HP/ATLA crossover - Christmas Special, part II
Draco Malfoy squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. His face, reflected as though in a mirror in the window of Hogwarts Express racing through the fluffy-white night, looked rather queasy and decidedly unhappy. Perhaps the reason behind his evident discomfort was the Fire Princess, sitting in a gracefully relaxed pose in the seat across from him and casually filing her long, sharp fingernails.
Blaise, Vincent, Pansy and Theodore glanced in her direction from time to time, their expressions no less guarded and tense than Draco’s; if the Princess noticed, she apparently decided to ignore it. She had been silent these past couple of hours, occupying herself with either reading of gazing out the window at the snow-covered mountains, having made some amiable small talk at the beginning of the journey, and really gave her fellow Slytherins no apparent reason to feel so ill-at-ease; but that was the thing. She didn’t need to. It was enough for her to just be there, to sit as she did, so effortlessly elegant and absolutely confident in herself, to file her nails in those assured, measured, lazy strokes, to quirk her red lips ever so slightly upward in a vaguely ominous hint of a smirk, for the air in the compartment to turn stifling and strangely cold and for the sharp, chilly needles of indescribable fear to start prickling the skin from the inside. Draco hated it, hated if even more because he had no idea where this inexplicable nervousness came from; unlike the Dark Lord, Azula had never once threatened the other Slytherins outwardly. No; this wasn’t her style. Her mere presence was a threat; the air around her shimmered with unspoken promise of harm in a way none of the present Slytherins could define, much less explain. It made them all twitchy, and Draco especially. He had no delusions - he knew perfectly well he was being used, manipulated by that Fire bitch. He had let himself be played. But he couldn’t do anything about it now, not until he could finally figure out what the game actually was; he could only try to play for time and do his hardest to figure her out. She was cleverer, more powerful, better situated and more capable than he was, much as it pained him to admit. He needed time.
“How much longer?” asked Azula, examining her work.
“A couple of hours at most,” assured her Draco, trying to smile. “We’re almost there.”
“Lovely. I can’t wait to meet the Lady Malfoy,” replied the Princess, giving him one of her trademark smiles; not quite a smirk, but the promise of one.
“She’s delighted to receive you,” muttered Draco, and couldn’t help it sounding just a little strained.
Azula flashed him another deceptively charming smile and glanced at the other side of the compartment, where Blaise and Theo had been engaged in a chess game. She stood up, sauntered over, gave the chessboard a quick look, then bent down and whispered something in Blaise’s ear. Slowly, Zabini’s face broke into a sneer.
As she sat back down, perfectly collected and completely unphased, Blaise made his next move and promptly won the entire game.
***
The grounds of Hogwarts were moving.
Or, at least, they would have looked as though they were moving to a potential observer who cared to glance outside through the castle windows - if there had been one, that is, and there was a slim chance of that, what with nearly the entire population of Hogwarts being out in the snow, among the delicately falling snowflakes, gaping in awe at the shapes emerging from the ground under the skillful eye of the Waterbenders.
They had been making ice sculptures. After breakfast - a pleasant, jolly affair which the Hogwarts professors and the four Bending Academy headmasters alike strove to make even more cheerful, a task at which especially Headmaster Iroh excelled - Headmaster Pakku had taken his students outside for a marvelous display which left everyone who had stayed behind for Christmas delighted.
The snow intertwined with ice moved and swirled in graceful garlands, spiraling this way and that, sliding like strays of white, crispy ribbon. When it solidified, it was to form round, elegant, pristine forms which rose and rose until they became people, animals or - in the case of the more skilled, ambitious benders - whole sequences, taken either from historical records or from spirit-tales which were foreign to the few Hogwarts spectators, but still just as awe-inspiring. The Earthbenders, not to be outdone, worked with the earth underneath the white, fluffy quilt, some of them collaborating, some trying to rival their ice-wielding colleagues. Katara drew the most attention - caught in the competitive spirit, she danced and twirled just like the snowflakes drifting to the ground around her, and her skilled fingers forced more and more shapes into being. Already she had an epic scene out of a South Pole legend embodied and stilled in ice and she showed no signs of stopping.
That is, until she heard someone call out to her: “Hey, Katara! Come here, I want to show you something!”
