In Too Deep (Blairon)

The Red Tail

"Ron! Harry!"

Apon entering the precinct, Harry and I were immediately tackled my a tall, burly man. Neville pulled away from us, grinning. I stared at his face. He looked tired, shadows circling his eyes. On his left temple, skirting down to his cheek was a long pink gash with visible stitches where Blaise had attacked him the day of the Finch Labs Massacre.

Guilt flooded my system and I pushed the thought out of my head.

"Cool battle scar, Nev. Now we match," Harry chortled and Neville laughed, his gaze flashing across Harry's forehead where above his right eyebrow lay his famed lightning shaped scar.

"Where have you guys been?!" Neville exclaimed, frowning worridly. The face he made reminded me of a sad dog, causing my heart to twist. Harry and I glanced at each other. Since high school we've both been quite close to Neville Longbottom. I could tell just by the look that Harry was giving me that we would tell him at least half the truth. He deserved the whole truth, but I wasn't inclined on getting on General Moody's bad side.

I grabbed Nev's arm and pulled towards the back room, where we kept dozens apon dozens of olive coloured filing cabinets.

"Listen, Nev," Harry began in a whisper, "you remember the creature that killed all those people at the surrounding beaches?"

Neville nodded. From then on, Harry and I glanced at each other and nodded.

And with that, we told him everything.

Cormac's POV

Blaise and I sat in silence as I poured water over him using the bucket that the blonde man, Draco Malfoy, had left on the patio when patching up the mer's wounds. We were in the Manor's downstairs spare room's bathroom. Blaise sat in the bath, legs stretched out as he stared pensively at the lukewarm water.

I tried my hardest to appear relaxed and not at all afraid. After realizing that Blaise was a Siren, all of us were in edge. But I couldn't ignore the forlorn look in the mer's eyes.

"Something wrong?" I asked and he frowned harder, his eyebrows dripping towards his nose. I rose my own in questioning. "This, 'boyfriend' word. What does it mean?"

The question took me by surprise and a small smile played at my lips.

"Well, a boyfriend is a male presenting person who you allow to do platonic and romantic things with you and to you. Someone you, uh, swear your loyalty to in a way. Someone you trust."

I realized I'd done a terrible job of explaining when Blaise stared at me with an expression I could only describe as completely and utterly lost.

I shrugged, dumping another bucket of water onto him from the tub, soaking his head. His eyes refrained from closing even as the water gushed down his face.

All of a sudden he said, "Ron is my boyfriend."

My eyes widened and my hands halted on the bucket, which was fetching a new pale of water from the tub.

He must have sensed my shock for he repeated, "Ron is my boyfriend."

Unexpectedly, a grin cracked across my face and I laughed. Blaise inclined his head and growled.

"No, no! It's a good thing," I beamed at him. The thought of a human and a mer, a siren no matter, in a romantic relationship somehow warmed my heart. But I couldn't deny the uncomfortable butterflies fluttering around in my stomach. Ever since meeting Ron and his friends. Saving Blaise from Finch Labs. I couldn't get him  out of my head. The mer that the military was keeping before they found Blaise, Pansy and Theo. The mer I stupidly fell in love with.

I hadn't seen him in years, yet I would be lying to myself if I said I'd gotten over it. He was the main reason I stayed away from the Lab. I couldn't face him. Or my father.

"Hey, Blaise?" I whispered. He hummed back in reply, fiddling with the rubber duck that had been floating around in the water. I didn't take Malfoy as the kind to have such a toy in his bathroom. Ignoring the rubber duck, I continued. "Do you remember the mers that you used to uh, swim with?"

Blaise blinked and frustration created lines between his brows, creasing his forehead.

"No." He muttered. "But I remember some things. One was like this," he pointed at the bathtub which I was leaning against. It was white as alabaster. "Another was like your eyes," he said, almost in a daze of trying to remember the details. I frowned, confused. My eyes? At first I'd thought when Blaise mentioned the colour of the tub, he'd been talking about skin tone. But he'd mentioned my eyes as well. Was he possibly only remembering the colours of the other mers' tails?

Blaise looked around the room and pointed at the sink, which was black marble spotted with white and gold. "Someone's was like that," he said. So someone's tail was black?

Suddenly, Blaise pointed at my shoulder, directly at the mess of half hazardly done bandages I'd wrapped around my arm, which was soaked in scarlet blood. I probably should ask Malfoy to check that out for me.

Blaise lowered his finger and motioned to the bloody bandage.

"And someone's was like that."

Shock panged against my chest, making my heart beat faster. "Red?!" I asked loudly, pointing at my shoulder, enunciating my words. "Yes." He said.

Hold on. Three mers, Pansy, Theo and Blaise. Three colours to start with, white, blue-green, and black. Each of those three colours were the colours belonging to any of those three mers.

I'd never seen any of them shift, but I knew they couldn't be red, because his  was red.

My eyes widened.

Blaise knew  the mer that belongs to Finch Labs and the military.

Blaise knew Dean...