Instincts and Discoveries

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

I am so sorry it took so long to update this chapter. Unfortunately illness threw a curve ball at me and it took longer than I thought. I've made this chapter a bit longer than the others in hopes to make up for it. I hope I haven't lost any readers, and as always, hope everyone enjoys it!

Thanks again to my wonderful Beta June! I couldn't do this without you.

Thanks also to ancientgirl for your wonderful suggestions and encouragement.

Chapter 4 - Instincts and discoveries

"Whew," said Hermione as she began to feed Coral. "I really wasn't looking forward to any more swimming tonight."

"Yes, well, that was quickly becoming an impossibility," said Severus. He watched as the merbaby nursed hungrily from her bottle. He began to feel hungry himself. "Did Dumbledore happen to put anything else in that bag for us to eat?"

Hermione began searching through the bag floating next to her.

"I'm afraid not, Professor," she said. "It appears to contain only baby bottles and... Hold on. What's this?" She pulled something out: it was a glowing canister of light. "Amazing," she said, staring at it. "He's made an underwater lantern."

Severus reached over and took the light from her. It really was a fascinating piece of magic.

"Nox," he said quietly, extinguishing the light from his wand.

Even the baby was fascinated by the new object, her eyes following the light as Severus held the lantern out between them. He created a tether for it and tied it to a rock, then let the lantern float on the current. Its light radiated all around and a few feet beyond them. Severus was glad that Dumbledore had the forethought to have included that in the bag.

"But no food for us?" he asked, arching an eyebrow at Hermione.

"No, sir; no food," she said.

"Typical," he said, snorting through his gills. 'It is just like the old man to make me work for my supper,' he thought. Severus scanned the area quietly. There were many small fish swimming nearby. 'Ah, fish. That might be the answer.'

Severus the human was not a fisherman. However, thanks to the spell cast by Dumbledore, he and Hermione now had gills and tails just like merpeople – and some other merpeople qualities that he was discovering. His eyes narrowed as he felt his senses heighten. Everything about him seemed to disappear as he focused on the fish swimming about him. His eyes tracked their every movement. Hermione and the merbaby were temporarily forgotten. The only sounds he picked up were the roar of the blood through his ears and the movements of the fish before him. He could feel every little ripple they made in the water around him. He could smell which fish were good to eat and which were bad. Then, suddenly, with a quickness that surprised even himself, Severus' wand instantly transformed into a trident as he speared one of the fish in front of him.

Hermione let out a startled cry and gaped in astonishment at the fish flipping helplessly on the end of Severus's trident-wand.

"What was that?" she asked, finally finding her voice.

"That," said Severus rather proudly, "is dinner, Miss Granger."

"Should it still be twitching like that?" Hermione asked, watching the struggling fish.

"It will stop soon," Severus said, examining his catch.

He felt a strong sense of pride flow through him. He couldn't quite explain what had come over him, but for one small moment he had felt perfectly at one with nature. The instinct to hunt and provide had overwhelmed him. Equally impressive was the transformation of his wand. He hadn't planned on that happening, but he could definitely see why a trident was much more beneficial underwater than a wand. And since it still retained the powers of his wand, he was happy.

"Couldn't you have just used your wand to conjure us something to eat?" asked Hermione, gazing at the twitching fish with uncertainly.

"And conjure what?" asked Severus. "A roast chicken? Some bread? Hot soup? Use that incredibly gifted brain of yours, Miss Granger. None of that food would last in this water."

Hermione sighed. She hadn't thought of that.

"So you're just going to eat it like that?" she asked, watching as he removed the now still fish from the end of his trident-wand and began to raise it to his mouth like some type of fishy drumstick.

"Try to think of it as sushi," he said to her as he took a rather large bite.

Hermione cringed as she watched him eat it. She'd heard of sushi, but he was eating everything – including the fish scales, fins, and innards!

'Impeccable,' thought Severus, as he savored another bite of fish. Never had he tasted anything quite so divine. He doubted that even a Malfoy house-elf could produce a meal quite so grand.

"Well?" asked Hermione. "Is it okay?"

Severus hesitated between bites. In truth it was delicious. The last thing he wanted to do was share it. He was hungry, and already much of the fish was gone. He was tempted to tell her it was horrible, but he realized she would need her strength as well, in order for them to complete the task of returning Coral to the merpeople. So he begrudgingly handed her the half-eaten fish.

"It is substantial," he said, not at all convincingly.

Hermione crinkled up her nose as she took the fish and looked at it like a specimen from an ancient tomb.

"Thank you, Professor," she said as she handed it back to him. "But I seem to have lost my appetite."

Severus rolled his eyes at her as he petulantly took back the fish. Secretly, he was pleased he had it all to himself again and soon fell to finishing it off with renewed gusto. It wasn't his fault that she wouldn't turn off her human sensibilities and eat like a mermaid. When in Rome, and all that.

In the meantime, little Coral had fallen asleep again.

