The Requisite Disclaimer, as no fanfic is complete without it:

The following characters belong to the wonderful and talented J. , and the basic plotline and characterizations are those which hail from back in the glory days of the wonderful and magical Evinco RPG on Greatestjournal. Thanks to my fellow players for everything they did to help make this story come about in RP form, and giving me the inspiration to write the story!

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"You know how sometimes you just wake up in the morning and it smells like snow?" Megan Jones wondered out-loud as she plunked down on the foot of her good friend Hannah Abbott's bed in the Sixth Year Hufflepuff Girl's Dorm. Hannah was still nowhere near as peppy yet on that Saturday morning, never quite the terminal morning person her redheaded roommate was. Finally pulling herself up to a sitting position on her bed for a moment, blonde hair still mussed up from the night's sleep, Hannah stared blankly back at Megan for a few seconds, blinking a few times, before falling back onto her pillow and yanking her comforter back over her head.

Megan just laughed. It was a typical Saturday morning. However, this Saturday morning was covered in a fresh blanket of snow. And on this Saturday morning, Megan Jones was a girl with a mission. "Hannah, wake UP!" Megan whined at her jokingly. "It's the first good snow of the year! There are snow-people who need building!" she attempted to reason with her, to no avail. "If we don't beat the boys down there, they're going to use all of the good snow up, and then our snow people will be horrible and mucky and life will explode."

Hannah seemed unconvinced.

"Fine," Megan shrugged. "I guess I'll just have to show Ernie that picture of you from first year in the lime green dress and the crimped fringe, and,"

"I'm AWAKE, you horrid girl," Hannah replied, springing up from her bed at the thought of Megan actually going through with that blackmail, the mention of her crimped hair from first year subconsciously sending Hannah bee-lining for her hairbrush. "I'll meet you down there in a few minutes, we wouldn't want Justin and Zacharias getting out there before us."

"Well, you're too late for that." Megan and Hannah both looked to the entrance of their room where Sally Ann had just popped in, armed with her sketchbook and a cup of cocoa. "I saw Zacharias in the common room on my way back down from the Great Hall. He was on his way out, and he looked like a marshmallow with all the layers he had on," Sally giggled, propping herself up in the window seat, sketchbook in hand.

"Cripes, the cheater! Sneaking a head start, he'll pay for that," Megan giggled deviously, already hurriedly throwing on layer after layer of clothing. "I'll see you down there, Hannah!" she called, pulling her favourite multicoloured poofball-topped hat on over her hair, still trying to get dressed as she booked it out the door.

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Just as Sally Ann had reported, Zacharias had already dashed out of Hufflepuff and out to the main hall long before Megan had even left the common room, where he was waiting with a satisfied smirk on his face for the others to arrive. He'd won. It hadn't been a race, and he HAD kind of cheated, in fact, as he'd left twenty minutes early, but still, he'd won. Before long though, Zacharias's ever so common cynical thoughts began to fill his head, wondering if he'd been set up, if the others weren't going to show.

His thoughts were very soon interrupted by the sounds of Megan barreling down the hall, attempting (and failing) to put both her coat and her boots on at the same time. Just as she made it down into the main foyer, Megan, never the most graceful Hufflepuff her age, tripped over her own feet and a slick spot on the ground, and plopped over in a heap only inches from where Zacharias had been waiting. Stepping back a bit and crouching down to Megan's level, he wasn't quite sure whether to laugh or to fetch Madam Pomfrey. "Are you all right?" he asked, pushing Megan's hat back, which had fallen down over her eyes in the crash.

"You cheated," was all Megan smirked back at Zacharias, pushing herself to her feet and dusting herself off. "Yeah… that little stunt right there? Not to be tried at home. Not everyone can be the human pretzel that is Megan Jones."

"I'll… keep that filed," Zacharias retorted, leaning back against the wall, waiting for the other half of their snowday party to arrive. He'd never really been one for small talk, and in his experience with Megan, she was, well, quite the talker. For some reason, though, he felt the need to break the odd silence that had fallen between the two as Megan finished stringing up her boots. "I'm surprised you didn't take out a few first years, running down here like that."

