It was only the start of the month and so the stream by The Cottage had not yet frozen over.

Feliks was lying down by the bank, having spread a woven mat over the frosty grass so that he and Aleksander could watch the clouds drift against the late morning blue. They had all finished their chores - beds made, kitchen cleaned. There were no lessons because it was Sunday and the Almasys, squibs or not, practiced some form of eastern Orthodox Christianity. They had listened to a sermon over the Wireless before breakfast.

Or at least pretended to listen. You can bring a horse to water but...

            "Feliks! I could have tripped over you!"

Maria, a yellow-haired girl with a thousand freckles and pink cheeks, dropped down to join the two boys. She was nearly eighteen and would soon be away to begin her muggle life in Moscow, as many Almasy squibs opted to do. Feliks sat up on his elbows and grinned as she tousled his red curls.

"Sssh," he gestured at Aleks, who had dozed off. "I do not think he slept well last night." A sympathetic smile graced Maria's face but she kept on talking - in a softer voice.

           "I'm so glad Aleksander came. You need more company your age," she remarked as she arranged her woollen skirts around her and idly surveyed the bare meadow around them.

The ground rose from the stream and then rolled down, away towards the Cottage buildings with the forest beyond.

Other squibs were strolling about or reading in groups. Most were older teenagers, while two or three were about Aleks' age. Feliks was the youngest because he grew up here, whereas Almasy squibs only came to the Cottage when they were confirmed to be squibs. It was a little like having many many older siblings - but not really, because there was always his magic separating them. Not of their world.

"Where is your shadow?" he asked Maria, who had begun to braid her hair down one shoulder. "Your Ivan? Is it true you are going to marry him?"

Maria shot him a sharp look. "Who told you that?" she demanded, though the colour in her cheeks had spread to the rest of her face, giving her away. Feliks grinned mischievously. "I overheard the Sisters. You are going to be a very pretty bride, Maria."

The young woman's frigid embarrassment thawed into something softer, though disgruntled. Clearly she'd meant it to be a secret until she could dramatically announce it to all her peers. She sighed and placed her hand on Feliks. "Thank you. I wish you could come to our wedding, little Feliks. I will owl you photos, yes?"

His grin broadened and he nodded, happy at the attention. Maria was nice to him. He noticed a figure approaching them from behind her - still at the foot of the hill was red-haired Ivan. Broad in shoulder and narrow in brain, Feliks thought. Ivan was not nice to him.

"There. Your shadow," he nudged Maria and she glanced over her shoulder before springing back up on to her feet. Feliks laughed in delight at her eagerness. She leaned down to plant a kiss on his head. "Don't you fall asleep out here too!"

Then she was gone, skipping down the slope to meet her future husband. Feliks watched them - watched as Maria threw her arms around Ivan's neck, watched as they stole a kiss where the Sisters would not see, watched as they held hands and walked along the stream together. The weather was very fine indeed.

            "Is she gone?"

Next to him, Aleksander opened one eye and then another. He had been feigning sleep - still new to the Cottage, he didn't get along with the older squibs. "She is gone," Feliks confirmed and the other boy sat up to observe the happy couple in the distance.

Aleks snorted. "Why does he love her? She isn't even that pretty is she?" he commented, because that was how he was brought up to speak.

Feliks did not reply at first. Maria was pretty and Ivan was handsome and he hoped they would be happy, even if Ivan did try to shove him down the stairs that one time. Squibs were like that.

Even Aleks, he knew, would come to resent him. For magic, for metamorphmagi, for Durmstrang. Maybe moreso because Aleks did not watch him grow up like Maria or Ivan did. What few squibs liked Feliks forgot about him soon after leaving. Maria will forget too, when her real life began.

The young wizard imagined her wearing a simple white dress, standing next to Ivan - both gleaming in the holy glow of cathedrals he only read about in books. He would not be at their wedding but he could picture it. He wondered how it might feel to attend a wedding; if love was something you could tangibly see between people, like light. However love looked, it made Maria appear wonderful to the eye.

"I think she is very pretty," Feliks finally replied, hugging his knees. Aleksander pulled a face.