Winter

A week before the mandated twenty-day expulsion of inhabitants from the castle, Miranda came to Luca and Bryce sitting in the library reading the works of dean Dietrich as they made a pact to finish them this year.

"You ignorant no-maj plan to spend your vacation in those Iverstead cubicles?" she asked the duo while begrudgingly taking out a book Abigail recommended to her describing the possible reasons spells fail and how to remedy that.

"Yea." Luca lifted his head briefly, while Bryce didn't want to get distracted from the amazing story and ignored her completely.

"Hmph, my brother runs a small inn in Whiteridge, you can stay for Galleon a day." she got annoyed by their lack of attention and decided spontaneously to charge them instead of inviting for free. The boys looked at each other with question clear in their eyes: have you heard of that place, they both answered with a shrug and turned to face the girl.

"Whiteridge?" Luca probed.

"Winter holiday resort hidden by a giant barrier along with the mountains, three peaks enclosing a town in the middle." she gesticulated the approximate topography having been there every year since she could remember. "Skiing, hot springs, great views, a lot of goat and sheep cheese, mineral water. That's basically it, but it's enough to not get bored too fast. The inn is very cozy, built halfway up the slope, nothing but put on the boots, fasten the skis, and ride down every morning to start the day." she enticed them to join smoothly, having invited a lot of her friends already. Granger's family being too poor, or rather Luca's father pouring all the money into the stock market, deprived them of ever going on vacation, so this was very new and exciting for the boy.

"I'm in, you have enough money? I can borrow some, pay me back as an adult." he asked Bryce whom he knew had more expenses.

"It's fine for ten days, I think twenty are a bit too much. Are meals and rental for equipment included?" Bryce wondered for a moment as he recalled the contents of his purse, and asked the matters he vaguely, as if through a layer of mist, remembered somebody argued in his presence before.

"I lied, it's all on the house, no coins needed from you poor orphans. Bro will transfigure some beds and stretch a room for you in the worst case. We all helped design and build the lodge a year ago when he got married, not many customers yet, so it would feel empty if I don't invite friends for free. Their parents will pay for themselves, that's how you promote a business." she rolled her eyes and had to elaborate seeing as they started worrying about affordability.

"...we have to thank your family then." Luca nodded in gratitude to her after exchanging an affirmatory look with Bryce.

"Right!" Miranda seemed pleased and started reading her book happily, the day they had to go approaching quickly.

One morning Luca was eating his breakfast with Ringo, noticeably slimmer since he started a newly patented by Nathaniel brilliant idea of 'Tatantallegra Weight Loss Therapy' consisting of casting the spell that compulses an object's feet to dance, which in living creatures burns calories, on the fat black cat, when an unusual commotion at the entrance caught his attention. A face he honestly didn't have a great impression of, more focused at the time on the hands of the person it belonged to, the victim he almost killed came back to school. Melin Berbat went to his table with his head hung down trying to ignore the comments and hostile gazes from the students of Wampus house most involved in the case, he went to the leader of the Serpent's Order and sat down with him in an attempt to blend in gradually. The public cast their gazes from Luca to him for a while, but apparently, they didn't want to interact in any way, so it was eventually left alone and everyone kept eating, a newly found culture of food appreciation and critique that started to form after the protest adding to the lack of emotions, the injuries suffered a sufficient punishment for the disliked freak in the opinion of majority.

On Saturday morning Luca's roommates discussed if they should take everything with them or only take the thicker clothes and necessities while packing their black briefcases, Luca opted for stuffing his bag with all possessions, subconsciously doubting if he may be displaced at any time due to his history of changing accommodations.

"Want to see the world?" he asked Ringo sitting on his bed and observing the boy's preparation to leave, the cat stood up and went to jump in his prepared bent arm, kitten grown too large to fit on Luca's still juvenile shoulders.

"Winnetou, you know something about animals using Floo Powder?!" he inquired loudly in the realization of a possible blockade on this front.

"Get a cage, ask to transfigure one, and hold it tight." he got a short reply that made sense, it was written in the admission letter that pets are permitted, and everybody came using the Floo Point. Following the advice, the boy went to the first older-looking member of the Club and had it done before going out in the direction of Ilvermorny's entrance, joining with Miranda, Nadine, Bryce, and others he didn't know going to her family's lodging.

"Whiteridge!" the hostess went up in green flames first, demonstrating the path for her following. At Luca's turn, he went into the fireplace hugging the small cage with all his strength and stiffened the rest of his limbs upright, the feeling of spinning in place with wind pressing on his skin repeated itself. Finally, he got spit out and went forward with inertia, mindful of the previous little blunder Miranda suffered from.

"It wasn't so bad, right?" Luca opened his eyes to first check Ringo's state, the cat sprawled on the ground of the cage, his dazed expression and occasional twitch nothing to worry about except Luca's endurance to carry him for a time. Rest of the kids greeted their parents that awaited them in the Floo Point, Miranda hugged by her family of five in turn. Luca and Bryce the outliers, waited awkwardly together to introduce themselves to the Tolls.

"Hello, are you that ghost-loving genius my little sis wrote about and his unremarkable, boring sidekick?" a woman similar to Miranda with sparse freckles on her face, accentuated cheekbones, and brown, lush, protruding to the sides hair, approximately twenty years old, noticed Luca from the periphery of her sight and went to the boys curiously, revealing Miranda's thoughts to an annoyed snort from Bryce and a crooked smile from Luca.

