Dealing with Danger
Chapter 44: The Second Task (Year 4)
By Anne B. Walsh
Chapter 44: The Second Task
"What did I tell you," said Harry under his breath, pointing down the street. "Moony! Danger!"
"Hello, everyone," Moony called back as the Pride swarmed towards him. "How are things here?"
"Fine, thanks," said Hermione. She hugged him, then looked at the glass jar in his hand. Her smile made Harry think of empty bird cages. "What’s that?"
"Remus has taken up insect collecting," said Danger, ruffling Draco’s hair as he passed. "He thought he’d start here in Hogsmeade, since there are so many interesting magical insects around."
Ron grinned as Moony handed him the jar. "It’s so big," he said in his best stupid-and-amazed tone, staring at the beetle. "And shiny. What kind of bug is it, Mr. Moony?"
"I believe this is what’s known as Skeetera Annoyensa. Very rare, possibly even unique. I was lucky to find this specimen."
The beetle fanned its wings in short spurts. Buzz buzz buzzzzz buzz. Buzz buzz buzzzzz.
"Funny how the buzzing has a pattern to it," said Ginny. "Almost like it was trying to tell us something."
Buzz buzz buzzzzz buzz. Buzz buzz buzzzzz.
"Will you send some pictures to Daddy?" Luna asked. "He’d love to write an article about it."
"We could get them now," Neville said. "I just saw Colin Creevey going into the post office, and he always has his camera with him."
Buzz buzz buzzzzz buzz. Buzz buzz buzzzzz.
"I think that’s a good idea," said Danger. "Someone go and get him, please?"
Ginny sped off.
Buzz buzz buzzzzz buzz. Buzz buzz buzzzzz.
As Moony took the jar back from Ron, Harry noticed that only one of the fingers on his right hand was extended.
The buzzing stopped.
xXxXx
"Hmm," said Professor Dumbledore, peering out the window of Hagrid’s house. "Either Hogwarts has just been invaded by a very small army, or there are quite a number of people who wish to see you, Hagrid."
"You see," said Meghan fiercely, "we don’t hate you. Nobody who really knows you hates you. And everyone who does is just being stupid." She punched Hagrid in the arm, as hard as she could.
Hagrid turned to look at her, wiping his swollen eyes. "Here now, tha’ hurt," he said, and picked her up easily by grasping her around the waist with one hand. Meghan squealed happily as she rose above the floor. "Yeh always were a troublesome mite," Hagrid said, shaking her gently. "Think I should drop her in the rain barrel, Professor?"
"I doubt her parents would approve, Hagrid, and they are on your doorstep as we speak." Dumbledore went to the door as several fists pounded on it. "Along with the rest of the family."
Fang charged into the Pride as the door opened, barking hoarsely and licking faces and ears indiscriminately. Hermione hissed and slapped him across the nose when he nearly knocked her down, and he recoiled in surprise, whining.
Hagrid stood up and absently set Meghan in the rafters. "’Lo," he said in response to the shouted greetings.
Dadfoot looked up at Meghan. "Good place for her," he said. "Can we leave her there for a while, Albus? Give her teachers a rest?"
Meghan stuck out her tongue.
"Wingardium Leviosa," said Mama Letha, pointing her wand at Meghan.
"Aww," said Meghan as she floated to the ground. "That was fun up there."
"This is more fun down here," said Draco. "Look what Moony’s got."
"I don’t know how interested you are in insects, either of you," said Moony to Dumbledore and Hagrid, taking a glass jar from his pocket, "but this one I think you might want to get to know."
"So you can smash it if you ever see it near you again," said Danger. "It’s a Skeetera Annoyensa. Converts sound waves into venom. Very toxic creature."
Hagrid’s big eyebrows drew up. Dumbledore took the jar from Moony and held it up to the light. "Fascinating," he said as if to himself. "It validates several personal theories of mine."
A slow smile was beginning on Hagrid’s face. "Bin on the grounds, has it? Sneakin’ around where it shouldn’ta bin?"
"I suppose there just aren’t enough brains in that glittery head to know when to leave things alone," said Mama Letha. "But we’ll take care of it, don’t worry. It won’t be around here again."
Hagrid’s smile widened, though it was a bit shaky still. "Thanks," he said feelingly. "Thanks a lot."
"I believe this is where I leave you," said Dumbledore, handing the jar back to Moony. "Breakfast in the Great Hall at eight-thirty on Monday, Hagrid. I expect you there."
"I’ll be there, Professor Dumbledore, sir." Hagrid wiped his eyes on the back of his hand as the door closed. Dadfoot conjured him a handkerchief. "Thanks, Sirius." He blew his nose and wiped his eyes. "Anyone fer some tea? Dumbledore left plenty, an’ this seems ter call fer a bit o’ celebration..."
xXxXx
The den room was the most easily secured in the house, so the adults of the Pack chose to conduct their negotiations with Rita Skeeter there. After they had sealed it as they once had to tell Harry a prophecy, Danger unscrewed the lid of the jar, and the beetle flew out and retransformed.
"If you’re planning on killing me, it won’t get you anywhere," were Rita’s first words. "I have articles in time-sealed envelopes, ready to be released if I give no other instructions."
"Then you’ll give other instructions," said Remus, seating himself in one of the chairs they’d brought in from the kitchen. "Because we have no intention of killing you. Please, sit down."
"Move, then," said Rita, looking at him warily. "I want that chair."
"Paranoia, much?" Sirius muttered as Remus stood up.
"It’s how I stay alive," Rita said, seating herself. "How I keep myself fed. I don’t have any security, you know, nothing except what I’ve been able to save, which isn’t much. The Prophet won’t keep me on staff, it’s too dangerous to them. So I charge as much as I think I can get away with, and they offer to pay what they think I’ll take, and neither of us is happy."
"Why do you write so sensationally, then?" Danger asked. "Why not just stick to real reporting?"
"Real reporting?" Rita laughed brittly. "This went here, and that went there, and this person said this or that? I’d die of boredom. I need spice in my life. Excitement."
"You’re going to be finding it somewhere else for a while," said Aletha levelly. "You see, we know several things about you that the Ministry would be interested in. Not only are you an illegal Animagus, but you were involved in a plot to accuse an innocent man of child abuse, a plot which also involved a convicted Death Eater."
Rita’s eyes bulged behind her glasses. "You can’t," she said feebly. "I never was, it’s a lie."
