Hermione could only stare at Narcissa, eyes glued to the blonde's. Suddenly, Narcissa whipped her wand out of her sleeve; it whizzed in the air in one frantic movement that summoned the cauldron's lid onto it, covering the Amortentia.

Almost immediately, that strong scent of eucalyptus Hermione had identified earlier dissipated entirely. That scent which she had come to associate with Narcissa, it permeated the other witch's robes and hair and skin as she toiled over her sophisticated brews. That scent which now comforted Hermione whenever she was near it; that scent which was so awfully common yet so perfectly fitting for Narcissa.

Hermione couldn't say anything; all she could do was keep staring like an idiot, with the same thought swirling in her head.

Narcissa smelled her perfume. Narcissa had smelled her perfume without even coming close, which was impossible. Narcissa had smelled her perfume. Narcissa had smelled her perfume.

Hermione had to contain a smug grin and evidently did a rather poor job of it, because Narcissa Black was now flushed before her, cheeks tinted pink, and Hermione felt absolutely triumphant.

She knew Narcissa was not indifferent, but now she knew Narcissa was not indifferent. That made all the difference in the world.

"So," Hermione began again, very much aware her giddiness was not being very well contained, but finding herself unable to care. "All done with practicals, then?"

How amazing to be able to see it in Narcissa's eyes—she knew Narcissa knew Hermione knew. If that made sense. Hermione couldn't even fault the blonde for treading lightly; not now that she knew. Now that she knew, Hermione felt like she was able to give Narcissa all the time in the world.

"Yes," Narcissa said, eyeing Hermione cautiously with a mix of trepidation and embarrassment. She paused, biting her bottom lip and seemingly in search for words. "Hermione, about the Amort..."

"You know, I rather fancy an outing to Black Manor." Hermione interjected with a smile and what she hoped was a reassuring look. Narcissa's eyes widened and she quirked a confused brow. Those blue depths looked to Hermione's in question.

"An outing?" Narcissa asked, and how could Hermione miss the breathless quality of her voice now that she knew. She knew, she knew, she knew.

"Yes." Hermione quipped—her joy was bursting from her chest. "You know, since we'll have a weekend of respite before exams resume."

Narcissa's shoulders visibly relaxed, and her smile now seemed more genuine, less strained with uncertainty and potential guilt. It lit up her features beautifully. "I suppose we have the time." She said, and it thrilled Hermione how they had seemed to tune into the same frequency, like they were silently acknowledging that now they both knew, but would play it by ear because now they could.

"Great!" Hermione exclaimed. "I believe I've concluded my final tweaks on my rune-tracking charm" she elaborated, delighting in how Narcissa's azure gaze brightened considerably in expectation and excitement. "It's why I came down here" she confessed. "I wanted to wait until exams were over, but honestly, I couldn't."

"I'm glad you didn't!" Narcissa declared, looking outright giddy. "You... you think you can do it?"

Hermione held her arm out for Narcissa to take, feeling particularly confident. "Yes Ma'am. Let's go dissect some wards!"

There was some slight hesitation in the way Narcissa reached out to loop her arm to Hermione's, but any doubt it may have caused the brunette was summarily erased as with the way Narcissa not only held on tight, but also naturally gravitated closer.

Hermione couldn't contain her shit-eating grin if she tried.


"We'll have to go to the mausoleum again" Hermione said as the two witches took their time in strolling through the manicured gardens of Black Manor. Their arms were still linked, and there was an odd serenity in this unplanned walk through the grounds that Narissa truly cherished.

"Of course," Narcissa replied. There was trepidation in her voice, she knew, but not nearly as much as there ought to be with such a destination in mind.

"Will you be alright?" Hermione pushed gently, brow quirked in question.

Narcissa smiled and patted Hermione's arms reassuringly. "I'll be perfectly fine."

It was a gorgeous day. Springs always seemed longer at Black Manor; they had since she was a child. It was the gardens, Narcissa was sure of it—they were always in bloom, always colourful and perfectly maintained, flowers in alternating patterns and arrangements that made the whole thing look like an impressionist painting from a distance.

