I DON'T OWN ANYTHING RELATED TO HARRY POTTER.
There's something about her that he just can't place. For the first time ever, a Weasley was not placed in Gryffindor, and that Weasley stood a few feet away from him with a large piece of cake in one hand and a glass of butterbeer in the other. She had been placed into Ravenclaw and fit in well for the past six years. He inhaled sharply and turned his head when her dark brown eyes fell upon his face. He watched her devour her cake. It did not occur to him, until it was too late, that he should try and escape. He was several steps away from the table when her hand clamped down on his shoulder.
Roxanne took after her mother in almost everything. She was tall with long, soft, ebony curls that fell down her back. She had curves and often complained that she hated her breasts, which always caused him to become uncomfortable; he was rather fond of her chest. She lifted her chin, her light brown cheeks red from the coldness. There were freckles on her nose. She hated them too. Roxanne and Rose were the only two Weasleys of their generation to have freckles. But she, Roxanne, was too lazy to wear make-up or even think about learning such a mundane spell. She would rather spend her time trying to create a potion that would make Maude Lawry's (her nemesis) smell like dung for the next two days. Not that the headmistress ever suspected it was her.
He blinked and forced a smile, which she returned brightly. No, Headmistress McGonagall would never suspect Roxanne Weasley, Head Girl and quidditch extraordinare, of doing something so juvenile. His heart skipped a beat as she looped her arm through his and led him through the crowds of Hogwarts students. She enjoyed visiting Hogsmead. They were walking down the sidewalk now holding hands with him looking at her as if she had grown another head. People from every house greeted them and did not remark if they happened to notice the two of them holding hands. Roxanne stopped in front of a quidditch shop and leaned against the glass to stare at the latest broom model.
"Mum promises to get it for me if I score top in NEWTS." She chuckled.
That broom was as good as hers. He smiled again and lowered his eyes to the ground so that he wouldn't have to see how radiant she looked in the glass. One of their births had to have been an accident. Merlin knows it shouldn't have been the way it was. He looked up when he heard her call his name. She had her fists on her hips and her eyes narrowed as she gazed at him. She reached for his hand again and did not move until he assented. They were on the verge of crossing over into a burrough that he knew he'd been forbidden to visit. He stopped walking and simply stared at her. They stood there glaring at one another.
She ended up abandoning him for one of her quidditch teammates. The girl muttered a shy hello to him and followed Roxanne unusually close. She cast occasional glances over her shoulder as if to make sure he was not following them.
He did not see her again until that night. She stood in the window of the astronomy tower gazing at the clouds overhead. One of the smallest known secrets about Roxanne Weasley was that she had had a vision. She had foreseen that Uncle Percy's wife Audrey would run off with a muggle. She had told her parents about it when she was seven. The vision happened five years later. She was now sixteen years old. Her palms rested on the cool granite as she leaned forward and inhaled deeply.
"Come here." She spoke the words softly without opening her eyes. She held her hand out to him.
Her fingers were soft and warm within his grasp. She interlocked their fingers and opened her eyes to stare at the moon. He knew what she was thinking. He thought the same thing ninety percent of the day. Her hand brushed up his arm until it rested on his shoulder. She turned to him. The curls on her head fell in her face as if she had run up there and not bothered to correct the wind's mistake. He reached and brushed her hair behind her ear, but his hand stopped at her cheek. She tilted her head into his touch. The muscles in his stomach tightened. She stepped cloer to him, this girl that was the same height as him. Her lips were soft and moist when they crushed his. His dug his fingers into her hair and deepened the kiss.
One time, someone had caught them, but Roxanne had cast an obliviate spell so fast that he had barely had time to blink. But at that moment, they were as the sky and stars. He held her tight against him and forced himself to stop kissing her. Her breathing was deep and fast. Her hands rested on the sides of his face as she forced him to look at her. Their gazes were locked for an unaccountable amount of time before she hugged him. She him so tightly it caught him off guard. He understood. He had that same thought all day. He wrapped his arms around her.
"I love you so much, Roxie." He pressed a kiss into her forehead and used his thumbs to brush away the tears streaking down her cheeks. "Don't cry, or you'll break my heart. Please."
She pressed her face into his neck and sobbed. "It's not fair."
He knew. He understood. Really, he did. He had thought the same thing about her since their second year when he had seen her from behind and not recognized her. He had not been able to control the feelings welling up in his heart and pants from that moment on. He pulled away and gazed at her puffy pinky lips. She was beautiful. His index finger lifted her chin so that he could kiss her again. He rested his chin on top of her head and gazed out at the cloudy night sky. The stars twinkled, and the crescent moon looked as bright as ever. Roxanne sniffed and turned back to the window. His arms wrapped around her waist as they both gazed upward.
"Isn't it beautiful, Louis?" Roxanne leaned back against him and looked up with a wide grin.
His eyes slowly moved over her face. "Always."
She planted an awkward kiss on his china and turnd back to the scene. He buried his face in her hair and closed his eyes. It always smelled of almond. She sighed loudly and gave him a sad look after kissing him again. Her fingers wriggled a goodbye to him as she disappeard down the winding stairs. He understood that too. It was the only moment with her that he never thought about. He turned to look up at the sky again. If the sky could be so vast, couldn't people's understanding be the same? He swept his blond hair from his face and shoved his hands into his pockets. Not that he would give up what he had with Roxie in a million years. He looked at the sky again. He just wanted...more.