No Body No Crime □■ Hermione Granger

Chapter 11

When Arlene stormed out of the potions classroom, the adrenaline was pumping through her veins and anger was written all over her face.

"Who killed your puppy?" Blaise questioned as soon as she entered the common room.

Arlene dropped Bast and threw herself beside him on the couche "I just gave Snape a reality check."

The Slytherin common room was by far one of Arlene's favorite places, the walls were made of Roman stone and the floor of marble, curved stairs fell into a large half circle that took half the room where couches, armchairs, tables and a large fireplace took place.

On the higher floor, was random tables and chairs for students to study, on the left and right walls was a large door leading to the corridors of the dorms, a huge marble fountain was at the entrance of the room, green lanterns floated and in every corner stood a statue of The four founders.

But the best thing about the Slytherin common room, was that the ceiling was made out of glass, giving them a clear view of the lake. Occasionally, the giant squid would appear, several fish would swim by, aquatic magical creatures were spotted from time to time, and mermaids stop by for a quick chat.

It was the reason all Slytherins knew sign language, the story she heard, was that around the founders era, mermaids didn't like the humans being under their lake, so they would try to break the glass but since it was charmed, they'd hurt themselves in the process, until a deaf first year managed to speak with one of them through sign language and ever since then, Slytherins and mermaids were on friendly terms.

Speaking of merpeople, six or seven with them where sitting on the glass making funny faces at the first years whose eyes were locked on them while an annoyed prefect was trying to get them to focus as she taught them sign language.

"What did you say?" Blaise snapped her out of her thoughts, closing the book in his hands and placing it on the coffee table in front of them.

Arlene sat up "Well, I er..I sort of told him to..um...figure out his issues because he's a teacher and to.. uh.. to stop bulling kids and..to...er.." She stuttered, embarrassed to tell him "use a shampoo."

Blaise was quiet for a few seconds, then he burst out laughing.

"That's brilliant! Please tell me you took a photo!"

Arlene chuckled "No, but his expression was priceless!"

From the corner of her eye, she saw not her mermaid join them, but unlike the beautiful mermaids and mermen, her entire eye was black and her teeth looked like they belonged to a shark.

Arlene discovered in her first year that three mermaid colonies lived in The Black Lake, selkies, merrows and sirens, and it was obvious sirens were the most beautiful of the three.

It was a common trait for sea mermaids to drown any ship or kill any human they come across, and while selkies and merrows choose the more secretive way of attacking humans while they are alone, sirens use their voice and beauty to lure ships, which is why muggles believe mermaids are stereotypical sirens.

While most Slytherins favored the sirens for their beauty, Arlene liked the merrows more, as she had befriend one of them.

Merrows looked like sirens upon first glance, but then you notice that their hair is actually fins, their teeth are like a shark's and if you anger them, their eyes turn completely black and the veins around their eyes darken.

The first years stared at her with their jaws hanging open, the merrow's eyes returned back to normal and she looked like she was laughing, then she turned around and saw Arlene.