Fallon smiled as Aurora volunteered to "surrender". "That's fine with me." She said echoing Helena's statement. She then turned to Helena and grinned. "Yes we shall." Fallon says as she started to make snowballs as quickly as she could, stashing them in a pile out of Simon's eyesight.

"Right, I'll just finish these." she said, piling up the snow balls she had been making whilst they'd been talking. "Goodbye cruel world!" she said dramatically. Then took out her wand and muttered "Protego." A silver shield appeared from her wand. "Fire when I... sneeze." she said, "I'll tell him I'm not feeling well." She grinned and gave a little wave with her non-wand-hand then peeked her head from behind the trees.

"Simon? Please don't get me. I need to go inside, I don't feel well." she said in a croaky voice, rubbing her neck, the silver shield in front of her as protection in case he decided he was going to throw a snowball at her.

Spike skipped lightly as he finally got out of the castle. The Ravenclaw Common Room felt so far away. Surely it'd be far more awesome to have a slide attached to the side of the tower? Then...squeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!...and you'd arrive at Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures so much quicker. More sleep, less effort and FUN!

Talking of fun...that's what Spike had come out for. It wasn't exactly the right time of year to be finding himself a snake. Oh no. Far too cold. Instead, there was an awesome thick blanket of SNOW to roll around and play in. Grin. With a smile of pure mischievous glee, he dived head first straight into the white stuff, before rolling over and waving his arms and legs sideways.

...nothing like a good snow angel to start off with.

There was SNOW!

And Ellie was outside to greet it and welcome it and invite it for tea and plead for it to stay awhile.

When she was outside, she spotted a familiar head of curls. Curls that looked like they were having a lot of fun. Ellie wanted to join.

"Spike?" It was definitely Spike, but...just making sure. "What're you doing?" So she could do it too. Heh.

Jumping up to looking at his snow angel, he gave a satisfied nod to himself. His curls flicked snow around with the movement, and he giggled as a cold blob hit his nose. But no time to waste...soon he'd taken a step sideways, and had fallen back into the snow in to make another.

It was mid-frantic-waving of arms and legs that a shadow fell across his face saying his name. He lifted his head to see who it was, his hair hanging limply covered with a dusting of snow. "Hey Ellie," he said with a grin as he stood up to admire his second imprint. "Snow angels," he answered, eyes shining. "And then a whole family of snowmen. And a snowcat. And a snowlizard." Because really, who didn't want to make a snow lizard?

"Want to join me?"

Of she did. Which was why he didn't wait for an answer, and just dived on in headfirst again.

Snow Angels. Ahh, that made sense now.

Snowmennn! She'll build snowmen! And...snowlizard? Ellie wasn't aware there were such things as snowlizards. But...as long as it wasn't a real lizard, she was okay with it.

"Yess." And she was on her knees, forming a snowball for the snowmen. Heh.

Snow. She loved it.

Recovering from his snow-dive, Spike scrambled on hands and knees over to Ellie. He grinned at the fact she was already making a biggggg snowball. Obviously she meant business, which was exciting. Mostly because working like that between them they could have a totally awesome family built by the end of the afternoon. And then go and marvel at them from the Ravenclaw Common Room with a huge mug of hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows.

All in all, an awesome way to spend a day.

"Are we starting with the snow-mummy, or the snow-daddy?" he asked Ellie excitedly. She was the one with the big ball of snow, so she could decide who it was for. Girls could be fussy about such things. His younger sister was, at least.

"As a matter of Fact I have asked Dani to meet me in the common room after dinner so I can do just that. You're more than welcome to be an observer if you would like." He smirked. He glanced at her, Merlin's beard she was pretty. He purposely sent a cloud of his cinnamon-vanilla veela scent her way. The was being waaay too standoffish and he didn't like that. He gazed at her gently. "Because I'm intrigued by you, you can give me a dressing down with such passion. I like that and I want to know what else you're passionate about Orabelle." He said softly, honestly.

Orabelle rolled her eyes. He said that like she enjoyed observing people, like she was some creepy stalker or something. Uhm no, people observed her, she would never observe others like that. "Because I totally want to watch others interact," Orabelle said sarcastically before she smelled in the air hints of cinnamon and vanilla. Merlin, it smelled lovely... Orabelle tried to think about where it had come from, however, her mind felt a bit muddled from it. "The Arts," she muttered quietly, caught by the intensity of his eyes before Orabelle shook her head. She cleared the thoughts from her mind and ran her fingers through her long brown hair, the memory of the cinnamon smell still in her mind.

