The boys weren´t able to investigate in the library the next day. Vern and Enrico were around all the time and it was a silent agreement that the ghost was Al and Scorpius´ secret. Al thought it was great to have a secret only shared with his very best friend.

The next few days weren´t any better. The teachers dealed out homework in increasing amounts and although the Slytherin first years were to be found at the library frequently, they had no time whatsoever to care about ghosts and ways to enable them to go on.

The weekend started busy, too. Especially after James and his classmates challenged the Slytherins to a snowbattle on Saturday morning after breakfast.

"Are you sure we won´t get in trouble?" asked Al.

"I asked McGonagall," said James proudly. "She says it´s okay, if we agree on rules first. And if the upper years stay away. So what do you say? Gryffindor has a total of eight first and second years, who´d like to participate. Can you come up with a team of eight?"

Al and Scorpius promised to try and went to their common room to recruit. It was easy. They could have provided twenty fighters as well.

"Whom do we choose?" asked Scorpius. "More boys or girls?"

"As this is a magical battle and not a fistfight," said Millicent Boyl, a second year, sternly, "you should go for magical abilities not physical strenght. So better choose second years. We know more spells!"

"But we want to play, too!" cried Enrico.

"You can next year!" snapped Millicent.

"You wish!" retorted Elmira Smyth, one of Al´s classmates.

Soon most of the younger Slytherins were engaged in shouting duels. It was Jonah, who sorted things out at last.

"As you all want to participate," he suggested, "why don´t you draw for it?"

He provided little pieces of parchment and everyone who wanted to be part of the team wrote his or her name on one. Then they put the parchments into a wizard´s hat and Jonah shuffled.

"Oy, Violet, we need someone to draw!" he cried and the blonde seventh year joined the group.

"How many?" she asked and threw back her long vail of golden hair.

"Eight," said Al.

Violet drew eight pieces of parchment and Jonah read out the names. Al, Scorpius and Vern were lucky. They were chosen for the team. Enrico wasn´t and pouted.

"You can have my place," said Vern.

Enrico shook his head. "You were lucky. No reason why you shouldn´t enjoy it. I´ll watch and cheer you on." The fact that he had been offered to participate seemed to soothe the boy considerably.

-x-

The Slytherins and Gryffindors met on the lawn at noon. Many of the upper years had come to watch, as had many of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Seeing that the small snowball fight she had authorized had developed into an interhouse battle, which could only be compared to Quidditch, headmistress McGonagall decided it had to be supervised.

She herself and – a rather grumpy – professor Slope were present to proctor. Professor Flitwick, Head of Ravenclaw House, was to referee.

The team captains, Millicent for Slytherin and James for Gryffindor, met the impartial in the middle of the battlefield.

"The rules are as follows," the tiny professor informed them, his voice magnified magically in order to be heard by the audience, too. "We´ll count points. You get points for hitting an opponent with a portion of snow, preferably ballshaped. You lose points if you hit an opponent with a spell or injure them. You´re allowed to use magic, but only on the snow. Is that clear?"

Both captains nodded.

"The team, which gets twohundred points first, wins."

The captains shook hands and professor Flitwick blew his whistle. The battle commenced.

-x-

Slytherin had nominated three first and five second years. Gryffindor, it turned out, had never asked the first years to participate and had only second years on the team.

"And they say WE are cunning," cried Millicent. "Slytherins, we have been cheated. Let´s make them pay!"

Al was furious! James had used him, his brother, to gain an advantage for Gryffindor. Al and the other Slytherins were determined to spoil the Gryffindors´ plans.

The teams gathered at their ends of the lawn for tactical discussions.

"What can we do?" asked Millicent. "Any ideas?"

Ares Watson shrugged. "I don´t think that our first years are magically weaker than their second years. As far as I know those three are doing well in Charms." The three first years nodded enthusiastically. "Our only disadvantage is that they know fewer spells, especially defensive spells. Those are taught in Defence Against the Dark Arts, but not during first year. So if the three stay behind our shields and attack from there, we have a chance."

Millicent thought about it and agreed. "Is it understood?" she adressed Al, Scorpius and Vern. "You use our defence to shield you. Try not to be hit."

Kimberly Watson, Ares´ twin, suggested to give each first year a partner. At last she was assigned to protect Vern, Ares was teamed with Al and Millicent with Scorpius.

-x-

The battle was fierce. The Slytherins were angry and the Gryffindors, it turned out, had planned the whole battle for some time. They had looked up spells to direct snowballs, to melt away the opponents´ amunition in midair and make snowballs follow a victim.

Professor Flitwick did his best to keep the battle fair, but it was an uphill task. The Slytherins were fighting a losing battle and the clearer their defeat became, the more they tried to bend the rules. Twice the professor had to stop the battle to give Mme Slope, the school nurse, a chance to stop nosebleeds.

Normally Al would have been concerned, when his brother´s face was red with blood, but he still was angry at James for tricking Slytherin into letting first years fight when Gryffindor had an all second years team.

"Really, professor, I think you should remind your house of fairness," professor McGonagall was to be heared when Mme Slope tended to James´ nose.

"Hear who´s talking," grumbled the small Head of Slytherin House. "Do you call it fair to let our first years face your second years?"

"I ask you, professor," smiled the old witch benignly, "nobody forced you to nominate your youngest."

"We thought this was for fun," Professor Slope spat. "A children´s game, not a war."

"A war? You´re exagerating, Professor," cried the headmistress.

"Really?" Professor Slope cocked an eyebrow and pointed at his wife, who was cleaning James´ face.

