Harry has a little help preparing for the second Tri-Wizard task.

“Go on then, Harry. Give it a crack.”

Harry grinned at Ron, then prised open the lid of the large golden egg. For a moment nothing happened, then the library flooded with a horrible, shrill, wailing screech. The others clapped their hands over their ears. Harry slammed the lid shut.

The three friends stared at each other, a chorus of shhhhhhhhhhs echoing from around the library.

 “Blimey…” said Ron. “What the bloody hell was that?”

“Shhhh,” Hermione hissed. “Do you want to get us kicked out of the library?”

“I’m pretty sure we’ve made enough noise already, Hermione.”

As his friends bickered in muted tones, Harry noticed a flicker of movement at the end of one of the bookcases. A Ravenclaw girl peered around the edge of the shelf, messy scarlet hair falling in cascades down to her hips. When she saw he was watching, she raised a shy hand and beckoned him closer.

 “Oi,” Harry said to his friends. When they didn’t stop bickering, he repeated himself. “Oi. Who is that?”

Hermione followed the tilt of Harry’s head. “Oh, that’s Ariel. She was in my Muggle Studies class last year. Fourth-year Ravenclaw, really shy. I’ve never heard her speak a word.”

“Do you know all of the girls around Hogwarts?”

“Shut up, Ron.”

“She just motioned for me to follow her,” Harry broke in. “I think she heard that noise coming from the egg. Do you think she knows something?”

Hermione looked at Ron, then back to Harry. “I don’t see why she would,” she said slowly. “She seems nice enough, but she never speaks up in class.”

“Well, it can’t hurt to find out.” Harry rose from his place at the table. “You two get some rest. I’ll see you in the Great Hall tomorrow morning.” He left them before they could protest, walking toward the quiet red-headed girl peering out from behind the bookcase. She seemed nervous when he approached, but she stood her ground.

“Can you help me?” Harry asked. Ariel nodded. “Brilliant,” Harry said. “Er…how?”

Ariel raised a hand to cover a smile, then gestured with the other for him to follow. Not sure what he was getting himself into, Harry followed. Ariel led him out of the library, into the hall, and up two flights of stairs before stopping outside of a large wooden door. Beside the door, the statue of Boris the Bewildered looked hopelessly lost, as usual.

“The Prefects’ Bathroom,” Harry said. “What—?”

Ariel was already scrawling something on a scrap of parchment, which she shoved into Harry’s hands. He squinted at words.

“Pine fresh?”

The door creaked open. Harry blinked in surprise. “Where did you get that password?” he asked, but Ariel was already entering the chamber. Confounded, Harry followed.

The room was large and dominated by an enormous white marble bathtub sunk into the floor. Ariel had already begun turning several of the hundreds of golden taps that lined the side of the tub, filling the room with hot, sweet-smelling, bubbly water. She studied her work for a moment, then shrugged out of her cloak.

“Wha—no!” Harry squeezed his eyes shut, completely embarrassed. What was she thinking? “I…I should go,” he said, fumbling blindly for the door handle. “Thanks for offering to help, but it’s getting late and—ouch!” His eyes flew open as a pair of fingers thumped him in the scar.

Ariel had removed her witch’s robes and wrapped a fluffy white towel around her body. She rolled her eyes and snatched the egg out of Harry’s hands. “Hey!” he shouted, but she’d already jumped into the water. The splash sent a cloud of bubbles floating high into the air. When she resurfaced, she gestured for Harry to follow. When he still hesitated, she opened her mouth to speak.

The room reverberated with the same ear-splitting screech that had emanated from the egg. Ariel closed her mouth and the screeching stopped. Then she pointed at the water, took a deep breath, and dove.

Harry was flabbergasted. He removed his own robes, donned a towel, and followed Ariel into the tub. When he was underwater, he opened his eyes.

Ariel’s scarlet hair fanned out around her head, writhing like liquid fire. She clutched the egg to her chest with both hands, blue eyes staring intently. Then she spoke.

“Hi, Harry.”

Harry let out a yelp of surprise, bubbles escaping his mouth so that he had to return to the surface for more air. Ariel followed.

“You can talk,” he sputtered. “Underwater!” Ariel giggled soundlessly. “Do you know what those sounds were? The ones in the egg?” Ariel nodded, then dipped below the surface of the water.

“Isn’t it neat?” Ariel asked. Her voice was like a bell. “Oh, it’s so nice to have someone to talk to!” Harry’s confusion must have shown on his face, because she laughed. “I’m a mermaid, Harry. You can only understand me if I talk underwater.”

Harry’s bewildered expression didn’t change.

“I know,” she said, drumming her fingers on the golden egg. “Merpeople are supposed to have fins. I did have fins once, but I grew legs so that I could study at Hogwarts.”

Harry, overcome, returned to the surface to catch his breath. When he returned, Ariel resumed her story.

“I got my Hogwarts letter when I turned eleven, just like you. It took me a while to actually read it, since the owls kept leaving the letters on the surface of the lake. I was ecstatic when I found out. No mermaid has ever attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Just think of it. Me, a witch!”

Little bubbles escaped her mouth as she spoke with growing excitement.

“I swam and told my father as soon as I found out, but…” her voice trailed off. “He told me that it was a silly dream and forbade me from answering the letter.” Harry watched the pain well behind her eyes, remembering how his own aunt and uncle had tried to prevent him from attending Hogwarts.

Ariel continued. “I spent days crying. At night, I swam to the surface so that I could watch the castle without being seen. I wanted so badly to be part of your world. Then, one night, a man with half-moon glasses and a long white beard came to me.”

Dumbledore? Harry mouthed. Ariel nodded.

