When I was young I used to draw everything I saw. If I studied it, I sketched it.

Today was a new day and I sat at the dock by the lake. Sebastian and Ominis had told me that the first years arrive to the castle by boat and that this was where their boats were docked. I sat in the warm autumn sunshine.

Professor Ronen had let me keep some of the feathers that weren't hawk feathers after I spent all of detention sorting them. My favorite out of them was the feather of a snow owl, one I didn't have and had never had the chance to study it before.

So, as I sat out in the sunshine on the dock I sketched it out so that I could fully understand and see the intricate detail of the feather.

I hadn't been out there long before I heard footsteps approaching. I turned to look over my shoulder.

"What are you doing all the way out here?"

Sebastian asked as he approached me. He sat down next to me.

"Drawin'."

I told him and looked back down at my sketch.

"What is that?"

He asked as he looked over at my doodle.

"The feather that Professor Ronen let me keep. It's a snow owl feather. I've never seen one before. We don't have snow owls back on the island."

I told him.

"I bet there's a lot of creatures here you've never seen before."

I shrugged.

"Probably."

I told him.

"Would you like to go out and see them sometime?"

He asked and I looked up, resting my willow charcoal in my sketchbook.

"Yes." I told him. "I would love that."

He smiled and there was that warm feeling in my chest. It was stronger this time.

"Why are you drawing all the way out here? Wouldnt you be more comfortable back at the castle?"

"I like it out here." I said simply.

"Reminds me of home."

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

"I thought I'd never find you."

Sebastian and I turned around. There was Imelda with a posse of other Slytherin girls.

"What do you want?" Sebastian asked as he stood.

"Settle down, Sallow, I'm not here for you."

Imelda told him and a few of the girls who had come with her giggled. She looked at me.

"You did a good job with the feathers, wild one."

She told me. Her words weren't sincere, I could tell. There was something challenging in her tone. Imelda, the Acme, wasn't done with me yet.

"But you didn't have to rat to Professor Weasley that I skipped out of detention."

She stepped closer to me.

"We didn't rat on you."

Sebastian stepped in, trying to settle things down.

"Weasley asked where you were and we told her." "Sebastian stay out of this."

Imelda warned and stepped closer to me. She didn't seem to have a problem with him. Whatever issue she had seemed to be with me and me alone.

"I don't like snitches."

Imelda continued stepping closer and closer to me. The Slytherin girls with her started to giggle and whisper between themselves. I felt like prey, like the prey of a great herring. The predator was closing in, ready to pounce. Imelda had that look in her eyes, like she was ready to attack.

"Imelda stop."

Sebastian grabbed her arm but she shook him off.

"Buzz off, Sallow."

She snapped.

"I won't warn you again." She added. Her eyes turned back to me.

"How does the wild one feel about a swim?"

She shoved me and I tumbled backwards. I didn't fall into the lake, not yet at least, but my feet came close to the ledge.

"Imelda no!"

Sebastian shouted, he ran to stop her but Imelda was faster. She gave me another shove and pulled out her wand. I had already fallen off the dock when she shouted.

"Descendo!"

and my body plunged down into the depths of the cool water.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

As if the push alone was not enough the addition of the descent charm pushed me down to the very bottom of the lake.

My feet made contact with the muddy floor. Light breached down here, but not much. It was murky, that's for sure.

Seaweed- or would it be lakeweed? Whatever, it tangled around my feet as I tried to swim up to the surface. It was probably enchanted. I swam harder, I grew up on an island so it was fair to say that I was the best and strongest swimmer that hogwarts had to offer.

But even my swimming was no match for the weeds that tightened their grip on my feet and kept me anchored to the bottom. I could only hold so much air in my lungs and it was a long way up to the surface.

I began to wonder if I would make it.

Would this really be how it ended for me? At the bottom of a lake at a school for witches and wizards, miles upon miles from my home? I reached down and clawed at the seaweed that entangled my legs.

It wouldn't budge.

Urgency gripped me as I kicked and clawed and pulled. It wouldn't let me go.

"What are you doing?"

Was... was that a voice?

Maybe I was dying. Did you hear things when you were dying?

"Sereia..."

I looked around. I was going crazy. There was no one there. I kept working to free myself.

"Sereia, breathe."

I didn't listen.

"Just breathe."

I looked up. There was a woman looking down at me. I had no idea who she was. As far as I was concerned I was the only woman this far down in the lake.

Her eyes seemed so familiar though. Like I knew I could trust her somehow.

"Breathe."

against my better judgment I did trust her. I breathed out. I breathed in.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

To my complete and utter surprise I did not instantly drown and die.

I opened my mouth and sucked in, like I was sucking air into my lungs. And that's exactly what it felt like. I looked back up and the woman was still there.

"How?"

I asked simply. She didn't answer me.

"Free her."

she said and pointed a finger down at me. Two beings that I didn't recognize raced past her, their bodies whizzed through the water with speed unlike any creature I had ever studied.

Mermaids.

Just as I had read, and just as Sebastian had said, they were not beautiful creatures like so many would believe. Their hair was thick and corse and didn't look like hair at all. Their skin was incredibly pallor and their eyes were like those of a snake. Their fingers were long, webbed, and had sharp pointed nails.

They worked quickly at the weeds that had tangled my feet and in seconds I was free. They didn't waste any time with me. Maybe it's because I wasn't a naive sailor that they could lure to his doom. But as soon as they had my legs free they swam off, back to do whatever it was that mermaids deem worth doing.

I looked back up to see the woman but she was gone. Had I just hallucinated the whole thing?

Well, I was breathing under water at the bottom of the lake. Perhaps some of it was real.

"Sereia..."

There was that voice again. So familiar.

"Swim Sereia."

Oh! I forgot! Sebastian had to be worried sick I had been down here for almost ten minutes. Imelda was probably also feeling a little nervous.

I kicked my feet, cupped my hands, and began to swim up to the surface of the lake.