She was really here, not cursing him, not glaring at him, not turning away, but having her arms around him and letting him have his arms around her. The most he had hoped for in the morning had been a begrudging agreement to not resent him for existing. How could he have predicted that she’d be happy for his existence — that she wanted to exist right next to him. Nobody in the world could have predicted how it would turn out. He hadn’t believed it until… he wasn’t sure at what point he had started to believe. All that was certain was that they had kissed, that they still had their arms around each other. And that left no room for interpretation. They were together. Maybe he should say it out loud, just so that it’d stop to sound so incredible. Or just say it because “together” was a beautiful word and couldn’t be repeated too many times.

But they were having a sort of conversation — about their date of all things — so he’d not talk to himself while he had Clio to talk to. “Of course,” he echoed her, also words that he had never before noticed how nice they sounded. At least when Clio said them. “Of course. I’ll go watch you play on the next two Saturdays. And then we can go and watch Vi together. If you want to, I mean.” She’d want to. She wanted to see him, she had said so. He should stop doubting it. They would spend time together, and that not only on Saturdays. They would see each other over breakfast, during lunch, dinner… they would have to check their timetables and see when they were both free from classes. Maybe Vi knew by heart — not that he could go to Vi and ask like that. Now that he thought about it, he’d have to mention what had just happened to her. Or maybe he wouldn’t. She’d figure it out herself, he wasn’t exactly planning on keeping it a secret — just not on directly telling because how would he do that? It would be okay. Everything would be okay. How could it not? He felt light and exhilarated, and he was convinced that the clouds had thinned and that outdoors the world was brighter. Vi would also become happier. Nobody could be sad in this world. The past had been nothing but trouble and darkness, but from now on everything would be better, perfect.

Involuntarily, he shivered when she stepped away from him and there was nothing left where her body had been. But before he could panic about why she had decided to end the embrace, she had taken his hand. “You’re warm,” he replied immediately and just as immediately bit his tongue. That had been a stupid thing to say. Embarrassing. They had only just got together and he was blabbing nonsense. She’d change her mind, certainly. Sooner or later, she’d decide that she had made a mistake, for why should she want to be with someone who had during his whole time at Hogwarts never done anything even remotely outstanding and certainly would continue the same way afterwards. She would go on to be a famous Quidditch player and have thousands of fans and… he didn’t want to think about the future. Right now, she was holding his hand and asking his opinion, and he should try to make his brain think something more intelligent than just how good it had felt to hold her. “I mean-” He cleared his throat. “-it’s warm enough here for me. But we can also go elsewhere, dunno, library, empty classroom-” Wow, really creative of him, why not directly suggest the dungeons? Why hadn’t they had this conversation already in the summer; then there would have been better options. He tore his eyes away from Clio’s face and looked around them. “I really like this place, though.” The words escaped him before he had thought them through, surprising even him. It was just another Hogwarts location, one like so many others, one he had never thought about before. But now, it felt like the most beautiful, most magical spot in the whole of Hogwarts — at least as long as Clio was standing beside him.

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[attr="class","nuggetsubtitle"]here behind these walls

[attr="class","nuggetwords"]She would give just about everything, for a moment, to stand there and have time frozen completely around her. If only she could make things stop. Freeze. She wanted to take a moment to just look, really look at Arthur as he stood in front of her. It’s not like Clio hadn’t looked at him before. It was a rather stupid thing to think— of course she had looked at him before. But she wanted to just pause, to actually look at his face. How his cheeks moved when he smiled. How his eyes looked. His lips. She really only had stolen glances, a moment or two when he wasn’t looking, and when Vi couldn’t catch her. A moment at breakfast when she had a clear view of the Hufflepuff table. She didn’t have perfect eyesight, and it felt like, now that she was up close, she had missed so much. She had a very nice view of his face for the moment— she just wanted to prolong it. To take another moment to just look directly at him. Because he was so close, so close, and they had just kissed, and… She was actually going to be able to kiss him again, if she wanted. And she did want.

They were still talking about times, times that they could do things, when the Hogsmeade trip was, and she paid a great deal of attention to the way that he spoke. There was a nice form to the way that spoke; the patterns of his speech were enthralling to her. She could listen to him talk for quite a while, she thought. Just saying things. Anything. She hadn’t heard him speak that much, not even when they had a whole conversation in the halls. This was nice, different. It was strange to have things live up to her expectations and then exceed them all at once. “Yeah,” she said, nodding emphatically. They’d watch Vi together; she’d even wear yellow. She’d cheer on Vi and Athazaz and little Carin, and she’d try not to deck Nick Young when he looked at her like she had a second head growing out of her. “Will the rest of Hufflepuff let me sit with ‘em, do you think?” She never knew where she stood with them. Mags was good, of course, and Athazaz was harmless, but she didn’t think the others liked her too much.

That was fine. It didn’t really bother her much anymore. She was used to people not liking her, and it hurt a lot less now that she knew that Arthur wasn’t one of them. As she unwound, she really focused on that thought for a moment. If anyone else hated her, it was fine. As long as it wasn’t Arthur. And he didn’t hate her, he quite liked her. She squeezed his hand as she stood next to him, looking up at him. He was tall. Or she was short— she didn’t know which was more important for the moment. Once he said that she was warm, she flashed him another smile, stepping a bit closer to him. Now that she wasn’t nervous, she felt more like herself. More confident. Far more confident, really. “Here is good,” she repeated. “I mean it. I like it here. This tower, the others… After the pitch, they’re the best part of this school.”

