Episode Seventy Two

"Your mother?" Harry asked quietly gazing at the gold frame on her desk. He had wandered in to her office after classes on Monday afternoon. It was the first day back, and while Gwen didn't really need to be in her office she thought she might just relax a bit and flip through her photo album from Phillipe before dinner, which was still lying open on her desk, the people captured in celluloid still dancing merrily.

Harry was regarding the framed photo. He recognized the subtle resemblance between the two women, the soft rounded curve of the jaw, the bright eyes, the button nose. The man in the frame with her had to have been her father, the soft, ginger-brown hair resting in short waves on his head, the same bright mischievous smile.

There were two other people in the frame, a tall thin woman with no resemblance to Gwen at all and another man, with his arm wrapped around her waist. He looked like the other man, but younger. They must have been brothers.

"Yes. My mother, father, Aunt Ann and Uncle George." She answered, giving the frame a loving look.

Harry looked at her. He wasn't sure where he was going with this conversation, but he had to start it before it took a definite direction. "How's Graves?"

"He's not in the best shape." Gwen added curiously. "Why?"

"I saw him walking away from your classroom the other day. I didn't think he'd come back to Hogwarts."

"Me either. But Corwin was never one for procedure. I just can't believe he'd be so stupid."

"What do you mean?"

"He's risking his life by contacting me. I shouldn't say more than that, but he is working with the Order and... It's not safe here anymore, Harry. I would have thought you'd know that."

"He must love you a lot to come here and risk his life like that."

"He does."

"And you still love him?"

"Why are we talking about this?"

"Because for the first time in our entire relationship I want to."

She looked at him softly. Whether or not she wanted to admit it he was growing up too. If he wanted to openly discuss things then she should be willing to as well. That's what mature people do in relationships, she reasoned. "Ok. Where do you want to start?"

Harry exhaled sharply. He'd been holding his breath, waiting for her to speak and let it all out in one huge woosh. She smiled at him and he smiled back. "I just wanted to know where our relationship stands right now."

"It's sort of kneeling Harry." She said bemused.

He rolled his eyes, but he agreed. "How does he figure into this?"

            Gwen lowered her gaze and found herself staring at her shoes. She was wearing a pair of Converse All Stars that she had bought at a little shoe shop in France. They had cost her a fortune, but she had wanted some since she had owned four pairs in the dream world. She sighed heavily, things were so much simpler in the dream world.

            Graves was the only man who really intrigued her there, but more often than not she would get a stupid little crush on someone else and ignore his affections. And when she would come back to him he would do the same, finding some flighty girl to distract him. There were never two people more meant for each other and Gwen knew it, but they had really terrible timing.

            "Harry," she began. "He figures into everything in my life. He's more a part of me than anything else. As for what will happen, who can say? I just hope he makes it out of this alive."