Lily rolled over in the hotel bed, nearly crushing Hermione; Hermione looked peeved, and was about to yell at her groggy sister, but Sirius motioned for her to be quiet, a mischievous look on his face. Hermione sat up, interested, as Sirius pulled on a black ski mask and started to climb on the bed. Once he was sitting next to Lily, he put his face in front of hers and said in a sing-song voice,
“Waaake up, Lily Ginevra Potter, it’s a sunny day in Salt Lake City, Utah, with temperatures of 20 degrees and...” He didn’t get any further because Lily opened her eyes, saw the ski mask, and screamed bloody murder. Sirius and Hermione laughed until tears came to their eyes. Lily sat up and glared at them.
“That was cruel, guys…just cruel!” she declared, giving them a death stare reminiscent of their mum’s, and reaching over to put in her contacts.
“Well, we could have just let you sleep, but you would have gotten in about five minutes before Mum came in here to wake you up, and trust me, you really don’t want that to happen,” Sirius told her.
“Yeah, she’s in a horrible mood. I heard her ranting to Dad about the state of the pillow…something about them being ‘too fluffy’,” Hermione added, “but you deserved what you got. You almost crushed me a minute ago!”
“Sorry, Hermione,” Lily said, smiling apologetically at her little sister. At that instant, Ginny burst into their room, looking very irritated.
“Why aren’t you in your ski clothes? We’re leaving in fifteen minutes! Go, let’s get moving!” she snapped at them. They jumped up and started to get dressed. Fifteen minutes later they were down in the hotel lobby and Ginny was arguing with the concierge.
“I don’t care if you don’t eat bagels, you’re the bloody concierge! You’re supposed to be able to tell me the location of a good bagel place near here. If I wanted to know whether you liked bagels, I would have asked you that,” she said in a dangerous voice.
Harry stepped towards his wife. “Ginny, love,” he said, trying to calm her down, “don’t you think that we could find the bagel place on our own?”
“Be quiet, Harry,” she snapped, glaring at the concierge. “Now, can you tell me the location of a good bagel place, or do you need to go and get someone who isn’t incompetent?”
The concierge fled, muttering his apologies, and returned with another man, the manager. “Can I help you, Mrs. Potter?”
“It depends. Are you competent enough to give me the location of a good bakery?” she asked, a hopeful look on her face.
“Of course, Mrs. Potter. That’s what we’re here for, after all,” the manager said smoothly, pulling out a map, and highlighting something on it. “Here is the best bakery in town, and it’s quick too. I assume you’re on your way to the ski resorts?” the Potters nodded, “well, have a great time!”
“Thanks so much for your help!” Ginny said to the manager. She glared at the concierge. “See, that wasn’t so hard, now, was it?”
As they were walking away, the manager and the concierge could hear Harry asking, “Ginny, love, are you alright?”
“Of course I am…I just have this huge craving for bagels.”
********
After lunch, Alta Ski Resort
“Can we take the rope tow over, Mum? Please, please, please, please, PLEASE?!?” Hermione begged Ginny as they were pulling on their skis.
“Fine,” Ginny sighed, looking exhausted.
“YAY!” Hermione shouted, “I’ll go first!” She took off towards the rope tow, and as Lily, Sirius, Harry, and Ginny watched, she slid in near the rope tow, made a grab for one of the ropes, missed, and landed face-first into the snow.
“So much for the athletic superstar,” snorted Lily. Hermione had been teasing her the entire day because she was a slow, cautious skier. She skied up behind her sister and grabbed onto the tow easily. “Having some trouble, sister dear?” she smirked at Hermione, who just glared back at her.
Reaching the end of the rope tow, they glided over to the bottom of the lift. The line was packed, so Lily and Sirius had to share a chair with another skier who was about their age. The skier immediately tried to sit next to Lily, but Sirius, a smirk on his face, squeezed in between them, causing both Lily and the anonymous skier to glare at him. “What?” Sirius asked innocently.
“You’ll pay for this later, Sirius!” Lily hissed. “Sleep with one eye open tonight, because I will have my revenge!”
They reached the top of the lift and, Hermione and Harry, the best skiers of the group, shot off to the right, on an unmarked trail. Sirius and Ginny weren’t far behind, but Lily was lagging behind, trying to navigate the trail and fight her vertigo at the same time.
Suddenly, as she was going through some trees, her ski caught on a branch, and she flipped head-over-heels, cart wheeling through the air. She landed on her back, covered in snow, and struggled to get up. Everything was a little fuzzy, but it didn’t register in her brain until she got up that her contact had popped out, and was now resting in her ski goggles.
Pulling off her goggles, she grabbed the contact and attempted to put it in her eye. Suddenly, the wind picked up and the contact flew off of her finger and into the snow, never to be seen again.
Bloody hell, she thought, what am I going to do now? I can’t ski down the mountain like this; I can’t see a thing. What else am I going to do, though? I can’t contact Mum or Dad. There was nothing else she could do. She had to ski down the mountain half-blind.
Replacing her goggles and grabbing her poles, Lily slowly took off down the mountain. Cautiously trying to navigate the moguls (because, of course, Hermione and Harry had chosen a black run), Lily reached the bottom of the mountain without falling. Sirius, Hermione, and her parents were waiting for her at the bottom.
“Where were you?” Ginny scolded. “We were worried sick!”
“My contact lens fell out; I was trying to take it slow,” Lily replied.
“Can you still ski?” Harry asked.
“Nope. At least, not comfortably,” Lily replied. Her mum looked irritated.
“Well, you’re not going to ruin the ski day for the rest of us; here’s twenty dollars, go into the café over there and wait for us to be done. It won’t be more then a couple of hours,” Ginny instructed her. Lily took the money, and spent a few hours people-watching and flirting with the guys in the café without the interference of Sirius. When her family came back, Ginny asked, “Did you have a good time?”
“Not really, but I made an invaluable conclusion,” was her answer.
“And what was your conclusion?” Harry asked, amused.
“Always carry an extra pair of contacts when you’re skiing.”
Ski-reaming at the Top of her Lungs by LilyGinnyWrites92
Chapter Notes: I forgot to say this before, but this story is mostly based off of my family's ski trips, only exaggerated a lot. For any of you who are interested, Lily's experiences are based off of mine, and Hermione is based off of my sister. This chapter is based off of our trip to Alta Ski Resort in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Chapter Endnotes: And yes, my mom really did have a craving for bagels. But she didn't have to be mean to the concierge to find them!