Chapter Text
There was something a little bittersweet about the last snow.
It clung desperately to the edges of the path like it wasn’t ready to go - greyish and clumpy, melting into patches of cold mud. But the air was warmer, the clouds softer, and patches of green were starting to show along the hills near the village.
Ariel bounced on the balls of her feet, scarf trailing behind her like a Gryffindor comet. The moment the group passed the gates and the roofs of Hogsmeade came into view, she flung her arms out like she was greeting an old friend.
“Hogsmeade!” she declared. “The land of overpriced Butterbeer and legally edible chaos!”
Harry, walking beside her, gave her a sidelong grin. “You’re not allowed to narrate real life.”
“I’m the protagonist in my own head,” she shot back. “This is chapter fourteen, and I deserve sweets.”
Ron trudged behind them, scarf askew, muttering under his breath about melting snow and how he should’ve worn thicker socks. Hermione was by his side, visibly trying not to smile. Ginny skipped ahead, linking arms with Luna, who wore a sky-blue cloak with daisies stitched into the hood.
Stephanie had caught up with Anna, who was trying to appear deeply unimpressed but failed every time Steph tripped over the path and turned it into a grand performance.
“I swear, your legs are made of spaghetti,” Anna muttered.
Stephanie beamed. “But like... fun spaghetti.”
********************
The moment the door to Honeydukes opened, Ariel made a joyful noise not unlike a banshee at a carnival.
“Oh sweet, merciful chocolate cauldrons.”
The shop was filled with spring-themed sweets - pastel Chocoballs, candied tulip petals, peppermint blossoms, and bunny-shaped fizzing whizbees. Fred and George had clearly been by earlier because a whole shelf was labeled “Testers - No Refunds”.
Harry immediately gravitated to the exploding bonbons.
Ariel grabbed three bags and started filling them with reckless abandon.
Ron was eyeing some blood-flavoured lollipops in horror. Hermione had a strict shopping list and a furrowed brow. Luna wandered into the back and reappeared with a pouch of “Crystallized Moon Snails.”
Stephanie broke the lid off a jar just by looking at it.
Anna caught it mid-fall with one hand and gave her a slow, sarcastic clap. “Wow. You’re really thriving today.”
“I thrive in chaos,” Steph replied cheerfully.
Ariel nudged Harry with her elbow. “What’s your go-to comfort sweet?”
“Treacle fudge,” he replied, then quickly added, “but I won’t say no to Bertie Bott’s.”
Ariel smirked. “Didn’t you get earwax once?”
“That was the worst day of my life.”
“No, the worst day was when Malfoy enchanted your robes pink.”
“That was your fault!”
“You dared me!”
He laughed, and Ron, watching from behind a barrel of Drooble’s, had to grip the edge because sweet Merlin, they were flirting again .
********************
Later, they squished into a corner booth at The Three Broomsticks, scarves steaming, mugs of warm Butterbeer in hand. The place buzzed with laughter and music - the light outside was golden now, and even the last clumps of snow were turning into glistening puddles.
Ginny had managed to snag a tray of hot pastries.
Luna had made a tiny flower crown for the tip of her mug.
Stephanie was pretending the foam in her drink was a moustache and giving grand speeches.
Anna was sipping her drink with one eyebrow arched, but didn’t move away when Steph leaned on her shoulder.
Ron sat across from Harry and Ariel and quietly watched them share a chocolate tart.
Like - literally share it.
Ariel took a bite. Harry stole the rest. Ariel fake-choked on outrage. Harry gave her a smug grin.
Ron was pretty sure he was watching a rom-com develop in real time.
“You know,” Hermione said, leaning in. “If you stare any harder, they might kiss just to mess with you.”
Ron choked on his Butterbeer.
********************
The sun was setting when they started walking back - the sky painted in streaks of coral and lilac. The air was crisp, the first hints of spring whispering through the cold.
Ariel walked ahead with Harry, boots squelching in the muddy path.
“D’you think the last task will have, like, acrobatic dragons or something?” she asked casually.
“I’m hoping for an indoor puzzle,” he muttered.
“Because you’re scared of spring dragons?”
“Because I’d like to live .”
They laughed together, easy and bright, their steps falling into rhythm.
