The Little Mermaid: Harry's Beginning
Chapter One
The sun was high in the sky, reflecting off of the bright blue water below, just under the surface something could be seen swimming. It was bigger than a fish, yet it had the fins of one. There was more than one of them and each had a set of different colored fins. Some of them were red, others green, more blue, and still more were orange or yellow or pink or purple. So many colors all together, swimming around, laughter filling the air these creatures were mer-people. They lived deep, deep under the ocean in a city called Atlantica.
"The world above is a wonderful place, but everyone knows the true magic lies under the sea. Where the water is clear and the fish swim free and the mer-people live in the beautiful city of Atlantica," a feminine voice explained, seemingly from nowhere.
The figures, now known as mer-people, jumped from the water, like dolphins, laughing and giggling and in Atlantica they swam around playing tag and playing their music.
"King James ruled the seas with a fair hand..." the voice continued to explain as a merman with teal colored finds, dark black hair, and hazel eyes swam out of a huge castle made out of shells, marble, and other items found in the ocean.
"Yoo-hoo!" a chubby, older lady called towards the king, gaining his attention and smiling and waving like a silly school girl.
"You're very kind," the king murmured, a small blush coloring his cheeks.
A sudden blur of emerald green, pale ivory, and midnight black shot at the king and hit him in the chest. Small, ivory colored arms wrapped around his neck as the thing that had hit him giggled and glanced back the way it had come before looking up at the king and giggling again.
"Harry," the man said with a small smile towards his only son.
"...and an open heart," the voice finished.
A sudden loud, out of tune note filled the air of the court yard, causing everyone to stop and look towards the source of the noise. A merman, of only about twenty floated there, holding a horn in his hand. James began to laugh and soon everyone joined in, finding it funny how that man had done that.
"Oh, mon. No one loved music more than James' beloved queen, Lily. She and their seven darling children filled his life with joy and song."
The room was more like a cave with a window. The walls and floors were both made of stone and a cold, unforgiving color of gray. Seven clam shells were organized around the room and made into beds for the seven royal children. Seven pairs of eyes stared at the couple in the doorway. A woman with long, fiery red hair; sparkling emerald green eyes; and red fins and King James stood there, smiling softly at the children.
"Oh, the waves roll low
And the waves roll high
And so it goes
Under a bright blue
Endless sky
Waves try to measure
The days that we treasure
Wave hello
And wave goodbye," Queen Lily sang softly as she watched her children before whispering a quiet 'good night' and leaving the room with her husband in tow.
"Ah, yes. The king loved his queen, and he took every opportunity to show her."
The mer-people surrounded a small lagoon, hidden from view of passing boats. The princesses and prince of Atlantica were playing around, swimming, giggling, laughing, and splashing. You name it they were doing it. The king and queen sat on a sun warmed rock, smiling softly at each other before the king pulled out a small music box. It was a simple thing, nothing fancy. Small, round, baby blue and pink with silver trimming and designs of the world above.
Engraved on the side was Lily, love of my life. The queen grinned as she gently took the box and opened it. A small image of the two appeared, dancing to what had been dubbed Lily's song, the one that she always sang to her children before they went to sleep at night.
"Oh, mon! It was a magical time! The pure joy of song filled life in Atlantica. But even the brightest days can be darkened by an unseen tempest..." the voice started out loud and happy, but slowly decrescendo-ed in volume until it was but a soft, eerily whisper.
King James looked over with wide eyes as the bright, clear sky suddenly became clouded and gray. Lightning flash around and thunder boomed as the pirate ship came around the bend. The mer-people began to hurry away, deep into the ocean to hide from the crazy men that leaned over the side of the boat. Nets, wires, and hooks all at the ready to snag whatever sea living thing they could get. The young prince and princesses squealed as the boat got closer and King James immediately dove from his spot and grabbed his children, taking them deep into the water so that they would be safe.
His eyes moved from one small form to another and then to the mer-people, the people who trusted him to look out for them, the people that he ruled over. He took in the scared eyes and faces, the way the mothers hugged their children to their breasts, the way husbands hugged their families and tried to comfort them. Then, he looked at his own family and felt relief wash over him, until he noticed that he was one child and wife short. Hazel eyes searched frantically through the vast openness of the sea before flying to look up at the land above.
