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'𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐀 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐀 𝐓𝐎 start a snowball fight,' Fernrose said to Giulia, the sarcasm dripping off her voice.

The legs of her jeans grew stiff and rigid as the water in the fabric froze and her skin burned from the cold. Painful stings shot through her body every time she moved and her red nose dripped in a not so charming manner. Fernrose was glad Ron walked behind her and not next to her.

'Oh, please,' Giulia scoffed. 'You were all thinking the same. It's hardly my fault.'

'Besides,' Phoenix added, 'I didn't hear you complaining when you rolled through the snow with Ron, Fern.'

Fernrose grumbled something under her breath and flicked her frozen ginger hair over her shoulder before she started to move again.

The group wrestled through the snow of the winter scenery. The forest had felt like a fairy tale before, but now that they knew that their magic didn't work it felt more like a nightmare.

The sun sunk already towards the horizon and the shadows of the pine trees grew longer whereas the temperature dropped.

'How do you know you're going the right way?' Nevada wondered, walking a few feet behind Elodie who tried leading the group out of the forest ─ or at least, to shelter.

Elodie halted in her pace for a moment, stamping on the ground in an attempt to get some feeling back in her toes and she blew in her hands. 'I don't,' she answered.

'So we could be going around in circles for all we know?' Nevada said with a suppressed sigh. 'Great.'

The forest looked the same all around them with the snow being awfully disorientating.

Elodie, however, shook her head and reached for the bark of the tree next to her, wiping some snow away and uncovering the moss. 'Moss always grows in one direction, so as long as we keep the moss side behind us, we're going in a straight line.'

She raised an eyebrow when everyone stared at her. 'What? Muggle studies can be useful.'

'Girl,' Wanda said, 'I am muggle born but I didn't know that.'

Elodie grinned but then turned forwards again ─ to what she hoped was the south-side of the forest and towards civilization. 'Come, let's get moving before we cannot move anymore at all.'

'She means before we all freeze to death,' Phoenix clarified. 'Let's go, icicles.' He snickered but stopped when no one joined him in his laughter; instead they followed Elodie as a heavy silence fell over them.

'Too soon?' he asked Giulia in a whisper who rolled her eyes as an answer. Phoenix too feared they might not get help in time, but he always tried to mask his emotions with jokes.

This time, though, it didn't help the others to get their mind off things; the freezing ache was all they could think about. It crept through their thoughts like a moving glacier, weighing down their movements until they really felt like an icicle.

Night fell over the forest but the bright snow kept the darkness at bay. They could still easily see where they were going.

Though their teeth had been clattering and their limbs shaking for quite some time, they no longer shivered anywhere at all, and they knew it was a bad sign. Their bodies were trying to save energy.

'Can't we just stop for the night and try to get a fire going?' Willa asked as she slowly blinked and stopped walking. She was so tired, she just wanted to go to sleep.

'With what?' Fernrose snapped, the exhaustion causing her to be even more tempered than usual. 'The branches are drenched, it cannot be used as firewood and above all, we have no magic.'

Willa tried to pout but she couldn't even manage that, and she sat down in the snow.

'Hmm,' she breathed out, half closing her eyes. 'The snow isn't that cold anymore.'

Elodie's already slow beating heart skipped over when she turned around and saw Willa letting herself fall in the snow with an almost peaceful expression.

'Come, join me, Wanda,' Willa said to her friend, patting a spot next to her, and the other Gryffindor had to admit the fluffy snow looked rather tempting.

'No,' Elodie said as she hadn't enough strength left to shout. 'We cannot go to sleep. We have to stay awake, moving forward is our only option.'

'It's funny, really,' Wanda said with a giggle, laying in the snow as well and she sounded drunk. 'We survived Voldemort and his Death Eaters but now hypothermia is going to kill us all.'

'Please,' Elodie tried but the others laid down in the snow one by one as well; the exhaustion getting the better of them while the ice crystals at the trees lured them to sleep with an inaudible song.

'Ella,' Elodie pleaded but her best friend was already curled up against Oliver, her eyes fluttering shut.

Elodie fought away the lump in her throat and mustered the little strength she had left while pushing away the icy lullaby whirling through her mind. She had to stay strong for her friends. She had to get help, and she desperately hoped civilization was near.

Elodie took a deep breath, turning her back on her unconscious friends with pain in her heart, and then started running ─ or tried to, as it was more like a stumbling pace.

If she was fast she could still save her friends, but her breathing felt like sandpaper in her throat and her limbs no longer felt like her own; they were heavy and uncontrollable.

Flashes danced in front of her eyes and Elodie didn't know how many minutes had passed or how much distance she had traveled when her foot slammed against a protruding root and she lost her balance. She rolled down the snowy hill, out of the tree line and she landed with a grunt on something hard.

A path, Elodie realized, blinking rapidly. A frozen over, cobbled path.

She pushed herself half up to look down the road, but a massive gate caught her eyes instead. It belonged to a castle.

Relief washed over her, giving her enough strength to climb back on her feet.

She stumbled through the gate, but her legs gave way in the middle of the courtyard and she fell on her knees.

'Help!' Elodie shouted, forcing her voice to work, to grow as loud as it could. The flashes moved in a sickening dance in front of her eyes, but then the sound of running footsteps reached her.

'Help,' she said again, though not as loud as the first time, and she fought to stay conscious. 'My friends. They're still in the forest. They need help.'

'How many?' a male's voice asked and Elodie felt a blanket being draped over her shoulders, but she couldn't make out a face as the flashes in front of her eyes turned darker and darker.

'Caolán, saddle the horses,' another male's voice ordered before a pair of hands shook her shoulders.

'Try to stay awake, with how many were you?'

Elodie tried to think and she placed her ice cold hand against her temple. 'Fifteen,' she answered. 'Please, they're not far away. You have to find them.'

'We will,' the voice answered and the dark dots in front of Elodie's eyes moved just enough for her to see a young man's face with blond hair and dazzling blue eyes.

'Thank you,' Elodie managed to whisper before the courtyard suddenly sped towards her and she felt a pair of arms wrapping around her waist as the darkness engulfed her. . .

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𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓:

𝑭𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝑭𝒐𝒙𝒈𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒚 dash-of-clarity
𝑮𝒊𝒖𝒍𝒊𝒂 𝑨𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒂 𝒃𝒚 GwynethStarks
𝑷𝒉𝒐𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒙 𝑻𝒂𝒚𝒍𝒐𝒓 𝒃𝒚 Avengers14
𝑵𝒆𝒗𝒂𝒅𝒂 𝑺𝒏𝒂𝒑𝒆 𝒃𝒚 roaringsuns
𝑬𝒍𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒆 𝑩𝒆𝒍𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝒃𝒚 @ 𝒎𝒆
𝑾𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂 𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒔 𝒃𝒚 athenawinchester_x
𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒂 𝑩𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒔 𝒃𝒚 regulusslocket
𝒂𝒏𝒅
𝑬𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒉 𝑹𝒐𝒔𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒈 (𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚) 𝒃𝒚 -MoonlightRose-

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