January flashed by quickly, the snow and sunshine inviting everyone outside as the third years were finally able to go to Hogsmeade, a few of the fifth years bringing sweets back for the first and second years who were willing to buy some from them.
That weekend, the Great Snowball Tournament of 1966-1967 had occurred, the one that had been planned following the initial snowfall of winter before Christmas break.
The Slytherins had quickly dealt with Ravenclaw, catching all their older students as they attempted to be strategic about their castle and amount of snowballs, Bellatrix pelting the Head Boy in the crotch with an ice ball disguised as a snowball, something most people simply called an accident but Fred and Hermione just looked at each other and whistled anyway. As his housemates attempted to see if he was injured, the older Slytherins began a full assault on the Eagles and they were quickly outmatched, a single third year remaining who ended up forfeiting the victory to the Snakes, wanting to avoid being assaulted by dozens of snowballs.
Hufflepuff had quickly distinguished themselves against Gryffindor in their first match with their teamwork, effectively beating down their numbers rapidly while they preserved theirs with tactic. While the Lions simply tried to throw the biggest snowballs and show off, the badger house had thought a better tactic and won quickly, The Head Girl sacrificing herself to be hit while 8 Gryffindors were taken out simultaneously, all distracted and all wanting to be the one to gloat of taking her out, though the great honour went to a first year girl who pelted a small snowball and caught the Head Girl's shoulder.
Fred was particularly in a great mood after the Slytherin-Gryffindor match after nailing his mother, Molly, in the face with a bullet-speed snowball. Prefect Yaxley had enjoyed gloating about getting Gideon and Fabian Prewett, laughing when he got them both in a single snowball. Slytherin had obtained victory quickly and Gryffindor was now forced into battling for third place against Ravenclaw.
Hufflepuff and Slytherin had found themselves in a heated battle, lasting almost an entire two hours, and the two houses in last place were now torn between who they wanted to vote for. It hadn't taken long for Gryffindor to side with Hufflepuff, but Ravenclaw mostly stayed neutral, instead choosing to set up bets.
Though it surprised everyone even more when they entered a third hour of fighting, the numbers on both sides steadily decreasing occasionally once the two sides hit less than 15 active members each.
Aiming to hit a seventh year, Fred had found himself clocked in the cheek with a snowball harshly and groaned, his face in the snow. It had been his very first contact with a snowball in the entire day and he'd been hoping to go the entire day without being hit.
Hermione snickered from behind her tree at the sight of Fred falling face-first into the snow and two fifth year Hufflepuffs high fiving. She turned her head to see Bellatrix avidly making snowballs and making herself a pile behind her protective wall.
"I'll avenge you brother!" She shouted before whipping a snowball into the Head Girl's face and knocking her out of the battle. As Hermione ducked under her tree to gather snow, she picked up a snowball and turned, only to see a Hufflepuff student aiming at her. She quickly ducked as the snowball whizzed past her head and hit something — or someone.
"COME ON!" Hermione snickered upon realising that the snowball had hit Fred in the face once again when she ducked. "I am not a meat-shield..." He mumbled as he continued to make his way off the snowy battlefield, attempting to dodge any snowballs coming his way. Suddenly, the fight had come to an abrupt spot and many gasps were heard. Hermione peeked from behind the tree and saw the Gryffindor Head of House with snow in her face and gasped herself.
What idiot had felt brave enough to throw a snowball at McGonagall?!
The older woman wiped the snow off her face and waved the rest out of her hair with her wand and looked to the Parkinson heir, who had a heavy expression.
"Oops." Was all he could say before being dragged off the battlefield to be scolded by the professor.
The battle awkwardly continued following this and the need to win was amplified by Prefect Yaxley screaming out: "10 points to whoever hits at least 5 Hufflepuffs." And soon enough, Slytherin was once again dominating the court.
From the side, Hermione's eye caught something interesting. She hid behind her wall and sunk low to avoid to be hit as she looked closely to where Fred was sitting with the other Slytherins that had previously been hit. He seemed to be doing odd motions with his fingers before she realised that he was doing wandless magic. Looking to where his eyes were pointed, she noticed a few snowballs discreetly lifting up from behind one of the void walls and launch towards other Hufflepuffs.
'Of course, no one would ever think a first year would know how to do wandless' She smirked as one by one, the Hufflepuffs fell and everyone was confused as to who was cursing them.
"Which one of you snakes is using your wands?" One of the prefects shouted before being hit in the face with a cursed snowball.
The match paused for two minutes as every Slytherin showed their hands and stood out from behind their protective walls.
"We gave our wands to Professor Slughorn" Prefect Yaxley pointed to their Head of House who was guarding a box in his hands, the place where all of their wands were.
At the start of the tournament, each of the Heads had collected the participants' wands in order for fairness.
