Prologue
In the deepest depths of the ocean, there lived the mer people. Contrary to the humans believe, the ground of the sea wasn’t empty and night-dark, no, there was a whole other world. And at the deepest point, the castle of the most noble house of Black rose towards the surface. As opposite to the name of the family, that inhabited this beautiful building, the castle was bright and the most beautiful building made out of stone.
The Black Family consisted of the powerful King of the ocean, Orion Black, and his loyal wife Walburga. Some might say, she had more power over their underwater kingdom, that her husband. The King’s mother Melania was a respected habitant of the caslte. She was old and wise but still so beautiful. She was very proud of her noble bloodline, so she wore twelve oysters on her belt, while other aristocrats only were allowed to wear six. But she was most proudly of her five grandchildren. Five beautiful children. The oldest three were girls, Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa. Bellatrix was a wild kid, her hair being the wildest mass of black curls. Andromeda was quieter, her hair, also black, was straight and her smile was kind. Narcissa was the only one in her family to have blonde hair, and it was so blonde it was almost as white as her grandmother’s grey strands. She was a proud young woman, always keeping her chin high, dripping cold from her eyes, but in her heart, she loved her family very dearly.
The two younger ones were boys. Sirius was a rebel, he played pranks and tried to bend his parent’s rules and just like his older sister, his hair was an unruly mess of black curls, framing his soft, always grinning face. Regulus, on the other hand, was serious and quiet and followed his mother’s wishes. As the only child, he had short hair, small black curls growing on his head, that he always tamed and trimmed, to not get in his way.
When Sirius turned 15 years old he was allowed to swim to the surface. Just peak through the water and have a quick look at the land. Because directly at the coast stood a big majestic castle, made of bright rocks and shiny towers. It was beautiful. At the beach sometimes were people, swimming or basking in the sun.
Sirius was told not to swim too close to the land, so the humans wouldn‘t see him.
Because once there had been a time, when humans had known of the mer people. Back then, the sea dwellers had lived close to the coast, not far away from the surface. But the humans had feared them. They started hunting them. So, the rulers decided to flee into the deep and the mer people were forgotten on land. Among the humans, stories of the mer people still existed but most believed of it as fairytales and children ‘s stories.
Sirius shouldn’t take the risk.
When his head broke the water surface, his lungs were filled with air. He saw the sun being reflected on the blue sea, blinding him. When his vision cleared, he could see the beach only a few hundred metres away. There were not many humans. In contrary to him they had legs, standing upright on the ground. Sirius couldn‘t see much detail from afar.
He looked up to the sky. It was beautiful. The blue was brighter than the one of the sea, with clouds like cotton wool. And the sun. The sun‘s brightness hurt his eyes but he was too mesmerized to look away.
When it then did hurt too much, he drew his eyes away and there on the horizon he could see a ship. His parents and really everyone else told him to come back as soon as he saw something like a boat. But he never knew how to listen to other people. His curiosity won and he began to swim closer.
He almost reached it, close enough to see the men on the deck. Sirius dived down so they wouldn’t see him coming. Slowly he moved closer.
Suddenly, he couldn’t move anymore. When he looked down on himself, he could see that his fin was caught in some net. The merman wiggled around, trying to free himself but it only made it worse.
He couldn’t move. Nor forward nor backwards and the attempts to free himself only made the strings tighter around his body.
Sirius felt a jerk coming from the net. The boy realized that the net came from the boat when another sudden jerk came from it. The men had started to pull it back in. Sirius could hear shouting from above the surface, yelling orders and excited exclamations. He didn’t understand them.
Sirius didn’t want them to see him. He maybe was all for breaking the silly rules his parents had made up but in this moment all he felt was panic and fear and for the first time in his life he understood the most important rule his mum had wanted him to learn: never get too close to the humans.
Just like the land people had stories about them, the mer-people had stories about them too. They were cruel hunters, not caring about other living beings.
Sirius always thought these were also silly. In that moment he thought differently.
Suddenly, he heard a splash. With horror Sirius noticed that someone had jumped into the water next to him. He moved even more frantically but still it didn’t do anything. The human started swimming towards him. Maybe he would die now, Sirius thought. Maybe the human would kill him now.
When the person came close enough, Sirius could see that it was just a boy, maybe his age.
Or so he guessed, he wasn’t sure how the land people aged.
His curls floated around his head and the sun shone directly on him, making his hair glow.
The boy‘s brown eyes were widened, looking at Sirius with amazement.
But he also had a knife between his teeth.
Sirius still hadn’t stopped moving, his panic only increasing.
The boy lifted his arms, as if to calm him. And then he swam even closer.
Sirius saw that he had no way to get out. He stopped wiggling and stared at the human with bewilderment.
The boy put a hand on his shoulder. Sirius jolted back at the movement. The other looked at him with warm brown eyes that suggested nothing other than kindness. He then took the knife in his hand and started cutting the net. He didn’t seem to have any kind of system, he just cut random strings. But Sirius could feel his trap loosen and giving him more freedom to move. So he started to wiggle around again. But that startled the boy and he slipped. Sirius felt a sharp pain in his hip. When he looked down, he saw a long cut right over his hipbone. He yelled loud of the sudden pain, a high-pitched scream but muffled through the water. The boy seemed properly frightened now and flinched back.
The two young boys looked at each other, both horrified by the other, filled with panic and amazement at the same time, with a red cloud of blood rising between them.
Sirius broke their stares with rapidly moving again. But the net still was too tight. The other swam closer again. Angrily, Sirius stared at him to back off. The boy raised his hands in defense. Then he slowly extended the hand with the knife in it. He opened it and there it lay on his open palm.
In a quick motion Sirius grabbed it. For a split second he thought about attacking the boy. It would be oh so easy to hurt or even kill him. But, although the stranger had hurt him, he had tried to help Sirius. So instead, he started cutting the net where the other had stopped. The other boy pointed at his own chest and then at the surface, a gesture Sirius didn‘t understand, and swam back to the surface. The mer-boy could hear angry shouting from above, but he didn’t care for long. Because he finally was free.
He turned around and with strong kicks of his fin he brought distance between him and the boat. The wound on his waist stung like hell in the salty water but the adrenalin in his veins made it irrelevant.
Sirius didn’t even notice until he stopped swimming like crazy, that he still had his fist shut tight around the human boy‘s knife.