I Can Feel the Love Tonight - Wait, Can't You?
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling invented these guys, and Tim Rice (I think -_-) did those wonderful lyrics aways down there...I don't own either of them. I doubt I even own the plotline. I don't know - just don't sue me, okay? I have no money...except for those pennies in my Gringotts piggy bank ^_^
Fred and George Weasley, one laughing due to what the other had said, made their way lazily into the Great Hall, the mirthful one clutching at his counterpart, struggling valiantly to stay on his feet, but failing all the more miserably, and in doing so bringing his twin down beside him.
After much commotion, whispers, and general pointing and laughing the two finally made their way to the Gryffindor table, sitting themselves beside their mutual best friend, Lee Jordan. Ruffling his friend's dreadlocks, George (still red with laughter, though more coherent) asked, "So, Lee ole boy, how'd it go last night?"
At Lee's abashed look, Fred playfully punched him in the shoulder. "You *did* ask her, didn't you?"
Master Jordan, looking miserably at his scrambled eggs and altering their location with his fork, "Yeah. Yeah, I asked her." Half-heartedly he flicked a forkful of hashbrowns at Seamus Finnegan, the potatoes landing on the fifth year's robes. A confused look on his face, Seamus brushed off the fried potatoes, and gave Lee a funny look, before returning to his conversation with Dean Thomas.
They glanced at each other, horrified looks on their faces, until George finally choked out, "Well, what did she say?"
Acting as if something had caught in his throat, Lee grimaced, and coughed. "I don't really want to talk about it right now, okay, guys? I'll tell you later...lunch, maybe. Let's just get Potions over with, all right?" With that, he picked up his book bag, and looked pointedly at the ground, meeting no one's eyes. The twins looked at each other again, horrified expressions still etched upon their faces. They grabbed a few pieces of toast each, stuffing a singular slice in their mouths, and then called after their friend to wait up, ready to talk about everything except what had happened the night before.
It seemed that even Snape could recognize that Lee couldn't take much today - despite threats being made last class period due to the finding of a tarantula in his desk drawer, the Potions Master did not make one derisive remark, nor did he even pressure the dejected boy into answering N.E.W.T. revision questions, despite the fact that he had hotly denied ever giving a student special treatment in the history of his career - at least, he hadn't in this class.
After the class had finished, with the twins constantly checking to see if Lee was fingering a knife under his robes, or perhaps a vial of poison, the three walked out, followed by a look from Snape filled with immense sympathy - as if he had experienced something similar himself, once before.
At lunch, George cautiously asked Lee what had happened the night before, and the inquired-after boy actually looked up this time. "I'll tell you when I'm ready." At this he sniffed, and continued to muss about with the sandwich in front of him. A few moments later, he glanced at his watch, and muttered that he was going to Charms.
Fred sighed. "Do you think we should ask Katie what happened?" he asked, looking down the table at where the mentioned and her two companion Gryffindor Chasers were sitting. Miss Bell looked unnaturally subdued, almost as much as her boyfriend. George looked rather surprised, and Fred looked quite perplexed. Giving each other a look, they both mouthed one question - What happened?
At last, all classes were over. Charms had gone by surprisingly quickly (after Lee had told them that he was *not* going to commit suicide over this), as did Care of Magical Creatures, despite their review on Blast-Ended Skrewts. Finally, at the end of the academic day, the trio made their way up the steps to the Great Hall and once again took their seats, awaiting dinner. Both Fred and George avoided Lee's eyes, figuring that if they pried much more then their friend would snap - most of Gryffindor followed their examples.
The only one who actually *made* eye contact with him was, oddly enough, Katie Bell, who looked close to tears and quickly looked away soon after the initial contact had been made. The boy looked again at his food, which had become an indiscernible mess throughout the course of the dinner, but which had originally been some sort of meat and vegetable.
As he got up to leave, Lee's progress was subdued by the tapping of a glass goblet, the tapper being the Headmaster and the goblet belonging to the same. His blue eyes shining gleefully, he cleared his throat in the slightest of manners, and began to speak: "Good evening, students of Hogwarts. I have been asked to inform you, and agreed willingly, that Professor Flitwick's sixth year class have prepared to demonstrate their prowess for us all in a grand display of fireworks. The sight can be seen from any elevated area within the school, or any unobstructed place on the grounds - though groundswalking is not allowed after hours, so you can please erase that thought from your heads immediately. I am sure that you will all enjoy it."
Professor Flitwick positively glowed.
A generally excited chatter was heard as the majority of the population of Hogwarts headed to various towers throughout the castle. Lee Jordan, still standing where he was caught when Dumbledore had made his announcement, was staring, enraptured, at Katie Bell, obviously relishing in what he and her could be doing with fireworks adorning the sky.
Shaking his head abruptly, the man grabbed his bag, and rushed up to his dorm, preparing to go to sleep and forget about everything. Including the romantic evening he could have had tonight with the woman he loved...
No such luck - thoughts of her kept on gracing his mind...All the fun they had had, all the rows, all the lulls...And they all made him so immensely sad that he felt that he just *had* to do something.
Resignedly, he reached into his trunk for something to read. Unexpectedly, in his hand appeared the SkyStrength's Wizarding Atlas (Revision Sixteen, Edition Forty) For those in Distress. Not remembering the last time this book had worked for him, and remembering his thoughts in thinking it a joke (and thus the reason he bought it), he flipped it open to a random page, near the back, preparing to start to memorize the index to forget h - no, just to forget.
Well, this was odd...every page he looked, there seemed to be but one article. Something about someplace called 'Grinrung', a name that sounded familiar . He began to read...
'Grinrung - a small, purely wizarding isle smacked into the middle of no where in the Pacific Ocean. Reported to be tropical. As it has not been visited often, very little is known about it, though it has been noted by several political missionaries that they absolutely refuse to leave behind their monarchial ways. They believe only in the king and queen type authorities (as well as princes and princesses, though dukes, counts, and other similar figures of authority are not included), with this authority passing down through bloodlines alone. The last known bloodline ruling (as of 1963), was one family by the name of'
Here Lee stopped, not wanting to read on...He knew why the name 'Grunring' sounded familiar - Katie had mentioned it last night...He already knew who the ruling family was.
Having seemingly exhausted all possibilities of forgetting in his mind (though he was most probably being lazy), he did the only thing he could think of - he gave up.
Pillowing his head beneath his hands, he closed his eyes, and attempted to convince his mind that what he wanted to do was to go to sleep, to leave all that had happened behind, to relax and be enveloped by blissful nothingness - no, of *course* he didn't want to think of Katie; he *didn't* want to think of the life they could have had; didn't want to think of anything about her, not her beauty, not her smile, and certainly *never* her sweet, endearing, quirky laugh - never, ever her laugh...
