Snow For Christmas
Aniara sat at her window looking out onto the grounds of the manor as she watched the snow fall. In just a few weeks she wouldn't be alone at the manor anymore. She had never been more excited for Christmas in her life. The weekends were beginning to get harder for her. It wasn't so bad during the week being able to pretend like she was actually at school and in classes with her brother. She was learning a lot from the teachers and had fun with her morally grey pasttime of evesdropping on conversations of other students. She was enjoying getting lots of gossip about who was dating who this year, who was getting their first kiss. She noticed which students were out about their sexuality and which ones were still in the closet.
Some things were harder to listen to, like when girls were talking about their "friend" behind her back, or boys making fun of some girls that had gained weight over the summer or others that were still flat chest after the summer. While she enjoyed hearing some of the older kids gossip, she learned quickly to stay away from some of them as they began talking about things she didn't have must interest in hearing quite yet.
The strangest thing to happen at school so far was the acknowledgment from some of the ghosts. They appeared to be able to see her sometimes. Only sometimes though. None of them had tried talking to her, but some like the fat friar and Hector Thinnle had looked directly at her and smiled while nodding their heads to her before going about their afterlife. She wasn't quite sure what to think or feel about the interactions so she tried to push them from her mind.
But weekends were difficult. Students were either studying, going to Hogsmade, or spending time with their friends on the castle grounds. If Scorpius was studying it wasn't so bad. She could sit next to him in the library or the common room and have him flip pages in a book for her while she read. But if he was with his friends it was harder. She hadn't anticipated how hard it would be. Sometimes she could muster up the ability to be around the four of them and watching their friendship grow. Laugh as they made fun of her brother, try to make Scorpius laugh at the most inopportune moments while Rose was off on a tangent about class or a book she was reading.
One thing she had noticed was Al, or more spesifically, Al's feelings about her brother. If she hadn't watched Scorpius and Anthony for their whole childhoods she might have chalked up some of Al's expressions or actions as just being incredibly nice or protective of his best friend. But since watching people took up most of her life for the last four years, Aniara was good at picking up on the more subtle things about people. Like how Al had a crush on Scorpius. She was tempted to write to Rose about it, but knew she couldn't as it would raise some questions about how she would even know such a thing. And she couldn't say she got it from letters from Scorpius because he hadn't even realized his feelings for Al either. She had noticed those almost instantly. She felt his heart rate pick up slightly whenever Al walked in the room and his barely noticible emotions when his gazed lingered on Al for just a second too long. Her brother, of course, was too oblivious to his own emotions to even realize his crush, but Aniara noticed it all.
Even though she enjoyed watching the Rebel Kids, it was becoming increasinly harder to be around them on the weekends. So, unless a Quidditch match, a birthday party or some other pre planned event was happening, she spent the weekend at home. Or rather, spent it actually aware of what was happening in her home. She would spend time with Pip in the kitchen or with her mother in the library. She could even sometimes convince her father to walk the grounds with her, even after the weather had turned chilly.
"Missing your brother much?"
"Mostly on the weekends like today. I just distract myself throughout the week with reading the same textbooks he does and studying for imaginary exams."
"Ani, you know you can't-"
"Yes father. I can't actually do any magic. I can't brew potions or make feathers fly. But learning the spells and recipies like I actually can makes me feel... normal. Sane."
Draco looked down at his daughter and heaved a sigh.
"I'm sorry Cygnet. I just wish I could help you somehow."
Aniara smirked up at him with one reminicent of his own 11 year old face. "You could take me to diagon alley to get more books. We could even go to muggle London and pretend to be muggles on a father daughter date. Try and blend into the crowd"
He didn't look down at his daughter, just straight ahead towards the manor greenhouses. Aniara let her face fall and didn't speak again for a few more minutes, understanding the unfair line she had just crossed.
She looked down at the rose bushes covered in an ever growing layer of snow and made up her mind. She didn't bother putting on a winter cloak as the cold had never really bothered her, so in just a light jumper and short boots she marched out onto the grounds and set to igoring her parents rules.
Never be more than 50 feet from the Manor.
