Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizarding:

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizarding:

The Lake: Autumn:

Solana was sitting by the lake, watching the merfolk and giant squid swimming. She had been going to Hogwarts for four years. Two years ago she had killed her brother Ivan while performing a risking trick called the Pamchenko in the Olympics. After that fateful day, she had retired and her parents had sent her back to Hogwarts. Soon after Ivan had died, her parents were killed in a car accident and Hermione Granger's family took her in. Ivan's room was pack up and what she wanted out of his room she kept in hers. The Granger's were nice enough to take her in but Hermione didn't like her. Fortunately, the Granger's didn't know that Ivan was dead and were told that he was living with an aunt in America, which was a lie. Solana had her IPod on so she didn't here Hermione, Ginny & the rest of their friends come up behind her.

Hermione nudged her in the back and she turned around, pulling an ear phone from her right ear.

"What do you guys want?"

"We were just wondering what you were up to. Ginny saw you take your skates and come down to the lake. How come you're not skating? I'm sure Ivan's skating right now, in America with his new friends." Ron said.

"I doubt it. I don't know, I'm just not in the mood, maybe later. Look I got a lot of stuff to do before the end of the weekend. I got to go."

"But you haven't turned the lake to ice since the Olympics. I mean we can't make fun of you skating if you're not skating. That would just be mean. Why don't you just skate some?" Fred said.

"No thanks. I'm not in the mood." At that I got up, grabbed my skates, my bag and headed back up to the castle. The group stayed at the lake edge and looked at me. A mermaid swam up to them and Hermione looked at her.

"Do you know what's been bothering her? You seem to know more about her then any of do." Hermione asked.

"She didn't tell you? Oh, no she wouldn't. You folk still think Ivan's alive don't you?"

"Wait a minute. Ivan's not alive?" Harry asked.

"Of course not dummy. He died at the Olympics. Solana blames herself. A few weeks later, after she was out of the hospital, her parents were killed in that car accident."

"So she's been blaming herself for the past two years for the death of her brother Ivan, even when it wasn't her fault? But that doesn't make any sense. Why would she blame herself?" Ginny asked.

"Because she knew it was her skate that hit him in the neck. It was her idea to do the trick even though she knew they weren't ready. But most of all she knew that no matter what it was, she had helped pressure Ivan to go to the Olympics. Ivan's coach came up to her at this spot on the lake and told her that if she and Ivan didn't go to the Olympics, Ivan would never be able to go and that it would all be her fault."

"Wait, Ivan's coach told her that it would be her fault if Ivan didn't go to the Olympics that year? Why the hell would he do something like that?" George asked.

"To make sure she got Ivan to the Olympics no matter what. Apparently, Ivan's coach had rigged it so that Solana would hit Ivan in the throat. My father heard him talking on his phone when they were practicing. Solana made sure that there was at least some holes in the ice for us to come up and see what the rest of the world was doing. My father and I just happened to pop up from a hole right next to the coach, right as he told some guy that he was going to rig the Olympics. Solana never knew what Ivan's coach had in mind for the Olympics. He switched her skates, to make it look like she had purposely killed her brother. Rumor has it that she may come out of retirement soon."

"What do you mean come out of retirement? How would you even know that?" Draco asked.

"Centaurs come around every now and then when she's down here at the lake. When she was in the hospital, after she was told about Ivan, she entered into our world. Her body in the real world; her spirit and mind in the world of the faeries. She's rumored to be the new Guardian of the Magical World. The old one, rumored to be a Princess is looking for her; looking for her to take her role as the new Princess and Guardian of the whole Magical World, which means its creatures. Look, you should really talk to Solana to find out the rest. It was not my place to tell you all that I told you. I have to go. Come back if you ever wanna see what our world looks like."

"Goodbye. Wait a minute, what's your name?" Hermione asked.

"It's Brina. I've got to go. You really need to talk to Solana about this. I've said too much. Goodbye."

"Goodbye Brina."

Hermione, Ginny, Harry, Ron, George, Fred, Draco and the rest of the group headed back up to the castle, talking about what they had just heard. They decided to go to the Room of Requirements, where I was known to go to be by myself when I was thinking of new tricks to do on the ice. So they all headed to the Room of Requirements.

