𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 | √

⎡58⎦

I walked up to the 5th floor and saw Cedric looking around warily. I walked up to him and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"Hey," I whispered.

He smiled and grabbed my hand pulling me to the fourth door to the left of a statue of Boris the Bewildered.

"Pine-fresh," he said.

The door opened and he pulled me in. I looked around and my jaw dropped. On one side of the room, there were the stalls with toilets inside. Opposite the toilets, there was a large, swimming pool-like tub with bath taps surrounding it.The pool-like bath sunk into the ground and the bath taps all ran different-coloured bath water, soap bubbles, foam, towels, and bathrobes.The bath taps were a hundred golden taps surrounding the whole pool-like tub, with a different jewel set in each tap.

"Prefects are lucky," I whispered.

Cedric chuckled and looked around. "I guess we are"

Cedric walked past me and turned the tap on. Colors of water spilled out into the tub which filled remarkably quickly.

"You can swim, right?

"Course I can," I rolled my eyes.

Cedric chuckled and walked over to his bag. He pulled out a long sleeve Hufflepuff shirt and some black shorts. Cedric handed them to me and returned to pull out another pair. He looked at me and twirled his finger, "Turn around."

I blushed and turned around. With our backs to each other, we started to change out of our clothes and into the spare ones we had. The shirt smelled nice. Like Cedric. Behind me, I hear Cedric slip into the bath. I folded up my clothes and walked over to the edge of the bath slipping in after him. It was nice and warm.

"Um, so we don't kill our ears, let's put the egg under the water," I suggested.

Cedric nodded and put the egg under the water opening it up. There was no screeching. Both of us looked at each other and took a deep breath before dunking our heads under the water. Immediately a soft tune reached my ears:

"Come seek us where our voices sound

We cannot sing above the ground

An hour long you'll have to look

to recover what we took."

Together, we surfaced and took gulps of air. We looked at each other with confusion and thought about what the egg could mean. I replayed the song in my head again and again. I glanced around the room and noticed the stain glass window of the mermaid fixing her hair. Then it clicked. Mermaids! It has to be mermaids. I read a book that said mermaids can't sing above the water! I gasped.

"What? Do you have an idea?" Cedric asked.

I nodded violently. "Mermaids Cedric! Mermaids! How did I not realize before! Mermaids can't sing above the water! They sound like screeching banshees when they do."

Cedric lit up. "You right! It has to be mermaids!. Your brilliant Hazel." He waded over to me and gave me a firm kiss on the lips.

"Thanks, Cedric. Well, now we know that the merpeople have taken or are going to take something really important to you to the Black Lake and you have an hour to save whatever that thing is."

"I wonder what they are going to take..." Cedric pondered.

"I don't know but it's something meaningful to you."