Harry POV
"Yeah, good luck, remember what happened in the great hall?" Ron asked.
She ignored him and instead shouted a loud, "Confringo!" Amazingly, the sleigh and reindeer ramming into the wall, exploded. Ron whooped.
"I take it back Hermione." He grinned. Hermione shook her head.
"It's not working, look." She pointed at the chunks of ice, which were fixing themselves back together.
"Great." Harry muttered sarcastically.
She paced around for a while, muttering to herself. "That's it!" She cried. "If it fixes itself, we just need to find something that'll leave nothing behind for it to fix itself with." She whirled on them. "I need you and Harry to put your wands together and shoot out the fastest jet of water out of your wands. They need to combine into one big stream."
"How are we supposed to that?" Harry asked.
"Just use the spell aqua eructo and add as much force into it. It works like the unforgivable curses. The more will you put in it, the more effective it'll be." She explained.
"How is that supposed to help?" Ron grumbled.
"Just do it!" Hermione snapped.
Hesitantly, he looked at Ron and the pointed their wands at the ice sculpture, the tips angled slightly towards each other. "Aqua eructo!" They shouted together, putting as much force as they could into the spell as possible. It felt rather silly at first, but when the huge column of water shot out of their wands as promised, it felt immensely satisfying. It shot at the ice sculpture and Hermione cried out, "Keep it going! Don't stop!" She appeared as close as she dared to the ice sculpture that was fighting the jet of water. Standing next to the liquid column, she pointed her wand at it and shouted.
"Relashio!" Where the water met the icy chest of a reindeer, it was like a giant hole was being drilled into it. Water vapor rose around them and soon the first reindeer had disappeared, leaving another half dozen and Santa in his sleigh. "We need more people, Harry, go round up as many sixth through seventh years as possible, Ron and I'll keep going over here." She commanded. Harry obeyed quickly, running out into the common room where only the first through seventh years remained.
"Quite!" He roared over the din of people talking. It silenced immediately apart from a few whispered and fingers pointing at his scar. "Sixth and seventh years, follow me." He said in a tone that left no room for argument. He heard the sound of shuffling feet and turned around, satisfied. Ginny quickly caught up to him.
"What's wrong? What happened?" She inquired. He glanced at her, glad that nothing had happened to her like it had to them.
"Santa Clause happened." He mumbled, not really knowing how to explained it.
"...I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" She said incredulously.
"You'll see when you get there." He honestly thought that those three girls must be crazy. Santa Clause? What a joke.
"Oh." They arrived at the scene of the crime, where the jet of water was a lot smaller than the two of his and Ron's combined.
"Yeah." He replied.
Hermione noticed them and immediately began ordering them into positions. She ordered all the sixth years and half the seventh years to join Ron in shooting water at the ice sculpture and the rest to join her around her position and fire the same spell continuously into the water. As it turned out, relashio, when spelled under water, let out a boiling stream of hot water, he remembered from his fourth task when he had trouble with the grindylows.
"Get to it!" Soon the entire window was filled with the biggest column of water he had ever seen and once the steam cleared, the let the spell fade. The uproar of cheers was deafening. "Ginny!" He heard Hermione shout to his girlfriend. "Once everyone's calmed down, you need to get at least one seventh year in each dorm. Leave this door alone unless you find a way to barricade the window. Thanks!" With that, he felt himself being yanked out of the dorm and through the portrait hole by a certain bushy haired girl.
"Like I said, metal, this one." Ron told him from beside him.
"We can walk by ourselves Hermione." Ron told her. She let them go hastily and they immediately broke off in a sprint. "The teachers have finished the protective charms by now, but they need to get those things out of the school boundaries. There was one they managed to kick out and once it couldn't attack Hogwarts anymore it just disappeared. But the storms just keep on going. They've got the tornadoes out, they pretty much spin my themselves, so they tried to make the border around the school as small as possible. and the rain and snow isn't bothering us any more, neither is the lightning, so we're protected from the storm, it's just those elemental creatures that are the problem now."
