A/N: Hello everyone! I tried doing this story about a year ago and I wasn't happy with the direction of it. So I'm going to keep the same basic idea but how I go about completing it will be different. So stick with me here :)
Also, I don't own any of this. Just Meara. Everything else blongs to our wonderful Rowling!
The date was May 2nd, 1998 and the Wizarding World was collapsing on itself. Dark wizards using dark, evil magic were fighting against the teachers-protectors of Hogwarts—and students—merely children. Chaos took place of the little remaining order that was left. The castle was being bombarded and the forest was lit up with fire.
This was on the Surface World.
However, there was another world that managed to escape much of Voldemort's terror. Beneath the Black Lake, there was an entirely different society.
The underwater merpeople, merrows and creatures of the Black Lake alike remained neutral with the battle of Hogwarts and merely observed from their home beneath.
The life below all mostly continued with their daily lives and there was a low hum to their movement. It wasn't fast, like the destructive world above, but low and soft. Each life had his or her own particular melody that contributed to the functioning musical structure.
The large squid, sinking towards the depths, was soft and low and carried the fundamental idea of their world.
The grindylows, horrible little creatures, contributed the occasional musical distortion, or something one would not expect.
Now the merpeople provided the melody as they were the most abundant and prospering of creatures.
However there remained another group the contributed to this complex ecosystem. Similar to the merpeople, however more emotionally complex and perceptive. These were the ones that actually heard this music that each creature added. These are the creatures we shall focus on.
In one shallow depth of the Black Lake, a group of merrows took shelter in their rocky abode. "This is dreadful. I don't understand them sometimes." Tallula whispered as she peaked out from the hood of her cohuleen druith. She was the youngest of the group.
"Why are we just sitting here? We should be doing something about this!" This time Cathal swam far above their cove to float above them all. An explosion of fire flashed above the surface, followed the scorching limb of a tree. Once it broke surface of the water, the fire burnt out and it quickly sank to the bottom, leaving bubbles behind it. "We like to think that this doesn't effect us but it does!"
"Not as much as we think." Conn calmly added.
Tallula reached for her brother. "Come back. We'll see when this passes."
Their conversation continued as the fourth sibling of the group, Meara, remained quiet. Instead of voicing her thoughts, she silently peeked through the grass and rocks and murky water. The air above flashed and glittered with bitter spells and biting fire. All she wanted to do was swim to the surface.
It was then that she mentally chastised herself.
If it wasn't for that exact habit—swimming and sun bathing on the Surface-, she wouldn't be feeling so many complex emotions. If she just would've stayed far away from shore.
It started on a beautiful May afternoon, years and years before the Final Battle. The ice had long melted away from the lake and life started to flourish once more.
Meara, being curious and adventurous, decided to move even closer to the shore. Being perched on a large rock, she would be able to absorb the warmth of the sun, look out on the sparkling lake, and even reach over and pick growing flowers on the shoreline. It was quickly became her favorite rock.
With her cohuleen druith set aside, Meara used her slim white fingers to brush through her long algae tinted hair and she allowed for her eyes to shut close as a soft tune floated through her ears. The melody softly bubbled up to her throat so she began to sing along.
Meara sat like this, quite peaceful and content for what seemed like an hour until a muffled crunch sounded from behind.
She jumped and turned around to see a young boy with her red cohuleen druith in hand.
Meara fumbled off the rock towards him but fell face first onto the pebbles of the shoreline.
The boy gave a quick glance back at her before bolting off a path behind the bushes and up towards the wizarding school.
Dazed and confused, Meara looked down below her waist; where her long, slick once was, she now found new fumbling, naked limbs. The webs between her fingers split away, leaving only the long fingers, and her hair began to shed the green tint, she noticed, as it blew around her face.
Her blood seemed to go cold from the sudden change and her new body began to react to the bitter cold around her. Tears dropped down her cheeks and her lungs began to huff erratically.
She tried her hardest to pick herself up off the ground and back into the water; however, she only got ankle deep before she fell once more. This time, her hands and new limbs scratching on the sharp rocky bottom.
Fresh, warm blood pooled lightly in her hands as the tune in her ear faded away. But she could still hear the music coming from the Black Lake and it seemed to mock her. The harmonies of her people seemed to ring and soar out and, as she tried to sing back with a melody she knew her entire life, her voice no longer seemed to fit. It was an unfamiliar dissonance that her voice created now.
She got up once more and tried to swim deeper and deeper. However, her new body only let her go so far before she broke surface, gasping for air. Without her beloved cohuleen druith, she was stranded.
In defeat, Meara dragged herself out of the water and propped her body against the rock she once sat on. Her body began to shiver—an action that she was not used to as her cold-blooded body once regulated temperature quite well—and made the little hairs on her arms raise in attention. She brought her limbs close together and found it gave little reprieve.
Then, she bowed her head and she wept.
Hours later, as the sun began to creep towards the opposite horizon, when Meara's cries had left her throat raspy and scratchy, and her appendages began to tingle, a small woman with large eyes found her.
"Oh my," She mumbled. "Professors!" The woman called more of her kind and three more were there within seconds.
One woman had bright eyes and wore a long pointy hat. She stood along side an old man with a long beard and small glasses. She recognized the old man as the Headmaster of the school that stood watch over her lake. The last man wore all black. She didn't notice immediately when the man in black shed his outer layer and placed his cloak on her own shoulders. She grasped the hem of it and wrapped it tightly to her shivering bare frame.
"Albus, what should we do?" Bright Eyes questioned the Headmaster.
Without thought, he answered, "Let's get her back to the castle."
Would you keep reading this? Please let me know what you think! *hugs*