Can't Stop the Rain

The grindylows cackled and got a grip around my hands and arms. I looked up hoping to see someone dive in after me, nothing. They pulled me in deeper and deeper still. My head was pounding and I tried to scream but bubbles came out instead of sound. The grindylows paid no attention and kept pulling me down. I finally reached the bottom; there were huts of some kind and people. A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom on all sides. Here and there at the dark windows, I saw their faces, at first I thought they were people.

But how can people survive underwater unless they're...mermaids? But don't mermaids live in the sea? Not in lakes?

But these mermaids bore no resemblance at all to the beautiful mermaids that I had heard about in stories. The merpeople had grayish skin and long, wild, dark green hair. Their eyes were yellow, as were their broken teeth, and they wore thick ropes of pebbles around their necks. A large group of them had circled around some kind of a stake.

What is going on, what do they WANT?

The grindylows brought me down to them and let go. I floated in the water for a second before I realized this was my chance and tried frantically to swim up towards the surface, my lungs were screaming for air. I knew that I couldn't last much longer under water. As I kicked, strong arms gripped me and pulled down, tying me to the stake. Were they going to sacrifice me? Then the largest merman of all came to me and started speaking, but it wasn't normal language, like human, it was something else. Musical...but...I could understand him. He was saying something but my head was pounding, I could feel the water clogging my lungs and I tried to scream, to tell him that I couldn't breathe, that I was going to die. But then he stared into my eyes, not speaking. Surprisingly, I could still feel the water coming in but I wasn't afraid anymore. The merman was speaking to me.
"My princess, you have returned to us, to regain your place among us. I remember long ago, you promised that you would return to take your place among us, my dear Alexandra."
I screamed out again, I could feel pain all over my body, my lungs were full, and then I felt stretching and breaking all over my body. I looked down and saw that my shoes had disappeared and that my feet were stretching, breaking into fins. I saw the scales were spreading up my legs. I could feel my legs morphing together, as if into one piece.

My shirt and bra had disappeared, I covered myself with my hands and looked around, the other merwomen had seaweed wrapped around their busts, I asked for some, in Mermish surprisingly enough, it seems I had become a full-fledged mermaid. I floated there, still tied to the stake. Finally, the merman untied me and introduced himself as Merchieftainess Murcus. He took my arm and I was left with one arm to cover myself which wasn't enough. He looked me up and down with a lust in his eyes. The other merpeople laughed, he started pulling me towards the largest hut and told me that he was going to 'make me his queen'. I screamed out and tried to swim away but was so unaccustomed to my new fins that at first I just flopped about in the water until I got the hang of it. However, since I had one hand covering myself and one hand in his grip, I didn't get very far. He pulled me inside and moved my other hand leaving me exposed when. I cried, even though I couldn't feel the tears running down my face when all of a sudden the walls of the hut blew wide open and Harry come in with his wand pointed. But he wasn't just plain old Harry anymore, he had gills on the sides of his neck and his feet and hands had become webbed. He shot a jet of hot water out of his wand at Murcus and he yelled. I lay there on the ground limp, unable to move from shock. Harry grabbed me around the waist and started swimming upwards. I didn't even care to cover myself how glad I was to be out of there, then more powerful arms gripped around the bottom of my tail and I looked down, there was the chief and more men, the merwomen were trying to get them to release me, they were crying and trying to pull the mermen off but they were not strong enough.

I looked up at the surface and saw Hermione swimming down towards me, shooting jets of hot water at the mermen until they let go. But she was not webbed like Harry, she had a large sort of bubble around her heads and she grabbed me around the waist too and the both of them pulled me towards the surface. The light got closer and closer and the three of us broke the surface of the water. We were in the middle of the lake. Harry and Hermione let go and swam towards the bank, leaving me in the middle. I got the cue and covered myself with my arms and ducked under the water, using my powerful fins to propel myself to the bank. I reached the bank and couldn't pull myself up unless I wanted to be exposed again. Everyone reached for me before I realized that something was suctioned to my body, I turned around and saw a giant squid and it had encased me in one tentacle.

Oh, God, will this nightmare never end?!

