iEverything belongs to JK Rowling, and I thank her from the bottom of my
heart./i
iIt has to be at least minus five out here/i, Ginny thought, somewhat furiously, as she took long strides across the courtyard in order to reach Gryffindor Tower as quickly as possible. Lessons were finished for the day, and the sky was darkening as dusk approached. Her breath came in quick, sharp pants as she forced her numb legs to move faster over the ground, hugging her books closely to her chest. Her face was red where the wind had cruelly whipped it, and the bottom of her robes were coated in the white, powdery snow that lined the ground.
When she finally reached the entrance hall the warmth enveloped her delightfully as she started the long climb to the Tower. She kept her head down the entire time. Ginny wasn't in a particularly amicable mood today.
She muttered the password ('fillywig') to the Fat Lady and slipped through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room. She was pleased to note roaring fires at either end as she made her way up yet another flight of stairs to the girl's dormitory. Once she arrived at her bedside, she set about unloading her bag, and shrugged off her outside robes, hanging them up gingerly (they were sopping wet from where the snowflakes had melted in the warmth), and kicked off her boots. Sighing heavily, she picked up her diary and quill, and made her way back down to the common room to do some more moping.
Once down, Ginny settled herself in a secluded armchair, away from the hustle and bustle of her classmates, who were excitedly discussing their last Christmas at Hogwarts. She opened the leather-bound book that lay on her lap, and her quill began to move steadily across the page. It felt like no time had passed when she realised she had filled two pages of the diary's parchment with her moaning about how much she missed Harry. A wry smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she shook her head, and then sighed noisily again.
It was hard, being at Hogwarts without him. It was also unavoidable, it being Ginny's seventh and final year at Hogwarts. Harry had graduated the year before her - it was more than painful to see him leave the castle, forever. To make matters worse, she wasn't exactly sure of Harry's whereabouts at the moment. He moved about the country a lot - he was training to be an Auror, and was currently doing some shadowing work for a more practical experience.
Harry would try and visit Hogwarts whenever he could to see her - the previous year the pair had been virtually inseparable, and it felt strange to be apart. It had been a wonderful summer - the best of Ginny's life. It was so hard boarding the Hogwarts Express back in September. She would never, ever forget the expression on Harry's face, of panic, and sorrow, as the train left platform nine and three-quarters, nor would she forget the sickening feeling of emptiness in the pit of her stomach, and the desperate aching of her heart, protesting because it felt so wrong to be going away from Harry.
It was December 13th, and Harry had only come to visit her once this month. Once. And that was way back on December 2nd. Ginny had cried herself to sleep that night, and it felt pathetic. Pathetic that she could hurt that much simply because of the distance between two people. However, no matter how much she told herself this, she still excused it with the fact that it wasn't just 'some person'. It was Harry. Harry, the boy who had been her first crush, and who had developed her feelings into her first love. Harry, the boy who had spent months constructing a map similar to the Marauders', which showed him the place that Ginny was, and who was with her, at all times, for him to keep forever, and had made her a copy, which showed her where he was. Harry, who'd given it to her on the last day of the summer, and almost made her cry with happiness that she was with such a wonderful, thoughtful, kind man, and truly appreciate how incredibly lucky she was to have him. It was...just...Harry.
Thinking of the map, she found its hiding place - a small, brown envelope that was hidden in the back of her diary - and took out the now rather tatty piece of parchment. It immediately sprung to life at her touch, and informed her that Harry was, at present, in the Three Broomsticks, enjoying a drink with her brother Ron. She saw many other little dots milling around him, and felt a stab of envy go through her stomach. iShe/i wanted to be in the Three Broomsticks, with Harry, enjoying a comforting, warm butterbeer, and watching the people pass by through the icy windows. As much as she loved Hogwarts, it was nothing compared to the way Harry made her feel whenever he was around.
After signing the entry in her journal, she decided to be more sociable by spectating the Wizard Chess match that Dennis and Colin Creevey were engaged in.
"So? Who's winning?" she smiled, decidedly forcedly.
"I am," Dennis beamed up at her, "as usual". Colin laughed and rolled his eyes, and then watched with dismay as yet another one of his pieces was shattered by one of Dennis'. Ginny laughed, this time rather effortlessly, and continued to make small talk with the brothers as, one by one, Colin's pieces were brutally forced off the board.
