Disclaimer 1: Draco, his parents and teachers all belong to JKR. (As if you
didn't all know that.)
Disclaimer 2: Severus Snape owning a raven belongs to J.L. Matthews. (Go read her story everybody. It's great.)
Disclaimer 3: The gang name Sharks is borrowed from the musical West Side Story of course. I don't remember where I found the name Rakers, but I know I read it somewhere.
Disclaimer 4: The idea for Snape having a family comes from Al's fic Time of Trial.
Disclaimer 5: The Glizzard family and Gringolf Glizzard belong to my friend PegaPony and so do all of Gringolf's songs. Thanks for letting me borrow them!
Disclaimer 6: My friend Edmund owns himself and his horse Apollo.
Disclaimer 7: Old Joe and Tess' Joe belong to Zebee.
-
-
A/N: Sorry for taking so long. I've been very busy at work, had to write a few other things in German, edit all of Both or Neither, because I'm making a little change there, had to write an entry for a SRATSS challenge and have been having serious computer problems which finally caused me to reformat the hard drive. (Incidentally, do any of you know what to do, if the computer keeps calling its sound card an 'audio device' that it can't find the right driver for? I know the driver's in the list somewhere, but I don't know the model either.)
-
-
Chapter 8: Thinking of Home
-
-
"So how are you going to do this?" Danny asked Tullia when they reached the lake. "Wade in until the water's deep enough to stick your head in?"
"No, that way I'd get my clothes all wet." Tullia shook her head.
Rupert silently had to agree with her. It was much too cold to run around in soaked robes.
"There!" Tullia pointed at a tree next to the lake. "That branch is perfect."
Indeed there was a thick branch that hung low over the water. Rupert supposed that he'd be able to climb it quite easily, but a girl?
Tullia didn't let the doubtful faces of some of her classmates stop her. She ran over to the tree, hopped onto the branch and crawled forward as far over the water as it would let her go.
Rupert quickly closed his eyes waiting for a scream or splash as she pushed herself over the side. When none came he cautiously opened one eye again and found Tullia dangling from the branch by her legs while her head was indeed under water.
And there it remained! When was she planing to come up for air?
"How long can one hold ones breath like that?" he asked Pank.
Pank grew a little pale. "I don't know. Tullia! Hey, Tullia!"
The whole group dashed to the tree yelling for the girl.
Tullia reluctantly pulled her head out just far enough to answer them. "What?"
"How do you breathe down there?" Pank demanded.
"Why, through my gills, of course." Tullia declared as if it were the most natural thing in the world and returned her head into the water.
"She has gills." Pank stated incredulously.
"Oh, just wait until Colleen finds out." Danny laughed. "That'll be hilarious!"
"Why, what are gills?" Gangolf asked while examining the mud that had gotten on his shoes with disgust.
"Gills are little slits through which fish breathe water." Aterus provided. "Creatures that can breathe both air and water have gills as well as lungs and are called amphibious."
"Aren't amphibia supposed to be cold blooded?" Anny asked a little doubtfully.
"Merpeople have gills and are warm blooded." Aterus stated. "I guess that's where Tullia got it from."
"Cool." Billy declared. "That must be really useful."
"Whatever would it be good for?" Gangolf sneered. "I think it's ugly."
"You didn't even know Tullia had gills until she told us!" Danny hissed.
"Whatever is going on here? Ms Waterwall, get back here at once!" McGonagall was standing behind them and she looked furious. "Whatever do you think you're doing here?"
"I was only talking to the merpeople." Tullia had pulled herself back up and was now sitting on the branch again wringing out her hair.
"With your head in the water in this cold? And from that slippery tree branch? Are you out of your mind? That's much too dangerous." McGonagall yelled.
"I can swim and I don't feel cold at all." Tullia insisted. "I know a perfectly good drying charm, if my clothes get wet."
"She has gills, too." Aterus tried to help. "So she can't drown."
"Wingardium leviosa!" McGonagall announced and with a little yelp of fear Tullia was magically plucked from her tree and floated back onto dry land with her eyes tightly closed. "There. Now get back inside and to your next class. Ms Waterwall, you'll serve detention with me tonight and you will stay at least half a metre from the lake from now on."
"But the merpeople!" Tullia gasped. She looked slightly pale after her floating experience.
"The merpeople belong in the lake and we belong on dry land. Why really, talking to the merpeople! What nonsense."
"It's not ..." Tullia started, but McGonagall caught her off.
"Back inside, I said. Now!"
Dejectedly they trudged back to the common room.
"But Professor Snape said I could talk to them." Tullia mumbled as she curled up in a chair by the fireplace.
"At least we can have the good chairs for once." Rupert declared trying to cheer the group up. "We could play exploding snap again."
With all the higher years in class the common room practically belonged to them for the afternoon and despite Tullia's unhappiness Rupert was feeling rather good right now.
He was slowly beginning to relax and feel at home among his classmates. His mother had been right. Nobody here knew about his father's embarrassing secret. As long as he didn't tell them nobody would laugh at him and he would be accepted just like everybody else.
"You were right, Billy." Tullia said suddenly. "McGonagall is the meanest of the teachers."
"She was only worried about your health." Dinah tried to defend the teacher. "She probably doesn't even know you're part mermaid."
"Maybe, if we ask Professor Snape he'll explain it to her and she'll let you talk to the merpeople after all." Rupert suggested. "And she can't forbid you from going into the lake in summer."
"But summer is ages away." Tullia argued. "I miss my friends right now."
"Those aren't the same merpeople, though." Pank reminded her.
"No, but at least they are merpeople."
"I miss my friends, too." commented Billy. "I bet we all do."
"That's it!" exclaimed Dinah. "Lets all tell each other about our friends back at home. That'll help us get to know each other better and it'll feel like they aren't all that far away."
"Oh yes!" Anny nodded eagerly. "We could play Spin the Bottle. Does anyone have an empty bottle?"
They exchanged some confused looks. Whatever was Spin the Bottle?
"Will an empty glass do?" Aterus asked. "I could get one from the bathroom."
"No, how could a glass point at you?" Anny shook her head.
"Point at you?" Now Rupert felt even more confused. "What does that bottle do in Spin the Bottle?"
"It's like Wand Turning, only without magic, so you need a non magical object instead of the wand." Danny explained.
"Why do it without magic?" Billy asked. "Lets play Wand Turning."
Cheers went up all around and suddenly Rupert felt nervous. He'd always wanted to play Wand Turning and never had had anyone to play with, but did his first time have to be about friends back at home? He didn't have any to talk of.
"Okay, whose wand should we use?" Danny asked.
"Mine." declared Pank and laid it in the middle of the table. "Now form a proper circle around the table, everybody, so the wand can pick you. Ready?"
"Yes!" several voices called out eagerly.
"Okay then: Tell me, who is your very best friend." Pank announced and sent the wand spinning.
It turned around several times, then finally stopped pointing and sparking at Anny.
"Why my very best friend is Dinah, of course!" Anny laughed.
"Hey, no fair!" protested Danny right away. "It has to be someone from home."
"Well, Pank said best friend." Rupert reminded her. If they'd let Dinah count, he could just say Pank was his best friend. That was true anyway.
"That's right." Pank confirmed. "My mistake. Lets change the question to: Who did you play with the most back at home?"
Anny thought for a moment. "I think Sally Andersen." she decided. "The other girls didn't like her much because she had differently coloured eyes and Mona claimed that that is a sign of madness."
"That's mean!" exclaimed Dinah.
"Yeah, didn't you beat her up for saying that?" Billy looked almost angry and Gangolf started and bumped into Rupert's arm.
"Ouch!" Rupert exclaimed more surprised than hurt. "What's the matter with you, Mirrorboy? You're causing a gap in the circle."
Gangolf blushed, mumbled a soft "Sorry." and returned to his place eyeing Billy suspiciously.
"Oh, come on Gangolf!" Pank rolled his eyes. "Billy isn't going to hit you."
"Or is your name Mona?" Danny teased.
"She had most of the class behind her." Anny shrugged. "We'd have lost that fight for sure. What next? Do I spin Pank's wand now, or do I use mine?"
"Pank's." Dinah explained. "And you have to ask a new question."
"Okay, who is your best friend outside of Hogwarts?" Anny asked and spun the wand.
It turned and turned and finally began to slow down in front of Danny. It'd stop at Billy ... no, Gangolf ... no ... please move on, move on ...
"Rupert!" Danny cheered.
Oh no, what could he say? Was he blushing? He thought he was. He didn't have any friends at home. All the children had only ever mocked him because of his father's stupid little accident.
"Well ... I ... I guess it would be Uncle Mik." Where had that come from?
"Uncle Mik?" Pank asked. "Whoever is Uncle Mik?"