"I don’t think so," said Sirius. "Maybe we can’t prove it, but we could get an investigation going. And who knows what else they’d find while they were looking?"
The reporter slumped in her chair, glaring around the room. "What do you want, then?" she asked grudgingly. "What do you want from me?"
Remus smiled. "That’s more like it," he said in the same tone he used when a refractory cub started to behave.
Rita’s glare intensified.
xXxXx
Everyone had more energy than usual at the Pride’s den-night, since they were celebrating both the capture of Rita Skeeter and the announcement by Moony that Animagus lessons would resume next week. A game of pirates was the obvious way to enjoy themselves.
Ron drew the short straw and played the villainous Black Snake, who tried to sink the ship of the virtuous pirate Captain Greenleaf. Harry, Meghan, and Draco were Black Snake’s crew, and Hermione, Ginny, and Luna crewed for Greenleaf.
The game began as the bad pirates clambered onto the ship of the good pirates and tried to take over. It ended half an hour later, when Ginny and Luna together hurled Ron off the ship into the "sea," where he "drowned" while shouting horrible curses at them.
"Come on back aboard, maties," Neville said when Ron and the rest of his crew reemerged from the blue cushions. "We can play again."
"No thanks, need the loo." Ron disappeared through the almost-invisible door.
"I think we’re all getting tired," said Hermione, climbing down the mast. "Why don’t we have our snack now, and tell stories?"
After three large chocolate chip cookies and a mug of mulled butterbeer, Harry slipped away into the red bedroom and retrieved the item he’d stashed behind the dresser when he’d come through.
The music room was soundproof. If he could get it to himself, he might be able to work with the egg a little without anyone knowing. Maybe the special magic of the Den would help to unlock the secret of the egg, he thought. It certainly couldn’t hurt.
He tucked the egg under his arm and tied his dressing gown around his waist, holding the egg to his side. A casual look wouldn’t show anything wrong. Tonight would be a good night to work it out, he was sure...
But after I go to the loo.
He gave a short laugh. He’d rather not do that on the egg, no matter how tension-relieving it might be.
But Ron hasn’t come out yet...
Frowning, Harry crossed the main room, now back in its original configuration, and knocked on the bathroom door. "Come in!" Ron’s voice called.
Harry opened the door. "You’re not... busy?"
"No. You need it?"
"I could use it. What are you doing?" Harry stepped inside and closed the door.
"Nothing much." Ron had his wand out. "Messing around with the mirror, actually. Seeing if I can bounce spells off it."
"Twitchy Ears?"
Ron grinned shamefacedly. "How can you tell?"
"You never were good at canceling." Harry drew his own wand from the pocket of his dressing gown and ended the hex. "So that one bounces. What other ones have you been trying?"
"Just some general ones. Jelly-Legs, Leg-Locker, that sort, and one Fred taught me when I was little. This one really works," Ron added on seeing Harry’s expression. "If you hit something living, it starts throwing up slugs, and keeps on doing it until the spell wears off. It’s supposed to last an hour, but it can go longer if it was cast really hard."
Harry shuddered. "Even for your brothers, that’s gross."
"This from the bloke whose mother invented the worst smelling potion in the world."
Harry ignored this. "What’s it do on things that aren’t alive?"
"Covers them in slime, and it keeps coming back. If you don’t scrub it off, it gets thicker and thicker until you can’t even see what it used to be. Fred used to do it on rocks in the garden, and Mum wouldn’t know what they were. Watch, I’ll show you." Ron drew his wand.
"Ron, no, don’t," Harry began, but it was too late.
"Mucinno!" Ron said aloud, pointing his wand at the mirror. A jet of green light shot out the end of the wand, ricocheted off the mirror, and headed straight for Harry — Harry dived to the floor, but the spell was coming down too, it was going to get him anyway — his dressing gown had come undone, the egg was falling with him —
Almost without conscious thought, he seized the egg and held it directly in the path of the spell, which impacted with a slushy splat.
The outsides of the egg were suddenly slippery, and Harry dropped it to the floor.
"Sorry," said Ron, looking contrite. "I didn’t know that would happen."
Harry rolled onto his stomach. "Obviously."
"Want a hand up?"
"No, I think it’s safer down here."
Ron winced, and put his wand away. "No more spells," he said. "Here, let me wash it off. It doesn’t take that long to wear off, really it doesn’t." He picked up the egg. "Why’d you bring it down here anyway?"
"I was hoping to work it out some." Harry stood up as Ron turned on the water in the basin and set the egg under it. "I guess not."
"I’m really sorry, Harry, that was a dumb thing to do." Ron picked up a bar of soap from the counter and lathered his hands. "I’ll try and keep it cleaned off for you, make sure it doesn’t build up..."
As he started to scrub the egg, Harry noticed something. The crack around the outside was directly under the main force of the water, and it was widening; the egg was about to open and deafen them both. "Ron, look out for—"
The egg popped wide open. Harry slapped his hands over his ears.
But to his amazement, the sound that emerged was only half as loud as usual, and different. He could still hear the usual wailing noise, but underneath it and inside it there was a sound of something else, a sound like singing and gargling mixed together...
Ron snapped the egg shut and turned the water off. "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah. Try it again."
Water on, egg open, and the odd mixed sound resumed. The rest of the Pride had their heads in the door now, or were pushing for a spot.
Harry found the drain plug and pushed it in, letting the basin fill. As water lapped over the sides of the egg, the screeching qualities in the sound grew less and the singing qualities more, until, with the egg entirely underwater, a gurgling song filled the bathroom, with no trace of the earlier screeching.
"But it still doesn’t make sense," said Hermione.
Harry took off his glasses and leaned over the basin, then stopped. "Not here," he said. "Not like this." He shut the egg and pulled the plug out of the basin.
"Where, then?" Draco asked. "And how?"
"Well, yes, here. But not exactly here. Does this place get bigger?" Harry asked the ceiling.
The bathroom rippled, and was suddenly about three times the size it had been.
"And what about that?" Harry pointed at the standard bathtub.
Another ripple, with an excited quality to it, and the middle of the floor sank, until Harry was standing in a small, empty swimming pool. He looked up at the Pride. "Anyone for a pool party?"
Neville had already summoned a house-elf and sent for the Pride’s swimming things by the time Harry climbed out of the pool. He took care of his own business before joining everyone else in the main room, where Hermione had just canceled the slime spell on the egg. "We really shouldn’t stay up too late doing this," she said from the doorway of the blue bedroom as the other girls filed past her, swimsuits in hand. "We all have homework to do..."
