Fallen Snow

Without another word, Professor Scathach turned sharply on a heel, black robes whipping out behind her as she stalked off in the direction of the castle. Soon she had disappeared into the drifting snow, leaving Anna seething in her wake.

She didn’t know what sort of mind games the woman was playing, but she hated how easily they could get to her, from the cutting words to the piercing glares that she wielded like a subtle knife.

The quiet was broken by the soughing of the wind through the towering pines at the edge of the lake. But Anna scarcely heard it over the sound of her own thoughts whirling in her head, fast and furious like snowflakes in a blizzard.

Who was the Professor to judge whether she was capable of looking after Nix and keeping her safe? What did she know about anything? She didn’t even see Nix like Anna did – as a sweet little owl with feelings as acute as any human's, but as a dangerous creature that should be kept away from others. Why was she even pretending to care about her? What were her intentions…what did she want with the snowy?

A cold wind whistled past her ears, curling around her, trailing icy fingers over her skin and sending little shivers up her spine. Anna sucked in a breath.

“Nix? Is that you?”

No matter how many times she saw it, it always took her breath away to see that striking silhouette swooping out of the sky, great white wings barely stirring the air around them with each beat.

The snowy landed slickly on Anna’s knee with a rustle of wings, soft hoots muffled by whatever she was holding in her beak. But instead of a gentle hand reaching up to stroke her feathers, she was met with a stern rebuke.

“What were you thinking, using magic like that?! If anyone saw you…”

Nix shrank back, blue eyes riddled with guilt, and Anna instantly felt worse than she had ever felt before. She was acutely aware of the growing chill prickling at her skin, and the snowflakes swirling in the frozen air.

‘No…stop, please…no…’

Panicked, the snowy lurched back. For a moment, all poise and elegance seemed to desert her as one fluffy foot tripped over the other, sending her sprawling beak first into the snow, wings flailing this way and that.

“Nix!” Anna gasped, hurrying to pick her up and smoothing a few ruffled feathers.

The snowy certainly made for a sorry sight. Wet snow clung to her feathers and there was already the hint of a bruise forming under one of her eyes. Her wings were folded in tightly–a small source of comfort whenever she was feeling insecure and scared and wanting to withdraw into herself–and her head hung low, deliberately avoiding Anna’s gaze, only wincing slightly when a thumb brushed gently over the tender spot on her cheek.

Anna heaved a misty sigh. “This is starting to become a habit with you, isn’t it?” At least the winds had abated, and only a light dusting of snow continued to fall around them.

A glint in the snow caught her eye. Nix must have noticed it too, as she made a startled noise and tried to nab it before Anna had a chance to see what it was.

“What’s this? A rose?”

Teal eyes blinked, marvelling at the flower’s exquisite petals and its delicate thin stem. It looked like it had been craved–no not craved, sculpted–from glass, with a crystalline translucence and a polished glaze that sparkled like diamonds.

But as her fingers closed around the glistening stalk, a tingling shock almost caused her to drop it at once.

Cold!

Ice cold.

Her gaze flicked to the snowy, who was trying to make herself look as small as possible.

“Did you make this for me, Nix?”

Her owl’s face said it all. Eyes downcast, head hanging so low it was almost touching the ground, as though she was expecting Anna to berate her for doing something she wasn’t supposed to.

Of course she’s anxious and scared! You just gave her a telling-off for using magic, you bloody twit!

“Hey…look at me.” Doleful eyes stole a peak at her before shying away again. Anna sighed, scooping the sorry-looking bundle of feathers up into her arms.

“I’m not mad at you. How could I be mad at my sweet little owl? I just…” Over-reacted.

Her mouth twisted into a tight grimace from a pang of guilt. Nix had only been trying to cheer her up. And she had been in perfect control of her magic, right until Anna had snapped at her so undeservedly. All because she had let her anger and frustration get the better of her.

A little chirrup drew her attention to the owl nestled in her arms, who was probably wondering why the hand that had been making gentle stroking motions over her crown and nape had suddenly stilled.

Still chirruping softly, the snowy clambered up onto Anna’s shoulder, wings spread a little for balance, being careful as always not to hurt her with her talons.

Anna couldn’t help the shiver that ran through her as the bristle-like feathers around the snowy’s beak brushed softly against her cheek. Like the touch of snow, but with an added tickle.  

In spite of herself, she felt her lips tugging into a smile. As Nix nuzzled up to her, resting her fuzzy round head against hers, she turned to give the owl a small peck on her cheek.

“That’s for being such a sweetheart.”

The snowy gave a little squeak, ducking her head to avoid meeting Anna’s eyes.

