Entering through a vessel was the stangest thing I'd ever done. Not only was my entire body submerged in water, but my entire field of vision was spinning as I was being propelled across this gigantic whirlpool of aquamarine blue. My whole being strangely felt warm and cool all at once, and before I knew it, all three of us emerged out of another body of water.
We were in a sort of basin, the water rippling around us. Romeo — who had a tail again — guided us to the edge of the basin where we could climb and sit onto a flat black-stoned surface.
Once we all managed to hoist ourselves over the edge, Romeo's pale orange tail dangling over the basin, I realized that we were in a cavern, the ceiling of which had icy blue, lavender purple, and oyster pink crystals dimly illuminating the entire space in a crescendo of waves. I peered around curiously, clutching my wand.
"What was that spell, again?" I inquired, looking down at our completely drenched bodies.
"Exaresco!" Romeo cast. His entire body changed colour — a sort of glistening and silvery pale blue — and then he was wearing his Hufflepuff robes again, no mer-tail in sight.
"Right," he mumbled before casting the spell on Hermione and I too. Hot wind blew all over my body so strongly yet so quickly that my clothes were completely dry just a few seconds later.
"I cannot believe what is happening right now," I said, amazed as I stared around the room again. The lighting was simply beautiful. It felt like I was swimming inside a magnificient effervescent crystal.
The black stone we were sitting on was actually the first step to a set of dark-stoned staircases. Romeo waved his hand forward for us to follow him. Hermione and I exchanged intrigued glances before going forward.
At the top of the black steps was a large rocky door with a seashell-shaped indent at the center. There was no handle. Romeo pulled out a pendant with a powder blue seashell from his shirt and pressed the shell inside the indent of the door.
It was a perfect fit. The door swung open at once and Romeo dropped his pendant back inside his shirt.
The door opened up to a dark marbled hallway with aquamarine spheres lighting up the space. It was pretty, but also, sort of creepy.
"What is this place?" I asked, staring at my surroundings in awe.
"It's called The Blue Palace," Romeo said as we neared the end of the corridor.
"Not very blue," I noted as we entered yet another black marbled corridor. Hermione and Romeo chuckled.
"Right this way," Romeo said. We arrived at some kind of audience hall. It was enormous and very much blue as it opened up to the ocean through these ginormous glass window panes across the entire space. Fish, sharks, and jellyfish all swam around in harmony. At the end of the hall, upon some elevated steps, was a throne, which was a majestic cobalt blue and ornated with gold and platinum.
Upon the throne was a tall, obsidian-skinned woman, bejeweled with gold, platinum, crystals, and gemstones. Her hair was braided into many many braids that took the shape of a dazzling sun above her head, held up by a structure of gold. Her robes were intricated with multiple layers of silk of various shades of blue, and of course, adorned with all of her opulent jewelry.
In her hand, she held a golden trident. It was just as large and imposing as she was with its sharp edges and pointed tips.
Romeo bowed to her. Hermione and I instinctively bowed as well.
"Romeo," she said very kindly. Her voice was so soft and so sweet that I had a hard time believing it was coming from such an intimidating-looking woman. "Are these the girls who saw you?"
"Er, yeah — Poseidon said to come here..." Romeo said uncertainly. He looked around the room, as if searching for the God in question.
"Pardon me," I squeaked. The imposing woman gazed down at me curiously. I tried not to gulp too hard. "Er — Are you Amphitrite?"
The woman smiled down at me and said, "Indeed, it is I, the Goddess of the sea. Now, where's Poseidon when we need him?"
"I assure you, my love, I am not too far away," a deep but clear voice uttered right by a door behind the throne.
A man stepped inside. He was pale-skinned and had dark hair. My memory wasn't the greatest, but based on his demeanor and his choice of muggle clothing, he was the same man I had witnessed walking into the Black Lake, last year: Poseidon.
"I was just getting the contracts ready — Now, where are my pens?" Poseidon asked suddenly, patting himself around. "Oh. Right here."
He pulled out three muggle pens from his front pocket and handed it right over to me, Hermione, and Romeo. I grabbed mine gingerly, waiting expectantly at Poseidon who gave us all a blank expression.
"Oh, right. The contracts. One moment," he said, waving his hand around. Suddenly, three scrolls of parchment whizzed out of the room behind the throne and halted in front of Hermione, Romeo, and I.
"What exactly is the meaning of this?" Hermione asked, reading the fine print on the scroll of parchment before her very attentively.
"A magically binding contract, physically restraining you from speaking about what you know and what you have witnessed regarding the existence of Ancients, as you wizards so keenly call us — as well as about Romeo being a merman. Wouldn't want that to slip out, either."
"What happens if we speak about it?" I asked. In the wizarding world, an unbreakable vow meant death. What did it mean in the Ancients' world?
"You will not run into that issue, dear," Amphitrite said calmly. "You will find your tongue unable to move should the intention to speak about it arise."
"What if I wanted to speak to Romeo about it? What if Hermione and I wanted to talk about it?" I queried.
