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"Are you ready to go, yet?" Harry called up the stairs, not for the first time. He was standing at the entrance of Number 12 Grimmauld Place waiting for his boyfriend so that they could go to the neighborhood winter festival, or, as Draco put it, "appease the stupid muggles who don't even know where we live."
"Almost," Draco said, again, not for the first time. What was he even doing up there? Harry knew that it took him a while to get ready, but this was ridiculous.
Just as he was about to go check on him, Draco finally appeared at the top of the steps from the dark, unlit hallway - they really should get that fixed - sporting tight black trousers and a light grey sweater with his blond hair pulled back into a loose ponytail. Of course, there was the one accessory Harry thought he could do without: the green and silver scarf dangling from his neck, but none of that explained what had taken him so damn long.
"Finally," he said. "You know you don't have to dress up for this; I'm pretty sure everyone's going to be totally bundled."
Draco eyed Harry's dark sweatpants and old Hogwarts hoodie distastefully. "Lucky for us, we have warming charms and don't have to go out looking like we're going for a run in freezing weather."
The like you do was left unsaid, though Harry could admit his boyfriend looked good. "But that's basically what we're doing."
"Yes, but we don't have to look like it."
"Get out."
"You first."
"Gladly."
Then, they were out the door and walking toward the sidewalk. Unfortunately, their muggle neighbors, a man, woman, and toddler, at Number 13 Grimmauld Place chose that moment to leave their house. Harry went to grab his wand out of his back packet (sorry Mad-Eye), but Draco already had his out and was muttering something under his breath. The next second, the muggles turned back to their front path and walked on, completely oblivious to the wizards standing in the yard behind them. The toddler even jumped in a snow drift left over from last night's storm, much to the annoyance of her parents who just barely managed to coax her out of the pile and back down the street.
Harry looked at Draco. "We have got to start checking outside before we leave the house."
Draco glanced back over at the muggles. "Or we could just keep obliviating them. It's worked so far."
They waited a second for their neighbors to pass their section of the sidewalk before continuing on. "I'm afraid the little one is going to get permanent brain damage."
"There's no record of that ever happening."
"Why do you know that?"
Draco just shrugged, and they eventually made it to the end of the neighborhood where the houses gave way to shops, restaurants, and other small businesses. The owners of most them had little booths just outside their doors to promote themselves, but the big draw was the synthetic ice rink set up in the parking lot behind one of the restaurants. Already, children were tumbling over each other in their feeble attempts to skate. Harry couldn't wait to drag Draco onto it.
"What do you want to do first?" he asked. It wasn't dark enough for the streetlights to be turned on, but the road was well lit anyway with bright colors from the booths trying to attract attention.
"I'm not skating," Draco said firmly, a dark red light catching on his chin and neck.
He was, but Harry wouldn't spoil the surprise yet. "Let's look at the booths. We need to get gifts still." He took Draco's hand and dragged him over to the first booth only for the blond to keep going.
"What are you doing?" he asked. He didn't even get to see what they were selling.
"We can't stop there, the owner doesn't like me."
The next booth was selling homemade earrings, which they glanced at before moving on. Was it Harry, or had a blush risen to Draco's pale cheeks? "What in Merlin's name did you do?"
Draco's cheeks turned redder. "It wasn't anything I did..." He trailed off.
At once, Harry knew what he meant. "No."
"Yes, and now, he hates me. It's for the best; none of his books are good."
"He's selling books?" Harry asked incredulously. That would've taken care of Hermione's gift and possibly even a few others.
"We'll just have to find something else for Hermione."
They continued perusing booths and managed to find some trinkets they thought their friends would like: a pretty blue bracelet for Pansy, warm gloves for Ginny that could be modified into Quidditch gloves, some toys for Rose and Teddy, and an odd looking stuffed pink elephant for Luna. They had a close call when a vendor noticed Draco shove the elephant into his pants' pocket, but ultimately, the muggle laughed it off. No more brain damage in the neighborhood today.
Now it was time for skating.
The second Harry turned to Draco at the end of the street, the blond started shaking his head. "Absolutely not."
Harry took his hand and dragged him bodily back up the street to the parking lot behind the restaurant at the end of the block. "C'mon, just for a little bit."
