CHAPTER 7:

OF CURSES AND BONDS

Robin peered at the plastic, rubber and metal mask with clear trepidation. Harry would have appreciated the fact that his oldest friend was looking extremely sexy in a figure-hugging wetsuit later. "Are you sure?"

Harry nodded. He, Robin, and Hermione were in a room in the Department of Mysteries, much of it taken up by a large tank of water. "Properly fitted, this kind of SCUBA mask won't let you drown unless you take it off," Harry said. "I've given you all the safety training needed, Robin."

"I know, I know, and we have diving suits of all kinds back home," Robin said. "It's just…the thought of being underwater…I know intellectually, I'll be safe, especially with you in the tank with me. But while I've never been completely underwater, save for one time I got pushed into a lake by some bullies, and Professor Clover saved me…I've had enough baths to know an approximation of what it feels like. Near-complete loss of control over one's body, along with most of one's strength. And…I trust you, Harry, but it's still hard for me to do this."

"Robin, like we told you, if you do not wish to do this…" Hermione began.

But Robin shook her head, cutting her off. "I do. If nothing else, maybe you can gain some insight into why Devil Fruit users are crippled by immersion in water. Like you, I am eager for new knowledge, and I have to wonder if even Dr Vegapunk managed to perform experiments like this."

"Dr Vegapunk?" Hermione asked.

"My world's greatest inventor and researcher," Robin said. "I don't know much about him, though I saw a photo once in a newspaper that seemed to indicate he vaguely resembles Albert Einstein on this world, even if Vegapunk's fields of research is far wider than the laws of physics. My point is…I'm a scholar, first and foremost. Discovering something new or even uncovering something old that had been buried is in my blood and my soul. I've little hope that you can remove or mitigate the curse of a Devil Fruit, but if there's a slender chance you can do so, or even learn something, then I'm fine. It's why I allowed you to place those sensors on my body." At this, Robin blushed a little.

"You don't need to be embarrassed. Believe me, I've experimented on enough people to have seen enough naked bodies to not embarrass me anymore. As for the sensors, they're a variant of those used in hospitals, though considerably more enhanced thanks to magic," Hermione said. "Heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen, hormone levels, particularly of stress hormones or the catecholamines like epinephrine or norepinephrine, as well as levels of magic inside your body. You seem to have some sort of energy that is not-dissimilar and yet unalike to our own magical energy, presumably granted to you by the Bloom-Bloom Fruit."

Robin nodded. "Well, let's get this over with…"

It was eerie hearing her own breathing from the full facemask with the SCUBA apparatus. Harry had told her he had learned how to SCUBA dive while working with Gringotts. Occasionally, they had underwater archaeological excavations and investigations, and while Gillyweed, Bubblehead Charms and self-Transfiguration worked well enough, SCUBA was one of the Muggle inventions the Cursebreakers embraced.

She allowed him to help her to the hatch of the tank, before he dove in feet first. The bubbles soon cleared, and he then shot her an 'okay' handsign, though he could have used the radio in his own SCUBA mask. For a moment, she hesitated, before allowing herself to drop into the tank, following him.

By now, the sensation was familiar, even if it was unpleasant. The moment her body was immersed, she felt her body shudder and go limp, sinking to the bottom of the tank. Movement was sluggish at best, and required a significant effort of will. Her consciousness wasn't impaired by any means, but she couldn't move her body as well as she should have been able to. She hated feeling this weak, this helpless.

Yet once she got over the initial panic, forcing herself to calm down…it was actually rather relaxing. The water was comfortably cool, and despite the usual association with her current near-paralysis, it was like a gentle caress. She could breathe fairly easily thanks to the SCUBA apparatus, even if the breathing noise was eerie.

And drowning wasn't her greatest fear. It came close, but if she had a fear that a Boggart would embody, it would be a gold-coloured snail in the hands of a maniac…and all the genocidal wrath and horror it could summon. All with a simple press of a button.

Then, she heard a crackle of noise in her ear, a special waterproof earpiece transmitting from Harry's facemask. "Are you okay, Robin?" he asked, concerned, his hand gently squeezing her own.

She turned to face him, and while he couldn't see her smile, she hoped it came through in her voice. "As much as I can be, given the circumstances," she said, squeezing his hand back. "Well, this is novel, to be underwater like this and not drowning due to my Devil Fruit."

