Chapter Text
Merlin, it had been so long since that first initial run-in with Milly. He still couldn"t believe that a year had passed, a year in which Millicent went unbullied and unbothered on account of the prank they"d pulled. Throughout that whole year, the two had gotten to know one another well and understand each other even better.
As Harry turned and closed the door behind him, a smile on his face, he felt himself being pulled midway through his work, leaving the door to slide the rest of the way. It did so with an audible crack that the nearest compartments likely heard or felt.
Harry, meanwhile, had been pulled by a strong grip into a firm hug.
"Harry," came Milly"s voice, husky and with his name spoken right into his left ear; he swore he could feel the softness of her lips brush up against him as she spoke. "I"ve been waiting all summer for you."
He smiled upon hearing such words and turned to face her, shaking free from her grasp. As he"d expected, Millicent was just as beautiful as he"d remembered. She was tall, long-haired and very obviously strong. A Viking through and through, and one that"d quickly taken his heart, especially once he"d learned just how sweet she was.
"And here I am," he said with a grin as he gestured up and down himself. "Did you like the c—"
"Chocolates?" Millicent nodded animatedly as she pulled him flush against her, their heads resting against one another. "They were delicious. If I don"t know any better, I"d say you found out my favourites."
He cocked his head at her. "Who was it?"
"My mum. She didn"t mean to. I overheard her discussing with my father about you. My father"s uncertain, but my mum"s taken with you," Milly pressed a kiss against Harry"s left cheek, and then his right, her smile almost infectious as she gave him a look of what he could only describe as the utmost affection. "Even my cousins have heard about you now. You"ve got my entire family swooning."
"They know I wrote to your mum, huh?"
"Once I found out and she knew that I knew, she talked about it when our family visited. It was lovely," Millicent said, a slight wiggle coming from her.
Harry smiled to himself, privately pleased that it had gotten such a positive reaction from her, as well as the rest of her family. He hadn"t counted on either happening but was incredibly pleased about both; in truth, he just liked sending kind words or gifts over to her.
"You know, I never thought to ask, but we"ve not got that many years of Hogwarts left… what do you think you"re going to do once we"ve graduated?" Harry cocked his head at her once he"d finished his question. He wasn"t sure what would come for either of them after the war was over, but they were going into their Sixth Year, and he reckoned it was about time to think about what came after.
Hermione and Rod were adamant about that too. They both said there"d be an "after" the war for the lot of them, every person that"d been in the DA. Harry liked to imagine that"d be the case, but he"d fought Voldemort multiple times by now. He knew with how popular the man still was, there"d always be issues that could arise, issues that even made themselves prominent in his day-to-day life.
Millicent wouldn"t outright say it, but she didn"t have to. Harry knew that her father was a follower of Voldemort, hence the man"s dislike or distrust of him. In that same vane, however, Harry also recognised that the man did genuinely seem to care for Millicent and her well-being. That would prove difficult for their relationship, he knew that… but what could he do?
"I was thinking about starting a shop on Diagon Alley. My family has expertise in furnishing that we seldom make full use of. I think it"d be a grand idea to share our talent and earn galleons doing as much," Millicent looked out of their compartment window and into the vastness that was the countryside then, a queer sort of expression on her face. One that came and went in seconds. "I don"t think I even need to ask what you"d like to do once we"re out of Hogwarts, do I? Everybody knows you"d like to become an Auror once you"re able to."
"It"s tough to qualify for."
Milly scoffed and gave him a light, affectionate smack up the back of his head. "Please," she said with a shake of her head. "You"ve fought him multiple times and here you stand. Very few people can say that, only the likes of Dumbledore so far as I"m aware of — let"s not forget that you are who you are, Harry. I know you tend to dislike taking advantage of your title, and for good reason, but it could really help you if you chose to let it."
Harry reckoned he knew what she meant too. Any Minister would be smart to make use of his title as the boy who lived. It"d boost their public opinion if they thought Harry had endorsed the person. He nearly rolled his eyes, but stopped himself short of doing so; he hated politics, that much was true, but the memories of learning about them throughout the past year were some of his fondest yet.
Millicent had thought it to be necessary for him to learn more about the Magical World as a whole and had stressed that to him, but she"d not left out just how important the rules and culture were.
"Harry," Milly whined, her cheeks flushing. "I know what you"re thinking about. Don"t think I"ve forgotten."
At that, he chuckled. "I"d hope you wouldn"t forget. Those were fun times."
Millicent"s blush grew fiercer, her pale skin turning a furious-looking red that flushed from her cheeks, down her neck and beyond the neckline of her shirt. Harry felt a surge of victory go through him, and then he felt a bit down when he remembered that he didn"t have a camera to capture the moment; the wizarding photos, animated as they were, made for the greatest trinkets to make fond memories with.
