Chapter 1: Prologue
Chapter Text
─── AS THE SUN STARTED TO PAINT THE SKY, THE WAVES BELOW BROUGHT FORTH A VISITOR. Warm colours painted a sunrise during the early morning hours, blanketed by the usual overcast day, and while much of a wizarding village remained in their beds, craving the extra time to sleep, there appeared to be movement coming from inside the Dover household. The creaking of the stairs echoed behind a trail of steam as a cup of hot chocolate was making its way as a morning greeting. Henry Dover knew all too well that his daughter would not pull herself out of bed without a proper incentive and he could only pray that the hot chocolate would suffice.
Normally, he would have allowed Nixie to sleep the day away as she normally liked to finally stir from bed long after the sun was up. However, the upcoming events left him with no other choice but to wake her up and suffer the consequences of her grumpy nature. But, part of Henry hoped that the surprise that awaited Nixie that day would leave her in better spirits. After all, it had been a day that both father and daughter had been anticipating for quite some time.
As he entered the room, there was a hiccup in the snoring as the noise caused Nixie to adjust herself from where she was buried beneath her covers. With a chuckle to himself, Henry proceeded to tiptoe inside, careful to not wake her up just yet as all he was left to look at was a pile of blankets. There was an art to wake up Nixie because one false move could result in serious injury or death by the girl's hands. As he made his way over, Henry settled himself on the side of the bed, placing the hot chocolate aside, and placed his hand out to search for where his daughter's head ended up. As her body was twisted beneath the covers, he finally was able to find a black strand of her hair before he started to poke her gently on the forehead.
Immediately, he was met with an irritated groan as soon as his finger contacted her skin. The groan quickly turned into a growl as he persisted before she lashed out with a weak smack of her own hand against his.
"Nixie, it's time to wake up, sweetheart," he said in a cheery, sing-song voice as he pulled his hands back with a slightly uneasy look to his expression.
"No, it's not," she grumbled back and attempted to hide further beneath her blankets to avoid him. The battle had begun as Henry laughed at her attempt to escape but Nixie was not going to win as he reached over and pulled away one of her covers. To avoid exposure to the cold rush of air, Nixie grabbed one of her pillows and hid under it, letting out a whimpering sound before she told him to go away.
"This is exactly why I told you to go to bed early last night, Nixie. I told you that you were going to have to get up early. And who decided to be stubborn? Oh, that's right, it was you," Henry continued as he could feel his daughter internally rolling her eyes as he spoke. "So now, it's morning and it's time- "
"But the sun is barely even up!" Nixie whined loudly. "It's practically still dark out, please, five more minutes!"
Normally, Henry would have given into Nixie's request to sleep in a little longer, however, that morning they had to remain on schedule. Not to mention, five more minutes usually turned into about twenty more minutes in Nixie's head. Pushing himself up, Henry grabbed the remaining covers and the pillow and ripped them away from Nixie. She curled up into a tight ball, letting out a shiver paired with another low growl shortly after. He was used to it though, mornings usually consisted of a lot of growling coming from his only child. Not that he would admit it out loud, but Nixie could practically get away with anything if she pouted enough.
With a small sigh, he tried to remain patient through his own anticipation of what was to come. "Come on, sweetheart, did you already forget about your surprise this morning?"
"Is the surprise more sleep?" Nixie asked in a hopeful tone, barely lifting her head up.
"No," Henry huffed only to watch as she dropped her head back down with a small grunt.
"Then I don't want it," she replied. He knew it wasn't true though, her grumpiness was just getting the best of her that morning. One could have the greatest thing in the world and she still wouldn't be impressed until she was fully awake and that took plenty of time.
Rubbing the top of his head, Henry was going to have to result to one of his more drastic measures of getting her up and it always involved threatening her. "Nixie Dover, if you are not downstairs in the next two minutes, I'm going to make a scene. Perhaps sing a joyful song through the streets of the village? How does that sound? And I'll wear a shirt that says "I'M NIXIE DOVER'S FATHER" with your face on it."
Suddenly, the atmosphere of the room changed, and he could see the blue of her eyes widen as they opened. As she stared off in horror, more than likely imagining Henry parading himself through the roads, she quickly started pushing herself to sit upright in her bed. She wasn't all too pleased to acknowledge that he won, her eyes narrowing slightly as Henry smiled triumphantly. However, she wasn't about to risk him doing anything because Henry was the type that would go through with his threats.
"Alright, alright, I'm up," she said after a yawn, "no need to be so dramatic, Daddy."
"A little drama never hurt anyone, Nixie. Well," he stopped to ponder to himself for a second, "unless one was involved in a Greek tragedy or something of the sort." As he laughed at his own joke, Nixie didn't seem to share in the same amusem*nt as she watched him for a moment or two. Eventually, she rubbed the sleepiness away from her eyes and pushed herself to the corner of her bed. When she glanced over in the direction of the window, she could see that she had hardly exaggerated when she claimed that the sun was barely up. There was a small cluster of pinks and oranges swirling near the base of the horizon, attempting to fight through the grey of the day. How her father managed to be so alert at such a time was beyond her. She couldn't understand morning people, even if she tried. However, the contrast of the Early Bird versus the Night Owl seemed to be the only thing that caused the two to clash, everything else remained content in the household. Nixie could not and would not deny that her father was her best friend, she would tell that to anyone without any sort of hesitation on her behalf.
As far as she could remember back, it had always been just the two of them. Her mother had not been involved in her upbringing as there were no memories of her and hardly any of mention of her either. Of course, it was not the most traditional household, leaving Nixie to question it when she was younger, but her father had always left her with vague details. With more questions than answers, Nixie figured it was for the best that she stopped asking. But there were always those moments where curiosity got the best of her. Such as what did her mother even look like? Did they bear any similarities to each other? It was hard for Nixie to tell since the only family she ever had to compare herself to was someone she saw every day of her life. She managed to get an answer out of Henry once and from what Nixie had heard, it was clear that her father was still madly in love. He spoke of pearl-like skin, hair of sunlight that rippled down her back like calm waves, and eyes that held such kindness. There was such a beauty that Nixie imagined her mother to be, painting pictures of the stranger in her own mind. And yet, she always wondered if he spoke of her so kindly, why was her mother not involved in their lives? Initially, Nixie believed she was dead until Henry claimed that she was "travelling."
That started off all sorts of stories in Nixie's mind, as they lived by the seaside, the waters were only a short walk down a small path from their home. She would come up with all sorts of tales that her mother was a sailor or perhaps even a pirate. Maybe she was lost at sea or hunting down a treasure that led her on a long adventure. Either way, Nixie hoped that one day her mother would find her way home and hoped that the day would come soon. Little did she know that the day had actually arrived and the moment would have come sooner if she just got out of bed faster.
After being presented her hot chocolate as a reward for getting herself up, Nixie was told to come downstairs and eat breakfast before she was presented with her surprise. The smells of Henry's cooking greeted her as she descended down the stairs, inviting her to the dining table. She could see the plate of food already set out for her as Henry cleaned the kitchen with just a couple of waves of his wand. He always managed to make magic appear so effortless and casual, making Nixie hope that when it came time for her to learn how to cast spells that she could look as effortless and relaxed. The heat of the scrambled eggs warmed the plate and the bacon was enough to make Nixie close her eyes and smile just by the smell. Paired with a couple of pieces of toast, Nixie was about to dig right into the meal, but found herself distracted by the idea of her surprise once more. She would have been able to focus a bit more on her food if it wasn't for Henry settling by the window, looking outside with a giddiness about him that made her believe he was about to explode.
"Daddy?" she called out to him as she bit into a piece of toast that was sprinkled with some egg. "What is the surprise again?" He turned to her, a playful look of scolding evident as he furrowed his brows together.
"Nixie, if I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?" She shrugged her shoulders, it seemed he was way more excited about the surprise, so it had to be something good. He advised her to eat quickly, but not too fast as he didn't want her to choke. She was just about to finish the bacon on her plate when it took it away and cleared the table with a wave of his wand.
"Time to go!" Nixie's mouth was still open from where she was going to place the bacon in her mouth but it seemed she was going to have to enjoy it at another time as her hand was empty and she was baconless. Henry made his way to the door and held it open, but Nixie glanced down at her pastel pyjamas before giving him an odd look. "Shouldn't I change?" she asked, pulling at the front of her shirt. " I mean-"
"There's no need to," he informed her, "you can go as you are." She seemed pretty doubtful about leaving the house with her attire but she wasn't given much a choice as Henry grabbed her by the hand and led her out. Luckily, it was so early that no one seemed to be outside within the village. She would probably be fine as long as her father didn't parade her around the streets, if that were to happen then she would die of embarrassment and have to be buried in those pyjamas right then and there.
"Daddy, where are we going?" Nixie asked in confusion as it seemed her father was leading her down to the water's edge. He had no fishing equipment on him, so she didn't think it was an early morning fishing trip like he had attempted when she was younger. He turned to her and it seemed he could no longer contain himself as he looked fit to burst.
"Nixie, how would you like to meet your mother?" Smacking Nixie in the face with a shovel would have delivered an easier blow than the words that came from Henry's mouth at that moment. She froze in place, her eyes wide and her lips parted into a small 'o' shape. Immediately, her eyes darted towards the water, although it left her confused as she didn't see a ship. She looked up and down the shoreline but she didn't see anyone in the distance. "She's coming here?" She whispered to him.
"I think she's already here, sweetheart," Henry smiled at her before guiding her to stand close to where the waves were gently crashing against the land. "Why don't you go ahead and put your hand in the water?" The look on Nixie's face spoke volumes as she stared at him, it looked as though she was questioning what had possessed her father in that moment. She clearly had no interest in placing her hand in, afraid that it was some sort of prank. He nudged her forward once more until Nixie's barefoot stepped in and splashed the bottoms of her pyjamas. Just as she was preparing to turn to Henry and scold him for pushing, she heard a splashing sound in the distance bringing her attention back to the water. In the distance, she would see the rippling effect where something had breached the surface. Leaning closer to the water, Nixie squinted her eyes as the sun was finally deciding to make its morning debut as it forced itself through the clouds. She couldn't think of better timing as the rays reflected off the water lighting up the scenery.
"What was-"
Another splash cut off her words and Nixie turned her head, only to see someone looking right back at her in between the waves. Immediately, she cried out, completely startled by the sudden appearance of the woman in the water and backed away, colliding with her father.
"D-Daddy..." Nixie's hands gripped Henry's robes tightly between her fingers as she tried to pull herself away from the water as the woman was suddenly swimming over. Her head and arms were exposed but her lower half remained hidden among the darkness of the water. However, Nixie wasn't taking any chances with the stranger and had to wonder why her father wasn't reacting.
"Oh Henry," came a soft voice that travelled through the air and tickled Nixie's ears, "she's beautiful. Look at her."
No matter how gentle the stranger spoke, Nixie refused to let her guard down as she continued to hold onto Henry and adjust herself to come and stand behind him. With Henry acting as a barrier, she took a chance at peering out, only to study the woman in the water. All the descriptions that her father gave her in the past, all the images that her imagination had attempted to pull together, none of them came close to what she envisioned.
"Nixie, this is your mother," Henry said as his hand touched her shoulder gently, trying to nudge Nixie forward, "this is Meri."
If things weren't already bizarre enough Nixie at the time, Meri, as Henry introduced as, was completely topless. Something that Nixie noted quite fast as Meri leaned forward towards the land and revealed more of her upper body. Nixie flushed a bright red colour and looked away, trying to get the image out of her mind. "There's no need to be afraid, Nixie," Henry reassured her, taking his daughter's silence as a sign that she was shy or frightened. However, before Nixie could tell her father that she wasn't afraid, Meri laughed.
"Henry, I don't think she's afraid, I think she might be shy and a little embarrassed, I don't think she was anticipating getting flashed so early in the morning." Nor had she been anticipating meeting her mother for the first time either, the fact that she was plenty naked just made it even more awkward. Maybe she wouldn't have paid much mind to it if there had been some sort of warning. But there was plenty for Nixie to focus on besides her mother's nipples at that moment as she noted the light in the sky flickering against something else in the water. The scales and the tail that splashed about in the water. It was almost as if a chest full of treasures had reached the surface of the water as it shimmered in the water. As it registered in her head that it was, in fact, a tail, Nixie quickly hid behind her father once more.
"It's okay, little one," Meri called out to her, "you have nothing to fear. I would never think to hurt you." Nixie peered out following a shake of her head.
"B-but you're a m-m-mermaid," she stammered, "how can you be my mother?" At ten years old, she hadn't been given "the talk" yet, but there were some conflicting ideas in her head seeing as the woman had her tail and her father didn't. It brought both of her parents to chuckle as they both looked at her, reading the confusion on her face.
"We'll have to explain that part to you when you're a little older, Nixie," Meri said. "For now, you'll just have to trust my words when I say you have mermaid blood swimming through your veins." Henry snorted in delight at the snorted at the pun that Nixie missed, mainly because her eyes were too focused on the tail that was splashing about. It splashed once more that caused water to hit the front of Nixie's pyjamas and the girl stumbled back hitting the ground. But before a wave could touch her toes, she drew her legs into her chest. Her mother let out a pleasant laugh as she swam closer to get a better glimpse of her, while Nixie just made the strangest of faces as she watched the mermaid swim.
"I only wish I could have met you sooner, Nixie," Meri mused," you are quite the character." Her words left a question to pop into Nixie's head, why were they only meeting now?
When she was younger, Nixie learned very early on that her father was a wizard and that she was a witch. His fondest memory of his daughter creating a whirlpool effect in the bathtub when he turned his back for a moment when she was only a toddler. He had to explain their magic as there were people called muggles that lived around them and they could not expose any magic to them. She could handle the news of that, but she could not wrap her mind around the idea of her mother being a mermaid for some reason.
Mainly because it had been so abrupt and unexpected with the announcement.
To make things even more overwhelming than before, Nixie was just trying to get used to the idea of her mother when other members of her mother's mercolony revealed themselves at the surface of the water. She noticed the heads emerging in the distance and they were looking at her with as much curiosity as she looked at them. Yet, they seemed to keep a safe, even though Meri was welcoming them to come over and meet her. "And you thought you were being shy," Meri scoffed in their direction before turning to Nixie with the same smile. "Why don't you come in here for a swim, Nixie?" Once again, Nixie peered down at her pyjamas with a raised brow. "Swim?"
"Yes, of course! You should be a natural at it, come on."
She supposed it didn't matter much of what she swam around in, her pyjamas were already wet from splashing and as soon as the sea water touched her skin, she did feel the desire to swim. Anytime she came into contact with water, it always felt glorious but nothing compared to the sea water. It seemed to make sense in that moment as to why. She turned to Henry with a look, waiting for his approval, only to see him nod his head.
Nixie probably wouldn't have felt so nervous if it wasn't for the merfolk watching her in the distance because while they seemed curious about her, she could also see the judgemental looks on their faces. One, in particular, a woman with a long white hair, that floated on the surface of the water like spilt milk, caught Nixie's attention right away. Her eyes seemed to observe Nixie without blinking in the slightest. As Nixie made into the water, her mother offered her hand and she cautiously took it before leaning into Meri to whisper something.
"Who's that?" She asked her mother, nodding her head in the direction of the elderly looking mermaid. "I don't think she likes me very much."
"Well, she better love you," Meri said in a voice that was close to a growl, " that's your grandmother."
The family reunion was just becoming more and more awkward with every passing second.
"G-g-great," Nixie choked out.
But Meri reassured her she really had nothing to worry about as she guided her further into the water. However, her mother didn't seem to grasp what Nixe was failing to come to terms with, she had gone from being an ordinary witch that enjoyed sleeping in, to finding out that she was half witch, half mermaid, and a whole lot of strange.
Chapter 2
Chapter Text
─── A YEAR'S TIME HAD PASSED AND YET TENSION FROM THE FIRST ENCOUNTER STILL LINGERED. While many wouldn't take to entering the frigid waters especially early in the morning, it was only the hour that bothered Nixie, not the temperature. However, any invitation to swim with her mother normally involved early mornings or late evenings to reduce the chances of an any muggle encounters. It was best not to be on high alert all the time as swimming time was meant to hold bonding moments between Nixie and Meri. And yet, that morning, it seemed Nixie wasn't even in the mood to swim, let alone spend time with her mother.
Since Meri's return to local waters, it became a daily activity for Nixie to visit, but she still couldn't bring herself to get used to the idea of having her mother involved in her life. Despite dreaming of how wonderful it would be to be reunited and share a household with two parents, Nixie quickly discovered that her home life would remain untraditional even with Meri back in the picture. Nixie's idea of a normal household did not include Meri remaining in the waters with back and forth visits from the house to the sea. Perhaps to others, they would have marvelled in such an arrangement, but it only left Nixie with the onset of severe disappointment.
Not that she believed her feelings mattered all that much, Nixie never made mention of how she truly felt. She figured she had to be thankful for getting the chance to meet her mother, rather than being left with nothing. It was what she had wished for all those years ago, just the chance to see what her mother even looked like in person. Her wish had been granted just not in the way she had expected it and there was certainly no going back and redoing it.
The daily routine developed where Nixie would swim with her mother in the morning, and that morning was no different. She had made her way to the waters bright and early despite wanting to sleep in and kept with the practice of swimming with Meri. But after just a few minutes it seemed, she was done. Meri could only watch as her daughter climbed out of the water and took to sitting on the shore to wring out her hair, not a word to be spoken on Nixie's behalf.
"Well, that was certainly refreshing, wasn't it?" Meri called out to her, a hopeful smile as she waited for Nixie to answer. However, Nixie did not return the smile, only giving a silent nod of her head as an answer before grabbing her towel and wrapping it around her shoulders. With the smile fading, Meri knew something had to be wrong, it didn't take a genius to see that something was bothering her daughter.
Swimming closer, Meri pulled herself into the shallows to be closer to her. "Nixie, what's wrong? You've been awfully quiet since you showed up this morning. Normally, you're grumbling about being awake or something close to that. What's going on?"
She had caught the muttering of "nothing" from Nixie, but Meri knew "nothing" was far from the truth. Normally, Nixie would confess anything to her father, but Henry had given no indicator as to Nixie being upset about anything, only discussing that perhaps she was nervous about attending school. "Are you nervous about attending Hogwarts? Is that it?"
Nervous was a complete understatement to how Nixie was feeling at the time, especially when it came to the mentioning of her new school. Although when she had received her acceptance Letter, her reaction had painted quite a different picture. She had been nothing short of excited when the owl had arrived with the letter and a list of supplies that she would need for the upcoming term. Henry had never seen her so excited as he claimed, however, due to no fault of her own, the excitement diminished and was replaced with fear shortly after. Now that she was being called out on it, Nixie had no other choice but to nod her head once more.
"Oh darling," Meri laughed in relief, " you have nothing to worry about. You're an incredibly smart girl." Nixie's nerves had nothing to do with her questioning her own intelligence, she was fully aware that she was smart. Growing up with magic had left her prepared with what to expect when she attended school, along with her father's stories about his time attending Hogwarts. She figured she was prepared academically, it was other reservations about how her experience would be that left her hesitant.
"That's not what I'm worried about, Mer..." Nixie paused as she caught herself before switching to the term of endearment, "...Mum." Before Meri could ask what plagued Nixie's mind with negative thoughts, she followed her daughter's gaze and witnessed her eyes come to settle on the tail that was sticking out of the water currently, rocking back and forth with the movement of the waves. With a swallow, Meri lowered her tail, allowing it to disappear so that Nixie focused on her once more.
"You're worried what the other children will think about you?" This time, there seemed to be no hesitation on Nixie's behalf as she answered right away.
"Yes."
"And why would you worry yourself over such things, Nixie?" Meri questioned her. "What made you even think about something like that?" Twiddling her thumbs in her lap, Nixie wouldn't bring herself to look at Meri, only focusing on the droplets of water that continued to fall from the ends of her hair onto her leg.
"I heard what the men at Daddy's office said about me," she finally confessed. Feeling her lip curl upward in anger, Meri wished she could grab at the water to give herself something to squeeze.
"You did? What did they say?" The hiss that passed through Meri's lip was a great indicator that no one was going to speak ill of her child and live much longer afterward. She would never allow grown men or anyone for that matter to say horrid things, especially if it left her daughter unhappy. When Nixie didn't answer right away, she watched as Nixie collected a rock from the ground, glancing it over to distract herself from answering the question.
"Nixie," her voice carried a warning tone that she wanted the answer sooner rather than later, leaving Nixie to peer up before tossing the rock aside with a loud sigh.
"They said I wasn't normal," Nixie told her, "that I shouldn't have even been born to begin with. One of them even called me a nasty little half-breed."
If it were possible, the amount of anger that surged through Meri's body would have been enough to cause the sea to boil. A mixture of disbelief and rage caused Meri to grind her teeth together. "They said that to you?!" Meri did nothing to mask her anger over the situation and as Nixie looked up, she quickly took to scooting back a bit as she was met with Meri's once blue eyes, turning as dark as the waters at nightfall. It was a common sight among merfolk if they allowed their tempers to get the best of them, but Nixie still found herself uneasy even if her mother's anger was not directed towards her.
"N-no!" she sputtered out as Meri's teeth sharpened to tiny daggers that could easily rip through flesh. "I don't think they knew that I was in the room at the time. They were just talking to each other around the office. Dad was supposed to be there, but he got called out to talk to someone in the Beast Division."
"But did you tell him, Nixie?" Meri asked. "Did you tell you father what the men said about you?"
Filled with regret for bringing up in the first place, Nixie shook her head. She didn't want her mother to make a big deal out of it in the first place, especially since there was really nothing, she and her family could do about it. What would take place even if her father knew about it? He would approach the men and tell them off but it wouldn't change anything, that much she knew. However, it seemed her response had sent Meri spiralling into a bewildered state as she stared at Nixie in complete confusion.
"Why wouldn't you say something, Nixie?" she asked. "Out of all things to keep to yourself. It obviously bothered you, why wouldn't you tell your father?" "Because," Nixie began," they're right. They're right, aren't they? I wasn't supposed to be born. They're just saying the truth-"
"Nixie!" Meri spat out her name, cutting her off completely. "You know that's not true and don't you dare ever say something like that again, do you hear me?"
"But Mum, I don't think you understand what it feels to be like this. I don't know how to say it...but it doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right being me. None of this ever feels right, so maybe those men at the office aren't wrong." Suddenly, Meri's expression softened drastically as it was the first time, she had ever heard Nixie express any negativity towards the family's situation. She wasn't sure what to make of the confession of Nixie not even finding her own existence to be a good thing. And taking her silence as an opportunity, Nixie continued to explain how she truly felt about it all. "It's just sometimes, I wish you could leave the water and live on land with Dad and me. You know, stay in the house and when I wake up, you're both there. But then, sometimes I wish that we could stay with you in the waters. I want all three of us to be together all the time. But I can't have that because it won't work out that way. No matter what side I choose I can't have you both there with me. I'm just stuck in the middle."
Looking away, Nixie didn't want to witness the hurt expression that was overpowering Meri's face at the time. "How long have you felt like this, Nixie?"
"Since I met you," she whispered. "When Daddy told me I was going to meet you, I thought how great it was going to be that you were finally coming home. You were going to come home and live with us. But then I found out that you were a mermaid and I realised that you couldn't do that. Daddy told me that you can't stay on land for very long and he can't go and live in the water, so it's never going to work out." It certainly wasn't her intention, but her statements alone had managed to make Meri feel like a terrible mother. She would have never suspected Nixie to feel that way since she had never voiced it until that moment.
"Sweetheart," Meri tried to pull herself closer, " I had no idea you were feeling this way. Why didn't you say something sooner?" "It wouldn't have mattered anyway," Nixie said throwing a couple of rocks away from her and into the water," there's no point because nothing can be done. There's nothing you, Dad, or I can do about this."
"Nixie, I have offered you to stay in the waters with me," she was reminded, "all you have to do is entered the waters when-"
"I don't want to live in the waters!" Nixie snapped, suddenly pushing herself up from the ground. Her towel fell from her shoulders and the wind blew it down a little ways from where she stood. " I mean, in some ways, I would because I love the water. But what about Daddy? I can't just leave him behind, it's bad enough that you already did!"
"Nixie!" Meri gasped at the sudden hostile attitude that emerged, watching as Nixie turned away from her and started up the small path towards the Dover home. "Do not walk away from me!" Nixie did pause for a second, however, it was clear that she had no plans of listening to her mother's demands.
"What are you going to do about it?" Nixie questioned bitterly. "Come after me?"
Inside the sitting room of the Dover household, Henry was seated in his favourite armchair with his feet propped up, attempting to relax. The home was silent as Nixie had gone out to spend time with her mother, leaving him with a little downtime to read the Daily Prophet. And yet, it seemed his leisure time was cut short as the sound of a front door opening and slamming closed caused him to jump. He heard footsteps stomping through the front hall, leaving him to look over his shoulder in the direction of the doorway. "Nixie, is that you?" It was unlike Nixie to storm through the home in such a manner, but when he didn't get a direct answer, he remained silent listening to the sounds of her grumbling near the front door. Knowing something was up, he placed his paper aside and pushed himself up from the chair. As he made his way over to the doorway and poked his head out, he could see Nixie drying off her hair, a scowl visible on her expression. "Are you alright?" he called out to her, only to be met with a dark glare as she whipped her head in his direction. She looked close to saying something initially, but it appeared she was biting back her own tongue as she dropped her hands down to her sides.
"I'm fine," she answered in a curt manner. " Just fine."
"Did you have a nice visit with your mother-"
"Why a mermaid?!" Nixie suddenly shouted bringing Henry to jump in place. His usually bright-faced, sunny child had vanished in a matter of seconds, replaced with a girl that looked fully prepared to breathe fire despite just coming from cold waters. She was nearly going for his throat, leaving him entirely puzzled and unable to even process what she had questioned.
"Wh-what?"
"Why a mermaid?" she asked again, this time her voice was softer as she looked to the floor."Why couldn't you just have fallen in love with a witch or something?"
Attempting to remain composed and understanding, Henry approached where she was standing. "Nixie, where is all this coming from? Yelling and all this... This isn't like you."
"I heard what the men at your job said about me," she told him. "They said a wizard and a mermaid had no business having a child. Having me. That it would only set me up for failure down the line and no good would come from it. They said my peers are going to tease me and know that I'm different. I'm never going to fit in! Daddy, I don't want to go to Hogwarts!"
"Nixie!" He stopped her before she continued to become hysterical, he placed his hands gently on her and brought her to sit down in his armchair after directing her into the room "None of what they said is true, sweetheart. Listen to me, it doesn't matter if you're a part mermaid, part wizard, or even part hippogriff, no one would ever make fun of you. You know why? Because you're delightful to be around and people are going to notice that first about you." She was practically shaking in the chair where her father sat her as she looked up at him. Her lower lip trembled, and her eyes were watery with tears that were threatening to fall no matter how hard she fought to keep them back.
"And what if they don't?"
"Well, that would be their loss now, wouldn't it? They would be missing out on having a friendship with the most amazing person I know," Henry reassured her.
Nixie wanted to believe his words but still, the insults and the words of the other men were stuck in her mind. "But-"
"As for my co-workers, you don't have to listen to anything they say. They are nothing more than a group of grumpy old men that have nothing better to do than sitting around and gossip all day because their lives are that sad and pathetic."
