A/N: Another fluffy chapter, yay!
I honestly wanted to do the first and second chapters as a single chapter initially, but I ended up writing them in both perspectives, so decided to split them up into two. I posted both chapters together because I think they play off each other really well.
There's a slight worry that I might have made them a bit insufferable, but I tried to make them as 'normal' as possible. I hope I succeeded - they're still teenagers, so that can explain away the theatrics, I suppose :D
-xxxx-
She wasn't sure when she'd started to fall for the most excitable boy in the entire school, but she had an inkling it had been brewing in the background for years.
She had always been a bit of a lonely child, growing up – living on the outskirts of a small Muggle village that seemed to be comprised almost solely of retirees, with a busy mid-level Ministry bureaucrat for a father who loved her but seemed a little distant all the same. She supposed it was because she was the spitting image of her mother, a spitfire of a Muggle who had died bringing her into the world. She often wondered if things would've been different if her mother had survived, if her father would have worked lesser hours, and have had fewer lines in the corner of his weary brown eyes. Given that her closest companion in her formative years had been herself, there was perhaps no surprise that Demelza craved noise and chatter and excitement. Maybe that was what drew her to flying and to Quidditch – the adrenaline rush. Maybe that was also what drew her to Colin.
But yes, she hadn't had any friends growing up, really, it had always been the two of them, her father and her… and also Heather, she supposed. Heather was the quiet lynchpin, a friend-cum-part-time-housekeeper that had held the family together ever since Demelza could remember. She had taught Demelza reading and writing and arithmetic, and had kept the house in functioning order, and endured Demelza's constant complaining that it wasn't fair that she had to wait a whole entire year to go to Hogwarts just because she was born four days past an arbitrary cut-off, and never stopped her from exploring the woods or flying in the backyard for hours on end. Small wonder that once Demelza had gone off to Hogwarts her father and Heather had gotten married.
-xxxx-
She had liked Colin from the moment she met him, his enthusiasm was infectious, and it soothed her in a way no one, including her, could understand. She liked how he was so confident and sure of himself no matter what anyone said, and how he was loyal to a fault to things that mattered. He marched to the beat of his own drum and she liked that. Ginny was a good friend, and she got along very well with all her classmates too, but Colin was different and always had been. Colin was hers. She just knew him, and he knew her. Colin was the only one who knew about her complicated relationship with her father and Heather and how sometimes Demelza felt a bit jealous that when her father looked at Heather he saw just Heather, something he couldn't do with Demelza without seeing her mother; and how she had been so lonely growing up, how flying had always felt like an escape from her humdrum circumstances, how she envied Colin's relationship with Dennis because she knew she could never have that with her new baby half-brother Paul, how she hated that her birthday always got overlooked in the general rush of settling into the new school year every September, how she hated the words 'I love you' because with her father that had always felt less like affection and more like obligation. He'd never looked at her differently, never judged her for the things that came out of her mouth. He invited her to spend time with Dennis and him instead, and got her Ice Mice and Fizzing Whizzbees the whole year he got to go to Hogsmeade before she could without her even asking him once, always surprised her with a Chocolate Frog or a present in the Common Room every year on her birthday, promised her he'd never, ever say 'I love you' to her, not even as a joke or a throwaway; and once she had her broom at Hogwarts he would sit on the pitch and give her company while she flew so she could share that feeling of freedom with him, over and over.
He was warmth, every last square inch of him, and she revelled in it.
She didn't have dreams about Colin or swoon over him the way nearly every girl with a pulse – including her, if she was honest - did over Oliver Wood or any of the other cute senior boys, even though Ginny had asked her, once or twice, what was up with the two of them. She laughed over his typical boyish cluelessness about Andrea Barnes with Ginny; and went to Hogsmeade with Andrew because he had a nice smile and she felt it would be fun to kiss it, and indulgently listened to Colin's lightning fast incoherent rambling over Anthony's soft lips without nary a twinge. She liked how he spoke when he was excited, tripping over his words because his mouth couldn't keep up with his thoughts. He wasn't just a boy, he wasn't just a friend, he was Colin, and that's how she liked it.
