The Magic of Hogwarts
Summary: The summer after they graduate from college, Simon and Bram take on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Little does Simon know that their lives are about to change forever.
A/N: I tried to avoid and be as vague as possible with anything that could even remotely be a Leah on the Offbeat spoiler, but in case I missed some, there may be some spoilers.
"Bram! We're going to be late!" I yell. I look at my painted-on scar in the mirror and wish I had darker hair. Bram had been entirely adamant that we would not be wearing wigs tonight. I'm still a little confused and surprised by his vendetta against wigs, but he's been pretty great with feeding my inner nerd this whole trip, so I obliged and left the Harry and Draco wigs on the rack.
We've been in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for four days and Bram hasn't complained once as I've dragged him to every shop in Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. He'd tried some pretty nasty Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans with me, pretended to duel with me, and binged on assorted candy with me. He didn't even laugh at me when I was disappointed that they hadn't managed to find a way to make my chocolate frog jump away when I opened it. He actually took it, threw it in the air, and told me they only have one good jump in them. He's been absolutely amazing.
He even agreed to go to the birthday party. That's right. At midnight, it will officially be Harry Potter's birthday so the park is doing an after hours birthday party. Seriously. Not only are we in the most magical place on Earth - I don't care what people say about Disney, Harry Potter totally wins - we get to celebrate Harry's birthday with people just as obsessed… I mean passionate as I am.
"Since when are you on time for anything?" He calls back. He usually has a point, but not tonight. Tonight, I am ready to break my tardiness streak and be on time for Harry Potter's birthday! You don't show up late to Harry Potter's birthday. You just don't do it. Heck, if it was up to me, we never would have left the park, but Bram refused to walk around in thick robes all day. I guess I understand. It was disgustingly hot and humid today, but that's what we get for coming here at the end of July.
"Since we're about to live out Drarry! How many times does that get to happen?" I challenge. I have been dreaming about this exact moment since Bram's mom gave us the tickets as a graduation gift and I found out that we'd be here for the birthday party. It's one thing to read about Harry and Draco in fanfics. Tonight, I am Harry and he is Draco and we're going to be surrounded by hundreds of people that get it. I'm practically jumping up and down in anticipation. "Move it or Harry's flying solo tonight." There's no actual threat behind my words. I'm not leaving without him and he knows it
"How do I look?" He asks. He steps out of the bathroom.
"You look just like Draco Malfoy… if he were black and had dark hair." And it's kinda true. His Slytherin robes are perfect. He even splurged on a prefect badge and a 'Weasley is our king' badge. At the very least, he definitely looks like he belongs in Slytherin. "You know, I bet we have a few minutes to spare." Seeing him like this is like watching one of my fantasies come to life.
"Absolutely not. There will be plenty of time for that later," he assures me with a wink.
I can't help but smile. Bram has this mysterious side that I don't think I'll ever fully understand. And I definitely don't want to. Once I understand that part of him, I think some of the magic will be gone.
My excitement only grows as we get closer to the park. We arrive outside Hogwarts castle a minute before midnight. I stop in front and I am awestruck as I look at the castle. You think you get it, but you really don't until you see Hogwarts at night. "This is where the magic happens. I mean I know that hypothetically it happens in a fantasy world, but this is as close as we can get to the real thing," I tell him. My inner fanboy doesn't know what to do with himself. It really doesn't help that I'm surrounded by people that are equally excited to be outside Hogwarts.
"Simon?" Bram asks. He sounds nervous.
I turn and frown when I see him kneeling on the ground. "Are you okay? Did you fall?" I ask him uncertainly. He doesn't look like he's in pain. He just looks nervous. "Are you having a panic attack?"
He'd had a few of them after everything happened his sophomore year. His best friend, Chris, had hit on him and when he'd told him he had a boyfriend, namely me, Chris told everyone that Bram had tried to sleep with him. Bram's friends believed him and for a while, they all turned their back on him. It was just like juvenile high school drama; except I couldn't be there for him like I wanted to. It was a rough couple of weeks for him until his roommate started hanging out with him. To the best of my knowledge, he hasn't had a panic attackin over two years, so I'm not sure if that's what's actually happening.
