to not go anywhere.
Ron had already gotten to his feet, looking around the barrier, sea foam rolling past his toes as the battering waves from the other side slid past. There was nothing good in his voice. "I don't see them." His gaze darted back towards them. "I don't see anyone."
Harry's heart instantly sank. He knew what that meant.
Coming up alongside Ron he waved his hand, a casual shield charm extending a blue dome out in front of them that blocked the sea spray. His glasses were already coated, splattered with water droplets. There was an invisible line cutting the rocky barrier in half. Once that line was crossed, an unnatural and intense wind kicked up, the sea writhing like a hoard of angered snakes.
The peculiar wind died as it crossed that invisible line though, and he and Ron remained just on the right side of it. From there Harry scanned the waters, a ball of nerves in his gut.
Like Ron all he saw was a raging sea. There was no longer even any sign of the fishing trawler's mast.
He felt sick.
Alongside him his best friend's jaw had set, beginning to vibrate. "Do you think…"
It was like being strangled. "They had to," Harry croaked, still scanning the whitecaps for a sign, for anything. They had to be okay. There was no other option. Only…
Harry saw nothing.
Ron took a step forward, Harry's grip grabbing onto his arm, tightening. "No."
The look he received was one of such pure malice, malevolence, that it was damn near chilling. "That's my father out there, Harry."
He swallowed roughly. "I know," he ground, "but do you seriously think he'd want you getting yourself killed going after him?"
One of Ron's hands sprouted fur, fingers turning to claws, his best mate's blue gaze icening. "I don't," he ground, "care. Now let me the hell go or I'll make you."
Harry's grip tightened, his gaze meeting Ron's squarely. "Too bad," he grated. "Because I care, and you bet your ass Hermione does. And your mum, and Fred, and-"
Harry couldn't finish. He stopped, well aware that his white knuckled grip on Ron's arm would not be enough to stop him if he was hell bent on going.
It was like watching the air be deflated out of a balloon. Ron's steely gaze turned out towards the raging sea, the hardened expression changing to one of raw agony.
Harry just tightened his grip, letting his friend know he was there, as that was the only damn thing he, could do.
Hermione had been right: he had a saving people thing, and he was only just now realizing that if he kept up at that he was only going to get himself and everyone around him killed. He wanted to go after those who had been on the trawler; he did.
He wasn't going if it was going to get Ron killed though, and in that raging sea, when they couldn't even see any of them….
The air around them suddenly felt wrong.
Pressure built in his ears, Ron letting out a groan, grabbing a hold of the rocks, leaning heavily on them. Harry was on his knees, breaths coming out in hard sodding gasps, the hair on the back of his neck standing up-
The golden light rolled past their feet, through the sea foam, crossing that invisible barrier to the other side. Seeing that….
He didn't have to ask what was happening; Harry already knew.
ECOTS
It snapped back to her like a broken rubber band, the rebounding force painful. Kally was pretty certain the cry she'd heard was her own, but she couldn't be bothered to care. Instead she limply lay there, on the rocks, gasping for breath after breath as raw, physical pain slid through her.
It was like her nerves were on fire. Kalliandra could barely move, barely breathe, barely think; but she'd felt what she'd been searching for.
She hadn't been able to kill the sharks from so far away, but she had been able to sense them.
Life energy was easy to find.
Remus.
Kally's eyes clenched closed, her breathing growing more ragged. "Two…" she whispered. "Two made it. They're outside the barrier." She'd felt them. They'd been far enough away to not be in that writhing, raging sea, and they'd felt alive to her.
But there'd only been two.
She didn't know which two.
Harry and Ron were dead silent, the two having been brought to their knees by her barely controlled drawing.
Kally hissed a breath as another bolt of raw pain shot through her, it taking everything in her to ignore the unbidden whimper falling from her own throat.
Harry was the first one to speak. "Kally…."
Hazel eyes fluttered open, finding Harry already moving to her. "Hey," she faintly managed. She was weak. She couldn't move right now even if she tried, even if her life depended on it. Sea form rolled past across the rocky, slick surface of the safe side of the barrier, Harry kneeling down beside her.
