Yeah, the title of this chapter is another Reference. Now I think about it, all the References so far have been to the same band. Huh. HOW ABOUT THAT. Anyway I'm so dead-tired I wrote 'chapter of this chapter' but I can't go to bed because I have to write an essay and PAY THEM FOR THE PRIVELEGE OF THIS CLASS I'M TAKING. It doesn't even make any sense! WHY WOULD I PAY SOMEONE TO MAKE ME DO THINGS. I HATE DOING THINGS. Um... here's the chapter.

Chapter Twenty-Six: As They Fall From the Sky

Dinner that night was very strange. Severus, being his usual weirdly aloof self, didn't really say much, but my father kept talking to him about coming back in the summertime. Well, that was a weird transformation from my father. I was under the impression that he hated Severus. Though, it did go a bit far when he suggested that he and Severus go out on the lake when the ice melted to fish, for Merlin's sake. The image of Severus in those plastic overall things and a beige hat with fishing lures on it made me snort my wine so violently my mother thought I was having a stroke. But it was my mother's constant talks of children and pregnancy and things Of That Nature that was the driving force behind my decision to chug wine until the Bad Things went away. There was only so much one's mind could be weighed down by thoughts of uterus parasites before it all got too much, and that moment had occurred about four hours before dinner. I did not need to hear another word about ovulation or trimesters or, horror of horrors, my own conception. There were some things that you just shouldn't talk about.

After dinner, Severus politely declined an invitation from my father to adjourn to the sitting room and discuss 'old times' (what old times? WHAT OLD TIMES?) and he and I ended up, oddly enough, in the sunroom. It had just gone about nine-ish, so it'd been pitch black for about three and a half hours, but it was still nice to hang out in there and look at the stars. Of course, you had to have all the lights off to even see anything outside, so it wasn't so much a sunroom as just a regular room made of windows. Sunroom took less time to say though. I was on the daybed again (even though it was night-time! The scandal!), lying on my back this time so that the incline at one edge wouldn't make my neck fall off. Severus was perched oddly in a large, round chair that was pushed against the right wall, so he was further down and to the left of my feet. He could probably see up my nose, but who cared? It was night-time. Boogers are invisible at night, it's their superpower. I'd drawn my knees up slightly, the left a bit higher than the right, and angled them towards each other so they wouldn't go falling over. I was the body part architect. Like making a house of cards, but less fragile. I probably wouldn't have fallen apart at the slightest breath of wind.

It was really very pleasant, lying back and watching the stars. I'd fix my eyes on what looked like the brightest, then it seemed to fade in front of my face and the one next to it would light up. It was interesting, trying to predict which would be brightest next. Every so often a star would flit across the sky and vanish, but I never had the time to think up a wish to use on it before it was gone. Whatever though. It may have sounded twee, but I had everything I could ever want already. It was creepy, though, how completely motionless Severus was. Every time I glanced over at him his eyes were fixated on me, and he was still sitting in the exact same position. It was like he didn't even realise how pretty the stars were.

"Look at the stars," I said, reaching an arm up to point lazily. "They're very nice."

"I'm quite sure that they are," was all he said, and remained motionless.

This pleasant nonsense continued for Merlin knew how long, before the lights snapped on and I called a grumbling cry as the brightness assaulted my eyes. I rolled over on the daybed, forgetting how narrow it was, and landed hard on my knees. "Ouch!" I said loudly, before looking up to glare at whoever had interrupted my gazing. It was my mother.

"Eric's just called, he thinks he left his vest here last night," she said. "I told him to pop by. You two were in here, weren't you? Do you know where it is?"

I shrugged, casting my eyes about the room in a half-assed sort of a way. They caught on something beige that was poking out from behind a cushion and I motioned toward the chair that he'd been sitting in. My mother wandered over and retrieved it, folding it in a very motherly sort of a way. The doorbell rang and she smiled. "That'll be him. Fancy leaving a vest."

"I'll take it," I said to her, and she relinquished it to me. I sort of jogged through the sitting room and kitchen to get to the front entrance, and I pulled the door open with a smile. Eric was standing there, looking a lot more normal in a t-shirt and jeans. "Hi!"

"Hey Raph," he said, smiling. "I thought I could get away with this reckless abandonment, but I came to my senses and realised it was just too cruel to force that horrible vest onto your otherwise lovely house."

I laughed. "Oh, it was just adding to the décor, really. D'you want to come in for a bit?"

"I would, but I should be getting back," he said, and it sounded quite apologetic. I'd only asked to be polite. "It's pretty late, after all."

"Okay, cool," I said. "Well, come around again before I go back to school. I'm only here for the Christmas break."

"Sure thing," he said, before turning away. I shut the door behind him and meandered back to the sunroom, but it was empty. I turned the lights off, took one last look at the stars, and left the room.