"By the way, you were talking about those elemental beasts on the way to Hogwarts, what are they, exactly?" Asked Ron curiously.
"Exactly what they sound like. They are beasts made of their element. They change their form but can never leave the form of their element. There aren't many-it's not like they can reproduce or anything, I'm pretty sure there are only about eight or nine. We're not exactly sure whether all the sub elements have an elemental beast, but we do know that they don't go randomly attacking schools." She frowned. "So I for one don't think these are elemental beasts." They were silent for a moment after her explanation before Ron finally talked.
"Which one did they manage to kick out?"
"There are five, fire and lightning are in the form of dragons, ice was...well, you saw and water is snakes. There are small snakes and then there are huge ones with three heads, some have five, it's quite frightening, but the fifth one, we don't exactly no what form it's in." She frowned.
"Why? A huge beast made of an element can't by hard to find."
"It's air, isn't it." Harry concluded.
"Unfortunately, yes. It seems to have some sort of tail, it'll sweep people off their feet and hit it against the side of the castle. Any way, we managed to kick out the fire one and since we've dealt with the ice, we only have three left." They stepped outside to be greeted by the huge tail of the lightning dragon nearly electrocuting them to death.
"How the bloody hell are we going to get this thing out of here?"
"Professor!" Cried Hermione.
"Miss Granger." Professor McGonagall greeted, casting a shield charm around herself as a tail of water nearly crushed her. "Fire does not seem to be of any use against this water." Harry could see why. The water that made up the snake was spinning around inside itself. Suddenly, he felt something wham into him, knocking the wind out of him and flinging him up. He grabbed onto the thing and immediately began spinning. It was dizzying and it wasn't long before he began feeling the need to puke. This must've been the wind creature that Hermione was talking about. It was then that he realized he was only able to stay on it because the wind was whipping like a tornado, allowing it to have a solid form, much like the water beast. He realised, that if he squinted, he could make out the outline of the tail he was holding onto.
He climbed determinedly up the tail, still spinning around the damn thing. He hoped that they would take this chance to destroy the animal, which he realised looked suspiciously like a tiger or some sort of cat. Soon he was spinning around something much larger. He tried to find something to hang onto, but hey, the thing was made of air. Instead, his arms went through nothing. He wondered why no dust was stuck in it, making visible like a tornado, when he noticed there was something blowing against him. He realised, that the only reason he was able to stay on the thing, was because his arms had penetrated the first layer of the animal, where there was an underlying layer of s spinning current. The first layer was blowing air out of it every where, like there was an air conditioning machine on every inch of it's body. It was quite ingenious.
He could hear people shouting his name. "Harenum." He muttered and sand poured from his wand into the belly of the beast. As more and more sand poured from his wan, he could see the thing growing more visible by the second. He winced as the fast flowing sand whipped against his hands and he tried to pull his sleeves down further. Feeling like Hermione, he cut off the spell and immediately used a new one. "Aguamenti." He murmured. This time, water flowed out of his wand. Despite the creature being made of air, it still behaved animal like and as the water mixed with the ever churning sand, it gradually turned to mud. The air was trapped inside the mud and was weakly spinning.
He felt like he was coming to a stop on an hour long roller coaster that did nothing but spin you around in the same direction. The mud was still spinning, and it felt even more dizzying. He felt disoriented but still managed to shout. "GET IT OUT OF HERE NOW!" He felt himself being yanked out of the mud by invisible hands. He fought to keep his dinner down as he was lain down on the grassy floor. He heard Ron shout, "Wingardium Leviosa!" as he caught his breath and waited for the world to stop spinning.
"Wingardium Leviosa is my new favorite spell when we're fighting giant sized things." He heard Ron say to Hermione and he was briefly reminded of the troll they had faced in third year. He lifted his head up and saw the giant mud tiger loose it's form as Ron set it down outside what he assumed was the barrier. "That was brilliant mate!" Shouted Ron.
