「 ☆ 」 -- 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬

Once Upon A December by Christy Altomare

"𝐅𝐚𝐫 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲,
𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐠𝐨,
𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫,
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭
𝐔𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫
𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬."

~

"This place feels more packed by the year."

Kamari punctuated his statement with a sip of his butterbeer as he scooted over on the couch he sat on to make room for Dareen who sat down holding his own pint. Opal who sat across from him and shrugged as they bit into their chocolate frog while swinging their legs over the side of the chair they sat on before sitting upright when Durga smacked their leg following them almost kicking her in the face.

"Most likely because the weather is colder each year, I can't be the only one who's noticed how gloomy the weather has been as of late."

The group sat for a moment in silence, Laurel looking down at the foaming bubbles in his mug of butterbeer, he was sure that the rest of the group shared the same thought he had. That the gloomy weather and mood was courtesy of the war, it truly encapsulated the darkness surrounding the disappearance of many wizards as of late. Yet the topic of the war and the disappearances were a forbidden topic to the group of teens, relegated as something to only be brought up as a last resort. He felt a jostling from beside him as Alden sat up a bit straighter after taking a sip of her butterbeer.

"I believe I could take you all on in a snowball fight."

The group looked at Alden confused but Laurel soon caught on to her attempt to distract and drag the group's attention towards something else, something more light-hearted. He poked her arm with a hum while raising his eyebrow.

"The Alden Noyer? Suggesting violence?"

The rest of the group caught on and soon Dareen was chugging his butterbeer before glancing at Laurel while pointing with an all-knowing finger.

"I think a snowball fight hardly counts as violence. Especially if Alden is suggesting we take part in one."

The group broke down into hysterics before Opal climbed off the couch, ruffling their hair, putting emphasis on the two silver hair clips they were wearing desperately to keep order of their bangs.

"Why are we talking about a snowball fight when we could be in the midst of one right now?"

The group went silent once again, except this time was comfortable and followed with them abandoning their butterbeers and scrambling out to the cobblestones streets of Hogsmeade to begin their snowy combat. As Laurel began to pack the snow down to form his first snowball he couldn't help but feel a warmth in his stomach, how normal and mundane the moment felt. At that moment they were just teens, having a laugh and enjoying their final two years at Hogwarts together.

An illusion that was quickly shattered by an ear piercing scream from the road towards Hogwarts causing Laurel to drop his ball of snow.

~

The roars of the quidditch crowd threatened to deafen Laurel's ears and he couldn't be happier, finally quidditch at Hogwarts was normal again. He joined in with the crowd cheering as Ron blocked yet another goal, the boy had been unsure how the game would go judging from Ron's appearance earlier that morning. The boy looked as if he was going to fall to pieces if another person talked to him about anything quidditch, he had to hold back Alden from wishing him good luck for the game.

Laurel felt himself get jostled by the crowd as the game raged on, it had seemed like all worry about the war had dissipated, in that moment Laurel had forgotten all about the war. There was no war going on, just House Rivalry as Slytherin and Gryffindor went head to head in a proper game of quidditch, the excitement was contagious and so was the oblivion.