Thank you very much to everyone who reviewed! I am very sorry for the long wait. Anyways, here's the next chapter and I hope it's better than the last one which was not very good now that I reread it...
Disclaimer- I do not own Harry potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you don't recognize.
By the time their carriage floated to a stop, the two of them were asleep. The merman who was at the head of the carriage shook his head at the two and snapped his fingers. A long rod appeared in his scaly hand. He cracked it against the floor one time and Draco and Hermione immediately woke up. Draco glared at Hermione who rolled her eyes and looked at the merman.
"Are we there?"
The merman turned slightly and said, "Look for yourself."
The teens peered out of the carriage wondering what was there. Draco's jaw dropped slightly and Hermione frowned. In front of them was a worn out ship that seemed ready to fall apart at any moment. The wood was rather cracked and decaying but it was a large ship.
Hermione swam slowly out of the carriage and looked at the ship with disbelief. "All the books say that they had a ship made of pure gold, not wood." Draco snorted.
The merman gave a slight smile and said, "Mortals are often inaccurate about matters that concern us folks down here." He gave the two of them a toothy grin and ushered for them to follow him.
The three of them swam over to a rickety sort of door that had slashes all over it. The merman knocked three times. On the third knock, the door opened showing a plump mermaid wearing nothing but a piece of course cloth that covered her chest. Part of her thin brown hair floated around her while the rest fell down the front of her body covering up anything else that would have been indecent to look at.
She frowned at the merman and said, "What have you got here, Jack?"
"Queen said to deliver 'em to the masters for now."
She peered at them and said, "Aren't they a bit young to start work?"
The merman laughed and replied, "They're mortals, Cass. Queen said to keep 'em here till she can figure out what to do with 'em." The thin haired mermaid frowned at him but nonetheless ushered the three of them inside.
Hermione looked around and noted that despite the fact that she was in water, the place reeked. It looked sort of like a common room yet much smaller. Chairs and tables were scattered about the room and vases filled with gillyweed and seaweed were floating around the room. There was a small wooden door at the other end of the room, which like the rest of the ship was cracked and decaying.
The mermaid cleared her throat and said, "Jack, you take him." She gestured towards Draco who narrowed his eyes at her. "I'll take her."
Jack nodded and began pulling him away from the other two. Hermione looked at him with a worried expression but he just shook his head and somehow managed to assure her that he would be ok. As soon as he left the room, Hermione looked at Cass apprehensively and said, "Wh-what are you going to do to me?"
"Not kill you, if that's what you were wondering," the mermaid muttered looking Hermione up and down. She began circling around the girl like a hawk, occasionally pulling at her hair, which was floating around wildly, or at the black robe she was wearing. Cass looked at Hermione and said, "Firstly, you'll need to remove this ugly thing." She snapped her fingers and Hermione's robes disappeared. Cass stared at the blouse Hermione was wearing with a look of wonder and said, "I don't understand you mortals. You all look the same, yet you choose to cover yourselves up as though you have something to hide."
Hermione looked at the mermaid horrified and said, "But, I do... I can't-no one can go around not wearing a shirt."
"Why?" snapped Cass.
Hermione's brown eyes widened as she replied, "I- you just- you don't go around without a shirt."
Cass rolled her eyes at the girl and replied, "Well, tough luck, girlie. This is our territory, you go by our rules." Cass snapped her fingers swiftly and Hermione's shirt disappeared altogether and was replaced by a green looking cloth similar to Cass's.
Hermione shrieked and looked at Cass who rolled her eyes. "Where is my shirt?"
"Nowhere where you can find it." Cass walked around Hermione once again and sighed as she saw the straps of Hermione's bra on her back. "More clothes, mortal? I swear, your kind is the most confusing ignorable-
"Please, let me keep it on," pleaded Hermione with a desperate look in her eyes. "I cannot go around not wearing one."
Cass noted the desperation in Hermione's voice and nodded. "I suppose I could let you have that."
She circled Hermione once more and once she was satisfied with the girl's appearance, said, "Now, what's your name?"
Draco on the other hand was not doing much better than her. Jack had pulled him into a hallway that stunk even more than the first room. He had to try very hard not to throw up. Come to think of it, he wasn't sure what would happen if he threw up. Would it float or would it sink? It made Draco even more nauseous just thinking about it.
Jack ushered Draco into another room that did not smell as bad. "Well, take off your robe."
Draco looked at the merman and asked, "What?"
Jack shook his head and said, "Take off your robe. You've got to look presentable before the masters."
Draco scowled at Jack but nevertheless took off his robe and dropped it in a corner. "Is this presentable enough for you?"
The merman squinted at Draco and said, "Are you wearing one of those...what's it called...shirts?"
