𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐍 - 𝐡.𝐩.

20 | Has Potter Got A Girlfriend?

"Lord Henry looked at him. Yes, he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely-curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candor of youth was there, as well as all youth's passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world. No wonder Basil Hallward worshipped him. He was made to be worshipped."

They were out of earshot of the librarian, but not completely alone. There were still some students milling about them — mostly girls, Gemini noted. They kept glancing at Blaise as he read out those words Gemini had read over and over again. She never got tired of that book. It held a certain magic that even a wizard couldn't create. She had fallen in love with those words countless times, just as she had discovered the inexplicable similarities between herself and Dorian Gray.

Blaise went quiet then and his eyes followed the path of a few more lines, very interested at once. "What's your favourite part of the book?" he asked Gemini, still flipping the pages, getting rapidly immersed in the book.

"I can't pick a favourite, and I certainly can't tell you much since the entire book is full of surprises, but I suppose Gautier's description of Venice from his work 'Emaux et Camées,' is one of the several references in this book that really fascinated me," Gemini answered with a drunken sigh as she pushed herself up on a table. Her eyes fell shut of their own accord in sheer ecstasy of the poem and she couldn't help but recite the lovely words:

"Sur une gamme chromatique,
Le sein de perles ruisselant,
La Vénus de l'Adriatique
Sort de l'eau son corps rose et blanc.

Les dômes, sur l'azur des ondes
Suivant la phrase au pur contour,
S'enflent comme des gorges rondes
Que soulève un soupir d'amour.

L'esquif aborde et me dépose,
Jetant son amarre au pilier,
Devant une façade rose,
Sur le marbre d'un escalier."

The words certainly were beautiful, but they fell like honey from her lips. There was almost a hint of a romantic melody in her voice that Blaise had never heard her use before and the musical verses floating in the sunlit corner of the library had nearby ears perking up and steps wandering up to them curiously to find the source.

The French words escaped from her with a fluency Blaise hadn't expected. He thought that she had never looked more beautiful. The sun gave her skin a golden hue, her hair and lashes looked delicate with the soft glow, and the expression she held was one of dreamy wonder, meant for the words that Dorian Gray had only rightly described as 'exquisite'.

There was a faint, sweet humming in Gemini's ears. Oscar Wilde certainly knew his onions. Then as she began to wonder why anyone would use an onion to describe the presence of intellect and capability, she found her eyes fluttering open again and a sudden upheaval of whispers and hurried undertones reached her ears. She found quite a few people bustling around and walking past them — it was so painfully obvious they had been watching her.

But amidst the sea of faces, she surprisingly spotted none other than Hermione Granger hastily averting her eyes, a blush covering her cheeks. Beside her was Potter, with his back stiffly turned to Gemini — he seemed to be trying very hard to concentrate on the book in his hands which he was holding upside down.

Suddenly, Blaise slid into her line of view. Gemini raised her eyebrows at him, but he simply stared back.

"Not going to Hogsmeade then?" she inquired, about to get off the table when Blaise took it upon himself to help her by gently taking her waist.