--Disclaimerama->: Harry Potter and all associated characters are in no way my property. This was sort of inspired by another fic. by Epona, the terribleness of this fic. in no way represents her work... hope that makes sense. (She dosen't own Harry Potter either).
--On with the fiction->
The fleeting sun had given way to a crisp cold evening all too easily. Moonbeams mingled with scattered shadows
around the lake. The silver ambience collected in wells on the waters surface like molten silver poured into icy
nothingness; a thin frost clung to each blade of grass winter still had a slight grip over Hogwart's grounds.
A white mist rose gently from Hermione's lips as she sighed, although she would have denied the noise had anyone
asked. She didn't sigh, or flounce, or swoon it wasn't her style or so she liked to believe. A small shiver
crept through her fingers and then shot up her spine, it was cold she realised. The dress she wore wasn't revealing
or decadent in any way, not like some peoples she'd noticed, but the material was too thin for an evening such as
this. The lights shining from the castle's windows were no bigger than shinny pennies in a glass case from this
distance; they were too bright she decided as she huddled miserably against the trunk of a lethargically sloping
tree.
"… Might as well have stayed in the library tonight." She thought aloud for many reasons: because part of her
wanted someone to tell her to shut up and stop complaining; because another part of her wanted him to listen and
because another part of her didn't know anything else to do. She sighed again and stared across the cold lake.
Valentines Day had descended on the school with its usual fanfare of colour and high diving emotions, she didn't
especially like the holiday but somehow she'd let herself get caught up in the whirlwind atmosphere.
Harry Potter, the name turned itself over and over in her head, he was like no one else she knew, a close friend and
yet a complete mystery. "I'm so stupid," she though to herself. "Why would he notice me? A dress
some, hair spray? Pah! He has more cards than he can open." The damp from the ground slowly drew itself upward,
the coldness adding to her increasing bad mood. She could see couples walking side by side from the school; the dance
over they spread themselves out around the grounds collapsing into each other's arms beacons of an emotion she so
desperately wanted. Folding her head onto her knees she sullenly hoped that none of them would find her here.
"Wha…" She jerked awake with ice nestled in her muscles. There was slight warmth in her cheeks she realised,
she must have been crying before she'd fallen asleep, or even shed tears as she lay sleeping. How late was it? She
looked at the moon that now hung higher in the air. "How long have I been sleeping?"
"Not long." She forced her numb body to stand as fast as it could respond.
"Who's there?" Panic replaced the frigid regions of her sharp mind like a painfully warm blanket wrapped
around her cold limbs.
"Harry." Her delicate hands grasped her hips in the classic angry pose as she rounded on him angrily.
"Bored of opening cards? Or did you come all this way just to frighten me half to death?!" He took a step
back surprised at her anger.
"I didn't enjoy the dance so I left early."
"Just how long have you been here?"
"Quite a while… I thought you wanted to be left alone… so I did." Was he speaking slowly to patronise her? Or
was it that her brain was still too frozen to cope with his quick explanations?
"Then why did you just creep up on me and why aren't you back at the castle or off with some floozy?"
"What are you talking about… your shivering, here." He pulled off the top he was wearing and held it out to
her. She looked at it through narrowed eyes, in the dark they were all he could see of her face; they were very pretty
eyes he thought.
"Don't be so dense; you have everything cards, friends and fun… that's why I'm out here miserable and
your in there living it up!"
"But I'm not, and I don't have everything… I don't have you." The last four words echoed around
the lake. She stared at him pole-axed, eyes wide with shock. He held his arms up attempting a small shrug a small sort
of apology, she fell into them. His limbs laced around her back giving her tired body strength. "Look" He
spun her to face the opposite side of the lake, for the third time that evening she sighed.
The unicorns raced across the ground, their galloping strides making hardly a sound. They gleamed white in the
moonlight; reflections perfect imitations in the mirror like water. Turning to face the couple, meshed into each other
flesh, clothes and souls, the unicorns snorted and shot away into the still night.
"That was why I woke you." Harry's words a hair above a whisper. Hermione didn't reply instead she
looked up at him, infinity dancing across her face.