It felt strange to walk again, but it felt good. She felt alive; she felt a rush inside of her, like she had woken up from a long and satisfying nap. Still, it was surreal. She walked a little slower than usual through the corridors, just trying to take it all in again. Finally, she reached the library. It was her favorite place in the castle. Ever since her first year she had loved to come into the library to do her homework or just read a good book. This year it had taken on a new meaning, because it was where she had met him.
Of course she already knew of him. It was difficult not to, what with his brothers all being Hogwarts legends in their own rights, and he himself being a prefect. But they didn't formally meet until that day in the library, when he got her the book that she wanted but couldn't reach high enough to get. That initiated a conversation, which initiated more conversations followed by a friendship sprinkled with a fair amount of flirting and then finally a kiss in the very same library where they had first met.
That summer, they wrote each other every day. Her older sister taught her to spray the parchment with perfume so he could smell her on it. She wrote him about everything, and he did the same. She saved every single one of his letters in a box underneath her bed, and read one whenever she missed him, which happened a lot. When her Prefect's badge arrived, she immediately sent him a letter and anxiously awaited one back. When it came, she could practically hear his excitement as she read it.
When they arrived back at school, their new duties just gave them more excuses to see each other. They'd patrol the corridors at night hand in hand and sneak into empty classrooms to kiss, among other things. But she was scared. She was a Muggle-born, and the Heir of Slytherin was on the loose. One night, they heard a noise coming from around a corner. Even though it was nothing, it brought her worst fears to the surface and she broke down in his arms. But even though he was being strong for her, she could tell he was just as scared and worried as she was. Between all three of his brothers finding trouble everywhere they went, and his younger sister just not acting like herself, it was a hard time for him as well.
Her fears became a reality when she and that little second year girl were petrified. But she didn't really feel the Basilisk's curse. Her whole body went stiff and then everything went black and the next thing she knew she was lying in a bed in the Hospital Wing, surrounded by other students laying stiff in their beds.
So now she walked through the library where she had a feeling he would be. She walked between the towering bookshelves lit by the candelabras and the sunlight coming in through the windows. She glanced at every table, hoping to find him at one of them. When she finally did spot him, hunched over a book with his head in his hands, she wanted to run to him and kiss him all over. But she didn't. She wanted to savor this moment. Slowly she crept up around to his side and draped her arms around his shoulders, kissing him on the head. When he looked up, his whole face broke into the biggest smile she had ever seen on him.
"Oh my God…" He leapt up from his seat and hugged her so tightly she felt her feet leave the ground. Sure she had come back to life in a way, but in that moment she knew that he had too.