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Disclaimer: Own nothing, nadda, zip, zilch. Mandi owns Claire and Plot, J.K.Rowling owns everyone else.


Chapter Seven

Snowball Fights and Back to School

Claire and Ron entered the kitchen hand in hand. Ginny was the first to notice and grinned. "It's so nice to see you holding hands again."

Everyone turned to see what she was talking about and Claire and Ron smiled at them. "Does this mean you told her?" Harry asked Ron.

"Nope." he replied.

"Then why...?" Hermione said.

"I remembered." Claire told everyone.

Cheers rang out from all around the room. Fred and George jumped up to rearrange the seating. When they were finished Mr. Weasley was sitting at the head of the table and there were two empty chairs, side by side, at the other end.

The couple sat down and laughed at all the excitement.

"This is so great!" Mrs. Weasley said, beaming at them, she turned to Claire and said, "Even though you've only been here one day I really did miss seeing you two together like this."

Christmas dinner was so enjoyable for everyone that night because they were all so happy. Ginny and Hermione seemed extra giggly as they talked to each other. Fred and George were even more entertaining than usual, setting off fireworks halfway through the meal, Mrs. Weasley didn't even yell at them for it but laughed with everyone else. And throughout the entire meal everyone seemed to be smiling at Claire and Ron. They didn't mind at all, but smiled back as they ate.

After dinner everyone went out into the snow for a snowball fight. Mrs. Weasley sat down to watch but the rest split into two teams. At first Fred wanted to play boys against girls but Claire, Hermione and Ginny complained that it wasn't fair so they picked team captains and went from there.

"Now remember," George said before they started picking people, "If you get hit with a snowball, you're out and have to go sit by mum." he pointed to Mrs. Weasley, "Last team with a player standing wins. Got it?" Everyone nodded. "Good, Fred, you may pick the first person.

Fred nodded, "Thank you. And I pick... Dad!" Fred said, pointing to his father.

"Ah hah! I was picked first!" he said laughing as he went to stand by his son.

"Fine, I pick Bill!" George said.

"Ginny!"

"Hey, I wanted Ginny!" George protested.

Fred stuck out his tongue, "Should have thought of that earlier!"

"Fine... then I pick Claire!"

"How about we make this interesting..." Fred said, grinning mischievously, "I pick Ron!"

"Now that's not right!" Ron yelled, laughing as he stood by his brother's side. He turned to Claire, "You're going down!"

"I don't think so!" She replied, also laughing.

They continued picking people, Harry and Charlie joining George's team while Hermione went to Fred's.

"Well, that seems to be everyone!" George declared.

"What about me!" Percy yelled.

"What? Oh, Percy! Didn't see you there!" George said.

"Haha very funny." he replied, crossing his arms in front of him.

"You know I'm just joking," George told him, "You can be on Fred's team!"

"No, no. Be on George's team," Fred said, speaking as if it were a polite debate, "I insist."

"Ah, but you're team is currently smallest, you can take him." said George, talking as Fred had done.

Mrs. Weasley broke in, "He's right, Fred, take him."

Percy scowled and walked to Fred's team. Fred slapped him on the back, "Welcome aboard, glad to have you. You knew we were joking, right dear brother?"

Percy didn't reply but instead bent over, grabbed a handful of snow and pushed it right into Fred's face. "Of course." he said smiling.

Everyone laughed as Fred shook the snow off his face. He made a snowball, threw it into the air and yelled, "GAME ON!"

Instantly snowballs were flying in every direction. People were ducking and dodging in all over. Percy was hit first by a snowball from Charlie.

"Nice shot!" Harry called to him as he watched Percy wipe snow from the back of his head. Seconds later he was hit in the leg.

"Better pay better attention!" Hermione said as she bent down for more snow.

Left and right people were being hit until only three people remained.

Fred and Ron stood by a tree facing Claire who stood alone ten feet away.

"My is this an interesting turn of events!" Fred said, watching Claire closely, "My youngest brother and I... against his girlfriend. Only three remain..."

Claire slowly slipped her hand into her pocket. She pulled out a partially melted snowball and whipped it at Fred, hitting his left arm. "Make that two," she said, wiping the snow off her gloved hands.

Fred laughed, "That was great," he walked to across to the group that had assembled by Mrs. Weasley.

Everyone watched quietly as Claire and Ron just stared at each other.

"Got another one in your other pocket Claire?" Ron asked jokingly.

"I'm not sure, you wanna find out?" she said, a smile forming on her almost blue lips.

Ron slowly bent his knees. His hand inched toward the snow below him.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Claire asked him. She didn't have another snowball, she just wanted to see if he'd fall for her threat.

Ron didn't reply. He continued to move very slowly, closer and closer to the ground.

Thump.

A snowball had hit her leg, he turned to see who had thrown it and was hit by another one, right in the chest. She knew that one had come from Ron.

"You lose," he said smiling at Claire.

"That wasn't fair!" Hermione yelled, "You distracted her!" she pointed at Fred.

"What do you care? Your team just won!" he shouted back.

"It was cheating!"

"Technically, so was Claire's snowball-in-the-pocket trick but no one called out that one." he said, "Which was brilliant by the way." he added to Claire.

