Tuesday 2nd November 1976

Gryffindor Table, Great Hall, 18:00

"Padfoot, I swear to Merlin-"

"Prongs, get that spoon out of my face!"

"I will once you've eaten something!"

"I'm not hungry!"

"That's because you though it was a good idea to do Quidditch practice without wrapping up! What are you, mad?"

"I'm going to be mad if you don't- glmph!"

James had seized upon the opportunity of Sirius having his mouth wide open to shove a massive spoonful of steaming chicken soup down his throat. He shoved it back so far that even when Sirius spluttered (after said spoon had been removed) not left his mouth.

Remus watched in amusement as James loaded up another spoon. Sirius clamped his mouth firmly shut.

"I will pinch your nose," James threatened.

He probably would too. James was quite... enthusiastic about caring for them all. Remus knew that from experience. It was just easier to do as you were told to be honest. He would give Madam Pomfrey a run for her money. Actually, Remus was pretty sure that Madam Pomfrey only release him when she did after every full moon was because she knew how much of a mother hen James was.

Sirius tried to stare James down but their messy-haired friend wasn't budging. He just raised the spoon higher in a threatening manner. And he's, you could hold a spoonful of soup in a threatening manner.

With a sigh, Sirius opened his mouth and let James shove it in.

"You know, you don't have to feed me, Prongs," he said once he had swallowed (with a very satisfied gulp, may Remus add).

"I wouldn't have to feed you if you would just eat."

"I'm not hungry. You don't eat when you're not hungry."

"The only reason you're not hungry because you're sick and you can't not eat when you're sick, it's not healthy!"

"I'm not that sick and one missed meal isn't going to kill me."

That didn't seem to reassure James at all. Actually, he had quite the anxious look on his face.

"You barely had breakfast and I saw you take a bite of a sandwich at lunch."

"It's not a bad thing to not have breakfast," Remus voiced.

He picked at it often enough, after all. Much to James' everlasting disgust. James was shooting him a look that said 'you aren't helping'.

"Well, you think a perfectly good breakfast is just coffee so excuse me if I don't take your opinion into account on this matter," James said snidely.

Remus shrugged. It was true, coffee was his lifeline in the mornings. Didn't matter how late in the morning it was, he always needed his coffee. Food was secondary. And nothing too big.

"Anyway," James said, turning back to Sirius. "You need to eat!"

"I don't want to," Sirius said stubbornly.

"Too bad," James lifted another spoonful of soup to his mouth. "You're eating."

"What was the pointing in asking m-glrpf!"

James had, yet again, shoved the entire spoon into Sirius' mouth. Still, none of it had spilled except for the bits that Sirius sprayed out when he spluttered which, again, wasn't much because he reflexively swallowed when James shoved the spoon in.

All in all, it was very amusing. Mainly because it wasn't him.

Wednesday 3rd November 1976

Sixth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 07:30

OK, yes. He was sick. Not extremely sick but still sick. Stuffed up nose? Check. Dry, scratchy throat? Check. Aches and pains? Check. Random shivers? Doubly check.

Sirius tried his best to hold back a groan as he tried to put his school shirt on. Why were his arms so heavy? They were like two lead weights. Or a dozen Beater's bats.

"Padfoot, get back to bed."

"I'm fine."

"Yes, because normally you look like someone has painted your nose red."

Sirius frowned at him and then glanced at his mirror (something he had yet to do today - further proof that he was most definitely sick) and his frown deepened.

Was that really his usually so handsome face? This pale as a sheet face with deep rings around his eyes (he didn't think he slept much at all last night) and a raw, red nose? He rubbed at his eyes and the reflection in the mirror copied him. Yep, that was him.

Great. Just great. People couldn't see him like this but he also just couldn't spend the day in bed! That would be a whole day wasted for no good reason. And he didn't feel that bad.

A violent shiver overcame him, making his teeth clatter together.

James didn't even say anything to him, he just strode over and lifted him into bed. He shouldn't be that easy to lift! James was, well not lanky anymore, but he was slim and nowhere near having broad shoulders. He was also shorter than Sirius (by an inch) so he should not have been able to lift him! But he did and now Sirius found himself back in bed.

"I'll get Madam Pomfrey," Remus announced.

He promptly left their dorm to do just that with no input from Sirius whatsoever. He must look bad if Remus was willingly going to Pomfrey.