As the world righted itself, he tried his best to grin. Professor McGonagall's emerald green robes came into his line of sight and he looked up at her stern face. "I agree with Mr Weasley, ten points to Gryffindor." He caught the briefest of smiles on his face before she turned around. "Miss Granger! If you could repeat Mr Potter's sand spell with me, aim at the water snake, the largest one. On the count of one, two, Harenum." He heard various voices shouting the spell and he noticed one of the smaller snakes above him turning to mud and Neville hovering on a broom beside it. He sat up, noting that everything was where it should be. As the last of the mud piles collapsed outside the barrier, he turned to Ron.
"How're we supposed to destroy that lightning one?" He asked him. He didn't answer, just sighed tiredly. He checked his watch. It was almost midnight and he was tired, the adrenaline having left his body a while ago.
"No bloody idea mate." Was Ron's answer. "It would be nice if we could wingardium leviosa it's bloody ass out of here, but you can't really lift lightning up."
"Unfortunately, Ron's right for a change." Grumbled Hermione from behind them. "You alright there Harry?"
"Yeah, don't think I'll be going on any roller coasters for a while though." He muttered. Ron looked at him curiously. He shook his head. He didn't want to explain anything at the moment and Ron let it drop.
"But," Hermione brightened, "Ron just gave me an idea."
"What? Lifting it? That was a joke." Hermione ignored him.
"Professor McGonagall!" She shouted, running towards the with in emerald. They began conversing before said witch in emerald nodded, waving her wand in a circle above her head. Hermione came running back, stopping to talk to as many people as she could on the way, who nodded and ran off somewhere. "Up you two, we're making a water wall." She grinned.
"She's finally gone off her rocker this one. My girlfriend's a nutter." Ron shook his head but consented.
"You all no the spell?"
"Er-no."
"Aguamuro." She replied shortly. "Stand on the line, one person per dot and wait for Professor McGonagall's signal." She ran off without another word.
True enough, there was a golden line on the grass, spreading around the castle in a large circle, with circles placed along it every thirty feet. Harry stood on the closest one, leaving Ron to scowl at him and find the next on. Just as Ron reached it, red sparks shot into the sky. He noticed staff and students alike shouting the spell Hermione had given them and he was quick to follow. He was lucky, because the second he did, lightning seemed to race across the water. He heard McGonagall's magically amplified voice say, "Force it out of the barrier. One step forward at my word. One." He stepped forward. He could see The giant lightning beast appear at the other end of the circle. "Two!" He watched as it tried to break through the water barrier, only to have it's electricity sucked away by the current. He saw it loose a wing as Mcgonagall shouted another, "One!" and everyone stepped forward once again, the water wall moving with them. The wing's electricity raced around the water fall for a few seconds before disappearing, but amazingly, more electricity just filled up the empty space and the dragon was as whole as it was before. This went on for a while and once the beast tried to fly over the barrier, it was extended into a dome, arching over the top of Hogwarts.
It wasn't until Ron walked face first into the entrance gates that they realised that the creature had been banished, good thing too-they were just inside the barrier. Another step and they would've been caught out in the storm.
He was so tired, he barely remembered walking back to their new common room. He forgot to stare at the flirty mermaid and was asleep before his head touched the pillow, one arm stuck in his robe and the other dangling off the side of the bed.
Cleo POV
I couldn't help but feel myself bubble with barely contained excitement. Part of me wanted to show these centaurs who was boss in the world of half animals. I watched, heart thumping loudly as the arrow sped towards Rikki. My eyes instantly snapped to Bella as it appeared a few meters away from her. I heard exclamations and awed gasps as it did so and they only increased once the arrow phased through Bella, not leaving a single scratch. Then it froze in mid air, centimeters away from Emma's outstretched palm. This was my cue. I raised my arm dramatically and maneuvered the arrow through the air and back into Bane's quiver. He flinched back as the arrow headed back to him but refused to back down. Good thing too, if he had moved, I might've accidentally hit him.
"Never! In all my years!" Said Firenze in awe. "You don't even carry those sticks they call wands!"
"Silence!" Shouted Magrorian. He and Bane seemed to have been discussing something while the herd stamped their hooves in appreciation. "We believe your tale and therefore we shall not punish you for trespassing on our territory, but the fact still remains-you cannot stay here."
