A/N Guys I'm so sorry about the late update, I forgot all about it! Hope you enjoy this week's chapter. Do review, even if you're reading this year's later. Thanks to Hermione394 and Nikhil Malfoy for helping out with the Christmas chapter last week.
Chapter 26 - Ginny's Idea
Silence. The castle was quiet. Too quiet. Almost everyone had gone home for the holidays, some fearing it may be their last Christmas with their families. It would be a lie to say that nobody could feel it. Everyone knew that a war was coming, they could feel it, like a cold chill in the air. But, after all, it was Christmas Eve and Hermione was determined to not think of war or get herself worried until after Christmas. Next year. It could all wait until next year.
"You finished Christmas shopping yet?" Ginny asked, breaking the heavy silence. Hermione looked at her briefly and nodded.
"Yeah," she replied, "Bought Dobby some socks in Hogsmeade too. And I bought cards for Blaise, Theo and Pansy - although I don't know how to sign them. I'm sure they don't want to be questioned about why I got them cards by the entity of Slytherin house."
"Just put H.G." Ginny suggested, "No one will know it's you." Hermione nodded thoughtfully. They fell into silence again. The wind blew threw a broken window, extinguishing all the nearby torches.
"You know, I've been thinking," Ginny said suddenly, breaking the eerie silence. The two of them had been walking down the third floor corridor in silence, trying to think of something to do. Hermione turned to look at her. "You're kinda friends with Parkinson. Well, I'm not. So I think we need to get together, all of us. You me and Malfoy. And his mates. We could -"
"Ginny, I don't know if that's such a good idea."
"Still. We should all meet up. Today. Now. Come on!" And without further ado, Ginny turned on her heel and started walking back down the darkened corridor.
"Ginny?!" Hermione cried out in exasperation.
"Come on!" Ginny called back excitedly, breaking into a run.
"You can't just barge into Slytherin common room!" Hermione called, running after her.
"Fine! I'll just... Come on," Ginny smiled, slowing down. Three minutes passed and they saw no one else. "Hermione..." Ginny began, "How many people are staying at Hogwarts?" There was a brief pause whilst Hermione sighed.
"You, me, Draco, Pansy, Theo, Blaise and two Ravenclaw fifth years," Hermione sighed. It was by far the smallest number Hogwarts had had for Christmas in a long time.
Ginny didn't tell Hermione where they were going, so the head girl was vaguely confused as to why the red head was leading her up the grand staircase. They passed confused looking portraits, jumped trick stairs and nearly tripped over Mrs Norris before eventually, Ginny had ran Hermione all the way up to Gryffindor tower. "Ginny," Hermione panted, "He's not going to be in our common room."
"Snowflake," Ginny gasped, ignoring Hermione and beaming at her gobsmacked face as the portrait hole opened. Hermione wandered in after the sixth year, who'd ran off up the stairs to the girls' dorm. "Ginny!" Hermione called up the stairs exasperatedly but to no answer. Assuming she'd be down in a minute, Hermione settled herself down in one of the squashy armchairs in front of the raging fire. She smiled, embracing the warmth. The flames flickered before her, reminding her of the countless conversations she'd had with Harry and Ron in front of it. Despite what Ron had done, she still missed him. Both of them. She really wanted to see them, just to make sure they were alright. For all she knew they could be -
"Got it!" Ginny yelled, clambering down the stairs with a flowing, silvery material in hand.
"The invisibility cloak!" Hermione exclaimed, "Boys! He's so stupid! Why on earth did Harry not take it?" She asked heatedly.
"He said we'd need it more than them. And they can just apparate if there was any trouble. Besides, this is just what we need!" Ginny exclaimed ecstatically.
"Why, exactly?" Hermione asked, exasperated.
"You'll see!" Ginny squealed, setting off again at a run through the portrait hole. Hermione took one last look at the flickering flames before taking of exasperatedly after her friend.
Knowing that Draco was with Pansy, Theo and Blaise, Ginny had gathered that they wouldn't be in the head dorms. She'd also decided that they wouldn't be in the library, so she'd dragged Hermione down to the Great Hall to check if they were there. They weren't. "Why do you even want to hang around with them anyway? They're Slytherins!" Hermione moaned.
