Down Below

The morning of Harry's birthday dawned, and Brandt came to them with a proposal.

"We are going to start the exploration of the sunken ship today. The mermen have determined that there are no hostile magics on the ship, so we should be able to explore freely. If the two of you are interested, you can accompany us."

"We can't swim that deep!" Harry replied. Then just before Brandt was about to reply, he said, "Oh wait, you mean with magic?"

Brandt nodded, "Now, since I know that Harry can go swimming through his own brain for the answer, Lyra, what did I tell you about using enchanted objects and active charms?"

Harry did just that but kept quiet as Lyra tried to remember. Brandt prompted her, "It was in the Chamber of Secrets before school ended."

That rang a bell for her, and she replied, "Use enchanted objects instead because charms can fail when you least expect it."

"Good," he smiled at her. "Will you be OK with taking the dive? You had that incident with the pool in Manila." The memory and the associated fear gave her a panicked look. "You need to be certain of what you want to do because you can't use a portkey to get back to land while underwater."

She looked conflicted and a bit afraid, so Harry told her, "We can ask Newt to bring his carpet so, if it's too much, you won't need to go back to shore."

That settled her nerves a bit, and they went to get prepared for the start of the undersea investigation. Newt and Tina did have their large carpet and set it up with chairs and Harry's music player as they all gathered together. Than, Thao, and the other wizard stayed back to work on a herbology project, but no one was concerned about them at the moment. Kailee was busy helping the harvesters sort through the pile of bodies and learning about Balbal anatomy. Moody and Tonks were still off somewhere unknown, presumably playing their escape game.

Lennix and Ivan carried two heavy trunks onto the carpet, and they all took off. Harry and Lyra followed on their brooms because flying on their own was more fun than being a passenger. As they got out over the water, Brandt blew on the conch shell as he had done earlier, and the two mermen started to follow beneath them, swimming just as fast as the carpet would go. Harry thought they might even be able to go more quickly than the Usurper underwater.

Cesario was still hesitant to be anywhere near Madeline, but Tristan had started to relax around the silver-haired Veela and was now lounging with her in their beach clothes on a long chair as she rubbed his shoulders while they continued to their destination. Both werewolves seemed to be in a heightened state and flexed their fingers as if anticipating something coming. When Lennix noticed Harry watching him, he motioned him to fly closer.

"Don't worry, we're not going to hurt anyone," he told Harry. "We're two nights from the full moon. The Steward has a small, reinforced boat anchored far offshore for us to transform, and we'll go there tomorrow. However, it feels like our skin is burning for the next few days. Have you ever felt what it's like, the moment before you hurt someone?"

Harry knew that feeling quite well, and he nodded grimly.

Lennix nodded in acknowledgment, "Now imagine feeling that all the time, and no matter how hard you try, you can't turn it off. Many wolves will give in to the feeling because it's easier than fighting it, but it doesn't make it go away. Doing that just makes it worse in the next month."

Brandt had said the werewolves were cursed. What Lennix was describing sounded terrible. While he used the heightened anxiety that came with the moments before he attacked someone or something, a werewolf couldn't control it at all. It was just something in their mind driving them to hurt or kill that would get worse if they gave in to it.

"Has no one ever tried to get rid of the curse?" Harry asked.

"Many have," Lennix told him with a bit of glumness. "The curse is very persistent and probably rooted in our souls. One wizard tried to cure it by skipping a year of transformations with international portkeys, so he never saw the full moon at night. However, the next time he did stay out for it, the wolf went insane and killed itself. Another person tried using a muggle dialysis machine to do a full blood transfusion to purify the body, but it did nothing. Currently, a potion eliminates the anxiety and allows us not to lose our minds during the transformation. However, only the richest wolves can afford it. Not many of us are independently wealthy or have a sponsor for it. Also, I wouldn't want a cure, and I don't think Ivan would, either. We have embraced the curse and used it for our work. We just can't be near humans for a few days each month."

It was then that they arrived at the point directly over the sunken ship. The water was crystal blue, and they could see straight down to when it rested on the ocean floor. Harry and Lyra landed their brooms on the carpet and watched Brandt unload their supplies. From one chest, he took out nine metal helmets. They were copper and large enough that they would completely cover a person's entire head and neck, down to the shoulders. On the face of the helmet was a thick piece of glass for them to see, though metal bars over the front held the glass in place. Small bolts with runes carved into them lined the seams of the metal.

