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fallingforfictionalcharacterss · 2 years

Text

Presents

Summary: Over the past few years you received some gifts from an anonymous person.

Audio version

“(Y/n), (Y/n), quick, you have to come upstairs!” You looked at Lavender Brown in confusion, as she stormed down the stairs and into the common room. It was the first day of the school year and you hadn’t been in your dorm yet but something must have been going on there, since Lavender sounded so excited.

“What happened?”, you asked, exchanging a worried look with Hermione who was standing right next to you. Lavender started to grin widely.

“It happened again.”, she stated, wiggling her eyebrows.

“What exactly are you talking about?” When you saw the look on Lavender's face you realized that nothing bad happened and now you were even more curious. You followed her upstairs, Hermione shortly behind you.

“Seems like your secret admirer still can´t get enough of you.”, Lavender answered. Even though she was walking in front of you, and you could only see her blond tresses bouncing up and down at every step she took, you could hear the smirk in her voice. You rolled your eyes, still, you couldn’t help but smile.

“What is it this time?” “You´ll see.”, Lavender answered as she pushed the door to your dorm open. You entered the room and your gaze settled on the nightstand right beside your bed. There it was, a huge bouquet of red roses. You took a step closer and noticed the little note right next to it. You picked it up. The paper felt heavy and looked really expensive.

“Looking forward to the next year with you my love.”, you read out loud. Lavender and Parvati Patil, who were standing at the end of your bed and watched you closely, squeaked in excitement. Hermione, who was standing right next to you, took the note and read the text again. Then she turned the sheet around.

“No signature.”

“What did you expect? There´s never been one.”, you answered, while Lavender and Parvati sighted.

“That´s so romantic.”, Parvati whispered.

“And you still have no idea who it is?”, Lavender asked. You shook your head as a response.

“And if he doesn’t change method, I´ll probably never find out.” You sighed resignedly. “Doesn’t matter anyway.”

But it did matter. When you were lying in bed later that night you thought about who might have send you those flowers. It wasn’t the first time something like this happened. Actually, you almost got used to it already. It started in your first year. As if by magic -and you had no doubt that magic was actually involved in this case- some small gifts and notes appeared all around you. In the beginning it had been only small things, like some sweets, and you didn’t thought that much about it, but as time went by, the small gifts turned into more and more expensive presents and the small notes, like “good luck” the day before an exam, turned into actual love letters. But whoever sent you all these things seemed not to be interested in you finding out who he actually was. Hermione and you spend dozens of hours hexing the notes and asking different people to find out who was this mysterious person. The only thing you found out was that someone frequently asked the house-elves to sneak the gifts into your dorm but you just couldn’t find out who it was. You had tried literally everything. You had asked the elves nicely, ordered them to tell you, tried to bribe them and even threatened them, which you regretted immediately and all the more after Hermione found out. But the elves had assured you with tears in their eyes that they would love to tell you but that the young man, who asked them to bring you the presents, had told them that they weren’t allowed to tell you who he was. At some point, you had given up trying to find out. ABack then the presents had just annoyed you. Why would someone spend so much time and money on you if he didn’t wanted to tell you who he was? But you somehow managed to arrange yourself with the thought that you would probably never find out if he didn’t wanted you to. What actually bothered you the most about the situation was that whoever was sending the gifts to you must knew you very well. Because he didn´t just sent you chocolate and flowers but also some way more thoughtful presents. Whenever you mentioned something, you wanted to have, it somehow appeared only a few days later on your nightstand. No matter how fancy or expensive your wishes were, your secret admirer fulfilled them all. But he didn’t just give you things you wanted but also things you didn’t even knew you needed. For example, last year, when you got detention with Professor Umbridge, he gave you a small bottle of a potion that healed your wounds in no time, leaving no scars. Or when you lost your cap in your third year, the next day there was a new one, very warm and cosy and also in your favourite colours. But it weren’t the presents that made your heart jump every time, it were the letters.

Oh, the letters. You didn’t even knew someone could write things that sounded so beautiful and especially not if they referred to you. But the way he described how your smile brightened up his day or the colour of your eyes reminded him of the last warm day in the autumn, sent chills down your spine every single time. And whenever you felt worthless or had a bad day, you reread the letters and it made you feel better immediately. You felt a strange connection to the mysterious boy who was sending you these notes, even though, after more than five years, you had still no idea who he was. And it maddened you. It must have been someone who knew you very well, someone from the school, probably your house and probably your year. You had argued that if it was someone who was in Gryffindor as well, there was no need to involve the house-elves but Hermione reminded you that the boys weren’t able to enter the girls´ dorm and Parvati argued that this would make the entire situation even more mystifying. But on the other hand, none of you actually thought that any boy from your house was insightful enough for such presents and notes and probably most of them didn’t had enough money to spend that much of it on you. Thinking about this enigma, you slowly drifted off into sleep, with the scent of the flowers still in your nose.

“Red roses?”, Ron asked the next morning on your way to the class. “Don’t you think it´s a bit…” He came to a halt.

“Too much? Kitschy?”, you helped him out.

“Exactly.”

“It is, trust me. Especially because they clash with the red of the colours of our house. And there are so many of them. I mean, he probably meant it well.” You shrugged your shoulders. “But obviously I don’t know this for sure because I still don’t know who he is.”

“Even your lover doesn’t want to be associated with you.”, you heard a voice sneering behind you. You sighted. You didn’t have to turn around to know who was standing there.

“At least someone is interested in me, Pansy.”, I countered, turning around to the girl.

“Well, you say so. I bet you buy all these things by yourself to give yourself airs.”

“She doesn’t need such things. You on the other hand must be very desperate for attention if you even listen to the conversations of other people.”, Hermione snapped back.

“No one asked for your opinion, you filthy mud blood.”, Pansy responded, smiling smugly as her comment earned a small chuckle from Draco who was standing right beside her, watching the scene, and seemed very amused by it. Normally you would have now stared at him, admiring the sparkle in his grey eyes or the cute dimples that you could see any time you watched him smile - even though you would never admit it to anyone that you had ever watched him at all - but as Pansy called Hermione mud blood, your priorities were set differently.

“How dare you call her like that, you fucking…”, you started, grabbing your wand, but Hermione interrupted you before the situation escalated.

“Let´s go, (Y/n). She´s not worth it.”

You took a deep breath and turned around following Hermione who was dragging Ron behind her as he had grabbed his wand as well, at least as furious as you. But Hermione was right. If you would curse Pansy right now right here in the hallway the only thing you would earn would be detention. But you swore that you would get your revenge sooner or later.

But you already forgot to plan your revenge the next day. Because your secret admirer had left the next present on your bed. You just got back from class, wanting to fall on your bed right away, as you noticed a single white rose lying on your pillow. You grabbed it, as well as the small note that lay right next to it. Hope you like this one better darling. You slightly shook your head. How did he knew again? You talked about it in the middle of the hallway but you didn’t remember this many people around. Or was he spying on you? At this point, it wouldn’t even shock you. Darling. No one had ever called you darling. In fact, you had never heard anyone using this nickname for anybody. As you remembered what you said yesterday, you somehow felt guilty. You called the flowers kitschy. Whoever gave them to you wanted to give you a treat but you made fun of it. But still, he was sending you another flower. And another note. And you had to admit that you liked this one way better than the ones before. It felt more personal again as if he thought about it and not only wanted to impress you with the sheer mass of it. A small smile made it to your lips as you put the flower into a vase and put the note into a drawer with many others of them. You would find out who was sending them to you. Someday.

A few weeks had passed since the year had started. The white rose on your nightstand looked as beautiful as on its first day. It was a small spell, still, it made you smile every time you looked at it. You had just entered the dungeon where Professor Slughorn was teaching potions. You saw that the students, who had already arrived, didn’t sit in their usual places. You sighted. Whenever you had to brew a potion that took more than one person, Slughorn pared you up with random people from your class. Until now you had always been lucky with your partners but today your lucky streak ended.

“Ah, Miss (Y/l/n). Let´s see. Why don’t you pair up with Mr Malfoy over there?”

Draco sighed annoyed and you just rolled your eyes as you sat down right next to him. The relationship Draco and you had was strange. Well, actually, it was nearly non-existent. The two of you ignored each other most of the time. It was obvious that you couldn’t stand each other because you were a Gryffindor and he was a Slytherin and furthermore you were friends with Harry, but you had never really talked to each other, just throwing deadly glances whenever the other one had said something against your friends. Still, you had to admit that Draco was the probably most beautiful person you had ever met. You didn’t exactly know what it was but there was something about him that made your heart flutter any time you saw him. And now you would have to sit right next to him for the next hours and brew a potion, which would probably include some interaction with him. You glanced at him from the corner of your eye. Godric, how could someone be that pretty?

“You will find the recipe on page 187. Good luck.”, Slughorn interrupted your daydreaming and you flinched. Quickly you grabbed your book and opened it. Everlasting elixirs. You just prayed this lesson wouldn’t last forever.

“I will grab the ingredients.”, Draco mumbled as he got up and went to the larder, not even casting a glance at you.

The two of you were working silently side by side until you couldn’t bear the silence anymore. But no matter which topic you brought up, Draco cut you off within a few sentences. After nearly half of the lesson was over, you felt frustrated. While most of the time you were glad, he just ignored you, by now you would have given anything for him to make a mean comment, just to break the uncomfortable silence. But Draco didn’t seem to mind. He was cutting the fluxweed as there was nothing else, he had to worry about. But actually, you felt like there was something he did worry about. You had noticed that this year he seemed to be absent-minded as if he didn’t really care about school anymore. But this was none of your business. Neither were his hands but you couldn’t help but stare at them, holding the knife, cutting the ingredient. You didn’t even know that hands could look beautiful until you noticed his. His fingers were long and slim and he was wearing a beautiful ring on his left hand. The silver sparkled as it reflected the shimmer of the fire sparked off under the cauldron. You didn’t even realise you had stopped stirring the potion and just stared at his hands until he did. He stopped his movements and looked at you in confusion.

“Are you alright?”, he asked, catching you off guard.

“Hmm? Oh yeah, yeah. I´m fine. Great actually.”, you stuttered.

“What are you looking at then?”, he asked as he followed your gaze, still fixed on his hands.

“Nothing. Nothing. It´s just… your ring. It looks very nice.” You cursed yourself, already expecting a sarcastic answer but to your surprise, he just smiled.

“Thanks, it´s a family heirloom.”, he answered.

“Oh, well, that’s nice?” It was more a question than an reaction.

“Mother gave it to me at the beginning of this year. It means very much to me.”

And just like that, the spell seemed to be broken. You wouldn’t say you talked much or got along great but somehow the tense atmosphere relaxed and the two of you even had a small conversation about different things. But then the brewing of the potion got into a more challenging phase and the two of you dedicated your entire attention to the potion.

“Can you pass me the asphodel really quick?”, you asked Draco, while you were still stirring the potion to prevent it from boiling over. He passed it to you. “Thanks.”

“Your wish is my command, darling.”, he answered in a mocking tone. You froze.

“What did you just say?”

“Relax I was just joking.”, Draco rolled his eyes. “You Gryffindors are really jammed, aren’t you?” You didn’t answer. Darling. He had called you darling. Just like in the note with the rose. And the following one. Was it possible that Draco…? No, it definitely wasn’t. Of course, he had the money to buy expensive presents and he was intelligent enough to write those letters but neither you believed that he could ever feel something like this, nor there was any reason that, if he could, he would feel like this for you. You barely knew each other. It surprised you every time that your heart turned a somersault whenever you saw him and the only way you could explain your feelings for this guy was that you were slowly going mental. But in comparison to that, it would be absolutely and completely crazy to send someone you barely knew gifts for more than five years. And Draco didn’t seem like he was that crazy, did he?

“(Y/n), watch out!”, Draco called you out. Quickly he grabbed your hand that was holding the ladle and moved it again. Completely lost in your thoughts you had forgotten to stir the potion. It was now bubbling dangerously close to the border.

“Sorry, I just… got distracted.” You felt your face redden. What if he knew what you had just thought? But how could he?

“Don’t worry but just be careful from now on. Or do you want me to continue?”

You shook your head in response. His hand still rested on yours. It felt so warm and sent chills down your spine. Draco caught your gaze. You could see a small smile on his face as he looked at you. You could have gotten completely lost in his eyes but the moment passed and he looked away again with heated cheeks and removed his hand from yours. Even though the hot potion was boiling only a few centimetres under it, your hand felt cold without his touch.

For the rest of the lesson you remained silent and when Slughorn examined your potion it was more than just acceptable.

“Well, that wasn’t that bad at all, was it?”, you asked, relieved and somehow also sad at the same time that the lesson was over now.

“Surprisingly not. You´re not so bad at all”, he smiled. You raised your eyebrows. “For a Gryffindor.”, he added quickly, making you chuckle and he smiled as well.

The next few months were more or less uneventful. Harry was really caught up in his lessons with Dumbledor and since Ron was with Lavender, Hermione needed much of your company. But not only Hermione´s but also your love life got more and more confusing. You still got presents and they got more and more expensive up to an amount where you asked the house-elves to take them back because you couldn’t accept them. But they refused. What confused you even more than the presents was Draco. There was clearly something wrong with him. His grades dropped and he became very thin-skinned. Sometimes he caught you staring at him and threw a small smile, which didn’t reach his eyes. But whenever you tried to talk to him, he brushed you off in a very unpolite way, making you wonder if you might imagine the smiles and glances. You didn’t dare to tell Hermione or anyone else about this, not only because you knew they wouldn’t approve it but also because you didn’t know yourself what exactly was going on there. Actually, nothing was going on between Draco and you, nothing you could capture, still, it felt like there was something between the two of you even if you couldn’t describe it.

And then within a few weeks, the events overturned. While Harry used the Felix Felicis to get Slughorn´s memories, he accidentally helped Ron break up with Lavender, which lifted Hermione´s mood again. Harry, on the other hand, got into a duel with Draco, hurting him very badly. When Harry told you this you got not only somehow very mad at him, which surprised your friends even more than you, but you also struggled with yourself about whether or not you should visit Draco in the hospital wing. You decided not to do so because there was no actual reason to go there, but when you saw him the other day in the Great Hall again, it took a load off your mind.

And then the events got to their climax. One evening, Harry stormed into the common room, quickly explaining to you that he had to leave with Dumbledore but you should be alarmed because he knew something was wrong. And he was right.

You didn’t knew where they came from. You didn’t knew who they were. All you knew was that they took you by surprise even though you had been warned. You and some other members of the DA patrolled around the corridors, looking for anything unusual when you suddenly heard some loud screams. Fleshes of light were colouring the walls of the castle. You stormed around a corner just to see Neville and Luna fighting with some Death Eaters, firing curses all around them. You immediately ran to them, helping your friends. But if it weren’t for the members of the order of the Phoenix and the Felix Felicis, Harry gave to you before he disappeared with Dumbledore, you probably wouldn’t have made it. It was sheer luck all of you survived this night. You didn’t know how long you had been fighting. You already felt tired and weakened but you knew that every small mistake might cost your life or worse, the lives of your friends. So you kept going. Then you saw from the corner of your eye Professor Snape rushing through the fighting people, dragging Draco with him, who looked terrified. You didn’t think about it that much, just released that they had come to help on the one hand, but also worried that they might get hurt because it didn’t look like you would make it. But the two of them made no effort to fight. They just stormed past you, disappearing behind the next corner. But there was no time to wonder about this, since you were still fighting for your life. Then suddenly the opponents withdrew, fleeing into the night.

While most of the others followed them you accompanied Neville, who seemed to be seriously injured, to the hospital wing, where Madame Pomfrey treated his wounds. Finally, the others joined you. The Weasley family gathered around Bill's bedside, while Harry told you in a low voice what had happened. When he finished, your whole body felt numb.

Dumbledore was dead.

Snape murdered him.

Draco tried to do so.

Harry saw them.

You just couldn’t believe it. It was impossible. You knew Dumbledore had already been old, like really old, but somehow you had thought he would always be there. Sitting in his office and making silly after-dinner speeches a hundred years from now, just like he always did.

And Professor Snape. You never really liked him but you had always thought that Harry's distrust in him was exaggerated. Especially because Dumbledore trusted him. At least he did before he was murdered by the man he thought he knew. The man who had betrayed him the entire time.

And Draco. This just felt wrong. He wasn’t capable of such cruel things. Or was he? He had nearly killed Ron as well as Katie. You came to the bitter realisation that, no matter how much you wished it wasn’t true, you didn’t actually know him. You wanted to. But you never really did. Otherwise, you would have known. But didn’t you notice that there was something wrong with him? But you hadn’t done anything about it. What if you would have? Would you have been able to stop him? Would you have been able to stop this? You knew it was silly to think like this. None of the things that had happened was your fault. But still, how was it possible that you got fooled by him so much?

The sun already rose when you finally went back to bed. When you entered the dorm, the other girls were asleep, except Hermione who still endured with Ron at Bill's bedside. You were so tired and felt so empty that all you wanted to do was fall on your bed and fall asleep, forgetting all the sorrow of the last few hours. But as you wanted to do so, you noticed an envelope on your pillow. At first, you didn’t even want to open it but an inner force urged you to do so. You opened the envelope, pulled out the letter and started to read.

My love,

I don’t know what exactly happened when you are reading this. All I can hope for is that you are alight.

By now you probably know that I betrayed this school, betrayed you. All I want you to know is that I did not want any of this. But if I do not obey the wishes of the Dark Lord, he will kill me and everyone I love. I have no choice. When you read this, I am either dead or on the run. I am hoping for the latter because then I have a chance to see you again. I do not know if you can ever forgive me for what I have done but I want you to know that I will wait for you even if it takes forever.

I know I am a coward. I never revealed my identity and by now it is too late. I wish I would have been braver, maybe then everything would be different now. I hope that someday we will meet again in a world that is better than the one we are living in now. I wish I could create it for you but I am afraid I will never be one of the good guys. You deserve so much better, my love, still, I am hoping that one day I will be the man you want.

But all you need to know for now is that I love you, (Y/n), I always did and I always will. And that is everything that matters.

This will be my last letter to you and my last present. All the time in this world is not enough to spend with you and I wish I wouldn’t have wasted mine. But maybe if I am lucky, I will get some more of it in another world.

Goodbye my love

You had finished the text but your eyes were still glued to the paper. There was no signature, as always, but you knew who had written it. Who had not only written you this letter but had sent you over the last six years dozens of letters and gifts. And you had never realized. How could you have been so blind? And now it was too late. Your left hand clenched around the envelope you still held in your hand. But it wasn’t just the envelope. You could feel something hard, something that was hidden inside it. You turned it upside down and something fell into your lap. You grabbed it, taking a closer look at it.

It was the ring. The ring you had watched him so many times playing with and had admired and complimented in your potion class. His last present to you. Draco had given you the ring, the family heirloom, the one that was so important to him. You could feel the cold metal touching your skin and you shivered. You knew he was sincere. That he meant every word he had written. In this letter and every single one before. You couldn’t explain why, you just felt it. “I do not know if you can ever forgive me for what I have done but I will wait for you even if it takes forever.” That’s what he had said. You could feel a small, sad smile creeping on your face.

“I will wait for you, too, Draco.”, you whispered into the silence. “And I forgive you.”

