Thomas was engrossed in his drawing and he didn't see or hear anyone approaching until they spoke. He looked up from his small book and smiled slightly when he received the compliment. “Fanks.” He replied in his thick London accent. He looked back at his drawing, tilting his head as he studied it. “Ain' me best. He shrugged. "Me 'ands are too cold to draw anyfin' decen'.”

He closed the book and stuffed it into his back pocket and straightened up, shaking his hands to get the blood circulating again, and then stuffing them clumsily into his pockets. “You wanna 'and to build somefin'?” Although time was getting on, they could build one for fun.

As Professor Cerulean announced that they needed to actually levitate their snow creations onto the stage, Stella found herself looking around in confusion. How had she missed a stage in the midst of everything? People building snowmen couldn't have blocked a stage that much, but apparently she'd somehow missed that. Not to men tion now she needed to move her precious snow patronus, when she already was a bit paranoid that things weren't as sturdy as she'd thought. Therefore, before she did any levitating, she quickly cast another light freezing charm over her entire unicorn, icicle horn, sparkly eyes and all. At least she didn't actually need to retrieve the earrings later, since they were just replicas of her real earrings that were back in her ears.

But then, time to move, and she was going to need focus to levitate a five foot long unicorn. With a swish and a flick of her wand, though, the sculpture lifted enough that she could float it over to the stage, where other snow things were beginning to congregate. Gently letting her unicorn come to a rest again, she stepped forward to double-check that everything still seemed sound, then lightly flicked her wand along the flank to inscribe her name, house and year. In case it would be needed for later identification.

SPOILER!!: Stella's snow unicorn/Patronus

It looks like this, basically, except out of snow. And with a carved icicle for the horn, and "copied" (Geminio) diamond earrings inset in the eyes. I don't have a fancy snow picture or anything :/

Stella Gardiner, fifth year, Ravenclaw

Rose nodded at Ryan and levitated their snowman into the air. Gosh, it was't as hard to levitate as people! She carefully walked it to the stage, being careful not to break it and set it down carefully.

Jez adjusted the black stone eyes of her snow-hippogriff foal. It wasn't very good, but at least it did resemble a hippogriff. At least it did resemble Hardhoof. She carefully levitated the hippogriff onto the stage. It lay there, looking slightly pathetic against the larger snowmen, like a small child at a political event. A baby amongst adults. Jez looked at it proudly, a lump in her throat, wishing she could use some kind of magic to make the foal come to life, to make it turn into Hardhoof.

OOC: Jez's hippogriff foal looks something like this: http://www.elfwood.com/art/b/l/bluec...griff_foal.jpg

Grinning at Thea he said enthused "Building a snowman is a tradition in my family and its fun!" Forming a ball with snow he started to pack more snow on it as he sculpted it. He worked methodically and hard for several minutes before explaining what Thea needed to do. "You scoop up snow, pack it on my ball here or start on a new one. We need at least three good sized snowballs to make our snowman and then we worry about the nose, eyes, mouth and clothes for him/her. All right?" Eddie felt small sweat beads form on his fore-head but he didn't care since he was a man on a snowman building mission!

Hearing Alyssa announce his and Althea's arrival to the rest of the student's he stopped to waved her over. "Hi Alyssa, do you want to help us build a snowman or do you already have a snowman building partner?" If she already had a partner then Eddie wasn't going to steal her away from them but if not then she was more than welcome to join them.

As the snowball grew bigger and bigger Eddie took time to look and appreciate the student's efforts. Some were really talented and were actually forming creatures with the snow rather than the traditional snowman. Hopefully the guest judge whomever he was would appreciate the student's creativity and hard work. Seeing Tom Broodmoor whom he had met at the beginning of the year in his office off to the side he called out "Hey Tom! Want to help me and Professor Schrimer build a snowman?" Noticing that he was talking to a Ravenclaw girl (witchlight27) he added "Your friend is also welcome to join of course if she want's to?"

"Brilliant thinking Harvey," smiled Seren as she continued to roll her snowball with was slowly increasing in size. Occassionaly she paused to pat the snow down hard. Hopefully it wouldn't fall apart.

