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Sev rose like a spring from the armchair in the dungeon, and almost running, for it must be about to close, went to the Library.

The unpleasant Pince warned him when he entered, "I'll close in five minutes."

But Sev didn't even look at her, he strode to the end of the Herbology aisle and without looking if anyone was seeing him, since the Library was almost empty, he took out one of the three volumes that barely protruded from the bottom shelf. 'The book has been moved, I left it with the spine to the left and now it is to the right.' He quickly withdrew the other two and pulled it out. And right there, crouched at the end of the aisle, he flipped through it quickly, '286… 368… 390… 92… 94… woah!' finding Lily's note in it.

The berry tasted like you. Very intensely. L.

He felt trasfixed. 'She doesn't tell me anything I don't already know, but having guessed it is one thing and a confession in her own handwriting is quite another. Who knows how long the note has been here? Probably from the day after the walk. How many times has she opened the book expecting an answer that didn't come, as it has happened to me for so many years?

'Do I reply her right away, to encourage her? I have gone out with what I was wearing. But I can ask the unfriendly Pince for parchment and quill.'

But she was already saying, "I'm going to close."

'Merlin, what do I do? Do I take the note? I want to read it a million times... But if she looks at the book again and she doesn't find even her own message, she will think that I have found it and haven't deigned to answer her.'

'What a pity…' he tucked it back into the page of the book and returned it to its hiding place. 'Better this way, tonight I will think of a suitable answer, and in the morning, as soon as the Library opens, I will make the exchange.'

He stayed in the Common Room until everyone went to bed, but that night the insomnia was creative. 'I can't put something like 'They tasted like you to me too', it sounds very childish. It has to be something elegant, that subtly encourages her. Slytherin.

'I have no poetic vein. I have never read literature, only magic books, and now I regret it. How about 'Well, taste me to confirm it'? Not… too direct. This is definitely not my thing.'

After much thought, he came up with a variation. 'It's not too good, but I'm satisfied, I have spent too much time thinking about it.'

He took a piece of parchment of about the same size and wrote, even more neatly than usual:

How can you know if you haven't tasted me? HBP

'It doesn't sound so bad, after all. And if even so, she does not dare to take the step, the question will invite an answer.'

The next morning he was already waiting at the door of the Library when Pince came to open it. 'Honestly, I could have taken Lily's note last night, but it doesn't matter now.'

He took Lily's message out of the endemism book and spent a minute reading both of them, as if they were words spoken out loud. Then he kissed them both and inserted his into the book, placing it upside down from how he'd found it so she'd know right away that he'd moved it.

He put her note in the pocket of his robe. 'I will always carry it with me, at least until she decide to accept my invitation. Now I will often checkthe page 394 as well. Who knows? Maybe we'll meet and end up kissing at the end of the Herbology aisle.'

. . . . . . . . .

It was not so. Although both went to consult page 394 a few hours and even minutes apart, they did not coincide. Lily did it on Tuesday afternoon after school, as she did every day before they were going to see each other, and when she read Sev's inviting response, she spent a stunned minute, kneeling in front of the empty shelf space, understanding that she hadn't understood nothing.

What she had interpreted as restraint on Sev's part was just his own way of being. Out of shyness, or rather because he didn't demand anything of her, he was never the one who rushed to show signs of affection, at best, holding her hand or giving her a hug to comfort her, she had always been the one who touched him, hugged him and gave him kisses... until she fell in love with him.

It wasn't Sev who was keeping his distance, but her with her insecurity. He continued to treat her as always, no, better, he had confided his secret to her, he flattered her, encouraged her in class, and despite knowing what he knew, he continued to respect her so much that he expected her to take the first step, the little wolf had been right.

Who knows how much longer they would have been like this if not for the note in the book? She also realized that he discovered it thanks to her comment about the berries.

Sev was as eager as she was, but of course, he wasn't going to show it to her openly, Slytherin… He had already done enough by leaving her that obvious invitation.

But she also thought that, perhaps without realizing it, he was not making it easy for her with the obsession that seemed to have entered him to teach her - which on the other hand she also understood, since it had always been his dream - they hardly even had time to chat.

And right away she came up with the perfect answer, inspired by the Dueling classes themselves, she was much more direct, it was enough of beating around the bush, she would break down the barrier that, without realizing it, both of them had imposed. She knew that now he would discover it soon, he would also be watching the page 394.

She was coming from class, was carrying everything, and right there, kneeling at the end of the aisle and not worrying if anyone saw her, she took out parchment, quill and inkwell, tore a piece without much thought and wrote:

I'll do it as soon as you get within range. L.P.