"You'd probably be able to use an atmospheric diving suit," Hermione said from outside the tank, even as she consulted an iPad. "Or an old-fashioned diving suit, assuming it's watertight. Anyway, I'm already getting some interesting results, Robin. It's like your body is currently in a state of flaccid paralysis, at least to a degree. You're able to move your muscles, and your breathing doesn't seem impaired, but motor abilities are impaired, and your magical signature has dropped to almost nil. But also, it's as if your buoyancy has almost completely been erased. It's rather fascinating. How are you feeling?"

"Less worried than I thought I'd be," Robin said. "I can't exactly call this swimming, and I'm not exactly happy floating around helplessly. But I'm also as safe as I can be immersed in water."

Harry nodded, before waving his free hand over her body, the curse-detecting spell, she realised. "Shit, it's like the curse really intensified in power," Harry said. "Like, it's gone from quiet background noise to a Slipknot concert. I mean, I should have expected that, but…how much longer, Hermione?"

"Another five minutes," Hermione said. "Can you discern anything about the curse?"

"Nothing concrete. It's really like nothing I've seen or read about," Harry said. "If anything, it's like its written itself into Robin's very body. You know, like genetic engineering or something. It's like a natural part of her body, but if she is immersed in water, it's like something activates and turns off most of her motor abilities."

"That's interesting," Robin mused. "In other words, is it possible that Devil Fruits rewrite DNA? They call it Lineage Factor back home. But there's a magical factor involved as well. Then again, given some of the insane things I have seen on my world, maybe magic is far more prevalent over there, it just is expressed in more fantastic things than just Devil Fruits..."

The next five minutes passed surprisingly quickly, before she was helped gently out of the tank by Harry. Almost immediately, her strength began to be restored to her. After removing the SCUBA apparatus, she promptly headed for an adjacent shower cubicle, showering and changing out of her wetsuit. So too did Harry, in a separate cubicle.

After they were done, Robin was towelling her hair to dry it as she peered at the iPad's screen over Hermione's shoulder. "How much useful data did you manage to get?"

"Not as much as I had hoped," Hermione said. "The signature of the curse is very different to those used on this world, from what I can gather. That being said, there are various curses that rewrite DNA. Take a Maledictus, for example."

"Right, I remember," Harry said. "Luna told me about something Rolf learned from Newt." On Robin's puzzled look, he clarified, "Newt Scamander is one of the most famous magizoologists in this world. He also got caught up in Grindlewald's rise to power, apparently. Anyway, long story short, Newt told his grandson Rolf about a Maledictus called Nagini. Yes, that was Voldemort's snake familiar. She used to be an Indonesian woman, locked up in a freakshow at the Circus Arcanus. Basically, a Blood Malediction like those that made Nagini into a Maledictus binds itself to the DNA, and seemingly that of the sex chromosomes. Blood Maledictions seem to only affect those of a certain gender. Some affect only females of a bloodline, others affect only males, and oddly enough, a Maledictus is always female. Astoria Malfoy suffers from a Blood Malediction. At best, there's treatment, but there's never a cure."

"Except Blood Maledictions are generally degenerative disorders," Hermione mused. "Now that I come to think about it, lycanthropy is probably closer."

"You mean werewolves?" Robin asked, frowning. "Hmm, now that I come to think of it, I see the parallels. It's an acquired condition that seems to seep into your genome, a curse that has specific conditions for activation. Moonlight from the full moon for werewolves, and immersion in water for Devil Fruit users. Of course, lycanthropy is passed on like a disease. Devil Fruits cannot be passed on, until the user dies, and someone eats where their Devil Fruit respawns, invariably in a mundane fruit, usually in fairly close geographic proximity, from what I know."

"And your world seems to have far more ocean and less land mass than Earth," Hermione said. "A Devil Fruit seems like a hazard when you need to sail to other parts of the world."

"True, but as long as you're on a seaworthy vessel and don't end up going overboard, you're fine, more often than not," Robin said. "Devil Fruits are actually rarer than you'd think. I managed to find a copy of an encyclopaedia once, and while it was an old edition, it listed over 100 types of Devil Fruit. Most users are concentrated on the Grand Line, though they would give an advantage on that chaotic part of the world, or else they are in the Marines. What's more, if sold on the market, I'd say that the rough value they go for at a bare minimum about £500,000 in your money. That's how coveted even 'weaker' Devil Fruit are, and I'm a classic example of how a supposedly weak Devil Fruit can be used to great effect."

Hermione whistled. "Well, if they go for that kind of price at the bare minimum, I can see how much they're coveted. In fact, the way you spoke, it sounds like the Berry is roughly equivalent to the Japanese Yen in value."

