Author's Notes: So, this is not a threat, don't take this the wrong way, but Chapter 1 = 0 reviews. Uploading chapters on this website is a hassle - compared to AO3 - so if by the end of the week nobody is interested in this story, I'll delete it and will only upload it on AO3 - where you can find it and read it and do everything you want to do there. And will probably stop using this website too, because as I said, it's a bit of a hassle compared to other websites. Yeah, just that! Cheers.
Chapter I
A not so glorious Sunday afternoon.
Professor McGonagall was seated in a towel that she had Transfigured into a comfortable chair. Hugo was standing at her left, and he was looking particularly abashed as he stared at the huge bathtub that lay in the middle of the Prefects' bathroom.
"Have I already told you how disappointed I am, Mr Weasley?" she asked him for the umpteenth time, her voice calm and collected.
He nodded disconsolately. "Yes, Headmistress," he replied quietly.
The water sloshed around and a fin emerged, before disappearing under the surface again.
"You're Head Boy," she continued, "you shouldn't get into fights just because Mr Goldstein provoked you. You should call a Professor to deal with the situation."
"But he was—"
She raised a hand to quiet him. "Enough excuses, I've listened to the two of you trying to blame each other of the past hour," she told him. "Can we focus on Miss Potter now?"
Hugo sighed and looked at the bathtub again. Everything was quiet. "Yes," he replied in a murmur.
"Good."
There was a resounding knock on the door, before Hagrid almost pushed it down with a graceless shove. "They're here, Professor," he said, as he peered inside and smiled faintly at Hugo.
Hugo tried to smile back, but he suddenly didn't seem able to control his facial muscles. Actually, now that he thought about it, he didn't feel all that well. And when his mother walked inside, let out a shout of relief at seeing that he was alright and threw herself at his neck, he somewhat felt even worse.
"Oh Merlin and Morgana! You're alright!" she cried, hugging him as if life depended on it. When she tilted her head back, she kissed his cheeks and took his head in her hands as if to check for injuries. "They said there was an accident! Oh my! Are you alright? You look alright, but are you alright? You're so pale! Oh Merlin! You feel hot! Are you sick?"
"I'm fine, Mum, seriously," he replied weakly.
His mother's eyes narrowed suddenly. "Then what did you do?" she asked sternly. "You're Head Boy, you know you should not get into trouble, right? You should be the one the other students look up to. Am I right, Professor McGonagall? When I was Head Girl—"
"Oh my darling wife, not again," sighed his father with a playful smile upon his lips as he nodded a greeting to the Headmistress. "Ginny is still scarred by the year you were Head Girl, Hermione." He made his way towards Hugo and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm glad to see that you're okay, Hugo, but what the heck did you do?"
"Ron!" snapped his mother, but it was only half-hearted. "But yes, Hugo, what did you do?"
The water in the bathtub sloshed again – almost angrily, Hugo noticed – and a fin splashed the surface. Hugo couldn't see it, but his parents' attention seemed to be drawn to it.
"What the heck is that?" asked his father, brow furrowed in concentration.
"That, Mr Weasley," said Professor McGonagall, as she stood from the chair and looked seriously from his parents to Hugo, "is what the heck your son did."
His mother let his head go and took a step towards the bathtub. A tail splashed around again, and she stopped suddenly. "Oh Merlin! That's a mermaid!" she exclaimed, before turning to Hugo. "I'm the Chief of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures; tell me you have not hurt an endangered species."
Hugo took a deep breath. "I have not hurt an endangered species," he solemnly swore, "kind of…"
"What is that even—"
Hagrid's ungraceful knock resounded in the bathroom again, cutting off Hermione's retort. "They are here too," he said as he poked his head inside before retreating.
Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry hurried inside, eyes wide. Uncle Harry was still wearing his Auror Uniform, as if he had been called from work. Aunt Ginny, just like his mother, seemed to look relieved when she spotted her nephew.
