Dancing On Ice ((Mineko))

[Harmony Chan H6]

Harmony trundled into the cold atmosphere, her warm breaths ejecting as large puffs of air around her face. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her bundled up body, attempting to keep herself warm as she walked through the grounds. It was early in the morning on a weekend, and Harmony was wrapped in several layers to insulate herself. Her favourite pair of earmuffs gave her a cute appearance, and Harmony tried not to feel embarrassed about them. However, she was much too cold to care what people thought of her now. Plus it was so early, being about seven, eight-ish in the morning, that dawn had barely broken, and not many people were up and about. No doubt still snoring peacefully in their warm beds. Harmony glanced up briefly at the sky and surveyed the greyish sky beginning to light up with the arriving sun’s rays. Thankful she could see where she was going, Harmony held out her wand before her in case, and was at the ready to use the light spell should she need it.

Harmony continued to make her way slowly to the lake, glad that she had chosen the right time to make her trip. She had purposefully selected it so on one else could see her doing what she wanted to so desperately try out. Thrusting her freezing gloved hands deep into her coat pockets, Harmony finally reached the lake, a large beam on her flushed face. As she had known, the water had frozen over from the recent frosty weather, leaving a beautiful, flat and shiny surface, hard enough to step on; Harmony knew this since she had already slipped the other day trying to stand on it. It hadn’t broken, much to her delight, and secretly she had promised herself to come back and attempt something she hadn’t tried for years.

Tiptoeing downwards towards the iced water, Harmony hesitantly let one foot touch the edge, and found the surface just as hard as a few days ago. Suppressing a peal of joyous laughter, feeling excitement bubbling up within her, Harmony bent down and flicked her wand at her boots, praying this plan would succeed. Muttering a spell in low tones, air drifting out of her mouth, Harmony’s shoe suddenly grew slices of ice on the bottom, making them seem like ice-skates. Grinning from ear to ear, Harmony performed the same spell on her other boot, and tucked her wand safely away from harm into a large pocket. Cautiously, Harmony raised one foot, steadying herself as she felt herself wobble precariously, and placed it onto the hardened water. Seeing as it was perfectly stable, Harmony’s confidence grew a little more, and she bravely raised her second leg to join her first. Balancing carefully on the ice with both feet, Harmony released an audible sigh of relief, her grin still very much in place. With renewed self-assurance, Harmony pushed off, and began to skate around the large surface of the lake, albeit slightly shakily. She felt her old memories return to her, feeling her toes tingling with recollection of the good old days. Yep, those were the days, when during the winter, just to get out of the crazy household, Harmony’s mother would take her two young daughters to the local ice rink and skate for hours on end. Although Harmony felt weary as she slowly, but gradually, made progress, she knew she was terribly out of practise. Ice skating felt like a century ago to her.

Harmony finally trusted that the ice probably wouldn’t break beneath her suddenly. Although Harmony was a strong swimmer, she knew the cold would kill her swiftly if she wasn’t rescued. As some time passed, Harmony’s spirits soared as she felt herself regaining what she had once learnt. The heat built itself up so much after a lot of movement that she had slowly thrown off her layers of clothing, leaving her only in her trousers, a thick hoody, and her gloves. The earmuffs, coat, jackets and scarf had been removed hastily beforehand. Happily Harmony began to skate at a confident speed, making fresh marks in the ice, her grin infectiously ecstatic. She closed her eyes for a few moments as she floated along, feeling nostalgia wash over her, and savoured the emotions that came with it. Reopening them with vivacity shining brightly out of them, Harmony began to twirl effortlessly in the centre of the lake, relishing one of the alternatives to dancing: ice dancing. Harmony made a mental note to ask Rachel if she wanted to try it sometime with her; perhaps they could come together next time. Feeling confident she had had enough of a warm up now, Harmony felt glad she had this wonderful chance to dance on ice again. Drawing in a breath as she tensed for a move she hadn’t done for ages, Harmony put on a great burst of speed, and threw herself into the air from the momentum, doing a simple flip, and landing again with a slight wobble. Grinning shakily, though very pleased, Harmony gave a low cheer, relief that she hadn’t mucked it up coming soon after.

