A/N- Well maybe this story is going to get finished, four years late and a dollar short. Sorry this is coming so much later. Life happened?
In your sixth year Lexa becomes captain of the quidditch team and you along with the rest of the team wonder when she turned into such a dictator. But you've been dating steadily since halfway through last year, even spending most of the summer together at your house and then on holiday backpacking around England, so you try to be supportive even when she's barking at everyone in practice.
She chooses Ron as the new chaser and you know it has more to do with his last name than his flying talent but you don't call her out on it and you believe that he will get up to scratch in time. In his first practice you have to remind yourself repeatedly of your belief.
After one fumbled catch of his, he is so desperate to get rid of the quaffle, he throws it far harder than you had expected and the ball hits you square in the nose. It isn't broken (you'd learned what a broken nose feels like after the Ravenclaw match your third year) but it is bleeding like a faucet and Fred is handing you an orange candy and swearing it will help and Lexa is looking like she's going to implode at any moment as frustration and concern battle to be the dominant emotion on her features so you accept the candy and smile at you girlfriend because everything will be alright.
Everything, as it turns out, is not alright. Five minutes later the bleeding has worsened to the point you're feeling lightheaded and Raven says you've gone pale and Fred has got this guilty expression holding a purple chew in his hand and George is volunteering to take you to the hospital wing.
Lexa finally snaps and ends practice early. She helps you land and then she is giving your broom to Raven and telling you to get onto hers and your red practice robes are definitely Crimson by now because of the blood steadily leaking from your nose. You feel like a child again the way you're sitting in front of Lexa on her broom, her arms around you as she flies the both of you up from the quidditch pitch to the castle.
You try to insist that you're fine and that you can walk on your own but your words come out in a blurred haze and Lexa doesn't even dismount when she makes it to the castle rather she flies through the corridor up to the hospital wing. Somewhere in the back of your mind you know you should be chastising her because this is definitely against the rules and she's probably going to end up with detention but the portraits are yelling at her and the students below are bellowing and cheering and she barely makes it to the hospital wing before you pass out.
You wake up hours later sore and with a strange metallic taste in your mouth. For a moment you are disoriented until you see Lexa, still in her practice robes splotched with darker stains of your blood, she is sitting slumped in a chair beside your bed, her feet thrown up next to yours, her head leant back, she's dead asleep.
The scene is reminiscent of your third year when she would visit you in the hospital during your bouts of Measlemumps but so much has changed. She's not the small girl with thin shoulders anymore. She's grown tall and strong, her limbs are intruding on your space, her face has grown sharper over the years as she lost the last of her baby fat. There are purple circles beneath her eyes and you know that the stress of her new position and of her final year of school must be quite straining.
Madame Pomfrey breezes past and upon noticing you are awake stops with a gentle smile, "Feeling better dear?"
"Yeah."
"Those Weasleys sweets are just asking for trouble, good thing Ms. Woods got you here when she did, the amount of blood you'd lost it was a miracle you didn't faint sooner. Though I must say flying indoors is quite inadvisable." She trails off when her eyes sweep up and down the sleeping girl's form, her cross expression softens, "She refused to leave. Poor girl looks like she could use a rest."
You smile fondly at her, your stubborn as hell girlfriend.
Harry starts the defense club, and Lexa drags you along to join. At first you believe her when she tells you it's because you should all support your teammate in whatever endeavors they have. But then you see the way she watches you when you all meet with Dumbledore's Army.
The two of you always partner together for practice and she never goes easy on you. There is a moment of complete clarity where all joking disappears from her face and her eyes grow serious right before she tries to hex or disarm you and you try to block. In the beginning you are really rubbish at the whole thing and she has no problem sending your wand flying. But you learn and eventually you are evenly matched and can manage to disarm her if you really try.
Every time you do, she smiles like a weight is being lifted. You realize her reasons for dragging you to these meetings has nothing to do with supporting Harry and everything to do with preparing you. She wants you to know how to defend yourself and you know that Lexa isn't the best with words and she doesn't talk about her feelings but this is her way of showing her love.
You show yours in more obvious ways. Like how you smirk wickedly across the entryway outside the great hall at her when Umbridge has Filch post the newest educational decree that 'boys and girls are not permitted within twelve inches of each other'.
She is standing beside the Weasley twins and George frowns at the decree but then he catches sight of Lexa's quickly reddening face and he mutters, "Bloody unfair."
You show your love in the way that you corner her in her captain's office after a particularly hard practice trying to train all the new players who have to replace Harry, Fred, and George after Umbridge kicks them off the team. She is glaring at bits of parchment in a way that reminds you of Julia, the captain when you first joined and you wonder if the 'C' embroidered on her quidditch robes brings with it the weight that's bending Lexa's spine over her desk.
You shut the door behind you and drop the shades over the window, ignoring the knowing grin Raven sends you and the questioning looks from Ron and Ginny. Lexa peeks up to see you leaning against the door, "Sorry babe, I've just got to go over some formations for the game next week and then I'll be ready to go."
You smile because pet names are something so very her, "it's ok."
You strut the two steps across the small office to her desk and swivel her chair around. The old springs creak in protest and she has a question already forming on her lips but you ignore it and climb on straddling her lap, "Maybe I could give you a hand."
Her smile is amused, "Maybe, but the papers are behind you."
"Oh yeah."
You do not help her with the formations for the next game, but you do give her a hand.
She finishes her final year at Hogwarts and you go on holiday together. You try very hard to pretend. You pretend that the wizarding world is not on the brink of a war, you pretend that you will not spend the next year at Hogwarts constantly afraid for her safety, you pretend that everything will be alright.
She does too.