Welcome back my good friends. This story is the sixth story in the Inferiorum series. The first five stories can be read in any order but you must read all five stories before starting this one or it won't make sense as those are all character background stories. And now, to my returning fans, I say, come on in!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter…
Warnings: Wouldn't you like to know!
The Eternal Snowlands
Chapter One
"It was a full moon and, shining on all that snow, it made everything almost as bright as day—only the shadows were rather confusing."
-The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
"Old McGonagall nearly murdered them when she realized what they had done." Ron finished his story, lying back on the green grass. Harry laughed at the latest tale of Fred and George's pranks. Tomorrow was his birthday and that meant it had been two whole years since he had left the Dursleys home to come live at Hogwarts—and that he'd be fifteen.
"Well, if they hadn't gotten Tonks to turn into Sprout…" Harry wished he had the genius that the twins seemed to possess when it came to getting in trouble. "Wish I could have been there to see it…" Harry had been held back by Snape, who made him clean up all the puffer fish eyeballs that were on the floor around where his cauldron had been set up. It was all because he had been trying to ignore Draco Malfoy, who kept shooting them at him and then finally shot one back, and Snape had just happened to see.
"Snape's a slimy git." Ron seemed to read Harry's mind. "Let's go see what Ginny and Hermione are up to." He gestured at the two girls, who were sitting in the shade of a large oak tree, doing something with paper. Ron and Harry usually hung out with Hermione and Ginny after lessons. Harry liked them because Hermione didn't care about getting dirt in her hair, even if she was a bit of a know-it-all—though she had gotten much better since the first time he met her—and Ginny because she was always willing to go along with any ideas they had.
"Ron, Harry, come help us." Hermione had spotted them coming and was now waving them over with a pair of scissors in her hand.
"What are you guys making?" Harry looked at the paper that Hermione was cutting up. Ginny was folding the small pieces of paper into an odd shape and then adding it to others already folded with the help of a useful charm. Although Ginny was the youngest, she was really good at magic and knew all sorts of useful little charms. Ron sometimes complained about the fact that Ginny got to come to school earlier than he did, but for the most part, the two of them got along really well.
"Pin Wheels." Hermione declared, holding up a finished product. There was a thin, rounded, wooden stick, that had what looked like a paper flower, or maybe a sunburst at one end. "I said something about how hot it was after class today and McGonagall showed me this book…" She held up a book that had an illustration of the exact same thing she had held up to them. "Watch!" She blew on the Pin Wheel and it began to spin. It kept spinning though and she held it up to Harry's face. A cool, refreshing steady breeze was coming from it.
"Hey, neat." Harry took hold of it. "Is it a charm?"
"Yes, it's a really easy one too." Hermione explained.
"Here's another one, Hermione." Ginny held out one, this one's pin wheel was a lilac color.
"Afflo frigero." Hermione murmured as she tapped it with her wand. The pin wheel glowed blue for a moment and then stopped. Harry handed her back the pin wheel he had been holding, which was blue. "I suppose you'll want this one, right Ginny?"
"How'd you guess?" Ginny cracked a smile.
"Because purple is your favorite color." Hermione rolled her eyes. "Let's do a green one for Harry and a red one for Ron."
"As long as it isn't maroon." Ron reminded them.
"Be quiet or I'll make it blow hot air." Hermione threatened him good-naturedly. "I heard some silly business about Fred, George, Tonks, McGonagall, and man-eating dandelions."
"It's true." Harry and Ron said together.
"I figured it was true." Hermione pursed her lips. "Really, we're here to learn magic, not to torment the instructors…"
"Fred and George are just having a bit of fun." Ginny defended them, as she always did. Harry supposed it all came from back when they were all together in the city of Fal.
"Hi!" Neville Longbottom ran up to them. "What are you guys doing?"
"Making Pin Wheels." Hermione explained. "Do you want to help?"
"Okay!" Neville sat down and got out his wand. "What should I do?" Hermione looked apprehensive for a moment, and with good reason. Neville was really nice—no one could deny that, but he was a bit hopeless when it came to magic. Harry and Ron took seats and the instructions on how to make them were laying open in the middle of all of them. Hermione handed Harry a sheet of white paper and he took out his wand, tapped the sheet once and it immediately turned green.
