Hey there again. Here is another chapter. Big thank you to the reviewers and the followers! Hope you enjoy!

Ta-Ta

Disclaimer: Like always.

Two days passed since she kissed Delphine in the snow and to Cosima's misery the sensations that struck her then have not subsided yet, not even a tiny bit. They mixed with her blood, are somehow a part of her now, enter her lungs, her heart, her brain and race together with millions of erythrocytes and leukocytes through her arteries and veins.

It is close to torture knowing what heaven tastes like only to be brutally reminded that she most likely will never get the chance again to be even remotely close to Delphine Cormier's lips and it is her own damn fault. One she frankly will never regret because even if Delphine hates her now and never wants to see her again she still tried and for regret the whole disaster was far too sweet, too mind-blowing, too glorious. She feels sorry, though for the way her headlong boldness leaves her a little hurt, a little lonely and very much rejected.

At breakfast her twins tried cautiously to lift her spirits.

"She'll come around, Cos." Sarah said gently.

Cosima slouched a bit more in response, her upper body resting on the table, head hiding in the crook of her elbow while she made her pitch-black coffee spiral slowly out of her cup:

"So much for your theory that she likes girls." She grumbled as the coffee sloshed back into place. She could feel Sarah's uneasiness more than she saw it nonetheless she knew it was there plainly visible on her sister's face.

Alison sat on her other side and was, if possible, some more awkward:

"Did she…well…you know…" she was incapable of finishing the sentence and left it to Cosima to fill it with reason. Her slightly stiff sibling questioned if Delphine had been angry flat out insulted her or slapped her glasses right from where they had been perched on her nose.

"No…she didn't." Was her curt answer. It was the first time she actually realized that Delphine had not reacted at all like she anticipated if things went down the drain. She had not looked disgusted or ashamed or something only slightly close to that but outright aghast in, in Cosima's head that is, the not-bad-way if that was possible at all, more in the this-was-not-supposed-to-happen-way and a very stubborn part of Cosima viewed this as a clear sign that Delphine had to be aware one way or another of the crackling electricity that always sparks between them when they touch, of the hammering heartbeat and the inviting warmth and the overall need to be closer.

Delphine divines this bond that spun itself between them a bloody red, pulsing string, she feels it, has to, can most likely see it when she looks at it from the right angle while it draws them inevitably closer, she experiences its existence with every single one of her senses just as much as Cosima does, the Ravenclaw concludes and because she does she wants to cut it off probably too scared by what could happen when both the bond's ends meet. The only question is: What is it that makes Delphine so horribly frightened that her only solution is to hastily retreat from Cosima?

By now it is just another mystery she can add to all the others that surround the French like hazy fog through which she can catch glimpses of the girl that is shrouded by it and she ponders if Delphine actively controls the bits and pieces she grants Cosima. The dejected teen had been convinced a couple of days ago that she could live with it all however things changed and the constant question that wiggles itself into each and every of her thoughts since Saturday, all the way into her dreams spells it out that she indeed cannot.

She feels ashamed by it regardless she is glad to some very twisted extend that something, an entirely different kind of disturbing, happened when she went back to school with her siblings and friends on the weekend. They still wanted to go to The Three Broomsticks although Cosima was in no mood for a butterbier when they spotted Katie Bell and her friend Leanne coming their way, the former clutched a black package to her chest and they were involved in a heated argument. Cosima was too focused on keeping her frustration at bay to bother with them but when several gasps and shrieks erupted around her, her eyes snapped up, too.

Katie Bell was floating several feet above them, mouth agape in a silent scream then she crashed back down in a twitching, convulsing bundle. Of course Harry Potter and his two best friends were not far and the boy that lived was just about to pick up the package Katie dropped when Hagrid emerged from behind the trio and yelled at him to only touch it with the black, silken cloth it was previously wrapped up in.

When Harry, Hermione and Ron followed Hagrid to the castle their little group was hot on their tails albeit in a little distance. With help from the Weasleys' Extendable Ears they eavesdropped on the conversation between Snape, McGonagall and the unfortunate trio of friends. They did not hear everything but enough to conclude that Katie was cursed, that it was bad and that Harry was convinced that it was Malfoy's doing. Sarah immediately was in complete agreement with her fellow Gryffindor but Cosima internally sided with McGonagall. It was a serious accusation that Malfoy was a Death Eater and worked for you-know-who even though the spineless Slytherin would fit the role perfectly.

On the one hand Cosima is honestly worried for Katie Bell who has been brought to the hospital wing and not yet returned on the other she is oddly relieved since it gives her something else to rack her brain over, something utterly unrelated to Delphine.

All this leads her brain to go into overdrive, the kind not even pot can slow down and makes her think about everything but her Transfiguration homework that lies abandoned, suffocated under her squished between her elbows and the table surface. She is tugged away into one of the far corners of the library, curled up on a lonely chair at a lonely table not feeling like listening to Sarah's unproven though, technically not arbitrated heated accusations or Alison's constant whining about how things like cursed students do not happen in a place like Hogwarts. She mostly wants to be left alone and so far no one approached her table so when she hears light footsteps she tears her gaze away from the window and turns it to the endless line of bookshelves in the other direction.

To her surprise it is someone quite familiar who is leaning barely three steps away from her hiding spot against a bookshelf.

"Delphine…" she breathes startled.

The blonde looks coyly, hesitantly at her, giving off the feeling that she is not really sure what made her seek out Cosima in the first place; if she really wants to be here or if she contemplates whether the Ravenclaw wants her there or not:

"I hope I'm not disturbing you." She half asks half says after a moment.

All at once there is too much energy in Cosima's coiled body, the by now intimate pull rustling to life, that she is standing, hands whirling through the air to support what splutters out of her mouth:

"Oh no. No no no no. Never."

When Delphine takes a tentative, small step towards her she rambles on:

"So apparently I got this thing for like…uhm…jumping to conclusions."

"You know...it's just that I...never…" Delphine starts and stops halfway through her poor explanation with wide eyes and hunched shoulders.

"I know…I know...you're not…you're not gay…and I'm a total idiot." She hurries to apologize in some way not for the action itself rather, maybe just to make Delphine stay instead of scramming away. Delphine nods her head, makes her curls bounce and Cosima wishes it is because she thinks she is an idiot and that her smile would not look so tight lipped, so vexed so misplaced on her face.

"So sorry…I just want to…" Cosima stutters, the words be with you, get to know you, keep you already in the hollow of her mouth but she fights them back down, instead she settles for something less drastic:

"Make like totally crazy magic with you." The small laugh that escaped the French rings in her ears like tiny bells induces hope into her against all better judgment as her own lips morph into a smile.

"I am glad to hear that," Delphine states and rummages in her bag, "I just got our assignment for Transfiguration. Maybe we could do it together?"

"Sure. Would love to." Cosima answers pushing back the unpleasant memory that Delphine was not in class with her this morning, being wholeheartedly happy and glad that she could possibly have Delphine as a friend at least.

Currently it seems like it is all Delphine has to offer her and Cosima takes whatever she can get and hopes sincerely that it is going to be enough.

Now hopefully with less embarrassing mistakes.

tbc.