Elodie's stomach fluttered slightly as she saw a large barn owl swoop toward her window. A letter? Her boyfriend, Jonah, never wrote her letters. If he needed to tell her something, he just apparated over. And the owl was much too big to be her parents' owl, bringing a letter from Iceland. If it wasn't her parents, and it wasn't Jonah, Elodie had no idea who could be sending her something.
The owl landed on her windowsill, and tapped its beak against the glass three times. When Elodie opened the window, the bird dropped the rolled parchment that it had been holding, and without a hoot, turned and flew away.
The parchment felt heavier than usual. Elodie was nervous, as if she'd just heard an unexpected knock on the door. Ever since the war ended and she'd moved back to England, she had been waiting for the other shoe to drop. The Ministry of Magic was still in a state of upheaval, no one agreed about how to rebuild the wizarding world.
Elodie unrolled the pieces of parchment slowly.
The Ministry of Magic
hereby announces the enactment of a new law regarding wizard marriages.
Beginning today, 25 June, 1998, all witches and wizards will be assigned a future spouse upon the completion of their schooling.
This assignment will be made by highly trained Ministry officials. In an effort to produce the most magical offspring possible, muggle-born witches and wizards will be matched with a complete pure-blood, half-bloods will be matched with an incomplete pure blood (muggle-born grandparent). The marriages must be made official by the time the older witch or wizard within the couple turns 21 years of age.
In order to quickly restore the wizarding population of England, all couples are required to have produced a child or children within three years of the marriage ceremony. If any of these regulations are disregarded, both members of the offending party will be prosecuted by the Ministry of Magic.
In future years, marriage assignments will be made and announced on 1 June.
Your assignment is listed on the following page.
Without breathing, swallowing, or blinking, Elodie re-read the letter. She knew that there had been rumors swirling of a marriage law being enacted... But Elodie, along with a majority of the wizarding world, had dismissed the idea as antiquated and totalitarian.
Did she dare look at the second page?
Elodie laid the papers on her nightstand and sat down heavily on her bed. She realized that she still hadn't taken a proper breath. With a great sigh, she placed her head in her hands and rubbed her temples. She tucked a few strands of dark gold hair out from in front of her eyes.
Might as well look at the assignment and get it over with, she thought. There's about a one in a thousand chance that it's Jonah, although Elodie wasn't positive that she wanted to marry him anyway. Their relationship had never recovered after her parents had whisked her away to Iceland last Christmas.
She picked up the paper and noticed that her hands were shaking quite noticeably. She let the letter from the Ministry slide off onto the bed, revealing the parchment underneath.
The first thing that Elodie saw was the big picture of Harry Potter, blinking up at her with wide, nervous eyes. Her stomach did a thousand flips. She had to force herself to read the words printed above and below the picture.
ELODIE SOPHIA QUINN -
Your marriage assignment has been carefully made using complex spells that take many aspects of each witch and wizard into account.
The Ministry of Magic wishes you a prosperous and procreative future with
HARRY JAMES POTTER
July 31, 1980
You must be married on or before YOUR 21st birthday - June 28, 2001.
Maybe it's a joke. She can't be assigned to marry Harry Potter. Jonah must be pulling a prank. Elodie picked up her wand and pointed it at the letter.
"Revelio Ortus."
The paper flew into the air and rapidly folded itself like origami. Within seconds, the face of Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister of Magic, was floating before her. So it's real, Elodie thought, the letter is straight from the Minister. Feeling frustrated and helpless, she fired a blasting curse at parchment-Shacklebolt.
"Confringo!"
There was a flash of light, but the letter fluttered to the floor unharmed, though no longer in the form of the Minister's face.
"They must have anticipated some angry teenagers," Elodie said to herself.
Still holding her wand, she absentmindedly poked at the letter, rereading it to herself. When she touched her wand to Harry's picture, she felt a familiar tugging sensation behind her bellybutton, and her room blurred and disappeared before her - she was apparating.
When her vision came back into focus, she was standing in a small, low-ceilinged room. She was facing a large, overstuffed couch with four people sitting on it. Elodie recognized them immediately - Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. All four were staring up at her with confused looks on their faces.
She couldn't speak. She was still holding the paper with Harry's picture in one hand, and her wand in the other, frozen. Finally, Hermione spoke.
"Elodie Quinn?"
"Yeah," she replied quietly, "Hi."
"What are you doing here? And WHO are you again?" Ron asked.
"Ron, don't be rude. Elodie was in our year at Hogwarts. She was a Ravenclaw, right Elodie?"
Elodie just nodded.
"What is going on, and why do you have a picture of Harry in your hand?" Ginny asked, leaning forward and squinting to try and read the writing on Elodie's letter.