Once it was big enough to be considered the bottom part of the snowman, but small enough so that it wasn't going to be too big, Seren stepped back to admire her handy work. Hhhmm it was rather lumpy looking wasn't it. But lumpy snowmen were charming, right?

"What do you two think?" she asked smiling at Harvey and Harlow. Yes she was a terrible snowman maker, but where she lacked in snowman building skills she more than made up for in herbological skills.

Scott levitated the snowman onto the stage, being incredibly careful not to drop or damage it. Now sat the majestic eagle on the stage, in full flight. He changed a few things to make it look just right: The feathers, and the wings now looked perfect.
A huge smile spread across his face and he pulled out a bit of parchment, and enclosed it in a necklace around the eagles neck.
It read:
'Made by Scott Rowe'

Tom looked around at what the other kids were doing and he pursed his lips, his expression became somewhat cynical. How come their snowmen were all so super duper and professional looking? Tom was pretty sure his would consist of two balls of snow with coal for eyes and a carrot nose. And the blaady fing wasn't getting his scarf! His snowman would be a messier version of the traditional kind of snowman you got on Christmas cards.

The thought made him frown. He couldn't do much magic, he could barely read and write, and now he couldn't even build a decent snowman. Thomas's self-esteem was getting lower and lower with each passing day.

Hearing his name, he turned towards where the voice had come from to see Professor Roslund who was with the Charms professor. He looked back at the firstie and shrugged, “Workin' wiff a couple of profesahs 'as to give us an advantage.” He gave her a small smirkish smile and wandered over to the two adults, expecting her to come too.

“'Ello, Professah.” He greeted the friendly Astronomy professor. “Professah Schrimer.” he also greeted the Charm's professor. He rubbed his gloved hands together to try and warm them, although it was a pointless exercise seeing as he was going to be sticking them into the snow any minute.

“Wot can I do?” he asked the two.

Brrrrr. It really was cold and Ness couldn't help but shiver as she walked around the school grounds. She had her warm Huffie scarf on, her cozzy pair of gloves on and her school robes over three jerseys just so she wouldn't freeze to death. As she walked in the cold she noticed a whole bunch of students buliding snowmen..or at least thats what it looked like. She neared the snowmen group and looked at all the different sorts of snowmen, but she didn't think they looked like snowmen at all she thought they looked more like snow sculptures especially the unicorn one . Either way playing with snow was fun right?

Ness looked around trying to spot someone to join, she spotted a few people she knew like Alyssa and her arch enemy Rose but they both seemed to be almost done. She continued looking and stopped when she recognised a familiar face. It was the boy with the heavy accent from Lafay's class and from the ferrist wheel. He seemed to be in a good group of snow builders he had two Professors and a firstbie.

She walked over to them all with a grin on her face. "Hello..um.." and she went blank she couldn't remember the boy's name. "Tim right?" Nope it couldn't be it she was sure she was close. "Err I mean Tommy..um Tom" she said trying to correct herself as she felt her cheeks going red. She was definitely a proffesional at embarassing herself. Trying to ignore her embarassing moment she continued with her greetings. "Hello Professors and hello to..you too." She said looking at the firstbie as she didn't know the firstbie's name. "May I join you all?"

Jesifur carefully levitated her snowhuffie to the stage.

She looked proudly up at it. At the bottom she made a little sign.

Snowhuffie
by, Jesifur Hitchens

Sierra helped Eino pack the last of the snow onto the smaller ball that would make up the head. Then when he placed the head on the snowman's body and suggested a teal color for the scarf, she took withdrew her wand and aimed it toward the scarf. "Teal it is," she said. It was a nice blend of Slytherin and Ravenclaw, she thought. At least she wasn't forced to blend her beloved Slytherin house colors with red and yellow. Ravenclaws were at least the ones she got along with. "Colorus revolvo teal!" With a point in the right direction, the scarf changed to a teal color.

"A hat's easy," she said and reached deep into the pocket of her jacket. "I stuffed mine into my pocket the other day and accidentally left it there." She passed him a small smile as she pulled her pointed hat out her pocket and tossed it on top the snowman's head. "...but a cape? Hmm..." She wasn't sure how to pull off that one.

