chapter three
❛ till the luck runs dry ❜
THE WALK TO THE RAVENCLAW TOWER was as long as it was dreamy. It was supposedly the second farthest common room from the Great Hall, yet the students looked anything but tired. Most were seen talking amongst each other or admiring every single thing about the school. Ariel had the ability to do both apparently. Soon enough, they arrived at the doors of the common room. Laughter and chatter died down and was replaced with curiosity amongst the students as the prefect stood in front of the door, a door without a doorknob or keyhole, but a giant bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle.
The prefect, Emmett Aubrey, turned around and explained, "This is the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room. In order to enter the room, you must answer a riddle asked by the eagle knocker, if you answer incorrectly, you have to wait for someone else who got it right."
Much to everyone's surprise, the eagle knocker started speaking as the prefect turned around to face it. "What always comes, but never arrives?"
"Tomorrow." The prefect answered amongst the murmuring crowd. "Now, the answer could've been, the Sun, or perhaps....Time, even. It matters more how much you can think outside the box for the answers, than just mugging them all up." The door had opened by the time he finished his sentence.
At first, a small set of staircases, a stone carving of the majestic eagle and the rest of the wall adorned with constellations of midnight blue and gold could be seen from outside. As the prefect entered, followed by the students, two staircases spiral upwards in opposite directions, leading to the same level of the common room, both greeting the infamous statue of Rowena Ravenclaw in the middle.
The inside of the common room was so much prettier than Ellie would have imagined. And had so much more space. The first part of the room was circular shaped, as she would discover most are in the Ravenclaw common room, with star-covered curtains hanging off of the windows, sofas on the sides, a harp and even a few vase-plants, a few students could be seen cosied up with a book in this perfect atmosphere.
Moving forward, a gate-like structure with bookshelves on the side, gives way to the next part of the room, which was a slightly smaller version of the former, and with a fireplace in the middle. There were also a lot more bookshelves than the previous one, and it was so silent, a pin dropping could be heard. "This, is our own personal library, of course it's nowhere near as big as the school library and you can always find more things to read throughout our common room, but this is a more official place, one could say."
The library also had the shelves on the walls as high as the windows, and Ellie wondered if she could ever even try to reach there.
Between the two sub-rooms, were staircases on both sides. "Downstairs is the way to common rooms for the first three years. Ravenclaw also happens to be the only house with their own bathrooms in our common room, which are also downstairs." The prefect's sentence was met by a hushed "I already knew that, that's my brother you see!" Which could only be heard by Ellie and her two newfound friends. Of course! Emmett Aubrey, it was Bertram Aubrey's brother.
The group was further led upstairs, passing the 4th, 5th and 6th year dorms, until they reached the last one with the number '7' engraved on either side. The seventh year dorms, both girls and boys, were attached on the opposite sides of the uppermost part of the Ravenclaw common room as well as the tower. Beside the staircase, in the lobby area, was a bin and a soft board with various random papers, lists as well as a poster of The Chudley Cannons was placed. As the children walked over to the last and airiest part of the room, gasps and wow's erupted away, putting a smile on the prefect's face.
The walls adorned with either various shelves of books or windows, and golden-sapphire carpet, the dome above was made of painted glass as the night sky above them glittered with stars. It was connected with circular staircases on the side as the middle portion was home to the hanger for Ravenclaw flags, the railing for which had been converted into little bookshelves. Only the seventh years were allowed to go upstairs to the roof-room. Ellie also noticed a piano in the common room, with a fourth or fifth year student attempting to play something on it.
The students were then led back to their own dorm rooms and Ellie felt a rush of weariness wash over her, quickly changing into her night clothes and happily taking the lower bed of their bunk beds. In her trunk, she noticed a book. She picked it up and saw the cover of a little girl playing with lambs in the mountains. The title read Heidi. She had seen the book in their local diner-library Scones and Soju back at home, but never really picked it up. Ariel quickly recalled it was Remus' and made a mental note to give it back to him the next time she sees him.
Her eyes were so tired, she didn't even notice the pretty blue curtains on their beds with doodles of the galaxy across them, or the high windows, or the furniture, or even her dormmates. She figured she would just introduce herself tomorrow, right now her sleep had never been more important.
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ⋆*･ *･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ
The morning sun came with harp melodies invading Ariel's sleep. Blinking groggily, she rubbed her eyes, trying to make the light from the window a little less striking. In the corner of the room, a blonde girl sat beside a harp, fingers dancing across the strings in a haphazard manner.
Is this Priscilla? She was blonde too, right?