"Um, I -" she stuttered, "I - You haven't got them yet?"
"Got what?" Hermione asked, rising from the couch. At that precise moment, three barn owls swooped uniformly through an open window and stood on the sill, dropped three rolls of parchment, turned, and flew away. Hermione gathered the rolls and brought them back to the couch.
"There's one for you, Ron, and here's yours, Harry."
They unrolled their papers simultaneously. Elodie watched all three faces react to what they were reading - eyes wide with shock, eyebrows knitted together in frowns.
Hermione was the first one to finish reading the top letter and quickly pulled the second page to the front. She gasped louder than Elodie had ever heard anyone gasp, then let out a shrill shriek.
"NO WAY, ABSOLUTELY NOT. Not in a million years."
Curious, Ron and Harry looked over from their own letters to see what Hermione was all worked up about. Their mouths both fell open. Elodie stepped closer and looked down at Hermione's letter. The handsome, pale face of Draco Malfoy sneered up at her. She involuntarily gasped a little, too.
Ron and Harry grabbed for their own assignments. Elodie caught a glimpse of her own picture on Harry's. Ron threw his letter on the ground.
"This is ridiculous," he said, "I'm not marrying Hannah Abbott."
"Hannah?" Hermione shrieked at him, "You're upset because you've been assigned a nice, friendly girl? I have DRACO FUCKING MALFOY, Ron!"
Ron sank into the couch and ran his hands through his bright red hair. "Sorry, Hermione. I'm sorry you're assigned Malfoy. I forgot."
Harry kept looking from Elodie, to his letter, back to her.
Hermione picked up her wand from the coffee table and pointed it at her letter.
"Revelio Ortus!"
"I tried that," Elodie said glumly, as Hermione's letter folded in and out on itself to form Kingsley Shacklebolt's head.
"Why would Kingsley do that?" Harry asked.
"Because," explained Hermione, with more than a hint of panic in her voice, "Over the last few years, and particularly the last few months, quite a large portion of the wizards in Britain have either been killed, maimed, or jailed. Any time that something like this has happened throughout history, the Ministry enacts some sort of marriage or childbearing law, to... kick us all into gear, I suppose. But seriously, 'complex spells' that take 'many aspects' into account? They can't be that complex, if they matched me with MALFOY!"
"Why can't we just marry who we want?" Ron asked, his eyes narrowing, "I could marry you, Hermione, and Harry can marry Ginny, and we'll all have babies and make the Ministry happy!"
"Well, you and I might have worked, since you're a pureblood, but they said half-bloods like Harry are matched with incomplete pure-boods, so he wouldn't have been allowed to marry Ginny anyway."
Ginny snatched the letter out of Harry's hands. She looked at the picture, then scowled up at Elodie.
"Did you request him or something?"
Elodie saw Harry roll his eyes, almost imperceptibly.
"No," she replied, "I didn't. If we had been able to request people, I certainly would have requested MY boyfriend, and not yours."
Ginny started to say something, but Hermione interrupted her. "Are you still dating Jonah Hartley? I remember when you two started going together, second year, was it?"
Elodie smiled at the memory. "Yeah, our second year, his third. We're still together. Not for long, apparently..." She waved her letter.
"Who did Jonah get assigned to?" Ron asked.
"I don't know. I haven't talked to him," Elodie admitted.
"Wait a second," said Hermione, her eyes narrowing slightly, "How did you know how to apparate here? Have you been to the Burrow before?"
"No," Elodie said, "I think that the letter brought me here. When I touched my wand to Harry's name, I was apparating... almost like it was
a portkey or something."
Hermione quickly snatched her wand up, then remembered exactly who she was matched with, and lowered the wand again.
"Well I'm sure as hell not trying it, one of you will have to," she said grumpily.
"Ron, it'll have to be you, mate, since Elodie's standing right here. Off you go!" Harry said with a joking grin. Ron shook his head, but picked up his wand and touched it to Hannah Abbott's name on his letter. In a split second, he was gone.
Elodie watched Hermione's eyes well up with tears. Harry grabbed her hand. "Mione, it will be okay. We'll figure out a way out of this."
"No, I doubt that, Harry. The Ministry of Magic isn't very fond of making exceptions, remember? Or contradicting themselves. They'll stick to the stupid laws that they write. And just when they're running out of Death Eaters trials and imprisonments, they'll start going after unmarried 21-year-olds!"
With that, Hermione burst into tears, sobbing into Harry's shoulder. Ginny moved from Harry's other side to sit by Hermione and rub her back. Elodie turned to go, and saw a short, stout, red-haired witch standing in the doorway, looking more than a little concerned.
"Hello, dear," she said to Elodie, then turned to her daughter. "Ginevra. Kitchen, now, please."
