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Daphne had no idea where she was, she had a blindfold on Hermione was leading her by the hand. the portkey from Hogsmeade had been a bit of a jolt and the world was a lot noisier where they landed, her senses told her she had been led out of an alley way and was probably somewhere, the sound told her she was near a busy road and the smell told her it was probably near an industrial area.
“Where are we? “
“Sheffield!” Harry supplied
“what’s in Sheffield? “
“About five hundred thousand people, and the destination Harry and I decided on for our next date!” Hermione answered her.
“Five hundred, that’s a lot of people!”
Harry snorted and took her other hand as they made a turn, “Steps love, four of them”
“Cor, whys the looker werin a blindfold guv?” came the voice of a young male.
“She doesn’t know where we are going, this is a surprise for her, so don’t let on yeah?”
The young guy laughed, “No worries guv, let me get the door for you.
Daphne smiles at where she thought the guy was, “Thank you”
As the door opened, she could hear music and as they moved into the warmer space the music was getting louder, soon they came to a stop and she heard Hermione talk to someone, “Hey Sophie, we finally got her down for the day, so here we are!”
She was answered with a laugh, “Has she done this before?”
“I think so, but it would have been old school.”
“Right then, ok so three of you that’s 30 quid, and two gear hire or has Harry finally given in and bought gear?”
Harry huffed, “Yes, yes I finally bought my own you can tell me you told me so later!”
“Right then, so 35 Quid then thanks”
With that taken care of Daphne was led to another part of f the building, Harry let go of her hand and stood behind her, he ran his hands up over her shoulders and slowly undid the blindfold.
Daphne blinked a few times as her eyes got used to the light, then she took a look about, they were in a large lounge area with people sitting about, she was in front of a huge glass wall and as she looked out beyond it she saw a huge rectangular arena with short walls toped with sheets of glass, the floor of the arena was bright white with a few blue and red lines marking it. “Ice?” she asked softly
Harry rested his chin on her shoulder, yep love Ice. It turns out our Hermione used to skate when she was younger, and she spends summers keeping her skill up. About a year ago she decided to introduce me to it. We asked Astoria, who said you like skating so we thought we should introduce to the way muggles do it!”
Daphne spun in place and threw her arms around harry pulling him in for a deep kiss, “I adore skating, and this looks much better than the duck pond at home. Thank you” she pulled Hermione in for a second deep kiss, “Thank you both!”
~*~
With the help of a few discrete wandless charms finding the correct size skates for Daphne was a non-event and soon they were out on the ice gliding about. Harry was having some trouble keeping up when a cute young brunette pulled to a stop in front of him reaching out to steady him.
“well you are looking better maybe the new skates are helping,” turning to Daphne she held out a hand, “You must be the mysterious Daphne that these two go on about, I’m Sophie, I work here trying to teach clutzes like Harry here how to not break their buts on ice,” she looked straight at Daphne and winked, “but between you and me I think he plays the clutz so he can spend more time either watching my ass or falling into my chest.”
Daphne snorted and drawled, “Yes, that is likely,” looking around the young woman to look at her but, “I will say he has fantastic taste!”
Sophie blushed, “Oh, not you too,” Looking over at Hermione she just frowned, well go on then I know you don’t want to get stuck in with the kids who wished they could skate any longer than you have to!”
Hermione smiled, “Ok then, see you all in a bit?”
Then with an explosive burst she pivoted and streaked off down the ice, carving up deep slalom turns before bursting into the air her arms out and a spin and a half landed backwards on one leg, before leaping back into the air tucking her arms for four rapid rotations and landing backwards again.
Sophie sighed, “I’ve been to two Olympic games and a world championships, I have won 3 gold medals, and that girl still makes me look like an nobody!”
Daphne looked at Harry seeking a frame of reference,
“Sophie here makes victor look average”
“Oh, so our Hermione is good then”
Sophie snorted, “I’m stupidly glad I don’t have to compete against her!”
A preteen girl slid to a stop in front of them and looked at Sophie, “Coach, can you show me how to do that triple axel?”
Sophie ruffled the girl’s hair, “Tara hon, I would love too do that. Tell you what as soon as I can do it, I’ll tell you how, and it was a quad!”
The girl looked at her, “You, you can’t do that one?”
“Only one person can, hon, she doesn’t compete and you are getting to see her in action, watch and learn, study the way she shifts edges, and make sure yo see the joy on her face, skating is hard at the level you want to compete at, but it should always put that look on your face!”
~*~
Thirty minutes later the only people still on the ice were Sophie, Harry and Daphne who were gliding around the edge as Hermione swept back and forth across lost in her own world, their was also about 40 tnns and pree teens watching Hermiones performance in awe.
Eventually Hermione slowed looked about and made her way over to the rest of them. Coming to a stop Daphne reached out and pulled her into a hug and landed a kissed firmly on her lips, “have fun showing off?”
Hermione blushed, “I was not showing off. I was letting go. “
Sophi huffed, “As long as you never let go on competition ice. You do realise no female skater ha laid down a quad axel in a comp right. You just laid down a sequence of, Lutz, Axel, Toe, Toe then finished it up with another Axel. All except the second toe loop were quads, Hell I had to admit to one of my students I can’t do that shit. They used to think I was a god.”
Hermion e blushed harder as Daphne snickered, Harry simply Wrapped both his girls into a hug, come on e lets go have some drinks, want to join us Sophie?”
“Yes, I want to come and drink to make me feel less inadequate” she laughed, “seriously though Hermione, you are good for my ego. I come back from winning some world class comp and I feel like I’m queen bee, then I see you skate, and I know I have to be better.