Cleo POV
"I know you're in there." He taunted. Another set of hooves sunk into the sand and I heard a newer voice, one that sounded a lot kinder.
"Come now Magorian, they're never going to listen to you like that. Here's how it works." The new voice cleared his throat and said, "We do not appreciate people trespassing on our territory. Please show yourselves." Seriously? Rikki seemed to agree with me.
"Like hell!" She hissed. "All that hard work." She muttered. I hushed her and it was silent, before Emma whispered as softly as she could, pointing at the water.
"Air bubble. Now." I caught on to her and we sank below the surface. I created a large pocket of air around our heads with one hand, tensing my other to hold onto the ripples. The bubble was big enough to fit all four of us as if we were lying down, so we wouldn't run out of air or need a tube connecting to the surface, which would allow the creatures on the other side to hear us.
"What are we going to do?" Asked Bella.
"I think I have an idea, but I'm not sure..." Began Emma.
"What is it?" Asked Rikki eagerly. "I say we go out there and scare them off with-"
"No." Emma cut her off. Rikki pouted and stuck her nose in the air childishly. "We don't know how many are out there and these weird people, we don't know if they own those...light-throwing things. We need something that we know will incapacitate at least half of them." I didn't like where this was going.
"You don't mean-" I began.
"Sorry Cleo, it's the only thing I can think of."
"You mean, get Cleo to sing?" Asked Bella.
"Are you crazy?" Rikki almost shouted and I clamped my hand over her mouth. We may be underwater, but it wasn't sound proof. Despite my actions, I had to agree with Rikki. Emma was out of her mind. "We'll either have a drunk Cleo on our hands and oh, what was the other option? Oh yeah! She goes psycho and wants to eat any human she can get her hands on! Don't forget the fangs! She grows fricking fangs."Rikki growled the last part out.
It was true. It seemed when I got moonstruck for the first time in my life, I had been singing and had been acting half drunk. (AN: Season 1) That seemed like the better option now that we looked back on it. The other thing I could have turned into for a full night, was a blood thirsty maniac. When I went into 'siren mode', as Rikki had dubbed it with her ever famous naming abilities, I grew fangs and sung to literally lure men and sometimes women, towards me. Then came the part where I tried to eat them. One time, I had apparently grown claws too. It was like I had 'turned into a full on siren', courtesy of Rikki.
Luckily, I didn't seem to have any interest in eating my mermaid friends. Just my boyfriend. And their boyfriends. And their boyfriends friends. You get the point. But hey, there was only a fifty percent chance I would turn into a bloodthirsty freak. Joy.
"I think it's a good idea." Bella piped up. I opened my mouth to talk some sense into the two temporarily crazy blondes before I was interrupted. "Think about it. If you do turn into a psycho killing machine, they're gone right. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe not." Bella looked slightly queasy, obviously not having thought it through. I nodded. I didn't want to be digesting human flesh. No siree.
"How about this, we go out there and talk to them." Three pairs of eyes stared at me. "What?"
"You know, Emma, I think you're loosing your touch." Rikki smirked. Then an arrow flew through the water, missing Bella's head by inches. I shrieked. Bella shrieked. Rikki gasped and inhaled a mouth of water that came from Emma's startled jerk.
"Loosing my touch eh?" Asked Emma shakily.
"Come on, let's hear what they have to say." Bella said wearily. Rikki began swimming out of the bubble and I grabbed her.
"What are you doing?" I asked. She raised an eyebrow at me and I formed a tube, the width of my shoulders, and extended it out and on to the other side of the curtain of make-shift vines we had worked so hard on. I looked at Emma, motioning for her to speak. She was the best at this kind of diplomacy any way.
She cleared her throat nervously before declaring in a clear voice, "Who are you? What do you want?" I could hear some murmurs, probably curious about the huge, gaping hole that had opened up in the middle of the pool.
The same voice that we had heard calm the voice identified as Magorian earlier answered. "My name is Firenze. We simply want to know what you are doing in our territory."
I looked at Emma who looked back at me. I made a wait sign and swam out of the pocket of air. I peeked through the leafy curtain and stifled a gasp. The man wasn't a man. Well he was, but only the top half. He had white hair and a normal human body, but his bottom half was a horse. Literally. He looked like a centaur from one of the picture books that kids liked. His horse half was the color of a palomino horse and he had a bow and quiver slung across his back. I ducked down under water and reported my findings, blocking the tunnel of water temporarily.
