It was the day before Christmas, and the school was bustling with preparation.
The few of us remaining had decided to make snowmen on the grounds.
Thor's was more of a deformed pile of snow, this was his first attempt at a snowman, and although Jane Foster had tried to help, it kept falling apart. Tony's actually moved, although no one was sure how, Steve's was the classic three-ball-carrot-nosed-twig-armed snowman. The Marauders had made a couple that appeared to be strangling each other. Banner's was large and Clint's wasn't actually a snowman but more of a snowparakeet.
Regulus and I had teamed up and made a pretty nicely shaped snowman, not quite as ordinary as Steve's, mainly because Steve had used the only carrot we could find, and halfway through Regulus pushed me and I fell through our person so he had a large part of his stomach missing.
Loki however blew us all away. Instead of creating a snowman, he created a snow Hogwarts. It was a scale version of the castle so detailed it was impeccable. Once everyone had finished their sculptures, no one really cared what the others had done because everyone was so transfixed with Loki's.
He was adding some finishing touches to the Gryffindor tower when he noticed everyone staring at it.
"I know…the Ravenclaw tower is a bit off, it should have been about a foot to the right in the sculpture…but it's the best I can do." He said sheepishly. Stark let out a short laugh. I went over to stand beside Loki and took his hand in mine.
I was surprised to feel how cold it was. I reached over and lifted his other hand, finding it the same temperature. They were both slightly bluish, like the first hints of frostbite. Loki stared at them, and then glanced at me almost fearfully. His whole body was a light almost translucent blue. He tried to jerk his hands away from me, but I held tight and began rubbing them to warm them up.
"Your sculpture is amazing" I said, kissing his cold cheek. Then I turned around and leaned against him. He wrapped his arms around my waist and I held his hands in an effort to warm him up again.
Thor was still trying to get his to look like a snowman, but it wasn't working very well.
Both Jane Foster and Pepper Potts were trying to help him, but without much success. Thor kept swinging one of his arms and knocking the head off, or trying to mold the head and creating a crater in the side of it. Loki chuckled,
"We never got snow on Asguard." He explained in my ear
"How did you get so good?" James Potter asked. Loki shrugged,
"I guess it's in my blood." James looked at Thor, and Loki sighed, "it might have skipped him…"
"No kidding…" Sirius muttered. I glanced down and was relieved to see Loki's hands were a more normal color, though still freezing cold.
Eventually Thor gave up after he fell face first in the snow for the third time, and everyone headed inside for dinner. The great hall had been rearranged so that it was no longer four student tables and a teacher table, but one table for everyone. We had a great Christmas Eve feast, and then headed off to our respective dorms.
I got the fire going, and Loki, Regulus and I sat around it, ready for a calm night around the crackling warmth, but Tony Stark had other ideas.
There was a knock on the portal, and Regulus got up to answer it. As soon as the door opened, Tony Stark came in, followed by the rest of the Avengers, Pepper and Jane.
In moments Tony had set up a refreshment table, a section of the room for dancing, and had spruced up the Christmas Trees in the corners.
"What is going on?" I asked, following Tony as he set up food.
"Party! It's Christmas Eve! There were three Ravenclaw's, Three Slytherins, Three Gryffendors that wanted to come and only one Hufflepuff. I figured we should all have some fun!" He said, moving one of the tables out of the way. I sighed; Tony smiled, his eyes alight with promise of a fun night.
In less than ten minutes, the party was going at full force, and we had no choice but to join in.
Steve played a lot of classic Christmas music, but finally Tony rolled his eyes, and with a wave of his wand, switched it to some more contemporary music.
"Hey! That was my favorite song!" Steve protested. Tony grabbed Pepper's hand and led her to the dance floor.
"What? Sorry I can't hear you!" He shouted. Steve sighed and went to get some pumpkin juice.
Thor and Jane were dancing, and she was teaching him some more contemporary moves as opposed to his Asier tradition. Regulus just kind of stood there and bobbled with Banner and Clint, and Loki and I stood by the fireplace with some butterbeer.
"So…any other Asier Christmas traditions I should know about?" I asked. Loki chuckled,
"Odin looked funny in a red suit." He said. I stared at him for a moment before realizing he was kidding.
"Hey you two!" Regulus called. He had his wand out and was levitating a bushel of mistletoe over us. Loki stared at it and I looked down,
"You don't have to…" I said quietly. Loki gave a small smile and tilted my chin, kissing me lightly on the lips.
"For my brother." He said quietly. Regulus dropped the mistletoe so it fell on top of my head, and busied himself with some licorice wands.
"Cute" Loki commented, adjusting the mistletoe on my head. I rolled my eyes and took it off my head, placing it on the fireplace. Loki smiled, "Want to dance?" He asked, offering his hand.
"I don't know…how good are you?" I asked, Loki raised an eyebrow.
"I was a prince raised in a palace, you were raised by a Russian spies…you tell me." He said. I narrowed my eyes, taking his hand.
"We shall see" I said, he nodded his acceptance of the challenge.
Just as we got onto the floor, Steve had figured out how to work the stereo and the song changed to a slow one. Loki smiled, putting one hand around my waist and the other he placed into mine. I put my free hand on his shoulder.
We slowly began to sway in a small circle. "Not bad for a Russian spy." Loki commented.
"I would say not bad for an Asier Prince, but I don't really have anyone to compare you with…"
"You're the only Midguardian I've ever danced with…" Loki said, "Although you are better than most of the women on Asguard."
"And I bet you were quite the ladies man." Loki looked up as if remembering,
"Not really…Thor was more of the romantic one. I was always busy trying to clean up his messes." Loki smiled, "Besides I always hated how mother would try and get me to dance with these girls…"
"But thousands of years of dancing and all you can do is sway in a circle?" I asked, Loki smiled and tightened his grip,
"I thought you might be scared if we went faster." He said, pushing me away slightly while spinning me quickly under his arm, and pulling me back so our bodies collided. I held on tight, slightly dizzy.
"You alright?" He asked, a small amount of concern furrowing his brow.
"Is that the best you can do?" I asked. Loki pursed his lips, but before he could do anything, Tony yelled out
"SWITCH" And pushed Pepper into Thor and pulling me away from Loki and into his arms.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Dancing" He replied, "Besides, there are three girls and twice that many guys. We got to share…" Loki had slinked away from the dance floor and was talking to Regulus.
Jane Foster had begun dancing with Steve, Pepper was dancing with Thor, and I was dancing with Tony. After a few moments, Tony called switch again, and I ended up dancing with Steve.
"Natasha…I need to ask you a favor." He said.
"What is it?"
"I need to talk to someone…but I will need help getting back into the Slytherin dorm."
"Of course…do you want me to come with you?" I asked. Steve chuckled,
"We both know you will follow me no matter what." He said, "But it's not a big deal…we should go now before Tony yells switch again." I nodded and we slowly made our way to the portal, and then slipped out.