Hagrid appeared a little surprised that Harry showed up with company, though was none the less happy to see Elsa. Had he really thought she would abandon Harry too?
Instead of telling the important news Hermione had talked about, the half-giant was being cryptic. Harry was to meet him at nine pm and bring his invisibility cloak.
"Why couldn't he just tell you now if it's that important?" Elsa wondered as they left the hut.
Harry shrugged. "I've stopped wondering when it comes to Hagrid. Do you have some time? Let's just take a walk or something."
Aside from studying there wasn't anything on her schedule left for today, so she could definitely take a relaxing walk with Harry. Her friend really looked like he needed someone to talk to.
And talking they did, about everything and nothing, about who could've put Harry's name in the goblet or what his first task would be.
When it was getting dark they headed inside for dinner.
Harry opted to sit at the very end of the Gryffindor table, Elsa joining him since she saw Hermione with Ron.
Ginny, Neville and Luna also sat down next to them, relieving Harry of his thoughts that everyone hated his guts.
They wisely chose to stay away from the topic and once again Luna showed her talent of distracting people and cheering them up that way.
Around eight, Harry and Elsa parted for their common rooms to get dressed in casual clothes before they would meet up again to visit Hagrid.
On Elsa's way to their meeting point, she was stopped by Draco in an empty hallway.
"Oh, hey." She greeted him with a smile.
"Hey." His pale neck turned a little pink-ish.
Elsa waited for him to say something, but he didn't seem to be able to open his mouth.
"Was there anything you needed?"
He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck, giving a glimpse of the friendship bracelet. At least he was still wearing it.
"Uh, yes. I mean, no. I just wanted to talk to you."
When there was another pause, Elsa tilted her head. "... About?"
"I heard you and Blaise help each other out, he's pretty impressed by you. And that means something."
Elsa nodded. "He's really cool. And with his help my french improves quite well. I guess I passed his test, hm?"
"What test?"
"Please, he may thinks he's clever, but never try to outwit a Ravenclaw." She shrugged one shoulder.
"So did you want to tell me we can be normal friends again? I'm in dire need of help in Potions."
Draco's face was unreadable, he looked like he wanted to explode with something, but his lips wouldn't cooperate.
Elsa blinked, waiting patiently for him to gather himself. There was still a little time before Hagrid would await them.
"Uhm. Yes. Of course." He appeared disappointed in himself, but smiled at her.
"Great, thank you. Maybe Friday right after classes? I have some spare time then before I have to tutor the first-years."
There had been quite a few first years from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff who had trouble with Transfiguration, and they've been coming to her for help for a few weeks now.
Elsa didn't mind, as she had a bit more free time now that she was done with her royal training books and since Blaise helped her with the french.
She considered her timetable, playing with her quill.
"Or if you want we can add Potions to the tutoring with Blaise on Thursdays, so-"
"No, Friday is fine."
A little surprised by the tone, she wrote Draco's name in the free space on Friday.
"Alright then, thanks again. I have to go now, see you tomorrow morning in Charms?"
"I thought we could compare our star charts now? I'm not sure about the homework we got."
"Mh, can we do that tomorrow at breakfast maybe? I promised Harry to help him with something."
She wasn't sure if anyone was to know that Hagrid wanted to meet him, but if he had to bring his invisibility cloak it was probably wiser to keep it a secret.
Draco frowned slightly, lower lip giving a light quiver as if he wanted to pout.
"Potter needs help? With the tournament?"
Elsa rolled her eyes. "No, not with the tournament. If you can't help bashing on him too, do that when I'm not around. He didn't throw his name into the goblet of fire."
He put up his hands in defense. "I'm not saying anything. Try to stay out of trouble. Please."
"Don't worry, I will."
With that she waved and walked off to meet up with Harry. Draco's behavior was quite weird, but she wouldn't dwell on it. At least they could talk normally again.
Hagrid greeted her and Harry, again in his horrible suit and tie. That was even more strange.
He told them to hide under the cloak and follow him into the Forbidden Forest, where he met up with Madame Maxime.
Elsa and Harry shared a confused frown. Why on earth did Hagrid want them to accompany him on a date?
They were obviously flirting, if quite clumsy, though Maxime didn't seem to mind.
The two teenagers followed them deeper into the forest, hoping there was more to see than their friend making a fool out of himself.
Elsa cringed at an insensitive pun, but Madame Maxime laughed. Perhaps it was a match made in heaven.
