Chapter 6 – The Story of Liv and Santa Claus

When Liv regained consciousness, she felt the warmth of a nearby fireplace caressing her face. She could even smell the burning softwood and hear the logs crack. Every now and then one would burst. Those were wonderful sounds that made Liv think back to her childhood with her family in their own little hut. Back when she had still had a family.

In the background, Liv heard more sounds. Footsteps on carpet, a stifled voice, a spoon hitting wood. She tried to open her eyes, but instantly squeezed them shut again as the flames of the fireplace blinded her. She was lying right in front of it, on a soft surface under a fine blanket. Her head was spinning, like the one night she had drunk too much mead.

"Careful, you've been asleep for a long time," a voice rang out, making Liv's heart beat faster, followed by footsteps. When the voice spoke again, it sounded directly above her. "You're lucky to be alive. That was really, really stupid of you."

He spoke to her as if she were a naughty child, but Liv's face was still captured by a dreamy smile. She thought she had never smiled so much in her life as she did at that moment. It was almost painful, but in a strange, pleasant way.

And when she opened her eyes again, blinking to get used to the glare of the flames, her smile grew even wider. She felt as if she were in a fever dream. Above her, her exalted ruler looked down on her, his otherworldly face visibly exhausted, but also marked by relief. Behind him, Liv recognised the dark figure of his confidant Rupert, who had rescued her and brought her to the castle almost a year ago.

"Do you have anything to say in your defence?" asked Santa Claus, his tongue like a lash. Liv winced, suddenly sober.

"My lord, please forgive me, please –" She jumped up intending to fall to her knees. It was only then that she realised she was completely naked. She felt her blood rush hotly to her head and pulled her blanket, which had slipped down, up to her chin. She did not know what to say.

At that moment, Rupert approached her. In his clawed hands, he held a goblet with a delicious-smelling drink. He gave her a smile that flashed his pointed yellow teeth and that Liv found a little sinister. He said nothing, but gave her a nod to indicate that she should drink. With trembling hands, Liv took the goblet, before bringing it to her lips. When she took the first sip, she almost started to squeal with happiness. It was so sweet and the most delicious treat she had ever tasted!

However, Santa Claus' voice jerked her back to the present. "What were you doing down there anyway?" he said. "Didn't you know it could have cost you your life?"

"I-I wanted to accompany you, my lord," Liv stammered. She lowered her gaze. Her hands clutched the goblet as if she were a ship and it her anchor. "Because you looked so worried. I thought maybe you could use some help. I'm a servant, after all, and I've sworn to serve you. I mean..." Liv cursed inwardly. What kind of rubbish was coming out of her mouth?

"What do you mean?"

Liv raised her head and now looked directly into the blue sparkling eyes of her king. An abrupt calm came over her. Her heart, which a moment before had been a stormy ocean, now resembled a tranquil sea. "You are lonely, my lord. Let me lessen your loneliness"

The outrageousness of her words only became clear to Liv when they had already left her mouth. Her and her damned tongue! The other kitchen maids had often scolded her for it. In a moment, her king would have her head impaled on a spear, she was sure of it. Rupert was already leaving the room, as she saw from the corner of her eye, probably to fetch the weapon.

However, nothing of the sort happened. Santa Claus did not cry out in dismay, nor did he demand her death, no, instead a shadow flickered across his graceful, ageless face, just for a moment.

"Liv – your name is Liv, isn't it?"

Liv nodded. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest. She almost didn't dare breathe. At the same time, however, a pleasant tingling spread through her. Her ruler knew her name!

"How old are you, Liv?"

"I-I'm fifteen, my lord."

Santa Claus heaved a sigh. "And I am ... older. So old, in fact, that your species seems young to me."

Liv realised that by her species, he must mean all of mankind. Her lord's words were beyond her comprehension, but that didn't matter at this point. She straightened up and put her hand on her master's hand. It was cold, but again a pleasant tingle went through Liv's body. Her movement caused her blanket to slide down again, but this time Liv didn't care about her nakedness, nor did Santa Claus, who didn't take his eyes off her for a second. Liv could see her reflection in his eyes, as well as surprise.

Her voice, when she spoke then, seemed to her as if carried by a marvel. "Let me be there for you, my lord. Let me, your devoted servant, bear your loneliness with you."

Several heartbeats passed.

An eternity. A moment.

It didn't matter.

The only thing that mattered was Santa Claus' nod, which he finally gave her, and which turned Liv's heart into a firework of joy.

The rest was fate.


Just a moment before, Harry had been surrounded by a swirl of colours, on his journey back to the past with Daphne, to make everything better this time. Then, in the next moment, he hit a hard surface with great force. His breath caught, but only for a heartbeat. The ground beneath him vibrated. There was a tremendous bang, a loud hiss, screams. Splinters of wood flew through the air and cut into Harry's skin.

