Day Twenty-Two - Sledding
The Weasley's, Harry and Hermione go sledding on some hills near The Burrow.
A/N: This might not be brilliantly accurate. I'm not one for sledding myself, and it's been ages since I went.
Christmas break had officially started, and Harry and Hermione were visiting The Burrow for the day. Thank goodness they'd passed the apparition tests by now, since neither of them were a fan of Flooing, and Muggle transportation may have been difficult considering everywhere was covered in inches of snow.
Since it had snowed a lot the night before, they all decided to go sledding on some hills near The Burrow that afternoon. A short while after Harry and Hermione had arrived, Fred and George turned up, since they'd left Verity in charge of the shop for a couple of hours so they could pop by. With everyone there, they gathered up a couple of the old sleds from the shed and trekked over to the hills.
'Why don't we just apparate there?' Ginny asked them as they trudged along in the snow.
'Well for starters, you can't apparate,' Fred told her, 'and none of us want to side along apparate you.'
'For another thing, where's the fun in that?' George smirked.
'Plus, there might be Muggles around. They're some good hills for sledding, I imagine, and there might be a lot of people,' Hermione piped up from the back of the group. She herself would have preferred to apparate there though, she wasn't the biggest fan of traipsing through snow.
'Now that is true,' Ginny agreed, 'but hopefully there won't be anyone else there.'
After a good twenty minutes of walking, that would've been ten without the snow, they finally arrived at the hill, relieved to see that there was no one else there, so they'd have it to themselves, and it was clear that no one else had been there yet. The snow was completely untouched.
'I call first go down!' Ginny shouted as she raced up the hill as best as she could, dragging one of the sleds with her. They only had two, so they'd have to take it in turns, but at least they could fit two or three people on at a time if they wanted to.
The others followed Ginny up the slope and watched as she slid past them, having already made it to the top by the time they were almost there and quickly set off down the hill on the sled.
Fred and George went next, Fred went next, and once Ginny returned with her sled, Ron took it from her and followed Fred down the hill.
Thos left at the top watched as they zoomed away and could only hear whooping coming from them. Fred made it back up first and handing his sled off to a waiting George, and when Ron followed not far behind he passed it over to Harry.
They spent a good fifteen minutes rushing down the hill on the sleds and then traipsing back up to the top again. Ron and Harry raced each other a couple of times, as did Fred and George. Then Ron and Harry raced Fred and George before Ginny insisted it had been too long since her last go and demanded a sled, which Ron and Harry handed off to her. It was at this point that they all realised Hermione hadn't been down once yet.
'Here you go, Hermione, sorry we were hogging it,' said Fred, gesturing himself and George as they passed the sled over to her.
'Oh, no, it's okay, I don't mind waiting,' she insisted, not taking it from him.
'You haven't even been down once yet though!' Ron argued.
'Of course I have, Ron, don't be silly,' Hermione laughed nervously.
'No, you haven't,' Ginny said, coming to stand beside her. 'Why won't you go down?'
Hermione sighed in defeat.
'Look, I'm just not a huge fan of sledding, okay? I've never really done it before because I don't want to fall off it halfway down and hurt myself.'
'Don't worry about that 'Mione!' Harry told her, coming to give her a side hug. 'One of us can go down with you if you want, make sure you stay on! Not one of us has fallen off yet.' Harry looked around to the others for support and they all nodded their agreement.
'Yeah, we won't let you fall off it, and even if you do, it's snow!' Ginny told her confidently. 'It won't hurt at all, I promise you! Me and Ron always used to fall off.'
Ron nodded from behind his sister.
'Go on, Hermione, have a go!' They all cheered her on.
'Okay fine!' She conceded. She took the sled Fred was holding out to her. 'One of you has to come down with me though.'
'I'll go with you,' Ron told her guiding her to the top of the hill and gesturing for her to put the sled down.
'We'll go down with you!' Ginny enthused, pulling Harry to her side and coming to join them. They made sure to go a little distance away so they didn't run into each other.
Ron sat himself down on the sled and got Hermione to sit in front of him. Once she was, he wrapped his arms around her prepared to push off with his feet. Harry and Ginny had done the same thing, with Harry waiting to push off as well.
'You ready?' Ron asked Hermione gently. She simply nodded in response.
