Nick Kane
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Gateway 28
🕑 Added 2025-02-20 18:41:55 +0000 UTCI opened my eyes as we slowly separated, our foreheads touching as I let my hands fall from her face to her waist.
Her arms curved around my neck, and her radiant smile and glimmering silver eyes stood out in the low light the faeries surrounding us produced.
I felt like my own smile would split my face in two, and as her eyes lowered to my lips, I couldn’t help but lower mine to hers.
We looked back up simultaneously, intent clear in both of our gazes. We pulled each other closer, and our lips met again, only for an explosion of giggling to distract us.
Looking at the source of the disturbance, we saw a large group of girls intently watching us. Fleur and Ginny headed the group, with an embarrassed Neville off to the side.
With a roll of her eyes, Fleur approached us while pulling a red-faced Ginny with her.
“The Ball is over,” she said, giving us an apologetic look. “So we decided to have a slumber party in the carriage tonight.”
“Yeah!” Ginny said, excitement clear in her eyes as she looked at Luna. Before turning her gaze to me and saying, “And if you go with Neville, you should be able to stay at Gryffindor Tower without any issues.”
I could see the conflict in Luna’s eyes, she wanted to stay with me but also go with her friends. But the night was essentially over, and from the way I couldn’t hear Severus’ voice breaking up couples on the lawn anymore, I figured it was best we ended things there before Luna got in trouble with the faculty.
I put a finger under Luna’s chin and gently turned her head to face me. I gave her a soft peck on the lips before saying, “Go. We’ll see each other again at breakfast.”
Fleur and Ginny took advantage of Luna’s slight disorientation from the kiss to each take an arm and pull her towards the group of giggling girls.
As the girls swarmed Luna, Ginny separated to have a quiet talk with Neville, giving him a peck on the cheek before joining the girls and leaving.
I sedately approached the embarrassed and confused boy, enjoying how his confusion was slowly replaced by elation.
“So,” I said, startling him, “Ginny said that it was fine for me to crash at the Tower tonight?”
With a quick shake of his head, he looked at me and nodded, “Yeah, I don’t think anyone will complain about that.”
___
After passing the portrait of the Fat Lady, and wasn’t that a novel way to have a secret entrance, we found the Gryffindor common room still quite lively, with some of the older students having an afterparty.
We had barely cleared the entrance when the Weasley twins approached to give each of us a bottle of butterbeer. I had only heard of it from Luna, so with a flick of my thumb, I sent the cap flying while I took a sip.
“Hmm, not what I expected from something with ‘beer’ in its name,” I said, looking the bottle over.
“Oh! We feel so honored to be the ones to get you to experience your first time!” One of the twins said.
“Truly, a guy’s first is a monumental experience!” The second nodded.
“And talking about firsts…” The first said, both twins zeroing their attention on Neville.
“Where’s Ginny?” They asked at the same time.
Seeing Neville start stuttering and struggling to respond, I said, “Relax, she, Luna, Fleur and a gaggle of girls decided to have a slumber party in the carriage.”
I had no idea if the term ‘carriage’ was literal, much less where it was, but it seemed to mollify the twins back into their easygoing nature, so I took that as a win.
As we got properly inside the common room, Neville went to his room to change while the twins pulled me aside.
“We heard you appreciate drinks of a more alcoholic persuasion?” One of the twins quietly said.
“And where did you hear that?” I asked, and upon noticing their uncertain looks, I elaborated, “Not it isn’t true, or that I mind, I’m just curious.”
“Ginny,” they said at the same time.
“And she heard it from Luna,” I nodded. “Although, if she told you that, it means she started planning for me to come spend the night here before tonight.”
“That sister of ours is devious, she is,” one of them said while the other nodded.
“So, what do you guys have?” I asked, getting excited for a proper party.
“Whisky, Ogden’s finest,” they said, separating and taking a place at my sides.
“But don’t spread it around,” the one on my left said.
“We don’t have enough for everyone,” the one on my right finished.
