Author's Note: I wrote this for a Secret Santa event for the Fanfiction Library discord and for a Winter themed event for the 30 Fanfic discord. It's a twofer.
MrsMew, I hope you like this! I've fretted over it for a couple weeks now.
I snuck in decorating a tree and "inappropriate" use of mistletoe if you squint.
Special thanks to Mal Elisa for checking this over, and to my wonderful beta SomeKndOfNature! Don't know what I would have done without you.
Homeroom started off the same as always for Ginny Weasley. The principal, Mr. Dumbledore, droned on and on over the speaker system. Stifling a yawn, she caught her ex-boyfriend, Dean Thomas, sneaking another yearning glance at Seamus Finnigan. It was adorably disgusting. She hoped Seamus figured it out soon. Once he did, they could be all gross in one contained area rather than across the room from each other, ruining her view of Harry Potter.
He sat a row in front of her, so all she could see was the back of his scruffy black head. Her brother, Ron, and Hermione Granger sat on either side of him. Ron kept trying to lean around Harry to pass Hermione a note, but the bushy haired brunette was ignoring him again.
Ginny sat a little taller, not daring to stand enough for Ms. McGonagall to notice, and managed to catch a glimpse of Hermione taking notes. On the morning announcements. Notes.
Tearing out a piece of paper from her binder, she wrote a note to Neville, who was sitting to her right.
Hermione is taking notes!
She tapped his foot and, ignoring his flush and quick darting look at her brother, tossed the note onto his desk. Neville almost fumbled her perfect throw but managed to keep it on his desk, barely.
Ms. McGonagall cleared her throat and raised her eyebrows at them.
Ron actually turned around in his seat to stare at whatever had attracted their homeroom teacher's notice. Hermione, still taking notes, reached over Harry's head and smacked him.
"Ow! What was that for?!"
"Mr. Weasley, please face forward and attend the announcements. Miss Weasley, do not throw objects at Mr. Longbottom."
Ginny's smile made no promises; but she politely responded, almost in unison with her disgruntled brother, "Yes, Ms. McGonagall."
Seamus snickered and she glared at him. If Dean didn't like him so much Ginny would teach him such a lesson... Or sic her brothers on him. She had enough of them, and nothing made her brothers happier than to beat up boys who "made her cry."
"... purchase some candy canes for your friends, proceeds to benefit the local Boys and Girls club. Thank you for your attention, have an educational day!"
"What was that?" Ginny whispered to Neville, who was just now reading her note. He shrugged and pointed from the note to Hermione. She grimaced. This was only going to encourage the bookworm.
"Hey Hermione!"
"There's no need to shout, I'm four feet away from you." The brunette didn't even look up from the book she'd swapped to as soon as the announcements finished.
Ginny gritted her teeth and reminded herself that it was nice to have another girl around, that her brother and crush were best friends with this girl, and that this girl was incredibly gracious with handing out math notes to Ginny whenever she needed help.
"Sorry, Hermione. I was wondering if you could tell me what Mr. Dumbledore said at the end there?"
Hermione finally looked up and turned to face her. "There's a charity drive that will benefit the Boys and Girls club."
"Ok… And what about candy canes?"
Ms. McGonagall interrupted then. "I will explain the rest, Miss Weasley."
Hermione turned around, already pulling her notebook back out.
The teacher waited until she had their attention, then continued. "You may purchase candy canes to send to your friends. They cost twenty-five cents each, and you may attach a note to be delivered when the candy is distributed later this month. The proceeds from this will benefit the Boys and Girls Club."
Ginny immediately started brainstorming how to send Harry one without getting caught.
"I will add that this is not meant to be for couples only. Anyone may send one to anyone else." She smiled thinly and made eye contact with as many of them as possible. "It wouldn't be much of a charity drive if the rest of us didn't join in."
Satisfied with the scattered chuckles, Ms. McGonagall returned to her desk.
"Well," Ron said smugly, "we know Dean isn't getting one!"
Ginny scowled and glanced at her friend. Dean's face was carefully neutral as he stared at the books stacked on his desktop.
