After Mal got one over on Uma again and they're left with neither wand nor king, it seemed like they were going to have to go back to the drawing board - with Uma angrier than ever - until they finally got a stroke of luck in the form of Mal's left behind spellbook and a little delay in the others getting off the isle.
They had to move quick to make it work, and that was the part that turned out to be their undoing. Well, Harry's undoing anyway. Uma made it through the barrier, pages from the spellbook torn out and tucked away in her pocket, the rest of the book left with Harry for safekeeping, and then... then it all went to shit.
It's not like it's the first time Harry's ended up in the sea around the isle, wasn't even the first time he'd been in it today, but it had never been like this. He smacked backwards into the water in a way that knocked the breath out of him, his attempts to shrug off his increasingly heavy coat only got him tangled up more in it and very soon he was sinking, struggling to kick himself upwards and catch a gasp of air.
He started to feel light-headed, genuinely wondered if this was it, if this was how it ended for him. His lungs burned, his body stung and he lost track of which way was up. A moment before he blacked out, his body took over and he tried to take a breath... and succeeded. Somehow. The dark edges to his vision receded, the panic subsided in favour of confusion as he continued to breathe. He was breathing underwater.
The stinging pain from his fall seemed to concentrate in his legs and amplify into a burning agony that seared white-hot for a few seconds before disappearing completely and all he could feel was the cool water against his... tail. What?
His boots floated lazily down to the ocean floor and there, amongst the tattered remains of his trousers, was a shining red mermaid tail.
He had considered it the possibility he was having some kind of near-death hallucination, but now it's a week later and he's still around... and still a mermaid. Merman. Something. He's kept to himself mostly, slunk silently around the lost revenge in the hopes Uma might return and be able to help him. Sometimes he hauls himself up into the ship itself, just to take a break from the polluted waters of the docks. The first time he'd done it, he'd hoped that maybe drying off would turn him back, but all he managed to do was make himself feel awful, so ever since then he'd either kept his visits short or used a bucket to keep his tail damp while he pored through Mal's spellbook trying to find a solution to his predicament.
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timeasmymeasure
Part of your world
Date: 2024-08-03 12:15 pm (UTC)After Mal got one over on Uma again and they're left with neither wand nor king, it seemed like they were going to have to go back to the drawing board - with Uma angrier than ever - until they finally got a stroke of luck in the form of Mal's left behind spellbook and a little delay in the others getting off the isle.
They had to move quick to make it work, and that was the part that turned out to be their undoing. Well, Harry's undoing anyway. Uma made it through the barrier, pages from the spellbook torn out and tucked away in her pocket, the rest of the book left with Harry for safekeeping, and then... then it all went to shit.
It's not like it's the first time Harry's ended up in the sea around the isle, wasn't even the first time he'd been in it today, but it had never been like this. He smacked backwards into the water in a way that knocked the breath out of him, his attempts to shrug off his increasingly heavy coat only got him tangled up more in it and very soon he was sinking, struggling to kick himself upwards and catch a gasp of air.
He started to feel light-headed, genuinely wondered if this was it, if this was how it ended for him. His lungs burned, his body stung and he lost track of which way was up. A moment before he blacked out, his body took over and he tried to take a breath... and succeeded. Somehow. The dark edges to his vision receded, the panic subsided in favour of confusion as he continued to breathe. He was breathing underwater.
The stinging pain from his fall seemed to concentrate in his legs and amplify into a burning agony that seared white-hot for a few seconds before disappearing completely and all he could feel was the cool water against his... tail. What?
His boots floated lazily down to the ocean floor and there, amongst the tattered remains of his trousers, was a shining red mermaid tail.
He had considered it the possibility he was having some kind of near-death hallucination, but now it's a week later and he's still around... and still a mermaid. Merman. Something. He's kept to himself mostly, slunk silently around the lost revenge in the hopes Uma might return and be able to help him. Sometimes he hauls himself up into the ship itself, just to take a break from the polluted waters of the docks. The first time he'd done it, he'd hoped that maybe drying off would turn him back, but all he managed to do was make himself feel awful, so ever since then he'd either kept his visits short or used a bucket to keep his tail damp while he pored through Mal's spellbook trying to find a solution to his predicament.
He isn't having much luck.