This Love

Part 4

"This love came back to me"

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"So you really like this guy, huh?" Lily said, glancing sideways at Louis.

"How can you tell?"

Lily sighed and scuffed her feet on the grass. She was barefoot, her trademark battered red converse swinging from her hands by the laces, her nails caked with dirt. They were almost back at her house - she could see the figures of her dad, Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione standing by the door, waiting for their children, and the dim purple light filtering through her upstairs bedroom window.

"The way you look at him. The way you talk about him."

Louis blushed and held open the gate for her as they, along with their cousins, poured into the backyard of the house.

"Is it really that obvious?" He mumbled, watching as Lucy, Molly and Dom talked to the adults and Albus and Scorpius came clattering down the stairs hand in hand to throw their arms around Rose. Louis wondered at the enthusiastic greeting - the three had seen each other just that morning before Albus and Scorpius had left for the movies. Then again, he often hugged Lily and Hugo in the same way even when they'd already been hanging out for an hour, just because he felt like it.

"Yeah," Lily said, a bit sadly, and Louis whipped back to face her, putting an arm around her and pulling her closer to him, worried.

"What's up, Lils?"

"He likes you a lot too."

Louis's heart skipped a beat. Lily was usually right about these things, and if Kevin really did like him...

"How can you tell?" He repeated his earlier words.

"The way he looks at you. The way he talks about you."

She snuggled closer to him and he wrapped both of his arms around her, resting his chin on her head as she buried her face in his chest.

"Are you okay, Lily?" It was Hugo, the last to come through the gate. "You're doing your sad hug."

Lily disentangled herself from Louis and wrinkled her nose at him.

"I have a sad hug?"

"You have a happy hug too," Hugo assured her. "Come here." And he hugged her too.

"Lily, please tell us what's wrong," Louis begged.

"I'm scared we're going to lose you," she finally spoke, her voice muffled against Hugo's jumper.

"Lose me? Where?"

Lily's shoulders shook with silent laughter and she looked up, arms still around Hugo, pushing her hair back from her face.

"I mean what do you mean lose me?" Louis corrected himself.

"You really, really like Kevin. More than you've liked any guy before, and he really, really likes you too. You're already spending more time with him than you've ever spent with your previous boyfriends. You even missed Movie Monday!" Lily exclaimed.

Movie Monday consisted of Lily, Hugo and Louis all going to someone's place (usually Lily's), cuddled up on the couch watching a muggle film, snacking on buckets of popcorn and chocolate, yelling at Harry whenever he came in to check on them during an intense scene or pelting James and Albus with popcorn whenever they thought it would be funny to hide behind the couch and boo them when they were watching a horror movie.

"So I like him. Doesn't mean I'm going to stop loving you guys or stop spending time with you! I'm sorry I missed Movie Monday, it won't ever happen again."

Lily smiled at him and reached forward to ruffle his blonde hair.

"It better not."

"Besides," Louis continued, frowning slightly, "we're going back to Hogwarts soon and Kevin's a muggle, so he won't be there and you'll have me all to yourself."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Have you told him you're a wizard yet, Lou?" Hugo asked.

Louis shook his head just as his Aunt Hermione called out.

"Hugo, Lily, Louis, you'd better come inside now, it's getting late."

Arms linked, the three made their way to the house and joined the rest of the family.

James, Fred and Ginny were back from shopping and Ginny was talking to an alarmed looking Ron, gesturing adamantly, her fiery hair flying about like tongues of flame and Harry was watching her, a look of love and wonder on his face. James was arguing with Rose, Fred with Roxanne, Lucy was giggling about something with Molly, and Albus and Scorpius were lost in their own little world, Albus lying back against Scorpius who was playing with his dark hair, turning his head to kiss him every so often. Louis hoped he and Kevin would be like that one day.

He took a seat in an armchair and Hugo squashed into it next to him. Lily settled herself on the floor in front of them, leaning back on Louis's legs.

"Who's sharing tonight?" Hugo asked, referring to which of them would be sleeping in the same bed as Lily.

"Can all three of us?" Lily questioned.

"Sure," Louis and Hugo said in unison.

"Cool. What do you guys want to do tomorrow?"

"I dunno," Hugo said.

"We could go to that vintage store again. That was fun. Remember when..."

A/N

Thank you so much for reading. Please leave me a comment below :)

Love,

Cate xx