"Oh, I almost did!" Megan giggled. "It was quite entertaining. Apparently some of the first years think that putting on your boots while hopping down the stairs grants you automatic steering… yeah, not so much, you know? We almost had some Hufflepufflian Firstie Pancakes on our hands!"

"Firstie Pancakes?" Zacharias snorted, the mental image of First Year Flapjacks causing him to laugh harder than he had in quite a while; a sight which, in turn, caused Megan to lose herself in an uncontrollable gigglefit. She'd made Zacharias Smith laugh. The apocalypse indeed must have been nigh. After living with him for five and a half years, Megan couldn't recall a point in time where she'd EVER seen Zacharias laugh like that, and it really hadn't even been that funny… The two must have been quite the sight for anyone who'd chosen that moment to walk past the main doorway.

"Did, uh, we miss something?" Hannah asked Megan and Zacharias, approaching with a caution so noticeable that anyone would've thought she was afraid of catching their guffaws. "Have you had a particularly strong Cheering Charm administered, or are you just in a good mood?" "I bet they were talking about me again…" Justin laughed, coming up behind Hannah as the two early arrivals continued to laugh. "Seriously, what'd we miss?"

"BREAKFAST!" Megan burst out, only sending herself into fits again. Zacharias was surprisingly not much better, barely able to sputter out "Firstie Pancakes!" Justin and Hannah looked at each other and back to their housemates as if they'd lost their minds. "Riiight. That sounds complicated, and really unappetizing," Justin drawled, throwing Hannah a look which clearly indicated that he through the two were mental.

Zacharias snorted and shook his head. "We raced here and almost flattened first years in the process," he explained. "I won, but Megan here says I cheated! Can you believe that?" he asked, making a face at Megan. "Oh hush, you cheated and you know it! Admitted it too!" Megan smirked back, sticking her tongue out.

Hannah glanced from her two giggly housemates towards the doors. "Anytime you two are ready, we have snowfolk to make, remember?" she prodded the two, looking out the window at the mounds of newly fallen snow. After a few moments Zacharias and Megan had composed themselves, and the four Hufflepuffs made their way out into the snow.

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Megan ran out the door as fast as a person possibly could when shuffling through a few feet of snow, loving the feeling of the cold breeze hitting her face. After getting a ways away from the front of the castle, Megan allowed herself to collapse in the snow, falling on her back, just taking in the moment. "Have I ever mentioned how much I adore snow?" Megan called back happily to her friends.

"Oh, once or twice," Hannah laughed, so much more awake now than she had been only ten minutes ago as she kneeled down in the snow, starting to roll together a snow-person.. "Try at least four hundred six," Justin called back, looking about to see if anyone was paying him any mind. Quite pleased to note that they weren't, he slowly bent down to roll together the perfect snowball, whipping the snowball in Megan's direction.

Unfortunately for both of the snowbound lads, Zacharias's back intercepted the snowball. "Oh, it's on!" Zacharias laughed wildly, hurling a snowball back at Justin, the cold thud hitting him square in the stomach. Playing Chaser on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team definitely had more than one good point as far as Zacharias was concerned. Justin, on the other hand, found himself quite snowy. "Bring it, Smith!" he yelled back, sending back an attack of snowballs nearly as quick as he was getting pummeled with them.

Megan peeked up from her imprint in the ground only to realize she was missing a barrage of snowballs flying from every which way. "Boys," she giggled, rolling her eyes. Sneakily building herself up a small fort to hide behind, Megan began to prepare herself with a supply of pre-made snowballs, just in case she should herself be attacked. Hannah appeared to have the same idea, abandoning her snow-person and diving back behind Megan's snow fortress, quickly helping her roll together emergency snowballs.

And so the girls sat behind her fort, waiting for something to happen. Unfortunately, all hiding and no snowball-throwing makes Megan a dull girl, and she decided to join in the fun, even though she knew perfectly well she had horrendous aim. Packing up a ball of snow, Megan ignored Hannah's cry of "Meg, NO!" and threw it with all of her might, not having the slightest idea as to where it was going to land. She quickly ducked back behind her fort, hoping that if it did end up hitting someone, she'd have at least a few minutes to prepare before she was attacked.