Thinking about it for a few seconds, she added the 'P' to her initial for a wink. A fourth level of communication had just been established between them that she hoped would cease to be necessary very soon.

. . . . . . . . .

Sev held back those two days from going back to the Library, giving Lily time to find his note. 'She surely didn't look at the book that often either, there's a lot of week left until Saturday morning, which is when we'll meet.'

But as soon as he sat down to dinner on Tuesday and looked up to see her as they had agreed to give each other urgent messages, she stared at him for two seconds with an intense, bold flash of her green eyes. 'Merlin, she's never looked at me like that before. She has seen the message.'

He hurriedly devoured half of his starter just for cover and looked back at her, but she didn't look at him. 'I can't wait any longer to find out what she has answered me… if she has.' He left the Hall at a good pace and as soon as he closed the door he ran to the Library.

Lily didn't realize Sev had left until a while later, they had agreed not to look at each other during meals. She understood where he was and wanted to follow him, but her second had just appeared and it would have been suspicious if the two were missing from the Hall. She would go after dinner.

'L.P.' Sev finished reading. 'She has taken my last name because I called her princess... and she has used a term of combat... my warrior lioness...' He sat against the wall with his knees drawn up, taking the note with both hands, reading it dozens of times. 'I'm going to wait for her right here, the Library is empty, everyone is in the Great Hall.'

Fifteen minutes passed. 'She's not going to come, she must have realized that I've left and she's being prudent, which I'm not, against all my recommendations. And after dinner quite a few people will come to finish their homework for tomorrow. Well, nothing, that, tomorrow, what is less than twenty-four hours after centuries of waiting? Rays! Today I don't have anything to write either... It doesn't matter, I'll ask Pince

'This time I'm going to be direct, enough of squeamishness, besides, I don't lack combat terms to use.'

Tomorrow at six I'll be at your reach. HBP

When Lily left the Great Hall waving goodbye to the Gryffindors at the bottom of the stairs, Sev had just rounded the corner of the dungeon corridor. They didn't meet for a few seconds.

Lily read Sev's note. 'By Merlin… what a longing! I believed that I would have to wait until Saturday.'

She didn't have her supplies to answer him either, so she did like him, ask the librarian for everything, who responded with her usual antipathy, "There are two tonight. Who would think of coming to the Library without what is necessary to write?"

And she couldn't help but smile when she understood that the other was him.

Tomorrow at six… I won't miss the mark. L.P.

Sev returned to the Herbology aisle at the last minute, this time with everything to answer. 'But it is no longer necessary, I am taking it so that she understands that I have seen it if she looks at the book again.' And he went back to his house.

He waited for everyone to fall asleep and packed his backpack with whatever came to mind. 'I'll reduce two cushions… steal a couple more candles… another blanket…And of course, the jar of berries of Lover's Flavor is at the bottom of the trunk. So tomorrow we will try them together before and after kissing, to appreciate the change in flavor.'

He made his way with catlike stealth, more carefully than ever, to the Haven. He lit the candles, and after several tries, managed to set up a makeshift couch against the wall above the dais with the four cushions, varying in size and joining them together, in red and green checkered, Gryffindor and Slytherin. He sat down to check it. 'It would have been nice if it had legs and to bring more cushions leaving them their size, it would be more comfortable, although folded blankets might work. Ugh! I have to learn how to Summon…'

He arranged the six candles, two on the table, two on the cabinet and two in front of the couch at a safe distance. He stepped back to observe the effect.

'A humble but cozy love nest… Buah! What if Lily thinks I'm trying to go too far? No, no, it is clear that it is a couch and not a bed, and in any case I am in charge of showing her that I only want to kiss her. The jar of berries… on the floor next to the couch, within arm's reach.'

He cast the heating spell. 'Sixty degrees, so as not to get cold. I'm staying the night, lest Filch catch me just today, punish me and ruin the date. Also, I want to spend the night in the place where tomorrow at six-odd, I will finally fulfill my dream of six-odd years.'

He blew out the candles, leaving only the one by the headboard burning. 'Red like her hair.' He undressed, got under the blankets and fell asleep imagining the scene for the next day, planning everything in detail, every look, every smile, every gesture, word, hug, caress… 'Everything except the kiss she is going to give me. It is going to be infinitely better than I have ever imagined, which has been millions of times.

'A thousand times better than that clumsy attempt under the beech tree, a thousand times better than if she had been thrown unexpectedly like I've been waiting for, a thousand times better…' he thought rereading Lily's three notes, 'because now we've told each other, at least in metaphors in black on sepia, thatwe want each other.'