The Heiress of Slytherin

Socially inept ferrets

Ivy walked outside, immediately shivered and pulled her cloak tighter about her shoulders. Though the first snow had yet to fall, the air had turned icy cold and the mild breezes of fall turned to frigid blasts that pierced through to her bones.

She tried to sink further and further into her scarf as she made her way down to her willow tree by the lake. When at last she arrived she settled herself on a rock that sent a chill into her body and reluctantly pulled her gloves off her freezing hands.

She rubbed them together in a poor attempt to get warm, then lay her palms out flat, closed her eyes and tried to focus through the cold. She opened her eyes once more and focused all her magic into her hands.

All at once, fire burst from her palms, not burning her but melting away the stiff cold that had sunk into her bones. She lit another fire in her other hand then reached them out and pushed the flame forward.

Soon she was surrounded in a circle of glowing flame, and she closed her eyes and focused on keeping it controlled and steady as it melted through the frost that surrounded it.

Slowly and carefully she made the flames rise higher and higher, then arched them above her so they formed an impenetrable dome around her. She basked in the warmth for a minute before letting them fall again, revealing an amused and slightly intimidated looking Draco behind them.

"Would you let me in? Or should I try my luck at leaping?" He smiled mischievously at her as she opened a space in the flames for him to walk through and moved over on the rock so he could sit next to her.

Once he was seated he looked at the flames surrounding them in silent awe. They sat in silence as Ivy continued practising, both of them fully aware that as much as they tried, the events from their escapade all those nights back were looming over them perhaps even more than the tree.

"Genuine question, are we going for the ignore it until it goes away approach or are we going to talk about that night at some point?" Dracos voice was quiet and steady as it broke through the quiet, but the words still made Ivy flinch and the flames around them jump awkwardly.

Draco pushed himself ever so slightly further up the rock and eyed her with equal parts mirth and trepidation. "Good Merlin woman, if I'd thought bringing it up would get me roasted I would've let sleeping dogs lie."

She glared playfully at him and let a tongue of flame leap out towards him, giggling in a rather frightening manner when he jumped back.

"Well that's what you get for being disrespectful. Roast you. Please, I am perfectly in control of what I'm doing."

Draco broke his gaze from the fire for only a minute to give her a very skeptical sidewards glance. "Yes I know, that was the motivating force behind the trepidation."

She giggled genuinly at last, and felt the tension break over her shoulders like a wave of water on the shore. "I suppose we should talk about it, but if you have any reasonable idea on how to start that would be lovely, because I surely don't."

Dracos brow crumpled. "Well that's unfortunate. I don't really either." They sat in awkward silence for a beat before he sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Well if there's no easy beginning let's just dive straight into the middle then shall we. Did you," he cleared his throat uncomfortably, but forced the words out regardless. "Did you have any questions that you've wanted to ask me?"

Ivy shifted slightly to gently place her hand on top of his, causing him to immediately respond, flipping his cold hand over to grasp hers.

"Salazar, alright, yes I think you're right. It's as good a way to start as any." She chewed her lip and unconsciously tightened her grip on his hand. "You said... well you mentioned something that I can't get out of my head. You said that your fear embodied what your father was capable of, and that it wasn't anything you didn't already know."