"No, and I didn't fall… well I guess I fell in love with you, but that's a different kind of fall. Simon, I love you more than I thought it was possible to love someone. You're the Harry Potter to my Draco Malfoy. I want you to be the one that Slytherins my bed every night. I want you to be the one I make all my magic with for the rest of my life."
I look at him cluelessly until he gives me the look that makes me feel like he sees directly into my soul. He takes one of my hands and squeezes it. That's the exact moment that it dawns in me what he's doing and what the significance of him being down on one knee is. I bring my free hand to my mouth and I can't help the tears that spring into my eyes. There's no suppressing them. There are so many feelings rushing through me, I have no idea which one to focus on and they are all bubbling up in me, making it difficult for me to retain even the slightest semblance of composure.
"Simon, every day you make me feel like I've just learned that I'm a wizard. Because I know you, I know what it would feel like to catch the game-winning snitch, I've been Hagrid when his name was cleared, I've been Harry when he defeats that troll with Ron and Hermione, and I've been Neville when he earns the ten points that put Gryffindor in the lead for the house cup tournament."
We're starting to attract an audience. Someone must be recording this and once I find out who that person it, I will befriend them… or I'll steal their phone and make them send it to me. Either way, I will have my video. There's kind of a ripple effect as onlookers notify their friends and pretty soon everyone within a couple of feet of us is watching this unfold. It's so quiet that I'm pretty sure everyone in front of Hogwarts can hear Bram. "I have experienced unimaginable love and happiness by being with you. You are the only happy thought I need to make a Patronus powerful enough to drive away all the dementors. You are my partner in crime and my better half. If I had to choose someone to be at my side through a fight with an evil sorcerer or in a wizard's duel, it would be you. You are my Hermione when I'm freaking out and I need someone to be logical with me. You were my Ron Weasley when I need to remember that even though college separated us, you would always come back for me. You're my Severus Snape when I need to be reminded that someone will love me… always."
"Oh god," I say. That does it. The last bit of restraint I have in my body leaves me and I'm ugly crying now. He had to bring Snape into this. Bram's too perfect. I don't know what I did to deserve this moment; I don't know what I did to deserve him.
"You're my Albus Dumbledore when I need obscure pieces of wisdom, random memes to get through the day, or words of encouragement. You're even my Minerva McGonagall when I need to be knocked off my high horse and reminded that the world doesn't revolve around me. Sometimes Simon, you're even my Peeves. You were tragically left out of some of my most important college experiences these last four years, just like Peeves was tragically left out of the movies. But the way that you are most like Peeves is that when my Umbridge incarnate tried to get me down, you had my back unconditionally, even if he was trying to get me down at 4am."
I don't think I'll ever stop crying and it's all his fault. He must have spent forever coming up with what to say. I am so impressed with all the Harry Potter references he managed to slip in.
"Thanks to you, I know what true love is. My love for you is like a thestral. We can't always see it, but we can always feel that it's there. You are everything I want and everything I need. If I looked in the Mirror of Erised, it would show that my heart's desire is me and you together forever."
I let out a slightly choked sob. I can see from the smile on his face that he's running out of references. I try to calm myself, but I know I'm going to be a blubbering mess when he actually asks me.
"So, Simon. Will you be the Harry to my Draco for the rest of our lives and do me the honor of becoming my husband?"
"Yes! Yes, yes, yes! A thousand times yes!" I pull him to his feet and kiss him with every ounce of strength I have in my body. To be fair, I'm so overwhelmed by the perfection of his proposal, I don't have a lot of strength left in me.
When we break apart, I realize people are clapping all around us. "Tell me someone freaking got that on video," I say loudly.
There are a couple of nervous chuckles. "I did!" A girl that's dressed up like Hermione holds up her phone. She went all out and is even carrying a stuffed Crookshanks. "I started recording when I saw he was kneeling."
"Hermione, my BFF. I need a copy of that video." I'm still crying and I don't even care. I didn't know he could make me happier, but he proves me wrong every day. I'm so shook right now; I can't even form a coherent thought in my head. I hide my head in his shoulder for a minute. I feel like I need a nap or I need to scream... Or maybe I need to kiss him senseless. I have no idea. I can't even begin to figure it out.