She smiled to herself. “Just a minute, Aang!” she called out, her concentration never leaving, her wrists never stopping in their push-and-pull. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the familiar figure, now clad in Hogwarts winter robes, waving to her and jumping up and down in the snow.
“Take a break, Katara,” muttered Master Pakku, standing next to her, his back held stiffly straight as usual. “You’ve already outdone yourself as well as everyone else. No need to keep showing off; let them catch up at least a little.”
Only then did Katara stop, wipe the sweat from her forehead and look up at her master with a smile. Aang was by her side in seconds, eyes wide open, sending snow flying in every direction by his air-scooter.
“That’s amazing!” he exclaimed, gazing up at her sculpture. “But you need to see what I learned. Come with me!”
Laughing, the Water Tribe girl let herself be led by the excitable monk in the direction of the lake. They passed Sokka, who was sitting a little to the side with Yue, chatting to her and trying to sculpt her a little something with his machete; so far, it looked more like a fish/bear/werewolf chimera than anything else. Both Katara and Aang were too intent on their destination to notice someone else nearby; a tall girl and a boy, both hooded and clad in black robes draped over Fire Nation red, standing discreetly to the side, edging conspicuously towards the castle; when the happy, chatting pair passed them, the girl took the boy by the hand and led him back in the direction of Hogwarts. No one noticed them leave - save for Headmaster Iroh, who secretly kept a sharp eye on the boy and smiled knowingly at their disappearance, then whistled loudly and started strolling among the ice sculptures, apparently very pleased for some reason.
Aang stopped by the lake, almost on the very shore, in a spot safely removed from where the ice-sculpting contest took place. They were alone here. The imposing bulk of Hogwarts loomed majestically on its perch to their right; a picture out of a Christmas card, all the more picturesque for the lazily falling snow. To their left, the Forbidden Forest slept in a dark, mysterious shadow of the valley, eerily silent and enchanted in white. The lake, its surface frosted over and covered in flowers of ice, lay still, its peace undisturbed for the winter slumber. All around them the mountains, the sky, the world itself seemed entirely blissful and sated, breathing sharp, frosty air over sparkling silence, tinkling with the faintest echo of silver bells and laughter.
Katara breathed deeply; in, then out. The frost on her lips, on her tongue, going down her throat, tasted like home.
Aang stood by the precipice of a cliff, grinning. “Check this out!” he announced and threw himself onto the snow; a moment later, he was covered in it from head to toe, a lovely specimen of a snowman.
His friend laughed and clapped. The Avatar brushed the snow off himself and grinned even wider. “I can make ice sculptures now, too! Look at that.”
He started bending the ice around them and soon, there was a very handsome penguin standing proudly on the edge of the cliff, looking as if it were about to slide down on its belly any minute now.
“Wow!” smiled Katara, genuinely impressed. “I see you’ve been practicing. That’s great, Aang.”
He stood in front of her, rubbing the back of his bald, hooded head. “I just wish I could do it in front of everyone and join the competition,” he confessed. “Having to keep this whole Avatar thing a secret is a real bother.”
“You know it’s for the best,” Katara moved closer to him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Remember what the monks told you.”
Aang hung his head down a notch. “Yeah,” he admitted, though with little conviction. “I know.”
His friend squeezed his shoulder. It was for the best. She only learned that Aang was the Avatar because she chanced to walk in on him practicing with Pakku, and she had to swear not to tell anyone, not even Sokka or her Father or Gran-Gran, which was probably the most painful promise she’d ever had to keep. But for some reason, the elders responsible for Aang’s training thought it was of vital importance not to give the Avatar’s identity away; Pakku never gave her the reason, but he did mumble something about the Firelord. Even though Katara didn’t understand, she did sense the urgency behind this order. Aang had to be kept a secret.
And it really wasn’t her fault that Sokka followed her one time when she had been training with Aang and saw the boy Waterbending, but it was a relief to be able to share this with him. Surprisingly, he managed to keep his mouth shut about it. Apparently he, too, could sense an implied threat when he saw one.
Keeping the Avatar’s identity a secret would have been a much easier job, though, if Aang hadn’t been trying so hard to sabotage himself. Sure, there had been no one around, but supposing someone chose to wander over here… And supposing it was Zuko…
“I think we can go back to the others now,” said Katara, hiding her hands in the pockets of her thick, Water Tribe fur. “They’re about to have a snowball fight soon.”
