"This looks like it was fun," said Fred, holding up a moving picture of a snowball fight. Hundreds of students, firing snowballs and looking somewhat like a swarm of ants scurrying backwards and forwards.
"Ah… a snowball fight, we had a few. Though, I think this is the one where I found my date for the Yule Ball…" said George, holding out an unsteady and wrinkled hand to take the faded picture.
"Found your date? You didn't go with mum?"
"No, Fred got to her first. He was love sick over her…"
Fred swept into the room and threw an open package down on the nearest bed.
"What was it?" George asked, lazily flicking through a text book, a quill behind his ear and some parchment beside him.
"Dress robes," Fred answered, knocking the box onto the floor, "Hideous dress robes." George snorted.
"What did you expect?... I can't get this formula right. It's giving me a headache."
"Angelina is not going to dance with me," Fred said miserably, "They look like they were made five centuries ago." George snorted again.
"Get your head out of the clouds, lover boy," George flicked his quill at his brother. It bounced off his head and clattered away on the floor. Fred shot his brother a glare.
"Give it here," George chucked the parchment to his brother, who rolled onto his front to look at the scribbled notes.
"It's this bit, right? We need to add something to stabilise the reaction." George nodded. Fred pondered for a few minutes, jumped off the bed and crossed to one of their trunks. He opened it to reveal a small library of books. He pushed them around searching for one in particular and pulled it out. He flicked slowly through the pages.
"Page 74," he said throwing the book to his brother and returning to the robes. "Maybe we can tailor them a bit." Fred pulled one of the robes from the floor and grimaced at the ruffles and the silk, "Maybe we could go naked… make it a Weasley thing."
"The school doesn't deserve that… And Angelina definitely won't dance with you then."
"Yeah, she'd be too busy fighting away all the other girls…" George barked a surprised laugh and rolled his eyes. He sat up.
"This could work," he said pointing to an ingredient in the book and making a note of it. He glanced back up at his brother who was still holding the dress robes aloft, "Fred!" George hit him with the book, "I, personally, don't care what we wear to this ball… but if it bothers you that much, why don't we dip into our profits." Fred's eyes lit up.
"We could… how much are new robes?"
"Woah, we don't need new ones, just one's made this century." Fred smiled delightedly at his brother, shoving the robes back into the package. Fred grabbed some parchment and set it on top of the trunk to write out an order for new robes.
"Come on, let's ask Harry if we can borrow Hedwig," Fred bounded from the room. George chuckled to himself and rolled off the bed, "Come on!" Fred's voice came from the stairs.
"Alright, it's not that urgent!"
"You're only saying that because you don't have a date yet."
"Hey Harry!" Fred called, bounding across the room, "Could we borrow Hedwig please?" Harry looked up from a game of wizard's chess with Ron.
"Yeah, sure."
"Why?" Asked Ron loudly.
"To send a letter," Fred said rolling his eyes.
"To who?"
"Keep your nose out Ron!"
"Hey, wait," Harry called as the twins turned to leave, "Seamus and Dean want a snowball fight, meet you down there?" The twins turned identical grins on the fourth years.
"We'll be there. Give us 20 minutes," they chorused.
The twins ran down the front steps towards the group of students milling around by the lake, the Durmstrang ship floating serenely in the background. The students had separated into two groups.
"Fred, George! Over here!" called Angelina beckoning them, "You're with us!" The twins joined the mob, winding their way through to Angelina, Katie and Alicia who were all waving their wands to create a stock pile of snowballs.
"My lady," Fred cried enthusiastically, taking Angelina's hand and bowing low over it, planting a kiss on the back, "You look particularly stunning in your winter attire." Angelina snorted and pushed Fred's shoulder.
"Get your head in the game, Weasley." Fred flashed a cheesy grin at her before conjuring his own snowballs.
"Are we ready?" Boomed Oliver Woods voice, "GO!" A storm of snowballs rose into the air and came pelting down around the students. Students laughed, dodged and dived through the snow. The groups slowly dispersed into smaller battles happening between a few students from each side. The Weasley twins along with the three Gryffindor chasers were battling against the fourth years. They were all laughing and covered in snow.
George watched as a large snow ball flew towards Angelina. "No!" Cried Fred, long and drawn out, leaping in front of the snowball just in time for the snowball to hit him squarely in the chest. He fell, sprawling on the floor, his hand grasping at his chest and his face contorted in pretend agony.
"What are you doing?" Angelina giggled, falling to her knees beside Fred.
"Taking a snowball for you," Fred hissed out of the corner of his mouth. Angelina laughed and bent to kiss the fallen twin.
"Thank you, for taking a snowball for me," she replied, their faces close. Fred lunged, wrapping his arms around Angelina's neck and pulling her into the snow. George rolled his eyes, distracted from the giggling pair when a snowball hit him in the back. He turned, firing his own snowball at Hermione who dived aside to reveal Katie Bell, struggling with a Durmstrang student.
"Hey!" George cried marching through the snow towards them. Katie was attempting to pull her arm out of the Durmstrang's grip, anger written on her face.
"Let go of me!" She cried.
"Hey, she told you to let go of her," George insisted, breaking the boys grip on Katie's arm.
"I am just asking her to the ball," The boy said in heavily accented English.
"It looked to me like you were hurting her," George said, moving to stand in front of Katie and raising his wand.
"Get out of the way, Hogwarts," the Durmstrang sneered, pulling out his own wand, "She will go with me!" The boy fired a spell, stood too close together, George didn't have a chance to deflect it and was knocked backwards off his feet, colliding with Katie they both ended up sprawling in the snow. George jumped up, covered in snow pulling up Katie as well. The boy sneered at the two of them.
"I'm not going with you," Katie snapped, pointing her wand ferociously at the boy, "I'm already going with him!" George was surprised when Katie's hand snatched his.
"What's going on?" asked Fred, appearing, his wand drawn and looking warily between his twin and the Durmstrang boy, who didn't seem so sure of himself now that several students were lined up against him.
"Nothing," George replied pointedly, "Just finding a date for the Yule Ball." Angelina and Alicia made squeaky sounds of joy and descended on Katie, giggling and congratulating her. Fred smiled widely at the Durmstrang boy.
"I do hope you have been enjoying your stay here, not sure if anyone warned you about the weather though," Fred pointed upwards where a hail of snowballs rained from the sky onto the boy, who managed to deflect a few but was soon running from the scene, enchanted snowballs pelting him as he stumbled and tripped through the snow.
"I don't know about you lot, but I could do with some hot chocolate," said Angelina.
"Whatever my lady desires," Fred grinned, holding out his arm for Angelina to take. She rolled her eyes but slipped her arm through his and let him lead her back towards the castle.
"Well shall we?" George asked, turning to Katie and mimicking his twin. Katie giggled girlishly and took George's arm, eagerly trotting away with him.