Thursday December 15, 2005
10 Days until Christmas

3:12 PM

Last night when I mentioned that we would only be imagining the amount of pain we would go through… I had never fathomed that my legs and back would hurt this bad. I seriously feel like my knees will collapse any minute and that my spine will disassemble itself.

Other than the pain, the experience was absolutely remarkable. Being at the top of the mountain was so exhilarating and I felt that if I tried to flap my arms, I could actually fly away… All the trees in the distance combined with the village near the base of the mountain just made me feel like I was literally on top of the world. It was without a doubt, breathtaking.

But know I'm going to get on with the funny moments of the day…

The best moment, in my opinion, happened before we even got to the top of the mountain; even before we got onto the lift to take us up. It happened while we were in the store renting out equipment. And it wasn't even Blaise the clumsy one who did it… We were in the back trying on shoes that go to the snowboards, and Draco was sitting on the floor trying to force one of them onto his foot. He tried getting up without any of our help and placed his left hand behind him to push, and ended up getting a hold of something that he shouldn't have. Yep, that's right… His hand knocked into a rack that held all the poles the skiers used. With our luck, the whole entire rack fell down, but it didn't end there. One of the last poles hit some man in the head and as it fiercely attacked him, his arms went wailing into the air and hit a woman that was standing in front of him. Naturally a game of dominoes began and the lady ran into a rack of coats which eventually knocked over a pile of snowboards. It all ended when a shelf of hats fell over on top of the manager's head.

If only I had a video recorder to capture the whole incident. But thank Merlin for cameras…

We apologized to everyone in the store and all of us helped pick up everything that was knocked over. Good thing all the other customers were kind and realized it was all just an accident, or else I'm sure some law suits would end up hitting us faster than a Firebolt zooming towards a snitch.

We had more laugh-worthy moments, of course. What do you expect when a group of wizards knowing practically nothing of the muggle world, try a sport that requires amazing skill that none of us have?

After we acquired all of the necessary equipment and paid for them, we boarded the ski lift to get to the top of the wondrous mountain. Ginny and I were seating on one of the benches in front and Blaise and Draco were in one behind us. I couldn't begin to guess how they managed to climb that thing fast enough to sit close to us. Either way… It was a long way up and the lift wasn't moving fast enough, so we got bored quite easily. Ginny started getting a funny gleam in her eyes while she stared at one of the poles holding us up. I asked her what was wrong and all she told me was that the ice and snow in West Virginia must taste incredible because it smelled so good… I swear that the woman must be going absolutely crazy because the next thing I know, she went to go lick the ice on the pole and her tongue got stuck.

Yeah, I know; pretty typical right? I've seen it happen in countless movies and even remember when Ron did the same exact thing our seventh year while on a trip to Hogsmeade. Except Ron's tongue got stuck to the side of the carriage instead of a pole.

But I'm just going off on a tangent there… Ginny's story is a bit different than I remember seeing other places. Somehow the side of her cheek also got stuck to that blasted pole and also the side of her forehead. I'm going to go ahead and assume that she was trying to look at me while she did it, because her face was turned towards where I was sitting. By the time we reached the top of the mountain where we were supposed to meet with the snowboarding instructor, she still hadn't come undone. So obviously we had to stay on the lift. Before it was time for Blaise and Draco to jump off, I told them what happened and to get help. And jumping off of the lift wasn't the help I had in mind… So… We were descending on that bloody lift to reach the base of the mountain, when out of the corner of my eye, I see Draco snowboarding down to beat us there.

To the person who has broken into my diary and is at the moment reading it, I have to remind you of a little detail… HE CAN'T SNOWBOARD! Even though the man may be really gifted on a broomstick, it's not quite the same thing. And from previous experiences, I've come to realize that Draco isn't all that coordinated and he wasn't blessed to be graceful.

With that being said… He ran straight into a tree. Now don't get me wrong I know that trees can't be knocked over, but this wasn't a very big one being probably half his size. So it snapped in half and he started tumbling down the mountain. I am extremely thankful that there happened to be someone on ski patrol duty that witnessed the whole thing and stopped Draco before he rolled more than 100 feet.

Once more tonight I'm going to assume… Draco must have told the ski patrol what happened to Ginny because when we reached the bottom of the mountain, a man jumped onto the bench right in front of us. He threw us a thermos filled with hot water and fortunately it happened to be enough to release Ginny from Blaise's replacement.

Thankfully none of us were hurt and still willing to go on with the snowboarding lessons. We finally met up with the instructor and the first thing he said when he took a good look at us was, "You bunch are the craziest and wildest people I have met." At first I thought he was trying to insult us, but then he started laughing and asked if we could do anymore 'tricks.'

The rest of the day was filled with plenty of instances where one of us would tumble down the slopes or land flat out on our arse. It's a very good thing that we were all piled with about 7 layers of clothes so we couldn't feel the harsh landings.

Draco and I started getting the hang of staying up on the boards while going down, so we decided to race a little bit. Unfortunately I still hadn't fully grasped the concept of stopping, so I ran straight into Draco and we landed in an awkward position…

But all in all, it was entirely fun and I'm glad I got to go through the experience and adventure with some of the people I love the most in the world.

Now that we have gotten to go through the whole escapade full throttle, we decided to order more food through room service. It took everyone so long to finally come to a decision on what they wanted, that they just called in the order about 10 minutes ago… I'm entirely thankful that Ginny knows how to use a telephone so I wouldn't have to show anyone, because I've been too busy writing.

Now Draco is begging me to go take a shower with him, and I can't resist his puppy dog eyes. Plus I could use a nice warm bath right now after the long and treacherous day.

Love,
An Exhausted Hermione

- - -

8:47 PM

A little while after Draco and I hopped out of the shower, our dinners had arrived. I was still only clad in a towel so Draco stepped out of the room and grabbed our dinners along with a bottle of wine. While I was putting on some clothes, he set up our meal in front of the fireplace, which he started by himself… without magic. I never thought he had it in him.

After we slowly ate our dinner and finished off our conversation, he conjured up some strawberries and a bowl of chocolate. He took a strawberry and dipped it into the bowl, and fed it to me… How romantic is that? And when I would get a little bit of chocolate on my face, he would kiss it off.

The least I could do was take everything into the mini kitchen we have and clean everything off. But when I went to go back into the room, it was locked. I cursed myself for not having my wand so I could break in. After a while he opened the door and I just stood in awe at what he had done.

The only source of light had been coming from about 10 candles that were floating in the air spread around the room. I didn't have a long time to take my surroundings in before he starting kissing me, but I do remember there being rose petals spread about the bed; not that I care what was lying underneath me for about an hour…

Even though I'm pretty sure he did it all with magic, I'm happy for his efforts and it really got my mind off of the pain coursing through my body. I'm pretty sure that Blaise and Ginny are probably having the same sort of night as we are.

But I'm off to 'sleep' early so we can get a head start on our day tomorrow.

Love,
Hermione