Ginny got up reluctantly and followed her mom into the kitchen. Hermione took a deep, shuddering breath and raised her head. Harry motioned for Elodie to come sit beside him on the couch.
"You don't have to go yet," Harry said, "I mean, unless you want to go talk to Jonah. But I... you're welcome to stay."
Hermione nodded. "Stay," she said. Then she looked away wistfully and added, "I hope Ron gets back soon."
Elodie took a seat next to Harry. She gathered her long hair together and threw it over one shoulder. She leaned back into the overstuffed floral cushions of the couch. Ginny re-entered the room, hesitated for a fraction of a second when she saw that Elodie was sitting next to her boyfriend, then forced a grim smile as she sat down heavily beside Hermione. Ginny was followed by both of her parents, who sat in the armchairs opposite the couch, hands folded in their laps.
Molly Weasley spoke first. "Where is Ron?"
"He apparated to Hannah Abbott's," Hermione answered, her lip quivering.
Molly and Arthur exchanged a look, then Arthur nodded and turned back to the teenagers seated on the couch.
"Well," he said, "We'll say this without him, and we can catch him up when he gets back."
Molly jumped in. "We know about the marriage law. And we're not saying that we approve of it, per se, but our official parental position -" she glanced at Arthur again, "- is that you all follow the law. Our family and friends are already on shaky grounds with some of the higher ups at the Ministry, we'd hate to give them grounds to..." she left off, searching for the right word.
"Prosecute?" Arthur filled in. Molly nodded, but pursed her lips, as if that wasn't precisely the word she'd been looking for.
"But it's so unfair. It's just ridiculous! I can think of a couple of ways that we could probably get out of it," Hermione's speech sped up as she spoke, obviously excited to share her ideas, "For example, if we all went back to Hogwarts, they -"
Arthur cut her off. "We're not saying that there are no ways around the law. From the letters they sent out, it seems that there are multiple loopholes, and no doubt many people will try to take advantage of them. But OUR recommendation is that you all go along with it. It is certainly unfair, and yes, perhaps ridiculous, but as you know, Hermione, it is not without precedent. And as you all also know, the Ministry strongly dislikes when people find and use loopholes in their laws. And it will only take one annoyance for them to try and turn us into the enemy."
Elodie spoke up, confused. "But you all were the main force behind getting rid of Voldemort, right? How could you possibly be the enemy? Wasn't the Ministry restructured after Voldemort died, putting the 'right' people in power?"
To her left, Harry gave a little grunt of displeasure. Elodie saw Hermione shake her head sadly.
"You would think it would have happened like that, dear," Arthur said, "But unfortunately, it didn't. When Voldemort died, most of the remaining Death Eaters went into hiding. But there were many witches and wizards who, though not Death Eaters, supported Voldemort, in a more quiet manner. Some of those supporters were, and are, higher-ups in the Ministry."
"Umbridge?" Elodie breathed quietly.
"Actually, Dolores Umbridge is in Azkaban right now, for her crimes against muggle-borns. But there were many who shared her ideas and were luckier, who are still holding on to their positions in the Ministry. Also, we must remember that after the war, many of the people who had been working at the Ministry before the takeover got their jobs back. And many of those people had been convinced by Fudge that Harry Potter is..." he left off, not wanting
to insult Harry.
"A fraud?" Harry offered, "A liar? An attention-seeking famewhore?"
Molly's eyes widened at the last word and Harry muttered, "Sorry."
"But wouldn't the fact that you KILLED Voldemort be enough to convince them otherwise?" Elodie asked Harry.
Arthur answered for him. "Not in the least. You have to remember that no one but those closest to Harry know the backstory, or how he actually spent last year. It's hard for them to believe that Harry Potter, the boy who they have doubted and made fun of for years, showed up out of nowhere and did away with arguably the most powerful wizard in the world. You should hear the rumors swirling around the Ministry about what happened at the Battle of Hogwarts."
"I'd like nothing more than to march in there and set them all straight!" Ginny piped up.
"They wouldn't believe you, sweets," Molly said gently, "As your dad's daughter and Harry's girlfriend, you have no credibility with those Ministry baboons. Neither do I. None of us do. That's why we have to follow this marriage law. The slightest misstep, and those rumors about the battle will SOMEHOW become 'common knowledge'."
All six of them sat in silence for a moment, wrapping their minds around the positions they had been put in. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were being punished for being heroes. Elodie, though not anything close to a hero, was subjected to the same fate, due to a random matching with Harry Potter.
A loud POP broke the silence - Ron was back, holding the hand of a round-faced girl with long, wavy blonde hair. He quickly dropped her hand, but not before Hermione saw, and her jaw dropped.
"Just - just apparating her to the Burrow!" Ron said defensively.