"Oh Hugo! You're alright," she said, hurrying to his side and hugging him tightly. "Where's Lily?" she asked, before turning to Professor McGonagall. "Headmistress, is everything alright? Is Lily okay? Where is she? Oh, is she in the Hospital Wing?"
Uncle Harry patted Hugo's shoulder, but he seemed distracted by the myriad of questions that his wife was asking.
Professor McGonagall took a deep breath. "She's not in the Hospital Wing," she replied calmly, "and Madam Pomfrey healed her concussion and her broken arm. So she's in no danger at the moment."
Aunt Ginny gasped out loud, and so did Hugo's mother. "A concussion and a broken arm?" she asked horrified. "What happened? Did she fall from her broom?"
Professor McGonagall looked pointedly at Hugo, as if she expected him to answer their questions. He shook his head, looking positively worried of having his parents and Lily's jumping on him every word he said.
"Mr Weasley," said Professor McGonagall firmly.
Hugo let out a small whine, but now everybody was looking at him and Aunt Ginny's eyes seemed to send daggers in his direction, just like Lily's had done earlier that day. He closed his eyes for a moment and the water sloshed again, almost indignantly, it seemed now. Could she hear them from the tub?
"Hugo, what happened?" asked his mother impatiently.
When he opened his eyes again he tried to look as contrite as he could. "Lily fell off a cliff and into the lake," he suddenly replied.
Aunt Ginny gasped out loud. "What? Oh my baby…"
"Damn it," muttered Uncle Harry, "she should be in the Hospital Wing then, Professor McGonagall!"
"We didn't have a space apt for her in the Hospital Wing," replied Professor McGonagall.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked his mother, who looked like she would have instantaneously produced Ministry-approved parchment out of her pocket, to start a petition for a bigger Hospital Wing.
"Mr Weasley," said Professor McGonagall again.
Hugo took a deep breath. "She fell off a cliff," he continued, "because she stood between Mark Goldstein and me while we were fighting, and… I… we… we don't know who did it, to be honest… but we might have turned her into… into…"
The water sloshed around again, and there was a blueish-green fin that emerged and splashed water everywhere.
"A mermaid?" asked his mother in a horrified whisper.
Aunt Ginny let out a gasp and hurried to the bathtub, as did Uncle Harry and his parents. Hugo followed them and peered into the tub as well.
What once was the smooth and spacious Prefects' bathtub was now an aquarium that mimicked the bottom of a Caribbean sea. Rocks, seaweed, little colourful fish and sand could all be visible under the clear water. And so was Lily, very visible as she sat at the bottom of the tub and pouted.
Her long, red hair was a cloud around her pale, almost greenish face. She had a majestic tail that occupied most of the tub, blue-green in colour, shiny and covered in little, beautiful fins that looked like silk veils as they curled around it. She also seemed to have little cuts on it, as if she still couldn't control it that well and bumped into the sharp rocks that had been placed there to recreate her habitat. She was wearing one of Hugo's Chudley Cannons tee-shirts, because her own had seemed too tight underwater, while his left her free to swim around. She looked ridiculous in it, but nobody had told her that. She was opening her mouth and little bubbles were reaching the surface as she talked to herself, looking supremely unhappy of her new situation.
"Oh my…" murmured Uncle Harry.
Aunt Ginny placed her hand into the water and flapped it to attract her attention. "Lily," she called anxiously, "Lily, it's Mum! Lily!"
"I wouldn't do that, Mrs Potter," said Professor McGonagall, "she's been having very mermaid like behaviours."
Aunt Ginny withdrew her hand as Lily's eyes looked up at her. She pushed on the bottom of the tub and swam to the surface. When her head emerged from the water, she snarled at her mother, before snapping her teeth together and growling in an animalistic way.
"Lily!" exclaimed Aunt Ginny, stepping back.
Lily grabbed the edge of the tub and tried to grasp her mother's hand, growling ferociously at her before showing two sharp rows of teeth once more.
