November was buried beneath the snow as December made itself known. All of the fifth-years were kept indoors due to the amount of Homework they were given, and the prefects had much more duties, such as helping Filch in the corridors and keeping an eye on the younger students on their lunch breaks. Emma, as well as a few others, would stare miserably outside the windows at the piles of snow that were begging to be thrown all over the place. But instead they were kept inside with a paper in front of them and a quill, or in Emma's case a pen, in hand. 

Classes went on as usual, even as Christmas neared closer than ever. Sabrina's attempts at getting a party on the second last day before the Holiday were terrible, and not many people agreed with her. But she wasn't giving up. No matter how many times Emma or Daphne or even Pansy for that matter told her how much of an awful idea it was, Sabrina would immediately turn the situation around and make it sound easier than what it really was.

"You don't really think all these people would rather waste their energy here than at home with their families," Emma shook her head, sighing as she rested her hand lightly on her hip for affect.

Daphne bit her lip and nodded.

"No - look. I've already got twelve people and it's only been three days since I started getting word around," Sabrina argued, unfolding a piece of parchment with twelve names, including her own, scrawled down in a list. "That's not that bad. The holidays start in eight days."

"Good, I can't bloody wait," Daphne groaned, tightening her scarf, as usual. "All this homework and extra class work is making me want to vomit all over the place."

Folding the parchment and tucking it away, Sabrina said, while keeping her eye directly on Emma, "Just make sure the both of you study while on break so that you don't forget anything."

"So, who's on that list?" Emma asked, strongly interested in switching the topic.

It had been harder on Emma than what it was before. Snape was becoming more arrogant toward her - well, as arrogant as a teacher could be. But she wasn't the only one. Snape was being horrible to Harry as well, purposely failing him or ruining his potion if he succeeded. Her Care of Magical Creatures classes were becoming dispirited with Umbridge there for every single lesson. Professor McGonagall was putting the most pressure on her fifth-year students, constantly giving them tons of homework as well as making them stay behind in class an extra five to ten minutes. Not to mention the most boring class of all, History of Magic which was no better in lessening the homework. Defence against the Dark Arts was a nightmare. So far, Charms was the only class Emma found interest in.

And aside from Emma's classes and homework, she had still not fully made up with Draco. He had finally given up on her and awaited her forgiveness, but Emma wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of running after him. But at least the Slytherin girls weren't glaring at her as much, or talking nastily behind her back. She had even spoken with Harry and his friends a couple times since being 'broken up' with Draco. Everything seemed so much easier when she wasn't friends with him.

"You don't know most of them, heck I don't even know some of them. There are two third-years, five fourth-years, me, Draco possibly...there aren't many fifth-years, they're all exhausted from all this school work and O.W.L preperation...there's Montague. Astoria, Pansy agreed just to make me quit talking about it. And there's the Head Boy. The Head Girl is still pondering it all but I have a feeling she'll come around eventually. Mostly because I'm taking food and drink requests as well as music requests. That's mostly what made people agree to it. Any requests?" Sabrina said brightly, eyes bouncing back and forth between Emma and Daphne.

"Erm...no, not so far," Daphne said awkwardly. Emma noticed her eyes narrow at the sound of her sisters name.

Emma bit her lip, balancing on the heels and the balls of her feet, rocking back and forth. "Oh - what about pizza!"

"Emma!" Daphne slapped Emma's arm in disapproval, narrowing her eyes even more. "You're not supposed to support her! It's a terrible idea, this whole party thing. I can't bear for Slytherin to lose another year."

"Oh, come on, we won't lose the House Cup. Everyone loves Slytherin! Umbridge, Snape, even Filch is coming around!" Sabrina argued back, her parchment flying around as she did so.

"That's three people, Sabrina," Emma said awkwardly, scratching her forehead in the process to further her point. "Maybe you should just wait till the end of the year, you know, after the announcement of the House Cup. So that way if we're caught it won't really matter as much."