“Well, if it’s a question of quantity…” I said, taking my wand and waving it at a small corner table. “Then this should make things easier.”
The twins stared wide-eyed at the four clear, unlabeled bottles on the table before turning to me with hero worship clear in their eyes.
“What spell was that!?” They asked at the same time.
“Whisky conjuring spell,” I shrugged before saying, “Ah hell, we already have the alcohol, might as well go all-in with the party,” and saying so, I waved my wand at the table again, and dozens of different cigarettes appeared in piles on the table. “Now, this is a party!”
___
I woke up the next morning in a great mood.
The Ball had been great, the afterparty fun, and I kissed Luna. It was pretty much the perfect day, in my view.
Getting up from the sofa I passed out on, I noticed some people had the same idea: The twins each took an armchair with their dates, some of the older students having done the same, and Neville was passed out under a coffee table.
With a snort at that and the general mess in the room, I checked my pockets to make sure I didn’t misplace anything during the festivities, cast a quick grooming spell to make sure I was presentable and headed out.
It was still pretty early in the morning, just after sunrise, so I should have enough time to nip back to Xeno’s, take a shower and a change of clothes, and get back for breakfast with Luna.
Luna. Just the thought of her was enough that I felt like my heart was going to burst, and I had to hold back my instinct of apparating directly to The Rook in case doing so would break the school’s protections.
Shaking off those thoughts, I focused on making my way through the castle. The place was big, and it wouldn’t do for me to get lost.
Finding the area with the moving staircases, I decided to take a shortcut and jumped down, softening my landing with a swift application of Wind.
Getting out of the castle, I enjoyed the cool winter air for a moment before rushing to the village I arrived in, figuring it’d be the best place far enough away to apparate without having to guess where the castle’s protections ended.
Without someone else with me, it took only a few seconds for me to arrive by running, and with a quick focus on my room at The Rook, I was already there.
Getting out of my room, I heard Xeno’s snoring and quietly went about getting myself cleaned up.
___
I was ready a few minutes later, and after a quick check to make sure Xeno had found his present, I got Luna’s and Severus’ before apparating back to the village.
Some people were already awake by the time I got to the castle, although they mostly looked like zombies, all of them shuffling in the direction of the Great Hall for breakfast.
Inside there, the place was sparsely populated, with only a few groups in the tables and two teachers on their table.
Without any indication of which table was for each House, I decided to sit at the corner of the center table closest to me and drink some coffee to wait for Luna.
___
I was starting on my second cup when they arrived, the group of girls catching most of the Hall’s attention.
I wasn’t paying that much attention to that. My attention was focused on Luna as she hurried over with Ginny in tow.
I got up as they reached me, giving Luna a peck on the lips and a “good morning” as she took a seat by my side.
“Morning, Alex,” Ginny said, a teasing smile on her face while taking a seat in front of me.
“Morning, Ginny,” I rolled my eyes at her, taking another sip of my coffee right after.
“Why are we seated on the Hufflepuff table?” Fleur asked, taking a seat beside Ginny, the rest of the girls taking their seats at the other center table.
As the three girls turned their eyes on me, I shrugged, “I just sat at the closest table,” I said.
I pulled Luna’s gift from my jacket’s pocket and handed it to her.
“Here, your Christmas present,” I said, expectantly watching her.
It was a small, pale lavender necklace box. Luna set it on the table and slowly opened it, gasping when she saw its contents.
“Alex, it’s beautiful,” She said, pulling out the necklace and showing the thumb-sized golden book held by a thin golden chain to the girls at the table.
“It’s more than that,” I said, pulling out its slightly larger twin from my pocket. “See here?” I indicated the clasp holding the book closed. “You can open it, and you can write inside.”
Luna’s eyes widened as she smiled brilliantly at me. “This way, I always have somewhere to write my ideas and discoveries! Thank you, Alex!” She finished with a hug and a peck on the lips before going back to fiddling with the gift.
“Luna,” Fleur said with wonder in her voice. “That isn’t just a necklace to write your ideas.”
“No? Then what else would it be for?” She asked Fleur.