Ron slowed behind them, the rest of the group chatting softly.
He watched as Harry accidentally bumped Ariel with his shoulder and she nearly toppled into the grass, laughing the whole time.
And for a moment, Ron didn’t feel confused or exasperated.
He felt... happy.
Not because he understood what they were doing - he absolutely did not - but because he could tell they fit . In a ridiculous, hilarious, totally unpredictable kind of way.
He grinned to himself.
“Idiots,” he whispered again. “They’re my idiots, though.”
********************
The sun had barely dipped behind the mountains by the time the Gryffindor common room turned into a post-Hogsmeade nest of blankets, snacks, and utterly feral energy .
Someone - probably Dean - had transfigured the study tables into soft cushions and pulled the armchairs into a wide circle. There were at least three trays of leftover Honeydukes sweets passed around like ancient offerings, and Ginny had already stolen an entire jar of butterscotch beans and declared it “the tax of existing.”
Ariel flopped onto a pile of blankets near the fireplace, her scarf still half-on, her cheeks still rosy from the chill.
Harry collapsed beside her with a soft “oof,” tossing a handful of Every Flavour Beans into his mouth with way too much confidence.
“You didn’t even look at the colours!” Ariel gawked.
He chewed slowly. Paused.
“Soap,” he said calmly. “Marmalade. Something that tastes like regret.”
Ariel snorted and shoved his shoulder. “That’s what you get for tempting fate.”
He gave her a half-hearted, sugar-fuzzed glare. “Live a little, Anderson.”
“Die a little, Potter.”
From the other side of the room, Ron called, “Oi, are you flirting or threatening each other?”
“Yes,” they both said at once.
Ron groaned into a pillow.
********************
The room buzzed with happy noise - Luna and Ginny were arguing over whether Fizzing Whizbees were better frozen. Hermione was reading but kept peeking over the top of her book to smile. Stephanie had started collecting leftover wrappers and was fashioning them into a very loud, very shiny tiara.
Anna was sitting in a corner chair, watching the room with a look of contented detachment. She even cracked a smile when Stephanie called her “Her Royal Darkness.”
Fred and George had dropped in earlier to deliver “emergency joke kits,” including an enchanted deck of cards that made fart noises and a bag of gummy snitches that tried to fly out of your mouth.
Harry had tried to eat one and now had treacle stuck to his eyebrow.
“Hold still,” Ariel giggled, leaning in to try and swipe it off. “You’ve got half a Quidditch pitch stuck to your face.”
“I blame Fred,” Harry said, barely breathing as she brushed his cheek. Her hand lingered a second too long. Her fingertips were warm from the fire.
They both paused. Didn’t look away.
Then Ron, again: “I’m begging you - stop flirting like we aren’t all sitting right here. ”
Ariel grabbed a cushion and launched it at him.
********************
Later, Stephanie passed around mugs of homemade fruit punch she’d apparently brewed using “only vaguely safe ingredients.” No one asked questions. It was fizzy and glittery and had an aftertaste of sugar quills and chaos.
“You know,” said Luna dreamily, her legs tucked underneath her as she sat between Ginny and Anna, “this is the kind of night that makes the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks come out of hibernation.”
Ariel nodded solemnly. “I bet they bring their own snacks.”
“I am the snack,” Stephanie declared.
Anna, sipping calmly from her mug, said, “You’re something.”
“Did you just call me a snack in your weird goth way?”
“Never.”
“She did,” said Ginny.
“Shut up,” Anna muttered, but her smile betrayed her.
Ariel looked around the room - all of them draped over furniture like lazy cats, the windows fogged, the fire warm, and nothing but sweetness in the air.
She caught Harry looking at her again.
This time, she didn’t look away.
********************
“Okay,” Ariel said, suddenly standing, “new plan. Blanket fort. Mandatory participation.”
Groaning and cheering followed. They raided the dormitories for sheets, cloaks, scarves - anything remotely useful. Chairs were dragged. Spells were muttered. And after twenty minutes and one minor explosion, Fort Chaos was born.
It was crooked. Glorious. Held together by hope and a levitating textbook.
They all crammed inside.