His wand, which he had laid eyes on for the first time two years ago, had been given to him by Albus Dumbledore. He would never forget that meeting as long as he lived. Dumbledore could often be seen at the castle, wandering through, but it was the only time they had ever had a conversation. The twinkle in Dumbledore's eye, the way he seemed to know everything, and best of all, when Dumbledore revealed to Harry that not all of his family was dead—his godfather was still alive.
It had been news to Harry that he even had a godfather. Sirius Black, who was often gone for long amounts of time "on duty", but would come back to visit with Harry and would tell him about all the things he and James Potter would get up to back when they were Harry's age. Although Sirius had been named Harry's godfather, Harry had not been sent to live with the joking, cheerful man. He had no idea why.
"Aye," Sirius would say whenever Harry would try to get him to answer. "Your father and mother…it was the only thing I think they really fought about…but that's all in the past…"
Harry glanced over to see Neville tap his own sheet of paper and instead of turning a certain color, it became a pattern of little toads.
"Wow, how did you do that, Neville?" Ginny asked, looking at his excitingly.
"I was trying to turn it yellow." Neville looked at the piece of paper mournfully. Neville was fully aware that his capacity towards magic wasn't on par with some of the others.
"I think that the toads are much better than plain yellow." Ginny wrinkled her nose.
"Pin Wheels?" Fred was leaning over Ron's shoulder. "I remember coming across those somewhere…trying to keep cool?"
"We've got lines tonight." George was standing next to his twin. "McGonagall's got no sense of humor."
"I second that." Fred's voice said but Harry realized there was a third Weasley twin standing there. "Maybe the badger was going a bit far…" The third twin noticed that everyone was staring and then looked down at themselves. "Oh, have it your way." And the third twin turned into Tonks.
"Hey, you guys." Cho Chang had now joined the group. She squeezed into a seat between Ron and Harry. "Oh! Pin Wheels! That's so neat! Hey, have any of you seen Blaise Zabini?"
"Have you checked all the mirrors?" Ginny joked quietly. The group laughed, except for Cho.
"Well, no, I haven't…" Cho stood up. "I'll go check then!" And she bounced off.
"Those two sure are made for each other." Fred commented as he watched her run back up to the castle.
"How so?" Tonks had scrambled up the oak tree and was now dangling upside down from a branch right above their heads.
"Blaise wants people to admire him all day and Cho has the intelligence of a mirror." George remarked.
"Come on you guys, Cho's nice." Hermione tried to defend the girl but she was smiling a little.
"Ah, Hermione, always trying to look on the bright side." Fred grinned. "Well, we've still got time to charm the clock in the main hall…let's get going George."
"Indeed." George agreed and the two twins walked back towards the castle.
"I hope they don't do anything to get themselves into more trouble." Hermione sighed as Neville did the charm on his Pin Wheel, only to have it turn into a small block of ice.
"I rather like writing lines…you can just sort of drift off while you do it…" Luna's voice said calmly above their heads and Tonks let out a yell and fell out of the tree in surprise. Looking up, Harry could see that Luna was now dangling upside down like Tonks had been, and somehow gotten there without Tonks noticing at all—which shocked her so bad that she fell out of the tree. Tonks was irritably brushing grass off herself. "I am sorry Nymphadora."
"Don't call me Nymphadora." Tonks spoke absent-mindedly. "It's no problem Luna…just, give me a warning next time, okay?"
"Oh look, it's arts and crafts time." A sneering voice made them all look up and glare. Draco Malfoy was standing there, his arms folded across his chest imperiously. "I can't believe you're bothering with this rubbish…"
"Why don't you just clear off, then?" Harry asked him hotly. Draco seemed to find nothing better than coming over and mocking anything they ever did. He seemed to think everything activity was beneath him. As always, Theodore Nott was with him. Theodore Nott didn't usually talk to anybody, he just sat there with a bored, uncaring expression across his face.
"Yes, but if I do, who will be there to laugh when Longbottom accidentally sets his own underpants on fire?" Draco drawled lazily. "Oh wait, that's only during Transfiguration lessons, isn't it?" Two weeks earlier, Neville had done just that. Neville's ears went bright red and he looked down at his Pin Wheel, which Ginny had just fixed.