Never leave without telling an adult or instructing a house elf to.
Never walk the grounds when visitors were calling.
Never go to the front gates.
Be inside before dark.
Aniara walked to the front gates and opened them. She wasn't planning to leave, but just wanted to check that rule off her list. Check. She hadn't told an adult she was leaving. Check. Or a house elf. Check. She closed the gate and proceeded to walked towards the greenhouses, which were at the 50 foot limit. Once she reached them she promptly ignored them and walked pasted them to 51 feet. 52, 53, 59, 63, 70. She was at the woods now. The Malfoy property was large, several acres, the included the Manor, the greenhouses, the hedge maze, the stables, a pool turned ice rink in the winter, a few acres of well maintained grass for high society parties and functions, and it was surounded by acres of thick woods. The Malfoy cemetary was just inside the woods beyond the greenhouses, warded with magic and hidden by the thick woods. Aniara had no plans to visit there, no reason to see all the names of her ancestors that she had heard enough sneers about. No, she had a different destination in mind.
The lake.
Her and Scorpius had found it a few times when they were younger. It wasn't very large as it was surrounded by the Malfoy woods, but it held a certain magic the twins had always found facinating. It never froze over in the winter and during the summer they could sometimes find lights floating in the lake during certain times of the day. They hadn't been to the lake since they were eight. Their mother and Pip had scolded them for breaking the rules when they had found them coming back just before dark and they had agreed never to break the rules again. Their mother's anger was something they were used to, but Pip's shook them both to the core.
But today, Aniara didn't care about rules or making Pip angry. She didn't care about being a squib or having to hide it from the world. She just wanted to go somewhere that only held happy memories and be as truely alone as she felt. After a few minutes of walking the familiar path towards the lake, she felt it. The subtle warmth that lifted off the water's edge and made its way towards her. She smiled and sighed in relief. Making her way into the clearing, she smiled at the lake. She noticed the water ripple as if the lake was smiling back at her and saying, 'long time no see.' She made her way over to the water's edge and sat down on the snow covered beach. She looked out at the water and put a hand to her chest, feeling her brother's heart beat next to hers. It was steady and calm. He was probably taking a nap or studying. She just sat there for a while reveling in being absolutely alone. She felt the cold lick her face and try to freeze the tears on her cheeks and she let it.
******************
He heard the sneering and the whispered comments of "Blonde," "his father," and "snake" coming from the other side of the bookshelf behind him. And like every other time he heard them, he brushed it off and brought his focus back to his herbology essay. His sister had told him he needed to fix it but he hadn't had the energy too until today. Al was off at Hagrids for tea and Rose was throwing snowballs with Andy and a few other students down by the lake. Scorpius had been invited but knew his sister would annoy him if he didn't get this essay done. So here he was sitting alone in the libraray trying to find a reason to care about how to properly bottle and transport mishvine and turnip root. He was not finding one.
Ever since Professor Potter's speech at the beginning of term, the only comments and snears he heard from other students only happened when he was alone. No one dared do or say anything when Al or Rose were around so as not to incure Al's fist or have news get back to Potter about their misbehavior. Scorpius was greatful for their common sense. Letting their words roll off his back was easier than Al's overprotectivness. Scorpius and Rose had only had to hold him back once after a fourth year made a dumb remark about death eaters for his history of magic essay while Scorpius was in ear shot. Al had gotten up so fast that Scorpius almost didn't catch him.
"Al stop! He wasn't talking about me or my family."
"He shouldn't have even said anything at all."
Al's fists were balled up and the fourth year was an inch away from falling out of his seat and running out of the great hall. Al was giving the fourth year a look that sent the message, "One more word and you can spend the night in the infirmary." Al wasn't a big kid or even very strong, but his face when angry was intimidating to even the 7th year Quidditch players. Al was a skilled duelist, that everyone knew, he could hex someone before they even saw it coming, but in actualy fights Al's go to was his fists. But no matter if his wand or his fists were used, everyone knew to stay off of his bad side as much as possible. He hadn't physically fought anyone yet, but his face said it all.
"It was an honest mistake, slip of the tongue Al. Just sit back down and finish your beef sandwich."
