WHAT HAVE THEY DONE WITH THE RAIN?
Silence Lifted From the Dust
Draco Malfoy stood knee deep in powdery, virgin snow and gazed sourly up at the moon. The sky was clear for a winter's night, and the air bereft of any wind, though still decidedly cold. Malfoy was standing a few metres away from the eaves of the Forbidden Forest; he did not fancy waiting any closer to its gloomy depths. It was one minute past twelve: Christmas day…
Harry Potter sat on in the window seat of his dormitory and had the strangest to desire to throw himself into the starry night, come what may. He shook his head furiously and rubbed his eyes. He had been having the strangest of dreams…he had been walking through a forest with Ron and Hermione. Luna Lovegood had been calling to them to hurry, but Ron's leg was broken, just like it had in their third year under the whomping willow. Neville Longbottom, tall and round and forgetful was calling too, he had a frog in his pants? Draco Malfoy popped up from behind a tree, his face contorted in a silent scream…Harry sighed – it was a just a load of garbled rubbish his befuddled mind had produced at the end of a difficult day. A small movement caught his eye near the dark line that was the edge of the forbidden forest… a pinprick of light that had to have been made by somebody's wand…
Luna Lovegood lay in her four-poster bed in the fifth year Ravenclaw-girls dormitory. She was wide-awake and staring through the open drapes of her bed with sightless eyes. She remained completely still, and to the casual observer she might have been dead. Ever so slowly, she moved one arm upwards until it was vertical. Clasped in her hand was a crumpled piece of parchment. Her unblinking eyes surveyed it closely…
The-At-Buggerit sat alone at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, wearing an invisibility cloak so as not to be seen by passing house-elves. He rested his laughing face on his hands, and finger combed his straw coloured hair. He was feeling slightly perplexed. His father still would not speak to him, and he could not tell why. Professor Severus Snape also pretended he did not exist, which complicated matters significantly… and there was also Luna Lovegood to consider. Had she eaten the gum she had stolen from him? Another puzzling piece of information was that he had just witnessed Draco Malfoy sneak out of the castle, dressed for the weather and carrying a large bundle. If exclamations of annoyance were The-At-Buggerit's forte, he would have sworn right there and then, but they were not, and so he merely smiled…