Chapter Text
"Do not ask questions."
"Do as you are told."
"Speak only when spoken to."
"Do not make eye contact."
"Do not come unless called for."
"Do not ever go near the sea."
The last was the golden rule that Harry grew up with, but they were all rules he had to live by as the slave to the Dursley household..
Harry's Uncle Vernon was the mayor of Little Whinging, a small but rich fishing town since a rare type of sea snail that could make beautiful blue dye could be found in the waters around it. He was in charge of the town's finances, trades with outside cities and countries, and the fishing guild that determined who was in charge of which boats and where they would be fishing.
Harry's Aunt Petunia was in charge of scheduling the inland work force that did things like making and repairing fishing nets, gutting and preserving fish, rending down whale meat and oils the few times a boat was lucky enough to get one, and who was allowed to milk the precious snails that was the main income of the town.
Harry's cousin, Dudley, was training to be a sea captain for one of the bigger boats that the town owned. Not a whaling ship - that would have been far too dangerous for Aunt Petunia's 'sweet little Diddydums.' However it would be one of the large fishing boats that usually brought in the fish found in deeper waters like tuna and dolphin. And the occasional mermaid, but those were considered a bad omen and were slaughtered before being tossed overboard as chum for the sharks that always followed the larger fishing boats.
Harry had spent all eleven years of his life working for his family as an unwanted burden. He took care of the cooking and the cleaning, was only allowed to learn enough letters and numbers to do the shopping for the house efficiently, and he was the whipping boy made to take punishments any time Dudley got in trouble - which was quite often. He was told his father was unknown because his whore of a mother had gotten herself knocked up by a stranger, and she killed herself after Harry's birth since she couldn't live with the shame.
Her shame was Harry's shame, and as a result, Harry was nothing but a slave. The townsfolk all averted their eyes when Dudley and his friends would chase him and beat him while Harry was running errands for the house, and he would get more beatings when he got home for being so late. Nobody stood up for Harry, there was never a kind word, and so Harry stopped looking for help and just lived one day at a time hoping that it would be a good day where he could do his work uninterrupted.
In other words, life was hard for Harry. He used to hope that his father would come back and rescue him, but he gave up that dream long ago. He gave up all of his dreams save one - he longed for freedom and hoped to get away from the town one day to start life elsewhere on his own as a free man. For that goal, he had a loose wall panel in the corner of the cellar he slept in where he stored small bits of things that he would one day need to start live over - a vial of the precious blue dye from the sea snails for money, some bits of change he had been able to pocket over the years from his shopping trips, fishing hooks and lines to feed himself while on the road, and an old, worn, brown cloak he had found in an alley one day.
Harry was actually thinking about his hidden treasure as he was chased though the woods outside of town by his cousin and his friends. He had hoped that going to far out would make Dudley turn back, but he was very determined to catch Harry.
"Get back here and take your beating!" Dudley panted as Harry ran bare footed over grass, sticks, and rocks. He was used to it since he was not allowed to wear shoes. All he was allowed to wear was a burlap potato bag that was cinched at the waist with a rope to show that he was nothing but a slave to the Dursley household. "I command you to s-stop!"
Harry was not going to listen to that order. He was so frustrated that he began to tear up out of anger, and he would have held his ground right then and there had there not been three other boys with Dudley. Malcom, the fastest of the group, sprinted forward forcing Harry to turn right towards the cliffs that overlooked the sea, and his tears began to fall since he knew that there was no getting away now.
"I'm going right to trap him!" Piers Polkiss called out in delight. "Stay right behind him, Big D, Gordon!"
Harry let out a ragged sob, but he didn't stop running towards the cliff. He knew it was foolish, but he hoped that maybe getting close to it would make Dudley back away since Dudley was afraid of heights. He kept running until he was only a few feet from the edge, then he angrily wiped his tears away with his arm as he stopped and turned around.
"Why can't you just leave me alone?!" Harry screamed. "I didn't do anything to you!"
"Bastard boy, bastard slave!" Malcom sang out with a sadistic grin as he and Piers came to a stop with Dudley and Gordon finally pulling up so that the four boys kept Harry trapped in a semi-circle. "That's good enough reason. Besides, we're just having some fun!"
"Look at him, he's been crying!" Gordon jeered making Dudley snicker even though he was out of breath. "Miss your whore mummy?"
