Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There is also references to child abuse and just abusive behaviors in general. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: So… I've shoved two Disney movies, a Disney TV show, a few references to the related level of Kingdom Hearts, and the original Hans Christian Anderson version in a blender and turned it on high. Enjoy your Little Mermaid smoothie, peoples.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 14); MC4A (Year 4)
Individual Challenges: Best Stories (Y); La Vie Boheme; Neurodivergent; Rian-Russo Inversion; Rian-Russo Inversion; Ethnic & Present; Ethnic & Present; Setting Sail; Gwen's HP Bribery (Y); Hold the Mayo (Y); Gender Bender; Citrus Sale; Color Galore; Knightly Era; Old Shoes (Y); Feathers & Such; Short Jog (Y); Bucket Listing (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon; Greatest Gift
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 14 – Assignment 10
Subject (Task No.): Thaumatology (Task#1: Write a Disney AU.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Fantastic Beasts [129](Mermaid AU); 365 Prompts [236](Mermaid AU); Scavenger Hunt [21](Heterosexual Character)
Other MC4A Challenges: SpB [3B](Sunshine); TrB [5D](Mutual Pining); Ship (Heroic Shadow)[Sp Big](Ribbon/Cord)/[Sp Med 1](First Kiss)/[Sp Med 2](Making a Drink)/[Sp Mic 1](Merperson)/[Sp Mic 2](Ring)/[Bingo](5B - Grand Romantic Gesture); Hunt [Sp Set](Boat)/[Sp Con](Herbs/Spices)/[Sp Con](Salad); Chim [Isopra](Gender Bend; Royal Purple; Jewelry)
Representation(s): Desi & Autistic Harry Potter/Blaise Zabini; Merkin AU; Familial Abandonment
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; White Dress; Nontraditional; Sneeze Weasel); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Pear-Shaped; Wabi Sabi; Fizzy Lemonade); Demo 1 (Inky Shadow; Easy Zephyr; Most Human Bean; Where Angels Fear; Esbat; Ariel's Temptation); Demo 2 (Cooler Yelp; Sailor's Delight; Creature Feature; Infinity; Forked Path; Mermaid); Demo 1 [x6](Deadliest Catch; Muck & Slime; Morrigan's Tentacles; Under the Bridge; Triton's Domain; Suddenly Audrey); Demo 2 [x](A Long Dog; Abandoned Ship; Surprise!; Call Me Dantes;Sitting Hummingbird; Some Beach; Hot Stuff; Tootsies)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Toad); SN (Rail; Spare); CM (Brier; Yogin)
Word Count: 1687 words
(^^)
To the Fathoms
(^^)
Harini carefully carried the large wooden bowl of salad as she followed behind McGonagall, who was using large wooden forks to serve a potion to each person seated at the big table. The process had bruised the mint that Snape liked to use when he knew that Harini would be helping McGonagall serve. The cook fancied himself a chef, and Lord Malfoy spoke highly of the man's cooking. Too bad the man himself was as bitter as nettle, and seemed to delight in whatever petty torments he wished to inflict upon the staff, like deliberately including mint in any dishes that Harini had to help serve.
Already, she could feel the smell choking her. Her breath was making a whistling sound. That more than anything drew McGonagall's attention. The old woman frowned sternly at Harini as if she was doing it just to vex her. Fortunately, they were done except for the Lord's family, who Harini was not allowed to serve at all. McGonagall took the bowl and pointed sharply towards the servant door.
No doubt Harini would be getting another lecture on needing to not make unnecessary noises, but for the moment, she was just thankful to get away from that hateful herb. She needed a drink of water from the pitcher kept aside just for servants so that they didn't need to go all the way to the well. Drinking something usually helped to clear her throat when she had to breathe minty air.
Even if it did mean that she got to see Snape's satisfied smirk when she showed up without McGonagall at her heels.
She poured herself a bit of the water, grateful that she'd be able to breathe again normally in short order.
Only she noticed a slight discoloration to the water along with specks of what looked like crushed and dried leaves. Dreading confirmation but already suspecting what must have happened, she carefully brought the water close enough to sniff. Sure enough, it had the distinct bite of mint to it.
She heard Snape snickering in glee behind her.
"Maybe you shouldn't be so picky," he said snidely through his laughter. She poured the water back into the pitcher. Then, huffing to force air through her swollen throat, she left the kitchens to start the long walk across the kitchen garden to the well by the seawall.
The well was fed by an underground spring which also fed the aqueducts which kept the gardens watered. According to the history Harini had found in the castle's library, her parents had designed the system before she had been born. Her father hadn't even been a servant, despite how dark he had been in the few pictures she had found of her parents. He had actually been the lord of the castle instead of Lord Malfoy. Her mother had been a doctor from the university in town, with skin the color of shadows, hair the color of flames, and eyes that were the same deep green as Harini's own.
