The winter months had come and gone, along with all of the chilly weather and the lovely snow. Hogsmeade was certainly a different sight in the spring, surrounded by sprouting green grass and multicolored flowers instead of the white blankets of powder. It was warmer now, and a lovely weekend to be out and about. Skye had actually decided to don some shorts for the occasion. The warm weather was also an excellent excuse for her to wear her tanktop with her favorite wizarding band on it. Jemma often borrowed it to sleep in during the summer months, but not today.
"Can we get some butterbeer before we go to Honeydukes? Then we can take the candy to go and look at the shrieking shack. Trip dared me to go past the fence," Skye grinned daringly, holding Jemma's hand as they walked down the path and swinging it to and fro between them. They had been doing incredibly well since waking up from the second task. There had been no fights, no bouts of jealous rage, nothing. Skye was rather proud of herself. This was how it should be all the time. The two of them in perfect harmony without any secrets. Well, that wasn't exactly true.
Skye still hadn't managed to tell Jemma about her new broom. She was sure that the broom itself wouldn't be a problem. Jemma had always known she wanted a fast flying broom and just because it was the firebolt didn't mean it was any less safe than the others. No, her girlfriend would certainly take issue with the fact that the broom had been sent by her father. Skye wasn't sure why she herself didn't take an issue with it. Perhaps it was because the broom had come in handy for the task against the dragon. It had helped her save Jemma, so she had pushed any building concerns to the back of her mind. She had written her mother about it and Jiaying had informed her that the Ministry of Magic had confirmed that her father was still in Azkaban. That alone had calmed her nerves about it. Skye didn't want to think on it too hard, lest she begin to wonder how he had gotten a message out to get her a broom in the first place.
"No candy frogs though. I don't think I can stomach another one until after summer. Having eaten so many to apologize to you, and then showering you with so many to find you a new card for Valentine's was the last straw. If I eat another one I will be throwing up chocolate frogs for a month!"
"Agreed," Jemma laughed, nudging their shoulders together as they walked. She definitely missed stuff like this, and now that they were both out and about, completely recovered from their previous injuries, it was nice to enjoy a day out. "You've probably broken your record this year, if only we'd been keeping track." She joked. Skye had probably eaten more of the chocolate frogs this year than even her first year, when she'd first discovered the charmed candy.
Jemma sighed and shared a smile with her girlfriend, something they hadn't gotten to do much this year. She was definitely going to enjoy however long they had before they started worrying for the final task.
Everything seemed to be going well. Almost too well, if you asked Jemma. There had been so many unfortunate and unlucky things going on that she was a little weary whenever they had a good day. As predicted, something came to spoil their good mood, and this time it came in the form of a tall blonde.
Jemma's footsteps immediately slowed when she caught sight of Bobbi down the street. She could feel the blush on her cheeks, not her flustered blush, but one that came from being truly embarrassed. The last time they'd talked was the day Bobbi kissed her, she'd been avoiding her ever since. Running into Bobbi would already be bad enough on her own, but now she had Skye with her, and she was hoping not to have a repeat of what had happened before. To give her girlfriend a little bit of a heads up, Jemma tugged on her sleeve and pointedly looked at Bobbi. Maybe the blonde wouldn't notice them and they could just continue their day. It wasn't likely, though.
Skye felt the tug on her sleeve and looked at her girlfriend. She was confused, upon seeing how red her face as, until she followed her gaze a little down the road. When her eyes landed on Bobbi, she immediately tensed. It wasn't subtle, it was all over. Her free hand tightened into a fist while her other tightened around Jemma's hand. However, there was one improvement from before. Skye stayed where she was, next to Jemma's side, and did not rush to immediately take out the threat as she had twice before. She only hoped blondie had learned her lesson...if not, Skye had plenty more teaching to do.
Just as Jemma had predicted, Bobbi did spot them, and she walked over like nothing was wrong. Jemma had to give her points for having guts, she didn't know how Bobbi could just approach them when Skye had already fought her twice.
"Hey Jemma. Skye." Bobbi acknowledged both of them when Skye threw her a glare. Jemma shifted her weight from one foot to the other. The tension around them couldn't have been greater if they were surrounded by landmines. All three of them stood silently for a moment or two before Bobbi finally revealed what her intentions were.
