The crisp morning air bit at Echo's exposed skin, but he barely noticed. His head was submerged in the icy waters of the Black Lake, the muffled sounds and cool embrace a welcome respite from the lingering tension of the previous day. He felt a strange sense of calm, the gentle sway of the water a soothing balm to his still-aching head, even as he passionately made fish lips with a certain someone beneath the water.
Suddenly, a sharp, undeniable *thump* connected with his backside, sending a jolt through him. Echo whipped his head out of the water, sputtering and shaking his black hair, which was now plastered to his face. "I wasn't skipping class to make out with my girlfriend!" he blurted out, his voice a panicked squawk.
Standing behind him, a smirk playing on her lips, was none other than Bellatrix Black. Her wild hair was still a tangled mess, and her broken finger was clumsily splinted, but her eyes gleamed with a familiar, dangerous amusement.
Echo blinked, his defensive stance immediately deflating. His black hair, which had flared with indignation, softened to a resigned blue. "Oh, it's just you," he muttered, rolling his eyes. "I don't have to explain myself to you. What do you want? Shouldn't you have left yesterday?"
Bellatrix's smirk widened. "That was the original plan, yes," she purred, her voice a low, throaty rumble. "But I decided to stay a little extra longer. So that I could finish my business with you."
Echo sighed, running a hand through his wet hair. "If this has to do with your wand," he said, a hint of boredom in his voice, "I'd be more than happy to give it back to you."
Bellatrix rolled her eyes, a disgusted sound escaping her lips. "That is one part of it," she conceded.
Echo reached into his robe, pulled out, flicked his wrist, and with a soft *thump, Bellatrix's wand landed in her outstretched hand. "I wasn't planning on keeping it," he said, shrugging. "Just taking it to make a point. I'm no thief." He paused, a mischievous glint entering his hollow eyes. "Though I do warn you, while Shimmer had it in his possession, he used it for… recreational purposes."
Bellatrix looked at the wand and then held it out, making a disgusted face and a sound of revulsion.
Echo merely shrugged, his blue hair flickering with feigned innocence. "Don't judge him," he said. "Even animals have needs."
Bellatrix's face contorted with rage, her broken finger throbbing a painful rhythm to her fury. "This is the final time, you insufferable little half-blood, that you ever humiliate me!" she shrieked, her voice cracking with venom. She raised her wand, her eyes blazing with murderous intent.
Echo, his blue hair flaring a defiant red, reached for his own wand, pulling it from his holster with a practiced ease. "I don't know, Trixie," he drawled, a dangerous glint in his hollow eyes. "I have a feeling this is only going to be the first of many times I humiliate you, and many other pure-bloods like you."
With a guttural scream, Bellatrix launched the first curse. A jet of sickly green light shot from her wand, narrowly missing Echo's head as he ducked. He retaliated with a swift *Expelliarmus, but Bellatrix, a seasoned duelist, parried it with a flick of her wrist, sending a barrage of dark curses his way. Echo, still recovering from the previous day's magical exhaustion, found himself on the defensive, his shield charms barely holding against her relentless assault.
Bellatrix, fueled by her rage, pressed her advantage. She moved with terrifying grace, her curses coming faster and stronger. Echo stumbled, a curse grazing his arm, and he cried out in pain. He tried to counter, but his movements were sluggish, his mind still muddled. Bellatrix, seeing her opportunity, unleashed a powerful Crucio, the Unforgivable Curse.
Echo braced himself, knowing he couldn't block it. But before the curse could connect, a shimmering, three-pronged object shot out of the Black Lake with incredible speed. *WHIZZZZZZZZ!* The trident, hurled with surprising force, soared past Echo and embedded itself deep into the ground just inches from Bellatrix's foot, quivering violently.
Startled, Bellatrix instinctively twisted her body, managing to avoid the deadly projectile by a hair's breadth. She looked from the quivering trident to the surface of the lake, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and renewed fury.