"What?" Cried Rikki angrily, "Then what was the point of showing you all that? We don't have anywhere to go! This moon pool is more our 'territory' than anyone else!" She punctuated the word 'territory' with air quotes.
Bane sneered. "We arrived here first, fish. Our ancestors have long since stayed here. It is tradition that our young be bathed in the pool under the first full moon." Emma's jaw dropped and my eyes bulged. They didn't turn into mermaids? I supposed it made sense, they were already half horse.
"Oh my god." Rikki growled dangerously. "This place is the home of mermaids. Us! Where the hell d you expect us to go? We can't reveal ourselves to those people up at that pig pimple place! Do you know what happened the last time a human saw us?" She growled angrily. "She tried to ship us off to some lab and have us cut up into little fish pieces!"
"Rikki's right! You can't just kick us out of our own home!" Emma shouted furiously.
"This is our territory, not yours!" Magrorian snarled.
"I must agree with Magrorian and Bane." Firenze chipped into the argument. And here I thought he was nice.
"Where will we go?" Demanded Rikki. "We haven't even eaten in nearly two days!"
"You go willingly, or we kick you out." Bane said shortly.
"You know what? You can go fuck yourself." Emma snarled at him. Rikki had a triumphant gleam in her eyes. Emma almost never swore, if she did, she was angry, really angry. And an angry Emma was a force to be reckoned with. Once she set her mind on something, she was as stubborn as Rikki. "You'll have to drag our cold, dead bodies out of here before we leave."
Magrorian's upper lip curled and he bared his teeth. "We have how many compared to you?"
Rikki snorted. "You have bows and arrows. Us?" She raised an eyebrow. "We have the elements on our side." She lifted an arm of fire out of the water for effect. Emma's and Rikki's tails were identical shades of fiery red now. For a second, I could've swore that Rikki's hair was flickering with electricity, but a moment later, it was gone. Geez, was I really that stressed.
I looked around and realised that we had all unconsciously moved forward. Rikki and Emma were side by side in the front center of the moon pool, whereas Bella and I had drifted to the sides to let them handle the on goings.
I watched Magrorian carefully. He seemed so smug, so sure of himself all of a sudden, not backing down at the obvious threat Rikki was posing. His eyes flickered over to Bella and I turned to her. Then I noticed the two centaurs creeping up behind her, rope and spears in hand.
I opened my mouth to warn her, "Bel-" Two pairs of rough hands grabbed my from behind, hoisting my up from the water under my arms. I screamed and thrashed my tail around. I automatically shot my hand out to the water, calling it to me, until I felt my arms being restricted above my head. I used my mind, summoning a wave towards us, but lost concentration when I fully left the water and was thrown over the back of one of my captors.
I phased into my water form, trying to slip down his back, but they seemed to have given it a lot of thought. "Keep going and I break her arms." Laughed Bane. He had Bella on the ground in front of him, face down with held both her arms behind her. He had brought hoof down on her back, keeping her from moving. I smirked as his hoof suddenly sunk through her and the pair of arms he was holding suddenly slipped from his grip. He looked down in shock to find his hoof buried in jelly.
I took the chance to wrap a tentacle of water around the centaur's face causing him to go wild, trying to find an opening for him to breathe. I dropped the tentacle when someone attacked me from behind. A rope wrapped around my waist, pulling me back. I phased back into water and the rope slipped clean through me. I flopped to the ground triumphantly, only to realise that I was in the midst of a dozen centaurs with no way to walk. I cursed the fact that I hadn't thought to get rid of the water when I had phased. I heard a splash and a faint, "Bella!" Thank god, she was back in the moon pool. I struggled to lift the water off myself without using my arms. I didn't want anyone to notice me.
The sound of splashing and a small thud reached my ears. "Emma!" I heard Rikki and Bella shout in unison. My blood ran cold. I decided to wing the stealthy method, which wasn't working too well (I barely felt anything leave my body) and was just lifting my arms, when I heard someone behind me. It turned out to be Bane, who leaned down and held a small, jagged dagger to my throat. I was about to phase into water when I heard him say, "I wouldn't do that if I were you." I stopped and decided to humor him.