Now he was blushing for sure. "He's my mother's retarded brother. He usually lives with his parents, but whenever they can't look after him they take him to our house. Uncle Mik can't really understand everything that goes on around him and he doesn't really know when not to do magic either, so it's not safe to leave him on his own. He can magically project the most incredible pictures, though, and I can tell him anything. He's a really good listener and never tells anyone."
"They gave him a wand even though he isn't capable of understanding about Muggle protection?" Dinah asked.
"Oh no, he's never used a wand. He just has a special gift for wandless magic." Rupert explained hastily. "Most retarded people have special talents to make up for their deficiency, Mum says."
Apparently that satisfied them and Rupert felt relief flood over him as he turned the wand once again. They were still his friends.
"My best friend's Tiger Tim." Billy answered right away. "He's almost two years younger than me, but very tall for his age and he's an excellent attacker in soccer. I usually had to play defender, though I'd much rather be keeper like my brother was."
Of course, cool kids like Billy didn't have to think about that question very long. Billy probably had more friends than he could count.
"Mum never let me meet any other kids, but we have a house elf child, Tolly. She's a bit weird, of course, like all house elves, but I loved playing with her anyway." Aterus said. "She always wanted to let me win, though and we had to play house elf and master at least once a day. And I never got to play the elf."
"What is a house elf anyway?" Anny asked. "You keep talking about them, but I've never seen one."
Neither had Rupert. "Right Aterus, can you draw us poor common folk a picture?"
Aterus got out ink and parchment, but the result was extremely disappointing.
"That's a stick figure at best." Danny complained.
"I'm no artist." Aterus hissed at her. "You draw one, if you're so much better."
As it turned out none of the children who'd seen house elves before could draw particularly well.
"In that case, you'll just have to wait until you see a real house elf." Pank decided. "There must be lots of them here at the castle."
"So where are they?" Anny asked looking around.
"Normally they spend most of their time in the kitchens." Dinah reported.
"And where are the kitchens?" Rupert asked getting up. He was feeling adventurous all of a sudden.
"Somewhere on this level as far as I know." Billy shrugged. "Probably more in the center of the castle."
"Okay," Rupert smiled at them. "Come on Anny, we're going to find ourselves a house elf."
"Wait, I'm coming with you!" Dinah jumped up.
"I thought you know what a house elf looks like?" Rupert asked her surprised.
"But Anny's my best friend." Dinah declared. "And how else are you going to know when you find one?"
"I don't know whether that's a good idea. What if you get lost?" Pank asked. "We should stay together."
"We can always ask a picture for the way." Anny told him.
"And there are no more classes today anyway." Rupert added. "The worst that can happen is that we're late for dinner, but we'll be back long before then, you'll see."
Rupert absolutely loved playing the leader, even if he didn't know where he was going himself. Maybe it had something to do with always having been an outsider until now. It was wonderful to finally have friends and he wanted to be useful and important to them. Then they wouldn't want to lose his friendship, if they ever found out who his father was.
"Maybe we should go back and ask Salazar to draw us another map." Anny suggested after a while of erring through corridors.
"No, we're too far away." Rupert insisted.
"We could ask one of the other pictures, though." Dinah commented.
"Good idea, but I don't think I've seen one anywhere near here." Rupert sighed. "This must be a completely out of use part of the castle."
"Maybe there's one in this corridor." Anny stepped around the next corner and bumped right into someone very tall. "Umph! Oh, I'm sorry Sir!"
The man glared at the three children. "And what are you doing out here during class hours?"
"We lost our way." Rupert assured him hastily. He looked so scary! "We didn't mean to bother you."
The man looked a little less angry at that. "Oh, you're first years, aren't you?"
Rupert nodded. "Yes, Sir."
"So what class are you supposed to be in right now?" he demanded.
"None, we have the afternoon off." Rupert answered stepping in front of the girls. He was the leader. He had to protect them.
"Then why aren't you in your common room?"
"We were looking for the kitchens, Sir." Rupert reported.
"Going to steal food, were you? The kitchens are off limits to students."
"Oh no, Sir." Anny stepped up beside Rupert. "We were just going to see the house elves. I so want to know what they look like."
"Anny's Muggle born, you see." Dinah explained hastily. "And I thought we'd be sure to find her an elf in the kitchens."
The man glared some more. "Very well. I'll let you see your house elf, but then you're going back to your common room. No sneaking into the kitchens."
"Yes, Professor." Dinah promised looking more chastised than Rupert had ever thought possible. "We really didn't know it was forbidden."
To Rupert's surprise the man almost smiled.
"I'm not a professor." He said. "I'm just plain old Mr. Filch, the caretaker."
"Oh, then you must know everything about house elves!" Dinah exclaimed. "We're really lucky to have found you."
Rupert could only watch in wonder how Dinah wound the scary old man around her little finger. She actually got him to invite them into his office, where he called upon a house elf not just to look at, but also to serve them tea and sandwiches.
"No more than one for each of you, so you don't spoil your appetite for dinner." Filch added in an almost fatherly tone.
While they were eating he told them all sorts of stories about his work with the elves and their ways.
"You have to understand their mentality." Filch explained. "They live for the appreciation they get from other people. Every little 'well done' means the world to them. For a little praise they are the most loyal and hard working creatures."
"So why do so many people beat their elves?" Rupert asked wide eyed.
"Because they don't want to bother with understanding them and because they don't fight back. The elves feel obliged to always forgive their masters, no matter what they do to them. They consider it part of their job."
"But I've heard stories of elves that betrayed their masters. What about those?" Dinah asked.
"Those masters are the very worst." Filch said sadly. "They never earned their elves' loyalty in the first place, even though a single word of praise would have sufficed. Such cruel people don't deserve to have a house elf in the first place. Always remember that even the lowliest servant deserves to know when he has done well. It can often mean more to him than all the money you give him to know that he is doing a good job."
-
-
Tullia and Danny went to Professor Snape's office right after the last class of the day was over. A group of older Gryffindors was rushing out of the Potions classroom as they passed and they had to squeeze themselves against the wall so they wouldn't get swept along.
The Ravenclaws in the class followed more slowly and the first years could move on.
They stopped just outside the Potions classroom.
"Well, go on in." Danny stopped right outside the door. "Tell him."
"You're not coming?" Tullia had hoped that Danny would be the one to tell Professor Snape. The Potions Master might be the nicest teacher she'd met so far, but this still was a little scary.
"It's not my place." Danny declared. "You'd better talk in private."
Tullia sighed. Of course Danny was right. What would Professor Snape think of her, if she let Danny talk for her in a matter like this?
She stepped through the door.
Professor Snape was sorting jars on his desk. Was this a bad moment to interrupt him or was he just cleaning up?
There was a huge pile of homework scrolls on the desk as well. Was that really the homework of just one class?
Tullia knocked softly on the door frame. Had the teacher even heard that?
Snape looked up.
"Tullia, come on in." he motioned towards a chair next to his desk. "Is something wrong?"
Tullia sat down and found that the pile of parchments was right in front of her nose. Maybe Professor Snape had placed all of today's homework essays together for marking?
"I ... Well, you said I could talk to the merpeople in the lake." she hesitated.
"Of course." Snape confirmed. "I'm sure they'd love to meet you. They rarely meet new people who speak Mermish."
Tullia nodded. "Yes, they were very excited when I first called out to them, but then Professor McGonagall saw me with my head in the water. She gave me detention and forbade me from going near the lake. She just wouldn't listen when I tried to explain, so I thought ... Well, I thought that, perhaps, if you could tell her that I had your permission and that I have gills and can't drown ..."
Professor Snape nodded. "Of course, I'll clear it up over dinner. Professor McGonagall can be a little rash sometimes. She was probably in a hurry to get to her next class and had no time for long explanations. I'll handle it."
Tullia beamed. She'd never expected this to be so easy!
"Oh, thank you, Sir!" she exclaimed. "It was so nice to talk to them, almost like home." She blushed when she realised what she'd just said.
"Are you unhappy here, Tullia?" Snape asked right away. "Are your classmates giving you trouble?"
"Oh no, not at all. They're all really nice." Tullia assured him. "We've made fast friends."
"No quarrels with your dorm mates?" Snape pushed.
"Not yet." Tullia repeated, but then realised that that sounded too good to seem perfectly honest to the teacher. "Well, except for Nocturne. She doesn't seem to want to be friends with anybody, but that doesn't really bother any of us. You see Danny and I are really close and I think Anny and Dinah are, too, so we don't really need her."
"But you're still a little unhappy without the merpeople." Snape hinted.
"Well, I'm just so used to them from home. They've been part of my live for as long as I can remember. Living completely on land is just so strange to me. I'm not used to it."
"I'll see what I can do about that." Snape promised once again. "But please tell me more about your classmates. I'm a little worried for Anny. The transition from the Muggle world to Hogwarts is even harder than from living next to the merpeople."
"Oh, Anny is all excited about it. She's all over talking to the pictures and ghosts. Right now she's gone to look at the house elves with Dinah and Rupert." Tullia assured him. "I don't think she's missing her home any more than the rest of us."
