Chapter 3: Homesickness
The next morning May stretched awake on her bed and removed her sleep mask, she peaked out from under the mask at her two roommates and snuck out to the bathroom. She hopped to be done long before they wake up, she rushed into the bathroom with her clothes under her arm.
When May came out dressed Hermione and Ginny were sitting on the couch in their uniforms waiting for her.
"Good morning." May said smiling.
"Did you use the bathroom down here May?" Ginny asked. May smiled and nodded.
"I didn't want to hold you guys up." She said smoothing out the wrinkles in her high waist black skirt. She smiled at the boys as they walked downstairs.
"Good morning boys." May said smiling. Draco and Blaise smiled at the girls.
"Ladies." Draco said as she walked over to the portrait and held it open for the three girls.
"Thank you." Hermione said as she passed him by, briefly catching his eye. He smirked at her and boldly looked her up and down, causing her to blush lightly and his smirk to widen.
At breakfast May sat in between Draco and Blaise at the Slytherin table eating a bowl of fresh fruit and a small bowl of cinnamon oatmeal. She was reading sitting quietly reading the Daily Prophet when an article caught her eye. She raised an eyebrow as she read, by the end of the article she was fuming. She threw the paper away from her and crossed her arms in front of her chest
"Is something wrong?" Blaise asked somewhat cautiously taking a sip of his water.
"That damned paper and that… that odious journalist. They wrote horrid things about grandfather! How could they do such a thing?" May asked the boys, who both stared at her confused, before Draco reached over and saw the article.
"Skeeter has been writing articles on Dumbledore since 5 year, this is nothing new she just rewrites all the things she's always spewing." Draco told her. May nodded her head
"Well it's pissing me off." May said getting up from the table and walking out of the Great Hall.
Later in the day May walked through the school looking for Hermione and Ginny, she sighed giving up and started heading back to the head boy and girl dorms. She was so focused she barely noticed Professor Snape. He cleared his throat, startled she look up at him and then let out a breath.
"You scared me." She said simply as she put her hand over her heart. He stared at her.
"In one week the full moon will be here." He warned her shortly before walking away, May nodded her head smiled and continued to walk to the dorms. May walked into the dorm only to see Hermione and Ginny sitting there laughing on the couch with Draco and Blaise, she raised her eyebrow and then shrugged her shoulder and sat down on the ground next to Draco's feet.
"Where have you been" Draco asked May, she shrugged.
"Looking for you guys." She said smiled, when he turned around she looked into the fireplace distracted by what Snape had reminded her off.
'Has it already been a month since that last full moon? It feels like such a short amount of time has passed.' She thought sighing quietly, though not quietly enough because Blaise heard and pointed her out to everybody else. They looked at her in concern. May didn't even turn toward them, she just stared into the fire place.
"May is something wrong?" Ginny asked, May continued to look into the fire, not noticing that they were talking to her. The others looked at each other worried. Draco gently nudged her with his leg. She looked up at him startled and confused.
"Is something wrong? You've been staring at the fireplace pretty hard. Do you need to talk about something?" Hermione asked, May shook her head slowly.
"It's nothing, it's just I hadn't realized that it has almost been a month since I've been in England. Next week will be a month" May said as she began to move her toes back and forth and rested her chin on her knees.
"You've been in England only a month?" Ginny asked. May nodded.
"I was in Italy before coming here." She told the girls
"Where were you staying? Surly not with Snape or the Head Mistress." Blaise said. May shook her head.
"No my father had a home here before he married my mother and far longer than I was even thought of." She told them.
"Where?" Draco asked, curious. He was a Malfoy after all and Malfoy's knew every pureblood family in England
"In Derbyshire, it's a very beautiful home." May told him. Draco nodded, his lip pursed
"So your father took you mother's family name?" Draco asked, slightly confused. May bit her lip.
"Yes, and no. It's very complicated." May said shaking her head.
"What's wrong with her mother not taking her father's name? Plenty of people do it in the muggle world." Hermione said turning to look at Draco.
"Hermione, it isn't normal in the wizarding world for a woman to not take her husband's family name. The male heir to the family is expected to continue on the family line." Ginny explained
"Indeed it is not, Miss Weasley." Dumbledore's portrait replied. The group of students all looked up at him.
"Hello grandfather." May said as she smiled up at him.
"Your friends are right Amelia, it wasn't normal for your mother to keep her maiden name, but then again the situation was anything but normal." Dumbledore said. May narrowed her eyes at him.
"Grandfather." She said in a tight sort of voice.
"Well it's true, your father was hardly the type of man I would have chosen for your mother." He said smirking. May rolled her eyes.
"Yes grandfather I know you dislike him we all do, and I know that you know that he only tolerated you when you were still alive for mother's sake. Father is a good man and even though you loath to admit it you know he is as well." May said slightly scolding her grandfather's portrait while the others looked on with somewhat concealed amusement. Dumbledore raised one eyebrow at her.
