Dementors, he thought wildly.
And Harry heard him. Get out of there, he said. Run.
But you -
RUN! yelled Harry, with such force it nearly split Dracos head open.
They ran.
* * * * *
'Dementors.' Harry swore. 'They got chased away by dementors.
We?re on our own, Hermione.'
There was a long silence while Hermione absorbed this information.
'So what have we fallen into exactly?' she said in a small voice, after what seemed like a great deal of time splashing around silently in the dark, but was probably less than a minute.
'Water,' said Harry, and the sound of his voice was very comforting.
'Just…ordinary water.'
'Its so dark,' she said, trying to keep her voice steady.
She felt Harrys hand bump against hers underwater, and he squeezed it tightly. 'Lumos,' she heard him say, and the space they were in was suddenly flooded with dim light.
'Harry! No magic!' she cried, trying to find a way to reverse his light spell. 'Slytherin will know!'
'We?re not in the castle right now. And how could he come after us down here anyway?'
At this moment, with the water chilling her body, Hermione wondered if being discovered by Slytherin would be the worst thing for them. How long could they survive down here anyway? And where, exactly, was 'here?, she wondered, turning around. Hermione could just make out that they were floating in a sort of underground lake, with a rocky beach far to their left.
“We’d better swim towards that,” Hermione said, hoping she sounded more optimistic than she felt.
There was a silence. Hermione was fairly sure they were both picturing some sort of lurking underwater monster ready to drag them down by their feet.
“All right,” said Harry. “Let’s go.”
They splash-paddled towards the rocky beach — they were both perfectly decent swimmers, but the water was very cold, and they were already tired. With a sinking heart, Hermione began to wonder whether they would make it after all. It was made worse by the fact that they were dragging heavy objects with them, like the scabbard and the Lycanthe, but they couldn’t just drop them to the bottom of the lake — they’d never be found again. On the other hand, if drowning was the only other option —
“H-Harry,” she began, with chattering teeth.
He started to turn — and the water between them erupted.
Hermione cried out as two shapes rose from the lake’s surface, shedding water. She gasped — and then realized what they were.
Mermaids. Three very pretty mermaids with long fairish green hair, gills, and green-blue fish tails shimmering underneath the water.
They looked from Harry to Hermione and dissolved into a fit of giggles.
The leftmost one recovered first. “Hello!” she said cheerfully.
Hermione was reminded, rather bizarrely, of Parvati and Lavender, had they been part-haddock, although the speaking one bore a strange resemblance to Pansy Parkinson.
'Who are you?' Harry asked, sounding more amazed than anything else. 'And how can we understand you?'
'We're merveela,' said the one on the right, looking affronted, 'so of course we speak English. Not that it matters, since we're going to drown you anyway.'
Harry blinked at them, and then at Hermione. She shifted nervously in the water. Up close she could see that the merveela had rather sharp teeth and long greenish nails. 'I'd really rather you didn't,'
Harry said.
'Oh, dear, I'm afraid we must,' said the merveela. 'Terrible nuisance of course — especially from your perspective — but we were set here to guard the castle, and guard it we must. We're not meant to let anyone past, unless it's the Heir of Gryffindor, but it's not like he's coming.'
'But I am the Heir of Gryffindor,' Harry protested, spitting water.
The merveela looked unconvinced. 'Everyone says that, but nobody ever is.'
'He really is,' Hermione said. 'Show them the scabbard, Harry.'
Holding onto the rock behind him with one hand, Harry fumbled the sword out of its scabbard and held it up in front of him.
The merveela both gaped. The left one seized the other and shook her with excitement. 'Hes the one! The one from the prophecy, about the Heir! We can tell him the Secret!'
'Wait, what about her?? the second demanded, looking doubtfully at Hermione.
'Shes nobody.'
'I am not nobody,' Hermione snapped. 'I?m the Heir of Ravenclaw.'
'Well, the prophecy doesn?t mention you,' said the first mermaid in a superior tone.
