The Heiress of Slytherin

What a Beautiful Summer

"Together on three?" Ivy nodded and released her breath. When Theo announced the number three, they both cannonballed into the pool, still holding each other's hands.

Ivy stayed under the water for her transformation as always, which felt like forever but really was only around 30 seconds. It was usually faster but she'd grown rusty during the school year.

The first thing she saw when she lifted her head back above the water was Theo, his hair sopping wet and messy, his face full of delight and amazement. "Ivy that was brilliant. Genuinely the coolest thing I've ever seen."

She laughed happily, then looked up to see her other four friends staring at her from the side of the pool. Blaise was grinning while Draco, Pansy and Selina wore matching looks of utter shock and wonder.

Blaise jumped in the pool next to her then resurfaced, still grinning. "I've seen my mum and sister transform into their Veela forms, and I can manage a bit of it myself, but it's nowhere near this wicked."

Ivy chuckled at her two guy friends, then looked back up to see that the now three people had shifted into sitting positions by the edge.

"You look like you have questions, do you have questions?" Asked Ivy. All three nodded their heads, then Draco jumped in first.

"All the mermaids I've ever seen pictures off had coloured tails, but yours is black, which is bloody amazing by the way."

"That was technically a statement Draco, but I see what you're saying." She flicked her tail idly as she thought how to answer.

It was, as Malfoy had pointed out, a deep black. Each scale held its own shine, so it still glimmered in the sun slightly, but it looked more like fearsome armour than glittering jewels.

"My mum says her colony has always had black tails, I suppose it's one of the signifiers of who we are. Her colony was the first one to exist. The sirens formed there were originally nymphs. They were grieving the abduction of their friend and goddess, Kore, better known as Persephone, so the legend goes that when Gaia offered them tails, they asked her to make them black to signify their grief.

"Other colonies don't have that, nor can they do this." Ivy closed her eyes and focused on a bit of magic she hadn't exercised in a very, very long time. She heard Selina gasp and opened her eyes, grinning when she saw she now sported a sky-blue tail.

"It would've been a dead giveaway if our tails were always black, so I can change it to whatever colour I like. I usually don't though, it takes loads of effort and I prefer the original."

She beamed at Draco then turned to Pansy for her next question. "If I take polyjuice potion can I become you? Because that would be the coolest thing ever."

Ivy laughed loudly. "I hate to tell you this, but tragically not. That potion only works on humans, so you can't become me any more than I can become someone else." Pansy pouted and Ivy chuckled again, now turning to Selina.

"Those were good questions. Mine feels a bit rubbish now. Where'd your shorts go?"

Ivy burst into yet another fit of laughter, her tail swishing around slightly as she fought for breath. "No that's a really good question. I don't really know? I just know they'll be there when I transform back. It doesn't make any sense, even though my mum has tried to explain the reasoning. The way I think of it is that my human form considers the clothes as part of my body, so it returns with them when I switch back."