disclaimer: i own my original characters and nobody else.

notes: for the 25 days of christmas competition at hpfc, with the prompt snowball fights. semi-non-linear, but i did my best not to make it confusing.

let the sky fall
james/clara

hold your breath and count to ten
feel the earth move and then
hear my heart burst again
- skyfall, adele

"Green isn't a good color on you," she tells him, giggling, but her hand remains on the sleeve of his hand-knit mint-green sweater anyway. His grandma must have known what she was doing, he thinks.

"You're lying," he grins at her. "You love me in green."

"That's ridiculous," she says, rolling her eyes and stepping back. "Besides, didn't you always say green was too much of a Slytherin color for you? What happened to all red, all the time, huh, James? Are you deserting us?"

Her mock-outrage steadily climbs with every word until – and he should have seen this coming – she aims a snowball that he hadn't even noticed her rolling together at his chest. James stumbles backward from the impact and makes a face at her when he notices her innocent smile.

"You're insane, and also bad at making snowballs," he declares, and she hits him with another one for his trouble. "And you're also gonna pay for that. Get back here!"

She races away from him with a leap and a laugh, through the grounds of Hogwarts, until he finally catches up to her – it's not hard because she's not trying, and maybe she wants the outcome – and tackles her to the snowy ground, both of them tumbling over in a tangle of limbs and giggles.

"Okay," she whispers breathlessly when he's on top of her, "it looks half-way decent when it's covered in snow," and then he kisses her for the first time as the snow falls down around them.

-:-

Rewind seven years, and he finds her inside a snow fort, armed with snowballs and ready for a fight with the other Gryffindors participating in their House's annual pre-holiday snowball fight. She's only eleven, tiny and shivering from the cold, but she is all fire and energy with her red hair and olive skin bright against the walls of white that surround her.

She shoots a snowball at him when she sees him, and he decides he doesn't like her.

"Hey, I'm a first year!" he informs her in annoyance, brushing the snow off his jacket. "I'm on your team."

"Oh," she says, remarkably unapologetic, and doesn't lower her snowball-firing arm. "Sorry, Potter," and then she throws another one out the window of her fort and it impacts a heavy-set fifth-year Gryffindor and sends him stumbling back.

James decides to revise his opinion of her. "You've got a good arm," he tells her. "What's your name again?"

The look she sends him is entirely unimpressed. "I'm in all of your classes!"

He flashes her his most charming smile. Being eleven, this is perhaps less well-developed than he thinks it is. "I'm bad with names."

"No, you're not."

"Does it start with a B?"

"Clara," she sighs and half-heartedly flings another snowball at him. "Now get out of my fortress."

-:-

Three years afterwards, she's one of his best friends, but she's not playing in the game this year, so he finds her not in her always-impressive snow forts but underneath a sycamore tree, bundled up in winter clothes and reading a book that happens to be upside down.

"Did I do something wrong?" he demands when he's standing in front of her, making her look up from the book she's not paying attention to. Her face doesn't form its usual smile when she sees him, which he thinks is a bad sign.

"No," she says in a way that implies the opposite, "nothing's wrong. Why?"

James sighs and sinks down to his knees in the snow. "You can't lie to me, Clara," he tells her earnestly, and she frowns.

"I'm a good liar," she insists.

"Not that good," he says with a half-smile. "You're a Gryffindor for a reason – we can't lie like Slytherins can."

She almost smiles back. Almost. "It's nothing for you to worry about."

He stares at her for a long moment. It's to their friendship's credit that she doesn't get uncomfortable. "Does this have anything to do with Emily?" he asks her carefully, and the mention of his new girlfriend seems to make her tense up.

"No," but he still knows when she's lying. "Look, I just – don't worry about it, okay? Emily's a really nice girl. She's good for you."

James sighs and settles down in front of her. "Clara, if you're jealous – "

"I'm not jealous!" she cuts across him, frowning over the top of her book. "Why would I be jealous?"

"Like I would know!" he says, annoyed. "But you're acting like it!"