Connor smiled as he saw his scent working so he gave her just a bit more, glad that he was far enough away for her not to know it was coming from him. He wasn't ready to share his secret with her just yet. He had to get to know her better first. "The Arts as in music, theatre, dance, Handmade things?" He asked softly. He smiled, so it seemed they had a bit in common. That was nice. "I was in a musical with a muggle theatre group this past summer I played Fiyero in Wicked." He looked back into her eyes. "I sing too."

Ellie grinned as she watched Spike crawl towards her.

"Snow-daddy, I think," she said, setting the snowball on the ground and rolling it to collect more snow. Didn't daddies always come before mommies? At least, that was how things worked out in her head. Maybe it was just a biggest to smallest things.

It just made sense.

But, by all means, Spike, correct her if you think otherwise.

Mmm... the smell reminded her of bakeries and little cafes in France, he had a really nice sm- what was she thinking? Ugh. Orabelle pushed those thoughts to the back of her head as best as she could. "Uhm yeah, that," Orabelle said, pushing her hair out of her face. "Minus handmaking things," Orabelle said. And why was she telling this to him again? She couldn't quite seem to remember. "Wicked?" Orabelle said, surprised. She had loved that musical when she watched it. "I think I got that much when you said Wicked," Orabelle said with a slight roll of her eyes and a smirk.

Simon was still wondering what the girls where chatting about when finally one decided to show her head but then she said she was ill. "I'll tell you what if you ill you should go to the nurse." Simon smiled he had a feeling this was a trick and so moved well away from the trees where the other Fallon and her mate was. "Saying that I should go get a Professor to check you over." Simon ran off towards the castle he was going to get a Professor if it was the last thing he did.

Fallon smiled at Aurora as she finished up the last of her snowballs. Fallon started to contribute more to the pile now that the young girl was 'surrendering'. She had to contain her giggles as the girl faked sick to trick Simon. Fallon thought that it was going to work for sure...

...that is until Simon decided to go get a Professor. She looked at Helena. Their plan had clearly backfired. She was going to step out and tell him no, but he was already gone. Great. Just great.

As Helena was making more snowballs, she suddenly heard Simon speak. Everything went well, they had the perfect plan, Aurora was the perfect actor... and Simon left.

He simply left.

She quickly turned around to face Fallon. "Maybe we should just... leave?" Uhh... what else could they do now?

"Good choice," Spike said with a definitive nod. That was what he'd have chosen. Daddy, Mummy, Children, Cat, Lizard. In that order. In a sort of family portrait type group set up. "He's gotta be tall." Definitely taller than Spike, which mean they needed a big ball of snow for the body.

Watching Ellie put the ball on the ground, he skipped over to push next to her. She was well trained in snowman building, it seemed. It was great the snow here was so deep. Even with rolling the ball around, a layer of white remained. Because a snowman with muddy streaks was a ruined snowman, of that Spike was certain. And he usually enjoyed a bit of mud.

"I brought some carrots for noses," Spike said. "But I didn't have any coal." Who would? "So we'll have to get some stones or something from by the lake."

Simon knew without turning that Jacob was bound to be right behind him as he ran, the Ravenclaw making it quite clear with his actions already that he wasn't about to give up on getting the hat and being the one to deliver it to Vindictus personally. The Gryffindor himself didn't know the full reason not being privy to that conversation but something in him was keeping him going and making it difficult for his fellow captain.

Could always consider it as payback for Selina...or that their chase was a rematch seeing as their previous challenge had been interrupted by his concern for his teammate. Whatever it was, Simon continued running as fast as he could in waterlogged clothes and a pirate's hat gripped in his hand.

Jacob kept a steady pace as he made a slow gain on Simon. His body still shaking from the cold, as he weaved through students playing the the snow... well at least they weren't soaked in lake water like the Captains were.

Really the only thing Jacob cared about was not being kicked out of his Captain position for being out done by Simon. What Would Vindictus say?

Jacob. Captain of a Championship Ravenclaw Team, Out done by Bennett a Bottom Ranking Team Captain!

It was outrageous, complete insanity. But Jacob was a beater... he didn't run that much, he worked on strength not speed!

The Thought of being beaten by Bennett was complete nonsense... but Jacob didn't feel like working too much just to get the stupid hat. In fact, what did it matter... he went to get the hat, and Simon got it for him... Jacob could just go to the common room and let Simon do his work.

But he was still running?! Why Was His Legs Still Moving?

Ariella arrived at the start of the pathways, ready to get some of her DADA project finished. She was way behind already due to other important schoolwork, so she needed to get started. There were several students playing around with snowballs. She took out her piece of parchment which had all the instructions written down in pink ink. She read step one to herself again.

