I do not own Harry Potter, and I dare anyone who wants to go up against J.K. Rowling's lawyers to say that they do.

Chapter 6: Atalaris

Harry found himself very hungry the next morning, and he was just finishing up his third piece of toast when Captain Joseph's voice boomed through their cabin, waking Ginny, who was not an early riser. She sat up with a start and looked around the cabin, as though expecting their intrepid captain to be there.

"Attention passengers! In five minutes we will be submerging. It is therefore advised that you remain in your cabins unless you want to take a swim. As we will be diving to a depth of 300 fathoms, that would not be a good idea." He paused, then continued in a language that sounded vaguely like mermish.

"Anyone know what he's saying?" Ron demanded, looking faintly green and picking at a bowl of congealing oatmeal.

"Something about disembarking." Moody said sourly. He had not slept well the night before, and even his magic eye seemed sluggish as it rolled around.

"Oh."

The captain switched back to English, his voice emanating from all corners of the room. "Enjoy this portion of the trip, the views are spectacular." Then silence reigned as all turned their heads towards the window. Tala clutched at Lupin's hand, breathing deeply in an attempt to stave off panic, while Hermione and Ginny, still in her dressing gown, rushed over to take seats by the window.

"I can't wait!" Hermione said breathlessly. "It will be fascinating to observe the ocean life, maybe we'll see whales."

"Or sharks." Ron muttered.

"And dolphins."

"Or man eating squid."

Hermione glared at Ron, though her gaze softened when she saw how green he looked. "Maybe you should go back to sleep."

"Nah, I want to be awake when we're eaten by lion-toothed deep sea monsters." He gulped. "See it coming, you know."

Hermione twisted to look at Professor Lupin. "Is there really anything to be worried about?"

Lupin raked his had through his sandy, graying hair. "Well, what with how fast we're moving..." He looked at Tala, who had let out a little moan. "Er...I'd say..." The coppery woman looked up at him with pleading eyes. "No, not really." He finished with a sigh.

"Captain Joseph is quite capable of dealing with anything that attacks us." Moody said gruffly. Perhaps he was trying to be reassuring.

"Attacks..." Tala whimpered. She buried her head in the werewolf's shoulder.

"What I'm saying is, that he has never lost a ship or a passenger. We checked him out very thoroughly before we decided to use him for this voyage. He came highly recommended."

"He's just a bit mad." Harry commented quietly, wondering if Joseph the pirate would remain on the helm as they submerged, reciting nautical poetry to the fishes.

"Well, most of us are a bit mad, you know." Moody said with his horrific grin.

This did nothing to reassure them.

"In ten seconds." Joseph's voice echoed from every corner of the room. Ron gripped the arms of his chair, his face set as though he were getting ready to confront an army of giant spiders.

"And here we go!" There was no mistaking the sound of excitement in Captain Joseph's voice.

"Merlin..." Ron breathed. Harry couldn't help but agree with him. Now, instead of seeing alternating sky and surf, all there was was an endless view of water. Now, to Harry this wasn't so bad. It kind of reminded him of being under the lake at Hogwarts. The only thing about the ship that he did not like was the heavy rocking motion that impeded his movements and rolled his stomach. He moved forward and dragged a chair, moveable, but only consciously, to the window to join Hermione and Ginny.

"Hey Harry," Ginny smiled, seemingly unconcerned that she was still in her dressing gown. "Grab me bit of toast, would you?" Harry twisted around obligingly and snagged a piece of the table, handing it to her with a grin.

"Thanks." She said, taking it and beginning to chew. Her eyes were glued to the window before her, and her level of fascination made her brown eyes glow.

Harry watched her as much as he watched the scene out the window. He mentally kicked himself for not realizing before how completely pretty she was, and how strong and smart, and now it was too late for him. He settled back in his chair with a sigh, tearing his eyes away from her before he could work himself up into a real funk. He didn't want to completely lose the good feeling that his second dream involving Sirius had left.

He looked at Hermione and saw her watching him. She gave him a small, fortifying grin, then turned back to watching the waters. It wasn't long before a large dark shadow moved into view.

"What's that?" Ron squeaked.

"Can't tell." Hermione said, moving so close to the window that her nose was practically pressed up against it. The shadow moved closer and now they could make out a long neck with a small head, a huge body, a long tail and four huge flippers which it used to propel itself through the water. "Oh, my goodness! It's a plesiosaur! But those are supposed to be extinct."

"What's a pleesysewer?" Ron asked.

"It's supposed to be a dinosaur that lived underwater." Harry supplied, recalling the name from an almost forgotten science class.

Just then, Captain Joseph's voice boomed again from all corners of the room, sounding oddly liquid now that they were underwater. "You may have noticed that we now have an escort. Chalmer here likes to trail along with me when we dive."

"So it's not a pleesysir?" Ron said.

"Muggles call it that." Lupin said suddenly, he walked up behind them and stood peering out over their shoulders. Harry looked back to find Tala and he spotted her in her bunk, sleeping soundly. Lupin noticed his glance. "A mild sleeping potion," He supplied. "She doesn't take well to sea travel, as you may have noticed." They chuckled wryly. It was impossible not to have noticed.

"Anyway, that is a Desocant." He continued. "They usually live in lakes that have outlets to the ocean, preferring the warmer, calmer, waters at times, but needing the wider variety of wildlife that the ocean provides for their vast appetites. There is one in particular that drives the ministry up the wall. It lives in Loch Ness, I believe. An attention glutton." He shook his head. "There are quite a few of them, but they are usually elusive."

