Chapter 87. Christmas Event Over

The tempo ever hastening of Val's ringing brought the sirens joy as they rocketed through the darkened waters, pulling us along with them. Seemingly enjoying the feeling of truly exerting themselves, they sang louder. The echoes of their perfect harmonious voices almost hurt my ears with how powerful their voices blared. I slowly began catching up with the French girl, stupefied as she turned her head to see the choir of sirens pulling and pushing us forward. I smirked at her with equal scorn she had given me, and continued to pet Val to command the sirens forward. Far off I could see the bright lights of the finish line, quickly growing in size as we swam closer.

Once we had reached beside the girl, Val ducked under my coat, his ring echoing higher in slight anxiety of being found. The sirens, noticing the difference, lightened their voices, as if to comfort him while the Hippocampus I rode pushed harder to move ahead. We began pulling ahead, the girl wasn’t far behind me, pushing her Hippocampus to keep up with me, her perfectly sculped face, contorted in anger. However no amount of looks could compare to the support of the sirens surrounding me. My Hippocampus, while tired, was much better off, being as small as he was, it was simple for the sirens to pull him along, letting him rest half-way through the race. Finally I made it past the finish line, much to the cheers of the adults in the giant bubble they were all watching from.

"Yea!! We won! We won! You all were awesome!" Val cheered poking his head out from my clothes to hiss his thanks at the sirens and Hippocampus. As I got off, I gave him a small treat as thanks, and he gratefully accepted it before my attention was taken up by the sirens. They all gently swam around me, giggling with joy and interest. Finally the one with red hair that seemed almost to be alight under the water descended down, her tail perched on the ground. She smiled, pulling a small seashell from her hair, and placing it into my hand, humming a joyful tune as she did so. Warbled words appearing though the notes. "May this serve as remembrance, and will your return in the future." She glanced between Val and I, Val quickly nodding, his tongue flicking through the water. "Of course! We'll both visit later!"

They all hummed happily as I stealthily stowed the shell in my vest. They held the last note of their joyful reaction to Val's promise. After they were done they all laughed and giggled in amusement, before quickly swimming away leaving me alone at the finish line. However, that soon ended when I was yanked back inside the large bubble where the main event was held. I looked up to see my father looking down at me with a deeper scowl, grasping onto my collar while my mother hurried to his side. "Just a moment!" She yelled at one of the staff here, about to dry me off. "Must make sure they didn't transmit anything." She mumbled, a bar of soap being forcibly plunged in my hands, as she rubbed them together for me. I ignored her, the best I could and focused on the adults, all cheering at my accomplishment, each trying to discuss with me about how I was able to utilize the sirens like the conductor could.

After my hands were thoroughly cleaned, my mother gave the go-ahead for the staff to dry me off. Through the hot air, I could barely hear their questions. My parents were silently standing beside me, each smirking and smiling with pride, but their tightened grips on my shoulders told me a different story. They were glad at my winning, but it looked as if I was getting too comfortable with such ‘lower creatures’. I took a moment to think, watching as the advisors took the other participants back into the bubble, and healing them up from any small scratch or scrape they may have gotten in the race.

I smirked and explained that using just a bit of magical music captivated them easily, and that they were useful while they lasted. Instantly my parents' painful grips on my shoulders loosened with ease, sure that they had removed the last innocence I had. Many of the wizards and witches chuckled and nodded, before discussing more about my life, interested in my family. Some parents wondering if I had sisters to perhaps steer their younger sons towards, or even if I was single. Pansy, luckily appeared just in time from the race and jumped to my side, grabbing my arm, showcasing that I was off limits.

I sighed under my breath, seeing the parents' interest in marrying me into their family diminish, avoiding looking at Pansy’s parents’ joyous expressions. We were all silenced by the conductor slowly clapping his hands, creating a lull in the room. He nodded in thanks before speaking. “As it is rather boring to just stand around talking.”

He then waved his hand, and we all watched in wonder as the white glowing jellyfish began slowly descending back around the bubble, creating the same sense of snowfall as before, however this time, more with different colors appeared. From red, and green, to blue and yellow. They all danced around, like fireworks, a dazzling display of beauty. I then looked back down, noticing that the lights inside the bubble dimmed, and the band began playing slow songs. “May you all enjoy a quiet moment before we move on to the next event. And may the young witches and wizards dry off from their first excursion.”