In response, Fleur looked at me. “The twin necklaces, you cast the Protean charm on them, didn’t you?”
“I did,” I said, somewhat impressed that she figured out the necklace’s trick so fast.
“Protean charm? What does it do?” Luna asked, looking at me curiously.
“It’ll let you send messages to each other, so even when he is not here at Hogwarts, you’ll be able to talk with him,” Fleur said.
Luna snapped her head back to me, question clear in her eyes.
“I don’t know if it’ll work when I go back home, but I dumped so much power on the spell that it just might,” I said.
It took a few moments for her to process that statement, but I suddenly found myself with arms full of Luna, which didn’t last long before she pulled back slightly so she could pull me in for a searing kiss.
“You better stop that unless you want to deal with the teachers,” Fleur said with a teasing tone.
“Sorry,” Luna said, her face flushed in embarrassment, “It’s just, you know,” and waved in my direction.
“That’s fair,” Ginny nodded, taking a sip of her juice. “And how did your night at Gryffindor Tower go?”
“Pretty fun, although I doubt anyone of the older years will show up until lunch,” I said, taking the change in topic gratefully.
“You thought wrong!” Came the exclamation from the entrance, where the Weasley twins had just arrived.
“Huh, didn’t think any of you would wake up before 10 am,” I said.
“They sure look like they wish they hadn’t,” Luna agreed, pointing out how disheveled they looked.
“Yeah, what happened to you guys?” Ginny said, raising an eyebrow at her brother’s condition.
“Him!” They exclaimed in unison, pointing at me.
I put on a clueless look and pointed at myself, “Who, me?”
The girls looked back at me before Luna sighed.
“You used the whisky-conjuring spell, didn’t you?” She said to me.
“They wanted a party, so I gave them one,” I shrugged.
“And this morning, Hermione woke us up and gave us a lecture on responsibility,” George said.
“We’re lucky we managed to get away!” Fred nodded.
“Well, next time you want a party, you know who to call,” I said.
“That we do!” They said together before going to sit at their table.
“Really, Alex? Whisky conjuring spell?” Ginny said, looking at me in askance.
I raised my arms in mock surrender, “It’s not like I knew it’d take half an hour for most of the seventh-years to learn the spell! I only told your brothers how to cast it once, and they already have it memorized, even though they can’t quite cast it yet.”
We stared at each other for a few moments before all four of us broke out in laughter.
“Is that how it always is with him around?” Fleur asked Luna after we calmed down.
“No, sometimes she dresses all in black and does a Snape impression,” I answered, pointing at Luna.
Ginny, who was taking a drink of her juice, made a sound between a snort and a choke before she started coughing, with juice spilling out of her nose.
It took a little while for her to recuperate, especially since she would mix her cough with gasping for air and laughter.
“I need to hear this story!” She said, her eyes shining as she looked at Luna.
“That story? You should hear the one of when I met Snape for the first time! I laughed so hard I almost fell!” I said.
“No way!” Ginny said, leaning forward. “Come on, spill!”
And as I started on the story, I put my arm around Luna’s waist and pulled her closer so she could rest her head on my shoulder.
I had never been happier.
___
A/N: One thing that always annoyed me in most non-romance-focused fanfiction is how sterile romance feels in them, characters will wax poetic about how much they love each other but rarely actually show it outside of just having sex.
Well, in this chapter, I endeavored to have Alex show his feelings in a way that’s more realistic than the norm. Hopefully, I succeeded.
I had to proofread and edit this chapter in a rush, as there’s a thunderstorm going on, and my power is flickering. So, I’m posting now, and I’ll edit later if needed.
As always, thank all of you for your support, and I’ll see you next week!
Comments
Zerak
Exactly, it’s like the authors write about the chase but don’t know what to do once they are in a relationship.
Lictor Magnus
Thanks for the chapter. I feel you on that about romances. I was just reading a fic yesterday where within 10k of it starting the SI MC was in a relationship with a character and saying they loved them and wanted to have a baby eventually smh.