Lavender, jasmine, peonies.

Narcissa wished the floor would swallow her up—an entirely foreign emotion to her, who had been taught to carry her pride where the world could see it, above all else. She felt like an utter fool. How was she caught unawares by Amortentia? It was her own fault, too; she knew there was a cauldron of the stuff there—she had been the one to assign the ruddy thing.

She couldn't have guessed Greyson would have left his cauldron open. She couldn't have guessed Hermione Granger would show at her door when she did. She couldn't have guessed she would smell lavender, jasmine, and peonies. She most certainly couldn't have guessed Hermione would have smelled eucalyptus.

Narcissa groaned internally. That was a lie. She knew whatever she smelled would be associated to the pretty brunette on her arm; thinking otherwise was to be far too entrenched in the world of denial. Eucalyptus, for Merlin's sakes. What was the surprise, really? She had followed Hermione's gaze as it followed her through the past few months.

There was an intensity there that could not—indeed, it would not—go ignored for much longer.

It was terrifying.

In truth, Hermione's gaze had become so intense over the past few weeks Narcissa nearly expected an interrogation to take place over the Amortentia. She fully expected Hermione to launch into observation mode, putting two and two together in a painfully obvious fashion.

And then... she didn't. Hermione had brushed the revelation brought on by the tricky brew right off; she had not even acknowledged it. To what end, Narcissa wondered. What would possess the ever-curious Hermione Granger to let such a development pass her by with no acknowledgement whatsoever?

It hit her as Hermione babbled about the history of warding runes while they walked; as she felt the heat of the brunette's arm entwined with her own as she met a calm, caring hazel gaze every now and then. The message was clearer than it would have been had Hermione said it outright.

She was giving Narcissa time.

That revelation shook Narcissa to her core as they walked. It brought on incomparable happiness and unspeakable guilt. Hermione had to be the most considerate, kind-hearted witch Narcissa had ever had the pleasure to know.

It was unfair to take advantage of such kindness; particularly when Narcissa knew in her heart she was most undeserving.

Though, she thought as Hermione flashed her a beaming grin at some humorous anecdote about wards gone wrong... Weren't Slytherin's notoriously greedy?

She could be greedy. Hermione had given her express permission, had she not?

The Black Family Mausoleum became visible after a short while. It looked decidedly less imposing—not to mention far less ominous—in broad daylight, but even then, Narcissa was grateful to feel Hermione's hand take her own in a tight, comforting grasp.

"Alright," the brunette began once they were inside, awkwardly shuffling her left arm into her robes and pulling out her wand, still unwilling to let go of Narcissa. "The spell is the same, but I've tweaked some of the wand movements," she explained as she demonstrated, albeit a bit clumsily with her non-dominant arm.

Narcissa smiled, taking pity on the brunette and gently untangling herself from the Gryffindor. Hermione looked suitably reassured by her smile and gaze. "Alright," Narcissa said, unsheathing her own wand. "It was Refugium Reperio, was it not?"

Hermione nodded with a grin, and, new movements in mind, the two witches set to work in scanning the building.

Narcissa was amazed at how the spell reacted to the myriad of wards placed on the old building. Hermione had told her before that the soft purple glow at the tip of her wand would grow brighter and brighter as they approached a warding origin point, but Narcissa now could see and feel the several tweaks Hermione had added to the spell since then.

Her wand still glowed softly in a purple hue, but it projected Runed characters in a fine silver smoke as well; they changed and rearranged themselves as Narcissa walked the perimeter, or disappeared completely depending on her location.

"It's a diagnostic tweak" Hermione explained when she noticed Narcissa's look of bewilderment as she performed the spell. "Gives a preliminary read on the Runes we find" she added bashfully.

"Remarkable" Narcissa said honestly, noting how Hermione flushed a deep red with her praise.