-xxxx-
And then Colin began to pull away from her, and her stomach dropped through her legs, and she realised that she was in the middle of a full-blown crush before she'd even spotted the beginning. But this was different, somehow, because, well, he wasn't just a boy and he wasn't just a friend, he was Colin. This ignoring business wouldn't last, she knew, eventually he would crumble and wouldn't stay away for long – and if he wouldn't come to her, she would go to him. So she let him take pictures of her next to the lake, and they spent an evening together in silence, and that was all it took for her to know, to know almost before Colin himself knew. She broke up with Andrew Kirke, and, sensing that she would need to give Col some time to catch up, settled down to wait with a patience she herself didn't know she possessed. Besides, her composure was visibly driving him nuts, and Demelza was honest enough to admit that a wicked little part of her enjoyed watching his Adam's apple bob and his voice crack and his words get even more rushed around her.
When it finally happened, it was almost anticlimactic, and true to form for Col, a camera was involved. She was very good and patient all the way until he actually asked, she mused, but also, she was a Gryffindor. A slow smile spread across her face as she remembered how his breath whooshed out of him when she pinned him to the couch and kissed him with every ounce of the pent up attraction that had been building over… oh, the last couple years, if she was honest.
After what felt simultaneously like an eternity and no time at all, they broke apart. Col looked electrified, his blonde curls standing on end from his flushed face, but his voice was steady when he asked, "how long?"
"Honestly? I have no idea. I think I was halfway gone before I even realised I liked you like that, Col. So I'd love to be cheesy and say 'from the moment I met you' but we both know that's not entirely true or I'd have hexed Andrea Barnes or Anthony Goldstein for getting there first. But at the same time… you've always been mine – in a non-creepy, non-possessive, non-crazy stalker way, of course." Her voice always did get dryer the more het up she got, and a rare bout of verbal diarrhoea was definitely making an appearance. Why on Earth was she nervous now, when she'd been cool and collected the entire time Colin had been a bumbling mess?
Colin laughed. "You can always stalk me, Dee," he teased, pulling her closer when she flushed and turned away from him. "I like seeing you flustered over me. Real boost to a bloke's ego, especially one who's been a moron when you've been around this whole year. Besides," he pressed a quick kiss to her cheek and continued, voice softening, "I think you've been mine since I met you, too."
-xxxx-
Being Colin's girlfriend was kind of the same as being his best friend, really. Ginny gave her an appraising look when she finally made it down to breakfast the next day, and told her she expected every last detail at night, but she then just grinned and wished them the best of luck before changing the topic to Quidditch practice, Umbridge, and how Michael was beginning to get on her nerves. Demelza wasn't entirely fooled, Colin's ears were still red and she knew they usually hung out for an hour in the mornings before she herself made it down, and Ginny could be utterly merciless. An hour would be enough to decimate even the usually irrepressible Colin. As for the rest of their House, the ones who knew them thought they'd been dating for ages already. Andrew had nodded and given them a thumbs up when he spotted them at breakfast that first day, which was something she knew Colin had been a bit nervous over, but it seemed that there was very little drama attached to this relationship all around. Most un-teenager-like of them, she thought, wryly. They did however make sure to take Dennis aside to break the news, and he went on to try and crush both of them around the ribcage in his excitement, chattering full tilt all the while. They still spent most of their time together, sometimes with Ginny and more often with Dennis, still went flying in the evenings and taking pictures in the sunlight, and it seemed like very little had changed.