It wasn’t until she heard someone’s voice calling to her that Harmony made her first fall of the morning. Upon hearing with intent ears a voice, her eyes widened in shock, “Oh my god, someone’s watching me!” As she looked around frantically in the direction where she thought the sounds were coming from, Harmony lost her concentration for a split moment as she glided along smoothly, and tripped, falling gently onto the ice. “Ah!” Harmony gave a short scream as she descended unflatteringly onto the ice, and cringed as she felt some pain spread through her backside. Cold immediately blossomed into Harmony’s heated body, and groaning with a forced grin, Harmony glanced back to see who the person who had distracted her was, hoping that not only they hadn’t seen this embarrassing scene, but everything else that she had performed earlier.

[mineko]

Mineko sighed and rolled over yet again, striving for a position comfortable enough in which she might fall asleep. Yet it was hopeless. She was well and truly awake now and once her mind became active her body was to find no further rest.

Quietly she slipped out of her four-poster and, after wriggling her feet into the plush penguin slippers that lay on the floor nearby, tip-toed across to the window on the other side of her dorm-room. “My god, it’s cold” Mineko thought to herself as she settled on the generous windowsill. Yet she did not mind, in fact she smiled to herself as she surveyed the stars in the inky black sky. “They’re beautiful” she sighed softly to herself, “If only you could see the stars like this in the city- that would make going home so much more enjoyable”. Yet she knew she didn’t mean it, she loved her mother and father deeply having not yet reached her teenage years. Yet she had her fair share of woes and troubles nether-the-less. To top them all off Mineko wasn’t sleeping well. Not at all, and the combination of late nights and early risings were starting to take their toll on her- particularly in “A History of Magic” where she frequently drifted off.

A glance at her wristwatch confirmed the time- 5:30a.m. “Not too bad” she muttered, for it was not quite as early as she had supposed it to be. It was a sociable enough hour for her to get up and start on those essays that had pilled up during the course of the tiresome week past. “Thank goodness it’s a weekend!” she exclaimed silently, lightly jumping from the windowsill and heading back over to her bed underneath which her school bag lay in a heap. Grabbing it, along with her dressing gown to cover her thin cotton nightdress, she headed down to the common room where over the next hour & a half she managed to make a reasonable stab at an 8 inch scroll on Goblin Rebellions before flinging down her chewed quill in disgust. “I must be quite mad” she announced to the empty room, breaking the silence that had settled in around her. “It’s a crisp, fresh gorgeous winter’s morning and I’m doing homework when others aren’t even up yet!” Her own lunacy amazed even her and she sauntered over to a window of the common room to survey the dark castle grounds. The moment she did so, or at least attempted to for it was still very dusky, she realised what she should be doing. The lake was frozen solid after the cold snap of the previous week leaving a perfect ice rink that, with any luck, would still be untouched.

With a shout of joy, which she hastily muffled for fear of disturbing anyone in the rooms close by, she ran up the stairs to her room and slipped inside. With all the haste of a cheetah she dashed about, swiftly and silently throwing on warm clothes and furry winter boots to protect her from the arctic chill of the outdoors. With a final glace around the room to see if she had awoken a friend, she slung her ice-skates over her shoulder (secured with pretty black ribbon) and headed out.

In a flash she was out in the grounds, inhaling the crisp tart winter air. A time check confirmed her suspicions that it was 7:30am now, a full two hours since she had arisen from her snugly bed. Yet she wouldn’t trade the sleep she could have had if it meant loosing this chance- untouched ice was once of the few gifts that nature could bring in the winter. Unfortunately it was one that she wouldn’t receive today. With a groan she noted the fresh blade marks already glinting in the rising sunlight- blaring evidence that she was too late. “They’d better be good” she thought to herself, yanking on her own precious instruments and stepping onto the polished glass. As soon as she did so though, she felt all her anger and troubles wash away leaving only that calm and collected feeling she got when skating. With a quick kick of her heels she glided smoothly across the lake, adding in a few warm up jumps before launching into triple axel. As she hit the ice she knew it looked good- but she had yet to land a quad (no skater ever had) and she wanted to be the first. Then from the corner of her eye she saw a fast movement. Almost a blur, but still enough to spark her attention.

