Pen Name: StarrAngelofNarnia

Team Name: Those Who Wander

Category: Standard

Prompt: (Color) lilac; (word) short

Rating: T

Warning: slight angst

WC: 1532

Author's Note: This is an AU where Hermione is muggle gifted and a child figure skater. My knowledge of figure skating is limited to my entry level skills in the hobby so there may be inaccuracies in technicalities.

The day I received my Hogwarts letter was bittersweet.

When the woman who introduced herself to my parents as Minerva McGonagall, deputy headmistress of Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry, came to visit me, I felt such hope. Professor McGonagall, as she would be known to me, had come to tell me that I am a witch. For the first time in my life, all the strange things I'd been able to do–like making things I wanted appear in my hand–had an explanation: magic. I would be able to go to school with other children like me. At Hogwarts, I'd learn to hone my magic and strengthen it.

But at Hogwarts, I'd be thousands of miles away from home. Moving miles away to live in a boarding school for magical children would mean cutting my career short.

–

My love for ice skating started young, when my class had taken a trip to a local rink to learn about the science of ice skating. I was only five then, but the experience had changed me. Watching the demonstration, the skaters in their matching lilac costumes twirling around the ice and leaping through the air mesmerized me. They showed us how they used the shape of their bodies to go faster or slower and how to improve their leaps and turns.

I didn't get to skate that day, but I begged my mother to take me. Reluctantly, she eventually agreed.

My first time on the ice, I was bundled up in my velvet lilac sweat pants and lilac puffy jacket, with my messy curls bundled into a little powder blue helmet. The rink required me to skate with an adult, so a coach was on the ice with me. I fell a lot that day but was still short enough to bounce back up quickly. So, I was not deterred.

At the end of my hour, the coach held on to me tightly and skated quickly behind me, quicker than I'd been able to on my own. It was delightful. The length of ice that had taken me an entire hour to cross, she'd just covered with me in a few short seconds.

"She did well!" The coach explained to my mother as she helped me take off my skates. "She's eager to learn. And she is old enough–if you're both interested–she could take lessons with other children her age."

And the rest, as they say, was history. My mother believed ice skating would be good for me. It would be a place where I could be active and where I could hopefully make friends. I was getting my wish.

As a gifted child, I wasn't very adept at socializing with other children my age. Also, as a gifted child, I had never struggled with anything.

My ice skating classes were fun, but they were also tricky. Other children in my class were starting to skate better than me, and I didn't like it. My interest in ice skating had been short; as soon as I started to struggle, I was ready to give up.

My mother wouldn't let me. "The session is short, Hermione–only ten weeks. And it's important to stick with things once you start them. Once you finish the session, if you still don't like it, then you can quit."

My mother made me go the next week. When I entered the ice, another girl my age skated up to me. "Look! We're twins!" She was excited. "We're wearing the same lilac suit!"

"Lilac is my favorite color," I explained.

"Mine too! I'm Lucy. What's your name?"

"Hermione."

"You're my new friend, Hermione. Hold my hand, and we can skate together."

Lucy was my first friend. I learned to be patient with my skills on the ice thanks to Lucy. I'd never had to practice things to be good at them, but Lucy made ice skating classes and practice sessions fun.

At the end of the session, I had changed my mind. I didn't want to quit ice skating. It was fun and challenging, and now I had a friend.

–

"What do you mean you're quitting?" Lucy asked at our next practice session. "You can't quit, Hermes! Who am I going to skate with now?"

I smiled sadly as I laced up my skates. "Lu, we're old enough that we can't skate as a team anymore anyway. We either find a male partner or skate as singles. And I know you'll be great, whatever you choose. And this way, we won't turn into rivals either."

"I don't care if we're rivals on the ice. I don't want to lose my friend. Why do you have to quit?"

She was standing in front of me, holding out a hand. I took this as a cue that she was ready for the ice, so I removed the lilac blade guards from my skates and took her hand, allowing her to pull me up.

"I wish I didn't have to," I sighed as we entered the ice hand in hand, just as we had every time for the past six years. "But I'm going away to school."

"Going away? Why? I know you're a few years ahead of me in school, but there are plenty of good secondary schools here."

"My parents think I need more of a challenge. So I'm going to a boarding school in Scotland," I explained, internally cringing. It was the cover story my parents had helped me develop since I was sworn to secrecy regarding my magic. But I hated lying to Lucy. If she even believed the lie.

She turned around, skating backwards ahead of me, searching my face. "You're hiding something from me," she accused after a moment of silence.

"Okay, yes," I cringed. "But I can't tell you. And you don't know how much I wish I could."

She studied me again for a moment. "At least promise you'll keep in touch. And you better come cheer me on at comps."

I smiled. "Of course, Lu. I wouldn't miss it for the world. I'll make it home for your performances, somehow."

–

Hogwarts was wonderful. But I missed my best friend. Especially considering I didn't fit in any better here than at my muggle schools. And at Hogwarts, there would be no skipping years for me.

The wizarding world, I found, was quite technologically impaired, so I was unable to call Lucy. I did write letters back and forth with her every week, though. We wrote about school. I wrote about my new home (what I could explain, at least) and eventually about my tentative friendships with my housemates, Harry and Ron. She wrote about ice skating– what songs she'd be doing for her short and free programs, which skaters in the club were causing drama, and how she'd started volunteering around the rink. "Even if you can't compete, you should ask your school's Headmaster if there is a way you can still skate recreationally," she wrote.

But my classes kept me busy, so I never found the time, at least not until my fourth year, when I heard from Harry about Dumbledore mentioning a strange room that appeared with toilets when one really needed one. I sought it out one day, and it housed an ice rink for me. I skated when I could. But classes, the Triwizard tournament, and dating Viktor Krum took time. And when I was on the ice, it wasn't the same alone. I missed my best friend.

Harry and I moved in together when the war ended since neither of us had family to return to. I made him promise that we would go ice skating. I finally introduced him to Lucy, whom he'd heard so much about.

Harry wasn't very confident on ice skates. He clung to the wall when left alone, only coming off if Lucy skated next to him on one side and I on the other.

"Baby steps, Harry. Like a penguin. And keep your knees bent," Lucy encouraged. She was coaching now, and she was clearly good at it.

For the past seven years (until Harry, Ron, and I were on the run) Hogwarts had been home. But back on the ice rink, with Lucy beside me, I was truly home. And part of me wished I could return to the simpler time that ice skating had provided, before the elitism, before I was ever called mudblood, before there was war.

When our freestyle ice time was up, Lucy accompanied us to dinner and then home for a bit. "Hermes. Harry. What happened to you? Something haunts you both."

And I don't know why it hit me so hard. But I burst into tears, and everything came out. Forget the statute of secrecy. Voldemort and his followers didn't mind it, as they had murdered half the country.

I told her everything, from McGonagall's first visit all those years ago right up until the final battle at Hogwarts.

When I'd finally finished everything, Lucy pulled us both into hugs. "You've always been magical to me, Hermione. Witch or not."

My career had been short. But I was blessed to have a friend forever, lilac dress and all.