Instinctively Harry jumped up. They were in the middle of a battle! There was fighting all around them. People were killing, people were dying. Lightning shot from wands, swords clashed, armour was pierced. Blood flowed over the wooden floor. No, not floor. Planks! They were on a ship, Harry realised! He could see more ships in the sky. Flying ships! They were firing at each other with mighty cannons. A cannonball destroyed the last mast of a burning ship, which then began to fall.

Amid the battle, only a few metres away, stood a tall woman in shimmering armour. Strands of golden blonde peeked out from under her helmet. She was shouting orders in a language Harry did not understand.

To perceive all this, Harry needed no more than a breath.

Next to him stood Daphne. She was shaking her head in a daze. Harry called out to her, but at that moment another mighty thunder sounded. A cannonball flew only a few metres past them and destroyed a railing. A moment later, the sound of gunfire rang out once more. Wood and blood splattered through the air.

They had to get out of here!

Harry grabbed Daphne's arm and pulled her towards him. Her expression cleared. "We have to get out of here!" he shouted as loudly as he could to cover the noise of the battle.

Daphne, however, just looked at him with widened eyes. "Harry, you..."

"What?!"

"You're dissolving!"

Harry looked down at himself, and sure enough, his body was becoming more and more disembodied. One could already see through his chest. Daphne, too, was dissolving. Particles came out of her skin like grains of sand, flying away in the wind.

Harry cursed. They were somewhere in the past, at a time when they had not yet existed and had not had a body. It was as Tracey had suspected.

He lowered his hands to grab Daphne's hands tightly. "Daphne! Concentrate on our target! You have to get us away!"

Daphne blinked, still a little confused, before suddenly understanding flickered across her face. Her features hardened. She nodded curtly, then closed her eyes. As before, her mind reached for his, and as before, he grasped for it, even if it was much more difficult for him than it had been in the Department of Mysteries, as if he were trying to catch mist in the breeze. But then he was suddenly seized by a comforting warmth. A jolt went through his body; he felt as if he were being pulled off his feet.

A scream escaped his throat, whether from terror or ecstasy he could not say. Everything spun around him. Up became down and front became back. For a brief moment it was as if he saw the rage-distorted face of a rabbit fly past him, but then it too disappeared in the whirlwind of colours and light.

Then suddenly everything went black.

It was silent around him. Absolutely silent ... no, not quite. He heard soft sounds. Breaths in front of him and his heart pounding in his chest. So he still had a heart and a chest. Those had to be good signs. He had to still have a body.

Harry felt that he did indeed still have a body. He could move his fingers. And he realised that he had closed his eyes. Slowly he opened them. He found himself back in Daphne's room in the ski resort far to the north of the known world, on the border of the realm of Everfrost. Next to him were two bottles of Firewhiskey and wine, and in front of them burned a blazing fireplace in which the logs crackled softly.

They had made it. They had travelled in time and this time even to their chosen place.

Harry felt a little dizzy. His gaze fell on the bottles again. Right, there had been such a thing that night...

At least the bottles weren't too empty yet, so they couldn't be too tipsy. They hadn't arrived too late into the night.

Next to Harry, Daphne stirred. She was shaking as if coming out of an ice bath. Her cheeks were slightly flushed from the alcohol. Her pink lips glistened in the firelight, inviting to be kissed. It was almost romantic. Or it would be, under different circumstances.

Their eyes found each other.

"What was that?!" asked Harry.

"Second battle of Leuctra. Sorry, my mistake," said Daphne. She pointed to the rapier beside her on the floor. The rapier her great-grandmother had received from the Emperor of Thebes for her bravery in that very battle, Harry remembered. Presumably, then, that had been the blonde warrior he had seen in the thick of the battle.

"Your family will drive me mad one day," he said. But he laughed as he did so. "Come, we have an escape to make."

He held out his hand to her. Daphne took it gratefully and he helped her to stand. They looked at each other. "Do you have your Invisibility Cloak?" asked Daphne.

"In my room. Wait, I'll get it."

Harry wondered what had happened to his Invisibility Cloak from the future, now that they knew it was their consciousnesses and not their bodies that had time-travelled. Just like the Sword of Gryffindor, Daphne's rapier, and their wands from the future. Best not to think about it too hard, he decided. They had other things to do anyway.

He hurried to his room next door and retrieved his cloak along with his bag and winter clothes before returning to Daphne's room. Daphne, meanwhile, had also finished getting ready. Her face and the ends of her hair were wet, but she was already drying herself with her wand.

"There, I'm awake now," she said. "Ready?"

Harry nodded resolutely. Then he threw his Invisibility Cloak over them both. Daphne covered their feet with noise suppression spells; also light levitation charms that would prevent their feet from leaving tracks in the snow.

Together they started to move. They had to press close to move together under the cloak, and they could only walk very slowly. However, they could not be discovered under any circumstances. There was something wrong with their Norwegian hosts, they had learned last time. They had to be careful not to get caught up in this web of intrigue that was being spun around them.

