I hope you enjoy this my wonderful readers!
The wind whips through my dark hair as I amble after the blonde haired girl that bobs up the hill. Suddenly, a small powdery object flies seemingly from nowhere at me, hitting my shoulder. Trying to keep my balance on the slick, icy road, I lean into a small fence.
"Hey!" I shout, "You could've… could've…" My voice falters as I catch the look on Ash's face. She's issuing a silent challenge. Come and get me. I dare you.
I charge up the hill, scooping snow up in my hands and patting it together to form a powdery snowball, launching it at her. She ducks, letting if fly past her and explode against a tree trunk. Another snowball appears out of nowhere, hitting me square in the chest.
"Ash!" I yell, my voice echoing across the canyon.
"Yes?" comes the innocent-sounding reply from the top of the hill. "Did ickle Cara get hurt?" I almost laugh at her teasing voice. I duck instead, sneaking up the hill.
"Hey, where'd you go?" she wonders aloud, pivoting to scan her surroundings. My silent reply is a snowball, catapulted at her back. She whirls around and tackles me, shoving me down the hill.
My shout of, "Hey, no fair!" is lost as my mouth is filled with snow. Ash's boots crunch through the snow towards me as she lumbers my way. I look up at her, my face completely red. She looks like she's holding in a laugh. She extends a hand, opening her mouth in protest as I continue to glare at her.
"Aw, come on Carousel! Truce!" she pouts, wiggling her fingers in front of my face insistently. I sigh and grab her hand, letting her pull me up."Want to head to Three Broomsticks, birthday girl?"
I laugh a little in surprise. I almost forgot – it's my sixteenth birthday. "Sure!" I say, a smile pulling at my lips.
Half an hour later, we're sitting in a small pub, waiting on a few mugs of butterbeer. When they arrive, Ash smiles, handing mine to me. I pop the top open, letting the drink slide down my throat, warmth flooding through me and wiping the flush from my frozen cheeks.
It's then that I notice someone sitting alone at another table. Her dark hair looks almost exactly like mine.
It's Aria Desere.
"Can we go to Honeydukes?" I say abruptly, glancing first at Ash and then at Aria. Ash looks up, following my gaze.
"Sure," she says stiffly, looking a moment longer at the other girl before standing. We head over to the sweets shop until dinner, then head up to the castle.
A scream pierces the air. Ash looks over her shoulder, her bags of candy falling to the ground as she gasps. I whirl around, staring in astonishment at the scene before me.
It's Katie Bell, floating in the air, four people standing under her. Harry Potter, one of the four, pushes past us, returning a second later with Hagrid, who takes Katie up in his arms and lumbers towards the castle. Ash picks up her bags and together we head up to the castle, our eyes wide with fear.
My thoughts are haunted by Katie's tortured expression, her mouth agape in a silent scream. But more than that, my mind lingers on the shadowy figure I'd noticed standing, crouched next to the outer wall of The Three Broomsticks.
It was Aria Desere, her face distraught with an unmistakable look of guilt.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters besides Ash and Cara ( Aria is an authors named Flyix who wrote two-faced)