CHAPTER 3
The two girls crept out later that night. Ginny went towards the darkest part of the school grounds, while Jessica went to the lake. They had come up with a secret call to use if the other needed help...from anything; some mysterious thing of the night, a professor, or even a friend.
Ginny quickly jumped up into the air and started to fly around, the wind flipping her hair around her face. She had to stop herself from squealing in glee.
Meanwhile, Jessica lowered herself into the lake and dove down into the water; amazed at her ability to swim through the murky, dark water and yet still be able to see.
Neither girl was really paying any attention to anything around them; not even each other. This proved to be disastrous.
Within minutes, Ginny was lost. She couldn't see the castle from where she flew. It didn't help her any that not a single light was on. She tried to use her secret call to get Jessica's attention, but Jessica didn't respond. "She must not be able to here me," Ginny thought, beginning to panic.
Ginny wasn't the only one with problems, however. Jessica had her own share of trouble. While swimming in the lake, she swam straight into a bunch of mermen. They absolutely did not want her to leave. Jessica also tried her secret call, but to no avail. She was too deep under the water to be heard, even if Ginny had been standing at the water's edge.
"Will they be ok?" Shirley asked, with a look of concerned fear on her young face.
"Don't worry, dear, everything will be fine," Aimee replied. Hermione smiled at her daughter. "What do you think is going to happen?"
"They're gonna get in BIG trouble!" she replied, matter-o-factly.
The adults in the room chuckled at the little girl's innocence.
"Well," Ron sighed, heaving himself out of his chair, "I believe that a certain group of six kids need to head to bed."
"NOOOO," came the reply from the youngest three girls.
"Ok, Uncle Ron," The twins said.
The response from the only boy among them was a soft snore from where he was curled up on the floor.
Meanwhile, in the castle, back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry and Ron were having problems of their own. They had been sitting up, doing their homework when Ron's "hair" started to grow and his feet started to change. Aimee was sitting in the corner; instinct led Harry t turn around. Forgetting that Aimee was Hermione and vice versa, Harry called to her, "Help, Hermione! Ron's hair is changing!"
Aimee looked up and almost shrieked at the sight that lay before her. Ron was rapidly changing before their eyes. Because of the spell, she had Hermione's cool, and quickly emptied the large pot by the fire place that held crumpled up parchment that assorted Gryffindors had decided wasn't good. She opened the window and pulled out her wand.
"Accio Soil," she said softly and directed the soil that came at her summons to the pot.
"Harry, we have to put him in the soil before he finishes changing," she said.
Harry looked at her with surprise and confusion.
"First of all, Harry, LOOK!" her face held an expression f fear, "His feet are turning into ROOTS!! Roots need soil to grow and survive!"
She grabbed one side of the rapidly changing boy. Harry quickly went to her aide and they put him in. Ron was too busy being bewildered at his sudden transformations to protest.
Aimee started scooping dirt over Ron's face extremely quickly, as his skin began to brown and wrinkle.
Aimee gave a sigh of relief, and turned back to Harry, "Second of all, look at the leaves on top of his head. They're MADRAKE leaves…YOUNG Mandrake leaves. Young, technically baby, Mandrakes scream and cry. Their cry is deadly!"
Harry looked at his friend and gulped. Now that he was thinking about it, and paying attention, he could tell. He recognized the leaves that were peeping over the top of the soil that hid his best friend as the leaves he had to work with when repotting Mandrakes in his second year Herbology class. "What are we going to do with him, Hermione? He's MUCH bigger then a normal mandrake." He asked, quietly.
She shook her head, "I don't know. But I guess we could water him, huh?"
Harry nodded and went to fetch some water.
Later the next morning:
Up in Dumbledore's office, Draco Malfoy was being reprimanded for causing havoc in transfiguration. Apparently, he had transfigured Professor McGonagall's hair into a mess of snakes. Much as it was not hard for her to revert her hair back to normal, he continued to mess around.
"Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore said, "If you can't control yourself, you will have to be punished. Therefore, you will have detention tomorrow evening in the Herbology classroom. Professor Sprout needs help rearranging her plants for a rather large one will be in there soon."