Despite the extraordinary strides Hermione had made in her adjustments to the spell, after a short time of scanning the crypt it was quite plain to Narcissa that Hermione was growing increasingly frustrated. Narcissa was well-versed in Ancient Runes—at least far more than your average wizard—but even she could not quite comprehend the ever-changing lines of smoke that her wand projected as she walked through the mausoleum. The tip of her wand brightened and dimmed depending on where she pointed it at, and from the corner of her eye she could see that Hermione was.

The sun began to set behind the intricate stained-glass windows, and soon the family crypt was awash in the glow of the usual green-flamed candles that came magically alight. Narcissa could see Hermione pacing at the far end of the mausoleum, a fair distance from where she was. The brunette's exasperation was evident in her body language.

"Shit." Narcissa heard Hermione's voice echoing through the eerie chamber.

"Everything alright?" She called back, her voice reverberating on the stone walls until it reached Hermione. Narcissa could hear her sigh.

"Yes." A pause. "No."

Narcissa saw the purple glow of Hermione's wand being extinguished in her peripheral vision and moved to do the same. She approached the young Gryffindor, who now looked forlorn.

"What seems to be the problem?" She asked gently. Hermione's shoulders sagged in defeat.

"It's not... It's not working. I'm sorry."

Narcissa tilted Hermione's chin up. "Don't apologise to me" she said resolutely. "You're doing the best you can."

Hermione smiled, but still looked defeated. "I really wanted it to work this time. I thought I knew what I was looking for."

"You do." Narcissa said, for some reason feeling as if she spoke of something far more important than the wards, far more important than Black Manor. "It'll come to you, I'm sure. When you least expect it."

Hermione sighed. "Would you mind a walk through the grounds? It's dark, but I don't know, maybe we'll get lucky."

"Of course."

It was a beautiful night, even if the grounds of Black Manor looked particularly eerie with the fog that rolled in from the small lake to the North of the estate. The vast forested areas stretched through the dips and rises of hills far beyond where the eye could see, the leaves on the ancient trees rustling in sombre unison with the wind.

It was cold, especially for that time of the year. Before Narcissa could think twice about it, she wordlessly cast a warming charm around them. She received a grateful glance from Hermione in response. The young woman's eyes were dark and thoughtful as they walked slowly down the gravel path that led to the main house.

Every now and then, Hermione would mutter another Refugium Reperio under her breath. Her wand would flicker purple for a few seconds, then it would be snuffed out completely. She would mutter a curse and give up for a few moments before trying again.

They were nearly by the main gates again when Hermione groaned in frustration.

"What is it?" Narcissa inquired. Hermione looked like a student angry with a particularly problematic transfiguration formula; it would have been quite endearing if the brunette wasn't truly so frustrated.

"It's just..." she mumbled, "I know the spell is reading correctly. I guess we're just not in the correct area to find the origin point we want." She sighed, then turned to face Narcissa directly.

"Are there any other buildings around the mausoleum's age in the property?"

Narcissa bit her lip. "No, at least to my knowledge there are none that are stand..."

Something caught her attention rather suddenly; a faint gimmer of gold she only saw in passing in the corner of her eye. It flickered just faintly enough for her to question even seeing it, but then it happened again. And again and again, rhythmically, like the beating of wings in flight.

"Narcissa?" Hermione questioned, looking in the same direction.

"A Flickering Pixie" Narcissa breathed out, finally identifying the little creature. It was so much smaller than she remembered; she hadn't seen one of those since she was a little girl.

"Oh," Hermione noted with a grin as the friendly little Doxie hovered nearer, its flight clumsy and glimmering with gold as its diminutive wings beat frantically, glowing brightly in the darkness as it drew closer, hovering around their heads. "It's quite pretty, isn't it?"

"Flickering Pixies," Narcissa murmured, remembering. She felt the memory hit her violently, nearly yanking a gasp from her chest as it flooded her mind with the last time she had seen one of the little pests, as her cousin Sirius would have put it.

"Come to the creek with me and Sirius!" Regulus suggested happily. "We might even find some Flickering Pixies! They're much more fun than sitting here all day."