Interrupting his painful reverie were two simultaneous spoings, signalling that the Weasley twins had found his sanctuary. Not opening his eyes, the crushed man hoped that the two opposite him would take the hint, and leave him for sleep to claim as its own.
Unfortunately, he was not so lucky.
Gently touching his shoulder, one of the duo slightly shook his friend's shoulder. "Lee?"
A different hand shook his other shoulder, and in a slightly differnt voice inquired, "Lee?"
Master Jordan actually *heard* them smirk, and steeled himself for what was to come. Suddenly, the black boy's shoulders were *convulsing* because of how hard his friends were shaking him, and, as if that were not enough, began to scream as loudly as possible. "LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Inwardly rolling his eyes, the broken-hearted opened the aforementioned bodyparts, as well as his mouth, and sat up. "Yes?" he asked, as politely as possible when one is found in such a position.
"We," confided George, gesturing at his twin, "have decided, with the aid of our elders and some previous eavesdropping notes, that it is not mentally healthy for teenage boys to keep their emotions pent up inside."
Eyes narrowed, the black-haired man defensively hissed, "You can't make me tell you anything."
Fred nodded. "Oh, we know," he affirmed. "We weren't going to try to make you - that'd be overstepping our bounds. So, we decided that we'd give you this." George handed him a small, tye-dyed pink book, with flowers and hearts decorating it. The recipient stared at it incredulously, and the twins blushed.
"We know, it's a little..."
"...effeminate," his counterpart finished. "But this is a prototype Weasley Wizard Wheeze...Even if it's not especially 'wheezie'."
"Or Weasley, either. See, you write in it, and it responds based on what you wrote in the past...They were originally going to be marketed for those who were more feminine than you, but now that we've seen that guys need them too, we'll come up with more masculine covers..."
"Just thought you could use that - you know, express your feelings, and all." Awkwardly, the two stood there, and then gradually backed towards the exit. "We'll be in the common room if you need us, I guess...or maybe the lab."
Lee winced at the mention of the WWW lab, but waved them on, and muttered thanks before his hesitation at bringing out a quill, and a pot of sea-green ink - he performed the action anyway.
'This diary,' he wrote with a flourish on the inside cover, 'is the property of L. J.'
Turning to the first page, he began to write...
'I think it all started at that Quidditch match in fourth year, when Katie'
'Wait...' interjected similar script. 'Who is this 'Katie'? And, what is our name?'
Lee stared, and then shook off the surprise, remember his friend's saying in how it worked. He wrote down, in answer, 'Our name is Lee, and Katie is - was - my girlfriend.'
Diary!Lee snarled in red ink, 'Our.'
He quirked an eyebrow. 'Yes. Ours. Or at least, was ours. Anyway, could you shut your face, so that I can continue with mine - ours - and Katie's 'start'?'
'Do we normally shut our faces when asked?'
'No.'
'Well, why should I start now?'
'Because I'll burn you if you don't.'
A splotch appeared in nervous purple. 'Go on.'
The man watched in fascination as all previous text disappeared, save the interrupted sentence which started with, 'I think', and ending with 'Katie'.
'came up to me after the match with Hufflepuff. We were all really worried about Harry, and I was about to go down to see him in the Hospital Wing, but first I had to pick up the commentator's box. McGonagall had already gone, of course, crowding around the boy after that git Lockhart had done his dirty work.
'Katie flew up to the box, and I guess she must have been there for a while before I noticed her. I turned, and there she was - it was just then that I noticed how beautiful she was, for the very first time. I guess I had just been the stupid 14 year old until then, and now hormones were kicking in - and God, were they kicking in.
'She sort of walked up to me in the most innocent, seductive way I can imagine, and I felt my knees go weak. She looked down at the papers in my hand (the transcript from my commentating) and pointed. "I was really flattered today, Lee," she said, "by what you said during the match."
'I was perplexed, and I guess my open-mouth, or maybe women's intuition, let her know, because she continued the conversation. "You know, when you said, "And here's the beautiful Katie Bell!" I...I really appreciated it, you know?"'
'Still feeling undeniably stupid, I just stood there, closed my mouth and nodded dumbly, screaming at myself inside to make a move. Smiling, and blushing a little, she stood on her toes and kissed me lightly on the cheek, briefly grasped my hand and squeezed, and before I knew it she flew off to the showers, to get ready to see Harry. Only once did she look back, and her smile made me flush...
'It was only then that I realized that I had crumpled the transcript into a small, parchment ball in my hand.
After a while of quill-silence, a confident orange emerged from the sea of green, clashing horribly, and making a comment, 'So...what happened after that?'
'I guess we were boyfriend and girlfriend. I mean, I didn't talk to her until a few days after'
'Git.'
'What?'
'You had, from what I can tell, the prettiest girl in the school after you, and you didn't talk to her for a *few* *days*, after she kissed you.'
'I was only fourteen, and I was nervous. I shouldn't have to explain myself to you, of all people.'
More silence.
'Well, anyway, it was sort of funny, later, because I was looking through the transcript and realized that I hadn't said 'the beautiful Katie Bell' at all. I confronted her about it, and she laughed at me, and said that she had *obviously* been hitting on me...'
A 'heh' appeared in a laughing yellow. 'I can't believe you needed her to tell you that.'
Ignoring the last comment, Lee continued to write. 'I guess our relationship was kind of secret - I only told Fred and George about it, and Katie only told Angelina and Alicia...For a while, all it was was her innocently joining me in the commentator's box after a match for a quick kiss, and then she left on her broom, leaving me dazed...It was like nothing was happening between us at all, since Quidditch matches are so far between in the year...
'When I talked to her after the first time we didn't even mention it - just talked about what we always talked about: Fred and George's latest prank, how unjust Snape was, how was my tarantula doing...But we never did bring up Quidditch, I think we were afraid that it would bring up some tension, and ruin our friendship, or something.'
This time, the diary kept its thoughts to itself.
'The first time, I think, that we really did anything beyond that box was in fifth year, after Sirius Black slashed the Fat Lady's portrait. She was just so *scared*, not only for her, but also for Harry - and me. She was scared for me, too.
'In the Great Hall that night, when all of the houses were in the sleeping bags, Katie found mine, and crawled into it - all she did was lie in my arms'
A laughing, bright green. 'Sure.'
The quill scribbled furiously. 'Really! I mean, we were only fifteen...All she did was lay in my arms, and let loose a sob occasionally. I petted the back of her head, and made soothing sounds, but was so happy - I was just unbelievably happy. I don't think there's enough words to express what I felt - happy, pleased, content, euphoric'
'In love?' asked a brilliant red line.
Lee smiled. Outloud, he said, "Yeah...in love." And then he wrote, 'In love. Yes. In love...'