"Now why would you say that?" Hermione chided, nose back in her book.
"Because my sister broke up with him."
"Your sister," Seamus interrupted, standing up and planting his hands on the empty desk between them, "isn't the only person in the world."
Ron scoffed and turned back to his friends.
Seamus faked a laugh and added, "Besides, it would be rude for you Weasleys to pay into a charity that benefits you."
Ginny just rolled her eyes as Ron launched himself over his desk and the one in front of him in order to throw himself at Seamus. Harry grabbed the back of his friend's shirt and tried to haul him backwards.
Hermione set her book down and sighed. Ginny silently agreed and then looked at Dean.
He stood next to his desk just a few places down from where the two boys brawled. His fists clenched and unclenched and he took a hesitant step forward.
Ms. McGonagall pushed past him to get to the other boys. Ginny ignored the scolding, yelling, and threats in order to sneak over to her ex.
"Dean?" She asked softly.
He grimaced and slammed back into his desk, knocking his books to the ground.
Ginny gathered them up for him and held them out. He yanked them from her hands and tossed them into his bag. "This is such bullshit, Gin."
"I mean, he did literally insult my family in front of the stupidest of my siblings. Kinda asking for it."
"Not that." Dean glowered at her raised eyebrows before swiping a hand down his face and then rubbing his temples. "Well, mostly not that."
"Then what?" Ginny asked, sitting on the desk next to him.
"It's- You know. All of it," he said, vaguely gesturing around the room. "I knew it would be like this. But you told me-"
"I told you to man up and ask Seamus out already. When I broke up with you. Those were pretty much my exact words." Ginny interrupted. She rolled her eyes at his glare. "Don't look at me in that tone of voice. You know it's true."
Dean thumped his head down on his desk rather than answering her.
Ginny patted his shoulder, ignoring him trying to shrug her off, and tried to think of what to do with him. He'd been dancing around Seamus for over a year now. She knew, in her heart of hearts, that Seamus was interested in Dean as well. But dating in high school was rough for everyone, and especially difficult for guys who hadn't outed themselves yet.
Inspiration struck.
"Hey Dean!"
A muffled grumble was her answer, since his face was buried in his elbow at the moment.
She shook him. "Dean!"
"What?!" He lifted his head up and scowled at her.
"Send him one of those candy cane things!"
He rolled his eyes and dropped his head back down on his desk.
"Better yet," Ginny continued, growing more enthusiastic despite his dismissal, "do a collection! Get a bunch of people to send him some! Then yours won't stick out so much, and you can still send him a message."
"That's such a girl thing to do. He won't care about candy canes."
"Maybe not, but you'll still have actually done something. And he'll def be surprised."
Dean snorted. "Who's going to give me money for this?"
"I'll help you." Ginny laughed suddenly, drawing attention to herself. She pretended she didn't notice a frazzled Harry watching her. "We can tell them it's to get back at Ron."
"And you think that will convince people?"
She leaned forward to loom over him and said in a completely serious tone, "You underestimate how much people hate my brother."
Dean laughed, loud enough that a thoroughly disgruntled Ms. McGonagall chastised him.
"Besides," Ginny continued, quieter, "It's only twenty-five cents. Even I can afford that."
"Alright, alright," he agreed, rolling his eyes. "No promises that I'm going to say anything mushy to him. But yeah. We can send him some stupid candy canes."
"Excellent!" She exclaimed.
"Miss Weasley, please return to your seat. You are being disruptive," Ms. McGonagall called.
Ginny waved to acknowledge her teacher before winking at Dean and walking to her desk. She immediately turned to Neville. "Hey Neville. You know Seamus, right?"
"I mean, he's in our homeroom?" He answered hesitantly, obviously expecting to somehow be wrong.
"You're fine," she reassured, "I just need you to go talk to him for me."
"Uh… He's not here? He got into that fight?"
Ginny snorted. "Yeah, I know. But when he's back, can you talk to him?"
"About what?"
