Chapter Twenty-One: Arctica

Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K. Rowling. The underlined portions are taken directly from the novel; I do not own those parts. They belong to J.K. Rowling.

Author's Note: This fanfiction is going to be different from my other stories. This picks up where "The Heart of Everything" and "The Heart of Everything: Shallow Bay" left off. The time in the books also changes. So, pay attention the time, so you don't get confused. Some of the chapters are other Marcus Flint/Katie Bell stories, just with more changes and deleted scenes added.

Time: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Genre: Romance, Drama, and Friendship

Rating: PG-13

Italics: Katie's Vision

Katie woke to the sounds of Emily crying. She reached over and kicked Marcus hard in the kidney. There was no sense in her getting up by herself when he was perfectly able to do so as well.

Marcus woke up with a groan. "Was that necessary?"

Katie was already out of bed. "Yes, come on."

Marcus looked over at the clock. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Time for you to help your wife check on the baby." Katie grabbed his arm. "Come on, just think the sooner you get up the sooner you can go back to bed."

Marcus buried his face in his pillow for a few seconds, but, then, got out of bed.

Katie went into Emily's room. Emily was on her back in her bed with tears spilling down her face. Often times Katie wondered what made the small child cry. Was it because she simply couldn't sleep or was it because she missed her parents? Did Emily even know the difference?

Katie picked Emily up and held her close. "Maybe we should take her into our room."
Marcus was standing in the doorway with a sleepy expression on his face. "Do you think it will stop the crying?"

Katie looked down at Emily, who was smiling up at Katie. "She could have your half if you don't get over here."
Marcus muttered something under breath, but he did come over to Katie.

"She needs to know who you are too." Katie handed Emily to him. "Raising a child isn't a one person job."
Marcus didn't answer as Katie set to work gathering some of Emily's favourite things up. Katie didn't say that it would make her feel better if Emily was in their room. She didn't like the idea of them all being so far away from each other. What if something bad happened?
"Okay, we can go back to bed," Katie said once she had everything gathered up.

Katie led the way back to the master bedroom. Marcus laid Emily in the middle of the bed and laid down to the right of her. Katie smiled at them in bed beside each other; it was rather cute.

Katie slid into the left side. "See, isn't this better?"

"Yeah, sure," Marcus muttered.

Katie looked over at Emily until they both fell asleep and everything felt right.

Katie awoke the next morning and found herself alone in bed. She sat up and looked around wondering where the other two had gotten too. "Marcus?"

No answer. Frowning, Katie climbed out of bed and left the room. She peered down over the balcony and into the living room. "Marcus?"

"Yeah?" Marcus's dark head appeared from the kitchen.

Relief raced over Katie. "Where's Emily?"

"In here."
Katie nodded. "I'll be down in a few minutes."

Marcus saluted her with a spoon before disappearing back into the kitchen.

Katie smiled and turned to the stairs. Just as she was about to head down the stairs, a world of darkness covered her. She just had enough time to grip the railing before it over took her.

Marcus stared at the dungeon wall. He was chained against a wall. His arms were raised above him. He was bare was the waist up. There were a dozen or so other men in this situation.

He banged his head against the wall. Last night the Ministry had taken away all of his belongings that he had with him. He wasn't worried about anything expect for one: his wand. He'd kill to have it back.

Marcus watched as four Death Eaters push in a man and put him back up against the wall. He knew what was coming next. The Death Eaters walked over to him and unchained him.

He landed on the floor with a crash. One of the Death Eaters kicked him in the stomach. It hurt and he cursed.

"On your feet, boy," the Death Eater commended.

Marcus wanted to say something but he didn't dare. He got on his feet, allowed them to put him in chains, and shove him out the room.

He was shoved in front on a tub on water. Malfoy walked over into the room and stood behind Marcus. Both of them stared at each other.

A middle aged Death Eater stood in front of Marcus. "Now, all you have to do is answer our questions and you won't get hurt. Failure to do so, you will get hurt. Understand?"

Marcus didn't move. He really didn't want to do this.

"Name?" the Death Eater demanded.

Before Marcus could answer, he was under water.

Two hours later Marcus was back against the wall. He couldn't catch his breath. Water filled his lungs. It took all he had in him to cough it up. However, he had somehow kept his mouth shut and didn't tell the Death Eaters everything. But he had paid dearly for it.

At least he didn't tell them about Arctica.

"Katie, do you want anything to eat?" Marcus's voice called from the foot of the stairs.

Katie regained herself, slightly thanks the gods that he couldn't see her around the turn. "Are you cooking?"

"Maybe," Marcus answered. "You didn't answer my question."

Katie started down the stairs and was soon face to face with him. "I don't trust your cooking."

Marcus snorted. "You haven't seen nothing yet."

Katie kissed his lips. "Yeah, right."

Marcus started back toward the kitchen.

It was now or never. "Hey, what's Arctica?"

