A/N- Hey everyone! I just wanted to say thank you so much to my two guest reviewers! I am so glad you like it and decided to leave a review. I really appreciate it. Also thank you so much to TJTMaria, Bucky5, Marizactz, and speedsONeandONLY you guys continue to review and I appreciate the support. It really makes me want to update faster for you. Thank you to everyone who reads, I hope you all had a great thnXgiving. Now enough of my babbling. Enjoy! :D

Lots of Love -XoXo kAsh

"Specialis Revelio!"

"Aparecium!"

"Revelare Manufesto!"

"I give up, this is impossible!" I screeched sitting down on Malfoy's desk.

It was the end of the term and everyone was preparing to go home for the winter holidays. As exciting as this was for everyone, it came with a stipulation for us. As tri-wizard competitors we were not allowed to take home our clue for fear that we might cheat. There were heavy spells placed on them to keep them from leaving the castle, so in the past four weeks we spent all of our time trying to figure it out and coming up short.

"This is completely ridiculous," Malfoy said sitting in his desk chair and shaking his head.

I suddenly felt very conscious of his body which was sat almost directly between my legs. Maybe sitting on his desk wasn't the best idea. It left me secretly wishing Nik hadn't left early for his family vacation. As if reading my thoughts Malfoy looked up, blushed and scooted his chair back. I hopped off his desk and opted to sit on his bed instead.

"We could try putting it in water," I said thoughtfully.

"Why would we do that?" Malfoy asked with an adorable confused look on his face.

"That's what my dad did with his clue when he was in the tournament."

Malfoy shook his head, "We can't take the chance of ruining it. Besides didn't your dad have an egg or something?"

"Yes, it was an egg that sang the clue. You could only hear it clearly under water," I said matter of factly.

Malfoy shook his head, "I don't think that would work for our clue, but maybe we can save it as a last case scenario."

"I can ask my aunt Hermione and Teddy about it when I get home. I'm sure they have some answers."

Malfoy nodded his head in agreement before asking, "What time are you leaving today?"

I let out a long sigh, "I'm going by floo around 5pm. What about you?"

He ran his fingers through his white blonde hair, "I'm taking a portkey to Malfoy manor at 3pm; apparently my mother is having some big dinner for my arrival."

I laughed lightly at his obvious displeasure, "You don't sound too excited about going home."

He smiled softly, "I'm very excited to be going home, but it has been nice to be away from it all for a little while. What about you? Are you nervous about seeing your family after…everything?"

I felt a little tug at my heart. I had talked to Malfoy in detail about the situation with my father and brothers. He was very understanding on both sides and a great listener as well, but even after all this time it was still a sensitive topic.

"Well I admit I'm nervous. Hopefully we can try and talk it out though. I mean, there really is no sense in being angry; I'm in it and there is no turning back now." I shrugged.

"That's true," he nodded in agreement.

I sighed delicately, "So what do you want to do for the rest of the day? I can't look at these blank scrolls for another minute."

He laughed a husky laugh at that, "me neither. Why don't we go flying? I haven't been since I got here. I miss it."

I rolled my eyes at him, "Absolutely not. I'll probably be playing quidditch my whole Christmas vacation. Let's do something else."

Malfoy looked indignant at my refusal to fly before looking out the window and smirking lightly, "Well we can't do much. Look, it's snowing."

I padded across his bed to his large picturesque window. Snow was falling heavily to the ground, making a home as it stuck fast to the surrounding area. From the view I could see a lake I hadn't noticed before. I wasn't sure but it looked like it was frozen.

"Let's go ice skating!" I proclaimed happily jumping on his bed.

Malfoy looked at me as though I were crazy, "Skating…on ice? You and your crazy muggle ideas."

I laughed loudly at the disturbed look on his face, "come on Malfoy! Don't be a pansy. It'll be fun. Don't you trust me?"

I held out my hand to him and he glared at it for a long moment before slipping his cool hand into my own, "Yes I suppose I do."

I smiled wide dragging him out the door, "Well then let's go!"

He stopped and I turned to look at him frustrated wondering what the holdup was now.

"Potter, I think we ought to put on some proper clothing if we are going to be sliding around in the cold," Malfoy said in a cool way.

I laughed nervously looking at our flimsy attire, "Of course! I was just going to say that."

He gave me that infuriating smirk before turning back to his room, "Sure you were."

I stuck my tongue out at his back before running across the hall to my own room to prepare for our ice skating adventure.

"I am not wearing those."

"Aww come on Malfoy! Don't be such a scaredy snake!" I whined.

"I am not wearing shoes with bloody carving knives on the bottom of them," he shook his head left to right and crossed his arms.