It was warm. It smelled like sweets and Butterbeer and the faint scent of pine from the firewood. Someone had charmed the ceiling to show stars. Another had summoned twinkle lights from thin air.
Ariel, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Anna, and Stephanie were tucked together in a tangle of limbs and laughter.
“I love us,” Stephanie said through a mouthful of marshmallow. “We should form a band.”
“We’d be awful,” Hermione said.
“Exactly.”
Harry turned his head toward Ariel, their knees brushing under the blanket.
“You’re really something,” he said, low and almost shy.
Ariel blinked, then smirked. “Something good?”
He gave a crooked smile. “Something dangerously good.”
“Oh, you flirt.”
“You started it.”
“You literally begged me to go to the Yule Ball.”
“You flicked my nose.”
They grinned at each other like the rest of the world had melted away.
From across the fort, Ron nudged Hermione and muttered, “I give them a week.”
“Four days,” she replied, sipping her tea. “Maybe three.”
********************
It started with a single sentence from Ginny, right before bedtime, as she stood at the foot of Ariel’s bed wearing mismatched socks and holding a bag of sugar quills.
“Let’s take over Hermione’s dorm.”
And just like that, the quiet evening transformed into a six-girl coup.
********************
By the time they’d finished dragging half the common room’s blankets, three baskets of snacks, and an impressive haul of fluffy socks into Hermione’s dormitory, the place looked more like a boutique pillow explosion than a room.
Hermione stood in the center with a hand on her hip, surveying the chaos.
“...You know this is technically against the rules.”
“That’s why it’s fun,” Ariel said, dramatically falling back onto a blanket pile.
Stephanie popped up beside her, already wearing a crooked paper crown. “I hereby declare this a sovereign nation of nonsense. Hermione, you’re our Minister of Logic.”
“I accept this tragic fate,” Hermione muttered, but she was smiling.
Anna appeared next, pulling off her boots with practiced gloom. “If Stephanie sings again tonight, I’m cursing someone’s eyebrows off.”
“I don’t sing,” Stephanie said, wounded. “I perform. ”
“You perform aggressively off-key ,” Ginny added.
“I bring colour to your lives!”
“More like migraines.”
Luna floated in last, a long pink sleep robe covered in stars and tiny badgers. “I brought glitter-infused moon tea. It’s supposed to help with dreams and unclog the soul.”
“I love that you say things like that and mean it,” Ariel whispered.
********************
Once snacks were passed around - chocolate frogs, fizzing biscuits, Honeydukes popcorn, and some mysterious treat Anna only called “Dark Delights” - they all curled into a massive nest of pillows.
Hermione was braiding Ginny’s hair, Luna was painting stars on Stephanie’s cheeks with some kind of magical shimmer-dust, and Ariel was leaning against Anna’s legs, humming off-key on purpose.
“So,” Stephanie said, blowing powdered sugar off her fingers. “Are we gonna pretend none of us saw the way Harry looked at Ariel during that whole fudge situation in Hogsmeade?”
Ariel choked on her popcorn.
“I KNEW IT,” Ginny shrieked, poking Ariel with a spoon.
Ariel flailed. “Nothing happened! He stole my tart!”
“That’s flirting,” Hermione said matter-of-factly. “Stealing desserts is definitely a sign.”
“ You would say that,” Ariel grumbled, trying not to smile.
Anna spoke without looking up from her snack. “You like him. It’s been obvious since-what? Second year?”
Ariel threw a pillow at her.
Luna tilted her head, calm and dreamy. “Your auras do sparkle around each other.”
“That’s not real!” Ariel said, voice climbing at least five octaves with panic.
Luna shrugged. “Doesn’t make it less true.”
The room exploded into giggles.
********************
The laughter faded after a while, replaced by soft warmth and the hum of tea mugs clicking together.
Hermione was tucked into a chair with her book, Ginny lying across her lap. Stephanie had built a weird glitter-scarf cocoon and was humming to herself. Anna was filing her nails with a wand-sharpened stone. Luna sat cross-legged, eyes closed, as if listening to stars.
Ariel sat in the middle, her hair braided messily by Ginny and glittered by Luna, sipping her third mug of moon tea and feeling more settled than she had in weeks.
