Chapter 3 — Discovery

Weeks passed, and Hermione was convinced she would never find any answers. Madam Pomfrey had called in some favours and contacted several National libraries but only received a limited amount of resources in return. The books covered the bare minimum of information only including a brief history of merpeople and their interactions with magical governments.

After her work with S.P.E.W., she found it curious that the merpeople in the Black Lake and the merpeople in other waters around the world would qualify for full being status if they did not, as a race, reject that classification.

In the seventeenth century, Chieftaness of the Wizards' Council, Elfrida Clagg refused to accept merpeople as beings under her definition of the term as those who could 'speak the human tongue'. Clagg thought Mermish to be inadequate as it could not be understood above the water. This enraged the merpeople and their allies, the centaurs. Less than two-hundred years later, in 1811, under Minister Grogan Stump, merpeople were allowed being status with his definition that a being is any creature that has sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magical community and to bear part of the responsibility of shaping of those laws. Eventually, merpeople requested to be treated as beasts again due to the fact that dark creatures such as hags and vampires also claimed being status.

All of the books she had looked through during her research had this same paragraph repeated over and over again, very few changes in wording. It wasn't helpful, but it made Hermione want to fight for the rights of creatures even more. It's possible she was bitten because of their anger towards beings. She wouldn't know unless she talked directly to the merchieftainess which was virtually impossible. As a human, she couldn't swim down to the colony. That was something she would have to continue to research; maybe even talk to Harry about his use of Gillyweed.

Though the most exciting piece of literature she found was a small, brown, leather book. Opening it, she realised it was a journal, and she had rarely put it down since. Mirabella Plunkett had started documenting her life in the summer of eighteen thirty-nine, and stopping just before the beginning of September.

1839 July 27

Arrived in Scotland today. We are camping near Loch Lomond for a least a week of the summer holiday. Mother as a pureblood despises camping, but father loves it. He grew up camping all around the world with his family. I am indifferent. I enjoy being away from the everyday hustle and bustle of London.

1839 August 3

Met a merman, a selkie, in Loch Lomond today. Morven is his name. I cannot understand him as a human above water, but when I turn into my animagus form, I understand him perfectly. I have found he is lonely and as I am too, we have found comfort in each other.

1839 August 5

Morven bit me on the neck today. I am not entirely sure why, but I know there is a reason. I think I love him and maybe he loves me too. We are returning to London tomorrow, and I am not sure how I will continue on without him. I will miss him dearly.

1839 August 13

It has been one week since we left Loch Lomond and well over a week since Morven bit me. I have started developing odd tendencies, and the bite mark refuses to go away despite the many treatments; magical and muggle. When I bathe, gills appear on the sides of my neck, and some scales have started to appear. Once I dry off, and no water is left on my body, I return to normal.

Hermione gulped, reading this was like reading about her own life, minus the romance of course. She couldn't help but notice the similarities between her and Mirabella Plunkett after the bite happened. She continued reading hoping to find some answers.

1839 August 17

I told my parents I was in love with Morven today. They were less than pleased to find out I was in love with a creature; a merman. They just don't understand. He isn't a creature, he is a being just as we are! I told him of our plans to be married, and their objections could be heard miles away. As I write this, tears are falling onto the pages showing my heartbreak.

The last entry Hermione could barely read. It looked as though it was scribbled out in a hurry, not at all like the past entries.

1839 August 22

It's midnight, and I am making the decision to leave my parents home. As I cannot leave during the day, this is my only chance to escape. I plan to travel north back to Scotland and to Loch Lomond and join my love in the water. I am convinced I know have a similar ability as an animagus, able to transform almost at will. I believe I will be able to turn into a mermaid and join him in the depths of the loch. I will miss my family dearly, but I cannot live without Morven. Farewell.

Hermione stopped reading and realised that her heart was beating unnaturally fast. Looking around, she was relieved to see that the common room was empty and looking at her watch she saw that it was well after midnight. Turning her attention back to the book, she flipped through the pages and was disappointed to see them empty despite the last journal entry stating it would be the last. Closing the book, Hermione leaned back in the winged armchair she was currently occupying by the fire and closed her eyes.

As she sat there completely still, she let her thoughts sift through all the information she had retained over the past few weeks. She didn't really have any conclusions, but one thing was for sure. She was going to start a journal and document everything that had happened so far since she emerged from the Black Lake, including Harry's version of events as he was awake. Eventually, she could include interviews with various people like Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey; those who had interacted with the merpeople before. Maybe she could even travel across the world visiting other merpeople colonies.

On that happy note, Hermione drifted off to sleep, the flickering of the fire barely noticeable from underneath her eyelids.

"Hermione! Hermione!" a voice was shouting at her, she swivelled her head from side to side but saw no one. She was in the middle of a lake, who could be calling her name. She heard it again. "Hermione! Wake up!" Hermione abruptly woke as someone shook her and continued to shout her name.