Al tore his gaze away from the fourth year to look at Rose. His posture relaxed a bit but he didn't move until he looked over at Scorpius. He smiled at Al and patted his shoulder.
"Detention over an essay isn't worth it Gideon."
Al nodded and fully relaxed before he sat back down at the table and ate the rest of his lunch.
Scorpius heard the voices behind him snicker once more before quickly silencing. He glared back at his parchment and hoped he could just intimidate the essay into writing itself. As he sat there glaring, he heard the chair on the other side of the table slide out as someone set their book on the table and sat down. He assumed it was one of his friends or a house mate and didn't look up to meet their eyes. He began twirling his quill in his fingers when he heard a voice begin to speak in a teasing tone, "Want me to tell on them to Al?"
Scorpius looked up to see the face of not one of his friends, but of James' friends, Charlie.
"Oh please no! I can handle their sneers just fine on my own thanks." Scorpius smiled softy at Charlie before slightly furrowing his eyesbrows in confusion. Charlie's hair, which seemed to change every few weeks, was now a bright Christmas green and had different colored small beads looped into several small braids throughout their hair. It seemed like Charlie was trying to make their hair look like a Christmas tree only they were missing something, "You forgot your star topper." Scorpius lifted the corner of his mouth as he pointed towards Charlie's head with his quill.
Charlie scrunched their nose at him, "Thats the game. A tradition now as of this year. The first to put the topper on the Christmas Charlie before going home for Christmas wins. And if I stop them, I win. I did the same hair style last year on a whim. I had only started experimenting with different hair styles and colors the October before so when Decemeber rolled around I though, eh, screw it, lets make my head look like a Christmas tree. But I thought a topper would be too much so I just left it. Farris made your same observation and Claire ran to get one of her star barettes. When I swatted her away when she tried to pin it on me, the three of them instantly made it into a game. Rules were agreed upon as well as prizes. I didn't like the game at first, but after a few days it got really fun. The other three got super excited last week when I came down the stairs with my hair like this. They have yet to decide on this years prize however."
Maybe it was because it was just the two of them, but Scorpius finally asked the question that had been on his mind ever since he met Charlie, "Why do you change your hair so much?"
Charlie waggled an eye brown and sat up straight before answering. "What is hair if not a means to express one's soul and feelings. I've never felt fully confident with myself until my mum showed me how to change my hair color and let me do whatever I wanted with my hair. Ever since I have been changing my hair with the season, or my mood, and sometimes with the weather. Claire likes helping me pick out new styles to try. She almost got me to shave it all off at the end of last year, until Faris reminded me that it would take a month or two before I had enough hair to dye again and I crossed that hair style off the list. I don't think I could stand having "normal" color hair for a month or two. Yuck!"
The two of them laughed quietly for a moment before Scorpius brought his focus back to his dreaded essay. There were a few beats before Charlie spoke up again with a soft, reasuring voice.
"It gets better you know."
Scorpius looked up at them confused. Charlie just pointed to the bookcase behind him and drew his lips together sympatheically before speaking again.
"Being friends with a Potter who will fight any small battle for their friends, even when those friends don't need them too. James is the same way. They all are really."
Scorpius huffed and looked out the window of the library but didn't say anything. Charlie continued anyway.
"Potters are fiercly protective. My Grandad was a year older than James' and Al's and told me how protective James Sr was of Black and Lupin. Loads of fights and detentions just because someone looked at them wrong. And take their dad, he litterally sacrificed his life for the entire wizard and muggle world. He even went up to bat for you dad at his hearing 20 years ago."
Scorpius made a face and looked back down at his essay, pretending to think about it while Charlie spoke.
"James last year was a borderline nightmare. It was great at first having a friend so fully supportive that they never once get your pronouns wrong and correct everyone. Even when Professors slipped up and made mistakes, he wouldn't hesistate to call them out. But after a few weeks it got to be too much. It's one thing when someone is misgendering you maliciously but even when an older student who didn't even know me would call me he or miss, James would berate them. It seemed like their comments or misgendering hurt him more than it hurt me. I finally got in his face after a 7th year appoligized for running into me by saying, "sorry miss" and James was stalking after him up the stairs yelling. I stopped him and yelled at him that I could take care of myself and that he didn't need to fight every single tiny battle for me."
