Daniel Summerby (atypicalseeker) wrote in caged, @ 2013-08-07 12:28:00 |
|
|||
It didn’t take long for Daniel to discover that being back at Hogwarts didn’t erase his fears, it merely transferred them. He was no longer worrying about what harm might befall his friends and classmates. On top of perpetually wondering if his family would be targeted, he knew he wasn’t the only one with family on the outside. Family that consisted of Muggles and Muggleborns and people who believed they deserved a place in wizarding society. Hogwarts was the only safe place, but it wasn’t as though the whole of Britain could take refuge within its walls. It made Daniel desire a stronger relationship with his friends, knowing that their time was precious, so much more precious than he’d known before, even as trying as the past five years at Hogwarts had been. It wasn’t that he hadn’t noticed Hannah before. They’d been friends for ages, really. It was only now that he was beginning to think of her as perhaps more than just a friend. Merlin knew he teased her enough that anyone who knew him understood that it was a mark of true friendship from him. Maybe it was the war, or maybe it was simply the fact that he was very nearly of age now, but he was seeing girls in a new light. Not like in fourth year when he’d merely asked a girl to the Yule Ball because it was expected. Perhaps he looked at Hannah because she had been a friend for so long, or perhaps it was because she was beautiful. They’d been back at school for nearly two weeks, and he’d slowly been gathering up the nerve to approach her as more than a friend. It was hard to find the time, between classes, Quidditch, and the atmosphere, but when he entered the common room that evening, he was determined to say or do something. Merlin, he just hoped she was inclined to think of him the way he was beginning to think of her. He smiled when he spotted her. “Oi, Hannah!” Her mother had been so tired over the holiday. With Eve gone to Egypt and Otto making his way in the world, it had been just the two of them, mostly, with a bit of father on the side. She knew that with Voldemort's return that her mother must have been extra tired after all that came along with his re-appearance. Not that Hannah had had any doubt that he was back after Dumbledore had told them all that he was back. That was why she had joined Dumbledore's Army, wasn't it? But it was better to think about other things. Like how cute Daniel looked when he was busy cleaning his glasses with his brow furrowed and the way that his vest was snug around his chest. It helped, too, that he was so much fun to be around. While Hannah had been his friend for ages, she had started to care for him in a way that was completely different than what she felt for Justin and Ernie. She knew she fancied him, and it was all a matter of what she would do about it. Nothing, so far, even though her friends told her she should. At the sound of his voice, though, her brows rose and her smile widened. She turned to face him and waved her hand, beckoning him closer. "Hello, Danny!" she said. "How are you? The Charms assignment is taking me forever. What about you?" It wasn't, not really, but Hannah knew how brilliant he was at the subject and she was hoping for a bit of extra time with him, even if it was in the form of tutoring. Daniel’s smile broadened as he walked over to join her. God, she had a great smile. It was one of those infectious ones, where he couldn’t help but smile along with her. Although the fact that he was developing feelings for her probably helped. “I’m good,” he chuckled, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he leaned over to inspect her work. He might have bragged a little after exam results came back that summer about his solitary O (though he completely disregarded the part where he’d done abysmally in History and Potions). “I finished mine this afternoon,” he smiled. This was a potential opportunity, wasn’t it? “You need help with it?” He honestly didn’t know if this was a good tack or not, but it was worth trying. The worst she could do was say no. A refusal of help wasn’t the same as not liking him. Positive thinking, that was the way. "Really?" she said, as though she were completely surprised he'd help her. After all, he was always very helpful. She beamed at him and nodded. "I'd love some help." She made room for him on the couch, but just enough so that they'd be a little squeezed together. There were a lot of ways to bake a cake, after all, and this was just one of them. Daniel slid off the arm of the couch and into the space she’d left for him--just barely enough room, but he found that did not bother him at all. Quite the contrary, it was rather nice being in such close proximity to her. And her eagerness to accept his assistance bolstered his confidence. Now he just needed a smooth transition from Charms homework to... how did one even ask a girl on a date? He let himself get lost in his thoughts for a moment. The feel of her, so