The Great Lake of Hogwarts had attracted Amy the first time she'd seen it.

Something inside her ached to get under there and swim. Bathtubs were fine but they lacked the depth she could feel from the lake.

Aside from that first time in the beach, she hadn't swum in any waters that were deeper than a foot. She wanted. She wanted so badly it made her want to cry.

Around their first month in Hogwarts, she signed to Hermione, "I think I'm a m-e-r-m-a-i-d," fingerpselling the last word.

To Hermione's credit, she wasn't disbelieving. "You think?" she asked. Her eyebrows were going up her forehead. Her eyes caught on the starfish hairpins on Amy's hair seemingly against her will.

"I drowned but I didn't drown. I could breath," Amy signed.

Hermione rubbed her eyes. "Sign that again, I think I saw that wrong."

Amy laughed, signing it again, slower and more deliberately. "I drowned some time ago. Then I swam? I was breathing water. Then I got out and I couldn't speak."

Hermione's face went slack. "Oh. Of course. You can speak, I heard you screech at Malfoy. You were speaking Mermish. Not English. I need to go to the Library."

Amy wasn't disappointed. When Hermione got back, she had the instructions on how to make the bubblehead charm.

"I wasn't going to let you go by yourself. It might take a while, because I need to practice it. While you swim, I'm going to wait for you."

Amy threw herself at Hermione and hugged her tight.

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"She's a nightmare!" Ron said loudly. "No wonder she only has Potter as a friend, she can't say a thing."

Normally, Hermione would run away and cry in a bathroom because she didn't want people to see her cry.

Normally, Amy would start hexing first, and then cry privately.

Now, Ron had insulted the both of them at the same time.

Hermione, in defense of her friend, punched Ron in the mouth.

Amy, at the same time, casted a knockback jinx and sent him flying.

Both girls went on their merry way, holding each other's hands and heads held high and no tears in sight.

"You might be a nightmare," Amy signed clumsily. "But you're mine. My friend."

"And you're mine," Hermione signed back.

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Ron Weasley became a friend when he saw her signing, and asked his family for a notebook.

"Here," he thrust at her. "So you stop buying those muggle notebooks. It's enchanted."

It was an apology. She saw it in the way he hunched his shoulders. He was embarrassed and apologetic.

"It's okay," she wrote. "I forgive you."

She thrust her ratty notebook at him and examined the new one he offered.

"It won't run out of paper," he explained. "And you can use your wand to write things. I asked Percy for that spell. So you don't need to keep using pens."

It was certainly a cleaner way to communicate, if faster.

Amy's face nearly split with her smile, her delight shining through.

"Thank you! Teach me that spell?"

His smile was crooked and he taught her the spell clumsily. But it was the first friend she'd made outside of Hermione.

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Hermione and Ron meeting after that fight reminded her of cats and dogs.

Amy's smile was bemused as she watched her friend nearly hiss at Ron.

But Ron stayed.

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The first time Amy swam in the Great Lake, she had two people waiting for her in the shore with towels, blankets and hot chocolate in a thermos.

Hermione had several books spread out around her and Ron was writing several letters for home. But both of them glanced to the still water periodically.

On Amy's side, she tactically avoided the clumps of seaweed since she'd learned that Grindylows preferred tangling their prey there.

Once she got into the Lake proper, something in her relaxed and she swam with glee.

Technically, she still didn't know how to swim, but kicking her legs was instinct and when her eyes adjusted, she could see everything.

Normal humans couldn't see in the dark, but Amy could see far enough to spot the lakebed.

Of course, when she spotted the lakebed, she also spotted the merpeople living there.

They also saw her and approached, sharp spears and pointy teeth.

What caught her attention were their tails, dark and slightly green, blending incredibly well with the dark water.

Something in her yearned. She didn't have a tail.

"Identify yourself," the nearest one said, the sharp spear in his grasp looking incredibly threatening.

"I'm Amy Potter," she greeted, thrilled to be able to have normal conversation with someone. "Your tails are beautiful."

There's a silence, then, "You can speak. You are..."

They looked at her in wonder. Amy didn't mind. She was in water and she was talking to someone. She didn't mind waiting for other people's hang-ups.

"Your voice is beautiful," one of the mermaids said, swimming near her with a flick of her tail. "You must not use it often."

Amy blushed, then laughed. "I live in land. When I speak, they don't understand me. I don't use my voice at all."

There was a flurry of activity around her. "It is beautiful. We will teach you how to sing."

"Teach me to swim first," she pleaded. "I have some beautiful hairpins for your hair."

"It's a bargain!"

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When Amy surfaced, Hermione toweled her dry, gave her a blanket and fed her the hot chocolate.

Ron held the blanket while Hermione held the towel, both of them giving her cover as she changed her wet clothes.

"It was amazing," Amy gushed, signs quick and jerky but still understandable. "There are so many merpeople in there and they want to teach me how to swim and sing."

"Hold up," Hermione said, speaking for Ron who was still a bit slow on the signing comprehension. "You didn't know how to swim and you dived under there?"

Amy giggled, still riding on the high of being that deep in water. "Well, it's not like I can drown."

Hermione made an incomprehensible noise of frustration. Ron wordlessly patted her on the back.

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I'm gonna finish posting the pre-written chapters tomorrow...

Reviews please!

~hallen