snow falls
"Regulus."
"Nngh."
"Reg."
"Go away."
"Regulus, Gryffindor just caught the snitch two minutes into the match, you've just lost the Quidditch Cup—"
"What?!" Regulus jerked awake, startled, and someone clapped a hand over his mouth to keep him quiet.
"Shhh!" James Potter sniggered, putting a finger to his lips. As Regulus adjusted to being rudely awoken, he pulled James's hand away from his mouth, and glanced over to where his roommates still slept soundly.
"What are you doing here?" Regulus hissed, but then he glanced at the crumpled bit of parchment that he was shoving into the pocket of his pyjama bottoms. He'd heard James and Sirius whispering about their map, but they'd never let Regulus in on the secret. "Never mind. How did you get in the Slytherin Common Room?"
James grinned, and patted the bed to the side of him, where his folded cloak sat. Regulus rolled his eyes—of course. He'd spent many an evening huddled under that invisibility cloak with James before now.
"I hung around after Potions today until I heard someone use the password," James whispered.
"What are you doing here?" Regulus replied. "I'm exhausted. Shouldn't you be in bed?"
"Sleep is for the weak."
"Well, go away," Regulus grumbled, leaning back down into the warmth of his bed. James grabbed his arm and yanked him back up, much to Regulus's annoyance.
"Get out of bed," James muttered, pulling the covers away from Regulus's legs. "I've got something to show you."
…
Regulus grumbled as James dragged him through the Slytherin Common Room by the wrist, his invisibility cloak under his arm. "Stop complaining," James said as they reached the door to the dungeons outside. "It's not like you have any lessons. It's the Christmas holidays."
"I like my sleep," Regulus muttered.
"You sound like your brother. He needs his beauty sleep too." Once they were outside of the Slytherin Common Room, they walked a little way down the corridor and James stopped at a gnarly old statue of some famous potioneer that Regulus never bothered to learn the name of. James reached behind the statue and pulled out his broomstick and a huge maroon coat. "Come here."
"What is it?" Regulus moved closer to James, only to have the heavy parka yanked over his head and zipped up to the neck. "James—get it off—"
"You'll freeze to death out there, you haven't got enough meat on your bones."
"What do you—I'm not going outside—James!" Regulus gasped for air as James pulled the fur-lined hood up over his face and fastened the buttons at the chin.
"There. Much better." James took a handful of the sleeve of the coat—Regulus's hands were lost inside the enormous padded sleeves—and gripped the handle of his broom with his free hand. He dragged Regulus out of the dungeons and up the stairs to the main corridors of the castle, until they reached the drafty main doors of the castle.
"James, we're going to get caught—"
"Shh!" James shook the invisibility cloak out and threw it over his head and Regulus's. "There. Let's go."
Regulus hesitated as James reached for the door. "James, will you just tell me what's going on? It's the middle of the night. Why are we going outside?"
James groaned. "Can't you just have a bit of faith in me and look forward to a surprise?"
"I don't like surprises."
"You'll like this one." James threw open the door, and Regulus shivered as a freezing gust of air swept through into the corridor. James dragged him through the open door, and into the courtyard outside. "Look."
Regulus blinked as he stood in the dark courtyard, under the invisibility cloak with James. The cobbled ground beneath their feet was covered in a layer of glittery frost, the air was full of swirls and flurries of snow, and the roofs and turrets of the castle were blanketed with swathes of white. "Is it...it's…"
"Snow," said James happily, and Regulus noticed the sparkle in his hazel eyes. He was really excited about the weather. "The first snow of the winter, just in time for Christmas. I remember you said you'd never seen snow before. When I saw it start this evening, I wanted you to see it before it was spoiled by everyone turning it into slush."
"Mother and Father always took us to the south of Italy over Christmas," Regulus murmured. "By the time we got back to England the snow was always gone."
James pulled the cloak off their heads and tied it loosely around his neck, then lowered his broom. "Come on. We're going for a ride." He straddled his broom and patted the handle in front of him.
"I could have just brought my own broom."
