That night I couldn't sleep at all. I knew that both Harry and George told me that it wasn't my fault but I still couldn't help but feel guilty. Like it was all my fault somehow, like I should never have let Hermione talk me into this whole stupid idea that I should help train everyone how to fight.
I gave up on sleep about five in the morning and rolled out of bed, making sure I didn't wake up Freya as I did. Not bothering to get changed, I used a glamour to make it appear like I was wearing my uniform and grabbed my phone so I could call the one person who would know how I felt and what I was going through. Even if I didn't want to tell them exactly what was going on at Hogwarts.
Reveling in the silence of the castle, I headed out to the clock tower court yard even though it has snowed the night before and sat down on one of the stone benches. I pulled out my phone and stared it for a bit, thinking about how I was going to explain what was going on. Sighing, I scrolled through my contacts list until I found the number I was looking for and called it.
"Hi, Snowflake," Dad said as he answered the call on the first ring.
"Hey, Dad."
"Okay, what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, Dad. I just missed you. That's all."
"Elsa, I know you better than that. There's something wrong and don't even try to deny it. You can't hide anything from me because you're too much like me for your own good."
I really should have known better than to try to hide anything from Dad. He could always see right through me, read me like I was an open book and it was because we were so much alike. So, I figured that I should just tell him what was happening, at the end of the day if I didn't, look would.
"I think I have made a big mistake, Dad."
"I doubt that, Elsa. But tell me what you think you did wrong."
So, I spilled everything out to him, from Umbridge to the detention but leaving out the detail about the quill because I really didn't want to have to stop Dad from coming to Hogwarts to deal with Umbridge, to the DA meetings, the training and what happened at the quidditch match.
"Dad, I was the one who lit the spark that started the fire. If I didn't teach them how to fight like I did, they wouldn't have been so keyed up for a fight. It's all my fault."
"None of it is your fault, Elsa. You did the right thing as a leader. You warned them before you started to train them about what the consequences of their actions would be, you explained that how we train as Avengers is very different to regular training and you told them more than once that when we fight, a lot of the time it will be for either the lives of the people we love or our own. You didn't light the spark, Elsa. That Umbridge woman did and she lit a ticking time bomb. It was only a matter of time until someone snapped, I'm just sorry it was your friends who were the ones that did."
"I guess you're right, Dad," I sighed, still feeling guilty but not as much as I did before I spoke to Dad.
"Of course, I am, Elsa, I'm your dad," he laughed.
"And we all know that you are always right," I joked.
"Okay, maybe I was wrong that one time when I set the microwave on fire... Maybe twice. But I'm never wrong about the important things."
"I know, Dad," I said as I noticed a familiar figure walking down the hill. "Hey, Dad. I gotta go. I just saw someone that I need talk to. Love you."
After letting Dad say a quick goodbye, I hung the phone up and started to run down the hill towards Hagrid's hut. I skidded to a stop when I reached the door and quickly knocked on the door, hoping that Umbridge wasn't around.
"Elsa! What are yer doin' up at this time of the mornin',"Hagrid said as he opened the door for me.
"Couldn't sleep. Good thing I couldn't otherwise I never would have seen on my favorite professor come back," I said as I smile up at him and noticing how bloody and bruised his face was for the first time. "Oh, Hagrid! What happened?"
His hair was matted with blood, his left eye was black and swollen shut and his whole face was covered with cuts and bruises. He honestly looked like he had been through a war and came out on the losing side. I knew that Dumbledore had him out doing work for the order but I never would have thought he would have put Hagrid in the position where he would get so hurt.
"I guess I can tell yeh after everything yeh been through," Hagrid said as I ushered him onto a seat as I fill the kettle up and started to make him his favorite tea. "Dumbledore had me with ter giants, tryin' to get them on to our side with Olympe. Been all over the mountains lookin' for them, not tha' they hard ter find."
"I'm guessing it didn't go to well," I said pouring him a cup of tea and grabbing a tea towel which I filled with ice so Hagrid could put it over his black eye.
"Tha' obvious, is it," Hagrid chuckled. "Yeh could say it didn't go ter well. We a month climbin' them mountains, always lookin' over our shoulder ter make sure that the ministry aren't followin' us. Pretended we we're on a holiday, we did. Just in case. Made our way ter France, like we wer going ter her school. Went slow so the ministry had no reason ter pull us up. But it wasn't ter bad after tha'. Ran in ter a couple of mad trolls on the Polish border an' had a sligh' disagreement with a Vampire in Minsk. But other than tha', it was fine."
"Only you could have a disagreement with a vampire and say it was fine," I laughed.
"Wha' can I say, I like ter look on the good side of things," Hagrid said with a smile.
"So, what happened when you found the giants?"
"Went over a ridge one nigh' an' there the' were. It was like watchin' mountains move. We waited till mornin', didn' wanna startle them or nothtin'. Then we walked in and gave the Gurg, the chief but yeh probally knew tha' already, the gifts. Just like Dumbledore said. The Gurg was a giant by a name of Karkus an' I had ter put him at twenty-two, twenty-three feet. But, anyway, we knew that some o' the others wanted ter get rid of us but didn't wanna make a move without Karkus' word."
