A week passed by without the Sun showing its face more than once or twice for days in a row. Outside, the snow-covered grounds shimmered dully underneath the overcast grey sky, which felt so heavy that Sigrid wondered if it would end up falling over them if the clouds did not clear up soon. To make matters worse, the temperature outside had seemed to drop even more as the days went by, the students only ever leaving the castle to hurry begrudgingly huddled underneath heavy cloaks and scarves to head down to the greenhouses for Herbology. Even Care of Magical Creatures had temporarily been given a classroom in the warm interiors of the castle for the time being.

Yet, the atmosphere inside the torch-lit halls was all but gloomy. As the date grew closer to the promised Yule Ball, the chatters and whispers of excited students only grew louder, much to Sigrid's nerves, whose stomach had seemed to be perpetually tied in the most uncomfortable set of knots now. Every day more and more students would babble to their friends on the Great Hall about already been invited, those still left without dates starting to worry that they would end up date-less if they did not do something about it soon.

Half of the Gryffindor girls had already been asked to the ball. It was hard to forget how last night, in their dormitory, Saturna Blackbourn had gone on and on and on with excruciating detail about how Lester Davis – a Hufflepuff boy that Sigrid had to admit was very handsome indeed- had asked her to be his date just after their Transfigurations class. She had tried to put the subject back in the farthest corner of her mind, trying not to listen to the little voice telling her that perhaps she should just ask one of the twins to take her as friends. It was better than not going at all. But she did not want to do that.

Instead, Sigrid found herself concentrating once more on her lessons and classes, trying desperately to tune out all the gossiping that surrounded her all during their Defense Against the Dark Arts that morning. It seemed that the twins had not managed to tune out the gossips as well as her, for Elladan, in his attempt to listen over a conversation between two Ravenclaw girls, forgot that he was supposed to cast a shield charm at his twin who was supposed to be attempting to jinx him, resulting in the elder twin falling backwards on the floor with both of his legs tied together like glue.

Still, no matter how many times she had to hear Saturna retelling her story, nothing could ever compare to the sickening feeling Sigrid got that Wednesday. She and Eowyn had been making their way down from the Astronomy tower, passing through the large corridors that led to the Great Hall when they had walked past a group of whispering and giggling fifth year Slytherin girls. Sigrid recognized her at once, impossible to miss with her perfect dark hair that seemed to be made of silk and her stunning pale green eyes that gleamed underneath thick dark lashes.

"You did say yes, did you, Alexis?" One of the giggling girls asked excitedly, hands holding onto Alexis Sonnet's pale thin arm as the bunch of girls nearly swallowed over her, all seeming too eager to hear more of the story.

"Of course I did, Azalia." The dark haired Slytherin answered proudly, seeming to be enjoying the excited gasp her friends were giving. "Of course I already knew he would ask me, I mean I am his girlfriend. But isn't it beautiful?"

The Slytherin chaser was showing the group of annoyingly grinning girls a single pale flower held in her delicate fingers, one of the girls whispering "So thoughtful" as they marched down the hallway and slowly disappearing from view.

Sigrid could not name what she felt, or why she felt it, once again hating that green monster that rose inside of her and made her want to rip the perfect Slytherin chaser into pieces. But why did she care about it anyway? What was the matter with her? And yet, all throughout the long double period of Charms that afternoon, Sigrid had to pretend to be too frustrated about their homework to be able to mask her overly sour mood. Not even Eowyn dared to speak to her during dinner or later that night when she retired into the girl's dormitory at barely eight.

"Do you think he will ask me?" Eowyn whispered lowly to her during lunch the following day, dropping her heavy schoolbooks over the table next her, making a few drops of pumpkin juice splatter from her golden cup.

"Who?" Sigrid, who had been too immersed in her task of finishing the essay they had to handle McGonagall in barely an hour, had to think for a little while before being able to follow her friends' trail of thought.

"You know…..Him!" Her friend's exasperated grey-blue eyes turned in her direction impatiently, throwing a badly disguised look at the Ravenclaw table behind them, not daring to speak the name of the boy she was so desperately looking at for fear that he might somehow listen.

