Max yawned and stretched his arms to shake off the grip of sleep. It had been two weeks since their trip to the muggle village, but as he feared but had expected, everything went back to the way it was. Scorpius and Al stopped showing up for breakfast, Astronomy, and Library sessions, and Rose remembered that she was angry with them, though her sour attitude was less toward Max now.

The weather outside the castle had become cold and bitter. Leaves nearly all lay pressed against the pavement to be stomped on under foot. Students wore hats, and scarfs, and gloves, and nobody enjoyed the freezing Herbology lessons in greenhouse three. At least Professor Neville used to light a fire so that inside was toasty and warm.

Rose talked less and studied more. She was less energetic, less enthusiastic, and she always had her nose in a book. This wasn't a good sign. Though her marks were fantastic and only getting better, Max knew that she hated studying, and she was spending an awful lot of time doing something she hated. It was as though she was trying to avoid doing something she hated more.

Quidditch practice wasn't even there to occupy her thoughts. After the match between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, where Hufflepuff spectacularly won, Quidditch matches were closed until after the Holidays. Everyone, especially the Gryffindor team, became very sick after each bitter cold practice. And though Madam Pomfrey could cure a sniffle in a second, she swore that it wasn't healthy to be constantly switching back and forth; your immune system will forget what it normal for it. This early end of practice meant that picnic in the stands was over until after the Holidays too. That was the only time Scorpius and Al bothered to show up.

"Hey, Rose?" Max said in the common room after dinner and during their now extensive study time. They weren't even studying together anymore; it was just at the same time.

"Hm?" Rose hummed in response without looking up over Magic for the Mundane.

"How about a game of wizard's chess?" he asked, anything to get her away from her mountain of school and remember that she has a life.

"Hm?" she said again, still without looking up.

Max shut his copy of 1000 Magical Herbs and Fungi that was open over his lap, but he was not reading. He reached across the couch and pulled Rose's book down. The fire from around the room dilated her pupils, and she blinked the light from her eyes as she emerged into the real world.

"Wizard's chess?" he repeated. "Exploding snap, poker, go fish, charades I don't care! You need to stop with school!"

"But I have a lot of work to do," she assured him as the last other Gryffindor made their way up to bed.

"No, you don't," Max tried. "You've rewritten that Charms paper four times already! You're just stalling!"

"Every time I finish I find something that I should add," she shrugged.

"Then add a sticky note!" Max smiled, taking the book from her hands. "Come on, play wizard's chess with me."

Rose thought for a moment. Her brown eyes were red with exhaustion, and she had more ink on her hands than visible skin.

"I," she started. "I'm going to go to bed. I'm tired." Rose stood slowly and took her book back from Max's arms. "Sorry," she said. "Maybe another time." And she retreated to the girl's dormitories.

Max considered running after her, but what would that accomplish? He slumped back against the sofa, truly miserable, and rubbed his eyes. He was ready for this year to be over. He crossed his fingers that after the Holidays everything would be okay again. Rose would go home with Al and the rest of her family and have one of her perfect Christmases, make it up with Al, and burn her books. He really missed his friends. Halloween was one day he saw them, and he almost wished he hadn't, he had almost forgotten how much he cared about them; it would have been easier to forget if they never showed back up.

Max stared at the fire blazing behind the grate, but turned away when he remembered what had happened last time. It was times when he was alone and depressed that he thought about how Will must feel, alone with an abusive psycho mother. Will used to be so free, couldn't hold him down. He was wild and fun, adventurous and had a massive imagination. He was sarcastic and funny; he always could cheer Max up, and he sang, always sang. That brother he had seen in Elvinshire last year, that wasn't Will. Max thought about what his life would be like if Belladonna had taken him instead. Well, he would probably be dead. Then he thought about Will and why he hadn't alerted anyone of his being at Hogwarts over his week as a spy. Max now believed it to be true that he had been imperioed. A curse which causes its victim to do just as the caster wants. He hoped that was the case. Max fiddled with his earing as he thought. He hated when his mind wondered and wanted a distraction to take his mind off his brother, and one came, though, this distraction was not what he had been hoping for.

