Winter

Whatever horrible wizard had cursed him so that he always lost his way in Hogwarts, he hoped would die a slow, painful death. And Malfoy hoped he was there. To laugh.

Cursing his rotten luck he trudged through the halls of the school. It was only a few hours until they were supposed to be in their common rooms, yet all the hallways were desserted aside from Draco. It didn't take a genius to figure out why. Hogwarts buildings were magically enchanted to keep the warmth in during the colder seasons. The only problem with that was that sometimes there wasn't enough warmth to go around. The warmest places in the school was the great hall, the common rooms and, ironically, the potions room. Since dinner already finished and Draco had NO desire to go to a classroom at the end of a Friday, his destination of choise was the Slytherin common room. That SHOULD have been an easy task.

Hogwarts school seemed to have a different plan in mind for him. Every staircase he took would spin around and lead him to a different hall than the one he was going for. Hallways that he thought he had memorised over the years would lead him to a dead end. Even some of the doors that he knew did not require a passward would lock themselves unless he told the portaits the right words. Since there WERE no right words, he was stuck. No amount of magic or yelling would get them to change their mind. Maybe it was revenge for when he and some of the other Slytherin boys had been throwing snow around inside. The only people that he saw in his journey was an odd looking women who's hair kept changing colours, and the man that she clung to who hid his profile under a cloak. It was so odd that after they had passed Draco half convinced himself they had been a hallucination.

It was a conspiracy! Hogwarts was trying to make him freeze to death! The only thing that kept him going was the anticipation of seeing his father's expression when he told him what happened. He may even get to see another shouting match between him and that old fool they had for a headmaster. His friends at the common room would be waiting for him. Crabbe and Goyle would be so worried they might get him some butterbear to warm him up. Pansy would fuss all over him and not leave his side. That would be entertaining.

At the moment however, he was grumbling while trying to keep warm under his uniform cloak. His clothers were the absolute finest, designed to keep in the warmth. But on that cold winter's night the snowfall outside made it hard to find any warmth to keep in. A snowfall! Just the time to get lost! When one door refused to open he kicked it in anger before resentfully turning down an unfamiliar corridor. Best to keep moving. To his despair it was a hall with open windows that showed the lake outside. While he cursed loudly he hugged his cloak tighter to fight the wind. "Whichever bloody idiot thought it was a good idea to build open windows in a school by the lake aught to be hanged," he grunted.

As he passed he caught sight of something out of the courner of his eye. Something on the lake? But he had to have imagned it. Who in their right mind would be outside on such an awful-

Then it hit him. Not everyone in the school was in their right mind.

Out of what he convinced himself was just boredom he leaned over to try and get a better glimpse. It looked like a girl…dancing? No, he realized, she was skating. Quite an odd skating form. She waved her hands around her head as if making tornados in the air, and her feet sliced through the ice to make odd crude shapes. Even from where he stood he could see the smile on her face. How mad did someone have to be to enjoy doing anything as the freezing snow covered her? How mental, how insane, exactly how-

Loony.

Loony Lovegood.

There was no one else it could be. Luna glided around on the ice like she owned it, dancing in ways that Draco didn't really understand. But surely even SHE couldn't have enjoyed herself in the snow? After a thought he wondered how she had even gotten out there anyway. All the students were supposed to be inside. Sure, he knew a few ways to sneak around undetected, but her? Unless it was to help out Potter or to follow some advice figen to her in one of those ridiculous magazines, she never broke the school rules. Maybe the magazine WAS the reason she was out there.

With slight horror he realized he was very curious. He desperately wanted to know why Luna was outside. Why? He justified that if she had a bad reason, then he could get her in trouble, and wouldn't hurting one of Potter's friends be worth it?

Without giving it much thought, he decided to brave the snow and sneak over there. For some reason while the school didn't want to let him get warm, it had no problem with him getting cold. There was no resitance as he pushed through the secret hallways to find a way out to the lake. If a professor other than Snape found him breaking curfew, he knew he would get in trouble. In only a few minutes he was outside, curiously watching Luna as she danced on the ice. Up close, he could tell that she was not only smiling, but she was absolutely beaming. The piles of snow covering her already frosty hair didn't bother her as she twirled on the ice like it was her playground. Draco found himself watching with-thought he'd never admit it-some awe.

It took her a moment to realize she had company. "Why hellow there Draco," Luna greeted him airily. "What are you doing out here?" Draco's cheeks instantly turned a bright shade at being caught spying. No need to let her in on that though.

"None of your business Loony!" He snapped at her. Luna didn't even flinch at his retort. That bothered him. "What are you doing outside?"

Luna didn't comment that he'd asked the same question he'd refused to answer. "Skating," She replied. "It is really lovely out here tonight, isn't it?" Lovely? That was absurd. It was freezing cold, the clouds covered all the stars, the snow was coming down hard-

"Would you like to come?"

Draco blinked. "What?"

"Would you like to come skating?" She asked again in a sing-song voice. "It's so much more fun to do with someone else." Draco stared at her. She could not be serious. She wasn't asking him seriously, was she? Why on earth would he choose ice skating in the blistering cold over going back to the warm Slythering common room with Pansy and his friends? Skating with Luna? He'd rather be caught dead! The idea was insane! Why would she even ask him anyway? They weren't supposed to be friends, a fact of life that he was very grateful for. She was so odd and llony, no one in their right mind,

"Oh…I'm sorry." She drew back as a idea came to her. "Is it possible you don't know how to skate?"

