The Surprise
Draco was leading Hermione to their grounds, his hand clutched to hers and his steps tentative in order not to alarm her.
"Where are we going?" She asked uncertainly, her eyes covered with a black blindfold.
"You know where, you could navigate this entire place with your eyes closed; I'm just leading you out of courtesy," He answered with a smile. Not that she could see it, but he knew she could hear it in his voice and it would calm her.
She scoffed. "Alright, Mr. Courtesy. Why are we going to our back yard? Isn't my surprise party supposed to be in the living room?" She smirked and Draco sighed dramatically.
"Could you at least pretend not to know?" He asked, helping her step over the grass.
"I'll act surprised and everyone will think you did a wonderful job, but you know I hate surprises. And it's not like you worked very hard to keep it a secret. I found the invitations on your desk a month ago," Hermione explained.
"I disguised the invitations as work documents and filed them in a confidential folder protected by no less than fifteen privacy charms. But I guess I was too sloppy by leaving them in the house instead of work," He commented, looking down at her. Hermione simply shrugged like she wouldn't have raided his office too if she hadn't found anything home.
"Anyway, as you know your party doesn't start for another forty five minutes, so I wanted to have you alone before that," He stopped walking and she almost stumbled.
"For what?" She asked, sounding alarmed again.
"You'll see in a second," He grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her to face the other way. Hermione gulped nervously as Draco stood behind her, hands slowly coming up to her blindfold. He untied it swiftly but Hermione kept her eyes closed for a moment.
"So?" Draco asked her expectantly and she opened her eyes then.
Her jaw dropped and she gasped at the sight in front of her. A full sized, eight feet wide, blue trampoline sitting on their back yard. She was left speechless, her smile almost reaching her ears.
"How did you…" She trailed off and Draco stepped in next to her.
"Well, I've only heard you talk roughly ten thousand times about how much you enjoyed jumping in one of these things when you were a child, and I knew I couldn't really surprise Hermione Granger with a party, so I created another surprise on the side. Happy birthday," He smiled at her and she beamed, hugging him tightly.
"You are the sneakiest boyfriend…but also the greatest," She pecked him on the lips.
"Do you really like it?" He said, rubbing the back of his head and Hermione only ran towards the trampoline as a response.
"Oh, I haven't been in one of these in so long!" She cried, kicking off her shoes and climbing in.
"They also had one with safety nets but I assumed you'd be able to avoid breaking your neck," Draco commented as he walked closer, hands in his pockets.
Hermione stood in the middle, a big goofy smile plastered on her face and began bouncing slowly, as if testing the resistance, and then she crouched and immediately jumped straight up, soaring several feet in the air. She emitted a high pitched squeal of delight as she reached the highest point and then started going down and jumping back up again and again.
Draco watched amused as his girlfriend rose and fell, spreading her arms, spinning gracefully in midair and having the time of her life. Her wild curls danced rhythmically, swinging rapidly to every direction creating a hypnotic design against the blue sky. And if possible, even more hypnotic was the way her yellow dress would hike up as she descended, the fabric flying around her figure and making Draco have the time of his life.
"This is even better than I remembered!" She called excitedly, her face red. "You have to try it!"
"No thank you, I don't jump," He declined, and continued to watch her, his eyes going up and down with her.
"Come on, Draco. The air, the rush, the view, there's nothing like it!"
"I have a perfectly good view from down here," He said with a smirk, spotting her white knickers one last time before she stopped jumping.
"Hey," He protested and she pouted.
"Please, Draco! You'll love it, I promise. It's even better than flying!" She argued and he frowned skeptically.
"Please, Hermione. Nothing is better than flying," He shook his head and she extended her hand out, looking pointedly at him.
Draco stared at her hand and then sighed, bending over to remove his shoes.
"Yes!" She cheered and helped him climb over. He stood unsure on wobbly legs, squeezing her hand a little too hard.
"It's easy, you just have to jump as hard as you can, watch," She let go of him and sprung upwards, destabilizing Draco and making him fall on his back.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry I forgot!" She apologized and helped him stand up again. Draco glared at her.
"Okay, I will stand here so I won't disturb you," She said as she stepped over to the edge. "So you can just…jump! Just jump Draco!" She waved her arms excitedly and he slumped his shoulders down.
"Alright, alright, calm down. I knew I shouldn't have worn my best suit today," He complained.
He started bouncing lightly the way Hermione had done and then his feet left the trampoline. He kept on leaping up, getting higher and trying not to fall. Hermione looked at him adoringly as his golden fringe fell over his eyes with every jump.
