It was snowing outside.
Carina slipped outside with her sketchbook tucked under her arm, meaning only to look for a few minutes before returning to the common room. But once she stepped into the courtyard and felt the hush settle over everything, it was her first snow in Hogwarts, she couldn't bring herself to go back inside.
Sitting on a rock, her knees were drawn up so she could balance the sketchbook comfortably across them. The cold had already nipped her nose pink, her cheeks red, but she barely noticed. One gloved hand held a soft charcoal pencil, its point smudged from her careful shading. The other rubs against her thighs, to keep warm.
Hope had decided the snow was far more interesting than Carina's art. The ferret was scampering in lazy loops across a thick layer of snow, leaving delicate little tracks. Every so often, she paused to sniff at a flake that landed on her whiskers, then darted away again as if the snowfall itself was a game. Carina glanced up from her sketch to watch her, a faint smile showing. She'd already captured the arch of Hope's dark slender back and the bright, curious tilt of her head. It was harder to capture the movement, the sense the art made Hope feel like more of a life on paper. Carina shifted her pencil in her grip, brushing off a smudge of charcoal over her gloves, and bent back over the page. The hush of the falling snow seemed to muffle even her thoughts. Just for a little while, she didn't feel the press of unfinished essays, unanswered letters, the dozens of other things she was meant to be doing.
Then she heard footsteps crunching across the snow behind her.
They were soft, unhurried, but somehow careful, like whoever was approaching didn't want to startle her. Carina's pencil paused in mid-stroke. She turned her head slightly, enough to see the tall silhouette coming into view from between two of the courtyard arches. A boy. She didn’t recognize him immediately, dark hair, thoughtful expression, the sort of quiet presence that seemed at odds with the cold. Her gaze met his for only an instant before she looked down again, unsure if she should pretend she hadn't seen him. But it felt false to ignore him when they were the only two people around.
Hope chose that moment to scamper past the boy',s boots, her little tail flicking snow onto his trouser cuff. Carina lifted her chin again, her lips parting in the smallest of smiles. 'Sorry,.....She's...very determined to explore everything,' she said, glancing from Hope back at him. Her tone was gentle, almost apologetic. 'I think she's convinced the snow was made for her.'
Her thumb brushed the edge of her page, smudging a line she'd have to fix later. She hesitated, then nodded slightly to the empty stretch of a rock nearby.
