Great Hall, After Dinner


Sophia was beyond finished studying for the day, and Saturday's she swore she wasn't going to study so hard on anymore; but it was all she could do to keep her sanity in check for the rest of the weekend. She hated it when she was behind, but most of all she hated it when she didn't see her friends. After everything that happened with her mother and everything that was going on in her personal life, Sophia was rather clingy to those she considered hers and did her best to stay in their good graces. She was extremely protective of her housemates, and catered to their whims more than ever. Though she would deny it ever happened (or that it was really needed) she was very thankful for that night with Lucas Trumble and how he had let her cry on his shoulder. But that was a one time thing, and now with the break of Spring happening just in a few weeks it was time to let go of the Winter blues forever!


...that was until she saw the state of the Great Hall.

Apparently a lesson on freezing had gone wild, and she figured that ridiculous Charms professor was up to something again. She couldn't believe the state of the classroom after the NEWT lesson with parting water, it had ruined her shoes! And she wasn't even in that class yet! It wouldn't be surprising to think that he had somehow done this, or maybe it was that horrid...no...only Kesali could do something like this. There was snow everywhere! The room looked like a frozen lake with mounds of fresh powder, and though the air wasn't cold--the snow still was. Dipping her slippered foot down into the snow she had to test it. Yeap. Cold. She was going to tattle so hard, and write her father right away! However, just as Sophia turned to go back up the stairs she saw what appeared to be skates all lined up in a row with a big ribbon around each one of them with the instructions to a charm to size them to fit.

Now she couldn't very well say no to that, now could she? Looking around she was very cautious, it was prime study time and she couldn't be seen having fun! Yet the temptation was just too much, and that pretty pair with the pink ribbon was just calling her name. And before she could stop herself, Sophia was out on the ice taking to it with as much grace as she did everything else, but this time she was actually smiling.

Wonder how long this will last before she got caught.

 Thales was surprised, to say the least. Not because the Great Hall was frozen and covered in snow here and there. No, such things could be easily explained by magic, and he had come to expect them after some time in Hogwarts, what surprised him was the image of his friend Sophia ice skating, smiling, and pretty much just having fun. Thales couldn't help but smile too, as he walked over towards one of the skates. He was being extra careful, as not to fall or attract attention of Sophia, as he did not want to interrupt her from... well, having fun.
 Unfortunately, he failed both tasks, as he slipped upon the frozen floor and fell quite noisily.

  "Ouch,", said Thales, trying to stand up again and having some trouble. "Hey, Sophia! Didn't know you knew how to ice skate. You're very good!"

 He smiled, as he used one of the tables to help him stand up, and continued to move towards the ice skates. Upon reading the note of one of those, his smile grew, and he began to practice the charm before using it on his newly acquired skates.
 After he judged he got the hang of it, maybe on his second or third try, he used on the ice skated and but them on, trying to stand up on the ice with them. Trying really hard. He frowned slightly, comparing mentally the image of Sophia skating with him.

 "I say, this is more difficult than it looks.", remarked Thales.

She knew her perfect little paradise couldn't last too long, but as soon as she saw Thales on his rump she had to roll her eyes with a little smirk. The poor soul just couldn't do anything right could he? How was it he got in Ravenclaw again?

Skating over to him she held out her hand to help him back onto the ice, "It's a lot easier than it looks, Thales, just keep your weight forward so you don't fall backward." She would let him hold onto her, and did her best to keep him at her side. "There, one and two, one and two. Not bad at all." She chuckled when they started going just a bit and hit the ground again, "You made me fall too!" Not true. She fell just as much as he did, and gave away her little lie by how red her face was.

Lucas peered around the corner hearing his best friends voices. Seeing Sophia and Thales skating was amusing. He snickered as they fell on their behinds and Sophia blamed it on Thales. He got one of the pairs of skates and placed the charm to make them fit. Thankfully, he was a little more silent than Thales was at getting them on and getting on the ice.

He was suddenly thankful that his brother was more of a jock than he was. They would often go out on roller blades to entertain themselves when things were stressed at home. That was one thing he was actually good at. So good, in fact, that his sisters would ask him to go ice skating. He would take his younger sister out to ice skate when his older sister was going through her changes. Someone had to. He couldn't do any fancy tricks like she could, but he at least knew how to keep his balance and could do a figure eight. Once the skates were on, he went out on the ice with ease. He glided up to his friends, still on the ground, with a laugh.

"You know you're supposed to skate on the ice and not sit on it, right? Don't want to get frost bite on your bums!"

"You made me fall too!" Not true. She fell just as much as he did, and gave away her little lie by how red her face was.

 Thales grimaced slightly because of the fall, quickly dropping the expression, though, when he saw how red Sophia's face was. Truly, he felt like laughing, but did his best on hiding it, only revealing he found the whole thing rather funny through the expression around his eyes.