The clock soon read six o'clock, and the common room emptied with the thunder of feet making their way down to the Great Hall for dinner. Ginny, however, having told the Creevey boys that she would join them 'in a minute', didn't feel hungry. Her cheeks burned from the heat of the fires, and her head felt fuzzy. She stared out the window at the thick snow that continued to fall on the grounds, and mused at how beautiful it made everything look. She remembered the days when she was a little girl, and she'd played with her brothers out in the snow every winter - they would have huge snowball fights, and, when she was really little, Bill would run round the garden with her, and they would act as a team, trying to knock down their brothers defences. She smiled wistfully, and was suddenly overcome by a surge of childlike excitement, just like she'd felt those many years before. She stood up suddenly, and ran upstairs to grab her robes and scarf. She struggled back into her damp robes and draped her gold and scarlet scarf around her neck, at the same time shoving her feet back into her boots, not bothering to tie the laces.
Her heart felt a lot lighter as she skipped down the stairs to the Entrance Hall, and, to her delight, the snow had fallen so thickly in the short time everyone had been inside that it had covered the footprints that had previously tarnished its pureness. It was all fresh, just waiting to be trodden upon. She didn't allow the cold to bother her - if she could face weeks without seeing Harry, a little bit of coldness was certainly not going to get in her way of enjoying the snow. The sky was an inky blue now, and the graceful moon shone gently upon the whiteness. Ginny grinned, and broke into a run as she approached the vast stretch of field that was the Quidditch playing grounds.
Like a little girl, she stood in the centre of the pitch and spun around, her arms parallel to the sky, closing her eyes tightly as she felt the snowflakes land on her face. Forgetting about everything that troubled her, even momentarily forgetting about Harry, she spun faster and faster, and then opened her eyes to see everything distorted, flying past her in a flash of colour. She laughed out loud as she stopped, her head was giddy and her eyes struggled to focus for a second. When they did, she began eagerly scooping up snow with her hands, rolling into a giant ball. Her hands were so numb with the freezing cold of the snow that they stung, but she ignored it, and began to shape another ball of snow which she put on top of the first. All the while she was beaming as she remembered the Christmases of her childhood, when she and her brothers would all make a snowman each, modelling it around their own looks as best as possible, and then they'd all make ones to resemble their parents. It was a magical sight, looking out of her bedroom window at The Burrow to see nine snowmen all grinning up at her on Christmas Eve.
She stopped once she'd completed the head and body, and stood back to admire her handiwork. She was just thinking about how she'd make eyes, nose and a mouth when she heard a voice behind her.
"Need any help?"
Ginny's heart skipped a beat, and she spun round to come face to face with - Harry. Letting out a small squeal of delight, she ran forward and flung her arms around Harry's neck, standing on tiptoes and pushing her face into his chest. He laughed softly, but understandingly, and wrapped his arms gently around her waist.
It was a grand sight, from the Heavens - looking down at the vast whiteness of the Quidditch playing fields to see two people, standing right in the middle, arms around each other.
Ginny broke their embrace suddenly. "I've missed you!" she exclaimed, her face reddening - not just because of the cold.
"I've missed you too," Harry said affectionately, smiling as he stroked away the snowflakes that had clung to Ginny's eyelashes. "I tried to come sooner - I saw you on the Map, running about everywhere on the Quidditch grounds, and I guessed what you were doing. I wanted to help you build it...but I forgot you couldn't Apparate in Hogwarts grounds..."
Harry looked sheepish. Ginny grinned.
"Hermione would be ashamed of you," she teased, shaking her head.
"I've not long had my Apparition license!" Harry protested in his defence, and Ginny laughed, poking him in the ribs.
"Excuses excuses..." she smiled coyly, and turned her back on Harry to work on her snowman's eyes.
A couple of seconds later, she felt a cold, wet thud on the back of her neck. Gasping, she turned around to see Harry with an impish grin spread across his face. "Right, that's it," she said in mock-anger. "I'll get you, Potter!"
She scooped up a handful of powdery snow and quickly compressed it between her freezing fingers. She was iexcellent/i at snowball fights - growing up with six brothers had seen to that. Aiming well, she tossed the white lump in Harry's direction, hitting him straight in the stomach.
"Hah!" she yelled. "Ten points to me!"
