𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
AS IT TURNED OUT, THAT night had been an indication of how the next several weeks were to go. Gaia felt as if she was barely getting by. To start, they were at the point in the semester where material became harder and grades got poorer. Though she didn't speak to Draco at school, she was well aware that he was doing much better than her in most of their classes, and that she would be receiving an earful about it at the manor that holiday.
Aside from her academic slump, the Triwizard Tournament was creating a whole world of problems for Gaia and her friends. Still, no one was in support of Harry being a champion, Ron included. Gaia and Hermione had spent several nights in their dorm room having exhausted conversations about how they could get the boys back to being friends again, coming up with nothing.
To top it all off, with the first task drawing ever nearer, the flashy and personally invasive journalist for the Daily Prophet, Rita Skeeter, had made Harry her personal muse for her latest story. The woman had twisted many of his long pauses and frustrated grumbles during their private interview into far more eloquent and emotionally vulnerable phrases that Harry Potter would never say.
"'I suppose I get my strength from my parents. I know they'd be very proud of me if they could see me now. Yes, sometimes at night I still cry about them.'" Hermione read a portion of the story out loud to Harry and Gaia at breakfast the morning it came out.
"Harry, I'm so sorry you never felt like you could tell me this," Gaia said as she turned to him, feigning genuine empathy.
"Sod off," Harry dismissed, shoving her side with his shoulder. In Ron's absence, Harry had elected to fill the redhead's usual seat next to Gaia, leaving the two of them seated next to each other and Hermione across from Gaia, which the older girl preferred given that she often needed the extra table space for her many books.
The one thing Gaia felt could lighten her slump was the upcoming trip to Hogsmeade. The girl had never been, seeing as she didn't have anyone with whom she would spend the time, so she was especially excited for her first trip to be with Harry and Hermione. When she shared this excitement, however, the only response was a panicked look in both of her friends eyes as they stared at each other briefly.
"Er..." Harry muttered as he tried to think of some sort of excuse for why they wouldn't be able to spend the trip with Gaia. They couldn't tell her the real reason of course - she had no idea that his godfather, with whom they had planned a visit during the field trip, was an innocent man. "We actually... erm-"
"Your birthday!" Hermione blurted. "We're shopping for your birthday presents and we can't give those away, of course!"
The weight of deflation that had first flashed through Gaia's chest melted into a bubble of surprise and joy. She had never been given birthday presents before. Unless, of course, one was counting those from Lucius and Narcissa, which usually consisted of books and, if she was lucky, some piece of jewelry from her aunt.
"My birthday's not for almost a month," she replied. "And besides, you don't really have to get me anything. I would be happy with-"
"Oh no, we're getting presents," Harry insisted, quickly hopping onto Hermione's lie. "But, we just don't know if there will be another Hogsmeade trip before then, so... we have to be sure to get something now!"
So as the day of the trip rolled around, the trio walked to the village together and decided to have a quick butterbeer together, before Hermione insisted they needed to leave right then to find a present.
"You're sure you'll be okay alone? 'Cause I can walk you back to the castle if you don't feel like sticking around," Harry offered Gaia with an apologetic smile.
"I'll be fine, Potter," she replied with a grin. "I think I can navigate my way around a little village. If I get lost I'll find an adult and tell them I'm looking for my mummy."
Harry cracked a smile at her joke. He hoped he wasn't doing the wrong thing by essentially abandoning her, but Hermione was shooting him a look that clearly meant she wanted to go find Siruis right at that moment.
"We'll see you later," he said as he turned back to Gaia.
"Buy me something pretty," she called out to him as Hermione had begun to drag him towards the door. She watched him smile and wave as the large wooden door shut behind him and she sighed, turning back to the bar and picking up her half-drunk butter beer. Although Harry had talked the drink up so much, she found herself rather disappointed with the reality. When the barkeep made his rounds again, she asked for a hot coco instead.
With nothing else to do while she waited on the drink, and fearing running into Harry and Hermione and ruining their surprise if she left the inn, she pulled her Transifguration essay and book out of her bag, along with a quill and ink and continued on with her homework.
