"Hey, look at you actually facetiming me with no help at all," I laughed as I answered the annual birthday phone call from Dad while I was sitting in the Astronomy tower that night.
"Elsa, I'm in my 90's, not stupid. I know how to use technology," he laughed.
"I beg to differ, Dad. Wasn't it you who set the microwave on fire when trying to make popcorn? What was it you set the timer for, ninety minutes and not ninety seconds," I pointed out.
"That was one time! Are any of you going to let me forget?" Dad asked.
"Considering the complex smelt of burnt popcorn for about a week, most likely not."
"Now, it that any way to speak to your elderly father when he calls to wish you a happy birthday," he pretended to scold.
"Funny, Dad. I think you missed your calling as a comedian," I told him as I rolled my eyes.
"Who knows, maybe I'll change professions. But, seriously, happy birthday snowflake," Dad said, with smile. "Did Loki give you your birthday present I sent?"
"He did with strict orders not to open it until I was talking to you," I said as I held up the the pink wrapped box. "I'm guessing I can open it now."
"Of course, you can open it, snowflake," Dad said as I carefully balanced my laptop on the ground so he could watch me open the box.
I carefully took the silver ribbon off the box and unwrapped the pink paper. When I lifted the lid off the box it took every last bit of strength I had not to start crying. Sitting inside the box was the Asgardian headband that Mum wore when on the day her and Dad got married. It was made from Asgardian gold strands that were delicately twisted together with small diamonds placed along the band. It was something that only Asgardian royalty wore, which was something new for me. Even though both Mum and I were princess of Asgard, neither of us actually though of either of us as royalty. But my grandfather and Aunt Freya had given it to her for her wedding and she had loved it the moment she saw it and so did I. She always told me when I was little that one day there would be a special event where I would be able to wear it, I just never thought she wouldn't be here to see that day.
"She would want you to wear it to the Yule Ball, snowflake," Dad told me with a sad smile.
I quickly brushed the tear that fell away, I didn't want to cry in front of Dad because I knew he missed Mum just as much as I did. It took me a few minutes to compose myself before I could actually say anything to Dad. After taking a few deep breaths, I finally felt ready to face Dad again.
"Thank you so much, Dad. It will almost be like she will be there with me," I said, my voice filled with emotion.
"It will be strange not having you home for Christmas," Dad said sadly.
"Oh, but plan on being home on Christmas day," I said cheekily.
"How are you planning on that? The train leaves a few days before the ball," Dad said in a questioning voice.
"Let's just say that Loki and I have been working on a few new tricks," I told him.
"You're not going to tell me, are you?" Dad laughed.
"Nope, I want it to be a surprise."
"You sounded so much like Bucky just then. He always used to say that to me when I asked him what he had planned," Dad said as a wave guilt hit me, I still hadn't told him about Bucky and I figured now would be as good as ever.
"Yeah, about Bucky," I said as I ran a hand a shaky hand through my hair.
"Elsa, what's wrong?" Dad asked, sounding worried.
"I kinda found Bucky wasn't quick enough to get him to come back," I said, not exactly lying to Dad. "I should have been able to get to him, Dad. I should have brought him home, where he should be."
"Elsa, honey, it's not your fault. Bucky is a hard man to pin down at the moment. I know you did what you could. But where was he?"
I spent the rest of the evening explaining how we went to see Sirius and how he had told me about a man who had a metal arm living in the cave above him and how we tried to get to him. But I was carful in what I said because of the promise I made to Bucky. I never said that I didn't actually speak to him but I still felt guilty as all hell.
The next day there was a horrible article in the Daily Prophet about Hagrid being a half giant and of course it was written by the one and only Rita Skeeter. Because of the article the education board decided to have him step down for a while and since they hadn't found a temporary teacher yet, we had a free period at the end of the day.
Taking advantage of the spare time, Cedric and I were going to head up to the library to do some research for the second task. But on the way up I heard someone call out my name and when I turned around, I saw that it was Fleur Delacour.
"Why is Fleur calling out to you and waving?" Cedric asked me as he looked over his shoulder at Fleur.
"I have no idea. But I guess I should see what she wants. I'll meet you in the library," I sighed, walking over to the French girl as I wondered what she wanted.
"'Ello Elsa. May I 'ave a word with you?" she asked cautiously.
"Yeah, sure," I said a little nervously. Fleur has never wanted to talk to be before, hell, I didn't even think she liked me. So, I had no idea what she would have wanted to talk to me about.