"What?" He asked in outrage. Any normal person would have gotten tired of repeating themselves to Draco so many times, but Luna didn't seem to mind.

"Do you not know how to skate?" She asked once again. "It's alright if you don't. It was so rude of me to assume that you could. Oh well," She sighed, sliding on the ice to make circles underneath her. Draco's face felt hot despite the cold. Was…Was she pitying him?

Truth was, he didn't. His father had taken him skating only twice on his mothers insistence that it may someday be useful for him. But his father had eventually won the battle, saying Draco needed to spend his time on more useful things. Draco hadn't complained. He'd always fallen whenever he got on the ice anyway. Why waste his time on ice when he'd rather be in the air showing off his quidditch skills?

But Luna was staring up at him with those big blue eyes. He knew he couldn't say no. His reputation was at stake. "Of..Of course I can skate!" He insisted. "I'm pretty good at it to! Better than what…whatever you were just doing!"

"Really?" Luna replied with innocent fascination. "Can you show me?"

Draco's heart sank. He and his big mouth. "I…Well…I…I-I can't." Luna tipped her head to the side, waiting as he scrambled for some kind of excuse. "To…to skate I need…skates! I don't have any skates at Hogwarts!" once he thought about his clever excape he wondered if students were even allowed to bring skates into the school. Actually, he was fairly certain it wasn't, since the school already have enough potential dangerous weapons with magic and magical creatures that had no problem eating children whole. That's when he caught sight of Luna's skates.

Oh no.

"Why, that's alright," She told him, pulling her want out of the familiar spot behind her ear. "Hermione from Gryffindor taught me a spell to make skates out of ice. Nice person granger, though she can be rude. She said the quibbler is nothing but nonsense. I'd say her mind is filled with Narggles, but that would be most unkind." Because of her muttering she didn't notice Draco's protest as her wand whipped around and sent a trail of ice to the bottom of his shoes. Perfectly stable slabs of ice were attatched to his feet, perfect for skating. "There you are! Now you can come skating!"

What, now?

He wasn't serious.y going to choose skating with Loony Lovegood over the Slythering corriders with Pansy and his friends? It was freezing! Luna over Pansy? Proving that he was a good skater, a sport that he really couldn't care less about, wasn't worth-

"If you don't think you can keep up with me, that's alright. Nothing to be ashamed of."

-He could risk hypothermia.

"Only for a minute you crazy girl," he grunted as he trudged over to the lake. Luna just smiled greatefully. She was the only one he'd met who could ever smile at him after he'd just insulted her to her face. Probably because he was mad. Or at least, that's what he told himself. When he took his first few steps on the ice, he decided he had nothing to worry about. It was easy! All he had to do was walk around a little bit and-

He fell flat on his back.

"Oh my," Luna skated over, staring down at him with wide eyes. "Are you alright?"

"Fine! Fine, I'm absolutely fantastic! Slid on everything and I-I meant to do that!" after a long effort of pushing himself to his feet he tried to move as far away from her as possible. All that did was make him fall forward, flat on his face. "OW!"

"What an interesting skating form," Luna whispered dreamily as he got to his feet once again. He struggled to stay up, waving his hands around like a penguin that was trying to fly. His skates seemed to want to go in every direction except for the one he was trying to go. It was the castle stairways all over again.

He felt his cheeks get bright red when he heard Luna laughing behind him. She had better not be laughing at me! When he turned to call her out, his feet fell out from underneath him. He landed on his knees with a grunt, ignoring the pain that shot through his legs. Stupid skating, stupid ice, stupid castle, stupid loony, stupid all of it! He slammed his fist into the ice in outrage. That's enough! This is ridiculous! I shouldn't be making a fool of myself! I'm going back inside! When he got up, determined to leave however, he was met by Luna's smile.

"Well that is quite an odd form of skating," Luna commented. He couldn't tell if she was oblivious or was just pretending to be. "But it does look quite hard to balance with, doesn't it? Here, I'll help." Before Draco even had a clue as to what was going on, Luna had reached out and taken his hands in hers. Stunned eyes stared through her's in disbelief, but she just smiled pleasantly back at him. Skating backwards, she kept him on his feet, leading him around the lake as the snow fell around them. At first Draco couldn't believe what was happening. After he got over the initial shock, he did his best to keep his balance on his own. With her supporting him he was able to keep on his feet, though he didn't even try to do those tricks Luna had done before. Slowly she had released on of his hands so he could skate on his own. But when she tried to release the other, he protested.

"D-don't let go!" He exclaimed. Luna tilted her head to the side, but didn't argue.

"Alright. That sounds fine." He glanced up. Her twinkling blue eyes started back at him with amusement, and they joy at finding a skating partner. Slowly, his scowl started to die away, and he reluctantly allowed Luna to lead him around the ice.

He blamed the stupid school for getting him lost that day.

But the next time there was a snowstorm, he 'accidentally' went down the wrong path.