Look at this stuff,

Isn't it neat?

Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?

Wouldn't you think I'm a girl, a girl who has, everything.

What would I give,

If I could live out of these waters?

What would I pay, to spend the day, out on the sand?

Part of Your World in the Little Mermaid.

XX

''Sisters'', the powerful voice echoed on the walls of the cavern, ''we stand here today to send one of us to procreate. The rules are simple. She must find a man to procreate within the next month. She will be given the ritual necklace. If she fails, she will be killed.''

The band of mermaids yelled, a yell coming from the bottom of their throat. A yell that would have killed a human being instantly, if heard outside of water.

They all had different colors of tails: from blue to gold, to green or even bright pink. They had long, gorgeous hair in which were hiding miniscule creatures such a tiny fishes. The color of their hair fitted the color of their tails, and shone with grace. The walls of the cavern, which was the palace of the queen of mermaid, were painted with gold and reflected the light of the underwater lanterns which were light with a rare form of magic.

''Hermione, please swim up to here.''

A purple mermaid swam up to the stand where the queen of the mermaid, Minerva, was waiting for her. Her face was half hidden by her light brownish, with pieces of purple hair. Her eyes were human shaped. This phenomenon was rare, and it made Hermione even more special to her queen. The more similarities the mermaid bodies would have with the humans, the easier it would be for the individual to walk the earth as one of them.

Hermione stood in front of her queen, slowly flipping her dark purple fins to stay in place without swimming higher than Queen Minerva.

''Hermione,'' all the yells stopped, ''you shall find a man to mark, use, and kill. No one ought to know about us, for the last time one of us swam up to the land, she vanished. Lily was brave, but she fell in love, and got her heart ripped, her fins cut and her blood drank by that evil witch. She is probably waiting for you, right now, knowing we have to start a new cycle of reproduction.''

Hermione nodded, feeling hew shoulders weighting with every word her queen loudly spoke to all of the 700 mermaids watching her.

''Do not disappoint me, Hermione.''

As the tradition obliged, she was giving a necklace made of pearls by her kingdom. Each kingdom had different pearls, and these necklace represented the right to be out of the kingdom for procreation, it was the only reason the cross the limits.

Hermione took the necklace delicately in her hands, and clasped it around her neck. There, she was ready.

At least, that was what she had thought at that very moment. But no more than two days after her departure, something terrible had happened. She was only looking for a man to drown and use, a single ship floating on the sea maybe, but it seemed as if the fishermen had been waiting for her for ages.

She'd never seen a boat before, let alone so many roaming the waters in attempts to catch her.

How could she catch only one of them?

Then what she had feared happen: as she was trying to catch one of the men, they had seen her. It had confirmed the presence of the creature and the word had propagated faster than dust in a storm.

The next night, she had tried again to catch one man. But they had been so many on the boat, pointing their weapon at her. She had been guilty of curiosity and wanted to watch them from up close. She knew her stare would hypnotise to fisherman, and that eventually he would fall over board and she would only have to catch him and drown him for good. But just when the man was about to fall, she had been hurt with a harpoon and looked away.

The pain was unbearable, Hermione had never experiences something so aching. She had tried to cover her wound with medicinal seaweed and a little magic, but it had no effect. It was so painful, she even imagined great sharks were after her. To her relief, it had only been the shadow of a large piece of wood. She used it as support and used the harpoon as a weapon if needed.

So she took off for the shore. She was in the middle of nowhere when the storm stopped its raging fury. But being a mermaid, she knew her exact coordinate in water. She swam, her fins hurt, to the closest shore. She was thankful it was empty, and she rested behind a large tree trunk, leaving the harpoon close to her if anything happened. Her tail was bleeding, leaving traces of silver. She could see a castle afar, but no light indicated a movement from it.

Or was it movement?

She saw a bright star climbing down the rocks from the castle to the shore. Funny, she knew the sky pretty well, for she had watch it for the past 40 years of her life. She was now an adult, and no more a kid. That's why they had send her to procreate. But as a teenager, she used to look at the sky through a magic telescope back at her home. Other than shooting stars, it was very unusual to see a star moving so fast.

The pain is making me hallucinating again.

The star moved on the shore, slowly approaching her. Out of fear, she tried to hide behind another larger piece of wood, but apparently she had failed.

She saw him, she captured every trait of his beautiful face from afar, her vision being stronger than humans. Her heart stopped beating, and then it started beating, faster than it had ever beaten. It beat so fast, it almost hurt.

He was the most beautiful men she had ever laid eyes on.

He wasn't a star, although his beauty could promise otherwise. He had blond hair, and deep grey eyes. He had strong arms, and fitted legs. But even her, who had never seen a human this close before, could capture his sensitivity.

But before she could observe him more, his eyes met hers.

She had to swim back into the waters, no matter how painful it would be. If the queen knew she had crossed path with a man and not drowned him, it would be the end of Hermione. She could not kill him. Anyone, but not him. If she told the queen she had been hurt because they were looking for her, maybe, just maybe, she would be permitted another chance.

Before he could reach her, the waters swallowed her.

But each night, for the nest days, she came back in hope to see him. She had managed to cover up her wound, and was slowly recovering from it. But it was far too slow from her likes.

She had only two weeks left.

One night, he didn't come back.

That's when she knew, instinctively, that he had gone looking for her.

XX

Draco stepped out in the middle of nowhere, after what seemed to be hours of walking under the ground. He didn't if Severus Snape had made it out alive, but he figured that the man had died, saving the heir of Hogwarts.

Draco had to escape, and fast. He could stay here, but he had to go back at the tavern to take his things and his horse as well. The smoke from the fire had tainted his face black, but he took the time take off his Slytherin crest off his cloak and put dirt in his hair to cover the platinum effect. He knew he had a meeting with Crabbe and Goyle that night, but they would have to wait for him to come back another day. Draco ran in direction of the Chamber of the Secrets, in hope not to be seen. Since the building only had one front door, and one back door used by the staff, he decided quickly to take the second option, and to cover this head with the hood of his cloak. He rapidly opened the door, than escalated the stairs to his room.

He grabbed his spare clothing and put it in his bags in a hurry. Without noticing, his cloak had brushed past the bowl of water and had pushed it over, the water formed a small puddle on the floor. He took a glance at it, not really caring. But something caught his eyes, and he suddenly kneeled in front of the puddle.

''Hermione? Hermione is that you?'' He whispered to the water as he saw the face of the mermaid reflecting his own awe.

Crack.

The floor behind him made a noise, probably under the weight of something. Tiny waves shook the surface of the puddle, and Hermione's eyes grew bigger in fear.

Smack!

Draco was knocked out from behind.

Short chapter! I had to think about everything that could possibly happen if mermaids were real, how would they live, what would they look like... Gotta say I was inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean, that's where I took the idea of a task to accomplish as a mermaid.

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