Rose had just run back down the stairs looking angry again; sure it was better than her being silent and emotionless, but still… an angry Rose was never good. She was already dressed in her night clothes but was standing above Max with her arms crossed and frizzy red hair behind her ears.

"Max," she started. "I'm sick of miscommunicating, so I'm going to be very straight with you." Max didn't like where this was going. He sat up straighter and already started trying to think of ways around the truth that wouldn't be lies. "I know Alcor has a secret, and I know it's about a beast of some sort, and I know you're in on it! That's all fine and dandy, what I want to know is why you three have your own special little pact, and I'm left in the dirt? Do you guys not think I can't help? That I'm unneeded? I don't want to be that person, but I feel neglected and unwanted, and it hurts me, Max! It hurts that Al is keeping this secrets from me. It hurts that Scorpius is in on it. It hurts that they tell you behind my back, but it hurts more than anything else that you would not only keep the information from me or pretend that you don't know anything, but that you would go out of your way to lie to me about it! I thought you trusted me. I thought I could trust you." With the words 'trust' escaping her lips and the sincere tone she said it in, Max had to force back a tear as he fully understood. "I have been fighting with myself to not say anything for over a month now," she continued. "I saw you in the library talking, but I wasn't going to say anything. I saw them show you that duck print and when I asked about it you pretended that you had never seen it! I saw them talking to you in the gardens. I see you guys whispering in the stands, I know why you wanted me to look into James and Tyler's secrets, I know you're hiding something from me. What I don't know is why… why Max?" She stopped and waited, trying to hold back tears as she let everything she had been holding in for over a month, out.

Her voice was so sad and so hurt that Max couldn't possibly lie to her anymore, not when remembering how badly lying had hurt either. But he couldn't betray Scorbus either; they had trusted him. Regaining trust with one friend would be breaking it with the other, putting him back on square one. He was in a crossroad between Death Valley and rockslide canyon. He was the middle child between two sibling's fight. He looked into Rose's eyes as they pleaded with him for truth.

He took a deep breath. "Rose, I'm going to be completely honest with you, and you'll know if I'm lying. I can't tell you."

There was a moment that passed where no words were spoken.

Max elaborated. "I promised Al that I wouldn't tell you, and I have to keep that promise, you know that, trust. What they're hiding, it's fascinating and most likely dangerous, and it's a really big deal, they've even cut me from the loop. Rose, they didn't want you to know because of what happened last year with Belladonna, you almost died, and the boys wanted you to relax this year. It was a stupid plan that I knew would fail considering you're observant and…" he decided not to say sensitive. "I had agreed to their terms at the beginning of the year. I hadn't been thinking, it was foolish, but I can't take it back. Rose, I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt you. But I can't tell you."

Rose's eyes were filled with tears, and she stared at Max's sorry expression feeling betrayed and crushed. Without a word, she skirted up the stairs to hide her sobs; she didn't want him seeing.

Max sat in silence as he pondered the conversation. He hadn't meant to hurt her, and yet this moment of truth crushed her far more than keeping a discreet secret had. He was pissed, to say the least. He had been thrown into this. It wasn't his secret, it wasn't his problem, yet he was what this whole situation sat on top of. Max stood to stride the length of the room. This whole thing was stupid! The beast is probably something like a goldfish that Scorbus it tending to. Max's eyes began to water and burn. He was lying to himself. Max leaned against the window. Watching the sky was the only thing that calmed him when he was angry, except maybe Rose but there was little chance of her coming to help. Even the sky was enraged it seemed. Clouds swirled the canvas above. The only light to be seen was two pinpricks of blue light in the distance, moving quickly to the lake. This caught Max's attention at once, and with closer inspection, there was no mistaking Scorpius' tall stride and Al's messy black hair.

Anger filled Max's chest again as he decided something probably stupid. Grabbing his robe from the back of the sofa, he slung it over his shoulders and made for the exit of the common room.

"Where do you think you're going?" barked the fat lady sleepily. He ignored her.