But to my surprise and everyone else's, the squid gently placed me down on the grassy bank and retreated back into the icy water. I lay there on the bank, my arms crossed over my chest, and felt a tightness all over my body; I felt my scales disappearing and in the blink of an eye, I lay naked on the bank, crying. Everyone except Hermione had turned away and soon as my scales had started fading and saw nothing, Hermione whipped her cloak off, sat me up and wrapped it around me. I cried out in agony having completely forgotten that my ankle was broken. Everyone turned back around and saw my ankle; it looked as if an inch was all that was needed for my foot to separate from the rest of my leg. I sat there in pain and saw Dumbledore and a grey-haired witch with a nurse's hat running down towards us. Dumbledore looked so furious; I thought that he was mad at me.
"Hello, dear, I'm Madame Pomfrey," the witch said. "Oh, you poor thing, your ankle's broken right in half. You'll have to stay overnight in the hospital wing so I can mend that."
I nodded and looked around for Dumbledore but to my surprise he was not there but had continued running down to the lake and had started talking in Mermish, but without the musical lilt in the voice that I had heard under the water, more in a screeching voice, a voice filled with rage. His calls unheeded, he pointed his wand at the lake and fire ripped across the still, glassy surface. He mumbled something and the merchief came floating up out of the water, limp and unconscious. He waved the body over to him and started up towards the rest of us.
"Alright, Alexandra, how about we all go up to my office and we'll get this whole matter sorted out?"
I just wanted to go back to my dorm but Dumbledore's voice quaked with rage so we obeyed. Fred, George, Hermione, Ron, Harry, Madame Pomfrey, Dumbledore, Murcus and I rounded up the stairs to what I assumed was Dumbledore's office. We stopped in front of two stone gargoyles.
"Fizzing Whizbee," said Dumbledore, serious as could be.
The gargoyles sprang to life and jumped to the sides revealing a stone eagle that started to twist around and up, stairs appearing under it, like a spinning escalator. Dumbledore stepped onto the stairs and continued upwards, we all took his cue and followed. I was leaning on Hermione due to my broken leg and it required much strength and caused me great pain when I walked. The stairs stopped in front of a large wooden door which swung open.

We all stepped into a medium-sized office and Dumbledore conjured more chairs out of nowhere. Dumbledore sat down and folded his fingers one over another and looked at all of us in turn. He sat like that in silence for a while, obviously thinking and no one wanted to interrupt. There were many paintings on the wall of past headmasters who were moving and talking. An especially old whitened wizard pointed at me and whispered to his neighbor in the next painting.
"That's the girl who got pulled into the lake..."
This information was passed on until it came full-circle around the room and it reached a very old, kindly looking witch who gasped.
"Oh, you poor dear! Are you all right?" she asked.
I smiled awkwardly and nodded. It was then that I saw the merchief floating behind me, I shifted my chair a little bit forward as to get as far away from him as possible. This small noise seemed to break Dumbledore's bout of thought and pushed him to speak,
"Well, Alexandra. I imagine that you've been through quite an ordeal just now. If you will give me your side of the story please. Any holes will kindly be filled in by your friends."
And with this he leaned back in his chair and waited.
"Well, Professor, Fred and I were down by the lake, and his lips were bleeding so I dipped my handkerchief into the lake to get it wet and something slimy wrapped around my arm. The first time it was just some tangled seaweed so I relaxed and moved up the bank. But then the second I relaxed, something reached out of the water and grabbed me and started pulling me in."
Dumbledore held his hand up as to interrupt.
"Could you, Alexandra, possibly identify what it was that had so viciously held you in its grip?" he asked.
"Yes, sir, I think it was a grindylow."
"Were there any markings of the sort? Something I could use to distinguish it from the other grindylows in the lake?"
I stopped and tried to remember.
"Yes, sir, the first one had yellow markings between its eyes."
Dumbledore nodded and paused, then shut his eyes. Suddenly the window in his office snapped open and wind howled and the offending grindylow I had just described came flying through the window to rest in the air, floating, next to the merchief, he was also limp and unconscious. Not bothered by this in the least, Dumbledore motioned to me to continue, I faltered for a second and continued speaking.

"Oh, well, um. Oh right. The grindylows pulled me down to the bottom of the lake and after a second I realized that they were mermaids. The grindylows let go of me and I floated in the water for a second and then when I tried to swim away, a great bunch of the mermen grabbed me and tied me to some sort of stake. Then the largest one approached and started talking to me. And at first I couldn't understand him but then something made me calm down, something about the look in his eye, even though I couldn't breathe, I had no oxygen in my lungs. And he started talking, something about how I was supposed to take my place as his queen? Take my place among them as his queen? And um, yes then I noticed all my clothes had disappeared and I was...morphing I guess you could say? I changed into a mermaid and then they untied me from the stake and he started pulling me into the largest hut-"
It was here I started to tremble. Dumbledore looked at me kindly.
"I realize that this is difficult for you, Alexandra, but I need to know what happened."
I got myself together, calmed down and resumed.
"Well then, he said something about making me his queen and he threw me down on the floor," my voice trembled, "and then the walls kind of...exploded and Harry swam in. And he grabbed me around the waist and started to pull me towards the surface but then the mermen grabbed me around the bottom of my...tail and Hermione came and hurt them. It was so strange though...all the mermen were hanging on to me, trying to prevent me from leaving and Murcus seemed so angry while all the merwomen were trying to pull them off me, they were crying and trying to get them to let go...they were all screaming really angrily and sadly at the same time...like they were trying to help me. Hermione kept blasting them with hot water or something and we finally broke through the surface. Then I thought it was all over and I got to the bank and they were going to lift me out because I couldn't pull myself out with um..." Dumbledore nodded and I continued. "And then before they did, the giant squid lifted me up into the air and I thought it would pull me back down into the lake but then it just put me down on the bank and then you, sir, came with Madame Pomfrey."
I took a large breath and leaned back in my chair, exhausted. Everyone stared at me, then at Dumbledore.
"The physical pain I know is great, and I promise you that Madame Pomfrey will mend that overnight. Now I will apologize in advance for I will now have to speak with Merchieftainess Murcus and with this grindylow in order to get the full story and I am afraid that most of you will not understand." He looked at me significantly. "I beg your pardons, it will not take long."

