Chapter 20

Tonks had spent the past ten days thinking about her situation with Harry. She had yet to reach any resolutions.

It had been the best relationship she'd ever had, but the simple fact was that the mere thought of getting into bed with him got her hackles up now. How was she supposed to be comfortable with the idea that only decency was keeping Harry from fiddling about with her soul if she ever relaxed too much around him? Hells, she wouldn't trust herself with that kind of power. She'd certainly been frustrated enough with both past boyfriends and even Harry a few times that it would be tempting, doubly so since it was apparently undetectable.

She almost found herself wishing that Adrastia Zabini had never showed up. She'd been happy then, if a bit frustrated by Harry's secrecy. But that was no way for an auror to be thinking, Moody would have certainly lectured her ear off if she did. Moody would also have tried to haul Harry off to Azkaban if he ever learned about this, not that she had any intention of telling him.

She had come to watch the second task of the tournament in the hopes that some epiphany would illuminate the correct decision. Unlike the first task however, she wasn't here with Penny and Sirius. She was in fact hiding from them. Instead of her usual energetic hair color and style, it fell down to her upper back in coal black waves. Combined with unassuming robes, minor facial alterations and blue eyes, she knew that she was unrecognizable.

Passing the lake on her way to the stands, she had to wonder which genius thought that watching the surface of a lake for an hour would be fun. Probably Bagman. The former quidditch star was well known in certain circles of the Ministry to not think his ideas through very well.

As she was looking for an out of the way spot to sit, she noticed something that put a look of distaste on her face. Or rather someone.

Adrastia Zabini was there, once again dressed far too expensively and looking towards the pier where the two remaining champions were preparing. There was quite a bit of space around her. Coincidence or had she driven people off somehow?

Tonks knew that it was probably a bad idea and she didn't really have any reason to do it, but she made her way towards the woman anyway.

"Looking for your next victim?" She asked coolly as she sat down next to her.

Adrastia looked at the unfamiliar-but-familiar woman who had just sat down next to her with a raised eyebrow, wondering who she was for a moment before she placed the voice and presence.

"Auror Tonks, what a pleasant surprise." She said without a hint of sarcasm.

"Zabini." Tonks returned tersely.

"Did you come to watch Harry compete?" Adrastia asked, pretending that there was no tension in the air.

Tonks grunted an affirmative, inadvertently making a passable imitation of her mentor.

"The venue for this event is terrible. Honestly, why would anyone be interested in watching the surface of a lake for an hour?" Adrastia complained, unknowingly echoing Tonks' earlier thoughts. "But at least I get to see Harry topless, so I suppose there is that."

Tonks ground her teeth together and prevented her hair from shifting.

"Just looking at that chest hair makes me want to run my fingers through it." Adrastia went on in a murmur, somehow contriving to sound like she was licking her lips without actually doing it.

Tonks knew about that particular impulse. Harry did have some very nice chest hair and it was currently visible since he was only wearing swim trunks. Not too coarse or thick, but thick enough that it was more than just a few sad hairs sticking out. It was one of the bigger hints towards the fact that he wasn't just an early bloomer. It wasn't a topic that she wanted to talk to this woman about though. In fact, she didn't want to talk about Harry's chest with anyone right now.

"A bit young for you, isn't he?" She asked snidely and somewhat hypocritically.

"Old enough to be fucking the law." Adrastia drawled with a wide smirk, amused at her double entendre.

"Very funny." Tonks growled.

"Why so sour, Nymphadora?" Adrastia asked, still smirking and deliberately aggravating the Metamorphmagus. "Frustrated?"

"Don't call me that." Tonks ground out, more incensed by the familiarity than the use of her full name for a change.

Unexpectedly, Adrastia gave a resigned sigh. "He told you, didn't he? I suppose I was being too optimistic in thinking that he would listen to me and keep quiet. Why are you here?"

Tonks didn't really know why she had approached Zabini. Maybe out of some vague hope that it would help her resolve the mess that now lay between her and Harry. Maybe because she knew that the woman was a serial killer and couldn't leave it alone. Maybe because she subconsciously blamed her for the problems that she and Harry were having.

"What Harry sees in you I will never understand." Adrastia continued when Tonks didn't say anything. "You are as dull as the rest of the sheep."

"I suppose you think he should be with you then?" The Metamorphmagus retorted scathingly, struggling to control her temper. The murderous bitch was talking to her like she was a small, stupid child. Wordplay had never been her forte, something that was a problem when dealing with razor tongued monsters like Zabini or Malfoy.

"Perhaps for a while." Adrastia replied placidly. "It would be an interesting change of pace to spend time with an equal. There are so few of them in the world and most are quite disagreeable."

"Until you got bored and killed him, right?" Tonks asked sarcastically. She wasn't even going to dignify the woman's sense of superiority with a response.

Adrastia chuckled again. "You do Harry a disservice."

"What?" Tonks asked, not sure what she meant.

"If he was such easy prey, we would not be having this conversation." Adrasta elaborated and leaned closer, her demeanour suddenly taking a dangerous edge. "If he was easy prey, you would be cursing him for abandoning you while I played with him." As quickly as it came, the Italian witch's true nature was once again concealed. "Or perhaps you would never have given him the time of day to begin with."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tonks demanded, not allowing herself to be unnerved by this woman.

Adrastia gave her a condescending sideways glance. "You should be honest with yourself, Nymphadora. Had he been an ordinary fourteen-year-old you would not have been attracted to him in the least. It was a relief to let him take the lead, wasn't it? It is after all the nature of sheep to follow."

Tonks' jaw clenched tightly, streaks of blazing red appearing in her black hair, even her eyes took on an orange tint. The other woman was infuriating and it was exceedingly hard to keep her powers in check. The fact that she was right made it ten times worse. The notion of getting romantically involved with a fourteen-year-old was laughable, but not in Harry's case because he was special. She had liked his take charge attitude and the ability to take the back seat that came with it. A couple of her past attempts at a relationship had been quite stressful because she had needed to be more assertive than she would've liked to keep from having her Metamorph ability taken advantage of. Then there was that one boyfriend that had been so timid that he probably had less personality than Mr. Purple. Harry's easy confidence had been just right, not pushy but also not passive. It had been the first time she was really able to play around with her abilities during sex without feeling like someone else's toy. Harry had ideas and suggestions, but she had never felt humiliated by them or had cause to think that he was annoyed if she refused, nor had he ever asked her to transform into a different woman under the guise of roleplay. And that was all aside from the fact that he was a genuinely great guy.