"Ah yes, Rupert." Snape said and Tullia suddenly remembered how he had asked the boy why he hadn't gone to school in Ireland. "He's made friends with Anny then?"
Tullia nodded. "Oh, we all love Rupert. He's a lot of fun. I think he's best friends with Pank already."
"And Billy and Aterus are inseparable." Snape added. "That leaves Gangolf and Colleen. How do those two get along?"
Tullia shrugged. "Nocturne doesn't like anyone. The boys are doing their best to make Mirrorboy a part of the group, but I think he's afraid of Billy." She shrugged again. "I haven't the slightest idea why."
"What makes you think so?" Snape asked looking concerned.
"I don't know." Tullia admitted. "It's actually Danny who said he was afraid of Billy. She says he's always trying to keep other people between them and when Billy got angry earlier he jumped away, even though Billy wasn't even looking at him."
"Billy got angry? At whom?" Snape demanded sternly.
"Nobody. Just a story Anny told us about some Muggle girl who'd been mean to her friend. Billy said Anny should have hit her and Gangolf got scared." Tullia frowned. "Gangolf's a bit weird, if you ask me."
"Maybe he's a pacifist and doesn't like fighting." Snape suggested. "I'm sure he must be a clever boy, if he was sorted into Slytherin. Give him a chance."
"Of course, Professor. We're doing our best." Tullia assured him.
-
-
The two girls took a 'detour' over the Quidditch pitch on the way back. Danny had been wanting to get a look at it for a while, but Pank had always insisted that the group should stay together.
"Wow, those hoops are so high, just like on a real pitch." Tullia commented looking up from the center of the field.
"It is a real pitch." Danny sneered. "What did you expect?"
"It's a school pitch." Tullia reminded her. "For students. The one in primary school wasn't nearly as high."
"Primary school children play on toy brooms." Danny informed her. "The Hogwarts teams play on real professional Quidditch brooms and by the same rules as the league teams."
Tullia shuddered. "Quidditch just isn't for me. I'm uncomfortable enough on a toy broom. If I had been meant to fly, I'm sure I'd have been born with wings rather than gills."
"Wimp." Danny teased. "I'm definitely going to try out for the team next year. I love Flying."
Tullia shrugged. "Okay, I'm still better than you at underwater polo."
"Underwater polo?" Danny laughed. "How do you play that? Riding on dolphins?"
Tullia snorted. "Dolphins!"
"What's so funny about that?" Danny demanded.
"Dolphins live in the sea and need to come up for air regularly. Oh no, underwater polo is played on crabs, of course." Wasn't that the most obvious thing in the world? Apparently not. "I heard the Seapeople have a sport called dolphinracing, though. That's supposed to be played riding dolphins."
"What's the difference between Seapeople and Merpeople anyway?" Danny asked as they strolled back to the castle for dinner. "I mean, if you take a merman to the sea, is he a seaman then?"
"Of course not!" Tullia shrieked in horror. "You mustn't do that! It'd kill him!"
"Whoa, calm down, I meant, if he's apparated or portkeyed right out of the water into the water, of course."
"That's still murder! He'd suffocate slowly in the sea. The sea water would eat away his gills until he couldn't breathe anymore."
Danny stared at her. "Then, if you went swimming in the sea, it would destroy your gills as well?"
Tullia shook her head. "Not if I kept them closed the whole time. Unlike the Merpeople I also have lungs to breathe with when out of the lake. I've been to the sea before and even got water into my gills. At first it just burned a little, but after a few hours it started to hurt really badly and my Mum had to wash them out with lots of clean water. After that it hurt only a little and healed within a week"
"So what do the Seapeople do about that?"
"Nothing, their gills can't be hurt by salt water the way ours are. They can't live in lake water for very long either, though. I think they need large amounts of salt, or something like that."
"But I though they were related?"
"They are. Just like humans are related to chimpanzees. You're not able to live in a tree, either, are you?"
Danny nodded in understanding and seconds later Tullia forgot all about the discussion at the sight of the food on the house tables.
"Whatever is that?" She'd never seen the dish before.
Well, actually that wasn't quite true. She had seen it at the welcoming feast, but not paid it any attention with all the other delicacies around.
"What's what?" Danny asked filling her soup bowl.
"That." Tullia pointed.
Danny looked at her oddly.
"It's a steak." Billy supplied. "You know, beef?"
"Beef?" Tullia repeated. She'd heard about beef sometime. It was some kind of land animal once dead and turned into food ...
"Cow?" She asked. "Beef means cow, right?"
"Of course it means cow." Danny confirmed. "What's the matter with you?"
"Sorry, we just never eat cow at home, so I'm not as used to it as you are."
"We don't have beef very often either." Billy said stabbing viciously at his piece of meat.
Gangolf was trying to duck behind a plate full of salad in fear.
"What's wrong with you?" Tullia asked Billy. "The cow's already dead. You don't have to kill it."
"I know that." Billy grumbled.
"It's the Gryffindors." Dinah supplied. "Some third year idiot called him a teacher's pet, because his father's our head of house."
"Gryffindors suck." declared Colleen who for once seemed to actually be eating.
If Nocturne liked it, the steak couldn't be that bad, could it? Tullia helped herself to some soup.
"It's not just the Gryffindors." Billy complained. "Even our own second years say I boast about my father. I didn't even mention him! And the Ravenclaws keep mumbling about favouritism whenever they see me."
"So you wish you'd gone to West Hogsmeade after all?" Aterus asked glumly.
"Gone where?" squeaked Gangolf.
"The place we have Sports class." Aterus reminded him. "That's where Billy's brother teaches."
"My Mum says that's a bad school." Gangolf reported.
"Is not." Billy glared.
Gangolf ducked behind his salad.
"It's a public school." said Pank. "Not as exclusive as Hogwarts, but the students get to go home after classes so they're not completely separated from their friends at home. I bet they have a lot of Muggle born students."
"They have a lot of squibs, too." Billy added. "They're the only school that can teach them."
"Squibs?" Aterus asked. "But what can you teach a squib?"
"My brother teaches the magical students Potions and the non magical ones Chemistry, for example. They have Muggle Studies, French and Philosophy as mandatory subjects and DADA, Herbology and History of Magic like everybody else." Billy answered. "You'd have to ask Draco exactly how they do it. I've never been in one of their classes."
"You should eat something more than salad, Gangolf." Dinah remarked. "You're much too thin and the steak's excellent."
"It's surprisingly good for such a common dish." Colleen confirmed.
"Oh, shut up, Nocturne." Tullia snapped.
She definitely could not agree with the statement. Cow meat tasted like old shoes, she decided. She should have taken a second helping of the soup instead.
"Steak is much too fat and bad for your cholesterol levels." Gangolf announced. "Salad is healthy and will keep you nice and slim."
"You're in no danger of getting fat, Mirrorboy." Danny informed him, but Gangolf stuck to the salad.
Tullia heaped some more salad onto her plate as well. A small bite of steak on a mouthful of salad was bearable. If she managed to eat about half of her piece that was acceptable, she decided. Her mother always had made her eat half of the portion she'd served her as well, if she hadn't been hungry, or had disliked the food.
Professor Snape joined them a few minutes later.
"I have spoken with Professor McGonagall," he informed Tullia. "And you don't have to serve the detention."
Tullia beamed at him. "Thank you, Professor!"
But Snape held up his hand to stop her. "However despite the fact that she understands your wish to get to honour with your heritage, she insists that you have to stay away from the lake."
"But ... but why?" Tullia couldn't believe it. She'd been okay with serving the detention, if only she got permission to speak with the merpeople again.
"Professor McGonagall fears that, though there is no danger to you, it might endanger other students. She thinks, if they see you with your head under water, they'll try to imitate that, fall in and drown." Snape explained. "As vice headmistress, I'm afraid, she has the authority to overrule my permission, in matters concerning the whole school."
"But how does Tullia talking to the Merpeople concern the whole school?" Danny demanded. "It's a matter between Tullia and the Merpeople."
"Well, due to Professor McGonagall's fear that other students, who don't have to necessarily be Slytherins, will imitate Tullia, it's a matter of the safety of all houses."
"Who'd be stupid enough to hang their head into the water from a tree brunch, if they can't swim?" Billy grumbled.
Severus shrugged. "Well, I honestly can't see anybody in our house doing it. I doubt a Ravenclaw could be that stupid or a Hufflepuff so daring, which leaves only the Gryffindors. I wouldn't have expected them to be so foolish either, but Professor McGonagall is their head of house and knows them best. Apparently she does see a risk there."
"The Gryffindors again?" Danny groaned. "I hate Gryffindors!"
"Yes." grumbled Dinah. "First they insult us all the time, then they make fun of Gangolf, spoil our food, bother Billy and now they're keeping Tullia from her friends. Why isn't anybody doing something about it?"
