To my girlfriend, who calls me her Polaris. I love you Anastasia.
The text was not beta read, which means that some words can be translated poorly or be out of place. Please feel free to contact me if you wish to report mistakes or discuss the language.
At breakfast, Leta received a scribble: "Want to go skating with me?"
Only one person could send her a note like that. And only one person could dare to send her a note with no sign. And, only one person could send her a note with her own owl. The only person was sitting at the next table and juggling with chocolate frogs.
She crumpled the note, threw it at the guy's head and was pleased to see it reaching its precise aim. Newt dropped the frogs, saw the note, tossed his head, and smiled brightly to Leta, while she hoped that her nod had not been too widely spotted.
...
"So, why now?"
"Why not now? You leave tomorrow, so you won't have time for me. And nobody'll see us because they are all having dinner, so the female half of Slytherin will not have to discuss you once more."
"What if I am hungry?"
"I have sandwiches, and a chocolate."
"And what if-"
"But you just look at all this beauty!"
Leta sighed and glanced at the lake mercifully. It was not too dark; the snow glowed with mystery, and big stars shone in the clear sky and seemed very close. Judging by the expression of the girl's face, it made her melt a bit.
"Beautiful indeed. Shall we go? You promised to skate with me."
Some way from the shore, they found an area of clean ice, and Newt immediately made a blizzard, trying to free some more place. Leta was not sure whether the wind spell had been taked from an extra book or made up on Newt's own, but it interested her little if people entertained her with regular spells or their own ones.
The guy looked at her with cunning eyes. "Do you know how to find the Polar star?"
"Of course," Leta snorted. "You should take your wand, find the north and remember the astronomy lessons where it was said that the angle between the you-the horizon line and you-the Polar star line at our latitude-"
"Hah." Newt sighed. "It's simpler. You just find the Plough, join the two right stars of the wider part and have the Polar star above them."
"Simpler? Should I wonder why you've got a "troll" for astronomy?"
The girl grabbed her wand, said "Point me," and seemed to begin to measure the right angle. Newt hardly looked into the sky and glided off, not even bothering to conjure some skates for his boots.
If he meant to try how slippery was the ice, the try was the most appreciated by the bank of snow in which the Hufflepuff's way ended a moment later. Leta laughed but carefully approached the gravity survivor to help him up. Then they at last made the skates for themselves, and Newt set off to collect the rest of the snowdrifts. Leta followed him, firstly making sure she could manage the science of skating. He whirled her, and they felt how cold it was to laugh.
"Oh! Wait a moment. I've lost my hairpin." The girl stopped and looked over the ice. Her face fell.
"I see it. Accio!" Newt caught the hairpin and hid it behind his back. "Guess, what hand is it?"
Leta pouted immediately.
"Just try, please. Left, right? Or, look," he bent to her, "if you don't guess, I give it to you anyways, and- and you just give me a ki-"
She rolled her eyes and turned away.
He sighed a little. "I didn't mean it. Joking, you know. Here." He put the pin in the girl's hand, looked at the metal flower on it for a second, then raised his wand. "Can I try to show you a trick?"
Leta gave him a suspicious look but nodded. "You can."
He whispered something, and the flower began to grow. There appeared a thin stem with lace foils, and then extra stems grew up and began to form a ring around Leta's wrist. The circlet flourished before her bewitched eyes.
"You must be a very powerful wizard to do that. We did not study such levels of transfiguration yet..."
He nodded absent-mindedly and gave his wand a wave, making the flowers shrink back into a pin.
...
"You know, there is a Muggle tale about the Snow Queen, the Ruler of the North."
Leta laughed under her breath, but Newt paid no mind, gazing at the Polar star dreamingly and pulling at the fringe on his sleeve.
"She lives in a great castle of ice and can fulfill any wish of yours if you come to her and make the word "Eternity" with pieces of ice. So, you can just walk on and on, and you won't even get lost because you will always see this star, and finally-"
"You can't be serious." She looked mockingly at him. "Let alone fulfilling wishes, do you really read Muggle tales?"
"Yeah, and I see nothing criminal in it. Why?"
"This is it, why?"
"Isn't it interesting to learn about other people's thoughts, about the worlds they can see?"
Leta gave him a gracious smile. "You see, the Muggles write it all because of one simple thing. They have no magic, so they have to make up worlds that are more interesting than their own one. The wizards do not need it, they already have everything – why, think of your precious beasts! And Muggles, well, they are Muggles. You see?"
Newt rested his chin on his palm, his eyes in the sky, and said thoughtfully, "Can I try to write a book about my beasts and give it to Muggles as a tale?"
"You can." Leta rose and cleaned her cloak. "Let's go back to the castle. I am chilly, and it is getting late."
When they approached the castle, Newt peered at Leta's cloak attentively and asked, "Are you wearing green?"
"Yes."
"The lady with green sleeves. There is a Muggle song about that, you know." He winked and started murmuring a melody.
They entered the castle. Leta checked the time first to make sure it was still allowed to roam down the school corridors, and headed to the stairs that led down, but turned in half-step and said, "Good night, Newt."
"Good night. Have a very good Christmas."
She smiled. "You know, thank you. For all this. After all, I am leaving, nobody will go skating with you."
I'm not inviting anybody, he thought, watching her go.
The Polar star shone bright and sparkling outside.