Disclaimer: I do not own anything, sadly.
Author notes: This was meant to be a short story. Sorry if you're looking for a novel but I didn't think this up to be a long series. Maybe something might come to me, but not now. Hope you like it. Hoping for reviews please!
Ice Skating
Hermione excitedly walked down the corridors, weaving through the people. Normally, she'd be irritated at how many people seemed to only use that one corridor to pass through when there were over a hundred other corridors in the castle.
But not today.
Last night was the first night of snow fall and that meant that the great lake had frozen over. Every year since third year, she would look forward to ice skating on the lake. She always brought her ice skates and an extra pair for Ron or Harry. Nothing could dampen her day, the air was crisp, the sun was out, and the snow was beautiful.
She reached the Great Hall and walked over to where Harry and Ron were already seated. They were eating and chatting up a storm about their usual things Hermione did not like to partake in. She placed her gym bag packed with the ice skates beside her side as she sat down.
"What's in the bag, Mione?" Harry asked as he noticed her put the old bag down. She looked up at him and frowned.
"Don't tell me you forgot already?" she whined looking from Ron to Harry, who gave her a almost identical confused looks. Raising her eyebrows in disbelief, she stared at them.
"It snowed last night." She said still with her eyebrows raised. Harry and Ron looked at each other with perplexed expressions, till Harry realized what Hermione was getting at. Hermione sighed in relief.
"Oh, ice skating. Well, um we kind of can't make it today Mione." Harry said slowly as Ron nodded his head apologetically.
"Why?" Hermione asked frowning.
"Well it's not that we don't want to, it's just that we have a scheduled practice today, for quidditch." Harry explained.
"After all, our first match is next month against Slytherin and we still have to train the new chasers. Sorry Mione." Ron added. They both gave her sympathetic looks but Hermione shook her head in understanding.
"Not that's alright. I understand. We can go some other time. After all, it's not like the snow will be gone tomorrow." Hermione said giving a weak smile.
After breakfast, Harry and Ron said goodbye to Hermione and headed out to the quidditch pitch. Hermione couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that they couldn't make their tradition to ice skate the first day of snow. She started making her way back towards the Gryffindor common room.
Walking along a corridor, there was a large window that had a great view of the lake. Stopping next to it, she leaned up against the sill. Hermione stared outside at the beautiful white snow that seemed to glow brightly in the sun. Smiling to herself she looked down at her old gym bag and back outside. So what if Harry and Ron couldn't join her, she still wanted to ice skate. Making up her mind, she started heading in the opposite direction, back towards the castle entrance towards the grounds.
Once reaching outside, she took in a deep breath of the cool crisp air. Giving a slight shiver she smiled to herself. She loved the cold for some odd reason. She trudged through the snow still carrying her old gym bag. The walk to the lake was always a challenge. The lake was quite a distance from the castle entrance and not many people liked to walk that far.
That's why she loved it.
In the fall, she usually came outside to sit under a large oak tree near the lake. It was calm and soothing when everyone else in the castle was being a nuisance. But in the winter she loved it even more because she could ice skate. Ice skating was a favorite hobby of hers because of a childhood memory that she loved to reminisce about. It was of her at the age of five, first learning to skate with her grandmother.
She pulled out her pair of white skates and took off the blade protectors. Giving them a quick wipe, she took off her shoes and replaced them with her skates.
Hermione stood up and made her way on to the ice with one simple glide. Feeling the first bit of wind blow against her face made her give another slight shiver, but it only made her smile. She loved the cold tingling feeling. She could still remember when she was younger, she would skate outside till her nose was as red as rose and every limb in her body was almost frozen.
Making small laps around the lake, she began increasing her speed. The wind gave a slight burn on her face but, she loved it nonetheless. She began making figure eights skating backwards and forwards and sometimes slow up to make small chaine turns.
She was graceful on the ice.
Every movement looked fluid and smooth. Getting brave, Hermione began skating in the position of arabesque and attempting small jumps and nailing them gracefully and light. She was just setting herself up for another jump when a voice broke her concentration and caused her startle. Tripping over her footing, her body lunged forward and landed face first into the ice.
"Oh shit, are you okay?" said the voice again as she heard footsteps coming closer. Lifting herself up a bit, she noticed the ice under her had small red stains. Hermione raised her hand to her lip and quickly she felt the sting of the small cut upon her lip.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She said giving the cut a quick lick before she looked up at the person standing next to her. Much to her disappointment and annoyance, she found herself staring up at Draco Malfoy. His hair wasn't in its usual slick back fashion, but hung loosely over his pale face. Oddly, while he was standing there with his hand outstretched for her to take, his face did not have any trace of his trademark smirks or scowls. Staring at him in disbelief, Hermione sat there glued to her spot.
