It was Christmas.
While disaster ensued at St. Mungo's, Hogwarts had settled into its usual Christmas spirit, albeit with a few notable missing seats and missing chatter.
Without its key players, the halls were not as festive nor important as they once were.
But nevertheless, it was Christmas.
"Come home with me over break?" Avery asked.
"Sorry?" Sam said, not believing what he had just heard.
"I-I know that there's a lot going on right now with our friends...I thought that you might want to go somewhere to take your mind off of everything. My family is going skiing at our lodge this year. It's a lot of fun. If you wanna come along..."
Sam's heart jumped a little in his chest. "I-I need to ask my parents first...but I'd love to. I've never actually gone skiing before. You can teach me?"
"Of course I can."
As they got off the train, they were greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Avery, already waiting in a towncar.
"Merry Christmas Mum and Dad! This-this is my friend Sam."
Sam shook hands with Mr. Avery, who gave him a stern smile.
"Come in the car, dears. It must be freezing outside." Mrs. Avery said, gesturing for the driver to take the boys' luggage to the trunk.
As they got in the car, they smiled at each other, giddy. It was the first time they had been able to relax in months.
As they arrived at the lodge resort, Sam gasped in awe at the beauty of the snow covered mountains.
"Woah...this is what it looks like?"
"Yeah. It's beautiful, isn't it?" Avery said, turning his face so he could see Sam. They caught each other's eyes, and a slight blush crept onto Sam's cheeks. His hand brushed Avery's leg, and Avery smiled. They hoped that Mrs. and Mr. Avery, one consumed by the Daily Prophet and the other by a conversation about muggle cars with the driver, didn't notice.
As Sam stepped out of the car, he could smell the crisp, cold mountain air, and it instantly took away all the worries of the world outside.
Later in the afternoon, he lied down in the snow, and Avery lied down next to him, looking up at the infinite blue sky in front of them.
"You like it here?" Avery asked.
"Hmm...it's alright. I mean, it'll do for now."
Avery laughed, inching a bit closer, looking around to make sure no one was within sight.
"Your nose is so red. You look like fuckin' Rudolph the reindeer." Avery said, touching the tip of Sam's nose and making him smile.
"Who are you then? Vixen?"
"Are you kidding me? I'm Santa Claus. Blessing you with all my gifts."
"Slytherin is going to explode, knowing that their star seeker is actually a jolly fat old man in disguise." Sam laughed.
"Fat? says who?" Avery cried, lifting up his sweater to reveal several rows of neatly toned abs.
Sam punched him playfully in the stomach and blushed again. "You douchebag." He said.
Avery gently bit his ear. "That's what you get for insulting me."
"Ahhh! I'm dead tired. I just want to sleep."
"After dinner. Tomorrow morning, wake up early, and we'll hit the slopes as soon as the sun rises. The sunrise here is amazing."
"But I can't ski..."
"Didn't I promise that I'll teach you?"
The next morning, they sat on the slope of the mountain and watched the brilliant mountain sunrise that tainted the snow pink.
Avery looked at the boy sitting next to him, and grabbed his hand.
He had never felt this way about somebody before.
This was the first time he had ever envisioned a future with someone, however unlikely. It was the first time that he didn't feel ashamed of who he was, and who he felt for...the mountain held no judgments.
"What are we going to do..after we graduate?" He asked.
"I want to be a teacher." Sam said.
"At Hogwarts?"
"Maybe. Herbology or Charms. I'm leaning more towards Herbology. You?"
Avery smiled. "Quidditch. Without a doubt. Mum and Dad hate it...but guess what? I've been wanting to tell you...a few weeks ago, I got a letter from the Chudley Cannons! Apparently, the head coach watched one of my games. And he wants me to try out for backup seeker in the summer! I know it's just backup...but isn't that how all the great seekers started out? I don't know how to break it to dad though...he's expecting me to work in the bank just like him."
"Hmm..Miles Avery, the next star seeker of our generation. When you're famous, I bet you'll get loads of groupies, asking you to sigh their-ahem-breasts?"
Avery laughed. "Breasts? Who says that? And for your information, as the honorable Slytherin seeker, I already get loads of groupies, okay?"
"Yet you're here. Watching the sunrise. With a skinny gay kid."
Avery smiled. "I wouldn't want to watch the sunrise with anyone else...Okay?"
Sam could see the sun in Avery's eyes...He went for it this time, pressing his lips against Avery's.
Avery grabbed his shoulders and pulled him closer, and closer, exploring the inside Sam's mouth with his tongue, biting on Sam's lips, kissing his cheek, his nose, his temple, his jawline, his neck, then finding his way back to those lips again.
