Climate, clinches and compromising positions

Please note I do not own any of the characters in this fanfic and do not profit from posting this.

Thanks to all you people who reviewed my first fanfic or put me (or it) on your favourites list. You all deserve a big, shiney medal from me! I promise to make you proud, you'll be happy to know I have ten ideas in my head at this moment to write up. Anyway, on with the story.

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It was snowing at Hogwarts castle. That sounds like a simple statement, doesn't it? Let's begin again; it was snowing at Hogwarts castle… in the middle of May. One of the many odd occurrences, which would come about on that cold day of the 15th May.

'It's snowing!' came the boisterous voice of a redhead entering the Gryffindor common room.

'In May!' stated another, completely identical to the first as he followed him through the portrait hole.

'So, who's up for snowballs at dawn?' quizzed George Weasley.

'I'm in,' Ginny said, poking her head out from behind the large armchair.

'Fantastic,' the twins high-fived each other, 'come on, any more takers?' Fred pleaded.

'Count me in,' said another student from the table on the corner, 'my brain is literally frazzled from this potions homework.' The first odd occurrence, Ron Weasley had actually attempted his homework, on a Saturday and not the night before it was due. Wonders would never cease! Then again, this could be cancelled out by the fact that he had only done 10 lines and had moaned about it the entire time as well as trying to find the perfect exit as soon as possible. His brothers had managed to feed him the ultimate get-out clause and he had grabbed at it with both hands.

'You can't Ron, you promised to get this one piece completed today,' piped up Hermione, who had been squatted in front of the fire with her Defence against the dark arts book open on her lap.

'Come on, Hermione,' Ron moaned in despair, 'it's snowing in May, isn't that reason enough to put aside your homework for a few hours?'

'But the work needs to be in for Friday.'

'Yes, it is only Saturday and plus you are sitting there with all your work done, putting footnotes on the footnotes you did yesterday. Snowballing isn't optional today. Come of your own accord or Harry and I may have to carry you out,' he turned to the bespectacled black haired boy next to him, 'you're coming, right Harry?'

'Of course!'

'Your decision,' stated Ron, placing his hands behind his head and leaning back on the chair.

'You're not serious,' Hermione smiled unknowingly.

'Try me,' replied Ron.

'Come on, Hermione,' pleaded Ginny, 'one more and we can make two teams.'

'I'll get her cloak and scarf, you can get her,' Harry chuckled and stood up; his eyes glinted behind his glasses, 'accio Hermione's cloak and scarf.' Hermione's cloak and scarf flew down from the girls' dormitories into Harry's open hands, 'That was easy, good luck with yours.'

Ron stood up and walked around the table, striding towards the rug in front of the fire where Hermione was sitting, she looked up with horror and dug her nails deep into the carpet, 'you wouldn't dare!'

He did.

When he was close enough to Hermione, Ron picked her up and held her in a fireman's lift. Without another word, he strolled past the others and out through the portrait hole as if it were an everyday event. Hermione was kicking out and the onlookers, who felt quite sorry for Ron being physically abused, couldn't help falling about in laughter before following the pair out to the main entrance hall.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs after several worried looks from first years, a couple of sniggers and snide comments from Slytherins and a hell of a lot of kicking and screaming, Ron placed Hermione back on her feet.

'How dare you!' yelled Hermione as she lashed out at Ron's arm.

'Come on, lighten up a little,' that was all that Ron could get out before he began to laugh hysterically at what he had just done. Usually an argument would lead to a larger argument then to both storming off in different directions. There had never been a time where they had actually stayed in each other's company and this was definitely an unusual way to start the trend.

After analysing the situation, a smile twitched in the corner of Hermione's mouth and before long she too was laughing. When the others finally arrived, Hermione was in such an odd mood that she had forgotten about homework (another unusual occurrence, are you keeping up?) and it was difficult to talk her into anything other that the snowball fight that they had promised.

Teams were arranged, Harry, Ron and Hermione versus Fred, George and Ginny. The games began, whilst the twins and Ginny took to throwing snowballs, Hermione had taught the guys a spell to fire snowballs from their wands. Just as fun but not as cold on the hands.

