TERM 6 - Snowball Fight - The Lake - Lyrica, Jen, Aoife, Kynan, Evan, Hunter

It didn't take Hunter long to decide that Christmas was his favorite season at Hogwarts. The inside of the castle was decorated with candles and mistletoe and the biggest trees that he'd ever seen inside a building! They must have used some kind of magic to get them in there, he thought to himself when he saw them standing along the walls of the Great Hall.

As much as Hunter loved the inside of the castle, he loved the outside even better. Because of the snow of course! So, naturally, he had chosen to begin his day off by hurdling down the stairs (and of course, skipping that stupid trick step that he'd gotten stuck in) and flying out into the grounds. He laughed as his boots kicked up snow with every step on his way toward the lake.

Still, as awesome as it was to see the massive Hogwarts grounds covered in snow, he couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia for his home. If he was at home, his brother Jack would have surely tackled him from behind by now. Or pelted a snowball into the side of his head - a snowball! There were a few people scattered around the lake enjoying the snow.

Grinning mischievously, he bent down and scooped up a huge handful of snow, packing it into a tight, perfect snowball. He had plenty of snowball-making experience, so he was certain that it wouldn't fall apart when he threw it. Zoning in on a target, he pulled his arm back and wailed the snowball toward the nearest person, watching as it neared its mark.

Lyra was so excited about being in the lake especially now that is was snowing, she was edging closer to the lake when she felt a cold wet thing hit the back of her face, Lyra turned around to see where it came from and saw a Gryffindor boy laughing at her,"Hey." she yelled as she grabbed the back of her head, Lyra bent down and made the best snowball she could make, pulled her arm back and shot him straight in the face.

Yes! The snowball hit its mark, breaking apart as it hit the back of his target's head. The girl cried out and spun around quickly to see him doubled over in laughter - in all honesty, he was pretty impressed with his own impeccable aim. He was too busy laughing to notice her take a handful of snow from the ground. The snowball collided with his cheek - apparently, he wasn't the only one who had decent aim.

The snowball had surprised Hunter, causing him to lose his balance and slip on the snow. He toppled over, landing on his side, but couldn't stop his laughter. He quickly pulled himself to his feet, another snowball in his hand, and took a better glance at the girl he'd assaulted. She had long, dark hair. He didn't recognize her, but she looked to be about his age. Maybe a second year? She wasn't in his own year. It didn't matter. He tossed the second snowball in her direction, a grin still on his face, and spun, taking off to circle around her - it was harder to hit a moving target.

"I'd say sorry, but I'm not," he called to the girl as he rounded her, bending down as he ran to catch some more snow. A grin was plastered on his face - Hunter loved snowball fights!

Lyra fumed as she looked at the boy who was now moving around, she saw him bend down to grab some snow, Lyra hurried to get more snow and make a snow ball, she ran behind a large rock for cover and flung her snow ball directly into the boys chest, "Direct hit!!"

Another snowball came flying at him. Hunter saw it coming this time, and made to duck, but wasn't fast enough. "Shoot!" It hit him in the chest. He tucked his head down and did a swift roll across the snow in a way that he wouldn't if the ground weren't soft. It probably made him look more coordinated than he really was. When he looked up, he saw that his enemy was hiding behind a rock.

Giving up on her for a moment, Hunter glanced around himself. There were a few more people around the lake. A snowball fight was better with more people, so he aimed his next snowball at an unsuspecting victim a little bit away, hoping to draw them in. He didn't watch to see if he had hit his target, turning again to focus on the girl - just in case she was planning on retaliating. If she hadn't thrown one back at him in the beginning, he may have shown her mercy. But now, this would be a snowball war!

What was stupider than saying no to a snowball fight? Kynan kept asking himself that as he walked through the hallways of the school, trying to find his way to the main doors. His sister had just rejected his invitation to a snowball fight- which was utterly stupid to him because it was snowing for the first time in ages! And according to Aylee, the snow and cold winter reminded her of home. When they were young, they used to love snowball fighting in the park. But his sister just said no. Kynan was beyond angry at that. He marched out of the castle, stamping his feet until he realized what he was stamping in.

