The great hall had been decorated with multiple christmas trees and floating candy canes, enough for one each. The teachers table was lines with tinsel and baubles, and the house tables had candles spread around them and were lined with fairy lights, each oh the specific colours of house. The ceiling showed snow falling, which meant the grounds were white and icy. While the students ate at the christmas feast, the grounds became colder and the snow got deeper, which was great as the weekend began the next day, so students would have a lot of fun tomorrow.

Three friends, Hermione, Harry and Ron were extremely happy for tomorrow. They planned at dinner that they would go down to hogsmeade and go into Zonko's to buy last minute christmas presents for friends and families. Later on, they would play in the snow, and maybe even hide under Harry's invisibility cloak and throw a few sneaky snowballs at their enemy, Draco Malfoy.

The night finally arrived, and the three friends were happily going to bed, knowing that when they woke up, the fun day of snow would be there, and they could get Draco back for everything he had done to them. Harry lay in bed thinking of what to buy in Zonko's to send to Sirius, but he was thinking maybe that Sirius would prefer sweets or some Honeydukes chocolate. Ron was thinking about smacking Draco right in the face with a huge snowball that could only be lifted with the levitation charm, Wingardium Leviosa. But Hermione was thinking about all the homework she would have to do the day after next if she didn't do any tomorrow. They then fell asleep which was full of dreams about snow and excitement.

The day greeted them with two feet of snow, and the paths had been cleared so they could safely walk to Hogsmeade. Teachers were also getting ready to meet in the Pub, The three Broomsticks, to drink a nice cup of butterbeer. Ron woke first, and ran straight to the window. He saw the snow, ran to Harry and shook him awake.
"What?" Harry said after being woken so roughly.
"Get up! We are going to Hogsmeade!" He said, jumping up and down. "Get up get up get up!"
"Im getting up!" Harry said, chuckling at Rons excitement. "What are we doing first?"
"I want to go to Zonkos! I need to get Ginny something as she always gets me something." He explained.
"I want to go to Honeydukes. I was thinking that a bag of Honeydukes sweets would be good for Sirius, you know. Since he is always on the move and can't buy any food as he is in hiding." Harry told Ron. "Should I get him loads of chocolate, loads of sweets, or both?"
"Both. I know that when I want something from Honeydukes, I always get chocolate and sweets as I can never choose between them. Plus, wouldnt you get bored if you ate loads of chocolate? If you got both, he would have a choice." Ron replied.
"True. Okay, Il get him both." Harry decided.
"Well im going to go down to the common room, and see if Hermione is there. I will tell you if she is." Ron said.
"Okay, Il be there in a second anyway." Harry said. "Let me just get my coat and scarf."
"'Kay." Said Ron, practically bolting down the stairs. Harry got some galleons out of his bag and put them in hit pocket, and he put on his cloak and grabbed his scarf. He just reached the dormitory door when it got pushed open by an excited Ron.
"Shes there and we are waiting for you!" He said, running back down the stairs.
"I know! Im coming!" Harry had to raise his voice to make sure Ron heard him.

"Come on Harry!" Ron was saying to Harry when he was reaching the bottom of the staircase. "Hurry up!"
"Im coming as fast as I can Ron! Calm down!" He said to Ron while he jumped down the last two steps. "Hey Hermione."
"Hey Harry. Are you ready?" She asked him.
"Yep, shall we go?" He replied.
"YES!" Ron shouted.
"OKAY!" Harry shouted back, laughing at Ron again. Harry was excited, but obviously not as excited as Ron.

Ron bounded down the huge staircase, reaching the bottom in less than half the time it took the others. Ron was getting annoyed at how slow Hermione and Harry were, and he started to go back up the staircase to see what was taking them so long. He met them a third of the way up.
"Come on! You are so slow!" He moaned at them. "Please be faster?" He pleaded.
"Yes alright!" Harry and Hermione said together. They then speeded up a bit but still reached the bottom after Ron did.

Outside the castle, the weather nice. The sun was shining which made the snow look brighter, and the snow glittered. The sun madde the day feel warmer, even though it was the middle of winter and snow was everywhere the eye could see. The three friends were glad they had wrapped up warm as the wind was cold, and they couldnt wait to get into the village of Hogsmeade.
"Where shall we go first?" Hermione asked. "I need some more parchment and ink so I need to go to Florish and Blotts."
"Me and Harry were talking about this earlier. I need to go to Zonkos to get something for Ginny, and Harry needs to go to Honeydukes to get something for Sirius." Ron explained to her.
"Yeah. I dont mind where we go first though." Harry said.
"Can we go to Florish and Blotts first? Then we get to do the more fun shops last." Hermione suggested.
"Sure, good idea." Harry said.
"But then we are going to Zonkos!" Ron said.
"Sure. Then Honeydukes." Harry said. "And then, I am going to take you to The Three Broomsticks to buy us all some butterbeer." Harry told them.
"Oh Harry, you dont have to do that!" Hermione said. "I can pay for my own!"
"My treat!" Harry said.
"Are you sure?" She asked.
"Yeah. I have enough. Actually, I have more than enough." He said and laughed.
"Thanks so much Harry." She said, and hugged him. He looked at Ron and saw a hint of jealousy in his face.
"No problem." He replied, and pulled away.
"Yeah thanks Harry." Ron said. "Look, we are nearly there!" His excitement returned.

