Chapter 3:
"There he is," Harry heard a familiar voice say.
Harry shook his head to clear it and glanced around. He was in a small building with people gathered around tables oblivious to what was going on. They all looked old and scarred. They didn't look like a happy bunch. This must be Whiteblood Tavern, he thought. Ron was right.
"You boys hungry?" the voice asked.
Harry turned and looked at the man addressing him. To his surprise and relief it was Remus Lupin. He smiled at him glad to see a friendly face.
"You bet," Harry grinned, his fears temporarily alleviated by the sight of his former mentor.
Lupin smiled and led them over to an old pine bar. He nodded to the man behind it who immediately disappeared into a back room.
"I hope burgers are fine with you," Lupin said turning back to them.
"Sounds great," Ron nodded.
"So Lupin," Harry said. "Are you one of our contacts or whatever?"
"I suppose so," Lupin said.
Then the man reappeared with two plates. He set them down in front of the two boys who dug in.
"This is really good food," Ron said between mouthfuls.
"Sort of a weird place, but it does have great food," Lupin said with a grin.
"What ingredient are we getting?" Harry asked.
"You'll see in the morning," Lupin replied.
"The morning?" Harry said worriedly. "Why not until morning?"
"Calm down Harry," Lupin said putting a hand on his shoulder. "You have to get your rest you know. If you don't you'll drop dead of exhaustion."
"He's got a point," Ron said still wolfing down his burger.
Harry shrugged knowing they were right. It just felt wrong to him to make Hermione wait just so he could sleep. He wanted to get the stuff as fast as possible so that he could get back to her.
"Don't worry so much Harry," Lupin said. "It won't do you any good."
"I just don't think we should wait," Harry said.
"Besides Harry," Ron said finishing up with his burger. "What good will it do if both of us are too tired to do anything?"
"All right then boys," Lupin said. "Do you want to have a look around?"
"Sure," Harry said grateful for something to do.
They left the tavern and walked around town. There were plenty of people wandering about and talking with one another. Not one seemed to notice them. They passed a young couple around Harry and Ron's age and Harry suddenly felt angry. He wanted to say that it wasn't fair. He should be walking around with Hermione at Hogwarts. Not wandering about here. Then again life wasn't supposed to be fair. Especially for him.
"Ah here we are boys. I wanted to show you this," Lupin said bringing them to a large lake not unlike the one by Hogwarts. "Do either of you know how to fish?"
"No," Harry said shaking his head.
"I went with Bill once," Ron spoke up. "We didn't get anything though."
"Perhaps we should go fishing sometime," Lupin said suddenly getting a faraway look in his eyes. "Anyway you boys are free to roam around. Just be back to the tavern by 9:00."
"We will professor," Ron called pulling Harry back towards the town. "Wonder what's with him?"
"I don't know," Harry said with a shrug.
Ron tried a few more times to engage Harry in conversation, but failed at each. Harry felt bad ignoring his friend, but he just wanted time to think for a while. Ron and he wandered about the village for a little longer and then headed back to the tavern where Lupin was all ready waiting.
"Good to see ya back boys," he said greeting them. "Your room is upstairs."
Harry nodded and led the way upstairs. The door of the room on the end was propped open and the boys headed inside and set up their stuff.
"Hey Harry," Ron said with a grin. "Do you remember the time me and you had so many butterbeers we were practically drunk?"
"Yeah and then Hermione said we were being crazy so we swapped her drink for butterbeer and got her all crazy with us," Harry said returning the grin. "We sang random songs the rest of the night."
"Of course the next morning she wasn't very happy with us," Ron said. "It was worth it though."
"I thought she was going to kill us," Harry nodded.
The two boys started talking about random things and eventually feel asleep to the ticking of the big clock in the corner of their room.
"Harry! Harry!" Hermione screamed.
"Hermione!" Harry called running down a slanted hallway. As he ran the hallway twisted and turned. "Hold on!"
"Harry!" he heard Hermione's voice call one more time before being sharply cut off.
"No!" he said running into the hospital wing.
The room was painted black and there was almost no light in the room but for an eerie purple glow. He ran to Hermione and thought she was asleep. He desperately tried shaking her awake.
"Hermione!" he yelled.
"She's dead Harry," Ron said from behind him. Harry whirled around and saw an almost skeletal Ron. His skin was drawn tight around his face and his eyes seemed sunken. "It's all your fault."
"No!" Harry said. "I didn't do this. I still had time!"
"All your fault," Ron chorused as random people popped up to join him.
Harry ran into a dark room and ran into a ghost. To his horror he saw it was Hermione.
"You did this Harry," she said softly. "Why didn't you save me? You promised you would. You promised."
"No! Hermione! I still had time! This isn't real!" Harry shouted.
Suddenly Harry awoke in his bed in the tavern. He swallowed a scream and glanced around. It was still dark outside and Ron was still asleep beside him. He panted for breath and ran his fingers through his hair. What the hell was that all about? He wondered.
"Doesn't matter since I won't let that happen," he muttered to himself.
At that moment Lupin burst into the room and immediately began to wake Ron up.
