The Raven and The Snake

Their compartment filled with sparks and smoke and misfired spells. On request to show off more, Ariadne placed both hands on Fred's head and, thinking of her little paper animals, turned his hair an electric blue. At great peals of laughter, she turned George's hair a stunning yellow and Lee's dreads became bubblegum pink.

The whooping attracted a bit of attention from the other compartments and the same girl that reminded Ariadne of Miss Piggy in Madam Malkin's stuck her upturned nose in to look at them disapprovingly. Her lip curled at the sight of Ariadne sitting with the boys, a large white streak running through her hair making her look like a badger.

"That looks fun." The way she sneered the word fun made it sound like they were doing something incredibly childish.

Ariadne's cheeks burned and the white streak faded back to her normal black. She tapped her fingers and steadied her breathing, looking into the girl's beady eyes. "It was fun until you came in."

The girl scoffed at her. "You realize we'll be arriving soon, right? You should be getting ready."

The boys scowled and shooed her from the room so they could pull on their robes over their clothes. Ariadne made a show of covering her eyes so they could remove everything if they wanted to, garnering a laughable strip tease from Fred who lifted his shirt to expose his stomach that hadn't yet gained any real definition.

Ariadne chortled with them as the train came to a stop at Hogsmead Station and all of the students disembarked. Fred kept an arm slung over her, his hair still electric blue. An older boy came at them with a scowl, his fiery hair combed perfectly.

"What on earth did you do to your hair, George?" The boy trilled loudly.

"I'm not George, I'm Fred." Fred corrected smoothly, not minding the boy's tone at all.

George popped up behind them, his hair yellow. "Calm down, Percy. It was just a bit of fun on the train."

Percy turned his eyes on George looking furious. "Well, you'd better put it right before the sorting."

Ariadne eyed the boy. There was a definite resemblance, outside of the red hair of course. He held himself completely different, but she could see that his eyes were very similar to the twins. He was their older brother, Percy. A 3rd year. Another, older boy leaned over Percy's shoulder and let out a howl of laughter at the twins' bizarre hair colors. "Come off it, Perc. It's funny."

This boy had to be in his final year, he had the same red hair, but unlike Percy, he was relaxed. He had a lopsided smile and his hair was a little ruffled, but fairly neat. He grinned at the way Fred's arm was draped over Ariadne's shoulder. "Not even off the train yet and you found a girlfriend, very smooth, little brother." The boy held out a hand to her. "I'm Bill."

She shook it with a laugh and shoved Fred's arm off of her. "Don't get ahead of yourself. You are clearly the brother with the looks."

It was easy to make a joke like that with Bill. He gave off such a casual atmosphere.

He laughed. "It's true, but give it a couple years, they might turn out to be cool yet."

They were laughing when a call came. "First years, over here."

Bill gave the boys a little shove. "You better go, you guys are getting on the boats."

Ariadne waved goodbye and followed the little swarm of first years toward a towering beast of man. The man was taller than anyone she'd ever met and his features were almost completely obscured by a crazy tangle of dark hair, but she could make out the twinkling black eyes over a wide smile. She blinked. Hagrid. The names were coming so easily now. She didn't even need to think about it.

Hagrid herded the first year students to the dock at the side of the lake, making sure they all got into boats in little groups of no more than four. Ariadne placed her hands on the boys' heads and their hair faded back to the normal colors. The boats moved along the lake of their own accord, not requiring any sort of guidance by the students or Hagrid. Fred kept trying to capsize their little boat, plunging his hands into the icy water and trying to spot the giant squid that was rumored to be in the lake. Ariadne was wowed by the sight of the approaching castle though.

The castle was magnificent with massive towers whose windows glowed yellow. The largest windows facing the lake had to be the grand hall where they would be sorted. Ariadne felt her heart pounding harder and harder, her anxiety mounting.

As they were ushered into the hall, she noted that she wasn't the only one on the verge of hyperventilating. Even the twins were starting to take on a green hue. She grabbed at their sleeves convulsively when a group of ghosts floated into the hall to greet them. They were all getting shakier as it came time to enter the hall.

Ariadne wanted to shrink into the twins' shadows, but she forced herself to walk calmly alongside the others past all of the older, already seated students. The staff table was at the front of the room, their chairs turned away from the stunning view of the lake to see the students like the painting of the last supper. It made Ariadne gulp.

Her gaze roved over the staff table. She could name them all the moment she spotted them even though she knew none of their faces. They didn't quite look like the actors in the film adaptions of the books. These, after all, were all real people and not polished celebrities. Even so, the movies hadn't gotten it quite wrong... just like the Weasleys weren't that far off. They weren't the same people, but they were still recognizable.

Professor McGonagall led them right up to the table where first and foremost was Professor Dumbledore. Like the films and drawings, he was tall and thin with an incredibly long, white beard and halfmoon spectacles. He was certainly old, but he had a vibrance that was impossible to mistake. He was smiling as though he was absolutely delighted to be there, looking over the students fondly.

Ariadne's gaze swept to either side of Dumbledore and came to a freeze on an incredibly handsome man with long black hair. Gazing at him, she knew at once who he must be, but there had to be a mistake. If the books were to be believed and so far they hadn't gotten anything wrong, this had to be Professor Snape, the potions teacher. But no, he was far too attractive.