♫

Alan nodded. "YES! It is a nice song, but the lion that sings it is bad and greedy... It is kinda sad, I wonder what made him that way..", he mumbled and drifted off, getting quieter at the end . "I mean... not sure but I hope it does! If it does we need to eat it someday!", he giggled.

"Indeed they are! Maybe someday you will learn about their true powers!", he said in a fake booming voice, bwfore he broke out in giggles again. This truly was a lot of fun and he could not remember when was the last time he laughed so much, but being around friends made it easy. "Thanks", he muttered as he rubbed his nose with the back oh his hand to get rid off the itchy sensation.

Alan had to laugh out loud and nodded. "Knight of Grumpiness shall be his title, feared by every student and curfew breaker!", he nodded and then started to hop towards the door. "Let's head inside so that I can make you the best Choco Potion you ever had!", he exclaimed with a bright smile, that might be contagious for the younger girl. Maybe a magic trick, a smile that was contagious.

"I don't know Alan, maybe he only needed a hug, or some ice cream." Elena patted Alan on the shoulder, "We will have to go on a quest, to find rainbow ice cream! This quest may take many years, but with you by my side we'd be unstoppable!"

Elena laughed at Alan's epic voice, it didn't quite match the Gryffindor's overall gentle demeanour. Bless you appears to be the right response, good, she didn't need to worry about that, excellent.

"Ooo, I wonder if Griffith would like a plaque with that." Elena said absent-mindedly. Elena followed her friend to the door and went to hold it open, "Sounds excellent King Vanes! After you."

Smiles, are in fact contagious, and looking at Alan's bright one made Elena smile too. It's a real epidemic problem you see, if other viruses spread like smiling then the world would've ended, that was why the Illuminati wants to isolate the mechanism of spreading smiles to make a super flu. Luckily all smiling did was make you feel all warm and mushy on the inside, scientifically all it did was make you happier. It would be very bad if you were actually mushy on the inside.

♫

The already visible smile on his face brightened, when he heard Elena's next words. They could not be more true, as they probably someday would eat rainbow ice cream. Alan actually was pretty sure that the Ice Cream Parlor in the Diagon Alley had to offer this kind of ice cream. But they would have to see about that at a later time, as they were currently in Germany, far away from London. Well not too far, but it is not as if they could just visit there.

Alan just smiled as he walked back to the door, or rather hopped on one leg as he was still having his leg being burned because of the lava stones. So he balanced on one leg while fishing the key from his pocket with a concentrated look, not wanting to fall over. Managing that sooner or later, he smiled at Elena and pushed open the door and hopped inside, after with a lot of difficulties brushing the sole of his shoes on the doormat to leave the dirt and snow outside of the house.

Inside he unbottoned his jacket and pulled it off and simply let it fall onto the ground. He could put it on the rack later, it was not as if he would forget or something. Like when he tied his shoes, he sat down to loosening the laces and slipping off the red sneakers.

Alan was actually pretty good at balancing on one leg, even Elena would be struggling at this point and balance was a strong point of hers. Elena smiled back for a moment before making sure to get all the mud off of her shoes, no sense tracking water into his house. That was rude, according to what she'd read.

The warm air of the house settled into Elena's bones as she closed the door behind them, the girl leaned back against the door for a moment. Elena took off her coat and gloves to put them up on the rack, after a moment of mental waffling, she also hung up Alan's coat. Then dragged her comfy boots off to display some very bright coloured socks decorated mainly with little reindeer, never accuse Elena of not being in the festive spirit. Elena stretched, "It's nice and warm in here, gotta love the power of heaters."

Elena was still half wondering what rainbow ice cream would taste like, what was intrinsically rainbowy? Vanilla would be the best plan, you could just swirl the colours through afterwards. Strawberry and vanilla would be the best combination though, at least as far as Elena was concerned.

♫

Of course Alan was good at balancing himself. He was doing those kind of things a slong as he could remember. Jumping from stuff to stuff, climbing trees, ropes, sliding down stuff or just simply balancing over the sidewalks edge, pretending everything around the edge was lava. He loved these kind games, the floor is lava. He would play it for hours at the manor, not touchingthe ground. Finding his way around his rom by throwing pillows on the ground or simply leaping through the air. One could imagine how often he ended up bruised, but that was nothing as the fun he experienced when fighting lava or having to run over edges like bridges that threatened to fall down.

"They are awesome... sadly they would not work in Hogwarts because of the ancient magic there!", he explained with a sigh as he got his slippers for the house and gave another pir to Elena. "Let us go to the kitchen now and I will make some ot chocolate?", he asked as he pushed himself on his feet again. He managed to do that even without his one feet brushing the ground once, Alan surely knew how to get around even jumping on one leg.