"But Daddy," Nixie said to him as she wiped away at her eyes, "I'm afraid to go. I don't want to-"
Henry knelt down in front of her, leaving her no option but to look at him. "You don't have to be afraid, Nixie. If anyone says anything to you, you just let me know and I'll be sure to handle it personally."
Her eyes flickered with a hint of amusem*nt as she looked at him. "What would you do to them?" She asked curiously.
"I'll show up and place a hex on them!" Henry called out in a dramatic voice while waving his fist around. He let out an evil sounding cackle which finally brought the smile to return to Nixie's face. He didn't stop until he earned a giggle out of her before he smiled to himself in triumph.
"There's that smile and laugh," he said poking her in the cheek until she pushed his hand away, "now, why don't you go and get cleaned up? We'll have dinner soon, I made your favourite since you're leaving me tomorrow."
"Dad, it's not like I'm leaving forever," she told him as she pushed herself up and made her way to the staircase, watching as her father left towards the kitchen. Suddenly, she heard loud and obnoxious sobbing noises that echoed up the stairs.
"I know, but it will feel like it!" With a grin on her face, Nixie let out a small laugh and a shake of her head as she left Henry to his dramatics and headed up the stairs to her room to get a change of clothes. The argument with her mother had left her mind and all Nixie thought about was enjoying her last night with her father before it was time for her to leave to Hogwarts, whether she was ready or not.
Chapter 3
Chapter Text
─── ON THE MORNING OF THE FIRST OF SEPTEMBER, Nixie found herself awake long before her father ventured into her room to tell her it was time for breakfast. Instead, she had found herself woken up by nerves as a series of odd dream sequences played themselves out throughout the night. Whether it was her sitting in a tub of water inside a classroom while the rest of her classmates stared at her or having her tail grow out during the middle of class, each of them had painted quite a bizarre image. However, each of them played out a fear that her parents had told time and time again that it would not happen. Turning on her side, Nixie went to try and force herself to sleep for just a little while longer but just as she went to roll, something managed to stab her side, leaving her to let out a small yelp of pain. Pulling her blankets back, Nixie peered down, only to see that the cause of the pain was, in fact, her own wand. She had forgotten that she had fallen asleep with it in her hands the night before as she had taken to observing it over after dinner. There was part of her excited to hold it and put it to use as her father had always managed to make magic look so easy, however, knowing where the wand had come from had diluted her initial feelings of excitement.
Made of braided reed from her mother's home waters and even gifted with the hair of a mermaid as a core, her wand was a representation of Nixie's heritage on Meri's side. The hair used was that of her grandmother's, who had insisted upon it. Her hair bleached by the moon, she believed that it would grant Nixie luck on her schooling adventure. And while Nixie was thankful and grateful that so much thought had gone into her wand, part of her was disappointed that she didn't get her experience at Ollivander's as Henry had described to her. Instead of attending Ollivander's Wand Shop in Diagon Alley, Nixie and Henry had to travel to another wandmaker, by the name of Mykew Gregorovitch. He was well respected in the business, he just happened to work with different wand cores, unlike Ollivander, who only chose to work with a set three. Gregorovitch claimed it had been an honour to work with such a core as mermaid hair as he told Nixie that a mermaid must have really liked her or else, they would never be so willing to give up a strand of their hair. Nixie made no mention that she hoped that her grandmother liked her enough that it wasn't considered such a big deal to be gifted with the core. The wand itself was beautiful, the braided reed created a soft pattern that Nixie could feel when she traced her fingers over it. There seemed to be a twinkle to it as well when she held it up in the light, perhaps the capture of sand in it during the making. It was lighter in colour in comparison to other wood wands that she seen initially, but Gregorovitch informed her that colour made no difference. The only thing he advised her to be cautious of was the fact that her wand could be very temperamental if others sought to use it. It would respond well to Nixie, pledge loyalty to her, but it didn't mean that everything would come so easier either. She was going to have to put in the work, just like everyone else. And although the wand was beautiful, Nixie wasn't sure how many other students at Hogwarts would be able to claim such a story behind the creation of their wands. She could imagine that some of them would be willing and ready to boast about the uniqueness of the wands, but Nixie could hardly stand the fact that it was one more factor that would make her stick out even more so. Just the thought of it brought her to toss her wand to the end of her bed, grab her pillow and place it over her face to muffle the sound of her frustration.
After a moment, she ripped the pillow away from her face and proceeded to stare up at the ceiling. Outside, she could hear waves crashing against the shore and immediately, her thoughts travelled back to the way she had left things off with Meri the day before. She was actually more surprised that Meri didn't drag herself out of the water to come after her, especially after what Nixie had said to her. But thinking about it, Nixie assumed that had to be a bad sign, it wasn't her intention to drive her mother away or be mean to her; Nixie was just frustrated with how much she had to deal with on a regular basis. Only eleven years old and she was already faced with so many prejudices that she knew would work against her and she had done nothing but exist. But her existence was enough for people such as her father's co-workers or even some of the merfolk from her mother's colony to cast their judgmental looks in her direction. She felt like she was constantly being judged for things that were completely out of her control, however, she took to reminding herself daily that things could have turned out to be much worse for her. After all, she was blessed to have two parents that loved her and made sure to show it in every way possible. There were children in the world that didn't share the luxury of having two parents, let alone two nice parents and just thinking about it left Nixie feeling like a total and utter brat. She realised that she needed to apologise to her mother before it was time to leave for the train station.
Quickly, she pushed herself out of bed and left to brush her teeth before venturing downstairs to grab her boots near the front door. By some sort of odd miracle, Henry was still asleep, probably after overexerting himself by all the excitement he shared the night before about her heading off to Hogwarts. She tiptoed around before making her way outside and closing the door gently behind her. As soon as she reached the gravel path, Nixie started running until she reached the edge of the water. Kneeling down, Nixie placed her hand in the water, her form of summoning her mother as she kept an eye out on the surface. There was a possibility that her mother wasn't going to show up, perhaps still upset with how things had ended the day before, however, seconds later, there was the sound of breaking water and Nixie looked over to see only Meri's eyes sitting above the water.
A small bout of silence passed between them as there was no initial greeting that Nixie had become accustomed to. With a nervous shake, Nixie stared down at her feet, rather than meeting her gaze before she spoke.
"I'm leaving for school today," she began, "and I didn't want to leave with us on bad terms. Daddy said you should never do that. I'm sorry for what I said yesterday; I didn't mean it."
"Yes, you did, Nixie," Meri interjected as her head fully surfaced and she swam over. She watched as Nixie took a couple of steps back from the edge of the water as if she would be dragged in at any second with her guard down.
"You didn't go about saying it in the nicest of ways, I'll give you that, but you did mean what you said. And all I wanted to tell you was that I'm sorry, I'm still sorry that you feel that way. But never in million centuries would I ever regret having you. Nor should you feel shame as to who you are. You are the pride and joy of me and your father, and we want nothing more than for you to be happy."
"I am happy," Nixie stated and for the most part, it was true. "You and Daddy make me happy. It's just that other people always try to ruin that. But I guess you're right, Daddy too, I shouldn't let them."
Nothing more was needed to be said as Meri opened her arms, offering Nixie a hug and with the awkward and tense moment behind them, Nixie stepped into the water to hug her mother. "I'm going to miss you, Mum."
"And I'm going to miss you, of course," Meri replied, "but as long as you send your father a letter, I'll be able to know how you're doing. And I'll be sure to send one back when he comes down here."
"You promise?"
With a hand smoothed over her hair, causing it to become slightly damp, Nixie watched as Meri nodded with a smile to match.
"I promise. Now, you should head on back to the house and make sure you have everything you need. I'm sure your father will be up shortly and from that point on, you know things are going to get slightly out of control. He can't help himself to be incredibly excited, so try and practice some patience with him."
Nixie was given a kiss to her forehead, along with another hug before Meri sent her back up to the house. As she ran off, Meri remained at the surface to watch, giving a small wave of her hand even though her daughter had missed out on it completely. It was going to be some time before Nixie returned from school for the holidays and it was a shame that it had taken her so long to meet Nixie initially. To only hold her for a short moment after she was born and be reunited a decade later, they were only just getting to know each other and now Nixie was off to school. A splashing behind her alerted Meri to glance over her shoulder, only to see her mother making her way over to where she was. Her eyes seemed to travel across the lands, looking to see if Nixie was coming to make another visit before her departure.
"You just missed her," Meri said, "she left a couple of minutes ago to finish her packing and get ready." She could see that her mother didn't really seem to care that she had missed out on saying goodbye to her granddaughter. Galene had made it clear that she was very back and forth with how she felt about her own daughter giving birth to a half-breed. She was not proud of Meri's decision to have a child fathered by a wizard, especially when there were plenty of good mermen in the sea. But to prove just how willing she was to have her people accept Nixie and the situation, Meri had suffered through exile and punishment by the sea until she was allowed to be with her daughter and the man she loved again.
It was difficult for Galene to come to terms and welcome her first and only grandchild, especially knowing that it was a half-breed but she had put in some effort to the relationship, although not much. She and Nixie were nowhere near close, however, Galene thought her first attempt would be to offer a strand of her own hair for Nixie's wand core. Nixie thanked her, but that was as far as the gesture had gone.
"Did you warn her about those that dwell in the lake at her school?" Galene questioned. "Did you warn Nixie not to associate herself with that kind?"
"Mother, please, she had more than enough on her plate than to worry about such things-"
"Such things?" Galene interjected with a hiss. "Do you think she will be treated with kindness once they discover what she is? When they get a sniff of her sea blood, she will-"
"She will be fine!" Meri argued. "She'll be just fine. Nixie knows how to take care of herself and look over her shoulder if she has to. I can't keep throwing more problems associated with merfolk or she'll never warm up to the idea of being one."
"She shouldn't have problems with being one in the first place, it's an honour-" Meri shook her head.
"It's easy for you to say that, but you don't face the prejudices that she does. Not only does she suffer on land, but she gets it from those in these waters too. Don't think it has gone unnoticed with the way the others of the colony look at her, you as well."
"They could treat her in worse ways, Meri-"
"That doesn't make it better nor does it make it right!"
King's Cross Station was nothing short of chaos upon Nixie's and Henry's arrival as both magical folk and muggles crowded the train station, some getting to work while others were preparing to send their children off for the upcoming term. Among the crowd, Nixie stayed close to her father, gripping onto his robes with all of her might as he pulled her trunk along for her. As they made their way to the barrier that would bring them to the Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, Nixie just stared at Henry after he came to a halt. She wasn't sure what he was expecting her to do as they stood around with not a train in sight. "Well, go on, Nixie," Henry encouraged her, "it's your first year, I think it would be great if you crossed the barrier first."
"But it's a solid brick wall," Nixie challenged as she gripped his hand. Henry was known for pulling many pranks on her and Nixie was not about to fall for one where it would involve her running straight into a wall. Especially not in public, she did not want to draw attention to herself if she could help it.
"Yes, sweetheart," Henry chuckled, "to everyone, it appears that way, but I promise you, you'll be able to walk right through it without a problem." Nixie still wore the look of disbelief on her face as she scrunched up her nose at him. However, it only brought her father to laugh more before he nudged her forward. "Go on, Nixie. I know you're probably thinking of all the past tricks I've pulled on you, but I promise this is not one of them."
The longer she stood there, Nixie felt as though she was going to attract more attention to herself staring a brick wall rather than running into it. With a heavy sigh, she felt as though she really didn't have a choice before she closed her eyes and decided to just run it to get it over with. But to her surprise, she did not collide with brick, although she did run straight into a man that was standing on the other side. He turned around and glanced at her with a dirty look before muttering something about children before moving away.
Seconds later, Henry appeared behind her with her trunk and a pleasant smile on his face. "See? That wasn't so bad now, was it?" If only he could hear how hard her heart was pounding in her chest, he would probably rethink his words. But Nixie managed to force a smile on her face once more as she grabbed his hand and felt the warmth emitting from it. It was comforting but she knew it wasn't going to last because for the first time since she had been placed in his arms as an infant, they would be separated from each other. As Henry felt her grip tighten around his hand, bringing him to peer down to see Nixie's eyes anxiously scanning around, observing the other students and their families. He gave her hand a squeeze in return to get her to look up at him again. "It's alright, Nix," he said in a soft voice, the corners around his brown eyes creasing as he smiled at her. "You're going to do absolutely fantastic. You'll be at the top of all your classes by the end of the week, your professors won't even know what hit them. I wouldn't be surprised at all if you were sorted into Ravenclaw, just like your old man." Nixie raised a brow at the mentioning of the Ravenclaw house and chuckled lightly to herself.
"Mum said you were going to say that," she mused, "I guess I'm glad we didn't turn it into a bet."
"Well, she's just a know-it-all, isn't she?" Henry muttered before sticking his tongue out at her. It brought her to giggle, which reassured Henry that she was going to be just fine. "Now, are you sure you have everything you need?"
"I guess so," she shrugged.
"Did you double check back at the house as I asked you to before we left?" he questioned.
"No." Her father's eyes widened at the simple yet incredibly blunt response, bringing Nixie to laugh harder at his expression. "Nixie!"
"Daddy, I'm sure everything is in there," Nixie reassured him as it looked as though Henry was preparing to open the trunk up right then and there and check for himself. "If I forgot anything, you can just send it through the post. But I'm pretty sure I won't be really needing anything else. I have my supplies, my wand in my pocket-"
"It better not be in your back pocket, that's how you blow a cheek off!" Her face turned incredibly red as other students and their parents glanced over at the mention of someone blowing off a buttock. She quickly used her hand to cover the side of her face before pulling her trunk close to her side.
"It's fine, Daddy, I'm going to get on the train now, alright?"
"Oh yes," Henry said pushing her along, " this is the best part!"
"Getting rid of me? That's the best part?!" she replied dramatically as she was resisting the pushing as she grew closer and closer to the train. Henry let out a hearty laugh.
"What? No! Come on, Nixie, allow me to remain as the dramatic one in the household. What I meant was, you're going to have a good time. You're not going to regret a thing about your time at Hogwarts." As soon as Henry started moving her along again, Nixie caught sight of some of the workers from Henry's office with their own children, and immediately she came under fire of their stares. It also didn't help that she witnessed the load of them whispering among themselves paired with their sneering grins.
"Right. Daddy, they're already staring-" Nixie went to point out but Henry just went along.
"Now," his hands gripped her shoulders as she was close to boarding, but spun her around on the spot, "before you go, I wanted to reassure you, that there is nothing you need to worry about when it comes to...well...um, your lineage." Nixie groaned at her father's wording as he was making it worse. "Your headmaster is aware of what takes place and you will be accommodated accordingly."
"That wasn't awkwardly put at all," she huffed with a shake of her head. "Not at all." While Nixie seemed to just have a knack for swimming and looked similar to her mother, there was much more to the mermaid heritage that fell upon her. Once she entered the home waters of her mother, there was a craving that developed that was quite powerful and definitely took a stronghold of her if it went ignored. It was the need to be in the water if she went too long, her body felt like it was set on fire with all her nerves tingling painfully, not to mention, she was left feeling fairly weak. It was one of the things that her mother tried to explain that while the merfolk could venture onto land, living there was usually not done because there was always that need to be in the sea. A mermaid's heart was in the sea as she was told numerous times. But Nixie was able to luck out that she didn't feel it constantly, just if she went a long period of time without swimming. But that wasn't even the half of it, there would come a time where Nixie would be able to enter the waters on a full moon and sprout her tail for the first time. But she would have to be in her home waters for it to work the first time, at least, that's what her grandmother told her. While Nixie was curious about having a tail, she was also dreading it at the same time, the fear that she would spill water on herself and found herself sprouting at tail around the other students crossed her mind multiple times. However, while her parents reassured her that it couldn't happen, she was still beyond paranoid.
"You'll be fine!" Henry's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "Now, go on! Get out of here! Go have an adventure! Learn! And don't forget to write us letters!"
He was yelling and waving his arms around in the air, definitely bringing others to look at him while Nixie quickly made her way towards the train. She jumped up, her face warm and getting warmer as she pushed through students as gently as she could. There was no hesitation to make her way to the back of the train where she found a compartment and ran in. Sliding the door closed behind her, Nixie pressed her back against it before letting out the breath she had been holding.
She had done it, she had managed to make her way onto the train.
"Hello." Nixie jumped and screeched at the sound of the voice, she didn't even notice anyone was actually sitting in there. Now she figured she looked even crazier as she had made quite the scene. Opening up her eyes, she saw a boy sitting by the window, watching her with a worried look. He had brown hair that at one point looked as though it was neat, but it also appeared that he had fallen asleep, probably on his way to the station as half of it was all over the place. It also looked like he had just woken up from a nap because of the heavy bags under his eyes, despite how young he was.
"H-hi," she stammered, giving a quick and awkward wave before her hand dropped down to her side, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to barge in like that, I didn't see you sitting there because of... I ...do you mind if I sit with you?"
She didn't want to risk trying to find another compartment and wind up in the company of way more people. She was already feeling overwhelmed as it was with a slight headache was settling in.
"No, not at all," the boy replied. In fact, he seemed surprised that she actually wanted to sit with him. "There's plenty of room."
With a gracious 'thank you' Nixie took the seat across from him next to the window, placing her bag down beside her. "I'm Nixie, by the way," she decided to introduce herself. "Nixie Dover." A smile appeared on the boy's face as he leaned across to give her a polite shake of the hand.
"I'm Remus Lupin, it's nice to meet you, Nixie."
Chapter 4
Chapter Text
───"ARE YOU A FIRST YEAR?" Nixie asked right away, a hopeful expression on her face as she prayed the first person, she had met on the train was in her year. Both of her parents had advised her to attempt in making one friend on the train ride as it made the length of the trip pass by a lot faster. So far, Remus Lupin had greeted her with a smile, and he appeared like the soft-spoken type, leaving her with fingers crossed that he would be her first friend.
And her wish was granted as Remus nodded his head. "Yes, are you one too?" he asked.
As soon as Nixie answered with a "yes" of her own, the two of them let out visible sighs of relief, only to notice when the other did so. They realised how noticeable their actions were, causing both to fall quiet and turn their head away in a bashful manner. Nixie took to focusing her attention outside of the window as the train started to leave the station. Unfortunately, she had sat on the side of the train where she couldn't see her father as they departed, but the more she thought about it, perhaps it was a good thing.
She promised herself that she wouldn't cry and being unable to see her father proved to be a benefit or she would have been practically sobbing at the time. Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted as she heard Remus clear his throat to gain her attention.
"Are you nervous about starting?"
"It's a little obvious, isn't it?" Nixie replied with a small smile, thinking she was coming across as pathetic. Most of the children seemed more than thrilled when they were boarding the train, waving goodbye to their parents before racing off to find compartments.
However, Remus seemed to understand better than she gave him credit for. "A little," he said, "but don't worry, I'm nervous too. We can be nervous together."
The goal was not to be nervous at all for Nixie, but if she had someone in her company that shared her same nerves, she couldn't bring herself to complain. "Sounds good to me." With the confirmation that they could be "nervous buddies" Nixie and Remus seemed to settle into their compartment as the train ride progressed. He seemed to take the lead of the conversation, briefly describing where he was from, although carefully mentioning that his family moved around quite a bit. When Nixie questioned if it was due to his father's work, Remus claimed that it wasn't it as he remained with the Ministry for years. At the mention of the Ministry of Magic, Nixie's eyes lit up in excitement as she shared something else in common with Remus outside of their nerves.
"My dad works for the Ministry too!" she exclaimed. "He works in the Beast Division."
"My father works in Non-Human Spirituous Apparitions!" Remus seemed to be matching her excitement as he nearly bounced in his own seat. "That means they both work under the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures!" Well, Nixie wouldn't have been able to chain all that together with the ease that Remus did, but as soon as he mentioned magical creatures, Nixie realised just how closely their fathers worked together. There was a possibility that Remus was going to come close to figuring out her secret faster than anyone else. She didn't think his father was among one of the men that had insulted her inside her father's office, but she couldn't be too sure either. And to make matters worse, she saw a couple of the children of the Ministry workers that she had seen back at the train station gathering outside of the compartment.
They pointed through the glass of the window, making Nixie feel like she was an animal in a tank on display. As she fell silent and stared in the direction of the window, Remus followed her gaze as their conversation seemed to end abruptly. He caught sight of the other children staring in and immediately became pale in the face. "Are they pointing at me or you?" Nixie couldn't come up with a reason as to why they would be pointing at him unless they were making a poor attempt to poke fun at his hair or something. She knew they were pointing at her and if Remus didn't know the reason behind it currently, he was more than likely going to figure it out soon enough.
"It's me," she answered shamefully, "they're pointing at me."
Remus looked away from the students as he stood up and made his way over to pull down the small shade that granted them some privacy. Nixie waited for the children to venture in to continue their mockery, however, they seemed to take a hint, leaving them alone. However, it left Remus with the opportunity to ask more questions.
"Why are they doing that?" he asked. "Do you know them?"
"Not really, they just know who I am and what I am." There was no sense in hiding it from him, Nixie figured. Her idea of making a friend on the train and actually keeping said friend seemed to be dwindling with every passing second. Remus appeared more than confused as he sat back down across from her and leant slightly forward, waiting for her to continue on.
"What do you mean by what you are?" Her mother and father had told her countless times that she had nothing to be ashamed about, but it was hard to believe them after she witnessed adults and children pointing at her and whispering things. To hear people, claim that she shouldn't have born, all of them complete strangers, it was damaging to her self-esteem. How was she supposed to hold pride in herself when people who didn't even know her basically wanted her dead?
"My father is a wizard," Nixie said, "but my mother...she's...she's a m... a m-"
"A muggle?" Remus attempted to finish for her. "Hey, that's alright! My mother is a muggle too. I'm not one to judge anyone for that. You don't have to worry- "
"No," Nixie cut him off sharply, "she's not a muggle. She's...actually a mermaid."
The awkward and deadly silence loomed over the compartment as Nixie felt stupid for even telling him, it sounded weird passing through her lips and to complete the whole moment, it appeared as though Remus didn't believe her. He ended up laughing, leaving Nixie to rub her arm and face the ground before irritation swept over her features.
"What's so funny?" she snapped looking up at him and suddenly, Remus fell silent as he swore he witnessed her eyes flicker to a black colour instead of blue.
He appeared embarrassed but it still looked like he didn't believe her. "Wait, you weren't joking?"
"No, I wasn't trying to have a laugh here!" Nixie huffed. "My mother is a mermaid, you asked, and I told you. There."
"B-b-but how is that even possible?!"
"You really don't want to know," she reassured him. "It's complicated and I really wish I never asked."
A few moments of passing silence occurred once more as Remus scratched the top of his head. It looked as though he was waiting for Nixie to start laughing and claim that it was all a joke. Nixie could relate because she had done the same thing with her father many times when Henry was attempting to be serious.
"You're really claiming that your mother is a mermaid," he said, watching her nod her head. "So that makes you half-mermaid?"
"Can we please stop saying the word?" Remus had always labelled his life from the time he was four years old as complicated, but it still had not prepared him for what Nixie had revealed in the compartment. He wasn't even sure how it was physically possible for a mermaid and a wizard to have a child, but he did notice how uncomfortable Nixie looked whenever she even mentioned the word "mermaid." And he couldn't help but think of all the other children that had been pointing and staring at her through the compartment door window. He didn't understand why they would have an issue with it, he was only in shock, but he didn't find himself offended by anything. "Why did they all have a problem with it?" Nixie looked in the direction of the window and then back at him.
"Because a lot of people don't see it as right," she said, "they think it's wrong for wizards and witches to have children with anyone who's not a wizard or a witch. My dad says we live in a time where people are closed minded about the idea of mixed blood."
"I guess you're right about that," Remus agreed, " but if I'm being honest, I find it fascinating, not wrong. But that's just the difference between some people. If you don't mind me asking, you live with both of your parents or just one of them?"
"It wouldn't work out so well to live with both, my mother still lives in the water, and my father lives on land in our house. I guess if he bought a boat or something it would be different, but my mother stays close because we have a house really close to the water. So I get to see her all the time, I just have to walk down this little path and she's right there." He nodded his head, still in a state of awe, but it seemed he was full of plenty of other questions.
"Can you...you know..." His voice trailed off as he was uncertain of how to exactly word it without coming across as offensive. All he could think of doing was pressing his legs together and having his feet face the opposite direction to resemble that of a tail. As Nixie observed, she started to laugh, but she realised what he was trying to ask.
"My mother said I could if I really wanted to if I wanted to join her in the water. But I don't."
"Why not? I bet it would be amazing to be a mermaid!" he said until he witnessed Nixie's eyes widen. "I mean...merman!"
"I'm sure it would be," she replied "but, I would miss my dad too much. I would only be able to see him during visits and I can't really imagine that. No offence to my mother, but I am way closer to my dad. Granted, I did only meet her last year."
"What?! Why?!"
"Uh, she was out at sea. It's what mermaids do, I guess."
"You learn something new every day, " he said leaning back in his seat," so, why can't she stay with you and father on land?"
"Because you can take the mermaid out of the sea, but you can't take the sea out of the mermaid. I think that's how the saying goes. But plain and simple, her place is in the water and my dad is on land. There's really no compromise, except me." She paused for a moment, pressing her lips together before leaning forward to whisper. "Listen, do you mind not telling anyone this?" she asked. "I mean, I'm sure people are going to find out eventually, but I'd like to keep it to myself for as long as possible. Face the judgment later."
"S-sure," Remus told her, "it's not my business to tell. I promise to not tell a soul unless you want me to."
"Thank you." It seemed her parents were correct as making one friend on the train made the journey a lot easier for the both children. They continued to talk about other matters outside of their families, sharing sweets from the trolley cart after it passed through. After a couple of hours though, they had managed to fall asleep, leaving the trip to pass even faster than they anticipated. Meanwhile, in their dreams, both were hoping to remain together through their ventures of schooling, meaning, they were hoping to be sorted into the same house.
When Remus woke up first, he nudged Nixie awake, who let out a low growl until he informed her that they were advised to change into their robes before arriving at the school. Just as Nixie ventured back into the compartment after heading to the girl's washroom, she felt the Hogwarts Express slow down before it finally came to a halt. When she peered out the window, she could see a sign that "HOGSMEADE STATION."
As soon as they were given the clear with the doors opening, students started to pile off onto the platform. Nixie and Remus stepped off together, looking around for any sort of direction of where they were supposed to go until they heard a loud voice booming in the distance. It called for first year students to make their way over to where a man, massive in height and width stood. From what Nixie could see in the dark, he had dark thick hair with a bushy beard to match that made him appear even bigger.
Immediately, Remus and Nixie felt intimidated as they clung onto each other, linking their arms and walking together as they neared the man. They could hear as he instructed all of them to head down a narrow path where they would find a lake and small passenger boats. As they travelled down, several students tripped over large gnarly roots from the thick surrounding forest. And as soon as she saw the lake, Nixie felt a shiver race down her spine. Just her luck that they were instructed four to a boat. The issue lied with being close to the water because it was so tempting to just jump in and swim around, but she wasn't looking to create a scene. Entering the boat, she made sure to place herself in the middle, while Remus climbed in after her. He was just preparing to sit when two boys crashed right into their boat, nearly causing Remus to fall out but Nixie was able to grab him by the back of his robes.