A loud roar and orange light in the distance caught their whole attention then.
It turned out to be dragons, four of them in chains, several wizards trying to hold them down.
Elsa recognized Charlie Weasley among them, stunning one of the dragons so it wouldn't freak out completely.
While Maxime stepped closer, fascinated, Harry and Elsa could only stare wide-eyed.
The dragons looked absolutely terrifying, the sheer size and sharp claws and teeth, everything about them.
Hagrid seemed happy as he stood next to them, whispering so Maxime wouldn't notice him talking to anyone.
"I'm not supposed to show you, but since you're the youngest contestant I think you should know."
"W-What?" Harry couldn't tear his eyes off the deadly creatures.
"Dragons, they're the first task."
"Oh Hagrid, they're fantastique!"
The half-giant hurried to the headmistress' side, grinning from ear to ear as he told her about the dragons.
Harry shook his head, still wide-eyed, and turned around, pulling Elsa with him.
"I can't believe it!" He exclaimed once they were out of earshot. "Dragons! How am I supposed to fight a dragon?!"
Elsa shrugged, a frown on her face. "I have no idea. They were barely able to contain them, and they're adults..."
"You're not helping."
"I don't know how. I'd suggest water or ice spells to counter the fire, but that won't knock them out or anything..."
"... Great..."
"We can hit up the library tomorrow after classes, maybe Hermione has an idea."
Harry rubbed his nose. "If she's not too busy with her house-elf club. Or being on Ron's side."
"She's not on Ron's side, she tries to play mediator between the two of you. You're both incredibly stubborn."
"It's not my fault he's wrong."
"Keep me out of this, seriously. I just got him to talk to me again, I don't want to argue with any of you."
By the stairs they stopped.
"We'll find a way to defeat a dragon, there's still plenty of time. And tomorrow right after DADA we hit the library."
xxx
The weeks passed rather fast then, for Elsa because of her full schedule, and for Harry because of the dreaded first task.
Hermione and Elsa tried to help Harry master a few water spells, and after a talk with Moody the Gryffindor was set on learning the summoning spell.
Because of the urgency, and their already busy days, Elsa took over working with Harry after classes until dinner, while Hermione helped him after dinner until it was time for bed.
Along with her own homework and studying, Elsa found herself drained pretty fast.
"If you start wearing yourself out like last year, I'm gonna rat you out to Vector."
Elsa gave Draco a look as she sat down in the library after dinner on Friday.
She had moved every tutoring lesson to after dinner to match her new schedule.
"It's not like last year at all. And it's only until Harry's over his first task."
"If you'd tell me what it is I could help."
"I'm not supposed to tell anyone. Besides, Harry wouldn't want your help. He's still miffed because of your buttons."
Draco and Blaise had worked on a few buttons that would show support for Cedric and insult Harry. It had given them a popularity boost, but Elsa was quite disapproving of it.
The Slytherin rolled his eyes. "It's harmless fun."
"Fun for you."
"Fun for everyone but Potter."
Elsa sighed. "Can you tell me what's going on with you lately? I thought there was some sort of truce between you?"
Draco pointedly opened his Potions book. "Just because you think he didn't cheat with the goblet doesn't mean I have to believe him too."
"So you have to make him feel even worse than he already is?"
"Why are you so protective of him?"
"Because he's my friend."
They held a little staring contest over the tabletop. Draco let out his breath through his nose and shook his head.
"You know what? Let's just start with Potions and talk about something else."
Elsa was quite annoyed by all of the hurdles she needed to avoid when talking to either of her friends. However, this wasn't the time to lose her temper.
It wasn't Draco's fault she was overworked.
The day of the first task was highly awaited by the students, while Harry looked like he was about to pass out from nerves. He couldn't eat anything for breakfast, in fear of throwing up in front of the audience.
If Elsa was honest, she would be scared to death if it was her who had to fight a dragon. Even if she could use her powers freely.
She inwardly compared this to the basilisk in their second year. Only this time the beast could actually see and had claws, legs and wings to assist it. Not to mention the fire.
Hermione and Elsa brought Harry to the champions' tent, wishing him good luck before they found empty seats next to Luna and Ginny.
Harry had only managed to master the Summoning spell the night before with Hermione. He hadn't told them his exact plan, but Moody was then one helping him out.
Elsa frowned when there was a large nest placed in the middle of the 'stage', that consisted of a rocky landscape.
The nest held a few eggs, all gray colored, and one larger golden one. When the wizard was at a safe distance, a blueish-gray dragon was led onto the stage. It went automatically for the eggs.
