Ch. 8 Charmed, I'm Sure

I own River. I own the plot. The rest is JKR's.

One Week Later, River's Birthday

My first week of being friends with Draco Malfoy had been admittedly difficult. We fought, often. He slipped and called me mudblood, often. And, after Ron apologized, he slipped and called Ron and Ginny blood traitors, often. And I forgave him, over and over again. But he was stretching my patience to its absolute limit. He didn't get along with Harry, Ron, Hermione, Terry or Ginny, which was completely predictable. I wasn't asking them to get along. In fact, the only people I was even asking to tolerate Draco's presence were Ginny and Terry, and them only occasionally. Terry was having the roughest go of it and I hated hurting him. But I also knew that it would hurt him if I pulled away and cut him completely out of that part of my life. It was simply a matter of which would hurt more as well as being a matter of my own selfishness.

Today would honestly be the final test. It was my birthday. It was also my sister, the late Brooke Anne Trife's birthday. This was always one of the hardest days of the year for me. Every second there was another reminder that my twin was dead and I had to live the rest of my life without her, one half of something that had once been whole. I would already be at my wit's end and if he pushed me even a little bit too hard, I would completely fall to pieces and it would be the last straw. If I could deal with him on today, I could deal with him any day.

And the day was off to a genuinely fantastic start. I had awakened at my usual time to find a pretty, large pile of wrapped presents on my bedside table. The first was from my parents and had a short note attached to it

River, the presents from the rest of the family are waiting for you at home. Have a very happy seventeenth birthday. We love you so much. Love, Mom and Dad.

It was an impersonal note, but a note that tried very hard not to be. Inside the package was a car key (I jumped up and squealed when the familiar silver objects fell into my hand. I had been working towards getting my license during all the holidays and had been begging for a car. When I went home, I would see it. Underneath the key was a new pair of pointe shoes, like my parents had gotten me every year for my birthday since I was about five. These were the nicest pair yet, and I smiled as I ran my hand over the stiff but soft fabric of the pale, pale blue shoes.

From Terry I had received a large book on the history of magical education in Europe (which I was actually very excited to get) and a new charm for my charm bracelet, just like he'd gotten me for the past six years. He'd gotten me a book charm, and a charm with a fox on it (my patronus) a charm with an eagle on it (for Ravenclaw), etc, etc. But this charm was a cool blue sapphire set in bronze.

Every other charm has represented you. This one represents me. I love you. –TB

I smiled. From Ginny, I received the usual charm as well. Hers was a bold ruby set in gold. Immediately, I began worrying about the price, but her note explained that the twins had pitched in to buy it. From the afore mentioned twins I received a huge bundle of the latest Weasley products, which my roommates exclaimed over as they turned them in their hands. Hermione had given me a book entitled Athletes of Ravenclaw: How Bookworms Break Records which was an account of many Ravenclaws who'd gone on to play professional Quidditch. From Ron, I received a new Keeper's helmet, from Harry, dragon hide keeper's gloves. From Mike, a broomstick servicing kit. Anthony got me a whole set of luxury quills, eagle feather, peacock feather, feathers from birds I'd never even heard of, but my favorite was the blue jay feather quill. Ginny's parents had sent a variety of cakes and a beautifully framed picture of Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and I. We were all in Quidditch robes, except Hermione, who was dressed in red and gold with a radiant smile on her face. Ginny's hair was a mess. Harry was clutching the snitch. There was a smear of mud across my cheek and Ron was looking shocked. We were all laughing, and, as I watched, Harry accidentally let go of the Snitch and I grabbed it, to much applause from Harry. I smiled as I ran my hand over the image, remembering the moment.

My room mates, Padma Patil, Su Li, and Mandy Brocklehurst (as well as Luna and my Quidditch captain, Cho Chang) had chipped in to buy me a new pair of dress robes. They were gorgeous, deep green, cut in a slightly masculine way around the shoulders, then draping very femininely down my body. I ran the buttery fabric through my hands, then warmly embraced them all in turn.

"Thank you guys so much. These are absolutely beautiful."

"You're welcome, River," Padma grinned as I embraced her. Then I went back into the curtained area around my bed to change into my uniform (gray skirt, black loafers, white button up shirt, blue and bronze tie, v-neck sweater, blue trimmed robes) just like I did every morning. I trotted down the stairs into the common room. Terry Boot was standing at the bottom of them, his hands buried in the pockets of his black slacks, his chin length blonde hair falling to just barely cover his bowed head. He looked up as he heard my footsteps , a large smile split his face and he opened his arms. I embraced him tightly.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Terry. They're absolutely fanstastic."