Way to spend your first outing, Gaia, she thought to herself. She was so bored and underwhelmed, she considered just paying her tab and walking back to the school, since she was apparently just going to do homework anyway. That is, until a certain student spotted her from the entrance.
A moment later, Mikhail was plopping himself down on the stool next to Gaia, who still had not looked up from her writing. Just then, the barkeep approached and set down her mug of hot coco, picking up the half-full glass of butter beer in its place.
"Thank you so much," she said absentmindedly as she began to reach the end of her paragraph.
"No problem," she heard him reply. "Anything I can get for you, young man?" Finally reaching a stopping point in her essay and processing the man's words, Gaia finally lifted her head and found Mikhail sitting next to her. She said nothing, but rather bit her lip and tilted her head away to hide her blush.
"Hot apple cider, please," he replied in his thick accent. The man nodded and left with Gaia's previous mug, leaving the two teenagers with only each other. "You mean to tell me you come to Hogsmeade just to study?"
Gaia rolled her eyes with a smile. "Well, my friends kind of ditched me, and I didn't really want to walk back yet."
"Some friends they sound like."
"Oh, no! They're great really. They said that they actually wanted to do some shopping for me and didn't want to ruin the surprise."
Gaia felt the need to defend Harry and Hermione. They were, after all, the only Hogwarts students who had given her a chance in over three years, even if the latter did so somewhat begrudgingly. But now the trio was inseparable. Gaia only wished Ron would get over himself and make up with Harry so they could all be together again.
"Well, whatever the excuse, there's no reason a girl like yourself should be sitting alone studying in Hogsmeade," Mikhail replied with a broad smile as he crossed his arms on the table and rested his weight upon them.
"I'm not alone," she retorted. "You're here now."
"Well, we could be somewhere else. Not sat in a stuffy inn. Let me treat you to something you'll actually enjoy." At this, he gestured to her still full mug of hot coco, which had come out colder than expected and sat undrunk just like the butterbeer next to it.
"And what did you have in mind?" she teased, picking up her quill again as if she intended to return to her essay, which was far from the truth. She just didn't want to give in to his charm too easily.
"I know a place."
"Isn't this your first time in Hogsmeade?"
"Well I did my research in case I needed to take a pretty girl on a date."
Date. The word hung in the air and Gaia looked up from the meaningless words she had started writing in an effort to tease Mikhail. The older boy, however, was entirely unfazed, throwing around a word like that one as if it was nothing. As if it were casual to him. As if it were not a foreign, frightening concept to the girl next to him. As if he had asked a million girls on a date before, and as if she, surely, had been asked on a million dates as well.
Picking up on the way she froze, Mikhail spoke up to interrupt Gaia's spiraling thoughts, which was a massive relief to the girl.
"Nothing fancy, of course," he assured her, as that bloody smile graced his features again. "I just want to treat you. We could get to know each other a little better. We never did get to have that dinner."
She smiled with her head down at the memory of their interaction in the corridor on her way to Snape's detention. And with the memory she realized that the boy in front of her was not one to back down, and that he'd win that date sooner or later.
And she was used to procrastinating her homework, anyway.
"Okay," she smiled, dropping her studious act, which she was aware that Mikhail had been able to see right through, anyhow.
"Okay?" he replied, testing the waters of her agreement.
"Let's see what you learned in all those tourist pamphlets."
And so they went. Two teenagers who had never been in the city running around, hand in hand, smiling and laughing as if they owned the entire village. They bounded into stores and browsed the shelves together, making jokes as they went. Mikhail adamantly paid for practically everything Gaia looked at for longer than three seconds, and the pair could be found hours later lugging armfuls of shopping bags through the narrow, crowded roads, looking for an escape from all the people surrounding them. But even so, they stayed in their newly found youthful, careless joy. Gaia turned her head back and locked eyes with Mikahil, both their smiles growing, as she tried to navigate and pull him through a sea of children all walking much slower than themselves. And as they finally made a break from the mass, they didn't slow their pace, not yet. They ran together with fingers intertwined to the tree line, in search of just a moment of privacy.