She grinned. "Suggest that he should send Dean a candy cane. Tell him to try and get a bunch of people to do it, to prove my brother wrong."
"Uh… Why?"
"Reasons."
"Okay… I guess?"
"Awesome, thanks Neville!" Ginny said, hugging the blushing boy tightly. The bell rang and she released him in order to grab her bag. "I'll see you later!"
A week later Ginny was sitting at her desk when Seamus approached her. He held out a ziploc bag partially filled with change.
"Pony up."
"Whatever is this for?" She asked dryly, poking at the jingly collection.
"Charity."
"I thought us Weasleys shouldn't contribute."
Seamus rolled his eyes and dropped the bag on her desk. "You don't care about that. Now put a quarter in already."
"Whoever are we sending candy canes to?" Ginny leaned back in her chair. From the corner of her eye she could see Dean sneaking glances at them.
"Dean," Seamus said, leaning in close.
"Get away from my sister!"
Ginny rolled her eyes and ignored her brother. Ron was tied up, almost literally, with holding a string of lights for Hermione. There was a green felt outline of a pine tree attached to the wall. Hermione was measuring the distance between hooks on the felt to ensure the optimum amount of lights. Or something. Ginny had tuned out most of the other girl's plans, and made sure to not look conveniently helpful.
She glanced over at Harry, who had been volunteered by Ron to place festive stickers on the large window facing the courtyard. He was very carefully consulting the diagrams Hermione had given him before putting so much as a star up.
Seamus snorted in Ron's general direction but otherwise ignored him. "You got the quarter or what?"
"Why are you asking me for money to send my ex a candy cane?"
"Because your brother said you wouldn't."
Ginny laughed and pulled her wallet from her bag. Inside there was a handful of change, her ID, and a picture of her and her friends from last year. Dean was awkwardly on the outside of the group, just barely in the frame. She counted out five pennies and two dimes before looking back up at Seamus. He was staring at the picture.
She raised an eyebrow at him as she dumped the change into the grimy bag and then closed her wallet. "Something you want to say?"
"Remind you of your friends?" He asked, gesturing at their forcibly festive environment. Even Ms. McGonagall was joining in, wearing a Santa hat and laughing at something Neville was doing.
"I skipped a grade, not five. Haven't dealt with nonsense like this since I was ten."
Seamus shrugged and looked at Dean, who was carefully studying the book on his desk. Ginny knew he wasn't actually reading because his eyes weren't moving.
"Why'd you break up?" Seamus asked finally.
"We both liked other guys," she said without thinking about it.
"Guys?"
Ginny stared at him, wide-eyed and gobsmacked, for a moment before answering. "People. Other people. We liked other people and he wouldn't accept it, so I ended it."
"Other people?"
"Yes. You can ask him who he likes if you want to. I'm not telling you who I like."
He snorted. "Everyone knows you like Harry except for Harry… And your brother."
Ginny buried her face in her hands and shook her head. "Not everyone, surely?"
"Everyone."
"Whatever. It doesn't matter." She groaned and let her hands drop. "I'm still not saying who Dean likes. You'll have to ask him."
Seamus picked up the bag of change and left without saying anything else, tossing it back and forth between his hands as he went.
"Ginny!"
She turned around to see Hermione gesturing for her. With a big sigh, Ginny got out of her desk and approached the other girl. "What's up, Hermione?"
Hermione peeked around her, Ginny turned to see what she was looking at and saw her brother and Harry arguing over the window decoration diagram. When she turned back around Hermione was holding out a small paper sack. It jingled.
"This is for Dean."
Ginny shot said boy a confused look before Hermione bopped her in the head.
"Ow!"
"That didn't actually hurt," Hermione scoffed as she shook the bag, "Don't look at him. The poor guy was nervous about asking people to donate for candy canes for Seamus and I offered to help."
"Oh. That makes more sense."
Hermione rolled her eyes and shook the bag again. "Get your change now, please. Ron doesn't know."
