An American at Hogwarts: Book Two

Chapter Forty-One

Cedric was the first one out the doors. He stepped outside cautiously, clearly on high alert since he knew what the twins and I were doing. As soon as the entire snowball fight battle field came into view, however, he froze in his tracks (pun intended).

"This is... incredible!" he said. He laughed. "I especially like the no magic sign. It's a nice touch."

"Rule one of a snowball fight Diggory!" yelled Fred, peeking over the edge of our fortifications. "Don't just stand there!"

With that, the twins popped up and launched a volley of snowballs at my boyfriend. I hesitated for half a second, but then I joined them. I felt a little bad, but come on. This was a snowball fight. If our positions were reversed, I would've expected him to do the same.

Every single one of our snowballs hit their target, but luckily for Cedric he'd been doing some agility training with me. He darted down the stairs and ducked behind a snow wall before we could launch a second round.

"Well, boys, congrats on a good start to the snowball fight," I said. "It was nice working with you, and I look forward to meeting you on the field of battle later. But now I'm gonna go join my boyfriend in destroying everyone. EAT SNOW!"

With those final words, I kicked up and threw as much snow as I could at the twins before turning on my heel and sprinting as fast as I could. I wanted to get to Cedric quickly, and I also wanted to avoid as much of the twins' revenge as I could.

It didn't take me long to find Ced and, being a total sweetheart, he didn't nail me with a snowball on sight. Instead, we joined forces, and managed to hold our own against the twins while we waited for more people to come outside.

All the rest of the sixth year Gryffindors came outside next, Adrian, Jackson, and Myrah with them. The snowball fight really picked up after that, turning into less of a teams thing and more just chaos.

It was perfect.

Cedric and I stayed together, eventually calling a truce with the twins and joining them and Lee in ambushing anyone who set foot outside the door. It didn't matter if they were Gryffindor or Slytherin, first year or seventh year. We attacked all of them.

It was a Hogsmeade weekend, so most of the school tried to leave the castle to go to the village. Absolutely none of them made it past us. The Beauxbatons kids showed up pretty early into the whole thing, which was nice. They clearly did not enjoy the cold, and if I had to bet I'd say they were breaking the no magic rule just slightly to help them stay warm. But honestly, I was just glad they were participating.

The only thing that really worried me, as people finished breakfast and our snowball fight grew steadily, was the absence of the Durmstrang kids. I kept looking over my shoulder, and the distraction got me hit a few different times. I just couldn't focus, though. The looks on Viktor and Milena's faces made me confident they were just biding their time, and working up to a wave that would overwhelm us, no magic required.

The fight raged on, and every time I turned around I saw a new face in the crowd. It seemed like the entire school had made it out here to join in on the fun.

With so many people, nobody was really watching the front door anymore. Every once in a while someone would try to escape inside, and then whoever was chasing them would make sure they didn't, but for the most part our focus was elsewhere. That is, until I saw a particular blond Slytherin strutting out the door.

Draco didn't realize what was happening until he was already a few steps down the stairs, Crabbe and Goyle behind him as always. I knew he'd head back inside at the first chance he got, but that was not the point of this snowball fight.