Chapter 10 – of Funerals & Snow!

Charming's POV

Clever had not been taking the death of her teddy bear well, it seemed. Most of us had to cope with our toys inanimate, as I had pointed out, but this was greeted with an angry glare, another burst of tears, and something about "but at least we still had them". Ah yes. We had had to get rid of Fluffy (the demonic teddy was evil, cursed, and she had called it Fluffy?), as it was too dangerous not to, and also might be incriminating evidence.

We had been remarkably lucky in that the teachers were too busy praising us for our 'heroic' efforts to save everyone from the bear that none had yet asked where it came from, and, even if we were the only ones capable of dealing with a crisis situation (referring to everyone else standing and screaming), if the teachers discovered that it was our fault we were doomed.

And so, Cheeky and I were now walking down the stairs to the common room, actually on time for once, to attend Fluffy's funeral.

Much to my surprise, our arrival sparked off another round of sobbing from Clever, who was leaning on Chatty's shoulder. She had been crying a lot recently, and I knew the funeral would be depressing for her, but really? Just our arrival?

"You…" she choked. "Just because it's only a teddy and I couldn't find a proper place to do it in doesn't mean you don't have to be respectful!" I managed to make out through her angry squeals. I gave Chatty a 'Help! Please Explain!' look, and she gestured to her clothing. Ah.

Both Clever and Chatty were wearing, I now noticed, black dresses, which could well have been left over from yesterday's Halloween costumes, but which certainly looked anything but festive. Cheeky, on the other hand, was wearing his favourite pair of yellow skinny jeans, odd socks, no shoes, and a red woolly jumper that could have had its own history of magic lesson written on it, so many holes it had. I was little better, in blue frayed jeans with very little material left at the knees, my green sneakers, and a blue and black stripey jumper with patches at the elbows, topped with my Gryffindor woolly hat, as it was a little too cold for my liking. Oops.

"Umm, well, err… We'll just go and change then…"

She seemed to have calmed down enough now to actually be intelligible (whatever that means. Too long a word), but was still clearly fuming. If a little damp. "There's no point now. Just stay." We nodded, not wishing to induce any more of her wrath.

We gathered around the fire, as Fluffy's body had been unceremoniously dumped in one of the bins at the ball, which Clever had been slightly distressed about. She began, a single tear rolling down her cheek, but her voice remaining uncracked. "Dear Fluffy, we shall always remember you, and we shall always love you. You have been the best bear anyone could ask for, and we are incredibly sorry about the whole demon incident, and that we could not do any better for you. I love you Fluffy!" And with that she once more broke down into sobs, slowly sliding to the floor at Chatty's feet.

"Umm… er… Fluffy, you were awesome, and though I didn't really get to know you, I wish I could have done. You will remain dearest in our hearts always." Chatty somehow with nervous speed managed to get that all out in one breath, and then let out a deep sigh of relief, as she no longer had to say anything.

Argh! We had to make speeches! No one had mentioned this before! And it seemed to be my turn… Oh dear. I was no good at this kind of thing. Argh. "Ummm. Err… erm… Fluffy, we have been, and ever shall be, your friends. Live long, and prosper. Argh! No! That doesn't fit! Sorry. Umm… We hope you have a happier afterlife than this life, and we shall all miss you, and look forwards to meeting you there." Clever for some reason seemed to manage a weak smile at that contribution, in spite of my fatal slip-up of mentioning long life. If you spend enough time around someone like Clever, you do frequently end up knowing off by heart things that you have never even seen.

Cheeky, the perfect Shakespearean actor, or course had something prepared. He even appeared to have written a rhyming sonnet for the occasion. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, but it seemed to make Clever laugh, even if it was slightly inappropriate for the occasion.

"Shall I compare thee to a coconut?

Thou hurtst less when thou fallst on someone's head.

Thou art nuttier than butter of peanut,

And for jelly sandwiches, we choose you instead."

We all duly applauded, and he bowed. "I spent all night writing that, you know." And all were happy, largely because of the large quantities of marshmallows now being handed around, and as long as no one mentioned the word 'Fluffy', all was fine.

Several weeks later- Thursday 16th December (when would the term end?)

It was very nearly the last day of term. We were stuck in the warm but very boring charms class. Professor Herobine was giving us a lecture on some charm (what, I was expected to listen and sleep at the same time?) and no one (but Clever, of course) was paying attention.

