Out in the snow

Carys stood almost knee deep in the snow that had filled the grounds of the Hogwarts castle. The wind whipped icily around her, blowing her scarf and hair in waves around her face. She brushed her hair out of her face for what felt like the hundredth time. She rubbed her hands together for a moment, regretting the choice not to wear gloves, before tucking them into the pockets of her coat.

The lake was frozen over, turned to a sheet of ice, absently, Carys briefly wondered whether it would be strong enough to try and skate on if she charmed her shoes somehow. It maybe wasn't the best idea but part of her was still considering it. She stood, stock still staring at the frozen waters stretched out before her. It was calming. Nobody else seemed to want to brave the snow, so she was alone for a while. She felt quite drained, she'd been up almost all night trying to work out her essay for History of Magic. No matter what she did, the stupid subject just didn't want to stay in her head. It was as though the moment she forced a fact kicking and screaming into her mind, it just dashed out again and scurried away, never to be seen again. It was frustrating.

As snowflakes clung to her loose hair and eyelashes, Carys began to feel the cold biting into her. It was nice to get some space, but maybe the middle of a snowfall wasn't the best time to choose. Perhaps she should go back inside, maybe there'd be some fun in the common room and it wasn't long until dinner. Then again, nobody was around, Carys glanced in all directions before confirming her thoughts. With nobody around, perhaps now would be a good time to take a little stroll into the forbidden forest. Carys was determined to go wandering in there at some point. She could have sworn she'd seen what looked like a young unicorn dashing past some trees at the end of her third year. The number of detentions she's recieved and even more than she had managed to narrowly escape for being in or too near to the forest was mounting up. But she was still determined.

She drew her wand out to melt the snow that was sticking around her ankles and pondered whether to give the forest a go or not.

It really was very cold outside right now. This winter truly was the worst one he had encountered, it was ridiculous how much snow was on the ground right now. With each step he took he would just sink into the snow. The snow stopped just a little bit below his knee and it became increasingly hard for him to even walk outside. But he really didn't want to go back into the castle, even though he would surely get sick afterwards for being outside in the cold too long. At least that was what his twin brother had strong, his immune system. But Lysander was always getting sick and now he was determined to try and overcome that fragile-ness of his.

He let out a small, slightly stiffled cough as he walked toward the lake. He began to wonder how the squid was doing underneath the thick layer of ice that covered the entire lake. During the fall and spring he would often come down to the lake to check on the squid since he knew that not a lot of people payed attention to it. It must make the squid sad to know that not many students care about it or even like it, after all it had feelings even if it was an animal. It wasn't fair that it was always getting ignored by those ignorant students, but he also knew that there were students who cared about it and came to check on it often like he did.

As Lysander approached the lake he looked further down the path that led to the Forbidden Forest and he noticed that there was someone there. By the figure of the person he determined that it was girl and she seemed familiar, had he seen her in the common room before? But he immediately felt his stomach begin to churn in that oh so familiar way when he was around girls. He gulped before deciding to approach the girl. Taking faint steps toward her, he slowly made his way closer to her and he felt his heart begin to beat fast, he had hardly ever started a conversation with a girl, they usually did it with him. "E- excuse me, but are you planning on going in the Forest?" he asked somewhat insecurely.

Carys froze as she heard a voice coming from behind her. She turned to face the boy who had spoken, she widened her eyes, giving her best innocent look, but her smile belied the feigned expression.

"Ummm...no?" She tried, a small laugh following before she cast her eyes down and shook her head gently. There was no point trying to hide it. She ran her hand through the hair on her forehead, pushing it off her face as it blew into her eyes, completely obscuring her view.

"Well, nobody was about so I thought...you know, it can't do any harm just to have a..." Carys paused briefly trying to find the word, "...a wander," she finished inwardly rolling her eyes at the anticlimactic and somewhat idiotic ending to her sentence. She eyed the boy infront of her, she recognised him as Lysander, a fellow Ravenclaw. She realised that this was perhaps the first time they'd had a real conversation together, if you could call it that. He had always been so quiet before.

"Truth is," she started "I just want to see what's in there, you know? I swear I saw a unicorn in there before, and we're always being told how many magical creatures there are in the forest...so I...well, I wanted to go." She laughed at herself and walked closer to Lysander, bumping her shoulder against his.

