Mending Your Heart|COMPLETE

Chapter Fourteen: Swimming

Hermione's POV:

I stood in front of my mirror. I had put on a ruffled flounce, high waisted bathing suit. I think we were all matching again, Ginny and Astoria had planned this after all.

The bottom was plain black but was high waisted and covered half of my stomach. The top had vertical ruffles and was cut in a V so it covered my stomach too. I grabbed a towel, my potion, some swimming gear, and head out. Ginny's top was gold with maroon straps, mine was maroon with gold straps, and Lavdener's was white with a lion on it. Astoria's was dark green with a snake that said, "I BITE" on it. Pansy's was green with a silver serpent on it. Luna's was striped blue and silver with black straps. 

"What do we do if the boys come?" Luna piped up. 

"I know this spell that can summon pieces of clothing. It would work with a mermaid tail and stuff. We could tell them we're skinny dipping or something then change into those and pretend to be having fun." Pansy admired her nails. "It could work!"

I thought about it. It could actually work. We agreed on it and snuck out of the common room. 
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When we got to the Black Lake, we put our stuff down. Since the Battle, the lake had expanded because of all the explosions. There was now a section to swim in. The water was still inky black, but a magical barrier separated that water from the rest of the water. Within the barrier, if you went underwater, the water was crystal clear. My friends picked me up.

"LET ME DOWN!" I shrieked. 

They smirked evilly. "Ok!" They chorused. They dropped me into the Lake. I came up spluttering. The was a faint flash of light and BOOM! I had a tail. 

They all gasped. "It's beautiful!" The sang, getting into the water themselves. 

We splashed and played around for a while. I got used to swimming with a tail and realized I could just zip from one place to the other.

"I'm never betting for somebody in a swimming race again!" Lavender gawped.

I splashed them with my tail a bit.

"Hey! What if there are nargles in here!?" Luna cried, shielding her face.

It wasn't until about 2:00 that we realized, the boys still hadn't come to look for us!

"I think you all should summon tails." I dragged myself on to the edge of the lake. 

Pansy told them the incantation. "Cauda Syreni!"

Ginny had summoned a fiery red tail. There were dorsal fins at the hips, just like mine! She waved her wand and the tail attached the her. The bra was a halter red and orange halter. She looked like a fiery mermaid goddess!

Lavender conjured a purple tail. It was white at the waist but slowly faded into a deep violet shade with bits of blue on the fin. The bra was mostly white but had a purple strap around her neck. 

Pansy's was black on the sides and white on the front and back. There was nothing special about it, but it was absolutely stunning! The bra was strapless. 

Astoria had a cotton candy tail. It was blue around the edges, but as you got to the center, it turned pink! The bra was one-shouldered and was pink with swirls of purple and blue.

Lastly was Luna's. She'd conjured a holographic one! The scales were all silver and the fin and dorsal fin were rainbows. Her bra was also strapless and rainbow. 

"You all look amazing!" I complimented them.

"The tails look so...real!" Luna dove into the water.

"I feel like a real mermaid!" Ginny squealed. 

I decided that I had to teach them how to swim properly. They were clumsily flapping everywhere! 

"Guys!" I laughed. "You should use the bubble-head charm first!" They all muttered the incantation and looked at me expectantly. I nodded. "Ok good, now put your arms in front of you and give a strong kick with both legs at once."

I dove under the water and showed them the movements. They all copied it, with varying degrees of success. Because of the crystal clear water under the surface, I could see everybody as if I were above the water! 

They had just adjusted to their tails and were finally able to swim properly when we saw the boys coming. "OI! GINNY!" Harry started running down the hill, beckoning the other guys over to where he was. "THE GIRLS ARE DOWN THERE!" 

"Shoot!" Lavender cussed.

"Everybody, leave only your heads above the water and rest on the bank! The surface of the water is black so they can't see under!" Astoria hissed. We all lay our chests on the muddy bank and pushed our tails-well, my tail, and their fake tails-to the bank to. Neville looked at us skeptically.

"Swimming eh? Mind if we join?" Neville moved to take off but shirt as did the other boys, but:

"NO" Ginny screamed. They all looked at her, confused.

"Um...well...we're not really uh..." I looked down at my hands.

"We're naked," Pansy stated. 

Theo snickered. "Even more reason to want to get in then, eh?" 

"Not unless you want to see us all!" Luna snapped. The boys instantly blushed.

"Go behind the tree and DON'T PEEK! I'm putting a spell on you," I warned them, grabbing my wand. I shot them forward and created a barrier before hoisting myself onto the shore. My friends all waved their wands and were perfectly fine. "The potion!" I hissed to Ginny under my breath. She crawled away to get the potion as I steam-dried myself. Once I finished, I chugged the potion and sat back in the water, just to make sure. When I didn't sprout a tail, I removed the head-locking jinx and barrier to find the boys already stripped down to their swimming trunks. 

Us girls all squealed as all six boys cannonballed in the water, yes, Draco was here too! I felt my heartbeat quicken. Stop that! There's nothing special about Malfoy!

Placing the bubble-head charm on myself, I joined my girls below the water's surface. I swam below Draco's feet and pointed towards the other guys' feet.

"One..." I mouthed. "Two...THREE!" We all yanked our spouse's feet, pulling them under the water with us. 

Since they didn't have the bubble-head charm, they immediately tried to swim back to the surfaced. We all giggled and let go. I kicked back up to the surface and found Draco on the shore, coughing up water. I started panicking. Did I do that?

I swam over to him and crawled onto the shore too. I lay on my side next to him and put one hand on his shoulder. I patted his back. "You ok?" I asked him. He lifted his gaze to me. He looked a bit dazed for a moment before zapping back to reality.

"Yes," He drawled. "Thank you for nearly drowning me!" He rolled onto his back. I adjusted myself so I was next to him. I could feel the warmth radiating from his skin. I subconsciously snuggled a bit closer to him. "Granger...Granger?" I zapped out of my daze.

"Yeah, Malfoy?" I looked into his eyes. His eyes swirled with different shades of grey. They looked like a stormy sky, but they were the most beautiful stormy sky I had ever seen. 

"You know, oddly, I don't think that kiss was a mistake." He started blushing and turned away from me. "It was...tolerable." He turned back to me and joked, "Out of ten, I'd give you a 9. OHMYGOSH! Is that Hermione Granger...not getting full marks!"

I snorted and played along. "Well, you, the BOUNCING FERRET only get...hmmm...a 5 out of 10!" I sneered at him. "You did really badly!" 

He growled. "Excuse me?" He picked me up and threw me into the water. 

I coughed as I came up. Glaring, I got out of the water, a murderous glare in my eye. Boy was I  going to take care of him. "Draco Malfoy....your gonna GET IT!"