Frowning deeply, Hermione said, "She could have just touched her wand to your picture, Ronald."
"Oh yeah," said Ron, meekly, "I forgot."
Hermione rolled her eyes. Elodie squirmed uncomfortably. She hated watching couples fight.
"Welcome to the Burrow, Hannah," Molly Weasley said with a forced smile. "Would you and Ron mind joining us in the kitchen, please? I'll make some tea."
With that, Molly, Arthur, Ron, and Hannah Abbott disappeared into the kitchen.
Hermione turned to Ginny, tears filling her eyes. "Do you think they're in love already?"
"Oh, Mione," Ginny put a comforting arm around her friend as the tears spilled out of Hermione's eyes, "Of course not. You know Ron's a right idiot, I'm sure he really did forget about that picture thing. In love with Hannah Abbot? Pshh." Ginny rubbed Hermione's arm. "Come on, honey. Let's go to my room, have a good proper cry, just us girls."
Ginny didn't really look close to crying, Elodie thought. Then again, Ginny seemed more likely to jump to anger than melancholy.
The two girls trudged upstairs, Ginny supporting Hermione as if she were physically injured. Harry and Elodie were left alone on the couch. Elodie wondered which of them would break the silence, and with what. She was rendered speechless by the happenings of the last twenty minutes.
"So..." said Harry with a half-grin playing on his face, "What's new?"
Elodie giggled. She had never noticed how handsome Harry Potter was. In her head, he was still the awkward 11-year-old boy in her first-year Charms class. But now, sitting beside her, it was a different boy altogether. Not a boy at all, in fact. His messy black hair and playful, sparkling green eyes were still youthful, but his strong, square jawline and broad shoulders showed her that he was, in fact, a man.
Elodie knew that she had changed, too. Hopefully for the better. Her hair was a few shades darker, her lips were fuller, but best of all, she'd finally grown a nice set of boobs. And a pretty good butt, too, if she did say so herself. She found herself hoping that Harry noticed these changes, in the back of her mind. She shook her head to rid herself of the thought.
"Not much," Elodie replied with a smile. "Although I did just get a weird letter from the Ministry of Magic..."
Harry laughed. "No way, me, too!" They both grinned in silence for a few seconds. Elodie thought that she had never been in a more awkward situation.
"Elodie," Harry said, suddenly more serious, "How do you want to handle this?"
"I don't know, Harry. Honestly, I'm not ready to get married. I guess my opinion is, we have three years. Let's take them."
"I'm good with that," Harry said with a look of relief and approval, "A lot of people will probably get married right away. But why not wait? You never know what could happen in three years."
Elodie knew what he was implying. If they waited until the last minute, maybe they wouldn't have to get married after all. That dark part at the back of Elodie's brain was sad and mad at the thought. Again, she blinked and shook her head. Why was she thinking like that? She barely even knew Harry. Of course it would be better if they could get out of this arrangement.
Harry grinned that handsome grin. "Although, who knows, in three years time we may want to get married of our own accord."
Elodie laughed, and shrugged playfully. "But don't you think you'd marry Ginny, if not for... this?"
Harry looked toward the stairs, then back at her. His expression was almost sad. "Probably not. I don't know. Don't get me wrong, I love Ginny. I'll always love Ginny, in one way or another. But there's just this tension, like, we're growing apart? Or maybe I'm growing, and she's shrinking."
"What?" Elodie was confused. Harry was staring off into space.
"I just mean, since the war, I've grown up a lot. You know, I'm on my own now, getting a job, all the rest. And I thought that Ginny grew up a lot, too. You should have seen her fighting in that battle! But then when it was over, and we came home, instead of moving forward it's like she reverted to the girl that she was before it all happened. She wants to just forget, erase it all from her memory, never talk about it. She's going back to Hogwarts in the fall, you know. And she talks about her classes, and her friends, and the new robes she needs... as if she were fifteen and carefree again."
"Well, I guess that's a comforting way of going about life," Elodie said softly, "It protects you, emotionally. But I can see how it's... immature."
"Is that what you do?" Harry asked, genuinely curious.
"Not really," said Elodie. "Although I haven't been through anything like what you have. But when I moved back here from Iceland, I could have played it safe, stayed with Jonah until re-entering Hogwarts in the fall. But I got my own flat. I got a job. I took my NEWTS. I'm moving onwards and upwards, so to speak."
Harry nodded. "I probably shouldn't be telling you all of this, sorry for dumping it all on you."
"Oh, I don't mind. You're my fiance, after all," Elodie said with a little smile.
"Wait, will you explain the Iceland thing to me? I was kind of... out of touch with the gossip mill last year."