Hugo stepped back too, she had already tried to bite him as he told her that he was sorry, and didn't quite care to give her another chance to taste his flesh.
"Oh, poor Lily!" said his mother sweetly.
"My baby," sighed Aunt Ginny, as Uncle Harry nodded slowly.
There was a chuckle coming from his father, though, and Hugo turned to him, just like everybody else, to see him grinning as he stared at Lily trying to push herself up from the water and splashing her tail around. "Well, Professor McGonagall," he said with mirth in his voice, "I knew there was something fishy when you called us here, but I didn't expect that…"
"Ron!" exclaimed his mother, looking apologetically at Aunt Ginny. "Don't mind him, Ginny; he spends too much time with George."
To Hugo's surprise, Uncle Harry tried to suffocate a laugh without really managing that well which gained him a scowl from his wife.
"Ron," hissed Aunt Ginny, "don't you dare joke about my daughter! The poor thing, she must be terrified!" She looked at Lily, who was trying to creep out of the tub with all her forces now.
"Why didn't Madam Pomfrey change her back?" asked his mother, looking at Lily and probably observing her movements with academic interest. He could imagine her going to write an essay on mermaids the moment she was back in her office.
Professor McGonagall took a deep breath. "She couldn't find an effective counter spell," she told them, "we don't know what kind of spell, or combination of spells might be more appropriate, Mr Weasley and Mr Goldstein had used on her. And they were too upset to remember."
"Oh my! Is she going to stay like that forever?" asked Aunt Ginny horrified. "I mean, we will love her no matter what, but… but…"
The Headmistress smiled reassuringly. "Madam Pomfrey thinks that the spells will wear off in the course of a week, ten days at a maximum."
"Like when Hermione turned herself into a cat?" asked his father. Then his eyes shone with mischief. "Oh! Can you imagine if you were a cat now that Lily is a fish—"
"Mermaid," hissed Aunt Ginny.
"—you would try to catch her and eat her, Hermione!"
"Ron!" exclaimed his mother, glaring at him. "Stop being ridiculous!"
Uncle Harry chuckled. "Thank you for the nightmares, Ron," he said with mirth.
Hugo rolled his eyes and looked at Lily, and his heart skipped a beat. She had stopped trying to crawl out of the tub and was now staring at him. Her big, blue eyes — which was weird because Lily's eyes were brown — looked up at him as if he was a piece of cake. Then she dove into the water again and when she came back up, she was floating near to where he was standing.
He swallowed and smiled weakly at her, and she smiled back. A bright, innocent smile that had the power to turn his guts to jelly – which again, was weird because her smiles had never done that to him; maybe pudding but not jelly.
She leant her arms on the edge of the tub and twisted a lock of red hair around her finger. She kept smiling at him as she fluttered her eyelashes and rested her head over her arms playfully. She raised her tail over the water and moved it lazily left and right, with mesmerising movements.
Hugo took a step towards her, and her smile became even wider. Damn it, she was beautiful. Had she always been that beautiful? Why had he never noticed how beautiful his cousin was? Even those little scales on her skin were beautiful, and her eyes and her face… and the way she looked at him…
She opened her mouth, but seemed to decide against trying to talk. Instead she started to hum, and it was the most wonderful sound Hugo had ever heard. The melody seemed to come from another place and another time and he just took another step towards her and then another, until she was so close to him he could have touched her.
But a hand closed on his shoulder before he could do that, and he was pulled back just as Lily jumped out of the water and tried to grab him.
"I don't think you should get that close to her, son," said his father, suddenly serious.
"Your father is right, Hugo," said his mother nervously. "She looks like… oh my!"
"What?" asked Aunt Ginny worriedly. "What does she look like?"
His mother pressed her lips together. "She's clearly trying to mate him."
Hugo nodded as he looked at Lily staring at him, as if she really wanted him to get closer again. "Oh, alright then, I will—she's what?"