"Where should I put her?" Hermione wondered out loud as Severus feasted on his fish. "I'm afraid to just let her float," she said, looking around and thinking of things that would eat a helpless merbaby. "And I don't trust myself to be able to hold on to her if I fall asleep too."

She looked up to see what Severus had to say about it, but he was busily gobbling down his fish. Hermione frowned and looked about her again. The light from the floating lantern was reflecting upon the plant vegetation growing around them. They were literally in a forest of underwater plants. Watching them sway back and forth in the current was almost hypnotizing. While she was gazing at them, she had drifted over closer to one of the plants when she felt her tail getting tangled in it. As she struggled to free herself, she suddenly got an idea. Spinning in a circle, she was quickly freed from the plant's hold.

Hermione looked at the little merbabe sleeping in her arms. Very carefully, she wrapped Coral in the stalk of the plant. After she was satisfied that Coral would not float away from her, she let go. The little merbaby swayed with the plant to and fro in a gentle rocking motion, but was securely anchored to the lake floor. Hermione smiled to herself. That was definitely better.

"Look, Professor... Look what I did," she said excitedly.

She looked up at Severus to see what he thought, but he was licking clean the bones of his fish, apparently not seeing her brilliant discovery of the underwater plants. She frowned and rolled her eyes at him.

Clearing her throat, she said loudly, "PROFESSOR!"

Feeling as if someone was watching him, Severus glanced up. He vaguely thought he had heard someone saying something. Hermione was eyeing him expectantly. He felt as if he had just missed something important. Had she been talking to him? He wasn't sure. She always seemed to be blabbering about something.

"Yes?" he asked.

"I said... Did you see what I did with Coral?" she asked impatiently.

"No," he said, a bit confused. Wasn't the child in her arms? He looked at her quickly. Nope, no merbaby. What in the world had she done?

"Here," she said in exasperation. She pointed to the floating yet stationary Coral. "If you twist your body around like this in the plants, you'll anchor yourself to the lake floor," she said while twirling around clockwise.

Severus thought it was all pretty ingenious. The woman certainly could be sensible.

"If we do this, then we won't have to worry about drifting away from each other tonight in our sleep," she said. "But in an emergency, we can get out just like this." She twisted her body anti-clockwise to demonstrate.

Severus nodded to her and moved closer to one of the underwater plants.

"Show me again how to do it, Miss Granger," he asked.

Hermione, only too glad to help out, quickly swirled about again.

Severus smiled rather devilishly to himself. He hadn't really needed the demonstration again, but he rather liked the way her long green tail moved when she did it. Side-to-side and around and around it moved, flowing gracefully around her; it was rather hypnotizing. He felt like he could watch her all day.

He suddenly felt a tightening in his mid-section that was all too familiar with him in human form. As a merman, this was a bit unexpected. Mortified, he began to look for a way to hide it, and he also was a bit curious as to where it was. He knew his bits and pieces had to be hiding under his scales somewhere, but he wasn't sure where. He hadn't taken that close of a personal inspection of himself when he was transformed. For all he knew about merpeople from studying at university, his knowledge didn't include anything about their sexuality.

Severus looked to see if Hermione was paying attention to him, but she was busily spinning about, her shiny green tail flashing in the light of Dumbledore's lantern; she looked like she was experimenting with her newfound mobility. He quickly looked back down at himself. Upon further inspection, he noticed a rather large scale on the front mid-section of his tail that covered his personal bits; the scale could be flipped up to reveal his bits when needed. He briefly wondered if there was such a scale for his backside as well; he imagined eventually that his dinner would make its way back out again.

Noticing that Miss Granger's anchoring demonstration was ending, Severus quickly began swirling about in the underwater plants as well – anything to hide his... erm... growing problem. He was missing his long robes now. As he swirled, he allowed images of Umbridge to run through his mind; that seemed to take care of things. Soon he too was securely anchored in without that pesky scale problem.

He watched as the skeleton of his fish dinner floated by. It had been so delicious he had eaten every bit. He decided that in the morning he would hunt for some more. By then, he was certain, hunger would encourage Miss Granger to eat almost anything. Yes, Miss Granger with her delightfully wiggly green tail that shimmered just so in the light. . .

'I ought to say something to her,' he thought and looked at the mermaid next to him. The silence between them was deafening. Perhaps he could say something about her brilliant idea with the plants?

"Say something, you idiot," whispered a voice that seemed to come from next to him.

For a moment, Severus almost thought the odd blue fish swimming near him had whispered it. Deciding instead that it was just a voice in his head, he ignored it. Still, he gripped his trident-wand a bit more tightly and kept his eye on that suspicious fish.

"Thank you, Miss Granger, for showing me how to anchor myself to the plant. It was rather ingenious of you," he managed to say.

"Oh, you're welcome," Hermione said, very happy to hear him for once voice his approval of something she'd done.

Despite what people said about Severus, Hermione had always found him quite fascinating. She had never truly believed he had returned to Voldemort, and was so happy when Dumbledore announced the truth. She thought he was quite possibly one of the most intelligent and powerful wizards of their time. And while some found his looks unattractive, Hermione thought he was very sexy. Here at the bottom of Hogwarts lake, with his shiny black mane of hair floating about him, black eyes she could get lost in, and a large sexy nose that hinted of something else that could be large, she was just entranced. She was glad she was far enough away from Dumbledore's lantern so he couldn't see her blushing.

