I Will Follow You Into the Dark

When she walked through the portrait, Svetlanna expected Hermione and Harry to be the only ones in the room sitting over a pile of homework that had yet to be finished; yet when she entered the large room there were three people crowding around Aurora, two of which had fiery red hair and were hugging her. Smiling softly when she saw that Aurora wasn’t fighting off the twins as she would have, and figured she was good enough at going unnoticed that she could pass the small group without anyone knowing she had even been in the room. Slowly, and quietly, Svetlanna crept toward the stairs leading to her dorm and started to climb, thinking she had gotten away without anyone seeing.

The room was empty and cold, which caused a gentle smile to lie upon her lips as she walked over to her bed to collapse under the weight on her shoulder and the expectations of the next day. Her heated body, from both her long, quiet walk through the castle and her meeting with Alik, was cooled off greatly by the open window’s breeze and the freezing comfort of her bed. As she lay back and looked up at her ceiling, Svetlanna’s thoughts went to how the next day could go with Alik and how much more mature he was than most boys, which meant he was much more intimidating as well. Her face heated up even more when she thought back to how he had almost kissed her even before he asked her to be his girlfriend.

“Alik and Svetlanna,” she whispered to herself as she stood up from her bed and walked toward the bathroom to shower before going to bed. She had decided to skip dinner that night because her nerves were getting the best of her and as she stepped in the shower her stomach started growling uncontrollably and gnawing at the center of her abdomen. Loud groans of irritation left her parted lips, but she knew it was too late to go down to the Great Hall and fulfill her body’s needs; she just figured she’d eat a big breakfast so she didn’t embarrass herself while she was out with Alik.

Upon finishing her shower and getting ready for bed, Svetlanna walked into her room with her hair tied into a tight pony tail and crawled under the comfort of her sheets without a word to the girls moving around to get ready for bed around her. She smiled lightly to Ginny, however, but was too tired to speak much and far too hungry to even think straight. Instead, she just curled up into the fetal position, hugged her pillow close to her chest, and drifted off into a restless slumber with dreams of food playing over and over again.

While sleeping fitfully and rolling over for the seventh time in just four hours, long fingers ran through Svetlanna’s tangled hair and a voice whispered calls for her to come back to a conscious state, “Lanna, wake up.”

Svetlanna groaned and turned over to get away from whoever was disturbing her already uneasy sleep, and weakly pushed away the towering body away from hers with a slurred groan of her own, “Go away.”

George smiled as he looked down at Svetlanna’s sleepy frown but continued running his fingers through her ebony tangles and held her closest hand loosely in his as he continued to try to get her to wake up without causing a raucous and waking her roommates. He had walked into her room to sneak her into the kitchen because he hadn’t seen her during dinner, and, once he was in her room, he heard her stomach growl angrily as her face contorted into one of pure anguish; however, when he reached her side he wanted to do nothing more than to just lay next to her and watch her sleep.

An urge and impulse he had felt for the first time, and it scared him.

“Please stop shaking me,” Svetlanna whispered, sleeping dictating her voice and her accent only making it worse, “I’m trying to sleep.”

“Well, alright,” George whispered, pulling his hand slightly away to make it seem as if he were leaving, “I guess I’ll have to eat alone then.”

His words woke Svetlanna up at once and within seconds her eyes were penetrating his and her hands were rushing in his direction as she attempted to ‘stop’ him from leaving her side. As soon as her mentioned how he was going to eat, her stomach growled and woke her up enough to know that food was a better choice than sleeping with an irritated stomach. She slowly sat up from her pillow and looked for signs of lies in George’s eyes, “If I go with you… will you prank me? Because I’d rather not bother with it at this time of night.”

George’s right hand shot up and he winked at the young girl sitting in front of him –causing a light blush to taint her cheeks when she took in how things really looked- before nodding, “I just want a midnight snack, and you haven’t eaten since lunch, so you need one too.”

The walk was quiet, but full of a soothing comfort Svetlanna hadn’t felt since she left the Weasley house. For some odd reason, the stairs leading to the girls’ dorm didn’t scream when George and Svetlanna walked down which caused questions to rise in the pit of her stomach; however, she didn’t ask because it would actually involve her speaking to George head on.

When the two walked out of the annoyed portrait, George turned around and nodded back toward his back.

Confused, Svetlanna tilted her head slight and bit the inside of her cheek, “What?”

George rolled his eyes and grinned, “Get on. I run faster than you, so if we get caught we can both get away without much trouble of my worrying about you getting in trouble.”

