Her anger was at boiling point. She snarled in frustration and looked around her wildly, not really knowing what to do. She couldn’t go back to the ball looking like this and she had no idea where Hermione had run off to. She wasn’t sure whether she’d want to come face to face with her now anyway. She knew it would be useless “ the girl was too skillful with her wand.
Taking in deep breaths, Jessie tried to calm herself and focus her mind. The only thing that she could do was go back to her room and wait until Violet or one of her other friends came along to help remove the boils, but that could take ages and she didn’t have all night! She desperately wanted one last shot at Hermione and she didn’t have much time left. Tomorrow they would all be leaving and she would happily go off with her precious Draco Malfoy and…and…
Jessie stood very still for a moment. Malfoy. Her eyes slowly grew big with horror and her mouth formed a small ‘o’ as sudden realization came crashing down on her. She now understood why she had felt that strange feeling of familiarity back on the balcony! She had heard of him before. Of course! Him and his father, and their association with You-Know-Who! She’d seen him in the papers, read his name several times… Could it really be?! Was Draco Malfoy really a… a Death Eater?!
“It’s closed!” Hermione said in despair, peering through the thick glass and into the ice-rink, which was dark and definitely shut for the night.
“Really?” Draco’s heart soared. “How terribly sad. No ice-rink, no ice-skating… Oh, well…” He made a move to go away, but Hermione caught his sleeve before he could.
“Maybe we could ask someone of they’d be willing to open it for us “ you know, just this one night since it’s our last day on board,” she muttered to herself, “or we could just sneak in, grab a couple of skates -”
“Yeah, so we can twirl around all by ourselves, in the dark, and hope that no one will look through the very see-through glass,” Draco replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. Hermione shot him a glare. “Look,” he went on, “I don’t even want to ice-skate. Do I look like the type of person who would!?” he asked, gesturing to himself. “Seriously…I’d rather do something else.”
Hermione sighed. “Like what? Go back to the ball?”
Draco snorted, “What happened to your spontaneity?”
“Spontaneity?! There’s not much you can do on a ship, Draco,” Hermione retorted. “You don’t want go to the theatre, swimming is out of the question, there’s rock-climbing -”
“There is no way in hell that I’d do that -”
“Exactly, so like I said…there aren’t many options. Besides, it’s pretty late at night “ everything, like the ice-rink, must be closed.”
“Hmm…”
Silence passed between them as they pondered over what they could possibly do at this time of the night. In the meantime, a janitor, at the far end of the hallway, was sweeping the floor with his broom while whistling a tune - completely unaware of the two people present. He monotonously swept his broom from side to side and Draco, who was trying to think up of something, couldn’t help but follow its motion with his eyes. Subconsciously, he was lulled into thinking about his own broom, which was aimlessly lying in his cabin. He couldn’t bear to part with it, so he had brought it along. He hadn’t had the chance to fly these past two weeks and he missed the feeling of the adrenaline rush that would course through him as he rocketed through the air. The wind blowing against his face, the loops, the turns, the intense speed…
As these thoughts circulated in his head, Draco slowly started to have a strong urge to fly. The thought of riding his broom through the salty air and under the dark night’s sky seemed enticing. As he continued to think about it, his desires mixed with his current thought process of coming up with an activity, produced an idea, which was both ridiculous and madly tempting. Should he really? The idea was pretty outrageous...
Hermione noted the change in Draco’s expression and poked his shoulder twice to get his attention. “Thought of something?”
Draco’s lips curled into a smirk. He pushed his hands into his trouser pockets and looked over at Hermione with his head slightly tilted to the side. “Are you up for something interesting? Something absolutely crazy…” He raised one of his eyebrows in a challenging way, his eyes glinting mischievously.
At that precise moment, he was the picture of arrogance in Hermione’s opinion. His posture, his expression, his attitude… she couldn’t help but shake her head and roll her eyes over at him.
“Well, are you?” he pressed on.
