chapter four
❛ friends in making ❜

ARIEL WAS FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOGWARTS.

Sure, she had some difficulties regarding her fishy situation, but with the help of Madam Pomfrey and the power of excuses, she had not only gotten through the year without growing a tail in the middle of class, but had also been secured indoors with no room for the moonlight during full moons, be it the hospital wing or her dorm. She usually preferred to sleep early during those days. Though she missed looking at the grace of the white-gold moon, she took her time admiring it every other night.

She had also become almost-friends with Priscilla, their love of books certainly helped. Priscilla also seemed to have slightly different opinions than her Pureblood surname would suggest. Very slightly different, but nonetheless.

"I can't read this, I might get into trouble for it." Priscilla shook her head as Ariel put forth their read, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. When Ariel frowned at Priscilla's reasoning, she elaborated, "It's a muggle book, Ariel."

"Well, yes, I didn't consider that." Ariel pondered. "Will your parents really mind that much?"

"You have no idea, especially since Andromeda Black ran away with that muggleborn, they've gotten worse about what Hogwarts might do to my opinions." Priscilla whispered, making sure no one else in the common room heard her mentioning the disowned daughter of the House of Black.

"Wait, Black, as in Sirius Black?" the Serrano girl asked.

"Yes they are also one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight." The blonde sighed. "I just don't understand why they have to make me pay for her mistakes." This made Ariel look away. Snide comments like these were what made them almost-friends and not friends-friends. Priscilla immediately retracted on seeing the look on Ariel's face and said, "It's not like that, I mean obviously she should..." she trailed off, seemingly at a loss of words.

"All I mean is that, I'm not really allowed to have thoughts that are different from them, and to see it get worse because of her is a little frustrating."

Ariel sighed. She did understand a bit, after all family pressures had been at a peak for her, ever since she triggered her mermaid-side. Not her mother of course, but her grandmother had become quite cruel, if she wasn't before already. Not to mention the fact that she hadn't ever seen the woman more than three times before she became an official half-mermaid. Thankfully, she didn't have to see her this Christmas, as it was the one holiday the Serrano's loved spending simply with just each other and the town of Cornwall they had learned to call home.

Besides, Ariel had never seen Priscilla talk so candidly to her and she certainly didn't want to ruin that. "I understand, I think. I barely knew anyone from the wizarding world apart from people in Cornwall, and I didn't even know they were magical! I don't have any siblings, let alone friends from before that go here to meet anyone's expectations. It would be rather judgy of me to act like I could put me in your shoes. And you know how hard I've been trying not to be!" She chuckled, pointing defensively at a Priscilla snickering over the word judgy coming from Ariel of all people.

"Yes! Yes, you have!" The blonde laughed and held the book Ariel had prospected up. "And I suppose, reading this in our dorm does not really lead to suspicion."

Ariel's bright smile mirrored that of a Cheshire cat.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ⋆*･ *･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

Lily, Ariel and Severus sat in the library with books on Herbology's One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi and something about the practical approaches of them, and Ellie was having the time of her life explaining every minor detail about it to the two.

"And we know how wasteful some people get with the medicines of the Hospital Wing, so Dittany is just absolutely perfect to cure such small wounds."

"Wait, so do we apply it on the wound or eat it?" Lily asked. Ariel smiled, as if expecting the question, "Both. Usually, of course, it depends on the severity of the wound-"

"Can we read about Aconite now, please?" Severus was already having a hard time listening to his peer teach him something, but it was only valid for her to teach them Herbology and Transfiguration after he helped them learn Potions better. They were all quite amateur in their explanations, but realised not a lot of people were as curious about the magical world as the three of them. Still, Severus couldn't help but steer the conversation to Herbs relating to Potions.

Ariel sighed. "Alright, but you-"

Ariel had been cut off mid-sentence twice in a few minutes so far, and she was not liking it.

"Wait! I completely forgot!" Lily gasped, pulling out a piece of paper from the book they were reading, "Remember when we talked about starting that book club? Welllll" The two girls had talked about reading a book together, then another, then another, but they somehow just couldn't, one would be busy, the other would be reading something else, and it went on. So, the two decided to give the reading a more formal status to boost their motivation. They had decided to form a book club, which so far only had the two members as Severus didn't want any part in reading "silly books" (though Ellie could swear he loved her recitation of ballet shoes). When given the task of making a membership card, Ariel enthusiastically began, but only ended up with decorating the parchment with stars and colours and the title. Rest was guiltily handed to Lily.

Ariel took the card in her hand. It was a rectangle shaped, off-white parchment, with its edges curved cut. Small, glittery stars made up the border of the card. On one side, 'OFFICIAL MEMBER OF THE READING CREW book club' was written with space for one's photo on the left and details needing to be filled on the right. The other side of the paper titled 'info and rules' which consisted of things such as:

- started by lily evans and ariel serrano circa 1971

- recommend good books and make our day.

- be nice to everyone, especially the founders, to get the membership. don't worry, the only thing we judge is the plot.

- a book a day keeps the dementors away!

Needless to say, Lily had gotten a bit carried way with her puns on books.

"Right on! Sorry Severus, no more revising, I'm way too chuffed for it." Ariel beamed.

