You're My Angel

Lying flat on her back, on the bottom of a tiny wooden rowboat, in the middle of a cold December night in England, out on the lonely Black Lake, was Ezrie Greenburg. It was the only place she could think of to go to escape all of the excitement.

Excitement she wasn’t a part of.

For days everyone had been going on and on about next week’s Yule Ball. Every squealing girl and blushing boy was a punch in Ezrie’s gut. She wasn’t going. Because she was not going to be the girl without someone to dance with during the final song.

All her friends had told Ezrie that she could have found a date if she tried, but that was easy enough for them to say. They were all proud Slytherin girls. Tall. Strong. Unabashed and regal and everything Ezrie was not. For the millionth time in the past 5 years, Ezrie wondered to herself how on Earth she was sorted into Slytherin and, for perhaps the ten millionth time, she cursed her inherent shyness.

She shut her eyes and tried to let the gentle winter current calm her nerves, but not even that did the trick.

It wasn’t that Ezrie didn’t think she was pretty, she had her Austrian mom’s delicate frame and soft blonde hair, and her dad’s vibrant blue eyes. She just lacked the confidence that everyone in Slytherin seemed to embody.

The poster-child for which being a certain Mr. Draco Malfoy.

He was the boy all of Ezrie’s friends had gone after the second they heard about the Yule Ball. Ezrie couldn’t blame them, he just had this presence. As soon as Draco Malfoy was in the room, everyone noticed. Ezrie certainly did. Her stomach started to flip just thinking about it... but she shook her head and tried to cast it off as a smidgen of seasickness.

But the way his sexy smirk just shined... it reminded Ezrie of swirling balls of light up in tonight’s winter sky: beautiful, awe-inspiring, and completely out of her reach...

If none of her friends had landed the elusive Malfoy, what hope was there for her?

“OY!” Ezrie heard someone yelp, causing her to sit up so suddenly she almost tipped over her tiny boat.

“Lumos,” she said as she fumbled through her robes for her wand. Faintly, a few feet away, she made out the silhouette of another rowboat- only this one was sinking. Quickly. And turning about frantically muttering expletives was none other than Draco Malfoy himself.

“Do you need help?” Ezrie called out when she realized how panicked he was. She grabbed her oar and paddled over to him.

“It was just so dark, my wand wasn’t doing the trick,” He tried to explain as Ezrie tried to position her boat close enough that he could leap in before he completely sank. “I tried to do a boostering charm on it but... well, you can probably guess.” He gestured to the pathetic little boat, now halfway gone into the depths of the Black Lake. “Mind giving me a hand?” In the dim light escaping from Ezrie’s wand, Draco smiled in a way that Ezrie had never seen him before... sheepish. Almost embarrassed. With her voice stuck somewhere between her heart and her throat, all she could do was nod and hold out her hand for him to take.

“Carefully now,” he said as he leaned out as far as he could do without toppling into the icy water. Just as his boat was about to disappear completely, he jumped into Ezrie’s boat, facing her, steadying her shoulders as the tiny ship rocked from this unexpected weight. “There we are,” he said quietly. Ezrie had to tilt her head back to see up his poised frame. She hadn’t even realized his hands were still on her shoulders till he took them down.

This couldn’t be real, Ezrie thought. Just as quickly as she had looked to the stars thinking of him... Draco Malfoy was suddenly floating with Ezrie in a tiny boat on the Black Lake in the middle of a cold December night.

“Bit cold out for a boat trip, wouldn’t you say?” Draco quipped.

“I suppose I could ask you the same?” Ezrie finally found her voice.

“Touche.” He smiled. “I’m Draco by the way. Draco Malfoy.”

“I know who you are,” Ezrie said. Quickly realizing this sounded a little desperate she added, “I mean, everyone does.”

Draco’s smile this time was a little sadder, it seemed. His smooth, pale skin didn’t fold into those little dimples on his left cheek like it normally did.

“I’m Ezrie Greenburg.”

“I know who you are too.”

“Now this I’m shocked at.”

He chuckled and his warm breath twirled in the air in front of him before dissipating into the clear, cold night.

“Well, you shouldn’t be. You’re a fascinating girl, Ezrie.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I’m not.” He said earnestly. “Can I be honest with you?” Ezrie nodded. “I followed you out here from the Slytherin common room. I just wanted to finally work up the nerve to talk to you, but once I saw you take the boat out I figured I’d best leave you to your thoughts. I was only halfway back to the castle when I decided I just couldn’t wait any longer. You captivate me, Ezrie... you’re different than any girl I’ve ever come across before. You’re... you’re...”

“A loner? Odd? Out of place?”

“I was going to say insightful, mysterious, and beautiful.”

Ezrie just blinked at him, though Draco never took his eyes off hers. “Angelic, too,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper.

“Me? Angelic?” Ezrie squeaked.

“Well, you were sort of my angel tonight,” Draco explained. “If it weren’t for you I would have likely been a frozen meal for the mermaids!”

“If it weren’t for me you wouldn’t be out here in the first place.”

“Touche, again. You’re rather quick. I like that.”

The joke went in one of her ears and out the other. Ezrie stuttered, “But... but you don’t even know me...”

“And you don’t know me. Most people think they do, but they don’t. You’re the only girl in Slytherin who hasn’t pestered me, acting like they are enamored with me rather than my name.”

“Well there’s more to a person than a name, of course.”

Those heart-stopping dimples came back. “You have no idea how refreshing that is to hear.”

They were complacently quiet for a few moments, just the sound of the water lapping the edge of the boat to keep them company. Ezrie worked up the courage to confess to some feelings of her own.

“I’ve often thought of what it would be like to talk to you like this,” she explained. “but I never thought it would actually happen. I’ve wanted it to for quite a long time, but unlike you I’ve never had the courage to take the first step.”

Draco nodded, waiting for more.

“I’m glad you did. Take that first step, I mean.”

“I am too.”

He placed his hand on hers. It felt extraordinarily warm and comforting on this frigid night.

“Ezrie, will you do me the honor of accompanying me to the Yule Ball?”

Ezrie smiled with as much sincerity and joy as perhaps she ever had, “I’d like that. Quite a lot. Thank you.”

“No need to thank me,” Draco said quietly bringing his lips to brush against hers. “After all, you’re my angel.”