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are we in the clear yet?
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The Hogwarts graduation of 1978 was no small occasion. The week leading up to the grand date, professors cleared out all the assignments and left the graduates to do as they pleased, making sure their final moments at Hogwarts were well spent, and bursting with good memories.
In all of those days, the great hall spared nothing, plentiful with sugar dusted pastries arranged on crystal platters, trays of steaming dim sum that often disappeared in minutes, towering platters of butterbeer fudge, scalding hot bowls of noodles, to glistening mounds of flavoured ices.
The seventh years would be living their best life until they stepped out of those doors for the last time.
Celeste and her friends were often found by the Black Lake, under the cool sanctuary of their favorite willow tree in the summer heat. They watched clouds chase each other, skipped flat stones into the murky water, and horribly sang muggle songs. Celeste had discovered a liking to ABBA, and they would all often chant the lyrics to Mamma Mia.
On their last evening before the graduation, Sirius and Celeste found themselves alone up in the astronomy tower―their agreed favorite spot. Their relationship was still a secret, so they often spent nights together there, wrapped in each other's arms. It was those stolen moments where Celeste could always feel pure bliss and ecstasy.
But this night was different.
"We've been dancing around this, Sirius ."
He closed his eyes, resting his head against the wall. It was hard to tell if he was tired, or sad in the dim lighting. "I know," he said. "I'm sorry about that. But I'm not breaking my promise to you."
"If it doesn't work out-"
"It will work out, love. You don't have to say that."
"If it doesn't work out," she pressed on. "I need you to know that it's not your fault. That it was never a responsibility on you. And that I would never blame you." She turned to look at Sirius, who had gone unusually still. Her hands trembled.
"But most of all," Celeste continued, "I want you to move on. To forget all about me and find a happiness somewhere else that doesn't have a trace of me pulling you back."
"No." Sirius looked sharply at her in the eye with both anger and desperation. "You don't understand it, do you? That I love you over anything in the world? That I think the world of you?" He shook his head. "I'm not giving up on you so easily. I won't let you even walk down that fucking aisle."
