Snowy Owls
The Great Hall was beautiful, Catallena decided. Christmas trees stood tall along the edges of the hall, nearly brushing the sky in the ceiling. They were filled with colorful ornaments that twinkled in the light emanated from flying candles and torches. The air smelled of firewood, pine needles and the outside air that travelled in through the occasionally opening and closing double doors.
Mrs Norris, Filch’s cat, ran up and down the Hufflepuff table and tried to catch enchanted gingerbread men who would hide behind goblets and serving dishes. Only a few students sat spread around the tables, reading the Daily Prophet, doing last minute school work and talking to their friends.
Harry and Ron played wizard’s chess at the Gryffindor table. Catallena sat next to Harry. She was for once able to appreciate the Great Hall now that it was nearly empty and quiet. She read ABeginner’s Guide to More-than-ordinary Leporids and swung her legs under the table, looking up every once in a while to witness one chess piece destroy another. Usually, it was Ron’s pieces that would do the destroying and Harry’s the ones losing their heads.
Harry lost once more with his queen shattering to pieces.
“You are getting better, I think,” Ron said honestly to Harry. “Want a licorice wand?”
Silver dishes were filled with sweets and crackers for all four tables. Ron extended a licorice wand out to Harry and then on second thought gave one to Catallena too. The wands sprouted little sparks as they were bitten into – Harry’s was gold and Catallena’s pink. The girl savoured the taste of sugar and a beginning friendship.
It seemed like Ron was beginning to see past the reputation they were going to adopt by being Catallena’s friends for everyone to see. He thought it was kind of neat, the way she had defended the three Gryffindors in the library. Malfoy would think twice before messing with them if they had someone scary by their side. Only once had he made fun of Harry and the others since, taunting Harry about not having any parents to go home to for Christmas.
“Thanks,” Harry said, biting into the sweet. “I’m not as good as you are, though.”
“I’ve had lots of practice. Winning against Percy at wizard’s chess was the only way to bring him down a peg. Merlin knows he needed the humbling.”
“Percy?” Catallena asked around her licorice wand, the name unfamiliar. Her teeth were blackened by the candy.
“My older brother. Fifth year. He’s a prefect and will let everyone he meets know that,” Ron complained. “He’s going to Romania with mum and dad and Ginny. Said he was going to write a paper about dragon keeping and send it to Dumbledore for some extra credit – for fun! Insufferable, if you ask me.”
Indeed, Ron had gotten a letter about a week prior explaining that the Weasleys had decided to spend their Christmas visiting Ron’s older brother Charlie who worked with dragons in Romania. Ron had written back that he wanted to stay at Hogwarts for the break so that he could spend time with his twin older brothers, Harry and Catallena.
“He wants to be Minister of Magic someday. He’s going crazy about his O.W.L.s,” Ron explained, the words tasting bitter on his tongue. He covered the taste with a chocolate fudge.
“O.W.L.s?” Harry questioned. He was slowly getting used to this dynamic where he would ask Ron questions about the wizard things and Ron would answer reasonably helpfully. Ron was fascinating to Harry and Catallena. Having grown up in a magical family, he knew so much already but didn’t seem to think that the information he had was that impressive.
For Ron, it had been a surprise that Harry didn’t know the simplest things. He had assumed that Harry Potter, the boy who lived, would have much more knowledge than Ron did. Catallena, too, had learned that about Harry recently; just like her, he didn’t know much about how the wizarding world worked. They were sort of similar in that way, both soaking up information like sponges or starved children.
“They’re the exams we’ll be taking in year five. I think they’re called the Ominous Wizarding Levels. Something like that. They’ll tell us what kind of work we would be doing after school.”
“What do you want to be when you’re done with school?” Harry asked Ron thoughtfully. He honestly didn’t have any idea what wizards did after school.
“I don’t know yet,” Ron said. As he started listing off possibilities, he became redder and redder under his deep orange hair. “Bill is a curse breaker. I really don’t like Gringotts, though, so I don’t think that’s for me. Dragons are cool but mum wouldn’t want two sons in that field. Says it’s too much already, thinking that one of her children might get eaten or burnt to crisp. Percy will go to the ministry and I will not work under him. I refuse! That’s well enough, though. I don’t want to do paperwork.” He moved his chess piece and it crushed Harry’s knight. “Fred and George play quidditch so I can’t do that. I don’t think they take their studies seriously enough to have a career elsewhere. I mean, have you ever heard of three living quidditch players with the same last name?”