Ginny laughed, smothering it with her hands when the older girl frowned at her, and returned to her desk. She pulled her wallet out, again, and this time counted out three nickels and a dime. She snuck the coins into the bag and returned it to Hermione.
They smiled at each other before Harry and Ron joined them. Ginny felt her face go red as her crush stood next to her. She nodded awkwardly at him and then practically scurried away. Initially she was going to return to her desk, but then at the last minute decided to go to Dean.
She slumped into the desk next to him. From the corner of her eye, she saw him preparing to speak, and decided to beat him to it. "So, you've got Hermione doing your dirty work, huh?"
He glared and then looked away, directly at Seamus. The other boy raised his eyebrows at them and Dean whipped his head back around to face Ginny instead.
"He asked about you, you know?" She said, idly twirling red hair around her index finger. Feeling her friend's impatience, Ginny looked up through her eyelashes and continued, "He wanted to know why I broke up with you. I told you he was interested."
Dean gaped at her. "What did you tell him?"
"That we liked different people," she answered, deciding to not tell him about her slip up, "Said he'd have to ask you."
"You didn't!"
"I sure did."
"Ugh." Dean slumped back in his chair, tilted away from Seamus' desk. "Why do I have to have a meddling ex?"
"Why do you have to like the guy who blew up the chemistry lab?" Ginny retorted.
Dean immediately sat up, outraged. "He did not blow up the chem room!"
"Ok, so he just set it on fire. Hyperbole, whatever." She drawled, then giggled and added, "I'll never forget watching Mr. Snape stop, drop, and roll with the rest of us."
"I still think it was Hermione."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure. The girl who takes notes on the morning announcements and has the student handbook completely memorized totally set a teacher on fire."
"She was the only one in the front row who was completely unscathed," Dean insisted, "Literally the only one. Not a single singed hair on her bushy head."
"Ginny!"
The redhead looked up to see Hermione waving at her. She waved back and stood up. "Gotta go, Dean. Make sure you think of a good message to send Seamus!"
She made her escape while he was still trying to formulate a response through his embarrassment. Upon reaching the brunette, Ginny fully expected to be put in charge of counting popcorn onto a string or some other ridiculous, festive task. Instead she was given a heavy box and told to 'go help Harry.'
Grunting, she surveyed the room and spotted her crush standing underneath a ladder that her brother was working on. Firmly suppressing her instinctive panic over being anywhere near the boy, Ginny forced herself to join him.
"You do know you're not supposed to stand under ladders, right?" She said to his collarbone. His shoulders rose up in a shrug.
"This is where Hermione told me to stand," he said ruefully.
Ginny giggled and glanced up at her brother. Ron had a box of garlands to hang, it looked like, and she wondered how exactly Hermione had gotten Ms. McGonagall to agree to all of this nonsense. She was lowering her gaze when she spotted it. Mistletoe hung from the bottom of the ladder, directly above Harry's head.
Her horror must have been obvious, because when she looked at Harry he was staring up as well. Their eyes met and they both froze.
"Miss Granger! That is an entirely inappropriate use of mistletoe! Miss Weasley, Mr. Potter, get out from under that ladder!
Ginny took the opportunity to flee.
A week later and Ginny was doing her best to pretend nothing happened. Because nothing had happened. It really wasn't a big deal. After the first couple days no one even teased her about it anymore. Just Dean, who did his best to keep her face as red as her hair, and Seamus, who just liked to be annoying.
Harry certainly never seemed bothered by it. Ginny didn't know what his reaction was after she left, but, by the time she was able to look in his general direction without feeling like jumping out a window, he had acted completely normal.
On the one hand that was great. He wasn't going to make things weird and life could go back to normal. On the other hand it was awful, because Ginny wanted something to change.
She was sitting at her desk, again ignoring the morning announcements, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. It was Neville passing a note while on his way to the trash.
Where's Hermione?
Ginny blinked and looked to Harry's left. Hermione was, indeed, not there. She hoped there wasn't anything important in the morning announcements today, since the resident note taker wasn't there to fill her in. She was writing that thought down when the door opened.
