Thirteen Reasons Why

Hermione was once again sitting in her favorite armchair by the fire. Outside, fluffy white snow was fluttering down to the ground. Hermione desperately wanted to go outside and play in it, but she did not have anything warm enough to go out in. She had a light coat, but most of her clothes were thin robes for work.

Looking out the window, Hermione sighed wistfully. Deciding she would risk getting sick for going out in the snow, she got up, set her book aside, and headed upstairs to change.

She put on a pair of hugging jeans, a long sleeved t-shirt, and the coat. She conjured up a scarf and some mittens, and put on a baseball cap that Ron had charmed to read Chudley Cannons. Hermione laced up her tennis shoes and headed outside.

Across the street, she noticed three young children out building a snowman. Hermione had babysat the youngest child John before, so their mother would not be bothered if Hermione joined their fun.

"Hey you guys," Hermione said to the kids. "Can I help?"

"Yes, please, Miss Hermione!" said the middle child, Holly. "Brad won't help me and John with our snowman."

Hermione looked over at the eldest boy, Brad, and saw that he was quickly making a very sturdy snowman by himself.

"Well," she said to the two younger kids, "we'll just have to fix that, won't we? Come on!" Hermione began to roll up snow into a ball. John and Holly followed suit, and soon their snowman had grown to be larger than Brad's.

"It's missing something," said a toothless John. They had already put a mouth, eyes, and nose on the snowman, as well as arms.

"Hmmm." Hermione thought for a moment. "Ah-ha! I know. I'll be back in a second." She ran around the corner of their house, made sure no one was looking, and summoned up a green and red striped scarf and a black top hat.

Running back around the corner, Hermione gave the scarf to Holly and the hat to John. They placed the clothing on the snowman, beaming with pleasure. They both looked over at Brad's snowman – he was still working on the head.

Clapping happily, the two children started talking to the snowman.

"You're quite a handsome snowman," said Holly cheerfully.

"Almost good enough for Miss Hermione!" interjected John.

"Oh, I think he's quite good enough," Hermione said, grinning. She merrily began to talk to the snowman. "So, Mr. Snowman, how would you like to accompany me to dinner?"

"I think he'd love to." All three children and Hermione turned around to see Draco Malfoy walking towards them. He was beaming.

"That's Miss Hermione's boyfriend," Hermione heard Holly whisper. Hermione smiled.

Draco came up and gave her a hug. Hermione took his hand and turned him to the kids. "This is Draco," she said.

"Hi, Draco!" the three children chorused.

Draco looked down at Holly and John. "Do you mind if I talk to your snowman for a moment?" he asked. The two kids shook their heads and stepped aside as Draco squatted down to be level with the snowman. "Mr. Snowman," he said, "would it be alright if I took Hermione from you tonight?"

John decided to pipe in, answering for the snowman. "Mr. Snowman thinks that's fine."

Draco grinned. "Thanks," he said. Then he discreetly put his hand in his pocket. Suddenly, the snowman's eye winked at the kids. They cheered merrily and began to head inside, happily discussing some hot chocolate. Draco gathered Hermione up in his arms, holding her there until the children had gone through the front door.

"I have something for you," he murmured. He pulled out a box from inside his coat. It was a large box, so it had clearly been charmed to shrink inside his coat. It was navy blue with yellow patterns on it. Draco handed it to Hermione wordlessly.

"Open it," he said when Hermione just stood there. She did, and a new long scarlet overcoat was revealed.

"Oh, Draco," Hermione said quietly, "it's beautiful." She slipped it on over her other jacket, feeling much warmer. She stuck her hands in the pockets, and found a piece of paper in one of them. Dear Hermione, it said, I love you because you are caring.

Hermione smiled, but then Draco sighed. "What?" she asked, confused.

"I can't kiss you properly with this bloody hat on," he said. He gently eased Hermione's hat off, and her curly hair tumbled down her back. He leaned in, his forehead pressing against hers. Draco then kissed her softly, the snow gracefully falling down around them.

After a moment, there was giggling coming from the house. Draco and Hermione broke apart and looked up, to see that the children had been watching from the window the entire time.


A/N: this one's longer than the others, it's actually two pages! haha, the point of these stories are to be short. I hope yall like it. :)

REVIEW please. And thanks to everyone who helped me with ideas, I'm probably going to use most of them!