The Slimmest, Wildest Chance

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Ginny ascended slowly into wakefulness - stretching lavishly after the long night's rest. It wasn't often she got the chance to wallow luxuriously in bed and she fully intended to enjoy it to the utmost.

Fully intended that was, until she heard insistent mewling coming from the foot of her bed. She shook her head and burrowed deeper into her pillow, murmuring, "Go away", but the noise, much to her irritation, would not go away. After a moment of willing it away, Ginny sat up and stared balefully at the foot of her bed. Nobody disturbed her Christmas morning lie-in and lived to tell the tale.

A large wicker basket was the source of the noise and Ginny scrambled towards it, pushing her hair out of her eyes. A card hung from one corner, "Happy Christmas Ginny, love Hermione and Harry." Ginny's mouth fell open and she flipped the lid of the basket over. Inside was a kitten. A black kitten with four white socks and a blaze on its forehead.

Her very own kitten.

Ginny tentatively reached out a hand and petted its head. The kitten batted her hand playfully with one paw and Ginny giggled. She picked the kitten up and settled it in her lap, stroking it with one hand while examining her other presents - a new telescope from Bill, a book of Muggle love-poems from Charlie (Ginny suspected the hand of a girlfriend in that), a voucher from Madame Malkins from Percy (Ginny rolled her eyes at his lack of imagination), a moving model of the galaxy from the twins (she'd wanted one of those for ages) and the best of all from Ron - a tiny Phoenix charm on a silver chain. In one of her childhood games she had been Lady Ginevra, Guardian of the Phoenix, and Ron had obviously remembered.

With a certain amount of difficulty she managed to hang the chain around her neck - the kitten caught it between its paws, and Ginny tickled her stomach, wondering what she would call it - actually her, as Ginny discovered. Briefly she considered the names Persephone and Titania, before settling on Desdemona.

Ginny set the kitten down and began to get dressed - Desdemona chased her tail. Ginny dressed warmly and comfortably and even, out of deference to her mother, wore her Weasley jumper. So what if it was bunchy, and pink - it wouldn't matter when Harry and Ron started flinging snowballs at her.

Clutching Desdemona to her chest Ginny made her way out of the room with a definite spring in her step. She ran down the stairs, and nearly collided with Hermione. Immediately her gratitude spilled out. "Oh Hermione she's so beautiful. Thank you so much. I love her."

Hermione smiled and said, "I didn't get you the cat - that's from Harry. I got the basket and the cushion."

"Oh well...thanks, Hermione!"

By now they had reached the common room, and Ginny could see her brother and Harry in their usual corner. Forgetting herself and her usual circumspection, she ran over to Harry, set Desdemona on a cushion, and gave him a huge hug from behind. "Oh Harry thank you so much. She's so beautiful and I've wanted a cat for so long and I love her..." Eventually Ginny managed to stop her babbling and let him speak.

"I'm glad you like her Ginny."

He was smiling and he patted her arms where they were laced around his neck. Slowly Ginny withdrew - she wasn't usually so demonstrative with Harry, but...Desdemona was just so wonderful.

Ron was laughing at her, and Ginny moved away from Harry. She sat on the floor and crossed her legs, teasing the kitten with her fingers. She thanked Ron for his present, and showed it to Hermione. She was cooing over her kitten once again when Ron said, "What did you call her?"

"Desdemona."

Ron burst out laughing and Ginny clutched Desdemona to her chest protectively. Harry raised an eyebrow and said, "What's so funny?"

"It's just a very long name for such a small cat."

Ginny glared at him. "She'll grow into it."

"Like you grew into Ginevra?"

"For your information Ron, I am tall in spirit."

"That must be very comforting Ginny."

Hermione called an end to the prolonged sibling conflict, and eventually persuaded Ginny to leave Desdemona in the common room, and go and have breakfast. Although she found it difficult to abandon her kitten, she was also hungry...and Hermione could be very persuasive.

Breakfast soon turned into a snowball fight (snow lay thick on the ground, and dark clouds on the horizon promised more soon) and the snowball fight turned into dinner. Ginny knew there was darkness outside, knew from the many, many faces at the table that the war was not going well, and knew from the scar on Harry's forehead that, for the four of them, this could only be a brief interlude - but she tried to forget.

It wasn't hard to shove all dark thoughts to the back of her mind when all through dinner Harry's leg was pressed against hers, hip to knee under the table. She wasn't sure if he knew what he was doing, but she shivered at the contact nonetheless. And just before desert, he gave her the silver crown from his Christmas cracker and said she could be his Snow Queen, tugging at a lock of her hair and blushing slightly as he did so. But best of all was when, as Ron and Hermione teased each other, he took her hand oh so gently in his, and traced the lines of her palm with one finger. Ginny could hardly even look at him, for fear that a smile ridiculously bright, would spread all over her face. Still, though she could hardly meet his eyes for fear of exposing herself, it was terribly hard to say goodnight and go up to the girls' dormitories - all she wanted was to sit beside him, all night.

Perhaps it was ludicrously chaste, and she was ludicrously girlish, but she couldn't help gushing to Desdemona (and Hermione) about just how wonderful Harry Potter was before she went to bed. Yet it was hard to go to sleep, when she could hear the soft rustle of snow, and the whistling of the wind, just outside her window.