He could see the two of them, side by side, Lily holding the little boy to her chest as the ship got closer and closer to them. Fear gripped the man's heart as he watched his wife shove their only son away and quickly swam back up, grabbing his fins and jerking him down. The little boy hit his head, hard, on the rocks surrounding them and fell into unconsciousness. James watched in horror as his wife disappeared with the ship as it crashed against the rocks. He had no idea if she had died with the pirates or if she was just lost somewhere, no memory.
His eyes spotted the music box and, holding his unconscious child close, he picked it up, listening to the melody before becoming angry. Growling in hurt and anger the merman chunked it out, far into the sea.
"Somewhere in the chaos Queen Lily was lost to us," the voice whispered sadly, "Each note of that lovely melody seemed to deepen the king's anguish. He could not bear to hear it."
The man glared at the child he held in his arms, it was his fault that his precious wife and unborn child were dead, his fault that he would never get to hold either of them. Shaking his head, the merman tried to put such thoughts out of his mind. It was no one's fault that the queen and unborn princess were dead, no one's fault, except those terrible humans and the damn music. It was the music's fault for distracting him from his duty to protect his wife and family!
Stuck in his belief the king swam over to his son and checked him over before taking everyone back to Atlantica.
"From that moment on, the king's heart stayed dark. And music was banned from Atlantica...forever," the voice remarked, "Ten years later, Atlantica looked the same, but I can't say that about...everything..."
"Time to rise girls," a male voice ordered as the seaweed hanging as the door was shoved aside. It revealed a tall merman, almost as tall as King James, with light green fins, long silver hair, and brown eyes floating there, arms folded across his wide chest. He was glaring at the sleeping figures of the royal children.
They all groaned and flipped over in bed, covering their heads with pillows. The youngest child, a merboy of only fourteen groaned, rolled onto his back and pulled the pillow over his face while angrily muttering, "Governess."
The governess glared at the seven of them before swimming over to the first princess and jerked the pillow out of her grip. "Hey!" she shouted indignantly.
"Get up," the man repeated.
"Why so early?" one of the younger ones inquired, her dark hair flying into her face when she sat up to look at the man.
"You can't be late in meeting up with your father," was the merman's only reply.
A different princess sat up, this one with the same dark hair as the other, "But it's still dark out," she complained, forgetting that she had a put a small mask on her face the night before.
Another merman, this one having entered at the same time as the first and a helper to the governess, swam over and jerked the thing from the girl's face before handing it back to her. "Oh. Hi." she exclaimed with an embarrassed smile.
A different princess, this one with a dark red hair buried her face into her pillow. "Oh, I was dreaming about a boy," she whimpered.
"Yes, yes, come on girls," the merman sighed in annoyance.
"But I need my beauty sleep," another girl with dark hair whined.
"Tell me about it," the last girl, this one with blonde hair, agreed leaning over to look at her sister.
"Easy for you, No one cares what you look like, but I..." the girl whined again, only to be cut off by their governess.
"Move it!" he finally snapped at them.
"Can't we meet Father later?" the first female inquired.
"Unfortunately I don't get to make those kinds of decisions," the man chuckled, then allowed them to trail off and scratched his chin, "Any decisions really."
All seven of King James children yawned, his only son having fallen back asleep during their governess'...chat with his sisters. The man's eyes narrowed at seeing the sleeping prince and six almost sleeping princesses.
"GET UP!" he shouted, startling the females and causing the prince to open one eye to look at him.
Sighing, the girls got out of bed, mumbling something about having heard him and that they were going as fast as they could. His eyes moved back to the prince, who had turned over on his side and drifted off back to sleep. How he hated that boy. Always acting so spoiled and getting into trouble. He should be learning to be a leader because he was the one meant to take over the thrown, but no he had to go off acting like a...a trouble maker or something. Keeping quiet the man floated over to the smallest teen's bed and tipped it so that he slid out onto the floor. The dark haired boy let out a squeak of surprise before glaring up through his bangs at the man.
"Alright, Move your tails. This is our special time with your father," he told the, acting as if he had not just tossed the teen out of his bed.
Snorting, the prince pushed himself up and sat on the ledge that surrounded their 'window.'
"Special? There's nothing special about it. It's the same every damn morning," Harry, the prince, stated as if commenting on the weather.
