1984

Merula was most likely waiting.

There was no doubt that one day she would attack them again with duels and insults, but Era expected it to happen sooner. Meanwhile, two weeks had passed.

It was lucky that the day Merula burst into the Clock Tower Courtyard, their Prefect followed her and personally saw to it which of the two new students was the first to start a fight. Since then, one more person has turned his anger into mercy and told her where to get a book about duels, so that she would not be taken by the unexpected. It sounded promising, however, even the most insignificant help was useful when you don't know anything about certain things.

Unfortunately, after teaching his sister simple spells, Jacob had not said a word about the fact that duels had not yet died out in their world and that she would probably have to defend herself with something stronger than words.

The book about dueling that was in the Artifact Room was hard to find, even with Rowan's help. Dusty, though not particularly old, it was either cursed, or it held a prepared message, but in any case, when Era picked it up, everything went dark before her eyes, and then... Then pictures appeared: knight's armor, a staircase shrouded in fog, and ice that took up more and more of the school's space, as well as a giant spider, a dragon, a glowing column... And a voice that sent shivers down her spine:

"The ice is already here. The Vault will open."

In the first seconds after the incident, Arrain felt completely disoriented. Bright spots flashed before her eyes, a thin squeak in her ears followed by a deep voice made her frown and shake her head. With fragments of sentences she managed to gather between the flickering thoughts, Era told her friend what had happened.

"I wonder," Rowan replied, looking at the book that had been thrown on the floor, "did your brother have visions too?.. Well, I'll read it before I go to bed tonight, okay? Maybe I'll find something interesting. You should get a good night's sleep.

But Arrain hardly closed her eyes that night, listening to the quiet turning of pages from her friend's bed. She desperately wanted to tell one of the elders what she had seen, but it was impossible, if only because everyone already thought she was out of her mind. Rowan also began to look strange, especially when she found out that strange things had happened to Arrain before, like voices she sometimes heard. How could anyone believe that she wasn't crazy?

Maybe Era was just winding herself up. Maybe Rowan was just worried about her.

Also because of the duel, like the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. Rowan then found some great spells, and it seems that even Professor Flitwick (a master of duels, as it turned out) began to sympathize somewhat with Miss Samudra. First, he taught her a disarming spell, and second, when Merula challenged her to a duel at the very beginning of the fourth week, he stood up for her in front of Snape.

Even though he warned her that dueling at school was forbidden and punishable by expulsion, even though he made her promise not to fight unless there was no other way out. But there wasn't, right? Merula attacked Ben, who was afraid of her until his knees trembled, and no one cared to defend him.

Without Flitwick, Arrain would probably have been punished alone and much more harshly, but both of them were punished.

"The whole school's talking about you!" Penny clapped her hands enthusiastically and smiled as Era headed for the dormitory that evening after dinner. " Thank you so much Era, you are my hero!"

"I'm not..."

"You are! No one dared to speak out against Merula, and you... you're just amazing!"

"But even heroes are not free from punishment, right?"

Of course.

Judging by the expression on Snape's face, they were in danger of at least one hell of a cauldron. After taking twenty points from each of them - although, to be honest, Era expected to be expelled in shame - the Professor led them up endless stairs to the fifth floor. Who knows what kind of punishment would have followed if Filch hadn't hobbled up to them in a hurry, all disheveled and his eyes wide with horror.

"Don't move a step," Snape commanded through his teeth and walked away.

Merula looked at the girl standing next to her, as if being in the same room with her was hard work in itself, but fragments of the dialog that eventually came out completely caught her attention.

"Ice is everywhere... something to do... is too dangerous..."

They didn't see much, poking their noses around the corner. Merula painfully pushed her classmate aside, trying to get a better spot and annoying her again, but after losing her balance, she miraculously did not fall out for everyone to see.

"Freeze!" Arrain whispered, wrinkling her face and rubbing the injured spot.

"Shut up!"

"...I will inform the Headmaster," Era could barely distinguish the words, but she heard the last sentence clearly, as if she was standing next to him: "This may affect the situation with the Samudra."

Nice. Well, just... great! She was allowed to hear the most important thing. The only thing left to understand was whether Jacob or she would remain guilty this time.

"What, did you manage to screw up already?" Merula turned to her, grimacing in disgust, and as soon as Era opened her mouth, the Head of the House's cloak flashed by, leaving behind an angry words:

"Go to your dormitory now! And thank Salazar for getting away with it today!"

And he left so quickly that after a few seconds he disappeared at the end of the corridor as if nothing had happened.

"Thank you, Salazar," a whisper escaped her lips, either relieved or doomed, after which Era shuddered and pulled her cloak tighter - a frosty gust of air blew out of the corridor where Snape had flown out.