"Let's see the bracelet, then," I held it up, all twelve charms from Terry and Ginny clanking together, as well as The B charm, the R charm and the music note that the bracelet had started out with. He grasped the newest charm between two fingers.

"It looks lovely," He smiled contentedly. "Did you like the book?"

"I loved it! I can't wait to read it." My fingers itched to open it right then and flip through it, but, first, I had to finish the arithmacy book I'd been reading. I didn't have too much left in it, anyway.

"We're going to be late, Terry," Mike came tearing down the stairs, dark hair wet, sweater in hand, tying his tie up as his went. He looked up and smiled at me.

"Happy Birthday, River," He hugged me.

"Thank you so much for the kit, Mike. I've needed one for a while now."

"You're welcome," He mumbled as he pulled the sweater on over his head, disheveling his hair. Terry smirked at his friend, who quickly reached up to smooth his hair into its usual neat part, then the two of them started walking towards the door, me standing between them as they chatted over my head. We stepped into the hallway to find a rather anxious looking blonde boy in green trimmed robes arguing with the door handle.

"At last, could one of you please go get- oh, River, it's you," He sighed in relief.

"We'll catch you later," Mike grabbed Terry by the bicep and turned to go.

"Happy Birthday," Draco grinned and held out a large package to me. It was wrapped in Slytherin colors, green paper, silver ribbon.

"Sorry about the colors, I don't keep any other wrapping paper or ribbon in my room." He grinned sheepishly, digging his hand into his pocket. I was surprised when it withdrew with a smaller present, this one wrapped in navy blue with silver ribbon.

"Blaise, however, did have a very small amount of navy paper tucked under his bed. It's his father's favorite color, or some other ridiculous excuse like that. Open the green one first, please." I immediately sat down, right on the floor in the middle of the corridor and set to opening the larger present. I lifted the top off the box and was surprised to see fabric inside. It was a fitted black jacket, deep cut, with romantic ruffles along the neck and the bottom. It was absolutely gorgeous, just barely verging on costume like. Underneath the jacket was an olive green cashmere turtle neck sweater.

"These are breathtaking, Draco." I ran my hands over the smooth fabric.

"The jacket is my mother's taste, and I thought that the color of the sweater would be lovely on you… mostly, she picked them out. She didn't think the present I chose on my own would be completely sufficient. She wanted to have the house elves bake you a cake, but I told her that Mrs. Weaselette would have that under control."

"Don't call her that," I gently reprimanded. He grinned cockily as he shoved the smaller present into my hand.

"This one was all me," I gently untied the narrower ribbon, then pulled the paper from the black velvet box. I smiled as I recognized it as a necklace box and opened the top.

I gasped. I hadn't been expecting anything half this grand. It was a white gold chain with six tiny emeralds, three on each side of a large sapphire. Each gem was set in white gold, and was cut in a perfect circle.

"Draco…"

"You're welcome," He said with a smirk as he lifted the necklace off the white satin it had been resting on.

"May I?" He asked, holding up the delicate chain.

"Yes," I said, twisting my hair out of the way. He smoothly clasped the necklace onto my neck and I released my hair.

"How does it look?" I asked, turning my head upwards.

"Lovely," He pretended to scrutinize it, though I had strong suspicions that his gaze was fixed a bit farther south than my neck.

"I'd better go put these in my dorm." I scooped up the presents and turned back to the knocker and rapped it against the door.

"What is broken every time it's spoken?" The smooth voice drifted out. I sat for a second.

"Hmmm… Silence."

"Very quick," The door swung open and I turned just once to see Draco, his mouth open in shock. I smirked back at him before rushing up to my dorm and depositing the boxes on my bed with my other presents. I swept back down the stairs and out the door to find Draco still there, leaning against the opposite wall, arms folded across his chest.

"Let's go, Malfoy, I'm way behind schedule." I rushed past him and he jogged a few paces to catch up.

"What's your first class?"

"History of Magic,"

"I can not believe you're taking that N.E.W.T. It's the world's most boring class."

"I like it!"