Daphne walked in front of Harry, being slightly shorter than him. Her bottom, which didn't seem flat to him at all at that moment, no matter what he might have said in their feigned argument before they had started the avalanche, pressed against his groin. The scent of her hair, a little smoky from the fireplace, yet also somehow fresh like an ocean breeze, filled his nose. How the hell was he ever going to live without this witch again? It seemed to Harry that he would have to make an unpleasant decision very soon.

Harry shook himself. Before that, they had to finish their quest. And he had to be at full attention for that, otherwise they might not even stay alive long enough to worry about this. So he forced his thoughts away from the beguiling scent in his nose and the oh-so-seductive warmth of Daphne's body and focused instead on the stairs before them.

These were quite difficult to descend, the two of them close together under an Invisibility Cloak and careful not to make any noise. Yet somehow they managed it. They got to the ground floor undisturbed and from there through the open door to the outside.

Harry and Daphne froze when they suddenly saw the figures of Ole and Line. The two Norwegians were standing next to the door, each smoking a cigarette. The smoke rose into Harry's nose and he had to suppress a cough. Daphne had put her hand over her nose.

The two guards had not noticed them. They were talking in Norwegian and Harry, in his thoughts, thanked Hermione and Tracey again for showing them the spell by which they could understand the words.

"Where is the blockhead?" said Line just then. "I swear on Hel's pisspot. If that idiot is late again I will – "

"There he is."

Harry and Daphne heard loud footsteps behind them. They were just able to step aside before the cook Oglo stepped out of the hut. He passed so close to them that Harry only had to reach out his hand to touch him.

"What took you so long?" asked Ole.

"Just checking my supplies. The Potter boy really stole two bottles, as you suspected. That should keep them busy for the rest of the night. What do you think, are they already banging?"

"You're a disgusting pig, Oglo," Line said. "And these two are not like that. If you ask me, the little one lacks Potter's grit. We saw that at dinner ourselves, didn't we? Potter needs a fighter at his side. Someone who won't let a few scary stories get the better of her."

Daphne's body tensed, but Harry could do no more than lightly squeeze her arm.

"Are you going to offer yourself?" said Ole, taking a deep drag of his cigarette.

Line waved it off. "He's far too naïve for me. I don't need a lap dog, you know." She gave Ole a suggestive look.

"Hey, you two lovebirds," Oglo complained. "I'm freezing my ass off here. And I can already see them over there. Let's get moving. The sooner we get back to our beds the better."

Ole and Line stuck their cigarettes into the snow on a nearby windowsill before walking with Oglo in the direction of several lights that had appeared on the horizon. There had to be about a dozen of them, and they shimmered in the night like oversized fireflies.

Harry and Daphne followed them at some distance. At some point Harry realised that the lights were lanterns carried by dark-clad men and women. However, the lantern bearers were not alone. Other people were walking between them. Harry could not estimate in the darkness how many there might be exactly, but they had to be many.

He drew in his breath as he caught sight of the first faces. The people without lanterns looked completely blank, as if they were not living beings at all, but only lifeless dolls. With these empty looks, they put one foot in front of the other. Only their clothes distinguished them from each other. Harry recognised suits, thin jumpers, and sweatshirts, even a man in swimming trunks who wore nothing else. As different as the people's clothes were, they had in common that they were not suited for the cold winter here. They had to be Muggles, Harry realised. And they must be under the Imperius Curse or some other magic that robbed them of their free will.

Harry felt a fierce heat rising inside him. Without thinking about it, his fingers reached for his wand. Then, however, he felt a hand on his. It was Daphne's. She looked at him with her beautiful blue eyes. In her pupils, he saw his reflection, dim and blurred, but the revulsion on his face was still clear. The same feelings were visible on Daphne's face, but she shook her head. She was right. It would do no good if he lost his temper now. The lantern bearers were undoubtedly accomplices of Ole, Line, and Oglo. They were clearly outnumbered.

One of the lantern bearers stepped up to the three and Harry saw that they were talking to each other. He could not understand their words at the distance, but they had to be to Ole's satisfaction. The blond man nodded and waved to his two companions. Three of the lantern bearers handed them their lanterns before walking to the hut.

Ole, Line, and Oglo then went to the head of the human procession. The other lantern bearers stood at its sides. They raised their arms, at which point the mass of muggles began to move at once.

Harry and Daphne tried to follow, but that was not so easy under the Invisibility Cloak. If they continued to move at such a crawling pace, they would soon lose them. Looking around, Harry saw that the nearest lantern bearer was at least thirty metres away. Just at that moment, moreover, a cloud moved in front of the moon, making it even darker around them. So dark, in fact, that Harry could barely make out the Muggles in front of them.

He leaned forward and whispered in Daphne's ear, "Follow me."

With that, he pulled the Invisibility Cloak off them. He grabbed Daphne's hand, before pulling her with him into the mass of Muggles. They were now surrounded by people, a human Invisibility Cloak, in a sense. As if they were hiding a tree in a forest, or a wand in a wand shop.