A second later, Ron pushed with his feet and they set off, whooshing down the hill. Hermione felt the wind hit her face a little and looked slightly to her right to see Harry and Ginny sliding down the hill too. They came to the bottom and slowed down as the ground levelled out. Ron stood up first and offered a hand to Hermione to help her up.
'How was that?' He asked her.
'Brilliant!' She squealed with a big smile on her face. 'That was so much fun! Why have I always been scared of it? It's not bad at all!'
The others laughed and followed her as she raced back up the hill, eager to go down again. Once they reached the top, Harry offered to go down with her this time while Ginny went down with George.
After the second go, Hermione asked if she could go down with Ginny, who simply nodded in excitement and pulled Hermione over to the sled in front of her so they could get ready. Ron and Harry decided they'd go down too.
After that go, Hermione wanted to go down with Ron again a couple more times, and was even up for racing, so Fred and George took it in turns to race Hermione and Ron down the hill. Hermione realised she was going down every single time and wanted to let someone else have a go again.
'Don't worry about it!' Ginny told her enthusiastically. 'You've never done this before so we're letting you have fun with it! Besides, we're taking it in turns on the other one.'
'Are you sure?' They all nodded. 'Okay, well I'll go down once more with Ginny this time and then I'll have a break.'
The girls got themselves ready to race Harry and Ron down the hill. As they set off, Fred and George watched them go before glancing around the fields they were surrounded by. The hill they were using was where the level of one of the fields changed. The next field over looked like it had an even steeper hill than the one they were using, but they'd never gone down that hill before when they'd been sledding here in the past.
'Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Freddie?' George asked his twin with a smirk.
'Always, Georgie,' Fred responded with an identical smirk.
When the others had climbed back up the hill, they knew the twins were up to something.
'What's with that look?' Ginny asked suspiciously.
'Well, we were just thinking about the next field over,' began Fred.
'- and how it's steeper than the one we've been sledding down for the past half hour -' continued George.
'- and we remembered we've only ever been down this hill before -'
'- so maybe we should try the steeper one -'
'What do you say?' They finished together as they looked around the group. Hermione had gone a little pale at the idea.
'I've only just started sledding, and this hill is steep enough for me, thanks,' she shook her head.
'I wouldn't mind having a go,' Ron shrugged.
'Yeah, me neither,' Ginny and Harry chorused.
Hermione looked at them all nervously.
'How about we all go down it a few times, and if you want to give it a go you can, and if not we can come back to this field instead?' Ron suggested.
Hermione thought about it for a few minutes before she nodded.
'Okay, I'll wait at the top of the hill for you all.'
They headed into the next field over, and Hermione watched as first Fred and George, then Harry and Ron whizzed down the steeper hill. They all fell off towards the bottom, but none of them seemed to be too hurt. After seeing this, Ginny decided to go down the hill with Harry instead, and hoped one of them would be able to remain on the sled (her).
Ron offered his sled to Hermione once her returned.
'Wanna have a go with me?'
Hermione shook her head. She was just too nervous.
'Not yet. Maybe once you've all had a few more goes. I'll go down once with you and then I'll wait at the bottom and watch you all have fun. I don't mind!' She rushed to reassure him when he looked like he was going to argue the fact she wanted to stay at the bottom.
'Are you sure?' Ron asked her.
'Yes, I'm sure. Perhaps I'll build a snowman while I watch you all coming down the hill! That's something I always loved doing as a kid.'
'Okay, if you're sure,' Ron shrugged. He passed the sled over to Fred.
After a few more rounds down the hill from everyone else, Hermione finally decided she was ready to go down with Ron.
They set themselves up at the top of the hill just as they'd been doing on the last one. Harry and Ginny set up on the sled next to her as well with a good bit of distance between them so they wouldn't run into each other and in case anyone fell off.
Ron checked with her once again if she was ready to go, and when she nodded he pushed off with his feet, quickly bringing them onto the sled either side of her.
They whizzed down the hill much faster than on the other one, and Hermione could feel them moving about a bit more as the hill wasn't as straight all the way down like the other one. She suspected this was why the others had been falling off, rather than it being because of the steepness of the hill.
As they reached the bottom and the ground started to level out, they slowed down a bit and Hermione let out a sigh of relief once they came to a stop. Thankfully they hadn't fallen off, though based on Ron's look of mild exhaustion she suspected he'd tried very hard to keep them as level as possible so that didn't happen.
