Mr./Mrs. Anon asked on my tumblr "Goodbye" + Hogwarts.
AU: Cobert as students of Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
One-Shot: 1572 words.
"I'll never understand you." said John, his hands busy with the polish lotion he used for his quidditch leather protections. "She's a Hufflepuff, man! Say goodbye to the girl and get over with it!"
Robert groaned.
She's a Hufflepuff, she's a Hufflepuff.
That was what he kept hearing since he first confessed his interest in her.
She was a Hufflepuff, so what? A love story between a Ravenclaw and a Hufflepuff was forbidden? Was it a matter of houses? Was it pride?
Was it 1890?
She's a Hufflepuff.
Even his mother said so in her last letter. And even though it was a written sentence, he'd felt all her disapproved and annoyed tone.
Yes, of course, she did not belong to an important dynasty of great wizards like him and his family, their parents were esteemed just enough, but who did still care for that stuff? A lot of people, apparently.
His mama, first of, all and also his friends.. everyone he knew thought that a Hufflepuff, that Hufflepuff, wasn't just good for him.
Sometimes he feared that her yellow and black house was just an excuse.
Was it a good marriage still so important? Power and pride were still the priorities? Didn't love count?
Fool him.
Love. He'd thought 'love'. So was it love, the real kind of love?
Robert's lips were curved into a shy smile. Oh if only he could have admitted it.
He was just a fool. A fool in love.
"This is not a fairytale.." Cora turned her head to the gridded window when the soft voice of Phyllis, her roommate, caressed the air.
Cora knew what was the topic of her conversation. It had been the same since the first trimester and of course in the last months it had intensified.
After all, she knew that her friend might had been right, but she didn't want to believe her, not when her heart was so sure, not when her mind was so obsessed.
Of course she was a Hufflepuff and he a Ravenclaw, he was rich and from a wealthy family of famous wizards, while she was a mediocre first-born of an esteemed family in the Ministry of Magic.
Yet she knew that Robert wasn't like the others: he didn't care for those sort imbalance.
Or perhaps she was just in love, unable to see things clearly.
"I can't bear it." she sighed sharply, folding for the third time her blue scarf, his gift.
It was a cold winter night, on the way back from Hogsmade when they bumped into each other, and Cora was trembling by frost as always and of course, as always, she'd had forgotten her scarf. He'd been so nice, a gentleman, borrowing his, and never asked it back; then suddenly the scent of cologne and peppermint had become, for Cora, the perfume of their first real encounter.
So many others had followed, during the matches, in the corridors between lessons, several were the glances shared into the main hall or before entering the train for their comebacks home for Christmas.
They had talked so little and despite that she fell for his light blue eyes, his warm hands, she fell for the slight touch he always endeavoured while reaching some place in the castle side by side.
And suddenly the random meetings had become methodical. She knew his class schedule as he knew hers. He often wait outside the tower after her potion lessons for a quick 'hello', like she did every Friday for a soft 'goodnight' after dinner, right before the stairs.
It had been a dream, for months, until they'd both written to their family and confessed it to their friends, and they'd been dragged back to the ground from the ankles.
You've been living in a dream.
It was the same phrase, everyday.
You have to wake up.
And as much they had persisted, time was against them.
That was his final year at the school, she had one more to overcome and yet.. she felt that everything would have been over with his departure: she would have never seen him again. That was the last year for all intents and purposes. She would have become one of the ghost of the castle, a living body with a dead soul. Oh, no.. she never would have been able to face her last year, knowing he wouldn't have been there, waiting for her.
She didn't have any purpose now. Not joy for the summer, not joy for her return, in Semptember, for her seventh year.
How could she possibly hope for a better future?
What kept her going? That was the last year with him.
And as if that wasn't terrible enough, the last year soon became the last month, and the last week and now.. it was the last day.
And there she was, packing up her things into her cases, far from being ready to come home.
"I know it's hard, Cora." she felt the mattress bouncing under the new weight it had welcomed. "It wouldn't be easy anyway. You have to say him goodbye."
She hugged Phyllis, dear best friend Phyllis who always tried to cheer her up.
She was right. Cora knew she was right and yet she wasn't able to accept the harsh reality: a future without him.. it felt like all her dreams had been torn apart.
He sighed, grasping his fingers onto the handle of his suitcase until his knuckles went white. Minutes were passing by awfully slow.
And he was glad, on one hand, because his time in that school was being protracted and yet, on the other hand, it increased the risk of meeting her.
What the bloody hell was he talking about? Was he scared of her? Was he scared by his own feelings?
Truth was, he loved her, too much to break her heart.
Maybe it was a one-way feeling. Maybe she didn't love him back.. how could she? She was too good for him.
So kind, so compassionate, so sweet and graceful. No, he couldn't think about that, not now: perhaps those were the things he loved most.
Since the first time he laid his eyes on her. How little and shy was she back then.. it was a memory he cherished in his heart, carved into his mind as if it happened a moment ago.
He was a second year Ravenclaw, thinking about how excited was sitting on that stool, in front of hundreds of kids of every age, with the sorting hat on the head, waiting for the verdict, your life about to change forever.
And suddenly there she was: a little girl so tall for her age, dark curls flapping on her back and her shoulders and when she turned.. when she turned, two eyes as blue as the bluest sky pierced his very soul. They were sparkling like diamonds.
'Ravenclaw' he'd thought, he'd pleaded 'Ravenclaw', but she was a Hufflepuff and he lost any contact with the girl, for years.
Until the end of his sixth year, when he met her during the train ride back home. He bought her two pumpkin juice for her and her friend. She thanked him and her voice stole his heart, just like that. The rest was History.
Robert shook his head slowly. Fool, fool.
How could he ever been scared by love? By that angel girl he was about to leave behind? How could he ever give up his chance of happiness?
No, no. That was it. That was why he had never met her during the day, avoiding the farewell salutes.. because he didn't want to part from her, he didn't want to make it real.
No, no. He could have never lived without her by his side.
Screw his friends, screw his family. He wanted her, he needed her and he would have married her.
So Robert tripped his case in the middle of the grass, deaf to all John's calling, and turned himself to the castle, heading to the Hufflepuff basement, determined to find her.. but he didn't have to strive much.
She was there, standing few metres away, her beautiful sapphire eyes glassy and watery.
Oh he was a fool. What did she think of him? How horrible the thought of becoming the worst creature on Earth in her eyes, the worst monster of all.
How could he ever explain to her? Foolishness and fear had taken advantage of him.
"You didn't even say goodbye," she sobbed. "We could never see each other again and- you didn't even say goodbye." She was right. She was damn right. But no, he couldn't let a misstep ruin his life, his future.. their lives, their future.
He loved her. He loved her dearly. And deep in his heart he knew she felt the same for him. She wouldn't have been there, otherwise, she wouldn't have been crying. She had to love him back. He begged it was so.
Thus Robert decided to tell her the truth and begged again, for their hearts to finally find their shared beat, for their hearts to understand, forgive, love.
He stepped nearer, took her tiny, cold hands in his to draw them to his lips, kissing the reddened skin of her knuckles.
Goodbye, goodbye, was it a goodbye?
No, he would have make it a beginning, theirs.
"I didn't say goodbye because I've never had any intentions of leaving."