"What?" Asked Emma, "Open that tunnel back up." She demanded. Once it was unblocked, she called out more confidently. "We would first like to know what you are, sir."
"You do not know what I am?" He sounded slightly offended. "The planets did not warn us of any such thing happening." He muttered. "We are centaurs. We have shown ourselves to you, so please show yourselves to us. It is more polite to speak face to face, even in our race."
I closed up the tunnel. Emma hesitated. "I supposed we have to."
"What, why?" Asked Rikki.
"That's how these things work." She grumbled. "We're never going to get anywhere if we stay stubborn." She glared at her pointedly.
"Fine, but I say that only two of us go up. They don't know how many of us there are, anyway." Rikki argued.
I nodded. "I'll go. There's a chance he's seen me already, and Emma, so he recognizes her voice. You two go as far back as you can and just listen. If they attack, just defend from there."
"We sound like we're going to war or something." Mumbled Bella amusedly. I grinned, it was quite true.
"Ok, I'm dropping this bubble now. Ready?" I nodded before letting the water enclose our heads. I nodded my head at Emma and we swam out towards the surface. Our heads broke the water and I heard Emma and Firenze gasp.
"I have never seen a mermaid as a creature of the light. You look nothing short of a foal becoming of age." He said breathlessly.
"You're a horse." Emma blurted. This seemed to snap Firenze out of his daze.
"A horse!" He spluttered angrily, his horse half pawing at the ground and his tail flicking angrily. "I am nothing of the sort." He snarled. These creatures seemed to have a lot of pride.
I decided it would be best if we stayed on their good side. "Centaur." I said. He appraised me in a slightly approving manner. "I didn't know they existed." I looked at Emma.
"I guess if we exist, they can too."
"You speak as if you are surprised that another magical being such as myself exists." He remarked.
"Well, where we come from, there's no such thing as-did you just say magical?" Asked Emma.
"Enough chit chat." Growled Magorian. He was the face I had seen through the vines earlier. His skin was a lot darker than Firenze's and his horse half was chestnut. He looked a lot more hostile than Firenze. Emma and I glanced at each other, a look of understanding passed her face and I imagined mine. We had to tread carefully from now on. "Show the rest of you. There are more of you. Why do you hide them." He growled.
"Why do you hide yours?" Emma asked boldly. "You're armed, we're not." Magorian grunted in response.
"We have no obligation to show ourselves to you."
"Neither do we." I chipped in. He glared at me and I stared back, allowing the water to tumble restlessly behind me. His eyes widened and he backed off slightly.
Firenze was obviously the more diplomatic one and decided to speak up. "We shall strike a deal. We shall reveal ourselves on the condition that you do as soon as we do. Settled?" I glanced at Emma out of the corner of my eye and she nodded.
"Ok." I said. They turned their back and let out a sort of neigh, but it was mixed with a human shout, making it sound a lot coarser.
As soon as they turned their back, Emma whispered to me. "You should've said 'very well'."
"Well sorry. I'm not one for fancy talk." I whined back.
As soon as the two cried out in that shout of theirs, hundreds and hundreds of centaurs appeared from the tree line. Emma and I gaped in awe, I swear my jaw was open. "Pinch me." Whispered Emma. "Ow!" She grumbled. I snickered.
It was honestly quite majestic and I looked back at the vines separating us and...well, two other mermaids. It seemed a bit anti climatic to me. Magorian turned back to us and seemed extremely pleased at our reaction. At least we were getting on their good sides better. Maybe, if we left on civil terms, we could ask for some food. My stomach growled painfully in agreement. Emma cleared her throat.
"Uhhh, well, wow. Um you guys look really tough." I didn't think that Magorian was capable of a smile, but he was smiling now. He seemed pleased that we were rendered speechless at his race. By now they were quite close and I could hear gasps of astonishment from some as they stared at us and our tails. I heard even more gasps as my tail flushed red in embarrassment.
Part of me was basking in the attention. It was nice to know that people, even if they were half horse, thought that having a tail wasn't monstrous.
"We have kept our end of the deal." Reminded Firenze. I picked my jaw off the ground and nodded nervously.