"Oh yeah? Guy holding a knife to my throat, now why wouldn't I want to turn into something he can't kill?" I asked sarcastically, turning to him. He smirked at me before he grabbed my wrists in one smooth motion and dragged me up. It hurt like hell, let me tell you that. He wasn't exactly gentle. Being held by your wrists only with no ground to hold you up on isn't very pleasant. His firm grip felt like it would snap my delicate wrists as he held my high above his head effortlessly. It was like a was a fish being hung up to dry. He had no problem lifting me up to the other centaur's height, which I hadn't noticed until then, that it was about ten centimeters taller than my length when I was a mermaid. That was saying a lot, seeing as my tail added an extra round about sixty centimeters to my height.
"That's why." He smirked. I could just hear it in his voice. I looked over the heads of the various centaurs and spotted a motionless Emma slung over the shoulder of a grinning Magrorian. Horror washed through me.
"What did you do?" I snarled at him, trying to twist around. I tried to kick my tail against him only to see that another centaur had looped a length of rope around the base, preventing me from moving. I resisted the urge to phase into water as I glared at Magrorian, who was smirking and had lifted Emma's head up to hold a jagged dagger to her throat. Bane walked forward and I could feel my body swaying with each step he took. My tail was flashing angrily between orange and black as I tried to think of a way our of this checkmate.
As Bane strode towards Magrorian, I felt humiliation wash through me. It was like I was a prize he was parading around. I felt naked under their gazes and I struggled to keep my head held high.
"-ing son of a bitch!" I heard Rikki hiss at Magrorian as we arrived beside him. I watched Rikki and this time I was sure her hair had turned into electricity.
"Rikki!"
"What?"
"Your hair!" Her moment of confusion seemed to shut off the electricity. She turned to grumble at me, her previous anger returning, but I shook my head and she whipped back around in time to catch sight of a few strands of electrified hair. The centaurs for now seemed to be ignoring us, tending to some of their own. I glanced at them and saw that two had arms encased in ice, their shoulders turning a bit blue where it ended. I smirked as I realised that they had been the unwitting two who had attacked Emma.
Rikki shut off the electricity a split second before Bane turned around, my body swaying with the momentum. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me then at Rikki and Bella before turning back around.
Rikki waited a few seconds to see if he would turn back around, but he didn't, so she furrowed her eyebrows together and soon, her whole body erupted in blue-white cackling bolts. Bella shied away and yelped rather loudly as a few stray bolts flew away from Rikki's body, imitating lightning striking out in a storm. Rikki hastily returned to normal, glaring at Magrorian and Bane. Seeing this, he simply glared at the two as if saying, shutup before turning to talk about their oh so important...whatever they were talking about.
Bane seemed to finally grow tired of holding me up like a freshly caught giant salmon. He threw me over his horse back and the air whooshed out of me. My chest heaved for a while, trying to get more air into my system, but it soon became apparent that my breaths would have to be reduced to small, shallow pants.
Rikki wasn't too good at controlling her lightning yet. Usually the most she did, was direct it at a certain spot on the ground, so it didn't work out too well when she turned into electricity and couldn't hold back the currents as well as she would like. Bella received quite a few shocks thanks to that, but soon Rikki was able to push out a rod of electricity from her palm and hold it like a one handed sword. The absence of grumbles and wincing from Bella meant that she had successfully managed to keep the electricity from killing Bella.
Rikki's smirk looked like it was about to split her face until Magrorian turned around and began speaking. "We can negotiate the terms of you leaving our territory under these circumstances. You will not show any form of power, or I slit her throat." He threatened. I hated the feeling of dirt sticking to my tail as it dragged along the ground as Bane turned around the face Bella and Rikki.
I turned my head to watch and hissed when he pulled Emma's head back further and dug the knife threateningly against her throat once more. Rikki gave him an 'I'll kill you for this' look but kept quite.
"Good." He said, satisfied. Bella looked extremely nervous and worried. The air around me suddenly felt dry and I could feel myself drying off faster than I should've been.
