The Voice, The Witch, and the Dark Lord

End of Part One - Chapter Twelve: Ariel and Eric

It was a difficult thirty seconds for Ariel, Sebastian, and Flounder. Ariel couldn't breathe, and had to spend her first thirty seconds of being a human almost drowning. Sebastian and Flounder had the hard job of dragging Ariel's body up to the surface, even though they were probably some of the smallest creatures in the sea (omit the microscopic creatures).
Once they were above the surface, they dragged Ariel to a small cluster of rocks, so that she was concealed.
Ariel gasped and breathed in her first breath with her new human lungs. Her red hair was dripping in her face, so she pushed it away, and a terrific sight met her eyes. She looked down where her tail would've been, and found that she had two legs! She looked at them in amazement, thinking that it was too good to even be true. She lifted up one of her legs, and wiggled her toes, smiling.
"Well, look at what the catfish dragged in!" called a voice, full of giddiness. Scuttle flew overhead and landed on Ariel's legs. "Look at ya! Look at ya! There's something different about ya! Don't tell me... It's your hairdo, right? You been using the dinglehopper, right?"
Ariel shook her head and smiled at Scuttle.
"No? Hm," said Scuttle. "I can't quite put my foot on it right now..."
After about a moment's silence, Sebastian snapped. "She's got legs, you idiot!"
Scuttle flew off her legs and looked at them in bewilderment. "Again?" asked Scuttle. "She's got legs again?"
"What do you mean 'again'?" asked Flounder.
"Don't you two remember?" asked Scuttle. "It was only about a year ago..."
Flounder looked at Sebastian, and Sebastian looked at Flounder, then the two looked at Ariel, and Ariel looked at the two. Ariel shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, indicating that she remembers nothing of the sort.
"We don't remember anyting like dis," said Sebastian.
"Let me guess," said Scuttle, pointing to Ariel with his wing. "Ursula?"
"Yep," said Flounder.
"Legs from the Sea Witch?"
"Yep."
"No voice?"
"Yep."
"Three days?"
"Yep."
"True love's kiss?"
"Yep."
"Harry Potter?"
"Ye- Wait, who?"
"Harry Potter," repeated Scuttle. "The wizard that Ariel became human for. The one she traded her voice for last time?"
"You mean, this really happened before?" asked Flounder. "But, why does no one remember it?"
Ariel looked down into the water at her reflection. Suddenly, in her eyes, she saw a green spark, and green light softly began to emerge from the water. She looked up at Scuttle, then at Flounder and Sebastian, and then everything went black.
She found herself in a pink dress, sitting with a brown, bushy-haired girl and a red-haired girl on a human bed. Then, she saw herself sitting at a long table, with a red-haired boy, a brown-haired girl, and a red-haired girl. Then, she found herself dancing with a boy who looked strikingly familiar to Prince Eric, but with round black things on his face, and she herself was wearing a blue dress. Then, she was in a boat with the same boy with the black things on his face, and he leaned in to kiss her. Then, she was in a room full of books with the red-haired girl from before. And next, all their names came to mind. Harry. Ron. Hermione. Ginny. All of it came rushing back through her like a wave. She remembered it. She remembered all of it.
"Ariel?"
"Child, are you alright?"
"Come on, kid, wake up!"
Ariel's eyes snapped open to reveal Flounder beside her, Sebastian on her chest, and Scuttle on her forehead. She was lying down.
"What just happened?" asked Flounder.
"She must've passed out or someting!" said Sebastian.
"Maybe we didn't pull her out of the water fast enough when she was transforming," said Flounder.
No, thought Ariel. It wasn't anything natural. It was pure magic...
"We should just not talk about dis," said Sebastian. "What we need to do is... What did we do last time?"
Scuttle thought for a minute. "I think you said you were gonna go tell her father, but then you changed your mind, so you promised to help her find the boy... Oh!" exclaimed Scuttle suddenly, causing everyone to jump back with a start. "And then, I gave Ariel some clothes!" He began to fly around frantically, looking for something that he could clothe her with. He found the old sail that came off of Eric's ship, and some of the rope from the ship as well. "Alright," said Scuttle to Ariel, beckoning for her to come over with his wing. Ariel knew where this was headed, but she also knew that she could not face Eric naked. She walked over to where Scuttle was and allowed him to dress her in the sail and rope. "You look just as fabulous as you did last time, kid!" Ariel pretended to have the same reaction as last time, thinking that it was beautiful. But, on the inside, she knew that humans did not wear old sails and ropes in their everyday lives. Or at all.
Suddenly, like last time, but not with an owl, Max came, running and barking, towards Ariel.
"Run!" said Sebastian.
Ariel ran onto a rock, and climbed up there where Max couldn't reach. She still was not used to dogs, having seen only one.
Suddenly, a voice called. "Max!"
A boy, whom Ariel recognized as Prince Eric, came onto the scene. She realized that Prince Eric reminded her of Harry because Eric has the black hair, but he does not have the glasses on his face, or the green eyes. Rather, Eric has blue eyes and perfect eyesight.
Max stood in front of Ariel's rock, barking at Eric.
Eric called Max over to him, and Max came and pulled on Eric's shirt with his teeth.
"What's gotten into you, Max?" asked Eric. He then noticed Ariel on the rock. "Oh," said Eric as he walked over to Ariel. "You'll have to forgive Max, I'm sorry if he scared you," said Eric to Ariel. "He's harmless, really..." He looked into Ariel's eyes and stopped talking. "You look...very familiar..."
Ariel beamed and nodded.
"Of course," said Eric. Max pushed Eric towards Ariel, and they joined hands. "It's you! I've been looking everywhere for you! What's your name?"
Ariel, in all her eagerness, forgot she had lost her voice. She mouthed her name, "Ariel", but nothing came out.
"What's wrong?" asked Eric.
Ariel touched her throat.
"Oh, you...can't speak?" asked Eric.
Ariel shook her head.
"Oh... I thought you were someone else."
Max rolled his eyes, and so did Ariel. An idea came to Ariel's mind. I can use my body language! thought Ariel. She used her arms to try and tell him she came from the ocean, then touched her throat and tried to say that she traded her voice away.
"You're hurt?" asked Eric.
Ariel shook her head.
"You need help?"
Ariel shook her head again, and she lost her balance this time, and fell off the rock, into Eric's arms.
They looked into each other's eyes for a minute, then Eric spoke. "You must've really been through something..."
Ariel nodded her head, a sad look on her face.
"Come with me," said Eric. "The palace isn't far."
He let go of Ariel, only for her legs to throw her off her balance, and she fell into Eric's arms again.
"Oh! I got you!" exclaimed Prince Eric, as he guided her to his palace.
Ariel looked back towards Flounder, Sebastian, and Scuttle, and beamed.
"Go, Ariel!" shouted Flounder.
"Said it once, and I'll say it again," said Scuttle. "That's what I call, 'reeling them in'!"