Still, Sigrid had to fight very hard not to roll her eyes, knowing that her friend would smack her head with one of those heavy books if she so only as hinted at it. She did not fancy sporting a black eye or bruised forehead at the moment. It might lower her already slim chances of ever acquiring a date for the Yule Ball in time. Instead she let her eyes wonder discreetly over the long Ravenclaw Table, not really finding out at who exactly her friend was pointing.

"Why don't you ask him?" She suggested, brushing her messy curls over her shoulders as she spoke. She knew better than to ask for names at the moment. And more so, she did not wish to discuss dates for the ball any longer, already tired of it.

"No way." Eowyn crossed her arms reluctantly, giving her that stubborn determined look that she knew meant she would never change her mind. She watched in silence, shaking her head slightly as her friend proceeded to fill her plate without even looking at what she was grabbing.

"it's still two whole weeks to the Ball." Sigrid sighed, trying her best to sound encouraging without rolling her eyes, not managing the intended tone as she sneezed for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

"Bless you." Ewoyn said kindly, even though she could tell her friend was debating whether or not to sit a little farther from her, as if to not catch whatever cold Sigrid had. "Why don't you go see Madam Pomfrey?"

Now Sigrid could not refrain herself from rolling her eyes, wrapping her scarf closer around her neck. "Stop insisting on that, I'm fine. It's just sneezing."

"Well, Madam Pomfrey can give something to make you stop sneezing. It's rather disgusting, did you know?" Eowyn tried to mock her, even though she could see the smirk breaking through her failed stern face.

"Next time you get a cold I'll call you disgusting." Sigrid bit back, unable to contain a light laugh, watching as her friend merely resorted to tie back her long golden waves and threw open her copy of today's Daily Prophet, nearly disappearing behind it. "Besides, nearly the whole castle is sick by now."

That was no lie. It seemed that with the horrible cold weather and overcast sky, nearly more than half of the staff and students were found sneezing our coughing through the hallways. The Hospital Wing was currently packed with students asking for cough potions, a couple of them even shivering from slight fevers. Professors were urging students not to go outside in this weather, and chastising and awarding detention to anyone who was as dumb as to place a bet about jumping onto the freezing lake. She could not tell who had come up with the idea of that particular challenge – two students had already jumped and of course now were part of those students lying shivering on the Hospital Wing- but imagined it most certainly had something to do with the twins.

"That is true." Her friend raised a blond eyebrow in her direction, placing the newspaper down on the table in front of her, seeming to forget about it again. "Still, I don't need you to contaminate me with whatever it is you have so close to the game this Saturday."

"Do you really think we'll win this one?" Sigrid tried to sound hopeful and excited when in truth she was feeling anything but that. Not that she particularly enjoyed talking about Quidditch, but she would rather her friend babble for hours and hours about their coming game against Slytherin than about Yule Ball dates. Still even though she did not wish to admit it to Eowyn, she knew their chances at beating the Slytehrin team were slim this year.

"I certainly hope." Her friend sighed, all previous conversation about dates momentarily forgotten. "Their Keeper is terrible, although they do have a good set of chasers. I just need to catch the snitch before they can score too many goals. End the game quickly."

"Do you think you'll be able to do that?" She was proud of herself for hiding just how doubtful she felt of her best friend managing to be the one to catch the snitch. Not that she doubted Eowyn's abilities as Seeker. She was a good Seeker, flew better than nearly anyone in the Gryffindor Quidditch team, even better than most players in the other Houses' teams. But Thranduil Lasgalen was simply hard to match, and the whole school knew that. The chances for anyone to catch the tiny winged ball before Lasgalen were slimmer than the Slytherin Keeper managing to finally block a goal.

As if reading her thoughts, Eowyn's face turned discretely to glance at the long Slytherin table at the far end of the Great Hall. Sigrid imitated her, finding it all too easy to find his tall figure sitting nearly at center of it, surrounded as usual by a bunch of other Slyethins, who looked up at him as if he was royalty. He too wore the silver and emerald scarf tightly wrapped around his neck, as if cold even in the comforting warmth of the Great Hall, and she noticed faintly as he coughed once into his fist, even though his face remained as serious and sharp as ever, an eerie calmness emanating from those piercing ice colored eyes.

