"I'm sorry. I know that I overdid it on the size. I got carried away in all the excitement. I really didn't mean to hurt you. It's just that I haven't had so much fun in a long time." Alyssa apologized to the boy.

"I'll step aside and just watch you guys play if you're worried that I'll really hurt you." Alyssa offered, standing up.

Ella sat back on her knees when Theo's eyes finally fluttered open. IT WAS A MIRACLE! She breathed a sigh of relief and shook her head as the boy said he was okay. "Don't go passing out again, okay little lurker?...Though you really know how to take a hit." Yup, the boy had earned himself a new nickname. He'd better like it too. It was either that or dead boy...cause it looked like he'd almost died.

She sat back and watched as Blue questioned why Theo had done that-you know, the being knocked out thing. She smiled, thinking it was quite a funny question to ask. These first years were cute. She looked down at the boy again and raised an eyebrow. "Think you can soldier on, soldier?" Cause if not, she could walk him back to the castle or something. She didn't mind.

And then Alyssa was apologizing. Ella felt bad for her, knowing she hadn't meant to hurt anyone.

Laura woke up slowly and saw that everyone was busy with this guy she felt fine and decided that the others could do without her and so she decided to go and read a book in the Library or maybe she would go and find her sister and together they could go and read a book in the Library, yes that is what she would do, Laura skipped of towards the castle.

Sophie looked from one person to the other as they spoke. She trhew the snow she was levitating to the side and looked at Theodore when he said Alyssa wanted to kill him. "It's alright, Theodore, she won't kill you." She was a Hufflepuff, after all.

"No, Alyssa, it's okay." She said turning to the older girl. "I mean, I'm tired of this whole thing already, we should do something else now." She nodded at her own words. That sounded... better. And safer.

"I pass out all the time. No biggie."

He bruised like a peach, too. He was just one big disaster that SHOULD be wrapped up in bubble wrap, or something. That would be way fun.

Everyone was feeling sympathetic toward the girl who knocked him out. Not Theodore, though. He wasn't a happy chappy. "Whatev." He said, like a moody teenager. Theo reached into his pocket and pulled out half of a chocolate frog that he had began eating earlier.

He needed sustenance.

Theo nodded toward Sophie, "Yea, I think we're done. Boys win?" He noticed the Laura girl skipping off. Looks like she had had enough, too.

Adeline heard about a snowball fight and wanted to join in. Snowball fight, where was it being held at? Adeline thought for a moment, then it came to her; The Whomping Willow! Adeline hurried down to the Whomphing Willow and looked around to see how everyone was doing.

Alec smiled at the Theo boy as he stood up. This was great. And they had had some great times! True, he was sad that it was all over but at least they had had fun throwing snowballs at each other. And hopefully, Theo did as well. You know, before he got hit by the giant bulldozer of a snowball. That was jut sad.

... Wait, it was really over wasn't it?

Probably. "You need anything, mate?" Like... sweets? Or a hug? Even if guys didn't usually hug each other a lot. Tackles. They did that a lot but hugging was completely different. But he got the feeling that the boy might not want to be tackled right after being hit and all.

... That was the all important question! "Yeah, who won?" he asked, looked around at the girls present. Maybe they could end it at a tie or something? Or the boys could win because Theo had gotten hurt. And because the boys were just hair ruffling, hair flipping awesome. Yeah, that's right.

Adel was here! "Hey!" he said, grinning, "Glad to see you made it!" What they were going to do now, though, he didn't know.

Sophie wasn't that worried anymore, but she was still with a serious expression on her face.

That it, until Theo's last words. "Pfffffffffffffffffft!" She tried to hold back the laughter but couldn't do it. "Hahahahahahah! That was a good one, Theodore!" She said literally laughing. "Didn't you see how awesome us girls were? You were doomed, really!" She said brightly.

"WE won, yep." Nothing could be simpler.

Oh... there was that girl that he had briefly me in the suits of armor room. Adeline? "Hullo. If your here for a fight, you're about 600 snowballs too late." Yeah... literally, 600....

Theodore shrugged, "I could do with a chocolate frog, or six." He said seriously to Alec. Ah, he had yet to discover Theodore's crazy obsession with chocolate frogs. Sophie would understand. He looked to her expectantly. CHOCCIE FROGS PLEASE.

"WE WON, DUDE!"

Sympathy vote. Sympathy vote?

Theodore frowned at Sophie. "But I almost died. I sacrificed myself and took the full blow of that snowball for my team." It was just unlucky really, that it was particularly aiming for him.

Ella smiled as Theo was now talking and eating, too! He had a chocolate frog? MMMM. But he only had one...Frown. Well he deserved it after all the hits he took, several that Ella had sent his way.