"Maybe we could..."



Just then, she was cut off by the voice of Professor Cerulean announcing that the competition had come to an end. An end?! ...but she and Eino had just gotten started! She passed Eino an apologetic look and then, at the last second, picked up a stick that looked to be about the size of a wand and wedged it in between the sticks on the snowman's body. There. Now he looked like he was casting a spell.

"Off we go," she said to the snowman and then once again pointed her wand toward it. "Wingardium Leviosa!" The snowman rose and Sierra guided it to the stage. "Eino?" she asked, turning to look at him. He'd been as much a part of this as she had, so he ought to come along. She placed their snowman alongside the others then breathed in a sigh of relief. They were done.

Tom had begun compacting the snow together to make a ball which would do for part of the snowman's body or head. He rolled it around in the snow to make it bigger, aware that his fingers were now numb like ice, but he ignored it.

He looked up when he heard a voice to see a younger Hufflepuff girl he recognised from the ferris wheel on Diagon Alley. Tim? Thomas frowned about to bluntly ask who the 'ell Tim woz, when the girl corrected herself. Tommy? NO! ..Tom, yeah. That's right. “Yeah.. Um.. Nessie innit?”

The frown left his face. She wanted to help? He gave her a small smile and nodded. “If yer wan'. More the merriah.”

It was over? Oh no! Lilly put the final touches on (a face and buttons). She had finally decided on a simple snowman with a grin and Gryffindor scarf, and top hat, with red ribbon round it. Lilly levitated the snowman to the stage, carefully.

Indiana was pretty pleased with her snowteddy. It was looking really cute. Well. it kind of looked like a teddy anyway...nearly. She just needed to fashion the teddy some good ears. And then it would look more like a teddy than a snowman. That would be a good idea. She crouched on the floor, and made two small ears out of snow, but she made sure that they were firm enough so they wouldn't fall apart when she put them onto the snowteddy's ear. She stood up, and placed the ears onto the head of the snowman, making sure that they were nicely placed then. Ahh. Perfect. She stood back, smiling at her creation.

It looked really good, and more like a teddy now. She would just need to put some eyes, onto it. She could've leave her teddy bear without any eyes. Pulling her wand out, she conjured two buttons, although they did seem to be pretty big buttons. Ahh well. Her teddy was totally going to have big eyes. She poked them onto the snowteddy, carefully not to like push the head off. Ahh. She was finished now. It was perfect. Being careful, she levitated her snowman over to the stage area. Ooh. Everyone's snowmen looked so good.

She was glad that she had done a nice teddybear though. It was different. It had black buttons for eyes, and a nice big smile. It was also sat on it's bum, like a teddybear should be. She was so proud of this. So so proud.
Build by: Indiana Hutchinson.

After some finishing touches, the snowman was almost ready to be set on the stage. All heads turned when Professor Cerulean spoke, and when she was done, Eino quickly pulled out his wand. "One last thing..." He said, then turned to the snowman and pointed his wand at it. "Immobulus." Blue light shot from his wand, toward the snowman. That would prevent it from slowly melting off or falling off. "Excito Animans." This spell took some concentration, it was a difficult charm, but the end resulted pleased Eino. The snowman had been animated, and now smiled, danced, and waved his wand around, as though it were performing a spell.

Then, Eino helped Sierra levitate it and carry it to the stage. When it was done he looked at her and smiled. "A splendidly handsome snowman, I should say." He was proud of their work, but hopefully the event wasn't entirely over, he still wanted to spend more time with Sierra. Maybe they could go grab come hot cocoa after this. It would be well deserved after spending their day out in the cold, building a snowman.


Builders: Sierra Greingoth (Anna Banana) and Eino Uronen (Starbreeze)
Description: Click here for the snowman Sierra and Eino have built a "Hogwarts Snowman" to represent how the students here at the castle typically look. There's the black pointed hat, the wand (which is technically a stick that appears to look similar to a wand), and a teal scarf. Teal was chosen, because that's a mix between Sierra and Eino's houses (Slytherin and Ravenclaw). The snowman has also been bewitched with the Freezing Charm, so it doesn't fall apart, and with the Animating Charm, which makes the snowman dance and wave his wand around. See the linked picture for a full description.