"So, what did Karkus do when you gave him his gift?" I asked breathlessly, desperately wanting to know what happened next. "I'm assuming you gave him something magical, I mean, we all know how much giant's love magic."
"I'd forgotten jus' how smart yeh were, Elsa," Hagrid smiled before he continued his tale. "But yeh right, we gave him some ever lastin' fire, a branch o gubraithian fire..."
Hagrid continued to tell his tale and I hung on every word that he said like I was a little kid listening to a bedtime story. He explained how no one one's surprise that Karkus didn't speak English but there was a giant who could, so they played translator. Eventually they won the trust of Karkus but it all went to Hel when there was a fight in the giant's camp one night and Karkus was killed. Unfortunately, the new gurg didn't take to kindly to Hagrid and Madam Maxime but he did to the death eaters that showed up a few days later and the few giants that did side with Dumbledore ended up being slaughtered by the rest of the camp of giants. Which meant all of Hagrid's hard work was for nothing.
"So, little lady. Yeh know what I have been up to. But what about yeh and Cedric. Still goin' strong, I hope," Hagrid chuckled.
"Still going strong, Hagrid. He spent the summer with my family and me. We save a family of wampus and everyone knows my little secret because I may have lost it in Umbridge's class after she bad mouthed Asgard and call all of us barbarians," I told him, trying to brush it off like it was nothing.
"I'm sorry tha' happened ter yeah, Elsa," Hagrid said as he placed his large hand over mine.
"It's okay," I told him. "I mean it, Hagrid. It really is. It's nice not having to hide anymore."
"And yeh say tha' I'm the positive one," Hagrid said kindly. "Now, why don't yeh tell me about the Wampus family that yeh saved."
By the time I had finished talking to Hagrid and walked back through the two feet of snow like it was nothing, a few people were up and in the great hall for breakfast. When I walked over to the Hufflepuff table, to where Cedric and Danny were sitting. When Danny looked up at me and lost it laughing.
"Okay, what's so funny, Danny Boy?" I asked him.
"You're in your PJ's," he laughed as I looked down to see that I was in my pink heart flannelette, button up PJ's.
"Shit! I dropped my glamour!" I said, ducking down under the table so that no one else could see me and quickly threw up my glamour again.
"Where were you anyway? Clearly somewhere that you felt like you didn't need to get dressed properly for," Danny chuckled.
"I couldn't sleep, so I got up and walked out to the clock court yard and called Dad," I said, climbing out from under the table with my glamor back in place.
"If you couldn't sleep, you should have told one of us," Cedric said as he looked at me with a concerned look on his face.
"At five in the morning?" I asked him. "Besides, it's been a while since I spoke to Dad and there were a few things I wanted to talk over with him."
"So, you were on the phone with Uncle Steve all this time?" Danny asked me.
"No, actually I wasn't," I said excitedly. "Hagrid's back! He was filling me in on his um, holiday, that he took with Madam Maxime. They went to visit, well, family I guess is the best way to describe it."
"So, no more Grubbly-Plank?" Cedric asked with a smile.
"No more Grubbly-Plank," I confirmed. "And I am so happy about it!"
"Thank god! I can't stand that woman!" Danny said as the morning owl post started to filter in.
A large barn owl fluttered over to Cedric and dropped a slightly burnt letter that smelt strongly of smoke on to his lap. I didn't even need to look at the hand writing on the envelope to know that the letter was from Charlie. My only question was why was Charlie writing to Cedric.
"So, why's my favorite Weasley sending you a letter?" I asked curiously.
"No idea. It's probably nothing," Cedric said casually, slipping the letter into his pocket.
I looked at Cedric suspiciously, I knew he was up to something. I just didn't know what.
"It's so cold!" Cassy whined, pulling her pink coat closer around her as we walked from the train to the main street in Hogsmeade.
"They why did you insist on bringing me here? I was quite happy to sit in the library and finish my homework but you just had to drag me out and to Hogsmeade," I said, slightly annoyed. Snape had given us a major potions assessment on Polyjuice potion and even though it wasn't due until after Christmas break at the same time that we finished making the actually potion, I wanted to get a head start on it.
"Well, that's for me to know and for you to dot, dot, dot," Cassy said as she winked at me.
"You have been watching Vampire Diaries instead of doing homework again, haven't you?" I sighed.
"Maybe. I mean, it's not like I need to worry about getting homework done or anything. I mean, I can do it the night before it's due and still get full marks," Cassy shrugged.
"You know, one of these days that Stark brain of yours is going to let you down and you're going to fail an exam and I hope that I'm there to see it," I joked.
"Ha! You wish, Spangles, you wish!" Cassy laughed as she linked her arm through mine. "Now, I was thinking about heading into Zonko's to get one of those nose biting teacups for Happy."
