Disclaimer: Not mine. See previous disclaimers for more details. We're up to number 8, 'sin'.

viii. your faith was strong but you needed proof

She thinks that she may be in love with him.

But when she thinks too much about it, her hands start to shake and she can't stop touching her hair and she can't breathe.

It shouldn't be so frightening, should it? But Zacharias is everything that's wrong with her and everything's that's right. Everything about him makes her want to cry- with happiness or grief or something else, she doesn't know, and that's the problem.

It's another summer day for them, sitting leisurely on a bench in Diagon Alley and drinking cold coffee. His blond hair shines in the sunlight and she wants to run her fingers through it.

"Zacharias," she says abruptly, breaking their lazy silence. "Is it wrong?"

"Is what wrong?"

"For me to love you." She puts her cup aside to hide the trembling in her hands.

He is quiet for a moment. Eventually he reaches out and stills her hands. "Lucy," he says, "I don't know if it's wrong, honestly, at least not from a moral view. But sin- sin doesn't feel like this. Sin feels... sinful, guilty, a guilty pleasure. This is just love."

"You love me?" Lucy says, looking at him.

He smiles sadly. "Of course I do. Don't think I haven't thought about this too. All I can think is if people say this is wrong, well, I don't give a damn."

And he kisses her, right there in Diagon Alley.

Thanks for reading and please review!

Check out the winners of The Cross-Gen Competition, and if you have time, read their amazing fics.

Second place was AllIKnowIsADoorIntoTheDark for Shadows of the Past

First place was wynnebat for Nargles at Christmastime