"Mister Jordan…"
Verity was walking her fingers up and down Lee's thigh, stroking the soft fabric of his summer dress robes. It was driving him nuts to have her hand so close and yet to know that he had to rein himself in from catching it, scooping her up into his arms and lavishing kisses all over her pretty face. She had been clear with him last weekend that, while he shouldn't be afraid to hope, she still needed more time.
"I told you I needed more time to adjust to the idea of commitment," she said, confirming that thought, "and that's true, but maybe not for the reason you think."
Lee had told himself, when he rounded the corner of the cliff and saw the witch he loved sat on a tartan picnic blanket, that he would be cool, calm and collected and not say or do anything that might scare Verity away. It took all of ten seconds for that plan to sail away on the sea breeze.
"I love you," he said, as soon as he settled on the blanket beside her. He immediately wanted to kick himself. He was supposed to be being cool and not pushing her.
"I know you do," she said, patting his leg with a gentle laugh.
Lee smiled; happy to have broken any tension that might have existed along with his resolve.
"Kingsley is my godfather," she said, causing his eyebrows to raise. He had not been expecting that. "And it's time I told you some other things about me."
"Wine, then?"
Lee reached for a glass, poured a generous serving into it, and handed it to her before filling his own.
"Thanks." She tipped it towards him in a toast.
Lee took a deep breath. "You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, love," he said, and then a grin crossed his face. "My love for you is pretty unconditional. Embarrassing," he added, tilting his head and winking, "because, with you, I seem to have reverted to the way I used to be when I was thirteen and first discovered witches and was unable to hide my feelings. So I think by now everyone knows how I feel and that you don't want me. So, yes, unconditional. Impossible to hide. And," he paused for a sip of wine, "totally beyond my control."
"It's not that I don't want you," she said, looking a bit confused. "I thought I had been clear about that?"
Lee raised his eyebrows slightly, but he didn't say anything. Verity gave a small sigh, and then continued.
"OK," she said. "I can see that I might have made you confused, even though I thought I was being clear." She leaned back, looking at the sky rather than Lee. "I think you're gorgeous," she said. "I fancy the arse off you. It makes no difference to me that I'm a couple of years older than you, and I'm hoping this conversation will go on until tomorrow morning, if you take my drift…"
Lee very much took her drift. In a number of different parts of his body.
"I told you a few weeks ago I was worried about how a relationship might affect our work. I love those boys as if they were my own little brothers," she said, tilting her head in the direction of the wedding, making it clear that she was referring to Fred and George, "and I'll not risk losing them for a shag with you."
"Never," Lee said, reaching out towards her hand, but she pulled away.
"Let me finish," she said. "I've been building up to this for weeks, and if you interrupt," he could hear a bit of an edge creeping into her voice, "I might apparate home in a panic and we'll have to go back to the beginning."
He nodded, too afraid to say anything in reply, lest he chose the wrong words.
"Oh fuck, sorry." Verity picked up a shell and rubbed one finger along the edge of it. "I don't mean that. I'm shit at this. I should have written you a bloody letter!"
Lee couldn't hold back anymore. "I'll go to the shop and get Oswald if you like?" he offered, leaning into her and bumping her side. "We could have a chat by owl?"
Verity's eyes filled with tears and she turned to Lee with a sob. "Why do you always have to be so fucking nice, Jordan? I was happy with my decision! I had a job and a life that I loved. I was growing myself a surrogate family with the boys, who happened to fly out of school the day before I walked into the Cauldron needing a new job. And then you bloody come along after you finished your NEWTS and made me bloody fall in love with you. Which was not," she leaned towards him, and his heart started beating even faster as her words began to register, "part of the plan."
Verity gave a short laugh, confusing Lee even more. It was becoming clear to him that, if his dream came true and he ended up with Verity Brown, he was going to have to get a lot better at working out her moods than this. She was a bit like the sea, he thought, as he looked over at the waves rolling up onto the beach. You would think that everything was calm and happy, and then a bigger wave would come out of nowhere and crash over you. And there was no predicting when those big waves were due, although he was prepared to embark on closer study of this with Verity. Perhaps Hermione would help him, he thought, although he then recalled that she often seemed just as confused by Verity's moods and motives as he did.
"OK," she said, surprising him again with the fact that she seemed to have calmed again. "I'm afraid…"
There was a long pause, and Lee just nodded, hoping he was managing to look supportive. He badly wanted to not fuck things up.
"I know I'm just one of many," she said, a bit cryptically, with another nod in the direction of the noise of the wedding. "If we counted, I bet more than half of the wedding guests have lost one or both parents to the war, but that's the beginning of my story too," she finished.
Lee thought quickly. He knew that Verity's mum was on the scene, so she must have lost her father.
