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A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait for the update, life got a little crazy there. Special thanks to newest readers: sbitzer82393, Kaya Moonstone, bellsasonoma and HallowRain8587.
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Chapter 65
Ky's POV
A tickling sensation flittered over my forehead, an area of my body I previously thought impregnable to such a feeling and my eyes fluttered open with a small smile.
The smile grew in intensity as the assault grew aggressively and I had to turn around to prevent laughing aloud.
Even though the receptors on my forehead stopped processing the fine hair that spattered across Harry's chin, my lips never calmed down as I was now faced with the full effect that was a sleeping Harry Potter.
A bubble erupted in my chest, not the dangerous; she might have an embolism kind, but the warm, pulsating kind that grew larger with each of its vibrations until it spread from aforementioned forehead to the tips of my toes.
Adorable.
It was cheesy, and caked with the redundancy of the millions of teens that had expressed such a notion as they watched their significant other sleep, yet it was the singular word that could summarise Harry Potter in this present moment.
The little dents where the nose pads of his glasses sat crinkled up as he sniffed in a deep breath of air, his lower lip jutting out slightly, the crown atop the fine bristles of hair that were the little soldiers of almost all the boys in the castle which wordlessly proclaimed the extent that they had studied this past two weeks considering they didn't have time to utter even a severing charm in the direction of their chins.
My eyes roved upwards as the fine strands of his almost beard crept into his sideburns and then lay nondescript amongst the mass of jet black strands that were the very definition of bed hair.
My smile widened as his nose crinkled again, as he took an even bigger breath, the action so noticeable on his naked chest and suddenly I was staring into shining emerald eyes.
It took him two blinks for the sleepiness to disappear from his orbs, his time only second best to none other than Mi, who could be up and out of bed before she even finished her first blink.
He let out a groan that was more beastlike than arousing and I giggled as he snuck an arm around my waist and pulled me right up against him.
My giggling was swallowed by his lips, which felt better than even the pillow beneath our head even though they were slightly dry, and somehow both our morning breath seemed to cancel each other out because he tasted just as delicious as he usually did. Of course, that could just be the love talking though. Because I'm pretty sure that Harry could have eaten earwax flavoured Bertie Bott's and I would still snog his face off. Of course, that could just be just the lust talking... like a waking monster it sent a shiver through my body, reclaiming the bubble that once held the warm and fuzzies and heating it to sensual bursting point.
"I don't think I've ever wanted it more." His chest rumbled across mines as he whispered the words as he released my lips, his hands fiddling with a lock of my hair that snuck out of the hair tie I was using.
"What?" I glanced up at him, and the bubble simmered as we locked eyes and I stretched my neck to peck him on his jaw, the sensation of his bristles against my lips anything but ticklish now and I snuck my right leg over his left.
His fingers left my hair and wandered across the side of my face, "To stay. Here. Over the holidays."
I took a deep breath, drinking in Harry's scent which was a confusing elixir that switched between calming me down and exciting me to wanton heights and I realised just what he was doing before he woke up, and what had broken his sleep.
It would break my sleep too, the air that lacked him. We had both been spoiled this past month, even if we were elbow deep in studying for exams, it did nothing to deter us being elbow deep in each other... that sounds so wrong... anyway I understood what he meant. After a month of practically sharing the same personal space, the air that lacked him was going to be toxic to me too. I wanted him to stay.
"I'm going to speak to Dumbledore. I know he's pretty adamant on my staying there yearly, but I especially can't do so this year. I'll die." He laughed at his own dramatic response and I joined him.
"I could always come with you." I laughed as he kissed my neck, "I do own shares in Grumblings. Or whatever it is called. Serves for great blackmail material."
He raised his eyebrows and straightened away from me, "I thought you were joking about that?" His voice leaked astonishment recalling my last Summer proclamation to his uncle that ThornCorpe bought shares in his company and inadvertently owned his ass.
I swung up, my legs on either side of his thighs as I settled myself on his stomach, "I never joke about long term investments. Especially ones that I have such big plans for."
He laughed at my smirk as his hands settled on my waist, "Big plans?"