Snow.

He bent down, grabbed a handful of snow with his bare hands and covered his face with it. It was fresh, lovely snow. The kind he liked. Kynan smiled and ran towards the lake. Maybe there was a snowball fight which he could join. If not, he could start his own. He was right, though, there was a snowball fight between the boy Hunter and a Hufflepuff girl. Before he had a chance to open his mouth and ask to join, Hunter hit him in the face with a snowball with full force that almost caused him to fall down.

"Hey!" Kynan yelled loudly, a hint of tease in his voice. He let out a small laugh as he bent down and scooped up some snow. Then he quickly shaped it into a ball and aimed it at Hunter. Without checking to see where it hit, he scooped up some more snow and shot again.

Now, when Evan was a third year, he could finally join a snowball fight with lots of useful spells at his disposal. Firstly, he protected his hear with a Bubblehead Charm, because it was the most vulnerable spot. Maybe he looked stupid. Maybe. But with his new defense he could face and defeat anyone who said that.

He approached the Lake and saw three students there: Lyrica, Hunter, and Kynan. The only formidable opponent was Kynan, because he could dispell his Bubblehead Charm with 'Finite Incantatem'. If he knew this spell of course. Evan wasn't sure what spells Kynan was familiar with due to his tendency to not care about studying.

Evan didn't want to shoot Lyrica, as she was really nice during his two projects: tickling and flower ones. So the only candidate for getting the first shot was Hunter, little liar boy. Evan made a snowball, took it into his right hand (he was left-handed), and use his wand to send it flying with 'Waddiwasi' spell. It guaranteed much better accuracy and tremendously increased projectile speed. The target was Hunter's head, of course, which wasn't protected by Bubblehead Charm as Evan's.

Jennifer knew there was some sort of snowball fight going on a little bit away from her. Just some kids messing about. Nothing abnormal. She was just taking a walk in the snow. Hogwarts looked so pretty completely covered in a beautiful white layer of snow. Unfortunately, down by the lake the footprints and snowballs flying everywhere ruined the appearance a bit.

Because of this, along with how cold her feet were getting (despite three pairs of her favorite Christmas socks), Jen was leaving to go back up to the castle and force some house elf to make her a hot chocolate. But then she was FORCED to turn back. Because some ignorant third-year Gryffindor had caught her with a snowball. On the back of her head. Ruining her HAIR. Whether it was an accident or not, she didn't know, but he still deserved the consequences.

Jen quickly pulled her wand from her pocket and reached down to grab a handful of snow. She was SO tempted to put some rocks in there, but she resisted that urge for the sake of not getting expelled for almost killing someone. She saw her minion ever doing something smart and recognised the spell as the Bubblehead Charm. He wouldn't mind if she copied the idea, surely? But she didn't particularly care whether he minded, so she cast the same spell. After she'd fixed her hair, obviously. Even with the stupid Bubblehead thing, she still looked dazzling, of course.

Then she used a spell to freeze her snowball. To make it harder and to hurt more. Not too hard though. That might knock him out. So she threw it. "Take that! NEVER mess with my HAIR!" Jennifer roared. "Oh, hi Evan."

Aoife was in the middle of making a snowsheep when all the action happened. It was difficult, and he'd just have to be a sheep lying down, but it was going okay. She'd even named him. Sean the Sheep. Because Shaun the Sheep was probably copyright and in Ireland they spelled it Sean. But anyway, she was about to start making his head when she noticed the loud noises nearby. And there was a SNOWBALL FIGHT! Which Hunter was in. "HUNTER, WHY DIDN'T YOU INVITE ME TO YOUR SNOWBALL FIGHT YOU GIT?" she shouted, mainly joking. Mainly.