"He's your not quite boyfriend. And they're also your friends."
"I wouldn't go as far as calling them my friends," Hermione grumbled.
"Whatever," Ginny shrugged. She lead the head girl all the way out into the grounds before finally catching a glimpse of movement down by the frozen lake. The red head crept down the snowy bank towards the four Slytherins, signalling to Hermione to keep behind her. Hermione just shook her head and followed, leaving a trail of deep footprints in the snow behind her.
Ginny stopped, fifty paces away from them behind a tree and flung out an arm to stop Hermione. Hermione looked at her, concealing the twinge of pain in her stomach and gave her a 'what are you doing?' look. Ginny put a finger to her lips and whispered "Snowball fight." A grin spread across Hermione's face as her childish behaviour took over. She nodded and smirked back. They bent down, Hermione gasping slightly as the freezing snow touched her bare hand. Scooping up a snowball each, the pair of them ducked under the cloak and crept further down the bank. Once they were mere metres away, they broke into a run and threw the snowballs at them. All four heads turned, Blaise swearing as Hermione's snowball clipped his ear. "Who's there?" Draco called, drawing his wand. Ginny looked at Hermione and nodded. The two of them ducked again to grab another handful of snow. Neither of them had quite thought about how difficult it would be to do this under the cloak. They took aim and threw again, Ginny's hitting Blaise in the stomach and Hermione's hitting Draco squarely in the face. "Hey!" Draco yelled, frantically wiping his face dry whilst Pansy cracked up laughing. She stopped instantly as a lump of snow hit her in the shoulder and screamed. "Who the hell was that?!" She shrieked.
A swirl of snow began at the Slytherins' feet then rose, higher by the second, up above their heads. They all swatted at the particles of icy snow and stepped away in numerous directions but the tornado of snow just grew, keeping them right in the centre. Suspicion dawned on Draco. He only knew one person who was intelligent enough to do that. Blaise scowled, facing away from the Gryffindors and charged straight forward. "BLAISE YOU IDIOT NO!" Pansy screamed, as Blaise ran straight onto the lake surface. Screaming like a girl, Blaise slipped and toppled over, whacking his head hard on the snow covered ice. Hermione and Ginny nearly revealed their location, bent double in silent laughter. However, the tornado of snow was still swirling around Blaise and the rest of the Slytherins. Cursing, Blaise tried to get up, but slipped yet again. "Damn it!" He raged, trying hopelessly over and over again to get up but in vain. In the end, he managed to wriggle and slide his way over to the bank. Pansy was laughing hysterically, pointing at Blaise on the floor. Theo, smirking, offered him a hand. However, just as a small clearing appeared in the wall of their tornado of snow, Pansy's grin faltered. She elbowed Draco and nodded towards the deep pairs of footprints in the snow. Narrowing his eyes, suspicion confirmed, Draco nodded. "Alarte ascendre!" He yelled, aiming his wand straight in front of him, blasting an oncoming snowball out of his way and throwing the cloak off of the two girls, high into the air and landing delicately behind a bush. The tornado subsided.
