The Heiress of Slytherin

Mermaids and Minnie

As Ivy sat down on a couch at the end of their first week back, she realized that she hadn't panicked in all that time. The thought made her smile. She couldn't believe that it was less than half a year since she'd started at this school, friendless and terrified. Her whole world had shifted, and yes, it was chaotic as hell, but it made her happy.

She was happy. With that pleasant thought, Ivy slipped off to sleep, too tired and preoccupied to leave her dorm.

In the middle of the night, Ivy awoke with a start. She had been having some very odd dreams. Dreams of storms, shipwrecks, battles and strangest of all, her mother, except not as Ivy had ever seen her. She was in her siren form and her mermaid form, which was a very odd thing for her to do. It was possible, but Kyria had never enjoyed it - said it took forever for her feathers to dry off. She'd looked so angry; it had been what had shaken Ivy awake so quickly. She'd never seen her mum that angry, it was as though she wanted to rip the whole world apart with her hands.

Putting her head in her hands, Ivy tried to shake the dream from her mind. Maybe she would drag Theo to the kitchens with her. Those poor house-elves must be so tired of them, although they did try to remain as quiet as they could.

Looking up from her hands, Ivy stilled. Staring at her through the glass, was her mermaid. Ivy was sure that it had just been one mermaid with who she'd been interacting all semester. She didn't know how, she just did.

Getting up, Ivy walked carefully over to the glass. The mermaid had seemed too warm to her since she'd skated on the black lake, and they'd swum beneath her, but she didn't want to risk scaring them off. She was sure that if she just got close enough to the glass she could speak to it.

The mermaid watched her approach and didn't seem to make any move to leave, which Ivy noticed relievedly. As she reached the window, she gently rested her hand against the glass. It was surprisingly thin upon closer observation, but Ivy assumed it was probably swathed in a whole manner of enchantments that kept it from breaking.

The mermaid stared at her for a moment, before it also reached out one of its silvery-blue webbed hands, placing it on the other side of the glass. Ivy smiled, her eyes shining. For a moment, she just took in the sight of the mermaid. She had never seen it this close-up.

It had flowing hair that grew in thick strands and was a cross between blonde and sea-green. Its face was quite flat, with a wide nose that barely had a bridge, and great big eyes that rested far apart on its face. They had large, sage green iris's, and black, ovular pupils. They held pride and fearlessness in them; Ivy thought that made them even more beautiful. Their jaw jutted out slightly, and they had thick lips that stretched out wide, with the same seriousness written in them as the rest of their face.

The mermaid was holding a fearsome spear, and Ivy saw the edges glint in the moonlight that was filtering the water. It may look crude, but she could tell that it was a formidable weapon. She noticed that the mermaid had a lean, but very muscular body and its torso blended completely with its tail, the shade of silvery-blue shifting just a hint deeper. This was fascinating for the siren, whose tail was a completely different colour from her upper body.

Ivy felt no shame in looking at the mermaid in interest, as it was looking at her with equal amounts of fascination. It had never seen a siren before, and it was looking at this very small, not particularly muscular girl with great respect and an even greater amount of confusion. It was smart enough not to underestimate her, and it could tell that she carried the beauty and pride of a siren, but had it not known better, the idea of a creature so small being so powerful, was laughable.

Ivy was the first to break the long-held silence. Her mermish was admittedly rusty, and she felt conscious of needing to practise it more, but it would get her by for an introductory conversation. Muttering a spell to keep the odd, rasping language from reaching any prying ears inside, Ivy cleared her throat and began the only way she knew how.