#draco malfoy #draco x you #draco x y/n #draco x reader #draco x female reader #draco fluff #draco fanfiction #draco fic #harry potter #hermione granger #lavender brown #pansy parkinson #parvati patil #ron weasley #fanfiction #fanfic

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hasarjunadoneanythingwrong · 1 year

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🥺archer emiya

favorite thing about them

incredibly funny how w so many characters that have been released he still consistently makes like top four on reddit popularity polls every time. ik thats a nothing fact compared to what i could go with but its very iconic of him tbh

least favorite thing about them

smug bicnh. ok stupid comment aside his np/reality marble line always drives me a little batty bc it feels grammatically incorrect but whenever i actually look at it i cant figure out in what way. grrrr

also its wack that one of his secret gardens in ccc is locked if you play as the male mc. youre really trying to tell me this man isnt bisexual?

also all his bg stuff and outfits related to it implies he probably contributed to the instability somewhere in western asia as a mercenary. :/

favorite line

'i am the bone of my sword' kinda suggestive innit it. what are you trying to say

im sorry i wish i could give you a more indepth examination but ive barely gotten through the fate route and the ccc playthrough i watched was gilgamesh so i dont know much about him outside of his more chill fgo side

brOTP

really funny how he and cu chullain are cosmically fated to consistently annoy the shit out of each other

i also like him and saber being friends :)

OTP

cognitive behavioral therapy. also dont dislike stuff like yariyumi tbh

nOTP

rin. that was like the girl he had a crush on when he was a highschooler and when he sees her still a highschooler hes like 'damn past me was stupid as shit shes like 8 or whatever' (he has forgotten past him was also a highschooler)

random headcanon

true good end is where he quits the counterforce and gets really into decorative patisserie work/j

unpopular opinion

shipping him w pseudoservants like ishtar and parvati just bc of who their host bodies are is disrespectful to the characters of like shirou, emiya, the goddesses, AND the original fsn girls in question. like for god's sakes just go write fsn fanfic since clearly thats what you want to be working with. he doesnt even really care for them the same way shirou does he was more like an au adult version of shirou who had mostly forgotten what the girls he went to highschool with were like anyway and has way less attachment to them as a result. he might be friendly to them bc of the grail war connection but i really doubt he'd want to date them even if they were receptive (and lbr, neither rin nor sakura nor saber ever seemed to be attracted to archer specifically)

song i associate with them

youtube

physically struggling not to just put last stardust here. this is actually a counterforce song i think

favorite picture of them

hate him so much <3

#my asks #you can tell im losing it #ask game

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crayonverse · 1 year

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Alright nobody asked or actually cares but here’s a bunch of my physical video games that I love

(long post)

Starting off weak: a bunch of my normal sims stuff. I have a lot of the sims 3 packs but they’re at my dads house (Along my with supernatural s1-15). i also have more sims 4 because i, stupidly, paid money for them (and i also dont understand how to pirate the rest)

Fantasy Life (best toh game ever I love it so much also one of the characters was accidentally trans coded please play this game🙏🙏h). also i could never complete the Bratz ponyz. i just kept cleaning the horses and then gave up lmao

Xbox games I can’t play because I don’t have an Xbox at my Mums and the one at my dads broke. I hope to find a new one sometime🫶. but also Viva Pinata is a brilliant game and is the best ever actually. everyone needs to a look a whirlim forever

Most goated Pokémon game ever. Real. God it’s so much fun I love this game sm. It was one of my first ever Pokémon games and I loved just running around and making friends. Truly amazing

Not games but movies I have. That arceus + the Lucario and mew movie were my only Pokémon media n shit. I rewatched them sm

When wii party and worms battle came out you know the sleepover got so good. the diseny enchatned princess was my childhood i just kept making a new princess and running around doing nothing

Switch games!!!!!!! I really like Pokémon games and eevee is my favourite little guy ever. i can never get far in ary bc my switch doesnt have enough space to keep playing :( it does seem cute with the small time i can play through

Scribblenauts has been like. One of my fav game series. Maxwell ur a sweet little man and I love him. also nintendogs those games have been so cute throughout my life. i love animals

i also consisently buy every single one of each of these games in their series bc they always slap so hard

The imagine series is also a staple those fucking things r COOL. ive just recently restarted my tomodachi island <3

PS3 stuff. Me and my dad used to play Rayman together

imagine teacher was my fav out of the imagine games i have. i got so invested in those fake preschoolers (the pottery level is the suckiest tho i hate it). moshi monsters cool tho i like it

Mod Nation was my mysims racing since i didnt have it and its. actually kinda fun. i think it also had an online element but idk if the servers are still active at this point. bugsnax is also revoulutionary play it play it play it play it

diseny universe was like a big game i kept trying to play with my friends but i think they fucking hated it LOL

my time at portia goated (saving up for the sequel rn)

outer worlds was also one of the only games i full on cried at the end. also at the time i ID'd as a asexual lesbian and Parvati, who was an asexual lesbian, made me feel very seen at the time. shes still my fav companion from that game.

lego dc supervillains has been my fav lego game so far and i hope more lego games are like it in the future because it was great

my lbp stack💪💪💪 i havent done much of A Big Adventure yet bc its more of an adventure game than the others and also you cant save normally in the game For Some Reason. like you cant just. save and quit. idk why that isnt in the game.

sorry for showing you all danganronpa

this has been my most recent video game. my dad went garage sale hunting and came back with two of these so i just stole one out of his boxes and took it home. havent played it yet but it looks cool

my sims games 💪💪💪💪💪💪 yes the fact that skyheroes is on the ps3 does in fact annoy me greatly no i will not tell my lovely mother that at all

ok yeah thats all the ones i want to show. i do have a bunch of other stuff but theyre not that cool

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jmagnabo92 · 2 years

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Teasing Padfoot

RFTV snippet, the morning of the first day of school, Harry and Sirius have the first period open and Harry’s friends end up teasing him because he prefers being Padfoot.

***

After a few minutes, they approach, and Lavender asks, “Harry, can we ask you a question without you getting upset?”

Harry frowns, “You can try.”

“Are you petting a grim?” Parvati asks, after a minute.

“Wha–?” he starts, surprised. He looks down at Padfoot. “Oh, yeah, of course.”

“‘Of course’?” Lavender asks. “You say that like it’s normal. Why are you hanging out with a grim? An omen of death? Like the one you had in your teacup in our first divination lesson?”

Harry laughs, “Padfoot is a grim, but he’s not just an omen of death. Did you know that the grim actually protects innocent lives? He walks with death, as a companion, and he stops death from taking the innocent. The protective instinct of a grim over those he’s supposed to protect is strong and overrides logical thinking sometimes.” He chuckles, thinking of Sirius’ actions the previous day. “You mentioned our first divination lesson, well, yeah, Trelawney was right, I did have the grim. I’d seen him several times that year. The night I ran away, for one, but he wasn’t there to collect me for death, he was there to protect me from him. Even if he went about it in the worst possible ways.”

Neville, who had been quietly watching, laughs. “Yeah, I don’t think he was thinking logically in his determination to protect you from the rat.”

“He did apologize,” Harry offers. “Although, the Fat Lady still…”

Ron laughs, “If I was the Fat Lady, I wouldn’t either.”

Padfoot whines, quietly. Harry knows that he didn’t mean to let himself lose his mind by attacking the Fat Lady, but there was no denying he’d done it, and he did feel bad. Harry glares at Ron, who shrugs.

Lavender and Parvati are looking thoroughly confused with the by play, and Harry realizes that they didn’t know about Sirius.

“So, you just decided to adopt this grim that …”

Neville laughs, “Pretty sure it’s the other way around.”

Harry chuckles, “We sort-of adopted each other, but yeah, it does lean stronger one way.”

“I’m so confused,” Parvati says, honestly. “How did you get a Grim to join you, to come to Hogwarts?”

Harry laughs, “He practically insisted on it.”

“He can talk? Can you understand him like you understand snakes?” Lavender asks, excitedly. “That would be so cool.”

“Well, anyone can understand him, when he wants them to,” Harry teases, as Padfoot wags his tail. “I bet if you asked nicely…he’ll talk to you.”

Lavender gives him a look. Then she shares a look with Parvati. “Okay. Uh, Padfoot, you said?”

“Hmm-mm, he does answer to Padfoot.”

“Although sometimes, it’s Snuffles,” Ron jokes.

“Okay, uh, Padfoot,” she starts, noting the giggling from Neville and Ron, while Harry just continued to pet him, if a dog could smirk, he knew Padfoot would be smirking. “Do you play fetch?”

Padfoot nods, while Neville laughs, “Yes, but not well.” Padfoot lifts his head and glares at Neville.

“Are you glaring at Neville?”

Padfoot nods, and Neville says, “It’s not my fault that you like to steal the rope and run with it rather than bringing it back like you’re supposed to.” Padfoot glares, causing Neville to ask, “Hey, Harry, have you managed to get him house-broken yet? Maybe that’s the problem.”

Padfoot growls, while Ron and Harry howl with laughter.

“You know, I try my best, but Padfoot’s a wild animal, not like a normal dog.” He barks, and Harry adds, “But he’s mostly good, mostly, house-broken.”

Lavender and Parvati are staring at Padfoot uncertainly. “Do you bite?” Padfoot shakes his head. “Can I pet you?” Padfoot nods.

Parvati looks at Harry, “You’re sure that he’s not going to attack us?”

“Trust me, he’s very friendly.”

“Then why does he keep glaring at Neville?”

Sirius having had enough of the joke, transforms, “Because he says I’m not house-broken and bad at fetch.”

Both girls spring back, screaming slightly. “Oh my Merlin, you – you…”

The boys laugh, and Sirius says, “I’m sorry, but it’s almost time for class, and I couldn’t really answer that one as a dog.”

“So, you’re not a grim, you’re just a big dog?” Lavender asks, sounding relieved.

“No, Padfoot is a grim.”

“But Grims are…”

“They’re not bad. They just have a bad reputation…” Sirius looks sadden slightly. Grims have a similar reputation to Sirius himself.

“But now’s not the time, we should go to class,” Harry says, getting him. He lets the others the lead the way before he looks at Sirius, “You okay?”

Sirius nods, “Yeah, I was just…a little overwhelmed. I’m fine.”

#Sirius Black #Harry Potter #Harry James Potter #Harry J Potter #Harry and Sirius #Harry & Sirius #Harry and Sirius Saturday #sirius and harry saturday #RFTV snippet

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j-graysonlibrary · 6 months

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The Xiang Chronicles: Book Three Chapter 35

Title: The Xiang Chronicles: Book Three

Author: Jay Grayson

Word Count: 107k

Genres: Fantasy, adventure, drama, LGBT+

Available on: my website

Synopsis: Only one Xiang remains and her name is Merra. She hopes to unite the land by force and plow down anyone in her way—especially the people of Agni who she deems faithless and the native people of Terra who refuse to cooperate with her.

Raine continues to serve his Lord but he has taken to alcoholism to soothe his grief—a fact he keeps out of his letters with Heidi. Baiya has returned to mercenary work in order to keep his family safe while Kira is on the warpath. He, fully, takes on the title of Chaaya and means to defeat the Xiang he sees as false.

And, in a guarded castle in Enlil, a stir-crazy Princess dabbles in the dark arts, setting in motion something even Tiandi cannot see.

Full chapter 35 under the cut

Chapter XXXV:

Pangu could not believe that his plea actually worked. When he finally let Kira go, he partly expected him to create another miasma portal and run through. But he did not.

He stayed.

Even more bizarre was that Pangu was allowed a moment to talk to him alone. Not even Raine came with him, like he expected. Pangu checked with his energy as well—no one was even spying on them.

The sun was nestling past the horizon and an orange and red glow lingered, bleeding into a deep purple further up. A waxing crescent, bigger than usual, appeared transparent in the far left corner of the sky.

It was as beautiful as any sunset Pangu had seen but Kira kept his attention—even if the man still had a difficult time looking at him.

“You really do not care that I am a Chaaya now? Fully?” Kira mumbled. “That I have become someone we would have fought before? Someone unworthy of being in your company?”

“That is not for you to say,” Pangu responded with ease. “I decide who is worthy of being around me. Tiandi killing me did not make me bend to his will, you know.”

That, at least, got Kira to look at him for a second.

“Still…” his second disciple went back to staring at the ground—the space between their feet. “You do now know everything I have done.”

“And it means little to me,” Pangu interrupted, “If you are worried about your actions being unbecoming of a disciple or even ‘one of the good guys’; don’t. I have abandoned many of the rules I was taught as Xiang to never break. I have hurt people for the sake of hurting them. I have been selfish in love. I have given the gift of the elements to three people and I intend to do it again with Phay and her army.”

“You hurt people?” Kira asked after a moment.

“May’s parents.” As bloody and visceral as the memory was, Pangu found himself smiling a little. Maybe it was the irony of the moment in the greater context of his life. With all of his memories back, it definitely stuck out as different. “The King and Queen of Enlil—the Ven islands more specifically. I only met them once but the reason I was brought back to life was to threaten or kill them.”

“Wait…” Kira stopped him. “That was all you were brought back for?”

“May did a ritual to bring me back. She had done it a few times but with less success. There is a longer story but she loves telling it so I will hold off for now.” Pangu laughed a little. “Just know that the reason she brought me back was so I could threaten her parents to let her be free. And, if they did not cooperate, I was to kill them.”

“And here I thought there was some mass conspiracy happening behind my back.” For the first time since Pangu had seen him, his friend smiled. It was barely present but he still counted it.

“Could still be. I do not even have all the details, to be honest.” Pangu thought of Sha-parvati’s cageyness and Cuad, in general. He thought of telling Kira about the Mistress’ involvement but he worried it would get them too far off track. “Anyway, once I had a grasp on my abilities again, May took me to see her parents and…well…I did not kill them but I did, sort of, maim her father.”

“Maim?” Kira repeated with a raised brow. His shoulders sank slightly, showing more signs of relaxation.

Pangu did not celebrate too early and continued on. “I crushed his arm in the stone of his floor…amputating it. But, I did cauterize the wound so he did not bleed out. After that, her parents were much more willing to listen to her demands and then we left.”

Kira blinked a few times before actually laughing. “Damn. Wish I could have been there to see that.”

It really was not funny but Pangu laughed as well. He was relieved that he managed to wind Kira down enough to get him laughing and smiling. “I am sure there will be some carnage at the battle. So long as you stick around.”

“That I will be there for.” His second disciple shook his head. “I am not missing it.”

“Good. Promise you will not disappear on me the second I turn my back?” He raised an eyebrow. As much as he wanted to stay up with Kira all night he needed sleep and he had prior engagements.

Almost on cue, Baiya walked outside with Viren, Raine, Kaz, and Fujin.

“Kira,” Viren called out, “Miss Daiji wants to know if you are okay with staying in one of the guest rooms in the extra house.”

Kira’s eyes scanned between everyone in the group before he asked, “Who is rooming where, exactly?”

Viren and Baiya exchanged a quick look before Baiya said, “My sister is bunking with Phay in her room and The princess and Fujin will be in my old room with Raine and Oli. Viren and I have a room in the other house.”

Again, Kira raised a brow and looked toward Kaz. “What about you?”

“Me?” Kaz repeated and pointed at himself.

Pangu laughed a little and touched Kira’s arm. “Well, Kaz and I will figure something out. I also need to talk to Baiya and Viren for a bit…”

His best friend gave him a sideways look but something must have clicked in his head because a smirk pulled at the corner of his lips. “I will stay out here for a bit. I could use the fresh air.”

“Promise you won’t disappear on me?” Pangu asked with a more pointed stare.

“I promise.” Kira removed his hand from his arm and stepped backward. “I will be here when you wake. Go and…have your talk.”

It was still difficult to part from him but Pangu told himself that he could trust Kira and that he would not be gone in the morning. He gulped and nodded. “Alright. Goodnight everyone.”

Walking to the other house with Baiya, Viren, and Kaz was nerve wracking. Pangu felt so many eyes on him and he felt like everyone knew exactly what was going on even if he himself did not know the outcome yet. His face got hot prematurely and he was nervous that he would immediately fumble the conversation.

Really, he had hoped talking with Kira would have distracted him from his anxiety around the topic. But, the second he was faced with it again, every emotion, even the minute ones, came back with a vengeance.

The room was, thankfully, large enough to where they were not all cramped inside and Pangu had to resist the urge to start pacing.

He at least did not have to worry about Viren since he knew the man had already been alright with him and Baiya, right before his death. He would be understanding and calm about everything and he suspected Baiya would be reasonable as well but he did worry about Kaz.

So he started with him. The three had already been introduced, briefly, during all of the talks and explanations earlier but Pangu wanted them to have a clearer picture.

“Baiya, Viren, this is Kaz. He is Fujin’s little brother, as you know, and a guard to the princess, but he was also sort of like my guard when I was first brought back. I stayed in his room and he looked after me…”

Pangu could tell that Kaz was waiting for him to tell the two that he was a little mean and cold at first but he did not think those details were necessary. Not now at least. Pangu focused on the positives instead and, slowly but carefully, moved into when they started to do more than kiss.

He recalled, just earlier in the day, that he actually had not done most of that stuff with anyone else. Baiya, he had kissed the most and they had definitely been on the path to more touching but Pangu died before anything happened.

Knowing that, somehow, made the conversation feel trickier.

Pangu moved on to Viren, explaining to Kaz their history. It seemed Baiya was familiar with the details despite never hearing about it from Pangu. That meant the two had spoken about it after his death.

And that led to some news for Pangu.

He had noticed some tense looks between Baiya and Viren but he had not especially had any time to think about it. There was a lot on his mind and those stolen glances were lost among the clutter.

“After we buried you…” Baiya started and then stopped, looking to Viren for reassurance. When the lord nodded, he continued, “Well, I brought him and Oli here to keep them safe and Viren and I spoke a lot.”

“Mostly about you. How we felt about you.” Viren chimed in and rubbed the side of Baiya’s arm. They caught each other’s eyes again and it fell into place in front of Pangu.

He pointed and, without meaning to, raised his voice. “You two are seeing each other!”

Both Baiya and Viren reeled back. “I, well, yes.” Baiya cleared his throat. “I was trying to ease into it…you aren’t mad, are you?”

Mad? Pangu almost balked. He could hardly contain himself—he was relieved beyond words. Really, it was almost as much of a weight off of his shoulders as Kira staying was. Almost.

A grin spread across his face. “This is great news. Now I don’t have to choose.” He then turned to Kaz. “The only issue left is you and us. I promised you that I would not leave you for an old lover, if I had one, and I still mean it. I will not pick. So…are you okay with that?”

“Here I was hoping that them pairing off meant I had you to myself…” Kaz muttered with a faint smile.

“Just because we got closer does not mean I no longer love Pangu,” Baiya remarked.

“Same with me.” Viren seconded.

Pangu looked between the two of them and Kaz. He knew it might chase the man away but he asked anyway. “Loving more than one person is possible, you know? Could you see yourself with either of them, Kaz?”

His face turned bright red and he tensed. “W-what?”

The state of him brought a smile to Baiya’s face. He said, mostly to Viren, “He is quite cute, don’t you think?”

Of course, the comment made Kaz more embarrassed. Pangu had to hold back his laugh. If he had a problem with teasing Kaz then Baiya would be even worse.

