Monday, December 28, 1994 - Morning
Two visitors arrived at Greengrass Manor on Monday morning. Harry was introduced to Paul and Martin who spoke English with strong French accents. They had with them heavy duffle bags and several large boxes which were obviously packed with gear.
The underwater team took over a storage shed in the manor grounds and unpacked their equipment. Harry was measured from head to foot and the diving suit was magically tailored to fit him perfectly. It was made of very fine rubber like material with a foam core, smooth surfaces and was mainly black with some bright yellow patches and stripes.
“This is a dry suit. It is sealed at all the joins so that there will be no leaks. The suit has magical warming charms which will keep the temperature on your skin to a pre-set level. You can adjust it as you like. The inner and outer layers of the suit are impervious so the warmed air in the mesh will stay in the suit to help preserve your body heat. That way you will not have to waste too much time and magic on keeping yourself alive with warming charms while you are under the water in February.” Paul lectured Harry, Cyrus and Eric Davis as Harry had his suit fitted to him.
“You will have special boots, gloves, elbow pads, knee pads, and a close-fitting hood. The boots, knee pads, and elbow pads are part of the propulsion system. The collar on the suit will create a bubblehead charm as soon as you hit the water. It is reliable and much stronger than the charm created by your own spell. It is held in place by a runic array in the collar. The suit will absorb oxygen for the bubblehead from the surrounding water and release your exhaled carbon dioxide as you swim. You will have two extra bubble-head collars that you can give to whoever you are rescuing. There is a weight belt to keep you underwater, the suit will give you buoyancy so that without a weight belt you will float to the surface.” Paul nodded to Martin.
“Now for my specialty, the propulsion system is entirely magical. The whole suit draws its power from the wearers magic in a very efficient way. The propulsion system is the most obvious consumer of your magical core. It is based on powerful Aguamenti runic arrays built into the soles of the boots and the elbow and knee pads. The runic arrays will take water in from the top surface of your boots and push it out of the soles. The elbow and knee pads will take water from one side of the pad and push it out the other. The end effect is to make you fly through the water like Superman. You will lie out flat in the water and stand to attention with your arms out and elbows bent so that your hands are pointed in the direction that you want to go. You say commands like ‘SLOW AHEAD’ or ‘FULL AHEAD’ and you will be pushed by your boots and elbow pads. You turn by pointing your arms in the direction you want to go. To stop, say “STOP”, to reverse bring your knees up and say, ‘SLOW ASTERN’. The knee pads will push you back.”
“How does that sound?” Paul asked.
“The commands are voice commands? There are no wand movements?” Harry asked.
“You will need your wand to deal with obstacles and other dangers. We are advising you to carry your wand in your wand hand and diver’s knives to use with the other, one in a sheath on your wand arm and another in a sheath on your leg. They are diver’s knives; they have a blunt tip so that there is less risk of stabbing yourself or anyone else, but the cutting edge is very sharp.”
The suit fitting was finished. Harry was covered from head to foot with only his face showing. He had knives in sheaths on his right arm and left leg. His wand was in an underwater wand holster on his left arm.
“Are they going to allow me to compete wearing this? I don’t look like a school student in a school competition.” Harry was not happy.
“Harry, I have asked Professor Dawes to check with the Tournament committee and they say that a head to foot suit is perfectly allowable. The material doesn’t matter as long as it doesn’t give you more buoyancy. The weight belt reverses the buoyancy that the material gives you, so they are happy with that. Professor Dawes told them that you will use Aguamenti charms to propel yourself through the water and that is fine with them. It is all powered by your own magic and the charms are what the other contestants can also use so the rules of the contest have not been broken.” Cyrus smiled and then continued.
“Talk about the spirit of the Tournament implies that you shouldn’t be getting help from outsiders, but my attitude is that if you didn’t get help, you would be dead. Durmstrang and Beaubatons have no hesitation in helping their champions. Cedric Diggory doesn’t get any help, but remember, he is three years ahead of you in knowledge, skill, and magical maturity. You are stuck in this Tournament by the entirely illegal manipulation of the Goblet of Fire by a Death Eater. Dumbledore, the committee, and the Ministry are happy to allow this travesty to continue. They are doing so with the certain knowledge that your life is in danger in each contest to a degree that the other contestants do not face.” The lord frowned as he considered what he wanted to say.
“You cannot escape, I have had my lawyers go through the law and rules of the Tournament. There is no way out for you, you have to compete. If you are not happy with getting help, then you can just make sure that you don’t win. Collect your hostage or whatever they have taken and wait until the others have finished before you finish.” Cyrus was still not happy; he came to a decision.
“I didn’t want to tell you this, but I am not happy with keeping it from you. You have no way of knowing what will happen under the lake. There may be threats which are beyond the scope of this contest. It isn’t certain, but my people are guessing that the Ministry is trying to get kelpies back into the lake for this contest. Kelpies haven’t appeared in the Black Lake for centuries. If they show up during the Tournament, they could kill every contestant before anyone knows that they are there.”
The assembled group was silent.
Harry came to life. “I want to see what I can do with this suit. Can we try it out now?”
“Yes! Martin will suit up and go in with you to guide you through it.” Paul hurried to help Martin get ready.
A hole was cut in the ice covering the lake. The ice cover was strong enough to walk on safely.
