Days of Yuletide Dreams

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise

Winter Wonderland

1st of December

In the meadow

We can build a snowman

Alice Longbottom laughed as her friend Sandra slipped on the snow and fell forward, just managing to stop herself from falling on her face. A very weak sun was shining in the sky as several second years ran around gleefully, hurling snowballs through the air.

Alice gasped when something cold and wet hit the back of her head and she whirled around, snow dripping in her copper locks, to see her other friend Amelia laughing loudly at her. Alice took the opportunity to bend down and scoop up a handful of snow which she packed together and, with years of furious-snowball fights behind her, threw the snowball as hard as she could into Amelia's face.

Amelia stumbled backwards as Sandra began to laugh before she clambered to her feet and lurched forward and grabbed Alice's arm before reaching for Amelia. She linked their arms together and turned them away from the other students and towards the view of the frozen lake and the snow-topped Forest.

'Look my dear friends and take it all in,' she cried and Alice and Amelia bit down on their tongues to stop themselves from laughing at her dramatics. 'The first day of the Yuletide season and what better way to spend it than with the dearest of friends!'

Alice and Amelia couldn't hold it in anymore and almost fell to the ground, their laughter was so strong. Sandra was grinning when Alice straightened and she glanced around the glistening grounds. They really were quite wondrous…

'We should make a snowman,' Amelia decided and as the other two girls couldn't think of anything else to do they agreed. Alice and Sandra set about rolling snow into three different sized balls while Amelia set about finding pebbles ad sticks.

After Sandra and Alice had managed to stack the balls on top of one another Amelia stuck two sticks into the sides of the middle section before they put the pebbles into the formation of a smile and two eyes.

All three girls stood back to admire their handiwork before they whirled around when somebody spoke from behind.

'Lovely sculpture work girls. Such a shame Hogwarts doesn't offer any art classes.'

Alice flashed a grin at her father as he stood before them, a small smile on his lips.

'Perhaps I should take the matter up with Professor McGonagall,' Neville suggested and Amelia laughed.

'I must agree, Professor. It's a terrible omission in Hogwarts' education system,' Sandra nodded solemnly and Neville chuckled.

'Or perhaps it's drama that is missing,' he mused and Amelia and Alice laughed while Sandra held herself upright and nodded imperiously, her impish grin ruining the image.

'So you will mention it to professor McGonagall?' she asked seriously and Neville nodded, his brown eyes dancing with laughter.

'I'll be sure to bring the matter to attention at the next staff meeting,' he promised. 'I must be going – why do students find it amusing to pour super-sticky glue on the stairs?'

'James?' Alice asked shrewdly.

'What gave it away?' he said dryly. 'You don't want to stay out too much longer,' he added before taking his leave.

'He's right,' Amelia said. 'I'm freezing, let's head in.'

The three girls navigated their way across the battlefield which was full of shrieks and snow before clambering up several flights of stairs (all thankfully devoid of glue) and into Gryffindor Common Room where they sank in front of the roaring fire.

'That really is a serious flaw,' Sandra said. 'I'm glad your father took note.' Alice shook her head while Amelia grinned, both of them glad that Hogwarts didn't offer Sandra the chance to be any more dramatic (and annoying) than she already was.

Later on, we'll conspire

As we dream, by the fire

Thanks so much for reading and I'd really appreciate hearing your thoughts. I'll be updating every day for the 25 days leading up to Christmas as well as Christmas Day. I'm looking forward to it and I hope that you'll enjoy the stories as well!