· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. .**.☽ .*
Caroline looked out the window of the library, only for a split-second glance, but ended up gazing lingeringly because there it was...snow. The first snow fall of the year.
She watched as some students began to filter out, shrieking in delight at the snow. Some began to make snowballs and hurl them at each other, others rolled up bigger amounts for snowmen, but others just...walked...watching their feet as they crunched down onto the snow, peeling off and turning back to observe their footsteps printed into the white ground. That was what Caroline wanted to do.
She packed her books away and walked out of the library, smiling briefly at the young librarian.
"Sweet Caroline!" She heard a familiar voice sing obnoxiously loud to her as she walked down the hallway.
She smiled to herself before turning around to see Sirius walking with his friends.
"Hey," she said, waiting for them.
"You going out to the snow, Caroline?" Remus asked.
She nodded, "it looks pretty, I thought I'd walk about for a bit."
"Walk about?" Pettigrew asked.
James Potter snapped his fingers decisively, "you should join our snowball fight. Honestly, you should! We do it every year. It's a battle so legendary, they will retell it for centuries to come. It is a battle so noble and -"
"Jesus Christ, James, and youse say I'm dramatic," Sirius said, before skipping forward to fall in step with Caroline in front, "I'll walk with you, sweetheart."
"Oi!" James exclaimed, pulling the boy back by his cloak's hood, "you're not ditching us."
"It is our tradition, mate," Remus told Sirius admittedly, who was trying to break out of James' hold.
"It's okay, Sirius," Caroline said softly, smiling up at him, before running a hand through her soft curls, "I don't expect I'll be out for too long anyway, it's very cold."
Once she had turned away, Sirius looked at the boys with a wide-eyed, pleading look. They looked unimpressed. He sighed and gestured to her with his eyes in a way that could only be interpreted as, come on guys, I mean just look at her! Give me this one.
The boys exchanged a look. Peter shrugged, Remus rolled his eyes but nodded reluctantly, and James sighed before nodding silently too. Sirius grinned widely at them.
"Nah, it's okay, I can walk with you," Sirius said again, coming beside Caroline once more, "if that's okay, of course."
"Yeah, sure," she smiled, before bumping into him playfully, "as long as you promise not to do any more singing of my name."
"Fine," he chuckled.
They walked away together, and Sirius subtly turned around for a moment to shoot the marauders an over-exaggerated double thumbs-up.
･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽
"So French, Italian, you ever wanted to learn any other languages?" Sirius asked Caroline as they strolled through the snow.
"Well I do know a bit of spanish...but, I don't know, I wanted to learn something like Russian or maybe Ukraine," Caroline said.
"Any reason?"
"There's lots of medical research in magical remedies going on at the moment in Northern Europe," she shrugged.
"Really?" He raised an eyebrow and looked at her, "you wanna do medical research then?"
"Well I want to be a healer, but I guess medical research could be a part of that," she shrugged, before looking up at him, "what do you want to do?"
He sighed and looked ahead, "I guess...I don't know really, I've never known what I've wanted to do but...there's a war coming, you know?"
She crossed her arms and nodded slowly, "I...think you're right there."
"You do?"
She nodded.
"I..." he cleared his throat, "I want to fight in it. My whole family a-are dark wizards and I just want to do something...good."
"You should be an auror then," she said matter-of-factly.
He thought about it for a silent moment, before saying slowly, "an auror?"
"My brother works in the Ministry, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, I could put in a good word after we graduate if you wanted."
"You'd do that?" He asked, trying to contain the bursting excitement he felt at her words.
"'Course."
He grinned at her before turning to look to where his friends were. He saw James slide tackle Remus as Peter tripped over his own feet laughing.
"You can go join them if you like," he heard Caroline say, "they seem to be having fun."
"Anche io mi sto divertendo," Sirius said softly, turning back round to look at her.
"Ooh, Italian now? We're stepping up our game, are we?"
He laughed, "yes, although I have to admit my Italian is a lot rustier than my French."
"Why did your parents want you to learn them anyway? Was it the same reason as mine?" Caroline asked.