What had changed were the addition of snogging sessions, either on the couch in the Common Room when most people had gone to bed, or lakeside under a tree on the weekends once the weather warmed up some, or the occasional broom cupboard or hidden corridor. Colin seemed to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the layout of the school, after all his exploring for hidden photography treasures. Or, well, encyclopaedic compared to hers, and they never really got spotted so that was good enough for her. He was as eager and enthusiastic about snogging as he was about literally everything else, and they'd definitely clanked their teeth together more than a couple of times in the beginning, but it also felt so utterly right to just laugh and move back in for another try. Besides, Colin was a quick learner, and kissing him definitely made her belly twinge in interesting ways, especially when he got bolder as time went on and let his explorations move to her cheek and ear and neck and jaw. She flushed as she remembered the time they got caught by Hermione Granger on patrol – losing ten points was bad enough, but the lecture about unseemly behaviour was worse, as was the reminder that the Inquisitorial Squad was on the prowl, and they really didn't want more detention with Umbridge… to which they wholeheartedly agreed. Their hands definitely couldn't take it.
The end of the year loomed nearer, and Demelza felt a sudden, unaccountable loneliness. She didn't want to be away from Colin over the whole summer again, back to a home where she didn't quite fit, not when there was so much more that bore exploring between them. She was sitting with him and Dennis at the side of the Lake the weekend after exams were over, idly tossing bits of bread to the Giant Squid, when she felt her eyes well up all of a sudden listening to both boys, with their identically clear and quick voices (Dennis perhaps still a touch squeakier than his older brother) chattering about home and the summer ahead. She looked out over to the Lake to control her reaction, but she felt Colin, who had grown silent the second she turned her head, look at her. "Give us a mo', will you Dennis?" he said, and Dennis, still oblivious, got to his feet, going, "ah I'm being a bit of a gooseberry am I? I'll leave you two to talk, or snog, or whatever it is you two do," as he winked at Colin and ran after some of his other friends.
"What's wrong, Dee?" he asked gently, rubbing her knuckles, "Summer plans got you down?"
"I just… I don't want to go home, and what kind of a terrible person does that make me? I do miss my dad and Heather and Paul, but I just… square peg, round hole, and I don't want to be uncomfortable all summer, you know?"
"I'll miss you too, and maybe… if your dad comes to pick you up from the station, let's ask him if you can come stay with us for a bit? If you want to, of course. My mum would love it if you finally came over. Of course, we'd have to figure out how you'd get there – maybe there's a public Floo somewhere nearby, or we can set up a connection for a day or two so you can get back and forth, I think the train would be too far… I can bunk in with Dennis, so you'll have your own room. And maybe we can travel around a bit, almost fifteen the two of us, I'm sure my parents will let us and what your dad doesn't know won't hurt him. What say?" he nudged her hip with his.
She kissed him in response. There were no words, really.
That summer was the best of her life, despite the fact that she couldn't fly past the first month of it. She spent the first month of her holiday maniacally working on her homework and practicing her Chaser skills (hopeful of getting on the team, finally) and helping Heather out with the baby, with every spare moment going into phone calls with Colin (thank Merlin for the relatively Muggle friendly dwellings they both lived in) and counting down the days till they could be together.
She'd met Mrs. Creevey ('call me Margaret, lovey, Mrs. Creevey's my mother-in-law') before of course, but she spent a lot more time with the tiny blonde woman over the summer, and took to her instantly. She was warm and motherly and chattery, so exactly like Colin but also such a mum, packing them picnics and cooking Sunday roasts for the family, and her easy acceptance, very much like her sons, was what Demelza needed. Mr. Creevey ('it's William, or Will's fine too') was a bit quieter than the rest of his boisterous family, but his eyes were warm and crinkly and he often played chess with her in the evenings and gave her tips on how to beat Colin hollow (not that Demelza needed the help, especially against such an atrocious player, but Colin's increasingly dramatic cries along the lines of "My dad and my girlfriend ganging up on me! How will I ever survive! The betrayal! The agony!" made for some highly entertaining evenings).