"Hmm." Eowyn snorted, leaning closer to her before muttering under her breath. "I hope Lasgalen gets really sick too, so that he will not play on Saturday."

Sigrid doubted it, but she did not answer, merely feigning to put her attention once again on her half-eaten meal. She barely seen Thranduil Lasgalen all week, only seeing him during their tedious Potions class, where he never once again sat next to her, following his words. Still, she wanted to talk to him again, not knowing really why, but she did, even though she did not know when or how. She could not simply go talk to him during Potions. Not when he was surrounded by all the Slytherins and where Eowyn and the twins would throw her glances as if she had gone insane. And yet, she was still curious about him. That night a week ago had been unexpectedly exhilarating, she could not remember having such a good time in a long while. Still she needed to witness it once more, needed to get another glimpse at him without that cold wall of ice that seemed to surround him always, wanted to see him really laugh instead of pretending to.

"I did it!" She was taken back from her wondering mind as Elrohir suddenly smacked the table from her left, dropping himself to sit on the wooden bench, his identical copy taking the seat right across. "I did it!"

"Did what?" Eowyn sounded as confused as she felt, cautiously eyeing the younger twin who seemed too proud of himself for his own good.

"I invited Sofina Wyne to the Yule Ball" Elrohir nearly sang, grinning widely as he stuffed nearly a whole toast into his mouth. "And she said yes!"

"You did not invite her." Muttered Elladan from in front of him, looking too amused, silver eyes sporting that familiar gleam that only meant he was about to mock his brother. "You yelled it in the hallway in front of half of the school. Of course she would say yes! The poor thing was so embarrassed!"

"She said yes anyway." The younger twin glared at his replica, snatching another toast right from his older brother's hands and biting into it heartedly. "At least I have got a date now, Dan. Unlike you."

"How's it going for you, Dan?" Eowyn asked the elder twin, who grunted and shook his head, not too happy about the question.

"By the looks of it I'll end up taking Moaning Myrtle to the ball." He muttered, even though the idea seemed to somehow amused him, as he let out a laugh. "Imagine her in a dress."

That was it. She could not take it, her stomach was already too tied in nerves and twisting painfully. Searching for an escape from this torturous conversation, Sigrid quickly snatched the forgotten Daily Prophet from in front of Eowyn, letting her eyes curiously scan through the pages, pretending to be incredibly interested in an article about a wizard who was convicted for knowingly selling defective cauldrons to the Ministry. She turned the page, once finding nothing worth reading but not minding it.

She was about to turn the page, but suddenly halted, a new small tittle in bold black letters coming up to her attention at the corner of a page. It had been astutely placed in a corner of the paper, as if not wanting to attract too much interest to it.

"Look!" She gasped lowly, stopping Elladan mid-sentence as four pairs of eyes suddenly turned to look at the paper she was now holding wide open for them to see. "Someone has broken into the Ministry!"

"Impossible." Elrohir was the one to speak, his voice suddenly losing all trace of mockery and carefreeness.

"It says so here." She whispered, her fingers gliding through the letters of the short article written underneath the bold tittle. "Yesterday evening, at approximately eleven p.m. one office at the Ministry was broken into by a wizard or witch yet unidentified. The staff is working furiously on investigating whether any items have been stolen or gone missing, but for the time being everything appears to be in order. The office in question belongs to the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, which the Minister assures had been locked securely for the night."

"So whoever it was, they did not steal anything?" Elladan's voice had dropped to a near whisper, silver eyes glancing at the article deep in thought.

"It does not say." She replied. The article was too short, it gave very little detail, not a single name in it, as if not even the people who had written it had known exactly what had happened. Perhaps that was why it was in a corner of the page instead of front page, as news of this magnitude would most probably be.

"You cannot break into the Ministry. It is nearly impossible." Elrohir pointed out, his silver eyes as lost in thought as his brothers, their teasing gleam completely vanished.

"Who is the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement?" Eowyn voiced the question that she too had been wondering, her hands folding the paper back neatly, as if disturbed enough by hearing the news once and not wanting to see article again.

