Chapter 40

It was finally the holidays. I had owl ordered presents for everyone and they should arrive on Christmas Eve. Neville had managed to talk his grandmother into letting him stay at Hogwarts for christmas. I have an inkling that his sudden desire to stay for christmas has something to do with the fact that Luna is also staying.

I was walking down the corridor to the great hall for breakfast. Hermione, Harry and Ginny were with me. Ron was insistent on staying in bed and Neville was meeting LUna outside the Ravenclaw common room. Hermione and I suddenly stopped dead in our tracks. Unfortunately for Harry and Ginny they had not seen the hazard and were now trapped.

Hermione and I burst out laughing at their predicament. "Come on you guys, don't just laugh. Help us get out of this." Harry moaned.

"Harry, you know the only way to get out of enchanted mistletoe is to kiss the person who is stuck under it with you." Hermione said between giggles. That's right, enchanted mistletoe. Fred and George had put the stuff everywhere. Hermione and I had seen the piece hanging in our path but Harry and Ginny obviously didn't.

I hadn't been caught by any mistletoe yet and I hoped I wouldn't be. However, it was hilarious when other people got stuck. The twins had made sure that the mistletoe wouldn't be satisfied by a peck on the cheek as well, and your feet stay glued to the floor until it is. Some unlucky people get stuck under it alone. They have to wait for someone to come along and kiss them.

Ginny and Harry stood there glancing at each other awkwardly. "Hurry it up guys. I'm hungry." I teased. I knew that Harry was too much of a gentleman to kiss Ginny so I hoped she would do it. My hopes were soon met when Ginny let out an exasperated sigh and grabbed Harry's shirt collar. She pulled him towards her and their lips met.

They stayed like that for a few seconds before they pulled apart blushing. Ginny turned and kept walking and I noticed that Harry had a goofy smile on his face as he watched her walk to the great hall. Hermione had to grab his arm and drag him in the right direction because he wouldn't snap out of his daze.

I laughed as I followed them inside, on the lookout for any green plants hanging around. I do not want to get stuck.

...

"Wake up, it's Christmas!"

I started, lost my balance and toppled out of bed onto the floor in a tangle of bedding. I glared at the bushy haired girl who was standing in front of me with a huge grin on her face.

"Really Hermione?" I grumbled. "I would have expected that from Harry, Ron or Neville, but you?"

"Oh come on! I know that you usually like to be a downer on Christmas but at least try to enjoy yourself this year." Hermione said. I frowned at Hermione. I had a right to be down.

"I just miss my family." I told her sadly.

"I know." Hermione said gently with sympathy. "But you have us."

I smiled slightly at her and picked myself up off the floor. She smiled brightly back and grabbed my arm. She dragged me down the stairs and into the common room where everyone was already waiting. I had stopped waking up early on Christmas. It was to painful to do it without my brother there with me. "Finally!" Ron said before starting to pass out everyones presents.

After we exchanged our gifts, we left our common room to meet up with Luna in the great hall. Then after breakfast Harry, Ron, the twins, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Ginny and I all had a huge snowball fight.

After the snowball fight, we walked through the corridors laughing and cracking jokes. We would be soaking wet but Hermione had dried us off afterwards with magic. Then Fred stopped walking suddenly and yelled out. I looked behind me and saw he was caught under some mistletoe. "Ha! Caught in your own prank." I laughed.

"Serves you right." Hermione giggled.

"Well someone has to get me out of this!" He exclaimed.

"Do we?" I asked with a cheeky smile. "You did bring it on yourself after all." Everyone was laughing at the horrified look on Fred's face.

"Don't you know how to get rid of it?" Ron asked. "You did put it up."

"Actually Fred and I made it so it would disappear when the holidays ended." George told them. "We made sure it could not be gotten rid of before then."

"So someone has to kiss him?" Neville laughed.

"Or we could just leave him there." I joked and Fred scowled at me.

"So who's going to do it?" George asked.

"I think I speak for all the boys when I say none of us." Harry piped up and they nodded in agreement.

"I'm his sister so definitely not me." Ginny put in.

"So that leaves Hermione, Luna or Joanne." George said and switched his gaze to the three of us. We groaned.

"Hey! I feel like I should take offense to that." Fred said.

"Probably." I agreed with a smirk and he once again scowled at me.

"So who's it?" Ginny asked.

"Not me!" I announced at the same time that Hermione said, "No way!" and Luna said, "I'd really rather not." The idea of having to kiss one of your friends was just kind of awkward and it was his fault for putting the mistletoe up in the first place.

"You wound me." Fred sighed dramatically with his hand over his heart.

"There is a simple way to solve this." George told us.

"How?" Hermione asked. George closed his eyes and spun around with his finger extended outwards. He stopped and it landed on me. Before I could react he pushed me under the mistletoe with Fred. Now I was stuck until we kissed as well.

"You're going to regret that George." I growled menacingly and he just smirked at me.

It wasn't that I was repulsed by the idea of kissing Fred, quite the opposite actually, but I didn't like the idea of being forced to kiss someone. No matter who it was. Though, if I'm being honest, I wasn't entirely unhappy with the idea of kissing Fred. Wait! Where is all this coming from?! I don't like Fred that way! I don't! Either way I had to kiss him though. I could think about my confusing thoughts when I was alone.

Fred and I looked at each other rather awkwardly. We were both blushing rather furiously. I sighed and moved closer to him. He looked at me slightly apologetically before bending his head towards me. I closed my eyes and our lips met.

I had been kissed before. I once had a boyfriend in the future. I was fifteen after all. It didn't really last long and we had kissed once or twice. This was different though. Better. Even though it only lasted for a few seconds I still felt a small spark. My lips tingled as he pulled away and I resisted the urge to touch where his lips had just been.

He stared at the ground, his face flaming. I tried to seem unaffected as I moved back to the group and continued walking down the corridor. Hermione caught my eye and smirked knowingly at me. Then she gave me a look that clearly said 'we'll talk about this later'. I am not looking forward to that conversation.

It was later. Hermione and I were alone it our dorm room after dinner and Hermione had insisted we should talk. "What about?" I asked, trying to sound clueless.

"You fancy Fred." She stated.

"I don't know what you're on about." I said. I did not fancy Fred! There was just no way.

"Someone's in denial." She sang and I threw a pillow at her.

...

The Christmas holidays had soon ended. I had been finding it hard to look Fred in the eye since the kiss and I noticed he was having the same problem. I decided not to dwell on it though. Hermione was wrong. She must be!

But we all had bigger problems to worry about. A Hogsmeade weekend had been scheduled at a month from now. Harry was in a state of sheer panic. Being the heirs, we could probably cancel it but we would need a good reason. Instead, we started having DA meetings more regularly so everyone could be better prepared. I just hope everything turns out okay.

...