Author's Notes: Don't worry, story; I still love you.

The merpeople's tails beat the water with amazing speed. Hugo kicked too, trying to help them, but the webbing in his toes was almost gone now and every breath he took seemed to hurt his lungs as much as it helped him.

Faster lungs burning faster legs hurting faster getting dizzy faster SPLASH!

Hugo's head broke the surface of the water one second after his gills had completely disappeared. The merpeople followed and easily held him up as he gasped for breath and shivering in water that had not seemed so cold a few minutes before. The three of them remained motionless until Hugo had stopped panting, but then the merpeople started to swim toward shore, keeping Hugo firmly in their grasp as they zoomed through the water like a boat.

"Um—thanks, but I'm okay now, guys. I can swim back myself now. Uh, guys? ...You're not gonna let me go, are you?"

In a few minutes they went from the center of the lake to the shore, with Hogwarts Castle looming above them. Worse, the merpeople apparently had some way to contact the school, because Hugo could see two shapes rushing toward them in the darkness. He quickly recognized the massive form of Rubeus Hagrid, but only after squinting could he make out the second figure, which had a torso like a man atop a lower body like a horse.

Oh, wow. A centaur. Normally Hugo would have been really excited to meet one, but unfortunately he was too distracted to enjoy it right now.

"Wha's goin' on?" Hagrid said, holding up a lantern and squinting his beady black eyes. "Is everythin'—wait a minute. Hugo, is tha' you?"

The merpeople released him, and he stumbled in the knee-high water, hunching his shoulders. "Hi, Hagrid," he said meekly.

The merman held out Hugo's wand, which Hagrid took, and then let out a barrage of Mermish screeches. Hagrid turned to the centaur, whose eyes were closed serenely. "Bradan here says that this young boy was caught using gillyweed to infiltrate the merpeople's village."

"I wasn't infiltrating," Hugo said, who sounded both hurt and indignant by that phrasing. "I was just visiting my friend Lacu."

"Lacu?" Hagrid stared at him. "Are yeh talkin' 'bout a mermaid, Hugo?"

His head bobbed up and down. "She told me they were having a festival," he mumbled.

Hagrid sighed and steered Hugo onto the shore; he handed him back his wand, then produced a fluffy pink towel out of his pocket (Hagrid had very large pockets) to drape across his shoulder. "Do yeh have any other clothes 'r anythin' out here?"

"I had a towel and my dad's old Invisibility Cloak, but I left them at a different part of the shore."

"Ah, we'll find 'em tomorrow," Hagrid mumbled, taking off his enormous cloak for him instead. He turned back to the merpeople. "I apologize fer this, o' course. But I'm sure Hugo here didn' mean any harm by it. He's just the curious sort. Kids'll be kids, yeh know how it is."

The mermaid said something. "Deiseag says that were in not for their intervention, it is likely Hugo would have drowned," said the centaur.

"Well, kids'll be stupid too, won' they?"

"I warn you, Hagrid, our friends here consider this a serious matter. If you mean to imply that this boy will remain unpunished—"

"Ah, he'll be punished, don' yeh worry," Hagrid grumbled, and Hugo winced. "I can't say how—tha's fer his Head o' House to decide, and he ain't one o' mine. But I get it—the lake's yer territory, and Hugo shouldn' o' gone in. We'll take care o' it. Come on, Hugo."

They started to walk away—Hugo tripping on Hagrid's massive coat—when he stopped and turned back toward the merpeople. He was pouting, his eyes on the surface of the water.

"For what's it's worth, I really liked your village," he mumbled. "Especially the music. It was really pretty."

The merpeople's eyebrows raised an iota, but otherwise they remained expressionless as Hugo turned around and followed Hagrid and the centaur back up toward the school.

Hugo's jaw dropped. "A week's detention and fifty points from Ravenclaw?" He fell back in his seat. "I didn't murder anybody!"

"Not that we can prove, anyway," muttered Deputy Headmistress Baumgartner.

Professor Wei, the Astronomy teacher and Head of Ravenclaw House, gave her colleague a look before turning her humorless eyes back to Hugo. "Nevertheless, you almost killed yourself, Mr. Weasley. We hope that this punishment will impress upon you the seriousness of your actions."

"And we'll try to make it a fun detention," said Professor Sprout, the Headmistress. Both of her colleagues stared at her. "...What?" She sighed, turning back to Hugo, who was now looking petulant. "We realize you didn't mean any harm, Hugo, but you have to understand that what you did truly offended the merpeople. They're our neighbors, and their territory deserves our respect. I mean, how would you feel if, say—the merpeople in that village used magic to come on land, then marched up to Ravenclaw Tower to mess with your things?"

"They can come on land? How? I promise to share my stuff with them if they do!"

"I'm getting a headache," said Professor Baumgartner.

"Look, I know I made the merpeople mad, but—I don't understand why," Hugo grumbled, slumping down even further. "I just wanted to see my friend. And I think the merpeople are really cool."

"Well, if you really like them so much, you should respect their wishes, shouldn't you?" Professor Sprout suggested.

"But Lacu wanted me there..."

"Well, Lacu is not the Merchieftainess anymore than you are the Headmaster. The two of you can't just change the rules all willy-nilly."

Hugo pouted, glaring down at his shoes. There was no way he was going to win this argument, was there? He may as well try to negotiate on the surrender terms. "I don't want the rest of the House to be mad at me. Can we make it two weeks detention but let us keep the fifty points?"

"Well...Ara?"

Professor Wei pursed her lips. "I suppose." They were neck-and-neck with Slytherin, after all.

Hugo looked at the portraits on Professor Sprout's walls, trying to hide a sneaky expression. "And...since it's the merpeople I offended...maybe my detentions should be going back down to the village to perform community service or something?"