Daphne nodded at him approvingly. "Good idea," she whispered.

They matched their speed to that of the Muggles as they walked through the darkness. Meanwhile, Harry let his gaze slide over the faces of the Muggles; packed together and forced forward by magic like a herd of cattle. Harry could tell by the stars and the moon that they were heading north. What was behind all this? What were the Norwegians up to?

Then his eyes wandered to Daphne. She was also scowling. It was obvious that a myriad of thoughts were running through her head, quite the opposite of those around them.

"Daph, you still look too intelligent," he whispered to her.

"What?"

Harry pointed at the people around them. Understanding flashed in Daphne's eyes; she nodded.

"All right. Less intelligent, then. So like Crabbe and Goyle," she said. Her gaze went blank and drool dripped from the corners of her mouth.

Harry laughed, but stopped abruptly as a lantern approached them. He forced his face into an expression of blankness, as if he were one of the pitiful dolls around them. Daphne did the same.

The guard walked past them without giving them another glance. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He tightened his grip on his wand in his pocket as they trudged through the snow, taking one step at a time, without changing pace, just going on and on north.

Meanwhile, the air around them shimmered and sparkled as it had when Harry and Daphne had walked through this landscape after their first escape. The vast, endless snowscape seemed just the same as before. Only their group had grown. The snowflakes that fell on them from above were unchanged, too, still piling high atop the vast plain of ice. The scenery before them was radiant and beautiful, as though they'd stepped inside a snow globe.

Almost three hours passed in this way before the crowd suddenly stopped, and Harry and Daphne with it. In front of them towered high rocks that Harry knew only too well. The next moment, a rancid stench assaulted his nose. The hairs on the back of Harry's neck stood up. And then he heard the sinister voice in his mind that he would have recognised anywhere.

"Welcome, miserable ones, to the realm of Everfrost."

Harry didn't have to crane his head and look over the crowd to know that none other than Servant Rupert, Santa Claus' minion, had appeared before them.

Ole's voice rang out from the front of the procession. "Here is the promised delivery, beast. Tell your master that –"

"Silence, before I tear your corrupt heart from your chest. I have nothing to discuss with you, nor has my master."

For a few moments, they heard their guards talking in Norwegian. Finally, Ole called out loudly, "We're going back. The beast will take over from here."

The lantern bearers then walked past the Muggles in the direction from which they had come, and on the face of one of their guards, Harry could see dried sweat of fear. The lanterns disappeared into the horizon, leaving only the light of the moon to dimly illuminate the darkness.

Harry felt his heart pounding. He forced himself to calm down. Breathe in and breathe out. Slowly breathe in and breathe out. Servant Rupert mustn't suspect that they were among the Muggles, who hadn't moved a bit during all this time.

"Worry not, children of men," Servant Rupert's voice sounded again in their thoughts. "Your pitiful lives will soon come to an end, I promise you. Follow me."

At the same time, the Muggles started moving, and once again Harry and Daphne moved with them. As they did so, they left the rocks that marked the border of Everfrost behind.

As they trudged ever northwards, it eventually became morning. The sun rising over the endless white wilderness was cold and distant, yet of a frightening beauty – as was the magnificent castle that appeared before them at noon.

The castle was built of huge grey boulders almost completely covered in ice and snow. Shimmering bridges connected the castle's sky-towering towers, and above the wide-open gate was emblazoned the ice-sculpted symbol of a crown with a snowflake above it. The castle looked as if it came from another world; or from another time when magic had been young. It was the Castle of the Everlasting Frost. The seat of Santa Claus and the destination of their journey.

However, Servant Rupert did not head for the open gate. Instead, he walked past the castle to a plain, long wooden building that had been erected next to it and had nothing in common with the majestic grace of the castle and was certainly not that old.

They would surely not meet Santa Claus there. Daphne must have been thinking the same, because she took his hand and nodded towards the castle gate. Harry nodded back. He took his Invisibility Cloak out of his bag, throwing it over them both. Then they disengaged from the crowd unnoticed. Carefully they moved towards the gate while Servant Rupert and the Muggles walked further and further away from them.

No one stopped them, neither a guard nor any other soul. Harry felt awfully tiny as they stepped through the mighty gate of the castle. Behind it, a wide, icy courtyard awaited them. The towers and ramparts rose steeply all around, even, gleaming walls with only a few windows and doors. It was deserted, but in some of the windows, Harry saw lights shimmering, even some dark silhouettes. They didn't all seem to be human, for Harry also recognised pointed horns on the heads of some of them and shapes that looked like antlers.

On the left side was an archway to another courtyard, from which, it seemed to Harry, came an icy cold breeze, even colder than the air around them. And on the opposite side of the courtyard was a wide-open gate with a crown and snowflake engraved above it, leading into the castle.

Harry and Daphne crossed the courtyard. Halfway across, however, Daphne suddenly stopped. As if in a trance, she looked towards the archway from which the icy breeze reached them.

