Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
This was written for BlueEyes444's challenge on Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum titled Edgar Allen Poe.
My pairing was Lucy/Lorcan and my Poe piece was 'Romance'. First NextGen!
I'm sorry for any grammar or tense mistakes… I was having issues for some reason with incredibly elementary verbs. :(
I hope you enjoy.
Hogwarts, A Story
Linger
The noon sun glared harshly down on the ground, broiling even the tiniest ants. The air was draped about the earth like a soggy shirt hung on a line to dry, rustling faintly in the breeze.
Underneath the cool canopy of the weeping willow's branches, however, the world was quiet and peaceful. His feet swung with the lazy motion of the tree, carefree. The rough sandpaper bark rasped against the thin cotton of his shirt, the trunk creaking ever so softly because of the weight.
She turned her neck halfway around, glancing back at him from the corner of her eye. He saw the knobs of her spine through the sheer fabric of her tank top, all angles and edges. Her bare feet gripped the slim branches with simian agility, toes wrapping confidently around the wood.
Holding her arms out for balance, she gracefully slid farther down the branch, her calf muscles bunching and straining as she rose on her tiptoes, like she was going to spring off and let the wind carry her.
It's dangerous, but she never fell. She had done this too many times- if she were supposed to be dead, she'd be gone by now.
He noticed for the fifth time that day how beautiful she was.
"Lucy," he called her back, the words almost blending in with the cheeping of the birds and the droning of the mosquitoes, but not quite. "You're gorgeous."
She turned her face towards him, still balanced on the limb like a tightrope walker. A grin flitted across her face, and before he knew it she was in front of him, kneecaps still brown with dirt. She traced a finger softly over his eyelid and tapped him on the nose before scooting her feet backwards and reclining against his chest, letting out a breath in the process.
"Thank you, love."
That was it.
Effortless, uncomplicated, easy.
Of course there were always hard times, but everything was all right when they were together, with each other.
He wished he could loiter here, trap this moment in a jar like a firefly, and never let the light dim.
Simple, true, beautiful.
She leaned her head against his shoulder, nails tickling across his knee. Their lungs expanded in unison, in tempo with the rustling of the leaves.
Simple, true, and beautiful, he repeated in his head as drowsy sleep swept down on him.
Soon words were whisked away from his mind, but emotion still lingered while he dreamed.
Happy.
Romance, who loves to nod and sing,
With drowsy head and folded wing,
Among the green leaves as they shake
Far down within some shadowy lake,
To me a painted paroquet
Hath been- a most familiar bird-
Taught me my alphabet to say-
To lisp my very earliest word
While in the wild wood I did lie,
A child- with a most knowing eye.
Of late, eternal Condor years
So shake the very Heaven on high
With tumult as they thunder by,
I have no time for idle cares
Through gazing on the unquiet sky.
And when an hour with calmer wings
Its down upon my spirit flings-
That little time with lyre and rhyme
To while away- forbidden things!
My heart would feel to be a crime
Unless it trembled with the strings.
- The Romance, Edgar Allen Poe
I'm pretty sure it's impossible to walk very far on the branches of a weeping willow, but since I've never been under or in one, I don't know. Maybe it's a magical weeping willow…
Anyways, I hope you liked it. The ending gave me issues, so I would love some constructive criticism!