"Cut it out Rikki!" I hissed. She looked at me confusedly, noticing the change in the air.
"It's not me." She hissed back.
"Silence!" Snapped Magrorian. "I said no form of power is to be shown."
"I can't control it." Mumbled Bella. "This is new, I've never done it before." Firenze stepped forward.
"Perhaps, Magrorian, you should put the unconscious girl back in the water, we don't want her drying out and dying." He told him.
Magrorian grunted and lowered Emma into the pool, but kneeled down beside her to keep her head up and the knife against her throat. Bane's lip curled.
"I don't think I'll let this one down. The quicker we get this over with, the better, besides, she can keep herself from drying out." He sneered. "Oh wait! We said no powers are to be shown." He continued mockingly. "Guess you better stop using your 'abilities', or two of you will be dead." It was quite daunting, but hey, the threat of being cutup and dissected was a lot scarier than just dying on the spot.
"Bella! Cut it out! I'm drying too fast!" I whimpered. No powers. I couldn't keep my self as a mermaid and I blushed as I remembered my state of dress. Fate seemed to want to be even crueler, because Bane decided that he would hold me out for display as I dried out. ("You can watch your friend dry out in front of you.") Bella's eyes furrowed and she seemed to be concentrating hard for a moment when I felt the air return to it's former humidity. Seemed like we had all gained new powers. Rikki was turning into lightning/electricity and Bella was the ability to control humidity. I wondered what Emma and mine would be.
I prayed that Bane would put me back on his back soon. The damage was done, my hair was dry already and I was pretty sure that the only reason I was still a mermaid was because water was probably stuck in between my scales or something. I was going to dry sooner or later. This was probably the first time I wished that I would dry slower.
"That's better." Magrorian bared his teeth in an animalistic grin. "Now we can talk." I drowned out their conversation, trying to figure out how to get myself out of this. I hoped that maybe it wouldn't be a big deal if I was half naked to them, but as I looked around, I noticed that all the women were wearing some form of covering over their chests. Be it animal fur or a leathery hide, something was covering their assets.
"Shit." I muttered as I was water for a split second before I felt cold wind against my chest. I felt my face heat up as all eyes turned to me and gasps filled the clearing.
"Well, well, well." I heard Bane. He poked my legs like he thought it was an illusion. "Seems you haven't told us everything."
Rikki scoffed, trying to bring the attention away from me. It worked on Bane at least. "We mentioned a sleep over. I'm pretty sure you know what a house is and that it requires land?" It'd be kinda hard to build something underwater without everything collapsing first.
I saw some of the younger and less hardy females glaring at me as many of the males swung their heads around to stare openly at me. Then the jeering began.
"Who knew-"
"-Mermaids with assets-"
"-On show like a-"
My face burned and I felt tears stinging at the corner of my eyes. I just wanted to disappear. I wanted to fade into nothing and make sure no one would ever see me again.
Then I was floating. My hands were free and no one was looking at me anymore. I realised that Bane was grasping at thin air and I was somewhere above him. I looked around confusedly, what happened? I looked at my hands, only to see nothing. I tried to move back to Rikki and Bella in the moon pool, resulting in nothing but a soft breeze whipping over the heads of the centaurs. What was going on?
Then it hit me. New powers. Seemed my affinity for wind grew, just like it did with water, in the last full moon. Maybe the two full moons so close together affected us so we received new powers. Wow. Now we just had to figure out what Emma's was.
"Come out!" The clearing silenced immediately. Magrorian was shouting now, his knife digging deeper into Emma's neck. My eyes narrowed. Maybe I could do something about this. I imagined myself as the wind, blowing gently down towards Bella. I whispered in her ear but it came out as nothing but the breeze. I shouted and she jumped before whispering to Rikki.
"Did you hear that?" She asked her. Seemed I was more of the wind than I thought.
"Hear what?"
"Bella!" I shouted again. On the outside, I only heard the smallest of sounds, it was like a million people were whispering, "Bella."
