The Secret of the Forest

DISCLAIMER-- Not mine, not even the plot...I stole it from The Orange Jedi...hehehe. Love ya JESS!

It was the first snowfall of Winter at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and it was being taken full advantage of. The annual, First Snowfall Fight was well underway, and now all that was left was The Prefects and Heads against a combined force of the 7th year Gryffindors and the 7th year Slytherins. So far, the Heads and Prefects were holding their own, as they were far outnumbered, and were slowly taking down as many of the opposing team as possible.

"Granger! Watch out!" Yelled Draco Malfoy...He had a reputation to uphold. Ever since he had come to Hogwarts, he had been on the winning team, and He didn't want his last year to be any different.

"Malfoy...Watch yourself! INCOMING!" Hermione Granger yelled out the last part, as, Blaise Zabini and Ron Weasley had somehow managed to remember the Catapult spell, and had sent a snowball the size of Hagrid, slamming into the side of Fort H&P.

Brushing off a load of snow and ice from herself, Hermione and Draco set to waork repairing the walls that had been damaged. They were not about to let one big-ass snowball like that take out their fort that they had spent all night working on. They weren't the top of their class for nothing.

Soon, it was apparent that they had beaten the Gryfferins and that they should turn against each other. The girls split off with Hermione, the guys went with Draco, and they began formulationg a plan.

The boys had decided to pick off the girls as they could, leaving Hermione alone. The girls had the same plan, but were leaving Draco alone. They all knew that the best ending to the day would be if Hermione and Draco faced off.

Soon, the guys ahd picked off all the girls except Hermione, and the girls had picked off all the guys except for Draco. And now it was on.

Hiding behind a wall of, now ruined, Fort H&P, Hermione was waiting until she could hear where Draco was at...trying to incorporate some of her Animagus senses into her own. The Silver Fox in her could smell him, but couldn't tell from where though, as his scent permeated the air.

Draco was leaning against a far wall of Fort H&P, also tyring to use his Animagus senses...but more to his advantage. Slipping into Tuft, his animagus (Lynx)...He crept around the corners of Fort H&P, focused on her scent.

Hermione could scent him getting closer, but now there was a new tinge to his scent...one she knew quite well. She slipped into Vix (her animagus form), and began to bound away through the snow, maintaining her stealth all the way through the woods, til she got to a big enough tree to hide herself behind. She formed back into her human self, and waited to see if she could hear Draco getting any closer. Suddenly, she was beaned in the head by a softball-sized snowball. Narrowing her eyes, she became Vix once again...and took off in the direction that she had decided that the snowball had come from.

Draco, as Tuft, had crept up behind Vix, and was now sitting in a tree right behind her, and just slightly above her. He could barely make her out in the snow, for her silver fur almost matched the snow. He knew if she turned around and looked up...he was a goner. His coat didn't match him to the snow, he was better suited for rocks and the like.

Hermione was now just sitting against the tree that Draco was in, back in her human form. She could scent him, but she didn't know where he was at. She sat there for about 2 minutes, trying to think of somewhere he could hide, when suddenly, she heard a soft growl come from above her. Looking up, she saw a very familiar looknig Lynx, looking at her very hungrily. She let out a soft scream when she saw it start to jump down at her.

Draco sat above her, watching her try to figure out where he was at. He noticed how tousled her hair was getting, and that the soft, white, snowflakes in her hair made her look quite lovely, along with the blush on her face from running around. He let out a soft growl when he realized just how pretty she was...and then noticed that she perked up, and turned to look right at him. He began to jump down when she let out a soft scream, and quickly shifted into Vix.

Tuft pinned Vix down in the snow, and was staring into her bright hazel eyes, feeling her eyes connect to his silver eyes...Neither noticing the Stag that had appeared just a few yards away from them, and the red squirell that was sitting upon it's shoulders. The stag turned it's hazel eyes up to the squirell's emerald green eyes, and they exchanged a knowing look with each other, before a soft wind blew and swept snow up in a swirl, and when the wind settled, they were no longer there.

Vix leaned her head up towards Tuft, and Tuft lowered his to hers. Both shifted back to their human selves, and stayed in that position for quite a few minutes. After a few minutes, Draco dropped hi head closer to Hermione's and whispered softly in her ear...

"Cat got your to tongue?" He said, cheekily. She looked at him, and with one of the most serious faces she could muster...she replied back to him...just as cheekily.

"Not yet, he doesn't." He raised an eyebrow...and just as he did, she raised her head just those last few centimeters, closed the gap, and softly kissed him.

Draco's eyes opened wide when he realized that he was being kissed. It wasn't really that he was being kissed, but by whom he was being kissed. Never in his wildest dreams (Ok, yes, in his wildest dreams...Lol) had he imagined this day to come. He had been waiting since the end of 6th year for this to come true...

Off in the distance, if one looked close enough, one could see the same stag and squirell, but now they were joined by a bear, a weasel and a horse. The Bear and the Weasel had the same colorings...as they were brother and sister, and the horse was pitch black and had the greenest eyes one could imagine being on a horse. A rough patch of golden fur on it's head resembled a lightning bolt. The Horse, the Bear, and the Weasel all changed back into Harry, Ginny and Ron. Harry turned to the Stag and the Squriell and said...

"Mum, Dad, Thanks...We've all known they should be together, but they we're too stubborn to do it with out a little, push."

The Stag bowed down, nodding it's head, almost poking out Harry's eye while doing so, and the Squirell leapt onto his head, chattering loudly and quickly, and somehow, Harry understood exactly what she was saying, as he had began to blush a deep, deep red and had glanced over at Ginny.

"Ok, Ok, OK MUM! I get it...I need to get it together before you do the same thing we just did to Draco and Hermione to me and...yeah..."

Ginny looked over at Lily Potter perched on her son's head...and gave her a wink. She would get him to figure it out soon enough.

Ron said little, he just looked back towards the castle with a longing look on his face. The Stag noticed this, and poked him in the shoulder with an antler tip. The look in it's eyes was one that spoke volumes... meaning...it said this...

"Either both of you suck it up and do it, or you'll have the whole school wondering why a stag and squirell are chasing you down the hallways..."

Ginny just laughed at the look on Harry and Ron's faces when they looked over and saw that the snigging session was still going and didn't look to be ending anytime soon.

"Come on, let's head back up to the castle..." Ginny said...walking off...

Harry and Ron set off after her...and soon caught up to her. Ginny reached over and grabbed Harry's hand...intertwining their fingers. Ron took off jogging to the castle, eager to get there and handle what need to be done before James came and stuck him again with his antlers.

"So, who would have though, Draco and Hermione, and My brother and Pansy?"

"Weirder things have been known to happen..." Harry said, inclining his head towards the forest were, the Stag and Squirell had soon been joined by a large shaggy dog and a huge wolf.

"Like?"

"LIke having my parents living in the forest right next to where I am going to school at, and having Padfoot and Moony out there too...At least in this form, there's no pranks.."

A loud boom was heard, echoing throughout the grounds...

Listen closely, and what sounded like a dog snickering, a wolf howling in laughter and a squirell chattering away at a repentive stag could be heard...

Oh dear...

"I could be wrong..."

AUTHORS NOTE ---

So, whatcha think? It's a ONE SHOT...Meaning NO MORE after this...I may write something liek it into a chapter story...lol...

Read and Review...