Oh, maybe it was because Jennifer Moss was there. And therefore she was going to join in to get her revenge on the older girl. Aoife grabbed a handful of snow and ran a little closer, aiming for the back of Jennifer's head. But she didn't shoot, because the other girl WASN'T PLAYING FAIR! She'd got a handful of ICE and was throwing it at her little Hobbit, KYNAN! HOW MEAN WAS THAT?

So then she threw the snow at Jennifer's head. It was too late to save Kynan now. He'd have to realise quickly unless the ice was to hit him. Aoife waved to Evan and Hunter, before throwing snowballs their way too. Unfortunately, they weren't very precise and could probably be easily dodged. Which sucked.

Instead of hitting Hunter, Kynan's snowball ended up in a Slytherin girl's head. The girl turned around and looked really furious about the snowball. Oops. He did a funny frowny face as he watched the girl pick up some snow and turn it into an iceball. And then the iceball was heading towards him. He could hear some yelling coming from somewhere nearby but all he saw that moment was the frozen snowball. It was like time slowed down, but he had enough time before he took out his wand, pointed it at the ball and exclaimed, "Incendio!" The ball was on fire. It fell down in mid-air and melted, but Kynan turned out the fire before it could melt the rest of the snow. Then he turned round and saw Evan looking like an astronaut. "Finite Incantatum, git," he muttered, pointing his wand at Evan's perfect Bubble Head Charm. The spell might not work, though, as he hadn't mastered it. Cheaters. Well, he wasn't going to play fair, either.

A Hufflepuff girl was hiding behind a rock. "Mobiliarbus!" he pointed at the rock, and it started floating up. Using his wand, Kynan guided the rock in front of him as quickly as he could and set it down. Then he used the rest of the snow around it to build a kind of fort shield in front of him. "Aoife, come on!" he yelled at the Gryffindor who wasn't far, and waved at her. "Hunter!" He was inviting them to split up into teams. Then he started making snowballs and hitting them with full force at the mean Slytherin cheater.

Kynan had been his target, and Hunter knew that his shot had connected when the boy exclaimed. Hunter turned back toward Kynan, figuring that he would be a greater threat than the girl behind the rock - although the girl had managed to hit him twice, so she wasn't to be overlooked either. Hunter grinned as the other boy quickly joined in, pelting a snowball at him. He tried to dodge it, but suddenly, another snowball collided with his head from a different direction, causing Hunter to stumble slightly.

Who can throw that fast? he wondered, spinning around to see where the snowball came from. He felt a laugh rise in his throat at what he saw. That Evan boy, from the party, was joining them - which was fine, the more the merrier! But he had some bubble thing over his head. "You look ridiculous," Hunter called to the boy as he neared, grinning. He meant it in a joking way, but he wasn't sure if Evan would take it that way. It didn't matter.

Assuming that the stupid bubble-thing protected Evan's head, Hunter sent a snowball flying toward his chest instead. He turned back to Kynan to see that another person had joined them. But this one didn't seem very happy. It was that older Slytherin girl - apparently Kynan had hit her and ruined her hair. Why did that matter? Then, the girl turned her snowball into ice and pelted it toward Kynan. "Hey!" Hunter exclaimed, gathering up all his strength and aiming his own snowball at the back of the girl's head. He quickly ducked away, after seeing how she'd reacted to Kynan's snowball.

It was okay, though. Kynan had used some awesome spell to burn the snowball. I've got to learn that one. "Nice job!" Hunter called to him. He saw Kynan aim his wand at Evan and mutter something, but didn't pay much attention to what it accomplished. By then, a voice he knew all too well rang out over the grounds, and he grinned. Aoife had joined the party. "It was sort of a spontaneous occurance," he called back to her comically, dodging her snowball with his lightning fast snowball fight reflexes!

He heard Kynan call his name and beckon to him - Aoife's, too. TEAMS! Yes! Teams were so much better! Hunter instantly retreated toward Kynan and Aoife, a grin plastered on his face. He bent down to grab another handful of snow and packed it as he backed up, sending it flying toward Evan.