His unbelievably malachite gaze was raking over her, his expression unreadable. "You okay?"
Breathing unsteadily she shook her head. Remus. She didn't know if he was one of the two she'd sensed or not. She couldn't sodding tell. She wet her lips, any sense of urgency to the situation now gone. "Not really."
Harry's grip found her hand, the wizard squeezing it. Another warming charm swept out and through her, that at least some comfort given how cold the water was.
Despite the situation she shivered, almost pleasurably. "Thanks."
Harry just looked at her, his brow creasing deeply. "Anytime."
"What do you mean only two?"
Ron's voice broke in, the wizard looking between the storm and where she lay, as if slowly processing the meaning that Harry had instantly understood.
"Kaylens, what do you mean by two?"
"Ron," Harry tried, "don't-"
His voice broke through more harshly, his previous calm seeming to shatter. "What does she mean by only two, Harry? Kaylens, what-"
"Two of them are dead," she cut in brokenly. "Two aren't."
Kally's hand shakily tightened around Harry's. His dark gaze studied her fiercely, his fingers purposefully interlacing between hers.
Just his touch comforted her, her eyes closing. "I'm sorry, Ron…I don't- I don't know which ones."
Ron made a choked sound, the breaking of waves, the rolling sound of the surf the only other sounds for a long time. Finally…
"There were five people on board, Kally."
Sighing wearily, her champagne colored orbs flickered open, finding Harry still kneeling by her side, everything in his expression conflicted. "Kally?"
She wet her lips, knowing the unasked question.
"I couldn't feel the fifth."
ECOTS
Harry studied her, an uneasy feeling rising up in him. Kally could sense life energy, and she'd felt two still alive, two dead.
She should have been able to feel the fifth. Remus, Mr. Weasley, Mad-Eye, Kinglsey and Fleur had all been on board that trawler.
He didn't want to think about what that might mean. For now he glanced between her and Ron, eyeing them both with deep damn concern. Kally was pale, almost ashen looking. He didn't think she'd be able to draw any further, let alone move if the way she was laying there was anything to go by. And Ron… .
Ron looked like he'd seen a ghost, his utter and sudden calm unnerving.
"Mate," he tried, squeezing Kally's hand but looking at his Quidditch team mate, "you okay?"
Ron just looked back towards the writhing sea, then back at Kaylens, as if processing everything.
Then he sat wordlessly down on the rocks, leaning his back up against the barrier. One partially transformed hand hung limply at his side, the claw slowly changing back into his human fingers, as if the will to fight had been drained right out of him.
Harry couldn't blame him. Mr. Weasley was on board that trawler.
Ron needed a minute.
Then the cold reality struck him: Lupin was on board too.
Harry swallowed had to think. He had to think clearly, because right now Ron couldn't and Kaylens was down for the count.
On board the trawler Moody and him had talked. The Auror had offered him some warning…when everything was going to hell, an Auror's best friend was the ability to think clearly, logically. They needed to take the emotion out of the equation.
Harry sure as hell didn't know if he could do that, but given everything that had happened he had to try.
What else had Moody said? Why hadn't he listened better? He vaguely recalled that Kaylens had been stripping into dry clothes at the time, his attention a bit torn…
"Listen here, Potter, you've got to sort out the things you can do something about, from the things you can't."
Breathing deeply, Harry tried.
Two were dead. There was nothing they could do for them.
Two were in a safe area. There was nothing they could do for those survivors; they were already outside the barrier. They'd have to trust that they, whoever they were, could take care of themselves.
Their comrades on the island were also temporarily out of reach.
The only two he could do anything about were Ron and Kaylens. Ron definitely needed a moment, and Kaylens…
Harry turned back to her, needing the distraction, his expression grim as he considered her position: she was sprawled out across the rocks, dangerously near the edge. If she lost consciousness she could roll right off into the calm water. "I'm going to move you," he told, noting how her irises still glittered with golden flecks. They always did when she'd drawn heavily.
It was intoxicating.
