"You've neglected to tell me talking snowmen existed," Harry heard the woman breath out to her companion as Olaf ran out to meet them.

"I-it's a very advanced work of transfiguration; I doubt even my professor could've done it…"

Avoiding the woman's accusing glare, the stuttering man approached Olaf to observe him better.

Standing up from the heap of snow he'd fallen into, Harry tried to back away slowly even as he felt his nose begin to itch a little. Hold it in; hold it in, the boy repeated the mantra in his head. Nervously, he raised a hand to his face in order to stop the sneeze from coming out, but it was too late.

"ACHOO!" The noise was so loud that the boy wouldn't have been surprised to feel the mountain rumble under his feet.

Abruptly, he felt pinned under the weight of two heavy gazes.

"Sweet Merlin," the man let out, having torn his gaze away from Olaf. "Are you lost, child?"

Harry stood his ground as the man approached. Running away from Uncle Vernon had never worked, and only made him angrier once he'd caught up to him. With the snow and the fact that the stranger seemed faster than his uncle? He really had no chance at all.

The child hadn't realised he was shivering until a warm hand had settled in his. Harry blinked. When had the man gotten so close? It really wasn't like him to lose track of someone's presence like that. The boy tried not to lean into the warmth of the hand that had taken his, as it only made the cold spreading through his bones more obvious.

As he nervously directed his gaze towards the man's shoulder (Uncle Vernon disliked it when Harry didn't look at him, but hated it even more when the boy dared cross his eyes), the child distantly heard the sounds of Olaf's chatter.

"And then there were rocks! And not-Kristoff called them family, so I told Anna to run away from the obviously insane boy, but guess what?"

Harry tried as best as he could to turn his gaze towards his friend without losing sight of the man's shoulder in order to better follow Olaf's conversation.

"What?" the woman replied with what seemed to be an… amused? Smile.

"They were not really rocks!"

The lady let out a loud gasp, one that seemed about as real as when Aunt Petunia marveled at a piece of gossip she'd already heard. And Harry flinched slightly again at the reminder that those people (as nice as they seemed) would probably bring him back to his relatives'.

"I wonder if I should be worried about your friend stealing my wife away."

Harry swirled around quickly as he realised that he'd let the man get away from his eyesight. He then averted his eyes, almost giving himself whiplash, when his gaze met the one of the currently crouched adult. Opting for silence, he fervently hoped the man wouldn't punish him for Olaf's personality.

However, the man's gaze didn't ebb away and the heavy silence floated between the two of them, only interspersed by the soft murmur of Olaf's chatter. Harry interpreted the silence as misplaced anger and jealousy and pushed himself to speak on behalf of his friend.

"Do-don't punish him! He's just being nice! A-and, umm… He- I- I'm sure he doesn't want- to steal her… Your- wife? I mean, umm…"

Harry inwardly despaired at the stutter he heard in his voice. Show no weakness! That was the first rule when dealing with adults! Do what was wanted of him, and do not (under any circumstances) question authority. "S-sorry... Sir."

Bracing himself against the rebuttal that was sure to follow, Harry hunched in an effort to make himself a less attractive target. Maybe his apology had been accepted?

It seemed like his loud outburst had surprised the man though, for he heard only silence before footsteps crunched in the snow to his left. A mitten covered hand appeared in his eyesight and lifted his chin towards a blue penetrating gaze. "What has my idiotic husband done again? Darling, I swear, if you somehow broke this one as well…"

Harry swallowed a sneeze nervously, knowing that anything he said would somehow be turned against him. And, if anything, sneezing in that beautiful woman's face (not that there was much he could see, what with her hat covering her hair, and a scarf hiding her neck) would surely make the upcoming punishment even worse.

