What Happened Underwater
~Will you remember me?~
I don't own the Harry Potter series, or any of the characters, franchises, or concepts you may recognize.
Dumbledore
I continued "Your champions must rescue you within an hour to complete the task. You will be entrusted to the care of the merpeople, who will be your guards."
"Underwater." said Ronald dubiously.
"Well, yes, Mr. Weasley. The lake is, after all, full of water."
Seemingly at a loss for words, Hermione stuttered" But-but how will we breathe?" Ah, yes, the voice of logic. However, one often finds that logic is irrelevant while dealing with magic.
Ron raised his hand. "Um, what happens if they don't recue us within an hour?"
Ah, the tricky part. Just like them to cut to the chase. Hesitantly, I replied "Well, to 'increase the stakes', Karkaroff insisted that the champions be led to believe that you will be lost forever"
Ah. That could've been worded better.
Their faces pale, they looked at each other incredulously as I hurried to explain the precautions, rescue plans, basically easing their worries for even the worst case scenario. "And of course, the spell will be complete with a memory charm, assuring that you will remember nothing from the moment it is cast until your rescue, be it by champion or medi-wizard. After all, we don't want you to have to relive this again."
They sat in shock, or at least Weasley was in shock. I could see the gears turning in Miss Granger's head from here.
"No" she said quietly at first, then louder. "No"
Oh? What's this? Miss Granger, objecting to a professor?
"Pardon me?" I said, my eyebrows raised.
She stood up, and said something that surprised me, something that rarely happens, though I had an inkling… "I want to remember."
Oh, children... I'll never cease to wonder at them. And underestimate them, just as the rest of the world does.
I regarded the brightest witch of the age sadly. "Do you?"
Hermione
My mind was whirling with the information. Clearly he didn't want to go through with any of this; I could tell he was afraid for us.
He started to reassure us, but I knew we would be fine; there was no way Dumbledore could let harm come to any of his students, it was an alien thought that he would even put them in danger. I was more afraid for Harry, and Viktor than I was for Ron and myself.
I was snapped out of my thoughts when Dumbledore told us that we would forget everything we'd seen and done, yet we would have free will so that they didn't have to deal with unconscious deadweights.
I thought about the stories of mermaids, tales I had grown up with, and though I had a hunch that these would be very, very different, still…
"No" I said, almost to myself, and then I grew more confident. "No"
Dumbledore looked at me serenely. "Pardon me?" I swallowed, took a deep breath and stood, feeling rather ridiculous, but sure it was the right thing to do. "I want to remember."
I saw Dumbledore's calm expression falter for a second, I'd caught him off guard, but there was no need to elaborate; he knew what I wanted. I held his gaze, and saw him give in.
Somewhat self-satisfied, I looked over at Ron. He was staring at me open-mouthed, like he'd never seen me before. Well, maybe he hadn't.
I looked back at the professor, who was regarding me with a mixture of pride and … something I can't name. Fear? Disappointment? Worry? "Do you?"
Though struck with the gravity of the situation, I set my jaw, looked him square in the eye and nodded.
Ron
"Bloody Hell" I thought, trying and failing to grasp what we were about to do.
I mean, I have faith in Harry, but Viktor…
Okay, and maybe Harry hasn't had the best run with the egg. He doesn't know what he's going to do yet! Unless he's figured something out between when we last saw him and now…
I kept playing out what would happen if Harry didn't get there in time, even as Dumbledore tried to reassure us. I'll admit, I was quaking in my boots.
Which is why I felt like even more of a coward when Hermione Granger, bushy-haired know-it-all stood and said that she wanted to remember. And here's lil-old me with a Gryffindor tie on and lemon dust coating my gawking mouth, mocking her.
I heard the resolve in her voice, and saw her as I hadn't seen her in a while ;as the loyal, intelligent, brave, and yes, beautiful friend that I had lost because, okay, fine, because I was a git. A-a jealous git. Yeah, that's right. Jealous.
And I realized that I cared about her way too much to let her do this alone. So when I realized this, there was but one thing to do. I swallowed hard and stood.
"I want to remember too."
She looked at me, her eyes aglow, a silent thank-you passing between us, as it can between the best of friends. I knew that whatever came next, we would face it together.
A/N Sorry; couldn't resist a little Ron/Hermione fluff. However, this story will NOT center around them. Sorry about the agonizing set-up, I promise we'll get to the merpeople, grindylow politics and giant squids soon.
(Edit)Part of my Edit-Every-Chapter remodeling of this story! Spelling/Grammar/tense issues fixed, and some added parts and rewritten parts! Thanks for bearing with me on this.
Love, Leviosa