“Well…” she said, furrowing her eyebrows, “it depends, doesn’t it? How ‘crazy’ is it? I mean… will we get in trouble for it?”
“Not if we don’t get caught or anything,” he replied smoothly, shrugging his shoulders.
Hermione narrowed her eyes suspiciously. By the look on his face, he probably thought he had came up with the ultimate plan. She sighed at his egotistic overconfidence. That was Draco Malfoy for you. “Are you going to tell me of your ‘ingenious’ plan, oh Wise One?”
Draco chuckled at Hermione’s choice of words. “You’ve got to promise that you’ll at least think about it before exploding at me.”
“That’s for me to decide. And besides, by the way you’re acting I don’t think I’ll like this idea very much. You’ve got ‘mischief” written all across your face.” Hermione huffed and folded her arms. “Well?! Let’s not let time ‘tick’ any longer, remember?”
Draco drew in a breath, pausing for effect much to Hermione’s annoyance, before spilling out his thoughts… “Let’s go flying.”
Silence fell once again as Hermione tried to understand what he had just said. Flying? Was there more to his sentence? She waited for him to go on, but he merely looked at her as if waiting for some kind of reaction.
“I’m sorry. What?” she asked him, feeling rather confused.
Draco sighed. Here he was thinking that she’d have an outburst… “Flying, woman!” he said a bit louder, “On a broom! Make any sense to you yet?”
“Fly on a broom? Fly…” As Hermione said it, she quickly realized what he was trying to say and looked at him as if he had completely lost his mind. “HAVE YOU GONE MAD?! YOU WANT TO GO FLY -”
Draco’s hand slammed over Hermione’s mouth in order to stop her from yelling. At the corner of his eye, he saw the janitor look up from his job. “What did I tell you?!” he whispered furiously into her ear. “Think before you act, Granger!”
Hermione’s eyes became slits and she angrily pulled Draco’s hand away from her mouth. “It’s back to Granger again, is it, Malfoy?”
“Will you pipe down?” he replied, pointing a thumb over at the janitor, who was eyeing the pair of them curiously. “We’ve got company if you haven’t noticed.”
Hermione didn’t even bother to look. She inhaled deeply and it seemed to Draco as if she had suddenly grown taller. “First of all,” she said venomously, “don’t you ever manhandle me like that again!”
“I didn’t mean it that wa-”
“Second of all,” she went on, “don’t you dare tell me what to do! I don’t care if the whole world is listening to what I have to say to you!” At this, the janitor bowed his head and slouched off to a far corner, trying to pretend he hadn’t heard anything. Another lovers quarrel. He had seen plenty of those.
“And what?” Hermione laughed. “Flying? Have you gone out of your mind?!”
Draco’s temper flared. If it wasn’t for him realizing his slight mistakes, he wouldn’t have been able to keep his anger in control. “Alright fine! I know I shouldn’t have shut you up like that, but there’s no need to go all barmy. Didn’t I ask you to promise not to explode?”
“I didn’t make any promises,” Hermione answered back coolly.
“You didn’t even think over what I said,” Draco shot back.
“What’s there to think over?! Do you know how much trouble we could get into if we go along with your proposal? We could be seen!”
“In the dark and in the middle of the ocean?! The only things that we could be seen by are the little fish swimming around.”
Hermione couldn’t believe her ears. “Draco, there are a million things that could go wrong!”
“Stop being such a worry wart and just trust me for once, will you? Nothing will go wrong. I’ve got it all planned out -”
“You just thought of this idea! You can’t possibly have planned everything out!” Hermione said shrilly.
“Why won’t you trust me?! I said I’ll take care of everything...” Draco restlessly ran his fingers through his hair. “Didn’t you say you wanted to do something exciting on your last day?”
“Yes, but this - this is just outrageous…! Can’t you think of something else?”
“Oh, come on, Hermione. You said it yourself: there’s not much you can do at this hour. Besides, it’ll feel brilliant flying over the ocean.”