The man wrote in the diary for a long, long time - relating their first date in Hogsmeade ('a lovely moonlit picnic, with the help of some secret passages shown by red-headed tourguides), their first *real* kiss ('It was, to put it simply, the most electrifying experience that I had ever had, and doubt that I will ever have it again - if I could only pick one memory to save for all eternity, that would be it'), their anniversaries ('I would try and come up with an excuse for an anniversary all the time, just so that I would have an excuse to be as obsessive as I was')...
There was the time she had collapsed on his chest in a fit of giggles over the beard he had grown because of the ageline, and the way she clutched his hand during the first task, and how she had layed her head on his shoulder last term when Cedric had died, a silent tear rolling down her cheek...
But there was also that time she had slapped him when he had gotten a little drunk, and the row which caused her to not speak to him for a week, and then when she had caught him tangled up in a closet with some girl, a year lower than them, whose name Lee had forgotten over the years...
But now there were no more memories, he had written them all down, and the diary had passed judgement as it had seen fit after every event had been chroniclized - save one. Last night's...With a sigh, Lee began to write again, his inkpot nearly empty.
'Fred and George had helped me plan it - even helped me get the ring. I thought that, for sure, she would love it. It had a cheering charm on it, as well as a sparkle spell...And it was lovely besides all that. The jeweler put it in this satin-like box that must have been made of something lovely, it was so soft to hold...it seemed like I couldn't go wrong.
'They lent me the WWW Labs, a little chamber behind a suit of armor that seemingly no one knows about besides the Twins and those they choose to share it with. Most of the time, it's filled with bubbling flasks of simmering potions and unidentifiable substances spreading slowly across the floor - but they had halted work so that I could fix it up for 'a lass as wonderful as Katie'.
'I had gotten the House Elves to prepare all of her favorite dishes, the information provided by Alicia and Angelina, and then transfigured a shabby table (with the aid of McGonagall) into one of the grandest to ever grace the halls of Hogwarts, rivaling even the head table in the Great Hall.
'I cushioned the room with reds and purples, pillows and rugs and couches, portraits of wizards and witches dancing gracefully across ballroom floors...I felt so alive while doing this, knowing it was for Katie - always for Katie. My creative juices were flowing, I did everything I could think of that might please her, even in the slightest. Near the end of preparation, George peeked in, and actually lifted up some of my work to see if this ooze that they were working on was still down there. I can't imagine what he would've done to me if it hadn't been.
'Finally, I was ready. I rushed up to Gryffindor Tower, where Katie was talking to her girlfriends, and dragged her through the halls - I had to be careful walkinger through, having had blindfolded her. When I pushed aside the knight (after whispering the very embarrassing password, which Fred and George had somehow found out how to change, password being 'Lee and Katie, sitting in a tree'), I led her inside, and whipped off the blindfold.
'Audibly gasping, her mouth fell open, but she quickly regained composure (that's my Katie!), turned around, and winked at me. "What's this, Lee?" she giggled. "What anniversary is it, this time?" I laughed as well, and said, "Oh, you'll find out."
'The gasping continued through out dinner, after every flourish of my wand when a new tray of her favorite food was unveiled. I have to admit, I didn't like those foods normally, but they just tasted so much better when Katie was there...It was like her presence made everything *better* in the world.
'Finally, as the dessert was displayed, I decided that now was the time, if ever...Before taking the cover off of the shortbread, I smiled at her, and said, "Now, it's time you find out what this is..." Adopting my trademark grin, I walked to the side of her chair (it seemed like such a long walk), and went down on one knee.
'Drawing the ring from my pocket, feeling the smooth, soft, seductive material run over my fingers, I opened it, and presented the ring to her. Breathlessly, the words came out..."Katie Bell, will you marry me?"'
'She sat there, a stunned look on her face...I don't know what I had been expecting - I hoped for a yes, of course - but not complete and astoundingly *deafening* silence...Her mouth moved soundlessly, and she looked down at me, a piteous look in her eyes..."Maybe," she said quietly, "you had better sit down, Lee."'
He closed his eyes, breathlessly remembering that moment, the room swirling around him in its nauseating brightness. Leaving his knees, the broken-hearted had fallen back upon the pillows. The same, cotton mouthed feeling had invaded as it had the night before...Grabbing a sip of water, he picked up the quill, absently fingering the callouses the were beginning to form because of all of his writing.
Dipping into the nigh-dry inkpot, he looked down at the diary, where angry red words were scrawled all across the pages. They read, over and over,
'WELL, WHAT DID SHE SAY?!'
Sighing, he began to write again. 'She said that she had something to tell me. I had reclined on the pillows, my eyes closed, my head pillowed by my hands...And I tried, so hard, to fight the tears. I began to speak to her, apologizing, rationalizing as to why I did it, saying whatever came to mind. All I had wanted was for us to spend the rest of our life together, you know?'
A quiet, black said, 'I know.'
'And she sat down beside me, and cradled my head, and said that she wanted to get married...And so I sprang up, and said, "Well that's that!" But she just soothed me, and made me lay down again, and said that there were things that I didn't know about...
'Immediately, I jumped to the conclusion that there was someone else, that I was some sort of meaningless fling...And I told her my thoughts, and said that it was okay, that I understood, even though I was dying inside...
'But she just sort of laughed, hollowly, and said that I was the only, only, only one for her...And I wanted to believe that, but if it was true, then how could she *not* want to marry me? Saying things like, 'I know that I don't have that much to offer, but we could make a living - even if I had to work alongside muggles, and exchange my wages at Gringotts...' I would do anything for her.
'But she just made soothing sounds again, as I had done so many times for her, and I was now shaking...My body was shaking so badly, and all of my feelings were saying, "Turn towards the warmth, go to Katie," but I couldn't, knowing that she didn't love me enough to marry me...So I curled into a ball away from her. And then she started to cry.
'She explained that she had certain responsibilities that she couldn't shrug off, that she couldn't give up...That it was deathly important that she maintain these responsibilities, and if we married, I'd have these responsibilities too...And she couldn't keep me on a leash, so, limiting what I did...She told me something outrageous, about being the heiress to the throne of some island I'd never heard of - I thought it was something that she made up.
'I couldn't take it, so I just apologized some more, and waved my wand and performed the strongest 'Dissuo' that I had ever done...All of the dishes disappeared, the table became as shabby as ever, the carpets flew into nothingness, and the pillows popped into nothing. Katie, who had been leaning on some pillows, fell onto the floor, and into the mud that George had checked on earlier. I wanted to rush to her, to grab a cloth and wiper her face off - the left side was completely coated in the stuff, and then she started to laugh - but it wasn't the laugh that I loved so much, it was forced and unfeeling, as if it were the only thing that she could do at the moment.
'And I ran.
'I ran as fast as I could to Gryffindor Tower, leaped through the portrait hole, and onto my bed...I cried into my pillow, biting my lip so hard that it bled, and fell asleep - fortunately, I wasn't attacked by dreams.'
