Borr? Seriously? Shirts? Becky must be suffering torture. Lilly was now cold. Very cold. She shivered. When would the judges pick? Not that her's would win. As if. A plain snowman with a gryffindor tie. Hardly a record breaker.

Jez was chewing on her bottom lip, a definite gleam of anger in her violet eyes. His man who addressed himself to them as Minister - and who had the INDECENCY, the lack of HUMANITY to use those poor little house-elves as litter-bearers for his gargantuan body - was ticking her off pretty bad. Add to that the fact he was insulting some of her favourite teachers and whacking someone's snowman, and Jez could feel her blood boiling.
Suddenly Jez became aware of her hand tightening on the wand in her pocket. She realised in horror she was actually contemplating a jinx! No, no, NO! She wasn't going to lose her temper again, because unlike previous times, her friends weren't there to stop her doing something stupid that would probably get her expelled. She tried to slow her breathing, keeping it steady, hoping that people wouldn't notice her or the near-catasrophe in light of the almost-judging. She wasn't ready to be expelled from Hogwarts just yet.

Jesifur was relieved her snowhuffies head was not knocked to the ground by anyone. Her mother had told her 'some people think so highly of themselves that they are blind to others...' watching this man, for the first time she knew exactly what her mother had meant by that. She was getting so cold at this point she really did not care if her snowhuffie had won or not, she was just thinking of her warm bed, or the fire in the common room. oooo, Hot chocolate! Yes she was going to get a big mug of hot chocolate and sit in front of the fire...maybe if her fingers unfroze she would be able to work on some homework.

Hopefully they will announce who won soon.

As to be expected, the Staff of Hogwarts stood around doing nothing.

WORTHLESS.


"Tell me, Sierra, are there ANY Professors here that don't just stand around all the time? These two," Lord Borr pointed at tweedle dee and tweedle dum, the two women "Professors" that didn't seem to have the wits of a stump, "have a vacant look to them. You will keep up with them for the Minister." Lord Borr pet his little pet student.

He noted her snowman. "Did your father teach you how to build a snowman? Or are you self taught?"


"You are WELCOME," Lord Borr allowed the gratitude, but his tone suggested that was all he would take. LORD BORR did not cater to brown nosers.

"Does someone PAY you to EXPECT what I may or may not DO? I somehow doubt that very much. You will do WHAT I SAY! I am your MINISTER." Lord Borr raised his cane and tried to pop the snarky professor on the head.

"WELL GET ON WITH IT! Not only are you wasting my time, but I bet all these students would like to get back to their STUDIES! IF you were MY Ministry employee, I'd dock your pay for so much waste! Lord Borr would teach YOU a lesson just as you are EXPECTED to teach these children! NOW GET TO IT!"

Wist rolled her eyes. That was the Minister of Magic? Maybe he was just playing a bad joke.

O.o

Marilyn was sure she had never met a more unpleasant man in her life...besides her own father, obviously.

Observing him, he kinda reminded the Slytherin of a giant hot-air balloon...with limbs...and constant hot-air. That thought alone was quite hilarious to her and she began laughing. Loudly.

So silly...and large.

She looked back to her sculpture, admiring the fishy tentacles. Not that she expected to win. There were a bunch of excellent pieces....Slytherins were BETTAH, though.

...You know, by default. *smirk*

Minerva stood with her group. Was the Minster being mean to the teachers? Why? They were great teachers and he had no business being mean.

Noticing Borr's beefy finger pointed outward, Sierra turned in the direction it was pointed in and noticed Schirmer and Bentley. As powerful as it made her feel to be sitting in this litter alongside the Minister, she was a smart girl all the same. It was at that point and time she realized it might be wise to play both sides of the field during this game of cat of mouse.

...and whoever the winner was in the end, that would be who Sierra would ultimately side with.

For now, though, it was anybody's game. Deciding it best to not make a direct comment about Schirmer and Bentley, at least not now, Sierra instead gave Borr a direct answer to his question. "Professor Hecate Lafay," she said, sitting tall and proud at the mention of her Head of House, "certainly gives a hundred percent to her position. You know, she received a coupon for free potions ingredients last term, and of course I knew exactly who to gives praises to for that, Minister Borr. Your assistance is greatly appreciated."

"I'm self-taught," she said, moving on to his next question, "but that boy there," she added, pointing to Eino, "helped me create the snowman. It was my first." As she spoke, a thought occurred to her, and she grinned wickedly as the wheels began turning in her head. "You know, Minister Borr, there is a little something that would assist me in...thinking more clearly...when reporting back to you," she whispered. "I certainly could work better under the influence of some additional house points..."

Alyssa could not believe what she hearing. Here was this 'creature' insulting all their Professors and now Sierra was 'sucking' up to him and whispering in his ear. "I bet she's asking him for something,"Alyssa thought to herself totally disgusted at what she was seeing. She decided that she was going to leave. "Guys, thanks for helping out with the snowbuilding. I think that I've had enough of these insults, backstabbing and kissing up to the Minister. If the Minister is going to be the judge then I think that the results are not going to be fair. I'm outta here. I'll see you back at the castle."

Alyssa then stomped off.