"I thought you came over to see what Harry was doing." Luna, who was still hanging upside down, stated in a bemused tone. "You're always following him around." Draco suddenly looked too furious to speak and sputtered for a few moments. Ginny giggled into her hands before quelling it when she saw the stern look Hermione was giving her.
"I'd expect such a stupid thing coming out of the mouth of an uneducated peasant." Draco spat, but it was clear that this had absolutely no effect on Luna who sat up in the tree and pulled out a peppermint stick, which reminded Hermione strongly of her cousin Jane. Draco stomped off and Nott walked after him.
"Good job, Luna." Ron nodded his approval at the strange girl. "Do you want a Pin Wheel?"
"The wheel keeps on turning." Luna sing-songed from her perch.
"Barking." Ron muttered to Harry.
"I heard Lupin's visiting the castle in two weeks." Ginny told them all as she worked on another Pin Wheel.
"He is?" Hermione looked up, slightly flushed. Harry wondered how that was possible with the Pin Wheel blowing on her. Harry thought Lupin was really cool. He was a werewolf who would visit the school and give them practical lessons on magical defense. Best of all, when he visited, it usually meant a visit from Sirius as well. Lupin had also been friends with Harry's dad and would join in any stories about their younger days.
"Which means Sirius should be visiting too." Ginny added on, though she had a very knowing look on her face. "Here, Luna, I made you one." She stood up and Luna reached down from the branch she was sitting on to get the white Pin Wheel. Luna took out her own wand and tapped it, turning each spoke a different color, before blowing on it.
"I wonder what Sirius always goes off to do." Harry wondered for about the billionth time. They all knew that the adults were caught up in different things, but no one knew exactly what, except that it had to do with the Death Eaters and Voldemort. But to them, in their valley, in Hogwarts, all that seemed to be a thousand miles away.
"You know they aren't going to tell us." Ron reminded him.
"Look!" Neville exclaimed. "I made one all by myself this time and I didn't mess it up!" He held the Pin Wheel in the air triumphantly. Neville was different from Harry and Hermione, he had family that lived in the country to the south of the mountains. An old grandmother that Harry had only met a few times but was terrified of accidentally crossing. He could imagine that Neville, clumsy and easily scared as he was, was probably how anyone would turn out after living with a person like that.
"Good for you, Neville." Hermione stood up, brushing grass off her. "I'm going to go in." They all agreed on this and Hermione was about to grab the paper and the book they were using but Ron picked it up for her. The six of them, Tonks, Neville, Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Ginny were walking along easily, with the seventh person, Luna, trailing behind them. She had put her hair up in a bun and used the Pin Wheel to keep it in place, so that it hung over the top of her head and blew cold air on her—which actually was rather smart, even if it did look funny.
As they were going up to the doors, Hermione suddenly stopped.
"What is it?" Ginny asked her as Hermione bent down.
"Oh, it's nothing really…" Hermione looked up sheepishly. "I've just never seen this type of flower before." She gestured to a small growth of small blue flowers, eight or nine blooms altogether. "I should take them with me and look them up." She picked the bunch of flowers and carefully held them with both hands so she wouldn't crush any of the petals.
"I don't recognize them either." Neville spoke up as they began walking again. Neville was really great at Herbology, mostly because it required almost no spellwork.
"Maybe I'll show them to Sprout tomorrow." Hermione decided.
"I wonder what's for dinner?" Ron's stomach made a noise.
"Luna's probably not hungry, she's already taken a slice out of Malfoy's enormous ego." Ginny quipped. The others laughed.
"They're impossible to make friends with." Hermione shook her head in a disappointed fashion. "You would think it would be lonely for them but I guess not…"
"Who cares about them?" Harry shrugged. "I'm with Ron, what's for dinner?"
"That idiot…" Draco huffed as he sat in his room, across from Nott, who was reading a book—not that Draco was paying any attention. "I'd like to teach that Loony Lovegood a lesson…the nerve of her suggesting...where she even came up with it…"
"Why is it bothering you so much?" Nott turned a page in his book, not even looking up.
