Of Doves and Dragons

Chapter Fifteen: The White of the Season

"Call my bluff, call you babe. Have my back, yeah, every day. Feels like home. Stay in bed the whole weekend. It's nice to have a friend."

-Taylor Swift, It's Nice To Have A Friend

The weeks began to pass in quick succession. Fewer students tread through the courtyards to brace the cold and so it became a fine place for Ember and Draco to take walks in the late afternoon. Draco was always paranoid and didn't like the thought of people linking him and Ember together; it gave him debilitating anxiety. Where weeks ago she would have felt discouraged and ashamed, she finally understood that this was just how Draco was and it didn't truly have anything to do with her.

And so, when the snow began to fall and stick to the ground it didn't sway their evening strolls. The first fresh snow fall had left Hogwarts grounds in a dazzling layer of white and as they approached the courtyard Ember paused looking up at Draco puzzled.

"What?" He asked feeling tense for she usually didn't have that look in her eye and scanned the area quickly.

"What is it?" She responded as she timidly took a step on the soft powder and out into the open air.

"What?" He asked, his turn to be confused, as she cautiously walked towards the frozen fountain, snow beginning to fall around her. "The white stuff?"

She nodded and he gazed at her perplexed for a moment, his hands stuffed in his front pockets. He furrowed his brows, "Em, it's snow."

"Snow." She whispered the word as if needing to taste it, raising her hand to disrupt a falling flake.

He frowned, troubled. Sometimes when he spoke to her she would space out on a word and her eyes would slightly glaze while her mind drifted further from him as if detangling crossed wires. She would come back to him, confusion gone, as if waking up from a good dream, and continue their conversation as if they had never been interrupted.

Had she really never seen snow?

"Ember," He called cautiously, curiously, not wanting to disturb her delightful observations.

She looked positively lovely there in the falling snow; her hair in long ringlets, face pale, eyes bright, and lips a deep dusty pink. A warmth spread through his chest as he watched her slowly twirl around in the snow.

"Where did you grow up?"

"Hmmm?" She responded softly as she cupped her hands in front of her face- his question needing time to sink in with all the distractions. She frowned as she stared back at him a moment before shrugging, "We moved a lot."

Where? He thought. Where were you for all those years?

His frown deepened but he didn't question her further, he had a sinking feeling that she might not even know herself.

A voice suddenly called across the courtyard, "What the bloody fucking hell are you two doing?"

Draco grimaced as the magical spell the snow had put Ember under broke and sighed before turning to see a grinning Blaise Zabini stride towards them.

"What's it look like?" Draco scoffed, and quickly regretted it. The wolfish smirk that filled Zabini's whole smug face caused all his relaxation to flee. "Don't answer that."

Ember had glided over to the two boys and greeted Blaise with a soft blush. "Hi Blaise."

Draco's scowl deepened. Those blushes were supposed to be reserved for him. He paled in horror at the thought.