Max strode through dark corridors but not in need of light; he had memorized the way to the first landing long ago. To his mild surprise, Filtch wasn't anywhere about, nor were his grandcats. He turned down a staircase on the first floor and found himself standing before a large bowl of fruit. He was surprised at first to find himself there; he had hardly remembered walking. Reaching out to tickle the painted pair so that it wiggled and giggled and turned into a doorknob, Max pushed it open and started through the kitchens where very few house elves remained cleaning dishes.

"Everard?" squeaked a familiar voice.

Max turned to find Yoman the house elf hurrying forward with soapy hands.

"That is being the fourth time I is calling you sir," said the elf. "Why is you down here so late at night?"

"Have you seen Al and Scorpius?" he asked.

"I is frightened of telling you that," he replied. "You don't seem happy." The elf pointed to the top of Max's head where a mound of curls sat red.

"Have you seen them or not?"

"I is sir; I is seeing them near the lake. Sneaking, they were."

"Yoman," said Max, trying to remain calm. "I need you to talk to Rose."

"About what, sir?"

"I don't know. Just talk to her, she needs that, but just don't mention me, or Al, or Scor. Will you do that for me, Yoman?"

"I is to be doing it sir, but why is Miss. Weasley not with you?"

"It's a long story that you will not bring up to her. I have to go." Max turned away and stomped up a wooden staircase which led to a pumpkin juicery, then out through the enchanted gardens, then through a hidden door and onto the Hogwarts grounds.

Max tried to steady his breathing. He was going to talk to those boys, but he didn't want to yell; he hated his voice when it was raised. But he had had enough of all this crap. If those boys weren't going to tell Rose the truth and were going to ruin her second year at Hogwarts, he was going to make them. It wasn't fair that she had to suffer. It wasn't fair that he had to be in the middle of it all. She was alone in her dormitory crying right now, and it was because of them. Worse still, it was because of them that she was hurt through him, he hurt her, he made her cry, and it made him sick. Someone who you care so much about that, you would put yourself in harm's way for, someone who you want to protect from douchebag boys who will crush her, and he ends up being the douchebag boy…

Max was now walking beside the lake. The balls of light that had been glowing from Al and Scor's wand tip through the window had gone out, and Max couldn't see anything.

"Albus! Scor!" he called. To hell with detention, if detention were the price to set things right, then it would be well worth it. "Albus Potter! You get your butt over here!" Now he sounded like his dad.

Something stirred beside him, and he pulled his wand from his robe pocket to illuminate ripples on the lake's surface. He waited uncomfortably until they subsided.

"Albus!" he called again, becoming more infuriated. "I know you hear me! If you don't show yourself in five seconds, I'm going to…" he tried to quickly think of a threat that was scary but not a lie. "I'm going to tell Rose! Albus?"

Suddenly, a blast of freezing water splashed up over his back from the lake and something cold and almost slimy wrapped its arms around his waist and neck and drug him across the sand with tremendous force. Max yelped in fear as the giant squid drug him into the icy November water and lower until ripples of the water's surface were all he could see above.

But think again if you thought Max to be a quitter. He swung his wand about and yelled a curse he had learned from his mother, but only bubbles escaped his mouth and water entered his throat. So, he did the next best thing. Max jabbed his elbow backward and made contact with something hard causing the grip around him to slacken enough for him to yank it away. Turned in the water, he saw something that made him forget for a moment that he was fifty feet below and drowning. A tail swung around and hit him hard in the stomach, knocking what breath he had left out of him. It was not the squid. The thing had a face that was black due to lack of light. But it had hands, bony, cold hands, but still. The beast grabbed Max around the throat, but because of the lack of oxygen he had left in his lungs, he was too weak to swing at the creature again. He watched the water above and wondered if this was how he was going to die. Well, it wouldn't be all bad. He would go down in Hogwarts history, and maybe he would turn up as a ghost to haunts the lake. Two blurs broke the water surface in the distance and grew slowly larger as they became closer. And Max blacked out.