"Are you planning on getting up today or are you just going to sit there gawking?" he asked in his usual arrogant way, but still stood there with his hand out. She eyed him peculiarly as she hesitantly placed her hand in his. Much to her amazement, Draco hoisted her up with a great deal of ease.
Why was he helping her? Why was he here?
"Thanks." Hermione muttered as she brushed herself off. She began to feel awkward as she could still feel him standing there.
"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked looking up him. Draco shrugged his shoulders casually as he stood there dressed in muggle clothing.
It was definitely different. He didn't look like the Malfoy she hated.
"No reason. I was having a walk around the grounds trying to avoid Parkinson and I saw you making rounds around the lake, thought I'd stop by and watch." Draco said casually. He sounded a little too calm for her liking. Hermione eyed him suspiciously.
"Now why on earth would you want to be away from the president of your fan club?" Hermione joked slyly giving him a small smirk much like his own. Impressed, Draco gave a half smile.
"Now now, I don't see your usual cronies hovering around you either." Draco said playfully as if he were punishing a small child, as he replaced his smile with his trademark smirk, but a much more gentle kind of smirk.
"They had quidditch practice today, which reminds me, shouldn't you be practicing as well. I mean, with the first match being three and half weeks away after all." Hermione said. Malfoy gave a nod in agreement.
"We have practice tonight." He said.
Never in a million years had Hermione ever thought that she and Draco would ever have a civil conversation and yet, here they were, talking like they were old pals. The funny thing was, that Hermione did nothing to stop it or inquire as to why he was being nice.
Maybe because she liked his company? Or maybe because she didn't feel like picking a fight with the arrogant prick he could be? Or just maybe because today was ice skating day?
"Where did you learn to skate like that?" Draco asked breaking Hermione's thoughts.
"Like you care." Hermione laughed to herself as she turned and skated away towards her bag. Draco gave a confused look and followed. He walked slowly on the ice to be sure he wouldn't fall, since he was still wearing his shoes.
"No really. I'm interested." Draco said reassuringly. Hermione turned around to face him and raised a challenging eyebrow.
"Ok, well not really, but it'd be nice to know." Draco confessed with a smirk.
"And why do you have a sudden interest in me?" Hermione asked as he shrugged again for the second time.
"Well, I just thought we'd try making some sort of connection, since we are both the likely candidates for Head Boy and Head Girl next term." Draco said and for some odd reason Hermione felt that there was some sort of sincerity in his voice.
"My grandmother taught me when I was five." Hermione said with a small smile as she sat down in the snow next to her brown gym bag. Smiling triumphantly, Draco sat down next to her.
"From the looks of it, it seems as if you've been doing it for years." Draco stated as they both stared out onto the frozen lake.
"Basically. Since I learned you could never keep off the ice once winter came." Hermione said laughing at herself for sounding so childish, but to her amazement Draco also gave a small laugh, which caused her head to whip towards him. His laugh wasn't filled with malice or mock, it was a sincere happy laugh which caused Hermione to watch him and smile.
"Did you ever trying to compete or anything?" Draco asked turning to her. Hermione gave him a surprised look at how he knew a muggle sport. But before she could ask him anything, he smiled at her knowingly. "I know all about your muggle sports and competitions. My sister lives in muggle London and she subscribes to sports catalogs and stuff. She's a big figure skating fan." He said laughing causing Hermione to laugh a bit too.
"Really now? I didn't you know you had a sister." Hermione said interested. She never thought Draco Malfoy would have anything to say that sparked the least bit of interest in her.
"Half. My father had her before he married my mum. She's half muggle but always went to muggle schools. Her mum doesn't fancy the magical arts. She's about 20 now. Me and her usually hang out sometimes during the summer. Not many people know about my sister, my father liked to keep it all hushed, with her being muggle and all." Hermione nodded in understanding. She remembered how his father despised muggleborns and anything to do with muggles.
"I used to do small competitions, but nothing big like the Olympics or anything." Hermione said. "I stopped skating and competing when I came here to Hogwarts."
"Why is that?" Draco asked.
"Well, when I found out I was a witch, I felt like I was way behind in a lot of things, so I then devoted all my time to studying and catching up as much as I could before school started. For the first couple of years I didn't think that I was ever going to skate again because of my studies, but I guess I can't stay away from the ice for long." Hermione said smiling. Draco laughed.
Hermione was enjoying his company for some reason. It had been a long time since she had an interesting conversation with anyone. Not that she didn't have conversations with Harry or Ron, but as of lately their conversations usually consisted of girls, quidditch, and asking her help on homework assignments. Not exactly thrilling in Hermione's books.
"Want to know a secret?" Draco asked with a mysterious gleam in his eye. Hermione was a little confused but interested none the less and simple nodded her head.