"Oropher Lasgalen." Elladan whispered sourly, his eyes nodding lightly in the direction of the silver haired brothers casually sitting at the Slytherin table far back.

She did not know what to think, her mind racing with a million new questions she could not find answers to, and she knew that no matter how much she tried, she would not find the answers so easily. Why would anyone break into the Ministry to sack something as simple as a mere office? Had the wizard who had broken in made a mistake, had he been aiming for a different room? It was a possibility.

"Come, or we'll be late for Transfigurations." Elrohir rose to his feet, making a displeased expression before hoisting his schoolbag over his shoulder.

Transfigurations. She had completely forgotten about finishing her essay in time. Cursing herself inwardly, she followed her friends up moving staircases and towards the castle, and, as she had expected, had to sit through class with her head lowered in embarrassment at the disappointed look McGonagall gave her once she handed in her half-written essay. That was a first.

Conversation and whispers about the Yule Ball did not stop for the remainder of the week, but, thankfully for Sigrid, the majority of the students seemed to momentarily forget about the ball as Saturday approached. Quidditch was all that was being talked about instead. It was common knowledge now that Gryffindor needed to win by two hundred points to still be in the running for the cup, placing them above Hufflepuff. Still, never in her life had Sigrid been happier to talk about Quidditch. And, as Saturday morning arrived with the same overcast grey sky and freezing wind, all chatter about the Yule ball seemed to have been entirely forgotten.

The whole school was dressed in either red of green, banners flying nearly everywhere as groups of students piled over the hallways to either cheer or boo at the team members as the students made their way in massed down towards the Quidditch Pitch. An annoying group of Slytherins had even composed a nasty song about the Gryffindor team, singing it loudly and proudly at every chance they got.

"This weather is not good." Elrohir muttered as they made their way down the snow covered grounds, holding his broom tightly in his right hand, silver eyes looking up at the heavy wet clouds.

"It'll be nearly impossible to see the snitch." Eowyn pointed out thoughtfully, barely managing to dodge a group of Slytherins that went running down towards the pitch, as if they would run out of seats.

"Do you think you'll manage to catch it first?" Sigrid pondered. She really hoped her friend would, after all she wanted Gryffindor to win. But more than that she worried about how insufferable Eowyn would be if once again Lasgalen caught the snitch before her.

"Yeah, I think it won't be hard." Ewoyn nodded, tying her long golden waves tighter in a ponytail her eyes suddenly widening in surprise at Sigrid's confused expression.

"You did not hear?" Her friend sounded positively too excited. Now there was definitely something Sigrid did not yet know. "Lasgalen's not playing today! Apparently he did get sick. It's such a wonder I don't do better in Divination after this prediction I've made!"

Eowyn sounded too excited about the prospect of a positive outcome for the game that she completely missed the momentary look of worry that crossed Sigrid's face, one that she was quickly able to mask for confusion.

"What happened?" She was able to feign happiness for her friend, even though there was still that uncomfortable feeling pooling inside of her that told her something was not right. Something was off. "Why wouldn't he be playing?"

"Because he's sick. He caught whatever it is half the school has." Eowyn shrugged, for once too mirthful about the prospect of catching the snitch to care about studying or questioning her friend's interest in the topic. "Anyway, I'm not complaining about him not playing! It seems that finally Snape's favoritism works for our advantage. Half the Slytherin team is sick as well, even half or our team is sneezing too! And yet only Lasgalen was forbidden to play, Snape saying he did not want him to get sicker! Ha!"

Her friend gave a little jump, her face adorned with the widest smile Sigrid had seen there in a while. She seemed too delighted about winning the game. Even the twins seemed happy about the news, joining in Eowyn's grinning from either side as they continued through the slippery snowed path.

"Snape preventing his star Seeker from playing?" Sigrid could not help but questioning, that pang of inexplicable deep worry still burning through her insides. "Since when would Snape do anything that would prevent Slytherin from winning over Gryffindor?"

"I think Snape's just sacred of having to face Oropher Lasgalen if his favorite student gets sicker from playing a little Quidditch." Elladan grinned from her side, hurrying along with Eowyn and his twin down towards the changing rooms. "After all he had claimed detention was too dangerous for his son. I bet he'd have something to say about Quidditch."