"Our village was attacked by Death Eaters last fall. I'm pretty sure Voldemort was there, too, although I don't know what he was after. Anyway, my parents freaked out and moved us all to Iceland. Then when it was all over, I got a letter from Luna telling me you had killed Voldemort, and that we could come back home. But my parents didn't believe the letter. They thought that it was Death Eaters trying to lure them back to Britain. So we had a big falling out, and I moved back. Got my own place, and Luna's dad gave me a job editing the Quibbler."
"I didn't realize you were friends with Luna, why didn't I see more of you at Hogwarts?"
"Oh, Luna and I were friends, but not best buddies or anything. She was a year below me. And I spent most of my time at Hogwarts making googly eyes at Jonah, anyway."
"So, you and Jonah? What are you going to do?"
"About the same as you with Ginny, I suppose. Ever since I came back, things have been off. I think he might have been seeing someone else last year, while I was gone. Or something like that. Either way, he'll have been matched up with someone, too. So I suppose whenever he decides to get married, that's it for us."
At that moment, two sets of footsteps thundered down the stairs. Harry looked up sharply. Elodie turned her body away from Harry, almost imperceptibly, not wanting to put any ideas in anyone else's heads... namely Ginny's.
But instead of Ginny and Hermione, two identical red-heads rounded the corner at the bottom of the stairs, swinging into the living room. They were tall and lanky, with shaggy bright red hair and big brown eyes that were wide with shock, or anger, or maybe fear - Elodie couldn't tell.
"Fred? George?" Harry asked, standing up from the couch, "What's wrong?"
The twins were frowning, and Elodie suddenly noticed that they each had papers in their hand... Letters from the Ministry.
"The Ministry's making us get married!" George whined.
Hermione and Ginny came into the living room, followed by Molly, Arthur, Ron, and Hannah Abbott. Hermione, apparently calmed from her crying fit, grabbed one of the letters and scanned it quickly.
"Looks just like ours," she said decisively, then flipped to the next page, "George, you've been matched with Angelina! That's so lucky!"
George smiled. "Yeah, Mione, but look at the date. Not exactly the time frame we'd been planning on."
Hermione's eyebrows shot up. "Married by October 27, 1998? That's in four months!"
George nodded. "Check out Fred's," he said, taking his brother's letter and handing it to Hermione.
"Charlotte Chambers? I don't remember her."
Elodie spoke up softly. "She was a Ravenclaw, Chaser on the Quidditch team, really pretty. And really good at Quidditch." She saw Fred smile gratefully.
"Must be married by Charlotte's 21st birthday, September 18th, 1998?" Hermione half-shrieked. Fred's smile melted.
"It's not fair," Ginny said, pushing her way to her brothers and grabbing their letters from Hermione, looking for herself at the looming dates of their impending marriages, "They're trying to play catch up, marrying off every wizard who's graduated? That's BS."
"Not every wizard," said a voice from the kitchen. Another red-headed Weasley brother entered the living room. He looked just like an older version of Ron, though his hair was much longer, and pulled back in a ponytail.
"Didn't you get one, Charlie?" George asked.
"Nope. From what I hear, it's just if you're under 21, and have finished your schooling. So your year," he motioned to the twins, "Will be the oldest affected lot."
"DAMN!" the twins exclaimed in unison. They got a withering look from their mother, but no one said anything. Fred sank down onto the coffee table.
The small room was crowded. Elodie was beginning to feel claustrophobic. She turned to Harry and placed a hand on his muscular forearm.
"I'm going to go. I'll talk to you later, Harry."
Harry met her eyes. "I'll apparate over once this all calms down, we can make a plan. See you soon."
Elodie nodded, then looked out at the rest of the people in the room. Everyone was chattering loudly, asking questions, muttering profanity, making wild hand gestures. She would see them again, no need for formal goodbyes. With a POP, Elodie apparated back to her flat.
She turned to sit down on her bed, but realized with surprise that someone was already sitting there.
"Jonah!" she cried, and flung herself onto the bed next to him. Whether things were weird or not, they had been dating for five and a half years. He was her best friend. Just seeing his face was comforting. She stared into his deep blue eyes, not wanting to peek at the papers that were in his hand, not daring to see the name of the girl that her boyfriend would marry.
Jonah set his letter down beside him on the bed and wrapped his arms around Elodie. "Oh, Ellie. This sucks."
Elodie buried her face in his shoulder and breathed in his familiar scent. Tears sprang to her eyes. Jonah broke the embrace.
"Who is it, Ellie?"
Elodie held her letter out to him, the same piece of parchment with Harry Potter's picture on it that she'd been clutching since she apparated to the Burrow. The whole trip seemed like a dream now that she was back in her bedroom.
"Harry Potter?" Jonah breathed. Elodie nodded.
