The Muggleborn Slytherin

The Yule Ball

Bang!

Mason laughed as the cracker exploded, sending a handful of brightly coloured glitter into the air. The colours disappeared as a small white mouse scurried out of the cracker end. It sniffed the air, twitched its nose, and then disappeared down the table, hiding under a bowl of fruit.

Teddie smiled and tossed the broken end of her cracker aside. Mason had won the cracker's tug-o-war and was now ramming a purple hat onto his head. The Slytherin table was ladened with over a hundred roast turkeys, with all the trimmings, and Christmas puddings.

"I can't believe the Yule Ball is tonight," said Astoria. "The last two weeks went by really fast."

Daphne nodded and added a spoonful of ice cream to her pudding. "We should consider what time we want to start getting ready," she said. "The dormitories are going to be packed this year. Pansy and Millicent may even hog the bathroom, just to spite us."

Teddie glanced across at the two girls in question. They were whispering about the upcoming festivities that evening. "I'm quite surprised that Bulstrode is even going," she said. "She wasn't all that thrilled when McGonagall told us about it, and I overheard her telling Parkinson that she considered going home."

"Pansy wouldn't allow that," said Daphne. "She may be Malfoy's date tonight, but she needs at least one of her girl-friends alongside her."

Teddie returned her attention to her food. "If you want to be ready before them tonight, that's alright with me," she said. "We could always head back to the Common Room early."

"That'd work. We could bathe first and be getting ready when they are just starting," said Daphne. "We also don't have to stay in the dormitories or the common room with them then, either."

"Okay, then we'll do that," said Teddie.

Daphne nodded.

"Now that is settled," said Blaise. "What are we going to do for the rest of the day? I don't feel like heading to the library, or the Study Hall and the common room is rather a tight squeeze this year."

"We could have a snowball fight," said Mason, swallowing his orange juice.

"We had a snowball fight this morning, already," said Astoria. "You want another one?"

Teddie smiled at Astoria. "There's no limit on how many snowballs fights you can have in one day," she said. She spied Harry Potter and his friends getting up from the Gryffindor table, and heading outside.

"What you looking at?" Theo asked, following her gaze.

"How about an inter-house snowball fight?" Teddie asked. "I'm sure we could find some people from Hufflepuff that wouldn't mind participating?"

~X~

The snow outside wasn't as pristine as it usually was, already footsteps were leading up and down from the castle, left behind behind the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students; but the tracks did nothing to diminish the height of the snow. It still came up to almost their knees.

Teddie looked around at those that had agreed to participate in the annual snowball fight - she had managed to round up a few Hufflepuffs which included third Hogwarts Champion Cedric Diggory, Fifth-year prefect Kate Moss, and even Head Boys Marcus Turner.

"How are we going to play this?" Astoria asked, looking around at the sheer number of people that had turned up to play.

"Is it the same rules as normal?" Mason asked.

"You have rules in a snowball fight?" Fred Weasley asked.

Teddie shrugged. "They're exactly rules," she said. "More guidelines, if you want. The only one that I would say we stick too, is the younger groups get a headstart."