They divided into two teams - girls versus boys - and set about building their forts. Both teams had decided to have a trademark snowball shape each, which was to be decided on by the others and only revealed to them when they threw the snowball.

The girls had made their fort high and they were all standing up at the top, their heads peeping out at the boys' fort. The boys however had gone for a wider and shorter fort and they had made small eyeholes to look out of to the girls' fort.

Remus and Peter had been assigned the task of making snowballs, while James and Sirius were watching the girls' fort like hawks, making sure they weren't ambushed.

"Bloody snowballs," Remus grumbled, rolling his eyes as he picked up another piece of snow in order to make another snowball.

Peter mumbled his agreement and placed the snowball he had just made on the steadily growing pile they had already made.

"Alright guys! Let's start firing!" Sirius said excitedly, picking up a snowball. He pulled his arm back and threw the snowball at the top of the girls' fort, where it could be seen hitting Lily's head. His snowball had changed shape during its flight and had become a beaters bat. He laughed. A beaters bat? His friends knew him too well and he knew they wouldn't reveal his animagus form to the girls, so even though a dog would have been a more symbolic choice, the girls would have wondered.

Lily felt the icy cold snowball hit her on the side of her neck. She deduced from the beaters bat that Sirius had thrown it, so, deciding to get revenge she picked up a snowball she had made (as the girls had all made snowballs) she threw it furiously at his form that she could just make out in the boys' fort.

Her snowball was a lily. Oh how imaginative of them, she thought sarcastically. The lily was rather pretty actually and she didn't mind terribly that her snowball was so obvious.

"Ouch!" Sirius yelled as the lily snowball hit his head. And it was then that the battle really begun.

"Attack!" James said wildly, grabbing a handful of snowballs and throwing them with his expert Quidditch aim at the girls' fort.

His snowballs turned into little hearts entwined with lilies. Padfoot… He was going to kill Sirius when he got a chance.

Lily laughed as she saw little heart snowballs with lilies embedded in them crash into the side of their fort. James would be furious. But he didn't really like her… love her properly… like a gentleman… did he? He only wanted her because he had never had her, she told herself firmly. Sure, he may have matured significantly in the last few months but that didn't mean he truly loved her. She was not thoroughly convinced however.

Kendra, eager to find out what her snowballs would be, threw a snowball aimed directly at Remus, only to find it veer off course and hit Peter. Her snowball was a fox head and she rather liked it.

Peter saw this and retaliated by throwing a snowball which turned into a wand at her, hitting her square on. A wand? Go figure.

Chloe saw him and threw a snowball at him, watching in amazement as it turned into a chef's hat in mid-flight. Yes, she was an excellent cook and she was only glad it hadn't turned into something worse, like what James' had.

Sirius threw a snowball at Mel and she threw one back, watching as her snowball turned into a bumblebee while it was in the air. Wow! A bumblebee was the meaning of her name and she had always loved them. When they had learnt about Patronuses in class she knew she wanted hers to be a bumblebee. They were learning how to produce them in Defence Against the Dark Arts after the Christmas holidays.

Remus threw a snowball at Kendra jokingly. He stared at his snowball as it became a book. Oh Merlin… he thought exasperatedly. This was exactly the sort of thing Padfoot and Prongs would come out with. Although then again they had been pretty evil with Prongs' snowball.

Some while later, the boys surrendered to the girls because they were extremely tired and cold and the girls absolutely refused to give up. They had completely forgotten that they could use a simple warming spell and an energizing spell to combat these problems!

When Lily pointed this out to them, they groaned and Remus whacked his head with his hand, "Why didn't I think of that?!"

xXoXx

Lily stumbled up to her dorm tiredly, rubbing her eyes. It had been a long and exhilarating day and she had loved every minute of it.

She wasn't prepared to see a small, wrapped package on her bed. There was a card attached that read:

To my fair Lily,

Though there are many stars in the sky

There are many more moments of being near you that I cherish.

Though there are many blades of grass in the fields

There are many more things that I love about you.

We were friends once

But my mistake cost us our friendship.

Please accept this humble gift from me

As a tribute to my love for you and to our friendship that once was.

Your love,

The Half-Blood Prince

She opened the present, half expecting to find flowers or heart shaped chocolates or something else as cheesy and naff as the poem had been. It had touched her though, although she still could not figure out who had written it. Could it have been James? But they were never really friends; they had only recently started getting to know each other better. And what was with the name? The Half-Blood Prince?

Instead of flowers she found a vial of liquid. She deduced that it was some kind of potion. She uncorked the lid, convinced that this Prince guy did not mean her any harm. It smelt of fresh parchment, rosewater scent and a familiar smelling cologne. Whose cologne was it? She had realized by now what this potion was. It was Amortentia, the most powerful love potion ever. She was touched - as the Prince must have known that she had wanted to know which three things she loved the most and Professor Slughorn hadn't let them smell their potions. Did this mean he was in her Potions class? Or did it just mean he knew someone that was? Oh this was so confusing!

