Written for Hermione's Heaven March 26th Roll-A-Drabble.
Prompt: RaD: Hermione and Huddling for warmth.
It is not exactly conventional use of the plot but I hope it works.
Disclaimer: All non-original characters, plot points, and information belong to those at Marvel Studios, Warner Brothers, or J.K. Rowling.
It had been five months since the chance meeting of two geniuses. Harry and T'Challa were still unsure if their blooming friendship was a bliss or a boon but they were taking it in a stride. So far Twelve Grimmauld place hadn't been reduced to dust, there were no pet bots in Wakanda and there had been only one explosion in ministry. At first, the ministry had been resistant about letting Wakandian royal family into the secret but a real threat of Peeve's hologram running wild in ministry had taken care of the obstacle. After glowing recommendation by Harry Potter, she had been shipped to Wakanda as the research unspeakable and the boy-who-lived had breathed out a sigh of relief. The ministry and his home were safe for the time being. Two geniuses and their inventions were no longer his problems, the King of Wakanda would deal with them.
The said King of Wakanda was currently on the patrol of his kingdom unaware of a brewing storm in the royal labs. Hermione and Shuri were working on their pet project of converting residual magical energy to support spells like an external battery. He hadn't understood their discussion, however; they were working on a harmless prototype. In hindsight, he should have realized nothing is harmless with those two. Soon after T'challa had left, Hermione had conjured a glass of water for them. When Shuri had asked for ice, Hermione had realized there was no spell to create it. This had turned into research about the augmenti spell and modifying its arithmetic equation to produce snow instead of water. Meanwhile, Shuri had been tinkering with their prototype to not only absorb the magical residue but also to replicate the magic without casting the spell again.
After four hours, Hermione was confident about her modifications and tried her new spell.
'vocanix' he softly whispered waving her wand in an intricate pattern. Viola, there was a perfect snowflake in front of her. She hesitantly changed the waving pattern and the design on the snowflake changed with it. She scooped shining snowflakes and hurried towards Shuri to share her success.
"WHAT ARE THOSE?" Shuri cheered when Hermione showed Shuri snowflakes in her palm and waved her wand to create one more.
"How did you manage their duplication?" She further inspected multiplying snowflakes with keen interest.
"I didn't put duplication charm on them. Shuri, they are not supposed to multiply. Why are they multiplying?" Hermione shrieked when snowflakes overflowed and spilled onto the floor.
"Did you mess up the equation and introduced an infinite loop, maybe? You can perform a counterspell and destroy those then we can look at it." Equally panicked Shuri suggested.
"I, umm, do not have a counter-spell yet. I created this one and wanted to show it to you. I can't cancel it." Hermione admitted, a little embarrassed at her thoughtlessness.
"Then kill the spell and I will fetch the heater to melt them."
Hermione tried Finite Incantatem on the rapidly increasing pile of snow but it had no effect. Even Shuri's overpowered industry level heater could not melt the snow.
"Oh!" The light bulb went off in Shuri's head when she scanned a snowflake. "Hermione, I have good news, bad news and the best news! Take your pick!"
"Bad news" Hermione wavered, chewing on her bottom lip.
"We can't thaw it without magic. It has an altered molecular structure. It will need magical force to reverse its magical structure. You need to come up with the counterspell like pronto."
Hermione nodded. It made sense. If the magical force had altered the structure of an air molecule, then it will require a spell for reversal. Finite Incantatem did not release magical energy. It absorbed the magical energy around the spell to cancel the effect.
"What's the good news?"
"Your equations are correct. You performed the spell in front of our prototype. I had upgraded it to replicate the magic. It is a snowballing machine now" Shuri laughed at her own pun. "But the best news is," she continued, "It is snowing in my lab! We have unleashed the winter!"
Hermione looked around in the amazement. Every equipment in the lab was covered with a thin layer of frost and a substantial amount of snow had accumulated on the floor. She accicoed her notebook and Shuri's designs to inspect them. Soon both geniuses were engrossed in a discussion about creating the controlled version of winter, present catastrophe forgotten.