But she didn't appreciate having that pointed out. Not by anyone and especially not in this manner by this woman.

"It really is too bad that Harry didn't listen to me." Adrastia went on with a sigh. "Telling you hasn't accomplished anything save to cause trouble. No doubt you were happier in your ignorance."

That was also true and another thing that Tonks didn't like having pointed out.

"Unlike you, Harry isn't a heartless monster." She ground out.

Adrastia smirked, recalling that Harry had been fully intending to strangle her to death for the dangerous secrets that Sirius had spilled. "Isn't he?"

"I'm not listening to this." Tonks said suddenly and stood up.

"Give Harry my love when you talk to him." Adrastia said in a cheerful, friendly manner.

Tonks didn't reply and practically stomped off.

The Italian witch chuckled to herself, amused at how riled up the Metamorphmagus had gotten. It was almost too easy really, what with the girl's temper and jumbled feelings. She may have prefered it if Harry had not told her about Sex Magic or The Joining, but it looked as if it would not spread further and there might be some advantages to this too. The obvious trouble between them could open up some possibilities to improve her own standing with the powerful young wizard, though care would have to be taken. However useful an association with Harry Potter would be in the future, she had not merely been taunting the auror when she implied that he was a monster. There were many kinds of monsters in the world, all of them dangerous if you stepped on their toes.

She looked back over the lake, noting that the task had already begun. With an eyeroll at the complete waste of time that the British Ministry of Magic had organized, Adrastia left the premises. At least she'd gotten to talk to Harry's soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend, so it wasn't a total loss.

Meanwhile…

Harry stared at the dark waters of the Black Lake, wondering who they had put under there for him to rescue. Ginny? They weren't close anymore, but she was the only one aside from Luna that came to mind even vaguely. He was closer to Professor Vector, but he doubted they would use a teacher. He really didn't have much in the way of friends in Hogwarts.

He glanced to the side. Fleur looked sexy as hell in her one piece silver bathing suit, especially with the way her nipples were pebbled from the cold. She also looked worried sick. It might be why she'd forgotten that she was a witch and could cast a Warming Charm.

"Who did they take for you?" He asked.

"Gabrielle, I zink. I 'aven't been able to find 'er since yesterday." Fleur replied worriedly.

The veela's answer revealed a flaw in Harry's thinking. He had assumed they would only take people from Hogwarts.

His face twisted into a scowl. Who was under there? He'd seen Penny sit down with Luna earlier, but he hadn't been able to catch sight of Sirius or Dora. He didn't think anyone knew that they were(or had been more likely) together, but he wouldn't put it past Dumbledore to have known.

"'Arry, I know we are opponents, but would you agree to cooperate for zis task?" Fleur sounded as if making the request pained her.

It probably did. Pride was inconvenient like that.

But Harry understood why she felt that she needed to swallow that pride with her sister in danger. Her fire and Light based strength would be severely diminished in the cold, wet Dark. The bottom of a deep lake was no place for a daughter of Sun and Sky.

"Of course." He said with a nod.

Fleur favored him with a grateful, relieved smile.

"Are our champions ready?" Bagman asked loudly, a Sonorous spell amplifying his voice for all to hear.

"Just get on with it." Harry grumbled. He'd been in a bad mood for days now, the last thing he wanted was to listen to more of Bagman's blather or look at the gleeful malice on Umbridge's face. He could practically hear her hoping for both him and Fleur to die in the lake. Even with all other considerations aside, he would have survived just to spite her.

And on the topic of spite, he put another Itching Curse on her. If he had to spend an hour diving in a freezing cold lake to save one of the few people he cared about, then the fat toad could spend it squirming.

It got him another look from Dumbledore, who had no doubt felt it, but Harry had no regrets. The old man must already have a pretty solid idea about his wandless abilities and was too fond of secrets to tell anyone.

"Errr, yes, of course." Bagman stammered. "Well, the task will start on my whistle and the champions have precisely one hour to retrieve what was taken from them. On the count of three then. One… two… three !"

Bagman might have been going for a sense of urgency with his countdown, but Harry unhurriedly summoned the items he'd left nearby and put his wand back into its holster on his right arm.

He grabbed the altered diving mask first. The straps had been cut off so as to not get in the way, replaced by a specialized sticking charm placed on the rubber. The clear plastic lenses were also enchanted to keep any gunk from sticking to it and blocking his vision.

The second item was a dark blue scarf, which he tied around his head so that it covered his mouth. He could feel the enchantment on it providing its own air supply and cutting off all external sources.

He looked towards Fleur again. The veela had a Bubblehead Charm active around her head. That would work too, but she had clearly never heard of the old RPG player's axiom; never do with a spell what you can do with magic items.

They nodded at each other and jumped into the water.

Elsewhere on the lake shore.

Goran put down the binoculars that he'd been using to observe the mark(and the sexy veela next to him). It was time to get this job done. He'd already scouted the terrain and determined the best time to attack.

According to the information provided by his anonymous client. Potter would need to save someone from the colony of merpeople on the bottom of the lake. Attacking while he was there would be stupid since the fishfaces would probably not react well to that. Best to do it while he was going back up and burdened with an extra body.

He brought out a mouthful of gillyweed and stared at the transformative plant distastefully. He wished he could just use a Bubblehead Charm, but it would be stupid to skimp out on an advantage simply because it was uncomfortable.

Death Eater stooges A, B, C and D prepared for their job somewhat differently than Gojkov…

"Alright lads, let's show Potter and the half-breed whore their place." Stooge A said motivationally when he saw through the omniculars that the champions had begun their task.

The other three gave a cheer of agreement and put on their Death Eater masks, tugging on their matching robes to make sure it all fit properly. Then they cast Bubblehead Charms and jumped into the lake.

Harry looked to see if Fleur was alright after the grindylows were repelled. She gave him an uncharacteristically meek nod and they continued exploring the bottom of the lake.

He imagined that she felt very far out of her element right now. He could feel the darkness and silence of their surroundings pressing in on her the deeper they got. Not the Dark of the Void, but the darkness of a place that never saw sunlight. The Light of his own magic was also diminished, but unlike Fleur, this was no detriment for him. If anything it was an advantage because he would be less prone to emotional responses.

Harry estimated that they had spent just over thirty minutes in the water when the merpeople village came into view. Fleur tried to rush towards it, but Harry grabbed her hand before she could, ignoring her impatient look.