Turning her head, she glared at the two boys that had jumped into the boat like two bats out of hell. They didn't seem at all apologetic because they were both wearing grins as if they had done nothing wrong. One of them had the messiest black hair that Nixie had ever witnessed, which was odd because she had seen what her hair looked like when she woke up and it didn't even come close to that. The other boy's hair was a darker brown and messy too but not in the same way as the first boy. He looked directly at Nixie and his smile seemed to widen as he sat right next to her while Nixie exchanged glances with Remus.
As the large man climbed in a boat by himself, he seemed to be the one guiding the boats along the lake as they moved without anyone doing anything. Nixie kept her hands in her lap, looking over the side at the dark water that she wanted to touch so desperately. She could hear other students talking amongst themselves in their boats. However, in the distance, she swore she heard splashing and turned her head to catch the sight of ripples in the water. She went to turn to Remus to point it out when suddenly, she was given a slight shove. A startled cry escaped from her lips as she pushed herself back to avoid falling but it only to manage the rock the boat further as she crashed into the boy.
"Hey, easy!" He laughed as she was practically on top of him before she moved away from him.
"Don't do that!" she cried out, tightening her robes around her body and glaring at the boy.
"Do what?" The other boy joined in and grabbed the sides of the boat, rocking it from side to side. She could hear the water sloshing up the sides and several droplets landed on her bare hands causing the pleasant sensation to hit her. The drive to enter the water increased as she attempted to dry it quickly.
"Stop!" she demanded the two as Remus held on looking quite nervous as he was just afraid of falling in.
"What? Afraid to get a little wet?" The two boys seemed to think that it was some sort of game where they found it amusing to taunt the two.
Nixie was getting desperate for them to knock it off. "P-please s-stop," she stammered. "Pl-
"Stop it!" Remus said in a raised and stern voice. "She's afraid of water!"
Suddenly, the rocking the boat slowed, and the boat steadied itself, but all eyes were currently on Nixie at that moment. She understood why Remus said it, but it didn't help her feel less pathetic.
"Really? You're afraid of water?" one of them scoffed, giving her no choice to lie or she would make Remus look like the liar.
" Yes, I am, now can you please stop? I don't want to get wet."
"If you're afraid of water, how do you bathe?" The boy next to her questioned with a stupid grin on his face that Nixie wanted to smack off.
"I can't swim," she fibbed. " I don't have problems bathing...I just don't want to fall into the water, okay?!"
"Alright, alright!" He placed his hands up in defence to shield himself from her wrath.
Nixie settled back with a sigh and glanced up at Remus who shot her an apologetic look. The two boys talked amongst themselves leaving her and Remus in peace for the remainder of the boat ride. Apparently, the boys had made friends while on the train or they knew each other previously, Nixie didn't care, her main concern was to get off the boat as soon as possible.
When they finally reached land, she jumped off first avoiding any contact with the water and she moved fast away from the other two, grabbing the sleeve of Remus' robes and pulling him along. As they reached the front of the Entrance Hall, they were met by a professor, a witch with a stern expression as her green eyes travelled over them. The first years were directed inside where they were gathered in a corridor for a few moments. They were to get in alphabetical order to get ready for the special Sorting Ceremony.
So it was time to find out if she would be in Ravenclaw like her father or start her own unique journey.
Chapter 5
Chapter Text
───THE SORTING CEREMONY was not what Nixie anticipated to be as she found herself surrounded by other first years, whispering back and forth as to what their house predictions were. Unfortunately, due to the arrangements of her surname and the line being in alphabetical order, she found herself separated from Remus. And as if that wasn't bad enough, her surname had betrayed her by placing her close to one of the rambunctious boat boys from earlier. The one that seemed to hold plenty of interest in bothering her, turned around as soon as she came to stand behind him and Nixie found herself rolling her eyes. He continued to not say anything to her, but he could see that his grin was enough to warrant an irritated reaction from her. She was just about to say something to him when the stern-faced witch that introduced herself as Professor Minerva McGonagall, called all of them to follow her into the Great Hall.
Entering the Great Hall, Nixie quickly forgot about the annoying boy and rather focused her attention on the beauty of the hall. From the long tables that seated the older students, the house tapestries that decorated the walls, all to the candles that floated above their heads. For a moment, she was worried that some of the hot wax would possible drip down on a student, but she scolded herself internally, reminding herself that she was, indeed, attending a magical school.
As the first years walked up the aisle, Nixie could see a large, dingy looking hat seated upon a stool. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to figure out what was going on; had someone left their hat or something of the sort? However, she quickly learned that it wasn't just a regular outdated hat, but rather the Sorting Hat. The wrinkles folded into creases, turning what appeared to be a face emerging and suddenly, it began to move on its own. And just to add to the fun, they all got to witness the Sorting Hat speak as it started to sing.
Welcome, dear students, new and old, I have a story that must be told, The time begins of the Great Four, The tale of Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Gryffindor.
Four beloved friends that came together with a dream And when they worked together, they were quite a team
They taught young witches and wizards from all over
From the Highlands of Scotland to the White Cliffs of Dover
However, the friendship, unfortunately, did not last
But our founders were left to face a task Who would sort the students when they were gone?
And from those brilliant minds, did I, the Sorting Hat, spawn.
If you value bravery and have the nerve, your calling will hail from Gryffindor
Where the mighty lions roar
Creativity and Wit are part of the Ravenclaw core
Rising high above where the eagles soar
Hufflepuff valued those patient and loyal
Believing that the badgers were unafraid of toil.
Then came the one who treasured purity and ambition
Those who valued the same became snakes of Slytherin.
New students do not fret over the decisions that haven't been made yet
I know where you belong
Trust me to sit on your head
And let's get this sorting moving along!
Professor McGonagall took in the wide-eyed stares of the students, and with slight amusem*nt pulling at the corners of her lips, she called up the first name. Nixie could only watch with the anticipation as a boy stumbled forward and made his way to sit on the stool first. The hat was placed on his head and his entire face disappeared under it. The hat continued moving about, the folds that represent its mouth looked as though it was muttering something to itself. She had been so caught up in the movements of the hat alone that she nearly jumped a foot in the air when the Sorting Hat called out its first placement.
"SLYTHERIN!"
So, that's how it's done, she thought to herself. It seemed simple enough, but she found herself quickly being overwhelmed with nerves once more as she realised that whatever the Sorting Hat called out would be her house for the next seven years. Her father had been hoping on Ravenclaw and so was Nixie as she didn't want to disappoint him.
The newly sorted Slytherin was met with applause as he hopped off the stool and made his way towards the table that was off to his right. He seemed pleased with the choice of the hat and Nixie was hoping for a similar experience, just not getting into the same house. Shortly after, he sat down, another name was called and Nixie raised a brow as the boy that had taken to grinning at her, took to the stage. "Black, Sirius."
With such a confident stride and his head held high, Sirius practically strutted up to the Sorting Hat and sat down on the stool. He, too, disappeared under the large hat, although Nixie would argue that his head was definitely big enough to fit it. But unlike the first child that was sorted, it seemed the Sorting Hat was taking a little while longer when it came to deciding on Sirius' fate. Perhaps it seemed longer in her mind for two reasons, one being that she didn't like Sirius after their first encounter, and two, she was rather impatient as she just wanted to get through the sorting herself. After what seemed to be ages later, the Sorting Hat came to another conclusion and shouted out the house for Sirius Black.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Nixie waited for Sirius to hop off the stool just like the boy before him and strut on over to the Gryffindor table that cheered him on. But as soon as the Sorting Hat was removed from his head, she saw that Sirius was no longer smiling. In fact, he didn't look happy at all, his face held a troubled expression as his eyebrows were furrowed together in confusion. His lips parted and he looked almost prepared to ask for the Sorting Hat back or to challenge his sorting. However, it seemed he thought against it as he pushed himself off the stool and made his way over to the Gryffindor table.
As Greta Catchlove was called up to the stool next, Nixie stole a glance over in the direction of the Gryffindor table. Despite other students welcoming him in with pats on the back, Sirius didn't look all that pleased as he sat down. She didn't understand what the issue was with him, considering she didn't see anything wrong with the Sorting. Perhaps he was just disappointed? Maybe he had been counting on getting in another house, just as she was and it hadn't gone in his favour.
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
A couple of other students were called ahead of Nixie, leaving her to dwell in her own thoughts of what other houses would be suitable for her outside of Ravenclaw. Henry had been sure that she would place in the house, but perhaps that was just his own house pride doing most of the talking. She thought about Hufflepuff being another option, although she never found herself to be very patient when it came to anything. She wouldn't describe herself as very ambitious as Slytherin had been described by the Sorting Hat.
But she didn't see herself as very brave either, she wished she had the daring nerve at least to just be comfortable with being a half-breed, but that seemed out of the question. The only logical option, in her opinion, had to be Ravenclaw.
"Dover, Nixie."
Nearly choking on the breath she had been holding, Nixie made her way forward and sat on the stool before Professor McGonagall placed the hat on her head. For those moments in darkness, she was only thankful that the hat had covered her eyes so that she wasn't staring back at the other students. However, they probably didn't miss out on the shocked expression that took her face when she started to hear the Sorting Hat talking inside her mind. It started off sounding like a faint whisper and eventually, the Sorting Hat took to speak directly to Nixie.
"There's no need to be nervous, you know?" The hat told her. "You are in good company. All I have to do is peer into that mind of yours and decide what house will grant you the most benefits towards your own personal growth. It is really quite simple and completely painless, trust me."
"Please, put me in Ravenclaw," Nixie pleaded, " please."
There was a moment of silence followed by a chuckle before the Sorting Hat responded. "And by what means do you believe you would do well in Ravenclaw?"
She didn't honestly have an answer, only thinking of her father which the Sorting Hat picked up on right away.
"Ah yes, another that wishes to solely follow in the footsteps of family, rather than seeking out their own path. Such a shame how so many are lost to that mentality. And yes, I do believe you would do very well in Ravenclaw just as your father did, however, will you do your best? Will you grow from being placed in said house?"
"My mother and father say I'm intelligent for my age," Nixie confided in the hat, not sure if that would do her any good.
"But it is not about what you are already but what you value. What do you value most? I think I know, even before you become aware of it. The way your thoughts mull over those that carry their heads held high, those who do not blink when being stared down but stare right back. You value the daring nerve in which you lack. Intelligence is a wonderful thing to have, but what good will it do you if you do not care to voice it in fear of what others will think of you?"
Unsure of how to argue, Nixie found herself drawing a complete blank as she sat there, only being able to confirm that the Sorting Hat did not like the idea of placing her in Ravenclaw. Where it planned on putting her, she couldn't work out in her mind, but she didn't need to guess for long as the debate was over between her and the hat just as it delivered its answer to the school.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Gryffindor had been the last house on Nixie's mind when it came to her own sorting. She found herself in shock just as Sirius had when he had been up on the stool. She didn't understand the concept of valuing traits over the idea of already possessing the traits of the four houses. With no choice as the Sorting Hat was lifted from her head, Nixie made her way over to the Gryffindor table that welcomed her with cheer and applause. She saw that there was an available spot next to Sirius but she wasn't willing to sit next to him at the time, all too disappointed with the outcome of her sorting. Instead, she chose a seat next to another girl near the end, who quickly turned to her with a beaming smile.
"Welcome to Gryffindor, I'm Tabitha Crowley," she stated, "I was just ahead of you in the line. It's great that we both ended up here, isn't it?" Wishing she shared the same excitement as Tabitha, Nixie only brought herself to nod before introducing herself. "I'm Nixie Dover."
"I know," Tabitha began, before leaning into her, " my father pointed you out when we were at the train station earlier. Well, he didn't, but one of his friends did. Are the rumours about you true? Are you really a ... you know?"
It seemed the truth always had a way of surfacing, even if Nixie made no mention of it. She could have easily denied it at that point, but what was the point? Apparently, Tabitha's father mingled with the crew that liked pointing at Nixie like she was some sort of odd creature. She could deny it all she wanted but it didn't change anything. Maybe the whole school didn't know yet, and maybe many of them were just passing it on as rumours, but it wouldn't remain that way for long.
"Yes," Nixie admitted quietly before biting the inside of her cheek, " it's true."
She had fully prepared herself for the "nasty little half-breed" comments to come her way, but they never did. Instead, Tabitha's jaw dropped and her eyes lit up, almost appearing like honeydew melons strapped to where her eyes were supposed to be.
"That's amazing!" Tabitha squealed to herself as she was practically shaking in place. "I figured they were true. You look like one, you know? The hair and the eyes, but I just wanted to be sure before I tried assuming anything." A positive response was not what she was expecting, but Nixie would certainly take it in a heartbeat. With a "thank you" she gave a small smile, although still feeling slightly uneased as Tabitha continued to look her over. Even if the girl wasn't looking at with a look of disdain, it was still an uncomfortable setting to be stared at. Thankfully, another distraction presented itself on the horizon as she heard Remus' name being called up. Immediately, she turned around on the bench and spotted Remus making his way to the stool. He appeared nervous, his hands rubbing themselves together before he took to sitting down and disappearing under the hat. Nixie found herself practically chanting under her breath, hoping that he would find his way over to the Gryffindor table as well. And it seemed the Sorting Hat agreed with Nixie's request finally as it called out only about twenty seconds later.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Nearly jumping up to her feet, Nixie clapped her hands together for her friend before waving him over to sit next to her on the bench. Remus wore a smile of pure relief as he hurried over and sat down beside her. "Hello again," he greeted her, " long time, no see."
"I'm glad to see a familiar face," she told him before the two turned back to watch the near ending of the ceremony. Students, one after another found themselves being sorted mostly among the other three houses. Plenty of Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and Slytherins with the occasional Gryffindor joining the bunch. Nixie found herself clapping for each of them as some appeared happier than others with their sorting. And eventually, it came turn for the second boy that had taken to bothering Nixie on the boat outside.
"Potter, James."
Very similar to Sirius' way of swaggering up to the stool, James made his way, wearing a smile that spoke of how much he prided himself in just being...well, himself. He hopped onto the stool and nearly took the hat out of McGonagall's hands to pull down onto his head. The Sorting Hat had barely even touched his head from what Nixie observed when it called out its answer.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
With a groan, Nixie covered her face with her hand. "Go figure," she muttered to herself, only to witness Sirius and James reunite and look absolutely thrilled about it.
Despite the earlier disappointment of not being sorted into Ravenclaw and ending up in the same house as Sirius and James, Nixie decided to focus on the positives. Fortunately, Remus had always been sorted into the same house as her, and people seemed to be more than welcoming. Even someone like Tabitha, who actually knew her secret, didn't seem bothered by her presence at all. When the Sorting Ceremony came to an end, Professor McGonagall took the Sorting Hat away along with the stool, leaving the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore to present himself to the students and faculty. But rather than conducting any sort of speech or welcoming words, he simply welcomed the students to eat. Before Nixie could even ask what they were supposed to eat since the tables were bare, she witnessed plates, goblets, and silverware appear from nowhere and shortly after the food appeared as well. Nixie didn't even know where to begin with all the food that was presented before her.
There was steak and kidney pie, boiled potatoes, lamb chops, gravy, and what appeared to be other dishes all down the table. She had to take a minute just to decide on what she was going to eat. To ease herself into it, she started off with just grabbing a little bit of everything and adding it to her plate. Remus seemed to do the same as he filled up his plate and started working on a lamb chop. Nixie would admit that the food was absolutely delicious, but it came nowhere near the standards of her father's cooking. There was something that Henry did to the food that made it a million times better, so it would be difficult for anything to come close. Although in the end, she helped herself to plenty of treacle tart.
As she finished her meal, she glanced up and down the table, seeing that plenty of students were conversing among each other, describing their summers and other stories. However, as her eyes trailed over where Sirius and James were sitting, James was talking to another student beside him while Sirius seemed to be quietly eating to himself. She raised a brow, watching as he held his fork and knife with such a straight posture, the complete opposite to what she expected from him. She didn't bother to stare at him or study his eating habits any longer as she turned back to Remus, who had dropped a pumpkin tart into his lap by accident.
When the evening was coming to a close, Professor Dumbledore stood up from his chair at the staff table and approached the podium. With the food and plates cleared from the tables, the students gave their full attention to the headmaster as he cleared his throat to speak. There was a whimsical nature about Professor Dumbledore as he spoke to his students, he didn't hold a very authoritative air about him, unlike the surrounding professors. In fact, his approach was a bit more laidback as he laid out the rules.
He informed the first years and reminded the older students that the Forbidden Forest was off limits and proceeded to list items that were forbidden within the school's corridors at the request of the caretaker. With the final welcome to the school, he wished them all a good night, good luck, and sent them off to bed. Just as Dumbledore stepped back from the podium, while the prefects assigned to each house called for the first years to follow them out of the Great Hall. Following Tabitha and Remus out of the Hall and into the corridors, Nixie looked all around, studying the paintings and portraits that hung on the wall. They seemed to be studying the new faces as well, along with the ghosts that had been present at dinner that was greeting the students out in the corridor as well. And while everything was quite exciting, there was absolutely nothing thrilling by the number of stairs that they were presented with. By the third staircase, Nixie was about to call it quits and throw in her surrendering white flag. The prefects claimed that they would all get used to it, but the first years huffing and puffing seemed to be voicing their doubts. When they came to the end of the stairs, they were greeted by a portrait that guarded the entrance way to the Gryffindor Common Room. She was dubbed as the Fat Lady, which Nixie didn't find all that flattering of a title but she remained silent as the password was given and they were granted access inside. The portrait swung open and they climbed through the portrait hole, only to be greeted with warmth.
They were shuffled into the circular Common Room, met with a roaring fireplace as they were surrounded by scarlet and gold tapestries and decorated furniture. The squishy armchairs and overstuffed sofas looked all too inviting. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to be sorted into Gryffindor, she thought to herself. One of the female prefects called for all of the girls to follow her upstairs, which meant it was time to part ways with Remus.
The two waved at each other and promised to meet up in the morning for breakfast before heading up the separate staircases. When they made their way up the spiral staircase, Nixie found Tabitha still in front of her until they were brought to a specific room. The prefect, Suki Clearwater, told them that their trunks were waiting for them at the end of their assigned beds before allowing them in.
The girls' dormitory consisted of five four-poster beds draped in red eiderdowns and red curtains that offered some privacy. Each of them was given their own nightstand, along with a wooden chair and dresser. Nixie spotted her trunk right away as her bed was the closest to the door. She walked over and opened it up to make sure that all of her belongings were there, which it seemed to be before she looked over her shoulder.
Tabitha's bed was beside hers, she seemed to be checking out the comfort level of the bed as she jumped onto it. And across the way, there was a girl with red hair, settling into her own area. "Is it just the three of us?" Nixie asked Suki. "There are two other beds, shouldn't there be five of us?" "Consider yourself lucky," Suki smiled at her, " we don't always fill our numbers and that can be a good thing. You'll be thankful for the extra space. In my year, there was only one other girl sorted into my dorm, so we have plenty of room. It wasn't a big class of students this year, so it'll just be the three of you for the next seven years." Nixie looked across the way where the other girl was pulling out a picture frame of what appeared to be her family, setting in on her nightstand before she looked around with a shy expression. With an awkward wave, Nixie took the first step of saying hello to her other dormmate outside of Tabitha which seemed to open up the floor for introductions as the girl offered her name.
Lily Evans.
Chapter 6
Chapter Text
─── THE FIRST NIGHT AT HOGWARTS, Nixie had trouble sleeping despite always being a lover of extra sleep and naps. Her bed, while comfortable, wasn't her bed at home and not waking up to her father calling her name was odd, as she had only stirred due to Lily shuffling about in the room during the early morning hours. Without a word, so that she didn't expose her morning grumpiness, Nixie pushed herself out of bed and made her way to the washrooms to take a shower and prepare for her first day of classes. When she returned, Lily had already gone and Tabitha was fixing her robes.
"Morning!" Tabitha greeted with a cheery smile, leaving Nixie to internally groan as she was presented with another morning person. However, rather than coming across as rude, Nixie offered a smile and a quieter good morning.
"Do you want to head down to the Great Hall for breakfast?" she offered. "Remus and I made plans to have breakfast together, you can join if you'd like."
Tabitha didn't seem to be opposed to the invitation as she eagerly nodded her head and the two made their way downstairs to the Common Room. All the way down the short flight of stairs, Tabitha managed to ask about twenty questions pertaining to mermaids, the majority Nixie didn't have an answer to. She hoped that it wouldn't be a common occurrence for her to ask such questions and that it was just due to the fact that Tabitha was excited. When they reached the Common Room, the questions came to an end, much to Nixie's relief as she quickly spotted Remus waiting on one of the sofas.
But he wasn't alone.
Nixie came to a halt in the entrance way as she spotted Remus sitting in the company of another boy, but thankfully it wasn't Sirius or James. Nixie didn't remember much but for brief glimpses of the other boy, but she remembered him being sorted into Gryffindor. As soon as Remus spotted the two girls, he rose to his feet and greeted them with smiles, having the other boy follow his lead, except he seemed to hide his smile behind shyness.
"This is Peter," Remus introduced them to the boy by the name of Peter Pettigrew, " he's one of my dormmates. I invited him to join us for breakfast, I hope you don't mind."
"Of course not," Nixie replied before looking over in Peter's direction, " it's nice to meet you, Peter. I'm Nixie and this is Tabitha."
"H-hi," Peter stammered slightly, " it's nice to meet you too. Thanks for letting me join."
He didn't need to thank her but it was clear that a band of children that were holding nerves about a new experience had found their way to each other. Nixie was all for having new friends as long as they were comfortable with who she was and so far, she seemed to find the right sort. Together, the four left the Common Room and made their way down the stairs and to the Great Hall, of course, not in a straight shot as they managed to get turn around a couple of times. But with the help of a couple of older students, they finally managed to make their way there.
As they sat down, once again, they were overwhelmed by large amounts of food that were set on the long tables. Nixie and Remus took to sitting on one side of the table, while Tabitha and Peter sat across from them. While she didn't find herself very hungry, still feeling quite full from the night before, Nixie collected some eggs on her plate.
"Did any of you get some sleep?" Remus asked, followed by a yawn, a clear indicator that he didn't get much sleep either. While Tabitha and Peter nodded their heads, Nixie answered with her own yawn after being caught in the contagious loop.
"No, it was weird not being in my own bed at home," Nixie confessed, " I thought it would be great, but it was just weird. Maybe I just have to get used to it, but I normally fall asleep with the sound of waves crashing and it helps me sleep. It was so quiet in the room that I just laid there. Next thing I know, it's time to get up for the day."
Remus agreed that he found it weird not to sleep in his own bed while hinting that someone's snoring had always left him wide awake. Nixie was able to catch on that Peter blushed, but was probably more than thankful that he hadn't been exposed at the time. Meanwhile, Tabitha would interject so often that if Nixie was feeling "homesick" then perhaps a visit down to the Black Lake would help.
Nixie was just about to tell her that it would unnecessary when the four were interrupted by Professor McGonagall walking over to them. In her hands, the Head of the Gryffindor House carried the timetables that they would need to get to their first classes. She passed them along, greeting all of them with a good morning that they quickly returned.
"Looks like we have Herbology first," Remus announced as he looked over his timetable, only to be interrupted shortly after as Tabitha squealed.
"Oh! And we have Astronomy tonight too! That means we get to be out of the dorms around midnight!" Thinking back to her wand, Nixie thought about what was told her when it came to the core and how her wand would work. She was told that mermaid hair as the core would allow her to work well in Astronomy and Potions, while if she had been gifted with a scale, she would have been more prone to Transfiguration. When she had informed her mother about what the wandmaker had told her, Meri seemed all too proud, glad that her mermaid lines would offer something beneficial for Nixie, rather than just adding stress.
Suddenly, their area of the table was interrupted by a ruckus, leaving Nixie to snap out of her thoughts and look up. Of course, she didn't have to guess long as to who had brought the noise into the Great Hall as Sirius and James made their appearance. She groaned lifting up her timetable to hide her face and was going to advise her friends to do the same, but it was too late, they had been spotted.
Like predators swooping in on prey, James and Sirius practically skipped over to where the four were seated to join in. Remus, Tabitha, and Peter didn't seem to have an issue with it, as Peter had pointed out that James and Sirius were his and Remus' other dormmates. And Tabitha had yet to really fully encounter what the two boys were like leaving Nixie to be the prime target. Just as she was attempting to avoid him, Nixie felt a presence beside her, although she refused to put her timetable down.
This left Sirius with the perfect opportunity to look over the timetable before Professor McGonagall made her way back around to deliver he and James'.
"Well, would you look at that," he began, " it looks like we all have Herbology together this morning. Isn't that great?"
Nixie ignored him because she definitely shared a different opinion outside of it being "great." However, Sirius apparently wasn't one for taking hints as he sat down right beside her, taking the timetable out of her hand.
"Hey, that's mine!" she said, turning her head and reaching to take it back. But Sirius held it out of her reach as he placed it behind him.
"I know, I know," he answered with a smile, " I'm just looking at it." It seemed his quiet demeanour at the dinner table the evening before had vanished and the Sirius she had met on the boat was making another appearance. Not that she wanted him to return to a saddened state, but at least he had been quieter after the Sorting Ceremony.
"Well, since we have all our classes together, that means we can sit together!" Sirius suggested and Nixie's blood ran cold.
"Let's not and say we didn't," she said, but it seemed that she wasn't going to escape that easily. James and Sirius were handed their timetables by Professor McGonagall, the two flashing her bright smiles that left the witch to raise a brow in their direction. It was almost as if the radars in her brain were going on, promising her plenty of trouble to come.
And with her appetite completely diminished in such a short period of time, Nixie pushed her plate away from her and settled her forehead on the wooden table. Of all the students that were attending the school currently, why did Sirius Black have to seek her out to annoy her? Is that how other children interacted with each other? Since no one else had a problem with James and Sirius, it made Nixie feel like she was the only one experience any form of annoyance. She would admit, she didn't have much interaction over the years with any other children. Normally she would keep to the house or in her father's company and that was the way she liked it. There were other children in the village but Nixie didn't find herself interested in playing with them and now her lack of interaction was showing. But rather than placing the full blame on herself, she continued with the idea that Sirius was just really annoying.
When the bell rang, Nixie made her way to the Herbology Greenhouses while following Tabitha there. Behind her it seemed the four boys lingered, leaving her uncomfortable and she started to walk faster to place some distance away from them. Even if Remus was dormmates with the other two, did he really have to spend time with them outside of the dorm? As they approached the greenhouses, the students were greeted by Professor Pomona Sprout. She welcomed them inside and told them to find a seat, leaving Nixie to grab Tabitha to seat beside her.
Unfortunately, it left one seat available on the other side of her and she could only pray that he wouldn't sit next to her. Apparently, she didn't pray long enough or loud enough because as soon as Sirius entered, the smile returned to his face and he came over to where she was.
"What do you want from me?" she asked him as he leaned closer towards her.
"Nothing, I just know that we might be watering plants today and I know how water frightens you. I just wanted to make sure that you felt safe during class time, that's all."
For several moments, Nixie just stared at him, his expression didn't falter in the slightest but all she wanted to do was push him out of his chair. Of course, Remus had meant well with his excuse of her being afraid of water to save her from the two rocking the small boat, but Sirius took that information and was having a grand old time with it. "
I'm not afraid of water like that," Nixie told him, trying to keep her temper, " I'm afraid of swimming. I can manage watering plants just fine."
