The Snow Fox

Golden Snitch

Being asked to dance in front of the school added a weight to her shoulders that Venus was not unhappy to have. She found herself using her time turner to her full advantage to have enough time to practice the routine she had made, not to mention the magic involved. Reluctant to abuse the privilege though, she only used it for the two days prior to the performance.

Venus leaned on the railing of the astronomy tower and hummed peacefully. She loved going up there and just singing to her heart's content where no one would hear her. It was where she also went to take Professor Lupin's advice in calming down, since it had been the sight of her losing control once before. With her pre show nerves, she wanted to relax a bit before getting ready for the stage.

"And nothing hurts anymore I feel kinda free..." the wind blew her hair past her face and she smiled, holding her hand out and creating a small snowflake. "We're still the kids we used to be..."

She looked down to the quidditch field where she saw the Slytherin team practicing for their next game.

"I put my hand on a stove...to see if I still bleed...and nothing hurts anymore I feel kinda free..." She blew on the flake and sent it flying down towards the field.

She saw a golden blur fly past her face and watched it fly around. "Oooo...I feel kinda free."

She held her hand out and quickly grasped the ball, watching it's wings close.

"I believe thats mine." A voice said and Venus whipped around. Draco stared back at her, getting off his broom and stepping into the tower.

"S-sorry." She held her hand out with the small golden ball in it to the boy who took it from her after putting his hand on hers.

"Lovely singing."

"Thank you."

"Venus I am so sorry..." the boy said, taking a step closer to her. Her eyes widened at his apology directly to her.

"For what?" She clarified.

"For Pansy, what I said to Hermione for being a bloody idiot with the hippogriff. Everything. Please forgive me. I was raised a certain way and I'm really trying to change for you, I swear."

Venus looked at his eyes to see the truthfulness behind his words.

"I'll think about it, you have a lot to prove to me Malfoy. You should get back to practice."

The blonde nodded and flew off into the distance, not wanting to eat his words later.

"ARGH!" Venus cried later on, whining in Willow's lap in her dorm room. "I'LL THINK ABOUT IT. LIKE I HAVEN'T ALREADY FOR WEEKS."

Willow consoled her and patted her head soothingly as Ethan watched from the chair in Venus' dorm.

"Hon, it's a process."

"Yea, you can't just expect to know immediately." Ethan agreed, stuffing his face with scones.

"Fair enough..." Venus huffed. "Once this freaking performance is over I'll tell him and give him his present. I just want to focus on doing a good job with this right now."

Her friends nodded and they chatted until the sun went down. Night hit and Venus nervously looked at her friends as she left to change. Willow, with her amazing design and sewing talents, had made her a custom dancing dress for the night. They had worked together on its design and she was excited to wear it. Venus stepped onto the stage with her violin in hand, the airy pink dress on. It's sleeves hung off her arms loosely and the round skirt added dimension to her body. The two girls had taken a classic ballet practice dress and changed it into a more elegant and styled version, embroideries of gold lining the bodice. She did an arabesque and started to play. The sound flew like air from the instrument, quickly and perfectly. Carol of the Bells was one of her personal favorite songs to play because of the intricacy of the tune, going up and down the scales. Professor Sprout stepped on stage and waved her wand, creating large pink sugar plum flowers around the hall. Snape swept onto the stage and dropped a potion onto each flower making them ring like little bells and echo the violin music around them. Professor McGonagall transformed a large jug of water into ice which Professor Flitwick levitated over Venus's head. Professor Lupin held her a thumbs up as he made her fly. Venus looked at the ice and her eyes glitched to white as it started to snow. She flew around the hall with a small snowflake trail behind her, they fell as she danced around the room, making it snow over the tables. She spun around gracefully in pirouettes, legs outstretched and poised. Lastly, the headmaster walked onstage and waved his wand and each flake of snow the girl had been dropping turned into food on the tables. Venus approached the stage again and jumped back onto it in a grand jete landing back on the platform and playing her final scale.

The hall erupted in applause for the performance and as it died down the headmaster boomed. "A round of applause for Ms.Snow who assisted the teachers in making this surprise what it was!"

The hall cheered again and Venus bowed again and thanked the headmaster. She hopped off the platform and joined her friends at their table. They all cheered as she sat down, congratulating her and complementing her. The commotion died down and after eating, Venus slipped into a side room to pack away her items. Draco saw this as a good opportunity to talk with her and broke away from his friends.

"Hey." He said, making Venus jump.

"You scared the cheese out of me! Salazar's beard!" She cried, brushing off her skirt. The dusty pink dress was not the warmest thing for a December evening, she would admit. She closed the instrument case and shivered as the cold breeze it made tickled her skin. Even as an ice witch, she still got cold when not using her magic.

"You idiot, you'll catch a cold if you're not careful. Where's your cloak?" He asked her, looking around.

"It's in my dorm, now please excuse me." She said heading towards the exit, mentally kicking herself.

The Slytherin boy grabbed her arm and pulled his sweater off, and put it over her head. It reached a little over her knees and the sleeves dropped past her hands by about an inch and a half. "What are you-"

"You'll get sick. I don't give a flying feather if you're still mad at me or immune to the cold, you're not getting ill if I can help it." He released her and she stared at him. She reached for her instrument case and pulled something out of the side pocket, handing the small parcel to the boy and walking away, a small blush on her cheeks saying quietly, "I forgive you."

She sat down in between Willow and Hermione and the brunettes both eyed the sweater she had on.

"Where did that come from?" Willow whispered.

"Draco, he was in the back room while I was packing up."

"Did you give him his gift?" Hermione joined in the whisper session.

"Y-yea. You sure he'll like it?"

"Positive." Both girls replied unanimously.

"Oi. What's going on?" Ron blurted out, drawing attention to the three huddled girls.

"N-nothing!" Venus stuttered out.

"Is that a Slytherin jumper?"

"NO!" All three girls cried out dismissively.

Draco opened the small parcel later that night in his room. He held up a chain with a small snake charm made of ice. He opened a small note it came with and smiled.

"The charm is made of a special ice that won't melt. I hope you like it, Merry Christmas. - Venus *snowflake*"

She even signs her name with a little snowflake. He thought. That's so cute. He looked at the necklace and put it on, looking in the mirror. The chain was long enough to hide the charm if he wished to but he enjoyed the reminder that she had made this for him and shortened it.