"Tomorrow’s Sunday, Hermione, give it a break," said Ron. "You want to go sleep in the dorm, nobody’s stopping you."
"I never said that." Hermione shut the door of the blue bedroom firmly.
"You’re getting good at that," said Draco as he closed the red bedroom door.
"What?"
"Knowing how to get around Hermione’s moods. Maybe someday she’ll lighten up, but until then we have to know how to handle her."
Neville frowned. "I don’t think she wants to lighten up," he said. "At least not much. She seems happy being the way she is."
"It’s not the way she is that’s the problem," Harry said, pulling his swimming trunks on. "It’s the way she wants everyone else to be. Ready?"
"Sort of," said Ron, wrestling his own trunks up his legs. "I think I grew since the last time I went swimming."
"What was your first clue?" said Draco. "Here, let me see them."
Ron pulled them off and handed them over. Draco tapped them with his wand, then gave them back. "They’re a little bigger now," he said. "You might want to be careful, I don’t know if the waistband will hold."
"Great."
But the trunks fit, and the boys trooped out of the red bedroom in time to meet the girls in the main room. "Luna was done first," said Hermione, wrestling her hair into a ponytail. "She’s in there already, doing something."
Draco looked slightly alarmed and hurried into the bathroom. Harry heard a low whistle of astonishment, then his brother reappeared in the doorway. "You have to see this," he said.
Harry followed Draco back into the bathroom and whistled himself. The room was now made entirely of white marble, with a sparkling chandelier hanging from the ceiling. A hundred jeweled golden taps were evenly spaced around the edge of the pool, except where the diving board was. A blonde mermaid slept in a portrait on the wall. Luna sat on a large pile of fluffy white towels, looking smug.
"You just have to know what to ask for," she said.
xXxXx
Filling the tub took nearly half an hour on its own, since no one wanted to leave a tap untried, and each tap had a different kind of bubble bath mixed in. When everyone was finally in the water, paddling around and splashing each other took up another forty-five minutes. It was nearly midnight before Harry whistled through his pruney fingers to get everyone’s attention.
"Here it goes," he announced, plunging the egg into the water. "Ready?"
He pulled it open. The gurgling song echoed through the room. Eight breaths were sucked in and held, and the Pride dived under the surface of the bath.
After a few watery minutes, everyone had the song committed to memory, and they could recline on the seats the tub had thoughtfully provided and talk it out.
"Cannot sing above the ground," said Meghan. "What can’t sing above the ground?"
"This," said Ron, tapping the egg, which was now closed again and resting on the bathroom floor. "It only sings underwater."
"So whatever Harry’s looking for probably sings underwater too," said Ginny.
"But what sings underwater?" said Harry. "Humans can’t breathe water, not unless they’re fish Animagi, and I don’t think that’s what I’m after. Squid don’t sing, do they?"
"No, it wouldn’t be that," said Hermione. "It said we. That means more than one. Whatever it is — they are — they have human voices, because that’s them singing in the egg, or a recording of them."
"Breathes water, human voice," Neville said. "It can’t be a person who ate gillyweed, because they can’t talk at all. The gills bypass the vocal cords."
"Oh, gillyweed," said Luna. "Father bought some of that two summers ago, when he went to study the merpeople of the North Sea."
Harry sat up straighter. "Merpeople?" he said.
"You’ve heard of them," said Draco, pointing at the picture on the wall. "Right, Luna?"
"Well, that doesn’t look anything like a real mermaid," said Luna critically, looking at the picture. "Their hair is green, and their skin is sort of gray, and they don’t like humans much, because Muggles have polluted their water a lot, and they don’t make distinctions between magical and Muggle, so they just try to hurt any human they find."
"But where are they going to find merpeople around here?" Harry asked. "We’re not on the ocean or anything, and they’re not going to take us anywhere else to do our tasks..." He trailed off. "I’m so stupid."
"We knew that," said Draco. "The lake?"
"The lake." Harry flicked water at his brother, then swept the egg back into the bath and opened it again, bending until one ear was under the surface. "Come seek us where our voices sound — I’ve got to go under the lake, find the merpeople, and get back whatever they took."
"But they can’t take anything of yours," said Meghan. "They can’t come out of the water."
"It’s a task, Pearl," said Hermione. "Someone will take it from the castle and give it to them."
"Wonder what they’ll take?" said Ron. "Have to be something important, if you’re going to go under the water to look for it."
"And I’ll only have an hour." Harry closed the egg and drummed his fingers on it.
"Only an hour?" said Draco. "Only a minute, if you’re holding your breath. How are you going to stay down there that long?"
Harry looked across the pool. "Neville, what were you saying a minute ago?" he said. "Something about people growing gills?"
xXxXx
"Who’s the lucky lady, then, Harry?" said Seamus Finnegan at breakfast.
"What?"
"The Whisperer! Who’s it from?"
Harry looked up. Hedwig was perched in front of him, eyeing him critically, with a sky-blue envelope held in her beak. "I don’t know," he said, accepting it and turning it over. "I wasn’t expecting anything."
"Don’t open it in here," said Hermione. "It’s too noisy, you’d never hear it."
"Good point, but I don’t want to go back to the common room, it’s too far."
"Just use a classroom," said Ron. "No one ever looks in there."
Harry nodded and got up, grabbing a last piece of toast on his way out.
In classroom eleven, he set a chair out of the direct line of sight from the door, then sat down and opened the envelope. The Whisperer fit itself around his ear, and a male voice began to speak.
"Harry, this is Cedric Diggory. I owed you for telling me about the dragons, so I wanted to give you some help with your egg. If you don’t want it, just stop listening now." A pause of a few seconds. "If you do want it, here it is. Try water. Lots of water. You can use the prefects’ bathroom..."
Harry was too busy laughing to hear the rest of the message.
"Ask me what I do for a living," he said when he got back to the Great Hall. "And then ask me what my biggest problem is."
"What do you do for a living?" said Neville.
"I’m a comedian."
"What’s your biggest—"
"Timing."
People groaned up and down the table.
"Dadfoot does that better," said Meghan, pouring herself more milk.
xXxXx
Harry spent most of his time over the next few weeks smiling, his mood coming down from the clouds only when he thought too long about what he’d actually have to do during the second task or when he saw Cedric and Cho walking places hand in hand. As much as he hated it, he had to admit that he had only himself to blame for missing the chance to take Cho to the Yule Ball. Besides, people broke up all the time. Cedric and Cho were bound to, sooner or later.