He had also noticed a distinctly human presence lurking among the tall weeds carpeting the muddy lake floor. He waved Fleur to stay back while he took a look at it.

Goran knew something was wrong the moment that Potter stopped and looked directly towards him. He shouldn't have been able to see anything among the tall weeds, but he clearly had.

The boy, who he would have taken for a man if he didn't know better, had his wand out and was obviously expecting trouble. So much for cursing him in the back and being done with it.

He jabbed his wand towards the boy, focusing all of his will on the desire to kill. The bright green beam of the Killing Curse flew from the tip.

Much to his surprise, Potter dodged the slow moving spell as if he'd been expecting it and returned fire with a much faster piercing hex, forcing him to swim away with all the grace his aquatic form granted him. He saw the spell shred the weeds and kick up the mud and knew that it would have been lethal if it had hit him. The boy wasn't playing around.

Goran scowled. He hated it when the client left out important details, such as the fact that the target was more than just some puffed up celebrity brat and was genuinely dangerous.

Well fine . It wasn't the first time that he had to actually fight instead of winning with a sneak attack. He couldn't cast another Killing Curse due to the pure focus it required, not without getting perforated by Potter's spells first at any rate, but he was no slouch as a dueler. He'd manage.

Harry jabbed his wand forward several more times, sending more piercing hexes and a few bone breakers at the assassin, only to be frustrated when they were nimbly avoided. The man's presence was definitely that of a wizard, but he looked half fish and swam like one too.

Goran meanwhile was unpleasantly surprised by the ability of his target. Potter's spells were powerful, dangerous and most of all fast, faster than they had any right to be under water. Everyone knew that things moved slower through water than air, spells being no different.

Harry happened to disagree with this bit of 'knowledge'. He had questioned why something that had no mass would be slowed by water and eventually concluded that it was all in the caster's head. They expected the spells to move slower in water, so they did. Conversely, Harry expected them to move normally, so they did.

Fast or not though, gillyweed granted one an absurd amount of mobility in water and Goran had little trouble swimming out of the way and it left him with all the time in the world to send a return volley of deadly spells.

Harry wanted to curse. The spells coming at him might be slower than normal, but so was he. He put up a strong shield to block them, but that just put him on the defensive while the assassin battered at it and whenever he got enough breathing room to return fire, the slippery bastard easily dodged. He needed to try something else.

What though, that was the question. A skilled wizard could reduce the wand motions of most spells to barely anything and Harry was such a wizard, but there were some limits to it. He couldn't cast any cutting curses because trying to make a slashing motions underwater would either take too long or be too small to bother with, not to mention that they would probably get dodged anyway. Anything with a physical component would be slowed by the water and rendered useless. Elemental or area of effect spells would be either impossible, ineffectual or flat out suicidal due to the water. Transfiguration was right out because transfiguring liquids for combat purposes was iffy at the best of times and fell into the category of Very Bad Ideas if you were actually in the liquid when trying it.

That really only left him with some of the more esoteric wandless spells of his own making, and there was exactly one spell in that category that he could cast with enough speed to make it viable.

Goran's eyes widened in shock when he saw Potter thrust out a hand and a trio of dart like spells rushed out from it. What the fuck had he been sent to kill? Seriously, what kind of fourteen-year-old used wandless magic? His shock was even more pronounced when the smallish cluster of spells actually tracked him .

A shield was put up and the spells easly blocked, but the Serbian assassin was now thoroughly unnerved.

Seeing the assassin preoccupied with his attack made Harry smile grimly under the scarf he was wearing. Magic Missile for the win. Each of the little force bolts would only do about as much damage as a solid punch and were easy to block, but they were excellent for use as a distraction.

Forgotten by the two combatants, Fleur watched the underwater duel with a sense of frustrated helplessness. Had they been on dry land, she would not have hesitated to fight off this attacker beside Harry.

But they weren't on dry land. They were deep underwater where her magic was pitifully weak and she dreaded the thought of joining the fight in this state. She had nearly become a casualty of that first Killing Curse that Harry had dodged and there had been a few other spells that had whizzed by close enough to drive home the danger of the situation. She knew that any shields she could conjure might well not be up to the task of blocking a spell from the assassin if he turned his attention towards her. She didn't know if she could even cast any kind of useful spell. In a twist of cruel irony, this doubt would only serve to weaken her magic further.

She felt like she was abandoning Harry, but there was no choice. Gabi was still somewhere in the merpeople's village and time was running out. She would just have to hope for the best and hope that Harry won. If he lost, then all she could do was hope to be left alone with her sister and maybe whoever Harry's hostage was, depressing as the thought was. An even grimmer worst case scenario was that none of them would be leaving this lake alive.

Her swim deeper into the village went unimpeded, though there was quite a bit of traffic in the other direction. Fleur had noticed the merpeople gathering to watch the duel happening on the edges of their settlement and figured these were going to gawk as well. No use hoping that they would actually help .

It didn't take her long to reach what she assumed was the underwater version of a village square, where she saw the unmistakable sight of her little sister's silvery blonde hair floating around her head. If she wasn't underwater, the sight of her tied to a stake with her skin taking an unhealthy pale green color in the gloomy lighting would have forced Fleur into a veela transformation.

The man next to the eight year old veela had to be Harry's hostage. She remembered seeing them together after the first task. He represented a problem.

Fleur had been so focused on her sister that she had given little thought to anything else. She hadn't even been able to properly appreciate Harry's half naked state back on the pier. Now that Gabrielle was right in front of her and Harry was busy with whoever that wizard was, she realized that saving both hostages was well and truly up to her. That was the problem. Namely, Fleur didn't think she could carry both her sister and Harry's hostage back to the surface.

But she had to try. She felt ashamed enough of the fact that she hadn't even tried to join the fight against the assassin, if she just grabbed her sister and skulked away like some base coward while Harry fought for his life, she'd never be able to live with herself. Aside from the fact that such an action would undoubtedly put an end to any hope of making Harry her mate, he was also a friend.

The two hostages were tied to their respective stakes with tough weeds and it was dishearteningly difficult for Fleur get them free. It took her four casts of a Severing Charm to slice through the weeds, whereas she would normally need to be careful not to overpower it.

The Locomotion Charm she tried to use to get the two unconscious bodies to follow her without needing to be carried fizzled out after mere seconds just like she had feared it would. It had been cast correctly, but she just couldn't muster the power to make it last. Left with no choice, she grabbed her eight-year-old sister with one hand and the thirty-plus looking man in the other and started the slow slog back towards Harry. Being so reliant on someone else burned her pride fiercely, but facts were facts. Swimming to the surface with just her legs while weighed down this much was simply not going to happen.