Brandt handed them out to Harry, Lyra, Cesario, Nestor, Tristan, Lennix, Ivan, and Tina. Newt was planning on staying above with Madeline, who did not like the water but came just for the ride. The helmets were quite heavy, but Brandt stopped them before they put them on, pulling out a rack of leather belts and a large jar of what looked like slimy worms.

"These old diving helmets have been enchanted to give you air while underwater. They will create a seal around your collarbone to keep water from entering. The air provided will not be pressurized, so you do not need to worry about descending or ascending too quickly. They are also enchanted with a ventriloquist charm that will allow us to speak to each other."

He passed out the belts, which all had a dial on the buckles, "These belts will keep you warm, and the dial will control how much you weigh. Twist it right to sink and left to rise to the surface. Most of the time, you'll want to be at a level where you don't sink or float but can stay neutrally buoyant." He opened up the jar and pulled out a ball of what looked to be gray worms. "Harry and Lyra, this is gillyweed. If at any point your helmet fails and water gets in, shove this down your throat faster than a bezoar. It will allow you to breathe underwater for an hour. Everyone gets some, just in case, and give it back later if you don't use it." He passed around one slimy ball to everyone.

Lyra put the helmet onto her shoulders and felt the seal activate below her neck. She could hear the others experimenting with the ventriloquist charm, but she stayed silent, just trying to control her breathing and not think about the sunken ship below. She knew how to swim and liked the water but did not want to go below the surface, as that's where the other children went when the container ship sank. As they all hopped off the carpet into the water, she watched the adults adjust their belts and start to sink like stones. Watching them get smaller and smaller towards the ocean floor was too much for her, and she twisted the dial on her belt the other way, even though she was still on the surface, ripped off the helmet, and took large panicked breaths, with Harry and Brandt surfacing next to her a moment later.

"I can't do it!" she cried a bit as Harry came over to hug her a little bit while floating next to her.

"We go swimming all the time. What's wrong this time?" Harry asked with concern.

Lyra looked towards the bottom of the ocean and said with a stutter, "I can't watch people sink."

Brandt swam up next to them, "What if you close your eyes? Or could I cover the glass? Then I'll take off the cover when we reach the bottom. Then no one will be below you."

"Can I just get back on the carpet?" Lyra pleaded.

Brandt nodded and waved upwards to where Newt was standing. He leaned down, grabbed Lyra's hand, and pulled her back up. Harry took the helmet she had left in the water and tossed it after her.

"If you put the helmet on, you'll be able to hear us," he told his sister. "That way, you will know that we're OK."

She put on the helmet but went to the center of the rug so she didn't need to watch as Harry and Brandt sank to the bottom. As Harry descended, he looked up to the surface, seeing the rectangular silhouette of the carpet against the flickering light of the sun on the water. After almost a minute, his feet touched the sandy ocean floor, and he looked forward at the others waiting for them.

"Lyra, we're on the bottom. Can you hear me?"

"Yes! Please come back soon!" she still sounded anxious and scared.

The mermen didn't need helmets, which meant they couldn't communicate with the others. Rohan wore a pair of gauntlets that made his fingers look like metal claws, while his cousin Trent carried a golden trident. The two of them gestured towards the ship ahead of them on the entombed on the ocean floor.

It was a similar style to that of the dragon-sail ship that Nestor had shown them before. This one was much bigger; instead of two main sails, it had four before the Hoohoo patriarch burned them off, but the stumps of the masts could still be seen. It also had three lower decks instead of just one. One end had a series of holes where the water had rushed in to cause it to sink. Lennix explained that the holes allowed water to enter, but they would still need to access the ship's interior from the top deck.

When they arrived at the ship, Brandt and the werewolves adjusted their buoyancy to float from the ocean floor onto the main deck as the rest followed. They observed scorch marks and scars in the wood as they explored the top level.

A whale song was heard, and they looked towards the helm where Rohan was waving. Next to the steering wheel, there were several small crates and cabinets built into the deck. One was utterly burnt and broken, but the others seemed intact. Ivan was about to yank it out, but Tristan waved him off.

