Chapter 4 — A Much Needed Conversation

"You're a mermaid?" Harry asked incredulously once he found his voice.

Hermione nodded and said, "Well technically, I think I would be considered a Selkie. If I would have been bitten in the waters near Greece, I would probably resemble more closely to her." She pointed to the mermaid on the wall. "She's a Siren."

"What's the difference?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and huffed. "I'm sorry Harry. I don't mean to be rude, but can we talk about this tomorrow when I don't happen to be bathing? I don't fancy debating the semantics of mermaids while naked."

Harry blushed, remembering that Hermione was indeed only a few feet away with no clothes on. "Oh, err, right. I'll just—I'll just go then." Without another look at Hermione, Harry threw the cloak over his head and walked out of the Prefect's bathroom. His mind was reeling with questions, but climbed into his four-poster and drifted off to sleep knowing he would have answers in the morning.

Hermione woke feeling more refreshed than she had since she was bitten almost two months ago. Maybe it was because she finally made the decision to accept the transformation her body was going through. She took her time getting ready that morning so that breakfast would be cut short — she didn't fancy answering Harry's questions in the open, especially in the Great Hall where others were continually eavesdropping on their conversations. If he wanted to talk it would have to wait until their shared free period later in the day. But even then, Ron would be there, and she wasn't ready to divulge her secret to him just yet. Eventually, yes, but just not right now.

Having dawdled long enough, Hermione made her way down to the Great Hall and to the Gryffindor table. Harry looked bored as he leaned his elbow against the wood, picking at the food on his plate. As she sat down her perked up and pushed his food away.

He opened his mouth to speak and instead was interrupted by Ron realising she had joined them.

"Nhh'rm lhtm Hmrmnhnm," Ron mumbled, his mouth full of porridge, bacon and who knows what else. Hermione looked on in disgust at her friend. He really did have the worst table manners. One would have thought Molly would have stomped the bad habit out of him as a child especially as the rest of the Weasley's were perfectly mannered...at the table at least.

"Come again?" Hermione asked, reaching for the jug of water. She didn't have time for much, so she just grabbed a banana, planning to eat it on her way to class. Ron finally swallowed the food in his mouth and said, "You're late, Hermione."

"Yes, well, I woke up late today," she lied. It didn't go unnoticed by her that her two friends exchanged 'a look'. "What?" she asked. "I stayed up late last night. It's not that big of a deal so you can stop looking at each other like you suspect me of something."

Both of their jaws had fallen open in surprise while she spoke, but when she looked up at them again, they quickly snapped them back shut. The three friends sat in silence for the last few minutes of breakfast and Hermione dashed off once the bell rang, worried again that Harry might try to accost her in the halls about the night before.

When the boys arrived in Transfiguration, she was already sitting in her seat, parchment, quills and book lying on the desk. Harry sat down next to her and Ron, on the other side of him. She could tell that Harry was trying to catch her eye, but she ignored him, pretending to look over her Transfiguration notes instead. Minutes later, Professor McGonagall walked in, and Hermione breathed a sigh of relief knowing she could avoid Harry's questions for at least a little bit longer.

The day passed, as usual, Hermione skiving off lunch to return to the library. This time just to pick up some books for homework rather than her research on merpeople. She really didn't need the books, but she once again was using it as an excuse to avoid Harry. Was it so hard to believe that she was afraid? Afraid to finally reveal her secret to one of her best friends? Sure, he already witnessed (though briefly) the change of her body while in water, she knew he had questions. And she would have to give them. Keeping him in the dark would only put a rift in their friendship, and if she didn't tell him, she was sure he would be distracted during the third task and the many days leading up to it. Not to mention, she knew Dumbledore was keeping him in the dark already regarding You-Know-Who, refusing to answer the many questions Harry asked him at the end of each year. She couldn't do that to him. By that afternoon, Hermione knew she would have to grit her teeth and sit down with him, but for the next few hours, she was perfectly content to keep everything to herself.

When free period came around later that afternoon, Hermione found herself walking the familiar path to Gryffindor tower. She took deep calming breaths as she walked, running over the potential scenarios of how the conversation was going to go with Harry. She knew he had been accepting enough the night before, hadn't he? That calmed her a bit. He had already seen her, and that was half the battle. He probably had a few questions, but other than that he wouldn't push the matter further. Much happier after talking to herself, she approached to give the Fat Lady the password when the portrait hole entered from the other side.

It was Harry.

They stood staring at each other for a while before Harry tilted his head sideways and scratched his head. Something she noticed he did when he was nervous.

"Uhm, hi," Hermione finally said, breaking the silence.