"Let's just say the Great Depression would be synonymous with the look on your uncle's fat face when I am done with him."
He raised his brows as I leaned forward to kiss him, "Wouldn't that mean you'd lose money as well."
"A small price to pay for the sins of Vernon Dursley, Mr Potter." I kissed him and his fingers tickled the hem of the shorts I was wearing.
"You're the only girl in the universe, past and present, who can utter my uncle's name yet still keep me aroused in the very same breath. It's award winning really." He straightened up to a sitting position, keeping his hands firmly on my thighs so I wouldn't get dislodged, "You're an anomaly Miss Thornton."
"Like a cleft palate." The bubble was confused, the looks on Harry's face made me want to hug him but at the same time do sinfully naughty things to him.
He chuckled at my response, "The most beautiful cleft palate in all the world."
He pulled me to him, his hands lifting up my shirt as I kissed him, sinfully naughty it is then.
"KY!"
We both stilled at the shriek, his hands frozen on my ribs as the warm Summer air wafted over my now exposed abdomen.
"KY!" My heart slowed down when I recognised the intonation in the voice but before I could extricate myself from Harry and the bed sheets there was a pitter-patter of feet and the four poster's drawings were flung open.
"KY!" Parvarti flung herself on me, pushing me awkwardly on Harry's legs as she grabbed me in a tight embrace and thankfully her dark hair shielded me from the sudden burst of light in the room which was bathing in the deep orange glow of the setting sun.
"What's going on?" Seamus guffawed as he and Dean entered the room, his ears red with laughter at the scene that graced him. It did look awfully incriminating, Parvarti hugging me whilst Harry lay trapped underneath us.
The Indian girl sprang up, immune to the two boys gapping looks just as Bobby, Ron and Mi entered the room, and begun fanning her face enthusiastically.
"I would like to know the same thing!" I responded to Seamus' question, "Did nobody care for the sock on the door!" I gestured at the doorway which held a smirking Ron.
"Oh. I thought... I put that in the wash." All our heads turned to the bed furthest from the door and brows rose as Neville rubbed his eyes, waking from his sleep.
"Neville." Harry gasped, "How long have you been there for?"
He shrugged as I thanked Godric that Parvarti intervened what was probably going to be mortifyingly embarrassing for all of us. Walking in on two people doing it was one thing, but walking in on two people doing it whilst a dorm mate was in the room... that was some Alya Bellamy shit right there.
"Helllllooo!" I backed away from Parvarti's hand which was now having some sort of fit in front of my face.
"Will you get your freakish fingers away from my face before I bite them off."
"That's all we need to top of this act, a little bit of Sadism and Masochism to really give this threesome slash voyeurism sandwich you lot got going on here a bit of crunch."
I threw a pillow at Dean's face which missed spectacularly and socked Bobby in the mug instead. "KY!"
I jostled backwards as Bobby launched at me, falling of the bed whilst my foot was stuck on a bed sheet just as the blonde straddled me, pillow in hand ready to suffocate me.
"There is a ring on my finger. THERE IS A FUCKING RING ON MY FINGER!" I stopped trying to defend myself against Bobby as Parvarti shrieked in anger, justly infuriated that her barging in was not having the effect that she envisioned.
"OH." I said. "Oh!" I gasped as I caught the glint of the silver ring, "WOW! Oh..."
My last oh was a kind of escape of breath as Parvarti was calmed down by the evident happiness and surprise on my face and was currently trying to hug me whilst I was plastered to the floor.
I felt someone untangle my foot which was hanging awkwardly from the bed and it hit the floor with a soft thud. I finally managed to straighten up as Parvarti got of me as Seamus helped her off the floor, hugging her in congratulations.
"Will you get of me?" I grumbled at Bobby as she cocked an eyebrow at me.
"No." She responded and I sighed, catching sight of an amused Harry and Mi on his bed. So much for help from best friend's and boyfriends when being attacked by vicious vapid blond roommates.
"It's a very nice ring Parvarti." Neville said politely as I caught Harry's eye, smiling as we recalled the time Neville had mistakenly purchased an engagement ring. My smile widened as it landed on Parvarti, a love-drunk look on her face as she stared at her now aptly named ring finger. I could just imagine her running into our dorm with the news and then dragging Bobby and Mi behind her so she can enlighten me with the news, Ron just collateral damage in her excitement.