"Just for that, we're taking the points," said Professor Baumgartner (a former Slytherin).

"And I'm afraid we're still going to have to write your parents," Professor Sprout added.

"OH NOW YOU'RE JUST BEING CRUEL!"

Lacu had never been in more trouble—not only had she brought Hugo to the village, she had interrupted the festival and embarrassed her parents in front of the whole community, and they were keeping her on a shorter leash than Lagu's Grindylow. For several weeks she was basically confined to the house except for when she had school or chores. And there was certainly no opportunity to slip out after dark anymore—the whole town now seemed paranoid about children sneaking off to play with wizards, and the Merchieftain had at least two or three guards policing the village nightly.

Reaction among her peers was mixed—some of her friends were shocked to discover what she had been doing, while others considered it cool and asked about every detail. That made things a little better, she supposed, though she still felt miserable. She had no idea if she would ever get to see Hugo again, and she missed everything about him—the amazing things he told her, the boundless enthusiasm he had for every boring thing she told him, his freakish face that always seemed so warm and sincere...all she had of him was his book, hidden away somewhere else, but she rarely had an opportunity to read it. She was sort of afraid to, sure her parents would take it away if they caught her.

Her parents couldn't stay mad forever, but it was still more than a month before she was finally allowed something close to the freedom she had had before the festival. Even then, she had no idea what to do. Even if she could sneak out, it was doubtful that Hugo was still showing up every Friday and Saturday night—he had no doubt gotten in trouble too, or at least would have stopped after eight or ten absences on her part. She could theoretically see him during the day, but how would they set up a meeting time? Sometimes she would drift close to the school and peek out at the shore, hoping that by random chance he would be there looking for her too. She imagined that they were always just missing each other, which frustrated her to no end.

Summer was in full swing now, and Lacu knew that her time was limited. And then, one day, she saw them—the boats sailing across the surface of the water. They came only twice per year, on the first and last day of Hogwarts' term. Hugo would be leaving today.

She watched the boats from below, and then, looking around to see if anyone else was there, swam up to peek over the surface. She gazed at them hopefully, but...no. They were young humans, about Hugo's age, but none of them were Hugo. Her brow knit with frustration as she scanned the crowd. Where was the boat with Hugo in it?

One of the humans pointed out her head sticking out of the water, and Lacu dove back down before she had a dozen of them gawking at her. She swam listlessly back toward the shore, coming to the spot where she used to meet Hugo. She surfaced again, gazed up at the old castle and sighed. Hugo probably wasn't even in there anymore. It made her very sad. She had enjoyed taking him down into her village, however briefly; she still wished they had found a way for her to go on land with him, so that he could give her a tour of all the strange old halls and the magic classrooms and the towers and...

"LACU!"

She jumped and turned, blinking in amazement.

"(Hugo?!)"

He grinned, running up to the very edge of the water. He looked the way he must look up in the castle, which seemed very strange to Lacu's eyes—his scrawny body hidden by long, billowing robes, and his hair, which she was used to see sopping wet on his shoulders, curled up on his head like a crown of Grindylow horns. But he was smiling, and that was familiar. He was also wearing her necklace over his clothes, seemingly unaware of how strange or crude it looked in comparison.

He gazed over the lake, off to where she had seen the dinghies a few moments before.

"I can't go in the water today," he said sadly. "I'm supposed to be leaving now. But, uh, I missed the boats." He shrugged. "Oh well. The seventh-year graduates leave the same way, so I'll just hitch a ride with them. It'll give me a chance to tell Dominique's boyfriend some old family secrets."

Hugo bent his legs in a way that let him crouch down and get closer to her level; he unconsciously played with one of the pebbles on his necklace as he spoke. "I'm sorry if I got you into trouble," he said sheepishly. "And I'm sorry that we never got a chance to see each other after that. But I'm glad I caught you before I go."

She nodded. They smiled at each other, but each smile was a bit wan.

"I don't want our friendship to end," he said, sounding uncharacteristically solemn. "I mean, I also don't want to get either of us in more trouble or make anyone mad, but I don't want to say goodbye forever either." He motioned to the scene around them. "It still stinks we can only see each other like this—especially like this, if I can't even go in the water—but it's still better than not seeing each other at all, right?"

She nodded again. His face suddenly broke into a grin.

"Okay, then. So let's each spend the summer trying to think of some way we can make this work. I already have one idea." He remained crouching, but straightened his torso importantly. "I'm going to write up a new treaty between Hogwarts and your village. Don't look at me like that," he added, as Lacu raised an eyebrow. "My mum helped negotiate the treaty that got merpeople and centaurs reclassified as Beings. I can totally pull this off."

Lacu was skeptical, but tried to smile encouragingly. He returned it, then looked over his shoulder back at the school. "I really have to go now. I wish I could write to you," he added. "Maybe I can put some letters in a bottle and have Niffler—my owl—drop them over the lake. Maybe even fill them with sand so they'll sink." He rubbed his chin. "Well, anyway...whether that works or not, first Friday afternoon in September, I'll be right here if I can. Okay?"

She nodded. Hugo grinned again reached out his hand. She took it and they shook.

He straightened his legs and waved. "Goodbye, Lacu."

"(Goodbye)."

A moment later he was walking back across the grass to the castle, once again fingering Lacu's necklace and humming the merpeople's song as best as he could remember.

Lacu, meanwhile, disappeared into the water, planning to sneak a look at her Book of Spells as soon as she had a chance.

Author's Notes: The first book mentions Harry et al. taking boats at the end of the school year, and Rowling said in an interview that seventh-years take them when they leave. I'm assuming the other years take the carriages to the train.

I focus way too much on canon minutiae.

To be fair to Hugo, Niffler is a burrowing owl, so the name makes some sense. ;-)