I sighed exasperatedly tying the laces on my own skates, "They are blades not carving knives, they are for ice skating."

"Do I have to do this?" He asked me almost pleadingly.

I laughed loudly, "Come on! What happened to trying new things?"

He huffed, "Fine but if I die, I am coming back to haunt you for the rest of your life."

I rolled my eyes and handed him a skate.

"Where did you even get a pair of these things in my size anyway?" he said in awe as he slipped on a skate.

I smiled, happy that he was finally complying, "Gemino spell and then the Engorgio spell."

He smiled at me then as though impressed, "Well aren't you clever."

I pushed my shoulders back in a haughty way, "Of course I am. I'm the top of my class in Dark Arts, Charms, and Transfiguration."

He laughed out loud while tying his skates, "Which evens out the fact that you're probably the bottom of the class in Potions, Salveology, and Arithmancy."

I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly, "Those things won't help me in a duel, besides that's what I have you for."

I blushed at my own light flirting. It was true though. I have always been terrible at subjects that didn't include wand work. But since Malfoy and I had become friends again he was helping me and I was doing better than ever. Whereas with someone else I was afraid to admit my failure, I felt comfortable being honest with him.

"Your right those things won't help you in a duel, but you are not a very good dueler either." He said attempting to stand.

I blushed a deep red at that, "What gave you that impression?"

He tried his best to shrug while attempting to walk in his skates, "I've seen you duel before, and you always hesitate, giving you a disadvantage right from the beginning."

I paused feeling self conscious at the idea that he had been watching me all these years, "I … I just don't like to fight. I would rather avoid it."

He smiled softly at me, "I know. I know you just don't want to hurt anyone, but there are people in this world who are going to want to hurt you. You should remember that."

I looked closely at him feeling as though I had missed something, "Why are you telling me that. I can take care of myself you know."

"Your accident, it really had me worried. I know you weren't telling the truth about what happened to you and I also know you won't tell me the truth about what really happened. But… you mean a lot to me now. I just want to make sure that you are being safe. And I know, you don't have to tell me you can take care of yourself. I know you can. It's just I also know you're not used to having to defend yourself, so all I'm saying is be careful. Ok?" he said looking into my eyes.

I smiled softly at him, "Ok. Now enough of all this mushy conversation lets skate!"

I quickly found myself on the ice skating around in circles and figure eights.

"Show off!" Malfoy shouted off to the side.

I laughed lightly and quickly skated over to him.

"You may be the brain, but here you are at my mercy," I said skating in circles around him as he tried to move to the center.

"Yes, your magnificent, yada yada. Now help me before I crack my skull open," He said just as he fell, arms flailing, onto his arse.

"Ahahahahaa! Oh Malfoy your lack of grace is truly astounding," I reached my hand out to him and helped him up.

"I don't want to do this anymore. It isn't fun and you are laughing at me," Malfoy said looking thoroughly embarrassed. I had to assume embarrassment and failure weren't things the Slytherin prince was accustomed to.

I put up my hands in surrender, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to laugh. It's just you are always so perfect at everything; it's strange to see you struggle with something. Don't get discouraged though, everyone falls a few times before they get it."

He looked at me annoyed yet somewhat flattered, "I'm not perfect at everything. But I think I know what will help with this."

He pulled his wand out of his jacket pocket, pointed at the blade of his right skate and said "adamplio". Then as he repeated the process on his left skate, I watched the blade begin to grow wide until it stopped half an inch away from the outside of the shoe.

He then began to slowly skate around as I stood there confused as to what had just happened.

"What in the bloody hell was that?" I asked as he slowly came towards me.

He smirked at me, "Widening charm; made it up myself peach."

"Peach?" I looked him incredulously.

He looked slightly abashed, "Well, Nik started calling you red so I had to come up with my own nickname. Which is when I realized, even though your hair is red, it has streaks of gold along the ends. Reminding me of-"

"A peach; yeah I get it," I shook my head feeling embarrassed at the amount of random little things like that he noticed.

He nodded blushing lightly, "This isn't so hard at all."

"Of course not. You cheated," I said laughing once again.

"I didn't cheat! I'm a wizard. It's not my fault those poor muggles can't use magic and have to do it the difficult way," he said puffing out his chest and pushing himself a little faster than before.

And just like that, an idea popped into my head.

"That's right! We have magic!" I pulled out my wand happily and pointed at the ice in front of me, "Aguamenti Immobulus!"

There appeared an ice ramp. I giggled joyfully at my success and went forward to skate on it before I was yanked backwards.

"What is your problem Malfoy?"

He looked at me as though I was an ignorant child and glided forward towards my ice ramp. He touched it with the tip of his skate and it unfroze leaving buckets of water in its wake.