Her thoughts were soon replaced by amusement as the notes turned into sounds of a hummingbird as the girl seemed to lose concentration over the harp and rather on the view outside their window. She was broken from this trance only when Ariel decided to speak up, "Hi, uh, you're... Priscilla, right?"
"Oh good! You're awake! I would say I'm sorry my harp woke you, but that was my intention actually." The girl gave a toothy smile. "It's seven-thirty in the morning you see, classes start at nine so I figured you wouldn't wanna be late! Also to answer your question, Priscilla already went downstairs to shower, our other dormmate too, I'm Pandora Dankworth."
The girl, Pandora, had said everything in quite a hurry, and was now right infront of Ellie's bed, with an arm out to shake. Ariel reciprocated hesitantly, shaking her hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Ariel." She was used to having noises in the morning, with her mother's loud attempts at waking her up, as well as her own love for the morning sun. But that was pretty much it, most people she knew wouldn't be ready with their uniform on already at seven-thirty in the morning, when classes start at nine. She came up to speed quick enough though, "Oh no, classes start at nine! IT'S THE FIRST DAY!" Ariel scrambled to her feet and hurriedly made her way to the bathrooms.
Ariel didn't waste too much time getting ready, even though it was difficult as the moment she stepped in the shower she grew a tail, but she was already anxious enough by breaking the one promise she had made herself, waking up by six on the first day. It's the first day for Merlin's sake! Who wakes up an hour and half before classes start!
Of course she had not been very late and reached the Great Hall, ready in her robes for breakfast by 8:13 on dot.
She saw Priscilla sitting with another girl, and even though hadn't had much luck becoming friends with her last night, she was willing to try. Also, Theodore was sitting there as well, and he was possibly her only Ravenclaw friend right now.
"Hi, can I sit here?"
Before Priscilla could respond, which Ariel guessed would've been a yes from the small smile on her face, Theodore's booming voice, "ELLIE! Finally awake! Come over!" he said, gesturing to the empty seat on his left, on the opposite side of the table. She wanted to sit with Priscilla and clear some air, but the blonde looked down at Theo's proposal and now her interest had shifted to her food only.
Sighing, but smiling nonetheless, she went over to sit with Theodore and finally had her much awaited breakfast.
In conversation, she learned her fourth roommate was Imogen Clearwater. "Do you reckon Ancient Runes is really as difficult as they say?"
"My brother's the smartest in his class, and even he finds it very difficult." Bertram bragged. Ariel hadn't even realised he was sitting right there beside Theodore until he spoke up. "Doesn't matter, I'm here for more important subjects, like the Flying Lessons. And of course, Potions and Transfiguration and Defence against the Dark Arts, but that's a given." He trailed off, and continued eating without waiting for anyone's response.
Most Ravenclaws were quite anxious for their first day, and as a result their conversation was cut short in order to quickly be done with their breakfasts and get their respective schedules. Their first class was Transfiguration with Gryffindor.
Ariel's heart was racing up with nervousness, but the fact that both Lily as well as Theodore would be there, made her calm down a little ( and perhaps she would finally be able to talk to Priscilla ). She had already made a pretty bad first impression on Professor McGonagall, even though the teacher probably didn't even remember their exchange, before the classes had even commenced and she was determined to change that.
As she entered the classroom, a head of red hair turning around caught her gaze. "Come over quickly!" Lily mouthed, waving her hand towards the seat beside her, making Ariel's mood immediately light up. Luckily for her, Priscilla sat on the bench in front of her's as well. The Professor with the emerald green robes entered the class and started as she introduced herself as Minerva McGonagall and started teaching about the Transfiguration alphabet and had them write notes on how to turn a match into a needle.
Ariel was completely immersed in the lesson for the majority of the class, even talking to Lily as little as she could until she noticed a certain sandy-haired boy staring at her from her peripheral vision.
She turned her head sideways to look at him, to be greeted by a shy grin and mouthing she didn't quite understand. Wait, did I forget the book? AGAIN? She sighed and gave him a thumbs-up, as she had found his book in her trunk, which made Remus' shy smile turn into a real one as he sat straight with a sigh of relief.
"Now, we will learn to cast the spell, practically. Everyone, pair up with your partners, as this is your first spell." the Professor said, making the crowd of children elated. "And since Miss Serrano and Mr. Lupin seem so disinterested in the class, perhaps they should pair up." she finished, making Ariel's heart skip a beat. The teacher went on to do her own work, or help ones who asked, but it was enough for students to snicker and stare at the two.
Ariel truly could not believe the bad luck this boy was bringing in her life.
