Chapter Text
This is their thing.
It has always been their thing; the thing they did together, and it reminded them of home away from home.
Ever since that day in May when he found out he could make water freeze just by willing it and, like the jackass he is, was caught freezing a nearby brook behind the neighbour's massive villa.
He was nine and it was exhilarating.
He just had to touch the water and...there it was; perfect white ice, two inches thick. He had started with glasses of water, then upgraded to the dog's water bowl, and then the bathroom sink.
He got cocky with the stream, he’ll admit it.
When he had tried to walk on the frozen surface he just created, he slipped and fell flat on his back.
And when he looked up at the sky, she was standing there, looking down at him.
She was seven, wearing a pink frock, and, she explained rather importantly, the brook belonged to her family.
“Today is my birthday. My name’s Tessa; what’s yours?”
He was paralyzed for a second, but she didn't find it weird. Not that he trespassed and not that he could freeze running water.
She just stared at him with a serious expression and after careful consideration, she shyly asked a very sensible question: “What are you going to do with all that ice in the middle of spring?”
So he ran back to his house and brought out his hockey skates and a pair for her, borrowed from his cousin Leanne.
“Here Tessa, this is how you skate. Just hold my hand; I won't let you fall, I promise…”
And he didn’t and she just took to it like she had been waiting to skate all her life, trusting and unafraid. She was quiet at first, but after a few days she was letting out the biggest belly laugh he had ever heard. After a month, she told him she liked his spiky hair.
After that, she just stopped being shy around him.
They spent all of their summers and all of their free time like this, on the ice he would create without effort, and she never questioned it or marvelled at it. Year after year, they just held hands, tumbled a lot, bruised a lot, and laughed a lot.
Until one day when he had just turned eleven. The neighbours from the big villa by the brook came to visit his mum and asked to see him as well.
Her mom was very elegant and her dad smiled kindly.
Tessa was there too, with her freshly cut bangs and pale green dress. She sat next to him on the couch, bony knees barely touching his.
Over coffee, her parents explained to his bewildered mum and dad what their young daughter told them, what they thought Scott was, what invitation he was about to receive, and what an amazing opportunity he will have been given.
They told the puzzled Moirs not to worry about money or anything; the community is very strong so the boy won't need for a thing. Their daughter Jordan will help him as he settles in; ‘She's at school right now, 3rd year already; would you believe it? And she loves it!'
Boarding school, he remember thinking, they are sending me away! Have I done something wrong, Momma?
That made his mom cry.
They explained to him that he was not being punished, that it was a great adventure, and next year Tessa would be there as well. They will learn a lot more than just to make ice, and wouldn't that be fun?
He's horrified.
Tessa's heart broke as she looked at him worry and frown, but she didn't know why. So she smiled at him and held his hand, and whispered, “Hold on for just one year! I'll be there soon.”
In August, he went through his first Floo Powder trip. In a moment he was in another country, fighting the urge to hurl in a corner. That was...something. Then there was his first shopping trip to Diagon Alley; his first wand and his first journey on a real steam train.
He loved the train the most.
The Virtues walked him through every single step, never leaving him alone, answering his questions, and steering him in the right shops. Tessa kept holding his hand until the very moment he had to step on the metal ladder of the red locomotive.
As he left King’s Cross Station, she ran along the platform waving goodbye until the train disappeared out of sight.
Jordan kept repeating “How adorable!” the whole six hour long journey to the school.
Jordan, true to her parents' word, didn't mind having him around and she helped him a lot with figuring out timetables, names, Houses, moving staircases and talking paintings and the headmistress transforms into a cat, what?
But she had a bit of mischievous streak and he was kinda scared of her.
She got him into a headlock a lot and ruffled his hair. She called him 'lion cub' out loud and he suspects he was the butt of her friends jokes because he was the shortest kid in his year.
So he thanked her for all her help and he steered clear of her as much as he could (they were both Gryffindors, but she was a grown girl and he was a little boy, so she kept an eye on him but otherwise left him to wreck havoc as he saw fit. She did make him promise he wouldn't break his neck doing something stupid. He grinned like a maniac at that, and she walked away mumbling “How I am going to keep them out of trouble once Tessa gets here?”)
He soon discovered (in the Standard Books of Spells Grade 1-6) that what he instinctively could do with the ice had a name and a spell in Latin, and he could control it much better with a wand. He found a nice spot on the lake, around that bend, so they couldn’t be seen from the Castle, it's not too windy and the slope to the water is gentle and grassy.
He practised and practised until it was perfect.
When Tessa got to Hogwarts for her first year, he had to watch in horror as she was sorted in a different house. Slytherin! Their dormitory was miles from his tower!
He had plans for them to sneak out at all hours and now she would be alone in the dungeons.
The very next day he had to drag her away after breakfast.
He almost made her late for her first lesson because he needed to show her their spot, he needed to show her immediately.
She needed to know they had a safe place.