He hated it. It meant she'd be easily identified as a Reach, and if that ever happened…
Harry released her hand, awkwardly shifting, getting a firm grip around her upper body. Kaylens tried to help, but it was as if the energy had been drained right out of her. It took him a second, but he managed to drag her alongside Ron, as far up onto the narrow barrier as he could possibly get without crossing over to the other, less friendly side.
Harry all but collapsed alongside Ron, his back digging into the rocks, Kaylens gathered protectively against his chest. His head leaned back, thudding against the basalt, his fingers slowly entwining with hers.
The three sat there in silence for Merlin knew how long.
Harry didn't know when exactly Kaylens fell asleep, but she did. He only figured it out by the way she jerked when Ron's voice abruptly broke the quiet.
"What about the shark?"
She mumbled something incoherent, Harry's brow creasing. Ron just continued to stare straight out towards the beach. It was like he'd already forgotten he'd asked a question.
Against his bare chest, Kally's barely clad form felt unbelievably cold, her sopping wet hair dripping a continual stream of icy water down both their torsos. Harry shifted, dragging his fingers through Kally's tangled tresses, a drying charm muttered.
A warm wind swept around her head, Harry feeling the familiar pull of energy he always felt with every wandless incantation. It wasn't enough to dry her completely, but…it was better than nothing.
That did get Ron's attention, his best mate looking at them both a bit oddly.
Harry just shrugged. "Her hair…it'd keep her colder than ours would."
Ron just nodded at him, numbly returning his attention back towards the beach. It was clear to them both that they couldn't make the swim back now – not with Kaylens like this. She'd drown, and there was still the matter of the other shark to contend with.
Ron must have been thinking the same thing, repeating the question. "Kaylens," he grunted, "what about the other shark? Did you feel it?"
She didn't so much as open her eyes. Instead, almost imperceptively against his chest, Harry felt her shake her head in the negative, her fingers tiredly curling against his bare forearms. The tingling against his skin….Merlin.
Harry drug her more firmly against him in response, burying his face deep within her hair. Her scent, even when mingled with sand and mud and saltwater, was inexplicably calming.
Right now he needed that.
"You are both," Ron grated dourly, "nauseating." He shot them a look. "Seriously, I'm actually starting to miss when you two would fight."
Despite himself, despite the situation, Harry actually laughed; it sounded cold. "Give it a week," he dryly stated, "I'm sure I'll do something to piss her off."
Kally grumbled unhappily, flicking his arm in exhausted protest. Ron just stared, shaking his head. "She's not even fully awake anymore is she?"
Harry shook his head, fingers moving along her arm now. "Honestly? I'm surprised she stayed conscious as long as she did." His heart thundered unnaturally at the mere thought of what could have happened.
And he'd let her do it.
Hell, he'd suggested it.
If someone had told him he'd be outright encouraging his girlfriend to use magic – magic that could potentially kill her – he'd have had his wand at their throat. That was exactly what he'd done though.
Ron, oblivious to his thoughts, just grunted, leaning his head back against the rocky barrier, his gaze going unfocused. They were stranded; they had no way to get back to the beach, and no way to communicate with Dumbledore.
They could try to swim it, but that'd mean leaving Kaylens and possibly getting eaten alive, and like hell was he doing that.
Even if she did rouse, he doubted she'd be strong enough to take out the other shark, and they all knew it was just a matter of time before it showed up.
"Hey Harry."
The back of his head thudded against the rocky barrier, Harry closing his eyes. "Yeah, Ron?"
"Think my dad was one of the ones that made it?"
Something daggered through Harry painfully. "Yeah, Ron," he lied. "I'm sure he did."
Once again it felt like he was being strangled, Harry having no idea whether Mr. Weasley was actually alive or not.
He didn't want to think about what it'd mean if he wasn't. Lupin too, and Mad Eye. Fleur and Kingsley….
Harry wanted to break things, but knew right now wasn't the time for that.
They sat there in silence. They sat there for so long, Harry casting intermittent warming charms and growing increasingly tired, that the sun started to come up. The red cast to the horizon looked almost bloody, it fitting given the circumstances.
"Why do you think the Death Eaters didn't come inland?" Ron drug his knees up to his chest. "I mean, we were all right there, like sitting dams."
"Ducks," Harry corrected automatically.
