mini_fest | FIC: Snow Angel [Ginny/Millicent]

Title: Snow Angel
Author/Artist:

writcraft
Pairing(s): Ginny/Millicent
Prompt: N/A
Word Count: ~1,700
Rating: PG-13
Contains (Highlight to view): * Serious injury, recovery from injury *
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury /Scholastic. No profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: Thank you to the mods for running this fest and to A for the beta. Happy Holidays! This ficlet is very much open to the reader’s own interpretation.
Summary: Ginny remembers her last Christmas with Millie and makes an angel in the snow.

Ginny turned her face up into the snow, letting the soft flakes fall over her cheeks and eyes, flicking her tongue out to capture the droplets of water which formed on her lips. She stood like that for a long time, before looking around to see if she was quite alone. When she felt confident that there was nobody walking nearby, she smiled and allowed herself to fall backwards onto the thick cushion of snow. She moved her outstretched arms up and down, finally settling them by her side as she remained in her position, lying in the snow and ignoring the way the cold began to seep through her clothing, leaving her numb.

“You’re going to catch your death.”

“Millie.” Ginny breathed out the name and watched her breath gather in a little cloud above her lips as she stayed on her back, looking up at the sky. Somehow, she didn’t dare turn around and the cold snow was almost soothing.

“I haven’t been all that excited about Christmas this year. It feels like something is missing – something important.”

Ginny closed her eyes and swallowed around the lump in her throat as she nodded her agreement. “Something is missing – something very important indeed.”

Ginny spread her arms out and then flat again and thought about the previous Christmas. Millie and Ginny had moved into their small flat a few months prior to the holidays. They had purchased a tree about half a foot too big for the room, and had joked about how very sorry for itself it looked, bent against the ceiling at the top and with drooping bows and brown needles at the base as they left it too close to hot pipes.

Underneath its branches the tree had covered haphazardly wrapped gifts in green, red and gold paper. Ginny remembered watching Millie tear into the gifts with enthusiasm on Christmas Day, laughing at the silly things, flushing at the racier gifts and falling silent at those gifts which meant more than words could express. Together, Ginny and Millie had sat close to the tree, surrounded by ripped wrapping paper, both cross-legged in their new pyjamas and drinking champagne which fizzed over the slender glasses, making them both giggle. Mille had insisted they link their arms together, so they could take their first sip that way. Ginny had thought it was a daft idea but had done it anyway simply because it made Millie smile and plus it meant that they were close enough to kiss. Ginny remembered deciding how much she liked champagne kisses, which were sweet and hot.

The turkey, when they had finally finished cooking it – both half pissed by that stage – had been dry and tasteless but they had eaten full plates of food until they declared themselves too stuffed to move. They had made coffee and sipped on some brandy, relishing the small measures and taking their time as they stirred the dark liquid and gazed at one another over the steam from their mugs which smelt rich and warming.

After they had finished their Christmas lunch, Ginny and Millie had gone to the fire to speak to their respective families. Each wore silly paper hats as they wrapped their arms around one another and laughed and joked with their parents, siblings and friends. They didn’t feel too homesick because home was with each other, now. Besides, there was always Boxing Day for visiting. After the fire died out they sat together on the sofa and pulled off their paper hats, wrapping warm blankets around themselves and watching some Muggle television.

They had gone to bed together later that night, both too exhausted for any real acrobatics. Nonetheless they kissed in the candlelight and spoke in hushed whispers, until the kisses became more urgent and the fire in their stomachs heated and coursed through their bodies. They moved together in the dark room - a tangle of limbs - their breathing heavy around them both until they finally fell into a happy sleep when the birds began to sing. Ginny remembered dreaming of Millie that night, wrapped up warm in her arms. She wondered if Millie had dreamed of her too. She never thought to ask.

The day after, they had taken a brisk walk in the morning before they went to visit their families. They pulled on heavy coats and long woollen scarves. Ginny smiled as she thought about the way their noses pressed against one another’s cheeks when they stopped to kiss, icy cold with the nip of winter.

