Since she could finally swim properly thanks to Cedric and the others, and part of her abilities now included breathing underwater, she decided to properly explore the lake. It was a novelty being able to actually swim and she was loving every minute of it.
In between exploring the lake, she was testing out the hook. It had taken her ages to figure out how to use the shapeshifting aspect of the thing, since it was ridiculously bulky and she couldn't use any of it's abilities unless it was full sized.
Nimue fully planned to return the thing to the proper owner. Hagrid might be able to use it as intended, but the thing was so big and bulky it was of no use to her...well, beyond breaking the curse.
The problem was that the islands Maui generally stayed around were far, far from England and she was in the middle of school. It was hard enough staying anywhere near the Dursleys for the one-week requirement for those stupid wards before scarpering off to Luna's for her real vacation.
Flitwick knew of the odd arrangement, but didn't comment. So long as he wasn't required to actually deal with Nimue and Luna dating or them getting into trouble, this wasn't his problem and he would defend them from the Headmaster in a heartbeat.
It was while she was swimming that she found an odd pipe that was attached to the bedrock she considered part of the school. Closer inspection revealed it went upward and it wasn't blocked in any way she could see...so she swam up. It was rather nice that she didn't need her wand out to see anything, and that the water temperature was rather pleasant.
It took her a few seconds to realize exactly where the tunnel lead, and then she was kicking herself for not guessing sooner.
Honestly, it made sense that Salazar had given his pet access to the lake. How else was he going to feed that thing discreetly? And she would bet that no one had the sense to ask the merfolk about the creature, since she highly doubted they would have missed a giant bloody snake in their territory.
Checking the time, it would be another hour before she had to return to the surface for dinner. Filch was beyond livid, but kept his silence since she usually cast a cleaning spell behind wherever she walked to avoid leaving dirty water everywhere.
She decided to explore the chamber properly, if only out of boredom.
What she found was an abandoned alchemy lab, along with long-ruined ingredients. However, the tools were all in good condition and with a bit of cleaning and buffering, could be used.
Considering that all the shops that sold said equipment refused to do so without a Master's certificate or the Master there with the apprentice without an exorbitant price tag that made even her balk...it was obvious what her choice was.
It wasn't like anyone else was going to use it, and Snape had begrudgingly commented on how she wasn't as big a dunderhead as her father was in the subject. Which coming from the snarky bastard was as close to a compliment as she was likely to get.
The only real headache was getting these out of here...some of the things here were ridiculously bulky, if high quality.
Nimue went back to the pipe and rather than swim, just slid down it like a slide until she hit the water about halfway down. The tide had pulled back, which meant that it was less full than it had been when she came in.
It was a fun ride, though she still had no idea why the giant squid was so bloody interested in her now.
(That being said, the reaction the Bulgarians had to the creature was hilarious. Something about it being a 'ship killer'.)
Several months later...
Nimue only barely took noticed of the increased noise level outside. Ever since she found that alchemy set she had been using it almost nonstop. So many things she couldn't do before were available to her now that she couldn't waste a moment. Especially since summer was coming up fast.
"Why is it so noisy? Quidditch was canceled for the entire year," said Nimue in annoyance.
"Everyone is at the third task," said Luna absently. She was braiding Nimue's hair with many colorful ribbons while she worked. Nimue had no issue with this.
Nimue looked at the calendar, then grimaced. She pulled out her wand and improved the spells on the windows, which cut out a ton of the noise.
A few hours passed, and when the outside noise level got louder outside the door, Nimue started finishing up, assuming the stupid tournament was over.
The second she walked into the common room, the noise level exploded. It was almost deafening.
"So who won?" she asked.
"Cedric, but there were...complications," said Cho. She looked beyond upset.
"...Bad?" asked Nimue.
"Worse than bad. Apparently the goblet was a port key and he was kidnapped by a dark wizard and forced into some horrible ritual," said Cho. "If it wasn't for the fact that he had those special amulets you gave all the champions for luck, he never would have managed to get back to the portkey and return to Hogwarts."
Nimue had, once she got used to her new toys, made a series of protective amulets. The better ones of the third batch she had gifted to the champions. Cedric had accepted them cheerfully since she had given one to each of them. Fleur had taken one and said she would like to know when Nimue planned to sell more, as she knew the Sisterhood would love to have a supplier for such things. Krum had accepted it, but whether he had it on him was up for debate.
Nimue, when she got the full story from Cedric, could only cringe and apologize profusely. Apparently her chaotic luck had shifted to him, since she was the original target and the culprit hadn't had a second chance to fix the portkey or grab her the night of the third task.
Coincidentally Moody was in St. Mungo's and quite pissed off about being held hostage for months and no one noticed.
