Harry ran back to Gryffindor tower as quick as his freshly healed legs could carry him- leaving a small trail of puddles in his wake. By the time he'd left the creature in the lake (who'd disappeared without so much as a goodbye) and reached the castle entrance, breakfast had finished, but Harry's appetite had long left him.

He opted to visit Madam Pomfrey in the infirmary, considering he'd nearly drowned not an hour ago- but he quickly came to the startling realisation that he felt...totally fine. Better than fine, actually. In fact, he couldn't recall having this much energy in his entire life.

Hence the running.

His legs were now bare- having reached the second floor and almost tripping over the torn fabric of his pants, he simply shimmied out of them and stuffed them in his cloak pocket, before continuing his run. His robe was wrapped firmly around him, and he made sure it covered him up as he ran, less anyone suddenly rounded the next corner and notice that he was only in his underwear.

He reached his dormitory in record time, shutting the door behind him and throwing himself on his four-poster bed. Within seconds the sheets were soaked through but he couldn't bring himself to care. His heart was still racing wildly in his chest, and every atom in his body felt like it'd been electrified.

He breathed hard through his nose, catching his breath. "What just happened?" He said out loud to the empty room, voice shaking with adrenaline.

He'd already been blown away by the idea of magic and wizardry and goblins and ghosts, but now 'mer-people' were real too?

He quickly changed out of his wet clothes and into a spare shirt and trousers. His only robe was still dripping wet, so he hung it up on the railing by the wood burner stove and hastily threw on a grey jumper. He wrung out his tie and, still damp, tied it back round his neck. He reckoned It would dry soon enough. Then, he got down on his belly and dug under his four poster bed for and old pair of socks.

That was when the dormitory door swung open.

Harry jumped up in alarm, socks in hand, and came face to face with a familiar head of ginger hair.

"Ron!" He exclaimed, relief seeping into his words. Then he smiled, big and bright. He practically shook with excitement, "I've got loads to tell you-"

Just then, his promise to Hydrus emerged from the back of his mind, rattling around in his head with heavy burden. He faltered, his words dying on his tongue. His heart sank. He couldn't tell anyone,

not even Ron.

Harry fished for something else to say, but to his relief the other boy spoke.

"Why is your hair wet?" Was the first thing he said, looking to Harry's dark, dripping locks, that were slowly soaking through the back of his new shirt.

Harry blanched at the question.

"I just took a shower" he said, balancing on one foot, and shoving his socks on his feet as quick as he could.

Ron tossed him the nearest towel and watched the boy scrub his hair dry. He glanced behind him at the pile of wet clothes on the floor, before turning back to his friend, brows raised.

"In your uniform?"

He saw Harry pause under the towel.

"Uh yeah. It got muddy from training with wood so I thought I might as well clean that too" he finished with an awkward laugh, to which Ron gave him a sidewards glance, before shrugging.

Harry handed the towel back with a small "thanks", before sitting down on the floor and attempting to slip his shoes on. His hair now stood up like a hedgehog, and Ron gtinned fondly down at him. He looked ridiculous.

"So, what was it you wanted to tell me?" He asked.

"What?" Harry said, turning wide eyes up to his friend.

Ron frowned. "You said you had something to talk to me about" he recited, leaning against the bedpost, watching Harry struggle with his shoe lace.

Harry froze, and wracked his brain for a cover up. "Oh yeah" he said, "I was just going to tell you about the meeting I had with Wood" he smiled sheepishly, "I learnt a lot of new things about quidditch"

He jumped to his feet, "But it can wait till later. We're going to be late for first lesson"

He headed for the door, but the ginger haired boy held out a hand, stopping him dead in his tracks. Harry swallowed nervously, fearing his friend had seen straight through his lie.

"You can't go to class like that" the boy said, looking him up and down in alarm. "First years aren't allowed to walk the corridors without full uniform on"

Harry blinked.

Ron sighed, "You need a robe"

Harry frowned, glancing over to the wood burner, where his only school robe was still drying out. He turned back to Ron with a pitiful look.

"Where am I going to find one of those?"


————————————————————————————————

"Lost Property"

Harry read the plaque on the door aloud, before turning to Ron and squinting at him.

"Are you sure we can just take stuff from here?"

Ron huffed dramatically at his friend.

"Harry, it's called 'lost property'- where stuff is left to be forgotten about" he pulled on the latch, pushing open the door and grinning at him "and what's forgotten, can't be missed, right?"

