Anyone But Me

Chapter Sixteen

It was so cold out that she could see her breath when she huffed out a loaded sigh of frustration. Ron could be such a jerk sometimes! Blaming her for the argument during Prefect shift change... When he was the one upset by the fact that Hermione had agreed to go with Cormac McLaggen to Slughorn's stupid Christmas Party instead of him. She wasn't sure how he had found out so quickly, but he was under some grand delusion that she owed him an invite.

He even had the audacity to tell her that the only reason she had asked the bloke was because of his relationship with Lavender. When in actuality McLaggen had asked her to go as his "plus-one"! He had cornered her and started bragging about some of the higher ranking wizarding officials he would be able to introduce her to. She had agreed just to get him to stop talking...

The thought of asking Ron had not even crossed her mind considering he had an annoying girlfriend to worry about. Why did it matter who she decided to take with her? It wasn't like she liked Cormac like that... He was a pretentious self-serving ass.

But Ron had always known how to push her buttons! When he implied that the only reason the invitation was extended was because the "douche" wanted into her panties, she had totally lost it on him. In the end, she told him that he must have been confusing her with his own loose girlfriend and stomped away. Leaving him to fester in his own rotten mind.

Hermione did not want to entertain the nasty things he would have said if she had been able to ask the person that she really wanted to...

The stupid git! She was not going to let him ruin her night.

She slowly worked her way down the trampled path, made by students earlier in the day, towards The Great Lake. While the wind had mercifully died down with the storm early that morning, it was still freezing out. When you added in the hindrance of tricky patches of ice hidden under the new snow to watch out for she had some high expectations that would need to be met for the evening to be worth the effort.

Eventually she made her way to the frozen coastline. Other students had already cleared a decent amount of snow to form a mock ice skating rink. It was a favorite pastime in winter when there wasn't much else to do. Hermione preferred to stick to the warmth of the castle and her books, where there was less of a chance of injury and the added benefit of not acquiring frostbite. She scanned the barren landscape carefully, but Draco was nowhere to be found...

She stepped away from the ice and started to walk along the shore. He had said he would be here... He wouldn't leave her out in the cold for the second night in a row. Would he? Not really paying attention as she walked, she was preoccupied with the thought of all the different hexes she was going to use if he didn't show up. The sound of snow crunching under the soles of her boots barely made its way to her ears over the frenzied ranting inside of her head.

Slowly the stillness of her surroundings started to settle around her. Winter had a way of making the castle seem as if it was in stasis. It helped to calm her chaotic thoughts. As she walked, her annoyance worked its way from her body and she allowed herself to relax.

Thoughts about turning back and waiting to see if Draco showed up kept creeping in but the movement helped to keep her warm. So she continued on, working her way around the lake by the light of the moon and stars.

Her mind was distracted by carefully placing one foot in front of the other as the path started to become less worn and more haphazard when his voice unexpectedly rang out. "Well if it isn't the ferocious Gryffindor Kitten."

She looked over to her left quickly and saw him lounging on a blanket on the cold ground. He didn't look the least bit phased by the temperature. To the contrary, his arms were crossed behind his head as he leaned up so he could look directly at her. Even curled at such an awkward angle he managed to look comfortable with the corners of his lips threatening to break out into a smile.