While the rest dried off, the parents of everyone spoke to mine, wanting to hear more about me from them. I had known from the beginning that this was a sort of market for parents to pick out suitable candidates for their daughters and sons, but I didn’t think they would be so cavalier about it. “That was a lie.” As I was taking a towel to my hair, I heard the annoying girl call out to me. I sighed while ignoring her, focusing more on getting more hot cocoa to warm my cooling body. “He'!” She finally yelled, grabbing at my arm, forcing me to look at her.

“Shouldn’t you be with the rest of the girls getting dried off? You’re dripping water everywhere.” I sniped, yanking my arm back away from her. I lied, she was completely dry, I just didn't want to be near her. She managed to push my buttons in an aggravating way that no other person I knew could. She squinted at me, her deep blue eyes mirroring the sea surrounding us. “Nub'dy ca' jus' ‘ca'trol’ Merpepole zwith musik." She began, her sudden accent bubbling forth with her anger as she gripped her wand tighter, its tip shaking under the pressure as she continued. "ezpec'uially zose zat 'ate an'ything zat izn’t full blooded... Unlezz d'ey-” She was suddenly cut off from Pansy, grabbing my arm with hers. “Excuse me, but if I could take him for a dance?” She asked with a polite smile, but her tone wasn’t in a forgiving mood.

The French girl silently looked at the both of us, taking a deep breath to calm herself enough to speak better. However, Pansy took that opportunity to drag me to the dance floor. "Thank you!" She yelled with a fake smile, and I sighed while we took our positions, joining along with the slow lulling music. “Thanks. That girl is dreadful.” I muttered to her, grateful to be away from her. Pansy smirked, holding back a chuckle as she took the lead in our dancing. “If you wish to thank me back, then enjoy this with me.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her, while taking the lead back, twirling her away from me, before catching her back. Of course, I had learned to truly dance, as events like this were always something I was going to have to participate in. My mother was a good teacher, I could see her smile, while moving her body minutely with my own, still teaching me even now. “It would be my pleasure.” I answered back, just as the music picked up, the scent of cinnamon tickling my nose from her perfume.

The rest of the events were less interesting for me. Just small competitions, like wrangling in as many loose jellyfish in the waters, and herding them back together, a perfect moment for me to use my tide controlling spell I had been developing. To my relief, part of the challenge was to never set foot in the water, giving me an amazing advantage in the challenge, letting me win in a landslide. The rest were more along the lines of team building exercises, like trying to untangle something with only the levitation charm divided among small groups of six.

After they were all done, and we were free to stay longer, or leave, my parents decided to leave with our closest family friends, as well as some of those in Slytherin that also joined for the event. Many faces I recognized, soon I would see them all again at school, and they would take the opportunity to try and get closer to me because of that. Much like Crabb and Goyle, who were only friends of a friend. I shrugged at the thought, knowing that it was a problem for the future, unknowing of the vicious gaze directed at my back.

The French girl continued to glare at Lucas, though she couldn’t prove it, she knew that he didn’t use music to guide the Merpeople. Even with her Veela blood, there was no chance for her to charm that many creatures. She could easily manage one, the mount she rode, two was possible, but the ten Lucas controlled was unbelievable. When he passed by, she could only hear the siren’s singing, he never had any spell that emitted sound. The same thing with the jellyfish from before. He controlled them as well, without being in the water. Most others, including her, used the levitation charm to push one at a time, but he drew swaths to his section. There was only one spell she knew of that could do such a thing. Less of a spell, and more of a curse, one of the three most unforgivable curses. The Imperius curse.

She was ready to defend herself if he tried to use such a curse on her, but was interrupted by a girl he perhaps already controlled. She was only left to stew in her worries. She had no proof of it, and couldn't risk sounding like a sore looser, tainting her and her school's image before the large event next year. The large event that would bring her school to Hogwarts; including her little sister that would be old enough for her first year at that time. What's worse is that her beauty seemed to have no effect on him. Her main tool to attain whatever she wanted, was rendered useless in his vision. She'd have to think of something to get him caught next year. 'I'll get him Azkaban before he so much as speaks with her...' She vowed, her wand quaking under her magical power as she held back at vicious sneer.

Lucas Peterson, a name she would keep in her mind as someone to be very wary of.