Ice and Seaweed, Chapter 1.
It had been a very odd day for Rubeus Hagrid. First he had gotten up very early and couldn't go back to sleep(He usually slept like a lamb), then Fang had refused to eat his breakfast of innards (He usually ate like a lion) and then, of all things, Dumbledore had appeared at a door asking for his assistance. Now Hagrid couldn't imagine why Dumbledore would need his help for anything, being the great wizard that he was, but Dumbledore had a strange sound in his voice. He was used to Dumbledore sounding cheery, he knew what it was like when Dumbledore was angry, but he sounded almost… excited.
"My help?" Hagrid said hoarsely.
"Yes, Hagrid." Dumbledore smiled at him again. "Couldn't do without it,I'm afraid. You'll need your biggest fish net and possibly some kind of eel. We'll be going down to the lake."
"Professor." Hagrid began to collect his things. "Has one of the mermaids gone and beached 'erself again?" He called over his shoulder, chuckling. "I'll never understand how they do that." He grabbed a few eels from a pot, and on second thought threw a handful of fish eggs into a pouch as well. Mermaids had a taste for fish eggs.
"Something like that." Dumbledore said evasively. "Only this one is a little more active than usual. Let's go!" He stepped out of the door and Hagrid strode down after him. As they made the short trek to the lake, Hagrid noticed that the Professor's excitement was tinged with worry. He didn't know why, though- mermaids beached themselves all the time. As long as you got to them soon enough, they were fine- part human, according to some people. Hagrid wasn't sure about that, cause he'd got bitten by one before and there was nothing human about those teeth. He also thought that Dumbledore's blue robes looked odd- they were discoloured at the bottom, and wet with some kind of liquid. When asked, Dumbledore merely said that he would explain later.
Before long, they had made it, and all Hagrid saw was a crowd by the shore. He saw some students, prefects, Professor Flitwick, Professor Mcgonagall, Professor Snape, the Care of Magical Creatures professor (Kettleburn?), and a far too excited Gilderoy. He also noted that Harry, Hermione and Ron were bunched up a little while off, looking with interest. Hermione had a notebook and was furiously scribbling notes, which was just like her. Hagrid couldn't even see the mermaid, because of how thick the crowd was.
"What's the crowd for?" Hagrid muttered, confused. "It's just a fish…"
"Move back, please!" Dumbledore parted the crowd with his request as he swept to the shore. Hagrid followed, noticing the silvery blue liquid from before stained into the sand. He saw a flash of a silver tail and then the mermaid, and his mouth fell open.
She was curled up in on herself, her tail flapping listlessly. Her skin was a sickly, pale green, and her wholly black eyes fluttered with pain. Hagrid couldn't see why, until he saw some kind of knife off to the side, at Snape's feet. It was covered in the dark blue, glistening liquid, and as Hagrid looked back, he saw that her stomach was soaked in it. Mermaid's blood. Her hair was pure white, and fanned out around her like a grim halo. Her tears ran freely into the sand, silvery and sparkling in the cold morning sun. More shocking, however, were her distinctly human features. And she had no gills.
"Merlin's beard…" Hagrid whispered. "She's…"
"I don't know what she is!" Gilderoy told the crowd. "She's not human, of course, but she's definitely not mermaid. This reminds me of-"
"Professor!" Mcgonagall sighed irritably. "She's in pain, now is really not the time." Controlling her ire, she turned to Dumbledore. "What do you think, Professor?"
"I don't know." He stared at the mermaid, his pale eyes evaluating her injuries. " Madam Pomfrey is coming now with some essence of Dittany but we don't know how she will react to it- her scales isn't the same as ours and there could be internal damage. I'd also like to find out how she was harpooned."
At that exact moment, Madam Pomfrey bustled through the crowd, blankets over her shoulder and holding the glass bottle of Dittany and her wand in hand. "Move back, everyone!" She ordered briskly, and even Dumbledore took a step back instinctively. "All right then!" She knelt by the mermaid, whose webbed fingers covered the wounds. "Let go now." She said firmly, but the girl held on weakly. As Madam Pomfrey forced her hands aside, the mermaid let out a high-pitched whine and there was an audible intake of breath.
Her scaled chest was covered with small, shallow gashes but her abdomen had been slashed pretty deeply. Without the pressure of her hands, the shining blood could flow freely and the mermaid let out a pained cry. She was young, Hagrid realised. She looked only eleven or twelve, and mermaids age quicker than humans do. She was just a child.
