I'm updating now!! Yay!!!
The next morning, Severus and Hermione got the others up 2 hours before dawn to discuss Amber and what had been learned the night before. It was quick and short and at dawn, Amber was up and ready to go. A quick breakfast and she was out, Harry and Remus by her side.
About 15 minutes later, Parvarti and Seamus had also left, trying to grab some more fish before winter sent all of them to the bottom of the river. An event that was approaching steadily closer every day. Severus and Hermione once again brewed potions, this time joined by Ron. The others just practiced their dueling.
As the winds turned bitter and colder, the group was forced indoors more often then they liked. Amber was willing to go hunting, but she was waylaid more often then not by the others. Winter had finally come, and its grasp was crueler then any other time the group had known.
Soon, Amber, Severus and Remus added another duty to their normal ones. Despite the fact that the whole group was aware that staying asleep when they woke in the mornings was deadly, it was just so hard for them to get up and get moving. Amber, Severus and Remus didn't seem to have this problem as badly as the others, and it was therefore up to them to get the others up.
Severus always threatened, and followed through with it till everyone learned to get up at Snape's first calling. Remus always used his werewolf traits to literally drag his poor victim out of bed and towards the commons, and Amber found a vindictive streak to her, allowing her to change into a wolf and loudly snarl or howl directly into the unsuspecting group member's ear.
Today was no different, Harry mused as he leapt a million miles in the air at the extra loud howl that now rang through his ears. However, something set it apart—he saw a flash of gold as the tail end of Amber the wolf headed to wake up Ron.
"Hey, has anyone noticed something different about today?" he brought it up at breakfast that day.
"Not really, why?" commented Sirius around some meat.
"Now that you mention it, I thought I saw a flash of gold when Amber vanished to wake up Luna…" said Hermione thoughtfully. Everyone looked up at this development.
"So did I." agreed Harry.
"But what's it mean?" questioned Minerva.
"We've been living here for months. We've seen that the animals don't appear to have any problems seeing portals. It's possible that it comes from something in the food or water. Food and water we're consuming too." said Ginny.
"Will it have any adverse effects on us?" asked Luna worriedly.
"No telling. So far, however, it hasn't done anything. We've been consuming it for months now, and the only reason we've noticed at all is that now we're starting to see the portals too. I, personally, am thankful for this development. After all, being able to see portals will help us greatly when spring comes and we go looking for the way out." replied Amber calmly.
The other agreed, and the topic was dropped.
As winter waged on, Amber would occasionally go against the others by rising earlier then even Severus and Remus and heading out. She had survived worse on the streets, and it was only temporary. She understood the others' feelings on the matter, of course, but they needed food, especially because they were such a large group and they were feeding 4 animals too.
She would always come back to the worried and upset gazes of Severus and Remus, and sometimes the others as well. They would berate her, hug her and tell her not to do it again. Instructions she never listened to. Eventually, they stopped, as they realized that Amber was going out regardless of what they said or did.
Presently, the group sat huddled around the common room fire. By now, they could all see the portals clearly as day, but they really didn't care right now.
"Why does winter have to be so bloody freezing?!" demanded Ron as he shivered and scooted as close to the fire as he could possibly get.
"Try thinking warm thoughts." suggested Neville.
"Like what?" demanded Lavender.
"Well, right now, I'm imagining my bed back in Gryffindor Tower. If I try hard enough, I can really feel how warm it always was." Neville said.
"Hmmm, the Burrow. My Canon posters and nice warm bed…" Ron stopped, stunned. "Hey, I can really almost smell the hot chocolate Mum's making!!" he exclaimed.
"Your mum makes the best hot chocolate. It was always so gooey and warmed me up so thoroughly…" Harry's eyes closed as he thought of Molly Weasley's hot chocolate.
"What are thinking about, Amber?" was Dean's subtle inquiry as to whether or not the girl had warm thoughts.
"Not much, really. My big girl bed, I suppose, and Mom's lap. My warmest thought, I guess, is the night they died."
"Why?"
"Before the house was attacked, I was sitting between my parents eating popcorn and drinking apple juice from a sippy cup, and I remember it quite well. I felt LOVED and that filled me with a warmth all its own. We were watching The Last Unicorn. I remember that because halfway through the movie, they attacked and I can still remember the end song playing as I saved what few things I had and ran for it."
