Place Your Bets

Crystal Snow

A couple lessons later, it was now lunch time, so you told your friends you were going to hang out with Neville today, and you left to find him. You wandered around the school and eventually saw him out in the courtyard, leaning against a wall, waiting for you. "Neville!" You jumped infront of his face, making him get scared. "Oh god! You really scared me y/n" he laughed. "So what did you wanna do?" You asked him. "I don't know... we can just talk!" He suggested. "That's fine by me!" The two of you sat down on a bench, and talked between yourselves.

"Oh, I brought something!" Neville said, pulling something out of his pocket. You looked at him as he pulled out a small packet. "Is this what you said you'd bring?" You asked.
"Yep! Look, it's my favourite sweets!" He held forward an opened packet of small pellet-like candies. "What are they?" You asked.
"Don't tell me you've never had them.... try one! They're so sweet!" He said excitedly, ushering you to take one. You put one in your mouth and slowly chewed it. "Wait.. this tastes a little....." your eyes opened wide when you realised that this candy was not sweet, but it was in fact spicy. "What the hell Neville!" You playfully hit his arm. "I got you" he said, as he laughed uncontrollably.

After talking about random things, like classes, or funny moments, you looked at Neville and smiled. "You know, you're really fun to talk to. I regret not taking to you sooner" you spoke. He flashed his teeth in a bright smile. "You're fun to talk to aswell" he blushed at your compliment. "We should hang out more often" he said. "We should" you laughed. The two of you seemed to share a small but spontaneous bond, that came out of nowhere. He had a very fun personality, and it really showed around you. "Look" you whispered softly, holding out your bare hand, to catch a snowflake dancing in the air. Neville gasped quietly. "Woah...." he whispered.

Snow dusted through the air and began landing on your clothes. Winter break was soon, so the snow was bound to appear. "Do you wanna go inside? It might get too cold" Neville asked.
"No no, let's stay and watch the snow for a while" you suggested. Neville silently agreed and the two of you sat on the bench and watched as the snowflakes got bigger with time. Each snowflake was so beautiful and unique. You exhaled slowly, watching your hot breath turn white in the air. It was definitely cathartic to watch the snow fall with Neville. Although the two of you weren't talking to one another, it was still a comfortable silence. Sometimes not talking, and taking the moment in can be the better thing to do.

The snow piled softly on the ground, and you realised how cold it was actually getting. You rubbed your hands together and stood up swiftly. "Maybe we should go now" you said awkwardly. "Let's go" he smiled and held your hands to keep them warm, and walked inside.

You two walked through the corridors to try and find your friends. "There they are!" You said, pointing at Zach's head, which was so obviously standing out. The perks of having a tall friend. "Hi guys!!"
"Back from your date already?" Parvati joked, Zach silently nudged her arm. "Cmon guys, it's not like that..." you pouted.
"Are you sure..?" Padma laughed, pointing at your hands, which Neville was still holding. The two of you removed your hands from each other quickly. "Still, it isn't like that. Y/n is a good friend of mine, I wouldn't want it any other way" Neville smiled. Neville was a good guy, but he was just a friend.

"Did you see the snow??" You asked them hastily, as you suddenly remembered it was snowing outside. "It's snowing!?" Padma almost shouted. "Let's go!" Parvati grabbed Padmas hand and ran towards the courtyard. "Y/n I'm gonna go now, have fun!" He said, waving goodbye to you and Zach. You turned to Zach. "Shall we go?" You said, smiling brightly at him. How could he say no to that face? He smiled back and you grabbed his hand, and ran with him.

Panting, the two of you stopped as you left the building, and stepped in the thick snow. "Woah" he simply said. His eyes shined with the reflection of the snow, and his skin was glowing. The snow illuminated everything. "This is so beautiful" he said as he leaned down to touch the snow. "I know..." you trailed off as you watched the snowflakes fall from the sky again. You could watch it a million times but you would never be bored of it. Each snowflake was so beautiful in its own way. Your eyes widened as a snowflake landed on your hand, and you held it close, examining it. Zach watched you with a soft gaze, looking at how you were smiling like a child in a candy shop. He watched as you were immersed in the snow.