Apparently, the problem was serious.

A little later, warming themselves on the sofas in the common room by the fireplace, she and Rowan tried to sort out the events of the last few days on the shelves, but they encountered obstacles from time to time. To begin with, the authenticity of the vision Arrain had had in the Artifact Room seemed obvious: the ice of unknown origin was indeed making its way through the school, just as she had envisioned.

Rowan scratched her chin thoughtfully.

"We need to find out more about this legend of the vaults, why one of them is being opened as the voice told you, and why it is so dangerous that your brother was expelled from school for searching. Maybe there are some clues in the library."

"Shall we go tomorrow?" Era turned her head in her friend's direction, and she threw in "of course" without a shadow of a doubt, adjusting her glasses with her index finger. "Great. Thanks... Let's find something else about ice curses or something. We need to figure out how to stop the spread of ice."

"Isn't it better to leave everything to the professors? We can look for information, but dealing with such problems... We've only been studying here for a month, remember?"

Samudra shrugged and said nothing.

All this is understandable. She had no presumptuous illusions, and she knew that she was not strong enough to deal with something like that. It's just... if the professors knew what to do, why did the ice scare them so much? After all, the truth was frightening, judging by Filch and the tense Snape this afternoon... Maybe she and Rowan can do something to help.

At night, wrapped in a blanket, she could not sleep for a long time, remembering everything that had happened in a few weeks. Duels, prejudices, attacks, threats, training, suffocating plants, incomprehensible visions, and now ice spreading over the old stone walls of Hogwarts.

"The whole school is talking about you," she repeated Penny's words to herself, hoping that the students would soon fall silent and not remember her. "No one dared to speak out against Merula, and you..."

And you better sit quietly and peacefully, and don't climb where nobody asks you to.

And that was only the first year. The first one! Why couldn't it have started normally, like the rest of the freshmen? Why couldn't she just go to class and get to know magic better instead of being dragged into a stupid competition? And by whom? A girl from the common House! They were supposed to be of one mind, to be honest, it was supposed to be like that. Anyway, Merula was out of her own mind.

Laughing at her own silly joke, Arrain rolled over on the other side.

The questions in her head were spinning like bats, and she was afraid to even think about what this ice might actually mean. Like a bad omen or something...

Well... Jacob once said that he could only dream of a normal life. Even if he wanted something different for his sister, it seems that it was their destiny to swim against the current, and who is she to argue with the precepts? Besides, there were people around who believed in her. At least for the moment.

Yawning for the tenth time, Arrain finally felt her head grow heavy, taking her consciousness to another world.

The corridor, where Filch said there was some kind of ice, was carefully guarded. First, of course, by Argus himself - so there was no way to get in and see what was going on.

Later, Mrs. Norris was usually on guard, no matter how many times Era tried to get in and look around. When the cat was away, the heavy door turned out to be locked. When the Alohomora was discovered, Mrs. Norris reappeared. When Penny, who had imperceptibly joined their close company, agreed to cook a sleeping draught for the furry guard, Ben, the very same boy for whom Era had stood up for Merula, though he tried to help in every possible way, was still afraid to join them with Rowan to keep the lookout. When he finally decided, and they seemed to have sorted out all the nuances, Filch appeared and nearly destroyed the only remaining plans.

But Arrain knew for sure that they had to get inside, no matter what.

They finally opened the door to the bloody corridor. But as they entered, Merula jumped out of nowhere and with a spell sent all three of them straight into the clutches of ice, which was really too much, and then she slipped and found herself in an even worse trap. Ice sprouted from the floor and walls in front of her eyes, covering her hands and feet in a matter of seconds. The frost seemed to find its way to the heart.

Era's head was ready to explode from overexertion.

They barely managed to free themselves from the ice. On the way out, Rowan noticed strange signs written on the frost-covered wall near the door. Snape found out what had happened and took sixty points - they escaped with little blood. She, Merula, Ben and Rowan finally learned what it was like to scrub cauldrons and sort the endless supplies of ingredients in the storeroom. Penny, who put the cat to sleep, went unpunished because she was absolutely brilliant at potions, which earned her favor. Merula, by the way, was becoming increasingly unbearable.

At this point, the " fixing " of the school's problems was temporarily finished.

Among other things, the relationship with the teachers continued to be ambiguous: first Flitwick would forbid her to learn an attack spell, so that it was not necessary to arrange a duel, then he would allow it again (otherwise she would have learned it herself anyway, which she informed the professor about - pure water blackmail), then Snape would incinerate her with a look out of the blue, then reward her with a dozen points for correcting a mistake in Merula's potion - and she had the courage to blurt it out! During Flying Lessons, Merula, the most powerful witch (in her own opinion), was repeatedly hit in the forehead with a broomstick, which was not even funny months later.

