Challenge Prompt: Word prompt - Winter
Setting: Hogwarts grounds, February 1995
'Such an odd thing, snow.' Luna thought. She was standing by a tree, watching Harry and Ron run around throwing it at each other. Hermione was determinedly trying to teach Ginny how to make something she called a "snowman", despite it not actually being a person. Ginny seemed more interested in ganging up on Ron.
'I wonder if there's a better way to do that.' Luna couldn't imagine that just throwing the snow around would work very well, there had to be a spell for a snowball… but how would it work?
There was so much snow, but it wasn't a specific number of things. It was just there, and no matter how much of it you had, it was still just snow. You didn't have three snows, or five snows, you just had more snow. Like water, only solid. And lighter. Very strange.
Well, there was nothing for it. She'd just have to experiment and see what worked.
Luna reached down and rolled up a little ball of snow, pointed her wand at it, and incanted, "Wingardium Leviosa." Sure enough, she now had a floating snowball. She let the spell fade, and the snowball dropped back down, breaking apart.
'Can I put it back together?' She gestured at the little pile. "Wingardium Leviosa." She stopped the flow of magic almost instantly, and still she felt dizzy. 'Why was that so much harder?'
She sat down and poked at the little pile of snow in front of her. 'It stopped being a snowball and went back to being snow. Funny that it does that. So I wasn't trying to levitate a snowball, I was trying to… oh dear, no wonder it was so difficult. I don't have nearly enough magic for that, I don't think.'
Luna was pulled from her thoughts as she felt something cold hit the top of her head. She looked up to see Ron grinning at her. "Come on Luna, stop poking at it and join us!" Hermione seemed to have given up on her snowman-that-wasn't-a-man and was standing next to Ron, with two snowballs of her own. Ginny had, apparently, changed sides, and was now standing on the other side of her brother, leaving Harry on his own.
"I suppose I must, if you're going to treat Harry like that." Luna stood up, and saw that Harry's hands were empty. 'I think I can work with this. It'll be fun, revenge, and an experiment all rolled into one!' She smiled and pointed at the snow-not-a-man. "Harry, I think Hermione left her snowballs behind… you think we can hit them with a levitating charm?"
Harry looked, and grinned. "You know Luna, I think you're onto something. Wingardium Leviosa!" Harry gestured, and sent the largest of the snowballs Hermione had left behind flying toward Ron, Ginny, and Hermione. The three quickly dove out of the way, as the snowball impacted where they had been standing moments prior and broke apart.
'Perfect, just one more step.' Luna grinned. "Harry, it's right next to them, try again!"
"Harry? I'm not sure you should…" Hermione started, but Harry was already pointing.
"Too late to back down now Hermione. Wingardium Leviosa!" As Harry gestured, all the snow between him and Hermione, one foot deep, went flying. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny all tried to run away, screaming, but were quickly covered in a torrent of flying snow, and for a moment all that could be seen was the white of Harry's makeshift blizzard.
When the snow had settled, the heads of the three could be seen poking out of the snow, but they were otherwise buried.
"Err…" Harry said. "Sorry about that. I'll get you out of there!." He started to run forward.
"Harry Potter, how could you be so reckless! That was one of the stupidest, most idiotic…" Hermione was ranting. Ron looked gobsmacked, and Ginny couldn't decide whether to be impressed, furious, or amused.
"I think that went rather well, actually." Luna said, smiling as she grabbed Harry's arm. "But I think Hermione's a bit upset, and could use some time to cool down. You wouldn't want to make her mad, would you Harry?"
Harry looked at Luna for a moment, then smiled. "You're right, I think she could use a chance to cool off. Why don't we go back inside and get some hot chocolate from the kitchen?"
"DON'T YOU DARE RUN OFF HARRY" Hermione shouted as she struggled to extricate herself from the snow. Harry simply laughed, waved, and pulled Luna with him towards the castle.
Hermione, Ron, and Ginny walked into the kitchen to see Luna and Harry sitting at a table, sipping from mugs of hot chocolate. Harry pointed at three empty seats, with hot mugs of hot chocolate waiting for them.
"I'm still mad at you." Hermione said, dropping into a seat across from Harry and grabbing her mug.
Luna looked at Hermione. "I'm sure Harry could help you cool off some more if you like." At Hermione's glare, she shrugged. "Perhaps some other time? You were right, that was a lot of fun, I should join you all more often."
'After all' Luna thought, 'Who knows what else we might learn?'