Being the best I can be

Mary followed her gaze to the blackboard and raised her eyebrows as she looked at it. “Runes?” she asked. Ancient Runes was not her forte. “I’m afraid I can’t be of much help with that. Do you take Runes?”

“Yes, I do,” Moira replied as she nodded. She squinted as she looked at the symbols at the blackboard. “Which is how I know that those symbols are not runes. I have no idea what they mean. However, they still make me feel uneasy for some reason.” 

He grinned “Thank you. I try my best. Don’t want to disappoint you while I’m here and if we want to live in the Muggle world, well, I kinda have to know those things.. Instead of coming across as a moron, I can come across as a not so moron.” He chuckled and kissed her “I know I am looking forward to it as well, I hope we get to go really soon, that we won’t be held back..’

Gideon talking about living in the Muggle world made Moira’s heart pound, and her eyes went to the table while she smiled. “I’m sure you’ll do absolutely fine. If you ever make a mistake that seems strange, you can just be your charming self and the muggles will forget all about it.” After he kissed her she looked at him again, and put her head on his shoulder while still holding his hand. “I hope so too. Where would you like to go first?” 

“Oh no, just startled me a bit is all. I wasn’t expecting to see anyone down here,” Lily admitted. As she gathered her books back into her bag she continued speaking, “But if I’d known this is where you’ve been hiding I’d have come down a lot sooner.” 

“I haven’t been hiding,” Moira replied as she watched the readhead pick up her books. She would’ve helped, but Lily was so quick that there wasn’t really a point. “Why would you have come sooner? Have you been looking for me?”

Mary raised an eyebrow and smiled. “Any reason you’re just standing there?”

“Not really.” She smiled and shook her head before looking at the blackboard again. On it was a lot of symbols and drawings that didn’t make much sense. “I was just trying to understand what the symbols meant and got lost in thought.”

“I knew it was that.” He grinned so proud. “I’ve been trying my best to get there, I might need your help though…” He smiled and nodded. “We do need to save money, but we’ll get there hun, it’ll take time but we’ll get there one day.” Gideon squeezed her hand, he knew it would take time until they could put their plans in motion, but they would get there, eventually they would get there.

“You’re a quick learner. You keep surprising me with new words you’ve learned, so I have to say I’m impressed.” She smiled at him while thinking back to when she had been introduced to the magic world, and all the new things she’d had to learn. It hadn’t been easy. “I know,” she replied while nodding. “We’ll make it through. As you said, it’ll take time, but we have each other. That’ll make the time go faster. I’m already looking forward to it.” 

Gideon grinned and nodded. ‘He did do a good job placing you there, you’re smart and clever and I love all that about you.” He grinned. “We can go wherever we want to go, there’s international floos, there’s airplanes, that’s what they’re called right?” He looked a tad confused for a moment, he was learning about Muggle things slowly but surely. “I can’t wait until we get to do that.”

“Yes, that’s right, airplanes.” She smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “You’re learning. We’ll have to save up some money though. But if we’re both going to be working after we leave school then we’ll make it.” Moira could feel her heart aching to just go now instead of waiting till the war ended, but she knew they couldn’t. It was a strange feeling, not having everything planned out. Planning had always been one of Moira’s strengths, and she had always known what to do with her life. Not really knowing where or when they’d go travel was a bit exciting though, she had to admit that. 

May 1978 | Open

Moira was standing in an empty classroom, staring at the blackboard when she heard a noise behind her. Startled, she quickly turned around. “Oh, you scared me,” she said while holding a hand over her heart. “No you’re not interrupting anything. I’m just..standing here, really.” 

Gideon smiled. “I quite like that idea. I’ve always wanted to travel but due to this all going around there’s not really a chance of that happening.” He nodded “Let’s do it. I don’t mind wherever we’re going, but as long as it’s with you, the two of us can face the world.” He smiled at her and kissed her head ‘You have some great ideas, love.’

She smiled when he kissed her. “I suppose the Sorting Hat did a good job placing me in Ravenclaw.” Excitement was filling her body. It would be quite a while before they would get to travel, she knew that, but that didn’t stop her from already looking forward to it. “Oh can you imagine. We’ll have the entire world at our doorstep. I feel like when all of this is over then such a weight will be lifted off our shoulders and we can do whatever we want.” 

“Oh.” She sat down on one of the chairs while holding around her bag on the desk. “Probably shouldn’t have laughed then. But I can see how it was hard not to. I suppose it was quite a sight.” 

“Then it’s your choice.” He smiled at her and bit his lip. “I want to be with you.. and I hope they go away soon and that will indeed be our biggest concern.’ He smiled and kissed her head. “It should be our biggest concern at our age.. That and what we want to do in the future..”

“I know.” She sighed. “We’re too young to be worrying about a war. I mean, we’re supposed to be living our lives, doing whatever we want.” Her voice trailed off while looking down at the table. All of a sudden, she looked back up with bright eyes. “Oh, I’ve got an idea. When all of this is over, how about we take a trip? I don’t know where, but just...travel. Travel wherever we want before settling down.” It was a thought that had never occurred to her before as she had always had her future planned out. Seeing as it was all being postponed, however, she might as well make something nice out of it.

“I want you to do what you think is best, love, if that’s postponing your education than it’s postponing your education. But just because you want to do it, not because you feel like you have to do so.” He stroke her cheek. “I love you, Moira, you know that right?”

“I want to.” She nodded while saying it with sincerity. Her heart started pounding when he stroke her cheek and she couldn’t help but smile. Over a year together and he still made her all giddy. “Yes, I know. And I love you. I can hardly wait till You Know Who and his cockroaches have been defeated, and we can live a life where our biggest concern is what color our house walls should have.” 

She looked at him with disbelief. “You made the armours throw eggs at him? I can see why he didn’t particularly like that.”

“Thats quite the cliche, don’t you think? Telling me there’s more “fish in the sea”. Frank yawned loudly and sat back up. He was rather hungry and unfortunately he’d forgotten to take some food back up to his dormitory after dinner. “Fancy sneaking into the kitchens with me tonight? The House elves have gotten rather used to me showing up high and starving at this time of night.” Frank chuckled before standing up and reaching a hand out to help Moira up off the ground. 

“Well, there are more of them though. Well, maybe not in the Black Lake though. I expect the Giant squid has taken them all.” When he got up she looked at his hand for a moment before nodding. “I’ve been there a couple of times before. The kitchen, that is.” She took his hand and stood up. “They’re quite polite aren’t they? The House elves?”

Gideon nodded “It would make them more stable, but I don’t want you to give up on your education, that’s important to me okay? I want you to pursue your dreams.” He looked at her and smiled “So please don’t hesitate if you want to do it right away, we’ll manage.”

“No, I-” She stopped herself, her glance falling down to the table. With a sigh and shake of the head she continued: “I don’t think I’ll be able to anyway. I mean, I’ll be too worried. I’m really not good at studying when I’m thinking about other things. I am going to pursue my dreams, but I don’t mind waiting for a little while. My dreams aren’t going anywhere.”

“I think all the rascals have vanished into thin air, except for me of course.” James said. “Is the subject that you’re reading so boring you need help to stay awake?” 

“Well, it is History of Magic, so... Every time I read it, professor Binn’s voice pops up in my head. I guess it’s not really the subject that’s making me tired, but rather his voice going so slowly through my head.” She sighed while glancing down at her book. “And it’s been a pretty busy week. How do you manage to balance both your N.E.W.T.s and you head boy duties?”