Dandelion Wishes

A cool summer breeze billows through the countryside gently, ruffling green grass, blowing dandelions, disgruntling the garden gnomes that have taken stock in the Weasley’s side garden, and twisting pieces of bright red and dark brown hair. A girl and a boy are resting on the side of a hill that overlooks a small village, getting caught up in the way the dandelion blooms break apart and swirl away in separate, see-through white fibers.

“Dad reckons you’re supposed to make a wish on those,” says the boy, his red hair glinting in the overhead sunlight.

“What would you wish for, then?” asks the girl.

It’s quiet again while the boy, a pale, freckled faced ginger that can’t be no more than twelve, ponders just what it is he’d wish for. While he thinks, the girl turns her head so she can watch him and smiles as her light eyes trace over his features.

The two did this often, find somewhere to escape from the busy wizarding world they’d been wrapped up in ever since they were born. Mrs. Weasley, the boys’ mother, fretted over them straying off too far, so it was always this hill they’d run off to because it wasn’t far from Ron’s house. Sometimes they stole a couple of chocolate frogs from one of his older brothers or grabbed Ron’s sack full of wizarding cards, then made their way down here, where they’d spend hours upon hours talking and laughing and begging each other for a certain card or another chocolate frog.

“I’d wish to be a better flyer.,” says Ron eventually.

Emmilyna, the girl, wrinkles her nose and scoffs. “Wishes are supposed to be more meaningful than that, Ron.”

“Alright, then—what would you wish for, Emi?”

The girl smiles, her eyes flickering away from the boys’ face and down to where her hands come together on her stomach.

“I’d wish for my first kiss to be with someone I love.”

“What?” Ron gags.

“Don’t laugh!” Emmilyna exclaims, slapping Ron’s shoulder lightly. “I want someone to kiss me, is that so bad?”

Ron shrugs, trying to seem like it’s not, but his expression gives away his confusion at his friend wasting such a good wish on something as silly and rather revolting as akiss.

Clearing his throat, he looks over at Emmilyna, noticing how her lips are puckered downward in a trembling frown and how her orbs are pooling a little with tears. He knew she didn’t like to be teased, that she didn’t like it when people made it seem like her dreams and desires were stupid, and now he feels bad that he laughed. She was his best friend, even topping Harry and Hermione, and he didn’t like it when she cried. It made him feel helpless and, if he was being honest, made his chest hurt.

“Alright, Emi,” he gently says, shoving himself up off the soft grass. “You want someone to kiss you?” The girl looks up, her eyes swimming with tears that have not yet fallen. “Come on.”

Ron gets to his feet, then helps Emmilyna up, the two starting the trek down the hill with the ginger headed boy leading. Emmilyna is confused though, as Mrs. Weasley had warned them several times not to go down to the village, which is where Ron seemed to be taking them.

“Your mum said not to go to the village, Ron!”

“Relax,” Ron says, scoffing a little. “We’re only going behind that big tree, just there.”

“But why?”

Sighing, Ron throws a slightly annoyed look over his shoulder. He really did think girls talked too much.

“Do you want your first kiss or not?”

Eyebrows furrowing deeper, Emmilyna falls into Ron’s side because she’d stopped paying attention. Ron lets out a grunt and scowls at his friend again.

“But… Are you going to kiss me, Ron?”

“I don’t want you to be sad because I laughed at you, Emi,” he softly says, annoyance gone. “So I’ll kiss you and make it all better. That’s what dad does when mum is upset at him.”

“Oh,” Emmilyna mutters. “All right. You can kiss me.”

Ron pretends to cringe at this and truly it makes his stomach twist a little uncomfortably, but it was what Emmilyna wanted, so he’d give it to her. No one would know, anyway, so Fred couldn’t say he had cooties and Harry would still be his friend.

Once they reach the big oak Ron had eyed for their kiss to take place, he stops, glances around and then nods while looking at Emmilyna. Her eyes are normal sized and they’re gazing up at him with specks of shimmer scattered through from the big, bright sun that is stuck up above them. Ron takes her other hand and holds both in his. He clears his throat.

“Ready?” he asks.

Emmilyna swallows the lump that had lodged itself in her throat and starts to tremble a little, but nods. Ron shuffles forward.

“Wait!” she exclaims. Ron sighs and hangs his head. “Do I close my eyes?”

“I dunno…” Ron says, confused, trying to remember how his parents had done it. “I think so? And you have to pucker your lips too, like you’re making a fish face.”

Emmilyna nods and does at Ron had instructed, looking over at her red headed friend for his approval. When he nods and grins, she tries to keep her face that way. Soon, Ron is making the same face and he’s slowly closing his eyes while leaning forward. Both have now started to tremble in anticipation and slight fear, and Ron thinks he might want to run away because the idea of kissing a girl doesn’t really sound all that appealing. But he doesn’t; instead of fleeing back up to his house, he presses his lips against Emmilyna’s and lets them rest there until his stomach gives a lurch and he thinks he may be sick.

Jerking back, he wipes at his lips, face in a grimace, and looks over at Emmilyna. She’s grinning, her fingertips pressing against her mouth, and her orbs are wide with happiness.

“Well?” Ron tentatively asks.

“I think you bit my lip!” she chuckles.

Ron, scoffing, rolls his eyes and starts back up the hill. Emmilyna runs after him and catches up easily, slipping her little hand in his before swinging them. Instead of shaking her off, Ron grips her hand too.

“I should get all your chocolate frogs for that, Emi,” he says and the girl laughs.