"Was it too much?" Bram asks when I resurface.
"No. It was perfect. God, I can't stop crying. That was amazing. Never change. Ever," I say. My voice rises and falls in time with my sobs. I don't even care anymore. He just proposed to me. I get to cry.
"Garrett said it was too long, but he's not into Harry Potter and I couldn't decide on something to cut," Bram explains.
"Seriously. I would have been pissed if you cut out a single line." I dry my eyes on my robe. I've calmed down considerably, so at least it's not an ugly cry anymore. "Dammit. Why won't I stop crying?"
Bram wipes away one of my tears. "Because you're so happy to be in the middle of Harry Potter world," he tells me.
But that's not it. Not at all. "No, it's you. You make me so ridiculously happy. And now you're mine for the rest of our lives. I love you so much."
And I guess he really doesn't mind my crying, because he kisses me again. "I love you too. So much."
"Hermione," I call without looking away from his endless, brown eyes. "Hermione, my friend. I need that video ASAP." I try to unlock my phone so that I can give her my number and it takes me over a minute to realize that putting my number into my phone won't help us any. I let Bram take over and give her my number. When my phone buzzes, I have to resist the urge to immediately pull up the video and watch it a hundred times.
People around us start to disappear for the party, but I have some phone calls to make. Nick is my first call and he doesn't answer me, so I just scream when his voicemail comes up.
"He's going to think you've been kidnapped or something," Bram tells me. He's laughing silently at how much of a mess I am right now. But he knew I was a mess before he asked me to marry him. And now he's stuck with me, because we're ENGAGED.
"At least he'll call me back," I point out. My voice is cracking on every syllable and I wonder if I'm ever going to stop crying.
My mom is next. She answers on the first ring. Her voice is weirdly muffled as she says, "Simon what a surprise! We totally were not expecting you to call. You said you have news? I wonder what that could be?" I'd never heard my mom sound like this before. She kinda sounds like she's already crying. Bram must have told them what he was planning. I guess I am her first kid to get engaged. I thought for sure it was going to be Alice. We'd all been shocked when Theo accepted a job in San Diego, effectively putting an entire country between him and Alice a year after they graduated. According to Alice, the decision to end things had been mutual, but given how much she's been moping around the last year, I really doubt it. Plus, I've heard snippets of their conversations and it sounds like she offered to move with him and he said no. I feel bad for her, I really do. I really liked Theo. Of course, now I understand that he's a complete and utter asshole. I mean they were freaking living together. Who does that? I would kill Bram if he tried something like that.
"Smooth," my dad teases.
"I'm sending you a video. You have to watch it. Mom, it was more magical than Harry Potter." My breath catches in my throat just thinking about it.
"Did you, Simon Spier: Mr. You-Haven't-Read-Harry-Potter-So-We're-No-Longer-Related, just say that?" She asks shocked.
"It surprised me too. You'll understand when you watch the video," I promise her. "Call me back once you have."
Before I send it to her, I rewatch it myself. I can feel Bram leaning on me a little so he can watch it over my shoulder. Hermione apparently has the best phone in the world because not only can I see everything happening in perfect clarity, I can hear every word we say, even my dumbass 'did you fall?' question. It embarrasses me that I didn't catch on sooner. In the video, my surprise is almost comical as I realized what he is doing. As embarrassing as that it, I wouldn't change a thing.
I watch it with a goofy smile on my face and it takes every ounce of self-control for me to not to immediately rewatch it. Instead, I send it to my parents with a warning not to post it and wait for my mom to call me back. I plan on posting it eventually, but not until everyone in my contacts hears it from me.
It only takes a few minutes before she's calling me back. "I can't believe I'm going to be a mother-in-law. I'm too young to be someone's mother-in-law," she says.
"Mom, you're fif-"
"Simon Spier if you finish that sentence, so help me god, you will not live to see your 23rd birthday," she warns. She's been really touchy since she turned fifty in April. I think it's starting to dawn on her that she's not as young as she once was.