"Look, I'm sorry." She said quietly, mainly talking to Jemma. She didn't really care that she'd made Skye angry, she only regretted upsetting the Ravenclaw.
Before Bobbi could go any further, the Slytherin girl had positioned herself between Jemma and the blonde, and she did not look happy. Though she was shorter, her presence had become no less challenging. Her finger was pointed directly at Bobbi's chest, though not touching. She wasn't going to fight this time...or at least she would try not too.
"Uh huh, You take whatever you're gonna say and shove it up your ass as you turn around and walk away. We are not going to deal with you today. In fact, we are having a great day, so you can go about whatever your business is, but without this conversation." Skye wasn't going to budge. She couldn't throw punches, but her eyes were throwing daggers.
"Skye," Jemma scolded slightly, nudging her out of the way to hear what Bobbi had to say. Unlike her very bitter girlfriend, she was usually willing to forgive people.
"What I'm trying to say is that I give up." Bobbi started. This finally got Skye to shut up and listen. "I'm really sorry I kissed you, Jemma." The blonde stopped when she saw how tense Skye got and prepared herself for another attack, but Jemma squeezed Skye's hand and she calmed down enough for Bobbi to continue. "I just had to see if I had any chance whatsoever, but now I know I don't." She tried not to sound upset about this. "You two are good for each other, I'm sorry I tried to wreck what you guys have." She finished, looking down at her feet.
Jemma was a little stunned by Bobbi's sudden apology, but she quickly composed herself.
"Thank you," Jemma gave her friend a small smile. "For apologizing." She'd already forgiven her, but when she glanced at Skye, the girl still had her arms crossed over her chest, brooding. She swiftly elbowed her in the side and made it clear that she wanted Skye to suck it up and forgive her so all of this could be over.
Skye was resolved to stay in her current state of defiance, despite the shove to her side. She mustered a nod for Bobbi, but didn't look at her. Instead, she looked to Jemma, who did not seem pleased with her attempt. Oh my god, fine…
"Yeah, thanks. You're forgiven...or whatever," Skye shrugged Jemma off then. Clearly that was as good as it was going to get. Now that Bobbi had abandoned her claim to her girlfriend, Skye didn't need to defend her from blondie anymore. She still didn't like Bobbi, and she certainly didn't regret sending her two weeks into the future with her fist, but she would restrain herself. If the threat was gone then Skye was content.
Bobbi couldn't help but smile a little bit at the exchange between the two girls. It had been like they'd had an entire argument with one look before Skye had given her the half-assed acceptance of her apology. She would take what she could get, though. She was just glad the brunette hadn't decided she wanted to attack her again.
"Good, because I have some information about the third task." She smirked, knowing this would finally peak the interest of the Slytherin. She owed Jemma for telling her about the dragons, so she was willing to share what she'd found out about their final task. "I don't know much, but I know that it happens in the Forbidden Forest." Bobbi told them.
Upon hearing the blonde had news of the task, Skye finally calmed down, even to the point of uncrossing her arms. She had been hoping for something more substantial than its location, but she was thankful for at least that small bit of information. They really did like to keep their champions and the entire school waiting on the edge of their seats. Skye wouldn't mind so much if it didn't concern her, but it did.
"Literally anything could be happening in the Forbidden Forest," Skye shook her head and shrugged. She didn't seem displeased with the information, just disappointed. There were all sorts of creatures in the forest. It sounded like a free for all.
"Well, that's what I know." Bobbi said before finally walking away.
"Thank you!" Jemma called after her, almost forgetting. Bobbi turned around and waved at her for a second before continuing down the path.
"You could have been a little less rude." Jemma nudged Skye again, but she was smiling, so she knew Skye wouldn't be taking her seriously. She was just thrilled that they had one less problem to deal with.
"I could have...but let's be honest. In what alternate universe would I have been less rude?" Skye questioned, grinning down at the Ravenclaw. She was now fully relaxed again and ready to get the rest of their fun day started now that her nemesis had been taken care of.
