Together We Will Always Win

Her eyes wandered, skimming over familiar faces, bruised and bloodied, until they fell on him. He sat in the back, Seamus Finnegan at his side. His face discolored yellow, blue and purple and covered in scrapes and gashes. He jotted down notes, listening fervently to his head of house.

Flora felt the weight of a thousand stones in the pit of her stomach as she watched him. She wished she could make them stop, her aunt and uncle. She wished that she had some kind of influence over them to make them leave her peers a lone. There were so few students left at Hogwarts that classes merged and it was a stroke of luck that she had three classes with him: Transfiguration, Herbology and Potions. She was grateful that she had those opportunities to check on him throughout the day. She wished she could walk up to him in the hallway and simply ask if he needed anything but it would put her in harm's way and he refused to allow that.

He loved her; just as she loved him and it pained her that they could not be together. She hated being apart from him, not knowing what he was doing or if he was okay. She was certain he had a death wish, battling the regime. It would have been so much easier to just go to class, to learn, to pretend like it was not happening, but, he refused. He was noble and brave and she was incredibly proud to call him hers.

-x-

She brushed her fingers against his as she walked passed him in the hall. She pretended to be listening to her sister as they crossed the hall toward the dungeons. Her sister continued to talk about their homework assignment as they reached the door to the dungeons. She glanced back at him, ascending the grand stair case to go to the room of requirement and noticed the smile that touched his lips. It was moments like that that made their relationship worth the fight.

-x-

"I don't want to do this anymore." She murmured, her back pressed against the wall. He held her close, in the dead of night and she wished she could scream her love for him at the top of her lungs. She was tired of hiding. She was tired of pretending, pretending that she didn't care, pretending that she wasn't love in love, pretending that he wasn't the most important thing in her world.

"It's not safe for you. Your Aunt and Uncle would not take kindly to your choice of company." Neville smiled, pressing a kiss to her lips. His arms were wrapped tightly around her waist, her side pressed into his, so tight it felt as though he was trying to make her a part of him.

Then maybe he was, he loved her after all, and he was a part of her, whether he knew it or not: a part of her heart.

"I can't lose you. I want to help. I want to fight with you. If this is all the time we have left I want to spend every second of it with you. I want to fight with you, fight for you. Why won't you let me?"

"Because, I love you too much to let anything happen to you."

"But you could lose me either way. You could leave me in an instant, without loving me at all. I want to stay, Neville. Do not send me back down there. It is not where my heart is and I've already lost so much, don't push me away. I will not lose you too. Not like this." She leaned her head against his chest.

They sat in silence as she listened to the steady sound of his heart. "I'm sorry, Flora. I love you and if that is really what you want, then who am I to stop you? I just never want to be without you."

"Neither do I, Neville. That is why we need to fight together. We need to fight to be together and together we will always win."

Word Counnt: 694
Challenges:
Multiship Challenge – Neville w/ Stones.
Unusual Pairs Challenge
Famous Witch/Wizard Card - Genre: Adventure
disclaimer - not making any money off of it.