Thank you guys so much for reading! I am so sorry that I have not updated in the last month... but as I mentioned in the last chapter, I was doing NaNoWriMo which was very successful! Unfortunately for you lovely people, my NaNo was not a fanfic and it was so terrible that I fear it will never be published.

Chapter Three: Harry Potter and the Skating Lesson

Slamming a pair of skates onto the counter, Draco did figure eights around the floor. "These are some of my old four-wheelers. We can test your skill and then move you onto some better ones once you're ready. You say that you really have never skated before?"

"Never. I can't believe that my parents were so good at it." Harry pulled on the skates and pulled himself up with a chair but quickly fall because his laces were too loose. Draco knelt down at his crumpled form to tighten them, smiling all the while.

"Harry? Will you let me be your coach? You could be a great skater with a bit of help. It is best that you decide who you want your coach to be now. You will soon find out that some coaches are better than others, but fear not for I can help you." He offered the younger boy a hand and pulled him up, sling shotting him across the room on accident. "Sorry about that, Harry," he apologized to the boy who had his hands pressed up against the green wall, panting and shaking his bangs out of his eyes. "We'll go slow from now on."

Harry turned his head towards the other boy whose eyes were waiting in fear that the Potter boy would turn out to be a flop. He ran a hand through his blond locks and swallowed, the veins under his pale skin pulsating as fast as a strobe light.

"That sounds good. The coaching and the going slow."

Draco sighed and took his hands out of his hair to grab Harry by the wrists and pull him towards the rink as he skated backwards. "If you fall, you fall, do not worry about that." He turned around and put his hands on Harry's shoulders. The black-haired boy had never felt such a strong touch. "I will be right here to help you back up." With that, he pushed his student forward and waited with folded arms.

Harry stretched his arms out in front of him and held his breath as he skated over the perfectly smooth floor, barely registering the green and silver decor around him as he kept his knees locked in fear. When his hands finally met with the green carpeting on the opposite wall, he breathed a sigh of relief as Draco sped over and clapped him on the back; he winced at the slap but managed a smile for his newly-appointed coach. "Great job, Harry. You have great form. Now we just need to get you moving on your own. Here, turn around and watch me." He grabbed the boy's hands and spun him towards him before leaning him back up against the wall. "Pretend that you are on a broom. Each push of the foot is one sweep in the right direction. Pretend that you are stirring a potion. Stay focused so that you do not mess up. Pretend that you are kissing someone." Harry could not help but think of the skating blond boy. "Respond to what you feel-lean into the turns, speed up at the straightaways, and hold your breath. Am I making any sense? Father says that I focus more on poetics than technique sometimes in my skating. But what does he know? He was never as good as your parents."

Harry blushed and pretended to clean his glasses to keep his eyes off the perfection in front of him as the boy spun around in circles and swivelled backwards and did jumps around the rink while also showing off his tricks with lifting up one leg and then crouching down and turning 180s.

"Draco...you're amazing at skating," Harry blubbered once he had finished cleaning his already clean glasses.

"Thanks, but don't get caught up on that. You will be this good in a little bit as long as you come around enough." The boy shrugged and coasted over to Harry.

"Trust me, anything that I can do to get out of my aunt and uncle's house is worth doing." Draco nodded. "But don't think that's the only reason I am doing this!"

He held up a hand as he squatted down to retie one of Harry's skates. "No worries. You have great potential. I know you're here to fulfill your destiny-that's why we are all here. What else is there to do in life?"

"You're smart for an eleven-year old."

Draco shrugged. "I am going to skate behind you like this." He crouched down and rested on his haunches behind Harry. "Now, just let me move your legs for you. This will go better if you do not hesitate. You just have to trust me."

"I do."

"Good." Draco tightened his grip and then started moving the other boy's legs back and forth as if they were a Dumbledore's wand as he decorated the Great Hall for Christmas.

Harry finally tucked his arms in and even started moving them in opposition as Draco guided him around a corner and he kept his eyes wide open so that he would not miss any of this glorious moment in such close proximity to the boy.

Before Harry even realized it, Draco had taken his hands away and followed Harry at a distance as the boy's new muscle memory kicked in and he glided around the rink in a drowsy waltz. "Draco, wait!" He shouted, flailing once he saw the boy far behind him.

"Harry, Harry, stop worrying, you are doing great. Just relax and let your body take over." He sped up to fall into line with his student and take his hand as he started hyperventilating until he felt the calm safety of Draco's grasp. With each lap, he blushed more and more as Draco fell into a lazy swaying as they circled the room.

"I,uh, think I should go," Harry stuttered. "My uncle may worry."

"Oh, okay, yeah. Come back whenever you want," Draco offered as he let go of Harry's hand before they skated back into the table area.

"Thanks."

"And take the skates."

"Thanks for that too." Harry nodded and headed for the door before Draco stopped him.

"Wait! Are you seriously going to skate home?"

"It would be good practice." Harry shrugged and put his hand on the door handle.

"Wait a minute. I will be right back." Draco dashed off into the dark hallway that he had led Harry down when he first got there.

Harry leaned against the finger-printed door, hoping that Draco's plan did not involve some wizard vehicle like a dragon that would burn his hair off. In the other side of the room, the lights flickered and then went out, leaving the room in a silky haze from the light outside that seeped in past the grimy glass that Harry leaned back against. "Draco?" In the corner, he heard footsteps and a small squeak accompanied by the sound of falling roller blades.

He was just about to open the door and leave on his own when Draco swooped in from the hallway and grabbed Harry around the waist, slinging him onto a broom in a second before u-turning around and going back into the hallway. He took Harry down a new route lined with articles from a newspaper called the Daily Prophet all of which were framed in silver frames and showed the Malfoys hoisting trophies above their head and blowing kisses to the boys as they passed by.

Draco turned his broom up and zoomed up to squeeze through a small window at the top of a final room that housed all of the trophies and had a ten-foot ceiling. Harry wrapped his arms around his waist and crushed his head against the driver's back as they emerged outside and hovered over the building. Before Harry could ask what was going on, Draco was off again in the direction of his house.

"We're flying, Draco! We're flying!"

"You are such a muggle!"

"Hey!"

Draco shrugged an apology and sped through a thicket of trees near Privet Drive. "I mean that in the best way possible. Here we are. We shall see you soon?"

"Yes." Harry dismounted, letting his arms linger around Draco before he got off. He waved his arm at the lamppost to shoo away an owl that was sitting on top of it.

"Wait, Harry, that owl has a letter." Draco threw down his own broom and extended his arm for the bird to land. Harry reached out with timid hands to accept the letter from the owl's mouth. The owl bit Draco when he did not offer him anything, and he cursed the bird as it flew away. "Well, Harry, that must be your Hogwarts letter. I guess mine's waiting for me at home. I best be off." He held out his hand and waited for Harry to shake it but he was still staring at the letter with its vanilla envelope and red wax seal that he had only seen in history books.

"Owls? Really?"

"What else would they use?"

Harry took a deep breath and closed his mouth before he adjusted his glasses. "The post man, like the rest of England!" He shook the letter in Draco's face.

Draco grabbed his hand and dug a nail into his vein. "Open it, Harry. I will see you soon." He threw the boy's hand down and saluted him before checking for muggles and disappearing on his broom.

"Well, this is it," Harry muttered to himself.

To be continued...