He smiled to himself and looked away, before you could catch him. While he wasn't looking, you grabbed a pile of snow and balled it up. "Hey Zach.." you spoke in a sweet voice, making him turn to look at you. "Catch!" You said, as you threw the snowball at him. "Oh wow" he chuckled. He leaned down and grabbed even more snow than you picked up, and formed a ball out of it. "No... Zach no ..... DON'T!!" You squealed and ran away from him, and he chased behind you. The two of you screamed and laughed as you ran for your life. Until, your body slammed into something, causing you to slip back, but someone caught you before you fell.

"Thank yo-" you cut yourself off when you looked up and saw who it was. Draco looked back at you with shocked eyes. "Oh... sorry" you didn't want to cause a scene, and you were too afraid that he might shout at you, so you tried to turn around to walk away, but he held you by the shoulders. "Are you okay?" He asked, trying to hide the worry in his voice. Zach caught up with you and stood a few feet behind you, watching as it happened. "Yeah... I'm fine" you said in a wary voice, you didn't want to show too many emotions to him. "I'm glad" he whispered, almost too quietly to even hear. He stared in your eyes and you stared into his. His icy blue eyes looked so good surrounded by white snow. And his pale skin was even paler today. The cold suited him, as it brought the redness to his cheeks, and made his lips go red.

You cleared your throat and came back to reality, making him take his hands off your shoulders. You were about to walk away when something hit you. A snowball. But from where? It wasn't Zach, as he was stood behind you. You looked up to see that it was Crabbe who threw it. He had a sinister smile on his face as he scrunched up another snowball, ready to throw. You turned back to Zach, who was still processing what had just happened. Draco looked shocked, he didn't want to cause any more unnecessary problems between you two and now his idiot minion had done just that. Slowly, you turned around and walked back to Zach, and took the giant snowball he held in his hands. Swiftly, you turned around and threw it back at Crabbe, but you hit both him and Goyle at the same time.

"Oh it is on..." Goyle cackled. The two of them reached down to grab more snow, so did you and Zach. This was now a snowball fight. Draco stepped back and watched as this crazy scene unfolded infront of him. Zach threw the first snowball, and soon the air was filled with snowballs being thrown across the area. Snowballs hit you left and right, and you laughed as you threw some too. Draco realised that this was just a fun game, it was light hearted, with no hard feelings. So he decided to join in. He grabbed as much snow as he could and threw it, hitting Zach in the stomach. "Oh, pretty boy wants to play too? Let's show him what we're made of" Zach said, smirking back at you.

The two of you pelted Draco with snowballs, as he threw some back. Crabbe and Goyle joined his side and threw the snowballs at you two. You were outnumbered but you put up a great fight. After being hit with countless snowballs, your hands began to freeze up. It was getting difficult to curl your fingers, since they were so cold. "Stop!" You shouted. The four boys halted. "What's wrong?" Zach asked, walking over to you. "My hands are freezing.... I can't make any snowballs" you chattered your teeth. It was very cold outside and all you were wearing was your uniform and cloak. "Okay let's go back inside now, break is almost over anyways" Zach said. "We definitely won that" Goyle said with a smug smile. "By default!" You shouted back, letting him know that you would have won, if your hands weren't so cold. Zach held one of your hands and put it in his pocket. Draco quickly walked over and grabbed your other hand and put it in his pocket too. He didn't look at you and kept walking silently with you and Zach.

You were dumbfounded by both of their actions, it shocked you so much, you barely even knew what was happening anymore. You awkwardly walked with the two boys on either side of you, with your hands in their pockets. 'Weird' was not a strong enough word for how you were feeling. As you walked towards your lesson, you forced your hands out of their pockets and stood still. "I think my hands are warm enough..." you spoke, trying to control your embarrassment. You quickly sped waked past them and straight into the lesson.