"Oh, uhm, hi Hermione. I thought maybe — maybe we could go and talk somewhere. I told Ron I was going to the library." He gestured to his bag over his shoulder. "He didn't want to come."

Hermione smiled. "Of course he didn't."

"So, shall we go and talk somewhere?" Harry asked, hesitantly.

Hermione nodded. "How about we walk around the Black Lake?" Harry nodded, and they started the long walk down to the staircases. On the way they only talked about trivial things, knowing that they could be overheard. The portraits were horrible gossips and if they spoke about her 'mermaid issues', it was sure to be around the entire school by dinner. As they reached the Black Lake, Hermione paused.

"How about we just sit and talk?" she suggested. Hermione took a quill out of her bag and transfigured it into a blanket large enough for them both.

"Soooo…" Harry said, trailing off. Hermione swallowed the lump in her throat and instead of waiting for him to ask a million question, she took control of the conversation.

"This might be easier if I just tell you what happened and if you have questions once I am done, you can ask them okay?"

"That sounds good," Harry agreed.

Hermione then took a deep breath and began her story, leaving her nerves behind. She told him everything. She recounted what happened as soon as she was pulled out of the lake, Madam Pomfrey's lies and then Hermione's almost confrontation with the matron. Hermione spilt the story of Mirabella Plunkett and the all the research she had gathered. No detail was left out. Finally, her story ended with her recounting their conversation in the Prefect's bathroom the night before.

Harry sat silent for a while, and Hermione's nerves bubbled back up to the surface one more. To distract herself, she played with a thread in the blanket they sat on.

"Hermione?" Harry asked. She looked up, and his green eyes were gazing at her intently. They were filled with confusion — no, curiosity. It was just like him to be curious especially about all things magic. They were the same in that way having both grown up in the muggle world.

"Yes, Harry?" Her pulse was beating so rapidly she was sure her heart was going to explode at any moment. The anxiety of not knowing what Harry was going to say or how he was going to react was starting to show. She knew she shouldn't be worried; he was her friend after all. He wasn't about to drop her just because she was now half a creature instead of human, was he? Of course, he wouldn't. She shook her head to shake those thoughts away. She knew he cared for her deeply — she was just being simply ridiculous.

"I just want to say first that it's okay, Hermione," Harry said and surprising her by pulling her into a hug. When he pulled away from her, he grabbed her hand and held it. "And if it's not okay right now, it's going to be. I promise."

Hermione nodded, tears starting to form at the corner of her eyes. Not because she was upset or angry or even happy. She was relieved. He was right — everything was going to be okay. She used the hand that wasn't being held by Harry to wipe the corner of her eyes. She then took several gulps of fresh air to calm down. Immediately she felt the effects of deep breathing and felt much calmer.

"Now, why didn't you tell me right away?" Harry asked.

Hermione just shook her head and whispered, "I honestly don't know. It just seemed easier to keep it to myself. You just have so much on your plate right now. I didn't want to burden you with something else."

"Hermione, I—"

Hermione continued on like Harry hadn't tried to speak. "And then my anxiety just makes me think crazy things like you might not want to be my friend if you found out or —"

She was interrupted by Harry's lips meeting hers. It was a quick and chaste kiss, but Hermione melted. He pulled away quickly and smiled goofily at her. She looked at him in confusion, and he just shrugged.

"You didn't seem like you were going to stop anytime soon, so I thought I'd shut you up with a kiss."

"So it didn't mean anything? Just a way to get me to stop talking?" Hermione asked, her heart sinking.

"I didn't say that," Harry said quietly, his smile gone, a much more severe expression gracing his features. Hermione's heart jumped when he said that and she thought maybe all hope wasn't lost.

"We'll talk about the kiss later, okay?" Hermione nodded and bit her lip and Harry continued. "You won't burden me at all if you come to me with your problems. I want to hear about your problems. Merlin knows, I pile all of my problems on you and hell, you even help me solve them. You can come and talk to me about these things."

Hermione nodded and gave him a soft smile. Not many could say that they knew a fourteen-year-old boy that wanted to hear about the problems a girl was having. She knew he didn't need to hear about the trivial girl things — no fourteen-year-old boy was equipped to deal with that, but he wanted to listen to the important stuff.

"I know in the past I haven't always been the most welcoming to your concerns. In fact, I ignored them a lot of time. Last year, our friendship was in turmoil because I ignored you instead of taking the time to listen to you about the possibility of a cursed broomstick. I won't let that happen again." Harry didn't say anything further, turning away from her and looking out over the lake. Hermione then took her chance and turned the conversation back to the reason they had escaped the castle and were sitting on the grounds.

