here comes the sun

He went through the next page and smiled, “What about this one? It was our first train ride to Hogwarts. Can you believe that was already seven years ago? It’s ridiculous… It can’t have been that long, seven years…” He muttered.

Marlene squeezed Gideon’s hand. “Seven years,” she repeatedly faintly. It couldn’t possibly have gone by that fast. “We’ll be leaving soon,” she sighed, resting her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes. The finality of their tenure at Hogwarts had suddenly struck her, and she was afraid. War was being raged outside the safety of the school, and Marlene wasn’t ready to face it. She took a deep breath and held it before it finally shuddered out of her. “What will we do?” she asked quietly, desperately.

Batting Frank’s hand aside, she nimbly jumped up, hiding the way her body protested at the sudden movement. Marlene grabbed the hand that had so recently assaulted her delicate ribs and tugged her friend to his feet. “I do so love chocolate,” she replied thoughtfully. “James always buys the best kind, too. Quite thoughtful of him,” she added with a giggle. The pair trudged back up to the castle, and Marlene suggested stopping in to the kitchens to grab a couple sandwiches and some pumpkin juice.

He smiled softly and nodded. “I do too, I had just gotten that broomstick for my birthday and I was really happy because the year before Fabian had gotten one and I didn’t want one, but I kept stealing his so often that my parents decided to give me one as well.” He looked at the picture and smiled, watching little Gideon shoot from one side of the picture to the otherside. “God I was such a show off back then.” He smiled “You were there too, on that birthday, I remember that because it was the second or third time that you came to our birthdays and I wanted you to get on the back of the broom with me. Do you remember that?”

She smiled as Gideon put into words a memory she hadn’t thought of in many years. “You’re still a show off now,” she said softly. She smiled slightly to show she was joking. “Yes, I do remember,” she added wistfully. “It took quite awhile for you to convince me. In the end, I think I finally climbed on after your mum told me to stop teasing you.” She smiled again and sniffed as the stinging came back with a vengeance. Marlene reached out and flipped the page with a finger. She nearly choked on her laughter when she saw an eleven-year-old Marlene and Gideon holding their Hogwarts acceptance letters. They had hidden Fabian’s letter, and he was standing apart from his brother and his friend with his arms crossed and his brows furrowed. “Oh we were horrible to poor Fabian,” she commented. “How long did it take him to find his letter, anyway?”

The blonde waved her wand, Vanishing the mess from the grass before collapsing backward. To her tired, aching body, the field was as comfortable as her bed. “I’m not sure I’m able to be up for anything right now,” she replied honestly. Her hands throbbed as proof from where she’d been gripping the handle of her broomstick for too many hours. She turned her head to him lazily. She and Frank had developed a routine after years of grueling practice, and she always looked forward to the moment she could dismount her broom and vent to her friend. They were each others’ confidantes, and James was more often than not the subject of their complaints.

Not even Dumbledore himself could’ve stopped Marlene from being there today, and she’d told him as much when she’d gone to see him the day before. No way was she going to miss something as important as the funeral of Mrs Prewett; the woman had practically been a second mother to Marlene. Pulling back further, she let her fingers trail down the back of his neck before dropping from his shoulders to pick up the book he’d been looking at. A fond smile curled Marlene’s lips as the pages fell open. “I remember this,” she said softly, watching an eight-year-old Gideon show off on a new toy broomstick.

Marlene made a snap decision to follow him. By the time she had elbowed her way through the crowd and across the room, Gideon was nowhere to be seen. That didn’t deter Marlene in the least; she knew where he had gone. She found him just where she’d thought, and she paused a moment in the doorway to study him before he noticed her. The image of one of her best friends sat with a photo album and a sad smile was achingly beautiful, and she had a sudden urge to wrap him up in the tightest hug she could manage. So she did just that. She was across the room in a heartbeat, sitting down next to him and throwing her arms around him. She didn’t speak; they’d been friends long enough not to need to, not yet. She spoke her emotions with touches and movements.