(17) Willow's Thorn: Mistletoe...

When we arrived at Kings Cross, Mr Weasley was already there, waiting for us. I tottered off of the train, feeling rather sick, as, true to Harry's word, I had eaten all of the sweets. Well, not all of them. I did eventually persuade Harry to take some of them back.
The four of us (Ginny not included, as she was staying with a friend until the 23rd.) piled into the back of a 7-seater hire SUV, Mr Weasley in the drivers seat. The trunks were easy to get in considering the car was so big. There were two in the back and two in the passenger area. I sat on the left hand side of the car, my feet propped on my trunk, while Harry sat on the right, specifically planned between us so that we could mind speak whilst pretending to stare out of the window.
Ugh, I feel sick. It's your fault.
What? I didn't do anything!
You gave the bloody stuff to me!
I didn't make you eat it.
Yeah, whatever. I bet you put subliminal messaging in it. Yeah! Hidden in the wrappers!
Harry laughed at this, but expertly turned it into a cough. I knew he was laughing though.
We talked like that all the way there, leaving Ron and his dad to talk about Quidditch, and Hermione to....you guessed it. Read a book!
*rolls eyes* typical...
When we finally arrived at Ottery St Catchpole, Mr Weasley parked the car in the village, outside the place he had hired it from, and helped us get our trunks out into the heavily falling snow.
"Why're we parked out here, dad?" Ron asked.
"There's too much snow up there. The road's blocked." Mr Weasley replied cheerily. "So it looks like we'll have to walk! Who's up for a little hike?"
'Little Hike' turned out to be the understatement of the millenium. It took us over an hour to get to the Burrow, dragging our trunks through the shin-deep snow. After a while, me and Hermione both stopped, cold and soaking wet. Not to mention exhausted.
Amazingly, the boys stacked their trunks on top of theirs without a word and carried on moving, leaving us to rest and gape at the same time.
"D'you think they're trying to show off? You know, that dumb boy thing along the lines of beating the hell out of each other for fun?... Maybe they're trying to make us think they're sweet and charming?" I asked.
"I'm not sure, but it's certainly working for me..." Herm replied, grinning slyly at me. I raised an eyebrow at her before setting off through the snow again.
"Come on, we can't leave them to do that, it'll kill them!"
We ran to catch up with them, Hermione kissing Ron on the cheek, which gave him a dazed look for several seconds. I raised an eyebrow at her again, which made her blush as she abruptly turned to take control of her trunk. I bet that secretly she's glad I was stood between her and Harry so she didn't have to kiss him too. To make it look like it was just a friendly gesture, I mean.
I went to take my trunk off of Harry, but he just shook his head slowly and carried on.
"I'll be alright. You rest." he said, almost lazily.
"Harry. I'm not incompetant, I have muscles of my own, you know!"
Another no.
"God! You are so stubborn!" I shouted at him. Just like you... my internal informer snidely remarked. Why is it that it only seems to speak up when its not wanted? "C'mon! Put it down!" I added, pulling on his jumper.
No, yet again.
"Look, I don't know what you're trying to achieve by killing yourself. If you're trying to show off, well done, it worked, but the effect wore off ages ago! It's really sweet that you're worried about my failing fatigue levels, really, it is, but-"
CLUNK
Well, a muffled clunk, anyway. More like thudchh. Harry had dropped my trunk. Whether it was my incessant babbling, or the fact that I had called him 'sweet' that had stopped him, I don't know. But at least he stopped.
Harry looked at me with a mixture of confusion and what I thought might be happiness. I smiled with relief, grabbed my own trunk and carried on walking.
Once we were a certain distance away from the village, Mr Weasley said we could use some magic to make the going easier. He used some form of heat spell to melt a path through the snow, while the rest of us levitated our trunks slightly so that we were towing them rather than dragging them.
Even so, I was getting tired again. Harry had already overtaken me and was charging ahead. I couldn't stop, because Harry probably would have insisted on taking my trunk again. I dropped the end of my trunk that I was carrying and sat on it, scooping up some snow to make a snowball. I put an accuracy charm on it (something I had learned when I was twelve, when I had a temporary obsession with archery, bows and arrows. It's swords now.) and threw it at Harry's rapidly retreating back.
My aim was slightly off (It's never been THAT good, anyway.), even with the added accuracy. Instead, it hit his head with a powdery THWACK.
