{A/N: I don't own any of the characters you recognize, so please don't let the big bad lawyers carry me off to Bad Girls Prison.}

{And to Red-Devil 15: I haven't read anything by Mercedes Lackey, and what makes it an even bigger coincidence is my last name is Lakey, so I'm freaking out right now.}

CHAPTER TWELVE Winter Capers

"Worm!" screeched Lily. "Stop it!"

"I didn't see you there. For obvious reasons."

"We're still underground, Lil." replied Sirius. "No one will see you if you take off the cloak."

"I'm not taking that chance. I'm sure Dumbledore knows about this."

Remus threw back the trapdoor. "We're here, and we weren't seen by anyone."

One by one they made their way into the sweets shop.

"Okay," James whispered. "We should probably split up. We'll draw less attention to ourselves."

"I'll go with the cloak twins." Pete volunteered.

"Thanks Petey!" said Ophelia, taking Sirius and James by the arms and running off.

"Meet at the Broomsticks in an hour!" called Remus's familiar voice.

After several minutes of running, they came to a stop in front of a rather large oak tree.

James rested his hands on his knees. "Do-Do you.. mind... t-telling m-me why we h-had to run?" he gasped.

Ophelia peered through the branches. "I saw them from inside Honeydukes. What do you suppose a few Slytherins are up to so far away from the castle?"

Sirius smirked. "Any ideas, Prongs?"

"Quite a few, actually."

"Care to share?" Ophelia asked. "They won't be sitting ducks all night."

James turned to her. "Do you mind doing some dirty work?"

"You want me to do something? Really?" she beamed.

"Er... yes?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"Be our diversion?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Fine, what's the plan?"

Ten minutes later, Ophelia strutted past Edmonde Crabbe, Mikela Kuven and Marcus Tate.

"Well if it isn't one of Potter little friends." Kuven said snidely. "Where's your usual escort Ophelia?"

She rolled her eyes dramatically. "You mean my brute of a brother and his prat friends? Who cares, I know I don't."

They exchanged a glance, as if trying to decide whether or not to trust her.

"Have you ever heard of a Hogwarts student switching Houses?" she continued, "Because I think I should look into it."

Tate grinned. "Well I'm glad you've come around. Better five years late than never."

Ophelia brushed the snow off a fallen log and sat down. Tate and Crabbe immediately joined her.

"So what kind of trouble are you boys up to?" she asked coyly.

"Well, Mikela wanted to take a break from that over the holiday." said Marcus. "Don't know why really."

"Is anyone taking you to the Ball?" Edmonde asked.

"No." she lied. "Why? Do you want me to save you a dance?"

He nodded enthusiastically. "Yes."

"Me too." added Tate.

"Oh! Look at that, my boots unlaced. Excuse me for a moment." said Ophelia loudly, kneeling down out of the way. That was the sign.

A moment later, a barrage of snowballs rained down upon Crabbe, Tate and Kuven.

But these weren't ordinary snowballs- they were filled with Squelching Belching Slithering Slime, bought at Zonko's.

Ophelia ducked behind the tree as the three Slytherins were covered from head to ankle in thick, brown hissing slime.

They looked around wildly, trying to find the culprits.

But they were too late, as James and Sirius had already taken off.

"Come on!" Tate yelled. "We can still catch them!"

They ran off, in the wrong direction nonetheless. Ophelia dusted herself off and skipped off to the Three Broomsticks.