Sirius had (unwillingly) found himself dozing off when Madam Pomfrey came into the dorm. She poked at him and performed a few diagnostics before declaring "Flu and a chest infection. It's making its rounds around the school."

"But he'll be okay, won't he?" James asked anxiously.

"You, yes. Bedrest and a strict regime of potions for a week and we'll have him good as new."

There were multiple sighs of relief at that. Sirius found that his bones were aching too much to give an appropriately response. Why was the room so cold?

Suddenly, Madam Pomfrey's face appeared on front of him with a critical look on her face.

"There's not a bed free in the Hospital Wing. Not until tomorrow. Weasley will be out then, with any luck. If I bring up the potions he needs, will you all make sure he takes every dose?"

"Of course." "Yes, ma'am." "Absolutely." came all their responses.

"Good. I'll write down exactly what you need to do."

"We'll pin it over his head so we don't forget," James promised.

Tuesday 9th November 1976

Sixth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 07:00

"Prongs, you have to wait."

"It's morning!"

"He's not awake yet!"

"But he's taking so long!"

"You aren't waking him up!"

These were the whispers that Sirius woke up to this morning. Whispers that were awfully close to a normal talking volume that were far too loud first thing in the morning.

"Urghh," he grumbled, squinting his eyes open.

What time was it? Did he really have to be up now?

"You're awake?" James asked hopefully.

"I am now," he grumbled, rubbing at his eyes.

There was a quick hissed "Yes!" before a flash of light blinded him and -

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" the three of them cheered.

James even jumped in the air, looking completely ridiculous as he did so. What was also ridiculous was the fact that there were flashing strobes of light going off. Completely unnecessary at this time of the morning when he was already struggling to adjust his eyes to the light.

"Huh?" He said dumbly, not fully comprehending what was happening.

"You're seventeen!" Peter said excitedly.

James looked put out that he had stolen his thunder. But then he beamed at Sirius.

"The first one of us!"

"You're so old," Remus said solemnly.

Sirius summoned up enough energy to chuck a pillow at him. Remus dodged it easily.

"See, already looking your hand-eye coordination," he added as he straightened back up.

"Just awful," James played along, shaking his head.

Sirius rolled his eyes at them.

"Aren't you meant to be celebrating me not putting me down?"

"This is a part of the celebration." Remus told him.

"But not the most important bit!" James said excitedly. "Presents!"

Suddenly a mound of presents was heaped onto his lap. Brilliant! Sirius let all decorum leave him as he ripped off the paper. Scraps of it were soon showering the room as his friends looked on in amusement but he didn't care. Presents!

Remus got him books, as usual, but these were never disappointing as he knew exactly what books to get everyone that they would actually read. These ones were all on motorcycles and engines? Huh, that looked interesting. A piece of paper fluttered to the ground as he started to flick through one of the books.

"That's from me, James and Peter," Remus told him. "It's a year's subscription to that motorcycle magazine you like."

Oh, wow, that was amazing!

"Thank you," he said gratefully, giving him a one-armed hug. "These will be great to read but how can a muggle subscription get to Hogwarts?"

"It gets sent to my house and then my parents will send it on."

"Tell them thanks," Sirius told him, touched.

"I will."

Peter and James squabbled for a second before Peter won and gave him his present next. Well, several. There were a lot of small parcels suddenly on his lap.

"I didn't know what big thing to get you," Peter apologised but Sirius waved him off. As if that mattered.

He opened the top parcel and then stared at it without taking it out.

"Really, Wormtail?" Sirius complained with a laugh.

"What did he get you? What did he get you?" James asked, peering over his shoulder. "Ha!"

It was a box of dog treats. A big box of them. Perfect for "glossy fur and healthy teeth", according to the front of it.

"I had to get good quality ones," Peter said solemnly.

Sirius shook his head but he was grinning. It was a good joke present, after all. And they did look kind of good... no. He was not going to think like that. The teasing about the bone had just finished. He didn't need something like that started up again.

"I did get you an actual present too," Peter told him. "The rest of those aren't joke presents."

Sirius was already tearing the paper off them. There was a box of sugar quills and fizzing whizzbees and the final box was a leather care kit.

"For your jacket," Peter said unnecessarily.

"Thanks, Pete," Sirius said. "This is great!"

There was a cleaner and a protector cream thing and cloths for applying them. Cool. Sirius hadn't even known that he needed to cream to protect it. Huh. Useful.