Sigrid shook her head, yelling good luck to her friends before resorting to make her way to the sitting rows. She was gladly able to catch up with Eddelina and Saturna- both girls dressed head to toe in scarlet- and sit with them in one of the highest rows, where they could have a perfect view of the match.

Yells and cheers erupted all around her as the team member's now clad in emerald and scarlet flew suddenly out of the changing rooms, the students standing on their feet, waving their arms frantically or jumping in order to get a better view. It was increasingly hard to see through the mass of flags and posters that the students had made, sparks either red or green exploding form every other wand. She clapped her hands furiously, yelling over the crowd in cheer as the twins dashed nearby, ready to take their places for the beginning of the game. Up, higher above her head, she could see Eowyn's silhouette, overlooking the positioned teams, ready to start.

A smirk crossed her face, letting out a loud laugh as she caught sight of the Slytherin Keeper. The poor red-faced boy looked about to be sick with nerves, nearly trembling on his broom. He would not be able to stop many goals. Perhaps the chances did look good for Gryffindor today. Still it was hard to see with the grey clouds all around, the cold air making students shiver every once in a while even though none stopped cheering as loudly as their lungs allowed it.

"And the Quaffle is in air!" The voice of Eliseus Dorner echoed loudly on the enchanted megaphone. "The game starts!

The cheering got even louder than before, a flash of scarlet passing in front of her side of the pitch as the players moved in a flash, the red ball flying quickly from hand to hand. She wondered at how could anyone really see what was happening? The players moved too fast!

"Peredhel's got the Quaffle! Don't know which one it is!" Dorner's voice roared over the loud crowd.

"Yes!" She screamed loudly, clapping her gloved hands furiously again, even though once again her voice was drowned by the roaring crowd. Eddelina was jumping wildly next to her, bumping into her uncomfortably, but Sigrid could not have cared less. Once of the twins had the Quaffle!

"Now the other Peredhel!" Dorner yelled, sounding a little too excited. "They really should make it easier to tell apart during games. Alexis Sonnet has intersected the pass. Sonnet with the Quaffle now! Sonnet passes to Yorish! Now Sonnet again! And… Slytherin Scores." Even Dorner's voice seemed bitter about it, making it clear which team he was rooting for. "10 to 0 in favor of Slytherin."

The green half of the Quiddith Pitch erupted in cheers and yells, the crowd seeming to go wild as green and silver sparks flew through the air at every side. The red crowd booed and complained in return, loud curses and yells ringing in Sigrid's ears from all sides, some students even shouting that it had been a foul, that it should not have counted.

"Not fair!" Eddelina shouted right on her left ear, making her doubt whether or not she had been left deaf there from the ringing there was now left inside.

She used the moment to let her gaze wonder through the crowd of Slytherins, curiously searching for that particular silver head. But he did not seem to be there. It was frustratingly hard to find anyone in particular through such a crowd, especially when nearly all the students wore their equal dark winter cloaks, all the Slytherins clad in their green and silver scarves or green hats.

"Peredhel with the Quaffle again! I'm going to guess this is Elrohir, but I' not completely sure…" Dorner's voice bellowed on the megaphone, the crowd around Sigrid exploding in wild cheers and claps again.

She was about to turn her eyes up again, giving up on her task of searching through the Slytherin crowd when she found him. He was sitting at the front row, left to Professor Snape himself as if the Head of Slytherin was holding guard over him, his long silver hair impossible to miss, contrasting stunningly against his dark winter cloak. He was the only Slytherin neither cheering nor booing, merely sitting perfectly still and regal looking, his face a perfect mask of sharp calmness. Ice blue eyes, the color of a frozen sky remained fixed on the game above, merely following the flying figures in complete silence, whatever it was he was thinking impossible to decipher. Thranduil Lasgalen wore the silver and green scarf, wrapped seemingly all too tightly around his neck, nearly covering his ears as well, both of his hands hidden inside his long winter cloak. She could not really tell from the distance whether he was really sick or not, but judging by the way in which he sat perfectly still the entire game, not even joining in the clapping once, he was either furious at something or was not feeling well at all.