Zacharias had been expecting a hit from Justin, but then he was suddenly thwacked the ear by a ball of snow that couldn't possibly have been thrown by Mr. Finch-Fletchley. That was unfair! Turning to see Megan ducking behind her snow-wall, Zacharias balled up some snow and ran over to the area where the girls were hiding. "Aha!" he exclaimed, standing above Megan. With that, he pelted her in the leg with his snowball and ran off laughing like a maniac.

"Eep!" Megan squealed upon having their fort ambushed. "We're under attack!" she snickered evilly as she packed a few more snowballs, letting them fly out every which way. "Revenge will be mine!" She squealed, the thoughts of building snow-people now seeming far away. "Don't get mad, get even!" Hannah shouted in response, bending down to gather snow. She began to form it into a series of balls, throwing the first few at Justin to test the impact.

"Right on!" Megan cheered for Hannah, happy to see another girl finally get involved in the snowball war. Noticing another snowy object flying her way, Megan dropped back down behind her makeshift trench, giggling the entire time as Hannah whipped out one last snowball. Zacharias took a snowball directly in the nose that put him out of commission for a few seconds.

"Okay, that was ridiculously cold!" he yelled, wiping the snow from his face and gathering up another ball of snow to toss in the direction of Hannah and Megan. "It's supposed to be!" Hannah shouted gleefully, aiming another snowball at him before he had managed to clear all the snow from his face. She dived behind Megan in the hope of dodging any counter attacks, and started to put another couple of snowballs together. "Hey! I'm not a shield!" Megan snorted with laughter, moving to dive back behind her when she was hit smack dab in the face by an attack that was clearly meant for Hannah. "Ooo, you're going down, mate," Megan giggled to Zacharias, dropping down in the fort to further ready the girls supply, and to avoid the new wild attack of flying snow.

Justin, who'd been tossing snowball after snowball towards the girls' position had finally started to become increasingly frustrated by the fort his attacks kept colliding with. Moving towards Zacharias, an unspoken truce called when the fight clearly transformed into boys against girls, he asked him deviously, "Should we launch a sneak attack? Maybe... I don't know, cast a spell so that they think we're still here lobbing snowballs at them when they're going on their own, while we sneak around and dump a load of snow on them?" Zacharias grinned and nodded, grabbing up an armload of snow as Justin quietly performed the spell. "They'll never know what hit them."

The only change Hannah and Megan noticed was just how much it seemed like the boys were starting to fight back now. Hannah leaned out from behind Megan just long enough to aim several more snowballs in towards the boys' direction, then moved behind her protector again to shield her from retaliation. Little did the two realize as they giggled that they'd been aiming their snowballs at thin air, as Justin and Zacharias had swooped around, coming back up behind them. This was perfect.

Within moments the boys were practically hovering towards the girls, who were still cluelessly tossing snowballs at nothing. Glancing over to Justin for the signal, Zacharias cleared his throat. Megan and Hannah, both still looking in the opposite direction, were hit with the same sick sense of dread as they turned around wide-eyed. "Hello," Zacharias drawled wickedly, he and Justin both blanketing the girls with their armloads of snow, reducing the two to screams.

Hannah was the first to surrender. "COLD! AHH! I give, I give! No more!" she called out as she unburied herself from beneath her coat of snow. "I for one would like to go inside for cocoa?" she stated as more of a question to her fellow Hufflepuffs. Justin nodded straight away, but Zacharias was waiting for another response. "Well, I suppose it depends on if everyone here declares Justin and I the winners. What says Miss Jones on this snowy day?"

Megan looked at each of the three before answering. Her glance stopped on Zacharias. "I still say you cheated," she snickered, turning back towards the castle. "I want a rematch."

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Author's Note- Hug a Hufflepuff, it makes the world happier. And someday, in some magical time in space, there shall be more Hufflefic. Because there just needs to be more.