The same quiet black appeared. 'And that's it?'
'And that's it...'
Quillsilence. Lee layed back again, and closed the diary...He closed his eyes, and readied himself to go to sleep, feeling as if a great weight had been lifted off his chest...
His fitful, vision-plagued doze was interrupted by the opening of the door - the man turned on his side, facing away from the door, and assumed it to only be one of the twins. He felt a hand shaking his shoulder, and he murmured something to the effect that he wanted the person beside him to go away.
"Lee..." whispered a feminine voice. "I really have to talk to you..."
The mentioned started, and opened his eyes - what was *she* doing here? "I don't want to, Katie," someone said, "please, just leave me alone. We could go talk under the fireworks..."
He heard a sniff. "Really, Lee...I need to talk to y--"
"Really, Katie, I'm beyond caring right now." A complete and total blatant lie.
An indignant huff - "That's it, Lee Jordan. You can't sit here moping, so you are coming with me to watch the fireworks...Wingardium Leviosa!" And with that, Lee found his dreadlocks had bumped into the ceiling of his fourposter, at the wand of the woman he loved...With a giggle, she quickly, "Accio Lee Jordan!"ed him, and he flew into her arms.
Suddenly, he let out a booming laugh, and laid his head on her shoulder..."All right, my lady fair - take me to the fireworks!"
Katie eyed him skeptically, laughter in her brown orbs..."Nay, sir knight, I only did this to get you out of bed!" She quickly dropped him on the floor, and brushed herself off. "I would never let Fred and George see us like that - think of the cat calls..."
Her boyfriend nodded, and got up as well - suddenly he remembered all that had happened, and grew very cold towards her. "Katie, what makes you think that I want to go see the fireworks with you? Why the hell would I want to?"
Grabbing his arm, she didn't meet his eyes. "You know you want to," was all she said, and then proceeded to drag him down to the Common Room, past the conspiratorial Fred and George, and through the castle.
They made their way to the Entrance Hall, and quietly pushed the doors open...He gave her an odd look, wondering why she was taking him outside. Merely squeezing his hand in reply, she quickly ran out, and he had no choice but to follow - she did have a deathgrip on his hand, after all. Wondering what she was planning, he looked up into the sky, and saw the adeptness of the sixth year's pyrotechnics - they were stunning. Bursts of white and red and purple and blue and green fireworks were intermingled and arranged in an astounding array of sizes and shapes. He gasped audibly, absolutely taken with the sight above him, and with that lost his footing on the slight incline leading down to the lake. Still holding onto the beautiful woman's hand, she tripped as well, and as one they tumbled down towards the shimmering body of the lake.
The fall filled with laughter and shouts of enjoyment, Lee was finally able to stop their journey (which had begun to progress steadily faster) by grasping clump after clump of dewy grass in his hand...At the shore of the lake their rolling finally ceased, her head resting lightly on his chest, dizzily laughing in glee.
"Why did I ruin this?" the black man sighed, holding her closer.
"Oh, you didn't ruin it, love," she said, supporting herself on her elbow and looking at him.
He kissed her on the nose, and then resumed their previous position. They whispered lightly, not mentioning marriage or engagement or anything remotely similar to anything like that.
Back up in Gryffindor Tower, Fred grasped Ron's omnioculars in his hand, and peered down at the lakeshore through the window. Sighing, he turned to his twin. "You know, I can see what's happening."
George looked perplexed. "What?"
Fred sighed..."And they don't have a clue."
George's brow furrowed. "Who?"
"They'll fall in love and here's the bottom line..." Fred sighed again. "Our trios down to two."
"Oh."
Fred gestured to the full moon and fireworks - "The sweet caress of midnight, there's *magic* everywhere...And with all this romantic atmosphere," he gulped, and spread his arms wide. Shouting to the heavens, he concluded, "Disaster's in the air!"
At this, music could be heard all across the grounds as a beautiful melody invaded the castle and all its surroundings - obviously, someone had thought that the show of the fireworks hadn't been enough. An absolutely glorious voice suddenly followed the music on its spreading path...it began to sing... "Can you feel the love tonight? The peace the evening brings..."
Lee and Katie kissed lightly, with the former gently leading the latter to the lake...
"...All the world in perfect harmony...With all its living things..."
He twirled around and pushed her into the water, laughing uproariously and leaning on his knees for support...She pulled him in, and he ducked under the water, having been prepared to hold his breath since he had concocted the plan to get her into the water.
Swimming towards her legs in the water, his thoughts turned to all those girls that he had had mild dalliances with when she *hadn't* found out...He sighed inwardly. 'I've got so many things to tell her...but how to make her see..' Slipping his hand behind her knees and tickling her, delighted in the laughing convulsions she made...'the truth about my past? Impossible...she'd turn away from me..."
Katie giggled uncontrollably, and then playfully slapped Lee's hand away, shedding her robes and running to the shore to take refuge in a tree. Soon, she too was attacked by memories of the night before, and what she had told Lee...
Silently, she cursed her heritage..."Monarchies are stupid, anyway - why should the fact that I"m distantly related to a royal family mean that whoever I marry has to be king? Stupid island..." Just then, Lee evacuated the lake as well, leaving his robes behind as Katie had, and tore off her shoes, tickling her mercilessly. Laughing, she fell off the branch and knocked him down, pinning him to the ground, and looking in his eyes..."I can tell that he's holding back, he's hiding...but what I can't decide." Suddenly with a new confidence, "Why couldn't he be the king I know he is? The king I see inside?"
Laughing, she left him on the ground, running off in the direction of the forest. Putting on a burst of speed to catch up to her...
"...Can you feel the love tonight?...The peace the evening brings...All the world, in perfect harmony...With all its living things..."
Finally, he reached her, and snatched her around the waist. Picking her up, he twirled her about, hearing true laughter and making him feel as happy as he had ever been...
"Can you feel the love tonight?...You needn't look too far..."
She managed to turn around in Lee's arms, and leant down, kissing him on the forehead - he collapsed backwards, and it looked as if she had pinned him again. Kissing him lightly again, she put herself in his arms, and closed her eyes...
"And if the offer is still open," she said sleepily, "I would *love* to marry you..."
Lee smiled, and began to pet her head, preparing to fall asleep as well. "And this means I'll be royalty, too?"
Laughing slightly, she nodded, and murmured, "Governing the people of the island...oh, how I pity them!"
He laughed as well, and, just before he went to sleep, muttered, "I just can't wait to be king..."
"...Stealing through the night's uncertainties...Love is where they are..."
Fred put the omnioculars down in disgust. "And if they fall in love tonight..."
George sniffed.
"It can be assumed--"
His twin interrupted, "His carefree days with us are history..."
Putting their arms around eachother, mock-tears came to their eyes..."In short our pal is doomed!"