"I wasn't lying about skipping class to make out with my girlfriend, you know!" Echo yelled at Bellatrix, his voice strained but defiant.
Bellatrix, her eyes narrowed to slits, let out a furious laugh. "Oh, you won't be making out with anyone for a while, you little pest!" With a flick of her wand, a blinding flash of red light erupted. "*Stupefy*!"
The spell hit Echo squarely in the chest. His eyes glazed over, his body stiffened, and he crumpled to the ground, temporarily stunned.
Bellatrix turned her full fury on Skate, who had just emerged from the water, her moonlight hair shimmering, her eyes blazing with protective anger. "You meddling little fish!" Bellatrix shrieked, unleashing a volley of curses towards the mermaid. "*Confringo! Reducto! Incendio*!"
Skate, however, was a creature of the lake. With astonishing speed and agility, she dove beneath the surface, weaving through the water, making Bellatrix's spells explode harmlessly against the shimmering surface of the Black Lake or dissipate into steam. As Bellatrix continued her relentless assault, Skate would occasionally pop up, grab small, jagged rocks from the lakebed, and fling them with incredible velocity and force. Many of the stones bounced off Bellatrix's hastily erected shield charms, but those that didn't bored alarming holes into the nearby trees and rocks, sending splinters flying.
"Come out, you coward!" Bellatrix screamed, her frustration mounting with each missed spell. She was panting now, her face streaked with sweat and grime, her broken finger throbbing.
Then, with a cunning twist of her wand, Bellatrix managed to catch Skate with a powerful *Levioso*. Skate, mid-leap from the water, froze in mid-air, dangling helplessly above the lake like a freshly caught fish, her iridescent tail thrashing uselessly.
"Got you, you slimy little siren!" Bellatrix cackled, a triumphant, cruel smile spreading across her face.
Echo, slowly regaining consciousness, saw Skate suspended in the air, vulnerable. His eyes snapped open, his blue hair flaring with desperate anger. He fumbled for his wand, trying to cast a spell, any spell, to free her.
But Bellatrix was too quick. "*Expelliarmus*!" she shrieked, and Echo's wand flew from his grasp, landing with a soft thud in the grass.
Bellatrix advanced, her eyes gleaming with malicious triumph. She pointed her wand first at Skate, then at Echo. "Now, you listen to me, you pathetic little half-blood," she snarled, her voice a low, terrifying growl. "First, I'm going to make your precious mermaid princess regret ever looking at you. I'll turn her into… into fish bait. And then, when she's nothing but a memory, I'm going to come for you. Slowly. Painfully. You will beg for death, and I will deny it to you."
Echo immediately saw red. The stunning spell's effects diminished, leaving him with a burning fury that eclipsed all pain and exhaustion. He let out a primal roar, a guttural "NO!" that ripped through the air. Instead of trying to retrieve his wand, which lay uselessly in the grass, he lunged.
With a burst of speed that belied his size, Echo tackled Bellatrix to the ground. She shrieked in surprise and pain as he landed on her, a whirlwind of fists and unadulterated rage. Bellatrix, a witch who had never once engaged in a hand-to-hand fight, screamed in terror. She thrashed and clawed, but she was utterly unprepared for the ferocity of a child two times smaller, two times younger, but apparently four times stronger than her. Echo beat her senseless, a relentless barrage of blows.
The *Levioso* spell, which had held Skate captive, shattered with Bellatrix's sudden incapacitation. With a splash, Skate fell back into the water, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and fierce protectiveness as she watched Echo unleash his fury.
Echo continued his relentless assault on Bellatrix, his fists a blur of motion. "Don't you ever touch my girlfriend again!" he roared, his voice raw with fury, each word punctuated by another blow. Bellatrix, beneath him, was a crumpled mess of flailing limbs and terrified whimpers, her screams now choked and desperate.