TEAMS? YAY TEAMS!

It sucked than Kynan had left poor Evan with EvilJen, but sometimes you had to make sacrifices in life. Aoife was sure Evan would understand, since he seemed to be FRIENDLY WITH HER MORTAL ENEMY, ANYWAY. She was still on the better, most awesomest team. With Kynan's awesome magic spells and Hunter's awesome fast-as-lightening speed, they were always going to win. Even if Aoife couldn't do anything but throw snowballs.

"Are you sure, Kynan?" Aoife asked confusedly. "I can't do magic or good stuff like you and Hunter, though!" But before she could continue her sob story, there were more snowballs and she was forced to throw one at her little dinosaur. She went easy though, since she felt sorry for him being stuck on that team.

Evan watched with admiration how his super-fast projectile hit Hunter's head, making him stumble. Magic makes things funnier. Funnier for me, at least. Then hunter called Evan's head protection ridiculous. Yeah yeah, laugh if you want, but it was your head that was hit. "You know what's ridiculous, kid? Your intellectual capacity!" Evan replied to the boy. Hunter threw a snowball and hit his chest, but everyone knew that only headshots could make some inconveniences.

Then he heard familiar voice greeted him. "Hi Jennifer!" he exclaimed happily. The next moment his protecting bubble disappeared. Evan wanted to create a new one, but was hit by a snowball right in the face. It hit him very gently, but it was still unpleasant. Evan observed the battlefield, and by the direction of this ball he could say that it was thrown by Aoife, so he gave her a disappointed look. He forgave her immediately. Who could have a grudge against this girl?

Evan used Bubblehead Charm again and was ready to continue the fight. Kynan created some kind of fortifications and assembled a team. Weak always seek safety in numbers. Evan found that it would be fair if he asked Jen for help. It was Kynan's problem that he suggested team play and didn't asked the sixth year to join. "Jen, you know 'Aqua Eructo', right? Make them wet! I doubt they have any chances to get dry again! They will freeze is minutes and will beg us for mercy!" Evan said to Jennifer. "I'll get their fort now!" With 'Incendio' he directed a wave of flame towards Kynan's snow shield. It could also melt some snow around, damaging their ammunition supplies. "Just don't wet the girl, okay? She's nice."

Evan was brilliant. Completely brilliant. Slightly twisted and mad but brilliant, still. Aqua Eructo, she knew that one. "Nice plan," Jen agreed, readying her wand. "And Evan, I'm getting the girl. You clearly don't know her that well. If she was nice, she'd be over here." And then she cast the spell, aiming the heavy jet of water at Aoife. Of course she'd freeze and be begging for mercy. This plan was foolproof, really.

Every couple of seconds, Jennifer flicked her hand to aim at a different member of the other team. "Evan, we need a team name! For the sake of awesome! We could mix our names together or something!" But they mustn't be distracted. They must ATTACK! "We can DO this Evan!"

Lyra saw Evan talk to the girl that was next to him, before she new it, she stood shocked as the cold water hit her, she looked angrily at Evan and said "Evan why did you tell her to hit me i'm on your side remember!!!!."

The other two didn't have any problems with splitting up into teams. Kynan grinned at Hunter as the younger Gryffindor continued to throw snow at Evan. Unfortunately, Evan casted the Bubble-Head Charm once again and he didn't have time to take it down. They had their own problems. Jennifer was aiming her wand at Aoife and Evan was attacking the fort with the Fire-Making Spell. "Hunter, distract them!" he explained. Although he wasn't super-smart, he played a lot of video games and was on his houses's Quidditch Team so he was a particularly good strategist. He heard Aoife say something about not being as good as him and Hunter so he just said, "Try keeping the fort strong, then! I'll cover you!" Kynan took out his wand again and tried to think of something to repel Evan's fire spell. What was worse, the mean Slytherin was conjuring a jet of water to blast Aoife. "Dodge!" he yelled, then pointed his wand at the Slytherin and said the first spell he could think of. "Impedimenta!" That should slow her down.