"Don't touch anything," he warned. "Everything gets checked for traps first."

Ivan backed off as Tina, Nestor, and Tristan began casting diagnostic spells on the boxes.

"I'm getting magical locks and caterwauling charms," Nestor told them. "Regardless, we shouldn't try to open them here."

Ivan nodded and reached down to the deck, ripping up the entire panel where the boxes were attached. Brandt pulled a stone from his pocket, inscribed a few runes on it, and then stuck it to the boxes, which started to rise slowly as he released them.

"Lyra, tell Mr. Scamander that we are sending up some boxes so he can levitate them onto the carpet." She passed the message on as they continued exploring the ship.

On the lower deck, they encountered the first bodies. Skeletons that showed signs of being burnt and others had just been picked clean by sea life. One body was missing a skull though that mystery was solved shortly when a crab scuttled by wearing the bones in place of a shell. Personal items on this deck were checked for magic and packed in boxes made from pieces of the walls and floated to the surface, like before.

Tina and Tristan were the first to head down to the next level while the rest of the group took out chests and packed away all the skeletons and anything else that wasn't part of the ship. Harry got to practice his revealing spell to look for hidden objects, though he didn't find any. As they finished, Tina and Tristan returned from the lower level, looking grim.

"Harry shouldn't go down," Tristan told them.

"Why? What's there?" Lyra's voice came through the helmets.

"More skeletons," Tina told them. "They're in cages. I think they're Demiguises."

There was a bit of silence, but then Harry pushed by the two of them, swimming down the stairs and lighting up his wand without speaking. When he arrived on the next level, there were cages bolted to the sides of the ship, running all the way down to the end on both sides. Each spot held at least two skeletons that looked humanoid except for the misshapen skull, long fingers and toes, and a tail. They were definitely bones of the Hidden.

Harry's anger began boiling over. Literally.

The magic Harry produced when angry was heating the water around him, creating small pulses, and he was so focused on his anger that he didn't even notice when the helmet around his head shattered and the water hit his face. He did notice when a slimy ball of what felt like worms was shoved into his mouth by Brandt's hand, and he snapped out of his trance. He started to cough violently as the worms began to slide down his throat as if they knew where to go without him needing to swallow.

Suddenly his throat felt very cold, and he began to convulse. He flailed around in the water until he was breathing again, but he didn't know how. Reaching toward his neck, he felt gills up to his ears and realized that his hands now had webbing between the fingers. Looking down, he saw that his feet had extended into long flippers. He tried to speak, but it just came out as bubbles.

Brandt held him still as Tina tapped him on the ear, and he heard everyone's voices again.

"You won't be able to speak properly," Brandt told him. "You must calm down, or your magic will cause more problems."

Harry gestured toward cells with his wand as water boiled at the tip, and he tried to continue to talk about the horrible nature of what he was seeing. However, he stopped when he heard his sister crying. He didn't have his helmet, and he couldn't talk to her, which made him mad at himself for not being able to control his emotions.

Tristan's voice came in his ear, "I told her what was down here while the gillyweed was kicking in. What do you want to do now?"

Harry stared at the skeletons and remembered what used to be done with the Hidden before these poachers began to visit the island. It took a bit of charades with the others, but Tina understood that he would like to take the remains and bury them at the top of the mountain, under the nesting grounds of the hoohoos. So as carefully as they could, the group opened the cells and collected the remains, shrinking them down so they could be arranged without damage in one of the containers Brandt had brought along.

At the end of the hallway of the cells, there was a large steel door with what Tristan informed them was a magical lock. The floor was reinforced, so they would need to open this door to access the lowest level. Since they didn't have the magical key or the proper counterspell, it would need to be brute forced with magic and strength.

While he couldn't hear the other, Harry was surprised when he heard Trent speak to him in a melodious voice, telling him to move aside. Rohan dug the claws on his gauntlets into the corner, and along with the two werewolves adding their strength, the rest of the wizards pushed through all the power they could in numerous unlocking charms. As he couldn't cast any spells without the incantation underwater, Harry could only watch the process. It took nearly a minute before the door was pried open, and it fell to the deck with a hushed thump, pushing a current of water toward them.

