The boy who hated snow
Author's Notes: I got inspired by all the snow coming down and decided to temporarily throw aside my school writing project and all the other fics that I should be working on. It's a bit of a holiday story, I hope you'll like it! :)
Harry Potter did not really like snow.
It was strange really, but it had taken him sixteen years to realise it. Before he knew about Hogwarts and when he still lived with the Dursleys, the snow was just one more annoyance in his life. When the snow came, the old clothes he wore were never thick enough and sometimes not even whole. The snow would stick to them and soak them once it had melted and he would walk around freezing in wet clothes. Sometimes Dudley and his friends would amuse themselves by using him as a target for snowballs and he would not only end up with wet clothes, but also snow melting against his skin when Dudley would succeed in hitting him with a snowball. He remembered the cold, the shivers and the feeling of melted snow running down his neck and underneath his shirt.
The snow got in everywhere.
He only saw Dudley during the summers now and did as much as possible to avoid him, so being struck by snowballs from his large cousin was no longer something to he had to worry about. But being sixteen was not easier than being ten and although the looming threat of Dudley was gone, all was not good.
It was the day before Christmas and he was practically alone. Rather than spending Christmas with the Weasleys, he had chosen to stay at Hogwarts. Both Mr and Mrs Weasley had been disappointed, not to mention Ron and Hermione. But he had made it perfectly clear to all of them that he would not change his mind. Perhaps his only and gravest mistake had been to reject Ron and Hermione and told them to go with their families. After all, one never knew how much time they had left to be together.
That was why Harry was standing all alone by the open gate at Hogwarts, still inside the castle but only a foot or two away from being outdoors. He watched the snowfall, how it seemed to never cease to fall and the way it settled evenly on the ground. Snow covered the Hogwarts grounds in a thick layer and even in the darkness of the evening everything seemed white and silvery. Harry reached out and let a few snowflakes descend upon his hand. They melted the instant they made contact with his hand.
"What an odd place to be at."
Harry only turned his head enough to see who had spoken to him, then turned back to watching the snowfall. He had not expected anyone to find him, everyone else who were had stayed at Hogwarts seemed too caught up in the Christmas spirit to notice anything else. But then again Luna Lovegood was hardly like everyone else. It was ironic how she commented on him being there as odd when Luna was commonly known for the pure definition of the word odd.
"What are you doing here?" she asked curiously.
"Nothing," Harry answered abruptly.
"I can see that."
She walked up to him, stood by his side and joined him in watching the snow. For a while she said nothing and although Harry was relieved, after a few minutes the silence grew somewhat uncomfortable to him. What was she still doing there? Didn't she have anything better to do?
"I'm staying here over Christmas this year," Luna revealed suddenly. "Dad had to go to Moldavia for a story and it turned out that he couldn't make it back before Christmas this year."
"That's too bad," Harry murmured, not knowing what else to say.
Luna just shrugged.
"It's okay… I've always wanted to spend Christmas here for once. Me and dad, we're not that good when it comes to cooking." She took her eyes off the snow and looked at Harry instead. "So why are you here?"
"I don't have anywhere else to be."
Memories of last Christmas at Grimmauld Place with Sirius came back to him for what seemed to be the twentieth time that day. He forced himself to stop thinking about it. What use was there in thinking and dwelling on it anyway? Nothing would change. Once again Harry stared out into the dark and at the silvery snow.
The sound of Luna's voice brought him out of his thoughts again, but this time she was humming a Christmas carol that Harry recognised from one of aunt Petunia's Christmas CDs. Harry gave her an odd look and for a moment he thought about leaving. But his answer to Luna's earlier question came back to echo in his mind. He had nowhere else to be.
"Would you stop that?" Harry snapped five minutes later when Luna was still humming. "Don't you have anyone else to bother?!"
Luna only stopped humming to answer him.
"You're not going to yell again are you?" she asked in return, causing Harry to give her another odd look. "You did that quite a lot last year. It doesn't really help, you know."
"I'm not going to yell," Harry muttered.
"So why won't you go out?"
Luna had turned her attention back to the snow, without the humming. For the third time in less than ten minutes, Harry looked at her strangely. He was slightly surprised by her quick drop of the subject and thought to himself that had it been Ron or Hermione they probably would not have accepted his answer and instead tried to delve deeper.
"It's snowing," Luna went on and took one step forward. "It's been snowing all day."
She pulled out a pair of blue mittens from her pockets and put them on. Then she took another two steps and with that she was outside, without the warmth or the ceilings of the castles to protect her. Harry watched her curiously. Luna was only standing three steps away from him but in a way there seemed to be so much more between them. He was still standing by the gate, the charms of Hogwarts keeping him warm and the torches and lamps of the castle lightening up the corridor behind him. Luna was standing outside, snow up to her knees and surrounded by the darkness. Yet she was the one with a smile on her lips and a happy glimpse in her eyes.
