the magic of ice

homework

That night, Elsa sat in the Gryffindor common room. All her books lay sprawled all over her table. She had a whole stack of homework, but she didn't mind. It was homework about magic after all. What could be so boring about it? Harry and Ron, however, didn't think the same way she did. Their books were also open, but that was only because Elsa pretty much forced them into doing their homework, with a bit of bribery involved.

"My mind's gone blank," Ron groaned, staring at the empty parchment where he was supposed to be writing a two-thousand word essay for Potions. "I really can't think properly."

"You're not even trying," Elsa said exasperatedly and rolled her eyes. "Admit it; you just don't want to do it because Snape is the teacher."

"It's not just that," Ron said. "It's night time. My brain doesn't function properly past seven." After a sceptical look from Elsa he added, rather sheepishly, "and...maybe also the fact that Snape's the teacher."

"You're so immature," Elsa shook her head, laughing.

"I think Snape hates me," Harry said. "Did you see the way he looked at me the second I stepped into the classroom? There's no point in me trying hard in Potions. I could work my butt off and he'd still probably give me an F."

"You don't know that," Elsa said reassuringly, although secretly she did suspect the same thing. She remembered this afternoon when they went into the dungeons for their first Potions lesson. Snape had looked at Harry with pure hatred. She didn't understand why. What had Harry done to deserve such a filthy dark look?

Ron, however, frowned in confusion. "What's an F?" he asked. "Is that supposed to be some sort of grade or something?"

"Seriously?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "F means fail."

"Oh," Ron said. "Must be some kind of Muggle grading system or something. It's not so bad compared to a T."

"T?" Elsa repeated, looking up from her work. "What on Earth is that?"

"I guess you could call it the equivalent of the Muggle 'F'," Ron explained. "But T is a lot worse: Troll. In the Wizarding World an F would be one of the middle grades, on the lower side of course."

"Troll?!" Elsa widened her eyes in horror. "How insulting!"

"It's probably what I'll get for Potions," Harry said miserably.

"I don't think you will," Elsa said. "I mean, no teacher can be that horrible can they? Not for no reason at least."

Ron opened his mouth to answer, but he was interrupted by Fred and George Weasley, twin brothers in their third year at Hogwarts.

"Look, Fred," George said, grinning. "Here's a good bunch. Doing their homework nicely, except maybe for Ron."

"Hey!" Ron cried indignantly and Elsa giggled. "Not cool. I'm trying, okay. But this is Potions and Snape is being such a pain in the arse."

"It's not that bad, Ron," Elsa said truthfully. "This is so much better than Muggle homework. Believe me when I say you're lucky. I've had Muggle education back home and it's so boring."

Fred grinned. "Ron, you're embarrassing us. You're getting beaten by a girl."

Ron's ears went red and Elsa laughed. "Harry's not any better either," she added.

"What...don't bring me into this," Harry said indignantly. "What did I do?"

"The famous Harry Potter doesn't want to do his homework," George said jokingly.

"You're not," Harry pointed out. "Why are you picking on us?"

"We don't need to study," Fred said. "George and I are going to open up the biggest joke shop in the world in Diagon Alley. We've already learnt the basics to everything in our first year. Now all we're doing is experimenting."

Elsa doubted that was what they were actually doing. She couldn't imagine young inexperienced students experimenting with magic and getting away with it. It'd be way too dangerous. What if something went wrong and they didn't know how to fix it? But she didn't want to say anything. She did believe that Fred and George wanted to open up a joke shop and she did believe they hardly studied or did their homework. But she didn't want to point out that doing magic for fun was probably illegal in school. Besides they probably knew that and were just ignoring that rule in order to pursue their dream. And who was she to interfere?

After a while Fred and George said goodnight and went into their dormitories, although Elsa suspected they weren't tired at all. A minute later Ron declared he was going to bed too, but Elsa stopped him.

"Ron, you have no excuse to be tired," she said. "You didn't do any work at all."

"Yes I did," Ron protested. "I did the title. See? Magical Herbs and Fungi."

Elsa rolled her eyes. "Four words is hardly any work at all."

"Let me copy yours then," Ron said. "Look, you're almost done. Give it here."

He made a grab for Elsa's essay, but she pulled it away from his grasp. "I'm not letting you copy my work. That's cheating. Do it yourself."

Ron tries to reach for the parchment with Elsa's neat handwriting on it. "Come on, Elsa. Just let me copy it please."

"No," Elsa shook her head stubbornly.

They began running around the entire common room: Ron chasing Elsa, with Harry laughing out loud at the table.

"What on Earth are you doing?" a girl asked suddenly, making everyone freeze where they were. Elsa recognised her from the Sorting. Hermione Granger. "You're all acting like a bunch of two-year olds."

Elsa looked down, slightly embarrassed. This was definitely not how the future Queen of Arendelle should be behaving like. It's a good thing her mother wasn't here or she'd get a heart attack from Elsa's childish behaviour. Ron, on the other hand, simply scowled at Hermione.

"Got a problem with it?" he asked harshly.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Hermione retorted. "I'm trying to study and you two are just running around acting like little kids."

"Well if you have a problem with it then why don't you study in your dorm?" Harry said. He too was glaring at Hermione.

Hermione huffed. "Fine, I will." She gathered all her books and made her way to her dorm. She opened the door and turned around, looking at Elsa. "By the way, Professor Dumbledore would like to see you." And then she disappeared into the dorm.

"Sheesh, she's one bossy-boots," Ron said sourly.

But Elsa wasn't listening. Dumbledore wanted to see her? What did she do wrong? What did she do that made the Headmaster summon her to his office? Taking a deep breath, she walked out of the Gryffindor common room and headed to the Headmaster's office