Scorpius quickly looked up at them in surprise, "What did James say?" he was more eager than he thought about the answer to his question. Charlie chuckled a bit before leaning in close to Scorpius over the table and whispering the answer.
"James said, 'I will fight any battle I want for any of my friends and no one will stop me.' So I relented."
Scorpius sighed and pulled away from Charlie slightly disapointed by that answer. Charlie smiled back at him and patted his hand on the table.
"I told you, its gets easier. Being overly protective and fighting every battle, no matter how small, is how a Potter shows that they care about you. You just got to let them until they realize that they don't actually have to fight every one. James has gotten better in the last year. He only yells at anyone being purposfully bigoted. Minor mistakes just roll of his back now and he calmly corrects people that know better. You just gotta give Al time to realize that not every battle is worth the energy."
Charlie tapped the table with their knuckle softly before leaning back in the seat and opening up their book to get back to studying. Scorpius was silent for a long while, letting their words sink in as he proccessed them. He looked back down at his parchment and whispered a quiet "Thank you" before getting back to his essay. The two studied for a few minutes longer until, after Scorpius groaned loudly in frustration and let his head fall heavily onto the table Charlie then moved to sit on Scorpius' right side to help him with his essay.
************
The air buzzed with excitement in the Great Hall as students were eating their last meal at Hogwarts before Christmas break. After lunch, those going home for break, would gather their things and head to Hogsmade to board the train home. Aniara was seated next to Rose as the two read their owl book club book. Rose kept grabbing food with her fork but never bringing it up to her mouth as she was too engrossed in the book. They were both getting to the end and were trying to finish it so they could spend Christmas break talking about it.
Scorpius and Al were listening to Andy talk about his family's weird Christmas traditions as Al steadily ate his food. Scorpius was having a harder time eating after hearing some of the weird foods Andy's family ate for Christmas dinner.
Suddenly Rose dropped her fork and brought her hand to her mouth as she gasped and expressed her thoughts outloud in a loud jumbled mess of, "No! What?... but he... No way! Why?" Some of the students close to them had silenced their conversation at her loud outburst, glaring for a moment, before going back to their previous conversations.
"Rose, keep it down will you. Some of us are trying to talk about our upcoming break. Anyway," Andy turned back to Al and Scorpius and continued, "Then just before the sun sets, we take the goat and parade it down the street as the kids..."
"Merlin no he didn't! I can't believe. Ah! What... no impossible, no!!!!" Aniara was almost screaming. Apparently her and Rose were at the same spot in their book. Scorpius tried to keep his face from scruntching up as he was the only one able to hear his sister's high pitch squeels.
"Ani, please keep the pitch to a lower register. There shouldn't be any reason my ears are bleeding right now." He sent to her as he tried to keep his face impassive and get his focus back to Andy's story. Aniara ignored him and spoke loudly.
"No I can't! Atarian just shot his own sister to keep the Beloas from getting the coordinates to S'tka and basically stranding himself and the major in space. I cannot believe she would end the story like this! I only have 4 more pages and the story cannot end with Zhakia dying!"
"No no no no no no!" Scorpius looked over at Rose and saw a tear fall down her face as she turned the book to the last page.
"Ahhhh! No! Oh sweet Morganan!" Rose closed her book and slammed it on the table.
"What happened Rose?" Al asked fully distracted from Andy's story. Andy closed his mouth and glared at Rose before popping his lips and letting out his breath. All three of them looked at her as they watched her try to hold in her tears.
"No don't ask her that I am one page behind hold on-"
"He didn't need to shoot her! Atarian should have just waited and let the throck finish eating the major's brain and then they could escape but no. He just went through all that work of protecting her for nothing!"
"A throck had infected the major what..." Aniara turned the page and read some more before her eyes got wide, "How did Atarian not see the Major was infected? How did we not see it! All that work for..." she read on some more as Rose continued to cry and explain the rest of the ending to the boys. Soon Aniara was crying as she did the same as Rose, slamming her book shut. Only Aniara threw the book away from her, possibly hitting the door of her closet.
