Icy Heart #wattys2017

Squashed

Icy approached the crowd of people around the torn portrait cautiously, and heard someone say, "They got very angry when she wouldn't let them in. Nasty temper those two have, Sirius Black and Icy Peverell."

An old man with a long white beard directed a boy to lead the Gryffindor's down to the Great Hall. Icy looked through the crowd, finding Harry Potter and trailing him closely. listening to his conversation. Ten minutes after they arrived at their destination, the Gryffindors were joined by all of the other students, and the old man waved his wand, conjuring hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.

"Sleep well," he said, and closed the door behind him.

The hall immediately began to buzz excitedly, the Gryffindor students were telling the rest of the school what had just happened. Icy told a hufflepuff boy how terrifying it was to find the portrait gone, when a boy yelled "Everyone into their sleeping bags! No more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!" and Harry dragged his sleeping bag to a corner with his friends.

Icy followed them and listened in to their conversation.

"Do you think Black and Peverell are still in the castle?" the girl laying beside Harry whispered anxiously.

"Dumbledore obviously thinks they might be," said his other friend.

"It's very lucky they picked tonight, you know," said the girl, as they climbed fully dressed into their sleeping bags and propped themselves on their elbows to talk. "The one night we weren't in the tower..."

"I reckon they've lost track of time, being on the run," said the boy. "Didn't realize it was Hallowe'en. Otherwise they'd have come bursting in here."

The bushy haired girl shuddered, and Harry spoke.

"I don't think that Icy Peverell would do any harm," he murmured, and Icy smiled. "Like I said, she's the one who helped me to the Knight Bus. She wouldn't have gone on a journey with someone hell-bent on attacking me, dont you think Hermione?"

"Azkaban drives people crazy," said Hermione, the girl.

"I don't think I told you what she said. It was odd. She came up to me, and said something like, go on, run away, it's me, Icy Peverell, and of course I didn't know who Icy Peverell was at the time, and then she said, 'Just remember: Only the guilty ones go mad. And we're both relatively sane."

Hermione looked to the ginger boy, and said "Ron, what do you think?"

"I think she's messing with your mind, mate."

"I figured she was talking about us two, but now I'm almost certain that Black was there too. What if they're innocent?"

"Harry, they can't be innocent. They were put in Azkaban. A History of Magic clearly states that all sentenced to a lifetime in Azkaban have had a trial, with Veritaserum."

"Lights out now! No more talking!" shouted the same boy from before, and everyone quieted. Icy drifted off, and for the first time in eight years, she slept soundly.

"Happy Birthday, Black!" Icy's mood had increased tremendously from spending the past three days at Hogwarts, and Sirius could tell. "I've brought you a scarf, Harry's friend Hermione taught me how to knit, and I'm not that good, but I think it's alright. It's very warm, she charmed it for me!"

"You're so happy, Ice," Sirius smiled, and Icy pulled a picnic basket out from under her robes.

"It does good to be in a warm school with three meals a day, and no dementors in sight. I've even snuck into some classes, and I'll let you know, I'm a magical genius," Icy opened her basket, and handed Sirius a warm plate of dinner. "I've mastered that summoning spell, Accio, and tomorrow I'm going to sneak into the boys dormitory and steal Scabbers- Peter I mean. I've been sleeping in a room on the seventh floor, it's perfect. It has a bed and a bathroom and all these books! And my own robes, too. They even say Cassiopeia Taylor on them. It's a crazy coincidence, come I'll show you!"

Sirius transformed, and reluctantly, he followed her into the school. She led him through passageways that even he hadn't know about, all the way to the seventh floor, without encountering a single student. She walked past the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy three times, revealing a door on the wall.

"Well go on, transform, open the door," Icy smirked, and Sirius pushed the door open to reveal the room. Inside was a library-like room filled with books, a small cage that would hold a rat, a door to another room, a table, a chess set, and a plate in the middle of the table.

"I found two plates on the table, and so I brought one down to the kitchens to get food, but I accidentally left it there. And in the kitchens, you know how there are the four house tables? There was also a little coffee table that looks just like this. So I set the plate down on there, and forgot it, and now food appears on this plate up here every meal," Icy explained, and Sirius nodded.

"Wonderful."

"You should stay up here, instead of on the grounds, I'm sure the room will make another bedroom for you?" as if in answer to Icy, another door appeared. "I call it the Room of Requirement, because anything that I need just shows up here."

Sirius walked towards the door and opened it cautiously. It contained a king sized bed, Gryffindor tapestries, and a wardrobe.

"James, Remus, Peter and I never found this place," murmured Sirius, confusion spread across his face.

"I wandered across it, I just really needed a place to sleep and I didn't know the Gryffindor password or where any of the other common rooms are, and I was pacing the corridor when this gem turned up," she explained. "Everything that I start to need shows up."

"Splendid."

"And also, I've been practising this..." Icy screwed up her face, and two little black ears and a tail appeared on her.

"Ears and a tail. Congratulations, Icy," Sirius grinned at her, and she let them disappear.

"Ears? I thought I just had the tail..."

"The more practise, the more parts you'll get," Sirius taught. "It took me the good part of three years-"

Icy had scrunched up her face again, and there, before Sirius was a little black dog.

She transformed back, a smug smirk on her face. "What were you saying? Three years? How about three days."

"Oh shush," Sirius threw a pillow at her, and Icy caught it and tossed it back. It felt like they were a real family. A daughter and her father having a pillow fight. Icy's happiest memory.