Ten years after I began at Hogwarts, Sebastian Sallow is back. And he's Professor Sallow now. He disappeared after the fall of Ranrok and Rookwood, after I lost Professor Fig, and after Ominis and I couldn't keep him from losing himself. But I never...
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As April's delicate fingers dance around mine, my nerves are so skittish I'm sure I could start a lightning storm above us.
"God, my nerves feel like lightning!" she says through a nervous chuckles and shakes her shoulders.
Wha?
She sighs. "Thank you for being so brave. So eloquent." Her eyes sparkle as she says quietly, "you're wonderful. And so good with words." My whole body hovers between life and death when she gingerly declares through a clenched whisper, "the fact is, I feel the same way you do. I'm just terrified to say it." She looks up at me with a hesitant smile and wide eyes.
::Fucking impossible.::
What if it isn't impossible?
I struggle to believe what I'm hearing as she slides a hand to the curve of my neck. "I'm not great at feeling my feelings. They're so big. Too big sometimes." She smiles weakly.
"I know what that's like..." I admit, honestly, in an attempt to help her feel less isolated.
She nods with a smile, "I know you do. Really. And that helps! But...around you?" She laughs in a way that reminds me of how stubborn leaves shimmy in derision against an Autumn gale, refusing to be plucked from their dormant branches. Her eyes are crinkled so warmly as she speaks. "You, Sir Bastian Sallow..." she shakes her head as her smile fades and her tone becomes serious, again.
"You make me feel." She says it with a sense of gravity. A sentiment that, again, I understand wholeheartedly.
She holds the intention of her sentence in her eyes that beckon me to watch her closely. Placing her hands on my shoulders, she exhales in surrender to a force somewhere outside her. From her waist I feel her entire form melt into relaxation before her skin buzzes with a low hum that accelerates into a tremble, causing the platform beneath us to rumble as April snaps her eyes shut and then opens them to me, flooded with blue, magical light.
From some invisible place below, a wave of magic begins to envelop us both. She draws it up through her body like a tsunami as it rolls up from her knees, pulling her torso inward and drawing her head down as it culminates and amplifies in her chest, before – with a delicious gasp – April's back arches, yanking her shoulders back and throwing her head to the sky,
Her fingers grip at me as a massive, iridescent bubble of blue blooms from her chest and encircles us both where we sit, blossoming around us like a protego shield that gradually rises through us. As it ascends, lighter than air, it draws an unexpected climax of sorts from my body, like the sensation April caused in the forest some weeks ago, and I find my own hands clamping at her waist for support.
The magic fades from her eyes and I watch her gaze turn upwards as the magic bursts beautifully into the sky, taking the form of thousands of tiny, blue lacewing flies that flutter, weightlessly down upon us and send shocks of happiness through me, energizing me with each touch.