"Good show Harry," he said. "You're all ready awake. Ronald!"
"What?" Ron said partially coming to his senses.
"Get up and get dressed in something you won't mind getting wet," Lupin said. "Come on Ronald! We haven't got all day!"
Harry got up slowly and pulled on a pair of khaki shorts and a plain black T-shirt. His dream was still fresh in his mind and it made him shiver thinking about it. He looked over at Ron who was still half-asleep. He was putting on about the same thing as Harry.
"Ready?" Lupin asked not bothering to listen to their answer. "Let's be off then."
"Where exactly are we going?" Harry asked following Lupin out of the room.
"To the lake of course," Lupin said heading outside.
The sun was just beginning to rise and the morning air was still chilly. They headed straight towards the lake that Lupin had shown them earlier. Suddenly it clicked for Harry.
"I get it," he said. "We're getting mermaid scale aren't we?"
"Yes," Lupin said pulling something from his pocket. "I was hoping we'd get here right before they woke up, but oh well."
"How are we supposed to get a scale from a mermaid?" Ron asked.
"Not sure," Lupin answered. "I guess just pull it off and then swim for your lives."
"Great," Ron muttered. "Hermione had better be happy when I bring this back and save her life."
"Are you boys ready?" Lupin said once again glancing into the water.
"I guess so, but aren't you coming with us?" Harry asked.
"I would if I could boys, but the I'm allergic to the plants that live in this lake," Lupin said. "I can't swim very well either."
"Liar," Ron whispered to Harry.
"Now eat this and hurry up," Lupin said dropping something slimy in Harry's hand. "I'm sure you'll recognize this from last year Harry."
Unfortunately Harry did recognize the slimy weedy looking thing in his hand. It was gillyweed. Not the most pleasant stuff, but whatever worked. He nodded to Ron and they both sucked down the vile plant and dived into the lake.
Harry couldn't breathe for a moment, but then he felt once more the strange sensation of gills growing on his neck. He took a large gulp of air or rather water and glanced at Ron. Ron was just shaking his head with a confused look on his face. He motioned for them to go deeper and Ron followed.
Tons of different shapes of weeds floated all around them. They were multiple shades of blues, greens, and browns. Finally after pushing through the thick slimy bog he saw a cave in the distance. The mouth of the tunnel lead back into darkness and gathered around its entrance were mermaids. The brown-blonde hair floated around their faces along with the current of the water. Their scales shimmered green and blue in the fading light. Harry noticed that these mermaids looked a little different then the ones in the Black Lake. Their eyes weren't so beady and their teeth didn't have the same point. In fact they almost looked beautiful except for the fact that he had to go rip one of their scales off. As Harry watched them memories of the Triwizard played in his mind. He hadn't liked mermaids then and he hadn't gotten any fonder of them since.
As they neared the tunnel the mermaids seemed not to notice them. Suddenly one of them let out a screech that seemed to fly through the water like a dagger towards to two boys. Then, as if responding only to the call, the other mermaids launching themselves into attack. The mermaids circled the boys and poked them with their spears. Others who had no spears pulled at their arms and legs as if trying to pull them apart.
Then Harry saw a mermaid off to his right that was different then all the rest. Its scales were a shimmery gold and purple color instead of the common blue and green. As soon as he saw a hole in the onslaught of the mermaids, he swam as fast as he could towards it and stretched his hand out to grab one of the scales. Just one! His mind screamed. He stretched out his hand groping for the scale. His fingers finally hit the body of the mermaid. Its skin felt smooth, but it was hard as armor. Then just as he began to pull one of the hypnotically colored scales off he felt something hard come down on the back of his head. He felt himself slipping backwards through the water and he tried to hold himself up. Then he saw a mermaid with a devilish grin printed across its face and in its hands was a large rock. Then everything went dark before Harry's eyes.
"Oh good he's awake," Harry heard Lupin say as his eyes fluttered open again.
He sat up slowly and then began coughing the water out of his lungs. He looked around and saw Ron sitting next to Lupin wrapped in a dark green blanket. His face was covered in scratches and he didn't look too happy.
"I hate bloody mermaids," he mumbled.
"I agree," Harry nodded as Lupin put a blanket around his own shaking shoulders. Suddenly it hit him. "Oh no! I didn't get the scale! Now what are we going to do?"
"It's all right Harry," Lupin laughed.
"No, it's not! I don't want to go back down there, but now we have to and…" Harry began.
"Harry look at your hand," Lupin said.
Harry opened his mouth to argue, but looked down at his hand. He saw his fist was clenched tightly around something. He opened his hand and saw a golden scale sitting in his palm.
"So I did get it," he said mostly to himself.
"While you were out we tried to pry your fist open, but it wouldn't budge," Lupin said.
"Hallelujah!" Ron said. "We won't have to back there again."
"No, you won't," Lupin said. "You still have to move on to the next ingredients though. They probably won't be as easy."
"Sounds like fun," Ron said with a glare.
"Not until you're rested of course," Lupin chuckled. "Then the real quest begins."