Two days before the official start of the Christmas holidays, the students of Hogwarts woke to a thick blanket of snow covering every inch of the grounds. Naturally, every tiny child and mature N.E.W.T student wanted to go outside and wreck the smooth perfection of the snow, but their teachers were firm - nobody would be skipping class, even so close to the holidays. Only the lucky few scheduled for Care of Magical Creatures would be able to mess around outside, where a few sneaky snowballs would be smashed into the back of heads and packed down the neck of someone's jumper.
The school bell had only just rung when a crowd of witches and wizards clad in scarves of red, blue, yellow and green poured out into the grounds, instantly charming piles of snow to land on their targets. James Potter and Sirius Black were no exception - they surged into an as yet untouched spot of snow, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew just behind, the former not quite as fast due to his ill health, the latter simply too pudgy to keep up with James and Sirius' limitless twelve-year-old energy.
"Time to build a fort!" They said to each other gleefully, before beginning to shovel snow up into a thick wall.
"Why?" Peter asked, confused, yet still packing snow obediently.
Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Remus needs a defence, Pete." he explained.
"No I don't!" Remus protested, barrelling forward and kicking through the 'fort'. Sirius' face split into a grin.
"So you are one of us! Come on then, where's Snivellus?"
"Over there." James said proudly, pointing a gloved finger. Severus Snape was hovering by Lily Evans, wearing socks that were far too large and a coat that was far too small. His greasy hair had caught a few flecks of thick snow, making it look as if he had an unfortunate case of extreme dandruff. James and Sirius bent to grab some snow, when -
Smack!
A snowball slammed into the side of James Potter's head, caking into his hair and freezing the left half of his face, his glasses knocked askew. With an undignified yelp, James fell into the snow.
"James?" Peter asked uncertainly, whilst Sirius just stood and blinked, confused, his snowball falling to pieces in his hands. Remus was smiling.
James propped himself onto his elbows.
"Who was that? Sirius?"
"Wasn't me, mate."
Smack!
Another snowball hit James, this time square in the middle of his face. James felt his nose become icy cold as Sirius erupted into laughter behind him. Who in the name of Merlin was doing that?!
He raised his head, this time ready to shout at someone, when he saw Lily Evans standing in front of him, frowning.
"Evans?" He said in a confused tone, before frowning right back at her. "Why are you hitting me with snowballs?"
"Don't pretend like you weren't planning to hit Sev, Potter." Lily responded in a bored tone, rolling her eyes. Her wand was in her hand, and she waved it again - this time Sirius was the target, staggering slightly as he tried to dodge a snowball aimed between his eyes. It didn't work - Sirius ended up falling backwards into Peter, who squeaked and ended up wrapping his arms around Sirius' waist in an effort to stop him falling.
"Ew, Peter! Geroff, I'm not your girlfriend!"
"Sorry." said Peter, blushing and removing his arms from Sirius' person.
"Go away, Evans." James groaned. She always ruined his fun. Girls were dumb.
"Don't hit Sev then, okay?" She turned, her red ponytail whipping around behind her. "He's my friend!"
"Your boyfriend! Can't Snivelly look after himself?"
"He shouldn't have to! You're just a bully! And he's not my boyfriend."
"It's not as if he wouldn't hit us with snow!"
That only earned him another mouthful of ice. James decided to leave it as Lily walked away through the crowds of shrieking people, back towards Severus and her dorm-mates, both a fair distance away from each other.
James picked himself up and dusted off the snow on his expensive coat from Madame Malkin's, retaining the last of his dignity. Sirius was looking at him expectantly, levitating a snowball in front of him.
"Hitting Snivelly on five, okay James? Five, four-"
"No." James grabbed Sirius' wrist and turned him around to face some third-years, looking disgruntled. "I don't want another faceful of snow. Stupid Evans."