The Girl with the Green Tail

Chapter Ten: The Beginning ("Part of Your World" Reprise)

Ariel swam with urgency to the surface, in hopes that the boy might, just might, be there... Waiting for her...
She broke through the water, splashing the air, and rapidly looked around for the boy, even though she knew it was highly unlikely he was there.
To Ariel's delight, however, the boy with the black hair, green eyes, strange object around his eyes, and dressed in the traditional Hogwarts robes (his with a red and gold lion stitched onto it), and the boy had seemed to be waiting for Ariel, too.
"Ariel!" the boy shouted with delight. His voice was much different than the voice with which he had spoken in Ariel's dream. "You probably remember me as the boy you rescued. Well, my name is Harry. Harry Potter."
Ariel flipped her tail in delight. "Harry Potter...." she repeated dreamily, her beautiful blue eyes gazing into Harry's light green ones.
Harry seemed confused. "You... Can speak?"
Now it was Ariel's turn to be confused. "What do you mean?" she asked. "I spoke to you that day I rescued you."
"No, er, I mean..." Harry said. "I thought merpeople couldn't speak above the surface..."
Ariel looked at him for a second. "What do they teach you in that 'prestigious' school of yours?"
Harry told her, "They teach us all about magic. And at least I know about human objects. What the heck is a 'dinglehopper'??"
"What do you mean?" Ariel said. "The dinglehopper is what Scuttle told me that all humans use to straighten their hair out." She looked at Harry for another minute, then said, "Clearly, you should use the dinglehopper more often."
Harry's hands instinctively raised up to his hair and attempted to fix it. He said to Ariel, "That's what they make hairbrushes for."
"'Hairbrush'?" Ariel repeated. "What's a 'hairbrush'?"
Harry sighed. "I could say the exact same thing to you about a dinglehopper."
Ariel and Harry discussed many other human objects, including the "snarfblat", which Ariel soon came to know as "the pipe".
"Well, I'd better get going." Harry said after about an hour and a half. "The Yule Ball is coming up, and I still have to find someone to take with me."
Ariel looked at Harry in bewilderment. "What's a 'yule ball'?" she asked.
"Oh, well, you see," Harry said, "the Yule Ball is a sort of dance that the champions and all the students go to. Apparently, it's like a tradition for the Triwizard Tournament."
"And why would you have to get someone to go with you?" Ariel asked.
"See, Ariel," Harry said, "a guy gets a girl to go with him to the Ball, and they call it a date."
"And you can't find a girl to go with you?"
"At the moment, no." Harry said. "I can't."
Ariel's eyes gleamed with delight. "I can go with you!" she exclaimed. "I'm a girl! I can go!"
"Well..." Harry said. "There's a....minor drawback..."
Harry indicated Ariel's tail.
"You're a mermaid. How would you be able to come and dance with me?"
"Well, I..." Ariel began. "I, uh..." She got really sad. "I can't... I have no legs to dance..." Ariel remembered her song, legs are required for jumping, dancing...
Harry suddenly made a shocking realization. "Wait! What if I use my magic to transfigure you? And give you legs!!"
Ariel beamed at the idea. "You can do that??"
"Even if it's just for a night..." Harry went on. "Maybe Hermione could teach me advanced transfiguration! You could come to the Yule Ball with me!"
"Are you serious??" Ariel said excitedly.
"No, but my godfather is." Harry said.
"I don't get it..." said Ariel, thinking he implied a joke.
"I'll introduce you to him one day," said Harry. "But I have to go, now. Same time tomorrow night, Ariel?"
Ariel nodded eagerly. "Yep! See you tomorrow!!"
As Harry left, Ariel sat upon her rock, daydreaming. She laughed, "Harry Potter..." she said to herself.
She began to sing, "I don't know when, I don't know how, but I know something's starting right now... Watch and you'll see! Someday, I'll be part of your world!"