Descending to the lowest floor, they could see many sharp instruments on hooks and chains hanging over various long tables. They could see all these things so deep in the darkest part of the ship because of an eerie green glow that came from a ghost standing next to a table, trying and failing to grab one of the long blades that hung there. He paid them no attention and repeated the motion, his hand passing through the handle fruitlessly.

The group stared at the man while Brandt looked around the room until he spied a glass jar, which he picked up and started carving runes on the outside with the tip of his wand. As soon as he began to perform magic, the ghost turned toward them.

"Walang dapat gawin para sa akin. May dinala ka ba sa akin sa balat? Isang bagay na hiwa?"

His voice was eerie and could be heard by everyone. Nestor translated it as he was the man who would skin the Demiguises, and he wanted to know what we had brought for him.

Harry tried to hit him with magical pulses and bright lights, anything he could do without an incantation underwater, but nothing seemed to affect the spectral man.

He looked at Harry, and said with an angry look on his face, "Isa kayo sa malululungkot na bata. Isa sa dalawa na tumawag sa mga hayop. Pinatay mo ako at ang babae."

"He recognizes Harry. He says you and Lyra killed him," Nestor told them with a frightful look at Harry.

He reached up for the blade hanging over the table, but this time, his hand clasped the handle and pulled it off the hook. His face stretched as he screamed and charged the group. There was nowhere to run as the blade-wielding ghost came straight for them, running along the deck like he was on dry land. When the spirit was right on top of them, a yellow light with a pink spiral around it hit the ghost in the chest, causing the blade to fall from his grip and push back a bit, but the screaming got more intense.

On the other end of the spell was Brandt, holding his wand in one hand and the bottle he had been enchanting in the other. With a flick of his wrist, the beam of light looped around the ghost to hold it in place like a lasso. The screaming of the spirit was deafening as he flipped two more loops around the dead man. Once he felt the ghost was secure, he lobbed the bottle through the water between them. It floated across the expanse, but as soon as it touched the ghost, there was a swirling effect as the man got sucked into the bottle, and Brandt canceled his spell.

"What was that screaming?" Newt's voice was heard in all their ears.

Tina told him, "There was a ghost; Brandt captured it with a spirit lash and a hastily made ghost box."

"It was very hastily made. I need to get back to camp to make this permanent. Harry, you come with me. The rest of you pack up everything here and meet back at the surface."

Once they were clear of the ship, Harry marveled at how fast he could swim and move in the water. However, when he got to the surface, he found that he couldn't breathe outside the water.

Brandt performed a spell pointing his wand straight up that shot him out of the water and he landed on the carpet. He turned back to Harry before taking off the helmet and said, "This is why gillyweed is an emergency measure. You have to wait a full hour before the effects wear off. You still have another twelve minutes. Just have some fun and swim around. I'm borrowing your broom to go back to camp."

When the rest of the group arrived at the beach, Brandt had transferred the small bottle with the ghost into a slightly larger one that must have been more secure. The face of the man could be seen from all sides as he looked like he was screaming but was silent.

"What are you going to do with him?" Lyra asked.

Brandt looked determined, "He's the closest thing we have to a prisoner. Lord Black and I will retrieve as much information as possible from him and then find another use for him."

All the other adults had a look of horror on their faces to various degrees.

"That's very dark magic you're talking about, interrogating a ghost, " Cesario told him. Brandt just gave him a shrug.

"Can we bury the Hidden tonight?" Harry asked.

"It's your birthday," Newt told him. "We can do it tomorrow night if you would like."

Harry shook his head and saw that his sister was doing the same.

"No, tonight. We need to tell Charlie and Chief. Probably others will want to come."

Lyra hugged Harry and started to leave for the village.

A few hours before sunset, a procession of forty Demiguises, the wizards, werewolves, a Veela, a Duwende, and five Dwarves started the trek by foot up to the top of the volcano where they would be burying the remains of the Hidden that had been discovered on the poachers' sunken ship. It was a silent procession that took a long march up the mountain. Alastor and Tonks had come back from training, and despite looking as they had rolled down a hill into the water, they joined the trek the moment they were told what had transpired. They walked in perpetual twilight as the sun stayed just barely below the horizon as they gained elevation. When they arrived at the top, Lyra went to the far side to keep the Hoohoos calm while Harry went to the center of the crater, lit up his staff, and planted it in the ground. White light spread over the valley, illuminating everything in the light of the Lampong so they could work.

