Starling Darling, Harry Potter Love Story

Chapter Twenty-Six

Star and comment!
Three hours earlier...

WAS STAR STUPID OR JUST TOO BRAVE? Maybe she should have been a Gryffindor after all because no Slytherin in their right mind would walk out in the dark and creep toward the courtyard.

"Over here, Star!"

"Good lord, Harry! You scared the shit out of me!"

He chuckled. "Just come sit! I have your favorite!"

"Cheesecake?" She questioned, creeping forward.

"Yeah, yeah, I have your cheesecake!"

She rushed forward.  Her heart pounded like a racehorse when she saw the setup he had created.

The courtyard was empty except for Harry. He sat on a small picnic blanket and a basket sat right beside him, with cheesecake sitting in front of him.

"You didn't!" She gasped.

"I did!" He beckoned her forward. "This is the bare minimum, Star. I'd do this for you any day and so much more."

Her heart melted. "How did I get so lucky?" She asked as she sat down.

"Hmm, I don't know. Me begging, pleading for you to give me a chance, maybe?"

She grinned. "Okay, well, if I had known you were going to get me cheesecake I would have said yes a lot earlier! Who made it anyway?"

"I asked the house elves to make it for me a little while back. Thank Merlin they said they would make it because if I had this picnic would be a whole different story!"

"Don't tell Herm you had the elves bake it for you, she'll go ballistic."

"I won't!" He grinned. "You want a bite?"

"Please!" Harry cut a slice and shoveled some onto a fork before feeding it to her. His mouth parted slightly as her lips wrapped around the fork. She smiled with a mouth full of cheesecake before looking away.

"Star, I-I've been meaning to tell you that I really am glad you, I don't know, took a chance on me? Maybe that sounds dumb and I don't even know but-- thank you is what I'm trying to say." Star moved closer to him, their knees touching.

"No way you're saying that. I've been a right bitch and I have no idea how you'd still go for me."

It was his turn to beam like crazy. His lopsided smile cracked the last bit of wall that remained around her heart. "You're my favorite person, you know that?"

"I had no idea!" Star was completely and utterly smitten with the boy she never used to think twice about. Or, maybe, that was a lie. A lie she told herself so she wouldn't think about him ever again. It never worked.

"Kiss me," Harry asked.

Star's eyes shifted up to his. "What?"

"Kiss me."

Her eyes went to the size of saucers. "I'm not very good. You'll be my first kiss."

"It's okay. You're mine too."

"Okay, then."

Star put her delicate hands on his face, her silver rings putting out the raging heat on his skin. Their first kiss wasn't gnashing of teeth and tongue, no lust-driven haze or cloudy eyes. Simply, a first kiss. Her lips were like silk over glass, smooth and inviting and he was as tentative as tentative could be. Gone were the outgoing Harry and Star, now reduced to a young boy and girl, sitting underneath the moonlight, with no care in the world. Gone were the papers, Aglaope, the Tournament, and the turmoil. The present was calm and serene like a still lake.

No descent into madness had ever been this slow.

Harry pulled back, the pink in his cheeks had migrated to his ears and down his neck, disappearing underneath his shirt. They gaped at each other like fish out of water, having just come to terms with one of their 'firsts' now being eggs in each other's baskets.

"I-" Harry started and ended just as fast.

"I've never done this before. What do you say after having a first kiss?" Star questioned.

"Let's do it again sometime?" Harry proposed.

"If you'll let me, Harry."

His pink cheeks were now a bright maroon.

"That good?" He asked.

"You're too much like your dad," She deadpanned.

"Nuh-uh!" He guffawed. "How so?"

"Always ruining the moment with your cockiness, that's how so!"

"You're insane-- I do not!"

"Sure, and I'm not blonde."

"Pfft! You don't want to start this, I can whine for a long time!"

"Do I need to kiss you to shut you up? If a kiss got five seconds I wonder what something else would do."

"I'll answer your question, Star." She looked confused for a second. "Just three seconds ago you said 'If you'll let me, Harry' and I'm saying I'll let you. Anytime you want. Want to pull me out of class because you miss me? Do it. You're lonely? Come find me. You just need me? I'm there."

She blazed scarlet. "You're such a weirdo! What happened to the guy saying I was his first kiss? All quiet and nerdy."

"He's gone. I've had my first kiss now, and so have you. Let me tell you something, Star. As soon as a man gets his first kiss, he's invincible."

"I thought you already were, Scarhead!" She flicked the lightning-shaped scar in the center of his forehead.

"Eh, lightwork compared to this!" He gestured between them.

"Ugh, I'm dating a freak!"

"Dating?"

"Shut up!"

"Only if you kiss me, Starling Darling!"

"Ugh, fine, if that's what it takes!" She pulled him closer and in for another kiss. This one was shorter, innocent, even. It didn't feel like that to Harry.

He felt like he was on Cloud fucking Nine.