| Details for DADA: Snowball Wars |
| Summary: | Professor Lestrange brings his DADA classes out to the training grounds for his annual snowball wars. A chance to practice their skills and blow off some steam before the holiday break. |
| Date: | 19 December 1939 |
| Location: | Training Grounds, Hogwarts |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
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It's near the end of December, and Professor Lestrange has gathered the DADA students for the annual snowball war outing on the Campus Training Grounds. The professor's fur-lined robes seem particularly appropriate in the cold of Scottish winter, and he motions with his walking stick as he talks, "Young ladies and gentlemen, you will have one hour exactly to prepare yourselves for the forthcoming snowball fight. We've helpfully given you the starts of two forts…" he motions towards magically-created snow walls at either end of the training grounds, "But if you wish to improve them, that is up to you. Your time begins now!"
Antonin more or less about-faces toward one of the pair of fort-foundations. "Professor— how will victory be determined? What rules?" His dark eyes sweep over the snow, and he draws his wand out of his sleeve.
Abraxas was out here putting the initial forts together - student aide business and all that. He's all bundled up, hat, scarf, heavy robes. He walks over as the 'war' is set to begin, and listens to the instructions. "I don't think there is a winner." he says, to Antonin, "Is there ever, in a snowball fight, unless you drive your opponent off the field…"
Amyah is bundled up warm, mittens on with her yellow and black scarf wrapped around her neck and tucked in. Her cheeks are already rosy as she runs through the snow, her green eyes glittering brightly. "What are we? Oh, oh! Can we be the Green Giants defending our home from the Aquatic Merpeople? What do you think?" She glances around, looking at everyone with a bright smile. "I guess I should ask who wants me on their team?"
With her robes close around her, and her hat pulled low over her ears, Elspeth's tell tale red hair is hidden mostly from view. One has to be close enough to see the freckles and hazel eyes to differentiate her from the others running around with Ravenclaw scarfs wrapped up to their noses. As the professor calls out the terms, she glances around. As there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two forts, she walks towards one, joining whoever is there for a team. Glancing towards Amya she draws her brows together puzzled, but then shrugs. "I suppose…"
Antonin says, "Why I asked. Not exactly normal setup, is it?" The wand flexes in his fingers. "You turf, or 'playing'?"
"Hey Elspeth," Madeline says with eager cheer. "Amyah. Is there a snowball making charm? I've looked and I've looked and I just can't find one. But there has to be one - right? How could no one have thought of that before?" She kneels beside the fort, making snowball after snowball, and placing them in a pile as she works.
"Oh, I'm playing." Abraxas says, as Professor Lestrange moves back to observe the preparations. "I have a feeling this is going to be another one of those 'Slytherin versus the world' sort of days." A wry smile from the Malfoy, who then starts to make a pile of snowballs out of snow. Whistle while you work and all that.
"Def-ooooodi(HACK)-hil!" Antonin says, choking on a sudden wet gust of air that comes whipping up. Obviously it takes his words away, and irritates him. He speaks to his teammate, stumping down the slope with a red face, asking questions quietly.
"Oh, a… a snowball making spell?" Amyah looks around, looking down shamefully. Luckily her cheeks are already red with the cold. "I- I was just going to make them by hand," she says, shifting on her feet. She lifts a hand to pull down her wool cap a little, looking to Elspeth with a smile, and a giggle to Madeline as she gives her a delightful look, waving at her. An equally friendly smile that she gives Elspeth is given to Abraxas and Antonin too, wincing as she moves towards the young Slytherin. "Are you okay?" she asks to Antonin, intending to pat his back if she makes it there in time.
Fast steps can be heard down the corridors and out the doors of the school as Evelyn rushes, running behind schedule, to the training grounds. She meant to be there sooner, but like with everything, she got caught up with some other school related work. When finally she reaches the group, she is slightly out of breath. Slowing her pace, she holds up her hand and waves to the familiar faces.
Professor Lestrange clarifies for everyone, "This is a snowball fight, ladies and gentlemen. No offensive spells are permitted. The purpose of the exercise is to cut loose. Lets not over think it here, hrm?"
Abraxas is nodding to Antonin. "The latter, at least. I don't think the former would escape notice." He continues to make snowballs, waiting and watching. Poking his head up from behind the fort wall, he says, "Anybody else want in on this side?"
"Wait. … does that mean I can't use the pestering jinx?" Madeline asks Elspeth quietly in confusion. "'cuz I was gonna do that. You know, we keep making snowballs, and I keep pestering people…" Well. That takes the wind out of her sails!
