Christmas at Hogwarts was a spectacular affair. The Great Hall held four enormous trees, hung with baubles and tinsel and decorations of a more magical sort. The corridors were strung with wreaths and little snowstorms whizzed around the castle, leaving trails of powdery snow in their wake that disappeared in minutes.
And of course, there was one piece of mistletoe. Or rather, one shapeshifting poltergeist with a preference for penguins who had temporarily turned himself into a piece of mistletoe, and was taking great glee in zooming around Hogwarts, hovering above various students and snowing on them until they looked up and saw the little plant. He got some extremely mixed reactions, to say the least.
*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*
His very first victims were a little group of first years that he identified after a few minutes of listening to their conversation as being named Rose, David, and John. Rose seemed to be exceptionally flirty with David, maybe he could help resolve a crush here...
He zoomed over, floating above the group and playing tinny Christmas tunes until they spotted him. Rose giggled and made some cheesy comment about tradition, glancing hopefully at David. David looked like he might oblige her, but he was distracted by the other boy, John, who planted a firm kiss on his cheek. Rose looked like she was going to commit a murder, but cheered up immediately when she saw how extremely red David was going. She then commenced to talk in a sort of squealing fashion.
Frobisher zoomed off again, giggling gleefully (if mistletoe could giggle. Well, he could, anyway). That had been unexpected. And so worth it.
*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*
His next targets were two seventh years waiting outside their Defence Against the Dark Arts class and bickering continuously. Ace and Sylvester, he remembered. It would be hard to find two students less likely to kiss under mistletoe than these two.
He waited for a few minutes above their heads, eventually getting impatient and dumping a little snowdrift on their heads. Ace almost screamed, and glared upwards at the innocent little twig of mistletoe before stepping smartly backwards towards Susan, who was hovering nearby, and muttering, "In your dreams, creep..." as Sylvester stood there hopelessly glancing between the mistletoe and his not even friend Ace.
"That's not me!" Sylvester protested, and the two of them were bickering again as Frobisher zoomed off down the corridor.
*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*
His next targets were curled on a sofa in the library, preoccupied with their book and each other and not noticing the little plant flying in tight circles around their heads. They were unusually absorbed. Lethe was usually very observant, especially in recent years.
Fitz, however, did notice the single snowflake that drifted down and landed right on the end of Lethe's nose, though. And he noticed the mistletoe when he looked up to see the source of the snow.
He smiled up at the mistletoe and leaned in to kiss the half-melted snowflake off the tip of Lethe's nose, and they blushed and looked up at the mistletoe.
"Charley said it's rude to kiss people in public," they said slowly (if Frobisher recalled correctly, Charley was Lethe's best friend, and, knowing her, she'd been teaching them what they should and shouldn't do with Fitz when she or others could see), before looking back at Fitz and giving him a kiss, this time on the lips.
Frobisher left the library smiling, or at least whatever the shapeshifting mistletoe equivalent of smiling was. Those two were just too cute.
*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*
Who to bother next... Hm... He scanned the courtyard, looking for unsuspecting students- hang on. There was Donna, talking to that moody fifth year, Parker. Donna had caught him in the act of pulling a prank on some first years the other day, and revenge was required.
He hovered directly above her and Parker, and this time neither of them needed to be alerted to his presence. Both human and ghost stepped in opposite directions, Donna exclaiming, "You're not kissing ME, sunshine!" and sounding outraged at the very thought of it.
Parker folded their arms, frowning at her. "Wouldn't DREAM of it. Look at you. You're all...ghost-y."
Donna folded her arms right back at them, looking extremely offended at the comment, and floated off back into the castle, leaving Parker to glare after her until Frobisher conjured a snowdrift right on top of their head, at which point the now very cold and snowy student stalked off back to the nice warm Ravenclaw common room, muttering something decidedly rude about stupid magic castles and their stupid snow.
*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*
Frobisher spent the rest of the day annoying various people, causing the start of at least two new relationships, and backing hastily away from two sixth years who were REALLY getting into this kissing thing. He should have known to stay away from those two.
His main and final prank was to be pulled on two of the professors. Professor Hartnell, known for his absolute strictness and lack of fun. And Professor Baker. Who was...well... Mad. To put it simply.
He waited until everyone was in the Great Hall for dinner before moving to drift right above the heads of the two professors. Frobisher let off a loud blue and white firework. The entire hall went silent, looking for the source until someone spotted the mistletoe. A whisper went around the Hall, and several people pointed until the two professors looked above their heads and saw the plant.
Professor Baker's first reaction was to giggle like a five year old and kiss Professor Hartnell on the cheek before he had a chance to complain. The older professor was having none of this, though, and reached up a hand to grab the mistletoe before it could zoom off.
Frobisher struggled a bit, before giving up and reverting to his usual penguin form.
"Hello, Professor!"
Another round of whispers and giggles swept through the Great Hall, students laughing and muttering that they KNEW it had been Frobisher all along. Frobisher very much doubted any of them had, but he was slightly too busy being glared at to protest.
*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*
"This is animal abuse! I shall report you!"
Frobisher wasn't exactly happy with his new job. With Donna standing guard over him the whole time, he was forced to turn himself into a silly little elf dressed in bright red and green and wander around the castle greeting students. They found it very amusing, and more than a few of them had made fun of him.
Oh well. He was sure he'd find a way to play his pranks like this somehow. She couldn't make him stay as an elf forever, anyway.