Hey all! Lauren here, and it's New Years Day! Happy new year! And as a present, here's an extra-long chapter! Okay, not that much longer, but still longer. All right? Quit your whining…sorry, I don't know where that came from. Anyway, hope you all like this one, and if not, then…quit your whining! Ah, there we go, fits right in. Okay, don't forget to review! And happy new year!

Lauren

Disclaimer: I'm sure that if I were drunk on this lovely new year's day that I would tell you that I owned Harry Potter, but as I am not yet 21 and therefore not allowed to drink, the chances of this happening are extraordinarily slim. So no, I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter thirty

Contradictory Collaboration

"Well, dad sort of, well, he sort of...took on a promotion..."

"He did? Well, that's great! Why didn't he want you to tell me?" Ron asked, a smile breaking on his face.

"Well, he didn't want you to think that he did it because of the money...cause he didn't!" She now became unnecessarily defensive on that last sentence. She could feel a little tinge of embarrassment burning in her cheeks.

"Ginny, I wouldn't think that, ever. I understand. So what department is he in now?" he asked curiously.

"Well, he's working in some part of event publicity, or media, or something like that, and there was some Quidditch convention a couple weeks back...so he did me a favor...I hope that's alright..." she finished with a nervous smile.

They finished opening the rest of their presents, and Ron pointed out that they hadn't eaten breakfast that morning. The four of them left their presents on Ron's bed and headed down into the common room, where plenty of people were opening their presents as well. Ron grabbed a blanket off his bed quickly before he made it downstairs. After saying good morning to everyone, they walked out of the portrait hole. Hermione noticed Ron with the blanket wrapped around him and slid under his arm. He wrapped it around her and snuggled her close to him. Harry was walking next to Ginny, a safe distance between them. They were both fiddling with their hands, thinking about what Hermione had said. Harry knew she was right. Why was that? He wasn't embarrassed, was he? He couldn't determine the answer to his own question, so he figured the only way to tell was to try it. They had reached the entrance to the great hall when Harry quickly stuck out his foot, making Ginny fall, caught her in a twisted dip, and kissed her fervently. The girls at the heads of the table all fell witness to this and instantly swooned like a group of animals. The guys at the Gryffindor table began to whistle madly as the kiss continued into the double digits of seconds. Ron and Hermione, who had been in the lead, turned around to see what was going on, and Ron almost felt sick to his stomach. Hermione smiled, laughed a little, and led Ron away to the cheering boys at their table.

Finally, after a very long embrace, Harry tilted her back on her feet. Only then did he notice the rambunctious audience behind him, watching their every move. He blushed pink and looked at Ginny. Her entire face was a bright red, as if all the blood had rushed straight to her head. He figured out that that was probably what had actually happened. He was waiting for some sort of signal from her that everything was okay--he hadn't really imagined how she would respond before he went ahead and did it. After a moment of nothing, he found comfort in the grin that spread across her face. As they made their way across the room to their table, Ginny spoke in an undertone to Harry.

"Harry?" she whispered sweetly.

"Yes'm?" he answered, sounding quite chipper.

"Don't you *ever* do anything like that again without warning me..."

Harry looked at her, expecting a menacing sneer, but instead found a cheerful, complacent smile. He knew that she had completely enjoyed it.

The lovebirds reached the table and sat down, each with a secretly satisfied plop. Well, Ginny was the only one secretly satisfied. She was pretending to be upset with Harry, but inside she was so glad he had done it, it was one of the cutest things he had ever done. Hell, it was THE cutest thing he had ever done. As soon as they sat down, Ron reenacted the scene in perfect mockery: he took Hermione's fork, casually tossed it over his head, and waited for her to lean back to catch it. When she did, he slid his arm behind her to 'catch' her, then pulled her into the best dip he could while sitting at a table and embraced Hermione with a passion to rival Harry's. At first Hermione squirmed for a second, then gave in, as it was actually a very wonderfully seductive kiss. After a few moments, and a ton of laughter from everywhere in the great hall, he tipped her right-side up, stood up, and bowed among the many cheers and applause of the masses. Alas, the reenactment was so good that even Harry had to applaud him. Ginny just sat there, trying to suppress her laughter, and finally decided to clap for him as well. Hermione just lowered her head in embarrassment, hiding a wide grin.

For the rest of the day, Harry could hear cheers and swoons trail behind him wherever he went. He noticed that, whenever Ron wasn't there with him, the cheers weren't nearly as loud, but he kind of preferred it that way. Not that he didn't completely enjoy what Ron had done, he did. It was just that, after a while, it sounded like sirens were following him like cops on a criminal. It was getting a bit obnoxious.

