Prompt by gbuckner5

(for the purpose of this oneshots we shall pretend draco's birthday is after harry's)

((we're also pretending harry's birthday happens while he's in school))

(((about four sentences in you'll probably realize why)))

Harry should have been excited for his eighteenth birthday. 

Ron and Hermione had both already had theirs, and of course, they had been soulmates.

The idea almost made Harry sick. On his birthday, everyone in the world would freeze in time for an hour, and him and his soulmate (Ginny) would be the only ones conscious. It seemed almost creepy, and he would have to do it again for her eighteenth birthday next year.

"Are you excited?" Ginny asked as she hopped up to him. "What should we do for our hour?"

"I dunno," Harry replied dully, not looking at her.

"I think we should go ice skating!"

"It's hot out."

"We can charm the Great Lake to freeze, probably. Why don't you research how to do that?"

"Mkay."

She skipped along next to him. "Ice skating is so romantic!"

"Mhm."

"Or, you know what? Maybe we should have a picnic next to the lake and watch the mermaids swim."

"The mermaids will be frozen. Just like everyone else."

"Hm. We could just sit down and talk a bit about our future and all that, yeah?"

"Sure."

"Maybe we could do that after ice skating, and then we can Apparate to a field of flowers and we can pick flowers!"

"Mhm."

"Oh, Harry, doesn't it sound lovely? We can go ice skating and discuss our lives together and pick flowers, oh it'll be wonderful!"

"Sounds great."

She twirled on one foot, kissing his cheek with a bright smile on her face. "I'll see you later, babe!"

"Yeah, bye Ginny."

She skipped away brightly. Harry sighed, dropping his bags and leaning against the wall, shoulder blades digging into cold stone. He tipped his head back, hitting it against the wall and letting his eyes close.

"Alright, Potter?" a soft voice murmured. 

He opened his eyes slowly, only to close them again at the sight of platinum hair. He slid down the wall, sitting with his head resting back against the stone. 

"Fuck off."

"I'm being serious. Are you okay?"

He stiffened with shock. "That's none of your concern, Malfoy."

"Look, it's just you and me. Everyone else already went to class. I'm not mocking you, I'm not making fun of you. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

There was a soft rustling, and then there was a warm body next to him, arm pressed against his own.

"I know your birthday's coming up. Are you worried that Ginny isn't your soulmate?"

Harry tensed at the words echoing his own thoughts. "No."

"Okay." Slight movement, and the warm arm that wrapped around Harry's shoulders shocked him into complete silence. "I'm here if you want to talk."

Harry slowly opened his eyes and watched as Malfoy stood and walked away.

********************

"I'm scared," he murmured to Hermione. "I hate that I don't know what time it's going to happen."

She smiled, hugging him tightly with one arm. "You'll be okay, Harry. Even if you don't love your soulmate right now, you will."

"Why don't you just say her name?" Harry asked.

Hermione's face scrunched up in confusion. "Who's name?"

"Ginny. You keep saying soulmate like you don't know who it is."

"Oh, Harry," she murmured, patting his arm. "You'll understand soon."

"What does that mean?" he asked, extremely confused.

"I'll support you, no matter who you love," she said quietly, eyes trained on him. "I want you to know that."

"What the hell does that mean?" Harry asked, but she was already standing from their table and  walking away.

And then she stopped.

Harry expected her to turn around and say something, but she didn't. She just stayed right where she was, left foot raised slightly to take her next step.

Ron had his spoon halfway to his lips, eyes staring ahead, unmoving. Dean was halfway through murmuring something to Seamus, and Seamus was smiling.

Harry stood quickly, eyes scanning the room in panic. It was happening.

It was eerie, the unmoving, unblinking eyes of a hundred people staring in different directions.

He scanned the table for signs of Ginny moving, but it took him three times to realize she was one of the frozen ones.

The dead silence was deafening, and Harry had to break it.

"Very funny, Ginny. You can move now, and we'll go do your stupid date ideas."

She was supposed to blink. She was supposed to grin and stand and be fake-angry at him calling her date ideas stupid.

Instead, she stayed frozen as a voice echoed from across the room.

"No way."

Harry's head snapped to face the person, and he was shaking his head before he even got to fully look at the other boy, blinking, breathing, staring. 

Moving.

Towards Harry.

Harry backed away, still shaking his head, and turned around, running out the doors and as far away from Draco Malfoy as he could.

******************

Warm sun hit his skin as he threw the doors open and rushed outside, as far away from the blonde menace that was supposed to be his soulmate as he could.

He ended up half-collapsing next to the Great Lake, gasping for air as he wrapped his arms around his knees, trying to compose himself as fast as possible.

Draco Malfoy is my soulmate Draco Malfoy is my soulmate Draco Malfoy is my soulmate Draco Malfoy is my-

He couldn't be. Harry couldn't spend the rest of his life having to love Draco Malfoy. He couldn't even tolerate him!

"You okay?"

The situation was so similar to the one from a few days before that Harry couldn't help but laugh, the sound nervous and sharp.

"You can't be my soul-soulmate," he said, almost choking over the word.

"Well I am, and we're both going to have to find a way to deal with that."

"No. I hate you."

"Do you really?"

It sounded so hurt, so soft, that Harry had to look up at the blonde boy standing a few feet away.

His grey eyes were wide, surprised, hurt. His hands were shoved in his pockets, and he leaned away from Harry, lips parted slightly.

"Of course. We're enemies. Don't you hate me?"

"No." It was blunt, easy, without hesitation.

Harry didn't know how to respond to that.

