Her words made the young Gryffindor beam at her in excitement. He was happy about the fact that she said that she trusted him even though she had difficulties with being able to trust. Alan paid not much thought to that statement, because a lack of trust in people can be caused by so many things and even small things. One would just have to get shoved by another student and they would be wary for a while. Alan knew, because it happened to him. He was nervous towards students older than him, because of what happened before the holidays, but it was nothing he had to tell Elena at the moment, because she would probably get angry at them or she would think that he was weak, because he had not been able to defend himself? Alan did not want that to happen so he would just keep his mouth shut about that matter for now.

”Well if we all would be normal the world would be a boring place!”, he pointed out and tapped his finger against her forehead once,”So don't let that take you down, Elena! I have a lot of weird metaphors because I am bilingual and many don't understand them-” he explained with a lazy shrug of his shoulders, not judging her at all, more or less a bit cheek in his voice. He confused people a lot, but there was nothing bad with that. If others had a problem with you that was their problem and not yours, wasn't it?

Alan looked excitedly at her when she began to sing. ”You got to teach me those songs, they so awesome!”, he demanded and excitedly took her by her hand to pull her to the entry hall, where their jackets and shoes were. This mansion had a huge garden, and a well kept front lawn. There must lay a lot of snow in the backyard!

§

Elena smiled, "You're intelligent Alan, or wise, or whatever it is technically, you've got, cleverness. Uniqueness, that's a good way to think about it, and I like your metaphors, they make sense, to me at least."

"I'll definitely have to teach them to you, for now I can sing another one!" Elena skipped after him, grabbing her coat off the couch on the way past, "There's Sleigh Ride in July, Silver Bells, Happy Holidays..."

"Just hear those sleigh bells jingle and ring ting tingle and too, Come on it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you! Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling yoo-hoo, come on it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you!" Elena laughed and sang as she ran along, now she knew Alan liked Christmas tuned then she'd have to sing more.

Although it took her a moment to realise that she was singing without worrying about what he thought of it, like all that mattered was being a couple of kids at Christmas. Singing didn't mean food or shelter, it meant fun and happiness, so it didn't matter what she sounded like around other people. It also didn't hurt that Alan liked it.

"You think so?", he asked surprised and had to giggle. That was a first one, since usually people would judge him to be annoying or an idiot. It was kind of rare for him to get called smart, if not by his parents. But his parents wouldn't count in that matter, because they had to say stuff like that and they were biased because he was... welll, their child. "I am glad you understand them... everything else would be kind of awkward, hehe", he chuckled gently.

Before he could agree in excitement, the younger girl already started to sing a song and it made him smile even more. He liked her singing, he always liked when people sing and he loved singing himself, even though people rarely heard him sing, because he probably sounded awkward when singing. Or something... maybe he would also annoy people with his voice; whatever. Elena went with him to the front of the house.

"Okay! So let's just put on shoes and stuff what we need for outside!", he explained and took his boots from the shoe shelf and stepped on the small stool to get their jackets from the coat rack. Their gloves and scarfs were placed om the heater to dry them from when they were outside this morning. This already promised to be great! He jumped from the stool, staggering when he landed which made him laugh care-free. He sat down on the ground and placed the winter jackets next to them, before he began to put on his shoes.

§

"I could say the same thing to you, anyone being able to understand what I mean when I ramble is rare. I guess that makes you even cooler, and me even more lucky to have met you." Elena pulled her boots and started to lace them up, one of the good things about knowing sleight of hand meant her fingers were coordinated and very fast. Her boots were done in no time and she reached up to grab her scarf and beanie, "Do we need anything for making the snowman? I'd happily sacrifice my scarf for the cause if you need."

The rambling was a side effect of only really talking to herself when she was younger, who needed to make their point clear when you already know what the point is? Longer sentences and longer words meant that loneliness was staved off for a little bit longer. Elena wondered if maybe they were as good friends as they were because they understood each other when they seemed not to make sense, and there wasn't any judgement from either kid when it happened.

Elena pulled on a pair of gloves and made sure she had her beanie down over her ears, if there was a snowball fight the extra protection would always be useful. She quickly swapped out her fingerless gloves for her other pair when she remembered what they were doing. No use getting frostbite.

♫

Alan giggled happily. She was right and he could relate to what she was saying. Once he began to ramble he would speak like a waterfall at the speed of a racing car. He could go on with other metaphors, but he would rather get outside. He was impressed at how fast she was tying her shoe laces, she was finished even before him, making him laugh nervously. That was amazing!

”Then I will sacrifice my hat for the snow man! This gonna be fun!”, he chirped in excitement as he got up from the spot on the ground. His shoe laces were tied together now and he pulled on his jacket, a nice and warm scarf, as well as a woolen hat. He pulled it over his ears so that he would not catch a cold when they were outside. He took two pairs of small gloves from the shelf and tossed one of them to Elena after announcing her to catch it. She seemed to have good enough reflexes and even if they fell to the ground it would not be too bad to just bend down to pick them up again so there was no harm done.

