'Don't get too close; it's dark inside.' - Imagine Dragons, Demons

It takes me five days, careful avoidance of Ria, aimless ceiling-staring, two more wall attacks, more ice cream, private pep talks, and an observation that Scor disappears for a few hours every night, to get to the point where I am determined to find out where Scor goes at night because where he goes, I know Ria will be there too, and I need to talk to her.

Maybe it should take longer than five days to get over someone, but the truth is that I'm not over her: at the moment, I don't think I ever will be. Seeing her hurts, but after having the loud, charismatic loon as my best mate for six years, and then refusing to let her out of my sight for three months as my girlfriend, I fucking miss her.

I lie awake in my empty bed hearing the others get ready to sleep around me, and then everything is silent, except for Levitt's snoring. Then at midnight, the quiet sounds of someone making their way out of the dorm reach me. Scor.

I wait for an hour just to be on the safe side, give myself another quiet pep talk and then carefully pad out of the dorm as the clock strikes one, trying to make as little noise at possible. A step creaks as I creep up the steps to the seventh year boys' dorm and carefully – and very skilfully - pull the invisibility cloak and Marauder's Map out from under James' mattress, slipping the cloak over myself as I make my way out of the common room.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Ink stains the parchment, outlining the many floors and passages that make up Hogwarts.

I mutter a quick charm over the Map, and two dots light up in fluorescent yellow. Scor and Ria.

I ruffle my hair and make my way along the cursed seventh floor to a disused corridor with intact walls.

"Lumos."

Shadows dance at the edge of my vision as I spin around, illuminating the empty corridor.

I check the Map again, and frown as I notice how the yellow dots hover just above the corridor. They're on the roof and I have no idea the hell how they got up there.

I settle down against the wall opposite an intricate tapestry of the night sky, and wait.

A smile tugs at my lips as I realise the tapestry is not just of the night sky; it depicts the constellations.

Thanks to too many Astronomy lessons, I pick out Aries immediately, and have just managed to find Scorpius when the tapestry is pushed to the side, and the man himself climbs out from behind.

I automatically open my mouth to greet him, but then shut it when I remember that he can't see me.

Scor sighs, runs his hand through his hair, then walks back down the corridor. Once I am sure that he's not coming back, I duck under the tapestry and stop in shock. Before me is the most beautiful staircase I have ever seen, and when you go to school in a castle and live in a mansion, you tend to see a lot of beautiful staircases. The staircase is wide and sweeping, and glowing gently, providing the only light in the darkness. The steps are made out of a polished dark blue stone, ingrained with sparking silver pinpricks. The handrail floats in mid-air at the side of the stairs, a twisting length of gleaming silver, cool to my touch as I slowly climb up. Paintings decorate the walls, murals of the legends behind the constellation names, but I ignore them as I finally reach the top of the staircase and push open a smooth marble door. I find myself stepping out of one of Hogwarts' many turrets, onto the roof of the castle.

As the cold air hits me, I suck in a shocked breath. It's beautiful. I can see everything. The moon reflects clear light onto Hogwarts's grounds, making the waves softly lapping the shore of the Black Lake almost shine in the darkness.

I itch for my sketchbook and am just considering going back to the dorm to get it when the sound of soft singing distracts me from admiring the view.

I follow the sound around the turret to a flat section of roof and reflexively grip the turret tightly at the sight that greets me. Ria is sitting at the edge of the roof, her back to me, silver-ended hair glowing in the moonlight, with her legs swinging over the side of the roof as she strums a guitar.

I shift slightly, accidentally dislodging a tile, and she spins around immediately, face expressionless, breaking off the singing.

I don't move.

She sighs. "Al, I know you're there."

I wince and pull off the invisibility cloak.

She turns away from me again, looking out over the lake.

I sit down next to her, carefully holding onto the edge of the roof.

"We need to talk." I say.

Her dark eyes reflect the moonlight as she shows no signs of having heard me.

I plough on regardless. "Look Ria, I just want to – are you even listening to me?"

She ignores me.

A flash of anger fills me. "Fine. Fuck you." I stand up, annoyed, and start to make my way back to the door.

The sound of soft singing stops me in my tracks again. "Don't wanna let you down, but I am hell bound. Though this is all for you, don't wanna hide the truth."

I sit back down next to her.

There's another long pause before she finally looks at me. "So I guess we're having the Talk now, huh?"

"Yeah."

Ria smiles at me, her expression slightly melancholy. "Remember when Scor and I tricked your mum into entering your room when you were having sex with some girl, and she banished the girl from your house and gave you the Sex Talk?"

I nod. "But it backfired on you and Scor because she decided that since you two were there anyway; you may as well listen to it too."

Ria laughs slightly, laying back on the roof, legs dangling over the edge. There's a pause. "I miss you, Al."