Maybe if I do really well on the second task... better than Cedric, better than anyone...
Other than that, he really didn’t see what he could ask for. He knew what the second task was, he knew what he was going to do —
Wonder what I would have done if I didn’t know Neville?
As well, Rita Skeeter wouldn’t be bothering them anymore. The champions had been informed by owl that there would be an interview the day after the second task, but that they didn’t have to answer any questions they didn’t want to, and that the article would be checked for accuracy before it was published.
That means no more sappy quotes about me crying myself to sleep. And no more stupidity about Hermione being my girlfriend.
And to top everything off, a major success occurred in Animagus lessons ten days before the task.
xXxXx
"This is so embarrassing."
"What?"
Draco gave Harry a poisonous look. "Ginny Weasley, a year younger than me, has just finished her Animagus work. Luna Lovegood, also a year younger than me, only has one spell to go. My own little sister is the only one farther behind than me, and she’s three years younger than I am!"
"And you can brew a potion better and faster than anyone in our year, and probably better than most of the fifth years. If we’d done the potion ourselves, you would have been in charge of the cauldron."
"I know. It’s just... I don’t like being the last one to do things."
"You don’t like it? Think how Meghan feels."
"She’s used to it."
"Doesn’t mean she likes it."
"Don’t we know it." Draco got up from his place by one wall. "Congratulations, Ginny," he said. "Good work."
"Yeah, good job, Ginny," said Harry.
"Thanks," Ginny said with a smile for both of them, though Harry thought it might be just a little brighter in Draco’s direction...
And why do I care?
xXxXx
"Know what yeh’re goin’ ter do?" Hagrid asked Harry in Care of Magical Creatures two days before the second task.
Harry nodded. "Little nervous, though," he confessed, watching the girls stroking the gold unicorn foals. "I can swim, but I’m not great at it. And I wish I knew what they were going to take."
"Yeh’ll get it back, whatever it is," Hagrid said, patting Harry’s shoulder so hard that Harry felt himself sink ankle-deep into the mud outside Hagrid’s cabin. "Yeh’re goin’ ter win, Harry. I know it. I can feel it. Yeh’re goin’ ter win."
"If you say so, Professor," said Harry in a chirpy imitation of Hermione.
Hagrid guffawed.
xXxXx
We’re flattered that you think so highly of Harry’s fraternal ties, Albus, but since you’ve asked our opinion, we think two is enough for us to be worrying about. Thank you kindly.
Dumbledore chuckled as he tucked the note into his pocket. "Thank you kindly," he told the screech owl sitting by his plate. "No response."
I should not be surprised. Mr. Weasley it is, then.
xXxXx
"Why would Professor McGonagall want to see us now?" Hermione asked Ron as they walked through the halls together. "Unless she wants to know if Harry’s ready, and doesn’t want to ask him directly."
"That doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t she ask him?"
"Maybe because that’s against the rules? No help from teachers?"
"It’s not helping if she just asks." Ron knocked on the door to Professor McGonagall’s office, and opened it when she told him to come in.
Cho Chang turned around as they came in, and a little blonde girl standing by the fireplace shrank back a bit. She was even younger than Meghan, only about eight or nine, and Ron sucked in air when he saw her. "Looks like Delacour," he whispered to Hermione. "Maybe her sister or something."
Professor McGonagall waved her wand to shut the door. "Professor Dumbledore will be here in a few moments," she said. "He will explain."
She had only just finished talking when another knock came on the door, and the Headmaster entered. "Good evening," he said politely, conjuring chairs with a wave of his wand and motioning them all to be seated. "You understand English, my dear?" he asked the little girl, kneeling to be on her level.
The girl nodded and said something in French. "Very well," Dumbledore said. "I have a similar problem with some of the Goblin dialects, I understand them perfectly but simply cannot pronounce the gutturals... but that is neither here nor there." He rose and faced them all. "You may or may not know each other. Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger-Lupin, Cho Chang, and Gabrielle Delacour."
Hermione smiled at Gabrielle, who smiled faintly back.
"Are you all familiar with the requirements of the second task of the Triwizard Tournament?"
Four heads nodded.
"Then you know that the champions must retrieve something they will sorely miss. You are to be that something."
Ron gulped.
"If you wish to refuse this post, other participants can be found. However, I assure you that you will be perfectly safe throughout. I will place you in an enchanted sleep, from which you will awaken when your champion has brought you safely to the surface of the lake. Will you agree to this?"
Gabrielle nodded immediately, spouting off another torrent of French. Dumbledore listened until she was finished, adding comments of his own here and there, then raised his wand and waved it three times around Gabrielle’s head, murmuring an incantation as he did. Her eyes closed, and she slumped in her chair, breathing deeply.
"I’ll do it," said Cho, sitting up. Dumbledore repeated the spell on her, and soon she too was asleep in her chair.
Hermione looked at Ron. Scared? she signed to him.
He gave her what was probably supposed to be a carefree grin, but the little tremor in his lip spoiled it. Still, the message in his hands was clear. Let’s do it.
"We’re ready, Professor," said Hermione, turning around.
"I left you until last for a reason," said Dumbledore, coming to stand in front of them. "I must ask for another sacrifice from you. Your pendants, having their own magic, may interfere with mine, and I do not wish to take any chances. I must ask that you take them off for the duration of the task. I will take the best care of them, and return them to you as soon as the task is over."
It was Hermione’s turn to take a deep breath. The only time she’d ever taken off her Pack-pendants was the day they’d expanded the Pack to include what was now the Pride. She knew she would feel naked without the familiar weight around her neck and metal at her breastbone.
But it’s only for a little while. And I’ll be asleep most of the time anyway.
Beside her, Ron pulled his pendants over his head and handed them to Dumbledore. Hermione swallowed quietly and did the same.
Dumbledore carefully placed the necklaces into an inner pocket of his robes. "I will see you tomorrow, then," he said, and began to wave his wand around their heads.
Hermione felt sleep gathering around her as the Headmaster chanted. Her last thought was mild regret that she wouldn’t get to see Harry do the task.
But we wouldn’t have... seen much... anyway...
xXxXx
"It’s past eleven," Harry said, walking in a circle around the Pride’s usual chairs. "Where are they?"
"Whatever McGonagall wanted, it ran late," said Draco. "Would you sit down? You’re making me dizzy."
