Another one shot. A quick practice at dialogue. I think I'll try something longer soon.

For just-call-me-plain-miss-vain, she left me some nice reviews on my first two fics that made me feel me real nice.

Disclaimer: they belong to just about everyone BUT me.

A Difficult Hike

"Oh….. Potter. I do feel as though I may expire!" Malfoy said breathlessly, a wrist dramatically and delicately resting on his damp forehead.

"No you won't." Harry said in good humour, a little further up the side of the hill.

"How do YOU know?" Draco suddenly asked in an exasperated tone, coping attitude toward Harry, who was being unusually patient. "I mean, look at this! I'm perspiring! Malfoy's do not perspire." He added, a sneer of disgust curling his upper lip while wiping his hand over his forehead and down his cheek.

"Come on, Draco." Harry almost seemed to plead, his new found patience wearing thin.

"I think we need to turn around, and go back, Potter." Draco said as he leaned against a tree. "If we hurry, we'll be just in time for tea." He said, brightening a bit at the prospect.

"We can have tea after we finish the hike." Harry said his hands on his hips. "It's not so far, I'll even take you out for Ice Cream…." He tried to negotiate.

"Hmmmm….." Draco seemed to consider the prospect of a nice sweet treat after their nature hike. "I don't know, Potter," he started "A little bit of Ice Cream doesn't seem like much of a reward for climbing this mountain." He said as he dramatically gestured to the hill the two young men were already half way up.

"Malfoy, this is just a hill! And a rather small one at that." Harry yelled back at Draco, already having climbed a little further upward.

Draco rolled his eyes, standing up to follow Harry up the incline.

Harry felt a slight smile pull at his lips as he watched Draco continue after him.

Just as Draco was about a metre from Harry, his foot slipped on a patch of dried leaves, still damp from the autumn rain they'd had a few days earlier. He slid further down the incline, trying to grip onto something to keep him from sliding too far. Luckily his foot caught a stray root sticking out of the damp soil.

Harry had leant forward, careful to keep his own footing, he reached out to Draco, with a swear of worry just under his breath.

"Damn it, Potter!" Draco cried out, as he took Harry's hand to be helped up.

Seeing that Draco was fine, Harry had to careful try to suppress a snicker at the embarrassing incident.

"Are you okay?" he asked concern overriding the giggle in his voice.

"I-I, think I am-" Draco started to say as he brushed dirt off his front, stopping suddenly to look up at Harry. "A-are you laughing at me?!" he exclaimed.

"Oh. Of course not." Harry said, brushing a bit of leaf off Draco's shoulder.

"Yes, I think you are!" Draco continued his dramatic rant. "I almost fell off a mountain, I could have broken my neck, and been seriously injured, and you're laughing about it!" he finished indignantly.

"No… of course, I'm not laughing at you, love" Harry said, taking Draco into a soft embrace.

"Don't you lie to me, Potter!" Draco said, pushing away from Harry, ready to throw a fit. "You were laughing at me! Like, like I were some common fool!"

"You? A fool? I would never think that." Harry said with a small smile as he followed Draco as he walked off in a huff.

"I don't need to be subjected to your pathetic sarcasm." Draco went on.

"I'm not being sarcastic!" Harry all but yelled as he sped up, catching Draco's hand to stop him.

Draco spun around, opening his mouth to argue, but Harry cut him off.

"I'm not being sarcastic." He said again, more softly.

Having nothing else to say to that, Draco simply fixed Harry with a withering glance, before his eyes wandered to a stray tree, and further down the hill.

"Well," Draco started again. "Are we still going to get Ice Cream?" he asked, pretending to feign anger.

But Harry knew that Draco wasn't really mad, just from the way he couldn't look up at him.

A grin played over his mouth as he nodded. "Of course, my love!" he said dramatically to Draco, bowing stately, and placing a kiss on the back of Draco's hand.

"God, Potter." Draco smirked, rolling his eyes. "Now who's acting like a fool?" he asked.

Fin

Review if you see fit. I do kinda want a little feed back on this one, thanks in advance.