Two arms overflowing with plastic bags filled with candy canes teetered through the door. Ms. McGonagall left her desk to assist the distributor of candy. It was Hermione, of course.
Ginny rolled her eyes and looked over at Dean. He was smiling softly at the mounds of candy on their teacher's desk. She whistled quietly. How many candy canes had these guys gotten each other?
After a whispered conference, Hermione and Ms. McGonagall counted out a few of the candy canes and then created two relatively equal sized piles from the rest. They pulled out little notes and started threading them through the sticks.
"Ginny!" Ms. McGonagall called before gesturing for her to come to the front. "Pass these out, please!"
The teacher handed her the canes that had notes attached and Ginny started wandering around the room handing them out. She didn't even bother pretending that she wasn't reading the notes as she went along.
Dean got the first one. An unsigned one telling him to get a room. She frowned at the somewhat rude message and passed it over to him. Seeing her face, he didn't even bother reading the note and just set it on his desk.
The next one was for Neville. Ginny didn't read it, since it was from her, and hoped he'd appreciate getting one. His shock when she plunked it on his head was worth it. Twenty-five cents well spent.
One for Seamus this time. The handwriting was Hermione's, and asked him to please talk to Dean. Well, that was nice and blunt. Seamus was glowering and impatiently holding his hand out. Ginny shrugged and passed it to him. She stood there, waiting for a reaction, but all he did was raise his eyebrows before putting it down.
Disappointed, Ginny snuck a glance at Dean as she went back for more. A couple other people were delivering now, and he had six more candy canes. She hoped they had better messages than the first one.
Roughly five minutes later, Seamus and Dean each had an overflowing bag while everyone else had just one or two. Ron had none.
"What the f-"
"Language, Mr. Weasley! Volume as well." Ms. McGonagall cut in, giving him a stern look and ignoring his spluttering dismay.
Ginny was internally screaming with laughter. She loved when jerks got what they deserved, especially when that jerk was her brother.
On her way back to her desk, Ginny snooped and counted how many her other friends had gotten. Hermione had four and Harry had two.
Harry was carefully reading one of them. He looked up just in time to catch her eye as she was passing by. Ginny blushed and scurried behind him.
"Thanks," Neville said as she plopped into her chair.
Ginny waved acknowledgement at him and leaned back in a stretch before sitting up properly. She had five candy canes waiting for her.
Just talk to him! from Hermione. Ginny pursed her lips and set it aside.
A smudged message from Neville thanking her for being a good friend.
One was clearly from Dean and made her laugh. You better stop meddling after this. 3
Seamus had also sent her one. Ginny looked up to see him staring at her. They raised eyebrows at each other, then she laughed and he shrugged at his pile of candy canes. She wondered if he was even going to read them. Poor Dean.
Sliding her gaze from Seamus towards Dean, Ginny got derailed in the middle by a pair of bright green eyes. She could feel her face blush. Hurriedly closing her gaping mouth, she dropped her eyes back to her desk. The last candy cane was still waiting.
Impressively messy, almost illegible, handwriting. Hermione didn't put the mistletoe there, I don't know who did, but it's not a bad idea.
Her vision tunneled, and Ginny felt like she might actually faint. This couldn't be what she thought it was. A quick peek through her bangs found Harry still facing her way, though he was talking to Hermione now.
Not a bad idea? What did that even mean? Ginny wondered, frantically beating down the small, fragile hope she'd had since she was nine.
"Ginny!"
She startled and whipped her head up. Dean waving for her to come over was a relief, especially when she noticed Harry watching her again. Ginny quickly stood up and took the long way around so she didn't have to walk by her crush.
Dean was laughing when she got there. "Show it to me!"
"Show you what?" She asked crossly.
"The card," he rolled his eyes at her shifty expression and held his hand out. "The one Harry sent you. I know he sent you one."
Ginny shushed him and carefully did not look in Harry's direction. "I'm not showing you anything. You found the one from Seamus yet?"
"There's so many," Dean grumbled and poked at the pile of candy canes on his desk.