Harry broke into a jog and did two circuits of the chairs before encountering Neville’s foot. He picked himself up off the floor and glared. "What was that for?"
"You’re making me dizzy too," said Neville without looking up from his essay. "You’re not going to make them come back by running around. If you really want to do something useful, go over your plan for tomorrow again."
Harry heaved a sigh and sat down. "The merpeople probably live in the deepest part of the lake," he said, unfolding a map from his pocket. "Which is here." He planted a finger on the spot. "Roughly north of where they’re going to have us go in." Another finger in the shallows of the lake — viewing platforms had been erected not far from the Durmstrang ship. "I can do the Four-Point Spell to make sure I’m going the right way."
"Check so far," said Neville. Draco, Luna, and Meghan were listening closely. Ginny nodded absently, her mind obviously on the parchment in front of her.
"Once the gillyweed takes effect, I have a little over an hour to get finished. But the task has a time limit of an hour, so I should be all right that way. I wonder what happens if we go overtime?" Harry interrupted himself. "Do we get hauled back to base, or do we just get points docked for being late?"
"Probably docked," said Meghan. "They want you to finish."
"But I’ll lose whatever they’ve taken if I go outside the hour. And Hermione found that Bubble-Head Charm, so I can still get back alive if the gillyweed wears off." Harry bent over the map again. "We know there’s grindylows in the lake, but they’re not a big problem unless lots of them attack at once, and they usually only come a few at a time. And the giant squid, but it’s friendly."
"More or less," said Draco. "As much as anything carnivorous of that size can be."
Harry ignored this. "Once I get there, I’ll have to take back whatever they took. I don’t know how big it will be, but it’s not going to be something so big I wouldn’t be able to get it through the water with me. I’ll assume it’s something I can carry. But I’ll need my hands for swimming, so I’m taking some rope with me so I can tie it on. And I’ll have my dagger and a couple hairpins, just in case they’ve got it tied up or locked up with something that resists magic."
"And if you meet any Lupisces, you can show them their reflections in your dagger, and they’ll leave you alone," said Luna. "They won’t attack anyone with a shiny weapon."
"What do they look like again, Luna? Furry fish?"
"That’s right. Gray fur on their sides and claws on their fins, and nasty teeth. Don’t let any of them taste your blood in the water, because then the whole school will attack you."
"Good thing I know how to send them away, then," said Harry. "Is there any other way? Say there’s a lot of them and they can’t all see the dagger?"
"They don’t like bright lights either. If you lit your wand, they might not attack you from that direction, but they’d just come around behind you. You’d need some way to make a light shoot out from you in all directions at once, because that would chase them away."
"I’m sure I can think of something," said Harry. "Thanks, Luna, that’s a big help."
"For things that don’t even exist," Draco muttered.
"Being ready never hurt anyone yet," said Neville. "And I think you are, Harry. As ready as you can be, since you don’t know what they’ve taken."
"Yeah." Harry was starting to have a nasty suspicion at the back of his mind, but he dismissed it and folded up the map. "Better take a break from it, then, before I get burned out thinking about it."
Heads nodded around the circle, and Meghan pulled out a Charms essay to ask for Neville’s help with it. Luna fished a small bag from her pocket and poured out what looked like glittering gravel from it, shaking it in her cupped hands and smiling as she did.
"She still drives you mad, doesn’t she?" Harry asked Draco quietly.
"Every day. But it’s my mad. If that makes any sense."
"Not a lot, but I think I understand. You like her so much that you’ll put up with just about anything she does. Right?"
"Right, but it’s even worse than that. I actually want to know what she does. Sometimes I even want to do it. Because that will make her happy. Am I whipped?"
"Yes."
"Thought so." Draco straightened his shoulders. "Nothing to do now but relax and enjoy it." He got up from his chair and crossed the circle to Luna’s side. "What’s that stuff called, Luna?"
"There’s something very wrong about that," Harry said under his breath, watching Luna pour half her gravel into Draco’s hands, "but I can’t figure out what."
"Hope you’re not waiting for me to tell you," said another voice.
Harry jumped slightly. "No. No, I’m not. Sorry, Ginny. Forgot you were there."
"I thought Neville was the invisible one around here."
"He is. You were just so quiet. It’s not like you."
"So I usually talk too much, is that what you’re saying?"
"No..." Harry groaned, seeing the teasing expression on her face. "Fell for it again."
"It’s why we love you." Ginny capped her ink carefully and set it and her quill on the table before straightening up in her chair. "Ready for tomorrow? Or shouldn’t I even ask?"
"Like I said. As ready as I can be. How about you? What’re you doing?"
"Finishing my incantation. It’s stupid that I don’t have it ready when I’ve already drunk the potion, I had so much time to write it, but one sentence won’t work itself out right, and I’m missing a word."
"Can I see?"
Ginny handed him the parchment. "It’s a mess," she warned. "And my handwriting’s none too great."
"Better than Ron’s. I’ll manage." Harry sat down, deciphering the English phrases.
I am a lynx who loves the cold. My eyes shine bright in the dark, and my fur is rusty red. My tail is short but... something about courage... a warm heart? But it has to fit with the body... When I cry out, my voice is (something), and all my enemies fear.
"Good way to end it," he said. "You want something about courage in the middle?"
"I think I need it. I don’t have this for nothing, do I?" Ginny hooked her thumb around her pendant chain.
"Tail is short but courage is long," Harry said slowly, folding a corner of the parchment back and forth. "Would that work?"
"I never heard it put like that, but it sounds nice. If it’s true."
Harry snorted. "This from the person who stabbed a basilisk with a little bitty knife."
"It was either that or stand there and let her eat me."
"I think a lot of people would have taken door number three. Scream and pass out from terror."
"But I didn’t want to look bad in front of you."
Harry laughed. "Right. Like you could. What’s this here? A warm heart, but it has to fit with the body?"
"Everyone else’s incantations that I’ve seen mixed their physical forms with their mental parts. I wanted to do the same with mine. Maybe talk about how I had a warm heart, and parts of my body are warm too..."
"The early part says you love the cold."
"Well, lynxes live up in mountains, in the north. They have to love the cold. I think that’s why they have such short stubby tails, because tails could freeze. And why they have such furry ears — it keeps them warm — and why their paws are so wide, so they can walk on the snow..."