Viren, however, elbowed Baiya in the side. “Leave the man alone.”

Kaz covered his face and deferred to Pangu. “Can I think about it?”

He bit his tongue to keep from laughing. “Of course. It is not as if something is going to happen right now anyway. I intend to sleep.”

“Today has been exhausting,” Viren agreed with a soft smile, shot in Pangu’s direction, “In a good way.”

“We have more important matters ahead of us anyway,” Baiya switched back into a more serious tone. “We can talk more after the battle.”

“That gives you plenty of time to think.” Pangu patted Kaz on the shoulder and noticed he was not blushing quite so furiously anymore now that the imagined threat of an impromptu orgy was gone. He then leaned in to give him a kiss.

Just because they were not planning out their relationships right away did not mean that Pangu wished to forgo his goodnight kisses. He turned from Kaz, then, to Viren who happily wrapped his arms around his neck and held him close. Flashes of stiff, painful conversations that just so happened to revolved around their last kiss filled Pangu’s mind and he smiled in their current embrace.

It seemed spending a year with Baiya as a lover had really loosened the lord’s perspective on such things.

Pangu pulled away from him, catching his eyes, holding his gaze, and nearly going right back for another kiss. But he steeled himself with a reminder that they all desperately needed sleep and moved onto Baiya who, so far, had been waiting patiently although the slight bounce of his heel was notable.

With a short, breathy laugh, Pangu turned to him and planted his hands on either side of his face, petting along his fuller beard, up to where it connected to his sideburns and into his hair. The contact was initiated slowly and Baiya took small, deliberate kisses as though he were not starved but Pangu could feel the longing brewing just under the surface. He knew, just like when he held Viren’s stare for too long, that if he really leaned into this kiss with Baiya that he would become carried away.

So he gave him a final, firm peck and backed away, standing closer by Kaz whose cheeks had returned to a light, rosy pink.

***

Random shuffling sounds almost made Raine turn to look behind him but he was sure it was just the women and Oli getting ready for bed. Fujin and May were taking the cot while Oli was setting out some mats for himself and Raine (even if the mats were too small to fully accommodate Raine).

He heard them talking but he did not listen to what they were saying. Occasionally, he would pick up a word or two but nothing kept his interest.

Or, rather, nothing could shift his focus from the window.

It had been a few moments, maybe fifteen minutes now, and Kira still had not gone inside. He was standing out in fields, barely visible, and looking up at the sky.

Raine both could not believe and also could not be more frustrated with himself for not saying a single word to the man. Not even after he agreed to stay had Raine spoken. It was as if the words all clogged together in his throat and refused to budge.

It was beyond infuriating.

Pangu made it look so easy.

He rested his forehead against the glass of the window and sighed, under his breath. The Xiang, one of his best friends, was currently working out his relationships—probably with maturity and poise despite the complicated situation he found himself in yet he could not bring himself to say “hi” to the guy he liked.

His head knocked even further into the glass but not intentionally. He swung around as a pillow fell to the floor and the culprit stared at him.

“Are you listening?” May asked with another pillow already in hand, ready to throw.

“He is not,” Fujin answered for him. Her eyes settled on Raine’s and she said, “Why not just go out there and talk to him?”

“Talk to who?” May rushed over to the window to get a look.

“Kira?” Oli guessed and both Raine and Fujin sighed. “What?”

“Nothing,” Fujin replied then pulled May back by her arm.

“Is this another romance?” May deduced and looked, excitedly, between Raine and Fujin. She glanced to Oli at one point but he just shrugged so she returned to only the two of them.

“No.” Raine frowned.

Fujin frowned right back. “If you do not go out there and talk to Kira, I will tell May everything you told me.”

The princess gasped. “You are keeping secrets from ME?!”

Fujin shushed her but did not take her eyes off of Raine for long. “I mean it. It is now or never, Raine. If you stay in here and mope then you have forfeit your right to ever complain to me again.”

She was a bit harsh but Raine realized he needed the push. Without the threats and the cutting words, he might have just stayed inside and stared longingly out the window, cursing himself for being a fool and a coward—letting his inaction write his story.

He hurried out of the bedroom and down the hall, making an effort to keep quiet both because he did not wish to disturb everyone else in the house and also so he did not alert Kira. He would feel his presence eventually anyway, for sure, but for a moment at least, Raine wanted to be able to look at him and prepare himself for what he might say.

The stars were so clear and big with almost no clouds to block their light. Kira’s hair glowed softly—blue—and his skin looked even paler now. But, just to see him, standing there, Raine could feel a flutter in his stomach.

Kira noticed him and turned to look over his shoulder. “I had a feeling you would come.”

That was more faith than Raine felt he deserved seeing as how Fujin had verbally shoved him out of the door. He swallowed down the lump in his throat but, even still, he was unsure how to begin.

All he could do was stare at Kira’s face and hold his breath.

#the xiang chronicles #my novel #my writing

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consistentsquash · 8 months

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In the middle of Eldritcher's Rubicon and I had to scream my feelings because it addresses the cishet white romance stereotype about how white girls deserve white guys and PoCs are out of their league if they are in relationships with white guys. The romanticization of this stereotype rubbed me the wrong way in ASoIAF's romances which in no way is made better by the Laena Velaryon diversity for diversity's sake in the new show. After reading Ossuarium and getting to the middle of Rubicon I am starting to understand what Eldritcher did here. They delivered one of the most deliberate and methodical good faith readings of the text whilst going the extra mile to avoid perpetuating those tropes. Genius.

Eldritcher's Rubicon :D My favorite! Fics I am taking with my emergency bag when we get invaded by aliens or zombies <3

Also sorry it took me forever to get to this :/

Yeah. I feel like a lot of fantasy books have that thing going on. Parvati, Cho and Ginny for Harry kind of gives me similar feels. But yeah. Really hate that trope about how some movies/books tackle interracial romances. It's definitely changing a lot and excited to see that happening. Of course Laena in HOTD was the total opposite of progress on this front and I am actually a Daemyra and Rhaenicent shipper saying this. Her characterization was super insensitive :/

Back to your point. I mean I am not really a book reviewer but the big meant to be romances in those books are definitely icky for me because of things like this. FWIW I really love the characters. It's kind of similar for me with HP. Don't really dig the canon romances but love the characters.

Really love how Ossuarium/Rubicon definitely went in a direction that emphasized showing over telling esp on things that get erased normally like PoC character arcs and bisexuality. They really amplified the good things/fixed the icky things. It's super methodical/intentional writing. The precision is insane.

The thing is unless you are reading those fics with a lot of awareness about the fantasy genre tropes you are going to miss that part because its not like they preach at you? Zero preaching and I love that. It's also really ironic in some sense because they are pretty vocal about how they hate deconstruction and in general anything postmodernism but they pretty much deconstructed the fantasy tropes one by one to write Ossuarium/Rubicon. One of my favorite HP fics by the author goes out of its way to acknowledge the Bad Things Umbridge experienced with the centaurs. It was probably the first time I saw that in a hp fic. Like of course Umbridge is a shitty person. But she also got really traumatized by the centaurs. It doesn't get acknowledged in the canon/doesn't really get fic TLC so it stood out to me. I feel like the difference is the motivation like the good faith reading you talked about. Like you can be critical of some book/media and still be a fan. Fixits are pretty different from spitefics.

#asoiaf

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cosmiclove-heavenstruck · 3 years

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Dance Lessons | Harry James Potter

Pairing: Harry Potter x fem!Gryffindor!Reader

Wordcount: 12200 words (Yes, really. Do you ever just start to write a little oneshot and then it turns out as a fic with over 10000 words?)

Warnings: swearing, mentions of underage drinking, sexual tension but no smut, fluff, slight angst, slow burn i guess

Summary: Harry asks you to teach him how to dance for the upcoming Spring Ball.

a/n: Set in Harry’s sixth year. English is not my native language, so there might be spelling/grammar mistakes. (The beginning is inspired by this oneshot)

Not many could say that they had faced Voldemort more than once and had survived, but Harry Potter was one of the few lucky ones that had gotten away every time. And if that wasn’t enough, Harry had defeated horrifying creatures, had broken into the Ministry and had saved the wizarding world several times – more or less accidentally, but hey. He had dealt with Umbridge and fought Death Eaters.

To the world, he was a hero, he was the Boy Who Lived.

So yes, his record of fighting the evil was quite impressive for a sixteen-year-old. But there was one thing he knew he would never impress anyone with and that were his dance skills.

Because Harry Potter couldn’t dance for shit.

Everyone who had watched his poor attempt at a waltz at the Yule Ball knew it had been an embarrassing disaster, and a blessing when he had stopped – merely for Parvati Patil’s feet.

Everyone who had watched knew that Harry Potter had never before set foot on a dancefloor. And you had watched. You had watched with great interest because secretly, you had wished for him to ask you to the ball. But when there had been only two weeks left and Dean Thomas had asked you after Transfiguration class, you had said yes.

There you were, sitting with Dean beside Seamus and Lavender as well as Ron and his date Padma, your eyes glued to the raven-haired boy getting terribly out of step. You watched, of course, under the pretence that you found it disgracefully hilarious.

Harry had never thought about asking you to the Yule Ball, if he was quite honest with himself. He had been after Cho, and he waited way too long to ask her, so she was already going with Cedric. And you had a date with Dean.

As good as Harry was with fighting the dark and the evil, as bad was he with social interactions. He had no problem producing a Patronus, but he was absolutely useless when it came to talking to girls.

You were the opposite.

Yes, the boggart may had made you faint in front of your whole class, but on the other hand, talking seemed like the easiest task in the world. Whether it was a chat with a teacher or speaking to strangers, though you did not thrive off of that.

There was one other thing that made you stand out to the other girls (and boys) in your year: You knew how to dance, from a simple disco fox to a more complicated waltz.

So, when Professor Slughorn announced a Spring ball for the students in sixth and seventh year, Harry knew you were his only chance if he did not want to make a fool out of himself again. He asked you (after a whole week of practicing in front of the mirror), with heated cheeks and a fast-beating heart, if you could teach him how to dance.

You felt a bit taken by surprise by this request, but agreed, nonetheless.

Friday evenings, eight to nine o’clock, were now reserved for your weekly dance lessons.

Looking at Harry’s history, it should be no big deal to dance with a girl when you had already come across the most dangerous things existing in the wizarding world. He should not be nervous; what was the girl teaching you how to dance against gigantic spiders who saw you as their dessert?

Well, everything.

The thing was, Harry could prepare spells and charms, he knew what he had to do when he was faced with a Dementor or a Boggart. His mind, however, went completely blank when it came to you, like his nerves were on fire. To say he was nervous was an underestimation.

Harry ran his hand through the mess of black locks in a rather useless attempt to flatten them. They jumped back up immediately as he let go, pointing in every direction but the one he wanted them to. Stupid genes.

Sometimes he wished he had inherited his mother’s hair. It would have been fun to be mistaken as a Weasley and he could pretend he and Ron were actually brothers.

To keep his hands busy, Harry smoothened the plaid shirt he had thrown on before darting another glance at the clock over the door of the abandoned classroom on the fifth floor. 8:01 o’clock.

His fingers drummed against the wooden desk he was leaning on to release his excited tension, which only worked until the door opened, and he jumped up into a straight position.

You stepped inside, a vinyl clammed under your arm and an apologizing smile on your lips.

“Sorry I’m late, Snape held me off,” You said, placing your bag on the table Harry had leaned on previously.

“Don’t worry, it’s fine. Uh, are you alright?” He asked.

“Oh, yeah. I mean Snape just almost failed my assignment, but I found a new song to dance to, and I’m pretty sure you’ll like it,” You said as you rushed over to the old vinyl player in the corner and unwrapped the black record.

Harry followed your every movement. You could feel his eyes on you and bit down on your lip to stop yourself from smiling.

“It’s a bit slower than the other one, so it will be easier for you to follow,” You added and pulled the vinyl out, stroking a streak of Y/H/C hair behind your ear, your back still facing him.

When the record was placed correctly into the player, you turned back around and led Harry by the hand to the middle of the classroom. This simple touch alone made Harry’s head spin, and it did not help when you placed his hand onto your waist.

“Are you ready?” You asked and he nodded. “Good, follow my lead.”

There was nothing but admirable beauty, the way you moved to the soft piano music filling the room, Harry thought, and he hated himself for not realising sooner. You were like a sunset, and he was afraid to look right at you because what if you saw all the feelings swelling in his heart that dared to overspill at any moment.

You had been right, he adored the music you had brought with you, but he adored you even more.

You thought he looked at his feet because he was afraid to mess up the steps.

“Hey,” You said softly, taking the hand from his shoulder to lift his chin. “Eyes up.”

“Yes. Right. Sorry.”

A sheepish smile spread over his face and your heart beat hectically against your rip cage as his emerald green eyes met yours.

It took Harry a great deal of strength to not break out of the dance routine he had so intensely studied and kiss you. But your hand slipped away from under his chin back to his shoulder and the moment was lost, like so many others.

Staying professional was not so simple for you either, as much as you liked to deny it. You liked Harry, more than friends should like each other, but who could blame you? Harry was very handsome, with his messy hair and those green eyes, he was sweet and caring, and he was dancing with you in an abandoned classroom, his hand on your waist.

Looking at it from this angle, there seemed to be no reason as to why you were so careful to deny your feelings.

Well, there was one problem: You thought he wanted to ask Cho to the ball to make up for the Yule Ball.

Harry was pretty oblivious when it came to love. Neither had he thought about you as more than friends before sixth year, nor had he realised that the feelings he had felt for Cho two years ago were similar to the ones he had for you now, though they were much more intense.

The worst part was that you two had been friends for three year and since then, you had spent a week of every summer holiday at the Burrow. Harry knew you; he knew that you liked his crappy jokes and his sarcastic comments, but never before had his stomach tingled when you laughed at them. Never before had there been goose bumps all over his skin when you hugged him. And to hell, never before had he acknowledged how goddamn beautiful you were.

“You’re getting really good.” You ripped him out of his thoughts.

“Oh. Really?” He asked.

It would be brilliant if he could dance without thinking about it all the time, fearing he could step on your feet.

“Yes, really,” You replied, grinning.

“Well, I- I suppose I have a good teacher.”

The piano music faded out and you stopped in the middle of the room, slipping your hand out of his. It was a good excuse to turn around and start the vinyl again, so you did not have to answer anything.

Harry stood there for a second, gulping and scratching his neck. He should not have said that.

What he had said flattered you, but it was only a knife dressed like compliment, stroking over your heart to stab you right after. All of this was amicable, temporary, fickle. All of this was for Cho.

You sat the needle back on the record.

“What’s it called? The song, I mean,” Harry asked quietly.

“‘Il Reste du Temps’. The rest of time.” You walked back up to him and took his hand, leading you two into the dance. With his hand on your lower back, he pulled you a bit closer than last time.

“So, there are only two weeks left. You have asked Cho by now, I suppose?” You asked to remind your thoughts of reality.

Harry narrowed his eyebrows, not sure how you had come to the conclusion he still liked Cho. She was great, for sure, but she wasn’t you.

“Oh. Uh, not really, no,” He answered. Your heart jumped.

“Well, you should hurry up. You don’t wanna wait until last minute like last time.”

“I- yeah, I mean, I don’t- I don’t want to go with Cho.”

You stepped forward even though you were supposed to draw back and stomp on his left foot. His hand around yours clenched for a second at the sudden pain.

“Shit. Sorry.” You quickly brought you two back into the right footstep order. “You’re not asking Cho?”

“No. I wanna- No.” Harry stopped himself from talking any further. He couldn’t ask you. He just couldn’t.

“Well, who do you wanna ask?” You said.

Maybe it was Ginny. She was gorgeous, phenomenal at Quidditch and in the Slugclub. Nothing you could say about yourself.

Harry opened his mouth and stammered. “It’s, uh, you know…some…girl.”

Oh yes, great save, Harry, congratulations, He thought to himself, couldn’t be any vaguer, could you? For Merlin’s sake, look at her, she is completely confused.

You were pretty even when you were confused, with your eyebrows drawn together over your eyes curiously inspecting him – Stop.

“Ah, okay. The lucky girl’s a secret,” You said, laughing lightly. It was definitely Ginny.

“No, I mean, she’s –”

“It’s not my concern who you’ll ask, Harry,” You interrupted to calm him down. “As long as you ask her.”

Harry didn’t know what to reply to that. You really saw them just as friends.

The two of you danced for a while and Harry tried to memorise every golden speck in your dark eyes, every freckle, every curve, just so he could imagine you instead of the person he would dance with in a fortnight. If he would even go. Because what point was there to go to a ball if the one person he wanted to dance with more than anything else would not be there with him?

You tried to enjoy the closeness while it lasted. But the voices crowding your mind all shouted that he would never see you the way you saw him. That his face would never be so close ever again. That his hands would never rest on your body the way they did now, and never with any other intention than for the sake of learning how to dance, learning how to impress Ginny or whoever he would ask.

“Have you – have you asked anyone yet? To go to the ball with you?” Harry disrupted your thoughts and pulled you back into reality.

“No. I don’t even know if I’ll go,” You said and Harry’s heart dropped. “I mean, I’ll come to watch you dance, that’s for sure.”

Now his heart was way up in his throat, beating like hell. He swallowed and forced himself to answer. “No pressure then.”

You grinned at his comment. “Oh please, you can dance better than most of sixth and seventh year combined by now. You remember the spin I showed you last time?”

Harry nodded. He lifted his left arm and put a little pressure on your waist. You performed a small twirl before he caught you again, hand on your side. He smiled proudly.

“Really good.” The music stopped and you looked at the clock on the wall behind Harry. 8:57 o’clock. “I guess that’s it for today.”

Harry smiled sadly but you thought it was just your mind, playing you a trick. You packed the record back into the cover while Harry shouldered his back bag, handing yours to you. Then he held the door open for you, and you stepped out into the dimly lit hallway.

Harry had already pulled out the Marauders Map to check if the way back to the Gryffindor tower was clear. You weren’t technically allowed out after nine p.m. because of the new safety measurements, but it was part of the charm.

“Filch’s down on the first floor and Snape’s in his office,” Harry informed you.

“Okay.” You nodded.

Quietly and side by side, you two walked back to the Gryffindor tower. There was plenty of silence to break, plenty of time to ask you to the ball, Harry thought. But he was too afraid.

–

“It’s not that easy, alright?”

“Bloody hell, you spent every Friday evening with her! Half of our year thinks you’re secretly doing it in that classroom.”

For that, Ron earned a jab into his ribs. The two made their way through the masses of students down the last staircase to the Great Hall.

“Ow! It’s not my fault, you can’t open your mouth.”

“Oh, I can’t open my mouth? Have you asked Hermione yet?”

Harry was sure this would shut Ron up, but he was wrong.

“I asked her six weeks ago and she said yes, mate.”

Harry stopped in his tracks, stunned. “Wot?”

“Merlin, do you ever listen to me?”

Ron shook his head, walking to breakfast. Harry needed a few seconds before he could move again, then he caught up with his best friend. He was about to say something back when Ron’s sister Ginny interrupted them, wrapping her arms around both of Harry and Ron’s shoulders.

“Morning boys,” She greeted them enthusiastically.

