IWSC Summer Camp

Week 3 - Swimming

Write an AU about underwater exploration

Word COunt: 2820

Malfoy Cabin

Thank you, Crissie, for betaing?

Sanctuary

"Kingsley, you can't do this!" Hermione protested.

The Minister of Magic buried his head in his hands. "The situation is far from ideal, but we have to honor the Statute of Secrecy."

"And you think relocating an entire school of merpeople is the way to go? They have rights as well and I will not be an accomplice to their abuse."

"Hermione, it wasn't my idea to build an oil platform right there and it is your job to execute the official order. I can't make excuses for you just because we've fought in the Order together."

"Then I'll resign," Hermione said, slamming her hand on the table.

She had really thought that with Kingsley as Minister of Magic everything would be better. Frustrated and disillusioned, she stormed out of his office. She had gotten the job at the Department for Creatures because she wanted to protect the rights of people who couldn't fight for themselves, because although they might live underwater, that didn't mean people could trample over them.

Alone at home, she tried to read but her mind was still with the merpeople. And all that for an oil platform. Hermione had naively thought that after the war was over everything would be better, but the conflicts all remained the same. There must be something she could do.

She woke up the following morning still tired. She didn't want to go to work. She didn't have to, Hermione realized smiling and went back to bed. Tossing and turning, she was trying to get comfortable, but there was so much on her mind. Should she have stayed at the Ministry? How was she going to earn money now? And what would happen to the merpeople?

Unable to relax, she took a hot bath hoping it would bring her peace of mind. Soaking, she played with the foam, it smelled of lavender and looked a little purplish. Blowing the foam off her hand, she decided that this was ridiculous. She was an adult and shouldn't hide from her problems.

Wrapping herself in a bathing robe, she went through her books. Somewhere between all those words was the answer to her problem, it was just hidden. Reading for hours, she hadn't come upon anything particularly useful yet. Yawning, she put her books aside when the doorbell rang.

She groaned. The last thing she needed was Harry or Ron, questioning her decision when she wasn't even sure what to do with herself. Reluctantly, she opened the door. Hermione was taken by surprise, she would have never guessed who awaited her on the other side.

"You? Here?" she stammered, taking a step back. "What do you want?"

Her hand reached instinctively for her wand only to find that it was still on her table. She glared at the tall and imposing wizard. How did he even know where she lived and why was he here?

"Don't you want to allow me inside? I'm hardly dressed to be seen by Muggles," Mr. Malfoy said, eyeing her up."It appears, neither are you."

Hermione felt her cheeks grew warm as she kept glaring at the older wizard. His long platinum blond hair was tied together by a bow. She almost laughed thinking about her neighbors' reactions to his unusual appearance.

"What do you want here?"

"Me? I am merely concerned about a valuable member of society."

She raised her brow.

"Minister Shacklebolt has asked me to inquire about you. He is concerned about your absence and has tasked me with helping you resolve the situation."

"You mean, Kingsley thinks it looks bad if I leave due to human-rights issues. And what do you get out of it?" she asked him curiously.

"What is your strategy?"

"You don't think that I would tell you of all people anything? You might be okay with pretending that nothing ever happened but I'm not. And leave me alone!"

"Miss Granger, be reasonable. I know, I have no right to expect anything but your distrust-"

"You're right, I have absolutely no reason to trust you."

He took a deep breath. "Minister Shacklebolt has offered my son and I an invitation to the anniversary ball of the Final Battle in exchange for making sure that everything goes smoothly with the merpeople. I am currently not in a good position."

Hermione huffed. "Yes, thanks to your own actions. How is this even supposed to work? You pay the merpeople off?"

"Any better ideas?"

She couldn't believe that he would pay so much just to get invited to a ball, that seemed hilarious. It's not like people would suddenly forget everything that happened just because he was attending a ball, or would they?

"I was thinking more about sabotage…"

"That is very Gryffindor indeed."

Hermione blushed. "I wasn't planning on doing anything dangerous, just a Muggle-repelling charm and making the land unplottable so that they can't build the platform, but I don't speak any Mermish, you don't happen to speak it?"

"In fact, I do."

"You're kidding."

Mr. Malfoy chuckled. "I don't speak it very well, but well enough to conduct business."

"And you are going to help me?" She eyed him curiously.

