Rose Weasley waltzed down the train corridor arm in arm with her cousin, Albus. She was beyond ecstatic. Rose and Al had gone through some rather challenging measures to achieve a shared goal and were now anticipant to share their success with Scorpius and Max.
Rose smiled and waved at her friends in passing compartments and seats. She clutched her satchel tighter. She and Al knocked on a compartment window to wave at Olivia who was talking rather sternly to her brothers who were covered in some type of slimy ink and looking rather defeated. She smiled and waved back. They continued.
"Olivia?" Rose just realized.
"What about her?" Al asked.
"Are we sharing with her? Is she coming?"
"Obviously," Al shrugged. "She's been loyal to this challenge as much as any of us; she has done most of the dirty work too. She deserves as much as anyone to come."
The two cousins swung into a separate train corridor to spot a mound of indigo curls atop a familiar boy. Max and Scorpius were conversing with James and Tyler whose vow of silence was at last over just before the Holidays.
"Max!" Rose screeched the same time Al shouted Scor's name.
She ran to her friend and threw her arms around his middle. He smelled of pine needles and Christmas and had the freshness of the outdoor snow pungent on the coat she had bought him.
"We have something huge to tell you!" she gasped. "I swear it's-" she stopped with a glance at James and Tyler who were watching them curiously. "We'll tell you later," she whispered.
"Why don't you tell him now, Red?" James asked, propping his hands under his chin. "I'm quite interested."
"I'll tell you if you tell us," she smirked.
James' hand slipped. "Tell you what?" he asked quickly.
"You know," she smiled before turning with a flip of her red curls that she had in a ponytail today and continuing down the hall with her arms linked with Al and Max.
"You don't reckon?" she heard James whisper frantically.
"Oh, calm down mate," Tyler waved airily. "She doesn't know anything. We've been as stelfy as a letherfold."
Rose swung into their compartment at the back of the train. Rose forced Max into the seat opposite though he was already about to sit.
"I know how to take a seat," Max said, half annoyed half amused.
"I know, I'm just so excited!" she said.
The train gave a lurch and started toward the countryside.
"Will you tell us now?" said Scorpius who looked extremely relaxed with his hands behind his head as he slouched in the seat opposite her and Al.
"Not yet," Al spoke as Rose was about to blurt out their findings. "We have to wait for Olivia."
It was the longest twenty-two minutes Rose had ever had to wait. She wanted to tell Max everything to its full extent! She wanted to share her glee with her best friend, and Scorpius, of course, Scorpius too.
The food trolley had come and gone by the time Olivia finally swung into the compartment looking very irritated.
"Sorry guys," she huffed. "I was stuck behind the trolley all the way up here. The thing takes up the whole of the corridor and stops at every compartment. Oh my God, and Poppy, she saw me trying to get past and purposely took six minutes to purchase all the licorice which she knows is my favorite!" Max smiled slightly. "But what is it? Al wrote me."
Rose grinned at Al who she thought should do the honors. She pulled a small tin can from her back and offered it to him. Al flipped off the top and showed the residence of the compartment.
"Do you know what this is?" he asked.
Scorpius turned his nose up, Max tilted his head, and Olivia gasped.
"It's seaweed," Max decided.
"Of course it's not!" Olivia said quickly. "Don't you pay attention in Potions?"
"No."
"This," Rose smiled mysteriously, reaching into the box and taking a handful of the slimy black weed that squelched in her hand. "Is a very rare and very expensive plant called gillyweed."
It took Max a moment before the expression of shock reached his face; Scorpius still didn't understand.
"Scor," Al rolled his eyes. "You eat this, and you can breathe underwater," he elaborated.
"I have to put that in my mouth?" Scorpius replied with the ghost of a gag behind his words.
Albus looked stunned. "Are you not hearing me? We can breathe underwater! And see Stella for real! I thought of all people you would be excited about that, Scor. It wasn't exactly easy to acquire."
"How did you acquire it?" Olivia asked, taking the weeds from Rose's hand to examine them.
"We found it in the Apothecary while we were Christmas shopping in Diagon Alley," Rose whispered. "Well, not in the Apothecary per-say. There was a pamphlet of darker more rare items you could find in Knockturn Alley. We… well, it's actually a very long story. I'll try to sum it up. Al and I had to do a side along apparition with our Uncle George (the only person who would do as we ask without questions and cross his fingers that we were getting into shenanigans and making memories). Al and I went home to collect as much gold as we could. With what's between us, we had enough for the Gillyweed itself, but we were underage and couldn't purchase it. We had George make an excuse for why we were gone as we snuck away. It took a lot of asking and bribes, but we got this toothless old guy with only one strand of hair on his head to make the buy. We paid him, hid the weed, and ran back." Rose took a breath. "That's why you guys got smaller gifts this year; we didn't have much gold left. We had plenty of knuts, though. I actually had to pay the clerk all in knuts for that coat," she pointed at Max jacket with a snigger. "He was pretty pissed off."
