Orchid smiled and closed her eyes, just standing there for a moment basking in the winter sun and cold blending together to make such a beautiful day. She saw the notification of a snowman building contest and she couldn't wait, it was tradition in her family to make at least 7 snowmen each year, her dad actually apparated the two of them to Russia once because the snow had melted in New York before they could get the seventh one done. Walking over to an empty area she sat on her knees and started making a snowball before rolling it around in the snow around her until she made one big enough for the base, rolling it back to her claimed area she started putting snow around it more to keep it in place.

With Minerva, Penny, Jory and Janice's help, their snowman was starting to form shape. While Alyssa worked on the snowman's legs, the others were working on his hands and head.

Alyssa rolled more snow towards the two legs. She had used her spoon to round the top edges, to make it look more realistic. She saw other students use their wands to cast spells, and she wondered whether that was allowed being that this was Muggle Studies Snow Competition. "Oh well, I think that sometimes it's just fun to do without magic for stuff like this," Alyssa thought to herself. Satisfied with how the legs of the snowman were now shaped, Alyssa sat down on the snow in front of the legs, and started building up snow to make the snowman's feet. "This is starting to look good everyone,"she yelled out to the others.

Penny thought their snowman was coming along nicely, the body and legs were taking shape... but Penny thought the top half neede working on now..

"Ally I think I might start on the head and ears now, What do you think?", but even before Alyssa answered, Penny started rolling snow into a medium size ball for the head...

The shape finally taking form, Scott stared at it in awe hoping that someone wouldn't knock it down. He picked a handful of snow and placed it on the bottom of the snowman. (although it's not really fair to call it a snowman)
He spread it around to create a semi circle look, before using his wand to divide each section.
He then took another handful and patted it carefully onto the back of his snowman

At first it looked like it had a really thick back, but then he spread it to the right and left, carefully constructed it with the vision in his mind. One wrong move and the whole thing would topple.

Once that was done, he took the tip of his wand, and brushed it along the edges, making it look like it had feathers. He patted the front to make sure that everything was secure.

Gemma hurried down to the grounds to help corral the snowman building contest. She really hated the cold weather, but she loved the opportunity to dress in her cute wintery clothes.

She smiled at each of the snowmen slowly taking form excited to see what kind of creativity the students were going to come up with and she was interested in finding out who the mystery judge could be.

As she walked down the hill however she saw something she was not okay with. She hurried forward towards the problem hoping she made it in time for the incident to not explode too far and hinder the other snowmen.

She flicked her wand and instantly the snow balls that were in the air dropped back into the snow. She put her wand against her vocal chords and announced,
"Thank you to everyone who is here participating in this awesome event. The snowmen are already taking great shape. However, if you feel the need to snowball fight please go to another part of the grounds so that you do not hinder the building process of other students. Anymore snowballs thrown in this area will result in disqualification for those students an a lose of points. Thanks and keep up the great work!" she said with a nod and stern glance towards the directions she assumed the snowballs had come from.

Kana had barely noticed the snowball fight that had began to break out not too far from where she was. After glancing up once, she went back to her snow.

She knew what she was going to do, and had traced out her lines and portioned out her snow! Now for the tricky part; The actual compacting of the snow. Stepping her way around the strangely-shaped snow piles she'd already set, she approached the biggest pile in the center, which, at the moment, reached her knees. Starting at the edges, she pushed the fluff inwards until it was a taller pile that came to her waist, and was about four feet wide. Yeah. She needed a lot of snow.

Soon, the pile came to look like a... well... it didn't look like anything at the moment. I honestly looked like a smooth...chunk of snow, with a point, almost like an arrowhead. It looked great! Just... not like anything. Yet, at least. For now, Kana turned her attention back to the longer piles of snow she had portioned out. Six of them, to be exact, almost formed a circle around the larger hunk of snow. Knowing that this snow wasn't frozen enough to hold it's own weight, she would have to make it support itself with a lower, more compacted strip of snow underneath the long ridges she was making. No problem.

She COULD have pulled out her wand to make ice, but she felt that, at least for now, that would take the challenge out of it. Carefully stepping between the loose ridges, she picked one, and got to smoothing and molding it.

Paulie snorted a little upon seeing her reaction to his attack. Who did that? Bahah, HE did! And she seemed to realize this after a moment. Hence the reason that he soon had a packed snowball colliding with his stomach. Lucky for him he had such a padded coat, or that woulda left a mark!

"Knave?! I am no knave!" He said, brushing the snow off his jacket before crunching through the snow over to her. If it weren't for the snowman competition, he probably would have let this snow war escalate. But, alas, he had ANOTHER competition to win. "Wanna be my partner?" Grin.

The second snowball that Tori had jussssssssst launched toward Paulie suddenly fell to the ground with a heavy THUMP. Aww, darn. It wasn't like PAULIE was building a snowman... yet... anyways. She wasn't disrupting anybody, but merely defending herself!

