Chapter 1: The Birthday Present
Hana Courtney's Dark school robes billowed about her feet as she climbed the short flight of stairs from her dormitory to the Hufflepuff common room. As she entered the room, she had to look around for a moment before spotting Nemo. He was reclined in a chair by the fire that was now in embers. Nicodemus Courtney had a way of blending into his surroundings with astonishing ease, an athletic, outdoors type who had a keen eye for observation.
Hana smiled at her brother as she strode over to him. "Well, are you ready?" she whispered. She had never been out of the dormitory at night, but she was looking forward to this little adventure of theirs.
"Almost." He replied in a low voice.
His voice didn't have her slight British accent, which she had only just picked up since starting to school at Hogwarts. He had retained his soft island drawl. The two siblings had been raised in Hawaii by their mother, a beautiful native girl by the name of Tani. It was their father who had been English, and was their link to Hogwarts. He had been a wizard, something no one in the family had known until two letters had been delivered from the school. The reason that no one had known this amazing secret was because he had died before he could break the news to his wife and children.
Nemo bent down to pick up the bag that was at the foot of the chair, and pulled out a glass bottle that was full of a brown, swirling liquid.
"Pepper Up Potion!" he said with a smile on his face.
Hana grinned in relief. She knew that the lake would be cold, and she had never gotten used to the climate of northern England. "Did you steal that from the hospital wing?"
"I had a sudden cold this morning," he smirked. "I took some extra in case it came back." He pulled the stopper out of the bottle and poured half the potion into a beaker for his sister. Warmth spread immediately through their bodies as they drank, and Hana's courage increased. She only hoped that the smoke pouring from their ears wouldn't be spotted as they were sneaking across the grounds.
"The moon's full tonight, we might be spotted," she said as they went toward the portrait hole together.
"Not once we're at the lake. We're going to the little bay at the south west side – the one with the huge willow tree. We'll just have to be careful on the way there and back.
He held a finger to his lips as he slowly pushed on the portrait. They could just hear the soft wheezing breath of the painted figure on the other side. The hiwayman seemed to be snoozing. The two siblings stepped cautiously out into the narrow corridor, closing the doorway as they looked around.
Moonlight lit the passageway, streaming in the floor to ceiling stained glass window that ended the corridor to their left. The window showed a very old man with flowing white hair, robes billowing about him as he stood on a rocky outcropping over a stormy lake with his wand raised high.
Most people assumed that the old man was trying to overturn the small boat in the middle of the lake, and the frail old man was very imposing. But Hana kept looking at his gentle eyes in that roughened face, and felt certain that he was instead trying to save the little vessel.
The rest of the hallway was bare except for a large tapestry on the far wall that was flanked on either side by tall marble pillars. They turned right to where the corridor ended at the crossing of a larger one, and turned right again once they reached it.
The corridor they walked down now had many portraits, many of them with food, including one particularly large painting with a huge green pair.
They passed all this in silence, on constant vigil for teachers, ghosts, and Peeves. Then they came to a staircase leading up and into the main entrance hall, and then out the huge front doors.
The two of them crossed the grounds by staying to the shadows of the castle as much as possible, leaving wispy strands of smoke in their wake. They gave Hagrid's hut a wide berth so as not to disturb Fang. Once they reached the edge of the lake, there was nowhere else to hide. They ran full out along the bank until they had rounded a bend and were shielded by the trees.
Hana stopped and stared in amazement. The moon was out, along with a full array of stars, and the surface of the lake was a sheet of softly rippling silver. The forest and surrounding hills were beautiful in the soft light.
Nemo set down the bag on the grass and pulled off his robes. Underneath he was wearing surf shorts, the long, loose kind that he had worn day in and day out in Hawaii.
"What else have you got in there?" asked Hana as she pulled off her robes. She was also wearing surf shorts, along with a dark green bikini top.
"Your birthday Present, of course." He replied. Then he rummaged through the bag producing a small parcel wrapped in brown paper and string. "Happy 13th!" he proclaimed and gave an elaborate bow, doffing an imaginary hat.
