After the epic defeat by Gryffindor, Slytherins were decidedly grumpy. Terence wouldn't speak to me for a three days and he wasn't the only one willing to vent his anger out on me when there were no Gryffindors around to mock. In self-preservation, I spent more time up in Gryffindor's common room where the mood was brighter and people didn't constantly shoot barbed insults my way. They teased me for being a snake, sure, but most of them would say that I wasn't really a snake and that the Hat made a mistake.
But as it will, time passed and soon, people forgot all about that game. The Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw game came near the end of November and Wood ordered his team to attend so that they could all observe Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw's playing styles for this year's teams. The twins dragged me along too, claiming that I hadn't been exposed enough to the wonderful world of Quidditch. Wood glared at me suspiciously as I stood with the rest of the team, but didn't say anything. The girls on the team, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet were all perfectly nice and welcoming and didn't mind including me in the team's banter. Lee's commentary, though rather less biased this game, was still engaging and I ended up enjoying myself again.
About a week into December, the skies dropped the biggest snowfall I had ever seen. It drove everyone crazy and you chanced finding yourself in the midst of a snowball fight by just stepping outside, oftentimes before that too if the twins were involved. Snowmen and defensive snow forts dotted the grounds, but of course, this was Hogwarts and everything was magic. Spells were cast on completed snowmen making them dance and spin through the white landscape. They often wore house scarves left by students and if a Slytherin snowman and a Gryffindor snowman got too close to one another, there was bound to be a fight, only ended when the spell was removed, a Hufflepuff snowman broke the fight up, or the two snowmen had pulverized one another, something that was both entertaining and slightly morbid to watch. The forts were way better than those found on the playground in a muggle neighborhood. These ones were often multi-tiered and reinforced to withstand attack. Those built by older students had holes along the walls, specifically for magically launching snowballs.
I found a book in the library about some of this stuff, titled The Magic of a Snow Day. We never were granted a snow day, but the book did contain some rather entertaining spells. The twins snagged it from my bag one night at dinner. As they read through it, their mischievous grins grew and, just as I knew they would, they copied several of the spells onto a separate scrap of parchment. I was surprised though when they wouldn't let me see which spells they took and I grew very suspicious of when and who they would try out on.
I found out the very next day. I was walking back from Herbology with Terence, Isaac, Joshua and Justin, jealous their warmer cloaks—Isaac and Justin's were even fur-lined—as we trudged through the six of snow. Justin and Terence were arguing about whose fault it was that they had been doused in goo from one of the plants in the green house, and not even the one we were using today, when Joshua grunted in surprise, the evidence of a snowball splattered across his chest. We all looked around for the thrower, but we didn't have to look far. "Hello there," Fred and George were grinning at us over the top of a rudimentary fort which was little more than a large mound of snow. Lee's dreadlocks could be seen bobbing next to them, but we couldn't see his face and whatever he was doing was blocked by the fort.
"What are you idiots doing?" Justin demanded. While all the boys were my friends, they didn't much get along. I took refuge behind the three of the Slytherin boys, all of whom were taller than me, keeping my head poked out so I could see what was going on.
"I would think that's rather obvious," Fred said conversationally to George and Lee.
"And they call us idiots," George sounded like he was pouting.
"Aren't you all supposed to be in Charms right now?" I demanded. There was no way they could have made it all the way down from the Charms class near the top of one of the towers out here with time to build their little fort and be waiting for us in the time it took for class to get out and us to get halfway to the castle.
"Flickwit got a cold and keeps falling over when he sneezes so he cancelled class this morning," George said smugly and I stuck my tongue out at him. We didn't even see it when Fred, with scary accuracy threw another snowball, this time hitting Terence on the side of his head. I watched a clump of snow slide down his neck and into his cloak collar as he hollered.
"C'mon, ssssnakes," Fred taunted. "Are you just going to sssslither away from a good fight?" Now, despite what you may have been told, Slytherins don't usually fight. However, we will make exceptions if we 1) know we can win or 2) have the opportunity to smash some Gryffindors. In this case, we had both and didn't even hesitate.
"You're on!" Isaac and Joshua quickly erected a small mound similar to the Gryffindors' while Justin, Terence and I started making a small pile of snowballs. As soon as the wall was up, we all started throwing our ammunition at the fort opposite ours. Within seconds, I realized what Lee had been hiding back there: he had built up a stockpile of ammunition and the twins were firing with magic, the impacts hard and some were sure to leave welts. We fought back aggressively, but we were already behind and it became quickly obvious that I have terrible aim. Knowing I needed to do something helpful for my team, I looked around and my gaze landed on someone's leftover snow fort a couple hundred yards away. And then, I had a wonderfully brilliant idea. Bracing my back against our defensive mound of snow, I pulled out my wand and concentrated. The twins might have pulled their snowball-throwing spell from that book, but I had studied it longer than they had and had learned a few spells of my own. I concentrated on the image in my head with my eyes closed. "Skylar, what are you doing?" Isaac yelled at me. "We need your help up here!" I ignored him as I felt something rise out of the snow in front of me, but as it was behind my team, they didn't notice it. I knew the Gryffindors noticed it though because their snowballs suddenly stopped.