She agreed that the snowball fight was now over. They didn't need any more injuries and it had definitely been fun while it lasted. She made a mental note to write her dad about how much better her throwing arm was this term. He would be happy that a summer playing catch in the backyard had worked for her. Heh. As for the question of who won the war, Ella was torn.

In her eyes, the battle had definitely been one-sided. The girls had...well, kicked butt. But still, the boys were outnumbered. And clearly not as knowledgeable about spells as the girls had been. So maybe-"As much as I hate to say this...Tie?" She said, looking around at her friends.

Sophie chuckled at Theo's words. She knew Chocolate could help someone get better if they were sick and all, so maybe Theo could use some right now indeed.

She looked around looking for her bag and saw it was almost buried! Oops. She pulled it from under the snow and opened it, searching for something.

"Here you go." She gave him her last two Chocolate Frogs. That should make him happier, right?

But nope. "Okay, let's call it a tie then." Oh, and Ella just said the same thing. Yep, that was it then! A tie. Period!

She came to late? The game was all over and she missed it and she never even got to play at all. Adeline frowned until she heard Alec's voice. Addie smiled and walked over to him. "I missed it? Didn't I?" she frowned.

Theodore frowned still... Hmmm... "FINE. Fine, a tie. We need a rematch, though." Just something not so dangerous.

YAY, froggies. Theo took the two from Sophie and beamed at her, "Thank you." Tucking them away, the first year turned on his heel and faced the castle after saying one final word to the group. "Well... thanks for bruising me up good and proper, guys. I'll be going now."

He glanced over at Blue, expecting her to come with him, then began to walk off.

Awesome? And the girls? "Now... ladies..." he started, "We were awesome too!" You know, with the whole sacrifice thing that Theo had done. And they did have a small team. It was just him, Theo, Rose and Asher. Even if Asher had stayed quiet for a bit of it. But still. They were awesome up against the girls! Totally awesome! Medals should be given out!

And then Ella had called for a tie. And so had Sophie. He could do this. "A tie it is!" he said, walking over to the girls and holding out his hand, "You girls played really really well! Brilliantly! That was some awesome snowballing action!" And they were all still friends, weren't they? ... It would take a lot for them to stop being friends. Yeah.

Adeline! Alec grinned at the girl as she walked on over towards him. "I think you did," he said, "But we can have a snowball fight by ourselves if you want." Sophie and Ella could join in if they wanted to as well. It would be great! Except... if he was going to be the only guy left, then maybe it can be a friendly fight? One that wouldn't lead to someone being knocked out, yes?

"See you Theo!" he called, waving to the boy. He had played amazingly. Yeah. If they were going to have any future snowball fights, that boy would definitely be on the same team as him. No doubt about that. And Alec... he'd come up with better tactics. Ones that didn't involve hair this time.

Aahh! Theo must have been really shaken by the giant snowball incident. He agreed it was a tia! Good!

"You're welcome." She said smiling at him. He liked those sweets better than she did anyway, so she was fine about giving them to him.

And she laughed once again at Theo's words as he turned around. "See you later, Theodore!" She waved even though he wasn't looking back at them anymore.

Then she looked at the other. "Weeeell! That was really cool!" And a fun way to practice spell, YES! Kind of risky and dangerous... but still, really cool. And Alec was offering his hand for a hand shake? Hehe! Sophie reached out and shook his hand. "We weeere really brilliant, indeed!" GRIN. "You guys were not bad either!" Of course, the girls were plain awesooome, but the guys had been good too. Teehee!

"We should get together and do some really cool stuff like this more often!" Not snowball fights necessarily, but anything else. Sophie liked being with a big group of friends! And it was a good way to meet knew people too! "Maybe after the holidays we could arrange something else!"

Adeline looked at him. "I still can't believe I missed it." she frowned again. Another game? "Just you and me?" she asked. She fixed her glove that was falling off and looked back up at Alec, who now wasn't that much taller than her. She had grew over the summer and it was a shock to at how tall she had gotten she had to of grown about three or four inches over the summer holiday. She was finally over five feet two inches, she thought she had to be five feet five inches now.

Ella smiled when little lurker begrudgingly agreed to a tie. She was actually quite surprised he did but she agreed with the bit about a rematch. "Oh we'll definitely be having a rematch." She said with a mischievous smile. As she watched the boy head back to the castle, she shook her head, amused. He was quite a funny one, that Theo. "Bye!"

So Sophie and Alec agreed to the tie too then? Good. That meant that they were all still friends too, yeah? Even if it hand got a bit out of hand...She waited for Sophie to shake Alec's hand and then did the same. "Thanks Alec! You guys played pretty brilliantly as well!" She said with a sincere smile. Okay so maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration but still, they were friends!