It was ten days into the New Year when Millie had been attacked.

Ginny remembered the rush through Hogsmeade, the throngs of people still trying to get a bargain in the post-holiday sales. Millie had been by her side and when she cried out, Ginny had been quite convinced it was a silly game at first. It was only when she felt her hand – the one on Millie’s side – warm and sticky, that she knew this wasn’t some sort of prank. The attack had come from a powerful wizard, one who had a grudge against Death Eaters and their families. They should have exercised more caution, Ginny supposed, but Millie had been quite determined not to allow recent attacks to frighten her or to stop her from leading her life.

Millie’s eyes had widened with surprise as Ginny held her and watched the white snow turn red. Ginny tried to be strong then, because Millie didn’t want her tears. She stroked her hair and told her everything would be fine.

It had been a dark and brutal spell, they said at St Mungo's. The kind of spell people didn’t really recover from.

Ginny imagined how Millie would look now, with the watery sunlight making her hair glow. Millie had dyed it white blonde right after the two of them had officially got together, cutting it into a short, punky sort of style. Ginny loved it, but always joked about the hair colour being better suited to a Malfoy. She wished she had told Millie more how beautiful she was and how much Ginny loved everything about her. The year apart, with only a cool hand on a hospital bed to hold and a smooth forehead to kiss had been unbearable. Ginny had thrown things, wept and broken down on more occasions than she cared to remember. She just wanted her Millie back so she could tell her the things she had since said on countless occasions but that Millie had never been awake to hear.

“You shouldn’t be here. Does this mean you’re…?” Ginny couldn’t finish the sentence, which made her eyes prick with hot tears as she struggled to breathe.

“Quite the opposite. I thought I should tell you because I don’t much fancy waking up alone during the holidays.” Ginny could almost hear the smile in Millie’s voice and nearly felt the warmth as their splayed fingers almost touched in the snow. “You made an angel.”

Ginny bunched her hands into snow-full fists and laughed. “A snow angel. I thought you could use one.”

“Thank you…” Ginny heard a rustle and turned in the direction of the sound to see a blur of white which moved at a pace towards them as Millie continued speaking. “My father’s Patronus. Looks like he has had word – you should be somewhere else.”

“I don’t want to be anywhere but next to you,” Ginny whispered. When she turned towards the voice there was nothing there, only the faintest dip in the freshly fallen snow.

Ginny stood and Apparated straight to the hospital, making the familiar trip to the room they had kept Millie in for twelve long, painful months. When she got to the room, Ginny clutched the door when she saw Millie’s bed had been made with no Millie in it. She looked around frantically and found one of the nurses cleaning the ward, hardly able to speak as she asked for Millie’s whereabouts.

“Oh, the young lass? They moved her to another room. She should be out tomorrow.”

Ginny walked as quickly as she could, almost stumbling in her haste until she found Millie, sitting up and looking very much alive, smiling at one of her many cards. When Ginny approached the bed, Millie turned, her smile radiant as she reached for Ginny.

“Merlin, it’s like I’ve been asleep forever. I missed you so much. I dreamed of you, all the time.”

“I missed you too. You daft bloody idiot, scaring me half to death like that.” With a smile, Ginny sat on the edge of Millie’s bed and wrapped her up tightly into a hug, the scent of Millie still so familiar after all of this time around the strong clinical sort of smells Ginny didn’t want to have to face again for a long time.

“I tried to wake up before but it wasn’t the right time. I felt cold today, but a good sort of cold, like being out in the snow or something, and then something just gave me that nudge I needed.” Millie kissed Ginny softly on the lips with a contented sigh. “I wonder what it was?”

“Perhaps it was an angel.” Ginny laughed and shrugged lightly, her skin still cold and damp from being outside as she held tightly to Millie, relishing the warm heat of her body.

“Yes.” Millie brushed Ginny’s hair from her face and looked at her fondly. “Perhaps that was it.”

~Fin~