Chapter 2

One week later, the entire Arendelle family travelled to the Leaky Cauldron, the popular wizard pub that led to Diagon Alley. Elsa and Anna had put on their Hogwarts cloaks that bore the crests of their respective houses (a blue and silver raven for Elsa and a yellow and black badger for Anna).

"I can hardly wait to see everyone!" Anna exclaimed as the family entered the pub.

The same couldn't be said for Elsa. She was glad to see her Anna was so excited, and of course she had reason to be. Anna had many friends at Hogwarts, several of them weren't even Hufflepuffs. She loved to be around people and people loved being around her. No one ever stared at her from afar and gossiped about her like they did to Elsa. Why would they? Anna was not a closet glaciatous who was forced to wear gloves even in the warmest weather. She was, relatively speaking, perfectly normal.

"Would you girls like to join us in a drink before you go shopping?" asked Mr. Arendelle.

Before Elsa could evade going into the crowded alley by saying yes, Anna replied, "No thanks, Papa, we wanna get started right away. We have so much to buy and so many people to see, don't we Elsa?"

"Uh…"

"Very well, go ahead," said Mrs. Arendelle. "Oh and Elsa, wear your Head Girl badge."

Elsa moaned and reluctantly pulled the blue and silver badge from her shirt pocket. "Isn't it bad enough that I have to wear gloves?"

"Who says you have to?" Anna asked. "Can't you just forget about being a germaphobe for this one day?"

"No I can't," Elsa replied curtly.

Mrs. Arendelle ignored this and said, "Your classmates have a right to know who their Head Girl is."

"Your mother's right," said Mr. Arendelle. He moved a bit closer to Elsa and whispered so Anna couldn't here, "Remember, don't be too proud. Remain calm. And keep the gloves on."

Elsa nodded. "Conceal it, don't feel it."

"That's my girl. Now run a long."

"Come on!" Anna grabbed Elsa's hand and the two sisters hurried out of the pub's back entrance. From there, they entered a small courtyard and found themselves facing a large brick wall. Anna pulled out her wand. "Okay, I can do it."

"Are you sure?" asked Elsa.

"Yes," Anna assured. "I remember it. I've got it. I've got it." She faced the brick wall for several seconds and finally confessed, "I don't got it."

Elsa sighed and pulled out her own wand. She then tapped specific bricks slowly so Anna could remember. "Three up, two across," she explained.

"Right. Three up, two across. Three up, two across," Anna mumbled to herself.

The bricks of the wall rearranged themselves to form a large archway. As the sisters entered the crowded streets of Diagon Alley, Elsa said, "I mean it this time. You have to learn to remember it. I won't be here next year to show you how it's done."

Anna showed no signs of listening. She seemed more interested in waving madly to her friends from school as she passed them by.

The sisters first went to Gringotts Wizarding Bank and each took a large amount of gold galleons, silver sickles, and bronze knuts from their vaults. Then it was time to buy school supplies. They each went their own way, against Anna's will.

Elsa went to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions to purchase new school robes. As she stood in front of a mirror while Madam Malkin measured every part of her anatomy, she gazed out the window trying to look out for any glimpse of Belle or Rapunzel. She hoped also that any minute now, she would hear one of their voices calling to her from behind. No such luck.

Madame Malkin was nearly finished hemming Elsa's new robes when the shop door opened and two girls trotted ungracefully inside. Elsa was upset that they weren't Belle or Rapunzel, but she was more upset at who they were. Drizella Tremaine, one of the most infamous members of Slytherin House, and her fraternal twin sister Anastasia. Drizella was greedy, selfish, unkind, stupid, and not particularly attractive to say the least. No one outside of Slytherin liked her and they all thought it remarkable that she was a Prefect. She were especially unkind to Elsa, or as she called her, "Mittens" because of the gloves. Anastasia wasn't quite as abusive. She seemed to only be Drizella's tagalong because the latter was so awful and had almost no real friends.

Elsa gulped and prepared to pull up the hood of her robe. Before she could do so…

"Hey look, Sis! It's Mittens!" Drizella shrieked.

A look of defeat appeared on Elsa's face as she slowly turned to face the two sisters. "Hello, Drizella," she said calmly, remembering her father's words.

"Have a good summer?" Drizella asked as she marched over to Elsa. "Must've been a hot one for you what with the gloves and all."

Elsa ignored the last comment and replied as calmly as possible, "It was a great summer. Thank you for asking."

Drizella raised an eyebrow and examined the badge on Elsa's chest. "So I see. Head Girl, huh?" She then became hysterical, half-laughing and half-snorting. "Can you believe it, Sis?" she asked Anastasia. "The freak who's afraid of her own shadow is gonna be telling us what to do! That's a good one!"

Anastasia laughed quietly, but judging by the sympathetic look on her face, Elsa could tell she didn't mean it.

"It's a miracle Hans is Head Boy," Drizella continued. "Otherwise we'd all be doomed."

Elsa felt her heart stop at the mention of the name Hans. "Hans South? He's Head Boy?"

Hans South was Drizella's fellow seventh year Slytherin Prefect. As far as Slytherins were concerned, he was as popular as a student could get. He was the embodiment of every trait that defined a Slytherin: cunning, sly, resourceful, ambitious, and overconfident. He was also very good looking and a skilled athlete, which had also given him the title of Slytherin Quidditch team captain. Elsa felt a bit stupid. Hans was a marvel student and perfect athlete. Anyone with half a brain could have guessed he would become Head Boy. He may have been popular, especially with girls, but Elsa never felt attracted to him. If anything, she felt him untrustworthy. Of the many Slytherins who had gawped at her during classes, Hans was the worst. She could only help but wonder if he'd smelled a rat.

"Yep," Drizella replied. "And that means you two are gonna be spending a lot of time together. Maybe enough to let him finally see you without your gloves."

Elsa rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Madam Malkin. "Will you be done soon?"

Before Madam Malkin could reply, Elsa gasped as she felt her left glove being forcefully removed from her hand.

"You look at me when I'm talking to you!" Drizella snapped.

Elsa reached for her glove, almost knocking Madam Malkin over. But Drizella hid it behind her back and cackled wickedly. "Come get your precious glove, Mittens!"

"Give it back!" Elsa snarled. She felt herself growing increasingly furious. She was losing control and felt herself hating Drizella by the second. Hating enough to willingly hurt her. But before she could get too angry…

"Stop it!" Anastasia shouted, grabbing the glove from Drizella's hand. She held it out to Elsa, who was breathing heavily.

Elsa briefly thanked Anastasia for returning the glove. She was truthfully more thankful than she appeared: thankful because she'd come dangerously close to losing control and revealing her powers and using them to attack Drizella.

"Well, I've seen just about enough," said Madam Malkin. She pointed to Drizella and harshly said, "Leave my shop this instant."

Drizella scoffed. "But I needed new dress robes!"

"Don't make me repeat myself," Madam Malkin warned.

Drizella glared at her and then at Elsa. "See you at school, Head Girl. Come on, Sis."

Anastasia gave Elsa a final sympathetic look and the two sisters left.

"Of all the disgraceful, childish performances I've ever seen in this shop," Madam Malkin complained.

Elsa wasn't listening. She was too busy whispering to herself, "Conceal it… Don't feel it… Don't let it show."

End of Chapter