Author's Notes: I got two reviews for last chapter! *throws confetti in the air*

Chapter VIII

Another glorious Sunday morning.

The semi-final between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, on Sunday morning, was one of the dullest games Hugo had the misfortune to assist to.

No, all right, to be fair with the players, the game wasn't dull at all – especially when the Hufflepuff Beater knocked Goldstein off his broom and Mark looked like he could have hexed whoever was laughing at him – but Hugo's mind was definitely somewhere else.

And it definitely wasn't hard to imagine where it was, but Lily had told him flat out that she couldn't study with him hanging around her, and kissing her and touching her all the time.

He snorted. Apparently, his hands under her dress were really distracting as she tried to write an essay on the magical plants of Scotland. Even when he used the excuse that he was collecting her scales.

He sighed. When he had visited her right after breakfast, he had hoped for a long and not very profitable – academically speaking – day, filled with languid kisses and maybe something more. He had actually expressed the desire to return the favour from the afternoon before, but she had refused due to the fact that her feet were still stuck together under a thin layer of scales, and she didn't really want to figure out the dynamics of the act.

Hugo didn't have to figure out anything at all – he had probably read way more issues of James and Teddy's stash of erotic magazines – but she had insisted, so he had promised to visit her in the afternoon, and finally left her to finish her umpteenth essay in two days.

"Is Lily coming to the trainings tomorrow?" asked Michael Belby, one of the Gryffindor Beaters.

Hugo turned to look at him. "Probably on Tuesday or Wednesday," he replied, "she's still water-bound until her gills disappear and she loses all her scales."

He nodded thoughtfully. "But do you think we're going to beat Slytherin on Sunday? I mean, we haven't had any proper training in a week, what are our chances?"

"Higher than them beating us," replied Hugo trying to sound cheerful, but he didn't feel too confident at all about their chances.

Weirdly enough, though, he felt as if he hardly cared about Quidditch at the moment, which was very unusual. He usually loved the game, and spent most of the time talking about it when he wasn't watching it or playing it. He had even caressed the idea of trying out for a position in one of the teams of the League, but just because he knew that Lily wanted to play professionally. He imagined the two of them playing for an important team like Puddlemere United, and maybe meeting in the shower after their training…

He tried to focus on the game to keep those thoughts at bay. He looked at the Ravenclaw Keeper saving a last minute goal and wondered if his disinterest in the game had anything to do with Lily's magic. It must have. He smiled again as he thought about her, he was definitely going to wear his swimming trunks again that afternoon. After all, Lily's kisses and her mouth and her hands were extremely pleasant on his skin, and if the Mating Magic was really going to dissolve into thin air as soon as her gills disappeared – as he suspected that it would – they might as well have made the most out of it.

He wasn't even worried in the least about what would surely follow: days filled with regret and embarrassment and awkward family meetings.

They would think about that when the time came.

oOoOo

An especially glorious Sunday afternoon.

Hugo sat on the edge of the tub, placing his naked feet on the highest rock. He could see Lily's naked body swimming several feet under the surface, her feet still greenish and vaguely linked together, her body pale and very much human now.

He watched her as she searched the bottom for scales, one of her hands had a fistful already, the other was moving rocks and pushing heaps of sand into corners.

She was graceful and he just watched her for a few minutes, until she finally started to make her way to the surface again, her eyes opening wide as she noticed that he was there, and hurried to where he was.

"Hugo!" she almost cried, her arms wrapping around his waist. "Thank Merlin, you're here!"

"Hey," he replied, a smug smile followed her enthusiasm. "You okay?"

She shook her head. She unwrapped her arms from around him and hopped on the rock, kneeling naked next to him to put away the scales into the overflowing box.

He tried to look at her hands, but somehow his eyes kept going back to her pretty, bubbly arse. She finally closed the box and pushed it away, before sitting next to him. "I need your help," she said firmly, as she raised her feet up until they rested on his lap.

He bit the inside of his cheek to finally manage to find the strength of focusing on her feet. "Yep," he croaked out. "Help."

"Look," she exhorted him, raising her feet. "I'm bleeding!"

He blinked, finally focusing. "Bleeding?" he asked.

She nodded and hissed when he placed his hands on the inside of her feet. "I was trying to speed up the separation process," she told him. "Even if Madam Pomfrey told me not to… But argh! Look at me! I'm ridiculous and I can't bloody walk or swim properly! I'm a freak of nature."