The crowd around her suddenly exploded in wild cheers, Saturna's elbow nearly landing on her face as she jumped up to celebrate. She had been so immersed in studying the benched Slytherin Seeker to notice that Gryffindor had suddenly scored.

"And Peredhel with the Quaffle again!" She could hear Dorner's voice chanting loudly once again, her eyes suddenly flying up to focus once more on the dashing figures high above.

It was only a couple of minutes later that Gryffindor managed another goal, and then another, and then a fourth one, the crowd of cheering Gryffindor's nearly losing their minds at their cheering, and she was sure more than one student would not be able to speak the next day. The cheering only stopped momentarily as Alexis Sonnet managed another goal for Slytherin, but it seemed to do little to discourage the Gryffindors, for seconds later Elladan –or so she thought- had managed to score again.

She had never seen a game with this many goals, things starting to turn grim for the Slytherins. And even the green crowd in front of her seemed to have picked up on it, their cheers slowly dying away, faces looking disappointed, fearful. The scores were now three hundred and twenty for Gryffindor against a mere forty for Slytherin. Even if the Slytherin's caught the snitch, Gryffindor would still win. But there had been no sigh of the little golden ball yet.

In front of the three goal hoops, the Slytherin Keeper was rapidly losing what little hope and confidence he had, the Quaffle now flying past him nearly at every throw. More than once she caught sight of a Slytherin chaser yelling at the poor red faced boy, trying to coax him to actually concentrate on stopping the Gryffindors from scoring. The numbers rapidly raised to three hundred and sixty from Gryffindor, then four hundred, then four hundred and ten.

High above their heads the sky had started to rumble with lazy thunder, a weak lightning going off every once in a while. Soon a soft ice cold drizzle started to fall over them, making the students yell in surprise, a few girls trying to cover their heads, but none of the boys seemed to mind as they kept yelling at the full power of their lungs, not seeming to care about the cold and wet weather.

Across the snowed field, she caught sight of Snape suddenly rising to his feet the second it started raining, pulling up a stone faced Lasgalen by the arm, and hurrying him out of the curtain of ice cold water and into a selected part of the seats that were covered with a roof. So he really was sick then. Still she did not believe it could be the same the whole school had. No other student was being rushed out of the rain, Madam Pomfrey would easily be able to cure a cold in a second.

"Rohan has seen the snitch!" Dorner bellowed onto the megaphone, the words making Sigrid jump once as she immediately lifted her eyes, only to see her best friend suddenly dashing at full speed across the field. She had seen it! She had seen it!

"Catch it Eowyn!" She yelled as loudly as she could, perfectly aware that her friend would not be able to hear her but not caring at all. The green clad make-up Seeker was tailing Eowyn closely behind, almost too closely, nearly head to head with her.

"Rohan's still ahead, but not for much!" Dorner kept yelling above the roaring crowd, even the other players seemed to have stopped moving, all eyes on the pair flying at full speed in circles around the field. "Lasgalen is at her toes! They're nearly head to head now! Come on Rohan, get the snitch!"

Her heart flipped as she suddenly did a double take. Lasgal….but she had just seen him in the crowd sitting next to Snape? And then it downed on her. Of course. She had not even considered it, with the younger Lasgalen being only a first-year, she had not once thought that he would be playing Seeker in his brother's absence. But now, as her eyes lifted to look at her friend flying at full speed upwards, it was increasingly obvious as to whom that perfect waterfall of silver hair belonged to. Still the younger Lasgalen looked so little on the large broomstick, even though he flew faster than she had even imagined.

And then, it happened in a split second. Eowyn's hand had been stretched high, nearly grazing the golden ball, Legolas Lasgalen right next to her, arm also extended. And then a fist closed over the snitch, the loud whistle signaling the end of the game echoing loudly in the wet air.