'But they never said no one could use magic, just that we couldn't use our wands' Hermione snickered quietly in her corner as the game continued and Fred continued to curse snowballs and get them one-by-one by surprise while everyone tried to detect where they were coming from. She suspected perhaps one or two other older students were doing the same on their team, and she also suspected one Hufflepuff of doing the same, for she had seen one of the seventh years behind a wall throw snowballs, but she hadn't seen any limb poke out, such as a hand or a few fingers. just snowballs.
In the end, Slytherin had won, whether it was thanks to the wandless magic or everyone's efforts, everyone celebrated and Professor Sprout came out holding a trophy. One with a magic snowball on the top of the golden stand.
"Congratulations Slytherin house for your victory!" She told them with a smile as she handed the prefects the trophy. "We shall claim the trophy back next year."
"Seeing as it has yet to get any warmer this winter, we have taken the initiative to show you all the heating charm." Prefect Yaxley announced later that night.
After placing the trophy above the glowing fireplace and showing it off for the entire house to see, everyone had gone to do whatever they wanted while a few noted how it seemed to be getting colder.
And they certainly weren't imagining it. When one looked out to the Black Lake, they would be met with the sight of the water freezing deeper and deeper. The top quarter of the glass pane, you could see the layer of ice descending every day, despite Spring being well on its way by now. And with the lake freezing deeper this year, the Common Room got colder.
"These are one of those times where I prefer Gryffindor's common room to this one." Hermione muttered during the lesson to Fred while the first and second years were practicing the spell while she and Fred we 'practicing' the charm.
"Agreed..." He muttered, pointing to the icy pane of glass where some fish swam up to the layer of ice, only to swim far away from it, back down to the bottom. "Even the fish don't like it. But hey, we can at least enjoy that trophy."
"Oh, we certainly can, you cheat." She stuck out her tongue at him.
"What ever do you mean? Me? Cheat? I simply... bent the rules, you mean." He retorted back, thinking back to his brilliance and smiling. "You should have joined me."
"I would much prefer not to cause mayhem around every corner, Frederick. Haven't you learned that yet?"
"Oh no, no. You don't cause mayhem, the mayhem finds you, doesn't it? I do recall the Cerberus, a basilisk, a werewolf, an ex-convict, the department of myst-"
"Yes, I get it." She stopped him. "Trouble won't ever leave me alone, I know."
"Nothing's happened this year, which surprises me greatly considering that when Harry arrived, something went wrong every year. I was hoping for some adventures but I guess not..."
"I swear if I get attacked before the end of the year, I'm blaming you entirely." She huffed, not wanting to be put in any unnecessary danger of any kind.
"See? You're simply dying for a chance to cause mayhem and put me in my place!" Fred bellowed at Hermione silently sent a stinging hex to his hand, making him drop his wand and laugh harder, now catching the attention of other students.
Hermione woke up a few mornings later earlier than usual, the light not even having begun to pass through the windows of the dungeons. Many weeks had passed and many sunny days had finally melted much of the snow and the ice from the lake, causing the common room to warm significantly, making the heating charms they'd been taught to warm themselves with mostly useless now that the ice had started receding and the fish were now swimming freely around the lake.
Of course, that wasn't what woke Hermione up, it was the shrieking in her dorm this early that had done that job.
"Shut up!" She heard a shout from the bed next to hers, Bellatrix's to be exact, and pushed her laughter down, knowing that the shrieking between Andromeda and Anita had woken them both up. Following the outburst, the girls had quiet down, but they remained just as enthusiastic about their hushed whispers and gossip.
But Hermione was now awake and couldn't go back to bed even if she wanted to. She finally sat up and looked around groggily. Andromeda and Anita were seated on top of the middle Black daughter's bed whispers close to each other and giggling, the second-year girls were somehow either still asleep or completely gone from the dorm, but either way, they'd done a good decision with whatever they chose to do.
She pulled the curtains around her bed and got dressed for the day, it was a Friday, meaning they had Astronomy and Potions class, one in the afternoon and the other late after dinner when the stars began to show.
By the time she drew her curtains open, the room had begun to brighten a bit, the sun peaking in the horizon just enough to need to squint at the brightness. She'd looked at the two whispering girls for barely ten seconds before leaving the dorm room and walking down the hall to the Common Room.
She stopped the moment she had entire the common room. It was significantly brighter than usual.
"Happy Valentine's day, Miss Malfoy." She was immediately greeted by a female prefect standing at beside the entrance. "How are you this fine morning?"
"I'm wonderful, thank you." She tried to refrain from using too much sarcasm in her voice. She looked around and watched as three other prefects decorating the Common Room with various kinds of pink and red hearts and streamers. It really fit the theme of the day after all. "Can I help with anything?"
The female prefect looked surprise at the offer, but thought nonetheless at what she could say. "Have you any plans this morning?"
