Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition:

Round 11 – Ron Overreacting

2016 Multi-School Tournament:

Hogwarts Week 1 – Mermaid!AU

Defence Against the Dark Arts

Task #1: Write about being freed from something or escaping from something. Alternatively, write about someone being repelled by something/someone.

Extra Prompts:

(colour) purple

(dialogue) "You don't really appreciate the fresh air and blue sky until you haven't seen it for a while."

(emotion) despair

Pokemon Trading Card Challenge

(plot/theme) Viewing/fixing a lake/ocean which has been polluted by oil or man-made waste

September Event

(word) Confession

(emotion) Interested

You Scratch My Back

Hermione sighed as she considered her predicament and a wave of despair washed over her. Once again, she had only been trying to help, to make the world a better place, and now here she was being punished for all her good intentions. Sure, it was probably a bad idea for her to have come out here alone, at twilight soon to be full dark, when no one knew where she was but when she had seen the rubbish floating in the lake, her lake, she just had to clear it up.

"Well, Hermione," she whispered to herself as she watched the oars float further and further away, "this is what you get for thinking you know it all. Now what are you going to do?"

She really had no idea, she didn't know how far it was back to the shore, and the darker it got the less sure she was of even the direction that she should swim in. Hermione shivered, drawing her thin summer jacket tighter onto her shoulders as the night descended bringing with it the cold, and a slight mist that hung over the water.

It was completely uncharacteristic, and went against a good 40% of her beliefs, but in that moment Hermione felt such an overwhelming sense of loneliness and hopelessness, that she burst into tears. They weren't the quiet, pretty tears that one would expect from such a slight, delicate girl, but rather the great, heart-wrenching sobs of someone who knows they are completely alone. That no one is around to hear them sounding like a cow in labour.

"Why are you crying?"

Hermione shrieked, mid sob, and jumped so hard that the boat she was sat in rocked dangerously, water nearly sloshing over the sides. She scrambled around, looking across the water for the source of the voice but could see nothing and no one.

"Down here," the voice insisted and, cautiously, Hermione peered over the side of the boat. Sure enough a pale head floated there, wreathed with thick, ginger hair and beaming a bright smile. "Hi!" he chirped lifting a hand out of the water to wave at her. Hermione almost fainted when she noticed the translucent webbing that interlinked his fingers. "I'm Ron!"

"H-h-how did you get out here?" Hermione whispered, her eyes wide, her heart in her mouth.

"I swam," he said as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. Which, to be perfectly honest, it was. "I was swimming when I heard you crying. You know," Ron took a deep breath in through his nose, "you don't really appreciate the fresh air and blue sky until you haven't seen it for a while. Well, not blue, more black at the moment, but you get my meaning."

"And why wouldn't you have seen it in a while?" Hermione asked, an idea already hovering in the back of her mind but her intensely rational, logical mind refused to accept even the evidence her eyes were providing her.

Ron sighed. "I thought you might have figured that out by now," he waggled his co-joined fingers at her, "but I guess you're one of those people who has to see everything to believe even a little of it."

Ron disappeared back under the dark water, with a gasp Hermione leant as far over the side of the boat as she dared, peering into the murky depths in hope of catching sight of her mysterious companion. She didn't have to wait long. The water beside her began to bubble and heave before finally erupting. As Hermione tumbled backwards, into the relative safety of her boat, Ron dove gracefully through the air and splashed back into the water, accompanied by the strong, beautiful, iridescent purple tail that fused with his body where his legs should have been.

Hermione had no choice, she had to accept the fact that what she was seeing was real. This, this man was a-a mermaid. So she did the only logical thing, she began to hyperventilate. She crawled into the bottom of the boat and hugged her knees to her chest, breathing hard and fast.

Ron put his hands on the side of the boat and heaved himself out of the water slightly so he could look at the girl. It was obvious she was afraid, terrified even, and that made him mad. His previously interested expression morphed into one of disgust. He had come up here to help her, to save her from freezing out here all alone and this was the thanks he got.

"Hey!" Ron shouted, rocking the boat harshly to get her attention. "Listen, human, I know this is a lot to take in but seriously, what do you think I'm going to do? Eat you? What myth, legend or fairy tale have you ever read about cannibalistic Merfolk? I come up here and try to help you and this is the reaction I get; you know one day I'm going to learn to stop helping you stupid creatures before one of you gets me put in a tank. I'm out of here, get back to shore by yourself." He was breathing hard now too, anger flushing his cheeks as he gripped this side of the boat so hard his knuckles turned white. With another angry huff, Ron pushed off the side of the boat and dove back into the water.

"Wait!"

He heard the voice and really considered not going back, but something in her big, doe eyes had struck a chord in his chest and Ron found himself returning slowly to the surface. He crested the skin of the water and looked up at her. "Yes?"

"My name is Hermione," she whispered still looking a little afraid, "but I would really like your help, Ron, if you wouldn't mind helping me that is. It's getting really cold and, and I really don't want to be left out here alone." The last bit was whispered, as if an embarrassing confession.

Ron floated, suspended in the water and watched her carefully. For a moment, Hermione was sure he would disappear back beneath the water anyway and leave her to her fate but after a tense moment he sighed.

"I'll take you back to shore," he conceded, gliding towards her, "but on the one condition."

"Anything," she gasped, her eyes brimming with relieved and grateful tears. "Just, please, get me out of here."

"Promise you'll come back tomorrow?"

Hermione hesitated, but quickly smiled not wanting to anger him again. "Of course."