When Soph suggested that they get together and do this kind of thing more, Ella nodded her head enthusiastically. "Course we can! I had a lot of fun. Well despite the whole Theo being knocked out thing..." And she smiled at her friends sheepishly. "Pillow fight after the holidays?" She suggested with grin. A pillow fight would be wicked! Hopefully they agreed to it!

Ella smiled at the other girl that had joined them. She had met her once. Adeline, right? "Sorry you missed the big battle but you're welcome to come to the pillow fight when we have one!" She said with a smile.

Now that things were all wrapped up, Ella decided she'd still treat herself to an ice cream sundae. "Hey guys, I'm gonna go to the kitchens. I'm quite hungry after all the chaos and ice cream sounds GREAT!" Yup! Even in this cold weather! "Anyone is welcome to join me but I'm headed there now! I'm starved!" And after checking to make sure her wand was safely stowed in her pocket, Ella turned and headed for the castle.

Harvey walked to the Willow he had no idea why he was here, he was not about to play a game with THAT tree if thats what people were going to think. No no he wasnt like some people that knew, but still he had loved the rush of playing with it but of course he would not admit that he did. Imagine what she would say, she would be quite happy and want to go ahead with that game although she might now be more wary of playing such a game. So maybe he should stay away from it too, he sat down some distance away from the tree so that the tree limbs could not get to him no matter how hard they tried.. hehe

Ronnie walked through the snow to the Whopming Willow, smiling. Finally. The snow was finally here! She flopped face down into the snow randomly as she got nearer to the tree. She giggled and sat up and slowly got up, brushing some snow off of her. She loved falling in the snow, you could just fall in and wouldn't get hurt at all! Yippeee!

She spotted Harvey standing by himself and she was about to call out his name when she got an idea. Ooooo yes she did.

She scooped up some snow and packed it into a ball, and snuck up a few feet behind him. She threw the snowball at him and giggled as it hit him in the back of the head.

Harvey was there just minding his own business when suddenly he felt something hit him in the back of his head.. now that was painful what WAS that? he rubbed the back of his head and felt it was wet and snowy? he instantly turned around to see who it could be that threw a snowball at him.

He saw Ronnie standing there not too far from him.. it reminded him of how they had met a snowball fight! he instantly rolled up a ball and threw it at her, and he quickly rolled up another and got ready to dodge anymore that could come his way. "Hey Rons, Nice way to say Hi. How are you?" he asked her.

Ronnie giggled as he turned around, and wasn't prepared when he threw a snowball back at her. She laughed and ran up to him, almost knocking him down in a hug. "Hiya, Harvs!" she said giggling and pulling away. "Oh I know. I'm so brilliant." she said, sticking her tongue out. "I'm good! I'm good! What about you?" she asked.

Harvey chuckled and watched in surprise as she ran upto him and enveloped him in a hug that had almost knocked him off his feet, giggling as she pulled away sticking her tongue out she asked how he was "Hey Rons! Oh yeah you are you come up with the weirdest ways to say hello to a good old friend" he chuckled

"Glad to hear you are good.. Oh I am good too.. just hanging around as usual. what you been upto lately? not being too mischievous are you?" he chuckled as he asked her the question. She was known for being a bit mischievous so it wouldn't surprise him if she said that she had been just a little bit.

So...that was it.



Blue smiled at Ella and Sophie. "This was fun despite the fact that one of my best friends was knocked out. I wanna do it again some time." Bigger smile. "I'm glad I made new friends. Bye now." Because she was freezing and soaking and Theo was already leaving and had given her a look saying that she should come too.

Flashing another smile at ALL her new friends, Blue started to skip through the snow in an attempt to catch up with Theo.

Funny how she managed to skip in the oddest of places.

"THEODORE. WAIT FOR ME."

Grrr. The boy was too fast.

Hey. ....Maybe they could all go skating or sledding. Hehehe. ...Yeah. Eve probably wouldn't like it that much though.

Ronnie laughed. "I sure do!" she said, grinning and kicking some snow around with her foot, watching the powdery stuff fly around her foot as she kicked it. She smiled.

Ronnie giggled. "Nothing mischievous so far. That snowball...well that sort of was mischievous." she laughed, and gestured to the snow with her hand as she had an idea. "Wanna build a snowman?"

Harvey laughed with Ronnie at his comment, as she kicked some snow around with her foot. He then smiled as she giggled "Yes that was sort of mischievous." he laughed as she asked to build a snow man .. he nodded "Sure we can build a snowman, how big is your call" he smiled as he waited on her to tell him what sort of snowman they were going to go for.