"That's a Swedish Short-Snout!" Ginny exclaimed, her dark eyes wide.
Elsa didn't care what it was called, all she saw was that the dragon was very protective of her eggs.
Putting two and two together, she concluded that the champions would have to steal the golden egg from a mother dragon.
"This is way too dangerous..." she muttered. "What if they accidentally destroy the eggs?"
Ludo Bagman announced that they had to get the golden egg indeed, and that Cedric Diggory was to go first.
They watched him transfigure one of the rocks into a dog, a quite impressive feat, and use it to distract the dragon.
He barely managed to grab the egg, getting burnt badly because the distraction didn't work well enough.
It was horrible to watch, Elsa chewed her lip until it was bloody. If a 17-year-old wizard had such troubles, how would Harry manage to even survive this?
The Short-Snout was led away by several wizards, along with her nest.
A new, smaller nest was placed then, belonging to a slim bright green dragon.
Ginny didn't quite know the name, but it wasn't important anyway.
It didn't look as intimidating as the first one, though still dangerous.
Fleur stepped onto the stage, appearing sick to the stomach. Elsa could relate.
It wasn't as interesting to watch as Cedric's go, as she only used a spell that was to put the dragon to sleep. A good idea without much trouble, Elsa mused, though with a snore the dragon set Fleur's skirt on fire. All in all she got away without any injuries.
From the Hogwarts students were a few 'Boo's, since it was boring to them, but Elsa was glad there weren't any casualties.
She wondered when it would be Harry's turn, but that question was answered when Krum appeared next, after the green dragon was replaced by a large scarlet one that looked way more intimidating.
Elsa recoiled at Viktor's brutal approach of hitting the dragon with some sort of stunning spell right in the eye, which led the poor beast to trample her own eggs.
"This is barbaric!" She breathed, glaring at the Bulgarian Quidditch player as he victoriously held up the golden egg.
"The poor mother..." Luna agreed. "At least they took some points for it."
The last and most vicious dragon, a Hungarian Horntail, was led to the center. His nest was filled with cement-colored eggs, the golden one appearing to be gleaming.
Elsa felt her breath hitch when Harry entered the stage, scared for his well-being. She just hoped his plan – whatever it was – would work.
The genius move followed indeed. With the newly learned charm, he summoned his Firebolt.
Since they weren't allowed to take anything with them in to the task, he found a loophole.
He skillfully evaded the dragon, managing to get the egg in record time. The stands erupted into cheers, chanting his name with pride now instead of hatred.
Elsa dared breathing again, her heart still thumping wildly. This Tournament was a catastrophe, how could they allow these dangerous tasks?!
For a stupid challenge, they robbed an innocent dragon of her eggs and endangered others. Not to mention the danger the champions had been in!
Unfortunately she was pretty alone in her anger. There was too much cheering, too many of them blinded by the adrenaline rush.
Unable to cheer along, she wanted to check up on Harry in the tent Madam Pomfrey had set up, but when she saw Hermione and Ron already on their way there, she decided to give them the privacy.
The two boys definitely needed to make up and be friends again.
xxx
"Oh come on, you're completely exaggerating." Draco rolled his eyes.
To his great annoyance, Blaise had joined his tutoring session with Elsa the next Friday. Apparently he thought his friend needed help in finally asking her out.
However, the princess was completely distracted.
"Am I? The Triwizard Tournament is a completely unnecessary source of danger!"
"Completely unnecessary- Do I have to remind you of your completely unnecessary and dangerous adventures the past three years?!"
Elsa shot him a nasty look, that had Blaise hide his amused smirk behind his hand.
"We prevented Quirrel from stealing the Philosopher's Stone, necessary. We saved Hogwarts from the basilisk that hid in the chamber of secrets. Necessary." She counted off.
"And I saved an innocent hippogriff from being executed. Necessary. And the last one wasn't dangerous at all."
Elsa wisely left out how she apparently also helped saving an innocent Sirius Black, since it was supposed to stay a secret.
"No, you've just endangered your health by running head first into a werewolf attack, surrounded by dementors! After having taken a sleeping potion!"
Their glares met stubbornly.
"You're completely off topic. That has nothing to do with the Tournament."
"Weeeell," Blaise interrupted them, "I kinda regret not being here from the beginning. Sounds like I missed out on a few very interesting years."
"Sure, if you call one heart attack after the other interesting." Draco pouted, closing his book.