Standing on the lake bank, he dusted off his hands uttering “Ta-daa!” under his breath, looking at the considerable portion of smooth frozen water with evident pride.
Tessa looked from the lake to him, her grin wide and bright, green eyes shining.
He did pretty well.
It was his birthday, of course, and she had a present in her satchel for him. She was going to wait until dinner time, but oh well…
It was a new pair of skates. The blade was made of enchanted unbreakable black onyx and he whooped loudly while she laughed.
This is how they spent their next 4 years together. All their Sundays and weekends, skating, dancing on the ice.
("Who needs to go back to Hogsmeade? Once is enough and the place is too crowded anyway…” "We'll give Chucky a list of stuff he needs to buy for everyone from Honeydukes." "Scooott, you can't use Charlie like that! he's not your errand boy! " "Oooh, I'm totally going to call him that from now on! But nonsense! Here, we'll even give him our pocket money upfront, how's that? He’d better remember to buy those Flume’s home made chocolates you like so much, or else...oh HEY ERRAND BOY! COME OVER HERE I NEED TO ASK YOU A FAVOUR! Chucky, don't you dare ignore me, don't make come over th-CHARLIE WHITE WHY ARE YOU RUNNING I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING YET!")
The giant squid swims lazily underneath them, always slightly confused by the change in temperature, but they suspect it just likes to keep an eye on them just in case the ice spell isn’t strong enough.
Except it is because Scott's got this spell down to perfection and the ice is solid even in the warm autumn day. The school grounds are quiet and the light is golden and, as per usual of lately, there’s a bunch of Year 1 and Year 2 girls from different houses sitting on the grass a few yards from them.
They had been discovered fairly soon, but there had been virtually no consequences. No one really cared. Professor Flitwick gave him an extra credit for creativity and mastery and several students asked to be taught how to stay upright on the ice, but mostly they were left to their own devices. Even the girls on the grassy bank mostly just sit there quietly, content to just huddle together and watch them skate.
Tessa swears she heard them squeal in delight once or twice and she isn't sure why.
Maybe it had something to do with what Jordan told her once, a couple of years ago before she left after her final exams, something about what they looked like out there on the ice and Tessa felt slightly alarmed. They weren't doing anything wrong.
“What do you mean Jor, what can we possibly look like?”
But Jordan sighed mysteriously, murmured something about how she wished Tessa could see it, and put Tessa's head in headlock, in her affectionate, boisterous, I love you so much I could eat you up kind of way.
It's a gorgeous early autumn day and it’s too hot to even wear her house scarf, but she’s wearing the dark green sweatshirt with the silver logo on the chest he likes so much. At first she used to skate in these beautiful dresses with billowing skirts, thick knitted tights, and exquisite expensive coats. He had touched reverently the beautiful fabrics and muttered something about how her mom was going to kill him if they ruined her wardrobe.
So he had started providing for her skating gear.
He was still doing it.
Soft t-shirts he had outgrown (“It's all these muscles T! Honestly, look I can't fit into my clothes any more..” “Are you sure it isn't your Butterbeer belly?” “…OUCH TESSA. OUCH!”), long sleeved jumpers made of materials she can’t recognize, and hooded sweatshirts he didn’t even bother to wash (she sleeps in them, but he doesn’t need to know that).
It’s more than enough, but he keeps presenting her with new items.
He seems to enjoy doing it.
Whatever he gives her, she wears it the very next time they go skating, and his face lights up like a Yule tree. (It’s never new stuff. It’s always his. Mostly, accurately, in shades of grey and green. This is not a coincidence.)
Today's choice made him really happy and hyper. She thinks he’s this close to wagging his tail.
He murmurs glacius without breaking their stride and adds another layer of ice under their blades, making it fantastically smooth and even.
She can’t admit it, but she’s rather impressed with his skills. His skills in both making the ice and being on the ice, and she has so much fun, always.
They aren't just going round on the ice now. Now, they are dancing.
And he’s being all eager and show-offy this year, his grades are better, he's really trying to have a strong 6th year...
It’s like he’s trying to...impress her?
She knew he could be great if he’d focus a little bit more, and well, he’s focusing for sure now, he’s focusing on her.
All his attention, all his efforts, all energies are pinpointed on her, and it’s kinda intense and frightening because he can be a little bit overwhelming and all that, but dammit, she is delighted.
She can’t tell him (yet) but she is showing him; showing him in the way she grips his hand and they way she lets him hold her close (“I swear this is how you waltz, Tess, just lean into me, I won’t break,”) and the way she stopped rolling her eyes at him.
(Well, most of the time. Almost, anyway.)
She is looking at him now, really looking at him, as they twirl on the ice, trying to see what Jordan saw.
She is looking at him, straight in his eyes, up close, the way he cheekily grins down at her, hair flopping over his forehead.
He’s got gold flecks in his hazel eyes.
She can't help but smile back at him, as they whizz past at top speed, their blades scraping the ice.
She likes what she sees. She likes it a lot.