When T'challa's monitors warned him about quickly dropping temperatures in labs, he sealed it off from rest of the palace. As he ran towards the lab, he built up scenarios; each one absurd than its predecessor.
'Was Blizzard attacking the lab to steal Shuri's inventions?'
It was an unlikely scenario but Blizzard had tried to kill Ironman for his suits.
'Was reality collapsing again and the unpredictable Dark Phoenix decided to start her universe domination scheme by freezing Wakanda?'
But if that were the case, he would have received heads-up from professor X.
However, nothing prepared him for the scene in front of him. Shuri's lab looked like it had been transported to the north pole. Every surface was covered with at least three inches of snow and he was knee deep into it. Two ladies sat in the makeshift igloo, huddled together to preserve their warmth and engrossed in a deep conversation. It was a click-worthy moment and he would have captured the photo if it weren't for the snowstorm in the room. His dear sister and her best friend were either unaware of the storm originating from the corner of the room or they had caused this for some experiments. Both possibilities were equally terrifying and he decided to put an end of their scheme.
He trekked towards their igloo and questioned them with as much sternness he could muster with chattering teeth.
"Shuri, Hermione. What is going on here?"
"Winter is coming brother! Haven't you heard?" Shuri replied without missing a beat.
"We are redecorating in honor of the last season of Game of Thrones. Looks quite lovely doesn't it?" Hermione asked without looking up from her notebook.
"Brother, we are planning on decorating the whole palace. We can watch as the Nightking conquers it all from our own igloos!"
T'challa sighed and joined the huddle. Their quick answers and identical innocent expressions didn't exactly conspire confidence in him. Both girls scooted closer to his warm body and he shivered at the touch of their cold feet.
"Hermione, can't you cast warming charms or create coats for us until 'the winter' lasts?"
"Do you know nothing Brother? Does Daenerys have access to magic to conjure fur coats whenever she wants? You can't just rely on outside means brother. Think about those behind the wall. Only Jon Snow has a fur coat." Shuri protested.
"You could be Jon Snow. You know nothing most of the time." She added as an afterthought.
"T'challa, you will be the perfect Nightking. Full of ice and you will own your own dragon!
Your heart will be frozen and then you will meet the one!
The one who will melt your frozen heart! and it will be summer for Wakanda again!" Hermione clapped her hand enthusiastically, moving from her spot in their makeshift igloo.
Shuri perked up at the idea.
"We can create dragon themed guns. It is as if everyone has their own pet dragons. They will breathe fire or ice depending upon their mood. It will confuse enemies! Is it fire or is it ice?"
He could picture wild flying guns in Wakanda, ready to fire. Shuri might even make them shadow him for 'research purposes'. This image was worse than his red-eyed blue-skinned form. Almost worse.
"No Shuri. We have discussed this before. No sentinent weapons." T'challa warned his sister immediately halting her excited babble, pulling his legs closer to himself.
"So do you prefer a real dragon? They are mostly harmless. I smuggled one out when I was eleven. I can smuggle you one again." Hermoine asked him earnestly, picking up his on his denial of dragon-themed weapons.
T'Challa cursed Harry Potter for his bad luck. He was sitting in an igloo freezing to death (in Sub-Saharan Africa no less); nixing disastrous ideas in the bud, trying to stop the illegal smuggling of magical creatures and it was not even lunchtime yet.
"I have it!" Hermione shouted and T'challa prayed to every deity he could think of that she had discovered a way to stop this blizzard.
But luck was not on his side.
"I know what I gift I am going to send to Malfoy's ministry office this Christmas" she continued with a wild glint in her eyes.
T'Challa shook his head and listed 'an invitation to Minister of Magic for Christmas' as a high priority task. He sincerely hoped Potter was a game of thrones fan, for wizards would soon rock a Dothraki look.
A/N: I am really really sorry all GoT fans. Since I am not a diehard fan of the show, my references are inaccurate.
But it was all in fun!
I hope you enjoyed the frozen reference!