Then there was the fire to take care of. "Keep shooting, Hunter!" Kynan exclaimed and dropped his wand by his feet. Then he grabbed some snow and threw it at the fire. If they were luckily, the snow would melt the fire. If that didn't happen, he could cast 'Ardor Glacio' or something and rebuild a fort somewhere else. There still was a big rock in front of them, anyway.

Evan saw Jennifer blasted poor Lyrica with a jet of water. It was too late now, he couldn't do anything. But she was aiming at Aoife now! The stream of water was on its way, but it still had finite speed, so Evan had some time to save his friend. Sadly, Evan had no time to reply to Lyrica. Sorry, Lyra. But it was okay, he was going to explain everything later.

Evan's plan could save Aoife, but at a great cost. Evan aimed his wand at his 'friend on the other team'  and shouted, "Impervius!" Now her coat was waterproof and she was saved from freezing and the following flu. But now the opposite team knew the way to defend themselves against the water attacks.

Evan didn't only gave his enemies a secret defense against his own brilliant plan, but he also stopped the destruction of the fort. Sorry, Jen. The next moment, however, he got a chance to redeem himself. Jennifer was hit by 'Impedimenta' spell, and Evan ended it with 'Finite Incantatem'. No need to thank me, Jen. I'm just doing my job.

Okay, so the other team definitely did not intend to play fair. Evan was melting their fort, and the older girl was also aiming her wand in their direction. Hunter wasn't so great at magic, so there wasn't much he could do to counter them. But when Kynan instructed him to distract them, he grinned. "Right."That was something he could do. His grin faded when he saw that the Slytherin had shot a jet of water at Aoife. That's definitely cheating. As Hunter ran passed his friend, he grabbed her arm in an attempt to pull her out of the way. "Get down!"

He wasn't sure if he'd managed to get her out of the line of fire. He heard Kynan shout some kind of spell, and he heard Evan shout some kind of spell, but he wasn't sure what either meant, so he didn't pay much attention to either of them. Hunter ducked out from behind the fort, giving up the protection that it offered for the chance at more accurate aim. He circled around to the side of the action and began pelting snowballs at the girl.

Both Jen and Evan were using that head-charm, but Hunter had a different target in mind, anyway. It was a slim chance that it would work, but he began pelting snowballs at their arms - their wand arms, to be exact. Maybe he'd get lucky and knock one of their wands from their hands. Or maybe he'd get hit by a jet of freezing water and be forced to forfeit the fight completely. Either way, Hunter flung snowballs at them as fast as he could - this was about quantity, not quality, since managing to hit one of their arms would be the result of nothing but sheer luck. He had decent aim, but it wasn't that good.

Jennifer smirked at the small Hufflepuff who seemed confused Evan hadn't stopped her from getting hit with the cold water. Looked like the water worked, anyway. "Evan, what are you DOING?" she whispered angrily. "Would you like to switch to the other team? Because you seem to be HELPING THEM!" He'd protected Aoife AND their fort. Just when she'd started to think he'd be a good minion. She was on her own now.

Then Hunter-boy had started to throw snowballs at their arms. At first, she just giggled, but then her wand slipped from her hand into a pile of snow. So Jen was forced to drop and dig through the snow looking for it. Oh gosh, she looked like a complete idiot. After what seemed like a century, but in which time she luckily didn't get hit, she managed to grab her wand again.

If the little Gryffindor boy wanted to play like that, then fine. She was very competitive when it came to things like this. Jen picked up a huge handful of snow and muttered, "Glacius!" as she pointed her wand at it. It wasn't quite as heavy as she'd hoped, and definitely wouldn't knock someone out, but it would leave a bruise. So she chucked it at Hunter and repeated this over and over, throwing more snowballs in the other team's general direction.

IT WAS OKAY EVERYONE WAS PROTECTING HER.