Something was rising in his throat, and Max sat up abruptly to couch up water from his lungs. He was freezing and rigged, and he wasn't so sure he hadn't just been dead. Looking around quickly to figure out where he was, he found that he was sitting in the sand, he was soaked from head to socks, and Albus was on his hands and knees gagging as Scorpius hurried to Max's aid; both boys were soaking wet also.

"Are you alright?" Scorpius called.

"Wh-" he tried, slowly pushing Scor away as he regained himself. "What just happened?"

"Al just saved your life," said Scor looking pleased, but Albus looked revolted.

Max, who was custom to muggle resuscitation maneuvers, covered his mouth in disgust. "You didn't!" he begged.

Al looked at Max with regret and both twelve-year-old boys wiped their mouth and said "eewwww…"

After the initial shock was over, Max stood up suddenly and pointed to the lake.

"We have to get away!" he called. "There's a monster who tried to kill me!"

"Max," Al said slowly, standing up and pushing Max closer to the lake. "She's not a monster." He pointed to the lake weeds where yellow eyes glowed like that of a cat from the depths of the weeds. "It's okay," Al cooed in a tone so sweet it was almost unnerving. "You can come out."

"Don't," something squeaked from the weeds which rustled as the voice sounded.

"Why not?" Al asked sweetly.

"Not smile," it squeaked again.

"No, he's- he's angry, but we won't let him hurt you."

Max was shouting on the inside of Al's audacity to comfort the monster who had tried to kill him and making it out to sound as though Max was the monster. But he was so enthralled by what was going to happen that he didn't dare interrupt it.

"Come on, trust me."

Slowly, the weeds shook more aggressively as a grinding sound reached Max's pointed ears. A shadow was dragging itself on its belly through the shallow water's edge. Then, like a statue erupting from the ground, the beast lifted itself onto its arms and laid in the sand proudly.

Max fell backward with shock. He was looking at a person through Scorpius' wand light. But, it wasn't completely a person, or better, it wasn't human. It had a tail, a long fishes tail. The thing had pale green skin, shiny and wet, and it had hair that, though out of water, gave the illusion that it was still submerged and hanging in its face. Max grew closer slightly. The beast glared at him with its yellow eyes.

"It's-" Max stuttered. "It's a merperson."

"A mermaid," Scorpius corrected.

Al was on his knees and handing the mermaid a small sack which she opened to reveal sweets and food. The mermaid pushed the food into her mouth with her long fingers as she ate. Max noticed that the mermaid didn't have jagged and broken teeth like the other pictures he had seen in school books and she had to be young. And Max just noticed that she was wearing one of Al's Mimbleton Duke's t-shirts.

Max was at a loss of what to do, to say, how to breathe. "Al?" he decided.

"Hm?" Albus mumbled from the ground. He was watching her with unshakable interest.

"We can't be this close to a mermaid! Remember what Professor Dalbert said? The chief is extremely possessive of his people. If he found out that we were conversing with it-"

"Don't call her an 'it'!" Al turned away from the girl at last and shouted. "Her name's Harenam." Heranam looked at Al offendedly. "But we call her Stella," he corrected. "Stella because she likes the stars, Max."

"When?" Max started, but Scorpius answered his unfinished question.

"We found her watching us through our window early in the semester. Show us your hand, Stella!"

Stella looked up confusedly.

"Your hand," Scorpius clarified, pointing at his own palm. Stella showed him her hand in which her fingers were laced together with webbing. "Like that duck print. Remember? It was her hand."

"She can understand you?" Max asked, not taking his eyes from Stella.

"She already knew a little English before we met her. Apparently, she had been reading from Al's school books that he always keeps open on the window seal since last year."

"And the writing in the sand?"

"Well, she recognized Al's name from his school papers when Al said allowed it on the shore during his detention and she had seen us when we sleep in our dormitory. She had been looking at the stars when Al came out, and the writing was her way of saying hi; she was still scared to show herself. But we finally met her, and we're trying to teach her English. But, like a parrot, her throat isn't equipped to make certain noises, so we've hit a couple of road blocks. But we did teach her the alphabet in sign language to help with the harder words; she's catching on real fast! But she can't sign back real well because of the webbing between her fingers… Anything else?"

