Hello my lovelies!

I've decided to update a story of mine that's ages old, but is apparently still popular. It wasn't up to my standards these days and it's getting a total revamp! This chapter is very similar to the old first chapter with a lot of fluff, a bit of pizazz, and, of course, magic! After this chapter, the entire story is going to change. There's going to be a point to all this merman madness! I hope y'all enjoy the story!

I want to give a big shout out to my awesomesauce beta, Dr. Huang! Oh..uh, my bad, I mean Kativa-chan! Thank you for listening to my half insane ramblings! :)

Disclaimer: I am, unfortunately, not the rightful owner of Harry Potter or the characters. They rightfully belong to J.K. Rowling. I own this story though!

Harry sat on the edge of the Black Lake, dipping his naked feet in the water, sloshing it around. It was several hours after midnight, and the moon was full, shining on the whole campus. Harry stared down into the murky water. It was impossible to see even one foot below the surface, but then again Harry wasn't really looking for anything. Behind those famous emerald eyes was a blank, listless stare.

Since returning to school after the war for his final year, Harry was benefited by many great opportunities to become lost in thought. The war had brought him, along with numerous others, many misfortunes. Harry had lost so much more than anyone else. Any normal person would have given up halfway through their journey; yet here he was. He had even managed to learn from these experiences, which was more than what could be said from other participants in the war. There was one solitary thing still held Harry captive; it was something he felt should have been learned easily. Who am I after Voldemort? Am I everyone's savior or just Harry?

"Something amiss, Chosen One?" The voice was very fluid and definitely female.

Harry's eyes focused and he stood, scanning the area for the source of the voice. Something, call it intuition, beckoned Harry to peer into the water. A female head floated just below the surface. Any other person would have been absolutely terrified by the seemingly bodiless head that's long, hunter green hair spread out on the water's surface, giving a wicked appearance. Her grey skin and large, fierce eyes brought Harry back to the Tri-Wizard tournament. She was a mermaid.

"No, not really," Harry was taken aback by the sudden appearance of a mermaid; he had never seen one come this close to the surface before.

"Much can be said for such vacant eyes," She said slowly and thoughtfully, her tail was kicking up dirt below and her face was becoming murky.

Harry shrugged. He was disturbed by the fact that she had been watching him, and he hadn't even noticed.

"It is late for a human to be out and lakeside," She said, her rows of jagged teeth were apparent, "The second tonight."

"The second?" Harry's brow furrowed as he questioned, "Who was the first?"

"He comes often to swim, but is quite hostile to outsiders. A walking merman. Would you care to see?" She smiled almost mischievously as she asked.

Harry scratched his head in thought. His curiosity was peaked; he had never heard of a walking mermaid. A cold breeze whipped around him, causing him to put his arms around himself and pull his jacket closer. Then again, the water's temperature was uncomfortably low and he hadn't managed to learn the Bubble-Head Charm, oddly enough.

"I can't really hold my breath long enough to see anything." Harry admitted.

"Here," Her slimy, webbed hand appeared above the surface, holding what looked to be a familiar herb.

"Gillyweed?" He asked. "How?"

"It grows deep below. Take it."

Harry took the weed from the mermaid. He knew it would more than likely turn out to be a bad idea, but through experience he trusted his gut, which told him he must trust her. It was gritty from the mud at the bottom of the lake, but he forced the gillyweed down anyway. Familiar feelings swept through him, he felt himself changing just as he did when he consumed the plant in the tournament. He jumped into the cool water allowing his vision to adjust to the murky depths of Black Lake. He held his hands in front of him. Before his eyes webbing grew between them, as did his feet. Water began coursing through his newly obtained gills, which were located on the sides of his neck. It was hard to overcome something as habitual as breathing, but Harry swam though it.

The mermaid swam deeper into the lake and urged Harry to follow her with a slender, scaled finger. During the tournament, the merpeople all looked the same. This was perhaps due to the fact that Harry was a tad too busy to notice each one's individual features. Upon closer inspection, he noted differences in this mermaid: high cheekbones, thin lips, muscular frame, and a tail fin which was torn and a bit tattered on the left side. She kicked swiftly and darted further into the depths of the lake. Harry swam down also and followed her lead. A ruin stood before them, vastly spread out, and overrun by marine plant-life.

"He swims just below," She stopped behind a large, aged pillar patched with green algae, "But I cannot go further. He will surely hex me."

Harry nodded and swam into the ruin. He scanned the area for any signs of life. Nearly 50 feet away, sitting on a rather large fragment of rock, was a half human, half fish being. Harry couldn't believe his eyes. The bottom, fish half of the mermaid was gray-blue color, as that of a dolphin, but scaled and shaded with a deep blue. The tail fin was much broader than that of the merpeople of Black Lake. As Harry stared further up the creature, he noted that the merman's human half was pale in complexion, athletic in physique, and had nearly white, blond hair. Harry also spotted an imposing, black tattoo along his left forearm: the Dark mark. Harry clearly recognized the man as Draco Malfoy, the Slytherin Prince and his arch-enemy, aside from the now deceased Voldemort.

Suddenly there was a noise behind Harry, the swishing of a tail or a frightened Grindylow, and Draco looked up, directly at him. Harry panicked. He hadn't the foggiest idea what he should do. Harry quickly swam behind a rock and hid. It was clearly not a smart choice.

"I thought I told you to leave me-" Draco appeared where Harry was hiding and stopped. "Potter?"