Elsa crossed her arms, giving Draco an annoyed look.
Taking pity with his best friend, Blaise intervened. "Let's just agree that Elsa's prone to get into dangerous situations and that Draco has a very pronounced overprotective streak."
"Whatever, I'm late for my next tutoring session with the first-years."
The Ravenclaw put her things in her bag, missing how Blaise kicked Draco's shin under the table.
"Uhm, actually, there was something I wanted to ask you..."
Elsa faced him with a questioning expression. Draco bit his lip, color rising once again to his cheeks.
"Draco, I'm kind of in a hurry."
"... Do you... er. Do you wanna do our Astronomy homework together later?"
Blaise facepalmed, getting a raised eyebrow from Elsa.
The princess nodded. "Sure. We can talk about when and where at dinner."
As soon as she left the library, Draco buried his face in his hands. Blaise opened his mouth, but the blond shook his head beforehand.
"Not a word."
"Word. Come on, you can scold her but are scared to ask her out? What's wrong with you?"
"I don't know... shut up."
"You know, Yule Ball is coming closer. And she's pretty much the most beautiful girl in our year. Would be a shame if someone else asked her out, wouldn't it?"
Silver eyes narrowed. "Goldstein."
"For example. She seems pretty close with Harry Potter, too."
Draco slammed his hand on the tabletop. "They're just friends."
"At the moment you are just a friend, too. If Potter has the guts that you apparently haven't, he could snatch her right from under your nose."
At Draco's fuming expression, Blaise could only laugh.
The Yule Ball was the next hot topic. The girls especially were behaving really excited, which Elsa couldn't understand at all.
From what she had read and learned and heard about, balls were boring. Dancing and eating, wearing uncomfortably heavy dresses and putting on a friendly mask for the guests you didn't even know.
Perhaps this, a school ball, was different. In her opinion, it only masked the danger of the tournament. She kind of understood how Hermione felt with her house elves.
Since it was futile to go against anything that was so highly celebrated within the wizard world, Elsa concentrated on one of her thousand other worries.
She still hadn't brought up the courage to talk to Madame Maxime about her mother.
The trolls' warning was still fresh on her mind, despite it being years now.
There was no telling how the headmistress would react. She could be nice, of course. But she could also spill her secret to everyone around, and that would attract the wrong kind of attention for sure.
It was a back and forth, too many pros and cons. Maybe distracting herself would work, as it had in the past.
However, her friends were no help with that. The Tournament and Yule Ball were the only topics nowadays, no matter the group of friends she joined.
As good as Luna's company was, she reminded Elsa of her plan to talk to Maxime, so it was just going in circles. It was bad enough that Elsa thought about writing to her foster parents about sending her more business books.
Yule Ball would take place during Christmas break, so if she went home instead of staying she could evade everything for at least two weeks.
As Draco had predicted the last summer, the heads of houses were doing a crash course for the students so there wouldn't be any embarrassing incidents during the ball.
Ron, having completely forgotten his anger by now, had been begging her to use her sewing charm skills to at least free his dress robe from all the lace after their lesson with McGonagall, so he wouldn't embarrass himself further.
With Hufflepuff and Gryffindor having the most students and female heads of houses, there was no problem for them to do the course.
However, Elsa didn't dare imagining Snape dancing. Or Flitwick.
(Un-)Fortunately Hogwarts' staff was creative. So they decided to throw Slytherin and Ravenclaw together for an hour, with McGonagall helping out with the teaching.
They had the boys sit on one side of the emptied Great Hall, and the girls on the other, while the head of Gryffindor did her best to show them how to dance.
Seeing Snape's suffering expression was giving them a hard time to not laugh.
Elsa was surprised to see he actually knew how to dance, even if his moves were a little jerky.
When they were told to go ahead and dance, too, it was clear that the girls were way more inclined to try than the boys.
However, since they were scared of Snape's wrath, they gave in.
Elsa watched the boys' side, easily finding Draco, whose shoulder was being slapped repeatedly by his best friend.
On the opposite end, Anthony was hesitatingly making his way over to her.
She didn't really care who to dance with, but with the knowledge of Anthony's crush on her she wasn't too sure if it was good for him. So she leaned over to one of the shyer Ravenclaws, a fifth year, and nudged her.
"Why don't you ask Anthony to dance with you? He's really nice."
The girl, Elsa believed her name to be Allison, shrugged. "Do you think he would?"
"Of course."
