As part of the plan, the next morning, George swam around the city of Atlantica, looking around at the impressive pillars and buildings hugging the corals on the ocean floor. He soon noticed a few of the merfolk looking and pointing his way. Most were girls. So, of course, he grinned at them and winked as he swam by, the giggles that soon erupted from behind him fed his ego. "Even down here, I'm a hit." George grinned away as the grand palace came into view.
Colours of glittering gold and silver overtook almost his whole vision as he approached. Magical lights illuminated the underwater castle as merfolk swam to and from the imposing building.
"Found him!" A girl shouted from behind him, before three girls came into view and surrounded him almost instantly.
Before he knew what was happening, the three girls were dragging him into the palace while they all giggled and whispered to each other. It wasn't long until he was brought before the person who obviously was the king. The taller older man with the golden crown and threateningly glowing Trident told him that much.
The girls left him in front of the man and went off to the side with the three other girls. None of them looked like each other, so his initial thought was to say friends, but seeing as he had previous knowledge of how the story went, he guessed these were the main character, or Hermione's six older sisters.
"No need to look so nervous, boy." The king told him, grinning away as he motioned him closer. George nodded and approached carefully. "Come here."
He was now almost standing right next to the king, who was giving him a grin, a very happy, eager smile. One that wanted knowledge and it suddenly made George nervous.
"Er- Yes sir?" He hesitated. Ever since he'd discovered he couldn't do magic; he'd been trying to find other ways to do things.
"Are you my Hermione's friend?" He asked, his smile giving off the impression that he was hoping for a certain answer. He nodded. 'Yep, that's definitely the king.' George concluded. "Interesting, interesting." He mumbled, smiling in a way that put George off even more than the initial one.
"Did I do something, sir?" He attempted, just to see if his reason for being there was a bad one. He wanted to be sure.
"Oh, not at all boy!" the King exclaimed happily, grinning as if he'd just opened a new gift. "Far from it." He then looked to the six girls all giggling and talking to each other. "Girls, what did you say to him?"
"Nothing daddy!" A blonde one spoke up. The six stayed quiet until the king gave them a look and the blonde's smile crept up slowly. "Oh alright, we may have misled him just a bit, daddy. But he deserved it, honest!"
"And what did he do to deserve this?"
"Oh, look at the state he's left Hermione in! We deserve to mess with him just a bit!" The brunette spoke up, seeming to be the oldest from the group from her more mature tone. George raised an eyebrow. Had something happened to Hermione in less than a day since they'd appeared here?
"Forgive us, daddy! We were just playing a bit!" the blonde spoke again.
"Again, what did I do?" George inquired once again, confused on his being there.
"Oh stop it, you!" One of the girls circled around him. "You've put her under your spell~" One of the girls coo'ed around him, confusing him even more,
"My spell?" He tried to hide his snicker. "I've done no such thing."
All the girls huddled back into their own little group once again, looking up dreamily and sighing. "Ahh~ Love~~!"
The realization hit George over the head like a ton of bricks. They all thought he was the one Hermione was supposed to be in love with. It certainly explained the King's almost teasing smirks and the girls almost tackling in outside the palace. His simple presence, being male added into the fold, made for an interesting picture when you thought of the predicament Hermione was supposed to be in. In love with someone, the king thought it would probably have been a merman, and he's the only one who hangs around Hermione, it certainly made for a complete puzzle to them.
"You-You all think Hermione is in love with me?" He looked at them in disbelief, the girls all nodded as the dreamy sighs and humming continued. "No it's not like that-"
"He didn't even know!" One of the girls exclaimed, cutting him off.
"No, I'm serious," He spoke at the same time. "It's not-"
"Daddy! What are you all doing to George?" Hermione voice rang through the water as everyone looked up to the entrance where Hermione swam in. "Oh George, I'm so sorry about all this!" She swam to him.
"Hermione, they all think you're in love with me." He hurriedly told her, pointing to the sister in the corner and the king. "They all think you love me."
Hermione's eyes widened before she started snickering and turned into a full-blown laughing. "I'm not in love with you though!" She laughed hard, and if they weren't underwater, George was sure there would have been tears accompanying her rather infectious laugh.
"So..." one of the sisters, the blonde, approached the two slowly. "It's not him?"
"Of course not!" Hermione finally came down from her laugh and looked at him. "And you won't find him" she said firmly, taking George arm and pulling him away, swimming out of the throne room and back out to the public.
"Those ones, the two blondes and the brunette, they're like ninjas Hermione! I didn't hear them until they grabbed me!" George swam beside her. "Sweet Merlin, I barely had a warning." He sighed in exasperation as they finally left the city limits.
"I imagine that must've been fun. The moment I'd heard one of the palace servants muttering about them trying to find a certain merman whom held my affections, I rushed right down and knew they'd tried to get you."
"Yea, so why don't any of them look like each other? Usually, when people are blood related, they have some sort of resemblance." George changed the subject. "And the blonde one with the high ponytail. What's her name?"
"Arista. Why?"
"She keeps making googly eyes at me," George shivered at the thought. "I wouldn't be surprised if she started stalking me."
Later on, they had swam out of Atlantica, unfollowed by any merman, mermaid or eels, to discuss the plan in private. Hermione had gotten the major plot points down, while George was trying to process everything. The muggle story made no sense to him, and there was little logic anywhere but he listened anyway.
"So we basically need to get Fred to fall in love with you, kiss you before the third day ends, and we'll go back to Hogwarts?"
"Exactly."
"All without talking?"
"Precisely."
"Are you hearing yourself right now?! That's a lot harder to do than it sounds!" He exclaimed. His brother was bright, but he was complete shite at charades, and he'd seen Hermione's attempt at the game with Harry and Ron and even they couldn't ever guess what she was interpreting. "Do you have any plan for this? Any at all?" Her silence told him everything he needed to know.
He thought back to her words yesterday. Yesterday she said they should have met him last night, but they had never gone.
"Hermione, how are we supposed to meet him? Didn't you say he was supposed to be partying last night?" Her eyes widened and if she could hyperventilate, she would have fainted by now.
"What if we've screwed the plot so badly it doesn't flow anymore? What if we never get out? What if–" George slapped her across the head and held her shoulder tightly.
"Stop! We need to find a solution!"
After a few seconds of silence, she nodded and brushed his hands off. "Maybe it's in a loop...Maybe it won't progress until we've done that..." She mumbled.
"Well, we need to think fast, I think the sun is about to start setting again." He informed her. "Also, Sorry about that"
"No, it's fine, I think I needed that."
"Oh you definitely did." George laughed as he shifted out of the way from the incoming punch to the arm.
