Chapter Eighty-Eight: Snowy Weather and Quidditch

"You will change your mind, Rosier!" Claude Lowre said, watching Sevan in the crowd with a slight curl of his lips. "Lord Grindelwald will be the ultimate victor, and everything we do is for a greater good." His voice was almost coaxing. "The Rosier family once did Lord Grindelwald many favors. As the heir of the Rosier family, if you truly throw in your lot with us, I am sure Lord Grindelwald will put the past behind him..."

"Enough!" Minister Floy’s expression had gone very dark as he cut Lowre off, barking angrily, "Take them away!"

Then he hurriedly declared the trial concluded.

After the hearing, Minister Floy came up to Sevan and Sandrine, doffed his hat in a courteous gesture, and said, "My apologies, Madam Rosier and young Master Rosier. It was our negligence that allowed the prisoner to accost you."

"You really should reflect on yourself, Minister Floy!" Sandrine was in no mood to indulge him and said very bluntly. Then she took Sevan by the hand and left the courtroom.

Sevan noticed that Minister Floy's face had gone rather gloomy.

...

On the way back, as they climbed the stairs behind the courtroom, the two passed once more by the black door of the Department of Mysteries.

Sevan deliberately slowed his steps and narrowed his eyes, sensing the energy within the door.

Its concealment was formidable; only the faintest tremor of power could be felt seeping through. Yet that hazy ripple was enough to make Sevan feel an intimate sense of closeness.

It was the power of time.

Sevan let out a relieved laugh and relaxed at last. Then he followed Sandrine up to the ninth-floor lift and left the Department of Mysteries.

The hearing had taken more than an hour, and the rush hour for Ministry employees was long over; the main hall of the Ministry of Magic now seemed exceedingly empty.

The two walked across the polished floor, their footsteps echoing through the narrow hall with a clear, crisp ring.

"This parting means another month or more before we can see each other again!" Sandrine sounded rather aggrieved as she muttered her instructions. "Don't go making decisions on your own and stay at school for Christmas. Remember to come home on time. I'll meet you at the station then!"

"I know, Mother." Sevan agreed helplessly. Yet inwardly he was lamenting in silence that his plan to stay at school and refine his combined spellcasting seemed to have come to nothing...

The two embraced and said their goodbyes.

Then, under Sandrine's reluctant gaze, Sevan stepped into the fireplace on the other side of the hall and returned to Hogwarts.

...

After that, life at Hogwarts became rather uneventful. It was the usual routine of classes, meals, and sleep; in the evenings, he practiced combined spells, and on weekends he studied alchemy with Dumbledore.

The ghostly Sevan was not constrained by day or night. Now and then he would stroll about the castle grounds with Helena, but most of the time he was reading—and doing so brazenly, right beneath Helena's nose, materials related to first-year courses.

Come to think of it, if he were still hiding from Helena and secretly concealing his true identity, how inconvenient life would be!

In Helena's presence, it was hard enough merely to find a plausible reason for gathering materials for young wizard Sevan. Let alone that, because they were one and the same person, many of the habits of ghostly Sevan and young wizard Sevan were strikingly alike.

Given Helena's intelligence, the relationship between soul and body would inevitably be exposed sooner or later. By then, if things had been concealed too long and too many lies had been told, it might well give rise to real misunderstandings and estrangement between them!

But the way things were now was excellent. Both had opened their hearts, understanding and comforting one another.

...

In the quiet yet fulfilling life of the school, time flew by. Before anyone noticed, snowflakes had begun to fall gracefully, draping Hogwarts Castle in a silver-white veil.

The weather was cold, and the young wizards had all changed into winter-lined robes, thick woolen sweaters, and the classic striped Hogwarts scarves around their necks.

At this moment, Sevan and his three roommates were each wrapped in a green striped scarf representing Slytherin, trudging through the open ground north of the castle.

Snow had already covered the field. Their steps made a soft rustling sound, leaving behind a trail of footprints stretching from the castle to the Quidditch pitch. There were many such tracks, proof that not even blizzard and gale could stop the young wizards' love of Quidditch.

"So why do we have to come out in weather like this, face the biting wind and heavy snow, and watch a Quidditch match we can't even see properly?" Mobley, who had no talent for flying whatsoever, had no interest in Quidditch at all and kept complaining to Abbot along the way.

"I think so too. Why can't the Quidditch match be postponed?" Sevan nodded in agreement.

Originally, on this snowy weekend, he could have stayed in the luxurious underground room to study combined spellcasting, or gone to Dumbledore's headmaster office to learn alchemy. In that warm office, Dumbledore would enthusiastically offer him all sorts of sweets and steaming honey tea; it could hardly have been more comfortable!

And yet here he was, braving the cold wind to watch a ball game—one that could go on all day, or even for days and nights, if the Golden Snitch was not caught. No wonder he agreed with Mobley.

"You don't understand." Abraxas said with a mysterious air. "Quidditch in the snow is a player's romance. Snowy weather goes best with the pitch!"

Sevan: "..."

...

The Quidditch pitch was a vast oval field. It had once been covered in grass, but now it was blanketed by thick snow and had become a sheet of white.

Around the pitch stood several tower-like stands. These stands were extremely high, and it often took quite a while to climb the metal stairs before reaching the spectators' seats above.

Of course, most of those seats were reserved for the referee, commentators, and professors. The young wizards mainly watched from the circular seating that ringed the field.

"Scouring Charm."

"Impervius."

At the Slytherin seats, Sevan first used magic to clear the snow from the seat in front of him, then cast the waterproofing spell on himself to keep the falling snow off his body. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief, wrap his scarf and robes more tightly around himself, and sit down.

Turning his head, he saw the three roommates beside him looking at him with hopeful eyes.

So Sevan casually cast Impervius on Gomez and Mobley as well, while leaving Abbot out in the cold.

"Hey! Why didn't you put the snowproof spell on me?" Abbot asked in dissatisfaction.

"Quidditch in the snow is a player's romance, remember?" Sevan teased. "Aren't you determined to become Slytherin's Seeker? You can't play yet in first year, but getting an early taste of the player's romance isn't so bad!"

Gomez and Mobley could not help bursting into gleeful laughter.

Abbot angrily gave Sevan a rude international gesture, then truly and resolutely refused the waterproofing charm, braving the wind and snow to watch the match.

...

...