Anyways.

"You mean, do YOU wanna be MY partner?" Tori corrected Paulie with an equal grin. "I already started on Mrs. Snowman here, see." She pointed to the two big balls she had rolled next to each other. "Problem is, I dunno how to get that one," she pointed to the smaller of the two, "on top of that one."

Well except by magic of course. But Tori kinda wanted to see Paulie use his muscles to pick it up. If he could. Heehe.

Alyssa laughed, "Penny, you don't need permission from me. We're all working as a team. Go ahead. From what I can see, you're doing a great job already. Minnie and Jory great job on the arms. We're on our way to making an awesome Snow man everyone!! Thanks!!,"Alyssa yelled over to the others, ducking her head as a snowball flew at her.

She turned around looking for the thrower when she saw Professor Cerulean intervene. "Good job, Professor. We definitely don't need that starting right now....maybe after the competition is over,"Alyssa thought to herself and she knew who her first victim was going to be.

Alyssa continued working on her snowman's feet, using the handle of her spoon to carve out the little toes. She hummed as she worked along.

Penny giggled at Alyssa, "Silly lily, I wasn't asking permission, I was asking your opinion "... She was finishing off the contours of the head, before moving onto the face.....

"Good job this snow is so cold - it'll make sculpting the eyes, nose and mouth easier", she thought to herself.. as she started with the eyes, making a hollow for each eye.."Ally what are we using for the eyes by the way - a couple of pebbles or would something else be better?", Penny asked her friend.

Having established a ten-inch high base for her snowman, Louisa fought to get on her feet -succeed- and then admired her well-thought and slow work. "Now... the low part of the body." She looked around, hands on her hips -that were totally unrecognizable under those clothes- and saw the different ways students were doing snowmen.

Hmm.

She settled on the classic way and started rolling a snow ball. Needless to say that she stumbled, grunted and sighed aaaall the way until the snowball was big enough.

Panting and actually SWEATING, Louisa took her wand out, holding it really clumsily with her thick gloves. "Okay...Locomotor snowball." She panted and moved her wand toward the newly made snowball. Then very slowly she dragged it to the base...and because she was staring at the snowball moving, Louisa didn't see the little bump of snow that probably belonged to a student who abandoned his/her job.

CRUNCH!

She fell and that wasn't the news... her wand flew out of her hand and the snowball thudded on the ground, cracking down.

Louisa cracked down too. Emotionally cracked down. Her work in this super thick outfit had gone with the wind.

Leave it up to professors to ruin a bit of goodolddirtyclean FUN. It was only a snowball or two.........

ANYWAY.

"Pffft," Paulie waved his hand dismissively. "Same difference." They would be each others' partners. He leaned forward, at the same time clasping his hands behind his back, to inspect Mrs. Snowman here. She wasn't looking in too good a shape right now.

So, she needed to get the one on top of the other. "Aha. Well, Princess, that's what charms are for," he smiled. PHEW. That was a close one. If he hadn't been a wizard, he would have had to subject himself to straining his scrawny muscles! "Or are we not allowed to use magic..." He trailed off and looked around.

"I have these stones from our divination project would they work for the eyes?" Minerva stopped packing snow and went over to her bag. She took out the stones and gave them to the group.

"Wait let me check my pockets. I always have something crammed in there." Alyssa checked her pockets and sure enough she found some marbles."Will these do?"she asked Penny. She looked over at the stones Minerva offered her..."or you can use Minnie's."

Aurora had wandered down to watch the snowman competition, her cloak and scarf pulled tight around her, hands stuffed into her gloves. She wasn't intending to join in - it was too cold and the last time she had played in the snow she had ended up with a huge nosebleed that had given her her first hospital wing experience. Stupid Simon.

She watched people getting cold for a minute, then she glanced a shock of curly hair... oh... "Kennedy!" she shouted, running over to him. "Need a hand?" she asked, her breath steaming in the air.

What....What?

He raised his head and looked around. Apparently, building a snowman had 100% of his attention, until a familiar voice called his name. "Hey! Aurora!" He stood up and patted the snow off his pants. "U-Uh, sure," he grinned. "I already have the base of the snowman done," he said, pointing at the big, white ball of snow two feet to his right. "Do you wanna roll the head?" That didn't sound right. "I-I mean, make the head...for the snowman," he smiled sheepishly as his cheeks reddened. He didn't even feel it this time because his face was cold.

Selina eyed Kurumi who looked amused by the fact that Selina had lost her lion head. She knew already that she had to start again on the head front, but it had taken her so long to do it the first time she did not want to put the effort back into doing it all over again. Once she was about throw in the towel Selina's competitive streak started up full force. She did not want people to think that she was the kind of girl who just gave up half-way into a fight and left everything else to mush... literally.

