Work Text:
"Incoming!"
"Everyone! To the fort!"
"The fort's fallen!"
"Last chance, losers! Give in!"
"Never! Harry, there's the snow shield!"
"I've got it!" Harry exclaimed, running towards the hedges that separated his and Ron's house. He had picked up the plastic shield, and was brushing the snow off of it when-
"Hey!" He turned around, glaring at his sister. "That's against the rules!"
"I haven't done anything," Hermione shouted back.
"Yes, you did! You hit me with a snowball!"
"Did not!"
"Did- ow!" He spun around as another snowball hit him in the face. Narrowing his eyes, he peered over the fence, from where someone let out a small giggle.
"Who's there?" He asked, shuffling forward on his knees towards the hole they'd made on the fence last summer. He squeezed through the shrubs tickling at his neck to come face to face with mischievous brown eyes.
"Hello," She smiled toothily, before hitting his face with yet another snowball.
"Stop that," He complained, spitting out some of the snow he'd caught in his mouth.
"Why? You're having a snowball fight, aren't you?" She asked, bunching up snow from the pile she'd made.
"We were but-"
"No buts!" She said, throwing it at him again.
"What are you doing? We're losing!" Ori came up beside him, only to be hit by another one of her snowballs. "Hey!"
"You suck at this," She grinned at them.
"Who is she?!" Ori asked, ducking as she threw another one.
"What are you- Ginny?" Ron said, poking his face in.
"Merry Christmas, brother dearest!" She sang, pelting him with half a dozen snowballs.
"That's it," Harry said, wiggling out, and throwing one back at her. Unfortunately, she was prepared and took cover behind her snow hill.
"Why are you wasting our time? Just admit defeat or fight!" Hermione stomped over, Teddy and Neville, right behind her.
"It's not our fault! She was the one who started it!" Ori protested, pointing at Ginny's head peeking from behind her hill.
"Who-"
"She's my sister," Ron said impatiently. "Ginny, I told you to leave us alone!"
"But I want to play!"
"You're a girl! This is a boys-only game," He said.
"No, it's not! She's playing!" Ginny accused.
"Hermione's not a girl-"
"I am!" Hermione said angrily. "And I say we let her play," She glared at Ron, much to Ginny's delight.
"That's not fair! You'll have four players then," Harry protested.
"I'm going inside. I didn't want to play in the first place," Neville moaned, wiping his nose on his sleeve.
"Come on, we can hide behind my snow hill," Ginny said to Teddy and Hermione.
"It's still unfair," Harry whined, as they tried to find a place to hide.
"Why didn't you let her play with us? We could have won," Ori grumbled to Ron.
"I didn't know she was so good at it!"
"What are you doing here? This is enemy lines," Ori asked as Teddy joined them.
"They kicked me out! Said they wanted a girls vs boys game!"
"It's four against two," Ron said hopefully. "We can win this."
"I don't think so," Harry said, just as the girls rolled over their snow hill into a gigantic ball and sent it towards them. Before they could even register what was happening, the ball hit them, half burying them in the snow.
"We win!" Ginny and Hermione chanted, walking around them as they loudly protested and tried to free themselves, failing miserably. It was a good Christmas.
20 years later
"Yeah, yeah, it was a great Christmas," Harry called exasperatedly as he made his way out into the back. As much as he loved both Hermione and Ron, he thought he'd explode if they regaled their proposal one more time.
"The lovebirds are here then?"
Harry turned his head to see Ginny sitting on a box by the friends, a bottle of butterbeer in hand.
"They arrived two hours ago," Harry said with a slight shudder.
"Merlin! The proposal took two minutes! How on earth do they stretch it out for two hours," Ginny asked horrified.
Harry snorted. It honestly wouldn't have been so bad, if Ron hadn't forced the plan down his throat a dozen times before proposing.
"They're coming to yours next," Harry said.
"I was never here. You never saw me, " She said, looking him dead in the eyes.
He laughed, feeling the familiar burst of excitement like he did every time he saw her. Honestly, it had been too long.
"Been a while, hasn't it?" Ginny smiled slightly, as though reading his thoughts.