Narcissa hugged her knees tight against her chest. "How far into the woods are you going?" she asked uncertain. Regulus' older brother was a bit of troublemaker – she didn't want to do anything that might displease her parents, her mother especially.

"Not far" Regulus promised. "Just up to the old ruins by the creek; remember those?"

Walking through the trails with Regulus and Sirius. Her blue skirt; torn and muddied, but her dignity intact and pristine.

" Cissa, look! Flickering Pixies!" Regulus exclaimed.

"Please, Regulus, control yourself. They're just pests, anyway." Sirius scoffed.

Sirius showing them their grandfather's wand, stolen in his sleep. A phantom pain of the slicing curse her cousin unwittingly attacked her with burned through her abdomen, making her scar throb; Narcissa brought her hand to it in an unconscious gesture.

"Narcissa?" Hermione asked again, looking worried. "Are you alright?"

That summer, a whole eternity ago. Deep, childish boredom, sitting by a pond surrounded by enchanted magnolia with flowers that glittered like glass in the sunlight. Regulus and Sirius. The trails, the creek, the ruins.

The ruins.

"Narcissa?" Hermione tried one more time, her voice bordering on panicked.

"I know where there is an older edifice." Narcissa said in one confident burst of breath, grasping onto Hermione's arm. The brunette looked immeasurably confused, but there was the unmistakable glimmer of excitement in her brown eyes.

"Older than the mausoleum?" Hermione inquired, curiosity taking over. Narcissa let out a breathless laugh.

"I can't believe I had forgotten it" she said excitedly, pulling Hermione by the hand as she followed the Flickering Pixie to one of the many hunting trails in the property. She scrunched her nose as they wound through it, remembering the day when she had discovered exactly what those hunting trails were used for—she had tactfully chosen not to comment when she and Hermione had come across those particular family records.

"I have no idea how old it is" she continued, taking the same steps she had taken as a child like she had done so every single day of her life. It was as if she somehow could remember every branch in the way, every stone, every root sticking out of the muddy ground; it was all exactly as it had always been. "But I remember... I remember now, my grandfather telling stories about how he used to play at the ruins as a child."

"Ruins? What ruins?" Hermione followed willingly, but quirked a brow in question. Narcissa could only imagine how crazy she sounded and looked, so eager to trudge through this muddy trail after some glowing Doxie.

"I'm not sure what it was used for originally" Narcissa kept on, unbothered. "But I know it was one of the first edifices erected in the estate" that tid-bit caught Hermione's attention, and Narcissa squeezed the hand she held in triumph. She could remember it now, clear as day, as if the trail itself had triggered her memory. "It eventually became a servants' quarter, but it fell to ruin in the Middle Ages."

Hermione's eyes widened. "It fell to ruin in the Middle Ages?" she exclaimed in disbelief. "And we are following a Flickering Pixie there?"

"Uh-hum" Narcissa muttered, grinning.

"How did you just remember this now?"

Narcissa shrugged her shoulders. She really had no answer. "I have no idea," she confessed, laughing to herself. "Perhaps it was my previous traumatic experience."

"Traumatic?"

"Yes," the blonde confirmed with a resolute nod. "When we were children, my cousins and I took this very same trail following the creek" the sound of water became audible just as she recounted her memory, bubbling away by their side as she spoke, "up to the ruins. Sirius had stolen my grandfather's wand and..."

"Ah. You told me. Obscure slicing curse, huh?"

Narcissa nodded. "Precisely. We were only children."

"And the Flickering Pixies?"

Narcissa laughed. "They're just pests." She grinned. "But they nest near the ruins. That's how I remembered. Regulus just loved them to pieces."

Speaking of her younger cousin brought her considerable pain. To the bitter end, Regulus had been pure of heart; Narcissa firmly believed that. Had he been fortunate enough to have anyone other than Orion and Walburga for his parents, he would have most certainly followed Sirius to the Order of the Phoenix. Nothing would convince Narcissa otherwise. Regulus had always adored Sirius.

