``another m o r n i n g |Zelphar/open|

[squiggle]

"Of course," said Zelphar, he would probably have the same limitations. Not that it bothered him, he was looking forward to spending Christmas with his mother, she would probably be happy to not spend the holiday alone for the first time in sixteen years. He just hoped that she wouldn't go too overboard with gifts for all the missed holidays and birthdays- Her coming back for him was a gift enough. "I'll cover your transportation," Zelphar offered, "and no arguments, it's on me."

[violethorses]

Azzurra opened her mouth to argue that she could pay it herself, but was cut off by Zelphar's words. She found herself smiling in spite of that. "Alright then," she said, rolling her eyes slightly. Zelphar often insisted that he pay things for Azzurra. She usually didn't mind too much and she knew her parents were appreciate it, even if they would insist that they pay for something on the trip. "Thank you," Azzurra added.

[squiggle]

"No problem," said Zelphar, smiling. It was moments like these when he was truly appreciative about life, when things were simple, uncomplicated. They didn't even have to be happy, just nothing that got terribly confusing. The past few months of his life had been nothing but confusion, it was comforting to have something as simple as spending time over breakfast with his best friend. Though now being around Azzurra was starting to get more complex, Zelphar was feeling things toward her that he had not felt before. But he did not want to act on those feelings, at least not until he knew if she felt the same way.

[violethorses]

Azzurra smiled before taking one last sip of her juice. "So, anything you wanted to do today?" she asked Zelphar, pushing her mostly empty plate away from her. Azzurra was suddenly glad it was the weekend; that meant they could do pretty much they wanted as long as they didn't leave the school grounds. Also, Azzurra didn't have to wear her uniform unless she was on prefect duty. Currently she was wearing basic robes over jeans and a t-shirt. Azzurra found it rather nice.

[squiggle]

Zelphar reflected a moment on what his schedule looked like. He had some homework, but he could always finish that later, and since requesting fewer hours at Zonko's he wasn't working anywhere near as long as he used to. For once in a long while, he had the freedom to do whatever fancied him on the weekend. "Nothing in particular," said Zelphar with a shrug, "do you have any ideas?"

[violethorses]

Azzurra paused for a moment, thinking about this. She wasn't really the type of person that came up with ideas to occupy a day, at least not anymore. Still, Azzurra didn't want to make her conversation with Zelphar awkward by saying she didn't have any ideas either. "We could build a snowman," she offered with a hint of a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. A bunch of snow had fallen recently with more predicted to be on the way; perhaps it would be good for building.

[squiggle]

Zelphar smiled a bit, at the mention of snowmen his mind taking him back to pleasant memories of his youth. Swansea got loads of snow during the winter months, they had had some fun times in their pre-Hogwarts years when there was snow on the ground. "I'll just have to get my cloak, then," said Zelphar, suddenly almost thrilled with the idea.

[violethorses]

Azzurra chuckled slightly; Zelphar suddenly looked like a little kid, he seemed genuinely excited to go outside and build a snowman. "Alright, me too," Azzurra replied, glad that she had thought of something to do. It was bound to be cold outside, but at least it was better than sitting in awkward silence. "Meet you in the Great Hall in five minutes?" Azzurra asked, knowing it would take Zelphar a bit longer as he had to go all the way up to Gryffindor Tower.

[squiggle]

"Sounds good to me," said Zelphar. He finished off the last bit of his juice and placed the goblet down before leaving the hall. Using a series of secret passages, he found himself up at the Gryffindor tower in no time. He obtained his cloak and went the same route back down. Zelphar wasn't quite sure why the idea of making a snowman made him so happy, as it really was a simpel thing. Perhaps it was nostalgia, or mabye it was just his way of escaping some of the pressures in his life. Zelphar looked around for Azzurra.

[violethorses]

Azzurra grabbed her cloak quickly, as it was merely sitting on her bed where she had put it that morning after finding it on the floor. She hurried back up to the Entrance Hall where Azzurra waited a moment for Zelphar. By now there were a few more people wandering around, but Azzurra still had no trouble finding her best friend when he showed up half a minute after she did. "Ready?" Azzurra asked, fastening the buttons of her cloak.

[squiggle]

"Yeah," Zelphar responded as he slipped on his own cloak. He opened the door for Azzurra, glad to see that she wasn't looking quite so depressed. Perhaps she was actually healing, but that was what he had thought about Emily... A lump formed in his throat at the mere thought of her, he felt guilty, like he should have been there for her more. Zelphar swallowed forcefully as he allowed the door to slam closed, there wasn't anything that could be done about it.

[violethorses]

Azzurra inhaled deeply as soon as she was outside. She had always preferred fresh air over being stuck indoors, even when it was cold, as it was that day. Azzurra took the lead, heading away from the castle a bit so that they could find some snow that had been less trodden on. When at last she had found a good place, Azzurra packed together a small snowball and began to roll it around a bit.

[squiggle]

Zelphar knew that with magic they could be done in two seconds flat, but somehow that didn't seem nearly as fun to him. He would much rather go about it the muggle way, although when he had spoken with some of his peers that had grown up in magical homes the idea of making snowmen seemed absurd to them. Sometimes Zelphar was thankful for his muggle upbringing, it allowed him to commute between both worlds easily. Zelphar gathered a slightly larger snowball and began rolling it around, not minding the fact that his hands were bare.

[violethorses]

Azzurra settled herself on her knees, not caring if her cloak got a bit wet in the snow. She was wearing light gloves, but they soon became soaked through, causing her hands to be very cold. By that time, though, she had rolled a rather large snowball to put on top of the one that Zelphar had. "Want to help me lift this?" she asked her friend, as Azzurra didn't see any way for her to be able to pick up the thing without using magic. She supposed she could've just done that, but somehow Azzurra thought it would be more interesting if they actually tried to life the snowball, the muggle way.

[squiggle]

"Sure, just a second," said Zelphar. He carefully made the top of his snowball slightly flat, so Azzurra's would not fall off, and then went to help his friend. He was surprisingly taking a lot of pleasure in this simple thing, it was almost like being a kid again. Zelphar longed for everything to be the way it had been, wished that he and his best friend had not been made to grow up so quickly. They were still young, but carried the burdens of much older people, it didn't seem fair to him.