"She's what, Hermione?" Aunt Ginny seemed even more shocked than Hugo felt.
His mother – to Hugo's horror – looked ready to throw herself into a very serious explanation. She cleared her throat and nodded. "She's trying to attract him near the water, pull him inside, and copulate with the intent of conception," she said matter-of-factly. "That's what mermaids do. It is how they reproduce."
Aunt Ginny looked at Lily, eyes wide. "Don't you dare get pregnant, Lily Luna Potter! Do you hear me?!" she snapped at her. "Don't you dare get pregnant before you finish school, and get married. Am I understood?"
Lily grimaced at her, as if she was just a nuisance, then turned her face towards Hugo again and started to hum high-pitched little mewls that somehow had the power to make Hugo feel heartbroken for her. She puckered her lips a little, and he imagined himself kissing her.
"Yes, and if she did manage to mate you, Hugo, she would then drown you. So I don't think it's wise for you to get too close to her; at least until she's back to thinking with her human brain," said his mother.
"And if she doesn't drown you, I will!" snapped Aunt Ginny to him. "Don't you dare get her pregnant, Hugo!"
Hugo raised his hands near his face. The conversation was too surreal for him to even feel embarrassed by what they were suggesting. "It's not on my bucket list, Aunt Ginny, I promise," he said curtly.
Aunt Ginny glared at him as if she didn't believe him, as if she was sure that next time Professor McGonagall would call them there it would be to tell her that she was going to be the proud grandmother of a school of fish.
"I still don't understand how it happened," said Uncle Harry, looking from Lily to Hugo. "Why were you fighting?"
"Yes," said his mother, "you're Head Boy, you shouldn't be starting fights with the students!"
"Who says I started it?" asked Hugo defensibly.
"Did you?" asked his father back.
Hugo sighed. "Yes," he finally admitted. "But I only did it because Mark was telling a bunch of guys that he'd kissed Lily at the Three Broomsticks last week, and that… that she had let him put his hand under her top. And she hadn't!" He was satisfied to see the horror on their faces. "And he raised Lily's skirt in front of everybody," he added for good measure.
Aunt Ginny was turning as red as her hair. "That little, horrible, disgusting vermin!" she screeched. "I'm going to Floo Call his parents the moment we get home!" She turned towards Uncle Harry. "You're going to arrest him, aren't you?"
He darkened. "Bloody hell, if I could, I would send him to Azkaban," he growled.
"I've already spoken to Mr Goldstein and his parents," said Professor McGonagall diplomatically, "he's been given detention from now to the end of school. What he did was despicable." She looked at Hugo and a smile seemed to creep on her face for a split second, before vanishing again. "And I think that Mr Weasley's intentions were good, but he shouldn't have acted that way. He should have asked a Professor to take care of the situation."
"Yes, Hugo," said Aunt Ginny, apparently forgetting about the mating thing, "you should have called a Professor." Then she smiled fondly at him. "But thank you for taking care of your cousin."
Hugo blushed at the compliment. "Yeah, it's alright, Auntie," he said, grinning, "she stood in the middle to try to separate us, at some point… I should have listened to her, but Goldstein didn't stop firing, I just wanted to protect her."
His mother and his aunt swooned at him, covering him with compliments like a cupcake with icing. Even his father and Uncle Harry patted his shoulders and complimented him for his courage and protective instincts. A true Weasley and Gryffindor, they kept repeating.
As the adults talked, their voices blurred together though, and suddenly all he could hear was Lily's song and the sloshing of her tail on the water. He glanced at her and saw that she was looking up at him, adoringly. He didn't know if it was because she understood what they were talking about, or because she was trying to attract him once again. He found himself thinking that he didn't mind either options. He wanted her to hear all the compliments, and he wanted her to try to attract him again.
"Professor McGonagall!" said Aunt Ginny suddenly, startling him out of his reverie. "Why is my daughter's tail covered in cuts?"