Ironically, she wasn't stopped from taking Sirius as well by any merpeople because all of them had gone to see the spectacle of two wizards having at each other on the outskirts of their village.

Back with Harry and Goran, both were deeply frustrated. The fight had reached a stalemate that didn't look like it was going to get resolved. The watery battlefield severely restricted their spell selection and reduced their duel to what was essentially a lethal version of laser tag. The only new development had been that Harry had improvised a way to use wandless magic to push himself through the water for short bursts of movement, which just made it so that they were both missing pretty much all of their spells.

Goran was in fact seriously considering just giving up and retreating. He hadn't gotten to the ripe old age of forty-eight in his chosen lifestyle by being stupid and greedy. He'd been promised a lot of gold for this kill, but it was starting to feel like it wasn't worth the risk. There was a swarm of merpeople nearby nervously gripping their tridents, gillyweed didn't last forever, Potter's defense wasn't budging even under some of the darker spells in his repertoire and his offense might become too much to handle if he was reduced to the swimming speed of a regular human. Backing down from a fourteen-year-old wizard grated, but not as much as getting killed by one would.

The Death Eater contingent in the Black Lake had failed to consider a few things when they made their 'plan'. Things such as the effect of water on voluminous robes and how they would find their quarry in the first place. Thus they spent an unnecessarily long time waddling about in the lake like a bunch of particularly inept and confused hippos.

Had it not been for the fact that Harry and Goran's duel was taking place close to the illuminated underwater village, they would have belatedly realized their mistake only by the time that Harry and Fleur were already out of the water.

When they did find their target, they were confused by the duel taking place. Exchanging baffled glances, they made the universal group shrug of thugs that couldn't be bothered to think too hard and went in for the attack. Umbridge had paid them to kill everyone and they certainly had no problem doing that.

Goran had nearly wrestled his pride and greed into submission and decided to retreat when an opportunity showed up. He'd been keeping an eye on the merpeople just in case they decided to attack and saw two blobs of the silver blonde hair characteristic to veela and another unconscious man. The other champion had showed up and she had the hostages. Potter was supposed to be a hero type and hostages were always useful against those.

Dodging around another piercing hex that would have gouged a hole out of his thigh and deflecting two more of those annoying little wandless spells, Goran charged at his new target like a torbedo.

Harry's eyes scrunched in confusion for just a moment before widening in alarm as he saw where the assassin was going. He shot after him desperately, using wandless magic to propel himself as fast as possible.

The merpeople saw the two wizards that had been fighting on their very doorstep charging at them and scattered. Fleur had only just put down her burdens at what she judged was a safe distance from the ongoing duel when she saw that the attacker was going straight at her. Her desperate but weak spells were easly deflected and caused him only a minor delay.

It was enough however to let Harry catch up and crash into assassin before he could grab her. They tumbled into the mud and were immediately engaged in a clumsy and ineffectual grappling match.

Harry had a slight edge due to several factors. For one, he was taller and his runes made him half again as strong as someone of his size and build should be. For another, he had also dropped his wand prior to the collision, knowing that it would be useless at this range.

Despite being a very different sort of wizard from what most British would consider 'normal', Goran still considered his wand to be his most priceless possession and clung to it fiercely, even if any spells he tried to cast at this range would be near useless due to the interference of Harry's own will.

A mere few feet away, Fleur's face developed an angry scowl. She was really starting to hate being the damsel in distress. Before she could join in on the tussle though, she saw yet another problem approaching. Four wizards in black robes and white masks. Voldemort and his Death Eaters had confined most of their activities to Britain, but they were recognizable across all of Europe.

Trying to get either Harry or the assassin to break off their struggle and notice the approaching killers was tough without being able to speak, but they did eventually glance in the direction that she was pointing towards and then did a quick double take to make sure that their eyes weren't deceiving them.

Unfortunately for them, the Death Eaters had closed into spell range by then and, seeing all of their targest more or less in the same place, let loose with blasting curses.

Harry and Goran's eyes both bulged in an identical manner, united in their incredulity. They both recognized that the spells coming towards them were blasting curses, but neither could quite believe the thick skulled stupidity they were seeing.

Harry had researched what spells were good for underwater use and how some of his favorites would react, blasting curses being among them.

Goran didn't do that, but the Balkans had seen quite a bit of war during his lifetime. He had a pretty good idea what underwater explosions were like.

There was a damn good reason why neither one of them had used anything like that despite how frustrating their fight had been. It was just not worth the risk and neither one was willing to experiment with things that might end up blowing up in their face.

All animosity between them was instantly forgotten as they scrambled to save their lives. Goran cast the most powerful shield he could manage. Harry only took a moment to mesh his own magic into the assassin's shield spell, enlarging it to cover all five of them and and specifying what it was to hold back as he did so.

The four slow blasting curses cast by the Death Eaters detonated soon after with a muted boom.

Funny thing about explosions, if they happened in the air, much of their energy was expended to compress it. Water was massively harder to compress and moved with the pressure wave of the explosion rather than absorbing it.

The shield they cast was up to the task of deflecting the pressure wave, leaving the people behind it unscathed.

The Death Eaters were not so fortunate. All of them had been under the mistaken but understandable belief that water would make the explosion weaker, so they had cast with as much power as possible to offset this and didn't for a moment believe themselves to be in any danger at the distance they were at. The pressure wave reached them a few moments after the explosion.

Another difference between air and water explosions was that the power of the compressed air wave was mostly deflected from the human body due to the very different densities. In an underwater explosion, the pressure wave passed through the body and lost very little of its power. When it hit the air-filled pockets inside the body, it instantly compressed the gases in them, blocking blood vessels, rupturing the lungs and intestines, tearing tissue and causing brain hemorrhaging.

The Death Eaters were wizards, so the damage wasn't as severe as physics said it should be, the innate will to survive intrinsic to everything that lived influencing their magic to protect them, but they were still unconscious and in critical condition. The air in their Bubblehead Charms should technically have gotten compressed too, but magic had an unreliable relationship with physics at the best of times, so that didn't happen, nor did their brains start bleeding.

Harry and Goran slowly dropped the shield, glanced at each other, remembered that they were supposed to be killing each other and instantly became as tense as statues.

A pregnant moment passed and then Goran very slowly and very deliberately relaxed.

With equal care, Harry did the same.

