Recommendation: This chapter's recommended fic is "The British Reformation" by kb0. Harry isn't happy with how he is treated after Sirius' death and is helped by Fleur Delacour. This leads to some significant changes — both for Harry and magical society in general. They will regret trying to isolate him like that.
Chapter 22 - Rising Power
Wednesday, January 6, 1995, Morning.
When Jasmine, Hermione, and Neville entered their double period of Charms that day, they'd already resolved to pay close attention to how powerfully the two witches cast their spells. It seemed likely that the increase in power had been affecting both of them more than they had realized, so care and observation were necessary now.
The girls hadn't reached any decision on whether to ask Professor Flitwick to help monitor them, much less on whether they should tell him their secret, but they had decided to observe him carefully as well. Both agreed that they liked the diminutive Charms professor, but their secret was too important to disclose to just anyone.
"Welcome back, everyone," Professor Flitwick said as the students settled into their seats. "For our first lesson of the spring term, we'll be working on the summoning charm. This is a very useful spell; in fact, back in November one of us here today demonstrated just how useful it can be." He made a point of looking at Jasmine, and everyone quickly realized what he was talking about.
"Miss Potter, your summoning charm during the first task was amazing. Not many fourth year students could summon something over such a long distance."
"Thank you, professor," Jasmine responded with a slight blush. "I couldn't have done it without a lot of help and coaching from Hermione, though." Her fellow Gryffindor blushed as well.
"I'm glad to hear that you two have been working so well together," Professor Flitwick said with a broad smile. "Why don't you demonstrate the summoning charm for us now? Try summoning this book from my desk," he gestured to a copy of an advanced charms text which he had just laid on a pile of other books that were already on his desk.
"Accio book!" Jasmine incanted, and the charms text flew from the desk and slammed into Jasmine's outstretched hand with a loud thump.
"Oh ho!" Professor Flitwick cried out. "That is impressive, most impressive indeed. I expected that I'd have to tell you what the book was and show you the title before you'd be able to do it." Turning to the rest of the class, he continued. "You see, the summoning charm is heavily dependent upon not just your will, but your ability to concentrate on a particular object. Or, to put it another way, it's dependent upon your ability to visualize a very specific object, much as is the case in transfiguration. The more definitively you can visualize, name, or otherwise identify an object, the less power and concentration it will take you to summon it because your magic has specific information about what to summon."
Gesturing to Jasmine, he said, "Miss Potter here summoned something very general: a book. If you look around, you'll see lots and lots of books in this room. So why was she able to summon that one particular book instead of some other random volume, or even nothing at all? Anyone? Well, that sort of general summoning is successful when one or both of two factors is present: a very strong idea or image in the person's mind of what they want, or a lot of excess power that is pumped into the spell."
He waited while students wrote that information down before continuing. "In Miss Potter's case, it would be because she concentrated very strongly on that one book, even though she didn't know what it was. Being able to see it so well helped, of course. Focusing on one object out of many similar objects is difficult enough, but to do it without knowing any specific information or details about that object is even harder."
"So," he said, turning back to Jasmine, "five points to Gryffindor for being able to do the spell the first time and another ten points for doing such a marvelous job at it."
Professor Flitwick then proceeded to distribute pillows to each student, saying, "I want you all to practice summoning the pillow from your partner. Remember to concentrate hard on the pillow you want. If it doesn't work right away, try describing the pillow more specifically to give your magic something to latch on to. All the pillows have different colors, patterns, and textures to help you identify the one pillow you want."
While everyone else was distracted, Hermione leaned closer to her friend and said, "That was nicely done, Jasmine."
"Hurt like hell, though," she responded, shaking her hand a bit.
"Language!" Hermione said out of habit, then asked, "It hurt? Because it hit your hand too fast?"
"Exactly. Good thing we'll be using pillows for the rest of the lesson," Jasmine said, "Otherwise we'd probably have to go to Madame Pomfrey after this."
Hermione grimaced at the thought, then the two witches began summoning the two pillows back and forth. Each attempt was successful and each time the pillows travelled very fast, proving that Jasmine's earlier comment had been spot on. Both witches felt that they could conclude that their magic was indeed stronger, and with charms, too.