"Wait, you're afraid of swimming?" Tabitha questioned loudly. "But you're a-"
Before she could say anything further, Nixie kicked her leg to silence Tabitha, but that only left Sirius looking quite suspicious of the activity. Fortunately, Nixie was saved by Professor Sprout entering the greenhouse to begin the first lesson. And thankfully, Sirius didn't push his luck to try and interrupt the professor with any further discussion.
The first class was simple enough with Professor Sprout, mainly giving a brief overview of what they would be covering throughout the term before she gave them the reading assignment pertaining to bouncing bulbs as they would be working with them soon enough and they posed as little dangerous if not handled properly. It seemed easy enough initially but Nixie knew it was only the beginning of classes, she couldn't get comfortable just yet.
The rest of the classes seemed to pan out the same way as Nixie observed. Whether it was Charms class with Professor Flitwick or the introduction to Defence Against the Dark Arts with Professor Gaspard, it was a relatively easy first day as the students broke for lunchtime in the Great Hall. Much to her relief, Nixie had been able to get Sirius off her back after Herbology class as the classrooms were set up a little differently and she was able to sit with Tabitha for the majority.
"So what's the deal with you being afraid of water or rather, being afraid of swimming?" Tabitha asked as they sat in the middle of the Gryffindor table alone. " I mean, you're not really afraid of swimming, are you? You're half-"
"Please don't say it," Nixie sighed, " I know what I am. I just don't want other people to hear it if they don't already know. The last person I need hearing it is Sirius or he'll never leave me alone."
"But why wouldn't you want people to know? I think it's amazing! I would be telling everyone if I were you," Tabitha said, but Nixie continued to shake her head. It was great if Tabitha felt that way, but she certainly didn't share the same feelings. It was easier for people to assume that they would react a certain way when they weren't plagued by the negatives surrounding a matter.
"Just please, keep it to yourself. The only other person that knows is Remus, and whoever, but that's how I want to keep for as long as possible."
And if that wasn't enough to get her point clearly across, Nixie was faced with Tabitha just whispering questions to her throughout lunch about merfolk.
By the end of classes, Nixie was finding herself with a headache and told Tabitha that she was going to relax before dinnertime by sending her father a letter. Tabitha agreed to that but her idea was taking a nap in the dorms. Craving some privacy, Nixie grabbed some parchment paper and her quill before making her way outside to the castle grounds. It was a relief to sit by herself for a little bit and not have anyone pestering her with questions or bothering her in the slightest. Needless to say, Nixie's first time away from home was proving to be overwhelming and that was putting it lightly. She had never been around so many people, having to hurry back and forth to keep on schedule. It was nothing like being homeschooled by her father and adding on her own anxiety and nerves pertaining to the whole half-breed business, Nixie wasn't sure if Hogwarts was the right place for her.
Her mother and father had reassured her that everything would turn out great for her, maybe she just had to give it more time. In the meantime, she wouldn't tell her father about any of the negatives she had already experienced, instead she would be focusing on the positives. Henry had seemed so happy and excited about her venturing off to the school that she didn't want to damper his spirit about her having a good time away from home.
Settling herself down at the edge of the Black Lake, Nixie didn't bother with getting too close, even though she really wanted to. There was a sense of a pulling effect that the water seemed to have on her but she wasn't about to throw herself in with the chance of anyone seeing her. Her arrangements with the school allowed her early morning or late evening privileges to enter the lake if she needed to but Nixie only saw that as bringing attention to herself.
Starting off her letter, she put in the events from her first day of classes, such as reading over bouncing bulbs or the fact that Professor Gaspard had the most peculiar mustache she had ever seen on a person before and he liked to twirl the edges of it while discussing what they would be learning during Defence Against the Dark Arts. She told him how she had Astronomy later on that evening and how she would be putting her wand to use to see if the wandmaker had been right about where her talents would lie.
She figured he would appreciate that her first class in Charms had gone over well with the levitation charm as the students were to practice having a feather rise off of their desks. She had managed to get her feather up by the end of class, so she would claim to be quite successful. Although James Potter had been the first to get it in the air and he had no problem bragging about it either.
She also informed Henry that while the cooking of the school was great that none of it compared to his meals and she was sure he would be more than pleased with that. Just as she was finishing up her letter, Nixie was interrupted by the sound of splashing in the distance. She placed her quill down and peered up to catch any sign of movement coming from the lake. There were a few ripples only a couple of lengths from the threshold of land and water, leaving Nixie to lean forward. Earlier she had overheard the older students talking about the Giant Squid and she wasn't sure if they had been telling the truth or not.
But as a second splash caught her attention and jerked her head in another direction, she didn't catch sight of a tentacle emerging from the water, but rather a tail that disappeared within seconds. It brought Nixie to abandon her letter writing for a moment as she stood up and neared the water's edge. She was just about to lean forward when she was suddenly splashed bringing her to stumble back.
Her skin erupted in goosebumps, thrilled at the sensation of the water that washed over her and as she looked at the water again, she caught sight of yellow eyes peering back at her before they disappeared and all she was left with was a fading glimpse of a tail once more.
It was her first encounter with a merperson from the Black Lake.
Chapter 7
Chapter Text
─── NIXIE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND THE CONSEQUENCES of being splashed with lake water until it was too late. As the days carried on throughout the castle, she simply attempted to go for as long as possible without thinking about entering the water, but it was becoming damn near impossible. All she could hear was Meri's words, claiming that water was part of her and that if she was craving it, then it was best to give in to those cravings rather than fight it. The withdrawal could be painful, and baths wouldn't provide what Nixie needed. She needed the strength of water, touched by the moon, graced with sunlight, to wash over her.
However, it was her own paranoia that was getting in the way of it all. Nixie tried to focus all her attention on her classes and homework to ignore the itchy sensation that plagued her skin. She hated the idea that she didn't have much of a choice as it was one of the many reasons as to why Meri remained close to the home. Since she had touched the sea water of her mother's origin, the urge to frolic in the water intensified.
It wasn't nearly as bad for Nixie as it was for a pure-blooded mermaid; Meri claimed it was the reason that mermaids could not live on land for long periods of time. Even if they developed legs, the love of water proved to be much stronger and to be apart would result in a broken heart and pure misery. Luckily, Nixie got away with it just being uncomfortable, perhaps a rash of sorts would break out or maybe even a fever if she waited too long, but she didn't experience the feeling of her heartbreaking.
The discomfort was becoming too much for Nixie, even if she tried her best to ignore her. She felt hot and cold at the same time, she continued to scratch at her skin as if she had been doused in itching powder. She just wanted it to go away and for that to happen she was going to have to venture into the lake, whether she wanted to or not. Since she had been splashed by one of the merfolk, she had kept her distance and she was trying to pretend that nothing of her lineage had anything to do with merfolk, except Tabitha was making that awfully difficult.
Even a couple of weeks adjusted into the school and Tabitha had been non-stop with questions or comments about mermaids. Her newest obsession was just the idea of seeing Nixie sprout a tail, failing to realise that Nixie was uncomfortable with just the thought of it. Since Tabitha had been one of her first friends made, Nixie was trying to be nice, but she couldn't help but feel irritated the majority of the time that she was in Tabitha's company. She would try to change the topic but Tabitha had a talent for redirecting right back to the discussion of mermaids once more. In Potion's class with Professor Slughorn, Nixie hardly heard anything that the professor was discussing cures for boils when she was too busy scratching herself under her robes. Tabitha had noticed, of course, and continued to pester Nixie about going to the Hospital Wing to get herself checked out. That was the last thing she wanted to do but after a good dose of Double Potions and suffering through it all, she figured she had to do something, or she was going to end up going completely mad.
Tabitha offered to accompany her, but Nixie claimed that she wanted to go on her own. And after getting turned around once or twice, Nixie found the Hospital Wing and approached Madam Pomfrey. The matron was quite friendly, greeting Nixie as she entered and telling her that she would be with her slowly, trying to ease the nosebleed of another student that was practically spewing blood all over the place. With a grimace, Nixie made her way over to one of the beds and sat down on the edge of it to wait her turn.
All the while, her skin continued to itch and burn. As she scratched herself silly, she thought that she had warranted Madam Pomfrey's attention and that the woman was coming over to help, but instead, as someone took the seat across from her on the opposite bed, Nixie looked up to see the Headmaster.
"Good afternoon, Miss Dover," Professor Dumbledore greeted her, " are you perhaps thirsty by any chance? I could offer you a glass of water if you are in need."
His emphasis on the word water made Nixie cringe slightly as she peered up at him wearily. She didn't find any of his humour to be amusing at the moment. However, even if she narrowed her eyes, he continued to smile at her only to get to the point of why she was there in the Hospital Wing in the first place. "When is the last time you have entered the waters, Miss Dover?"
Not willing to condemn herself right away, Nixie stopped her itching and straightened her posture. " I had a shower this morning."
The expression of the professor's face made it quite clear that he was not interested in her showering schedule, leaving her to look away in shame.
"I haven't been in the water since I left home," she admitted.
"And why is that?" Taking a quick glance around the room to see if anyone else was in the listening distance, Nixie noted that the room was clear before turning her attention back to Dumbledore.
"Because I don't want everyone knowing about it. Only a few people do, my friends and some others, but it hasn't been spreading around and I'd like to keep it that way."
"It is my understanding from the letters that your father sent that you will make yourself ill if you do not enter the waters," he countered, "is that correct?"
"Yes, but I don't want people to see me!"
"Then do not allow them to see you."
Dumbledore was right, even if Nixie didn't want to admit that she was wrong. But there was nothing that Madam Pomfrey could do for her, it was all up to Nixie to follow through with what she knew she had to do. Since the Headmaster had given her special privileges, Nixie had to take advantage of them, and with him pointing out that she didn't have to be seen if she went early or late, Nixie knew what she had to do that evening to relieve herself of the itchy prison she was stuck in. However, unwilling to go alone, Nixie called for the company of Tabitha that evening as they were leaving the girls' dormitory.
"Are you sure we're not going to get in trouble for this, Nixie?" Tabitha whispered as they entered the Common Room. Of course, the one time that Nixie was including her in merfolk activities and Tabitha was questioning it.
"For the hundredth time, Tabby, no. I told you, I have permission to do this."
"Well, sure you do," she countered, "but what about me?"
Nixie rolled her eyes, thankful that she was ahead of Tabitha so that she couldn't see the gesture. "I already explained it to you that I requested company so that I don't have to go by myself. Now, come on! If I have to wait any longer, I'm going to end up ripping my skin off here."
Suddenly, Remus peered over the back of the armchair where he had been sitting unbeknownst to the two girls.
"Where are you two headed?" he questioned, leaving them to come to a halt.
Feeling the onset of a strong headache, Nixie was growing impatient by the second with all the delays. As Tabitha tried to beat around the bush with her answer, Nixie took it upon herself to just invite him along. He didn't need a second invitation as he quickly abandoned the book he had been reading and followed the girls out of the Common Room. Considering that it was past curfew hours, the corridors were rather empty and Nixie was thankful that it had been a clear shot from the Common Room to the outdoors. She didn't even bother to look behind her to see if her friends were keeping pace as she powerwalked the entire way to the edge of the lake. Without a care in the world, as she reached the water, Nixie kicked off her shoes to the side and took off her heavier robes before just throwing herself into the water. As she surfaced, she let out an instant sigh of relief as the onset of a headache retreated and the itching and burning of her skin came to an end.
"That water looks awfully cold, Nixie," Tabitha pointed out, " and you didn't even bring yourself a towel or anything."
"Trust me, I don't feel the cold when it comes to the water," Nixie told her, "it just feels amazing right now."
Meanwhile, Remus stood on land, looking completely baffled to what he had just witnessed. The last thing he had expected was for Nixie to just fling herself into the lake, late at night.
"Can someone tell me what's going on here?!"
"Nixie was feeling sick because she hadn't entered the water," Tabitha said, "so here we are."
"And let me tell you, I feel so much better," Nixie said, "it was practically torture before."
Tabitha and Remus sat down in the grass, allowing Nixie several minutes to swim and duck her head under the water. She didn't venture far from the shallows, remaining in their eyesight as if they were watching over her. But as she continued to swim around, it seemed Tabitha couldn't help herself anymore as she asked if Nixie was sprouting a tail underwater currently. It left Remus to laugh while Nixie shook her head.
"No, Tabby, not unless it's a full moon."
Remus' laughter died down almost instantly after Nixie explained the need of the full moon being present. "Why the full moon?" he asked quietly.
"I don't know," Nixie shrugged, "I wasn't listening to my mother fully at the time. She was saying something about the lunar effect on the water. I probably should have paid more attention. But if I enter the water on a full moon with the intent of becoming a mermaid, I can become one. At least, that's what she told me."
"And then if you leave the water after the full moon?" he questioned.
"There is no leaving the water after that," she said, "at least not until the next full moon. I would be stuck with a tail. It's how the mermaids and merman have...um...relations. They come on land on the full moon to get pregnant or do whatever. Then they enter the waters before the full moon disappears. If they don't, they are stuck with legs until the next full moon. It's basically the opposite for me, it's just all really complicated. If you want, I'll have my mother write you a letter explaining it, I'm not good at explaining things."
"Yeah, no joke there," Tabitha said, "I'm more confused than I was before."
Nixie made a face in the direction of her friend. "Well, it's not an easy matter to explain. Not to mention, it's different for all types of merfolk as well. My mother's kind of merfolk is different from the others. Like the ones that dwell in this lake."
The conversation paused as the three heard splashing in the distance, but in the fall of the night, they couldn't see anything. But that was enough for Nixie to call it a night in the waters as she quickly pulled herself out and grabbed her robes to wrap around her shoulders. Hopefully, it would be enough to hold her over for a while.
And while Nixie's trip to the Black Lake seemed to put her in better standings, over the course of the following days, she could not say the same for Remus. Nixie wasn't one to be rude, but he wasn't looking too good at all and she was starting to feel concern about her friend. She knew it was hypocritical of her because she had fought until the last second when she wasn't feeling well, but she really didn't like the way Remus looked, especially in the mornings. It was like he was getting little to no sleep and why did the eleven-year-old have such dark bags under his eyes? She had to assume that he was sick or something along the lines, but the lack of coughing, sneezing or even a runny nose made it hard for her to come up with any common diagnoses.
"Remus, don't take this the wrong way," she began one morning in the Great Hall, " but you look terrible. Maybe you should go back to bed or even the Hospital Wing."
Remus didn't say anything right away, but the expression on his face made it clear that he didn't take kindly to being informed that he looked terrible. But he understood what Nixie meant and even he couldn't ignore the way he looked, especially that morning as he stole a glimpse of himself in a passing mirror. However, when he didn't answer, Nixie reached out her hand and placed it over his to get his attention.
"You know I didn't mean it to be mean, but you look tired," she said, "and if you're sick, forcing yourself to do things isn't going to make you feel better. My father always tells me to stay in bed when I'm sick. Right before he gives me the most disgusting medicine, but maybe Madam Pomfrey has some better tasting stuff." He appreciated the gesture and concern, offering a small smile in her direction before giving a shake of his head.
"I'm fine, Nixie, really. I'm still adjusting to being away from home, but it'll pass soon. Don't worry about me. If it gets really bad, I'll go to Madam Pomfrey." She was hoping that he would confirm it with a promise but before she could ask, the two were interrupted by a loud series of "aww's" that took place around them. They both lifted their heads up to see Sirius and James walking over, leaving Nixie to mutter something under her breath that Remus could have sworn was a swear.
"Aw, and what do we have here?" Sirius asked, gesturing to where Nixie's hand was still over Remus'. "Are we interrupting a moment? Something special?"
"Yes, actually, "Nixie countered, " Remus and I were just counting our blessings that you two happened to not be around. But I guess that special moment is over."
Rather than waiting for a response, she told Remus that she was heading to class early before grabbing her bag and other belongings and leaving the Great Hall. Of course, Remus was able to observe that Sirius and James didn't look the least bit bothered that she had decided to head to class early rather than spend her free time around them.
"Why can't you just leave her alone?" Remus asked them before yawning. "You're not doing yourselves any favours by getting on her bad side."
"Bad side?" James repeated. "We haven't done anything to her! In fact, we're just trying to be friendly, you know? If anything, she has a knack for holding some serious grudges."
"Yes, that's exactly what she's holding," Remus replied, "a Sirius grudge. If you quit bothering her, maybe she wouldn't mind being your friend, but you two are not going about it the right way."
Sirius didn't seem bothered by it nor did he seem to take Remus' advice as he waved it off. "She'll come around, Remus, I'm not worried about it."
"And why is it so important for you to be friends with her?" Remus questioned further, crossing his arms over his chest and looking directly at Sirius.
"You know, there are plenty of other students in this school, plenty in our house and yet, you seem dead set on having her warm up to you. Any particular reason?"
"Pfft, if you're implying that it's something special to be friends with her, then I think you're barking up the wrong tree," Sirius said, looking away from him as he scoffed obnoxiously loud. "I'm just trying to be a nice person here, is that a crime? You're my dormmate, she's your friend. The more friends, the merrier, isn't that how the saying goes?"
"Speaking of other friends," James interrupted, bringing the discussion of Nixie's and Sirius' failed friendship to an end, " where's Peter? I was hoping he'd be here too."
"He went to the loo," Remus said, " he should be back soon enough."
"Perfect, when he gets back, we can get going," James clapped his hands together with a bright smile as he looked towards the entrance way of the Great Hall.
" I figured we could have a bit of fun before class got underway."
Despite the use of the word "fun" Remus wasn't sure if he liked it paired with the grin on James' face. "Fun? What kind of fun?"
Nixie had been pulling out her Transfiguration book and notes, one of the first to show up to class, when the door to the classroom burst open causing her to jump in her seat. She turned around while Professor McGonagall looked up from her own paperwork as she had been sitting at her desk and the two witnessed as the caretaker, Apollyon Pringle, entered dragging four boys by their robes. Immediately recognise Peter, Remus, James, and Sirius, Nixie raised a brow wondering why they were all being dragged in? Professor McGonagall seemed to hold the same question as she stood up from her desk and made her way over, only to hear Pringle start yelling, claiming that the boys had caused quite the mess in the dungeon lavatories.
As Nixie scrunched up her face, she looked directly at Remus and caught his eye, only to have him look away in shame, meanwhile, Sirius looked over in her direction looking all too pleased with himself. But his smile faded when Professor McGonagall started handing out her detentions and taking away house points, so when he looked Nixie's way once more, she finally had something to say to him again as she mouthed it in his direction.
Idiot.
Chapter 8
Chapter Text
───NIXIE WAS QUICK TO LEARN THAT SIRIUS BLACK WAS NOT THE TYPE TO TAKE A HINT. It didn't matter how much she scowled in his direction or told him to sod off, for some reason, he always managed to find a way to share in a conversation with her. He would come up with all sorts of excuses, such as dropping something in front of her so she would stop or sitting next to her whether they were in class or in the Great Hall. He was never really mean to her, but it didn't mean that she didn't find his presence to be annoying. Between how loud he and James could be when they were together, she wanted to keep her distance as much as possible.
However, as time was going on between their classes, it seemed Remus was developing a closer relationship with his two dormmates, and even Peter was included in on the group.
"Even you, Peter?" she questioned one afternoon as she walked with Remus and Peter in the corridors. It had been another long night of detention for the boys, more than likely due to the stunt the boys had pulled the day before. " I'm still trying to figure out why Remus joins in with them, but you?"
"Hey!" Remus laughed as Nixie shot him a look.
"I'm right here and honestly, Nixie, they're not that bad."
"Yeah," Peter piped up, " I think they're funny! You should have seen Professor Slughorn's face when the cauldron exploded. It still makes me laugh just thinking about it." Remus apparently shared the same amusem*nt as Peter as the two of them started giggling. As much as Nixie didn't want to give James and Sirius an ounce of credit, it was the laughter of the other two boys that became contagious and soon enough she found herself laughing as well, even though she hadn't been a witness to Slughorn's face. They laughed all the way until they reached the library and then quickly fell silent as they stood outside the doors.
The majority of first-year students had learned that the librarian, Madam Pince, held a very low tolerance for nonsense, even lower than Professor McGonagall. There were rumours that she wasn't a full-witch but perhaps a demon and had enchanted the books in the library to listen for her. There was little talking permitted and any source of fun was quickly diminished if she appeared. It was the reason that Tabitha was not accompanying them that afternoon, knowing too well that she would be kicked out within seconds.
Instead, the current three decided to brave the odds as they were relatively quiet in comparison to their classmates and made their way inside to work on homework. Despite being first years, it seemed that the professors didn't take that into consideration when they stacked their loads of assignments on the students. Nixie selected a table in the middle of the library and set her things down, Remus and Peter following her lead before they all sat down.
She had plans on working on her Herbology homework first and then her reading for Potions and Transfiguration. She was dreading the reading assignment for History of Magic as Professor Binns had assigned quite a lengthy chapter pertaining to learning about the establishment of the Hogsmeade Village. Pulling out her books, parchment paper and inkwell, Nixie was fully prepared to get to work.
As she was reading over the watering habits and schedule for Puffapods, she suddenly found her skin itching. Nixie didn't even notice that she had been itching her arms under her robes until she heard Remus clear his throat that brought her to look up. Both Remus and Peter had their attention on her and while Remus looked concerned, Peter looked confused as there seemed to be an unspoken exchange between his two friends.
She mouthed a small apology before returning to her work but moments later the same itch returned, even just reading about water seemed to trigger a need to return to the lake suddenly. "No, not right now," she muttered to herself, trying to smother the thoughts of returning to the water, only to have her thoughts interrupted by an intruding voice that was not her own.
"Talking to yourself, are we?"
An internal groan echoed in her mind as she recognised the voice right away, glancing up briefly to see Sirius take the seat across from her. Of course, while she didn't look the slightest bit happy, Remus and Peter shared the same grins of amusem*nt as Sirius placed his hands on the table, folding them together.
No, she thought to herself, don't pay him any sort of mind, that's just what he wants.
Returning to her reading without so much as a second glance in his direction, she couldn't bring herself to focus for two reasons. One, she wondered where James was as usually, the two weren't far apart from one another, and two, she could feel eyes on her that made it incredibly difficult to pay attention to what she was reading. She must have read over the same line several times but still didn't know anything to add to her notes from earlier.
Looking up, she wasn't surprised to find Sirius looking directly at her with a smile on his face.
"Shouldn't you be somewhere else getting in trouble?" she questioned him hotly. "Where's James anyways, serving another detention?"
"No," Sirius shot back at her, " he's down at the Quidditch Pitch watching the try-outs for your information and we don't have plans until later, thank you very much. Plans that Remus and Peter are joining in on, right?"
As soon as Remus' name was brought up she peered over at him. "Oh, Remus, please tell me that you're not going? You too, Peter."
With an innocent flash of a smile, Remus gave a small shrug of his shoulders.
"Well, I didn't have plans for later and I-" "Remus, please," Sirius held his hand up to get him to stop talking,
" You don't need to explain yourself to her, she's not your mother. Besides, don't worry, Nini, we won't let your precious Remmy get in trouble."
Nini?! Her nostrils flared at the unwanted nickname that had suddenly been given to her. She clenched her quill in her hand tightly as she met Sirius' grey gaze, attempting to remain calm.
"Don't ever call me Nini again," she warned him. Of course, she should have taken her earlier advice of not giving him any sort of attention because her warning seemed to just play into what Sirius wanted all along.
"Why not?" he questioned in an innocent tone. "It's fun to say. Nini. Nini! Nini!"
"Stop it!"
"SSHHH!" The group looked over in the direction behind Nixie to see Madam Pince appear around the corner of one of the bookshelves. She sent a stern glare in their direction, leaving Nixie to apologise on their behalf before Madam Pince faded back into the darkness. When Nixie turned back around, she saw that Sirius had been pointing at her in an accusing manner, leaving her to swat his hand down and return to her work.
For a minute or so, she was able to jot a couple of words down pertaining to the puffapods, but she could still feel Sirius watching her. Thinking it over and over, Nixie didn't know how to get rid of Sirius without her thoughts resulting in violence, leaving her to give in each time to giving him attention.
Dropping her quill down, she jerked her head up. "What?" It was never a simple task to get a straight answer out of him as he shrugged his shoulders in response.
"Nothing."
"Then stop staring at me!"
"Oh, don't flatter yourself, Nini," he scoffed, "I was not staring at you. I was looking at your handwriting." Without warning he grabbed the parchment paper full of notes, holding it out of her reach so that she couldn't take it back right away. "Look how small you write! How can anyone read this?"
"Maybe by using their eyes?!" Having enough of the bickering back and forth between the two, Remus mediated by grabbing the parchment paper from Sirius and returning it to Nixie. "Leave her alone, Sirius, can't you see she's trying to work? You said you came out here to do your work, so get to it."
If Remus and Nixie thought it was going to be that easy to finally get Sirius to sit down and focus quietly enough, they were mistaken. They had only managed to go a few minutes when Sirius opened his mouth again.
"Say, Nini, you're pretty good at Herbology, aren't you?"
Slamming her quill down, Nixie lifted up her head slowly and glared at him with gritted teeth before nodding her head. She should have seen what he was going for from a mile away, however, she was too overwhelmed by her frustrations to have seen the next bit coming.
"Good," Sirius chirped as he moved closer to her, " because I need some help." Immediately, Nixie tried to dismiss the request.
"Well, I'm sure Professor Sprout would love to-"
"I need your help." He didn't offer a reason as to why he would need her help above the actual Herbology professor. But she didn't need a reason to decline either as she started shaking her head.
"No...no...no.."
"Well then, I guess I have no other choice but to sit here and both you with my presence," he said as he folded his arms over his chest and slithered down in his chair further to get comfortable. "Let me just get in the right position since I'm not leaving until you agree to help me. Maybe I'll start off with serenading you to the tune of-"
Sirius was definitely out to get them all killed if he thought he was going to get away with singing inside of the library. Nixie didn't want a mark over her head with Madam Pince as she actually enjoyed the majority of her visits to the library. Quickly, she scooted closer to Sirius to prevent him from doing anything foolish.
"Alright, alright," she growled, " I'll help you!"
As she moved her belongings over on the table, Nixie missed out on the triumphant smile that Sirius shot in the direction of Remus and Peter, both of them shaking their heads at him. However, since he had requested her help, Nixie was not one to waste time as she wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. She snapped her fingers in his face to get him to pay attention to what she was working on.
"Focus," she warned him, " I'm only going to go over this stuff once with you and that's it." With a slackened slant of his eyes, Sirius turned to her and fluttered his eyelashes.
"I'm sorry, Nini, did you say something?"
Nixie could come up with a list of things she rather do than help Sirius Black study for Herbology, however, she played it to her advantage. The two of them came to an agreement during their study sessions, Nixie agreed to help Sirius, but in return, he had to leave her alone for the rest of the day. It meant no interactions in class or in between, not even a wink in the corridor. He had to pretend like she didn't exist and she would gladly do the same for them until it was time to meet in the library.
She didn't expect him to hold up his side of the bargain but surprisingly, Sirius proved her wrong. Of course, he was a royal pain in the arse when it came to the study session, usually slacking off or something, he especially liked asking her about her day, which Nixie attempted to give him as little information as possible. Especially since he insisted on using the nickname "Nini" whenever they were together.
Part of her didn't believe that Sirius struggled with Herbology as he tried to portray, in fact, it seemed to be the only class he struggled in. As much as she hated to admit it, Sirius didn't come across as stupid when it came to his academics. In fact, he seemed to do extremely well when it came to all of their classes. And when it came to their tutoring sessions, he picked up on everything she spoke about with relative ease.
