FicWad

The following morning everyone went downstairs and found breakfast waiting for them with a note.
Dear Kids,
Mr. Potter and I have gone to work, please try not to burn the house down. Boys, don’t go after Alex, she is your guest after all. I expect all of you to be in one piece when I return home. Be careful, don’t leave the property, limit how much magic you use, and clean up after yourselves. Have fun!
-Mum
James put the note down on the counter and sat down for breakfast and everyone else did the same thing, eating breakfast with little incident. When they finished, Alex washed the dishes and put them away as James explained that because of the barriers surrounding Potter Mansion, underage magic was okay within the grounds, but only within reason.
Alex nodded and finished putting away the dishes while the boys put on their coats, gloves, hats, scarves, and etc. to get ready for the massive snowball fight they would be having. Alex laughed as she walked over to them, throwing on Converse and opening the door, which the boys quickly shut.
“Where’s your coat?” James asked worriedly.
“Upstairs.” Alex replied, smirking.
“Boots?”
“Not ones made for snow.”
“Gloves?”
“Nope.”
“Hat?”
“Not any I could wear in this weather.” Alex laughed, “But I’ve got a warming charm on. My body will keep itself at the perfect temperature. I have no need for a coat.”
“Why didn’t we think of that?” James asked.
“What do you mean ‘we’? Why didn’t Remus think that up?” Sirius countered, turning to Remus, who looked uncomfortable.
“I don’t know how to perform that spell.” He responded, making the boys’ mouths dropped open.
“I’ll teach you later, now come on! It’s snowball time!” Alex shouted, racing out the door.
“Wait up!” James cried before getting hit in the face with a large snowball.
“Oh it’s on now Blondie!” James yelled, starting the snowball war.
~x~
Several hours later the group came inside, and the boys were considerably worse for the wear. James had a bloody lip from where a snowball had hit him, Sirius had icicles hanging from his hair, Peter was covered in snow, Remus had twigs stuck in his hair from a branch falling on him, and Alex was perfectly fine, laughing as the boys tried to warm themselves.
“Do you want hot chocolate?” Alex asked.
“Yes, but Remus makes the best hot chocolate.” Sirius stated, looking over at Remus.
“But you haven’t had my hot chocolate.” Alex laughed, pulling out five mugs from a cabinet over the sink.
“How do you know where everything is?” James inquired, having never told Alex where they were.
Alex shrugged, she just knew somehow. Alex pulled out a few Honeydukes’s chocolate bars and a few Hershey’s chocolate bars and started crushing them up, grinding them until they were as fine as cocoa powder. Alex then pulled out the hot chocolate mixes Mrs. Potter had and boiled some water.
She poured the hot water and half a packet into each cup before adding some of the ground chocolate bars. She then mixed and added in the rest of the hot chocolate mix and finished stirring it, all the while singing under her breath.
“God rest ye merry hippogriffs may nothing you dismay! Remember Buckbeak’s mother was born sometime this year!”
“Come and get it!” Alex called, grabbing her cup and moving out of the way.
The boys ran in and grabbed the hot cups, drinking them happily. Within seconds they were looking up in shock at how good Alex’s hot chocolate was.
“Don’t look so shocked! I told you it would be good.” Alex scolded, drinking her hot chocolate happily.
“But we didn’t expect it to be this good.” Remus replied, drinking the majority of his cup.
Alex shook her head at them and finished her cup. She then walked over to the sink and started washing the dishes, taking the boys cups as they finished. When she had put the cups away she turned to the boys smiling.
“Any chance there’s a lake or pond to go swimming in?”
James laughed and nodded, making Alex smile and Peter frown.
“I think you’re insane for swimming at this time of year.” He told her.
“I am insane Peter! I thought you knew that already!” She laughed in response as they all headed upstairs.
When they reached the floor they were staying on, Remus turned to Alex, realizing something.
“You were using a warming charm when you went swimming, weren’t you?”
Alex smiled and nodded, a mischievous glint forming in her eyes.
“Why didn’t you do that for us then?” James asked indignantly.
“Because when I first started swimming I didn’t know warming charms. I was starting you exactly as I started.”
They all changed into their swimsuits and headed outside, the boys shivering until Alex took pity on them and performed warming charms for each of them. The boys all sighed in relief as the warmth spread over them and when they reached the edge of the pond they had no trouble jumping in.
James, Sirius, and Remus all did cannon balls; Peter did a belly flop, and Alex just laughed before doing a cannon ball as well. When she resurfaced, the boys were debating what water game to play and Alex laughed as she started doing laps.
“We’re playing Marco Polo, wanna join?” James asked.
Alex nodded; she might as well play since she wouldn’t be able to swim laps once they started.
James was it first and Alex quickly sped to the other side of the pond, calling out Polo as softly as she could. James caught Sirius within the first five minutes, mostly because Sirius thought it was fun to get really close to James and then jump away from him.
Alex managed to avoid getting caught by Sirius because she hid at the edge of the pond, taking care to move very quietly. Sirius caught Peter and twenty minutes later Remus let himself get caught because he felt sorry for Peter. That was when Alex had to start watching herself.
Remus had figured out how Alex kept from getting caught and knew exactly where to look for her so Alex started going against her own system, staying close to Remus and ducking under the water whenever he called Marco. Unfortunately he was smart enough to figure that out and grabbed her when she went under.
Alex struggled when he grabbed her around the waist and pouted when he pulled her back up. Remus laughed at her face and let her go.
“Your turn to be it.”
Alex huffed and closed her eyes, counting to twenty before calling out ‘Marco’.
Alex listened carefully not to where their voices were coming from but to where the water was splashing and quickly found that one was lurking behind her. She whirled around and dove forward, grabbing the person around the waist and holding on as she opened her eyes.
“Back to you James!” she laughed but James shook his head.
“We have to head back now. Mum won’t be happy if she can’t find us.”
“Okay.”
They all got out and threw clothes back on over their swimsuits, laughing and joking around as they headed back towards the house.
“Hey, let’s have a Piggyback Race!” Sirius shouted randomly, and James nodded excitedly.
“Me and Sirius versus Remus and Alex. Peter you can judge.”
Alex looked over at Rem and smirked.
“What do you think?”
“I think we could take them.”
Alex nodded, “You’re on!”
James clambered onto Sirius’s back while Alex jumped onto Remus’s and Peter motioned for them to start. They took off running and Alex held on tightly to Remus to keep herself from falling as she watched James flail all over the place on Sirius’s back. When they reached the finish line, Peter decided that Alex and Remus had won, and James pouted.
“Oh cheer up James! I’m a lot lighter than you are and Rem’s got wolf powers. You did this to yourself.” Alex laughed, throwing an arm around his shoulder as they walked into the house.
“You’re right!” James gasped, as if he hadn’t realized that when they started.
Alex shook her head at him and went upstairs to change, followed by the boys.