"That's how I got an approximate value in Pounds Sterling," Robin said. "The Yen seems to be the closest currency in value to the Berry." She scoffed. "And in hindsight and in a world I am safe from them, I actually feel insulted about my bounty. Oh, it's a high bounty, especially an initial one, and it has ensured my life was a hellish time spent on the run. But for someone with such forbidden knowledge in my head, in hindsight, I feel it should be higher. Bounty values are generally an indication of how much they want me dead or captured, and there's plenty of pirates and criminals with higher ones. As far as I know, I'm the only person in my world who knows how to read Poneglyphs, and even if that wasn't true, it's doubtful that the number of people with that knowledge surpasses the low double digits. And unlike Egyptian hieroglyphs, we didn't have the Rosetta Stone to help. I would prefer my bounty to be worth millions of Pounds Sterling. At least then it approximates the threat I truly am to the World Government."

"You want revenge on it?" Hermione asked.

"…Eventually, yes. Hermione, they committed genocide to prevent secrets from the Void Century from ever being exposed. They condone slavery as long as it's their inbred nobility doing the deed, and in fact, they allow those bastards to quite literally get away with murder, even in plain sight and in front of law enforcement," Robin hissed. "Even the Blood Purists here weren't so blatant, they wore masks and pled the Imperius to get away with it, but the Celestial Dragons…their word surpasses the law, no matter how ludicrous or atrocious the order. This isn't to say everyone working for the Marines or the World Government is evil. Far from it. But one day…I want to bring the truth out into the open, and bring their world crashing down around their ears. Though that may be overly optimistic…"

Hermione had decided to work on analysing the data, and with nothing else needed, Harry took Robin out of the Ministry and to a nearby café for lunch. It was opened by a Squib, and was a favourite haunt of Ministry employees who hated the canteen inside the Ministry, or the Pureblood politics within. Still, Harry put up a Privacy Charm just in case: the café was in Whitehall, and was often a haunt of Muggles, especially political employees, too.

"How are you feeling, Robin?" he asked as they were given their orders of tea.

"As well as I can be, considering," Robin said with a shrug. "Harry…it's been over a month since I ended up here. I may not be a picture of perfect mental health by any means, I can admit as such to you and to Hermione if nobody else. But I'm feeling far better than I used to. And if you're worried about any trauma from being underwater, don't. I actually started to enjoy it once I knew I wasn't going to drown. I'd be more freaked out if you pulled out a Golden Transponder Snail. That'd be my Boggart, a Golden Transponder Snail held by that monster Spandine. Genocide in a tiny gastropod package."

"Good. I just…knowing what you went through, and it was worse than what I went through…I just want to be sure you're okay, Robin."

Her piercing blue eyes met his own emerald gaze, and she smiled, somewhat sadly, placing a dark-skinned hand on his own pale one. "And I'm grateful for that, Harry, I really am. You…you have no idea how much being here has helped me, how being with you has helped me. But…I'm not fragile. I'm not made of glass. I may be cracked, even a little broken…but I'm a long way away from being truly of concern to myself or others." She looked out the window, onto the busy Whitehall streets. "If it had been a few more years, though…I won't lie and say I haven't had suicidal thoughts, Harry. Apart from you, all that kept me going was the thought of finding the Rio Poneglyph, and if I had one disappointment too many on the level of reading that copy of the Alabaster Poneglyph…I may not have actively tried to kill myself, but I probably would have let myself die."

Harry tamped down on the horror and sorrow he felt with an effort. He knew, intellectually, that Robin had potentially been pushed that far to contemplate suicide. It was quite another thing to hear it from her lips. "Robin…I..."

"Harry, to me, you were a figment of my imagination, not real," Robin said with a sigh. "I know that's a horrible thing to say given what we know now, and I'm sorry, I really am, but I didn't think my death would affect you. How could it affect a figment of my own imagination? Of course, it's a moot point now. I'm healing, gradually, but I am, being in your presence, on a world that doesn't want me dead for the sin of being born in the wrong place at the wrong time, with intellect and curiosity. I can't exactly see a shrink on this world, given the fact that my coming from another world is probably something that should be kept discreet, but…just talking to you and your friends helps. After all, I had nobody I could tell the truth about Ohara and my being a fugitive to, save for you. Now, I have more, even if I'm not telling everyone I meet. But just having a receptive ear is enough."

