The Elementals

Chapter 20: New Years

I'm NOT JK Rowling and I do not own Harry Potter anything you don't recognise belongs to me!

All of them had received a uniform, the only difference it seemed was that each tunic was a different colour with a different symbol on the chest and Rose's uniform came with black fingerless gloves. No one knew who had sent them their uniforms and each theory was as unbelievable as the one before, eventually they gave up the topic.

As soon as Christmas was over Albus was looking forward to seeing his friends at New Years. He hadn't had any contact with Scorpius, Alice, Keith and Shauna apart from their letters which were often brief.

The days flew by and sooner than he imagined he was standing in the Burrow after flooing there with his parents. Almost instantly Rose threw her arms around his neck in a crushing hug.

"Rose!" Albus gasped struggling for air "You saw me at Christmas!"

Rose took a step back from Albus as he gasped for much needed oxygen.

"I know." she grinned.

"Is that Al?" Yelled a voice from outside. Keith suddenly appeared at the back door to the kitchen his cover in a layer of white snow. Albus walked over and they clasped forearms.

"Missed you mate." Albus said.

"Same here."

"Where's everyone else?" Albus asked noticing that the only teenagers here were himself, James, Lily, Rose and Keith.

"Fred declared a snow war." Keith explained. "Rose, Alice, Shauna and me against Fred, Lucy, Molly and Roxanne."

"COME BACK HERE AND TAKE IT LIKE GRYFFINDORS!" came a shriek from outside. Keith and Albus exchanged a look

"Shauna is very competitive." Keith said.

"That is the understatement of the century." Albus replied.

Albus, Rose, Keith, James and Lily all trooped outside to find Shauna and Alice huddled behind a large snow wall. They didn't hear them approach as they were too busy trying to keep the snow wall from collapsing on top of them. Alice looked frantic while Shauna was busy preparing another snowball.

"It isn't going to last much longer!" Alice said covering her head with her hands as snowballs thumped into the wall behind them.

"It'll hold long enough for Downes to drag his arse out here and fix it!"

"Lucky I'm here then!" Keith grinned. Shauna and Alice's heads snapped up to look at the group and both smiled at Albus. Alice pushed herself to her feet and pulled Albus into a hug. Albus stood there for a second before hesitantly wrapping his arms around Alice. They stayed like that for a few minutes before a snowball collided with Albus's arm causing both of them to jump apart.

"You guys joining or what?" Fred asked a snowball in one hand. Rose shook her head

"I'm not. I'm going to wait for Scorpius." She replied.

"Then Lily and James join us and you guys can have Al and Keith." Molly said.

Rose made her way back to the safety of the Burrow while everyone else began to pelt each other with snow balls. She stamped her feet on the kitchen floor to rid her shoes of snow and walked into the warm living room. All the adults were talking about work or other boring topics so Rose paid no attention to them, instead she settled herself into an empty armchair and waited.

Finally there was a loud knock on the door of the Burrow, by the time the adults looked up Rose had opened the door and flung her arms around Scorpius's neck. Draco Malfoy stood staring inside the Burrow as if trying to ignore his son and Rose embracing.

"It's so good to see you Scorp." Rose said into his shoulder.

"You're acting like you haven't seen me in years!" Scorpius laughed. Rose's response was muffled and nobody understood what she had said. Finally Rose stepped back from Scorpius and allowed him to say goodbye to his father before Draco Malfoy walked away and disapparated.

"Thank you for letting me come." Scorpius said in a slightly sheepish voice directed at Mrs Weasley. Mrs Weasley smiled at Scorpius and almost instantly Scorpius relaxed.

"Where is everyone?" he asked turning to Rose.

"Outside in the snow." Rose answered "My cousin Fred declared a snow war and nobody turns down a snow war."

Scorpius chuckled "Let's go then."

"Just let me grab my coat." Rose said with a smile then dropped her voice to a whisper "Don't worry. My dad doesn't bite."

Rose ran into the kitchen and Scorpius was left alone with the Weasley family. He tried to ignore the fierce whisper fight that Hermione and Ron were having, he knew they were discussing him so he said nothing. Rose mercifully returned quickly with her coat and lead Scorpius outside to the others.