Professor McGonagall looked at Lily. "Because she doesn't have complete control over her fins, yet; I've seen her bump into the rocks."
"Or maybe this tub is too small for her," replied Hugo's mother seriously. "You need to put an Extension Charm on it."
"There is, Mrs Weasley," replied Professor McGonagall, "she's got plenty of space in there."
"Well, then she may be more comfortable in the lake," suggested Uncle Harry thoughtfully.
Aunt Ginny glared at him. "Are you kidding me? You would send our daughter into the lake? With the other Merpeople? She doesn't even look like them, they would bully her around."
"She doesn't look like them, because she is not one of them," said his mother seriously, "she's a Siren, not a Selkie. First of all, the water of the lake would be too cold for her. Sirens like warm climates and salt water, they are native to Greece and the Mediterranean. Secondly, she would probably be considered a threat and killed by the colony."
"Yeah, she would feel like a fish out of water," chuckled his father.
"Ron!" hissed Aunt Ginny. "Don't go there."
He ignored her. "Not to mention that she would probably mate every male student and then drown them in the lake…"
"Ron!" snapped Uncle Harry, not quite as amused as before now.
"That's complete poppycock, Ron," said Hugo's mother icily. "Mermaids are very advanced; they don't just behave like animals. When they choose a mate, it is for life." She paused and rectified, "Or for until they manage to get pregnant. Then they would drown him, naturally."
Hugo looked at Lily, she was still smiling at him and, when their eyes met, she rolled on the surface of the water and let out another mewl.
"What are you saying, Mum?" asked Hugo a bit taken aback. "That she chose me? That I'll be her mate until she drowns me?"
"Oh no," said his mother gently, "I expect that her mating instincts will disappear once she'll go back to being human."
Hugo furrowed his brow. "And what if they don't?" he asked, not sure if he was afraid that they would never go away or scared that they would.
"They will," replied his mother. "I was half a cat for two weeks, but I don't crave tuna nor lick myself clean before I go to bed."
"You did have a tuna sandwich yesterday, though," said his father, before looking at Lily. "Oops, sorry dear," he chuckled.
Lily didn't even seem to have understood him, she was still flirting – there was no other word for it – with Hugo, and for a moment he wished she wasn't wearing his tee-shirt. Just to have a peek at her naked chest.
He blinked. Why was he thinking those things? He shouldn't have been thinking those things. She was his cousin, and she was half fish. What was wrong with him? He glanced at her and she stretched a hand towards him. It was probably the mating thing, that was probably how they attracted sailors underwater. They got into their heads until they became crazy and threw themselves into the waves, where the mermaids proceeded to mate them, and then drown them.
"So she'll just stay here until she is back to normal?" asked Aunt Ginny a bit anxiously. "Are you sure Madam Pomfrey has tried everything in her power to turn her back?"
Professor McGonagall nodded solemnly. "Yes, she said that our best chance is to wait for her to turn spontaneously with time."
"But she's going to be left behind with her homework!" gasped Hugo's mother suddenly.
"I think she has bigger fish to fry at the moment, Hermione," said his father seriously.
"Ron!" Aunt Ginny's tone was exasperated. "Enough with the fish jokes already!"
His father grinned and Uncle Harry grinned back at him, acknowledging that he was quite funny.
"Mr Weasley will come here every day," replied Professor McGonagall, "after his lessons, and as soon as she is be able to understand our language and read again, he'll start bringing her homework and help her stay up to date with their classes."
"Isn't it dangerous?" asked his mother anxiously. "Mermaids control their mates' minds, they can convince them to get into the water, do things that they don't want to."
Hugo looked at Lily; he couldn't imagine anything that she wanted him to do, that he wouldn't want as well. Maybe he would mate with Lily after all. He could already imagine himself sitting on a beach, Lily splashing around with their child…
Hugo blinked and shook his head to send those thoughts away. What was wrong with him?