Nixie really hoped that Sirius wasn't playing her for some fool or she was going to have to go through the drastic extremes of killing him. Already on several occasions, she had threatened to drag him to the bottom of the Black Lake, which he always countered with the idea that she was afraid of the water. But she told him she was willing to put her fear aside to get rid of him. That only earned a laugh out of him when she used the threat, which only left her angrier.
"Why don't you just tell him to go somewhere?" Tabitha told her one evening as the two of them were up in the dorms. Tabitha sat on the edge of Nixie's bed, while Nixie peered up at her. "What have I been doing since I've met him?" Nixie countered. "All I've ever done is tell him to go away or get lost, he just sees it as an invitation to spend more time together."
"Well, yeah, but you're the one who agreed to tutor him, that sounds like you want to keep him around."
"That's because people like Sirius Black and James Potter don't take the word "no" for an answer," a third voice chimed into the conversation, leaving both girls to look over and see Lily enter the room. She seemed to be returning from doing her own work as she threw her bag of books onto her bed.
Nixie offered a smile, while Tabitha seemed slightly offended that the other girl had intruded in on their conversation.
"Sorry for eavesdropping," Lily apologised quickly, " I just overheard it when I walked in. I know Sirius has been bothering you, I can see it for myself. James is no different, he's been a total pain since school started-"
"Yeah, but we're not talking about James or you-" Tabitha tried to interject, but it seemed she was overruled as Nixie turned to Lily.
"I've noticed that too! He always seems to be bothering you and Severus," Nixie replied and suddenly, Tabitha had taken a back seat as the other two quickly confided their struggles that they faced.
Of course, no matter how much they spoke or complain about it, they didn't come up with a reasonable solution to actually solve the problem.
Chapter 9
Notes:
Something messed up so I'm missing a chapter so I guess we'll never know what happened over Nixie's Christmas break :(
Chapter Text
Christmas vacation went by far too fast for Nixie's liking as she found herself back at the castle. Of course, she was excited to tell Tabitha and Remus all about her first experience with her tail, but it would have to wait. As soon as she sat down, James, Sirius and Peter joined them.
"I guess my real Christmas wish didn't come true." she muttered to Tabitha.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because he's here." she said pointing in the direction of Sirius.
"Aww, I missed you too, Nini." Sirius smiled before biting into a dinner roll.
Nixie made a face at him before turning to Tabitha.
"So what was the exciting news you had to tell me?" Tabitha asked loudly.
Nixie tried to motion her to shut up but it was too late as all the boys turned their attention to them.
"Nothing." Nixie said quickly. "Nothing."
"Oh you don't have to be shy, you can tell us." Sirius said.
"No. Like I said, it was nothing. Nothing of importance."
"But you were so excited about- OW!" Tabitha grabbed her leg after Nixie gave her a swift kick under the table.
"Shut up." Nixie told her through her teeth.
"Let's just leave it, shall we?" Remus said catching onto Nixie's worry of the others finding out.
The boys seemed to instantly lose interest and talk about their Christmas vacations. Apparently, it didn't go so well in the Black household as Sirius explained the disappointment his family had over the fact that he was sorted into Gryffindor. Although, if he had a bad holiday at home, it didn't show on his face as he joked around with his friends like it wasn't a big deal at all.
After dinner, Nixie decided she wasn't ready for bed as she sat in the Common Room staring at the fire. She rested her head back when someone sat beside her, she prayed it wasn't who she thought it was. She turned her head to see Remus and smiled.
"Hey." she greeted him.
"Hey. How are you?" he asked her.
"I'm alright, how are you?"
'Hanging in there as usual." he said. "So, what's this exciting news?"
Nixie looked around nervously.
"Don't worry, Sirius and James are out like lights right now. I think they filled themselves up with too much food."
"That wouldn't surprise me at all." she smiled.
"Anyways, so you know how this Christmas there was a full moon right?"
"Yes, I remember that well." Remus said, Nixie hadn't noticed that tired expression in his eyes as she mentioned that part.
"Well, I did it." she said proudly.
"What? What did you do?" She gave him a knowing smile. Remus peered down at her legs.
"You didn't...did you? You actually did it!" he said happily.
"I did! And it was amazing!"
"Okay, you have to tell me all about it. From start to finish."
"Alright!" Nixie turned on the sofa to face him and began telling him about her mother came onto land first.
She told him all about it with every detail from the feeling in her legs to how she had to let her tail dry off so her legs could return back to normal.
"So does your mother stay with her legs for the month?"
"No, she returned back to the water, as long as the reflection of the moon touches the water...she's safe to return. But it was nice to have her on land for dinner, you know."
"I bet that was really nice. Do you think she'll ever stay on land permanently to be with you and your dad?"
Nixie shook her head no. "If she did, I'm sure she would just become so sick."
"Sick?"
"From the lack of water...it's a part of her and without it, she would be miserable. I've got some of that running through me and it's terrible when you don't have access to the water for long periods of time, I can't imagine how a full mermaid would feel. She'd probably go mad."
"I feel bad for your father though." Nixie shrugged.
"They both seem happy with the set up I guess. I've never heard him complain, nor have I ever seen that man frown. I don't think he's sad."
"But I'm sure your mother wishes she could join you both for more moments...you know watch you grow up."
"Yeah, I'm sure she does, but it's just how my family has to do things. In the most dysfunctional way." she laughed.
Remus chuckled but suddenly stopped as Nixie stopped instantly and looked at him.
"Remus, what happened to your neck?" she asked pulling on his robes slightly. "Goodness, that looks painful."
"Oh that..it's nothing. I fell over break...you know I can be so clumsy."
"Remus I walk with you all the time and not once have you stumbled on something or shown any signs of being clumsy. This isn't the first cut I've seen on you, or bruise for that matter. Are you really sick when you disappear or are you in some sort of trouble, Remus? You can tell me, I would hope by now that you can trust me."
"It's not a matter of trust, Nixie. I do trust you. Believe when I say I'm sick...I'm very sick."
"With what?" she asked.
Remus didn't answer. "Something that can't be cured." he responded in a whisper.
"What...what is it, Remus? I won't tell anyone."
Remus shook his head and arose to leave back to the dorms.
Nixie sighed and fell back onto the sofa.
"And boys say girls are complicated." she mumbled.
Chapter 10
Chapter Text
"I'm worried about him." Nixie confided in Tabitha one morning in the library. Remus seemed to be avoiding her after she questioned his bruising that one day. She hadn't spoken to him in a couple of weeks. He normally just muttered something here and there, but Nixie was growing concerned for her friend's distance.
"You're always worried about him." Tabitha rolled her eyes. "He's fine." "No, he's not Tabs, have you not seen the cuts and bruises?"
"He's a boy."
"And your point?"
"My point is, he's a boy and they can be rowdy and do all sorts of stuff. He's bound to get cuts and bruises."
"Yes, because Remus is definitely the type that likes to get rowdy." Nixie said hotly. "When is the last time you've ever seen him get rowdy?"
"He hangs out with James and Sirius, and they are always breaking things. Always."
"But I doubt they would be that harsh with him. I mean seriously, Tabitha, you make it sound like I'm worried about nothing."
"Because you are." Tabitha said shaking her. "Your mind is worried about nothing."
Nixie shook her head. "Fine, then I'm just crazy."
"The first step is admitting it." Sirius's voice rang out as his hand found Nixie's shoulder.
Nixie allowed her head to fall to the table with a groan as Tabitha grinned.
"I'm happy to see you too, Nini."
She turned her head. "What do you want?" she asked him.
"Have you seen Remus today, at all?"
She lifted her head back up. "No, I haven't. Has he not been with you guys?"
"Haven't seen him since last night at dinner." Sirius admitted.
"That was the last time I saw him too." Nixie said with a frown.
"What? What's wrong?" he inquired.
"Haven't you noticed Remus' condition?"
"You mean the bruising?"
Nixie gave Tabitha a look before turning back to Sirius. "Yes."
"Remus just said he's fallen and then there was the accident in potions-"
Nixie made a face.
"What?" Sirius said.
"Do those seem like reasonable excuses that Remus shows up like this frequently?"
"The boy is clumsy-"
"No he isn't." Nixie argued. "You know he's not. We've seen him in classes, he hardly spills a drop. He's hiding something, why am I the only one who is worried about him?"
"Because you're crazy." Tabitha pointed out.
Nixie glared at her. "I am not crazy. I'm right, something is going on with Remus. He disappears every month...sorry I'm the only one who noticed."
"You're not the only one who's noticed." Sirius said, "James and I have spoken about it too. He disappears every month but he's not in the hospital wing or in the dorms. He's going somewhere."
"See?" Nixie stuck her tongue out at Tabitha who quickly grabbed it making Nixie gag. "Ew, why would you do that?"
"Keep your tongue to yourself." Tabitha warned.
Nixie wiped her tongue on her robes to get the salty flavor out of her mouth.
Sirius shook his head trying to get back on topic. "Alright well now that we've all noticed something is up, we should figure out what's going on with Remus."
"How do we go about that?" Nixie asked him.
"We do what stealth wizards have done in the past."
"And that is?"
"We follow him."
Her face dropped. "You can't follow someone if you don't know where they are to begin with." she told him.
"Oooh...that makes sense." he said scrunching his face up. "So, then let's find him and follow him."
"But we have classes right now." Nixie said.
"Oh no! The horror of missing a day of classes, whatever shall we do!" Sirius clapped his hands to the sides of his face.
"I'm not skipping out on class, just to wander aimlessly around the castle. We don't even know where to begin looking for him."
"That's why we'll call it an adventure. Now get up."
"I'm not going."
Sirius looked Tabitha who nodded.
"Put me down!!" "Nixie, be quiet, or you'll get me in trouble!" Sirius grunted as he carried her out of the library.
"That's the point!" Nixie hissed at him.
"So angry." he shook his head before placing her down. "Do you want to find him or not? "
"I do but...but not with you!" Sirius snorted. "Fine, I'll rally up the boys, we'll go one way and you and Tabitha can go look on the other side of the castle."
Nixie bit the inside of her cheek, debating whether to just run off to class, but as her concern for Remus returned, she sighed.
"Alright, that works out." she turned to Tabitha. "Let's go."
The entire time, they searched the castle for their friend, Nixie was entirely paranoid that they were going to get caught. Tabitha seemed to be having a good time on their little mission, skipping around giving Nixie the urge to push her out one of the windows.
"Tabitha, I love you, but if you don't stop skipping around me I swear..."
"It's a full moon tonight, isn't it?" Tabitha said randomly.
"Yes, it is. Why?" Nixie sighed.
"Well....it's the full moon...mermaid abilities..." the girl smiled at her.
"Ugh, Tabs, that is the least of my concerns right now, besides I went into the lake last week. I don't have the urge to go swimming tonight."
"Boo, you're no fun. I just want to see the tail."
"And you can, look it up in a book, mines not much different."
"I want to see it up close!"
"We're looking for Remus right now, not worrying over what my tail looks like."
"I don't know why everyone is so worried about him, I'm sure he's fine."
"I'm sure you're wrong." Nixie countered.
"Okay, so let's say we find him, yeah? What happens then? What do you expect to find? One of the professors beating him?"
"That's not funny, Tabby."
"All I'm saying is I doubt we're going to find anything out. We've been running around the castle all day and there's been no sign of him. Remus is smart if he didn't want to be found, we're not going to find him."
"Hey!" The two turned around to see Sirius, James and Peter down the hall.
"We found him." Peter told them, slightly winded.
"You did? Where?"
"You're not going to believe this one." Sirius smiled.
Chapter 11
Chapter Text
"Now I'm really confused." James scratched the top of his head.
"Well, where is he?" Nixie asked him crossing her arms over her chest.
"I swear, we all saw him come out here." James looked to Sirius and Peter, who nodded in agreement.
"He was out here." Sirius said.
Nixie shivered as she glanced around outside the castle grounds but Remus was nowhere in sight.
"If this is some kind of prank-" she began.
"Look, we saw it. We saw Madame Promfrey lead Remus outside. They're just not here anymore." James told her.
"Well, where are they then?"
"Perhaps we would know if we followed them instead of coming to get you." James countered.
"You act like this is my fault!"
"Maybe it is, Dover."
"Listen Potter!" Nixie growled.
Suddenly, the students were interrupted by the clearing of the throat. The group turned around to see Argus Filch standing before them with a sneering look, especially as his eyes fell on the boys.
"Oh narwhals." Tabitha muttered.
"What do we have here? Students outside the castle after permitted hours." the caretaker said. He seemed delighted at the opportunity to get the students in trouble. James and Sirius exchanged a glance, already trying to come up with an excuse.
James went to open his mouth but Nixie suddenly stepped forward surprising all of them.
"They're with me." she said quickly. Filch's eyes fell on her and a look of irritation swept across his face as it was apparent that he couldn't argue that with her. She did after all have special permission to be outside.
"Dumbledore allowed you -"
"Professor Dumbledore allowed me the company of those I wished to accompany me." she said keeping steady eye contact with the man.
Filch huffed to himself, mumbling something under his breath about the matter.
"Well, keep it down. Don't want to go attracting attention to yourself, then all the students are going to want to be out of bed." he said sternly.
"Yes, sir." she nodded quickly.
"And if you've forgotten, the Black Lake is that way." he pointed in the opposite direction they had been walking.
"I know, just needed to stretch my legs beforehand with a walk." she lied. Filch grunted before he disappeared into the shadows as Nixie let out a loud sigh of relief.
"That was great!" Tabitha said running over to her and jumping on her back. "Did you see his face? There was nothing he could do about it." she laughed.
Nixie gave a slight smile.
"Yeah, it seems there wasn't anything he could do about it..what gives?" James asked her. "Why do you have special permission from Dumbledore to be out here after hours?"
"Hmm? N-no reason." Nixie stated quickly. She could see Peter glancing around nervously hoping the boys wouldn't question him. She could only beg him internally that he would keep quiet if questioned.
"So Dumbledore just gave you permission to waltz around as you please?" Sirius pressed her further.
"Yes, now drop it. It saved you all from getting detention. You're welcome! Now we should all head back inside before we get into more trouble and found ourselves in the dungeon with Filch." she snapped before walking off. Tabitha chuckled before trotting over to catch up with her.
"While we're out here, we should stop by the lake-" Nixie gave her a hardened glare.
"Or maybe save that for another time. You're right." Tabitha nodded her head.
Nixie led the way back inside the castle and back to the Gryffindor Common Room. As she headed inside, she fell onto the sofa in front of the fire to warm up her body. The whole day had been wasted really. She had skipped out on several classes, they didn't find Remus, and she was nearly caught in her own secret. At that moment, she wished she had gone to the lake as Tabitha suggested to wash away her stress.
Suddenly, someone sat on her legs.
"Tabitha get off me you lump."
The person didn't move.
"Tab-" she turned her head to see Sirius smiling as he refused to move.
"I should have known it was you." she shook her head.
"Why do you say that?"
"Your bum was far too bony to be Tabitha's." she said ripping her legs out from under him.
"Whoa, strong legs you got there. Must be from all that walking around the grounds after hours."
She gave him a look. "Will you just drop it?" she sighed.
"No, because I find it odd that the headmaster would grant someone permission to do such a thing for no particular reason."
She met his grey eyes before quickly looking away. "I don't know, he knows that I like to walk around."
"And yet, Filch redirected you to the Black Lake, that seems rather odd, doesn't it? Considering you're afraid of water-"
"I'm not afraid of water. I said I couldn't swim." she said. "Filch just redirected me because he knows I like looking at the Black Lake, I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the Giant Squid that is rumored to live there. That's all."
"I don't think Filch shares much concern for students and their sight seeing."
"Think what you want, I don't care."
"Okay, well, I think you're hiding something, Nixie Dover." Sirius said standing up. He wrapped around the sofa, before leaning on the back, close to her. "And we're going to find out what it is."
"You wish." she said as she narrowed her eyes at him.
Remus returned with even more scratches and bruises when Nixie saw him again in potions.
"Where have you been?" Tabitha questioned him this time.
"I had to go home." he told them.
"Why?" Nixie asked.
"Because my mum was sick."
"With what?" Tabitha continued but Nixie stopped her.
"That's none of our business." Nixie told her. "I hope she feels better Remus."
"Thank you." Nixie's eyes fell on Remus' wrapped arm, as she looked up from it, she caught eyes with Remus. His eyes pleaded her not to ask him, especially as James, Sirius and Peter entered. She gave a slight nod before turning her attention to her book.
While Nixie managed to keep her heritage a secret for her first year of Hogwarts especially from nosy Sirius, Remus was able to do the same. But how long could the two hide what they truly were?
Chapter 12
Chapter Text
Summer was Nixie's favorite season, it meant being home with her father and more visits with her mother. It also meant that she didn't have to suffer being away from the water when her body craved it. The sea was refreshing and on the nights of the full moon, Nixie enjoyed putting her tail to use. She was able to swim faster and her mother showed her some fun uses, mainly splashing though.
Nixie coughed up some water as her mother nearly drowned her in a wave of water.
"Mum!" She laughed.
"Whoops, sorry, thought you were still under." Meri chuckled.
Nixie wiped her face. "No," she spat to the side before swimming over to her mother. The night was quiet with the exception of the sound of the water crashing on the shore.
"Second year of school is starting up again." Meri said lying on her back. "Hard to believe."
"Yeah, the summer went by too fast for my liking." Nixie grumbled.
"Oh, it did not, we did a lot this summer. And you had fun spending time with your dad at work didn't you?"
"Yes, loads of fun. I enjoy being stared at." Nixie told her.
"They're only staring because you're a beautiful young lady, Nixie."
"That and-"
"Nixie don't start." her mother warned her.
"Come on, Mum, it's true. They stare at me because they know I'm different."
"Has anyone said anything to you recently?" Meri asked her.
"No, thankfully they just whisper among themselves."
"Let them whisper Nixie, let them say whatever they want under their breath, just know that it's good to be different."
"You keep saying that but it doesn't feel good."
"Right now, it doesn't. But later on, down the line, it will feel great. "
"I wish I had your confidence." Nixie said before blowing bubbles in the water.
"You would have it if you stopped caring so much what everyone thought about you."
"Things are a lot different on land than they are in the water, Mum."
"Well, if I need to come on land for a month and set things straight with a few people, I'll be more than glad to."
Nixie chuckled. "What are you going to do? Splash them in the face?"
"Oh no, their fate will be much dark and far more sinister."
Nixie raised a brow as her mother swam over to her slowly.
"Luring them back to the water, the unsuspecting fools will only realize what's happening when it's too late. They will scream out as they are dragged under, and the bubbles from their last breath will be the last thing anyone will ever see from them again." Meri said.
"Mum, that's sick!"
"That's what happens when you mess with a mermaid's baby." Meri shrugged casually. "Besides aren't you the one who always threatens Sirius by dragging him into the Black Lake?"
Called out by her own mother, Nixie couldn't deny that she used that threat regularly.
"Okay, so I've said it a couple of times, but I wouldn't actually do it."
"And I wouldn't kill someone where I sleep and eat." Meri laughed. "The waters are polluted enough by the muggles and wizarding folk who carelessly throw their rubbish in here. I tell you, Cordelia might have been crazy but when she swam in these waters, I've never seen them cleaner."
"Who's Cordelia?"
"I never told you about her?"
Nixie shook her head no.
"Oh goodness, how could I neglect to tell you such a story. Well, it all started with Cordelia getting caught in a fisherman's net."
"She was caught by a fisherman?"
"No, not by the fisherman, but by a discarded net that was left in the waters. It infuriated her and once she escaped from it, she made her mission to keep the waters she lived in clean. During the evenings that she could venture out of the water, she would walk the shores, collecting trash so that it wouldn't end up in the water. But one evening, she witnessed a load of people just throw their stuff into the water without a care."
There was a dramatic pause.
"And then what happened?!" Nixie urged her to go on, curious as to what Cordelia did.
"Well, she snapped." Meri told her. "Went crazy with rage that her waters were becoming filthy and then...she really went completely mad. She began killing those that polluted the sea."
"Whoa." the younger girl's eyes widened. "She killed someone?"
"She killed a great deal of people, Nixie. I think many lost count of how many."
"What happened to her?"
"She was caught by a group of angry widowers who yanked her out of the water and cut off her tail."
Nixie gasped. "But-"
"Unable to return back to the water, she died on shore."
"Wow..that's...dark."
"She wasn't the first to do so either. Plenty of mermaids have killed, Nixie."
"Have you?"
"No," Meri laughed, " I've had no need to. People keep the waters around here clean. But you know a lot of the bad reputation we get, is from other mermaids killing muggle pirates throughout history. But you probably would do the same after the hundredth bottle of rum hit you in the head after being thrown off a ship."
"Is that why merpeople are classified as beasts?"
"No, we were given the option of being called, beings, but who wants to be put into the same category as hags and vampires? Ick, not me."
"Mum that's not very nice!"
"You're right, you're very right...but still have you seen a hag?"
"You were just threatening to drag people to their death for judging me, and yet here you are judging hags and vampires...seems a bit hypocritical, don't you think?"
"Nope, not to me!" Meri grinned before going underwater.
"I swear you can be so-"
Suddenly, Nixie felt her mother's hand wrap around her wrist and she was pulled underwater.
Chapter 13
Chapter Text
"Second year, this is exciting!" Henry clapped his hands the morning that Nixie was to return to Hogwarts. Except, she didn't share the same enthusiasm as her father.
She dragged her feet before sitting down at the table.
"Now why in the world would you have a frown on your face? Back when I was in school, I was absolutely delighted to escape my parents for several months. I didn't have to clean my room-" Nixie laughed.
" You act like it's so hard for me to be around you, you don't do anything that would make me want to "escape" my home."
"Hmm," Henry rubbed at his chin, " perhaps I should be stricter and meaner then. Before we leave you are to scrub the floors...with nothing but a toothbrush."
The father and daughter locked eyes, and only a moment later did Henry burst into laughter.
"Oh Merlin's beard, I'm too funny." he said wiping his eyes and leaving the kitchen. Nixie only shook her head with a small smile as she turned to make herself some breakfast.
Henry popped his head back in. "I'm serious though...about the floors, they better be spotless."
"Dad!"
"Alright, I'm still teasing, but hurry up or you'll be late."
At the platform, Nixie stood on the tips of her toes in search of Tabitha and finally spotted the bubbly girl skipping along.
"There's Tabby, Dad." she said pointing in her friend's direction. Suddenly, she was yanked back by her robes into a tight hug.
"Oh, this is always the hardest part for me." Henry sighed.
"Me too." Nixie squeaked unable to breathe properly.
"Be sure to write...regularly." he added the last part as he poked her forehead. She giggled.
"Yes, I will. I've been pretty good about it. You and Mum on the other hand...you two are slacking in response time."
"Hush, I have a job and your mother gets the parchment paper all wet....but you don't have any excuses-"
"Besides the fact that I have classes to attend and homework to do everyday?"
"Oh Nixie," he pulled her into a gentle headlock, " you have your mother's tongue and it amazes me that is hasn't gotten you into trouble yet."
"Me? Get in trouble? I don't think so." she said as he released her but as she moved away from him.
Henry waved after her while Nixie met up with Tabitha before stepping aboard the train. As she went to follow Tabitha, she turned around and gave him a wink.
"Mermaids," he muttered under his breath with a smile, " nothing but trouble."
"So now that you've had all summer to practice your new tail, I get to see it right? First full moon?" Tabitha sat Nixie down excitedly in the first empty compartment they could find.
"I don't think I can wait until the first full moon, Tabs. That's at the end of the month, I'm going to want to get into the water before that."
"Yeah, but you can always get into the lake multiple times."
Nixie didn't seem open to the idea.
"You know I don't like venturing out as much, it just makes the girls in the dorm question me more."
"Who gives a flying sock what they think, Nix? Come on please! I want to see it." Nixie sighed.
"Alright, I will do my best to hold off until the full moon before heading to the lake, that way I only have to make one trip and you can see my bloody tail."
"Yay! I'm so excited!" Tabitha cheered.
"I thought I saw you two come in here."
The girls looked over to see Remus.
"Hello Remus." Nixie greeted.
"Hi." Remus smiled. "How was everyone's summer?" he asked.
"Mine was boring compared to Nixie's," Tabitha said.
Remus looked to Nixie as he closed the door behind him. "Did you work more with your tail?"
Nixie nodded. "I did. Used it every chance I could. I think I finally got the hang of it, the only troubling part is waiting for it to dry so my legs can return."
"And Nixie is going to show off her tail at the next full moon...so you better be there Remus!" Tabitha grinned.
Nixie chuckled but stopped as she saw Remus' face pale.
"You alright, Remus?" she felt like she asked that question too many times.
"I-I'm fine. I'll try and be there for it!" he said but she could hear a slight shakiness in his voice.
"It's not a big deal if you don't." Nixie reassured him. " Tabitha is just being crazy about the whole thing."
"Am I the only one who get's excited over something like this?!"
"Excited over what?"
Nixie hadn't even heard the door to the compartment open and it seemed as Remus and Tabitha hadn't either as the three of them jumped. Sirius, James and Peter were in the doorway waiting for Tabitha to answer James' question.
"Uh.."
Nixie gave Tabitha a look that could kill as Remus quickly covered up the conversation.
"She found out they have those little lemon pastries on the trolley." Remus said.
The boys looked extremely puzzled.
"Tabitha really likes lemon pastries." Nixie added before giving Tabitha a slight kick.
"Lemon pastries are life." Tabitha whimpered.
The boys seemed to drop the subject much to Nixie's relief as she settled back in her seat. Peter was talking to Remus about his uneventful summer when Nixie felt the weight of someone plop down beside her. Knowing that Tabitha was sitting across from her, Peter and Remus were sitting near the door, it left Nixie with two options of who was sitting beside her.
She turned her head only to meet the dumb grin that belonged to Sirius.
"What?" she said to him.
"What? That's the greeting I get after three months of not seeing me?"
"What were you expecting? A parade?"
"Now that you mention it..."
"Just be thankful that I acknowledged your existence." Nixie told him before turning her gaze out the window.
Sirius just laughed which irritated her more.
"I think you missed me, Nixie." she felt his arm wrap around her shoulder.
"No, I know I didn't."
"Not even a little?" Sirius pouted as she glanced over at him.
"Not in the slightest, Black." She noticed the boy flinch as she addressed him by his surname, his smile faltering a little bit. She rested her hands in her lap as she took a deep breath.
"Okay, " she said raising her voice slightly, "I might have missed you...but only a little bit."
The full confident smile returned to his face only making her shake her head. His long hair covered her face to hide the small smirk that appeared.
Chapter 14
Chapter Text
Nixie sat in Defense Against the Dark Arts trying to focus on the lesson at hand about the Disarming Charm, but she suddenly felt herself growing hot under her robes. She knew it was from the lack of water. She wiped her brow and shook her robes out to provide some cool air.
"Are you okay?" Tabitha asked her.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just warm in here."
"Warm in here...it's bloody freezing in here!" Tabitha told her, looking around to all the people that were rubbing their hands together to keep them warm.
Nixie lowered her chin to the table, the coolness of it was somewhat relieving. She continued to listen to the lesson, however, she was sure she hardly retained anything .
The class was dismissed and rather than getting up right away, Nixie continued to keep her face down on the table, completely aware of all the germs that were all around her in that moment. She grimaced but didn't want to leave the coolness.