"Yeah," Max thought. "Why is she wearing one of Al's t-shirts?"

Scorpius suddenly became awkward. "Oh, well, when we first met, she wasn't wearing a top of any sort, so that was the first thing to change."

"One more thing," said Max, suddenly remembering a very important and recent detail. "Why did she try to kill me?!"

"Because you threatened her!" Al said, standing up and joining the conversation.

"No, I didn't!" Max protested. "I didn't even know she existed!"

"Well you threatened me, so she was just trying to protect me!"

"And what if you guys hadn't been there to pull me back? Huh?" Max asked, becoming angry as the initial shock was wearing off but no doubt still there. "I would have been a limp body floating across the water to be discovered by some first year in the morning as they came out to play. 'Let's go skip stones! Ooh, what's that? Aahhh!'" he acted.

Al looked grim suddenly. "I'm sorry," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "You could have really been hurt; I need to teach her that it's not okay to drown people."

"Al! you need to let her go!"

"No way! You know how much work we've put into this!"

"She's not just some pet that you can train to be your companion! She's a being who doesn't need to change who she is to fit your standards!"

"I know this is a lot to take in and is hard to understand," Al started more calmly. "It took Scorpius a lot of convincing and I don't have the time to convince you right now. But she is my friend, not my pet. Come on, at least meet her. She likes Astronomy, Max. And she likes maple syrup, and music, and keeping her hair messy; she's a lot like you. Just go say hi."

"Al," said Max calmly. "She. Tried. To. Murder. Me. I don't think you understand that."

"Please," Al pleaded with his big green eyes.

Max rolled his before slowly and awkwardly shuffling closer. Al took Max by the arm and forced him into the sand in from of Stella who glared at Max evilly.

"Stella?" said Al. The mermaid's eyes lit up as she stared at him, then darkened when seeing that Al was holding Max's arm.

"Bad," she said in a higher pitch voice, pointing at Max. "Bad man."

"No, no Stella. This is our friend; this is Max. Remember Max I told you about him. I said you two would meet one day."

"Mass?" she asked.

"Yes, Max. She can't say the 'x' sound yet," he added from the corner of his mouth.

Stella unexpectedly grinned with surprisingly straight teeth and lunged at Max who was thrown backward as Stella gripped him around the waist again, but this time in a hug.

"Okay, Stella," said Al, gently ripping her from him. Scorpius had joined them in the sand. "Max isn't really a 'touchy' guy."

"Mass!" she repeated, then frowned, looking horrified. "I drown!" she said, pointing to herself, then to Max, then to the water, then to Al to had to revive him.

"Yes, and you won't do it again," said Al. "To anyone… Except maybe a bulldog girl named Poppy who had black hair and a huge man jaw and…" he stopped at Stella's confused face.

Max was staring that the girl closely now. Her wet green hair was straight and hung in her eyes which were almond shaped and rather large. She had a roundish face and a pointed chin. Her skin across her cheek was scarred with slits, and she had little in the way of a nose. She could only be around twelve herself. But, for a mermaid perhaps, you could consider her beautiful.

"Why isn't her teeth broken?" Max whispered.

"Other merpeople's teeth are only broken because they smash them with rocks, this makes them look more frightening and makes tearing into their prey easier. But she doesn't want to be…" Al froze as though he had said something that he hadn't meant to. "Scary," he finished, though Max didn't think that that was what he was about to say. "She doesn't want to be scary."

"Why haven't you guys been at Astronomy? Or Breakfast?"

"It's the only time we can see her," said Scorpius who was playing with his shoelace. "Nobody is outside during the morning because they're all eating, nobody is outside at night because it's forbidden, so we teach her then, and sometimes we bring her little treats for learning so well."

"And you say she's not your pet?"

"She isn't!" Al snapped.

"How have you guys been getting to and from the castle without getting caught?"

"We found a secret passage way," Scorpius started. "From the mouth of the serpent head above our mantel to the broom shed."

"Guys…" Max said slowly on a more serious note. "We have to tell Rose; you know that."