“That’s not a very comforting thought…” Hermione shuddered. She could imagine all the things that could go wrong and most importantly she could not control a broom! What if she fell off and the ocean current pulled her under water? No…this was not happening. “Anyway, I hate flying!” she added, getting annoyed. “If you really want to carry on with this insane idea then you go zooming around aimlessly alone.”
Something about her tone made Draco become suspicious. He lightly took a step towards her and bent his head in order to take a good look at her face. After a quick study of her expression, realization hit him and he stared at her in disbelief. “You’re afraid of flying, aren’t you?!”
Hermione blinked her eyes in surprise. “N-no, I am not!”
“You can’t be serious,” Draco chuckled in response. “Scared of flying? Really?”
Hermione put her hands on her hips and held her head high. “So? So what if I don’t like flying? There’s nothing wrong with that! Everyone has their own phobias! And besides that’s not my excuse for not carrying out your ridiculous plan “ getting caught and falling into trouble is my problem and there’s nothing that will chance my decision.”
Draco’s lips formed a small smile. “Oh, I wouldn’t be sure of that…”
“I’ve gone mad…I must be crazy to actually go along with this,” Hermione said somewhat hysterically. After a short trip to her room in order to change into something more comfortable, she restlessly paced up and down the length of Draco’s room, shaking her head and cursing herself under her breath. She positively hated herself for finally caving into his suggestion, but he had absolutely refused to back down. He went on about the ‘thrill’ and the ‘adrenaline rush’ and how he would make sure nothing bad would happen. He had also said that he’d make sure no harm would come to her and that he wanted make their last day memorable “ that was probably when she had slowly fallen into his stupid trap.
She usually didn’t give in to any sort of sweet talk, but she realized Draco had his own way of charming the girls into doing what he wanted. His smoldering grey eyes alone were enough to hypnotize anyone and his voice was annoyingly velvety at times in order to manipulate people. She simply rebuffed the idea that she herself had been victim of his skillful techniques. She didn’t like considering the possibility that Draco had now some control over her. In her own little ways, she would make sure that she still had reign over herself.
“Are you ready?”
Hermione stopped in her tracks and looked over at Draco, who was standing outside on the balcony. Giving her a slight nod, he swiftly mounted his broom and waited for her to come over, a smirk-like smile resting on his lips. When he saw that she wouldn’t move, he silently raised his hand and gestured for her to come; his eyes telling her that there was no going back. This was it. She had agreed to this and she was not going to back away now.
“Draco -” Hermione began to say uncertainly, but he immediately cut her off.
“Just trust me,” he said smoothly.
Hesitantly, she went out to the balcony, giving Draco a tentative look. She looked down at the broom and gulped in fear. It looked so flimsy, so breakable and unsafe. Well, at least she wouldn’t have to handle the broom herself. “Are you sure it’ll be able to hold two people?” she asked dubiously. “I’m not that light, just so you know...”
“I’m sure, I’m sure…” Draco replied, getting slightly annoyed now. “Now, can we go, please?”
Hermione glowered at him. “You don’t have to be so impatient! Let me just…just try to calm myself down for a minute.”
“You’re going to start over-thinking,” Draco said, his body tensing with excitement. His legs were dying to kick off from the ground and Hermione was taking forever! “Stop thinking and just get on behind me otherwise we’ll be spending the rest of the night this way.”
He was right, she knew he was right, but her body was frozen. Come on, Hermione, you’re braver than this. Just get on the broom. Don’t think. Just get on the broom. Taking in a deep breath, she pushed aside all thoughts and swung her leg over the broom. When she got what she thought was a comfortable position she suddenly realized that she was in another awkward predicament. What was she supposed to do with her hands?! Was she supposed to hold onto the broom or was she supposed to hold on to “
Draco suddenly turned around, making Hermione jump in fright. “Ready?” he asked her, giving her a cheeky grin.
“N-n-no…” Hermione muttered incoherently, all senses leaving her.