 "I'm terribly sorry, Sophia. Mayhaps you will grant me one more chance?", said Thales in his best sounding formal tone, which wasn't really good, especially when he was obviously fightning the urge to laugh.

 He tried to stand up one time or three, with no success, when Lucas showed up, being, well, Lucas-like.

He glided up to his friends, still on the ground, with a laugh.

"You know you're supposed to skate on the ice and not sit on it, right? Don't want to get frost bite on your bums!"

 "Well, I kn- Wait, Lucas, that's an awesome idea! Why didn't I think of this before?!", said Thales, beaming at his mate.

He drew his wand and pointed towards himself.

"Pulvinufi! No more frost bitten body parts!", said Thales quite proudly. He then pointed the wand towards Sophia, "Pulvinufi!"

With the cushioning charm set, he began once again to get up to his feet, this time with more success.

"Really, Lucas, fantastic idea! I might end up thanking Professor Kesali too! Do you want me to do the charm on you too, or are you feeling lucky?", he asked, offering one of his hands to help Sophia stand up.

"Mister Rivers, I had nothing to do with you falling," She was teasing of course but did allow the other boy to help her up, "And what does Professor Kesali have to do with anything. That crazy cook taught us the cushioning charm, which any of could have done on our own." Her little fingers went to smooth out her skirts, but she did reach out and touch Thales' arm for support.

"That was a very good cast Thales," She offered him a small smile before looking back at Lucas, her hands on her hips, "Listen, Trumble…if you are going to stand there with that smirk than you can just turn and march away. No body likes a show-off." Sophia put her nose in the air and skated on, pot calling the kettle black! Trying her hardest to stay "swan-like" Sophia got a little adventurous and put her arms out as she less walked now and skated a bit.

"It's really not so hard."

Linus burst through the doors of the great hall in great excitement. He had heard a beautiful, glorious rumor-- that the great hall had become winter wonderland of ice and snow and ice and more snow and ice! His cheeks were flushed, and he had prepared himself by bundling up in a lumpy scarf, a winter cap too large for his head, and thick gloves. 

His eyes widened to the size of saucers when he saw for himself, that the rumor was indeed true.

And all his favorite classmates were here!

His first instinct? To pick up a hunk of snow, gather it in his hands, and chuck it straight at Sophia[1]. He bent down to gather more snow and slid around on the ice clumsily, looking for his next victim. "WHO'S NEXT?!" Linus exclaimed, hoping to rile someone else into a snowball fight.

1.	Lily can decide whether or not it hits.

She had heard the rumor of what the Great Hall had become, but as a rule Wynter tended to avoid any situation where her name could be used in a teasing manner.  However, the lure of ice skating and throwing snowballs was too much to resist so she tried to silently slip into the Hall and quickly found some skates and charmed them to fit.

Stepping daintily onto the ice, she pushed off and was slowly gliding around the ice, the joy slowly building up in her.  She hadn't done this in forever, the last time she did was with her mother when she was 8 years old.  But a boy from the neighborhood made fun of her name and she decided that she didn't want to skate any more. 

She noticed all of the other first years in the room, but tried to avoid making contact.  Wynter hadn't made any friends yet, mostly cause she preferred to keep to herself or wander out on the grounds looking for small creatures to play with.  She got on so much better with animals than she did with people. She was so busy thinking about things that she wasn't watching where she was going.  She felt herself bump into someone[1] and landed rather hard on the floor.

1.	Can be anyone, don't mind who.  By the way, since I watched Frozen, I can't get this song out of my head.

"Bloody-!" yelled Roland Dylanis as the Ravenclaw girl barreled into him as he was slowly making his way around the ice. Being from Swansea, Rou never really saw any snows or freezes during winter, much like ice for skating on. Sure, the occasional holiday to New York brought him that opportunity, but Rou's experience with skating was negligible at best. Still, the boy saw an opportunity in honing his ability to balance and stabilize himself quickly when he heard that the Great Hall was accidentally turned into an ice field.

As Rou came into the Great Hall, he recognized quite a few of the faces present, Lucas and Sophia being chief among them. Rou's eyes darkened a bit when his gaze fell on Sophia, of course always being so perfect in everything she did, including skating. She was smiling, though, which was a first. A smirk played at Rou's lips as he watched his friend, he guessed, have her bit of fun, because he was now going to have a bit of fun at her expense as a bit of payback for how she acted toward him in Transfiguration. She may get away with it with her friends and housemates, but Roland was a Dylanis, and they wouldn't be trod upon even by a Knight.

And so, when he happened to spot a pair of slippers sitting near the ice skates that couldn't have been anybody but hers, Roland took it upon himself to slip the pair into an inside pocket of the jacket he'd worn in order to keep himself warm. Then, he strapped on a pair of skates and got to having himself a bit more fun.