The ceiling of the Great Hall was covered in a pale blue and yellow, the upcoming sun shining golden through the high windows.

“So.” Hermione poured both of you a glass of pumpkin juice. “How was it yesterday?”

“Mhm?” You looked up from your toast.

She sighed as if her question was rather obvious. “The dance lesson with Harry?”

“Oh.” You shrugged. “Normal.”

“So, nothing happened? Nothing you want to tell me?” She asked further.

You eyed her suspiciously, but she kept an innocent face expression.

“It’s not like we could do much besides dancing.”

Lavender beside you snickered and Parvati snorted into her coffee.

“Believe me, there is a lot you could do in that hour besides dancing,” Parvati said.

“God, no! Have you met Harry?” Lavender said bemusedly. “Like he's the type to have secret sex.”

“Still waters run deep,” Parvati replied, a smug grin on her lips. “Don't they, Y/N?”

Hermione crunched her nose at the suggestive tone as you narrowed your eyes at the two girls, shaking your head.

“Yes, keep making fun of my non-existing love life.”

You grabbed the strawberry marmalade, determined to ignore any topic concerning Harry. While you had lain awake last night, you had decided to bury your feelings for him all together and get over it. This would be easier once your dance lessons came to an end and the ball was done.

“Well, it does exist for everyone else,” Lavender interposed.

“And it would exist for you, too, if you would finally do something,” Hermione said, leaning forward.

“What?” You asked. “I mean, yeah, I like him, but he is definitely not into me like that. And I can't force him to be.”

Hermione groaned, and Parvati rummaged through her bag, pulling out a piece of parchment and making some space on the table.

“Okay, let’s see,” She began, “He asked you to teach him to dance. Big step for him, you know that. He always stares at you during Quidditch instead of the Snitch. Wood would've killed him by now. He always sits beside you. He definitely smelled you in Amortentia, regarding how he looked at you during that class. And since then, he looks at you like you’re the only person in the room. He –”

“He does not,” You said, grabbing her wrist to stop her from writing any further.

“Yeah, he does,” Lavender argued. “Look!”

You turned to spot Harry alongside Ron and his sister Ginny coming through the doorway, and for one second, your eyes met. Then Ginny said something, and Harry looked at her, laughing.

You sighed and stuffed the rest of your toast down your throat to get rid of the sour feeling twirling and burning in your stomach.

“Well, Ginny’s pretty funny,” Hermione tried.

“Yeah, she’s funny and pretty and she likes everything he likes.”

“None of that matters because he fell in love with you and not Ginny,” Lavender said, smiling brightly.

“He did not – not what you said.”

“He did! The list doesn’t lie.”

Parvati waved the parchment through the air, and you snatched it out of her hand, drowning it in the pumpkin juice before anyone could read it. Hermione curled her lip as she watched the paper soaking up the orange liquid, sinking to the ground of the jug.

In the same moment, Harry, Ron and Ginny reached your table, and to your surprise, Harry really did sit down beside you, your knees touching shortly while he climbed over the bench. The sudden touch sent sparks through your body and filled you with a comfortable warm which was quickly extinguished by Ginny sitting down next to Harry.

You didn’t want to be jealous.

There was no need to compare yourself to Ginny, you were two completely different people. But hearing her talk about Quidditch to the guys and seeing her flicking her beautiful hair over her slim shoulder made it so obvious how perfect for Harry she was. You couldn’t compete with that, in fact, you didn’t even want to compete with that.

No, you would get over your feelings and maybe ask someone else to spend the next Hogsmeade weekend with you. Those evenings with Harry, those moments too good to be true would stay somewhere deep down in your heart, locked away from the real world.

The weekend left as fast as it had come, and soon enough Harry and you both found yourselves in your day-to-day school life, studying for an upcoming Charms test and writing essays for Snape and McGonagall.

There wasn’t much time to think about each other, yet Harry managed to glance up from his homework a few times to stare at you opposite from him, snuggled into an armchair while flicking through a book. He noticed that you captured your tongue between your lips or mouthed single words to yourself whenever you were so deeply sunken into thoughts that you forgot the many people around you.

The latter found Harry very impressive because he was never that relaxed if more than three people were with him. Your lips on the other hand found Harry... well, much more interesting than his homework was the least to say.

Every day he woke up thinking that today, he would ask you. But whenever he came close to ask, he changed the topic or was distracted by friends and classmates.

Even Ron had given up with his jokes by now, which was a very bad sign and a nonverbal way to say, Man, you fucked up.

–

You had decided to make the last of your dance lessons a memorable one. An hour of pretending, of being close to someone you know you would never be this close to ever again.

Therefore, you had asked your older sister to send some of your favourite records from home, which you were now sorting through in the abandoned classroom. It was ten minutes to eight and you were sipping a butterbeer to cool your nerves. All those times before you had been as calm as ever, but today you were on the edge.

The door opened and you turned to find Harry in the doorway, hair messy as ever.

“Hi,” He said and the corners of his lips jumped up into a lopsided smile.

“Hey. You’re early.”

“Could say the same about you.”

“Yeah, you could,” You mumbled, pushing the needle of the record player down onto the vinyl.

Classic music filled the air and you walked over to Harry to lead him to the middle of the room after he had dropped his back bag to the floor. With the high heels on your feet, you were almost eye to eye, your nose at the height of his lips.

For a wonder, he did not need your instruction to place his hand on your waist and pulled you much closer than usual.

Harry felt his heart beating in his throat. Being this close to you was galvanic, every nerve was burning, and then again, for the first time in two months, he was able to close his eyes and let himself sink in, to melt with the music, to feel the tact pulsating through his whole body. It was what you had tried to teach him all along.

And yet his tongue was tied. He just had to ask. Would you like to go to the ball with me? One simple question. You had told him yourself to not wait until last-minute to ask, and now with every minute, every hour, every day passing it felt more ridiculous. He had known that he wanted to ask you and only you to the ball, but every time he thought about forming the question, his mouth failed him.

Your eyes lay calmly on him, tapping his shoulder in time to the music while secretly trying to remember every little detail of his face: His prominent eyebrows curved over his emerald green eyes, his flushed cheeks and the dimples created by his light smile lying on his lips.

Harry had become, for lack of a better word, quite fantastic at slow dancing. There was confidence in the way he moved through the room and held onto you, mingled with a certain elegance and appreciation of the art he was participating in. A good teacher, he had called you. Well, regarding slow dances, yes.

But there was one other thing he had yet to learn.

“You’re really good, you know that?” You said, and his smile brightened.

“Yeah? Or are you just saying that because it’s my last lesson?” He asked.

“No, I mean it. You know, I wrote my sister last week and she send some of my vinyl discs from home,” You told him as the music slowly faded out and let your hand slip from his shoulder and hand to turn to the record player, not noticing how his fingers lingered a moment longer on your waist.

Harry watched how you sorted through the discs, not able to make use of their names in any way. The only record he had come across before those dance lessons had been one by a singer named Bonnie Tyler, who Aunt Petunia secretly listened to on repeat during the summer when Uncle Vernon went grocery shopping or mowed the lawn.

Harry wasn’t a big fan, which was pretty much the only thing he had in common with his cousin Dudley.

“Here. To dancing and a nice Spring ball.” Harry snapped out of his thoughts. You held out a bottle of butterbeer, which he took and snapped its bottle top off, regarding for a moment to say something along the lines like To you, for teaching me how to dance or To us, but that seemed a bit too much.

Therefore, he went with a simple “Cheers” and touched glasses with you.

While he took a big sip in hopes it would make him braver, you decided on a turquoise and pink coloured disc with a man dancing on the front, the words Footloose in ornate writing covering its front. He couldn’t help but notice the grin you tried to hide, as if knowing something he didn’t.

“What’s that?” He asked, leaning against the table beside you and putting his beer aside.

“That’s what the cool kids dance to.”

You placed the needle onto the record. Drums began to play a fast rhythm, mixed with an electric guitar, and you slipped off your high heels, now only in tights. Harry watched with fearful curiosity how you snapped your fingers in time, bopping your head with closed eyes to internalise the music.

Every movement of your feet, your hips, your shoulders was nonchalant, effortless and... well, simply cool.

“Come on!” You said loudly over the music, waving Harry closer.

“No, no, that’s –” He shook his head, heat flushing his cheeks, and crossed his arms.

“Yes!”

You danced up to him, grabbing him by his hands and pulling him to the middle of the room.

Harry had improvised a lot when it came to fighting evil. His whole trip to the ministry had been decided because of his gut instinct, because he had thought he knew what he was doing. Well, that was probably a bar example. He had made everything worse back then.

But everything he had done to fight off the hundreds of Dementors at the Great Lake, or the creatures in the maze two years ago, or Voldemort at the graveyard, every single thing had been purely and spontaneously improvised.

Now, he wasn’t sure if he was that good at improvising dance moves, but you had other plans.

“Come on, don’t you trust me?” You said as his fingers clenched around your hands, unable to let go, like a man clinging onto a life buoy in the middle of the ocean.

And Harry wanted to say back that of course he trusted you, more than he probably knew himself, but all that came out was a “Yeah” which sounded more like a laugh than an actual word because of the grin stretched across his lips.

“Just dance the way you dance when no one’s watching,” You said.

“I don’t – I don’t do that,” He admitted, feeling how his cheeks burned under the unbelieving look coming from you.

“Okay, then close your eyes and just – just do it. Here, I’ll do it, too!”

You closed your eyes, smiling brightly, and slipped your fingers out of his, twirling on the spot like you usually only did behind closed doors, and clapping your hands in time with the music.

Harry couldn’t rip his gaze off of you, the way your body moved without any shame, your ridiculous head banging while acting like you play the guitar – air guitar, that’s what it was called, he had seen Dudley and his friends doing it, but never with so much... passion?

You were quite passionate about dancing, much more passionate than you were about school or Quidditch, and it fascinated him. How you could let loose, could forget what everyone thought of you, and he wanted to feel it too, wanted to not think that everyone was judging him.

So, Harry closed his eyes, concentrated on the beat of the music and your hands clapping, and then he did what you had been doing: Moving his arms, his legs, his feet, all a bit offbeat, all much less cool than what you did, but it had the effect he had wished for.

He forgot. Forgot about everything going on, everything in the past, everything that would come. It was like the music had deleted Voldemort from his mind. There was only his body and those absurdly freeing dance moves he would have been ashamed off any other time.

But not with you.

“Hey, you’re doing it! You’re doing it, look at you!” You shouted over the music, and Harry ripped his eyes open in the same moment as you grab his hands again. He slowed his legs.

“You said you wouldn’t look,” He said breathlessly, very aware of his fast-beating heart.

But if he was honest, he did not mind that you had seen him. If he could choose any of his friends to watch him dance like this, it would definitely be you.

“I had to, I’m sorry!” You laughed, and the song came to an end. “Oh, I have something even better, you’ll like that!”

You hit him friendly in the chest and rushed over to your pile of vinyl discs, wrapping the Footloose back up and pulling out another one from a white and pink packaging with two people on the front.

Harry would’ve never believed that dance lessons would be more exhausting than Quidditch training, but he had soon been disabused. He took a huge sip from his bottle of butterbeer and watched how you placed the needle on the disc before reaching for your own bottle.

“‘You broke my heart – ‘cause I couldn't dance – you didn’t even want me around!’” You were mouthing along the words the singer was speaking in an overdramatic seriousness, holding your bottle like a microphone. Harry was grinning at you, afraid of what would come next. “‘And now I'm back – to let you know – I can really shake 'em down!’”

The music dropped in, and you shook your hips, hands on your black skirt.

“Now don’t tell me you’ve never heard of Dirty Dancing,” You dared as Harry stayed at his spot, and he shrugged helplessly.

You shook your head at him with a smile on your lips, placed your bottle away and pulled him away from the table until you two were almost as close as in your usual dance lessons.

“Okay, like this.” You grabbed him gently by the waist and pushed him a bit down so his legs were slightly bent. Harry’s heart jumped at the unexpected touch. “Good, yeah, look at what I’m doing.”

Your grip became firmer, circularly moving his hips like you did. His eyes jumped up between your face and your waist, and he tried his best to copy your movements while calming his heart speed down.

“Yes, good! Now, your upper body, look at me – yeah! Good, eyes up,” You reminded him, and he glanced at your face, his cheeks flushed.

“Is that okay?” You asked, stepping closer so your hips almost touch, and he nodded. You took his hand, placed it on your lower back, and wrapped your own arms around his neck, just like Johnny and Baby had done it in the beginning of Dirty Dancing.

“That’s good!” You encouraged him, and he grinned at you, his face bright red. “You know, in the movie, they have another dance with a lift.”

“You’re not gonna make me do that, are you?” He asked.

You shook your head, laughing. “No, definitely not without training and a mattress,” You said, slowing your hip movements. “Maybe after the ball. I mean –”

The words had just slipped out of your mouth without thinking about them before. But Harry smiled, brushing a strand of hair out of his forehead, while I’ve Had The Time Of My Life began to play, and Bill Medley’s voice filled the room.

Harry felt like he was on fire. If you wanted to continue the dance lessons next year it must be because you liked him. In some way, you liked him, and it was very hard for him to concentrate during this dance. And training on a mattress would not make that easier – Stop it, stop it, just answer!

“Yeah, okay,” He said, and your heart jumped up in excitement. You smiled back at him and grabbed his free hand with yours, leading you back into a simple dance routine fitting the music. Harry followed almost effortlessly, only shortly glancing at his feet.

“I’ll have to demand payment if we keep doing this.”

“What kind of payment?”

His hand on your lower back pushed you a bit closer, you were almost chest to chest. Was he... flirting with you?

Whatever it was, it made you speechless, and in a moment of incautiousness, your eyes fell down to his lips. You held your breath for a second as you looked back up into his eyes, slowing your movements. He returned your gaze, but just as you were about to gather all your courage, his eyes shifted to the door of the classroom, his eyebrows drawn together in concentration.

“What?” You asked, turning around.

“Filch,” He said and not far down the hall, you heard the meowing of Mrs. Norris.

Panic flared up inside of you as you saw the clock on the wall: Half past nine.

“Argh, fuck.”

You let go off him and rushed over to the table with the record play on top, shoving your vinyl discs into your schoolbag and collecting your high heels in a hurry.

Outside in the hallway, the scratchy voice of Filch mixed with the clicking of his cat’s claws on the stone tiles. Harry had grabbed his bag from the floor and fished out his Invisibility Cloak. As you turned around, he had reached you and enveloped you two in the cloak, standing almost as close to you as a few seconds ago.

“Have you found someone, Mrs. Norris?” Filch’s voice echoed through the hallway. “Is someone out of bed at night?”

“We have to get out,” You whispered, not very keen on getting detention any time soon.

“If we open the door now, he’ll know someone disguised is there,” Harry answered.

“How often have you snuck out of bed at night?”

The corners of his mouth twitched upwards into a lopsided smile.

“Enough times to know what to do.”

The scratching on the classroom door reminded Harry that, despite the fact that they were invisible, it was still pretty obvious that someone had been in here. Harry flicked his wand at the ceiling light right in time – the candles went out and the two of you were coated in darkness just before Filch pushed the door open and the light from his lantern fell onto the stone floor. You held your breath, hoping he would leave again.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Norris’ red eyes scanned the room and the greyish cat walked up to you as if she could actually see you. Instinctively, you wanted to move backwards, but Harry’s arm wrapped around you, holding you in place. You looked up to him and he slowly shook his head.

Mrs. Norris eyed you for a few more seconds before she suddenly jumped onto the table behind you, walking up to the two almost emptied butterbeer bottles and bumping her head against them.

“Oh no.” Your voice was no more than a whisper. “I didn’t –”

Harry placed his hand over your mouth, forcing you to keep quiet.

“Sorry,” You mumbled.

Filch had turned away from the other side of the room he had inspected and was now walking over to his cat. With his arm around your mid, Harry pulled you two quietly away from the table he was now inspecting. You weren’t entirely sure whether it was the panic of escaping Filch or Harry’s chest pressed against your back, but the butterflies in your stomach were jittery as though they were on drugs, and your heart beat unbelievably fast.

Harry felt your heartbeat. He felt the pulsating blood in your veins on your neck where his arm lay, reaching up to your mouth. You were barely breathing, and he figured it was because he was holding you like he was about to kidnap you.

“Run when we’re in the hallway,” He whispered, eyes steadily watching Filch, and removed his hand from your lips to grab your free hand. You nodded shortly. Fortunately, Filch had left the door open, and in one swift motion, Harry had steered you outside.

Fingers still interlocked with yours, he began to run, you by his side. And despite the fact that you two had almost been caught, despite that you had been interrupted when he had felt most confident, despite the ruined moment, he felt light and free and happy.

You were clutching your shoes, slithering over the cold tiles in your black tights, and Harry, looking at you, almost missed the last step of the stairs leading to the portrait of the Fat Lady. He held onto you as he staggered, and you giggled breathlessly, pulling him back up.

“That – stupid – fucking – cat. Can she see through your cloak?” You asked.

Harry shrugged and ruffled through his messy hair.

“Don’t know. I think, but I’m glad she can’t talk,” He said, and a grin spread over your lips, which he returned.

He caught your eyes, looking at you like before, like there was something he needed to say – the tingling feeling in your core got overwhelmed by heart-racing panic and because of some sour mix of uncertainty and fear, you slipped out from under the Invisibility Cloak, taking a few steps away from Harry.

Not a second later, he emerged as well, fighting to keep the smile on his face like his heart hadn't just sunk so deep he wasn't sure if it was even still connected to his veins.

“You okay?” He asked.

“Yeah!” Your voice was too loud, too squeaky to convince him. “Yeah, I – I'm sorry, it's just been a long week and I'm really tired. I'm gonna – gonna go...”

You gestured to the portrait behind you, avoiding his eyes, and turned to escape the situation.

Harry stared at the spot where you had vanished into the common room, his fingers clenching around the fabric of his cloak before tossing it to the ground. It didn't give the satisfying sound he had wanted to make, so he sent a “Fuck!” after it.

“Young boy, that is not a very appropriate language, now, is it?”

His eyes flew up to the Fat Lady, who had apparently watched with great interest. “Besides, what are you doing that late out of bed? I mean I know it gets later on Fridays for the two of you but it's later than usual today –”

“Chinese Fireball.”

“I just don't know what you are doing during that hour. There are rumours, for sure –”

“I told you the password, now will you open the fucking portrait? Chinese Fireball.”

“Oh, fine.” She let the portrait swing forward. “I'll find out by myself... maybe visit some paintings down on fifth floor...”

Harry ignored the Fat Lady.

He also ignored Ron calling after him from the sofa in front of the fireplace, as well as Hermione's questioning look and all the other people staring at him as he darted through the common room and up the stairs, slamming the door of his dorm shut behind him.

He ignored them because the only person he wanted to be seen with had just left him standing in the hallway and he wasn't even sure why.

The first time you saw each other again was three days later in Potions. You had ignored him on purpose, which you knew was obvious to him: Leaving the Great Hall whenever he stepped inside, sitting as far from him in the common room as possible, avoiding his eyes... that did not leave that much room for speculations.

You didn't want to hurt him, you really didn't, but you couldn't be friends any longer, especially not after last Friday. You weren't even sure what exactly had happened – had he really flirted with you or had that been your imagination? Probably the latter. He had asked someone else the ball after all. Right?

