Intertwined

Chapter Five

It is lucky Maggie whispers the message when she does. While they had been dancing, getting closer and closer, one of Elijah's friends Jim (who didn't have a date) sat with him.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Jim asks.

"Foots getting better, thanks." Elijah replies.

"So, why the hell is your girlfriend practically glued to that Slytherin bloke? You guys break up or something?" Jim asks, concerned.

"Break up? No! What do you mean 'glued to him'?! He just came over to ask her for one dance because he saw I couldn't and that she wanted to!" Elijah spoke frantically.

"That's how they get you." says Jim knowingly. "Oh just one innocent dance. Look they're making such goo goo eyes at each other. Oh my god! Are they going to kiss?" Jim exclaimed. Elijah watched in horror as Carter drew himself closer and closer to Maggie.

All pain in his foot forgotten, he lurched to his feet and practically ran to them, reaching them seconds after the last sweet note of the waltz was ringing. Odd, but he could have sworn she was whispering something in the Slytherin's ear. Elijah tapped the other boy's back unceremoniously. The pair jerked apart suddenly as they saw him. "I think I'll step in now, thank you."

Carter simply nodded and gave Maggie a little bow before leaving them alone. "What was that?!" Carter hissed as he took her in his arms and the music began again.

"What was what?" asked Maggie, really confused. She was still so caught up in their almost kiss, she couldn't think.

"You, pressed up against that-that Slytherin!" He said the name as though it were a curse word.

"Don't be ridiculous!" I said. "I was not 'pressed against him'! We were just dancing!"

Elijah unfortunately took the guilt in her eyes for sincerity and hugged her close. "I'm sorry, I guess I just get jealous sometimes." You should be! A part of her wanted to scream. I just made plans with a guy I have feelings for to meet him in a moon lit garden.

The Ball was set to end at one in the morning, but as she predicted her friends were too tired to go on at eleven thirty, including Elijah. "You go on up." she said. "I'm just going to take a quick walk in the gardens and get some fresh air." They were too tired to question her and went.

Maggie went into the garden, found a secluded alcove with a bench and sat down, resigned to wait. Ten minutes later he appeared. Carter. She stood. "You're early." she stated, as if this mattered.

"You're earlier." he said, playfully. She felt the corner of her mouth twitch up at that.

"I'll give you that. So, what are we going to do about this?" She asked nervously, twisting her hands.

"What else can we do but give in to this, now that we've admitted it to each other?" he said, taking her hands in his.

"I have a boyfriend." She said weakly.

"May I remind you that it was your idea to meet here in the first place?" he said drawing nearer.

"Well, yes but only because I want to clear this up."

"What do you mean? I thought you liked me?" Carter asked, hurt.

"I do! But you...you are not...good for me." she said lamely.

His eyebrows drew together. "Maggie, what the hell are you talking about?"

She sighed. "I never tell anyone this, but the rest of my family are Slytherins."

"So?" he asked. Lots of people are different from the rest of their families.

"That's the thing!" she said desperately. "You don't understand. My family are a bunch of conniving mind game playing people. But I'm not different from them, I'm worse."

"Maggie, you're the sweetest, most honest person I've ever known."

"Well, I didn't use to be. I used to think it was fun to play people's lives. It was so easy, so entertaining. The only thing to do really living in a huge old country house where the nearest civilization was a town of Muggles. All my family liked to play, we sometimes even had contests. But one time I went much too far. I-I caused a man's death."

"What?" He said.

"Yes, well, I tricked him into thinking his wife was having an affair with a brother, which obviously made him incredibly angry. So much so, he murdered his brother! I-I never thought he had it in him. I just thought the wife and the brother would be a better match, that's all. But after that I swore it off, my family still doesn't understand. Since then I've been a Hufflepuff through and through. You, bring it out in me again. Secret meetings in the moonlight, tricky flirting, smooth charm, everything I've tried so hard to rid from myself. It has been so hard to build all of this. I've resisted my heart's urges, I've fought against my family, I got a boyfriend that makes me content. And being with you, even being around you, would destroy all of that. Don't you see? I can't, no matter how much I want to." Maggie said her voice breaking.

Carter looked down at his hands. "Maggie, the fact that you've done all of that proves nothing could destroy you but you. You are a Hufflepuff because you made the choice to denounce what you did not like. That makes you even better than anyone who was like that from the beginning. The fact is, you make me good, I don't make you bad." All the time he had been drawing closer to her.

"You make some very good points." she said and drew fractionally closer.

Finally they pressed their lips against each others. It felt like coming home to her true home. It could have been hours before they broke apart.

"Perhaps I should break up with Elijah." she said slowly.

"Perhaps you should." They kissed again, he couldn't believe how soft her lips were. And for the first time he felt truly right in their golden bubble of peace.