"The fight between Slytherin and Gryffindor is an honoured tradition." Snape explained. "But please keep in mind that both the headmaster and the vice headmistress are Gryffindors and when in doubt will decide in favour of their own house."
"But that's not fair!" Dinah exclaimed.
"Life isn't fair, Dinah." Snape stated calmly. "There are people, especially in Hufflepuff and Gryffindor who'll say that God sees to it that the world is fair to everybody, but they are deceiving themselves. It's comforting to believe, of course, but if you want to be successful in life and fulfil your ambitions, you have to know and accept, that there is always an imbalance. Once you knows in whose favour and disfavour the situation is, you can adapt your actions accordingly."
"And if I don't know?" Anny asked sounding a little intimidated.
"Then you'd better not take any risks. Stay in the background until you have fully scouted out the situation." Snape advised. "The biggest advantage we have over the Gryffindors is that they never stop to think before they act. They'll run right into obstacles, that we can easily go around by just looking ahead a little. Gryffindors always make a fast start, but don't let that fool you into abandoning caution and dashing after them. Slytherins usually reach the goal first and much less out of breath."
"But how do we get them to leave us alone?" asked Dinah.
Snape looked at her. It seemed almost as if he'd never heard that question before and had to think about it.
"They won't." he finally said. "No matter what you do, you're still Slytherins. You'll always be their favourite target."
"Isn't there a way to stay away from them?" Gangolf pleaded. "Places they won't go, for example?"
"The common room of course." Snape answered. "They can't get into Slytherin house itself."
"But the classes and bathrooms ..." Gangolf blushed.
"Well, you can't expect them to change our schedules so we don't have lessons with Gryffindors anymore." Pank stated reasonably.
"I just want to be able to use the bathroom in peace." Gangolf declared. "Today they wouldn't even leave me alone to take a look in the mirror and straighten my hair."
"You could have just used your mirror spell on one of your books." Danny stated practically.
"Or waited to use the bathroom next to our dorm." added Pank.
"Really Gangolf, you don't need to check your hair twenty times a day. Once or twice is quite enough." Billy was apparently trying to be patient, but Gangolf took it the wrong way and ducked behind his salad once again.
Snape watched the exchange with obvious interest.
"Billy, I think we need to talk." he announced as he got up and Billy pushed away his empty plate and trudged after him.
Tullia stared at the still much too big piece of steak on her plate. She pushed it about with her fork for a while.
Stupid wizarding food. Stupid Gryffindors. Stupid Professor McGonagall.
At the head table the vice headmistress was happily chatting with the headmaster. Another Gryffindor. Neither of them cared that a little Slytherin part mermaid was missing her home, family and friends.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Skycat – Er ... those weren't suggestions. ,00, asked me to stop doing something he/she doesn't like and I was unsure exactly what. Turns out it was the review responses.
Pam Briggs – Actually I don't know anyone who doesn't like spaghetti. There might be a particular sauce one doesn't like them with, but spaghetti themselves ...
,00, - In that case I can only advise that you don't read those as I think most of my other reviewers would be disappointed, if I stopped writing them. They're meant to be a thank you to each individual reviewer showing them how much I appreciate their reviews. They're not actually meant to be read by everybody.
midnight tiger – Jorge was meant to be a little wave at my Spanish speaking readers, but it seems he's well liked by the others as well. ... I have a list of students in Billy's year, but it's nowhere close to the length of the list I had for Draco's stay at West Hogsmeade in RD. The record holder would be Double O, though, where I ended up with an almost complete list of all Hogwarts students by years and houses with notes on what electives they took. ... Well, as you can see in this Tullia is a little homesick, but she has a natural inclination to daydreaming as well. ... Gee, I'm glad I never went to school with you. I cried more than enough back then without people gluing up my hair or teeth. Gangolf is actually a very insecure child and Colleen is only repeating the prejudices she was raised on. All her life those have been as obvious as the fact that the sky is blue and now suddenly everybody around her thinks they're wrong. Poor Colleen is quite confused right now and glue pranks would not help either of them to adapt to their new surroundings and learn to make friends. They'd only drive them further away from everybody else and make them unhappy.
holly – The prejudices she was raised on are the only world Colleen knows. It's easy to tell somebody to act differently, but how do you act differently from the only way you know how? Remember that it's only been a few days since Colleen first encountered people who don't share her parents' prejudices. She's still trying to act on the basis of what were the facts of life for her for eleven years. ... Well, originally the mysterious teacher was supposed to be Flitwick, but he'd already met Gangolf and I didn't want him to establish a particular connection to any of his teachers, so it would have to be one of the elective teachers ... or maybe even headmaster Donalds, who was there to see Dumbledore over some administrative detail of the schools' cooperation?
Iremione – Yes, that's exactly what Gangolf's supposed to be. Unfortunately none of the other characters are going to get a chance to look inside his head and understand what's going on there. ... Okay, I've got to clear that up: Hermes Hugge is a poke at an Austrian ... er ... celebrity called Hermes Phetberg, pronounced like Fettberg, which translates into Mountain of Fat. The man is incredibly fat and proud of it. It's his gimmick to be a fat slob and the one thing he's famous for. I'd never have thought of the name, if it weren't for him. ... Possible, but in this fic Binns definitely is too short-sighted to read small handwriting. Minerva might well be writing extra small just for him, though. ... A friend of mine once made spaghetti with vegetables for us. It's excellent, though that might be due to her being such an excellent cook. ... As for fish and water plants, just think of using tuna fish instead of meatballs and Tullia's mother would know what water plants would be good with it. (Or think of the black things around sushi ... Yum!) ... I know, but it's easier to buy your salad already dead than to kill it yourself, isn't it? ... Zebee's stories are all very short, because she hasn't updated the one that's intended to be a longer one in almost forever. Sniff! ... Best student academically doesn't necessarily mean she has a model personality as well, you know. Apparently she had the most magical talent and intelligence and therefore the best chances at completing the tasks. ... Well, it's Jorge in the German translation and I do believe, if it had been Girogo they'd have either left Giorgo or translated it into Georg (German). There was no reason for the translator to pick Jorge. ... Well, if you don't like Samara, just do what I did and pick Beatrice as your hero (or Ginny, but I know you don't like her as much as I do.)
futagoakuma-tenshi01 – Draco's supposed to show up when they go to West Hogsmeade, but I'm afraid he doesn't have much to do in this story. (It's not supposed to get much longer, though. It was never intended to get this long in the first place.)
Colibi – Precisely. (Greenie's currently sniffing a little indignatedly about you actually having forgotten him ...)
Skittia – That's weird. Have you gotten AutorAlerts for other stories? If not maybe you should check your settings on and whether you've accidentally blocked on your e-mail addy. ... The Catar will follow as soon as Greenie lets go of me on this story. I really have no idea where he's taking me this time.
(OOS)
None of the Above – Sorry about that. I did notice it in the rereading, but hesitated to delete the entire conversation about lighting candles or pipes and finding matches in a hotel room. I decided to leave it for later and then forgot and posted. Please just assume that Minerva didn't have enough toothpicks handy and gave some of he children matches instead. Gangolf got a match and assumed that everybody else had, too, so to him Billy was levitating a match, when it really was a toothpick.
Kyzara – Poor Harry was going through a very bad time in HPHC. Glad you liked it. ... And here I always thought I write too little action! ... Gangolf is my attempt to demonstrate what would have happened, if Gilderoy Lockhart had been a Slytherin, as many people assume.
Irihi Safaia – Good guessing! All the readers who have known me for a while guessed as well (some even before Ron first showed up in the story). Seems my likes and dislikes are a little obvious ...
safrie – Thanks for reviewing. Responses to your mail have gone out by mail.
Miilule – We'll get to that right after next chapter. Have to finish the introductions first.
notte – West Hogsmeade's made up of a combination of many things trying to be British or at least European, while at the same time being a little familiar to every reader. It wasn't meant to actually make you think of Austria (I only took elements of the school system from there consciously). I already know I messed up with the little round red glowing light switches, though. They don't have those in Britain. If you can put your finger on any other Austria specific items, please tell me so, so I can avoid them in future. ... I've never been to Graz or even Styria, I'm afraid (Well, I've probably travelled through a few times, but then I have family in Upper Austria and Salzburg, so I'm tempted to take a more northern route that allows me to visit there.) Those little villages are said to be particularly nice there, though.
Alia5 – Er ... actually he's not thinking of himself as a shepherd (Your spelling's absolutely correct, by the way.) as much as a leader, or teacher's assistant. It ends up as shepherding quite often, though.
-
-
-
- A/N: Will Tullia get over her homesickness without the merpeople? Will the Slytherins like Minerva? And just what did Rupert's father do that is so embarrassing?
-
-
In the next chapter: A look inside Danny's head, if I can pull it off. We get to know Aterus a little better and Billy is trying to deal with the other houses' teasing.
