Note to the reader: From here, the fic takes a darker, more mature turn. There will continue to be content warnings at the beginning of relevant chapters, but you should be aware that the themes and topics Hermione will deal with for this arc are more mature than previous ones.

If any of the content warnings or themes trigger you, read with caution. They won't go away for a while in the story.


The next morning dawned brightly, with the Great Hall a little louder during breakfast than normal. Everyone was still talking about the First Task, with a lot of people also theorizing about Blackwell, the mysterious magical school that had emerged from nowhere and vanished just as fast.

Karkaroff and Dumbledore had been prepared to demand that, as a participating school, Blackwell now stay on the Hogwarts campus along with Durmstrang and Beauxbatons – presumably in an effort to learn more about them and all their secrets. But in a slick move that Hermione genuinely envied, Sirius Black had effortlessly produced a copy of the tournament rules from inside his robes, citing the section where competing schools must 'reside in the hosting school's country for the duration of the tournament'.

"And as we already reside in Great Britain," Sirius said, smirking, "we will continue just commuting to the challenges instead."

Dumbledore had been livid, so angry he seemed to be shaking from barely contained anger, but Sirius had jauntily saluted him before kicking off into the sky with his students, the Blackwell students taking advantage of the dwindling sun to fly back to Lundy before dark.

Hermione scanned the Great Hall as more students filed in for breakfast. The Gryffindor table all looked exhausted and bedraggled, as if they'd stayed up all night. Hermione privately thought they probably had stayed up until ungodly hours celebrating Harry's win – the Gryffindors were never ones to pass up the chance for a party, and Harry was one of their own. The Hufflepuffs, too, looked rather tired, but they were still at least managing to get their marmalade on their toast, instead of slopping it down the front of their robes like one of the Gryffindor boys had just done.

When the mail finally came, the Prophet was everything Hermione had hoped for:

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RELUCTANT CHAMPION WINS FIRST TASK!
Harry Potter laughs in the face of fire!

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And below it, a second feature:

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TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT OFFICIALLY TETRAWIZARD TOURNAMENT
Blackwell School of Spells joins the competition to support their reluctant champion!

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"Is this wise?" Pansy asked aloud as they all skimmed the paper. "Just letting people know about Blackwell like this… it's been secret for all these years."

"They didn't reveal their location," said Hermione, who read faster. "Which makes sense – no one's supposed to know where the other schools are either, and they're all Unplottable."

"It looks like they didn't fully cover what Blackwell is," Theo said, frowning slightly at the paper. "It's focusing much more on the 'ancient Druidic tradition' angle than the 'weak Muggleborn school' angle."

"Good," Tracey said, her voice emphatic. "They're not strong enough yet to take on people who might object to their existence. They need to be able to defend themselves before that bit comes out."

Hermione bit her lip, uneasy. "Agreed."

After breakfast, Wednesdays had Care of Magical Creatures first thing, which was spent with Hagrid waxing poetic about the dragons and how beautiful they were. Hagrid asked Harry to recount his experience with the dragon – which Harry tiredly did, with as little detail as possible – before Hagrid apologized repeatedly for not being able to get the dragon tamers to stay behind an extra day so everybody could see the dragons up close and personal.

The class quickly reassured Hagrid that they understood, and really, it was okay; they'd all gotten to see from the stands, which perked Hagrid up enough for him to start discussing the differences between dragon breeds. Hermione felt weak with relief at the possible disaster unknowingly narrowly avoided – if the dragon tamers had waited but a day, she had no doubt that Hagrid would have marched them all into the forest to look at the dragons with absolutely no regard for anyone's health or well-being.


Thursday, Theo approached Hermione with a plan.

"Longbottom's got an idea for something that might help with the poison issue," he said. "It depends on what's under the ground, though."

Hermione frowned. "So we need a geological survey?"

Theo stared at her, uncomprehending.

"I was thinking," he said slowly, "that you could just have the goblins come help out."

"Oh!" Hermione flushed. "Yeah, alright. I'll send a note to Bloodthorne. I'm sure someone can come along."

The sun was setting very early in the afternoon as November wound to a close, so the Shadows waited until Saturday to all meet at Exmoor, with Theo intending on dragging Neville along. They all met up beside the lake behind the tree first, Harry bringing his golden egg with him.

"We can figure out what the clue is together," he said. "And… it's loud. Probably better to do somewhere without a lot of people around."

Without Viktor coming, Neville had to use Hermione's new official landlord Portkey to get there, though he seemed visibly nervous to do so.

"It's not blood-coded or anything, Neville," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "Just take it and say 'go'."

It took Luna grabbing the Portkey with Neville to convince him it was alright, and the rest of them jumped the lines to get out of school.