"You just answered your own question," said Harry. "Ears and feet are as warm as my heart. Or no, wait..." The corner of parchment came off, and he started folding it in half backwards and forwards. "My ears and feet are not any warmer than my heart," he said finally. "That means your body stays warm in the cold, and that you care about other people."
Ginny plucked the parchment off his lap and wrote down the sentence quickly. "My ears and feet are not warmer than my heart," she repeated as she wrote. It certainly was true at the moment, Harry thought — if her heart was as warm as her ears looked, she ought to be sweating. "Now how about this last word?"
"Your voice. What kind of noises do lynx make?"
"It’s a lot like cats. They meow, hiss, growl, yowl..."
"You’re going for something scary. I think a yowl is best. What would you call a yowl?" Harry picked up the Latin dictionary that lay by Ginny’s chair and flipped the pages back and forth. "Here, let’s try this."
He opened the book to a random page, closed his eyes, and stabbed a finger down.
"So what’s it say?" Ginny asked.
Harry opened his eyes. "It says... hmm. This isn’t too bad. Cruel or savage. Saevus, saeva, saevum."
"Saeva, then." Ginny scribbled it down. "Thanks, Harry. I think that should do it."
"Just paying back. You helped me do mine, remember?"
"Yeah." Ginny took the dictionary from Harry’s hands and closed it. "I remember."
It was obvious she didn’t want to talk about it. Harry cast about for another topic of conversation. "Are they ever going to get back? It’s quarter to midnight."
"We should go to bed," said Draco, stifling a yawn. "You won’t be able to do anything tomorrow if you can’t keep your eyes open."
"I was hoping Ron and Hermione would get back first."
"I don’t think they’re coming back," said Luna. "Not tonight."
"Not coming back?" said Meghan. "Why not?"
Luna lifted her hands as if they held Harry’s golden egg. "They’ve taken what he’ll sorely miss," she chanted.
The suspicion in the back of Harry’s mind grew into certainty, and he felt himself tensing up. What he would have to retrieve from the bottom of the lake was not an object at all, but a living person. Possibly two people.
How’ll I get both of them?
"They’re probably not both for you," said Draco, and Harry realized he’d spoken aloud. "Hermione could be for Krum."
"Good point. All right." A little of the tension in Harry’s chest eased. "Just Ron, then. But I still have to get him back before the hour’s up, or else..."
"They wouldn’t really let him die," said Ginny worriedly. "Would they?"
Neville shook his head. "Dumbledore wouldn’t let that happen. Not somebody who’s not even really connected to the Tournament. Not that he’s going to let you die, either," he added quickly to Harry. "But you have to take the chance. Ron should be fine."
Harry nodded. But one of Letha’s favorite sayings kept repeating itself between his ears as he got ready for bed.
There’s a long, long way between should and is.
xXxXx
Harry kicked his webbed feet harder, following the faint trace of mersong.
Nothing terrible so far. Just a few grindylows, and they backed off pretty fast when they saw I could handle them. And I’m getting close now...
He sped up again, listening to the words of the song. Time’s half gone... half an hour left, then. And "stays here to rot"? They’re really playing it up, aren’t they?
His earlier qualms were reasserting themselves now that he was down here. The merpeople were obviously hunters, and what Luna had said about them hating humans was stuck on "repeat" in his mind. What if the merpeople decided he was too late arriving and hurt Ron? What if Krum didn’t show up in time, and Hermione got left behind?
He swam on, entering the mer-city, and followed the song for several more minutes, then rounded a corner and discovered something new to worry about. On the end of the row of hostages, on the other side of Ron from Hermione, was Cho Chang.
I should have known she’d be Cedric’s hostage, though...
The fourth person tied to the statue was unfamiliar to him, though she must be related to Fleur Delacour somehow, probably a little sister.
At least she’s asleep, so she’s not scared.
He drew his dagger from under his swimming trunks. The merpeople around the statue drew back a little as he did, murmuring in surprise. The ropes around Ron were strong, but the dagger’s edge was good, and in a few minutes Ron was floating free of the statue, still unconscious.
Harry spun in a circle, straining his fishy eyes. Where is everyone? He looked down at his watch — there were only fifteen minutes left. If the other champions didn’t show up soon...
He sliced at one of the ropes binding Hermione, but instantly the merpeople closed in around him, pulling him away. "Take your own friend only," one large merman said, leaning over him threateningly. "Leave the others..."
"She is my friend!" Harry shouted, but only a large bubble emerged from his mouth — as Neville had warned, he couldn’t talk under the influence of the gillyweed. He resorted to shoving at the hands holding him back, which made no difference at all.
"We do not help or harm," the merman said, prodding Harry with the butt end of his spear. "Only watch, and keep the rules. Here." He waved a hand over his shoulder, and a mermaid came swimming up, towing Ron behind her. "Take your hostage and go."
Harry accepted Ron’s wrist, but tried to swim towards the statue again. Immediately, a solid wall of merpeople blocked him. He backpaddled and settled into drifting, still holding Ron’s wrist. It was warm under his hand, and the pulse beat inside it — the merpeople kept their promises, it seemed. The hostages would be safe for the allowed hour.
But what about after that?
They waited. Every so often, Harry would try to get to the statue again, and the merpeople would block him. About the eighth time he tried, they repulsed him as usual, but then started pointing excitedly upwards and backwards. Harry turned to look.
"Cedric!" he shouted silently.
Cedric waved frantically. "Got lost!" he mouthed through the bubble of air surrounding his head. "You alright?"
Harry threw him a thumbs-up, and watched as Cedric cut Cho free. "Fleur — Krum — coming," he told Harry, then took off for the surface with Cho over his shoulder.
Harry relaxed for the first time since he’d entered the lake. As soon as Fleur and Krum showed up, he could go. He’d be much faster going back than he had been coming, even with Ron to slow him down — he probably only had to get to the surface of the water to be in time — he wouldn’t get the most points, but who cared about points? Everyone would be alive, and that was what mattered.
Excited mer-screeches broke Harry out of his thoughts. Something large was coming their way, large and with a silhouette like Harry had never seen before — it was like a crossbreed creature, but something that never should have been... the body of a male human, with the head of a shark...
Krum. I knew he was doing something wanded, but not what. I suppose this makes sense, as long as he can reverse it when he gets above water.
The shark’s teeth gnashed near Hermione’s hands as Krum tried to sever the ropes. Harry winced and kicked past the merpeople. "Here," he tried to say, then remembered his voice didn’t work. Instead, he smacked Krum on the shoulder, and when the other champion turned, held up his dagger. Krum snatched it from Harry’s hand and quickly sliced Hermione’s bonds, then handed it back to him and locked an arm around Hermione’s waist.