"You judge father on his past, but you fail to recognize all that he gave up to be with mother, your only daughter no less, to start a family with her. Yet you still judge him, and disapprove of mother for choosing to be with him. You're hardly any better, may I remind you of a certain someone, Grindelwald." Dumbledore merely rolled his eyes at his granddaughter.
"You're impossible." She said huffing softly. Blaise and Draco shared a look, even more interested in her father's family than before. Though for now they decided to let it slide for another day when she wasn't so worked up.
The group got up from the couch and walked out of the room to go to Transfigurations. With no one looking May turned her head and stuck her tongue out at Dumbledore's portrait in a very unlady-like manner. Dumbledore simply laughed and walked off disappearing from the frame. They walked into transfigurations quietly, May sat with Blaise and Draco while Hermione and Ginny sat with each other one row ahead of them.
"Turn to page 567 in your textbooks, today we will talk about mermaids." McGonagall said as she walked into the class and sat at her desk.
"Now there are many classes of mermaids in the world. Today we'll talk about four of those classes. We have one class of mermaids in our very own Black Lake, they're called Sea-trow they are very deadly. A Sea-trow is a monkey faced creature with webbed fingers and seaweed for hair; they corporate with humans only when they gain something and will not hesitate to kill if they feel it is compromising their lives, they do not and cannot distinguish good from evil they kill whoever they feel the need too."
"The Next class is a water-nymph; they are a female nature goddess or a spirit living in the water. They have no real powers, they mainly explore the water. They tend to stay away from humans with the fear that they will be caught. They are very curious but playful creatures. The third class is a Siren; now there is many sayings on what Sirens may do. The most common is that they sing and entrance men with their voices and seduces them with their eyes, only to drag them to the deepest part of the ocean, drowning them and crushing the men's bodies." McGonagall looked up at her class only to see that the boys were looking at the picture of the Siren bringing the men down to their watery deaths with a grimace on their faces."
"Although what happens to the men we do not know, some say that they live and turn into mermen to live along them and some say they simply die" She smiled slightly only pausing for a slight moment to look at May.
"The fourth and last class we will be talking about today is an Oceanid; they're a nymph associated with the oceans. The Oceanid is much like a Siren although they don't drag men to their deaths, they are curious and very playful creatures, but also weary and timid around humans, though if one is in danger or sick they tend to save them. The Oceanid is very prone to pity people or other sea creatures that cannot help themselves. They are also very different from any kind of mermaid in the world; they can, if they choose, become a human for the rest of their lives if they find the right person they want to spend it with. They also have an important weaknesses. They may not look at the full moon, its light or its reflection, if they do it entrances them to touch water and makes them want to return to the ocean, however very select few of Oceanid mermaids may avoid the moons hold over them, only when they are strong however may they do this, however this supposedly had some other effect on the mermaid which we do not know of." She stopped looking up at Draco who had raised his hand.
"Yes Mr. Malfoy?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You said they could choose to be human if they found someone to spend the rest of their lives with? What happens if they don't find anyone?" He asked looking at the picture on the screen.
"Yes they may choose to become human, a Oceanid may choose whether or not they want to come up the human world and find someone that will love them. Most Oceanid's don't choose this, only very few have come up and succeed in finding true love. If they can't find someone to love them then they must return to the sea and never look back. But not many have the wish to live in the human world, the call of the sea is too intense for them to ignore. Now if they do find someone to love them they turn into a human or if they fear that the call of the sea is too intense the man or woman that they found to love them may choose to become a mermaid along with them and live in the sea." She answered, Draco nodded his head slowly processing the information.
"Professor, how many mermaids have become human that we know of?" Hermione asked, Professor McGonagall smiled.
"That is a story for another day" she said with a twinkle in her eye, Hermione nodded smiling lightly
"What do you mean by the call of the sea may be too intense?" Harry asked.
"Well Mr. Potter, the call of the sea is something that calls a mermaid to it no matter where they are, many mermaids that have come up from the sea to find love end up turning back because they can't escape the call of the sea. It's much like being homesick, the sea is a part of them, a part of their hearts, they can't totally ignore it. Most Oceanid's end up giving up their chance to find true love because they know they can never really get away from the call of their hearts, no matter how much they might want love. Mermaids need to be in water much like we need to breath air and eat. The sea calls to them every moment growing with each passing day, month, year they are away from it. It's very hard for them to ignore it. The call never stops no matter how much they might want it too, they can never get away from it" McGonagall answered him, with a distant look in her eyes. May looked off into the distance and placed her head on her arms sadly.
'I can never get what I truly want, I can never get away from it' she thought sadly, once class was over, she left and went back to the dorm, they group followed her quietly worried for their friend.
"May do you want to come down to dinner with us?" Draco asked her, she smiled and shook her head.
"No thanks I think I'm just going to bed, I'm not very hungry." May replied softly walking up the stair to her room. She crawled into bed and curled into a small ball
'Am I ever going to find what I'm looking for, or will I end up failing?' she asked herself. May sighed once more before closing her eyes and let her mind drift off to the dream world.
An: Eeeek I completely changed this chapter, before it really sucked but luckily I managed to up my imagination since the time I first posted this story on my first account Please tell me what you think about it.