Goran gave the man he'd been hired to kill a curt nod and started swimming away, not turning his back until he was well out of range of spellfire. To hell with the money, he was fucking done with this job. The gillyweed would be wearing off soon and he was not going to tangle with the stupidly powerful fourteen-year-old anymore, certainly not after working together with him against the four masked idiots.

Fleur gave Harry a confused look, but he just shook his head, summoned his wand into his hand, cast Locomotion Charms on Sirius and Gabrielle and started swimming back to the surface. He cast another Locomotion Charm on the Death Eater who he judged to be the least damaged, wanting some answers for this clusterfuck.

For the other three, he dispelled their Bubblehead Charms and left them to drown. These Death Eaters all had familiar auras, he'd last seen them the night that Luna's father had been killed and he was not feeling particularly merciful.

On the surface, things were much less exciting.

The public grumbled about how boring the second task was and many left in a huff.

At the judges table, Ludo Bagman fretted nervously as he realized the problem with an underwater event. Next to him, Dolores Umbridge was red faced and sweating, the Itching Curse making her incredibly miserable and short tempered. The only consolation she had was that Potter and the veela abomination would not be coming back from the lake.

That consolation was dashed dramatically when they did come back, and turned into outright horror when she saw the extra in Death Eater paraphelia they brought back with them.

She was not the only one to be horrified, as the terrorist regalia caused the audience to burst into shouting before Dumbledore's Sonorous enhanced voice boomed from nearby and assumed control.

The DMLE was contacted and Dolores Umbridge belatedly realized that she should have used some more discretion when hiring killers.

Surfacing with a knocked out Death Eater had somewhat predictable results. Predictable insofar as chaos can be.

Harry had been given an express checkup by Madam Pomfrey and then hustled along into the headmaster's office, barely even given time to dress. Fleur had been taken aside by Madam Maxime and her family, but he supposed that the aurors would talk to her separately.

So Harry now sat in the headmaster's office alongside his recently awoken godfather, awaiting the arrival of Amelia Bones.

Harry figured that the DMLE director must be quite put out with him. This should really be the job of the head of the Auror Office, Rufus Scrimgeour, but the high profile nature of it meant that it got bumped up to her. The same as the last two incidents that had involved him. Politics.

And high profile this was. The audience had screamed downright cartoonishly at the sight of an unconscious and nearly dead Death Eater. No wonder Voldemort had almost won.

"Harry my boy, what in the world happened in the lake?" Of course it wouldn't be the headmaster's office without the Headmaster, who was obviously fishing for information. He was sitting behind his massive desk in a blatant 'I'm in charge here' move. No doubt it was his numerous titles as well as the fact that he was one of the tournament oraganizers that had allowed him to wheedle his way into an investigation that he technically had no business being part of.

"Let's wait for Madam Bones, I don't want to repeat myself." Harry rebuffed and turned to his godfather. "So how did you end up in the lake, Sirius?"

Dumbledore's face didn't change but Harry got the sense that he wasn't pleased at being denied. That was just too damn bad.

"Dumbledore showed up and said they needed a hostage for you to rescue. I figured it was better me than someone else and I wasn't sure if they'd resort to force if we all refused to come quietly." Sirius explained with a shrug.

Someone else meaning either Penny or Dora no doubt. "Thanks, Sirius. That was surprisingly noble of you."

"What the hell do you mean 'surprisingly'?!" Sirius spluttered.

They continued to bicker good naturedly for the next ten minutes, both taking an inordinate amount of pleasure in ignoring the old wizard sharing the room with them.

At long last, the door opened and admitted the formidable DMLE director. After the pleasantries were exchanged she moved one of Dumbledore's chairs so that it forced him and Sirius to turn their backs on the Headmaster if they wanted to see her. Harry figured that was probably a deliberate move on her part, a sort of 'no, Dumbledore. You aren't in charge, I am'. More politics.

"Alright, start at the beginning and tell me everything." She ordered.

Harry was about to give her a slightly edited version that left out the technical triple homicide he'd committed after the fight was over, but Dumbledore butted in before he could start.

"If Harry is willing, we could watch his memories in my pensieve."

Professor Babbling had mentioned pensieves during their lessons. A very advanced bit of runework and enchanting to make one of those. They were quite rare due to the effort involved in their making and the subsequent high cost of buying one. Harry had been thinking of trying his hand at making one eventually. It would make for an interesting project and you could never have too many magic items.

The suggestion was annoyingly clever of the old man though. It was much harder to give a false memory than lie and he couldn't refuse without looking suspicious. Fortunately, Harry could simply cut off the memory before he canceled the Bubblehead Charms on the other three Death Eaters. Nothing particularly sensitive had happened before then.

"Sure."

Occlumency made it fairly easy to segment the piece of memory he wanted to extract and soon all four of them were observing it.

"How did you know he was hiding there?" Bones asked when she saw him dodge the opening Killing Curse.

"Something just felt off." Harry shrugged. He was just thankful that the memory didn't show his Magesight, though that was interesting in and of itself. He surmised that it was because Magesight was actually a bit of a misnomer. He wasn't seeing the magic with his eyes, but with his mind. It only appeared to him as a visual manifestation because it was the easiest way for his mind to show him such an abstract concept.

"He's using gillyweed." Bones said in surprise.

"What's that?" Harry asked. It sounded like it had something to do with Herbology, a subject that had never interested him overmuch.

"Gillyweed is a transformative plant that grows in certain parts of the Medditeranean Sea. By ingesting it, one takes on aspects of an aquatic creature, such as gills and fins, as well as gaining superior underwater vision. It is believed to have been used in rituals dedicated to Poseidon in Ancient Greece and there is speculation that it led to the creation of the merpeople, as that is when mentions of them first appear." Dumbledore explained, his inner educator shining through for a moment.

"That explains why the bastard was so fast." Harry muttered.

"Why didn't either of you use a more wide area spell?" Sirius asked in confusion, seeing the stalemated duel.

"Wait for it." Was all Harry had to say in response.

"Impressive use of wandless magic, Harry." Dumbledore complimented when that part came up. He didn't seem at all surprised. "Might I ask what kind of spell that is? I've never seen the like of it."

"Magic Missile, an Evocation spell of the First Circle." Harry answered drolly.

All three were curious and wanted to know more, but he wasn't going to tell them that he was ripping of Dungeons & Dragons for inspiration.

"Bastard." Sirius said a few minutes later when the assassin saw Fleur and rushed at her, but then grinned when Harry barreled into the man.

