Braving the Past

Chapter 8: Snowball Fight

The next few days passed rapidly for Hermione as she buried herself in her pointless studies, but she couldn't help but notice how quickly the full moon was approaching. If only there was some way to tell for sure if she was a danger to others or not.

"See, but if they really were smart, they wouldn't try going against us again," Kim was saying as the group of friends strolled through Hogsmeade, their hands shoved in their pockets. "Especially with Phillip here constantly with us."

"I'm not sure, their egos were burned pretty good that day, they might want some retaliation and a chance to earn back their pride," Jonathan said.

"I'm pretty sure it's the Gryffindors that have the inflated egos, Ravenclaws just like being smarter than everyone else," Phillip put in.

"Isn't that pretty much the same thing?" Angela wondered.

"Maybe, but losing a simple snowball fight can't have hurt them that bad, right?"

Turns out they were wrong. As soon as Phillip had finished his sentence, snowballs came pelting towards the group of Gryffindors from behind a snow trench.

"I told you!" Jonathan shouted above the girls' screams.

Hermione felt oddly cheated as she hadn't even been present during their first encounter, but it definitely wasn't the first time she'd had a snowball fight, and there was no way she was losing this one.

Making sure to be careful with her arm, Hermione ducked behind a house as the others bravely fought out in the open, getting covered in snow. Hermione snuck around the house while Angela and her group had the Ravenclaws distracted and began building a pile of snowballs with her wand. Then, once they were in view and she was able to hide around the corner, she levitated one snowball after another and thrust them at the boys that crouched behind the snow wall they had mischievously built.

She almost cracked a grin, able to imagine this as her real friends as the Ravenclaw boys yelled, some of Hermione's snowballs being well aimed at their faces. She stayed hidden around the corner of the brick house and levitated snowball after snowball, officially sending them running when they failed to find the source of their new attacker.

"Hermione totally abandoned us!" Angela shouted as they brushed snow off their soaked robes.

"Oh, please, I'm the only reason you made it out alive," Hermione said, coming out from her hiding place.

Kim and Phillip ran up to give her high fives while Jonathan just laughed.

"I knew there was a reason I liked you!" he said between gasps.

Hermione momentarily forgot about her past troubles as she and her new friends trudged into the Three Broomsticks to warm themselves up with butterbeer.

"I've got to say, I didn't think you had it in you," Kim said with a smile. "I mean, you're super smart and skilled and all, but from what we've seen, you'd rather stick to yourself."

"Don't get me wrong, I love having alone time," Hermione said thoughtfully. "I guess there's a lot you guys have yet to learn about me, and I just had to warm up to you all. I mean, you each have six and a half years with each other to take from, so I'm a little against the odds here."

They all nodded their heads in agreement, sipping on their butterbeer as they thought. The rest of the day passed on pleasantly enough. Hermione had eaten a little something, and her mind had successfully been taken off of the war for a good few hours. She had forgotten how much being around people could help take the load off her shoulders, even if they didn't know exactly what was going on.