Harry and Catallena shook their heads as they hadn’t. Catallena couldn’t even name one professional quidditch player.
“And what if we were playing against each other and they won? I’ll obviously need to find some other career,” Ron huffed.
“Are there professional wizard’s chess players? Could you do that?” Harry asked, once again losing to Ron.
“Nah. I’ll be called a nerd for the rest of my life.” His dismissal made Harry smile widely. They picked up their chess pieces who fixed themselves in their squares.
“Speaking of nerds…”Ron trailed off quietly.
Hermione walked over with a pep in her step and took a seat beside Ron. She was wearing a deep purple winter coat and a white fluffy scarf – a new sight to her friends who had only ever seen her in her pristine school robes.
“I’m all packed, then. The train leaves in an hour so I need to go soon.”
Catallena was quite saddened to have Hermione go. Only a few weeks prior had they become closer.Those evenings in the library with Hermione, Harry and Ron had been a pleasant change to how things had been for Catallena.
Snowflakes began slowly falling down from the ceiling though they vanished before ever reaching the tables.
“You will keep searching for his name, won’t you?” Hermione pressed again, earning a groan from Ron.
“Yeah, yeah. We’ll spend our entire break in the library. We won’t even come up for the Christmas feast!” he snarked and Hermione scowled at him.
“This is important! I’ll keep on researching too. Maybe he’s known in the Muggle world,” Hermione explained.
“We’ll look for him,” Harry promised her, and she seemed content with that.
“Maybe you should look in the Restricted Section,” Hermione proposed. The three others agreed, though Ron begrudgingly.
More students came down to the Great Hall to say goodbyes to their friends and to snag a couple more gingerbread men into their pockets.
“I have to go now. Hagrid’s taking us to the platform,” Hermione stuck her hands into her matching furry white mittens.She adjusted the bookbag strap on her shoulder and stood up from the table. “Have a happy Christmas!”
“Happy Christmas,” Harry, Catallena and Ron wished back. Hermione turned back to face them when she got to the double doors that led to the hall and gave them a wave, smiling happily at Catallena, who waved back.
“I’ll try to go in.”
Catallena nodded and took his hand.
“You… want to come with?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Just be quiet and move fast.” He peered around the corner but couldn’t see Madam Pince anywhere. “I don’t think she’s in here.”
The two of them stalked quietly past shelves and toward the Restricted Section – a fenced off section in the far corner of the library that contained books that were off limits to students without a specific permission slip from a professor. Even during the day it was gloomy in this part of the library. Harry’s hand was slightly sweaty from nerves. He led the way and constantly turned his head around to see if they would be caught. His glasses glinted mischievously.
They didn’t have a permission slip. They couldn’t ask for one without someone asking them what a couple of first years would want from a collection of books which were dangerous or otherwise unfit for any sort of casual reading.
Harry had his free hand on the iron door’s handle, about to pull, when a beam of light made their hearts jump to their throats.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Harry turned, facing the librarian and thinking quickly. “Sorry?” he asked, all innocently. Catallena refused to face the woman – something about not being seen if she couldn’t see the librarian. Catallena stayed looking at Harry and at the restricted shelves that were now behind him. They were waiting to be explored, some of them covered in thick dust and some belted down to their shelves with thick chains. What secrets would they hold?
“That section is prohibited from students without permission, I assume you understand that.”
“I– I’m sorry, we didn’t.” Harry gave Madam Pince his best worried and apologetic face – one he had perfected over the years at the Dursleys.
Harry and Catallena were ushered out with a warning, which meant that they would not be able to research Nicholas Flamel’s name in secret.Though Harry’s efforts got the two of them out of trouble, Madam Pince seemed untrusting and stayed guarding the Restricted Section’s entrance ever since.
When they told Ron what had happened, he didn’t seem too let down. “I told you. We should just get McGonagall to sign off a permission slip. She would understand.” His mouth was full of rice porridge.
Harry was worried about what Snape’s evil plan could be. He knew it was something bad by the way his intuitive scar scorched around the man. The thought of not being able to stop the professor’s plans made him lose his appetite. He pushed his eggs around his plate and thought Ron’s idea over once again. “You think she wouldn’t ask questions? We’re not supposed to know about Fluffy or that there is something important stored at Hogwarts. If she asks questions, she’ll know that we were in the third floor corridor even though that isn’t allowed. And she might think that Hagrid isn’t a very good secret keeper. We could lose him his job.”