When they arrived, the village was already full of other hogwarts students. the pavement had all been cleared from snow to make it safer for them, but the buildings still had snow on the rooves and icicles hung from window ledges. Hermione walked straight towards Florish and Blotts while Harry and Ron waited for her outside.
"What are you getting for Sirius then?" Ron asked, making conversation.
"I told you, sweets and chocolate." Harry said.
"I know that!" Ron replied. "I meant do you know what sort of sweets you will get him! Like sherbert lemons, chocolate frogs..."
"Oh! I might get him a few chocolate frogs and some lolly pops, but Im not one hundred percent sure yet. I need to look at when they have in stock." He said.
"Oh right." Ron said.
"What are you going to get Ginny?" Harry asked.
"Im not sure yet. Im wondering whether to get her a prank item that will prank her, or a prank item that she can use to prank someone else." He said.
"Oh, thats a hard decision." Harry said. "If it were me, Id get her something to prank someone else. I wouldnt want her to Hate me on christmas day."
"Yeah, good point." Ron said. Hermione then walked out the shop with a small paper back.
"Got everything?" Harry asked.
"Yep." Hermione said. "Though the price of parchment has gone up a bit, so I couldnt afford the bigger roll." She said this with a disappointed expression.
"Oh, you could have asked me for some extra money Hermione." Harry offered.
"No, I couldnt, Harry. You have already offered to buy us butterbeers." She said.
"I can always give you a galleon or two if you need it Hermione." He told her.
"Thanks for the offer Harry, but I couldnt take it." She said.
"Okay, no problem." He said. "Where to next? Zonko's?"
"Yep!" Ron said, and skipped towards the joke shop.
"I never knew that Ron could get so excited at christmas. I wonder what he will be like on christmas day." Hermione said with a smile while watching Ron.
"Yeah I know," Harry said. "Im excited, but I never get as excited as he does."

They joined Ron in Zonko's, to see what he would buy for Ginny.
"What do you think she would like?" Ron asked Harry.
"I don't know. Your her brother." He said.
"Do you know what I should get her?" He turned to Hermione.
"Maybe these little potions that make you blow bubbles whenever you try to speak?" She suggested.
"No, I got those for her last year." He said, sadly. "Whats that next to them?"
"Um, they are potions that you put a drop into someones drink and it keeps refilling the cup of whatever the drink was." Hermione read off of the bottle.
"Thats quite a good idea, as I know she loves her butterbeer. I could give that too her. How many times does it refill the cup with one drop?" He asked.
"It says here that it refilled it whenever the cup is nearly empty, and it refills it three times." She read.
"Not bad!" he said with a grin. "How much?"
Hermione grimaced. "Ten galleons."
"Aww! I have eight!" He said, disappointed.
"I can help you out." Harry said.
"Really? Thanks mate!" Rons face lit up.
"No problem." Harry replied, and handed him over two gold coins.
"Thanks." Ron said, and picked up the potion off of the shelved and went to pay for it.

Coming out of Zonkos, Harry went straight to Honeydukes with Ron and Hermione following.
"Chocolate frogs..." Herry picked up two. "Huge Lollypop..." he picked that up. "wow... sugar quills!" he picked up two of these.
"That will cost a lot you know." Hermione warned.
"I know, but I have enough." Harry replied. "Il get him one more thing. Oh! A huge bar of Honeydukes chocolate." He picked this up too, and he could barely carry everything. He took them up to the counter and Hermione helped him put everything into two paper bags. He carried them out of the shop.
"The three Broomsticks?" Harry asked.
"Sure." Ron said.
"Okay." Hermione said and followed him in.

The Three Broomsticks was a pub which was about half the size of the great hall. The tables were all wooden and round, and looked exactly the same but all different sizes. There was a bar there where alcoholic butterbeer could be bought, but of course, Hogwarts students were only allowed to buy the non alcoholic butterbeer. They sat down on a table four three and Herry went to buy the drinks. Hermione and Ron were looking at the potion that Ron bought for Ginny.
Harry returned with three butterbeers and Ron kept out his potion.
"I want to text this." Ron said.
"But its for Ginny!" Hermione said.
"I know, but one drop wont hurt! Its a big bottle!" He said.
"But she will know its been opened." Harry said.
"Oh yeah." Ron said, looking sad.
"Im sure she will let you try it when you give it to her." Harry said.
"I hope so!" Ron said, his face lightening up a bit.

When the three of them had finished their butterbeers, they left the three broomsticks feeling refreshed and warm, but were soon to be cooled from the cold wind. However, the sun was starting to melt the icicles on the windowpanes and the snow on the rooves. The rooves were dripping onto the street, making the ground wet.

The three friends left the middle of the village and went to the outside of the village. They spotted Malfoy up ahead.
"Shall we do it then?" Ron asked. "Get Malfoy with snowballs?"
"I think we should." Harry and Ron exchanged smirks.
"You really want to hit Malfoy with snowballs?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah!" Ron said enthusiastically.
"Okay, but if you get caught, thats your problem." She said. "I will be sat here, watching. She sat on a part of the wall nearby.
"Okay. Got your cloak?" Ron asked Harry.
"Yep!" Harry pulled out the cloak from his bag.
"Okay." They put on the cloak so it covered them both. Hermione gave them a thumbs up. "Lets go."