Draco nodded and Dumbledore dismissed him, warning him not to be late.
However, just as Malfoy was exciting the office, he saw Hermione and Harry charge past him. They didn't even notice him. He decided he was going to figure out what they were up to, and as soon as the door closed behind him, he leaned his ear against it.
"Professor Dumbledore!" Aimee cried out.
"What is wrong, dear?"
"It's Ron," Harry spoke up.
"Already?"
"You know what happened?" Aimee asked, surprised.
"Yes, I do, dear," he rubbed his chin, "When did it happen?"
"Last night. We would have told you, but it was really late. Then we got up late this morning because we were up, trying to help him get his roots into soil, so we almost missed breakfast and had to run to class."
Draco couldn't figure it out. Get his roots into soil? Ron Weasley?
"Let's go get him and take him outside." Dumbledore was saying.
Draco quickly shrank back into the shadows as the door opened and the three of them emerged into the hallway, talking about how they were going to get to the Herbology classroom with Ron.
Draco followed, close behind.
When they got to close to the Gryffindor Common room, Malfoy stopped and waited till they returned outside. When they came out of the portrait hole, Ron wasn't with them. What on earth is going on? Malfoy wondered, but followed them all the same. They soon were outside in the Herbology class room, Draco hiding behind some large, leafy plants.
"Professor Sprout. I'm very sorry, but he's here a bit earlier than expected."
The short, plump woman turned around. "Oh my. That's fast. It may be harder than I thought to change him back, if he's growing this fast. Look at that, we'll have to replant him soon, and I don't know if I have that large of a pot for him."
"We'll get you one, don't worry. Just keep him safe, alright?"
"Yes sir."
After the small group of students and professors left the Herbology classroom, Draco got up to investigate the large plant that they had been discussing.
He quickly realized it was a Mandrake and put earmuffs on his ears so that when he uncovered the overgrown plant, he wouldn't be able to hear its cry.
Grasping around the leafy stem emerging from the dirt, Draco jerked it up extremely hard.
It's mouth was wide open, so Draco could tell that it was screaming. But what he noticed more was how much like Ron Weasley this particular Mandrake looked. He repotted Ron and replaced the earmuffs, before carefully sneaking out of the greenhouse.
Meanwhile, Hermione was running around, looking for Ginny and Jessica. They had asked her to help them on their class work during break, which for the three of them, was right after lunch. Hermione hadn't seen them at lunch or at breakfast and was very worried. She decided that she was going to have to ask Harry and Ron for help, however, when she found Aimee and Harry, she discovered that Ron was out of commission.
That didn't stop the three of them from going outside to see if they couldn't find their friends.
Meanwhile, far away, Ginny was waking up. She was deep in the forbidden forest, lost. Suddenly, a beautiful white creature walked over to her. Ginny gasped; it was a unicorn! Its long, pearly horn was sitting upon its forehead, in the midst of the only part of the creature that wasn't white, other than its hooves and eyes; a golden star. The unicorn's hooves were the same color as the star and its eyes were such a brilliant blue, that they seemed like puddles of ocean water.
The unicorn beckoned to the girl, who gratefully followed her. Ginny wasn't sure how she knew, but she was positive that the unicorn was a girl.
Back in the depths of the lake, Jessica felt like she was in heaven. The mermen who had found her last night had brought her to their village and she had yet to have seen a single mermaid. The mermen were treating her like a princess and she relished the attention.
However, she didn't know WHY there were no mermaids around, and if she had known, she might have been a little more concerned about what was going on. In fact she probably would have rathered the mermen to not be treating her so nicely!
Draco Malfoy was the last person Aimee wanted to see right about then. Hermione, Harry and Aimee had been searching for Ginny and Jessica all day, to no avail.
"Hermione Granger," Malfoy sneered.
Aimee at first didn't even react, but then he repeated it, stepping in front of her. That's when she remembered who she appeared to be.
"What do you want, Draco?"
"Well," he drawled, "I want you to come and talk with me."
Although Aimee did not want to have anything to do with him at the moment, she also did not want trouble. So she agreed to talk with him.
"But not right now. Maybe after dinner. I have to get to my last class."