"Just saying. I think you're old enough to be Bram's mother-in-law. Plus, it will probably be at least a year before you'll get to call yourself that," I point out. I resist the urge to tell her that by then, she'll be fifty-one and should be more than ready to be a mother-in-law.
"When am I getting grandkids?" She asks. I almost wish she could see the look I'm currently directing towards my phone.
"So you're not ready to be a mother-in-law, but you're ready to be a grandma?" I ask skeptically.
"Not Grandma. I think I prefer Nana," she tells me.
"You've given this way too much thought. Besides, it's probably going to be at least three to four years before we'll adopt a kid," I warn her. I notice Bram staring at me, but I ignore him.
"Three to four years?" She cries with indignation. "Your clock is ticking."
"Considering adoption is our only option, no, our clock really isn't ticking. Plus, we're twenty-two. Let us be young and in love!"
"You've been young and in love for over five years," she grumbles. But she drops it. It's something Bram and I are in complete agreement about… well, mostly. I'm pretty sure Bram would have adopted a kid when we were seventeen if I would have agreed to it. He's usually pretty rational, but he has what I've started calling 'baby fever.' We had a pretty big fight about kids a few months ago, but in the end he agreed that we shouldn't adopt until both of us are ready. And I feel way too young to be a dad.
"Okay, I've got a bunch of people to call. I love you!"
"Love you too. Tell Bram we love him too!"
I hang up and turn to Bram. "My mom wants grandkids."
"Yeah, I saw that one coming," he shrugs. "Have you given any more thought to that?"
"Oh no you don't. Our agreement was that we wouldn't even talk about kids until we were 25," I remind him. "We wanted to get settled into our jobs, get a house, adopt a dog… where's my dog Bram?"
"Your dog is with my baby," Bram grumbles before he sighs. "I figured I would check to see if you were more ready now, but you're right. We did agree no babies before 25. But look at how cute Nick's daughter is. How do you not want one?"
"Because Hadley is the result of a one-night stand and a woman who wanted nothing to do with motherhood," I retort. Nick's not exactly the poster boy for having kids. Not that he's a bad dad or anything like that. Right before his senior year, a woman showed up with a two-week-old baby and told him she was his daughter. A DNA test confirmed as much and he's really done the best he can. He dropped down to a part-time student and his world completely revolves around his daughter. And Hadley is actually the cutest baby I've ever met. No offense to Bram's half-brother. He'd been adorable when he was a baby and looked just like a white version of Bram, but he had nothing on Hadley.
"Circumstances aside. She's clearly the best thing that's ever happened to him," Bram argues.
"We can't exactly make a baby the way Nick can and we've spent four years apart. I want to spend some time with you," I point out. "I want to travel and do all the things we won't be able to do once we have a kid. It's not like a toy that we can return. Once we adopt, our world is going to revolve around that kid. I want a little more time where my world revolves around you."
Bram smiles. "That doesn't sound so bad," he agrees.
"I know you want to be a dad. I do too. We're just still so young. And I just want to enjoy this part," I explain. "But I want to enjoy it with a dog," I hastily add.
Bram chuckles and a worried look crosses his face. "Do you feel ready?"
I frown. I'd been a mess after Bieber, so I understand his concern. I nod. "I miss Bieber like crazy, but yeah, I'm ready."
"How do you know?" He asks curiously. We'd talked about getting a dog in the abstract, but we hadn't broached the topic in a couple of months. I think he was afraid to bring it up after Bieber died. He probably didn't want to upset me.
"Because when I think of him now, I can remember how amazing he was rather than only focusing on how much I miss him," I explain. I don't know if I'm making the slightest bit of sense to him. "Having a dog is actually like having a best friend that thinks you're a god. We might not be ready to have a kid, but I think we're ready for a puppy."
"Then let's get a puppy. Give it until the end of the summer so we can have a little more of an income and we'll start looking," he promises. He's already a hotshot working for an accounting firm. He actually seems to love it and they're going to pay for him to get his masters, which is what attracted him to that firm. I, on the other hand, am going to be a guidance counselor - I know, I was surprised as well. But I don't start until mid-August, so right now only Bram has an actual income.