"Nixie are you coming?" Tabitha called to her from the doorway. Remus turned around from where he was following James out, and stopped.
"Is she alright?" he asked walking back inside the classroom.
"I'm fine." Nixie said. "I'm tired is all."
"You told me it was because you were hot." Tabitha said returning to her side.
"That too." Nixie sat straight up and held her head that had a dull ache. She felt the back of Remus' hand touch her forehead before he frowned.
"Nixie, you're burning up, and you feel incredibly clammy." he told her.
Nixie pushed herself up noticing that James, Sirius and Peter were also coming over. The last thing she wanted to do was create a scene.
"I said I'm fine." she said grabbing her things and ignoring the headache.
"I'm probably just hungry."
"After the breakfast you had this morning, " Sirius said, " how in the world could you be hungry?"
She glared at him before picking up her bag and walking passed them.
Remus looked to the others before running after her.
"Nixie, wait up." he said catching up. "Nixie, you're sick. I can tell...you should go to the Hospital Wing."
"I'm not sick, Remus." she told him sharply. She met his gaze.
"Oh.." he stopped realizing what she was getting at. "Then what are you doing? Go on and get to the water."
"I can't, I promised Tabitha that I would wait until the full moon so she could see the tail-"
"Putting your health at risk so Tabs can see your tail is ridiculous, Nixie. You need to get to the water."
"Remus, please, I know my limits, I can hold out until then. It'll just feel really good when I get there."
"It's dangerous."
"I can do this, okay, ... I let you handle yourself when you're sick, so let me handle myself now."
Remus made a face. "There is a big difference between you and I when we get sick Nixie. You can control this, I can't control what happens when I get sick."
She raised a brow. "What do you mean?"
"Nothing! Look, if I see you getting worse, I'll report you." he said. "Get to the lake, Nixie."
That was all he said before the others caught up to them. Nixie didn't say anything before she left with Tabitha.
"What was that all about?" James asked Remus. "You two looked about ready to fight."
"No, it's just Nixie being stubborn."
"As usual." Sirius chuckled. But Remus didn't share in the laughter.
To avoid Remus picking up on the fact that she wasn't feeling better, Nixie did everything she could to avoid him. She didn't need him ratting her out to any of the professors, knowing that the full moon was only a couple of days away, she knew she would be able to make it until then.
She knew she was being silly and she should just suck it up and go down to the lake and then go again on the evening of the full moon, but she didn't want anyone finding anything out. Hiding herself in the back corner of the library, she heard footsteps nearing her. She prayed it wasn't Remus, Tabitha, or Sirius, instead it was Lily Evans.
"Hey Nixie." the girl smiled at her.
"H-hey Lily, what are you doing here?"
"The rest of the library is really full for some reason. Apparently everyone decided tonight was a good night to study."
"Oh well, you're welcome to sit here." she said scooting back to allow more leg room for Lily to share the table.
"Thanks." Lily smiled as she set her things out. Every so often Lily stole a glance at Nixie who was rubbing her eyes.
"Are you sick?" she asked her.
Nixie peered up at her. "No...well yeah, but it's nothing contagious."
"Does it have to do with the fact that you're a ...well half a mermaid?" Lily whispered to her.
Nixie's eyes widened as she stared at her. "Excuse me?"
"Oh I'm sorry! It's just that someone told me-"
"Who told you?!" Nixie demanded to know.
"Uh..well Severus told me..."
"How did he find out?"
"I don't know!" Lily replied quickly.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to offend you-"
"No...just..you haven't told anyone else have you?"
"What no? I wouldn't-"
"Has he?"
"What?"
"Has he told anyone?"
"No, I wouldn't see why he would...he just told me."
Nixie shook her head rising to her feet. Her head was spinning and the pain was becoming more prominent.
"Nixie, you don't look good, perhaps you should just sit down and relax, or I could walk you to the Hospital Wing?"
"I don't need anyone to help me right now."
Lily knew better than that as she watched Nixie stagger away from the table. She didn't make it far before she collapsed.
"Nixie!"
Chapter 15
Chapter Text
The dull ache returned as Nixie finally came to. She expected to find herself still in the library, on the floor, thinking not much time had passed. But unfortunately for Nixie, she found herself in the Hospital Wing surrounded by some irritated-looking professors as soon as she opened her eyes. She frowned and immediately squeezed them shut hoping they hadn't noticed that she was awake.
Professor McGonagall looked about ready to scold her like an in-person howler. She groaned, partially due to the headache, the other due to the fact that she knew she was in big trouble.
However, before McGonagall could get a word in, a throat cleared, and she saw Headmaster Dumbledore walking over. So calm and casually as always. McGonagall seemed to be rolling her eyes knowing that he wasn't going to reprimand her in the way she thought was deserved.
"May I?" he looked to all the professors, basically asking all of them to clear the room.
Once they were left alone, Nixie made sure not to make any eye contact with him.
"So, how long has it been this time?"
Nixie didn't answer, knowing it had been too long.
"Why would you refrain from getting in the water now? You have been given permission to venture out past curfew in order to be concealed, Miss Dover."
"I know." Nixie finally spoke. "It's just.." she sighed gripping the sides of her head that continued to throb.
She took a deep breath before continuing.
"Tabitha wanted to see my tail, and I thought I could hold out until-"
"Until the full moon, that is quite some time, that is if you haven't ventured in the water since the time you were home."
"I thought I could make it."
"And once again, you put yourself at risk of getting hurt." he replied, a sternness to his voice.
"I'm sorry. I just didn't want to go out twice."
"You fear what the other students think, and yet the ones who know do not think ill of you, why do you think others would?"
"Because I've heard the things their parents have said to me. I know what they'll think-"
"No, you think you know what they'll think, but just because a person's parents believe one thing, it does not mean their beliefs are passed down genetically. You are judging them before they've even given a thought to judge you."
Nixie pushed herself back into the pillow, feeling slightly dizzy.
"You need to get to the lake." Dumbledore said. "No more holding out until the moon."
"Yes, Professor."
"I have your friends coming to join you-"
"Tabitha?"
"And Remus."
She sighed in relief.
"And I'll also be contacting your mother and father."
Nixie's face paled. "Do you have to-"
The look Dumbledore gave her, Nixie realized she was not in the place to argue.
"I understand."
She waited for Tabitha to arrive, along with Remus as she pushed herself to the side of the bed, swinging her legs over. Her feet felt like she was being stuck with pins and needles as she stood up.
"Nixie?"
Nixie glanced over before her feet hurt so bad that she fell. Suddenly, she was being pulled up by each arm.
Remus was on one side with Tabitha on the other.
"Are you alright?" Tabitha asked her.
"I'm fine, I just...I really need to get to the water right now, I feel terrible."
"Well, you just hold onto us and we'll get you there." Remus told her. She gripped her hands on their robes as they made their way out of the Hospital Wing. Nixie whimpered as her legs seemed to hurting even more with the participation of entering the water. She tried to push on but she had to ask her friends to stop.
"Please, just...I can't, it hurts too much."
Remus frowned shooting a worried glance to Tabitha. "Okay, Nixie, you just wait right here." Remus said. "I'm going to go get help."
"That's not necessary." Nixie said. "I only need to rest and then I can go on-"
"No, you're not in any condition, look at you Nixie. You look terrible." he said with a slight smile.
Nixie let out a small chuckle.
"Hang tight, I'll be right back." he said before running off.
Nixie looked to Tabitha who sat beside her. "Wait a second," Nixie squeaked, "who is Remus going to go get to help?"
Tabitha shrugged unaware of her friend's distress. "Probably, Sirius and James-"
"No!" Nixie said trying to stand. "Anyone but them! I rather had Filch take me out there."
Tabitha shook her head. "Don't be so dramatic, Nixie. They're not that bad-"
"I don't want them to know."
"What are they going to do even if they did find out?"
"You're asking what those two would do with that information? The two that taunt any student in this school?!"
"Okay, okay, you made your point."
"This is terrible."
When they heard the shuffling of feet, Nixie felt her stomach twist in knots. She peered down the hall and suddenly her head perked up. She didn't see Sirius, James or Peter accompanying Remus, but rather Professor McGonagall.
While Nixie hadn't been the most thrilled to see the professor earlier, she was more than happy to see her in that moment.
"Miss Dover, are you alright?"
"Yes. My feet really hurt though,"
"Alright, let's get you to the lake," Nixie wasn't expecting the petite woman to be so strong as she hoisted her up to her feet.
McGonagall accompanied the three to the lake and as Nixie reached the water's edge, she expected the professor to release her but instead McGonagall walked her right into the water.
A sense of pure relief washed over Nixie's skin as soon as the water touched her.
She removed her arm from McGonagall's hold and fell back into the water.
A small smile appeared on the woman's face before she climbed out of the water.
"I'll leave Miss Dover with you two. Be sure you head back to the castle soon, you still have classes tomorrow morning."
"Yes Professor." Tabitha and Remus said together.
"Nixie, you idiot!" Tabitha said as Nixie swam over to them after surfacing.
"Hey, what did I do to you?"
"You nearly killed yourself holding out for the full moon-"
"But you told me to-"
"I want to see your tail but I don't want to see it that badly. You didn't have to go ahead and hurt yourself."
"Well, I'm sorry I thought I could get away with it. I'm not doing that again though."
"Good." Remus added. "Now, I'm not going to say that I told you so but...I told you so."
Nixie chuckled before splashing the two.
"Hey!"
Chapter 16
Chapter Text
Nixie settled for a bran muffin one morning, feeling calm and relieved after venturing into the water. She was just about to take a bite when she saw Lily walking towards the table, trying to avoid eye contact with her. Nixie felt bad for how she had handled the situation back in the library and immediately jumped to her feet to grab Lily's attention.
"Lily!" Lily whipped her head around, her red hair smacking her in the face and getting caught in her mouth warranting both girls to giggle.
"Pleh!" Lily pulled at the strands trapped in her mouth before becoming free. "Sorry about about that." she apologized, her green eyes full of sincerity.
"No, Lily, it's me who should be apologizing...to you."
"About what?"
"About...well I shouldn't have freaked out like that in the library. I'm really sorry."
"Nixie, you don't have to apologize for that. I understand that you want to keep those matters private, that is totally your business. I didn't realize it, but I assure you that I haven't said anything to anyone and I asked Severus to keep his mouth shut."
Nixie grinned. "Thank you. You really don't know how much that means to me. I...I'm just not ready for everyone to know about it." she admitted to Lily as the two sat down.
"You're afraid of what people will say?"
"I already know what some people will say, I've heard some things before. I'm not sure how everyone will take to it. I rather just wait."
"I think everyone would find it fascinating." Lily said lowering her head and whispering. "I mean, an actual mermaid walking around the castle. How could anyone have something bad to say?"
Nixie gave her a small smile. "You'd be surprised. I'm sure it will eventually get out and everyone will voice their opinion on it. I'll just have to live with whatever anyone thinks."
Her eyes looked down the hall where she saw James and Sirius entered shoving each other back and forth playfully.
"Especially those two." Lily followed her gaze and gave an eye roll of her own.
"You shouldn't care what anyone thinks, but especially when it comes to those two. I can't stand them sometimes."
"You and me both." Nixie smirked. "I only talk with them because they're friends with Remus. Why Remus is friends with them, I still can't figure out."
"I only converse with them because they won't leave Severus alone. They're always bothering him."
"I've noticed. What's the deal between them anyways? Did they know each other beforehand?"
"No, but they really don't like each other, but James is always picking on him and if James is doing it, you can bet Sirius is doing it."
"My ears are ringing, someone must have mentioned my name." Nixie turned her head and nearly fell out her seat at the close proximity of Sirius.
"What is wrong with you?" she hissed at him as Lily caught her by the robes and pulled her back up.
"Nothing is wrong with me. Although I bet my mother would beg to differ. What is wrong with you?"
"Me? Nothing."
"Oh really? So why were you in the hospital wing?" James sat across from them, propping his chin on the palm of his hands. His elbows rested on the table.
"That's none of your business." Lily said to him.
"He wasn't asking you." Sirius told her, before looking back to Nixie.
"It is none of your business." Nixie informed him.
"You caused quite a scene in the library from what we heard." James said.
"I was sick, now leave me alone." she grumbled.
"Come on, Nixie, why don't we head to class early?" Lily said standing up and waiting on her.
"That sounds wonderful." Nixie said going to leave but stopped as an owl arrived and dropped a letter in front of her.
"Oh no." she frowned as she recognized her father's handwriting. Apparently, her parents had wasted no time in responding to Dumbledore's letter.
Grabbing the letter quickly, she hopped up to her feet and left with Lily by her side leaving the boys with questioning expressions.
"You look awfully nervous about that letter."
"It's from my parents." Nixie sighed.
" I already know what it says. They're mad at me."
"For what?"
"For letting it get bad. I knew better than to wait to get into the water, but instead I got myself sick. I'm sure there's just a long lecture waiting to be read inside this envelope."
"I guess that means that they care, right?"
"Yes. But they don't understand how big of a pain this whole thing is. Sometimes, I wish I never went into the stupid water to begin with, then I wouldn't be suffering from this curse."
"Curse?"
"It's not really a curse. From the moment I entered the water that my mother lives in, my body is drawn to the water and if I go too long without entering the water, it makes me sick."
"How do you cope with that here?" Lily asked her. Suddenly, her eyes widened.
"Ooooh, the lake? You go to the lake."
Nixie nodded. "Yes, it's nothing like sea water, but it does the trick."
"What does it feel like?" Curiosity was getting the best of Lily in the moment.
"It's hard to describe really. It's just a cool relief. Like all my troubles are being washed away by the water."
"Have you..um..or rather do you have a..."
"A tail?" Nixie finished for her.
Lily nodded.
"Yeah, I do. But it doesn't come whenever I please. Just during a full moon."
"A full moon? Why is that?"
Nixie shrugged. "Anyone's guess is as good as mine. Something about the lunar pull on the water...I really need to pay attention more when my mother speaks."
"So, it's like you're almost a werewolf but you turn into a mermaid?" Lily chuckled.
"I guess that's one way of putting it." Nixie grinned.
" But I have full control over becoming a mermaid during the full moon. I don't think werewolves can say the same. I bet you though, if a mermaid was bitten by a werewolf, on a full moon they would turn into a shark!"
The girls laughed the entire way to class, bonding and becoming much closer friends than before as they realized they shared a great deal in common.
Chapter 17
Chapter Text
"Remus...goodness." Nixie sat in front of him in the common room. She hadn't seen him since the night at the lake and the boy looked terrible. "Look at you.." she whispered.
She adjusted her robes as she sat on the table. "What happened to you?"
Remus covered his face with his hands. "Nothing. Nixie, really, it's nothing."
"Remus, this isn't nothing. Okay? Look at yourself, you look like you got into a fight with a cat...a rather large cat!"
Some other students sharing the common space glanced over at them.
"Keep it down, Nixie." Remus told her.
"Then you tell me what's going on, right now! No more of this sickness nonsense."
"But I am sick." he said.
"With what? You can at least tell me that, can't you?"
"No. I can't Nixie. Please, just ignore it."
"Ignore it, Remus? You're one of my best friends, I can't go on and ignore it! You're hurt..."
"Me? No, I'm not hurt. This is nothing. I don't even feel the pain." he went to move but winced in pain.
"You're a terrible liar, remember?" She smirked.
"Just respect the fact that I really don't want to talk about it."
"I don't like seeing you like this."
"And you think I get a kick looking like this?"
"Maybe you do."
He sighed and Nixie realized he really didn't wish to further discuss the matter.
"Fine I'll drop it." she said. "However, you have to promise me that you'll take care of yourself. I don't want to see you with anymore of this.." her hands pointed at his appearance.
"I don't think I can promise you that, Nixie." Remus told her honestly. He stood up and left to the boy's dormitory.
Nixie pushed her hair back with a frustrated growl as Tabitha came skipping down the stairs from the girl's dormitory.
"Whoa, what's with the face?" Tabitha asked her.
"Have you seen Remus lately?"
"Yeah I saw him earlier this morning."
"No, that's not what I meant. I meant have you seen him, the wounds and marks on his body?"
"Oh not this again." Tabitha rolled her eyes.
"Not again?" Nixie arose. " How could you say something like that? He's obviously in some sort of trouble and-"
"And he obviously doesn't want you involved in it because he hasn't told you anything. So...leave him alone Nixie. For Merlin's sake, you're going to drive him crazy by nagging him."
"I'm concerned for him."
"If it was such a big deal don't you think the professors would have picked up on it? I'm sure they've noticed and they are probably taking care of it, so just leave it alone."
Nixie pursed her lips together before leaving.
Tabitha was left in the common room with the other students that were staring.
"What are you all looking at?"
Up in the room, Nixie sat on her bed after removing her shoes and fell back onto her pillow.
"Hey are...you alright, Nixie?"
Nixie lifted her head up to see Lily standing there.
"Uh yeah, I'm good." Nixie told her sitting up.
"I was just going to come look for you. See if you wanted to join me to head outside for a bit of fresh air."
"Yeah, that sounds nice."
"Great, well I was just going to grab my jumper...you don't mind if Severus tags along do you?"
"No, not at all."
Severus was already outside when Lily arrived with Nixie beside her. The boy seemed somewhat surprised to see Nixie's company but didn't say anything against it. Instead, he gave her a curt nod with a small smile.
They sat down in the grass by the Black Lake, Nixie's eyes stared out at the water. The water was calm that afternoon, not even a ripple disturbing it. But below it, Nixie knew there was a whole other world.
Severus and Lily exchanged looks before Lily cleared her throat drawing Nixie's attention back to the them.
"Sorry." Nixie blushed. "Sometimes it can be just so tempting."
"Do you want to move closer to the water?" Severus offered her.
"No, it's best I don't. I'll just want to jump right in."
"Well, go ahead we won't judge you." Lily said.
"I can't." Nixie noted the other students that were around. Her eyes fell on James and Sirius who were joking back and forth about something.
"Not with those two around. They think I'm afraid of water."
Lily's eyebrows knitted together. " Why would they think that?"
"Because Remus told them so that they would stop rocking the boat when we were crossing to get to the castle."
"Sounds like something they would do." Severus said with an eye roll. "They're nothing but trouble and just being in their presence drives people mad."
"Talking about yourself again, Snivellus?" Nixie craned her neck to see the two with Peter in tow. Peter gave her a small wave from behind them.
"What do you want?" Nixie sighed looking at Sirius.
"It's a more common greeting to say hello." Sirius smiled at her.
"I'll say it again, what do you want?"
"Can't we just come say hello?" James said.
"No." Lily and Nixie responded together.
Sirius crouched down to Nixie's eye level.
"Sitting a bit close to the water...aren't you, Nixie?"
Nixie bit the inside of her cheek. "I'm fine where I'm at."
"But you could fall in and then what?" James continued the taunting.
"I would be put out of my misery." Nixie responded flatly. The bigger Sirius' grin grew, the more Nixie wanted to push him into the lake.
"Leave us alone." Severus piped up.
The boys turned their attention to him.
"Oh and are you going to make us?"
Before Severus could say anything, Nixie was on her feet nearly knocking Sirius back onto his butt.
"Get out of here." she said. "If you two are going to be complete idiots then you can go off somewhere else. But it's not welcomed here."
Chapter 18
Chapter Text
Tabitha was watching Nixie focus on her Herbology book when Sirius and James came into the Great Hall but didn't even glance their way. Confused as they normally enjoyed bothering Nixie enough to get a reaction, Tabitha lowered her head to whisper to her friend.
"Um...care to tell me why Sirius and James won't even peek over here?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Nixie said plainly, her eyes not leaving her book.
"Did you say something to them?" Tabitha asked her noticing that the boys sat all the way at the end of the table.
"I only told them what they needed to hear."
"And that was?"
"The golden rule, basically."
"Don't bite off more than you can chew."
Nixie set her book down. 'No. Treat others the way you would like to be treated."
"I think mine is the better golden rule. I mean you wouldn't want to choke." Tabitha added.
Nixie didn't respond as she turned the page.
"Well you must have given it to them because they won't even look over here."
"Serves them right, they've been nothing but nasty. There is being funny and then there is just being rude. Picking on students is not funny. That's all they seem to do."
"Oh Nixie, they hardly pick on you, you need to lighten up."
"Just because they don't pick on me as often doesn't mean I should turn a blind eye to when they do it to others. It's still wrong and I don't need to lighten up!" Nixie said closing her book. "Everyone needs to stop parading them around and call them out on what they are doing wrong. But everyone around here is too afraid to do that because they do not want to be the next one to be picked on."
"I see you've been hanging out with Lily." Tabitha said.
"Yeah, I have been." Nixie collected the rest of her belongings and left the Great Hall.
"Going off on everyone are we?" Nixie had settled herself on a window seat looking out at the grounds while finishing her homework, when someone took the seat across from her. She blushed as she looked at Remus.
"Not going off..just being honest with how I feel I guess."
"James and Sirius told me what happened...well their side of it."
"Let me guess, they were just fooling around and I overreacted?"
"Pretty much." Remus smiled.
Nixie shook her head. "That's not true at all. All they do is bother people."
"Come now, Nixie, that's not all they do. You've laughed a couple of times at their antics."
"That's when they are being funny not when they are being mean. They have no right to point out people's insecurities, it's not like they're perfect."
"I've never heard them claim to be perfect."
"I've heard James say it on occasion."
Remus chuckled. " That's just James fooling around. They aren't doing it to be malicious, Nixie."
"You could be right, they may not see it as malicious but I'm sure others do. I don't see the people laughing when they are being fun of. Look, Remus, I understand that you are friends with them and that's fine, but I am not putting up with this nonsense anymore. Taunting me by the lake when they believe that I have a fear of water isn't right. And the way they pick on Severus..."
Remus frowned slightly looking outside.
"See? I know you've seen it too and you know it's wrong."
"Well, I'll talk to them okay...now what's this about you and Tabitha going back and forth in the Great Hall?"
"Who told you that?" "Sirius." Nixie made a face.
"She said that I needed to lighten up but I don't think I need to. So that is that. Rather than arguing with her, I removed myself from the situation as simple as that. Tell Sirius to mind his business."
"You can tell him yourself."
"What-"
"Hello Nixie."
Her shoulders slumped as she let out a small groan. She turned around to see Sirius leaning against the wall with a smile and his arms folded his chest.
"Can't seem to keep my name out of your mouth, can you?"
"Don't flatter yourself, Black."
"Now this is what confuses me, Nixie." Sirius began, " you claim that everyone should be nice and yet here you are being completely rude."
"I'm being rude?!" Nixie screeched.
"Oh dear." Remus rested his face in the palm of his hand.
"How am I being rude?" She said standing up and facing the boy.
"Well, I say hi to you and you didn't say hello back. You tend to do that a lot...and it isn't polite now is it?"
Remus reached out to grab Nixie's robes in case she went to attack Sirius.
"Not only that but you never have anything nice to say about me whenever you mention my name."
"Perhaps if you did nice things I would have better things to say about you."
"Perhaps if you greeted me kindly I would do nicer things."
"Oh I highly doubt that!" Nixie scoffed with a laugh.
"See, this is what I'm talking about. Remus, you are a witness to this."
"Why do you insist on bothering me?"
"I don't see it necessarily as bothering you but rather gracing you with my presence."
"Gracing me with your presence?!" she repeated almost hysterically.
"Who do you think you are?" she said poking him in the chest.
"I'm Sirius Black." he grinned
Chapter 19
Chapter Text
Since their little spat in the Great Hall, Tabitha and Nixie didn't speak much to each other. Nixie ended up spending the majority of her time with Lily and Severus which seemed to be turning into a wonderful friendship, mainly between the girls. Severus was more reserved and kept to himself unless he was being addressed directly. However, since the evening where Sirius and Nixie butted head, Sirius seemed to be going out of his way to wish Nixie a good morning and greet her politely any chance he could. Although, Nixie was well aware that he was only trying to annoy her with the mocking kindness as after he greeted her, he and James would snicker about it. She did notice a slight decrease in them picking of Severus, but it only when she was present along with Lily. Most times, Remus would try to redirect their attention to something else to avoid any sort of conflict.
Nixie was attempting to write a letter to her parents one evening, finding a quiet corner in the common room. Her parents had finally gotten over the night where she collapsed due to the lack of water and Nixie was thankful. Every letter her mother and father would send a reminder to get in the water, but they were no longer mentioning it, which meant they had faith that Nixie wouldn't do such a thing again.
As she was writing, she heard the familiar voices of James and Sirius accompanied by Peter. She lifted her head slowly to carefully not attract attention to herself but it was too late. Sirius quickly spotted her with a grin and skipped on over to her. She covered her face with the parchment paper to hide the scowl on her face.
"Hello Nixie." Sirius said.
"How are you this evening?" Nixie sighed quietly and revealed her face.
"Hi Sirius, I'm fine, how are you?"
"I'm doing great as usual."
"Uh huh." she said in a disinterested tone.
"Come on Sirius, leave her and let's go, we're wasting time."
Nixie's curiosity peaked as she glanced up at the boys.
"What are you three up to?" Sirius made her scoot over in her seat so he could sit beside her.
"Haven't you noticed who's missing again?"
Nixie nodded, she always noticed when Remus was missing.
"Of course, I'm sure he's feeling sick again." Nixie told him.
"Right, but with what is the question." Sirius said.
"What are you getting at?"
"Haven't you noticed that Remus gets sick but is never in the Hospital Wing? Where is he going?"
"Perhaps he's gone home like the other times." Nixie defended Remus's excuses.
"Oh come on, Nini," Sirius rolled his eyes, Nixie glared at him for using the nickname. "Students don't leave the grounds...not that frequently. Something else is going on and I finally figured it out!"
"You have?"
"Yes I have." Sirius grinned proudly.
"We figured it out, you git." James said.
"Well, what is it? Where is he?" Nixie asked them.
"Oh...we don't know that part yet." Peter told her.
Nixie's face fell as she looked to the boys. "Really?"
"But we know where he is headed!" Sirius said. " I overheard Madame Promfrey discussing it."
"We.." James corrected him.
"Shut up." Sirius told him.
"Alright," Nixie put her hands up. "So why are we sitting around here?"
"Because Sirius insisted upon getting you."
Nixie looked over at Sirius. "You did?"
"Only because I knew if I didn't come get you I would never hear the end of it." Nixie smiled.
"Can we go now?" James said impatiently.
"So we're just waltzing into Hogsmeade?!" Nixie smacked her forehead at the ill planning by the boys.
"What? You're apparently allowed out of the castle after hours-" James went to argue.
"That's different." Nixie snapped.
"And I don't go out to Hogsmeade. We aren't allowed. We aren't third years."
"Oh no, we're breaking the rules, whatever shall we do?" James said flatly.
Nixie looked to Peter who remained quiet. There would be no arguing with the boys, they were stubborn in their ways.
"Okay, so we're going to Hogsmeade? Why? Why would Remus be in Hogsmeade?"
Sirius shrugged. "I heard something about Madame Promfrey escorting Remus and Hogsmeade. I put two and two together."
"How do you know she wasn't going to Hogsmeade for a drink after escorting Remus elsewhere?" Nixie asked him.
Sirius opened his mouth to reply but came up short with words.
Nixie shook her head. "We're going to be expelled."she groaned.
"Maybe but that's only if we get caught." James told her.