Eino's eyes widened when he saw Sierra pointing at him then talking to Lord Borr. He couldn't quite hear what she was saying, but he tried to keep calm and pretend like he was just watching them like everyone else seemed to be doing. Eino tucked his hands in pocket, pulled out his gloves and put them on. It was getting colder by the second and he couldn't wait to return to the Ravenclaw Common Room and sit by the fireplace while reading a good book. Alas, he was standing in the grounds, freezing, and waiting for the Minister to judge some snowmen, which quite frankly shouldn't take very long, but apparently he had decided to take this opportunity to do something else.

0_____________________________________0

Seren watched, and listened... completely shocked with what she was hearing.

Useless? Her?

No!... surely not. She took her teaching VERY seriously, and gosh darn it she did it well! There was abolutely nothing she wouldn't so to give these kids the best education... at least where Herbology was concerned.

Borr.. was very quickly making his name into her bad books. What a worthless Minister of Magic, the Whommping Willow would do a better job of running the country that he did.

Seren excused herself. She was not about to be subjected to such poor behaviour. Worthless. Pfft... she was anything BUT worthless!

Tea...

She needed tea, and NOW!

Turning on her heel, she headed toward the Castle. A nice dark, shadowy corner of the staff room is what she needed right now. There she could lick her wounds in peace.

"Exactly," Janice muttered as Alyssa went back to the castle. She smiled at Ally's choice of words. She didn't understand half of it, but it seemed that now Ally knows what the Minister is like.

Harvey could not believe how disrespectful this.... this minister or whoever he was, was to these nice teachers. He was especially angry of the way this... this man talked about and to his favourite professor, Professor Bentley. Harvey decided that in the next couple of days he would pay her a visit. He went upto the professor "Dont fret over what he says professor, no matter what he says I would like to say that you are a first class professor." He consoled the professor

Alyssa heard someone walking...or rather stomping behind her and turned to see who it was. It was Professor Bentley, and she definitely wasn't pleased at all. "I wouldn't be too, if someone insulted me like that, especially in front of my students," Alyssa thought to herself.

She slowed down so that she ended up walking side by side with the Professor.

"I'm sorry that he said all those nasty things about all of you, Professor. It really wasn't nice of him. I'm sure all the students don't believe a word he said. I know I don't!!. You're all great and hardworking teachers, so don't worry about what we think. I know that all the students agree with me one hundred percent." she tried to reassure the Professor.

"I'm going to write to my parents and tell them what happened and how pompous he is. Hmmm...I wonder whether Mom has met him yet? For his sake I do hope not. Mom definitely knows how to deal with people like that no matter whether he's her boss or not." Alyssa thought and chuckled to herself.

Quite pleased with herself and the idea that had recently been born, Sierra nonchalantly sat back in the litter as she waited for the Minister's reply. Would he award her as she'd suggested? Mehhh..., it could go either way. Even Sierra wasn't naive enough to believe that Minister Borr was always predictable. Either way, though, she was quite pleased with herself for the idea.

OOC: For clarification purposes, when I mentioned that Sierra whispered her message to Borr, I meant that she literally leaned over and whispered it right into his ear. My intention in posting that she whispered it was to relay that it wasn't loud enough for anyone else but Borr to hear. Just clarifying!

Alyssa was halfway up the path to the castle when she decided to turn around and see whether Lord Borr actually did award Sierra and Eino the first prize for their Snow Creature. She stomped all the way down the hill and as she approached her friends, she suddenly had a great idea. She had seen a lot of the students doing it today. She really didn't know why they were doing it, but it seemed that it was a good idea. People should be hugged more especially Slytherin students because they needed to know that people did care about them even if they weren't always nice. So she walked right past her friends and headed for the litter where Sierra sat and Eino stood. She first grabbed Eino and gave him a great big hug. "That's thanks for being who you are, Eino," Alyssa told him and smiled. Then she leaned over the litter and gave Sierra a great big hug too. "Thanks for being who you are, Sierra. I hope that your efforts are well rewarded." Alyssa said smiling at Sierra.

Alyssa didn't dare hug the Minister because she was afraid that he would throw her into Azkaban, so she just bowed down again, so that he wouldn't be insulted that he has been left out of a hug. "Not like I would hug the man who insulted my Professors!!."Alyssa thought to herself and walked back to join her friends. She could sense that everyone was puzzled at her weird behavior. "What?", she asked around.

ooc: making up for my boo-boo

Was that supposed to be FUNNY?

Althea's expression grew fiery enough that it would almost melt a snowman on its own. Her jaw clenched and she flicked a dangerous look at, what was her name, Sierra Greingoth before fixing her eyes on Borr once more.

VACANT?

HER???

Peripherally she noticed Bentley leave and at the same time grew even more incensed at the sight of that pig of a man attempting to bop Dash on the head.

She still didn't speak, but Eddie or Dash would have to hold her back pretty soon, if either of them were able to read her well enough to know she was about to bloody burst and probably do something drastic and irrational.

ooc: visual aid

Really, Dash had believed that he could handle the Minister with ease. Borr wasn't exactly...smart. But..that was before the man had started to yell at him..and tried to ATTACK him with his cane.