"My dad was an auror," she continued. "He was Kingsley's partner. I was so tiny when he was killed that I don't know which of my memories of him are real ones, and which are ones I've made up from seeing photos of the two of us. One day, I'd like you to hold my hand while Kings tells us more about him, but I don't want to talk about it now. I just needed to find a way to tell you why I'm so fucking terrified of falling in love. I don't want to lose you and go through what my mum did. She's never fully got over losing him," she whispered.
Verity looked up, into Lee's eyes. Her tears increased when she saw that he, too, was crying.
"I'm so sorry, love," he said, holding her close. "I had no idea..."
"You weren't supposed to," she whispered. "I've worked hard to build a nice wall". She made a circular motion with her finger as she talked. "Only a few people get in. Not you," she said, a bit gruffly, poking his chest gently with her finger as she did. She smiled through her tears. "Because you'd be all lovely and nice and you'd make me fall in love with you more and then where would I be?"
"You'd be right here, in my arms and my heart," Lee said, with no clue about whether this would be a good or a terrible way to respond.
"Exactly!" Verity exclaimed. "See, this is the problem!"
Lee wished Fred was with them. Fred was good at riddles. And then he felt a bit guilty and ashamed. He wanted Verity to be his puzzle. He wanted to be the one who understood her and translated her tides and moods for others, if need be. He pulled her close to his chest, thinking through everything she had said, both this evening and over the past couple of weeks, and then he took her chin in his fingers, tilting her so that he could look into her eyes.
"I love you, Verity Brown," he said. "And I will love you relentlessly, probably regardless of whether or not you love me back." He was rewarded by a flood of fresh tears, which his instincts told him weren't a bad sign, especially as they were accompanied by another small smile.
"Hmmmm," said Verity, reaching for her wand so that she could transfigure a shell into a large puffy cushion, which she then pulled Lee back onto. It was a bit oddly-shaped, and Lee smiled to himself. Transfiguration was definitely not Verity's strongest suit, but he thought it politic not to comment. "Problem is," she continued, nestling her head into his shoulder, because she couldn't possibly look into his eyes while she made her confession. "I love you too, and I think I have done for quite a while now, and I think I'm ready to make this official and maybe even add our names to the pot, and maybe one day let Kings walk me down the aisle to you, even though it's going to make me cry when he does, because he always goes on about how it's the least he can do for my dad."
"It's OK," Lee reassured. His heart was soaring and he could barely believe what he had just heard. "You'll be OK. We'll make it OK…"
"When I bring the wall down, it makes me all emotional so I can't function properly," Verity complained. "Yet I know that I'll only be living half a life if I keep it up and keep you out."
"We'll figure it out," Lee promised, and he meant it. His heart was pounding with excitement and it took everything he had to stay calm for Verity's sake. He had a sense that Verity had kept some of her feelings bottled up for years, perhaps because she had been so focused on taking care of her mum. He knew, from scraps of conversations in the shop over the past couple of years, that Verity's mum's mental health was sometimes fragile, but it had never occurred to him to wonder why.
"I'm not an emotional wreck ALL the time," she said.
"I don't mind if you are," he whispered. "But I know." And he did. He knew that she was an incredibly capable witch, who could manage the shop and corral hordes of kids while appeasing parents and keeping him, Fred and George on track. Even if her words were cryptic and her transfiguration wasn't always up to scratch, he thought, with a smile. "You love me," he whispered.
"I do," she replied, and pressed a slow kiss to his lips before pulling back a couple of inches. "The last few weeks have been nuts. The war brought a lot of feelings up for me. The funerals, then the rebuilding, then all the romance. Bloody Fred and Hermione climbing all over each other everywhere you go in the shop," she laughed softly, shaking her head. Lee's quiet chuckle joined hers, knowing that her meaning was affectionate. "And now these two," she continued, the tears still flowing as she pointed towards the wedding noise again. "It's bloody non-stop!"
"Shall we wait til things get quieter then?" he asked, stroking her hip with his hand. He was furiously hoping that he was reading things correctly and not about to make a massive fool of himself with what he was going to say. "How about we put our names forward at the ball, like you said, but rather than promising engagement or marriage, we'll promise that we're seriously together and working on it. We could start a new trend! And we'll go to everyone else's weddings and drink their champagne and be the life and soul of every party, but when they ask when it's our turn, we'll say we're waiting nicely in line until everyone else has done." Seeing that her face looked open and her pupils were wide and her blue eyes clear of tears, Lee chanced another gentle kiss on her lips. He wasn't reprimanded for it, so he moved his fingers through her blonde hair and kissed her more deeply, bringing a soft moan from her mouth. When he had finished, he leaned towards her ear and whispered. "We'll wait til you're ready, and not a moment sooner."
"You're too nice," Verity whispered back. This time, it was she who took his face into her hands, seeking his mouth with her own.
"Only in some areas," he whispered back, once they had shared more soft kisses. "I'm planning to drive you nuts wanting to spend my free Saturdays commentating on quidditch when you'll want me to have the kids."
