LIFELINE | 𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙮 𝙒𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙮

▪︎ 34.

"You look really good." Percy said for the tenth time, near the deserted Shrieking Shack.

"So I've been told by my boyfriend." Eliza replied cheekily.

"Yeah?" Percy said with a grin. "Who's the lucky bloke?"

"Oh, some Prefect. Really cute one, that too. You wouldn't know about him." She replied.

Percy turned slightly pink.

"I think I would, given that you know, it's me." He replied, straightening his collar.

"Yes, and you're so very proud of it, aren't you?" Eliza said, wrapping her arms around his neck, bringing him into a deep kiss.

When the kiss broke, they stared into each other's eyes affectionately. Percy was holding onto her waist, his glasses slowly dropping down his nose. Eliza wanted to stay in that moment forever. It was just them, teasing each other, in each other's arms.

It was then that Eliza made up her mind.

She loved him.

***

It was another quiet evening as people huddled in the common room, their heads together, studying. (Except Fred and George, of course.)

Study sessions sprung up amongst random people that nobody paid two minds at Eliza and Percy, who sat near a table, their books stacked and kept neatly much to Percy's insistance. Eliza didn't fight him on it. She just grinned, folding her arms as he furrowed his brows in concentration, piling their books neatly.

He sat on the far end of the table, and Eliza just beside him, around the corner that, she kept her leg under his and kept swinging it as they studied together. Percy wanted to say something, but he also didn't want to disturb the moment, so he let her swing their legs together.

"You know," Eliza said as she dipped her quill into her ink bottle, "I'm starting to think, Lockhart would award an O in everything as long as you start by praising him and end by praising him."

Percy gave her a look. "Professor Lockhart, and you shouldn't talk like that." He sighed. "But, he probably would. Don't repeat that to anyone." He added hastily.

"Of course not." Eliza replied, leaning forward to give him a kiss on the cheek but stopped herself in time. She awkwardly cleared her throat, using that as an excuse to reach out to her bottle.

"Were you... about to kiss me?" Percy asked, muttering, looking at her through his horn-rimmed glasses.

Eliza flushed. "I was hoping you didn't notice."

Percy smirked slightly. He was just about to open his mouth to reply to it when Rehan came bounding towards them.

"Before you both say anything—" Rehan said, putting his hand up. "—I'd rather third wheel you both than stand James and Claire's bickering." He said, pulling up a chair.

Eliza looked at Percy and turned back to Rehan, raising her brows at him. "What happened?"

Rehan rolled his eyes. "Ugh, Claire got asked mid way through Hogsmeade for today, and then James got mad – I don't know how it fell apart, really."

"Sounds like them." Eliza muttered under her breath, going back to studying.

A half an hour later, Oliver and the rest of the Quidditch team came into view, freshly showered and dressed from practice. Eliza's eyes briefly flew to Rehan's, which were busy looking at Oliver, with a laid-back posture.

"How was practice?" Rehan asked as Oliver drew closer and closer.

Oliver gave a bark of laughter. "I don't care of the Monster in the Chamber as long as it hands over the cup to us. It's going great!" He said excitedly, drawing up a chair beside Rehan.

They chatted for five minutes, and Eliza kept noticing the way Rehan's eyes burned with a blaze as he talked with Oliver. Then, Oliver, too, on Rehan's instance, got his bag down and let Rehan explain.

The common room almost became quiet. The noise between people was less bearable anyway. The small snippets of conversations between herself and Percy were everything to her. She really wanted to tell him how she felt, but when she looked at him, it only made her feel that he would start to cry from all that emotion. She felt like if she threw every ounce of love she felt towards him, he would break like glass.

"Alexandera?"

"Yes, darling?" Eliza spoke, breaking from her thoughts.

Percy smiled sheepishly at the new nickname. "Um, I was going to ask if you had your runes dictionary." He asked.

Eliza grinned, "It's in the pile of book you stacked very orderly." She said, leaning back and folding her arms.

"It just looks good that way!" Percy protested as he grazed his finger down the spines on the books and removed the runes dictionary.

"Hey," Eliza said, throwing her arms up, causing her quill to fall. "I didn't say I had a problem. I think it's very cute when you get all hot and bothered about stacking." She said her grin widened.

"Oh, shut up." Percy said, pushing up his glasses as he tried not turning pink.

"You know, if we were alone right now, I would've not hesitated to kiss you because you're just so hot when you're studying." She whispered, causing Percy to turn red.

She grinned, triumphantly. Bending down to pick up her quill, she tucked the ends of her hair back.

Eliza had to physically stop herself from gasping loudly as she came back up, shocked.

And then she smiled slyly at Rehan and Oliver.

When she bent down, she saw Rehan hastily shoving Oliver's leg, which was on top of his to prevent Eliza from seeing them. Although, she was pretty sure he brought his leg back up on his once she got up.

"What's wrong?" Percy asked.

"Nothing, just lovers being lovers."