I couldn't have felt happier when Filch checked my name off the list of students able to go to Hogsmeade. I smiled at him when he shot me a 'watch it' glare.
Vincent and I exited the castle, hand in hand. The sky was a hazy grey, threatening to rain, but other than that it felt nice, just a bit cold. Birds were still lightly chirping around, reminding me of the song Vince had sang to me weeks ago. And the song birds are singing, like they know the score... I had been replaying the scene over and over in my head anytime I allowed my thoughts to wonder; and every time I couldn't stop myself from smiling.
Vincent really did love me. The longer we stayed together, the more I realized it: and that I loved him back. Unlike when I was with Draco, I never found myself crying with Vince, and if I did, they were tears joy. I actually found myself happy; laughing, smiling, hold hands... Draco always wanted to kiss. No. Snog. Constantly snog. But I didn't want that. I was happy with a kiss here and there and that's what Vince gave me. He truly cared about me.
"Do you want to walk or take the carriages?" Vincent asked, breaking my thoughts.
"Oh, let's walk. It's pretty nice out."
"Okay." He smiled, revealing the dimple on his left check. Funny, I had never noticed it before...I chuckled and gave his hand a squeeze. He lightly squeezed back as we walked between the two winged boar statues. "Where do you want to go when we get there?" He asked when we were maybe three-fourths of the way there.
"I don't know. I've only been there once. Maybe sometime before then with my father. I don't know."
"Hm..." He grunted. Of course; when my father was brought up no one talked.
"You can talk with me about him, you know. You can even ask me questions if you want."
"It won't bother you?" He asked softly, looking down at his feet for a moment then looking back at me. "I mean... I'm sure you don't really want to relieve it."
"No, it's fine. No one ever really lets me talk about it, except my uncle."
"Oh..." He looked away, taking a deep breath. I could sense his uncomfortable.
"Vince," I stopped, making him do the same. He continued peering into the distance. By this time we were right outside of the town, but he was looking back towards the caste. I grabbed his chin and turned it to face me. "Look at me. I want to talk about him. No one will let me, and I want to. No one understands it, but I do. Will you please let me? Question me if you want. Just let me... please?" I looked him straight in the eye. I really wanted to vent. Everything had been pinned inside for a long while, and I could trust Vince enough to tell him. He was quiet for a few seconds, then shook his head.
"O-okay. If you want to. But lets find somewhere warm to sit first, okay?"
"Okay." I answered, a little disappointed.
"We'll talk about him, I promise." He put his arm around me, and we started walking into Hogsmeade. "And I know just the place! It's called The Hogshead. It's really out of the way, so no one's ever there."
"Then how did you find it?" I asked while glancing around at various shops.
"Gregory and I used to slip away from Draco and go there. He would never find us." He lightly chuckled, no doubt remembering.
We continued past most of the shops until we came to an old looking tavern. A sign hung over the door way that read The Hogshead. As I looked at it I realized why Draco never found them; he probably wouldn't have ever stepped foot in the plac.e It was dirty and shady; the complete opposite of his way of life. I, on the other hand, had no problem with it. After thirteen years on the run with my father, grimy places didn't really bother me.
I wiped some of the grim off the window bad peered in. to my surprise, a group of students, most of them being Gryffinors, were seated in a large group.
"I thought you said no one came here." I pulled away from the glass.
"There's never anyone here! Let me have a look!" Annoyed, he took my place at the window. After a moment or so he looked at me. "That's Potter! Look!" He moved over so I could look. Just as he said, Harry Potter was sitting in the very middle of them, along with his Mudblood friend and the Weasley.
"It is." I finally answered, deadpan.
"Well... do you want to go in or not?"
"No, not with all the Gryffinors in there. How about we just go to the Three Broomsticks?"
"It will be crowded, and crawling with Gryffinors, too."
"That's true." I sighed. "I guess we should just go in then," I put my hand on the door, but before I could turn the knob I heard my name being called.
"Ellie! Vincent!" I turned around and huffed. It was Sarah Beth, with Gregory trailing behind her. "Ellie!" She ran up to me. I guess she still hadn't figured out I didn't like her. "Vincent! Do you want to come with us to Madam Puddifoot's with us?" She smiled her sickening smile.
"Where is that?" I asked in a bored tone.
"It's right off High Street! Come one! Come with us! Please?" She did the smile again. Vincent looked at me.
"Do you want to go, Elle?" I glared at him, but and then gave in. Spending the trip with Gregory and Sarah Beth was still better than being surrounded by Gryffindors.
"Sure." I simply stated.
"Yay!" Sarah Beth squealed. "Come on!" She grabbed Gregory's hand and started running towards High Street. Vincent and I walked slowly in the path, letting them go farther from us.
"You aren't going to have much fun?" He asked, taking my hand.
"Probably not. But, oh well. I like Gregory, Cumberland, not so much. She annoys me. She's so..."