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling invented these guys, and Tim Rice (I think -_-) did those wonderful lyrics aways down there...I don't own either of them. I doubt I even own the plotline. I don't know - just don't sue me, okay? I have no money...except for those pennies in my Gringotts piggy bank ^_^
Fred and George Weasley, one laughing due to what the other had said, made their way lazily into the Great Hall, the mirthful one clutching at his counterpart, struggling valiantly to stay on his feet, but failing all the more miserably, and in doing so bringing his twin down beside him.
After much commotion, whispers, and general pointing and laughing the two finally made their way to the Gryffindor table, sitting themselves beside their mutual best friend, Lee Jordan. Ruffling his friend's dreadlocks, George (still red with laughter, though more coherent) asked, "So, Lee ole boy, how'd it go last night?"
At Lee's abashed look, Fred playfully punched him in the shoulder. "You *did* ask her, didn't you?"
Master Jordan, looking miserably at his scrambled eggs and altering their location with his fork, "Yeah. Yeah, I asked her." Half-heartedly he flicked a forkful of hashbrowns at Seamus Finnegan, the potatoes landing on the fifth year's robes. A confused look on his face, Seamus brushed off the fried potatoes, and gave Lee a funny look, before returning to his conversation with Dean Thomas.
They glanced at each other, horrified looks on their faces, until George finally choked out, "Well, what did she say?"
Acting as if something had caught in his throat, Lee grimaced, and coughed. "I don't really want to talk about it right now, okay, guys? I'll tell you later...lunch, maybe. Let's just get Potions over with, all right?" With that, he picked up his book bag, and looked pointedly at the ground, meeting no one's eyes. The twins looked at each other again, horrified expressions still etched upon their faces. They grabbed a few pieces of toast each, stuffing a singular slice in their mouths, and then called after their friend to wait up, ready to talk about everything except what had happened the night before.
It seemed that even Snape could recognize that Lee couldn't take much today - despite threats being made last class period due to the finding of a tarantula in his desk drawer, the Potions Master did not make one derisive remark, nor did he even pressure the dejected boy into answering N.E.W.T. revision questions, despite the fact that he had hotly denied ever giving a student special treatment in the history of his career - at least, he hadn't in this class.
After the class had finished, with the twins constantly checking to see if Lee was fingering a knife under his robes, or perhaps a vial of poison, the three walked out, followed by a look from Snape filled with immense sympathy - as if he had experienced something similar himself, once before.
At lunch, George cautiously asked Lee what had happened the night before, and the inquired-after boy actually looked up this time. "I'll tell you when I'm ready." At this he sniffed, and continued to muss about with the sandwich in front of him. A few moments later, he glanced at his watch, and muttered that he was going to Charms.
Fred sighed. "Do you think we should ask Katie what happened?" he asked, looking down the table at where the mentioned and her two companion Gryffindor Chasers were sitting. Miss Bell looked unnaturally subdued, almost as much as her boyfriend. George looked rather surprised, and Fred looked quite perplexed. Giving each other a look, they both mouthed one question - What happened?
At last, all classes were over. Charms had gone by surprisingly quickly (after Lee had told them that he was *not* going to commit suicide over this), as did Care of Magical Creatures, despite their review on Blast-Ended Skrewts. Finally, at the end of the academic day, the trio made their way up the steps to the Great Hall and once again took their seats, awaiting dinner. Both Fred and George avoided Lee's eyes, figuring that if they pried much more then their friend would snap - most of Gryffindor followed their examples.
The only one who actually *made* eye contact with him was, oddly enough, Katie Bell, who looked close to tears and quickly looked away soon after the initial contact had been made. The boy looked again at his food, which had become an indiscernible mess throughout the course of the dinner, but which had originally been some sort of meat and vegetable.
As he got up to leave, Lee's progress was subdued by the tapping of a glass goblet, the tapper being the Headmaster and the goblet belonging to the same. His blue eyes shining gleefully, he cleared his throat in the slightest of manners, and began to speak: "Good evening, students of Hogwarts. I have been asked to inform you, and agreed willingly, that Professor Flitwick's sixth year class have prepared to demonstrate their prowess for us all in a grand display of fireworks. The sight can be seen from any elevated area within the school, or any unobstructed place on the grounds - though groundswalking is not allowed after hours, so you can please erase that thought from your heads immediately. I am sure that you will all enjoy it."
Professor Flitwick positively glowed.
A generally excited chatter was heard as the majority of the population of Hogwarts headed to various towers throughout the castle. Lee Jordan, still standing where he was caught when Dumbledore had made his announcement, was staring, enraptured, at Katie Bell, obviously relishing in what he and her could be doing with fireworks adorning the sky.
Shaking his head abruptly, the man grabbed his bag, and rushed up to his dorm, preparing to go to sleep and forget about everything. Including the romantic evening he could have had tonight with the woman he loved...
No such luck - thoughts of her kept on gracing his mind...All the fun they had had, all the rows, all the lulls...And they all made him so immensely sad that he felt that he just *had* to do something.
Resignedly, he reached into his trunk for something to read. Unexpectedly, in his hand appeared the SkyStrength's Wizarding Atlas (Revision Sixteen, Edition Forty) For those in Distress. Not remembering the last time this book had worked for him, and remembering his thoughts in thinking it a joke (and thus the reason he bought it), he flipped it open to a random page, near the back, preparing to start to memorize the index to forget h - no, just to forget.
Well, this was odd...every page he looked, there seemed to be but one article. Something about someplace called 'Grinrung', a name that sounded familiar . He began to read...
'Grinrung - a small, purely wizarding isle smacked into the middle of no where in the Pacific Ocean. Reported to be tropical. As it has not been visited often, very little is known about it, though it has been noted by several political missionaries that they absolutely refuse to leave behind their monarchial ways. They believe only in the king and queen type authorities (as well as princes and princesses, though dukes, counts, and other similar figures of authority are not included), with this authority passing down through bloodlines alone. The last known bloodline ruling (as of 1963), was one family by the name of'
Here Lee stopped, not wanting to read on...He knew why the name 'Grunring' sounded familiar - Katie had mentioned it last night...He already knew who the ruling family was.
Having seemingly exhausted all possibilities of forgetting in his mind (though he was most probably being lazy), he did the only thing he could think of - he gave up.
Pillowing his head beneath his hands, he closed his eyes, and attempted to convince his mind that what he wanted to do was to go to sleep, to leave all that had happened behind, to relax and be enveloped by blissful nothingness - no, of *course* he didn't want to think of Katie; he *didn't* want to think of the life they could have had; didn't want to think of anything about her, not her beauty, not her smile, and certainly *never* her sweet, endearing, quirky laugh - never, ever her laugh...
