Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns Harry Potter.

Chapter 2

Who are you?

Eventually the sun dried off Harry's clothes. The woman kept holding him, but stayed quiet. When Harry had finally calmed down, he felt really embarrassed. He had been taught not to cry in front of people, and here he was: bawling against the shoulder of a complete stranger. What a disaster.

'Um…' He wiped his nose in his sleeve. 'I – I'm sorry I cried like that. Thank you again for saving me. Who are you? My name's Harry.'

The woman didn't reply, but instead put her hand on Harry's mouth. Was she telling him to be quiet? Harry frowned. This lady was kind and very beautiful – she looked like a princess – but something about her felt distinctly… off.

Then realization hit him.

'You don't speak English do you?' Harry gasped. There had been some passengers on the cruise liner who had spoken in a strange language – French, Petunia had mentioned. Perhaps this lady was one of them.

If that was the case, how on earth was he going to ask for her help in getting back to his family?

But it seemed that the woman knew some English after all. 'Baby,' she whispered with her strange pronunciation, and started to stroke Harry's hair again.

Harry was mortified. Was she calling him a baby now? Granted, he had acted like one with his earlier blubbering, but damn it, he was a big boy already!

'I'm not a baby; I'm almost six years old.' He put six fingers up for good measure.

'Baby!' she repeated with more certainty than before and wrapped her fingers around his.

Harry felt a bit offended. He dearly hoped that this woman only called him a baby because she did not know what else to call him.

'I'm Harry, HARRY. Harry Potter.'

'Har-ry,' she repeated, tasting the word.

'Yes! My name is Harry!' the boy broke into a grin at his small success.

The strange woman touched his mouth again and pulled her own lips into a hesitant smile. Were all foreigners this odd?

'Harry,' she uttered his name over and over and stood up from the sand. This brought Harry's attention to their surroundings for the first time, and his good mood left him instantly. They were stranded on a desolate island so small that Harry could easily walk all the way around it. There were a few stunted, resilient trees growing on a small patch of soil in the middle, but otherwise it was completely bare.

'Oh no! How are we going to get back home?'

Even a quick look confirmed that there was nothing that could be used as a boat and it was obvious that other people never came to this islet. It was like they were castaways; two shipwrecked pirates who had no food or shelter and could not even speak the same language. What were they supposed to do now?

Harry was going to ask for the woman's opinion – perhaps they could mime or draw what they wanted to say – but he turned around only to find her gone.

Where was she? Suddenly Harry felt afraid again. He called for the woman, whose name he didn't even know, and ran around the island several times, but she had simply vanished. He was alone.

Some time later Harry lay huddled against a large rock. He had fallen asleep from crying, and the sun was much lower in the sky now. A pale hand nudged him awake.

'Wuh-? Oh! You came back!' Harry was so relieved that he hugged the woman tightly. 'I'm so glad you're here again. Where did you go? Ah, that's right, you can't understand me…'

The woman gave a weak smile and offered her hair to Harry.

'Drink', she commanded.

Harry blinked owlishly. What was she talking about? But then he noticed that her long hair was dripping wet. Had she been swimming?

'Um…' Harry swallowed. His throat was parched, but this was just too weird.

'Drink', the woman repeated. When Harry just kept looking at her like she was mad, she scowled. Then she pushed her hair in Harry's mouth.

The taste was sweet and refreshing, and Harry couldn't help but swallow the water that trickled out. It was not salty at all. He pushed aside his thoughts that this definitely counted as freaky, and greedily drank more. The water flowed easily, and more kept coming.

The woman's eyes shone brightly and she seemed to be very pleased with herself.

Harry thanked her embarrassedly when he was done, and next he was handed a large speckled fish. It slapped him with its tail and tried to flop back into the water.

'Eat.'

'What?-! But it's still alive!' He blurted in horror. He was hungry, yes, but that was just insane!

The woman seemed confused. She urged him again to eat it, but Harry just shook his head vigorously and backed away, determined not to touch the fish.

When talking did not seem to have the desired effect, the woman brought the fish to her lips and bit its head off with a crunch. Harry watched, disgusted, as she ate half of the fish and threw the guts in the sea. Then she offered the other half to Harry again.