"You have to promise though, nothing I say here escapes your lips." He said with a serious tone. What was he getting at? But Hermione nodded anyway.
"The real reason why I was watching you, yes I was trying to avoid Parkinson and came across you skating, but while I was watching, I…..felt something." He started. Hermione watched him talk and he seemed confused about what he was trying to say. Like he couldn't find the right words to use.
"Watching you skate on the ice with that much confidence, you seemed…..free. A sort of happy kind of free. Something I've never been able to feel or according to you and your friends, something I'm incapable of feeling. But watching……it almost made me feel like I was too." He said with a small smile. Hermione couldn't believe he was telling her things like this, it was completely out of his character.
"I never hated you Granger. Or Potter and Weasley." He continued. Hermione looked surprised. Now this was not what she expected.
"Really now?" she said challenging with a smirk. He smiled at this and continued.
"Hard to believe, isn't it?" he smiled widely and oddly it was nice and caused Hermione to laugh a bit at his humor.
"Yes. But go on." She urged still smiling at him.
"It was more of my father's hold on me, telling me to be an insolent jerk and respect no one who he deemed was inferior to us 'Malfoys'." He said making little quotation marks with his hands to emphasize Malfoys. Hermione laughed a little.
"But I think it was more of me as well. I can admit it now. I was jealous." He said with another serious tone and turned to Hermione.
"Jealous of what?" Hermione asked. This confused her, what was there to be anything jealous of.
"You. All of you. I mean, you were the 'Golden Trio of Gryffindor'. 'All for one and one for all', right?" he said with a small laugh which caused Hermione to laugh along with him.
"No, that's the Three Musketeers, but close." Hermione joked.
"Well anyway, I guess it really got to me over the years of being under my father's wrath. Like I said before, I never really knew what it felt like to be free and then here come you three as free as the wind and standing up for each other. I can't lie, it frustrated me that your lives seemed so much better than mine." He said sincerely. Hermione couldn't help but feel of sympathy for him.
"We're not perfect. Nobody is." Hermione said.
"Maybe not, but what other people find as 'not perfect' could be someone else's ideal of perfect. I've wanted nothing but to have what you have, I guess that's why I took most of my frustrations out on you. Sorry about that whole 'mudblood' thing." He said with an apologetic smile. Hermione nodded.
"But why me? Why would you wish to have what I have?" Hermione asked confused.
"Because you have everything. You're smart, and only beating me by a smidge I might add, and you have loyal friends. Hell, I bet you even spend summer holidays together." He said laughing only to make Hermione smile.
"We do sometimes." She said shyly.
"And I'm proven right!" he said dramatically throwing his hands in the air causing Hermione to laugh.
"But what about your 'loyal band of followers'?" Hermione asked.
"What Pansy? Eww." He said in disgust as he gave a mock shiver.
"Please, you of all people should know how hard it is to find someone in Slytherin to trust." He said and Hermione nodded in agreement.
"I guess you have a point. But what about Crabbe and Goyle?" Hermione asked.
"Pffft. Those oafs can't even tie their own shoes. Did you know that they never tie their shoes?" Draco said enthusiastically.
"No?" Hermione asked.
"No. They just leave them tied and try and shove their fat ass feet into them. Believe me it's hilarious because they think they can hold their balance while doing it." He said laughing as he reminisced. Hermione burst out into laughter of trying to imagine Crabbe and Goyle putting on their shoes. And oddly enough, it was quite easy to picture them doing this.
"Not exactly the brightest brooms in the closet, if you know what I mean. So you can't actually picture them as your ideal mates and trust them with certain things and trust them not to repeat it. Actually…..you can't even trust them to remember it period. I swear to Merlin, if their heads weren't attached to their neck….wait, scratch that, shoulders, they would forget it." He said laughing.
"They can't be that bad?" Hermione laughed.
"You only see them in classes. I see them 24/7, trust me." Draco said. "You know, you're the first person I've had a decent conversation with….ever."
"Likewise." Hermione said and Draco gave another surprised look.
"Ohh? And what about Potter and Weasley." Draco asked raising his eyebrows.
"Well, I guess you can call them my 'Crabbe and Goyle'. Not exactly sharp, forty percent of the time." Hermione said. Draco laughed at her reference of her best friends to his goons.
"I am so gonna love rubbing that in their faces." Draco said with a glint of mischievousness in his eyes, much like a child.
"Hey! You can tell them I said that. I promised to your secret, now you have to promise to mine." Hermione said laughing. Draco gave her a pouting look.
"Why do you have to take all the fun away?" he teased. Hermione laughed at his child ness.
"Don't you find this odd?" Hermione asked.
"What's odd?" Draco asked.