"That shouldn't be an issue, unless the conversation is not private anymore," Poseidon said.
"Why could Romeo tell us about you all?" Hermione questioned, looking skeptically over at the two deities. "Didn't he sign a contract such as this one before?"
"No. But he will. We just honed one specifically for him — You're giving us a fair bit of trouble, aren't you, Romeo? You really need to stop telling people about us—"
"But Maeve already saw you. She saw us spoke when you gave me my first task," Romeo said before bunching his lips to the side with uncertainty.
"Ah, did you, now? And did you know who I was?" Poseidon turned to me.
"No, but I was sort of determined to figure out what was happening," I admitted. "I also saw Romeo enter the Black Lake every month — but I didn't know he was a merman until tonight."
"Ah," Poseidon huffed.
"Well, in any case, Romeo. Your contract will stipulate that you may tell people about being a merman should you see fit, but you may not speak about us, nor about how you turned into one," Amphitrite went on.
"What happened to lying, anyway? I thought kids were good at lying. Why can't you just lie like a normal kid, Romeo?" Poseidon sighed.
"I — I'm not very good at it, to be honest..." Romeo lamented.
"You'll have to bring your friend Ivy Law over to sign a contract of her own," Amphitrite said. "Just in case."
"After this incident, we'll have to make all of our employees sign contracts as well — what a drag," Poseidon said, sounding like he was greatly inconvenienced.
"No, no. Let's look at this positively, Poseidon. The truth could have spilled out in a most unfortunate and uncontrollable way. This small controlled incident is a blessing in disguise, really," Amphitrite addressed. "It allows us to redesign our programs."
"Am I the first merperson to spill the truth?" Romeo asked miserably.
"Usually, when merpeople get discovered, my dear Romeo, they do not also tell people that the Ancients legends are real," Amphitrite said sternly.
"I'm sorry. It won't happen again," Romeo snivelled, looking very crestfallen.
"Of course, it won't. Now, why don't you three sign your contracts so that we can keep this whole situation under control?" Poseidon urged.
I nodded furtively, the pen still gripped in my hand. I probably should be reading the contract attentively, but when I looked to my left and saw that Hermione was already signing hers, and so was Romeo, I figured it was okay, so I went ahead and signed mine as it was floating in the air in front of me. Hermione read her contract, didn't she? Surely, mine was the same as hers.
"Splendid," Poseidon said, snapping his fingers. The parchments rolled into themselves and flew away into the backdoor. "Now, any questions? I expect that you do."
"I do have quite a fair bit of questions," Hermione said. We all gazed over at her curiously. "Why exactly must your existence be kept a secret? And why—"
"One question at a time, dear," Amphitrite interrupted kindly. "Poseidon? I believe you can answer this one."
"Oh, yes... How familiar are you with the events of the Great War?" Poseidon asked.
"I've read a fair bit about it, but never in great detail," Hermione said.
"Well, the Great War started because wizards were jealous of muggles. Always complaining that we were giving more attention to muggles, helping them more than wizards, having more children with them—"
"Children?" I repeated.
"Yes, dear, children. Although, we've banned the creation of demi-gods eons ago," Amphitrite interjected. I frowned slightly, having more questions resting at the tip of my tongue now that she mentioned the possibility of demi-gods. I supposed their existence made sense since Ancients were known for meddling in wizards and muggles' lives a lot.
"Well, in any case, you can't blame us for being a tad bit more interested in muggles. I mean, who are you going to save? The man who knows how to swim or the man who doesn't? Obviously, wizards are fine on their own, they have magic, they have power, they do not need us. Muggles have none of that. And yet, wizardkind was jealous of the attention we were giving to muggles." Poseidon briefly cleared his throat before proceeding. "So, the Great War was, frankly, a stupid war. I don't understand why wizards called it Great, they only tried to kill us. Obviously, they weren't successful, seeing as we're immortal, but they were such a nuisance. So naturally, we pretended to have perished at their hands, and then went on to live in the muggle world, peacefully. Unfortunately, that also meant we had to shield our existence from muggles, but things have been sailing quite smoothly ever since we stopped interfering with you lot. We'd like it to remain that way. Besides, it was quite annoying back in the day, we'd constantly have some powerhungry wizards trying to steal our power, berating us into giving them whatever they wanted — all of that had to come to a stop." Poseidon clapped his hands together before saying, "So, there you have it. Anything else?"
"Yes, I do have quite a few more, actually," Hermione said, looking determined to find out everything that she could about this. "If you wish to not engage with wizardkind, why turn them into merpeople?" She gestured at our dear friend Romeo.
"As it turns out, wizards do not suffer from the consequences of being turned merperson as muggles do. Wizards have magic and spells protecting them from the undesirable effects of getting into contact with water. Moreover, wizards' natural connection to magic makes it a lot easier for them to adapt to the magical capabilties of being a merperson. Not to mention that it comes in handy for a merperson to be able to use a wand."
"Why do you need mermaids — merpeople, anyway?" I queried.
