Girl Who Survived: Book Two {Harry Potter: Order of Phoenix}

[Chapter Twenty One: Snowballs and Tempers]

We took refuge behind a very thick tree and I could feel my nose already numbing from the nippy wind. 

"Okay," said Fred, facing me like a team leader, "We are not going to play fair. First we need to built a fort, and then ready ourselves for war."

I saluted him, "Yes, captain!"

We began waving wands and fashioning a snow bastion that was hollowed out and had carved out rectangular windows.

The snowball war began, and boy, it was TOTALLY unfair. When Fred and I fashioned up snow canons to load snowballs into, George and Lee didn't know what hit them—literally.

I was peeking out the window of our fortress when I noticed George was beginning to load up a snow canon of his own. Lee was right behind him making canon sized balls if snow to load in it.

They plopped the first one in and I squealed, turning around and running directly into Fred; I hadn't realized he was behind me. 

He fell backwards and I landed directly on top of him. I think it's safe to say my face was going very, very red. We stayed like that for a moment.

When I felt my cheeks flush darker, I attempted to cover it up with sarcasm, "What are you looking at, twit?"

He reached up and brushed his hand over the side of my face, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear, "Between you and I, I've always found your blush rather adorable."

I wasn't able to say anything after that, because our fortress crumbled in on us under the pressure of canon-snowballs.

I returned back to the common room before lunch, moments after Hermione had arrived. My robes were damp and freezing from the snowball fight I'd just been involved in.

"So?" said Ron, looking up Hermione, "Got all his lessons planned for him?"

"Well, I tried," she said dully, sinking into a chair beside Harry.  "He wasn't even there when I arrived, I was knocking for at least half an hour. And then he came stumping out of the Forest."

I pulled off my robe and draped it across the back of one of the chairs; I held my hand out for Hermione's as well. She slipped it off and handed it to me; placing her robe directly beside mine, I pulled out my wand and gave it a swift little wave so that hot air streamed out of the tip; I pointed this at our robes, which began to steam faintly as they dried out.

Harry groaned and I let out a deep sigh at this news. The Forbidden Forest was teeming with the kind of creatures most likely to get Hagrid the sack. "What's he keeping in there? Did he say?" I asked curiously.

"No," said Hermione miserably. "He says he wants them to be a surprise. I tried to explain about Umbridge, but he just doesn't get it. He kept saying nobody in their right mind would rather study Knarls than Chimaeras—oh, I don't think he's got a Chimaera," she added at the appalled look on Harry and Ron's faces, "But that's not for lack of trying, from what he said about how hard it is to get eggs. I don't know how many times I told him he'd be better off following Grubbly-Plank's plan, I honestly don't think he listened to half of what I said. He's in a bit of a funny mood, you know. He still won't say how he got all those injuries."

Hagrid's reappearance at the staff table at breakfast next day was not greeted by enthusiasm from all students. Some, like Fred, George and Lee, roared with delight and sprinted up the aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables to wring Hagrid's enormous hand; others, like Parvati and Lavender, exchanged gloomy looks and shook their heads. 

Many of theme the students preferred Professor Grubbly-Planks lessons, and the worst of it was that a very small, unbiased part of me knew that they had good reason: Grubbly-Plank's idea of an interesting class was not one where there was a risk that somebody might have their head ripped off.