Chapter 55: The Snow Hasn't Melted Yet
After the Christmas holidays, the returning train brought back the usual wave of noise, gossip, and badly hidden drama. It also brought Draco Malfoy back to Tamara with disappointing news.
In the Slytherin common room, Draco stood in front of her with his head lowered, looking less like the heir of an old pure blood family and more like a child waiting to be sentenced.
"I'm sorry, Tamara."
His voice was so small it barely sounded like him at all.
"I tried, but my father made that underground chamber a restricted area. Even I cannot get in. He said the Ministry has been checking everything very strictly lately, and some things have to stay hidden."
He hesitated, then forced himself to finish.
"I couldn't get that diary."
Tamara sat in her armchair near the fire, her holly wand turning slowly between her fingers. At the news, she showed almost no reaction.
After all, it was a Horcrux.
Lucius Malfoy might not know exactly what it was, but he knew it was a Dark object, and that alone was enough for him to keep it under lock and key. Expecting an eleven year old boy to steal it from Malfoy Manor had always been optimistic.
"It's fine, Draco."
Her tone was calm, almost indulgent.
"You did what you could. Besides, if you had actually managed to take it, your father might have started asking the wrong questions."
She rose from her chair, walked over to him, and straightened the tie that had shifted slightly off center.
"Do not worry. That thing is not going anywhere."
Her voice lowered, becoming something quiet and certain.
"One day, I will visit Malfoy Manor myself. When that happens, I believe Uncle Lucius will be delighted to hand it over as a small gift."
Draco blinked, then the tension visibly drained out of him. The admiration in his grey eyes reignited almost immediately.
"Of course. My father will definitely like you."
Tamara smiled, small and composed.
"Of course."
The following afternoon, the holidays might have ended, but Hogwarts still looked as though winter had laid siege to it and had no intention of leaving. Snow smothered the grounds in thick white layers that the weak winter sun could not melt.
Perhaps it was cabin fever. Perhaps it was simple stupidity. Whatever the reason, Fred and George Weasley had decided this was the perfect occasion to host what they loudly declared to be the First Hogwarts All School Free For All Snowball Fight Championship.
They stood on a large rock near the open grounds outside the castle, shouting over the crowd like circus announcers.
"The rules are simple," Fred bellowed, waving his wand. "If you're still standing, you win."
"Gryffindor victory is inevitable," George yelled beside him.
Then he added, with equal enthusiasm, "And anyone who does not want to get planted in the snow had better start running."
The grounds erupted almost at once.
Snowballs flew in every direction. Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and even a few Slytherins who had only come to watch were dragged into the chaos. Shouting, shrieking, and laughter burst across the snow field like fire over dry grass.
Tamara stood under the shelter of a corridor archway and watched the entire spectacle with cold detachment.
"Childish."
She drew her cloak tighter around herself and turned to leave.
Then she heard something that made her stop.
"Get up, Longbottom. Is that all you've got?"
"Do not lie there like a slug. You're a Gryffindor. Show some courage."
Tamara turned her head.
At the edge of the grounds, Neville Longbottom was curled up in the snow, trembling. Several Gryffindor boys were standing around him, pelting him with snowballs while speaking in the tone of people who believed cruelty became noble if wrapped in the language of character building.
"Be brave, Neville," one of them shouted. "You only learn to fight back by taking a few hits first."
Neville kept his arms over his head. He was not even trying to defend himself. He was just quietly crying in the snow.
Tamara's expression did not change.
"Useless," she thought.
She had no interest in interfering. If Longbottom was too weak to resist, that was his problem.
Naturally, the system disagreed.
[Ding! Detected a weak classmate being subjected to unfair treatment.]
[Triggered daily quest: True Courage.]
[Quest description: Courage does not come from trampling on the weak. Certain Gryffindors appear to have fundamentally misunderstood the concept. Please correct them.]
[Quest reward: Courage +2, Neville Longbottom's favorability increased.]
[Quest penalty: Team up with Neville in the next Potions class.]
Tamara went still.
That penalty alone was enough to force her into action.
"...What a nuisance."
With a long, irritated breath, she pulled out her wand and stepped out into the snow.
"Stop."
Her voice was not loud, but it cut cleanly through the noise around them.
The boys turned. So did Neville.
The moment they saw a first year Slytherin girl walking toward them, disdain flashed across more than one face.
One of the older Gryffindor boys sneered.
"What is this? A Slytherin coming to interfere in Gryffindor business?"
"I have no interest in your business."