"Stella is going to be thrilled when she finds out that we can visit her!" Al said allowed.
"But we can't tell her until at least March," said Scorpius finally.
"What do you mean?"
"He means the lake will be freezing!" Max exclaimed. "We'd be mad to go before then."
"We can't wait until March!" Al exclaimed. "Gillyweed dies out when it's not attached to its root!"
"Al," said Max soothingly as though speaking to a frantic child. "You guys will catch hypothermia and die if we go any sooner. The lake won't thaw until mid-February anyway."
Rose was thinking hard. She was so excited about the Gillyweed and the prospect of finally meeting Stella that she hadn't thought about the weather or the temperature of the water. She could imagine what her friends were probably thinking, that they were mad most likely. Judging by their expressions, that was exactly what they were thinking.
"Guys," Olivia started. "It's too cold. But I suppose if we wait until the lake warms up, we can nick a bit of Gillyweed from Professor Killpii's cupboard."
This option wasn't bad, but still, Al looked horrified at having to wait or that he and Rose's troubles to acquire the ingredient were all for not. Nobody said anything for a moment.
"Oh God!" Rose suddenly exclaimed. "I'm such a jerk! How was your Christmas?" she smiled interestedly to Max and Scor.
"I enjoyed it," Max said after a moment.
"He yelled at my Grandad," Scorpius said casually, opening a book and slipping his reading glasses over his nose.
"You did?" Al was finally brought back. "To Lucius? What happened."
It was a rather colorful story told by Scorpius with no assistance from Max who looked rather ashamed. At the end of the tale in which Rose was scowling all the way through, she said,
"Why do you seem so upset, then?" she asked Max. "You were right. How beastly for Lucius to say such things!"
"You're a Drury?" Olivia spoke, looking fascinated.
"I was completely out of place," said Max. "I need to learn to hold my tongue."
Rose laughed slightly. "But we both know you won't," she said. "You speak your mind and stand up for what you believe in; that's one of the things I like best about you. But because we both know that you can't keep your opinion during the moment, you should stop feeling so bummed about it later. Own it."
She stopped for a moment and thought. That's something she would never have said at the beginning of the year. She would have thought then that remorse or regret for his actions would have been well suited, good even. But she was now advising him not to? Had she changed so much in just four months?
Rose smiled slightly. That's good she supposed. She pulled from her bag a book on signing. She had been studying all throughout the Holidays and now knew basic greeting. Al had been tutoring her in the language as well. Their family had thought it to be odd as deafness was very rare for a wizard and only obtained through dark magic untreatable by healers. They had made an excuse for it being her and Al's secret language and way to communicate during class while lessons were still in progress.
They spoke about their Holiday and what they got silly things that had happened, and unwelcome relatives. They spoke of things that rather mature twelve-year-old would until the screech of wheels on metal announced that they were home. The four tweens were starving, having had only breakfast and sugar to keep them nourished until dusk.
The crowds of students pouring from the train was incredible and smelled rather bad, as though you were cramped shoulder-to-shoulder with hundreds of teenagers…
"I can smell the feast from here!" said Max as they stepped from the train onto the platform at Hogsmeade Station. He held his nose in the air and took a sniff then sneezed because he had just inhaled the snow that wall falling lightly.
Rose watched him wrap his scarf tighter around his neck and shiver. She wondered whether she should have purchased the fur coat she had been debating on rather than that red one.
"Yeh just wait there!" came a booming voice from behind them. A truly gigantic hand reached out and pulled Al back from the carriage he had been about to climb.
They turned to find Hagrid staring down at them, looking just as hairy, just as huge as ever. "I need to talk to yeh lot 'bout somthin' important," he said with a wary glance around with his beetle-black eyes. "Come with me."
Rose, Max, Al, Scor, and Olivia followed Hagrid without asking questions at first. He seemed to be leading them to his hut. Nobody questioned Olivia being there. For all they cared, she was one of them when concerning Sugamina. She was a 'Sugar' as Rose and Al had decided to call themselves. 'Suga' being the first part of Sugamina and 'r' for 'reverse' Sugar…
"Hagrid? What's wrong?" Rose asked curiously, as she could easily tell a serious look behind Hagrid's bearded face.
