Disclaimer: I am not JKR

Author's Note: Here's that chapter I promised you :) Also right now, real life is really, really busy. Maybe it'll calm down once I've established a routine again, but for right now I can't say when I'll be able to update again, simply because I actually need to be near my computer and some days that just doesn't happen. (Right now I'm mostly here because I have Uni stuff to do still, sooo...). Anyways, I'll try for an update within the next two days, but I can't promise updates will be as regular as they were. Enjoy!

Chapter Twelve

Thursday, June 2nd 2022

Ravenclaw Common Room, Hogwarts, Scotland

She stares at her notes and quietly recites a series of locking sequences. The couch is soft against her back, the common room hums quietly with activity, and the lamps are being turned on now that the sun is starting to set, but she doesn't notice any of that. There is too much desperate focus, too much need to cram this in her head again even if she's read it five times already today and if she doesn't remember it by now, she won't remember it tomorrow.

Two large hands come to rest on her shoulders and she is startled for only a second until she realizes who is standing behind her. She relaxes even before her brain has time to string the observations of her senses into a thought.

"You're awfully tense," Lorcan comments as his thumbs rub gentle circles on her shoulder blades and she makes a little approving noise. He chuckles. "Is that good?" he asks, his hands stilling.

"Don't stop," she protests.

"Put that away," he nods to her notes, and she frowns slightly.

"But Arithmancy is tomorrow!"

He shakes his head. "You are putting that away. We said no studying and no worrying, remember? Besides, last minute studying has never helped anyone and you don't need it either way." When she opens her mouth to protest again, he says, "You also don't get a massage if you don't put that in your bag." That shuts her up rather effectively and she wonders briefly if she is easy to read, but putting those notes away has priority right now.

"There," she straightens and tilts her head back to look at him. "Happy?"

"Very," his hands find her shoulders again, but she shakes her head slightly. Now that she has stopped to think about it, she won't make him stand.

"Sit here," she motions to the spot beside her and he does. His hands reach for her shoulders once again and he tugs gently. She turns, recognizing the gesture for the silent request that it is, until her back is facing him. She doesn't see his smile, but she is sure it's there as he turns his attention to her tense muscles.

"Sweet mother of Merlin, Grace, what have you been doing?" She smiles slightly, even as she catches Zoe watching them across the room and makes a mental note to ask her to let it be, to let her be, to let them be.

"Studying," she says, "Worrying." She doesn't shrug, but only because it would be sin to interrupt him now as his hands are slowly easing her into a state of blissful relief.

A quiet moan escapes her unbidden and he stops his ministrations. "That is an entirely improper noise," his voice is tightly restrained and she doesn't know why it would be that, but maybe that's because her brain has turned to mush. The whine makes it past her lips only because she can't find it in herself to stop it. He laughs softly, but does not return to what he was doing. Instead, his hands run down her arms and wrap around her waist. He pulls her against his chest lightly, almost hesitantly. Almost, she thinks, as if he is not sure if she will allow it.

But where he is unsure of his welcome, she is not, and she leans against his chest and rests her head against his shoulder. "Who taught you that?" she asks quietly. So quietly, that he bows his head towards her in an attempt to hear her better. She smiles, even as she notices that Carla has caught sight of them and she makes a mental note to prepare herself for a grilling.

"Would you believe that Dad did?" he asks with a chuckle that reverberates through both of them.

"Really?" she turns to look at him and he is so impossibly close once again and it still takes her breath away, but she reigns herself in. "You know, Gran taught me how to give facial massages." And then, not sure if she is feeling daring or if she simply cannot handle the close proximity and needs to change it, she adds. "I could show you."

"Could you?" he asks in that same tightly restrained voice he used earlier. There's something almost frighteningly intense in the way he looks at her and she has to swallow before she can reply.

"You're going to have to lie down," she says, grabbing a pillow and extracting herself from his embrace perhaps a bit too regretfully. She sits down behind him in a tailor seat and places the pillow in her lap. He sits as well, looking a bit unsure, but she smiles and gently guides him until his head is in her lap and the rest of his body is stretched out along the length of the couch. "Close your eyes," she says quietly, and begins her treatment the moment he complies.

She doesn't notice at first that he has fallen asleep and when she does, she doesn't have the heart to wake him. Instead, she leans against the couch sideways. She knows her back will protest in the morning and she knows he will protest because she undid all of his hard work. But right now, she doesn't care.

She smiles and just before her eyes close, she sees Louisa across the common room, her eyebrows raised. She is too tired to make another mental note, too content to consider what will come. She wonders, just briefly, if they will allow for this one to remain her secret before her eyes close all the way and she falls into sleep's waiting arms.

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