They all stayed outside until the sun began to set then everyone trooped in, covered in snow and laughing to eat a huge dinner made by Mrs Weasley. After dinner Rose called Albus, Alice, Keith, Shauna and Scorpius upstairs and led them into a room with Chudley Cannons posters adorning the walls.

"Muffliato." Said Albus before sitting down in the small circle formed by his friends. In the centre sat the little leather-bound book looking completely innocent.

"Did you manage to translate it?" Shauna asked Rose who nodded in response.

"Most of it." She answered "It's really interesting because it's not a normal book…it's a journal."

Albus and Alice glanced at each other with looks of confusion while Keith looked somewhat shocked, Scorpius looked interested and Shauna looked bored already.

"A journal?" Scorpius said.

"Yes," Rose nodded and picked up the book. She flicked through several pages "This is a rough translation: this journal was penned by Alfred son of William, wizard and fire elemental."

Five pairs of eyes turned to look at Albus and then back to the book.

"Is it like "Dear diary, today I kicked butt, the end"" Keith asked with a smirk. Shauna rolled her eyes at Keith and slapped the back of his head. Keith rubbed his head and shot an annoyed look at Shauna.

"No." Rose said annoyance clear in her voice "It tells all about the last elementals…the ones from the stories."

"Really?" Alice asked curiously.

"Yes," Rose nodded "and that isn't the most interesting part."

Everyone leaned forward anxious to hear Rose's interesting discovery from the book. Rose flipped a couple of pages in the book searching for something then finally finding what she wanted, lay the book in the middle of the circle and pointed out a symbol on the page. It was a circle with two swirls inside of it; everyone looked at it in confusion.

"It means spirit." Rose said "What makes it interesting is the symbol beside it." Rose's finger shifted to the symbol to the right, it was an arrow with two heads point left and right "That means change or move."

"Ok." Keith said still looking perplexed.

"Spirit change…reincarnation!" Rose explained "Elementals' spirits are reincarnated!"

"So you mean…I wrote that." Albus asked motioning to the book.

"Sort of." Rose answered "It doesn't go in to detail but what that means is that there were elementals before us…loads more before us."

There was silence as everyone took in this news; everyone glanced at each other not knowing what to say. Rose closed the book and stared at its leather-bound cover with an unreadable expression.

"If there were more. Why didn't they say anything? Why didn't they make themselves known? We could've learned so much…know more…it would have been so much easier. Why didn't they tell anyone?" Alice asked softly.

"We'll never know." Albus replied. Alice sat sadly and Albus placed a hand on her shoulder in hopes of comforting her somewhat.

Rose, Scorpius, Shauna and Keith all stood and Rose lifted the book taking it out of the room with her, Albus and Alice soon followed after them. Rose slipped outside when no one was looking.

Snow was falling again and Rose watched it from the kitchen door with a small smile before trudging out to stand by the snow wall which was still miraculously standing. In the darkness she could make out the igloo Keith had made earlier in an attempt to impress everyone. The wind picked up slightly

"Rose?" Rose turned to see Scorpius leaning against the door "What are you doing outside? It's freezing out here!"

"Just thinking." Rose replied.

Scorpius hooked his thumbs in his jeans "You're going to get a cold if you stand out in the snow without a coat."

Rose smiled at Scorpius's concern "Trust me Scorp I've had worse."

Scorpius smiled and shook his head before trudging outside to stand beside her. Rose gave him a smile and the wind picked up again, whether this was natural or Scorpius's doing Rose wasn't sure.

"You…uh…you…er…have a good Christmas?" Scorpius internally smacked himself, not what he had planned to say at all. Somehow whenever he went to pay Rose a compliment or ask her out he always became incredibly tongue-tied.

Rose chuckled "Scorpius you've asked me that three times in your letters."

"I have? Er…sorry…I…uh…what I meant to say was…um…uh…R-Rose…would you…I mean only if you want to but…uh…Will… Will you…WILLYOUGOOUTWITHME?"

Then before Rose could respond, without thinking, without even considering the possible outcomes of his actions, he kissed her and to his surprise and delight she kissed back.

Neither of them noticed another figure standing in the kitchen doorway, her hazel eyes admiring the scene. She slipped away without either Rose or Scorpius noticing her presence with only one thought in mind

It's about time.