For lncognito's challenge in the DG Forum. Also a tribute to Jakarta's currently very, very rainy weather.
Requirements:
Prompt: October (fall or spring)
Challenge: Find the beauty or the ugliness in the season.
Pairing: Any, as long as your fic features HP character(s).
Word Count: 800 words (limit)
Deadline: October 31st, 2010; 11:59 PM (forum time)
So here's hoping mine's not a total disaster. :P
As versatile as magic was, there were some things that simply could not be helped.
Draco stepped in a particularly large puddle and squawked. He looked up at the pouring sky disapprovingly, stepped aside and shook his dragon-hide boots dry. Almost huffing as he continued on his way, he was thinking about how much of a shame it was that no one had invented a spell to control the weather, when a head poked out of a door beside him, took one look at him with widened, brown eyes and promptly pulled him from the street and inside.
"Hey!" Draco protested as he stumbled into the shop. "Kidnapping isn't exactly the most noble thing to do–"
"Saving you from death by water isn't noble?" It was a girl who had pulled him inside – a girl who was currently crossing her arms together in annoyance, looking sideways at him from under that woollen thing on her head.
Draco snorted. "A bit of rain will hardly finish me off."
"Merlin, Malfoy, don't you listen to the wireless?" The girl pulled off her beanie – were those tassels? – and reached for the radio on a nearby counter.
And then he realised that she'd just called him by his name, and so familiarly at that. "How'd you know my name?" he asked suspiciously, but the sound of his voice was run over by static from the wireless, which was quickly replaced by the rapid mutter of a news announcer after the girl had fiddled with it.
"This is a Muggle station."
The girl walked behind the counter and leaned over her arms. "They're usually right about this kind of thing."
Draco was about to deliver a snippy reply when he realized what the announcer was saying. "A flood?" he murmured, a little bewildered.
She nodded sagely. "In less than a few minutes, it'll be much worse, no doubt."
"But it's October, for goodness' sake. It's supposed to be all mild sunshine and drizzles."
"And rainbows," the girl said rather cheerily. "Sunshine and drizzles go with rainbows, Malfoy, don't you forget."
"Oh yeah." Draco narrowed his eyes at her. "How'd you know my name, girl?"
The girl raised an eyebrow. "Red hair?" She pointed to her head, then her face. "Uncountable, adorable freckles? I'm Ginny Weasley, you prat."
He frowned – he didn't remember a female Weasley besides the mother hen.
She rolled her eyes. "'Eyes as green as a fresh pickled toad'," she quoted, and then threw up her hands. "Forget it, why am I retelling my life's most embarrassing moment to you?" She pretended to think, and then snapped her fingers. "Oh, that's right, because you caused it."
"Potter's girlfriend," he realized.
Weasley sighed. "It figures that you would say that the first time you see me in years. The first thing you ever said to me was exactly the same. Well, not exactly the same, but–"
Draco snapped back to attention. "Look, Weasley, I'm glad that we're having this fond reunion and all–" The way Weasley sniffed at this implied she thought it was rather the opposite of fond. "–but I need to get out of here and back home. Now, when are you going to release me from your kidnapping clutches?"
The girl had the inelegance to snort. "Kidnap indeed." She glanced out the window, turned back to him and shrugged. "Well, Malfoy, if you want to, you can go back out into that downpour, drown all you like and forget I ever tried to save your worthless hide."
He held out his chin and his nose was up in the air. "I will, thank you," he told her, smirking, and made for the door.
Then he saw the rising level of water, and reluctantly turned back to the red-haired girl, who was trying to hold back a grin. He raised his eyebrow at her and defended, "What? These boots are expensive, you know," in turn making her collapse in a fit of laughter.
"You're priceless, Malfoy," she told him, and when his lips curled knowingly, she amended, "Your face, I mean."
Draco threw another look out the small window and, seeing that the height of the water was only growing, he said rather resignedly, "It seems that I'll be stuck here for a while yet, Weasley. Care to share a cup of tea?"
She grinned and gave a mock sigh. "Well, if I must."