Lingering snow.

That's all Gloria Gibbon had wanted before the term ended. Not the sloggy Scottish soggy mess that was more runny than puffy flakes, not the dreary slush, heavens no! No, she had been waiting for today's snow that slowly but steadily blanketed the grounds. The kind of snow that kept form after being crushed into a sphere with a audible and tactile crunch.

The perfect snow for sculpting. This afternoon's ambition in the last daylight hours after classes before the warmth of dinner drew her back inside. Bundled in her knit winter threads, Gloria had amassed an imposing structure. Not a snowman. A snow pillar, in that it was a tall tower of snow with few features. The strain had winded her and once she got down to trying to sort out some shape from the pillar, she had an idea. All she needed was a wand and the right spell for carving, right?

"Diffindo!"

Rather, Gloria may as well have yelled "Timber!" because the misaimed spell caused the mass of snow to fall on top of her, knocking her to the ground looking like she had been buried in the sand if this had been a beach.

The perfect snow of the season. This type of snow was truly the best for packing up into round snowballs. It was a very rare sight indeed. Consistently, most snow falls were a slushy mess that discolored relatively quickly. For that matter, most of the snow fall really fell unevenly, and it would usually be unable to form actual snow balls.

Thankfully, the weather seemed to cooperate a little bit before the end of the term, when all of the students were to be on winter break. That meant that they could play around in the snow, at least for a little bit, before leaving the castle for the break. Unfortunately, there were still the Friday afternoon classes to attend with. For once, they weren't all dragged out too much, especially since it was the last actual day of classes before the students were to be on break.

After her last class for the day, and before dinner, Addison managed to trudge outside into the snow. The snow was indeed perfect this time around. It was truly a great sight. Stopping at the bottom of the staircase, she picked up a bunch of snow in her gloved hands. With a little bit of force and movement with her hands, she was able to form a relatively round snowball. Smiling, she turned her gaze to the entrance courtyard in front of her.

Dropping her newly formed snowball, the Ravenclaw noticed that someone built a large snow pillar. Approaching the structure, she admired its handiwork. Whoever made it did a good job.

"Diffindo!"

Addison heard the called out spell too late. The snow structure was toppling! Before she could get out of the way, she was immediately covered with snow and she toppled over by its weight.

Quickly digging her upper body out of the snow, she looked around quickly. "Who's there?" Addison called out, as she climbed out of the fallen snow pile.

Brrrrr! After the last of the spiralling sparkling snow drfited away from her face, Gloria could see that she wasn't the only one chest deep in snow. "Ah, Rockwell. How'd you get caught in that?"

Gloria replied the last few seconds in her head. She had cast Diffindo with a swish...a vertical swish. Or had it been diagonal? A motion that had caused the mound of snow to crack in two and hit both of them.

"Sorry!" Gloria was clearly apologizing but there was some mirth to the word. It was kind of funny. "I didn't want to do that at all. It's just finally perfect for snow sculpting, though now I'd have to build it back up again. Did you want to help?"

"I was admiring your snow pillar when it fell. I guess that I was a little too close to it," Addison conceded, after fully extracting herself from the pile of snow that both girls were previously stuck in. It wasn't too often that she saw a snow pillar out on the grounds, which was being made by a student. For that matter, she never saw anyone cast a diffindo spell on it.

Apparently Gloria didn't seem to mind casting that spell on the snow pillar. Of course, Addison had only just arrived, and had not seen the other girl cast the spell. She wouldn't know if the spell was casted correctly or not. The spell at least caused a reaction. Since she didn't know Gloria's intentions, she had no idea if the snow was supposed to fall or not.

Addison smiled at Gloria's apology, and resulting explanation. "Ah, well it is easily replaceable. So, your sculpture could still be built. By all means, I'd love to help," she accepted the offer with a nod. "And let me say, the first pillar came out so well," she added with a smile.

"You liked it as a pillar?" Gloria said, surprised. What very modern art nuveaux meta thought, or whatever the artistic terminology needed to be. "I was just going to start big and then whittle down the snow into something else. Like ice sculpted, but with snow."

If would also save lifting the heavy balls needed to make a snowman. If she went that route. Her snort couldn't be helped.

"But if you like the pillar so much..." Already Gloria was scaling bigger. Two people, two wands, all the snow they could scrape off the surroundings. "That's getting into the realm of architecture. What would you like to see?"

