'Sexist piece of claptrap,' said Hermione firmly.
'Any secrets that can be told to me,' said Harry loudly, 'can be told to Hermione.'
The mermaids raised their delicate green eyebrows. 'Well, all right,' said the first. “I’ll be right back,” and she dived. She returned a moment later with a circular glass orb in her hand, and offered it to Harry. 'This is for you,' she said.
'Whats that?' he asked dubiously.
'Not sure exactly,' said the mermaid cheerfully. 'I do know that its very powerful, and that its very old. It’s what we’re supposed to guard. It came from the body of a wizard that was thrown down here hundreds of years ago. Its meant to be given to the Heir of Gryffindor.' She held it up to Harry.
Harry shook his head. 'I can't take it,' he said.
The merveela looked vexed. 'Why not?'
'Because I'm about to drown,' he said.
'Oh.' The merveela had the grace to blush. 'All right, we’ll tow you to the beach,” and that is exactly what they did. Harry and Hermione soon found that the water had become shallow, shallow enough to walk in, and they blundered after the merveelas through the water, feeling cold and miserable, but no longer in danger of drowning.
Finally they came to the rocky beach. Above the beach a set of stone stairs led up into darkness. Harry and Hermione dripped miserably while the merveela located her orb, and held it out to Harry again.
He took it, and to the merveelas' great annoyance, handed it immediately to Hermione, who examined it curiously. It looked dark from the outside, but an animated little flame still danced inside it.
Actually, when she looked more closely, she could see that it was three small separate flames, flickering apart and then together. A band of silver ran around the middle of the Orb, and it was chased with a barely-legible inscription in Latin. Hermione could make out only one word: Adunatio.
'What does that mean?' Harry asked, his hair tickling her cheek as he leaned over her shoulder.
'It means a unity, or joining,' said Hermione, handing the little globe back to him. 'It could be a love amulet, or…'
'Be careful with it,' the right merveela interrupted severely. 'Its dangerous. Don?t break it. Its not to be broken. Terrible things might happen.'
'Maybe we don?t want it, then,' said Harry.
The merveelas looked indignant. 'Hrrmph,' the leftmost one said, and pointed at the stairs. 'Those will take you back to the castle,' she said, sniffing haughtily. 'And good luck to you both — you?ll need it.'
With that, she disappeared beneath the water, swiftly followed by her companion. With a disquieted glance back, Hermione took Harrys hand, and together they ascended the stairs, which vanished upward into darkness.
* * * * *
'Okay, but about how many of you are there?' Lupin asked, reaching absently for a Hippogriff Crunchie, then shuddering and putting it down. 'I mean, how many in the Snake Lords army in total? It would really help with strategy planning to have an idea of the numbers.'
'Well,' the chief of the werewolves (whose name had turned out to be Peter Whitstone, and who in his normal life was an accountant who currently lived in Ipswich and who had been bitten by a werewolf when he was sixteen) replied, munching a jellybean, 'theres us werewolves, and then theres about two hundred dementors, the veelas, maybe a hundred trolls, a few banshees, the Gentlemen, some Oggrings and some Skolks.'
'Oggrings?' Lupin was astonished. 'Skolks? But they don?t exist!
They?re mythical!'
Peter looked at him in surprise. 'They are not.'
The DADA teacher in Lupin was extremely interested. The resistance fighter in him was mildly horrified. 'Oggrings are shape-changers,' he said, thoughtfully. 'I haven?t heard of a Skolk since…'
'They?re living skeletons,' said a pretty female werewolf on his right who had introduced herself earlier as Isabel. 'They?re very hard to kill.'
Most of the werewolves had taken a passing interest in Lupin after his arrival and semi-adoption by Pete, and had come up to say hello and snag a jellybean. Isabel was the only one besides Pete who had stayed. The others were now engaged in an involved game of hackeysack in the corner. Lupin couldn?t believe how harmless they all seemed. So this is the vicious pack of beasts I?ve stayed away from all my life. I am deeply ashamed.
'Theres no such thing,' snapped Lupin.
'You seem tense, my friend. I think its time,' Pete announced, 'for a little relaxation.'
Lupin raised an eyebrow. 'Relaxation? All we do is relax.'
But Pete and Isabel were not to be dissuaded. The pretty werewolf girl clapped her hands. 'Fetch pipes, fetch drums, fetch musical instruments made from the shoulder blades of a pig and the stomach-lining of a water-vole, we?re going to get down to some really bad sounds!'
The other werewolves scurried to do her bidding. Lupin, who was familiar with werewolf rock from the Time-Warlock series Sirius had ordered for his last birthday, and knew it involved a lot of howling noises, and so moaned and held his head. 'Look, we have work to do, we have — '
The door opened then, and Sirius came through it, followed by a very pale, very thin Fleur Delacour in a long white dress. Lupin was so shocked that for a moment he barely reacted. Then he saw Pete get to his feet, reaching for the wand he had tossed at Lupin when he first came in, and he reached out and caught it out of Petes hand. 'Let me,' he said roughly, and walked quickly over to where Sirius and Fleur were standing. Blocking the pair of them from the view of the rest of the room, he muttered 'Fleur, catch this,' and tossed the wand towards them. Fleur caught it out of the air, and Lupin stepped back. 'They pass,' he called over his shoulder, and saw Pete, who hadn?t really been paying attention, nod and wave.
