The puzzle of the soul 4: The black locket

10: Christmas break

Snow.
That was all Lilac saw.

"Come on, get up..." Shane said carefully, yet amused, "I didn't hit you that hard..."

Lilac had been hit with a huge snow ball right in her face, before she stumbled and fell into the snow. She now didn't want to get up. Suddenly though, she was hoisted up.
"No time for sulking!" Fred said as he and George put her on the ground.

"We should get back at them." George eyed Lilac's friends, who got alarmed, especially Ginny.
Lilac grinned and reached for some snow, before Fred used a spell to fire some snow at them. They laughed and this turned to a battle. Of course, despite it being three against four, Lilac's team won.

"Yey!" Lilac said as she warmed her hands as well she could. They hurt and almost didn't feel anything from the cold. If only she hadn't lost her gloves. Lee joined them as he had finished his homework at long last.

They continued playing in the snow for a while, throwing some around. Seeing who was sitting in the Gryffindor Common room, Fred and George made it their task to throw snow at the window.
"Angle your arm further." Lilac ordered, giving specific information to the twins.

"Since when do corners have degrees?" Shane asked confused. For a second Lilac paused.

"Nobody here knows... you're all oblivious..." she started to mumble as the realisation dawned on her; These were all purebloods. Suddenly Ron Weasley interrupted her, sticking his head out of the window.

"Stop throwing snow at the window, I'll have you know I'm a prefect—"

Ron got cut off by a snowball in his face.
"It works." Fred told George with a huge smile on his face.

Everyone broke down in laughter at that.

The dreaded class came, or well, Lilac had started to dread it slightly. What if Umbridge inspected the class and found Hagrid teaching some Blast Ended thing stuff? She had been to busy reading about something more interesting, not that Hagrid's expulsion wouldn't disappoint her slightly.
She got to the class, knowing the year above just had had it. She didn't see Harry or his friends though. Fortunately they made their way trough the snow without much trouble before they got to Hagrid.

Luna stood close to Lilac, noticing she didn't have any gloves, "You want to borrow mine?"

Shaking her head, Lilac warmer her hands by blowing on them, putting them in her pockets, anything.
In the end Shane and Tyran sighed, discussing who was going to buy her new ones.

"I've got money and the ability to buy new gloves!" Lilac protested, but Hagrid found them and urged them to follow them inside of the forest, saying they preferred the dark.

"Oh god, what prefers the dark?" A Ravenclaw asked fearfully.

They didn't get their answer once they stopped on a spot in the forest. They looked around, but didn't find anything.
"They are attracted by the smell of meat, but I'm calling them anyway, to let them know it's me." Hagrid suddenly let out a call, making some people laugh or something. What they didn't expect was invisible creatures appearing. They gasped when one grabbed some meat from Hagrid, the meat floating in front of their eyes.

Lilac sighed as she crossed her arms, a smaller one of the group walking up to her. The horse like creature looked rather scary, but she went to pet it anyway. It was only a thestral after all.

"Very gentle creatures." Luna spoke as she walked up to the Thestral.

"Now, put your hands up, who can see 'em?" Hagrid asked.

Slowly, Lilac and Luna raised their hands, getting a few weird looks.

"I'm sorry, what are we supposed to be seeing?" Sage Jones asked as she crossed her arms.