With her new found inspiration she drew lifted her hands to her scarf and tied it around tightly to ensure some warmth. She was going to be out there a while and might as well make sure she did not catch hypothermia. Then she rubbed her hands together and gathered a glob of snow and placed it on the empty place where the lions head should have sat. Her hands, which used to dealing with art in secret, sprang to life as she started to mold and shape the head of the lion as craftly as she could. She was not doing this to win; no, she was doing this sculpture snowman for herself. A testament to perseverance.

''Thanks''he said excitedly.He gathered up some more snow and decided to look around at their competition.''Hmmmm we have this in the bag.''

Aurora glanced at the ball of snow. "Ooh, he's gonna be a big snowman!" she said. Did she want to roll the head..? "Errr," hmm, why not. "Sure, how big shall I make it?" she asked, sizing up the snowman's body.
Awww, and he was blushing again! She wanted to cuddle him so much right now! But it was cold and there were snowmen to be built! She bent down and began to scoop up handfuls of snow.

Huh. Was that an egg or a weirdly shaped snowball? Dash would never know.

"Hello Miss Bunbury." Dash didn't even need turn his head as he offered the greeting as he walked past the Slytherin girl and her snowman base. He knew who was speaking just by her voice. "Having fun?" He asked pausing for a second.

Wow. Some students were already pretty far in building the snowman and the competition had just started. "Hello Miss Carter-Hope. Nice start to your snowman." He gave a small smile. Now he kind of wanted to make a snowman.

"Oh hello there Chad." Dash said with a wave as he passed the other man. Wait- Chad? "Having fun I see?" He asked with a chuckle. Maybe he would help the man if he wasn't a judge.

And why were snowballs being thrown?! Dash was just about to reprimand the snowball throwers when Gemma stepped up. Alright. That was fine. He had to look at the creation of more snowmen!

YES.

Being me, snow was snow. And snow was a generally an American thing. DON'T QUESTION IT. I'd barely woken up before seeing snow and sprinting out head first still in PJ's for a good ol' bit of snow. They'd better have hot chocolate back at the mess hall or whatever they called it here. NOM.

With a feverish haste, using hand and wand and snow (the best combination EVER INVENTED) a miniature castle rose out of the hill. Miniature. Pffft. It was gigantuous! It was BIGGER than this stuffy old English place. ...Okay. Maybe not. It was actually considerably smaller. But it was BETTER! YEA! It was American. Eventually, there it was.

I raced up to the top, still not feeling the cold because I was sweating like a pig from the work. "HEY!" I yelled out as loud as I could to the surrounding innocent victims of the soon to be war of SNOW. Heh. Hopefully they'd fight back...cause if not...well. They'd all be really wet. And cold. "WAR!!!" I pointed at the ground around my many victims and

POOF

Snow went flying everywhere up to 10 feet high, covering everyone. Heh.

Aurora had gathered almost enough snow for the head when...

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? THIS IS A COMPETITION! IF YOU WANT A WAR GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!" she yelled, scrunching her hands into fists and beginning to shiver furiously. She didn't have much fat on her at all so she got cold really easily. This idiot was going to get it. And she was going to be the one to dole out his punishment. Hmm, that potion needed using... she'd have to find him in the Great Hall whilst he was eating.

Aurora turned to Kennedy, still shivering like a leaf in Autumn. "I think we have enough snow to finish it now." she said, scowling at the huge pile covering her MASTERPIECE.

She wasn't as responsive as I would have liked.

Okay, she wasn't plenty responsive, but not in the happy good way. It was actually a pretty bad way. Oooops. And then she stared staring are me with a creepily murderous look in her eye. Well. I would've started fearing for my life but she didn't look like the type. On the other hand, you usually couldn't tell how well someone was at magic just by looking at them.

So I should probably take precautions. For my life. Or sanity. Either or.

Luckily for me, it seemed that the main reason was flipping out over nothing (I mean, really? These Brits had no sense of fun) was that I'd covered her snow sculpture. But see, I could respect that anger. In fact, having had that anger so many times I learned how to separate the compacted snow of a sculpture from the floofiness of other snow. With a few seconds of intense concentration, I managed to move most of the tossed snow. So...it wasn't perfect. But it was good enough.

"HEY! It's SNOW! SNOW IS SNOW!"

I'm not sure what that meant, but it sounded good.

"Yes snow is fun and we get that, but this is a competition and you need to stop. When we are done I would be happy to have a snow ball fight with you away from the snowmen.." Minerva said turning back to her work.

Aurora shot the boy another glare and stalked forwards until she was as close as she could get, "I don't want your help, you idiot. I don't care about the stupid snowman, I am now soaked and FREEZING!" she said, teeth chattering. "Seriously, just go away before I send a big enough curse to blow up your whole stupid castle." she hissed. "With you inside." she added, before turning pointedly and walking back to where Kennedy was stood, her whole body shaking with the cold.