A/N: This is a sequel to my story Crossing Hearts! (Which you can find on my profile). You can probably read this one without reading Crossing Hearts, but there will be references back to the first story. I hope you enjoy! Please review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything in the HP universe; Taylor is my only creation.

Evolving Hearts

Just Two More Weeks

His lips pressed firmly against mine, only lightening so his tongue could brush my lips and then venture into my mouth. My hair was pulled gently by the hand he had tangled up in my long strands and his other hand pulled impatiently on my waist. I pulled away from him for a moment, hesitating once again in the middle of kissing him.

"Come on…" his voice was low and gravelly as he pulled my body toward his.

I gave in to his kiss and shut my eyes. We were just having fun, like we'd told each other several times. Lighten up.

I was thinking about Draco's advice from earlier in our relationship and his words, as they had every time I was in this position, rang through my head, "…It's okay to live in the moment every now and then."

Reaching the last of the stairs on his front porch, I picked up my pace to hurry the few yards over to my own as I watched Deacon's parents pull into their driveway. I walked into my own house and headed to the kitchen, opening the fridge and grabbing a water bottle. Looking back, I wasn't sure exactly how the whole situation with Deacon had initially escalated. I returned home from Hogwarts in the middle of June and began hanging out with Deacon effortlessly as we always had. Kissing Deacon hadn't been planned… I had been thinking about Draco. I felt bad, I knew Deacon always had a small crush on me, but he knew I was going back to school abroad.

I opened the water and heard a rustling noise that distracted me from my thoughts. A brown owl was settling down on the kitchen counter next to our sink. After my first two weeks back, my father complained endlessly about the neighbors being able to see the owls peck at our kitchen window and I laughed, mentally comparing him to the stories Harry told me about his uncle. Since then, we kept the window half open so the owls could fly right in.

I reached the owl, untying the small letter from its leg and placing it on the counter. As I did this, I noticed a copy of the Daily Prophet folded up near the canister I was reaching for. I grabbed a handful of pellets from the canister and placed them on the counter in front of the owl and grabbed the paper, realizing it must have come earlier this morning while my mother was leaving for work. As soon as I got home from Hogwarts, I wrote a letter to the Daily Prophet office, asking for papers to be sent to me and sending payments back with the owls as they were. Due to the owls' travel time, I received the papers about a week late, but it didn't bother me – it's not like I was reading them for real news. Mostly, I scanned them to read if anyone I knew had been arrested or if anything was published about Harry or Voldemort; I also scanned for the name Malfoy.

Flipping the paper open, the front headline read: "SCRIMGEOUR APPOINTED NEW MINISTER OF MAGIC." I had seen Fudge's resignation (forced or voluntary) coming for the past month. I skimmed the article and then flipped through the remaining pages, nothing particularly catching my interest. I tossed the paper over into the trashcan – I always made sure to throw the papers away as soon as I was done with them so my father wouldn't find them. I was almost completely honest with my mother about the past year. We talked about Harry and Voldemort, and she knew Harry and I were friends. She didn't, however, know that I had snuck into the Department of Mysteries with Harry and my friends at the end of the last school year. I left these pieces out so that she would have no reasons to deny my returning to Hogwarts. During one of our discussions, though, my father had grown horrified at the mention of "dark wizards" and then questioned what kind of place I was going to school in. I really didn't need him finding an issue of the Prophet that reported another killing or arrest and freaking out; I didn't doubt that he would forbid me to return to Hogwarts.

I opened the letter the owl had just delivered and immediately recognized Hermione's neat handwriting. She was asking about when I'd be returning to England. For the past month, I received plenty of letters from Hermione, some from Harry and a couple from Ron. I opened the drawer in the kitchen that kept spare pens and paper and scrawled a quick note back to Hermione. The note included my flight date, arrival time and that I'd be staying at the Weasleys until school started – which Ron had already okay'ed in a previous letter. I ended the letter asking her if everything was still okay on her end and then attached it to the owl's leg in place of the one she'd written. I petted the owl and then it hopped up onto the window sill and took flight. Grabbing the letter from Hermione off the counter, I threw it in to the trashcan with the Prophet.

2 more weeks, I thought, and I'll be back in England. I missed magic, I missed my friends, I missed Hogwarts and the classes. I even missed… him. More than ever, I felt like I didn't belong here. I wondered, however, how things would be different this year. When I returned, what would have changed? I knew it would it would be many things…

A shrill noise caused me to jump and I looked over at the telephone attached the wall in my kitchen. I picked up the phone, "Hello?"

"About time," a raspy voice sounded impatient on the other line, "I've been calling your house all afternoon. Were you at Deacon's?"

I sighed, "Sorry, Lauren."

"That wasn't an answer."

"Yes, I was," I replied, rolling my eyes. Lauren was spending most of the summer with her dad in Austin and I was positive that her not being here played in to me and Deacon progressing our friendship. While on one hand it would have been nice to spend time with my old friend over the summer, I was also okay with her distance because it made my double life easier.

"Whatever, I was just calling to tell you that I'll be back next week so we have to do something before you leave the next week."

"Okay, we will," I assured her, "Bye Lauren."

I hung up the phone and sighed deeply. Two more weeks, I thought again.

By the time my father got home that evening, my mother and I were already setting the table for dinner. My father came in and sat down silently, as was becoming much more normal for him. Since overhearing my mom and I's many conversations about the wizarding world, he grew more withdrawn from us. I think he was nervous to talk to us, nervous of what else he might learn about a world he didn't understand, a world that frightened him.

"Did you remember," my mother spoke as she sat down at the table, "to take the morning off when Taylor flies out?"

"Oh…" my father spoke and cleared his throat, "About that, it's been really busy at work and I'm not going to be able to go… But no worries, I'll wake up early and say goodbye."

I smiled, not taking it personally. "That's all right, dad," I reassured him. I knew it was an excuse because it was uncomfortable for him to think of his only daughter flying off to another continent to attend a school he couldn't even visually see in order to study magic.

My mother took a deep breath and I looked over at her. Her lips were drawn into a straight line as she looked at my father. Just two more weeks.