I hung my head, "Aww I was so excited to try that. I guess it was a rather foolish idea."

Malfoy smiled at me and grabbed my gloved hand in his. "It wasn't foolish at all. Actually it was a great idea, just the wrong spell."

I watched as he swished his wand in a half circle and firmly said, "Glacius".

In front of us, where my ramp had previously been was now a very large bridge that was taller than us both and the length of the whole lake.

"Wow! This is amazing," I said breathlessly.

He smiled mischievously, "Let's go skate on it."

We skated to the bridge going up and then back down again a few times, laughing and joking the whole time.

"Let's make a slide!" I said gleefully.

"As you wish Princess peach," he bowed and whipped out his wand repeating the spell again.

I rolled my eyes at his nickname as I watched a long wide slide emerge out of the side of the bridge. Standing at the highest part of the bridge the slide seemed incredibly long and frightening.

"You aren't afraid are you?" Malfoy asked with his stupid adorable little smirk.

"Of course not; I'm not afraid of anything," I said haughtily.

He smiled at me, "Alright, well then let's go at the same time."

He reached his hand out to me and I looked at it wearily, "Come on, don't you trust me?"

He was looking at me so sweetly I suppose I couldn't say no. I put my hand in his and we backed up to gain some momentum, "Yes, I trust you."

We glided forward quickly and before I knew it we were sliding down faster than I had ever gone in my life. As we were coming to the end of the slide I could see we were about to fall flat on our faces. I panicked and didn't know what to do, but before I had a chance to do anything I heard Malfoy quickly mutter Aresto Momentum and before I knew it we landed softly in a soft patch of ground at the end of the slide.

I threw my head back in laughter, "That was AMAZING! Terrifying but amazing! Did you use a cushioning charm?"

He was looking at me strangely. His face was flushed and oddly enough it was so close to my own face that as he exhaled I inhaled and his breathe became my breathe.

"I used a cushioning charm after I slowed us down a little," he said breathlessly.

I laid down on the plush ice feeling exhausted.

"Don't put your head on the ground Peach, come lay here," he said motioning to his chest. I blushed deeply but in my exhaustion didn't argue as I laid my head in the crook of his shoulder.

"This was a lot of fun. I dare say I will miss you over the break," I said softly still looking up at the bleak sky.

"I'll see you at the Yule ball. Be sure to save me a dance," he said.

"I wouldn't miss that for all of the world," I turned my head slightly so that I was looking up at him.

I wasn't sure what passed between us but suddenly everything felt different. My breathing became heavy and I felt like my heart was drumming on my ribcage. I was caught in his icy gaze as he looked deep into my eyes and began to move closer. I tilted my head back further, so close that his blonde fringe began to tickle my eyelashes. He moved even closer then and I felt as though my body was being hit with a warming charm. I could taste his breathe on my tongue when-

"Ahem!"

We jumped apart like the repelling of two positive magnets. It was a young man dressed in red looking more embarrassed than we were.

"Sorry to interrupt, the head master sent me for Mr. Malfoy; it is time for his departure."

Malfoy nodded his head and the young boy began walking away. We didn't look at each other or say anything but quickly moved to the castle.

Once we reached the castle doors Malfoy stopped and turned to me. "My things have already been sent ahead, so I guess this is goodbye."

I nodded my head lightly, "Yes. Have a wonderful Christmas."

"You too." Malfoy said looking nervous.

We began to walk our separate ways when in front of me appeared a floating ice lily flower. I grabbed it out of the air and turned quickly. Malfoy was far down the hall smirking at me.

"See you later Peach!"

I laughed lightly twirling my iced lily, "see you later Ice man!"

He smiled widely at my nickname for him before quickly hurrying off.

I walked back to my room and quickly began to go over the things I had packed for break. I gazed at my frozen flower feeling warm butterflies in my stomach as I thought about how close Malfoy had been. I had never felt this way before and wasn't sure what it meant.

At 4:50pm I placed a preserving charm on my lily placed it in my trunk and headed for the headmasters office. After saying a "merry Christmas", and "happy new year" to headmaster Krum I stepped into the fireplace grabbed a handful of glittery, silver powder and flooed home.

As I dusted myself off and stepped out of my living room fireplace I was suddenly grabbed by a pair of strong familiar arms which held me tightly.

"Welcome home princess."

"Thanks dad."

Specialis Revelio-Causes an object to show its hidden secrets or magical properties

Aparecium- This spell makes invisible ink appear

Revelare Manufesto- to show or to reveal

Gemino charm- used to duplicate an object

Glacius- a freezing charm used to create ice