Disclaimer 2: Severus Snape owning a raven belongs to J.L. Matthews. (Go read her story everybody. It's great.)
Disclaimer 3: The gang name Sharks is borrowed from the musical West Side Story of course. I don't remember where I found the name Rakers, but I know I read it somewhere.
Disclaimer 4: The idea for Snape having a family comes from Al's fic Time of Trial.
Disclaimer 5: The Glizzard family and Gringolf Glizzard belong to my friend PegaPony and so do all of Gringolf's songs. Thanks for letting me borrow them!
Disclaimer 6: My friend Edmund owns himself and his horse Apollo.
Disclaimer 7: Old Joe and Tess' Joe belong to Zebee.
-
-
A/N: Sorry for taking so long. I've been very busy at work, had to write a few other things in German, edit all of Both or Neither, because I'm making a little change there, had to write an entry for a SRATSS challenge and have been having serious computer problems which finally caused me to reformat the hard drive. (Incidentally, do any of you know what to do, if the computer keeps calling its sound card an 'audio device' that it can't find the right driver for? I know the driver's in the list somewhere, but I don't know the model either.)
-
-
Chapter 8: Thinking of Home
-
-
"So how are you going to do this?" Danny asked Tullia when they reached the lake. "Wade in until the water's deep enough to stick your head in?"
"No, that way I'd get my clothes all wet." Tullia shook her head.
Rupert silently had to agree with her. It was much too cold to run around in soaked robes.
"There!" Tullia pointed at a tree next to the lake. "That branch is perfect."
Indeed there was a thick branch that hung low over the water. Rupert supposed that he'd be able to climb it quite easily, but a girl?
Tullia didn't let the doubtful faces of some of her classmates stop her. She ran over to the tree, hopped onto the branch and crawled forward as far over the water as it would let her go.
Rupert quickly closed his eyes waiting for a scream or splash as she pushed herself over the side. When none came he cautiously opened one eye again and found Tullia dangling from the branch by her legs while her head was indeed under water.
And there it remained! When was she planing to come up for air?
"How long can one hold ones breath like that?" he asked Pank.
Pank grew a little pale. "I don't know. Tullia! Hey, Tullia!"
The whole group dashed to the tree yelling for the girl.
Tullia reluctantly pulled her head out just far enough to answer them. "What?"
"How do you breathe down there?" Pank demanded.
"Why, through my gills, of course." Tullia declared as if it were the most natural thing in the world and returned her head into the water.
"She has gills." Pank stated incredulously.
"Oh, just wait until Colleen finds out." Danny laughed. "That'll be hilarious!"
"Why, what are gills?" Gangolf asked while examining the mud that had gotten on his shoes with disgust.
"Gills are little slits through which fish breathe water." Aterus provided. "Creatures that can breathe both air and water have gills as well as lungs and are called amphibious."
"Aren't amphibia supposed to be cold blooded?" Anny asked a little doubtfully.
"Merpeople have gills and are warm blooded." Aterus stated. "I guess that's where Tullia got it from."
"Cool." Billy declared. "That must be really useful."
"Whatever would it be good for?" Gangolf sneered. "I think it's ugly."
"You didn't even know Tullia had gills until she told us!" Danny hissed.
"Whatever is going on here? Ms Waterwall, get back here at once!" McGonagall was standing behind them and she looked furious. "Whatever do you think you're doing here?"
"I was only talking to the merpeople." Tullia had pulled herself back up and was now sitting on the branch again wringing out her hair.
"With your head in the water in this cold? And from that slippery tree branch? Are you out of your mind? That's much too dangerous." McGonagall yelled.
"I can swim and I don't feel cold at all." Tullia insisted. "I know a perfectly good drying charm, if my clothes get wet."
"She has gills, too." Aterus tried to help. "So she can't drown."
"Wingardium leviosa!" McGonagall announced and with a little yelp of fear Tullia was magically plucked from her tree and floated back onto dry land with her eyes tightly closed. "There. Now get back inside and to your next class. Ms Waterwall, you'll serve detention with me tonight and you will stay at least half a metre from the lake from now on."
"But the merpeople!" Tullia gasped. She looked slightly pale after her floating experience.
"The merpeople belong in the lake and we belong on dry land. Why really, talking to the merpeople! What nonsense."
"It's not ..." Tullia started, but McGonagall caught her off.
"Back inside, I said. Now!"
Dejectedly they trudged back to the common room.
"But Professor Snape said I could talk to them." Tullia mumbled as she curled up in a chair by the fireplace.
"At least we can have the good chairs for once." Rupert declared trying to cheer the group up. "We could play exploding snap again."
With all the higher years in class the common room practically belonged to them for the afternoon and despite Tullia's unhappiness Rupert was feeling rather good right now.
He was slowly beginning to relax and feel at home among his classmates. His mother had been right. Nobody here knew about his father's embarrassing secret. As long as he didn't tell them nobody would laugh at him and he would be accepted just like everybody else.
"You were right, Billy." Tullia said suddenly. "McGonagall is the meanest of the teachers."
"She was only worried about your health." Dinah tried to defend the teacher. "She probably doesn't even know you're part mermaid."
"Maybe, if we ask Professor Snape he'll explain it to her and she'll let you talk to the merpeople after all." Rupert suggested. "And she can't forbid you from going into the lake in summer."
"But summer is ages away." Tullia argued. "I miss my friends right now."
"Those aren't the same merpeople, though." Pank reminded her.
"No, but at least they are merpeople."
"I miss my friends, too." commented Billy. "I bet we all do."
"That's it!" exclaimed Dinah. "Lets all tell each other about our friends back at home. That'll help us get to know each other better and it'll feel like they aren't all that far away."
"Oh yes!" Anny nodded eagerly. "We could play Spin the Bottle. Does anyone have an empty bottle?"
They exchanged some confused looks. Whatever was Spin the Bottle?
"Will an empty glass do?" Aterus asked. "I could get one from the bathroom."
"No, how could a glass point at you?" Anny shook her head.
"Point at you?" Now Rupert felt even more confused. "What does that bottle do in Spin the Bottle?"
"It's like Wand Turning, only without magic, so you need a non magical object instead of the wand." Danny explained.
"Why do it without magic?" Billy asked. "Lets play Wand Turning."
Cheers went up all around and suddenly Rupert felt nervous. He'd always wanted to play Wand Turning and never had had anyone to play with, but did his first time have to be about friends back at home? He didn't have any to talk of.
"Okay, whose wand should we use?" Danny asked.
"Mine." declared Pank and laid it in the middle of the table. "Now form a proper circle around the table, everybody, so the wand can pick you. Ready?"
"Yes!" several voices called out eagerly.
"Okay then: Tell me, who is your very best friend." Pank announced and sent the wand spinning.
It turned around several times, then finally stopped pointing and sparking at Anny.
"Why my very best friend is Dinah, of course!" Anny laughed.
"Hey, no fair!" protested Danny right away. "It has to be someone from home."
"Well, Pank said best friend." Rupert reminded her. If they'd let Dinah count, he could just say Pank was his best friend. That was true anyway.
"That's right." Pank confirmed. "My mistake. Lets change the question to: Who did you play with the most back at home?"
Anny thought for a moment. "I think Sally Andersen." she decided. "The other girls didn't like her much because she had differently coloured eyes and Mona claimed that that is a sign of madness."
"That's mean!" exclaimed Dinah.
"Yeah, didn't you beat her up for saying that?" Billy looked almost angry and Gangolf started and bumped into Rupert's arm.
"Ouch!" Rupert exclaimed more surprised than hurt. "What's the matter with you, Mirrorboy? You're causing a gap in the circle."
Gangolf blushed, mumbled a soft "Sorry." and returned to his place eyeing Billy suspiciously.
"Oh, come on Gangolf!" Pank rolled his eyes. "Billy isn't going to hit you."
"Or is your name Mona?" Danny teased.
"She had most of the class behind her." Anny shrugged. "We'd have lost that fight for sure. What next? Do I spin Pank's wand now, or do I use mine?"
"Pank's." Dinah explained. "And you have to ask a new question."
"Okay, who is your best friend outside of Hogwarts?" Anny asked and spun the wand.
It turned and turned and finally began to slow down in front of Danny. It'd stop at Billy ... no, Gangolf ... no ... please move on, move on ...
"Rupert!" Danny cheered.
Oh no, what could he say? Was he blushing? He thought he was. He didn't have any friends at home. All the children had only ever mocked him because of his father's stupid little accident.
"Well ... I ... I guess it would be Uncle Mik." Where had that come from?
"Uncle Mik?" Pank asked. "Whoever is Uncle Mik?"
Now he was blushing for sure. "He's my mother's retarded brother. He usually lives with his parents, but whenever they can't look after him they take him to our house. Uncle Mik can't really understand everything that goes on around him and he doesn't really know when not to do magic either, so it's not safe to leave him on his own. He can magically project the most incredible pictures, though, and I can tell him anything. He's a really good listener and never tells anyone."
