when: Summer, 1977
where: Birmingham
who: Caitriona and @benjyxfenwick
Caitriona was nervous, an entirely unwelcome and still largely unfamiliar state of being for her. She’d put almost as much preparation into this day as she had her OWLs, except instead of revising her notes and reviewing her text books she’d been practicing converting muggle money in her head and memorizing the timetables for the train. It had been worth it, as she’d successfully purchased her ticket and boarded the appropriate train, but then she had over two hours sitting and staring out the window to worry about everything else. Her dress, which had seemed casual and youthful when she found it in a muggle shop in Galway, now felt fussy and matronly. Despite her best efforts, she kept coming back to the fear that her relationship with Benjy might not stand up to the light of day, that what worked so well in private would fall apart in public, even wrapped in the protection of anonymity. Worse still was the possibility that Caitriona’s ignorance of the muggle world would negatively affect Benjy’s opinion of her. What if he liked her best when she was capable and knowledgeable? What if he only liked her when she was confident and in control?
The what-ifs haunted Caitriona all the way from London to Birmingham, but she refused to give into them. She was not going to cower on the train like a first year afraid to go to Hogwarts, but she did undo a few of the buttons near the bottom of her dress, which made her feel better in an odd way. It was enough for her to disembark with the rest of the passengers and it turned out that was all she needed. Almost as soon as Caitriona set foot on the platform she saw Benjy, and exactly as soon as she saw Benjy her worries were washed away in a wave of excitement. For a moment she stood very still, the instinct to pretend he didn’t mean the world to her taking over, but then she remembered that the entire point of this trip was putting aside the need for secrecy. With that Caitriona was moving, pushing through the crowd in an unladylike way that was incredibly freeing. By the time she reached Benjy she was very nearly running, with just enough momentum to jump into his arms. Wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, she kissed him like it had been months since she’d seen him, instead of mere weeks.
It wasn’t until some of the other travelers began whistling and clapping that she pulled away, breathless and pink cheeked and unwilling to disentangle herself entirely. “Hi.”