"Daphne, are you all right?" whispered Harry to her.

A brief tremor went through Daphne's body. She shook her head and started to walk on. "Everything's fine," she murmured, "I just thought..."

Her words trailed off and Harry asked no further, for they had reached the gate on the other side. Cautiously they entered the castle. There they found themselves in front of a wide, long staircase rising up, the end of which they could not see. Slowly they began to climb the stairs, step by step. It was dark around them. No torches lit up the blackness.

After several minutes, they reached the end of the stairs and entered a wide, round room. Torch holders hung on the walls, but the torches inside were dark and cold. Several corridors branched off from the room, but they all looked the same.

"Daph, we should –" Harry began, but he stopped when the previously dark torches began to blaze from one moment to the next.

The torches bathed the room in a reddish-orange glow. And then suddenly people ran into the room from the branching corridors. Harry grabbed Daphne's hand to run back down the stairs with her, but people appeared from there too. Some of them were humans with wooden sticks in their hands, looking somewhat like the wands Harry knew, only thicker and a little longer, almost like clubs; also human-like creatures with pointed ears and horns or antlers on their heads and long lances in their hands. And in front walked a huge reindeer in heavy armour and with pointed, iron spikes on its antlers. The reindeer kept its head lowered so that the iron spikes pointed directly at them. Harry had no doubt that it could easily pierce them with them.

"Do not move, intruders! Or your lives are forfeit. And down with the Invisibility Cloak!" a deep, male voice rang out. The voice came from the reindeer, and sure enough, his mouth moved in unison with the words.

Harry tightened his grip on his wand, but then he felt a hand on his again. Daphne had turned her head towards him and was shaking it slightly.

Harry returned her gaze. Are you sure? his eyes asked.

There's no way around here, Daphne's eyes replied. That or something like it, Harry could see it clearly in her gaze. However, that didn't mean they were already defeated.

Harry took a deep breath and pulled the Invisibility Cloak from their heads. The castle guards tightened as if they hadn't really known they were there until that moment. Only the reindeer had not changed his posture.

"Now, wands on the ground," he said, "swords too, including the one in your bag."

"What are you going to do with us?" asked Harry.

"Away with the wands and the swords! Otherwise you will fare badly."

"How can we trust that –"

"Away with the wands and the swords, boy. Otherwise you'll be a dead boy in ten seconds. I won't say it again. You're superfluous. Our ruler only cares about the girl."

"Will you take us to him?" asked Daphne beside him.

Now the huge reindeer moved for the first time. He raised his head slightly and now looked directly at Daphne. "Yes."

Daphne returned the reindeer's gaze before turning to Harry after a few moments. "Let's do what he says," she whispered to him. "Now is not the time to fight."

Harry didn't miss her choice of words. Now was not the time.

They were not defeated yet. That's what Harry tried to tell himself as he and Daphne placed their wands on the cold stone floor, followed by Daphne's rapier and the Sword of Gryffindor in Harry's bag. Yet it felt like defeat. They had been busted. Their plan was ruined before it had even really begun. And now they were disarmed too. Without his wand and sword, Harry felt naked.

The castle guards surrounded them. Two each grabbed Harry and Daphne by the shoulders and led them towards one of the corridors.

"Come along," the reindeer said.

"Who are you?" asked Harry.

"My name is Rudolphus, Captain of the Everfrost Guard. But that needn't concern you, boy. Save your words for the King."

Harry said nothing more. They strode through the wide, high corridor, went up another long flight of stairs, and finally stood before a closed door. Engraved on its shimmering, ice-covered surface was the symbol of the crown with the snowflake that Harry had already noticed above the front gate.

So now they would finally face Santa Claus.


Years passed in the realm of Everfrost and two lonely souls found comfort in each other.

And so it came as it had to come. Love sprouted between Liv and Santa Claus, improbable, blessed, like the most graceful flower in an altogether inhospitable place. After three years they married, and their happiness was a joy for the whole kingdom.

But where love dwelt, darkness was never far away. Once a year, Santa Claus went down into the dark cave. He forbade Liv to accompany him, and so this was the only moment in their years of bliss when he was entirely alone. Then at some point, he began to go down there twice a year, then thrice. And each time he returned from there weak and haggard, and there was nothing Liv could do about it.

It was after one of these visits to the cave that Santa Claus, visibly exhausted, sought her out in her chamber, where she sat in front of the blazing fire and gently caressed her belly, which was bulging from pregnancy. It would be their first child, but certainly not their last, if she had her way.

"My lord," she said, "are you –"

Santa Claus knelt before her and took her hand in his. "My beloved, my star, my sunrise after dark night. I can't go on any longer. I must tell you everything at last. The whole, terrible truth."


"Enter," said Rudolphus.