"Why don't we go to Three Broomsticks and get that butterbeer? We can celebrate our victory now that we have proven true love wins," Skye laughed lightly and kissed her girlfriend on the cheek, taking her hand more gently this time and leading her to the Inn down the road.
Jemma rolled her eyes at the way Skye saw the whole thing with Bobbi as a competition, but she also liked Skye calling their relationship true love.
"Maybe I should make you jealous more often if we celebrate when it's over." She joked, though she would never even think of intentionally doing so. It would drive her girlfriend mad. She clearly didn't handle it very well.
Jemma laughed at the clearly horrified expression on Skye's face and started walking again, swinging their clasped hands between them.
"Better idea, how about you just listen when I say someone is flirting with you, and then you don't yell at me and hit me with newspapers afterward?" Skye laughed and quickly had to dodge a playful slap before she let go of Jemma's hand to go and open the door to the Inn for her.
"After you, m'lady," The brunette walked in after her and glanced around for an empty table. She found one, but it wasn't empty. A familiar face made her smile and Skye noded for Jemma to follow her over.
"Well if it isn't my two favorite ladies!" Trip grinned wide and put his butterbeer down and hugged the two of them before he sat back down. Skye sat across from him, patting for Jemma to sit beside her.
"We're only your favorite because we are the only girls who talk to you," Skye chuckled to herself, watching as the Gryffindor puffed up.
"Hey now, Trip has game. Don't be doubting my skills."
"Oh I would never," The Slytherin rolled her eyes before putting on her best smile, "Why don't you be a gentleman and go get your favorite ladies a drink?!"
"As you command oh Hogwarts Champion," They both laughed before he walked away back through the crowd of villagers and students to go get some butterbeer for the table.
Skye leaned in then, and Jemma playfully kissed her on the cheek. The Slytherin seemed content to continue on cuddling and being cute, and Jemma would have been too, if she hadn't noticed the pair of eyes staring at them. And then another. Actually, now that Jemma took a better look, almost everyone in the room was staring at them, students or not. Skye seemed oblivious, that or she couldn't care less who was watching them.
"Someone's popular." Jemma said under her breath, nudging Skye and trying to make her aware of the fact that they were being watched without straight up pointing. She'd almost forgotten about Skye winning the task until now. People were probably fascinated with her right now, just like Bobbi's schoolmates had been when she'd won the first task.
"Hm?" Skye's left eyebrow rose, just like normal when she was confused and she glanced around. Everyone who had been staring, of course, did not want to be caught staring, and had turned around quickly back to their own business. "Popular? Who is popular?" She turned around the other way too but she didn't see anyone who stood out. Just Trip walking back with two mugs.
He set them down in front of the girls and sat back down himself, "So, what have you two been up to since you got out of the infirmary? I left you guys some Every Flavored Beans. You see them?"
Jemma sighed at how inept Skye was at noticing things outside of her own personal bubble. The other girl would figure it out eventually, though, and Trip had changed the subject to one that definitely needed a response from her.
"I more than saw them," Jemma scoffed. "In fact, I don't think I'm ever going to risk eating a jelly bean again. You do not want to try to get rid of the taste of a potion with something equally disgusting." She complained, very distinctly remembering her horrible experience. Skye was lucky she'd been unconscious for that one.
"I take it then that you followed that potion with a vomit flavor?" Trip laughed, obviously quite pleased with himselfs.
Skye was laughing too. She had already gotten to hear Jemma complain about it for days while they were still kept in the infirmary. "You really should have known better, Jems," The Slytherin laughed, "They had a big 'Love Trip' on them."
"I had a concussion! My brain was not functioning properly!" Jemma defended herself. "Excuse me for thinking our dear friend actually wanted to do something nice." She said sarcastically, though she also wished she'd been a little more careful about accepting gifts from Trip.
"Easy, Lil'mama. I sent flowers too," The Gryffindor winked and sipped at the rest of his butterbeer.
Skye was trying her best not to laugh at Jemma, but it wasn't working. Those flowers had caused a mess of complaining too.
Jemma's eyebrows rose in question and she shot a quick glare at her girlfriend, but the girl's giggling didn't do anything to ease her annoyance at Trip.