"Lasgalen has caught the snitch." Eliseus Dorner announced loudly on the megaphone, not seeming discouraged at all. "But Gryffindor wins! Four hundred and thirty to one hundred and ninety!"

the crowd of Gryffindors went insane around her, and for a second she could not even see anything through the mass of students jumping and celebrating. Still they had won! They won! No matter who had caught the snitch, Eowyn and the twins would be celebrating tonight. There would be no one grumpy or complaining at the Gryffindor tower.

She could already see the mass of students running towards the field, the Gryffindors rushing to receive their team who was only now landing upon the soft white snow. Even some of the Slytherins had rushed down to their team, filling the field in an odd combination of red and green. She could feel students pushing her from all sides, nearly throwing her down the stairs in their efforts to dash towards the field.

"Did you see me!? Did you see me?!" Her eyes turned again to the full field below at the high-pitched excited scream the younger Lasgalen had just let out.

She found his little figure easily, the elven year old rushing through the snow dragging his broom by the hand, the widest, purest smiles of joy fixed on his face. One of his short arms was raised high in the air, the fluttering tiny ball still held tightly in his fist. Any on looking eye would have believed Slytherin had won judging by the sheer happiness written on the running boy. Still the Slytherins clapped and cheered at him, and she was unable to contain a smile as she saw the boy smashing against his older brother delightedly the second the latter stepped into the snow covered field.

"Did you see me?!" The younger Lasgalen screamed again directly at his brother, jumping on his spot as he held the snitch as high as he could in front of his brother's face. "I did it! Like you!"

"Yes I saw you." She could hear the older Lasgalen laughing, a gloved hand ruffling through his little brother's silver head, the later squirming out of the touch with a playful glare, the small crowd of Slytherin walking by to celebrate the younger Lasgalen as if he had won the game. But she knew nobody in their right mind could stop themselves from grinning and celebrating at just how proud and happy the younger brother was.

"Do you want to hold it?" The smiling eleven-year-old offered the fluttering snitch up to his brother, who merely laughed before shaking his head.

"No. You keep it." The elder of the brothers shoved the younger one playfully by the shoulder, the later elbowing him in return, still waving the snitch high in the air.

"Get off the rain you fool!" The younger brother suddenly added, pushing his elder brother with difficulty out into the roofed ring around the field, just underneath the sitting towers, the older brother laughing the entire time.

"Hey!" The younger brother suddenly squealed, noticing a little too late that the snitch had been snatched from his little hand by his older brother in a too fast move, leaving the younger Lasgalen laughing loudly. "Give it back! I caught it! It's mine!"

Legolas kept jumping, trying to snatch the winged ball back from his brother, the later too quick for him to succeed.

"Come on, Thran!" Legolas complained in between laugher, throwing a playful punch to his brother's upper left arm, just underneath his shoulder.

"Argh!" The elder Lasgalen gasped almost immediately, wincing once before regaining his perfect composure. And yet, even though his sudden gasp of pain went unnoticed by the small crowd of chatting Slytherins, she could see Legolas' large blue eyes suddenly widening as if in horror.

"Sorry! I forgot!" He whispered almost immediately, looking almost mortified, all traces of previous jests gone from his still childish face.

"It's fine." The elder brother added quickly, face once again looking perfectly calmed, even though his smile was once again forced, even though it tried to be reassuring, as if trying to perfectly control his expression. "Here."

And with that, the older of the two brothers threw the tiny ball in the direction of the younger boy, the golden ball fluttering momentarily in the air as if attempting to free itself before it was once again securely held in the smaller fingers. Throwing his elder brother one last apologetic smile, the younger Lasgalen turned around and ran towards the crowd of Slytherins that had been cheering for him, showing them proudly the tiny golden ball in his fist…

Here is chapter 12! I hope you like it! Let me know what you think! More interaction between Sigrid and Trhanduil to come soon in the next chapter…and hopefully some answers, or perhaps more questions? I hope this chapter is not too long, I did not want to crop anything out so I left it this long.

Anyway, thank you so much to Eryniel Greenleaf and Rose61393 for leaving a comment on the last chapter! Really thank you, it means a lot to me that you've left a review. You guys are the best!

Rose61393: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I didn't have the chapter ready on your birthday but I hope it's not too late for it to still be a birthday present! I hope it was a wonderful one full with friends and fun!

Love,

Elena