"I know right! It was so romantic too! He took me back to the Transfiguration courtyard, our spot below the broken Oak, he had such a serious look on his face. I thought it was because his parents didn't show up for grad, you know, because we're star crossed lovers and all of that."
My smile grew at Parvarti's words, romanticising the fact that Silver left home months ago in a heated argument with his parents due to the fact that they refused to house her when she ran away from home.
"But then he got down on one knee and... oHHHH you guys can't say anything as yet! He said that he wanted to make the announcement together at the party tomorrow." She then turned quickly to Harry with a wide eyed look of shock on her face, "Of course with YOUR permission first Harry!"
The room was a culmination of awkward glances and hands to forehead as I frowned at her words, party?
Harry's lips opened but no words came out and then it clicked. June thirtieth. Party. Harry was throwing me a surprise birthday party. Instead of having my Sherlock Holmes moment I grabbed the pillow from Bobby and smacked her in the face, "Off you big blob!"
"Blob!" Ron finally got his girlfriend off me with a glass of champagne as bait. Harry pulled me to my feet and I settled between him and Mi, who quickly began straightening out my shirt.
My smile dimmed when it landed on the brunette's face. Teddy was still a no show. Although he was making a steady recovery, he wasn't well enough to return. Vez had worked out something with Nonno to get him to write his exams wherever they were, so he wouldn't be held back a year. Mi had been particularly vicious with her study timetable this year, the aim of the game distraction at all costs.
I watched as she took in Parvarti's ecstatic face as Ron cuddled up with Bobby and I slipped my hand in hers, she didn't glance away but gave my hand a small squeeze. I didn't know whether her sombre look was jealousy at having to constantly endure the weight of all the happy couples that surrounded her, or her displeasure at Parvarti and Alex doing something she, and most other adults, would consider irresponsible.
"Ladies." Seamus handed us the glasses of champagne he had poured, holding his up, "Well...let's hope that Parvarti is better at being a wife than she is at keeping secrets."
He laughed as we all raised our glasses and we chugged through the toast.
"This tastes good." Dean remarked and Ron smiled proudly.
"Confiscated it from some fifth year Slytherins last week." Mi rolled her eyes, not commenting on our best friend's illegal usage of his prefect badge as the redhead downed what little remained in the bottle.
"Thank you." I knew what Harry was expressing his gratitude for. Considering we were inseparable this past few weeks, it was a mean feat keeping a surprise party from me and I wasn't about to ruin it by acknowledging its existence just yet.
"Errr..." We all turned to the door, Eddy stood there, as awkward as a first year confronted with nine pairs of sixth years eyes could be, "Errr... here."
He ran forward and dropped a letter in front of me, turned on his heel and ran out.
I shook my head and grabbed it, reading it quickly. "It's from Madam Pomfrey. Somebody overdosed on Wide Eye potion and she needs an antidote. Sev is busy."
"Busy being a complete tosser." Dean bit out, "What was up with that mini essay on non-verbal Patronus casting."
I rolled my eyes, knowing that I can't take every insult to Sev to heart considering he was a teacher and therefore the enemy. Plus Dean's annoyance must still be fresh considering we only finished the exam a mere two hours ago. We'd all been exhausted from our insane study sessions, hence Harry and I napping in the middle of the day.
"In his defence, he did tell us to expect dementor related questions for the bulk of the exams."
My brows rose at Harry's voice. I smiled as I jumped to my feet and Harry walked me to the door, "In his defence?"
He sighed, "I must really love you."
I smiled back, "Must really."
He kissed me on the cheek, "Want me to help with the antidote?"
I laughed, "Now that you don't have your little Half Blood Prince to guide you in potions you'd just slow me down."
He narrowed his eyes at me in an attempt at a glare which failed dismally due to the smirk on his face. I pecked him quickly and turned on the spot and ran down the corridor, glancing back just before I could descend the staircase and catching his emerald gaze... adorable.