Both Hermione and Ginny froze, snowballs in hand, looking from one annoyed face to the other. A harsh wind picked up, tearing at their hair and robes and Hermione had to stifle a shiver. They looked incredibly out of place, staring shellshocked at the group of Slytherins. Draco smirked, pleased to see Hermione's stiff face. Pansy was torn between fury and amusement. Blaise and Theo were merely brushing the snow off of themselves, although Blaise was grinning, impressed at the Gryffindors' work. Hermione smiled guiltily at her not quite boyfriend. Draco cautiously smirked back. It was Ginny who spoke first. "Hi," she smiled timidly. Every face turned to her. Ginny went whiter than the snow before them, making her hair stand out like a flame. Pansy considered her for a moment before looking sideways at Draco. Draco nodded. Hermione's eyes flitted between the four Slytherins when, before she knew it, Pansy had sent a huge snowball smashing straight into her nose. She gasped, rubbing her nose furiously. "Now we're even," Pansy smirked. Blaise shook his head, gathered an armful of snow and crept up behind Pansy. Theo shook his head warningly. Draco spotted his friend out of the corner of his eye and he turned to look properly at him, his smirk broadened, trying to conceal a snicker. Hermione's eyes widened and she gasped and then all of a sudden - "AAAAAARGH!" Pansy screeched. She whirled around, eyes searching madly for the offender and started to pelt the guilty Slytherin with snowballs. Theo and Ginny laughed and Theo sent a snowball shooting towards Pansy's left ear but missed, causing it to crash straight into Ginny's eye. Theo's jaw dropped just as Ginny screamed and began throwing snowball after snowball at him. Draco however, after smirking at Hermione, hit the head girl with a face full of snow. "Oh you'll pay for that one Malfoy!" Hermione yelled. After five minutes, Pansy had called, "Weasley! Granger! Get over here!" And the three of them started ganging up on the boys and pelted them with snowballs which they returned, just as hard.
It began to snow. Hermione ran and dived behind a tree, crouching low. She couldn't hear anyone. She peered around the bush, batting her hair away from her face as the wind blew irritably, and looked around. No one. One step at a time, she edged out from behind the tree, slipping slightly on the snow. She thrust her hands out in front of her to balance herself. Suddenly, she was drenched in iciness as her cheek came into contact with snow. She shrieked, looking up to see Theo. She ran toward a bush to her left but instantly regretted moving as a further face full of snow came her way. Theo grinned and threw another. The brunette dodged and spotted a snowball coming from Blaise's way so she dived behind the nearest shield, which happened to be Ginny. "Wha - Hermione?!" The sixth year spluttered before a large proportion of snow hit her and slid down her front under her robes. Squealing, Ginny stumbled to the side and tried to brush it out but in vain. And then, all of a sudden, hands had clapped around Hermione's eyes and all she could see was blackness. Panicking irrationally, she tried to take a step forward but her foot got locked in a clump of snow and she stumbled, crashing head first onto the snowy floor with thump.
The hands sprang away from her eyes and a groan sounded from her right. She awkwardly turned her head to look at none other than Draco, lying in the snow next to her. "What you go and trip for," he groaned sarcastically, chuckling. A long chain was glistening on the snow around Draco's neck. Hermione recognised it immediately as his chin from his mother. Sure enough, as Draco shifted, the ring slid down the chain into view. Draco smirked at her, sitting up. Hermione scowled, rolling into a sitting position to rub her knee. Draco snorted, causing her to grab a handful of snow and shove it down the back of Draco's robes. Draco let out a high pitched yelp and rolled away from her. "Now who's laughing?" Hermione smirked, stumbling as she regained her feet and laughed. She looked up and her smile faded. She looked left, then right and took a step back. Where was he.
The wind had died down a little and all she could hear was the shrieks of Ginny and Pansy and the rustle of branches above her. She thought she saw movement just beyond her range of sight and she squinted, trying to peer through the haze of snowflakes but to no use. She'd just considered asking Ginny if she'd seen where he'd gone when SMACK! A sharp rushing pain shot across Hermione's skin as a considerably large snowball hit the back of her neck and droplets of ice cold water slid down her spine. She whirled around but saw no one. Only a trail of footprints. SMACK! Another sharp pain as a further snowball hit her from behind and she cowered, letting out a gasp as more icy cold snow hit her, this time in the back. "Hey!" She called, trying to find her attacker.
"Hey," a sly voice murmured in her ear and Hermione spun around, not before Draco had stuffed a handful of snow down the back of her robes. "You evil ferret Malfoy!" Hermione screamed, squirming as her body slowly froze. Draco chuckled annoyingly, making Hermione's blood boil. Fuming, the angry brunette began to feverishly scrabble at the snow, rolling as many snowballs as possible and throwing them at rocket speed towards the smarmy git's face. A slight expression of terror flickered momentarily upon his face before he just smirked and bent down, rolling more snowballs. Hermione didn't wait to look where her snowballs landed, didn't care if they missed him or his missed her, she just wanted some to hit him.