"I just wanted to that I am sorry for ze way I 'ave treated you," she said, shocking me. "I saw what was written about you and your father in ze newspaper, it was 'orrible. It also made me see that I 'ave not been very kind to you and you 'ave done nothing to me."
"That's okay, Fleur. It's in the past now," I said, still unsure what brought on the sudden change.
"When I saw you talk to that girl who 'ad talked to that 'orrible Skeeter woman, it made me wish I waz more like you. That I 'ad the nerve to stand up for what I believe in," she told me.
"What do you mean Fleur? You seemed to be able to stand up for yourself," I said, slightly confused.
"It iz all an act. I always act ze way that people except me to because I am 'alf vela. I never wanted to flirt wiz Cedric ze way I did, it's just 'ow Madam Maxime expects me to. But it didn't work with Cedric, 'e must really love you, Elsa," she said, sounding ashamed of her behavior.
"We have been through a lot together, Cedric and me. More than either of us even want to think about sometimes but it has only made us stronger," I told her.
"I 'ope I find someone like that one day," she said.
"You will, trust me. But until then, tell Madam Maxime to shove it," I said, making her laugh. "Your half vela, just like I'm half super solider. I don't let it define who I am and you should do that same. You don't need your vela powers to make people like you. You're a nice person, you know, when you're not flirting with peoples boyfriends."
I was a little nervous that Fleur wouldn't take my joke in the way I meant it but she did. She threw her head back and laughed, I'm mean really laughed and something told me she hadn't laughed like she meant it for a long time.
"I think we are going to be ze best of friends, Elsa," she said with a smile.
"Me too," I told her as we both started to walk towards the library with our arms linked together.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ron nervously running to catch up with us with Ginny calling out for him to stop. I had no idea what the youngest Weasley boy was doing but something told me that it was going to end up with Ron extremely embarrassed. He finally managed to run in front of us, making us stop to see what he wanted. His face was ghostly white and he looked like he was going to be sick as he looked at Fleur. Then that's when it hit me, what he was about to do and I KNEW it wasn't going to end well.
"FLEUR, WOULDYOUGOTOTHEBALLWITHME," he yelled at Fleur, completely startling her.
Ron didn't even get the chance to hear what Fleur's answer was, instead he ran off to what I guessed was the Gryffindor common room with a hysterically laughing Ginny flowing him.
"What did 'e just say?" Fleur asked me still sounding shocked.
"What I believe our dear Ronniekins was trying to say was would you go to the ball with me," I said, trying not to laugh.
"Oh, zat poor boy. 'E must be so embarrassed," Fleur giggled.
"Knowing Ron, yeah he is. But he's been more embarrassed in his life. I'm sure he'll get over it soon enough," I told her, thinking back to the howler he got in his second year.
"I 'ope his friends won't make fun of 'im," Fleur said, sounding a little worried for Ron.
"His friends' wont but unfortunately for Ron the girl with the red hair was his little sister who is bound to tell his older twin brothers who are friends of mine and let's just say that Fred and George are known for their pranks and practical jokes," I told her
"Still, I 'ope they go easy on 'im," she said with a worried voice.
There was no way that I could tell her that there was no way in the nine realms that Fred and George would easy on him. I just knew that they were going to be reminding him of it for the rest of his life. But that was just Fred and George and I knew that they loved their little brother, even if they did have a strange way of showing it.
"Is everything okay? You were gone for ages," Cedric said when I finally sat down across from him at our normal table in the library.
"Everything's fine, Fleur just wanted to apologise for how she had been treating me. It turns out that she was only the acting the way that people expected her to act, she actually really nice. But you did just miss the funniest thing," I said, trying to control my giggles so Madam Pince wouldn't hear me.
"Okay, what's so funny," Cedric ask, closing the book that was in front of him.
"Ron just asked Fleur to the ball," I said, before correcting myself. "Technically, he yelled it in her face before running off with a laughing Ginny chasing after him."
"Fred and George are never going to let him live this one down," Cedric laughed.
"Never," I said as I watched Viktor walk over to Hermione. "What do you think is going on over there?"
"I've been watching him for the past ten minutes and trying to figure out what was going on. He kept going to stand up and changing his mind," Cedric told me "I thought ma..."
"Shhhh, I want to know what he's going to ask her. If I'm right, Maggie owes me a butterbeer," I whispered.
"Hello," Viktor said to Hermione as he nervously shuffled on his feet.
"Um, hello Viktor. Can I help you with anything?" Hermione asked him in a confused tone.
"I vas wondering if you vould like to accompany me to the Yule Ball," he asked her, sounding more nervous than ever.