Ron helped her up from the floor and she pulled him into a hug, mumbling a quick thank you into his ear, hoping he knew what for. Based on the smile he gave her when she pulled away he did.
'Hey, Hermione, Ron tells me you're gonna stay down here now and build a snowman,' Ginny called to her as she made her way through the snow to them from where she and Harry had ended up. Hermione nodded with a smile.
'Mind if I join you? I love sledding but after a while I fancy something else.'
'Of course! I'd love to have the company for it,' Hermione hugged Ginny in excitement.
They boys picked up the sleds and made their way back up the hill while the girls set about starting their snowman. They looked for a space a good way away from the bottom of the hill so as they wouldn't get run into by the boys coming down the hill and then set to work gathering the snow around them.
All the boys had been down the hill four times by the time Hermione and Ginny and rolled a ball of snow big enough to be the base of the snowman. It took the boys another two trips down the hill each for the girls to gather the right amount of snow for the head.
'Want any help?' Ron called as he walked over to them. All four boys were now at the bottom of the hill, having raced each other down it one last time, Harry and Ron racing Fred and George. 'We've had enough of the sledding now.'
'Figured we may as well help finished the snowman before we head back to The Burrow,' Harry told them.
'Yeah sure,' Ginny said. She was very pleased with their snowman so far, and he just needed some accessories and things now. 'Help me find some stones or something to use as buttons, eyes, nose and mouth.' Harry followed her as she set off around the immediate vicinity to look.
'You lot can help me decide what to use for arms,' Hermione told the others. 'Shall I try and make some from snow or just use twigs?'
'Come on, Hermione, you know the answer to that,' Fred told her sternly.
'You obviously just use twigs for a real snowman!' George called as he walked away to small area of trees not too far away.
'Okay, if you insist!' Hermione called after him and Fred, who had followed his brother.
'What shall we do about a hat?' Ron asked. 'Shall we just magic one?'
'Well, there's no one around, so I don't see why not,' Hermione shrugged.
She pulled her wand out of her inner coat pocket and waved it a bit. In her hands appeared a woolly hat and matching scarf. She gave the hat to Ron who put it on his head and wrapped the scarf around its neck herself.
Harry and Ginny soon returned and placed the stones they had gathered on its face in the form of a smile, with two for the eyes and one for the nose. They then placed the remaining three down its front as buttons.
'Just waiting on the twins now,' Hermione nodded her head to the twins who were finally walking back with their arms full of branches and twigs.
'How many arms do they think snowmen have?' Ginny chuckled.
The twins dropped the pile in front of the others and set about picking out a couple that were matching enough, then shoved them into the snowman's sides as arms.
'There, all done!' Fred announced proudly.
'Hermione and Ginny did most of the work,' Ron laughed.
'We know, but picking the perfect arms is a great challenge,' George told him seriously.
They all laughed for a few minutes and stood admiring the snowman.
'Okay, let's head back home, I'm freezing now,' Ginny said as she shivered.
'Me too,' Hermione agreed.
The girls set off back to The Burrow first, Ron and Harry following close behind leaving the twins to grab the sleds and follow them at the back of the group.
Once back at The Burrow a good twenty minutes later, Fred and George went to put the sleds back in the shed and followed the others into the kitchen. They al shrugged off their outer clothes and shuffled quickly into the living room to gather by the fireplace for a good warm up.
'How was sledding?' Asked Molly, looking around at all their faces that were bright red from the cold.
'So fun!' Hermione piped up instantly.
'Hermione's never been sledding before,' Ginny told her mother.
'Really?' She asked interestedly. 'Well, how about I go make you all some hot chocolates and you can tell me all about it?' She asked the group of youngsters.
'Yes please,' they all chorused.
After a mugs of hot chocolate had been passed around, Molly sat and listened to her four youngest children and their two friends talk excitedly about what they'd got up to. She wasn't surprised to hear they'd finally tried the steeper hill, which was always off limits to them before since Molly and / or Arthur would usually go with them. Despite the fact they were all getting older, with Ginny being the youngest at sixteen, they all still talked about it like they were about ten years old. Molly smiled to herself as she listened to them all patiently. If you couldn't be kids at Christmas, when could you be?