Severus, in the meantime, continued to look about rather uncomfortably. He knew he should say something more to her, but he just couldn't think of anything. He hadn't felt this awkward since his days of youth at Hogwarts.

"Say something," the blue fish next to him urged.

"What the..." he started to say while turning to the fish, this time pointing his trident-wand its way.

"Hmmm?" asked Hermione.

Severus quickly turned back to face her. "Erm... Hermione," he said again.

"Yes?" she asked patiently.

"Your name... It's Hermione," he said nervously. "Such a tragic character to be named after." Even as he said it, he thought to himself, 'Blast, Severus you idiot! Of all the things to say.'

"Oh, yes" said Hermione. "Well, it is and it isn't. You see, my parents actually met at a Shakespeare Festival. A classmate of theirs was playing the part of Hermione. She introduced them to each other after the play, and they fell in love. They said when I was born there really was no question as to what they would name me."

"Interesting," said Severus. "That is a very nice story... Hermione."

Hermione blushed from head to tail. The way he said her name, it just rolled off his tongue. Even when he spoke Mermish, his sexy deep voice all but melted her. She tried desperately to pull herself together and respond to him.

"Why, thank you... Severus," she said softly.

Severus smirked to himself. He liked the way she said his name. He felt like he was finally getting somewhere with her.

"Were your parents rather fond of Roman history?" she asked nervously.

Severus thought about this. He seriously doubted his father had even been at his birth, let alone had a part in naming him. Unlike Hermione, his family life growing up was less than happy.

"It was my grandfather's middle name," he finally answered. "I had not really thought of its Roman origins before. I'm certain my mother had some desire for me to be named after him."

"Oh, were you very close to your grandfather, then?" asked Hermione.

"No," Severus said quietly. "I'm afraid my mother's family did not take too kindly to having a Muggle son-in-law in the family. They considered me an abomination."

"Oh!" said Hermione, quite surprised. She'd certainly never thought of him that way. As a matter of fact, she'd never even considered her professor's personal life at all.

"I'm sorry," she said gently.

"Don't be" Severus said gruffly, shifting a bit amongst his anchored plant. "It is not important anymore."

Hermione thought it might just have been important at one time, having seen his old potions book with the name "The Half-Blood Prince" scrawled on its cover. But she thought it wise not to push the subject. She suspected he had just opened up more to her than anyone else he'd met in the past several years.

She reached out her hand and placed it gently on his arm. "I understand," she said quietly.

Severus felt her hand on his left arm. It was warm and soft in the cool water. A tingling sensation ran through him and straight to his groin, threatening another potentially revealing scale issue. He knew he should remove her hand, but something more instinctive was urging him on. He hadn't felt a woman's kind touch in quite a while. There was something so nice about being touched this lovingly. He didn't even realize he was floating closer to her. With his right hand, he reached up to touch her fingers, then slid it down until he was holding her hand.

"Thank you, Hermione," he murmured, now gazing into her eyes. "It means the world to me to know that you care."

They were leaning even closer together. Hermione's breath was coming in short gasps, her gills fluttering lightly. He had taken hold of her hand and showed no signs of releasing it. He was even leaning in closer and closer to her face. She closed her eyes and leaned in a bit more, just as a flash of blue swam by.

"Now that's more like it," said the fish.

Severus jerked back away from Hermione and spun around. His trident-wand pointed threateningly in the direction the little fish had swum.

"I swear to Merlin, if I catch you, fish, you will be mine for breakfast!" he yelled after it.

"You mean you've heard it before?" asked Hermione.

"Yes," said Severus. "I thought I was losing my mind at first. You heard him too?"

"Yes," she said.

"I mean to watch for him tonight," he said. "I don't know what magic is at play, but I do not like it. I have never heard of a talking fish." His expression softened. "I will stand guard tonight, Hermione," he said gently. "It is late, and as much as I am enjoying my conversation with you, I fear that you need your rest. We have a long journey ahead of us still, and you need to conserve your strength for you and the baby."

Hermione stifled a big yawn. "Yes, you are right, Severus. I am rather exhausted." She glanced once again at the sleeping merbaby. "You will be alright standing guard all alone?"

"Trust me, Hermione," he said. "I have had much experience standing watch on many a sleepless night."

She nodded at him and smiled.

"I'm sure you do. Thank you, Severus," she said, relaxing into a comfortable sleeping position. "I enjoyed our conversation too. Goodnight."

"Good night, Hermione," he said.

~*~*~*~*~*~

I was really inspired to have Hermione anchor herself, Coral and Severus to the lake floor by a special I saw on the telly about sea otters. At night sea otters spin themselves around in the underwater vegetation until they are firmly anchored so that they will not float away from one another. And since Hermione's patronus is an otter, I thought it would be rather instinctive for her to do the same.