Harry squirmed, glancing around the empty corridor, before conceding with a small sigh, "I guess"

He watched his friend disappear into the room.

"It still doesn't feel right for me to just take it, though"

"Relax. You're doing the school a favour by actually using the stuff in here" Ron reassured, before stopping in his tracks with a small gasp.

"Woah!" Harry heard him exclaim.

"What?" He said, following after the boy and peering round the doorway.

"oh wow!"

It was a jungle.

A mass of miscellaneous items covered the room. From old school clothes, zonko's toys, to broken cauldron pewter's; this room had it all. They towered high above their heads, almost reaching the ceiling, and Harry had to crane his neck to spot the Comet 360 balanced Precariously on top of a very unsteady looking mountain of quidditch magazines.

Harry spotted a rack in the far corner, with at least two dozen robes suspended on coat hangers. bingo.

He carefully waded through a sea of dusty books and toys, before setting to work. He sifted through the mass of black cloaks, looking for first year Gryffindor robes.

"How did you know about this place?" He asked whilst he searched, glancing over his shoulder to Ron, who was having a nose through a large pile of junk.

"Every school has a 'lost and found' office" the boy replied, voice muffled from behind the towers of lost items. "But I heard about this from Fred and George. They've spent a lot of detentions in here, sorting through all this rubbish-"

Harry heard the smirk in his voice, "- They use to steal some good stuff from here too"

Harry picked out a lion-crested robe and tried it on for size. He was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually fitted him. It was slightly larger around the sleeves than what he was used to, but it'd do nicely until his own robe dried.

"Hey Ron, I found a robe"

He spun round, and began to wade back through the mess, tip-toeing his way to the other side of the room where Ron was still rummaging through boxes.

His foot caught on something, and Harry tripped forward with a startled yelp. He knocked a box with his elbow, and watched it helplessly fall into a dusty old cauldron. Said cauldron then toppled, knocking against another, much larger box; which came crashing to the floor by Harry's feet with a thunderous "bang!".

Both boys held their breath.

Harry expected Filch or a teacher to come running at the noise, but seconds passed without so much as a sound from the corridor outside the room. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"You alright?" Ron called, carefully placing the old broken toy he was fiddling with back where he found it- too afraid to touch anything anymore.

"Yeah" Harry huffed, and crouched by the large box, ready to heave it back up onto the pile it fell from.

He paused.

The lid to the dusty old box had well worn down over the years, and peeled away with barely a brush of Harry's fingers. This gave Harry a good look inside.

Swimsuits.

The box was filled with swimsuits- full body suits, boys trunks, even Speedo's. And when he brushed them aside to dig deeper into the box he found old photos and medals. Lots of medals.

"Hey Ron, come look at this" He said, and without looking up, waved the boy over.

Ron carefully clambered to him, and knelt down beside his friend. Harry handed him an old, black and white photo and said, "look".

Ron wordlessly obeyed.

It was a class photo; boys and girls of all years lined up giggling, smiling and waving up at them. They were outside, beside a large bed of water, all wearing swimsuits. Ron recognised the location instantly.

"Blimey, Harry. Thats The-"

"The Black Lake" Harry finished with a nod, eyes wide with something akin to wonder.

"And see" the smaller boy said, flipping the photograph round and pointing at the small scrawl of writing at the bottom.

'Hogwarts Swim Team- 14th June, 1912''

Ron frowned, bemused, and looked to Harry, who's eyes were glinting up at him. They both peered over into the box, and scanned over the medals. Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

Glancing down at all the achievements past students at Hogwarts had made, something powerful began to well up inside Harry. Those children in the photograph had learnt to swim here. Hogwarts school had helped each and every one of them conquer the water, and not only taught them all how to swim, but how to swim outstandingly.

Maybe Hogwarts could do the same for him.

He spoke, "I didn't know Hogwarts had a Swim Team"

There was a small pause.

"It doesn't, Harry" Ron said uneasily.

Harry snapped his head up to his friend, who was watching him with uncertainty.

"What do you mean?" The dark haired boy asked, and that powerful feeling that rose inside him began to slowly deflate.

Ron blinked. "Hogwarts doesn't have a swim team. It's not possible" he shook his head, "Nobodys been allowed to even set foot in the Black Lake for years. Not since before our Bill went here, atleast"

Harry stared back into the box, "But why?"

