"Ahem." Roger Williams caught Daphne's hand just as it started drifting upward along his fish tail. His expression turned solemn with warning. "Don't touch me like that."
"But…" Daphne's cheeks turned so red they looked branded by a hot iron, and her eyes sparkled with dangerous fascination. "But you look adorable."
"Roger, I really want to take a photograph of you like this and turn it into a life-size cushion," she said, looking as if she could barely stop herself from hugging him. His transformed appearance seemed to satisfy every ridiculous fantasy she had ever had about mermaids.
"Stop right there. I am male," Roger said, then looked down at the tail and corrected himself with painful dignity. "Fine. I am a merman."
He pointed at her with firm seriousness. "Behave yourself, Lady Greengrass. The potion lasts four hours. If I'm not back in two, go find a professor to rescue me."
Roger rolled his eyes at her, silently warning her not to cause trouble. Then he took a deep breath and began running a quick simulation in his mind before entering the lake.
[1. You discover a merpeople village at the bottom of the Black Lake.]
[2. The merpeople find you and take you back to their settlement.]
[3. After some explanation, they determine that you are a young wizard and release you.]
[Simulation stopped.]
Seeing no major danger, Roger leaned back and plunged into the dark lake. The cold water swallowed him at once, and his transformed body instinctively adjusted to the heavy pressure around him.
"Roger! The rope…" Daphne stared at the loose rope in her hand, her lips pursing in dismay.
The enchanted rope had slipped right off his fish tail. She called after him urgently, but it was already too late; Roger had disappeared beneath the water, leaving only faint ripples behind.
"Will he be all right?" Daphne whispered, staring into the still black surface.
She prayed that Roger would not run into danger below. Then her gaze fell on the extra potions left on the shore, and after a brief struggle, she stamped her foot and drank one without hesitation.
In an instant, she felt a wonderful change spread through her body. Her legs fused into a graceful tail, her breathing altered, and with one flick of her fin, she slipped elegantly into the water after him.
Underwater, Roger quickly discovered the flaw in the potion. It allowed a wizard to breathe, but not to speak, and when he opened his mouth to test it, only a string of bubbles floated upward.
After swimming for a while, he found a dense kelp forest on the western side of the Black Lake. According to Professor Sprout, the merpeople village was located in the centre of that underwater forest.
Roger swam into the seaweed, his tail swaying more naturally with each movement. Following the faint shimmering light in the distance, he moved closer and quietly approached the glow.
Sure enough, a merpeople village appeared before him. The settlement was built from stones of different sizes, and pale-haired merpeople moved in and out between the structures.
They looked almost exactly like the drawing Professor Sprout had scratched into the soil. Unfortunately, that meant they were also rather frightening, with rough skin, broad noses, sharp teeth, and large yellow eyes that shone eerily in the lake's gloom.
Soon, Roger spotted his target at the edge of the village. A large patch of shimmering Water-Ripple Grass swayed at the bottom of the lake, giving off a soft fluorescent glow.
To avoid being caught by the merpeople, Roger prepared to dive lower and camouflage himself with mud. Before he could act, his head suddenly grew heavy, and darkness folded over him.
Murcus watched the small merman-shaped figure sink. With a gentle flick of her tail, she swam forward, caught him, and pulled him back toward the village.
"He's awake. He's awake," several merpeople sang as Roger slowly opened his eyes.
They circled around him, chattering curiously about the young figure who looked so much like one of their distant cousins. Each of them was at least seven feet long, making Roger look like a newborn merchild by comparison.
Their voices were astonishingly beautiful underwater. Every sentence sounded like a soprano's aria, clear, bright, and ringing through the water.
"Chief, he's so handsome. He's just a little small."
"Yes, yes. Did Headmaster Dumbledore capture him from the Caribbean?"
"Definitely. Look at his skin and hair," another mermaid said eagerly.
A few restless merpeople began poking and touching him here and there, their curiosity impossible to restrain. One of them stared at Roger's smooth face with envy and let out a mournful sigh.
"Why are we so ugly?"
"You forgot. We live in cold water."
"Oh, right, right." She swam over, touched Roger's face again, then touched her own rough cheek. "The Merrow tribe in Ireland is even uglier than us."
"That is enough," Murcus said, ordering them back.
She was much taller than the others, fierce-looking and dignified, with the presence of someone used to being obeyed. Her sharp yellow eyes studied Roger carefully.
"This is a young wizard from Hogwarts," Murcus said. "He is not one of us."
Roger nodded quickly, pointed at his mouth, then took out his wand to prove his identity. The movement made several merpeople immediately pull back, though their curiosity did not fade.
"Wait. Wizards can turn into merpeople?" one of them asked in astonishment. "Does that mean we can become human?"
