Strolling around a frosty Hogsmeade, Draco half wished he had stayed up at the castle. Not only was it freezing due to a cold snap, not to mention pretty icy underfoot, but he was feeling very much like a spare part. Even though his friends had offered to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas to keep him company, Draco still felt as though he was an afterthought with the two couples. Their trip down to Hogsmeade was a perfect example as all morning Draco had been surrounded by friends who were only interested in their partner.
Although it could have been worse, and Daphne and Pansy could have been nagging him about getting a girlfriend again. Since getting together with their boyfriends, his female friends had been trying to set him up with a witch of his own. Their first target had been one of their other friends, Tracey Davis, and when Draco made it clear that he didn't feel anything more than friendship for her, they'd turned their attention to Daphne's younger sister, Astoria. Astoria was a couple of years younger than Draco, and while she was perfectly nice and very pretty, she just wasn't Draco's type.
To be honest Draco's friends kept trying to set him up with fellow Slytherins, and most of them weren't the sort of girls Draco was interested in. As a Malfoy he had a certain reputation in their world, and he knew most Slytherins would bend over backwards to be with him. Plus most of the girls in their house had been raised in traditional households, meaning they believed the best way to land a rich husband was to be subservient and agree with anything he said. So if Draco wanted a pliable, always ready to please girlfriend, he could have his pick of the witches, but Draco wanted more. He wanted a witch who had her own opinions, and wouldn't be afraid to challenge him.
Maybe if Draco's friends were trying to set him up with a witch like that, he might have been interested. Although to be honest Pansy and Daphne were by far the most independent Slytherin witches, and even if they weren't with his two best friends, he had no romantic feelings for either of them. The feistiest witch Draco knew, and the only one who even slightly interested him romantically, was his fellow head, Hermione Granger. He had been hoping that sharing dorms would give him a chance to get to know Hermione better, but aside from their initial decision to put the past behind them and make a fresh start, they'd had very little to do with one another. If they weren't busy with their school work and head duties, they were with their friends. They hadn't even seen much of each other over the holidays, even though they were both still at school, as they both had friends at Hogwarts as well.
Shaking his head to dispel thoughts of Hermione, Draco returned his attention to his friends. Talk had been of them heading to The Three Broomsticks for some lunch, but his friends seemed too caught up in locking lips to think about food.
"I think I'm going to head up to the castle," he said.
"I thought we were going to grab some lunch," Pansy pouted.
"You four go ahead, I'm going back up to the castle," Draco said. "I'll catch you later."
It took Draco a short while to reassure his friends that he would be okay on his own, but eventually he persuaded his friends to enjoy the rest of their day and he would see them later. While his friends headed off to The Three Broomsticks, Draco bought himself a hot turkey sandwich with stuffing and cranberry sauce and a black forest hot chocolate to take back to the castle with him, where he planned to spend a cosy afternoon curled up beside the fire in the head dorms with a good book.
Traipsing around Hogsmeade in such bitter weather wouldn't have been Hermione's ideal way to spend a day, but Harry and Ginny had wanted to explore the village without the usual crush of students, and Ron had begged her to join them so he wouldn't be stuck alone with the love birds. Either that, or Ron suggested that he stayed up at the castle with Hermione. Usually Hermione wouldn't have minded staying up at Hogwarts with Ron, but just lately he'd been expressing a romantic interest in her, and even though Hermione had been trying to let him down gently, he was rather hard-headed and didn't seem to be taking her subtle hints that she only saw him as a friend. So spending time along together was the last thing she felt they needed, which was why she'd agreed to venture out into the bitter cold to visit a village she'd already explored hundreds of times before.
By mid-morning, Hermione was already regretting her decision to join her friends. Harry and Ginny only seemed to have eyes for each other, and Ron was making yet more romantic overtures towards her. Hermione was coming to the realisation that she would have to be firmer with Ron if she wanted him to get the message that she wasn't interested in him when they headed into The Three Broomsticks and Ginny let out a cry of excitement.
"Mistletoe," she cooed happily, gesturing to the hanging bough just inside the doorway which was almost directly over Hermione's head. "Someone has to kiss you, Hermione."
"I'll do it," Ron offered eagerly.