"I'll tell you in a minute," he said. "Let's just get back to me hut."
Rose looked curiously at Max who shook his head, encouraging her not to ask anything else. Sugar had a feeling that they were in trouble though they couldn't imagine what they could have done that would have been caught. Unless, one of the house elves snitched about them hanging in the gardens and were about to be told off for it, but a matter like that wouldn't require such secrecy.
They were led toward Hagrid's home. A cozy little cabin shaped more like a crooked pot. Made of wood and stone, ivy grew along the walls, and wood posts held up the greater parts of the hut.
"Come on in," grunted Hagrid, holding the oak door open for the children to troop in with wary glances at each other. They took a seat on Hagrid's massive quilted bed, leaving his armchair for the half-giant himself. Hagrid busied himself at the kitchen table and set before them, a plate of stoked sandwiches, treacle fudge, rock cakes, and tea. "I expect you're hungry," he said, sitting heavily in his armchair and staring at them for a moment. Each looked guilty though they weren't of anything, yet, and nobody touched the food. "Who's this?" he asked on Olivia's behalf.
"This is Olivia Merik," said Scorpius. "She's okay."
Hagrid took a breath. "I've received peculiar information recently. Information that I strongly suspect involves the greater part of you four."
The five students listened curiously.
"I try not to meddle in the business of the lake dwellers," Hagrid started. The five of them raised their eyebrows. "The merpeople especially. They can become rather aggressive and usually are reproachful and wary of humans. But I was approached, by the chief of all." He paused to look at them closer. "I was told that one of his people had been in contact with humans, an act forbidden by merlaw. Apparently, a sand scavenger spotted one of them, a girl, communicating to a Hogwarts student near the lake weeds." He paused again. "The scavenger reported the event but didn't recognize the student. I was warned to keep the students of this castle away from his people and to find the human who had been in communion with his mermaid." Hagrid seemed to have finished because he folded his arms and sat back in his chair, looking at them scrutinizing.
"That's an interesting story Hagrid," said Max casually. "But what does that have to do with us?"
"Don't act like you don't know," Hagrid warned. "I know it was you, at least these two." He jabbed a thick finger at Al and Scorpius. "Caught with a student after hours after two Slytherins just so happen to come to me with questions about the lake dwellers just earlier last semester. Come now, this is exactly the thing Harry Potter would have done. I knew your father well, Albus, and you're little different from him."
"Honestly, Hagrid," said Scorpius. "We don't know what you're talking about."
"Look yeh two," he said sternly to Al and Scor. "I know you're involved in some way even if yeh don't want to say anything. Now I ain't saying nothing, but I must impress upon yeh how serious this is. The merpeople were here before Hogwarts was even built. That was the treaty between the merpeople and the four founders, that if they're left in peace, there will be no quarrels. But the chief these days, he's not a friendly bloke and would have any student to came too close to his land shot down is he had his way. Yeh must stay away from the lake weeds, that's where their land starts. Yeh can still swim and study by the rocks, but otherwise, stay away. If yeh don't, you can very well be expelled and I don't want that to happen. Do you understand?"
Everyone except for Al nodded. They understood fine, but that didn't mean they wouldn't do it anyway. Al said nothing and looked at no one; he was thinking.
"What did they do to her?" Albus asked finally.
"What did they do to who?"
"The mermaid who had been caught, did the chief say what they were going to do to her?"
"Yeah," Hagrid thought, scratching his graying beard. "I do recall him saying something. It was last week, mind yeh, and he doesn't speak good English. I had to stick my head underwater to hear 'em; the lake is bloody freezing this time'a year. But yeah, he said that she was punished most severely. They would set an example for the other merpeople. Poor thing."
Al jumped to his feet. "Why didn't you do anything?" he called angrily.
"What could I do? I'm not allowed on their territory. They would have the full right to kill me. I don't want the poor thing in trouble, but I have no say over the merpeople."
"Kemp!" Al shouted, now gripping his hair rather frantically. "Why don't you tell Professor Kemp?"
"Professor Kemp can do no more than I can," said Hagrid helplessly.
Al ran to the door and swung it open, allowing in flurries of snow to blow in and make the others shutter.
"Where yeh goin'?" Hagrid called.
"Sleep!" Albus called angrily. "I'm tired!"
The others ran after him, Rose in the lead until Olivia sped past.