Apparently Hagrid was very loose in the mouth, as Catallena had learned through Harry. Hagrid was the one who revealed Nicholas Flamel’s name to Harry, Hermione and Ron with very little persuasion. The grounds keeper was very nice according to Harry. Very nice but still a bit of a blabbermouth.
Ron shrugged. “I guess we’ll need a different plan to get to the Restricted Section, then. But before that, we should ask Fred and George to have a snowball fight with us. Fred’s been taunting me about how I lost last year, but this year you two will be joining me. The snow’s perfect for that right now.”
“Don’t you care about stopping Snape?” Harry’s eyebrows were drawn together. This way his lightning bolt scar became half visible from underneath his messy dark hair. Was Snape really evil? Catallena was still unsure but didn’t allow herself to think about it too much.
“Of course I do. And we will. We should still be able to enjoy Christmas, though, don’t you agree? One day of fun won’t ruin our plan.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Harry relented. It did sound nice, finally celebrating Christmas without the Dursleys. This year he would get a big serving of turkey and ham and chocolates instead of sneaking out of his cupboard at night for some leftovers in the fridge. He even had some friends now who wanted to spend time with him.
Even the snowball fight sounded enticing to Harry. How many times had he watched through a window as children his age ran around Privet Drive chucking snowballs at each other? If the smaller ones weren’t fast enough, Dudley and his friends would gang up on them. You’d bring the snow in and it would ruin my rugs. Petunia Dursley would tell Harry. Besides, the oven needs deep cleaning.
Unbeknownst to Harry, Catallena was thinking the same things as he was. She dreamed of sweets and friends, too. She was cautiously happy about being able to stay at Hogwarts instead of going back home. Home was always cold in comparison. She had never had anyone to have a snowball fight with, either.
“They’re always late.”
“I don’t mind waiting,” shrugged Harry.
“We don’t have all day!” Ron was peeved.
“We don’t?” Harry asked and watched Ron make ten more snowballs in preparation.
“We do,” Ron relented slightly before adding: “But for having made us wait, I’m going to murder them with this snowball the moment they come around that corner.” He held up a big and uneven ball of snow in his green and holey mitten for Harry to see.
“Catallena doesn’t seem to mind waiting, either,” Harry noted, watching the girl hop around on the floorboards of the rickety bridge they were on. She was deep in some game she had made up, dancing around on her tiptoes and never touching certain planks. It didn’t seem to have any consistent rules that Harry could see.
The bridge of the south exit of Hogwarts was weathered and it twisted oddly from side to side. Crookedly, it led to where the scarcer and less scary part of forbidden forest began, the treetops covered in heavy snow.
Harry leaned on the ornate railing and looked out to see how the castle next to them rose to great heights. The school’s owlery stuck out in the distance. Owls circled over it and Harry imagined that his own snowy owl must be in there with them, enjoying friendships as well.
Catallena suddenly slipped and fell, the soft thud shaking the bridge just enough for a bit of snow to fall from the roof of it and down onto Harry’s stuck out neck. “Ack!” he exclaimed and desperately tried to get it out from under his red and yellow scarf. Ron was laughing now, seeing as Harry looked exactly the way Catallena had during her game as he jumped around and reached behind his head to remove the melting snow. When Harry began laughing too, Catallena allowed herself to join them.
“I’m glad she’s on our team,” Ron got out between heaves of air. “She would murder us by accident if it wasn’t so.”
Fred and George emerged from the castle soon thereafter, one of them wearing a thick orange hat with a furry ball stuck on top of it and the other wearing an identical one in cyan.
“Hey, Ron–” Fred was about to cheerily greet him before Ron’s snowball hit him from an angle to the side of his head. “You got snow in my ear! Prepare for war!”
“I have been preparing! For like… an hour! Where were you?”
“Causing mischief,” George smiled as if it were obvious. “Let’s just say that Filch will be finding a Christmas present of his own soon enough.”
“Mum will be mad,” Ron remarked, picking up the pile of snowballs he had made from the ground and putting them in the arms of Harry and Catallena.
“There’s no proof it was us. We are pretty good at staying undetected, aren’t we, George?”
“I would certainly say so, Fred. Oh! Hello, Blue! Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“We were beginning to get worried again. How’s Kisa?” Fred asked. Catallena was promptly picked up from the ground and raised onto his shoulders. “Good,” she answered and raised an arm to try and touch the ceiling of the bridge as they walked along toward the exit.
Once in the open, they took a left turn and instead of going to the forest they arrived at a field. Some bigger rocks and small hills created great hideaways for a snowfight.