Reeling around she fixed her gaze upon a girl, slightly taller than her, with short black hair (and questionable earmuffs) performing a series of neat little jumps. After watching her land what seemed to be the last one she called out; “Hey Harmony!”.

The effect this simple line had on the girl was half amusing and half frightening. Harmony seemed to double-take before falling smack onto the ice, butt first. With a gasp of shock, Mineko sprinted over to her fallen friend to offer assistance. She stopped abruptly next to her and stuck out a mitten-ed hand. “Need some help Harmony?”.

[Harmony Chan H6]

“Oh my goodness, Mineko?” Harmony blinked with utter surprise as she watched the Ravenclaw girl ski towards her with a pair of proper ice skates. “Hi!” Harmony proceeded to give a big grin at her, despite feeling her blushing emanate her embarrassment. Swiftly but gracefully jumping to her feet with the help of Mineko’s hand, Harmony steadied herself before turning back to the Japanese girl, a questioning but happy glance in her eyes. “Thank you. I didn’t know you ice skated!” Harmony exclaimed as her breaths of air materialised as steam around her, and she shifted quickly to where her clothes were and threw on her coat again to maintain a steady body warmth now that she wasn’t moving. Mineko was a girl in Harmony’s year, and was part of her circle of friends. They weren’t best buddies, but they were certainly close. However, Harmony had been, admittedly, neglecting her friends of late, but not really by choice. Her homework had just caught up to her, and it seemed there was always something more important she had to do rather than have fun with her friends. Harmony regretted this, but seeing Mineko made her spirits rise. Perhaps they could catch up now. Flashing Mineko a bright beam, one that contained no trace of her usual shyness whatsoever, Harmony examined her friend’s appearance gratefully, “What are you doing out here so early in the morning anyway, Mineko?” Harmony questioned curiously as she blew a strand of straying hair out of her eyes with a bout of giggles. “It’s so cold, I can’t believe you’d be as desperate as me to get out of the castle.”

“Goodness, I haven’t talked to you for such a long time.” Harmony commented after a while with a slightly less happy expression, a line of regret covering her face, “How are you? I’m so sorry for not spending time with you recently…” Harmony trailed off with an ashamed tone of voice, feeling guilty for her actions, and shifted anxiously as she spoke. “I haven’t been seeing you that much in lessons either. We never get the chance to talk.” She gave Mineko a lopsided smile, and decided to have a change of topic, seeing as this appeared to be going nowhere but towards Harmony’s own misery. “So you ice skate? You never told me! Do you ice dance too?” Harmony inquired with a cheerful grin. She had never realised her friend ice skated, but now that she knew she did, it came as a wonderful revelation to her. She motioned with a wry chuckle at her shoes, “See these? I don’t have a pair of ice skates myself, so… I made some. You probably know I dance… right? Well, I used to ice dance too… but that was… a long time ago.” Smiling ruefully with a nostalgic gaze in her eyes which was steadily becoming more frequent as the days passed, Harmony bent down temporarily to check her icicles weren’t beginning to thaw, and thankfully, they weren’t; they were still hard and solid from the cold, and Harmony made sure of this by hitting them gently against the lake’s surface. She could barely believe they were holding her upright still, and that they had survived for so long. Stretching back up again with a slight groan and giggle, Harmony proceeded to grab Mineko’s gloved hand and drag her along the ice, a daring grin aligning her flushed features. “Come on Mineko, wanna skate? Might as well make the best of this ice, right?”