When it became too dark to continue, they called it a day and trundled off, soaking wet and shivering, back to the castle. "We totally won that," Ginny remarked, grinning.
"Hey!" Blaise exclaimed, outraged, "We won okay?"
"Yeah... Totally," Ginny sneered.
"You started it, sneaking up all invisible and that. You cheated!" Blaise snapped.
"Really?" Ginny asked, the unsuspecting invisibility cloak tucked away in her pocket.
"How did you do it then? Charms? Well?" Blaise asked angrily.
"None of your business! We won fairs!" Ginny snapped.
"You're just jealous! Stupid Gryffin-"
"That's enough!" Theo interrupted.
"Oh yeah? Well your aim wasn't exactly perfect," Ginny snarled.
"At least it wasn't lousy, like the rest of you Gryff-"
"Blaise!" Pansy gasped.
"Say that again!" Draco roared, stopping in his tracks to face Blaise, who became stony faced and quiet. "Go on!" Draco fumed.
"You know I didn't mean that," Blaise glowered.
"Draco drop it," Hermione scowled.
"He didn't mean to offend Granger, Draco," said Pansy tersely.
"I'm not offended," Hermione muttered.
"I didn't," Blaise spat.
"Merlin just ease up a bit man," Theo muttered. Both Blaise and Draco turned to glower at him.
"I didn't do anything," Blaise glowered with narrow eyes.
"Leave it," Hermione said irritably, yanking Draco's arm and continuing to walk up the path. Ginny followed noiselessly. Theo nudged Blaise in the ribs angrily and muttered something to him. Blaise just rolled his eyes. Pansy shook her head and trudged on, muttering angrily about boys. Draco fidgeted silently, trying to calm down. He didn't know why he'd just lost it back then. It was as if his temper was out of control. He just felt so... Furious. He breathed heavily, then felt something grab his hand, soothing. He didn't need to look down to know what it was, or who. He felt his anger ebb away in the breeze. Hermione's hand gave a small, comforting squeeze. He squeezed back.
Once they'd all dried off and changed, the six of them regathered in front of the doors to the entrance hall, ignoring an empty suit of armour which was merrily singing 'Deck The Halls'. They all looked uncomfortably at each other. Blaise was looking anywhere but his peers, staring determinedly at the doors. Draco and Hermione were standing at least a foot apart, and Ginny was toying nervously with a few strands of perfectly red hair.
"Um..." Pansy began.
"I think we'll... sit over by our-" Ginny began.
"Yep," Pansy agreed, nodding fervently.
"Sounds great," Theo half choked, moving towards the doors.
"Mmh," agreed Blaise. Hermione sighed but Draco was already leading his Slytherin fellows in through the double doors, Theo begrudgingly bringing up the rear. Pansy quickened her footsteps away from them.
The hall had been beautifully decorated the week previous with twelve, large Christmas trees positioned around the walls, decorated with twinkling lights, golden ribbons and baubles representing the house colours and all topped with golden stars. Real, live fairies were fluttering in and out of the branches or resting on hanging ornaments. Icicles were hanging from branches and from the high arches in the walls. Large wreathes of holly were hanging from the walls tied at the top with golden bows. Warm snow was falling from the enchanted ceiling which today was a cloudless, midnight blue.
Hermione and Ginny both collapsed on benches at the far end of their table after dusting them off and the red head let out a long, low whistle. "If that wasn't awkward, I don't know what is," she murmured. Hermione nodded in defeat, not nearly as hungry as she'd anticipated she'd be. How was she going to spend Christmas with Draco if Ginny couldn't even feel comfortable around the Slytherins. She couldn't leave Ginny, not on Christmas. She brought this up with her, but Ginny simply said in a stern tone, "Don't be silly, 'Mione. Spend Christmas with Malfoy. I want you to be happy." So, letting out a heavy sigh, Hermione pulled forward a platter of chicken and began to help herself.
A/N so that's it till the Christmas chapter which I will be posting on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, depending if I remember or not. I tried to make this chapter seem as realistic as possible but apologies if it seemed a bit too far fetched. See you Christmas!