Marcus froze.

"Besides, the ancient continent that broke up over a billion years ago." Katie stopped speaking for a minute. "Unless, you're here to tell me that it didn't."

"Maybe," Marcus muttered.

Katie grabbed his arm. "Then, what happened to it? There's no way there's a hidden continent out there somewhere."

"It's not hidden, you just wouldn't know where to find it unless you what you are looking for."

By now, they were in the kitchen.

Katie looked around at the mess. She hoped that Marcus knew he was going to have to clean it up.

Marcus handed Katie a stack of pancakes. "It's not really talked about because wizards don't like to admit that they were wrong." He took a bite of pancakes. "Basically, it was one big Herbology area where wizards grew plants with healing powers stronger than anything we have right now."

Katie frowned. "How do you know this?"

"It was in one of my Healing books." Marcus offered Emily a bite of pancakes. "I have more than cells in my brain."

"I can see that," Katie muttered. "Don't give her a lot of that."

Marcus just smiled.

"So, what happened to Arctica?" Katie said.

"That's the thing, no one really knows. It just sort of disappeared." He paused. "It's kind of a shame because there was plants there that could pretty much heal anything, maybe even death, but we don't know that."

Katie had to admit it did sound pretty cool. She really did want to know happened. "So, no one knows what went wrong? There's no records or anything?"
Marcus shook his head. "It happened about the time Hogwarts was founded, so a lot of people wonder if one of the Founders didn't run it and when they left to work at Hogwarts, it just kind of died out."

"But would think that they would have told someone or left a record?" Katie asked.

"You would think. There was a whole chapter about it in my medical history book, so they had to get that information for somewhere."

Katie took a big bite of pancake. "You know what I've noticed about the wizard's world?"

Marcus looked at her. "What?"

"There is more unknown than known."

"Isn't that the same with any world?"
"Yeah, but you would think being magical, you would know more." Katie smirked over at her. "You guys just discovered technology about ten years ago and the Muggles have had it for years."

"We like to stick to the old ways," Marcus said.

"No kidding and that is why whenever you get into the Muggle world, you have no idea what is going on."

"Muggles don't either," Marcus pointed out.

"I know, but they are willing to learn and most wizards aren't. You were only in Muggle Studies because you had to be, not because you wanted to learn about the Muggle world."

Marcus pointed his fork at her. "Maybe I did want to learn."

Katie pointed her own fork at him. "I don't think so, mister. You were only there because your attendance was bad and you didn't want to repeat a year."

"It wasn't my fault that I missed so much school. I didn't skip on purpose."

Katie had to give him that much. He had missed a lot of school due to injury. "I think you're just accident prone."

"I haven't been in the hospital that much since I started playing for the Falcons. Besides, your House always gave me concussions."

Katie shrugged. "It would not have happened had you not kept scoring."

Marcus just took a bite of pancake and didn't answer.

Katie smiled at him. She really wanted to know more about Arctica, but didn't want to give him the pleasure of being her information source. Plus, if she ended up knowing more about Arctica than he did, she would get bragging rights.

Marcus was watching her. "What are you thinking about?"

Katie tapped his arm. "You don't get to know everything."

Marcus frowned. "Why not?"

"Because it doesn't work that way." Katie sat her plate in the sink. "Now, clean up this mess."

Katie went into the library. As far as she knew, Marcus kept all of his medical books in here besides the few random ones he left lying around the house. She had a feeling that a medical history book wasn't one he would be reading all the time.

She looked up at the shelves knowing it was going to be a difficult task to find the book. Marcus had no organizational skills when it came to putting things away, his wets towels being another.

Her eyes raced across the shelves. It had be around here somewhere. She climbed onto a stool; knowing Marcus, he probably put it somewhere close to his height.

"Forgotten Methods of Healing: The Lost Lands of the Worlds." Katie smiled and pulled the book out. She plopped on the floor and flipped the index. She found the chapter on Arctica and flipped to it.

"Arctica was an ancient continent that formed over two billion years ago made up of the Canadian and Siberian shields. Today it is what all worlds know as the North Pole. Muggles believe that the continent broke away about one billion years ago. However, ancient witches and wizards are responsible for the disappearance of the landmass. Due to its vast ability to home rare herbs, ancient witches and wizards thought it would be best to hide it before the world could abuse it's amazing powers. The last known record of Arctica is over a thousand years old. Many have tried to find Arctica, but none have been successful. It is said that you have to have pure intentions to help those in need and there must be no personal gain involved."

Katie flipped through the rest of the chapter. Was it possible that Arctica was still out there? She frowned. What could have went so wrong that wizards wanted to hid it?

The last sentence of the chapter caught Katie's attention. "Arctica is believed to the only home of the never ending flower, Amaranth. Amaranth is known for its vast healing powers. For more on Amaranth today see chapter fifty."

Don't forget about this chapter. You'll see why later...