Draco chuckled, “Fair enough. Hold on tight, alright?” He looked down at her fingers holding onto his broom and was surprised to see that her knuckles had already turned white. “Calm down, Hermione. I won’t go that fast, I promise and “ oh! I almost forgot!” Quickly, he whipped out his wand from his back pocket and pointed it at Hermione. “Disillusionment Charm,” he answered her surprised expression.
“Oh!” she exclaimed.
“That way, we won’t be seen,” he went on. “There -” He rapped Hermione’s head, watched as her body gradually blended to her surroundings, then quickly cast the spell on himself.
Hermione felt as if Draco had poured some cold liquid on the top of her head. It was a strange sensation, especially as she felt cool trickles run down the length of her body. She immediately looked down and saw that she had taken on the same color and texture of all that was around her. “Whoa! Nice one, Draco,” she said, impressed with his wand work.
“Now, that’s enough dawdling,” he added, turning around and gripping the handle. “Don’t let go of the broom.” And before Hermione could say anything, Draco kicked off from the floor, pure ecstasy seeping through his body as he climbed higher and higher, the night’s air billowing against his face.
Hermione let out a spine-tingling scream from behind Draco as they left the safety of the solid floor of the balcony and ascended towards the inky black sky at break-neck speed. She crossed her ankles, pressed her knees together and glued her eyes shut. She felt as if her heart had dropped to the bottom of her stomach and the wind blowing past her face didn’t make things any better for her. She desperately wanted to tell Draco to slow down, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was an uneasy cry.
Not daring to open her eyes, Hermione yelled angrily at the wizard sitting in front of her. “What’s your problem, Draco?! You said you’d go slowly! I-I don’t like it…!” Her voice shook nervously and her body trembled at the idea of being so high up. “Can we please, please go back down…please…?”
Draco mentally kicked himself - he should have been more wary. The girl was terrified out of her mind, but out of his own excitement he had momentarily forgotten about her fear of flying. “Sorry! Sorry!” he said apologetically, looking over his shoulder at Hermione. “Look, I’m going to go down now, okay? I’ll try my best not to go too fast.”
Unfortunately for Hermione, going down was worse than going up. She felt as if she were free-falling through the air and out of instinct, she let go of the broom and flung her arms around Draco’s midriff, much to his surprise.
The minute he felt her arms go around him, Draco’s body impulsively responded by sitting up bolt straight. His eyes grew wide as he realized their current position and his heartbeat, of its own accord, started to beat faster. It seemed he was not the only one who became conscious of her arms around him, because he soon heard Hermione let out a gasp of embarrassment.
Hermione’s eyes shot open at that very moment and looked down at her arms wrapped around Draco. Instantly, she loosened her grip around him and fisted her fingers on to the back of his shirt. Although she knew that the both of them were feeling slightly awkward at the moment (she could tell by his silence and upright position), she couldn’t pull herself to let go of him. In a way, it felt a little more secure than holding onto the broom. She really had not meant to throw her arms around him, however! It wasn’t her fault that he had swooped down like that!
Draco cleared his throat and let out a strained cough. “Are you alright back there?” he asked, trying ignore her grasp on him. He was fully aware of her vice-like grip on his shirt and he was both flustered and pleased by the fact that she found comfort by holding onto him. At least she wasn’t yelling at the top of her lungs anymore.
“N-no, but just keep going slowly…Don’t do anymore of those swooping moves!”
It was peacefully silent after a couple of minutes and Hermione soon found the courage to keep her eyes open. Draco had reduced the velocity of the broom and went down to a lower height, so that she was able to look around her without much fear. Gradually, she found that she was actually starting to enjoy herself “ slightly, at least. Her body was not one bit relaxed, but it was progress. She even dared herself to look down, when she realized they were not so high up from the vast body of water.
“I “ I guess it’s not all that bad,” Hermione whispered, looking up at the starry, night sky. It was actually rather beautiful. As they glided across the surface of the ocean with the pale moon shining down on them, Hermione realized just how magical the atmosphere was. She had to hand it to Draco. He really knew how to set the mood for their last night.
