"no?" he repeats, clearly appalled.

"yes."

"yes?"

"no! no, lysander, i did not 'enjoy it!'" molly lies, wishing she had the courage to tell him the truth.

the truth. it started with a question. her mum's question, nonetheless.

/

"what about you, molly? anyone you like at hogwarts…this year…?"

she honestly hadn't thought about it. and then she saw his face, as clear as day, in her mind.

"no," she said quickly. too quickly. and then the whole truth slipped out.

/

"you're blushing!"

"no, i'm not!

"yes, you are. i kissed you, and now you're blushing. you did like it."

/

she went back to hogwarts and saw him every few days at the great hall. he'd tease her, and she'd laugh, and their hands would touch-accidentally- and he'd apologize. ever the gentleman, that lysander scamander. and she'd tell her friends in ohsomuch detail. and her friends would laugh at how big a deal she made of this, and say she was crazy.

and then there was that one friend who changed molly's mind for her. "oh, molly you're in love."

/

"lysander! i didn't like it! and- for merlin's sake!-you're dating my cousin!"

/

"no," she tells herself. "you're not in love. that's absurd. you don't fall in love. you're just friends!"

and then he started dating rose.

and her feelings went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

/

"i know that! i love rose!"

"then why'd you kiss me?"

/

she watched rose came into their dorm, practically bouncing with excitement.

"lysander told me…he loves me."

/

she lies on her back in the bed in his dorm (remind her how they wound up there?), breathing heavily next to him.

"that was…" he starts.

"amazing."

"molly, i-"

"i love you." and then they start again, this time her lips capturing his.

/

she tells herself to get over him, he'll never like-love?- her back. but every time she sees him, it's like the world is on stopped, and she couldn't care less if the world went up in smoke and flames. and then she over-analyzes his every move, and spends one night up till two in the morning thinking only of him, and then another crying, but she's not sure why. (she didn't even see him that day. but she knows-it's because of him.)

/

lysander calls off his relationship with rose the next day. forget being a gentleman- when molly wakes up beside him, he's sitting on the edge of the bed, tying a letter to the leg of an owl. she smiles as she wraps her arms around his neck after the owl has flown out through the open window. he turns around and kisses her, and kisses her, and kisses her until someone knocks on the door to their shared head dormitories and calls them down to lunch with the rest of hogwarts.

/

she fanaticized every last moment of what she wished might happen between them. little did she know it would soon come true.

and then, like most things, it will come to an end.

a tragic one.

/

he puts a comforting arm around her as she cries. and cries. and cries. he himself sheds few tears; by this she knows he's just as sad as she is. they watch with the rest of her family as the coffin is lowered slowly into the ground.

he did love her. at one time, in a place far away. a place far away from where that muggle car hit her as she walked through the streets of muggle london, searching for her dear cousin's flat. she was trying to apologize. they found the note in her pocket.

she said she hadn't meant to rage at her cousin and ex-boyfriend when she found out the reasoning behind the breakup. she hadn't meant to throw the picture of herself and aforementioned ex-boyfriend at her cousin's face. she apologized for causing her the pain of the frame hitting her cousin's nose (which was mended a short while after the fight). lastly, she sent her love. some good luck. and then a smaller note. written on a small corner of a paper napkin, were the words: goodbye. i need to get away. greece, paris, or spain, i haven't decided. i might see you again someday. i love you. and…i love him, too. that's why i need to get away.

/

three years later, molly and lysander have their first child. a beautiful baby girl. rose.

/

that was the moment molly realizes that there are two types of truth. this is the broken kind.