Antonin does not recoil, but neither does he seem to want to be mollycoddled. "Dry-spot," he says to Amyah minimally, but politely by way of explanation, his voice breaking a bit in the midst of it the way it does for boys of a certain age. "Concern is appreciated, but not necessary. You stay?" He scrabbles in the snow, recovering himself.
Elspeth grins and shakes her head to Maddie as she makes a pile of snowballs herself. "No, it is being /Defense/ class," she says with a grin. "It is not being Dueling Club. We are to be defending ourselves from the snowballs." A veteran of these snowball wars, she stacks her snowballs carefully behind the fort. "Being able to pack a good snowball is being part of the fun." She looks up to Evelyn as she arrives and gives her a smile. "Hullo, Ev."
Amyah offers Antonin a bright smile. "You're okay. How about we don't do that again?" She grins at him, her eyes twinkling as she winks. She looks around the fort, back towards the other side, and bobs her head in a nod. "I'll stay on this side then," she says, looking to and fro between the sides. "Is that okay with everyone?"
"Is everyone nearly ready?" Professor Lestrange says, pressing his wand to his neck as the sand in his litte hourglass starts to run down, "Make your final preparations, the time is growing short!"
"But it's so much better with the pestering jinx," Madeline complains. "We could win for suuuuuure with it!" She lets out a loud sigh, as she continues making snowballs. What can she do, then? She could smokescreen their fort. And… well, would the mending charm work to fix a snow fort?
Antonin says as he packs handfuls of snow very very tightly to add to the pile. "If you aren't sabotaging us, fine. Less talking, more packing, unless you have defensive idea to add to strategy? — Fumos." As though by cue, Antonin sends a cloud of obfuscation out the front of the fort, but it's patchy. Who knows how long it will hold without help. Clumsy age.
Amyah scampers through the snow, flopping to her knees to hide herself better behind the fort as she gives Antonin a grin. "Aye, aye!" she says brightly, and begins to make snowballs at once. "You know, the snowball fights my dad have are always so much fun. If he could see a game using magic he'd be so intrigued!"
Shaking her head with a bemused smile, Elspeth looks at her pile of snowballs and then to the fort. Turning, she takes a breath and gives her wand a swirl. "Engorgio." The fort stays the same. She lets out a breath with a huff and looks at the fort, still sitting there just as before. Turning to Maddie she cants her head to the side. "Have you learned the reduction spell, yet?" she asks curiously.
Abraxas extends his wand as well, "Fumos!" he says. He doesn't do much better, really, producing a fog that will dissapate quickly. Maybe he needs more practive. "Ah, well. It will give as a little extra time." he says. He's assembled a whole pyramid of slightly lumphy spherical balls. "Heads down. We'll be starting in just a moment."
"Fumos!" Madeline calls as well - but only the slightest trickle of smoke comes out of her wand. She looks at it in consternation, then looks towards Elspeth and nods. "Umm - yeah. Why? Oh!" She lowers her voice to whisper, "Should we shrink their fort?" she asks.
"Oh!" Amyah brightens as her eyes twinkle. "I know that spell!" And she takes her wand out, calling out, "Fumos!" with a circular motion. Which, typically, she falters off at the last little swirl that she so often forgets and the spell only coughs. "Well, I know it, but I'm still working on it."
Elspeth nods to Madeline. "I think that would be a great idea. Shrinking their fort isn't actually attacking them," she whispers back, scooched down behind her fort wall again to make more snowballs. "And then, everyone needs to be ready to throw their snowballs in the first round before they get it back to size." There's a twinkle in her eye as she works. "Throw as many as you can."
Antonin breathes a warm fog onto his mittened hands and wiggles his fingers beneath the wool. No wonder everyone is struggling. Its winter. In scotland. He puts himself half over the wall, risking it in the last few moments, pointing his wand into no-man's land as the fog begins to thin, "Defodio," he says, and succeeds in making something like a bathtub sized foxhole a little ways away. He then slithers back into fort per the upperclassman's order. "Well, he can't."
Professor Lestrange lifts his wand and sparks shoot from it, "Begin!" he calls, and the snowballs start to fly.
Transfiguration is one of Madeline's worst subjects - but she gives it a try. "Reducio!" the girl calls, gesturing towards the other fort - before ducking back down into safety. "Did I get it?" she calls. "Did it work?"