Draco gave Jack an incredulous look at replied, "Yes."
Jack laughed and said, "Well take it off. You can't go around wearing a shirt in front of the masters."
"I'm keeping my shirt on." He looked at Jack, his gray eyes never leaving the old merman's form.
Jack laughed once more at Draco and patted his belly. "If you haven't noticed, no one here wears any of those fancy things." Draco's eyes widened as he realized that Jack was right. Not one merman he had seen had been wearing a shirt save the guards who had been wearing armor.
"Well, we don't have all the time in the world."
Draco glared at the merman and began fumbling with the buttons on his shirt. He was halfway down when he was knocked to the ground and fell flat on his face. He groaned slightly and pushing his hair out of his face saw a large merman with an unseemly, huge belly swim past him.
"Watch it, fatso," he muttered, pushing himself up.
The fat merman turned to face Draco with a look of disbelief on his face. "What did you call me?"
"Nothing," murmured Draco.
Jack slapped a hand to his forehead and mumbled something about mortals.
The fat merman sneered at Jack and turned back to Draco. "Listen here, kid, I ain't short of hearing so let's get something straight. The next time I hear you say something like that, I'll crush you with my fist."
Draco took a step back as the merman's foul breath washed over his face. He nodded to the merman with a slight frown and muttered, "I'll keep that in mind, fatso."
The merman swiveled around to face Draco and letting out a roar lunged at the boy. Draco yelped and barely managed to move out of the way before the merman landed on the ground. Draco took his chance and somehow made his way behind Jack who shook his head.
"Get out of the way, Jack! I'll break his head off!" roared the merman.
"Calm down Tor," said Jack holding his hands up. "He did not mean anything by it."
"Sure as hell he didn't," yelled Tor. He fixed his coal eyes on Draco and said, "Get out here and fight like a true merman."
"He's not one of us, Tor," said Jack calmly, looking at the younger merman with an unusual amount of calmness.
"Yeah, I'm not one of you," said Draco pointing a finger at Tor.
"Leave 'im alone."
Tor glared at Draco and swiftly turned around, his stomach jiggling up and down in the process. Draco felt himself go sick at the sight. Once he was old, he would make sure that he never grew fat like Tor. He would jump off a cliff before he grew that revolting. He looked down at his own stomach and sighed, glad that he had a decent one. Quidditch helped a little in shaping his body. It wasn't over the top muscular or anything but it was not fat like Tor's.
Jack pushed Draco out from behind him and said, "Get that shirt off soon. The masters'll be expectin' us."
Hermione swam after Cass who seemed to be oblivious to the fact that Hermione was having trouble keeping up with her. It was hard to use fins because when she moved them to the right, she went left and if she moved them to the left, she went right. She could not get the hanging of moving them constantly so that she would go straight. Her hands weren't much help either. Despite the fact that they were webbed, she had a feeling that they would have been much more useful if she was not under the water.
"Are we almost there yet?" she asked tentatively.
"Almost. Just a little further." Cass looked over her shoulder at Hermione cynically. She had to admit, the girl was rather odd to be a mortal. Her mother had told her stories of mortals when she was little. Cass shook her head as she realized that her mother must have heard the stories from the masters. The masters did not like mortals though they were partially of the same blood.
She stopped at an iron door with a rusty doorknob. She looked at Hermione and said, "From here, you go alone. The masters will know what to do with you."
Hermione swallowed and nodded to Cass as she went through the door. The first thing she saw much to her surprise was Draco Malfoy. Her eyes widened as she saw that he wasn't even wearing a shirt. Her eyes remained glued to his stomach for a few seconds before she realized that it was probably not part of the custom down here to wear shirts. He looked rather cute though. She shook her head wondering if there was something wrong with the water and hoped that she would find her shirt soon.
Draco on the other hand was much more surprised than she was. He had not expected them to make Hermione throw away her clothes but here she was wearing nothing but a cloth like that other mermaid had. He noticed that she still had on her bra, which made the uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach lessen slightly. It was probably a once in a life time opportunity to see Hermione Granger wearing something like that and Draco decided to take full advantage of it.
"Going to a strip club, Granger?"
Hermione rolled her eyes and eyed him with an expression he could not identify. "I could ask you the same thing."
Draco slowly swam up to her, a sneer appearing on his face. "It isn't that odd when a guy goes around without a shirt." Hermione felt vaguely disgusted as he looked her up and down. "But when you go around wearing nothing but that," he pointed at the green cloth, "I'd say it's odd."
Hermione slapped his hand away and said, "Look, I didn't ask to have my clothes taken away."
Draco smirked at her and said, "Well, I didn't either..." His smirk widened as he asked softly, "Enjoying the view?"
