OOC: This thread takes place DURING the Yuleball, so anyone who replies will either have skipped it, like Moira, or left it early/gone away for a break.




Moira sat against the outer wall of Hagrid's tree. She couldn't stand to be near the castle right then. All the fancy dresses and dress robes and all the /noise/ would drive her nuts. It wasn't her thing and besides, she wouldn't be missed if she didn't attend. No one would notice, and that was how she wanted it. Either way, it gave her time to spend with the wild Niffler she had found early one morning a month or two before and decided to keep. Given her mood over the past couple weeks she had neglected the thing a little. It was a good thing Hagrid never forgot about any of the animals he kept and looked after and even the ones he didn't.

Petting it she let it play with the shiny necklace she had used to get it in the first place. "I'm sorry I haven't been around lately. The past few weeks have been difficult, but it's no excuse. I should have come out here every day still and taken care of you as is proper. You'll have a new home to go to soon, though, and my dad won't tell me no, since I've got you already."

Faintly, if she listened hard enough, she could just make out the sound of music coming from the castle. "They're having a big posh party up in there. I bet you'd like it, all the fancy shiny stuff would absolutely make you a happy niffler. It's not for me though, all that fancy." Pausing she considered, "Dad did tell me I wasn't much of a girl, once. What since I prefer working to.... primping up in front of a mirror. Something about catching boys? I don't fully remember, I stopped listening partway through."

Turning the Niffler over she rubbed it's belly, keeping him close so he wouldn't get cold.

One would think the cold would have slowed down the chase, that the moment the two went outside they would have wanted to return the the warmth of the castle right away. But neither had.

After the dinner, Heliotrope had noticed that one of the red twinkling lights was not like the other twinkling lights. The green skinned clabbert[1] had blended into a holly wreath very well. And thus the continued pursuit of this creature that mermish Hufflepuff and long limbed frog-monkey had been having all semester resumed.

From a muggle perspective, the chase was filmed in slow motion although no cameras or editing tricks were present. The clabbert lopped through the soggy snow and stumbling behind was Heliotrope in her dingy gossamer dress.[2] With one last stumble Heliotrope landed in the soggy snow by Hagrid's great tree, clabbert clutched in her hands.

If there was one thing that wouldn't happen to Heliotrope in the cold, it would be freezing to death. Being genetically related to a magically ectothermic species gave her an imperfect tolerance for cold, sapping her only of energy to make quick movements.

It said something of the Yule Ball or perhaps the mindset of the little Hufflepuff second year that she found chasing a stowaway clabbert out into the snow more exciting than a formal dance.

1.	HP wiki
2.	The one in the lower left corner

Jack knew that no one would really care if he was there or not. Maybe a small handful of people would notice but they had better things to do. Jack decided to find a nice spot to just relax and fool around. His usual spots weren't exactly private tonight from all the kissing that would occur within the next few hours so he ventured a little further. Since the Quidditch Pitch was usually to awkward for Jack he decided to go to Hagrid's. The walk seemed painstakingly long but when he got there he decided to rest a while.

Seeing as the snowfall has already started Jack decided to make a few snowballs and aimed at random trees. Since Jack decided to not where anything for the ball he could easily have full movement in his target practice. When he finally stopped he had a ditch a few inches down and could see grass underneath his shoes. Jack decided to walk around the hut when he heard some sort of sound/voices. He turned around after about a minute of searching and found Moria sitting next to a tree talking to a lump. Since he wasn't alone anymore he decided to throw a snowball in her direction. It rolled about 5 feet away from to get her attention.

"HEY!!...What are you do...?" was all Jack could say before he landed face first into snow

So much for peace and quiet. One of the first years in her house, threw a snowball. Whether it missed because he wanted it to or because of poor aim she wasn't sure, either way it did what he wanted and caused her to look over. He started to ask what she was doing, when he fell into a rather large snow drift. Watching, slightly amused she noticed another of the younger Hufflepuffs off a distance away.

That Hufflepuff appeared to be chasing after something with a red light. Squinting her eyes some to try and make it out she thought she recognized it as a clabbert. They were rather fascinating actually.

Looking back to the boy as he began to get up she slightly raised an eyebrow. He was rather loud, wasn't he? Then again, quite a few first years were. It was likely their age, but then again Moira was generally quiet, unless yelling at her father or uncle.

