10_themes prompt: Love
Eight years old, and Emma Grace Crouch wraps her arms around her (VERY BEST) friend Adam, holding him extra extra tight and whispering in his ear that he’ll be the best Gryffindor ever and to not be too sad if Barty is a Slytherin. When she’s done, she pulls back and smiles at him, then gets distracted for a minute, her Mum telling her to tell Barty goodbye. Time moves outstandingly fast and soon it’s time for them to get on the train. She looks around, panicked, and runs up beside the train when she spots what car he’s on.
“ADAM,” she calls, and beams when he looks toward her and fights the crowd to get close enough to hear her. “Write me?” she says, just loud enough for him to hear, almost scared of what he might say.
“Every week!” he calls back, grinning and waving at her.
And he does.
~*~
Ten years old and Emma is shaking as she goes to sit on the stool. The sorting hat (not the same as the one when her Mum and Daddy went to school, but it’s almost as good) gets set on her head, and she seeks out the eyes of her best friend. He smiles at her and mouths the word a second before the hat says it. “Slytherin.” She feels her heart clench and wants to cry, but her new house (including her brother) is all making happy noises about their new student and she walks toward them.
But always, always she has to know how Adam feels. She has to know if this changes anything.
His eyes are shining with something like amusement and pride (in her, not necessarily in her house) and he makes a thumbs-up sign at her. “Congratulations,” he mouths, and she feels her body relax.
~*~
Twelve years old, and Emma’s eyes are flashing as she stands in front of one of her housemates, hurling a verbal lashing at him over the harsh words he’d been saying about people he deems lesser than him. He is fifteen, nearly six feet tall and yet he cowers before the 5’3” Crouch Princess who has her finger pointing at him, her hair wild around her face.
Adam slips behind her and touches her shoulder and suddenly the deep rage she’d been feeling lessens and she takes a deep breath, glaring at her housemate and saying “and don’t you forget it!” before turning toward her best friend, smiling and perfectly calm.
~*~
Seventeen years old and Em is searching the platform as the train pulls up for Christmas Hols. She’s disappointed (and that sounds horrible, even in her mind) when she sees only her parents and Jacob, but she takes up her small bag and heads off the train, looking out over the crowd as she steps down the stairs and directly into Adam’s arms.
She lets out a little gasp of surprise and then her brain catches up and she wraps her arms around him and kisses him, then laughs as he tosses her over his shoulder and caries her to her family. He sets her down in front of them, keeping close as she hugs them all and then pulls her back against his chest, kissing behind her ear as they all talk for a few minutes.
She turns to look up at him. “Don’t you want to go say hello to your cousins?” she asks.
“No. I’m where I want to be,” he smiles.
~*~
Twenty-one years old and Em is nearly-late for work again, because she simply. Can’t. Stop. Kissing. Adam. In fact, there’s a long list of things she can’t stop doing to Adam, but kissing tends to be the one that gets them into trouble, repeatedly.
She draws away, looking at the clock with a sigh. “I have to go,” she says softly, laughing as he pulls her back down. “Adam, I’m going to get fired,” she murmured.
“Mmm… get fired. Stay home with me and we can be like this all the time,” he grinned.
“You know better,” she said, shaking her head and kissing him quickly.
He held her closer. “Please? “ he asked softly, his hands running down her back and over her bottom.
“Tempting,” she murmured, glancing at the clock again. “Love, I have to go.” She pulled away and stood, going to the mirror, pulling her hair back in a low ponytail and catching his eye in the reflection. “Okay,” she said with a mock sigh, “ONE more kiss.”
I assure you, there will be more, but for now, it is what it is. *smiles*