Title/Link: Breaking the Surface
Team: Appleby Arrows
Position: Keeper
Season 9 Round 13
Task: KEEPER: [book] The Surface Breaks — Louise O'Neill
Bonus Prompts: n/a
Summary: Princess Hermione, of the Mer-Kingdom of Atalantis, turns 16 today and earns the right to head to the surface to see for herself the horrors of the human world. However, she comes face to face with something much more easy on the eyes. Cedmione, Merfolk!AU
Word Count: 1668
A/N: Here's another Cedmione one-shot! This one is mermaid themed, and let me just say, I now need a full mermaid!verse XD
Let me know who you would make into a mermaid, and who you would keep as a human :)
Thanks to my Captain DaughteroftheOneTrueKing, the rest of my team, and Drish for reading through and beta-ing.
I hope you enjoy! :)
The book that was to be my inspiration has the following summary:
"Deep beneath the sea, off the cold Irish coast, Gaia is a young mermaid who dreams of freedom from her controlling father. On her first swim to the surface, she is drawn towards a human boy. She longs to join his carefree world, but how much will she have to sacrifice?"
"Breaking the Surface"
Hermione sighed longingly as she stared out her window, a stark contrast to her friends chatting animatedly around her in excitement. Today was her 16th birthday, and they all woke up early to get her prepared for the day-long celebrations. As the daughter of the Merchieftain, Hermione's celebration would be the grandest out of their friend group. Only the best (as usual) would be presented to their princess. Pearls would be sewn into her hair, and she would be adorned with brightly colored corals and shells before being paraded around the city. Lastly, she would be taken to the tower, for her most anticipated part of the ceremony.
She would be able to finally breach the surface of the water, and gaze upon the nearby human kingdom, to witness the horror of the human world. This ceremony, the most important part of her sixteenth birthday, was meant to cement the merfolk's desire to stay beneath the waves, to reinforce their contentment at staying in the safety of their underwater kingdom.
"Hermione! I found this blue pearl the other day! I think it would look absolutely delightful as part of your headpiece!" Lavender giggled as she held out the large jewel for her friend to inspect. The twins, Padma and Parvati, cooed over the sheen, before Luna reached over and grabbed the pearl, her other hand holding the needle and thread she was using to secure the other pearls into Hermione's hair.
They had been sitting here for the past two hours, and they were only halfway done.
The conversation resumed around Hermione after she gave her heartfelt thanks, and she let herself drift back into her thoughts.
Hermione had always been a curious child, and, as such, had given her strict father many a headache. Between her constant questions and her desire to learn everything, King Richard had learned real quick to make sure a nursemaid was with his precious daughter every moment of the day, for fear of her running off to find her own answers.
Her nursemaid, however, only increased the amount of questions young Hermione had. When it was just the two of them, they would often sit in a small alcove within the rocks, or lay in a hole between the coral, and just stare up at the surface of the water, watching for ships, or even the occasional human trying to swim in the shallows in the distance.
Their kingdom, Atalantis, the sister city to the ancient Atlantis long lost to the mortal world, lay not too far off from the beach of the nearby human kingdom, and so these waters weren't as peaceful as King Richard hoped. He could be heard, more than once, lamenting their lack of resources to start a war. As she grew older, the talk of war only increased with every year, and Hermione had a bad feeling that with her birthday this year, her father would be ready to follow through on his promise.
But Hestia, her nursemaid, always managed to chase the thoughts of war from her mind with the fantastical stories she would make up. Or at least, Hermione thought Hestia made them up. At one point in time, she even thought her nursemaid had once been a human, but that was silly! Humans couldn't turn into merfolk, or even vice versa! It was simply illogical for a merfolk to sprout legs, or a human to sport a tail. She never asked, and Hestia never offered, so Hermione never knew where her nursemaid learned all of her stories. Hestia eventually had to leave her, but her stories never did.
The stories merely grew Hermione's thirst for knowledge of the human world. Her trip today would be a breath of fresh water for her, and she was excited to take in all that she could see. The waves above had been tumultuous the past few days, but it looked like they were starting to settle, to give her the perfect view of a freshly washed human kingdom.
Nothing else could happen to her today that would overwhelm her joy.