She hunched over, gather the fallen clumps of snow together with wide sweeps of her arms. "This time a won't use Diffindo to cut away the excess snow. Bit too powerful."

Shrugging at Gloria's question, Addison smiled. "That's based on my opinion, but yes, the pillar looked nice. Oh, you were going to sculpt it into a different design? What design were you planning on using?" she asked curiously.

Addison couldn't help but to giggle as Gloria seemed to turn her thinking back to the route of making a pillar, and she shrugged once more. "Yes, that was my opinion. But, don't let me stop what you were planning. I'm sure that your design would come out wonderful, with a little bit of work," she offered as encouragement to Gloria. These ideas were following through her head first, after all.

At Gloria's decision not to use Diffindo again, Addison smiled. "Yeah, it would be better to use if you were using ice. Maybe try Persecto[1]? It's not as powerful as Diffendo, and shouldn't cause the snow to fall?" She suggested, as she helped push piles of snow closer to where Gloria's original structure stood. Whenever she completed a carving, she enjoyed doing it the muggle way with a knife. It was one thing not practical at this point with snow. Despite this preference, she practiced using magic for some carving as well.

1.	Carving Charm

Gloria bit her lip, nursing it under her top row of teeth with a musing hum. "I'm still not sure. Snowmen are so boring and clunky. Maybe a creature or a more realistic person. But only if the snow sticks."

Addison had a point on the charm. If she only wanted to knock away snow bits a gouging spell rather than cutting all the way through would avoid another collapse. It had been useful times past in many a runes practical.

With a pillar halfway built and not yet fully cylindrical, Gloria paused again. "I almost want a second pillar. In case this one doesn't turn out, or..." She trailed off with that thought, wondering about the practicality of a snowhenge.

"Snowmen are also way over used in the snow. But, anything that you decide to make will have to be packed tightly. So, make something that you think you'll like!" she exclaimed happily. That ws actually something that she followed all of the time herself. Any artwork that she made was produced because she wanted to and liked the subject.

Since she was assisting Gloria, Addison noticed that the snow pillar was formed a lot easier and faster. Yes, that was one of the many advantages to team work, and cooperating with each other. It would always produce results, and hopefully positive results. So far, the pillar seemed to be coming out alright.

Tilting her head slightly, Addison listened as Gloria thought out loud about building more than one pillar as a potential back up if this one was messed up. "It shouldn't take long to build an additional one, if that helps you?" she offered as advice to Gloria, "unless you were thinking about something else?"

"Pff fff fuh fuh fuh." Gloria was biting her lip and letting the air hiss out in indecision. "Sure! Make a second pillar, if you don't mind. It could be yours to work with."

An idea of what to make lept into mind. "You know, when I was first told about the Hogwarts Houses I thought the mascot of Gryffindor was going to be a Gryphon. Or even a Hippogriff. They got 'griff' right there in the title. Funny how the mascots don't always sound like the house name. Like, you're in Ravenclaw and the mascot is an eagle. Though if the mascots did match the titles Hufflepuff would be left with a fungus."

"Anyhoo," Gloria started clearing snow away from her pillar shape. "That's what I was going to make. A gryphon. I've seen a statue of one on the fourth floor but I can't remember where."

She tried the spell Addison suggested but eventually found just using her wand to poke holes and pick at the snow worked more to her liking.

After awaiting Gloria's decision, Addison smiled and nodded to the formation of a second pillar. "Right, will do," she responded, after pushing the rest of the snow that she recollected from before.

Moving over a bit to give Gloria more room to work, Addison started to gather a small pile of snow near herself. Looking over at Gloria as she spoke about house mascots. "I know, I thought the mascots would correspond more to the name of the house as well. I originally thought that the mascot for Ravenclaw would be a Raven, due to its name. Hufflepuff would be left with a fungus?" she asked with a slight giggle, "How does a fungus fit into Hufflepuff's name?"

Addison nodded to Gloria's decision of a Gryphon. "Alright. It's a bit complex, if I remember correctly, but I'm sure you'll do fine with it." She couldn't quite remember the spot either. But, she knew that making a snow statue had its benefits of not being as picky with detail. There was no possible way of shading and other aspects, like drawing used.

Looking back down at the small pile that she already accumulated in front of her, Addison continued to gather more snow other to the pile.

