The Siren's Call (A Draco Malfoy Fanfiction)

63. Dangerous Relations

The clock had just struck two in the morning when Dioleh came back inside Grimmauld Place. This time, however, she wasn't so lucky to not be caught. "Dioleh?" Sirius said in surprise. Her eyes widened. "Where were you?" he asked.

"Uh-" she said, so caught off guard she couldn't come up with an excuse. He glared at her with a disappointed expression. He took her down to the kitchen where Dumbledore was sitting with Remus. When he stared her down for an explanation, she defended, "I was careful, okay. He has no idea where this place is!"

"Are you sure about that?" Sirius countered.

"Yes," she said. "I've been walking in the wrong direction every time and taking routes all around it, I even completely passed by the house and walked up to another one two miles off. Sirius, come on. I'm being careful."

"What's going on?" Remus asked.

Ignoring the pleading expression on Dioleh's face, Sirius explained, "I just caught this one sneaking back in."

"Sirius," Dioleh groaned, rubbing her temples.

"Oh?" Remus said, turning his attention to Dioleh. "And what exactly had you snuck out to do?" Dioleh sighed, keeping her mouth shut.

With a twinkle in his eye, Dumbledore asked, "How is Mr. Malfoy?" Dioleh's eyes widened. Seeing this, he remarked, "You give me so little credit, Dioleh. He is the only friend of yours I regularly see you around who is not here."

"He's managing," Dioleh said.

"Has he said anything about what his father is up to?" Lupin asked.

Irritably, she snapped, "I'm not spying on my friend for you."

"Dioleh," Dumbledore said. "This is an opportunity. If you can get him to talk about what Lucius is up to, we can figure out some of what Voldemort is doing."

"No," Dioleh snapped again. "Why can't you understand? He is terrified! He doesn't want to think about what his father is doing. It's taking all of my energy to try and get him to see that he even has a choice!"

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Regretfully, Dioleh had had to inform Draco that she had been found out and banned from coming to see him anymore until the school year, but they still continued to send letters back and forth, being as cryptic as possible. It did mean, however, that Draco could tell her no more about how he was doing. Dioleh had just sent off her letter when she headed downstairs. She wasn't allowed at every meeting, like tonight's, so she slipped downstairs just before they started and went down to the pool.

All the others were there and greeted her as she came in. "Hello," she replied, diving in with them. It was a rather large pool, but more cramped than usual with so many of them in there.

"Good thing Aki's not here," Ebony said, leaning back with her arms on the deck. "Then this would really be a full pool. Almost enough for a tribe, I reckon."

"Whatever happened to her, by the way?" Julio asked.

Andre shrugged, replying, "Her parents decided it would be safer to move back to Japan with their tribe."

"They're probably right, to some degree," Imani said, settling next to Dioleh.

"It's quite unfortunate," Dioleh said. "I liked her."

"We all did," Imani said.

"The boys in our year were quite bitter about it," Andre said.

Raising an eyebrow, Dioleh replied, "Oh?"

"Oh please," he replied. "You must have heard by now that the three of you practically had our entire year swooning."

"What?" Imani said with a laugh.

"You two still do," Andre added irritably. "I'm calling it now, this year you two will get asked out more than anyone else in our year." Dioleh snorted.

"Unlikely," she countered.

"Three gallons," he bet.

"You're on," Imani said. "I get that we're drop-dead gorgeous, but most guys seem to cower in my presence." Dioleh couldn't help but let out a good-natured laugh. Julio, who was sitting at the edge with his feet dangling in, smiled. "And if you think whatever people say about us is bad, you should hear the girls swoon over you."

"Oh, Andre," Dioleh said dramatically, imitating the girls she heard talking in the bathrooms. "He's so HOT. Why doesn't he just- Nevermind, I won't say that." Andre was very red and Imani was laughing so hard that if it wasn't for her gills she wouldn't be getting any oxygen.

"Oh my," Andre said, completely flustered. "But-"

Imani, who was still laughing, cackled in a stronger accent than usual, "That was really good." Hearty laughter. "They say things to that degree and worse. I think I even heard someone say she'd planned the wedding when she's never even spoken to you."

"Oh, Merlin," Andre sighed, still rather flushed.

Julio laughed along with them and said, "It's good to see that the three of you are getting along. When Ebby and I left I thought you would kill each other."

Andre shrugged, remarking, "We got over ourselves."

"Facts," Imani said. He shot her a playful glare.

"Hey now, it wasn't just me," he defended. "Dioleh's not perfect."

"Well, there was no question of that," Dioleh laughed. Footsteps were coming down the stairs, but none of them heard them until the group of people were already down the stairs. Looking over her shoulder, Dioleh said, "Sup."

"Hey," Harry replied, sitting on the deck near the edge. Hermione and Ron were with him. They were all staring with curiosity at the two sirens they didn't know.

"Right, guys the chick with the cyan hair is Ebony and the purple dude is Julio," Dioleh introduced. "Guys, this is Harry, Ron, and my sister Hermione."

"Pleasure," Julio replied.

"The meeting wrapped up yet?" Ebony asked.

"Er, yeah," Harry said.

"Cool," Dioleh replied, turning around. Gripping the deck at the edge of the water, she pulled herself out, turning her body back human. Soon all the sirens were standing in front of them, not a tail or fin in sight. They followed behind the group into the kitchen, greeting those standing in the room.

"The fish finally leave the water?" Sirius asked teasingly.

Snorting, Dioleh sassed, "Says the one who's a dog." He rolled his eyes.