Nimue...busied herself getting ready for her week of hell with the Dursleys.
She would have to hide her gear and everything else so that it didn't get lost or destroyed by her 'family'.
She was not going to put up with their shit this summer, and the ministry only tracked wand magic...not magical artifacts.
One of the perks of having access to her funds and knowledge of how to call the magical version of a taxi available to everyone who knew how and had the cash for it, was that she was able to basically move into a youth hostel that a number of people (like recently graduated muggleborns) used to get on their feet and set themselves up for their adult life.
It was highly popular among the under-seventeen crowd (like her) since it offered decent rates for magical children who had no where else to go.
It was highly recommended by the management to keep all their belongings in a locked trunk or secured to-go bag. The regulars had long since learned spells to secure personal property, and were happy to teach the other renters the same spells for a small price.
Nimue loved it, because she could be just another girl and enjoy the little pleasures like shopping, eating whatever she liked (or accepting the communal meals at the hostel), and trying out new things.
One of the things she had taken a liking to was learning how to dance. There was a small studio that took day students during the summers that taught how to perform the riverdance, among other things.
Nimue generally stayed at the hostel for a month until Luna and her father came back into the country to pick up supplies and print out articles. Xeno was nice enough to let her stay with them until Hogwarts started up again, since she was best friends/roommates with Luna.
Ravenclaws had their own personal rooms, but it was allowed for two people to room together so long as they were the same gender and Flitwick didn't have to step in and resolve any internal disputes.
Luna had basically become Nimue's permanent roommate a single month into her first year. She was now considered under Nimue's protection, which meant she was no longer being bullied nearly as much.
Another perk of being on her own was that she was free to explore self-defense classes. She was slowly working her way to a green belt.
Nimue was with some of the older girls getting food to use in the communal meals at the hostel when it happened.
One of the girls, Sheila, started to sob uncontrollably as the temperature dropped to almost hypothermia levels. It took Nimue all of five seconds to realize what was going on, before she cursed.
Fortunately they were within range of the hostel. Unfortunately, it was likely she was the only person there who knew how to cast a patronus.
Thankfully, they did have pretty decent wards, which was added to by previous tenants in exchange for leeway with their rent.
The girls managed to get into the hostel, and it was fairly obvious that the other homes are battening down the hatches.
"Why the hell are dementors here? They're supposed to be Ministry controlled!" said Seth. He was a junior member of the Ministry who was living away from his family to 'teach him responsibility'. In reality he was a second son who was being gently nudged out of his family so that the heir would have less to worry about.
"I don't know, but I'm betting most of us won't know the patronus charm," said Nimue grimly.
"I do," said one girl. Andrea, if Nimue remembered right. She was a junior auror who was basically kicked out for telling her family she'd rather hex her future husband than marry him since she wanted a career. "I can cast an incorporeal one, but it's better than nothing."
"Gather everyone who knows how to cast that charm. Pass out as much chocolate as you can...it'll help a bit on warding away the effect these fouls things have," said Nimue.
No one argued over her taking charge. She was the only who showed any real leadership in this mess.
Several hours later...
Amelia Bones was not happy. It had taken three hours for word to reach her about a possible dementor attack in a magical village, and by the time she had mobilized her best Aurors it was clear that only one person was still holding off the foul creatures from the house they were targeting.
In honesty, it was likely because they were targeting that one building that kept a massacre from occurring.
Once they had the damn things contained, Amelia went to check on the situation inside...and found Nimue Potter looking exhausted and just as pissed as her.
While the aurors checked the people inside, Amelia took Potter's statement.
"Lady Potter, would you mind explaining what happened?"
"I was helping to get groceries for the communal dinner when I recognized the signs of a dementor nearby. We ran to the hostel and barricaded the doors and windows. Those of use who knew the patronus kept it up whenever they got too close, at least until they ran out of magic. We kept trying to contact the Ministry, but whomever was on duty either didn't care or didn't bother to report what was going on. I was starting to think the Aurors were never going to show up at all."
Amelia was going to get to the bottom of this if it killed her. Ignoring a reported Dementor attack was a serious allegation.
As they spread out to the rest of the village (the majority of which were beyond upset it took them so long to respond to multiple people flooing the Ministry to report this issue) it became clear that this was a massive clusterfuck about to explode even worse.
And as if to add insult to injury, an owl showed up an hour after their arrival once Nimue stopped casting to tell her she was being expelled for underage magic.
Amelia was beyond livid, as it was clearly a case of self-defense.
Someone was going to be fired, she would make damn sure of that.
Coincidentally Nimue would be spending the rest of her summer in Amelia's mansion, mostly for security reasons.