Albus was marching away looking as dangerous as Max when he was angry. You could almost see red in his eyes.
"Where are you going?" Rose called breathlessly, shivering as the snow engulfed up to her ankles as they trudged on.
Al yanked Rose's bag of her shoulder and ripped the small tin can containing Gillyweed, out. "Where do you think?" he grunted, seemingly unbothered by the freezing snow.
"To the afterlife, if you try'n dive now!" called Max.
"The water's in the negatives!" called Olivia.
"If you jump," Rose started through chattering teeth. "You'll first go into involuntary inhalation which if done underwater will fill your lungs with water, and you'll drown! You can have a heart attack because your heart will have to work twice as hard to pump blood! You'll start hyperventilating, and even if you do have enough sense to come back, you'll fall victim of hypothermia before we reach the castle! You'll have to-"
"I know!" he called, turning at last toward them. "I've read all of those anatomy and first response book with you last year, Rose! I know the dangers! But who is to say they haven't already hurt Stella? Think about her. It is because of me that she's being punished. That was a week ago!" Al started off again. "She's told me about the chief. Terrible, he is. I'm not letting her be trapped any longer!" Al stopped again, and Rose noticed that they were beside the lake weeds.
"The lake is frozen solid," Scorpius tried.
"Bombarda!" Al called, blasting the ice with his wand. The top of the lake cracked, and a hole appeared through the ice allowing a small person to fit.
The four sane students leaned forward to stare into the hole helplessly. Al took a shuttering breath and ripped his winter layer off to be thrown onto the ground. He gave his glasses to Scorpius and sighed.
"Albus," Rose pleaded in hardly more than a whisper.
Al turned to her. "Stella is my friend," he said. "I'm not going to bed knowing that she is being hurt. I will help her; I won't let her be alone. Surely you know the feeling."
He took a rather small portion of the slimy Gillyweed and quickly placed the plant in his mouth. He began inhaling rapidly and with one last look back, he dove into the hole.
Everyone stared after him. The atmosphere thick with shock.
"Bloody hell," they turned to see Scorpius stripping his winter layer off as well. He was muttering things like, ("I mean really" "Obviously, you expect me to come" "You had to be heroic, didn't you?"). He pinched his nose, ate the Gillyweed and rubbing his hands said, "Here I come, you self-centered bastard." And he dove after Al.
Rose huffed, faced with an option between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. "Screw it," she mumbled. Ripping off her clothing until she was in only her wool tights and white button up.
"Rose, don't," Max pleaded.
"Why not?" she asked, not caring and silently cursing how cold her feet were as she stripped off her socks to stand in the snow.
"Well, besides death, if you go, then I have to go," he replied, stripping off his coat regrettably.
"No, you don't," she said quickly.
"You jump, I jump, Rose," he said, untying his shoes and removing his shirt. "Olivia, you stay behind in case we need to get up and can't find the hole."
"Like hell, I'm staying," she scowled, already with the Gillyweed in her mouth.
She took a running start before jumping in, followed my Rose and Max who was sure that he was mad.
Rose immediately felt ice wash over and in her. She swallowed the revolting slimy, rubbery plant and waited, her body reacting just as she had told Al it would. She began shivering and hyperventilating frantically. Water filled her lungs, and she was horrified that the Gillyweed wouldn't work, or perhaps she and Al had bought a dud; they knew it was possible. She began to sink as she drowned. Unfortunately, it seemed for the first time, she no longer had a soft layer of flesh around her body allowing her to float, but fifteen extra pounds of Quidditch muscle that she had gained over nearly two years were causing her to sink further into the icy depths. She gagged and choked as something firm gripped her by the arms. Who she could only assume through the darkness was Max, began kicking upward with her. He had always been a stronger swimmer, often cliff jumping into the Atlantic from Dingle's cliffs back home.
Suddenly something that felt like a knife seemed to gash as her throat. Different from the stabbing pain of the water. She gripped at either side of her neck. She did have gashes. She suddenly stopped hyperventilating and took a gulp of oxygen without breathing through her nose or mouth. She had gills. The water was no longer cold either. She felt cool and comfortable and suddenly full of energy. Because Max had stopped kicking upward, Rose assumed that he was experiencing the same feats. They turned to the only speck of light around which was the moonlight from the whole in the ice. A silhouette that was Olivia glided gracefully through the water. Swimming as though she had been able to breathe underwater with webbed hands and flippers all her life. For that is what had also grown, webs between their fingers and flippers from their feet. One kick sent them zipping five feet through the water, but still, they had no light.
