It was snowing at Hogwarts, a fierce, vicious affair completely unlike the light stuff of early winter. In the castle students bundled up against the cold, fires roaring in grates. Erin, who sat on a sofa in the Slytherin common room, couldn't decide who had it worse: the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor students, high up in drafty towers, or the Slytherins, with their frigid marble flooring? (Hufflepuffs never entered the equation. He doubted they were any less snug in their underground burrow than the badgers their house displayed on its crest.) It was a tricky decision, one which he spent a considerable amount of time considering in an absent sort of way, lulled by the fire and the low murmuring conversation of his peers. He had all the time in the world tonight to laze about, already having done all the homework that he was going to, and since it was too cold to leave the common room... well, it wasn't like he was an eyesore. He hoped.

Outfit

The tiny girl pulled her cloak closer around her. She had just been down to the lake and although the air outside was positively frigid, it almost seemed to be colder in the dungeons. She quickly floated through the last few stone corridors. The cold didn’t bother her much, it never had, but it didn’t mean that she didn’t prefer some aspect of warmth.
Coming upon the seemingly empty wall, she peered around her, as she always did, and spoke the password. As she entered another blast of cold air hit her and she made a bee-line for the hearth. Plopping down on the ground, Strellie sighed and removed her coat. The warmth felt amazing to her frozen skin.
The doll-like Russian smiled up at one of her housemates. Harper… that’s his name. She thought quickly before addressing him.
“Hey, Harper. Sorry to intrude, but could I join you there? All the other couches are taken and the ground is a little cold,” Mimi asked politely, her bright green eyes twinkling as they always did. 

His senses lulled into complacency by the fire and the relative softness of the couch, it took Erin a minute to realize Demitria was addressing him. "Er, what?" Then his ears caught up with his brain and he shrugged, pulling up his legs to make room for the girl. "Sure."
 
Cor, Strelnikov was a tiny thing, wasn't she? Erin didn't know her too well, but she had a hell of a complicated last name. She was Russian, Ukranian, something like that. He wondered idly why she was here instead of Durmstrang, but it was something his mind had touched upon idly several times over the past five years and he wasn't about to ask now.
 
But as she settled onto the couch next to him, Erin's eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed. "Hey," he yelped, drawing his socked feet closer to him and scowling. "You're dripping. Stop it."
 
She must've come from outside, the crazy fool. Erin'd noticed she had her cloak with her but he hadn't thought she'd actually been outside in that snowy mess. And now she was leaking cold water everywhere, which would be taken care of the fire soon enough but for now was especially troublesome. Erin was hot-natured, yes, but it was still cold even for his standards and he did not need her assistance.

Nodding a quick thank-you to her housemate, she slipped gracefully onto the couch. She kicked off her boots and pulled her legs beneath her. Sighing slightly, she closed her eyes and let the warmth soak in. It felt so good after being outside for so long. In a moment of madness, she had decided to take a walk in the abysmal weather, feeling vastly like she was back in Russia. The urge passed, though, and now she was shaking her head. Madness indeed.

Hey. You’re dripping. Stop it.”

Harper’s voice broke through her internal calm. “Hmm?” She blinked rapidly for a few seconds before looking down. “Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t even think about it.” She rolled her eyes and stood up. “Der’mo,” she muttered. “Eto vsegda proishodit so mnoĭ.(1)” Mimi slid off her cloak and laid it on the ground in front of the hearth. She chuckled slightly and sat back down. “Sorry, about that. This is definitely better for the both of us.”

(1): Shit, this always happens to me.

" 'S all right," Erin mumbled, subsiding back into the cushions. He eyed her from his prone position. Speaking a foreign language was hardly unusual enough to comment on, with the myraid of wizards and witches that turned up in this place. And it wasn't too difficult to guess the gist of what she'd said, going off tone alone. Erin knew cursing when he heard it.

"You just going to... zone out?" He regarded the girl who'd stolen half of his couch with raised eyebrows. "Or what?"

Strellie's eyes had closed as she soaked in the radiating heat. She was utterly exaughsted from classes and she had been staying up far too late for how early she had to wake up. To-do lists and  other obligations began to organize themselves in her highly strategic brain. She would have to cut her piano time down to once a week again. The effort it required to sneak out of the common room, across the entirety of Hogwarts, into the Room of Requirement and back down was barely worth the hour and a half of practice she got there. On nights that she did that, she only got about two hours of sleep. Doing it more than once a week was taking a toll on her that she couldn't afford this close to her OWLS--

"You just going to... zone out? Or what?"

Mimi's eyes snappd open, her green orbs showing her suprise. She had been perfectly comfortable in the relative quiet of the crowded common room. But, apparently, Harper wasn't as comfortable with it. She also noticed that she was taking up most of the couch. Oops. So, she sat up to keep from lapsing back into her reverie and to give the other Slytherin more room. She knew that trying to touch her feet to the floor was a futile battle, so she kept her feet curled under her.

"Truthfully, I was planning to. But, I don't have to if you have a better option," she responded, her eyebrow also raised slightly.