Boys and the Toll family got acquainted preliminarily, Miranda's parents named Irene and Henry, her sister Vanessa, her brother and his wife Oliver and Patricia. They gathered all of their guests and went out of the somehow crowded Floo Point, numerous youths also coming straight to Whiteridge for winter holidays.

Outside, Luca saw the three conjoined peaks climbing three miles into the sky the town took its name from, an imposing sight of sparkling in the sun mountains separated from other Colorado ranges, an ideal target for wizards to conceal from no-maj completely. On the first glimpse forward from where he currently was, there were many eye-catching multi-story buildings with colourful facades and details of sculpted wood on the front. Luca asked Vanessa that pestered him to retell stories she read from her sister's letters of Luca's various mutated to the point of hilarity jinxes he showcased at the battle quidditch games, if there were no stretching spells involved in construction here. She confirmed that this custom is only present in Iverstead where people want to flaunt their abilities or wealth to hire wizards capable of maintaining the spell, virtually non-existent in other communities.

The Toll couple led their guests directly to the ski slope adjacent to their guesthouse, at the bottom of it lay a one-directional teleportation circle lined with Dimeritium runes that served as a replacement for no-maj cable railways, wizards skiing down seen entering it and disappearing after five seconds of waiting, back up at the peak. Luca didn't feel anything when it was his turn to enter, his vision got replaced imperceptibly with a beautiful panorama of the ridge and tiny houses down far away from where he stood a second ago, contrary to his expectations of a similar feeling as that one apparition he experienced of squeezing, discomfort, and vomiting. Henry and Oliver started distributing Atomic brand snowboards, skis, poles, and boots they had prepared in bags, Luca asked Vanessa from where they got no-maj gear, she answered with a shrug that some wizards smuggle such items, which is technically not allowed, but nobody cares enough to bother if they are harmless, no wizard idle enough to take interest in improving what is essentially a composite of many laminated planks of wood and serves its purpose fine.

Luca, that had no clue how to ski, soldiered on sneakily looking at how those in front did. He thought that standing up and balancing his body would be enough information needed, and he indeed managed to ride a bit before falling down as he still held Ringo's cage and his briefcase while other kids had their bags taken by adults. Vanessa and one of the parents that observed the pack of kids from the back went up to him and took the baggage off the boy before a brief explanation on how to turn and control the speed of sliding, enough for Luca to grasp it and instantly go at an acceptable pace after the rest of the peloton. The feeling was very different from sitting on a broom, Luca understood that such lacking magic endeavor could be popular with wizards precisely because it was very down-to-earth and primitive for a refreshing change.

A log cabin emerged when he somehow managed to turn right into an inconspicuous pathway marked by a plaque before it with the simplest outline of a house and an arrow pointing at it. It looked solid and in harmony with nature surrounding it, a big snowcap covering the roof that had multiple chimneys, all spewing thick dark smoke into the atmosphere. The crowd undressed and put their gear down in a spacious vestibule where a bench and racks for this function stood. A big dining and leisure hall was the next thing Luca saw, a fireplace made from stacking rocks on top of each other provided heat, and a grill over the fire that right now was keeping premade chocolate and wine poured into ceramic cups warm for the visitors.

Bryce and Luca got their own room with a small blazing fireside, fluffy furs of unknown creatures replacing the sheets, and a mini-fridge with water labeled 'White Wells'. Ringo refreshed after the downhill ride stayed with Vanessa, captivated by her massage skills, unlike her sister's he hated and avoided. The days went exactly as Miranda said they would, kids and adults playing inside the winter town protected by a barrier that demarcated the area belonging to the Wizarding World. A lot of laughter, eating cheese, visits to the hot springs, sheep farm, a Christmas performance in the local theatre, exchanging gifts of sweets and trinkets found in the souvenir shops, and observing couples' affections, especially the younger Toll one, Oliver and Patricia expecting a child in six months, pieces of advice pouring into them over the adult's table each meal. A fun episode occurred when Luca put Ringo on a snowboard and pushed him to slide down from the small ski slope intended for kids under ten, the cat wanted to go again after a taste, he put his paw on the plank and meowed with demand in his eyes unwilling to leave.

Every night Luca envied the family dynamic of the Tolls, and over the ten days, he inadvertently learned a lot about it. Oliver met his match on vacations multiple times and eventually tied the knot year after they graduated, they built the guesthouse and live in it because of their common love for mountains, Colorado a perfect place for them. Miranda's parents had the two children they planned, ten and nine years earlier than her, a very spoiled and lovely surprise most appreciated by her older sister happened by some luck.

The boys spent ten days there and excused themselves for the new year they wanted to spend alone in Iverstead, both made uncomfortable for different reasons. Bryce for his transparency, Luca for the attention he got since all wizards encountered seemed to know his face from the newspapers and harassed him to sign some autographs or pose for pictures, the boy felt undeserving. It was his friends' effort that made the victory possible, he only said a couple of sentences and they ran with it, making his wish at the time come true. The duo spent the new year together but separated by the thick walls of Vilemyr Inn, each contemplating how it would be if they had a family, the fireworks display watched from their beds with a window view from the sky as if they exploded inches from them was spectacular enough to dispel their leftover mood and enjoy the rest of vacation before going back to Ilvermorny.

There, the competition between houses ended in February before the midterm tests, with Pukwudgies building the largest snowman reaching the height of the main body of the castle due to help from their house's patrons.