Allison met Anthony halfway, the boy caught off guard by the approach, but he was really nice enough to not call her off. With a last glimpse in Elsa's direction he led her off towards the make-shift dance floor.
Pansy had joined Draco and Blaise and seemed to be angry about something, and judging by the glares of the boys they were pretty annoyed with her.
Blaise was practically pulled away by Becky, who had just boldly taken his hand to make him her dance partner for today.
Draco forcefully took his own arm back from Pansy's grip and stomped over to where Elsa was waiting.
The princess tried to look like she hadn't just witnessed their encounter, but found it quite difficult to avert her gaze when Draco was trying so hard to fight the glare off his face as he approached her.
As she expected, he held his hand out for her to take. He cleared his throat. "May I have this dance?"
From behind his back, Elsa could see Pansy's murderous gaze stabbing her eyes out.
With a small smile, the blonde took Draco's hand and let herself be guided to the dance floor.
Since they already practiced dancing during the last summer, they didn't have to concentrate on the steps so much and could let their minds roam freely as they moved along to the music.
Elsa's thoughts tugged back to the beginning of the year, when Becky had said Draco was crushing on her too. If she contemplated his behavior, it would be a possibility, but did she really want to interpret it like that?
There was still the arranged marriage, if she couldn't find a way out of it there wouldn't be a future for them anyways. And they were friends, weren't they?
"You should've danced with Pansy." She told him, looking up to catch his gaze.
He raised an eyebrow. "Pansy? I've had her on my heels for over three months now, I don't need her on my toes too." He glanced in Pansy's direction. "Besides, you're the only one I'd ever want to dance with."
"Because I won't step on your toes?" She teased, her grin only faltering a little when she noticed Draco's expression. What was going on?
"Uh, no. I mean, yes, but that's not the reason. I just feel really comfortable with you."
Elsa tilted her head. Just now he hasn't looked comfortable at all. However, she would get to the bottom of this.
"Mh, you should keep that phrases for you fanclub." She was a little surprised at how that one came out.
Though it felt good to see him go back to normal then, a smirk tugging his lips upwards in amusement.
"Are you jealous?"
Rolling her eyes playfully, she shook her head. "Of course I'm not. There's nothing to be jealous about. Ever since Cedric was chosen as Hogwarts' champion the girls seem to prefer him over you."
Wiping the smirk off his face was a glorious feeling.
"Well, every girl except for dear Pansy."
Draco needed a moment to compose himself.
"True, Pansy is like a cold I can't get rid of. The snot just keeps coming back."
Elsa pulled a face at the comparison, which brought Draco's good mood back. The princess shrugged it off.
"Well, she clearly adores you." As much as she hated Elsa, the blonde added inwardly, basically feeling the daggers of Pansy's stare in her back.
"Please," Draco snorted, "she adores my family's fame and fortune. Just like the other bitches. My looks are just a bonus for them."
Frowning at the foul wording, Elsa glanced around to make sure nobody heard him. What was it with teenagers using such language?
"Maybe I'm also after your fame and fortune."
His bitter face changed to a smiling one. "You're not. You never were."
"How would you know?"
"Oh, I don't know." He said sarcastically, lowering his voice, "Maybe because you're royalty and don't need my fortune?"
Elsa tilted her head. "What if I'm actually not? What if it was an elaborate plan to get you to trust me, to fall for me, making sure you'd pick me over the others?"
Draco's smile softened. "If that really was your plan, you succeeded."
Not having expected such an answer to her teasing, Elsa felt her cheeks heat up. Unable to withstand his gaze, she let her eyes sweep over the rest of their waltzing classmates.
"Speechless?"
Forcing herself to meet his eyes again, she shrugged. "I'm trying to save your reputation here. What would your fanclub say if they heard you talking like that to me?"
"I don't care what they say. The only thing I care about is what you say."
Feeling as if she was out of place all of a sudden, Elsa hunched up her shoulders slightly. "Say to what?"
"Will you be my date to Yule Ball?"
Elsa tripped over her own feet at that and would've landed face first on the floor if it wasn't for Draco to catch her, holding her close as if it was part of the dance.
"At least one arm-length apart, Draco." Snape's scold broke the metaphoric spell.
They were dismissed, and Elsa couldn't flee the hall fast enough. What was wrong with her? She was acting like a complete coward and fool!
She knew Draco was waiting for an answer, but she couldn't give him one yet.
xxx
"I can't believe Cedric asked you to be his date!" Becky exclaimed, squashing her own cheeks in shock.