"You mean the flowers that squirted water at me? If that's what you think is being sweet and making up for the jelly beans, I'd hate to see what it's like to be on your bad side." Jemma complained. She remembered the fiasco the flowers had caused. The moment she was least expecting it, they'd shot water straight in her face, soaking her bandages and her sheets. Skye had laughed until their nurse had come running and immediately blamed her, thinking she'd somehow pranked Jemma.
"Hey, it was so boring being in there for so long! At least he managed to make some of it fun," Skye chuckled to herself. She drank some of her own butterbeer to calm down. Jemma's face was getting all red and flustered and the brunette thought it was the cutest thing in the world.
"Exactly! See, I have my uses," Trip smiled and pushed his empty cup back, throwing his hands behind his head as he leaned back in his seat. "If it wasn't for Skye working all those fancy moves on that Firebolt her dad gave her you guys would have been in the infirmary even longer! That would have been time for more pranks, so really you're lucky," The Gryffindor was smiling, but it didn't last very long and was quickly wiped from his face.
"What? Wha-Ohh," Trip looked away from the evil eye Skye was throwing at him and over to Jemma. Skye hadn't had a chance to bring up the fact that the broom she had used had not been her old Comet, but was in fact a new broom. That wasn't the problem though. The problem was that she hadn't mentioned it because it had been sent from her father. Honestly, Skye had forgotten until now, her and Jemma's past few weeks having gone so well.
"What?" Jemma repeated what seemed to be the word of the day. She hadn't been sure of what she'd heard and she thought her mind had been playing tricks on her until she saw the exchange between Skye and Trip.
"Unbelievable." She muttered once it sunk in. She'd thought she and Skye were finally back to a place where they could tell each other everything, after all they'd been through, but apparently she was wrong. This wasn't just something Skye could forget to bring up, this was huge. Probably just as huge as when Skye put her name in that stupid goblet. This was serious, this was Skye's father, the death eater, who was supposed to be in Azkaban.
Jemma clenched her jaw and tried to remain calm when she realized everyone was watching them again. She was furious, though, and it was a difficult thing to do. She finally turned her head and made eye contact with Skye. She wasn't just angry, she was hurt that her girlfriend wouldn't even bother to tell her something this huge. Clearly, Skye didn't care that much about having her help or advice, so there was no reason for her to be here. She rolled her eyes and stood up, ignoring Skye's apologetic look and storming out.
"Jemma!" Skye shot up from her seat to follow her before turning back, eyes staring at Trip like they were burning a hole through his apologetic smile.
"I thought you told her?" Trip shrugged, putting his hands up for his defense before Skye rolled her eyes at him too and quickly rushed out after the girl. She didn't notice the many pairs of eyes on her, but Trip did, and when Skye had left the Inn he and everyone else were clamboring for the windows to see what was happening.
"Jemma, slow down! I'm sorry!" The brunette quickly reached out and caught her girlfriend's arm to stop her and turn her around.
"Sorry you didn't tell me, or sorry I found out anyway?" Jemma spit back, roughly jerking her arm away. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see everyone from inside that had been staring still watching them from the window. This only flared her already high temper, so she continued her walk back to the castle, wishing that Skye would just leave her alone at the moment.
Skye was taken aback. The girl wasn't even going to wait for an explanation. She was already walking away, leaving the brunette stunned standing in the middle of the road. She shook the shock off and darted after her again, this time running in front of her so she couldn't just walk by and leave her again.
"Hey! Just stop for a second and listen to me!" Skye held her arm out to keep the smaller girl from leaving as quickly again.
"Fine." Jemma stopped, planting her feet on the ground and staring Skye in the face. "What've you got this time?" She knew she was being mean, but she couldn't help it. This wasn't the first time Skye had made the exact same mistake this year, and she was getting tired of it. First it was her jealousy of Bobbi and the excuse that it was different than with Fitz, and then it was the goblet of fire, and her excuse was a stupid, ridiculous dare that Skye had chosen to follow through with herself.
The words hurt, but Skye needed to swallow them to get through what she was going to say. Jemma was just angry, and she had a right to be. That's why Skye was trying to fix it.