Five minutes and we would be on holiday.

I think we all needed it. School was tiring to say the least, and Cheeky was bored of having to be well behaved in every class, a task we were going to continue for a while. Never the less, we had been behaving very well and the teachers seemed to like us. Seriously.

And finally, holidays!

We had decided to meet up sometime during the holidays, and Clever had invited us round to hers for New Years, but we were all going home tomorrow, by the train.

Chatty was painting her toenails. How she got away with it, I do not know; laying out a set of vibrant colours and toe setters on her desk, and then proceeding to paint her toes pink or green or blue. She painted her nails at least three times a week. Maybe she managed it because Professor Herobine was very short sighted and always lost his glasses. Usually in the soup.

Cheeky was spitting gum wads at Jack (our fellow and very annoying Gryffindor classmate). Most of these got stuck in his incredibly long black hair, and I highly doubted he would notice.

The second hand on the clock ticked closer to half two, and finally, when I was just about to die of boredom, the bell rang and school was over. This was loudly signalled by a loud stampede of people jumping from their seats and cheering. And at some point in this storm, Chatty's nail polish got chucked up in the air, landing on Cheeky's head, now an interesting green shade.

"Oh no!" Chatty cried, examining the now empty bottle, Cheeky's hair and her half painted toes. "And I LIKED that colour!"

"It's just nail polish," Clever reminded her as we all tidied it up.

"And how am I supposed to get it out of my hair?" Cheeky demanded, his hands coated in the varnish. "My hair is GREEN."

"It'll wash off." I comforted, looking around the now empty classroom. "Eventually."

He sulked as we chucked the empty bottle in the bin and went to go back to the tower. I looked out the window. It hadn't snowed yet, but they were expecting heavy snow on Saturday and Sunday. We were going to miss all of it. According to the teachers, not many people had signed up to stay at Hogwarts, which meant that no one was going to enjoy the snow.

"I wish we could stay." Clever sighed, looking out the window. "I have to spend the holidays being told how big I've gotten by older relatives. And being forced to sit at the kids table."

"It's terrible having a big family. Andy brings round her husband; who is a total idiot by the way; and Stella and Moon always burn or break something and get me into trouble." Cheeky sulked.

"At least some people talk at your Christmas Dinner!" Chatty pointed out. "My mum invites dad and his girlfriend and then no one talks and if anyone talks it is always an argument. Mum and dad fight, Indie and I fight… And then Encyclopaedia gets me into trouble."

Really, sometimes families were a waste of space.

We sat in our usual seats by the fire, and Chatty tried to get the worst of the paint out of Cheeky's hair. Which did not work, as it seemed to get worse. Eventually we stuck a hat on his head and went to pack our trunks.

Clever's POV

I woke up early the next morning and couldn't sleep. I remembered that I had to do something, but I wasn't able to remember what. I was barely waking up, half in the twilight world of dreams, half in the world.

I rubbed my eyes sleepily, and then caught what it said on my hand. I had written on it, in sparkly bubble writing "return book" and then I remembered. I had borrowed a book from the library and it was due in yesterday. Pulling on my jeans, tee shirt and a warm sweater, I tiptoed downstairs to the common room, out the portrait hole and then down the corridor to the library. It was freezing in the corridor, as it had been steadily getting colder and colder - in anticipation of the large blizzard tomorrow.

The library was empty and dark, but homely to me, so I crept in and sat on a table, by some of the more interesting books. They had lots of facts, on things both muggle and wizard matters.

I opened a large, old book and began to read, barely noticing the rush of feet outside or the ticking of the clock.

It seemed like only five minutes later that my elbow was being shaken, and someone was yelling my name.

I had fallen asleep.

"There you are!" Charming cried, still shaking my shoulder. "Come on, we have to go get the train!"

"What? The train isn't until eleven."

Charming sighed, exasperated. "And have you looked at the time recently?"

I looked at my watch, and gasped; it was nearly eleven. We were never going to make it!

He dragged me by the elbow out of the room, where we met Cheeky and Chatty, lugging a stack of trunks along.

My stomach grumbled loudly (no breakfast does that) as we raced down the stairs and out of the main doors. Scowling to know one in particular, I followed my friends across the grounds. It was freezing, the sky a miserable grey.

And we didn't make it. By the time we got to the station, the platform was empty and the few teachers that had been charged with making sure everyone but us got on were walking back, as the scarlet train puffed back to London.

