Magical Merpeople

Trust

Cheeks warming up, she quickly looks away towards the basket, took another scroll and began to read.

Neither knew how long they were there reading, but realized they should head back to eat something. Along with the fact that their bikes were left on a beach. With that, they decided to swim rather than Apparating, so they put the scrolls and crystal back in the basket with the enchantments back on and dove into the water.

They took their time leaving and once out Hermione made sure to remember the location and how it looked like before they swam away slowly. Enjoying the currents and the sea life.

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Walking to their bikes, Hermione looks around and puts the items into her Undetectable Extended bag. They were about to leave when;

"Harry! Hermione!"

Turning they see a running Cleo. Followed by an also running Rikki, Emma and Lewis. Though both Harry and Hermione notice a boy that was walking towards them at a slower pace. This boy neither of them knew and Harry started to get on edge.

"I finally found you guys. Where did you go?" Cleo asks while panting and the others soon joined her, including the new face. He was tall almost lanky in appearance. Brown short hair, brown eyes and Harry could notice a trouble maker kind of look from his eyes. Cleo notices their looks and introduces him, "this is Zane. Zane Bennett."

Zane steps forwards and offers his hand towards them. They didn't immediately offered theirs but did so after a moment. "Hi, I'm Harry and this is my best friend Hermione," he says as steps back after meeting and greeting. Waiting in silence for them to say more.

"So you guys are the new merpeople here huh?" Zane says with a smug like smile.

Hermione's eyes widen in fear and shock, while Harry's narrow as he clenches his fists and turns to look at the girls. "You bloody told him!?" He shouts at them, "who are you to share our secret with anyone! Especially someone we don't know!" They all looked at one another before looking down and shuffling their feet. Harry turns to Zane, "who told you our secret?"

For his part, Zane could have sworn his blood froze at the menacing and cold question directed at him. "I stumbled on the girls talking about you. They didn't tell me directly, I just found out."

Harry sneered but before he could say more, Hermione beat him to it. "I find that hard to believe." She takes a step forward and Zane gulped at the murderous look she directed towards him. If he thought Harry was menacing, Hermione was terrifying.  "You 'stumbled' upon them? Either they bloody told you straight to the face, one of them did or they were actually talking about us in a non secure area. So which is it?"

"He did stumble in on our conversation about you and knowing my boyfriend the way I do; I knew that lying or avoiding it wouldn't have worked." Rikki states as she steps in front of Zane and crosses her arms, trying to look intimidating but to Harry and Hermione --who have both been through terrifying events since their First year at Hogwarts-- she looked like a growling puppy.

"It was not for you to tell him or anyone else our secret," Hermione states in anger and her hair actually started to spark with magic.

Seeing this, Harry puts a hand on her shoulder and gives it a gentle squeeze. His effort works, she calms down and her hair stops sparking as she steps beside him. He gives her a calm and reassuring look before turning to the others, "you accuse us of not being trustworthy. Yet you do this behind our backs." His eyes narrow and they glow once more with magic power, "you've just guaranteed Mione and I don't share what we discover in those books."