"Me neither!" Cho giggled, cheeks red with glee.
Elsa sort of felt bad for Harry, but was also happy for Cho. Her crush had asked her out, that was wonderful for her.
She herself hadn't quite figured out what to say to Draco yet and cowardly hid in her common room as often as she could, or stuck to her friends so she wouldn't be caught alone.
There was just so much confusion. Was she interpreting too much into it? Maybe he just wanted to go as friends? She hadn't even considered that. It would be better to clarify that first, wouldn't it?
On the other hand, what would she do if it wasn't in a friendly way?
She couldn't start a relationship or anything with him if she had to be married of to an unknown prince in four years.
Against her original plan, she signed up to stay in Hogwarts during Christmas break. Anna hadn't been too disappointed when Elsa sent her a bunch of sweets to make up for it.
On her birthday, the Ravenclaw received a soft package from her parents. The letter said it was a dress for the ball, her first real ball.
It wasn't as old-fashioned as she had feared, but compared to what she had seen from Cho and Becky already, it was boring.
Dark colors, plain.
No, she would wear Mrs Malfoy's dress instead.
Elsa put the dress away and bit her lip as she looked out the window. They had a great view of the Forbidden Forest, along with Hagrid's hut and the powder blue carriage that housed the Beauxbatons students.
Even if she was adopted, she was raised as a princess. And royals weren't to be scared of talking to people.
What was happening to her? She was supposed to become a good queen, not some shy little princess that needed a knight in shining armor to save her.
Making a decision, Elsa gave herself a push and left the safety of her dorm to go and find Madame Maxime first.
The headmistress was standing outside with a few of her girls, Fleur Delacour among them. They were talking in french, so Elsa waited for an opportunity to interrupt them.
However, Ron was the one interrupting, big time. He came to stand in front of Fleur and practically screamed at the poor girl if she wanted to go to Yule Ball with him.
His face was the color of his hair when he realized what he's done, and a second later he ran off.
Ginny and Elsa exchanged a wide-eyed look, before the Weasley chased her brother to do some damage control.
Compared to that, Draco had been pretty suave in asking her out.
Taking the chance, Elsa stepped up to Maxime.
"Excuse me, Madame, do you have a moment? There is something I needed to talk to you about... in private."
The intimidating woman observed Elsa for a moment, the teenager standing straight and with a determined expression on her face.
"Bien. Just one petite second." She gave a few final words to Fleur in french, sending them off.
Then she gestured for Elsa to follow her, which the blonde hesitatingly did. She had asked for privacy, after all.
There were a few curious gazes that followed them, why would a Hogwarts student go with the Beauxbatons headmistress?
Gulping down her nervousness, Elsa entered the carriage after Maxime.
Just like the tents at the World Cup had been, the inside was way larger than the outside. There was a fine living room with fancy furniture and lots of blankets and pillows, and several small hallways that probably led to bedrooms.
Maxime climbed a set of stairs that appeared at a wave of her wand, leading to a circular opening in the ceiling.
Elsa bit her lip and followed. It was the headmistress' bedroom, with a large canopy bed at one wall, a merrily burning fireplace and two lilac armchairs in front of it, standing on a soft beige rug.
With talking in private Elsa had expected some empty classroom, certainly not Maxime's private chambers. However, this was as much privacy as one could get, she supposed.
The headmistress was using her wand to get them two cups of tea, sitting down on one of the armchairs and left the other open for Elsa.
"Thank you."
"I'll have you know that this is not what I usually do. Especially with students of this primitive school."
Elsa refrained from defending Hogwarts, not wanting to anger her.
"I'm grateful for your hospitality. May I ask why you're making an exception for me?"
Maxime took a sip from her tea, taking her time answering.
"You've shown a level of integrity and manners that is similar to what we teach our pupils in Beauxbatons. And Fleur told me you have roots in France."
"That is actually what I wanted to talk to you about, Madame... My mother is the one with the roots in France."
Now or never, Elsa mused.
"My mother is Isabelle Flocon."
Elsa wasn't prepared for the laughter that ensued. Not sure how to react, she kept a carefully neutral expression, her chest tightening.
"Ma petite fille, Isabelle Flocon vanished off to Spirit World over 15 years ago."
"Pretty much exactly fifteen years and at least nine months, I'd say."
"I am not fond of jokes like these. Don't waste my time and make me regret inviting you in."
