Disclaimer: Neither Mermaid Melody nor Harry Potter belong to me. Very little actually does, so don't bother suing me.
Privet Drive was, to all outward appearances, the most boring and normal place in Britain.
For the first time in his life, Harry Potter found himself wishing that he was as dull and uninteresting as his aunt and the street they lived in. The secret that the Durselys had hidden for so long – even from Harry himself – had caused the boy more trouble than he wanted to think about.
That secret – that Harry Potter was a wizard – had, at first, been exciting and fun, even when he found himself fighting a troll in a girl's bathroom.
But now he honestly wondered if it would have been better if the famous son of James and Lily Potter had been born a squib, capable of as much magic as the average sock.
Straining his eyes in the dark, he slowly scratched away at an essay that wouldn't have to be handed in for well over a month. Like its teacher, the history of magic essay was as boring as imaginable, but Harry forced himself to stay awake and write it. If he was busy working, he reasoned, he wouldn't sleep, or dream about what had happened last year in a dark graveyard.
Eventually, though, the pain in his eyes from reading in the dark and his exhaustion got to Harry. Idly hoping that he was too tired to dream, he hid his books and parchment under the very handy loose floorboard and settled down to sleep.
He was underwater. Initially, Harry was happy with this new dream until he saw cloaked and masked figures drift past, surrounded by shimmering, barely visible bubbles that kept allowed them to breathe.
Following the Death Eaters – he still vividly remembered his first encounter with them at the Quidditch World Cup – six shapes that he had thought were just muggle fiction swam out of the gloom to meet the Death Eaters.
Looking like rather pretty girls apart from their fish-like tails, what had to be mermaids faced off against the Death Eaters. Unable to hear the words being exchanged between the mermaids and Death Eaters, Harry was startled when the far too familiar green of the killing curse was sent from where he watched. A moment later, he was shocked as a glowing white sphere formed around the mermaids – and the killing curse simply hit that sphere and did nothing.
Apparently the Death Eaters were shocked by this as well, as they hesitated before throwing their curses against that sphere.
Taking advantage of that brief pause the mermaids began to sing.
To Harry, the song sounded rather nice, but it clearly wasn't so enjoyable to the Death Eaters. Clutching at their ears, the charms protecting the wizards from the sea collapsed, the Death Eater either fleeing or floating unconscious towards the surface.
Their song ending, the mermaids relaxed their guard. And then Harry saw him rise up behind him.
The inhuman face that haunted his nightmares was twisted into a sneer as he raised his wand and spoke a single word.
"Imperio."
Back in his bedroom, pain shot through Harry's body as his scar seemed to burn.