Harry checked his watch as the combined shapes of Krum and Hermione grew fainter above. Only two minutes left... had something happened to Fleur? Ninety seconds... one minute...
Harry reached inside his T-shirt for his wand, then spun on the merpeople. "Stay where you are!" he shouted, ignoring the bubbles that burst from his mouth. "Don’t try to stop me!"
The merpeople’s eyes widened in fear, and the space in front of Harry’s wand tip was suddenly clear. Harry waved the wand in a horizontal arc, clearing the space in front of the statue where Ron was now floating. "Stay back," he warned them. "I’m taking her with me."
The merman who had threatened him before moved forward. "You must not," he said. "Please, you must not. It is against the rules."
Harry told the merman what he thought of the rules with a hand gesture that seemed to cross cultural boundaries. "I’m not leaving her here to die!" he shouted. "It’s not fair for her to die just because her champion got lost or wasn’t fast enough or something..."
The water rippled oddly all around them. The merpeople looked around uneasily. Harry checked his watch again. Time was officially up — the hostages were supposedly lost —
Beyond the merpeople, Ron stirred.
He’s waking up — I guess that’s what happens —
The stirring suddenly turned into thrashing, and Ron’s hands flew to his throat as his eyes popped open, staring around him wildly — Harry shoved off from the base of the statue and made it to his friend’s side in one frantic motion — "Bulla Capitis!" he shouted, and for one terrible second, was certain he’d done it wrong — Ron was still choking, he was going to drown, and it was all Harry’s fault —
And then a bubble of air wavered into existence around Ron’s head, and his thrashing subsided as his silent struggle for breath turned into just-audible, violent coughing. Harry pounded him on the back until Ron coughed up what water he’d breathed, then held him until he was breathing more or less normally.
The girl — Harry spun around. Fleur’s sister was still asleep, tied to the statue.
Maybe it doesn’t count if her champion didn’t show up...
He felt a hand against the back of his neck, and whirled back, wand out.
Ron dodged, his eyes wider than usual through the bubble. "Your chain," he said, the words barely audible. "Both of us."
Good idea. Harry extended his chain and tossed it towards Ron.
Overtime? was the first word out of Ron’s mind when they were connected.
I guess so. But Fleur never showed up, and I didn’t want to leave her sister behind.
Ron snorted mentally. You were first here, weren’t you?
Yes, Harry admitted.
You really should have... oh, never mind. Grab her and let’s go.
They won’t let me. But I think we can do it together. You cut her loose, and I’ll keep them off our backs.
Deal. Ron accepted Harry’s dagger, and they swam together towards the statue, Harry menacing the merpeople with his wand.
The girl’s ropes were no harder to cut than Ron’s had been, and a few moments later, they were all headed for the surface, the girl tethered to Harry’s back, merpeople swimming around them. Harry kept his wand ready, but none of the merpeople came close to them.
All right? he sent, kicking a little harder.
All right. Ron’s voice came in short bursts. You’re fast... faster than me... but don’t stop.
Why?
Just as Ron pointed past Harry’s shoulder, the shouts of distant merpeople struck his ears. He spun in place to look.
A huge, amorphous figure was closing in on them. Merpeople were striking at it with spears, but thick ropes lashed out from it and swiped them aside —
The squid. Let’s go! Harry yanked free a loose end of the ropes tying the girl to himself and handed it to Ron. Just hang on. Kick if you can.
Right.
The load was doubly heavy now, hard to swim with, and Harry was starting to feel the water in his mouth again — the gillyweed was wearing off, if there was much farther to go he’d have to stop and cast a Bubble-Head Charm on himself —
Harry, said Ron through the chain. More trouble.
Harry didn’t even have time to look down. Swarms of tiny, dark fish seemed to appear out of the water, all around him, above, below, on all four sides, cruising around in small packs, moving closer and closer to him and Ron and Fleur’s sister —
Her name’s Gabrielle.
Thanks, I really needed to know that right now. Any other pearls of wisdom?
Ron squinted through the water. They’re furry, he said.
What?
The fish. They’re furry. Fish aren’t supposed to have fur, are they?
Harry inhaled in relief, and nearly choked. Hang on, he said, pointing his wand at himself. Bulla Capitis.
This better not take long, Ron warned, kicking himself slightly higher in the water. They look hungry.
And I need to breathe. Just wait. Harry held his breath, waiting impatiently as the bubble of air grew around his head. Luna told us about these. They’ll go away if we can show them their own reflections in the dagger blade. You still have it?
Right here. Ron fumbled it out of his robes. Now I just need to hold it so they can see it... ow!
Oh no. Harry whipped around. Three bright beads of blood oozed from the slice along Ron’s finger where he’d cut himself. Accio Blood!
The blood zoomed away from Ron and toward Harry. Ron jammed his finger in his mouth. Both boys held their breaths.
A fish’s jaws gaped wide, then snapped sharply closed.
I don’t like this, Ron said shakily.
More jaws began to snap, with a sound like rain falling on water, except this rain would probably kill them all, Harry thought dizzily as the noises got louder and faster. If only there was some other way to drive these fish away from them —
A faint light caught his eye. The carving of the lynx was glowing on his last pendant.
As if I didn’t have enough trouble, without adding someone else’s...
But with his next instant of thought, he knew what to do.
xXxXx
"She bit me!" Dudley Dursley howled, both hands clutching his backside. "I know she did!"
"That’s disgusting!" Ginny shouted back. "All I did was look over to see what you were doing with your wand in the water, and then we both fell in!"
"Quiet," said Madam Pomfrey peremptorily to both of them. "Trousers down, Dursley." A flick of her wand conjured a Privacy Spell around them.
Ginny felt a towel wrap around her shoulders and looked up. "Thanks, Neville."
"You’re welcome." Neville helped her up. "I know you pushed him in," he said quietly, "but did you really bite him?"
Ginny shook her head. "Scratched. It looks more like he could have caught it on something. Besides, I wasn’t going to bite him there, no matter what he was doing."
"So it worked?"
"Just right. Any news?" Her hand pressed against her pendants, cool with more than the chill of the day and the water.
"No. Harry’s still in danger, but Ron isn’t, and Professor Dumbledore can’t find any of the merpeople to tell him what’s going on—"
Ginny gasped. "Look!"