Harry turned his hand palm-upwards, and gently clasped her hand. "Robin, whatever I can do within reason to help you feel better, I'll do."

"That's kind and sweet, Harry…but I can do a lot of that myself," Robin said, her sad smile becoming even more melancholy. "But I will ask if I need someone to talk to. I promise you that much. Or a shoulder to lean on, or cry into. You're my friend, Harry, my oldest and longest-standing friend. That friendship means more to me than even the Rio Poneglyph or the One Piece. And I've been alone for too long." She chuckled morosely. "Saul told me that one day, I may yet find friends and allies I can rely on. He didn't realise I already had one. Then again, neither did I."

"…Well, here we are then," Harry said to his oldest friend as their meals and drinks were brought over. "Here's to our friendship."

Robin took her cup of tea, and gently bumped it against Harry's in an impromptu toast. "Here's to our friendship," she echoed with a smile. "May it live long and prosper, to paraphrase a certain quote Hermione taught me…"

CHAPTER 7 ANNOTATIONS:

Robin has undergone tests, speculation abounds about the nature of Devil Fruits, and Robin and Harry reaffirm their friendship.

Admittedly, I wrote this chapter partly because I wanted the mental image of Robin in a wetsuit, complete with SCUBA gear. Even with the zipper done up, she'd look mighty fine in one. Of course, she'd need a full-face mask, as something tells me that, while she may be able to hold onto the diving regulator most people associate with SCUBA diving even when weakened, it'd still be a risk, one which Harry and Hermione would want to minimise. Plus, using the full-face mask would allow for verbal communication.

The discussion of how much a Devil Fruit costs in Pounds Sterling is based on the assumption that the Berry is roughly equivalent to a Japanese Yen, something mentioned on the wiki, and something I suspected while reading the series prior to consulting the wiki. For me, living in Australia, the rough exchange rate is about 100 Yen to the Australian Dollar, while the exchange rate between the UK and Australia is roughly £1 to $2 Australian (and on a related note, I find my jaw dropping at times at some of the prices discussed in Bargain Hunt: too many teams in that show buy secondhand items for way too much, IMO). So when you think about it, Robin having a bounty of $790,000 Australian or about £400,000 seems like it's not enough for someone with such dangerous knowledge in her head, or at least by the time she becomes an adult. Twenty years, and she still has the same bounty? She's the Moby Dick to Spandine's Ahab, you'd think he'd try jacking up the bounty…

Also, I wanted Robin to address her suicidal tendencies in canon. Because let's face it, she did have those to a degree. We see it at least twice, both at the end of the Alabaster arc, as well as throughout the Water 7/Enies Lobby arc. And after all she went through, who can blame her?

Finally, for those who can't read individual chapters due to this website stuffing up, just remove the story title from the end of the URL address. Most of the time, that seems to work, though not all the time.

Review-answering time! The Disquieting One: Cho's tolerating matters more than enjoying being Miss All-Sunday. Does she care about the people of Alabaster? No. Does she give a damn about Crocodile? Hell, no. By this point, Cho cares for nobody but herself, and her revenge on Harry. But she's pragmatic enough to choose her moment to kill Crocodile.

I actually did like Coby's Choice, though. While not as good as, say, This Bites!, which is the gold standard for non-crossover One Piece fics, or Kairomaru's works (despite all the lemons), or NovusPeregrine's One Piece: Halfway Broken, it's still fairly good.

As for Merry's fate…well, there'll be a hint to it in a coming chapter. Let's just say that, in any sequel set during the Water 7 arc, there'll be a significant change, inspired by a couple of fanfics…

Sakumon16: Yes, Remus and Tonks survived, and are raising Teddy. Unfortunately, so did Snape, though he's currently a pariah.

WhiteElfElder: Unfortunately, Harry and Robin can't protect against everything, so they will need to grab the Idiot Ball a little when they come to the One Piece world, to make sure events go where I want. Of course, Cho grabs it right back from them. And keep in mind, I try to write their competency or lack thereof within reasonable bounds. No blatant grasping of the Idiot Ball, but not complete hypercompetency either.

Gabriel Herrol: A very good question indeed. In lisbeth00's female Harry-centric crossover New World Blues, Seastone does in fact affect magic users. However, for this fic, Seastone does not. Which is vital to an upcoming chapter. As for awakening Haki…well, I have plans for that. Impel Down couldn't keep Harry, as Cho hasn't seen fit to furnish the World Government with anything.

No numbered annotations this time.