IWSC Summer Camp
Round 3 - Swimming
Cabin: McGonagall
Word Count: 1066
Going to Hogwarts was like a dream come true for Isabella Langley. Having magic and learning how to wield it was only part of the appeal for her, however. Every day after the end of class, the young Ravenclaw would sequester herself into the library with one goal in mind… she wanted to discover the realities of the various creatures she'd seen in movies since she was a toddler. As she studied, she became more and more convinced that Walt Disney must have been a magician who used the cinema to keep Muggles from seeing the truth. Some small part of her knew that many of his films were based off of the work of others, but he seemed to whitewash all the older stories and publicize them with such skill that any hint at the true realities of various creatures became rapidly hidden.
This seemed especially obvious as Isabella studied about Merfolk. Growing up, The Little Mermaid had been one of her favorite movies, and the sequel had given her a yearning of her own to visit life under the sea.
It was that yearning that caused her to take potions class so seriously. She desperately wished to be able to visit the village under the Black Lake, but such would be impossible unless she could create the Gilly Potion. With Gillyweed as a primary ingredient, Gilly Potion allowed for lengthier stays under the water than consuming the raw ingredient, and perhaps more importantly, her research suggested that those who consumed Gilly Potion would have the potential to communicate with Merfolk underwater (if they knew the language, that is).
It took an entire summer during which she practically lived in the shower while her parents were at work, but Isabella now spoke passable Mermish. She had gathered the supplies needed for the potion while getting her school materials, and by October 3rd, she would be able to dive down, down, down under the...lake.
Isabella burned with excitement. It was finally here, the day when she would get to go… under the sea, lake, under a large body of water. The weather had been simply dreadful lately, so no one was outside except for her. There was no one to stop her from taking the plunge. And so, dressed in a bathing suit that very distinctly did not look seasonally appropriate, she waded into the frigid waters. She could almost hear the sound of Mermish in the distance.
Once the choppy water was up to her chest, she drank down the Gilly Potion.
It felt like she was drowning. Drowning before she could even go under. Had she made a mistake with the potion? Why couldn't she breathe? Why was her neck burning? As black dots flashed in front of her eyes, Isabella couldn't help but remember a time when her father took her to a horse show. Many of the creatures had brands on their hindquarters to show where they were from. Why would someone brand her neck though?
Trapped in the delirium of one about to pass out from lack of oxygen, Isabella didn't notice that she had company shouting out at her, telling her to put her face under the waves. Thankfully, the giant squid also noticed her problem and had no issue with simply pulling her under with one of its large tentacles.
Once the panic receded, Isabella found two Mer-youth swimming around her.
"I've got to say, I've heard of humans trying to kill themselves by drowning, but I've never heard of someone coming to the water, sprouting gills, and then trying to kill themselves by not dunking their head in." Though the words were condescending, Isabella thought she could detect a trace of concern in his voice.
Before she could respond, the second spoke up. "Eh, calm down, Sket! What're you doing here, Human?"
"What's she supposed to do, use hand signals to communicate? Really, R. L.!"
Assuming that Sket and R. L. were the names of the two and not wanting to waste her time listening to them argue, Isabella tried to respond. There was only one problem. She couldn't get her mouth to produce sound.
Thankfully, the youngest was able to figure out the problem. "Have you learned Mermish? To speak, you have to time your words with the breathing in of your gills."
That explanation shouldn't have made sense. She'd only had gills for about half an hour, after all. But somehow, Isabella was able to speak.
"I wanted to explore the lake and visit your village." Only after the words had left her mouth did Isabella understand how presumptuous her wish was. Why should they show her their world? She was an outsider, after all.
Thankfully, the two didn't seem to see it that way and took her by the hand. Their slightly webbed fingers should have felt strange and alien, but somehow it didn't.
"How long can you stay?"
"About three hours, but I should probably be close to the surface by then if you don't want me to faint on you when I transform back," she explained.
"That's plenty of time!"
In the same way that Sket and R. L. did not look anything like the Disney mermaids, their home looked nothing like Isabella could have imagined either. Yet again, the strange and unusual that should have seemed alien felt more like coming home than anything else.
Where humans fought the tides with structures that were meant to stay in one place, Isabella could see that everything in this village was designed to shift and drift with the moving of the water.
Food was readily available to any who wished to eat both in the form of the various fish flitting by and in the seagrass that covered the bottom of the lake. Sket cut off the tops of some particularly vibrant seagrass and offered some for her to try. It was delicious.
By the time her three hours had ended, Isabella had fallen in love with a world she could never truly be a part of. A few times a month, she would dive into the depths of the lake, and no one was surprised when she grew up to take over the Mermish Affairs division of the Ministry of Magic and completely revamped it, offering Mermish peoples under her jurisdiction a greater degree of freedom than had ever been seen before.