Draco looked at her and nodded. "After dinner," he stated, firmly, "by the Great Hall. We'll meet there and go find an empty classroom together to chatter in."
With that, the mischievous blonde walked off towards his last class. Aimee tried very hard not to think about what sort of trouble she might have gotten herself into, but decided that she was going to go to this little 'meeting' well armed.
Back in the Herbology greenhouse, Ron was awake. He couldn't figure out why he was in dirt, but then he discovered that he could SEE in the dirt. Next, he discovered that he no longer had feet, but roots. O no. It can't be true. I can't be a plant. What type of plant AM I?
Just then, Professor Sprout came into the classroom and put on earmuffs. Then she started moving a very large pot towards Ron's pot. It had arrived during her last class of the day. She put some soil into the bottom of the new pot and then grabbed the top of Ron's foliage.
O my god! What is going on! Ron was scared, something had just grabbed him. Suddenly, POP! Ron Started to Scream as bright sunlight hit him, making him blind. He could feel the heat and he didn't like it.
Professor Sprout looked over the Mandrake and was startled to see that he was already going into the Mandrake's 'teen' stages.
She repotted him into the larger pot, covered him in the dirt and went to tell Dumbledore of his fast development.
Ron was very happy to be back in the cool dirt. He noticed very quickly that his roots were not so cramped, and he relaxed.
The unicorn was leading Ginny out of the forest as Harry was emerging from Hagrid's hut.
"GINNY!" he exclaimed, rushing to her.
"Where have you been?"
She couldn't help it and started to laugh. But then Harry's expression changed. She turned around to see what was wrong. There, where the Unicorn had been, was a young girl, with a tiny horn sticking out of the forest.
"Be careful, next time you spread your wings. You are not a true fairy-angel and the true ones are not always nice to those they feel are impersonating them."
With that, the girl merged back into a unicorn and walked away.
"Thank you!" Ginny called at the retreating unicorn.
Jessica looked at the handsome merman who swam up to her. His silvery tail glistened and matched his pale blue hair.
"Miss, would you come and swim with me?" he asked politely. "My name is Samanualelcitve, but you may call me Sam, if you wish."
Fascinated with his charm, she agreed.
The two mer-people swam out towards the center of the lake, chatting all the way of different things, like the lake flowers, of which he picked on of the prettiest ones and stuck it into her hair.
Sam gently touched her check, and then said, "C'mon, we're almost there."
Jessica smiled, liking the feelings that aroused in her when the handsome merman touched her. Putting her hand over her check, as if to keep the feeling from escaping, she followed him into a beautiful well lit scene; a bed of gorgeous lake flowers.
"It's beautiful, Sam!" she breathed in the scent of the flowers as he led her to the center where there were refreshments.
He reached over and tapped on the top of a green shell. Music poured from it. "Care to dance?"
Up in the girls' 7th year dorms, Aimee was grabbing a little bag which she had stuffed with some of those creepy candies, her wand, and some little charms that could be used when she was ready for them.
She ran down to dinner, where she met up with Harry, Hermione, and…
"GINNY! Where have you been? Where's Jessica?"
"I don't know where Jessica is. Last I saw her, she was at the lake."
"What?"
"I tried to fly, she tried to swim. I got lost."
"O no. She's still in the lake, I bet."
"I hope she's ok," Hermione added, as the walked to the Gryffindor table.
"I'm sure she's fine," Harry said quickly. He had noticed Hermione's new, rather downcast attitude and did not what to shatter her ego.
During the student's dinner, Dobby was working on making more of his insane socks. He wanted to make some for Hermy and Keilley, (A/N: This is Aimee's middle name; Dumbledore told Dobby to call her by it.) but he was very confused as to who was who. He wanted to see them, but didn't know how. He'd never seen either of them in the Hogwarts Kitchen, before or since then.
He decided that he was going to leave the crazy socks in the Gryffindor common room because he was sure Harry Potter would give them to his friends. He just had to write a note to stick with the socks. Since he wasn't very literate, he settled with writing, or attempting to write, his friends' names on the piece of paper.
"Fer Hamry amb Cheliey" read the note.