The Room of Requirements:

Hermione, Ginny, Ron, Harry, Fred, Draco, George and the rest of the group found themselves in front of the room's door. Hermione thought of me and the door opened. They were blasted by loud music, and me dancing in the middle of the floor, trying new tricks without my skates. I felt the cold air blow in and turned around in the middle of a trick and hit the floor. I got up and turned my music down, then flopped into a comfy chair and looked at the group.

"So, I see you've just come from the lake. You must have talked to Brina. I told her if you ever asked, then to tell you, just not to tell you everything. Now that you know that Ivan is dead, what are you going to do? Outlaw me from the school like you've been doing since I got here?"

"It's not like that. if we had known Ivan was dead, we would have been a little more nice, knowing that you had been there and all. But it's not your fault. Ivan's death is not your fault." Luna said. She had followed the group once they had gotten into the castle. She wanted to know what was going on.

"You have no idea what I went through. When Brina told me what Ivan's coach had done, I wanted to kill him, and I almost succeeded. I convinced him to come to the school and he came. I was down by the lake when he came up to me. Brina and her family were on the surface, wondering if I was going to freeze some of the lake to skate on, not knowing my true intentions. Instead of skating, I took him to the Whomping Willow, climbed into its branches and ordered the tree to kill him. The Whomping Willow ignored me. Instead, it bent down to the ground and pushed me out and turned away as if saying it wasn't going to help me commit murder. So I took him back to the lake, he left and I grabbed my skates. I froze part of the lake, skated onto the lake, stopped at the edge, where the ice met lake, and just let myself fall. I didn't care if I lived or died. The merfolk saw what I was doing, and took me back to the surface. That's where Dumbledore found me, lying on the bank, shivering, crying, with my cut arms. I couldn't bare the thought of living without having Ivan around when I went home. Then my parents went and drove their car off a bridge and died and then I was all alone. I never thanked you and your family for taking me in Hermione. So thanks but you didn't have to, believe me, I could've stayed by myself. We owned the house we lived in. you could've moved in with us. You know, the bank got ahold of me a couple days before coming to school and said I could have it back and I took it back. Apparently nobody stayed in the house long enough to live in it. They all thought it was haunted. I'll be moving out of your house as soon as school ends for the summer."

"You don't have to. I mean I've kind of gotten used to the fact of having a sister in the house."

"It's okay. Our house was more like a castle anyways, hence living above the city. You can come over anytime, bring some friends, and see the creatures that inhabit the premises. It'll be fun."

"Mom and dad are going to have a cow. Nana was the original Guardian or Princess as Brina puts it, but I think I'm going to like being a Princess. I've always wanted to be a Princess; I mean what girl hasn't wanted to be a Princess."

"So, were you practicing a new trick or something?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah, but I don't think it's legal. I have seen anybody do it, like ever. So I don't really know if I would be able to do it. And I don't really have a partner to do it with."

"So it's true then? You're coming out of retirement and maybe go to the Olympics again?" Draco asked.

"Maybe, but I haven't thought it through all the way yet. I don't have a coach I can trust and nobody wants to train the girl that killed her brother. I may just be stuck here, figure skating on a lake I have to freeze every time I want to skate."

"But winters coming soon, you won't have to freeze the ice then," Harry said.

"Yeah, but the ice never thickens properly. I almost fell in last winter remember. I like to freeze the lake extra thick just to be on the safe side. Who knows, maybe ya'll will try figure skating one of these days. Oh look at the time; we better get down to dinner. I'll put my stuff away and meet you guys down in the Great Hall."

"Uh, no, after what you just told us and what Brina told us, we are so not letting you out of our site. And Christmas Vacation is just around the corner and if you aren't going home, then neither will we. Deal?" Alicia said.

"Sure, why not. It might be nice to have friends for once."

"Hey, that is so not fair. You have friends. You just don't know about it because you've shut us all out." Fred said.
"I guess I should say I'm sorry. I just haven't been myself since Ivan…"

"Hey you don't have to explain. We all felt something was missing when you came back from just getting out of the hospital. We expected that you would pull away from us. We didn't know that Ivan had died. Like we said before, if we had known, we wouldn't have been so harsh. Personally I think you should've told us." George said.