After a few minutes, Hermione stepped over to Jasmine and whispered, "Instead of saying the spell in a normal voice, let's try whispering it. Eventually we'll have to learn how to do silent spell casting anyway, and remember Professor McGonagall suggested it would be necessary for spells under water. So, practicing whispering now might be a good idea. And if it weakens our spells a bit, maybe that would be a good thing?"
Jasmine readily agreed, so the two began whispering the summoning spell, more and more quietly as the lesson went on. At first they had a bit of trouble getting the pillows to move, but it didn't take long for them to get the hang of it, and soon the pillows were flying back and forth between them again, albeit at a slower speed than before. Because Professor Flitwick was so preoccupied with helping the other students, he didn't notice what Jasmine and Hermione were doing. This meant that they didn't get any house points for the achievement, but it also meant that they didn't have to explain how they did it or why they were trying in the first place.
Regardless, they were happy that they now had a way to make their spells less overpowered and thereby less dangerous, though they still hadn't made up their minds about Professor Flitwick.
Thursday, January 7, 1995, Morning.
Senior Branch Supervisor Earchewer slurped his hot chojo as he sat down to deal with the morning's parchment. As the Senior Branch Supervisor, he was responsible for most of what happened in the London branch of Gringotts bank, and most of the items he had to deal with that morning were routine.
A teller had to be reprimanded for his drawer being 3 sickles over at the end of his shift? Dock him that day's pay and put a negative mark in his file, Earchewer wrote. Cart Driver Griphook was being recommended for promotion to Cart Manager? His record is spotless, and he has worked here without problems for twenty years... promotion approved. Door Guard Axehandle and his mate are about due to have their first hellyon, and he wants some time off? Two weeks paternity leave approved when their hellyon is born... and be sure to send a gift to the new mother from the bank when it happens. Earchewer smiled briefly — the arrival of a new little hellyon was always a happy time for family and clan.
Then Earchewer came upon an envelope marked "Urgent" and locked with a special Gringotts privacy seal. Curious, he opened it up and found that it was from Account Manager Knobshaft and pertained to the Potter account. It was not, as he first assumed, about the audit which he had approved a couple of weeks previously. Instead, Knobshaft had vague concerns about the Potter girl and some muggleborn friend of hers named Granger.
For a few moments Earchewer was annoyed that he would be bothered with something like this, and in an "Urgent" letter to boot; but as he kept reading he found that he shared his underling's concerns. Between the nature of the witches' interactions, their use of a Potter family pledge ring set, and a few other small details, there was plenty there to warrant curiosity. However, there wasn't nearly enough to justify any particular conclusions, much less official actions by the bank.
And that's why he'd gotten the letter. Knobshaft had recognized that it was an issue beyond his authority and so was passing the galleon on to his superior. This meant that no matter what happened, he couldn't be faulted for not alerting someone in charge. It also meant that Earchewer was now on the line for making a decision.
He took another sip of his chojo, then grimaced and set it back down because it had cooled while he worked through Knobshaft's report. Leaning back in his chair, he tried to weigh his various options. In the end, he had to conclude that he simply didn't have enough information to follow any particular path. At the same time, though, he couldn't just ignore this. He couldn't put his claw on it, but there was definitely something odd about it all. He could feel it, and listening to those feelings was one reason why he'd risen to his current position so quickly.
Earchewer reluctantly concluded that he was in the same position as Knobshaft was. He therefore decided to borrow his underling's idea and pass the galleon up. There were, after all, standing instructions to report unusual events and situations of this sort.
Pulling out a fresh quill and some of his better parchment, he rewrote Knobshaft's report and added his own perspective to the situation. After a moment's hesitation, he decided to seal it all in a new "Urgent" envelope which he set aside to be sent to the Gatekeeper.
Saturday, January 9, 1995, Morning.
Albus Dumbledore looked around at his very tired colleagues as they drank their tea or coffee and tried to wake up enough to participate in the first staff meeting of the spring term. The first and last weeks of every term were always the hardest, and that made getting up early for the first staff meeting a bit of a chore. He was glad of the fact that he had always been an early riser; by being more awake and alert than the others, it was easier to be a commanding presence at the head of the table.
