The next morning, Gabrielle woke up to find that Ginny and Hermione had already left. Getting out bed, she found a tank top and skirt. She quickly brushed her hair and plaited it into a single braid. She pulled a light, sleeveless robe on over her clothes and slipped her feet into some sandals.
When she came downstairs, Ginny and Hermione were already eating breakfast. They fell silent as soon as Gabrielle entered the kitchen, but she thought they had probably been fighting about something. Now they were carefully not looking at each other.
Gabrielle got herself some cereal and sat down between them, feeling awkward. They ate breakfast in an uneasy, tense silence. When they had finished, Gabrielle looked between the two girls.
"So… what are we going to do today?" she asked awkwardly.
Both girls looked at her, then got up and left the table – Hermione going upstairs and Ginny going outside.
After a moment of hesitation, Gabrielle followed Ginny outside. She caught up to her near the clearing where they played quidditch.
"What?" Ginny snapped, still walking towards the clearing.
"What's with you and Hermione?" Gabrielle asked her, managing to keep up with the other girl's longer stride.
After a moment, Ginny sighed. "She's still nagging me about coming out to my family."
"Well, why don't you?"
Ginny looked at her helplessly. "Not you too…"
Gabrielle shrugged. "Just asking."
"I just… I don't want to deal with it right now. What if… what if they flip out? What if they don't believe me? What if…" she closed her eyes, shaking her head. "I just don't feel ready, okay?"
Gabrielle shrugged. "Alright. But have a little faith in your family. They've lived with you your whole life. They'll deal with it."
Ginny shook her head. "I… can't."
"Well, when you're ready. You don't have to tell them if you don't want to."
Ginny smiled. "I will tell them… eventually."
Gabrielle nodded. "Okay. You want to go back, at least to put on some of that cream your mom made to keep us from getting sunburned."
Ginny nodded. "Do veela get sunburned?"
Gabrielle shook her head. "But part veela do. And even a part veela is hard put to look beautiful when her skin is burned red and peeling off."
"What? You mean you don't tan?" Ginny asked her, laughing.
"I don't, anyways."
"Then we'd better hurry. We wouldn't want to ruin your perfect complexion, now would we?"
Gabrielle just stuck her tongue out at Ginny. They raced each other back to the house, laughing as they ran.
Hermione was sitting at the kitchen table, reading a book while Ron and Harry ate breakfast.
"Hey," Harry greeted them as they came in.
"Good morning," Gabrielle responded. Ginny didn't say anything. She was watching Hermione with a cold gaze.
"Hi," the mousy hair witch greeted them shortly.
Harry looked between the two girls in confusion as Hermione stood up and stalked out of the kitchen.
"What was that all about?" Ron asked around a mouthful of toast.
"Nothing," Ginny snapped. She found a jar of the sun-cream, opening it.
By the time they'd finished spreading it over their skin, Harry and Ron were finished eating and had begun putting it on themselves.
"I'm going to go talk to Hermione. Then I'll be right out," Gabrielle told Ginny.
Ginny nodded and Gabrielle ran upstairs. Hermione was in Ginny's room, sitting on her mattress.
"You want to go outside with the rest of us?" Gabrielle asked her.
Hermione sighed. "All right. I'll be right down."
Gabrielle nodded and left to go join Ginny outside.
The next day the Weasleys, the Delacours, Harry, and Hermione all went to the beach. Fred and George spent the entire time trying to get people to buy their candies. After one of them – Gabrielle honestly couldn't tell them apart – managed to get someone to take a free sample of their fish-taffies and subsequently sprouted gills, they had had more customers than they could handle. When the customers discovered that there were actually several types of taffies, each giving you a different characteristic of some form of sea-life. The children at the beach had soon formed a game of it – trying to guess what each toffee did before eating it or trying to see what combinations they could come up with before the spell wore off and they reverted to human form.
Gabrielle watched, giggling, as a child with scales, webbed hands, and several octopus tentacles sprouting from his sides ran by chasing a little girl with gills and a shark's head into the water. Ginny walked over to her, handing her a toffee.
"A gift from Fred," she explained, giggling. "He says it's a special one and that you should eat it in the water. He gave me one too. Mum said that she'd kill him if it did anything terrible, and he didn't get all sweet and innocent, so I think they're safe."
Gabrielle glanced over at the twins and one of them winked at her. Gabrielle giggled again and raced Ginny into the water.
