Briar watched him with curiosity as he shuffled closer. He stumbled when he neared her but managed to steady himself before he fell. He slightly blushed and stuck out his hand with the dandelion in it. He murmured, "For you."
She felt something odd...
The end of the year was rapidly approaching, so Briar and Neville were spending every moment they had together. They both knew that it was going to be one long summer apart from one another, and this made it hard to focus on their schoolwork. They simply wanted to enjoy one another's presence as much as possible.
They were both sitting in the Gryffindor common room together, and Briar had laid her head in his lap as they both stared into the roaring fire. Neville was gently running his fingers through her hair, and Briar was at ease in the otherwise empty room.
In the calm and comfort of that space, Briar gently whispered, "I love you so much, Neville."
Neville's fingers froze in her hair, so Briar twisted slightly to look up at him. He was smiling down at her, but his cheeks had twinged pink, and she had a sneaking suspicion why.
"I love you too," breathed Neville, and as their eyes remained locked on one another, Briar felt the tension thicken in the air between them. Although she knew that this tension wasn't physical, the air felt as though it grew heavier, thicker. Both of them began to take slightly deeper breaths as they looked at one another's faces. Briar felt fire dancing along her skin while Neville looked down at her, and she held her breath, hoping that he would make the first move.
Her eyes flickered to his lips, and this triggered something in Neville. His hands landed on her hips, and within seconds, he had pulled her up into a seated position on his lap in front of him. His gaze was serious and unblinking, but his voice was gentle as he confirmed, "I'm going to kiss you now. Is that okay?"
"Yes," exhaled Briar, and not even a second passed before Neville abruptly kissed her.
Their mouths collided in an uncharacteristically forward way for Neville, but Briar wasn't complaining. In response to the frantic kiss, she gripped his shoulders and pulled his chest flush against hers to eliminate every last millimeter of space between them, for Briar had no idea how long this moment would last, and she refused to waste even a second of it with awkwardness or hesitation.
Neville's hands had been holding her hips, and his fingers had gently squeezed when she tugged him closer. This sent flashes of electricity spreading out from the place of contact, and her entire body shuddered in response. Neville's breath caught in his throat at her responsiveness to his touch, and Briar sensed this, so she grew bolder in her actions.
With her hands tracing up and down his arms, her tongue flicked across his bottom lip. She felt Neville's cheeks grow hot with this action, but he wrapped his arms around her back and held her tightly in response.
The two of them were frantic in their kiss, and each time the other reacted to their actions, they became even more active in their chase for pleasure.
Neither of them had ever kissed like this before, but something about it just felt...right. As if their minds were gears out of alignment for far too long, and they finally let the clunky metal snap into place for a few blissful moments.
They had never felt as physically and mentally connected as they had in that moment, and they couldn't get enough of one another.
Briar's hands started to find their way back to his cheeks, just as the portrait to the common room was slammed open rather aggressively. Briar and Neville flinched apart at the sound, both having been so lost in their own world that any interruption was extremely jarring to them.
Two matching sets of narrowed eyes moved to the source of the intrusion, and they both furrowed their eyebrows when they saw a second year Gryffindor running in with tears streaking down his cheeks and his breathing rapid.
Briar hopped off the couch and questioned, "Are you alright, sweetie?"
He briefly met Neville's eyes as the words spilled from his mouth. Once he spoke them, it seemed as if a weight had lifted off his shoulders, but they had only made the room's other two occupants grow stiff with newfound concerns. It was only three words, but it was enough to shatter the peaceful bliss of the last few moments.
"Dumbledore is dead."
Neville and Briar both reached for one another as the world swayed beneath their feet.
While she clung to Neville's side, Briar gasped, "How-how...?"
The boy shrugged with his eyes round and glassy. He finally murmured, "Professor McGonagall said that she needs to see you both...the headquarters of something called the order has been attacked, and she said that the two of you would know what that meant."
The headquarters.
12 Grimmauld Place.
Everything else faded into a horribly loud white noise as Briar's knees buckled out from underneath her. Neville caught her by wrapping his arms around her torso and holding her weak frame against his body. Her body shivered, and her mind realized with a sort of horror that her home was attacked. The place where her last living family was residing. The place where her dad was.
So as Neville and Briar sprinted towards the hospital wing, her world came crashing down, and she had no idea how to hold all the pieces of her shattered life up when she could barely hold herself together.
———
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