Under the Stars

|Chapter 2|

"Hermione!" she could hear the voice of her best girlfriend call out to her. She stopped where she was in the crowded hallways and moved to the side, looking for a red head. People rushed past her and then Ginny Weasley appeared before her. Her long red hair flowed down her back in straight lines and the sun behind her made her look like she was on fire. Her eyes were a deep, sapphire blue and were shinning with happiness. Her smile was filled with teeth and her cheeks were dimpled with happiness. She wore a Hogwarts uniform, the Gryffindor emblem stitched to the left side of her robe, her red and yellow tie was loose around her neck.

    "Ginny," Hermione smiled at her friend.

    "Guess what just happened to me?" Ginny grabbed her friend by the arm, looping their arms together, and pulled both of them down the hallway. Ginny whispered in Hermione's ear, "Harry just asked to me to marry him."

    Hermione's eyes bulged out of her eye sockets in surprise, "What? Really?" they continued to walk down the corridor, turning left and right; heading toward the Library, "What did you say?"

    "I told him I would think about it," Ginny said just as they came to the entrance to the Library, the door framed by ancient wood carved with ruins.

    "What are you going to say?" Hermione whispered as they walked to one of the tables in the back.

    "I'm...going to say yes," Ginny responded, after a pause, "I love him Hermione, ever since I was young," and they took a seat at the thick wooden tables.

    Hermione placed her bag on the table, landing with a thud, while Ginny placed hers on the chair next to her, "Oh, Ginny, I am so happy for you guys," and she truly was.

    "Thank you Hermione," Ginny said with a grateful smile.

    Hermione pulled out a thick tome with a plain dark brown cover, the title carved into the leather. She brought out a roll of several pieces of parchment and a quill. Undoing the tie, the parchment came undone and she picked up the parchment she had left on. Ginny pulled out her Potions book and went to studying. Hermione, however, opened the book and took notes. This book was special and anyone who saw it simply thought she was doing a personal project on the subject. It was in fact that the book was about what she was and all of the information within it was so important. She stopped taking notes for a moment before looking over her notes again. The first piece of parchment was a letter and the oldest looking and was creased from how many times she had folded it. She started to read it.

    'Hermione, my dearest,' the letter started, 'There are somethings that we have not told you. You are a mermaid, Hermione. Now I know this may come as a shock to you, but you are. Your father and I placed a spell on you so your tail would only be revealed when you turned sixteen, today. I want you to come down to the dock as soon as you are ready and everything will be explained. I'm sorry we didn't tell you, Hermione, we believed it would keep you safe if you didn't know. With all our love, Father and Mother."

    Hermione sighed. That was this summer and it was unforgettable to her. She had walked down to the private dock that her house had along the Channel and her parents stood there with smiles on their faces. They talked for a little bit about mermaids and everything Hermione knew about them was a lie. She learned that there were several different kinds of merfolk, all raging in differences like their human counterparts. These differences were mostly identified by how much "fish" they were rather than human. For example, there were the merfolk of lakes, like the ones in the Black Lake, who were more fish than human and so acted that way.  Then there are the merfolk that she and her mother were, who were more human than fish, which gave them ability to change into a mermaid only when they touched water.