At first, Aang looked about to say something; suddenly, he blushed a furious shade of red, mouth going open and then closed. Katara waited, but clearly whatever words were to come out were not destined for her to hear; Aang shook his head almost immediately, grinned at her and tugged at her sleeve. “Come on, then,” he urged her. “We can’t miss it!”
Katara smiled at him and followed, wondering what was it he wanted to say but couldn’t.
***
Damn you, snow, thought Toph miserably as she huddled in on herself. I should never have let anyone drag me out.
She couldn’t see. Dammit, she couldn’t see. She was trapped in this huge sea of nothing at all and she couldn’t even take those blasted, thick winter boots off or she would get frostbite. As soon as she got back to the castle, she was going to find the Slytherin bastard who lured her outside and smash him against some rocks, repeatedly.
But first she had to find her way there before she froze to death. And Oma and Shu, it was just so frustrating. Step after excruciating step she had to wade through a cold mass of fluff she could not even see, doing her hardest to reach the frozen ground beneath and feeling only a faint echo of its throbbing, muted by the combined layers of frost, ice, snow and her own, leather boots, the soles of which she was tempted to kick right through. Somewhere in the distance, there was the dim call of earth being moved about by the other Earthbenders who decided to join in on the ice-sculpting - she wanted to scream at them at the top of her lungs and kick them until they got the message. Their bending made the whole ordeal of getting back even more difficult - they blurred the already-too-misty sensations from the earth she did manage to read under her own feet.
If she could only tell how far away the castle was - maybe then she could concentrate on reaching out to feel its walls and the rich, delicious rhythm of the Hogwarts stone. But she couldn’t sense it yet, which meant she just had to keep moving, trusting desperately that she had chosen the right direction.
“What are you doing?”
The voice almost made her jump and that was just embarrassing. She should have sensed the person coming. She should have seen…
The voice sounded closer. “You’re the blind girl, aren’t you? Do you need help?”
It was soft and almost breezy; very, very delicate and decidedly feminine. A girl, then. Great.
“Look, I don’t know who you are, but I don’t need your help,” Toph snapped at the intruder. “Go away, I’m trying to concentrate.”
“I just wanted to tell you that if you’re going back to the castle, you should turn a little more to the right. You’ll miss the entrance otherwise.”
Toph stopped. Oh.
“I’m Luna, by the way,” the Breezy Voice introduced herself. “Luna Lovegood. And I’ve noticed you before. I could help you get back to Hogwarts if you want me to.”
“I told you, I don’t need your help!” shouted Toph hotly, spinning on her heels. “Just… just tell me how far away the castle is. I’ll be fine.”
There was a spell of silence. And then, “I could charm your feet, you know.”
Toph cocked her head to the side. “What?”
“I could charm them so that they’ll stay warm. Or I could melt a path to the castle for you. Would you like that? Unless of course you’re having an angst moment and want to wade on your own, in which case I’ll leave you to it. But you’ll be late for the pudding and the lottery then, just so you know.”
Toph frowned and focused on the girl’s - Luna’s - voice, but it held no trace of sarcasm. What would have sounded insultingly condescending coming from anyone else, from her sounded oddly genuine and disconcertingly normal, nonchalant. As if the girl really was just trying to be polite and give her an honest choice. Which was… weird. But Toph was really, really frustrated with not seeing a thing and really, really wanted to feel the castle rock again.
After a moment, she sighed.
“Melt the way for me,” she muttered. “And no silly comments, got it?”
When she got back to the castle - finally, finally, sweet, sweet rock - Luna was still walking beside her, happily chattering away about some creature Toph had never heard of before and about how her dad went away on some quest in a jungle so she was spending the holidays in the castle.
“Oh, but we’re here,” she said suddenly, dropping the topic abruptly just as Toph was about to tell her to shut up. “I’m sure you’re tired with me already. Most people are. I’ll see you in the Great Hall, then, ok? Bye!”
And again, her voice was not in the least sarcastic, impossible though it seemed; she didn’t sound offended, either. Just… honest. Straightforward. Head-on, actually, in her own, Twinkle-toeish kind of way.
Weird.
Toph marched down to the Slytherin dungeons, shaking her head.
***
“What are we doing here? Where’re you taking me?”
“Shush. Just follow me.”