He withdrew an old boot from his robes. "I have a Portkey."

The first thing she noticed was the crashing sound of the waves. The air was moist and it smelled salty. It was also rather cold and windy. The coastline was rough and hostile. A part of her wanted to crawl back into her warm and cozy bed, but she was here to help the Merpeople.

"Bubble Head-charm and we just say hello?" Hermione almost hoped that he would disagree so that they could turn around and go home. Looking up she found that the sky was dark grey and the waves got even stronger. She didn't want to be here when the storm started.

"That would be the plan unless you have a better idea?"

"No." Hermione cast a warming charm and undressed until she was wearing nothing but her bathing suit. The entire time she had the weird feeling that she was being watched, but that couldn't be. That would mean that Mr. Malfoy was interested in the way she looked.

Hermione snorted. He was much older; a Death Eater; and she went to school with his son. She was also a Muggleborn, so she was probably just imagining things, it just wasn't the season to go swimming and that's probably why it felt rather awkward.

She recast the warming charm and dipped her foot into the ocean. She braced herself for the cold but it was surprisingly bearable. He cast a bubble head charm upon him and dived right in, giving her a good view of his butt, not that she was looking. She wouldn't even know what to look at.

Hermione cast a bubble-head charm herself and joined him shortly in the water. They slowly descended deeper and deeper into the ocean. Soon it was hard to see, and she had to cast Lumos.

Even with the charm in place, she couldn't see very far. Looking around she couldn't see Mr. Malfoy. For a brief moment she thought that he had abandoned her, alone in the ocean, but swimming a few meters ahead, she spotted him.

He looked rather annoyed. But Hermione couldn't swim faster, she wasn't the most athletic and he was also taller than her and had bigger feet giving him an advantage.

As they continued to dive through the dark ocean, more and more Grindylows appeared in front of them, they must have been getting close. As the creatures got closer and closer, she started to worry. She was rather slow in the water and they were so many. She couldn't fight them off all at the same time while illuminating her surroundings.

As if she had known it, shortly after that a Grindylow bit into her foot. She was shaking her leg ferociously, trying to get rid of the creatures. As she shook her leg more and more vigorously, Hermione dropped her wand.

It slowly descended deeper into the ocean, twirling in the water. She needed to get it back. Leaving the Grindylow chewing on her foot for a while, Hermione swam after her wand. She needed it, without it she wasn't fully functioning. Her wand was an extension of her own body, being separated from it caused her distress.

It took her awhile but she eventually caught up with it. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and let her shoulder hand. She didn't get a lot of rest however, the Grindylow was biting more forcefully her foot. It was rather painful. Looking at the creature, she was met with malicious looking teeth.

Hermione flinched at the sight of it. She didn't want to lose a toe, but she also didn't want to hurt the creature. The Grindylow bit her once again. A drop of blood turned the ocean muddy around her foot. She couldn't just watch this any longer.

Pointing the wand at the creature, she contemplated the spell she was going to use. She didn't want to kill the creature, just driving it away from her. She moved her hand, concentrating on the spell she was going to use. A green light emitted from the tip of her wand and hit the Grindylow at its grey chest.

The creature finally let go of her foot, and Hermione swam up to Mr. Malfoy. Looking at her foot she saw little bite marks. Seeing the group of Grindylows circles her, she decided that healing herself had to wait.

With that many of the creatures around them, she just wanted to get done with their task. While they weren't particularly dangerous, they could still cause a lot of trouble and Hermione really didn't want to fight them all.

Always keeping an eye on the creatures, they progressed more slowly than before they were surrounded, moving and being on the watch at the same time was hard. Also, the longer they've been underwater the more concerned Hermione got.

Were they ever going away? And how long would the bubble head charm last her? So far the magic was holding up pretty well, but they were really far down and if it would fail, she would likely drown. That is if the sudden difference in pressure wouldn't kill her first.

Hermione tried not to let this worry her. But she was getting exhausted and Mr. Malfoy wasn't slowing down any further. Having lost his patience, he grabbed her arm and dragged her ahead. Hermione kept her legs pressed together, minimizing the resistance.

He sped up. Even with her added weight, he was moving sheer effortlessly through the water. Mr. Malfoy seemed so determined in his way, that she wondered if he had ever interacted with this specific tribe of merpeople before.

