Under the Sea

Chapter Ten

Harry looked around to make sure he wasn't followed and then sighed in relief when he saw that the corridor was completely empty. It was a seventh-floor corridor with one wall covered with a tapestry of a man teaching trolls ballet. The other wall was completely bare—and that was the wall Harry was interested in.

The Weasley twins had told him about it in his first year. Despite the fact that the lake was off limits, the entire faculty seemed to be focused more on making sure Harry didn't go anywhere near the lake rather than making sure all the students were safe. Anyway, to make a long story short, the twins told him about the room.

His relationship with the Weasleys was a strange one. He was best friends with Ron of course, but it felt like he knew them; almost as if they met before. Their names certainly sounded familiar—and it certainly was a jolt when he met Charlie this past summer. The strange thing was that Charlie looked familiar to Harry—as if they met before. Charlie certainly acted as if he knew Harry—though that probably was because of the scar. Being famous wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

That's why he was so thankful for the Room of Requirement—a place where Harry could just be Harry. A fourteen-year-old wizard who would rather spend time in the water than in the air. Even though he was a star Quidditch player, the youngest Quidditch player in a century even, Harry found that nothing could beat the joys of swimming.

At first, he was surprised when Aunt Petunia signed him up for swimming lessons back when he was five. It wasn't until he listened into a conversation between her and Uncle Vernon did it start to make sense.

"Pet, I'm not comfortable about this. Didn't that letter from that freakish old goat say that we were to keep the boy as far away from water as possible?" Uncle Vernon asked one night, after Harry and Dudley had gone to bed.

"Yes dear but think about how it will look to the neighbors. The boy survives almost drowning in Denmark and we decide to get him swimming lessons so that it doesn't happen again?" Aunt Petunia told him. "Not only that, but it'll look like we're staving off a phobia of water before it could take hold."

Uncle Vernon paused for a moment, and Aunt Petunia continued on. "Clearly the boy would still have to do his work around the house—we can't just pay for the lessons and not expect anything in return. However I was talking to some of the other women in the neighborhood and Mrs. Figg and she said that it wasn't normal for the boy not to have some extracurriculars. She was the one who suggested the swimming lessons."

"He hasn't even started school yet Pet," Vernon chuckled at how absurd the whole thing sounded. "Besides, what happens if one of his freakish incidents happens in the water?"

"What happens if he ends up being too tired to have any incidents?" Petunia shot back and Vernon became quiet. Harry leaned away from the door of his cupboard and became very still. It wouldn't do for his aunt and uncle to catch him eavesdropping.

Uncle Vernon eventually came around, on the condition that Dudley was signed up for something as well. He would not give the boy special treatment after all. Dudley took a shine to boxing, much to Uncle Vernon's delight. To everyone's surprise however, Harry seemed to be a natural swimmer. His skinny frame seemed to give him a boost while in the water. Seemingly proud of having two athletic superstars in the house, Uncle Vernon actually took Harry out to get contacts lenses for meets after one of the neighbors complimented Harry on his amazing time in one of his early meets. He didn't win, but second place was nothing to sneeze at.

Harry was still in charge of taking care of the lenses, but Uncle Vernon said that it would make swimming easier for him. Also, there was less of a risk of anything happening to his glasses—something Uncle Vernon had been adamant about not replacing in the past.