I grin. "You know, if you think about it, adopting a puppy is like adopting a baby."
He rolls his eyes. "Sure it is," he says sarcastically.
I turn back to my phone. I have no doubt that we'll revisit this conversation many, many times in the future. I call Leah and my smile only gets bigger when she answers. "Hey, everything okay?" She asks. It's just past one AM and it occurs to me that she may have been sleeping. She works some pretty absurd hours while she's saving up for grad school.
"You'll never guess who just got engaged," I say excitedly.
"If you say Nick proposed to HER, I'm going to punch something. That's the most dysfunctional relationship in existence." She says her like it's a curse.
"Give her some credit. She sometimes gives him a chance despite the baby drama. But nope," I draw out. "Nick did not propose to her."
"Wait, did SHE propose to Nick? Because that would be so like HER" I have to roll my eyes. Leah calls me oblivious all the time, but she can be pretty oblivious herself.
"No. To the best of my knowledge, Nick's not engaged."
"Then who?" She asks.
"I'll give you a hint. One of them is your best friend of all time and the other is dressed as Draco Malfoy," I tell her.
"Not fucking way. Did you propose or did Bram?" She asks. "Wait, don't tell me yet. She'll want to be awake for this. Hey. Hey! Wake up! God, will you wake up? Simon's engaged."
"Engaged?!" I hear in the background. I know I'm not on speaker, so she literally must have screamed that when Leah told her.
"Bram proposed. It was perfect. I can send you the video. It's actual magic Leah." I close my eyes. I'm pretty sure I could relive my proposal a million times and it would still excite me.
"I'm putting you on speaker. Tell me everything," she says.
"I just sent both of you the video."
God bless Leah, because she fangirls right alongside me as she plays the video. I talk to Leah for almost thirty minutes, but eventually she has to go to bed and I have other phone calls to make. Plus, Bram has to let people know I said yes.
To my surprise, he calls Garrett first. I guess I'm not one to judge, because I called Nick before my parents. He puts him on speakerphone. I realize I probably should have put my parents and Leah on speakerphone and I make a mental note to do that with my next phone calls. "What'd he say? How'd it go?" Garrett asks when he answers. He doesn't even say hello.
"He said yes," I respond. "And it was complete magic of course. Bram's proposal was perfect!"
"Hey Spier," Garrett says. "I'm so happy for you! You know, I've been sitting by my phone for over an hour waiting to hear about this." He tries to sound indignant, but I can hear him laughing.
"That's my fault. Sorry, not sorry. I had to call some people that didn't know we had the potential of getting engaged," I explain. With the exception of my parents, that's entirely true. "If it helps, you were Bram's very first phone call."
"As I should be. So, did you like it?" Garrett asks.
I look at Bram confused. "Did I like what?" I wonder.
"I didn't give it to him yet," Bram says.
"What are you waiting for? I thought the whole point of it was to give it to him when you proposed," Garrett points out.
I look from the phone to Bram and then back to the phone. "Will someone kindly explain what it going on?" I ask.
"Hold on," Bram says. He's reaching inside his robe into one of the many hidden pockets we'd discovered after we bought them. He pulls out a thin box and hands it to me.
I look at him curiously. "What's this?" I ask.
"If you'd open it, you'd probably figure that out," he says dryly.
I open it. There's a watch inside. I guess he wanted to get me something in place of a ring. "Thanks," I say quietly.
"God. Will you look at what's inscribed on it, please?" Bram asks.
I flip it over and it takes me a minute to figure out what it says. At first glance, it looks like "MARBLUE & JACQUESIMON." After a moment, I realize it says Blue & Jacques and from the 'B' in Blue Bram's name is written. Mine is written from the 'S' in Jacques. "7.31.2021" is inscribed at the bottom curve of the watch.
"I love it," I whisper.
"You better. He spent hours arguing with the guy at the store about how it needed to look," Garrett grumbled.
I chuckle along with Garrett, but I can't take my eyes off of Bram. He's beyond perfect. "We have to go," I say abruptly.