With that, she ran. She could feel the snow melting and running down her neck - it wasn't a nice sensation, but this was too much fun to care. She raced across the Quidditch field - she was sure she could feel Harry's footsteps right behind her - and didn't look back until she'd reached a Ravenclaw stand, which she dived behind and began making an army of snowballs. Perfectly aware that Harry would be waiting for her to emerge from behind the stand, she made them calmly, and with expert precision. Taking one of the best, she stepped out from behind the stand. Her heart raced with the adrenaline of the fight and the thrill of being with Harry again. She felt a whoosh of air go past her left ear as she dodged Harry's snowball, and threw hers blindly at him, not sticking around to find out where it had hit him. She giggled as she ran back behind the stand. She knelt down to pick up another snowball, and crawled around the side of the stand again to see if Harry had changed position. She couldn't see him anywhere. Frowning, and edging forward a little more, she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She screamed quickly with shock and whipped her head round.
"Gotcha!" Harry grinned, and Ginny laughed and struggled to her feet, running again across the field. This time, Harry was too fast, and quickly caught up with her, playfully wrestling her to the ground.
Near hysterics, Ginny lay on the ground, feeling the cold seep in through her cloak. Harry had been brought down to the floor as well, and they lay side-by-side, panting and laughing. After a minute or so, Harry propped himself up using his elbow and put his face above Ginny's. She stopped laughing, and returned his gaze, her eyes searching his. IShe looks beautiful/I, Harry thought to himself, looking at her tousled fire red hair, slighter darker in places where the snow had made it damp, her big, brown sparkling eyes looking up at him, and her flushed red cheeks and nose. Her lips were deliciously full, and red from where the bitter winds had chilled them. They looked so cold...
"You look like a snow angel," he whispered, smiling down at her. She giggled.
"A snow angel? Hmm...that's sweet. I like it." She brushed the hair out of his eyes, and ran her thumb tenderly across his scar.
I'll try not to stay away this long again," Harry whispered, not even realising it until the words had left his mouth. Ginny nodded slightly, and put one hand on the back of his neck.
Slowly, Harry lowered his head and closed his eyes. When his mouth met hers, the warmth was quickly restored to his lips. As their kiss deepened, every cold feeling in him melted. All that mattered now was that they were together, on this vast, snow-filled Quidditch field, where the stars were beginning to dot the sky with sparkle, and the moon shone in all its glory. But none of that mattered. It never did when he was with her - his beloved snow angel, his Ginny.
iIt has to be at least minus five out here/i, Ginny thought, somewhat furiously, as she took long strides across the courtyard in order to reach Gryffindor Tower as quickly as possible. Lessons were finished for the day, and the sky was darkening as dusk approached. Her breath came in quick, sharp pants as she forced her numb legs to move faster over the ground, hugging her books closely to her chest. Her face was red where the wind had cruelly whipped it, and the bottom of her robes were coated in the white, powdery snow that lined the ground.
When she finally reached the entrance hall the warmth enveloped her delightfully as she started the long climb to the Tower. She kept her head down the entire time. Ginny wasn't in a particularly amicable mood today.
She muttered the password ('fillywig') to the Fat Lady and slipped through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room. She was pleased to note roaring fires at either end as she made her way up yet another flight of stairs to the girl's dormitory. Once she arrived at her bedside, she set about unloading her bag, and shrugged off her outside robes, hanging them up gingerly (they were sopping wet from where the snowflakes had melted in the warmth), and kicked off her boots. Sighing heavily, she picked up her diary and quill, and made her way back down to the common room to do some more moping.
Once down, Ginny settled herself in a secluded armchair, away from the hustle and bustle of her classmates, who were excitedly discussing their last Christmas at Hogwarts. She opened the leather-bound book that lay on her lap, and her quill began to move steadily across the page. It felt like no time had passed when she realised she had filled two pages of the diary's parchment with her moaning about how much she missed Harry. A wry smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she shook her head, and then sighed noisily again.
It was hard, being at Hogwarts without him. It was also unavoidable, it being Ginny's seventh and final year at Hogwarts. Harry had graduated the year before her - it was more than painful to see him leave the castle, forever. To make matters worse, she wasn't exactly sure of Harry's whereabouts at the moment. He moved about the country a lot - he was training to be an Auror, and was currently doing some shadowing work for a more practical experience.
Harry would try and visit Hogwarts whenever he could to see her - the previous year the pair had been virtually inseparable, and it felt strange to be apart. It had been a wonderful summer - the best of Ginny's life. It was so hard boarding the Hogwarts Express back in September. She would never, ever forget the expression on Harry's face, of panic, and sorrow, as the train left platform nine and three-quarters, nor would she forget the sickening feeling of emptiness in the pit of her stomach, and the desperate aching of her heart, protesting because it felt so wrong to be going away from Harry.