"What are they doing?" Justin asked, suspecting some sort of trick; it was the best known pranking trio in the school. I finally opened my eyes and grinned at my success. In front of me stood a fifteen foot tall column of snow. It was hollow I knew, but it didn't look like it. There were no windows or slits to hint at the interior layout. The top was checkered as castles often were, like the bottom row of Jack-o-lantern teeth.
"C'mon," I ordered and they finally looked at me as I stood then turned to look behind them at what I was running towards.
"What it the world is that?" Joshua asked. I didn't answer besides ordering them to follow me. We ran behind it to where I knew an opening stood. A spiral stair case began only a few steps in and wound all the way up the column leading us right up to the top of my castle. As we ran up the stair, a loud THUMP on one side of the column followed by another on the same side. We exited onto the roof as the third one shook the column.
"What are those idiots doing to my tower?" I growled. Going right over the battlements, I looked through the space to see the others far below us about thirty feet away. Fred and Lee stood pointing at a snowball that floated in the air and began to grow in size until it was the size of a large beach ball. George pointed his own wand at it and launched it at my tower and the same THUMP shook the fort again. I leaned through the space looking straight down the tower to check for any damage they might have been doing. The fort was supposed to be magically reinforced against attack, but I wanted to be sure the spell was working the way it should.
"Get down!" Joshua was closest to me and grabbed the back of my cloak, pulling me flat to the roof. Before I had a chance to ask what he thought he was doing, another beach ball sized cannon ball of snow exploded right where I had been hanging over the edge.
"Thanks," I told Joshua before scrambling up and carefully peeking over the edge again. "Help me, would you?" I asked the boys behind me. They lined up next to me, each looking through their own gap.
"What's your plan?" Isaac asked and I knew all of them looking at me. My wand was still clutched in in my hand and I pointed it through the gap at the snow behind the Gryffindors.
"Point your wand at the ground behind them and then draw a line towards them. The spell is 'Fluctui nix'. Got it?" They all nodded and I heard a couple of them whisper the spell to themselves a few times. "Ready? On three. One…two…three!" Five spells were cast and the wave of snow that lifted, then buried the Gryffindors, was huge. Their little mound of a fort was decimated and the Slytherins began whooping in victory as we danced and jumped around the roof. When I saw their three heads pop out of the lump of snow, I laughed and ran back down the stairs the others following me and we stood laughing at the three Gryffindors while they slowly unburied themselves.
"Aren't you going to help us?" Lee asked, shaking snow out of his dreads and still buried in snow up to his waist.
"Nope," I said calmly as Fred finally pulled himself out, collapsing on the ground.
"That was a low trick," he said looking at me upside down and flicking some easily dodged snow my way.
"That wasn't a trick," Isaac mocked, "that was a well-executed spell and good strategy."
"Only a Slytherin would call hiding 'strategy'," George said as he collapsed next to his brother.
"I'm sure a few Ravenclaws would too," Justin said calmly with a mocking glint in his eye.
"Besides, you say that like having strategy is a bad thing," I said.
"No, we're saying hiding as a strategy is a bad thing," Lee said, finally rolling out of the snow himself. "Your strategy should be an upfront attack, not ducking for cover."
"Our strategy should be whatever puts us out on top. Literally in this case," Terence sneered. "What's the point of a loud obnoxious attack if you don't win?"
Before the boys could get into a real fight, I interrupted. "Enough, guys. The battle is over. And Slytherins won… this time at least," I added the last bit to appease the Gryffindors. Lee flicked some more snow at me, but didn't seem too upset.
"Come on, you two," George said pulling himself to his feet. "I'm soaked and cold. Let's go get lunch."
"Wait a second," his twin said, pulling George and Lee down behind the slope of snow created by my wave. "You lot had better get down too if you don't want to be blamed for this," he added to us. I glanced around as I ran to where they lay on the snow, the other Slytherins reluctantly following me.
"What are you doing?" I hissed. The only person I had seen around besides us was Quirrell coming out of the Forbidden Forrest. I wondered what the quivering Quirrell could have been doing in the forest. The man was afraid of his own shadow and the forest was full of much creepier shadows, something I unfortunately knew seeing as the twins, Lee and I had snuck in on multiple occasions. He reached up, unconsciously patting his ever-present turban.
"Watch this," George grinned, knowing exactly what his brother was thinking, as usual. They both scooped a couple snow balls together before tapping each one with their wands and whispering, "Interum metatur." It was as if these four little snowballs had been magnetized as they shot towards Quirrell only to bang into his turban. The Defense professor stumbled slightly as they hit, but instead of crumbling like snowballs usually did, they bounced off the turban, completely unaffected, before going right back. The snowballs quickly fell into a rhythm working in pairs as they followed Quirrell as he tried to walk away. He batted at them with his hand, but they didn't seem to notice so he stomped into the school scowling.
