Chapter 8 – Days of Snow
In mid-November the first Quidditch match took place. It was between Arctos and Lupinus. The whole school looked forward to the game. The seven players from Arctos were never in the common room at night, they spend every evening in a corner of a classroom talking strategies. Colette, Nita, Christina and Susie sat in the common room the evening before the big Quidditch match and chit chatted. They had desided to drop the homework as it would be impossible to concentrate when everyone in the Arctos house were so loud. Bets had been made and Trym was almost attacked by the older Arctos students when he wanted to bet on Lupinus to win, but he was rescued by the girl Amara, from second year. Apparently the students didn't dare to come across Amara. Now Trym sat in a corner and looking around like a mouse who was in a room filled with cats. He didn't sit alone though, a boy from their year sat in a chair next to him, talking loudly about the quidditch match tomorrow. First time Susie got to talk with the boy next to Trym was a couple of weeks ago, when he was thrown out of the library by a group of Lupinus students and he bumped into Susie down the hall. She could remember she had just said hi to Jan, who was going down towards the library. But this boy couldn't stop talking about Quidditch and was a really pain in a certain behind.
"I'm going to try out for Quidditch next year, that's for sure," he said between his ramble about quidditch. Then he tried to convince Susie to do the same, but she refused. She didn't want to approach a broom if her life depented on it. She had enough with the flying lessons and she already knew that brooms weren't her cup of tea. Luckily she was recued by Trym who had approached them, and he had noticed the sour face of Susie. So he had dragged off with the boy. And now the boy again sat and spoke loudly about the match tomorrow.
"Patrick couldn't you just for once shut it with al your Quidditch, it's annoying," Amara yelled from the other side of the room. The boy who had been babbling for the last half hour turned bright red and shut his mouth and glared over at Amara, who had turned back to the girls she was talking to.
"I hope we win," Colette said, she looked up from the potion book she was studying. She had borrowed it at the library the other day.
"Can't we talk about something else, than Quidditch," Susie asked. She was starting to get tired of all the Quidditch talk.
"Yeah, let's, " Christina said and looked up from the book, she was trying to read.
"Hey have you heard what Sydney, from Cygneus told the other day?" Colette asked. The three girls shook their heads.
"Well, she had gotten a letter from her sister who attends school at Hogwarts," Colette continued.
"Well apparently under their Halloween feast, their Defense Against the Dark Arts professer entered the Great Hall, screaming about a troll. So they all had to be rescued," Colette said.
"A troll? But how did it get into the school, they're really dumb and wouldn't be able to come in by their own," Nita said and looked rather puzzled by the story.
"I don't know, Sydney's sister said there were some rumours about their potion professor had did it, but she wasn't sure if the rumours were true. A girl almost lost her life, when she was attacked by the troll," Colette said.
"Wow, did they catch it?" Christina asked.
"Well that's the most amasing thing, you never guess who caught it," Colette said and smiled.
"Who?" Susie asked.
"Harry Potter and a friend of his," Colette said.
"HARRY POTTER!" Nita screamed out. The other in the common room looked over at the four girls.
"Yeah and they're only first years, just like us. Can't believe that a first year student could catch a troll," Colette said.
"Wow," Susie said again in amazement. The talk about the boy who lived had been discussed a great deal ever since Sydney had revealed that he had started at Hogwarts a couple of months ago. Susie hadn't known much about him before she started school, but it was an interesting subject.
"I'm sure I could do it," a male voice sounded next to Susie. She looked up and once again saw the boy by the name of Patrick. He had blond hair and a pretty face.
"Do what?" Colette asked in a rather annoying voice, she looked at the boy with pitched eyes.
"Kill a troll," Patrick said and looked at the four girls after turn. His blue eyes shimmered with exitement over the pure thought.
"They didn't kill it, they just knocked it out," Colette said and shook her head before she got up from her chair.
"I'm off to bed, want to be fresh for tomorrow," she said and said goodnight to the other girls before walking over to the stairs that lead up to the girls' dormitories.
"Think I'll go too," Susie said, she wasn't tired but she just had to get away from that Patrick guy who really started to get on her nerves. But she wasn't the only one who left, Nita and Christina followed her up to the dormitories and back was the boy with a surprised expression on his face when they left.
The next morning the Ice Hall was humming with excitement as the students ate their breakfast. The game was set at 11 am and the Quidditch captain for Arctos had promised clear weather for the match, but apparently he hadn't gotten the prognoses from a reliable source as it was snowing heavily and a wind had started to rise when Susie, Colette, Nita and Christina was walking across the lawn towards the Quidditch pitch.