close to him, was more than just the tangible feeling. He could sense her right there, was sure he’d be able to sense her there even if they weren’t squeezed together on the couch (and completely missing the fact that there was enough room for her to make more room for him). She smelled... good. Was it a shampoo, or a perfume? Daniel came around to himself, suddenly aware that he’d been quiet for a minute or two. “Right. Where’s the trouble?” She watched him as he was quiet, her eyes going a little rounder, her heart skipping a beat. There had to be a good explanation for why he was so quiet around her, right? Or maybe... Maybe he thought that she was being too heavy handed and didn't fancy her after all. She pursed her lips and inclined her head toward him. Nerves bubbled up inside of her and she almost told him not to worry about it, but at least at the moment she pulled out the assignment and pointed to the next problem she hadn't done yet. "It's about the laughter charm. I keep getting it all muddled," she said. "D'you wave your wand like this?" She demonstrated a wrong way. "Or like this?" Another wrong way. Charms came quite naturally to Daniel, even more so than Arithmancy and the other magics most useful in architecture. It took practice, of course, but given enough practice, he didn’t easily forget the working of a particular charm. He made to draw out his own wand to demonstrate, and reconsidered before his hand reached the pocket of his robes. He attempted to suppress a grin as he curled his hand around her wand hand. He shook his head subtly. “Like this,” he said softly, guiding her wand with the proper movement. There was a thrill about holding her hand, like a surge of electricity through him. He cleared his throat, letting go of her hand. “Like that.” Merlin, was he being too obvious? And was that a good thing, or a bad thing? "Oh, like that!" Hannah said, her voice a little higher. She looked down at the toes of her shoes until she felt confident that Daniel hadn't thought much of her voice. After all, it was normal for her voice to go squeaky at her most excited moments. Sort of. Well, not really. But she hoped that he wouldn't think anything of it. After all, even if he was this close to her she didn't know if he fancied her or not. Maybe it was Susan he liked, or Sally-Anne. They were both so pretty, after all. She looked up at Daniel with a teasing sort of smile and cast the spell on him to test if she had gotten it right. The shift in her voice puzzled him. Had he overstepped his bounds, or was she--? He didn’t have long to contemplate what it meant, however, because the next thing he knew, he was filled with the uncontrollable desire to laugh. “Oi, fair warning before you do that!” Daniel protested, his voice laced with laughter. He didn’t mind too much, for he enjoyed laughing, but it was unexpected, and quite unfair to cast a charm on someone when they weren’t paying attention. “Remember how to do the countercharm?” he teased, though the teasing tone was lost in the tinge of laughter. "Sorry, sorry!" she said. She cast the counter charm on him, and gave him a playful push on the shoulder. "You need to be more careful," she said. "Constant vigilance, right? Remember?" Hannah laughed, even though no spell had been cast on her. She pursed her lips again and leaned a little against him, picking at lint on her skirt. "Thanks for helping me," she said, her voice a little breathy as though there was more she wanted to say. And there was, but she wasn't sure if it was wise to voice that now. Her nerves were now making their way up her throat, and she knew if she didn't say anything soon she wasn't going to say it now, and maybe not for a long time. "Um, Daniel?" Free of the spell, Daniel chuckled at the reminder of fourth year. Constant bloody vigilance. “I think constant vigilance means watching out for something more than laughter charms,” he teased. Watching her was not so easy, so close to her. He felt it was so obvious every time he looked at her, trying to gauge how she felt about him. “Any time,” he replied, smiling curiously at her. There was something there. Something working away in that brain of hers. He wished for a moment he could read her mind, could understand what she was thinking. Maybe she intended to tell him. “Yes, Hannah?” "Um," she said. She squirmed for a moment and then shifted till she had made some space between herself and Daniel. It would be easier to make a getaway if she wasn't so close to him. "I just, well." Hannah looked down for a moment and then back at him, a hint of shyness in her normally bold face. "I fancy you, you know." She had thought she'd be running after saying that, but instead she felt anchored to the couch. Moving away. She was moving away. This was bad, very bad. Could not possibly be a good sign. Why hadn’t she just made room for him in the first place if she didn’t want to be that close to him? Oh God, he’d gone too far, grabbing her hand to demonstrate the spell. That was it. Daniel