Harry and Daphne obeyed. The door swung open silently and they found themselves in a high, domed hall with round, flashing pillars of blue-white ice along the walls. The hall was full of sculptures made of ice crystall. Men and women in all sorts of guises. Harry recognised a knight in shining armour, a sorceress in a wide robe, a little boy without shoes and a straw behind his ear. Some of the sculptures had their hands stretched towards heaven, as if they had sought God's help in vain. And all the sculptures wore expressions of pain and despair. Harry's guts twisted at the sight.

At the end of the hall, steps led up to an white throne, and in front of it stood an utterly otherworldly figure. A man, it seemed. He wore a shimmering purple robe, his skin was as white as freshly fallen snow, as was his long hair, which reached down over his shoulders, and his eyes sparkled like blue stars. On his right hand, the man wore a silver ring with a dark stone, as black as the night. Harry didn't have to tray hard to feel the dark magic emanating from it.

The man opened his mouth. A smile played around his pale lips. "Step closer, Daphne, our descendant. And you too, Harry, her faithful companion."

Daphne froze.

"We have been expecting you," Santa Claus continued. "But actually not for a few decades, to bring more ... order here. It seems our Norwegian friends have failed. However, that should not diminish the joy of our gathering. So much have we looked forward to this moment since we saw you last night."

"W-what are you saying?" asked Daphne.

"Oh, please forgive us. We were in a different form at the time."

Santa Claus's features blurred, widening and wrinkling. White hair sprouted from his cheeks, his upper lip and under his chin. Before them now stood the figure of Professor Moros, the historian who had kept them company at dinner at the Norwegian ski resort and had been so interested in the rumours about Servant Rupert. Then his features blurred once again and they looked back into the ageless face of Santa Claus.

"So you see that we have been following your progress for some time. And nothing that happens in our realm remains hidden from us."

Daphne continued to stare at him with widened eyes. Her hands were clenched into fists. "What do you mean by descendant?"

"Ah yes, impatience fires our tongues," Santa Claus said. "Please forgive us. We guess this must all be very confusing. Perhaps it's time for some explanations before the ordeal, or what do you think, my eternal love?"

A foul smell filled the hall. The air above Santa Claus' hand began to flicker, and then a grey mist rose from his ring, or more precisely from the dark stone within it. The wisps of mist writhed like dancing worms in the air. They formed a shape. The shape of a beautiful woman with long blond hair and eerie sparkling blue eyes. The facial features were not identical – Daphne's were softer and more affectionate – yet the resemblance was obvious at first glance, especially as Harry had only recently seen another member of the Greengrass family with the female warrior on the battlefield. The woman was neither ghost nor flesh, and her voice, when she began to speak, sounded as if she were speaking to them through a veil of water.

"Ah, Daphne. How our hearts have yearned to finally meet you, our last hope. So many of our children have already failed us, not least your weak mother. But you, you are more promising."

Daphne did not seem to take the revelations well. In disbelief, she looked at the people in front of them, her body trembling, and Harry didn't have to connect his mind to hers to know that her world was falling apart.

He, on the other hand, couldn't allow himself to feel that way. He forced his gaze away from Daphne and surveyed their surroundings. They were still surrounded by the guards who had led them here, even if they didn't dare come closer to Santa Claus and his companion. There was no other entrance to the throne room than the one behind them, and it was blocked. Moreover, they were unarmed. Their situation was anything but good. Something had to happen and it had to happen soon.

"I hate to interrupt your heartless speech, Whatever-you-are," Harry spoke up. "But we'd like to know what the hell is going on right now."

The woman's gaze locked on him. She clicked her tongue. "Your lover is rather uncouth, Daphne. Yet we are impressed by his self-confidence, even in the face of mortal danger. Very well, we will tell you. The truth."

"The truth?" asked Daphne breathlessly.

Santa Claus nodded. "Yes, Daphne. The truth."


"The truth?" asked Liv.

Santa Claus nodded. "Do you know who I am, Liv?"

"You are our king, sir. And the man I love with all my heart."

"That's only part of the truth," said Santa Claus. "And I'm afraid the reality won't live up to the lofty notions you have of me." At Liv's incipient protest, he raised his hand. "No, please let me tell you. Let me tell you the story of the man you now call Santa Claus, a name that mocks history. For I was not always called that. Once, when time was young, I was known by another name, and I was not alone. I had many sisters and brothers. It was a carefree time. It was the time of the Alben."

He heaved a heavy sigh. "Yes, Liv, you heard me right. I'm one of the last two Alben, trapped in a human body, having lost most of my power."

The Alben! Mysterious beings of primeval times, equal to the gods in dignity and power, if the legends could be believed. And such a being had chosen her as his mate! Liv felt her heart swell with pride. She placed her hand on his and met his surprised gaze with a tender kiss on his lips. The kiss made her insides tighten with cold, but she didn't care, even if it meant she had to break off their kiss after a few seconds, as she did every time. That was the price one had to pay when getting involved with an immortal.

"But beloved, why do you look so surprised? I will love you forever, no matter what your past is," she said tenderly.