Another hug was exchanged and finally he grabbed the present from James. Good thing too because James was practically vibrating in excitement. He was almost more excited about presents than Sirius was.

There was a cool model of a motorbike that he had cut out pictures of and stuck everywhere around his bed, then there were more sweets (he wasn't going to have to visit Honeydukes for months at this rate), a really cool t-shirt that looked like paint had splattered across it and a stuffed dog toy. Very eclectic choices but somehow, they all worked.

Sirius opened his arms for a hug and although he braced himself, he was still caught off guard by the intensity of James' hug. Thankfully, Sirius managed to stop himself from cracking his head off his headboard. Just about and he might have got whiplash in the process.

"Happy Birthday," James said happily as he got off him.

"Thanks," Sirius replied, feeling a bit awkward at all this show of emotion.

He turned to his other presents - a pair of leather boots from Andromeda and Ted, a book on Beater tactics and yet more sweets from Tonks and McKinnon even got him a gift - Quidditch gloves. He would have to figure out when hers was.

Surprisingly, he actually got his present from his parents. After this summer... well, he didn't think that they would even want to acknowledge him. But they were. Their present was right here.

"Nice," James said, nodding as Sirius opened it and held it aloft.

'It' being the traditional watch that any decent wizard got on his seventeenth. The family one in particular. The one his father had. That's how the Blacks did it. They passed down the family watch from heir to heir on their seventeenth birthday and got another one made specially to replace it. Sirius wondered what his father's new one looked like.

Notably, there was no letter or anything with his present. Just the watch. Sirius didn't know how to feel about that. Thankful that there wasn't a Howler or something? And that he still received a present from them? Even though it was more likely out of sense of duty than anything else. They hadn't exactly been communicating with him, after all. Something that put him on edge if he thought too much about it.

"Here, we better get down to breakfast," Remus said, checking his watch- his watch at his wrist, unlike Sirius'. "We're going to be late for class otherwise."

"And I'm starving," James proclaimed.

"You're always starving."

"I'm a growing boy!"

"Your ego doesn't need fed."

"Hey!"

Chuckling, Sirius felt a warmth go through as he listened to his friends' antics. Slipping his watch into his pocket, he pulled on his leather jacket. Remus sighed at him but said nothing - it was his birthday, after all.

As soon as he left their dorm Sirius felt something fall on him. Several somethings, in fact. He looked up only to get some of them on his face and in his mouth.

"Confetti?" he spluttered, spitting it out. "Really?"

"It was Peter's idea," James said proudly.

"It will last all day," Peter added with a pleased smile.

"Fun."

"We thought so."

"Be glad," Remus added. "James wanted fireworks."

"Thank you."

He had never been more sincere about something in his life. Fireworks were not something he would be able to deal with. Ever. But especially not inside. His hearing was a lot more sensitive now. Something that he chalked up to being a dog Animagus but none of the books mentioned it.

"Well, you wanted applause," Peter retorted.

Sirius gave Remus a betrayed look. Remus was completely unaffected by it.

"It would have been funny," he shrugged.

"Annoying, you mean! Could you stand the constant sound of applause?"

That got him an eyeroll. "It wasn't going to be all the time. Don't be silly. It was going to be when's you opened a door or sat down."

Sirius stared at him. That... that was actually genius. Certainly, one way to make an entrance.

"Do you still remember the spell?" he asked eagerly.

Hey, he wouldn't be Sirius Black if he didn't make an entrance and he could see so many possibilities with having his own applause.

"It's not as fun when you want it," Remus complained.

Third Floor Corridor, 17:00

"I think I'm going to quit," Marlene said as they left the classroom that the choir met up in.

She had stuck it out this long but she just couldn't do it anymore. She couldn't. It wasn't as fun as she thought it would be and she had to miss nights because of Quidditch practice. She much preferred the Quidditch practice.

"Why?" Lily asked in dismay as the ducked under am extremely large pennant that declared it to be Sirius Black's birthday.

"It's just not as fun as I thought it was going to be."

It was actually a lot of work and some of them just took themselves too seriously. No way. Marlene didn't have time for that. Singing was supposed to be fun and those types of people just sucked all the fun out of it for her.

"I noticed you weren't enjoying the last few practices. I just thought you found the song difficult."