The blonde haired princess, Luna, paused in putting on her lipstick and blinked before looking over and nodded. "He's got a good point."
Sighing in irritation, the man, Salazar, shook his head. "That's what your father cares about. Predictability, presentation, punctuality." He waved his hand to emphasize his point.
Glancing down at the brush that Salazar had placed in his hands the boy whispered, "That's all he cares about."
Again, Luna nodded and repeated, "He's got a point."
One of the dark haired princesses, Padma, glared at the blonde and shoved her out of the way. "You've got your own mirror!"
Severus, the merman from before, popped his head into the room and muttered two minutes, which set Salazar off and he started snapping to them about primping. They looked at him for a moment before turning back to get ready and began talking about things that had happened the day before and after they finished their duties.
"Come on, Harry," the eldest princess, Pansy, swam over to her baby brother and gently took the brush from his hands before starting to brush his long, silky black hair.
"Why can't he let us do something different for a change? Just one time I wish we could do something other than go on stupid walks," he whispered, tears burning his eyes, but the teen held the back and looking at his older sister imploringly.
Smiling softly the older, dark haired girl finished brushing her brother's hair and looked at him. "Give him a break Har. He's the king, remember? You try running a king-" she allowed her words to trail off, remembering that the person she was talking to would one day be running the kingdom.
Emerald eyes, so like their mother's, narrowed in anger at the words and he shot up to turn and glare down at the eldest princess. "I won't run it like this!" he snarled, "I won't make my children so damned unhappy that they never want to be around me!"
Sighing softly, the older shook her head and slowly got up before heading back over to the mirror, "Don't upset him, Harry."
Still glaring, Harry looked over at his sister. "Just because you're the oldest, Pansy, doesn't mean you get to boss us around."
Laughing and shooting a small smirk over her shoulder at her brother she placed the brush down. "Yes, it does."
"Severus," Salazar hissed as he waited for the royals to finish getting ready, "if we are late again, I will never get a promotion."
"Salazar," the dark haired merman whispered as he spotted their charges coming their way.
"Come on, girls...and Harry," Pansy stated, shooting a grin over at her brother.
The other six muttered agreement and followed after their sister and towards their father, giving Salazar weird looks as he started rambling about loving his job and how looking after them is what he lived for. As soon as Harry was out the door he looked at Severus and growled, "I hate this job!"
The dark haired merman could understand, but made sure to mention that the less he said about the matter was better. They did not want the king getting the wrong idea about them.
The seahorses were whining and panting as King James sat on his throne, waiting for his children to arrive for their morning walk. Just then a small seashell, attached to two seahorses came soaring into the room."Woah! Woah!" a female voice shouted as seahorses came to a stop and a small, red crab shoved itself up correctly, turning the seashell right and looking at the king with a smile.
"Good morning, Your Highness," the crab greeted.
"Hermione," the king gave a small nod in reply to the crab, "anything to report?"
The crab, Hermione, cleared her throat delicately and parked her little make shift ride and climbed up to sit on the armrest of the king's throne. "Unfortunately, the sprat and the..." she shrieked as she almost slipped, "smelt were still squabbling. No worries though, I told them I'd sic the salmon on them."
The king chuckled and nodded. "Hermione, what would I do without you?"
Grinning to herself the crab replied with a, "You'd be out negotiatin' with the sprat and the smelt, that's what."
In the distance you could hear the princesses and prince chattering about something, and slowly getting closer to the throne room.
As they entered the room, Pansy made shh-ing noises until they were all situated in the right order, hands clasped behind their back.
"Good morning, girls, Harry," the man greeted.
Bowing slightly at the waist they all returned the greeting before straightening up. "Salazar," the man stated monotone.
"Good morning, Your Majesty," the man greeted, going into a low bow at the waist.
Hermione cleared her throat and gave the governess a pointed look. "Hermione."
"You're late," the crab pointed out.
"I...that is to say...uh..." Salazar chuckled before letting out a quiet groan when he realized that he had no excuse.
"Well, I presume you've all been attending to your royal duties this week," James remarked, eyebrow rose towards his only son.
"Yes, Father. We've been working diligently," Pansy spoke up for her brother, knowing that he would say something to upset their father if he were allowed to answer.
"We're always done early," Harry informed his father anyway.
