The Merman and the Phoenix

Gellert was gone. Ariana was gone. Elphias was gone. Even Aberforth was gone, having fled in disgust. With all these ties so suddenly broken, Albus felt purposeless and unsettled. He began to wander, solitary, until he somehow ended up on the shore of the Black Lake, near Hogwarts. Perhaps he had returned to the school because it was the only place that still felt welcoming to him. However, it was very quiet on the campus, as the students were away on their summer holidays. Albus remained alone in his melancholy.

He settled himself in the shade of a tree and gazed at the smooth surface of the lake. Unbidden, a memory of Gellert rose up in his mind. Albus thought with longing of Gellert's sunny, laughing face and lean, strong body. Though he now hated the man who haunted his memory, Albus had once loved him.

Albus' eyes were open, but he was so lost in thought that he didn't really see the bright, glistening lake that lay before him.  Perhaps that was why he did not notice the approach of the merman. Only a few feet from Albus, his scaled underbody twisted and flashed in the sunlight as he shot out of the lake, spraying Albus with water. The young merman bobbed at the surface of the lake for a few moments, squawking unintelligibly in a language as strange as the slimy skin of his face and the tangle of reed-colored hair on his head. Albus didn't understand a word, but the merman's laughing tone was unmistakably taunting.

Startled beyond rational thought, and dripping wet, Albus laughed too, without really knowing why he did it.

At that, the merman ducked back under the surface of the water and swam back toward the middle of the lake.

Albus stood stock still. He realized that this was the first time he had laughed in a very, very long while.

As usual, the wheels in Albus' head began turning at a rapid speed. What was this magic, he asked himself, that had snapped him out of his reverie for a moment. Indeed, it was a sort of magic, for it had managed to bring laughter to his lips when nothing else would. It was not the sort of magic that one could learn from professors or from spellbooks; it was an older, subtler form of magic.

Though Albus did not perceive it, that moment with the merman was a turning point in his life. The merman's simple prank was the impetus that would lead him to a lifelong study of the older, less tangible types of magic in the world. Although Albus did not sense the significance of the moment, he did feel a bit of his aimlessness drop away. The thought crossed his mind that it would be interesting to learn Mermish, so that perhaps one day he could ask the strange merman just what he had meant by his splashing and laughing.

The person Albus thought most likely to be able to teach him Mermish was his old Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Professor Vodilissa. Albus knew that the professor was at Hogwarts for the summer.  In fact, she had greeted him earlier in the day when he had arrived and had invited him to come to her office later, to see her pet phoenix, who was due to burn up and regenerate at any moment.

Rising to his feet, Albus strode back to the castle. He resolved that he would visit Professor Vodilissa. He would see her curious pet, ask her about Mermish, and then see where else this new train of thought would take him.