Beauty from the lake

Disclaimer: I think I forgot this in my last chapter, because it's too obvious for me, so here: I don't own Harry Potter Universe, it's all J.K. Rowling's.

Chapter 4 – New beginning

The three friends were walking slowly towards the lake. "Uh...you know, it just occurred me, what are we going to do if she's not there?" Asked Ron suddenly, breaking the silence.

"Can you specify 'is not there', or better, just 'there'?" Required Hermione smartly.

"I mean, if Mariana is not above water. What are we going to do then? Push our heads underwater and call for her?" Explained Ron; frustrated with her questions.

"There's no need for being ironical, Ron. In that case, we'll just go back and come tomorrow." Hermione's voice was quite calm, in contrast to Ron's.

"I am being ironical? Why only, when you've got such a perfect plan?" He said ironically.

Hermione was about to reply, but Harry interrupted her: "Stop fighting now, you two. It's really not the time and place. Look there, to the lake. Someone's lying at its bank..."

"Oh, really! I've not noticed before," exclaimed Hermione. "We should go there and help them!" They came a bit closer so they could see a girl in a blue dress lying there without any sign of motion.

"It's a girl," said Ron; surprised. "A pretty girl...she's not from the school, I haven't seen her there...she seems somehow familiar to me though..." he continued as they kneeled around the girl lying on the green grass.

Hermione took her hand and checked the pulse. "She's alive, but unconscious. And of course, that she seems familiar to you, Ron. Don't you recognise her?" When Ron shook his head, Hermione continued. "It's Mariana, the mermaid, you dork."

"What?" Exclaimed Harry and Ron immediately. Hermione just sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Well...she looks a bit like her, now when you say it, but still..." Harry was apparently confused.

"Well, yeah, and Mariana's got no legs, but a tail," added Ron, but that was not enough to convince Hermione.

"Maybe, but it is her. And what happened to the tail, I have the feeling, we shall discover soon. Now help me, boys, we need to take her to the hospital wing."

A faint remote rustle reached Mariana's ears. At first she couldn't recognise it, but then it grew louder and she heard that it was sound of someone talking. She still were surrounded by the darkness. What happened? Mariana noticed she didn't feel water around her any longer, and when she tried to move her tail, she found out she didn't have one, instead she had a nice pair of woman legs.

Then she remembered. She'd drunk the potion Murcusa had given her, and it had really changed her into a human girl. She opened her eyes and suddenly a bright light overwhelmed her. 'Where am I?' She wondered, and when her eyes got accustomed to the light, she looked around.

She was lying in a bed in a quite big room with few other beds. All of them were empty. Next to her bed was a bed-side table with a glass with water on it, and a mirror. She looked in the mirror at herself and saw that it was not only her tail that had changed. Her eyes were bit darker now and so were her hair. It was also thicker now, falling onto her shoulders in light waves.

Few metres from her bed were standing three people – Hermione, Harry and Ron. It was them, who she heard talking.

"Do you think she will be okay? She's been sleeping all night and day long, since we found her and brought her here yesterday," Ron was saying in a worried voice.

"Don't worry that much Ron," assured him Hermione, "Madam Pomfrey says she'll be ok, and when she says it then-"

"– then I'll be ok," Mariana ended the sentence. They all turned to her immediately.

"You're already awake?" Asked Hermione with a smile and Mariana nodded.

"I woke a minute ago."

"And how are you feeling?" Asked Ron this time, and Mariana could hear a slight hint of worry in his voice. Or were she just imagining that?

"I'm fine, thank you. Ehm... may I ask you something?" She adressed the last comment to all of them and when they agreed, she questioned: "Uh...Where am I?"

"Oh...I guess we should tell you...you are in Hogwarts school, hospital wing," Hermione started. "We found you yesterday evening, lying by the lake, and you were unconscious, so we took you here...We don't know what happened before we found you, but I assume you know..." she trailed off.

"You do remember what happened, right?" Added Harry.

Mariana nodded. 'Well...so they found me...they must know who I am. Harry and Ron have seen me before and Hermione is my friend, she surely remembers me. What will they think now? How am I going to explain this?' She sighed and bite at her lower lip, forgetting about the trio of friends observing her.

"Is there something wrong, Mariana?" Ron asked when he noticed her woried look.

"Uh...it's nothing...I guess I should tell you how ... this happened," Mariana said, motioning to her legs that were now replacing the former tail.

"Yeah, you could, we are all cur-" started Ron but Hermione sent him a glare, exasperated at his occasional lack of tact.

"Oh, you don't have to if you don't want, we'll understand," added she hastily.

"No, I want to explain it." And Mariana told them, how she'd felt alone underwater, with most merpeople not liking her for her dissimilarity, and then she'd got to know them (Hermione, Harry and Ron) and she'd felt like they were her friends, and had wished to become a human and Murcusa had given her the potion and all. All three of them listened carefully, and then Harry said with a smile: "Mariana, we are glad to have you here, then."

"Yes, we indeed are," started Herm, "and you should know that we –"

Mariana smiled genuinely, happy with the turn of events. She closed her eyes for a moment; now when the nervousness had left she realised that she were still a bit tired. Maybe a side-effect of the potion. It surely must have been a complicated one, when it had turned her into a human permanently. She opened them again when she heard Ron's voice: "We really have to tell you a lot, Mariana, and show you the school and-"

But Hermione stopped him. "That's true, Ron, but I think we should now let Mariana rest. She still may be quite tired."

"And she'll need to have a lot of energy, when we take her to Professor Dumbledore's and a show her around the school," agreed Harry.

Ron rolled his eyes behind Hermione's back. Mariana giggled quietly and he gave her a big smile. "Okay, we must go now, else Hermione would probably strangle us, but we will come back soon," he said.

"Yes, you will need to choose classes and get books," said Harry, and Hermione jumped in: "Don't worry though, I'll help you with learning, if you want," she said.

"And will you help me too?" Asked her Ron suddenly, with a hope in his eyes.

"No, I won't. You're just lazy, you don't need help," frowned Hermione.

Harry sighed. "Here they are, bickering again."

Mariana giggled again. Soon they left in order to let her have some more rest, and when she closed her eyes she could hear Ron's words once more: "We will come back soon." 'It feels really good to have such friends,' Mariana thought before finally falling asleep again.

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