"One of the few annoying things about Hogwarts, it's always cold. Whoever made the Slytherin dorms forgot that convection exists." Elena knew enough science to be able to tell why the common room was always frozen, the mass of freezing lake water at the giant windows would be why, "That's why the fireplace is always on in Slytherin dorms, rain or shine, winter or summer, if it's not on then you can assume everyone died or that we're trying to freeze attackers to death."

Ridiculously enough, it was warmer out in the grounds most days than it was inside the castle, stone walls, huge open doorways, and huge glass windows didn't really lend themselves to a warm and comfortable day. That's why she had worn her hoodie under her cloak almost every casual day.

Alan handed Elena a pair of slippers, they were soft and fluffy so she followed his lead and put them on. He was still going around on one foot though, amazing well too. Elena still kept a little closer to Alan's side than normal though, just to make sure he didn't fall over.

"Sounds good." Elena smiled at her friend, "We have to get that leg fixed up, after all."

♫

Alan frowned. ”I hope you won't get sick then! I would send an official complain to Mister Lear even though he is super scary and weird and I wonder how he got his position... do you think he threatened his way up there? I would honestly not be surprised-”, he rambled. He did not hate the man, yet he did not trust him, which was probably only a smart decision.

Alan again nodded at his friend. Yeah, just sit down at the counter or so”, he said after they reached the kitchen. He instantly began to look around for the stuff they would need for a hot chocolate. Climbing on counters to get the powdered chocolate and two mugs from a shelf as well as colorful mini marshmallows. All that stuff that was needed was then on the counter while water was heated in an electric kettle.

”So how are your grades, are you in need of help for a subject?”, he asked nonchalantly while measuring the powder. He used a simple spoon to do that, scooping the chocolate into the mugs. Seeing that the kettle was about to be done heating the water, he ripped open the bag of marshmallows and then took the kettle from its station to fill up two light green mugs, while he began to stir the mixture.

"I'll probably be okay Alan, I don't get sick easily, never have." Lear didn't have the best track record, as far as Elena had heard that was about as true as it came, "Threats are usually a good way to get what you want, if he did threaten people he did a good job."

Elena took a seat at the counter and watched Alan carefully, hoping she'd be able to reach him if he did fall over, and wondering if she should ask him to walk normally. Probably not, it was still a game after all. The little mini marshmallows looked happy and colourful, maybe they could cure sadness and negativity, they were made of sugar so they probably could.

"Not really, the lowest grade I have is an A in my first potions class but I chalk that up to it being my first ever assignment." It was true, first assignments meant Elena watched other people instead of going with her gut, never again, "Mainly Os in everything else, so it evens out nicely to an E average, isn't that cool."

The light green mugs were a lovely calming colour, and Elena hummed and nodded slightly in approval of the choice.

"Just because you did not get sick before it does not mean you will not get sick in the future!", he scolded and frowned at her next words. Threatening is not good, at least not the evil kind of threades as there were other things one could do to get someone on their side. Becoming friends is usually the best and nicest way or if you are not then just try to convince them that you are right.

"That is cool, I still have my O average and it is nice, hehe", he explained and stirred the hot chocolate and the gave one to Elena. "be careful, it might be hot", he reminded her, just by being used to it and took his own mug. When he took a sip he burned his tongue, cursing lightly before cooling it off by slowly blwoing against the drinks surface. Well, that did not went as planned but at least he did amazing. It tasted absolutely how it was supposed to taste, which made the second year smile proudly, as he warmed his frozen fingers while holding the mug. He took a glance at Elena to see if she ws bothered by the hot chocolate.

"Well, I guess he can only hope I don't get sick. Otherwise he'll have you to answer to." Elena thought it was funny so laughed a little bit at a mental image of Alan storming up and yelling at Lear, the height difference alone would be honestly hilarious. Elena wouldn't tell Professor Jensen though, mostly because of the circling rumours that the professor hated children. Given the evidence it's probably true, "You're a really nice person, I just thought I'd clarify that I hate threats. I wouldn't threaten anyone without incredibly good reason."

"An O average? Alan I'm so proud of you!" Elena grinned happily at her friend, "That's amazing! Good job."

Elena happily accepted the hot chocolate and sipped it cautiously before taking a much larger drink, it was amazing and the mini marshmallows were delicious. Maybe it really was magic, that would be super duper cool, "This is awesome Alan. You do make the best hot chocolate potion! Is your leg feeling better?"

Hot chocolate was fundamentally relaxing, so Elena felt her eyelids droop a little but she blinked back awake again. Sipping more of the delicious drink, she smiled happily and started humming a Christmas song about sleigh rides.