"You're an idiot," she informs him in no uncertain terms. "There is no way I'm jealous of Emily Longbottom, okay?"

He makes a face at her. "Okay, whatever. Fine."

"Good."

"Great."

-:-

Two years following their not-quite-a-fight, he's waiting for her in their usual snow fortress hiding place, and her cheeks are flushed mostly from the cold when she finally joins him. For what it's worth, he tries to hold his tongue as long as possible before blurting out –

"What took you so long?" he demands, all wide-eyed indignation and irritation, and Clara frowns up at him. She's quite a bit shorter than him now that he's finally hit his growth spurt. "Too busy making out with Sebastian?"

"I – " she stops herself, shakes her head. "No, I wasn't, we were just – you know what, it's none of your business! What's your problem?"

James scowls. "I've been waiting for twenty minutes, and some second years keep eyeing me like they're gonna try to attack me and I could have used my partner in crime!"

"Sorry," she huffs, kicking at the miserable pile of snow he's accumulated for her to construct into a fortress. "You still don't know how to make a fort?"

He pauses, then asks, "So, what were you doing with Davies, then?"

"James."

"What? I know you were with him, the Map doesn't lie!"

She narrows her eyes at him. "You were stalking me on the Map?"

"No, I was stalking him," he informs her easily. "You know he's my sworn enemy, why are you spending time with him?"

"I told you already, we have to do a Muggle Studies project together!" she says insistently, facing him eye-to-eye, although her head only comes up to his chest. "What's the big fucking deal, James?"

"Projects don't require that much time together," he argues. Something in her eyes softens.

"Are you upset I haven't been spending time with you? Because if you – " she begins, but he shakes his head resolutely.

"No, that's stupid, I see you all the time," he says, aiming his glare at the snow heap. "I just – I don't trust him. Or like him. He's always been a jerk to me."

"You've always been a jerk to him," she points out softly. James kicks at some second year's misaimed snowball and storms off, leaving Clara standing alone in the snow, watching him go.

-:-

"Tell me I'm a better kisser than Davies," he murmurs against her lips, still lying on top of her underneath the sycamore tree they had landed in front of.

Clara laughs into his kiss. "I still don't know how you figured that one out," she admits, rolling over so they're side by side, facing each other. "I tried so hard to keep it a secret from you."

"You can't keep secrets from me," he grins, tangling his hand in her hair. "You're a horrible liar. And I always suspected, you know – I never trusted him near you."

She rolls her eyes and brings him in for another kiss that leaves his entire body tingling. "He wasn't a bad boyfriend," she says, and he makes a face at her. "He wasn't! Unlike you with Emily, if you care to remember."

James sighs, pressing his forehead against hers. "Yeah, that was just – that was a mistake. She's been my friend since we were born, I thought we owed it to each other and our families to try it out. But she – we weren't meant for each other."

Clara smiles up at him. "I could have told you that from the beginning."

"Shut up," he grins, and swallows her laughter in a kiss. "That doesn't mean I can't be a good boyfriend," he whispers to her when they part for air. "If you'll let me."

"Are you asking me out?"

"That depends."

"On what?"

"On your answer?"

"You're such an idiot," she says fondly and drags him down to meet her lips again. James lets himself get lost in the kiss – right up until something cold lands on the back of his neck and slides down his shirt.

"Merlin!" he breathes in surprise, jumping apart from her. "What kind of an answer is that?"

She smiles sweetly at him. "That's a yes. You know I was always better at snowball fights than you, Potter."

James snorts and settles back down next to her so he can kiss her again. "Okay, but you never answered my first question."

"What question?" she asks, her voice breathless from his kiss. "You only said to tell you – "

"Am I better kisser than Davies?" he interrupts with a cheeky grin.

Clara reaches up to smack his shoulder lightly. He mock-winces for effect. "Of course, idiot," she says as if there were any other answer. James feels a smile stretch his face. "Now come kiss me again."

"Happily," he says, and gathers her back up in his arms to oblige.

notes: if you read it, please drop me a line of feedback to let me know what you think! i'd really appreciate it :)

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