WHO: Delilah Spinnet and Matthew Summerby
WHAT: Ski lodge holiday!
WHEN: Hmm sometime before Christmas?!
WHERE: Somewhere snowy?!



When Delilah had suggested the idea of going away together for the holidays and Matt had in turn suggested the idea of going to the equivalent of a winter wonderland, of course she agreed. It sounded romantic and lovely. Snow and hot chocolate, Matt had promised to teach her to ski, whatever that meant. What more could she ask for in a holiday?

The romance of it all ended promptly at the top of the first chairlift. (And why they just couldn’t ride that around all day was beyond Delilah. Now that sounded like fun.) Delilah huffed greatly as she finally managed to get the skis off her feet. Who thought it was such a great idea to attach them to the boots?

“You said this was easy!” she accused whirling on her boyfriend who was unacceptably graceful at this sport. She pouted greatly as she kicked some snow towards him. Lucky for him, they had finally reached the hut that offered the promised hot chocolate and warm fire. Only five tumbles later.

She trudged her way towards the door, done with the fluffy white snow, and still slightly annoyed with just how bad she was at this, despite Matt’s patient efforts to teach her. Magic would make this so much easier, but oh no. There were statues of secrecy and laws to think about when using magic surrounded by muggles. “I deserve extra marshmallows for this!”

He hopped along behind her, shedding his winter clothes and wincing at Delilah’s pout.

“You did good!” he said, trying to placate her and have it not be obvious that he was attempting to do so. Matt had a bit of experience skiing, and he did have a natural knack for it. Maybe it was being able to zip through the air on a thin broomstick that made it easy to sail down the hills on skis or even a snowboard. He hadn’t been drafted out of Hogwarts and it took him a few years to get onto the Wanderer’s third string, so during the winter season Matt worked at a muggle ski lodge in Scotland. It was different, it was exciting, and well, it got him away from the headache his real life caused him.

Matt pulled off his hat, holding it tight in his hands as he shut the cabin door. He grinned sheepishly, trying to lighten the mood.

“You weren’t that bad,” he said, knowing that Delilah would not accept the sweet talk. Not that this comment was any better. Matt lifted his hand, “Marshmallows, got it!” He started toward the kitchen, then turned quickly, “Marshmallows, hot chocolate, and...presents?”

Delilah frowned as his ‘you did good’ turned to ‘you weren’t that bad’. Obviously she was terrible and someone was going to end up with snow down their shirt in the middle of the night. She was about to tell him just that when he mentioned presents.

Well, she supposed that changed things. She had been searching for hints as to what he had gotten for her for days and Delilah still didn’t have a clue. Everyone who knew her, knew she had little patience when it came to waiting for such things. It was a wonder that she hadn’t yet spilled about what Matt’s christmas present was, as she was equally bad at keeping secrets.

She failed at keeping her pout after that. “Oh?” She perked up, taking to trailing behind Matt a new bounce in her step. “Presents? I could definitely go for presents. Certainly make up for the fact I can’t ski.”

Matt couldn’t help but laugh. He enjoyed Delilah’s lively presence, he really did. Even if he didn’t get to snog her whenever he wanted, he knew he’d like having her around. Don’t get him wrong, the snogging was fantastic, but they’d also built a strong friendship these past few months and Matt really did appreciate it. He was glad that she found him snoggable, however, and didn’t want that to change any time soon---which meant he better get her present before she remembered the terrible skiing lessons.

“Sit, sit,” he said, gesturing toward the couch. After finally kicking off his boots, Matt slid his way across the wooden floors with just his wooly socks. He disappeared into the bedroom and reached far, far back into the shelf on the closet and pulled out a long, thin box. He’d had a hard time figuring out what to get Delilah as this was the first present he’d given her outside of flowers, which only added onto the fact that it was their first Christmas together, too. Odette had told him to go simple, but not boring. He hoped he’d managed to do a good job.

Sliding back into the room, Matt grinned widely, dropping down to the couch.

“Happy Christmas,” he said, handing her the present.

Delilah loved Christmas. It was by far her favorite day of the year second only to her birthday. And though her personality may suggest otherwise, she was always careful when it came to opening her presents.