I scowled, sitting on my trunk. "Well, there goes my Christmas pudding."

"Man." Cheeky scowled at the train as he too sat down. "We're so stuck at school."

It took us awhile to stand up and actually face the inevitable doom that was Christmas, at school, with only the teachers and a few other students.

"At least we have each other." Chatty beamed, dragging her trunk along (which meant stopping every few seconds due to the mass of it). "And we're not spending out holidays with our family failures." I grinned - that was something to be happy about.

All I knew was that my parents would not be happy about me skipping their Christmas bonanza, but it was hardly my fault if I had missed the train. They could sulk about me supposedly not writing to them at all often for as long as they liked, but I wasn't about to tell them all the things that were going on in my life. They would not be happy about me dyeing Jenna's underwear green or glaring at the Slytherins when they mocked me for answering another question in potions.

We eventually made it back to the Castle, just as the sky turned a deep grey that blocked out all light from the sun, even at noon, and we slowly made our way back to the common room. It was empty- no one was there. The entire school was eerily quiet; the silence rang in my ears as I talked to my friends.

We couldn't help speaking quieter than normal, or glancing around at the corridors more frequently, certain to meet someone.

It wasn't until several hours later that we did.

It turned out that there were a few third year Hufflepuffs, all equally annoying, Jasmine, a prefect in Ravenclaw and her younger brother Damian, and a fifth year Slytherin who did not like us at all.

Then there were the teachers. Some had gone home for the Holidays, something that didn't often happen, but most were still there at their table. The normal house tables had been replaced with just one table in the centre of the hall, as not many people remained. And even so, there was still a large space between all of the people, and the decorations looked quite lonely in their places.

Somehow, this week didn't look that great.

Cheeky's POV

The next morning, I woke up very late. So late, that at first I was completely unsure where I was supposed to be. Classes? Breakfast? I knew that if it was school or if I was at home, I would never be allowed to sleep in this long, someone was always waking me up.

And that was when someone did.

Chatty charged into the room with a loud bang, as the door slammed against the wall. She then propelled herself onto my bed, and started bouncing, whilst I blearily tried to work out what was going on. Then I saw what she was wearing. Which looked like half of an Eskimo's wardrobe: three sweaters and a really thick coat, two pairs of gloves, five hats and three scarves. A heavy snow boot landed on my feet and I yelled in pain, which she responded with an "oops" and jumped off the bed, just before pulling of the sheets and dragging me onto the floor, which was cold.

"You 're lucky he is wearing clothes this time." Charming smirked from his bed, as he stretched and shook his hair, causing it to get more messed up (if that was possible).

Clever grinned as well from the door, where she stood pulling on another scarf. "Now that could be pretty life-threatening." She high-fived Charming.

I scowled and rolled my eyes. "So it snowed then?"

"YES!" Chatty squealed, pulling open the curtains and causing loud groans from Charms and I. Ah. It was looking snowy. "Hurry up and get dressed! I want to go outside."

"Don't we get to eat first?" I asked; Chatty scowled.

"Here." Clever said; chucking a slice of toast at my head, buttery side down. "Enjoy."

"Great." I groaned, wiping it off my face.

Twenty minutes later and we were all standing in the entrance hall, ready to go outside, when we encountered the teachers.

"What are you Gryffindors doing here?" Professor Longbottom asked us when he entered the hall.

I sighed. "We missed the train. Someone went missing and we had to find her." I glared at Clever.

"Well, do your parents know?"

"I don't think so. But they should have realised by now, after we didn't get off the train."

"Well make sure you let them know."

"Yes sir." We said simultaneously, and he left us.

"Come on; let's go, let's go!" Chatty cried, putting another hat on and charging out the door.

We followed her, racing out into the grounds.

The snow covered everything, coating it all in a thick blanket of white. The only think that looked untouched was the Whomping Willow, which shook its branches free of the falling flakes.

The whole ground was one flat layer of white, and when you stepped on it your feet would leave huge sinking footprints behind you. It made it hard to go down the steps, as you couldn't see what was what.

The lake was iced over completely, and I made a mental note to go ice-skating on it soon, before it melted.

Chatty fell in the snow a few feet away from us and lay down, making snow-angels with her arms and legs.

"I'm an angel!" She yelled.

I laughed, just as a hard ball of snow hit the back of my neck. I spun around, and saw Clever, grinning like a maniac with a pile of round snowballs in her hands.