With a final, enraged surge of strength, Echo grabbed the woman by her tattered robes, hauling her up. He spun around and, with a powerful heave, flung her towards a nearby oak tree. Bellatrix soared through the air, a dark, screaming projectile, before slamming into the sturdy trunk with a sickening *THUD* and then collapsing to the ground, a heap of unconsciousness.
Echo stood over her, chest heaving, his face a furious crimson, his black hair blazing a wild, indignant red. The adrenaline slowly began to recede, leaving him breathless and utterly spent.
"Echo!"
The sound, melodic and urgent, cut through his haze of rage. Skate. He turned, his red hair flickering to a confused blue, then a calm black. He saw her, her moonlight hair shimmering, her eyes wide with concern as she watched him from the water.
"Skate!" he gasped, his anger draining from him and replaced by a surge of worry. He ran to the water's edge, splashing in without a thought for his soaked clothes. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Skate reached out, her webbed hand gently brushing his cheek. Her touch was cool and reassuring, a silent message that she was fine, that he had protected her. Echo sagged with relief, his black hair settling into a soft, contented green. He was exhausted, but Skate was safe. That was all that mattered.
Bellatrix, a groan escaping her lips, slowly stirred. With a monumental effort, she managed to pull herself up and off the tree, swaying precariously for a moment before finding her footing. Her robes were torn, her hair a wild, matted mess, and her broken finger throbbed, but her eyes, when they finally focused on Echo, blazed with an infernal, unquenchable rage. In her hand, miraculously, was her wand.
"You… you little monster!" she shrieked, her voice raw and hoarse. "I tried to get you expelled from this school for your display in the Great Hall, but not one teacher believed my sisters or me! It seems dear Lucius' plan unexpectedly backfired as a group of students went around to the teachers telling all of them a rumor that had been spreading around about you and how every student at Hogwarts was treating you like the dirt you are! So now nothing we say about you can get you into trouble!" She took a shaky step forward, her wand trembling. "I don't know what kind of power you have, or why, but the Dark Lord seems to want you, or it, so badly. But I will be sure that whatever place you take in the Dark Lord's plan, it shall be filled by me!" Her eyes narrowed, a terrifying glint entering them. "Or perhaps," she whispered, a cruel smile twisting her lips, "I can simply cast one of the Unforgivable Curses and be done with you now! Avada Cadavra is so easy and so poetic."
Before she could utter another word, Skate, who had been watching from the water, moved with astonishing speed. With a powerful surge, she propelled herself towards the shore, her hand closing around a manormous boulder that lay half-submerged. With a grunt of effort, she hoisted the massive rock above her head, her muscles rippling, her eyes fixed on Bellatrix.
Bellatrix froze, her wand still raised, her face a mask of awe and pure terror. The sheer size of the boulder and the effortless way Skate held it were sights that even Bellatrix, in her madness, could not ignore.
Echo, seeing Bellatrix's stunned expression, stepped forward with a weary but triumphant smirk on his face. "Just so you know, Bellatrix," he said, his voice calm and almost conversational. " Mermaids are about ten times stronger than the average human man. And Skate? She's not exactly average."
With a grunt of effort, Skate hurled the massive boulder. It whistled through the air, a dark, deadly projectile aimed directly at Bellatrix. Just as it was about to connect, Bellatrix, with a desperate shriek, apparated away, leaving a faint shimmer in the air where she had stood. The boulder crashed into the ground with a deafening *CRUMP, sending a shower of earth and water into the air.
Echo, still standing in the shallow water, watched the spot where Bellatrix had vanished. The two lovers stood in the quiet aftermath, the silence of the Black Lake a stark contrast to the chaos that had just unfolded. Echo, exhausted and a little dazed, pulled Skate into a gentle hug. They rested there for a moment, trying to absorb everything that had just happened.
"She's a whole different kind of crazy," Echo finally said, his voice a low, weary murmur.
Skate, her moonlight hair brushing his cheek, nodded in agreement.