"You"re lucky I like you a lot," Milly muttered, her chin tucked into her folded arms as she tried — and failed — to glare at Harry with any meaningful force. He knew she wasn"t fond of blushing, but knowing that only made such moments all the sweeter.
"I am," he ultimately agreed, smiling and looking out the window as she"d previously done. "Say, Milly?"
Millicent"s clothing rustled, indicating that she moved to look at him even whilst he looked out the window. A second or so later, she hummed, indicating that she was ready and listening to whatever he"d say next.
"Do you think you"d want to pull another prank this year?" Harry couldn"t help himself. He smiled at the memory of their handling of her housemates. With the Weasley Twins gone, that left just Harry when it came to shenanigans — needless to say, the two left quite a pair of shoes behind for him to fill.
"Have someone in mind, do you?" Millicent asked with an eagerness in her voice that matched that of which he felt.
Harry turned to her and nodded rapidly. "More than someone."
Next, Harry would have liked to talk about his plans, but a few others had arrived to sit with them and so the conversation was prematurely ended, but not without Harry earning an inquisitive glance from Millicent. One that lasted for a few minutes until she shook off the impatience that was clearly urging her to ask him about what he"d had in mind again.
Ah well, it could wait. Millicent and he would talk with their friends… maybe sneak away for a snog at some point, and finally, reach Hogwarts.
Oh. Right.
He turned to her, ignoring the argument that had taken place between Ron and Hermione whilst Millicent, he and two others spectated it.
"Milly?"
"Hmm?"
"Care for a walk tonight?" he asked. "We could go after we"ve had dinner in the Great Hall — fancy the Black Lake, I think."
Millicent"s response, that being a wide smile that showcased large dimples, was all the answer he needed.
The moon and Milly looked great together, he concluded in nought but a moment"s glance of the two in unison.
All of the firsties had been sorted into their houses and escorted away by the Prefects, of which neither he nor Millicent was. No, instead, Ron would have to suffer through them alongside Hermione whilst the firsties of Slytherin would have to suffer at the hands of Malfoy and Parkinson.
With his usual company gone and Millicent"s few companions as anti-social as ever, it was nought but the two of them and the great outdoors. Thanks to the relatively temperate climate, the lack of others and the beauty of the night, Harry reckoned it was a good first night back at Hogwarts.
Back home.
"Doesn"t it feel like the path"s gotten smaller?" Milly asked, nodding at the path ahead of them that gradually led down to the lake, or near enough.
Harry shrugged and then side-eyed her. He wasn"t exactly a short bloke, he was taller than the average witch, that was for sure, but Milly had a good few inches on him. She wasn"t Pansy-thin either. Most blokes would compare her to Katie or Susan.
"I see your face," Milly said as she jabbed an elbow into his side. "Surprised you didn"t look me up and down."
"Nah," he said with a shake of his head. "I"ll just wait until you get ahead of me — with how fast you walk, it won"t take long. I think I"ll enjoy the view too, so I"ll not complain."
"Harry!" Milly said, her eyes wide and scandalised as she looked around. Unsurprisingly, there weren"t others nearby to overhear his words or see how embarrassed they had gotten her. Nonetheless, when next she looked back at him, her eyes were narrow and her face incredibly red. "You"re a dork."
He grinned and quickened his pace until he was beside her, whereupon getting there, he kissed her cheek and pulled something from his left pocket. It"d been there since the train ride, but he thought he"d wait and give it to her under the moon. Maybe he had a romantic heart, but it seemed right to him.
"Hey, Milly?" he asked, his voice more serious and his earlier look of teasing gone.
Sensing the change, Millicent looked back over at him as they continued on down the path. "What is it?"
"I missed you," he said simply, and funnily enough, as he reached out with his left hand to hand his surprise over to her, he noticed something.
"Yo—"
"Yo—"
Both stopped after they"d interrupted one another with seemingly the same word. What had caught Harry off-guard was the fact that Milly had been reaching into her pocket just as he"d just been doing, and her surprise, meanwhile, seemed to stem from his procuring of a gift for her.
"You got me something."
Harry nodded. "I got you something."
"I got you something," Milly said, nodding at the item she then showed off to him, wrapped and packaged as it was.
"You got me something," he said, stealing her earlier words.
At that, the two blinked at one another, and then they laughed at each other. It made sense. Each was giving and kind-hearted, and the more that Harry thought about it, especially when she"d brought up Quidditch over the summer, the more he realised that he should"ve expected something.
"You first!" Milly said quickly, seizing the advantage as she pressed her gift firmly into his chest.
