Ice

Abraxas Malfoy

"Braxas, come on," shouted Dorea, yanking her friend toward the ice. "It'll be melted by the time you're done!"

Abraxas Malfoy scowled and tugged his mittened hand out of hers. "I have to lace my skates."

"Just use magic," she begged.

"No. We aren't allowed to use magic outside school. You know that as well as I do."

Dorea groaned. A gust of wind caught her hair, blowing it in circles around her face, but she didn't shiver. Blacks never shivered. "I'll get my brother," she offered. "Pollux is of age, he'll do them right up for you."

Abraxas ignored her and bent over his silver ice skates. The long strings were hard to grip between the thick padded fingers of his mittens, and every time he came close to a knot they would slip away from him and dance in the wind. It would have been maddening, except for the fact that Abraxas wasn't all that keen on getting his skates tied, because he wasn't the one who had wanted to go ice skating in the first place.

No, it was Dorea who'd shrieked with delight when she'd seen frozen pond in the Malfoy's garden, and it was Dorea who had begged her brother to conjure up these Muggle skates, and it was Dorea who was forcing Abraxas out of his nice warm bedroom in favor of tempting fate.

"We could fall through, you know," Abraxas said when he had his laces tied up.

"We won't fall through."

"You never know."

"If you fall through, I'll save you."

He scoffed. "How?"

She shrugged. "I'll jump in after you."

"That's no good, then you'll die, too."

She gave him that famous Black eye-roll. "Nobody's going to die. It's ice skating. Even Muggles do it. If they can manage not to fall through, then so will we."

Abraxas didn't say anything.

"Look, if you're really scared, I'll ask Pollux to put a charm on the ice to make sure it doesn't break."

"I'm not scared."

Dorea bit her lip. "You seem scared."

"I just think this is a waste of time. It's the winter holidays. I've got work to catch up on. Slughorn won't be happy if - "

"Braxas." She grabbed his arm. "It's one afternoon. Just one. I've barely seen you all year."

"You're the one who went and got yourself Sorted into Gryffindor."

She shoved her red hair behind her ear. "Why does that matter?"

"Slytherins and Gryffindors can't - "

"We can, and you know it."

Abraxas didn't say anything for a moment. "Let's just get this the hell over with," he said, marching as steadily as he could toward the pond. "I've got essays waiting for me inside."

Dorea stepped onto the ice with confidence and began to weave lazy circles across the pond. "Come on, you coward," she called when she saw Abraxas lingering in the snow by the edge of the pond.

He shook his head. "I'm fine right here!"

She skidded to a stop in front of him. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you don't know how to skate," she accused.

Abraxas set his jaw. "I know how to skate."

"Prove it." Her cheeks were bright pink from the cold, but she didn't appear to notice. "Just step onto the ice, you ninny."

"It might break," he said.

"And what, you're afraid of the water?"

"No!" But he said it a little too quickly, and comprehension dawned on Dorea's face.

"Do you - d'you not know how to swim?"

His cheeks were the ones turning pink now, and it had nothing to do with the chill.

"Abraxas Malfoy, how did you get away with not learning how to swim?"

He wouldn't look at her. "I can swim."

"Then what are you afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid. I just prefer the air. I'll gladly play you in Quidditch," he offered.

Dorea swept her hair out of her face once more. "Step onto the ice," she said, "and take one lap with me, and then we'll go inside and you can do your essays. Okay?"

Abraxas thanked Merlin she couldn't see how hard his heart was pounding. "Fine," he said coolly, and he took a tentative step onto the frozen surface of the pond. "See? Not afraid."

Dorea reached for his hand. He looked at it in disgust, and she finally let it fall back to her side with a huff. "What is the matter with you? We used to be friends, don't you remember? What, now that there's a label on my personality you can't be seen with me anymore? You can't touch me anymore? Have I really changed so much?"

He shrugged. "It's not that."

"Then what is it, Malfoy, because I'm dying to know."

He put his other foot on the ice - Merlin, these silver skates were heavy - and pushed off clumsily. "Come on," he said, and he was keeping his balance, but only barely. "Let's do a lap so I can get these bloody things off my feet."

Dorea shook her head. "No. Never mind. If caring about me is such a bloody chore, I won't bother you anymore."

He glowered at her. "You can't be serious."

"I am." She bent to undo her skates. "You know, I don't know you at all anymore."

He felt a twinge of guilt - not enough to make him want to skate with her, but enough to make him stumble a little. "Dorea," he began, but he was cut off by her scream -

- because just as he'd predicted, just as he'd bloody told her, the ice wasn't thick enough to support them, and she'd fallen through.

"DOREA!" He tried to run to her - fell - kept going on his hands and knees - bent over the hole in the ice where she'd gone down. "DOREA!"

All he saw was blackness.

"MUM!" he screamed toward the manor. "Pollux! Come quick! It's urgent!"

But nobody came, and Dorea's hat came floating up from the depths, but Dorea herself was nowhere to be seen - her skates were probably weighing her down. "You idiot," he whispered, and then he tugged off his skates and, with a few deep breaths to keep a cool head, he made the plunge after her.

Even with his eyes open, Abraxas could see nothing in the murky water beneth the ice. He flailed blindly, hoping against hope that he'd bump her and have some idea where she was. Stupid bloody Dorea, he thought, reaching through the freezing water. I can't believe I'm going to drown over a Black.

And then he found her, or she found him - it didn't matter, one of them grabbed the other's hand and began to yank toward the surface, and with a burst of desperate accidental magic they were rocketed up out of the pond and landed in a heap in the snow.

"Are you alright?" Abraxas panted, shivering violently.

Dorea was shivering, too. "Fine," she said.

"You owe me," he moaned, pushing wet hair out of his face. It was already freezing into icicles.

"I was handling it. I had my wand." She held it up to show him. "I got us out of there."

All the breath left his body. She'd had her wand? "We can't use magic outside of school," he said, getting to his feet.

"We can in life-threatening situations!"

Abraxas threw his hands in the air. "Fine. Fine! Nice to know I risked my life for you for nothing!" He glared at her, eyes blazing. "Don't you ever say I don't care about you again. Don't you dare." He turned and began to stalk away toward the house.

"Braxas?" She ran after him and grabbed his shoulder.

"What?"

Her chin was trembling. "I - thank you." She swallowed, and then rose up on tiptoe to press her cold lips against his cheek. "Just - thank you," she whispered, and then she ran toward the manor ahead of him.

He stood in the snow for a few seconds, staring after her.

(It was the last time either of them acknowledged the other.)

[Tien Len Competition: 2 of Hearts - Abraxas Malfoy, ice, "It's urgent!", "When people are taken out of their depths they lose their heads, no matter how charming a bluff they may put up."- F Scott Fitzgerald]

[Disney Character Competition: Stromboli - write about someone who forces someone else to do something. Prompt: ice skates]