Madam Pomfrey's hands flew over her wounds, applying salve, bandages, cleaning so fast that her hands became a blur. She paused momentarily when she picked up the Dittany, and turned to Dumbledore. "Should I take the risk? Mermaid's blood is thin, the bandages won't hold it and the scales are too tough for compression." To add to her point, the mermaid fainted clean away, her head hitting the stones and sand with a dull thump.. "Blood loss." She said grimly. "The water will have made it worse, headmaster, and I don't think we have much time."
"Do what you must." Dumbledore sighed, his face downcast. "It's the best possible chance for her. We've already spoken with Professor Kettleburn, and there doesn't appear to be anything else."
Madam Pomfrey delicately dropped Dittany onto the wounds and waited. For a moment, nothing happened, but then there was a pop, sizzle and smoke arose from the girl's wounds. As the smoke cleared, the girl's wounds were not healed, but burnt. Pomfrey sighed and nodded "I suspected it. Her scales are much more delicate than human skin, Dittany is bound to be too strong, but there was nothing else to do." She whipped out her wand and began to scan the body for other injuries, muttering various incantations and charms.
"Tha's gonna hurt when she wakes up." Hagrid said worriedly. "What should we do with her, Professor? We can't throw 'er in, she's not got any- O-Oh! Look at her!"
Hagrid stared with shock at the girls face, which was leeching colour and turning white. Her white shock of hair turned grey and her tail seemed to start to flake.
"Professor!" Kettleburn called, stepping over the stones. "The Dittany's drying her out! She needs to be back in the water or her scales will crack." Mermaid's don't take well to flame or heat or anything not-watery.
"Come on then!" Professor McGonagall said worriedly. "Hagrid, carry her in and submerge her as best as you can.
Snape huffed. "Or perhaps levitation would be easier."
"Did you see her reaction to Dittany?" McGonagall said, her voice layered thick with sarcasm. "I don't really want to test out spells at the moment, Severus. Hagrid, go on!"
Hagrid looked to Dumbledore for help, and he nodded. Readying himself, he hoisted up his sleeves and slid one hand under her waist and the other under the tail. He expected her to be light for some reason, but she was heavy, even for him. He struggled to make the few steps to the lake and then slowly stepped in, feeling the water take off some of her weight.
"Professor, she's heavy!" He called out to Kettleburn, assuming that he knew a fair bit about mermaids.
"It'll be the tail." He said knowledgeably. "Most British mermaids live in cold climates, so they tend to have denser skin." Hagrid snorted. He'd known that too. Just forgot it for a second.
When Hagrid was up to his chest he cradled the girl like you would a baby, so that her head was out of the water but her body and tail were under.
"Is anything changing?" Kettleburn called, waist deep in the water.
"Yes, she's… she's… goin' red?" Hagrid gazed down at the girl. Her eyebrows had started to crease and her cheeks and neck started to flush crimson. She almost looked pained.
"What?" Kettleburn stopped and gaped.
"She's-she's changin'!" Hagrid shouted out as her body began to convulse like she was being shocked. The tail started to flop listlessly, and the girl screamed loudly.
Hagrid watched the dead white, papery skin turn red and blush with colour. Her eyes and mouth opened wide in some kind of garish scream as they slipped underwater, and he saw her fangs soften and slot back in her mouth whilst her previously solid black eyes seemed to drain of colour, her irises turning a soft blue. Her shock of white hair seemed to grow dark at the roots as it waved and twisted in the water, turning to a dark inky black, like a squid's ink. Her lashes were dark and thick and he even noticed freckles dashed across her nose.
Hagrid slowly stepped closer to shore, keeping her tail in the water, so that he was ready if she needed to be taken out again. When he was about waist length, Pomfrey rushed in with some kind of blanket. Now mermaids don't wear tops, but they do wear necklaces of broken shells and seaweed, and their chests are very thickly scaled, so they're not indecent. But as Pomfrey waded in, the final stage of the girl's transformation took place.
The scales on her flukes and dorsal fin seemed to be peeling away and falling off. Soon they were doing this all over her body and there was a shower of scales into the water. Pomfrey took her gently from Hagrid, floating her in the water, and wrapped the girl in the blanket- for Pomfrey did not understand what was happening, but knew the girl would soon be indecent if it continued and goodness knows she was responsible for these children's safety in all manners and just would not allow that. The girl's arms were now free of scales, and it was merely her tail which continued to drop them- and with the same fizzing sound as earlier, her tail broke in two. What happened next was so quick that Hagrid almost couldn't see it, but he watched her tail melt apart and knees, toes and calves seemed to take place.