Ron frowned. "Sitting ducks." He glanced towards him, his blue gaze flickering onto Kaylens in concern for a moment. She slept peacefully, looking serene. "I mean, if Voldemort knew we were here, why wouldn't he have them finish us off in one go?"
Harry considered that. "I don't know. Maybe they couldn't get to the beach. Riddle's paranoid enough. It's not like he hasn't had Death Eaters turn on him before," nodding towards the beach, where Regulus was, he added, "he might have made access to the island as hard for the rest of his followers as it was for us."
"True."
"Either that," Harry added, "or they saw us on the beach, and figured we were too dumb to realize it was actually under the water."
Ron instantly sat up, the sullen silence and exhaustion that had cloaked his friend disappearing abruptly. "That's it!"
Harry frowned. "That's what?" he asked, but Ron was already standing, scrambling to his feet and nearly slipping on the slick rock.
"This island, it's like a chess board. This whole sodding ruddy island!" he burst, gesturing at it.
Harry could only stare at his best friend blankly.
Ron made a disgruntled sound. "Come on, Harry! Keep up! The whole thing's dark magic, right? Dark creatures, dark water, even dark bloody rocks. What do you reckon it'd take to power that kind of magic, long term? I mean it's not like Voldemort created this yesterday. It's bound to have lasted decades from what Dumbledore said and he was planning to live forever so he had to have made it sustainable, yeah?"
Harry honestly still didn't grasp what Ron was getting at. "Okay, and?"
"What if the horcrux is the only thing powering the dark magic? It's like the king! We get it, kill it, and we can get the hell off this island a lot easier. I bet that storm and the sharks would die, just like all the pieces on the board 'die,'" Ron made air quotes, "after the king is in check mate and throws down his sword."
That got his attention.
Harry instantly sat up straighter, shifting his hold on Kalliandra. She made a sleepy, annoyed sound, but he ignored her. "Ron, that's-that's-"
"Brilliant. Yeah I know," he said, preening slightly. "Haven't been friends with Hermione this long for nothing you know."
He snorted, needing to move. Without thinking he placed a kiss atop Kaylens' head, slowly adjusting her, maneuvering to lay her down on the rocks as best he could. She didn't wake – a testament to how exhausted she was. Harry had joined Ron by the edge of the barrier a moment later, looking out towards where they'd seen the shipwreck.
Something occurred to Harry. "Luna and I…we found pieces of wood, like from a ship, on shore earlier. I didn't even think about where it had come from." He glared at the water. "Should have realized if there was wood it had to come from somewhere." Maybe they could have figured this out before the Death Eaters had shown up and run the fishing trawler inland.
Ron shook his head, missing the point. "Harry, do you reckon you could figure out which thing on board is the horcrux? Ya know, how you did in the forest?"
Harry considered it, the realization that he still hadn't told Ron about himself sinking in. He was a horcrux, so he could hear them. "Yeah," he nodded. "Yeah…reckon I can."
"Then what the hell are we waiting for?"
Harry grimaced, thinking. Why hadn't he heard this one already? He'd heard the one in the forest earlier – hell his scar had burned. With that diary in the Chamber of Secrets, with Ginny, his scar had burned too.
So why the hell wasn't his burning now?
Harry clenched his fist, sending one last glance back at Kaylens. She was as safe as she was going to get, and they…
They had work to do.
"Ron, do me a favor."
The look his best friend shot him was dubious. "I'm not going to like this am I?"
Despite himself, Harry smirked. "Doubt it."
ECOTS
Tonks stepped forward, ankle deep in the water as she squinted, trying to see against the rising sunlight. Surely she was hallucinating; she had to be. Harry and Ron couldn't possibly be that dumb, could they?
"Albus," she called, "you may want to see this."
In the water, about halfway out, was a werewolf.
The werewolf looked like a drowned dog, its vibrant red hair plastered against its body so it looked rather like a stray. The thing was, it was doggy paddling around and around in circles, as if it were out for leisurely swim and not mucking about in magically-shark-infested waters.
Harry, on the other hand, had just disappeared beneath the water's surface, the tiny body farther out on the rocky embankment inevitably having to be Kalliandra by sheer process of elimination.
