If you are reading Soaring Ever Higher
AND YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS
Do not read this.
I'm telling you. It is compatible, it is an end pairing that you don't know.
It is going to come to fruition.
It will ruin where you are right now.
If you want spoilers. DO NOT READ.
I am going to try to make it not obvious, BUT….You might figure it out.
Especially if you read other chapters LOL
This is a birthday present for Miss Gwendolyn Cornfoot.
You may know how these scenes started, but you don't know the ending.
Happy 11th Birthday Gwenny….to you too Will (Though you might not want to read this)
Chapter 9:
Story 8
Sleep tight princess
(Gwen's 5th Year)
The room was dark and shadows played across the face of the fair skinned girl, her blonde hair falling over her eyes. He sighed softly and tucked her hair behind her ear, not daring to move. She was asleep, her face was tear streaked and her hair was damp with tears and sweat. She was still in his too big jersey and she was curled into his lap on the too small for two people to lay on sofa. He wasn't sure how long they had been there, hours definitely, but how many he had no clue.
He blew his hair out of his eyes and he watched the shadows on her skin as they moved with the moonlight. How had he ended up here? How had he ended up with this amazing girl in his arms? Of course he knew physically how. She had left school, her grandfather was dying and her parents had made her come home. She had written him and sounded so sad, so desperate and alone. He couldn't handle not picking her up and kissing it better. He begged and pleaded and wrote letter after letter. He took mid year examinations early, and back to back. He brought more homework than he could fathom with him. He gave up a quidditch match, knowing it would cause his team to lose not just the game but any chance at a cup winning season. He flooed into her house this afternoon. His parents had met hers. He had talked to her father for the first time. They had dinner, they came back to this room, and she fell apart in his arms. And he held her together.
He knew how she ended up in his lap. What he needed to know but didn't know, was how she ended up this important to him. He had never given up quidditch for a living soul. No one at all. No one was that important to throw a match, let alone a chance at the cup. He didn't know how her tears made his heart constrict painfully or how the sound of her muffled cries made his stomach clench and ache. He didn't know how knowing she was hurting made him willing to face her father when days before that very thought terrified him. How had his whole world narrowed down to this sleeping girl in his arms? How did nothing matter more than she did? How did she do this, what magic and trickery did this maybe should have been Slytherin Princess pull on him?
He didn't have an answer to those questions. He couldn't explain why his chest loosened when his soothing words and soft innocent kisses chased away her ever falling tears. There wasn't an answer that he knew how to put into words. And he was good with words. He was top in all his classes in his year. He was bright and he knew it. But this answer, where so many answers came so easily, eluded him to no end.
And while his mind chased its self around with question and the rising moon he didn't move. He held her in his lap and hid his face in her white blonde hair. Soft spoken words only escaped his lips once, in the dead of night. "Sleep tight Gwenny."
0-0-0-
(Summer before Gwen's 6th year)
The evening sun was low and the lazy, but most important day of his life was coming to a close. He was dosing in and out of sleep and Gwen lay sleeping against him, their legs tangled together and his arms holding her so close he might have been holding her captive. His mind spun in slow sleepy circles and he couldn't wipe the tired smile off his face.
He loved her. He fucking loved her. Of course he loved her, how stupid had he been? For months he'd struggled to put words to feelings and to rationalize his emotions. But how could you quantify and explain love? You couldn't, especially when you'd never felt it before. This feeling was so different than what he thought being in love was. He'd been in love in his life if this was love. And it was. He knew it as soon as he'd picked her up and spun her in circles that day in the middle of Diagon Alley. He knew it to be true as soon as the words fell over themselves to get past his lips. He knew it to be true as she'd said them back to him.
He was inexplicably, unchangingly, forever in love with Gwendolyn Cornfoot. And you know what? It didn't scare him one bit. He opened his heavy eyes and looked down at his girlfriend, tucking an ever stubborn strand of blonde hair away from her eyes and behind her ear. "I love you Gwenny." He whispered, kissing her temple. "Sleep tight princess." He mumbled against her skin.
