Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter Six

The door to Hermione's bedroom slowly creaked open, to reveal a pair of mischievous green eyes. The boy with raven black hair snuck into his best friends room, quietly closing the door behind him. He held something behind his back as he crept closer to her four poster bed. He grabbed one of the posts and used it to lift himself up on the bed. Standing over Hermione, he positioned his bare feet on either side of her hips.

She must have been in a deep sleep, because she didn't even budge when she shifted with the mattress as he moved. She looked so peaceful lying on her back, her head tilted to the side, that he almost didn't want didn't want to bother her....almost. He then dropped on his knees, straddling her as he pulled his hand away from his back. "Wake up Mione!" he yelled.

Hermione jerked awake, and her eyes flew open and she blinked when she saw who it was. "Harry! What are you..."

SPLAT!!

Hermione yelped as she felt something cold and wet hit her face. She was frozen in shock as Harry was still straddling her while he grinned in triumphant. "Prepare....to die Potter."

"I get enough death threats from Voldemort, thanks," he said with a snicker. "Snow looks pretty good on you."

She scowled. "Why you little...wait, did you say snow?"

He laughed. "Yep," he said and reached over to grab a small patch of snow that that was melting across her cheek. "See? Snow!"

Her eyes grew with excitement. "Snow? This is snow? You didn't make it or anything?"

Harry grinned brightly. He knew how much Hermione loved the snow. "I got it just outside my windowsill. Go take a peek."

"I'll be mad at you later," she said quickly as she sat up and pushed him off.

Harry laughed as he fell to the side while Hermione dashed to her window. "It snowed over night," he told her.

"Oh! It's beautiful," she said as she pushed her windows open. The cool crisp air swept over her face....strands of her hair danced around her. "Isn't it beautiful?"

Harry looked back at her when she turned to face him. "Beautiful," he agreed, never leaving her eyes.

Hermione smiled and quickly looked away before he could see her blush. "It started snowing early this year."

"Yeah, a few weeks earlier than usual, it wasn't that cold when we went swimming."

"Ha," she said dryly. "That's only because you performed a warming spell on the lake, and even with that it was pretty cold."

"Why are you still griping about that, you KNOW you had a good time...I mean..."

SPLAT!

Harry's words were stopped when a snowball hit him in the face, coming right from Hermione. She giggled happily as he stood up, flinging the show off of him. "You laugh now...but there will be no laughing soon...get dressed and meet me downstairs. Prepare to eat snow."

Fifteen minutes later, Harry stood up from the love seat by the fire when he heard Hermione trotting down the stairs. He grinned at her beaming face...he loved seeing her happy. "Ready to go, Granger?"

Bundled in her gloves and scarf, she tilted up her chin, challenging him. "Ready as ever, Potter."

"Good," he grinned and then helped her with her cloak before they headed out the portrait hole.

Hermione shocked at first when he grabbed her hand, but then soon remembered that they were pretending. She had almost forgotten.

Once outside, the sounds of laughter and yells filled the air as couples and friends at Hogwarts were having their own Saturday morning fun in the snow. They kept walking with smiles on their faces, each sneaking glances at each other, wondering when they were going to break free and continue their battle.

They were almost by the lake when they finally held their gazes, before finally busting out laughing and ran away from each other. The battle had begun.

Harry made the first snowball and threw it relentlessly towards her and it hit the back of her head. She heard her gasp and then suddenly spun around and had her wand in her hand. His eyes widened when several snowballs she had made floated in the air and was heading his way. "Oh crap!" he said as he ducked his head from the blows. "That was playing dirty Hermione!"

"Sore loser," she spat and then yelped when a snowball hit her stomach. "That the best you can do."

"Is that a challenge, Granger?" he asked as he straightened and put his hands on his hips.

"Take it as you want it, Potter," she said snootily.

"Fine...I will....you better RUN!"

Hermione's eyes widened when he started after her. She let out a laugh as she turned and started to run farther away from the school, breathing heavily as she ran as fast as she could. She could hear him catching up on her, and knew it was only a matter of time before he grabbed her. She was definitely not as fast as Harry. Even without a Firebolt, he was fast.

"Gotcha!" he said as he grabbed her arm and spun her around right before he shoved some snow at her face.

"Why you little!" she grabbed some snow and then reached up and rubbed it in his messy hair.

"Woah that's cold!" he yelped as he did a little dance when some snow slipped into his shirt. "Okay...okay enough...I'm out a breath."

She giggled. "That was fun...I haven't had a good old snow fight in awhile."

"Me either," he said as he turned around to brush some of the snow off his back legs. He then jumped when a snowball hit his arm. "Hey! I thought we were done."

"It wasn't me!" she said innocently as she looked around. "It was..."

"Hey Potter! Granger! Up for a couples war?"

They turned towards the familiar voice to see Draco standing behind a tree, with a giggling Ginny behind him. "You are ON Malfoy!"

Draco grinned, but his smile fell when a snowball hit the side of his face. "Ahh! Weasly!"

Ron chuckled. "Better not leave us out!"

"This is war!" Draco said. "Everybody has ten minutes to built a fort...then it's go time!"

"You're going to be eating snow, Malfoy!" Ron yelled as him and Julia started their fort.

"You wish Weasly! I've got not only the prettiest Weasly on my team...but the smartest!" he yelled back. "Our fort will have nothing on you!

"Smartest? Next to my Mione!" Harry called as he stopped building to talk some trash. "Sorry Ginny, but you got no chance!" He then ducked down quickly to avoid a snowball coming from Draco. "That's cheating!" he yelled and then scooted next to his partner in crime. "How's it coming, Mione?"

"I'm using magic to hold it together...I came up with a spell that will have the snowballs fire back if they hit our fort," she said as started to pack some of the snow together.

Harry grinned. "Brilliant! I could just kiss you!"

Hermione gave him a half smile, even though her insides danced. "Yeah..well, maybe later, but right now we got a fort to defend. You start making snowballs, the more we have in advance the better."

"I'm on it Captain Granger!" he saluted and then quickly started to make a pile of snowballs.

"Times up!!" Draco's voice yelled. "Time for war!"

Then, moments later...snowballs started to fly.