"Oh Liv, you are too good a soul for this world. For we have committed horrible things. Greed and pride blinded us. The reasons for our discord are buried in history, but after millennia of mounting resentment, our race, the crown of creation, split. What sacrilege! Soon, Alben were fighting against Alben! Some called themselves Darkalben" – his gaze slid to the door, on the opposite side of which Rupert kept his faithful watch – "and others Lightalben". He pointed to himself. "In our madness, we brought the entire world to the brink of the abyss..."

"But the world still exists!" said Liv. "So it couldn't have been that bad ... my lord."

Santa Claus continued to speak without responding to her words. "We started with such noble goals, only to be crushed all the more cruelly at the seams of the world. Yet we did not stop. We were fools. Such fools. The promise of power truly blinded us, blinded us..."

It was obvious that by now he was speaking more to himself than to Liv. She could not begin to grasp what must be going on in the mind of her exalted ruler at that moment. How could she? Compared to him, she was just a vermin, a candle in a winter storm. All she could do was squeeze his hand and be there for him, whatever else he might tell her.

Santa Claus shook his head, as if to clear his thoughts, before continuing. "We have inflicted a horrific wound, Liv."

"But couldn't you just heal that wound?" asked Liv. "I saw what you did to Kadlin's broken leg some days ago. Surely you can –"

"I'm afraid it's not that simple, my beloved. For it is not a wound in the body of a living being, but in the magic of the world itself."

Liv had no idea what he was talking about, but it sounded like this was something very drastic.

"We have awakened a power even older and more cruel than us. And one by one ... the others died. Until only I remained. I am the last of the Lightalben, and so the duty of keeping the wound closed has fallen to me."

Liv's eyes widened in sudden understanding. "You mean ... the cave?!" The cave where she had followed him and where she had nearly met her death.

Santa Claus nodded. "By now I have to go down there more and more often. To prevent the Great Cold from devouring our kingdom, maybe even the whole world. But I am getting weaker, I can feel it. I don't know how much longer I will be able to fulfil my task..."

"You are so wise, surely you will find a solution to this!"

Santa Claus gave her a sad smile. "Solution, you say. I have indeed found a solution that I no longer have to go down there myself. This solution will also require terrible sacrifices, but it will buy us some time. For at some point even that will not be enough, I fear. No, what I need is a successor."

Liv understood immediately what he meant. Her hand stroked her bulging belly. "My child will be at your service, my lord," she said.

"And yet, we do not know if it will be strong enough to hold my power. It is like a coin toss to place our hopes in the child of a human woman, much as I love you, my incomparable Liv."

"Then we will have more children! One of them will be strong enough to free you from your burden, I promise you!"

"And what if they don't want that at all? It's a curse, Liv..."

"They are my children," Liv countered, "Of course they want to. And if they don't, then they're not my children and I won't have any qualms about making them. I will not abandon you, my darling."


Harry felt like he was going to throw up. A surging heat seized his body. "You're not parents, you're not kings," he said. "You're just despicable monsters!"

"Silence, boy," hissed the woman. Liv. "You have no idea of the sacrifices we have made."

Daphne raised her head. Her voice was calm, but Harry could hear its icy undertone. It dripped with contempt. "And by sacrifice you mean my family?"

"Our family," Santa Claus said. "They are –"

"You are not my family! Harry's right. You're nothing but monsters – and the curse that's on us is your doing, too, then?"

Liv made a disparaging hand gesture. "Curse, blessing, duty. All the same. It should have been an honour for our children to serve our noble purpose, but they ran away. What a shame!"

"Don't be too harsh, my eternal beloved," Santa Claus said. "In their last moments, after all, they still proved the worth of their blood."

"What do you mean?" asked Daphne sharply.

It was Liv who answered, "It's true, in their last moments our descendants did show some dignity, even if they were all too weak in the end. Oh, you look so confused? Did you think we would just slay one member of our family in each generation for fun or revenge?" She shook her head. "No, now that really would have been a waste. In the last weeks of their lives, when they felt their deaths approaching, the curse forced them to build a magnificent mausoleum where they retreated to await their end."

That matched what Kingsley had told him about the Greengrass family, Harry thought. What they hadn't known then, however, was that the construction of the magnificent tombs was also due to the curse and not to a centuries-old tradition, grown out of the constant presence of death.

"However, these were not just simple mausoleums. No, what no one knew, not even the dying themselves, was that magical portals opened in them for a brief moment. And these portals brought them here, to the Realm of the Everlasting Frost. And so, in the end, our children did come back home to fulfil their destiny. And faced with the choice of dying a miserable death, as meaningless as the death of a worm, or facing the ordeal of proving themselves worthy of our power to continue our noble task and thus maybe see their loved ones again, they always made the right choice. Only, alas, they have all proved unworthy."

Harry felt a new wave of blazing anger rise within him. So Daphne's mother, faced with this cruel choice, had made the same decision, hoping to see her daughters again.

Daphne must have thought the same, for a single tear ran down her pale cheek; quite as if she were forcing herself to not cry more. A single tear for the cruel end of a loving life. Her mother's life. And all the mothers before her.