"They gave him a wand even though he isn't capable of understanding about Muggle protection?" Dinah asked.
"Oh no, he's never used a wand. He just has a special gift for wandless magic." Rupert explained hastily. "Most retarded people have special talents to make up for their deficiency, Mum says."
Apparently that satisfied them and Rupert felt relief flood over him as he turned the wand once again. They were still his friends.
"My best friend's Tiger Tim." Billy answered right away. "He's almost two years younger than me, but very tall for his age and he's an excellent attacker in soccer. I usually had to play defender, though I'd much rather be keeper like my brother was."
Of course, cool kids like Billy didn't have to think about that question very long. Billy probably had more friends than he could count.
"Mum never let me meet any other kids, but we have a house elf child, Tolly. She's a bit weird, of course, like all house elves, but I loved playing with her anyway." Aterus said. "She always wanted to let me win, though and we had to play house elf and master at least once a day. And I never got to play the elf."
"What is a house elf anyway?" Anny asked. "You keep talking about them, but I've never seen one."
Neither had Rupert. "Right Aterus, can you draw us poor common folk a picture?"
Aterus got out ink and parchment, but the result was extremely disappointing.
"That's a stick figure at best." Danny complained.
"I'm no artist." Aterus hissed at her. "You draw one, if you're so much better."
As it turned out none of the children who'd seen house elves before could draw particularly well.
"In that case, you'll just have to wait until you see a real house elf." Pank decided. "There must be lots of them here at the castle."
"So where are they?" Anny asked looking around.
"Normally they spend most of their time in the kitchens." Dinah reported.
"And where are the kitchens?" Rupert asked getting up. He was feeling adventurous all of a sudden.
"Somewhere on this level as far as I know." Billy shrugged. "Probably more in the center of the castle."
"Okay," Rupert smiled at them. "Come on Anny, we're going to find ourselves a house elf."
"Wait, I'm coming with you!" Dinah jumped up.
"I thought you know what a house elf looks like?" Rupert asked her surprised.
"But Anny's my best friend." Dinah declared. "And how else are you going to know when you find one?"
"I don't know whether that's a good idea. What if you get lost?" Pank asked. "We should stay together."
"We can always ask a picture for the way." Anny told him.
"And there are no more classes today anyway." Rupert added. "The worst that can happen is that we're late for dinner, but we'll be back long before then, you'll see."
Rupert absolutely loved playing the leader, even if he didn't know where he was going himself. Maybe it had something to do with always having been an outsider until now. It was wonderful to finally have friends and he wanted to be useful and important to them. Then they wouldn't want to lose his friendship, if they ever found out who his father was.
"Maybe we should go back and ask Salazar to draw us another map." Anny suggested after a while of erring through corridors.
"No, we're too far away." Rupert insisted.
"We could ask one of the other pictures, though." Dinah commented.
"Good idea, but I don't think I've seen one anywhere near here." Rupert sighed. "This must be a completely out of use part of the castle."
"Maybe there's one in this corridor." Anny stepped around the next corner and bumped right into someone very tall. "Umph! Oh, I'm sorry Sir!"
The man glared at the three children. "And what are you doing out here during class hours?"
"We lost our way." Rupert assured him hastily. He looked so scary! "We didn't mean to bother you."
The man looked a little less angry at that. "Oh, you're first years, aren't you?"
Rupert nodded. "Yes, Sir."
"So what class are you supposed to be in right now?" he demanded.
"None, we have the afternoon off." Rupert answered stepping in front of the girls. He was the leader. He had to protect them.
"Then why aren't you in your common room?"
"We were looking for the kitchens, Sir." Rupert reported.
"Going to steal food, were you? The kitchens are off limits to students."
"Oh no, Sir." Anny stepped up beside Rupert. "We were just going to see the house elves. I so want to know what they look like."
"Anny's Muggle born, you see." Dinah explained hastily. "And I thought we'd be sure to find her an elf in the kitchens."
The man glared some more. "Very well. I'll let you see your house elf, but then you're going back to your common room. No sneaking into the kitchens."
"Yes, Professor." Dinah promised looking more chastised than Rupert had ever thought possible. "We really didn't know it was forbidden."
To Rupert's surprise the man almost smiled.
"I'm not a professor." He said. "I'm just plain old Mr. Filch, the caretaker."
"Oh, then you must know everything about house elves!" Dinah exclaimed. "We're really lucky to have found you."
Rupert could only watch in wonder how Dinah wound the scary old man around her little finger. She actually got him to invite them into his office, where he called upon a house elf not just to look at, but also to serve them tea and sandwiches.
"No more than one for each of you, so you don't spoil your appetite for dinner." Filch added in an almost fatherly tone.
While they were eating he told them all sorts of stories about his work with the elves and their ways.
"You have to understand their mentality." Filch explained. "They live for the appreciation they get from other people. Every little 'well done' means the world to them. For a little praise they are the most loyal and hard working creatures."
"So why do so many people beat their elves?" Rupert asked wide eyed.
"Because they don't want to bother with understanding them and because they don't fight back. The elves feel obliged to always forgive their masters, no matter what they do to them. They consider it part of their job."
"But I've heard stories of elves that betrayed their masters. What about those?" Dinah asked.
"Those masters are the very worst." Filch said sadly. "They never earned their elves' loyalty in the first place, even though a single word of praise would have sufficed. Such cruel people don't deserve to have a house elf in the first place. Always remember that even the lowliest servant deserves to know when he has done well. It can often mean more to him than all the money you give him to know that he is doing a good job."
-
-
Tullia and Danny went to Professor Snape's office right after the last class of the day was over. A group of older Gryffindors was rushing out of the Potions classroom as they passed and they had to squeeze themselves against the wall so they wouldn't get swept along.
The Ravenclaws in the class followed more slowly and the first years could move on.
They stopped just outside the Potions classroom.
"Well, go on in." Danny stopped right outside the door. "Tell him."
"You're not coming?" Tullia had hoped that Danny would be the one to tell Professor Snape. The Potions Master might be the nicest teacher she'd met so far, but this still was a little scary.
"It's not my place." Danny declared. "You'd better talk in private."
Tullia sighed. Of course Danny was right. What would Professor Snape think of her, if she let Danny talk for her in a matter like this?
She stepped through the door.
Professor Snape was sorting jars on his desk. Was this a bad moment to interrupt him or was he just cleaning up?
There was a huge pile of homework scrolls on the desk as well. Was that really the homework of just one class?
Tullia knocked softly on the door frame. Had the teacher even heard that?
Snape looked up.
"Tullia, come on in." he motioned towards a chair next to his desk. "Is something wrong?"
Tullia sat down and found that the pile of parchments was right in front of her nose. Maybe Professor Snape had placed all of today's homework essays together for marking?
"I ... Well, you said I could talk to the merpeople in the lake." she hesitated.
"Of course." Snape confirmed. "I'm sure they'd love to meet you. They rarely meet new people who speak Mermish."
Tullia nodded. "Yes, they were very excited when I first called out to them, but then Professor McGonagall saw me with my head in the water. She gave me detention and forbade me from going near the lake. She just wouldn't listen when I tried to explain, so I thought ... Well, I thought that, perhaps, if you could tell her that I had your permission and that I have gills and can't drown ..."
Professor Snape nodded. "Of course, I'll clear it up over dinner. Professor McGonagall can be a little rash sometimes. She was probably in a hurry to get to her next class and had no time for long explanations. I'll handle it."
Tullia beamed. She'd never expected this to be so easy!
"Oh, thank you, Sir!" she exclaimed. "It was so nice to talk to them, almost like home." She blushed when she realised what she'd just said.
"Are you unhappy here, Tullia?" Snape asked right away. "Are your classmates giving you trouble?"
"Oh no, not at all. They're all really nice." Tullia assured him. "We've made fast friends."
"No quarrels with your dorm mates?" Snape pushed.
"Not yet." Tullia repeated, but then realised that that sounded too good to seem perfectly honest to the teacher. "Well, except for Nocturne. She doesn't seem to want to be friends with anybody, but that doesn't really bother any of us. You see Danny and I are really close and I think Anny and Dinah are, too, so we don't really need her."
"But you're still a little unhappy without the merpeople." Snape hinted.
"Well, I'm just so used to them from home. They've been part of my live for as long as I can remember. Living completely on land is just so strange to me. I'm not used to it."
"I'll see what I can do about that." Snape promised once again. "But please tell me more about your classmates. I'm a little worried for Anny. The transition from the Muggle world to Hogwarts is even harder than from living next to the merpeople."
"Oh, Anny is all excited about it. She's all over talking to the pictures and ghosts. Right now she's gone to look at the house elves with Dinah and Rupert." Tullia assured him. "I don't think she's missing her home any more than the rest of us."