"With all due respect, Madame Maxime, this is not a joke. I'm the daughter of Isabelle Flocon and the Spirit of Winter. I can prove it."
Releasing her clenched fists, Elsa took a moment to think about what she wanted to build and settled for one of the giant flying horses that pulled the carriage.
As the ice sculpture took shape between her bare hands, Maxime's eyes widened comically. Even more so when the horse neighed and began flying around the room.
"Mon Dieu..."
The horse landed on the fireplace's mantle, settling down to rest.
"Incroyable..." Maxime stared at Elsa. "But... if you are her and Winter's child, what are you doing down here?"
Elsa gave a helpless shrug. "I just know that Isabelle had to flee from something and gave me to a muggle family up north when I was just a baby. The only thing she left was a letter."
"A letter? Did she write what happened?"
"Unfortunately she didn't. Only that I was in danger and needed to be protected. I've grown up not knowing anything about my real parents. Until I received my Hogwarts letter I didn't even know about my witch half."
It was disappointing that Maxime didn't know what happened to Isabelle.
"... There has to be a mistake... why Hogwarts? With Isabelle as your mother you should've come to Beauxbatons..." Maxime muttered to herself.
"I'm quite happy here in Hogwarts. I was telling you this in hopes of finding out more about her, to get to know her, at least a little."
Maxime gave her a long look, the corners of her mouth tugging upwards.
"I have thought you were familiar. There's just a little difference... Wait."
Elsa watched her go to a large bookshelf and use her wand to summon a thick book. The year 1976/77 was written on the back of it in shimmering golden letters.
She thumbed through the slightly worn pages until she found what she was looking for. With a fond smile, Maxime handed Elsa the book.
The princess couldn't suppress a grin at the photo. There were three girls in it, an Asian, a dark-skinned girl and in the middle was a blonde that had to be Isabelle. She was laughing, mirth glittering in her sky blue eyes that matched Elsa's to a T.
Her hair was a warm summer blonde in comparison to Elsa's more silvery shade and she wore it open in soft waves, letting it shine in the sunlight.
"She's been 16 when the photo was taken. Full of life, a little trouble-prone, but her grades were fantastique without even trying. She had an affinity for Charms."
Elsa smiled, tracing the picture. She was really beautiful. "I'm pretty good with Charms, too."
"She loved to sing, all day long about the weirdest things. One time she improvised a song about the recipe of a potion and sang it during her exam. We almost had to have them all re-take the test since it was on the verge of cheating."
Maxime laughed at the memory, and Elsa's heart jumped happily.
"And she was crazy about animals. The cute ones I could understand, but there was also this hippogriff, her pet. He wouldn't leave the school grounds, wherever she went he followed. Playful little thing, just like Isabelle."
Elsa's mind raced, then. A hippogriff? Her mother's pet? Could it be... no. Too big a coincidence.
She spent most of the afternoon in Maxime's room, hearing many things about her mother.
It stirred a longing in her, to meet her for real. If she was still alive, it is.
When she left the carriage for dinner, she was torn between being happy and sad.
Her mother was a great person, nice and popular, a little mischievous and bright. A real summer child that fell in love with Winter.
How would it have been if Isabelle had kept and raised her? She would've grown up entirely different, without the pressure of becoming a queen. Just her and her mother in France. She would've been like the graceful Beauxbatons girls.
But then she wouldn't have met her friends, and Anna would be the one forced into an arranged marriage with an unknown wizard prince.
Since it was no use playing impossible scenarios over and over in her head, she settled for being happy that she got to know more about her mother.
Elsa jumped in her seat at the end of the table when Hermione let herself fall next to her squealing into her hands with a bright grin on her face.
"What's going on?" The Ravenclaw asked with a chuckle.
"You have to promise not to tell the guys."
"Alright, I promise I won't."
Hermione leaned closer so nobody could hear her squeak. "Viktor Krum asked me to go to Yule Ball with him!"
"What? Oh wow!" Elsa blinked. How had he taken notice of her with so many girls following him around?
"I'm happy for you!"
"Thanks... It's just... I thought it was weird that he had been following me around everywhere I went for the last few weeks, and today he confessed that he was trying to build up the courage to talk to me and ask me out."
She was practically glowing with happiness, which made Elsa smile. "Why don't you want to tell the guys? I'm sure they'd be happy for you too."
Hermione made a face and shrugged. "They're so immature. Do you have a date yet?"
Elsa glanced towards the Slytherin table, but couldn't see Draco anywhere.
