"Trust me, you shouldn't want anyone like me on your back."
"Maybe I don't want anyone like you on my back," His eyes darkened as he stepped closer, confining me tighter into barely any space as my back pressed against the wall.
"Maybe I want you. U...
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
"DANCE WITH ME IN THE DARK," SHE whispered to me, taking hold of my hand and pulling me towards her, a vibrant smile pinned on her face as though it belonged there—despite the dark alps we were weaving our way through, despite the dark wizard that lay ahead.
The night was the darkest I have ever seen it be, the sky abandoned by the stars and the moon no longer in sight. The air held a chill in it—the barest thing that kissed a piece of my exposed skin, despite the cold protective charms Aurelius Dumbledore had in place safeguarding our presence. Somehow, his effort did not feel as considerate as Viktor Krum's had felt. Somehow, neither compared to each other.
Bridgette pulled me close and giggled softly, as we separated and she twirled me around, holding my finger as my hair spread out, my feet tracing an invisible rune on the ground in an art form I couldn't remember the last time I had done. I let out a small laugh, and it echoed in the small stone clearing between the mountains like the chimes of the Beauxbatons castle chandeliers on windy nights.
Bridgette stopped me, and I tugged on her own hand, pulling it to the top and holding her finger as she twirled this time. She was swift, quicker on her feet than I was. For a moment, I forgot about everything else, until I felt the chill seep into the skin on my face and down the walls of my throat. I realized I was panting, and a big laugh was frozen on my face as my chest heaved.
She stopped as we separated. Tugging a piece of hair away from her lips, she clapped her hands and laughed, our eyes meeting. Barely able to hold back my own laugh, I looked from her to Aurelius Dumbledore, only to find that the wizard had stopped in his tracks, and his eyes—dark, calculating and inquisitively mesmerized—stared at me.
His hands were still pinned behind his back, his posture ramrod straight, and a muscle twitched in his pale jaw.
Perhaps he wondered how careless I seemed, but he didn't realize I had spent all years of my life caring.
Bridgette didn't seem to care what the man in our company would think of this display of irregularity. She stood facing me, catching her breath as her smile slowly softened as mine did. Then she came close and put her hands on my upper arms, making me face her.
"Everything will be fine," She spoke, the sentence she had been exhaling like air since we crossed the hidden mountain pass and found ourselves twisting and turning in thin clearings with stone surrounding us, smack in the middle of the Austrian alps.
And somehow, every time she said it, I believed it a little more.
I nodded and she sighed, looping her arm around mine and finally acknowledging Aurelius.
"How much farther?"
He cleared his throat, blinking as if pulling himself out of trance. "A few more hours."
