Disclaimer: OK, you really should know by now that nothing but Bryn belongs to me.

Chapter 16 - Trysts and Shakespeare: Two days later, an owl arrived at breakfast for Bryn. The note said simply: Meet me near the Shrieking Shack today at noon. BZ Bryn took a deep breath. She was going to Hogsmeade with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but it shouldn't be too hard to shake them off... she hoped.

As it turned out, she was right. Ron caught up with Lavender, which of course meant more kissing sessions between the two, and Harry and Hermione were all too willing to leave them to it. Harry was getting sick of having Lavender around, and Hermione... Bryn would've liked to hit Ron hard enough for him to see stars when she saw the look in the brunette's eyes.

Still, she was grateful that the whole scenario made it easier for her to slip away, and at noon, she was walking up the slope to the Shrieking Shack. There he was, leaning against the fence built to keep people away from the Shack, those deep blue eyes focused on her.

"Hey," she said. "Listen, about the other day -"

"I shouldn't have asked you to do that. It was crazy, and I'm -"

"Don't apologize. I'm not sorry it happened."

"You're not?" He sounded stunned, and so was she. She didn't regret kissing him, but why had she said that? Was she trying to get hurt again? But then she thought, Screw it. I'll be honest and see where it gets me.

"No, I'm not. Not at all."

"Good, because, to be perfectly honest, neither am I. And I really didn't ask you here to apologize."

She raised an eyebrow. "OK. So what's your true motive?"

"I wanted to know if you... if you're interested in perhaps spending a little more time with me."

"Is that your way of asking me out?"

"Actually, yes. And I'm fully aware it was pathetic, so don't tell me that. But what's your answer?"

"We're going to catch Hell from everyone we know."

"Who says we need to tell them?"

She smirked. He had a point, but she wasn't sure she liked the dishonesty. "Why? Should I be ashamed of you? Or would you be ashamed of me?"

Blaise shook his head. "No, neither of us ought to be ashamed, but what you said before was right. We will catch Hell for this, considering that you're a Gryffindor and I'm -"

"A Slytherin. Yeah, I can just see my friends' reactions, plus you hang out with Malfoy. How can you stand him, anyway?"

"Can't. We all hate each other, but pretend we're friends so no one suspects."

Bryn laughed. "So I take it we'll be doing the reverse? Pretending we hate each other so no one suspects that we're seeing each other on the sly? Sounds a bit like Shakespeare. Let's just hope we don't die."

"Huh?"

"Romeo and Juliet? Shakespeare? None of this rings a bell?" He shook his head. "Dear Lord. And you're British? Shakespeare was a famous playwright, and one of his plays, Romeo and Juliet, was about this couple whose families hated each other. They, erm, wound up together, and they had to hide it from everyone, and eventually they died. It's a long story, but I just now noticed the similarities."

"Huh. Well, I don't think anyone will kill us for dating... at least not on your side of things."

"They killed themselves actually, and no, we Gryffindors do try to avoid killing one another, but you Slytherins...?"

"Smile politely and plot how to kill each other. Why'd they kill themselves?"

"He thought she was dead, but she'd taken this potion to fake it to avoid marrying some count. She killed herself when she woke up and saw him dead. How pleasant that you're all plotting homicide."

"Isn't it though? And that double suicide's a bit dramatic. We should definitely not do that."

"No, definitely not. And actually, there was a homicide too."

"OK... hey, why are we discussing some dumb play?"

"Because you didn't understand my reference."

"Right. Well, it's a bit strange, and we should move past it."

"Yeah... so. How are we going to make this work, exactly?"

"I'm not sure, but there's got to be a way." Blaise frowned. He hadn't really thought beyond getting her to go out with him, and now he was a bit stuck. Not that the talk of Muggle plays had helped.

"I'll ask the others... I'm sure they know all the secret passages by now, judging from the way Harry always manages to escape his throngs of fangirls." She rolled her eyes, showing her disgust of the obsessed girls. "Too bad we're not at my old school. I could've come up with a dozen places to go in about a minute flat."

He grinned at that. "Could you really? I doubt that." She gasped in fury and then saw the smirk that said he was teasing her.

"Hey! Jerk." She went to whack him upside the head, but he caught her hand.

"You've only been my girlfriend for twenty minutes and you're hitting me already? How mean of you."

She laughed. "Yes, well, my boyfriend ought to know better than to insult me about my knowledge of my former school." She sniffed haughtily and he chuckled before saying, "Oh, calm down. God, you'd think I said something awful."

"You did! I spent a good amount of time out-of-bounds exploring at Salem, I'll have you know."

"Oh, sorry, then, didn't know you were so superior, Missy."

"I'm not sure I accept that apology."

"Well, we'll just have to fix that..." And he leaned forward and kissed her, one arm wrapping around her waist, his other hand into her hair and pulling it free of the hair chopsticks she'd used that day.Her handswere interlocked behind his neck,pulling him down. After a minute, they pulled away, all joking aside.

"Apology accepted," Bryn whispered breathlessly. She really needed to get a grip. It wasn't like he was the first boy she'd ever kissed. She grinned impishly at him and they kissed again, knowing they'd have to go back to school soon and pretend this had never happened.

A/N: Ack! Sappy romance! We will return to the story in the next chapter, I promise!