They kept following the Pixie down the trail until it met the little creek they had heard just a few minutes before. The trail ended in a sparse grove of trees, forming a little clearing right at the end of the trail. The Pixie that had guided them there hovered about in the air for a few moments before disappearing into the darkness completely.

"Looks like it's the end of the road." Narcissa vaguely heard Hermione comment, but she was too distracted squinting to try and make sense of the dark shapes and forms that hid away in the blackness of the trees. She felt Hermione rustle in her robes for her wand.

"No," she said, lowering Hermione's wand arm before the brunette could cast a Lumos. "Give them a minute."

That earned her another questioning look from the other witch, but thankfully Hermione dropped it, holding tightly onto Narcissa's arm in anticipation. A moment passed; long, stretched out over minutes of complete and utter silence. Narcissa grew impatient, but she dared not make a sound or move a muscle, and she could feel Hermione straining to do the same.

And then, suddenly, a glimmer, far deep into the grove. Then another, a few paces forward. Then another, a few feet to the right. Then another, and another, and another, and suddenly hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands of Flickering Pixies took flight, their wings beating rapidly in rhythmic golden flickers. They illuminated the grove with their rich, brilliant glow like thousands of floating candles.

Narcissa turned to Hermione only to see that the brunette was completely enthralled by the mass flight of the Pixies; their golden light reflected beautifully in the deep rich browns of her eyes. It was like the reflections of the pixies created vast universes, interminable and deep in Hermione's eyes.

"Merlin!" the brunette exclaimed happily as hundreds of pixies hovered all around them. Narcissa smiled at the Gryffindor's childlike wonder, but her gaze was averted when another mass of pixies took flight deeper into the grove, where the little creek went back into the thicket.

"Hermione," she called the young woman's attention. "Look."

Hermione turned to where Narcissa indicated, and her chin dropped at sizeable stone structure the newest flight of Flickering Pixies had just revealed. It stood as a shadow of what it had once been, overrun by vines and moss.

"Godric's girdles, is this... Is this it?" Hermione asked as she approached, letting go of Narcissa, eyes wide with wonder. She turned back to face Narcissa once more. "Is this really it."

"Yes" Narcissa breathed out, throat suddenly dry. Hermione's wild curls framed her fair face ethereally with the glow of the pixies that surrounded them; her darkened brown eyes were now flecked with the gold of their wings, and her smile... Merlin, her smile.

Narcissa swallowed dryly. She was doomed.

"Come on, then! Let's put this spell to good use!" Hermione called happily, entirely oblivious to the predicament Narcissa found herself in. All Narcissa could do was let herself be pulled by Hermione's eagerness; they climbed up age-old stones that had been cut to lay the foundation of the ruins when they were first built.

Hermione was in awe; her hand trailed the few vine-covered walls that still stood, some only halfway up or even less. The moss had grown onto the stone of the floor roughly following the pattern in which they had been cut, creating several different shapes that entwined themselves as the moss took over.

"The magic is different here," Hermione said, stepping carefully over a fallen column covered in fungi and more moss. "Can you feel it?"

"Yes," Narcissa answered, taking note of that fact. She had never noticed it as a child, but then again, there was no Wizarding child in the land that was in-tune with their own magical signature. It took practice to recognize its interaction with the other magic that surrounded them.

The magic in the ruins did indeed feel different. It felt heavier, somehow, like they had walked into a room with different pressure or atmosphere. It was as if the air that surrounded them was slightly heavier, like the magical signature found there enveloped their own with a heavy blanket.

"This has to be it" Hermione murmured, enthralled by the history and magic surrounding them. "It's got to be it."

Narcissa smiled. "Will you do the honours, then?"

Hermione's grin was blinding in the flickering lights. It was like Narcissa's heart physically expanded at the sight. The brunette took her wand out of its holster, taking a deep, concentrating breath.

"Refugium Reperio!"

