Chapter 616 - The Second Harvest Moon

On the second night of the Harvest full moon, there is a bitter chilly wind. Thankfully, it was her night off, but still, it had come for a price, Rowan privately thought to herself as she shivered at the night's frigid chill. It was rather frisky despite her wearing a thick cloak, but then again, she is only wearing a thin diving suit underneath the coat and water shoes. Standing on the shore, she stares into thick, murky black waters and shivers as cold lake spray splashes onto her face. And found herself somewhat regretting her promise to Nadira, when she had so much research yet to do and complete. Still, one should never make break a promise and especially a promise made to a magical snake, who can fly and turn invisible.

Glancing up at the moon in the sky, Rowan sighs to herself. Severus owed her after last night, and it was his turn to cover her. Though knowing him, he had probably borrowed the Marauder's map and was keeping an eye on her via the map. But at least she had a plausible excuse, later when he would not so subtly inquire about what she was doing in the lake in the middle of the night. And she would be able to reply that she was trying to practice her Mermish, which would technically not be a lie.

Taking a deep breath, Rowan removes her cloak and neatly folds it at the edge of the muddy shore, and lays a clean stone on top of her cloak to keep the night breeze from stealing it away. Her teeth loudly clatter from the chill as she shivers and briskly approaches the lake. Trembling at the very edge of the lake, she pauses to make sure that her wand is safely tucked into her mokeskin pouch, and that the underwater breathing bracelet was safely secured onto her wrist. It would definitely be a problem if the bracelet slipped off in the middle of the lake.

Taking one last glance at the bright harvest moon, Rowan walked into the lake and violently shivered as the water rose higher and higher to her neck. Despite quivering from the cold, she takes one last deep breath, before rushing into the waters and plunging underneath the dark waters. The lake waters swallow her whole as she vanishes without a trace from the surface waters.

Beneath the moonlight, the lake water is green and ghostly resembling the typical lake scene that is viewed from the Slytherin common rooms. Despite the eerie and sickly lake light, Rowan continues to swim as she dives deeper and deeper into the lake until she finds that silence is her only companion as she swam through a strangely green, and ghostly landscape.

To her surprise, Rowan found that she could easily see in every direction, before recalling the added charm of the gifted bracelet from Dumbledore. Shaking her head, she cautiously swam through the water recalling the nefarious creatures that inhabited and recalled what other creatures that could possibly inhabit the depths of the Hogwarts lake. Yet, she continues to swim deeper and deeper towards the deepest part of the lake as small fish flickered past her like silver darts.

To Rowan's vast relief, there was no sign or much less trace of the giant squid. Perhaps, it had a giant cave somewhere. And frankly, because she did not know if the giant squid was quite as nice within the confines of the lake as the giant squid was at the lake shores. (Probably, it was just her nerves talking. And if she considered the circ.u.mstances of the yet unborn Colin Creevey, who was pushed back into the sailing boat during Potter's time in his second year, it highly suggested that the giant squid was just as nice within the confines of the lake.)

All too soon a forest of rippling tangled black weeds appeared ahead of her as far as the eye could see. The meadow of overgrown grass was roughly two feet deep least if not longer. Peeking up from inside the gloom was a tiny grindylow, a small horned water demon. Oddly, it did not try to grab her limbs as it merely bared its fangs in warning at her.

"How's it going?" A female voice suddenly interjected.

Rowan almost pulled out her wand from her pouch, but froze upon seeing a ghostly, white figure in the middle of the lake, M.o.a.ning Myrtle. Myrle floated hazily in front of Rowan and peered through her thick pearly glasses at her. Rowan merely glares back and growls, "What are you doing down here?" A stream of bubbles bursts her mouth as she speaks.

"Huh, how very peculiar that you still possess the ability to speak down here?" Myrtle observed in curiosity. And she had been a former Ravenclaw after all.

Rowan rolled her eyes and ignored M.o.a.ning Myrtle leaving Myrtle to contemplate the strange encounter. With care, she avoided the weeds by swimming a bit higher, before coming across vast expanses of black mud littered with dull, glimmering stones undisturbed. Though not far off in the distant a large boulder can be seen.

Swimming slowly forward, Rowan approached the large border before coming to a halt before it. Interesting enough, the boulder had a prehistoric like art painting of merpeople on it. They were carrying spears and chasing or aiding what looked like the giant squid. This must be the borderline of the merpeople territory.

Moving slowly forward, Rowan kept an eye on her surroundings as she swam up over a small hill, before seeing a large merpeople village down below. Down in the valley below is a cl.u.s.ter of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed. From here and there, through the dark windows, some faces could be seen glimpsing out at her. Soon the dwellings become more numerous to reveal gardens of weed. Some even had a pet grindylow tied to a stake outside of the door as a watchdog or pet of sorts.

Rowan for one knew that the merpeople of the lake were uglier due to the cold. The merpeople of the warmer climates were utter hotties. And she wasn't joking, when she said that. Dumbledore had shown Severus and her images of the various merpeople around the world and those living in the warmer climates were much more attractive. Must be all the sun and Vitamin D, they are getting.