Her mind was whirling and she was exhausted. She put the vial and card away, changed into her pyjamas and went to bed, utterly drained.

xXoXx

"This meeting, my friends, is to decide the future of one of our newer members, Peter Pettigrew," a tall boy with striking black eyes and short dark hair said, bringing the rest of the students in the room into silence, listening to the boy speak, "He is unable to come tonight, and so I have taken this opportunity to hold a little discussion about what we shall do to secure him on his way to becoming a strong supporter of the Dark Lord. Yes Bella," he said, nodding to one of the few girls in the room - a pale girl with long black hair to speak.

"But Rodolphus, what if he betrays us? What if the little sneak tells Dumbledore?"

"He will not, Bella," Rodolphus said confidently, "I know Pettigrew well enough. He's scared of his own shadow," and with that he spat at the ground contemptuously.

"Well what shall we do then?" Bella asked desperately, trying to please him.

"He has a girlfriend," spoke up a white haired boy sitting near Bella, "I have seen them together!"

"Very good, Lucius," Rodolphus said, musing, "What's her name, do you know?"

"Chloe," said the blonde girl sitting next to Lucius, wrinkling her nose in disgust, "Chloe Rogers."

"A pureblood then," Rodolphus continued interestedly, "A Gryffindor pureblood. Like Black." He spat again, "Both blood traitors."

"Rodolphus, if it isn't too bold-"

"No Bella, do continue."

"I was just thinking that it wouldn't matter if we targeted her then. Seeing as she's a blood traitor and all." Bellatrix said quickly, looking at Rodolphus' face for his reaction.

Rodolphus smiled, "What about Black? He is one of Pettigrew's best friends, if you can call them that."

"Yes but wouldn't it be a bit obvious?' Lucius interjected hastily, "With the girl, we can pin the blame on her family, whereas with Black…"

"There is Regulus, yes I see," Rodolphus said impatiently, his eyes flicking over the younger boy sitting at the back of the room, listening intently.

"And you, Regulus," he said, "What do you think?"

Regulus mumbled something unintelligible, "Sorry, what was that?" Rodolphus said nastily, pinning the spotlight on the smaller boy.

"I said, I think that Chloe would be better."

"Ah," Rodolphus said spitefully, "Blood ties are stronger than water aye?"

Regulus blushed, "Sirius still might change his mind."

"Oh but hadn't you heard?" Bellatrix asked mockingly, putting her hands on her hips, "Your darling brother has gotten himself disowned. Ran away, he did."

Regulus looked down, "I had heard."

"So we are in agreement then," Rodolphus said, steering the conversation back to its original topic, "Chloe Rogers is our target."

The students in the room all nodded their agreement.

"And what shall we do?" he continued, looking around the room and making eye contact with every student in the room.

"Torture," Bellatrix breathed, her eyes lighting up with a cruel spark.

"Punishment," another student suggested.

"Death," Lucius suggested, his lips curving into a wicked smile.

"No!" yelled a voice from within the excited throng.

"What's this?" Rodolphus said derisively, "Severus you oppose this?"

"She's Lily's friend! You can't do this to her!" Severus said bravely, standing up for the girl that was once his best friend.

"Ah, the Mudblood," Rodolphus said scornfully, "We have been over this, Severus. You cannot still have feelings for the girl?"

Severus nodded defiantly, "I love her."

"Well you shall just have to forfeit your so called 'love' for Evans. She is below your class; the Dark Lord will never have his supporters marrying the Mudbloods he detests. You know this - I have told you many times."

Severus sighed, "I cannot pretend I am happy about this."

"You don't need to," came the satisfied reply.

"Now Bella, I believe you wanted torture," Rodolphus said. Bellatrix nodded fervently. "Well I shall have to make you in charge of this aspect. If you could possibly find her alone and bring her to our common room, we shall take her into the boys' dormitory and you will be in charge of having some fun with her," he said as if he was merely planning the sale of an everyday item. "And Lucius, when Bella is done, you may do the deed, but perform another spell with your wand straight afterwards to wipe the evidence off your wand. Likewise with you Bella."

"And where shall we put her when she is dead?" Lucius asked, staring at Rodolphus with gleaming eyes.

"Ah, I think the Great Hall would be perfect, don't you?" Rodolphus sneered, "If you can manage it. Now, is everyone satisfied?"

There were murmurs of assent throughout the room.

"Meeting adjourned. We meet again tomorrow in our common room to put our plan into motion," Rodolphus finished, before standing up and striding swiftly out of the room, Bella hurrying behind him in an effort to catch him up.

Severus stayed behind, thinking about what had just taken place. He had a choice. He had always had a choice.

And now was the time for him to decide.