Jack could feel the snow freezing his face. It felt nice though, it remind him of the fun during the dry, cold winter. As Jack wiped the snow off his face he saw Moria staring at something. Jack turned around to see Heliotrope with her Clabbert again. Jack thought she had a date or at least be distracted by the whole thing to stay at the ball but he was mistaken. Jack turned back to Moria and pointed at the creature next to her. "Whatever it is I like it. Is it your pet?"

Slowly, Heliotrope got to standing from where she had landed as if the very ground had a magnetic hold on her body. The clabbert decided to remain in her arms. While she didn't have warmth to spare her limbs could block out the wind from the monkey amphibian thing.

Seeing that fellow Hufflepuffs were gathering Heliotrope stumbled over. "Are you going to fire spark wolves again?" she asked John.

It was while the first year Hufflepuff was pulling himself fully out of the snow and mentioning her pet when the part mer second year came over and joined them, her quarry caught and held in her arms. "Yeah, it's a Niffler." Said pet was now taking the necklace and kind of burrowing against her side under her coat.

Looking up again when Heliotrope asked the first year something about firing spark wolves. Honestly, she had know idea what they were talking about. While they talked a bit she randomly wondered if there was a snow bunny around. She'd seen them, of course, but she had never quite managed to catch one to study it. Likely it was similar to most rabbits, just more suited to the cold than warmer climates.

It was a Niffler, he like it a lot. Wait... what was Heliotrope asking again?

"Are you going to fire spark wolves again?"Oh that. Jack started laughing and picked up some snow. "No I can't light off some more fireworks, but I can do THIS!" Jack threw a handful of powdered snow at the girl. He looked at Moria with a look of sheer excitement. Almost asking,"C'mon join in"

Heliotrope didn't flinch when the snow struck across her. Althought the clabbert disliked an even colder source as it crawled to any place it could find warmth. It ended up hanging from Heliotrope's neck down into her dress, causing an odd bulge.

She'd seen snowball fights done before. That must be what John was starting. One of those 'fun' things like a staring contest. Heliotrope crouched to grasp some snow of her own, the cupped snow forming a ball when she crushed it. Looking to where John had been her raised arm with the snowball pulled back from the elbow...and left her hand with surprising speed when she completed the throw. Heliotrope was pretty strong compared to others in her year so whoever got hit with the snowball would feel its sting from her wicked arm.

Wow! She had a good arm. The snowball wizard by Jack's face, he could hear the sound of it it was that fast. Jackjust took it as a challenge and started making a mound of snow. With the snow Heliotrope was throwing at him it was hard to stay concentrated but within moments he had something to call a defence; a nice mound of snow.

Jack started making snowballs and hiding them within the mound. He was already hit a few times so he could feel the marks on him. Now was the time to strike! He started grabbing each snowball and throwing in the direction of the girl. He wasn't exactly aiming, just chucking a bunch at a time hoping they would hit.

When Jack started running low on ammo he grabbed a piled of condensed snow and hurled it. He saw it fly in the direction of Heliotrope but not at her. He gasped when it hit Moria on the back, the poof of snow puffing into a plume and powder. He stood there in shock, not saying a word as Moria turned around, Jack hoping she wasn't mad.

Lovely... a snowball fight. Moira never saw the point in them, but then again she never really interacted with other kids or students. All her energy as a child had been spent working, but that kind of work, to her, was much more fun then getting  frozen water thrown at you until it soaked your clothes and you had no choice but to go inside or freeze. Leaning back against the hut more she hoped it would make her more difficult to hit. Of course, the younger students really started getting into it and one stray snowball ended up hitting her.

Turning slightly to look it was more than obvious who the culprit was that hit her. The look on his face though, with his eyes all but bugging out of his head, made the corner of her mouth twitch upwards. It was just a game but she didn't feel like getting soaked she moved towards the steps and to a spot where she knew no more stray snowballs could tag her.

With that disaster avoided Jack decided that he would leave before causing anymore trouble. Besides, Moria didn't seem interested in doing anything fun anyway. As for Heliotrope, she could go do her own thing. Maybe if Jack left there would be more girl talk or something along those lines. It was getting late and although there wasn't anything to do at the Yule Ball, he was getting hungry.

"I'm starving, and before I end up in a heap load of trouble I'll think I'll just go. See you 2 later." He waved at both of them and began walking back, again falling into snow. This was going to be a long walk back.