"Yes, Professor Binns droning on and on about how many people died in the Goblin revolutions is so stimulating. I can't believe more people don't like that class.

His casual use of the word "died" made the blood rush from my face. It reminded me too deeply of Brook. I grabbed the "B" charm on my bracelet and took a deep breath to calm down as we entered the Great Hall. We parted ways as I took a seat across from Terry and Mike and he turned to sit next to Blaise. Terry immediately glanced up at me and took in my pale skin. He smiled at me, then noticed the new piece of jewelry around my neck.

"Nice new accessory, Riv," He raised his eyebrows as he smirked.

"Isn't it gorgeous?"

"Who knew ferrets were capable of picking pretty jewelry?"

"Terry, please don't be like that, I'll take it off if it upsets you."

"It doesn't upset me. Blonde boy wonder over there upsets me." He jerked his head towards Draco's back.

"I know… honestly, he upsets me a lot of the time, too."

"Then why are you keeping up with this farce? You don't need him to be your charity case. It's going to be the death of you, I swear!" For the second time in ten minutes the blood rushed out of my face. I dropped the fork that I was using to spear sausages onto my plate and looked down at my hands. Terry swiftly realized his mistake.

"I'm sorry, River. I need to be more sensitive today,"

"It's fine," But it wasn't.

"No it's not," And he knew it. He grabbed my hand from across the table.

"I'll put up with it," He promised, motioning to my neck.

"And him?"

"And him, if it'll make you happy."

"It will."

"Then it's done. Though, I don't pretend to understand you." He let go of my hand and leaned back a little.

"I never asked you to understand me"

"Aye, just put up with you, and for that, I'm inexpressibly grateful. I don't think even I could wrap my mind around you, River,"

"I thought it was enough work just to put up with me." Just then, I saw a flash of crimson hair near the doorway. I turned swiftly and saw Ginny standing there, eyes sweeping the Gryffindor table. I clambered out of the bench and ran towards her.

"Ginny!" She turned.

"Happy Birthday!" She yelled as she hugged me tight to her. "Let's see it then!" She pointed to my wrist. I held it up and she smiled when she saw her charm next to Terry's on the bracelet.

"It looks lovely,"

"Thank you so much, Ginny. It's honestly perfect,"

"No," she giggled, pointing at my neck "That's honestly perfect."

All I offered in response was a wide grin and a hand touching the fragile silver.

"Blonde boy wonder picks out pretty jewelry," She smirked.

"Oh, not you, too."

"What?" She widened her eyes and cocked her head innocently.

"Terry's little pet name for Draco,"

"Blonde boy wonder? Well, you know what he calls Harry, right?"

"Scarred boy wonder," I supplied dismissively.
"Aye, it's just a play off of that, Riv. It's fairly innocent,"

"Not the way he says it," I glowered darkly at the back of Terry's head.

"Give him a break, River," she sighed in exasperation.

"Can't either of you be on my bloody side?" I bellowed, turning on her.

"I am on your side, River. It just goes against a lot of natural extinct for me" She grinned crookedly, holding her hands up in mock surrender.

"Oh, sod off," I snarled. She looked shocked as the grin melted from her face. "Stop pretending like this is really hard on you and I need to sympathize and comfort you about how much it sucks that your best friend is getting close to your enemy. It's hard on me, Ginny." I lowered my voice to a hiss, but somehow, he always seemed to notice my distress. I saw a flash of white hair moving towards me and I looked up at him. Silver eyes caught hazel and I narrowed mine. He turned around and sat back down at the Slytherin table, just the action I was hoping to get him to perform by narrowing my eyes.

"Sorry," But there was a taint of bitterness in her voice. It struck me then that we had never truly argued before. But it served her damn right! Her and Terry both were always complaining about me being friends with Draco, without once considering how difficult it was for me. But… the truth was, it was not difficult. Draco was an obnoxious nuisance, yes. But it was good for me to have him. And I knew it. I just wanted someone else to see it my way.

"No, no, I'm sorry, Gin. I shouldn't have said those things. I guess I'm just… tired of it all. I know it's difficult for you. And, honestly, it's not half as hard on me as it should be." Ginny's fierce expression abruptly softened.

"You actually care about him, don't you?"

"Yes, damn it all, and Merlin help me, yes," I shook my head and my hand fluttered to my throat again, grasping the necklace gently.

