'Survival of the Fittest!' - a Christmas Story

[Chickory]

Zoop!
Chickory zipped up her armor. She put on gauntlets. She put on one of her adorable helmets. Mail and boots went on as well. Nearby, Ella, Violet, Aurora, and Aisu were getting ready in an eerie silence. Finally, they were done preparing. Then, and only then, were they ready for the battle. The warriors filed downstairs to the common room.

In the boy's dormitory, the same preparations were going on. The only difference was that when they were done, they all charged downstairs in a loud parade. All except Liam. He didn't yell, but he charged. Once downstairs, the boys and girls had a stare down. (Well, the guys were distracted by the girls for other reasons than intimidation.) The girls won, of course, so they all cheered loudly until a prefect came down and yelled, "Shut up!"

They decided to go outside after that.

[Chickory]

Aaron was the only one from a different house that was in the war, and he met up with Ella just outside the large doors to Hogwarts. It had been a long time since the beginning of the year, with all the drama of everything. He didn't cut himself as much anymore, and was much more....sociable. (Even though he still doesn't talk that much.) "Are you sure about this...?" he asked, a tad nervously. He hardly knew any of the Ravenclaw boys.

"It'll be fun," Ella gave an encouraging smile. "the more your around them, the more they'll get to know you. Now come on, we're falling behind." They hurried out through the large doors to the grounds.

Nearby, Chickory and Liam walked together, chatting about a new series of books that had come out. Crunching out into the snow, Chickory scooped up a handful and packed it tight to form a semi-lopsided snowball. "I declare this snow to be perfect!" She cried triuphantly.

Unfortunately, she was standing under a large tree filled with snow, and the vibrations of her loud voice combined with the general ruckus around her cause the snow to plummet onto her head. Liam, who was used to her random bad luck by now, helped brush the thick snow off of her. Both Liam and Chickory were laughing--as was the people around her. Aisu gamboled over, for once she had decided not to bring her precious electronic stash with her. "I think it's time to get this party started!" she laughed.

Liam nodded and said to Chickory, "I'll try not to hit you too hard." She rolled her eyes and gave the short reply of, "You hold back and I'll crush you myself." She leaned over and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. He smiled, and walked over to organize all the guys.

[Chickory]

The daemons of all the people that knew theirs and had tangible ones played and rough housed nearby. Ever since the extreme success of the daemon spell, Expecto Memorianima, the daemons and their humans have been elated. Finally, after in some cases years, they could meet each other properly.

There was some issues with keeping them hidden from the general public for some of the bigger daemons, but the Violet (since it had been her parents discovery, after all) and a few others had gone to the Headmistress and got an okay for these things to occur.

Gerard lay dozing in the snow, happily sharing dreams with nobody else (this was so, because the connection between minds could be partially blocked off to allow for sleep without disturbance). Behind him, Izotz and Pythagoras were plotting the emminant awakening of the sleeping wolf. Zephania circled above, unnoticed, eavesdropping on the meeting.

"I think we should just jump on him." Izzy said, grinning slyly. Somehow, the daemon spell cancelled out his previous means of communication.

Pyth shook his head. "Perhaps we should call this off...?"

"No way. We're gonna do this one way or another."

Zeph took this oppertunity to swoop down in front of them. "Why, of all things, do you want to wake him up?" She eyed them like she had caught them doing something naughty. Which she had.

"Um...uh...we though it would be fun...?" Izzy supplied, hoping she'd buy it.

She was silent for a monent, then she said, "Count me in."

[Chickory]

Still smiling to himself, Liam turning to call the rowdy bunch of boys to attention. He scowled, then gave a loud whistle. The ruckus stopped to stare at the sixth year. "Time to, uh, make the shield-thing." he said eloquently. A few of the more meat-headed boys snickered. Mentally rolling his eyes, he gave more directions. "One big one. We all need to fit behind it, and last night we all agreed to 30 minutes to build the shield and ammo."

Nobody was really listening, though. Suddenly, a younger boy--a first year said calmly, "The girls are beating us already." He nodded in the direction of the girl's already large battlements. This made the boys suddenly perk up. All at once, they began gathering snow to mold into a wall.

The older boy turned to the younger boy. "Thank you...uh..." he trailed off, unable to remember the younger boy's name.

"Your welcome, Liam." the first year said, smiling. He walked off to go help. For some reason, he seemed familar....but Liam just couldn't place it!

[Chickory]

"So let me get this straight..." Zephania said, recounting the plan. "Pyth here is going to jump on him, which will hopefully cause Gerard to awaken and jump up. Then you, Izzy, will be waiting behind him to yell at him, which will hopefully cause him to run forward. Finally, I'll be overhead, and swoop down and land on him. Is that right?"

Izzy and Pyth nodded. Seemed about right.

Zeph sighed. "It's sketchy at best." Her eyes twinkled mischievously at them. "Let's do it."

All three looked over to the still-sleeping-in-the-snow Gerard. He had no idea.

[Chickory]

"Now what?" Ella asked, looking a bit bored. They had already built all the ammo and shields needed. Aisu looked over to Pyth, who smiled back almost guiltily. She turned back to Ella, who was watching Aaron across the field.

Aisu thought a minute. "We could go distract the guys." she finally said.

Ella's head whipped back around. "Sorry?" Aisu told her again. "Hm...okay."

"HEY CHICKORY!" Aisu yelled, even though they were practically three feet away.

Chickory turned around and gave her a, 'Your three feet away. You don't have to yell.' expression. "What?" she asked, sounding a bit annoyed.

"Let's go be distracting!" Aisu cried happily.

Chickory rolled her eyes and looked over at the boys. They weren't getting along to far. "Fine." she said, grinning.

And so they gamboled over to the boys.