"Ah yes, Rupert." Snape said and Tullia suddenly remembered how he had asked the boy why he hadn't gone to school in Ireland. "He's made friends with Anny then?"
Tullia nodded. "Oh, we all love Rupert. He's a lot of fun. I think he's best friends with Pank already."
"And Billy and Aterus are inseparable." Snape added. "That leaves Gangolf and Colleen. How do those two get along?"
Tullia shrugged. "Nocturne doesn't like anyone. The boys are doing their best to make Mirrorboy a part of the group, but I think he's afraid of Billy." She shrugged again. "I haven't the slightest idea why."
"What makes you think so?" Snape asked looking concerned.
"I don't know." Tullia admitted. "It's actually Danny who said he was afraid of Billy. She says he's always trying to keep other people between them and when Billy got angry earlier he jumped away, even though Billy wasn't even looking at him."
"Billy got angry? At whom?" Snape demanded sternly.
"Nobody. Just a story Anny told us about some Muggle girl who'd been mean to her friend. Billy said Anny should have hit her and Gangolf got scared." Tullia frowned. "Gangolf's a bit weird, if you ask me."
"Maybe he's a pacifist and doesn't like fighting." Snape suggested. "I'm sure he must be a clever boy, if he was sorted into Slytherin. Give him a chance."
"Of course, Professor. We're doing our best." Tullia assured him.
-
-
The two girls took a 'detour' over the Quidditch pitch on the way back. Danny had been wanting to get a look at it for a while, but Pank had always insisted that the group should stay together.
"Wow, those hoops are so high, just like on a real pitch." Tullia commented looking up from the center of the field.
"It is a real pitch." Danny sneered. "What did you expect?"
"It's a school pitch." Tullia reminded her. "For students. The one in primary school wasn't nearly as high."
"Primary school children play on toy brooms." Danny informed her. "The Hogwarts teams play on real professional Quidditch brooms and by the same rules as the league teams."
Tullia shuddered. "Quidditch just isn't for me. I'm uncomfortable enough on a toy broom. If I had been meant to fly, I'm sure I'd have been born with wings rather than gills."
"Wimp." Danny teased. "I'm definitely going to try out for the team next year. I love Flying."
Tullia shrugged. "Okay, I'm still better than you at underwater polo."
"Underwater polo?" Danny laughed. "How do you play that? Riding on dolphins?"
Tullia snorted. "Dolphins!"
"What's so funny about that?" Danny demanded.
"Dolphins live in the sea and need to come up for air regularly. Oh no, underwater polo is played on crabs, of course." Wasn't that the most obvious thing in the world? Apparently not. "I heard the Seapeople have a sport called dolphinracing, though. That's supposed to be played riding dolphins."
"What's the difference between Seapeople and Merpeople anyway?" Danny asked as they strolled back to the castle for dinner. "I mean, if you take a merman to the sea, is he a seaman then?"
"Of course not!" Tullia shrieked in horror. "You mustn't do that! It'd kill him!"
"Whoa, calm down, I meant, if he's apparated or portkeyed right out of the water into the water, of course."
"That's still murder! He'd suffocate slowly in the sea. The sea water would eat away his gills until he couldn't breathe anymore."
Danny stared at her. "Then, if you went swimming in the sea, it would destroy your gills as well?"
Tullia shook her head. "Not if I kept them closed the whole time. Unlike the Merpeople I also have lungs to breathe with when out of the lake. I've been to the sea before and even got water into my gills. At first it just burned a little, but after a few hours it started to hurt really badly and my Mum had to wash them out with lots of clean water. After that it hurt only a little and healed within a week"
"So what do the Seapeople do about that?"
"Nothing, their gills can't be hurt by salt water the way ours are. They can't live in lake water for very long either, though. I think they need large amounts of salt, or something like that."
"But I though they were related?"
"They are. Just like humans are related to chimpanzees. You're not able to live in a tree, either, are you?"
Danny nodded in understanding and seconds later Tullia forgot all about the discussion at the sight of the food on the house tables.
"Whatever is that?" She'd never seen the dish before.
Well, actually that wasn't quite true. She had seen it at the welcoming feast, but not paid it any attention with all the other delicacies around.
"What's what?" Danny asked filling her soup bowl.
"That." Tullia pointed.
Danny looked at her oddly.
"It's a steak." Billy supplied. "You know, beef?"
"Beef?" Tullia repeated. She'd heard about beef sometime. It was some kind of land animal once dead and turned into food ...
"Cow?" She asked. "Beef means cow, right?"
"Of course it means cow." Danny confirmed. "What's the matter with you?"
"Sorry, we just never eat cow at home, so I'm not as used to it as you are."
"We don't have beef very often either." Billy said stabbing viciously at his piece of meat.
Gangolf was trying to duck behind a plate full of salad in fear.
"What's wrong with you?" Tullia asked Billy. "The cow's already dead. You don't have to kill it."
"I know that." Billy grumbled.
"It's the Gryffindors." Dinah supplied. "Some third year idiot called him a teacher's pet, because his father's our head of house."
"Gryffindors suck." declared Colleen who for once seemed to actually be eating.
If Nocturne liked it, the steak couldn't be that bad, could it? Tullia helped herself to some soup.
"It's not just the Gryffindors." Billy complained. "Even our own second years say I boast about my father. I didn't even mention him! And the Ravenclaws keep mumbling about favouritism whenever they see me."
"So you wish you'd gone to West Hogsmeade after all?" Aterus asked glumly.
"Gone where?" squeaked Gangolf.
"The place we have Sports class." Aterus reminded him. "That's where Billy's brother teaches."
"My Mum says that's a bad school." Gangolf reported.
"Is not." Billy glared.
Gangolf ducked behind his salad.
"It's a public school." said Pank. "Not as exclusive as Hogwarts, but the students get to go home after classes so they're not completely separated from their friends at home. I bet they have a lot of Muggle born students."
"They have a lot of squibs, too." Billy added. "They're the only school that can teach them."
"Squibs?" Aterus asked. "But what can you teach a squib?"
"My brother teaches the magical students Potions and the non magical ones Chemistry, for example. They have Muggle Studies, French and Philosophy as mandatory subjects and DADA, Herbology and History of Magic like everybody else." Billy answered. "You'd have to ask Draco exactly how they do it. I've never been in one of their classes."
"You should eat something more than salad, Gangolf." Dinah remarked. "You're much too thin and the steak's excellent."
"It's surprisingly good for such a common dish." Colleen confirmed.
"Oh, shut up, Nocturne." Tullia snapped.
She definitely could not agree with the statement. Cow meat tasted like old shoes, she decided. She should have taken a second helping of the soup instead.
"Steak is much too fat and bad for your cholesterol levels." Gangolf announced. "Salad is healthy and will keep you nice and slim."
"You're in no danger of getting fat, Mirrorboy." Danny informed him, but Gangolf stuck to the salad.
Tullia heaped some more salad onto her plate as well. A small bite of steak on a mouthful of salad was bearable. If she managed to eat about half of her piece that was acceptable, she decided. Her mother always had made her eat half of the portion she'd served her as well, if she hadn't been hungry, or had disliked the food.
Professor Snape joined them a few minutes later.
"I have spoken with Professor McGonagall," he informed Tullia. "And you don't have to serve the detention."
Tullia beamed at him. "Thank you, Professor!"
But Snape held up his hand to stop her. "However despite the fact that she understands your wish to get to honour with your heritage, she insists that you have to stay away from the lake."
"But ... but why?" Tullia couldn't believe it. She'd been okay with serving the detention, if only she got permission to speak with the merpeople again.
"Professor McGonagall fears that, though there is no danger to you, it might endanger other students. She thinks, if they see you with your head under water, they'll try to imitate that, fall in and drown." Snape explained. "As vice headmistress, I'm afraid, she has the authority to overrule my permission, in matters concerning the whole school."
"But how does Tullia talking to the Merpeople concern the whole school?" Danny demanded. "It's a matter between Tullia and the Merpeople."
"Well, due to Professor McGonagall's fear that other students, who don't have to necessarily be Slytherins, will imitate Tullia, it's a matter of the safety of all houses."
"Who'd be stupid enough to hang their head into the water from a tree brunch, if they can't swim?" Billy grumbled.
Severus shrugged. "Well, I honestly can't see anybody in our house doing it. I doubt a Ravenclaw could be that stupid or a Hufflepuff so daring, which leaves only the Gryffindors. I wouldn't have expected them to be so foolish either, but Professor McGonagall is their head of house and knows them best. Apparently she does see a risk there."
"The Gryffindors again?" Danny groaned. "I hate Gryffindors!"
"Yes." grumbled Dinah. "First they insult us all the time, then they make fun of Gangolf, spoil our food, bother Billy and now they're keeping Tullia from her friends. Why isn't anybody doing something about it?"