"Is making out really more important than talking to me?" Garrett asks, pretending to sound insulted.
"Yes," I answer bluntly. Bram rolls his eyes, but he doesn't chastise me, so I know he's feeling the same way I am.
"I'll talk to you tomorrow," Bram promises.
"You're just as bad as he is," Garrett complains. But he hangs up a minute later and Bram is given a split-second's notice before I'm kissing him again.
It dawns on me in that exact moment that we are actually going to be together for the rest of our lives. I'm going to get to see him when he's old and wrinkly. We're going to raise kids together and maybe even have grandkids one day. We're going to experience so many highs and so many lows, but we'll experience it all together.
I pull back at him and marvel at all that is going to come and everything that's going to happen between us. "What's that look?" He asks.
"Just thinking about our future," I answer honestly. "I just realized. We're going to grow old together. I mean, now we're twenty-two, but we have our whole lives ahead of us. We'll still be together when we're seventy and eighty. When we're old and wrinkly. When our kids are pulling shit that makes us want to rip our hair out. There are so many things we're gonna get to do together."
Bram smiles at me. "We're gonna adopt kids."
"And get a dog," I add.
"And make our house a home," he says. He has this dreamy look on his face. Considering the house we recently settled on is literally walls and carpet right now, we're both eager to make it a little more us.
"And love each other forever," I whisper.
He kisses me on the forehead and for a moment, we just bask in the feeling of being together.
My phone rings and I seriously consider waiting until the morning to talk to anyone else, but the moment is over and I reluctantly answer my phone. Remembering that Bram put Garrett on speakerphone, I do the same.
"Are you okay? What's wrong?" Nick asks frantically.
"Nothing's wrong," I assure him.
"Nothing's wrong? You screamed bloody murder into my phone!" Nick points out. "I just got Hadley to sleep. You almost woke her up!"
"How's my favorite niece?" I ask.
"I think she wants her uncle Simon to watch her for a couple of days," Nick grumbles.
"Bram and I would be down to babysit sometime," I tell him seriously. If anyone deserves a break, it's Nick. And maybe it will help Bram get babies off of his brain for a while. "We actually have something to tell you."
"What's up?" Nick asks curiously.
"Bram asked me to marry him tonight," I tell him. "We're getting married."
"Wow, that's great!" Nick says excitedly. "Your wedding is going to be so much fun!" I hear crying in the background. "Crap." Poor Nick, he sounds exhausted. Hadley is fourteen months old, but it's still kind of rare for her to sleep through the night. I don't know how typical that is, but Nick's talked about it with her doctor and they didn't seem concerned.
"Go," I tell him. "We really will come visit soon. Maybe you can get a full night's sleep."
"I had a dream last night that I slept four hours straight," Nick sighs. "It was such a great dream. Then Hadley woke me up and realized I may never sleep that long again."
"Hang in there," I say. Nick hangs up on me and I stare at the blank screen on my phone for a minute. I shoot Bram a pointed look. This is exactly what I meant. I want to enjoy a few more years with him before we have to sacrifice sleep and sanity.
Bram holds his hands up in a truce. He opens his phone. This is a lot more exhausting than I expected it to be. He calls his mom first. She sounds exhausting, so that phone call doesn't last long. Then he calls his dad who had apparently been waiting up with Bram's stepmom and half-brother. His half-brother is adorable when it is his turn to talk to us. "SiSi!" He says excitedly. "Bam?" No one really expected our nicknames to stick. When he'd first been learning to talk, be tried to man our names a little easier for him and even now that he's five, he never stopped calling us that. We confirmed that he knows what our actual names are, so neither of us really mind if he has nicknames for us.
"Hey, how's my favorite little man?" I ask.
"I lost my front tooth," he says excitedly.
"That's great! Did the tooth fairy come?" Bram asks.
"Yep. I got a... a..." There's a slight shuffling. "I got a quarter."
I have to hide my laughter. "You're practically rich. Don't spend it all in one place," Bram teases. "Hey, you know how much you love Simon, right?" There's no answer. "You love Simon, right?"