Tonks wasn't sure what they were doing, but every instinct in her told her to swim out and hex them all to within an inch of their lives. It was bad enough Remus was in danger – she couldn't think about that right now – but what they were doing was downright suicidal.
Well…Kalliandra wasn't doing anything, but Tonks had a sneaking suspicion that she was unconscious. The girl apparently had a habit of doing that.
Tonks let out a Remus-esque growl and stepped forward, a hand falling onto her arm.
Dumbledore.
Her currently blue-green eyes narrowed across the water. "I'm going to kill them."
"That could perhaps wait," Dumbledore said pleasantly, sounded almost amused, "until after they have finished their current endeavor."
Tonks shot him a look that clearly conveyed what she thought of whatever plan they had. "What kind of plan does that look like to you?"
"Why it appears that Harry is scouting something, while Ronald plays bait, Nymphadora. After all," he stated, blue eyes twinkling, "the doggy paddle does a superb amount of splashing."
Tonks grunted.
Dumbledore merely observed, commenting idly, "Sharks are of course, attracted to splashing."
"Oh great," she said flatly, "Ron's impersonating a dying fish." Dumbledore had just affirmed her previous statement: if Harry and Ron survived this, she was going to kill them.
The Headmaster drummed his fingers along his outer thigh. "If I'm not mistaken, I think they may have perhaps… found something." Tonks shot him a glare, not missing how pale he looked.
His right arm hung along his side, fingers unmoving, flesh a ghastly gray-white.
A lump formed in her throat, the Auror yanking her eyes away.
"Kalliandra looks like she's out," she choked, hauling her thoughts away from the state of their leader's arm.
Dumbledore frowned. "Indeed….her condition does carry that tendency."
Tonks made a non-committal sound. She had barely been okay with Ron and Harry swimming out when they'd had a lively living grim with them to do the killing. Now the living grim was apparently knocked out and Tonks really wasn't okay with their new levels of idiocy. "They're going to get eaten alive doing this, Albus."
"By my count," Dumbledore said congenially, "there is only one shark left. One would think it would have already attempted, were it nearby." He sounded unconcerned, like he knew something she did not. "Don't you think, Nymphadora?"
Dumbledore always seemed to know something she did not.
It was maddening.
Once again she grunted in response, her chest aching. Here they were, standing on a beach, unable to do anything without magic, while students risked their lives.
And her Remus was out there.
She needed to do something, even if it was something asininely stupid.
"Hey, Albus," she said, eyes narrowing, "what do you think about…"
And then she told him.
To her surprise Dumbledore smiled.
ECOTS
A shroud flapped soundlessly in an unseen current, Harry swimming past the eerie spectacle. He was eight meters below water, and he was scouting a way inside the Adventurer.
Somehow he didn't think the sunken ship was going to make it easy for him.
The second Harry had submerged himself he had felt it: a low, throbbing pulse. It rippled out beneath the waters like a sound wave, brushing past him, feeling wrong. It had grown stronger as he'd swam down.
Every cell in him wanted to turn and run.
He didn't. Instead an old, decaying rope coiled weightlessly in the water, its end curling, looking like a snake beckoning him closer.
Harry made sure to give it a wide berth.
Below the ship, littering the sea's shallow floor were bodies. Dozens. Most were only skeletal remains, hair and rotting clothing still clinging to them, the nails elongated on several, but they had once been people.
Given that they had most likely been criminals, pirates, Harry really couldn't muster much sympathy.
Now those bodies were nothing more than substrate for sea life to take hold on, sponges and coral having gown around the immobile bones, an artificial reef rising up from the sea floor.
A small, striped fish swam out of one carcass' eye socket, a golden chain disturbed by the animal's tail flick.
Harry grimaced, swimming along the length of the ship's hull, various circular windows available, but too small for him to fit through. The Adventurer had flipped sideways in its death, leaving the deck at a strange, tilted angle, allowing a hatch to remain propped open. It looked like it led inside, but Harry needed to know where.
He wasn't swimming inside that thing, on limited air, with no magic that would last, without first knowing exactly where he was going.