“But Mai--!” Zuko stumbled on a step down as the girl in front of him tugged more viciously at his sleeve, urging him to hurry up.
She sighed. “Let’s just say I want to give you a present, okay?”
That shut Zuko up. Feeling all the blood from his body go up to his face, he followed her down towards the Slytherin dungeons without saying anything until she stopped in front of some suit of armor and pulled him with her into a convenient nook in the wall behind it.
And then she kissed him. Her lovely, pale hands cradled both sides of his face - he tried not to wince as her fingers landed on the scar tissue, he really hated it when people touched him there, he couldn’t feel a thing and it was just frustrating - and her face was all over his vision and her hair brushed his skin and her lips carried the softest trace of mint and lemon, and they were not sweet exactly, and chilly and frostbitten, but they were warming up and he was warming them up with his own lips, and suddenly he wasn’t cold anymore and nor was she -
“What…” he breathed once Mai pulled away, her palms not moving away from his face, “… what happened to the Let’s Wait rule?”
“I decided it was stupid,” Mai deadpanned in response, the left corner of her lips going up in the slightest hint of a smile. “And besides, I was bored out of my mind. You’re good at creating distractions.”
Zuko smiled. Then, urged by a sudden impulse, he pecked her forehead. The sheer fact that he could almost sent him flying.
She was here, getting warmer, so real and slender and there in his arms, so close, so real, so her…
“What about Azula?” he whispered, closing his eyes and focusing on the sweet scent of her lilac perfume.
“She’s not here, is she?”
“But she’ll come back.”
“Yes. She will.” Mai’s voice sounded hard now, a warning - they were not to repeat it once the Princess returned. They had to be careful. No promises, no secret sneaking around. Just a Christmas present. Zuko read it and understood - it had to remain this way, for now.
“Why aren’t you with her?” asked the Prince quietly, trying to shut those thoughts away.
“She didn’t want to needlessly antagonize the Malfoys,” Mai leaned in to whisper into his healthy ear. “But is that really what you want to talk about right now?”
It wasn’t. Zuko snatched her lips in another kiss before she had the chance to pull back completely.
They must have been too busy kissing to hear the sound of a pair of small, bare feet on the stones getting closer and closer, because when Toph’s voice echoed in the very corridor they hid themselves in, they both jumped.
“… Okay, now I really wish I was back in that damned snow.”
Blaise, Vincent, Pansy and Theodore glanced in her direction from time to time, their expressions no less guarded and tense than Draco’s; if the Princess noticed, she apparently decided to ignore it. She had been silent these past couple of hours, occupying herself with either reading of gazing out the window at the snow-covered mountains, having made some amiable small talk at the beginning of the journey, and really gave her fellow Slytherins no apparent reason to feel so ill-at-ease; but that was the thing. She didn’t need to. It was enough for her to just be there, to sit as she did, so effortlessly elegant and absolutely confident in herself, to file her nails in those assured, measured, lazy strokes, to quirk her red lips ever so slightly upward in a vaguely ominous hint of a smirk, for the air in the compartment to turn stifling and strangely cold and for the sharp, chilly needles of indescribable fear to start prickling the skin from the inside. Draco hated it, hated if even more because he had no idea where this inexplicable nervousness came from; unlike the Dark Lord, Azula had never once threatened the other Slytherins outwardly. No; this wasn’t her style. Her mere presence was a threat; the air around her shimmered with unspoken promise of harm in a way none of the present Slytherins could define, much less explain. It made them all twitchy, and Draco especially. He had no delusions - he knew perfectly well he was being used, manipulated by that Fire bitch. He had let himself be played. But he couldn’t do anything about it now, not until he could finally figure out what the game actually was; he could only try to play for time and do his hardest to figure her out. She was cleverer, more powerful, better situated and more capable than he was, much as it pained him to admit. He needed time.
“How much longer?” asked Azula, examining her work.
“A couple of hours at most,” assured her Draco, trying to smile. “We’re almost there.”
“Lovely. I can’t wait to meet the Lady Malfoy,” replied the Princess, giving him one of her trademark smiles; not quite a smirk, but the promise of one.
“She’s delighted to receive you,” muttered Draco, and couldn’t help it sounding just a little strained.