"Eat," She commanded, grabbing my arm and pulling me down next to her at the Gryffindor table, the cool blue lining of my robes clashing with all the crimson around me. I eyed the plates laden with greasy sausages and canary yellow eggs with disgust, then spooned a great helping of fruit onto my plate, some tomatoes and a few fried eggs. I promptly cut the whites off the eggs and stuck the yolks back onto the plates.

"Have some toast," Ginny passed a patter to me.

"Whole wheat?" I warily grabbed a piece.

"What kind of best friend would I be if I offered The Girl Who Eats Healthy anything else?" She rolled her eyes. I confess, I'm obsessed with healthy eating. My body is a temple and all that. Besides, nobody performs at their best with disgusting, greasy foods churning in their stomach. I scooped egg whites onto the toast and took a bite, as Ginny chattered away in her pleasantly high pitched voice. In the few short minutes that I was shoveling food into my mouth (I never realized how hungry I was until I took that first bite) she managed to cover topics from Dean to Harry to Quidditch to the Weather to the next Hogsmeade trip, before at last settling on my birthday again.

"What are we doing to celebrate tonight?"

"We'll just hang out in the Ravenclaw common room. You and the trio will come over, right?"

"Of course… what about Blonde Boy Wonder?"

"I'm not sure about him. I think not. I just don't need that sort of drama and stress tonight,"

"Oi, speak of the devil," She said, nodding her head behind me, where I knew that Draco would be standing up from the Slytherin table that I had purposefully turned my back on.

"Don't mean that too literally, now, Ginny," I popped the last bite of toast of egg white into my mouth and washed it down with another swig of pumpkin juice before standing and turning in one fluid motion to face Draco.

Immediately, I knew something was off. His owl was perched on his shoulder. A letter was clutched in his hands. His knuckles were white. His lips were pursed. His brow was drown together.

"Hate to be a killjoy on your birthday, but I need to talk to you," He lifted the letter in acknowledgement and the bird nipped his ear sharply. He waved his arms at it.

"I said get out of here, you bloody beast," the rather large grey owl flitted off his shoulder for a few brief seconds before landing haughtily back on his shoulder. I thought it was very fitting to be a Malfoy owl, indignant, stubborn, and wouldn't take no for an answer. Draco glowered darkly at it.

"Don't scowl so, your face will get stuck like that," I playfully scolded as I walked away with him. His expression softened momentarily, but immediately darkened again when the bird took another nip at his ear.

"What the bloody hell do you want?" He bellowed.

"A reply, it just wants a reply, Draco, for Merlin's sake, just scribble off a note!" I thrust a bit of spare parchment into his hands as well as my old eagle feather quill. I watched his hand move quickly along the page.

"Here you go, beast," He tied the note to the bird and it flew off, clearly placated.

"Now, take three deep breaths and tell me what the hell happened."

"I got this letter from my mother about Bellatrix," He held up the piece of parchment clutched in his hand.

"Apparently, she's been making a right mess of things, Lestrange style. She's been absolutely awful to my mother. She's been calling her blood traitor and smacking her around, quite literally, she's been treating my mother like a common house elf in her our manor! Dearest Auntie spit in my mother's face! And my mother, my proud, regal mother, sat there and took it. She didn't even raise her wand against her tormenter! Dearest Auntie has been using my mother as practice for her spells. And, the most recent spell she tried to practice on her was the Killing curse!" Draco was pacing in his anger, his complete confusion, his pain at having his mother reduced to this "She shot an Avada Kedavra at my mother, who just barely managed to duck. She wished death upon her own sister! She tried to kill her own sister, the woman who should be her best friend, her confidant!" And, just like that, the blood rushed from my face. My hands started shaking. Bile burned my throat. I clapped my hand over my mouth and ran towards the nearest bathroom, hardly noticing that my shoulder bumped against Terry's on the way out, it was just too much for me to talk about the death of a sister.

Draco's POV

I didn't quite understand what had sent River running like that. But I was certainly too stunned to call after her.

Terry Boot, however, damn him, understood right away. Of course he did. He would always understand River better than I could ever hope to. There was something sort of eerie about that boy. His cold, calculating glance as he looked at him, the distance in his eyes, and finally, the tiny smirk on his face as he moved closer to me, It all gave me the chills.

"What do you want, Boot?"

"You don't know, do you?"

"If I knew, I wouldn't have asked."