-x-

After the second timeout it became clear – at least to the teachers – that it had been a mistake to set the goal at twohundred points. All sixteen fighters were tired, but so angry (the Slytherins for having been tricked and the Gryffindors for James´ injuries) that they would rather die than give up. The fight was close as the Slytherins had recovered from their problems they had at the beginning of the battle. Currently it was onehundred and twenty for Slytherin and onehundred and fourty-two for Gryffindor.

As the fighters grew desperate the battle turned even dirtier. Professor Flitwick was fighting a losing battle. He couldn´t supervise every player at the same time. So while he was making sure that things were played fair on one end of the battlefield, dirty tricks were used behind his back.

Al had been hit in the face thrice, luckily only by snow. Scorpius hadn´t been so lucky. He had suffered hits with some small stones and also a potions book. (Professor Flitwick had seen the last and taken two points from Gryffindor for the unfair attack.)

The younger Potter was furious and he had to use all his willpower to not simply run over to his brother and start a fistfight, to hit him, bite him and scratch him wherever he got hold of him like he had done when they had been smaller.

"Stop doing the obvious and leave your brother alone," a voice hissed in Al´s ear. The boy started. "Are you a Slytherin, or what?" the voice continued.

Al looked around frantically, but couldn´t see who had spoken to him. None of his teammates was close enough, only Ares, but he was in front of Al and too busy shielding them both.

On second thought the voice was right. Everybody would expect Al to go after his brother. So it would be better to go after somebody else. Al made some snowballs and looked out for a victim.

It was only then that he realized that all the Slytherins had followed his lead. Everybody assumed that James was the initiator of the unfair battle and therefore everybody went after the eldest Potter brother. In response, the Gryffindors tried to protect James. Three of their fighters were shielding him. The other four attacked and were quite successful as the Slytherins neglected looking out for them.

Al took aim and sent a flock of snowballs at James´ friend Tom, who was caught by the attack in surprise. Al smirked. So this was seven points for the Slytherin team.

Ares had seen Al score and used Tom´s moment of anger. He, too, sent several snowballs at once as did Scorpius and Vern, who had been looking out for their fellow first year and spotted the weakness in the Gryffindor defence when Al had used it.

The Gryffindors reacted promptly. They concentrated their defence on Tom, who seemed to be the Slytherins´ prefered target now, and thus left James.

This time the Slytherins were even quicker. James was hit by snowballs from six Slytherins, though not from Al.

Al had spotted another weak point and attacked a Gryffindor girl, whose name he didn´t know. She had long blonde hair and pale blue eyes and she looked furious when Al´s snowballs hit her. She tried to retaliate, but Ares watched out well for his charge and erected a shield in time.

At last Slytherin won with a small lead of seven points.

-x-

The crowd save the Gryffindors cheered. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs may have sympathised with the lion house in the beginning, but they estimated a good fight and congratulated the underdogs for winning. The age trick hadn´t gone unnoticed and the eagles and the badgers were quite content that it hadn´t worked.

Professor Slope smirked at professor McGonagall and ushered his house back to the dungeons after awarding the team onehundred points for ´exceptional bravery and stamina´ and Al ten more for ´great strategical skills´.

"We´re back in the race for the House Cup!" whispered Ares to Al as they went downstairs side by side. "We really have to thank your brother for this battle!"

"I´ll make sure to mention your gratitude next time I talk to him," grinned Al.

Ares smacked him on the back playfully and went to talk to his classmates.

Scorpius and Vern caught up with Al. Both looked as exhausted as Al felt. Vern´s cheeks were red and his nose was running, but he looked happy and excited.

"I can´t believe we did it!" he cried happily.

"I thought we´d cause Slytherin more trouble when I saw Gryffindor had nominated only second years," admitted Scorpius.

"So did I," agreed Vern. "They know so many more spells than we. I thought we´d lose, cousin."

Al shot Vern a warning glance and the other boy closed his mouth quickly, but the damage was done.

Scorpius had heard him and Merlin knew who else in the crowd.

The short blond opened his mouth to comment, but closed it when Al shook his head slightly.

Vern looked devastated. How could he be so thoughtless?

-x-

"I think a celebration is in order," said Professor Slope. He clapped his hands thrice and several house elves appeared with plates of sandwiches, biscuits and small cakes. Jugs of pumpkin juice popped into existence and soon the whole of Slytherin house was immersed in a party in their Common Room. Some of the older students put up some garlands and balloons and the professor conjured a large Slytherin banner.

Slytherin house was back. They had a chance to win the House Cup.

-x-

The celebration was short. The battle had taken all afternoon and the impromptu party replaced dinner for Slytherin house. The combatants were all very tired – a magical battle lasting several hours is draining for adult witches and wizards and even more so for children – and accordingly went to bed early and the others followed their lead soon.

Lights weren´t out at once, however, in the first year boys´ dormitory.

Scorpius hadn´t said anything in public, but he lost no time once the door was closed behind them.

"Cousin?" he asked couriously. Enrico stopped rummaging in his trunk and sat on his bed to listen.

Vern bit his lip and glanced at Al for advice.

"We found out during the Christmas hols," Al said after thinking about it for a moment. He guessed it would be better to explain the whole matter to the other two boys and make them understand why they needed discretion than keep them guessing. "Our dads met at the station and it turned out they´re cousins. They were seperated during the war and didn´t know where the other was."

"Cool!" said Scorpius.

"Wicked!" Enrico´s eyes twinkled.

"We think it´s great that we´re related, but Dad says we have to keep it secret. He doesn´t want to put his muggle relatives in danger."

Scorpius nodded solemnly. "I understand," he said, "I´ll keep your secret." It sounded as if he was taking a vow.

"I´m not sure why being related to Harry Potter would put somebody in danger," admitted Enrico, "but I´ll respect your wish and keep the secret, too."

Al and Vern thanked their friends and then the four boys went to bed.