Title: Christmas Surprises

Chapter: Five – Dresses and Snowball fights

Author: SnakeEyesHannah

Spoilers: OotP

Disclaimer: I do not own anything involving Harry Potter. This does all our favorite author, JK Rowling, bless her soul…

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"Wow, Ginny, you look absolutely gorgeous!" Hermione exclaimed. They were up in Ginny's dormitory, trying on Ginny's Ball-dress. The deep, deep red dress was indeed gorgeous on Ginny. The dress had no sleeves, only two thicker straps over the shoulders and was tight but belled out from the hip. The golden pattern at the bottom and at the neckline was perfecting the dress. Ginny looked rather proudly in the mirror she was facing.

"I don't look too shabby now", she agreed shyly. She watched herself critically, feeling that there had to be something wrong with the dress. But she just couldn't find it. She looked just like a Gryffindor. A beautiful Gryffindor to boot.

"Ginny, you are beautiful. Why won't you admit it?" Hermione sighed. "I wish I had your waist. And your legs. Better yet, I wish I were you!"

"Shut up, you!" Ginny protested. "You do not want to be me. Besides, if you were, you wouldn't be able to date my precious brother…" Hermione picked up a pillow to throw at Ginny, but the redhead quickly gestured at her dress and Hermione put it back on the bed. "And you don't have to have my waist or my legs, you look absolutely stunning without them! Why else would you think Ron asked you to the Ball?" Ginny questioned Hermione.

"I'm not arguing you, Ginny", Hermione gave in and Ginny gave her a gloating smile. "But you don't have to go and rub it in my face about it!"

"I won't…" Ginny promised, turning back to the mirror, sighing. "God. I'm stupid, really." Hermione raised her eyebrow at the redhead. Ginny saw it in the mirror and turned around again. "I have bought a very expensive dress that I'll only wear once, and I'm not even sure I'm going to that bloody Ball anyway!"

"Language, Ginny", Hermione corrected automatically, and automatically Ginny paid no attention to it. "And what in the name of Merlin are you talking about? Of course you're going!"

"Not if I don't have a date, I won't", Ginny said, picking up her wand from a nearby table and pointing to herself, muttering a spell to get her out of the dress and into her casual clothes. The dress magically flew and hung itself neatly in Ginny's wardrobe and Ginny sunk down on her bed, crawled up to the head of it, crossed her legs and leaned against the wall. "No one's asked me and I'm too chicken to ask you-know-who…"

"Harry'll ask you", Hermione reassured Ginny with a smile. "He'll ask, I promise!" Ginny looked almost pleading at Hermione. She really wanted to go to the Yule Ball. With Harry…

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The snow was falling, the sun was shining and the students were almost all outside, most of them throwing snowballs at either each other or some target. Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Ron and most other Gryffindor 6th and 7th years were engaged in a rather violent snowball fight. They had split up in two teams and Harry and Ron were busy trying to hit everyone on the opposite team. The cheers when targets were hit rung in the grounds, fake moans when you got hit and the applause when a captive was caught drew a lot of attention and a few people had stopped with what they were doing to look at them.

Un-noticed, Harry managed to sneak his way over the 'battlefield' and he was very close to the opposite team's fort he didn't see Ginny sneak up on him.

"Hello Harry", she whispered in his ear. Harry practically jumped and turned to Ginny, a snowball in his hand, ready to throw. She smiled at him, holding her hands up in the air. "Take it easy", she smiled. "Put down the snowball. No one is trying to harm you…"

"Oh really?" he said. "Giving me a heart attack is not harming?" he asked. Ginny laughed at him and shook her head jokingly. Harry caught her before she could react and threw her in the snow. She squealed in surprise. Harry smiled mischievously at her and sat down on his heels next to her. Ginny became serious and tried to sit up, but Harry held out his hand to stop her. He accidentally pushed her back into the snow with a bit more force than he intended and she grabbed his hand to prevent herself from tumbling down the hill. Harry lost balance and got pulled down with Ginny.

"Trying to harm me, eh Potter?" she smiled. Their faces were inches apart and Harry could smell the gingerbread in her breath. He tried to smile back, but his throat had gone dry. He was convinced that Ginny would be able to hear his heart beat if she listened carefully.

Ginny was rather liking the situation. With Harry this close to her, she was in heaven. He looked to utterly gorgeous with his glasses slid down on his nose, scarf almost falling off and with the snow in his hair. That his emerald eyes were staring back at her wasn't doing anything but add to the weird feeling of romance Ginny thought she sensed in the air. Maybe it was his minty breath against her skin, or the heat of his body, whatever it was it was making odd things to Ginny. For a moment she actually believed she had seen nervousness in his eyes.

"So… To an awkward subject, d'you have a date for the Ball yet, Harry?" Ginny suddenly asked with a courage that even surprised herself. That wasn't at all what she was thinking of saying. Obviously her mind and mouth weren't speaking to each other.

"Eh…" Harry swallowed. Why was it so hard to say that he didn't? Why would it even matter to her? "No…" he answered truthfully after some time. "You?"

"Nah… Don't expect to go to the Ball at all", Ginny said.

"What?" Harry exclaimed. "You have to go!" Ginny raised her eyebrows at him. "I mean… It will be fun… I think… Dunno if I'm going myself…"

A silence fell between them and Harry realized that he hadn't moved one inch from Ginny. But since she didn't seem to mind… The truth was that Harry couldn't pull away, even if he wanted to. There was just this odd atmosphere. Her eyes enchanted him. He didn't know there could be so many shades of brown, but looking into her eyes proved him wrong.

Harry suddenly felt very brave. The Gryffindor in him had awoken and was trying to get him to actually ask Ginny if she would go with him. He had wanted to ask her for so long now. When the Yule Ball was announced, his first thoughts had actually been 'I have to ask Ginny'. Then he had quickly discarded the thought, she would never go with him. But as the Yule Ball drew closer, he had found himself formulating how he should ask her.

"You know Ginny…" he began. She nodded to tell him to continue. "If you don't have someone to go with, and I don't either… Well… Do you want to go to the Ball with me?"

"I would love to, Harry!" she said happily and wrapped her arms around him. Harry was slightly surprised by her actions, when did Ginny become so brave? But he just smiled at her. She actually said yes…!

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Author's note: All together: 'awww'… Well I quite enjoyed it, hope you did too. Review, please!