The skeletal remains of pirates and the sailors in pursuit of them were not the only things to have become unwitting reefs. The ribs of the sunken ship had also become decorated with barnacles, such a thick coating of algae on it that it was impossible to tell where – or even if – any wood remained.
Inevitably Harry found a collapsed section of the hull, the wood having collapsed inwards, small schools of fish darting in and out of it.
Still he felt nothing; nothing other than the strange pulse of the water. It was like a heartbeat: a dark heartbeat.
It was time to surface.
Harry scanned the area, seeing nothing – no shark - before kicking his feet, head breaking the surface as he drug in a lungful after lungful of needed air greedily.
The throbbing, unnatural sensation was immediately disappeared.
Harry spared a moment to look for Ron, spotting his werewolf of a best friend still paddling in circles like some kind of circus side-show, before glancing back towards Kaylens.
She was still there; she hadn't moved.
That was when he heard it: shouting. His head jerked in the water, towards the beach.
Everyone back on the beach had spread out along its length, every single one of them – minus the injured Professors Gai and Dumbledore - waist deep in the water and shouting. They were slapping the water's surface, bellowing, Fred taking rocks and tossing them.
If Harry hadn't just looked for signs of the shark himself he'd have thought he was a goner, but he realized what they were doing; they were trying to make noise in case it showed back up, to distract it, to draw it towards them to buy he and Ron time.
He wondered how Molly Weasley would feel about Ron and Fred both playing bait on the same day.
With a strange grin Harry tugged in another deep lungful of air and dove back down, once again emerging himself into the blue depths. That dark pulse immediately filled his ears.
This really was a sodding bad plan.
He didn't exactly have any other stellar ideas right now.
At least those on shore had a better plan than he and Ron's. Theirs was to have Ron act like doggy bait in werewolf form, and if a shark came near then he'd hopefully be able to bitch slap it.
Ron had been oddly okay with the idea.
Something about it seemed reckless, off. Harry wasn't sure what, but he knew something was wrong with it.
Ah well.
Everything sounded different underwater. The movement of bubbles past his head, the strange swish-swoosh of his feet kicking, propelling him downwards, the muted and dull thunk of a large fish with comically large lips knocking over a rotting barrel of gunpowder.
The black, decaying dust scattered into the water as if a child had thrown glitter into the air, drifting off with the current towards shore.
Harry swam back to the caved-in area, grabbing firmly onto the wooden sides, his fingers sinking deep into the matted algae covering the surface. The moment he touched it something felt wrong, off.
His scar gave a sudden, dull throb. It did nothing else – it just throbbed.
Suddenly there was movement, Harry going instinctively for his wand-
A snake, a slender, quick one emerged from the dark interior and darted past him. Harry almost let out a startled shout that could have drowned him.
Instead he choked back a near laugh before darting inside.
It was like swimming through another invisible barrier, the pressure of the water increasing, it practically pulsating and making his skin crawl.
Inside it was a murky, dank, dark mess. Things were flipped over, pieces of decomposed material floated eerily in the water like discarded pieces of paper upon the floor. It made seeing in any one direction too far difficult. Cursing within his head Harry glanced back, noting his exit route, everything in his rational mind screaming at him to retreat.
Recklessly, he didn't.
He swam in deeper, his scar throbbing worse.
Judging from the holey hammocks floating eerily against the wall, this must have been the sleeping chamber. The makeshift beds were no longer intact, yet remained attached by brass riggings. A gray and grimy ruffled shirt hovered over Harry's head, pinned against the ceiling by time and currents.
Harry swam under it, his skin prickling with unease, lungs already beginning to burn with the need for air.
All he felt was disquiet; his scar didn't burn – it just throbbed. He didn't hear anything calling or talking to him. Instead there was a woeful and malicious absence of that.
Harry recklessly swam in farther, ignoring the burning in his chest. It had to be here, and he had to find it.
His disturbance of the water sent a rust-covered gun lifting up, then dropping back down onto the angled floor of the sunken ship. Its handle was an angry brown-red with what looked like a rusticle hanging off it. He'd heard the term from his Uncle Vernon, after the jackass had watched a Titanic documentary last summer and then proceeded to babble about it all through dinner.
