Chapter 31

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I met the boys outside the doors to the hall at exactly 11. They all appeared beside me with no prior warning as James flung off the cloak and tucked it safely back into his bag.
"Let's go" he whispered and Sirius pushed open the door into the hall. It was silent and dark in there. We all followed him in, trying not to make much noise.
"Illuminate" James whispered and pointed his wand at the candles in the wall sconces.  The candles lit themselves with a small flame each. I looked up at the star spangled ceiling and raised my wand to light the floating candles, but Sirius put a hand on my arm and shook his head. "If we light it too much then Hagrid will notice and come see what's up. I doubt he'd turn us in but still... Better safe than sorry. Previous experience has proven that we can get away with sconces but the candles will send him running".
"Previous experience?" I asked with a smirk. "How much do you break into here in the dead of night?"
He waved his hand around "so so".
"What's he doing?" I asked, nodding at Remus who was muttering enchantments by the doors.
"Oh, he's just casting silencing charms. Don't want to be overheard" Sirius explained. He was keeping his voice quiet but when Remus stepped away from the doors he called out to James. "Alright, everyone ready?" I turned to find that Peter had moved the tables and benches up to the teachers dais. The tables were precariously balanced on top of each other and I couldn't help but laugh.
"So, what exactly is the plan?" I asked slightly nervously. The boys had each started moving in different directions. Sirius and Remus reached the nearest corners to me and turned around. I looked imploringly at Sirius for him to tell me what was going on.
"We're going to turn the room into an ice rink" he told me. Finally! "Just when the ice reaches you, try to step up onto it or you'll get stuck inside it" I nodded.
"Ready?" James called from the far end. They all chorused yes and I turned to watch across the hall as James and Peter pointed their wands at the floor and shouted "glacies". I heard the same spell behind me from Sirius and Remus. Ice shot from their wands. It flew across the floor at an incredible speed, covering meter upon meter. It spread out sideways too so that Sirius' jet met Remus's and headed as a solid block towards the centre of the room. I jumped just as it reached me and managed to land atop the ice, slipping abit on the surface. The ice groaned as the two sides came together in the middle but they formed a seemless sheet.
"Wow" I breathed. My breath puffed up before me in a cloud. The temperature had dropped instantly.
James and Peter had sat down on the step up to the teachers dais. It was the only part of the floor that wasn't covered in ice and I tried to make my way over there. I was glad I had changed from my school pumps to my boots, but they still didn't provide much grip. I slipped and slid all over the floor until I gave up and used magic to pull me towards the top of the hall. I stopped the spell too late and fell over the step to echoes of laughter from my audience.
"Any advice?" I asked from the floor.
"Here" James pulled something out of his bag and passed it over to me. They were two long strips of metal. Sharp blades set on brackets.
"What?" I asked but he was already explaining.
"Your blades for you to skate on. You want to attach them to your shoes".
I watched Peter intently as he hooked the brackets over the ends of his feet and tapped them with his wand. I know he tried to hide it but I managed to catch as he whispered "applico calceus". Sounded pretty straightforward. I hooked my own blades over my shoes and tapped them with my wand. The metal clamped down on my toes and heel, fastening itself securely to my feet. I put the blade on the ice tentatively and added some weight when it felt like they wouldn't give out. Eventually I managed to stand and pushed myself off with my foot. I soared across the room, gliding past where the Hufflepuff table would be and only turning at the last minute before I hit the opposit wall. This was some slippery ice! It felt so good to be on the ice though. I hadn't gone ice skating in years, but it was a skill that didn't seem to leave you. I let out a whoop.
"You've evidently got some experience then" Remus commented as he skated up past me. He looked good on the ice too. Confident. He turned sharply to look at me, his speed slowing as he did so.
"We used to go out and skate when the river burst its banks and froze. There was a good flat field down in the bottom of the valley and that was always the best place."
"Huh. I didn't think wizard families ever went of their own volition" Remus commented but I shook my head.
"We didn't. We were invited by the local Muggle kids. We hung out with them a lot when we were younger. They took us".
He nodded as if that made more sense. I looked around at the others as I continued gliding along beside him. They all seemed pretty competent on the ice actually. I raised my chin in their direction and asked Remus "How come they're all so good? I thought they all came from pureblood families?"
"They do" he admitted. "But this really isn't the first time we've done this" I grinned sheepishly. That was obvious. "I told them I missed ice skating when we were in our fourth year. I used to go with mum and her family. So for my birthday that year they set this up for me in the charms classroom and... Well, we've been doing this every now and again ever since."
"That's really sweet of them" I told him.
