The Herbology Assistant

Chapter Fifty Four

Clarice finished her papers with ease and wandered the halls with Elio since there was absolutely no one in the castle. It was actually quite eery, but after running into a few of the ghosts she was actually more at ease.  She spotted Peeves down a corridor. 

"Let's go see what he's up to you."  She said to Elio and they walked towards the poltergeist. 

"Whatchya doin?" She asked Peeves when she got up behind him. He slowly turned around, knowing she was following him and smirked. 

"Watch and see missy," He said while a bunch of water balloons launched themselves from the ceiling. Clarice quickly put her hand out to shield it. 

"Oh you bloody-" She cut herself off before swearing in front of her son and grabbed her wand, flicking it towards Peeves. 

"Ahhh!!" He screamed and flew away as a swarm of bees came from her wand and chased him away. 

"Buzz buzz," Elio flapped his hands pretending to be a bee. She finally decided to head back to her quarters. She let Elio down on the ground when she walked in and he immediately ran to his toys. She walked over to her window, she had charmed it when she arrived to look like the grounds of Hogwarts even though it was usually the depths of the black lake she would see. This time, deciding to take the charm off, she stared into the murky waters from her quarters. Occasionally seeing some tentacles or fish swimming by; she was always fascinated by the underwater creatures. She went back into her living room to take her cape off and kicked her shoes into the corner. 

"Mommy?" Elio tugged on her sweater. 

"Yes?" She answered. 

"What's that?" He pointed to the window. She turned around and jumped back slightly for there was a merperson looking through the window. 

"A merperson." She said quickly while slowly walking over to it. It blinked at her and opened it's mouth as if it was speaking. Elio tugged on her sweater. 

"It's Anya!" He yelled and Clarice looked at him with wide eyes. 

"What did you say?" 

"Anya!" He pointed to the merperson who waved through the window. 

"What the..." Clarice trailed off. 

"How do you know her?" Clarice questioned, but he didn't answer. Instead, he spoke back to her. Shaking her head with frustration, she just turned around to make a cup of tea while Elio babbled away to the thing outside their window. 

"Mommy?" She heard him ask her as she was about to sit down with her tea. 

"Hmm?" She sighed. 

"Go swim?" He asked. 

"Not today dear." She looked to the window. The merperson was still there. "Eli how do you know her?" 

"Friend!" He shouted and Clarice frowned. She was aware that these creatures were highly intelligent having founded their own language and style of music. They were even gifted with the status of full being, but as a race rejected the status since they did not want to be under the same status as hags and vampires. 

"She likes piano!" Elio squealed and raced over to his toy piano to drag it closer to the window. Clarice only watched with fascination, she had never seen a merperson so absorbed with human life. It's as if they were studying each other. 

"Does Anya know I am your mother?" Clarice asked Elio and he nodded his head. 

"She knows mommy and daddy!"