"Hey, you never know, Professor Snape may actually have been nice to you, even though you are a Gryffindor." Draco said.

"Thanks, I think. We should get down to dinner."

"Okay, so let's go." Luna said.

The Great Hall:

Luna, Hermione, Ginny, Alicia, Harry, Ron, Draco, Fred, George & Solana walked into the Great Hall together. Unfortunately we all noticed the man standing next to Dumbledore. He was wearing a bulging winter coat and had skates hanging over his shoulder. Next to him, a sixteen year old boy stood, skates hanging over his shoulder. They were looking at us, like they were searching for someone. We moved to our tables and sat down. Draco looked over at me and I looked away. Hermione, Alicia, Harry, Ron, Hermione, George & Fred sat around me, looking at Draco and Luna. They hadn't said anything, but with one look at each other, they had sealed the deal. They weren't going to say a thing until I was ready. Unfortunately, the men also saw the look between the group and me. They looked at Dumbledore, who pointed to me, and then they walked over. I looked up at them. Draco & Luna stood up from their tables and walked over, stood by me, as if to protect me from these men.

The men came up to me and I stood up, looking at them. They nodded to my friends and then got right down to business.

"You must be Solana Matuschka." Brian Chefchenko said.

"And you would be?"

"This is Brian Chefchenko, he's getting ready to skate in the Olympics and I'm his coach, Andreas Ruschitschka." Andreas Ruschitschka said.

"And what can I do for you folks?"

"We want you to be Brian's partner."

"You're kidding right? I mean, I don't skate for money anymore. I'm done with that."

"We heard about the Olympics when you were twelve, right? Well we…I think you should partner with Brian and go to the Olympics. We are willing to bend to your school schedule and on the weekends, you would come to our training facility in France, fifteen hour days, and be back by Monday. How do you like that schedule?"

"I don't! You can't come in here and tell me a schedule. Look I'm not ready to come out of retirement. It's too soon, way too soon to go back to skating. And I really don't want to go back to the world of competitive ice skating. So I'll give you to the count of three to get your muggle ass out of my sight."

"Someone's got a temper. Look I'm sorry Andreas, but I can't work with this Bitch of a kid. Find me another partner to work with or I won't go to the Olympics."

"Oh you're going the Olympics kid, even if I have to force this girl to skate."

"You can't force her to do anything she doesn't want to do. Just go back to Paris or wherever you are from and leave us the hell alone!" Hermione yelled.

"And I'm not a kid, Mr. Chefchenko. I happen to be fourteen. I'm more of a grownup then you are at the moment."

"And how can you say that? You killed your own brother!" Brian yelled at me. I stopped. He looked at me. Tears welled up in my eyes. The Great hall went quiet. I felt sick. I looked down and then back up at him.

"You don't think I know that? I wake up every day knowing that Ivan will never call me again. I wake up every day knowing that Ivan will never carry me to my bed after I fall asleep while watching a movie. Ivan will never be able to…he was my best friend and I killed him. You don't think I know that I will never be able to see Ivan's face ever again. You don't think I know that? Then you don't know me as well as you think you do. Because unless you've killed one of your best friends don't even start with me. Just get the hell out of this school. And you can forget about coming back and asking me to skate with you. Just go get yourself another partner. I'm not hungry anymore. I think I'll go to bed early." I left the Great Hall before any more of my life could spill out in front of everyone. Not being of the Gryffindor house, Draco and Luna watched as the rest of the group got up and followed me out of the hall. Draco & Luna turned and looked at Andreas & Brian, with glares on their faces. The rest of the student body and the teachers were glaring at the two men as well. Luna spoke up first.

"You two can leave now. And don't let the door hit you on the way out. Bah bye now."

"But, Brian needs a partner for the Olympics." Andreas said.

"And you are so not going to get one here. Get the hell out of this school before we call security."

"What security? This school doesn't have security." Brian said.

"None that you've seen. But we have our own version of security here." Crab said standing up from the table. He and Goyle stood up together, folding their arms across their chests and glared at the two men.