"Here it comes." Harry commented dryly.

"There were four of them?" Sirius said incredulously when the Death Eaters arrived.

"Yep."

"Oh dear." Dumbledore sighed a moment later when all four Death Eaters fired off their blasting curses. He obviously knew what was going to happen.

"Well, that would explain the condition of the one you brought back with you. The preliminary report I got from the healer was that he looked like he'd been torn apart from the inside." Bones said dryly. To his surprise, Harry felt a flash of grim satisfaction from her at seeing the fates of the Death Eaters. Somebody was hiding some pretty strong hatred under that paragon of law veneer.

"Huh, I didn't expect that one to just leave." Sirius said when the memory moved into the last part, where Harry and the assassin had silently decided to put an end to the hostilities.

"Shared danger can make for some unexpected allies." Dumbledore said sagely.

"Or it could be that the gillyweed was about to wear off and he knew he'd be at a disadvantage." Bones pointed out cynically.

"It could be." Dumbledore admitted as the memory ended, moving on to the next question. "Why did you only bring back one?"

"The others were already dead." Harry shrugged uncaringly. All four of them had been dead ever since they cost Luna her father. It had only been a matter of when he next ran into them and informed them of that fact.

"How could you tell?" Bones asked skeptically.

"Trust me, I could tell." Harry replied unhelpfully.

The look this got him from the DMLE director made it clear that she didn't believe a word of it, but had to accept it because proving it would be impossible. Harry also suspected that she didn't care enough about a few Death Eaters to really dig into it either.

"Well, this task has certainly been more exciting than it was supposed to be." Dumbledore sighed again.

"You don't say?" Sirius asked sarcastically.

"Maybe I should register myself at the Ministry as a Resistomurdermagus with all the failed assassination attempts lately." Harry mused, making his godfather snicker.

"You're definitely being targeted." Bones admitted. "These were obviously two separate attempts, almost certainly by two separate people or groups. And the one you brought back has been identified as Royston Welch, a known associate of the group that attacked you during the Quidditch World Cup. I'd be willing to bet that the three you left in the lake will be the same."

"Do you think you'll be able to get the name of the instigator out of him?" Harry asked.

"Probably not." The DMLE director admitted in frustration. "We'll investigate of course, but I doubt they'd be stupid enough to have talked to them in person, and even if they did would have probably used a Memory Charm to cover their tracks."

"Pity." Harry said. He would have liked to have taken care of whoever wanted him dead personally. The archaic rules that governed the Tri-Wizard Tournament allowed a champion some pretty broad self-defense privileges. Killing someone for an infraction like this was well within them and would have served as a poignant message to stop fucking with him. "What about the other one?"

"I don't recognize him, but I'll make inquiries. I could arrange an auror guard for you while we investigate this."

Not that long ago, Harry would have jumped at the chance to request a certain Metamorphmagus to be given the task of protecting him. She'd have to stay in his room of course, to make sure that nobody tried to kill him in his sleep. In fact, it would be safest if she slept in his bed too.

But that was before. The thought of having his girlfriend(ex-girlfriend?) around all the time with their current situation wasn't really appealing. He could already imagine the awkward silences and stilted conversations.

The thought of having an actual auror guard wasn't even considered. It would drive him up the wall to have one or two of those around all the time.

"Thank you for the offer, Madam Bones, but I don't think that'll be necessary. Hogwarts is the safest place in Britain after all." And if there was a trace of sarcasm in his voice, then nobody called him out on it.

The evening of the same day.

Harry was on the Astronomy Tower again, staring at the sky and thinking. He wished it wasn't cloudy so that he could see the Void, the Darkness Between the Stars.

Ever since he had killed those Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup, he had suspected that it was influencing his mind. Now he was certain of it.

All of the runes carved on his head were made to touch his mind in one way or another, and so they did. The raging touch of the Sun was easy to detect, there was no subtlety to it, it simply magnified all his passions. The more he drew on the Sun, the worse it got.

The Void was different, insidious and sneaky. He still wasn't sure about the full extent its influence on his mind and soul, but some things he knew for sure. It muted his emotions and pushed him to kill, to send it more souls. No wonder the dementors were the way they were, lost completely to the Dark.

He had killed three people today and felt only satisfaction. Quite a bit of that was because of Luna no doubt, but he had dispelled those Bubblehead Charms with barely a thought. No remorse and no mercy.

Perhaps strangely, this didn't bother him. He had done all the soul searching over it that he cared to already. The idea that there was some primordial magical entity pushing him to be more ruthless was honestly more disconcerting, though even that wasn't too scary now that he had identified it. The Void was, in essence, nothing. Who feared nothing? He still had full control of his faculties and could make his own choices. If he was going to be more inclined to kill his enemies than spare them, then so be it. It had yet to steer him wrong and the notion of killing being wrong was just an abstract concept pushed by society anyway.

"'Arry?"

"Fleur." He said back without turning around. He had sensed the veela's distinctive aura before she had spoken. "Did you come here for the view?"

" Non, I was looking for you." She replied and moved to stand beside him. Then she shivered inside the heavy robe she was wearing as a particularly cold gust of wind passed by. "Are you not cold?"

That was a fair enough question since Harry was only wearing a T-shirt and it was winter in northern Scotland.

"A little." He admitted. "But I've always liked my weather to be on the colder side." The fact that he could use his magic to regulate internal body temperature played no small part in allowing him to enjoy the chilly wind without being uncomfortable. It had certainly made swimming in the lake less unpleasant.

"You are mad." Fleur declared with authority, making him chuckle.

"What did you need me for?"

"I wanted to zank you." She said quietly, suddenly much more subdued. "For 'elping me in the lake. I could not 'ave done it wizzout you."

"There wouldn't have been assassins in the water without me either." Harry pointed out.

"Zen ze grindylows would 'ave defeated me." Fleur retorted with a bitter undertone. "I would still 'ave failed to zave Gabi."

"She wasn't in any real danger." Harry shrugged, finding this less prideful version of Fleur kind of strange.

"We didn't know zat." She refuted and continued sternly. "Now stop protesting and let me zank you."

"Alright, thank away." Harry said in amusement and turned to face her.

That was all the invitation Fleur needed. She stepped forward and hugged him, making sure to press as much of herself against him as possible.

" Merci, 'Arry, for zaving Gabi and protecting me." She said, perhaps a bit more breathily than strictly necessary, and pressed a kiss on the corner of his mouth.