The NERVE of Borr. Dash shoved his hands into his pocket, his wand hand gripping his wand with anger.

He took a quick step to the side, avoiding the Minister's attacking cane. Ugh. If the fat man wasn't the minister...

"If I were YOUR employee I'd quit. Or better yet I wouldn't be stupid enough to be your employee."

Yes. He had said that. And he didn't regret it either.

As he turned away from the stupid-good-for-nothing Minister, Dash caught sight of Althea's expression. Clearly, CLEARLY they had to wrap this up before she attacked the chubby man.

"Alright students! We have the winners." He was NOT announcing them because Borr told him too...only because..it was getting cold..yeah. "For individual award...THIRD place goes to Jesifur Hitchens for her Huffie Snowman...SECOND place goes to Kannalynne Basthowe for her snow squid. And FIRST place goes too....Selina Skylar for her snowman version of Godric Gryffindor." Yes, yes, students could clap now. Scabior reached into his pocket taking out three tiny items, he tapped his wand against them and they started to grow into full sized medals. Locating each child he tossed the medals at them, before reaching into his pocket and this time enlarging three containers filled with snowmen cookies. "Here, make yourself useful." He said shoving the stacked containers into Althea's arms. "Winners, you each get one of those containers." Soo...go grab them from Professor Schirmer's hands before she exploded.

But WAIT that wasn't all. "For groups we only have two winners." Because there was only five groups so...he thought that was fair. "RUNNER UP? Sierra Greingoth and Eino Uronen, for their snow couple." Greingoth...with Borr. UGH. "And FIRST place for Groups goes to Penny, Minerva, Janice, Jory and Alyssa, for their snow bear named Yogi." Good? Great. He dug into his other pocket and repeated the enlargement process- throwing the medals at each of them yet again, but this time he held their containers instead of shoving this set at the Charms Professor.

Alright. Hurry up. Get your cookies. He wanted to go. "Hope, ALL of you enjoyed making the snowmen. You all did pretty good." Not great. But really good...after all it was entertaining to watch.

ooc: You winners should click the links. That would be awesome.

Minerva jumped up and down when she heard her groups names being called for first place. "OH MY" she yelled. "Congrats everyone." She looked at her medal was so much excitement. "Thank you so much professors this was so much fun!"

"Oh MERLIN! OH MERLIN! We won everyone! Way to go guys!! "Alyssa said jumping up and down and down grabbing her friends and hugging them. "I'm glad that I changed my mind and came back. Now I can celebrate our win together!! We won!!", Alyssa said as she caught her medal and went to collect the container.

"Thank you, Professors for coming up with this great idea of a Snow Building. I had an awesome time despite THAT incident with THAT man." Alyssa thanked all the Professors present.

"Galloping Gargoyles....We won, We won", Penny yelled jumping up and down, hugging her team mates - The Puffies Won !!!

Looking at her medal and box of cookies, she had a brilliant idea...Hey guys, how about we enjoy a celebration with hot tea and cookies beside the fire in the common room?", looking around at her team mates, who all looked half frozen at this stage.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww whaaaaaaaat? Tori and Paulie hadn't won? THIS WAS DISAPPOINTING.

She clapped twice for the winners --- once for the group winners and once for the individual winners --- and then grabbed Paulie's hand. "C'mon Paulie," she grumped, "let's go get some hot chocolate."

And then the little redhead stomped/tugged him off the grounds and up toward the castle.

It was getting too cold to stand out here much longer and with Borr starting to wear on Selina's nerves she was not sure that it was even worth standing outside for at this point. She wrapped her scarf tightly around her neck and prepared to head up back to the castle. Then she heard Borr screaming random words very loudly and she stopped dead in her tracks. Like her fellow students she ease dropped in on the conversation that, honestly, was loud enough that ease dropping was the wrong word. It was more like briskly observing.

Then, finally, a consensus was made. Her Professor started to riddle off the names of the winners and she applauded each winner. They all had done some brilliant work. Selina loved other artists work, it gave her inspiration to do something else in whatever medium she chose.

And FIRST place goes to Selina Sklyar...

She had to be hearing things. She had won? Her Godric Gryffindor had won? This was some kind of joke, it had to be. Selina won! She squeaked a little and ran up to grab her tin of cookies. She beamed and her Professors and said thank you to each of them, "Thank you so much!" Her blue eyes caught Borr's fat frame and she mumbled a thank you in his direction. But she had won!

"Hey guys! I know that you must be freezing but before you all go. Could I take a picture of all of us standing in front of our prize winning Yogi? Professor Lafay asked us to make photo diary for our Potions assignment and I think that this is definitely one occasion that I want to have as a keepsake, if that's okay with you. Then I'll try to find someone to take a picture for all of us. Say YOGI!!" Alyssa yelled out pointing the camera at her friends as they stood smiling happily standing next to Yogi, their Snowbear creation.

"Ahh that's a great idea Alyssa, but you need to be in the picture as well." Minerva turned and saw Harvey. "Hey Harvey could you take a picture using Alyssa's camera and then possibly my camera of our first place snow Yogi with the entire group in it?"