Abraxas starts to throw snowballs - from behind his not-shrunken fort. They go everywhere, splattering off walls, into the ground… Everywhere except the place he was aiming, that is. "Blast it…" he calls out, but even the Malfoy is rosy cheeked and grinning as he dodges the balls that come back their way.
From afar, Elspeth grins. "Yeah, but that's not what the switching charm does, so… my brilliant idea is moot."
At the last minute, Elspeth changes her idea, and turns to her own fort again. "Sorry Maddie, no luck," she tells the girl with a grin, not seeming upset by the lack of success. "Infragilus!" Stepping forward, she gives a shove against her fort, then nods. "All right, at least they can't break down our fort for the time being." Six hours, to be exact, the snow fort will be standing there, and she turns to the task of throwing snowballs.
Antonin aims his wand, pointing it at an inbound bogey. "Recedo," he calls, sending it back the way it came. Simple. First-year spell. "Cover me?" he requests of the nearest other two, Abraxas and Amyah, wearing a questioning look.
Abraxas nods to Antonin, and rises up with a pile of snowballs cradled in his arm as he opens fire at any target of opportunity. "Go!" he calls.
Amyah has her wand out, peeking over the top of the fort, and then down. She smiles brightly to Antonin, nodding her head. "Right-o!" she says, ready to wave her wand to cast deflecto should she need to.
"Urah!" whoops the dark-haired Slytherin boy, who boosts himself UP over the rim of the fort, and goes hurtling under the cover of his companions for the foxhole he made.
Madeline rises up over the edge of her fort just far enough to see what she's doing, and starts hurling snowball after snowball with passable accuracy. "We'll get you!" she calls with a great amount of bravado.
All those years as a Chaser come into play as Elspeth starts hurling snowballs across the space at anything that moves and even things that don't. As one on the other team heads over his wall and into a foxhole in front of his fort, she pauses, throws one last snowball, then chuckles to herself.
Amyah's waves her wand, calling out, "Deflecto," while Antonin is still nearby, intending to deflect any snowballs away. Then she quickly plucks up snowballs to start throwing them quickly.
WHOOSH! Splat splat splat! Antonin lands on his back in his burrow, MANY snowballs landing around, and in pieces on him. He still hasn't taken a proper shot to the kisser. "Not yet!" he calls back to Maddie's taunt, waving a hand above ground level to shine them on a little.
Abraxas continues to lay down suppressing fire for Antonin. He stands above the waist-high fortress wall and, as a Gryffindor third year bravely trys to sally, hits him right in the chest with a snowball. Most of the rest of them go flying off in random directions, a danger to nothing but the scenery, and then he drops down behind the wall for more ammunition and to nurse his arm, breaths coming out in plumes of steam in the cold.
Madeline starts to giggle. "He just admitted we'd get 'im," she says to no one in particular, before tossing her next salvo - with enough precision that she lets out a very self-satisfied cry of success! Only to get smacked in the shoulder, and drop down behind the protection of her fort with a squeak. "I'm hit! They got me! Oh, it's a mortal blow!" She's been doing too much Pantomime.
Watching the air above Antonin's waving hand, Elspeth waits until she sees a moment where the air seems thick with missiles. Standing up from behind her wall, she points her wand, shouting "immobulis!" to a point above his head, robbing the snowballs above him of their flying power. All the snowballs in a two foot radius above his head stop dead, then fall straight down into the hole.
Amyah lets out a little squeak, a hand going to his mouth at Elspeth's spell. "Oh, that was really smart!" she calls out in compliment. But then also adds in, as she winces, "Are you okay, Antonin?" She picks up the snowball on her side, peeks up above the fort, and hurls more snowballs. "I'll save you!" She grins delightedly as she tries to aim one in particular towards Elspeth.
Abraxas pops up just in time to hurl a snowball at Maddie. Alas, someone already hit her, and she drops to flop like a Serie A striker when someone breathes on them too hard. His next few splat against the fortifications. He grins, though. "This is more work than it looks! You alright, Antonin?" he shouts, to the younger boy. Which draws enough attention that he only has a moment to shield his eyes before three snowballs come from different directions and pelt him. Abraxas returns fire and then ducks back down.
"We need cover! We need more cover!" The 'wounded' soldier cries, one hand still held to her shoulder. She gestures with her wand, calling out, "Fumos!" and conjuring a much more respectable amount of smoke than the sad little bit of smoke she'd got on her first attempt. "Ah ha! That oughtta keep 'em guessing!" If someone's voice wasn't telling them exactly where to throw.