A great monster had attacked the aqueducts when Harini had been a baby. Her parents had fought bravely, but they had perished alongside much of their army. The Malfoys had taken over the castle by order of the King while Harini had been sent to live with her mother's sister. Aunt Petunia had not been happy about the situation, and as soon as McGonagall had offered a position for Harini at the castle, she had sent Harini away, glad to be rid of her.
It wasn't bad, working at the castle. When she could manage it, Harini made her way to the seawall that had built to keep out monsters like the one that had killed her parents. Though there was other things that the wall kept out as well. She pushed herself a little faster, despite how she was still having difficulty breathing.
The day's last rays of sunlight barely shown over the seawall. That was the time when he normally came to the grate that allowed a bit of the sea into the tidal pools maintained for the castle's noble family. Harini had noticed him a few months ago when she had been hiding from Lord Malfoy's son and the brew-mistress' youngest son alike. Both boys were bothering her for the same thing. Ron might have been interested in more than a tumble in the stables, but Lord Draco definitely wasn't. Not that she was interested in either of them, even before she had seen the merboy watching her.
They hadn't exchanged a single word. She had brought him small trinkets she had found and thought might interest him. Most of them were bits and bobs of things like an old spring or bobbin that were just going to be thrown out. She had found a small trinket box full of chipped glass beads. She had strung them on a well-oiled piece of twine and left it for him.
In exchange, he had brought her gifts from the sea. The shells were what she loved the most. They were a deep purple, even darker than the blue-violet that Lady Malfoy wore in her fanciest frocks. If she tilted them in light, they shimmered like the haze that hung over the horizon in the summer. They were the prettiest thing she had ever seen.
But best of all, the shells reminded her of him, of the color of his eyes and his tentacles.
Sure enough, he was there again. Harini was struck anew by how handsome he was. His skin was even darker than her mother's had been. Towards the line where his human torso met the mess of tentacles that made up his bottom half, it shifted, almost like a fade, into the royal purple. The undersides of his tentacles were a rosy pink, like the dark pink roses that grew beneath the master bedroom of the castle.
She had always been so careful not to get too close, but oh, how she wanted to touch. Was it as soft as it
looked? Would it be warm or cool? His tentacles shifted as if reacting to her thoughts. Or maybe he was just restless. Feeling like she was being pulled on a string like a child's toy dog, she drifted closer.
She stopped at the waters edge.
He wrapped his hands around the bars of the grate, a ring on one finger glinting in the setting sun.
She waded into the pool a few steps, careful not to crush any oysters by instinct more than intent as small fish darted around her ankles.
It was like she couldn't look away.
His gaze was locked on her as well.
The water was around her knees. Her skirt made it difficult to move as it grew sodden and heavy from the sea it was soaking up. It would take hours beside the fireplace for it to dry or days in the laundry room. McGonagall was going to be so annoyed with the hassle of it.
"What are you doing, you daft girl?" the woman snapped as she yanked Harini out of both the pool and whatever pull she had been under. Her cheeks had two spots of dark pink on them which combined with her habitual frown made her look particularly livid. She gave Harini a shake hard enough to rattle her teeth. "There are better ways of getting out of your duties than drowning yourself. Such dramatics."
When Harini looked back as they stumbled back onto the shore, he was gone.
(^^)
It was late when Harini slipped down to the castle docks. Her pale nightgown glowed brightly in the full moon overhead. She had braided her thick curls with a wide ribbon that matched his eyes. The cool stone of the docks felt cool beneath her bare feet as she walked to where it jutted out from the face of the cliff that curved around this side of the castle. It felt even more cool as she climbed down into one of the rowboats moored to carved pillars of the dock.
The wooden handles of the oars were rough against her palms as she slotted them into place. Then with strong strokes, she rowed away from the dock and the castle that had been her home for the last several years. The open sea awaited her.
Harini had barely cleared the riptide line when he rose out of the water in front of her boat. His hands wrapped around the little crest on the bow. He had two tentacles flopped over the edge on either side of the bow. His eyes were as dark as the night sky stretching out above them.
She pulled in the oars so that they wouldn't fall into the water. Then she moved towards him, reaching out with a desperate need to finally touch him. His skin was warm against her palms, even as his tentacles felt cold through the fabric of her nightgown as they wrapped around her waist. His lips felt like brands as they pressed against her own as his hands pressed into her hair.
She was only barely aware of being moved. It seemed unimportant compared to the way his tongue was plying her mouth to open up. She felt the way he seemed to be everywhere at once, surrounding her and wrapping around her. It was the safest she could ever remember feeling.
A tentacle each wrapped around her legs, pulling them apart as another pair stroked up her thighs to prod at her most intimate places. She moaned against his mouth as they pressed into her, filled as she had never even thought of being filled before. A battle waged inside her, fiery heat and frigid ice twisting around as she writhed in his possessive hold. Pressure built both inside her and without, a study in contradictions.
Harini screamed as the tension within her snapped like a cord pulled too taunt.
No sound escaped her open mouth.
Only bubbles carrying the last bits of air as she was pulled beneath the waves to start a new life in the mysterious fathoms below.