"So do you have any questions or…" Hermione trailed off.

Harry returned his gaze to her and smiled. "Can I see the mark?" Hermione was surprised at his question but hoped it hadn't shown on her face. She nodded and pulled down the collar of her button-down. Harry leaned over her and frowned in concentration as he looked at it. His eyes darting up to hers, he said, "Can I touch it?"

"Yes," Hermione whispered. She watched as Harry slowly got to his knees and moved his hand up to the mark. Before touching it, he looked up at her again as if asking one more time for permission. She nodded. It felt odd as he lightly ran his fingers across the indent in her skin. His touch wasn't painful, just weird having someone else touch it besides herself. Eventually, he pulled away and sat back down, looking lost in thought — his chin resting on one hand, drumming his fingers contemplatively on his knee with the other.

"What is it?" she asked. "What are you thinking?" She was eager to hear what he thought, so much that she had to stop herself from getting up on her knees and rocking back and forth.

"It definitely looks like a human bite mark, maybe a little different so I think your conclusion about it being a merperson is correct. I do remember seeing their teeth down in the Black Lake because when I tried to rescue you, they bared them trying to scare me away. They were a bit more pointy than human teeth, but it is possible that their teeth are different from merperson to merperson just like my teeth are different than yours."

Hermione nodded in understanding. "Why do you think I was bitten?" she asked.

"Now that I am not sure. One of the merpeople must have bitten you right after you were put in their care because I was the last to leave their colony and you were already gone, being rescued by Krum. Maybe one of them claimed you as their mate? You know, like werewolves do. Is that possible?"

Hermione blushed. "Uh, no. I don't think that's possible."

"Why not? It's a legitimate theory."

"It is, but I think if it were a mating mark I would feel drawn to the one who gave it to me. I, uh, wouldn't be able to resist the person or creature that gave it to me."

"That's true. And you're not, err, feeling...uh, emotional or...err…" Harry trailed off, a blush creeping up his neck and into his cheeks.

Hermione was sporting a bright pink blush as well but answered. "Uh, aroused?" Harry nodded. "No, I am not feeling any of that. It's a good theory, but I don't think that's it."

Harry cleared his throat. "Uh, that's good. Yeah, that's good."

Hermione felt as uncomfortable as Harry looked, so she quickly changed the subject to Madam Pomfrey.

"Like I said earlier, Madam Pomfrey has the same mark I do, in the same exact place. That can't be a coincidence can it?" Hermione asked

"Seems unlikely that it would be a coincidence," Harry replied. "You didn't find anything in the research that she gave you?"

Hermione bit her lip and frowned, racking her brain for something...anything that the matron had noted about her mark. Finally, she shook her head in defeat.

"I don't remember seeing anything, but it wouldn't hurt to go over them again. I'll see if I can find anything related specifically to her bite mark. There has to be something — she wrote almost everything down."

"I'll help," Harry offered.

"No, you need to be focusing on the third task, Harry. Nothing is more important than making it through that maze and coming out alive," Hermione told him. In fact, I should put this on the back burner for now and help you prepare. We can worry about my problem after this bloody tournament is over."

"Hermione—" Harry started, but Hermione immediately cut him off.

"No, Harry. I'll continue to do a little bit of research just in case this is much more serious than we think like I'm going to be stuck as a mermaid forever or something, but our — meaning Ron and me — our main focus is to help you prepare for the task. We promised we would, and that is what we need to do for the next three weeks."

Harry nodded in defeat. "Just promise me you won't hide anything from me anymore? Especially about this new creature side of you."

"I promise, Harry." Hermione paused. "Now, about that kiss." Harry blushed again, and Hermione laughed.

Harry looked up toward the castle and fidgeted, a sign that he was nervous for that particular conversation. "Come on you," Hermione said, once Harry didn't respond. She stood up and grabbed onto his hand to help pull him off the ground. "Let's go up for dinner. But you know, we can't avoid that conversation forever."

"I know," Harry said quietly. "Just not now, okay?"

Hermione nodded knowing he probably had much more emotions and thoughts to sort through before he was ready to discuss the spontaneous kiss he placed on her lips. She'd be there waiting when he was prepared to have that conversation. Hermione felt lighter and happier than she had in months. She hadn't realised how deeply it had affected her keeping the secret inside and now that she had spilt it all to Harry, the weight on shoulders had subsided. She was ready to look at her condition in a new light and with a positive attitude.

With a smile on her face, Hermione looped her arm through Harry's and chattered incessantly about far less significant things as they trudged back up to the castle.

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