Azula flashed him another deceptively charming smile and glanced at the other side of the compartment, where Blaise and Theo had been engaged in a chess game. She stood up, sauntered over, gave the chessboard a quick look, then bent down and whispered something in Blaise’s ear. Slowly, Zabini’s face broke into a sneer.
As she sat back down, perfectly collected and completely unphased, Blaise made his next move and promptly won the entire game.
***
The grounds of Hogwarts were moving.
Or, at least, they would have looked as though they were moving to a potential observer who cared to glance outside through the castle windows - if there had been one, that is, and there was a slim chance of that, what with nearly the entire population of Hogwarts being out in the snow, among the delicately falling snowflakes, gaping in awe at the shapes emerging from the ground under the skillful eye of the Waterbenders.
They had been making ice sculptures. After breakfast - a pleasant, jolly affair which the Hogwarts professors and the four Bending Academy headmasters alike strove to make even more cheerful, a task at which especially Headmaster Iroh excelled - Headmaster Pakku had taken his students outside for a marvelous display which left everyone who had stayed behind for Christmas delighted.
The snow intertwined with ice moved and swirled in graceful garlands, spiraling this way and that, sliding like strays of white, crispy ribbon. When it solidified, it was to form round, elegant, pristine forms which rose and rose until they became people, animals or - in the case of the more skilled, ambitious benders - whole sequences, taken either from historical records or from spirit-tales which were foreign to the few Hogwarts spectators, but still just as awe-inspiring. The Earthbenders, not to be outdone, worked with the earth underneath the white, fluffy quilt, some of them collaborating, some trying to rival their ice-wielding colleagues. Katara drew the most attention - caught in the competitive spirit, she danced and twirled just like the snowflakes drifting to the ground around her, and her skilled fingers forced more and more shapes into being. Already she had an epic scene out of a South Pole legend embodied and stilled in ice and she showed no signs of stopping.
That is, until she heard someone call out to her: “Hey, Katara! Come here, I want to show you something!”
She smiled to herself. “Just a minute, Aang!” she called out, her concentration never leaving, her wrists never stopping in their push-and-pull. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the familiar figure, now clad in Hogwarts winter robes, waving to her and jumping up and down in the snow.
“Take a break, Katara,” muttered Master Pakku, standing next to her, his back held stiffly straight as usual. “You’ve already outdone yourself as well as everyone else. No need to keep showing off; let them catch up at least a little.”
Only then did Katara stop, wipe the sweat from her forehead and look up at her master with a smile. Aang was by her side in seconds, eyes wide open, sending snow flying in every direction by his air-scooter.
“That’s amazing!” he exclaimed, gazing up at her sculpture. “But you need to see what I learned. Come with me!”
Laughing, the Water Tribe girl let herself be led by the excitable monk in the direction of the lake. They passed Sokka, who was sitting a little to the side with Yue, chatting to her and trying to sculpt her a little something with his machete; so far, it looked more like a fish/bear/werewolf chimera than anything else. Both Katara and Aang were too intent on their destination to notice someone else nearby; a tall girl and a boy, both hooded and clad in black robes draped over Fire Nation red, standing discreetly to the side, edging conspicuously towards the castle; when the happy, chatting pair passed them, the girl took the boy by the hand and led him back in the direction of Hogwarts. No one noticed them leave - save for Headmaster Iroh, who secretly kept a sharp eye on the boy and smiled knowingly at their disappearance, then whistled loudly and started strolling among the ice sculptures, apparently very pleased for some reason.
Aang stopped by the lake, almost on the very shore, in a spot safely removed from where the ice-sculpting contest took place. They were alone here. The imposing bulk of Hogwarts loomed majestically on its perch to their right; a picture out of a Christmas card, all the more picturesque for the lazily falling snow. To their left, the Forbidden Forest slept in a dark, mysterious shadow of the valley, eerily silent and enchanted in white. The lake, its surface frosted over and covered in flowers of ice, lay still, its peace undisturbed for the winter slumber. All around them the mountains, the sky, the world itself seemed entirely blissful and sated, breathing sharp, frosty air over sparkling silence, tinkling with the faintest echo of silver bells and laughter.
Katara breathed deeply; in, then out. The frost on her lips, on her tongue, going down her throat, tasted like home.
Aang stood by the precipice of a cliff, grinning. “Check this out!” he announced and threw himself onto the snow; a moment later, he was covered in it from head to toe, a lovely specimen of a snowman.