Something was glowing bright red in the middle of the lake, from under the water. As they watched, the glow pulsed, brighter, brighter, brighter —
And a head topped with black broke the surface of the water, with a gasp that was audible from where they stood on the platforms. An instant later, a red head also surfaced, and a smaller, blonde one a second or so after that.
The pendants’ chill vanished.
Neville’s arm kept Ginny from falling over in relief. Harry and Ron were all right.
"Well, sort of," said Neville when Ginny said this out loud over the sound of cheering. "But I think Harry’s mad about something."
"I knew that," said Ginny, squeezing water out of her hair. "It’s keeping me warm."
The heads were closer than they had been, and now recognizably attached to bodies. Merpeople had surfaced around the three, singing in their strange, screechy language. Ginny saw Percy at the edge of the platform the three were aiming for. He looked rather pale, and snatched Ron’s arm as soon as Ron was close enough, hauling him out of the water by main force. Behind him, Mr. Padfoot reached down into the water and took the little girl Harry was boosting up, passing her back to Mrs. Letha before he leaned back down for Harry.
"Come on," Neville said. "We’d better get over there."
Ginny wrapped the towel more tightly around herself and followed him. She’d had a good look at Harry’s face as he climbed out, and he looked angry enough to chew wands and spit out spells.
I wonder what happened?
She lost sight of him briefly as she climbed over to the next platform, but she heard him before she saw him again.
"...not very fair, Professor. Maybe I was stupid not to take Ron and go, but I don’t think it’s fair for you to make him almost drown."
Ginny looked cautiously around the corner. Harry, dripping wet, was staring down Professor Dumbledore. "What if I hadn’t known a spell that could save him?" he demanded. "Were you just going to let him die?"
Dumbledore’s brows drew in. "Harry, what are you talking about?"
"Don’t play stupid!" Harry shouted. "The sleep spell, the one on Ron! It kicked off as soon as the hour was up, he started waking up, and he couldn’t breathe! I don’t care if you take points off me for not getting back in time, but he could have died down there!"
A wave of gasps went around the platform, and Ginny’s chest constricted painfully. For the first time in her memory — possibly the first time in the memory of anyone present — Professor Albus Dumbledore looked stunned. "Mr. Weasley?" he said.
Ron looked up from where he sat, wrapped in a blanket. "Yeah," he said hoarsely. "I woke up."
Dumbledore drew his wand and began to point it at Ron, then stopped. "With your permission?" he said.
Ron nodded.
Dumbledore began a curious pattern of waves and choppy flicks, one which made Ginny feel sleepy after looking at it for a few moments. She pulled her eyes away from it to have a look around the platform.
Percy, still standing behind Ron, looked relieved and smug in equal measure. Karkaroff was frowning, though whether at Dumbledore or at Krum she couldn’t tell. Krum was also frowning, but his frown was definitely directed at Hermione, who was huddled up in a blanket with Draco and Luna on either side of her, Mrs. Danger behind them. Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang both looked worried. Ludo Bagman was shifting uneasily on his feet. Just a portion of Madame Maxime’s leg could be seen around the corner, from whence Ginny could hear a torrent of French which must be Fleur Delacour and the girl Harry’d rescued from the lake. But there was a deeper voice in there, a man’s voice — who was that?
Dumbledore rose. "Fellow judges, may I speak with you for a moment?" he said.
Madame Maxime stepped in around the corner, gravely ducking her head to avoid hitting it on the ceiling. Karkaroff closed in grudgingly, Percy and Bagman eagerly.
Mr. Moony came forward from a corner and handed Harry a blanket. "Good work, late or not," he said quietly. "Madam Pomfrey should be here any second with some Pepperup Potion."
"I hate that stuff," Harry complained, wrapping himself in the blanket. "My head always feels like it’s full of steam for hours."
"Better than what’s usually in there," said Ron.
"I didn’t have to go after you, you know."
"Would you have let him die, then?" asked Luna, sitting up.
"No, of course not."
Fleur burst around the corner, Madam Pomfrey just behind her, with the little girl by the hand. "Miss Delacour, I must take care of those scratches before they become infected!" the nurse was saying.
"Later, later," said Fleur impatiently. "Look after Gabrielle." She swooped down on Harry. "You saved ‘er," she said. "She was not your ‘ostage, but you saved ‘er."
"Yeah," said Harry, looking suspiciously at Fleur.
Fleur took his face in her hands and kissed him twice on each cheek. Ginny bit down hard on her lip to keep herself from shouting — Harry was not her property, she had no right to be angry —
"Don’t think I need the Pepperup now," said Harry dazedly, with a vague smile on his face.
He’ll look like that over me someday, Ginny promised herself.
"And you ‘elped too," said Fleur, leaning over Ron. "You ‘elped to save ‘er."
"Yeah, a bit," Ron said, looking hopeful.
Hermione’s face was a study as Fleur kissed Ron’s cheeks as well. Ginny was about to go to her — she knew perfectly well how her friend felt — but Madam Pomfrey stepped between them and shoved a flask into her hand. "Drink that," she said. "All of it. Falling into the lake, swimming around in the lake, in February no less..."
"Ladies and gentlemen, in the interests of the champions, we will be returning to the castle before we give the marks," Ludo Bagman’s magically amplified voice boomed out as the judges’ huddle broke up. "Unforeseen circumstances have forced the possible invalidation of this task, and the judges wish to confer at length."
"What’s that supposed to mean?" said Ron as Bagman ended the amplification spell.
"Put simply, Mr. Weasley," said Dumbledore quietly, "this task was sabotaged."
Author Notes:
Remember, answers are not always as easy as you think they are... but sometimes, of course, they are. Unhelpful enough? Good.
Hope this satisfies your DwD cravings for a little while! Please let me know! And I disclaim all lines written by JKR, of which there are a few in this chapter, but as few as I could manage.
Ginny’s spell, in case anyone wants to know, goes like this: Lynx sum quo frigidum amat. Lumines meum refulgit in caligine, et reno meus robiginosus est. Cauda mea brevis sed virtus mea longa est, et aures et pedes mei calidior non sunt quam cor meum. Me clamante, vox mea saeva est, et hostes omnes mei timent.
"I am a lynx who loves the cold. My eyes shine bright in the dark, and my fur is rusty red. My tail is short but my courage long, and my ears and feet are not warmer than my heart. When I cry out, my voice is savage, and all my enemies fear."