"I wonder who he had heard it would be clear weather today," Colette said, she was hugging herself trying to get some warmth in the process, but the wind was ice cold and started to bite in their noses. When they reached the Quidditch stands they chose four spots where they could stand up, it would be too cold to sit in this weather. Shortly before the players appeared on the Quidditch pitch a voice sounded over the stadium.
"Good Morning and welcome to this term's first quidditch match. It's between Lupinus and Arctos and now the two teams apear on the pitch," the voice said. Susie looked around to see if she could spot the owner of the voice, then she got a nutch from Christina who had been looking for the same. Susie followed her finger and saw a boy, she hadn't noticed before sitting in a box on his own near the teachers' stands.
"That's Michael Maan," Colette said, when she noticed Susie's and Christina's looks towards the commentator.
"He's a third year from Cygneus," Nita said.
"And let's introduce the two teams, there are a couple of new comers on both teams. On Arctos' team we still have the Bradshawl as captain and he's gotten his sister on the team as well, Lucy Bradshawl is a promissing Quidditch player, she's quick on a broom and got the perfect size as a seeker. Peter Flemming is still the keeper and then they've gotten a new chaser, Jennifer Golden. Arctos still have Anita as chaser and the two Maddock brothers as beaters," Michael yelled acros the stadium.
"He's called Madhouse," Colette said and pointed at the smallest of the beaters. Susie wanted to know why he was called Madhouse, but then Michael started to talk again.
"Lupinus only have one new player on their team this year, it's Mina Mork who's replacing Karl Koon as chaser, Gustav Gustavson is still captain for the team. It'll be an interesting battle between the newcomer Lucy Bradshawl and the more experienced seeker, Gustav," Michael said.
"And now Professer Airborn has started the match," Michael continued as the professor had released the balls. Susie tried to follow the game, but it went so fast that she had a hard time to figure out what happened. The game went back and forth, Arctos had scored three times when Lupinus got their first goal. When the they had played for about 15 minutes the wind got more and more cold and it got more windy and it didn't take long before they couldn't see what happened up in the air, they could barely hear Michael's voice for the wind, but then they could hear a loud chear from the Lupinus' stands.
"And Lupinus has won the game with 250 over Arctos' 120. Gustav got the snitch in front of Lucy Bradshawl," Michael's last remark was. The Arctos students looked confused at each other, they hadn't been able to see what happen due to the heavy snow fall, but as the result started to sink in the faces soon showed dissapointment over the loss.
"What happened do you think?" Christina asked as they started to walk back towards the school.
"I don't know, but it was hard to see anything," Colette said. They were halfway back to the school when a sudden wind took in Susie's scarf and it blew away.
"Ah, darn," Susie said and started to run after the scarf that kept on flying.
"Susie, stop you shouldn't go after it," Colette's voice sounded, but Susie didn't hear it, she kept following the scarf. Her grandmother had knitted it shortly before she had died and Susie didn't want to loose it. Unfortunately she had forgotten the number one rule at the school when it came to snow. Never go out alone in a blizzard. She could hear someone call her name, but she kept running. The scarf dissapeared in between some trees and when she finally caught up with it, it hang from a branch on a big tree. She grabbed the scarf and tied it around her neck before she turned around and walk back to the school, but she got a shock when she saw the view in front of her. There was no castle, just snow. She looked around, she could see the trees behind her, there was about four big trees, but the castle was gone.
"Hello, anyone," she yelled. She started to take some steps back from where she came, she looked down to see if she could see her own footsteps, but they were already gone. The wind was icy and it felt like knives against her face. She had walked for what had felt like a long time when she spotted a red spot not far ahead. She started to run towards it and she saw it was Colette who had fallen and now took to her left ankle.
"I tripped over something," she said in a sopping voice. Susie grabbed Colette, so she could lean on Susie, but she couldn't because of the snow that now reached their knees.
"I'm so sorry that I just ran off," Susie said in a scared voice. She was freezing and she didn't know where the castle was.
"We can't stay out here for long or we'll freeze to death," Colette said in a sad voice.
"There were some trees back there," Susie said and pointed towards the spot where the trees were. She could still see their siluets in the distance.
"I don't know if I can walk over there, but it's better than nothing," Colette said. But the two girls didn't reach the trees before they ran out of strengths.
"What now?" Susie asked.
"We'll rest before we go on," Colette said and sat down.
The wind grew and the snow fell over the two girls like white powder. Was this the end? Susie thought, wouldn't she be able to even finish her first term at her new school, what would her parents say. Now she sat in the snow hugging her friend, Colette, trying to get some warmth. Why did she have to run after that scarf, it was only a scarf, but it was one her beloved grandmother had knitted.