He chuckled at her distraught tone. "It'll be over by tomorrow," he reminded her.

She sighed. "Anyway, I tried to pull my feet apart and that happened." She nodded towards her feet and Hugo saw the long wound that was starting to bleed in his lap.

"Wow," he said, "doesn't it hurt?"

"What do you think?" she huffed.

He glanced at her, trying hard not to stare at her chest or between her legs as he did. "Then why were you in the water? I bet the salt is killing you."

"Well, first of all, I needed to get wet," she told him seriously.

He grinned and slid a hand up her leg. "I could have helped with that, no need to get into the water," he murmured.

She slapped his hand away when he reached too high on her thigh, her face colouring. "Honestly," she muttered, but she was fighting a smile and he could see it. "Second, I was getting bored and went to look for the scales." She nodded and added, "And third, nobody gave me my wand back, so I can't Heal myself."

He nodded and drew out his own wand, he pointed at her feet and murmured a Healing Charm, the only one he knew. "Episkey."

She sighed in relief and pushed herself forward and upwards, until she had slid into his lap, one arm behind his shoulders, the other on his cheek. "Thank you," she told him as she kissed him, "my brave and handsome sailor. Thank you for saving me."

He hugged her tightly feeling the soft skin of her hip under his palms. "No problem, my pretty Siren," he murmured, as he let her show her gratitude with kisses and caresses.

"Hmm, Lily, Lily, Lily…," he breathed as he nuzzled his face into her hair, "tell me you studied everything you needed to study today, and I can spend the rest of the afternoon kissing you and doing all those things that your mother would kill me if she found out and your father would send me to Azkaban for…"

She giggled and moaned softly as he slid his hand higher on her body, past the ridge of her ribcage and to cup a breast. Then she gasped and almost kneed Hugo in the eye when the door closed with a loud bang.

"Send you to Azkaban?" sneered a voice at Hugo's back. "I think I have an owl to send to the Ministry then."

With a cry, Lily pushed herself off Hugo and into the water, splashing water everywhere in the process, while Hugo turned to meet the amused sneer of Mark Goldstein.

He stood up, jumping from the tub onto the wet floor and sliding on it until he fell back, causing a burst of nasty laughter coming from Goldstein.

"What the hell are you doing?" he barked as he stood up. "You're not allowed in here!"

Goldstein laughed again and shook his head. "Don't try to change the subject, Weasley," he drawled. "You think I don't know what you were about to do with you cousin?"

Hugo gritted his teeth, he could feel his anger being tramped by his fear. He swallowed loudly, trying to look cooler than he felt. "I just healed her feet," he told him curtly. "I don't know what your depraved, little mind was thinking but we weren't—"

"Yes, indeed," he cut him off, waving a hand and walking to the tub, where Lily's wide eyes were staring up at the scene. "You were not touching her tits, she was not snogging you, she was not rubbing herself all over you. Naked."

Hugo pressed his lips together, trying hard, in the recesses of his mind, to find something to reply to him. Something that wouldn't make him sound as guilty as he actually felt. Something that would shut Goldstein up. He couldn't find anything.

"I wonder what the Prophet will say about your incesty tryst," he went on, turning to look at Hugo. "Aren't you two kind of famous for some unfathomable reason?" He snorted and added, "Oh yes, your parents are famous, aren't they? Can you imagine the headlines?" He raised his hands as if framing a giant title. "The Head Auror's freak daughter does the nasty with her cousin in the Prefects' Bathroom." He winked at Hugo. "I think it sounds pretty good, doesn't it?"

Hugo balled his fists near his sides and growled, but he still couldn't find anything to say that wouldn't come out completely and utterly ridiculous at that point. He tried anyway. "We weren't… we weren't doing anything," he muttered, his face turning as red as his hair. "It's the Mating Magic, our parents know it affected us… we weren't…"

"Oh we were, Mark," said Lily, her voice desperate from the tub.

Hugo and Mark both turned to look at her. She had swum to the edge and was now standing on one of the higher rocks, half out of the water and completely naked. Hugo felt the urge to grasp something and cover her up, but he didn't seem able to move to start looking for her dress, frozen there by the curiosity of whatever Lily was about to do.

Mark's eyes shone with an impish light as he stared… definitely not at her face. His tongue darted out to wet his lips. "You were, right?" he told her, his voice a low murmur.