“In the stories, this would be the part where you turn into a beautiful girl.” Anna’s lips quirked at the snowy’s bashfulness. Nix was just too precious when she was being thoroughly adorable and oh-so-teasable like this. “Maybe I should try again…”

She hadn’t expected to feel the snowy’s small body quiver. An icy draught swept past them, rustling Nix’s feathers and Anna’s hair.

“No…no…it was a joke, Nix! Of course I wouldn’t want that!” Great going Anna, tease the overly-neurotic owl, bloody brilliant idea, that.

A muffled hoot came from under Nix’s wing, where she remained for the rest of the morning, refusing to come out until Anna had given her enough penitent pets.

.

The sun was high in the sky when Anna trod out onto the Quidditch pitch the next day, inhaling a long, deep breath of crisp, cool air through her nose. Most of the snow had melted overnight, leaving only small wet clumps and slushy patches of white. Thick fluffy clouds blotted the azure sky and a bracing wind stirred her robes, carrying the sweet scent of pine.

It couldn’t have been a more perfect day for flying.

Her only quibble was missing Nix at breakfast. The snowy hadn’t been at the Owlery either when Anna had stopped by with a bag of her favourite owl treats in hand.

Probably out stretching her wings…

“C’mon you guys, clear off! It’s our pitch now!” She heard Mulan holler at the Slytherins, who were wrapping up their own practice, and making a show of taking their own sweet time about it.

“I’ve seen glaciers move faster than that.” Go crossed her arms testily, glowering at a raven-haired girl who landed nimbly on a snow-free patch of grass, several others following in her wake.

The last to dismount was the team’s Seeker. Her slicked-back bangs were wind-mused, wintry features marred by a dark bruise under her left eye, but as always her bearing was regal and aloof.

Her cool gaze flicked to Anna, who shot her a glare in return.

“Move it, Cass!” Rapunzel looked to be barely restraining herself from clonking her beater’s bat over the Slytherin’s head. “We don’t want you spying on our practice.”

Cassandra looked genuinely offended at the insinuation. “Now why would we need to do that?”

Her maddening smirk made Rapunzel bristle, not helped by the loud sniggers that went round the Slytherins, apart from for the pale blonde who continued to stare fixedly at Anna, quidditch robes rippling in the breeze.

A thin hand lifted to touch her cheek, which was sheered with a tinge of pink.

Anna’s glare faltered. What was this warm, tingly feeling in her chest?

“Arendelle! What are you staring at? We’re leaving.” Team in tow, Cassandra slinked off towards the change rooms. 

“Don’t slip on the snow on your way out.” Rapunzel called after her.

Anna’s attention was still drawn to the pale blonde, who hung back for a moment, casting a surreptitious glance over her shoulder.

“I take it that’s the ‘Snow Queen’?” Go followed her line of sight. “A regular ray of sunshine, isn’t she?”

Anna nodded absently, a feeling of butterflies in her stomach.  

“It looked like you were staring rather hard at those sculpted cheekbones.”

“I wasn’t!” Anna spluttered, with a rush of blood to her face. “I was just…admiring that shiner! The lofty Snow Queen getting beamed by a bludger? It’s not every day you see that.”

The other girl’s lips twitched. “Admiring, huh? Is that what you British folk call it? Well, she does have a wintry sort of beauty, I’ll give ya that.”

“Enough of that, you two!” Mulan yelled as she mounted her broom. “Alright everyone, let’s get down to business!”

.

Still in her quidditch robes, Anna headed up the stone steps leading to the Owlery, twirling her ice rose in one hand while marvelling at the way the flawless ice refracted with a myriad of shifting colours in the light.

“If you spent half as much time on your homework as you did smiling at that rose, you wouldn’t have nightmares about failing your O.W.L.s.” Rapunzel remarked drolly. “Where did you even get that thing?”

“It’s a gift.” Anna gave her rose another besotted smile.

“A gift? From whom?” Rapunzel pressed when it was clear Anna wasn’t going to elaborate more.

The straw bed crunched beneath their feet and the blonde’s frown deepened into a scowl. Anna glanced up to the top of the landing, where a rather indiscreet, and irate, voice was coming from.

“What is going on with you, Elsa? You’re sneaking out of the dorms at night, showing up late for class. The day before you even fell asleep in Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Scathach was only too happy to slap you with a week of detention! I swear, if you miss any more practices, you’ll be warming the bench for our match with Gryffindor!”

Warming the bench? More like turning it to ice. Of course, Anna doubted that Cassandra would have cared much for the irony in this instance.

She was close enough now that she could see Elsa’s glacial blue eyes blink owlishly. Cassandra wasn’t done giving her an earful, but the pale blonde hardly seemed to register any of it.