Harmony was so glad that she was now spending some time with a friend. She hadn’t really felt the sense of loss and loneliness for the past few weeks, and now seeing Mineko had triggered somewhat sad and regretful emotions. Working non-stop for such a long period of time had finally reached her consciousness, and Harmony berated herself for her stupidity. Although homework and grades were extremely important, so was relaxing with friends and just having fun. How had she been so blind? What had happened to her? Making a mental note to spend some more time later to just let go and be with friends, Harmony began to feel her body heat rise again and whipped off her thick outer coat once more in a jiffy. Feeling the crisp but cold air hitting her cheeks, Harmony closed her eyes momentarily and breathed in the fresh morning air with an appreciative smile. “Isn’t it wonderful?” Harmony turned to Mineko beside her with a large beam, indicating the scenery around them. The view was truly beautiful, trees drooping with a little snow left over from the day before, dew sparkling on the wet grass, the iced lake gleaming from the rising sun’s timid rays. Harmony inclined her head towards the sky, watching as a flock of birds flew gracefully across, calling to one another in a language Harmony would never understand. Smiling, Harmony gripped Mineko’s hand a little tighter, but not enough to hurt the Ravenclaw. She didn’t want to let her friend to leave her. She didn’t want to let her go. Because a part of Harmony felt that if she didn’t get her head round things, if she didn’t treasure her friends like she had been doing recently, she might just lose the few she had. Clutching Mineko’s hand right now was her only reassurance that she was holding on to her friends. The only thing that kept them together.

[mineko]

"I know! It's been ages since we had a chance to hang out a little. But I guess we've both been busy..." Mineko said cheerfully. She smiled as she held onto her friend’s hand and they skated around the frozen pond. To tell the truth, she couldn’t have been more delighted that she’d met Harmony there that early in the morning. It was true, as Harmony had said, that they had not spent much time together. Yet although Harmony had seemed to feel she was the cause for this lack of communication, Mineko know she had to a part of the blame. She had been a little more distant lately truth be told.

Yet, as she stole a glance at Harmony, she could almost sense a wave of sadness echo from her. As if her seemingly cheerful exterior hid some sort of underlying pain. Mineko sighed as she skated, wishing that she could think of some way to help.
“Harmony?” she said softly, “about your skates, I hope this doesn’t sound really rude but I really think you need some better ones. I know they’re doing the job but after seeing you skate just now I know you could really benefit from something a little better. If you like, you can have my old ones- they’re practically new as I bought them during a growth spurt. And you have smaller feet than me. What do you say? Do you want me to write home and have them sent? Then we could skate more often too! And that would be so cool! None of my other friends skate actually, and I love it and so it'd be great to have some company- it's always more fun to do something you love with a friend and I'm blathering on now so I'll stop talking....”
As they skated on after her offer hung in the air a wave of peace rushed over Mineko. There was nothing like having a good skate in the morning, especially witha friend. She squeezed Harmony's hand and smiled at her, looking for something in the other girl's eyes for a hint of what was bothering her. Then suddenly Mineko felt dreadful. Her legs seemed to loose all strength, her head span and she felt her knees give away. With a crash she fell onto the ice, although letting go of Harmony’s hand to prevent her from enduring a painful fall also.

Her legs were now completely lost to he and she could no longer feel the tips of her slender fingers in the warm coverings that her mother had lovingly selected. Her body felt as if she was seizing up. “Not again” she thought as she lay on the ice, only vaguely aware of her surroundings. “I can’t go through this another time…” Her eyes flickered and she drifted out of her consciousness into that delicious black sleep of unconsciousness.

This was not as unusual as it may have appeared to be, at least not for Mineko. For, although it was not a well publicized fact about her, she suffered from a rare motor neuron disease in which occasionally the impulses from the brain became, for lack of a better word, disconnected, and she suffered blackouts and fainting spells. Mineko had not had one such fit since the summer holidays as they were normally triggered by heat. Yet the unforeseen stress of school had been a small factor in this coming one.