Interrupting his painful reverie were two simultaneous spoings, signalling that the Weasley twins had found his sanctuary. Not opening his eyes, the crushed man hoped that the two opposite him would take the hint, and leave him for sleep to claim as its own.
Unfortunately, he was not so lucky.
Gently touching his shoulder, one of the duo slightly shook his friend's shoulder. "Lee?"
A different hand shook his other shoulder, and in a slightly differnt voice inquired, "Lee?"
Master Jordan actually *heard* them smirk, and steeled himself for what was to come. Suddenly, the black boy's shoulders were *convulsing* because of how hard his friends were shaking him, and, as if that were not enough, began to scream as loudly as possible. "LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Inwardly rolling his eyes, the broken-hearted opened the aforementioned bodyparts, as well as his mouth, and sat up. "Yes?" he asked, as politely as possible when one is found in such a position.
"We," confided George, gesturing at his twin, "have decided, with the aid of our elders and some previous eavesdropping notes, that it is not mentally healthy for teenage boys to keep their emotions pent up inside."
Eyes narrowed, the black-haired man defensively hissed, "You can't make me tell you anything."
Fred nodded. "Oh, we know," he affirmed. "We weren't going to try to make you - that'd be overstepping our bounds. So, we decided that we'd give you this." George handed him a small, tye-dyed pink book, with flowers and hearts decorating it. The recipient stared at it incredulously, and the twins blushed.
"We know, it's a little..."
"...effeminate," his counterpart finished. "But this is a prototype Weasley Wizard Wheeze...Even if it's not especially 'wheezie'."
"Or Weasley, either. See, you write in it, and it responds based on what you wrote in the past...They were originally going to be marketed for those who were more feminine than you, but now that we've seen that guys need them too, we'll come up with more masculine covers..."
"Just thought you could use that - you know, express your feelings, and all." Awkwardly, the two stood there, and then gradually backed towards the exit. "We'll be in the common room if you need us, I guess...or maybe the lab."
Lee winced at the mention of the WWW lab, but waved them on, and muttered thanks before his hesitation at bringing out a quill, and a pot of sea-green ink - he performed the action anyway.
'This diary,' he wrote with a flourish on the inside cover, 'is the property of L. J.'
Turning to the first page, he began to write...
'I think it all started at that Quidditch match in fourth year, when Katie'
'Wait...' interjected similar script. 'Who is this 'Katie'? And, what is our name?'
Lee stared, and then shook off the surprise, remember his friend's saying in how it worked. He wrote down, in answer, 'Our name is Lee, and Katie is - was - my girlfriend.'
Diary!Lee snarled in red ink, 'Our.'
He quirked an eyebrow. 'Yes. Ours. Or at least, was ours. Anyway, could you shut your face, so that I can continue with mine - ours - and Katie's 'start'?'
'Do we normally shut our faces when asked?'
'No.'
'Well, why should I start now?'
'Because I'll burn you if you don't.'
A splotch appeared in nervous purple. 'Go on.'
The man watched in fascination as all previous text disappeared, save the interrupted sentence which started with, 'I think', and ending with 'Katie'.
'came up to me after the match with Hufflepuff. We were all really worried about Harry, and I was about to go down to see him in the Hospital Wing, but first I had to pick up the commentator's box. McGonagall had already gone, of course, crowding around the boy after that git Lockhart had done his dirty work.
'Katie flew up to the box, and I guess she must have been there for a while before I noticed her. I turned, and there she was - it was just then that I noticed how beautiful she was, for the very first time. I guess I had just been the stupid 14 year old until then, and now hormones were kicking in - and God, were they kicking in.
'She sort of walked up to me in the most innocent, seductive way I can imagine, and I felt my knees go weak. She looked down at the papers in my hand (the transcript from my commentating) and pointed. "I was really flattered today, Lee," she said, "by what you said during the match."
'I was perplexed, and I guess my open-mouth, or maybe women's intuition, let her know, because she continued the conversation. "You know, when you said, "And here's the beautiful Katie Bell!" I...I really appreciated it, you know?"'
'Still feeling undeniably stupid, I just stood there, closed my mouth and nodded dumbly, screaming at myself inside to make a move. Smiling, and blushing a little, she stood on her toes and kissed me lightly on the cheek, briefly grasped my hand and squeezed, and before I knew it she flew off to the showers, to get ready to see Harry. Only once did she look back, and her smile made me flush...
'It was only then that I realized that I had crumpled the transcript into a small, parchment ball in my hand.
After a while of quill-silence, a confident orange emerged from the sea of green, clashing horribly, and making a comment, 'So...what happened after that?'
'I guess we were boyfriend and girlfriend. I mean, I didn't talk to her until a few days after'
'Git.'
'What?'
'You had, from what I can tell, the prettiest girl in the school after you, and you didn't talk to her for a *few* *days*, after she kissed you.'
'I was only fourteen, and I was nervous. I shouldn't have to explain myself to you, of all people.'
More silence.
'Well, anyway, it was sort of funny, later, because I was looking through the transcript and realized that I hadn't said 'the beautiful Katie Bell' at all. I confronted her about it, and she laughed at me, and said that she had *obviously* been hitting on me...'
A 'heh' appeared in a laughing yellow. 'I can't believe you needed her to tell you that.'
Ignoring the last comment, Lee continued to write. 'I guess our relationship was kind of secret - I only told Fred and George about it, and Katie only told Angelina and Alicia...For a while, all it was was her innocently joining me in the commentator's box after a match for a quick kiss, and then she left on her broom, leaving me dazed...It was like nothing was happening between us at all, since Quidditch matches are so far between in the year...
'When I talked to her after the first time we didn't even mention it - just talked about what we always talked about: Fred and George's latest prank, how unjust Snape was, how was my tarantula doing...But we never did bring up Quidditch, I think we were afraid that it would bring up some tension, and ruin our friendship, or something.'
This time, the diary kept its thoughts to itself.
'The first time, I think, that we really did anything beyond that box was in fifth year, after Sirius Black slashed the Fat Lady's portrait. She was just so *scared*, not only for her, but also for Harry - and me. She was scared for me, too.
'In the Great Hall that night, when all of the houses were in the sleeping bags, Katie found mine, and crawled into it - all she did was lie in my arms'
A laughing, bright green. 'Sure.'
The quill scribbled furiously. 'Really! I mean, we were only fifteen...All she did was lay in my arms, and let loose a sob occasionally. I petted the back of her head, and made soothing sounds, but was so happy - I was just unbelievably happy. I don't think there's enough words to express what I felt - happy, pleased, content, euphoric'
'In love?' asked a brilliant red line.
Lee smiled. Outloud, he said, "Yeah...in love." And then he wrote, 'In love. Yes. In love...'