"And what sort of magical capabilities are you talking about?" Hermione added eagerly.
Poseidon pressed his lips together for a short moment before saying, "I did not expect you two to have this many questions. I imagine Romeo can fill you in with the rest of the details. We are expecting other guests for the evening."
"Romeo, if you please," Amphitrite said, gesturing at the exit.
Part of me felt like I was melting as we were getting whisked away. I wanted to stay with them, learn more about merpeople and Ancients. I wanted to know everything there was to know about them—
"When can I come here again?" I found myself asking before we could leave. Amphitrite and Poseidon exchanged glances.
"Hopefully never as that would mean you have somehow broken your contract, dear," Amphitrite said, brow furrowed.
"Oh. So, goodbye, then?" I said rather awkwardly.
"It was nice to meet you," Hermione added as we departed.
"See you," Romeo lastly said.
Both dieties waved at us as we left, and I couldn't quite forget the image of them both in my mind. Amphitrite was so tall and imposing, truly exuding the aura of a Goddess. Yet, when she spoke, something about her just screamed tenderness and motherly love. Poseidon, however, was the complete opposite of his wife when it came to energy. While she exuded power and opulence, he emanated aloofness and nonchalance.
My mind was stuck on these two personnages as we trailed all the way back to the basin entrance. We all entered the vessel, seemingly too lost in thought, too enthralled by what had just happened, to utter even a single word.
When we arrived on Hogwarts grounds, feeling both warm and cool from going through the vessel, as well as refreshed and awake from coming out of the water, that was when the questions poured out of both Hermione and me.
"How exactly did they pick you to be a merman?" Hermione began. "What was that procedure like?"
"They contacted me through the lake near my grandparents' villa. Apparently, they'd been keeping an eye on me and decided that I was a good candidate for their cause—"
"What cause is that exactly?" I piped in.
"Well, it varies, but the majority of it has to do with restoring the Earth to its original form, you know, because of pollution and waste, and whatnot."
"Wait, what do you mean by that?" I asked. Hermione was nodding at his answer, but I hadn't really understood.
"So, some of the things that we do is clean up the ocean, help penguins and polar bears find food — sometimes we sabotage harmful muggle boats, other times we clean up oil spills—"
"That is admirable work, truly, Romeo," Hermione said looking very impressed.
We'd arrived near a group of students who were relaxing by the Black Lake, so we instinctively stopped talking about the topic.
When we arrived in the Great Hall for supper, that was when we parted ways, although the Hall was starting to get emptier as we had arrived a bit later than usual. There were only desserts left on the table. I would have complained, but pudding for dinner sounded like a grand old time.
None of my friends appeared to be at the Slytherin table, however, so I ate by myself. I didn't mind it too much. Frankly, my mind was racing with too many thoughts about the Ancients, and all I wanted to do at the next possible opportunity was to research about them at the library.
Perhaps the wizarding world's accounts on what happened with the Ancients would be different than what they themselves would say about it, but I still wanted to expand my knowledge on the matter, no matter how biased the information may turn out to be.
After supper, however, I didn't go to the library because it was getting a bit late, and I needed to check on my Liquid Luck concoction before going to bed.
"Where were you?" a voice inquired by the door. I was just looking through my potions book to see what else I could work on while my Liquid Luck brewed under the bathroom sink. Obviously, I'd brought multiple cauldrons from home. "Maeve?"
I looked up to find James leaning on the doorframe with his hand, looking a bit concerned.
"Sorry, I was, er... I sort of got distracted with things with Hermione," I said. "Did I miss something while I was gone?"
"Not really. I was just a bit worried for you. You left looking rather miffed at lunch. Thought I'd give you a bit of space, but then, you weren't back for supper."
"Yeah. That's all on me. I got completely distracted with things, you know, with Hermione," I re-explained, feeling like a broken record.
"Right," James said. He eyed me vaguely suspiciously before approaching me at the foot of my bed. "Are you feeling okay? Those badges..."
"Oh, right, that," I said. I'd nearly forgotten about it. "Er, yeah. It's whatever. I'm sure it'll get old fairly quickly."
"Me too," James said earnestly. He looked at me rather awkwardly before asking warily, "Are you... upset with me?"
"No! Merlin, no. I'm definitely not, James. I'm sorry. I'm just — a lot happened today. I'm sort of trying to process everything and it's..." I trailed off, shaking my head.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he tried. I shook my head.
"No need. It's nothing," I told him.
"Are you and your brother okay?" James pried.
"Yes! We're great. This isn't about him. It's something else. I can't really talk about it, though. It's sort of not my business to tell," I said, hoping he'd just drop it. Even if I wanted to, it was physically impossible for me to spill the beans.
"Okay," James finally said. I sighed softly, grateful that he wasn't pressing on the matter.
"I should go to bed," I said conclusively. James nodded.
"Right. Goodnight, Maeve," James said. I nodded at him and wished him goodnight as well. He left without another word, but he did glance back at me for a quick second before fulling departing from my dormitory.