That night rendered the season's first snow. Yeah, it came a little late, so sue me. Anyway, Ron had somehow managed to drag Hermione and Ginny outdoors. He was carrying Ginny under one arm and had Hermione in a piggy-back. Both of them were squealing, and Ginny was flailing madly, though both of them knew that one, there was no way of escape, and two, it was obvious that they were about to have the most fun all winter. Harry followed, but didn't take part in any of the kidnapping, mostly because he had filled his quota of the day prank-wise. He took the safe route and stayed out of this one. So he tagged behind joyously, taking in the cool smell of fresh snow (i'd imagine it smelled clean and fresh or something...) As soon as Ron felt they had reached a good spot, he let go of Ginny's waist, put Hermione down, and immediately picked up an armful of snow. Before he threw it, he rolled it around a few times in his hands and, before any of them could get away, their feet sticking in the deep snow, Ron had pelted each of them, knocking them to the ground.

The three victims tumbled to the ground, clutching their wounds and laughing hysterically. Somehow Ron was able to run much quicker in the snow than any of the others, so they had quite a hard time scrambling about in the snow, trying to catch up to him and attack him. Then, as if all four of them were reading each other's attacks, each of them hid behind their own tree, hoping to be hidden from view. None of them knew that they were all hidden, so when Ginny saw someone walking across the grounds, she naturally assumed it was Ron. With all of her might, she hurled her small but compact (and therefore much more painful) ammo at the perpetrator. Seconds after it left her hand, it hit hard, knocking him over with a loud cry. Ginny silently praised herself and stood up to taunt her new victim. She ran over to the moaning body and began to laugh.

"HA! GOTCHA!!! DIDN"T THINK I COULD PULL THAT OFF, DID YA????"

She turned him over and gasped loudly. For it wasn't Ron she had hit, it was—

"Malfoy?!?!" Ginny whispered, panicked. He slowly turned his head over, making it seem like he was in great pain. But as soon as his eyes met hers, he grinned maliciously. He had an immense amount of snow in his hands, which he conveniently scooped up while he was falling. Ginny's eyes grew big as he rolled up his snowball. As well as she could, she took off into the vast lands of snow before them. Malfoy sat up quickly and chucked the snowball at her retreating back. It hit her smack in the nape of her neck, and she shrilled.

"MALFOY!! Grr, am I gonna get you bad..."

The other three emerged from behind their respective trees, worried, as they had only heard the loud cries that had first come from Malfoy and then from Ginny. Harry looked shocked as he saw Ginny garnering snow as quickly as she could and laughing as she ducked shots from Malfoy. Ron and Hermione stood back as they watched Harry begin his approach to Malfoy. He was almost at Malfoy's position when he wondered what it was exactly that he was going to ask him. It wasn't like he was making any real contact with her, so he couldn't blame him for anything like that, but he only knew that something didn't seem right about this situation. Not at all. He opened his mouth to ask what the hell he thought he was doing when, unexpectedly, he found himself swallowing snow. He looked up at Malfoy, who was laughing evilly, and lost all thought of anything he was thinking about before. No, now it was time to get him back. He scooped up some snow and, within a few seconds, the three of them were engaged in a vicious yet strangely friendly battle. Ron had a very puzzled look on his face, with one of his famous lopsided grins to go with it. Hermione just looked on in shock. Harry + Malfoy = friendly? After a few minutes, Hermione was struck by a stray snowball and fell over into the snow, grabbing the bottom of Ron's robe in an attempt to save herself. Or were those really her intentions?

Ron's knees gave out at the force of Hermione's fall and landed next to her. They both started laughing, and soon they had engaged in their own snowball fight, stuffing each other's faces with the powdery flakes. Just as Ron was about to stick some snow down the back of Hermione's shirt, she stopped his hand and paused. Ron leaned in, and as they pressed their lips together, they could feel the cold tips of each other's noses.

The day wore on, and the snowballs never ceased. At one point Ginny had chased Malfoy so close it was his only escape to climb up a tree. Mind you, his climbing wasn't quite so graceful, but he eventually made it up there. That may not have been the wisest decision, as Malfoy up in a tree was a much easier target than Malfoy running full speed on the ground. Harry had caught up with Ginny, and the two of them attacked him so persistently that they knocked him out of the tree. He fell with a muffled thud, and, worried, the other two ran over to see if he was okay. Of course, being Malfoy, he waited until Harry bent over to poke him to grab his arm and pull him down into the snow, and propelled himself off the ground. The day carried on like this, with Harry and Ginny against Malfoy, but what each of them kept in the back of their mind was that it had been so much...fun. Yes, fun with Malfoy. The concept was very strange indeed. But no matter how perplexing or astounding it was, it didn't stop any of them from playing.

So, what's up with Malfoy? Why is he suddenly fun? Is it just a façade? Will he stay this way? You'll just have to wait and see…