Snowball Royale

For Carmen

"Oh, look, even Severus is joining in now," Minerva remarked to her colleagues. She watched the students staying for the holidays and her fellow, recently de-aged professors begin a snowball fight that was split into teams by the houses the children and professors belonged to.

Clucking her tongue, Septima, from the a little ways away, disagreed, "I do believe he just threw that snowball at Aurora and they're both on the Slytherin house's side."

"In-fighting?" Rolanda offered in a curious, almost excited sort of way. "And all this time that prat's told us no house has more solidarity than his own!" She laughed at the end of this, but as he came up next to her, Albus countered with:

"If I saw things play out right, I'm quite certain she pushed him in the snow a moment ago."

Watching Remus get swung up on to a tall Gryffindor boy's shoulders and give a beautiful open-mouthed grin, Minerva sent a short look to her colleague. "Did she now? I just came out a moment ago…"

"She did indeed!" Albus told her with a merry twinkle in his eyes. Looking at him, Minerva was reminded of her school days when Albus had been her professor. His now auburn hair was only peppered with gray and he had not worn his bifocals since the fiasco that caused their newfound youth a week ago. If she only knew him as a stranger, Minerva might have thought he looked distinguished. Or, maybe, she would have found him attractive even.

"Do you think we should go over?" Septima inquired as she watched her now very small friend, Charity, get a snowball to the face.

Rolanda took a step toward the students and her de-aged colleagues. "To join in?"

"To stop it, you daft woman!" the other snapped in exasperation.

Rolling her eyes at the arithmancy professor, the woman said, "Come now, Septima, we played just as rough as young ones. A couple snowballs to the face aren't going to hurt them."

"Look!" Minerva shouted quite suddenly as she saw several Hufflepuffs with Pomona and Bathsheba leading them advance on the Gryffindors. "I dare say they're going to take out the Gryffindors!"

Jumping out from the doorway then with vigor only possessed by the young and athletic, Rolanda began to jog toward the students of her house. Feet toeing the edge of the stone step leading to the snowy grounds around them, Minerva had no qualms in yelling after her colleague, "Rolanda! Rolanda what are you doing?"

"Helping out our students!" the wiry woman called back.

Shrugging in defeat, Minerva prepared to run out to join her fellow professor. "Are you coming as well, Albus?"

"Of course, my dear," he answered as he took her hand so they could cross the battlefield together.

Looking back to the sour-faced Septima, the transfiguration professor asked, "Aren't you going to help Ravenclaw?"

She didn't say anything and she didn't appear that she would be joining in the fray, so, Minerva let it go in favor of keeping up with Albus's fast pace. However, that soon changed when she felt a snowball hit her from behind and slip past her collar to melt on her bare neck. Squealing, she turned to see Septima smirking with her hand still raised in the air.

Albus chortled beside her, smiling back at him, Minerva gave her elder a playful shove down into the snow as she bound off on her own with a stream of giggles escaping her youthful lips. As she joined Rolanda and her Gryffindors in fighting off the Hufflepuff's assault, Minerva began to plan her revenge on Septima in the back of her mind.

-v-v-v-v-v-

Twenty minutes later, exhausted and laying in the snow, Septima heard the crunch of boots and turned her head to see one of her youngest colleagues approach. It was a smirking Aurora; her sepia skin colored with an undertone of pink as she came closer and closer. Struggling to pull herself up, Septima was reminded, that even now, she was still quite old. Thirty-six might be absolutely childish to ninety-three, but she had none of the energy a girl of ten did.

Lips widening to show off a full-tooth grin, Aurora lifted her arm to show a snowball as the sound of more crunching boots came closer. Quickly, the arithmancy teacher realized she was surrounded. There on the left of Septima, was tiny, wan-faced Severus; a half foot from him, Charity, pudgy, freckled cheeks dimpled with her excitement. When Septima craned her neck, she saw young Remus's laughing eyes staring down on her. Hurrying even faster to get up then, she gave a terrible shriek when Sybill appeared with a pile of snowballs cradled in her long arms and Bathsheba and Pomona on either side of the girl with their own piles.

"N-!"

It was too late. A rain of snowballs hit her one after another until they were all gone and her little colleagues ran away laughing and shouting with joy at their accomplishment.

Dripping with snow, Septima could only stand their shocked as Rolanda, Minerva and Albus approached. Wearing a smile like nothing else, Minerva leaned in close and declared, "And that's why you don't mess with me!"

"You–" sputtered and it took more restraint than the arthimancy professor wanted to admit to, to not outright tackling her colleague to the ground.

Offering her a hand, Rolanda gave her one of the lop-sided smiles that used to make Septima's stomach flip when she was young. "Lets get you brushed off, eh?" she suggested.

Grabbing the hand, the woman let herself be pulled up and let the flying instructor help brush the snow from her back and hair - all the while telling herself the shivers were from the cold and not from her colleague being so close to her.

Once sufficiently clean of snow, their child friends reappeared, some of the youngest grabbing onto their legs and waists.

"Is it time to go in?" Charity questioned Septima, looking just shy of innocent with the way her little chin dipped now and then.

Feeling her heart give a tender pang even as she recalled the smile she'd worn just ten minutes before, the woman picked her up and realized that Minerva and Albus had done the same with Remus and Severus, who looked just as tired as little Charity. Glancing to Rolanda, she held back a smile at the sight of Sybill leaning against her side.

Moving closer as Severus yawned against his shoulder, Albus answered the girl with a gentle ruffle of her hair. "That it is, my dear," he replied. "Aurora, Pomona, Bathsheba, tell the students it's time they go in. Madam Pomfrey will be very cross with us all if they end up with frostbite," he told the older ones.

The girls flitted off to deliver the message as Severus muttered in his soft boy voice, "She's already cross with us."

"Oh she's not that cross yet…She's used to accidents–"

"Just not ones that incapacitate more than half the staff," Septima cut in as Charity pushed her cold, snotty nose into the crook of her neck.

The headmaster chortled. "That's right," he concurred. "But, lucky for us all, she'll have this little problem all fixed up with an antidote by Christmas morning."

As they all headed back for Hogwarts warmer corridors, Rolanda muttered, "All I wish I knew was how those little bloody prankster slipped that potion in our drinks to begin with…"

First, this is for the Secret Santa event on the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments) forum as well for the Diagon Alley Competition.

I really thought it'd be fun to write them having a snowball fight, but I liked the idea of them being young more than the ages they were. But they didn't all go to school at the same time, so...that's why they got de-aged. Any guesses as to who did it from the last line? ;)

To my friend Carmen, I hope you enjoyed this :) It was a real pleasure to write for you and I feel this would be a nice time to say it's also been nice being your beta so far too!

Thank you everyone for reading and pretty please review!

UPDATED: 5/23/15