"What is a throck?" Al asked, which caused Andy and Scorpius to groan.
"You don't ask about the plot of muggle books Al. They are weird and confusing. Especially the fie sigh books." Andy groaned out. Aniara and Rose corrected him at the same time, "Sci-Fi" Rose continued on talking about the plot of the book and explaing what throcks were and the Beloas and how ships were in space but trolls existed there too.
Scorpius plugged his ears with a charm and put his head in his hands. He knew what was coming. Rose and Aniara were not going to stop talking about this book the whole ride home. The problem was he would be the only one hearing both of them which meant he would be going home with a massive headache. He could just shut Aniara out, but that would only anger her and he didn't want to go home to an angry twin.
Once lunch was over they all made their way to their dorms to grab their things and put on their winter cloaks for the journey to the train. They would get to ride in the carriages down to Hogsmade but the wind was blowing hard, making it that much colder. Scorpius had a surprise for his friends, an early Christmas gift as it were. Just as Rose and Andy met them at the bottom of the staircases, Scorpius pulled out his wand and pointed it to himself and quietly whispered the incantation, the final test of his skills. He felt the effects instantly and smiled brightly.
"What did you just do Ned?" Andy asked cautiously.
Scorpius held back a laugh but pointed his wand at Andy and said quickly, "Happy Christmas!" then spoke the words to the warming charm. Andy flinched but paused as he felt his body warming from the spell.
"A little warning next time Scorpius!" Andy balked at him but Scorpius could see he couldn't hold back his smile.
"My turn," Rose said as she raised her hand in the air as if it was the middle of class.
Scorpius nodded and cast the spell on Rose and then on Al who chuckled before pulling him in for a hug.
"When did you learn the warming charm Cori?" Al said as he linked their arms before turning to hold out his other arm to his cousin. Scorpius shrugged nonchalantly before answering, "I may be incredibly ahead in charms class and found a copy of the second year charms book in the library."
"Of course our Ned is ten steps ahead in charms class." Rose stated as she linked her other arm with Andy and the four of them walked out of the castle together towards the carraiges, enjoying the effects of Scorpius' skills.
Aniara had her arm linked onto Scorpius' empty one and skipped along side him. He glanced down at her and mentally sent, "Show off" as he caught sight of her summer dress that would be making her shiver if she actually felt the effects of the weather around her or wasn't naturally unbothered by the cold.
"You have your magic Ricky, and I have mine!" He couldn't help his chuckle at her comment and leaned into Al a little more as they walked down the path to the black carriages that lots of students were quickly claiming to get out of the cold.
Most of the carriages were already on their way towards Hogsmade and Andy slowed down a bit as he watched them.
Rose tugged on him a little before he spoke up, "I can't wait until we learn the spell to makes carraiges move on their own like that."
Al, and Rose all tried to stifle their laughter as Scorpius just looked over towards Andy confused. Rose hipchecked Andy before correcting him "Its not magic that makes them move, its creatures called thestrals."
Andy looked at the carraiges and squinted as if he were trying to find the creatures. Al laughed out this time before finishing Rose's correction, "You can't see them Andy. Our parents told us about them. They are special creatures, almost like a skeleton horse but with wings. You can only see them if you have seen death. So its a good thing none of us can see them."
The four of them made their way towards a carraige easily with Andy now understanding why he couldn't see the invisible horses pulling them.
Scorpius however wasn't laughing. He kept up with his friends and tried not to, but couldn't help staring at the beautiful dark creatures at the front of the carriage. He saw them. Scorpius could see the thestrals. He let his friends enter the carriage first as he tried to reign in his thoughts. He glanced over at Aniara as she was walking towards the thestrals. She was in front of them with a calm look on her face. She held her hand out as if she were going to stroke their face. They were both shocked when the thestral leaned its head down towards her palm to let her pet it. The thestral could see her. She looked over to Scorpius in shock and sent to him mentally, "Can you see them too?"
He climbed into the carriage after Al and flattened his expression before sending back, "Yes."