"I knew it!" I whispered.
"I think we all did," Cedric laughed.
"Apparently not Maggie," I told him.
Hermione sat holding the book she was reading as she looked up at Viktor in shock. She clearly didn't see the question coming otherwise she would have said something to him by now. It was strange seeing Hermione at a loss of words because no matter the situation, she always had something to say.
"I'm sorry, I should have guessed someone vould have asked you already. I'll leave you to you book," Viktor said with the look of a lost puppy on his face.
"No, wait," she called out after him. "I would love to go to the Yule Ball with you."
"Really?" Viktor asked her.
"Really," Hermione told him.
"Vell, that wonderful! I guess I vill see you there then," Viktor said awkwardly.
"I guess so," Hermione said, sounding just as awkwardly. She seemed to be looking around the library at nothing in particular after Viktor walked off, eventually seeing Cedric and me smiling at her like a pair of idiots. "Don't either of you say a word about what just happened."
"What just happened? I didn't see anything. What about you, Cedric," I said in an innocent voice.
"I didn't see a thing, I was uh, reading," Cedric said as he held a book up to show her, the only problem was the book was upside down.
"Okay, sure. I'm going to head back to the common room," Hermione said as she picked up her books and waved goodbye.
"I think we handled that well," I said as we watched Hermione walk away.
"Yeah, we did. We were totally believable," Cedric added.
We both turned to look at each other and lost it laughing. We both knew that we were far from believable that it was crazy.
"We're idiots," I said as I wiped away the tears from laughing too hard.
"Yeah, we are," Cedric agreed.
We kept laughing at how stupid we acted until Madam Pince kicked us out of the library but it really didn't matter. By that point there really wasn't any point in us studying because we were laughing so much that we couldn't have concentrated on anything anyway.
Danny's POV
I was pacing nervously in front of the entry of the Hufflepuff dorms as I waited for Maggie. We hadn't been talking much lately because she thought I was hiding something from her and she was hurt that I was keeping something from her. The worst part about it was that I was actually keeping something from her but I was doing it to keep her safe.
I had no idea how Elsa did it, she managed to hide her Asgardian side and her powers like it was nothing. She had her powers under control, were I had to constantly reminding myself not to accidently set something on fire. But I guess Elsa was born with her powers and has had her whole life to learn to control them. I just needed practice.
Finally, after what felt like forever, Maggie walked down the hallway that led to the Hufflepuff dorms. All of a sudden, I was even more nervous than I was before, how was I going to explain how I had been acting to her? There was no explanation I could give her about why I kept disappearing and not telling her where I was. I mean, it wasn't like I could say that I was with my uncle Loki who was actually Professor Alden and he was teaching me how to use my new Asgardian fire powers. But the problem was that I couldn't lie to her. I was a terrible liar, I always a terrible lair. So, I guess I was going to have to wing it.
"Hey, Maggie! Can we talk?" I asked her.
"What is it Danny?" she asked me in a frustrated voice and I couldn't blame her, I hadn't been the best boyfriend lately.
"I just wanted to say, that...that I'm sorry," I told her honestly. "There is just a lot goin' on at home and I have been stressin' and I've been actin' weird. Can you forgive me?"
"Of course, I will forgive you Danny. You know you can talk to me about anything," she said, making me feel like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
"Does this mean that you will go to the Yule Ball with me?" I asked her.
"Of course, I will," she told me, making me happier than I had been in a long time. "Danny, you're on fire."
"What do you mean on fire?" I asked as my leg suddenly started to feel warm so I looked down to see that my pants were on fire. "Oh, shit!"
I desperately tried to put the fire that was starting to make its way on to my robes out as Maggie pulled her wand out and sent a stream of water towards the fire and putting it out.
"I'm gonna go and get changed," I told her as I quickly made my way into the common.
I was lucky that only Elsa and Cedric were in the common room, most likely going over something to do with the second task. But that also meant that I wouldn't be able to sneak past them to get changed. So, I did the only thing I could, I held my head up high and walked through the common room like nothing had happened. But Elsa noticed straight away that something was wrong.
"Hey, Danny. What happened to your leg?"
"Trust me, Elsa. You don't wanna know."
Author note: Here's what inspired Danny catching on fire. I was watching 17 Again while writing this chapter and well, the rest is history. Little extra note, I actually met Sterling Knight by chance about 10 years ago at Bondi Beach and he was generally the nicest person that I have been lucky enough to meet. Which was probably why I chose him for Danny.