Fog, Ice and the Green Earth

Author's Note
My first fan fic, but the story has been running around in my head for a while. Acknowledgements to J.K. Rowlings for the world of Hogwarts, and to Ellen Kushner, whose book Thomas the Rhymer brings Faerie to life.

Chapter 1: The End

***
At the end:

A woman sat on the cold throne, her expression remote. Dark hair lay on her shoulder like a raven's wing, and a large black cat lay on her feet, purring. Cat and woman watched as a young man crossed the empty hall towards them. His footsteps echoed and an unfelt breeze stirred her hair. He was the boy she had loved, and the man she had left. Somehow, he had found her again.

How long ago had she first seen him? The green earth's time was hard to measure here, but it seemed long ago...

***
At the beginning:

She stood on the busy train platform, watching the bustle around her. A large black cat sat beside her, purring and rubbing his head against her knee in comfort. Her hands were damp with nerves, although her face was calm. Keeping up appearances was important, and she had practiced it for a long time. She looked over to the carriages that awaited, and to the skeletal horses that pulled them.

"Firs' Years! This way!" boomed out a large voice and she turned away from the carriages and walked towards it. Crossing the water was difficult, almost as hard as passing the iron gates at the castle entrance, but she thought that, with time, it would get easier. She hoped that was true. She knew that iron would not really burn her, that moving water would not really hurt her. She knew that was only something she had learned from the Fair Folk. Still, she was not calm, not composed as she stood in line with the other first year students. She breathed deeply and tried to give nothing away.

"Corax, Corrina."

She stepped forward as her name was called and put the Sorting Hat on her head.

Later that evening, at the long tables full of food, she sat quietly as a pale blond boy welcomed her to Hogwarts, and to the proud house of Salazar Slytherin. She was entranced - his handsome face was narrow and fine boned and he seemed so assured, so comfortable in this place, which was so strange to her.

"Of course it is quite an honour to be sorted into Slytherin... uh... Corax. That's an unusual name, not one of the old wizarding family names, is it?"

"It is an old name - so I am told. But I don't know much about it. I was a..." she almost said, changeling, but caught herself "...adopted." Several faces turned to her, surprised. Adoption wasn't common among wizarding families. And not knowing who your family was would certainly be a handicap in Slytherin, where the pureness of blood was tantamount to rank.

"But your parents weren't Muggles?" the boy persisted.

"Oh, of course not..."

What was a Muggle?

He stopped as a large, black cat appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, wound around Corrina's legs, and jumped on the bench beside her. The cat laid back his ears and growled low in his throat.

"I'm sorry..." She laid a hand on the cat, telling him it was all right, that she was not distressed, not really. "He is very protective. He has been my familiar since I was born." And he was the only family she had, but she didn't say that out loud.

As they were led back to the Slytherin quarters, the boy stayed beside her.

"I am Malfoy. Scorpius Malfoy." She glanced sideways at him, at his handsome face and ice blue eyes. He was like a Faerie princeling, but human, solid, real. She could feel the heat rising off his skin and smell his mortality.

She seemed unnaturally composed, especially for a first year. Malfoy remembered putting on the Sorting Hat two years ago, and his apprehension; what if he wasn't in Slytherin? What would his father say if he was in ...Hufflepuff?? Or worse, Gryffindor? He would like to have been as calm as this milk pale girl, with her black hair and fog eyes - strange and fascinating.

"Well, then... uh... the girl's dormitories are to the right, your trunks will be there, and ... uh..."

Malfoy's voice trailed off as Corrina dipped him a small graceful curtsy, murmuring, "Thank you." She smiled at him with lowered eyes, and went to the right.

The dorm was cosy, with four poster beds and heavy velvet curtains in black and emerald green. She looked at the three other girls in the room, wondering what to do next. She was used to having a body servant, someone to help her with her lacings, but these girls were wearing clothes with unfamiliar fastenings, and there didn't appear to be any servants at all. The cat jumped on the bed and made himself at home. He looked at her and gave her a reassuring cat smile.

She hesitated, and then went up to the girl next to her, the one with chocolate skin. "Please, could you help me?"

The chocolate girl looked surprised, hesitated, and said, "Sure, turn around."

"I say! What a lovely frock!"

With her school robes off, the opulence of Corrina's attire enraptured the girls. The heavily embroidered silk in green and the surcoat of brocade with dagged sleeves seemed to be from another time, rich and romantic.

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it. I'm Nadine Zabini, by the way."

"Eleanor Aubrey."

"Violet Parkinson."

"I am Corrina Corax. This is my familiar, Zwarthart."

She curled up in the feather bed, Zwarthart warm against her back. Corrina closed her eyes, and thought of the boy who looked like a Faerie prince. She smiled as she slept.