Seconds, minutes, and possibly even hours passed before I managed to get my emotions back into check. With a quiet, shuddering breath, I pulled myself away from Laurel, and wiped the tears from my face with the back of my sleeve.

"Sor—" I started, but she cut me off.

"Iv, we talked about this before," she said gently. "Emotions are nothing to apologise about."

"Right," I mumbled, only just stopping myself adding another 'sorry' at the end. I rubbed my eyes again, feeling the awkwardness that hung in the air around the other Order members, especially those who didn't know me yet.

In a rather thinly-veiled attempt to break the awkwardness, Remus eventually said, "Why did you call her Ariel earlier?"

Laurel gave a slight smile, the spark of a memory visible in her eyes.

"From the main character in The Little Mermaid," she started. Then, on seeing Thana's confused expression, she added, "It's a Muggle movie." Another confused expression prompted her to further explain by saying, "They're a bit like our photos, only they last an hour or two, and they've got a storyline. Sort of like a visual representation of a storybook."

"Riiiiiiight," Thana said, still looking fairly confused. "I think I get it..."

Noticing me looking at her, she caught my eye, a smile lighting up her face. I gave a slight smile back, before leaning into Laurel, trying to suppress a yawn. Despite the fact I'd only just woken up from a fairly long sleep, my sudden outburst of emotion had left me feeling tired again.

"Anyway, Ariel in the movie just reminded me a lot of Iv," Laurel continued. "Their personalities are fairly similar, not to mention they both had 'I want to go and socialise with people I'm not allowed to' — uh — things."

"I mean, I technically still do," I said, brushing a stray bit of my wild hair from my face. "I'm sure this conversation counts as forbidden." I shrugged my shoulders, my voice clearly showing how little I cared about this fact.

Remus chuckled quietly, and Sirius looked strangely proud.

"I take all the credit for the awesome part of your genes," he said, a smirk on his face as I rolled my eyes.

"Of course you do."

Silence reigned once more, only broken as I suppressed another yawn, then said, "I've never actually seen The Little Mermaid. Or any other film."

"You didn't even watch it after you left there?" Laurel asked, sounding somewhat scandalised.

"I was at Hogwarts the whole time, Lau. Well, except for the times they made me go back to the Manor. Oh, and that time I got kidnapped."

I could see shocked expressions at just how casual I'd sounded.

"What? I've got more important things to worry about than getting kidnapped right now," I said, thinking of my sister, and of how Remus had said I would probably be joining the Order if I wanted. Then, I thought of just how furious my mother and father would be if they saw me again, and shuddered slightly. "Actually, that doesn't really apply to possible future kidnap attempts, but..." My voice trailed off, and I shrugged again.

"Well, that settles it," Laurel said, standing up. "We're watching The Little Mermaid right now."

"Really?!" I said, unable to keep the excitement from my voice. I'd wanted to watch it ever since Laurel had first explained it to me, but it had — obviously — never been possible.

"Yeah!" She smiled brightly at me, then turned to Thana. "You're coming too, Anna; I think you'll like it. And, quite frankly, I'm surprised you've never seen a movie before."

Thana and I both followed her from the room, along the corridor, and into another room with a large black rectangle taking up much of the far wall, and some comfy-looking seats and beanbags facing towards it. Piled up in one corner were some fluffy blankets and cushions, much like the ones that were on my bed upstairs, only they were in every colour of the rainbow. Despite its dim lighting, which made it a little difficult to see, the whole room had a cosy, comforting vibe about it. I felt myself relax as Laurel sat me down on a beanbag, wrapping one of the blankets around me with the same loving care she'd shown me during her time as a Death Eater. Thana settled herself on one of the chairs somewhere behind me.

"I'M WATCHING IT TOOOOOOOOOO!" Sirius yelled, cannonballing himself onto the beanbag next to me, which caused it to slide across the floor and practically throw him into the wall.

"That was such a smart idea, Sirius!" I said sarcastically, taking myself by surprise as I let out a quiet laugh at the pouty face he was pulling.

"Hey! I'll have you know, I'm very smart!" he said, in a mock-affronted voice, sliding himself on the beanbag back to where it was originally.

"I never said you're not — but you've got to admit that was a pretty idiotic idea." I shrugged as best I could with the soft, purple blanket wrapped around me, a slight smile still on my face.

"I must say, I've got to agree with Ivory on that," Remus said suddenly, making me jump. He sat on the beanbag next to Sirius, sliding towards him until they were practically on each other's laps. "But honestly, I don't know why I'm surprised at the ridiculous things you do anymore."

Sirius pulled a scandalised face. "How could you say that, Moony? My ideas are all magnificent!"

"Everyone shut up; it's about to start!" Laurel interrupted, her voice coming from inside a cupboard next to the big, black rectangle on the wall. "Alright, I'm not sure what we left the volume on last time, so it might be pretty loud."

And with that, the rectangle on the wall suddenly lit up, with what looked like wizarding drawings moving across it... but there was music!

"Wow," I breathed, watching the birds fly across the picture in awe, as Laurel settled herself on the beanbag to my right. However, I was soon confused.

"How's the fish moving like a person?" I asked Laurel quietly. She smiled at me, a look of amusement in her eyes.

"It's animated, Iv. They draw it out, so they can make people, animals, and things work however they want."

It only took a couple more minutes for me to be confused again.

"Hey, Laurel... why's the fish talking?"

"To make it more interesting than just seeing one-sided conversations with the merpeople," she whispered back. "Things like that mostly happen to make the movie better."

"Right."

Despite some of the unbelievable things that were happening, I was really enjoying it, still enthralled by the fact the Muggles had managed to make it without magic. I even laughed quietly a couple of times, which was something I hardly ever did. But then, as they were talking to the seagull, five words spoken by Ariel suddenly made it much less enjoyable.

"Music? Oh, the concert! Oh my gosh, my father's gonna kill me!"

I flinched slightly, leaning my head on Laurel's shoulder.

"It's just an expression," she murmured, stroking my hair. "It just means he won't be pleased with her."

"Right," I mumbled again, aware of the effort it took to keep the tremor from my voice.

And it only got worse from there.

***
A/N: *throws another chapter at your face and runs away laughing*

You've finally got an explanation for Laurel calling Iv 'Ariel'! I know that a few of you were confused, so I hope this has cleared up that confusion!

Also, this is lowkey a happy chapter!!! Well, if you ignore the first bit... and the last bit... and that bit in the middle... 😂 But anyways, don't get too used to this — more drama is incoming at a high speed.

~Charlie 🖤