"You'd think the Head Boy of all people would know better. Missing graduation because he overindulged in Wide Eye potion, that's the problem with youth today! No time management! Back in our day you'd study consistently for exams, there'd be no need to fight of sleep for eleventh hour studying, especially at the price of your health! Well this Draught of the Living Death was a ton of help Ky, Professor Snape being busy with graduation and all of that. I hope it wasn't too much of a bother, especially with your end of exam celebrations!"
I walked with Madam Pomfrey to the door of the Hospital Wing, having whipped up the antidote for her in record time, eager to rush back to Harry. It was tricky potion to brew considering it wasn't actually the Draught of the Living Death, but a much milder form of it, yet stronger than a sleeping draught, it was a complex middle ground that it sat on.
I glanced back at Ingleby, he lay shirtless and fast asleep on the bed nearest Madam Pomfrey's office door, his dark skin caked with a white balm that I had brought up with me. Soothing balm, I knew a side effect of Wide Eye was hives and I could see the little bumps that broke out all over his body right from this distance.
"It wasn't exactly how I planned my evening but it wasn't a bother. If you need any more soothing balm, just let me know, I see that you're running a bit low there."
I gestured to Igleby, who was plastered with the soothing balm to help the hives and she smiled, "Are you positively sure you don't want to be a healer? You'd be awfully good at it."
I snorted, "With my bedside manner?"
She sighed and reached forward, holding my arms in her hands in an uncharacteristically affectionate gesture, "I think it would do a world of good to any patient to open their eyes to such a lovely face."
I narrowed my eyes at the compliment as she opened her mouth as if to say something else, her face slightly harrowed with emotion.
"Madam Pomfrey?"
She blinked and a tear rolled down her cheek, and she cleared her throat, embarrassed at her unusual display of emotion as I raised my brows at the matron who always was the epitome of strength to me.
"Sorry. It's Graduation Day. It always gets me all nostalgic. Looking at all those bright faces that were just these little pudgy beings that would come to you with a snotty nose and a yearning for some TLC. You blink once and they're in here asking about enlargement to this part and that part, twice and they're in here asking about the best contraception potion and the third... they're just gone."
I hovered awkwardly in the doorway, confused at the matron's quiet outburst but comforting her nevertheless. I never paid much attention to how the staff must feel on graduation, after all, we did spend majority of our teen life under this roof, under their supervision and care. I couldn't find the right words and doubt I would if I had a week to search for them and just continued rubbing her back.
Her warm brown eyes smiled down at me, "You remind me of her."
I frowned slightly, never been accused of reminding someone of another girl before, and wondering just who she might be.
"Lily." My frown disappeared for a look of shock and my hand stilled on her back. It was... surreal for one thing. Being compared to one's boyfriend's mother was weird to say the least... "She wanted to be a healer. Helped her enrol in the programme myself, she got accepted of course, brilliant she was. She used to help me, just like how you help me now."
"I just make potions Madam Pomfrey."
She smiled, "You sound just like Severus. He used to help me too, though he'd never let anybody know it. My stocks would be replenished without my even knowing it, such a mystery it was. I only realised it was him who had been helping me all those years ago when he started working here and I recognised the calibre of the work. Now Severus may have been just making potions as you put it, but Lily. Lily would have fought the side effects, as well as the disease, just so the patient was more comfortable. She would have brought along the soothing balm. She'd have tended to the wounds of a person even if she, or someone she cared for deeply, was not too fond of that individual."
I knew she had been talking about Malfoy and I looked to the floor, uncomfortable at being compared to Lily Potter. Not just because she was Harry's mother, but because she was like some princess from a fairytale, the powerful witch who stood before the darkest of all dark wizards to protect her infant child. The beautiful Head Girl whose pictures adorned the trophy room walls.
She cleared her throat and wiped her hands on her apron, "Such silliness. Now, I won't take up any more of your time. Goodnight Miss Thornton."
I nodded, trapped in my thoughts. I can't say I hated being compared to Lily. She was, after all, an amazing woman. She was a fighter too; Harry said that she stood up against his father when they would bully Sev. And I can't say it didn't make me slightly chuffed to be compared to her, after being enormously jealous at overhearing Madam Rosmerta saying that Harry and Ginny looked like a young Lily and James all those months ago. Even if their relationship was just a farce... it still hurt.