"You going to turn me in?" Her eyes were wide again as she smiled, looking up through her eyelashes. She hoped that joking with him might ease the awkwardness a little. She wasn't ever very good meeting people, she could already feel her cheeks beginning to go red, she tried to force herself not to blush.

Finally able to get a good look at her face, Lysander was able to place a name with her face. Carys Silvers, another Ravenclaw and she was in his year. In truth this really only made him more uncomfortable, seeing ad how he had never crossed words with this girl before even though they are in the same house and year. Lysander just wasn't the type to be so.carefree and comfortable around the opposite gender. The tone of her voice when she answered him at first sounded very unrealistic to him, sounded like she was tryig to cover up the fact the she was in fact trying to go in there. He glanced around quickly and saw that there was in fact no one else around.

He smiled at her when she began to give him an explanation. It was quite an awkward smile but it wad genuine. "Hm, I know what you mean. It is always a wonder what's in there and to tell you the truth, I'be tried to go in there myself, because of that wonder." he told her, looking down slightly. As she stepped forward toward him and bumped her shoulder against his, Lysander found himself retreating slightly at her touch. His eyes even seemed to widen a bit from the fright that surged through him at the moment. It was a natural reaction for him, though he was often made fun of because of it.

As she smiled at him, he returned her smile with the same awkward one as before. He bit the inside of his lip and put his hand on his neck thinking slightly about what he should do. He didn't like getting others in trouble, and he knew that whether he turned her in or not if she got caught their house points would be affected. So with a slight sigh he shook his head at her. "No. I'm not going to turn you in." he told her. "No, in fact I want to head in there... with you." he said softly. "I mean if that's okay..." he added, a little embarrassed at his rashness.

Carys stepped back from Lysander as she watched anxiety overcome his features as she joked with him. She nervously fiddled with her hands for a second before the bravado returned to her face. For a second as Lysander sighed, Carys wondered whether her joke about turning her in had been misplaced and that he actually was considering it. She cursed her own stupidity, wishing she could know just the right thing to say as so many other people seemed to. But then again, to look at her, nobody would know that she herself didn't find it the easiest and most natural thing in the world.

Carys's eyebrows rose as Lysander continued and asked to join her. She let out a loud laugh,

"Of course you can." She stated as though it were the only possilble answer. "Nobody else seems like they're tough enough to brave the cold," she joked, "so I don't think anyone will notice." She waved her wand absently at her feet giving an incantation under her breath as she tried to melt away the snow on her shoes and legs.

Carys began to walk towards the forest, looking over her shoulder, half wondering if Lysander would actually come. She decided not to put too much emphasis on his choice, instead walkingand beginning to talk so that he really had no option but to come along, unless he chose to leave her talking to nobody.

"I know that they're meant to have so many animals here. I want to find if there are unicorns still living in the forest." Carys talked with confidence as she eyed the trees before them, trying to decide the best route to enter the forest where she could be sure they wouldn't be seen. She glanced back and forth between the castle and forest, working out what could be seen from the windows.

"Of course, what I'd love would be a niffler, oh, and a kneazle. But I doubt there would be any here." Carys turned back to face Lysander, shrugging her shoulders at her last statement. "But you never know I guess."

Lysander smiled at her Again, this time the smile not being so awkward. "Well no normal student. But the Prefects don't really have much of a choice." he laughed slightly. He actually felt really bad for the Prefects, they had to bear the cold almost everyday during winter outside, looking for any students that might be causing trouble. It must he a hard job for them, but most of the time it didn't seem like they minded it. It seemed like they really only cared about the safety of others. He gave another small cough and cleared his throat quickly, looking in the direction Carys had begun to walk in.

He heard her begin to talk as she walked, so he just decided to follow her and simply listen to what she said. He peeked into the Forest over the girl and he looked around. "There are plenty of creatures living here, Luke centaurs and even werewolves. When you're in here at night during the full moon you have to be extra careful." he pointed out. Then a thought occurred to him, what phase of the moon was it going to be? He really hoped that it wouldn't't be the full moon, because they wouldn't be able to get away from the wolves with all the make around them.

"Do you know how to climb and walk along in the trees?" he asked her suddenly. He figured that the best ways to avoid being seen by others was to go along in the trees. It would also keep them safe from any creature that would want to harm them, s he was sure that there would be at least one like that. "It might be easier if we travel in there by tree." he told her, practically forgetting everything she had just mentioned while he was looking around at the trees.