"Welcome to the first staff meeting of the 1995 spring term, everyone!" he said loudly, getting the meeting started and disturbing a couple of staff members who had apparently started to doze off. He suppressed a smile as he watched them try to shake themselves awake.
Following his standard practice ever since he became headmaster, he went around the table asking everyone how things had gone during the first week and if there was anything important that the rest of the staff might need to know about. Except for a couple of minor issues, everything was running smoothly at Hogwarts.
Once his own announcements were finished, he dismissed everyone except for the heads of house and Alastor Moody. "As you all know," he told them, "the second task of the Triwizard Tournament is fast approaching, and it's time we dealt with the hostages that the champions will need. I've already spoken to Headmaster Karkaroff, and he agrees that Miss Granger will be the hostage for Mr. Krum." Turning to Pomona Sprout, Hufflepuff's head of house, he continued, "I believe you'll agree that Miss Chang should be the hostage for our Mr. Diggory?" She nodded, then he turned to Minerva McGonagall to say, "And of course, Mr. Longbottom will be the hostage for our Miss Potter?"
Instead of offering the expected agreement, Minerva said, "I'm not so sure, Albus."
"Oh?" he replied with unconcealed curiosity, "Is there someone better suited to serve as Miss Potter's hostage?"
"Actually, Albus," she said, "I have a concern about the entire hostage situation."
"Really?" he said, nonplussed. "What's the problem, then?"
"Will any of these hostages be asked if they wish to participate? Will they be allowed to refuse?" Minerva asked. "Will those who are underage have their parents or guardians contacted to see if they approve?"
Everyone in the room stilled at those questions. Apparently, no one had bothered to ask them before, and no one was sure how to answer them now.
Trying to assert control over the situation, Dumbledore said, "Now, Minerva, I'm sure that none of them will mind..."
Interrupting him, she said, "To be quite honest, Albus, I'm not so sure of that. But I could be wrong. So we'll be asking, yes?"
"I hardly think that's necessary, Minerva," the headmaster said in an attempt to placate her. It was a tone of voice which he had used countless times before with many different people. Only now, though, was Minerva McGonagall consciously aware of it. Only now was she consciously connecting this instance to all the previous times it had happened, recognizing that in many of them, he had overridden her concerns in situations that had later gone badly.
It was the tone of voice he'd used when he overrode her objections to Jasmine Potter being left on the front doorstep of the Dursleys. It was the manner of speaking he'd used when he ignored her concerns about hiding the Philosopher's Stone in a school full of children. It was the attitude he'd projected when he insisted that the staff didn't need to quash any of the rumors or accusations floating around the school about Miss Potter.
In the past, for some reason, she always quickly gave in and ignored her instincts. Not this time.
"Really?" she asked, skepticism fairly dripping in her voice. "And would you like to be the one to tell Augusta Longbottom that her grandson was put in an enchanted sleep then tied to the bottom of the Black Lake without either her or her grandson ever being asked for their permission?"
Everyone in the room winced, even Severus Snape. Not a single one of them wanted to get on the bad side of Madam Longbottom — certainly not without a very, very good reason.
Dumbledore took a sip of water to wet his suddenly dry mouth before saying, "I see your point, Minerva. Perhaps some provision should be made... yes, I'll come up with a means for securing permission from those responsible for the students' well being."
Looking around, he saw that everyone had relaxed and accepted his assurances. "Now, given that," he continued, "would you agree that Mr. Longbottom is the best choice for Miss Potter's hostage?"
She decided that his use of the phrase "best choice" gave her just enough wiggle room to work within the oaths that came with her position. "Yes," she replied truthfully. Putting half of an incipient bonded pair in danger would be a very poor choice indeed. Now if only there were a way to get another hostage for Krum!
"Very good," Dumbledore then said. "I'll let you all know about the arrangements for the hostages once we get closer to the date of the second task. I think that's all we have for today, so thank you for staying extra for this."