was looking at her but not really seeing her, listening but not really hearing as his mind spun through a thousand ways he could have gone wrong and reasons she’d never fancy him, and-- “Wait, what?” He couldn’t possibly have heard what he just thought he heard. Because people didn’t just come out and say it, or anything. Especially girls. They liked to beat around the bush, play hard to get. Merlin, she’d picked up on his feelings for her and was just messing with him now. Except Hannah wasn’t cruel--hell, he was plenty sarcastic, but he wasn’t even that cruel. He chuckled self-consciously, running a hand through his hair. “Run that by me again?” "I said I fancy you," she said, blinking in the face of his chuckling and running his hand through his hair. Was he trying to get her to stroke his ego? Hannah quickly squeezed the edge of a pillow behind her. "That was all." She stood. "I know you don't fancy me," but she'd thought that maybe--"I just thought it was worth saying. So, that was all." Her cheeks burned as she started walking away. She'd thought that there had been a good chance he might fancy her, especially in that moment. And the girls had all been telling her she should just say something. So now she'd made them happy but herself miserable. “Oi, hold on!” he cried, reaching for her hand, trying to keep her from getting away. He could feel the guilt building in his chest. He’d definitely done something wrong that time, and he knew it was all him, not his mind inventing the million ways she couldn’t fancy him because, for some unknown reason, she did fancy him. “Whoever said I don’t fancy you?” Right. He couldn’t just come out and say that he liked her. No, that would be too easy. He didn’t have her courage, to just come right out and say what he was feeling. He envied that. She paused as she felt his hand brush against hers, and then suddenly it was around hers. She turned to look at him over her shoulder. "Nobody said that," she said slowly. "But you'd be the one to say it, wouldn't you?" She was very still, yet deciding if she should leave him and go to the dormitory or if she should stay and chance more embarrassment. She didn't think Daniel would be so cruel. Perhaps this was his way of saying he fancied her. But whatever it was, she felt anxious and nervous, and her palm was growing sweaty. Daniel licked his lips nervously, ever more conscious of how sweaty his hand was getting--or was that hers? He honestly couldn’t tell, and he wanted to take his hand back, wipe it on his jumper, before she noticed how incredibly awkward it was. And yet, he was certain that if he let go now, he’d lose his chance. Not just in the moment, but likely for quite some time, because he didn’t see how she could possibly forgive him if he didn’t admit how he was feeling right then and there. And he was growing increasingly aware of the fact that they were in the middle of the common room. Why had he approached her in the first place? Oh, right. Feelings. He really wasn’t sure if he had been silent for just a moment or for an eternity--it could have been either--but he mustered up all the nerve he had, and took a deep breath. “Course I fancy you. I just didn’t think you’d beat me to it.” Her shoulders slumped just a little. Not in disappointment, not at all. Instead, in relief. She took a deep breath and gave him a little smile that slowly grew. When it had fully reached the corners of her mouth she gave a little laugh. "I had been thinking about saying it for ages," she said. Well, that wa a lie. Only the past few days had she been seriously thinking about approaching him, but they'd felt like ages as she was around him all the time. It was, perhaps, a great example of Hannah's lack of restraint to not let him be the one that said it anyway. But she didn't mind being the one to say it, she thought it was silly for people to say that boys had to be the ones to say it. "Well, good," she said, stepping shyly toward him, squeezing his hand and moving back down to sit close to him on the couch. "Because if you didn't I was going to be awfully mad at you." He let himself relax, returning her smile. Well, at least the hardest part was over and done with. It made him feel better, that she’d been struggling with it as long as he had. Being a teenager was so troublesome. He pulled her close on the couch. “Well, I’d be daft not to, wouldn’t I?” Daniel teased, allowing himself to fall back into his natural comfort around her. She fancied him, so there was absolutely nothing to worry about. "I suppose you would be," Hannah said with a little laugh. Her nerves had been replaced by happier butterflies that floated through her, making her all tingly wherever Daniel was touching her. She bit her lip and then leaned her head against his shoulder. She didn't know what this was, really. It wasn't as though it were the holiday and they could just go on a date. Were they together now? Did he have to ask her? Did she have to ask him? Whatever was happening, it felt nice. |