"I've just been to Ron Weasley's house, Jonah. I touched my wand to the picture of Harry on accident, and it was like a portkey or something, it took me to the Weasley's living room, where Harry was - is - and we talked, and Jonah, EVERYONE under 21 who finished Hogwarts is getting these letters!"
Elodie left off her rant, because the expression on Jonah's face was heartbreaking. She took his hand and squeezed it.
"Harry Potter?" Jonah asked again. Elodie thought he might cry.
"Jonah, baby, it's no big deal. Like I said, everyone is getting matched! It's not like I'm suddenly in love with Harry Potter. I only went over there on accident, and then I got all swept up in the action - there were like seventy Weasleys there - and we were all just figuring out the scope of this thing. I got out of there as soon as I could, to come find you."
She had only lied a couple of times... White lies, she told herself. Jonah didn't answer, just nodded.
"So, Jonah, who's yours?" He picked up his letter off of her bed and handed it to her. Hesitantly, Elodie looked down at the name and picture.
"Cecily Chambers? Well, that's a good one," she said quietly.
"El -"
"No, I'm glad. She was a Ravenclaw, we were roommates. Cecily's a nice girl. She'll make a good wife."
"Ellie."
"You know what? One of the Weasleys - Fred, I think, is matched with her older sister, Charlotte. Remember Charlotte Chambers, from the Quidditch team?"
"Elodie Sophia. Stop."
Elodie fell silent.
"Ellie, I don't want to marry Cecily. I want to marry you."
She raised her eyebrows, but stayed quiet.
"What do you think, babe? We could run away and get married. I've always wanted to live in India."
"No." Elodie shook her head.
"No to India, or no to the whole thing?"
"No to the whole thing. I'm sorry, Jonah."
Jonah looked... broken. He leaned over so that his head laid in his hands, then turned and looked up at her. "Why?"
"Because running away and marrying you would basically force Harry Potter to break the law. The Ministry would be on his ass in a split second. I don'tknow him, but I don't want to fuck with his life like that."
"You don't owe Harry Potter anything, El."
"Right, except for killing Voldemort and pretty much saving all of our lives."
"Okay, I can see you've become a huge Harry Potter fan in the last... ten minutes." Jonah glanced as his watch sarcastically. "I bet you're just thrilled that you get to marry the big hero and bask in his fame and glory for ever and ever."
Elodie felt a strong urge to reach out and slap her boyfriend across the face. Instead, she just shook her head some more. She looked at Jonah with tears in her eyes.
"Jonah. Please don't take it out on me. Let's not fight. This sucks, I'm sad, I'm mad, but I'm not going to fight it. We have three years."
Jonah was silent for a minute, and Elodie thought that he might yell. To her surprise, he reached out and put a hand on her thigh.
"I love you, Elodie. I'm sorry."
Elodie collapsed into his waiting arms. She looked up at him, and their lips met. His mouth was soft and welcoming. The taste was familiar, like wintergreen and citrus and sweet. It made her nostalgic for her school days, kissing Jonah is the dark corners of Hogwarts.
She heard a soft moan, but she wasn't sure if it had escaped from her lips or Jonah's. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. Their kiss grew deeper, tongues tangling and untangling. One of Jonah's hands slipped under her shirt and kneaded her breasts. Elodie removed her hands from their perch on his shoulders and ran them down to his chest, then down further to the hem of his shirt, which she lifted easily. Within seconds, the clothing was flying off.
This was nothing new to the two of them. Elodie had first allowed Jonah to touch her breasts during the summer before her third year (although back then, they were little more than tiny, budding lumps behind her light pink nipples). Later that year, at Christmastime, she had given Jonah the 'present' of a handjob. He hadn't been allowed to return the gesture until her birthday the next summer. From that point, it all moved rather quickly, and on Halloween during Elodie's fourth year, they lost their virginity together in the Room of Requirement.
Her mind raced through these events as Jonah laid on top of her now. Three and a half years, she and Jonah had been sleeping together. But this time had a slightly different feel to it. They hadn't had sex in a few weeks, it was true. But it wasn't that. It was more of a... lingering. A sadness.
She and Jonah were completely naked now, laying sandwiched together, skin to skin. Jonah's hand was rubbing between her legs, while hers ran through his hair, down his chest, across his back and his butt. Jonah was handsome. He had chestnut brown hair that contrasted with his bright blue eyes, he had deeply tanned skin and a perfect body. Tall, lean, with chiseled features, a strong jaw - he was a catch, to be sure. And for the past six years, he'd been all hers. And now, she was losing him. Damn the Ministry of Magic!
