Chapter 7
It was the 24th February and the morning of the second trial. It was cold, still like winter, but not cold enough for snow to fall, luckily that was to their benefit. There was however some left over on the ground from the snow just a few days prior.
Hermione was nowhere to be seen that morning, but they, being Harry, Neville and Dean wanted to get some practice in for their project before he had to go. It helped Harry to relieve some of his stress.
Dean was standing on a slightly elevated mound, Neville standing by with a pad of paper and a pen to take notes. Harry was standing apart from Dean, both of whom had their wands at the ready.
"Go!" Neville announced.
Dean moved his wand but Harry was faster and cast several blue sparks at Dean. Dean was forced to didge the attacks. He noted that Harry wasn't chanting anything for them. Dean moved away as quickly as he could and raised a shield to defend.
"You're better than I expected" Harry complemented. Dean smiled.
Dean ducked behind a tree and yelled "Stupefy!" which sent the red energy at Harry.
The spell crashed as it hit Harry's shield, rippling along the blue barrier. Harry barely moved from the spot, he could summon shields to defend from anything that Dean threw his way. Without much effort the fight ended quickly, Harry the victor and Dean on his back.
"You did well" Harry offered his hand and once taken he lifted Dean up.
"Were you and your brother made to fight? You are both way too good at this stuff" he commented.
"We have been trained since we were young" Harry justified his statement with a smile. "Neville, you want a shot?" Harry asked. "If you want I'll take the notes and you can spar?" Neville nodded and he and Harry switched places.
Their sparring session was much more balanced, ending with a victory for Dean. Harry took notes and gave a description of the fight, as well as noting the spells used and what he thought their level of mastery was as extra notation.
Dobby delivered something that Harry had asked for prior to the start of the trail, and when the cannon was fired he swallowed it and threw himself into the water. It was cold at first and he couldn't breathe, but both of those things changed when he mutated as a result of the Gillyweed.
xXxXxXx
Fleur was nervous while she waited to dive it the freezing water of the Black Lake. She was shaking just from the cold as she stood there in her swimsuit. She had cast a few warming charms on herself, but it still wasn't enough. Harry was late, but he arrived before the speeches started. He was carrying something which he quickly hid with a firmly closed hand.
She wondered what it was that he was trying to hide, she was sure that everyone else was unaware, she was the only one that was watching him with so much attention to detail. Was it something to help him? She was sure that he wasn't going to use the Bubble-Head Charm because he wouldn't've learned it yet.
She could use her own mastery of the spell and use it for him, but that would be betraying her school, was that really what she wanted.
As they prepared, Dumbledore giving his speech, while she and Cedric cast the same charm, Krum used a much more interesting method, when the cannon was fired the task began, all four of them jumped into the water and readied to search for what they had lost, what had been taken from them.
Krum partially transfigured himself so that he could swim as a shark would, his features changing to be more animalistic. He rocketed off faster than any human could swim. Cedric seemed to pick a direction and random and began to swim, but she knew better, he definitely had a plan.
She herself swam away, she turned back though before leaving to check on Harry, he was rolling around, struggling, like he was fighting some kind of pain. She moved to swim to his side, to help, somehow, until he stopped, she watched from a distance as gills appeared on his neck, his fingers stretched and became webbed, the same as his feet.
What was it that he ate? She asked herself, assuming correctly that he had eaten whatever he had brought to make up for the lack of knowledge of spells.
She would've sighed if she wasn't underwater, but the stress in her body faded when she saw him examine himself, then swimming away at a speed similar to Krum, although somewhat slower.
She began her own search. She wasn't sure how much time past as she tried to find what was taken from her, but she eventually found herself in an endless field of reeds, pushing them aside she followed her wand, which was pointed to the location of whatever it was that was stolen from her.
Suddenly, she felt something move past her, too fast to see, she turned but didn't see it. Again, something passed her this time scratching her arm, actually it was more than a scratch, the blood that came from the wound flowed into the water and she had to grip it quickly before more blood flowed.
What happened next was a blur. Grindylow after grindylow grabbed her, pulling her in every direction, until everything went dark.
xXxXxXx
"W-What is going one?!" Fleur said in French as she woke up in a panic. She wasn't in the water, she was on the river bank, a towel wrapped around her and the woman that she recognised as the healer that worked for Hogwarts nearby. Madame Maxime was also there along with another of the students.
"I'm sorry Fleur but you were removed from the task when you were attacked by the grindylows" Madame Maxime informed her in French.
The healer then came over and scanned her with her wand. "I'm just making sure that you haven't been to hurt dear." She said, her voice kind and slightly soothing. She had a thoughtful expression when she was scanning Fleur and Fleur ignored it as much as she could, looking out at the water with fear, she had at some point worked it out. It was her sister that had been taken, and now her younger sister, the most important person in the world to her, trapped with no one to rescue her and the massive guilt.
"Fleur, don't worry, your sister will be safe." Madame Maxime assured her. When the healer was done she took Fleur to the rest of the students and they waited for the trial, but despite the comfort her headmistress had provided she was still focused on her sister.