"What Johnson?" She laughed. "You too scared to attack a girl?" I raised an eyebrow before grabbing a pile of snow and making it into a shape; then, I chased after her.

She ducked, squealing.

"Come on Potter, take it like a man."

She scowled, and aimed another snowball at my head.

"Or a woman. Whatever you prefer."

I chucked another at her, but it hit Charming in the head. "0i, Parker! Get out of the way!"

"Nope." He yelled, chucking a large chunk of snow at me

We chucked snow at each other in the most ridiculous, careless way. Chatty was sitting on the floor watching us and shouting "don't hit me, don't hit me." Never the less, we did.

We fought girls against the boys, yelling like maniacs in the silence of the grounds. Chatty went for my legs while Clever chucked snow at me. Charming, seeing that I was being attacked unfairly, tackled Clever, who squealed and tried to kick him.

He used the opportunity to dump her in a snow drift, and then regretted it as she grabbed him and pulled him down with her, until he was distinctly more covered in snow than she was. Unfortunately for him, for this to be true he had to be completely buried with the exception of his head. I managed to dig him out before he caught hypothermia, but Cheeky and Chatty spent the whole time pelting us with snowballs

Of course, it would be at the exact moment that I finally got him unburied that an incredibly high-speed snowball hit him in the head and knocked him staggering backwards into another patch of the snowdrift. It took me a while to realise that it was in fact completely deliberate and cunningly planned, but I did know that throwing any more snowballs at the two girls would be a very bad idea.

I offered Charming my arm to help him up, but he was looking somewhere else, a dazed expression on his face. He reached up, but instead of taking my hand, pointed somewhere to the left (or right. I don't know). I followed the finger, and saw what I wondered how we had not noticed it earlier.

A large, steep, white slope.

I may have screamed.

10 minutes later, we were all hurtling down it, aided by Clever's waterproofing of our cloaks, and the higher than anticipated time it took due to the fact that steep, snow-covered hills are actually very hard work to climb. When we reached the bottom, I think she was planning on installing a ski-lift.

Of course, it being a steep- snow-covered slope, we stood no chance of getting down there in one piece. I was the first to fall; having spun around some time ago, I now went over an unexpected bump, landed on my back, did a couple of backwards-rolls down the hill, and rolled on my side to a stop, still halfway up it. There were no fatal injuries, I was fairly sure, but that snow was jolly cold when you got it inside your cloak.

Clever, with her typical clumsiness, was next to fall, and rolled the whole way down, stopping when she hit a snowdrift at the bottom. Judging by the "Wheeeeeeeeeee! This is fun!", nothing too bad had happened, but with her you could never tell.

Chatty and Charming, now having built up a lot of speed, had still not worked out how to brake or steer, and so crashed into each other and came hurtling down in a tangled mess until they were stopped by Clever's snowdrift, fortunately a different part of it to the bit she was in.

"We are not going back to the hospital wing, we are not going back to the hospital wing," I repeated to both myself and them as I stumbled back down the slope to where they lay, not obviously damaged. If we had to go back there again, I was fairly sure that Madam Turpin would kill us all, as would I.

"Relax, Cheeky. Don't panic," came Chatty's for once calm voice. "None of us are dead, are we?" The other two shook their heads, but before actually testing themselves for injuries. Clever poked the other two, and when they yelled "OW!" in response, happily proclaimed that neither of them had concussion or hypothermia, they were both conscious and breathing, there were no broken bones, and neither of them had gone into shock or sustained excessive blood-loss. She was also apparently fairly sure that there were no sprained or twisted joints, or any cuts that could not be fixed with a plaster, but she could be mistaken on that one. After I glared, she corrected that analysis to all was fine, but everyone was a bit annoyed at having had to stand up and be poked repeatedly, which she assured me was necessary, and important for me to undergo too.

Chatty's POV

Later that day, it stopped snowing for long enough for us to be able to go ice skating. Scampering down the slope for the last time, we went inside, only to be hit by warm, dry air as soon as we opened the door. We were frozen by that time, and Clever had to keep reminding us that she was "fine, just fine."

A sweet smell of freshly cooked bread and roasted chestnuts made my stomach growl. I had barely eaten anything all day- only a few slices of toast sometime, when Cheeky had exclaimed that he was going to die of starvation if we didn't get him inside and feed him.