"I mean about why she left," Now he was directly in front of me. I was a little put off by his attitude, the bloody Ravenclaw was getting too confident. Then I saw that his wand was grasped just a tiny bit too casually in his right hand. I smirked. At least he was smart enough to be aware.

"No." I resigned that much. "Will you tell me?" Surrendering to him, begging him for answers went against every natural instinct I had. I drew myself up to my full height to give myself some sort of advantage over him, but, double damn him, he was a good three inches taller than I. So I settled for folding my arms across my chest, setting my jaw and glaring at him oh-so-slightly. Everything about me was calculated, just like everything about his casual stance was.

"Play nice, Kitty," He raised his eyebrows at my slightly passive aggressive stance.

"Bloody hell, Boot! I don't like you. You don't like me. Just give me the damn answers, for her sake,"

"It's her twin,"

"She has a twin?"

"Had a twin," He put too much emphasis on the past tense.

"Oh" And in the moment, my heart broke for her.

"Yeah,"

"When… when did she die?"

"River was eleven. It was a car accident. Her name was Brooke."

"Their parents named them River and Brooke?" I scoffed in disbelief.

"They weren't exactly expecting, nor wishing for twins, Malfoy." Boot lowered his eyes-shockingly blue, I'd never noticed- and bit his lip.

"But Brooke was everything to River, her other half, her friend, her sister, her sanity. And when she died… well, River was nothing. And it took a lot of unknowing work on my part to fix her." He glared, quite spectacularly for a Ravenclaw.

"I'm not going to bugger it all up, Boot. I wish to high heavens she'd told me though."

"You want to hear the list of everybody in our world that knows, Malfoy?" He didn't even wait for a response, insolent prat "The Weasley family, Harry, Hermione, Me, and Micheal Corner and now you, I guess."

"That's all?"

"That's all. So excuse her for not telling her former worst enemy sooner." His voice dripped with heavy sarcasm.

"Drop the bitterness and cut the bullshit." I flippantly said. "I'm sorry you care about her more than you should. I'm sorry she doesn't feel the same way. I really am. I can't even imagine. She's one fantastic girl."

"It's not your fault," He grumbled.

"Not hers either,"

"Aye, I know." He pushed his glasses up his nose and tucked his hair behind his ear in one motion, then looked at me, guilt in his eyes. "Look, I probably shouldn't have told you about Brooke, Malfoy. Don't say anything to her… just, watch your mouth. Any use of words such as "death" "die" "kill" "car" or "sister" are terrible ideas. Any use of those words together will send her running like she did just now." He turned to walk away.

"Thank for the tip,"

"No problem," His back was stiff as he walked away. Then he paused for a brief moment.

"Malfoy?"

"Yes?"

"She's probably at the Quidditch pitch, practicing with Mike or Ginny. It's how she blocks things out. I was going to head down myself to find her, but I've got… work…." He walked away without another word and I recognized the statement as an invitation to go and make it up to her. I intended to do just that.

River's POV

Sweat was dripping down Mike's perfectly carved face, his normally neat, dark hair was plastered to his forehead, fierce determination burned in his dark eyes as he launched the Quaffle at me again. I quickly examined the angle of his arm and body then darted down and to my right, just barely deflecting an extremely difficult throw with the tips of my fingers.

"Merlin, River. You are on today. We need you in this form all season."

"It feels good," I tilted my sweaty head back and let the light breeze send the stray pieces of hair around my face dancing.

"Oi, Angel, think fast," I quickly refocused just in time to see Mike releasing the Quaffle. I darted after it, and it slipped, three inches from my hands, into the left goal post.

"And it's Michael Corner for the win! The crowd goes wild!" He started to take a victory lap around the field, humming some sort of ridiculous victory song and I took off after him. I managed to catch up by cutting a few corners and grabbed the end of his broom, lurching him backwards.

"Oi!" He grabbed the broom with both hands and regained his balance. I laughed at the sight of Mike tottering on his broom.

"Care for one more?" A feminine voice came from the ground. I looked down to see Ginny, red hair pulled back in a braid, Gryffindor Quidditch things hugging her body, a mischievous smile on her face, her broomstick in hand.

"Always room for you," Mike laughed. Ginny mounted the broom and zoomed right on over to us.

"Two on one? That's not fair!" I laughed, retreating back to my goalposts.