"I wasn't and, yeah, it was a bit tough but I just wasn't having fun which made it harder to learn." Marlene admitted.

"Fair enough. I think I'm going to stay," Lily said after thinking for a moment. "It's fun."

Marlene shrugged. "Cool."

She figured Lily would stay. She literally lit up when she sang. Marlene, on the other hand, definitely did not. Sure, the idea of singing had seemed fun but it really wasn't. Just a lot of extra work and the last thing Marlene needed right now was more work.

NEWTs were definitely a step up from OWLs and Quidditch practice really took a lot out of her. As did choir but it wasn't as enjoyable (or as necessary because in no way were NEWTs enjoyable) so it would have to be the thing that had to go.

"Pity," Lily said wistfully. "It was nice to do something together."

"Hey, no guilt-tripping."

Lily's eyes widened in horror. "No! I didn't mean it like that! I just meant that this year we all seem to be doing something different and everything's changing and-"

"Okay, okay," Marlene held her hands up in surrender, a smile on her face. "I was only teasing."

"Oh, thank goodness.

Wednesday 10th November 1976

Gryffindor Table, Great Hall, 12:30

Marlene wasn't jealous. She wasn't. Of course, she wasn't. She wasn't five after all. Honestly. She could be mature.

"I can't get that last crescendo just right," Lily was saying to Smith.

The two of them were pouring over music for choir. There was some sheet music between them and Lily was trying to explain what she was having difficulty with. Marlene wasn't sure why. It wasn't like Smith could fix her ability or anything.

"Let me see."

"This one, right here."

"Oh, that was is tricky."

Marlene sighed. She didn't have any clue what they were talking about and she was feeling a bit left out.

"Hey, did you manage to get your Defence essay done?" Marlene asked.

Only to be brushed off by Lily. "In a second, Marlene. I want to get this right."

She couldn't help it, she pouted and proceeded to angrily stab her sausage. It didn't give her any sort of satisfaction because Lily didn't notice.

"Ah, I've been taking a breath here," Lily said, pointing at the parchment.

Smith shook her head. "You can't do that; it messes up your timing. Try doing it before."

"I will," Lily agreed, finally rolling up the sheet music. "Thanks."

"It was nothing."

"I haven't finished the essay yet," Lily turned her attention back to Marlene. "I need another eight inches."

Marlene perked up at that. Yes! Some company this evening.

"Oh, I haven't finished that either," Smith just had to chime in.

"Why don't the three of us finish our essays off in the library together?" Lily suggested. "Between the three of us, we should be able to help each other."

"Sounds good," Alice said eagerly.

"What do you think, Marlene?"

"Sure," Marlene replied glumly. "Sounds good."

The poor sausage got stabbed again.

Saturday 13th November 1976

Fifth Year Hufflepuff Girls Dorm, 10:00

It was quite normal for Tonks to spend an absolute age in front of one of the mirrors in the bathroom, much to her dorm mate's amusement. Not for the usual reasons, well, okay, yes, it was because of her appearance but not because of her clothes or makeup. When you had the world at your fingertips when it came to your hair, hairstyle and eye colour and such, you tended to spend a lot of time in front of the mirror.

She tilted her head to one side and frowned. No, that just looked silly. Completely out of proportion with her face. Her forehead creased and she shuddered. Okay, that was even worse. If she just had a little tilt...

Hmm. Better but still not great. With a sigh, Tonks let her nose shift back to her natural one. Now her reflection looked more balanced. Looks like the original was better in this case. At least your nose couldn't be boring, unlike your eyes or hair. Okay, maybe that was just Metamorphmagus problems - very few people would say the ability to change hair colour and type was always interesting. But really, there was a limited number of combinations there.

Anyway, back to her nose. Tonks turned her head this way and that. Yes. Natural was good. Thank goodness for magical maturity and hormones settling. It meant that she could manage her abilities better. Just a bit. She still had to concentrate and all but it went a lot smoother now. And she was more likely to get a change perfect right the first time. Which was great.

So, what next? Hair? Eyes? Or try her nose again? She never could easily settle on a decision.

For a split second she wondered what type of nose Remus would prefer but almost immediately got rid of that thought. You didn't change yourself for a boy. That was just stupid.

She looked anxiously into the mirror. Surely, he wouldn't like such a small nose, though?

Tuesday 17th November 1976

Hogwarts Grounds, 15:40

"Bullseye!" Kingsley cheered as he got Frank right on the forehead.