"I hate you," Daphne whispered, but her voice echoed in the icy hall.

"But you will make the right choice, won't you?"

"Like I have one..."

Liv shook her head. "No, actually you don't. Not if you want to spare Astoria that choice, anyway."

Harry had been following the exchange of words with his heart pounding faster and faster. "Daphne, you –" he began, but was interrupted by his companion.

"Harry, please look after Tori in case I ... can't do it anymore," Daphne said without looking at him. Her gaze was fixed forward. "And tell the others I'm sorry."

"What are you talking about?!" cried Harry. "We'll return together! We can look after Tori together and –"

The guards grabbed him. One man put a hand over his mouth. Harry continued to shout, but no more intelligible words came out.

"I enjoyed our time together, Harry. Thank you for giving me a chance."

Daphne stepped up to the throne. There Santa Claus placed his white hand on her shoulder, a smile on his face. Daphne winced at the touch, and for a moment an expression of sudden pain flitted across her face.

"We are so proud of you, Descendant," Santa Claus spoke. "Your love for your sister is admirable. We bow to you." He bowed his head slightly. "Perhaps you are indeed strong enough to absorb our power..."

Then suddenly a dagger of ice appeared in his hand. The next moment he thrust it and pierced Daphne's heart.


Cold. A horrible, all-pervading cold. That was all Daphne felt.

Her legs failed her. She sank to her knees. From her chest, right where her heart was, protruded the handle of the icy dagger. Dark, red blood poured from the wound and dripped onto the white floor.

Everything began to spin. A rushing sound took hold of her ears.

Even though she had sworn not to, she turned her head towards Harry. It took four guards to hold him down. He turned and thrashed and screamed, but she did not hear him. Only the roaring in her head. She would have loved to spend her life with him, even if he actually loved someone else.

She felt the life forces leaving her body. She felt weak, so weak.

But she couldn't die! Otherwise they would choose Astoria next!

Daphne clung to her life like a drowning man to the saving driftwood, while more and more blood flowed from her body.

She couldn't die!

She couldn't...

A hot feeling seized her body, but at the same moment, her eyes went black.

Everything was darkness, and then, for a moment, light.

And then darkness.


Harry screamed and screamed and screamed, but he could do nothing. The guards' hands clawed at his body as Daphne's blood poured inexorably from her wound, forming a glowing red pool beneath her. Her breath formed small clouds in front of her mouth, but even these slowly became smaller. A last twitch of her limbs. Then she stopped moving.

Harry sank to his knees. Tears streamed down his face. He could not take his eyes off Daphne's dead body.

Disappointment spread across the faces of Santa Claus and Liv, those monsters in human form, unworthy of ever being called family.

However, then, without a doubt, a sudden change set in! A gust of wind, created out of nowhere, blew through Daphne's hair. The temperature in the throne room dropped several degrees. From far away, a strange melody drifted towards them, not unlike Fawkes' singing after Dumbledore had died. However, whereas the phoenix's song had been a portrayal of fire and grief, this melody created images of cold and regret in Harry's mind's eye. Goosebumps gripped his body. The hairs on his neck stood up.

Santa Claus let out a long sigh. His body began to dissolve, like snow carried away in the wind. More and more, until only his hand with the ring remained. And then only the ring was left. With a loud clang, it hit the ground and shattered into a thousand pieces.

At the same moment, Liv's body began to shimmer. She smiled. "At last we are reunited, my darling."

Then she too disappeared. The lovers who had exacted such a high price from the world for their selfishness were no more.

What was, was a miracle. Daphne's chest began to rise and fall. Her hand twitched. A breath of air escaped her lips.

Spellbound, Harry watched his friend rise, but he no longer recognised in her the person with whom he had undertaken this long journey. Daphne's skin had become paler and was now almost as white as the snow around them. Her hair, previously golden and radiant like the sun, had taken on a silvery sheen. And her eyes sparkled like ice crystals in which blue light refracted.

She looked menacing. This thought, however, quickly disappeared from Harry's mind when their eyes met. Daphne looked at him with an expression of fear, pain, and, overriding everything else, immense regret.

Then Harry felt movement at his sides. One by one, the castle guards stepped forward, plus more people stepping into the throne room behind them. Cooks, servants, stable boys, and many, many more. The entire court of Everfrost. They all went down on their knees before Daphne.

Rudolphus' voice filled the hall: "At the dawn of a new age, we swear eternal allegiance to you, O exalted Queen. Guide us, redeem us, save us from darkness."

Followed by the booming voices of the assembled court:

"Long live the Queen! Long live the Queen! Long live the Queen! Long live the Queen! Long live the Queen! Long live..."


AN:

This was the longest chapter in the story (slightly longer than the first), but then again, a lot happened. And I think this was the chapter I had the most fun writing, but what did you think? And what do you think will happen next to our two adventures after what happened here? Feel free to let me know your opinions and thoughts in the comments!