"Nah." Verity stopped his laugh with another snog before explaining herself. "I'll ask Lauren to help me get me one of those rainbow muggle things they carry Elliot in, and I'll strap the kids to you before you leave the house, like she does with Charlie. You and the boys will turn all of my babies into quidditch nuts anyway, so I might as well reap the rewards of that!"
Lee grinned, stroking her hair. He had a vision of himself, Fred and George in the future, and he had no doubt that all three of them would be active fathers, striding about with babies and toddlers on their backs. Fred and George had already mentioned that one of their dreams was to have WWW sponsor a box at one of the stadia for their family. In his mind's eye, Lee imagined the three of them, and the other quidditch-loving Weasleys, watching a match together. After everything that had happened, it was a nice thought.
"That sounds fair," he said, slowly tipping them both until they were laying down on the cushion. "Although I happen to know that you're secretly much nicer than you want everyone to think you are. But don't worry," he cupped her face with his hand and slanted his lips, letting her know that he was about to kiss her again, "I won't tell anyone…"
Verity moaned as his tongue traced the inside of her lips, and she responded to his touch, winding her arms around him and stroking his back. She had known for the past few weeks that she needed to let down her barrier a bit and accept Lee's love and affection. And although she couldn't say that she was yet completely free of the feeling of trepidation that always haunted her when she thought about the risk involved in giving her heart to a wizard, she was experiencing so much joy that she could push her doubts far enough away for them not to mar her enjoyment of his kisses.
"I want you, and I can't wait any longer!"
Verity and Lee sat up quickly when they heard Hermione's voice. Just a few seconds before they saw her rounding the corner of the cliff, towing a laughing Fred behind her.
"You know my mum's going to have seen us, and be all excited about babies," he said.
"I don't care!" Hermione replied, turning to face him, and pulling him into a deep kiss, completely oblivious to the fact that their friends and co-workers were just a few feet away.
"Erm, hello mate, love," said Lee, in a louder voice than he had used for a while. He didn't let go of Verity, so when Fred and Hermione turned, it was to see their friends' bodies tangled together in a way that suggested there was only one possible outcome to their evening too.
"Oh! Hey!" Fred exclaimed, his eyes growing wide with delight at what he was witnessing. "Can I say congratulations?" he grinned.
Verity looked up at Lee. "Yes," she said, turning back to Fred. "I think you can. No rings, though," she emphasised. "Or dates for your diary. We're just … dating," she said, looking back at her wizard with such an expression of love on her face that his heart swelled. "But it's official…"
"I'm so happy for you," said Hermione. Her slight embarrassment at being overheard propositioning her husband was dwarfed by her genuine joy at realising that Verity had finally said yes to their friend.
"Carpe diem," said Verity. "Isn't that what you told me?"
"I did," said Hermione, touched that Verity had remembered their conversation in the shop that day.
"Well, we'll leave you in peace and find another nook," Hermione said, taking Fred's hand again. "It's George and Angie's bloody fault," she said, a hundred times more openly than she would have done just a few weeks prior. "Their bonding magic seems to be affecting ours, and we can't take the pressure any longer." Neither of them mentioned that this would be the second time they had sneaked off to make love that afternoon. She turned to Fred. "We should just apparate to the shop roof for half an hour!"
"Yeah, we could," he said, looking at her lovingly as he stroked her face with the back of his fingers, "if you don't mind Georgie taking the piss about you sneaking off home to have a shag during his wedding reception for the next hundred years! He'll know if we've left the area; it's hard to hold the bond closed while apparating…"
"We could do a deal?" Lee said to Fred, pointing to their rug. Fred raised his eyebrows and then laughed.
"Alright," he said, knowing exactly what Lee was suggesting. Both Lee and Verity lived with other people, so privacy was sometimes hard to come by. "The floo's open, the shop and the roof are all yours for the night; help yourselves! There's wine in our fridge if you need more," he nodded to the bottle they were sharing. "In exchange for your blanket and pillow, and I'll even say your goodbyes to the happy couple," he added, with a soft laugh.
"Done," said Verity, pushing herself up and pulling Lee's hand until he was standing. Then, a bit unexpectedly, she walked forward and gave Hermione a hug. "Thanks," she said. And then, seeing Hermione's slightly surprised face, she added, with a nod towards Lee, "for helping me see that I should give Smooshy here a chance."
Hermione had the sense that she might never know exactly what she had said or done to encourage Verity, but she was delighted to see her and Lee holding each other tenderly as they prepared to apparate to the flat's roof to seal their own promise. She was nearly as delighted to see that as she was to finally feel Fred's lips on hers, as he drew them down onto the tartan blanket and closed his bond with George for a few minutes so that they could indulge in a hard, fast, passionate expression of their love for each other. Just a few minutes later, their orgasms crashed over them and they stole just a few more kisses before returning to the dance floor, pretending that they had just taken a quick stroll and nipped around the corner for a snog.