"Last World Cup, after your game," He said, a little too quickly.
"Almost four years," She nodded, a faraway look in her eyes.
"Heard you're up for this year's team as well," He commented.
"Yeah," She said, pursing her lips in a way that was very unlike her. I
"Big step down from last time's reaction," He raised his brows, remembering her jubilation.
"I'm thinking of quitting," She said abruptly.
"Oh," He didn't know what to say to that. For some reason, he thought she'd play till she was old and wrinkly.
"What are you smiling about?" She asked with narrowed eyes.
"Nothing, never thought you'd want to quit."
Her lips quirked. "Thought you'd have to pry away the broomstick from my dead, cold hands?" She asked, thinking of all the times she'd used that phrase when her mother protested her choice of a career.
"Something along those lines," He said, amused.
"I would have thrown a fit if someone told me four years ago that I'd be considering leaving Quidditch," Ginny commented.
"Why are you leaving, then? Is everything alright?" He asked gently.
"Yes," She sighed, taking a swig of her butterbeer. "It's just… It's just not fun anymore. I miss home. I'm missing out on so many things. I couldn't even make it to Vic's birthday two years in a row, and I haven't come home for Christmas in what-"
"Three years," Harry supplied. "I get it. You don't have to justify anything. I was only curious."
She smiled. "I know. But I'll only quit after the World Cup. Got to set some more records, haven't I?"
"I thought being Witch Weekly's sexiest athlete was the highest honour," He teased.
"I'm afraid you've been lied to," Ginny said with mock sympathy.
"Witch weekly? Lie? Never in a million years. Next, you'll be telling me you and Angelina aren't in a scandalous relationship, hoping to conquer the Quidditch world?"
"I'm afraid Angie chose George over me. Don't know why she'd pick his sneaky ass over innocent old me," She sighed dramatically.
"You? Innocent? You're sneakier than George," Harry narrowed his eyes at her.
"Oh?" She asked innocently, before pelting his face with snow she'd hidden in her fist, just like she'd done the first time they'd met.
"At least, you don't have a giant mountain to hide behind, this time," Harry retorted, aiming a snowball at her.
"Who said that?" She laughed before hiding behind a snow hill Vic or Dom had probably made.
"You never play fair!" He accused.
"You sound like all those losers of the opposite team, who just can't admit defeat," She stuck her tongue out at him as another snowball hit him. "That's how you throw, learn it from a pro," She bragged.
"That's funny 'cause there's something we aurors do when the other guy is playing dirty," Harry said.
"What's that?"
"We tackle them to the ground," He said, spinning her around by the waist.
"Harry! You use magic to catch them!" She shrieked, through her laughter.
"Not in muggle areas!" He corrected, before losing his balance and falling over Vic's hill, Ginny squished between him and the snow.
"Looks like you lost your snow hill," He murmured, heart beating wildly at how close they were.
"Don't you aurors have to pay for the property damage?" Ginny demanded.
"Ah, you caught me," He said with mock disappointment. "Go on, name your price, then."
"You got snow all over my mouth, and now I'm freezing. I think you ought to kiss it better," She said seriously.
"Oh yeah?" He grinned.
"Yes."
"Well, if I must," Ginny's snort of amusement was lost in her throat as he closed the distance between them.
"All better?" He mumbled against her lips.
"Mm," She smiled.
"You hit me in the face with snow twenty years ago, I think you owe me something too."
"Well, then," She said, kissing him again.
"With interest since you're paying me back so late," She laughed into his mouth, both of them feeling inexplicably happy.
"I'm so glad we're doing this. I have no idea how I'd have managed not to do that if we're going to be organising a wedding," Ginny said as they pulled back.
"I know I wouldn't have been able to hold back. Besides, isn't it tradition for the Best Man and Maid Of Honour to bet together?" He winked.
She let out a laugh, giving him a short kiss, just as they heard voices from inside.
"It's time for proposal listening again, I guess," Harry sighed.
"I put some of Fred and George's canary cream in Ron's pudding," Ginny smirked, and Harry thought that handling what was sure to be an exasperating wedding would turn out to be the most fun in the world if she was there by his side.