It was December 13th, and Harry had only come to visit her once this month. Once. And that was way back on December 2nd. Ginny had cried herself to sleep that night, and it felt pathetic. Pathetic that she could hurt that much simply because of the distance between two people. However, no matter how much she told herself this, she still excused it with the fact that it wasn't just 'some person'. It was Harry. Harry, the boy who had been her first crush, and who had developed her feelings into her first love. Harry, the boy who had spent months constructing a map similar to the Marauders', which showed him the place that Ginny was, and who was with her, at all times, for him to keep forever, and had made her a copy, which showed her where he was. Harry, who'd given it to her on the last day of the summer, and almost made her cry with happiness that she was with such a wonderful, thoughtful, kind man, and truly appreciate how incredibly lucky she was to have him. It was...just...Harry.
Thinking of the map, she found its hiding place - a small, brown envelope that was hidden in the back of her diary - and took out the now rather tatty piece of parchment. It immediately sprung to life at her touch, and informed her that Harry was, at present, in the Three Broomsticks, enjoying a drink with her brother Ron. She saw many other little dots milling around him, and felt a stab of envy go through her stomach. iShe/i wanted to be in the Three Broomsticks, with Harry, enjoying a comforting, warm butterbeer, and watching the people pass by through the icy windows. As much as she loved Hogwarts, it was nothing compared to the way Harry made her feel whenever he was around.
After signing the entry in her journal, she decided to be more sociable by spectating the Wizard Chess match that Dennis and Colin Creevey were engaged in.
"So? Who's winning?" she smiled, decidedly forcedly.
"I am," Dennis beamed up at her, "as usual". Colin laughed and rolled his eyes, and then watched with dismay as yet another one of his pieces was shattered by one of Dennis'. Ginny laughed, this time rather effortlessly, and continued to make small talk with the brothers as, one by one, Colin's pieces were brutally forced off the board.
The clock soon read six o'clock, and the common room emptied with the thunder of feet making their way down to the Great Hall for dinner. Ginny, however, having told the Creevey boys that she would join them 'in a minute', didn't feel hungry. Her cheeks burned from the heat of the fires, and her head felt fuzzy. She stared out the window at the thick snow that continued to fall on the grounds, and mused at how beautiful it made everything look. She remembered the days when she was a little girl, and she'd played with her brothers out in the snow every winter - they would have huge snowball fights, and, when she was really little, Bill would run round the garden with her, and they would act as a team, trying to knock down their brothers defences. She smiled wistfully, and was suddenly overcome by a surge of childlike excitement, just like she'd felt those many years before. She stood up suddenly, and ran upstairs to grab her robes and scarf. She struggled back into her damp robes and draped her gold and scarlet scarf around her neck, at the same time shoving her feet back into her boots, not bothering to tie the laces.
Her heart felt a lot lighter as she skipped down the stairs to the Entrance Hall, and, to her delight, the snow had fallen so thickly in the short time everyone had been inside that it had covered the footprints that had previously tarnished its pureness. It was all fresh, just waiting to be trodden upon. She didn't allow the cold to bother her - if she could face weeks without seeing Harry, a little bit of coldness was certainly not going to get in her way of enjoying the snow. The sky was an inky blue now, and the graceful moon shone gently upon the whiteness. Ginny grinned, and broke into a run as she approached the vast stretch of field that was the Quidditch playing grounds.
Like a little girl, she stood in the centre of the pitch and spun around, her arms parallel to the sky, closing her eyes tightly as she felt the snowflakes land on her face. Forgetting about everything that troubled her, even momentarily forgetting about Harry, she spun faster and faster, and then opened her eyes to see everything distorted, flying past her in a flash of colour. She laughed out loud as she stopped, her head was giddy and her eyes struggled to focus for a second. When they did, she began eagerly scooping up snow with her hands, rolling into a giant ball. Her hands were so numb with the freezing cold of the snow that they stung, but she ignored it, and began to shape another ball of snow which she put on top of the first. All the while she was beaming as she remembered the Christmases of her childhood, when she and her brothers would all make a snowman each, modelling it around their own looks as best as possible, and then they'd all make ones to resemble their parents. It was a magical sight, looking out of her bedroom window at The Burrow to see nine snowmen all grinning up at her on Christmas Eve.