He sighed and thought for a moment before shaking his head, "no, it wasn't, at least I don't think it was. Because we're purebloods, they're under the impression that we have to be better than everybody else. We go to balls and we dance with other purebloods, we go to other countries and speak other languages to other purebloods, everything is about blood all the time."
"When did you stop believing all that?"
"I had doubts before I came to Hogwarts, but it was only when I got here and met people of, you know, all backgrounds that I realised there's no difference between anyone. We're all the same," he said.
She nodded, "I'm glad you realised that."
"Yeah, me too. What about you, are both your parents wizards or...?"
"My Dad's a wizard, my Mum's a muggle."
"Oh really?" He seemed intrigued, "how did they meet?"
"It's a long story..."
"I wanna know, come on."
She looked up at him reluctantly, but in seeing the pleading look in his blue eyes she sighed and nodded, "after graduating Hogwarts he wanted to be a healer, and he was more than qualified for it, but he wanted another perspective."
"Another perspective?"
"Basically wanted to study muggle medicine-"
"You're joking, that's so cool!"
"Really?" Caroline laughed.
"Yeah! And it makes sense, doesn't it, he must be an amazing healer now, because the muggles really talk about the body like...what's it called...b- something ology..."
"Biology?"
"That's the one," Sirius nodded, "wow, he must be as smart as you then."
"Way smarter," Caroline laughed, "but yeah, he wanted to go to Cambridge University because it's one of the best in England."
"So that's a muggle school?"
"Yep."
"But he was a wizard."
"Yep."
"I...never realised that was a thing you could do," Sirius said, looking ahead thoughtfully.
"Mm..."
"So your parents met at that University then?"
"Yes, that, yeah," Caroline nodded, making him laugh shortly, "yeah, she was studying law and he was studying medicine and they met and just...fell in love."
"Just like that?"
"Just like that."
"I never thought that shit actually happened, you know?" Sirius said, crossing his arms to protect himself from the cold, "you know...instantly falling love...it just doesn't seem real."
"Until it happens."
He glanced at her for a moment, took her in as the snow began to settle on her dark curls and her lashes as she looked, unbothered ahead to the black lake, before clearing his throat and nodding.
"Yeah...until it happens."
"Miss Rutherford?"
They both looked behind them to see Professor Flitwick waving her over from inside the castle.
"Oh, sorry," Caroline said, "I'll be right back."
Sirius nodded and watched her walk away to Flitwick, his heart already sinking at her absence. Until, of course, James smashed a snowball into his face.
"Professor?" Caroline asked as she approached the Charms teacher.
"I just wanted to let you know that I have managed to sort something out for you, and after the Christmas holidays, you will move to a different Ravenclaw dorm."
A wide smile grew on her face, her chest becoming warm with relief, "really?"
"Yes," he smiled kindly at her, "I shall make sure to send you the details over the holidays. Will you be staying in the Castle or at home?"
"At home, sir," she said, "and thank you, so much, really."
"You're welcome, Miss Rutherford," he nodded, "now go and enjoy the snow. We will talk soon."
She nodded and watched him walk off for a moment for jumping round to search the snowy landscape for Sirius so she could tell him. She saw him in the midst of a snowball fight with his friends, and she felt an unfamiliar boldness rise up inside of her to cause her to collect a snowball in her hands, run towards them and throw it so it hit him in the shoulder.
"Hey, what-"
They all turned around and looked at her, stunned. She bit back a giggle and just smiled at them.
"Get her!!" Sirius yelled like a battle cry, pointing towards her.
She shrieked and ran away in fits of giggles as they all chased her with snowballs. She fished into her pocket and managed to use her wand to magically throw snowballs behind her to hit all of them.
"Oh shit," she heard a thump, and turned around to see James sprawled on the floor after one too many snowball hit him in the face.
She laughed, but was soon interrupted by James throwing another snowball at her from the ground.
"Is that....Caroline?" Archie asked Tyler as they stopped in their tracks to look at the scene.
"I...think it is," he nodded.
"Huh."
"Rutherford I'm gonna get you!"
"You're gonna have to catch me first!"
･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. .**.☽ .*
A/N:
Comp results have been announced on my profile!! Thank you everyone who entered, it was so hard to pick my favourite character xxx