Never Let Go

A serene smile danced across her lips as she lay atop the soft grass, completely oblivious to the world around her. Her dark brown curls mingled freely with the blades of grass, dipping in between them until ultimately falling upon the cool earth. The earth gladly welcomed the curls, offering them refuge from the afternoon sun that beamed down across the land. The sun, although bright, was no bother to her. She gladly welcomed it and even relished in the warm feel of its rays on her exposed skin. It had been awhile since she’d last laid out, much to long for her liking, and as she laid there, eyes closed and lips slightly ajar, she resolved on making time in her week for lying out alone. She enjoyed the company of her friends and cousin, but sometimes she just needed to be alone in a peaceful silence, so that she could center herself and reenergize.

Emilia lay there in silence until her wristwatch alarm went off. She didn’t normally wear watches, thinking them uncomfortable contraptions, but when Chey told her that she was going to have to meet up with them at 4 pm in front of Honeydukes. Emilia figured that it’d be best to take it along with her, that way she’d be reminded that it was time to head back and wouldn’t have to walk back to Hogwarts by herself. So at a quarter after three, the alarm began to wail, alerting her that it was time to go back to the village. Begrudgingly, she sat up, her eyes struggling to adjust to the sunlight as her smile was replaced with a small grimace. She didn’t want to leave. If Julie had stuck around longer, she wouldn’t have had such a hard time leaving the field, but Julie had taken off after their adventure in Honeydukes and now Emilia was seriously contemplating resuming her nap.

Eventually, she managed to convince herself that it’d be in her best interest to leave the field. She stood up and dusted herself off, brushing away the stray blades of grass that had attached themselves to her body. As well as the dirt that settled into her dark curls during her nap. She then took in a deep breath, reminding herself that she only had a half hour to get back to Honeydukes. With that in mind, she began the walk back to the sweets shop; trying her best not to get distracted by the landscape or the animals, she walked by. She ended up doing a pretty good job, only stopping once to stare at a deer that reminded her of Bambi. But that one time, was enough to make her late.

She wasn’t late by much. Only fourteen minutes. So she figured that maybe, just maybe they’d stuck around, that they were inside the shop, waiting for her to show up. Unfortunately for her, they weren’t. The pair waited until 4:10 and when she didn’t show up, they took off. They felt bad for leaving in Hogsmeade, really they did, but it was crucial for them to get back to Hogwarts before 5. They were supposed to work on a very important group project with a Ravenclaw. But before they left, they decided to look for Ron, that way they could ask him to take Emilia back to Hogwarts.

When they didn’t find him, they decided that Harry would do just as well and asked him if he could make sure that Emilia got back safely. Harry promised that he would. He didn’t have any pressing plans. His only plan for the day had been to get Hermione a birthday present and after lunch, when Ron had asked Hermione to help him with a paper at Hogwarts, he’d done just that. And now that he’d bought her gift, he could wait around for Emilia to show up. And when he saw her standing out front, he stepped out of Honeydukes and walked towards her.

“Emilia!” he called to her, a friendly smile decorating his face.

She turned in his voice’s direction. “Harry.” Emilia greeted him. “How’s it going?”

“Going alright, bought a few things,” he held up his bags. “You?” he asked.

“Doing pretty well, but I just sort of missed my walking group back to Hogwarts. That’s what I get for staring at that fucking deer.”

Harry suppressed a laugh. “Well, you’ve missed your first walking group, but not your second group. Chey and Jade asked me to take you to Hogwarts since you were running late. They said they had to work on a project. And said to tell you that they were sorry but that your and I quote, lazy ass shouldn’t have taken so long.”

“Hah. Those bitches,” she laughed, shaking her head slightly. “But at least they made sure I had a proper tour guide.”

Harry nodded in agreement. “So do you want to head back now or look around a bit longer?” he asked.

“Whichever’s fine,” she answered honestly. “Haven’t any coursework to do. So I'm open to anything.”

“Anything?” he repeated, twiddling his fingers together like a mad scientist.

“Anything that won’t get me killed.” Emilia clarified. “But with your track record, even walking to Hogwarts is a risk.”

“Oi, I'm not that bad.”

“Really Harry? Really?” she cocked her right brow.

“Well, it’s not my fault that I lead such an adventurous life.” He joked. “So what do ya say? Hogwarts the short way or the long route, there?” he ran a hand through his untidy hair.

“Is the long route, scenic?”

“Yeah, pretty scenic, bunch of grass everywhere, some trees as well. You know all that nature stuff.”

“Gee Harry, you should be a poet with the way you describe landscapes.”

“Keep talking like that and I’ll run off without you.”

“Both know you wouldn’t do that to me.”

“And why not?” he asked.

“Because we’re supposed to be best friends, aren’t we? At least that’s what I got from that awful baby picture of us. You know, the one where we’re both in our nappies, wearing those horrid shirts with that purple dinosaur on them.”

Harry tilted his head back, laughter rushing from his lips. “Can’t believe our parents put those shirts on us,” he said. “Wonder what they were thinking.”

“They were thinking that it’d be fun to dress us up in embarrassing clothes and take pictures of us for future humiliation.”

“Those would’ve been the sort of pictures they’d taken out when we’d bring dates over. Don’t ya think?”

Emilia nodded. “Suppose we got saved from that embarrassment.”

Harry remained silent for a moment before saying, “Think I would’ve liked the embarrassment.”

“Me to,” she added softly. “But don’t worry! When you get a girlfriend, I’ll dig out the baby pictures I have of us and show them off. Think I saw one of us in a bathtub.”