She stopped once she'd completed the head and body, and stood back to admire her handiwork. She was just thinking about how she'd make eyes, nose and a mouth when she heard a voice behind her.
"Need any help?"
Ginny's heart skipped a beat, and she spun round to come face to face with - Harry. Letting out a small squeal of delight, she ran forward and flung her arms around Harry's neck, standing on tiptoes and pushing her face into his chest. He laughed softly, but understandingly, and wrapped his arms gently around her waist.
It was a grand sight, from the Heavens - looking down at the vast whiteness of the Quidditch playing fields to see two people, standing right in the middle, arms around each other.
Ginny broke their embrace suddenly. "I've missed you!" she exclaimed, her face reddening - not just because of the cold.
"I've missed you too," Harry said affectionately, smiling as he stroked away the snowflakes that had clung to Ginny's eyelashes. "I tried to come sooner - I saw you on the Map, running about everywhere on the Quidditch grounds, and I guessed what you were doing. I wanted to help you build it...but I forgot you couldn't Apparate in Hogwarts grounds..."
Harry looked sheepish. Ginny grinned.
"Hermione would be ashamed of you," she teased, shaking her head.
"I've not long had my Apparition license!" Harry protested in his defence, and Ginny laughed, poking him in the ribs.
"Excuses excuses..." she smiled coyly, and turned her back on Harry to work on her snowman's eyes.
A couple of seconds later, she felt a cold, wet thud on the back of her neck. Gasping, she turned around to see Harry with an impish grin spread across his face. "Right, that's it," she said in mock-anger. "I'll get you, Potter!"
She scooped up a handful of powdery snow and quickly compressed it between her freezing fingers. She was iexcellent/i at snowball fights - growing up with six brothers had seen to that. Aiming well, she tossed the white lump in Harry's direction, hitting him straight in the stomach.
"Hah!" she yelled. "Ten points to me!"
With that, she ran. She could feel the snow melting and running down her neck - it wasn't a nice sensation, but this was too much fun to care. She raced across the Quidditch field - she was sure she could feel Harry's footsteps right behind her - and didn't look back until she'd reached a Ravenclaw stand, which she dived behind and began making an army of snowballs. Perfectly aware that Harry would be waiting for her to emerge from behind the stand, she made them calmly, and with expert precision. Taking one of the best, she stepped out from behind the stand. Her heart raced with the adrenaline of the fight and the thrill of being with Harry again. She felt a whoosh of air go past her left ear as she dodged Harry's snowball, and threw hers blindly at him, not sticking around to find out where it had hit him. She giggled as she ran back behind the stand. She knelt down to pick up another snowball, and crawled around the side of the stand again to see if Harry had changed position. She couldn't see him anywhere. Frowning, and edging forward a little more, she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She screamed quickly with shock and whipped her head round.
"Gotcha!" Harry grinned, and Ginny laughed and struggled to her feet, running again across the field. This time, Harry was too fast, and quickly caught up with her, playfully wrestling her to the ground.
Near hysterics, Ginny lay on the ground, feeling the cold seep in through her cloak. Harry had been brought down to the floor as well, and they lay side-by-side, panting and laughing. After a minute or so, Harry propped himself up using his elbow and put his face above Ginny's. She stopped laughing, and returned his gaze, her eyes searching his. IShe looks beautiful/I, Harry thought to himself, looking at her tousled fire red hair, slighter darker in places where the snow had made it damp, her big, brown sparkling eyes looking up at him, and her flushed red cheeks and nose. Her lips were deliciously full, and red from where the bitter winds had chilled them. They looked so cold...
"You look like a snow angel," he whispered, smiling down at her. She giggled.
"A snow angel? Hmm...that's sweet. I like it." She brushed the hair out of his eyes, and ran her thumb tenderly across his scar.
I'll try not to stay away this long again," Harry whispered, not even realising it until the words had left his mouth. Ginny nodded slightly, and put one hand on the back of his neck.
Slowly, Harry lowered his head and closed his eyes. When his mouth met hers, the warmth was quickly restored to his lips. As their kiss deepened, every cold feeling in him melted. All that mattered now was that they were together, on this vast, snow-filled Quidditch field, where the stars were beginning to dot the sky with sparkle, and the moon shone in all its glory. But none of that mattered. It never did when he was with her - his beloved snow angel, his Ginny.