"We can fix that, you know," Piers added, his own rat-like face twisting into a cruel sneer. "Just... push him over the edge!"
Harry took a step back as he shook his head no, but Dudley spoke up before he could.
"Wait, we can't," Dudley protested to Harry's relief. "Who will clean and cook if he dies?"
Harry swallowed hard, hating that his slave status brought him some relief, but he nodded an agreement. "I belong to the Dursley household," he said.
"No, no, he was running away and we found him outside of town, right?" Malcom laughed. "Runaway slaves get the death penalty."
"And we might get a reward for stopping him," Piers added as he looked at Dudley, his tone daring Dudley to back out. "Besides, you and your family hate him for the stain he brings on your family's reputation."
"I want to see how long it takes for someone to fall into the ocean from here," Gordon added.
Dudley looked indecisive, but with all three of his friends urging him on, he gave a reluctant nod. "Alright," he agreed, making Harry quiver in terror. "Let's get rid of the freak. Maybe we can get a better slave, one that isn't so ugly and useless."
"I'll do it!" Piers cheered, and then he leapt forward and shoved Harry hard.
"AAAAH!" Harry screamed as he lost his balance, and he took a couple steps back and teetered with one foot halfway off the edge of the ledge. Then Gordon grabbed a rock and threw it at him, and it hit him on the head and knocked him over.
Harry was dazed as he fell through the air, but part of him was relieved. For the first time in his life, he felt free. He stared up at the sky as he watched the top of the cliff get further and further away and he reflected on his horrible life. Maybe if his mum hadn't killed herself it would have been different, but she had and now he was going to die in the sea just like she did.
Harry lost his breath when he hit the water, the impact knocking it out of him. It stunned him further, so when he began to sink, he couldn't bring himself to try to claw his way to the surface. Then a searing pain flashed down his legs and he twisted around. Bubbles escaped from his mouth as he screamed in agony, then his throat was on fire as were his fingers and he passed out unable to take it anymore.
When Harry came to, he felt strangely weightless and wondered if he was now a ghost. He looked around himself, and saw boulders and sand all around but nothing else. Then his body swayed with some kind of current, and he realized he was under water and felt panicked.
What was going on? Was he dead or not?
Harry pinched himself, then yelped when his nails were sharper than he expected. He held his hands up to his face and saw they were webbed and his nails were green, long, and sharp like claws, then he realized he was also breathing. He quickly twisted to see what else might be wrong, and he realized he was sitting on a long tail. A long emerald green fish tail with fins that faded to a green so dark it was nearly black, and they were long and flowed around him like gossamer silk in water.
The burlap bag was in the way of seeing where the tail ended so Harry clawed the rope that cinched it shut off and pulled it off. The tail continued up to his navel where the scales gradually got smaller and lighter until it was a pastel green around what used to be his crotch up to his belly button.
He twisted to try to look behind him to see where the scales ended there, and he saw another fin that started roughly around the middle of his back and went all the way down to where his thighs once were. The spined there were a green so dark that they also appeared nearly black while the webbing in between was the emerald green of his scales, and he reached behind him only to find that the spines were as sharp as his claws where and quickly yanked his hand away from the dangerous fin.
Harry realized he was hyperventilating and tried to figure out what was happening. He was... a mermaid? He carefully ran his fingers along his neck and confirmed there were gills, then he tried moving his legs out from under him only for the tail to also move. It was as long as he used to be tall, so about four feet in length, but he was only ten so had a lot more growing to do. The tail would no doubt get as long as the tails in legends but...
He was a mermaid.
How was he a mermaid?
Did his mom actually die, or had she also been a mermaid?
Or more realistically, maybe it had been his father who was the mermaid since his Aunt was very obviously human.
It still didn't explain why he was a mermaid, though!
A mermaid...
And then Harry had an epiphany. He was a mermaid! He was free! As long as he didn't get caught in any fishing nets, everyone thought he was dead! He was free!
Harry let out a sob of relief, then he earnestly began to cry into his hands. He was free and he had never felt so much relief in his life! Maybe he had died and was now in heaven, or maybe he hadn't died, but either way it was a new life for him. Harry cried even harder as he curled up into a ball, and he fell asleep being rocked by the gentle currents of the sea.