It was early Saturday morning and most of the students were in bed. However most of the staff had been awake for hours. They had prepared work, marked papers and light the candles in their class rooms. One staff member who's morning had been a bit more eventful was Colm. Well only one thing had happened really, and it was no fault of their's, but a heard of Centaurs had almost trampled him to death. But it was a more or less normal start to the day for Colm. And so now he was making the long hike to the Lake to see the Mere-people.

Since taking the job, not that long ago, he had been able to establish working relations with most of the intelligent beings in the forest or grounds. There were however two notable exceptions: Mere-people and the Acromantula colony. He had no intention of trying to talk with them, only yesterday they had attempted to kill himself and a first year Gryffindor who was on detention, but he thought that the Mere-people would be more co-operative. However he didn't even know how to contact them.

For the past few days he had stood by the waters edge without anything happening. Of course the lake was huge so the chances of one of them popping up and starting to chat was slim but he had hoped that something would happen. Either way Colm had started learning their language before he arrived at the school and he was getting very good. But they couldn't hear him 5000 leagues under the sea lake. But he had decided to try once again. There was a slight drizzle falling from the sky as he arrived at the lake, wearing a dark green robe.

He had expected to be alone. But instead he saw a young girl standing by the water. Unsure if she was ok he headed towards her. As he got closer he realised that she looked different to the other children. He stood their for almost a minute before he realised that she must of been a half-breed. Part Human part mere. Incredible! He sat beside her, though not to close, and spoke.

''Hi, I'm Colm. The Groundskeeper. It's a bit early isn't?''

Heliotrope had risen from her covers early this morning, removed her sleep mask, and slipped from the common room. She sensed something but it wasn't until she had left the basement that she placed it. On the ground level air from outside was able to slip into the castle. It smelled of rain, a light shower overnight. Fresh rains always changed the scent of the world. Her feet pitter-patter across the pave stones until she slipped out into nature.

She had spent several minutes out by the lakeshore, lost in her senses. The grit of sand under her toes, the light breeze. The smells were varied: a dead fish that had washed ashore some distance off. The dew on grass and flower petals. The lake was more wet than ever, with the influx of pure water from the clouds. It diluted the essence of pond scum and algae in the lake. And...something she couldn't place. The Black Lake was different. It's waters turned...unusually for an early morning. Heliotrope scanned the surface but found no members of the resident colony. Many merpeople surfaced in the early hours of the dawn to see the day anew before delving back into the depths. But no splashes of emerging merperople. There was something different. One of those animalistic feelings, like the sensation of approaching winter when the cold weather made her sluggish.

Heliotrope was so lost in her feeling of the lake that she did not her the man approach her until he spoke.

She turned to look where he sat. A hairy, muscled man. Her eyes took in detail. Thick dark hair and different tinted eyes. Realizing he had introduced himself, she replied her customary greeting. "Hello, my name is Heliotrope LeJean."

She had not heard a name like his before. "Colm?" she attempted, voice shrieking into Mermish at the end. "I like to swim early in the morning. But the lake is different. Do you groundskeep the lake?"