Tamara walked right past them and stopped beside Neville. Then, without asking, she extended a hand and pulled him upright.
"Stand straight, Longbottom."
Her tone was sharp enough to sting.
"Tears are not something you show the people trying to humiliate you."
Neville sniffed hard and wiped at his face. He was still shaking, but he obeyed, trying awkwardly to hold himself upright.
The lead boy gave a laugh.
"Big words."
His expression darkened.
"If you want to play hero, then take his place."
He swung his wand, and a heap of snow on the ground surged upward. A second later it broke apart into a storm of snowballs and shot straight toward Tamara and Neville.
Tamara did not even blink.
She lifted her wand a fraction and turned her wrist in one graceful circle.
"Wingardium Leviosa."
In her hands, the spell was no longer the clumsy classroom charm most students knew. Tamara's control over the Levitation Charm had long since outgrown its reputation as a beginner's spell.
Every incoming snowball stopped in the air one metre in front of her.
Then the field itself changed.
All across the open ground, snow shivered.
Under the pull of her magic, it rose in great curling sheets, broke apart, compressed, and reformed into dozens upon dozens of perfectly shaped snowballs.
The boys' expressions changed.
Tamara smiled.
It was a beautiful smile. In the pale winter light, it might almost have looked angelic.
The cold in it ruined that illusion at once.
"If this is your idea of training," she said softly, "then allow me to improve the lesson."
Her wand flicked downward.
The snowballs launched.
What followed was not a snowball fight. It was a precise and merciless bombardment.
The air filled with white streaks. Snow pelted the Gryffindor boys from every direction, too fast and too dense to dodge.
Cries burst out immediately.
"Ow. That hurts."
"Merlin, what is wrong with her?"
"Where are they even coming from?"
Tamara stood in the centre of the snow field like the calm eye of a storm, her wand controlling the entire battlefield.
Then her voice rang out again.
"Slytherin."
The students from her own house turned instinctively.
"What are you standing there for? Are we really going to let Gryffindor think we are afraid of a little snow?"
The answer came in a cheer.
Draco moved first, naturally. The others followed a heartbeat later.
"For Slytherin."
In an instant, the already chaotic free for all transformed into a one sided rout.
With Tamara controlling the flow of the battle and Draco leading the charge, the combined resistance of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw collapsed with embarrassing speed. Students who had begun the fight laughing were soon slipping, stumbling, surrendering, or trying and failing to shield themselves from the relentless shower of snow.
By the time it ended, the result was obvious.
Tamara stood on top of a low snowbank, her cloak stirring in the wind, wand in hand, expression composed and indifferent.
At her feet, the defeated opposition was scattered across the snow in various states of dignity lost.
Neville stood behind her, staring.
The light in his eyes was no longer simple gratitude.
This was the second time she had saved him.
The first time, she had set his broken wrist.
The second time, she had stepped in when no one else had.
The kind of courage Gryffindor talked about had always made Neville feel small, pressured, and inadequate. Tamara's version was something else entirely. Colder. Stronger. More terrifying. Yet somehow safer.
He looked at her back as though it were the answer to a question he had never been able to put into words.
"Thank you, Tamara."
His voice was small, but this time he made himself say it.
Then, after a pause, he gathered enough courage to ask something else.
"If... if I were in Slytherin too... would people stop bullying me?"
Tamara turned and looked at him. Real surprise flickered through her eyes for a moment.
She could see what sat in his expression.
Not simple gratitude.
Longing.
A desire for strength.
"A house does not decide whether you are bullied or not, Longbottom."
Her tone was cool, but not mocking.
"In this world, the weak are always easy targets for the strong."
She tilted her head slightly.
"If you want things to change, depending on someone else's kindness is useless. Make yourself strong instead."
Neville nodded, though he did not fully understand.
What he did not understand even more was why someone as strong as Tamara, who believed such things, had never once chosen to use that strength against him.
[Ding! Quest completed: True Courage.]
[Reward: Courage +2.]
[Current Courage: 16.]
[Detected that Neville Longbottom's admiration for you has crossed the threshold and developed into a Follower tendency.]
Tamara's gaze dropped to the invisible favorability panel in her mind, and she rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
"So favorability rises this easily just from helping a little."
Her thoughts were cold, but interested.
"Gryffindor friendship is shockingly cheap."
She looked once more at the levels behind the names she had collected so far.
"If loyalty can be harvested this efficiently, then perhaps my previous methods were a little too inefficient."
The system replied at once.
[It means you did not yet understand sustainable exploitation, host.]
.....
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