The purple glow was instantaneous. Swirls of smoke burst from the wand's tip, creating intricate rune patterns in the air, ever-changing. The purple light intensified, and Hermione looked absolutely overcome with glee at the result. She pointed her wand to the moss-riddled stone beneath their feet, and the runes written in smoke seemed to solidify as she hovered her wand over certain spots. Hermione stepped closer to the centre of the ruins, and the glow intensified even further.

"This is it!" She exclaimed, eyes meeting Narcissa's. "This is it, I'm sure of it." Her gaze turned a little bit smug; it was happy, cocky, and so beautifully jovial. "Are you ready for some phenomenal magic?"

Narcissa laughed, then raised a brow in challenge. "You promise a lot to a witch, Ms. Granger." She joked, surprising herself with her own cheekiness. The startled yet happy look her response elicited in the brunette just made Narcissa flush.

"Well, lucky for you, Ms. Black," Hermione quipped back, drawling out Narcissa's name huskily. "I always deliver on my promises."

With that, Hermione raised her wand high into the air; her brows furrowed in deep concentration before she brought it back down in a swift move.

"Decerno!"

There was an immediate rumble; a thunderous boom coming from the earth beneath the ruins. It shook the few walls that still stood; the stone platform began to quake with the strength of the movement and sound. Flickering Pixies flew in a frenzy, startled by the sound and the trembling of the ruins.

"Hold on!" Hermione called, leaning onto a wall. Narcissa nearly stumbled, but managed to hold onto a leaning column before she fell to the ground with the force of the quake. Hermione still stood, holding her wand in a white-knuckled grip as a ring of stones in the earth began to push upwards through a thousand years-worth of moss and vegetation. From where she stood, Narcissa could see they formed various runes—they had found the origin point, and apparently generated an earthquake in the process.

Narcissa was terrified; never had she seen such a spell. She feared the ruins would come down upon them with the strength of the quake, but one look at Hermione eased her worry considerably. The brunette did not look afraid at all. There was no fear or even uncertainty in her courageous Gryffindor gaze. There was only sheer triumph.

The trembling stopped, and Narcissa felt it safe to let go of the column she held onto for dear life. Hermione looked at the ring of stones, breathless and victorious. She turned her gaze towards Narcissa, full of mirth.

"Now, for the best part."

Narcissa wanted to ask what in Merlin's name Hermione meant by that, but she did not have the opportunity. Hermione performed an intricate movement with her wand, whipping it through the air in sharp turns and graceful loops before bellowing out another spell towards the stone circle.

"Aperio!"

There was another rumble, much lower, this time, but still enough for Narcissa to feel the earth shake slightly beneath her feet. To her astonishment, the ancient rune circle before them began to float; the individual stones that marked each rune began to spin very slowly as they hovered in the air. Hermione aimed another concentrated movement of her wand towards the floating arrangement, and suddenly each rune began to spin on its own, creating a mind-boggling gyrating display.

From one of the individually spinning stones came a strong burst of light; it startled Narcissa enough to make her take a step backward. It was a very bright blue, maybe even teal colour. While it was light, it also seemed to be smoke as it rolled around the other stones before shooting up towards the sky like some kind of ghostly firework. Narcissa followed its trajectory up into the dark night sky, expecting it to disappear.

It didn't.

Instead, the ethereal projectile of light seemed to hit an invisible glass wall, thousands and thousands of feet above them. It hit that unseen barrier and instead of disintegrating or merely disappearing completely, it seemed to redistribute itself onto a non-existent pane of glass, covering it in light.

"What..." Narcissa began, but she was interrupted by another burst of light coming from another of the stones; it was bright lilac, this time, and soon the light shot into the air like the first, covering another area in the sky.

Before long the rest of the stones started shooting off light in the same fashion, in alternating colours and with different speeds, all tremendously fast and explosive, but always in the same patterns, creating shapes of ethereal bright smoke far above the Black estate. The shapes interlocked to one another like puzzle pieces—no, Narcissa wondered, like stained-glass, as if they were creating a massive dome that encompassed the entirety of the property.

Blues, purples, pinks gave way to deep reds and oranges and yellows. There was a burst of white, then an explosion of green, then a blast of teal, and so on and so forth, in a million dazzling colours like a firework display that now covered the night almost entirely, as far as the eye could see.