Narrowing her eyes, Pansy shushed her brother, but he ignored her in favor of moving towards the front. "And the coral is in bloom," he continued.
"Clam it!" one of his sisters hissed.
"Enough Harry!" another snarled.
Ignoring them all he continued as if he had not been interrupted. "So I thought...maybe we could go for a swim on the reef?" he looked up at his father with puppy dog eyes, knowing that it would usually work on whoever he decided to use it on since he still looked so innocent.
Not even taking time to think about his son's offer, not realizing what the teen was trying to do he turned it down. Still, the teen tried. "But it only happens once a year. It could be fun."
"I don't have the time."
Steeling himself for what he was about to say the dark haired boy took a deep breath and pressed forward. "I was thinking we could just...skip the morning walk," he suggested.
"Harry!" Hermione snapped, "Your father said no."
Sighing in defeat, the teen allowed his head to hang, dark hair covering his eyes from view and whispered a quiet 'yes sir' before moving back to his place at the back of the line. The girls all made comments about how their brother had upset their father, again as he got into his place and as their father rose from his seat and headed out of the room.
"Let's move it!" Salazar snapped as he swam past the teens.
"Ok, we're coming."
"Time to go."
"Great."
"Here they come!" a bronze haired, hazel eyed merman exclaimed as he hurried over to the other side of the street to stand with a blonde haired, brown eyed woman.
Harry followed behind his family, sighing every so often as he allowed his hand to trail over some seaweed, pulling one out of the ground as he did so. Up ahead of him Ginevra, better known as Ginny, was waving and smiling at a boy off to the side. Grinning as a thought came to him, Harry snuck up behind his sister and tickled her with the seaweed in his hand, causing the girl to shriek and move away from him. The younger teen laughed, clutching his sides as he watched the boy off to the side make a funny face at his sister's reaction.
"That's it," the red head snarled as she took off after her baby brother. The two of them played a game of chase, using seaweed as a weapon to tickle each as they did so. At one point, Ginny was able to get the item from her brother and chased him around, through the others and around the buildings.
"Your Majesty," Hermione stated, getting the king's attention," I was thinking about making some changes in the palace staff."
"Huh?" Salazar's eyes widened as the words left the crab's mouth.
"Really?" James inquired as they came to a stop outside of another building.
"Got it!"
"Watch it!"
"Careful!"
The girls exclaimed as they were knocked over by Harry and Ginevra. They were smiling softly and giggling at what had happened. "Get up!" Salazar hissed when he turned around and saw them piled on the ground. Laughing, they looked at each other muttering things like 'cuckoo' and rolling their eyes at their governess.
"That will be all, Hermione, Salazar. Good day, girls," James dismissed them and everyone took off as quickly as they could, until James' words stopped some of them, "Harry."
Groaning under his breath Harry stopped and turned back to face his father, hands clasped behind his back and head hung. "Yes, Daddy?" he inquired, looking at the man through his bangs.
Padma and Parvati whispered about James seeing angrier than usual and that it was time to go. James arms were crossed over his wide chest as he stared down at his small son, who looked so sad and innocent.
"A prince does not tickle a princess with seaweed," he scolded with a stern look, refusing to crack under the puppy dog eyes his son was giving him.
"You saw that?" Harry whispered embarrassedly, "I was just trying to have some fun."
"You disrupted your sisters," James told him monotone.
He did not have a reply to that other than the fact that the older six had laughed.
"Well, I didn't," James snapped.
"Daddy, why can't..." Harry tried, only to be interrupted.
"Is it too much to ask that you simply walk with your family?" James inquired annoyance and irritation lacing his tone.
Harry was fed up with all of this. Glaring his eyes he stared up at his father, fists clenched at his sides. "That's all we ever do!"
"Harry."
"Can't we do something different?" the teen pleaded.
"Enough!" James thundered, drawing the attention of some nearby mer-people,"You have to learn to respect the way I run this kingdom!"
His lips pulled back in a snarl as his fists tightened.
"Barnacles," James ordered, holding out a small scoop used to pry them off.
The small teen was shocked out of his anger before frowning. "That'll take all day," he argued.
"Well, then you'd better get started, young man."
Snatching the item out of his father's hand the teen turned and swam off. "I hate this place," he snarled as he left.