After dinner, Aimee waited by the door of the Great Hall for Draco. When he finally came, she walked over to join him.
"Good, Granger. I was afraid you wouldn't show."
"I'm good to my word, Draco." She replied, coolly.
"Well, lets go in here so we can talk privately."
Draco opened a door to an unused classroom and she went in before him.
After he had shut the door, he asked how she was doing and other normal questions. But she got frustrated and bite his line of words.
"Cut to the chase. What do you want?"
"I want to know why Ron is a Mandrake.:
Aimee gasped, "How'd you know?"
"I followed you from Dumbledore's office this morning. I looked."
Aimee's mind raced. Did he know about everyone else? Or just Ron?
"Well?"
Not trusting him, she looked up. "I don't know why."
He looked at her suspiciously, as she rummaged thru her bag.
"Why do you care? You don't even like him," she said removing one of her charms from her bag. However, she dropped her bag by mistake as she tried to invoke the charm and its contents scattered across the floor. The greedy male that he is, Draco decided that he was going to eat one of her candies instead of helping her clean up. He reached down and picked up a candy wrapped in red foil. Aimee, who was busy cleaning up her spill, didn't notice as he put the candy in his mouth. Or at least she didn't notice…till suddenly he had transformed before her eyes.
"You stole one of those candies," she accused him.
He stared at her, wide-eyed. "But…"
She glared at him and he shut up.
Aimee looked him over. His upper body was normal, only larger and his clothes had ripped of when he grew. She had to admit that he looked good. But his lower body was not normal. It had become that of a Palomino Stallion. He had become a centaur.
"C'mon. We have to get you to Dumbledore."
"LIKE THIS?" he exclaimed, "I'm NOT GOING OUT THERE!"
Down in the lake, the two mer-people were dancing. The beautiful music streamed throughout the area they were in. Jessica felt things she had never felt before as Sam entwined his tail with hers. He led her in a dance so graceful and beauteous that the lake flowers around her became a blur.
Suddenly, Sam wrapped his entire tail around her hips, with flexibility she didn't realize mer-people had. She quickly twisted hers into his, purely by instinct. As their dance came to a halt, they settled to the floor, panting. He held her close and asked her if she had enjoyed it.
Nodding she replied, "Yes, yes I did."
"Good."
Sam reached his arms around her and turned her over, so that she was laying on her stomach on his. He entwined his tail with hers once again and once again, her instinct led her to follow suit, as a whole new bout of brand new feelings surged thru her.
"What's he doing?" Mira asked.
Aimee blushed. "You don't need to know."
Mira looked at her mom, "I bet I know!" and whispered hurridly into her twin sister's ear. The two girls started laughing hysterically, while the other kids looked at them in a befuddled manner.
"Tell us more!" Candi exclaimed. Beryl and his siblings were quick to agree.
Aimee lead Dumbledore down to the classroom where Draco stood, pawing the ground with his right fore hoof.
"Boy, what kind of trouble are you going to get into next?" Dumbledore muttered to no one in particular. "Well, Mr. Malfoy, it seems that you have joined the ranks of the misfit crowd."
Draco glared down at the headmaster.
"Now, then, glaring at me won't help. Aimee, go get Prfessor McGonagall."
Draco watched as Hermione left the room. "Dumbledore," he sneered, "That's Hermione."
"Now, then Draco Malfoy. When I want you to act like you know everything, I'll ask for you to. That was not Hermione, But Aimee. The candy you got into has touched more than just you in this school."
Well, Draco thought. He's lost it. Finally.
Down by the lake Ginny, Hermione, and Harry were looking for sighs of where Jessica might be.
After about 20 minutes of searching, with out success, they were getting frustrated.
"Does anyone know what the candy Jessica ate looked like?" Ginny wanted to know.
"It was blue and purple." Hermione answered.
Suddenly the three of them looked at each other, excited.
"Let's go see if there's another one like it!" Harry exclaimed, jumping up and charging back towards the school.
Sam was leading a very exhilarated Jessica back to the mer-village. "C'mon, dear. Let's get you home."
"HOME!" Jessica suddenly exclaimed, "I have to get back home!"