"All finished," came Luna's dreamy voice, and Hermione looked down at her long hair to find the pears expertly sewn in place. Her shawl of shells and coral was next draped onto her, and they all swam up as one, ready to get the rest of the day started.
The majority of the day was a blur to Hermione as she was paraded around the nobles in her father's ballroom. She did her duty as princess, floating beside her father and greeting everyone and accepting their congratulations at surviving another year. More than one noble's son was paraded before her, and she knew, before the day was out, she would be betrothed to one of them. She would be able to pick her three top choices out of the eight that was paraded before her, but her father had the final say.
He always had the final say…
But none of that mattered. The party quickly broke up to start them on the parade route, and once at the end, she would be at the tower to start her ascent. The tower was the highest building in their kingdom, and thus was the closest to the surface. Everyone, including herself, touched the large, worn stone laid in the center of the structure before she started her climb. The stone was worn down from age, and as Hermione's hand passed over the stone, her throat tightened as she remembered her mother, who must have done this before her.
As everyone in their kingdom had.
Her mother had gone missing, shortly after Hermione had turned three. Her father had hired Hestia only 5 months later, who then became Hermione's mother figure. When she had turned 13, Hestia had to leave, and so Hermione was bereft of a mother once more. Through rumors Hermione had heard from their servants whispering to each other, her mother had swam too close to the surface while a ship was nearby, and she was abducted. That story had explained why King Richard hated the humans so, but Hermione had never been satisfied by that answer. She just wasn't sure why.
Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she waited at the top of the tower for the sounding horn from below. They would tell her when she was allowed to ascend to the surface. And once she gazed her fill, she would drift back down for the party, and to join them all at the crowning ceremony, where she would officially become the Heir to the Throne of Atalantis.
The horn sounded, and Hermione took off, excitement filling her entire body. Her face broke through the water, and the light blinded her for a moment, pulling a gasp from her lips. She was not the only one to gasp, however. Whirling quickly, she looked on in mixed parts of horror and curiosity, as she came face to face with a handsome human, one who appeared to be slightly older than herself. His fair hair clung to his scalp from the spray washing up against the massive rock outcropping he had parked himself on, his hands paused as he held charcoal and parchment, as Hestia had once explained them, in his lap. Hermione pushed away from the rock to dive back in, but paused as he called out to her.
"Wait!" he said. His speech sounded slightly garbled to her, as if he had a harder time speaking in air than she and her sisters did in the water. "Who are you?"
"...Hermione." She found no harm in giving him her name. She would probably never see him again anyway. His smile was wide and bright, and she felt herself fall in love with him, her heart warming in the face of this human's wide-eyed wonder. Those warm feelings, however, were already being chased away by sorrow, as she remembered that, by the end of the night, she would be engaged to someone else that her father would choose. But for once, just this once, Hermione wanted to choose for herself. She wanted to choose this human.
The human in question crawled to the edge of the rock, to try to get closer to her, but Hermione warily swam back, to keep her distance.
"You're beautiful," he then whispered, his gaze riveted upon her. The look on his face was of one who was parched while only able to stare at a pool of water. "I am Prince Cedric Diggory." A blush covered her cheeks, much to her surprise.
She knew she couldn't stay, she had already been up here for too long to begin with. Someone would be sent after her soon.
"It was a pleasure to meet you, Prince Cedric Diggory," Hermione said before turning once more.
"Wait!" he called once more. "Won't you stay a while longer?" Hermione had to shake her head, and the frown on his face caused a pang to ring through her chest. "Then it was a delight to meet you, Hermione," he replied reverently. His eyes never left hers as she backed away, and she cursed the threat of her father's wrath, when faced with the beautiful human before her.
She turned to take one more look at him, knowing this would be the last time she would see him. Her father would never let her come back up here so long as he lived. She bit back a sob as she dove, ignoring Cedric's startled third call for her to wait, back to the darkness of her kingdom, back to her people who looked to her to lead them in the future, back to her father who waited for her proudly, who would keep her locked up for the rest of her life if he knew what had happened while she was at the surface.
She went back to her world that did not contain the human prince her heart instantly claimed as hers, and she mourned.