Hermione looked at Draco with indignation as her cheeks became slightly pink. "You're such a conceited pig." She gave him a hard shove and he tumbled backwards laughing.
He looked at her and smirked. "Calm down, Granger. It was only a joke."
Hermione brushed her hair out of her face and muttered something that Draco did not catch.
"Any idea where we're supposed to go from here?" he asked.
She looked at him with a blank face and shrugged, drawing her arms around her tighter. Her brown eyes focused on him as she asked, "Do you think that they'll kill us?"
Draco rolled his eyes and replied, "They can't. If they do, then the ministry has every right to come down here and kill them." He looked at her pale face and wide eyes. "What? Are you scared or something?"
Hermione snapped her gaze away from him and said, "I don't want to die..."
"And here I thought that Gryffindors were brave."
Hermione growled at him in reply.
A swarm of bubbles appeared out of nowhere in front of the two of them and once they had cleared, there was a green door in front of them.
Draco got up and stared at it from next to Hermione. He gestured towards it and said, "Mudbloods first."
Hermione glared at him before tentatively reaching out for the door knob. Grasping it in her hand, she quickly turned it and flung it open. A dim light flooded her vision. She looked back at Draco who peered over her shoulder. Turning back to the front, she and Draco swam through the door, feeling a sense of dread as it disappeared once they had passed through it.
Hermione squinted, unable to see much. Draco poked her sharply on her arm and she hissed. He was pointing at something with his eyes as wide as saucers. She looked where he was pointing and felt her jaw drop.
Barely visible sitting on a worn out couch that had pieces of fluff floating around it was the figure of a creature that to Hermione looked human. But as she stared at it, she realized that the creature was completely human but had gills in its neck. The creature was wearing something that resembled muggle goggles at was completely bald. He, she assumed it was a he, was wearing a pair of shorts and wore no shirt.
Another figure was sitting next to the first creature. This one had the body of a mermaid but had no gills. In its hands was a bowl filled to the top with what looked like gillyweed. This one appeared to be a girl and was wearing no more than what Hermione was wearing. The creature's flimsy gray hair swam around her face causing her to appear distorted.
Hermione shot a look at Draco who continued to stare unabashedly at the two creatures. The first creature leaned forward slightly and cackled.
"Are you both the captives her majesty gave us?"
The mermaid swatted him on the head with a piece of gillyweed and said in a rather raspy tone, "Of course they are. Stop asking stupid questions."
The human like creature looked at her as though she was crazy and said, "I'm not crazy. You're crazy!" He cackled once more causing the mermaid to roll her eyes.
She looked back at Hermione and Draco and replied, "I don't know what her majesty wants with you and frankly I don't care." She threw a piece of gillyweed into her mouth and continued talking. "While you are here, you will serve on us as we ask you to. We are your masters for now."
"I'm not going to-" Draco was cut off by Hermione's elbow in his stomach. He looked angrily at her then back at the mermaid. "Yes, master."
The mermaid smiled eerily and said, "Good. Now, the others are out at the moment and won't be returning for a few days so I suppose you both will have a lighter work load for now."
"They work for us?" asked the human man. He clapped with glee as the mermaid looked at him with disdain.
She turned to Hermione and said, "You will fetch me more gillyweed as my current supply is almost over." Hermione raised an eyebrow and looked at the bowl which was filled to the top with gillyweed. The mermaid turned to Draco and said, "You will watch him," she gestured to the human man, "and do the odd chores that appear as always."
She gestured to Hermione and said, "You will not talk to any of the male servants while doing work and they will not talk to you. I will know if that happens." She turned to Draco and said, "Same goes for you." The mermaid got up from the couch and looked back at the human man who was wiping his goggles but failing miserably.
She looked at Draco and said, "You will wait on him." Draco looked dismayed at the human man who was examining his finger. The mermaid frowned and shook her head at him. She turned to Hermione and said, "I will show you the path that leads to the grasslands." The mermaid swiftly turned and started swimming away.
Hermione looked at the mermaid then at Draco and said, "This is your entire fault."
"You're not supposed to be talking on the job," Draco replied flashing her a large smile.
Hermione scowled at him and hurried after the mermaid.
Draco turned to the human man and with a forced smile, swam up next to him and said, "Master?"
His eyes widened as the man's hand darted out and plucked a piece of hair from Draco's head and began examining it. He laughed like a child and said, "My toe nails!"
Draco looked down at the man's feet and almost shrank back. His toe nails were about three inches long and a bright yellow color. The man handed Draco a wooden nail clipper that had been pulled out from inside the couch and went back to examining Draco's hair.
Draco scowled at the toe nails and slowly went to work. He was going to kill Granger once they got out of here.