"Perky?"
"Perfect."
"Is that the only reason you hate her?"
"She thinks she's better than everyone else. I just...can't stand her."
"Maybe you should try. I put up with her, you know. She's really not that bad, as long as you don't get her bragging."
"Fine. I'll try." I looked to see we were about 3 buildings away from doorway Sarah Beth and Gregory were standing at, anxiously waiting. "I guess this means we're not talking about my father."
"We still can-"
"No. Not in front of Sarah Beth and Greg."
"Well, we will later, okay?" He asked. I looked in the other direction with my eyes. "Elle?"
"Okay." I finally whispered when we finally got within hearing reach of the other couple.
"Here we are!" Sarah Beth giggled, gesturing to the door for us to go in ahead of her. I gladly did so but stopped right inside the doorway.
"This is..." I didn't know what this was. Everything was pink and gaudy. Frilly white lace curtains hung around the steamed up windows. Sitting on every table was a china sugar bowl, accompanied by lacy white napkins. Someone had turned on a radio that was playing some sappy love song,
I love you,
More than you know,
Together forever,
Through the wind or the snow
Taking it all in I realized it reminded me of Sarah Beth. Actually, worse than that. It reminded me of her aunt, Umbridge. No. It was like Umbridge threw up. That was how to describe it. I hated it.
"Pretty?" Sarah Beth tried to finish my sentence as she came through the door.
"Terrifying." I whispered to Vince as we took our seats.
"Would you like anything?" A plump woman, who almost had the same shape as Umbridge, with a slick black bun came to the table and asked.
"Tea, please!" Sarah Beth giggled.
"Uh..tea?" For some reason Gregory's order came out like a question.
"A cup of tea, please." Vincent politely ordered. Everyone looked at me.
"What about you? Would you like anything?" The woman asked me.
"A cup of coffee, please."
"Cream?"
"No."
"Okay. It'll be here in a moment." The woman walked away. I looked around again. Every other couple sitting at a table were snogging.
"Hm." I scoffed. It was almost like a brothel. I'm sure if you gave some of them enough time...
"What have you been up to, Ellie?" Sarah Beth asked as a tray floated towards us with out orders. We all took our cups and sipped.
"Nothing." I coldly said, taking another drink. Sarah Beth scrunched her nose.
"Black coffee? Elle, that's disgusting! Why would you drink black coffee?"
"Because, it's coffee, not cream." I sneered as she started pouring spoon after spoon of sugar into her tea. She must have been one of those people who like a little coffee with their cream and sugar, not the other way around.
"What ever! That's yucky! Do you know what I've been up to?"
"No."
"I've been practicing Qudditch! That's why I haven't been in Choir but only half the practices! Flitwick is talking to Hooch tomorrow!"
"Oh, I'm so happy for you." Sarcasm dripped from my voice.
"So, you're a chaser?" Vince leaned in and asked.
"Yeah! I can't wait for my first game!" She sipped some more and smiled at Gregory, who smiled back in his usual, stunned way he does when he looks at her. I rolled my eyes and looked away, concentrating on the snogging couple behind us. They continued to talk about Quidditch for a while, and I ignored them, lacing my fingers with Vincent's every once and a while.
"It's so romantic in here." Sarah Beth cooed after a while, then said nothing. After two minutes, Vince nudged me and motioned for me to look her way. Her and Gregory were snogging. I almost fell out of my seat. That wasn't the sort of thing you did in public, in my opinion. I cringed.
"I never thought Gregory would get anything like that." Vincent chuckled. I playfully smacked him.
"This is nasty. Can we go?" Vince looked at his watch. "Yeah, but we have a couple hours. Is there anything you want to do?"
"We can go to the bookstore. I need something new to read."
"Okay, then after that we can go to the Quidditch store." He got up and put down enough money to pay for the both of us between our cups.
"No, I'll pay for mine."
"Elle, I'm paying for you. I'm not going to take you on a date and make you pay."
"A... date?"
"If you want it to be one..." He blushed.
"Sure." I gave him a small smile.
"Great." He gave me a small kiss. "Now let's get out of here before this image is engraved in my mind." He pointed to Gregory and Sarah Beth. "Bye guys." Both of them stopped for a minutes and waved, a bit embarrassed.
"Bye!" Sarah Beth waved. And we left to go back into Hogsmeade.
........................................................
That night I laid on my bed, starring at the ceiling. I had had a great day. It only made me see how much I truly loved Vincent. More than I had ever loved Draco. Probably because he actually loved me back.
I rolled over and picked up his scarf he had wrapped around me on the way home. It still smelled like him; woodsy, but clean. Like he had taken a bath with a fresh bar of soap in a lake in the middle of a forest of pine trees. I wrapped it around my neck, sighing. I couldn't deny it: I was head over heels in love, only this time, I was loved back.