And so it started.

The first place they headed was the ruins next to the Herbology greenhouses. There were plenty of pillars and mountains of snow for the Weasley team to use. It was only fair, thought Hermione, to provide them with supplies just to get their hopes up over maybe actually winning.

She ran directly up the stone steps to the wall that ran round above the ground and took cover. Harry darted into a dark corner whilst being immediately bombarded with snowballs from Ginny, hoping to blend into the background, it wasn't working. He was getting wetter and wetter very fast.

That's your own problem Harry, she thought as she suddenly saw a flash of red hair as someone dashed across the courtyard. Thinking it was Fred or George, Hermione immediately began to fire snowballs at the individual; they all reach their target until he ducked behind a pillar.

The red headed boy was leaning against the pillar, completely out of breath; that spell really was effective, he thought, but not very nice when aimed at him. When he thought the coast was clear he stepped out from behind the pillar and waved his arms in despair, 'we're on the same bloody team! Stop aiming at me!'

He jumped back behind the pillar as quickly as he had emerged from it. A second later he heard an apologetic, 'Sorry Ron! Thought you were Fred.'

'Surely I look different from Fred,' he replied in a mock hurt, he peeked out from behind the pillar towards Hermione and saw that Fred was heading up the stairs towards her.

He jumped towards the next pillar, 'not very much, no,' came the reply.

'Well, surely I'm better looking.'

'You have your moments,' Ron headed for the next pillar, edging closer to the stone steps.

'Such as?' he tried to throw his voice towards the other end of the ruins; he was surprised how effective it actually was as Hermione's head whipped towards the end pillar.

'You looked quite attractive at the Yule ball,' Ron almost fell backwards from behind the pillar; that, he wasn't quite expecting.

Shaking off the comment and taking it as a joke, Ron made it to the steps, 'why thank you, you looked quite fetching yourself.' Again, his voice came from across the ruined courtyard.

'You think?' there was a hint of embarrassment and meekness in her voice; Ron mounted the steps slowly and quietly. Despite meaning it slightly, Ron wondered, did she know he was joking with her?

'Would have been better without the accessory of the year, Victor Krum, on your arm,' he headed towards Fred who was now enjoying the conversation, with bribery plans no doubt filling his head for next time he wanted to use the common room for joke testing, so much that he had quite forgotten about the aim of his sneaking about.

Ron felt triumphant as he raised his wand at his brother's back; this was until he felt something cold and wet on the back of his neck, 'having fun?' George whispered in his ear, holding a ball of snow to Ron's skin as the water droplets rolled down the back of his shirt.

Ron felt slightly deflated; he was going to save Hermione from his brother, be the knight in shining armour, but now he was the one who was in need of some help. They were both for it.

However, Ron's last comment had hit a nerve in Hermione, 'what?!' she yelled, 'how dare you bring that up!' At that moment she raised her wand and, not turning her head, aimed behind her, directly at Fred. The sudden flurry of snowballs had caught the twin off guard and he flew backwards onto the ground at Ron's feet.

Getting to her feet, Hermione turned and pointed the wand at George who was still holding the snowball to Ron's neck, 'you didn't really think I hadn't cottoned on to your plans did you, boys? Close your mouth Ron,' Ron's mouth was hanging open at what had just happened, he closed it abruptly, 'you're exactly where I want you. George, let Ron go.' Defeated, George reluctantly let go of the collar of his younger brother's cloak and helped his twin up who was still sprawling on the ground in shock. Defeated single handily by a girl, beaten at their own game, how would they ever live it down?

Ron strode across to join Hermione and raised his wand level with Fred's chest, 'nice one,' he admitted with an impressed tone of voice.

'Thanks,' Hermione smiled at him the turned back to the twins, 'now boys, you have caused me endless worry and annoyance over your pranks for too long and now it's payback time.' At that she aimed shed loads of snowballs at each of the red headed victims continuously until they had to beg for forgiveness just to get her to stop.