His friend laughed and clapped. The Avatar brushed the snow off himself and grinned even wider. “I can make ice sculptures now, too! Look at that.”
He started bending the ice around them and soon, there was a very handsome penguin standing proudly on the edge of the cliff, looking as if it were about to slide down on its belly any minute now.
“Wow!” smiled Katara, genuinely impressed. “I see you’ve been practicing. That’s great, Aang.”
He stood in front of her, rubbing the back of his bald, hooded head. “I just wish I could do it in front of everyone and join the competition,” he confessed. “Having to keep this whole Avatar thing a secret is a real bother.”
“You know it’s for the best,” Katara moved closer to him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Remember what the monks told you.”
Aang hung his head down a notch. “Yeah,” he admitted, though with little conviction. “I know.”
His friend squeezed his shoulder. It was for the best. She only learned that Aang was the Avatar because she chanced to walk in on him practicing with Pakku, and she had to swear not to tell anyone, not even Sokka or her Father or Gran-Gran, which was probably the most painful promise she’d ever had to keep. But for some reason, the elders responsible for Aang’s training thought it was of vital importance not to give the Avatar’s identity away; Pakku never gave her the reason, but he did mumble something about the Firelord. Even though Katara didn’t understand, she did sense the urgency behind this order. Aang had to be kept a secret.
And it really wasn’t her fault that Sokka followed her one time when she had been training with Aang and saw the boy Waterbending, but it was a relief to be able to share this with him. Surprisingly, he managed to keep his mouth shut about it. Apparently he, too, could sense an implied threat when he saw one.
Keeping the Avatar’s identity a secret would have been a much easier job, though, if Aang hadn’t been trying so hard to sabotage himself. Sure, there had been no one around, but supposing someone chose to wander over here… And supposing it was Zuko…
“I think we can go back to the others now,” said Katara, hiding her hands in the pockets of her thick, Water Tribe fur. “They’re about to have a snowball fight soon.”
At first, Aang looked about to say something; suddenly, he blushed a furious shade of red, mouth going open and then closed. Katara waited, but clearly whatever words were to come out were not destined for her to hear; Aang shook his head almost immediately, grinned at her and tugged at her sleeve. “Come on, then,” he urged her. “We can’t miss it!”
Katara smiled at him and followed, wondering what was it he wanted to say but couldn’t.
***
Damn you, snow, thought Toph miserably as she huddled in on herself. I should never have let anyone drag me out.
She couldn’t see. Dammit, she couldn’t see. She was trapped in this huge sea of nothing at all and she couldn’t even take those blasted, thick winter boots off or she would get frostbite. As soon as she got back to the castle, she was going to find the Slytherin bastard who lured her outside and smash him against some rocks, repeatedly.
But first she had to find her way there before she froze to death. And Oma and Shu, it was just so frustrating. Step after excruciating step she had to wade through a cold mass of fluff she could not even see, doing her hardest to reach the frozen ground beneath and feeling only a faint echo of its throbbing, muted by the combined layers of frost, ice, snow and her own, leather boots, the soles of which she was tempted to kick right through. Somewhere in the distance, there was the dim call of earth being moved about by the other Earthbenders who decided to join in on the ice-sculpting - she wanted to scream at them at the top of her lungs and kick them until they got the message. Their bending made the whole ordeal of getting back even more difficult - they blurred the already-too-misty sensations from the earth she did manage to read under her own feet.
If she could only tell how far away the castle was - maybe then she could concentrate on reaching out to feel its walls and the rich, delicious rhythm of the Hogwarts stone. But she couldn’t sense it yet, which meant she just had to keep moving, trusting desperately that she had chosen the right direction.
“What are you doing?”
The voice almost made her jump and that was just embarrassing. She should have sensed the person coming. She should have seen…
The voice sounded closer. “You’re the blind girl, aren’t you? Do you need help?”
It was soft and almost breezy; very, very delicate and decidedly feminine. A girl, then. Great.
“Look, I don’t know who you are, but I don’t need your help,” Toph snapped at the intruder. “Go away, I’m trying to concentrate.”
“I just wanted to tell you that if you’re going back to the castle, you should turn a little more to the right. You’ll miss the entrance otherwise.”
Toph stopped. Oh.