"Er, guys?" I called out. I heard exclamations as Rikki and Bella glided forward. Rikki whistled.
"I see we're not the only half animals out there." Magorian looked quite offended at first at being referred to as a 'half animal', but he settled as he realized that she had named herself one and assumed that it was a 'good thing'. I sighed. She was lucky.
Bella was silent with shock and had stopped swimming, coming to drift on her stomach as Rikki left her behind. I sighed and wrapped and arm of water around her out stretched arms, pulling her beside Emma. Shouts of surprise were heard and I snapped my head up in alarm when I saw bows pointed at me. Magorian held up a hand and said, "It is not harmful." Once the murmuring had quieted down, Firenze began speaking.
"As for our previous question, would you please answer?"
"We honestly have no idea where we are." Emma told him. He raised a white eyebrow. "The moon..." she hesitated. Rikki nodded at her to continue. "Well, you see, when there's a full moon, one glance at it and we loose our minds and are driven purely by instinct. We...loose control of ourselves." She said hesitantly.
"Basically, it's like we're werewolves, only, mermaid form." Rikki clarified.
"How do you know of werewolves? You said that there was no magic where you are from." Growled a new voice. I looked towards the sound and saw a dark chest. The new speaker had a black horses body as well as black hair and a beard. He looked as fierce as Magorian.
"Seriously? Werewolves exist? That's just a saying!" Cried Rikki.
"Calm yourself Bane." Commanded Firenze before turning back to us. "Continue."
"Well, we call it getting moonstruck, and Cleo," She pointed at me, "Bella and I got moonstruck." she pointed at Bella then herself. "On a full moon, we usually board up one of our houses and have a sleep over." Looking at the centaur's confused faces, she hastily added, "We go to one of our houses and sleep there for the night." Various sounds of understanding were given and she continued. "Because we got moonstruck, Rikki," She pointed to said person, "Tried to bring us back. We have another moon pool, just like this one on an island called Mako. Usually when moonstruck, we are drawn to these moon pools. Rikki has the power to teleport things from one place from another." She explained.
"When I was transporting them however," Rikki took over, "I got moonstruck halfway through and we woke up here. We went through this lake with scary creatures in it and up to this castle. There were people there with sticks that threw lights and fire." Once we got back to the moon pool, we were moonstruck once more."
"But full moons happen only once a month. Why were you moonstruck twice?"
"We live in Australia."
"Where?" Asked Bane dubiously.
"Australia. Never heard of it? Um, it's a place halfway around the world and our time is ahead of here, so when we got here, it was morning where we were from and night here."
"I see. So that storm was you last night?" Asked Firenze.
I looked around. There were no traces of any sort of trashing of the forest around us. I looked up at the trees and stared guiltily at the dead looking branch I had snapped off, hanging off the edge of another one. I hoped it didn't fall. Then I remembered what I had seen before I looked at the moon.
"I don't think it was us." I said. The girls looked at me. "Well, Bella was making jelly moons again and Rikki was making fire dragons and Emma... You had mini ice houses and snow and...Santa Clause." It was silent before Rikki burst out laughing.
"Ha! Emma! Santa Clause!" I grinned
"Yeah, it was complete with a sleigh and reindeer too."
"Wait, that monstrous fire creature was yours?" Asked Bane distastefully. "And those flying reindeer with the fat man?"
"Don't forget the snakes." Added Magorian. "There were flying snakes the size of a tree made of water. Some had various heads."
Bella looked about ready to faint. "Remind me not to get on your bad sides." She muttered to Rikki.
Emma wasn't paying attention to her and was gaping at Magorian and Bane in shock. "Seriously?" She asked before turning to me. "Just leave out the part where they're giant and were attacking things!" She grumbled at me.
"They weren't big! I said mini in case you forgot."
"There were creatures made of lightning as well." Murmured Firenze.
"Ahaha..." Rikki began nervously. "That would be me..."
"Forget those creatures, I'm sure the storm was you." Firenze insisted. "It was an unnatural occurrence. The clouds showed no sign and a while into the full moon, we saw thunder clouds rolling over the forest, heading towards Hogwarts."
"Well if these young ones can make elemental creatures, I would wager they can make storms appear." Snorted Bane.
