Snow flurries hit his face like little tiny ice cubes, annoying and unending. James bent his head down against the wind as he walked up the hill to the castle. It was blisteringly cold, the December air wrecking havoc on all of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He'd gotten caught in the storm unaware, after deciding to go for a walk when the snow had been lighter and more welcoming.

"Hey!"

A voice called from ahead, and he could make out a form standing in the covered doorway of one of the greenhouses. James turned to the right, seeking the shelter the stranger had already nabbed. When he got closer he saw red hair flashing out from underneath a purple knit cap.

"What on earth are you doing out here?" Lily's voice was recognizable even over the storm, "you'll catch hypothermia trying to get up the hill right now!"

James felt her hands tug him under the eves and against the hot glass of the humid greenhouse. Her mittens were cracked with snow and ice, just like his cloak hood, as if she had also been caught unaware.

Hot air awaited him inside the tropics of the garden center. Lily pushed her hat off her eyes and shook herself, letting snow and ice fall to the dirt floor. James shook his head like a dog, spending snow spraying that Lily blocked with a mittened hand.

Now that he had the protection from the greenhouse, he blinked snow off his frozen eyelashes and surveyed his snowpocolypse friend. Lily Evans was easily the loveliest girl at school, and he found himself smiling at how she even managed to look homely in the midst of a snow storm.

"What are you doing out here?" He asked while his fingers stuffed themselves back under his cloak.

Lily jutted a thumb at the planters behind her, "I was repotting mandela bulbs for Professor Sprout."

"Now you're stuck." James deduced.

Lily shrugged, "at least until the wind dies down, I saw you trying to climb the hill."

"Trying being the operative word."

"That's why I took pity on you and called out," Lily admitted, "you looked like you were about to go down."

James chuckled as he let the warm air deep through his clothes, "guess we'll both be stuck here a bit, then."

Lily leaned against the warm glass, her eyes flickering humorously. "I'm assuming you didn't bring a book with you, or a game?"

"Sadly, I don't even have my wand." James admitted, "so I am even more useless than you think."

"Not totally useless," Lily offered kindly, "at least now I have a friend to sit through this storm with."

"Oh we're friends now, are we?" James wiggled his eyebrows at the pretty sixth year.

Lily smirked, "I wouldn't have rescued someone I hate, if it meant I had to share a green house with them."

"So, say it had been Mason Mulciber out there running up that hill, and not yours truly?"

"Well considering Mulciber is a creepaziod," Lily snorted, "I would've let his arse stay outside and freeze."

James clapped his new pal on her shoulder. "Lily Evans this is the start of a beautiful friendship."