Lily nodded and hanged her head. "We were, but it's all my fault," she went on, her voice broken, "I feel so randy, I'd do anything for a shag. Anything…" She lowered her eyes and rubbed her hands over her arms as if she was cold.

Hugo just stared at her without being able to believe his ears. He thought he actually meant something to her, his mother had said that mermaids only had one mate, he thought he was her mate. Instead… he wasn't. She just wanted a shag. She just wanted someone between her legs.

Mark cocked an eyebrow. "Well, you should've asked me," he told her haughtily, "I wouldn't have minded shagging you." His eyes caressed her body lewdly and Hugo gritted his teeth as he took a step forward.

"Hey!" he barked. "She doesn't want you."

"Yes, I do," said Lily frantically. She stretched an arm towards Mark and smiled. "I would have never agreed to go to Hogsmeade with you if I didn't like you already… and now… Bloody hell, all I want is you, kiss you, feel you, touch you…"

Mark didn't grab her hand, but he smirked at her words. "I knew it," he told her calmly. His eyes descended to her still fishy feet and he cocked an eyebrow. "I don't usually shag freaks," he let her know cruelly, "but since you seem to be in quite the predicament…" He glanced at a fuming Hugo before looking back at her. "He's not good, is he?"

Lily didn't look at Hugo. "I just want you," she said softly.

Mark nodded knowingly. "I understand." He started to work on his clothes unbuttoning his shirt with impatience and almost tearing it in the process.

Hugo just stared at him with his mouth wide, before turning to look at Lily who was keeping her eyes on Mark. "What are you doing?" he asked her frantically. "You hate him."

She ignored him and stared at Mark as he got undressed.

"Lily!" snapped Hugo. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"She's finally understood what's good for her," smirked Mark, kicking away his trousers and his shoes. "She's not as stupid as you are." He hooked his fingers in his underwear and soon he was walking towards the tub, naked and half-hard already. "Get out, Weasley," he told Hugo, as he stepped over the edge, "this is not for children."

"No," said Lily hastily, "let him stay, I like… I like to be watched…" She blushed and Hugo felt as if his eyes would pop out of his skull any minute now.

Mark took the hand she was offering and stepped on the rock next to her. His slid his palms over the small of her back and pulled her to him. "You really are a slut," he grunted, rubbing himself against her. "I like that." He grabbed her chin and kissed her sloppily, until her hands had to press against his chest to make him stop.

Hugo was petrified. He couldn't tear his eyes from the scene, nor he could find anything to say to Lily. He could feel his heart breaking, though, as if she had just pushed a hand in his chest, taken it out, and now she was jumping on it with all her forces. "Lily…" he murmured, feeling utterly lost.

Lily tilted her head back and looked into Mark's eyes. She smiled and wriggled free of his arms before diving gracefully into the water.

Hugo felt his jaw pop as he gritted his teeth with way too much force.

"Don't worry, Weasley," sneered Mark, "I'll fish her out of there for round two, okay? You'll have a nice long look at how it's done…" He jumped into the water and his head bobbed up like a buoy in the sea. He pushed his hair back and smiled as Lily appeared next to him, eyes big and fixed on his face.

She started kissing him, his lips, his jaw, his neck, just as she used to do with Hugo. Then she dove slowly under the water and Hugo could see the cloud of red hair as it floated in front of Mark while she descended slowly on his body.

"Oh shit," growled Mark, moving his hands to try to find something to grab. "Fuck, Potter… you really know how to use those pretty, little lips of yours…"

Hugo felt a headache kicking in as he listened to his words. He lowered his eyes and turned away, considering finding his clothes and leaving. He hated Lily now. How could he hate her that much already? He was head over heels in love with her a few minutes before, and now…

"Shit, right there… right there… God, you're the—"

Hugo darkened, bracing himself for an even more lewd commentary of what Lily was doing to Goldstein.

It never came.

Hugo rolled his eyes, not really wanting to look at Mark's blissful face as Lily gave him head, but somehow unable not to at least glance at them. He would feel somewhat good if Goldstein had already come, after all now Hugo could at least tell everybody how much Goldstein sucked at sex.

He turned slowly, until the calm water was before his eyes, and then jumped up.

Mark and Lily were nowhere to be found.

"Shit," he muttered, as he grasped the edge and looked into the clear water, past the rocks and the long seaweed.