"You're welcome." Harry replied, not particularly surprised by the way she had chosen to express her thanks. He'd long since caught on to what she was offering, though he was surprised by her patience. He'd never heard of a woman that would be willing to keep at it this long without any success, but maybe it was different for veela.

Fleur lingered in the embrace for a few seconds more and only took a step back when it was on the edge of becoming more than just a friendly hug. His magic felt cold again, but it didn't seem as threatening as it did months ago and the surprising warmth of his body made for a nice contrast.

"You know, Gabi was disappointed zat she didn't get to talk you." She said, moving on to the real purpose of this meeting.

"Why would she want to talk me?" Harry asked in confusion. He was no stranger to people wanting to meet him by now, but he hadn't thought that he was a particularly big deal outside of Magical Britain.

"I told 'er what 'appened in the lake and how you protected both 'er and me. You are 'er new 'ero now." Fleur told him, amused. She didn't mention that her parents also wanted to meet him. She had written to her mother about her intentions towards Harry in the hope that she would have some advice to improve her chances of snagging him for herself. Her mother had been intrigued about the man that had caught Fleur's attention and her father worried about his little princess already picking out a husband for herself. Either way, they wanted to meet Harry and get the measure of him.

Fleur herself was wary of letting that happen. Her constant hints and subtle invitations were as much to let him know that she was available as they were to gauge the status of his current relationship without being crass and outright asking. His continued refusal to act on any of those hints or invitations told her that it was probably still persisting, though she had noticed that he seemed moodier lately. If Harry's relationship with this Nymphadora woman was finally collapsing then the last thing she wanted to do was scare him off by introducing him to her parents.

"Ah, I see." Harry said with a wry nod, subconsciously puffing out his chest a bit. People practically worshiping the ground he walked on because of Voldemort's defeat had been bewildering, but getting praised for something he'd actually done did send his ego on an upward climb.

" Oui, she was most insistent zat I was to invite you to our 'ome in France for the summer." She said, noting his reaction with amusement. Fleur wasn't even making it up, Gabrielle really had insisted that she invite Harry to spend the summer with them, though it was entirely possible that their mother may have planted the idea in her head.

"Your sister sounds like an officious little thing." Harry commented, also amused.

Fleur gave an unrestrained laugh at that rather accurate description. "You 'ave no idea, she 'as been ordering people around since she 'as been able to talk. I used to get terribly annoyed by eet when I was younger."

Her laughter made Harry smile. It was a beautiful sound and it also had a hint of magic in it, though he doubted she was aware of that. "I've never liked bossy people, but I'm sure I could make an exception for your sister."

"You don't 'ave to worry, our mozzer 'as managed to teach 'er enough manners to make 'er zound cute instead of annoying." Fleur assured him.

"Well that's a load off my mind." Harry joked wryly.

There was a moment of silence before Fleur decided he needed a prompt. "Zo… would you like to visit France over ze summer? You could bring Luna and Nymphadora wizz you and I could show you what a proper magical country eez like." She hoped that his girlfriend wouldn't be an issue anymore by that point, but she couldn't exclude her from the invitation without coming off as petty and manipulative.

Harry's smile faltered despite her amusing little poke at magical Britain and he sighed, turning to stare back at the sky.

"'Arry? What eez wrong?" Fleur asked nervously, worried that she had stepped too far.

Harry took a deep breath and let it out. "Nothing much really."

"Eet does not zound like nozzing." She ventured carefully.

Harry shrugged before deciding that he might as well tell her. He had tried talking to Luna about the problems that he and Dora were having, but for all of her qualities, his best friend was not the person you went to if you wanted understanding in this sort of situation. Luna could have the most remarkable insights into the truth of things, but grasping why Dora might be upset with him right now escaped her.

"I told Dora about the Joining ten days ago. She said that she needed time to think and hasn't spoken to me since."

Fleur winced. Veela were expressly warned to never, under any circumstances, tell anyone about the Joining. They could tell their chosen partner only once the process was finished. Veela did not truly consider themselves married until the man(or occasional woman) they picked for themselves was so hopelessly in love with them that there was no risk of betrayal. Gabrielle too would be given this warning once puberty hit and the cravings in her awoke. It had to be this way, or else their existence would never be tolerated by the suspicious humans that they needed to mate with. Nobody wanted to go back to the bad old days.

"She doesn't know that the Joining is in any way connected to veela in case you were worried about that." Harry added dispassionately.

That did actually make Fleur feel a lot better, but she focused on the part about his girlfriend troubles.

"I am zorry to hear zat." She said, doing her best to sound commiserating instead of pleased.

Harry wasn't fooled but chose not to mention it. Fleur had made it clear what she wanted and Harry figured that if he had a girl that he wanted and she was taken, he would also be happy to hear that she was about to become single. Getting upset with people for having their own desires would be silly. "Can't be helped I suppose. How do veela deal with this issue?"

"We find someone we like and decide zat we will stay wizz zem for ze rest of our lives." Fleur answered quietly.

"So you don't deal with it, you just go ahead and do what I almost did to Dora." Harry said cynically.

"We need wizards to continue our species." She defended.

Harry gave a tired sigh at that. "An acceptable evil then? I suppose there are worse fates in the world than being magically addicted to a supernaturally beautiful woman."

Fleur didn't really have anything to say to that.

"Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't have been better if I had just stayed quiet and continued performing the Joining." Harry continued musingly. "Everything seemed to be going so well for us back then."

But Harry could never bring himself to do that. As soon as he'd learned about the Joining from Adrastia, he had started identifying discrepancies in Dora's behavior.

She used to get a bit jealous if she heard that some girl or other wanted to get into his pants, but that had slowly petered out over time. She had become more patient and less willful with him. Yes, things had been good, but Dora had undeniably slowly been changing according to his preferences, just like Adrastia said.

Harry's upbringing had left him much more cynical and willing to do morally ambiguous things than most people and then there was his dabbling with Light and Dark, Pettigrew's accidental murder, the killing of those Death Eaters at the World Cup, the deal with Adrastia and now the latest debacle from this morning… suffice to say that his moral fiber had acquired quite a bit of necessary flexibility. Something like this though… changing a woman to suit him better… that he simply wasn't comfortable with.

"My fazzer is a 'appy man " Fleur said almost reluctantly.

"I'm sure he is." Harry chuckled, genuinely amused. The question wasn't whether he was happy now, but if he would have chosen the life he now had before Fleur's mother had worked him over.