Her free hand dangled apart from the blanket, and he watched her fingers stretch and tear of their webs with a sick sound like paper being torn. Her body was jolting only slightly now, and as the final scales fell away, he saw that her skin had turned a faint pink, but still tinged with icy blue. Her eyes suddenly opened and she stared at Hagrid's face with shock and not a little bit fear. It almost looked like she was going to talk to him.
She murmured something in that cold clear voice, gazing at him, and Hagrid cocked his head. "What-? Did you say somethin'-" Ignoring him, however, she snapped her head around, her eyes searching the crowd- most of whom had retreated from fear at the show. She glided over all of the teachers except Snape, who her eyes fixed on slightly, before continuing and finding Dumbledore. Her eyes widened and she started to struggle out of Madam Pomfrey's arms.
"Now, now!" Madam Pomfrey said warningly. "There'll be none of that, little mermaid." When she would not relinquish her hold, the mermaid began to wail and scream, struggling to find Dumbledore. Pomfrey was starting to struggle, and Hagrid leaned forward, taking the bundle of blankets. The girl couldn't even move when held by his steel grip, so she stopped, glaring at him.
Pomfrey sighed. She'd never had a patient like this, but it was clear that she was… human now? Well, what she actually was would be a question for the professors and the headmasters, but she had a job to do. "Right, Hagrid. I think we should take her up to the hospital wing. It's the best thing for her at the moment, she's bound to be frozen. Headmaster?" She turned to Dumbledore, her raised brow requesting permission.
He waved a hand merrily. "Yes, Madam Pomfrey. She's your patient as of now, do with her as you see fit. We will take this up when she is healed and ready to talk." With that, Hagrid and Pomfrey began to make the trek up to the castle, both of their shoes squelching with water. As Hagrid walked, the nurse started to dry him off with her wand, and the headmaster watched them go, smiling.
"What's the smile for, Albus?" Mcgonagall said, as the teachers circled around him. "- And all of you, get back to class!" She snapped warningly at the students. The watching students started and hurried back to the school, all of them gossiping about what they had just seen.
"Why wouldn't I, Minerva? I have a feeling that mermaid will be very interesting- you never know, she might enroll!" He chuckled.
"It would certainly be a first." She snorted, but quickly sobered up. "What do you think happened to her? I've never seen anything like it. Mermaids aren't like centaurs, part human, part horse- they're different entirely. How is this possible?" She directed her question to Kettleburn, and he jumped up from the log upon which he was pondering.
"I'll have to research. Care of Magical Creatures doesn't exactly cover mermaids in any great detail, because… well, they don't tend to like staying near humans. There's not a lot of knowledge about them by anybody's reckoning, so anything is possible, but this sort of thing… It'll be something magical, I'm sure. I mean, biological composition aside, the speed of the transformation was unlike anything I've ever seen- but magic doesn't work on mermaids as it does on humans. I mean, is that the reason it ended up that way for her? Who's to say? Yes, I'll have to research and take samples and take notes and-"
"Right, Silvanus!" Mcgonagall interrupted quickly. "Let's get to it, then." He flashed a bright smile, and then turned on his heel and walked to the castle, muttering slowly and pulling out an enchanted quill to take notes as he talked. She shook her head slightly, and nearly rolled her eyes.
"Professor Snape." Dumbledore smiled, turning to him. "I would like it if you, too could research potions for part-humans or mermaids."
"Yes, headmaster." He said slowly. "Should I also take samples from it? Scales and tears are rarely used in potion making, but if I see how it's tears and skin react to certain potions I can ascertain how… changed it is."
"She, Severus." Dumbledore said softly.
His black eyes narrowed. "Yes, headmaster." With that, he swept away to the dungeons, his black robe flapping around his ankles.
"Well, Minerva." Dumbledore sighed. "It's been a very exciting morning. I suggest you head to your classes. I have a few meetings to attend with Fudge and I imagine I will have to answer quite a few questions from the Aurors."
"Right then, Albus." She said briskly, as they began to walk back from the lake. She shivered slightly. "I am worried, however- and I have so many questions. But, overall, what sort of life will that girl have?"
He smiled at her.
"I suppose we'll have to find out as we go along." He said cheerily. "But don't worry- if it's any consolation, it's trifle for dessert tonight."
"Oh, Albus!"
Hi there! It's the author. Not of Harry Potter, that's JK Rowling, full rights to her- but of the story you just read. The name is Anna. I'm using fanfiction as a way to hone my writing skills, and with that in mind I'd absolutely love some criticism. Constructive, please, but say whatever you want. Reviews, messages, they're all good. And I should publish a new chapter soon so let's all look forward to that, eh? Byeeeee x