Before she knew what was happening the Grindylows that surrounded them had disappeared. That was odd. They had followed them for such a long time and now they were gone.

From the corner of her eyes, she saw a long fishy body. It took her a blink of an eye to process what she had seen. This was the tail of a merperson. Without warning, she had a spear held against her throat.

Hermione swallowed hard. She had been so utterly unprepared to be kidnapped, back during the Triwizard tournament. And this sent her instantly back many years. She tried to stay calm, focusing on her breathing.

Soon they were surrounded by merpeople. Hopefully, Mr. Malfoy knew what he was doing, because Hermione didn't. She couldn't just hex them, She wanted to establish peaceful interactions and show respect, after all this was the point of them being here.

Mr. Malfoy said something, but the merpeople paid no attention to it. He pointed at the foundation where the platform was going to be anchored at. A mermaid leaned to Hermione, showing her her teeth. She didn't need to be an expert on merpeople to know that this was an act of aggression.

He pointed once again at the device. Saying something the merpeople, moved away from them.

Hermione cut the anchor loose while he cast a series of charms. The merpeople never stopped watching them, always their spears at hand. It took her a bit of time, but eventually and thanks to magic, she was able to sever the fist-thick steel chord.

Turning her attention back to Mr. Malfoy, she saw him take a bunch of necklaces made out of shells that were handed to him by one of the merpeople.

"You can't accept that," she hissed.

"We should return to the surface," he said, looking concerned.

"We're here to help the merpeople not exploit them."

"I am not exploiting anyone, merely conducting business."

Hermione wanted to stomp her feet to the ground, but it was kind of pointless under water. "We won't take payment for our help. I'm only doing my job."

He sighed. "Look, it is getting rather cold. I think we should leave the water or do you wish to kill us fighting this petty argument. Accepting something in return makes us not humiliate

those people as it shows that we are equals."

She bit her lip. She wasn't fond of the idea, but put up no resistance when he grabbed her arm and began moving towards the surface. He took his time, not rising too fast, but her ears still felt funny. It got lighter and lighter and soon she could stand on her own feet and walk to the beach.

The bubble burst and Hermione felt the strong wind throw her hair in all directions. Looking at the ground she calculated each step not wanting to fall over a stone and drown.

Was that really it? There must be more she could do. While with the anchor cut and the repellent charm in place, there was no way that those merpeople would be disturbed by muggles, it was still not very satisfying.

"Miss Granger, leave the water before you freeze to death."

Hermione hadn't noticed how numb her fingers and toes felt. Taking a step forward she noticed just then that she couldn't feel her leg. There were only a few more steps to take until she would reach the land, but she was stiff and exhausted. Not letting these feelings stop her, she slowly moved forward.

He grabbed his coat and swung it around her wet body. She instantly started shivering. Her teeth were moving against each other at a high frequency, making strange noises in her head.

"This isn't really a long term solution," Hermione said emotionless, staring at the ground beneath her burning and red feet. "This is all so pointless. We save those merpeople but soon another company will find another place to drill for fossil fuels. And for what? To heat the planet so that they can exploit the arctis as well?

"Are you criticizing Muggle practices?"

Hermione glared at him. Her hair was standing up in all directions, she could almost hear the current discharging. "Not all of us are hypocrites. I care about equality no matter who is treated unfairly."

"I was not implying anything of that sort." He looked at her through narrowed eyes. "I can offer you a deal. I help you lobby for a conservation area in the sea if you attend the ball with me."

It sounded like a good offer. Not only the merpeople would benefit from it but also the wildlife. "I won't be your date unless we've made some progress," she said.

"Of course."

Hermione took a step closer to him. He was standing near enough that she could feel his warm breath against her skin. Looking at his piercing blue eyes, she found a sparkle. Swallowing, she wondered if this was really a good idea. "And all of this trouble just to look better in the eyes of people who have never even liked you to begin with and social standing?"

He reached out to her and tugged a loose strand of her bushy hair behind her ear. "I might get something very different out of this agreement."

She looked at him with big eyes. Surely he wasn't actually interested in her?

Mr. Malfoy smiled at her gently. "I can rely on your returning to work? I visit you for lunch and we can discuss our next steps in more detail."

Her throat was dry and she was oddly uneasy. Not trusting her voice she nodded.