The Beauty of Snow
smack
A snowball collided firmly with Ron's forehead.
"SEAMUS! You prat! Oh, now you're gonna get it!"
Seamus only grinned crookedly. "Bring it on Weasley!"
Ron frantically scooped up a chunk of snow and formed a ball. He wound up and, just as he threw it, Seamus dunked behind Ginny who screamed when the snowball exploded on her head.
"Ronald!" the red head screamed, glaring hotly at her older brother.
"I must tell you, sweetest brother," she said with excessive sweetness, "this means war."
Ron eyes brows shot up, knowing what that tone meant, and quickly tried to hide behind Hermione, which, sadly, didn't help much since he was nearly five inches taller than the petite witch. From there, snowballs flew in every direction and, before long, the snowball fight became a battle of houses.
Harry watched on in amusement as his friends simultaneously avoided the onslaught of packed snow and chucked their own snowballs at the Slytherins, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws. For some reason, Harry just didn't feel like joining in on the snowball fight. In fact, he hadn't felt like doing much this holiday season. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he was certain he was missing something but what it was…
"Harry, Duck!"
Harry stooped over just in time to miss a particularly large snowball that had been headed for him. He looked over his shoulder to see Luna Lovegood grinning broadly and ogling Harry with dreamy eyes.
"Sorry, Harry, I missed."
Harry just shook his head agreeably. As Luna wafted off, humming as she went, with a snowball in each hand, Harry noticed that someone else was standing outside the perimeter as well. Harry wondered briefly why the onlooker hadn't joined in the war of houses; perhaps the same reason as me. He watched the bystander quietly for a few moments noting how he frowned when a small slytherin boy missed an easy target and how he shook his head when Luna managed to build a snow radish in the middle of the battle field.
Suddenly, an idea struck Harry. He grinned wickedly for a moment before bending down to make a snowball of his own. He then stood up and, hiding the snowball behind his back, waited for the boy to return his gaze.
It only took a few moments before grey eyes turned to meet green. Then, Harry did the unexpected and smiled beatifically at Malfoy for a moment, causing Malfoy to stare in surprise, before chucking his snowball right at Malfoy's chest.
Malfoy stood there for a moment, snow clinging to his robes, and simply blinked at Harry. Then, slowly, Malfoy grinned right back at Harry. It was Harry's turn to blink. That's got to be the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, he thought absently.
Then, before Harry could even begin to analyze what it meant, the slytherin was heading back inside to the safety of the castle.
Later in the common room when Hermione pestered Harry about why he was grinning like an idiot, Harry blushed lightly while mumbling, "I guess I just really like snowball fights."