"You can't see him, but he's holding his arms out. We just read 'Guess How Much I Love You'," Bram's stepmom explains.
"Got it," Bram laughs. "So, how would you like Simon to be your big brother too?"
"Really?" his half-brother asks.
"Aw, he's crying," Bram's dad tells us.
"Why is he crying?" Bram asks concerned.
"SiSi, you're gonna be my big brother?" His half-brother confirms.
"Only if you want that," I say with a grin.
He's quiet for only a minute. I get the idea that he got distracted by something, because I hear Bram's stepmother redirect him towards our phone call. "Is Bam adopting you?"
I glance at Bram. Of all the things I'd thought we'd have to explain to his half-brother, gay marriage wasn't one of them. I'd have laughed, but I have no idea how to explain this to a five-year-old. "Not exactly," Bram says slowly. "You know how your mommy and daddy are married? Simon and I are going to do the same thing. We're going to get married."
"Oh. Okay," his half-brother says. He doesn't seem all that confused by Bram's explanation, which I take to be a good thing. "Mommy, can I have a cookie?"
"It's bedtime sweetie. We woke you up so Bram and Simon could tell you their news. And… he's off." We hear maniacal laughter in the background. "We've got to catch him and get him to bed before he tries to break into the cookie jar. Congratulations to you both! Love you!"
After his stepmom hangs up on us, he calls his old college roommate and some of his other friends from college. I call Nora and Alice and practically everyone that was in GSA with me when I was in college. I do not call my crazy old roommate and Bram doesn't call the asshole he was best friends with his freshman year.
I'm tempted to text Martin just to rub it in his face, but Bram talks me down from that. I don't think he ever forgave Martin for the thing he said at our high school graduation. Heck, I don't think he forgave him for the blackmail or for outing me either. Martin had so many strikes against him, but seemed oblivious to the fact that he was not Bram's favorite person. At our graduation, Martin told us that he thought we'd had a good run and that we should consider him our friend when long distance didn't work out for us. It wasn't even what he said that got to us, it was the matter-of-fact way that he talked about us breaking up. As if it were freaking inevitable. I actually had to pull Bram away. I could see that he'd been about to explode on Martin. Martin had a way of wheedling himself under Bram's normally calm demeanor. I think it has more to do with the fact that he pretends he did nothing wrong than with what he actually did. "Are you sure I can't call him?" I confirm.
Bram shakes his head as he makes his next phone call.
I sigh happily and lean against Bram when we've called and texted everyone that needs to know. "I can't believe this," I whisper. It still seems surreal to me. "I'm the luckiest guy in the world."
"I can think of someone that's luckier," he says softly. I roll my eyes at him. He has no idea how lucky I am to have him in my life. He extends his hand to me. "Come on. Let's go party harder than my mom since 2014."
I don't think either of us expected that to catch on, but our senior year of high school it was easily our most overused inside joke.
Around 3am, Bram and I excuse ourselves. Normally I would have wanted to stay all night, I mean I'm surrounded by actual Harry Potter nerds. I had a really animated conversation with someone about butterbeer. And I had a heated debate with someone over the whole Dumbledore and Snape storyline. Bram actually had to drag me away from them… and he's probably right. I probably wouldn't have left until the guy dressed like Dumbledore admitted that Snape was a good person. Even without the proposal, this would have been one of the most amazing nights of my life. More than one person told us they saw us get engaged and congratulated us. And Bram even pretended to act like Draco and shot banter back and forth with me just like Harry and Draco would.
So my night was unforgettable and I never want it to end. But at the same time, I can't wait to leave because I'm desperate to get Bram by himself. We need to properly celebrate our engagement.
I know I'm not the only one that feels this way, because he moans when we kiss while we're waiting for the train. It's his needy, 'I need more' moan. I love that moan more than I love music.
Finally the train comes and in a few short minutes, we're off and on our way to our hotel. "Is it me or is the hotel getting further away?" I ask after we've been walking for what feels like forever.
I feel completely exhausted, but inexplicably awake. The hotel is in sight and I'm not the only one that's picking up the pace. What happens when the door to our room closes behind us can only be described as pure magic.