Harry stood by the edge. “Clip this lead onto your belt Harry. If you get lost, you can follow it back to the hole. When you go into the water don’t dive, jump in feet first.”
Harry prepared. The lead was trailed out behind him so that it would be easily pulled into the water as he moved away. Harry jumped. The water covered his head. He gasped in surprise and panicked for a second. Then he saw that the bubble had formed before the water reached his waist. He took several deep breaths. He could breathe easily. Martin was already in the water and came up beside Harry.
Harry nodded and said, “It’s OK. I can breathe and the suit doesn’t leak. I feel warm.”
Martin nodded. “Do you know that you are speaking through the water?”
Harry paused. “Oh! I am. We can hear each other. It’s different but we can hear.”
“Once you are breathing easily you can try floating face down. We have to make sure that you won’t sink down or float up. We can increase or decrease the weight of your belt to keep you just buoyant.” Martin seemed to be happy with Harry’s first try out.
Harry lay out face down, he waved his arms and legs until Martin told him to relax. “Stop trying to swim. Let your arms and legs relax. Let yourself see that you won’t sink. The weights are nearly right. We will put a few more grams in to keep you level. You might need ankle weights as well, as your legs tend to float up. You will do best with neutral buoyancy and then use your magical drives to make you plane down. Let’s try a bit of forward motion. Give the first command on your list.”
“SLOW AHEAD!” Harry knew the commands; it wasn’t that hard.
The boots pushed him forward. The elbow pads also pushed forward. Harry guessed that his speed was no more than walking pace.
“Keep your hands and fore-arms straight and point down with your whole arm.” Martin demonstrated and he gently moved down.
Harry mimicked Martin’s arm movement and he slowly planed down.
“You shouldn’t dive too quickly when you are still learning. Experienced divers can go straight down but you have to know the dangers. The Black Lake is not deep enough to cause problems, but you should always be cautious when planing down or up.” Martin cruised along beside Harry. The small lake in the manor grounds wasn’t that deep. Harry was soon skimming along over weeds growing on the bottom.
“Make a turn to the right and come around until you find the lead you are pulling along. Put your right arm down and leave your left arm up. You will bank to the right.” Harry turned and after a surprisingly long time came back to his trailing lead.
“Now reverse the turn until you are following the lead back to the ice hole. Try the next speed up.”
“HALF AHEAD!” Harry commanded.
The boots and elbow pads kicked Harry along. He was now travelling at running speed.
The divers emerged from the ice hole. As they climbed out onto the ice, the bystanders could hear the ice clinking and tinkling as it formed on the outside of their suits. They were hurried back into the shed to get warm and discuss the mornings dive.
“That was fantastic. I can’t wait to do it again. The lake here is a bit shallow and murky compared to what I expect the Black Lake to be, but the whole suit system works beautifully.” Harry was ecstatic and bouncing around.
“I think that will be enough for today.” Paul said carefully.
“Tomorrow we can try a longer dive and we can try out a dive compass instead of the lead to help you navigate. It will not take long to get lost under the Black Lake. You must become skilled with using a dive compass. Magical navigation can be confused in such an intensely magical location. An old-fashioned compass is still the best aid to finding your way.”
By the time Harry and Cyrus had returned to the main house, Harry had calmed down. “Cyrus! Was I too worked up about the dive? I feel like I am suddenly tired and out of energy now.”
The lord looked at Harry for a few seconds. He had been briefed by Professor Dawes on the mood swings that Harry may experience. “Harry, the last weeks have been a terrible time for you. Instead of being allowed to be a boy in school, you have been forced into something where we know Riddle’s servants have plotted, manipulated, and schemed to endanger you. The Ministry and the Headmaster do not seem to care or are using you in their own plots.”
Harry looked at Lord Greengrass and slowly nodded.
“Sometimes, you are acting in a way which is a cause for concern. You are powerless to escape the Tournament without losing your magic. You have reacted by becoming depressed to an extent that Professor Dawes and now your new fellow students in Merlin House are very concerned for you.”
Harry nodded, “Daphne cornered me about some things yesterday. She was checking up on me.”
Lord Greengrass smiled and continued, “What has just happened today is an episode of an elevated mood followed by a crash to a depressed mood. That is not a bad thing. It happens to everyone. The concerning part is that when you are down, your thoughts become off the scale negative about yourself. When you hit the height of the mood swing, words can come flying out of your mouth which you have not thought about, for even a millionth of a second.”
Harry pouted and looked down. “Have I said anything which I can’t take back?”
“No Harry! The people who matter are all on your side. You can’t do anything about anyone connected with Hogwarts, the Ministry, or The Daily Prophet. They are all living in their own alternate reality. You should understand that your own feelings can be very deceptive. Your own mind can play terrible tricks on you, making the low times too dark and the high times may or may not be right.”
Lord Greengrass smiled again.
“I’m not a mind healer. Professor Dawes is. Please talk to her if you have unhappy thoughts about yourself. The last thing I want you to think is that you have to step in front of a killing curse from some Death Eater or Riddle himself.”
--ooOOoo—
“Dumbledore could still try to cripple him with his interpretation of the prophecy.” Athena contemplated the scene of domestic tranquillity at Greengrass Manor.
“Eric Davis and Miriam Dawes have it in hand. First the scar, then the prophecy. Harry will be attacked again by his former supporters. This time he will be ready.” Hecate smiled.
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