"I can tell you what it says," Seamus interrupted from the right, where both Dean and Ginny had been avoiding looking. He waited until they were mostly done being alarmed, with a pleased smirk on his face, before continuing, "since I wrote it and all."
Dean was braced to stand, seemingly torn between burying his face in his hands or fleeing.
"That would be nice, I guess, since you managed to get so many people to send him candy canes," Ginny answered slowly, for once not sure what the best option was for her friend.
"I was talking to Dean," Seamus said, crossing his arms and leaning on Dean's desk. "Not you. Go talk to Potter."
She opted to ignore his reference to Harry and instead addressed Dean. "You want me to go?"
"Just go already. He's a big boy and can talk to me on his own."
"Yeah… I'm good, Ginny. Thanks." Dean said, looking up at Seamus.
Seamus got off Dean's desk and waited next to the desk Ginny was sitting at. She slowly got up, wanting to irritate him as much as she could without getting Dean upset with her, and stood behind her friend.
"You got my note, right?" Seamus asked, watching her put a reassuring hand on Dean's back.
"Yeah?" She answered. "Don't really get it, though. Is it a red fly?"
He scoffed. "It's mistletoe."
"Why would you draw mistletoe-" She stopped and stared at him in horror. "That was you?!"
"Worth it." He laughed and didn't fight back when she smacked his arm. "You're not the only one who can come up with stupid ways to try and get people together. Now get out of here. Dean and I need to talk."
Ginny whirled around, fully ready to storm back to her desk, only to stop short when she saw Harry standing there. He was talking to Neville, and so didn't appear to notice her quick change of direction as she instead headed for the door. She could come back for her bag.
She tripped over Lavender's bags and was saved from falling when Hermione grabbed her arm.
"Thanks, Herm-"
"Turn around, please." Hermione interrupted as she physically pulled Ginny back the way she'd come. "You need to go talk to Harry."
"Why is everyone saying that all of a sudden?" Ginny grumbled, hiding her blush by staring at the ground while trying to pull out of Hermione's grasp. "I gotta pee."
"Come on, Ginny! Just go say 'hi' to him even! Something!"
"But why? Why now?"
Hermione threw her hands up in aggravation and Ginny quickly pulled her away from everyone else and whispered, "Hermione, I don't-"
"Ginny. You like Harry. Everyone knows you like Harry," She ignored Ginny's frown and attempt to interrupt, "Yes everyone. Even Ron knows."
"Oh god-"
"Calm down. Just go talk to Harry," Hermione continued, "It will be fine."
Ginny tried to head for the door, only to feel a hand on her shoulder again. She shrugged it off and turned around to argue with Hermione some more, only to come face to face with Harry. Her outrage morphed into extreme mortification, and she felt her eyes tear up.
"Hey, Ginny."
"Hey, Harry..."
"So…" Here he paused and she glanced up quick to see him looking at Seamus and Dean. The boys were making faces at them.
She smiled despite herself and chuckled.
"You hang out with those guys?" Harry asked, startling her into remembering that her crush was RIGHT THERE and she should be panicking.
She cleared her throat. "Seamus is a new addition. On probation."
"Oh?"
"Yes. He has to prove he's not a complete ass."
Harry laughed. "He can be a partial ass?"
"As long as he's not worse than Ron," Ginny shrugged and took a step towards her desk. Harry followed.
Seamus made kissy noises as they walked by and Harry laughed. Her shoulders slumped and Ginny feared that her skin would permanently turn red from all the blushing she was doing.
When they reached her desk Neville smiled at her hesitantly, glancing between her and Harry.
"Neville! Come here!" Hermione called.
The boy nodded and left them standing awkwardly next to her desk. Ginny kicked her bag further under her desk and tried to figure out what to do.
Harry cleared his throat. "Everyone has been kind of… pushy lately."
She nodded and didn't say anything.
"I, uh, do want to talk to you, though. If that's ok."
Ginny lifted her head up finally, just to see that Harry was looking at his shoes. The fact that he was seemingly also embarrassed by the situation made her feel a little better.
