THE LITTLE MERMAID, marauders era.

002. welcome to hogwarts

McGonagall went on but Ariel was now thinking about ten different things to yell at the boy who had made a fool of her twice now.

Soon enough, Professor McGonagall opened the doors to the Great Hall and an array of ghosts disrupted the crowd of eleven-year-olds. Any residual embarrassment left with Ariel was replaced with a mix of horror and utter excitement as everyone bent down to make way for the ghosts, screaming, laughing. Both Lily and Ariel yelled and tried to cover their heads with their robes.

"Move along now, the Sorting Ceremony is about to start." said the sharp voice of Professor McGonagall and most ghosts seem to either fade away or make way for the children, who were asked to form a line and follow her into the Great Hall.

It was as if this day was made for the awe and enjoyment of Ariel, or at least that was the first thought that came into her mind when she entered the Great Hall. First, the view of Hogwarts from the lake and now this? Ellie could faint. She let out a sigh, enchanted by the Hall and the thousands of candles floating in mid-air over the four long tables. It looked like the heavens collided with Earth and Hogwarts was born, if anyone looked at Ariel right this moment, they would see her eyes quite literally shimmering, reflecting the Hall.

She grabbed Lily's arm in excitement and saw the same lit-up expression on her face as the girls giggled to themselves, unable to contain their happiness at this. Both came from loving homes, for sure. But there was something about Hogwarts. Something so special, that it made its way into the hearts of anyone that dares call it home. And that is exactly what the girls felt. Home.

As the hat placed on the four-legged stool started singing, it had supposedly caught everyone off-guard as there were several laughs heard from the audience as well as a huge round of applause when it got over. McGonagall too had a smile on her face as she cleared her throat, looking over the children, and started calling out the names in alphabetical order, "Aubrey, Bertram."

The nervous boy sat on the stool and the hat was put on his head, and in a few seconds it shouted, "RAVENCLAW!" The Ravenclaw table cheered in applause as a smiling Bertram went on to sit with them. This went on for a while with surnames like Avery and Abercrombie being called out but the letter A ended soon. So far, all students were met by cheers and applause, surprisingly, that wasn't the case for the next one, "Black, Sirius."

When the hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" There was absolute silence for the Black boy, Ariel also noticed several pairs of glaring eyes from the Slytherin table. A few seconds later, the Gryffindor table erupted into cheers seeming to notice the boy's nervous look on his face.

Ariel didn't understand much, but she and Lily had started to understand the Sorting Ceremony and were now hoping to be sorted in the same house. Severus tried not to show it, but he was wishing that too.

"Evans, Lily." Ellie squeezed her hand and mouthed good luck as the redhead made her way to the stool. It only took a few seconds for the hat to shout, "GRYFFINDOR!" Ariel smiled and clapped brightly among the others and hoped she would get Gryffindor as well.

Considering Ariel's surname started with an S, it was taking a bucket load of time to get to her name. She always thought having a name starting with the letter A had a lot of downsides, she was the first to submit all the projects, first to be called out for any speaking activity, first to be standing in lines to get to the other classes, but now she was starting to miss it.

It only worsened, when the-boy-who-had-embarrassed-her-twice now was called out way before her. Remus Lupin. She thought his friendly face and soft smile would have made them friends, but he had made it quite clear that he would rather have her falling or getting scolded in front of everyone. And when he got sorted into Gryffindor, she was the disappointed one.