[attr="class","nuggetnotes"]571 - Arthur Stroud - this is a bad post i am so sorry!

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This had to be the happiest moment of his entire life, a moment that left no question unanswered. Everything was possible now, he felt it. Everything would turn out absolutely perfect. The past year, the past months that he had spent first despairing and then increasingly upset, they were over now. Just looking at Clio, touching Clio, his confidence was imperturbable that in the end everything would turn out just fine. Like today. If he could wake up knowing his crush despised him and ending up snogging her, then he could do anything, right? The insurmountable problem of his lying parents, it was nothing. When he was home next, he’d just insist on his mum sitting down and honestly telling him everything. And then there would be an explanation for everything, and all his and Vi’s dark suspicions would be solved logically, and they would be the same family again they had been before these racist, bigot monsters had taken over. They were already losing power, after all, slowly but constantly. The Muggleborns were back. It was all brightening up as if the whole universe had just waited for him to kiss Clio.

He almost laughed at her question. Who wouldn’t let Clio sit with them? She made everything better. Maybe his eyes were just overreacting from gazing at her non-stop, but he was ready to swear that she glowed right now. If he hadn’t tested it several times already, he’d have to check again whether he wasn’t dreaming. “Oh, sure,” he said, “and if they don’t, I’m friends with Nick, you know, the Head Boy. He’ll give detention to anyone who acts stupid. But no one will.” Nick would certainly agree with him that this was a completely reasonable thing to do. He probably shouldn’t promise things in another person’s name, but in this case, why not? He was only saying that his friend would do what a Head Boy was supposed to do, and Nick loved to follow the rules. But it wouldn’t be necessary. He couldn’t imagine a single Hufflepuff who wouldn’t be nothing but happy to let Clio sit with them. And it wasn’t like he’d let anyone sit close to her but himself.

He’d have to stop to worry about saying something wrong. Somehow Clio seemed happy with whatever he said. How had he managed to miss that she would be the one where he didn’t have to be careful to say anything stupid or blush or… It seemed superfluous to think at all because with Clio everything just fell into place. And what good was thinking anyway when Clio was so close and he could do nothing but be absolutely and completely happy anyway. “It’s a perfect place,” he agreed, forgetting that he had suggested to sit down and instead putting his arms around her again. “I don’t know why I’ve never seen it before. So beautiful.” The pitch? It was an okay place, he guessed. He had never really thought about it other than when there were matches, and it had been a while since he had been excited about matches. But now, he couldn’t wait for them, for Clio would be there. Either sitting next to him or up in the sky. Lucky sky. Lucky pitch. He hadn’t known it was possible to be jealous of places nor that he’d be happy about it, but here he was. The Quidditch pitch, a meaningless place a moment ago, was now a place sanctified by Clio’s love for it.

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[attr="class","nuggetwords"]The pit of anxiety in her chest had unwound completely, and the unnerving feeling she had managed to completely dissipate. Clio didn't even realize that she was still holding tension in her fists. Maybe she had relaxed at one point, but the stress had returned, and she ignored the glimmer of excitement to get herself to calm down all over again. Of course, nearly moments later, she was once again able to become bright and anxious as she ran over the events in her mind. Though she knew that she wouldn't have wanted it, she was a bit annoyed that her extra little sense didn't tell her that something was going to happen, and neither did the cards. Well, it was more than possible that the cards had told her and she just hadn't listened-- or else she had read it the wrong way. Of course, she likely would have been furious if this hadn't been a pleasant surprise. But she wouldn't have believed any of it. She knew that she wouldn't. She would have continued to insist that Arthur hated her, that she was a horrible person, and everything would go on just like normal. There wasn't any way to guess, and... And things were going to look up, now, teenage optimism aside. She just sort of felt it. At least for a while, things would be better.

When Arthur said Nick would make sure she could sit with them to watch the game, she did laugh. "Young's sent me to at least two detentions this year," she said, her lips still pulled into a smile. She appreciated the effort-- adored it, really. To be fair, she did manage to get caught fighting the demon on Young's patrol no less than three times. So that was her own fault, not his. She had served those detentions with dignity, though Vi did arch a brow when she turned up late to the library to sit together. "But I won't give him a reason to this time. Promise." She swore it really, that she wouldn't take advantage of the fact that Arthur was friends with the Head Boy that already didn't care for her. And, besides, if she gave Athazaz some of her stash it was more than likely that he would keep his boyfriend from acting like a weirdo at the match.

Either way, she was going to sit with Arthur at the match, and she didn't really care, at this point, if the Hufflepuffs minded. Arthur had already said it would be okay, and she believed him on that count. Besides, she already knew what they thought of her, and she didn't think that was going to change. What was done was done, and she was far happier with just Arthur's focus, anyway. "I like all the nooks and crannies," Clio added, slipping her own arms around him. She didn't really want to let go, and the idea of sitting down had vanished completely from her mind. "And the pitch... Well, it's Quidditch. And you can see the stars nicely there."

[attr="class","nuggetnotes"]565 - Arthur Stroud - wow so late but heeere

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