Except Jennifer, obviously. But why? It made sense for the members of her team to do so, but Evan?
Aoife appreciated the help (even though she clearly didn't need it) but Evan seemed to have forgotten which team he was actually on.

But her chanced came to repay her team. Jennifer was throwing another chunk of ice at Hunter, so she took a leap and DIVED to catch it. Aoife didn't manage to grab it but it hit her arm. Ouch, that would leave a bruise. BUT SHE HAD SAVED HUNTER!

Jen was disappointed by Evan's actions, be he couldn't help it. "I told you about the girl, Jennifer," he said quietly. It wasn't good to let a teammate down, especially when they were so close to making their team official by picking a name. Speaking of names, Evan's first ideas were "Awesome Evan's Rangers", "Evan's Vindicators", "Evan the Awesome & Co". Jen suggested to use the mix of their names, so Evan made up some new ones, like "Evan the Awesome & J". Soon he decided to make names shorter, like "Evan & J" and "Jevan", and even some names some manes with more equality, like "Evifer". The last one even had more Jennifer than Evan in it. He would never picked the last one as he wanted his name to dominate, but now Evan wanted to make it up with Jen, so he decided to use this one. He hoped she would like it, although including so many "Jennifer letters" was considered a sucking-up by Evan. "I'm still on Evifer team, don't worry." Actually, Jennifer didn't have to worry even if Evan was on the other team. She could easily blast him with some advanced magic.

Powerful witch Jennifer might have been, but she was disarmed my Hunter's snowball, that hit her wand. After she regained her the wand, she hailed the opposing team with ice balls, and this looked like fun for Evan, until one of them hit Aoife, who tried to save Hunter from it. Poor brave girl.

It was definitely Hunter's fault. He provoked Jennifer to attack him with ice balls and then let Aoife take one for him. What a bastard. Evan aimed at him and exclaimed, "Impedimenta!" Now Hunter supposed to move slower and therefore, couldn't dodge and shoot that as good as before. I hope some ice ball finally gets you. Right in the face. It would be especially ironic since you find head protection 'ridiculous'.

Wow. I didn't think that would work! To Hunter's amazement, one of his snowballs connected with Jen's hand, and her wand fell from her grip. He grinned and retreated back to his teammates near the fort while the blonde girl dropped to the ground to retrieve her weapon. Hopefully, Kynan and Aoife would be able to get a few good hits in while she was down, or at least make the fort stronger.

The moment the Slytherin girl found her wand, however, things turned bad again. She did the same thing that she did before to Kynan - turned the snowball to ice - and hurled it right in his direction. Shoot. He hadn't been paying enough attention! There was no way he'd dodge it in time. Before the ice ball hit him, however, a small red-headed figure dove in front of him. Aoife must have intended to catch it, but it slammed into her arm instead. Hunter winced as it happened - it looked like it had hurt.

"Thanks. You okay?" Hunter asked her quickly, but Aoife seemed to be fine. He was pretty sure she'd feel that hit tomorrow, though. "Watch out!" he called out to Kynan as Jen began pelting ice balls in all directions. Reaching down, he grabbed Aoife's arm and pulled her to her feet so that she could dodge the older girl's attack.

Hunter vaguely heard Evan shout something - some spell. It wasn't important, Hunter didn't know what it meant anyway. What the... Apparently, Evan's spell was important, because apparently he'd cast it at Hunter! Why couldn't he run as fast? An ice ball hurtled toward him from Jen's direction - he had plenty of time to dodge it. It should have been easy. So how did that ice ball wind up slamming into his shoulder? Ouch! Evan must have put some spell on him that made him slower.

Another ice ball. Now what? He'd never dodge it in time. Pulling out his wand, he tried to copy what Kynan had done before. "Incendio!" he muttered, aiming at the ice ball. It worked, but his aim was off. The jet of flame flew off in the direction of Jen and Evan, but it missed it's target. He turned just in time for it to bounce painfully off of his arm. "A little help here?!" Hunter called to Kynan. Maybe the older boy knew how to dispel the charm.