That bludger couldn’t have hit her that hard, could it?

Just like before, a thin hand lifted to her pale visage, fingers skimming over the bruise under her eye before coming to rest over the hollow of her cheek.

An almost imperceptible smile seemed to touch the corners of her lips.

Anna’s heart missed a beat.

“What are you two doing here?” Cassandra looked fleetingly surprised, before the irritation on her face was summarily replaced by a smirk. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were stalking us.”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Rapunzel rolled her eyes.

‘Anna!’

“Nix!” Anna craned her neck up, scanning the rafters for her brooding girl, and frowning slightly at not finding her nested on one of the straw-covered vaults. She was sure that she could sense the snowy's presence, and the air had suddenly acquired a deeper chill. “Come down here, you little floofball! I’ve got treats!”

“I’ve got to go.” Elsa murmured, looking alarmingly pale even by her standards. Before anyone else could get a word in, she had turned and all but fled from the Owlery.

“Is it just me, or is she acting weird?” Rapunzel slanted a brow as the Slytherin’s robes whipped out of sight.

“Yes. She is.” Cassandra answered clippedly.

Their raised voices had woken several of the roosting owls, who were turning their heads and hooting indignantly. “Hey, you guys.” Anna turned to them with a worried frown. “Have any of you seen Nix?”

They looked at her like she was a little soft in the head and took off for the higher rafters, one of them even cuffing her on the head with a wing as it went.

Everyone’s in a good mood today…

Just as Anna was about to call for her owl again, a blur of white swept in through the stone window, snowy-white feathers looking a little ruffled as though she had flown here in a hurry.

“There you are! Where have you been all morning?”

Nix chirped an apology, peering up at her with large luminous eyes. Well, one large luminous eye; the other was still a little squinted and nursing a bruise.

“Poor baby, is your eye feeling better?” Anna cooed, receiving a bob of a head.

Cassandra eyed the snowy, who seemed to quail a little, hiding her face in Anna’s quidditch robes.

“…could have sworn that I’ve seen that owl before.” Anna thought she heard her mutter under her breath, dark brows drawing together in a frown. It was gone before she had the chance to question it.

“Hmph. Just like a Gryffindor to take in an owl with cursed blue eyes. Bunch of noble fools.” The raven-haired girl huffed, folding her arms across her chest.

“Why don’t you go insult a hippogriff!” Rapunzel gave her a sharp glare, while Anna fought to keep a lid on her anger.

“Oh, should I apologise for hurting its feelings?” That infernal smirk was back on Cassandra’s face. It was clear that the Slytherin was enjoying this.

They continued to trade barbs like a pair of quibbling first-years, until they were unceremoniously chased out of the Owlery by a flock of angry owls who hadn’t taken too kindly to having their beauty sleep disturbed.

Nix looked sad to see Anna go, but she fluttered acquiescingly up to the rafters with good grace. There she sat forlornly, pretending to busy herself with preening her feathers, while the other owls settled back to sleep or helped themselves to the snowy’s uneaten treats.

.

The rest of the day passed in a haze of homework and more homework. The sky was getting dark when Anna joined the mass of students making their way down to the Great Hall for dinner.

A hand dipped to her pocket, for what must have been the hundredth time that day, pulling out her rose and twirling its elegant stem in her hand.

“Watch your step.” Rapunzel warned. Right on cue, the stair below them vanished, and they both jumped it with ease.

Anna grinned as the moving staircase spiralled around to connect to the floor below. “That ol’ trick won’t catch me out. I could jump it in my–”

Her little moment of pride was interrupted by a shriek and a thud. Anna ducked out of the way of a marble glass ball that went whizzing over her head, before helping Rapunzel to pull a first-year Gryffindor out of the gap in the stairs.

“Woah, it was like my whole life got turned upset down for a second.” A mop of dark hair spilled over wide, round eyes as the boy’s face split into a buck-toothed grin. “Hi, I’m Olaf!” 

“I’m Anna, and that’s Rapunzel.” Anna joined him in collecting the smattering of items that were strewn all around. “Hey, haven’t we met before––oof!” Someone jostled her hard from behind just as she was about to retrieve an owl-feathered quill. The world spun, and she could only watch in horror and dismay as her precious rose was knocked from her grasp.

“No!” A cry left her lips as she lurched after it, snatching hopelessly at the air.

But instead of landing in an ungainly heap at the bottom of the stairs, wind jolted from her lungs, she found herself face down in the softest, fluffiest…bed of snow?

Whoever her saviour was, Anna would have to thank them later. Clambering to her feet, she strained anxiously through the thicket of moving legs for a glint of silver on the ground.

Darn it, where is it?

