Get Your Skates On (A Christmas Drarry FanFiction)

Chapter Four

   Harry was just beginning to think Malfoy might not show, when he came slinking around the corner of the main staircase. He hadn't been in the common room all evening, and Harry had worried that he'd pushed him too far. But there he was, just as the clock struck ten, his hands in his coat pockets and the skates tied together and slung around his neck, looking shy.

Harry wanted to make him feel at ease, so punched his arm lightly. "You excited?" he asked.

"Not terribly," Malfoy grumbled, but a small smile tugged at the corner of his lip.

Harry just grinned back. "Come on," he said, unconvinced, and escorted them both outside into the cold night air.

In the old days he would have used his invisibility cloak, but seeing as the Eighth Years had special privileges and weren't hindered by an evening curfew, he didn't see the point. Plus, since finding out how incredibly valuable it was, he had been a little bit more careful about flashing it around. It wasn't that he didn't trust Malfoy a bit more these days, but hardly anyone knew he had an actual Deathly Hallow in his possession.

They made their way over to the lake in comfortable silence, and then sat on the frozen ground to swap their trainers (or leather boots in Malfoy's case) for the skates. The snow had really pelted down for a few hours over the afternoon, but it had stopped sometime around dinner, and now there was a calming stillness to the school grounds.

"Alright," Harry said cheerfully as he stood and pushed onto the ice. He slid a few feet, and then spun back around to face Malfoy and reach out his hands.

Draco, he suddenly corrected himself mentally. If they were going to be out here, alone, in the middle of the night working on skating together, he might as well call him Draco.

"Alright what?" Draco asked, getting shakily to his feet like a new-born foal.

Harry wiggled his gloved fingers. "Take my hands, and I'll steer you to start with."

Draco snatched his hands to his chest like he'd been burned. "You don't have to do that," he mumbled. The moon was huge and full, and Harry could see quite easily that colour had risen to his cheeks. He sighed. Draco may have changed a lot over these past several months, but it seemed he still had his pride.

"It's the easiest way to learn," he explained, skating right to the edge of the lake and stretching his arms out encouragingly. "Come on, it's just us out here."

Draco scoffed, but he did at least venture a little closer. "Yeah, just me and the saviour of the magical world," he muttered.

At that Harry did drop his hands, and fixed his new friend with a piercing glare. "I'm just Harry, alright?" he said firmly, trying not to betray any of the irritation that ran so close to the surface when anyone tried to bring up that hero nonsense. "This is what this year is all about," he confessed, wanting Draco to understand. "Just...being me. No prophesies, or mysteries or dying. Just homework and friends and maybe a bit of fun once in a while, if I'm lucky."

Draco bit his lip, and looked him in the eye. "Is this fun?" he asked tentatively.

Something about his tone made Harry's heart ache. "Yes," he assured him with a smile, and raised his hands again. "It will be, if you actually get your arse onto the ice."

He was inordinately pleased when Draco cracked a weak laugh, and took a baby step closer. "If I break my arm, Potter," he growled playfully, finally placing his hands in Harry's. "I shall not be best impressed.

Harry tugged him sharply, making him gasp as he suddenly made contact with the ice, then gripped onto Harry's hands for dear life. Harry laughed wickedly. "No one's breaking anything," he said, his heart picking up, but he refused to chicken out. "And so long as we're here, you should call me Harry."

That was enough to snap Draco's petrified gaze up from his feet. "Harry?" he squeaked.

"See," said Harry with a wink. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"The name or the ice?" he whimpered, and Harry smirked affectionately.

"Both," he chuckled, then began skating very slowly backwards. "Now slide your feet forwards, one after the other, in a V shape."

"You're not doing that?" Draco protested as they got further onto the lake.

Harry shook his head. "That's because I'm going backwards, just, do what I tell you, you little brat."

"I am neither a brat," Draco shot back as he slowly tried to follow Harry's instructions. "Nor am I little. May I point out that I am in fact taller than you?"

Harry shrugged. "Not by much," he said nonchalantly.

Draco spluttered. "By a good three inches," he protested.

That made Harry look up from where he'd been watching his footwork. "Really?" he asked, knowing it full well to be true.

Draco scowled and didn't seem to notice that Harry was speeding them up, his anger distracting him from his fear. "Of course Po-Harry." He looked shocked at his own use of the name, but Harry just grinned.

"Look, you're doing it!" he cried, nodding down towards their feet.

Draco did the same...and promptly tripped and almost fell over his own skates.

"Whoa there!" Harry laughed as he caught him. "If you wanted to prove you were taller, you didn't have to be so dramatic about it!"

Draco blinked at him, his eyes like liquid metal in the moonlight, and Harry suddenly found himself unable to look away. He still had Draco in his arms, their faces right in front of one another, and he realised he had stopped breathing.

Now that was really strange.

Harry cleared his throat and helped them both get upright again. "If you're afraid of falling," he said as they began to move again. "You'll never succeed."

Draco bit his lip and gave half a smile. "That almost sounds wise, Harry," he said as he allowed himself to be maneuvered once more.

Harry chuckled. "Oh shut up," he said good naturedly. "Right that's it, pick up your feet..."