“I told you so,” Draco replied smugly, looking over his shoulder; satisfied to see her mesmerized expression. “But I’ve got one more thing I want to do.”
“And what’s that?” Hermione inquired cautiously. She tried to get a good look of his face, but he turned his head away and instead of immediately answering her question, Draco pulled the broom to a complete halt. “Draco,” she asked curiously, wondering what he was up to now, “what are you doing?”
“You wanted to go ice-skating,” he answered simply, taking out his wand and pointing it towards the water, “and since you went along with my plan, I thought it was only fair to do what you wanted to do, too.” He saw Hermione’s eyes grow wide with understanding and before she could open her mouth to protest, Draco, smirking, quickly cried out the spell. “Glacio!”
A cool, white, mist-like substance gushed out from the tip of Draco’s wand and spread across a small patch of the surface of the ocean. The both of them watched as the water quickly turned icy blue, and as the mist-like matter dissolved into the air, a small part of the water had become a solid, white surface. It was a magnificent sight to behold. The smooth, white patch of ice was in stark contrast to the darkness all around them and there was an unearthly, luminescent glow encircling the miniature ice-rink Draco had formed. Under the moon the ice seemed to twinkle and the dark-blue water lapping against the edges of the crystal-like formation made a soothing sound “ it was the most stunning sight Hermione had ever laid her eyes on and she was at a complete loss for words.
“So, what do you think?” Draco maneuvered his broom so that their feet were nearly touching the icy surface. “Am I genius or am I genius?” He turned around, took out his wand and undid the Disillusionment charm so that they could see each other’s expression.
“It’s…beautiful,” Hermione breathed, unable to express herself. “But we could get into a hell lot of trouble if something were to go wrong!” she blurted out in distress. “What if we’re seen! Flying is one thing, but freezing a piece of the ocean…? The statute of magical secrecy-”
“There is absolutely no one around!” Draco interrupted, gesturing towards the dark, blank mass of water. “And besides, when will you ever get the chance to do this again?” He jumped off the broom and held on to it till Hermione got off. Fortunately, there were no noticeable waves that night, so the patch of ice was quite stable and smooth, instead of wavy and wobbly from troubled waters. “Half an hour…that’s all I’m saying. Half an hour of this and we can be on our way back.” He quietly put the broom down and looked at her seriously. “This is probably the last thing I can do for you until we leave. We’ve got our own lives to sort out when we go back to the wizarding world,” he sighed. “You’ll go back to Potter and Weasley, look for a job and start a new life, while I…I still have to clean up some of the mess that I left behind.”
Hermione gave him a questioning look. “What sort of mess?”
Draco shrugged his shoulders. “The Dark Lord may be dead, but there are still Death Eaters who have survived the war. Even though they’ve gone into hiding, I’m sure they’ll try to hunt me down eventually, with all that about me betraying them and their master…” He gazed down at the witch in front of him and said, “I’ve also got my father to deal with.”
Hermione’s eyes softened and she gently took a step towards him. Her arms wrapped around Draco, who went rigid in surprise, and rested her head against his chest. “I’m sure you’ll be able to handle everything once you get back,” she assured him, patting his back soothingly. She looked up at him and gave him a small smile, “The Order and I will be rounding up the remaining Death Eaters soon enough, so that’s one thing you can check off your worry list.”
Draco let out a bark of laughter. “Oh, is that so?”
In response, Hermione swiftly went on her tip-toes and gave him a brief peck on the lips. “Don’t worry,” she said humorously, laying her hands on his chest, “I’ll protect you.” And with a mischievous wink, Hermione pushed Draco, who, with a cry of surprise, lost his balance on the slippery surface and fell flat on his backside.
“What the -?” Draco looked up from his humiliating position and saw that Hermione was already a good few feet away from him. He saw her stick out her tongue at him and wiggle her fingers over her head, laughing out loud as he tried to get up, but instead fell back in the same way. “This isn’t funny!” Draco growled, watching as Hermione took out her wand and pointed it at her shoes. “Get over here and help me up.” He groaned as he tried to get on his knees in order regain his balance.