"That wouldn't be very romantic, would it?" James grinned. Regulus rolled his eyes and made to climb behind James onto the back of the broom, but James shook his head and shuffled back. "You've got to sit on my knee. It's the rules."
"James, I can't sit on your knee on a broo—"
"Just get on." James grabbed the back of the puffy coat and pulled Regulus onto the front of the broom, then reached around his waist to grip the handle in front of him. "There. Lovely and cosy."
"Why do you always have to make things difficult?" Regulus murmured, but there was the hint of a smile in his voice.
"You love it." James kicked off the ground, and they soared into the sky.
…
Regulus couldn't hide his joy as James sped through the snowy sky. He laughed and jeered and tried to catch the flakes of snow, despite his hands being mostly obscured by the long sleeves of the coat. James rested his head on Regulus's shoulder as he steered the broom from the back of the broom.
"This is amazing!" Regulus called. "It's the most beautiful thing."
"It's not quite the most beautiful thing," James said, and lowered the broom to skim the trees of the Forbidden Forest. As they reached the grounds of Hogwarts again, Regulus leaned forward to peer down to the space around the Whomping Willow.
"Is that a dog?" he called, and James started to circle the tree, high up out of the way of it's snow-tipped, yet still aggressively swinging branches. There was a black shaggy dog, barking furiously up at James and Regulus, standing up on its hind legs and pawing at the air. "It doesn't look happy."
"No…" James said, and he laughed quietly. "No, it doesn't. We better get back to the castle."
"Because of a dog?" asked Regulus. The dog barked so loud and suddenly that Regulus jumped, and James tightened his arms around Regulus's waist.
"Yeah. That dog is super pissed off with me." James pointed the handle of the broom back towards the castle. Regulus tried to crane back around to get a look at the dog, and noticed it was running through the snow after them.
…
James took Regulus back to the Slytherin Common Room and Regulus shrugged himself free of the coat, handing it back to James. "Thank you," Regulus said, smiling.
"Are you sure?" James said with a smirk. "You weren't too happy about me waking you up before."
"That was before I knew what an excellent reason you had to wake me up."
James moved slightly closer to Regulus. "I'll keep it in mind when I have other excellent reasons to wake you, then."
Regulus grinned as James pressed their lips together, cupping Regulus's cheek as he did so. "I'll see you at breakfast," he murmured. "I better get back to the Gryffindor tower."
"Yeah, you have to see a man about a dog, right?"
James laughed. "Well, maybe a man who is a dog."
Regulus watched him sidle back through the corridor, disappearing into thin air as he pulled the invisibility cloak over his head. He really had no idea what James Potter was talking about half of the time.
Written For:
- Winter Funfair/Decorate the Christmas Tree: 10. Pre-lit tree - (Item) Coat
- Winter Funfair/Snowman Dressing: Eyes 5. (colour) Maroon
- Winter Funfair/Treasure Hunt: C5. (animal) Dog
- Winter Funfair/Shoebox to Charity: 10. (word) warm
- Winter Funfair/Advent Calendar: 19. (dialogue) "Sleep is for the weak."
- Winter Funfair/12 Days of Shipmas: 2. (action) Flying
- Winter Funfair/Magical Mistletoe: 10. (word) frost
- Winter Funfair/Winter Bingo: 15. (plot point) First time seeing snow
- Writing Club/Gotta Catch Them All: 8. (word) swirl
- Writing Club/Written in the Stars: 16. (setting) common room
- Writing Club/Showtime: 3. (weather) Snowy
- Writing Club/Film Festival: 29. (emotion) excited
- Writing Club/Elizabeth's Empire: 11. (action) catching snowflakes
- Writing Club/Angel's Archive: 2. (object) parka coat
- Writing Club/Lyric Alley: 6. With the snow falling down
- Writing Club/Throwback: 7. (word) sparkle
- Writing Club/Buttons: Emotions 1. Joy
- Writing Club/TV Spree: 19. (dialogue) "You've got to sit on my knee. It's the rules."
- Autumn Seasonal/Jewellery Month: 2. (animal) Dog
- Moony's Neon Cafe/Table Prompts: 12. (word) warm
Word Count: 1,333