Antonin makes a strangled mrrrflglle noise as he receives a cold bath to go with his snowy bathtub, just as he was about to say something. He has a nice cold drink though, with his mouth full of snowy bits. "OW!"
"Thank you," Elspeth calls out to Amyah, turning just in time for a snowball to nail her on the hip. Chuckling as she enjoys herself, despite this being a graded class, she reaches down and picks up one of her snowballs to return fire. "Return fire!"
Time is growing short, and Professor Lestrange announces to the class, "Five minutes remaining! If you have any last projectiles, make them count."
Upon hearing that this is the end of the class, Abraxas gets a bit of a grin, "Alright, then. Ready boys? On three! One. Two. THREE! Charge!" He fills his arms with snowballs and starts rushing towards the 'enemy' side, throwing as he goes.
Amyah giggles, quite delighted herself, and pulls herself down clearly. Only she's not fast enough, a snowball grazing her wool covered head and exploding into powder. She laughs, shaking the snow of her head and pulling out her wand. "Fumos," she says, taking the motion into a spiral and once again, gets nothing. "Oh, alright then!" She stands after scooping up a couple snowballs, and leaves the protection of the fort as she hurls out the snowballs. Intending to drop down flat by the hole Antonin is in, she peeks into it with a concerned little look. "You okay?" she repeats.
Antonin flings, flings as he rolls shivering out of his "mortared" foxhole, "You lost this!" but it looks like the end for him!
"LET'S GET 'EM!" Madeline cries. Throwing caution to the wind, she charges the other fort, tossing two snowballs that she grabs before she does so - and then scooping up handfuls of snow on the fly to fling after that. "ARRRRRRRRAGH!" she cries enthusiastically - while getting pelted by the other team.
Antonin is just there! Just there, belly up in the snow with his legs out… a tripping hazard! One of many, including a bathtub-deep foxhole…
At least this battle of Hogwarts doesn't involve anyone chasing him. And snowballs hurt a lot less than baseballs, or tripping on gobstones. So, Abraxas seems to enjoy the chance to just be a kid for a few minutes as he darts out from behind cover rapid-firing snowballs. He takes a few in return, one leaving a white smear on his scarf, and a few others slamming into his robes. He hits one younger boy from close range, then spins as he gets hit from behind. His wand is put away, apparently the magic-using part of the snowball war is over for him.
Shaking her head constantly as snowballs hit her and explode, Amyah giggles unconcernedly as she drags more snow up into her hands, making a loose pile of snow that she throws out towards the 'enemies.' "Aghhhh! No! Don't you come any closer, you hear!" she calls out enthusiastically. Plucking up snow into quick, loose snowballs and pretty much hurling just snow at anyone nearby, laughing enjoyably.
As the snowballs fly around her, some glancing off her, Elspeth just stands on her unbreakable wall, ducking behind her arm once before she flicks her wand at the snowballs flying in front of her. "Avifors!" she calls out, and the snowballs in front of her, no matter which direction they are flying, sprout wings and flutter around in confusion. The chirping mass of little birds swirls around, causing her to duck behind her wall as a couple last snowballs splat around her and one clips her shoulder, spraying white over her head. Glancing up, she giggles and puts away her wand as she watches them flutter up to find roosting branches in the trees.
In her quick firing of snow - hardly can be called snowballs - Amyah suddenly stops and gasps, tilting her head back as her eyes open wide at all the birds twittering. "Wow," she says, completely stunned. "That is really amazing." Her eyes shine, twinkling as she looks around. She just stares up at the sky.
Antonin is still flat in the snow of the battlefield. "Did we win?" he asks woozily as some schoolmates help scrape him up.
Madeline throws several more snowballs - then starts laying it on thick. "Oh! OW! They've got me! A mortal blow!" She puts her hands to her chest, sways, and falls. "Avenge me, dear fellows! Do not… let them… wiiiiin."
"TIME!" Professor Lestrange announces, sending up a different colored spray of sparks into the air to show that everyone should stop pelting each other with snowballs. Some of the students, like Antonin, are collapsed in the snow. Others look like wizard versions of a snowman, covered from nearly head to toe in 'battle damage'. "There will be tea and biscuits in the Great Hall to help you all warm up!" He announces, and then says, "I wish you all a very happy yule, and will see you when we return to class in January."
Then he has to draw his wand to turn Elspeth's birds back into snow. Holiday cheer, however, keeps him from making too much out of it.