Christmas Spirit -EXTRACT--HP-

After lunch had finished, Tee, Rose and the twins made their way up to the third floor for Defence Against the Dark Arts, whilst the fourth years traipsed outside for Herbology.

Professor Lupin seemed to be in a happy, festive mood. The classroom was elaborately strung with red, gold and green paper chains, and there was a pretty sprig of holly pinned to the front of his robes.

"Nice, aren't they?" smiled Professor Lupin, noticing them looking up at the decorations as they walked in. "Some of my first year girls insisted on making them and decorating my classroom for me."

None of them actually wanted to say that the paper chains actually looked tacky and rather childish. At least Professor Lupin was pleased with them. Instead, Rose complimented him on his new holly accessory.

Once the rest of the class had arrived, Professor Lupin announced, "Right! Since this is the last day before you break up for the Christmas holidays I thought we'd have a fun lesson instead…"

"And there's the words you've waited to hear from a teacher your whole life…" whispered Fred happily.

"So forget Defence Against the Dark Arts for now," smiled Professor Lupin. "Today we're going to try out a game of trust. So I need you all to get into pairs…"

Tee automatically jumped to Rose's side and announced, "Hello!" happily to her. Within minutes the rest of the class had split into pairs as well. Professor Lupin brought out a box of blindfolds from underneath his desk.

"Now one person from each pair is going to have to stand over here and put on a blindfold," explained Professor Lupin. "Their partner will then have to verbally guide them to the other side of the room."

"Easy," said Fred, not quite as quietly as before.

Having heard him, Professor Lupin said, "It's not actually as easy as it sounds. It's going to be confusing enough with everyone shouting out directions at the same time. Then you're going to have to try and steer your partner around anyone who might get in the way."

Several students laughed. This did actually sound like fun. Half of the class took blindfolds from the box and lined up along one side of the room, whilst the others backed out of the way.

"Okay… Everyone start now," instructed Professor Lupin.

The room was suddenly filled with noise. Like Professor Lupin had said, it wasn't as easy as it seemed. Everyone had started by simply walking straight ahead – but with the confusion of voices filling the room they got distracted one by one, and were now criss-crossing in every direction.

"Turn to the right," Rose encouraged Tee. Tee turned anti-clockwise back to the left.
"No, to the right!"

"That is right!" protested Tee.

"No it's not, that was left," insisted Rose.

"Oh I'm so confused!" wailed Tee, feeling rather stranded in the middle of the classroom, unaware that she was actually surrounded by other people.

George was having similar problems. "Go left!" he directed Fred, who promptly wandered off to the right. "I said left, you idiot!"

"You said right!" objected Fred.

"No I didn't, I said left!" claimed George adamantly.

Fred paused, looking confused. "I have no idea whose directions I'm listening to!" he shouted over all the noise. He strayed further to the left and crashed into Tee, who was still hovering in the middle of the room.

"Ow! I don't think I like this game," grumbled Tee.

She still stuck to that opinion when they'd collided another two times – her getting her directions mixed up, and Fred becoming confused by the different instructions shouted from separate students. By the fourth time, Tee was really not impressed.

"God Fred, I'm gonna kick your ass in a minute!" she threatened. "You're not magnetically attracted to me or anything!"

When she heard a wave of laughter, she pulled her blindfold off. Fred followed suit. Since they'd been some of the last few people left who hadn't managed to reach the other side of the room, pretty much all of the class had been watching them in amusement, including Professor Lupin.

"You're a bit bad-tempered today," George grinned.

Tee smiled sheepishly. "It is actually really frustrating when you don't have a clue where you're going and you have to rely on someone else."

"Yeah, it's very disorientating," agreed Fred, though he hadn't gotten quite as annoyed as Tee. He tossed his blindfold to George. "You can have a go now since you think it's so funny."

Once the blindfolds were passed between the pairs, everyone arranged themselves ready to start again. Professor Lupin, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying watching everyone, happily announced, "Go!"

Again, the classroom was near reaching chaos. Fred seemed to enjoy being in the controlling position and was deliberately misleading George.

"Turn to the left… Now right a bit… No, back to the left some more..." Poor George was pretty much wandering round in a circle and hadn't even realised.

Tee realised what Fred was doing. "You're such a bully. Do you know that?" But she still couldn't help laughing.

"But it's so much fun," grinned Fred. "Especially when you've got people who are easy to bully. Like you."

Tee pouted. "Well you're just mean. You bully me all the time."

"It's because you're all cute and small," said Fred patronisingly, patting her on the head.

Tee swatted him away. "Do that again and I'll bite your hand."

Fred grinned again. "Is that a challenge?" He tapped her on the head again. Tee grabbed onto his hand, but couldn't get any further because he was too strong for her.

Meanwhile, Rose had been attempting to walk into the same bit of wall for the last minute or so. She hadn't received any further instructions so had thought she'd been going in the right direction. Obviously not… But Tee still wasn't telling her which way to go.

Eventually Rose just took her blindfold off. She looked around and saw Tee practically hanging off Fred's arm – God knows what she was trying to do. She then noticed that George was stood still in the middle of the room, looking rather lost. She went across and pulled his blindfold off him.

"That's why we're not getting anyway," she said, pointing over to Tee and Fred.

George looked over to where she was pointing, just as Tee and Fred were progressing into having a shoving fight. Though it was pretty obvious Fred wasn't putting much effort in, otherwise he would have easily knocked Tee over.

"Oi!" shouted George. "Stop flirting and actually pay attention to us!"

They did both stop then. Tee just laughed and threw a spare blindfold at him. "I was actually sticking up for you, so leave me alone."

"She's trying to act all nice," laughed Fred, patting her on the head again.

Tee automatically smoothed her hair back down for the third time. "I swear if you mess my hair up one more time I'm gonna kick you in the–"

Professor Lupin chose that moment to join them. "Now, now, let's try and keep this suitable for all ages, Tee."

"Sorry Professor," apologised Tee. But Professor Lupin just smiled and she could have sworn he'd winked at her.