Parvati nudged you with her elbow, and you snapped out of your thoughts, noticing the hole in your parchment created by your quill. The two of you sat in the far back of Professor Slughorn’s class, who was in the middle of telling one of his anecdotes instead of teaching about Veritaserum.

“What’s going on?” She asked in a hushed voice. “You’ve been weird since Friday.”

Lavender, who sat in front of you, turned around. “Is it because of – you know?”

She gestured towards Harry in his usual place diagonally across from you. You sighed, placed your quill aside to rub your hands over your face and shrugged. You had also avoided any questions from your friends about Friday, mostly because you could not even answer them yourself.

“I thought he would ask you,” Lavender whispered while throwing a quick glance at Slughorn to make sure he was still occupied with his story. “Didn’t he?”

“No,” You mouthed. Parvati shook her head.

“Man, you’d think he had grown a set of balls after all. If it turns out he just used you to look good in front of Ginny, I swear to Merlin –”

“Well, that’s what it looks like, I mean, he had enough time to ask you,” Lavender said.

Before you could reply anything, Parvati had grabbed her wand and leaned forward. In the next second, the blue Jobberknoll feathers on Harry’s desk burst into flames with an ear-piercing noise.

Both Harry and Ron jumped up, startled from the sudden explosion, and Hermione let out a little shriek as one of the sparks got caught up in her locks. Snickering came from the Slytherin table, and Crabbe and Goyle were stupidly grinning.

“Was that you? Stupid tosspot, I’ll shove that feather up your –,” Ron swore loudly, fists high and ready to walk over to the Slytherins, who had gotten up as well and were throwing insults through the room.

“Calm down, m’boys, no need to get abusive.”

Slughorn stepped between the two fronts while both Harry and Hermione pulled Ron back down onto his chair. With a wave of Slughorn’s wand, the feathers stopped burning and were as good as new.

“Have you gone mental?” You asked during the turmoil. Parvati shrugged and innocently shoved her wand aside.

“You’re my friend and if he hurt you, he’ll get what he deserves –”

“He didn’t hurt me!” You whispered angrily. “I was the one who panicked, I ran away that evening because I was afraid of what he would say! Not Harry. I left him like the idiot I am even though he – he was super nice and said he wanted to learn more –”

“Ms. Y/L/N?”

“Sorry, Professor, I was just –”

“Talking to Ms. Patil, I noticed. Could you still answer my question?” Slughorn eyed you, and so were all the other students.

“Uh...yes... if you could repeat it? Sir.” You said, and once again snickering echoed through the classroom, the loudest coming from Pansy Parkinson.

From the corner of your eye, you saw Parvati reaching for her wand again, and you quickly pressed her hand down to the table, awkwardly smiling at Slughorn.

“I asked if you could tell me anything about the usage of Veritaserum in court,” He kindly repeated and you straightened your back, ignoring Hermione’s raised hand.

“Well, the potion is strictly banned by the British Ministry of Magic, therefore they don’t use it during interrogations and such, which is also because, like any other potion, it’s not infallible. But I read that in some Asian countries, the accused can choose if they want to take Veritaserum before they give testimony. Unfortunately, in some courts they give the accused failed Veritaserum in order to alter the given testimony fraudulently.”

You had never read about that, you were – ironically – making it up, but Slughorn didn’t seem to notice.

“Very well, that’ll be five points for Gryffindor,” He said. “That reminds me of –”

As Slughorn fell back into his old habit of telling personal stories during class, you sank back into your chair and stared at the chapped top of the desk for the rest of the lesson.

Only the bell ripped Slughorn out of his monologue, and over the rustling of chairs, he told the class to read the next chapter of Advanced Potion Making until Wednesday.

“Courtyard?” You asked Parvati as to where to spend your free lesson.

“Yeah, but I got a question about that graded essay from last week. Just go ahead, I’ll catch up with you,” She answered and made her way to the front. Alongside with Lavender, you were one of the first to leave the Potions classroom.

“I wish I hadn’t picked Arithmancy,” Lavender complained.

“You can sleep longer on Thursdays, remember?” You said as you reached the entrance hall. “I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, bye.”

Lavender began to climb up the stairs to the third floor, and you walked down the hallway. It was freezing cold outside, but the courtyard was beautiful during every time of the year, especially in the early mornings when the sun melted the iced-up grass and you could share a hot chocolate with your friends on one of the benches.

“Hey, Y/N! Wait!”

You turned to spot none other than Theodore Nott running up to you, his Slytherin scarf loosely around his neck.

“Hi,” He said as he had reached you.

“Uh, hi. Can I help you?” You asked.

“Actually, yeah. I wanted to ask if you have a dance to spare at the Spring ball? I mean, I know you’re going with Potter, I just wanted one dance with someone professional –”

“I’m not going with Harry,” You blurted out. Theodore narrowed his eyebrows.

“What?” He asked, a bemused smile on his lips.

You gulped and shook your head, crossing your arms. “I’m not going with... anyone.”

“Oh. Well, then,” His body relaxed visibly, and he raised his eyebrows, “do you wanna go with me?”

You opened your mouth, an agreement already on the tip of your tongue, but you knew that was just out of desperation and not because you actually wanted to go to the ball with Theodore.

“Hey, you know what, no pressure at all, okay?” He said, placing his hand on your shoulder casually. “I’ll be at the ball anyway, so if you want to dance then, I’m free.”

You nodded. “Thank you, Theodore. I’ll think about it.”

“You can call me Theo. Only if you want to, obviously.”

A grin crept upon your face. “Yeah, I’ll – I’ll think about it.”

Whatever Harry had felt the two days prior, it was nothing compared to the sour feeling circulating in his stomach now, like some dragon-creature spitting fire and tearing at his entrails with sharp claws. Inside of him, everything was clenching and itching, but on the outside, he was numb.

Like his brain had been disconnected from his muscles, wherefore he was only able to stare at Theodore Nott and his stupid, complacent grin and his hand on your shoulder while he asked you to the ball.

This wasn’t fair. How come everyone else but him was able to do it, how come everybody else had managed to find a date, when – to be honest – he had been provided with one of the best initial situations? How come the only thing he was apparently fit for was getting himself into trouble and escaping death every goddamn year? Harry had kind of forgotten about all that was to come, all that Dumbledore had told him, and the memory Slughorn was still tending like dark secret simply because of you.

The worst thing wasn’t that Theodore Nott had just asked you to go to the Spring ball with him. No, the worst thing was that you had agreed.

The only thing that was left for him was to run, which he did now: Up to the Gryffindor tower, tossing his back bag into a corner and grabbing his Firebolt from under the bed, then back down to the Quidditch pitch in record time.

Flying was one of the most freeing activities known to Harry, especially in the cool, fresh morning air with no one else around. High above the frozen grass and the wooden stands, much higher than probably allowed without any teacher near by, Harry paused to watch the sun over the Forbidden Forest.

He wondered if you had ever flown before, if you knew how brilliant it was to hover a thousand feet above the ground, far away from all the problems. Far away from Ron asking what the bloody hell was wrong with him. Far away from Hermione telling him that it was his own fault for waiting so long but that you surely weren’t interested like that in that tosser Theodore (though she would probably word it much more formal).

Time was relative up here, Harry had noticed over the years, so he closed his eyes and shut the world out for a moment. Saturday was still light-years away anyway, so –

“Harry, is that you?”

He almost fell from his broom.

With his heart still beating way to fast and adrenalin pumping though his veins, he turned his broom around to find no one other that Luna standing inside commentary box and waving up to him. Oh well. So much for being alone.

He steered his Firebolt down to the blonde witch and landed beside her.

“What are you doing her, Luna?” He asked as climbed from his broomstick. “Don’t you have classes right now?”

“Oh, yes. But I saw that you are sad so I asked Professor Sprout if I could go because I’m not feeling very well,” She explained and sat down on one of the benches.

“You lied to a professor?”

“Oh, no,” She said, looking at him with her dreamy blue eyes. “I don’t feel well when my friends are sad.”

Harry didn’t know what to reply to that, so he simply sat down next to her. Luna had such a strange, but calm energy, like a pulsating, pink bubble inhibiting her, and if you were lucky, she let you inside this bubble and you could shut the world out for a moment.

“Harry, why are you sad?” Luna asked softly after a while.

“Because... because I like someone who doesn’t like me back,” He said.

Luna placed her hand upon his, and he saw that she had painted her fingernails in every colour of the rainbow. Though that was probably Ginny’s work.

“I think Y/N likes you very much,” She said. Harry scoffed.

“Not the way I like her,” He said. “She just agreed to go to the ball with Nott. I saw it. She looked happy. And when I wanted to ask her last week, she ran away.”

“You know, first I thought you wanted to go to the ball with somebody else,” She said. “I thought maybe you wanted to ask Cho again and wanted to prepare this time. And maybe Y/N thought so, too.”

Harry looked up at the blonde girl.

“She did ask me if I was going to ask Cho,” He said, remembering one of the dance lessons.

“And did you tell her that you actually want to ask her?”

“No,” He admitted, burying his face in his hands. “I panicked... and now it’s too late.”

“No, it’s not. You should still go to the ball, and then you should tell her,” Luna said.

“How? I can’t do it when we’re alone, I certainly can’t do it when there’s a hundred people around,” Harry said miserably.

“Well, then don’t.” Luna shrugged. “If you want her to be with Theodore –”

“I don’t want that,” He interrupted her. “Of course, I don’t.”

“Then go to the ball and tell her. I know you can do that.”

Saturday evening came around faster than you liked it to. Over the last four days, you had noticed Theodore’s eyes on you more than once during the meals or potions class, but it did not cause the tingling feeling in your stomach you would like his looks to cause.

If anything, you felt a pressure to talk to him and to spend time with him because you would go to the ball together. But you did not give in to that pressure and avoided him as much as possible, which led to you often leaving the potions classroom as one of the first.

To be honest, you were much more concentrated on Harry.

Harry who did not sit beside you during meals anymore. Harry who did not look in your direction but rather stared at his plate. Harry who looked like he had just lived through a very miserable week.

And you knew that was because you had left him standing in the hallway last Friday night. Maybe he had figured that you had feelings for him and that was his way of dealing with it: Distancing himself from you.

You wished you had not run. You wished you could’ve stayed in that abandoned classroom forever, your favourite song playing and his arms around you.

–

“What eyeshadow should I use?”

“The darker one.”

“Y/N?”

You snapped out of your thoughts, looking up from where you sat on the floor in your puffy, ankle-long purple-pink dress. Parvati held out her eyeshadow palette, eyebrows raised as she sceptically eyed you. Her black hair was still wrapped around a dozen curlers. Lavender had spent all morning on them.

“Yes, the darker one,” You said. “Brings out your eyes.”

Thankfully, that answer seemed to satisfy her enough to not ask how you were doing. She and Lavender had already asked that over a million times, but you had reassured them that you were totally okay.

Parvati turned back to face the mirror.

“When did you want to meet with Nott?” Lavender asked. She kneeled in front of her trunk, pondering whether she should wear black or silver heels.

“Half past seven,” You mumbled, picking at the tulle of your dress.

Theodore had held you back yesterday after Defence against the Dark Arts to tell you that he would be at the Great Hall at 7:30 and that you were welcome to eat dinner with him and his friends – which included people like Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson; people you usually avoided by all means, people that had laughed at you for tripping over the last step of a stair, for not knowing an answer to one of Snape’s stupid questions, or for simply being Muggleborn.

You had never been less interested in going to a social event. All you wanted to do was lay in bed under your blanket and erase the last week out of your mind.

“Oh, come on, darling, we talked about this.” Lavender came over and squished your cheeks, brushing away a tear. “Today is not the day to sulk about some guy who doesn’t return your feelings. Today is your day, and you’re gonna have fun with us. Don’t let some guy ruin that. Okay?”

You sniffed and nodded, not able to answer because she cupped your cheeks so solidly. Lavender smiled and kissed your forehead.

“That’s right,” She said. “We’re gonna have some dinner and dance a bit and if by then you still feel bad, we can go back to our dorm.”

“And if Harry dares to talk to you, he’s gonna know what’s it feels like to be kicked in the balls with a heel,” Parvati added dryly. You laughed.

The Great Hall was decorated with yellow, pink and purple banners, and the four long house tables had been exchanged with much smaller, round ones scattered where the staff table usually stood, on each of them a vase filled with rosa tulips and white daffodils.

The ceiling did not mirror the night sky outside but a beautiful, orange sunset lighting up the dance floor in the middle. Opposite from the many tables, on the other end of the hall, Slughorn had organised a stage with a cover band. Next to the stage hung a long parchment onto which everyone could write requests.

You spotted your Potions teacher, dressed in a bright green suit, next to Dumbledore, his robes a terrible pink, both of them writing down their song requests.

“A Galleon that Dumbledore is a Spice Girls fan,” Lavender said grinning as she had followed your eyes.

“Bet,” Parvati said, grabbing three drinks from a passing waiter. “Here. Cheers.”

The three of you clinked glasses and took a sip of the red punch – it tasted strongly of various fruits, coconut, and bitter alcohol.

You let your eyes glide further over the hall and the people that sat together in groups around the tables, some of them already eating. Secretly, you were looking for Harry, though you only discovered Ginny in between Luna and Hermione, all of them chatting happily, and a few tables behind them, Theodore.

He waved as he saw you, gesturing to come over. You forced yourself to smile and wave back at him.

“I’ll see you later,” You said, chugging down the rest of your drink.

“Tell us if he’s being an asshole,” Parvati said. “Or really any of them.”

“And have some fun,” Lavender added.

You took one last look at your friends – Parvati in her silk, almond white, slim dress, and Lavender with flowers in her hair, their arms linked together – and swallowed thickly before turning and making your way through the crowd towards Theodore, though you made sure to give the table with Ginny a wide berth.

“Hi, Y/N,” Theodore greeted you, pecking a swift kiss on your left cheek. His eyes, however, were gliding over the room filling with more and more students. “We’ve already ordered some drinks, come on.”

You took a step back after the kiss, blinking quickly, then noticed how the other people around the table were staring at you:

Pansy and Daphne eyed you and your dress dismissively, and Blaise sipped on his wine, eyebrows raised. Only Draco was slumped in his chair and chewed on a gum, not wasting a single glance at you. He looked as uninterested in this Spring Ball as you felt.

An hour ago, you sure as hell wouldn’t have believed to relate to bloody Draco Malfoy.

“Uh, hi. I’m Y/N,” You said, forcing a smile on your face and holding out your hand towards Pansy, as she sat closest to you. “I like your dress. Matches your earrings.”

That compliment seemed to leave a mark. Her judging look softened and she shook your hand.

After introducing yourself to everyone (well, except Draco, who had only shortly nodded at you), you sat down in between Theodore and Blaise, and ordered something to eat.

Pansy and Daphne were huddled together the whole time, giggling and pointing at others, while Draco raised a complaint about every meal on the menu or really any other small inconvenience that had the unfortune to be spotted by him (“I can’t eat that, it has tomatoes in it. Nothing on here is gluten free. I’ll write father first thing in the morning. Pansy, will you shut the fuck up for a second? That’s not even a real band. God, I hate this place.”).

“He’s a whiny bitch most of the time, but his family has a great holiday chalet in France,” Blaise said to you after Draco had shot you an annoyed look for asking if you should ask the band to play a different song. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t be friends with him.”

“I hope you choke on that disgusting wine,” Draco muttered, and you chuckled.

“Sure, darling,” Blaise replied, sharing a look with you. Until now, Blaise had surprisingly talked the most with you, and it turned out he wasn’t half as bad as you had always thought he would be.

Theodore on the other hand had only occasionally asked you how your meal was and how long you had planned to stay. His eyes had not held contact with yours for longer than a second and were still searching for something in the crowd, which was – by the way – having fun on the dance floor while you had not moved in almost an hour.

It wasn’t until a particularly beautiful girl from Ravenclaw strode past your table that Theodore hooked his foot around the leg of your chair to pull you closer and placed his hand on your upper thigh, giving you his full attention for the first time that night.

“Have I told you that you look very pretty tonight?” He asked, his dark eyes meeting yours.

“Er – no,” You said, darting a confused look towards the Ravenclaw girl.

“Well, you do,” Theodore went on and turned your head back to face him by stroking his thumb over your cheek before pressing his lips onto the skin beneath your ear. They felt chapped and not pleasant in any way. You cringed.

“Uh, sorry, but that’s maybe a bit early, don’t you think?” You said, drawing back and shoving his hand from your thigh.

“She’s gone anyway, Theo,” Blaise said. You did not understand.

“Who’s gone?” You asked, looking back and forth between Theodore and the others, who all seemed to know something you didn’t. Pansy giggled.

“Nothing,” Theodore said. His sweet voice had turned bitter, and you felt like that was your fault. He stood up. “I’ll get some more punch.”

The band segued from an upbeat song into a much slower one, and the light of the candles magically dimmed.

“Do you want to dance maybe?” You asked Theodore as a way to make up for your rejection, but he had already pushed past a group of chatting seventh years, not turning around.

You sank back into your chair, picking at the tulle of your dress again. Was it too early to tell Lavender and Parvati that you wanted to go back to your dorm?

“Girl, if I were you, I would get out of here as quickly as possible,” Blaise said. You looked up at him. “He’s not worth it. And he’s not here for you. So don’t waste your energy.”

“But he asked me to the ball,” You said weakly.

“Did he? Or did he just ask for some time with you to make his ex-girlfriend jealous?”

“He – well – he…”

But Blaise looked at you and you knew that he was right, that this was never about you but some other girl. It was always about some other girl.

“Excuse me, I’ll get some fresh air,” You said and made your way through the tables towards the doors.

The last time, everyone had watched him. Now it was Harry’s turn to watch everyone else try their best on the dance floor. He wasn’t sure what was worse; to be laughed at by the others while stepping on Parvati’s feet every other second or to watch not only Hermione and Ron but also Ginny and Luna, as well as Seamus and Dean dancing closely, arms around the other.

They all had no idea what they were doing, Harry could tell, but they were having fun anyway. He had never seen Hermione this happy.

“Oh, flashback.”

Harry looked up. Parvati sat down next to him on the chair that Ron had left over half an hour ago.

“Yeah,” He mumbled, taking another sip of butterbeer, and turned back to the dance floor right in time to see Dean kissing Seamus passionately in the middle of the room.

“And you are not dancing because…?” Parvati asked. Harry crossed his arms.

“If you’re here to make fun of me or to blow up my butterbeer, feel free to fuck off.”

Parvati chuckled. “Sorry about that. But seriously, why are you sitting here miserably after all those dance lessons?”

Harry tried to make out if she was actually serious or if this was her way to revenge herself for the Yule Ball.

“Are you kidding me?” He asked. Parvati narrowed her eyebrows, now visibly puzzled.

“No, I’m genuinely asking –”

“Well, it’s not that fucking easy to slow dance if you have no date, is it,” He said crossly.

Parvati gaped at him, but he was certainly not in the mood for this. It had cost him all his strength to not look for you in the crowd all evening, he did not need reminding of you not liking him back by Parvati.

Before she could say anything else, he placed his butterbeer bottle on the table and darted outside, hands shoved deeply into the pockets of his suit and eyes directed to the floor.