"Hasn't poor Happy been through enough? I mean, I'm pretty sure that the receding hair line and the few grey hair are thanks to you and your dad," I joked.
"But you know he loves us," Cassy laughed.
"I know he dose and that's the sad part about all of it," I teased.
I let Cassy pull me into the overcrowded joke shop and followed her around the store as she bought a lot more than a nose biting tea cup. Looking at the bag that Cassy had in her hand as we left the store made me feel so sorry for Happy because of everything that was going to happen to him over the Christmas break.
Once again, I let Cassy drag me over to another store but when I saw that it was the Three Broomsticks I was a lot happier. The rest of our friends were probably in there so it meant I didn't have to listen to anymore of Cassy's plans to prank Happy. But when we walked into the pub, I saw the last person I ever expected to see.
"CHARLIE!" I squealed excitedly as I ran over to my favorite redhead.
"Miss me, little sis?" Charlie asked, laughing as I hugged him.
"Of course, I did! I mean, I've had to put up with the lesser versions of you over there," I joked as I waved at Fred and George.
"And we thought she actually liked us, Fred," George said with mock sadness.
"Here we thought she like spending like with us but she was actually using us as a substitute Charlie," Fred added.
"Well, I am the best looking out of all the Weasley's," Charlie laughed as Ginny glared at him from where she stood with Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Except for Ginny. We all know she beats the lot of us."
"That's more like it," Ginny said cheekily.
"But what are you doing here? I mean, Hogsmeade is a long way from Romania," I said to him.
"I got a letter asking me to come and I couldn't say no," Charlie said as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and guided me over to the booth where Danny was sitting with Hamish, Amanda, Zane, Able and Maggie.
"Letter from who? And where is Cedric? I mean everyone else is here, so where is he?" I asked looking around the pub.
"You know for someone who has one of the best analytical minds around but sometimes you can miss some of the obvious things," Charlie laughed.
"You know I have no idea what the hell you are talking about, right," I said to him.
"And that's what makes all of this even better," Charlie told me with a smile.
"Can someone please tell me what is going on?" I said as I sat down and looked at all of my friends.
"This is what's going on," Cedric said, holding a three-tiered blue cake with sunflowers with Olaf following close behind him.
"It's your birthday party!" Olaf added happily. "And I'm so excited! It's my first birthday party ever!"
"But my birthday isn't until next Thursday," I said, completely surprised.
"We know. But we never had a chance of surprising you on your actual birthday, so Danny and I came up with this idea instead," Cedric told me as he sat down next to me and wrapped his arms around me. "And Dobby made the cake, he wanted to say thank you for the socks."
"Of course, he did," I laughed. "But thank you so much, all of you. I've been feeling so stressed out lately and you have cheered me up so much."
"We know you have been stressed," Fred said.
"And that we are probably the reason why," George added.
"So, we wanted to make up for it!" the twins said together, letting off mini versions of their fireworks that created mini pink hearts over the cake.
"Wow! This cake is good!" Olaf said, making us all turn to look at him to see that he had blue icing over his face. "Whoops, I wasn't meant to have any yet, was I?"
"That's okay, Olaf. You can have as much as you want," I smiled, patting him on his head.
"YAY!" Olaf cried out as he reached for more of the cake.
I laughed as I watch Olaf eat more of the cake, leaning back my head back onto Cedric shoulder and felling a lot more relaxed that I had in a while.
Later that night Cedric and I were up in the Astronomy tower, laying on a blanket I had conjured as we watched the stars that were in the sky that clear winters night. I had my chest resting on Cedric's chest as he played with one of my curls.
"I almost forgot to give you your birthday present," Cedric said suddenly as gently sat up, still holding on to me.
"You didn't have to get me anything," I told him. "Besides, as I said before, my birthday isn't until Thursday."
"Still, I wanted this to you now," he said, handing me a rectangular shaped gift wrapped with paper that matched the birthday cake and a bright yellow ribbon.
Smiling, I took the gift from his hands and carefully unwrapped it. Placing the ribbon and paper to the side, I opened the box to see to see a book. I couldn't believe it when I picked up the and looked at it. It was an extremely rare copy of Beauty and the Beast.
"Do you like it?" Cedric asked nervously. "I mean, I remembered what you said back at your home in Manhattan about how much you loved Beauty and the Beast and everything."
"Like it! I love it! Thank you so much, Cedric!" I said wrapping my arms around his neck.
"I was so worried that you wouldn't like it," Cedric said with a shaky voice. "You know, I still don't know the whole story."
"Well, in the words of Belle herself," I said to him. "Oh! Isn't this amazing! It's my favorite part because, you'll see! Here's where she meets Prince Charming...But she won't discover that it him till chapter three!"
"Okay, now I have to read it," Cedric said, taking the book out of my hands and pulling me up so that I was in front of him so we could both read my favorite story of all time. But instead, he started to read it out loud to me instead, which was absolutely perfect. "Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shinning castle..."
And that's how we spent the rest of the night, in the astronomy tower and reading Beauty and the Beast by candle light while sitting underneath the stars.