Title: A Myriad Mirrors

Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling and associates own these characters. I am writing this story for fun and not profit.

Pairing: Harry/Draco, past Harry/Ginny and Draco/Astoria

Warnings: Fluff, epilogue-compliant

Rating: G

Wordcount: 1200

Summary: Harry, Draco, and children playing in the snow, from the perspective of the snowflakes.

Author's Notes: Another of my Advent fics, written for aliasfanatic04, who asked for Harry, Draco, and their kids playing in the first snowfall of the season.

A Myriad Mirrors

They descended to the ground on the softest of winds, twirled and tossed in shimmering spirals. They moved back and forth, and they sifted, and they melted into one another where they touched. They knew that they were part of one vast cold that spread out all across this rock rising from the sea, and there was rain at their further edges, and there were clouds above them from which they came, and they came to show all the world the dominion of cold and water.

When they fell, they lay on the ground, unless the wind picked them up and tossed them back into the air. Soon others of them would fall, and they would lie in darkness, piled up, speaking to one another of what they had seen on falling through the sky, the grey and the black, the white beneath and the distant light above. Then they would lie there until their great bright enemy came blazing out and took them away, or until they were smashed flat and became a smaller thing.

Or until someone picked them up and threw them.

They were being picked up. They were being thrown. The creatures who threw them were very bright, with colors that only some of them knew. But what one knew, they all knew, and so they soon knew that these creatures were the colors of blazing light, and flowers, and the green circles that many of the creatures hung on their doors.

The creatures called each other by certain sounds, as well, and so they listened to the calls and picked up on the sounds.

"Dad Harry, watch this!"

That was a small creature with hair like the enemy, which was picking a lot of them up and packing them into a ball at the moment. It was close inside the ball, and they packed and were powder. Some of them liked the sensation of being rolled across softness, a different kind of softness than they had themselves, where some of them clung. The softness was bright and warm, and not the creature's skin. The creature shivered when it touched them with bare skin, but not with this softness.

"Dad Harry, watch this!"

Some of them blowing on the wind around one of the larger creatures saw it turn about, and then the ball went soaring from the smaller creature's hands and hit the larger creature in the face. Some of them died at once when they melted on the big creature's warmth, but others of them dripped and slid down the neck, and it was nicely cold there. They made the big creature shiver and shout, "I'm going to get you for that, Scorpius!"

The larger creature chased the smaller creature across them, and they shuffled and squeaked around its feet. They liked the sound they made. They liked the creatures' bright colors, and the way that the larger creature blew the smaller creature to the ground and rubbed them in that bright hair. They liked being in the world.

Many of them were melting, but there were more of them always coming, and soon there were more of the creatures, too, running out of the block that the creatures always went in and out of. They melted on top of the block and ran down the sides. There was bright light inside that attracted them, but it was light that would make them die.

Another large creature with hair like the enemy carried a small creature with hair like the warm light, and two other little creatures with hair like the ground and the dark sky came with him. The creature with hair like the light laughed and held out its arms, and then the other large creature picked it up and turned it out and around. "Do you want to build a snowman, Lily?"

The little creature ran and gathered them, and they were packed into large, fluffy balls. It was close in the center of the balls and gently cold, and they were content. The dark-haired small creatures gathered them up and rubbed them in each other's hair, and it was interesting to drip down their ears and melt on their necks.

The large balls finally had a small ball of them on top, and the creatures stood back and made a chattering sound, happy like they were when large clouds came rolling in. The two large creatures were standing back with arms around each other's waists. Some of them were on their arms and on the circles of brightness the largest creature wore on its face, and they could hear.

"I never thought it would work out, to have a Christmas like this with them so soon after the divorces," whispered the large creature with hair like the enemy.

"I think we've done an incredible job," said the creature with hair like the ground. "We've played with them and been a family with them. It wouldn't have worked if we didn't try all the time to be a family, not just near Christmas." Some of them landed on his eyelashes, which were soft. The creature blinked and brushed them off, and they melted on his cheeks. "We're a family all the time," he repeated.

"It works," said the creature with hair like the enemy. They attacked the hair, and melted, just as they always melted when the enemy blazed. But they attacked anyway. There were still more of them coming. "I think even Astoria has to admit that."

"And Ginny," said the creature with hair like the earth. Then it shouted, and they scattered whirling along the path of its voice. "Scorpius, put Lily down!"

The small creature with hair like the enemy had been lifting the little creature with hair like light so it could put another packed ball of them on top of the other balls. Now both creatures fell backwards into them. They welcomed and cushioned the bodies, and then melted into each other from the creatures' heat. But they didn't get to melt for long. The two large creatures came over and picked the small ones up.

"Dad, I want to go inside," said one of the other small creatures. He was shivering. They sifted down his neck some more.

"Yeah, Dad Draco said we could have hot chocolate," said the small creature with hair like the sky, and the big creatures nodded and brushed them off and headed back to the block.

They brushed and whirled and twirled and spun, and landed on the block, and melted. They sifted down on the crushed balls of themselves, and went on snowing and piling themselves up long past the time when the creatures went into the block and sat in front of a light lifting round things and putting them down again.

They went on until the enemy came out, and then they melted in earnest, while more of them came washing in on thick tides of clouds. The struggle between them and the enemy never ended, no matter what kinds of creatures they saw. But they liked observing the creatures anyway.

The End.