Disclaimer: Still not Rowling. Or whoever owns Mermaid Melody.
Also, again, is short. However, is existing.
There's another project that's taken up quite a bit of my time, so ... this is what you get.
Until said project is done and posted up here too.
Paperwork. It had been unfamiliar to Nikora, but now it was rapidly becoming second nature. She understood that it was important to have things written down so that they wouldn't be forgotten as time passed, but that sort of record keeping was the full extent of mermaid literacy - they only wrote things that they thought were important.
Humans on the other hand, possibly because they didn't have to do all their writing with a chisel on especially hard, erosion-resistant stone, seemed to want to write down everything.
She'd much rather insist on each student giving a spoken answer instead of an essay, but that would mark her out even more from the rest of the teachers, and that would not do. For Seira's sake, not to mention the sake of everyone else in the world, she couldn't draw attention. That would defeat the whole point of being here. Sure, this castle had high, strong walls and layered defences that had taken centuries to build, but anonymity was just as effective a defence as all of that stone and magic.
Halfway through grading one of the seemingly endless stream of essays, she was jolted out of her half-asleep state by someone else storming into the staff room.
Glancing up, the source of this unusual disruption was, surprisingly, McGonagall.
The Scottish woman had struck Nikora as someone who was in full control of their emotions, but she was definitely irritated right now.
Not wanting to attract the attention of an angry McGonagall, Nikora remained silent, even though she was rather curious about the cause of this uncharacteristic display.
The arrival of the short and pleasant Flitwick brought a quick end to Nikora's curiosity as the amusing Charms professor had the courage to ask McGonagall the question that Nikora was afraid of.
It seemed that the 'High Inquisitor' from the Ministry had turned up and had most definitely rubbed McGonagall up the wrong way.
From her description, Nikora began to dread her inspection, even though it wouldn't happen for another week.
" ...and," McGonagall was continuing to vent at her patient colleague."I found a stash of dirty magazines in the dorms!"
"That's not all that unusua-" Flitwick tried to say, before McGonagall swept on.
"In the first year girls' dorm."
The little Charms professor couldn't find anything to say about that.
Luckly for him, though, McGonagall had finally noticed Nikora.
"Oh, and Nanami? One of my prefects found your ... daughter?" The Scottish woman shrugged. "Anyway, they found her and a couple of first year Hufflepuffs sneaking out of the kitchens last night. I thought you'd like to know."
Nikora sighed. They hadn't been at Hogwarts for long and Seira was already sneaking out at night? She'd better have a good excuse, Nikora thought to herself as she nodded back to McGonagall.