"And you expect the four of us to walk into Hogsmeade undetected? You realize people actually live there right? If someone spots four students wandering around-"
"Please make her stop!" James whined covering his ears.
"Rude." Nixie huffed.
"Look, let's just get going, we're wasting time standing around here." Sirius said.
"Plus if we keep just standing here we're bound to get caught. Do you have it James?"
"Yes I-" "I'm beginning to wonder if you are out here for the purpose you claim." The group froze, and Nixie was the first to turn around to see Filch.
He always seemed to show up at the most inconvenient time when they were trying to be sneaky.
"You were just out here a short time ago."
Nixie felt her face grow hot. "Well...you know sometimes the Full Moon just calls to me." she told the caretaker with an innocent grin.
He did not share in the amusem*nt.
"You wouldn't be abusing the privileges that the Headmaster granted you to get yourself into mischief...would you?"
"I wouldn't dream of it." Nixie said keeping her voice steady.
She prayed internally that the man would just walk away and leave them be.
"Need I remind you again that the lake is that way!" Filch pointed in the direction of the Black Lake.
"Yes sir." she nodded.
"I know that, and like I have said, I enjoy a nice walk beforehand."
Filch couldn't argue with her anymore, she technically wasn't doing anything wrong...yet.
He grumbled to himself before leaving as Nixie let out a sigh of relief. She turned to the boys, James and Sirius had their arms crossed over their chests while all three of them had blank expressions at the scene that had just unfolded.
"Not a word." Nixie told them. "Now let's go."
Chapter 20
Chapter Text
Nixie kept her head low as they traveled in the darkness, the only light was provided by the full moon that shone brightly over the land. They could have lit their path with their wands but decided against it to keep the attention off of them. James apparently had a back up plan in case they saw someone that would detect them. As she watched the ground, she saw the second set of feet fall in step tomorrow. She turned her head to see Sirius walking beside her with his hands shoved into the pockets of his slacks.
"What?" she asked him.
"What? What do you mean what?" he peered down at her. "I'm just walking here."
"Mmhmm."
"Anyways, I should be asking you the questions."
"What do you mean?" Nixie knew what he was getting at, but knew she had to play dumb to keep her cover.
"Oh let's see, the fact that you are allowed out of the castle past curfew and all those with you are granted the same permission. How did you manage that one?" Nixie didn't answer his question as she swallowed nervously. "Even Filch can't touch you as if you have some golden pass. And speaking of Filch why is he always trying to direct you to the lake...you can't swim, what is the purpose of you walking over there and don't say it's to observe it. You can see that lake at any given time."
"Right well, it's not as pretty during the daytime as it is during the night. Besides I don't owe you an explanation. I saved us back there...you should be thanking me not questioning me."
"I just find it funny that while we're trying to uncover Remus' secrets it seems you have quite a few of your own, Miss Dover."
"Do not." she lied. "I'm not hiding anything."
"Then why are you allowed outside?"
"No reason, just drop it."
"It's rude to lie, Nixie. We're we discussing manners..."
"Oh please." she said. "I am far from being rude...I could have told Filch that you weren't accompanying and you know where that would have gotten you three? In a nice detention session with him. So, you're very welcome, Mr. Black."
"Will you two keep it down back there?!" James yelled.
"Really, James? That's how you ask someone to be quiet? By yelling at them?" Nixie said hotly.
"Bravo, mate." Sirius clapped his hands.
When they arrived to Hogsmeade the village was quiet during the nighttime hours. Not a soul besides the group seemed to be outside. Silence filling the usual busy streets as they walked through.
"Gather around." James said.
"For what?" Nixie questioned but Sirius pulled her closer to the boys as they huddled together. She immediately grew uncomfortable by the close proximity of them.
"Um...I am more than capable of walking around without you guys being this close. I promise."
"Just be quiet and stay close." James huffed as he pulled out what seemed to be a cloak. Before Nixie could say anything James draped it over them, stretching it out to it's fullest.
"I'm still really confused."
"Invisibility cloak." Peter told her with a mischievous grin.
"No one can see us."
"Well..." Sirius began looking down at their feet.
" At most, it just looks like eight shoes went out for an evening stroll."
Nixie giggled at the image of what others would see if they did in fact witness eight shoes walking around.
"How did you come by this?" she asked James.
"My dad gave it to me." James said, pride lacing his voice as he slightly puffed out his chest.
"Alright, " Sirius' voice interrupted everyone. "Where are we going first?"
The group wandered around the village but there was no sign of Remus or life or that matter as it grew later and later. Nixie was shivering from the cold night air, despite being surrounded by the three boys. With a frown at their second failed attempt to find Remus, Nixie removed the cloak off of her to face them.
"I don't think we're going to find him out here." she said pushing her hair back. The boys seemed to actually agree as James pull the cloak off of all of them in defeat.
"Perhaps he really did go home." Peter suggested.
"I don't believe that for a second." Sirius said.
"But he is certainly the reigning champ of hide and seek."
"I can't believe we came out of here for nothing." James sighed.
"Well, it may not be for nothing." Sirius told him. "We could check out that place that I heard those fifth years talking about. The Shrieking Shack." he wiggled his fingers in Nixie's face in hopes of frightening her. She stood still staring at him blankly.
"Don't do that." she said pushing his hands away.
"Hmmph, scared Peter the first time I did it."
"Did not!" Peter protested.
"What about the Shrieking Shack what is it?" Nixie questioned.
"It's apparently this haunted place where you can hear all sorts of screams and howls through the night..."
"Maybe we should just head back to the castle." Peter squeaked.
"Oh don't be such a pansy, Peter!" James said as he led the way. Peter remained in his spot as Sirius followed after James.
Sirius glanced over his shoulder to Nixie who was walking over to Peter.
"It's alright, Peter. I doubt it's really haunted." she whispered to the chubby boy. "It's probably all a story that the fifth years tell to scare the younger students."
"Thanks Nixie."
"No problem, now come on or they will never let you hear the end of it." she said offering him to link arms with her.
When they arrived outside of the tattered-looking house, Nixie placed her hands on the outside of the small fence staring out. The doors and windows were all boarded up giving the house a haunted look.
"I don't hear anything-" James went to say when suddenly there heard a long and low howl. All four stood there frozen in their spots.
"What the bloody hell was that?" Peter's teeth chattered.
"Sounds like your stomach when we skip lunch." Sirius joked trying to hide his own fear.
A sound of something crashing and shattering inside caused them all to jump back from where they were near the fence. More yells and shrieks came from inside the shack, and while Nixie was indeed scared she was always terribly intrigued to see what was inside. She wasn't fearful of ghosts as they regularly roamed the halls of Hogwarts. She took a step forward towards the door when she was yanked back by her robes.
"Are you mental?" Sirius asked her. "Who's the pansy now?"
Chapter 21
Chapter Text
" We are not pansies!" James told her.
"Oh really?" Nixie challenged, "then why are you all over there while I'm over here?"
James grumbled something inaudible under his breath before taking a step forward to prove that he was braver than Nixie thought.
Nixie pressed her ear against one of the boards of the windows while the boys cautiously walked over.
The shrieks sounded like they were brought on by pain and the howls sad and angry at the same time.
"Goodness..." Nixie whispered. "That doesn't sound human."
She turned to face the boys who were keeping their distance.
"Will you guys get over here!?"
"No way!" James said. "You may not value your life but I value mine."
Nixie shook her head before looking to Sirius. "Mr. Black? No? Peter? No? Hmm...well this is something. The biggest mouths of our year always claiming how fearless they are and here they are cowering in fear like a bunch of newborns!"
"Hey!" Sirius frowned. "We don't know what is in there, that doesn't make us babies."
"It sounds like an animal." Nixie said to them. "I can hear scratching-" Suddenly, the boarded window she was near was struck from the other side was struck. She backed away slowly. .
"A rather big animal by the sounds of it." James added.
"What is it doing in a shack?" Peter asked looking around to everyone.
Nixie shrugged and continued backing away as the banging persisted.
"Maybe it's remodeling." Sirius suggested.
"Or it's trapped." James said.
"No wonder it's so upset if that's the case." Nixie said removing her wand.
"What are you doing?!" Sirius asked her with a bewildered look.
"If it's a trapped animal, it'll probably be happy to be freed, right?"
"Or it's probably kept in there for a reason!" James told her.
A chilling howl interrupted the group's argument. Nixie found herself tucked behind James and Sirius suddenly. Both boys had their arms out before her as if they were going to protect her from whatever was behind the door.
"We need to think here." James said. "An animal that sounds that big, if it is in fact that big, don't you think it would be able to break through a bunch of boarded-up wood by now?"
"What are you suggesting?" Nixie asked him.
"I think the entrances and exits are charmed. An animal is going to do whatever it takes to escape unless that seriously can't. I don't think it can get out because there is someone who doesn't want it to." James explained. Nixie didn't want to admit it but she knew James and Sirius were smart and James' words did in fact make sense.
She placed her wand back in pocket of her robes. "So now what? What do we do?"
"I dunno." James said turning to Sirius.
"Don't look at me, I'm just as stumped, I was hoping for ghosts. Boo." he furrowed his brow. "Too bad Remus isn't here, he's pretty good with this stuff, I bet he would be able to identify whatever animal it is."
Nixie smiled. "Yeah he-"
Sirius peered down at Nixie who had just stopped speaking entirely. Her eyes were focused on the Shrieking Shack with a puzzled look.
"Uh...Nixie?" he waved his hand in front of her face but she didn't even blink at his gesture.
"Is she alright?" James asked, but Sirius wasn't too sure.
"I think she's broken." Sirius said.
Nixie shook her head suddenly. "I'm not broken! Think about what you just said Sirius!"
"He said your name?" James repeated confused.
"No before that." Nixie said. "He said too bad Remus isn't here."
"Yeah so?" Sirius huffed becoming frustrated with what he thought was a mind game.
"Will you just think about it for a minute? Think of where we are. What you heard from Madame Promfrey. Think of all the times Remus has gone absent and during what time."
Peter looked as though his brain had officially melted while James and Sirius seemed concentrated.
"Think of the moon." she said glancing up at the full moon that was shining brightly over them.
It clicked.
Both James and Sirius' eyes widened as they faced the shack completely. Peter still looked rather confused.
"Remus is here." James said under his breath.
"He's been here the whole time." Sirius swallowed.
"How could we have missed that...every full moon..."
Peter glanced around at everyone before his eyes rested on Nixie.
"I don't understand what's going on. Where is Remus?"
Nixie pointed to the door. "He's the animal that's inside there, Peter. Remus....is a werewolf."
James, Nixie, Sirius, and Peter raced back to the grounds, unsure what to do with the newfound information.
"What do we say to him? Do we say anything ?" Nixie asked them.
"I dunno..we could be casual about it." Sirius told her.
"How?"
"You know, start off a conversation. Hey Remus, howl at any good moons lately?"
Nixie bit down on her tongue to hide the smile that was threatening to appear on her face.
"That's not funny." she told him placing her hands on her hips.
"Remus obviously didn't want any of us to know and we're his closest friends. He's going to be upset."
"Well, do we wait until he tells us?" Peter asked them.
"I guess that's our best bet." James sighed. "As much as I hate to admit it, Nixie is right, Remus doesn't want anyone to know for his own personal reasons. He's not comfortable with us knowing."
"There's a problem with that." Sirius interrupted. "The fact is that we do know. And while he may not feel comfortable to tell people, it might make him feel better that he doesn't have to hide what he is to everyone. That he can actually have someone to talk to. He shouldn't have to lie."
Nixie averted her gaze. "Sirius is right."
"Thank yo-wait I am?" Sirius seemed surprised that she actually agreed with him.
She nodded. "Remus should know that he has our support. We should talk to him...in private of course. It will-"
They heard footsteps approaching behind them. Nixie was preparing to tell Filch to bug off but her heart jumped in her chest as Headmaster Dumbledore appeared.
"Oh dear..." her hair fell over her face as all she wanted to do was hide.
"Miss Dover, how are you this evening?"
"G-good Professor. And yourself?"
"Very well, it's a beautiful night, the moon is especially beautiful, isn't it?"
Her breathing became rapid as her chest filled with panic.
"Y-yes i-it is."
"Did you enjoy your sw-"
"Yes!" she cut him off quickly. "It was great, fantastic, wonderful, and refreshing. But I am definitely worn out and I'm sure these guys are too since they accompanied me all evening. We're going to head to bed." She pushed the boys along.
Dumbledore nodded his head with a small smile. "Goodnight Miss Dover."
"Night!"
"What was that all about?" Sirius whispered to her.
"Nothing, keep moving."
Although, while Nixie believed she was clever, she was completely unaware that Dumbledore was not easily fooled and knew everything that occurred on the grounds.
Everything.
Chapter 22
Chapter Text
Nixie was adjusting her shirt when she heard her name being called.
She turned around to see Lily coming down the stairs nearly tripping as she missed the last step. Nixie ran over and helped her before she completely fell.
"Easy!" Nixie laughed. "Did you forget how your feet work?"
"That last step always gets me. I swear it doesn't exist." Lily smiled. "Are you heading to breakfast and then to potions?"
"That was the plan." Nixie told her. "Are you?"
"Yes, I'm actually really hungry."
The two girls departed the dorm, and Nixie could tell from Lily's expression that she was itching to ask her something.
"Are you alright?" Nixie asked her.
"Well, I was going to invite you last night to join some of the other girls and I for a bit of a slumber party but..you weren't in bed last night."
"Oh." Nixie's eyes fell to the floor. "Sorry, I was out."
"Oooh!" Lily nodded her head. "I understand, I just figured since you went out just a short while that you would be around."
"Sometimes, I have cravings." Nixie lied to her. She hated lying but she wasn't about to disclose to Lily that Remus was a werewolf.
"That's completely understandable. And it was a full moon too, I'm sorry I missed out on it."
Nixie only smiled but said nothing else as guilt filled her chest for lying to her new friend.
They sat in the Great Hall eating breakfast, Nixie sitting in silence as Lily spoke about something in Transfiguration class.
It was only when Remus appeared in the Great Hall, did her head perk up.
He walked over with a yawn and some bandages on his arm.
"Mornin'." he greeted them.
"Mornin' Remus." Lily said.
Remus and Nixie locked eyes before Nixie quickly looked away.
"Good morning, Remus. Feeling better?"
"Uh yeah," Remus answered watching her carefully. Nixie avoiding any more eye contact by focusing her attention on her barely eaten toast.
When Sirius, James and Peter arrived, the awkwardness continued.
"Oh there's Severus." Lily said standing up, " I'll see you in potions Nixie."
"See you then." Nixie said.
The table fell quiet. Nixie looked up to Sirius who seemed unsure of what to say. He opened his mouth several times to initiate a conversation but each time he must have thought against it before shoving a roll into his mouth.
"Alright, is anyone going to say anything?" Remus finally spoke up. "What's wrong with you all?"
"Hmm? Us?" James looked around. "There's nothing wrong. We're all perfectly fine. Just grand."
Remus didn't seem convinced at all.
"What happened to your arm?" Peter blurted out causing the other three to glare at him.
"I fell." Remus responded automatically.
"Into a briar patch?" Sirius quipped before Nixie kicked him under the table. "Ow!"
"Alright what is going on?!" Remus demanded to know. "Why are all of you acting so strange?"
"What do you mean?" Nixie asked him.
"What do I mean? Since when do you sit quietly with these two around?" Remus questioned her.
"Oh well um..." Nixie bit her lower lip unable to come up with a plausible excuse quickly.
"We spent some quality time together last night with Nixie." James told him suddenly.
Remus turned his attention to the bespectacled boy. "Quality time?"
"Y-y-yeah." Nixie began," to settle our differences we decided to spend some time together getting to know each other."
Remus stared at all of them. "I don't believe that for a second."
"That's unfortunate." Sirius muttered.
"Oh you know I think I left my book in the dorms and-" Nixie went to leave with a poor excuse but James pulled her back down with a sigh as he looked to Remus.
"Rems...we know." James said.
Remus' eyebrows knitted together. "What are you talking about, what do you all know?"
He looked to Nixie who's eyes fell on his bandages before locking eyes with him. "We know about...you." she said. "About what happens when you get..."
"Sick." Sirius finished.
Suddenly, Remus jumped up to his feet startling all of them. "What?!"
"Remus sit down, you don't want to make a scene." Sirius said going to grab the boy's robes, but Remus snatched them away.
"No, you all don't know a thing! Nothing!" he spat.
"Remus." Nixie replied softly.
"No!" he pointed at her, his finger shaking in anger before he stormed out of the Great Hall.
After a few passing moments of silence and all eyes on the group, Sirius cleared his throat.
"Well, I think that well, what about you guys?"
"Shut up, Sirius." Nixie, James, and Peter all said together.
Remus sat as far away as possible from Nixie and the boys during Potion's class. Nixie sat with Lily, wearing a permanent frown on her face as her friend seemed to be in turmoil at the discovery of his friends knowing. Ever so often, Sirius would look over at her to see the pained expression in her eyes.
Sirius hadn't expected Remus to act in such a way, he figured the boy would be relieved that he didn't have to hide who he really was anymore. And he was confused as to why he seemed especially angry with Nixie. He believed there was a lot going on and many more secrets to be revealed.
Chapter 23
Chapter Text
"Has he spoken to any of you?" Nixie asked the boys as she found them in the common room.
"Only to tell us to go away." James answered her as he focused on defeating Peter in wizarding chess.
Nixie tugged at her braid in frustration. She was nervous as well, hoping that Remus wouldn't reveal her secret to get even with the fact that she had figured out his secret.
"I think he just needs time to cool down." James said. "He'll be fine once he realizes that we're not going to tell anyone."
"You mean we weren't supposed to tell anyone?" Sirius asked.
Everyone turned to him with a glare.
"You didn't!" Nixie spat stomping over to him.
"I'm kidding!" Sirius said climbing over the sofa and nearly fall off the back to avoid feeling Nixie's wrath.
"This is nothing to joke about, Remus is really upset." Nixie told him.
"Oh like I haven't noticed." Sirius responded. "Let him be upset, he'll get over it."
"And if he doesn't?" Nixie asked.
"Then he doesn't." Sirius shrugged. "I dunno, I'm not made of answers here."
"I just feel bad." Nixie admitted sitting down on the sofa. Sirius slowly lowered himself to sit next to her. He leaned away just in case she decided to actually attack him.
"We all do. I can't believe it took us this long to figure it out." James said.
"Would have taken much longer if I hadn't practically spelled it out for you all." Nixie muttered.
The door opened and Nixie caught sight of Remus walking in. He noticed them all sitting around before he went to leave for the dorms.
"Stop him." Nixie urged Sirius pushing him up.
"Why me?!" Sirius whispered back to her.
"Because you're the closest, now go."
Sirius grumbled before getting up to his feet and running over to block Remus from heading to the boy's dorm.
"Get out of the way, Sirius."
"No I can't do that." Sirius told him.
"And why not?"
"Because I'm way more afraid of her than I am of you." Sirius admitted glancing over at Nixie. "Between you and I, Remus, Nixie has a bit of a nasty temper when she doesn't get her way."
Nixie wandered over to them and placed her hand on Remus' shoulder.
"We just want to talk to you Remus. Can you at least hear us out..for a few minutes?" she pleaded with him.
Remus scanned the room to see a few other students sitting around.
"Fine. But not here."
Outside the castle, the wind was blowing everyone's hair around as they tried to begin the conversation with Remus. However, just as before, no one knew what to say.
"How did you find out?" Remus questioned them.
"We kinda just put the pieces of the puzzle together, mate." James told him.
"Ahem." Nixie shuffled her feet. "Okay, Nixie put the pieces out before us but we put it together..." Nixie gave James a look, " okay... after she put it together for us, we realized what she was getting at."
Remus glared at Nixie. "Why couldn't you leave it be, Nixie? I respected what you-" he stopped himself as Nixie's eyes were wide with worry. He sighed and looked away.
"Gah, what does it matter? You all already know...so just go about and ignore me now. Or go tell the whole school so I can go home!"
Sirius gave Remus a hard look. "You'd actually think that we would go running our mouths to the entire school? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds to all of us? We were actually somewhat relieved when we discovered it Remus, so that you didn't have to hide away anymore. So at least you would have some people to go and complain to."
"You mean you all still want to be my friends?"
"Of course we do, Remus." Nixie told him.
"This doesn't change anything really. We're just aware of what happens when you claim to be sick."
"I wasn't lying." Remus said. "I really am sick."
"So you get a little hairy." Sirius clapped him on the back. "It's not a big deal to us."
"I don't think you understand the severity of what happens...I don't get just a little hairy, Sirius...I'm not myself. I am an animal."
"We know." James said. "We heard."
Remus raised a brow. "You heard?"
"We were outside the Shrieking Shack." Peter informed him. " We heard you."
"How did you know where I was?"
"I might have overheard Madame Promfrey." Sirius said.
"Were you all that curious?"
"No," Nixie said, " we were concerned. The scratches and bruising marks weren't the most reassuring things to see you coming in with."
"We just wanted to make sure that you were okay." James said.
Remus seemed to come to terms that his friends knew his secret and didn't seem upset about it. As they headed back inside the castle, Remus walked in the back with Nixie.
"Thank you for not saying anything." she said.
Remus turned his head to her. "You think I would?"
"It would only be fair. I know you didn't want anyone to know about this...and I certainly don't want people to know-"
"Nixie, I would never do something like that no matter how upset I was with you. Even if we were no longer friends, your secret would die with me."
She smiled before wrapping her arm around his shoulders. "Thank you. You're the best."
Sirius turned around. "Will you two love birds hurry up?" he huffed at them.
Chapter 24
Chapter Text
Nixie emerged from the water, wiping the excess water from her face and grinned at Lily who sat on the shore.
"Now flip in the air like a dolphin." Lily teased her. Nixie chuckled as she stepped out of the water and sat beside her on the shore.
"I don't know how to do that. But my mum does, she can be quite the show-off." Nixie told her.
"I bet she is absolutely beautiful."
Nixie smiled. "Yeah, she is. She is a bit crazy though."
"I guess that's where you get it from." Lily said.
"Yeah, a bit from her...a bit from Dad...he's total nutter too."
"They sound like a lot of fun."
"They can be."
"So how does it work out between them, one living on land and the other in the water?"
Nixie shrugged. "I dunno. My dad doesn't venture much in the water but on occasion, my mum will step onto land."
"She doesn't want to stay on land?"
"It would pretty much kill her if she did."
"Really?"
"Well, it would be like dying of a broken heart. Mermaids are so connected with the water that being away from it is heart breaking and well as you feel horrid the entire time you're away from the water."
"So will you eventually go into the sea permanently?" Lily asked her.
"Me? No, at least I don't think so. I enjoy the land a bit more. I just need to go into the water every now and then or I get sick. But I don't pine for it like that...at least for now. I don't know what happens when I'm older. I hope I'm able to stay on land."
Lily nodded. "Have you met other mermaids besides your mother?"
"Briefly." Nixie answered. " I met my grandmother but she doesn't come close to the shores often. She doesn't like it at all...she also doesn't like my father."
"What why not?"
"Because like the wizards and witches that judge the purity of blood...my grandmother believes in the purity of mermaid blood as well."
"Oh." Lily frowned.
"Yeah, a lot of people have their opinion on the matter. But my grandmother was nice enough to me when we met. I mean, it's her hair that is in the core of my wand so I guess that counts for something."
"I don't understand why blood is such an important thing among people...so what if you're not pure blood?"
"I guess it's just how some people are raised and while some can break away from it...others can't and follow blindly." Nixie said staring out at the water. "I have to admit, I was pretty upset when I learned about not being a pureblood."
Lily faced her. "Really?"
"Yes, but it was only because ...well I just wanted to be accepted, you know? I figured I already had something working against me without me having a say. The things my father's co-workers would say when they thought no one could hear them...I almost felt ashamed of who and what I was."
"Do you still feel the same way?"
"No." Nixie said honestly. "I don't at all. I'm learning to love who I am, and embrace what I am. Slowly."
"Well I don't know if it counts coming from a muggle-born witch but I think you're awesome."
"You're a witch Lily, you don't have to call yourself anything else but that and I think you're awesome too."
Remus was sitting with the boys as James discussed the upcoming quidditch game against Ravenclaw.
When Nixie walked in with Lily, Remus immediately noticed that Nixie's hair was still quite damp from her evening swim. She seemed surprised to see the boys still awake and froze in her spot. Remus wasn't the only one to notice her wet hair as Sirius leaned back in his seat.
"Is it raining outside?" he asked Nixie, taking in the fact that Lily's hair was dry.
"No." James answered looking out the window unaware of what Sirius was getting at.
"Then why is your hair wet, Nixie?"
Nixie sent a dirty look his way as he questioned her. She was aware of how Remus must have felt when she was constantly questioning him.
"Peeves!" Lily blurted out of nowhere. Nixie glanced over her way. Lily straightened her robes casually. "Peeves is dumping water on students, isn't that right, Nixie?"
"Y-yes." Nixie stammered. "And he sure got me."
"But your robes are dry." Sirius pointed out.
"Shut up." Nixie said before walking over to the entrance of the girl's dorm. Lily followed her with a smile as they left the area.
"I swear if she's not threatening to throw me in the Black Lake, she's telling me to shut up. What is her deal?"
Remus returned to the book in his hand as Peter grinned.
In the girl's dorm, Lily and Nixie sat upon Nixie's bed giggling in relief at Lily's fast thinking.
"You're a savior!" Nixie told her.
"It was the only thing I could think of."
"It was way better than me standing there like a gaping fish! I completely forgot about my hair." Nixie said pulling a strand.
"I did too." Lily shook her head.
"How could we?" Lily fell back onto the bed.
"Well, you saved me, so I owe you big time."
"Good." Lily said. "You can save me a trip to the library and work on History of Magic with me."
"Deal."
The two girls worked diligently when Tabitha approached them, eyeing Lily with slight irritation.
"Hey Nixie." she said, not bothering to acknowledge Lily.
"Hey Tabitha." Nixie said surprised that Tabitha had greeted her first.
"Are you heading to the library tonight? I figured we could work on History of Magic assignment together."
Nixie's lips curled downward. "Oh...sorry Tabitha, Lily and I just finished the assignment."
"Never mind." Tabitha said curtly. "I can still help you if you'd like, it didn't take us long to finish it."
"No." Tabitha replied bluntly. "I'll manage on my own."
When Tabitha walked away without another word, Lily looked to Nixie who appeared confused.
"What is her problem?"
"I don't think she likes me." Lily said.
"Why not?"
"I dunno, but she's made it quite obvious that she doesn't like us hanging out."
"Well, tough for her." Lily's expression brightened.
"My goodness," Nixie gagged smelling her hair. Unlike the smell of the sea which she found pleasant, Nixie didn't really enjoy the smell of the lake. She was sure it was just her mother's prejudice rubbing off on her. " I reek. I need a shower. I'll be back."
Chapter 25
Chapter Text
"I think you would feel so much better if you were just honest with your classmates and yourself."
Nixie made a face as she gave herself a seaweed mustache as her mother continued to drone on and on about Nixie revealing her secret to the school.
"Mum I don't want to...the people that should know or that I want to know, do and I'm okay with that."
"So do you plan on spending your third year trying to avoid being caught again?" Meri challenged her.