I miss you too. So goddamn much. I lay next to her, legs well up on the roof. I've never been the type to take big risks with my life; not like Ria. "What do we do now?"

"I think – "

"I have – "

We both start talking at the same time, then stop.

I wait.

"I … " she closes her eyes briefly. "I'm good at lying, you know that. Just not so good at saying the truth."

"You're doing well so far."

And then words come pouring out of her mouth. "I love you Al, so fucking much, that when I saw you kissing Betsy…I just saw red, and I just exploded at you. But fuck, I'm so so sorry about what I said." She looks at me now, eyes sincere. "I never meant any of it, I just blurted out what I knew would hurt you the most, and I hate myself for that. None of it was true. You're a Potter through and through, Al, but you're not your father or your brother and I'd never want you to be."

I stare up at the sky for a moment, watching the stars and absorbing what she just said. "My turn, yeah? Here goes. I know. I know you didn't mean any of what you said, but it still hurt."

She opens her mouth to say something else, but I cut her off, diving into the speech I've practised. "Ri, I don't have an explanation for kissing Betsy. She was there, I kissed her, and it just felt so wrong. But by the time I pulled away, I saw you standing there, and you screamed stuff at me, and I screamed stuff back. And while what you said was shit, what I said was too. And I'm sorry."

She shrugs, but I see something flicker in her eyes. "It's fine."

I know what I yelled at her was most definitely not fine, but I also know I've lost the right to press the matter.

"Rose, Ems and Sander want us to get back together."

She laughs shortly. "I know."

"What do you think?" And I genuinely want to know, because I have no idea what to do.

"You know that in the six years we were best friends, we never argued? And in the three months that we date, we have the worst argument ever? It's like you said, what I said to you hurt you, and I don't want that to happen again."

I know what's coming, and I may not want it to happen, but I know it's necessary, so I just go with the plain truth. "I think it just got too much. Too real, too fast."

"Yeah."

There's a long silence.

"So I guess that's it then?" My voice is stupidly thick.

There's no answer. I stand up slowly, looking away. "See you around."

"Al, wait."

I turn back embarrassingly fast. She's facing me now, back to the precipice, legs crossed like a child and looking weirdly vulnerable. "I can't let you go."

Thank Godric. "Ri, I'm fucking in love with you and I really think I always will be. Letting you go was never an option for me."

She smiles slightly. "Then how about a break?"

"A break?" I frown. "Like in those dumb rom-coms you, Em, Rose and Scor always watch?"

She laughs softly. "Yeah. You said it got too real, too fast. So how about a break to get some space or some shit like that, and then in September, if we're still good, we'll try again and this time take it slow?"

I takes all of my willpower, masculinity and dignity to stop the grin spreading across my face, so I just ruffle my hair instead. "Sounds good."

Unlike me, she grins like an idiot, and this time I have to physically grab hold of the turret and replay the break-up through my head to stop from marching over and kissing her right now. That sobers me down fast. "But for now, we're over."

Ria's smile drops and she picks up her guitar again, refusing to reply or look at me.

I ruffle my hair again and leave.

I walk down the blue staircase slowly. At the moment, and until September, she's not my girlfriend, and I don't know if we can go back to being best mates. And that hurts like fuck, but I know there's some hope for the future. So I make my way back to Gryffindor Tower.

"Hey, Al."

I spin around, nearly falling down the staircase I am passing.

Ria is leaning against the wall, a small but sincere smile pulling at her lips at she gazes at me. "We not be dating anymore, but you're not getting rid of me that easily, Potter. You're still my best mate."

And my smile matches hers. "Right you are, Black."

"So what say you to a jaunt down to the kitchens?"

"Godric, yes, I'm starving for a waffle."

Which is how we end up lying on the benches in the school kitchens, full after eating as much dessert as the eager house elves can present us with.

It's still nowhere near right between us. There are awkward pauses and moments when she's does something perfectly ordinarily like licking her lips after eating some chocolate cake and all I want to do is pull her into my lap and shag her until the pixies come home. And sometimes there are moments when she thinks I'm not watching, and her expression changes, and I know something's seriously wrong. Something that probably only Scor can help her with, but I still want to hold her and tell her that I don't know what's wrong but I know it's going to be okay, like I wish I did when we were dating, but we're not quite back to the physical contact stage yet, so I pretend like I don't see her smile slip sometimes.

"Hey, Al?" She looks at me under the table, lounging on the opposite bench from me. "It's gonna be okay."

The irony that this is what I wanted to say to her doesn't escape me, but I just smirk at her. "Of course, Ri."

And in this moment, I believe it.

A/N: I can't believe how late this chapter is. I'll make you all a promise that from now on, I'll be the most regular updater you have ever met.