There was one benefit of it finally becoming winter. Muggle London was opening all of the attractions in preparation for a very busy tourist season. And this meant that Iris and George could complete one of the things that they had set out on a bucket list to do. The bucket list had not been named but it was stretching to nearly two foot worth of parchment long and littered in the scrawl of both of them. Each time they had met up it became longer and longer. 

The first thing that George had written on there was to go Ice Skating in public. Apparently he had attempted it with his brother once before on a private lake and the boys were both so bad that they swore that they would never go publicly ice skating. And the massive ice skating ring that opened on Canary Wharf for the season was finally opened up again. Tickets were not hard to come by either, Iris taking a afternoon off work to venture out and purchase a pair before George could even think of pulling out. 

The pair met up at the flat above the joke shop, Iris being given a key to enter whenever she wanted. A rather forward motion but she was never going to say anything, happy enough that he trusted her with one. And as she waited on George to finish getting ready, Iris took a moment to realise just how far they had come in the space of a fortnight. They had kept the pressure off still not forcing a relationship where one was not ready to develop. But they had become significantly closer. 

They would now be considerably more touchy. Whether it was in public or private they were a lot more physical with one another than they had been. And each time they did so this caused Iris to fall just a little more in love with George. There was so much to him that people just did not see nor know because they were spending too much time focusing on the jokester or the twin. There were so many things from the simple way that he still muttered the little rhyme kids were told to tie their laces each time he put shoes on, to the way that when he wore proper dress shirts that he wore the cutest little train cuff links that he would then spend the rest of the day ensuring were the correct way up. 

"How cold is it outside? Do I need a scarf?" George's voice came from the direction of his bedroom, he was walking as he spoke the words getting louder and louder the closer he got to Iris. 

"It was nippy out, you're going to turn beet red in the cold so it's up to you whether you hide it with a scarf." Iris had one on herself, wrapped up in the lightest of her winter coats but not sure she whether she should have brought a thicker one the weather was turning colder as the hours passed. 

"You'd still think I was attractive even if I was beet red." George started as he stood in front of Iris as if to show off his outfit that had taken him way too long to pick out. 

"I didn't say I wouldn't Georgie, but you're going to complain the entire time about being cold." Iris nudged knowing from the last few times they had gone outside to do absolutely anything these last two weeks he had complained about how cold he was the entire time. 

"I will not."

"Grab a scarf. I'll put it in my bag if you don't need it." Iris did not want to start a petty argument, they were already running behind and were likely going to miss the first ten minutes of the time slot they had booked. She didn't want to miss anymore and knew that George would want to continue to argue until he won. 

"I didn't think of that." George commented before grabbing a scarf that looked like it had been made lovingly by his mother. 

"Nice scarf." Iris commented as the pair headed towards the front door of the flat so they could start their journey to the ice rink.

"Thanks, Mum made it. I'll ask her to make you one." George's response was quick like he had obviously been thinking of ways to get Iris and his mother in contact more.

"Oh I wouldn't want to bother her." But Iris did kind of want to bother George's mother, she wanted to get to know the woman just a little bit. Considering they had only really met in passing a couple of times over the years never actually stopping to make conversation. 

"I think she would take it as a blessing really. None of us are really bothered by it anymore she's constantly making stuff." 

"If you're sure. Hang on George no that's the wrong way. The underground is this way." Iris quickly reached out to grab George's hand and redirect him to where they were supposed to be heading. What she did not expect was for him to readjust the grip so they were still holding onto one another even when they did reach the entrance for the station. 

"You have the tickets right?" George whispered realising that he had no clue where anything for their outing currently was. 

"Yes, there was no way I was trusting you to hold onto them." Iris replied tapping her bag that hung from her shoulder, to indicate where they were. 

"Why are you always so mean to me?"

"Where's your wallet?" Iris commented ready to watch him look around for it in panic, knowing fully well that it was currently sat in her bag.

"I don't know, I think I've left it behind." George sent her a shy smile as if to say he was sorry. 

"I have that too, don't worry. Hang on let me get your ticket we're looking for the jubilee line that should take us to Canary Wharf." Iris produced the two paper tickets for the underground that she had prepared so that they could get on and off easily. 

Soon enough the pair had not only made it safely via muggle travel to Canary Wharf but they had found the ice skating ring and were putting on the shoes. This was the part that Iris was a little worried about. She had never been ice skating before. And had no clue of what she was supposed to do. Only hoping that George's prior experience would be enough to stop her completely embarrassing herself but she also knew that when she fell over that he was going to take the opportunity to laugh before helping her up. 

The pair made it onto the ice without Iris giving away that she had no clue what she was going to do. And George took to the ice like he was a professional athlete. Iris could only hold onto the barrier as she watched him go round in circles slotting his way between all the other skaters on the rink. He was in his element, and she was happy that he had agreed to come out and do this. He had been missing out on something. Perhaps he was not as bad as he thought he was. Soon enough he had lapped where Iris stood two or three times before he finally approached her again. 

"You're not moving, is everything okay?" His voice was so gentle that it made Iris regret never just cluing him into her inability to ice skate. 

"I am very overwhelmed right now."

"You've never ice skated before?" George quickly worked out what the problem was.

"Yes and that never bothered me before, I thought you said you were bad at this."  Iris was trying to keep light-hearted about it all, she didn't want to ruin the time they were having. 

"I'm not as bad as I remember, maybe it's because I'm using proper skates." George tried to brush it off, state that it was some sort of luck that he was good at it.

"Now I feel like you're lying to make me feel better." 

"I'm not. Now give me your hands lets do this together." Placing her hands into his own Iris let George slowly drag her around the rink. Yet the faster he made them go the worse Iris felt, Ice skating was not for her. But George was having a really good time and she would not ruin it. They only, according to the clock on the wall they kept circling past, had 15 minutes of their session left. She could put up with 15 minutes then she would vow never to go ice skating again. No matter how much George begged her to go back, she would not do it again. 

"See you're getting so much better. I can probably leave you alone now." George's words struck almost fear through Iris as the last thing she wanted was to be left alone to skate. 

"George Fabian Weasley, if you even think of letting go I will abandon you in the underground." He let out a rather large bubble of laughter at her words before gripping her hands tighter. 

"Calm down Rizzo I'm not leaving you. We're nearly done." George gave her a smile that caused a tingly sensation to make its way through Iris' body. She still hated the nickname but she would happily allow it if he smiled at her like that every time. But she did not have to worry much longer as before she knew it, most of her time was spent staring at the tall ginger man, their session was over and the pair were changing their shoes back into the ones they had turned up in. 

George was relentless in his teasing of Iris. For someone who was so strong most of the time, she turned into a massive scaredy cat the second she stepped onto the ice. He almost revelled in having witnessed Iris lost her mind over the instability of the ice skates. It was all done in a way of which Iris could clearly tell he meant no real harm he was not doing anything to be mean. He just was teasing, like close friends did. Like people who were more than friends did. And call her delusional but Iris loved the fact that he was teasing her. Her stupid hormones loved that she was getting this attention off George. 

"I am never coming back here again." Iris whined as George started to lead her in a random direction away from the ice rink. 

"We're making memories Iris, we're coming back next year." George rebutted a glint to his eyes that Iris knew meant mischief. 

"You are never making me come back again." Iris argued despite knowing her efforts would be worthless and she would most likely be back soon. 

"I'm taking that as a challenge, reserve the same date next year we'll be back I assure you." And Iris knew by his words that they probably would be. After all, she was finding it really hard to say no to George Weasley.