"Have you been reading Muggle books from shipwrecks again?" another mermaid demanded.
Murcus ignored the whispers of her people behind her and looked at Roger with a frown. "Little wizard, why have you trespassed into our territory?"
Roger opened his mouth to explain, but only a string of bubbles came out. The watching merpeople burst into chiming laughter, their voices rising and falling like a chorus of mocking bells.
Helpless, Roger could only gesture the word friend and point toward the glowing Water-Ripple Grass. He tried to make it clear that he had come only to collect some plants, not to disturb their village.
Murcus considered him for a moment. "Come with me. If you trespass into our territory again, I will not be merciful."
Roger nodded quickly. In his heart, he swore that he would rather starve to death or jump from a tower than come sneaking into the merpeople village again.
"Take the Water-Ripple Grass and leave," Murcus said.
She allowed Roger to pick some freely, then tossed him a strip of seaweed to tie the bundle around his waist. Roger gave an awkward but sincere gesture of thanks.
The merpeople seemed fierce, but at least they were reasonable. More importantly, Murcus had not used her spear when she ambushed him, so Roger decided that counted as friendliness.
He breathed a sigh of relief. The task of gathering Water-Ripple Grass was finally complete.
Just as he prepared to return to the surface, a mermaid hurried over from the darkness. Her yellow fins trembled slightly, and her curious gaze moved over Roger before she turned to Murcus.
"Chief, I saw a flesh-eating eel chasing a little mermaid."
"Oh no. Daphne." Roger immediately realised that she must have drunk the potion and come looking for him.
He grabbed Murcus's fin and frantically tried every gesture he could think of, attempting to make her understand that the "little mermaid" being chased was also a young witch from Hogwarts.
"You young wizards are truly troublesome," Murcus said, looking at Roger as he released another desperate stream of bubbles. Her voice was full of weary frustration. "No wonder Headmaster Dumbledore is always complaining to me."
She swam upward with calm strength, raised the spear in her hand, and released a series of beautiful sound waves. The call spread across the lakebed, rippling outward through the dark water.
It was a summons for the entire Selkie tribe. Under her command, the merpeople quickly assembled, preparing to rescue the little mermaid being hunted.
Roger studied their ranks and keenly noticed that all the warriors carrying weapons were women. Could the Selkie tribe be matriarchal? The question immediately hooked his curiosity, but this was obviously not the time to study merpeople culture.
Roger followed Murcus as they swam toward the flesh-eating eel. He waved his arms and gestured to the mermaid beside him, trying to ask how they sensed Daphne's location.
"Sound is our eyes," the mermaid explained.
She stroked Roger's hair with envy in her gaze. Their kin living in warmer waters must be so beautiful, she thought sadly, while they remained trapped in the cold, dark lake, growing uglier generation by generation.
Murcus led the group to their quarry. Ahead of them, a huge black aquatic creature twisted through the water, terrifying and sleek, with a mouth full of sharp teeth.
Its tail was thick and powerful, but its body moved with the agility of a snake. Daphne swam desperately ahead of it, her new tail flashing in the dim water as the eel drew closer and closer.
Feeling the current churn behind her, Daphne opened her mouth in terror. No scream came out, only a weak stream of bubbles that drifted upward past her face.
"Daphne, over here," Roger called anxiously.
His voice still could not pass through the potion's transformation. All he could do was produce bubbles, and Daphne could not hear him.
"Little wizard, can you lure it over?" Murcus asked, turning to him. Then she explained her plan briefly. "It cannot hear us."
Roger nodded. A bright flash lit at the tip of his wand.
The darkness of the lakebed shattered at once, and the surrounding water glowed with a captivating, profound turquoise-blue light. Drawn by the sudden brightness, the flesh-eating eel's instincts forced it to abandon the morsel near its jaws and turn toward the light.
"Little wizard, make it brighter," Murcus urged when she saw the eel change direction.
Roger nodded and poured out his magic without reservation. A sun rose from the lakebed, completely driving away the darkness that had lingered there for tens of thousands of years.
The creatures of the Black Lake woke in confusion: Grindylows, lobaworms, phosphorescent jellyfish, squid, and schools of fish sheltering inside a sunken ship. Startled by the impossible light, they fled wildly toward the surface.
Murcus was astonished. The glow far exceeded her expectations, and meanwhile, inside Hogwarts Castle, students saw a dazzling white radiance rise from the surface of the Black Lake and began eagerly asking what had happened.
"I thought there would be a fierce battle," Murcus said, sighing as she watched the flesh-eating eel flee. "It is a pity you frightened it away."
"Come," she said. "I'll take you and your companion back to the surface."
.....
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