“I’m too heavy for you to carry,” Svetlanna protested and backed away from George’s body, “I can run if it calls for, but I can walk for myself wh-“ before she could finish, George had lifted her in his arms with ease and threw her idly over his shoulder as if she weighed no more than a loaf of bread. The position in which she was in caused Svetlanna to blush, for George’s butt was just centimeters away from her face and she knew hers was the same for him.

“You’re no heavier than Ginny actually,” George mused as he turned into a different hall.

The rest of the walk was quiet, it just full of comfort and familiarity. George’s breath filled the air and Svetlanna’s stomach made the occasional growl, yet both teenagers didn’t share a single word with the other since they left the fat lady’s portrait. The bright heat on Svetlanna’s cheeks had even faded as the minutes went by and she clung tightly to the hem of George’s bed shirt so she wouldn’t tip over and fall. Suddenly, George stopped walking in front of a picture of a bowl of fruit and he set Svetlanna back on her feet with a smile on his face.

The first smile he had given Svetlanna since the incident with Alik and the prank.

Svetlanna cleared her throat awkwardly and motioned to the fake fruit, “Um, it is fake food… how are we going to eat it?”

George shook his head and ruffled the already messy hair on Svetlanna’s, “Just watch and learn, little one.”

Svetlanna watched with wide, curious eyes as he lifted his hand to tickle the pear on the side of the bowl and watched as it magically turned into a doorknob. George grinned down at Svetlanna and took her hand as he twisted the knob and lead her into the large, magical kitchen which was crowded with tiny elves that were working endlessly with food, coffee, and tea.

“Whoa,” was all Svetlanna could breathe as she looked around at the little elves. She had seen a house elf before, only once, when Dobby had been ‘helping’ Harry during her second year but other than that it was practically a first for Svetlanna. Along with the miniature creatures, the food had caught her attention and her stomach’s as well.

Upon hearing a growl, George’s laughter filled the air and he nudged Svetlanna forward toward food just a few feet away from them, “Don’t worry, you won’t get in trouble unless you get caught.”

With a nod, Svetlanna walked over to the muffins and fruit without a care and started loading her arms with as much as she could carry before turning to George and nodding. Although, the moment they turned started walking toward a small place to sit, tiny arms wrapped around Svetlanna’s legs and wails of pleasure and happiness filled the room.

“Dobby thought he would not see Lanna for a long time!”

A large smile graced Svetlanna’s features, and stunned George, as she dropped the content in her arms and turned to pick up and pull the little elf into a tight embrace. She thought his wide green eyes were charming and adorable and she felt that he was the most pure being she had ever encountered, “Dobby, oh how I’ve missed you!”

Tears tainted Svetlanna’s almost bare shoulder and Dobby’s arms wrapped around her neck, “Lanna missed Dobby?”

Svetlanna pulled away and nodded frantically, “You are my friend, of course I missed seeing you!”

Dobby’s tears overflowed and he broke down in her arms, “Lanna missed Dobby!”

A loud growl broke the happy moment and Svetlanna rolled her eyes at how angry she was making her stomach. The food was in her clutches, but, once again, she had put an encounter with her friends before making herself happy.

“If Lanna is hungry, then Lanna must eat,” Dobby said as soon as he heard it and he jumped out of Svetlanna’s grasps and started picking up the dropped food by Svetlanna’s feet. As much as she wanted to protest, Svetlanna could because the moment she thought about leaning down to help, George’s hand was on the small of her back and his breath was next to her ear.

“I bring you to a practical heaven for a hungry wanker and I don’t even get a hug.”

A blush once again returned to Svetlanna’s features and she turned around to gaze into George’s eyes with wide orbs of her own. She nodded slowly and pushed her body against George’s, feeling the feint dips of muscles and his lanky arms wrapped around her shoulders. She took in his smell, a light scent of a mixture of soap and the usual smell of the Weasley home. Feeling comfortable, Svetlanna hugged him tighter and took in more of his scent, causing laughter to echo from George’s chest.

Svetlanna looked up to apologize for what she had done, but when she tried to move George hugged her tighter against him.

George didn’t know what he was doing, he had no control over his bodies action, but when his mouth had the sudden impulse to whisper, “Please, be careful with that Alik guy,” he knew that some part of his heart, somewhere deep inside of him, had wanted to do that for a long time.

Svetlanna nodded and bit her lip before the two pulled away awkwardly and turned their focus on the food that had been set up in the space they had previously aimed to move to. With a simple clear of her throat, Svetlanna walked toward it with heated cheeks and shaking legs and sat down to grace her stomach with the food it had yearned for, for so long.

However, even with the change of action and position between the two, both knew that something had happened with between them that couldn’t be undone.

Something that they both would never forget.