Carys turned sceptically confused eyes on Lysander.

"What?" She looked back and forth between him and the tree tops stretched high above them. "It wouldn't be easy," she said, considering the trees in front of them. "They don't have many branches."

Carys crept further around the forest, hoping that once they'd turned past some of the trees they would be concealed from view from anybody happening to look out of windows or be crazy enough to come out in the snowfall.

"Here will do, right?" She asked, moving into the trees, glancing up at them trying to work out a route up into one of the closest trees. She wasn't sure if it was the best idea, but the challenge had been set and she felt if she refused or questioned the plan that she could risk looking weak or offending Lysander. So instead she pulled her long coat back from her legs slightly and hitched her foot into a dip in one of the trees, reaching her arms above her to grasp the highest branch she could. Carys smiled as she remembered the hundreds of times she had done this with her brothers, exploring, climbing, generally being little country children. She'd managed to get upper body strength that her tiny frame belied from those childhood years of being a tomboy and so with her hands wrapped around a branch, having to stand on tiptoe to reach it, she swung her legs up in front of her and used the tree trunk to walk herself up onto the bow. In the process of all this movement, the icy winds and her own ascent into the tree knocked loose the clumped snow piled high on each tree and it fell uncerimoniously onto both students.

He looked up at the trees that Carys indicated and nodded. "Yes, these will do. Their branches look strong enough to handle the weight of a person." he stated at he watched her climb the tree before he did the same. He extended one of his arms up to hold onto one of the lower branches as he lifted himself up onto a second branch near the one where his hand was placed. As some of the snow that fell from her movements landed on him, he laughed softly before continuing what he was doing.

The snow that was falling from the sky was stopping slightly, but the icy wind sure as hell wasn't. The wind hit his face when he jumped onto another one of the tree's branches and he was forced to close his eyes for a moment until the wind let up. The winds seemed to be getting slightly stronger and that meant that whether they were in the trees or on the ground they would have to be careful to not let the wind harm them too much.

"You know I don't think we'll he able to see many creatures here today. It's pretty cold for most of them right now." he managed to say to here, even though the wind was blowing hard on his face. His throat suddenly tightened and he covered his mouth as he began to cough somewhat violently. Guess this is why when he was younger he was hardly ever allowed to go outside in this kind of weather. But it was really boring to be inside all the time watching his brother and his friends playing outside in the snow. They always had so much Fun while he was inside, while when he was outside they really couldn't do anything because Lorcan had to watch out for Lysander.

Carys laughed as snow fell heavily from the branches onto their heads. She shook her hair, watching the snowflakes spin down from her shoulders. She was busy climbing higher when Lysander questioned whether there would even be animals out with the weather so bleak. Carys was about to answer him when he began coughing violently.

"Are you okay?" She questioned with concern. He didn't sound well. Carys shifted her weight to move along the branch towards him. "Well if there were any animals that probably scared them off," she joked. Her eyebrows furrowed as his coughing didn't disist. "Maybe this wasn't..."

Carys was cut off when a sudden rustling from below them caught her attention. She leant over the edge of the tree, balancing herself precariously, only one hand holding her steady. She watched the undergrowth beneath them as the leaves began to move. She shot at glance at Lysander.

The coughing wasn't ceasing and he was beginning to becomes desperate. Every time he tried to make his coughing stop, it would only get stronger and it began to hurt his throat. As Carys came best him when she heard his coughing, he shook his head at her question. "I... I'm... fine." he gasped through his coughs. He inhaled deeply and held his breath for a moment as he tried to keep his coughing down. When he finally let his breath go, he found that his coughing stopped and he sighed in relief.

He really wasn't good for anything, and it really bothered him. This was probably why his father always preferred his Neither, he was the stronger of the two twins and his father seemed to always be putting his hopes on Lorcan. He knew it must be hard for his brother to have all that weight on him because he was too weak to his father. His mother was much more understanding of how he was. She understood that he was not the strongest los in playing sports or anything like that, but he was very smart and that made up for his weakness.

"Sorry." he apologized. "If I scares off any creatures that were here." he sighed. Lysander suddenly heard a rustling noise coming from the branches beneath them. He stiffened slightly and looked down, wondering if ir was anything that would harm them. His hand immediately went for his wand, that was in his back pocket as he continued to stare downward.