Anna made two big snow globe, who were in the half of her growth. She decided that it is quite enough and began to create a snowman. She thought for a long time before to decide what she wants it to be.

She took out her wand... Swish and flick and..."Wingardium leviosa." One of the balls up in the air and gradually moved ahead. "The main thing is not to get distracted!" she repeated to herself. And after a moment one of the balls was on the other.

"Well, you're not broke... That's good." She again focused, and began waving her wand "Flipnsnipwitit!". So she worked twenty minutes until it started to show the first results. She walked around the figure of the parties. It seems to do the phoenix is not so easy as she thought. Anna again stood in front of a snow block and concentrating said "Flipnsnipwitit!" Forty minutes later the work was finished. Anna thought that it was not entirely successful. And walked her to the side. "Well... All is not so bad!"



Had to do the most difficult... to levitate her phoenix on the scene. She took a deep breath. It was high, just its growth. And sarah has always had problems with levitation. Well that many of the participants ranged so that do not interfere with her to make her case. With a smushed the thud, her snowman made its way to the stage and sat there waiting to be judged. She pulled out a piece of parchment and wrote her name, house, and year on it before setting it next to her snow phoenix.

"Thank you professor" Harvey said, he then looked at his professor's bottom half "Looks good Professor" he said "Looks strong enough to be able to take the weight of two more snowballs" he said surveying the ball from left angle and then right angle. He then very carefully put his middle ball ontop of her bottom ball and stepped back to view it. "Well at least it hasnt broken apart or toppled over. I think your bottom is quite strong Professor. Good work, so you can build snowmen that DO NOT break." He said smiling at Professor Bentley. "Time for the head, would you like to make it professor?" He asked his professor.

Ughhhh Paulie had not yet returned with the rocks for Lola's Miss Jones' smile, so what was Tori going to do? She had already finished her snowman and decorated him with Paulie's scarf and a Gryffindor-ized version of her Slytherin robes... so now she supposed there was nothing to do but add the last few touches to them both.

Alone.



Sigh. The competition was ending too! GEEZ Paulie, why'd you have to disappear on me now? Tori thought as she reached for the can of Cheez-Whiz to start decorating the snowcouple. Just as she tossed aside the now-empty can, Tori eyed the snowmen thoughtfully. They were missing one thing... hands!

Quickly, she grabbed a few spare twigs off the ground and stuck them in for arms. Their "fingers" even managed to interlock. It was ADORABLE! And now they were perfect.

As soon as she finished, she nodded toward the professor and then levitated BOTH of the snowmen, ON HER OWN, toward the stage.

Hopefully they'd hold up pretty well on there.

Selina was just about to head up to the castle to eat when she heard a voice start to call out to all of the students making a snowmen. She knew that this was a competition but she was seriously hungry and now that the time was here after hours of spending time making her snowman she seriously did not want to have to wait any longer to wait for results. And in all honesty she was sort of done with the whole experience anyway. She had fun doing it, but her fingers were frost bitten and red because she had not thought to wear gloves. Not one of her smartest moves, but again she was excited to get started earlier this morning.

So she took out her wand with her red and enflamed fingers and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" Slowly she guided her snowman of Godric Gryffindor and his complimentary lion friend up onto the stage. She could wait for food, but if it took too long she was not going to wait any longer.

Once it was placed on the stage she got a good look at the bearded Godric Gryffindor and the lion that stood proudly beside him. Although she was tired and cold she was glad that Gryffindor had a little Godric standing tall in snow form.

BUT seriously the judge better hurry up and come because it was potato night in the Great Hall and Selina wanted it terribly.

"That would be great!" said Erin to the guy she approached about the Professors joining them. She smiled at them and bowed. And then a girl came in named Nessie as she heard and she also heard the guy's name was Tom. "Hello Nessie. Hello Tom. Hello Professor Schirmer and Professor Roslund. And by the way I'm Erin, first year," said Erin addressing the professors as well.

Erin helped Tom and the others build the snowman that would probably beat the others. She noticed others are on their final part of the design whereas they were only starting. She grabbed two stones from the ground and put it at the head part of the snowman for its eyes.