I practically had to drag my friends away from the corridor to the kitchen; their glowing, drooling faces proved my theory- they eat too much. "Come on you guys!" I wailed. "We need to find the skates!"

Moaning and groaning and practically furious with me; they followed.

We ended up at a corridor on the second floor. The corridor, empty as it was, seemed lonely and cold, and there was a long stream of water leading up to where we were standing. Oops. It seemed like we had left a little something for the caretaker to clean up…

Charming dug around in the cupboard, whilst I waited, tapping on the wall, impatiently. It was full of all sorts of games, skis, sledges and activities, both muggle and wizard.

"Ah-ha!" He cried accomplishedly, and produced a box entitled "skates- ice." After chucking them down at our feet, and rubbing his hands free of dust, we set about finding skates that fit.

Charming's expression when he was given a pair was priceless- he seemed utterly confused as to what it was. He hesitantly put his skates on, groaning.

"Why do we have to do this again?" He asked, whilst I rolled my eyes.

"Cause it is fun. Now put these socks on" I chucked him a pair "so we can go."

"But it is a girly sport."

Cheeky glared at him. "FYI, Candyfloss," Candyfloss being Charming's new, unofficial nickname, due somewhat to his hair and what had got into it the last weekend, "it is not a girly sport. Many of the male specimens also participate in the wonderful act of skating."

Charming rolled his eyes. "Alright, Pineapple-Head," which was Cheeky's new nickname, apparently.

Charming pulled on his socks, slowly laced the skates on, and trembling, tried to stand up. "Don't put the skates on indoors!" I yelled, scaring him and causing him to (arms failing around) to fall (hard) on his butt.

"You could have told me that before I spent ten minutes of my life lacing, tying and pulling these skates on!" He slammed them back down on the floor, glaring at the innocent black skates, which now looked bedraggled and scuffed. A lace was snagged and ruined, and the sole was damaged. Sighing, I handed him a new pair and his old shoes and we raced down the stairs.

We arrived at the lake. Its clear, crystalline surface stretched off the edges of the forest. It was smooth, ice cold and covered in a thin layer of snow. It was beautiful.

I pulled on my skates quickly, and stepped on to the ice. Near where we lived at home, there was an ice skating rink, all year round. At winter they set up a special one outside, decorated with trees and decorations- it was so festive and pretty. The grounds here looked perfect, coated in snow, but they were no where near as festive.

I usually went skating several times a month, with my family or by myself. I'd even had lessons once. I had a real passion for skating.

This ice was tricky to skate on- and dangerous- but I was smart and advanced enough to skate easily round. I looped it twice, and returned back to meet my friends.

"Perfect," I grinned.

Clever and Cheeky were slow; hesitantly stepping on to the ice. They had both been skating before, but not on ice like this. Charming had his skates on, but he was nervous, his cocky act gone when he was asked to skate,actually skate.

Clever slowly moved around me, and began to skate. "Eeek." She squealed, and she slipped a bit, but miraculously pulled herself up and carried on skating. Clever was getting incredibly clumsy as the days went on; she nearly always crashed into things or dropped stuff…

Cheeky skated steadily. When asked, he replied that his sisters loved it, and as he was the only boy in the house, and legally unable to stay at home alone (because of the last time, when he blew up the fridge and blamed it on the cat) he had to go with them.

Charming meanwhile was another matter. Summoning up what must be ALL of his Gryffindor courage, he stepped onto the ice and began to slowly move his feet, in the step-by-step childish way that beginners do. He began to more steadily after the first few feet, and over-cockily began to skate.

"HA!" He cried. "This is easy."

He moved into the wet centre of the ice, where even I hadn't skated. His feet slid out in front of him, and he fell on his butt, on the cold hard ice, with a thud. After trying several times to clamber up (and failing) I took pity on him and skated over. I pulled him up.

"There we go." I said, smiling. He scowled back, more embarrassed than anything else.

"I was doing fine by myself."

"Oh really?" I raised an eyebrow. His scowl deepened. "I'll help you." I took his hands and skated slowly round the lake. He had a worried expression on his face the whole time, but I think he began to trust me once we got round a couple of times.

Clever and Cheeky were racing round, skidding faster and more confidently now. It seemed that Clever wasn't such a clutz on ice after all.

By the time the sun had set, we were all so tired we could barely walk. We trooped back to the castle with our skates behind us; frozen, wet, cold and starving. But none the less, it was a great day, and the week that followed proved just as good.