He narrowed his eyes at her, and when that failed to make her speak again, he rolled his eyes and took her gift, not trying to hide his amusement. Once he"d made sure her gift for him was firmly in his possession, he made sure to pass off his to her.
"On three, then?"
Millicent cracked a smile and nodded giddily, her eyes watching his hands whilst the same could be said in reverse.
"Three…" Harry said.
"Two," Milly continued.
"One," the two said together, opening the gives they got one another whilst paused in their journey.
Harry managed to get his gift open first, and he couldn"t help but glance over at Millicent when he"d not heard a peep from her. She was silent and looking at the necklace he"d picked out for her, and whilst she admired it with interest in her eyes, he looked back down at the gift she"d gotten for him.
It was a holster for one"s wand, a holster that could be strapped to your wrist, ankle or even worn at your waist. He"d seen it once before, there"d been a man at the Ministry who was showing his off. Typically, you"d tap your wand and it"d enter one of three modes that corresponded to where you"d like to wear it.
All in all, an easy, but very clever idea. It made for an awesome gift too, especially with the DA likely to resume since there wasn"t any reason to stop it even if Umbridge was gone. Harry found himself looking away from the gift again, and over at Millicent, who by now had come to do much the same.
The two moved toward one another in silence, until, upon reaching each other, they embraced. Their arms were wrapped tightly around one another, and words of thanks were exchanged — maybe a few kisses and one or two lengthy snoggings on the walk back had happened too, but who knows?
A gentleman doesn"t kiss and tell.
"Pansy and them lot giving you any trouble?" Harry found himself asking out of curiosity as Millicent joined him in the library. They"d only been back for a few days, and she"d not said anything about her previous bullies, but Harry couldn"t help but wonder if they had gotten the message.
It had stuck at the time, and for the rest of the year, but idiots were idiots. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle would likely pressure or harass others into shenanigans against Harry and those that called the latter friend as they"d always done, but with Millicent in the pit of snakes, as she was, Harry had a far greater drive when it came to ensuring all remained peaceful or civil, or at the very least, without escalation.
"They"re still quite nervous of me, thanks to you," Millicent said, one hand turning his head and raising it by the chin as she pressed her lips against his; she was still standing, her height far exceeding him as he sat and her hair, long and flowing, all but blinded him from the angle of their kiss.
That wasn"t to say Harry wasn"t fond of it. On the contrary, uncomfortable as the position was for him and regardless of how often her hair tickled his neck, he"d not miss a moment of it. All of the other blokes were stupid to pass on Millicent, she was one of the kindest witches he"d come to know, and initially, that"d surprised him.
Now, as he found himself sat snogging the Nordic girl, he couldn"t help but grin. Others could talk as they"d like, poke fun at him, but he was well-invested in his relationship with Millicent. Draco and any of the others would come to learn that the hard way if they bothered her.
Just wait until I introduce her to the others — "Mione will love her and Ron might finally come to realise not every Slytherin"s got evil on their mind, Harry"s eyes widened and he nearly fell from his chair when Millicent pulled back, and with her teeth, pulled his bottom-lip until releasing it right when it began to turn painful.
She was in a mood today.
"I"m glad," Harry said as he took in her flushed face and heaving chest, the after-effects of their snog obvious and alluring. "Hogsmeade?"
His voice came out in so bad a croak that even he winced at hearing it. He could only imagine what Millicent… there it was. She brought up a hand and giggled behind it in a fashion that was surprisingly shy and demure for a girl that"d trounce half the blokes in the school.
All the same, she answered, her words slow-coming as she spoke through her laughter. "Hogsmeade. Sounds like a date."
Harry tried to sulk, but when she cooed and pinched at his cheeks while he tried to swat her hands away, he couldn"t help but laugh along with her. It was moments like those that made him truly enjoy his time with her.
It didn"t matter if others thought they were id—
He had to pause his monologue as he watched in muted horror the effects their bumping had on the books stacked at the end of their table. It had been a studious evening for the two, and whilst that had been good and well initially, as they devolved into teen shenanigans, the horseplay sent a book tumbling down.
And then another, and more followed until a cascade began. Book after book fell from the table and as a result, one that many might consider obvious, a great ruckus was caused; Harry looked at Millicent, Milly looked at Harry, and they acted together.
Each grabbed their satchel, grabbed one another, and set off away from the library, mingling into a group of their peers that had started to do much the same. Harry and Milly, two typically troubleless students at Hogwarts, simply blended into the crowd as the librarian stormed off whence they"d just been.
In the background, Harry and Milly each heard the old woman yelling at somebody, or rather, two somebodies. When the names registered, the pair paused their fleeing and turned to look at one another with wide eyes.