He focused on his cousin; Lily was still smiling and making those cute little sounds… She looked so cute all wet like that…
"Come on, Hermione," his father's voice broke into his fantasies, "I'm sure it'll be like shooting fish in a barrel, for Hugo to take care of Lily."
"That's enough!" growled Aunt Ginny. She didn't even take out her wand, but instead just jumped on his father's back, her arms going to his neck to choke him. "Stop joking about my daughter's condition!"
His father swayed as he tried to untangle Aunt Ginny's arms from his neck. "Well, just because it's… ouch… it's a pretty kettle of fish, it doesn't mean that we can't joke about it," he gasped.
"Stop it!" snarled Aunt Ginny. "You insensitive git!"
Hugo looked at them with his lips parted. They were worse than children.
Even Lily was looking at them, her eyes wide as she stared in wonder at what they were doing. She grinned and let out some high-pitched noises every time Aunt Ginny managed to grab onto something, like his father's nose or his hair, and pulled.
His father took a step and slid on the floor, falling on top of his sister, and they both whimpered at the impact with the floor.
Lily let out some little noises that made her sound like a dolphin, and splashed her tail on the water, clapping her hands. She was probably laughing at them, enjoying the scene immensely.
"I think I'm fishing in troubled waters," sighed his father as he stood up, and helped his sister to her feet.
"Are you quite done?" asked Hugo's mother curtly. "Both of you," she added as Aunt Ginny smirked.
The smirk disappeared, and they both nodded demurely. "You shut up, though," hissed Aunt Ginny to her brother.
"And you stop being such a cold fish," he retorted.
"Ron," she growled under her breath.
"So you'll keep us informed about Lily's transformation, Professor McGonagall?" asked Uncle Harry. "You'll owl us the moment she goes back to being herself, right?"
"Maybe I could stay here," suggested Aunt Ginny suddenly, "I could take care of her."
"That's not necessary, Mrs Potter," said Professor McGonagall calmly. "Miss Potter will be perfectly fine here. She'll be looked after day and night by Madam Pomfrey, and Mr Weasley, and myself, and… Hagrid too has asked to look after her. He was very excited." She smiled at them. "And other students will be allowed to come and see her when she feels better."
Aunt Ginny looked at her daughter and sighed. "Alright," she murmured.
Lily blinked at her, but now that her mother wasn't fighting with his father anymore, she had lost all interest with her, so she went back to looking lovingly at Hugo.
He smiled at her, and she mewled contentedly.
"Marvellous," said Professor McGonagall suddenly. "Now that everything has been taken care of, we can go to my office for a nice cup of tea."
The four adults murmured their agreement and looked at Lily, saying their goodbyes to her and waving their hands with bright smiles and promises that everything would be better soon. She stared back at them without understanding what they were doing.
"You too, Mr Weasley," said Professor McGonagall, as they all walked towards the door. "Come, let her rest and get acquainted with her temporary home. You'll see her tomorrow."
Hugo nodded too, but the idea of leaving Lily there alone broke his heart. He looked at her and she seemed to sense either his feelings or the fact that he had to leave her, because her beautiful face changed to scared and miserable all of a sudden. She let out more high-pitched mewls, and now she sounded like she was crying.
"Oh Lily," he murmured, "don't cry. I'll come back tomorrow, okay?"
She cried a bit more loudly, her hands grasping the edge of the tub as if she was trying to get out and reach him.
"Let's go, Hugo," said his father, patting his back, "she'll be more than fine."
Hugo hunched his shoulders. "She looks so sad, though," he complained.
"That's her mating instinct," replied his mother seriously. "It's called Mating Magic, and it's very powerful. Pay attention, okay?"
He nodded and the moment they stepped out and closed the door at their backs, a loud wailing sound could be heard coming from the bathroom, and some kind of glass object shattered.
"Very powerful indeed," agreed Professor McGonagall. "Now, how many of you want milk in their tea?"