He felt Ron shrug beside him, "No one knows" then with a flourish, He began packing all the items back into the box, "All I've been told by the twins is that the Black Lake is very dangerous"

"How dangerous?" Harry asked, a dreadfully cold sensation tickling at his spine as he watched his friend wrestle with the heavy box.

Ron turned to him. "Third floor corridor kind of dangerous" was his answer.

And they left it at that.

"Right" Ron said breathlessly once he'd lifted the box back onto its shelf and dusted his robes down. "Let's get going before we're even more late for class"

Harry nodded, and together they meandered their way back to the door.

It was when the redhead was reaching for the door handle that Harry spotted a familiar looking item hooked onto the back of the door.

"Hey!" Harry suddenly exclaimed, startling the other boy.

"What?"

"That's my schoolbag!" He said, pointing to a newer looking bag hung up next to older, more worn and dusty bags.

Relief flooded the boys face at the sight of it. Thank god Draco had the decency not to destroy it. He had a weeks worth of homework in there. Although, now that he thought about it, they were most probably soaked through by now.

"What's it doing in here?" Ron asked, retrieving it from where it hung and holding it up to check for a name tag. True as day, scrawled on the back in wriggly handwriting we're the words; "Harry Potter"

"Oh, I must've left it on the quidditch pitch" Harry easily lied, and wondered whether this would soon become a new habit.

Ron handed it to the boy, noticing it was slightly damp. He didn't question anything, but cast his bespectacled friend an odd look.

"Cmon, we better go before filch comes back" Harry quickly reminded him.

"Right" Ron said, leading the way.

Harry followed, but not before casting one last look into the room before he left.

The swim-team box sat solemn on the shelf, ready to collect dust for many more years to come.

———————————————————————

Over the coming days Harry's mind was anywhere than where it should have been; i.e- his schoolwork.

Gone was his fascination with all things magic; his new, frequent obsession revolved around the mysterious Black Lake that surrounded the castle- and whatever that 'thing' was that resided in it.

The boy would catch himself regularly zoning out in lessons, free periods, and even meal times in the great hall.

He'd arrive to his next class before anyone else, purposely picking a seat by the window whenever he could so he could spend the entire hour gazing out of it, eyes following the slow, graceful movements of the black lake, entranced. Just hoping to spot something move through the water.

With his focus wavering during classes, and his grades taking a sour turn; Harry's appetite for learning started to plummet too.

And a few of his housemates had noticed.

Ron payed it no mind at first, but as soon as fellow Gryffindor first year Hermione Granger started to notice the bespectacled boy's new, and rather worrying daydreaming habits, he too grew concerned.

"Mate" he said one morning during breakfast, stuffing a piece of sausage into his mouth and barely chewing it before he swallowed. "Is everything alright?"

Harry's attention was pulled away from staring down into his goblet of pumpkin juice, and up to face his friend, the foggy look in his eyes suddenly clearing over. He caught Hermione staring a few seats away, and cleared his throat.

"Yeah. course I am" he said to his friend, and then frowned. "Why?"

"Well..." Ron began round a mouthful of eggs, yolk dribbling down his chin.

Hermione intervened before she could help herself, cutting off the redhead. "-You haven't really been yourself lately" she said, and without missing a beat, handed a serviette to Ron. The boy took it and begrudgingly wiped his chin, glaring half heartedly at the girl.

She went on, "You're not paying attention in lessons, which is odd because from what I saw, you seemed to enjoy learning"

"No one could enjoy learning as much as you though" Ron mumbled into his plate, causing a few nearby boys to snicker.

Hermione ignored them, and gave Harry a solemn look. She lightly tapped the side of her head, "Whatever it is that's making you want to hide away up there, can't be good for you, Harry"

Harry gave the girl a long, sideways look, before averting his eyes to his friend, searching his face for some sort of reassurance. Ron just shrugged.

"Hate to admit it, but she's actually right. You need to let it go, mate" he said, before going back to shovelling as many beans as he could into his mouth.

Harry just nodded, despite knowing that he wouldn't heed either of their advice.

And just like that, the conversation was dropped.

Like he had done every morning that week, Harry excused himself from the hall early to make his way to his first Friday morning class-Potions, with Professor Snape.

On his way he stole as many glances at the black lake as possible, waiting. wishing, for something. Anything that would prove he hadn't made it all up.