“Now give her back, she’s on our team,” Ron demanded. Fred laughed at him and teased his little brother for how he would surely lose the fight without Catallena on their team. Even so, Catallena was lowered back down and pulled away from the twins to create a space between.
“No magic, no changing teams and no giving up until dinner,” Ron yelled the rules over a rock to the twins.
“Swear!” The two shouted back unanimously and Ron began strategizing with Harry and Catallena.
“I’ll stay here. Harry, you go below that hill over there and make sure you aren’t seen. Cat, you should go to the left where those rocks will be a good shelter– No, don’t… Just walk normally. When you get to your posts, make as many snowballs as you can and make sure you don’t miss your shots.”
Catallena felt slightly giddy as she left their hiding place with her head lowered. Cat, he had called her, she thought.
The war that ensued was long and messy with many twists that left Catallena soaked and shivering. She was losing shoes at a pace that would make sure that she would have none left by the end of the school year. Or rather by the end of the Christmas break. Even now with one of her shoes lost in the rampaged snow, she was thinking that she should learn to make shoes the way Professor Snape had that one night, lest she be left with only her woolen socks.
The rules of the game had been forgotten in record time. It had only taken a couple of thrown snowballs for wands to have been drawn to flick snow into other people’s faces. With snow in his eyes, George had tripped over Fred at one point and the two had rolled down the hill toward Harry. Harry had shrieked and jumped up from the ground to dodge the oncoming flurry of long legs and arms. He had gotten away just in time and started unloading on them with Ron, whose snowballs had looked lethal.
“Protego! They’re trying to kill us, George!”
“No fair! You can’t use magic to shield yourself!” Ron had laughed and sputtered out snow when George had begun fighting back once more.
“You’re a wizard. Use your own wand then!” George had taunted.
“You’re older, you know more spells,” Ron cried out, retreating to where Catallena had been sitting and making small snowmen. The twins hadn’t cared much about Ron’s words. They had wrestled Harry, who was laughing the whole time, underneath the snow and only left him alone when Catallena’s snowmen had planted themselves at their feet.
“Not like that! Like this!” Ron had taken over and unleashed his throwing powers at the twins, aiming at their heads. A terrifying sight, a smiling snowman flying for your face, as Fred and George had found out.
At some point, George had betrayed his twin and fought alongside Harry and Ron to drown Fred in magically enlarged snowballs. Only the orange hat had been visible before the pile had been blasted into bits and Fred had managed to escape.
Catallena had run around everyone, flicking snow anytime anyone had gotten too close. More importantly, she had found rolling down the hill time and time again to be extremely entertaining. When she rolled down the last time, everyone else was already sprawled on the ground where she landed.
“So who won?” Harry asked, completely spent.
“Us, of course,” Ron boasted and pointed at George who was shaking his boot in the air to get the snow out and at Fred who was lying down next to him to try and catch his breath. “Look at them!” Both their noses and cheeks were apple red from the exertion and the cold.
“Yeah, sure. You win this one,” Fred said with his eyes closed. Ron and Harry shared a high five.
“Just don’t get too proud now,” George chuckled and put his boot back on. “There’s always next year.”
“Hungry,” Catallena filled the content silence that followed. They now realised how it had gotten much darker outside, though some light still reflected from the snow around them. More and more windows of the castle lit up with inviting warmth and all five of them pulled themselves to their weak feet to drag them back to the bridge.
A big dinner was eaten that evening by all of them. They sat mostly in silence brought by tiredness and shovelled every sort of food onto their plates to fill their furiously growling stomachs.
At the staff’s table, McGonagall smiled behind her goblet of red wine, looking at the children whose hair was stuck to their faces and clothes from melted snow. The pink colour on Catallena Nocturne’s face was a relief to see.
Catallena’s feet only started hurting when she had to part from the Gryffindors for the night. She watched them haul themselves and their full bellies to the corridor that led to their common room, laughing about something Fred said.
“Good night!” Harry shouted back at her. “We’ll see you tomorrow morning!”
Catallena raised her hand and waved goodnight to them. It flopped onto the railing of the many staircases she had to climb when she could no longer see them. When she couldn’t hear them either, she began humming to fill the suddenly quiet hallway with cheer. A Christmas carol accompanied her the whole way up – one she had learned from the small frog choir that croaked during their dinner. Her singing didn’t disturb the two people in the common room or the empty beds of her dorm room.
Princess Kisa welcomed her with a ‘meow’ and they both settled for sleep. Not even Death could keep the girl awake that night – so worn out was she.