"No, no, no," he said, repeating the word the whole way down the street. When they got to the rink, he sank onto one of the benches they had for people to sit on while they put the skates on and refused to stand back up. "I told you, I'm not skating."
Harry grinned into his hoodie. "You don't even have to let go of the wall. It'll be fun!" At least, he hoped it would be. He'd never actually skated. Surely, it couldn't be worse than balancing on a wet broom in the middle of a storm while dodging bludgers.
Nevertheless, he went and got two pairs of skates in their sizes and brought them over to where Draco was sitting in despair.
"No, I'm not doing it. I'll fall and look stupid."
"More stupid than you do right now sitting on the side while children less than half your age are out there?"
Draco glared at him, unconvinced.
"Just try it, please? For me?"
Finally, Draco's eyes softened, and he grabbed the stakes and shoved them on his feet, leaving his shoes under the chair. Harry did the same.
Now for the hard part. He gripped the side of the bench tightly and slowly pushed himself upward, smiing when he managed to remain standing. This wasn't so hard. He certainly felt more balanced than he thought he would.
He looked behind him to see Draco also standing tentatively, hunched over to maintain balance. Already, this was bringing back memories of the first time he'd ever flown. He had a feeling he would not take to the skates as well as he had to the broom.
Slowly, he took a step without falling, and then another and another until he was at the entrance to the rink, Draco a few steps behind. He took yet another step onto the ice, and his foot nearly went out from under him. He grabbed the short black border in a death grip.
He was wrong. This was the hard part.
"Wait," Draco panted, also clutching the wall. "Have you never skated before?"
Harry looked at him in surprise. "When would I have ever skated?"
Draco's knees were trembling from clenching his muscles so hard, but his expression was hard as stone. "You took me out here, and you've never even skated?"
"Again, when do you think I would have skated?"
"I don't know, you grew up in this world, maybe you'd been to one of these before."
Harry picked his foot back up and clunkily slid his way fully onto the ice. Draco did not follow him this time. "Yes, I had so much fun at the rink in between cooking meals, sleeping in my cupboard, and getting my arse beat. Now, you've already got the skates on, just get out here."
Draco heaved an enormous sigh, closing his eyes long enough to count to ten. "Fine." Then, hugging the wall, he clomped onto the ice and did the exact same thing as Harry except he went all the way down.
"Motherfucking shit," he muttered, loud enough for a woman holding the hand of a young boy to hear. She gave him a nasty look. "What?" he said. The woman just turned and steered the boy in the opposite direction.
Harry had to laugh. "Wow."
Inch by inch, Draco pulled himself up. "It's not my fault she's immature about words."
Harry would have pointed out that she was probably more worried about the kid repeating the swear words, but he was too focused on not falling flat on his face even while holding onto the wall.
Silently, they started walking around the rink, and Harry even managed to stand up straight at the third wall, but on the way back around, he accidentally tapped Draco on the back, and he actually screamed, causing Harry to fall down backwards, startled. "Don't touch me, I'll collapse."
Harry groaned from his place flat on his back. "What, your private tutors didn't cover skating in little wizard prince school?"
"Oddly, my athletic education was rather centralized on the one sport," Draco bit out.
Harry dragged himself back up, and they continued on. Watching all the little kids glide effortlessly (and some not so effortlessly) Harry couldn't help but feel a bit pathetic. They probably looked like the kids from Teddy's peewee quidditch team.
A few laps and some minor falls later, they decided they were done skating for the day and made it back to the bench.
"Well, that was embarrassing," Draco said. He looked far more steady in his old leather boots thankfully.
"At least none of our friends saw it," Harry replied. He was very happy to be back on the sidewalk to their house, though he did have a good time. "Hey, do you wanna go in the backyard with the brooms to try and regain some dignity?"
"That sounds amazing, but first, you need this." Harry watched confused as Draco reached into his pocket and pulled out a strip of fabric - no, a scarf, scarlet and gold.
Harry looked at him in amazement. "Is that what took you so long earlier?"
Draco laughed. "Yes, why do you keep it in your sock drawer?"
"Where else would I put it?" When he reached out to take the garment, Draco yanked it back.
"Somewhere reasonable," he said.
"Yeah? Like where?"
"Like here." He threaded the scarf around Harry's neck, and Harry let Draco pull him into the house, grinning the whole way.