Something Frank didn't look too cheerful about as he wiped the snow off his face.

"What are you, twelve?" Frank complained.

"No," Kingsley shook his head, grinning. "I have much better aim than when I was twelve."

Frank rolled his eyes at him and continued walking. He did not want to have fun in the snow before dinner. Because it wasn't fun. Unfortunately, Kingsley wasn't going to give him much of a choice.

'Splat'

Another snowball hit him and this time the snow managed to get down his neck.

"Kingsley!"

That was cold! And now he was wet. Fantastic.

"Got you again!"

"Stop it!"

But Kingsley wasn't paying any attention to him, too busy making another snowball.

"Fight back!" he challenged, getting ready to aim again.

"No."

But again, the snowball went saying in the air towards him. This time Frank had the sense to duck.

That's it, he was going inside. Now.

"Come on Frank!"

"I'm busy!"

"You're always busy."

"And so should you be!"

Elsie actually put down her snowball and walked right up to him.

"You need to take a break sometimes," she said in a serious tone.

Jasper made a scoffing noise. "Frank doesn't take breaks anymore."

"I do!" he argued.

"When?"

"When I sleep."

And he always got a good seven hours sleep too because he knew that was good for retention of information. Sure, eight would be better but between homework, coursework and Prefect duties, that was unfortunately impossible. He was not some sort of super person.

"That's not a break! That's just sleeping!" Jasper said in exasperation.

"Sleeping is a break."

It wasn't like he was doing any work then. Not that any of his friends seemed to agree of the looks they exchanged meant anything.

He rolled his eyes again and adjusted his bag on his back. None of his friends were being responsible at all. Look, they had all dropped their bags in the snow- getting everything wet as they had some mindless fun.

Frank got a sudden sense of foreboding and the urge to whip out his wand. He should have listened to that instinct because the next thing he knew, a whole pile of snow had been dumped on top of him. Now they were all laughing at him.

His head popped out of the snow, cheeks feeling raw and snow slipping down his neck. He glared at them and his fist also popped put as he shook it at them.

"Oh, this means war!" he declared.

Well, it would once he was able to get at his wand.

Friday 20th November 1976

Fifth Floor Corridor, 15:30

"I can't believe how much homework we're getting this year. Madam Pomfrey wants us to be able to recite all the blood vessels and what organs they are important to."

Alice had bumped into Lily in the Ancient Runes corridor (Lily had been coming up from Healing) as they were both heading back to the Common Room to leave their bags off.

"I'm so glad that it's the weekend. This week has been so long-"

Alice didn't pay any attention to Lily as she caught sight of something heading down the stairs. Or rather, someone. It was Frank and he hadn't seen her. She was just about to call over to him when she saw Elsie and one of the McRae triplets (the boys had grown their hair out a bit and Josie had got her hair cut short so they were hard to tell apart from the back now). Her stomach sank as Elsie gave Frank a big smile. He gave her a friendly one in return.

It didn't mean anything. It didn't. Though, for something that didn't mean anything (hopefully), she spent an awful lot of time thinking about.

"You're dating Frank, aren't you?" Lily asked, breaking into her thoughts.

"We're betrothed, actually," she said, absentmindedly twisting her ring on her finger.

Frank had given it to her last year- when she turned sixteen. It marked the next stage for them and she absolutely loved it.

Lily raised her eyebrow at that but said nothing. Alice was glad of that because she knew Muggleborns thought that betrothals were a bit odd.

"Have you had a falling out?"

Alice shook her head vehemently. "Oh no, we've never fought."

"Really?" That seemed to surprise Lily.

"No. Frank doesn't get annoyed easily and I'm quite easy going. Not much bothers us."

Except for this one thing...

"Oh. Sorry, it just looked like you weren't happy with him or something there. Didn't mean to assume.:

So, Lily saw it? Did that mean Frank saw her frown? Did he think it was at him? She wasn't angry at him! Of course, she wasn't.

It was just... well, since the whole incident over the summer and the intensity of this year (for both her and Frank, though, of course, Frank's was much more so) she was feeling a bit more... nervous? That was the wrong word... more aware of herself and Frank this year. How good were they together? Did they complement each other? Was she behaving appropriately? She didn't want to give either of their families a reason to disapprove of anything between them.