Coldness ghosted through my skin as I remember another fact about Lily Potter. She had been just twenty-one years old when she died. Tomorrow I turned seventeen... my heart rate quickened as the math settled in. Three years. A measly thirty six months that lay between graduation and her funeral... yet it wasn't measly... it wasn't measly because in those thirty six months, Lily had defied Lord Voldemort thrice, married her high school sweetheart, gave birth to a boy who shouldered the responsibilities of a man from the age of eleven...
She'd lived so fully it would be almost as if she knew... but she didn't, there's no way she could have. All she did know was that there was a war that awaited her outside these doors, a war that didn't need her to be a certified healer, but to be a fighter. So she fought... and she lived while she could...
I remembered Mi's face, all disapproval at Parvarti. She and Alex were too young. Too irresponsible. Too everything to be married.
But did we live in a time where we had the privilege to be too young?
"Kyrianna?" I looked up, taking in my surrounding with a quick glance around the room, which didn't take much time as I found myself in a dimly lit corridor, albeit a very familiar one.
"Nonno?" It was odd, seeing him leaning against the door of my lab, his long silver beard catching the light from the nearby torch, his head closer to the ceiling than anyone else who ventured down this corridor, his light grey robes much too humble.
There were a hundred things I wanted to ask him. When did he get back? Where did he go? What was so important that he left graduation early? Why did he come down to the dungeons just to see me? When was he planning to tell me about his hand? About the circumstances of his injury? The extent of it? Why he had been avoiding me? What in Godric's name was going on between the two of us?
"Why didn't you follow her?" There was not a twitch nor did a frown at my question, his face remained just as it would if I inquired any one of the hundred questions I was expected to have asked him.
I glanced away from the piercing blue gaze and pushed into my lab, the aroma of the Draught of the Living Dead infused in the very air, lulling you into serenity with just its scent.
"I knew you'd one day ask that question." If it was odd to see Nonno in a dungeon corridor, it was odder to see him in my little lab, seated on the stool that I spent afternoons hovering over as I switched from sitting to standing like a hyperactive toddler.
"Did you love her?" It suddenly became very important to me to know this. To know if I came from love. Because one thing I was sure of now, something that I would never have understood three years ago, was when you love someone, when you love someone with your whole heart, when the air that lacked them was toxic... you'd follow them into the depths of Hell to bring them back.
If Harry left, I would have followed him. I would have searched for him and never gave up.
"I did love your grandmother. She was a beautiful woman who'd touch a person's soul with just the smile on her face. I was not... in love with her."
The anger I thought I would feel at being lied to never came, perhaps because he never actually lied to me. He just led me to believe certain untrue facts... was that the same thing?
I stood before him, across the narrow desk and stared at him, level with his eyes due to his seated position and an ache caught in my chest. To live such a long life yet never experiences the otherworldly notion of being in love.
"So... no big love story then?"
Was that it? Was young love cursed? My parents? Harry's parents? Godric...
He reached across and the shiver that usually came over me at the darkened hand never surfaced as he touched my hand, "What is it Kyrianna? What has you so troubled?"
I didn't answer, staring at the place where my hand met his, at the contrast between the patches of white and black, the latter which seeped throughout the limb, suffocating the life from it. It must be the lighting but somehow it looked darker than the last time I saw it.
"I fell in love my first Summer after I graduated. His name was Gellert." I didn't glance away from the limb, recognizing this for what it was.
A distraction.
He wasn't ready to answer my questions about his injury. But he was ready to confess that he loved someone other than my grandmother, confess that he loved a man, a man that became his enemy.
I was like a dog to him, a dog that he flung a bone at to hack at and be distracted so he would never have to confide in. Never tell me the things he told Harry. The things he confided in Linus.
The tear splashed against the burnt skin and in my head I heard a sizzle that was never really there. The hundred questions that were on my lips were never voiced, because just has he was afraid of the questions. I was afraid of the answers. It was easier to confess that he loved one of the darkest wizards in existence to me, rather than answer the question about his hand... that spoke volumes in itself.