Malfoy sat down a few feet away from Harry, staring out at the Great Lake.

"Why?"

"I have no reason to."

Once again, Harry found himself at a loss for words.

Malfoy pulled out his wand and traced it along the water's surface, causing soft ripples to spread across the glassy surface. He murmured something softly. From his wand spread a crystalline form, spreading and cracking softly and covering the surface of the water.

It took Harry a couple seconds to realize it was ice.

"What are you doing?" he whispered.

Malfoy shrugged. "You didn't get your perfect date with Ginny, so I figured I'd try to compensate."

"Malfoy..." Harry murmured. He didn't know what to say.

Luckily, Malfoy didn't seem to mind. He just grinned and stood quietly, transfiguring his own shoes to skates and carefully gliding onto the icy surface of the Great Lake.

After a moment, he murmured another spell and Harry felt his feet shift. He looked down to see the skates that now adorned his feet.

"You don't have to," Malfoy said quickly. "Just if you want to."

With that, the blonde tossed his wand into the grass by Harry and started skating.

Harry was transfixed. Malfoy had left himself completely defenseless and open to harm, and Harry found that with the sun glowing in platinum blonde hair and the stunning glint of silver skates on ice, with grey eyes narrowed in concentration as Malfoy maneuvered through complex backwards spins and twirls, Harry really couldn't harm him if he wanted to.

He watched as Malfoy glided across the ice for a few minutes, before he stood carefully, the blades of his skates sinking into the dirt. He copied Malfoy and tossed his wand onto the grass, before carefully sliding onto the ice.

He felt like a baby animal, with wobbly legs and shitty balance, but in an instant, Malfoy was next to him, holding his arm carefully, like he was afraid Harry would yank away.

"I got you," the blonde murmured quietly, and delicately pulled Harry along the ice by his arm. They moved slowly, carefully, both too afraid to do more.

"I've never ice skated before," Harry whispered. It was quiet, but in the silence of the world around them, Malfoy heard it perfectly.

He didn't respond, however. Instead, he slowed down a bit more, moving so he was in front of Harry. With grey eyes watching Harry cautiously, he held both of Harry's hands and slowly started skating backwards, pulling Harry along.

Harry found that ice skating was easier when you had someone with you.

Maybe life was too.

"Do you think you'd be okay with me being your soulmate?" Malfoy asked quietly.

Harry considered it. "I think so."

Malfoy's eyes were a bit brighter now. "I thought you hated me?"

"You thought wrong."

Malfoy grinned at that, and laughed softly. "Does that count as us talking about our future?"

Harry had almost forgotten Malfoy was set on his checklist of things Ginny wanted to do. "Yeah, I think so."

"Alright. Time to pick flowers, loverboy."

"The hell did you just call me?" Harry asked indignantly, but Malfoy just laughed, letting go of his hands and skating to the edge of the lake. 

"I can't skate all the way over there!" Harry protested. 

Malfoy only smiled at that, and grabbed their wands, shoving them in his pocket. He then skated back towards Harry, pulling him into a sort of embrace as their momentum caused them to spin and the world around them disappeared.

Harry felt himself falling backwards and landed on the ground, Malfoy falling on top of him with a breathless laugh.

"Where are we?" he asked.

Malfoy rolled off of him ungracefully, standing with a slight stumble of off-balance. "Japan."

"Where in Japan?"

"The Hitachi Park."

Harry sat up, looking around. He was surrounded by thousands of blue flowers, and Malfoy looked very pleased with his own choice of scenery.

"It's..." He was speechless.

"Beautiful?" Malfoy filled in helpfully.

"Stunning," Harry agreed, standing. His fingers brushed against the soft petals of one of the flowers.

"Are you pleased with my choice?" Malfoy asked, looking slightly nervous.

"Very," Harry replied with a sweet smile. Malfoy relaxed, smiling back and leaning down to pick a blue flower. He held the blossom out to Harry with a shy grin.

Harry delicately plucked it from his fingers, feeling a warm blush rush to his face. "Thank you."

Malfoy mock-bowed, and started to walk through the fields.

"Where are we going?" Harry couldn't help but ask.

Malfoy pointed at the tree in the middle of the field wordlessly.

It was tall, the only tree Harry could see for miles. There was a patch of grass around it without flowers.

They walked quietly for a bit, fingers brushing against each other before finally Harry gained the courage to interlace them, holding Malfoy's hand.

Malfoy didn't say anything, and Harry didn't comment on the blonde's shy smile.

Finally, they reached the tree, and Harry released his hand to grab a branch and pull himself up, careful not to crush his flower.

Malfoy- Draco, Harry reminded himself, if he was going to have this boy for a soulmate, he needed to call him Draco- laughed softly, and followed him, sitting in the middle of the tree with Harry, surrounded by light filtering through the leaves around them.

Harry held his flower out in front of him, lightly tugging the petals off one by one.

He loves me, he loves me not...

"What are you doing?" Draco was curiously studying him.

"It's a Muggle thing. You pull the petals off, and say 'they love me, they love me not,' and whatever the last petal is is whether they love you or not."

Draco raised his eyebrows. "Oh. Do continue."

Harry tugged the petals off one by one, and they watched them drift down onto the grass below them.

Finally, the last petal floated down, and Harry dropped the flower down with it.

"What is it?" Draco asked, almost breathless.

Harry couldn't contain his smile, green eyes meeting grey in a whirl of excitement and prospects of the future, the world frozen around them, but in that moment, they were the only two who mattered anyway.

"He loves me."