After that, the last of the staff left the meeting, most of them confident that the headmaster would take care of any problems that arose. Only Minerva had doubts, and she was curious about what her boss would do in order to secure permission to put Miss Granger and Mr. Longbottom in the tournament. Her doubts only increased when she remembered that Dumbledore never actually said he'd be contacting any parents or guardians; instead, he'd contact "those responsible for the students' well being," a phrase that could have so many meanings.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do to force the issue; all she could do was wait and watch.
Saturday, January 9, 1995, Early Afternoon.
Jasmine and Hermione ate lunch quickly, anxious to get to their meeting with Fleur. They had no idea what the French veela would say, but the tantalizing hints she had dropped earlier in the week made them very curious. It also made them suspicious, but Neville and Ginny knew where they'd be and with whom, so they felt that they would probably be safe.
Before they left, though, Jasmine stole a quick glance over at the Ravenclaw table and spotted Luna Lovegood eating her own lunch… alone. Every time she'd seen the young blonde witch eating in the Great Hall, she'd been alone — and not just alone, but usually with some distance between her and her fellow Ravenclaws. It's certainly not proof of bullying, Jasmine considered, but it's not a good sign, either. Maybe we should start inviting her over here?
Before she could think about that plan any further, it was time for her and Hermione to leave. Immediately outside the Great Hall near the end of the lunch period they found Fleur waiting for them. After escorting her to the seventh floor, Jasmine surreptitiously checked the map to make sure they were alone, then Hermione led them into the training classroom, sealing and silencing the door. Now that she knew she was putting more power into her spells, she was even more confident than usual that they would have privacy for this meeting.
They all sat around a small table which Dobby and Winky had found and brought in for just such purposes and which, for some reason, already had refreshments on it. There were even some small French delicacies which the two Gryffindor witches had never seen before, but Fleur assumed that they were acting as especially gracious hosts and thanked them, her estimation of them rising by quite a bit.
After everyone had served themselves, Fleur got things started by asking, "What do you know of ze veela?"
Jasmine let Hermione field that question as she shifted into her "professor" mode. "Veela are considered to be near-human magical beings that have an avian form when they are angry. They are all females who possess exceptional beauty and singing voices. They have a type of allure which attracts male humans, even to the point of causing men to do insane things in order to catch the attention of the veela. It is believed that veela have their own, unique, non-wanded magic, but nothing is known of it by outsiders except for the fireballs which are only seen when veela are in their avian forms."
Fleur nodded at that answer and said, "Zat is indeed ze general consensus among outsiders, but it eez not all quite true. I will give you more information, but you must not spread it around. It eez for your ears only."
Both girls nodded their agreement, so Fleur continued, "Veela consider zemselves to be as 'uman as you. We are different, zat is true, but witches and wizards are different from muggles and zey are all 'umans, non? We are all female and we are all beautiful. We do 'ave avian forms and we can throw fire, though we don't need to be in our avian form to do zat. We just avoid it so others underestimate us. We do 'ave other magic, but I won't go into zat 'ere except to say zat a lot involves enchanting objects, magical bonds, and magical rituals. veela are especially knowledgeable about such zings."
Hermione perked up a bit at this, wondering if perhaps the rituals veela used were in any way related to the rituals described by D. Tempest Pureheart.
"Most zink veela magic is sexual, but veela are more sensual than sexual," she continued. "We rely 'eavily on physical contact, which might be just 'ugging and cuddling or might go as far as sex. It is ze intimacy and ze contact which matter most to us. It calms and relaxes us. It eez common for veela to cuddle and relax in large groups. We even live in communal groups of two or three dozen in a 'ome."
"We do 'ave an allure which can let us control males," Fleur went on, "zo it eez used mostly as a defense mechanism, not to attract sexual partners. veela are bisexual and we mate with male 'umans, but over time zat can dilute the veela attributes, so it eez limited to only often enough to prevent problems from inbreeding and ensure genetic diversity. Mostly, we mate with other female veela and we reproduce zat way."
Leaning forward, she added, "No one outside of the veela communities knows zat, by ze way, and it eez a closely guarded zecret. Wizard leaders would feel threatened by matriarchal magical communities where men are not needed, and we would be attacked. We, on ze other hand, believe zat wizards 'ave tried too hard to dominate magic and 'ave 'armed it by suppressing ze feminine side of magic."