“I’m Luna, by the way,” the Breezy Voice introduced herself. “Luna Lovegood. And I’ve noticed you before. I could help you get back to Hogwarts if you want me to.”
“I told you, I don’t need your help!” shouted Toph hotly, spinning on her heels. “Just… just tell me how far away the castle is. I’ll be fine.”
There was a spell of silence. And then, “I could charm your feet, you know.”
Toph cocked her head to the side. “What?”
“I could charm them so that they’ll stay warm. Or I could melt a path to the castle for you. Would you like that? Unless of course you’re having an angst moment and want to wade on your own, in which case I’ll leave you to it. But you’ll be late for the pudding and the lottery then, just so you know.”
Toph frowned and focused on the girl’s - Luna’s - voice, but it held no trace of sarcasm. What would have sounded insultingly condescending coming from anyone else, from her sounded oddly genuine and disconcertingly normal, nonchalant. As if the girl really was just trying to be polite and give her an honest choice. Which was… weird. But Toph was really, really frustrated with not seeing a thing and really, really wanted to feel the castle rock again.
After a moment, she sighed.
“Melt the way for me,” she muttered. “And no silly comments, got it?”
When she got back to the castle - finally, finally, sweet, sweet rock - Luna was still walking beside her, happily chattering away about some creature Toph had never heard of before and about how her dad went away on some quest in a jungle so she was spending the holidays in the castle.
“Oh, but we’re here,” she said suddenly, dropping the topic abruptly just as Toph was about to tell her to shut up. “I’m sure you’re tired with me already. Most people are. I’ll see you in the Great Hall, then, ok? Bye!”
And again, her voice was not in the least sarcastic, impossible though it seemed; she didn’t sound offended, either. Just… honest. Straightforward. Head-on, actually, in her own, Twinkle-toeish kind of way.
Weird.
Toph marched down to the Slytherin dungeons, shaking her head.
***
“What are we doing here? Where’re you taking me?”
“Shush. Just follow me.”
“But Mai--!” Zuko stumbled on a step down as the girl in front of him tugged more viciously at his sleeve, urging him to hurry up.
She sighed. “Let’s just say I want to give you a present, okay?”
That shut Zuko up. Feeling all the blood from his body go up to his face, he followed her down towards the Slytherin dungeons without saying anything until she stopped in front of some suit of armor and pulled him with her into a convenient nook in the wall behind it.
And then she kissed him. Her lovely, pale hands cradled both sides of his face - he tried not to wince as her fingers landed on the scar tissue, he really hated it when people touched him there, he couldn’t feel a thing and it was just frustrating - and her face was all over his vision and her hair brushed his skin and her lips carried the softest trace of mint and lemon, and they were not sweet exactly, and chilly and frostbitten, but they were warming up and he was warming them up with his own lips, and suddenly he wasn’t cold anymore and nor was she -
“What…” he breathed once Mai pulled away, her palms not moving away from his face, “… what happened to the Let’s Wait rule?”
“I decided it was stupid,” Mai deadpanned in response, the left corner of her lips going up in the slightest hint of a smile. “And besides, I was bored out of my mind. You’re good at creating distractions.”
Zuko smiled. Then, urged by a sudden impulse, he pecked her forehead. The sheer fact that he could almost sent him flying.
She was here, getting warmer, so real and slender and there in his arms, so close, so real, so her…
“What about Azula?” he whispered, closing his eyes and focusing on the sweet scent of her lilac perfume.
“She’s not here, is she?”
“But she’ll come back.”
“Yes. She will.” Mai’s voice sounded hard now, a warning - they were not to repeat it once the Princess returned. They had to be careful. No promises, no secret sneaking around. Just a Christmas present. Zuko read it and understood - it had to remain this way, for now.
“Why aren’t you with her?” asked the Prince quietly, trying to shut those thoughts away.
“She didn’t want to needlessly antagonize the Malfoys,” Mai leaned in to whisper into his healthy ear. “But is that really what you want to talk about right now?”
It wasn’t. Zuko snatched her lips in another kiss before she had the chance to pull back completely.
They must have been too busy kissing to hear the sound of a pair of small, bare feet on the stones getting closer and closer, because when Toph’s voice echoed in the very corridor they hid themselves in, they both jumped.
“… Okay, now I really wish I was back in that damned snow.”