Alas, like every other time, he saw nothing. Not a tail, nor a scale. No proof that what he saw that day at the lake shore was real.

He was slowly beginning to doubt himself.

What if there hadn't been a lake creature at all? What if, in his wild panic- and the overwhelming fear that those very moments would be his last- he had imagined the whole thing?

Hydrus, a phantom of Harry's own imagination- apparating before him like a vision, ready to coax him into the comforting arms of death.

He shook his head. No.

He knew what he saw. He was certain of it.

How else would he have made it safely out of the water?

He still didn't know how to swim.

It was then, as he was heading down the corridor leading to the dungeons, staring longingly out the passing windows, mid-thought - that he bumped into something.

Something tall, solid, and unwavering.

Harry staggered from the force of the impact, and went sailing backwards, crashing to the hard stone floor. His belongings fell free from his book-bag, scattering across the corridor.

A strong, stern voice called out from above him, "Do you have eyes, Potter?!"

Harry jumped at the sound, and grimacing, slowly looked up to meet the "who" rather than the "what" that he'd bumped into.

Steely black eyes glared down at him over a long hooked nose. Curtains of dark hair fell over a youthful face, that aged considerably the moment a deep scowl weighed at its features.
Which, from Harry's view, was always.

Professor snape loomed over him, looking taller and scarier than ever.

He asked again, "Do you have eyes?!"

Harry Blinked, and- quickly recovering from his initial shock- cleared his throat and replied, "Yes Sir"

"Then use them" was the cold reply, and Harry watched stunned, still sat on ground, as his professor proceeded to dust his robes down with a sneer.

"Sorry" the boy apologised, the only verbal response he could muster as his mind slowly began to catch up with his body. Struck out of his stupor, the boy quickly sat up on his knees and began shoving his belonging back into his bag.

"I'll watch where I'm going next time" he said, when he still felt his teachers withering gaze on the back of his head. 'No, it's fine' he thought, clambering to reach for his parchment that was slowly rolling away from him. 'I don't need any help, Professor'

"See that you do, Potter" Snape huffed, before stepping over one of Harry's schoolbooks, and storming off down the long hallway to their left. Harry watched silently, as his professor turned another corner, heading towards the potions classroom. He caught eye with the boy again, just before he disappeared from sight.

It was a sort of shrewd, calloused look, but at the same time, guarded. And his eyes- they were almost empty looking as they stared darkly down the corridor at him, before disappearing round the corner; as if the professor was hiding somewhere far back in his mind.

Harry would later try to match a word with the look- but he could only, and quite ironically, describe it as "ineffable". Completely and utterly Ineffable.

It was enough to make his spine shiver.

Harry was left to pick up his scattered belongings on his own.

———————————————————————


"Enjoy your swim the other day, Potter?"

Harry didn't even bother to turn around, instead focusing on dropping four horned slugs into his cauldron, one by one- pretending that each slug was the head of the blonde Slytherin boy currently taunting him from the table behind.

He stirred the ingredients in, his knuckles whitening with how tightly he gripped the stirring rod. He heard Malfoy whisper something to his friends, followed by giggling.

Neville looked back over his shoulder at the table of Slytherins, before turning back round and nudging his classmate- and potions partner- in the side.

"What's he talking about Harry?" He whispered, voice small and confused.

"Nothing Neville" Harry murmured back, glancing up towards the board and catching his teacher's eye in the process. The Professor in question was gliding about the classroom, surveying his students as they worked on their Boil cure potion.

He cast the boy a sharp look, and Harry quickly ducked his head. He stared deeply into the murky depths of his cauldron, pretending to be interested in the ingredients swishing about the large basin, less his teacher found a reason to start deducting house points from him.

"Just ignore him" he told his friend- and himself.

But that proved hard to do when the boy continued to prattle on, "I see you found your bag" the blonde boy said, and Harry could hear the smirk in his voice. "We took good care of it for you"

A pause- A giggle.

"We also gave it a nice trip down the toilet"

Ron blanched from the table opposite Harry. He stole a glance at his friend, who saw him staring from the corner of his eye- but refused to look at him. So, that was why Harry bag was damp.

He saw Harry's face crumpled into disgust and embarrassment at the Slytherin boy's words, and watched as his shoulders hunched inward at the sound of their laughter.