At the end of the school year, Arrain was sick of the kaleidoscope of events. Hogwarts, the place she dreamed of, with its endless arches, the magic she wanted to learn, turned out to be easier than expected - Jacob taught her the lion's share of the entire first year program. The house points that Slytherin had worked so hard to earn were constantly slipping through their fingers, mostly thanks to their own Head of House. And nothing more was known about her brother, and the icy corridor, which even Alohomora no longer opened, enveloped them in frost every time they passed it. More and more every day.

And only Professor Dumbledore, who had a very personal talk with the girl on the eve of the summer, brought a little clarity and peace into the chaos, and confidence in her. He said he saw great potential in her. He said that a bad experience, or rather unjustified hopes, is only a temporary thing. Lesson. Everything will turn out fine.

And awarded the House Cup to Slytherin, after adding a hundred points for special effort in study and success in mastering magic - Ravenclaw lost to them by only one point.

2022

"We got third place," Charlie chuckled. "Gryffindor was lucky to have you there, Hermione, because before you and for the next six years, Slytherin never let us get above second place. Not just Era, but Rowan - you remind me so much of her, by the way! - and Merula, and many others... It must have been Snape's best bunch of students."

"Probably," the woman nodded in agreement. "And how did you just get mixed up with the Slytherins?"

"It took years," Charlie, still smiling, took a sip of whiskey from his glass and slammed it back down on the table. "At first, I heard about them from Ben for a whole year - the blond in the corner, see? - we were in the same House."

He waved to one of the guests.

"From Corey, then, he's standing next to him," Hermione recognized the second man as the one who had shouted indignantly at Bill's back a few hours ago: "And that's all she deserves?!" when everyone had been telling stories about Arrain and Bill had barely managed a few words. And just as Hermione remembered him, Charlie went on: "In my second year, Bill met her and was apparently so excited that we barely managed to talk about anything else."

The man shook his head and curled his lips into a grin.

"We didn't really communicate with the Slytherins at the common lessons. But slowly everyone around me started talking about Era, especially about her feud with Merula, and I had to learn a lot, whether I wanted to or not."

"Did they have a feud? Being in the same House?" Hermione asked in surprise, and Charlie rolled his eyes:

"Oh, it was bloody explosive!" he waved his hands, imitating an explosion. "Flames shot up, the school was shaking! What was only worth a duel in seventh year... Nonverbal magic, Hermione! They were only seventeen!"

"Oh..." was all she said, looking down. She was prevented from being impressed by the abilities of the students of that time by a banal curiosity that made it difficult to pay attention to all sorts of subtleties that had nothing to do with the essence of the story. "Then it's all the more strange that Merula is actively involved in organising a memorial evening for a person she didn't get on with - according to you."

"That's right. I'd be surprised too, knowing only what you know. But these are just... moments. Situations. Seven years in school and another seven out, everything changed, and moreover between the two of them..."

Which was logical.

Hermione broke off a piece of pie with a fork and looked around again. There are not fewer people, quite the opposite, several have joined them recently. Even Molly managed to pop in for a few minutes to make sure there was enough food for everyone. She berated loudly when she found that the eldest of her sons had already left, gave the second son a comforting hug and then, to her surprise, approached Professor Snyde, put an arm around her shoulders and whispered something.

"I saw Merula bring the Headmaster a pie and a drink..." remembering her strange trip to the bathroom, Hermione suddenly said. "It's strange to see how he communicates with other people."

"Well, he was always more loyal to his snakes than to anyone else. It's just that Merula was one of his favourites, and they both didn't give Era a peaceful life in the early years," Charlie snorted.

"Even Snape? Why?"

"I can only guess," he shrugged. "Perhaps because of her brother's sad reputation, which was reflected in the House. Maybe she pissed him off because of her ambition or something."

"So-so reasons."

"I agree. And look where we ended up, Hermione," the man spread his arms out to his sides and laughed. "One accepts food in her honour, the other never lets anyone forget who Era was. Though they fought among themselves, Merula barely recovered from her death. But these two are a story in themselves, you could even write a great book about them..."

"I would read it," she replied with a smile. "It's a shame I didn't get to know Era better back then. She really seemed to be an amazing person."

Charlie raised his eyes to the ceiling and blinked. His face, though sad, still had a sweet sadness to it.

"Amazing?" he whispered thoughtfully. "Much more than amazing. You know... when you lose loved ones, time erases many details from your memory. But why do I feel like I remember every little thing about her?"