“Oh.” She ran her finger along the chain of the necklace, pushing the the gem to the side admiring the elegant D etched into the gold. “This is beautiful,” Delilah said quietly before leaning over to give him a kiss. “Thank you, I love it.” Okay, so she couldn’t ski, and she was most likely going to most of the next week and a half covered in snow annoyed that she couldn’t learn what should be a new skill. But it was going to be a week and a half with Matt, who was sweet and kind. She could only imagine the time he most likely spent trying to pick something out for her and that certainly meant more than something extravagant that could be bought at any jeweler. This whole holiday was turning out to be the best she’d been on in a while.

“Let me get your present, then I’ll have you put it on for me.” Delilah grinned, carefully putting the necklace down so she could go fetch the neatly wrapped box from her bag. At the time she thought it was a great idea, but with the amount of fretting Matt had been doing ever since she had taken the broken watch from the side table had her second guessing her choice. She had hoped that he appreciated the gesture, if he was going to hold onto a watch, it should work right?

“I hope you don’t mind, I, well, you’ll see” Delilah failed to explain handing over the gift. “Happy Christmas, Rainbow eyes.”

Matt couldn’t help the puffing of his chest. He’d been nervous, but confident about her present, and was glad to see her reaction. The kiss was enough of a gift, really, and was about to tell her so when she’d darted off. Matt sat back against the couch cushions and let out a breath. Merlin, a few months ago he’d been certain that quidditch was going to be the center of his life, but, while the sport was most definitely important to him, his heart did such strange twists and shakes when his thoughts drifted to Delilah, in ways they never did with quidditch. He couldn’t think about the preseason, or the World Cup; his mind was too stuffed with his girl.

When she returned and handed him the gift with the warning, Matt’s eyebrows rose. He couldn’t think of anything Delilah could do, or buy him, that he’d mind. Well...unless it was a guidebook on how to catch a snitch faster (he’d seen those and had kept his hands away from them on principle).

He opened the box in a teasingly slow manner, but once he pulled back the tissue he let out a surprised gasp.

“How’d you---” Matt pulled the watch out, dropping the box to the couch. It was the watch he’d thought he’d lost and had been stressing out about for over a week because it was one of the most important things he owned; it was his father’s, one of the few possessions that had been saved from the fire that destroyed his childhood. There had been a lock box pulled from the ashes and this watch had been in there along with a few other valuables and things his parents had deemed important enough to stow away. Matt had worn it when it was too big for his wrist and hadn’t stopped wearing it when the magic of Hogwarts caused its hands to stop at 8:15.

His eyes watered as he realized that the face of the watch wasn’t reading its usual time, that Delilah had taken it to get fixed. She had no idea how much this watch meant to him, and he twisted his mouth to keep himself composed. Matt turned to her and smiled, eyes shining. She really was something, wasn’t she?

“This is…this is perfect, thank you,” he said softly. “It’s...it was my dad’s and I’ve...always been too scared to take it to get fixed. Because...what if they broke it or---” Matt shook his head, moving to slip the watch back on.“Thank you.”

Her heart raced in the silence that fell when he first saw that it was his watch. What if he didn’t like it, what if it had meaning being stuck on the same time? What if-- Her rambling thoughts were cut off by him turning to her and Delilah froze at the look on his face. Delilah had no idea that the watch had belonged to his father. She had gathered it was important, because why else would you wear a broken watch, but to this level? What if she had lost it, or made it worse? She could have destroyed something so very precious and not even had known.

“Well its fixed now, so you don’t have to worry about that anymore,” she said simply tracing the band of the watch around his wrist. It was just supposed to be a simple gift, she didn’t expect it to turn into something like this and it left her at a loss for words. She should have known when the gentleman at the shop told her that it had stopped working because it had been surrounded by magic that it was more than just an old watch Matt was too stubborn to replace.

She leaned in giving her boyfriend another kiss, leaving her forehead pressed to his. “Sorry I made you think you lost your father’s watch.”

Matt shook his head, muttering that it was fine, that the gift was perfect. Even if the watch hadn’t had the sentimental value, Delilah had noticed something so small and seemingly insignificant about it and went and got it fixed. She made it better. Every time he started to think that things couldn’t get any better, she managed to surprise him. He was real lucky, wasn’t he? Matt didn’t take the good things that came to him for granted; he’d lost enough to know that you needed to hold on to what felt good and right for as long as you could.

“It’s perfect,” he murmured again, closing the space between them to kiss her. Matt took hold of her side, quite sure that the were not going to get back to skiing any time soon.