"Ronald Weasley," the librarian had exclaimed, and shortly thereafter, "Lavender Brown!"
The two quickly set off again after the exchanged look, and once they were suitably far away, enough so that the librarian, if suspecting of them, wasn"t likely to find them, they finally burst into laughter. It was loud, full-bellied laughter of the sort that had you wincing in pain by the time you were finished — Harry had also rubbed at his eyes too, thanks to the vast amount of tears that came from his laughter.
"Does that count as our first prank of the year?" Millicent asked with a wide, toothy smile.
"You know," Harry said with a snort and grin, Milly"s own expression only just failing to make his laughter return at what they"d just done. "I think it does. He"ll never even know it was."
"Sounds like a prank sans revenge. Perfect."
Harry couldn"t disagree with that statement from Milly. Ron probably didn"t have a clue as to what had happened to him, and while Harry felt a bit bad for stitching up his mate as he had, well, it wasn"t like he"d actually get in any trouble. At the most, it"d be one detention, and if Ron was trying to act on his supposed crush toward Lavender, well, he"d have an evening alone with her.
"Harry?"
"Yeah?"
Millicent slowly closed the door with her foot. "Fancy cuddling with me while we watch the rain?"
He turned to look over his shoulder, in the direction of the window and then he grinned. It was clear this room hadn"t been a simple classroom back in its time. There were a few desks, a fireplace, and a few pieces of furniture, all of which were dusty, but that had an easy enough fix.
"Dobby," Harry said aloud.
In an instant, the house-elf appeared, smiling and happy as ever to see Harry.
"Could you get two cups of tea and snacks to go with it?" Harry"s question was met with an immediate nod, and Harry smiled and reached down to give Dobby a small hug, one that left the house elf babbling about Harry and Wizards as a whole, and how important the friendship they"d come to build was.
It was quite touching, really, but it was spoken incredibly quickly until Dobby simply jumped away, likely to grab what Harry had asked for.
"He"s got charm." Milly said, a queer look on her face that was swiftly replaced with a victorious sort of smile with a shake of her head as she pulled him over to the fireplace.
Harry"s wand made quick work of the dust, cobwebs and dead insects that littered the surrounding area.
He was lucky he managed to do so quickly too, for not more than a few seconds later and he was atop the previously dusty piece of furniture with Millicent partially in his lap, as she extended her body as a house cat might.
His hands found their way into the long, flowing hair atop her head. It was soft as silk, beautiful as the rest of her and always fascinated him in a way that he couldn"t describe, but felt the joy of as he played with it. Milly, of course, didn"t mind in the slightest.
There wasn"t a person in the world that could dislike the joy of having their hair played with. If somebody claimed to, well, Harry"d have to call them a liar based on how much he enjoyed it and how much he knew Milly enjoyed it.
"Living the life, aren"t you?" he asked when he heard her sigh contentedly.
When he looked more closely at her, the smile on his face grew larger as he watched her eyelids struggle to remain open. When she rolled her head to and from, lazily switching between looking out of the window and looking at Harry with a tired, happy look on her face, he let out a similar-sounding sigh as the one she"d let out.
Everything had felt right this year. He knew that"d eventually come to change, it always did, but Merlin, the first few days had been perfect. Here, with a calming storm outside, Milly in his lap and while they sat together with the warmth and crackle of fire they"d only just started…. life felt normal.
He reckoned he quite liked normal too.
Harry grinned at Milly, not that she could see it. The two were pressed firmly against one another with his cloak over them. It was only thanks to their practically hugging that they were even able to fit together without being seen, but with their target before them, the tightness didn"t matter anymore.
It, perhaps, wasn"t minded all that much by Harry in the first place anyhow.
"Ready," Milly whispered into his ear, her breath hot and her soft lips moving so close that he swore he could feel them as she spoke. "Are you going to do it, or what?"
Oh, right, Harry thought to himself as he watched Crabbe and Goyle nudge one another, their eyes on the conveniently "forgotten" satchel with candy plain to see peeking out from it. We were pranking those two gits for messing with her cousins… wait, where are they? They were supposed to be joining us.
Harry furrowed his brows, but then, he activated the modified wailing charm. The one that sounded like footsteps, loud and fast; as he suspected, the two large boys grabbed the satchel and took off with their prize.
The plan was set into motion, and Harry and Milly tossed aside the cloak once the two were no longer in hearing range.
"Hears to hoping they share," Harry said dryly.
"They won"t."
Harry blinked. Milly hadn"t said that, but the voice hadn"t been too far off.
"My cousins," Milly said with a smile as she gestured two unseen figures over, but before Harry could make out the details, she turned him around and planted one large, very welcome kiss right on his lips.
All of a sudden, he wished her cousins hadn"t been here.