Rose pulled her wand from her ponytail where she normally kept it.
"Lumos!" she tried, but only bubbles escaped her mouth. She tried again. Nothing. Hit with an idea, she kicked back up to the opening in the ice and emerged. Startled at first that she was unable to breathe above water, she muttered "Lumos!" again and her wand tip illuminated. She dove back under and took a gulp of oxygen.
The light spread through the water. They saw the drop off that they had jumped into, the slimy stones and silt of the lake ground, and Olivia, swimming toward them with hair that flowed black behind her. She took them by the hands and opened her mouth to say something where only bubbles escaped. She watched the bubbles as they floated up and shrugged. Olivia pointed further into the lake, and Rose and Max both thought it best to follow. It was a peculiar feeling that Rose couldn't get used to. She had gills. She was breathing without taking a breath. She couldn't wiggle her fingers freely and yawned while under water. Max looked incredibly focused. He didn't gawk around at the under lake, or the giant mass that swam past and which the others thought likely to be the giant squid, or the hibernating grindylows all curled up together in a heap, floating around like a beach ball. Rose was half tempted to kick the pile and see if they go swarming like baby spiders. She decided otherwise. They were on a mission. The fact was, nobody had any idea where they were going. Were they looking for the merpeople village or Alcor?
Olivia tugged on Rose's shirt and pointed at a small mass gliding up ahead. It was too small to be the squid and too large to be any fish that wouldn't be about in this water anyway. The three kicked harder. As they drew closer; Rose could clearly see Al's black hair billowing behind him. The two lost boys spun around, probably due to the light.
Al looked confused at them. Rose had been trying to convince him that he would die if he jumped in yet she and the other jumped in anyway? Scorpius grinned and did a fancy spin for them in which Rose, Max, and Olivia clapped.
Al put his finger to his mouth to silence them though they were making no noise. He pointed toward an orange light pinpricked ahead. He gestured to Rose to shut her wand off. She had forgotten that you had to utter the counter-spell 'Nox' to turn off the light. Because she didn't have pockets and Max's wasn't thick enough to snuff out the light, she did the next logical thing; she closed the tip of her wand in her mouth. Sure, this caused her cheeks to turn the blue of the light and Max to laugh, but it was no longer bright.
Al led them through a thicket of weeds that were difficult to maneuver through without getting tangled, a few of them did. A sandhill stood where the weeds cleared. The two Gryffindors and three Slytherins stopped behind it and glanced over. A most spectacular sight awaited them.
Stone dwelling hacked from stone what seemed like years ago stood randomly before them. Algae covered the roofs, and black windows were silhouetted round. Stones had been pressed into the sand to make the clearing seen as a town square. Flames glowed in bubbles floating head height before each dwelling. The town seemed uninhabited. They supposed that the others were asleep thankfully. Al played captain without any objections and beckoned them onward. They passed many crude statues of merpeople fighting or winning or slaying. The ceased before the first stone dwelling, and with a look at each other, they knew that they were all thinking the same thing. Where is Stella?
Was she perhaps in a dungeon? Had she been locked up in her room or tied somewhere? Rose had a second thought rising to the surface. How long does Gillyweed last? Sooner or later she knew that hers and the rest of the Sugar's gills would close around their necks. Their fingers will become unwebbed, and the water will become freezing. Her Uncle Harry was the only other person she knew to have ever taken gillyweed which had lasted a little over an hour, but she didn't know how much he had taken; that mattered too.
Al's eyes were of little use without his glasses now. Since he started wearing them, his sight with glasses had improved but his sight without was greatly deteriorating.
They swam as quiet and inconspicuous as they could, sneaking from dwellings to behind statues and under bushels of kelp. They came to the foot of the largest statue in the middle of the square. Well, the tail of the statue more like. A vast merperson towered over them and seemed to be staring straight at the five as though he knew they weren't supposed to be there.
Scorpius tapped each person on the shoulder and pointed up solemnly. Above them, was the underbelly of a cage which dangled from the spear that the statue was holding. Quickly, Sugar swam upward toward the slowly swaying cage. Inside was a body. The body of a girl. She was laying curled into a ball. Her silver fish tail curled under her and her greenish hair which was swaying in the water covered her face.
Al reached a hand into the trap and moved the hair from the girl's face, then took her by the arm. The girl seemed startled and spun around so fast that the cage swayed quite roughly now.
"Stella!" Al called though only a bubble escaped his mouth.