"This. Us. Don't think it's a bit funny that we're sitting here talking to each other like we've never met before?" Hermione asked.
"It is isn't it? But I can't exactly say that I'm not enjoying it. Can you?" Draco said with a smile and Hermione returned the smile and shook her head a 'no'.
Hermione moved her knee a bit from the sitting position she was in and hit her bag. It made a small noise and she looked down and remembered the other pair of ice skates. Getting an idea quickly, her grin widened and she looked up at Draco.
"I have an idea, you want to skate with me?" Hermione asked excitedly. Draco turned to her with a raised eyebrow.
"No I think not. I'll just watch." Draco said.
"Aww, come on. It'll be fun. I have an extra pair of skates." Hermione said pulling out the pair and handed them to him. His once smiling face then turned into a worried expression. He looked up her face and he could tell she was excited.
"I really don't think this is a good idea. I don't even know how to skate." Draco said.
"Nonsense, just put them on. I'll teach, come on. Please?" Hermione pouted as Draco reluctantly gave in.
Hermione triumphantly smiled and quickly stood up and cleaned herself off. Once Draco had finally put on the pair of ice skates Hermione held out her hand out for Draco to take. He stared at her hand for a while before taking it. She pulled him slowly onto the ice and instantly felt him grab more tightly as he felt the ice beneath him.
"Just let yourself glide." Hermione chuckled at his tenseness.
"Oh, so you think this is funny do you." Draco said jokingly but quickly replaced by a worried expression as he felt himself stumbling and start to slip. Losing his balance he fell backwards and landed on his bum. He felt a little embarrassed but surprisingly, he was having fun. Hermione couldn't help but laugh as he sat their with a childish pout.
"You almost got it." Hermione encouraged as she pulled him back to his feet.
"You weren't exactly miss graceful a moment ago either. As I seem to remember I found you face first in the ice." He said teasingly as he smirked.
"That was because you startled me. Now try not to flail your arms everywhere. That's causing you to fall." Hermione said still holding both his hands as he tried to steady himself on the ice.
"Easier said than done." Draco said trying to maintain his balance as Hermione chuckled here and there at his clumsiness.
"Don't worry, not everyone gets it on the first time." Hermione said watching him a few feet away from her, trying to balance himself on his own.
He threw his hands in the air and sliding his feet back and forth. Hermione knew he was going to fall again so she quickly grabbed his arm and he suddenly grabbed onto her around her shoulders bringing her closer till he steadied. Hermione's heart began racing as when he quickly pulled her closer. She was so close she could feel the heat emitting from his body and she could smell a trace of cologne on him. She swallowed hard as she felt a blush creep into her cheeks. She slowly raised her head up to meet his eyes. Looking up at him, Draco had the same surprised look at how close they were.
Staring into each others' eyes was helping any bit.
They were both lost in each other's eyes before they even realized that they had inched their faces closer. Now only centimeters apart, Hermione's mind was screaming, do it. She could feel his warm breath on her lips, and before she knew what she was doing she let herself fall into the moment as she gently closed her eyes and leaned in a little more. Surprisingly, Draco did the same.
The kiss was soft and sweet. Hermione felt a tingling sensation upon her lips as she pulled back enough to see his face. His pale cheeks had blushed as well. They gave each other a small smile before they both leaned in again. This time the kiss was more intimate but yet still soft. Hermione brought her hands up to rest around his neck and Draco's hands found their way to the small of her back.
Hermione titled her head slightly to deepen the kiss as she gave a slight moan into Draco's mouth. Why did this feel right? Hermione couldn't figure out why it felt so great, but she was loving every moment of it. Draco moved his hands up from her back to cup her face softly. He gently pulled out of the kiss, much to Hermione's disappointment. He pulled her back enough to look at her and smiled.
"What are we doing?" he asked softly. Hermione smiled at him.
"Something we thought we'd never do, 'but I can't exactly say I'm not enjoying it.'" She said repeating what he had said earlier about their conversation. Draco smiled placed another soft kiss on her lips.
"Hermione!" familiar voices called out causing them to look up. Hermione looked over to the castle and she could see Harry and Ron making their way towards her smiling and waving at her. She turned back to Draco, who was also watching her two friends.
"I'll be seeing you……Hermione." He said softly as he made one last smile and made his way off the ice and back towards the castle.
Hermione stood there watching him leave with a smile still plastered to her face. Something about her encounter with him made her believe that everything was going to change. Just the change of attitudes between them during their conversation made them want each other's presence or even need it. Not that Harry and Ron weren't great friends, but when it came to conversations such as the one she and Draco had, their talks couldn't compare. In a way her and Draco needed each other. And no matter how hard she would try, she knew that her smile would never leave as she remembered his lips on hers.
THE END