And there they were!

Hugo lent forward so much that he almost fell face first on the rocks, but he didn't quite care. He narrowed his eyes and tried to understand what was happening at the bottom of the tub. It wasn't easy, for Mark's struggling was raising a big cloud of sand all around them.

Lily was tackling Goldstein to the bottom of the tub, she was perched over him, her knees pressing over his ribcage, her feet pushing against his lower abdomen. Hugo couldn't see her face, but she seemed to be able to keep him there without effort.

Mark, on the other hand, was trying with all his strength to push her off him. His eyes were wide and his face slightly red since he probably had already finished most of the air in his lungs.

"Bloody hell," muttered Hugo, he stepped on the rock and prepared to dive into the water after them.

At that moment he saw more movement, and soon Mark's head emerged as he gulped down a big mouthful of air. "She tried to kill me!" he gasped. "She tried to kill me!" He stretched a hand towards Hugo and Hugo stretched his own towards him automatically.

"Yes," hissed Lily as she emerged next to Mark and wrapped an arm around his neck, dragging him back towards the middle of the tub.

Mark let out a very unmanly scream.

"And I can do that again, and again," she growled, tightening her arm around his throat. "Are you going to tell anybody about Hugo and me?" she hissed.

Mark swallowed, he seemed not to know how to use his hands, whether to try to stay on the surface or to try to loosen her grip. "I… I…" he gasped.

"Wrong answer," she hissed, starting to dive.

"No!" he coughed. "Wait! I won't! I won't!"

She emerged again, tightening her arm once more. "Promise!" she snapped.

"I promise! I promise!" he almost sobbed. "Please, let me go! I promise!"

She seemed to consider his words attentively. "You'll stop saying all those lies about me," she added. "Promise! Or I'll drown you!"

Mark was actually crying and gasping now. "I promise," he repeated, sniffling. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Lily snapped her teeth near his ear and he closed his eyes, his bottom lip trembling. "I'm still not convinced," she hissed.

He started to struggle like a fish out of the water, and Hugo felt a wave of pity for him, and indescribable awe for Lily.

"I'll do anything!" he begged. "Please! Please!"

"You'll do an Unbreakable Vow," she hissed in his ear, "with Hugo, now!"

Hugo looked at her, eyes wide, he had no clue how to do an Unbreakable Vow, and he was pretty sure that Lily didn't either. He tried to convey that to her, but Lily was grinning wickedly up at him and she winked when their eyes met.

"No!" cried Mark. "I swear I won't talk! No! Please!"

"Lily, I think… I think that's enough…" murmured Hugo, stretching his hand again towards Mark.

"Please," begged Mark. "I swear. I swear."

Lily tightened her arm one last time and then let him go. Mark threw himself towards Hugo's hand, grabbed it, and jumped up from the water so quickly that Hugo wondered if fear had made him spurt wings.

He flung himself towards his clothes, grasping them in his arms and stepping away from the tub as Lily came to sit on the edge.

"She… she tried to kill me," he babbled at Hugo, eyes wide and red.

"Yes, well… you told the whole school she was a slut," said Hugo calmly, "mermaids are vengeful."

"I'm sorry," he whined, "I'm sorry. I… I…"

"Go! Before I drown you!" snapped Lily, showing him her teeth, growling and stretching her hands as if she was going to claw his eyes out from the tub.

Mark let out a screech and hurried out of the bathroom, banging the door at his back and sobbing.

Lily's laughter suddenly filled the room. She gasped and slapped her hands on her thighs as if the scene had been hilarious.

Hugo turned to look at her. "You almost killed him," he told her severely. Then his lips stretched in a smile. "You were awesome," he added with awe.

She shrugged a shoulder, a grin on her face. "Did you have any doubts?"

He shook his head and went to sit next to her. "Nope," he told her.

She jokingly punched his upper arm. "You really thought I was going to go down on him," she accused him.

He nodded. "I'm an idiot," he admitted.

She rolled her eyes before moving closer to him and placing a hand in his lap. "True," she replied, "but right now you're my idiot."

He smiled and kissed her, wrapping an arm around her to pull her to him. "Now, where were we?" he murmured.

She placed a hand over his chest to push him back, cocking an eyebrow. "I believe you were about to lock the door," she told him, "unless you want me to scare to death all the people that walk in here…"