Furious, Ron spun his head round and threw malfoy a dirty look;

"Shove off, malfoy" he spat, causing both Neville and Harry to look round at him in surprise. "before your head takes a trip down the toilet too"

Malfoy's smile fell from his face, and the laughter came to a halt. His eyebrows drew down into a fierce frown.

Harry, however, smiled gratefully at his friend. 'Thanks Ron'.

Malfoy recovered quickly, and scoffed, "Coming to your boyfriends aid are we, Weasley?"

Ron opened his mouth to retort, "Look Malfoy,-"

"Potter, Weasley, Longbottom!" A stern voice cut him off, and all three boys jumped in fright at the sound of their names being used by their Professor. "You won't find your potions instructions at the back of the class. Turn around, now!"

Harry and Neville did as they were told immediately, and Hermione tugged at Rons sleeve, forcing him to turn round, before ordering him to help her take their cauldron off the heat.

"Oh dear, Mr Potter, I was hoping that today would mark the one lesson where I didn't have to have a word with you" The Professor suddenly spoke up, his back turned away from his class. Harry watched as he quickly vanished the ingredients list from the chalkboard. Neville sucked in a breath from beside him, "oh no" he whispered in fear as he watched the instructions for their potion disappear, "I didn't write them all down, Harry"

"But, 'unsurprisingly', it seems that you still haven't grasped the adequate classroom manners that I expect from each of my students" The man went on, spinning round to level him with a small, derisive grin. Harry simply sat there and watched as the Professor callously singled him out, and in front of all his peers too. He heard the Slytherins begin to snicker amongst themselves. 'Here it comes'.

"Ten points will be deducted from Gryffindor for your inability to do as you’re told"

Ron was ready in an instant, quickly jumping to his aid, "But, Harry didn't even do anything!"

"Mr Potter doesn't need 'you' to talk for him, Mr Weasley" Snape snapped, eye flitting over the red head, before resting back on Harry.

"'Fifteen' points" he said, glowering at the boy, as if Ron's outburst was 'his' doing. Harry met his gaze head on, unwavering.

"One more disruption from you and it'll be fifty"

And just like that, the lesson resumed, as if it had never been disturbed.

Harry went back to his stirring, whilst Neville cautiously crushed up a few more porcupine quills. They worked in silence.

"I hope our potion works" the boy said after a while, the quills now having turned into a fine powder.

"Me too Neville" Harry said, though he found that he couldn't care less how his potion turned out.

He heard the boy snort, "Trust snape to pair us together"

Harry managed a small smirk, though he kept one weary eye on his watchful Professor, "I think he does it on purpose"

"Oh, Definitely" was the reply.

"Now" Harry said after a few more stirs, dusting his hands off on his robes and turning to his potions partner, "What was the next step after porcupine quills?"

Neville's ear turned a pretty shade of pink. "I wouldn't know" he mumbled bashfully, "I'm rubbish at remembering things"

Harry frowned, "didn't your gran send you that weird ball thingy?", he motioned a small round object with his hands, "you know, that one that told you about stuff you couldn't remember- What was it? A remembrall?"

"Yes" the other boy said, nose turning down to the floor- embarrassed.

Harry pressed on, "Hasn't that been helping?"

"It did" Neville admitted, voice tinted with hope. Then Harry saw his frown deepen, "And then I lost it"

'Oh, great'.

"and now I can't remember where i last had it"

Harry fought to keep his giggle in, biting on his lip, and pressing down hard.

"Oh, I'm sorry Neville". He wasn't.

He went back to stirring Their potion- afraid to look at his classmate in case he suffered an uncontrollable bout of giggles. That was just what he needed- laughing in Snape's class. Gryffindor wouldnt have a chance at winning the house cup.

"It's okay" Neville said, pouring the fine powdered ingredient into their cauldron whilst Harry methodically stirred it in. "This castles way too big to search for it anyway, it could be anywhere by now"

Harry was mid-stir when it 'clicked'.

A room, where lost items of students were collected by the school caretaker and stored away. He thought of the old swim team box, the photos, the swim suits- of the lake and his near death experience earlier that week.

Of Hydrus, the mysterious mer-creature.

An idea popped into his head, one that had been unconsciously stewing about in the back of his mind for a while. And it didn't leave him for the rest of the day.

He spun to face his classmate, who stared at him, clueless.

"Your in luck, Neville-" he said, a wide grin pulling at his lips.

"-I know just the place"