Minute by Minute
The days were growing longer and warmer. Minute by minute, it seemed, the degrees slowly raised, one after another, until robes were left open and shirts unbuttoned. Sweat stained collars and glistened on brows, overly red cheeks and bright eyes shining.
In the outside world, a war was beginning. The world was becoming crazy, dangerous, unsure. Yet the students splayed out across the grounds, content in a break from the work so harshly piled on them. A little apart from everyone else lay three.
One lay half in the water of the lake, half out. His red hair shone painfully in his companions' eyes, and they tittered in annoyance, but it wasn't real. His eyes were firmly shut against the sunlight. Another sat primly against a tree, despite the heat her clothes still in tact and completely unruffled. A book was propped open on her folded knees, but it had gone unread for a while now. The last lay between them, staring up at the endless sky. His eyes were wide behind his glasses, drinking in the tranquility that was so rare for him. All three sat, connected, trying to hold on to one moment more, and once that moment slipped away, grasping for the next.
Ron sat up and shook the water from his hair, his eyes ticking from Harry to Hermione and back again. A droplet had landed on Harry's cheek. The boy reached out a long finger to wipe it away. It paused mere centimeter's from it's target.
This breath could be erased too easily, all of them thought. Harry, painfully aware of the skin so close, Hermione waiting with half hooded eyes for contact to be made. It felt like such a breakable thing.
Ron could complete the action and wipe away the moisture from Harry's face. Harry could reach up and entwine his fingers with Ron's, reach out for Hermione just as easily. Hermione could take them both in her arms and kiss both their faces. This would bring smiles and laughter, and the reminder that theirs was a bond that would not be broken.
Or Ron could let his hand fall away, and they could sit, feeling the tentative threads that held them together only by knowing the other was there, whether or not they could feel them.
A moment frozen in the liquid heat of time on the edge of a dark lake glistening in the sun. A decision that made no difference to any second in life except the one they sat in now.
The hand twitched, continued it's decent, and brushed softly against the sun reddened cheek. Then it fell away. The moment broke, Hermione shuffled the pages of her book, Ron settled back against his arms and Harry smiled.
The whole world was changing rapidly around three lives that lay so still in the sun. A world was ending and a new one was beginning. It was a time when nothing could remain the same. And yet, here they were, feeling what they felt that first time summer had edged so close around them, ready to separate them at any time. Smiling through the burn.
The days were growing longer and warmer. Minute by minute, it seemed, the degrees slowly raised.