Harry’s feet guided him towards the courtyard. The music played by the band wasn’t as loud out here, and the cold night air was lively in contrary to the sticky, perfumed air inside the Great Hall.

He kicked some of the grass away and walked towards the bench underneath the willow, watching how its branches weighed in the wind and thought how you were probably having as much fun as his friends, or maybe even more, considering Nott was infamous for snogging in various broom closets.

Harry’s stomach turned at the thought of that. He wished he had a time turner to make it right.

The moon stood high on the deep blue night sky, illuminating the courtyard you had unconsciously walked to. Grey clouds had approached, and tiny raindrops were falling to the ground, steadily drumming onto the roofs of Hogwarts.

On your way out of the Great Hall, you had caught a glimpse of Theodore sticking his tongue down the throat of that Ravenclaw girl, but to be honest, it didn’t matter that he was making out with someone else. It would’ve just been nice if you could have had a forewarning.

You thought you were the only single soul wandering about, then spotted a figure sitting on a bench. You were about to turn and search for some other place to wallow in your feelings, when you recognised the messy hair.

Maybe this was the time to make up for running away. Maybe this was the time to be honest.

Harry looked up when he noticed someone coming closer, the tulle of your dress rustling over the wet grass. His heart jumped and he forgot to breathe for a moment.

“Hello,” You said, voice echoing over the empty courtyard. “Can I sit?”

“Of course.”

Harry scooted to the side to make some space for you. You sat down next to him, leaving maybe a hand width between the two of you. The wide branches of the willow guided you from the cold rain.

“You weren’t dancing,” You said, staring at the grass instead of his face.

You would understand if he did not want to talk, if he just walked away. He didn’t owe you an explanation for why he had not asked you to the ball or why was sitting here instead of inside with Ginny or whoever he had asked.

“You weren’t either, were you?” Harry replied. “You and Nott.”

“No, he’s busy with someone else, so… no. Not dancing.”

“Oh.” Harry shuffled. His knee bumped against yours. “Well, he’s an idiot then.”

You smiled, not moving your knee away from his.

“Yeah…but I don’t mind, really.”

“You should,” Harry said, and he meant it. No one should be treated like that. “If anyone should be dancing, it’s you.”

You looked up at him. Harry was already watching you, and it filled you with warmth despite the freezing cold. There wasn’t a single sign of hurt on his face, just a soft curiosity lying in his green eyes.

“I’m sorry,” You whispered, “for running away last Friday. I had to sort out some things.”

“What things?” He asked quietly.

“Some…” Your heartbeat sped up. Be honest, you told yourself. “Some feelings.”

“Oh.” Harry tried to figure out what you meant by that, but the way you looked at him made his mind go blank. “You mean you…”

“I really like dancing with you,” You said. Harry felt his heart beating faster than ever against his ribcage. He wondered if you could hear it. “And I wouldn’t have done those lessons with anyone.”

The music from inside the Great Hall was growing louder, overshadowing the rain; someone must’ve opened the doors to let in some fresh air. The band was playing a slower, French song and it stung in your heart. It was one of your favourites.

When you turned back to Harry, he was standing up. For a second you thought he wanted to leave, to go back inside, then –

“May I have this dance?” Harry held out is right hand, and you did not have to think twice if you should take it or not.

He helped you up from the bench and led into the middle of the lawn, the rain still pattering onto the grass and the stone tiles. It smelled strongly of petrichor, and you thought that this was much closer to spring than the decorations in the Great Hall.

Harry’s hand found its place on your back, pulling you closer to him. You placed your hand on his shoulder, tapping his skin with your finger in time to the music out of habit, and met his eyes, reflecting the moon light in them.

Had you ever told him how beautiful he was?

The two of you moved, swaying back and forth. Harry realised that he did not even need to concentrate on the steps, he knew them by heart. The closeness of you took his breath away, the way your fingers held onto his, the way there was little to no room between your torso and his. You were smiling at him, despite the cold and the rain. Harry felt his stomach tingling.

“What’s it called?” Harry asked quietly, not wanting to drown out the music.

“‘Je Te Laisserai Des Mots’. I’ll leave you words,” You translated, having memorised the lyrics in your mind. “I’ll leave you words underneath your door, underneath the singing moon. Near the place where your feet pass by…hidden in the holes of wintertime and when you’re alone for a moment.”

You paused and Harry’s eyes fell to his feet, not able to take your gaze any longer. There were words on the tip of his tongue he did not dare to say – afraid, to ruin the moment. He wanted to stay here forever.

“Eyes up,” You said, placing your hand underneath his chin to lift his head up.

More French words reached your ears; Harry figured they were the same sentence repeated over and over, but even if he had been able to understand French, he wouldn’t have been able to translate them because of your hand still resting under his chin.

“Kiss me whenever you want,” You whispered. “Kiss me whenever you want. Kiss me –”

And then, Harry let go of his fears and kissed you.

After all it still took you by surprise how he loosened his fingers from yours to cup your face, pulling you as close to him as possible, until there was no space in between, noses bumping against each other. Both of your hands slung themselves around his neck, caressing his skin and driving up through messy hair.

His lips matched yours, gliding smoothly over one another, smearing your lip gloss everywhere until all you tasted was strawberries and sweet alcohol. With his chest against yours, Harry was glad to notice your heart beating as fast as his did, though that was also because he really needed to breathe – not that he wanted to, he would have been totally okay with never breaking away from the kiss if it was always going to feel this soft and freeing.

It was you in the end that had to carefully pull his face away from yours, heavily breathing in and out. You brushed his wet hair out of his forehead and let your fingers slide over his temples and cheeks down to his neck.

“That offer,” Harry began breathlessly, tucking a strand of hair he had accidentally drawn from your pinned-up hair behind your ear, “about continuing the dance lessons…that still stands, right?”

Your lips curved upwards into a smile. “Of course.”

“Brilliant,” Harry said, mirroring your smile before leaning down again to close the gap between your lips.

#Harry Potter #Harry James Potter #harry potter x reader #harry james potter x reader #fluff #oneshot #my writing #angst #slow burn

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canyouhearthelight · 3 years

Text

The Miys, Ch. 154

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

I was able to get the Master Post cleaned up this morning. I know there is a reblog going around with some of the links missing... I put that one up originally as a place holder so I could update my page links in chapters 101 through this one. I did NOT anticipate it would get immediately reblogged, which made me squeak in pleasant surprise. I’ll reblog the full post so everyone has the right one.

Also, thanks to @baelpenrose, @the-raven-fae, and @charlylimph-blog for keeping me going and all your help beta-reading and checking my links. You three are the real heroes here!

“The quiet rooms are done,” Hannah yawned the next morning. “It’s a good thing we decided to make them available immediately, because the first one had people scheduling time before we finished the second one.”

“How many did we end up with?” I asked, pushing down my own urge to yawn. I had always prided myself on being able to resist the urge to yawn when others did, and I wasn’t letting that stop now.

The model of the Ark came up on the table emitter, and Hannah zoomed in on the highlighted areas. “Right now, we have twelve, just like you set up for the second Food Festival. But I’ll be honest, they rooms are already booked for the foreseeable future, and I don’t think that’s tenable.”

“Agreed. I’ll talk to the rest of the Council, but at this point, we need to see about setting all available spaces for quiet rooms.” I nodded and added that note to my agenda. “Moving on, food vendors being allowed in BioLab2. Any updates?”

Parvati flicked the data to everyone. “Grey isn’t thrilled with the possibility that the food will contaminate the aquatics, but is willing to allow vendors in ‘The Fairy Circle’?” She gave me a questioning look. “They said you would know what that meant.”

I just smiled and shook my head. “It’s where I go camping. Conor managed to pull off a prank that fooled even Charly and made a Faerie circle. It’s a good choice, though: ten, eleven feet across, accessible, and far enough from the water that there wouldn’t be any risk.”

She rolled her eyes and smiled. “Credit to Conor on that one. But, Grey was very enthusiastic about the idea of setting up some picnic tables throughout the woods and letting people bring picnics.”

“I already have some vendors on board, there,” I breathed in relief. “Especially the ones who specialize in the type of foods that lend themselves well to being portable.”

Hannah’s face lit up. “Do we get to taste test some of these? I’m really getting some bento box and pasty vibes from what you just said, and I’m not sure which I’m more excited about.”

“I think I can get that to happen,” I laughed. “I wouldn’t mind trying some of the options myself, but I can at least already confirm that all bases are covered for dietary requirements. Next up, where are we on the holiday date?”

“Still working with the other departments to finalize a date where all projects can be completed, paused, or at least at a point where they don’t require direct observation. Everyone is on board, though.”

“That’s the biggest hurdle,” I confirmed. “Means we can proceed with at least putting the rest of the events together in preparation for the final date. I trust you two in handling the party aspect of it, and Charly is already working Bash on another Kink Night event at the Undine - minimal planning needed there. So, let’s figure out who is coordinating the paint-tag fight, and we can loop back to the plans for the party.”

“While I am entirely sure Charly can handle planning for both the paint tag and the other - seeing as both were her ideas - it doesn’t feel fair to leave them both entirely on her shoulders,” Hannah agreed. “It says here that you already had Conor confirm we missed Holi?

“By about six months,” I confessed. “So we’re pretty much both too late and too early.”

“I do believe the arrows would be frowned upon, in any event,” Parvati joked. “I still have her paint formulas - flavors are not listed, but there is a distinct lack of both black and yellow.”

“Those were… scotch bonnet for the black, I know that one. I think the yellow was gochujang, which would still hurt if you got it in your eyes,” I recalled.

She flicked her hands, bracelets chiming. “I will ask for a new formula for yellow, but I think we can live without black paint. The yellow was lovely, though.”

“Ask nicely, and she’ll probably give you the glitter formula colors, which I think are different flavors from the regular palette,” I suggested. “And the glitter is ultra-violet reactive, so that’ll be fun.”

Emphatic stabbing at her datapad ensued - impressive, because it wasn’t even physically there, just emitted from the band on her wrist. “Once I have those, I believe Hannah and I can coordinate that along with the party. There is no food component, it is only for one day, so the scope is far smaller than the Festival was.”

“And besides,” Hannah added with a shrug, “whip up some paints and some spongy balls to soak it up, set boundaries, invite anyone who wants to attend. Planning done.” She dusted her hands off for emphasis, but she had a point.

“I’ve got the care packages well underway, so we’re solid there. The party. What’s the plan there?”

Parvati dismissed the schematic from the table emitter and sent a different image to it. This one was practically the opposite of what I had expected: where I had anticipated Food Festival 2: Pyrotechnic Boogaloo, I was instead looking at a park that I was reasonably certain only existed in dreams.

Soft green grass that my toes wiggled to touch spanned a rolling, looping thoroughfare. Trees arched overhead like an arbor, and were either woven with lights are absolutely covered in fireflies. Between breaks in the canopy, a night sky filled with more stars than I had seen in my living memory. Here and there small braziers burned brightly with fire, resting on sturdy rugs and dotted around with cushions.

“Vati,” I whispered hoarsely. “We can’t use BioLab2 for this, can we? Will Grey allow it?”

“We can, and they are.” Her smile was the feral one that usually preceded a coup de grace of event planning. “This, however, is not BioLab2. This is the corridors of levels twelve through fourteen, leading into the lab.”

My first urge was to guess what she was planning, but my mind came up blank. I circled around my desk to stand closer to the table. “Okay, talk to me. Make it make sense.”

She nodded. “The grass is real, laid down like sod. The terraforming teams have agreed to let us use it, provided we allow them to collect data on how it holds up to so much foot traffic and include a post-event question regarding the tactile feel on bare feet. So, bare feet they shall have.” She winked when I realized she and Hannah were going to make it part of the theme. “The trees are an illusion, simple light emitters against the corridor walls, combined with the existing texture of the surface.”

When she moved the image to mimic walking further down the path, Hannah picked up. “The larger spaces are actually where the corridors are longer between quiet rooms. Rather than trying to pull off the tree illusion, we’re going to create a night sky with shooting stars, comets, the works. Like a dream.”

“I like it. It’s not what I was expecting, but I’m even more impressed for that.”

“We couldn’t compete with Charly,” Parvati confessed. “She is already going to have our base desires covered. Anything we tried to do would look like a pale imitation. So, we went the other direction: What else do we do to feel alive?”

“We dream,” I laughed. “It’s all a fairy tale dream, isn’t it?”

“That’s the goal,” Hannah confirmed. “A beautiful dream. One day and one night where you can live out your humanity however you want, without having to compromise. If someone wants to throw paint with childish abandon, then stroll and dance through a dream, and finish the night at the Undine trying something they never dared to do before, they can do that.”

“When you put it like that, it sounds decadent.”

“I was going for hedonistic, over all, but you’re on the right track,” Parvati laughed. “Hannah and I agreed that everyone on the Ark needed one perfect day. And since perfect is different for everyone…” She shrugged. “We just decided to give them all the options. The quiet rooms will be open if their perfect includes a botanical garden, or a cloud… the mess halls will be open if it means a feast, or even just decadent hors d'oeuvres they could never make an excuse to try. It’s literally all on the table.”

“Consider it signed off on.” I still couldn’t take my eyes off that grass, toes wiggling happily. “Just let me know the date when we have one, I need a pedicure to enjoy this completely.”

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#the miys #found family #humans are weird #science fiction #aliens #apocalypse #humans are space orcs #humans are space fae #earth is space australia #post apocalypse #post post apocalypse #original science fiction #original sci fi #original writing

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adelineardn · 2 years

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Hi! I'm writing a "Voldemort dies early" AU and well, I want Nagini to join the crew. I didn't watch The Crimes of Grindewald but from what I heard, she has very little personality there, and her background is quite the mess. So I'm trying to nitpick good bits from the canon and add enough of irl info to make something that makes sense.

I saw your addition on a post about Nagini, so I hoped you could offer some comments on my thoughts so far. If not that's cool.

Her name

Nāginī, the female counterpart of a Nāga, the king cobra, or a serpentine class of semi-divine deities found in Hindu religion.

Parvati; Almost Perfect

I'm not saying her parents couldn't name her that, but couldn't it also be a nickname she picked up later in life?

The Maledictus curse

I like the idea of the hereditary blood curse. It could be in Nagini's family for several generations, passed from mother to daughters. She could know that she'll start having problems controlling her transformation around (let's say) 30, and the snake form could become permanent in her 40s.

There could be ways of delaying the inevitable permanent transformation, or even a way to lift the curse altogether.

(BTW I looked up the golden snail princess myth you mentioned in the post and it's super similar to some stories of Brother's Grimms, except the girl in the version I remember read turned into an apple tree.)

Life and locations

From what I can tell Nagini's journey goes something like this:

Indonesia

America - the circus, she's at least 20 or at this point.

Europe with Credence (1920-1930s)

Albania, where Voldemort allegedly found her, already fully snake-ified

England

I looked onto Asian - US migration and most commonly it was for cheap labour, namely Japanese, Chinese and South Korean people, and later on Bengali Muslims and Filipinos and others (whenever one group tried to unonize they would start hiring from another ethnics to keep the labour cheap).

Would it be pausible that Nagini's family was partially muggle and they went to chase the American dream? Only to face rampant racism, might I add.

Again, I didn't watch and don't intend to watch The Crimes so everything I know about her time in America comes from gifsets and wikis, and nobody knows what she was doing in Albania...

Since Voldy is dead it would be a group of ex-Death Eater tourists who would find and befriend her in Albania (or somewhere else) circa 1980. I'm thinking since she's not the only one hunted by the law it would be her name on all their paperwork when starting a legit rare potion ingredients collecting business...

Again, feel free to ignore this but I'd love to hear somebody else's thoughts. Finding headcanons on Nagini is surprisingly hard.

omg sorry for only responding now (I’ve been away from tumblr due to the hilarious amount of schoolwork), again I’m so sorry :(( I’ll put my thoughts into points to make it look neater: 1. yes!! the name “nagini” could have been a nickname and not her actual birthname. 2. maybe there could be a potion of some sorts to delay the permanent transformation, or maybe a ritual of some sorts. 3. in the fantastic beasts movies, it was stated that nagini was found in the jungles of Indonesia, so the theory of her family going to america to have a better life being the cause of her getting captured does not work. 4. I have a feeling she went to albania to flee from the whole wizarding war thing. 5. ahh your last point is great, it might be possible IF those death eaters are able to find and “befriend” nagini. idk if the death eaters knew about nagini, but if they do then yeah!! aaaa I have a strong feeling that your work is going to be superrr cool <3333

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jpitha · 7 months

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Dreams of Hyacinth 34

First / Previous / Next

Eastern reached out to Ganymede station while Nick continued to get their bearings. Even though they were a million kilometers or so from it, Jupiter loomed large on the screen. Nick had never seen the planet up close before. It reminded him of the gas giant back home in the Parvati system.

While he stared, he reflected on where he and Eastern were. What were they doing? They were planning on diving back into danger to save their girlfriend sure, but Nick also felt like something larger was happening. Nick hated feeling out of control and yet it has felt like he's been acting at the whims of the Nanites since he got them, and even before that, acting at the whims of other folks. First Jameson, then Raaden, then the Nanites.

Does he even have the ability to follow his own path anymore? Is any decision he makes his?

Nick was staring out into space thinking these thoughts when Eastern got his attention. "Hon? Ganymede says they have to make some room - their docking ring is full - but once they have done so, we have permission to land. ETA is about a day."

Nick snapped out of his reverie. "They said their docking ring is full? Eastern, can you look with our scope? It is actually full?"

"Hmm, I didn't think to look. Let me check."

Another few minutes passed while Eastern scanned. "Huh. It looks like they have a few ships docked, but there is plenty of room. Why would they lie?"

Nick sighed. "They probably guessed who we are, or were told to call for help if anyone unknown linked in. Not one day in Sol and we've been made. We should link away."

Eastern's voice over the comm sounded strained. "But, Nick. If we leave, we're going to lose our chance to find out what happened to Selkirk."

Before Nick could reply, there was a blinding flash, and in front of them was a massive ship. Bigger than a Starjumper, with rounded edges and atmospheric control surfaces. Their radio chimed with a signal and Eastern opened the channel.

"This is the Dreams of Hyacinth. The Sol system is closed to colonial vessels. State your name and your purpose for entering the system." Nick's blood chilled with realization. He recognized that voice.

Eastern gasped. "Selkirk! It's us! It's Nick and Eastern! We came to look for you!"

The signal changed from audio to video. On the screen saw Selkirk standing on the Command Deck of the Hyacinth, dressed in the uniform of Raaden's empire. Her uniform was spotless and she was clearly in charge. Nick could see ten thin wires spilling down from the back of her neck towards the command chair next to her.

Her eyes blinked in surprise. Her ears flicked, and for a split second, it looked like she was pleased to see them. Just as quickly, her expression settled into a snarl. "I've been here the whole time, Nick and Eastern. The more pertinent question is where have you been? Empress Raaden filled me in on your treachery."

Eastern nearly stuttered in her haste to explain themselves. "Treachery? Sel, Helen told us you were dead! She said you died on the operating table during your surgery. She lied to us. She made it clear that unless we went along with her, that things would go badly for us. We ran for our lives. Nick didn't believe it, so we... borrowed a ship from the AIs and came back to Sol to find you!"

