"Hey!" Ron protested, watching Harry skate in circles around him and hearing Hermione's muffled laughter in the background. "I can be graceful too!" Ron tried to prove his point by lifting one foot off the ice and trying to spin like Harry. Instead, he slipped and found himself staring up at the Christmas lights a moment later.
Harry almost cracked a rib laughing at Ron's resigned expression.
"You bloody prat," Ron grumbled, accepting the hand an amused Hermione stretched out to help him out, "Just keep on laughing at my pain, will you?"
"I'm sorry," Harry apologized, still grinning, "I should've warned you that you were going to fall."
"Harry," Hermione reprimanded lightly, hiding her smirk in her scarf, "We can't let Ron hurt himself."
"That's pretty hard though," he played along, "Ron's more delicate than glass."
"Fine fine! Gang up on me," Ron crossed his arms and grumbled, before he was forced to spread his arms out to keep his balance again. "How are you guys so good at this anyways?"
"I used to go skating every Christmas with my parents," said Hermione, a reminiscent look on her face. "I'm curious too, how are you so good at this, Harry?"
"My aunt and uncle used to dump me at a local skating camp whenever they traveled on vacation," Harry admitted, "It was probably the one good thing they did for me."
Harry remembered being able to have fun without Dudley's Harry Hunting and to bask in praise without his cousin going home and crying to his aunt and uncle. When Harry came out of his daydream, he caught the tail end of Ron's muttering.
"-probably not that good anyways." Ron grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest in a huff, then regretting his decision as he almost fell again.
Oh this was so on. Harry raised an eyebrow, "How much are you willing to bet on that?"
Hermione immediately noticed what she had aptly named a 'dick-waving contest'. "Hey guys-"
Ron seemed to consider carefully before he responded, "An entire week of mum's desserts."
"Deal." Harry didn't even blink, even if he was about to do something ridiculously stupid on rental skates and about six years without practice. He was a Gryffindor for a reason, and headstrong foolishness was just another side of bravery. "Be ready to say good bye to heaven for a week, Ron."
When Harry turned to speed up around the rink, he saw Hermione's resigned expression and Ron's challenging grin.
This was easy before, Harry tried to convince himself of his own stupidity, only a loop, it was easy, it was easy.
It was easy. Who knew what these years of inactivity had done for his supposed skill.
When he pushed off the ice, Harry thanked the gods that sitting on a stick a hundred feet above the ground was a great motivator in keeping his balance.
One-
Two-
Three!
And then Harry crashed back onto the ice in dull rental blades, barely able to stop himself from face-planting in the ice, and collapsing onto the railing instead. His ankle protested at the sudden strain and he was out of breath, but he couldn't stop the wide grin on his face.
"How was that, you dunderhead!" He hollered over to Ron and Hermione, who both stood on the opposite side of the rink, gaping.
But before they could respond, an angry voice yelled at him from the entrance. There were angry heavy footsteps that Harry was all too familiar with. "Didn't you read the rules when you came in," the manager growled as she stormed over, "no rotational jumps during public sessions!"
Harry paled.
\•|•/
"I should be used to this by now," Hermione sighed.
Harry shuffled his feet guiltily, finding the floor particularly interesting. "Sorry 'Mione," he mumbled.
Hermione turned her judgemental look onto Ron.
"Hey," Ron protested, "I'm a victim here too! And it wasn't even my fault this time!"
"Well, it was your stupid goading that made Harry do such a stupid thing in the first place." Herminoe stared at him pointedly, until Ron folded like a tower of cards under Hermione's glare.
"Yeah okay, at least some of it was me." He admitted reluctantly, not an ounce of Weasley stubbornness in his tone.
"You are so whipped," Harry muttered under his breath.
\•|•/
Two days after the skating-incident-that-never-happened, Dudley (of all people!) called Harry. They had made up after Dudley had graduated high school, maturing enough to apologize for his actions as a child.
"Umm Harry," he started reluctantly on the phone, "have you seen any social media lately?"
In reply, Harry asked, "What's social media? It is the thing with all the girls and their pets you showed me last time?"
"That was... nevermind. Close enough." Dudley sighed. Harry could almost see him running a hand down his face in exasperation. "Anyways, I have something you need to see."
"Alright," Harry agreed amicably, "I'll be there in five minutes." He put the job application back on his overcrowded coffee top, and dusted off his hands.
When he arrived with a silent pop at Dudley's new apartment, he found his cousin struggling to breathe through his laughter on the couch.
"Hey Dudley?" Harry approached him cautiously, wary of his maniac laughter.
Dudley continued laughing, waving a phone screen at Harry's face. "I'm -hic- rewatching your -hic- ice skat-hic-ing videos."
"Ah," he winced, remembering the especially sparkly outfit and the horrible memories of voice cracks associated with that period of time, "Let's not relive that again."
That had not been a particularly fun time as a skater either. While he had been gone attending Hogwarts for the first year, it turned out that his skills had disappeared in the monstrosity that was puberty. He slammed into the ice more times than he ever remembered, and became way too acquainted with the ceiling of the rink.
Harry frowned when he realized that Dudley's hysteria didn't seem to be ending anytime soon. "Dudley, what exactly did you want to show me?"
Noting the impatient note in his cousin's voice, Dudley pushed himself to a sitting position on the couch, a shit-eating grin way too reminiscent of the twins to be comfortable. He tapped a few times at the screen of phone, eventually showing it to Harry. "Congratulations!"
It took Harry a moment to focus, but when he did he choked on thin air.
The headline read: "BRITAIN'S TOP JUNIOR SKATER RESURFACES IN RENTAL SKATES." The video on the article showed Harry in his sweater and jeans, constantly replaying his three rotations and his almost face dive into the ice.
"-welcome back to figure skating gossip!"
Fuck his life.
\•|•/
viktuurilife: did he just do a triple loop in rental skates
britain-has-a-chance: OMG HE'S STILL OUT THERE AND STILL BEAUTIFUL. I HOPE HE COMES BACK! THEN GB COULD ACTUALLY RANK FOR ONCE!
icesk8er001: britain-has-a-chance What are you talking about that was only a triple loop, and this Hadrian Evans has been out of competition for so long he's pretty much retired.
nice_guy: you have to admit his ONE junior program was beautiful in his ONE competition. but still, it's not much of a track record if he only has ONE competition ever. he didn't even go to the worlds that he qualified for. literally the definition of a ONE TIME WONDER.
iceicecle: Why is this even a conversation topic. This guy left competitions for a reason leave him alone.
britain-has-a-chance: 3 3 3 look at his junior program and then look me in the eyes and tell me you don't want to see him come back
[link attached]
[link attached]
iceicecle: If he could skate like this again then Four Continents will be a sight to see.
russianeko: and here we thought Britain had nothing but scones
\•|•/
AN: Not dead, just too lazy to update. Have a bunch of random stuff written, including partial chapters for old stories.