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James Potter hasn’t been the same since Sirius Black, his best mate of five years, disappeared. He knows that it had nothing to do with what happened at the Willow in Fifth Year, no matter what Remus or Snape said – at least not that he was sent to Azkaban for it.
Deep down, he knows that it probably as something to with his parents not liking the rumors about Remus that he just knows Snape spread. Especially since his brother was sent to a different school, but it was clear that Sirius wasn’t sent there.
He just disappeared.
And James was never the same.
He tried – to move on. Remus and Peter had both encouraged him to.
But ultimately, he missed him.
He wanted Sirius in his life, and he needed answers.
So, he worked on one of their special projects. The one that would allow them to find each other no matter what.
A compass.
It’d taken all of his focus for the last two years of Hogwarts, but he’s finally done it.
Perfect timing for the ending of their schooling.
***
His charm leads him to the water.
He gets himself a ship and follows the compass deep into the ocean. He doesn’t need to worry about getting stuck because he knows that his magic can save him.
“I’ll find you, Sirius, wherever you may be.”
***
Sirius had been furious when his parents had told him that they were taking him away from Hogwarts and that werewolf and those blood traitors.
He had tried to get back, get out, get to James, but he’d been caught and cursed.
His so-called parents had been determined that they’d rather lose him to a curse than to those people.
Then, they dropped him in the ocean to live a lonely life of a merman. Cursed to be a merman until or unless kissed by his one true love.
Sirius’ only problem is that his one true love is his best mate, and his best mate loves someone else.
So, he swims far away from the British isles for warmer waters.
***
James is confused when his compass leads him to the middle of the ocean on the outskirts of Australia.
He expected that maybe he’d been sent to school in Australia, but why had the charm led him to the middle of the ocean?
Surely, Sirius wasn’t here.
Unless…
***
Sirius is swimming with some of his new mermaid friends. They could change back as long as they were dry, but he couldn’t. The human man that was trying to figure out the magic on the mermaids had been so fascinated by Sirius’ tales of curses and magic, and wanted to experiment on him.
He’d let him, but he got tired of that sometimes.
“Did you see the boat outside the island?” Rikki asks, the blonde, curly haired firecracker of a mermaid asks when they surface in the moonpool. “It’s been there for days.”
“Haven’t left the pool much,” Sirius offers. “Been feeling a bit down. I should’ve been finishing Hogwarts around now.”
“We might be able to figure it out – how to uncurse you,” Cleo offers, the dark-haired peacemaker of the three is the most optimistic of his chances to be free of this.
Sirius shakes his head. “I know how to undo this, the problem is that James is never going to find me here.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” a new voice – a voice that he hadn’t heard in more than two years says.
Sirius snaps to look at the underwater opening of the moon pool, where sure enough, there’s James wearing a bubblehead charm and treading water beside the other blonde mermaid, Emma.
“James!”
“Sirius!”
He pops his bubble and swims forward, throwing his arms around Sirius’ neck. “This is where you’ve been?”
“Yeah, er, my parents cursed me…” before he can contemplate how to explain the curse or uncursing, James kisses him soundly on the lips and he feels the warmth of magic surround him, and suddenly, he’s got legs again.
***
James breaks the kiss and grins. “Wow, where’d your tail go?”
Sirius laughs as the mermaids around them clap and cheer before Emma, the blonde mermaid that had led him here, drags the other two away to give them privacy.
“I – it was a curse. True love was the only way to get rid of it.”
James grins. “That’s good news, then. Now, we can be together forever.”
Sirius hums. “Yeah, I like the sound of that. Maybe we can stay here, too? My friends – they aren’t just mermaids; they can remove their tails by staying dry…”
“Yeah, I am more than happy to be here as long as I’m with you.”
“Good.”