My face crumpled and I felt the squeak of the stool on the tiles, "Kyrianna..."
Ask the question. Why was he here? What happened to his hand?
"I've come to say goodbye." I glanced away from his hand to find him staring down at me, midnight blue eyes glassy beneath the half moon spectacles.
He left this castle tons of times this year, why did this time warrant a farewell?
"I've found a horcrux. Harry would be accompanying-"
"What?" I swallowed, the melancholy that was settling into me snapping away at that. "A horcrux? Harry?"
Why was he telling me where he was going? He never tells me where he is going?
"Yes. We're to leave in a few minutes and I just wanted to-"
"No!" I shook my head, releasing his hands, "No. I get it... I get it when you leave and you HAVE to leave and you CAN'T tell me why. But you don't get to take Harry and leave me behind. You don't get to-"
"Kyrianna-"
"NO!" I shouted, "It's like this whole castle can see it! Can see that I've grown up! That I've matured! Sev! Minnie! Even Madam Pomfrey! But not you! YOU look at me and you still see the reckless fourteen year old that barged into your office three years ago! I'm NOT that girl anymore!"
"I know that, Kyrianna. Never for a second think that I do not see you. I see ALL of you, every brave fibre, every caring, kind hearted, sinew that makes you the most splendid human being that I have ever known. That I have ever loved."
My heart clenched as a tear rolled down his cheek and that mere droplet of saline solution did more to calm me down than a vat of Calming Draught would have ever achieved.
"Nonno-"
"I need you to stay."
I sniffed, calm but still angry. "Which translates to you not needing me. You're wrong. I can be of help-"
"I do not doubt that-"
"Then do not doubt me! You say you love me! You say all these THINGS... but YOU'RE still going! You're still leaving me behind."
"I can never leave you behind. For all that I value flows through the blood in your veins and the flesh on your bones, you are me Kyrianna."
"Stop it!" I snapped, taking a step back as he stepped forward, "Stop with your WORDS, with your excuses. I'm tired... just tired of feeling..." Jealous? Yes, I was jealous. Jealous of the attention he showered on Harry. Of the time they spent together. And now this?
"Kyrianna-"
"Bye." I snapped, turning to the empty cauldron with a determined look on my face.
I give up. I'm not going to be anybody's second choice. He wants to take Harry. Let him take Harry. If he wouldn't include me in any of this, I'd include myself. In just a few hours I would be seventeen. An adult. He'll have no choice but to let me join the Order, and if he didn't then by Godric-
"I did have one." I stared at the sage leaves that lay at the bottom of the cauldron, uninjured due to the unlit cauldron, not caring why I had thrown them in there in the first place, my attention at the door where the voice floated from. "A big love story. It was you."
I stared at the pointy green leaves, distracting myself with counting each of its veins, instead of registering the warm feeling that flooded my own veins at his words. He was trying to distract me with heartfelt words... and it was working.
Tired of fighting off the emotions I lifted my head and found the doorway empty.
Gone. He was gone.
I stared back at the unlit cauldron and its contents, recounting his last sentence. I jumped off the stool and dashed out the door.
If you loved someone, you follow.
To the depths of Hell and back.
"Nonno!" He stilled at the end of the corridor, his silver hair like a crown, glittering in the dark. He turned around, the widest smile upon his face.
"Is. It is you." I nodded, "Present tense. You're mine too. At least one of them." I laughed to break the heavy atmosphere and his smile widened if possible and he nodded his head, whistling his familiar tune as he turned around.
If you loved someone, you listened.
Even if they told you to stay when all you wanted to do is follow them.
Because you knew that if they really loved you, they'd come back... all you'd have to do is wait.
I sniffed, the scent of the Draught of the Living Death suddenly getting vastly more potent from the opened door of my lab.
And then the fine hair at the back of my neck stood on end just as another scent crossed my nostrils...
A familiar scent that mingled with the draught but before I could turn around I felt a prick at the back of my leg.
The sensation was like déjà vu, but before I could wrack my brain for the memory my knees hit the ground as the blackness seeped through... suffocating the life out of me...
So, feedback as always will be appreciated! Loved to know what you think!
Kalina