Selkirk sat back down in her command chair. As she moved, the cables attached to her moved with her and slid back out of the way. "Pardon me if I find your story hard to believe. You've been gone for five years. There was plenty of time for you to come and find me. No, this is a trick. You were sent here in an AI built ship to come and destabilize us. To try and undo all the good work we've done."

"Sel please!" Eastern's voice was on the edge of tears. "We were in hibernation! We got tricked by the AIs and they put us on ice! We never meant to be gone this long! Let's get together, and we can talk it out, just like the old days."

Selkirk's face hardened. "No Eastern. You and Nick had your chance. You could have come back anytime. Helen herself told me she was willing to hear you out, welcome you back. You made your choice. I've made mine." Selkirk turned away from the camera. "Goodbye Nick. Goodbye, Eastern." The comm link was disconnected.

"No... Sel..." Eastern's voice was quiet.

Nick stared at the dark screen, blinking back tears. Suddenly, a hooting alarm sounded. "Eastern, what's going on?"

"We're being targeted Nick! Missile incoming."

For just a moment, Nick wondered if he should just let them come. No. No, that's not the way, he thought. We can figure this out, get Selkirk back. "Free the slug throwers, we have to defend ourselves." Nick's fingers flew over the panel next to his chair while he tried to find the missiles that Eastern saw.

"What's the point Nick? Sel made her choice. She's lost."

"Eastern! We're not going to sit here and take a missile up the ass because Selkirk rejected us! This is Helen's doing. We'll get Helen and get Selkirk back, but only if we survive. That's what we do hon. We survive." Nick released the slug throwers and main battery himself. Luckily it started to auto target the missile. "Eastern. We are going to get through this, but only if we help each other."

"Okay Nick. I'll help."

The slug thrower's chattering roar vibrated the ship as it attempted to fling metal at the incoming missile. With a small orange and white flash, it was gone.

"We got it hon! Calculate a link away, and we'll regroup. I'll keep an eye out for more missiles." Nick dithered over firing back. No. If they don't shoot they won't run the risk of hurting Selkirk.

"... Okay Nick. Where should we go?"

"I don't know Eastern, anywhere is better than here. Pick someplace."

Nick's console squealed an alarm as an energy spike was detected from Dreams of Hyacinth, and he barely had any time to react before their main battery struck Empress. The blast rang their little ship like a gong, and alerts lit up red all over his panel. Another hit like that would take them out. "Eastern! We can't take another hit like that. Get us out of here!" Nick's ears rung with the blast and his ears popped. Pressure loss. A huge pressure door clanged shut, sealing the command deck and Nick felt a breeze as the deck was re-pressurized.

Eastern's voice sounded strangely quiet and muffled. "I'm trying Nick, I'm trying. I don't feel right. I think that hit damaged the wormhole generator or something. I'm trying to work around it." Empress shot away from Hyacinth on thrusters as Nick's console hooted that they had another lock.

Before Nick could bring the slug throwers around again, there was another flash and a ship appeared in front of them. Eastern squeaked and flipped Empress over, trying to thrust in another direction so they didn't strike the unknown ship. Nick had never seen this kind of ship before either. It was larger than they were, but smaller than Starjumper, and had a wild blue and orange paint scheme. It instantly opened up more laser batteries than Nick thought possible on the Hyacinth. Selkirk's ship lit up with the light and energy of the blasts. Nick's first impulse was to tell them to stop shooting, but the words caught in his mouth as he realized that Selkirk didn't seem to feel the same way.

"Who the hell is that Eastern?"

"I don't know Nick, but they're helping. Open a comm channel and ask, I'm still trying to keep us from blowing up."

Nick toggled the radio. "Unknown ship, this is Empress, thank you for the assist. Who are we speaking to?"

The commlink switched to video and a Mariens was sitting in front of them. Nick blinked in surprise. He knew of Mariens from the news back when Melody came into Sol, but he had never seen one up close. They really did have a octopus look about them. "This is Captain Dev'inna of the Immar IV. We're going to grab you with our grapple and link you to safety. Hold tight."

Before Nick could react, practically the entire bottom of the Immar split open, revealing a massive grapple arm. With practiced precision, Immar grabbed the top of Empress and slid it closer.

Empress was smaller than Immar, but not so small as to be brought inside the Mariens ship and before Nick could ask what they were doing, there was a disorienting flash and they both linked away.

When they reappeared in space, Captain Dev'inna called again. "Sorry about that. We didn't want Dreams of Hyacinth to know what we were doing or where we were going. We still try and keep a low profile these days. We're safer now, but we won't be safe until we're docked inside the Reach. Follow us please."

Nick looked out and he couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was a Starbase, almost as large at High Mars Hyacinth, but teardrop shaped. The widest part of the teardrop was the top and had angular protrusions, almost like skyscrapers. The bottom, pointed part of the teardrop was surrounded by a ring. Nick couldn't help it and blurted out "What is that?"

Captain Dev'inna chuckled. "That friends, is Reach of the Might of Vzzx. The last Builder Starbase. The AIs helped bring it out here after Melody's... plan failed. Even though we were on the other side of the war, they didn't feel right leaving us on the other side of the galaxy. For that - and only that - we thank them. We can speak more in person. Come on."

They closed the connection. Eastern said "Well... I guess we should follow them. It seems like they're here to help us."

Nick leaned back in his seat. "Yes, but why? How did they know we were here and more importantly, how did they know we needed help?"

"All good questions hon. Let's ask them when we get inside."

Eastern turned Empress to follow Immar IV, and they slowly continued on towards the massive station. Instead of going towards the ring, Immar went near the middle, and as they approached, doors large enough to admit a Starjumper opened. Immar slid in and as Eastern got close, she felt a pull and grunted. "Huh. They have some kind of field. We're being pulled in on our own. That makes landings easy at least."

All in all, the landing only took about 30 minutes as Empress drifted slowly past other ships, all in different stages of repair or construction. Some of the bays looked like the ships had been half built for decades, others were bright and busy with work.

Without any fanfare, Empress slipped into an empty bay, and with a hum and a flash, a field sprung up near the door and Nick began to hear noise as air rushed into the bay. A few minutes later, Empress's systems spun down and Eastern came up to the command deck, rubbing the back of her head. "I don't know about you Nick, but I don't think I like being a ship that long. The change from my body to ship makes me feel... odd. I hope I don't have to be driving all the time."

Nick smiled and hugged Eastern. He tilted his head up and kissed her gently. "I'll drive next time if we need to hon. Thanks for doing it this time."

She smiled, and they made their way towards the exit.

Empress was never designed for atmospheric work, so the main airlock opened about two meters over the deck. Nick watched as an Aviens and Mariens rushed over with a wheeled set of stairs, and leaned them against Empress. Nick and Eastern carefully climbed down and thanked the dockworkers.

"Of course Empress, Emperor. Please, Captain Dev'inna and Sound of the City are waiting to meet you. This way."

Looking at each other, but saying nothing, Nick and Eastern shrugged and followed the workers. They passed through a thick airlock.

Nick and Eastern boggled. There were easily more people here than anywhere either of them had ever seen. Even Congregation Square, the busiest part of Hyacinth couldn't compare. Hyacinth was built large to make it feel roomy. The Reach was apparently built large to hold a lot of people. While they stood there, they saw all kinds of sapients. People they'd only read about or seen pictures or video. Mariens, Aviens, Azurians, and even a few of the Falor, who lived in atmospheric suits all the time outside of their district. Nick remembered reading about them, apparently quite a few relocated to one of the floating cities on Venus, because they could just lower it deeper into the Venusian atmosphere and make a more tolerable place for them.

After a moment, Captain Dev'inna rushed over with one of the bird looking people, the Aviens with them. They were wearing a royal blue uniform and under it had shimmering feathers.

Eastern looked around. Actually lots of people here wore the same Royal Blue that Melody wore.

"Empress! Emperor! Welcome to Reach of the Might of Vzzx! We're so glad you're here!" Captain Dev'inna bowed low.

"Indeed. We finally feel whole again. It is such a joy to see you." The Aviens matched the bow of Dev'inna. "I am Sound of the City, current Head Builder on the Reach and leader of the Administration."

Nick and Eastern returned the bows without thinking. Nick thought it was odd that they both did that, but at the same time it felt... right to do it. "Builder? I thought all the Builders were killed when... the AIs captured the Reach?" Nick said.

City's eyes sparkled. "Yes, and I suppose they thought the Empresses destroyed when they killed Melody. And yet, you stand before us."

Eastern narrowed her eyes. "What about Empress Raaden?"

City scoffed. "We do not recognize her authority. Do you know that she has not returned to the reach once since Melody died? She has made no speeches, she has done no rites. She is not empress, she merely has the Nanites. Being Empress is more than nanotechnology."

Eastern looked like she was about to say something else, but Nick held up his hand. "Captain Dev'inna, Sound of the City, please accept our most grateful thanks for the help, but I must ask. How did you know we were there? How did you know we needed help? How did you know we even existed?"

Sound of the City looked surprised. "Emperor, are you testing us? We knew where you were for the same reason that you knew how to return our greetings. For the same reason you both are speaking our languages instead of your own Colonic."

"The Nanites told us."

#humans are deathworlders #humans are space orcs #humans are space oddities #sci fi writing #writing #humans and aliens #jpitha #the k’laxiverse #The Dreams of Hyacinth

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yourstruly-caycay · 3 years

Text

20 Years Later

A one-shot base of the art from @ris-lunas.

Disclaimer: none of this will be accurate to the mythology, and this won’t follow the Record of Ragnarok storyline.

Ganesha and Shiva have a best father-and-son relationship. Beside being a father, Shiva is also like a brother to him, everyday is like a holiday whenever Shiva is around.

But lately, as Ganesha grow up, Shiva has been really busy with lots of work. They spend less time, and even Shiva immediately go to sleep after work sometimes — it can be lonely to Ganesha.

On the other hand, Shiva actually want to spend a family time with his wives and Ganesha, but the work can be stressing to him even though he always never show his stress expression. Although, he still able to spend times with his family, even if it’s only a little amount of time; he wish to go back to that day.

20 years ago~

“Papa!”

“Ganesha!”

The elephant jump into his father’s hug with a laughter that’s pleasant to heard it, “Happy Father’s day, papa. Look at the chocolate cake I made for you!”

He excitedly showed it to his father, shiva smirked at the messy drawing of Shiva, his three wives, and Ganesha together by using a cream— it flattered him.

“How creative you are, Ganesha, good job,” he continue,“Now that your school is over, where do you want to go?”

Today is actually an unusual day for Shiva to wore clothes and jacket, let alone a sandal too—it made him looked like an ordinary father picked up his son from school.

“How about carnival? Let’s ride roller coaster together.”

“Great idea then, let’s go.” Shiva still carried his son with a smile on their face, anxious to spending time together, plus it was a right day to went to carnival since it’s sunny.

Well... not really, on the way to the carnival, the weather somehow turned into cloudy. The wind was slowly getting harsh, and suddenly a droplet of water dropped to Shiva’s head as another waters dropped from above clouds — it had became raining, and they’re disappointed.

“Screw the rain, who even dropping this rain?” He silently glared, immediately ran to find a nearest shelter, Shiva used his jacket to covered Ganesha from the rain.

Fortunately, it’s a relieved for Shiva that it’s not took a long time to found a bus shelter to stayed for a moment, he put Ganesha on the seat as he sat too. Now, the only thing they should do right now was to waited for the rain to stopped.

Shiva noticed that Ganesha was shivered because of today cold weather. He shoved Ganesha unto his jacket to covered him from the cold — not much of a help, but Ganesha hugged tightly to his body, Shiva took a glance at his son who yawn and eyes exhausted.

“If you’re tired, just go back to sleep, I’ll wake you up once the rain stopped.”

“I can’t sleep papa, it’s really cold here.”

Shiva sooth the little elephant’s back, “Well, just rest, this might take a long times to stop.”

Suddenly, a growled can be heard from both of them as Ganesha had a blush on his face, then a bigger growl came from Shiva that both of them glance awkwardly to his stomach.

The awkwardness turned into a laughter, it's ironic that both stomach were begging some foods, happiness filled within them even in this cold harsh rain.

They almost forgot about the rain as suddenly a thunder clap make them scream in surprise.

Ganesha hide his face with Shiva’s jacket, not even wanted to saw the rain as he could felt the slight shiver of coldness. Meanwhile, Shiva held his son tightly to comforted him.

“Just close your eyes and cover your ears, Ganesha.” The trembling little elephant nod his head within the jacket, Shiva was seeking for an indoor place where they can stay for a moment.

Fortunately, there’s a restaurant that’s only across the bus shelter. It could be saw from the light and blurry figure. How excited Shiva was when discovered it, he carry Ganesha while covering Ganesha and himself with his jacket.

“Papa, what are you doing?”

“We’re going to restaurant, it not far from here.”

“But isn’t this too dangerous, papa?”

“just trust me on this one, son, we’re gonna make it without getting wet.” Confident can be saw on Shiva’s face, his smile that always reassure Ganesha that his father can go through anything — even troublesome one.

Shiva scanned the road to make sure there’s no vehicle driving, him and his son held the jacket tightly as the wind was getting harsher. In this empty road, he countdown and ran to the road. Both father and son were scream either in panic or fun, Ganesha held the jacket tightly with his other hand while the other clinged into Shiva’s body.

As they finally reach to the restaurant, and got inside. Shiva put Ganesha down — he’s completely dry from the rain, amaze that not a drop of rain was on Ganesha. “We did it papa, We’re safe.”

"See? Told you that your papa can go through anything." Ganesha rolled his eyes while chuckled, Shiva sometimes can be a bit too confident.

The restaurant that they stumble in is actually a WcDonald, it's Ganesha's first time in here.

“Well, let’s order a food, unless you want your stomach to complain.” Since Ganesha doesn't knew much of this place nor the foods, he just let his father order anything for him. They wait for the meal to be served, and it only took a few minutes as they received the meal.

It felt new for Ganesha to saw a burger and french fries with coke since he live in a luxury life. He found the shaoe of a burger to be funny and the smell was pleasant to made his stomach growled.

Taking a bite of the burger curiously, he freezes at how tasty it is, his wide smile could obviously be seen as he take another bite.

Shiva just laughed at how Ganesha devoured the burger excitedly, however it’s not long until Ganesha cough from eating a big bite, Shiva immediately gave him the water as he drank it.

“Be careful when eating, just slowly.” He patted Ganesha’s back, then as they begin to ate again, a waitress came to them and asked.

“Sorry to interrupted you sir, but if you don’t mind, may I take a picture of you and your son for the Father’s Day?”

“Sure, why not?”

“Thank you, please just eat your food while I take your picture.”

She thanked Shiva as she took the picture of them, Shiva just continue ate the food with Ganesha happily.

After the waitress took the picture twice, she gave one of them to Shiva and leave them.

“Wow, we look great in the picture, don’t you think so Ganesha?”

“We are!”

Shiva looked at the outside and disappointed that the rain is still pouring, it’s a shame they can’t go to a carnival, plus he have other works to do after this and he can’t spend the rest of the times with his family. “Ganesha, sorry that I can’t take you to the carnival, seems like the rain won’t stop soon.”

“That’s alright papa, beside I’m happy that we get to hang out together,” Ganesha continue, “I know that papa have work to do, and maybe after this papa can’t play with me, but I’m happy that you try to spare a time for me.”

Shiva was out of words, didn’t expected that sentence to came out from his son. It’s quiet for a moment until Shiva finally smiled, proud to know his son understand him, both of them continue to ate the foods.

A hour later, the rain had stopped and they order another WcDonald’s foods for his wives.

Once they reach their house by evening, the wives were concerned with Shiva wearing his jacket that’s wet from rain, wasn't he feeling cold the whole time?

In the end, Shiva gave each of them the foods as an apoligize for making them worried. The wives were also impressed when they heard that Shiva kept his son dry during the rain, and adored the picture and the cake that Ganesha showed them.

Present day~

One of his wives, Parvati, found a certain picture in the attic. She didn’t expect this to still be in here — it’s actually a cute picture. Parvati come to Ganesha as she show him, “Ganesha, I found something from the attic.”

His eyes gaze at the picture and become wide in surprise — a picture of him and Shiva eat together in a fast food. “How? I thought it’s already gone.”

“I don’t know how, but I think it’s the best if you keep it. You and Shiva looks really cute in this picture."

Ganesha smile at the memory from twenty years ago, this was back when he’s only grade 3. "You're right mama, I will keep it."

"I'm home!" A sound of door open wide revealing Shiva with his joyful expression.

"Welcome home, Lord Shiva." One of his wives, Kali, approaching him and kiss him.

"Kali, look at what I got for you guys-"

"Papa, you come home early!" Ganesha approach him along with Parvati and Durga. Ganesha hug him as Shiva hug him back, the atmosphere has become warm and vibrant with him. Then, he embrace his other two wives, everyone always got a turn.

“By the way, I’ve got something for you guys while I was on my way back home.” He handing out the bag of food, Ganesha immediately recognize the bag as if a memory come back alive. “Papa, isn’t that from WcDonald?”

“Correct, I’m surprise you still remember it, let’s eat this together for dinner.”

The end~

Author’s note: I’m so sorry that it got delay, but I hope y’all like it. Thank you for being patient with me. >////<

#record of ragnarok #shuumatsu no valkyrie #snv shiva #ror shiva #shuumatsu no walkure

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mioniesvfx · 3 years

Text

Sadness: Ron Weasley

Warning: Cursing, Angst, mentions of sadness and abuse. (fluff at the end)

Parings: Ron Weasley x fem!Gryffindor reader

Summary: Y/n has neem feeling down and sad lately, and no matter how hard her boyfriend Ron tries to cheer her up she won’t budge. What happens when Ron takes a liking into someone who does want to to talk to him? Someone like Lavender.

Ron didn’t know what went wrong. Hell, neither did you. All he knew was that the smiles and bits of giggles that used to come out of your mouth were gone.

It all started with your parents. You came from a fine family of pure blooded Ravenclaw’s and they weren’t vey happy whenever you were sorted into Gryffindor. You were never good in any of the subjects which did not sit right with your parents. Now that your O.W.L.S were coming up there were no hopes of them giving you a break. Foul letters were sent in everyday from your parents on how ‘’stupid’’ and ‘’useless’’ you were. You tried to hide your issues from your friends as much as you could. But one person you never wanted to find out about your problems was your loving boyfriend Ron.

You didn’t know why you wouldn’t just confine in Ron. You knew he would never judge you or thing you were week, But that didn’t stop you from avoiding him every chance you got.

It made Ron feel sad and insecure whenever he tried whenever he would wave and smile at you in the hallways and you would just act like you didn’t see him. One day he caught you off guard studying in the library. Something he’s noticed you have been doing a lot lately.

‘’ Hello love’’ You heard a masculine voice whisper into your ear as they lazily drooped both of their arm’s over your shoulders and rested them there. You quickly identified the voice as Ron’s. You muttered something inaudible under your breath as a reply as you stuck your nose deeper into the transfiguration book you were reading, Though you were to busy secretly studying Ron’s behavior then actually moving.

