Written for The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Season Four (Round 4)
Team: Puddlemere United
Position: Seeker
Prompt: There are non-humans galore in Harry Potter, but they're often overlooked or take the back seat. That's just not fair, though, is it? Creatures deserve love, too! So, this round they get the spotlight.
There are eight creatures listed below. Each member of the team must choose one - no double claims - as a prompt. You will be writing from the point of view of the creature you choose.
You are not limited to writing about canonical characters like Dobby, Hedwig or Firenze, or even from specific creatures that appeared in the series such as the Hungarian Horntail Harry fought. Any creature from any timeline is welcome; the sky's the limit!
Word Count without A/N: 1,023 (Google Docs)
There were many different kinds of merpeople all over the world. The Sirens in Greece, the Selkies of Scotland, the Merrows of Ireland, those in great depths, those in very warm or cold climates.
However, Merpeople of all kinds had two things in common:
Their love for music and the high value they placed on privacy.
The latter is precisely why the chief merman of the Black Lake was not very happy when the white-bearded man told them they were to keep four young humans in their home for close to an hour.
How dare he tell them what to do! How dare he command that they would let humans in their village!
Airic almost refused, but he was an agreeable being, so they settled for a compromise.
The young ones would be sleeping, and the merpeople would not do anything to help them, unless it looked like they would die otherwise and the hour had passed.
Also, they would not attack the other four—the four that were supposed to save those in their grasp—unless they attempted to bring more than one to the surface, or if they attacked first.
Granted, that last part was not a part of the actual agreement with the bearded one, but Airic would like to see anyone, human or merperson, attempt to stop some of his clan if a human attacked their homes and children.
Airic decided that they would hold a feast. All of his people, true to their nature, shared the love for music (real music—not these horrible sounds humans claimed to be music), so they would be more-than-agreeable to the idea.
That, and this way they would be able to watch the humans in their village as a group and protect themselves as needed.
In particular, Airic's brother, Aengus, seemed fond of the idea. He had never trusted humans. Why should they trust a species that continued to hurt other sentient species and even each other? Aegnus may be a warrior, but he knew that if you would fight just for the sake of fighting, no one would win.
On the day they all were dreading, Airic sent ten of his people to the surface with Aengus to collect those four that they would keep hidden.
They were enraged to find out that one of them was a fire being. That had not been part of the agreement!
When Airic arrived at the surface to protest, the bearded man informed him that this was the one the female of the four 'champions' cared for most, her little sister, and that it was necessary.
It was bad enough that one of those fire beings were in their lake, but two?
Granted, they would not be able to do much harm, barely even any, but the merpeople were never found of fire (and generally it went vice-versa).
They argued all they could, but it was pointless, so they brought the four down to their village and tied them up.
Their village cheered when the female one was attacked by a Grindylow and forced to leave (while Airic suspected that Beatha, Aegnus' wife, might have something to do with it, he had no proof and no desire to change the fact).
When the youngest one arrived, a few admired his morals—his loyalty—but most of their village were furious because he just would not leave.
At first, they simply continued to sing their song and dance around the four, spears in their hands, ready to attack at a moment's notice. But when he moved to cut the ties of a second one, six of them moved to hold him and drag him away from the bushy haired girl. Almost all of them laughed.
Cahal, one of their village's oldest told the youngest to only take his one, but the human boy protested.
Then the second boy arrived. His head was enclosed in a strange bubble, most likely so he could breathe. The villagers prepared to restrain him too, but he cut his one loose and left, just like he was supposed to.
The third boy also followed the rules. It was good for him too, as he had the head of a shark and thus was needlessly scaring the children. Airic would not have wanted to see what Desmond and Owyn, the most protective ones in the village, would have done to him.
When the first—the youngest—moved to grab the stone again, the villagers' patience were beginning reaching their limits.
And then the boy pulled his wand.
The merpeople stopped laughing. They all had heard tales of the horrible things humans had done to them if they had the chance. It was best not to provoke him.
The youngest boy held up three fingers. Then two. Then one.
The merpeople moved backwards and the boy eventually left with his hostage and the fire girl.
After calming his people, Airic moved to the surface to explain what happened. He made sure that their anger and annoyance came across clearly. He wished that the foolish boy would lose points in their odd contest, but he did not really dare to hope. He had at first, but then he saw the bearded one's face.
Airic tried to soothe his people as best as he could. It was not much, but a few hours later everyone had calmed down enough to return to their feast.
That night, Airic and his wife Ula were woken up several times by the sound of their children's nightmares.
From what he gathered, they were not the only ones.
But merpeople valued privacy. Consequently, they did not talk to each other about their problems.
Instead, they composed new melodies to calm their children and told them the stories of all the great merpeople over time. The tales of those living in very cold and warm climates and those in great depths, of the Merrows of Ireland, the Selkies of Scotland and the Sirens of Greece.
The merpeople were a very proud creatures that developed differently all over the world, so why shouldn't their children learn of brave pioneers and mighty warriors from everywhere to calm them down?
Sanchit: Thank you!
Please tell me what you think!
~Marvelgeek42