Gaia did not spend a moment of their time together worrying about running into Harry and Hermione. Her homework and studying had fled her mind entirely. She didn't care about her studies, or Ron, or Rita Skeeter, or that stupid tournament that had thrown her friends lives upside down. She just felt a flooding sensation of bubbling elation. Her chest was full of tingles and her stomach was full of butterflies and no one had ever made her feel so innocent and childish before. She felt as if she was the first person on Earth to experience the blooming feeling of teenage recklessness.
And when they finally arrived at a fallen tree on the edge of a clearing, they unlocked their hands and sat across from each other.
For a moment, nothing was said. They only met eyes with one another and passed between themselves a silent agreement that something special had been shared that day.
𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
Late that evening, Gaia closed the Fat Lady's portrait behind her and entered the Gryffindor common room. She leaned her weight against the backside of the painting and soaked in the day she had just finished. Mikhail and her had spent several hours talking in the woods, about their families and childhoods, their studies, their hopes for the future. Later that evening, she sat with him at the Slytherin table for dinner in the Great Hall. Though she was not fond of many of the Slytherin students, and nor were they of her, they kept their sneers to a minimum seeing the Durmstrang boy who accompanied the Gryffindor girl. Finally, when desert had been concluded, they wandered to the library for some studying. Of course, Mikhail was at a very different place in his education than Gaia, but all they cared about was sitting in each others' company, even if they were each too focused on their own work to speak.
Now, after spending the better part of the day with the older boy, Gaia took a deep, content breath and walked into the sitting area of the common room, where Harry and Hermione were engaged in quiet conversation. The girl, who was facing Gaia's direction, spotted her over Harry's shoulder and beamed.
"Gaia!" she called with a much louder voice that the one she had been just using. Harry turned quickly and smiled upon seeing the girl as well. "Where on Earth have you been?"
Gaia dropped her bag off of her shoulder to the floor and sat down next to Harry, who had slid over to allow her room on the couch.
"I've spent the whole day with Mikhail," she said with a glowing smile on her face. She was met with pauses from her two friends, who were racking their brains for recognition of the name.
"Your Durmstrang admirer?" Hermione asked after a moment, her features widening with realization. Gaia only nodded, trying to bite back her smile from consuming her entire face. "Gaia that's wonderful!"
"Yes! And I'm sorry I didn't join you two for dinner, I sat with him at the Slytherin table."
At this, Hermione bit her own smile as well and reached across Harry's lap to grab Gaia's hands in her own, releasing a squeal-like sound. "So are you two an item now?"
"What?" Gaia exclaimed. "Merlin, no, Hermione! We've been on one date - if that's even what you call this!" Although, he did, Gaia reminded herself.
"I'm sorry!" Hermione said, pulling her hands back. "This is just very exciting!"
"You sat at the Slytherin table?" Harry asked in a monotoned voice as he kept his gaze pointed at the table in front of them. The resounding pause from the two girls put the fun of the moment on hold.
"That's what you're thinking about?" Hermione questioned him. She tried to hide her judgy tone, but it peaked through.
Harry only shrugged in response. Hearing nothing, he finally broke his gaze with the coffee table in which he had become so interested and looked up, first at Hermione, then Gaia, and found that they were both expecting more of a response from him. "I mean, it's just that... like... you don't really - I mean, we don't really hang out with Slytherins. And now you're eating dinner with them. I'm not upset or anything, it's just, like... new and stuff, you know?"
Gaia could tell through his fumbling that it was not the Slytherins for whom he was trying to hide his disapproval. But she couldn't imagine what problem he could have with her spending time with Mikhail, so she tried to move on.
"Right..." she concluded awkwardly. "Anyway, what were you guys talking about before I got here?"
Hermione jumped to answer. "Hagrid ran into us earlier in Hogsmeade. He told Harry that he wants to meet him at his cabin tonight, at midnight. To show him something."
"Show him what exactly?" Gaia asked cautiously with an eyebrow raised. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back into the arm of the chair, bringing her legs up and crossing them atop the cushion. She had always found that it felt unnatural to sit 'normally' in a chair.
"We don't know," Harry replied, his gaze having returned to the coffee table. "He was very secretive about the whole thing."
"I presumed it must have something to do with the first task, given that it's coming up in only 2 days," Hermione quickly answered.
Gaia nodded in understanding. "Are the two of you going?"