0-0-0-0
(Gwen's 6th year)
He had been away from school for a week, a solid week. And Merlin had he missed her. He had only been back at school for a few hours and already his world had rocked around him, settling into a path that he desired. He had woken up from sleeping and was now leaned up against his headboard, reading through his charms book. But really, all he could do was stare down at the beautiful girl asleep with her head in his lap. He held his book in one hand and softly rubbed his fingers along her arm with the other hand, watching it as he did. He slid them to her hand and ran his fingers over hers, over the sapphire and diamond ring that lay there. He stared at the promise ring that, with all intents and purposes, would stay in place forever.
He had been gone for one week. Only a week and it made every bit of him long to be with her. His whole world had shifted since the night they started dating. He had started a journey from the moment he'd kept her from dancing with that boy. He hadn't known it at the time, he knew it now. In that moment his path became clearer than he knew. She was his future, and the only journey he wanted to take was the one that led to her. He loved her, so much that it did sometimes catch him off guard. He knew that his parents and probably hers worried that might be too young for these decisions, but he didn't care. There was no other decision that made sense in his eyes. If one week away from her was painful, then what would next year bring?
Next year, he wouldn't be here with her, he would be playing professional quidditch. His Newts didn't really matter, not with the career he wanted. His dreams were to be played out on a pitch, with a broom. Not in the ministry, an office, a shop or a school. Next year, he would be gone, and she would be here. And it killed him a bit. If one week was hard, one year would be torture. He sighed a bit sadly and looked down at his perfect girlfriend.
"What am I going to do without you?" he whispered, lifting her hand gently and placing a soft kiss on the ring. "I guess I'll just have to keep you forever. Sleep tight my princess." He said quietly, laying her hand down and putting down his book finally, laying his head back and closing his eyes.
0-0-0-0-0
(Gwen's 7th year)
Two years to the day of the dance. Two years from the moment he'd asked her the life changing question. Two years since she wasn't just Gwenny, she was HIS Gwenny. Two years since he'd asked her to be his girlfriend. And tonight, he had asked her to be his wife. Tonight, she had said she wanted to marry him. Tonight sealed the path they'd started on when they were barely old enough to realize what it really felt like to want to be together.
He didn't have long that night, had a match the next morning and she knew he was going to have to leave her. He'd agreed to leave her after she fell asleep. That had a taken a while. Today was the first he'd seen her since she got off the Hogwarts express two days ago for Christmas break. And he already had to leave her again. Sleep hadn't come easily to Gwen that night. Joy had, in the early hours of the evening, and it persisted through the latter half, when it was obvious a goodbye would soon come for them again.
She had been asleep for a few hours, and he knew it was time. His watch flashed 3:30 AM and he was supposed to have been at the stadium in Tanzania 30 minutes ago. The exhibition match started in 2 and half hours and he was supposed to be dressed, debriefed, and in front of reporters and an interview panel in 1 hour. Oliver was going to murder him. He frowned and carefully slipped out of her bed. He stood up and leaned over her, moving her hair and kissing her temple. "I'm so sorry I have to leave you Gwenny. I love you more than glitter, more than ice cream, more than fairies, more than snowflakes, and so much more than quidditch. Sleep tight beautiful princess.
-0-0-0-0-0
(December 23rd, 2024)
The sun was starting to rise and he had yet to fall asleep though his head spun with tiredness. He looked down at the most amazing person in his universe and smiled softly. She hadn't been asleep for very long at all and she was curled against him, so tangled up with him and the sheets that it really wasn't evident what was him and what was her. He watched the new sunlight dance over her white blonde hair as he twirled it around his fingers.
Yesterday had been the moment the last three years had led them to. Less than 12 hours ago they stood before their entire family and all their friends. They made vows only seeing one another. Every bit of love he'd ever felt in his life poured into the words he'd spoken aloud. Poured into every moment he'd spent with her since the moment his lips met hers at that alter.
He laid his head down, leaning it against hers and smiled softly, everything in his world was right, everything was where it was supposed to be. She was wholly his and he was wholly hers, from last night, and for every night from here until eternity. His eyes grew heavier and his thoughts muddled, he tried to kiss her head but sleep already started to overtake him, his mind and body numbing. "Goodnight my beautiful wife." He mumbled before falling to sleep in the arms of the love of his life.