She looked around at her friends - so different, so chaotic, so impossibly kind in their own strange ways - and whispered:
“This is... nice. Like... really nice.”
“It is,” Hermione said gently.
Ginny nodded, voice sleepy. “Feels like we’re safe here.”
“We are ,” Luna said dreamily.
A soft silence fell over the group, warm and golden.
Then:
“So,” Stephanie chirped, wide-eyed. “Who here has kissed anyone?”
Cue chaos.
********************
Ron had always known something was up the second none of the girls showed up to breakfast on time.
It was nearly half-nine - late by Hogwarts standards - and the Gryffindor table had been suspiciously quiet. No laughter, no Luna humming, no Ariel flinging toast at people. Even Hermione, Queen of Punctuality , was a no-show.
That only meant one thing.
A plot.
“They’re up to something,” Ron muttered, squinting at the empty spots across the table.
Harry, half-asleep and cradling a mug of tea like it owed him rent, said, “Maybe they’re just tired?”
“Mate. Six girls vanish together overnight and return late to breakfast? There was giggling. I feel it in my bones .”
Dean leaned over. “Do you think they summoned a demon?”
Seamus perked up. “Was it glittery?”
Neville looked terrified.
And then- cue dramatic entrance .
The girls walked in.
Six of them. Together. Moving like a unit. Glowing.
Literally. Luna had glitter in her hair. Ariel had it on her neck. Stephanie was still wearing a crown made of sweet wrappers. Ginny looked like she’d just won a war. Anna, cold and aloof as ever, had matching sparkles on her sleeves. And Hermione? Hermione had a little smile. A secret one.
They sat down without a word.
Harry blinked. “...What happened to all of you?”
Ariel, far too cheerful, grinned. “We were summoned by the ancient goddess of sleepovers. She demanded popcorn, secrets, and blood sacrifice.”
Ron, who had just taken a bite of toast, choked. “WHAT-”
“We stayed up until nearly three,” Hermione admitted, like it was a confession of sin.
“Doing what?” Harry asked suspiciously.
“Girl things,” Ginny said.
“Spells?” Seamus tried.
“Curses?” Dean hoped.
“Boy analysis,” Stephanie replied proudly.
Every boy at the table stopped breathing.
“Oh yeah,” Ariel said, loading her plate with eggs, “we rated your personalities. Did a full psychological breakdown.”
“Ron was a 7.5,” Ginny said sweetly.
“I got rated?” Ron squawked.
“Room for emotional growth,” Hermione added, matter-of-factly.
Ron looked betrayed. “You graded me like a school paper?!”
“Better than Seamus,” Anna muttered.
“ HEY! ”
********************
Harry had mostly kept quiet during the chaos. But now, he glanced at Ariel from the corner of his eye, fork frozen halfway to his mouth.
“You didn’t... talk about me, did you?”
Ariel paused dramatically.
“Well, I wanted to put you on the ‘Needs Help’ board,” she said thoughtfully. “But Luna made a good case for ‘Dangerously Oblivious But Soft.’”
“I rest my case,” Luna whispered.
Harry stared at her. “...What does that even mean?”
“It means you blush like a dropped tomato and flirt like a broomstick,” Ariel said, patting his head gently.
Ron slapped the table. “Oh my Merlin , you’re admitting it now?! You do flirt!”
“I’m just charming,” Ariel said innocently.
“You hit me with a bread roll yesterday!”
“That’s how I show affection.”
Harry turned crimson and muttered, “You’re the worst.”
“You like it.”
Dean leaned over and whispered to Ron, “They’re totally in love.”
Ron groaned into his tea. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
********************
Eventually, the table settled into normalcy - sort of.
Ariel was now trying to get Stephanie to drink pumpkin juice from a spoon five feet away (with magic, obviously), Hermione and Ginny were deep in conversation about upcoming exams, and Luna had started handing out little glittery paper stars to everyone “for inner harmony.”
Harry watched it all with a soft look on his face.
Ariel leaned toward him, whispering, “Y’know, if you survive the next task, I’ll bake you something.”
He looked at her. “Yeah?”
“Chocolate frog cupcakes.”
“Deal.”
They smiled.
And this time, Ron didn’t roll his eyes.
He just smiled too.