§

Alan's laugh could light up an entire room, and when he giggled Elena started to smile too, this was one of the longest amounts of time she'd been truly happy. Decorating the tree, then talking, singing, and now to building snowmen. It was a sweet afternoon, filled with nothing but joy for the girl who'd never had a home or a family. Alan was like a little brother to her, even though he was a year older.

Elena snatched her gloves out of midair and pulled them on, it was hard to get used to having fingers on her gloves. She usually preferred to use the fingerless gloves because of the larger range of movement that came with them. The winter gloves she'd got were nice though, warm and more maneuverable than most of the styles. Also better for snowball fights, which was a huge bonus as far as Elena was concerned. It was on her list after all, but she'd leave it until later if Alan didn't want to.

"Sounds awesome Alan!" Elena smiled and pulled her scarf on, making sure it was absolutely comfortable, "He'll be the most stylish snowman in all of Germany!"

She smiled and opened the door to the yard, "After you!"

♫

Alan grinned and clapped when she caught the gloves mid-air. Her reflexes were impressive and she really thought it was awesome. He had pretty good reflexes himself, but that did not stopped him from catching some punches in the past; but not with his hand but with his face, which was not that much of a pleasant feeling.

When he was ready to leave the house, with everything comfortably protecting him from the cold December weather, he nodded slightly t himself. This just promised to be a fun day. It really sounded like it will gonna be an whole amazing day and it made him happy that Elena seemed to be happy as well. The shadows that usually always seemed to track her were invisible in the light of their Christmas excitement.

He grinned at Elena and left the house, waiting on the doorstep for her as he watched in amazement how his breath turned into foggy little clouds that danced in the soft breeze of the winter weather. It did not take much to amaze the young Gryffindor and for him it was nothing bad. Being surprised and amazed by small things made life just so more beautiful. That was at least how he saw the world and so far it did not was bad in any way. It seemed to be nice, he noticed smaller things and was able to cherish them more.

§

Elena followed Alan out and closed the door gently behind them, she breathed out a puff of fog and watched as it disappeared. Winter was a magical time, and something about the cold in the air made Elena thing more clearly. Probably because she was too cold to be stressed about the stuff that her brain managed to make up for her to be worried about. That or she was just used to being cold.

"So where do we want to put our snowman up? There's lots of space, I can start the base layer if you want." Elena scanned the yard for the right place to assemble the snowman, there was a bit of space near the middle that was big enough for a snowman and a small army of mini snowmen to go with it. It would be adorable, and as always it would be fun to hang out with Alan.

She skipped into the yard proper and began to roll up a ball of snow like Tal had taught her, it shouldn't be too hard to get it together now she knew how. Elena looked back at Alan, "Hey do you want to make some mini-snowmen too? Or just the big one."

♫

Alan grinned at the younger girl as he followed her into the yard. His shoes disappeared in the deep and fluffy white snow beneath his feet, making him giggle. This was nice snow and he already had fun just thinking about it. He looked t Elena to hear what she had to say and shrugged. ”Let's build as many as we can manage! A mini snowmen army!”, he said throwing his arms into the air, wiggling his gloved fingers. Building snowmen had always been fun and building them together with a friend usually made the experience even better.

He dropped into the snow and shoveled a bit of snow into his hand, pressing it into a soft yet firm ball of snow. Once he was done he began to push the snow around over the snowy yard like a cat who was playing with yarn. With fascination he watched as the small ball of snow very slowly grew in size as the new layers of fresh snow clung to the surface. Sometimes he would press the ball so that it would not fall apart and make all his precious work go to waste.

He looked over at Elena and giggled. ”This gonna be the bestest snowmen the world has seen!”, he said confident and faced back to the small ball of snow. He had a long way to roll to make it big enough. ”Imma make the head of the snowmen!”, he agreed to what she previously proposed.

§

Elena laughed, "One snowman army coming right up! They can protect us against the Grinch. Christmas shall remain safe, this I declare!"

She finished rolling up the body of the snowman and then moved on the making little tiny ones, they'd need some sticks for the arms but Elena figured she could go and find some later. For now her tiny snowmen needed to be molded, "Do you know where I can find any little pebbles and some sticks? Snowmen need some eyes and arms, that way they can do jazz hands when they dance, and see where they're going of course. That's pretty important, I wouldn't be too happy dancing if I couldn't see which way I was going, I could crash into something!""

Elena's imagination was quite a thing to behold if she allowed it to run wild, although usually it was locked behind a wall of logic and fear, something about the Christmas holiday was releasing the best parts of her. All the freedom and kindness and creativity she didn't usually show was soaring. Elena Jones was actually for the first time she could remember, completely happy. Elena poked some little eye holes for the first one of her mini snowman and smiled.