Hermione, once again, answered much quicker than the boy. "Well, I did tell Harry that, of course, I'd love to go with him. But I do have my arithmancy exam tomorrow morning which I was very much hoping to get a proper night of sleep for. But he said that-"
"That I don't mind going alone," Harry finished for Hermione, whose mouth fell slightly open as if she had been caught off guard.
"But, Harry, weren't you just saying-"
"How Hagrid had requested I come alone anyway," the boy interrupted once again. Gaia felt her eyes darting back and forth as if she were watching a tennis match between the two. Similarly, Harry's own eyes shot towards Hermione, sending a warning glare which Gaia was unable to see. But Hermione seemed to take the hint and drop the conversation.
"Right," she settled for, as she stood up and brushed her hands against her thighs. "Well, I should go ahead and get ready for sleep, it's already eleven." She squeezed herself passed the two of them and said, "Goodnight," as she started up the staircase to the dormitories.
Gaia and Harry both replied with their own respective farewells and fell into a moment of silence in the girl's absence. Gaia glanced around the common room, finding that for the second time in recent days, they were the only two left. She then turned her attention back to Harry, who was silently collecting his things into his bag.
"I could go with you," Gaia braved. A bubble grew in her stomach in anticipation to his response. "If you'd like."
Harry stopped his gathering and paused, leaned forward in his sitting position as he was reaching for a book across the table. He slowly sat upright as he contemplated his words carefully, trying to find the easiest excuse for excluding her. He could choose to be nice, say he wanted her to get a good night of sleep. Or he could stress his lie about Hagrid requesting him alone. Maybe he could say that she wouldn't fit under his invisibility cloak with him, which Hagrid actually had instructed of him.
But as he thought about these options, he realized that he really didn't want to do any of them. He was nervous for whatever interaction was about to occur, especially if Hermione was right and it really was related to the first task. As eccentric as Hagrid could be, it was still nothing to brush off that he was summoning Harry at midnight, and the boy didn't know what to expect.
He wanted Gaia's company. Whether or not he felt strangely burned by her rendezvous with Mikhail today, he still found himself wanting to spend time with her. Especially in a time of nerves. And he couldn't find it within himself to make up a deceitful excuse as to why she could not accompany him, when really, he wanted her to.
"Yeah," he resolved with a subtle nod of his head, his eyes gazing at the carpet between his feet before he lifted them to meet her own. "Yeah, that sounds good."
Gaia smiled, and Harry was glad he had finally looked up to be able to see it. Her lips remained shut, but that didn't take away from the way her cheeks rounded and her eyes brightened with that little spark that visited them any time the corners of the girl's mouth turned upwards. He'd never seen that spark in anyone else before.
𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧
a/n: okay so it has in fact been like 2 weeks but i have been working on this chapter in tiny little chunks of sitting down and writing rather than just going at it continuously for an hour and it has been a struggle for me so i promised myself i would get it done tonight and look at that i did. this chapter is slightly filler but it's important to more thoroughly establish gaia and mikhails' relationship so i spent a lot of time portraying that. i hope you like it (or hate it if you're anti-mikhail, either way i just want to cause strong feelings and stir the pot).
ALSO!! you may have noticed that i entirely changed the title and cover and also bio for this book, and the explanation for that if you haven't already seen is posted on my message board :) and just one other thing that i've been meaning to say: i understand that my writing style when it comes to accents is slightly out of the ordinary. i honestly just found that given my limited knowledge of a russian accent, as well as my intense auto-correct issues on my computer, it was much easier to just remind readers in the text that characters like mikhail, krum, and fleur have accents that are different than the main characters who live in england than to write out their dialogue in a way that demonstrates that (ex. replacing all 'th' sounds made by fleur with a 'z' sound). i'm sorry if that makes anything more confusing, personally i find it easier to read and write without the written translation of accents.
anyway i know that was a kind of long a/n but i love you all so much!! our tiny little family has been growing a bit recently, and i'm asking with a cherry on top to please please consider voting, commenting, adding to your library, sending to a friend, or even dming me your thoughts on this story!! hearing feedback is so helpful to my motivation to keep writing. but all that aside, i love you all regardless and you right now reading this are incredible just for being you <3