She smiled, "Thanks. And Hermione, I really don't mind. I knew that one hadn't come from Ron so I shouldn't have let it distract me."

"See?" Fred said to Hermione, "she doesn't mind. Besides, we're all a bit cold anyway. I vote we go inside for hot chocolate!"

"Here here!" chimed in the others.

Hermione admitted defeat and joined the rest as they made their way back to the kitchen.

They went inside, took off their soaked coats and gathered around the fire as Mrs. Weasley made hot chocolate.

"I think that was our best snowball fight yet." Bill said from the chair he was sitting in.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Who would've guessed it'd come down to Claire and Ron though?" said Charlie from the couch in the corner.

"I really did love that snowball-in-the-pocket trick Claire pulled," Fred said laughing, "Even if it did bring about my defeat."

"I put it there just in case." Claire told him smiling, "I was afraid it had melted by then though."

"It's good it didn't," George said, "It made the end of the game so interesting."

"Who wants hot chocolate?" Mrs.Weasley asked, bringing a tray of hot chocolate from the kitchen. She passed it around until everyone had a cup. "You guys played a great game." she told Claire and Ron, who were sitting together on the floor.

"Thanks Mrs. Weasley." Claire said.

"I played better though." Ron said laughing. "I won the game."

"Only because you cheated," she replied, smiling at him.

The room was quiet for a few minutes except for the soft sounds of people cooling their hot chocolate. When the last cup had been emptied and everyone sat around in a sleepy silence Mr. Weasley suggested they all go to bed.

His children instantly protested, "We're not even tired!" "It's barely midnight!" "We're adults, why can't we go to bed when we choose?"

"Hey!" Mr. Weasley shouted, "it was only a suggestion! You don't have to, I know you're all old enough to make up your own mind. Most of you don't even live here anymore. I just thought it'd be a good idea since you all look so tired."

They all laughed nervously. "Sorry Dad." Bill said, "Guess we got a little carried away."

"It's okay. You guys can all stay up however long you want, but I'm going to go to bed."

"I think I will too." Mrs. Weasley said, getting up from the chair she had been sitting in. "Try not to stay up too late, and please be quiet, we still want to be able to sleep."

"Okay, no problem." Fred said, waving them off.

They left the room and the others sat in silence for a few moments until they heard the bedroom door close a few minutes later.

"So..." Charlie said, breaking the silence, "What're we going to do?"

No one said anything.

"Well this is an exciting bunch." George said sarcastically.

Ginny yawned.

"Like I said..." he said, unenthusiastically.

After a few moments the others began talking again, everyone having their own conversations. Hermione was talking to Percy about the Ministry of Magic, Fred and George were having a discussion about their newest inventions and how to market them, Bill kept mentioning Fleur Delacour to Charlie who seemed to be getting thoroughly annoyed and Harry was talking to Ginny about the Hogwarts Quidditch Teams and their players.

"This has been a fun Christmas, hasn't it?" Ron asked Claire from their spot on the floor, they were leaning against the wall.

"Best one I can remember." Claire replied smiling.

Ron returned the smile and put his arm around her. They sat there listening to bits of the others' conversations. "I'm really glad you've remembered..." Ron said quietly a few moments later.

"I'm glad too." Claire told him.

"Kiss, kiss, kiss!" Fred and George began chanting. Ron and Claire hadn't realized that they had been watching them from the couch five feet away.

Claire picked up a pillow from the floor next to her and threw it at them, "Shut up you!" she said, laughing as the pillow hit George.

"C'mon," Fred said, jumping off the couch, "You know you wanna!"

"You're acting very childish, you know that?" Ron said, "Not at all like a mature adult should."

"Oh yeah?" Fred replied, "Well everyone here knows quite well that we are not mature adults, now are we?" he laughed as he looked at the nodding heads around the room.

"He's got a point you know." Ginny told Ron.

"How about we just quit this and go to sleep?" Hermione suggested, "It's almost 1:00am."

"I agree with her!" Ron said enthusiastically, topping it off with a great yawn.

Claire laughed, "Yeah, me too. I am a bit tired.

So everyone began to settle down to their choice of spots in the room. Charlie passed pillows around to everyone and it soon became quiet. Claire quickly fell asleep, listening to the deep breathing of her friends around her.

The next few days everyone had a great time hanging out and Claire was almost disappointed when Mrs. Weasley announced that they'd be returning to school the following day.

"Haha." Fred said laughing, "While you five head back to Hogwarts the rest of us get to... go... back to... work." he said, his enthusiasm dwindling as he spoke. "Mum. I wanna go back to school." he said turning to his mother and acting like a five year old.

Ron laughed. "Yeah, have fun at work Fred."

They spent their last day talking, joking and playing games. When the day ended no one was happy about the next morning.

But they soon went to bed and woke up to pack their bags and get on the train back to Hogwarts.

The Weasley family waved them off as they climbed aboard the Hogwarts express.

"So, did you all have fun?" Ron asked.

"Yes, that was a wonderful break." Hermione said.

"You know I always have a great time at your house." Harry said smiling at his friend.

"I had a great time." Claire said.

"Brilliant." said Ron as the train pulled out of the station.


So it's back to Hogwarts, eh? Read and Review!