A/N: I hope you're all ready for super soft and mushy Goyle!
Slight TW for loss/grief, but I promise this chapter is mostly fluff.
ooo
"Seamus! I swear to Merlin, if I catch you do that one more time, I will hex you!"
Ginny glared at the sandy-haired wizard in the most threatening manner she could muster. They had been decorating the Great Hall for hours and had finally started to make some progress, when Seamus had decided that he was bored of untangling fairy-lights and instead had taken to enchanting Christmas baubles to explode with a loud bang every time someone stood too close to them.
"Sorry, Ginny." Seamus murmured, quickly putting away his wand. "It was just a bit of fun."
Ginny bit her tongue to stop herself from shooting an angry retort at him and turned away. She had been tense all morning and her patience was wearing thin. With the re-building of the school still in operation, the teachers had been too busy this year to worry about mundane things like Christmas decorations, and so, the task of 'decking the halls' at the beginning of December had mainly fallen onto the Hogwarts prefects and a small team of volunteers they had accumulated.
Ginny didn't exactly know why, but for some reason it felt extremely important to her to do a good job at it. Maybe it was because she knew that Christmas would be a bittersweet affair for most people this year, or maybe it was just a way to distract herself from her own grief, but ever since Professor Flitwick had given her and Luna the task of overseeing the decorating this year, she had been working tirelessly in her aim to create a festive atmosphere for the people at Hogwarts.
Sucking in a deep breath, she closed her eyes and counted to ten, willing herself to calm down.
"You look like you could use a break." A low voice spoke softly behind her. It sounded warm and gentle, but with a distinct tone of concern in it, which caused Ginny to open her eyes and offer the voice's owner a weak, but genuine smile.
"It's been a long morning." Ginny sighed, letting herself sink onto the nearest patch of bench that wasn't covered by boxes filled with festive decorations.
Greg looked like he'd been outside, wearing his heavy boots and thick winter coat, his green Slytherin scarf wrapped tightly around his neck, and a rosy tinge on his frost-kissed cheeks. He let out a sigh and dropped into the seat next to her.
"You work too hard." He argued, and there it was again… that gentle, slightly worried undertone in his voice, that made her feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.
She smiled.
Ever since the 'snowball fight incident' from the week before, she felt like there had been a shift in their friendship. It wasn't like they hadn't been good friends before, but there were certain things in life that you couldn't experience together without forming a special bond, and having a complete meltdown over a bit of snow was one of them.
"It's important to me." She shrugged. Gregory nodded, indicating that he understood and cast a quick look around the hall, taking in ceiling-high trees that were laden with copious amounts of glittering ornaments and twinkly lights.
"Looks good." He said, nodding appreciatively.
"Thanks." Ginny grinned, before casting a curious look at his bag. "So… what have you been up to all morning?"
"Met Longbottom by the greenhouses." Greg supplied. "I'm working on this candy cane flavoured cupcake recipe and needed some mint to experiment with the icing." He smirked. "Did you know that there are over thirty species of mint with more than seven thousand different varieties and cross-breeds? And apparently Hogwarts grows sixty-five of them."
Ginny's eyebrows shot up. "I had no idea."
"Neither did I." Greg laughed. "until I asked plant boy for a couple ol' sprigs of mint. Didn't realise it would come with a two-hour long Herbology lesson."
"Oh, yes. Neville is very passionate about his plants." Ginny giggled, before putting on a vaguely condemnatory look. "So that's why he never showed this morning. You distracted him!" She narrowed her eyes at him in mock exasperation. "He promised to help with the decorations, you know?"
"I'm sorry!" Greg laughed. "How was I supposed to know that he'd give me an entire lecture on the best ways to grow mint?" He cast a quick look at the mountain of ornaments that were still waiting to be put up, and added "I'm free if you still need a hand, though?"
"That would be great actually." Ginny sighed thankfully, before pushing herself up and walking over to the closest tree. "Come on! We only have an hour left until lunch."
They got to work, both too focused on the task to talk much, until almost all the trees except for the biggest one right at the top of the Great Hall were decorated.
Grabbing another box of baubles, Ginny gestured for Gregory to follow her and made her way towards the giant fir, when she spotted a Hufflepuff first-year, seemingly frozen to the spot as she stared up at the tree with big, watery eyes.
"Hi." Ginny said, approaching the girl tentatively. "I'm Ginny. What's your name?"