"...Did you just say Hogwarts? What on earth is a Hogwart? Sounds like a pig with pimples." Rikki muttered the last part to her self.
"It is that castle you mentioned before. Where the people had 'sticks that throw lights and fire'." He answered.
"Huh, guess even our moonstruck selves were angry at them. We didn't ruin it or anything did we?" Asked Rikki.
"No. Some of our spells saw wizards putting up barriers against the tornadoes and lightning."
"Tornadoes and lightning? Great." Muttered Emma, glaring at us.
"Hey!" Rikki cried indignantly, "I bet there was snow and hail too! Right?" She looked at Firenze.
"Yes, indeed there was." He chuckled. Rikki cast a smug look at Emma.
"Wow am I glad that I don't have your weather powers." Bella cut in.
"How do we know you are telling the truth?" Roared Bane suddenly. Shouts of agreement were heard from the crowd of centaurs. A tanned centaur stepped forward. He had a chestnut horse half and a reddish tail, accompanied by red hair and a beard.
"I for one believe their tale. Such young one's would not be able to spin such a web of lies." This one seemed a lot more gentle than the rest of the centaurs.
"I agree with Ronan." Proclaimed Firenze.
"I think they should demonstrate their abilites to us." Said Bane.
"Fine." Growled Rikki.
We huddled together for a second. "Um..." began Bella.
"Rikki, get them to shoot an arrow at you from a far away distance. Make sure you're as far to the left of the moon pool as possible. When it is roughly halfway down it's path to you, I want you to teleport it so that it's in front of Bella, not too close, the same distance as it was when you teleported it. Bella, you'll be as far right as possible. Bella, you'll then phase through the arrow and I'll be standing right in front of the vines behind you-plenty of space. Then Cleo, you'll stand next to me on my left and when I've frozen the arrow in place, use your telekinesis to move back into one of their quivers. Carefully." She added as an after thought. We were silent before we made a silent agreement to trust Emma.
"But wouldn't they want to see our 'storm powers'?" Asked Bella.
"I think they believe is on that. They confirmed for themselves that those clouds before we arrived weren't storm clouds." She replied. We glanced at each other before splitting to our assigned places.
"Ok, shoot an arrow at me." Smirked Rikki. Outraged shouts were heard.
"Maybe the moon drove them crazy for good." Muttered Magrorian. Bane, on the other hand, consented willingly.
"Very well."
"Now watch carefully." The silence seemed extremely dramatic as Bane fitted an arrow onto his bow and aimed at Rikki. Then he fired.
Harry POV
Harry woke to the sound of a window braking. He bolted out of the bed, tearing the curtains out if his way. "Bloody hell!" Cried Ron. He turned and saw Ron standing outside the window. He looked down to see him clutching his foot. At first he thought it was cut, but then he saw the giant block of ice in front of him. Apparently Ron had stepped down on the thing and he chuckled.
"Vandalizing the school, are we Weasley?" Drawled a voice behind him. He ignored him and turned to the window. The force of the giant piece of hail was enough to make a clean hole in the glass. He could hear the howling of the wind and he vaguely wondered how bad the storm was. Through the window, he had a perfect view of Hagrid's hut as well as the Black Lake. But it was raining so hard now, he could barely make out teachers rushing outside and casting protective wards around the school to keep out the oncoming storm. Usually they would just let it be, but he could see and hear lightning and thunder. He jumped back as one struck the metal frame of the very window he was peering out of.
Another piece of hail the size of his fist smashed through the window. He ducked and he heard a squeal from the door. He looked back and saw Hermione looking in shock at the window.
"You guys too, huh?" She asked. Ron nodded. "Anyway, McGonagall asked all the eight years to first repair any windows on this floor and to move to their previous year's houses and repair their windows if any have been broken. They're all out there placing wards around the school." She frowned, "There are currently three tornadoes surrounding the school, it's hailing and lightning is striking lower places far too often for it too be natural." She shook her head. "Any way, first years a first priority. They don't know proper spells and she wants one person to stay behind in each house common room. After the houses are done, move onto the floors." She glanced at Malfoy and Zabini. "All Hufflepuffs and Slytherins are to go straight onto the floors and repair any damage to the school. Hospital wing first thing. People are hurt and Madmame Pomfrey can't treat students and keep repairing windows at the same time."
"Why?" Asked Ron. He got a huff in response.