They went for picnics, sometimes the two of them, sometimes with Dennis, occasionally with some of Dennis' childhood mates, very occasionally with some of Colin's (the few he had remained in contact with), who ribbed him about landing himself a way prettier girl than they ever expected he would. They went cycling around the countryside as fast as their legs could take them so Demelza could get as close as possible to flying again, occasionally went into town to buy ice cream and got increasingly more adventurous with their flavour combinations, and took nearly three albums worth of pictures in a week alone – pictures of the two of them, taken by Dennis, pictures of Demelza, taken by Colin in all kinds of places and lights and compositions, and even some of Colin, taken under his expert tutelage by his laughing girlfriend who insisted that being a model was very hard work and he could bloody well do it, for a change.
But the best part, the very best part, was when everyone would turn in for the night and switch off the lights, and Demelza would slide between the covers of Colin's bed, I'm in Colin's bed, and he's just across the hall, and watch the moonlight play across the ceiling as her heart gave a little thrill, and then the door would open and with a whispered "alright, Dee?" in would sneak her adorable boyfriend to wrap her up in his thin arms under the blankets, and they would lie there for hours and talk, and sometimes not talk, and sometimes more than talk, and then sleep, just a little, until around four in the morning when the little alarm clock would go off and Col would sneak back to his cot in Dennis' room before his dad got up to do his deliveries. He'd kiss her, lightly, every morning without fail, and she'd mumble something about coming back to bed, and he'd laugh and kiss her again, and she'd watch, sleepily, as he snuck back out to where he came from, always with a little wave at the door, and then she'd snuggle into bed again and let her thoughts and memories and the smell of him lull her back to sleep for a few more hours.
They spoke about You-Know-Who, and how Harry and the DA were finally vindicated after all, and wondered if Ginny had recovered after her adventure at the Department of Mysteries – Ginny rarely wrote much in the summer, whatever letters they'd exchanged had talked determinedly of other things, like Dean Thomas, and she'd been close mouthed before they'd all parted, too. Thinking of Ginny also meant addressing out loud that they'd drifted away from her, and for Demelza to admit that she felt like the only person she had in her life really was him, and maybe Dennis, and how sad was that, really? (He hugged her even closer after that, and made to say something, but decided against it). They talked about how they wanted their lives to look after Hogwarts – the world famous photographer and Quidditch player couple! Though more realistically they figured they'd move in together in a too-tiny bedsit in London, barely paying the bills between them with her Magical Games and Sports Ministry job and his Prophet photographer gig, before having had enough and moving somewhere a bit less urban and a bit more spacious and cheaper. They'd get married at some point – probably in the little church in the town and have their reception catered by the ice cream place and adopt two cats and travel the world (before adopting the cats). They'd have two kids, and they'd be Gryffindors, and best friends, like how Colin and Dennis were. They'd make a list of adventures and experiences they wanted to try, and cross them off, one by one…
It was on one of those nights, lying with her head on his bare chest and tracing patterns on his pale skin while he played with her wild hair and kept up a steady stream of word vomit that was so quintessentially Colin, that she couldn't keep it in anymore, and looked up at him, her heart full to bursting, and cut him off midsentence. "Col?"
"Yes, Dee?"
"I just… I need you to know, this has been the best summer of my life."
"Mine too, sweetheart. Having you here, having you home – the worst bits of summer have always been having to choose, you know? Choosing between my Muggle and magical lives… but with you here, it's made me realise: you encapsulate magical life for me, and while I do wish we could do magic right now - silencing charm for example so we didn't have to whisper – this is perfect, the way it is. It's a cliché to say it, but you bring magic wherever you go, Dee."
"I'm in love with you, Col." The words slipped out her mouth before she even knew what she was saying, and she felt her heart clench and her limbs stiffen. The air had shifted, and she knew without looking at him that he was looking at her, carefully, and a little surprised. "I love you because with you it's never obligation… it never could be, I know that." The silence went on, not uncomfortable, more anticipatory. She glanced towards him, to see a small smile on his lips. "Also, you can talk now. I'm done."