The girl pried her eyes reluctantly from the tree to meet her gaze, a flash of uncertainty crossing her face, before she muttered a quiet "Elise."
"Elise." Ginny repeated, smiling. "That's a nice name. This is my friend Greg." She pointed at the tall wizard who waved at the girl. "Are you here to help with the decorations?"
The little Hufflepuff hesitated for a moment, before she nodded, then seemed to change her mind, shrugged, and shook her head.
"No?" Ginny asked.
Elise shook her head again. "I…" she said quietly, but then trailed off and instead raised her hands towards Ginny. She was clutching a small parcel wrapped in newspaper.
"I was wondering if I could put this on the tree." She finished shily, carefully starting to unwrap the object in her hand.
Ginny's throat went dry, as the girl revealed a small glass bauble that held a strip of three miniscule muggle photos in the centre; each of them showing a young woman at several stages in her life, smiling brightly up at them from the unmoving pictures.
"It's my mum." The little girl explained. "She disappeared during the war. But she always loved Christmas, so I thought…" her voice trailed off, and she dropped her gaze to the floor.
Ginny's chest constricted painfully, and she had to fight for a moment to keep her feelings under control. She couldn't bear to think what the poor girl's family had gone through. Losing a family member was bad enough, but having them disappear without ever knowing what happened to them must have been even worse.
Swallowing thickly, she pushed down her emotions and pulled her lips into a brave smile. "Of course." She said, "How about I help you pick a spot?"
She led the young Hufflepuff over to the tree where they began their quest for the perfect spot, carefully circling around the giant fir, until Elise had found the place she was looking for. Ginny helped her levitate the bauble into the air, eyes and wand trained at the ornament in concentration, to make sure the inexperienced first year wouldn't accidentally drop it.
It wasn't until the task was done, and Elise took a step back to admire the result, that Ginny spoke again.
"That was brilliant." She said, smiling encouragingly at the younger witch. "I bet your mum would be proud of you."
Elise's eyes lit up at the compliment and for the first time her rosy lips split into a shy smile. She whispered a timid thanks to both Ginny and Greg, and was just about to make her way out, when Greg spoke up.
"Hey, Elise?" he called, before the girl could disappear. "You don't happen to like gingerbread, do you?"
Eyes growing wide, Elise nodded. "I… I do."
Greg smirked, before summoning his bag and pulling out a small parcel of clumsily wrapped gingerbread men.
"Good." He said, picking one of the sweet treats, and walking towards Elise. "because I happen to have some here."
He pushed the sweet treat into the girl's hand and winked at her, which caused her to flush a bright shade of red. Murmuring a quick 'thank you', she cast Greg another shy smile, and then swiftly turned around to hurry out of the Great Hall.
Ginny's heart melted a little, as she watched the endearing scene. Growing up, she had never seen Gregory Goyle as anything but a school bully – one of Draco Malfoy's horrible cronies – big and ominous and never to be seen without an evil sneer on his face. But she knew Malfoy had changed after the war, and so had Greg; and, not for the first time since the war, she wondered if maybe all people were inherently good if only given the chance. She didn't think that Greg was ever taught kindness, nor did he seem to receive much from his parents and peers as a child; and yet here he was – handing out treats to sad little Hufflepuffs.
She smiled fondly at the Slytherin; a strange flutter in her stomach as he returned to her side and let himself sink onto the stone steps in front of the tree.
"You okay?" He asked, a tone of worry in his voice.
Ginny's throat tightened, as she nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."
She set down beside him and leaned in to rest her head against his shoulder. "Barely kept it together when she was talking about her mum though."
Greg nodded, a downcast look on his face.
"Here." He said, pulling one of the gingerbread biscuits out and handing it to her. "I made these last night. Figured you could use something sweet to keep you going today."
Trying to ignore the effects his level of care had on the butterflies in her stomach, Ginny looked down at the treat and smiled. It was perfect – a deep, golden brown gingerbread man, decorated with intricate icing and wearing a smile so wide that Ginny's own cheeks hurt just looking at it.
Letting out a small chuckle, she looked up at her friend and shook her head in wonder. "You're so nice, do you know that?"
Greg's lips tilted into a self-satisfied smirk as he shrugged. "I have my moments."
Ginny laughed, a warm feeling spreading in her chest as she let her head fall back onto his shoulder and broke a piece off her gingerbread man. "Yeah." She sighed, popping the sugary treat into her mouth. "You certainly do."