The next day, I meet with Penny on the Training Grounds. Classes have been canceled, with so much of the school buried in ice.

The sun is shining, but it offers no relief from the cold. Winter should be giving way to spring. Instead, it seems winter will never end.

"Show me your Flipendo," I order Penny.

She readies her wand. "Flipendo!"

The dummy jerks backwards in response to her spell, but not far. "Try it again."

I watch closely as Penny waves her wand. "Stop," I say. "There's the problem. Keep your wand movement tighter, not so wild." I demonstrate, moving my wand in a tight V shape with a small arc at the end.

Penny tries again, and I offer more advice. "Loosen your grip. You're too tense."

I watch her cast Flipendo over and over, offering advice occasionally. It makes me think of my tutoring sessions with Skye. I'm a pretty good teacher.

Finally, I stop Penny. "That's good for today."

Penny hesitates. "Can we practice tomorrow? I still don't feel confident."

"Of course," I reassure her. "Have you thought of any potions to bring?"

"Hmmm…" Penny considers. "Maybe I should brew a Fire-Breathing Potion. Meet me in…" She has to stop and think again. The Artefact Room is buried beneath the ice. "... the Room of Requirement tomorrow morning?"

"Ben said he wanted to meet me in the morning," I tell her, "so how about the afternoon?" I wonder why she needs my help at all. She's better at brewing potions than me.

I say goodbye to Penny and return to the Ravenclaw common room, where I find Rowan sitting in an armchair with an open book and a large glass jar. She's sitting far from the fireplace, away from everyone else. With temperatures dropping every day, the area near the fire's heat is always packed.

I take the seat next to Rowan. "What's the jar for?"

Rowan points to a page in her book. "I've been researching spells to help you. You know the Bluebell Flames we use in Potions?"

I nod.

"You can put some in this jar," Rowan explains, "to keep you warm."

"Thanks." I take the jar from her. "You aren't mad about never getting to go to the corridor, are you?"

"I admit that I would love to see an unexplored section of Hogwarts, but… no, I'm not mad about never getting attacked by a door," Rowan says.

I hesitate before asking my next question. It's been bothering me since I was released from the Hospital Wing. "Do you think I'm being selfish, insisting that I go? If the others didn't have to wait for me to recover, they could go right now."

I wait for Rowan to confirm my fear. She draws in a breath and looks away. Oh no. She agrees. I should tell the others to go tomorrow, without me.

"No," Rowan says.

No? I must not have heard her right. "No" and "yes" sound totally different, though.

"The cursed ice is affecting everyone now, but last year, it was just about your brother," Rowan explains. "You're continuing your own private search in the middle of our bigger one."

Rowan hasn't completely reassured me, but I nod and force a smile. After a moment, though, I let it slip away as another question strikes me. "How do you think the ice got released?"

Rowan looks thoughtful. "I think R forced Ben to do it."

I think back to our conversation yesterday, where Ben indicated that he's already been to the icy door. It would certainly explain a lot of things. "Do you think Ben lost his memory from the ice? Or did R take it away?"

"I don't know," Rowan says. "But maybe setting the ice free was the 'initiation' the first note referred to."

"But if R knew that Ben was trapped in the ice, then that would mean…" I look at Rowan in shock.

Rowan finishes my thought. "I don't think those notes were left for Ben."

I'm silent. Just what is R up to? And how does Ben fit into it? "I don't think talking to Ben will accomplish anything."

"No," Rowan agrees. "Ben doesn't know any more than we do. I guess all we can do is keep our eyes and ears peeled for any sign of them."

Be careful. Rhas eyes everywhere. The voice in my head belongs to Jacob. I've heard it before, after we left the icy room last year. I don't know how Jacob speaks to me. I don't even know if his words are real, or just a figment of my imagination. I don't tell Rowan about Jacob's warning, in case she thinks I'm going insane.

The next morning, I meet Ben in the Training Grounds. "What's this about?" I ask. "All of your spells are better than mine, so you can't need help."

"I wanted to teach you a spell," Ben says. "It's called Episkey. It's a healing spell."

He moves the tip of his wand in a circle. I copy him. "Episkey!"

"There's no real way to know if you're getting it right without one of us getting injured," Ben says. "It can heal minor injuries. Use it if someone gets trapped in ice like I was."

