Scared, Potter?

Fair Night

"Ready?" I squeezed Draco's hand. He simply nods. I look over at Hermione, who's smiling.

"Okay then." I grip the steering wheel.

"Please tell me you have a license." Hermione says quickly, a flash of nervousness covering her happy face.

"Of course," I wink at her. I really don't have my license, but Hermione doesn't need to know that.

"Why can't we just take the thestrals?" Hermione complained.

"Because," I answer vaguely. Then, much to Hermione's concern, I start the car and drive off.

Draco controls the radio from the front seat and complains greatly when all he can find are muggle stations. "What are we supposed to listen to? This garbage?" He wrinkles his nose at the sound of tinny music and a high pitched voice.

"I'll have you know, that garbage is one of my favorite singers," I tell him defensively.

Hermione wrinkles her nose from the backseat. "You like Taylor Swift? How did I not know before that you were gay!" she exclaims. I shrug and turn up the volume to "Style."

"WE NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE!" I tell excitedly. Draco laughs and hums along. After a few lines, Hermione is singing along as well.

It takes a bit longer than expected, but i'm finally pulling up to a smaller house. At first, I'm not sure it's the right one, but it is and so we all pile out and knock on the door. Draco doesn't know what I'm doing, but I think Hermione's figured it out, because I can see her eyes grow brighter and brighter and her cheeks redder and redder.

Molly Weasley opens the door first. "Harry, how wonderful it is to see you! You haven't written in forever! Are you hungry, dear? Oh, do come in and make yourselves comfortable!" Mrs. Weasley looks over Draco and, to my relief, just smiles and reaches over to hug him. Draco looks taken aback, but he melts into her hold and hugs Molly back.

This takes Molly to Hermione. She tries to look stern, but she can't. "Hermione, it's been so long," she whispers quietly. Hermione nods. "You look as well as ever," she says. They both hug as well.

"I don't think you're here to see me," Molly eventually says. I nod. Molly shuffles over to the bottom of the stairs and calls up to Ron. There's some loud footsteps and Ron's face appears in the doorway.

"Hullo, Harry. Draco," he nods. Then, as he steps into the room, he notices Hermione. "Hey," he breathes. Hermione stares and smiles. After a bit, she shakes her head, furrows her brow, and scowls. The typical Hermione look of anger. Draco, new to the group, doesn't notice this and keeps looking on. I take him, call out the door my goodbyes, and tell Hermione and Ron that I'll be waiting in the car. Before I close the door, I can hear Hermione's angry shouts of "why did you drop out?" "you're such a fool," "I hate you so much," and - my personal favorite - "merlins beard Ron, it's a surprise they let you go out of your own accord!"

I didn't hear Ron's responses, but they did come out to the car quickly and without any signs of physical fight. Hermione gets into the car in a bit of a huff and Ron stands in amazement outside. "Aren't you coming in?" Hermione asks him shrilly.

Instead of answering, Ron turns to me. "Does this one fly too?"

"Unfortunately, no," I tell him. Ron's face clouds over in disappointment and he climbs in the car. "Alright, everyone buckled?" I wait for the clicks. "Okay, let's go." I put the car into drive and we start off down the road. Draco, this time, recognizes one of the songs on the radio station and we all sing along together. Well, all of us except for Ron, that is.

When we get to the fair, Hermione pulls me over. "Why didn't you tell me you invited him?"

"I wanted to surprise you!" I grin. Hermione's face is flushed and she's frantically smoothing down her hair.

"You let me wear this on a date?" She asks incredulously. This is the first time I've heard her directly complain about what she's wearing. I didn't think Hermione was like that.

"You look fine," I reassure her, "you always do."

"Thanks!" Hermione manages an uptight grin and drops her hands to her side. We join Draco and Ron and set off to find a food vendor.

"Now, let me make it clear to you," I say as Draco and I sit down with two cones of cotton candy. We lost Hermione and Ron in the crowd awhile ago, so we decided to stop and get a treat. Draco takes a bite of cotton candy and waits for me to continue. "I've only ever been to the fair twice, and that was with the Dursleys. And they only brought me along because the couldn't find a babysitter. They never let me get anything and spent all their money on Dudley."

"So this is a big deal for you then?" Draco asks me, containing his fury. He's learned from multiple events that yelling and ranting about how awfully the Dursleys treated me does nothing. Except make me love him a little bit more each time.

"Yeah." I smile. I take a bite of my own cotton candy. "Wow, this stuff is good!"

"You've never had candy floss before?" Draco asks me. I shake my head. "You're crazy, you're insane!"

"Done?" I sigh. I take another bite, then another, then another, and pretty soon my cotton candy is all gone. Draco's is too.

"What should we do now?" He asks, gazing up at the night sky. It's gotten dark and I didn't notice until now. A bright idea hits me.

"The ferris wheel!" I exclaim. "That should be the last thing we do, obviously. It's so fitting!"

"The what?" Draco asks, clearly new to the concept of fairs.

"Ferris wheel," I say. I give him the watered down version of what they are as we walk to where it's located. When we get to the line, Draco gasps.

"Wait, these things are actually real? I'd always thought someone made them up!" Draco turns back to me. "What are you waiting for? Let's get in line!" So Draco and I wait in the line for what seems to be hours.

When our turn finally arrives, a worker helps us get strapped in and gives us the lowdown. They get all the passengers on the wheel and we're off. Draco doesn't seem bothered at first, but as we get higher up, he starts holding tighter to the bar in front of us.

"People do this for fun?" he sort of screeches. I laugh and tell myself to not shake the car. I do anyway. Just a little, not a lot, but it's enough to make Draco whimper. He clings to the bar even tighter. This, of course, awakens the evil part of me and now I'm shaking the car faster and harder, back and forth, back and forth. And Draco's face is so white, it almost glowing in the moonlight. I stop as soon as we reach the peak of the wheel.

"Don't look down," I warn Draco tenderly.

"Are you insane?" he hisses back at me, "why in merlins beard were you shaking the car?"

"I think we already established the fact that I'm crazy." I mumble. I do apologize and lean in closer to Draco's face. "What will it take for you to forgive me?"

A sly twinkle appears in his eye. "Well..." he says, pretending to think. Then, before I even know what's going on, he's kissing me and I'm kissing him back, and we don't stop until the Ferris wheel continues to move. And, I have to admit, I'm pretty disappointed when it does.

A little while later, we find Hermione and Ron sitting inside a craft tent. Draco and I are both yawning and insisting it's time to go. Hermione pushes me to the backseat, saying that she's going to drive us back to Hogwarts and Ron home. I collapse in the backseat next to Draco without complaint.