"You do not want to spend ze summer in France zen?" She asked unhappily, going back to the question that he had never answered. In her eagerness to get Harry for herself, she had forgotten to consider that his opinion on veela might sour or that he may not be interested even if he was single.

Harry stayed quiet for a few long moments before he answered. "Ask me again some other time. I'm not in the mood to be thinking of vacation right now."

Fleur gave him a relieved smile and agreed. It wasn't what she had been hoping for but it was better than what she had been afraid of.

Tonks detested guard duty. It was boring as hell and no amount of shapeshifting helped to get rid of the ache in her legs from standing in one spot for so long. Even healing spells didn't work. It made her wonder whether the ache was all in her head.

She wasn't alone in suffering this onerous duty, but John Dawlish was an arse and didn't count as good company.

The irony of being assigned to guard the Death Eater that had tried to assassinate Harry earlier in the day wasn't lost on her. She had stomped away from that event due to a mixture of frustration with Zabini and a belief that it would be boring only to end up here.

According to Bones, it could take as long as a week before the bastard was in any shape to be interrogated. His insides were apparently such a mess that he'd been minutes away from dying when Harry had hauled him out of the water.

That meant that she had more guard duty to look forward to. Joy.

It was giving her plenty of time to think about what she was going to do about her relationship with Harry at least. She had always gotten frustrated with it before and found something to distract herself with. No such luxuries when on guard duty.

The hours of her shift ticked by with glacial slowness and Tonks finally decided what she had to do. She would call Harry on the mirror he'd given her tomorrow and ask him to come over.

The next day.

Harry pulled at his T-shirt and rolled his shoulders. Then he sighed and looked at Luna.

"Well, I'm off to get dumped." Dora had finally called and said they needed to talk. Those words carried plenty of dread in them as it was, but her tone had also been grim enough to make it clear what was waiting for him once he got there.

"I don't understand." Luna said. "You were happy together, why would Nymphadora dump you?"

"People generally don't like having their souls manipulated." Harry sighed again. He'd noticed that he was doing a lot of sighing lately.

Luna scrunched her eyebrows at him, obviously not understanding. She just didn't see what the problem was. To her mind, if you trusted someone enough to let them in, then the Joining of Souls wasn't manipulation but an expression of love and trust. Maybe she was right, but Harry was of the opinion that it only worked in that kind of fairy tale fashion of it was performed by both parties. What he had been doing with Dora had been horribly skewed in his favor.

Harry ran his fingers over Dora's naked back and frowned in thought. Things had not gone as expected.

As soon as he had showed up at her apartment, she had pulled him into a kiss and proceeded to drag him into the bedroom. Normally he'd take this as a good thing, but she had been tense the whole time. Her soul had remained guarded even during orgasm. If she hadn't seemed so determined that this was going to happen, he would have stopped.

"This isn't going to work." Tonks sighed after a few minutes of silence.

"It was just a test then?" In that context, everything made sense.

"Yeah." She said lamely. "I had to see if I could relax. Sorry."

"It's okay."

They lapsed into silence for another few minutes before she got up and started getting dressed. Harry followed suit in awkward silence. Once they were done, they looked at each other and shifted. Awkwardly.

"So…"

"Yeah…"

More awkward silence ensued.

Harry gave an irritated sigh and rubbed at his forehead. This was pretty much exactly what he had imagined things would be like now. Dora was right. This wasn't going to work, not with that big 'sorry I accidentally performed Soul Magic on you. Oh, and I could do it again and you'd never know it' hanging between them. "I guess I can consider myself dumped?"

A flash of guilt passed over Tonks' face, but she nodded all the same. "I'm sorry. I just… can't."

"It's okay." Harry repeated. "I figured it was going to end this way. Heh, you were out of my league anyway."

She gave a weak smile at that and decided to go along with his attempt to lighten the atmosphere. "Says the guy with a veela throwing herself at him."

He had told her about Fleur and her hints, not to mention that Witch Weekly and Teen Witch Weekly had been speculating about his love life for months now. Even the Daily Prophet had gotten in on it in the aftermath of the Yule Ball, despite supposedly being a respectable newspaper and not a tabloid. Fleur and Luna were the most common choices, though there were also a few runner ups among his fangirls for some reason.

"I'd rank a sexy auror Metamorphmagus above a veela." Harry countered, almost able to feel as the awkwardness diminished.

"I guess I am pretty amazing." Tonks agreed, puffing out her chest and giving herself an extra cup size for emphasis.

"Yeah, you are." He nodded. "And not just because you have adjustable boobs."

Her smile was stronger and more genuine this time and she held out her hand. "Friends?"

Harry ignored the hand and went in for a hug instead. She made a brief sound of surprise but hugged him back anyway.

Harry kept holding on far past the point when most hugs would have ended, knowing that once he let go it would be over between them.

"Take care of yourself, Nymphadora." He said eventually.

"On account of the circumstances, I'll forgive you for using my full name just this once." She mumbled.

"You're so generous." He mumbled back.

"And don't you forget it."

"I'll see you around, Nymphadora."

"Thin ice, Harry."

He smiled and let go. All things considered, it could have been worse. There had been no angry accusations or screaming and they were still on good terms, but it still felt as if he had lost something beautiful and it hurt.

Dolores Umbridge knew that she was in trouble. That captured Death Eater would squeal as soon as Bones put the pressure on him, something which was slated to happen any day now.

She hadn't known that the man had been one of Voldemort's followers, nor did she care. What she cared about was that Bones would come down on her like a ton of bricks as soon as she had an excuse. The muggle loving bitch never did have any sense of priorities. Who cared if she had tried to have Potter killed? He was just a disgusting halfblood.

Unfortunately for Umbridge, Bones would care and there was nothing she could do about it. The Death Eater was being held in the DMLE's private infirmary under twenty-four hour guard. As both the Senior Undersecretary and acting head of the DIMC, Umbridge could go to a lot of places, but that wasn't one of them. Even if she could, she wouldn't have the privacy to silence him. She lamented her lack of talent with the Imperious right now. What good was the Cruciatus in this situation? None, that's what.

Cornelius might have been able to protect her even from this, but not when Wizarding World's darling was involved. Harry bloody Potter, the Boy-Who-Just-Wouldn't-Die. She had relied on the Minister's protection for years now while she cleaned up the Ministry, but she hadn't forgotten the lessons learned on her way to the top. If you had nobody to protect you, then suck up to someone until you did. If there was nobody powerful enough to suck up to, then you kept your head down.

Perhaps it was time to take a vacation? Just until things settled down a bit.