Movement behind him distracted her and she watched Dean pull Seamus back into his seat. She leaned over to look around Harry and saw that her brother was being hauled off by Ms. McGonagall. Sighing, she focused back on Harry, who was staring at the note from Seamus.
"What is that?"
"Apparently it's mistletoe."
"Why did someone send you a drawing of mistletoe?"
"It was Seamus. He's the one who put it up last week."
"Oh."
"Yeah." She shrugged.
The bell rang and everyone started gathering their things. Ginny leaned down to grab her bag and almost headbutted Harry, who had beaten her to it. He held it out to her and she dumped the candy canes into it.
"Thanks…"
"No problem."
They stood for another awkward moment before Harry cleared his throat and gestured towards his desk. She nodded and waited for him to grab his bag. He bent over and scribbled something on a piece of paper before shoving everything on the desk into his bag.
They walked into the hallway together until they reached the junction between the math and English hallways.
"Well, bye…" She said quietly.
"Here," he said, pushing a piece of paper into her hand. "See you around."
"See you."
Ginny watched him go before opening the crumbled bit of paper. There was a phone number and Let's talk sometime written on it. The second bell went off, and she ignored it to lean against the wall and put her hands on her face. Eventually she sighed, tucked the paper into her pocket, and headed to class. Her friends were never going to let her live this down.
She showed up five minutes late to geometry. Ms. Vector waved her in without any fuss, and Ginny was shocked to see how many people were missing.
Hermione patted the desk next to her eagerly, and Ginny resigned herself to having a 'girl talk.' On her way over, Ginny noticed that one of the missing people was Dean.
"Where is everyone?" She asked Hermione, absentmindedly accepting the notes she was handed.
Hermione had updated the outline she made prior to class to add in details from the actual lecture. Ginny didn't know anyone else who took notes before the teacher covered it, but it really did make things easier.
Hermione wrinkled her nose and gestured towards the courtyard. If she concentrated Ginny thought she could hear something, but didn't know what it could be.
"You might as well go look," Ms. Vector said with a sigh.
Ginny instantly popped to her feet and walked across the room to the single window.
It was snowing, and enough had fallen that some students had been tempted into having a snowball fight in the courtyard. She was surprised that none of the teachers were doing anything about it, especially since people were skipping class to join in, but then she saw Principal Dumbledore cheering on a group of the most enthusiastic fighters. Of course.
"He's over by the cafeteria door," Hermione said, still sitting at her desk.
Ginny almost asked who she was referring to, but then spotted Dean. He and Seamus were on the outskirts of the fight, talking and occasionally lobbing a snowball or two at random people.
Even from this distance Ginny could see how relaxed they were with each other, and she felt a pang of jealousy when she remembered how awkward she and Harry were together.
Seamus ducked down and grabbed a fistful of snow while Dean was looking the other way. He walked up to her friend, wrapped an arm around his neck to pull him into a side hug, before dumping the snow in his hand down the back of Dean's jacket.
Ginny laughed so hard that tears came to her eyes. Behind her she could hear Ms. Vector and Hermione commiserating over the lack of work ethic and drive in students nowadays. The few classmates who had bothered coming to class were milling around either talking to each other or looking out the window.
Wiping her streaming eyes, Ginny watched Dean tackle Seamus into the snow. The bell rang and Mr. Dumbledore started herding students back inside. When he got to the two boys, he said something that made them laugh. They got up and started brushing the snow off once he left.
Ginny marveled at how they so easily, so casually interacted after a year of moping around on Dean's part. All it took was Seamus figuring out how the other boy felt. And now they were standing in the snow, patting each other down and laughing when one or the other tried to push snow through the cracks and crevices of their clothing.
She wondered how much of her difficulty with Harry was due simply to her getting in her own way. Could things be this easy, if she let him in? Ginny patted her pocket, reassured by the sound of the note inside crinkling, and resolved to call him later. Or, as a hint of anxiety crept back in, maybe she'd just text him.