Chapter 6: Fun

SMACK!

A snowball hit Ron hard in the face. 'WHAT THE...?!' Ron yelled rubbing snow out of his eyes. The door to the classroom in front of them swung shut. Hermione ran forwards and pushed on the door. It had jammed.

After a couple of attempts, the entire class had to smashed against the door to force it open.

CRUNCH!

A solid wall of snow fell on top of their heads. Spitting snow out of his mouth, Harry glanced around the room. His jaw dropped. Of all the classes Harry had ever seen, this class was the most beautiful he'd ever seen. A thick carpet of snow-covered the ground and pillars of ice held up a ceiling of totally transparent ice. A thin mist was drifting across the ground.

Someone laughed from above them. A blur suddenly resolved itself into Jack Frost. He was smiling and holding a snowball. The girls and one or two of the boys began to giggle and blush. Harry turned at Hermione... and to his amazement, she was blushing bright scarlet.

'Hi' Jack said, smiling, 'My name is Jack Frost.' 'Professor,' Parvati said. 'Please just call me Jack, none of this professor stuff.' Parvati blushed. 'What are we going to be doing in this lesson?' she asked. Jack smiled mischievously. 'We're gonna have a little fun.' He blew on the snowball. It glittered and sparkled.

SMACK! It hit Malfoy in the face. 'How dare you!' he roared, 'My father will...' but he suddenly stopped speaking. Tiny, blue stars tinkled around his eyes. Everyone stared. Malfoy suddenly let out a snort of laughter. There was a moment of silence and Malfoy burst out laughing. Harry's jaw dropped.

Malfoy snatched up a snowball and threw it at Ron... who suddenly began laughing as well. Within seconds, a furious snowball-fight began. A snowball hit Harry on the side of the head. Turning to see who it was, he felt his stomach turn over. Cho Chang was holding a snowball and was giggling.

'Who needs ammo?' Jack laughed, shooting past. He waved his staff and several snowballs appeared out of nowhere. Hermione picked up one and threw it at Jack. It narrowly missed him. Jack didn't waste a second. Jack snatched up a snowball and threw it back at Hermione. It missed her, but Harry had a funny feeling that he was deliberately missing.

Neville suddenly crashed into Harry. Looking up, Harry saw that Neville had been riding on a toboggan. He was smiling wildly. 'I have never had this much fun in my life!' Neville laughed. Lavender and Parvati were making snowmen. Hannah Abbot had built a fort for people to hide behind.

Jack waved his staff and an igloo jumped up out of the snow. Harry hid behind it, narrowly avoiding a barrage of snowballs thrown at him by Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy was laughing, but not unpleasantly; if anything he was being rather friendly. Laughing himself, Harry snatched up a snowball and threw it in retaliation. It hit Malfoy on the ear.

Hermione was quickly worn out and had to sit down. Jack floated down next to her. Hermione felt herself blush. 'You've got great friends,' Jack said smiling at her. 'Thanks,' she said. She placed her hand on the ground next to her. All of a sudden, she felt a cold pressure on her hand. She jumped. Jack had placed his hand on hers. They both jumped to their feet and began babbling apologies to each other.

This was the most fun Harry had in months, but all too soon the bell rang. Groans echoed around the class. 'See ya next lesson,' Jack said. Ron dived for his timetable. 'This is the only lesson we have with you all week,' Ron said disapointedly. Another groan reverberated through the class.

Later that evening, Harry lay down in his Dormitory bed fast asleep. Dreamsand floated throught the window and curled around the room. It formed an image of Cho Chang above his head. He smiled as he dreamt of himself going on a date into Hogsmead with his dream girl.

From the corner of the room... stepped Pitch. He reached over and tapped the image. The sand turned black. Harry cringed in his sleep. The sand spiraled into a horse. 'My word, what a beautiful nightmare,' Pitch said, gently tickling the Nightmare's mane. 'I think I'll name you Onyx,' he continued, smiling creepily. Onyx cantered around his head and nuzzled his cheek.

High above the castle, Sandy floated on a cloud of dreamsand. All of a sudden, he felt an interference. NIGHTMARES! Sandy jumped off of the dreamsand cloud and floated down to the Gryffindor tower. He forced through the window. Too late. A nightmare forced past him and shot through the window. "Drat," Sandy thought. Turning, he saw a figure disappearing into the shadows in the corner of the room.

A low moan echoed through the dormitory. Harry was tossing and turning in his sleep, a small cloud of black sand was hovering over his head. Sandy hurried forward and tapped the sand. The black sand turned gold and a broomstick morphed out of the cloud.

Interestingly, no one had woken up during this experience. Sandy breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever Pitch was planning, Sandy was sure it couldn't be good. However he didn't have absolute proof yet and unlike North, Sandy couldn't get people to believe him just by the sight of a shadow and a feeling in his belly. As much as he hated it, he would have to wait for more proof.

Meanwhile however, Sandy was going to keep an eye on someone a bit more dangerous than Pitch... Professor Umbridge.