scars || sirius black

28 - the Yule Ball

Emmy woke up bright and early on the 21st of December. Despite the amount of butterbeer she'd consumed last night at Fabian and Gideon's birthday party, her head was surprisingly clear.

Marlene however wasn't doing so well, but as soon as Emmy reminded her it was the last day of term, she livened up. With both the Yule Ball and annual Gryffindor snowball fight, no one would be forgetting today.

By the time everyone had finished breakfast, they were all itching to get outside. The snow lay thick and heavy on the ground now, perfect for snowballs.

They dressed in their warmest clothes but Emmy had tights on underneath her running leggings and huge woolly socks underneath her sturdy winter boots, never mind the two t-shirts, Sirius' quidditch jumper and a waterproof jacket, with a woolly hat and mittens.

Looking three times her normal size, she was one of the last people down to the common room.

"Warm enough, Emmy?" asked a bemused Fabian as she waddled over to her friends.

"Think so!" she grinned.

Ten minutes later, the students of Hogwarts were flattening themselves against the side of the corridors as the entirety of Gryffindor house ran past towards the main doors, screaming battle cries.

The looks on their faces were hilarious, and if Emmy could have stopped to take a picture she would have.

By the time they reached the battlefield, Sirius and James were already at the front of the crowd, picking teams as the captain and deputy of the quidditch team. James selected Emmy before Sirius could get the chance, as well as Marlene, Frank, Alice and Lily.

Sirius had snagged both the Weasley twins, Mary, Dorcas, and most of the seventh years, but luckily for James they had the hordes of enthusiastic first years on their side.

After a countdown from ten, renewed battle cries sounded and the snow began flying.

Sirius set up a wall of defence whereas James just screamed at them to make more ammunition. Emmy, however, was on the front lines, aiming her shots almost entirely at Sirius.

He gleefully returned the favour.

She screamed as he threw armfuls of snow straight at her, unable to stop the unhinged laughter It was completely wild and in turn everyone got absolutely soaked.

Fabian and Gideon were a force to be reckoned, but so too were Emmy and James. Some of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students had come to watch, as well as some of the other Hogwarts students and teachers.

McGonagall stood in the main doorway, with a steaming brew in her hands and tartan cloak wrapped around herself, smiling fondly at her kids.

Emmy also spotted Mira at one point, or well, Mira and Gideon together behind one of James' barricades, hurling snowballs in between kisses.

After several hours, they were all too exhausted to carry on so they called for a ceasefire, not one team more freezing than the other. Sirius wrapped Emmy in a hug as both teams shook hands.

She burrowed her face into his chest, still laughing  as they walked back to the castle.

Once in the common room, they huddled around the fireplace munching mince pies, desperately trying to get the feeling back to their toes.

—————

With the Yule Ball set to start at 8pm, the girls disappeared just before four o'clock to start getting ready.

They each took a shower to wash their hair and hung their dresses from the curtain rail to settle.

Emmy attempted to dry her hair with her wand like Mary had shown her but to no avail so Lily ended up doing it for her with a motherly sort of frustration. She sat down at the dressing table to do her make-up and had only just finished her foundation by the time someone else needed the mirror.