In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 207: Starr

Justin caught a human being!

This was the first impression that came to everyone's mind when they saw the hand.

However, when the upper half of the owner of the arm fully surfaced, the students realized that it was clearly not a normal human being.

Her skin was iron grey, her dark green hair was long and wispy, her eyes were yellow, so were her broken teeth, and she wore a pebble strung with a thick rope around her neck.

This is a Mermaid (Merpeople/Selkie), and it is evident from the ugly appearance that this is a Merpeople that can only be found in the northern waters of Ireland and Scotland, where they have evolved to adapt to life in cold water.

The Merpeople who live in the warm waters of the lower latitudes are the only ones who are as beautiful as in fairy tales.

The students stood stunned, they all basically saw this creature for the first time.

And the mermaid, after grabbing Justin's line and showing up at the surface, gibbered out a paragraph that no one could understand.

Justin was bewildered, but he could feel that the mermaid's tone did not sound very good, and she should be scolding him.

The mermaid also found that her condemnation was like playing the piano to a cow, and had no effect at all, so she couldn't help but take a deep breath and speak in not-so-skilled English.

"This whole morning! You've been torturing me! Seven whole Lobalug! I- Which I managed to catch, only to have you hook it from my basket!"

Her voice was crisp and pleasant, sounding very nice, not at all in line with her appearance which could even be described as somewhat scary.

Faced with such an accusation, Justin's face filled with embarrassment.

"Sorry, I just wanted to fish, I didn't expect to hook them, I will return them to you." When he said this, his expression was a little hesitant, and finally, he opened his mouth with some indecision and asked, "Maybe it's a bit offensive, but... Can I ask how many pounds you weigh?"

However, the mermaid just screamed in a high-pitched tone.

"Bugs! Lobalug! Just! Return them! "

"Okay, okay, here you go, take it all back."

He muttered and dumped all the Lobalug in the bucket back into the sea.

The mermaid glared at him, then proceeded to use the harpoon in her hand to skewer each worm, with uncanny precision, into her own harpoon.

The Lobalug grows a venom sac, and Merpeople love to apply the venom from its sac to their weapons, to improve their attack power.

Just as the mermaid got her prey back and was about to dive back into the sea and leave, Jon suddenly called out to her.

"Hey! Fair lady, may we ask you some questions?"

The students all looked at each other when they heard how he addressed this mermaid, but the mermaid who didn't look like she originally intended to have more interaction with the people on the ship, stopped her own movements that were ready to leave.

She looked very pleased by it and tilted her head to look at Jon.

"You have a vision. Very good little boy! Talking to you more might not be the same as interacting with other wizards. They're quite annoying."

"That's for sure, your beauty is obvious to all, isn't it?"

Jon turned his head and winked quietly at the others, and every student he saw nodded repeatedly against their will.

Looking at Jon lying without blinking his eyes, Hermione couldn't help but scowl, thinking about how he had just said some time ago that he never lied to anyone.

However, it is unknown what Gabrielle thought of seeing everyone nodding, with a tangled face she stroked her long silver-white hair and touched her white teeth.

"We just came from the North Sea area, I wonder why, after entering the Norwegian Sea, it feels like there are more magical creatures around?"

Jon did not care about the other people's views, but looked at the mermaid and asked.

"Norway's Ministry of Magic control over magical creatures is not exactly strict." The mermaid replied in rusty English, "And it's a long way from land. There are very few muggle ships passing by this route and there is a wizard who feeds them now and then."

Hearing her answer, Jon narrowed his eyes slightly.

"A wizard? Does he live in a high tower?"

"The tower is called Starr." The mermaid said the name of the high tower, "But. How do you know? Few wizards know of this place."

"We are trying to visit that tower. Are there many wizards living in that tower?"

"Mr Stoker is the only one who lives there."

"Then, I wonder how the character of Mr Stoker is, and whether he would accept our visit."

"Mr Stoker is very kind to us all. He also helped to heal our people, so he certainly won't refuse you, wizards"

Being able to get this information, Jon was already satisfied.

"Thank you for solving these doubts of mine, fair lady."

"It's nothing. I wish you all the best in your next voyage."

The mermaid seemed to be in a very good mood being flattered by Jon, and after expressing her blessing, she sank to the bottom of the sea and disappeared.

Getting this information is certainly a pleasant surprise, since entering the Norwegian Sea, Jon felt that the sea magical creatures all of a sudden increased a lot, some will often catch some fish-type magical creatures even before the fishing tournament begins.

This is really not a normal phenomenon, they are not far from the next destination, the tower named "Starr".

Regarding the encounter with a mermaid, both the participants of the fishing tournament and the students on the sidelines were talking excitedly about what had just happened.

Justin was still arguing with judge Nick about whether the mermaid was considered his catch or not.

"She weighed at least 100 pounds! I caught her all by myself! This definitely needs to be included in my catch!"

Nick was flipping through the tournament rulebook with a hesitant look on his face.

"Yeah, I can understand your feelings, Justin, but you didn't succeed in catching her, did you? And 100 pounds was just your estimated weight, she didn't mention it, and we didn't actually weigh her."

"That's not fair! I fished Lobalug all morning to get this mermaid to come up! Mermaids are fish too! It must be counted in my haul, even if it isn't 100 pounds, just 50 is enough."

Justin pleaded.

"With her size, she's definitely got to be 50 pounds, right? Just count that as 50 pounds for me."

However, after Nick called the panel of judges for a rigorous discussion, the weight of the mermaid was not included in the harvest, after all, it was the mermaid herself who grabbed his line, and he did not reel her into the ship (in fact, the moment Justin was scolded for asking the weight of the mermaid, he had thought of jumping in and tying her up to the ship to weigh her).

However, to make up for it, the panel of judges decided that all the weight of those Lobalug he caught earlier could be considered his catch, although they didn't weigh much at all, it was better than nothing for Justine, it gave him a push to try hard in the afternoon.

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