"You know, when I was growing up, mum used to show us these movies where the hero eventually got the girl and it was always dramatic and butterflies and violins and the girl always sat around and waited on the bloke and it always seemed… kind of silly to me. And then when I kissed you for the first time it started to make sense. But you're not a princess in an ivory tower, you're your own person. You're incredibly smart, and you could probably wallop my arse without trying, and you're amazingly strong, and I know what it must've taken for you to fight yet another battle and you've done it on your own, Dee. It's weird, but – you were Demmy back when I didn't have a clue about how I felt about you, and then you've been Dee ever since I've had the stones to accept the fact that I'd had a crush on you, and now that I finally, finally get to tell you I love you, I want another name to mark the moment – just for the two of us, just when we're alone… I'm in love with you Dee, Demmy, Demelza, Elsa. I kind of like Elsa, actually. Sounds a little wild, like a nymph. And it does sort of conjure up this image of a Scandinavian fairy, all blonde and blue-eyed, but that's even better, because it's unexpected, like you. Does that work? Can I call you Elsa? I won't do it around other people, but just in moments like this one?"
And, nodding, she burst out laughing at how characteristically Colin that response had been. Only Colin would jump six topics in five seconds to tell her he loved her.
-xxxx-
The next year back was OWL year for Colin, and the first year on the Quidditch team for Demelza, and time was a precious commodity running low. Colin had never been particularly academically oriented, perfectly content with straight As (and a couple Es), but he felt that he probably needed to put in a bit more effort this year. Demelza, on the other hand, approached Quidditch with fanatical enthusiasm, and as much as he would've liked to sit in the stands and watch her practice, he figured using those evenings to knock out as much work as possible was probably the smarter move. He worked industriously all throughout her practices, usually meeting her at the door when practice was done to walk back up to the Common Room with her (with occasional detours in hidden passages and broom cupboards along the way), and in a parody of the summer they would go upstairs with the rest of the students but sneak back down in the middle of the night to spend some time near the fireplace for a couple of hours, before going back up to sleep.
But she really, really wanted to sleep with him again, and do more than just sleep too, though it wasn't until nearly a year into their relationship the idea of where to go struck her and she felt incredibly silly. The room with the DA meetings – all they had to do was pick a time when no one was likely to be using it and they could probably squeeze out at least a night or two (she really wished it had struck her earlier instead of close to Christmas break, but oh well, at least it would be a nice holiday for both of them, since they hadn't been able to go off for so much as a day trip over the summer. Apparently fifteen wasn't old enough for even the incredibly permissive Creeveys). Ginny had elected to spend Christmas at home this year, and Dennis was going back for Christmas the way both boys usually did, though this year Colin had told his parents he'd planned to stay back to study. They were finally alone.
So Demelza waited for the first day of the holidays to come, and as Colin came down the stairs to meet her in the Common Room so they could breakfast together, she surprised him with a note tied to a rose (that was one of the things she liked about him – he wasn't ashamed of enjoying typically 'feminine' things, like flowers, and he'd told her over the summer that roses were his favourite) telling him that was one of his Christmas gifts that year. He kissed her thank you and tucked the flower behind her ear so he could "look at two pretty things at once" – she forgave him the cheesy line on account of it being the holidays – before opening the note, which just said '8pm, Common Room, xx Happy Christmas Col'. He asked her all day what she meant, but she refused to spill, telling him to make sure to get a head start on homework and exam prep while she went for an evening fly.
At 8pm Demelza was holding a little conjured basket full of food and standing by the fireplace in the empty Common Room, the few students staying behind having gone down for dinner already, when she saw him come down from his room. They'd both dressed in ugly Christmas sweaters, and she'd procured an antler headband for her hair. He came up to her, beaming, "oh my God, Dee, this is amazing! Where did you get the food? I love the idea of a picnic by the fire, by the way!"