Even removed by nearly ten generations, the Hidden seemed to know instinctively how to dig graves. None of them or their ancestors had needed to bury a family member for old age for nearly three hundred years due to the regular cullings perpetrated by the poachers. In groups of four to six, the demiguises began digging deep holes in the ground while all the others did the same. Those with wands used magic, but Ivan joined Harry, Lyra, and Whispers doing it by hand. Amazingly enough, it was the Dwarves that worked the fastest despite not having any tools at all. When they had finished, there were a total of seventy-three graves.

Newt retrieved the remains and returned them to normal size as those with wands levitated them into the holes. No one knew quite what to do next. Everyone looked towards Harry and Lyra for instructions. They weren't quite sure what to do either but were saved by the approach of the Hoohoos. Harry and Lyra had their backs to the nest, so when the others looking towards them started to look alarmed, they turned around to see close to thirty birds crossing the crater from where the primary nest was on the side.

Some of the smaller ones would vanish in a flash of fire and appear further ahead every so often, but what was truly surprising was that the matriarch had left the cave and was with the large group. She had a red head, but the coloring changed to gold and brown as it went down her neck and the rest of her body. It took a minute to see, but the others changed their positions to ensure she was guarded as they moved.

The males hung back as she approached the first grave. Leaning her head down, she shed one tear into the hole, then moved to the next. Once she had moved on, her mate extended a large wing over the spot, and red sparks rained down. It took nearly an hour and a half to do all seventy-three graves, even stopping for a bit as Harry and Lyra gave them mangoes, berries, flobberworm jerky, and dried fish to eat. Once they had finished this ritual, the mating pair returned to the nest, but the others just lay on the ground and lit up like lanterns, just as they had done for Lyra before.

Carefully and quietly, the visitors began to fill in the holes. They got no objections from the demiguises or the remaining birds. When the burial was complete, there was silence though all of the Hidden were staring intently at Harry and Lyra. They were waiting for… something. Harry and Lyra stared at the freshly filled graves, presumably focusing and thinking about the same thing.

Suddenly, as if their thoughts were linked, magic began to pour off of both of them. For Harry, it was as it usually happened, an intense pressure that made those watching shiver and feel pressure and an air of intimidation by the action. With Lyra, hers was more visual as she burst into flame. It started with the tips of her hair, but when it reached her head, the fire spread until her entire body flickered with flames. While there was panic in the eyes of the visitors, it didn't seem to bother the Hidden, the Hoohoos, The Giver, or Brandt. They watched as the anger at what had transpired rolled off the two children.

Finally, their magic ceased, and the two children lay down between the magical animals and went to sleep right there. The two largest Hidden; Charlie and Mango, hoisted the children and carried them closer to the glowing hoohoos, laying them down in the middle of the group. The other demiguises joined them, forming a large pile of fur to keep them all warm for the night.

The Giver pulled out his black wand and, with two upward gestures, caused sheets of solid earth to erupt out of the ground to make a shelter on the side of the crater away from where the children were sleeping. It was seen as a bit of a selfish gesture as there wasn't room for anyone else inside. Lennix was the first to leave, grabbing Ivan's arm and apparating the two of them away. The Dwarves collectively fell backward, sinking into the earth until only their faces were visible above the ground. One by one, the rest of the wizards apparated back to the camp.

In Scotland, Arcturus Black had just stepped out of a very tiring committee meeting at Hogwarts. Dignitaries, educators, and planners were everywhere. So much of his energy was being spent on an over-excited child and a particularly annoying fat woman. It was all exhausting but necessary. As he stood on a balcony looking over the lake, the fox Patronus of Brandt appeared beside him but did not speak immediately.

Knowing an important message was about to be spoken, he whipped out his wand and layered privacy charms around his location just in time for the fox to begin speaking in Brandt's voice.

"Harry and Lyra just simultaneously swore a mighty oath of revenge. I doubt even they realize the significance of what they've done, and it was witnessed by quite a few others, though I'm not sure if they recognized it or thought it was just uncontrolled anger."

As the silver fox patronus vanished, Lord Black gave a sinister smile to no one in particular and said aloud, inside his privacy bubble, "Well, then we will see to it that they get their vengeance on whoever has wronged them."