February 28th, 1977
Who: Emmeline Vance and Ben Fenwick
What: :] first I love yous
Where: Study Room



Emmeline was nervous, of course. Hell, it wasn’t surprising, right? Ben hadn’t talked to her for almost two weeks, and then she receives an owl about having a ‘talk’? Rapping her fingers on the desk, she’d tried to look pretty and calm, but decided that if Ben was going to…do whatever he planned on doing, her looking nice wasn’t going to help.

So, she waited, sitting in a lonely chair near the window.

Ben made his way toward the study room shortly after his last class before lunch, his fists clenched at his sides in determination. It was now or never, and after two awful weeks of feeling guilty at how he was treating his friends and dragging Emmeline along, he was almost certain of what he needed to do.

Without bothering to knock, he opened the door slowly and walked inside, but said nothing. He knew she could hear him enter, so saying anything wasn't extremely necessary. Besides, the lump in his throat wouldn't have allowed him to say anything yet, anyway.

“Hey,” she said a little too fast, then stood, but stayed near her chair. Emmeline hadn’t been in this close contact with Ben for so long, the feeling of yearning rocketed back the front of her mind and suddenly she felt very sad.

Ben cleared his throat and nodded, still unable to say anything. He walked to the middle of the room and placed his bag on the table before bringing his eyes up to rest on her, as if he needed to be fully prepared for the intense wave of emotion that swept through his body when he looked into her blue eyes. And he was right, of course. His knees wobbled lightly, and he was sure that had he still had the bag on, he wouldn't have been able to support its weight and would've sank to the floor.

He drew in a deep breath, and opened his mouth to get it over with, but half way through that he seemed to change his mind, turn around and put his face into his hands in frustration. The Sorting Hat was definitely wrong, he thought miserably before gathering whatever was left of his determination and turning back to face Emmeline.

"I love you. God Emmeline, I love you."

It suddenly felt very, very hot. This was---this was the absolute last thing she’d been expecting, but it wasn’t bad, it was actually quite amazing and her face was now super red and her hands were shaking and,

He loves me.

Emmeline opened her mouth to say something, because, hell, she loved him too, but she could only manage a smile before her legs made her step toward him, grabbing the front of his shirt. The look of excitement on her face couldn’t be described, and Emmeline stared up at Ben with the look of utmost adoration.

“I love you too, I looked it up and everything,” she breathed, heart jumping out of her chest.

He wasn't entirely sure what she'd meant by 'looked it up', but he certainly wasn't going to ruin the moment by asking. Grinning warmly at her, Ben let his arms sneak around her small form and hugged her close to him, oh how he'd missed hugging her. And to think that Frank, James and Sirius were so right saying he was being an idiot only made him realise how much more he loved her, he even doubted if the word love was really enough to describe how he felt.

He kissed her lips gently, and decided that it wasn't. It wasn't even close.

Emmeline couldn’t help it; she giggled into his mouth and swung her arms around her neck, kissing him harder and deeper because he loved her and deserved to be kissed like there was no tomorrow. She knew that instead of snogging him she should be asking him questions, explaining things, just figuring out what had happened---but, no, that could be done later. Whatever Ben had thought about these past two weeks had led him to the conclusion that he was in love with her, and it couldn’t be that bad, yeah?

“Ohhh, I’ve missed you,” she revealed, hugging him tightly around the neck.

"I've missed you too- God, I've been such an idiot." Ben breathed out, but he was still grinning, because she'd said she loved him too and she was there in his arms. The relief that washed over him at that moment couldn't be described, so instead of attempting to, he tried another approach, and repeated the three words he'd been milling over the past two weeks.

"I love you."

“Oh, you’re not an idiot!” she said immediately, shaking her head. “It was so bad, and I understand and I only want to kiss you! It was a love potion, but it…” Emmeline blushed, still finding it crazy to say how she felt out loud, “It definitely wasn’t realistic, this,” she kissed him again, slowly. Maybe those romance novels she loved to read were finally paying off, “This is realistic. It’s real. I love you.”

Her head was squealing and dancing around in silly circles.

Ben couldn't help but feel a nasty twinge at the pit of his stomach when Emmeline said that, because the image of her and that Hufflepuff came soaring to his brain without permission. And he hated his brain for it, he really did.

"I don't want to talk about it- ever." He shook his head lightly and kissed her again, more fervently this time.

“Okay,” she managed between the kisses, though the word ended up in the back of Ben’s throat. It was getting a bit hard, kissing him so deeply while on the very tips of her toes, and Emmeline imagined Ben was bending over quite a bit too. So, trying not to break apart, she pulled him toward the couch nearby. Merlin, she could do this for the rest of her life.

Ben was quick to follow, pressing his body against her so that their kiss won't be broken. He didn't want anything but kiss her at the moment, even breathing seemed to loose its importance in Ben's opinion.

Emmeline, though she liked very much to kiss Ben like this and had been dying to for the past week, was a small girl, and she needed to breath and not be squished. Squirming only slightly, she managed to find a position where Ben wasn’t crushing her (it wasn’t a bad crushing, but it was a crushing nonetheless).

“Mmhmm,” she giggled, kissing his cheeks, then his nose, “I love you,” she said in a sing-song voice, a bright smile on her face.

"Say it again." Ben said with his eyes still closed, and a dreamy sort of grin on his face. He had backed away a bit when he felt her squirming, and he was quite fine with it. He had nothing to rush, he just wanted to kiss her, brush her hair and feed her strawberries.

Emmeline let out a loud laugh, head falling back onto the couch as she gazed happily over Ben’s dreamy expression. “I love you, Ben Fenwick,” she said softly, reaching out and pushing some hair out of his face.

"Hm, it has a rather nice ring to it, don't you think?" Ben grinned brightly, leaning down to kiss her lips lightly. Then he pulled back, but held his face only inches away from hers, gazing into her dazzling blue eyes. Emmeline loved him, and he loved her, and right now, Ben wouldn't even care if the world came crashing down.

“Sounds perfect,” she agreed, sticking her chin up. Such a giddy, weightless feeling, being in love. Emmeline leaned forward and caught Ben’s lips in another kiss, slow and gentle because she’d never felt this for anyone or anything and didn’t want to mess it up