"I was going to tell you. I actually tried to tell you," She swallowed hard. That perhaps might have not been the best thing to say. It was already out though, and she might as well continue down the path she had started herself on. Dig the grave a little deeper till she voluntarily dropped in it.
"I was coming to tell you about the broom that morning...but I got...distracted," No, that wasn't the best word to use. That was just going to make the Ravenclaw even more angry. "And by distracted, I mean...I got the broom the morning Bobbi kissed you, okay? I sort of stopped thinking about showing it to you when...you know, I punched her in the face."
"Is that was this was?! You didn't want to tell me because you were being spiteful about what happened with Bobbi? We've been over this!" Jemma felt like she was going to explode. She groaned and had to look away to catch a breath.
"No! That's not it at all!" Skye was starting to panic and she reached for Jemma's arms, gently, and held her in place, afraid she was going to run away again.
"I wasn't being spiteful! I really did forget! I was being an idiot. When I saw you and Bobbi I forgot all about the broom. Everything after that happened so fast. I was trying to prepare for the task, we weren't talking...I was coming to the attic to tell you but then you weren't there! And then the task started and we almost died…" Skye let her go, figuring Jemma probably didn't want to be held, especially since her excuses kept getting worse.
"When I woke up I was just so happy that you were okay. Honestly the broom was the last thing on my mind...I really didn't remember it until just now when Trip said it…"
Now Jemma was embarrassed. Despite her anger, she could see that Skye was sincere just by the terrified look on her face, the one that was scared Jemma wasn't going to believe her.
"Oh." She mumbled, looking down at her feet. Her previous anger had dissipated and now she was just as upset with herself for starting yet another stupid fight. "I just…" She looked up and almost flinched at the scared look on her girlfriend's face. "I love you, Skye, and I want to help protect you. I can't do that if I don't know what's going on." She said quietly.
Skye sighed heavily and wasted no time in pulling Jemma into her arms, where she held her close. She was relieved her girlfriend believed her. The brunette knew she had made the same mistake many times previously and the outcome had not gone nearly as well as this one. Skye knew she had been wrong not to tell Jemma, but it really had just slipped her mind.
"I know. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to keep it from you, I swear. I wrote my mom and she says that the ministry is one hundred and ten percent certain that my father is still in Azkaban. There's no need to worry. He's known all my life I wanted the best broom around. I don't know how I got it, but I did. I'm glad I did. It helped save you, so I can't be angry," The Slytherin smiled and leaned down and planted a light kiss on Jemma's forehead. "I promise I'll tell you any new earth shattering information right away."
"Thank you." Jemma sighed, resting her hands on Skye's arms. It was definitely a relief to hear that Skye had contacted her mother about it and that Cal was still in Azkaban, she would have asked about that next. It was still unsettling, though. "We should still keep our eyes open, though, it's supposed to be impossible to send out a message like that." Jemma pointed out.
"We will," Skye promised and took Jemma's hand, hoping she would follow her back into town. When her eyes went towards the Three Broomsticks however, a sudden mass onlookers fled from the windows and back to their seats. Skye stopped abruptly, looking confused and turned questioning eyes to Jemma.
"When you said 'someone's popular'...you meant me, didn't you?" She asked, "The entire population of Hogsmeade just pried their eyes from the window to finish their drinks…"
Jemma let out a laugh and finally stepped away from Skye. She knew the other girl would figure it out eventually, and it hadn't taken quite as long as she'd thought it would.
"Let's give them something to watch, then." She giggled and stood on her toes to press a happy kiss against her girlfriend's lips. She was glad they managed to work through their misunderstanding this time so that their conversation could end this way instead of one of them storming off or ignoring the other.
Skye grinned happily into it, quite pleased with the way the conversation had gone now. She kissed her back lightly before sighing, content. "I don't want to leave just yet...but I don't think I want to go back in there. I hate to say it, but I think our candy stash is getting low. How about a trip to Honeydukes before we go back? We can eat it in the attic?"
"Sure," Jemma smiled and grabbed Skye's hand, already leading her in the right direction. "Because God forbid we run out of candy." She teased Skye and her sweet tooth, grinning as they headed towards the candy shop.