"They're all under ground." she told him, rolling her eyes before running out the door to alert the others. Harry looked at his window before uttering a quick, "Reparo," watching as the glass picked itself up and melted back in place.
Ron picked up one of the two blocks of ice that had smashed the window and held it up to Harry. Can you believe the size of this thing?" He asked disbelievingly. Harry shook his head in agreement before donning the first set of robes his hands landed on in his trunk and hurrying out the door behind Ron. He noticed Malfoy getting full dressed and rolled his eyes. Of course it wouldn't be decent, if a pureblood were to go outside in a half dressed state.
They made it to Gryffindor tower in record time, only to realize that they didn't have the slightest on what the password was. "Password?" The Fat Lady inquired.
"Don't you remember us?" Asked Ron and he sighed mentally. Typical Ron. "You know, went here for six years, trying to get in now because McGonagall asked us to."
"Password." She repeated. Harry sighed.
"Octo Annis." Hermione's voice sounded behind them. He noticed Neville and a few others rushing behind her as the portrait swung open. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you guys the password." She muttered as she whisked passed them and into the common room. He shook his head and hurried after her, running into Ginny.
"Why hello there Harry." She grinned from underneath him. He mumbled incoherently and jumped up, pulling her up with him.
"Sorry." He said abashedly.
She grinned before she said, "The seventh years, that's me, have already repaired the first year's windows, we're moving onto the others but they're real babies." She grumbled the last part. He looked around and noticed there were tiny first years huddled up against the fire and gaped. The storm wasn't that bad. He swore he wouldn't have done this at their age.
"I see what you mean." He nodded, smiling at her.
"I think we have a bit too many Nevilles this year." She whispered in his ear, giggling. He grinned.
"Harry! Stop making goo goo eyes at my sister and get your ruddy ass over here and help!" Shouted Ron from the top of the stairs leading to the boy's dormitories. Ginny blushed before pecking him on the cheek and hurrying towards the girl's dormitories, but not before casting a dark glare in Ron's direction.
He ran up the flight of stairs and joined Ron in the second year dormitories. "Which windows are broken?" He asked loudly, catching everyone's attention. The wind howled loudly and a few fingers pointed in various directions. "Seamus!" He yelled out the door over the howling of the tornado outside. He could see it outside a window that had been fully blown in, the frame the only thing left intact.
Seamus came through the door way, his hair wind blown and messy. "What?"
"Can you repair these windows and make sure they're not blown in again?" He asked.
"Thanks!" Ron smiled cheerfully before dashing out, yanking Harry along with him. They ran along the hall towards the third year dorms when a scrawny browned haired kid came running at them.
"Help!" He shouted in Ron's face breathlessly. "Chase is going to get pulled out the window!" He looked at Ron and they pair immediately ran after the little kid.
"Where." He urged, wishing he could over take the kid.
"Third year dorms." The brown haired kid squeaked as they sprinted passed him. Good thing they were headed there already. They reached the open door and he had to grab the door frame and swing himself inside where they could hear screams of terror as students tried to grab the small blonde, blue eyed boy who was hanging onto window sill. He looked no older than a first year. His whole body was being yanked by the tornado outside the window and Harry could see blood on his fingers, some of it being sucked into the tornado. If his skin hadn't been so tan, he would've thought he was a distant relative of Malfoy's.
The helpless kid was screaming and crying, tears running down his face. Harry noticed his face was cut in many places and noticed there was no glass on the floor. With a sickening jolt, he realised that the glass must've been sucked in after him. The poor kid was lucky none got in his eyes.
"Help me! Please! Someone!"
"We're trying, Chase!" Cried another blonde with blue eyes. She looked an awful lot like the Chase kid and Harry guessed he was his older sister. Said older sister was holding onto a boy with brown hair and matching eyes. It was then that he noticed the human chain that had formed from one end of the room to another. "I can't reach!" She shouted.
Chase sobbed. "I'm slipping!" He cried in panic.
"Hey!" Harry yelled. He was sticking himself to the door frame. He could feel the tug of the tornado as well. "Acio him to you!" He shouted, trying to make himself heard over the howling of the wind.
"What?" Shouted the older sister.
"Acio him!" He bellowed and winced as Ron joined in and despite the howling of the wind, still managed to deafen his right ear momentarily.