It seemed only Slytherin didn't have a creature suggested in its title, although it did convey how the creature moved. When asked by Addison what fungus had to do with Hufflepuff Gloria used her long ago established internal logic. "Like a puffapod. You know, those large seedpod things in the greenhouses with the pink beans that instantly flower in the right soil. The flowers produce a lot of irritating pollen. Or is it spores? Half the time it acts like a fungus and half the time it's a plant so I don't know which is proper as a term."

Poking, scrapping, and very carefully applied carving spells got Gloria a smaller oblong ddd shape on top of a larger one that itself was on a platform roughly square. Thinking in terms of negative space she tried to figure out where she wanted to chip away snow first. She'd thought she would practice on sharp shapes, the beak first and then some talons.

Working on the beak in the head region, Gloria fell back into their topic of conversation. "I can't think of anything else the Slytherin mascot could be mistake for. Is there such a thing as a Slythe?" She looked aside to Addison's growing pile. "Is there anything you would want to make if I do absolute posh on the first draft and don't need the second snow column?"

Pulling chunks of snow into the pile, Addison started the make the general shape of a pillar. She nodded to Gloria's logic. It made sense. Quite frankly, it was something that she should have known now, but that wasn't something she was about to admit. Of course, she wouldn't have known that when she first came to the castle. Being a muggleborn certainly had its disadvantages. "I would call it a plant, but that might just be my opinion, since a fungus naturally feeds off of organic matter."

Taking a glance at Gloria's fine work so far, Addison smiled. Despite her Ravenclaw nature, she certainly tried not to act like she knew just about everything. The key word there was tried. Sadly, she usually failed to do so in the regard. Nevertheless, she didn't want to perk up with what she would do with the statue. After all, it was Gloria's creation, not hers. Despite how much she liked art, she certainly wasn't an expert on it.

Looking back down at her own work, Addison continued to make the pile into a pillar, just like the previous ones. She shrugged at Gloria's question. "I used to concentrate on Slyther, which is what a snake does. Aside from that, I don't know ... The only other connection that I know of is to a muggle television show from a few years back," she thought out loud offhandedly. She couldn't help but to giggle at Gloria's question. "I'm sure you'll do fine and completely posh. I could always try making a Raven," she mused.

"Don't both plants and fungi feed off organic matter? Or only if you add compost?" Fertilizer might be used for different things but if it was plant food, plant food was plant food. In Gloria's logic.

She was in the middle of tracing an outline for the beak when she heard Addison talk about a Slythe. "Oh, a TV show! What kind? I'm not able to watch any." It never stopped Gloria from grilling people about what they watch on the telly, as there was too much magic in her home for anything electronic.

"Oh boo..." Her action of swiveling to see Addison had cut off too much from her progress with the beak. She had to pad more lumps of snow up there. She tried sounding out things that sounded like Slytherin. "Slythe. Sylther. Slypher? Cipher?"

Were all Slytherin's master codebreakers? Was there a creature that ate random characters and digested them into words?

"I believe plants feed off of the nutrients in organic matter, while fungi break down organic matter." For a girl that didn't study much into muggle science, she did know that much. She could only assume that these facts were consistent in both the muggle world and its magical counterpart.

Sometimes, Addison forgot that being a muggleborn put her in a different home reality than most of her classmates. She was able to enjoy muggle inventions and thus have the same limitations as muggles at that point. Most of her classmates came from magical backgrounds in houses that didn't have muggle devices. For the most part, being asked about muggle things made her feel important, since she knew that not too many students would be able to answer them.

"Well, it was on a science fiction show called Doctor Who about four years ago. They had a few episodes where these aliens called Slitheens, which I guess are close in sound to Slythe. They were ruthless criminal hunters..." she trailed off with a shrug.[1]

Hearing Gloria say boo out loud, Addison looked over at her snow statue that was turning into a gryphon. But, its beak was slightly cut off. "Sorry!" she called out to her, believing that it was probably her fault that the beak was messed up.

1.	Found on Wikipedia here.

Gloria played over the word. "Slitheens, huh? Slitheen-erins." That could fit. "So if they were aliens the have the green skin and fat heads, don't they? I wonder if there's anyone in Slytherin like that." Well, not with green skin that would be asking for too much. And when Gloria thought of certain select Slytherins as "fat heads" she meant something else.

"Are they criminal hunters or criminals that hunt?" She had to be more delicate with recarving the beak so she didn't disturb the freshly applied snow. "Oh, you did nothing wrong. How's the Raven coming along?"