"Albus Potter!" she whispered excitedly. Her voice didn't sound cracked and scratchy as Rose had expected, nor did a bubble escape. It was soft and light. Her voice was rather ethereal and angelic. Rose suddenly remembered a rhyme that Harry had told them once regarding merpeople.
"Come seek us where our voices sound. We cannot sing above the ground."
Merpeople couldn't speak English above ground, but they could speak and sing below.
"Your voice is beautiful," Al signed.
Stella beamed but then frowned as she tucked at the bars.
"I am stuck, Albus Potter. I cannot open the lock," she said softly.
Rose was mesmerized. Stella looked, a lot more human than she had imagined her to be. Her teeth weren't cracked, her eyes were hardly yellow, and her voice was kind.
Stella did not have a top on. Al quickly ripped his white button up from his shoulders and handed it through the bars to Stella. She fitted it over her shoulders and made her look rather smaller. Albus busied himself with the lock. He was shaking his head as Scorpius kept swimming to the ground to find small items such as rocks or sticks and giving them to Al to pick the lock.
"You must be quieter," said Stella, looking around worriedly. "If they find you, they'll lock you in cages too, and I know you can't hold your breath for that long."
Max swam forward and moved Al away. He pulled his earing from his cartilage and began fitting the needle into the lock that was crusted and bent.
"What have they done to you?" Al signed. Olivia handed Max her barrette.
"They have locked me up," said Stella mournfully. "They have laughed at me, and they have poked me with sticks."
Maybe it was Rose's imagination, but the water around Albus seemed hotter than the rest. He looked furious as he reached into the cage to graze a thick scar across Stella's cheek.
"That one's new," he said.
There was a 'click, ' and Stella's cage door swung open. The others had to dive aside so not to be hit by Al who had jumped to the opening and yanked Stella out and into an earnest hug.
Rose could hardly tell due to the fact that they're underwater, but Stella looked as though she were crying.
"Thank you, Albus Potter," she sniffed in an angle-like voice.
Al pulled away and brushed her hair from her face and smiled.
"We need to get you out of here," he signed.
Something unwelcoming met their ears. They all stopped to listen.
"I hear something," came a raspy voice from below. A merman with a strong silver tail swam from a dwelling and into the square.
Stella took Al by the arm and pulled him to duck into the crown that the giant merperson statue had chiseled upon its head; the others followed.
"The cage!" called the same merman.
"What in the name of-!" a second merperson called. Neither sounded angelic or pleasant to the ear. "Heranam, it's gone!" he called, shaking the cage as though she were invisible and expected to rattle. "Who locked the cage!"
"I did, sir! Most securely!"
Nearly every merperson in the town was pouring from their dwellings to marvel at the empty cage.
"You're going to have the chief to answer to!"
Stella took both Albus and Scorpius by the arms and backed them from the statue as there were no merpeople on that side yet. Rose blinked as Stella sped away with Albus and Scorpius. The other three took off after them.
"I see something!" came a shriek from behind them.
"Get her! Get her!"
Heart pounding, Rose zipped through the weeds, pulling her wand from her mouth and using the light again to navigate around rocks. Ahead was pitch black. Rose assumed that Stella had some sort of night vision as she didn't need a light at all, or perhaps she was merely familiar with the root.
Voices continued as they swam for their lives. The task of untangling themselves from the kelp, dodging rocks, and the exhausting task of kicking was only made more difficult when Olivia had accidentally barreled through a mound of grindylow. As Rose had expected, they swarmed and seemed to become angry. Perhaps this mistake of waking beasts that could very well kill you was a good thing because after they had disappeared into the weeds to hide, the voices in pursuit began cursing.
"Get 'em off!" they would cry. "Filthy pests!"
They followed Stella for what had to be another twenty minutes. The gillyweed had to be wearing off any minute now. She led them down a sand bank, under a rather huge stone, and into a tunnel in the stone. It was very dark within. Rose was wondering how they would reach the surface of the water and break the ice in time if their gills began to disappear. The slimy, algae covered walls beside them began to close in until the wall was softly grazing both Rose's shoulders. She suddenly hit something firm and pointed her wand to Max who was hyperventilating through his gills rather than his mouth. He was turned sideways along the wall because his shoulders were broader than the other. Rose tapped him to move on quickly; the fear that their time was running out was becoming great.