"Because none of them can comprehend that they should all hold me in the deepest respect." Draco answered easily. "I'm a Malfoy. Have I really sunk so low that a bunch of peasant children can take swings at my reputation?"
"You don't have a reputation here, your last name means absolutely nothing here, and you're giving me a headache." Nott glared at him. "Now either shut up or get out."
"Why Nott, I had no idea you cared." Draco replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Or are you playing hard to get again?" Nott groaned and rolled over so that he was facing the wall. "What's your report going to look like if you keep staring at the walls? 'Dear Voldemort, the walls are indeed made of stone'?"
"Will you shut up about that?" Nott sat up. "We've never been asked to make a report in the whole two years we've been here. I think they just sent us here to get rid of us." They didn't often talk about what they were really there for. Draco had seem to half forget life before Hogwarts and was usually busy trying to find ways to lord himself over the teenagers there. The only change Draco noted in Nott was that Nott hadn't attempted to run away.
"Yes, but then my father would have to get my mother pregnant again and I think that scares even him." Draco joked jovially. Just then, the door opened and Blaise Zabini came in, looking a little paranoid, shutting the door behind him quickly and locking it. "Zabini, what are you doing in here?"
"It's the only room Cho won't go into." Blaise told him. "She keeps following me around."
"Then hex her until she stops." Draco shrugged. "It's not my problem."
"Come on you guys…" Blaise pleaded. "I thought we were friends." Nott snorted derisively in response to what he clearly thought was an accusation.
"Zabini, you know perfectly well that the only reason I let you hang around us at all is because Nott doesn't like taking orders." Draco admonished, waving a finger in the air. "Although, you are a pretty useless lackey whenever there's a reflective surface around…or Ginny Weasley." Blaise flushed instantly.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Blaise spoke defiantly.
"Fine, have it your way." Draco sat down on his bed. "Or maybe I'll have my way with her." Blaise goggled at him. Draco was rather enjoying this. "She is cute—if you go in for that whole poor farm girl thing. I don't understand how a whole family of wizards didn't have the sense to be born noble."
"You're both insufferable idiots." Nott spoke up from his bed.
"Thank you for that wonderful sentiment, Nott. It's times like these when I'm reminded why we're the best of friends, almost brothers." Draco then turned towards the still goggling Blaise. "Zabini, I was joking. For making me waste my wit on you, I should throw you out of the only Cho-Free Zone, but I'm feeling compassionate towards my fellow man. Provided that during Potions tomorrow you make yourself useful as a diversion so I can get revenge on Loony Lovegood."
"That's so stupid, why do you even care?" Nott asked in an exasperated voice.
"I don't, she's just an easy target." Draco shrugged. "And it'll be amusing, I promise."
"What should I do?" Blaise asked, smoothing his hair down while looking at the small mirror on the wall.
"And I thought I was vain." Draco rolled his eyes at him. "I don't know, use your brains."
"Alright, alright." Blaise seemed to come up with something. "What are you going to do?"
"It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you." Draco leaned back, putting his arms behind his head. Blaise often wondered how Draco and Nott had gotten to be friends at all—if you could call at that with the two of them always making jabs at each other. They never talked about what had happened to them before they had gotten to Hogwarts. Zabini's grandmother had been a mistress of the last King of Annwyn. His mother, who had turned out to be a witch, was burned at the stake. Apparently, even though she was actually a witch, the reason that she had been brought to the Guard's attention in the first place was she had supposedly been bewitching the husbands of all the women in the town—which she hadn't actually been doing. After she died, a person came for Zabini and found out that he was a wizard, so they took him to live at Hogwarts.
Ever since he had gotten there, he had not fit in with either group. He liked looking at himself, he saw no reason why he shouldn't—he had inherited all the good looks their family had been known for, so why he shouldn't always make sure he was looking his best was beyond him. The other group always made fun of him, and even though Draco and Nott did it too, they at least didn't shun him completely. He was brainless, he just knew that his looks were his greatest asset. Otherwise, he'd just be…ordinary. And there's no way that anyone would like twice at someone who was ordinary, especially not…
He preened a bit more in the mirror.
To Be Continued