"Tuck your knees in to get even higher!" She called to him and as soon as he did, a big smile spread across his face, turning rapidly in full out laughter. He started spinning like her, closing his eyes and spreading his arms out. Hermione laughed victoriously.
"I knew you'd love this! Here, look what I can do!" She signaled for him to stop and step over to the side.
She started jumping again, clearly making an effort to get higher each time, and then she grabbed her knees in the air, spinning forward and doing a perfect front flip, landing softly on her feet.
She cheered loudly, throwing her arms out! "I haven't done that in over ten years!"
Draco was looking at her, mouth agape and eyes wide. "I want to do that! Move over Granger, is my turn!"
"Make me, Malfoy," She mocked, doing another flip.
"Come on, Hermione!" He whined, removing his jacket and throwing it on the grass. Hermione knew something was important to him when he started acting like a kid.
"Fine," She said and left for the sides again.
Draco jumped eagerly to the middle and bounced like he had done this his entire life. Eventually he tried to flip like Hermione, but fell short and landed on his face. Hermione laughed quietly before helping him.
"You have to do it before you're at the highest point, otherwise you don't have enough time. Just let the weight of your body tip forward with the momentum of the jump and oh, don't forget to let go of your knees before you land!" She explained and he rolled her eyes.
"Have you read a book about every single thing you've done?" He asked, climbing to his feet again.
"It was just a quick gymnastics booklet one summer, hardly a novel," She dismissed him as he tried again.
This time he managed a half flip and landed on his back, making a frustrated sound. He stood up and tried again. And again. And again.
"Draco I want to jump too!" Hermione said, stomping her feet.
"I almost got it, just give me one more chance,"
She huffed but nodded and Draco prepared to try again, closing his eyes to concentrate. This time, he jumped only three times and on the fourth, he did exactly everything Hermione had said and managed an almost perfect flip, expect for landing on his butt instead of his feet.
"I did it!" He shouted and bounced back up to his feet, unable to stop jumping. Hermione cheered him too and waited until he was at the highest point to jump inside the trampoline again.
"Wait!" He told her with a scared expression, but then smiled when he realized that she was up when he was down and vice versa.
"You think you can jump higher than me, Granger?" He challenged her and she scoffed.
"You want to beat me at my own game? I already am jumping higher than you," She stuck her tongue out.
"You're not," He crouched really low and then pushed off his legs as hard as he could and extended his arms out, trying to reach a higher point.
"Just because you're taller doesn't mean that you jump higher," Said Hermione, already breaking a sweat from jumping so hard.
"You can't beat me because you're afraid of heights. And by the way, this still isn't better than flying," He teased and she narrowed her eyes dangerously.
"You're going down, Malfoy," She smirked and once she was up in the air, she tried to throw herself on him. Draco's eyes widened and he managed to escape while Hermione crashed, face-first. Draco laughed and jumped around her, making it more difficult for her to stand up.
Hermione managed to grab one of his legs and pulled, making him fall awkwardly on top of her. They both winced and complained but then started laughing. Draco removed his knee from Hermione's back before helping her stand up.
They held hands and looked at one another, catching their breaths.
"I bet I can do a split in mid-air," Hermione smiled and started jumping again.
"Hey!" Draco did the same, trying to catch up. "That's not fair, I would have to take off my trousers!
"Then lose them!" She shouted, tying her hair back with a determined expression.
Draco grunted as he started to undo his belt in the air.
Across the grounds, just inside the back entrance of the house, and completely unbeknownst to Hermione and Draco, stood Harry, Ron and Ginny.
Ron was red and flustered, trying to look anywhere but straight ahead. Harry's head was tilted to the side, with a deep frown that made his glasses ride low. And Ginny was trying to hide her smile behind the bow of the present in her hands.
"Should we, um…come back later?" Harry asked, scratching his head.
"I guess the party will have to wait until they regain awareness of the rest of the world," Ginny commented, her eyes going up and down with every bounce.
"Don't be ridiculous, we can just call them up, right? We're all adults here," Ron said, turning to face them again and immediately freezing on the spot. "Oh no, Malfoy has no pants, retreat, retreat!"
Ron ran inside as Ginny chuckled loudly. Harry sighed, putting his arm around her and adjusting his glasses. "Come on, I know where Malfoy keeps his Wizard's Chess,"
As they walked away from the back yard, Ginny spoke.
"Could you totally see up Hermione's dress, though?"
"Oh my god yes," Harry laughed and Ron snorted, hiding an embarrassed smile.
"Let's never speak of this again," He said.
"Agreed," Harry seconded.
"Not agreed, just wait until Luna arrives and joins them," Ginny laughed again and Harry and Ron groaned.
The end.