"Why don't you come out?" she suggested. Harry shook his head.
"Too dark to play in the snow, isn't it?"
"Not really!"
Harry had hardly the time to before Luna had formed a small snowball in her hands and thrown it right into Harry's face. He stumbled back, the snowball crushing against his face and pushing his glasses against his skin. The snowball fell apart, broke into pieces but left nothing by cold shock on Harry's face.
"What do you think you're doing?!" he yelled angrily and spat out snow that had happened to get into his mouth.
"You said that you weren't going to yell," Luna reminded, sounding very calm despite that she might have sent Harry into angry teenager mode.
"Well, I take that back!"
"Is that all you're going to do?"
All it took were those words and the grin on her face. The next moment Harry stepped out, grabbed a fistful of snow and started to form a snowball in his hands. Luna backed away slowly and Harry stepped out further to maintain the same distance between them.
"Go ahead," Luna smiled and did not seem scared at all.
Harry threw the snowball at her, which she tried to duck but it ended up hitting her shoulder. Luna retaliated by grabbing two fist of snow and, forming it quickly into a big, uneven clump, she ran forwards and smashed it against Harry's chest. The push from Luna was enough to make him lose balance and he fell rather clumsily on his back.
Luna stood there before him, laughing like there was no tomorrow.
"I'll get you for that one!" Harry yelled.
But there was a change in his voice and the yell was not an angry one. He kicked at the snow, sending a wave of white flakes at Luna who covered her face from them. He then crawled up on his feet, almost slipping at first, and brought a handful of snow to Luna's face. She turned around and ran, barely avoiding the snow in his hand.
Harry followed, taking big strides to try to get across the thick layer of snow that reached up to his knees. Normally he might have caught Luna easily, but the snow made it more difficult for both of them to run. Still, while chasing after her and keeping both eyes on her he noticed how she seemed so much better at running around in the snow than he was.
In the end, when his cheeks were warm and his breath short, he took one last chance and threw himself forward. He reached out his arms and caught the hem of her robe. When he fell face first into the snow he dragged her down with her. He sent them both tumbling down and falling over, rolling once or twice before they finally lay still next to each other and facing the night sky.
Panting, Harry lay there staring at the darkness above him with Luna lying on his arm and doing the exact same thing. They both lay there silently for a while, not speaking and the only thing that could be heard was the sound of their shallow breaths. From the other side of the gate they could hear voices coming from inside, but no one saw or noticed them, just as they did not bother to get their attention.
"It's nice, isn't it?" Luna asked suddenly. "I like snow."
"I don't," Harry answered automatically.
Luna turned her head slightly so that she could see his face and upon noticing it Harry did the same. She smiled.
"You should do this more often, you know."
"Why?"
"Sometimes it's good to do things you normally don't."
Luna shifted her position a little, allowing Harry to pull his arm back. He felt the snow melting between his fingers and it was only then that it occurred to him that he might be cold. It was funny how he had not noticed it before when he was chasing after Luna with snow in his hands.
"I like you a lot more now," Luna said, causing Harry to look wide-eyed at her.
"What?" he asked quickly, feeling his heart beat faster in panic.
"You're not brooding."
"I do not brood!" Harry shot back defensively.
Luna said nothing more about it but her silence spoke volumes. Harry rolled his eyes.
"I do not brood," he repeated, a little calmer than before. Luna shrugged.
"Sometimes it's good to think about things," she spoke. "It can make you a little wiser or a little more prepared. But sometimes… you can think a little too much."
Harry was a little tempted to ask how Luna had come to that conclusion but he remained silent. From the conversation they had had last year, he could guess that clearly Luna was speaking out of experience. It was strange really, how he had ended up talking to her last year when he had wished to be alone and was lying next to her now in the snow that he despised so much.
"Tell me something…" Harry started and felt Luna's large eyes staring right at him. "How come you are always here when I least expect someone?"
Luna blinked.
"How do you know you're not the one who's here when I don't expect it?"
Harry stared at her, a little confused but at the same time her question had registered in his mind perfectly. Luna smiled at him and slowly sat up. She was fully covered in snow, even the dark robe she wore was bright and silvery.
"I'm going to go to the owlery… I'm expecting a letter from my father. Happy Christmas, Harry."
He watched her get up and head back into the castle, not caring to brush the snow off her clothes. His eyes followed her as long as he could, until she disappeared out of his sight when she walked around a corner. Harry got up and quietly brushed the snow off his clothes as he went back inside. The moment he stepped inside he left behind the darkness and cold, but strangely enough he felt like he did not need the heating charms of the castle to feel warm.
When he stood there by the gateway like he had done before, he did not stand there watching the snow apathetically from the sideline. Instead he looked at the traces in the snow made by him and Luna, smiled and headed back to the Gryffindor tower.