"Let's go somewhere." Astoria murmured into my neck. It wasn't as if this place wasn't glorious enough, no; the sun was tanning us golden, the water from the Black Lake was lapping onto our toes and a book sprawled out in her lap. It was normally perfect for us to be like this.
But today it just didn't feel right to her.
"Where do you want to go?" I asked, my hands running through the light, soft hair. It had a musky scent, one that never failed to draw me in hopelessly, a moth to the faintest flame.
Astoria smiled. "Anywhere."
If I had been with someone else, I would have assumed that 'anywhere' meant their favorite place in the castle; the gardens, the Quidditch pitch, perhaps that little nook between the Astronomy Tower and Ravenclaw's part of Hogwarts, or maybe even that secluded corner of the boathouse that had been so experimented with. 'Anywhere' wouldn't have been a surprise, 'anywhere' would have been fully expected.
But Astoria Greengrass was always a surprise just waiting to be opened up.
She took my hand and she took me away, the castle running past my eyes before I could register that my feet were even moving behind her, barely keeping pace, hardly able to wait, unable to bear the excitement that swelled in my stomach.
We had never been here before, and by this I was both shocked and not. How had I never noticed this place before? The walls were breaking down, the light filtering through some cracked boards that made up a ceiling. Moss scattered itself along the cobblestone floor and she stepped inside. She smiled.
"I've been wanting to give you something for a time now." She said, extending her hands to me. I folded my own within them and she pulled me into her. I breathed in her musky scent and closed my eyes.
"What do you want to give me, Astoria?" I asked her, burrowing my face into her hair. I felt her hands hold my wrists like the always did when she was going to tell me something. She pressed her lips into the skin of my neck, and it was there that she would whisper something just for me. She would always be the same.
"Me."