All eight of us students were laughing, rolling around and clutching our sides, "That was good, Weasleys," Justin said still laughing and clapping a choking Terence on the back. "Even I've got to admit." The others nodded in agreement as they kept laughing at Quirrell's rather murderous expression.
"I don't remember that one," I said as we all stood to trudge in.
"Page one hundred and fifty four," Fred said slinging his arm over my shoulders. I would have to go back through that book and see what else I missed. When we walked into the Great Hall, sighing a little at the warmth from the continuously roaring fire, we instantly saw Quirrell talking to Professor McGonagall and Professor Flickwit. Flickwit seemed to be trying to smother a smile while he raised his wand and the snowballs fell to the ground, but McGonagall noticed as we all walked in and her lips became a very small line. Isaac, Justin, Terence and Justin all peeled off towards Slytherin table quickly, Isaac muttering a good luck under his breath while we carefully walked to Gryffindor table. As we ate I noticed McGonagall descend from the teachers' table and slowly make her way down Gryffindor table with a piece of parchment, stopping to ask every student something and occasionally making a note of their answer on her parchment. The twins and Lee began debating which snow spell to use for their next prank and as I listened, I forgot about McGonagall until she spoke.
"Will you be staying for Winter Holidays, Mr. Jordan?" she asked.
"No, ma'am," Lee answered. "Going home for mum's cooking. You won't miss me too much, will you?" he asked with an impish grin.
Her lips momentarily tightened into a line before she said, "I believe we will make do, Mr. Jordan. And you two, Mr.'s Weasley?" she asked the twins. "Will you be returning home as well?"
"Not this year, Professor," George smiled up at her. "Mum and dad and Ginny are going to visit Charlie in Romania so you'll have all of us staying this year." She made a note of this on her parchment before looking at them sternly.
"I trust you will both behave appropriately," he commanded them.
"Of course, Professor," Fred said innocently. "Why would you think otherwise?"
"Because Professor Quirrell has just informed me that you bewitched snowballs to attack him." I silently wondered to myself how she knew it was the twins, but this woman was scary enough that I never questioned her authority.
"Us, Professor?" George asked. "Is he sure?"
"Yes, if he was attacked by snowballs, he could have been confused," Fred added hopefully.
"I don't believe so. You will both have detention with him next week and twenty points from each of you." She turned to me then and I had to work very hard to appear innocent even though I knew I hadn't done anything. "And you, Miss French. If I hear you had anything to do with it, you will join them in detention."
"She didn't do anything, Professor," both twins interjected. She nodded.
"Very well. Miss French, you will give your decision for the holidays to Professor Snape." She pointed to where Snape was making his way down the Slytherin table and I saw that Professor Sprout was doing the same for Hufflepuff table. I suspect that Flickwit was making his way down Ravenclaw table as well, but he was too short to see.
"Yes, ma'am, thank you," I said and McGonagall nodded before turning to a fourth year I didn't know. "I guess I'll see you guys later," I said standing. "I've got to go talk to Professor Snape." Perhaps it was selfish, but as I made my way across the hall, I was glad the twins were staying. There was no way I was going to go back to Ottery St. Catchpoles for Christmas, but I hadn't been looking forward to being alone for the holidays either. "Professor," I said as I approached Snape.
"What do you want?" he demanded.
"Um, Professor McGonagall said I had to tell you whether or not I'm staying for the break and I am."
"Wonderful," he sneered. "I'm overjoyed." A few nearby first years snickered, a blond boy named Draco Malfoy and his two henchmen-like friends Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, though I had never been able to tell which was which. Malfoy was one of the Slytherin that seemed especially offended by my heritage, but he had learned his lesson about mocking me for it around my friends, ages ago. I shrugged, my task completed and turned to go find Isaac and Terence for the rest of the lunch period. "Do not forget your detention tomorrow evening, Miss French."
"I know," I said not bothering to turn back. Detentions continued, worse than before simply because the temperature of the entire castle had dropped dramatically over the past few weeks. All the corridors and classrooms were drafty, even though most classrooms had some sort of fireplace, but the dungeons were downright freezing. At least in Potions class we had the fire under our cauldrons to warm us, but though his office had a fire place, he kept it burning low during my detentions so that its warmth didn't extend past his desk. My teeth chattered and my hands shook and whenever I dropped a jar, I got scolded. I had taken to visiting the kitchens after those detentions because the fires there were always burning and the house elves always brought me tea that warmed me to the core.
Shivering just at the thought of detention, I sat with down with my friends, pouring myself a mug of hot chocolate, listening to them all talk until the bell rang for our next class.