Ron began to laugh heartily at the sight before him, 'and as for you!' Ron stopped laughing abruptly as Hermione swung round and pointed her wand at his torso, 'don't think that you have any right to ever use my prom date spitefully as a reply or part of a discussion ever again.'

Ron saw the hurt in her eyes and felt a sudden wave of guilt flow over him, 'sorry 'mione.'

Hermione gave a sudden smile and said cheekily, 'race you back to the castle,' before attempting to bolt down the snow-covered steps and across the courtyard towards the castle.

It took Ron a moment to keep up with what had gone on in the matter of seconds before, but once he did he raced off behind her.

As Ron began to catch up with her, Hermione twisted round and aimed a series of shots of snowballs at his stomach, Ron threw himself out of the way, 'oh no you don't!' He aimed a spell at the back of her head and was surprised when all of the snowballs reached their target effectively.

'That's it!' Hermione stopped and turned round, not realising that Ron was so close behind her. Not able to stop himself in time, Ron ran into Hermione and both collapsed onto the snowy ground. Once he knew what was happening, Ron attempted to twist round so that he would be the one on the ground to break their fall.

As they landed, Ron felt the air knocked out of his lungs. He closed his eyes and tried to block out the sharp twinge in the bottom of his back as he landed on a rock hidden by the thick blanket of snow. He was suddenly glad he had been the one to land on the ground and not Hermione.

He opened his eyes as he head Hermione giggling, he began to laugh at the situation they seemed to be in. Both covered in snow and acting like children, it was a change from the normal Hermione and Ron liked it.

A moment later the laughing seemed to die down as they realised the situation they seemed to be in. Hermione was lying on top of Ron with her hands laid flat on his chest, looking down into his swimming pool blue eyes and Ron was looking up into her chocolate brown ones. They could feel the rapid beating of each other's hearts against their ribcages and warm breath on their faces. The warmth that radiated from each other was comforting in the cold weather.

They stayed there in uncomfortable silence for a matter of seconds before Hermione began to sit up, 'I'd better…' she trailed off from the sentence and just stayed seated on top of him, knowing in her subconscious that she didn't want to be anywhere else.

A moment later, Ron leant up swiftly and planted a kiss lightly on Hermione's lips. He placed his hand round the back of her neck and lay back onto the ground bringing Hermione with him. Hermione responded to the tender kiss as if it were natural.

However, before having time to deepen the kiss they were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat next to them. Parting quickly and looking up at the new person who had arrived in the situation they saw Harry and Ginny. At this, they both jumped up in denial and dusted off their cloaks refusing to look each other in the eye.

The two new people in the party bit their tongues trying not to laugh at what had just happened, as they had been expected this for a while whilst Ron and Hermione seemed to think it was some kind of guilty mistake. At the same time they seemed particularly smug.

'Well, well, well, what has been going on here?' Harry tried to act serious but failed miserably but eventually dissolving into fits of laughter.

'Nothing,' both replied immediately. Ron ran his fingers through his hair and Hermione stared down at his shoes.

'Sure?' asked Ginny.

'Of course,' replied Ron as the tips of his ears went red so that they blended with his hair. Looking up he seemed to set his eyes accusingly on the self-satisfied pair. 'Where have you two been anyway?' He looked suspiciously at Harry's mussed up hair and Ginny's unbuttoned coat.

'The courtyard,' Harry stated unhelpfully, 'snowball fighting, where else?' At that they both entwined their fingers together and walked ahead towards the castle.

'I'll kill him!' Ron groaned, 'I gave him one order, just one and he can't even stick to that!' In a fit of annoyance he turned to Hermione and was stopped in the middle of his rant when he remembered what had just happened only minutes before. He shifted uncomfortably and looked down at his shoes.

'Ron…'

'Hermione…'

'You go first…' they both insisted.

'Ron, this was…'

'A mistake, yeah, I know,' Ron cut in; Hermione's face fell.

'Yes, of course, just a stupid mistake,' Hermione agreed reluctantly, 'excuse me, I have homework to do.'

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If this is well received and I get some positive reviews then I have two (very, very short) final chapters to add.