Harry observed Draco's demeanor now. If he was pale before, Harry did not know what to name the hue he was now. Perhaps transparent? He quickly turned away from Harry in a vain attempt to hide his identity or perhaps an emotion he couldn't control under the circumstances. Leave it to Draco to be concerned about his stone-cold, Malfoy facade. Clearly, this was a secret he intended to take to his grave.

"You're a-" Harry was cut off by Draco.

"Half fish?" He turned to Harry in anger, and the façade had returned, "Aren't we observant?"

Harry frowned deeply, but kept his dislike of Draco in check. He might be angry too if someone he couldn't fancy less discovered his most inner secret, especially one that might completely shatter his war-tarnished image.

"But how?" Harry quizzed, but instantly regretted his curiosities.

Draco rolled his eyes, and an angry curl played on his thin, pink lips.

"Sod off, Potter. For once, mind your own bloody business," Draco turned his back to Harry and began to swim away.

"Fine, then I'll tell the entire school that the Slytherin Prince is a mermaid," Harry smirked with the sheer genius of his idea.

"Merman!" Draco growled, swimming back to him in a flurry of fins, "And you wouldn't dare!"

"What would the world think of a half-breed Draco Malfoy?" Harry thought of all the years Draco relentlessly taunted Hermione for the exact same thing, something she could do nothing to help.

"How did you know I was down here?" Draco ignored the attempt to rile him.

Harry remembered the gillyweed a moment too late. He peered down at his hands and feet and saw that the webbing was beginning to shrink to nothing. Alarmed and desperate, he breathed in a lung-full of lake water and began to choke.

"Stop being an idiot, Potter," Draco sneered.

Harry panicked as he choked. He had completely become himself again. Desperation turned to listlessness as he struggled, for he knew he wouldn't make it to the surface in time. He turned to Draco in a fit of pure fear, his eyes pleading for his help. Draco seemed to be too completely engrossed in an internal struggle with himself to take notice of Harry. Draco finally grabbed Harry's now floating body quickly and pulled it to him. Taking in a great deal of water, Draco pressed his lips to Harry's. Lack of oxygen and complete and utter shock caused Harry to black out. The darkness that had taken over his vision was slowly returned, and he wished in vain he would go blind. Draco's lips were pressed to his own. He shoved Draco away and attempted to disinfect his mouth with the back of his hand.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" Harry writhed as the image of the Slytherin kissing him replayed again and again.

"I was professing my love," Sarcasm tainted Draco's words, "Merlin, don't you know anything?"

Harry's dumbfounded expression received an eye roll from the Slytherin merman. Draco crossed his arms and his tail fin flapped angrily. Despite the rude and irritable nature of the Draco, Harry still managed to find him beautiful in this moment. His scales shimmered, even at this depth. Harry quickly shook these queer thoughts from his head. He attributed it to lightheadedness from his previous lack of oxygen. Draco didn't appear to have felt Harry's lengthy gaze nor take notice of his shame.

"A merperson's kiss will give any non-gilled creature the ability to breathe under water," Draco sounded as if he were reading straight from a book, much like Hermione in Harry's opinion.

Both stared at each other for a moment. Harry held out his right hand to the Slytherin prince who stared at it as if it were covered in blood. It was very reminiscent to Draco's offer in their first year, an offer which was rejected straight away. Harry hoped that in exchange for keeping Draco's secrets, the blond would agree to some form of peace between them.

"Truce," Draco finally grasped Harry's hand firmly.

"I won't tell anyone," Harry added.

Draco frowned deeply as if he were not satisfied with Harry keeping his secret to himself.

"And I didn't enjoy one single second of saving your life," Draco kicked his great tail-fin and shot upward for the surface.

Harry followed and there was a great distance between them due to Harry's less adapted human limbs. The Gryffindor cursed the gillyweed's short term effects. He wished they had lasted much longer and perhaps then he would have a chance to challenge the merman to a race. Harry blasted upward with a strong kick and broke through the surface to see that Draco was already sitting on the edge of the water, trying to dry off his glittering fin.

"What are you doing?" Harry paddled to the bank and pulled himself out.

Draco rolled his eyes which was becoming quite annoying to Harry.

"When I am dry, I am human," Draco spoke as if Harry were completely incompetent.

"Malfoy, why can't you just be civil?" Harry dried himself with a flick of the wand.

Draco stared at Harry as if he were completely bonkers which, by this point, was becoming redundant. As soon as he was dry, his newly formed legs made a mad dash for a pile of robes Harry hadn't noticed before, and he disappeared into the castle. Harry cleared a bit of mud from his glasses and found a dry spot under a rather pitiful, skeleton of a tree so sit.

The Gryffindor couldn't believe the events that had transpired tonight. The mermaid was odd enough, for merpeople tended to evade wizards. She had spoken kindly to him and showed him where Draco was. She was mischievous; that was absolutely certain. Harry blankly wondered if she found it amusing to meddle in the affairs of humans. Harry's thoughts then moved to the Slytherin. He recalled the completely astonished expression on Draco's face when he was discovered by Harry Potter no less. Harry had never seen him so frightened; not even when he was nearly killed in the Room of Requirement. There were many things which transpired tonight that Harry needed to contemplate.

What do you lovelies think? Please give me all of your opinions! Feel free to PM me with any questions! I would really appreciate reviews. I will even offer this plate of cookies. *gestures to cookies* Cookies for reviews?