"Shall we make it even then?" We all looked down to see green fabric and white skin and hair. Draco Malfoy was clutching his broom in his hand, grinning expectantly up at us.

"Come on up," he complied.

"Alright," I turned on Ginny and Mike, "Which of you is keeping?"

"I will," Mike turned to the other goal post.

A few minutes later, Terry joined us. He preferred to perch on the stands. Then the Golden Trio showed, Harry and Ron ready to play, and Hermione harping on us about skiving off classes.

"Oh, Hermione, I'm taking a personal health day, give it a rest!" She sat with a huff next to Terry and pulled out a textbook.

So, Mike, Draco and I teamed up against Harry, Ron and Ginny, and I honestly had a good time. I honestly almost forgot. I was honestly happy.

But it can't all be happy times. My birthday ended as it always does. After hanging out in the common room with my friends for a few hours, I eventually had to return to my own rooms. And, as soon as I sat down and stopped faking it, the pain was overwhelming. I couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't even cry it hurt so badly. Another year without Brooke. Another year where the pain didn't fade even a little bit. I'd always thought it was supposed to get easier, but it didn't, not for me. But, every single year, I had somehow managed to make it to the same place, Terry's room, his bed, laying there, silence, but not alone.

This year was different.

I stood up and walked out of my dorm into the perfectly empty common room, grabbed my robes, which I'd left draped over a chair, and shrugged them on. And then I walked out of the common room and down endless flights of stairs until I was standing in front of the Slytherin common room.

Password

"Pure blood… blood status… The Dark Lord…. Dark Mark…. Serpent…. Supremacy," On the last one the door swung open, and I, to numb to be surprised that I'd managed to stumble upon the password, slipped in. The common room was empty, as it should be at this hour of the morning, and I walked straight towards the stairs to the dormitories. I didn't know which direction to turn, so I just went up one. As soon as I opened the first door I smelt perfume and lotions, so I closed it silently and wandered the other direction. Behind these doors was the scent of sweat and grass, and the sound of snoring. This was the boys side for sure then.

It didn't take long to find Draco's dormitories. I opened two doors without seeing him before the third door took me into a dormitory where open trunks had fine fabrics draped on them. It was the presence of so much Quidditch gear that clued me in that I might be in the right place. One boy was sitting up in bed, wand illuminating his pale, pale hair and skin as he read. The sound of the door shutting started him and he looked up, thin wire reading glasses perched precariously on his nose.

"River?" He shut the book and took the glasses off, then set them both on his bedside table. "How did you get our password?"

"Guessed." I bit my lip, shifting my weight awkwardly from foot to foot.

"Merlin… well, come here, come here," I walked towards him. One foot then the other. I could make it just that far. And when I got to his bed I was free to collapse into his bare chest as he cast a silencing charm and charmed his curtains shut. I was free to shake with sobs, soaking his sheets and skin as he held me, clearly still a little shocked.

"I guess," heaving breath "I should," gasp. Sob. "Explain-"

"Boot told me. Hush," His hands moved in comforting circles on my back.

"He," another shakey breath. "what?"

"Will you just be quiet and cry, girl? You're making this far more exhausting on me than it needs to be." A watery laugh.

"Aye, that's better, knew I could make you laugh," I heard the smile in his voice.

"Git," I laughed again, crying at the same time, and smacked him lightly on his bare chest.

"Oi! I'm here trying to be comfort to you and you're being all abusive. This isn't fair!" I laughed again.

"Thank you," I sighed, curling up into his chest farther. He cradled me like a child, even rocked me lightly back and forth, murmuring comforting sounds. My heaving sobs slowed, reducing to tears that, though steadily flowing, were not overwhelming.

"That's better," He said, pressing his lips to the top of my head, and I was so far gone, and so hurt, and so bloody upset and it had been such a rollercoaster of a day that I tilted my chin upwards and caught his lips with mine.

It was the bathroom kiss all over again. It was I need you, I want you, my love, my soul, my sanity, myself. It was you are everything right now. It was hold me tighter, kiss me harder. It was you, me, nobody, nothing else. It was bloody hell that's incredible. It was don't stop, not yet. It was need me like I need you, want me like I want you, and, for the love of Merlin, kiss me like I'm kissing you.

And, oh, Godric, his hands. They were my entire world. And, just like that, I shut off my mind and just felt. And it felt good.