"That's all very interesting," offered Hermione, "but why are you telling us this? Why trust us with such information, and what does it have to do with what you told us in the corridor earlier?"
Fleur smiled thinly and answered, "You won't like ze answer, but in truth, I do not know."
"You don't... but... you..." Hermione spluttered.
Fleur held up her hand to calm the younger witch and continued, "I wrote to my maman and grandmere about some zings I noticed about you two. Zey are more experienced zan I, and I 'oped zat zey could explain to me what I was seeing. Zey confirmed what I thought and instructed me to give you zis information. I do not know why or 'ow it is relevant."
"And what is it that you saw with us?" Jasmine asked.
"Zat is the next part zat I must tell you," replied Fleur. "Ever since I arrived 'ere, I 'ave noticed zat you two are close and zat zere is something between you. Since then, and especially since some time in December, zat connection has grown, and now I can almost see power flowing between you two. Ze connection cannot really be described in words — for veela, perceiving such a connection is a sense and describing it eez like trying to describe a taste by using smells. Ze closest I can come eez to say zat it eez like a melody in the air around you. Zis melody has been growing in complexity and strength."
Jasmine and Hermione looked at each other, having a good idea what the French veela was perceiving. They had no idea that veela could discern romantic attachments in such a manner, though, and wondered if anyone else in the school could as well.
"And... where else have you seen this sort of thing? What other people have you seen with this sort of... connection?" Jasmine asked hesitantly.
"No one," answered Fleur. "Zis is ze first I've seen. I've never even 'eard of it, zat is why I 'ad to write to my family."
Jasmine and Hermione were shocked. Surely Fleur had encountered romantically attached couples before! But if she had, that would mean that the romantic relationship isn't the source of whatever Fleur had been perceiving.
"Do you know anything about the nature of this connection, or whatever it is?" asked Hermione.
"No, I'm sorry," Fleur answered with a sincerely apologetic look, "but my maman and grandmere did not tell me. I assume zey know more, but zey did not share it."
Hermione frowned at that, but there was nothing she could do. Then she looked at Jasmine, the question between them obvious: Should we tell her? Jasmine looked unhappy. Hermione didn't feel particularly happy herself, but she shrugged — the more Fleur knew, the more she could help. Jasmine made a small gesture in Fleur's direction, pointing out the fact that the veela was there alone. Her meaning was plain enough: It's her family who can help, but they aren't here.
"We… might have a bit of information which could help your ability to explain things to us," Hermione finally said to Fleur, "but there are a couple of problems with telling you. First, you don't seem to have much information yourself. It seems like it would be better to share this with your mother or grandmother, but of course they aren't here. If you could get more out of them, then it might be worth it for us to share."
Fleur nodded her head, "Zat is reasonable."
"Second," Jasmine continued, "and I feel really bad about this, but we've only shared this information with three others — and all three took an oath before hearing it."
"The oath wasn't on their life or magic," Hermione hastened to add, "but it was an oath. We feel bad about bringing this up because you voluntarily shared information with us without asking for an oath, but I'm really not sure we'd be comfortable with doing the same. The information is very personal."
Fleur cocked her head slightly and thought for a moment, then responded, "Zat is fine, I will respect your privacy. If we get to zat point, let me see ze oath and if I zink it is fair, I will give it."
"Thank you," said Hermione in relief. "I hope your mother and grandmother will offer more information that will help us."
"Speaking of helping," interjected Jasmine, "have you solved the egg?"
"Oui," answered Fleur, suddenly cautious, "but I will not 'elp you..."
"No," Jasmine quickly said, "we've already solved it, too." Fleur relaxed at hearing this. "We wanted to ask if you had an idea of who they would take from you."
"Who? Qui?" Fleur asked, now looking very concerned.
"Yes, who," Hermione responded. "We figured that objects are too easy to hide, and any decent person will treasure other people in their lives far more than any material objects. So it seems likely that what they'll steal is the person who's most important to you."