Ron roared a mad sigh and viciously slung his arms from around you. With that you finally turned around to make eye contact with him. A few Hufflepuff's at the table next to you were now watching the scene unfold in front of you. ‘’That’s it’’ Ron huffed loudly. ‘’I’m tired of you avoiding me Y/n.’’ ‘’I don’t know what the hell’s been going on with you lately but I miss my old girlfriend.’’ ‘’The one who could talk to me and the one who wouldn’t turn the other direction every time she saw me.’’

Your mouth hung slightly agape. You could feel a ping of guilt in the back of your throat. ‘’I- I’m sorry Ron it’s just that I’m going through some things right now. you stuttered out pitifully. ‘’Yeah sure’’ he said in a sarcastic like way witch brought confusion and hurt to hit you. ‘’If you just wanted to break up with me you could have just said it.’’ and with that he stormed out of the library. You could feel tears feel up your eyes furiously as they kept sliding down your at a very quick pace. You could feel the remainder of the student in the library staring at you. you stand the dumbstruck for a while before quickly gathering your things and storming out as well, Madam prince giving you a sad smile on the way out.

You opened up the curtains of your four poster bed and cried yourself to sleep until morning.

The next day despite your thoughts of not wanting to go to class the next day you still did fearful that your parents may find out. Your eyes were red and puffy but you didn’t have the motivation nor energy to try and fix yourself up. You didn’t bother to go to the great hall at risk of seeing Ron at breakfast despite your growling stomach. Your first class was potions with Snape. You gloomily headed down to the dungeons.

You usually sat next to Ron during potions. You didn’t know what was going to happen but you couldn’t help but feel slightly happy that you guys sat next to each other. Maybe you two could make up. Oh, how you wanted nothing more for him to hug you and kiss you and tell you that everything was going to be ok.

Your hopes were definitely crushed. Whenever you walked in you were met with the sight of Lavender Brown sitting in your seat sitting obnoxiously close to your boyfriend. she was loudly giggling at something he had said. But the worse part was, he was laughing just as much. He didn’t even notice that you came into the classroom. He didn’t notice the sad and disappointed expression on your face as you made your way to the only seat left in the classroom next to Parvati Patill where Lavender usually sat. You didn’t dare look at her. You could only look at the back of you laughing boyfriends head and the girl you would usually be in’s position.

It fell like hours until Snape walked into the classroom and it fell silent. You were never so fond of his presence until now. He announced that today the whole class would be studying and taking notes on the Amortenia potion ‘’Shit’’ you thought. ‘’today of all days’’

A murmur of excitement went around the classroom. You were silent. Hermionie had answered what it was per usual. And now it was time for people to take notes and smell it.

student after student of volunteers went up until it was Lavender’s turn to finally be picked. A rush of fear went through you. What if she smelt Ron? what if Ron would smell her? she strode up to the front of the class and nervously took a whiff. It took her a while to finally announce what she smelt .’’I smell of quidditch supplies.... spearmint toothpaste- and with that your heart dropped. You wasted no time to run out of the classroom with tears streaming down your face. you could hear someone yelling after you and following you out of the classroom. but you just continued to run all the way up to Gryffindor tower and into the girl’s dormitory's. you miserably slid down the door and sat down on the floor sobbing uncontrollably and loudly.

Your sobs quieted down. less than two minutes later you heard a faint knock on the door.

Ron could hear your cries and it broke his heart.

You stood up and turned to face the door. ‘’Go away Ron’’ you said in almost a whisper.

‘’ I’m so sorry love’’ ‘’I never meant what I said in the library yesterday I didn’t meant any of it.’’ ‘’I just love you so much and I don’t want you to avoid me.’’ he said voice cracking. You could tell he was now crying as well. ‘’I know something's been up and I just want you to trust me enough to tell me’’ he said softly his cries now getting louder. ‘’And I know I’m a idiot for using Lavender to try and make you jealous.’’ ‘’ I didn’t know we were doing amyotonia's’’ ‘’I’m such a idiot but please forgive me Y/n’’ ‘’please’’ he said sniffing.

You flung the door open and flung your arms around him pulling him into a embrace him pulling your waist very close to yo and burying his head into the crook of your neck. ‘’ I’m sorry Y/n’’ ‘’ So, Sorry’’ he repeated mumbling into your neck. He pulled away only to repeatedly place kisses all over your face. ‘’S’all right Ron’’ I should have told you why I haven’t been myself’’ you say taking his hand in yours.

He looks at you waiting for you to elaborate. ‘’It’s my parents’’. ‘’You know there not the greatest and they’ve been sending me some really nasty letters about grades and O.W.L.S’’ ‘’I just didn’t want to put all of my problems on you’’ I know you have a lot on your plate right now with quidditch and helping Harry’’

He pulled your waist back into him and frowned. ‘’I will always have time to listen to you y/n’’ ‘’and don’t listen to those nasty hags your smart just the way you are.

He put a long passionate kiss to your lips.

‘’ I love you love’’

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diary-of-an-onliner · 3 years

Text

girls sure do catch a lot of heat for shipping hermione w everyone but maybe they wouldn't have to if jkr wrote more then one plot relevant woman into her seven books

most important characters are male, even if they're side characters they still get fleshed out more than girls. so maybe women want to project onto someone who feels relevant and is there every step of the way AND isn't constantly humiliated or used to shame women.

introducing Ron's brothers was a smart way to have a lot of background characters who all feel very important (regardless of how much they actually appear in the story, which varies)

the only women notable enough for teenagers besides Hermione are:

1. Hermione's roommates (of which we only know 2, lavender who got severely humiliated by the narrative, heartbroken, used as a sexist plot to pit women against each other, and then literally murdered: and parvati, who has a twin, likes to gossip and went to the yule ball w harry, and got shamed for liking divination w lavender, what a personality!),

2. Ginny, who is also an example of the sexist not-like-other-girls trope and only becomes truly relevant to the plot when she needs to be saved or become a romantic interest (I genuinely don't believe jkr would've given her a badass role in 7th book if she wasn't Harry's love interest, her entire story revolves around him even when she's dating someone else),

4. Cho, who gets treated horribly and also gets used to uplift NLOG RIs,

5. girls in the quidditch team, with very little exposure, but a notable one is Angelina who gets a role as an overbearing captain and then ends up marrying her dead ex's twin brother (very uncomfortable)

6. Fleur who gets shamed and is also kind of a bitch in order to make Ginny seem nicer, has Molly calling in tonks in an attempt to break up her engagement, has very few moments overall,

7. tonks if who has a few moments but none w the main gang, so she feels distanced from the teenage plot,

8. fucking racist pansy parkinson if who gets remembers as pugfaced in order to shame her looks? also helps push Hermione's NLOG status for making fun of her looks, (all of this ignoring a very good reason to hate her and not want to relate to her - she's pretty fucking racist as I already mentioned)

a lot of male side characters feel like important side characters, (Fred and George, Dean, Seamus, Neville, but also Malfoy (who gets enough time and depth to be a contender for a fan loved redemption), Wood, Lee, even Cedric...

so maybe girl want to be included in the narrative without being punished so they projet onto the one female character who feels important enough to give them a role in the story. cuz girls get torn to shreds for making self inserts and oc's enough

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vicarfelix · 3 years

Text

Internal Suffering

Vicar Max x Fem! Captain

Warnings: Language.

Word Count: 2,756

“Captain. You’re better than this.”

“Is she okay?”

“Should we get SAM to break open the door?”

“Damn. No amount of alcohol in the world could drown out what she probably saw.”

“ERROR. Status of Captain’s door...LOCKED.”

Max finally held up a hand to silence the rest babbling crew that was expressing their concern for their Captain from where they sat around the kitchen table. They had known something was wrong the moment that Ellie, Max, and the Captain returned to the ship after they had been out for almost two days. She didn’t say much at all, only offering a brief hello before snatching a drink from the fridge and taking a shower before keeping herself buried away in her quarters.

She was bruised and had minor injuries in various places. Not to mention that she hadn’t slept in almost 48 hours. But it was clear that was the least of things on her mind.

Max had managed to convince her to open the door long enough for him to check on her, which didn’t amount to much considering that she practically yelled at him to get out and leave her alone for a while. Max usually wouldn’t give up so easily, but he could tell that (despite her angry tone) she wasn’t mad.

She was hurt.

She was completely rattled by what they had seen today. An ugly painting of horrific images and gruesome smells that not even the hottest of showers could wash away. It would haunt her for weeks to come, and on top of that, she was worried about how this was affecting her crew.

Thankfully, she had taken Max and Ellie along today, which made her feel a bit better considering they were two of the more thicker skinned of the group. Still, she felt guilty for exposing them to that.

Max and Ellie gave the crew a brief rundown of what had happened. While they were sickened by it, they were more worried about the Captain.

“Come on. We just want to know if she’s okay.” Felix pleaded.

“She’s just seen probably the worst that the colony has to offer,” Ellie huffed; “I’d be worried if she was okay.”

Max sighed heavily. He was beyond concerned. It wasn’t like you at all to shut out the crew like this. It wasn’t like you to shut him out. He was afraid that this had pushed you over the edge.

“She wishes to be by herself,” Max announced; “We should all give her some space and let her work it out.”

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, Mr. Vicar.” Parvati replied.

“Yeah, I don’t think she ought to be alone after seeing something as traumatic as you’re saying it was.” Nyoka detested.

Max shook his head.

“I know. But she doesn’t want to talk to us. We don’t need to push her.” Max pointed out.

Felix looked stunned at that, his eyes widening.

“She must be really shaken up if she won’t even talk to Max.” He said, clearly alarmed.

While Felix’s statement had innocent intentions, it caused a sting in Max’s chest. It was true that the Captain always seemed to flock to Max when she needed to talk. It was a mixture of things really. He was a professional when it came to listening to confessions, but he was even more comforting being as he was her boyfriend. She never felt like she couldn’t go to him when she needed him until now.

It was killing him that she was closing herself off to him.

“She’ll be alright. Give her a couple days...or weeks. She’ll feel better when we get this job done.” Ellie stated.

Max sure hoped that Ellie was right. He wasn’t going to be able to stand it if the Captain never got over this. For now, all he could do was keep his arms open to her for when she was ready. Or for when he knew she couldn’t take it anymore.

The crew dispersed reluctantly to finish out their chores to close out the day, the Captain weighing heavily on their minds. Max went to take a shower to wash off the blood (some his and some not his), dirt, and sweat from his body. He took a moment to reflect on what he had seen earlier, realizing that he hadn’t given himself a moment to process everything. He wasn’t quite like Ellie Fenhill who preferred to drink herself into oblivion until her mind was too foggy to remember much of it. He’d rather come to terms with it on his own time.

Max had killed more people that day than he had the entire time he had been traveling with you. The strung out marauders and the doped up test subjects were probably the most terrifying people he had ever encountered. They were basically soul ridden beings with no sense of purpose or morale. They were just blood thirsty, violent animals that were once loving people.

That was the scariest thing imaginable.

Max stood under the stream of water until it threatened to turn cold, prompting his exit. He changed into a pair of clean clothes before leaving the bathroom, debating on what he should do next. By the time he had freshened up, everyone else had turned in for the night. The only sounds were the humming and singing around the ship, as well as Felix’s beloved Tuesday night adventure serial coming from his cabin.

Max eyed his own cabin, the only one with the door open and the lights turned on. Max chuckled to himself as he entered. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had actually spent an extended amount of time in his cabin. Ever since establishing a serious relationship with the Captain, he found himself staying in her room pretty much always. Her cabin was much larger than his, and despite the fact that her bed was exactly the same as his, he was convinced that it was comfier.

Maybe because he always had someone he loved snuggled up to him at the end of every day.

He ran a hand through his damp hair to somewhat even it out. It always seemed to have a mind of its own when water dripped from his graying hair. She had always told him that she liked seeing his hair somewhat out of order, which was why she was likely the only person who had ever seen his hair unkempt.

He wasn’t too keen on the idea of sleeping alone, considering he had gotten so used to having her with him. But if she didn’t want him, then he would respect her desires. He bit the inside of his cheek in disapproval when he tried to stretch out onto his bunk. He sank into the mattress that hadn’t been used in quite some time, but it didn’t feel the same.

His entire cabin just didn’t have the same comfort that hers did. Although, it wasn’t her cabin that he found comfort in.

It was her.

Every other thought was occupied by his Captain. He wondered what she was doing as he lay there awake, worrying himself beyond measure. He was beginning to go against his own word, tempted to go to her even if she had pushed him away. She was struggling right now. She was suffering.

He couldn’t just let the woman he loved be in pain like that.

He got up from his bed, quietly going down the stairs to the Captain’s door. The red light above her door indicated that it was still locked, and he couldn’t get in unless she opened it from inside or ADA unlocked it for him. It was awfully quiet from inside the Captain’s quarters, and he hoped that she was just asleep.

He traveled down to the ship’s computer asking ADA nicely to unlock the Captain’s bedroom. ADA, however, almost always gave Max a run for his money.

“I cannot take orders from anyone other than Captain Hawthorne.” ADA informed the vicar.

He groaned.

“I know, ADA, but I’m worried about her. I just need to get into her room.” Max explained.

He always felt so stupid arguing with a machine. Although, ADA was likely light years smarter than he was.

“I can only take orders from Captain Hawthorne. You are not Captain Hawthorne.” ADA replied.

Max grumbled to himself. He’d have to take a different approach.

“Well...can you at least tell her I want to speak with her?” Max questioned.

“The Captain gave me direct instructions not to converse with her unless there was an emergency. Is this an emergency?” ADA acquired.

“No...” Max responded gruffly. He was a little surprised that the Captain had taken so many steps to avoid anyone from seeing her; “How would I go about unlocking her door myself?”

“Hypothetically, her door would automatically unlock if I entered a rest cycle. But that requires my restart button to be push-”

Suddenly, ADA’s screen went dark as Max put her into a manual rest cycle. The Captain usually ordered ADA to take a rest cycle overnight anyway unless something with the ship went wrong, so Max didn’t feel bad for shutting the computer up for a bit.

He commuted back to the Captain’s door, the doors whirring open to reveal what appeared to be an empty room. The Captain wasn’t sitting at her desk or laying in her bed, and she appeared to be nowhere to be found. Just as Max went to panic, he heard a sound.

It was a soft noise that he would’ve missed if the room hadn’t been as quiet as it was. He followed the sound of sniffling over to the far corner of the room behind her bunk.

The Captain was backed into the corner, knees huddled up to her chest with her head buried behind them. Her towel from her earlier shower was still wrapped around her naked body, indicating that she hadn’t even gotten dressed afterwards. Her skin was dry now, and her hair was just barely wet as if she had been there the entire time. She raised her head from her knees when she felt his presence, revealing her reddened, watery eyes and blotchy cheeks from her hours of crying.

Max’s heart broke at the sight of his Captain falling to pieces like this. She was hands down the strongest, most confident person that he knew. He always reminded her how proud of her he was for always being the bigger person and doing what was right. Maybe that was his mistake. Perhaps he had made her feel like she had to be at her best all the time.

She looked at him through bleary eyes, a fresh set of tears falling down her cheeks. Her voice cracked as she spoke, her tone thick with sobbing.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you.” She apologized, almost choking on her cries.

Immediately, Max was sitting at her side, her head falling onto his chest as she wailed. He eventually brought her into his lap to hold her close, rubbing her back up and down and kissing her temple. He hushed her, hating the feeling in his gut every time she sobbed out again. Her face was buried into the soft material of his shirt, her tears staining it. Her arms and legs were freezing from being exposed to the cold air of her quarters for so long without clothes, Max’s hands rubbing up and down to provide her some warmth.

“It’s alright, love. I’m here.” He hummed, holding the back of her neck in his hand.

“It was horrible. I’ve never seen anything like that,” She cried; “I don’t know how Spacer’s Choice could ever be capable of something like that.”

“Spacer’s Choice is arguably the most powerful corporation in the colony,” Max spoke; “The stronger the company, the more room there is for catastrophic events.”

The Captain sat up from his chest, leaning against Max’s leg that he had hiked up for her to lean on.

“I fucking hate the Board,” She hissed; “If I have to personally put a bullet in the skull of every single person involved then I swear to Law I’ll do it.”

Max was alarmed by her harsh words, his hands coming to her face to wipe away her tears.

“Captain. You’re better than this,” He remarked; “What’s the number one rule you always tell us? Try to talk it out before pulling the trigger.”

The Captain shook her head. Her tears had dried, but the anger coursing through her was giving her more energy than she had in days.

“It’s becoming obvious that doesn’t always work. I don’t care if I have to wipe out every soul in Byzantium if it means overthrowing the Board.” She growled.

The last thing that Max ever wanted was for the Captain’s heart of gold to be hardened by all the things she had seen. In the beginning, the Captain had the most hope for the colony’s revival. Now though, her hope was diminishing with each new discovery she made.

He didn’t want her to become a lost soul the way that he had been for so long.

“What happened to my darling Captain? This isn’t you.” Max stated.

“I want the Board out of the system. Halcyon’s never going to make it with them around.” She replied in fury, ignoring his question.

“Captain, I-”

“I personally want to throw Sophia Akande out of an airlock.” She went on.

“Listen to me, this isn’t-”

“I’d like to throw her in a cell and pump her full of drugs just like-”

“Stop,” Max cut her off; “This isn’t how you do things. I know this isn’t how you want to do things.”

She finally let her tense shoulders relax for a second. Her eyes falling downward, her hands fiddling with the edge of her towel.

“I know,” She whispered out; “I’m just tired of seeing so many people get hurt. Earth was never like this...not really.”

Max felt relief. Now she was beginning to sound like herself again. He pushed her hair behind her ear to reveal her pretty, but tired face. He caressed her face with his hand, her cheek resting in his palm.

“If you keep doing things the way you have been, taking things day by day...then we’re going to be fine,” Max said; “I believe in you. I believe in us.”

She nodded, his hand falling to her waist and rubbing through her towel.

“What do I do now?” She asked.

Max smiled softly.

“For now, let’s get you in bed. We can figure everything else out in the morning.” Max said, kissing the Captain’s knuckles in a gentle manner.

“Okay.” She replied.

She had to admit, it felt nice to have someone else giving orders for once.

Sleeping the rest of the night away was sounding really good to the Captain right about now. Without really giving it a second thought, the Captain let her towel fall so she could get dressed. She caught the way his eyes lit up at her naked frame, a blush evident on his face as he looked over her. She smirked a little, the first real positive emotion she’d had all day.

“You’re blushing, Vicar.” She teased,

His grin was blinding, as he pulled his leg in more to bring you in closer.

“It’s hard not to,” He purred; “Beautiful...”

She kissed him like she meant it. His hands were warm on her exposed skin as he touched her the way he had dozens of times before. She ran her fingers through his hair, his smirk showing on her lips.

“I’m here for you. I love you.” He rumbled deeply.

“I love you.” She returned.

Max guided her up from the floor, wincing at the way her joints cracked from being uncomfortable for so long. He got her into a shirt to sleep in, bringing her over to her bed and getting her comfortable up against him. It didn’t take her long to fall asleep. The feel of Max next to her and the softness of the mattress under her was enough to send her straight to sleep. Max was tired too, but he wanted to make sure she was okay before he got any sleep.

He knew she wasn’t totally back to normal. It’d be a while before she felt like herself fully again. But he didn’t care how long he had to wait.

He’d always be there for her.

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