Urgh! Harry supposed that he should try to be brave, for her sake. He was going to at least taste it. He bit into the squishy meat, trying to avoid the scales and bones. He nibbled on a small piece of flesh and thought of how the fish had tried to swim away from them only a few minutes ago. He couldn't do it.

The lady frowned and huffed when Harry handed the fish back to her. She probably noticed that Harry had turned a bit green, as she gave up trying to feed him. She finished off the rest of the fish herself and went to wash up in the seawater.

'Harry!' she called.

The boy hesitated, suddenly feeling a little afraid of the water, but then he mentally shook himself. He really needed to wash the sand off, as his skin had begun to itch unpleasantly. Besides, he was not going to drown in shallow water, and the nice lady was watching over him. Harry still did not know her name.

'Who are you? What is your name?' he attempted, speaking very slowly and clearly. At the same time he took his shoes off and stepped into the sea.

The woman did not reply, but instead kept walking a little deeper. When Harry followed her, she bestowed him the brightest smile he had seen on her face yet. Harry thought that she was beautiful.

The water was not so cold here, and Harry followed his rescuer gladly. He was determined to get his point across and learn her name. 'Harry', he pointed at himself with large gestures. Then he moved his finger to point at the woman. He repeated this process several times, washing the sand from his hair and arms between the attempts.

Finally the meaning clicked and the woman's eyes seemed to glow brighter. She took Harry's small hand and pointed it at herself.

'Mother.'

'What? No, I mean your name!' For some reason Harry blushed furiously. She must have misunderstood him. He was going to point at himself and continue his attempts at miming, but strangely, his hand seemed to be stuck to her fingers. Harry blinked; she was not even holding his hand.

The blonde woman whispered 'mother' again in a much raspier voice. Before Harry had time to figure out what was happening, she dived into the water and pulled Harry along with her. Harry had no time to prepare himself and he nearly choked, but soon he broke the surface again only to find himself sitting atop a white horse.

He yelped in astonishment and the horse whinnied, taking off toward the open sea with a startling speed. Harry shrieked, but quickly found that he was unable to get off the horse even if he wanted to; it was as if his legs had been glued to its skin.

The sun had almost set and the sky was painted in hues of red and purple. The horse kept navigating through the waves, easily keeping above the surface of the water so that Harry could remain mostly dry. It was hard to tell with only a few passing islands as landmarks, but the horse seemed to be swimming incredibly fast. Harry wondered where it was taking him…

During the ride Harry had had some time to think. He was a bright boy and could put two and two together. So many unexplainable things had happened since he fell from the ship (and how that had happened was a mystery to him as well). It seemed impossible, but Harry had a wild theory that he was now riding on some fantastic creature – one that had saved him from drowning.

The question was what exactly was she? Harry had heard of fish-tailed mermaids that sometimes rescued sailors. But the woman he had met earlier had walked on two legs. And Harry was pretty sure that sea horses were not actual horses that lived in the sea.

He had tried to talk to the animal, wondering if she and the woman were one and the same. It would at least explain the how the horse had sprung up just as the woman had disappeared. The mare had flicked its ears at him and grunted, but other than that nothing remarkable had happened.

Still, if Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia could see him now, they would probably faint from shock. They had always told him that there was no such thing as magic. Harry wondered sadly if they had noticed by now that he was missing.

Harry splashed some water on his arms. They were bright red from where his sleeves had left them uncovered, and they were terribly itchy. His face was probably just as red and he was feeling miserable. He was so very tired by now, but could not afford to sleep yet, fearing that he might fall off from the horse if he did. He had even lost his glasses and shoes.

When the pair finally came ashore it was already dark. In all honesty, Harry was not very surprised when the mare seemed to swell beneath him, turning transparent for a brief moment before assuming the form of the familiar woman. He was still amazed, though, and wondered if she could turn into anything she wanted. Harry was already thinking of how to ask her.

The woman picked him up and carried him under a large tree not far from the waterline. Harry tried to fight off his exhaustion, but it was a losing battle. The white lady resumed stroking his hair as if she had never stopped, and Harry fell asleep to the sound of her gentle humming.

His curiosity would have to wait until tomorrow.