After a minute of so Mineko opened her eyes. At first there was only darkness, yet then suddenly she saw a pair of questionable earmuffs hovering above her and remembered exactly where she was, and who she was with. Sitting up she stared sheepishly at her friend whilst screaming obscenities inside of her head. “Of all days”, she thought, “why today? I wanted to ask Harmony about what’s been bugging her, not have her worry about my health!” With a weak smile she looked her friend in the eye. “So, how are you feeling Harmony?” she asked casually, yet the moment she said the words she could see it was not yet time to make light of the situation. “I guess I’d better explain right? But can we go indoors to do so? I’d kill for a hot chocolate…”

[Harmony Chan H6]

Harmony gave a short laugh as a few puffs of air drifted out of her mouth. “Yeah, I’ve just been so busy… Work, work and more work. I’ve never been so hardworking in my life. It feels like someone’s trying to tell me that I need to prepare myself for some hard labour or something.” She gave a roll of her eyes to the pale skies as they skated, glad to share her time with a friend for once. Harmony had never enjoyed being alone, and preferred someone’s company, whether it be with friends or her animals. However, she admitted that people were always more fun because you could actually talk to them.

“Eh?” At Mineko’s words, Harmony quickly glanced down to her shoes that she was indicating, and chuckled again, knowing how bizarre it probably looked to outsiders. “Oh, don’t worry about sounding rude, it’s true. These aren’t even real skates. I don’t have any, so… I made my own.” She gave a little shrug whilst grinning. “I used to have some when I was younger and we went to the local ice rink quite often, but obviously I grew out of those.” It was a sad thought when Harmony recalled her old memories, but her smile returned again when Mineko suggested something else, “That would be lovely, Mineko… But are you sure? I couldn’t possibly just take them off you just like that… How about I pay you for them?” Harmony flashed a grateful, but anxious look at her friend. Unlike Ari, she was happy to accept charity if it made sense, as long as she could one day pay them back; her sister was adamant that no one should ever help her; Harmony had always found it strange, and worried whether she herself was the one being selfish. “I’d love to skate with you more often – it’s been such a long time. And I don’t know any friends that ice skate either, apart from you, but I never knew you did. It’d be nice to practise again. I feel lucky, because I’ve found myself a friend to dance with, and now I have an ice skating partner.” Harmony giggled warmly. “Don’t worry, I ramble when I’m with friends too.” She admitted with a secret smile, “You should know how shy I am with strangers.”

As the two girls skated peacefully around the frozen Lake, Harmony was wondering what to have for breakfast later whilst she stared at some frosty trees up ahead, when suddenly she felt heavier tugging on the hand Mineko was holding onto. Glancing around in surprise, Mineko let go of her before falling to the ice, Harmony watching her with wide eyes. “Mineko!” Alarmed, Harmony tried to stop her skates, only just succeeding. Mineko falling over had come as a shock, and she wheeled around to slide back towards her fallen friend. “Are you okay? What happened?” Harmony called out in worry before she reached her. At first, she didn’t receive a reply, and Harmony uneasily approached her lying body. Mineko seemed to be unconscious, causing Harmony to be doubly distressed at the sight. Bending down to her friend, she began to shake her gently with concerned eyes, desperate to know she wasn’t fatally ill or something. “Mineko?” Was she dead? No way, this was something Harmony just could not believe. How could someone just pass out in the middle of ice-skating and die?

However, Harmony need not worry no more when Mineko finally opened her eyes after a moment or two, causing Harmony to let out a large sigh of relief. So at least she wasn’t dead. That was good. Hovering closely as she looked down at Mineko slowly regaining consciousness, Harmony tried to smile bravely, not wanting to let on about how scared she had truly been. Leaning back so Mineko could gradually sit up, looking dazed, Harmony was just about to open her mouth to question her with a frown, when her friend got there before her. Blinking in astonishment at the odd enquiry, Harmony replied slowly with a slightly raised eyebrow. “Of course I’m okay. You’re the one that passed out just then. It was a bit of a shock.” Harmony managed a small smile, trying to be reassuring. “Are you okay now?” She asked again worriedly, taking Mineko’s hand and helping her up like her friend had done so earlier before. “Yeah, please do explain to me what’s wrong.” Harmony nodded in agreement, rather concerned now. Perhaps there was more to Mineko than she had realised. “Sure, let’s go indoors.” She consented to the idea with a bright smile, “Hot chocolate sounds wonderful, and I’m freezing now…” Harmony chuckled nervously, slightly cold from sitting on the ice. “We don’t want to catch a cold; you lay on the ice for a while.” She grimaced with a small smile, leading Mineko back to the castle.

((Dead thread.))