Even with short notice, the goblins had sent a small delegation to meet with Hermione, and Hermione introduced them all to Neville, who bowed even though his legs shook with fear. Theo smoothly took the lead, explaining what their idea was and what they needed the goblins to do, and Hermione left them to it, moving to join the others.

The initial Druidic grove they'd planted in a circle was coming along nicely. The boost from the Fae the trees had gotten had clearly helped speed their growth along. Nearby, though, there were several dead saplings, and Tracey and Susan looked at them in dismay.

"They're dead," Tracey despaired. "Completely dead – even with the scratch test, they're gone. Just useless sticks…"

"We'll have to wait for the ground to be purified," Susan said with a sigh. "I don't see a way around it at this point."

With the poisoned land blocking their way, planting more trees was delayed, so they all clustered up, Harry holding his egg.

"It's really loud," he warned them. "Ready?"

Harry dug his fingernails into the groove that ran all around the egg and pried it open. The egg was hollow and completely empty – but the moment Harry opened it, the most horrible noise came out of it, a loud and screechy wailing that deafened them all. Hermione clapped her hands over her ears, as did several others.

"Shut it!" Draco bellowed.

Harry obligingly snapped the egg shut, and everyone was breathing hard, eyes wide.

"I feel like I've just run a marathon," Tracey said, a hand to her chest. "My heart is going nuts."

"It triggered our fight or flight instinct," Hermione said, her own heard pounding. "We're all coming down from an adrenaline and cortisol rush."

As the adrenaline burst faded, they all made guesses as to what the horrible sound could be.

"Was that a banshee?" Millie demanded. "That scream…"

"If it was a banshee, we'd all be dead," Pansy pointed out.

"Not necessarily," Millie argued. "You have to be in person to the banshee for a banshee's scream to kill you—"

"It sounded like someone being tortured," Draco said, his face very pale.

"No, it was definitely a creature," Luna said thoughtfully. "There was a cadence to the screaming – I think it was someone speaking."

Draco stared at her, astonished. "How could anyone ever make out words from that?"

"It's Mermish."

Hermione turned. The goblin delegation, only a short ways away, were all looking at them disgustedly, while Neville and Theo also looked rather shaken from the scream.

"I would beg your pardon," Hermione said, bowing her head. "Would you repeat that?"

One of the goblins rolled its eyes, exasperated.

"Mermish," it repeated. "If you would listen to your 'egg' under water, you would hear the voice of a mermaid. It would be clear to you in their native medium and would not sound like screaming. Merpeople do not naturally speak in air."

Hermione bowed, thanking the goblin, which Harry and several others did as well. They turned back to their group, looking at the egg.

"Well, we can put it under water easily enough," Hermione said, frowning. "That still doesn't solve the problem of 'none of us know Mermish'."

"It takes a while to learn a language," Harry said, annoyed. "I'm supposed to be able to figure this out alone. How's that going to work when I'm going to need a translator?"

"Well…" Blaise looked thoughtful. "We could see, you know, if there are any merpeople in the lake who would be willing to help you out – if there are any that are terminally ill…"

"Absolutely not," Susan snapped. "That's completely unethical."

"Not if they offer." Blaise grinned and shrugged. "It's just an option."

Luna looked very thoughtful.

"Harry's got a point," she said. "He is supposed to be able to figure this out on his own. What if the mermaid is the translated one? Maybe the egg is speaking English, and this is just what their voices sound like outside of water?"


The impromptu Shadows Pool Party took place that evening, after the Shadows had spent a rough afternoon digging up dirt in seemingly random places, burying different dirt there, and covering up that dirt with the original dirt at Neville's command. Neville seemed to know what he was doing, so it was with relief that everyone (sans Neville) gathered outside the statue of Boris the Bewildered on the 5th floor. Hermione guided them down the corridor, stopping at the fourth door on the left, and looked to Draco, who stepped forward.

"Mountain spring," he said, and the door swung open, everyone filing inside.

"Did Rosier just give that password to you?" Hermione asked neutrally.

"Hardly," Draco scoffed. He smirked. "I bribed a Ravenclaw prefect."

A massive swimming pool was spread out in front of them, a huge, luxurious bathtub with tons of golden bath taps all over the outside, each marked with a different colored jewel. Hermione could see her friends had already started disrobing, already wearing their swimsuits underneath.

"This feels so naughty," Tracey said, giggling nervously. "Is this even allowed?"

"Nobody said we couldn't be here," Hermione said, shrugging. "And it's not just a fancy bath. We used this for a purification ritual before we bound together as a coven. If anyone comes after us for being here, I'll cite coven business, and Snape will back us up."

