Serendipity [Book 2]

In The Eyes of the Wolf [Pt. 1]

The rest of the day went by relatively smoothly. Ariella felt proud of herself as she walked with Remus to dinner.

“Elle, you seem awful cheerful tonight,” Remus mentioned as his brown eyes followed his companion’s facial expression in curiosity.

“Do I? I didn’t notice,” Ariella replied honestly as she smiled at her friend. Remus chuckled as the two stepped off of the staircase just as it went to move.  Ariella grinned when she saw Snape appear from a nearby hallway.

“Snark!” she called out as Remus shook his head from beside her. In all honesty, he still hadn’t figured out how Severus Snape had won the affections of the exuberant blonde. He firmly believed that Ariella had talked the Potions Master into acting cordially toward him.

“Cross. Lupin,” Snape greeted curtly. Ariella giggled softly as she walked between the two men. Several portraits followed the trio and gave each other astonished glances.

“Several students asked me who you’ve eaten before, Elle. Why is that?” Remus asked as Severus quirked an eyebrow at the question. Ariella shrugged; her blonde curls jostled at the movement.

“I was helping Minerva with her animagus lesson,” she answered as if that explained everything. Remus chuckled. Severus glared at the conversation between the two adults. When Remus and Ariella talked, he always felt he was missing some inane secret that both of them knew.  

“Have you told her about why?” Remus asked as Ariella shrugged.

“I’m pretty sure she knows by now. If Albus knows, so does Minerva,” Ariella replied with a soft smile. Severus frowned at the thought. He didn’t know what in Merlin’s beard they were talking about and it irked him. Ariella was an animagus, a lion, that much he knew. However the why, when, and how were a mystery to him.

“Severus, has Elle told you about how she got her name?” Remus turned to the quiet man. While he wouldn’t consider Snape and himself to be friends, it seemed the Potions Master was extremely close to the blonde. And Remus wanted to be cordial to him and he seemed to return the favor, in Ariella’s presence at least.

“The Slytherin-Gryffindor love triangle?” Severus replied with a quirked eyebrow. Ariella smiled at the memory.

“She has told you then,” Remus answered with a chuckle. He remembered the first time James had asked the blonde how she came upon her name. It had turned into a house epic and the story became a tradition in the Gryffindor tower at the first of the year and Valentine’s Day. Ariella told it until she graduated.

“I believe the entire student body knows of the story,” Severus remarked as Remus shook his head, smiling. Severus sneered at his smile.

“It seemed appropriate last year for my lesson,” Ariella defended as she brushed a stray curl away from her eyes.  Several students had already beaten the trio to the Great Hall and paid little heed to their appearance.

“I’m sure,” Remus remarked, chuckling. Ariella rolled her eyes as she sat between the two men. Their colleagues watched in wonder as Severus and Remus continued to note Ariella’s faults.

“Did you make the room with the Lion portrait your chambers?” Remus asked as Ariella nodded.  Severus quirked an eyebrow at the remark.

“Lion portrait?” 

“Yeah, there’s a painting of a lion resting upon a rock that was commissioned by Godric himself. The painting was moved into my room before I came here,” Ariella explained with a know-it-all tone. Remus clicked his tongue.

“Is there anything you don’t know about this school, Elle?” Remus asked with a soft smile as Ariella shook her head. The rest of the student body filtered into the Great Hall and dinner began as usual.