"No!" said Al quickly and hurrying to his feet. "We can't tell her! She'll freak out! We've been doing so good so far!"

"You've been doing good so far?" said Max, standing slowly to his feet and looking angry again as his hair turned back to red and Al slowly became worried. "You guys have done a truly horrific job at keeping a secret from Rose! You're tearing her apart! She's crushed that you're keeping secrets and you've officially broken her trust, and you better believe that it's going to take a whole lot more than an apology and the truth to regain it." Scorpius was looking extremely sorry, but Al was staring at the ground. "She thought you guys were close, Al. She thought you two were the best of friends. Twelve years you've known each other, and she's replaced the moment you meet something more interesting! She is angry, and hurt, and torn apart but only I would know that because only I am EVER BLOODY THERE! You have no idea what you're doing to her because you've cut yourself from her life completely! You don't show up for Astronomy! You don't show up for studying! You hardly show up for picnic in the stands and guess what? Those were her favorite times of day! You wanna know why? Because she was with you, Al! She was with her friends! What does that mean now? Friends? Rose been replaced!"

"No, she hasn't!" Al said, looking up at last with puffy eyes.

"No?" Max became furious. "Where do you spend most of your time? What do you spend your time thinking about? What is your friend group now, Al? Is she even in it? Am I even in it? Because, not counting Halloween, you two haven't spoken like you even know each other! You don't know her anymore! She got top marks in potions Tuesday, and the first thing she wanted to do was run to you, then she remembered, you weren't there! She's mastered disarming in Defense Against the Dark Arts, did you know that? She has blisters from the beaters bat, she recently cut her hair, she climbed down the throat of a Grumpet stem to retrieve her Herbology book, and she finally spotted her first moon through my telescope, did you know any of that? She freaking got salmonella last week, and I was a one holding her hair back! Me! I'm not even family! I'm just her friend! I bet you didn't even know that either did you! Our pact is broken! Our team is split! All she wants, all I want is to have us all back to the way we were! Avoiding Poppy and the Salazar's, complaining after Professor Binns classes, listening to you both rant about how easy your favorite subject is and sharing rumors about James and Tyler's secret. Oh, I forgot, you wouldn't know. James and Tyler have called a bullcrap talking strike and are communicating by sign language, and they have some mysterious thing under their tongue. With you guy's help, we would have had that mystery solved. But here we are, after hours, in the freezing cold and soaked to the bone as I yell at you about something that should never have been an issue in the first place. I'm asking you where your priorities should lie! Now tell me, Al, where do your priorities lie?"

Rose laid on her bed late at night. She rubbed her eyes clear of tears and continued. "But I shouldn't be angry. He was only holding true to a promise. Am I a terrible friend for being upset that he's not breaking it?"

"I isn't thinking Miss to be a terrible friend," said Yoman, sitting at the bottom of Rose's four poster bed and folding her clothes. "I is thinking that you has been hurt, I is thinking that it isn't your fault. But I also is thinking that it isn't Mr. Everard's fault either. I is thinking that Miss should talk to Everard and not lose another friend. Friends do not have a price worthy of them and Miss had already lost two green boys. I is thinking that Miss isn't to be losing her purple boy too. But I is only thinking," he finished not only his sentence but also finished folding all of her clothes.

Rose hugged the elf who seemed surprised. "Thank you Yoman for coming up here. But, why did you come up here?"

"Your purple boy is sending me," he replied. "He is knowing you is sad and you being sad is making him be sad. He wished me to come make you happy."

Rose's eyes filled with tears once more as she tore from her dormitory and down the girl's staircase. She had to see him. The only friend she had left it seemed.

"Max!" she called before entering the common room. "Max, I'm sorry. I know you can't break a promise and you shouldn't! I don't want to go to bed angry! Can't we just-" but she froze at what met her.

Max was standing in the middle of the common room shivering, soaking wet, covered in sand, and tassel-haired. What surprised Rose most, though, was the two Slytherin boys that stood behind Max in the Gryffindor common room looking the same.

"Rose," said Al. "We have a lot to tell you."