"We're not all in your coven," Pansy said, snarky, and Hermione shrugged.

"Doesn't mean you can't help with rituals," she pointed out. "Remember Ron bleeding for us and instigating that whole duel with Cedric?"

Everyone enjoyed just relaxing and swimming about in the warm water for a while first, teasing and splashing each other. Harry and Susan kept objecting and sputtering, unable to see anything each time their glasses got wet, while Hermione was soundly teased for her own swimsuit.

"It's completely normal!" Hermione protested. "I wore this on vacation with my parents to the beach!"

"It's scandalous," Pansy said, appalled but highly amused. "I can't believe you wore that at all, let alone in front of your family."

"It's a normal two-piece!" Hermione objected. "Harry, back me up here!"

"Hang on…" Harry wiped off his glasses on a towel again. He turned to look at Hermione, blinking. "It looks like a normal bikini to me."

"It's so…" Tracey was at a loss for words. "It's just so sexual."

Harry laughed.

"That's not even particularly bad, as far as muggle swimwear goes," Harry said. "I've seen much skimpier."

"It's designed to present your breasts!" Pansy said. "It's offering them up on a plate!"

"It's just like a bra, just made of waterproof material that's significantly stronger than my normal bras," Hermione snapped. "Can we please stop staring at my breasts?"

"I don't know if I can," Draco muttered, and with an irritated pulse of magic, Hermione sent a massive wave of water cascading over him, leaving Draco looking rather like a drowned rat.

Harry got out of the pool to go get the egg. Blaise was smirking, his eyes glinting, but he didn't say a word about Hermione's swimsuit. Hermione gave him a look, and Blaise gave her an innocent smile.

"I take Muggle Studies," he said smugly. "I knew what to expect."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm sure."

Blaise just laughed.

Once Harry had brought the egg into the pool, he directed everyone into a loose circle around him. He pried the egg open under the water.

"Ready?" he said. "On my mark – three—two—deep breath—one-!"

They all submerged their heads in the water simultaneously, looking toward the egg.

Under the water, the egg wasn't wailing or screaming at all; there was a chorus of eerie voices singing in concert:

"Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching, ponder this:
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour – the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."

It took several rounds of people going up for air and coming back down for everyone to hear all of the song a few times, and Harry left the egg open playing underwater while they theorized.

"So it's an underwater challenge," Blaise said thoughtfully. "If this is Mermish and you've got to 'seek them where their voices sound', that's got to be the Black Lake, right?"

"The next challenge is in February," Susan said, appalled. "He'll freeze."

"We'll need a game plan regarding the cold as well as breathing underwater," Hermione said, frowning. "An hour… that's a long time to be underwater."

"They're taking something," Tracey said, frowning. "Stealing something 'you'll sorely miss'… any ideas?"

"My voice," Harry said immediately. "They'll take our voices and put them in snail shells. I'll have to cast all my spells non-verbally, and then I'll have to swim to the Mermaid Kingdom and defeat an evil octopus before figuring out which snail shell has my voice."

Draco turned to look at Harry incredulously.

"I'm sorry," he said pleasantly, "but what?"

Harry turned red.

"It's a movie," he muttered. "It has mermaids in it – I thought it fit…"

"If we're going to seriously discuss the matter," Pansy said curtly, "I think we all know what they're going to take."

Susan looked at Pansy, surprised. "We do?"

"We do," Luna said. She wasn't smiling, her long blonde hair floating in the water behind her.

"Then what is it?" Harry asked plaintively. "Don't keep us all in suspense."

Luna and Pansy exchanged a look.

"Mermaids are much closer to their origins than we are," Luna said carefully. "They interact with magic in a different way, much more like that of the Fae. And the Fae… they're known for taking people."

Hermione felt a pit open up in her stomach.

"Exactly," Pansy said grimly. "Think about it, Potter: anything they take, enough money can replace – your Firebolt, your trunk, your clothes, even your house – enough time and money, and you can eventually restore or get those things again."

"But a person," Luna said, her eyes serious. "If they steal a person… someone you'll 'sorely miss'… suddenly, then, the challenge has real stakes for the champions."

Harry's mouth dropped open. "They wouldn't."

"Oh, you think they wouldn't?" Pansy said. "Just like they wouldn't force a 14-year-old into an extremely deadly tournament?"

Harry faltered. "I…"

"So now," Hermione said, suppressing the growing dread in her stomach, "we need to focus on a plan with three main things: First, we need to figure out a way for Harry to breathe underwater for at least an hour. Second, we need to figure out a way to keep Harry warm in the water so he doesn't die of hypothermia. And third—"

She took a deep breath.

"—the rest of us need to prepare for potentially being kidnapped."