"No, I don't think so," She answered. "we first years have potions in the afternoon and Astronomy in the evening, but that seems to be it."
"Well, I require some assistance with a task this morning. I'll only need you for about three hours." the prefect smiled. "I need to deliver these valentine roses from the Slytherins over the course of the morning and there are more than I thought."
"Seems interesting, I'd be glad to be of service." Hermione smiled as the Prefect waved her over to follow and eventually showed her the large basket of roses. There had been at least two dozen flowers, each with a personally made note to every person for whom they were addressed. Each rose was purchased from the Head boy and Head girl over the course of the last two weeks for the price of five knuts each and a note of the buyer's choice would be attached and delivered to the recipient by the Prefects of the buyer's house. Hermione found the entire plan sweet. It was a much better plan than what she had seen during her second year, the valentine-delivering dwarves being entirely too messy and more of a nuisance than anything with the various disruptions they caused.
And so they both left early for breakfast, arriving at the Great Hall to find there had been a handful of people there already, the Head boy and Head girl there at the end of one table discussing Merlin-knows-what, a few students from the other houses and even a few Hufflepuff fifth-years with books on their laps as they ate quietly.
Hermione finally learned that the female Prefect's name was Isla, though she preferred everyone call her by her last name Esposito. She was a sixth year who mostly preferred the solitude of the library and often chose to do her nightly rounds on that floor, saying she was making sure it was empty, only for another prefect to usually find her sitting in a corner and reading a book herself. This she learned when another prefect, a Ravenclaw, teased her for not having some kind of reading material with her, only for her to retort silently by pulling out a how-to manual from the inside of her robes with a straight face. This caused a few people to snicker and return to their eggs and toast.
"Where's Hermione? I haven't seen her all morning." Bellatrix entered the Great Hall later than usual and sat across from Fred and Antonin. She was looking straight at Fred, who unfortunately had a mouth entirely full of food and was expected to answer immediately.
He struggled to swallow everything before coughing a few times and hitting his chest a few times. "Why are you looking at me? I thought she was with you. She's your roommate." He coughed a few more times before draining his cup of pumpkin juice.
"I think she's off with Prefect Esposito." Antonin muttered, catching the eyes of Fred and Bellatrix. "Was entering the common room and they were leaving together for, what I presume was breakfast."
They shrugged and enjoyed breakfast, thought Fred constantly had to cover his bowl of cereal because of many Valentine letters being sent and exploding in glitter everywhere. A few times, he swallowed glitter and grimaced, coughing once or twice for he could feel the glitter in his throat, all while Bellatrix was removing the dozens of petals from her food because of Owls flying overhead with bouquets of flowers. Antonin had completely given up on eating until after the post so he wouldn't be in either predicament that most students now found themselves in.
"What classes do we have?" Antonin asked them, now finally picking up a few things almost a dozen minutes after the owls finally stopped flying in.
"Potions," Fred answered, finally returning to eat his cereal as the glitter had stopped falling into the bowl. "which leads to my next question."
"Speaking of Potions, why is Professor Slughorn in such a bad mood this morning?" The trio looked to the head table and snorted when they saw their Head of House grumbling to himself as he angrily buttered some toast, practically destroying the piece in his hand and having to redo another one. He was constantly shaking his head and accidentally bumped McGonagall's goblet, causing a few students to snicker.
"Probably had too many requests to go over Love potions. Happens every year." One of the older students laughed along with the younger students. "All the girls always ask."
"Yea, but if you're really desperate for one, just go to the Gryffindor. There's always one or two poor blokes that end up all hopped up and gooey eyed for the day."
"Poor Weasley was the last year's victim, I fear he may fall for it a second time." Fred couldn't help himself and released the loud snort he'd been holding back.
"That Prewett girl is really too insistent, man, I'd hate to be the bloke who marries her. I hear she's done it to him almost a handful of times already this year."
"She can do whatever she wants as long as she doesn't touch a Slytherin." A few of the older students gagged at the thought and two or three laughed at their expressions.
"You think those twin brothers' of hers would be up for a few minutes in a closet? Not bad on the eyes, you know." A few girls giggled at the one who suggested it, a seventh-year girl by the looks of it.
"Ugh, you're getting blinder by the year! Last year it was Fletcher, now it's the Prewetts? Get new glasses Shafiq!" Said girl had to block herself from the piece of bread that jokingly got thrown her way by the girl across from her.
For the remainder of the morning, Fred, Bellatrix and Antonin would only catch mere glimpses of their missing friend in the halls, following closely behind the sixth-year Slytherin Prefect until Potions class began, Hermione coming into class as the chime rang. She quickly sprang into her spot at the table claimed early on by the Slytherin students and settled in front of her cauldron while Professor Slughorn began on the common ingredients of love potions, a request he so gracefully received over twenty times that morning and was tired of receiving.