Jasmine and Hermione had seen veela transform into birds at the Quidditch World Cup last August, but that had happened quite some distance from them. Fleur was up close and personal, so seeing that she was about to transform was terrifying. "Zey would dare?!" she cried, her voice going hoarse from the internal changes. "Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d'enculé de leur mères!"
Neither Jasmine nor Hermione wanted to fight Fleur — whoever won, it would look bad for everyone involved — but even with their increased power, they weren't sure how well they'd do against an enraged, transformed veela in close quarters. So instead of moving into a fighting stance, both girls simultaneously chose to try to calm the French witch. Relying on what they had just learned, they both reached across the table and each took one of her hands — now starting to become talons — in their own.
When they did so, the transformation slowed, and Fleur looked both confused and a little less angry. The two witches glanced quickly at each other, then both stood and moved around the table so they could stand on either side of Fleur. Slowly, so as not to startle the angry half-bird, they drew her into a light embrace. "It's alright," whispered Hermione. "We'll find a way to save everyone," added Jasmine. After what they had just learned about veela, they hoped that the physical contact would help, and they were right.
Gradually, the transformation reversed itself and Fleur, once fully human again, found herself embraced by the two English witches. It was quite a surprise to her because she wasn't accustomed to any sort of physical contact with non-veela — veela enjoyed physical contact such as hugs immensely, but because of prejudice they only tended to get such contact from each other. As much as she could, Fleur returned the hugs and breathed deeply in order to calm herself and push back the anger.
"Zank you — both for ze information and for 'elping me stop my transformation. Losing control like zat is very embarrassing for veela. It eez also very, very difficult to get a transformed veela to go back when she hasn't had a chance to destroy zomething. You two are very impressive."
"Thank you," they both said simultaneously, blushing a bit.
"As you may 'ave surmised," Fleur tried to explain, "family and loved ones are extremely important to veela. Zere eez also unfortunately a long 'istory of veela being kidnapped to be used as sex slaves. Zat is why I had such a strong reaction to ze idea of anyone I care about being taken 'ostage."
After all three had sat back down, Fleur asked, "What do you intend to do to protect all zose who are taken?"
"We haven't come up with any details yet," Hermione admitted. "It's been less than a week since we solved the egg. But we and our friends are all researching different aspects of completing the task — including what can be done for any hostages."
"Once we've got something," Jasmine continued, "we thought we champions could meet to compare notes. Cedric has already agreed and we think Viktor will as well."
Fleur looked intrigued, but cautious. "I don't know, we are supposed to be competitors..."
"True," Jasmine said, "but if they take hostages — people who never volunteered to participate in a dangerous tournament — then it stops being about our competition and starts being about saving those innocent people. If there are hostages, we will all have common interests and a common goal, so why not work together in order to deal with the problem?"
"This tournament is supposed to foster international cooperation," added Hermione. "Doesn't it seem strange that they are trying to foster cooperation while demanding competition?"
At that, a fierce light shone in Fleur's eyes. "You are absolutely right! It eez ze innocents we should be thinking about, not ourselves. Zank you for reminding me. Oui, I will join you and compare ze notes."
After discussing possible times to meet again, the three witches left the training room. Fleur took her own route down to the Hogwarts grounds while Jasmine and Hermione went a ways in the other direction, then doubled back so they could use the Room of Requirement. They decided that they wanted to take a page from the veela handbook and cuddle for a while before Hermione needed to get to the library for some research.
Saturday, January 9, 1995, Night.
In Little Hangleton, the baby-sized Voldemort moaned in distress. The pain he had been feeling since that afternoon wasn't the worst he'd had to contend with lately, but it was still far more than he wanted — which was none. If We are lucky, Tom Riddle pondered, this means that the pain will start going away and We can continue with Our original plans. If We are not lucky, then this is simply a minor reprieve and the pain will continue to be bad. In that case, We will have to start preparing contingencies.
Baby Mort, a.k.a. Tom Riddle, didn't like the idea of having to initiate a contingency plan because that meant that his current plan was going so badly that it would likely fail if followed to the end. Since he himself was the smartest and most powerful wizard in the world, any failure in his plans must be due to sabotage or incompetence on the part of others... and right now, there was only one other around who could be blamed.
