Make Me Fall

28. Back to Reality

Today is our last day of freedom before we return to reality, to the war. I really don't want to leave. The last two weeks have been wonderful, walks on the beach, down to the rock pools, swims in the ocean and the little lagoon we found, waking up late - and once or twice early to see the sunrise - star gazing on the beach, making sand castles... The fun has been endless. While I'm excited to see our house and start decorating and what-not, I really don't want to go back to London yet. Maybe we could get a house on the beach...

I look over at Draco. He's sleeping on his stomach, one arm tucked under his head, the other flat out. He's snoring softly like he does when he's only sleeping lightly. It's still very early, the sun is only just up, but I want to make the most of today. The car is coming at four this afternoon.

I kneel and lean over him. I kiss him softly near his ear and he stirs a little. I kiss him again, on his cheek this time, and he mumbles something, starting to wake properly. I kiss him on the corner of his mouth and then on the lips. Then he kisses back.

"I will never get sick of waking up like that," he says quietly. I run my nose down his.

"Good, I hope you don't," I tell him, "now, come on, I want to spend all day relishing the beach."

I jump out of bed and go into the bathroom. I wash my face and change into my swimmers. I brush my hair into a pony tail and walk back out. Draco is stretching and yawning. I walk downstairs and get the tray of breakfast prepared for us by our house elf - yes, for our wedding someone gave us a house elf (Tippy) - and carry it upstairs. We have breakfast in bed, chatting about what we'll do, then Draco changes into his swimming trunks and we go out for a walk on the beach.

As we walk I glance sideways at Draco. We're both so pale, our children will get moon burn. Possibly before they're even born. The sun has made my freckles multiply and darken, but Draco is just as pale as ever.

We walk down to the rock pools, one of my favourite places.

"First to spot a star fish," I say playfully, hopping off and looking through the pools. We've been playing this game every time we've come here. One of us says a creature and we race to see who can find it first. There's been a little bit of cheating - spotting a creature before we say it, then claiming we found it really fast - but generally it's just good fun.

"Found one!" Draco calls. I skip over to where he is and look. He's found one of the huge, blue ones.

"Okay, what next?" I ask.

"Urchin," he says.

We play this game for a little while longer, then go and sit near our favourite pool. It's quite wide and deep and has the most sea life in it. I sit in between Draco's legs, leaning against his chest while we watch an octopus eat a crab. Once it finishes I stand up and stretch.

"Swimming time," I say.

"Sea or lagoon?"

"Lagoon."

The lagoon is on the other side of the rock pools. It's a bit tricky to get there, but it's so worth it.

There's a smallish cliff face that we have to climb up to get there. The lagoon is surrounded on all sides by cliffs. It's very private and beautiful. The water is crystal clear. The cliff isn't too hard to get up, there's plenty of handholds, it's the getting down part that's tricky.

I scale up the cliff and wait for Draco at the top. We walk through the little bit of bush and come out above the lagoon. We put a rope ladder here the second time we came, because otherwise it really is dangerous to get down there, and very difficult to get back out.