DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.

We're not going anywhere until we freeze. -He is We, "I Wouldn't Mind"

~ Of Sugar and Ice ~

She is ice and he is snow, and yet they do not suit each other. She has found the fire to her ice, and he has found the rain to his snow. However it seems that the fire prefers a steadfast tree and the rain prefers a bolt of lightning.

And so, here they stand, ice and snow, at the altar, on a winter's night. They make their vows to each other, to honor and cherish, but they speak nothing of love. Both have lost their hearts already and are under no illusion that this marriage will be anything but an unpleasant duty - to carry on the bloodlines.

The wedding guests grumble to each other about the chilly atmosphere, but will later reminisce about how romantic it was to have an outdoor ceremony at a Christmas wedding.

They keep a bottle of Amortentia by the tea kettle. About once a week, when their little habits begin to grate on each others' nerves, they know it is time for another dose.

Perhaps one day they will no longer need the love potion in order to be in the same room for an extended period of time without wanting tear one another's throats out. Perhaps one day they will have become so inured to the personality of the other that they will be able to exchange polite chit-chat over the breakfast table and then ignore each other for the rest of the day, to peacefully reconvene at dinner and relate to each other the boring details of the hours they spent apart.

Perhaps after an heir is born, they will feel some small affection for each other.

But for now, they are both dependent on the potion to keep them safe and sane.

Over the years, the Amortentia bottle is refilled many times. Sometimes they go longer than usual without taking it, but medicating their problems away is always easier than facing them honestly, and they always end up scrambling for the easy solution.

From the inside, their family seems much like any other pureblood family. The children do not realize that anything is wrong between their parents because for them, things are the way they have always been.

From the outside, their facade appears flawed. Whenever they make a public appearance, whispered gossip inevitably follows.

The Malfoys are so cold, the voices say.

Of course, comes the reply. Remember their wedding?

The gossipers shiver just thinking about it.

A winter wedding, what were they thinking?

Well, it was unique, that's for sure. Those Malfoys, always trying to one-up everyone else.

I feel sorry for the children.

They hear, of course they hear. But do they let the jealous words of outsiders bother them? Of course not. And why should they? It is better to be thought elitist and intentionally cold than it would be to have anyone truly question the lack of warmth that permeates their family.

For she is ice and he is snow, and any sweetness in either of them turned bitter long ago.

~end~