"Must you yell," she grumbled, opening her eyes, squinting in the sunlight streaming through the windows.

"Sorry, Hermione," Harry said sheepishly. "You slept for longer than usual. I didn't want you to miss breakfast."

"What time is it?" Hermione asked, panicked.

"You're not late, calm down," Harry told her. "It's only a little past seven." Hermione relaxed back into the chair and closed her eyes.

"You can't sleep now," Harry said, grabbing her hand and pulling her up. She fell into him, and she blushed before pulling herself out of his arms. "Want me to wait for you?"

Hermione shook her head. "I'll be okay. I just need to change."

"And maybe brush your teeth," Harry said, grinning.

She smacked him across the chest. "That's a given, you dolt. My parents are dentists, remember?"

"Right," Harry said sheepishly. "I'll wait for you here anyway. I don't need you climbing into bed and falling asleep, missing classes. You don't have a time turner anymore to go back and redo."

"Low blow, Potter," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "I'll just be a few moments." She rushed up the stairs to the girls' dormitory and quickly changed into a clean, pressed uniform and freshened up in the bathroom. Less than ten minutes later, she was piling her books into her rucksack, almost ready to head down to breakfast.

Harry gripped her arm as they left the common room, helping her through the portrait hole. Usually, he let go after they were safely through, but today he kept ahold her arm until they were walking through the doors of the Great Hall. She was confused by the gesture, but it was pushed from her mind as they sat down at the Gryffindor table and conversation was filled with classes, Quidditch and still, Ron's tales of what had happened in the Black Lake.

Harry watched Hermione from across the table and had to keep a frown from crossing his face. Ever since she had been rescued out of the black lake, she had been acting oddly. Other than her usual black circles under her eyes, she had been staying up late into the night not doing homework but researching about merpeople. She tried to hide the books from them, but he saw them this morning sitting by his chair. Occasionally, he watched as she rubbed her hand across her neck, almost as if in pain. He was concerned for her, but she kept up this facade that everything was okay. It's what she had always done.

When the bell rang signalling the five-minute warning until class started, they said their goodbyes as they headed off to Divination, Hermione to Arithmancy. Harry barely paid attention during Divination and the classes following, his thoughts still on Hermione. He decided that despite her claiming everything was fine, she really wouldn't admit anything to him unless he caught her having a breakdown.

He didn't want to follow her without her knowledge, but decided it was necessary to ensure that she was taking care of herself and that she wasn't involved in anything dangerous. Especially since Sirius had warned him about Karkaroff and Krum back in November during their fire call. Maybe Krum was up to something, and it was effecting Hermione. He needed to know.

Over a month and a half passed before Harry had a chance to follow Hermione. He found Hermione off on her own on the Marauder's Map and frowned when he saw her walk into the prefect's bathroom. Harry climbed out of bed, grabbed his wand from his bedside table and threw the invisibility cloak over his head. He slowly made his way toward the prefect's bathroom, keeping one eye on the map at all times. In February, it had been a close call when Snape almost found him with the cloak, the map and the egg and it wasn't about to let that happen again.

After ten minutes or so, Harry breathed a sigh of relief as he made it down to the fifth floor without difficulty. Whispering the password, Harry gritted his teeth and pushed the door open. It wasn't his intention to be creepy or spy on her while bathing, but this was a last resort. He hoped to Merlin that she wasn't shagging Krum; that would be awkward but would answer a lot of questions. Still, he hoped that that wasn't the case.

As soon as he walked in, he ripped of the cloak and his attention was immediately drawn to the large, swimming pool-like tub where the map told him Hermione was located. He saw her long, bushy hair facing him and he was grateful that her back was turned — he didn't know if he was ready, or ever would be, to see his best friend naked.

"Hermione?" Harry asked quietly, but loud enough that she would be able to hear him. He listened to her gasp and kept her face turned away from him.

"Harry, please leave!" she cried. "Please don't look at me. Don't come any closer." She was begging him, and he stayed where he was, scared to move.

"Hermione what's wrong," he asked. "Why won't you talk to me?"

"You shouldn't have followed me in here," she whispered, and she sniffled, failing at covering up that she was crying. Harry immediately felt terrible knowing he had to upset her. But he was still convinced this was the best thing; he needed to know that she was okay.

"Hermione, please. Tell me what is wrong. I want to help you, but I can't if you keep putting up this facade that you're okay."

"Promise you won't tell anyone?"

"I am your best friend. Your secret is safe with me," Harry promised.

"Okay," she breathed. Harry held his breath as Hermione turned around, showing her face. He gasped and had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep from shouting. It was Hermione, but it also wasn't Hermione at all. It was like he was in the Black Lake all over again, face to face, with a mermaid.

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