He looked at her with yellow eyes. This startled Rose. Was he claustrophobic? She hit him on the back encouragingly and placed a hand on his shoulder to keep him moving forward. The walls closed in further until Rose had to turn as well. It became harder to keep Max going. He was continuously making gestured as to go back. Her arms were being sliced by the sharp lips of clams that clung to the stone wall. Finally, the walls began to open and quite suddenly, they almost fell into a cave. Stella swam upward; the others followed her. They emerged from the water to find that a full eight feet of open air was before them. Rose sighed deeply, this way, if their time was up, they could simply emerge from where they were.
Unfortunately, they found that they were now unable to breathe above water. They ducked back under as Stella remained above, fiddling with something perched on the ledge. Light struck into life above them, and Stella returned, now with a faint yellow flickering to illuminate a small portion around them.
"I have lit-" she stopped to look at Al. "Candles I think they're called."
Al nodded proudly. "Thank you all for coming for me," she smiled. "I fear that I would have been in that cage until July."
"Have they ever done something like this before?" Scorpius signed.
Stella nodded. "They catch me, and they punish me," she said sadly. "I am a shame to them."
"They're just a bunch of-" the last word Al signed, Rose didn't recognize.
Stella laughed, then turned to Rose. "You must be Rose Weasley," she said and gave Rose a peculiar feeling hug. "Of course, I know Olivia, and again, I'm sorry for trying to kill you, Max."
"What?" said Rose, but the thought left her mind with the stabbing pain against her throat and a chill that wrapped around her. She knew their time was really up now. Albus was already kicking toward the surface while the other continued after. Their heads broke the water, and a tickling feeling between their finger and toes told them that the webbing was disappearing too. Rose pushed herself onto the stone ledge which was wet and cold. She sat there after almost forgetting how to inhaul through her mouth, and pulled her knees to her chest.
The others clambered on as well, all shivering and gasping. Stella emerged from the water as well and pointed to the three candle stubs that were flickering. Rose tried to warm her hands by them.
"I found, and left to dry," said Stella. Her voice was no longer soft and sweet, but forced and sounded as though she were speaking from her throat or as though she were a parrot.
"How," Rose chattered. "Are we going to get out? The tunnels too long to hold our breath through."
Albus and Scor looked at each other worriedly.
"No need to panic," said Olivia as the other were beginning to do just that. She pulled from the pocket of her black Hogwarts skirt, the small tin that Rose had used to contain the gillyweed. Rose silently prayed as Olivia popped off the lid. Inside contained a tiny pinch of the black, rubbery, worm-like weed.
"You're brilliant," said Scorpius in amazement.
"Will you tell my brothers that?"
Rose conjured a large flame before them which warmed them right up. The fire also illuminated hundreds of cave drawings along the walls. For hours, they listened to Stella tell the stories behind them. Rose, Max, Scor, Al, and Olivia laid on their stomachs, listening to the extraordinary history of the merpeople's past and their coming to live in the Black Lake. Rose reckoned that Dumbledore likely didn't even know so much about the sea creatures. Stella was sometimes difficult to understand because she had trouble pronouncing certain letter, 'X,' 'Z,' 'R,' and she spoke in a way that sounded as though she had water in her throat. But every word they could understand, they held tight.
"There was once a time where big squids lived in the lake, many. They were our friends, and we were theirs. That was until a war began between our species concerning the accidental murder of the chief's heir by the tentacle of the squid. From that day forward, my people chased the squids from our land and split the lake in two. There began a great war." She looked at them, sadly. "We won. So great was the slaughter that only one remains now." She ran her webbed hand across drawings of mounds of tentacles and other squid parts. "I feel sorry for the giant squid. It had lost everything, its whole family, and it wasn't even responsible for the death. Just that one squid, and that one accident."
There was a heavy silence that followed her tale.
"But Stella," Al started. "What's going to happen to you now? Where are you going to go? You can't get back."
"I will stay here," she replied. "I spend most time here anyway. I'll eat the clams on the walls, and I will sleep on the rock."
Al shook his head sadly. "That's no life to have."
"Won't they find you here? The drawings, surely this is a place your people visit," said Max.
"They won't come here," she said with a slight laugh. "They are terrified of this place."
"Why?" Rose asked.
"Because it's a mausoleum."
The others perched on the rock paused, then looked down into the depths of the water.
"Lucanos," said Rose as she sent a ball of light into the lake. It traveled deeper and deeper until, near fifty meters, it passed a skeleton of a giant squid perched on a stone ledge. The ball of light finally stopped as it hit the ground to reveal hundreds of bones twisted in a crude mass.
Scorpius gagged.
"I swear, Stella," said Al, gripping her cold, wet hand. "I'll work harder than I have ever before. You're going to be human, and you're going to live with us, up in the castle."
