[A/N Though the characters mentioned are MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!, the mentions of the Harry Potter world are sadly not mine. I'd be a millionaire if they were. On with the story!]
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I walk out of the house with my guitar in hand, strumming it quietly, humming. I see that my neighbor, Stephen, is outside, gardening, of all things. I was happy that he wasn't inside; it was easier not to do this at his door, possibly having to encounter his mother.
But gardening? Since when does Stephen garden? That's one of those things that I do and he scoffs at. He'd actually done it to me several times during our earlier childhood; scoffed at me for gardening.
However, I had a mission, and I was not letting myself back out of doing this. Again. Not even to laugh at him for gardening. I start humming to the melody I'm playing. By now, I've crossed the imaginary property line separating our houses. He looks up at me, surprised to see me, smiling as he always does whenever he sees me. Then he blushes, presumably about the fact that he is gardening and I've caught him at it.
"Hey Stephen, I know looks can be deceiving…….." I sigh helplessly.
"But I know I saw a light in you."
I see a kid I've played with since I was a baby; I see a five year old him, asking if I want to go down the big slide together, asking if I want to come over and play. I see an eight year old him sticking by me, even when the other boys announced that girls had cooties and they'd have nothing to do with them. I saw him always smiling that wonderful smile at me, that wonderful smile that whoever was his girlfriend at the time never got directed at her.
"And as we walked, we were talking, I didn't say half the things I wanted to."
I see a thirteen year old me, walking through the halls of Hogwarts with him day after day, by now fully aware of my love for him. My unrequited love. I didn't dare say anything; he was my best friend. I couldn't screw up the friendship with awkwardness that would come after my confession and his polite refusal.
"Of all the girls tossing rocks at your window…."
I see the girls who flocked to him when they realized how "Totally Bloody Hot!" they thought he was. I thought of all the girls he dated, and how those girlfriends never lasted very long. They always broke up after a month, tops. He never let them call him Finn. I was the only one who even knew about the nickname; he didn't share his middle name with anyone. To everyone else he was Stephen. Not Steve, not Stevie, and DEFINITELY not Finn.
"I'll be the one waiting there even when it's cold."
I see myself, helping him through everything, keeping girls from hating him, helping him with Charms. I see countless Christmas mornings at 4:00 AM when I threw a snowball at the window of his bedroom back at home, and he climbed down, or vice versa, and we escaped for a few hours to Our Secret Christmas Paradise, which was a giant hollow tree that led to a secret underground cavern in the woods on the edge of town. Here, we played Truth or Truth, or just gave out our secrets until eight o'clock, the time we knew our parents would see us not in bed and panic.
"Hey Stephen, boy, you might have me believing I don't always have to be alone." I smile to myself.
"'Cause I can't help it if you look like an angel, can't help it if I wanna kiss you in the rain so." This is where I cringed, not wanting to see his reaction.
"Come feel this magic I've been feeling since I met you, can't help it if there's no one else.
Mmm, I can't help myself…" I did a little dance in a circle, humming, still not looking at his expression. I really, really didn't want to see ridicule, or disgust, or that famous "Are-You-A-Complete-Idiot-?" look that he usually fixed his dumber friends with. I've never been on the receiving end of one of them, but I don't want to make this the first time.
"Hey Stephen, I've been holding back this feeling, so I got some things to say to you."
Oh, hell yes, I've got some things to say to you. Like three little words.
"I've seen it all, so I thought, but I never seen nobody shine the way you do.
The way you walk, way you talk, way you say my name."
I see him rolling his tongue, saying my name with a French accent. How I loved it when he did that. 'Brrrrrrrrrrrrrroooooke! Ma chère! Je t'aime avec une passion brûlante! Je t'aimerai toujours mon amour!" By then I was blushing so hard I thought my face would explode. We were alone in the common room fifth year, him doing my History of Magic, me doing his Potions at two AM. He was done; I was just transcribing my work in his handwriting. 'Brrrrrrrrooooke! Je t'aime… Je t'aime et bonne nuit…" This is when he passed out, sprawling on the table. I blushed again, absently stroking his hair, finishing my work, then prodding him awake. He collapsed on me several times on the way up to his dorm, but I finally got him through the door and onto his bed. I left him there, he could do the rest on his own. I loved this boy so much.
"It's beautiful, wonderful, don't you ever change.
Hey Stephen, why are people always leaving?"
I see myself after my mother left us. My parents had both been Muggles; she died in a car accident. I see him helping me through it, holding me when I cried, listening when I needed to scream to someone, dealing with my bitchiness and tears and bipolarity.
"I think you and I should stay the same."
I see him, Stephen Finnley McAllister, remaining the constant in my life, no matter what happened.
"They're dimming the street lights, you're perfect for me, why aren't you here tonight?"
I see the night after the accident, my lit candle slowly darkening the room as it died. I cry because I'm alone; my father is at the hospital with mum. I hope, wish that my favorite person would come comfort me. I wait for hours, in the dark, unable to move to turn the light on, unable to do anything but pray and wish and cry.
"I'm waiting alone now, so come on and come out,
And pull me near, and shine, shine, shine." Emotion ravaged my voice, making the last word come out a little husky.