A hug was her only response.
"So now we all have warm thoughts. Now what?" asked Hermione.
"Now we sit around the fire and sing campfire songs." It was hard to tell if Harry was being true or sarcastic.
"Winter can't stay forever. Soon enough it will be spring and then we can look for and find the exit portal, and leave this place. Just wait a bit longer. Winter always seems to last longer then it really does. Trust me, I know." replied Amber.
"Wonder what they're doing at Hogwarts right now?" mused Luna dreamily. Amber wracked her brain for a date—despite the fact that she never needed to know it before—and realized that it nearing Christmas time.
"Probably not much of anything. School has just recently let out for winter holiday, and Christmas is only a couple of weeks away."
"They're probably lost in grief then." said Minerva with a sigh. "It's only been a couple months since we lost you, and only about a month since they lost us. What with Christmas being a family holiday, they're probably spending it crying as they remember that we aren't there to celebrate it with them."
"Molly certainly isn't going to be having an easy time of it." said Sirius. "This year, she's probably going to end up forcefully reminding herself NOT to get out the maroon yarn."
"And no excess baking either, since Ginny and Harry are in here." Remus said with a sad smile.
A collective sigh.
"We'll be with them next Christmas though." offered Seamus.
"Till then, I suppose." Dean raised his meal in a fake toast. A couple of the others sarcastically joined him.
Indeed, this Christmas seemed to be the worst for Hogwarts and the Light in general. Molly was sobbing as she stared at the maroon yarn ball in her sewing kit, visions of Ron dancing through her mind. Ron had always hated maroon.
Fred and George were doing great with their shop, but no new products had come from them in a long time. Most people were very well aware as to why, and didn't complain. Some of their best and most useful pranks had come out before the horrid accident, so they had things to work with.
Percy had yet to really come out of his room. Bill had tried to talk to his younger brother once, but all he got in reply was sobbing and a yelled "Go away!!" Percy was heartbroken that Ron and Ginny had died thinking about how Percy had hurt the family by distancing himself an allying with the Ministry. And especially about how mean and horrible he was to Ron's best friend in that letter last year!!!
Dumbledore was heartbroken about the loss of his dearest friend, and it showed. Minerva was always so special to him, and Severus he saw as a son, and he had lost both of them. And Sirius and Remus!!! There went the last of the once great Marauders. Albus felt guilty every time he thought about the loss of his voice within the werewolf communities. After all, Remus was more then that, wasn't he?
He had been surprised when he went to collect Severus' things and found that he had kept all of Amber's things. Looking through one of the Potions Master's journals found that Severus was suspicious of a more abusive past then most of the school would have believed of Amber. He had planned to confront the girl about it this year, and was thoroughly upset and disappointed in himself when Amber was lost to the forest, especially since he'd had these suspicions since the year before last.
Albus buried his head in his hands. He, too, had thought that there was more to Amber then what he originally thought, but he had been too set in his ways, and now Amber had probably died thinking that the world was better off without her anyway. Besides his desk, Fawkes the Phoenix trilled soothingly, trying to comfort his master and friend.
"What am I going to do Fawkes? The world is falling apart, and Tom has nothing to do with it. Those kids defined this world in their way, even if they were obscure, and now they're all gone."
Fawkes trilled. He didn't know. On its shelf, the Sorting Hat sighed.
And not one of the office's occupants, portraits included, even once thought that the group they mourned could possibly be alive and surviving out winter to return to them in spring. After all, this was the Forest of Lost Souls here; NO ONE ever came back from the forest alive, or dead even.
And as Albus Dumbledore mourned his losses, and Molly Weasley sobbed about her own, a group of students and adults sat huddled around the fire, wondering just how long they'd have to suffer through the winter's harsh cold. But every face was determined, and every heart was filled with silent, solemn promises that they WOULD return, no matter what.
They would keep that promise that following spring.
And the start of the students' 7th (and 6th) year would see the start of something both strange and miraculous, as students and teachers once thought dead did the impossible and came back to life.
And, in the process, the world would be turned once again right side up.
There. Review? Please?