The first time she meets him isn't on the train to Hogwarts where he turns his nose up at her like she's nothing, no, it's in a field of poppies.
She knows it isn't quite real when she can't smell the smoke and burn of the flowers as they disintegrate around her. Flames dance before her eyes, but they don't touch her nor him.
He only asks her one question. Why you?
There isn't anything to say, but her answer comes later, when they're a little older and a bit taller, and much more jaded. The Wizarding world is on the precipice of war and she can feel it in her bones, so vast and tiring.
The leaves in her tea make shapes she refuses to acknowledge, yet they linger in the back of her mind like a stubborn cold. Divination isn't a real science, but it tastes hollow on her tongue, like copper. When she looks up, he's staring at her. He doesn't look away like all the times before.
He's broken and bleeding beneath her hands when she closes her eyes at night. It haunts her until the day it comes to pass, her fingers shaking like a leaf as she holds him together.
It's the first time she's touched him, save for a well-deserved crack to the jaw, and his blood stains her fingers red. Contrary to popular belief, it's the same as her own, sticky and warm until it dries dark, dark, dark.
I don't know, she answers. How could I ever be anything to you? I'm nothing.
There isn't anymore after that, but everything feels familiar in the way he looks at her now.
He stands beside her in the field, instead of across the sea of fire. His pinky grazes her own and she leans toward him, palm against his and she breathes, for what feels like the first time, when their fingers interlace.