"It's me! Cleo!" I shouted. "Be quiet. As soon as Magrorian lets go of Emma, put up a shield around the moon pool. Extend it as far as you can around us. Make it as thick as possible." She didn't seem to get all of it but seemed to understand enough and nodded slightly. I floated up behind her and Rikki.
I tried to imagine myself slamming into Magrorian's chest and propelled myself forward, trying to get used to the feeling of being weightless in air. In water, there was at least some form of gravity, even if it was minimal.
He cried out as I slammed into him in the form of a giant gust of wind. Emma slid into the moon pool and Rikki, while bewildered, rushed forward to support her. I dropped into the moon pool just as a thick, almost translucent shield closed over the moon pool in the shape of a dome. I heard the sound of hooves pounding against the barrier accompanied by shouts of rage. Thankfully, Bella's crystalline jelly substance was the toughest thing I had ever seen and held well against the onslaught.
"Cleo!" Rikki shouted, surprised, "How the hell did you do that?"
I grinned, relived to be out of danger for now. "Same as your lightning."
"I get it!" She grinned. "I have lightning, so you get wind."
"Guys! Now's not the time! We need to somehow get out of here or at least calm these centaurs down." Bella reprimanded us.
"You go out there and talk to them then." Rikki grumbled at her.
"I would but I have no idea what to say! We can't just leave here."
"Bargain with them or something, say something like, we'll make a border or something and until we figure something out, we won't go past the border."
Bella's eyes lit up. "Rikki, your a genius!" She swam towards the edge of the moon pool before waving her hand in the direction of the ceiling. "You two can watch from up there." Then there was a platform rising up from beneath us. It floated up to the ceiling before stopping and I noticed that there were small holes at the top.
Rikki became fire as I became water and we squeezed ourselves through the tiny holes. We popped up just as Bella emerged from the dome in her crystallized jelly form. An onslaught of attacks immediately surrounded Bella, who stood there patiently.
"It's not going to work." She called out. She waited a few moments before the attacks ceased slowly to a halt.
"What do you want." Growled Bane.
"What's with these people and growling at us." Rikki muttered.
"We want to negotiate." Bane was about to retaliate when Firenze cut in.
"We simply want you to leave our territory, this is part of it."
"I know." Bella replied, "But this pool here," She gestured, "Is a safe haven for mermaids like us. You see, we mermaids actually live with humans. Our families are human and we live in secret. Everywhere in the world, there is a moon pool where we can find safety for ourselves."
Firenze raised a white eyebrow. "Go on."
"We don't want to stay here, but we can't figure out what to do. We're hungry and tired and just want a moments peace to think about what we're going to do." Firenze seemed to be contemplating this and Bella hastily continued. "We simply ask, that we perhaps, create a boundary for the time being until we can figure out a way home."
"A boundary?" Firenze asked and I noted that people were listening now, weapons hanging limply by their sides. Bella seemed to notice as well because she nodded eagerly.
"Here." The dome around the moon pool dissipated and she instead, used her crystallized jelly to draw a large circle around the moon pool. Centaurs stepped back as she walked towards them-about ten meters away from the moon pool, making the wide circle about thirty meters in diameter. The centaurs were now lining the outside of the circle and she stepped back hopefully.
"Those are...acceptable terms for now, but this territory is quite large..." Firenze stated at last. "Especially since you will be staying only in this...moon pool you call it."
Bella laughed. "No, we can't really live in the water, we don't have gills, see? We can just hold our breath for long periods of time. It used to be a measly fifteen minutes, but the girls over there can now go up to almost an hour. Me? About two." She smirked. "Besides, we're only half fish, so while we can withstand freezing temperatures, that doesn't mean it isn't uncomfortable, besides, we humans like the warmth when it's dark, so, we were thinking,"
"No we weren't." Rikki whispered again, "She better not stuff this up."
"We would stay only inside this border for the time being. We'll do our own thing and you guys can just ignore us."
Firenze was deep in thought before he turned around and began a deep discussion with Ronan, Bane and Magrorian. It went on for a while and Bane and Magrorian seemed to be too against it for me to stay still and resist fidgeting. I could feel the wind and water stirring restlessly and I tried to reign in my emotions.