I see him, my beautiful wonderful Stephen, climbing through the open window with his wand tip lit, looking for me in the darkness. My sobs give me away. He rushes over to me and curls me into his chest protectively, soothing me, whispering my name, cuddling his face into my hair, letting me wet his shirt with my tears. The wand sticks up between us, and I believe we would have looked like two lone survivors in a swirling world of darkness.
"Hey Stephen, I could give you fifty reasons why I should be the one you choose." As I sang this, I finally looked at him meaningfully. His expression was ninety five percent shocked, five percent something else… I dared to hope it was something good.
I've got more than fifty reasons: I've known you forever, I understand you, I don't judge you, you can tell me anything, I love you, I'll never stop loving you, I love you along with all your faults and weaknesses, I'll never leave you, I'm not allergic to cats, I love you most, I'll be true, I share your love for peanut butter on almost anything……
"All those other girls, well, they're beautiful," I glance down at my pale skin and thin build. I see the tips of my long brown-blonde hair settled on the neck of my guitar.
I had never been beautiful, never really been noticed by boys. But that doesn't matter. All that matters is THIS boy; the most important boy.
"But would they write a song for you?" I try to laugh sarcastically, but it comes out as more of a half-hearted "heh." I breathe in raggedly, once again looking at him.
"I can't help it if you look like an angel."
I see Stephen, my Finn, as a seven-year-old angel for Halloween one year. He being a pureblood wizard, got a magically glowing costume, making it seem as if he were really sent from God; a perfect being aglow with his own fire.
"Can't help it if I wanna kiss you in the rain so," I blush at the memory.
I see a sudden summer rain shower just last week. We had been walking home from the little bookstore in town when it struck. There was nowhere to seek shelter; it was all wheat fields around for a while. So, defying the weather, we just kept walking as if everything was fine. I tripped on something or other, something not surprising at all, but what was surprising was that Finn dove for me and held me so I wouldn't fall. To an onlooker, it may have looked like a dip while dancing the tango; his face was unbearably close to mine, and I do believe I may have had a heart attack. He stared at me, rain water dripping from his hair, from his nose, from his eyelashes. He looked at me intensely, and I really thought he would actually go through with it and kiss me. A sudden movement on the road distracted our attention; a chipmunk scurried across the ground a few feet from us. The spell was broken, the moment over, and he let go of my waist, apologizing, and we kept on walking. I cursed that chipmunk profusely.
"Come feel this magic I've been feeling since I met you," I shiver.
I see myself a mere baby. It was a thing I shouldn't be able to remember; it was too early in my life. But I had always remembered it. Finn and I played together for the first time in a crib as our mothers chatted. I reached out my hand to him; he reached back. The first shock of skin-on-skin shook through me. It felt so wonderful and magical, and I could tell he felt it too. It felt perfect and cosmic and right. Every touch after that was a reverberation of that first time. This was meant to be.
"Can't help it if there's no one else…" My voice shakes a little. He gets up, dropping his trowel, wiping his hands on his pants, grinning like Christmas had come early. He walks purposefully towards me, and I uneasily slink backwards. I hope he doesn't think I'm joking. Or maybe he's coming to slap me across the face? Oh, look. Now he's right in front of me. I cautiously peer up at him. He peers down at me, ecstatic about something. If he thinks I'm joking, I swear, I'll hex his head right off. I did not make up that whole ridiculously sappy song for—
Oh.
Has anyone ever told you that kissing your soulmate is the most wonderful thing you can imagine?
Because it definitely, definitely is.
Without a doubt.
"…Mmm, I can't help myself…" he whispered, tickling my lips with his breath.
I drop the guitar, kissing him again. He tastes like perfect, and soft, and summer, and Finn. He bites my lip a little. I smile shyly, and it slowly evolves into an open-mouthed kiss. Who knew that a tongue was such a pleasant part of your body? Ours touched once, hesitant, then twined together perfectly. He explored my mouth, leaving a searing warmth everywhere he touched. Now I know why everyone is so fond of snogging.
"I love you…" I whisper when we break for air.
"Je t'aime. And I always have."
Then we went right back to kissing.
---
Amber looked out her bedroom window, looking up from the miniature model of the East Side of Hogwarts she was making out of clay to look at her front yard. There were two people snogging on her lawn, a guitar cast away to the side.
Amber grinned. Looks like my baby brother finally grew some balls and went through with it. She pulled out a wizard camera and snapped a photo of the pair. Might as well document their first kiss. She pulled her brother's journal out of a secret little cubby in her desk and taped the moving photo onto the cover. She then got up, and put the book face up on his pillow in his bedroom.
She smiled. It's nice to be nice once in a while.
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So, what did you think? I thought it was cute. I skipped two refrains in the song, but I wanted to get to the point. Should I write some more Brooke/ Stephen stories? Or maybe a big, long Brooke/ Stephen story? R&R please, it makes me very happy :D
French:
Ma chère! – My dear!
Je t'aime avec une passion brûlante!— I love you with a burning passion!
Je t'aimerai toujours mon amour!— I will love you always, my love!
Je t'aime—I love you.
Je t'aime et bonne nuit—I love you and goodnight.
(He was half-asleep when he said this, so Brooke thought he was joking. But he was dead serious.)