"We can't!" The blonde bellowed back. "We all lost our wands! That thing sucked them up!"
"That explains it." Mumbled Ron and despite the situation said, "I just had a mental image of Hermione saying, "Are you a wizard or what?'" He snickered. Harry had to stop himself from reminding Ron that he was the one who said that to Hermione in their first year.
"Get back! All of you! I'm going to acio him to me. Then you lot are going to swing yourselves over to me and Ron and I are going to acio you over here, got it!" He shouted, his throat starting to feel like it was on fire. "Chase!" He shouted. "The boy looked at him. "Just hold tight, don't fight anything. I want you to let go, I'm going to acio you to me, ok?" Chase looked at him horrified.
"Just let go!" He yelled. It didn't seem to matter whether Chase was willing or not, because at that moment, a giant snake head made of water wrapped it's jaws around him and tossed him into the tornado.
"NO!" cried his older sister.
"ACIO CHASE!" Harry bellowed, putting as much force in to the spell as he could. A few seconds seemed like an eternity, but Chase finally came whizzing back, screaming bloody murder along the way. He caught him and Ron yanked him, as he clutched the small child in his arm, pulling them to safety in the hallway. The boy was sobbing and crying and he vaguely registered Ron shouting acios and students come flying towards him.
Chase cried and he tried unsuccessfully to soothe the terrified boy. His bloody fingers were clutching his robe and he body was heaving with huge, wracking sobs.
"Hey, it's ok, you're fine now, see?" Chase looked up at him, still trembling. When he caught sight of Harry's scar, he gasped.
"Harry Potter!" His fear momentarily forgotten. This was probably the first time that his scar had helped him out.
"Er, yeah, I guess so."
"Thank you so much!" His eyes shined. "My sister told me all about you. You came into their hide out last year, Neville Longbottom brought you in and then there was a big war and you killed You-No-Poo." The little boy giggled at his own joke. He guessed that Fred and-No, just George's joke shop was finally rubbing off on sighed sadly as he thought of how miserably George still was. He still ran the joke shop, but new inventions of his were taking twice as long. He was testing things halfheartedly and he could understand why.
Harry could see small signs of improvement and he could just hope that one day, he would be the cheerful prankster he once was. He could still see heartbreak in Mrs Weasley's eyes every time he looked at Mrs Weasley's face when she saw George. He couldn't imagine the pain George felt every time he stepped into their-his joke shop.
"CHASE!" someone shouted and said boy was ripped from his arms. He caught a whiff of long blonde hair and took that as his cue to leave. "You're ok! Come on, let's get you to the hospital wing."
"Blimey Harry, did you see that thing? It was a huge snake! Made of water!" He flapped his arms around for emphasis on huge.
"Yeah, I wonder if it was one of those elemental beasts Hermione was going on about on the train ride." He pondered. "We should really fix that window, but I don't think there's anything left to fix it with." He told Ron.
Ron grinned. "Speaking of Hermione, I bet she's got a spell."
Harry nodded. "I think it's cleared up in the common room for now." It was true, aside from the commotion around them, he couldn't see any other dramas around them.
"Ron! Harry!" Shouted Hermione, sprinting down the hallway towards them. "I heard something happened out here, are you ok?" She asked.
"We're fine, you wouldn't happen to know anything about a spell that makes windows would you?" Asked Ron.
"I can transfigure something into a sheet of glass, but I can't actually make glass come out of my wand like water. Why?"
"Well..." Harry opened the door that Ron had shut and motioned for her to look inside.
"I see...Merlin's beard! It's Santa!" She cried.
"What the hell are you on about Hermione?" Asked Ron, bewildered.
"No, seriously!"
Two heads joined hers and true enough, there was a sleigh with reindeer tied to it, the reigns in the hand of a fat man made of ice. It would have been quite the ice sculpture if it wasn't for the fact that Santa Clause was driving his sleigh into the window, trying to break the wall.
"Incendio!" Cried Hermione. The moving ice sculpture did nothing but steam slightly, hardly affected by the spell.
"Bloody hell! This ice is just like that girl's ice in the great hall!" Ron noted. The tornado seemed to have moved on, so they stepped into the room in order to confront the thing properly.
"Fine, we'll just have to blow the damn thing up." Scowled Hermione.