The Things We Cannot Replace
"Where our voices echo, come and seek us.
Above the earth, our songs cannot be heard.
Remember these words well,
for they matter more than you know.
We have taken what you value most,
a memory that cannot be repeated.
It waits in the depths,
but you will have only one hour to find it.
If time runs out and you fail to recover it,
it will be too late for regret.
For the water, slow and silent,
will erase what you lost… forever."
Harry was sitting on his bed while the golden egg floated in front of him, surrounded by a mass of water as the mermaids' chant seemed to drift softly through the room. Harry did not look particularly friendly right now, one of his feet moving lightly against the floor.
His gaze shifted from the floating egg to his bedside table, where a frame could be seen. But it was completely empty, making Harry's expression turn slightly more annoyed.
Draco, who was on his bed not too far away, had the same irritated look on his face the longer he listened to the song repeating on loop.
"It's obvious they have them," Draco said while holding an equally empty frame in his hand. "I couldn't find any copies either," he added with a deeply displeased expression.
"Well… alright. At least it's an object. Something precious, yes. But it's still better than waking up and finding out they kidnapped someone over this stupidity," Harry said while trying to calm himself. "In that case, I'm fairly sure I'd be capable of blowing up the Ministry," he added.
"The Ministry is full of idiots, but even they wouldn't go that far," Draco added while letting out a sigh to calm himself. "Then we'd better take this task seriously," he said as he stood up and started searching through his clothes for swim trunks.
Harry nodded the same way. Now they understood why Viktor Krum had been pushing himself so hard to swim in freezing water. He had most likely lost something important to him as well, and it wasn't just about the competition anymore. He was doing everything he could to get it back.
And Luciel, ever since the last time Harry saw him, had not been seen again either; most likely training as much as possible as well. Even Fleur seemed to have dragged Hermione away out of concern so she could help her prepare.
It made it clear that everything they had taken was, just as the song had said, something truly precious to each of them.
…
Meanwhile, in the Headmaster's office, Sirius had a mildly irritated expression as he stared at the organizers of the tournament: Ludo Bagman, Dumbledore, and since Crouch was supposedly still ill and had been for some time, Percy Weasley, who seemed to be carrying out the orders Crouch kept sending directly by owl.
Standing behind Sirius were Wanda, Selene, and Narcissa, who was normally very busy but seemed to have come back for something important, all while giving Dumbledore a very displeased look.
"I genuinely think you all have to be quite stupid if you thought I would actually allow my Hogwarts students to be kidnapped and left at the bottom of the Black Lake for this competition," Sirius said in a tone that, even through his usual chaotic nature, clearly showed just how angry and annoyed he was right now.
"Sirius, I understand that you may be upset, but we were fully prepared for it. Dumbledore can speak with the mermaids, so there was never going to be any danger. With your sudden change, we now have to alter many things, and it won't have the same effect…" Ludo began to say, but Sirius's cold stare made his voice shrink more and more until it was little more than a mutter.
"I can understand English too, and that doesn't mean I'd walk into a dark wizard cave and ask them to keep my students safe," Sirius told him, repeating the part about his students while staring directly at Dumbledore.
Dumbledore, on the other hand, looked fairly calm.
"You worry too much, Sirius. Remember that you yourself were a student at Hogwarts while I was Headmaster, and you know perfectly well that the mermaids have never attacked students. And you also know that the school grounds have always kept students safe, especially now that everything has been completely restructured, correct?" Dumbledore added.
"I'd like to remind you that in your supposedly safe Hogwarts, during Harry's first year, a dark wizard associated with Voldemort slipped into the school and tried to steal the Philosopher's Stone. There was a bloody basilisk hidden in a secret chamber that could have been released by anyone who could speak Parseltongue. And then another professor infiltrated the school, who, by the way, turned into a massive monster and is currently considered the main suspect behind the Hogsmeade deaths. So don't talk to me about safety," Sirius said immediately in a sharp tone. "You really tried to hide this until the very end. Whose brilliant idea was this?" Sirius asked.
With a mocking tone, since he had found them out and switched the eggs ahead of time, ruining these idiots' plan to use students as hostages at the bottom of the Black Lake.
Which was exactly why Selene, Wanda, and Narcissa all looked like they were one bad sentence away from murder.
Ludo's gaze quickly moved across the room and landed on Percy. And the moment he was looked at like that, Sirius's gaze, along with those of the mothers, all turned toward him.
Which suddenly made a deep fear rise from the pit of his stomach, along with a wave of pure panic that made him tremble slightly.
"What? No, it wasn't me," the Weasley said quickly, completely frightened. "I only sent out the orders Mr. Crouch had already prepared beforehand. I'm just following orders," he added quickly.
Sirius's face twisted with mockery.
"Yes, of course," Sirius said. "The same man who very easily sent his own son to Azkaban to die like a dog, and threw people into the same hole without trial. That man has never cared about the lives of students. It makes perfect sense that he wouldn't want to show his face in front of me right now, because I wouldn't hesitate to hex him right in his stupid face," Sirius said angrily.
"No, no, it's not that. Mr. Crouch isn't well. He's been taking things more slowly. He just…" Percy, as always, tried to defend his boss, but Sirius's stare shut him up all over again. Something that normally would have been impossible, especially whenever Crouch was involved.
"At least now everything is better, since it'll only be precious objects. If many things have to be changed, then so be it. They will not use my students as pieces in this damned tournament," Sirius said, giving his final warning. If anyone tried otherwise, it felt like they might discover a side of him no one would want to see.
Normally, Selene would have mocked him for the fact that Harry was competing because of him, as well as for the fact that he had also been the one to suggest allowing one extra champion per school. But Sirius was lucky today, and she had come to back him up.
Even many of the portraits on the wall could not help but agree with Sirius's words and lend him their support, even while Dumbledore, the former Headmaster, was standing right there.
"But the objects will not carry the same weight. A few simple brooms or wands…" Ludo tried to speak again, but Narcissa's gaze fell on him, and suddenly Ludo seemed to forget how to open his mouth again.
Dumbledore could only accept it calmly. After all, the power to decide was in Sirius's hands now, no longer in his own. Even so, he still seemed convinced that no one would have been harmed under his supervision if things had been done the way they were originally intended.
That made Wanda frown for a moment as she stared at him closely. For some reason, she felt something strange from the old man, but she could not sense anything beyond a very noticeable pride, arrogance… and a calmness she did not like at all.
Suddenly, with a crack, an elf appeared in the room. And upon seeing everyone present, he grew a little nervous.
"Dobby, did you bring the things?" Sirius asked calmly when he saw his cousin's elf arrive. Since Kreacher was currently out of service and still unconscious while being looked after, Dobby had been lending him a hand.
"Oh yes, Mister Black. Dobby completed his task exactly as instructed. Dobby has brought the most precious objects," Dobby said quickly, with a small smile.
As he hurried over to Sirius's desk and dropped what he had recovered on top of it.
Sirius looked at the objects and, for some reason, every single one of them was a photograph, which immediately stood out to him. Especially when he saw the ones that belonged to Harry and Draco.
His eyes widened slightly then, knowing just how important those two images were to them.
Especially because both of their mothers were currently letting off a truly cold aura behind him, knowing full well just how important those pictures were to their sons.
And the other images seemed to be just as important to the rest as well.
"Well… this is somehow worse than kidnapping people," Sirius muttered, feeling that if he did not die at the hands of the mothers right now, he would probably die at the hands of the children if those images ended up being lost.