What was with her sudden change of attitude? Draco couldn’t remember if she had ever been this playful around him before. He thought he remembered seeing her like this during his time at Hogwarts, when she was around her two side-kicks, but otherwise he hadn’t seen this side of her personality. Did this mean that she had completely let her guard down around him? That she now saw him as not just a “ what was it that he was to her? A boyfriend? Draco didn’t think so, not just yet anyway, but perhaps she now saw him as a friend, someone she could count on… Draco made an odd face. He was getting all sappy again.
“How’s everything down there?” Hermione called out, seeming to glide over the frosty surface. She skated towards him and then circled around him teasingly, laughing as she saw his pissed-off expression. “Oh, look who can’t even stand up,” she mocked, feeling rather smug. “Come on, Draco; try if you can get me.” She went near him and gave him a quick poke on the shoulder before he could reach out and grab her for support. “You should take a look at yourself,” she chuckled, expertly maneuvering herself around him. “You still can’t get up? Honestly Draco, you should get your head checked.”
“This has got nothing to do with my head,” Draco snapped, putting one foot firmly on the icy ground. “What spell did you use on your shoes? At least I’ll be able to stand up if I have blades attached to mine like yours.”
“I guess I could help you with that,” Hermione agreed cheerfully, pointing her wand towards his shoes, “but I doubt it’ll help you that much.” She muttered out the spell and soon enough Draco had matching blades connected to his shoes. “Can you skate?”
Using all his efforts, Draco managed to get on his own two feet, flailing his arms around to keep himself upright. “Yeah, because I had all the time in the world to learn how to do this stupid sport,” he said sarcastically, his legs wobbling dangerously. “Do I look like I’m the gliding around sort of person?”
Hermione gracefully skated towards the pitiful figure and held out her hand. “Alright, alright,” she sniggered, “I’ll give you a boost. Come on, hold on.”
Draco shakily reached out for her hand and held onto it with both of his. As she started to move, he couldn’t seem to get his legs to stir, so in the end it was her pulling him along behind her and him clinging on to her hand as if his life depended on it. Hermione was having a fit just looking at his comical stance. “You’ve got to move your legs, Draco! Copy me. First your right foot, then your left one…” When she saw that it just caused him to slip all over the place, she laughed and went on to tease him even more. “Are you sure you have a brain? Merlin Draco, it’s just like roller-skating -”
“You expect me to know what that is?!” Draco demanded scornfully.
“You just need to find your balance,” she continued, grinning as she pulled him after her. “Should I let go so that you can learn how to steady yourself?”
“NO!” Draco exclaimed fearfully, tightening his grip on her. “Don’t you dare!” He disliked how much power Hermione had over him at the moment, but he sort of enjoyed her current happiness; he could see she was thoroughly enjoying herself. “I swear Hermione, you’re going to pay for this,” he said impishly. “No one toys around with a Malfoy and gets away with it.”
“What are you going to do? Increase your vice-like grip on me even more?” she teased. But Hermione did eventually pay for her lighthearted antics when they decided to get back to the ship. Draco was merciless with the speed of his broom and Hermione could do nothing but to fiercely hold onto him and scream, not caring whether someone would hear her or not. It was his turn to be on top of things and he grabbed the chance to be in control once again.
Overall, the experience had been out of this world. Draco secretly did enjoy the moments he had shared on the ‘ice-rink’ with Hermione and was sure she hadn’t truly hated the flying part of the trip (much to his mistake). Skating underneath the stars, surrounded by the cosmic ocean and with no one else around to bother him or Hermione had been a unique, whim-of-the-moment plan, which the both of them would never forget. Even though they hadn’t spent their last night on the cruise ship itself, they had spent a little more time together privately which, although they didn’t express it out loud, was exactly what they had wanted. However, their good mood was short-lived. With Draco’s past still hidden in the shadows and Jessie on the prowl for revenge, their night was nowhere near finished.