Which, of course, landed him here: on his side on the ice after some Ravenclaw girl had hit him and knocked him down. The shoes he'd stolen from Sophia were still secure in his jacket, however getting himself back on his feet was treacherous to say the least. He turned his gaze upon the Ravenclaw girl and offered her his hand to help her up,

Blushing furiously, Wynter took the hand of the boy and let him help her up.  "I'm so sorry I wasn't watching what I was doing, I don't normally go ice-skating, but the temptation was too hard to resist..." she realized she had been rambling and clamped her mouth shut, renewing the blush in her cheeks.  "I wish I knew who did this, I mean, I'd like to tell them what a good job they did." she mentioned to the boy.

Wynter never really talked to boys, unless they were male animals, there was something that she just didn't get about human boys.  Animals were much easier to understand, they didn't have ulterior motives, or pretend they liked you and then hurt you afterwards.  She'd much rather be talking with animals, but as she wasn't allowed into the Forbidden Forest, she'd have to make do with human boys, after all... in her opinion, they were about as close to wild animals as she was going to get.

With a shower of snow falling over her, Sophia stood rigid and tense. Her little fists balled up and she narrowed her eyes to seek out her prey, "Who did that?!" Upon seeing Linus and his impossibly grin she shook the snow from her hair and started after him, "I am going to thump you so hard!" As he prepped for another one and asked who was next Sophia did her best to keep up and started bunching up her own snow. With a heavy dose of laughter she was practically shoveling it on him.

"Come on Thales! Help me! We will bury him alive so that only the professors can find him."

Avnelle was told of a rumor about the Great Hall. She wasn't sure if it was true or not but it couldn't hurt to check. She peeked her head through the door. She smiled. It was truely a winter wonderland. She walked into the hall. She didn't know anyone here and didn't know who to talk to. So she just observed everything. She was reminded of last year with her cousin. They went ice staking in what could be called a winter wonderland. Avnelle only wished she had a friend here. She felt awkward standing there. She began walking toward the kids, nervous. "Hey everyone. I'm Avnelle" she said, shifting nervously.

Sophia was in mid snowball when she saw Avenelle standing there with that shy little look on her face, and somewhere in her own little Grinch heart she felt sorry for the other Ravenclaw. She knew who she was, but if you didn't attempt to stay in Sophia social circle than she certainly wouldn't seek you out--unless you made the house lose points, and if that was the case Sophia was the first to be on your tail.

"Avnelle…Linus here thought it was a good idea to throw snow on me. Not very bright I know, but what can you expect from his house?" Sophia reached out and took her hand to lead her to the skates, tromping as she went.

"Thales, will you help Avenelle get her skates on so that we can counter an attack?"

Roland remained silent as the Ravenclaw girl indulged herself in a little rambling, but he made sure to give her his undivided attention, in any case. Her blushing was interesting, as if she didn't really care for talking to other people like him, but Roland's attention was grabbed, after she'd finished, but an interesting scenario unfolding over on another part of the ice: Sophia Knight, as always showing her inability to take a few ribs from fellow students but always wanting to dish them out, was busy organizing a counterattack against a fellow student who, apparently, hit her with a snowball. Rou smirked to himself as he remembered when Sophia tried to enlist him against Windell and Sellaphix when they were busy being jerks to her in a previous Herbology class.

He turned back to the Ravenclaw girl, now, and his smirk faded quickly to a small, shy smile as he realized that he hadn't even really talked to her even though she'd done a fair bit of that toward him.

"Um," he began, always rather awkward with these introductions, "I'm Roland. Everyone just calls me Rou for short, though..."

 Thales grinned. It was nice to see his comrades having fun, specially Sophia, who always tried to be all proper and lady-like- not that there was anything wrong with that, but it seemed stressful, and too much stress can't be good to a person. For a moment there, he thought that everything was over, when Sophia got hit by the snowball. Truly, he may have lost a couple of years of his life, thinking quickly of all the worst case scenarios possible. Luckily, the whole thing was resolved quickly, and much better than he thought it would be: They just had to bury a fellow student alive. Phew!

 "Aye, Captain Knight!", said Thales controlling his giggles while he picked up snow to make the tomb of the unfortunate Linus.

 He stopped though, when he saw the new addition the the Hall. A ravenclaw girl, probably shy by her manners, had come to join them. And he had a new mission. He compacted the snow he had already acquired into a nice ball shape, and threw it towards Linus, before skating towards Sophia and Avenelle. He smilled and help up a hand in greeting.

 "Hi, my name is Thales! Nice to see you around here, Avenelle!.", he considered for a moment making a short bow, but gave up on that idea. He wasn't used yet to ice-skating, and it was best for him not to take any chances. "Now, Miss Avenelle! Let's get you started!"

 He hurried to where the unattended skates were and picked a nice pair of them, and, strangely, he noticed that Sophia's shoes weren't next to the skates, like they ought to be. Weird. He went back to the girls, giving the pair of ice skates to Avenelle, and showing her the spell. He looked at Sophia slightly puzzled.

 "Hey, Captain Knight, did you put your shoes somewhere special? I didn't find it where the others were."

 "