They stopped for a moment to catch their breath. The air was cold on the mountaintop, below freezing.
Yet, Sam wanted to take off his coat because the temperature was rising by the second.
Avery laid Sam on the snow and pried back the neckline of his sweater to kiss his bare shoulder.
Sam laid his head back, sinking into the snow.
Sam looked back into the forest, only to see a grim face staring back at them in the distance.
He screamed. Avery scrambled back up, seeing the face in the distance with a look of horror.
It was Mrs. Avery.
She marched forward, absolute horror etched on her face.
"Y-You've forgotten your hat, Miles." She said, her voice shaking in disbelief, throwing the hat into the snow.
Sam pulled the neckline of his sweater back up.
"I-" Avery began.
"H-how dare you? How dare the two of you, in broad daylight? Here? Disgusting! Revolting! It's you, isn't it, huh? It's you! I knew that something was off about you the moment you walked into our car!" She yelled, pointing at Sam. "Y-you're one of those! You're one of those freaks...how dare you mislead my son...how dare you tempt him to become...one of you!" She cried.
"Mum, I can explain-"
"DON'T BOTHER! I-I'm shocked! shocked!" She yelled, her angry voice echoing back to them on the snow.
She ran back to the Lodge to fetch her husband.
Sam and Avery stood there in the snow, knowing that this might be the end of it all...
.....................................................
Arnold Benard untied the chains.
"M-my lord." He stuttered. "I'm sorry. I was late, I let-"
Tom Riddle signaled for him to shut up.
"It's not your fault, Benard. Let him have his dues, won't we? Now...I'm going to leave. And you must remember that you have a job to do."
Benard was shaking.
"But-"
"No buts. You know what you must do. Think of your poor old mother and father...I imagine they're getting anxious, being locked up in that musty old cell, not knowing when their next meal will be....You mother, Edna? She has a heart problem, doesn't she? I hear that she needed her medicine twice a day. Imagine if she forgot her pills..."
"Enough...enough. I-I get it, my lord. I will do what needs to be done."
"I know you will." Tom Riddle said, patting the man on the shoulder. "I know."
Benard handed him the Portkey.
Tom Riddle grabbed it, and vanished.
He always had a backup plan...even before he arrived, he had an escape plan, worst comes to worst...
It was time, he decided.
It was time to end all of this.
It was time to end what Marvolo's sins had started seventeen years ago.
.....................................................
Disgraced, Sam was sent back to Hogwarts.
Avery had asked to do the same but was forced to stay behind.
At the dinner table on the last night of Christmas break, the tension in the Avery household reached a breaking point.
"You're not going back there!" Mr. Avery yelled. "I'm not letting my son turn into-into one of those freaks!"
"Don't argue with your father, Miles. You're not going back to Hogwarts. We've already called the headmaster and said that you've fallen very sick...you're not going back."
"This-this is ridiculous! You don't understand the situation...it's not what you think it is! What do you mean, I can't go back to school? Where else am I supposed to go?"
"We don't understand? What about it that we don't understand? What is it then? Tell us. If its' not that..what is it?"
"I-I don't know. It's not what you think it is."
"I know what I saw..what I wish I could unsee! I'm not going to let my son turn into a queer, mark my words. No son of mine will-" Mrs. Avery cried, breaking into a sob. "We just want you to be normal, why don't you understand?"
Mr. Avery threw the brochure in front on Avery.
"I've been doing research. Here it is. Dr. Faustus. I called him this afternoon. You will go with him, and he can cure you of this...of this ailment. His team will stop this before you're gone. It'll cure you, son...Go with them tomorrow."
"What? What even is this? I'm not gay! I don't need this bullshit!"
"Don't say that word!" Mrs. Avery cried.
Avery put down this fork.
"I don't care. I'm not going!" Avery yelled, storming off. Mrs. Avery called after him, but Mr. Avery told her to stop.
"Must we do this?" She cried. "Maybe if we just let him go back to school, he'll be fine-"
"We must! DO you want our son to become one of them? I think the fuck not!" Mr. Avery yelled, slamming the table.
She sighed.
The next morning, before Avery could protest further, the doctor and his assistants had arrived.
......................................
As per usual, the housekeeping elf was to wake the Minister and deliver his morning glass of pumpkin juice.
She opened the curtains for him, and laid that glass of juice down by his bedside.
"Master, it's time to wake up! You have a meeting at 9 with the Department of Defense."
He did not stir.
"Master? It's time to wake up." She called again.
She inched a little closer to the bed.
"Master?" She called again.
Then, she screamed.
He had stopped breathing.