"Ugh, I have a better idea, you two. What about no party at all? Doesn't that sound fun? Less effort and extra food," Daphne said in a sarcastically cheery tone. "Not to mention less socialising with people you hate."

Sabrina scowled. "Look, if you two don't want to help, that's fine! I'll do it on my own!"

Emma tried to protest but Sabrina had already started sprinting down the corridor, her bag tucked tightly under her arm. Well, this was fantastic. If Sabrina really was mad, then there goes another friend.

No more than a second later, a redheaded girl came rushing down the corridor with three boys behind her, which looked oddly like they were back up if anything went wrong. Ginny Weasley stopped right in front of Emma, while Daphne, who was standing behind Emma, came round with an unlikeable sneer on her face.

"What are you doing here, blood-traitor?" she spat, eyeing Ginny up like she was filth.

"Need I remind you of what I did to your dearest Goyle?" Ginny spat back at Daphne, making two of the boys behind her laugh their approval.

"You're just lucky no one likes Goyle or Crabbe. 'Cause if they did you'd probably be in St. Mungos right about now. Oh - and not to mention your three pimps."

"Is that a threat?" Ginny raised her voice, her wand hand trembling with anger.

"Ease up, Daphne," Emma said calmly, giving her a look of disapproval. Emma turned back to Ginny. "What's wrong?"

"Fred and George would like for you to spend Christmas with us at The Burrow," Ginny said, her anger disappearing completely. "We're positive Mum will be OK with it. Ron normally brings his friends, oh - and I'd like for you to come too."

"Really?" Emma said, surprised that she hadn't even thought about going to someone else's household for Christmas. "I suppose I could talk with my parents about it. I'd be happy to spend Christmas with you guys."

"Cool," Ginny grinned, departing with her body guards.

"You want to spend Christmas with them?" Daphne scrunched up her nose, glaring at the back of Ginny's red head. "Haven't you heard enough about them?"

"Why does everyone hate them? I don't understand," Emma admitted. The Weasley's were nice and funny, unlike most her 'friends' who could be quite nasty at times.

"They're blood-traitors! And they're poor, and live in the worst home. They're wizards, aren't they? Why not just magic up an ordinary home - no, instead they decide to live in a broken down barn out in the middle of nowhere."

"How do you know so much about them?"

"Draco told me. His father works with Arthur Weasley at the Ministry," said Daphne, a look of annoyance at the mention of Arthur Weasley, who Emma assumed to be Fred and George's dad. "Anyway, I won't tell him you're going there. He'll throw a fit once you're back."

Emma automatically assumed that Draco was 'him.'

"Thanks," Emma said. "We've got Charms in five minutes. Want to head off?"

"Yeah."

Charms class consisted of practising Summoning Charms and Silencing Charms - Emma found she was much better at Summoning Charms. A frog sat in front of Emma during the lesson, croaking away, and she could not get it to shut up. Hermione Granger was the first to silence hers, then went a few other Gryffindors, and then went Draco, but Emma was finding it quite difficult.

"Silencio," she said for the hundredth time, crashing her arm up and down in anger and frustration. "Silencio. Silencio. Silencio! Argh - why won't it work?!"

"It won't work with you waving your wand like that," a Gryffindor girl with sandy coloured hair scowled, delicately swishing her wand and clearly speaking the spell. Emma's frog fell quiet.

But Emma was not in the mood to be told how to do something unless this girl was her teacher.

"Look, I appreciate you supposedly trying to help me out, but find a different way to impress Ron Weasley," Emma scowled. The girl flushed red and turned away immediately.

Emma jumped and looked over her shoulder at the sound of Crabbe's unbelievably loud laughter. Draco was making Crabbe and Goyle laugh by levitating a bunch of frogs from Flitwicks container, making a few of them kiss each other.

"Mr. Malfoy - we'll have none of that!" Flitwick squealed, his little feet running over to Draco.

Flitwick managed to get all his frogs back, but that didn't stop Draco from levitating his frog on top of Ron's head once Flitwick turned back around and waddled to the front of the class.