The Rise of Harry Potter

The streets of Knockturn Alley were indeed something startling. Humanoid creatures waked past with long lumbering steps, pausing only to hiss loudly in his direction. One humanoid creature made a chuffing noise, before reaching into its mouth and pulling out a living blackbird. Another woman grinned in his direction, her eyes rolling around in her head before falling out of the sockets dramatically.

Adrain was almost certain that the occupants were trying to scare him. When one vampire slid against him- its stone cold skin touching his own, it inhaled deeply and made a sort of feline purring noise deep in his throat.

Adrian was ever so thankful for having Lutain so close to him.

When Lutain pulled, jerking away from Adrian's skin towards a series of steps leading down another path, Adrian couldn't resist. Lutain was his security; if his friend wanted to go a specific way or venture off the trail he wouldn't argue.

Lutain wavered, wriggling in the air in a lethargic daze. His eyes had clouded and his tongue limply hung from his jaws like a dog.

"Lutain?" Adrian hushed, alarmed by the state of his friend. " Lutain? "

He heard it then: a melodic trilling noise. It was foreign and captivating, every instinct in his blood was pulsing and screaming ' wrong wrong wrong! '

Adrian stepped further into the open against his better judgement.

The sound abruptly ended, ringing hollowly and emptily in the silence. Lutain reeled back, gaining composure whilst a creature in an archaic fountain recoiled in surprise.

She (If Adrain could trust the body shape and long hair) was young but still years older than Adrian, closer to Calum in age, but just foreign enough that Adrian wasn't quite sure. Her skin was pale and she had dark hair, separated into long wet strands either from the fountain or biological oil. She blinked rapidly with bulbous, round eyes. She had a speckling of what looked like a sort of disease around her exposed collarbone, shimmering like scales (Adrian felt uncomfortable when he realized they most likely were scales).

"The sound," Lutain hissed, tail thrashing in annoyance. "You stopped."

The creature blinked, pulling back and slinking below the fountain rim hesitantly, "I regret, Sharptail."

Adrian blinked, and took a half step backwards. The rusting iron of the fountain, alongside the dripping water looked suspiciously like blood over the edge of the rim.

"You understood him?" Adrian asked cautiously. The creature tilted her head, her ears were humanoid.

Adrian's mind bubbled in fascination at such a magical creature.

"You do," She pointed out, voice lilting and somehow chirping like a bird, although still guttural and awkward. "You reek dark."

Adrian swallowed, taking a step forward once he spotted what looked like a green fin just below the surface.

"What creature?" Lutain hissed, peering up and scenting the air, "You scent of strange."

" You smell sour," The woman (was it a woman) retorted, scowling at Adran. "You smell foul. Torn, ripped and shoved into something which you are not."

Adrian frowned, his hand started to slide towards his wand.

The creature pulled one smooth arm over the edge of the fountain, dirtying the pale skin with rust. Its nails shimmered and reflected like opals, webbing between the digits at the base.

"You speak venom!" Lutain hissed, infuriated by the apparent insult. "How dare!"

"Not dare. Not insult. How peculiar," the creature warbled. It tilted its beautiful yet unsettling head. "How peculiar. You smell of human child, you are but you are more."

"You're obviously not human. Not a Grindylow, or a Siren. Or a Banshee half-blood," Adrian noted, trying to work out what she was by eliminating what she wasn't from a list of things he knew about, information he had long thought useless. He was at a loss, Adrian admitted to himself after a long moment.

"I am Carpatha," the woman trilled, voice somehow resembling a lark's teeter. Was that her name or her species, Adrian wondered. She grinned at him, teeth perhaps just a bit more pointed. "I am a Merrow. My kin are far, in warmer waters. I like these waters. I don't often get visitors."

"You're in a bowl," Lutain noted, seeming fascinated with the Merrow. "How do you flee?"

Carpatha blinked, perhaps surprised by Lutain's question. "I walk."

Adrian couldn't help but glance back at what he'd thought was a fin before. "You walk?"

The Merrow grinned at him and seemed fascinated. She blinked slowly and for a moment looked far too intelligent for Adrian's comfort. "I can walk. I speak to everything. Everything speaks to me ."

"Merrow are rare. Why hasn't anyone killed you yet?" Adrian felt his fingers close around his wand, a comforting weight in his hand. "I hear your tails are very, very rare."

She laughed, a soothing noise that relaxed Adrian against his will. Then she barked, a strange warbling noise that somehow compelled a nearby crow to swoop and hop onto the fountain near her back.

"Cra!" she cooed, pointing a finger at the crow. "Cra is my eyes, he is my bite. "

She hissed, a thin spine rising from where it had been lying flat on her back. He suddenly felt very very wary for Lutain.

"We'll see you again," Adrian said nodding, turning and starting to walk away.

"You reek!" She called after him. Adrian heard a wet sloshing noise, but he didn't turn to see what the Merrow was doing. "You carry something festering!"

She laughed, Adrian wished he could find it in him to think the sound was ugly.

....

Want to read ahead by more than 60 chapters. Then join my pa*treon now.

Link: pa*treon.com/Amelie796 (Remove the *)

Free members will get 2 chapters for free.