Rose glanced at him worriedly. Even if Stella was successfully Sugamneed, that wouldn't mean that she would have magical abilities. She looked sadly at Stella who was beaming. What this young mermaid has gone, and will go through, is going to be traumatic.
Rose jumped to her feet suddenly. She was looking at her watch that only still ticked because Professor Kemp had made it water resistant in her previous year. "We've been here all night!" she called. "Classes start in an hour!"
An hour should be enough to get to the surface, find their clothes, and get to the castle… maybe.
Olivia ripped open the tin can and began unraveling the knot of weed. There was only enough for each to have one rope-like rat tail. Everyone pushed it into their mouths. Scorpius held his nose again. They each said goodbye to Stella.
"I promise," Albus said again. Before diving back into the water.
They pushed back through the cramped tunnel to emerge where light shown weakly through the ice. Stella followed them.
"We must go this way," she said, once again softly. "The ice is thinner over here. You'll never be able to break it otherwise."
Rose hadn't realized how sore she was. Her upper body was truly rather strong, but Quidditch did very litter for her legs. Olivia, who ran more than she sat, was far ahead. The water was becoming brighter which was fortunate because Rose had forgotten to light her wand. At nearly fifty more meters from the surface of the water, Rose hit something and turned to see that Albus had stopped swimming and was now grasping at his gills which were closing.
"Stella!" Rose screeched, but only a large silver bubble escaped her. Rose grabbed at Al and started trying to pull him up, all the while still calling. "Stella! Stella!"
Max turned and grabbed Scorpius who both swam back. Olivia and Stella turned too. All of Al's friends took him and tried to pull him up, but it should take at least another minute and a half that Al didn't have. His gillyweed had completely gone from him as his flippers became only feet and his fingers separated. Bubbles issued from everyone's mouth. Bubbles that probably were meant to be words of encouragement and reassurance.
Albus began to fade. His eyes began to roll back in his head, and he became heavier.
"Stella!" everyone screeched.
Stella, who had been trying to heave Al, thought for a moment then, making up her mind, did something that made the issuing bubbles from the other's mouth cease in shock. She pushed the others away and pressed her lips to his mouth as if in a kiss. Everyone stared.
Was this perhaps a goodbye kiss? Rose thought.
But it wasn't. Albus came too. He blinked and seemed to have a bubble in his mouth. Stella took him by the hand and pulled him to the surface where the ice was easily cracked, and Al was pushed onto snowy ground. Scorpius immediately climbed out after him, but the other stayed to gawk at the mermaid.
"You kissed him," said Olivia in shock.
"A kiss?" she repeated quizzically. "Oh! You mean what humans do to show affection to one another? No, no, I breathed him life."
"I don't understand," said Rose.
"Merpeople have a bubble of oxygen in our throats that we use to breathe if our gills become clogged or covered," she replied. "That's one of the reasons it's difficult to speak above land. I simply gave mine to him."
"But won't you need it?" Rose asked.
"Another will form within two days," she said. "Now, if you want to see me, I will be here every night at eleven o'clock and every morning at four. If you want to see me, come then. But you must hurry. Classes will be starting soon, and I don't want my friends in trouble."
Max, Rose, and Olivia hurried to the surface. The gillyweed was finished, and Rose gasped in shock as the freezing snow engulfed her knees and an unforgiving wind froze her wet clothes.
It took ten minutes to find their clothes and dress.
"What happened down there?" Al asked, as he chattered his teeth and tried to warm his hands by the fire Rose had made to followed them.
"You tell us," said Olivia. "Why did your gillyweed not last and ours did?"
Al didn't say anything for a moment. Each word and intake of breath was painful. "I don't know," he said finally.
"You're a horrible liar, Al," said Max.
Albus glanced at them who were all glaring. He sighed and pulled from his pocket, half a strand of gillyweed.
"You didn't take it all?" Rose asked.
"I wanted to save it," Al confessed. "so that I could speak to Stella."
Rose felt sorry for him. Not only because he had almost died being a hopeless romantic, but because he will never remember his first kiss.
They had no time to change into something that wasn't wet or freezing before class. Max and Rose skidded into Defense Against the Dark Arts and sat stiff and freezing in their second-row seats. The entire class turned to look at them, and Professor Dalbert seemed to forget about the Knarl chewing on his sleeve aggressively. True, both Gryffindors were soaked to the bone, hyperventilating, and their hair was iced over in peculiar styles but other than that, Rose didn't know why they were staring.