Fortunately, Wormtail had stopped drooling into the carpet and was recovered from his previous punishment session. Well, mostly recovered: he still twitched in an annoying way and jerked a bit when he walked, but Baby Mort just avoided looking him in the face.
"Wormtail!" he called out, "Come in here. We need you!"
Sunday, January 10, 1995, Morning.
"Neville," Hermione said, "What did you find out about how Jasmine can stay underwater for up to an hour?"
Neville cleared his throat as he looked at his notes. "There are only a couple of options. The most difficult is some form of self-transfiguration. You can create gills and flippers for yourself, even up to the point of transforming yourself into an aquatic animal like a fish."
"You mean, like an animagus?" Hermione asked, impressed with the level of magic required for that.
"It's similar, but not the same thing," Neville answered. "I guess I should have included the animagus transformation here, but what are the chances that Jasmine would be a fish?" Even Jasmine snickered at that. "But self-transfiguration is just a really high-level transfiguration spell. It's hard to do and easy to mess up. So while it's an option, I wouldn't recommend it."
"OK," Jasmine said, "that's probably out then. What else?"
"Next is the Bubble Head charm," explained Neville. "It creates a bubble of air around your head. It's good under water and in environments with noxious fumes. It's much easier than self-transfiguration, but it's still hard and takes a lot of magic to maintain, as we learned when we used it when we tried to figure out how to solve the egg. Also, you won't be able to hear as well under water."
"Right," Jasmine said, "I remember. I might do better now, but keeping it going for an hour might be tough. And would I have enough magic left over to fight?" Hermione frowned deeply at that, clearly not favoring this option.
"The last option," Neville continued, "is gillyweed. You eat it and grow not just gills, but webbing in your hands and feet. How long it lasts depends on how much you eat. But you can eat enough for an hour and carry some extra, either for yourself or for a hostage. You'll breathe underwater and swim really well. There's no issue with hearing, and you'll have all your magic for other tasks."
"That sounds almost too good to be true," said Hermione. "What's the catch?"
Neville sighed. "It's rare and expensive. If we order some now, we might be able to get enough for the task and some training, but it will be close. Or we could steal some from Snape — he should have a bit."
Jasmine frowned, but said, "I can swing the galleons, I think. I believe that is our best option, if we can get the gillyweed."
Hermione and Ginny both nodded their heads. They didn't want to encourage Jasmine to spend lots of money, but the advantages of this option were too good to ignore.
"OK," Jasmine said, "I'll order some tomorrow. I'll just need the information from you, Neville." He nodded at her, glad to be in a position to help.
"I should go next," announced Ginny. "The Black Lake doesn't have a ton of dangerous creatures. There's the squid, but if you don't bother him then he won't bother you. He's more of a pest than an actual threat. There are the merpeople. They are sentient and have weapons. However, if they are holding the hostages, I doubt you'll have to fight them. If you do, then you'll have to contend with thrown and stabbing weapons. A strong shield against such weapons will be needed." Everyone looked a bit grim at this point.
"Finally, there are grindylows," Ginny continued. "They are vicious little animals with sharp teeth and claws: think feral dogs under water. One or two can be chased off, but a pack will be very dangerous. You'll need spells to scare them and maybe spells that will kill a couple to drive home the idea that they shouldn't mess with you."
"I'll go next, since Hermione's part will be the most complicated," Jasmine said. "To protect any hostages, the first thing we can do is make them unavailable. That's hard." Everyone nodded in understanding. "One way of doing this is to get notes from parents forbidding participation in the tournament, but we don't know if the organizers will care. I'd recommend trying anyway, just to see what happens. Another way of doing it is to hide the potential hostages. That sounds hard, but it's not as hard as you think. We have two places where we can put people safely: the Room of Requirement and the Chamber of Secrets."