The creature was matching their speed and angle of descent. Harry gulped as, once or twice, it curled its long neck back to peer at them curiously through the window with a surprisingly intelligent, liquid-dark eye.

"It's beautiful." Ginny breathed. Harry had to tear his eyes away from her yet again.

"It looks like we're leveling off," Harry commented about an hour later. Indeed they were, though when Harry looked out the window from where he was trying to tempt Ron into a game of exploding snap, he could see nothing. Ron was rather preoccupied with watching Ginny and Hermione play chess, and attempting to ignore that they were now underneath several hundred feet of water. He jumped when Captain Joseph's voice rolled again through the room.

"He should make some sort of warning before he does that." He scowled.

"We are now approaching Atalaris." The captain's voice was softer, almost awed. "This is a site that very few who do not live underwater have seen. It is magnificent."

They looked at each other, then almost fled to the window, nearly squashing Lupin, who had been staring ruminatively out at the expanse of water.

"Where is it?" "Do you see it?" "No, do you?" They all talked over one another, while Remus smiled and didn't seem to mind that they hadn't noticed him.

Suddenly, Ginny squealed. "Look! Look!" They followed the direction of the girl's pointing finger and gasped. Captain Joseph had not been exaggerating.

Below them and to starboard, which was the way their window was facing, was a city of glimmering light, stretching out as far as the eye could see. The buildings looked as though they had simply grown out of the ocean floor and were delicate and inscrutable. And all around them, moving among the buildings, or coming up to point and stare at their ship as they glided overhead, were merpeople. And these were more like, but not quite like, the mermaid that Harry had seen in the prefect's bathroom than the ones that Harry had met in Hogwart's lake. Most of them had long flowing hair, left loose or tied up with ornaments crafted from the same glowing material from which the buildings were made. Their faces were more human, and yet not, with wide golden eyes and pale green skin, so finely scaled that it wasn't noticeable unless they caught the light. Their tails were fish's tails, but in more colors than the rainbow, bright and flashing as they dove away or approached.

The ship slowed, then came to a solid stop. The could hear the Captain's voice again, sounding more appropriate underwater as he spoke mermish to his other passengers. Then he switched to English again. "Our disembarking passengers would like to thank you for not being too loud on their voyage, and they, as representatives of the Merman/Human alliance, would like to wish you luck with the current surface troubles."

They saw two merpeople, male and female, bright orange and silky green, swim past their window, waving as they moved down to join their people. They waved back, grinning, and saw an answering smile from the mermaid when she swam out of view.

"And now," Captain Joseph announced, "As soon as we broach the surface we will be able to travel at normal speed. Our underwater passengers are sensitive to sudden jolts so as a courtesy we refrained during the first part of our voyage."

"Bloody hell." Ron groaned.



Harry could not recall a time when dry land had been quite so welcome. He, with great effort, to be sure, managed not to fall down and kiss the ground the moment they stepped off of the 'Ramien.' The second half of their journey had been a nightmare, and Lupin had to use liberal drafts of sleeping potion to keep Tala calm enough to weather it all. Harry had quickly wished for some sleeping potion as well, as the ship jerked and jumped, and now they were in the Gulf Stream, and a second later on the coast of Bermuda, then Greenland. Harry wasn't sure if there had been a method behind this madness or not, for, as far as he could tell, there were no other passengers now that the Mermish ambassadors had left. The few times that Harry had braved the deck he had kept a white-knuckled grip on the rail, and had to massage his hands for a quarter hour after fleeing below.

"Laying trails." Moody grunted when Harry finally regained his stomach long enough to ask him. He had fought down a groan at that, but Captain Joseph seemed to enjoy it immensely, hopping to the Horn of Africa before finally taking them to Plymouth.

Now they stood at the dock, which seemed oddly immobile after their time at sea, in the middle of the night as Moody had requested, and they were finally in America. Tala was nearly sobbing with relief, and the old wizard who came to greet them had to ask her is she was alright.

"Fine, fine..." She replied with a tremulous smile, "The earth spirit just never intended me to be a naiad."

The wizard nodded and patted her shoulder. Meanwhile, Joseph the pirate was saying his goodbyes to the group, shaking hands with Moody and Lupin. He moved to the girls and gave them each a kiss on the cheek, and even Tala blushed. He grinned at their reactions. "Nothing like a touch of sea air to make a pretty woman even more beautiful," He said gallantly. The girls giggled, Ron glared. "Harry, Ron," He said, turning to them, "It was a pleasure to have you on board, and I look forward to the return trip." He shook hands with them as well before swaggering off.

"Return trip." Ron repeated with a gulp, he looked a bit green again.

"At least we have a week before we have to hit the water again," Harry replied weakly.

"Never would be too soon." Ron replied stubbornly.

"Well, let's not worry about it yet," said Tala bravely, though she was still rather pale, she had recovered most of her poise. Then she continued, "I, personally, don't even want to think about it." The boys chuckled, and she continued. "We have a brief check in, then we're heading off. After a quick stop at the Assembly in Iowa, we'll be going to New Mexico." She turned to Lupin with a radiant smile. He returned it with a broad grin, and Harry could hear, as she leaned in to murmur in his ear. "Not much longer."

Harry wasn't sure why his professor blushed when she said that.



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