Narcissa had been too mesmerized by that impressive bit of magic to notice how Hermione laughed, exultant, victorious, and relieved all at once. Her laughter was free and infectious, and Narcissa found herself smiling despite her confusion.

"These are the wards!" Hermione bellowed happily over the considerable noise of the explosions and the continued rumbling of the earth, pointing up towards the hypnotizing display in the sky above them. "They're interacting with one another! We found them!"


Hermione couldn't remember a time when she had felt so desperately happy over anything. Perhaps her memory would serve her better some other time, but right then and there all she could process was the spectacular display of light that were the innumerable Black Family wards, finally exposed to her scrutiny. She had not considered the sheer quantity of wards all over the property—she knew there were many, but the overlapping shapes in the sky showed hundreds, perhaps even thousands more than she had anticipated.

It was absolutely mesmerizing; the sky was now so bright it was as if night had ceased to exist. The ruins, and indeed the entire estate, were now illuminated by multifaceted streams of colourful lights. There was smoke, there was light, there was the force of the explosions and there was wind, all creating one of the most extraordinary scenes Hermione had ever laid eyes upon.

And there was Narcissa, right in the middle of it. The wind had blown much of her hair out of its neat bun, eyes were wide as she looked up towards the sky that was now blanketed in colour and iridescent lights, mouth slightly parted in complete and utter awe. Hermione stopped looking at the display her spellcasting had produced and focused solely in how the multitude of lights reflected onto Narcissa's blue eyes as the other witch gaped in amazement.

Her heart seemed to constrict in her chest, needing to commit to memory how stunning Narcissa looked at that exact moment in time, basked in colour and light.

The explosions slowed after several moments, and shortly after stopped completely. The runes stopped spinning, and the circular arrangement they were in slowed to a gentle stop. Narcissa's chest heaved as she took deep, fortifying breaths, and Hermione was surprised to notice she was just as breathless. All the excitement and triumph of the moment washed over her, and she started laughing.

"You did it" she heard Narcissa breath out, completely bewildered, regarding her with awe as she stepped closer to where Hermione stood. "You did it."

Hermione could only nod, still laughing breathlessly. Narcissa was much closer now, breaking out into a huge grin.

"You did it!"

Before she could react, Hermione felt Narcissa's arms encircling here, and suddenly they were spinning in place, laughing at their triumph after so many months of painstaking work and numerous dead ends. Hermione was overtaken by the celebratory mood, and before she could think about what she was doing, Narcissa was in her arms, being lifted off the ground by the waist as they spun together.

"We did it!" Hermione laughed as Narcissa's arms came to rest upon her shoulders after a happy, giddy yelp of surprise. The blonde had cheerful tears in her eyes, and her smile was brighter than all the lights that now covered the sky. "You can open the Ward now." Hermione continued, a bit more sedately as she got lost in Narcissa's eyes, slowing their triumphant twirl to a stop.

"You're... you're absolutely extraordinary, Hermione Granger." Narcissa breathed out, grinning from ear to ear.

She had never seen Narcissa smile like this, she had never seen her cry of happiness like this; it was all more than a bit disarming. Hermione felt Narcissa's grip on her shoulders tighten only slightly, and the way the blonde nipped at her bottom lip made Hermione's brain go haywire.

If there was ever a moment, it would be this one, she thought in her euphoria, overwhelmed by the heat of Narcissa's body against her own, her touch on her shoulders, and her smouldering blue gaze meeting her own. She could scarcely help herself from leaning the few inches that separated them, but she held on tight, unwilling to break the moment with some impetuous, irrational Gryffindor action.

Therefore, it surprised her greatly when she felt Narcissa's hands move from her shoulders to her neck, tenderly caressing a path to her face. A bigger surprise was the Slytherin's sudden intake of breath, as if she had gathered her own courage to do the unthinkable, erasing the distance between them to capture Hermione's lips in a fierce kiss.