Now everyone looked a bit uncomfortable, especially Ginny. "I'm sorry to bring it up, Gin," Jasmine apologized, "but we know that no one else can access it, making it even better than the Room of Requirement. Anyone placed down there should be secure and invisible, for all intents and purposes. The problem with that is that if they want hostages, they will take someone — hiding the most obvious hostages doesn't protect everyone. On the other hand, hiding the most valuable hostages means that whoever is trying to hurt me won't be able to use you."
"Whoever is missing will probably get detentions," Hermione observed.
"So?" Ginny asked. "The idea of going down there scares me to death, but Jasmine is right. Someone wants to kill her, and I'm sure they aren't above using us. Anyone else picked won't have the same value to Jasmine and aren't as likely to be hurt to get to her. I'm sorry if that sounds cold, but I really think it's true."
Everyone else nodded in agreement. "Finally," Jasmine said, "there are monitoring charms. Often placed on kids by their parents, they can be used to find their location and monitor their relative health. Some are common and might be removed, but I suspect we can find some uncommon or old ones that won't be detected. The problem is, we can only put these on the "obvious" hostages. Any non-obvious hostages won't get them — we can't apply them to every person and student in the castle."
"So," Hermione said, "it sounds like we can choose to place charms on hostages to make them easier to find, or hide potential hostages so they can't be used. But probably not both."
Jasmine nodded at this, then said, "I'm inclined to want to hide the most valuable and likely hostages until near the start of the task. It will put my mind at ease, which will make it easier for me to complete the task — especially if we can come up with a good plan for that."
Hermione looked thoughtful at this and pointed out, "It's an extreme step. It will put you at odds with the headmaster and the tournament organizers."
"Why don't you run it by Professor McGonagall?" Neville suggested. "If there are reasons to think that it's a horrible choice, she might be able to tell you."
"Good idea," Hermione responded. "We have a meeting with her later today. We have time to decide what to do, so that will work out fine."
Everyone agreed to that, leaving just Hermione's research. "I have a list of spells that might be useful under water, though I need to find a good shield against physical weapons. The biggest problem is speaking underwater. Neville, do you know if gillyweed allows for talking?"
Neville shook his head, "I have no idea, sorry. I'll look it up to see what I can find."
"Thanks," Hermione said. "If Jasmine can speak at all, she can use more spells. If she has to cast silently, she'll have to practice a smaller set of specific spells so she can be sure of success." With that, she handed out copies of the spell list she created. "Most of these are offensive. I assumed that there would be more dangers to face. I'll look up other spells that might help with navigation in unfamiliar terrain."
"Thanks, Hermione," Jasmine said. "We can start practicing these soon."
"Since our power seems to have grown, I'm not too worried about you being able to do the spells. We just need to be sure to familiarize you with the most useful spells. If you know them, I think you'll be able to do them."
"Once we have an idea of what spells Jasmine can do," Neville suggested, "we need to look at how she gets to the hostages, how she deals with them, etc."
"Good idea, Neville," Hermione responded. "You look into talking while using gillyweed. Ginny, see if there are any spells that the grindylows and merpeople are especially susceptible to. I'll look into navigation under water. Jasmine, you look into obscure tracking spells and the state of the Chamber of Secrets. Well, maybe not both — we'll see what Professor McGonagall says, first."
"Hey," Neville suddenly said, "What did Fleur want to talk about yesterday?"
"We can't talk about most of it," Jasmine said apologetically, "but she might be able to tell us more about what's going on between me and Hermione. Apparently veela have the ability to sense or detect such connections. We'll have to wait, though, until she hears back from family."
"Yeah," Hermione added. "That's really it — aside from a few interesting facts about her people, there really wasn't anything else. It was a short meeting."
Neville looked a little disappointed, but he had known that they probably wouldn't be able to share much with him.
"If she's able to tell us more about us and what's going on with us, I'm sure we'll be able to tell the two of you as well," Jasmine said.
Both Ginny and Neville looked a bit happier that their friends would try to keep them in the loop. Since that covered all of the topics they needed to talk about, the two went off to get some homework done before lunch.
Jasmine and Hermione, though, needed to spend some time preparing what they were going to discuss with McGonagall. This was already going to be a full meeting, and they wanted to be able to deal with their questions efficiently so as to leave time for the most important one: why was she so interested in helping them?