When they were in up to their waists, they stopped and taking a deep breath, Gabrielle popped the toffee into her mouth. She made a face when she tasted it – she didn't like fish very much, and fish mixed with caramel and molasses was absolutely repulsive. She swallowed it quickly and stood, waiting for something to happen.
For a moment, she felt nothing, but then she experienced a strange, shifty feeling in her legs and neck as her body reformed itself. Her legs gave way beneath her and she fell face-first into the water. Salty water rushed up her nose and into her open mouth. She tried to come up, only to find that her feet and legs seemed to have vanished. For a moment, she struggled, splashing and choking as she tried to find her footing. But then she felt arms around her waist, pulling her up.
Ginny held her with her head above the water while she coughed the water out of her lungs and wiped her eyes. When she had caught her breath, she looked down and gasped in amazement when she saw that her legs were indeed gone – they had been transformed into a tail.
Ginny giggled. "You're a lovely mermaid."
Gabrielle looked up at Ginny. "Thank you."
Ginny dropped her into the water, but this time when Gabrielle opened her mouth, she found that she could breathe under the water, though the salty water still tasted bad and still stung her eyes. When she lifted her hands to her neck, she felt gills.
After a few minutes of swimming around Ginny's legs, Gabrielle had adjusted to having a tail instead of legs and surfaced again.
Ginny was laughing. "So, what's it like to be a mermaid? Off to go seduce sailors to their dooms?"
"Actually, I was thinking of seducing some pretty young girls," she replied, eyes sparkling. "Care to join me?"
Ginny laughed and ate the toffee. "Ugh… these really taste terrible, don't they?"
Gabrielle nodded, laughing at Ginny's expression. She watched in fascination as the girl's legs shifted in color and shape until they solidified in the form of a tail and Ginny fell into the water. But unlike Gabrielle, she was prepared and a few seconds later she was swimming in circles around her friend. She opened her mouth, but all that emerged was a stream of bubbles. So instead she beckoned at Gabrielle to follow her deeper into the ocean.
It was a truly incredible experience to be able to swim through the water without fear of having to come up for breath, though she was a little nervous about how long the taffies would take to wear off. After a few minutes, she was used to the taste of the water and having it in her eyes.
They swam out deeper, gliding like eels through the water. Gabrielle followed Ginny, wondering what it would be like to kiss someone as a mermaid – gliding through the water, tails twined together, moving through their own, private world…
She sped up, catching Ginny around the waist. Suddenly it didn't matter to her, what Ginny's reaction was, and it occurred to her that if Ginny really reacted badly, she could claim it was a side effect of the toffee. For all she knew, maybe it actually was – she wouldn't put if past the twins. And if she didn't try, she'd never know.
Ginny spun around to face Gabrielle, her face surprised but not hostile. For a moment, their gazes met and suddenly Gabrielle was sure that this was right. She leaned forwards slightly, slowly so that Ginny could pull away if she wanted. But instead, Ginny leaned forwards to meet her lips, slipping her arms around Gabrielle's waist.
The kiss was wonderful, more wonderful than Gabrielle could have imagined. Even her short time with Marie had been nothing compared to this. Their bodies melded together perfectly, tails twining together, arms holding each other close, mouths joined as they continued to drift through the water, sinking slowly downwards.
Gabrielle wished this moment could last forever, but of course it couldn't. Even as mermaids, they had to breathe. Gabrielle pulled away from Ginny's lips, just far enough to breathe as she gazed into Ginny's smiling eyes.
Ginny let her go, swimming upwards towards the surface and Gabrielle followed her, feeling as though the elation bubbling through her veins would raise her to the surface all on its own.
When her head broke the surface, the first thing she noticed was the cold shock of air in her lungs. Then she noticed that her tail was becoming two legs again and that her gills were vanishing, as were Ginny's. She started treading water, looking towards the shore.
They had gone farther out than she had thought – their families were mere blobs on the distant sand of the beach. She turned back to Ginny.
"Come one, let's go in before we drown," Ginny said breathlessly.
Gabrielle just nodded and the two of them began swimming for the shore.
A/N: Terresa Greenhill: Well, if you're going to take the time to rewiev, I might as well take the time to reply. :) And how am I supposed to get better if I don't accept constructive critism? Thanks for reviewing. Tora88: Thanks... I'm trying to make the characters realistic and I'm glad you think I've succeeded. Anasazi: Well, I'm the oldest sibling, but I really love my sister and I see Fleur as being a pretty good older sister, whatever her other short comings. I'm glad you liked it. Kashiaga and Orange: Thanks