“He speaks Mermish, did you know that? Dumbledore sat down on the shore and asked why I hadn’t responded to his letter. I told him that my father’d forbidden it, that I couldn’t attend Hogwarts because I was a mermaid and I had fins. He told me he could do something about that, but it would require a sacrifice.”

She waited while Harry took another gulp of air.

“I told him yes, anything. So he whispered some words, and my fin grew hot and split into legs, and my gills vanished and lungs grew inside my chest. I was so happy, I wanted to shout thanks to him at the top of my lungs…but my voice still came out shrill and screechy. He told me that was the catch. The spell made me look human, but I was still a mermaid. As long as I was out of the water, I wouldn’t be able to speak.”

Harry looked at the girl’s sad, strange eyes, remembering what Hermione had said. That’s Ariel. Really shy. She never speaks up in class. He motioned for her to join him at the surface.

“I’m so sorry,” he fumbled, searching for the right words. “I never knew. I—can you ever go back?”

Ariel shrugged and ducked beneath the water. Harry followed.

“Dumbledore gave me one chance to return. Four years is a long time to stay quiet, but I still haven’t used it. But enough about me!” Her fingers danced over the surface of the golden egg. “We came here for this. I recognized the Mermish immediately in the library.”

Harry could have kicked himself. Of course!

“Try opening it underwater,” Ariel said, passing the egg to Harry. He did what he was told, bracing himself for the horrible screeching sound he’d heard earlier. But the shrieks never came. Instead, the water shimmered with an eerie, beautiful melody.

“Come seek us where our voices sound,

We cannot sing above the ground,

And while you’re searching, ponder this:

We’ve taken what you’ll sorely miss,

An hour long you’ll have to look,

And to recover what we took,

But past an hour—the prospect’s black,

Too late, it’s gone, it won’t come back.”

Ariel could barely contain her laughter. “Those were my sisters!”

Your sisters? Harry mouthed.

“Yes. Well, three of them. Attina, Alana, and Arista. I think. I don’t know what they were singing about, though.” She fixed Harry with that piercing blue stare. “Did you hear everything you needed?”

Harry nodded and swam to the surface. “Thanks, Ariel. You really saved my neck.” Ariel smiled and he scratched the back of his neck. “One more thing before I go. How did you get the password to the Prefects’ Bathroom? You’re not a Prefect…right?”

She giggled silently and mimed a long white beard. Dumbledore. Then she dipped beneath the surface of the water and swam a quick lap. A distant, angelic voice echoed up from the water as she swam. Ariel was singing. This bathroom was the only room in all of Hogwarts where she could do it.

Harry used one of the fluffy white towels to dry himself and the egg off. As he reached for the door, Ariel surfaced and waved him a cheerful goodbye. He waved back. The door opened, closed, and he was back in the fifth floor corridor.

The morning of the second task dawned bleak and grey. Harry slogged toward the Hogwarts lake to join the other champions, eyes heavy from lack of sleep, heart pounding from overwhelming panic. He hadn’t found a solution for the clue. Hours, days, weeks had flown by, and no solution had presented itself. Not a single one of Hermione’s books had offered a spell to let him breathe underwater. And now he was heading to the lake to compete in the tournament. What was he going to do?

A tap on his shoulder made him spin around.

“Ariel!” he said. The mermaid was wrapped head to toe in Ravenclaw blue, auburn hair braided beneath a warm floppy hat. Her eyes, wide and concerned, asked a question.

“I couldn’t solve it,” Harry blurted. The panic was spilling over now. “I tried and tried, but I don’t have a way to breathe underwater…”

Ariel’s gaze went out of focus for a moment, as if she were making a decision. Then she nodded, reached into her pocket, and pulled out a wad of what appeared to be writhing grey worms.

“What—?”

Ariel mimed eating the thing, then shoved the slippery substance into Harry’s hands. She made a shhhhhh gesture with her finger, then ran off to join her classmates at the lake. Harry gawked at the thing in his hands, but, remembering that he was late, hastily shoved it into his pocket and jogged down to the lake.

The other champions were already present, spaced out along the shore. “Ah, Harry has arrived!” boomed Ludo Bagman. His voice, magically magnified, boomed out above the chatter of the excited spectators. “Champions, you have one hour to reclaim what is yours. On your mark, get set…GO!”

Harry threw himself into the lake. He screamed as the icy water lashed against his skin, threatening to pull him under. Floundering, he reached into his pocket and grabbed the rubbery gray mass. He didn’t have time to feel disgusted. He shoved the thing into his mouth, chewed furiously, and…

A terrible pain ripped across his neck, tearing him like white-hot lightning. His lungs deflated, empty, leaving him gasping for oxygen. Half-mad from panic, half from pain, Harry dove into the water…

…And breathed. He took in a great draught of water through his gills, savoring the sweet wet oxygen. Ariel’s spell had worked! He sunk lower into the water, taking stock of his new form. Gills, webbed fingers, a long tail ending in a pair of beautiful blue fins.

Harry’s heart dropped into his stomach. Dumbledore gave me one chance to return, Ariel had said. Four years and I still haven’t used it. The way she’d hesitated, before giving him the spell. His tail churned, propelling him upward, upward, away from the task and back toward the air.

He broke the surface at a breakneck speed, launching himself twenty feet into the air. The crowd gasped, though he barely heard through the wind blowing in his ears. His eyes scanned the crowd as he reached the top of his arc, searching, searching. And there she was, a blaze of scarlet hair wrapped in Ravenclaw blue. She was watching him, those sad, blue eyes locked onto his own.

He hit the lake with a splash, diving deep, searching for his prize.

I can never repay you, his gaze had said. I won’t let you down.

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