She waited and waited and waited, Cedric came to the surface of the water with Cho in his arms, followed quickly by Krum with his friend, someone that she didn't recognise, they took the people they saved to the structure that the students and faculty were on, the same one that she was waiting on.
She kept waiting until…
Two bodies drifted to the surface of the water, one was the girl that she had seen with Harry, while the other was her sister. She was safe. But a question remained. How? The brunette started to swim with Gabrielle to the ladder that would get them out of the freezing water.
"Where's Harry?" she heard a student whisper, followed by several others that were aligned with the first. She raced to her sister and they had a teary reunion.
xXxXxXx
Despite the whole school having gathered to watch the task there were three missing. Nathan and his two top cronies, Ron and Seamus, they were aware that Dean had to work on the project with Harry, so they weren't suspicious of him, yet.
They had finished their training for the day, but Nathan was working on something else. Magical oaths wouldn't last forever, he needed another more effective way to keep his friends loyal to him.
One night when he was thinking about it he remembered the dark mark that was used by Death Eaters, if he could make his own version then he could guarantee that they would remain loyal no matter what, it would be even better if he could incorporate some way to communicate then it would only improve the benefits of it.
He found whatever books he could, even ordering some before the Yule ball and when they arrived he studied them carefully.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Ron asked. They were both in the forest, hiding from any unwanted eyes that might try to stop them or report them. "I mean, I agree that we need to do this, but it might be better to wait until we can go home and do it without Dumbledore around."
"I'm not afraid of some old relic. Dumbledore doesn't matter." Nathan rejected the idea. "But are you sure you want in?" he asked with fake concern. Ron gave a nod with an expression that reflected that he was committed.
"Alright then, time to do this." He drew his wand and Ron held out his arm, rolling the sleeve up so that it was presented to Nathan. Nathan pressed the wand to the skin and from the tip, as he began to chant an incantation, a black substance flowed from it and into Ron's skin.
As the process was being fulfilled Ron felt like his skin was burning. He writhed in agony, wanting to collapse to his knees, Nathan held his arm firmly with his other hand, making sure that he could complete the process.
It was a strange sensation to give the marl, he could feel it being made. He could feel it being completed as the mark stretched over his skin to form the desired shape. A black lion's head with red eyes, that seemed to move as it was looked at by the both of them.
Ron was sweating, panting from the strain that the mark had put on him. The feeling was like someone dragging pieces of metal through his skin, but there was no damage, no mark, aside from the now tattoo looking magical mark that would forever bind him to Nathan.
"I couldn't work out how we can use them to communicate, but the basic function is there, we can make any changes later. Now that it is there you won't have to face that again." Nathan told him, putting his wand away as he examined the mark.
Seamus, who had been sitting quietly stepped up after a moment of rest, waiting for Ron to recover slightly. "My turn?" he only half asked.
Nathan nodded and repeated the process, although Seamus wasn't as good at handling the pain and almost past out as a result of it. "Well that was… fun. Do we give the mark to Dean next?" Ron asked, rubbing the new addition to his body, feeling no difference to the texture of his skin.
"I'm not sure that is a good idea." Noting the reaction of the other two he continued to explain himself. "Dean has shown that he doesn't want to learn the Dark Arts, he, like most wizards is afraid of them, thinks that they are evil. Like most wizards he is wrong. I don't think he will follow along the path we are going down."
"Then we need to stop him from telling people about the book!"
"We can't do that! He's our friend!" Seamus rejected Ron's idea.
"He might tell everyone what we've been doing! We can't risk that!"
"Why? All we've done is learn a little extra magic!"
"No! We broke the rules! We studied forbidden magic that we were never supposed to find! If they find out we'll be expelled, getting rid of Dean is the only way."
"Get-?" Seamus was cut off by Nathan, who decided that it was time for his intervention.
"We can't even if that was right. Dean is at a point where he is slowly siding with my brother, if he has already become his friend like I suspect then you two won't be able to kill him, Harry can stop you both. I could kill him, but a fight with my brother would expose us, so for now we leave it."
"The stuff we've been learning though?"
"I know Ron, but Harry, if he finds out from Dean, who is also the only person Dean will feel comfortable telling, will want to deal with me privately thanks to his idiotic sense of right and wrong. When he does it will be outside of school and we can deal with him then."
"Then we're staying with you at the end of the year." Ron argued.
"I don't need help to deal with my brother. He is an idiot. A waste of space and undeserving of my name. I will be the one to end him."
Author's Note: Thank you for all the reviews, it has meant a lot to me. I understand that a lot of this story is like the movie, something pointed out by Nanettez, but that was because I planned to only make minor changes until Fleur and Harry got together. I also needed to have Nathan learn about the Dark Arts which also needed time which is why he has been dormant for the chapters so far, obviously shown by this chapter he is going to become a larger part of the story for obvious reasons which I'm sure many of you can guess.