After what seemed like an eternity, Ronan turned around. "We agree to your terms on the condition that you do not stay here longer than a month and leave our territory by that deadline."
"Deal!" Squealed Bella, looking as though she could hug him. "Thank you so much!" The platform suddenly dropped out from under us and I squealed as the water met my body with a splash.
Rikki recovered the fastest and scrambled out of the moon pool, drying her self along the way from top to bottom. "I don't suppose something to eat would be too much to ask for?" She asked hopefully. "We haven't eaten in over a day." Magrorian cast her a scrutinizing look.
"You don't have too cook it or anything, just some raw meat or fruits or something, since we can't leave this border." She added quickly. Firenze seemed to be in a good mood after the negotiation and laughed serenely.
"I suppose that is reasonable." He agreed. He looked at Bane he begrudgingly called out an indistinguishable word. Bella and Rikki laughed happily. Bella was bouncing on her toes and Rikki looked like she could kiss Firenze at that moment. Then I noticed something. Emma was gone.
"Guys!" I shouted, "Where's Emma?" I looked around in panic as they turned around. Emma couldn't hold her breath unconsciously, she could've drowned. Now that would be the stupidest thing I had ever seen.
"Crap! I forgot all about her!" Cried Rikki. "Some friend I am."
I dived down into the moon pool, hearing a splash as Rikki followed. Bella waited at the side anxiously, ready to pull her up and perform CPR if necessary, the front of her face being the only thing that wasn't jelly.
I spotted Emma down on the sand and I sped forward with Rikki, grabbing an arm and pulling her back to the surface. We surfaced and Bella looked at Emma in worry when she gasped.
"What?" I asked. Bella pointed at Emma's neck.
"She has gills!"
"Huh?" I uttered, feeling stupid. I looked at her neck and sure enough there were three slits opening and closing. I quickly closed them, hoping they would fade back into her skin if they didn't open up after a while. I noticed Rikki doing the same, still looking disbelieving.
"I think I figured out what Emma's power is." She smiled. I agreed. Who would've thought?
I slowly took my hand off her neck and was relieved to find her skin was smooth once more. Emma woke with a start.
"Huh? Whaddida miss?" She slurred.
"Oh nothing much, only the fact that you got gills." Bella giggled in relief, as Emma's eyes widened. Two centaurs marched forward with a long, thin tree branch hoisted on their shoulders. Tied onto the tree branch, was a chicken. No, there were about a dozen chickens and Rikki gaped in awe. I swear I could see the drool.
"Wait, or those chickens? Or some weird meat that's half chicken half snake?" I asked cautiously. I refused to eat some half animal.
Ronan laughed heartily and I was surprised that they were suddenly so friendly. "Do not worry young ones, they are legitimate chickens, gutted and plucked all this morning. Even a place such as this has ordinary animals." I sighed in relief and noticed the sun.
"It's evening already!" I exclaimed in shock. Geez, how long had we been here for?
Bella molded what looked like two 'y's with really long stems out of the water. She lifted them and dug them into the grass. "Could you put those there?" She asked. The branch with the chicken was placed on in between the two 'y's with some extra branch hanging over the sides. A large bowl was placed beside it on the grass and as I peared over the edge, I saw an assortment of fruits and vegetables in it.
"Thanks a bunch." Rikki smiled.
"Remember to keep your word." replied Bane shortly before stalking off after his kin.
Bella was about to swim after Rikki and Emma to the shoreline when I stopped her. "I want my shirt back." I told her. She laughed.
AN: Ok, I know some of this chapter was a bit perverted but it's all over now. I just really needed an excuse to show how Cleo and Emma found out about their new abilities!
Also, I was wondering if you guys mind that Harry and Draco won't be full on enemies, maybe coming into a bit over civil terms through out the story? Nt buddy buddy or anything, but just as something extra for you draco fans out there. I'm a fan myself, especially of Hermione/Draco, but I asked about pairing and you all said cannon, so no biggie.
I love you all for reading!