They, however, didn't realise the lethal glares Madam Pince had been throwing their way fot the past ten minutes. They were immediately thrown out.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ⋆*･ *･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

Christmas that year was a lot more comforting than the previous ones for Ellie. So much had happened in the past year, coming home for Christmas with their yearly traditions in place felt like a familiar hug. Like they could be normal for once. They had gone for a swim two days before Christmas to meet her family. While being around her grandmother kept her on her fins at all times, the aunts made up for it by being the sweetest towards the girl, as usual. Ariel had decided she loved being spoiled by them. And bonus, her mother would finally relax in the waters with her sisters.

This led her to befriending Marina, a very beautiful mermaid cousin of her, of about her age. Initially, Ariel thought Marina hated everyone, but the more they were forced to talk, the more she realised what a hole she had felt in her life without a sister to call her own. The two exchanged conversations on every mundane thing each of their lives had to offer.

Marina was the daughter of the second aunt out of the three daughters of her grandmother. Rosita was the youngest. The oldest aunt had a much older son, Caspian, who worked as a guard in the King's castle. Ariel had never met King Triton, but she could imagine he wouldn't exactly be thrilled to meet the spawn of a mermaid and a human.

Back on the land, the three-week Christmas break was more magical than Hogwarts for Ariel. Her mom had made a bunch of Bunuelos and Empanadas ( which she had packed for school as well ) and they had spent the first week decorating their house as well as Scones & Soju, their local diner slash café slash a few other things, ( Seo-joon was still figuring it out ), and went on to have another perfect Christmas. She wouldn't let the few squabbles she had with her mom make it any less perfect, after all what was Christmas without at least one small fight?

"Ariel, if the window decorations aren't done by the time I get down, not getting into Willy Wonnie's Chocolate land will be the last of your worries!" Rosita yelled from upstairs, making Ariel freeze and get up instantly.

Once they were done with the decorations, they went to Scones & Soju to relax after a hectic few days. Seo-joon had done some renovating of his own this year, and seemed impressed with himself, an expression Ellie and Rosita's eyes almost sored for. They sat on their usual table and Seo-joon brought them their usual. Tea with cookies on the side for Rosita and hot cocoa, chocolaty enough for Ellie. "Thank you Joon!" The man responded with a smile and proceeded to sigh at Rosita for her excessive tea consumption, "New Year's just 'round the corner, perhaps we will cut down the acidity the upcoming summer, eh?"

"You know I'm going to drink two cups extra if you scold me right?" Rosita raised her eyebrows.

Seo-joon sighed, "Your wish is my command." He knew he could never win arguments when it came to Rosita, he had been trying for almost a decade. The place was bustling with people clearly spending Christmas away from their homes. Seo-joon turned around to go towards the counter when Ariel yelped, "Wait! Look what we boughttt!" She pulled out a poorly-wrapped gift. The yellow paper covering it had hand-drawn stars scattered unkempt with a glitter pen and a small note that said:

to our favourite hot chocolate giver

from your favourite customers (& only friends)rosita and ellie

"Ellie, over here, made it herself in Hogwarts." Rosita smiled. She knew how much Ellie looked up to Seo-joon and how much he adored her, but seeing Ellie be so eager to show it to Seo-joon ever since she came back for the holidays had been more

The receiver couldn't meet their eyes for a good five seconds. Until Rosita spoke up again,

"I wanted to wait till tomorrow, but since it's Christmas eve already, Ellie just couldn't wait." A sentence that made Ellie hide behind her mug. Seo-joon nervously opened the wrapper to find a snowglobe with the miniature of a man with a cup in his hand was charmed by Ariel to be sipping out of it, lighting the snowglobe up with every sip. It didn't take long for Seo-joon to realise it was supposed to be him, he was even wearing the turtlenecks he so loves to wear!

"Well-um-that's-" He took a deep breath and finally looked at the two with bright-red cheeks and a smile on his face, "Thank you for this. Merry Christmas loves," and hugged a grinning and very enthusiastic Ellie.

"Merry Christmas!"

Instead of replying with a mandatory 'Merry Christmas' Rosita did something she wouldn't have expected herself to do, invite Seo-joon to celebrate with them.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ⋆*･ *･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

Ellie and Rosita had made a tradition of their own on Christmas. When Seo-joon accidentally bought firecrackers instead of 'Cracker' the biscuits that Rosita had requested on Ellie's third Christmas, they had just moved to Cornwall and Seo-joon was nosy (Rosita's words, Seo-joon preferred 'friendly') enough to help. Since then, they had unofficially spent their Christmases together, with Seo-joon occasionally spending with his parents and extended family in South Korea. He had grown up attending Ilvermorny, but after he was all grown up and moved to the UK, his parents found it fitting to move back to Korea.

"I come bearing gifts!" The dark-haired man entered the house with a box full of firecrackers to burst to celebrate Christmas Eve.

Several bursted crackers and snow-fights later, the adults realised catching a cold was not on their to-do list and ushered the girl and themselves inside. Seo-joon read Anne of Green Gables to the girls, Ellie tried to fight off sleep but dozed off pretty quickly after her mum, followed by Joon. The three snuggled up inside soft Welsh yarn blankets, woven in colours that brought coastal grasses to the fore, keeping them warm upon that wintry night on the mattresses and sofa by the fireplace, wearing crocheted sweaters, warmth and smiles on their faces.

Merry Christmas, indeed.