Harvey approved of her snowman bottom?! That was fantastic news! Seren grinned broadly, this was shaping up to be a rather fun exercise. Perhaps she'd spend more time out of her office from now on.. practice her snowman building skills.

"Oohh I think you should build the head... I wouldn't want to ruin it," she said in a serious tone. She'd already achieved so much today... why ruin it?
"How about this, you build the head and I'll find some things to make the face?"
It would need eyes, a nose and a mouth at least!

"Ok Professor will do." said Harvey as his professor went off to find things to complete the face. While he rolled out a small to medium head. He made a small snowball and rolled it along the ground and when he got to the desired size he compacted it to make it strong and durable. he at the same time shaped the head into a ball, and then looked to see if it was still the desired size. It was, so he added it to the top and secured it with more compacted snow around the neck and shoulder area to make sure that the head did not fall off. Now to wait for his professor to come along and complete the face. He was enjoying working alongside his favourite professor beats working on a snowman on your own.

Right... now to make the snow into an actual man. So for that she would need manly things, no?
Seren made a mental note: must learn the art of snowman building.
Honestly though, what was it supposed to look like. She knew that most snowmen had corrots for a nose and coal as eyes... pretty generic. No this one had to be special.

Scanning her immediate surroundings she figured she go for a short wander, kicking up the snow a little as she went.
It hadn't taken too long, but she did finally find some useful decorations. Perhaps Harvey should approve of them first... just so she didn't mess it up.

"Nice one!" she said brightly eyeing the snowmans progress. It was coming along rather nicely.
Rejoining the group, dragging two sticks behind her, she gave Harvey and Harlow a smile before emptying her pockets. She'd found two acorns, they could be the eyes, she had some smooth grey-blue pebbles, enough to make a mouth, and a carrot. Yes a carrot. Not very unique, but it was all she could do. The two sticks could be arms. A snowman needed arms right?
"What do you think?... will these do?" she asked uncertainly.
She began by pressing the eyes in, she rather liked the acorns... it was a good selection, and the buttons were easy enough.

"Now Harvey... would you mind attatching the arms?... I don't think I can do it." Nope. Pushing sticks into the torso would probably cause it to break apart... wouldn't it? She didn't want to be responsible for ruining it. Harvey had worked so hard.

"And doesn't it need clothes?... it looks a little cold."
Of course it was cold... it was made of snow, but it still needed to look pretty. Removing her scarf, Seren performed the geminio spell on it. Now there were two scarves! She replaced her original one around her neck before placing the copy around the snowmans neck. There that was a little better.

"Looks good professor, makes him seem lifelike." He said looking at the features that his professor had added. "Sure I will do it" he said taking the sticks.

He put one on the ground and started twisting the other stick in, a little bit in and the snowman started cracking a little. He twisted in the sticks a little more to their desired length, then he patched up the snowman by putting snow into the crack and over the crack and the smoothing it over.

He did the same thing on the other side, twisted in the stick which resulted in some cracking of the snow. He again patched it up inside and outside and then smoothing it over. He stood back to admire what they had done.

He saw his professor duplicate her scarf, Wow, he didnt know they could do that, he must keep that spell in mind, you never know when it come in handy. She wrapped her scarf around his neck, but he still looked a bit cold.

So he got the Ravenclaw wooly hat he was wearing and gave it to the professor "Here professor duplicate this and add it to his head, he will become a Ravenclaw snowman part of our house." He said smiling.

It was a good thing Harvey was an experienced snowman engineer.. she wouldn't have known what to do about those cracks. But he was looking rather good now. Perfect.

"What a great idea... a Ravenclaw Snowman.... should be give him a name?"
Taking the hat she performed the geminio spell again and handed the original back to Harvey.... it wouldn't be very good if he took to copy and it just vanished off his head at some point.
"There we go!"
After placing the hat on the snowmans head, Seren stood back, her hands on her hips. It looked perfect! How could they NOT win?

After producing a tag, she filled out the appropriate details and tied it around the snowmans neck.

"Would you like to do the honours?" asked Seren, pointing to the stage.