Mistletoe
The week before Christmas passed with a frosty helping of weather, and many a cold night was spent in front of the roaring flames of the fire, wrapping presents and writing cards.
On the morning of Christmas Eve, Harry went downstairs to find Mrs Weasley and Ginny rummaging through a huge box, full of what looked like Christmas decorations.
“Ah, Harry, you’re up,” said Mrs Weasley, seeing him come in.
“What’s that?” asked Harry, pointing at the box.
“The Christmas Box!” said Ginny excitedly, pulling out a ring of silver tinsel and putting it on her head where it sparkled like a halo. “We’ve got to decorate the house for tomorrow!”
“Oh, right,” said Harry. “Do you want some help?”
“Ooh, you don’t want to be offering your services there, mate,” grumbled Ron, who had just reached the bottom of the stairs. Harry gave him a questioning look.
“They go crazy,” Ron continued. “All the glitter and the tinsel. Seriously, stay away.”
“Too bad, my charming brother, because you’ve already been assigned a task,” said Ginny brightly, as if she enjoyed annoying him.
“Oh no,” moaned Ron. “What is it?”
“Putting the lights up outside,” she replied with a cheeky glint in her eyes.
Ron scowled.
“Oh, don’t worry,” said Ginny mischievously. “I’ve already asked Hermione to help you, and she’s accepted.”
Ginny smiled in a would-be-charming sort of way, and Ron made a snatch for her tinsel-halo, but she nimbly ducked out of the way, avoiding his grasp.
“Where is Hermione?” Harry asked.
“I’m right here,” she said, coming over to them from the staircase. “Where are these lights, then?”
“Here they are,” said Mrs Weasley, pulling a red box from the depths of the decorations. “They might need waking up “ they have been hibernating for a year, after all.”
“What?” said Harry, thinking that he’d misheard her.
“They’re real fairies, Harry,” said Hermione haughtily. “You don’t still expect them to be on a wire with a plug still, do you?”
Harry thought that it was a bit unfair that he was expected to know that the fairy lights would actually be fairies, but he supposed that he had been a little foolish in imagining them as the electrical sort.
Hermione had taken the box, and was now proceeding to prod its inhabitants with her wand, and Harry could hear ungrateful little squeaks coming from inside it, as the fairies gradually awoke from their long sleep.
“Let’s go then, Ron,” Hermione whispered.
“Why are you whispering?” was all he said back.
“Fairies don’t like it if you speak too loudly,” she whispered. “Come on, let’s take them outside.”
Ron scowled again and followed her out of the kitchen door.
“So, what shall I do?” Harry asked.
“You can help me in here,” said Ginny.
“I’ll leave you to it,” said Mrs Weasley. “I’ve got to sort out upstairs before Bill and Charlie arrive.” And she departed up the stairs.
“Right, down to business,” said Ginny, as she continued to rummage in the box. “Ah, here we are.”
She took out some long, red ribbons and draped them around Harry’s shoulders.
“Well, that’s you done!” she said with a smirk.
Harry pulled it off as though it were contaminated and threw it back at her.
“Or we could use it to decorate the house!” he said, as she wrestled with him to try and get it back on. Harry noticed that she was surprisingly strong for such a petite young woman.
“Ok, ok! Take the other end.”
They hung the ribbons from the ceiling, so that they draped from corner to corner like festive streamers, then they stood back to admire their handy work.
“Lovely,” remarked Ginny, sounding just like her mother. She rifled through the box again, and pulled out a sprig of something green. “Ah “ mistletoe!”
Harry’s insides recoiled “ that stuff was dangerous. Ginny pinned it up in the doorway and looked up at it, smiling, then she turned to Harry with a sarcastically expectant grin on her face.
“Go on, be a gentleman,” she teased.
Harry hesitated, unsure of whether or not it would be weird if he kissed her, but she looked so pretty standing there in the doorway, smiling back at him, that he decided a little peck on the cheek couldn’t hurt anyone.
“Oh, if you insist,” he joked, reaching her and leaning in to kiss her cheek.
He found that it wasn’t weird in the slightest, it was actually more enjoyable than anything else. He even found himself noticing the sweet smell of her hair and the way her soft skin felt against his, and when he pulled away, he was wearing an embarrassed smile.
“Oh, Potter, you little charmer,” said Ginny, but there was no hint of an embarrassed blush on her face like there would have been if that had happened four years ago. He grinned at her ability to be completely shameless, then went back to the box.
“What’s next?” he asked her.
“Ooh, let’s do tinsel,” she said. “Don’t you just love it?”
She picked up a gold string of it and twisted it around the bannisters, singing to herself as she went.
“Oh, by gosh, by golly; it’s time for mistletoe and holly…”
Harry laughed and took another piece of tinsel for the other side of the stairs. After half an hour, they had put up almost all of the decorations from the box, and were sitting at the table, chatting.
Ron opened the door, and he and Hermione stood there for a moment, taking their shoes off.
“Hey, Ron,” said Harry, “look what we found.”
He glanced up at the mistletoe, and his two friends followed his gaze. They both blushed deeply and jumped out from underneath it, avoiding each other’s eyes.
“You can’t get out of it that easily,” said Ginny. “You were under it “ you have to kiss “ it’s the rules.”
“Since when were there rules?” asked Ron.
“Since now,” she replied. “Now be a man and abide by them “ Harry did.”
Ron shot a glare at Harry, and Harry tried to reply with an apologetic look.
“Whatever,” said Ron, and he bent down and gave Hermione a quick peck on the cheek.
“There, that wasn‘t so hard, was it?” said Ginny, grinning at her brother.
He stuck his tongue out at her and she returned the gesture.
“All the fairies behaving themselves?” asked Harry.
“They’re actually quite good-tempered as magical creatures go,” said Hermione, sitting down opposite Harry.
“Which is odd,” said Ron, “because we cram them in a box for most of the year.”
“Don’t start,” said Harry seriously, “or we’ll never hear the end of SPAF.”
“What’s SPAF?” asked Hermione interestedly.
“The Society for the Protection of Abused Fairies,” he told her with a straight face.
Ron and Ginny laughed, and Hermione just scowled at him, but Harry could see that she was really trying to hide a smile.
“Well, I think we’ve all earnt some lunch,” said Ginny, and she got up and started to prepare some sandwiches.
* * *
The rest of the day passed very quickly due to the excited atmosphere which had taken residence throughout the entire house. Fred and George had arrived and were making everyone merry by demonstrating some of the latest products from their joke shop. That evening, Harry went to bed feeling positive that this was going to be one of the best Christmases that he had ever had.
A/N: next chapter - Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione action! Yay!