“No!” cried Harry, his eyes widening in horror. “Are you serious? Please tell me you’re joking. Don’t want my baby bits out in the open.”

“Baby bits?” she doubled over from laughter.

“What’s funny about that?”

“Everything!” she managed to say in between laughs.

Harry rolled his eyes at her. “Will you stop laughing, already? It’s not that funny. Not really.”

“Alright, alright, there,” she stood up, wiping away the tears that had fallen during her fit. “Better?”

“Much.”

“So we gonna get going now?”

“Might as well.” Harry straightened up his glasses. “We’ll go the long way. Give us a bit of time to chat.”

She knew what he wanted to chat about it. “My lovely cousin?” she asked, a smile playing across her lips.

“That alright?” he asked as they began to walk.

Emilia nodded. “Though I’ve got to admit there’s not much to say.”

“What do ya mean?”

“I’ll explain when there aren’t as many people around. Don’t want them overhearing, do you?”

Harry nodded in understanding and maneuvered them to the scenic path that they’d be taking back to Hogwarts. They walked on in relative silence, dropping comments every so often, until finally feeling safe enough to start discussing Draco.

“What about Malfoy?” he asked, as they walked along a dirt path.

“Remember how he wanted to be friends with me?”

Harry nodded.

“Well, that’s not happening anymore. Hates me now,” she muttered. “The other day he told me that if catches me snooping around, he was going to dispose of me. Not like he could. I mean, I know he’s probably been trained in the dark arts by his dad, but my Grandpa forced me to take five years of dueling lessons and I'm sure I can handle Draco.”

“Bloody hell,” mumbled Harry. “Do ya think . . . do ya think he might change his mind? He’s a right git, but if you just . . . if you could know what he’s up to, it’d be a real help with what’s going on.”

Emilia remained silent.

“I know it’s a lot to ask, but I could really use the help, Emi. He’s up to something. What it is, I haven’t a clue, but I know it’s something important. He’s been acting strangely, distancing himself from his mates. So whatever he’s doing, whatever he’s planning . . . it’s massive.”

“But I don’t know how to get back on his good side.” Emilia stopped walking. “He hates Ron, he hates Hermione AND he fucking loathes you. I'm friends with all of you. Well, more like acquaintances with Hermione, but still, the point is I talk to her and as long as I'm on good terms with you guys. He won’t let me in. You know?”

“Then we’ll just have to make him.”

“How do you propose we do that? Do you want me to punch you in the face in front of him and tell you off?”

A smile slowly began to creep across his lips.

“No! Harry! NO! That is the stupidest idea I have ever had. I'm not going to fucking punch you. I refuse to punch you. That’s not rad. Nope. Not rad at all. We’ll just . . . we’ll figure something else out. Alright?” she rambled. “Something that doesn’t involve me punching you in the face . . . I mean, I can’t even punch you; not really, cuz I might break your glasses and then some shards will fall into your eyes. You can get blinded, you know. And you won’t ever see again. And how are you gonna defeat Voldemort if you can’t see? You might be the chosen one but you don’t have those skills.”

“You done yet?” he asked.

“For now, yes,” she replied.

Harry took in a breath. “Look, I know it might seem a bit extreme, but it’s not, not really. At least not when we take the circumstances into consideration,” he said. “Draco hates me. If he could kill me, he’d probably do it. And in order to be on his good side, you’ve got to do something to harm me. That’s the only way he’s gonna feel comfortable around you.”

“But your glasses,” she whined.

“I’ll manage.” Harry reassured.

She remained unconvinced.

“This won’t just be for me.” Harry added softly.

“Way to bring our parents into this,” she whispered. “But you’re right. This has to be done.” Emilia tore her gaze from his and looked out into the rolling hills. “Do you think it’ll be alright if I keep Ron though? Draco doesn’t hate him as much. Okay. He does, but I just got Ron back after so many years and I don’t want to let him go.”

“I'm sure we can think of a way to make that happen. What if . . . what if we get into a quarrel because I keep bringing our parents up and you’re just sick of it, you want to leave the past in the past and I'm set on bringing it up . . . so you’ll . . . you’ll yell at me about it. Say that I'm an annoying git and that . . .”

“Ron should have better friends than you,” she added. “That sounds like something Draco would say. Doesn’t it?”

Harry nodded. “I’ve heard him say something along those lines before, but he was saying that to me about Ron.”

“What a fucking prick.”

“And we’d just gotten into Hogwarts when he said that. But enough about that, I think we could really pull this off. It’ll be easy. We’ll get in a fight when we’re walking out of –”

“Potions,” she said. “We’ve got potions together. Maybe we could do it before we go in? That’ll get a lot of attention and um, I'm pretty sure I could get into trouble by Slughorn and if he gets me in trouble that’ll make it all the more believable. Draco will like that.”

Harry nodded in agreement. “You think we should tell Ron about this?”

“That’s probably not a good idea. He’s not much of an actor and we really need him to act like shits going down between us, if we want everyone else to believe it.” Emilia ran a hand through her dark curls. “He’s gonna be so pissed off when we explain things to him.”

“I think you should explain things to him.”

“Why me?” she asked.

“Because he’ll be more understanding if he hears it from you. If I tell him, he’s liable to tell me to bugger off. With you, he’ll listen and since you two were fighting last week, he’ll get over it so as to avoid another row.”

“That is true.”

“Course it is. So what do you say? Our plan alright?” he asked nervously.

“As alright as it’s gonna be.”