He shrugged. "I think they enjoy it really." I glanced over at the others. They were racing up the hall on their blades, trying to outspeed each other. Sirius slammed into the back wall, closely followed by James then Peter. Remus and I continued skating in a big loop around the room. I had never spent any one on one time with Remus and it was just starting to get weird when James skated over at a high speed, rammed into Remus and shouted "tag, you're it". I couldn't help but laugh as I skated away as fast as I could. When I felt I was a safe distance I took a long low turn, putting my hand on the ice for support. Bludgers that was cold. I hadn't thought to put gloves on. I continued skating in the opposit direction, trying to ignore the coldness of my hands. I kept half an eye on the game of tag as I went. Remus had caught up with Peter, who had caught back up with Remus, who tagged Sirius who tagged James who determinedly came after me. He cornered me in the corner of the room. I was quite distracted by his ice skating - I was so impressed with how quickly and sharply he turned, making use of the front of the blades. I hadn't expected that kind of skill from him. He made the most of my distraction though and tagged me on the arm before whizzing off in the opposit direction. I took a moment to take my bearings. The hall was still pretty dimly lit by the flickering candles but I could just about make out the boys.  Sirius was probably the nearest. He was against the wall opposite me. Peter was half way along it and Remus and James were at the far end of the hall. I aimed for the middle of the room and as if on cue all the boys started skating in the ring trying to get round me. I turned sharply and sped up, jumped over a fallen Peter (because it seemed unfair to tag him while he was down), pirouetted to turn to face them and tagged Sirius. I tripped as I did so and Sirius caught me to save me falling on my face.
"That was almost so cool" he grinned at me. Then he tagged Peter, who had finally gotten up, pulled me off in a different direction, dragging me by the hand. We ended up huddled in the darkened corner of the hall.
"Why did you help me?" I asked.
"Well, I couldn't very well leave you to be tagged now could I? That doesn't seem fair" he whispered. "Your hands are freezing Trudy!" He added as if he had suddenly noticed. He took off a glove and gave it to me. "Now at least we'll both have one warm hand". I 'aww'ed internally. "Go" he cried as Remus loomed out of the dark. We took off in opposit directions. I skated along the wall, Remus in hot pursuit. When I reached the corner I turned to weave across the ice, moving back and forth continuously so as not to get got. It was great fun. We ended up playing tag for what felt like ten minutes but when I looked at my watch it was well past midnight. I had had great fun ducking and diving, weaving between other skaters and generally showing off my tricks. Eventually we stopped for a breather. "Alright" James panted. "I'm going to get some hot chocolate. Anyone else want any?"
A general chorus of 'yes' followed the question. "Moony, Wormtail. Give us a hand" he asked and they followed him out the door, leaving Sirius and I alone in the room.
Sirius skated up to me near the teachers dais. "How are you hands doing now?" He asked.
I smiled at him "my left is much better thanks. Do you want your glove back? I'm sure the hot chocolate will do a good job of warming them up". He laughed and shook his head. I thought that would be it but he took my right hand in his and pulled his wand out of his pocket. He pointed it at my hand and wordlessly cast a warming spell on it. That made it feel so much better! I gave my fingers a wiggle. I could feel them again. "Thank you" I breathed. He kept hold of my hands.
"Listen, Trudy" he started. I looked up at him. We were stood close, very close. The low candle light reflected off the ice below us and flickered on his face, sending his jawline, nose and cheekbones into sharp relief. His scarf glittered red and gold and his hair looked uncharacteristically dark under the matching hat. His eyes bored into mine, candle light reflected in them. I felt like I was getting lost in them, and then he spoke. "In the interest of complete honesty in our friendship... You should know... I like you. I mean I like like you. Alot." My heart lept. I couldn't help it. He liked me! I blinked at him. "Sirius" I whispered. What was I going to say? I like you too? I still don't want to date? You make me so happy? Let's get married and have children? I didn't know. But as it turned out I didn't have to say anything because he interrupted me.
"Don't say anything" he jumped in. "Please... Don't reply. I know you don't do surprises and I don't want you to say anything either of us would regret. I know you don't want to date and you probably don't fancy me back but I just wanted you to be aware".
"Sirius" I tried again.
"No. Don't say anything Trudy. It's not going to change how I act or anything, so please don't let it change how you act either. Can we do that? Can we just skate now and pretend like I didn't say anything? Can you teach me how to do that pirouette?" I snorted at that and the spellbinding magic broke.
"Sure thing" I said softly and pulled away a little. "Can I just ask one thing though?"
He looked warily at me but nodded all the same. "Does anyone know? Was it planned that the boys would all leave us in this most romantic of settings or were you just seizing the opportune moment?" He looked at me under his lashes and I felt my heart flutter. He liked me.
"James knows. But he didn't know I was going to tell you. I know how you feel about people getting all in your personal life so no, the other two don't know" he told me.
"Thank you" I told him, before pushing him away and showing him how to pirouette on the ice.

The boys came back with hot chocolates a few minutes later. We welcomed them back enthusiastically, but I tried to keep my behaviour as normal as possible. I was all smiles for the rest of the evening. I couldn't help it, my brain was chanting 'he likes me he likes me he likes me'. We skated for another hour and it was heading towards two o'clock when we took our blades off, melted the ice and put the tables back where they belonged. I flicked my wrist at the wall sconces to extinguish the lights and backed out of the doorway. The entrance hall was vaguely illuminated from windows on the upper floors. I turned to see the boys disappearing under the invisibility cloak. I still couldn't believe they had one. They hardly fit with four tall boys under there but with a bit of tweaking they managed to cover their feet. "Good night Trudy" I heard them say.
"Goodnight all" I smiled. He likes me. I crossed the hall and made my way towards my own common room. I looked back as I was about to turn the corner and could have sworn I heard one of them hiss "come on Sirius". Then all was quiet.

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