"Ready, babe?" Jonah whispered in her ear, his voice breathy. In response, Elodie reached down between them, grasped his erection, and guided it toward her. Jonah sank himself into her gently, relishing the feeling of that first entrance. She rocked her hips upwards and squeezed her muscles around him, embracing his cock. Jonah groaned with pleasure.
They rocked together, moving in a familiar, comforting rhythm. Jonah kissed her tenderly on her lips, her cheek, her neck, her earlobe. He slid in and out of her, increasing speed as their tension mounted. Elodie was breathing hard, small sighs escaping with each of Jonah's thrusts. Suddenly, Jonah locked his lips onto Elodie's, and with one loud grunt and a final thrust, he came inside of her.
After a few moments of laying in stillness and silence, Jonah rolled off of Elodie and curled up next to her. He wound a tendril of golden hair around his finger.
"I don't know what I'm going to do without you, Elodie Quinn."
"You'll be fine, baby," Elodie murmured, rubbing his shoulder and bicep. She could have laid like that all day. But Jonah had other ideas, apparently. He rolled over her and onto the side of the bed, where he sat and began to dress himself.
"Where are you going?"
"I guess I should go see Ceci... ly. Cecily."
"Ceci?" Elodie asked. She hadn't known that Jonah was on nickname-terms with her former roommate.
"Yeah well, you've already been to talk to Harry Potter, haven't you?" Jonah spat defensively. Elodie's frown deepened. It sure hadn't taken long for them to go from making love to arguing.
"Whatever," Elodie said, "See you, Jonah." A tear sprang to her eye. She knew, deep down, that she had just had her last romantic encounter with her first
love. This was the end.
For a split second, Jonah's expression softened. He had just had the same realization, she thought. He reached out and squeezed her hand.
"We'll always be friends, Ellie. There's no way we couldn't be. I love you, no matter what."
"I love you, too," she said, hoping to convince him to stay.
He gave her a tight-lipped, sad smile as he finished buttoning his pants. Silently, he gathered his letter off of the floor, and his wand from the foot of the bed.
Jonah touched her bare leg gently, then turned quickly and apparated away with a POP. Elodie noticed that he hadn't touched his wand to Cecily's picture... He must have known where he was going.
Another loud POP filled the room. Elodie's heart leapt. Jonah was coming back! But it wasn't Jonah's familiar face that Elodie saw staring back at her – it was Harry Potter. With a shriek, Elodie gathered the sheet around her body while simultaneously scrambling for her clothes and wand.
"Sorry, sorry!" Harry yelped, averting his eyes, "I'll come back later!"
"Wait, no!" Elodie said, calming down, "I want to talk, just... turn around for a minute."
Harry did as he was told. Elodie slipped her legs into her jeans, then threw her v-neck tee shirt over her head. She skipped the bra and panties altogether, wadding them up and throwing them under the bed.
"Okay, Harry, I'm decent. Sorry," Elodie said, blushing furiously as Harry turned around.
"That's okay, did I interrupt something?"
"No. Um. Jonah... Jonah just left." Tears sprang back to Elodie's eyes as the fresh memory of Jonah leaving her coldly replayed in her mind.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Ginny and I just had a bit of a moment ourselves."
"What happened?" Elodie asked, motioning for Harry to follow her out into the living room.
She sat down on the couch, and Harry sat beside her with a sigh.
"Ginny made a last-ditch effort to... well, to seduce me, basically. She knows that our relationship has been weird, but she doesn't want to admit it. She tried to convince me that we could still 'work on it.' I turned her down, and she got mad."
"Well, this is all very sudden. You can't really blame her for being a little resistant."
"But she's not just being resistant. This marriage law is just the final straw, the push that I needed to do what I've been wanting to do for over a month now. Ginny is being stubborn and immature about the whole thing."
"Maybe true. I can see her side, though... It's hard to see a relationship end." Elodie was getting choked up again, against her will. "I'm sorry, Harry, I'm such a crybaby!"
Harry put a hand gently on her leg. "Don't be sorry. Cry all you want. You're my fiancee," he reminded her with a smile.
Elodie smiled back, and swallowed the lump in her throat. Fuck Jonah, she thought. He's probably been sleeping with Cecily for ages, and he what kind of jerk has one last goodbye fuck and doesn't even make her come? Douche.
Harry laughed aloud. "Are you talking shit about Jonah in your head? Because you just got a really angry look on your face."
Elodie laughed, too. "You guessed it!"
"Do I need to beat him up?" Harry asked jokingly.
"Oh, probably not. Karma will get him, in the end. Although I won't deny that I'd love to see him get a good ass-kicking about now!"
Harry grabbed Elodie's hand and squeezed. It felt natural, but still have her a sudden swarm of butterflies in her stomach.