Before Hermione could protest, Ron had darted forward and slanted his lips over hers. She expected the kiss to last only a short time, but when it became clear Ron was going to take full advantage of the situation, she raised her hands to push against his chest. Only instead of moving away, Ron wrapped his arms firmly around her and pulled her closer to him. Trying again to push Ron away, Hermione tried to pull her head back from the kiss and tell Ron to stop. However, the second her lips parted, he pushed his tongue inside her mouth and held her even closer. Hermione was furious at Ron's behaviour and summoning every ounce of strength she possessed, she shoved on his chest and yanked her head backwards.
"How dare you," she panted as Ron's lips finally broke free of hers.
"What?" Ron asked innocently, a dazed expression on his face as if he'd been too lost in the kiss to notice Hermione's objections.
"How dare you refuse to back off," Hermione snarled, pulling out of Ron's arms and backing away from her friend. "I pushed you away, and you still kept going."
"It was just a kiss, Hermione," Ron chuckled.
"That was not a kiss, that was an assault," Hermione snapped, glaring at Ron.
"What's going on?" Harry asked, tearing his attention away from Ginny, who had also wanted to take advantage of the mistletoe.
"I'm going back to school," Hermione said. "Alone," she added sternly at Ron in case he had any ideas about following her.
Leaving Ron to explain himself to his sister and best friend, Hermione turned and stormed from the pub. Stomping through the streets of Hogsmeade, she set off back towards the castle, unaware that there was another person behind her also heading up to the school. Her mind was in a flurry as she ran over what had just happened with Ron. She just couldn't believe that he'd acted like that. She did wonder if maybe she should have been firmer with him sooner, and then he wouldn't have kissed her like that, but she dismissed the thought of blaming herself. It didn't matter if Ron thought he'd had a chance with her or not, he shouldn't have carried on kissing her when she'd made it clear she wanted him to back off. The only person to blame for what had happened was Ron, and Hermione was damned if she was going to feel bad about storming back to the castle.
"Bloody git," she muttered to herself, picking up the pace in her eagerness to get back to the castle.
In her rush to get back to the castle she lost focus on her icy surroundings and she didn't notice the patch of black ice until she stood on it and her feet flew out from underneath her, slamming her down onto the frosty snow covered path with a nasty bang. Luckily she didn't bang her head, and even more fortunately no-one was around to see her embarrassing fall.
"Granger?" A familiar voice called from behind her.
At the sound of the voice, Hermione groaned and briefly closed her eyes. Of all the people to have witnessed her fall it had to be Draco sodding Malfoy. It was true that he wasn't as big of a git as she'd always thought, and sharing dorms hadn't been the trial she'd feared it would be, but she still doubted he would have witnessed her fall without feeling the need to make fun of her. No doubt he would share it with his friends, and the few remaining students and staff would all know she'd fallen over in the snow.
"Granger, are you okay?"
At the question, which sounded as if it had been uttered directly in front of her, Hermione cracked open her eyes and found that Draco was indeed right beside her. In fact he was crouching down beside her, concern glittering in his grey eyes.
"I'm fine," Hermione muttered in embarrassment. "I just slipped on the ice."
"It is rather icy," Draco agreed seriously, not a hint of amusement in his features. "Do you want a hand getting up?"
"I'll be okay," Hermione replied, bracing her hand on the floor to push herself up. However, the second she put her right foot onto the floor she yelped in agony as it gave way underneath her and she crashed back down into the snow.
"It doesn't look like it," Draco tutted. "Let me help, Granger. I won't take no for an answer."
Even if she did want to say no to Draco's assistance, Hermione knew it was no good. Like it or not, she needed help getting to her feet, and unless she was going to lie in the snow until her friends appeared, Draco was it. Thanking Draco for his help, she allowed him to help pull her to her feet. Or rather foot, as every time she put her right foot down she cried out in pain, and she couldn't put any sort of weight on it.
"Come on, let's get you back to the castle," Draco said, wrapping his arm firmly around Hermione's waist and giving her support on her bad side.
As she limped along beside Draco, resting rather more heavily on him than she would have liked, Hermione wondered what her fellow head was playing at. Not only had he not laughed at her predicament once, but he'd been the perfect gentleman in helping her back to the school. If she didn't know any better, she would have said he was simply the sort of person to help others in need, but she'd certainly never seen that side of him before.