The man wrote in the diary for a long, long time - relating their first date in Hogsmeade ('a lovely moonlit picnic, with the help of some secret passages shown by red-headed tourguides), their first *real* kiss ('It was, to put it simply, the most electrifying experience that I had ever had, and doubt that I will ever have it again - if I could only pick one memory to save for all eternity, that would be it'), their anniversaries ('I would try and come up with an excuse for an anniversary all the time, just so that I would have an excuse to be as obsessive as I was')...
There was the time she had collapsed on his chest in a fit of giggles over the beard he had grown because of the ageline, and the way she clutched his hand during the first task, and how she had layed her head on his shoulder last term when Cedric had died, a silent tear rolling down her cheek...
But there was also that time she had slapped him when he had gotten a little drunk, and the row which caused her to not speak to him for a week, and then when she had caught him tangled up in a closet with some girl, a year lower than them, whose name Lee had forgotten over the years...
But now there were no more memories, he had written them all down, and the diary had passed judgement as it had seen fit after every event had been chroniclized - save one. Last night's...With a sigh, Lee began to write again, his inkpot nearly empty.
'Fred and George had helped me plan it - even helped me get the ring. I thought that, for sure, she would love it. It had a cheering charm on it, as well as a sparkle spell...And it was lovely besides all that. The jeweler put it in this satin-like box that must have been made of something lovely, it was so soft to hold...it seemed like I couldn't go wrong.
'They lent me the WWW Labs, a little chamber behind a suit of armor that seemingly no one knows about besides the Twins and those they choose to share it with. Most of the time, it's filled with bubbling flasks of simmering potions and unidentifiable substances spreading slowly across the floor - but they had halted work so that I could fix it up for 'a lass as wonderful as Katie'.
'I had gotten the House Elves to prepare all of her favorite dishes, the information provided by Alicia and Angelina, and then transfigured a shabby table (with the aid of McGonagall) into one of the grandest to ever grace the halls of Hogwarts, rivaling even the head table in the Great Hall.
'I cushioned the room with reds and purples, pillows and rugs and couches, portraits of wizards and witches dancing gracefully across ballroom floors...I felt so alive while doing this, knowing it was for Katie - always for Katie. My creative juices were flowing, I did everything I could think of that might please her, even in the slightest. Near the end of preparation, George peeked in, and actually lifted up some of my work to see if this ooze that they were working on was still down there. I can't imagine what he would've done to me if it hadn't been.
'Finally, I was ready. I rushed up to Gryffindor Tower, where Katie was talking to her girlfriends, and dragged her through the halls - I had to be careful walkinger through, having had blindfolded her. When I pushed aside the knight (after whispering the very embarrassing password, which Fred and George had somehow found out how to change, password being 'Lee and Katie, sitting in a tree'), I led her inside, and whipped off the blindfold.
'Audibly gasping, her mouth fell open, but she quickly regained composure (that's my Katie!), turned around, and winked at me. "What's this, Lee?" she giggled. "What anniversary is it, this time?" I laughed as well, and said, "Oh, you'll find out."
'The gasping continued through out dinner, after every flourish of my wand when a new tray of her favorite food was unveiled. I have to admit, I didn't like those foods normally, but they just tasted so much better when Katie was there...It was like her presence made everything *better* in the world.
'Finally, as the dessert was displayed, I decided that now was the time, if ever...Before taking the cover off of the shortbread, I smiled at her, and said, "Now, it's time you find out what this is..." Adopting my trademark grin, I walked to the side of her chair (it seemed like such a long walk), and went down on one knee.
'Drawing the ring from my pocket, feeling the smooth, soft, seductive material run over my fingers, I opened it, and presented the ring to her. Breathlessly, the words came out..."Katie Bell, will you marry me?"'
'She sat there, a stunned look on her face...I don't know what I had been expecting - I hoped for a yes, of course - but not complete and astoundingly *deafening* silence...Her mouth moved soundlessly, and she looked down at me, a piteous look in her eyes..."Maybe," she said quietly, "you had better sit down, Lee."'
He closed his eyes, breathlessly remembering that moment, the room swirling around him in its nauseating brightness. Leaving his knees, the broken-hearted had fallen back upon the pillows. The same, cotton mouthed feeling had invaded as it had the night before...Grabbing a sip of water, he picked up the quill, absently fingering the callouses the were beginning to form because of all of his writing.
Dipping into the nigh-dry inkpot, he looked down at the diary, where angry red words were scrawled all across the pages. They read, over and over,
'WELL, WHAT DID SHE SAY?!'
Sighing, he began to write again. 'She said that she had something to tell me. I had reclined on the pillows, my eyes closed, my head pillowed by my hands...And I tried, so hard, to fight the tears. I began to speak to her, apologizing, rationalizing as to why I did it, saying whatever came to mind. All I had wanted was for us to spend the rest of our life together, you know?'
A quiet, black said, 'I know.'
'And she sat down beside me, and cradled my head, and said that she wanted to get married...And so I sprang up, and said, "Well that's that!" But she just soothed me, and made me lay down again, and said that there were things that I didn't know about...
'Immediately, I jumped to the conclusion that there was someone else, that I was some sort of meaningless fling...And I told her my thoughts, and said that it was okay, that I understood, even though I was dying inside...
'But she just sort of laughed, hollowly, and said that I was the only, only, only one for her...And I wanted to believe that, but if it was true, then how could she *not* want to marry me? Saying things like, 'I know that I don't have that much to offer, but we could make a living - even if I had to work alongside muggles, and exchange my wages at Gringotts...' I would do anything for her.
'But she just made soothing sounds again, as I had done so many times for her, and I was now shaking...My body was shaking so badly, and all of my feelings were saying, "Turn towards the warmth, go to Katie," but I couldn't, knowing that she didn't love me enough to marry me...So I curled into a ball away from her. And then she started to cry.
'She explained that she had certain responsibilities that she couldn't shrug off, that she couldn't give up...That it was deathly important that she maintain these responsibilities, and if we married, I'd have these responsibilities too...And she couldn't keep me on a leash, so, limiting what I did...She told me something outrageous, about being the heiress to the throne of some island I'd never heard of - I thought it was something that she made up.
'I couldn't take it, so I just apologized some more, and waved my wand and performed the strongest 'Dissuo' that I had ever done...All of the dishes disappeared, the table became as shabby as ever, the carpets flew into nothingness, and the pillows popped into nothing. Katie, who had been leaning on some pillows, fell onto the floor, and into the mud that George had checked on earlier. I wanted to rush to her, to grab a cloth and wiper her face off - the left side was completely coated in the stuff, and then she started to laugh - but it wasn't the laugh that I loved so much, it was forced and unfeeling, as if it were the only thing that she could do at the moment.
'And I ran.
'I ran as fast as I could to Gryffindor Tower, leaped through the portrait hole, and onto my bed...I cried into my pillow, biting my lip so hard that it bled, and fell asleep - fortunately, I wasn't attacked by dreams.'