“Well, well…what have we here?”

The hairs at the back of her neck stood on end.

“Gothel!” She heard Rapunzel hiss. “That crazy old bat, what is she doing here?”

It was unlike the Potions Mistress to be seen outside the dungeons, or to let such impertinence slide.

“I take it this trinket belongs to you?” She sniffed deprecatingly, without so much as a glance at Rapunzel. In her hand was a sleek ice rose.

“Yes–” Anna reached for it, only for Gothel to draw her hand back.

“Have you any idea what this is, girl?” She leered at Anna, pupils narrowing to slits, as though the unassuming rose was a dark and dangerous object that she had every right to confiscate.

“An ice rose. Which I am perfectly entitled to be in possession of.” Anna answered stiffly. The tingling at the back of her neck was growing stronger, only letting up when the Professor’s baleful gaze returned to the glittering rose in her hand.

“Curious.” Gothel’s eyes gleamed. “That something so sublime and beautiful could come from…”

“…cursed ice.”

A cold chill washed over Anna.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her hands curled into fists, voice rising heatedly. “Give me back my rose! Or I’ll hex your face full of giant boils.”

The contrived smile slipped from Gothel’s face for the first time, and she made a scathing noise in her throat. “Perhaps you’d prefer to see it for yourself.” Her wand flicked once. At once, fiery green flames sprung from the floor, rising waist-high and engulfing the delicate rose that she had carelessly tossed into them.

“Anna, no!” Rapunzel snagged a fistful of robes, hauling her back from the serpentine flames, which were hissing and spitting like angry vipers, eager to devour anything that came within their reach.

Anna fought against her hold, wand thrust forward. “Aguamenti!” The flames gave a mocking hiss, as the jet of water she had conjured sizzled into a thin vapoury mist upon touching them.

SPLAT! A white glob struck Gothel in the face. It was followed by another, and another.

“Who did that?! Show yourself, you little cheek! So I can turn you into a moulting bag of feathers!” Gothel’s face was livid, her fancy dress robes dripping with wet slushy snow, which she dispelled with a wave of her wand, only to be pelted with another volley. Several students were even having to bite their teeth to keep from laughing.

“Using magic to intimidate students, Gothel? Surely that is beneath even you?” A cool voice spoke, belonging to the last person Anna wanted to see.

Professor Scathach glanced wordlessly at her through the fiendish flames, a fiery glow reflected in her eyes. With a flick of her wand, the flames vanished, leaving only charred flooring, and a pristine ice rose.

Anna twisted out of Rapunzel’s grasp, snatching it up before that old crone could get her claws on it again. The ice was cold to the touch, glinting softly as if to reassure her that it was unscathed.

“I think you should leave, Gothel. I’d so hate to see your face covered in giant boils.” Professor Scathach said pithily.

This time there were actual sniggers from the crowd, which led the Potions Mistress to turn a nasty shade of green, before stalking off toward the dungeons.

“I can’t believe it––that was dark magic, wasn’t it?” Rapunzel looked uneasily from Anna to the icy rose clutched tightly in her hand. “How could it––what kind of magic would be impervious to that?”

Unusually powerful magic.

“It’s not that unthinkable. I mean, Mulan’s got that dragonhide cloak that can repel all but the strongest of spells.” Anna didn’t know if she was trying to convince herself or Rapunzel.

“That’s the point, though. Your ice rose is made of ice, not dragon scales.” Rapunzel gave her a look. “I wonder what sort of enchantment it has, and why Gothel has taken such an inordinate interest in it?”

“C’mon, let’s just get out of here.” She shook her head before Anna could open her mouth to argue.

“Hold it.” They both froze. Anna could feel Professor Scathach’s hard, flinty stare on her.

She expected to get a slighting remark and points docked from Gryffindor for causing a scene in the halls, to say nothing of pulling a wand on a Professor. Instead, the Professor merely grunted and held up a smoked-filled marble glass ball, which was giving off a crimson red glow. “Does this toy belong to you too?”

“My Remembrall!” A chirpy voice piped up, belonging to the first-year who had fallen victim to the trick-step earlier. “Erm, have you forgotten something, Professor? It only glows red like that when you have. My Gran got it for me because I’m always forgetting things, but I can never remember what I have forgotten, so–”

The Professor quelled him with a look, once again turning her searing gaze onto Anna.

“And you. I know you’re daft as a brush but surely even you can see that Gothel isn’t interested in your Merlin-damned rose, so much as where you got it. Oh yes, don’t think I don’t know where you got that trinket.” She paused to let her words sink in.

“And tell that little floofball. Throw any more snowballs and she won’t have to worry about Gothel turning her into a moulting bag of feathers.”