"Harry, I -"
"Elodie, I don't want to move too fast. But I do want you to know that I find you extraordinarily beautiful, and I honestly cannot think of another witch in the world that I'd rather be engaged to."
Elodie gasped quietly. Her heart pounded.
Harry continued, "I want to give you time, time to fully get over Jonah and move on. But I've been mourning the death of my own relationship for a while now, and I've moved on, Breaking up with Ginny wasn't upsetting for me, it was a relief. When you're ready, I'd like to... Well, I'd like to be engaged. I want to court you properly, Elodie Quinn."
Elodie, who had finally gathered her wits about her, smiled coyly. "I can't wait."
Harry grinned widely and narrowed his eyes. "How did I not know you at Hogwarts? You're fucking gorgeous, smart, my year... Where were you hiding?"
"I told you, I was hiding in corners with Jonah Hartley. But we had classes together. I remember fourth-year Defense Against the Dark Arts, we had that Thursday afternoon double block with Moody. That's when I first... noticed you."
"Did you like me?" Harry asked playfully, still holding her hand.
"Honestly, yes. If I hadn't been dating Jonah, I would have made myself much more available," Elodie said with a smile.
"Damn that Jonah," Harry said quietly.
"Agreed," giggled Elodie. She noticed that Harry was inching toward her. He looked at her lips. Elodie knew what was coming.
"Harry," she whispered. His lips were inches from hers, now.
"Just one kiss," he whispered back, "Just one."
And then, their lips met. Softly, tentatively, Harry applied the lightest pressure. Elodie closed her eyes, and felt her body relax into the kiss, blood rushing to her mouth, nerves tingling all over. Harry opened his mouth slightly, sucking gently on her bottom lip. Elodie opened her mouth to match, and their lips moved in tandem, gently exploring each other.
Elodie was the first to pull away. She opened her eyes, and her heart gave another thump at seeing Harry's face – she had just been kissing Harry Potter!
Harry squeezed her hand again, then let go and allowed his hand to smooth over her thigh, and back down to her knee. "Thank you," he said, licking his lips, "That was the best first kiss I've ever had."
"Oh?" Elodie replied playfully, "And how many first kisses have you had the pleasure of enjoying?"
"A few," Harry said, "Maybe four or five? What about you?"
"Just two, counting our kiss just now."
"And which was better?"
Elodie thought back to her first kiss with Jonah. It was the day before Christmas break during her second year, Jonah had taken her to the Room of Requirement to give her the present he got her – a heart made of chocolate from Honeydukes and beautiful dragon scale necklace – when mistletoe had appeared above them, and Jonah had kissed her deeply, without warning. Elodie remembered it as a heartfelt, if a little slobbery, kiss. But it didn't hold a candle to the gentle ease with which Harry had just kissed her.
"Ours. Ours wins," she said.
Harry smiled. "Let me know when you're ready for another one. I meant it when I said that I don't want to move to fast. After all, we've got our whole lives to be together. Why rush it now?"
"You're a rare gem amongst men, Harry. Not many guys would say something like that."
"I know. Ginny always said I was the woman in our relationship. She was always pushing for us to be more physical, but I just... I don't know. Maybe in the back of my head I always knew she wasn't right for me. She always kind of felt like a little sister, and kissing her was taboo somehow."
"Well, I hope that kissing me feels a little more natural for you, then."
"Are you kidding? Kissing you felt like the most natural thing in the world. Didn't it for you?"
"It did. Harry, I think we'll make a good couple."
"I know we will. Elodie, I don't want to be too forward, but would you like to have dinner at my place tonight?"
"I didn't know that you had your own place, I figured that you were staying a The Burrow," Elodie said, eyebrows raised.
"No, I have a flat. It's nothing special, but it's somewhere to escape from the swarm of Weasleys," Harry said good naturedly, "I'm at The Burrow a lot, though, between Ron and Ginny. I guess I'll be there less, now."
"True," Elodie touched his hand lightly, but Harry just grinned at her. He really didn't seem the least bit sad about his break-up. She wished that she had such straightforward emotions.
"So, dinner?" Harry asked again.
"I'd love to," Elodie said, "I'll have to shower and get ready, though."
"Okay, me, too," Harry said, rising from the couch. He looked at the clock on Elodie's wall – 4:27 pm. "Want to apparate over around 6?"
"Sounds good." Elodie stood, too, not knowing exactly how to part from Harry. Not a kiss, yet, but just "goodbye" would be too little.
Harry solved the dilemma for her. He reached over and pulled her close, kissed her cheek, and whispered in her ear, "See you then, Elodie."
With that, he turned and apparated away. Elodie's stomach flip flopped. If only Jonah could see her now, mere moments after he left her, being kissed by Harry Potter. And kissing him back! She couldn't wait for dinner.