Dumbledore pointed his wand at the grindylow and it revived and started flailing about in the air and screeching. Dumbledore ignored this and strode to it. The grindylow calmed instantly and started screeching incoherently but quietly to Dumbledore. The two conversed in this fashion for a few minutes and then Dumbledore seemed to thank the grindylow and allow him to float back out the window. My gaze followed it back to the lake before a familiar language beckoned my ear; I turned to Dumbledore where he was arguing heatedly with the merchief, screeching rather, the chief was speaking in this language too. It seemed that they spoke the same language, but that Mermish sounded different above the water than below. I understood everything but decided to wait until Dumbledore explained to everyone, if he did. Dumbledore seemed to finish the conversation on a very firm note, the merchief nodded, defeated it seemed. He also floated out the window, swimming in the air, back to the lake and he submerged, sending a spray of water up with a smack of his fins. Dumbledore turned back to everyone, sat down and commenced to tell the whole story, even though I thought I knew everything now, except for what the grindylow had said. He sat down, looking down his long, crooked nose at all of us and spoke.

"Well, Alexandra. I knew that you are named after your grandmother and that your grandmother is also part mermaid but I never imagined in my wildest dreams that this would happen. You do not have any authentic mermaid blood in your family. Your grandmother bewitched herself, I know when and I know why for I helped her with it. It is strange however that you have also inherited this trait. Now, I have formed a plausible theory. The same prophecy that runs in your family, through your veins, the one that predicts that every third generation, a witch or wizard will be born? I believe that along with gaining that trait from your grandmother, you inherited one more. Mermaid blood. Your grandmother bewitched herself so that she could be with her love, yes, Merchieftainess Murcus." I dropped my jaw in shock and he continued. "She would change at times to be with him but could never be with him fully and so she promised that she would return one day to be with him. Now it seems, since Hogwarts has eyes and ears all over, Murcus heard that an Alexandra Evans had come to Hogwarts and falsely believed that you were his love from three generations ago. He bribed the grindylows to retrieve you at an opportune moment and to return you to him. Then followed the sequence of events for which you all now know. Fortunately, thanks to your friends, you were rescued. Now I have just explained the whole situation to Murcus and at first he insisted that you were Alexandra Evans and I told him that you were, but not his Alexandra Evans, but her granddaughter and that he had made a grave mistake. I have finally set him straight and he apologizes deeply. As for the giant squid, I believe that it takes mercy and befriends only those of pure heart so I would think something of the way that it acted towards you for normally the giant squid is a vicious creature that only the merpeople can control and even they cannot always have full rein over it. And that, my dear, is the whole story. Have I left anything out? Any questions unanswered? No? Good. Now I believe that you must be escorted to the hospital wing to mend that leg and I will inform all of your teachers to free you from classes tomorrow so that you may rest."
I cheered in myself because I had double Potions with the Slytherins tomorrow. I had not had it yesterday for Professor Snape had not been able to find the key for his classroom and I wanted to avoid going to Potions for as long as possible because Pansy was in that class and I were afraid that either she might try to hurt me or that I might be tempted to get her back for last time. Either way, I had tomorrow off.

We all got up from the comfy chairs and Madame Pomfrey grabbed me by the arm.
"Just hold onto me, dear, we're going to apparate down to the hospital wing."

Apparate?

Then, everything disappeared with a loud crack. It felt like I was being squeezed and compressed through a pipe and finally squeezed out the other end. I looked around; we were in a large white room with lots of hospital beds. A few house elves were the only other ones there. Madame Pomfrey led me to the nearest bed where there was a label that said:

Alexandra Evans
5th year Gryffindor
Broken ankle

I lay down and Madame Pomfrey beckoned a few house elf who brought a tray with a goblet on it.
"Alright, dear, relax now," she said.
She waved her wand and I felt all of my pain slowly melt away.

Wow, that was...interesting. Why didn’t my grandmother do that when I broke my arm riding my bike? It would have been much more convenient than the two months that I spent in a cast.

"Here, dear, drink this, you've been through quite an ordeal, this will help you to a dreamless sleep, drink up!"
She poured the potion down my throat; it was pleasantly warm and tasted like cinnamon and oranges, I gratefully gulped down the last drop and my eyelids dropped in a moment.