Getting back to Hogwarts was slow going, and by the time they reached the castle, Hermione's foot was throbbing. The sight of the few steps leading up the castle were almost enough to make her cry, but she gritted her teeth and with Draco's help managed to slowly hop up the stairs and into the warmth of the castle.
"Let's get you to Madam Pomfrey," Draco said as they headed towards the stairs.
"There's no need, it's just a sprain," Hermione argued.
She was fairly sure her ankle wasn't broken as if it had been she doubted she would have made it back to the castle, even with Draco's help. But her main reason for not wanting to go to the medical wing was the stairs. It was going to be bad enough getting to the third floor where the head dorms was located, never mind going up several more flights of stairs to reach the hospital wing.
"Are you sure you wouldn't rather get it checked out?" Draco asked with a frown.
"No, it's fine, I just need rest," Hermione assured him. "Just give me a minute before we tackle these stairs."
"I'm not sure you'll make three flights of stairs," Draco mused.
Before Hermione could respond, Draco whipped out his wand and cast a silent spell at her. Opening her mouth to demand to know what he'd done to her, all that came out was a surprised cry when without warning he whisked her up into his arms.
"Malfoy," she cried, automatically wrapping her arms around his neck as he began to climb the stairs.
"Yes Granger," Draco replied with a smirk.
"What are you doing?"
"Getting you up these stairs," Draco answered. "And don't say you could have walked up them yourself, as we both know you couldn't. I'm saving us both a hell of a lot of time."
"And that spell you cast on me?" Hermione demanded.
"A lightweight spell," Draco admitted. "Not that I'm saying that you're heavy, because I'm sure you're not. But I didn't want to risk injuring either of us by playing the big man and attempting to carry you up three flights of stairs."
"Why are you doing this?" Hermione asked quietly, rather taken aback by how chivalrous Draco was being.
"Can't I help my fellow head without an ulterior motive?" Draco chuckled. "Seriously though, what did you think I was going to do Granger? Leave you lying out there in the snow? I know I can be a bit of a bastard and I have reputation as a big, bad Slytherin to uphold, but I'm not a complete monster."
"I've never thought you were a monster," Hermione whispered.
"That's good to know," Draco said, flashing Hermione a smile as they reached the third floor and he gently put her back down on the ground.
Once again leaning heavily on Draco, Hermione slowly made her way to the head dorms. Once at the dorms, Draco helped her out of her coat and settled her on the sofa. He then pulled a steaming travel cup out of one of the pockets of his black coat and place it on the coffee table. Summoning a mug, he poured half the hot liquid into it and handed it to Hermione.
"It'll help warm you up," he said, removing a wrapped sandwich from his other pocket. Before Hermione could protest, he cut the sandwich in half and handed one part of her. "No arguing, eat," he said, pre-empting any refusal Hermione could make.
"Thank you," Hermione said, sipping on the delicious hot chocolate and nibbling on the tasty sandwich.
"I'll be right back," Draco said, heading towards the stairs after he'd finished his own portion of the food and drink.
A couple of minutes later he returned, minus his jacket, carrying a tube of lotion of some sort in his hands and a bandage. Explaining that it was a sports lotion made to treat sprains and strains, he gently picked up Hermione's foot and eased her boot and sock off. He then slathered her ankle in the lotion, all the time checking for potential broken bones, and carefully wrapped it in the bandage. Grabbing a cushion from the sofa, he then placed it on the coffee table and set Hermione's freshly wrapped foot on top of it.
"Now, you're going to rest for the remainder of the day," he ordered. "Anything you want, I'll get it for you."
"I can't expect you to wait on me hand and foot," Hermione protested.
"You're not expecting it, I'm offering," Draco said. "Don't argue, Granger, I want to do this."
"Why?"
"Maybe I want to show you that there's more to me than meets the eye," Draco replied seriously.
"I'm starting to see that," Hermione muttered. She still wasn't sure why Draco was being so kind and helpful but she was grateful that he was and she most certainly wasn't going to turn him away when he was being so supportive. "Thank you, Malfoy."
"It's my pleasure," Draco said, smiling at Hermione as he settled down on the sofa opposite her, ready to jump to her assistance if and when she needed it.