Hana took the package and opened it. Resting on the plain paper was a necklace of small pearls, some of them flattened spheres, others shaped like eggs. It was a beautiful piece. In the front, there were three pearls that were larger than the others, and she didn't think the pearls were white, but in the moonlight it was hard to be sure.
"Nemo, it's beautiful!" she cried as she threw her arms around his neck. He smiled and rubbed his neck as she let go. Then taking the necklace, he put it around her, tying the small ribbon at the back of her neck.
"The pearls come from the lake." He said.
"Oh, did you make it?"
"No, I traded it."
She must have looked confused, because he continued, "I traded my knife for that and my own necklace for this one." For the first time she noticed that he was wearing a necklace also, but instead of pearls, his was made up of small, brown spiral shells, with three smooth, skinny bones in the front, each about an inch and a half long.
"You traded your dagger?!" She was shocked at the news. And with good reason – the dagger had belonged to their Hawaiian grandfather.
"Not grandpa's dagger. The smaller one that I got last summer in Oahu. But even if I had traded grandpa's dagger, I think it would have been worth it."
"How can you say that?" she was incredulous.
"Because of what these necklaces do." He replied mysteriously. "You haven't asked me who I traded with yet." He paused for effect, then continued, "They come from the bottom of the lake, made by the merpeople themselves."
She stared for a moment, then her mouth fell open as the whole meaning of this hit her. "You mean with these we can…"
"Yes, breathe under water!"
She was stunned. They had learned about merpeople the year before, but it had never been mentioned that they lived here, in this very lake.
"Nemo, this is amazing! We can go anywhere in the lake with these." She was having trouble keeping her voice down. When Hana was happy, it was never a secret, thought Nemo, smiling to himself. It was only when she was quiet and distant that you had to worry, because those were the signs that something was wrong.
"Not anywhere in the lake, at least not tonight," he corrected her. "The grindylows come up to the surface with the full moon. For now we'll have to stick to this cove.
They entered the water together, and when it was waist deep they sank into their necks and kicked off the bottom and into deeper water. The cove was almost like a miniature lake itself. The banks of the shoreline rose at a sharp angle, leaving a very narrow path between two hills that was the only way to the water's edge from land. Once inside this ring of hills, there was barley a foot and a half of beach, and it was made up entirely of small pebbles. Directly across from where the path entered the cove, a rock formation jutted twenty five feet into the air. On either side of the sentinel rocks, there were gaps five feet wide that connected the lagoon to the lake beyond. On the left hand side of the waterway was a plateau with a very large willow tree, its longest hanging vines ten feet above the water's surface. The little cove had a diameter of about 100 feet.
As Hana ducked her head under the water, she instinctively held her breath. She looked over to Nemo and could see that he was breathing fine. He was taking deep, exaggerated breaths nodding his head and motioning for her to do the same. She had to fight years of practiced diving and every basic instinct in her body to follow his lead. She gulped and steeled herself, then drew a long, slow breath.
It felt like breathing, but at the same time she could feel the differences. Her mouth was shut, and breathing through her nose, Hana could feel the water entering and exiting her body with each breath.
"This is so weird!" she thought, smiling to herself. Then she got another shock as she heard Nemo's voice.
"OK then?" It sounded strangely muffled by the water, but at the same time amplified. She could hear his voice as clearly as if they weren't under water. "Look down Hana." She looked and saw clearly through the water to the bottom of the pool, about 50 feet below. She understood now. Her senses had been amplified for life in a marine environment. Normally at night you wouldn't be able see anything underwater. But now she could see the grains of sand on the bottom, and even see the green moss that grew on the large underwater boulders.
Hana loved diving as much as she loved flying. Being raised in Hawaii, she had been swimming in the ocean before she could crawl. She loved hanging motionless over the surface and staring at the bottom. It was a feeling of freedom that she reveled in.
Hana and Nemo swam in the cove for over an hour before heading back to the castle. The pepper-up potion was beginning to wear off, but there was enough left in their systems that they had dried off after several minutes, and by the time they reached the main entrance, they were no longer leaving wet footprints.