"Thanks," I say. I wonder if we'll ever learn Episkey in class, or if it was another part of the curriculum that we've skipped in Defense Against the Dark Arts. "Are you ready?"

Ben nods. His grip on his wand tightens. "I've been training. Not just today. All year. I knew I had to go with you if I got a chance."

"Do you still feel bad about not going into the room with us last year?" I ask gently. "You don't have to prove anything. We all understand why you didn't go."

"But nobody else was afraid."

I look at Ben in shock. "You really think none of us are afraid of the cursed ice? Alana and I have gotten hurt by it, just like you. The only reason I keep going back there is because I have to find Jacob." And because the professors won't freaking do anything, I add silently.

"I have to prove I'm not a coward," Ben whispers. "I let you down and I let myself down. I can't do it again."

"Listen to me, Ben. You haven't let anyone down. It's okay to be afraid of new things. Everyone gets afraid sometimes. What matters is that you're willing to try." I have to reassure him. I can't stand seeing one of my friends so deep in self-pity.

Ben nods, but I don't know if my words have reached him. I want to help him, but I don't know how.

The Great Hall has been sealed by ice, so the house elves have been handing out food in the courtyard. I don't know how they make it, since the kitchens were frozen long ago.

I take a sandwich and a glass of orange juice from a house elf and carry it to the Room of Requirement. Penny is standing in front of the blank wall, clutching her bag. Her breath comes in short gasps, and her grip on the strap is tight. When she sees me, she relaxes.

"Hi, Celena," she says. I wonder at the relief in her voice. "Ask for a place to brew a potion."

I follow her instructions, pacing back and forth three times while thinking We need somewhere to brew a potion.

On the third pass, a door materializes in the wall. Penny pulls it open, gesturing for me to go first.

She sets her bag down while I find her a cauldron. The room is well-stocked with ingredients, but it seems Penny brought her own.

I watch as she starts adding ingredients to the cauldron. "Do you need any help?"

"No. This potion's actually pretty easy."

Pretty easy, she says, I think. We won't learn this potion in class until fourth year. If it's so easy for her, why did she want me here?

Penny adds another ingredient to the cauldron and gives it a quick stir. "Now I just have to leave it over the fire for forty minutes."

I notice that she hasn't brought any food and rip my sandwich in half. I offer her part of it. "Want some food?"

"No thanks."

I eat my lunch in silence before asking the question I've been thinking about the whole time. "How come you wanted me here if you don't need my help?"

"I'm afraid of being alone," Penny confesses. "It's why I hate being left out of things, and why I always make a point of surrounding myself with people."

I think of Penny's nervous behavior when I first saw her today, her insistence on coming with Bill and I. It all makes sense now. "Being popular must help with that," I say.

"It does," Penny replies. "I've barely been alone since I came to Hogwarts."

Soon after, she fills several bottles with the Fire-Breathing Potion, which has turned dark red. She offers me a vial of it. "Drink this before we face the door."

I tuck the bottle into my robes. "Want me to walk you back to the East Tower?" The Hufflepuffs were moved there a few days ago.

Penny looks relieved. "Thank you."

We leave the Room of Requirement and start walking in the direction of the East Tower. We don't get far. The end of the corridor is now blocked off by a familiar wall of ice.

Penny and I exchange a glance. This wasn't here before. I draw my wand. "Incendio!"

The ice melts, revealing that the corridor behind is frozen over and dotted with stalagmites. We make our way through, but in every direction, there is ice.

Penny grabs my arm. "Look." She points at a nearby stalagmite. Trapped beneath the ice is a first-year Gryffindor girl.

"Incendio." I carefully melt the ice, remembering how Professor McGonagall freed Ben. When the ice gets thin, I crack it with Flipendo.

Penny catches the girl and steadies her. "Can you find Madam Pomfrey by yourself?" she asks.

The girl nods. We walk with her for a little longer, until she turns a corner and we continue straight. We have yet to reach an area untouched by the ice.

"Hagrid!" Penny calls the name of the next person we see. "What's happening?"

"The ice has spread across the entire castle," Hagrid says. "The professors are tryin' ter contain it, but they can't do much."

"The entire castle?!" I gasp. Penny and I hurry past him. "Find Ben and meet me at the door," I tell her.

Screw the plan, we're going now.

A/N: Just two more chapters left of year two! This chapter takes the entire work over 50k words. What have you liked so far? What have you not liked?