She started swimming away towards the surface, leaving an amazed Sam behind her. "Wait!"
She stopped and turned around. "I'll come back," she promised him.
"Ok," he replied, watching her swim away. When he was out of hearing, he reprimanded himself. "They ALWAYS leave after we dance with them…That's why she was the only one around, all the rest have danced. She'll be back soon." He looked up where he had last seen her, but he no longer could see her purple hair or glimmery tail. "I just thought she would be different and that she would stay."
He shook his head and continued towards his home, unsuspecting who it was he had just danced with, or even WHAT she really was.
The transfiguration professor had no idea how to help Malfoy, so he was led outside with a lot of protesting to Hagrid, who was told to tell Malfoy how to be a centaur. What they eat and how, which is mainly grazing, to Draco's disgust. However they can't eat meat, which mad him even more upset. The two of them walked out towards the forbidden forest so Hagrid could tell him more about his equestrian parts…public and private.
Aimee ran to the Gryffindor common room. When she arrived, she found Hermione, Ginny and Harry looking for the candies.
"Uhm, I have them. Draco, greedy pig, ate one."
"He did?" Harry asked.
"Yep. He's outside with Hagrid now," she replied, walking to the window, "See? There he is!" She pointed to the two of them while her friends, forgetting their quest, looked out the window.
"O my!" Hermione exclaimed.
"He's learning how to….erm…remove his wastes!" Ginny chuckled.
Harry was laughing so hard that he couldn't even utter a word.
2tigresa2Meanwhile, a young, lost mermaid was trying to find the part of the lake that was within the school grounds. Finally finding it, she swam over and pulled herself out. Noting that it was dark, she wondered just how long she'd been down there. She quickly ran to the Gyffindor common room, where she slid on a bunch of socks.
CRASH!
Aimee and the rest turned away from the window, to find a wet Jessica on the floor, with socks around her.
A little bit later, Hermione discovered that the socks were for her and Aimee. Jessica emerged from her dorm, dressed nicely.
Whistling a happy tune, she sat by the fire place to brush out her soaking wet hair, which had retained a purple tint, even though it was out of the water.
Hermione noticed. "What did you DO down there?"
"I met a wonderful merman!" she swooned. "We danced all night! It was pure heaven!"
Aimee breathed in hard "You WHAT?"
Jessica sighed. "We danced."
Aimee charged out of the room, to find Hagrid; hoping he was done with Draco.
Draco was disgusted. He would be himself in no time. There was no way he'd need to, he shivered at the thought, graze. He eats fine meals, of meats and fish. He did NOT eat grass. And he CERTAINTLY did NOT need Hagrid to show him how to…do the unmentionables.
He galloped across the school yard, away from where anyone could see him.
He traveled around the edge of the forbidden forest for a while, not knowing what to do, but after a bit, much to his disgust, he got hungry. He attempted to eat a piece of steak, which he thieved off of Hagrid's table by reaching through the window when the man wasn't looking, but quickly discovered that he couldn't chew it very well...and when he finally had, he felt really sick the second he swallowed it; which was when he realized that it hadn't tasted very nice, either. As far as his pride held him, it did not hold him strong enough that he wouldn't eat. He galloped off, into the forest, where he found a small clearing. There, he grazed, filling his empty centaur stomach.
The next morning:
Hermione was sitting next to Aimee in potions class when, suddenly, she felt the all too familiar feeling of transformation once again. One second, the two girls were as normal as they could be, the next they were once again house elves, the third, they were in an empty class room, where Dobby was unconscious, once again. Peering in the window, was Draco. Poor Dobby had been in the wrong room at the wrong time. Malfoy didn't want his former house elf to talk.
The two newcomers ran towards Malfoy, who had not expected two more house elves to appear the second he disposed of one.
He ran and they returned to Dobby's side.
Jessica was in the Nurse's office. At breakfast, she had been given a note from Professor Dumbledore, expressing that Hagrid had concerns about her activities the day before and had recommended a check up by Madame Pomphrey. She couldn't figure out why, but she wasn't exactly focused, either.