It was impossible to keep track of what was going on now. The evil Slytherin threw an iceball at Hunter this time, and little Aoife dived in attempt to catch the ball. Instead, Aoife got hurt and Hunter was trying to help her up. Well, we're in trouble, Kynan thought. But obviously, he wasn't going down without a fight. Back in Scotland he used to spend hours on fight games and was good at such things. At least, he hoped. Whatever happened, all he knew was that know Hunter was being hit by iceballs and it must've been some spell. Hunter was too good to dodge so slowly. Luckily, he still had his wand in his hand so he just pointed it at Hunter and yelled, "Finite Incantatum!"

Then Hunter was trying out the Incendio spell on another iceball. Uh oh. Kynan used the counter-spell again on the fire so not much snow melted. "Here!" he yelled, and started making snowballs, freezing them, and handing them to Hunter. "We're going to fight just as fair as they will!" Then he pointed his wand at Hunter and Aoife and cast the Bubble-Head Charm the best he could. He didn't spend his free time mastering spells so there might be some side-effects to his Bubble-Head Charm. He wasn't his sister, either. But, anyway, whatever. Then he continued freezing snowballs and putting them in a pile next to Hunter for him to fire. "Aoife, if you're hurt, take cover!"

Aoife grabbed Hunter's hand and stood up. "I'm alright, I'm carrying on!" she called to Kynan when he checked she was alright. Like a hero. Hopefully. EVERYONE WAS GETTING COOKIES AFTER THIS EVEN JENNIFER. Despite not having earned them like her team all had. The older boy had cast that stupid Bubble-head thing so she had her own bubble now. And a small red rash on her cheek. But that was meant to happen, right?

Another iceball came hurtling towards her and she was forced to duck to avoid another big bruise. Aoife just kept picking up normal snowballs and feebly throwing them at Evan and Jennifer. At least she was playing fair, other than the Bubble-head which wasn't her choice, even if nobody else was. Maybe she'd get lucky and get one down Jen's neck. That was what she was aiming for, anyway.

"OKAY PEOPLE. JUST A QUICK TIME OUT! EVERYONE IS GETTING COOKIES IN THE KITCHEN AFTER THIS! OKAY - RESUME FOULPLAY!"

I'm doomed for sure, Hunter thought as another ice ball caught him in the stomach. He just couldn't move fast enough, and it knocked the wind out of him. The next one was aiming for his head. It would knock him out for sure - but Hunter had to try to dodge it, even if it was hopeless. To his amazement, this time when he made to duck his body responded normally. Kynan must have lifted whatever spell Evan had put on him.

"Thanks!" Hunter called to him. He watched as Kynan made a snowball, pointed his wand at it and tossed it his way. Hunter caught it easily, but was surprised by its weight. Oh. Kynan had frozen it, just like Jen. Hunter hesitated for half a second - he didn't want to actually hurt them - but quickly made up his mind and threw the hardened snowball toward the Slytherin girl.

Then, Kynan put bubbles around their heads like Jen and Evan. They had to be a sight - a bunch of people with giant bubble helmets throwing snowballs at each other. He would have laughed if he weren't in pain from the places the ice had hit into him. Kynan began mass producing the heavy snowballs and tossing them to Hunter, who then pelted it across the distance between them and the other team. It was a good system. Ordinarily, Hunter would have been worried about hurting the others with the hardened ammunition, but now he was focused. The Slytherin girl sure didn't seem to be afraid to hurt them, so neither was he.

He had nearly forgotten about Aoife, who was helping out by throwing normal snowballs, when suddenly her voice rang out over the grounds. Hunter stopped what he was doing to look at the red-head, who was apparently calling a time out. Apparently Aoife didn't realize that this was not a time out kind of snowball fight. And what was the time out for? To announce that there would be cookies afterward! COOKIES! Sometimes girls never cease to amaze me. They were bludgeoning each other with ice balls and Aoife calls a time out to announce that she was going to bake everyone cookies!