"Kind of? I mean, Draco asked me, but I freaked out. I'm not sure if he still wants to go with me."
"If he doesn't, I'm sure Harry or Ron would be glad to go with you... I'm so excited! I gotta prepare some Sleekeazy's Hair Potion myself, on such short notice I won't get anything delivered on time."
"Hair Potion?"
"Ugh yes, I'd have no idea how to make it look good without it." She tugged at a strand of her bushy hair.
"And it has to look good now. As one of the champions, Viktor has the first dance. All eyes are gonna be on us."
"I'm sure you'll look great."
"I hope so..."
After dinner, Elsa walked over to the Slytherin table, but Draco wasn't there anymore.
Blaise gave her a grin. "What is it, Ice Princess?"
Elsa frowned in confusion. Sure, Fred and George still called her princess all the time, but ice princess?
"What did you call me?"
"Oh come on, don't tell me you haven't seen Hogwarts' very own mock Daily Prophet yet?"
He handed her a miniature version of the Daily Prophet, called the "Hogwarts Prophet". The front page was filled with information about the Triwizard Tournament and even a little advertisement for prank candy from Fred and George.
On the backside was an article about Neville's solo dance session in the Gryffindor common room and a tiny section with the title 'Ice Prince rejected by his princess'.
Elsa rubbed her temple. "Who came up with this rubbish?"
"No idea. Some seventh years without anything better to do I guess. But it's genius, with two sickles per exemplar and the added income for the ad placement."
"Great. Do you know where Draco is?"
Blaise rubbed his chin as if he was deep in thought. "I think he wanted to talk to Pansy. Y'know, secure that he won't have to go alone to the ball."
The blonde crossed her arms. "Don't try one of your mind games on me, Zabini. Where is he?"
The Slytherin laughed. "Fine, you got me. He's at your spot, whatever that means. Happy birthday, by the way."
Elsa gave him a look and rolled her eyes before going to find Draco outside by the stone benches.
He was sitting on one of them, looking up at the sky. There were no stars visible, as it was pretty cloudy.
Elsa sat down next to him. "I'm sorry I ran away when you asked me. That wasn't fair to you."
"Yeah, it wasn't." He sighed, looking at her thoughtfully. "Do you have any idea how frustrated I was? Ever since last summer I wanted to ask you out for the ball."
"You did?" She blinked in surprise.
"Hell yes. I didn't want to get it out the wrong way, or like, get the wrong message across. I wanted the moment to be perfect."
Smiling, Elsa tilted her head. "And you thought surrounded by our waltzing classmates would be the perfect moment?"
Draco huffed a laugh. "No. Not at all. But..." he shrugged, "we were dancing, and you were smiling up at me, and it just slipped out. I was probably just as surprised as you."
"I doubt that." Elsa averted her gaze. "Just out of curiosity, what did you think would've been the perfect moment?"
"You'll think it's cheesy."
"Cheesy isn't bad." She laughed and nudged him with her shoulder.
"Oh, before I forget..." he changed the topic, pulling out a small box with a blue bow. "Happy birthday."
Elsa grinned and took the box. "Thank you..."
Upon opening it, she found another charm for her bracelet. A small silver Eiffel Tower.
"Because you're obsessed with learning french..."
"It's beautiful. Can you attach it for me?" She held out her wrist and pulled her sleeve back so Draco had easy access to the bracelet.
He couldn't help but smile at seeing she still wore it.
"I wanted to wait for snow, actually. Then lure you out here, wipe a snowflake from your cheek and then ask you." He confessed, distracting himself by fumbling with the charm.
"That would've been sweet. And cheesy."
Draco laughed. "I was afraid I would've had to wait for your birthday. You know, because of your theory."
"It's a fact." And indeed there were a few single heavy flakes starting to fall.
The Slytherin shook his head. "Ridiculous."
One of the thick snowflakes landed on Elsa's right cheek, not melting away.
Draco brought a hand up with a smile an used his thumb to wipe it off.
"Will you go to the dance with me?"
"Only if you tell me you didn't plan this."
The both of them burst out laughing.
"Alright, I didn't. But that only means fate wants us to go to the ball together. And Blaise."
"Using Blaise to deliver the message was risky. What if he had sabotaged you and I wouldn't have come out here?"
"Then I'd have one heck of a cold tomorrow and really would've had to invite Pansy..." He shuddered at the last part so theatrically that Elsa couldn't help but laugh again.
"You're such an idiot, Malfoy."