"I got the food from the Great Hall and Professor McGonagall asked me what on Earth I was doing so I told her you were studying up here and I wanted to eat with you and give you company – she must've been hitting the eggnog because she smiled and showed me how to conjure the basket, even gave me five points for conjuring the basket correctly – but that's just in case she asks you if you enjoyed the picnic tomorrow over dinner, they're doing this 'one big table for everyone staying back' thing so there's no real sneaking out possible. We're not staying here, though. Just come quickly before someone gets back." And she yanked him out of the Common Room – shoving the basket in his hands and motioning for him to simultaneously shush and hurry up.
"Where are we going?" he asked, struggling to keep up, but fell silent, bemusedly, when she glared at him and pulled his hand to make him move faster. It's when they got up to the seventh floor that it all clicked for Colin and his mouth fell open in amazement as he looked at her. "Are you serious?" he exclaimed, laughing in disbelief and a not a little joy. She grinned and paced the patch of corridor opposite the painting with the trolls, up and down, before taking his hand and pushing the door open-
And stepping inside Colin's bedroom, shutting the door behind them. The door obligingly locked itself in response to a thought in her head.
"Happy Christmas, Col. When I first thought about it, I thought we could do the grounds, or somewhere outdoors, like a nice field or something… but when it comes down to it, this is the room I was in when I finally found the courage to tell you I loved you, when our relationship got to that step that I never thought I would ever be able to reach, and I never could've, without you. This room has held some of the happiest moments of my life so far. And tonight… if you want… I want to go to the next step after that, with you, here. I want everything with you… you're everything to me, Colin, as unbearably cheesy as it sounds. Besides, I spent ninety percent of my time in this room this summer hopelessly turned on, and I think I just associate this room with arousal now." She finished dryly, winking at him.
Colin's ocean-blue eyes were shimmering more than usual as he looked at her, smiling, voice catching in his throat. "I am so unbelievably in love with you, Elsa… and I can't wait to show you how much." He set the basket on the floor and in one fluid move picked her up, bridal style (who knew Colin could be that strong? And that charming? Not her, that's for sure) to carry her to the bed and climb in after her.
"I love you, I love you, I love you…" trailing kisses down her throat, one thing leading to another until he finally pulled back, slightly, to look her in the eye, "Elsa – are you sure?"
She pulled him back down to her. "I'm sure."
They didn't get to the food until much later that night.
They made use of the DA meeting room most days that break, turning it into different scenes from different places, but Colin's room remained Demelza's favourite. One of the nights that they were lying there, mirror images from the summer, with his hands stroking her hair as usual, Colin let out a sudden laugh. "Going back home this summer without you is going to be hell – I don't think I can be in this room ever again without popping a stiffy, immediately." She turned and looked at him with a devious smile, "Maybe I can visit again…?" They grinned at each other and again, they were kissing, and then they broke apart and Demelza slowly drifted off to sleep while he spoke to her about everything and nothing. Colin looked at her, lying half on him, on her side with her legs folded slightly beneath her, a shaft of moonlight falling directly on her milky skin and her cupid's bow of a mouth, while her wild hair was strewn all over him like tendrils of the night sky, and he had never seen anything more beautiful.
-xxxx-
The break ended, and real life came crashing back in, but it was all still wonderful even if not as idyllic as they'd experienced over Christmas break. Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup after Demelza played the best game of her life, scoring ten goals, and Colin screamed himself hoarse cheering over both her and Ginny with the game-winning catch. They saw Ginny and Harry kiss at the celebration and laughed over how tenacious Ginny Weasley had won over her childhood crush after all. They worked out a study schedule that rewarded each of them with kisses for getting work done and then reworked the schedule after they realised they were spending more time kissing and less time studying. It was, on balance, a pretty perfect year…
And then Dumbledore died, and everything went to shit.