"Wai- wha-?" To Harry's eternal surprise, the man spluttered (spluttered! Men did not splutter!) before letting forth a confusing slew of words. "Wait, kiddo. Bloody hell, warn a bloke. I was only joking! I know my wife wouldn't leave me for a bloody snowman!" There, he turned towards Olaf. "Not that it isn't awesome that you can talk. And walk. And apparently have opinions and tell stories, and I'd really like to meet the Transfiguration Master who had a hand in creating you, because bloo-"

"Michael Elias Carter." A sharp voice cut off the rambling, stopping the steady widening of Harry's eyes and causing the release of his chin.

The man flinched. "Merlin, not the bloody full name," he muttered, only audible to Harry's ears. Although, judging from the woman's opening mouth, he might not have been the only one to hear that. Louder, the stranger replied. "Not that I don't have the most amazing wife, and if she cheated on me, I would absolutely deserve it. Because I trust her judgement and know that she'd have a good reason to do. Although I do hope she would tell me beforehand so that I could attempt to remediate to the situation in some way or another before she eloped with the snowman. Not that being left for a bloody snowman wouldn't hurt, even one as talented and-"

"Language, darling," the woman said, having turned towards her husband. "And the second part of that little speech was utterly unnecessary." She cut off the man's response with a raised hand. And how Harry wished he had the power to do that! He'd only ever seen uncle Vernon perform that motion, and even then it was with a raised fist instead, which didn't look nearly as graceful as this hand did.

However, his thoughts ground to a halt as the lady's gaze focused upon him. And it was terrifying! After all, he'd just seen that woman's words reduce a man to whimpered apologies, and her hands stop him in his tracks: that must mean she was at least as strong as Uncle Vernon. Did she also wield a frying pan like Aunt Petunia did? He almost voiced his question, but was stopped in his tracks by a coughing fit that left his head throbbing faintly.

"The poor thing is sick, and here you are, making a fool out of yourself while he is positively freezing." he heard her say as he felt a hand running circles against his back. He didn't think he'd imagined the note of disapproval in her voice, but unable to help it, Harry found himself leaning slightly into the touch.

"I-I'm fine," he said hurriedly once the words registered in his addled mind. She was probably thinking about all the effort it would take to make sure his condition didn't get worse. "There's n-no need to… to waste your con-concern for me."

The young child didn't miss the exchange of gazes that went on between the two adults. However, he could not grasp its meaning, nor the consequences it would have for him; instead, he soon had a faceful of a worried Olaf.

"You're really really white," the snowman fretted, waving his wooden hands around in an attempt to do… something. "You're almost turning blue! Quick, fire, and we need to find your true love, fast!"

Harry couldn't even muster the will to smile at the snowman's antics due to the cold assailing him. It was almost as though his body had been able to ignore the cold as long as he didn't consciously realise it existed…

The boy blinked when a warm and soft object was wrapped around his head. The man was crouching in front of him, having taken the child's hands in his bigger ones.

"Child? Lad, open your eyes! Dear, they're not supposed to close their eyes if they're cold, am I right? Eyes open, lad, eyes open!"

The child opened his eyes blearily, blinking in confusion. He hadn't even realised that they'd been closed! Slowly, he felt himself being lifted and belatedly became conscious of the fact that his feet were no longer touching the ground.

"Lad we're going to bring you somewhere warm, alright?"

Harry attempted to protest, his gaze naturally shifting towards Olaf. He couldn't quite focus on his companion's features though, as his sight seemed to be getting blurry as time went on.

"And we won't forget your friend either, of course," a female voice answered. "Why don't you hand him over to me, Precious: I'm rather good at side-along."

Frowning in confusion at the nonsensical sentence, the boy temporarily felt the bite of the wind until he was once again surrounded by warmth. "Now this might feel a bit strange," the woman said. "But don't worry, I'll bring somewhere warmer."

Before he could even muster the words to express his confusion, Harry felt as though a giant hand tried to squish him like a bug and felt his breath quicken before he suddenly found himself surrounded by warm air.

Then, his world went black.

Huh, am I late again? Yes I am :S

So Harry finally gets off the mountain! Because as fun as meeting Olaf and the fae was, the mountain kinda limited the interesting stuff that could happen. And now he's met humans as well :D

-Yoshishisha