Nixie had survived her second year of Hogwarts, discovering that her dear friend Remus, was in fact a werewolf and found a new and dear friend in Lily Evans. Along with concealing her mermaid heritage, she also ended up losing her friendship with Tabitha, for some reason, Tabitha wanted nothing to do with Nixie once she and Lily became friends and no matter how many times Nixie attempted to approach her on the subject Tabitha brushed her off.
Nixie didn't want to anger Tabitha either, considering she was one of the few at the school who actually knew Nixie's secret. But when she arrived home, her parents had not forgotten the fact that Nixie had gotten herself sick during the school year and were now urging her to just be honest with herself every chance they could.
"No, I don't. But what do I do? Jump onto one of the tables in the Great Hall and announce it?"
"That would be one way." Meri chuckled.
"I was being facetious, Mum."
"Oooh, listen to that vocabulary!" Meri grinned only irritating Nixie more.
The girl tossed the seaweed at her mother getting it caught in the woman's hair.
Nixie giggled to herself.
"I'll get you for that." Meri threatened swimming towards but stopped as Nixie's focus fell onto the shore.
"Lily's here!" Nixie ran out of the water to greet her friend on dry land. After discussing it with both sets of parents, the girls were allowed to spend the summer together at Nixie's house for the last couple of weeks.
"Nixie!" Lily greeted her as her parents stood with Henry.
"I'm so glad you're here." Nixie said hugging her but quickly pulled away realizing she was wet and getting her friend wet. "Ooops, sorry."
"It's okay." Lily smiled. "I see you've been swimming."
"About everyday...my parents won't have it otherwise." Nixie muttered the last part under her breath to the redhead.
"Ah." The girls were chatting away as Henry spoke to the Evans about the arrangements of dropping the girls off at the train station. Nixie was pointing to the water where her mother was waiting when she caught sight of a girl sitting in the car that Lily had arrived in.
"Who's that?" she asked Lily.
Lily glanced over her shoulder. "That's my sister, Petunia."
"Oh right, it totally slipped my mind that you've mentioned her before. How come she doesn't go to Hogwarts? Does she attend another wizarding school?"
Lily frowned and shook her head. "She never got her letter."
"Oh. I see. Well..." Nixie waved to Petunia but was only met with a scowl. To avoid making the situation any more awkward, Nixie offered to head down to the water which Lily readily agreed to. She wished her parents goodbye before following Nixie.
"Is that her?" Lily asked Nixie in a low voice as she caught a glimpse of a head emerging from the water.
"Yup, that's my mum." "Is it okay for her to just be out in the open like that? What if someone sees her?"
Nixie began to laugh. "There aren't any muggles in this area to see her." she explained. "And if they happen to pass through, she's always ready."
Lily had never seen a mermaid in person, only in books or in the movies she had watched with her sister. Meri swam over and Lily was in pure shock from where she stood on the shore. The mermaid before her was absolutely beautiful with a bright smile on her face.
"Hello Lily." Meri welcomed her.
"H-hello Mrs.-"
"Just call me Meri."
"Are you sure?" Lily didn't want to be rude and call her something informal.
"Yes, of course I am. Come, don't be shy. Would you like to swim with us?"
"Oh I don't have my bathing suit with me-"
"Who cares?" Nixie grinned pushing Lily towards the water.
"Wait a second! Nixie! No!" It was too late for Lily as she found herself submerged in the water. She surfaced and spat out the water that had entered her mouth.
"Nixie!"
"Sorry, Lily. I couldn't help myself." Nixie said from where she was in the water.
Lily laughed before splashing at her.
Henry made his way down to the edge of the water to find all the females playing in the water.
"Dad, come join us." Nixie called to him.
"No thank you. I like where I am..nice and dry."
Suddenly, Meri sent a wave splashing at him. "Come on you guppy, get in here."
"Henry Dover is no guppy!" Henry yelled before charging into the water.
Chapter 26
Chapter Text
Summers always went by so fast especially when Nixie found herself enjoying the time at home among her family and with Lily visiting. The first of September snuck up on them and the girls were up in the Dover household, getting ready to head to the platform. Lily hadn't expected for Henry to be so excited when it came to the mornings. But every morning, the man was up and ready with breakfast. Lily was also puzzled by the fact of how Nixie's parents worked considering one remained on land while the other lived in the water. They seemed to be a happy family though, so she didn't bother to question anything. Henry announced that they would be leaving to the train in twenty minutes when Nixie told Lily that they would be heading down to the water to say goodbye to Meri.
"You're not going to push me in again are you?" Lily asked as they walked down the gravel path.
"No, of course not. We don't have time for that." Nixie giggled. "But watch out for Mum, she'll splash you with no regards. She thinks it's funny, but I'm the one who has to get on the train with wet robes, smelling like the sea."
Meri was waiting for the two, half of her body out on the land, while her tail remained in the water.
"Oh come give me a hug!" she extended her arms out. "You too, Lily! Bring it in."
Lily grinned as the three embraced.
"Now you two have a good year. Learn something and have fun. Always have fun." Nixie smiled as her mother kissed her forehead.
"Bye Mum."
"Bye Love."
The two went to leave when they heard Meri calling after them. Nixie turned around.
"Yeah?"
"Remember shout it loud and proud. You're a mermaid!" With a departing wave, Meri dove back into the water.
Lily looked over to Nixie who was shaking her head.
"She's mental!" Nixie said.
"Absolutely mental if she thinks for one minute that I'm going to shout it out for all to hear."
"I dunno, Nix, it sounds like a fun way to come out about it."
"Don't you start!"
At the platform, Lily watched in amusem*nt as Nixie was pulled into a mighty hug by Henry as he made a bit of a scene.
"Okay, Dad...I do have to be going." Nixie patted his shoulder.
"Right.' Henry released her and stood up straight fixing his waistcoat. "I'm going to miss you Nixie."
"I'm going to miss you too Dad."
Henry sighed setting his hands on his hips as he peered up trying keep himself from crying. "Oooh, you're growing up on me way too fast. I thought we agreed that you would stay little forever."
"Sorry, Dad." she smiled.
"Alright, well, run along. Find a good seat. Have a good year, and try not to throw anyone in the lake no matter how annoying he may be."
"No promises." Nixie said before the two Dovers winked at each other.
Henry turned to Lily. "Lily, I hope you have a lovely year."
"I'm sure I will Mr. Dover, thank you."
Henry finally allowed the girls to leave onto the train. Nixie searched for an empty cart but came upon Remus first.
"Remus!" she screeched, excited to see her friend.
"Hello Nixie, I was wondering where you were."
"My dad finally let us go." Nixie told him pointing to Lily who stood behind her.
Remus gave her a small wave and smile which Lily returned.
"Oh, there's Severus." Lily told Nixie.
Nixie looked back to Remus for a second. "You two go catch up, I'm gonna hang out with Remus. We'll meet up at dinner."
"Alrighty, see you then!"
"You could have gone with her, you know?" Remus told Nixie as she sat across from him.
"Lily and I spent the summer together, so we don't have anything to catch up on. However, you and I on the other hand..."
Remus grinned. "How was your summer?"
"Well, it wasn't all that bad." he said. "I'm still a werewolf though," he joked.
"I didn't think that was going to change over the summer."
"I could only hope. So what did you do this summer?"
"I swam a lot."
"Big surprise there."
The two friends joked around until the compartment door opened. Nixie's rolled her eyes as Sirius took the seat next to her when he was well aware that there were other places for him to sit. "Hello Nini." he greeted.
"Hello Sirius." she said with little emotion.
Peter sat beside Remus and the window to look out. Nixie was wondering where James was but then again she didn't really care.
"How was your summer?"
"It was great, I didn't have see you." she said with a smile while Remus and Peter chuckled across the way. Of course, her smile faded as Sirius smiled back at her.
"So you did miss me?"
"Ugh."
She was saved by James entering the compartment with a shake of his head. "You know Sirius, your brother is a real git sometimes."
Sirius glanced up at him. "What did he do?"
"About chewed my face off when I mistaken him for you. From the back you two look similar...your hair...anyways, it doesn't matter."
"Don't take it personally, if it makes you feel any better, he doesn't like me either." Sirius said with a laugh.
Nixie faced him, the smile on his face and the laugh all seemed so forced because his eyes held a completely different story whenever he discussed his family.
He caught her staring and gave her a wink making her turn away.
"So," James straightened his robes, " Remus I think we've come up with a solution for you."
Remus furrowed his brow. "Pertaining to?"
"Your..monthly." Sirius snorted before Nixie hit his arm.
"What did you all have in mind?"
Chapter 27
Chapter Text
Nixie continued to shake her head as James went on and on explaining his plan.
"What is it now?" James scowled at her.
"You're making it sound like it's an easy process." Nixie told him. "The process to become an animagus is not simple."
"Oh and you're an expert now?" Sirius asked her.
"No, but I do happen to read and study up on topics unlike you two. But I understand the topic of reading is foreign to you." she said.
Remus smiled. "Nixie is right though, as much as I appreciate the effort guys, it's not easy to become an animagus. It takes wizards and witches years to learn how to do it and mind you, we're only third years. I doubt it could be accomplish during our time at school."
"Remus, Remus, Remus." James placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. "You forget who you're friends with. We can do it."
"This should be good." Nixie snorted.
Sirius turned to her. "Well, if you know so much about it you're in the perfect position to help us."
"Ooh no! No, no, no!" she waved her hands. "I want no part in this!"
"Not even to help your dear friend?" Sirius pointing to Remus.
Nixie frowned.
"Don't let him guilt you into it Nixie." Remus said. "I'm fine. I've been managing those nights alone, I'm more than capable."
"But it would be nice to have some company wouldn't it?" James suggested.
"Well, yeah, it would be but-"
"See Nixie, do you really want him to suffer through this alone?" Sirius asked her.
"I hate you guys." she growled. "I'm not helping you. Remus, I will help you in any way-"
"Except in this way." James interjected.
"Don't listen to them, Nixie." Remus warned her.
"And you call yourself his friend." Sirius shook his head. "Tsk, tsk."
Nixie was fuming as she sat beside the messy-haired boy. She took a deep breath as she looked at James and then Sirius.
"Fine, I will help. But I'm not doing it for either one of you. I'm doing this for Remus. I still don't think that you will able to accomplish it." she folded her arms.
"If we fail then that just makes you a poor teacher." Sirius told her.
Nixie's jaw dropped.
"Close your mouth dear, it's rude to gape." Sirius used two fingers to close her mouth. She smacked his hand away.
She turned away from him looking to Remus who had his mouth covered to conceal his smile.
"So when do we get started...Professor Dover?" James asked her in amusem*nt.
"When hell freezes over." Nixie muttered to herself.
"So we have to learn the non-verbal spell...easy." James shrugged.
"Um no, not easy!" Nixie argued.
There are fully grown wizards that struggle with non-verbal spells. Set your ego aside for one minute Potter."
"Acknowledge my greatness for one minute, Dover."
Remus cleared his throat to interrupt their bickering, it was turning into an even longer train ride as Nixie attempted to explain the process but James continued to add how they would be able to do it with no problem.
"James, students taking their N.E.W.T.s struggle with non-verbal spells. Need I remind you again, that we are just becoming third years."
"If you keep looking at everything with the attitude that you can't do it, you'll never be able to do it. I'm keeping a positive outlook-"
"There is a big difference with trying to remain positive and being extremely co*cky." Nixie said.
"You're already the one who's lacking faith Miss Pessimistic."
"It's called being realistic. I want to be there for Remus as well but we're talking about a process that requires so much, including dedication. You realize that the process includes holding a mandrake leaf in your mouth..."
"So what-"
"For a month!" Nixie finished.
"A month?!" Sirius' eyes widened. "You lie!"
"I'm not lying! It's true. I told you it's not going to be easy."
"How am I supposed to eat with a leaf in my mouth?" Peter asked worried.
"Very carefully." James told him. "We can do this."
"This is going to be a long year." Nixie groaned resting her head back. Sirius looked over at her with a smile before something caught his eye.
"You got something in your hair." he told her.
Nixie sat up straight again. "I do?" She grabbed at the long locks in search of whatever Sirius had pointed out.
"Hold still!" Sirius said trying to grab it. Finally, he caught it and pulled out a strand of seaweed.
Remus froze as Nixie held her breath.
Mum! Nixie screamed internally. Sirius held the seaweed and looked to Nixie with a curious expression.
"So for someone who is afraid of water...why would you have seaweed in your hair, Nini?"
"Must have been from Lily." Remus answered. All eyes fell to him.
"Lily?" James repeated.
"Y-yes!" Nixie nodded. "She spent the summer at my house and she went swimming this morning...must have just gotten in my hair when we were playing around earlier."
"Uh huh." Sirius said tossing the seaweed to the side.
Peter quickly changed the subject when the Trolley Lady came about with the cart full of delicious goodies.
Nixie looked to Remus giving him a silent thank you. He winked at her when he was sure that the boys weren't looking but one of them did catch it out of the corner of his eye.
They were nearing the castle when Sirius arose and left the compartment to use the bathroom. He was close to the bathroom when he saw Lily returning from the girl's bathroom.
"Hey Lily!" he called out to her.
She lifted her head up, raising a questioning brow. "Yes, Sirius?"
"How was your swim this morning?"
Her face was confused. "What swim?" she shook her head at him and left.
"Yeah, Nixie, what swim?" Sirius said to himself.
Chapter 28
Chapter Text
Divination, Arithmancy, Study of Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies, and Care of Magical Creatures, were the electives that Nixie was able to choose during her third year and she was having the toughest time deciding between which two she would take. Care of Magical Creatures seemed to be an obvious choice in her head, however, the other four didn't sound so appealing. Divination was a no go right off the bat, no matter how hard Lily pursued her to take the class, Nixie didn't find anything about the subject interesting, and the horror stories her father had told her about the years he took Arithmancy made her very weary of taking that as well. Muggle Studies didn't sound very fun either, and as she saw some of the students taking the class, she figure it would be best to pretend as though it didn't exist.
The Study of Ancient Runes was her last option in order to take the required two electives for that year. She didn't think it would be so bad, she figured it would be a class where she could actually have some peace and quiet from the boys since she had heard them discussing taking Divination while on the train.
Yes, everything was going to work out quite well for Nixie that year.
On the first Monday on which classes began, Nixie found herself sitting outside among the other Gryffindor students and Ravenclaw students for their first lesson taught by Professor Kettleburn. It was hard to focus on the lesson at hand as all the students seemed to be preoccupied that the professor only had one arm and one leg. Henry had told stories of how crazy the professor had been during his years at Hogwarts and warned Nixie that if she did indeed take the class to be extra cautious.
"How do you suppose he lost his limbs?" Lily whispered in her ear.
Nixie shook her head. "I have no idea. But my dad told me he likes dragons..a little too much. Perhaps..." Her voice trailed off as the two girls stared.
"I heard we get to go into the Forbidden Forest at some point." Lily said excitedly clapping her hands together.
"I'm just nervous about the lessons concerning water." Nixie fretted.
"Why afraid that you might get more seaweed in your hair?"
Nixie and Lily turned around to see that the boys had taken their seats behind them.
"It wouldn't be a Monday if these two weren't involved." Lily said with an eye roll.
The Study of Ancient Runes was Nixie's next class as she was thankful to escape the boys, however she felt for Lily who was covering her ears as James continued to boast about something. She headed to the classroom and sat her things down on one of the tables in the middle. Suddenly, a set of books dropped down beside her causing her to jump out of her seat and onto the floor. She looked up ready to demand why the person had slammed the books down but as she saw who it was, she knew there was no need to question why.
Sirius grinned down at her as he plopped down in the empty seat.
"What are you doing on the floor?"
"What are you doing in this class?!"
"Why Nini, I'm here to learn."
"But...James took Divination-"
"And I took Study of Ancient Runes."
Nixie sat on the floor for a moment longer.
"This can't be happening."
"Oh but it is."
Sirius held out his hand to her but she completely ignored it as she pushed herself up and brushed off her robes. She sat down in disbelief. "We get to be runemates...get it?"
Nixie let out a loud groan as she rested her forehead on the table.
"That was funny! You can't even deny that."
She turned her head to face him. "What do you want from me?"
"Honesty." Sirius said simply.
"I don't know what you're talking about." she said.
"Oh you don't?"
"No, I don't."
"Well, let me string this together for you Nini, you claim to be afraid of water, but water seems to find you quite often."
"Wh-what? No it doesn't!" she protested.
"Oh really? I find it very hard to believe that Dumbledore would grant someone permission to head out after dark unless it was for some specific reason...like our dear friend. You don't seem to howl at the full moon Nixie, but Filch loves directing you to the lake, doesn't he? Now why would he do that?"
"I already told you..."
"A poor excuse is what you told me. Along with the one of Lily swimming and getting seaweed in your hair-"
"She-"
"She did not go swimming that morning, because I asked her and she didn't seem to recall going swimming. So who's lying? You or Lily?"
Nixie narrowed her eyes at him. "Well, Mr. Black apparently you're not as stupid as you look."
"Thank you." Sirius said holding his chin up proudly.
Nixie waited for him to catch on.
"Hey!"
Chapter 29
Chapter Text
"He's going to find out eventually." Nixie flung herself onto her bed. "I'm doomed."
"Oh don't worry about him." Lily tried to reassure her friend. "It's just Sirius. I doubt he'll put it together."
"You say that, but he's already put a lot of it together. He's pretty close to solving the mystery."
Lily sat down on the edge of Nixie's bed. "Well, even if he does, it won't be all that bad."
"How do you suppose?"
"I mean, what could Sirius do with that information?"
"Besides tell the whole school?"
"Even if he does, who cares what anyone thinks, Nixie? Your mum and I have been trying to convince you all summer that it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. If they think poorly of you because of your blood, then they have deeper problems. At least that's how I see it, you don't think I haven't heard things because I'm muggle-born?"
Nixie frowned realizing that Lily had probably experienced much worse.
"At least you're still pure in the magic sense." Lily said. "If anything wouldn't your mixture make you stronger than any pure blood wizard?"
"What do you mean?"
"The fact that you're able to escape to the water if you please or cast magic on land...I don't think that sounds like anything to make fun of."
"I never really thought about it in that sense." Nixie said sitting up.
"Beware the sea witch.." Lily said in a dark voice.
"Oooh that does sound good!" Nixie clapped her hands together as the two laughed.
Lily's laugh faded quickly and Nixie looked over to see why the fun had ended so abruptly. She suddenly saw Tabitha glaring at them.
"H-hi Tabitha." Nixie waved at her.
Tabitha kept her glare on Lily before looking to Nixie.
"Enjoy your summer, Dover?" Nixie's brows raised in surprise at how Tabitha had addressed her.
"Er...it was great, thanks. How was yours?"
"Fine..just fine." Tabitha said hotly before stalking off.
Lily stared down at her shoes quietly.
"Hold on, I'll be right back." Nixie replied angrily.
"No, don't say anything." Lily said. "Just leave her be."
"No. Not this time."
Nixie ran down the stairs and found Tabitha in the common room preparing to leave.
"Tabitha, hold on...just a minute!" she called after her.
Tabitha turned around. "What do you want?"
"Since when you do you call me Dover? And what is going on with you?"
"What is going on with me? What's going on with you?!"
"Me?" Nixie said dumbfounded. "I haven't done anything and neither has Lily, why are you so mean to her?"
"Why did you become friends with her? Was I not a good enough friend? I kept your secret and yet you abandoned me for her...that mud-" Tabitha stopped herself but Nixie already knew what the girl had been prepared to say.
"Tabitha how could you even think to say something like that?!"
"Because it's true. I was your friend first-"
"And I'm glad we are no longer friends if you have that type of mentality." Nixie told her before going to leave.
"Do you really want to leave things off like this?" Tabitha said in a threatening tone.
Nixie glanced over her shoulder.
"I know things about you that you don't want others to know, Nixie, remember?" Nixie swallowed before hold her head up high.
"Tell whoever you want, I don't care anymore."
Heading back upstairs, she found Lily waiting, wondering what had happened.
"Are you alright?" Lily asked her. "What did she say?"
"I'm pretty sure, Tabitha is about to tell the whole school what I am." Nixie told her.
"What?! Why?"
"I dunno, but she really doesn't like that fact that I'm friends with you."
"We don't have to be friends, if it means protecting your secret, Nixie, I'd much rather-"
"Don't be silly." Nixie said cutting her off. "I value our friendship way more than my secret. If it means being friends with you, the whole world can know."
"Really?"
"Of course! Who knows maybe I'll beat her to the punch." Nixie smiled.
"How will you go about that?" Lily questioned.
"I'll follow my mother's advice, step right on up onto one of the tables in the Great Hall tomorrow morning ..." She jumped up onto her bed."...and scream it out at the top of my lungs. I'm a mermaid and proud."
"Oh you will not!" Lily laughed dragging her back down.
"You're right, I probably won't...but I might."
Nixie had woken up later one morning, at the risk of being late to Transfiguration, she quickly threw on her clothing and ran to the Great Hall, where she found Lily preparing to leave. "About time you woke up." she smiled.
"Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" Nixie said grabbing an apple for breakfast.
"I tried to this morning, but you were not having it. You really wanted to sleep in so I figured I would let you...sorry I will forcibly push you out of bed next time."
"Thank you."
"We should probably head to class though." Lily said pulling Nixie along by her robes.
"But I wanted to eat my apple-"
"Eat it on the way." Lily told her.
"Alright!" The two went to leave when a group of students came in and immediately as they saw Nixie began to whisper among themselves.
"And so it begins." Nixie sighed.
"Maybe they weren't talking about you.."
"Sure."
Tabitha had informed a lot of people in a short amount of time, no matter where Nixie went, people were whispering and staring at her. Nixie was furious, how could someone she had believed to be her best friend at one time do such a thing?
"Just ignore them Nixie." Lily whispered to her when they arrived to Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"I'm trying." Nixie said, her voice began to crack as some girls began laughing in their direction.
"Well, well, well look who it is." James said leaning on their table. Nixie suddenly arose from her seat to leave out of the classroom. James furrowed his brow as Lily glared at him.
"What?! What did I say?" Nixie exited out of the classroom only to crash in Sirius walking in.
"Whoa!" The two fell back.
Sirius looked up ready to unleash a witty remark but stopped when he saw Nixie crying.
"I-I...are you alright?" he didn't think she had hit the ground so hard.
"No!" she said shaking her head before pushing herself up and running away.
Chapter 30
Chapter Text
Lily found Remus in the Common Room with Sirius, James and Peter.
"Did you find her yet?" he asked with a hopeful face.
Lily shook her head. "I looked all over I can't find her anywhere in the castle."
"Neither could I." Remus sighed.
"Perhaps, she isn't in the castle." Sirius said. He watched as Lily and Remus exchanged glances.
"Oooh right!" Lily said before running out.
"I don't have the faintest idea as to what is going on. Do you?" James looked to Peter who shook his head.
"What did you say to her?" Sirius asked him.
"I literally said well, well, well, look who it is? That's it!" James told them. "I didn't even get to finish my joke!"
"I don't think she was in the kidding mood, mate." Sirius said.
"Oh you think?!"
"Do you know what's going on?" Sirius questioned Remus.
Remus stopped in his tracks and turned to face them.
"Umm...know what's going on pertaining to what?"
"You do know!" Sirius ran over to him. "What's the deal with Nixie? She wouldn't just get upset like that, she always has something to say in response."
"I...I don't know." Remus lied. "Maybe she was just having a stressful day. It happens."
"You're lying." Sirius said as James wandered over.
"Relax Sirius, Remus is probably right, she's a girl after all. Emotional creatures."
"Yeah, I'm not entirely convinced it's just her emotions running wild."
"Just leave it alone, Sirius." Remus begged him but the boy didn't listen as he left the common room.
Sirius saw Lily return from the lake but she returned alone, of course, he was even more curious as to where the girl had ventured off to. He was sure that Lily and Remus had been thorough in their search of the castle to find her.
"Come on, Nini, it couldn't have been that bad."
He knew Nixie wasn't one to cry, she either got angry or sarcastic, maybe a mixture of both when she was upset. To see her cry, was something that was completely new to Sirius and even though he had only witnessed it briefly it had made him feel the most uncomfortable he had ever been. Which said a lot considering his mother was the queen of making him feel uncomfortable.
He wandered around the castle when he found Tabitha, Nixie's old friend sitting in one of the window seats glancing out with a smirk on her face. He trotted over to her.
"Hey Tabitha." he said.
"Hello Sirius." she smiled at him.
"By any chance have you seen Nixie around?" Tabitha's face suddenly darkened.
"No, why would I?"
Sirius scratched the back of his head. "It was just a question."
"Why are you even bothering with that freak?" Tabitha hissed at him.
The boy was caught off guard by the amount of hostility dripping from the girl's tongue.
"Excuse you...freak? Nixie isn't a freak!" he said feeling an overwhelming sense of anger at hearing the word freak describe his friend.
"Oh yes she is..." Tabitha laughed.
"I assume you're the reason why she's upset today. What did you say to her?"
"I didn't say anything to her today. Not a word."
Sirius didn't feel like playing games with the girl anymore as he walked away from her.
"Have fun hanging out with the fish!" Sirius paused for a second in the hallway, trying to figure out if he had heard her correctly before shaking his head and continuing on.
Nixie wasn't entirely sure of where she was, except the room seemed to appear when she was trying to find a room to hide in. It was warm and inviting, as she tucked herself in a corner, never wanting to leave it again. Drawing her knees to her chest, she sniffed as she rested her chin upon her knees.
She knew it.
She knew that people were going to react like she was some sort of sea serpent. Even the people she had spoken to before and had treated her nicely looked at her differently. Crying in the hallway had only added to her embarrassment as more people whispered and pointed at her like she was some sort of exhibit placed on display.
Nixie wanted to go home, she didn't care about Hogwarts anymore, she wanted to go home and hide herself away from the world and the harsh judgement of the people that resided on it. Suddenly, she heard the door begin to open and she waited to see Filch or a professor, waiting for them to begin questioning her as to why she skipped class or what she was doing in the room. But instead, she saw Sirius poke his head in.
She glanced up at him confused.
"Nixie?" He walked in further looking around the room curiously before closing the door behind him.
"What is this room?" he asked.
"I don't know." Nixie swallowed turning away from him and wiping her eyes with the sleeves of her robe.
"What are you doing here? How did you find the room?"
"I-I..I was looking for you." he admitted.
"Yeah so you can make fun of me too along with the others?"
"I don't even know what the others are making fun of you for, but I didn't come here to make fun of you. Remus and Lily have been looking for you since you ran out of Defense Against the Dark Arts and barreled me over." he added the last part with a small smile.
One that Nixie did not return.
He walked over slowly and sat across from her.
"I'm assuming Tabitha said some wicked things about you and it's spreading like wildfire throughout the castle."
"Assuming? Have you not heard?" she asked looking at him in bewilderment.
"Eh, I don't get involved in gossip. I much rather be the one gossiped about." he grinned.
"Why?" Nixie asked him.
"Because if people are taking time out of their day to talk about you, you must be doing something right."
"Or something terribly wrong."
"Either way. They are wasting their time worrying about what you're doing because their lives are so unbelievably boring."
Nixie stared at him for a moment. "I'm sorry, who are you? I thought I was talking to Sirius Black, but you can't be him."
"Why not?!"
"Because the Sirius Black I know wouldn't be saying something so wise."
"Oh and what would I be saying?"
"Some ridiculously horrible pun or joke."
"Ridiculously horrible?! Well Miss Dover, don't hold back!"