The same quiet black appeared. 'And that's it?'
'And that's it...'
Quillsilence. Lee layed back again, and closed the diary...He closed his eyes, and readied himself to go to sleep, feeling as if a great weight had been lifted off his chest...
His fitful, vision-plagued doze was interrupted by the opening of the door - the man turned on his side, facing away from the door, and assumed it to only be one of the twins. He felt a hand shaking his shoulder, and he murmured something to the effect that he wanted the person beside him to go away.
"Lee..." whispered a feminine voice. "I really have to talk to you..."
The mentioned started, and opened his eyes - what was *she* doing here? "I don't want to, Katie," someone said, "please, just leave me alone. We could go talk under the fireworks..."
He heard a sniff. "Really, Lee...I need to talk to y--"
"Really, Katie, I'm beyond caring right now." A complete and total blatant lie.
An indignant huff - "That's it, Lee Jordan. You can't sit here moping, so you are coming with me to watch the fireworks...Wingardium Leviosa!" And with that, Lee found his dreadlocks had bumped into the ceiling of his fourposter, at the wand of the woman he loved...With a giggle, she quickly, "Accio Lee Jordan!"ed him, and he flew into her arms.
Suddenly, he let out a booming laugh, and laid his head on her shoulder..."All right, my lady fair - take me to the fireworks!"
Katie eyed him skeptically, laughter in her brown orbs..."Nay, sir knight, I only did this to get you out of bed!" She quickly dropped him on the floor, and brushed herself off. "I would never let Fred and George see us like that - think of the cat calls..."
Her boyfriend nodded, and got up as well - suddenly he remembered all that had happened, and grew very cold towards her. "Katie, what makes you think that I want to go see the fireworks with you? Why the hell would I want to?"
Grabbing his arm, she didn't meet his eyes. "You know you want to," was all she said, and then proceeded to drag him down to the Common Room, past the conspiratorial Fred and George, and through the castle.
They made their way to the Entrance Hall, and quietly pushed the doors open...He gave her an odd look, wondering why she was taking him outside. Merely squeezing his hand in reply, she quickly ran out, and he had no choice but to follow - she did have a deathgrip on his hand, after all. Wondering what she was planning, he looked up into the sky, and saw the adeptness of the sixth year's pyrotechnics - they were stunning. Bursts of white and red and purple and blue and green fireworks were intermingled and arranged in an astounding array of sizes and shapes. He gasped audibly, absolutely taken with the sight above him, and with that lost his footing on the slight incline leading down to the lake. Still holding onto the beautiful woman's hand, she tripped as well, and as one they tumbled down towards the shimmering body of the lake.
The fall filled with laughter and shouts of enjoyment, Lee was finally able to stop their journey (which had begun to progress steadily faster) by grasping clump after clump of dewy grass in his hand...At the shore of the lake their rolling finally ceased, her head resting lightly on his chest, dizzily laughing in glee.
"Why did I ruin this?" the black man sighed, holding her closer.
"Oh, you didn't ruin it, love," she said, supporting herself on her elbow and looking at him.
He kissed her on the nose, and then resumed their previous position. They whispered lightly, not mentioning marriage or engagement or anything remotely similar to anything like that.
Back up in Gryffindor Tower, Fred grasped Ron's omnioculars in his hand, and peered down at the lakeshore through the window. Sighing, he turned to his twin. "You know, I can see what's happening."
George looked perplexed. "What?"
Fred sighed..."And they don't have a clue."
George's brow furrowed. "Who?"
"They'll fall in love and here's the bottom line..." Fred sighed again. "Our trios down to two."
"Oh."
Fred gestured to the full moon and fireworks - "The sweet caress of midnight, there's *magic* everywhere...And with all this romantic atmosphere," he gulped, and spread his arms wide. Shouting to the heavens, he concluded, "Disaster's in the air!"
At this, music could be heard all across the grounds as a beautiful melody invaded the castle and all its surroundings - obviously, someone had thought that the show of the fireworks hadn't been enough. An absolutely glorious voice suddenly followed the music on its spreading path...it began to sing... "Can you feel the love tonight? The peace the evening brings..."
Lee and Katie kissed lightly, with the former gently leading the latter to the lake...
"...All the world in perfect harmony...With all its living things..."
He twirled around and pushed her into the water, laughing uproariously and leaning on his knees for support...She pulled him in, and he ducked under the water, having been prepared to hold his breath since he had concocted the plan to get her into the water.
Swimming towards her legs in the water, his thoughts turned to all those girls that he had had mild dalliances with when she *hadn't* found out...He sighed inwardly. 'I've got so many things to tell her...but how to make her see..' Slipping his hand behind her knees and tickling her, delighted in the laughing convulsions she made...'the truth about my past? Impossible...she'd turn away from me..."
Katie giggled uncontrollably, and then playfully slapped Lee's hand away, shedding her robes and running to the shore to take refuge in a tree. Soon, she too was attacked by memories of the night before, and what she had told Lee...
Silently, she cursed her heritage..."Monarchies are stupid, anyway - why should the fact that I"m distantly related to a royal family mean that whoever I marry has to be king? Stupid island..." Just then, Lee evacuated the lake as well, leaving his robes behind as Katie had, and tore off her shoes, tickling her mercilessly. Laughing, she fell off the branch and knocked him down, pinning him to the ground, and looking in his eyes..."I can tell that he's holding back, he's hiding...but what I can't decide." Suddenly with a new confidence, "Why couldn't he be the king I know he is? The king I see inside?"
Laughing, she left him on the ground, running off in the direction of the forest. Putting on a burst of speed to catch up to her...
"...Can you feel the love tonight?...The peace the evening brings...All the world, in perfect harmony...With all its living things..."
Finally, he reached her, and snatched her around the waist. Picking her up, he twirled her about, hearing true laughter and making him feel as happy as he had ever been...
"Can you feel the love tonight?...You needn't look too far..."
She managed to turn around in Lee's arms, and leant down, kissing him on the forehead - he collapsed backwards, and it looked as if she had pinned him again. Kissing him lightly again, she put herself in his arms, and closed her eyes...
"And if the offer is still open," she said sleepily, "I would *love* to marry you..."
Lee smiled, and began to pet her head, preparing to fall asleep as well. "And this means I'll be royalty, too?"
Laughing slightly, she nodded, and murmured, "Governing the people of the island...oh, how I pity them!"
He laughed as well, and, just before he went to sleep, muttered, "I just can't wait to be king..."
"...Stealing through the night's uncertainties...Love is where they are..."
Fred put the omnioculars down in disgust. "And if they fall in love tonight..."
George sniffed.
"It can be assumed--"
His twin interrupted, "His carefree days with us are history..."
Putting their arms around eachother, mock-tears came to their eyes..."In short our pal is doomed!"