He whirled around and glared at me, before scooping up his own handful of snow and enchanting it. He threw it at me, where it charged straight at me, stopping a few inches from my face. I raised an eyebrow and scrutinised it curiously. Just before it blew up in my face. Harry practically fell to the ground laughing. I should have seen it coming, it was so obvious!
I hastily brushed the snow from my face only to have it covered again. That did it. I grabbed my wand from behind my ear (the easiest place to keep it!) and started creating snowballs at an alarming rate, a manic grin on my snow-covered face. I threw them all, rapidly, one after the other. We continued to fight for a good ten minutes before calling a truce, collapsing next to each other in the snow.
I shifted slightly and rested my head on his stomach, which was considerably warmer on my ears than the frozen ground.
We didn't talk for a while until we realised we were alone. Completely alone. Ron, Hermione and Mr Weasley were nowhere to be seen.
"Oops..." I said, standing up. "What are we going to do now?"
"We can still see their footprints. We'll follow them." Harry said assertively, also getting up.
We continued carefully, following the three sets of footprints up a hill, stopping at the top.
It was quite sheltered on the hill, with hedges crowning it in a neat circle. We looked down and spotted the Burrow. Well, Harry did, and he showed me.
That was when we were attacked.
*GASP!!!*
Out from behind the bushes leaped our three assailants, pelting us agressively with...snowballs.
"Ha! That'll teach you to lag behind!" Ron shouted triumphantly. They had made plenty of snowballs as they waited for us, and kept throwing them relentlessly until we collapsed once again.
Eventually we arrived at the Burrow. Cold, soaking wet and covered in snow. Mrs Weasley fussed over us, wrapping warm towels and blankets tightly around us, forcing steaming cups of hot chocolate into our frozen hands, complaining and caring at the same time, the way mothers do.
I was re-aquainting myself with Fred and George, when two more Weasleys arrived. Bill and Charlie, from what I could hear. They obviously hadn't seen each other for quite a while, I could tell from the amount of hugging and kissing that was going on. All of a sudden, I felt and overwhelming feeling of despair. I couldn't take it anymore and sneaked away up the stairs.
I levitated my trunk with me, looking for our room. Ron had told me it was his room, and Hermione had told me how to find it. She had also said that we would be sleeping in the room next door, because Fred and George would be sharing Harry and Ron's room, leaving no room for me, Hermione and Ginny. This made sense, though. Boys in one room, girls in the other, just like at Grimmauld Place.
I put my trunk in the one room, but went into Ron's and sat down on a bed, sinking my head into my hands sadly and exhaustedly. It was a while before I realised that someone else was in here with me. I sat up and looked.
Harry was sat on the windowsill, looking out at the frosted fields of the surrounding countryside. He looked so different, for some reason. Of course, he also looked amazing. I could have kissed him right then....
ARGH! What am I doing?! I have to stop doing that, it'll do my head in.
"I suppose you're up here for the same reason that I am?" Harry asked, turning round to face me.
"It depends on why you're up here..." I replied.
"Ron's family."
"Ah." It was strange. I hadn't noticed him downstairs, but I hadn't noticed him leave either.
"That's why I carried on pulling your trunk. I was blocking everything out, I was so deep in thought. I didn't really know what I was doing. Sorry if I worried you."
"No, it's okay. At least you stopped eventually." I smiled sadly at him, and he sighed.
"Normally, I'm okay with it. The Weasley's treat me as though I'm a part of their family, but deep down, I know I'm not."
"Sorry." I apologised. I felt as though it was my fault, because I was the one who had brought it up.
"It's not your fault. I've thought about it before now. I gouess that now Sirius is gone too, I'm even more alone than before..."
I couldn't take it any more. I stood up and rushed over to him, hugging him fiercely. The way I would be if my parents suddenly walked into the room. I felt so sorry for him. He never knew his parents, now his godfather's gone too... at least I knew my parents for quite a few years, had chances to hug them and talk to them. Compared to him, I had the perfect family, yet I've been moaning about it for so long. I felt so selfish.
"You've still got us. You've got me. We've got each other. Everything's going to be okay."
Just then, I spotted something. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see some mistletoe, no doubt hung there as a joke by Fred and George.
What Hermione had said on the train came back to me. 'Take a chance'...
I looked at Harry.
I took a deep breath.
I took a chance.
I kissed him.
In the words of Tohru Honda, I'm gonna say: UWAAAHH!!

DUN DUN DUUUUUNN!!! What will happen next? Find out in the next episode of....WILLOW'S THORN!