For some reason she spilled all this out to Lily. The other girl much think she was so weak and silly. Lily was so anything strong. You didn't see her dithering over silly things. But she didn't mock Alice or tell her that she was being silly. She was actually quite nice to her.

"So, you're feeling a bit insecure about your relationship?" Lily summed up quite easily.

Alice stared at her in disbelief. That was exactly what she was feeling. How did Lily know that? No wonder she was called the brightest in their year! Insecure! That's exactly what she felt.

"Yes, that's it! That's how I feel! Insecure!"

"Why don't you talk to him about it?"

And they went from good advice to bad advice. Alice shook her head.

"Oh no, I couldn't do that."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to bother him with such silly things."

It wouldn't do to do that. It was such a little thing that he didn't need to concern himself with.

"Not that I've been in a relationship or anything," Lily said, "but I'm pretty sure you're meant to communicate if you're in a good one."

She did communicate with Frank. Well, she talked to him and that was the same thing, wasn't it? And, like she said, he didn't need to be bogged down with her silly worries. She was a big girl and she could sort her own problems out.

"I'll think about it." Alice said finally, noticing that Lily was looking quite intently at her.

Wednesday 25th November 1976

Ravenclaw Common Room, 20:00

"Why don't you just become an Auror with me?" Callum said in exasperation as Kingsley asked for his opinion on a career for the twentieth time.

Kingsley had got it into his head that to pick a career all he had to do was list every single possible one and just score them off or circle them until he had a list of viable ones. Surely that sort of list would be easier to handle, wouldn't you?

Well, it wasn't. Or maybe it would be. Kingsley didn't know. Because go get to a reduced list you had to, you know, actually reject some options. Something he was struggling with. It was just that everything sounded so interesting!

Something Callum was not able to put up with so he was trying to do some deciding for him. Or rather, make one choice for him.

"Look, you like Defence, right?"

"Yes..."

Of course, he liked Defence. What kind of question was that? It had to be their most exciting subject. That and defending yourself was a pretty important skill to have. Especially these days.

"And you're doing Transfiguration, Charms and Potions, right?"

"And Astronomy," Kingsley added, because Astronomy was cool too.

Callum ignored him, "See! You could totally go into the Academy with me."

"But I'm not doing Herbology," Kingsley pointed out. "Don't you have to do Herbology?"

"I'm pretty sure that's the least important out of the five they advise you to take."

"They probably wouldn't mind a lower mark than Defence," Kingsley agreed. Plants versus knowledge on how to defend yourself? It was simple to know what was more important. "But I'm not taking it at all."

Callum made an exasperated noise.

"Look, do you want my help or not."

"Well, I didn't ask for it..."

Saturday 28th November 1976

Hogwarts Grounds, 13:30

Severus kicked up some snow as he tried to make his way back to the castle. He had had to go ask Professor Sprout for the beans he needed for a potion. She was ways happy to give away any spare plants she had hanging around and Severus had been successful this time. It saved him the time and money of ordering kt, for which he was grateful. He wasn't getting called on as much to brew potions for people anymore. Not since he stopped hanging around Avery and Mulciber. Oh, he got some but he was no longer flooded with orders. So, he was back to being more careful with his money.

'Splat!'

"Ha! Got you Snape!"

A snowball had hit him on the shoulder. A well-aimed one from Potter, surprisingly not hitting his face. Unusual for the Chaser.

Severus tensed, waiting to be bombarded by at least three more snowballs but they never came. Looking around, he saw that the Marauders were busy firing snowballs at whoever came too close to them - not just him.

'Splat'

Another one hit him. From Black but the Gryffindor had already turned to pelt Potter!

Huh. Je dusted himself off. They really were keeping their promise.

"Ack! Moony!"

Severus chuckled as Lupin nailed Black in the back of the head. That was a good shot.

Some other students were now trying to retaliate. Hmm. He patted his pockets. Yep, the beans were still secure. And there was no urgency to get them into the warmth or anything...

Acting on impulse, Severus scooped up some snow and pressed it into a vague snowball shape. It didn't matter that it wasn't the most aerodynamic because he was going to do the sensible thing and use his wand...

'Splat'

"Hey!"

Right in the chest! Potter looked down at himself in shock. He then gave Severus a grin.

"Didn't think you'd dare, Snape."

Soon snowballs were flying everywhere. And sometimes a Marauder teamed up with him to get another Marauder!