"The fight between Slytherin and Gryffindor is an honoured tradition." Snape explained. "But please keep in mind that both the headmaster and the vice headmistress are Gryffindors and when in doubt will decide in favour of their own house."
"But that's not fair!" Dinah exclaimed.
"Life isn't fair, Dinah." Snape stated calmly. "There are people, especially in Hufflepuff and Gryffindor who'll say that God sees to it that the world is fair to everybody, but they are deceiving themselves. It's comforting to believe, of course, but if you want to be successful in life and fulfil your ambitions, you have to know and accept, that there is always an imbalance. Once you knows in whose favour and disfavour the situation is, you can adapt your actions accordingly."
"And if I don't know?" Anny asked sounding a little intimidated.
"Then you'd better not take any risks. Stay in the background until you have fully scouted out the situation." Snape advised. "The biggest advantage we have over the Gryffindors is that they never stop to think before they act. They'll run right into obstacles, that we can easily go around by just looking ahead a little. Gryffindors always make a fast start, but don't let that fool you into abandoning caution and dashing after them. Slytherins usually reach the goal first and much less out of breath."
"But how do we get them to leave us alone?" asked Dinah.
Snape looked at her. It seemed almost as if he'd never heard that question before and had to think about it.
"They won't." he finally said. "No matter what you do, you're still Slytherins. You'll always be their favourite target."
"Isn't there a way to stay away from them?" Gangolf pleaded. "Places they won't go, for example?"
"The common room of course." Snape answered. "They can't get into Slytherin house itself."
"But the classes and bathrooms ..." Gangolf blushed.
"Well, you can't expect them to change our schedules so we don't have lessons with Gryffindors anymore." Pank stated reasonably.
"I just want to be able to use the bathroom in peace." Gangolf declared. "Today they wouldn't even leave me alone to take a look in the mirror and straighten my hair."
"You could have just used your mirror spell on one of your books." Danny stated practically.
"Or waited to use the bathroom next to our dorm." added Pank.
"Really Gangolf, you don't need to check your hair twenty times a day. Once or twice is quite enough." Billy was apparently trying to be patient, but Gangolf took it the wrong way and ducked behind his salad once again.
Snape watched the exchange with obvious interest.
"Billy, I think we need to talk." he announced as he got up and Billy pushed away his empty plate and trudged after him.
Tullia stared at the still much too big piece of steak on her plate. She pushed it about with her fork for a while.
Stupid wizarding food. Stupid Gryffindors. Stupid Professor McGonagall.
At the head table the vice headmistress was happily chatting with the headmaster. Another Gryffindor. Neither of them cared that a little Slytherin part mermaid was missing her home, family and friends.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Skycat – Er ... those weren't suggestions. ,00, asked me to stop doing something he/she doesn't like and I was unsure exactly what. Turns out it was the review responses.
Pam Briggs – Actually I don't know anyone who doesn't like spaghetti. There might be a particular sauce one doesn't like them with, but spaghetti themselves ...
,00, - In that case I can only advise that you don't read those as I think most of my other reviewers would be disappointed, if I stopped writing them. They're meant to be a thank you to each individual reviewer showing them how much I appreciate their reviews. They're not actually meant to be read by everybody.
midnight tiger – Jorge was meant to be a little wave at my Spanish speaking readers, but it seems he's well liked by the others as well. ... I have a list of students in Billy's year, but it's nowhere close to the length of the list I had for Draco's stay at West Hogsmeade in RD. The record holder would be Double O, though, where I ended up with an almost complete list of all Hogwarts students by years and houses with notes on what electives they took. ... Well, as you can see in this Tullia is a little homesick, but she has a natural inclination to daydreaming as well. ... Gee, I'm glad I never went to school with you. I cried more than enough back then without people gluing up my hair or teeth. Gangolf is actually a very insecure child and Colleen is only repeating the prejudices she was raised on. All her life those have been as obvious as the fact that the sky is blue and now suddenly everybody around her thinks they're wrong. Poor Colleen is quite confused right now and glue pranks would not help either of them to adapt to their new surroundings and learn to make friends. They'd only drive them further away from everybody else and make them unhappy.
holly – The prejudices she was raised on are the only world Colleen knows. It's easy to tell somebody to act differently, but how do you act differently from the only way you know how? Remember that it's only been a few days since Colleen first encountered people who don't share her parents' prejudices. She's still trying to act on the basis of what were the facts of life for her for eleven years. ... Well, originally the mysterious teacher was supposed to be Flitwick, but he'd already met Gangolf and I didn't want him to establish a particular connection to any of his teachers, so it would have to be one of the elective teachers ... or maybe even headmaster Donalds, who was there to see Dumbledore over some administrative detail of the schools' cooperation?
Iremione – Yes, that's exactly what Gangolf's supposed to be. Unfortunately none of the other characters are going to get a chance to look inside his head and understand what's going on there. ... Okay, I've got to clear that up: Hermes Hugge is a poke at an Austrian ... er ... celebrity called Hermes Phetberg, pronounced like Fettberg, which translates into Mountain of Fat. The man is incredibly fat and proud of it. It's his gimmick to be a fat slob and the one thing he's famous for. I'd never have thought of the name, if it weren't for him. ... Possible, but in this fic Binns definitely is too short-sighted to read small handwriting. Minerva might well be writing extra small just for him, though. ... A friend of mine once made spaghetti with vegetables for us. It's excellent, though that might be due to her being such an excellent cook. ... As for fish and water plants, just think of using tuna fish instead of meatballs and Tullia's mother would know what water plants would be good with it. (Or think of the black things around sushi ... Yum!) ... I know, but it's easier to buy your salad already dead than to kill it yourself, isn't it? ... Zebee's stories are all very short, because she hasn't updated the one that's intended to be a longer one in almost forever. Sniff! ... Best student academically doesn't necessarily mean she has a model personality as well, you know. Apparently she had the most magical talent and intelligence and therefore the best chances at completing the tasks. ... Well, it's Jorge in the German translation and I do believe, if it had been Girogo they'd have either left Giorgo or translated it into Georg (German). There was no reason for the translator to pick Jorge. ... Well, if you don't like Samara, just do what I did and pick Beatrice as your hero (or Ginny, but I know you don't like her as much as I do.)
futagoakuma-tenshi01 – Draco's supposed to show up when they go to West Hogsmeade, but I'm afraid he doesn't have much to do in this story. (It's not supposed to get much longer, though. It was never intended to get this long in the first place.)
Colibi – Precisely. (Greenie's currently sniffing a little indignatedly about you actually having forgotten him ...)
Skittia – That's weird. Have you gotten AutorAlerts for other stories? If not maybe you should check your settings on and whether you've accidentally blocked on your e-mail addy. ... The Catar will follow as soon as Greenie lets go of me on this story. I really have no idea where he's taking me this time.
(OOS)
None of the Above – Sorry about that. I did notice it in the rereading, but hesitated to delete the entire conversation about lighting candles or pipes and finding matches in a hotel room. I decided to leave it for later and then forgot and posted. Please just assume that Minerva didn't have enough toothpicks handy and gave some of he children matches instead. Gangolf got a match and assumed that everybody else had, too, so to him Billy was levitating a match, when it really was a toothpick.
Kyzara – Poor Harry was going through a very bad time in HPHC. Glad you liked it. ... And here I always thought I write too little action! ... Gangolf is my attempt to demonstrate what would have happened, if Gilderoy Lockhart had been a Slytherin, as many people assume.
Irihi Safaia – Good guessing! All the readers who have known me for a while guessed as well (some even before Ron first showed up in the story). Seems my likes and dislikes are a little obvious ...
safrie – Thanks for reviewing. Responses to your mail have gone out by mail.
Miilule – We'll get to that right after next chapter. Have to finish the introductions first.
notte – West Hogsmeade's made up of a combination of many things trying to be British or at least European, while at the same time being a little familiar to every reader. It wasn't meant to actually make you think of Austria (I only took elements of the school system from there consciously). I already know I messed up with the little round red glowing light switches, though. They don't have those in Britain. If you can put your finger on any other Austria specific items, please tell me so, so I can avoid them in future. ... I've never been to Graz or even Styria, I'm afraid (Well, I've probably travelled through a few times, but then I have family in Upper Austria and Salzburg, so I'm tempted to take a more northern route that allows me to visit there.) Those little villages are said to be particularly nice there, though.
Alia5 – Er ... actually he's not thinking of himself as a shepherd (Your spelling's absolutely correct, by the way.) as much as a leader, or teacher's assistant. It ends up as shepherding quite often, though.
-
-
-
- A/N: Will Tullia get over her homesickness without the merpeople? Will the Slytherins like Minerva? And just what did Rupert's father do that is so embarrassing?
-
-
In the next chapter: A look inside Danny's head, if I can pull it off. We get to know Aterus a little better and Billy is trying to deal with the other houses' teasing.