Harry swam in further. Beyond that was a doorway, leading to a hall, leading to more rooms.
He needed air, something he could no longer ignore.
Harry resurfaced with speed, then went back down.
Then he repeated.
Again and again Harry dove down, systematically exploring parts of the ship – piece by piece. Not once did he feel his scar burning, and not once did he feel anything calling to him. He made sure to touch nothing.
His lungs and muscles burned angrily from the exertion. The entire island, the entire ocean surrounding it, all felt off. He'd known that since the second he'd laid eyes on any of it.
The ship felt the most off.
And that was when it hit him – there was something very wrong about all of this. There was something unbelievably wrong about this entire picture: Blackbeard's ship ran aground in the 1700's, yet despite some decay the hull was still intact.
And it was made of wood.
Even some of the fabric was still intact.
It was like being hit with a hammer, an icy sensation slithering through his veins as Harry realized why he hadn't been able to find just one thing that reeked of being a horcrux; the entire damn ship was the horcrux.
It wouldn't be intact otherwise.
Harry froze, floating there within the bowels of the ship. The ship…by the time Voldemort had gotten to it, it had to have already been decimated, but that bastard had probably reconstructed it with dark magic, shifting and changing the sands of time and literal water to suit his desires.
It explained why everything here just felt wrong, off; it explained why his skin was literally crawling from something more than the cold.
It explained why the water was pulsating like a heartbeat: it was Voldemort's.
He was doubly careful to not touch anything on his way out, swimming back to the surface to snag another breath.
"What's taking so long?"
Ron had stopped swimming in circles, letting the rest of the Order closer to shore do the attracting of any dark-and-overgrown-fish. Harry's heart was already pounding from the fierce realization of how large a horcrux Voldemort had created, and now he admittedly did a double take.
Ron was still a wolf: a large red wolf, yet he was talking like a normal person.
The wolf gave a roguish grin, realizing his confusion. "Kept my vocal chords human. Cool trick huh?"
Harry managed a choking sound. "Er…"
The wolf rolled its eyes. "So you find it yet?"
It took Harry a second to respond to the sight of his best friend the wolf chatting him up as casually as if they were sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room, discussing lunch.
Finally he managed a nod. "I think," he forced, "it's the whole damn ship." Water dripped across his brow, his hair slung wetly across his head, whilst Ron-the-wolf stared.
Hell, Ron was so startled that one of his paws accidentally transformed back into a human hand. "The what?"
Harry groaned. "The ship. The whole damn ship." Frowning, kicking his legs as quietly as possible, he added, "I'm not sure though. I think I need to get deeper inside it, but there's that whole minor issue of needing air." The tree's center had been where the heart was; he could only imagine the ship would be the same.
Problem was with no traditional magic and a total inability for bubble head charms to remain intact in this cursed place, even reaching it might drown him.
Dark blue eyes stared at him above Ron's snout. "Well that sucks."
"No, you think?" Harry responded dryly, looking down once more. Hell…his gaze shot back up, finding Ron's. "We're going to need more than just us."
The wolf shook its head, slinging water from his fur. The sun had started to rise, at least casting some warmth over the water's surface. "What'd you suggest? Sharkies still not made an appearance and Kaylens is out."
Harry cast a glance back towards the barrier. Kally was still motionless.
Harry's stomach lurched, fear welling in his gut. He'd swore he'd never leave her; never alone, never again.
He was about to break that promise. This was war. They didn't know why Voldemort's lackeys had left after attacking the fishing trawler, so that meant they could be back, at any time.
They had to hurry. They had to kill the horcrux; too many people had died for them not to.
"We need to talk to the others," he admitted, looking towards shore. It wasn't far, yet it might have been an insurmountable mountain pass. Why had the last shark not come back? Why hadn't it attacked yet? Not that he was complaining, but it made him nervous.
Ron let out a choking laugh, immediately turning back into a person. "Oh yes, let's just go for a casual swim, he said. It'll be easy, he said."
Harry shot him a malevolent look, but swim they did. The hell of it was…
They made it back.