As they sat together, Ellie refused to look him in the eye as he muttered his sorry's and instead claimed, "I will not be helping you in anything. This pair-spell-casting is as good as an individual one." Her voice held a lot of disdain for someone who looked like an angel, but Remus quietly accepted it as the two tried to turn the match into a needle, more like as Ellie tried as Remus was as good as prohibited in her mind.
But as it was supposed to be a two-people project, it went downhill pretty quickly.
As Ariel cast the spell, the stick part of it turned into a pointed, wooden needle, which almost immediately pricked her finger, as the match part started growing bigger. Remus panicked at the sight of her blood and with an accidental flick of his wrist, set the growing match on fire. Students started yelling as Remus' robes caught on fire, making McGonagall quickly rushed to their side and put it out. "Aguamenti."
A second of relief turned into mortification as Ariel realised she had gotten water on her as well.
Ariel dropped her book and ran out of the classroom, leaving a bewildered Professor and perplexed Remus.
Ariel found herself in a broom closet, trying to get rid of her tail that had grown in a matter of minutes after she had been in contact with water and she had done pretty much everything her mother had asked her not to do. She panicked, ran out of the class, didn't even try to wipe it off first, and was now stuck in a broom closet, lying on the floor, crying. She just wished she could've stayed home now. She just missed her mom.
Hearing shuffling outside the door she tried to sit up and hide, but the door flung open and it was the Professor whose class she had just ran away from. The teacher's eyes quickly softened at her state. "It's alright, the staff knows, you don't need to worry. Now there is no need to cry on the first day is it? Here, I'll dry your tail and we will get you to the hospital wing and get that pricked finger of yours checked, alright?" McGonagall explained, now a soft smile on her face. She cast a heating spell on her tail, and her tail turned back to her legs.
Ariel got up, sniffling, and took McGonagall's extended hand in her's as she led her to the hospital wing.
☾ ⋆*･ﾟ⋆*･ *･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ
Madam Pomfrey was very quick at fixing a pricked finger but let Ariel sit for a while to cope with her embarrassment. Just her luck, Remus was sitting on the bed next to hers, getting checked for any burns. Ellie decided to speak up the minute Madam Pomfrey left.
"Did you get hurt?"
Surprised, Remus replied, "Oh... erm, no, just a bit on my robes."
"I know it wasn't completely my fault, I mean you did cause it yourself by setting the match on fire..." Ariel trailed off noticing the frown on Remus' face, "But, I am sorry. I shouldn't have made such a big fuss over getting paired with you."
Remus sighed, "It's alright, it was partly my fault. Although I didn't think it would be so embarrassing as to make you flee the scene." He chuckled. Ariel remembered he didn't know about her...situation, and decided to divert their attention to the little potion bottle on his table instead.
"What's that? Wait, did you lie? Did you actually get hurt?" She panicked, even more looking at his stiff expression. "No! I mean, it's just a precaution for...the fire. That's all."
Ariel squinted her eyes at his blatant lie, but luckily for him, they were interrupted by three boys noising their way into the room, "Remus! We were so worried!" said the shortest boy in the group.
"Yes, yes, but also, that was AWESOME!"
"Didn't know you were a quiet rebel, Remus!"
Ariel took this as her cue to leave but was stopped immediately by the bespectacled boy, James. "Ariel! You have to teach how the two of you did that, alright?" The girl just nodded and smiled in response, "Yes, well, I think Remus will explain it in a much better way, won't you Remus?"
Before the sandy-haired boy could respond, the other boy, whose name she had forgotten already, interrupted, "Wait, you're Ariel? Your friend Priscilla asked me to give this book to you." He extended the book Heidi to her and Ariel sighed in relief. "Speaking of your friends, Lily Evans is one of 'em right? She was waiting outside and didn't want to come in just because we got into an argument with her greasy-haired friend." James elaborated with a huff, then lowered his voice so only the two of them could here him. "Anyways, I think she's really pretty, could you help me talk to her?"
Ariel found the prospect of him asking to have her ( possibly best ) friend talk to him rather awkward, "What? No, that's weird."
"Why not?"
"Well, for one, she didn't like that you were mean to her friend, and second, maybe you should talk to her yourself?" making James form a confused look on his face.
She quickly took the book and turned to face the boy on the bed.
"Here, have your book. It has become the curse of my life, glad I can finally get rid of it." She declared, briefly forgetting the curse she had thought growing a tail was, and walked out of the room, turning an apologetic Remus into an annoyed and bitter one as he scoffed at the jab she had taken on his beloved book.
If there was one thing Ariel knew, bad luck followed her wherever the chocolate-eyed boy did, even though her abuela would call her dramatic and ask her to take some accountability as per usual, she needed to keep away from him at all times.