Sam paced in front of his home in the mer-village, waiting for the violet haired mermaid to return. Would she return? What if she didn't? She was different from the other mermaids he had met. She was more sweet, more innocent. He wanted her to come back so much that he was willing to go and search for her. But she had gone a strange direction. Was she a siren? A mer-being who could walk the earth and swim the sea, whose song could pull all men within hearing range right to her?" Poor Sam didn't know what to think.
Harry was outside, with permission from the headmaster. He had been holding human form for so long, but it took great concentration. He needed a break. The Naga slithered out into the edge of the forbidden forest, and then around towards Hagrid's hut. But Hagrid had a class then, so Harry couldn't talk with him then.
Kadry and Gabriel saw Harry when he slithered by their Care of Magical Creatures class. Both boys felt lucky. They had each eaten another piece of candy, which eliminated the other candies affect. However, because f the new candy, they had a different, if not so bad, problem. This time, it was the same problem, because they had cut the candy in half. The two of them now had to worry about brushing their hair just right over tiny protruding horns, and their robes hid long skinny red tails with a point at the end. If one of them had eaten the entire candy alone, the effects might have been worse, but it was still not totally comfortable.
Draco galloped from the window, where he had left the three house-elves. Much to his surprise, he found himself deep in the forbidden forest.
BANG! CRASH!
"Who are you, faux centaur?"
Draco turned about, startled by the unexpected baritone voice coming from whatever he had crashed into. It was another centaur!
Bane looked disgustedly at the pale blonde impersonator before attacking him.
Emerald Stone sat in the hospital wing. Standing just in front of her was Madame Pomphrey, testing her. She had little doubts of a positive testing, but it had to be checked. Her mother would freak if she didn't make sure. It was. She was pregnant with Martin's merchild. Emerald was a siren, by birth. Her mother was a mermaid, her father a wizard. She was expected to dance with a merman in her 15th year, and she did. She was excited!. In just a handful of months, her own little pride and joy would flourish in the open air!
Meanwhile, Jessica was off in lala land, dreaming of Sam, the wonderful merman she had danced with.
"Jessica?" Madame Pomphrey called. "You need to take your test next."
That got Jessica back into reality. "Test?"
"Your pregnancy test, dear."
"What do you mean?"
Emerald stood up. "You danced with a merman the other night, as a mermaid. That leaves you fair game to be carrying his child."
"What? Who are you? How'd you know what I did?"
"I'm Emerald. I, too, danced with a merman. I'm a siren, half mermaid, half witch. You need to test yourself. Then we go, with the headmaster's permission, to find our mermen. He's the one who sent me to find you and told me what happened."
Jessica looked the girl up and down. She was obviously a student wearing her Hufflepuff uniform. Jessica nodded and agreed to proceed.
Emerald looked at the stunned girl. Just by how Jessica was acting, she knew it would test positive. After a few seconds, her assumption proved to be true.
About an hour and a half later, Jessica and Emerald walked to the lakeside and dived in. Emerald told Jessica about the culture as they swam to join in the ranks of other returning mermaids. Martin and Sam, who happened to be friends, came to the two girls at the same time.
"Yes, Martin, It's certain," Emerald told the first merman to get to them. His shiny black tail matched his hair and complimented her rosy silver pink tail and hair. Sam looked expectantly at Jessica, who was very nervous. Emerald saved the day. "She's carrying your babe, Sam, don't worry. But she has something to discuss with you."
The merman looked at Emerald strangely and nodded, leading Jessica to a safe place, where she told him who she was.
Up on the surface of the lake, Harry was discovering that Naga could swim and that it was an interesting way to get fish for breakfast. He had seen Jessica and another girl dive into the lake and revert to mermaid forms, but Dumbledore, who had been watching nearby kept him from following.
"Don't worry, they'll be fine."
House elf troubles were brewing. Much as Professor McGonagall was attempting to revert the two girls to human, she wasn't doing any good. Dobby was conscious again, but he was very disorientated. "I guess you two will have to stay like this for now."
Both girls groaned. The professor looked at them with pity. "I'm sorry, there isn't much I can do."
Meanwhile, Ron was outgrowing yet another pot. Professor Sprout was concerned. He would be a fully grown mandrake soon! Then there might be trouble…