Shooting Stars

Rose huffed. Her green eyes darted from one dot to another, playing connect the dots with her eyes. Her fingers began to twitch at her sides. Pressure built up inside of her, rising through her legs, curling around her spine, raced up her throat until, "D'you see a shooting star yet?"

Anthony dropped his gaze from the stars to her face, chuckling a little at the impatience that was etched into her facial features. "No… I've never seen one before, actually," he admitted. "It seems like every time there's one in the sky I happen to be looking somewhere else. Have you seen any?"

She grumbled, "Not yet but it shouldn't be too much longer" and crossed her arms. She's been waiting all day for this moment, sneaked them past a few ministry workers, and all for nothing to happen yet. This was the only draw back to the celestial light show that was to come. She had to wait. "If you mean in general, then yes. Lots." She twisted her neck to gaze at him. "You're going to wish on it, right?"

He shrugged and rested his palms beneath his head in a makeshift pillow. "I don't know—should I?" His eyebrows came together as his blue eyes shifted to the darkened sky once more. "I used to make wishes all the time, but it seems like they have a tendency of not coming true." He shrugged again and sighed. "What's the point?"

"Yes! You're supposed to make wishes on them! It's…it's the law!" Rose exploded. Anthony burst out laughing, causing her to press her lips together. her cheeks puffed up and bloomed red in indignation. "And it's fun," she added as an afterthought.

"The law!?" He asked, mirth wrapped around his words. "Well I really should then. I wouldn't want to illegally witness a shooting star without wishing on it." That earned him a slap on the arm.

"Don't mock me. Star Wising is serious business!" She said.

Anthony rubbed his arm and adopted a serious expression. Or he tried to, anyway. It was hard to do so when Rose was being so serious about something as simple as wishing upon stars. "Of course. I wouldn't want the Wishing Police to come cart me away." He ignored the scathing look she threw in his direction and got comfortable upon the soft grass. He ran his palm against the cool grass, only pulling away when it began to tickle his palm. "What're you going to wish for?"

"I can't tell you or it won't come true!" She shot back almost immediately.

"Right, right. Of course. Silly me. How could I have forgotten?" He dodged her slap this time.

"Stop mocking me!"

Chuckling he looked up at the sky, right as a stream of the brightest blue he's ever seen darted across the sky. "Oh! I saw one!" He looked to her for a moment and then squeezed his eyes shut, wishing on the first thing that came to his mind. "There. I wished," he announced and then looked at her, expecting to see her usual smile but all he got was a deep frown. It made him flinch.

"Well, thanks a lot. I missed it 'cause of you. I hope you're happy!" She said, glaring at him.

Anthony rolled his eyes. "I'm sure there will be another one. You can't blame me for being distracting, that would be hypocritical." So, so hypocritical. For she was, in fact, the reason that he got distracted in his classes. He just couldn't seem to get her out of his head. Not that he wanted her out.

She sighed, the her eyes softening. "Well, yes, that's true. You have very distracting, yet pretty, eyes." Silence took over them for a mere second before she added, "But I'm blaming you anyway."

In that moment Anthony was glad that it was so dark outside. That way she couldn't see his face light up with the strongest blush his body had ever produced. He mentally kicked himself for reacting to her in such a way. She said things like that to him all of the time, he should have been used to it by now. But the butterflies that just took off in his stomach made him think that he'd never get used to her frank attitude. "Oh. Th-thanks. And sorry I guess." He looked down at his hands and began to pick at his fingernails.

Rose frowned. "Has no one ever told you that?" She asked, her head tilted slightly in her confusion. "They must be blind or kidding themselves."

He shrugged. "Well, I don't really hang out with many girls, and it would be odd if one of my guy friends told me that I had pretty eyes."

Hell, his eyes were what made her notice him across the Great Hall in the first place. Merlin, they were blue. The brightest blue she has ever seen. She loved looking at them. Sometimes she had to catch herself to keep from starting for too long.

Like now.

She almost jumped out of her skin when he turned to her, pointing straight up, and said, "Oh look, there's another one! Look, over there! Did you see it?"

Rose turned her head in time to see the tail end of a shooting star pass by. Her heart lept in excitement and she nodded. "Yeah, I saw that one!" She said and squeezed her eyes shut. "Shush, I need to think of a wish."

Anthony tilted his head back to look at the looming, dark shadow of the castle up on the hill. He watched the small ripples on the lake surface. He watched the blades of grass gently lean to and fro as the cool air brushed through it. He glanced at the watch strapped to his wrist and then leaned close to Rose's ear to whisper, "Are you done yet?"

She held her hand in front of his face, causing him to chuckle at her antics. "Shush! Hold on!" Her lips moved silently for a few seconds. She lowered her hand and squinted at him through the darkness. "If it doesn't come true because you were talking I'm going to hold you personally accountable."

Anthony sighed at Rose being, well, Rose. "That's not fair. I mean, how many times have the wishes you've wished on a shooting star actually come true? I can't be blamed for something that just doesn't work!"

Anthony's heart jumped at the intensity behind Rose's gasp. She sat up and looked at him as if he had just said something so scandalous that it sucked the wind out of her chest. Judging by the horrified expression on her face, he may as well have. "Doesn't work!?" She repeated, her eyes wide in shock. "Listen, wishing on stars is fun and all but the main thing about the wishes is that you have to keep a positive outlook." He wanted to laugh at how serious she was being but he knew that it wouldn't go over well with her. She said it with so much conviction, so much heart that he just had to listen and pay attention to what she was saying. "Putting out positivity particles only brings more positivity in your life. If you think your wish will come true, it will." She nodded in finality.

From the ground Anthony looked at her. His eyes swept her creased brown, the intense gaze, the tension held in her mouth, and her crossed arms. "Well, my wish isn't very likely. I would be ecstatic if it came true, but it's just kind of improbable. But I'll try to be positive." He closed his eyes and took in a few deep breaths. He lifted his arms straight into the air and began dropping them down to his sides and lifting them over his head, repeating the process a few times while muttering, "Positive particles, positive particles."

Rose growled and slapped him on the arm again. "Oh stop it!" She was pouting. He didn't miss the amused look in her eye. "What is it about me that makes you all mock me, huh?"

Anthony shrugged and propped his head up on his elbow. "You just..." His words died out and he began plucking at the grass. Just what? Exude enough confidence that screamed for attention? Put out enough positivity that it could easily turn his mood around? Say whatever she wanted to without needing to apologize? Made him wish he could be like her? He pulled a blade of grass and let it go, watching the wind carry it away. He looked at her, "...say some of the most interesting things."

A/N: Just to make note of one thing: Rose's age is altered. In this story she's the same year as Ginny. So it's a very slight AU.

Anyway, please review! I'd love to see what you guys think!