1. Run 8 km (5 miles)

She took a deep breath. Ariella was not an good runner. She preferred brooms over feet any day, but she needed to get her assignment underway. Glad I dressed appropriately, she thought to herself. The pathways were covered in a thin sheet of ice. Not good for a clumsy girl like Ariella. "Diffindo!" she shouted, using the severing spell she remembered reading about. The ice shattered and disappeared at once. She smiled to herself. Now to get running.....

She started off slowly jogging. And then, she picked it up a little."Hmm...not as hard as I thought!" Ariella said quietly. Her long, blonde hair was bouncing everywhere, and she enjoyed the feeling of the wind in her face. It was quite similar to Quidditch. She could feel her heart beating rapidly. A small white cloud floated right above her head, which was counting the kilometers.

Before she even knew it, she was back at the start of the pathways, her little cloud exactly at 8 km. Mission accomplished, she thought to herself as she used 'diffindo' to shatter the counting cloud. She took one final breath of the crisp winter air and went to jog back into the castle.

Damn. Aurora scowled and just sat down in the snow. Now what

Oh no. "I... I don't know why that didn't wo-" she sneezed loudly and began to cough an splutter uncontrollably.
"Well isn't that convenient. Achoo! Hang on. I have an idea." Aurora dug into her pocket an pulled out a little paper bag. Great. There was one left! She bit into one half of the sweet and her nose began to bleed."Nosebleed nougat. Nosebleeds are a common side effect to colds." she said, grinning as the scarlet dripped from her nose and on to the White of the snow. She held a hanky to her nose, waiting for Simon with the professor and she began to sneeze and cough again. "Damn." she frowned. Where had this cold suddenly appeared from? Karma probably.

Ellie nodded. Tall. Right. "He'll be as tall as I can reach. Sound good?" Not that there was really much of a choice. If she couldn't reach, he couldn't be that tall. Unless someone taller than her wanted to help.

"Nice." The carrots. Smart. "That sounds good."

"Three snowballs per snowman or two?" Important decision.

Fallon looked at the two girls. Helena's suggestion was tempting...but cowardly. "I think we should just stay here." She said to Helena. Besides, she was enjoying the snow too much.

...and then Aurora had a brilliant idea. She had to admit she loved being a Slytherin. "I think the nosebleed nougat is a nice touch. The sneezing your starting to do is really helping though." It was true. The cold like symptoms would sell it.

Nika listened carefully to the third year. She knew that she shouldn't have left Emily so suddenly. It was uncalled for and the second year was probably nervous about telling Nika in the first place. The younger lion nodded as Heather gave her peice of advice. In a way Nika didn't want to do it. She didn't want to have to go and talk to Emily because she was afraid of becoming even more upset and attached to her friend. Although her brain kept telling her not to talk to Emily she knew her heart was telling her what Heather was saying. Talking would be the only solution and she knew it.

"Thank Heather." She said with a genuine smile. "You are right. I should definitely talk to her and try to spend all the time I can with her." Make her time left at Hogwarts worth while. She looked up at Heather again, this time her eyes were filled with admiration for the third year. "I'm sorry that I had to bring that up in the first place. It was just bugging me and I thought maybe someone would have some decent advice and you did." She was glad that she asked Heather of all people. Most would just nod their head and tell her that everything would be okay and that she just needed to get over it, but Heather actually helped. It was more of sympathy than pity.

Nika wanted to get off of the subject. The conversation was starting to become a bit depressing and Nika didn't want it to go this way. Especially since she just met the girl. She played with the hem of her skirt as she thought of something to talk about. "So, do you have a favorite school subject?" That would hopefully bring their conversation somewhere else.

"I meant that I write and sing my own music. I'm working on an album." He smiled at her softly and had to put his hands in his pockets to prevent from reaching out to touch her. He began to softly sing, "Maybe I'm brainless, Maybe I'm wise, But you've got me seeing Through different eyes, Somehow I've fallen Under your spell, And somehow I'm feeling It's "up" that I fell." He smiled again and ran his fingers through his hair, feeling a bit shy for a moment and looked into her eyes.

Heather blushed. Wow, she gave advice to Nika-and a coherent advice at that! Nika said it was decent. She turned redder at that.

"T-thanks t-too..." she told Nika. "I'm glad i helped you...and it's all right...you don't have to apologize for that..." she said, smiling at the girl. Nika really is nice and kind. It was adoring.

then the girl asked her what was her favorite school subject. It used to be defense against the dark arts...and it still is. But now, Herbology sort of attracts her. "Well...i do like Defense against the Dark arts....for a reason." It isn't called defense against the dark arts for nothing. "But i'm taking quite an interest with Herbology as well."